Really silly ego

So, this is really silly, but I just got super excited when I googled myself. Ewww!! No, it's not that gross. Just type your name into Google and see what happens. If you don't have a common name you might find yourself right away. If you're a John Smith, goodluck finding yourself. Now, my name "Benton Miller" is not really that common. There are lots of Miller's and Benton can be a first or last name, and is also the name of several towns in the US. But, in the grand scheme of things it's not that common. When I first googled myself a couple years ago, I didn't show up until about page 4 of the search results. I barely registered.  Well, guess who's in the number one spot now?  Hurray for me!  That's right, if you google me, you will find me.  Unless you don't know how to put search phrases in quotes.  Then you'll find a bunch of lame product reviews that I did on Amazon.  Still me.  Just lamer.  Now if only that website had a purpose.

Check it out:  Google "Benton Miller"

Tis the season

This has been the season of friends and family and it's been wonderful. Learning to ski with Marc, Art, Kate, Susie, Bret, Anthony, Mike and Cheryl. Getting tips on skiing from Sam and Lorissa. Attempting to squeeze a 12 mike hike and half hour hot tub soak into less than 4 hours on New Years (it was a wonderful attempt and we'll make it next time). Sam and Lorissa also turned me on to Architecture in Helsinki, which is a great band. While I was home I read this webcomic in its entirety. Not very funny, but for some reason really engaging. I also just stumbled across this video on how to make a match shooter. Which is part of this website Instructables dot com. Which I recently discovered and love. It inspired me to make a 4 foot by 8 foot whiteboard from tile-board with a steel core so that I can attach magnets to it. It didn't come out that great, but it is big and it does work. It just looks sloppy. Oh well.

Today it's snowing and blowing like crazy. I've got a ski pass for the day, but the mountain, and the road to it, are both closed. Maybe the road will open in an hour or two. Maybe.

More Creation

As a junior in college I needed to loft my bed a little bit so that I'd have room for storage underneath. I didn't want to use the typical cinder blocks, they're heavy, unstable, and unsightly. I also didn't want to spend much money. I came up with the idea to use tree branches as legs for the bed. They were free, lighter than cinder blocks, and they branched out naturally helping to stabilize the legs. I scrounged through the woods near my house in NH for already downed wood that was still solid, branched nicely, and big enough. I screwed these onto two cross pieces and then laid slats over the cross pieces. This was version 1.0 of the Tree Bed. It lasted for 7 years and many relationships. It moved 3 times in NH, then to California, and finally to Salt Lake City. In fact, I slept in it last night.

This morning though I started to dismantle it. I'd been wanting to really remake the frame of the bed for a while. 1.0 was stable enough and sturdy enough, but I'd had to retrofit a few braces to keep it running, and a couple of the mattress slats had cracked. Tonight I'll sleep on version 2.0. I've reused 3 of the 4 legs from version 1.0. Khola and I found a nice new fourth leg when we were at the dog park this morning. The new upper frame has been completely redesigned around a queen size mattress, and the desire to make the bed more easily transported. I plan to cut the bed in half width-wise so that it can be removed from the room. I'll then re-assemble it using two metal plates (which I'll have to make at some point) and some beefy bolts. One of the big problems with version 1.0 is that there were almost no braces or diagonal members in the design. This allowed the frame to twist and deform easily and didn't allow me to support the mattress slats in the middle. Version 2.0 uses two diagonal struts from running between opposing corners of the frame. Since these members are primarily in tension I decided to use cables. They're lighter, and they can be unhooked and reattached once the bed is cut in half. Plus, I can use cable tensioners to adjust the tension, something that would be impossible with wood cross members. I'm also using the cables, in combination with small support blocks, to provide support to the mattress slats. In this regard wood cross pieces would be better, but wouldn't look as cool.

I've also added a pretty neat little feature. There's a small halogen lamp hidden under the bed which points at the back wall, under the bed. The lamp switch is mounted to the back leg and you can easily switch it on and off from bed. This makes for a really subtle and slightly surreal night-light. It also provides incentive to clean under the bed.

Overall I'm really happy with how this is turning out. I need to go and buy a queen mattress for it, and there are still some decorative things I want to do to give it a more finished look, but right now the structure is really solid, relatively light, and will be sort of easily transported. I think this version ought to last me another 7 years at least. Hopefully more.

You can check out more pictures on my Flickr account: My new bed

New Website and Domain!

So, I'm now the proud owner of my own domain name: bentonmiller.com. Wheee!!

