Christmas in Hudson

Well, this has been several weeks, but I thought I would add this anyways. I have added the few photos that I took when I was back in Ohio for Christmas to http://flickr.com/photos/brett_burch/tags/christmas for all to enjoy.

Aside from 5 days being way too short and it being terrific to see friends and family again, one thing of note I wanted to write down was my flight back to Cincinnati, which ultimately let Tacoma and I back to Boulder. It was a surprisingly clear day for Cleveland (especially Cleveland in December), and I had a window seat. I don't know what is was that caused this, but I seriously felt like I had a first class view through the foggy ruins of my past. Maybe I was already missing the friends and family I had just visited, or maybe just my usual sentimental and nostalgic self. Regardless, first off, as we took off I could see downtown Cleveland, including Jacob's Field (I refuse to call it Progressive Field... that's ridiculous) and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. It was a green and snow-less view through the Cuyahoga Valley except the Boston Mills & Brandywine ski resorts, which actually looked open despite what could only be miserable conditions. The plane followed I-71 south, and it was fun to see the farms and rolling central Ohio hills from above. I always enjoyed this drive to and from Miami, and it was just as fun this time. Speaking of Miami, as we approached, Cincinnati, I began to recognize that we were following directly above 128 and 275. I can only guess that we flew over Dayton and headed directly south, but familiar sights such as Mount Rumpke and King's Island came into view exactly as my mind expected. As we landed and then took off again from CVG, the smokestacks on the Ohio River were memorable. The Florence Y'all water tower was also there for the viewing as we followed 71/75 to its split. Ironically, just after the 71/75 split, they sky clouded up right where my memory of the area would have been cloudy or blank. I continued to think about the past for at least 2 hours on the plane to Denver, and wondered if for me the grass always seems greener looking at the place I just came from... maybe I just have selective amnesia. As we approached DIA I got giddy to be back in Colorado, and know it's just a matter of time before I feel that way about here. It's true that it doesn't feel quite like home yet (still making friends, getting used to new surroundings, and getting adjusted with work, finding a dentist, etc) but I can't wait until it fully does. I think my nostalgia has something to do with how fondly I recall time spent with family and feeling home as far back as I can remember anything. When I don't feel like I'm home I miss it quite a bit. I've also realized that home is really a mix of location and people ("home is where the heart is" is just too goofy so I refuse to use that). I never really understood why people think highly of certain places but feel like I could do the same in just about anywhere (notice I didn't say everywhere) with the right people. I'm not suggesting in the least that I want to leave Boulder, but I guess the familiarity of place can help make it feel like much more than it seems to an outsider.

And speaking of looking back over my shoulder... 2007 is a wrap! I think its good to look back (in case you hadn't noticed from the past 5 minutes of reading), as long as it's not too often, so I'll do that now in order to assess and digest the events of 2007. If there's one thing 2007 showed me, it's that you really cannot predict the future, but nevertheless, I have some thoughts and some goals that I want to be able to look back on in 2008 and assess my progress towards.

1. God is good, and answers prayers... maybe when you least expect them too. I probably would never have believed you if you told me 12 months ago that I'd be living in Boulder, a teenage dream of mine. Speaking of, though, I need to dig into the Old Testament more this year since I've never read it in its entirety.
   
2. I've attended the info session about the CU MBA program, and am still unsure of where that stands. I'll keep you posted. I guess the next step would be the GMAT.
   
