Backflip

This weekend was the Adventure Summit. It’s a joint venture put on by Wright State University and Five Rivers Metro Parks. It’s a pretty neat expo sporting any and everything adventurers need to adventure in the surrounding area. Even a very prominent 5-finger shoes booth, woo!

I went with Jordan and Hind and we met up with Amy as well as Martha once we got the the venue. After grabbing some food (Quizno’s, yum!) and browsing the various booths we headin’ into the auditorium to hear Ann Bancroft speak.

Ann is quite an amazing individual. She is “one of the world’s preeminent polar explorers” with feats such as being the first woman in history to sail and ski across Antarctica (1,717 miles in 94 days) as well as being the first woman to cross the 1,000 miles of ice to reach the North Pole. Not only is she a great adventurer (as well as being a bit crazy, which she was very ready to admit) Ann is also an educator. On all her trips she takes thousands of kids from around the world on her journeys. They follow her and track her progress as well as integrate her journey into their lessons. It’s pretty neat.

Hearing Ann speak was pretty motivating. She told of the great struggles she went through to accomplish her goals. Whether it was pulling the 250 pound sleds across Antarctica, training for years to go on these expeditions or enduring -80 degree temperature she persevered and was able to obtain that which she desired. One amazing quote that I’m going to paraphrase. She said that on some days she was exhausted and hungry and ready to quit. On those days she could only think of how she chose to be in that situation but that there are millions of people around the world that are living that way and have no choice.

Another great story was one in which she and a friend started off on a journey with their usual following of thousands of kids only to run into a nasty case of frostbite making them abort the mission. Her friend ended up losing toes over the ordeal and Ann was very depressed that all the planning and training had been for naught. However the school children following their progress responded quite amazingly. Instead of seeing a failure, they saw a courageous effort. A glorious try. Stating that many times in life people just don’t even give an idea or a person a chance. Giving up before the battle has even begun. The fact that Ann and her friend tried to go on the journey was an amazing feat in itself. Even if the expedition was cut short, they still gave it a go which is quite admirable.

This is such a big deal for me because many times my life is ruled by fear. Mostly fear of failing. When I listen to my fear I miss out on a lot of experiences all because I’m not willing to give them a try. In all reality, this is no way to live life. Yeah, I could find a safe place and just hide there for the rest of life (first thing that comes to mind is a prison cell) but that wouldn’t really be living.  I am prone to opting out of opportunities and adventures due to my fear. Ann’s speach was particularly inspiring because she actively overcomes her fears in the face of overwhelming circumstances. Yes, I will fail. I am not perfect. The sooner I realize this the better.

In the spirit of conquering fears, I have recently purchased a ticket to Hong Kong. Jordan and I are going over to see Whitney and to find adventure in China. It’s pretty far away, a whole new culture, language, people, and while all those things are scary I’m gonna go for it and see what happens. We fly out at the end of March so it’s a bit away. But the tickets are purchased, my passport is valid and I’m goin.

This past weekend I had the joy (yes, joy!) of visiting IKEA. Dan, Jordan and I headed down to the one in Cincy on Sunday. For those of you who don’t know, IKEA is pretty much the best furniture store EVER! The store is setup in such a fashion that to get through the store you follow a set path that takes you through different rooms and mini-apartments. It allows ya to sit, lay, nap, move, test all the furniture before you purchase it and they even give some great ideas as to how to maximize space. Also their stuff is usually relatively inexpensive since the purchaser puts the items together themselves. This is great because I save a little money and I get to put it together which is fun. I’m a big fan (if you couldn’t tell).

This past weekend I picked up some small items, a few planting pots, a few desk lights and some power strips. Dan was makin’ the big purchase and he settled on a black coffee table called a BENNO. We are using it for an entertainment center for our sound system and computer monitor (used to watch movies) as well as some DVD and CD storage. I have to say, it looks amazing. It really fits in the space nicely and is pretty sweet. This seems to be par for the course when purchasing items from IKEA. They always seem to work out just right.

I highly recommend the store. It’s awesome.

