This may not seem like a big deal to a lot of people, but to me I was able to finally accomplish something I have wanted to do ever since I was in high school. Today I went snowboarding. After quite a few years of winters coming and going without ever getting out on the slopes, I decided this was the year it was going to happen. To help motivate myself, I picked a board and bindings set at a Black Friday sale. I found out my friend Kim was taking a beginners class at Black Mountain in Jackson, NH this weekend. She was nice enough to let me tag along. So this morning I made the almost three-hour drive up from Boston.
Three of us had an hour and a half lesson with a couple of really attentive instructors. In the back of my mind I had hoped that the bit of athleticism I have garnered from playing hockey would immediately make me awesome at this. Sadly that was the opposite of what happened. My training as a hockey goalie keeps me balanced on the front of my feed. This doesn’t work so well on a snowboard, the first half of the class I couldn’t manage to stay on my heels resulting in several head first tumbles when I caught my toe edge.
Since I couldn’t “get it”, one of the instructors spent most of the time working with me one on one. He was super encouraging and did his best to help me figure things out. Towards the end of the class I was finally able to complete a few runs down the hill without falling on my face or ass.
We took a break for lunch and beers. Afterwards, I went back out and did a few more runs, but was pretty much exhausted from earlier. So I headed home shortly there after. All in all it was a very fun day and a good introduction to the sport. Hopefully with a few more days on the slopes, and probably some more lessons, I will get the hang of this. Here’s a few more pictures from today.
The Mayans were wrong and the world didn’t end in 2012. Well actually they never said that it would end, but everybody else said that they said that. It doesn’t matter though, we all woke on up Dec 22nd, 2012 and it was just another new day. So we could go on with our lives close the books on 2012 and start looking at what we want to do with the next 365 days of our existence (should we be granted them all). I do have to say there were some pretty funny images and what not to come out of all of this end of the world nonsense. This one being my favorite:
Anyways, so way back early last year I set some goals for the year – like you do. To recap, in my naivety I said I’d shoot for the following:
Be more thoughtful when making important decisions – I’d like to think I nailed this for the most part
Continue to improve and expand on my professional skill set. (I want to be a Ruby on Rails ninja!) – Ninja? No. Slightly more proficient? Yes!
Launch and continue to build Collctr.com into a successful business – Somebody beat me to it. Good luck to them!
Blog more, both personally and professionally – Not so much
Develop at least one iPhone app – I developed one… from a tutorial… does that count?
Take a trip someplace fun with the wife – Check! We were up and down the New England coast line!
Live healthier (with a wife like mine, that’s almost guaranteed!) – Did pretty well for a while, major fail at the end of the year though
Try and be happy every day – Lots of ups and downs. Probably more ups though so that’s winning.
In my defense, we did up-root our lives and move half way across the country at the start. That does tend to slightly alter any plans one may have set for one’s self. For 2013 I think I’m going to be a bit more concise and realistic. So here goes!
2013, Lets do this!
In 2012 I went a little spend crazy on my toy collecting hobby. 2013 will bring fiscal responsibility.
Also in 2012 I kind of let my goal of not being a fat-ass go by the wayside. I shall right that ship.
Actually finish a personal project. Time to rein in this project ADHD and actually finish one. Milkcap Museum, I’m looking at you!
Finally, I’d like to spend more time outdoors. New England is beautiful, I must have more! Starting with finally learning to snowboard this month.
Some Neat New Apps to Help
I’ve seen a few roundups for “New Apps for the New Year” or the link. I’m currently evaluating a few that I find pretty interesting.
Lift for iOS
Lift is an app for setting good habits. You choose or create some habits you wish to accomplish, and you check off everyday that you do them. It keeps track of streaks and reminds you to work on meeting your goals. It’s available for free in the app store. Check out Lift.do
Everest for iOS
With Everest you keep track of your progress towards dreams or larger long term goals. It allows you to set and check off steps to accomplish along the way. In addition it has some built in challenges like learning to meditate. It’s also available for free in the app store. Everest.com
Others Worth Mentioning – Yoga Studio and Relax+
Yoga Studio is a paid app, but is essentially a series of Yoga Classes on your iPhone. I’ve downloaded this but haven’t tried it yet. Though it looks promising. http://yogastudioapp.com/
Relax+ is a free relaxation helper app. Through a combination of assisted meditaiton and music, the idea is to help you destress and relax. This is another promising app, that I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet. Get it on iTunes
Since moving to New England last February, I’ve quickly discovered and have grown fond of Maine. Dani and I have taken several trips up there over the past 9 months. We’ve visited Camden, our friend’s rural lake house in Monmouth, and had also took several trips to the Wells / Ogunquit area. This past Saturday we spent a lovely Saturday afternoon in Ogunquit. Since it’s the end of the season, we were expecting a quiet weekend. So we were a bit surprised when we found ourselves in the middle of a busy Octoberfest weekend. After enjoying a delicious lunch at Cornerstone Pizza, we walked around for a bit, eventually making our way across the bridge to the beach. Holy crap was the tide in! We had never seen the water as high or the waves as large there as they were on Saturday. Below are some pictures we took and a video showing just how beautiful the ocean was!
