2011 Review

Travel

2011 started in Oklahoma City with Ray and one of his friends for his tradition of visiting a new place on New Years. We had a great time on som electric go carts.

SNOWCON was so much fun and I got to meet a bunch of Atlanta people for the first time. I can't wait to come down and hang out with them again. OCON was a blast even though it was smaller and less people were there. Chicago Mini-Con was also a load of fun and I really enjoyed hanging out with Earl, Jason and a bunch of the Chicago folks.

Went to Michigan a few times, like for a wedding, ChicagoCon and Thanksgiving.

My first Cruise ever was down to the Bahamas. I had such a great time and I can't possibly summarize how awesome it was.

Work trips included: St. Louis, Ft. Bragg, Kings Point,

Work

January I jumped right into a short deployment and the work drama that comes with it. I accomplished enough to get an award, but not as much as I wanted to. Took on a new position as Technical Director and I've been learning the ropes. Completed two major revisions to the software we develop. Hired as well as trained some very bright new folks.

Got my MCITP certifications (EA and SA). Renewed my CISSP.

Fitness

Started the year by stopping cross fit. I was enjoying it only sometimes. I noticed that on met-con days that my sleep was seriously disturbed and it would take me a week or more to recover. I also started rock climbing after a date took me there and fell in love with it. I've been belay certified and have taken most of my friends there at least once to see how much fun it is. I also took a Lead Belay class and will probably take the test in spring 2012. I look forward to some outdoor climbing in 2012.

I also started a 100 pushup challenge and while I've stalled in recent weeks due to my old shoulder injury, I expect to have 100 in a row under my belt by my birthday.

Also picked up Snowboarding!

Relationships

I feel a lot closer to my CCOS friends. We have a great group now. There was even some romance between some members, which didn't work out but was still fun to see. I had my first serious relationship in a long time, which also sort of halted quickly. I have been working hard expanding my social circles and have met a lot of cool people climbing and online. Went on a cruise with a friend who I now count as one of my closest (and probably youngest) friend. There have been some frustrations and tears in 2011. Those were worth it for the insights into what I want in a romance and in friendship.

Etc.

Bought a motorocycle after taking the safety class. Passed the MVA test after a failed attempt with a non-english speaking tester.

Stretch Goals

In the last few months I've found a new obsession -- rock climbing. I randomly met someone online and one of the first activities we did together was to visit EarthTreks in Columbia. I am really looking forward to getting good enough to boulder and climb outdoors, perhaps by the end of this summer early far and defiantly by next year taking on some sport/lead climbing.

Thanks to the introduction to climbing class and the great help of my new climbing friends Vince, Neta and Mike, I've seen some tremendous improvements in the difficulty I can complete at the gym. My grip is improving and I've went from not being able to do any pull-ups, even after working on it in crossfit last year, to being able to do 5 pull-ups without any difficulty.

Climbing has exposed a bunch of things I didn't know about myself. First, this is a physical activity that is very taxing that I LOVE doing. That is new for me. I like the body composition improvements and upper body mass gains I've seen which is probably more due to being a beginner than anything else. I also have noticed just who inflexible I am, especially in my legs, which is funny since those are by far my strongest and largest muscles. I've started learning what I can about flexibility and stretching.

There are lots of different ways to stretch. I found a great explanation of the different types of stretching and which ones can improve what kinds of flexibility. The most effective kind of stretching for static-passive flexibility (the kind I need to improve for climbing) is PNF. "PNF is an acronym for proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation. It is not really a type of stretching but is a technique of combining passive stretching (see section Passive Stretching) and isometric stretching (see section Isometric Stretching) in order to achieve maximum static flexibility." (see link above). This is the kind of stretching my massage therapist and cross fit coach had both tried to explain to me. I know I get it a lot better after reading about it so I'm going to try to mix it in to my workouts.