So long 2011, 2012 is gonna rock!

So like everyone, it seems, I'm thinking back on 2011, and trying to create my vision for an amazing 2012.

And for those of you who feel that marking some arbitrary place in the orbit of the planet as a time to reflect, celebrate, and start anew is silly... I say to you with all due respect: suck it.



2011 brought a few big changes...

• We now have a 15-month old running around. There's a world of difference between the 3-month old baby that we started the year with and the rambunctious, opinionated, stubborn, sweet, inquisitive, smart, and thoroughly enjoyable toddler that currently owns our household. But wow.

• Left my job of 11 years. While it was time to move on, starting from absolute zero again is tough. It's been a crazy six months of "post-WebAssign" life... and I think there has been some great growth and self-discovery. I got the chance to really sit down and mull: What do I want to do when I grow up? What am I good at? What am I passionate about? Still a journey, but it's something I don't think I would have done if I was still at WebAssign.

• Moved the family to Colorado. I love it here, but again this ain't easy. Moving is truly a pain in the a$$; moving cross-country is slightly worse; and moving with a child just adds to the fun and games. We miss things from Raleigh... mostly the people, but also some of our favorite hangouts and activities. The possibilities here are tantalizing, but just like with the new career we're starting out from zero and need to figure out a whole new world. Really, though, the opportunity for adventure and crafting new memories far outweighs the downside.

So what does 2012 look like in my mind?

• Another little girl heading our way around May 4. Just when we thought we had things under control... and this time we'll have Sydney around as well. I'll be outnumbered 3-1 here, and may have to take emergency steps to stay sane. ;)

• Building a business! At least giving it a serious whack. More to come on that.

• Exploring Colorado. I want to try to get out at least once every 2 weeks; whether that's snowboarding, hiking, climbing... we're living in the shadow of some amazing mountains and it's time to go enjoy them.

• Sound Body = Happier. Holy crap I need to get back in shape. Seriously; I've taken a couple of steps backwards in the fitness section of my "impossible list". Will phase back into it, but the goal is 5 days per week of doing something for the body; hopefully most of those will be fun activities. Have some ideas on how to eat a bit healthier and still enjoy it, too...

• Building Skillz. Hoping to dedicate one evening per week to improving my graphic design, UX, and programming abilities. Because I want to.

• More art. Want to create much more often... writing, sketching, building... no reason I shouldn't write something every single day.

• Staying Connected. Couple of trips to Raleigh... and more thoughtful use of Skype, Facebook, and other ways of remaining in touch with the people we care about.

• One Big New Adventure. Don't know what it is yet... but I intend to give it some serious thought. Life's too short to not build amazing memories every year.

So what about you? What are you going to do in 2012 that you're excited about?

"My Seat!"

So this is now where Sydney likes to have her bottles. Every time.

I feel like she's going to be heartbroken when we take the seat away to install it in the car.

Cardboard box FTW!

Because when you get a box like this, *not* making a fort would be criminal.

Uh oh... White!

Sydney is pretty surprised by what she sees outside today. Keeps going back to the window and staring.

About 4-5" and still falling...

First frost!

Winter is on the way... ('course it's gonna be 70 tomorrow...)

Can't wait for some snowboarding... The high mountains to the west are already frosted on top.

Snaaaaaakes!

Went out with Sydney to get the mail this week, and look what we found on our front porch! 

Little guy is about 8 inches long, and shakes his tail like a rattlesnake -- though there is no rattle to be seen and his head doesn't look like a rattler...

A little Googling leads me to believe that he's a "Night snake", non-poisonous and in fact very docile and easy to "tame". He's been sunning out on our porch, so he's pretty active... but I give it a go: yeah he tries to bite me. Twice. (Just little love-nips, right??)

 Sydney, by the way? LOVES IT! Wants to pick it up, love it and rub it and name it George. No fear in that little girl.

So we look around a bit more, and check out the crack at the side of the concrete porch... and lo and behold -- there's another one!

And wait, another head in there... is that 3? 4?

