Hello, I am from a state near the Canadian border called Minnesota.  Sorry, the US has gone downhill lately, but we are still the largest economy in the world.

I am 52 year old WASP, DINK, Mensa member, National Master at chess, married, Night Auditor (under achiever) at a local hotel, and own three 80 pound dobermans that pull me around well over an hour a day Summer/Winter/no matter what the weather.

My kick is that technological progress is exponential, not linear (see The Singularity is Near).  This means that we are going to see AMAZING progress in the next couple of decades.  Extreme longevity treatments, artificial intelligence far smarter than the average person, and energy too cheap to meter.  On that last point, here is a primer:

"A volume about the size of a #2 pencil eraser of water provides as much energy as two 48-gallon drums of gasoline. That is 355,000 times the amount of energy per volume – five orders of magnitude." ( http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/New-LENR-Machine-is-the-Best-Yet.html ).

This phenomenon (LENR) has been confirmed in hundreds of published scientific papers: http://lenr-canr.org/acrobat/RothwellJtallyofcol.pdf

"Over 2 decades with over 100 experiments worldwide indicate LENR is real, much greater than chemical..." --Dennis M. Bushnell, Chief Scientist, NASA Langley Research Center

"Total replacement of fossil fuels for everything but synthetic organic chemistry." --Dr. Joseph M. Zawodny, NASA

By the way, here is a survey of some of the companies that are bringing LENR to commercialization: http://www.cleantechblog.com/2011/08/the-new-breed-of-energy-catalyzers-ready-for-commercialization.html

For those who still aren't convinced, here is a paper I wrote that contains some pretty convincing evidence: http://coldfusionnow.org/the-evidence-for-lenr/

Cheers!