Michael Pagano

Faith, Space, Futbol, Baseball, Poker. Cancer picked a fight with me once. "The Emperor Palpatine of Contrarianism". #TeamNoSleep #EarnYourSwoosh

[Michael Pagano @michaelpags]

@JennyHPhoto Great shot!

[NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman @NASAAdmin]

The world watched.

Artemis II carried humans farther into space than we’ve ever been in over half a century and showed a new generation what exploration looks like.

The journey back to the Moon is underway.

Artemis III is up next.

[Michael Pagano @michaelpags]

@LeahCheshier I've been waiting for this my entire life. Thank you NASA and everyone involved, for giving us reason to believe. For giving us hope.

[NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman @NASAAdmin]

Thank you for following Artemis II. We’re just getting started. Welcome to the Artemis generation.

[NASA Moon Base @NASAMoonBase]

Build the Base.

[The Daily Buffett @DailyBuffettX]

So when the journеy gets long

Just know that you are loved

Thеre is light up above

And the joy is always enough…

Bubbles Up🫧🫧🫧

[Brad Stulberg @BStulberg]

Joy is a competitive super power.

Alysa Liu retired from figure skating at 16.
She was tired of not not having fun, tired of being consumed by her sport.

She came back two years later with a new goal: to have as much fun on the ice as possible. And now she’s an Olympic gold medalist.

Liu won her first national title when she was just 13. But by 16, after competing in the 2022 Olympics, she decided she’d had enough and stepped away. She said pressure and losing her identity trying to be an elite athlete made it all miserable.

But then, she said she went on a ski trip that reminded her just how much fun she could have doing a sport. Something in her brain clicked. Maybe she could bring fun to figure skating. Maybe she could approach it in a way that could be full of joy and life and love.

She unretired at 18 and won a world championship the next year. At 20, she was ready to face these Olympic games differently than in 2022.

Liu went into the women’s figure skating final in third place. After her short program, she said:

“Even if I mess up and fall, that’s totally okay, too. I’m fine with any outcome, as long as I’m out there.”

One of the greatest competitive advantages is having fun. People love to romanticize the athlete, artist, or entrepreneur who has a chip on their shoulder, fueled by anger and resentment.

But the truth is that if you’re not having fun, you are not going to last long at whatever it is you do, and you certainly won’t get the best out of yourself. There’s a foolish idea that you either have to be full of intensity or full of joy. But that’s nonsense.

It’s no surprise one of the first things out of Alysa’s mouth after her free skate was: “That was so much fun!”

Joy and intensity can coexist, and in the best performers, they almost always do.

Alysa is unapologetically authentic and true to her values. She has said where she used to skate to win and be technically perfect, she now uses competition as a chance to show her art, to have fun, and to put herself out there.

She’s a fierce athlete with an infectious sense of joy in her sport.

And she broke USA's 24-year gold medal draught in women’s figure skating doing it.

Excellence requires focus, determination, a little bit of crazy, at times obsession, and living a mundane lifestyle that many people would find boring.

But excellence also requires that you find deep joy in your craft, that you learn how to have fun while working hard.

What makes for excellence—and not just in sports, but in anything—is the combination of intensity and joy. It’s the latter that makes the former sustainable.

[The Daily Buffett @DailyBuffettX]

Oh I believe in song lines
Obvious and not
I'd ridden them like camels
To some most peculiar spots.

They run across the oceans
Through mountains and saloons
And tonight out to the dessert
Where I sit atop this dune.

[Michael Pagano @michaelpags]

@AnnoyedPitBoss Happy to do so, and happy to see it's well-received overall. Congratulations and best of luck with everything you do.

[Michael Pagano @michaelpags]

All the way from Illinois to central NY via interlibrary loan. Looking forward to diving into this one @AnnoyedPitBoss

[The Daily Buffett @DailyBuffettX]

From under my lone palm
I can look out on the day

Where no bird flies by my window
No ship is tied to my tree
Love is a wave building to a crescendo
Ride if you will, ride it with me

[The Anfield Buzz @TheAnfieldBuzz]

Everything we do as Liverpool football club this season will be for Diogo Jota. 🇵🇹❤️

[The Daily Buffett @DailyBuffettX]

Be good and you will be lonesome

Be lonesome and you will be free

Live a lie and you will live to regret it

That's what living is to me

That's what living is to me

[Michael Pagano @michaelpags]

@JDUB1090 New children's book idea: "Giancarlo Stanton and the Inevitable 7-2 Putout"

[Michael Pagano @michaelpags]

@LukeMayo33 I'm not even a basketball guy but this isn't even a question.

[Polaris @PolarisProgram]

SpaceX and the Polaris Dawn crew have completed the first commercial spacewalk!

“SpaceX, back at home we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world.” — Mission Commander @rookisaacman during Dragon egress and seeing our planet from ~738 km

[Eric Berger @SciGuySpace]

It would not surprise me to see this attitude from many. Which is fine. But some perspective: When the Falcon 9 first launch in 2010, the same could be said. We've been launching into space forever, blah blah. But here's the difference. 14 years later SpaceX is launching 100+ times a year, something no government has ever done. One can imagine, 14 years from now, dozens of people launching on Starship and taking a similar EVA in space, then on the Moon, and eventually Mars. That's why this is not overblown. This is, potentially, a critical step on humanity's expansion into the Solar System.

[Lauren Lyons @Laur_Ly]

Invisible co-stars of the show: the ECLSS team, and all the valves and tubes and seals and ducers and filters required to make all this work. Exposing the cabin to vacuum is no joke.

[Michael Pagano @michaelpags]

@LukeMayo33 Welcome to the right side of history my friend.