Last count, we have 7 little Night Snakes living on our front porch... they've been there for the last 3 days now and show no signs of leaving...


Which is fine by the way -- I think they're awesome, and Sydney is still excited when she sees them. If I can get George (I named the first one George) to calm down with the nipping a little bit, maybe one of these days Sydney can hold him...

Colorado rocks!

Horses... snakes... groundhogs... dragon flies (and almost no mosquitos)... and mountains whenever you look West, which does something for the soul.

(Now if we can just get out and play more!!!)

Moving week is over...

Whew! The past couple of weeks have been packed with packing, loading, driving, driving, driving, flying, visiting, flying again, and then unpacking and starting to settle in. Some thoughts...

All worth it! The new backyard...

Packing

To pack up properly, you have to handle everything you own. Every. Single. Thing. There's nothing like putting a 4-bedroom house into boxes to make you say "what the @$% is wrong with me that I own this much junk???"

Loading

The first 1/2 to 2/3 of loading the truck is enjoyable; like playing Tetris in fact. Lots of work, but with the right folks around (and we had amazing folks helping us!) it goes pretty smoothly. Then at some point things start to deteriorate... you end up with Seussian piles of items that don't quite stack properly; propped up with the odd rake or barstool... you know that it won't really survive the that way, but at some point you stop caring.

The last 1/10 of your stuff takes FOREVER... there's always one more bucket, one more pile of miscellanea, one more drawer taunting you as you try to finish up. Things go in plastic trash bags by now, and more than one item may have accidentally (cough) been thrown away at this point.

We attached the bulkhead (big plywood "door") in the trailer, and threw a few more things over top of it, to make sure that when we unload there is a significant avalanche of debris. By now it is 10pm on the night before pickup, and there is constant lightning and thunder around us (did I forget to mention we finished up in a thunderstorm? Fitting).

Flying With Kids

If you're traveling with a lap-child, bring a copy of the birth certificate. We didn't, and the agent decided to pretend that Sydney might be 2+ years old and might need to buy a ticket. "FAA rules" they say, but I know many others that have flown recently without such child ID, so either:

a) This agent was completely lying about it being a FAA rule, or
b) It's a rule, but nobody enforces it except for this douchebag at Southwest.

Trekking through the airport with 4 large bags, a kid, and a stroller turns out to be not so bad, actually. (If you are laughing at the 4 large bags comment you have never seen how much gear babies require.)

Eventually we got on the plane Sydney's first flight! She was amazing. She got antsy, but managed to hang on for the whole 3.5 hours without screaming like most kids seem to do on the plane. Even got a nap in my arms... and when we landed and taxied around for what seemed like an hour, she squealed with delight at seeing other planes on the tarmac.

You keep calling this "home" but I know better.

New Place

Sydney's face says it all.

She was such a trooper about the whole thing. We spent the first night out here in a hotel, and she gamely explored the room all day and night. When we got to this place, it was just another much bigger hotel room to explore...

Of course once we started unloading things from the truck, especially all her toys and her crib, she warmed up to the place and I think feels at home here already.

There are still a few things missing from the place... but at this point I'm declaring it completely "functional". At right is my current desk, for example... nothing wrong with that, right???

At least we have internet back.

A whole house without furniture? No biggie. No internet except for on our phones? AAUGGH!!!

Weird how much of a difference that makes. First world problem, I know, but that's the way I feel.



More to come; but I wanted to say that we made it, safe and sound, and are looking forward to exploring our new town, mountains, and indeed Colorado.

Making Lemonade!

The moving trailer arrives in 8 days... few days to pack it up, then all of our creature comforts leave us for a week.

Moving sucks
Moving cross-country sucks worse
Moving away from family that you actually like sucks even worse

But on the plus side... very excited about Boulder, and this whole adventure:

New house (to us)
New friends to meet
New favorite spots to find
New outdoor activities to enjoy
New career to start, as soon as I figure it out

... and hopefully many people coming to visit us over the next few years!

(c'mon by... we have a guest room with your name on it...)