Ever since I was young, I’ve had a bit of an obsession with toys. Especially action figures. Being a child of the 80’s I grew up with the like of He-Man and She-Ra, Ghostbusters, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Thundercats, Silverhawks, GI Joe, and Voltron to name but a very few. I’ve always been pretty creative. I was constantly drawing and building things when I was a kid. I think the combination of my love for these characters along with a deep appreciation for the artistry of sculpting articulated action figures and other toys has completely rekindled my love for these toys as an adult. Now that we have moved into our own place just outside of Boston, the wife has reluctantly allowed me to display parts of my collection. Currently I have about 70% of my modern and vintage toys set up around the apartment. I’m excited to share some pictures of the displays here.
There are a few lines I seriously collect, and others I casually collect. The largest chunk of my collection is taken up by the various Masters of the Universe lines. This includes the ongoing Mattel Masters of the Universe Classics Collectors Line. I’m a current and future subscriber to Club Eternia. Here are some counts of what I have verses the totals for each line.
Vintage MOTU Figure/Vehicles: 69 of 121 Vintage Princess of Power: 10 of 60 He-Man New Adventures: 9 of 41 Modern (200x) MOTU: 52 of 90 MOTU Classics: 84 of 98 as of the time of this post. NECA MOTU Stactions: 5 of 18
You may also notice in the pictures above, I am a proud owner of a 99% complete vintage MOTU Eternia playset. I’ve got nearly all the parts, the manuals, mini-comic AND THE FREAKING ORIGINAL GIANT BOX! I LOVE this set and can’t wait to get a table set up to display it. It’s huge – notice how it’s almost as tall as the chair back!
Some of the other lines I collect are the vintage LGN Thundercats, Diamond Collectables Stargate SG1 and Atlantis, Mattel’s DC Universe Classics (I’m a sucker for the build a figure concept), Bucky O’hare, and vintage and Modern Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Thundercats: 13 of 63 Stargate: 6 of ?? DC Universe Classics (single wave figures): 49 of 158 Bucky O’Hare: 7 of 12 TMNT Vintage: 74 of 262 TMNT Modern (2012): 14 of 14
There’s also a few other random toys and such scattered around in on shelves and boxes. As you can tell it’s a hobby I really enjoy! I’m heading to New York Comic Con in a couple of weeks. I’m hoping to fill some of the holes left in my collection.
Since the wife and I moved to Boston, I’ve been fortunate to quickly find quite a bit of hockey to play. Since I’ve been here I think I’ve skated about 2-3 times per week on average. I found this great hockey [company/group/organization/not sure what you call it] called StinkySocks hockey. I signed up to skate out for a short, late winter, session and through that have started to make new connections and meet new hockey friends. Everyone has been super nice, and since then I’ve been invited to play in a couple different tournaments. My first Boston area tourny of the spring was one called the “April Showers”. It’s a 30 and over tournament put on by NEWHL in Acton/Concord. That weekend, I played goal for a team called MOEs (Mothers on Edge). It wasn’t my best showing, but we came away 1-2 with a shutout for my win. Despite the losses, we still had a great time.
The second and most recent tournament was this past weekend down in Walpole. It was called the AOK tournament and raised money to help fight breast cancer (a cause I can always get behind). I skated out on defense for a team called Shazam. Unfortunately, we came away with the same record as my previous tournament. All three games were super close (win or loss by one goal). The highlight for me, other than having a super fun hockey weekend, was actually scoring a goal. This is something that very rarely happens for me. but I managed to blast in a slap shot from the point. Woo! We lost that game, and the next, but we finally found our groove and pulled out a win in our final game. Thanks to all the Shazamers for having me on!
So two impromptu tournaments down, and one more scheduled. My friends from the Chicago Gay Hockey Association asked me to play goal for them in the upcoming Boston Beanpot Classic. I’m looking forward to seeing them and competing at a higher level here in Boston.
