More Travel!

On my way to Indiana this afternoon. It’s not a trip for fun (although I plan to have some fun and eat lots of good food and visit lots of good friends). I’m heading back to finish my undergraduate research project. Something about publishing a paper eventually…

Back to School, Sorta

It’s been an interesting semester. We’re several weeks in (looks like my calendar says four and a half), but it doesn’t feel like it. I’m not taking any classes this semester, so life feels very different – there’s no deadlines of homework to mark off time. I’m still auditing a course and taking a martial arts class, so I can at least keep track of the days of the week. Most of the time.

Not taking classes has been nice. I feel like I’ve had the ability to actually accomplish some research this semester. Of course, it’s tempered by the fact that I still have commitments throughout the day – lectures to sit in on and meetings to attend. This breaks my days up a fair bit, which always makes it harder for me to work.

Mostly, I’m enjoying the freedom to work on my projects rather than homework. I’ve been there and done that for pretty much all of my life. I’ve learned a lot from homework but now it’s time to note that my base level of knowledge is set and I can start focusing on learning just what I need for my own work.

My Morning View

A mountain and a moon. That’s a pretty nice way to start.

Busy, Busy!

I’ve been absent lately – mostly because I’ve been busy getting ready for travel. I’m in New Mexico now, head back to Ithaca for next week and then off to Indiana for the last week of February. So it seems like I’m either getting ready for travel or traveling and occupied this whole month. Which means I haven’t been on the internet much. And am behind on things I was going to write about.

I went on another day ice climbing trip last weekend (a week and a half ago) and I’ve been meaning to write up the trip and post pictures. Clearly, that’s not going to happen. A bunch of pictures by other people are here. Suffice it to say, it was a good trip; the ice was good, even if my climbing wasn’t. The first climb I got on was awesome and fairly vertical. I felt good on the bottom half climbing wise but couldn’t feel my hands at all. I punked out on the top half because of my hands. I need to learn to suck it up more because I regretted that later in the day. Although the two minutes of sensation returning to my hands was not pleasant and I was glad it wasn’t worse. I got on a second climb that day which just frustrated me; it was an extremely awkward climb (lots of traversing) and I couldn’t stick a pick to save my life. So, not the best personal day of climbing for me, but every day on ice (or rock) is a good one.

The trip overall was a great success, though. We had several people along with us who had never ice climbed before and they all did really well. And learned to love ice climbing. My personal lesson of the day was that I need to become a better climber (and carry a lighter pack) so that I can climb out and avoid ugly, steep walk-outs.