Fitness progress (a little bit, anyway)

So I've been somewhat slack on my fitness goals (from my impossible list)... I'm gonna blame it on being busy prepping the house for sale (which is actually a workout in and of itself) but frankly I could still do better.

Anyway, I did finally get myself to do three solid runs in a single week (yes, that's how bad I've been) and today I got my pace under 9 minute miles! I don't get to cross that one off yet as I didn't go for 2 full miles; just 15 minutes... but now if I can keep the pace and stretch it to 18 minutes I can finally tick something!

I think I might be down close to 170 lbs as well; though I sold my scale in the garage sale so I have no proof...

I've been using an iPhone app called Runkeper to track my funs; it definitely helps with the motivation -- you can see where you ran on a map online, track progress over time, etc... and it's free!

There's also a website called Fitocracy that now integrates automatically with Runkeeper, so your runs get pulled into your workout log... and you get points, badges, and encouragement for everything you complete in Fitocracy. Sounds a bit hokey, but it's actually pretty addictive and motivating. Other users also can specify and share "quests" (workouts) that you complete for points... it makes fitness into a came.

If you're wanting to increase your fitness at all, check out Fitocracy!

Political rant: debt ceiling

The current debate over raising the debt ceiling exemplifies so much about what is wrong with American politics right now.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/07/11/president-obama-deficit-reduction-if-not-now-when


The Republicans have done a great job controlling the conversation as usual. Let's face it, they are really really, really good at this.

They have repeated the mantra over and over again that you can't raise the debt ceiling without fixing the long-term debt problem *at the same time*. Just. Not. True.


Let me clarify with an analogy:

We have a bomb, and it is going off shortly.

The Republicans would have you believe that we should not disarm this bomb until we have a long term plan in place that guarantees that nobody will every build a bomb again.

I can't even find the words to express how asinine this is! And they're getting away with framing the argument this way YET AGAIN.


Disarm the @#$%@$#%^@ bomb. Just @#$%@# do it! And then yes, let's tackle the long term debt problems that we have, with everything option on the table.


(By the way insisting that any and all tax increases -- specifically on the wealthy -- would kill the economy is also patently false -- just read what independent experts say on the subject. Taxes right now are near 50-year lows. We could easily raise them to Clinton era levels, have a great economy, and help pay off the debt. But the Republicans won't allow that to happen, because the middle class would benefit more than the rich and corporations would. Starting any conversation with "anything YOU want is off the table" is not a negotiation.)


I just don't get how we (the collective we):

a) Let the Republican's control every conversation,

b) Buy into the shock-and-duh sound-bite 24-hr media cycle,

c) Fail to listen to any facts that don't agree with what we already believe, and

d) Have such an incredibly short attention span.


We needs more history teachin' in our schools, I think.

Garage Sale -- Slices of humanity

Had our first ever garage sale today -- all in all, it was an interesting and entertaining experience. We netted $450 (2 big items; the rest was $1-20) which is not bad for a few hours work. Of course we shouldn't try to guess how much we paid for those $450 worth of items new... It felt great to get rid of perhaps a thousand pounds of stuff that we would otherwise feel obligated to haul across the country; and extra good to have those items not end up in a landfill.

Garage sales seem to bring out some interesting personality types. Here are some that I observed today:


The Chatty Grandparent

Probably has nothing much else to do, so this person (usually female but not always) sidles up next to the register and shares some tales about where they came from, how the neighborhood changed, and what old country singer or actor you my look like. Perhaps they buy a $1 item (but they ask to get it for 50 cents, of course) -- likes frilly things.


The Pro

Gets there at least 15 minutes before you open (even though your ad says you will kick any early-birds square in the nuuuuuts), and exhibits a laser-like focus as they scan for under-priced merch that they can resell on eBay/etsy/craigslist. No time for chit-chat; though sometimes they call their lackey to check the value of a particular item... I had one of these folks drive by a full 50 minutes early as I was setting up the first table, and shook their head in distain that I wasn't ready for them. (They also pillage the "free table".) Get a new hobby, people.


