Seth Godin

On Thursday I had the opportunity to hear Seth Godin speak. Seth Godin is a marketing guru. He writes on marketing, spreading ideas, and various other topics. He has been travelling around promoting his new book The Dip.

I really like Seth. I have been an avid reader of his blog for about a year now. I've a few of his books with plans to read the rest. Seth's book tour wasn't like your typical book tour where the author goes to predetermined stores and sits waiting for people to approach him. Seth only went to places where there was demand. Fans in various cities would host pledge drives. Once x number of people pledged to buy The Dip, Seth would come and give a presentation. When you pledged to buy the book, you pledged to buy five copies of the book. One for yourself and four to give away. It really is a brilliant way to promote your book and gain readership.

I like the way Seth thinks and I like reading his thoughts on his blog. The presentation was awesome. Seth is very good at what he does. Normally it costs a lot more to hear Seth speak (and for good reason). This was especially nice since the VP of Marketing at work is a big Seth fan as well and got the company to pay for all of us to go!

Finally a First!

Well I finally was able to witness a first. So far Penelope has had lots of firsts but I've never seen any of them. Well today I finally saw one! Today Penelope rolled from her stomach to her back! She has been rolling from her back to her stomach for months but she finally rolled the other way. She's been close for quite some time but this afternoon she made it all the way over.

I'm most excited that I actually saw her do something for the first time.

Can I Have a Spoon?

The spoon is an amazing eating instrument. You can eat everything, EVERYTHING with a spoon. You don't need anything else. You don't need a knife and you especially don't need a fork. People say to me all the time "you can't eat that with a spoon" but they are wrong. You can eat everything with a spoon. You can't eat everything with a fork. There are things you can eat with a spoon that you can't eat with a fork, but there aren't things you can eat with a fork that you can't eat with a spoon. I issue a challenge: I defy you to find something you can eat with a fork that you can't eat with a spoon. If you think you know something, post a comment.

Climbing Outing

Yesterday was a good day. Yesterday was a great day. Jessi's parents were in town so we took advantage of having other people to help watch Penelope. We headed up Big Cottonwood Canyon to do a little climbing and have a picnic. We chose a crag that was right outside a picnic area. There was a junk show of people at the crag so we didn't get in too many climbs but we still managed to have a good time. We were only able to toprope a couple of routes since there was a line for the few accessible bolted routes.

Jessi looking good.

Penelope decided to give climbing a whirl.

Penelope's first outing in the kid carrier

After climbing for a couple hours we had a nice picnic in the shade. It felt good to hang out up the canyon, outside, in nature. It has been an extremely warm weekend (record high temperatures for this time of year) so it was good to get up the canyon and out of the hot valley.

Blogging?

There has been so much going on as of late but there really hasn't been much worthy of blogging about. Work is busy as usual, Penelope is cute as usual, Jess is amazing as usual.

One thing the I recently ran across again is iFitiStObeiTisUptOmE. This blog is written by a guy named hIrSch. Last year he rode his bike from Canada to the southern tip of South America. He is now in Morrocco. From what I've read he is an interesting guy and has an a different (different as in different than what I've come across as of late) take on life. I enjoy reading about his adventure. I recommend checking it out. Oh yeah, that is a Backcountry.com Goat sticker on the bottom of the stop sign.

One Last Ski Day

Two Saturdays ago Jess, Penelope, and I went for a short hike up Big Cottonwood Canyon. After the hike we decided to drive the rest of the way up BCC. It was a beautiful, bluebird, spring day. We decided that we needed on last ski day. I got a couple Gold Passes from work for the following Saturday, we scheduled the nanny, and got excited for a day of spring skiing.

We got up to Solitude about 10:00. It was once again a beautiful bluebird day. The snow was a little hard on the first run, but it wasn't long until the snow soften to great corn. We skied a bunch of runs all over the mountain. We left at about 1:00, right when the snow started to turn to slush. It was a perfect last day for the season. It was a great spring day, I got to ride with Jess, the snow was good, and we had a good time.

Pottery Class

Ever since we've lived in Holladay we'll get a course catalog for adult education classes everytime a new term is about to begin. This past time we received the catalog I decided to peruse it to see what they offered. They have some really cool classes available. I decided to sign up for a pottery class. I took pottery in high school and continued to throw occasionally for a year after high school but haven't sat at a wheel since then.

The class is 8 sessions and was only $45. The fee includes all the glazing, firing, and a half bag of clay. My first class is tomorrow night. I am wicked excited to throw again. I've already started a list of pots I'd like to make. I just hope I can pick it up fairly quickly so I can make what I want.

Feed Update

So I put the wrong feed address in my previous post. This is the correct one. If you happened to get it (I think only one person did) please use the new address.

Springtime is HERE!

I know I have posted about it previously, but spring is here. I played ultimate frisbee for the first time this year today. Every week at work a group of people spend their lunch time playing basketball, frisbee, or something else. Today happened to be the first outside ultimate game. It was a beautiful day, pleasant temperatures, and sunny!