I’ve had two huge location changes in my life that I can remember. The first was when I moved to Florida in 2005, and then when I moved back to Illinois in 2008. In three weeks I will embark on the third great move of my life. The wife and I are pulling up stakes, hitching up the wagon and heading east. Back to Dani’s home town of Boston, Mass. It’s been a great three and a half years in good old Chi-town. I’ve made some great, hopefully lasting, friendships. I met my the woman who would eventually become my wife. I saw my first Cubs, Bulls, White Sox, and Blackhawks games live. I tore a chunk of my meniscus and had my right knee scoped. And I’ve played some really great hockey. I thought I’d share a few of my memories about Chicago here.
For a good part of 2009 I had one of the most trying parts of my stay in Chicago. It was during this time I took a freelancer job through an agency with United Airlines. The job was fine, and for the most part I enjoyed the people I worked with. The pain of the situation was the reverse commute from the city to the north west suburbs. Anyone who has ever had the misfortune of having to drive in or out of Chicago in rush hour would relate. In the mornings it would typically only take around 45 minutes to get out to the facility. However coming back into the city at 5pm was a nightmare. A good day I would get home in 75 minutes or so. On a bad day, like during a cubs night game, it would easily breach two hours. This went on for an entire year of my life. I for sure will not miss the Chicago traffic. Though I’ve not heard great things about Boston’s traffic either.
Another great memory from Chicago was my 30th birthday. It wasn’t a huge ordeal. No big drunken stories, but to me it was memorable. A good group of some of my favorite people from Chicago were kind enough to travel out to Benihana’s in Schaumburg to celebrate with me. The picture they took of us all will be one I’ll hang on to for a long time to come.
And then there is the hockey. Before I moved here I had never seen my favorite hockey team play in person aside from half a game in Carolina once. I still remember my first game seeing the Blackhawks play at the United Center. I’ve been to many games since then, and I still never take them for granted. I’m like a little kid every time the crowd starts the roar during the national anthem. But I will leave Chicago knowing that I was able to be here when they hoisted their first Stanley Cup in so many years. I went downtown and found myself chasing the victory parade down the street like a fool. I was there at the UC when they raised the banner to the rafters. This is not only a favorite Chicago moment, but one of the most amazing moments of my life period.
But not to let the Blackhawks have all the glory, I’ve had my fair share of success playing puck in the windy city. A couple years ago I played in the first hockey tournament I had been to in ages. A great group of guys that I knew from Elgin invited me to come along with them and play at a USA hockey tournament just outside Kansas City. The hockey was fun and we dominated, obviously. But the trip out there and back and hanging with those guys was part of the trip that was the most fun. Even though I haven’t skated with them in quite a while, I’ll still miss playing with that group.
And then I met the Monday night hockey / X-Factor group. The ladies became my hockey family in Chicago. We would meet almost every Monday night and skate for a couple hours. Sometimes it was really great hockey, others it was bad. But it didn’t seem to matter as I always looked forward to going every week. The cooler full of beer and treats Diane would bring every week definitely did not hurt that enthusiasm. And Sam always made sure we had a fabulous soundtrack to skate to. Some nights there was more dancing on the ice than shots on goal. The Monday night hockey ritual will be one of the things I miss most about leaving Chicago.
There are so many other good memories I will leave here with. Almost too many to name. There was the trip I took to Los Angeles with Kerry and Tesh. The Hall and Oats concert at the Chicago theatre. Playing ice hockey outdoors for the first time. That time we ran into the cast of Super Troopers at the Lakeshore Theatre. Skating with Ryan Dempster at the ice rink at Wrigley Field. My 29th birthday spent watching Elton John and Billy Joel perform together in the middle of Wrigley Field. We had some ridiculously silly drunken times hanging out with the John Marshall crowd at the Plymouth downtown. The comicons, and the nerf gun battles. Sailing lessons on lake Michigan. Taking the dogs on long walks through the parks. And so many other great memories. Chicago, you will be tough to leave and I’m sure I will miss you and your fine people immensely. But I am ready and excited for a new adventure. And not to worry, I’ll be back from time to time. You can count on that.
So another year has come and gone and we being anew. I started last year on this blog laying out some of my goals for the coming year so I could look back and see how many of them I accomplished. Last year I set the following as my goals for 2011.
Loose 30-40lbs by Hawaii trip in November (I dropped around 10)
Complete a triathlon (Ran a half marathon instead)
Learn to Ski/Snowboard (Never got to it)
Complete all four quarters of school with A’s in all classes. (Mostly A’s, a couple B’s)
Drink more water (Didn’t do it)
Go sailing twice a month in the summer (Didn’t sail once this summer – super disappointing)
Make more time for my family (As much as I could)
Save Save Save (Ummm… )
Eliminate all non-student debt (Some of it)
Learn to do front & side splits (Didn’t get there)
Amazingly enough I really failed to accomplished all but one of them. Sure I made progress towards several of them, but I can’t say I definitively reached any of them other than the spending more time with the family. And that one is pretty hard to quantitatively prove. 2011 was a strange year for me. Not much of it really went like I expected it to. I guess that’s ok though. A lot of great stuff happened, as well as a lot of not so great stuff.