Latino Families

Usually with kids in tow, but not always... they are the group that really get into the grand tradition of haggling. First they'll talk amongst themselves in Spanish about how much they like something or where they would use it; then they offer exactly half the tagged price. This must be an oral tradition; because the first offer was almost always exactly half. (The funny part is I can understand Spanish.)

I even witnessed the passing of this practice to the next generation. A mother had her little girl approach the cash box with a $1 trinket and asked (with big eyes) "50 cents?" ... Way too cute to resist.

Bonus Latina story: I had 2 bigger electronic items that I set a mental reserve price for; 75% of what the tag read. Early in the day a senorita tried hard to get me to agree to 50% of the tagged price; I just didn't feel good about parting with the item at that price... felt sure that (a) it was worth more, and (b) I could get more on craigslist or ebay... so I said sorry, no. A couple of hours later the same senorita came by, acted like it was her first time seeing these items, and offered the same bargain -- because clearly all Mexican people look alike to me, si?


The Shopper Girl with Whipped Boyfriend in Tow

Self-explanatory. These are common to every retail establishment; but it was really entertaining to watch a few come by today.


Surprisingly Pleasant Neighbor

They aren't really shopping, but take the time to come by and say "hi". We met 3 seemingly great new neighbors today; should have done this much sooner... the conversation sort of stalled out after we said we were moving away soon... definitely should have done some kind of neighborhood event sooner.


The Free-coholics

We had a "free table" today... some stuff that we really just didn't want to go to a landfill, but which didn't seem to merit a real price tag. Odd mismatched logo glasses, not-fun-at-all books, things like that. Certain people seemed unable to resist the charms of this table; after verifying that indeed these items were "really? free?" their eyes glazed over and they were unable to resist whatever dreck was on offer.

Here's why it really amused me -- there were a great many $1 items at our sale today. As the morning wore on, I moved a few things at a time (which weren't getting much action) over to the free table. Once they hit the free table it was a feeding frenzy! (And sometimes, it was the same people.)

If something is not worth paying $1 for, why would you possibly want to bring it into your home?


The Free Vulture

This type was a bit of a surprise to me... toward the end of the sale I put away anything that I didn't want to just give away, and left the rest with a "free stuff!" sign and went inside; just hoping to have these things become someone else's problem. At least 2 or 3 people come around right at the end of the day, apparently looking for just such a helpless dead carcass of a sale... and yes, almost everything left unattended for that 10 minutes was taken. I guess this practice offers all the benefits of the "free-junk-to-sell-online" without the nasty need to actually interact with another human being.


So in any case... garage sale was a success. One more step in getting ready for the big move across the country... and really some great people-watching as well.

Boulder Exploratory Trip

So Melissa and I decided to take a little trip to Boulder to explore the town together, and try to decide if we felt like it might be the place for us. Spoiler alert: the answer is yes!

Some highlights below...


Day 1 - Thu 6/16

We drove down to Southern Pines in the morning to drop Sydney off with my parents. Luckily they only live an hour away and Sydney absolutely loves her "Nama"!

Then off to the airport, and after only a 1 hour delay in Philly (thanks Southwest) we made it to Denver.

I picked a cheap hotel for that night at random from Expedia; and I have to say: sometimes saving $30 isn't worth it -- very sketchy part of town; got what sounded like a drug call on the phone... and then in the morning as we headed out we thought we might literally witness a murder. And yes, I know what the word "literally" means.



Day 2 - Fri 6/17

Spent the morning in downtown Denver wandering around 16th street and Confluence Park -- very cool. Hit the flagship REI (wow) and then the Denver Aquarium including their funky restaurant where you can watch the "teenage" fish that aren't quite ready for the main tanks while you eat seafood.

Being that it's an aquarium you feel like you should eat fish; but then you remember that you're in Denver... so it's clearly optional.

After that we headed to Lafayette (suburb of Boulder) to meet up with Maria Florencia, who was generous enough to offer to host us for the trip! That night Lafayette had a cool little outdoor art festival, and we all had ice cream and enjoyed some live music. Nice!