3. I can't believe the opportunities I've been given to ride my bike, climb/hike mountains, ski, snowshoe, bouldering, whitewater raft, hike, fish, etc. and want the hits to keep coming in this department. I think the Basic Snow class I'm taking in May will help me get comfortable enough to take on Skywalker Couloir in June '09. Here I come, snow climbing :) The class will be a reason for buying an ice axe but more importantly a stepping stone towards Mt. Rainier (2009?) and eventually Denali (before I'm 30)!!* I also want to continue to progress as a skier since I have become quite the downhill junkie, be it on two wheels or two skis. Hopefully I'll get some outdoor climbing in this summer and wake my climbing harness from hibernation. As far as 14ers go, here is a tentative list of 14ers I hope to summit.
1. Elbert (snow)
2. Massive &
   
3. Holy Cross (3 day weekend?)
4. Evans
5. Snowmass (probably long weekend)
6. LaPlata sw ridge &
   
7. Missouri (3 day weekend?)

I'll need a few more to get to 15 total from 6 at present, but I don't really care which :)

4. I am going to be the Best Man in my brother's wedding. That will surely be a wonderful time, and I'm looking forward to May. He'll be graduating college and getting married in the same month, so it'll be quite the year for him too.
5. Continuing to make a grow friendships to help Boulder feel like home will be very important this year.
   

So little time, so much to do... time to be looking forward I guess. Welcome 2008; be good to me.

* other multi-year goals:

1. summiting Grand Teton
2. more than a weekend in the Moab area, including riding hut to hut from Telluride
3. Hiking the John Muir Trail all the way from Yosemite Valley to Mt. Whitney (meanwhile getting another state highpoint and the lower 48 highpoint) in one outing
   

ski lesson

I'm not a very good skier, but I'm working on it. This weekend I took a lesson ("Perfecting Parallel") at Winter Park. In addition to the parallel info, I also learned a critical foundation that I was missing. That foundation is the concept of using your skeleton instead of your leg muscles. Hopefully the use of stick figures will help elaborate.

Bad form:
As you can see above, the old me stood with my calf pressed against the boot, heel/ankle at a right angle, perpendicular to the slope or even worse depending on the steepness [1]. My thighs were doing the work of keeping me in an aggressive position yet still upright [2] and I was sticking my butt out [3] as my instructor said. My line of vision [4] was essentially parallel to the slope, which is correct. The worst thing about this is my center of mass was more towards my heel than toes... leaving the tips of the skis to take on a mind of their own.

Good form:
As you can see above, the new me stands with my shin pressed against the boot, heel/ankle at a sharp angle [1]. My calves and skeleton are doing the work of keeping me in an aggressive position yet still upright [2] and I am not sticking my butt out [3], rather upright instead. My line of vision [4] is the same (essentially parallel to the slope, which is correct). The best thing about this is my center of mass is more towards my toes than heel... giving me control over the tips of the skis.

This is the opposite of riding a mountain bike downhill, where you tend to sit back in the saddle as steepness increases, but feels much better on skis. My first ski trip this year wore out my thighs, but felt great after this Saturday. Maybe this will help out somebody else too... I know if I come home with sore thighs again I just need to re-familiarize myself with these million dollar drawings.

I got Visual Studio 2008 for free... sort of

It's now official. The mirror mirror on the wall (err... in my head, that is) has spoken, and decreed Microsoft's marketing team to be the most craptastic of all. Maybe the Borg has eaten its own brain. Maybe they've all taken up Ballmer's meth habit. [Exhibit A: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvsboPUjrGc, or maybe try the remix.] Either way, last night I went to the VS2008 "InstallFest" thinking that I would get media to "install" VS2008 Professional. That turned out to be a logical but poor assumption. Instead, I got a t-shirt (if I had a garden it would make a terrific weeding jersey) and a "trial edition" CD with a "special code" to go to www.vs2008offer.com and order my free copy... which apparently won't arrive for 6-8 weeks! Are you guys hand-writing each address and licking the stamps? Let's just think about this. They're that ridiculous (... but as long as the stock price goes up and Windows remains ubiquitous, who cares, right?). For me, one magical day around Valentine's Day, my copy will arrive. Wow! By that time I might have completely forgotten VS2008 was even on its way. Not only that, but I drove 45 minutes to collect a CD of bits that ANYONE CAN DOWNLOAD at http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7771657. 45 minutes each way for a t-shirt and a "special code" to boot. This is tantamount to Oscar Meyer announcing a dinner party where they'll unveil new hot dogs which they've already made available in samples at grocery stores... and then surprising all who showed up with those same bite-size samples and a "free 20 pack" coupon not to be used before February. In fairness, I haven't installed the trial edition yet, but I can imagine it's basically a beta (not the finished product, and probably buggy). Sweet! I was shocked that VS2008 was announced for release in 2007 instead of July 08, and give MSFT credit for not pulling another Vista (only 2 years late and with most of the good features dropped!) but isn't the "trial edition" bunk (that everyone knows is basically a way to find bugs before releasing the actual product) a little anti-climactic? And who came up with the SEO domain name idea? What's with

