Happy New Year! While posts remain few and far between on this blog the end of year post feels like it could become a 'regular' thing...
Running and getting outside were 'the things' this year! My 2012 Collection on flickr has over 60 sets (mostly of hikes/runs/outside), more than any other year (so far) - this is partly because I take more pictures than I did years ago (and maybe use sets slightly differently), but without school and contract work (I am still working hard at the Summit Hut!) I was able to get outside more and had a GREAT time doing it!
I have been riding my bike quite a bit less this year, I am starting to miss it but I just can not seem to find time for everything... This is the first time in years when I made more trips to work in the car than by bike - in part because the car lends itself to leaving work slightly early and getting in an hour or two on the trails!
cmiles-outside.info - a new site to experiment with! To complement my time (physically) outside I started putting together a site with trail descriptions and information for the Santa Catalina Mountains. I am using MediaWiki - progress is slow but steady and I am having a good time. Who knows what will become of this - hopefully I will try some new things with this in 2013 - nothing like actually just jumping in and doing something as a way to learn!
cmiles-consuming.info - I started this blog in 2011 to write about/record/remember what I am reading/watching/listening to and had fairly regular postings all year! It seems like a bad idea to try to predict how long personal blog projects will last - but I think I will continue to write during 2013! It has already been fun/useful to look up books that I can not quite remember...
blog.SummitHut.com - in 2011 I started writing for the Summit Hut blog and I continued this year - 2012 Fleet Feet Arizona Trail Race Report, 2012 Mesquite Canyon 1/2 Marathon Race Report, Pusch Peak, 2012 Cave Creek Thriller and McDowell Mountain Frenzy and Review: Inov-8 Trailroc 235, 245, 255. I already have a post scheduled for 2013 and more ideas that I am excited about! I did more race reports and gear reviews this year - I hope to change that a little in 2013 and do more trail related posts.
School - this has been my first full year without taking a class in quite awhile and for most of the year I did not miss it at all - but I have started to think about maybe signing up for a math class or maybe... But if I sign up for a class it will not be until Fall 2013 - or maybe 2014.
Programming - I finished some projects Q1 this year that have been very productive/useful. I had a chance to use some of what I learned about importing data in a previous project to really get a few touches in that I like. The rest of the year has been quiet - off and on I have chipped away at another project (and, of course, done maintenance/bug fixes/etc.) - but I just never found a rhythm to make anything non-critical/interesting happen - hoping for better flow in 2013! WPF/C# are still my main focus - I don't think I will try to deliberately shift that in 2013.
Spike! Our bird Spike passed away this year. He had lived with Alison, Beaker and I for over 10 years and had been Alison's bird since middle school! We always joked that he came to Tucson to retire. He had been sick with a mystery illness for sometime so I suppose his death was not a complete surprise, but that doesn't really matter and it was, and is, very very sad. He was a good friend and we miss him quite a bit.
2013?
I would really like to continue to get outside and hike/run/bird/...! Every time I get outside I feel better and it seems like there is always something amazing to see. A simple goal I guess - but it worked well for me in 2012!
Hope everyone has a great year! See you on the trails! CM