Day 3 - Sat 6/18

Saturday was all about Pearl Street -- a great pedestrian mall in the center of downtown Boulder. Always stuff going on; always great people-watching. Lunch with a friend, then more Pearl street and driving around checking out various parts of town.

Trying to live right in downtown Boulder is tough, unless you're $$ with the $$$ and some $$$$. House prices are all over the map, but you can easily pay $500,000 for a tiny 1960's house near Pearl street... or well over a million for a 4-bedroom in tip-top shape.

So if we decided to move here we'd have to choose between living in a tiny fixer-upper within walking distance of all kinds of cool stuff (which would rule!)... or living further out in a place that actually has room for a family. Or up in the mountains; where you can get some big lots and decent houses with absolutely amazing views -- but a 30-45 minute drive into town for anything (worse when it's snowy). Given that we have a baby and would probably be going into town quite often, we ruled out the mountain option. For now at least.


Day 4 - Sun 6/19

By now we were feeling pretty bullish about Boulder, so we thought "what the heck"... let's actually look at some houses. We had pretty much crossed off a couple of the suburbs already; so we focused on some places around Lafayette. That's about 20 minutes from downtown Boulder (by car -- but people bike it all the time!), and has a huge range of options, from ranches to 100-year old houses to brand-new construction.

We toured 9 houses and did a drive-by "no thanks!" on 3 more (quite an efficient realtor!)... and actually found one we quite like! Too soon to get excited about that house just yet, but at least we know that we should be able to find something in our price range that will suit us just fine.

One of the awesome things about that particular place is the backyard -- huge (for suburb standards), and it backs up to a horse ranch and some public trails... and you can even see a lake off in the distance (not in this photo, sorry). And we saw a wolf or a coyote there too... Very cool.

Oh, and the basement has been finished out as a complete in-law/nanny suite -- and by complete I mean bedroom, bath, laundry, kitchen, and study. Crazy, eh?


Day 5 - Mon 6/20

After a wake-up-we-have-15-minutes-to-grab-free-waffles!! kind of morning, we headed up to Chautauqua park (5 min from downtown Boulder) to do some hiking. We did the easy meadow hike, and then I somehow cajoled Melissa into giving the Great Arch trail a try -- 4 miles round trip and something like 1600 feet of elevation gain... but the views are totally worth it!

The pic on the right doesn't do it justice at all... was a great hike, despite another unusually bad (for Boulder) weather day... and at the top we hand fed a walnut to a super cute and obviously domesticated chipmunk.

An hour after taking the picture here, we were back on Pearl street sitting down for some tasty pizza and more people-watching.

Gotta love Boulder.

New sand on volleyball courts!

After 10 years of rumors, the parks and rec department has put down new sand at Jaycee park -- and it is glorious!

Played for a few hours today, and not a scratch on me... the old sand is still around the fringes of the area, and whenever you would fetch the ball from that area it was kind of like "wow, we used to play on this???"

I suggest everyone take a minute to email the parks and rec department and say thanks... so they know these courts are important to us! (and pass this along to other Jaycee'ers to do the same...)

Raleigh Parks and Recreation Department

Email Address: 

PRContact@raleighnc.gov

Office:
919-831-6640

Address:
2401 Wade Avenue

Raleigh, NC 27607

http://www.raleighnc.gov/home/content/PRecParks/Contacts/RaleighParksAndRec.html

Angel Bootcamp in Boston

I'm heading to Boston! Just a one-day trip on Tuesday 6/14... to attend an Angel Bootcamp event.

24 very busy folks are contributing a day of their time to put on this free event, and I feel lucky to have been able to snag an invite... was like the universe was telling me something about my current Boulder plans -- nice to know that The Force approves of what I'm doing!

Would have been great to make it into a 2-day trip and see friends there, but I gotta get back and get turned around to head to Boulder on the 16th.

Life refuses to be boring!

Next Boulder Trip planned!

Heading back to Boulder! Melissa and I are going to head out there June 16 - June 20, to see what she thinks of the place. Sydney is going to stay with the grandparents... thanks guys!