• visualstudio2008.defyallchallenges.com
• www.vs2008offer.com
• I especially enjoy http://vsdemo.defyallchallenges.com/thisisnotdefault.aspx. Maybe the whole "name a default page 'thisisnotdefault'" joke is lost on me, but that's funny like a midlife crisis and frankly looks pathetic.
  

Do you not still own www.microsoft.com? This leaves me no choice but to, with total sincerity, write the next few lines to the board of the Borg, from a real live stockholder of MSFT:

Dear Borg,
I understand that you want to make it seem like you have righted the ship by releasing a product ahead of schedule rather than behind schedule. The press releases might make it sound like you have redeemed yourselves, and that's very nice, but if I were you I wouldn't try to pull your face out of the mud by doing something just as mud-worthy. It seems to me that you have made yourself look silly by throwing a party for a demo. Forgive me for being naive, but next time I see a "look how great this will be... soon" marketing pitch coming, I think I'll just stay home and pay for the damn thing when it's ready to go to market. I really like c# and the .Net framework as a whole, but this is exactly why Apple is kicking your ass right now. Alienating those who encourage the sales of Windows is only going to make things worse. Please don't repeat this behavior.
-Brett

I really do think .Net is a better platform than Java, and Sun is to blame for that (well, let's give Microsoft credit here too), but seriously, everybody who wears a suit to work in One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA is a moron.

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where are the leaders of my generation?

26

By the time Ben Franklin was my age he had written all his Silence Dogood letters, moved to Philadelphia, been to London and back, and started The Pennsylvania Gazette. By the time Alexander Graham Bell was my age he was well on his way to inventing the telephone, which he patented at the age of 29. By the time Elvis was my age, he was a Hollywood superstar, was 5 years beyond the Ed Sullivan show, and singlehandedly invented rock 'n' roll as far as the general public knew. By the time Bob Dylan was my age he had released a handful of albums that are still widely regarded as some of the most influential in 50 years. By the time John Lennon was my age the Beatles had released everything prior to Sgt. Pepper's, thereby permanently changing the course of musical history and redefining celebrity. By the time Bill Gates was my age he had dropped out of Harvard, Microsoft was 5 years old, and MS-DOS was well on it's way with IBM as a customer. By the time Michael Jackson was my age, he had already abandoned the Jackson 5 and released Thriller (the greatest selling album of all time) which laid out the template for almost all pop music released in a decade.

I wonder what positive influence my generation (Generation Y; the generation of entitlement, MTV and Internet) has had on the world around it so far. What ideas, inventions, art or music, etc have we as a group contributed to move humanity a step forward? Are we as a group so entitled to everything that we ultimately contribute nothing? And what about myself specifically? Maybe I'm a few years impatient. I guess the one person that comes to mind is Mark Zuckerberg (23 yrs), creator of facebook.com. Other than him, I'm having a hard time beyond David Heinemeier Hansson (28 yrs), creator of the Rails framework. The jury is of still out on the magnitude of Rails' importance, but its adoption has proven a great deal of merit so far... it sure as hell pales in comparison to Revolver, the telephone or MS-DOS though. I know there is genius in my generation, so where is it? Are we to be represented by Brittany Spears? God help us.