After IKEA we stopped at a Chipotle that was conveniently located nearby. Speaking of food and IKEA, if we didn’t want to eat some delicious Chipotle we could have feasted on the bountiful cafeteria inside the IKEA store. This way customers can avoid the “Shop till you drop” mentality and actually get some sustenance during their shopping, which is a great idea. Back to Chipotle, I tried some of Dan guacamole and I must say it wasn’t what I expected. I actually liked it. Although it’s hard to say, I’m starting to think the absence of Queso at Chipotle is a good thing. They do provide valid alternatives.

Now that I’m soon to be rich from all the money I’m gettin’ for advertising I’d like to take a sec to talk about budgeting.

I was talking to Esther this past weekend and she mentioned she dutifully creates a budget and follows it. I find this to be quite amazing. I’ve tried budgeting in the past but only lasted about a month before I got lazy and gave up. I even have budgeting software on my computer (Quicken) that makes it easy to do. So I don’t have a good excuse.

As a result of hearing Esther’s success story, I’m gonna create a new budget and stick to it for a month. I know I can do this (I’ve done it once before) and I’m hoping that by setting short term goals I will not get discouraged. At the end of a month I’ll try it for another month, etc. This budget will help me know where my money is going (I have a general idea but like to not think about it) and will hopefully help me spend it in a more efficient manner. For starters I know this will mean eating out a lot less. I’ve gotten into the habit of eating out for lunch everyday and while it is tasty it’s not the most healthy or cost effective route.

Hats off to Esther and her budget, it helps to see that it is possible and quite beneficial to create and follow a plan. I hope that by “publicly” stating I’m gonna budget I’ll be motivated and held accountable to stick to it.

Any of you on a budget? Or any advice that would be helpful? I’m thinkin’ off the top of my head Entertainment will be about 80% of my budget. Haha. Who said budgeting wasn’t fun? This is gonna be great.

This past weekend was my Mom’s birthday (which is actually today, Happy Birthday Mom!) and while I won’t spill the beans on her age I can tell you that I had a great time (and I hope she did too). The whole fam – Mom, Dad, Drew, Lis, Brian and I – went to Marion’s pizza down in Centerville to gobble up some amazingly good pizza. After that it was off to some browsing in Barnes and Noble followed up by a hike in Cox Arboretum. While headin’ home after the hike we decided to stop in at Graeter’s and pick up some ice cream. I was surprised to discover Graeter’s has pretzel cones. I had one and was quite pleased with the result. It adds a touch of salty goodness. It was a great way to spend the afternoon with the family in celebration of my Mom (not your mom).

Sunday marked the Magic the Gathering (MTG) Release Tournament (they are releasing new cards called Conflux). This was essentially the same set-up as the Pre-release event I participated in last weekend. We got decks of sealed cards, created our own deck then played other players. I did decently ending up with a 2-3 record and a MTG poster as a prize. I think I was somewhere around 20 (again) out of 36. I would have liked to win a few more but I can’t complain, all my opponents have been playing longer then I so I am happy to have pulled out 2 wins. Something that really helped was having Glenn go through my deck and make changes. That put me in a much better position to win. Speaking of Glenn and winning it turns out he won the whole tournament which was pretty sweet. Congrats man.

On the topic of Magic the Gathering I am somewhat torn. There is no doubt I enjoy playing the game. It is so complex and changes so quickly that it is always new and exciting to play. However, MTG players get a pretty terrible reputation. What’s the first thing you think about when someone brings up Magic the Gathering? If it’s not, “What is that?” Then it’s probably an image of a nerdy, socially awkward individual playing cards. While I agree there are a good number of people who play who might fit that description, it doesn’t make sense (to me) that the game itself should get such a reputation. Heck, there are tons of pro-athletes who are criminals and thugs and whatnot but their sports don’t get bad reps.

I’m struggling with the fact that I like playing the game but that society has a bad perception of the game. MTG is the brunt of many a nerd joke and the whole game seems to be looked down upon. I know I shouldn’t care what other people think but it’s pretty impossible to be immune to other people.

One example of my struggle with playing was made clear to me when a friend from school (Nate) asked if I would play MTG during lunch at work. Once I thought about it a bit I came to the realization that I would definitely play “socially acceptable” card games such as Euchre or Poker while at lunch but would be pretty reluctant to play Magic because of what other people would think.