Goals for the trip:

• Do some hiking!
• Visit with James, Maria Florencia
• Hang out on Pearl street
• Check out various parts of town... where would we want to live?
• Eat at Southern Sun
• Bump into a couple of the startup-scene folks I met at Boulder Startup Week
• Soak in the vibe
• Not go nuts being away from Sydney for 5 days :)

In other news, I'm getting fairly close to ticking off 2 things from my impossible list... more to come soon.

Boulder to Raleigh

So Boulder was pretty much incredible. I utterly can't do justice in words to the feeling that this place (and the people there) created in me; I felt like Cinderella finally putting on the glass slipper and becoming a princess.

OK, terrible analogy... but this place fits me like a glove.

Boulder is often called "the happiest place on earth" (sorry Disney) and I think that is true. This is a town where you can truly be yourself -- as long as "yourself" is a real person and not a front like many places seem to require... If you want to wear a viking helmet and go drinking downtown -- great. If you want to take 2 weeks off and hike from peak to peak -- great. If you want to start a club or event or group or company -- great! In fact, the town has your back for starting just about *anything*. This is a place for people who like to do things (anything), create things, and generally just live out loud.

I have never been in a place that was more supportive of each other (even strangers), more positive, less judgmental, more outdoorsy, less jealous, more into having fun and less into appearances. People help each other out expecting nothing in return, and celebrate each others' successes.

One week ago today I was packing for Boulder and was filled with uncertainty about what I wanted to do next, just having left my job of 11 years... by Thursday, I was pretty sure I knew where I need to try to take this next chapter of life -- and by Saturday I was sure. I was centered, relaxed, and almost felt I could literally fly for the first time in forever... good feeling!

So many great events and people last week. Now that I'm home and have a bit of time, I'm planning to write a post a day with my notes about the day one week  before... by the end of the week It'll be clear enough which direction I'm heading.

I'm also now going to have to actually start using Twitter, LinkedIn, etc properly -- just didn't have a need before, when I was at WebAssign... to that end, I'll soon be setting up a separate blog to start talking about my new career adventures, and once that's up and running this one will just be about personal stuff.

Boulder Startup Week day 1

Great day today! First day of the Boulder Startup Week conference... www.boulderstartupweek.com

Met more interesting and passionate people today than in the past few years in Raleigh. Really hope we can make the move out here soon - great energy, great people... Great opportunities to do something special I think.

John, Heather, Drew, Ben, Grant, Russ, Peter, Matt - you guys rock. Hope our paths cross again soon.

David, Brad - thanks for the book and the talk... I feel like I see a bit of myself in you. Hope to be part of something like techstars (or maybe the thing itself) some day.

During the last two events today I got to hear mini-pitches and offer advice... I think I may have already helped 2 founders out, and that feels great! Would love to do that for a living...

- Scuba Steve

Location:Colorado 119,Longmont,United States

(Draft of) My Impossible List

So I was inspired by the "Blog of Impossible Things" to draft a list of my own. If you haven't checked it out, it's worth a read...

This is a slightly different take on a bucket list; some of these are things that I want to "check off", but others are just things that will be fun, that I want to make sure I make a priority at some point -- otherwise all those "someday" adventures might not happen! This is also a list that can be added to at any point; for example as I tick off some fitness or travel items, others will rise up to take their place.

The list below is very rough; I've really just begun to draft this... but I thought I'd go ahead and post it publicly to give myself incentive to refine and then start working towards ticking things off!

There is at least one category missing: "Life Goals"... this is a biggie, and I'm working on that separately (at least for now).