In celebration of the new domain name I revamped my website. I think it's a little better than "Medium Rare" was. It's a lot easier to read and navigate, I think it has more style, and there's a little more sophisticated HTML and Javascript under the hood. The next thing I'd like to do is start adding in some Flash stuff.
BentonMiller.com

Awesome news

From Business Wire:

"SANTA CLARA, Calif. & MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A) and Velocity11 today announced that they have signed a definitive agreement for Agilent to acquire Velocity11. Velocity11, privately held, is a leader in automated liquid handling and laboratory robotics for the life science market. Financial details were not disclosed. The acquisition is expected to be final in 30 to 60 days, subject to certain closing conditions."

This is pretty great news!! I worked really hard for the last 4 years at Velocity11, and exercised all of the options that I could before I left. This news means that I get a nice extra Christmas present this year. As the article says, the financial details won't be worked out for another 30-60 days so I won't know exactly what it means for me, but I have a rough guess, and it definitely won't be enough for me to retire on. Still, it's certainly better than having to pay taxes on options that have no real value!

See, this is the thing that sucks about stock options: Let's say you start working for Acme and their shares are trading on the stock market for $10 a share at the time. Perhaps you're a valuable employee and they give you some stock options. They say "You have the option to buy 100 shares of our stock at $10 per share, but you can only do that after you've worked here for a year." This is an incentive for you to increase the value of the stock. After a year if the stock is worth $20 you can buy 100 shares of it at $10 a share instantly making $10 per share, or $1,000. Isn't that nice! Of course, you have to pay taxes on that $1000. So you really only get to take home maybe $800. Still, you've made $800! Great!

Now, let's say you work for a privately held company like Velocity11. It's not traded on the stock market and so it's share values are harder to calculate, but the company makes an estimate and says they're worth $0.1. [Please note that I am pulling numbers out of thin air here. These are not real values. I'm making them nice and round so they're easy to work with.] Again, you get the option to purchase 100 shares after 1 year. So, at the end of one year you buy your options for $10 and you get, drum roll please...

nothing.

Velocity11 is a private company. You can't sell those shares that you bought because they're not on the market. Well, technically, you could sell them back to the company, and if Velocity11 doesn't want the shares (they have first right of refusal) you could sell them to another Velocity11 employee. This is only theoretically possible though. There really is no market for your options. During the year since you started, the company has grown and now the company estimates that the shares are worth $1. So, theoretically, on paper, you've spent $10 to make $100. A profit of $90. Of course, since you can't really sell those shares you haven't really made the money yet. You're still out $10, but wait it get's worse.

The IRS doesn't care. They don't care that you can't sell your shares. They don't care that you have -$10 in your pocket. In their mind, you've got $90 in your pocket and they want you to pay taxes on that, just the same as it were real. So, not only are you down $10 for the shares, you're down another $18 in taxes. How much does that suck? You haven't made any money on the shares you bought, but you have to pay taxes as if you had made money. But wait, it get's worse.

There's no guarantee that you will ever be able to sell your options. Velocity11 could go belly up and then you'd have spent $10 on options and paid $18 in taxes and have nothing to show for it at all! If that happens you can write it off on your taxes for the next several years until you eventually get the $18 back, but still you've lost $10 and given the government an $18 interest free loan. Awesome.

That's the boat that I was in until this morning. I'd exercised my options and had nothing to show for it. Would the options ever have value? Would I have any savings left after I paid my taxes? It was basically a crappy old row boat that I was in. I'd spent my $10, I was going to have to spend another $18 this spring at tax time, and I'd have nothing to show for it except some hope that someday I'd be able to sell the shares for more than I paid for them. Today though, I'm in an entirely different, much nicer boat. This boat has a motor, and a cooler full of beer. As I've said, I don't know the details, but I do know that I'll at least get my $10 back, and will have the money to pay the $18 in taxes. And, that's great news for today: The options aren't worth nothing! In the next 30-60 days I should know what their real value is and have a better idea of what that means for me. For today I'm just glad to know that I made a good decision to exercise.

This is good news for me, my friends at V11, and in my opinion, good news for Velocity11 as a company too. Agilent seems like a really good fit for V11. They offer complimentary products and services, without really any overlap. I'm excited to see the company continue to grow and to feel like I played a small part in brining it to where it is now.