Another group of people at work are running for lunch two days a week to train for the Wasatch Back Relay. The WBR is a 2 day relay race that starts in Logan and ends in Park City. Backcountry.com (work) sponsors a couple of teams made up of employees every year. Last year I didn't get to participate because of Jess and I's trip to Lake Tahoe. I am wicked excited about it, it will be a good time.

Feeds for Thought

I set up an RSS feed for my blog. I am curious to see if it actually gets adopted by anyone. It is super simple right now. You can either click the link in the side bar or just click here. Copy the URL and paste it into your favorite reader or use the drop-down.

I like feeds.

Climbing Day

Today was the first big outing of the year. I went up Little Cottonwood Canyon with a co-worker to get in some long trad-mileage. We met at the mouth of LCC just before 8 am. We went up to the Gate Buttress and started in on the fun. We put in 4 routes and a total of 6 pitches. That was a very long trad day for me. It was awesome because it was a great way to work on crack technique. In all of those climbs I did get my first trad lead in of the year. Other firsts from the day were: first time seeing a cam used as a stopper and first time climbing a flaring crack. It was awesome. I got home about 2:00 and had lunch with Jess and Penelope. While we were eating Jess said "I want to get outside". So what did we do? We went bouldering. Back up LCC to boulder. We met up with Matt and Bri shortly after we got there. We got in some good climbs.

Jess, Penelope, and I enjoying the afternoon in the mountains.

Warming up

Jess is excited, can you tell?

Jess working the start of Mud

Overhanging mantle problem that defeated me this time.

It was a very good day. Penelope LOVES being outside. We had her in the front carrier most of the time. She was constantly looking around to see what was around. She would just look up and marvel at the tall lodgepole pines.

On our way home I was talking to Jess and I realzed that between 7:30 am and 8:00 pm I spent a total of an hour and a half inside today. It was awesome.

First Hike of the Year

Yesterday was an extremely active day for us. The weather has been absolutely beautiful as of late. It was in the low 70s yesterday so we decided to go for a hike.

We cruised up to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail just behind the UofU for a short hike. Penelope went in the front carrier with a big sun hat and away we went. We were only out for about an hour, but it was perfect for the first outing of the season.

It didn't take long for Penelope to fall asleep.

The usual Miller self-portrait.

I am eagerly awaiting the baby backpack so we can head out on longer hikes.

We came home for lunch and quickly tired of being inside. We packed up the car and went up to Ogden to do some bouldering at the 27th Street boulders. We completely forgot to take pictures. It was a good time. Penelople hung out in her carseat, she slept for little bit, but when she woke up she had a good time watching us climb. She would actually laugh at us a little bit when we were on the rock. Jess did really well for her first time bouldering outside since being pregnant last year.

Site Counter

I finally got a site counter. I have been curious for awhile now how many people come to my blog. I don't think it is very many but I am curious anyway. This should prove to be very interesting.

Why can't we be like this?

This is one of the best stories I've seen/read in a long time. It's about the island of Samso off the coast of Denmark, it is virtually energy self-sufficient. Not only do they produce all of their own fuel and power, they do it without carbon emissions and they do it sustainably. The residents of this island are extremely resourceful. Why are we as a nation so far behind? Why is there no push or support from the government to pursue such activities?(avoiding small political rant...). The Danish goverment and the citizens of Samso are excellent examples of people and government working together to find alternative methods for energy and fuel. They definitely deserve kudos for the strides they've made and will continue to make.

I recommend watching the video.

By Popular Demand...

I'll be honest there was only one request for the canvas grocery bag pattern. I did some google searches thinking there would be lots of patterns to choose from, I was wrong. I mostly ended up with results of people selling bags. I did find one pattern that we use. You can find it here.

It is an all right pattern, the bags seem sturdy enough (so far they've worked), but the part about adding the gussets wasn't explained very well (that is mine and Jessi's opinion, perhaps we aren't very smart). It took doing it wrong once, being mad about it, Jess making her own bag and figuring it out, then me unpicking mine, and resewing it to figure out what the instructions meant. Good luck and if you want tips on the gussets just let me know.

Am I a Hippy? - Part Two

The previous post was about making our own canvas grocery bags (hippy?). This post is about an environmental viral marketing campaign.

Over the past few months I've spent a lot of time thinking about living a more environmentally conscious and sustainable life. One of my recent topics of thought has been waste. I've been paying additional attention to the amount of junk mail we receive, the amount of papers I print at work, the amount of paper towels people use in the restroom, the amount of napkins used at restaurants, etc. I had thought of ways that I could reduce my personal consumption but I hadn't thought of any effective ways to get the word out. I was more than excite when I found a blog titled These Come From Trees. It is " An experiment in environmentalism, viral marketing, and user interface design with the goal of reducing consumer waste paper!" (from their blog header).

The "These Come From Trees" (TCFT) solution is exactly what I was looking for. It is an easy way to remind people that those 23 napkins they took (of which they will only use two and throw away the rest) came from trees or that they don't need six paper towels to dry their hands. They are reminded by a carefully placed sticker on the paper dispenser.

