Tragedy in the climbing world

This past week I was sad to hear a good friend of mine had fallen to his death in Yosemite. Although I had only climbed with Todd on a handful of occassions, everytime was a great experience and I learned a lot from him. Todd was always full of fun and conversation that keep everyone in the group laughing for the whole day. I knew Todd when I lived and climbed up in Montana and would see him when he would come through Missoula, usually on his way back to Lander, Wyoming. We would go out to one of the canyons and spend the day climbing as many routes as possible and all of us would be eager to hear what his latest stories were. And he had a ton of them. It never seemed like there was an end to the 85% turth's he would tell.

I was very sad to hear about the accident in Yosemite and of course that he has left behind his wife and 3 little kids. That is never something you want to hear about. The funeral took place this past weekend up in Lander and there was a large amount of climbers and friends who made the journey up to Lander from Boulder and other various places. Todd was honored by many fellow climbers and will always be remembered for his great heart and soul that he put into all his endeavors, whether they were climbing related or not. My thoughts go out to his family during this rough time.

With this event, it makes me think about how simple activities can sometimes lead to such tragic endings. I do not believe you should go through life trying to always avoid all activities that are dangerous and still feel like you are living a fulfilled life. All you can do is try and limit the danger in the activitiy and keep a clear head when performing the activity. What happened to Todd was bad luck in the end but something that should have been avoded. It is sad to have to deal with things like this but then Todd led his life the way he wanted and thankfully was doing the activity he loved most when he died.

choices, choices, choices

This week has been another of direction, or lack of it seems. Sometimes having too many choices on the table causes you to loose direction and you find yourself standing still. This has been my week. I have found that sometimes having limited choices makes you truly commit to one idea and work on it 100%. You have to make the idea work no matter the bumps you encounter along the way. It is easier just to drop what you are working on and go the other direction even when you know you need to stick it out with the original idea.Too many choices = no commitment.

Now I am not saying you shouldnt sometimes count your loses and move on but when you have lots of new opportunites going on, you sometimes miss out on the right choice as you are too cluttered with a host of different choices. Decision = commit.

Time to make a choice and go with it. Life is short, if you spend too much time thinking without taking action, it is going to pass you by. Easy to say, hard to do.

Cyclings woes

The sport of cycling is going through a lot of changes these days, not all of them good or presented to the public in the right manner. I read through most of the cycling new sites early in the morning just to keep track of what is going on. Every time I read through them I realize more and more how connected we are to the rest of the worlds obscure news if you have access to the internet. Those without connectivity are pretty limited to reading one source for their news and then forming an opinion. This is the part that is causing a lot of grief to both cycling and other sports.

Cycling has been in the news as of late over the continual doping 'scandals' that have hit the winner of the Tour de France and many other large cycling figures. Without proper news and facts presentation to the public, the public is left to form their opinions on the national news circuit. Which, always seems to have a formed opinion in their own articles.

When the winner of the Tour de France, Floyd Landis, was show to have an excess of testosterone in his blood stream the news was immediately leaked to the nation news circuit. This was out of the procedure standard that both the lab and the UCI had put in place. Did either one of these organizations quickly put out a message stating that this news was an improper leak or that the rider should be given his due rights to wait for his second sample to be tested before any news was released? No. The organizations quickly had their own opinions despite the lack of facts and not having the seconds sample tested. Let the wolves run in.

What I learned from reading all of this is that no matter who writes the article, expert or not, each reader needs to question the facts and try and read as many counter point articles before quickly jumping to an assumption. There is always two sides to a story and unless you know both you are going to come away as lacking the relevant information to openly state your opinion to others.

With technology there is always a rush into new applications and ideas, often before all the relevant information has been researched. Anything new needs time to grow and throwing in un-informed opinions into the mix might only stifle the growth of the new idea or business. Sit back, read as much as possible and then state a solidly back case as to why the new idea/business is a valid one or not. Anything less is not worth your time.

More ideas

Been a long time since I put something up here but I am going to take another shot at it. I have been working on a new idea that has to do with some new technology that has just gone through the FCC and been approved. Now it is a rush to get all the bits of technology working together. Trying to get a finished product is one thing, getting the applications written that will go on the hardware is another.
I have been reading and reading more on the current technology and trying to find out if there has been any other companies or people who are doing the same things. Seems like there is a good start of people trying ideas that all skim the outlying circle but none have bentured into the large idea. I think with this idea, once you have written the initial applicaiton, you are going to see all the other possiblities that are available or needed in the communities.
I have always been more involved and interested in the software and internet companies as it seems like a more attainable idea path and something I have been involved with since I started working in technology, so this new idea that is more product and hardware based is taking a little time to get a handle one. So it is RFP's and product bios for me this month.
Off to the book store for more reading.