Like I said, I greatly enjoy the game and highly recommend it. However it gets such a bad rap that it’s saddening.  I doubt I can do anything to change societal views but it seems a great injustice to have an excellent game be passed by due to social perceptions. I feel like I’m being pushed out of doing something I enjoy and don’t know how to handle it.

Whew, what a fun weekend. It was both exciting/adventurous and relaxing at the same time.

Friday was my last day on the NCR: Testing Automation project. I had been dedicating 20 hours for a few months, it was a good project. After dropping off my NCR computer I had dinner over at my parents (yum!). I love eating at their house because I love my parents and because that means I don’t have to do any cooking. Sometimes it seems fruitless to spend a bunch of time making something just to turn around and eat it. But I didn’t have to on Friday since my Mom cooked a great meal (thanks Mom!). After dinner I finished a book at home (Fred Saberhagen: Book of Swords) which was decent and then headed to Night Sky (NS). NS is a cozy little local coffee shop that also serves food. Bob, Matt, Dan, Jordan and I hung out for quite a bit and exercised our debate skills a bit. Even though it is winter I really felt like gettin’ a milk shake. It was great. Once we had enough of debating we headed over to Matt and Bob’s place to watch some Office. It was a fun night.

On Saturday I ran some errands, got a haircut and headed down to Dayton for my first ever Magic the Gathering (MTG) Pre-release Tournament. For those of you unfamiliar with MTG it’s a strategy card game that has layers upon layers of complexity. Needless to say it is very engaging and very fun. When I was younger I had a “starter deck” but never got around to learning how to play. Not till recently did I start learning from Glenn “da master”. Saturday was my first time playing competitively. I was a bit nervous since I didn’t want to look like a noob but my excitement overcame my nervousness which was good. Not to get into too much detail but each participant (I think there were about 49 people in the tournament) was given 6 packs (think baseball card packs) of Magic cards. We then had an hour or so to create a deck (of 40 cards) that we would use in the competition. Once everyone had their decks we had 6 matches with each match consisting of the best out of 3 games or 50 min (whichever came first).

My first match was against Peter who kept telling me I had a great deck and that his was no good as he promptly beat me 2-0. Thankfully he took a look at my deck and suggested some improvements which really helped me out later in the day (thanks Pete). After that match I quickly lost my next 2 matches. This brought my games record to 1-6. I was feelin’ a bit down but I didn’t expect to win (with it being my first tournament and all) so I was still having fun. On my 4th match I got a bye (automatic win) and then I won my 5th and 6th matches which brought me up to a 3-3 match score and a game score of 7-7. Surprisingly that was good enough to land me in 20th place and I even got a prize which was pretty neat. Everyone also gets to keep the cards they used in the tournament. It was a pretty neat experience. It was a bit long (started at 12 and lasted till 8) and I had a bit of a headache afterwards from strategizing (at least attempting to) all day. But it was completely worth it. I’d highly recommend the game for all you strategy gamers out there.

The rest of the night was spent giving my mind a break and chilling at home.

Sunday was the Superbowl which I watched with a bunch of people out at the church. It was pretty neat since everyone brought food and my parents cooked some more food for me so I didn’t have to worry about any of that (thanks again Mom & Dad). The Superbowl itself was pretty disappointing. I wasn’t rooting for either team and was there to watch the commercials. However this years commercials were quite shocking and crude. It seemed like every other one was some perverted joke or a half nude person. I was quite surprised. Perhaps commercials are always this way but not having a TV I’m not exposed to them on a regular basis so I’m not sure. It’s pretty sad to think that possibly the most watched televised event, the height of marketing with companies pulling out all the stops all boils down to a perverted, sexual ad that usually has nothing to do with the product. For shame!

I do admit that there were a number of good commercials in the bunch but these were greatly outweighed by the crusty ones.

All in all it was a great weekend. O, I almost forgot to mention. The weather on Sunday was simply amazing. It was around 40 degrees with the sun shining but snow everywhere. Best of winter and spring in one day. So good!