Moab

Went to Moab this weekend with some friends. Brian Feldman was in town from New York City so we went to Moab for the occasion. Brian, James, a future housemate, Cheryl, Mike, Khola and I all went down. We went rode the Porcupine Rim Trail on Saturday and then on Sunday we went to Mill Creek for some climbing. It was a great weekend and a lot of fun. Brian and I were on H-croo together and haven't really seen each other since then. Porcupine Rim had some absolutely amazing views, the trail itself was good and fun, but I still think Demo down near Santa Cruz is the best place I've ever ridden, aside from Whistler. Mill Creek is pretty amazing. It's a long sandstone canyon in the La Sal mountains. Seems to have an almost limitless supply of rock. I can't wait to go back there. Great weekend biking and climbing with friends. You can check out the pictures here:

Moab on Flickr

Another Wedding!

Last weekend my step-sister Halsey got married in Orlando. It was a great location and ceremony. Her new husband, Martin, is great. I'm working on a longer post covering basically everything from my move into the new place to the present, including a description of the wedding. Hopefully that will go up soon, and the shorter I make this, the more time I'll have to work on that. So, for now you'll just have to check out the pictures and make up your own story.

Halsey's Wedding Slideshow
Photo index

I have a new place to live!

I really didn't expect it to take this long to find a place to live, but now that I've found it I'm relatively happy about it. I've got the bottom floor of a duplex. The interior is really very nice now that I've finished cleaning the filth left behind by the previous tenant. There were 3 kids and 4 cats living in this place before me. The carpets were disgusting. They left behind a decent sized pile of garbage, and there are several holes in the walls and doors. Aside from those very localized sources of damage the place is pretty decent. I've had the carpets professionally cleaned, and they're actually decent now. I'm going to have to get in touch with the property manager to get these things taken care of and I'm not excited about that. She seems difficult to deal with. Aside from those downsides the place is pretty nice. It's in a quiet neighborhood, but only a couple blocks from a pretty major thoroughfare where there's a good coffee shop with free wifi. That's where I'm working and surfing from these days. I think I'll get internet set up at home soon. I'm still waiting for my stuff to arrive from California so for now I'm sleeping on my crashpad on the floor.

The place has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. I'm looking for two housemates and have tentative agreements from two cool folks that I'm excited to live with. If everything works out rent should be relatively cheap split 3 ways. It's got a decent sized backyard that Khola can run donuts in and an old tree-house that needs some work. It's pretty close to the canyons where all the awesome skiing and biking and climbing can be found. It's probably a 25 minute drive from my house to the top of the canyons, and only about 5 blocks from a climbing gym. There's a school with a big yard for Khola to run in about a block away.

So, I have an address now. You can find some pictures of the place before I moved in here. Once my stuff arrives I'll post some new pictures of the place once it's been cleaned up and moved into.

To all my biking buddies

Folks,

This is the official invitation. I have after only 3 weeks found enough awesome mountain biking that I think it's worth a flight out. Southwest often has cheap tickets, or it's only a 12 hour drive. I don't have enough space for you to stay, and I don't know all the trails yet, but considering what I've found in just 3 weeks, without even checking out the more gnarly, built up trails in Park City, I think this spring will be awesome. So far I've been exploring American Fork Canyon which is about "Skeggs distance" away. This canyon has awesome rock climbing, backpacking, and now, mountain biking. This trail I would say is about on par with Demo. It's a rough high-elevation climb to the top. You can do about half of the climb on the road, or add on an earlier section of single-track uphill that will kick your ass. I can not pedal up it. Maybe with a granny-gear, but I doubt it. So, skip that stick to the road all the way to Timpooneke Campground, which is the same place that my hiking trip started from. From here you climb up on single track alongside a little stream, then up through alpine meadows with aspen and views of Mt. Timpanogos. The climb is a bitch, but the views are pretty awesome, you’re right at tree-line for a while. Then the fun begins. You go downhill non-stop for about 5 miles. I would describe it as a really narrow version of the Tractor trail at Demo. Lots of tight turns. The trail has been carved out by both mountain and dirt bikers to form a nicely rounded chute about a foot wide at the bottom and 3-4 feet wide at the top. The chute twists and turns down through the woods. You just carve back and forth from one side of the chute to the other, bombing down these trails which are like 70% perfect dirt (as good as anything in California) and 30% rocks and rock gardens. The rocks have good shapes and spacing to them. Not too sharp, and not that prone to roll around on you.

The one thing Demo wins on though is fun jumps and stunts. There are basically none on this trail. There are a few little root-drops and some sections that you can float over rocks, but nothing man-made. Shouldn’t be too hard to change that. There are lots of downed trees and dirt around that could be sculpted. The awesome thing about the trail is that because of the chute-like nature every turn is perfectly banked. There’s very little off-camber riding, and you can really rail the turns.

