Not again.

I have been doing alot of climbing lately, trying to go 3 to 4 times a week atleast. I have been getting better too, I am onsighting mid 10's, redpointing 11a's and struggling up mid to hard 11's. Pretty much right where I was wanting to be for the start of the season!

Last night there was a gear rep at the Krag who brought some cool shoes to try. So I slipped a pair of pretty aggresive Evolv'e on, and got on the bouldering wall. I did about 4 or maybe 5 moves, decided I wanted to try another part of the wall for this test. As I was all of 2 feet off the ground, I stepped back to walk over to the other part, and happened to step onto the edge of a crash pad. I heard 3 loud cracks, and then hit the ground in pain. Yup, broke my ankle again!

Now it's up in the air, with a bag of ice, and I am mad as hell right now. I was climbing right where I wanted to be, and the weather is warming up this weekend. I should be headed to the Red, but I am sure to be on my couch instead.

Finally joined the revolution

Monday night I was working on some stuff for a client, and everything was going along smoothly, maybe almost too smoothly. My Dell that I bought from my sister then popped up a strange error... your computer is corrupt, save your work, Windows is shutting down in 60 seconds! No way to stop it. OK, whatever... saved work... chilled... Windows restarts... bluescreen! Ugh... I hate those stupid blue screens of death.

At the top, it says "To protect your computer, Windows has been shutdown." So many thing are wrong with that. What was Windows going to do to my computer? What was my computer without Windows? Why does it need to shutdown? Is it really protecting the computer... I mean, I am getting mad enough to make a Dell frisbee... so its not really so protective.

Anyway... I spent all night trying to get it running. I scoured the internet on my iPhone looking for a solution to my cryptic error. Turns out, the error means that there might be something wrong with my DVD drive... which I wasn't using, and is built into the laptop... and why can't it just boot without turning on the DVD drive.

The only solutions I had was to take it into one of these over-priced fixing places... pay probably $300 for them to say, "yup, its broken"... or to go buy a new machine. I am so sick of these stupid computers... Windows does incredible Mac advertising.

I went to my local Mac store at 9:03 am... tossed my dead machine on a counter, told them I need to replace this piece of junk with a Mac. They laughed, and I walked out at 9:37 with a new Mac, and all the stuff I need to capture my information off the old hard drive!

I bought the cheapest Mac they had, and its loaded, and fast... and is sweet. While I type this blog, iTunes is importing my thousands of songs, iPhoto is importing my 5,000 photos, I have Photoshop and Dreamweaver open, I have a movie playing in the corner, and am IM'ing my buddy about how cool this thing is, and it isn't skipping a beat.

I feel like I just came out of the woods, carrying a club, wearing a bear skin, and am looking down on a world that looks like the set of Blade Runner, realizing that I had been using that club to do my computing for way too long. I know Kung Fu.

Thanks Mac...

Resolutions - the beginning

Every year millions of people come up with great resolutions on how they are going to be better, more awesome people. By now, most of them have forgotten about their grand schemes, or it has become just talk. I have been equally as guilty in the past of similar atrocities... but I think that this year will be different.

I read something yesterday on Gizmodo from Steve Jobs (mum, Steve is perhaps the most influential CEO of our time, he's the head of Apple) that made me realise why he is so successful, and its something I used to have. He actually was quoting the creators of the "Whole Earth Catalog", which he described as Google before the Internet. On the back cover of the final issue of the catalog there were 4 words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."

To me, among other things, it is a battle cry against complacency and convention.

Last year was a rough year for millions of people... money was the focus of most peoples issues and definitely a focus of mine. More than that for me was losing myself in the stresses of life, and missing out on some phenomenal opportunities to live foolishly.

Last year, I was not me... I did not climb as much as I wanted (until towards the end of the year), I definitely didn't sail as much as I wanted, and I didn't live how I wanted. Way too many days were spent watching the TV instead of watching the sunset, cooking from a microwave instead of a campstove, sitting on my couch instead of swinging from a rope, sleeping in my bed instead of under stars....

I don't have all my plans figured out just yet, but I have some goals. Some are small, some are large, but they are all about me, and change. I will sail more this year, I will be a 5.11 climber this year, I will lead alot more trad this year, I will find more joy this year, I will travel more this year, I will dive more this year, and I will be hungrier and more foolish.

What am I doing right now about this... I am headed out to make a snow angel in 7 degree weather!

Nieces and Nephews

This year I was lucky enouh to gain another nephew, Wesley Morgan Harvey. He, ofcourse, is the cutest zero-year-old ever, and is so far the most talented, and expressive zero-year-old I have met this year.

It took my sister and brother-in-law quite a bit of drama to eventually be blessed with this amazing baby. But, from the smile that has been plastered on their faces, he's well worth it. It has been amazing to see how much he has grown and changed in just a few weeks that I was with him.

I love being an uncle. Usually all it takes to be liked by the kids is a little playing, some goofing off, and occassionally doing stuff their parents don't let them do (like playing in the mud). It's always amazing every year to see how the kids are changing, and then to figure out what caused those changed... which ofcourse is entirely impossible. I love the fact that I can drink beer and play cards with the oldest one, change the diapers of the smallest one, and have 8 others in between. 10 is a good number of nieces and nephews... till the next one ofcourse.

Maybe one day I will be a dad, maybe I won't. Right now, being an uncle is cheaper, less complicated and more fun for me. So thank you brothers and sisters for your kids, they are all amazing.