Welcome to 2009

[crschmidt]

Welcome to 2009, everyone.

A lot of people are expecting different things from 2009, but I don't think I am really. Life isn't really sufficiently in flux that I expect the year over year delta to be large this year; 2008 had a lot of suck, and some good times, and I expect 2009 will be about the same.

I'm trying to decide what I should do about my photography: One problem I'm having with it at the moment is that I may actually be approaching a point where what I can do with my current tools is running a bit low, but I don't have a lot of cash on hand to buy better tools. I suppose the answer to that is to find more cash, but I feel like that's a never ending pit of futility, to be honest. Saving money for myself just isn't something that I can do.

I'm going to be speaking on GeoDjango, the GIS extension to GeoDjango, on Thursday, at the Django User's Group meeting at Betahouse, in Cambridge. More info forthcoming at the meetup page.

Things I want to do in the next couple months:

• Decide something about photography. Either make the investment in better equipment, or stop feeling bad about not taking good pictures.
• Go Skiing
• Look into rock climbing, and figure out if it's worth the cost.

I'm not doing any real resolutions this year; I don't usually end up keeping them anyway. My internal resolutions are the same as always: Make your life, and the lives of those around you, as happy as you can.

Comments

[ursamajor]

My grand total of downhill skiing experience is one week when I was 14 on Park City bunny hills, but mark me as a potentially interested partner in this venture :) (Hyoun's interest in winter outdoor sports is less than zero. ;) )

[zigdon.livejournal.com]

I'm curious what costs do you see associated with Rock Climbing? I just started again a few months ago (after about 20 years break), and am just loving it. Costs (for me) ended up either renting equipment (~$6/visit) and getting day passes at the gym (~$14/visit) or buying what I needed (~$150) and getting a gym membership (~$60/mo, which I wanted to get anyway).

All in all, much cheaper than skiing, and I am able to go now 3 times a week :) I also really love the fact that I find climbing is a much more social activity than skiing -- not that skiing with friends isn't fun, but since it involves a lot more time/money investments, harder to get people to go as often.

That said, when I'm in town, I'd be up for joining you on either/both of those ;)

[crschmidt.livejournal.com]

Oh, Skiing is really just a "I'd like to go sometime this winter"; not something I'd start as a more serious hobby, so if it's more expensive for my one day trip or whatever, that's just a sunk cost that I'm usually willing to accept.

I don't know how much rock climbing costs, which is why I need to look into it :) When I looked in the past, the place EI looked required you to take a couple of classes first before they'll let you climb in their gym unless you can prove some kind of proficiency, which I'm positive I wouldn't be able to do :) And if I don't think that I'd actually use it more than once or twice, it's not worth the cost. Right now, I can probably only afford the couple hours out of the house once a month or so. *shrug*

[zigdon.livejournal.com]

We should certainly go climbing then when I'm in town. I can teach you what you need to know in order to belay me (and pass the mini-test they usually give), so you won't need to take the classes at all. That would also give you a good idea of what it's like, without having to sink too much money into it.

[crschmidt.livejournal.com]

*nod* When are you coming into town?

I have done belaying before, and climbing, though never indoors. But it was... at least 8 years ago, probably 10, and my knowledge then wasn't particularly good. (Not good enough that I'd trust myself to protect someone's life with that knowledge 10 years later, certainly.)

[zigdon.livejournal.com]

First weekend in Feb. And yeah, I used to climb outdoors ~20 years ago, then forgot all about it. But not much to indoor belaying, a quick refresher and you should be fine :)

I promise you, if I don't feel you know what you're doing, you won't be belaying me ;)

[tylere.myopenid.com (from livejournal.com)]

I find rock climbing to be very much 'worth the cost'. It seems to appeal to programmers/engineers, maybe because of the physical problem solving, which is a nice complement to the normal mental problem solving of the work day. Just don't expect indoor climbing to be similar to outdoor climbing... the social and workout aspects of indoor climbing are nice, but you miss out on the beauty of the outdoors and the feel of real rock.

Did you know that the lower peninsula of Michigan has only one outcrop of rock suitable for climbing? I feel I am an unfortunate victim of glacial geology...