Highlights from 2011 include…
Getting my freelance business, 1980 Creative Media LLC, legit and off the ground.
An amazing honeymoon in Hawaii with the wife.
I ran a freaking half marathon
Countless awesome moments with friends and family… spent just enjoying life and each other.
Now’s the time when people are supposed to set their goals for the year to come. With not really making good on last years extensive list, I am hesitant to even create one for 2012. Alas, I am a sucker for traditions. So here we go…
Be more thoughtful when making important decisions
Continue to improve and expand on my professional skill set. (I want to be a Ruby on Rails ninja!)
Launch and continue to build Collctr.com into a successful business
Blog more, both personally and professionally
Develop at least one iPhone app
Take a trip someplace fun with the wife
Live healthier (with a wife like mine, that’s almost guaranteed!)
Try and be happy every day
I have high hopes for the coming year. I know some big changes are in already in the works and I am ready for the adventures to come! Happy New Year… I wish nothing but the best to everyone for the future.
I had hockey practice tonight. Coming off a week where I felt I have played some of my best hockey in a long time, I had a moment of self-realization tonight in which I saw how my confidence enhanced my performance. Not stopping a shot wasn’t a possibility that crossed my mind. I literally feel like I have the skills to make every single save necessary. Did I stop every shot? Not at all. But I think I stopped every shot that I should have, and quite a few that I probably shouldn’t have been able to.
Jim Taylor Ph.D. and specialist in the psychology of sport at the University of Denver calls this “Prime Confidence”. “Prime confidence is a deep, lasting, and resilient belief in one’s ability.” I think it’s why I always get excited for challenges. I love playing against teams that I know are really good. I love testing myself against the best. Even when you lose to the best, it still has confidence building effects. You can look back on those one or two amazing stops you pulled out of your ass to get yourself pumped for the next game. And losing makes you just want that next win all the more.
I am a pretty competitive person by nature. I don’t like to lose. That’s not to say I’m a bad loser, it’s just that I like wins – small or large. So I am working on taking the lessons I’ve learned in being confident from playing hockey and attempting to apply them to my professional life as well. I am already an accomplished web designer and developer with quite a bit of experience. But like you have to train in sports to get better, I am working to take my skills to the next level. I know the type of job I want and I am going to work my ass off until I get it. I’ll have to be ready to go up against the best. But I will win that new position. I’m confident. I’ve got a lot to offer. I’m Tori.
A year ago after Dani and I got married, we decided to wait to take our honeymoon until this fall. We talked about a few different options… Europe, Mexico, maybe Costa Rica. I really wanted to visit Hawaii. So I searched online and eventually found a travel package that we could afford. We spent an amazing week on the island of Oahu at the Aston, Waikiki. Before I get into the details of the trip, I have a confession to make. I fell completely in love with Hawaii. Everything about the place really resonated with me. It’s beautiful. The weather is fantastic. The people are friendly. The Hawaiian culture is awesome. I love the “hang loose” attitude so many people there enjoy. There doesn’t seem to be the rush and hustle there. I loved how they hang on to so much of the customs and language of the native islanders. It’s just so much fun. I want to go back. I would love to live there at some point. I’m using it as motivation for my businesses. I want to be successful so I can create the opportunities for my family to experience Hawaii in the future. And I am going to incorporate as much of the island culture into my everyday life as possible – starting with my business.
Anywhoose, lets get back to the trip shall we…
We spent six full days on the island, so we were able to do quite a bit. The first couple days we did a lot of relaxing. We spend some time at the beach, explored the Waikiki area, and treated ourselves to a lomi lomi massage. The following three days we had arranged for some excursions through an activities desk in the hotel. Monday morning was our first trip. We boarded a tour bus and were taken over to Pearl Harbor to view the USS Arizona memorial and tour the Battleship Missouri which is moored in that harbor. We also got a special treat as we saw the USS Makin Island LDH-8 come into port while we were there. I’ve heard time and time again how humbling an experience visiting the USS Arizona memorial is. It was so much more powerful than I expected. Both Dani and I were happy that we were able to visit and better understand that incredible bit of history.