-Steve



Fitness Goals

• Run a 5k race
• Run 5 miles (Realized that this is really not important to me. I'm not a runner. Getting back in shape through climbing, HIT training, biking instead.)
• 100 consecutive push ups
• 50 consecutive pull ups
• Get back down to 170 lbs (177 as of 5/13/11) Done 7/2013
• Get back down to 165 lbs Done 10/2013
• Get a respectable six pack Getting there 11/2013
• Bench 225 lbs (again)
• Earn a second blackbelt
• Replace car with bike for routine errands (Summer 2013)

Travel Goals

• Visit Central America (Costa Rica, 1997-98)
• Visit Thailand (1999??)
• Spend a season in the Italian countryside
• Visit Ushuaia
• See the Southern Cross
• Spend a month in Asia
• Visit Australia & New Zealand
• Watch a soccer match in England
• See the running of the bulls
• 3-month US roadtrip with an RV/trailer
• Attend Octoberfest
• Spent 6 consecutive months outside of the US
• Visit Alaska
• Go on a cruise

Green Living Goals

• Ditch cable TV (Fall 2011, again Summer 2013)
• Rainwater capture for garden (Spring 2013)
• Solar power for home
• Grow 25% of veggies we use (did OK in 2013...)
• Grow almost all of the herbs we cook with
• Skip meat at least one day/week

Adventure Goals

• Sky Dive (2000?)
• Surf respectably, once (2005?)
• Go non-tandem skydiving
• Scuba a shipwreck
• Dive with sharks
• Dive with dolphins
• Learn to kitesurf
• Windsurf respectably, once
• Fly a paraglider
• Climb a mountain (TBD)
• Top-rope an ice climb
• Month+ canoe trip in Canada
• Backpack for 3 weeks
• Snowboarding trip (TBD)
• Climb in Hueco
• Fly fish
• Go snowshoing
• Go cross-country skiing
• Whale close-up

Rock Climbing Goals

• Redpoint Slash and Burn (5.12d -- The New)
• Re-redpoint The Trophy (5.12c -- Vegas)
• Redpoint Pet Shop Boys (5.12d -- Vegas)
• Redpoint a 5.13a
• Send Scary Monsters (v6 -- Joe’s)
• Send Midnight Lightning (v8? -- Yosemite)
• Climb El Cap
• Climb Half Dome -- any direct route
• Climb Epinepherine with Sydney

Random

• Become comfortable in 3 foreign languages
• Spanish
• Italian? Greek? Chinese?
• Build a house
• Create a piece of art
• Invent something patentable
• Take down a deer with bow & arrow

Professional / Financial Goals

• Start a business (2012)
• Sell a business
• Be a CEO (2012)
• Raise money for a business (2012)
• Sit on a board of directors (Realized that this is really not important to me.)
• $2M in liquid assets (Realized that this is really not important to me.)
• Mostly-passive income stream(s) covering our routine needs

iPad 3 prediction

Just based on some trends, here are my predictions for the iPad 3. (Let me be clear, I am talking about the 2012 rev to the iPad 2 that just came out... Not a hypothetical 7" iPad 3 some are predicting for fall 2011.)

Faster (duh)

Lighter (more pleasure to hold... Crucial in a handheld... This enabled by better batteries)

Not thinner (iPad 2 is about as thin as you would want it to be)

Much better rear-facing camera

Stereo speakers

NFC capability

12 hour battery life

Does not run flash

LTE and GSM - no CDMA version

No silver bezel visible from the front at all

Finally an updated native calendar app.

Double the storage capacity, similar/same price

Some kind of seamless device-to-device communication... Your iPhone, iPad, and your friend/wife's iPhone should all be able to communicate for games, etc with zero hassle. Current implementations are just too futzy.

I will want one

Retina display (I am on the fence on this currently... Certainly Apple has invested heavily in display tech, but this just may not yet be feasible economically in early 2012... But boy oh boy would it sure make people want to upgrade!)

No haptic display; though I would love that.

- Scuba Steve

Good times with good people!

Had a pint with a friend today, and I am filled with a renewed sense of spirit. This is someone who creates... who believes there is beauty in so many things... Who tries to truly live life and not just coast through.

This person reminded me that your life is what you make it - no reason you can't pursue the things that matter to you, and no reason you have to accept that the world is what it is - maybe you're the one who is meant to make it just a little bit better. What is life without a bit of passion; a bit of striving...

Lucky to know that kind of person. Perhaps someday I'll be lucky enough to inspire someone else in the same way.

- Scuba Steve