I can fully get behind TCFT and support what they are doing. The thing I like the most about this is it is subtle. It isn't chaining yourself to a tree or fire-bombing the paper plants. I think it will be more effective because it is speaking to the consumer, not the producer or anyone in the supply chain. If the consumer reduces their use then the producer will manufacture less and then less trees will be cut down. That is a very simplistic view and it may be viewed as naive, however, a small change in consumer usage will effect a large change higher up.

I am signing up for some stickers and will enjoy putting them up.

Am I a Hippy?

So this may be a multi-part post. I don't really think I am a hippy but a few posts may make it seem like I am.

For Christmas we received a sewing machine from Jessi's mom. My first project with the sewing machine was making canvas grocery bags. It was a fun project. I found a short how-to on the internet, bought some on-sale canvas, and away I went.

I made the first bag which was a definite learning experience for me. It had been awhile since I had sewn anything (probably since home-ec class in the 7th grade) and needless to say I was very rusty. The bag turned out far from professional but it will serve our needs.

Jess made the second bag and it is by far the best one we have. I made the third bag. This one turned out better than the first, but still isn't as good as the one Jess made.

The result, three canvas bags, all slightly different sizes. I am excited because it will significantly reduce the number of plastic grocery bags we use. I like the idea of the canvas bag because it is reuseable and will reduce waste.

Apparently I'm Spammy

It has been awhile since I have written a blog and I am glad that I logged in today. Apparently Google has bots crawling blogs now and they are flagging some that have "spam" characteristics. Mine was one of those. I had fill out a quick verification and should up and running in a couple of days.

I am curious though what part of blog resembles spam. There was a quick summary of what a "spam blog" is but I didn't read it.

More to come in about "two business days" once my blog has been reviewed.

Famous? Not Quite.

At work we feature a monthly newsletter for our email subscribers. Periodically we conduct gear tests on various types of gear. We most recently conducted a test on wool baselayers vs. synthetic baselayers. The results were pretty interesting.

I was able to participate in this test and am featured in the article (not really tooting my own horn). The article is well written and I recommend that you check it out here.

My First Whoompf-ing Experience

I went ski touring yesterday morning for the first time in probably a month. Winter here hasn't really been winter and the snowpack was just faceted crystals the whole way through. We've recently had a few, small systems come through and give us more of the good stuff.

Matt and I headed up Big Cottonwood Canyon at about 6 am. Since the avalanche danger was rated "considerable" in most areas we decided to hit up some low-angle, sheltered aspects. We started touring up Mill D to a small slope that is covered in aspens. We'd skied here before and it is a relatively safe slope. Our first run went off without a hitch. The turns were smooth and nice. The new snow was dense and provided some buttery turns.

After reaching the bottom we decided to make another lap. We skinned back up to the top of the short shot we previously hit. From there we wanted more vert so we started up an adjacent peak. Being concerned about safe travel, we quickly made our way to a ridgeline and made our way up. About halfway up the ridge become choked off by trees and deadfall. This forces us just off to the side of the ridge. We hugged the trees as close as we could and continued towards the top.

At one point the trees ended and we started making our way back up to the ridge. We were close together and in a somewhat open area when we heard a loud "Whoompf". We stopped dead in our tracks, listened intently, and looked around. The "whoompf" sound is made when one layer of snow collapses onto another layer. This is a sure sign of instabilities in the snowpack. With my heart now racing I scanned the snow to find a few small fractures that had propagated a few feet.

Avalanches can occur when a strong layer is sitting on top of a weak layer. The weak layer then fails and the strong layer comes ripping down the mountainside. When that weak layer fails, the strong layer then collapses through the weak layer and the sound you hear is "whoompf".

We quickly made the decision to spread out and get off the aspect we were on. Since Matt was breaking trail he continued while I moved back to a couple of small trees. Once Matt was on safer ground I moved up to meet him. We then proceeded, one at a time, up the ridge some more to dig a pit. We dug a quick pit and did some simple shear tests.

From here we were less then a minute from the ridgeline so we prepared to move up to it. As Matt started moving, we once again heard a loud "whoompf'. This time, however, I dropped a couple of inches. It could have been because I was standing right where we dug the pit, it could have been that I was standing on snow that was on top of bushes. Whatever the specific cause, it once again made my heart start pounding. I moved over to a large aspen, just in case, while Matt skinned to the ridge. I then quickly and very carefully joined him.

We decided our best bet for a safe ski down was to make a quick traverse over to an aspect similar to the one we had previously skied. The decision was sound and we enjoyed some very smooth, fun turns through an aspen grove back to the skin track. We skied one at a time from island of safety to island of safety. Within a couple of these short skis I had some of my best turns of the year. The last section was the longest and the best. I just happened to pick an awesome line.

After a very short and fast descent down the skin track we were back at the parking lot. It was a fun, extremely eventful, and educational morning.