The next day, our second excursion took us to an “authentic” Hawaiian luau. There are a few different large luau productions on the island. After going over them, we settled on what many considered one of the best, Germaine’s Luau. It’s kind of like a big dinner slash picnic slash show. They had a large buffet of traditional and more modern hawaiian foods. The food was absolutely ono (Hawaiian word for delicious). The show was a lot of fun too. They show cased dancing styles from a variety of different islands including Hawaii, Tahiti, and others. There’s a video of some of the dancing following the pictures.
Our final big excursion was probably my favorite experience of the trip. We signed up for a morning dolphin cruise and snorkeling adventure. Neither Dani nor I had ever gone snorkeling before, so we were both very excited to try it out. The trip wound up being more than either one of us expected. After setting sail, we traveled out of the harbor where we saw the Black Pearl ship from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie sitting in dry dock. After about 15 minutes or so, we found a pod of about 30 bottle nose dolphins swimming by. We followed them for about 30 minutes watching them swim around and one of them even jumped out of the water. Soon after we found a stop to moor the boat about half a mile out. They set us up with gear, a bit of instruction and we got in the water. Wow, it was like swimming in a giant salt water aquarium. Right away we were surrounded by beautiful tropical fish swimming through the reefs, and four beautiful green sea turtles just hanging out. One of them came up for air directly in front of me, it was just unbelievable! After what seemed like the quickest hour ever, we were back on the boat for a nice lunch and a couple mai tais. We had a photographer there with us to capture everything, so I will share those photos here.
The rest of the time on the island we did some exploring. We drove up to the north shore – which I can honestly say is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. There is a beach up there where Hawaiian green sea turtles always come to. So we stopped there for a bit. We also took a hike to the top of the diamond head crater, which provided ridiculous views of the island. Driving up the eastern coast of the island the scenery was beautiful. We even spotted a location we recognized from the tv show Lost. And finally, I was able to do something I had always wanted to do… attempt to surf. I took a lesson down on Waikiki beach. Thanks to the super calm conditions I even rode a few waves in. So much fun
Well that was our trip in a nutshell. Like I said, I really fell in love with the place and can’t wait to go back. Well time to get back to work and get some practice time in on my new ukulele! Aloha and Mahalo for reading this!
I’m a bit late with this recap from the Chicago Creative Mornings lecture for September. I just finished up my last week working full-time for John Marshall, and things have been a bit hectic. The September talk was given by Threadless founder Jake Nickell at their headquarters and warehouse over on W. Madison. He talked a bit about the history of Threadless and the process they went through from a basic website run from his apartment to the t-shirt juggernauts they are now. I always find it incredibly inspiring to hear about someone taking an idea from a very simple first execution through to a really amazing product.
He then went on to talk about making stuff. I couldn’t help but to be motivated and moved by his passion for making things. He strongly advocated for just getting out there and making something. Make something new everyday. Make things with your friends. If you have a great idea, just get out there and start making it. You don’t need a business plan, or anything fancy and formal. Just grab a friend, and start making. In fact, the company recently changed their slogan to “Make Great Together”. This could be seen painted in neon colors in a large t-shirt framed t-shirt art piece on the wall above him. It’s so clear once you enter the building, that the employees are encouraged to make new art to share within the space. I really took a lot away from this talk. I recognize in myself that I have the tendency to try to over plan a project, or wait for things to be perfect to get started. And it’s a good reminder that it’s not the case. Take an idea and just start making. The video for this lecture has not been posted as of this blog, but you can see past Chicago CM lectures on Vimeo here.
What made this so perfect is how it really ties in with another one of my passions, learning. I truly enjoy learning new skills, programing languages, techniques, and trends. And I’ve always found the best way to learn these new things is simply to start making with them. I have recently started learning how to build web applications with Ruby on Rails. After going over some tutorials, I dove right in and started building a project. It’s slow going at first, and I still have to look a good number of things up, but having a project to work on keeps me motivated. The more I work on making this project, the better I will get at the skills I’m trying to master. For another example: I was presented with a potential contract job by a creative staffing agency. The client was looking for someone to build out a mobile website using jQuery mobile. While I am very proficient with HTML and jQuery, I had never used this new mobile library that had recently been released. So I read up on the software, and went right to building a mobile website for my company utilizing the library. It took me a couple of days, but when I was finished I had a lot better grasp on the software than I would have just reading the documentation. While I wound up not getting the gig, I was extremely happy to have been prompted to learn this new skill.
So to summarize: Stop waiting, start making. Everyday. You’ll probably learn new stuff along the way. And chicks dig smart peeps.
Also, if you are in/near Chicago, you should definitely go see their space. They have a store up front where you can buy tees. Totally worth the trip.
Tori Holmes-Kirk 