So, it’s really hard to take pictures while biking. I brought the new camera out yesterday and took a few photos. They don’t really capture the nature of the trail very well, but I think they do a really good job of capturing the scenery. Combine this trail with several other epic rides in that area, several more epic rides much closer to home, and three lift served mountains within a 45 minute drive, and you’ve got a pretty good place for a mountain bike destination. I’m thinking late spring would be perfect. By then I’ll have a decent shuttle vehicle and hopefully a place for people to stay. So, if you’re interested, drop me a line. Let’s start planning it out.

-Ben

New Website! (Sort of)

Hey Folks,

I've begun updating my webpage. I portentously named my webpage "the beginning" hoping it would spur me down a long path of web design and development. Since it was only the beginning I thought it'd be fine to host it on a free service like Googlepages. I'm now beyond the beginning. I've started to reach the limits of what Googlepages can do for me. So, this new page is my first real attempt at web design (as opposed to using those nice pre-made templates from googlepages). As my first true attempt I'd have to rate it medium rare. Because really right now, it's only a new front page, and it doesn't even do anything cool, just look good*. But it's still cooking. I need to update all the rest of the content with the new look and feel, but I think first I've got to find a real hosting service outside of Googlepages. I think it'll be pretty tasty once all that is finished grilling. In the meantime, I'd love to hear what you think about it.

*I hope.

Quick Backpacking trip

This week I took a quick backpacking trip to Mount Timpanogos in the Wasatch Mountains. It's the second tallest mountain in Utah, and probably the most popular. It's only a 40 minutes drive and 7.5 mile hike from Salt Lake. Even though I went midweek I saw at least 40 people over the three days (I saw 20 hiking up as I was hiking out yesterday). Still everyone I saw was very respectful of the outdoors and obviously happy to be there and very friendly. You can check out the photos here: Flickr Photoset. I'm still cleaning them up, so a few more might make it up on Flickr in the next day or two.

American Fork

I went climbing Saturday and Sunday at American Fork (45 minutes southeast of salt lake). I went with Heath Saturday morning and then again on Sunday with Mike and Cheryl. After being out late the night before (80's themed birthday party for Craig and Luke) we had a leisurely morning and didn't get to the cliff till about 1pm. No one was there; probably scared off by the very brief stream crossing required to access the cliff. We hopped on a few climbs and then worked on "Teardrop" a 13a and one of Cheryl's many projects. I've been in a perpetual state of soreness since I moved to Utah a week ago and it's great. This problem was well out of my grasp yesterday, but I can't wait to get back on this problem once the soreness starts to fade.

Flickr Photos of American Fork

New Camera!!

I just got my Tamron 28-75mm lens for my new Canon Rebel XTi and took it out for a test run in Mike and Cheryl's backyard. I took 48 pictures (I need a bigger memory card). 19 photos made the cut. I'm pretty damn stoked! The named photos have been "developed" I haven't cleaned up the others yet. The control and precision over the image taking process this camera gives me is awesome, and I don't even know what I'm doing yet. Practice will make perfect. I'm reading through the manual, but in the meantime if someone can tell me how to manually set the F-stop, or if you have other hints to improve my shooting I'd love the advice.

There are some really great photos of Khola I think as well as two kinda fun shots of the backyard. The camera allowed me to grab some really cool action shots of Khola too. It's got an auto-fire feature where it can take 3 pictures per second as long as you hold down the shutter button. The shots of her shaking the frisbee and chasing the ball were taken with this setting. I'm not showing all frames on flickr though, only the few that I thought were interesting on their own. I've still got a lot to learn. I'm sure I'm not pushing the limits of this camera or lens yet. I'm excited to take it out and try some landscapes later this week, hopefully after a bit more practice.

Check out all the photos on Flickr

Maple Canyon

Yesterday Mike, Cheryl, Khola and I went to Maple Canyon. It's about 1:45 south of Salt Lake City. Really cool area with strange conglomerate rock that makes the cliffs look like a big pile of river stones turned upside-down. The rock is relatively solid and makes for really interesting climbing that is very difficult to read. Is that next cobble going to be smooth and slippery-slopery or is it going to have some big sinker secret pocket? Who knows! It was great to get out sport climbing again. It used to be my favorite type of climbing, but there just isn't much around the Bay Area, so this was the first time I'd gone in about 1.8 years. The last time I went sport climbing was in Thailand in 2005/06. It's nice to be living somewhere close to sport climbing again. Maple isn't even the closest place to Salt Lake. American Fork is about an hour closer, but Mike and Cheryl had the whole day off so we went for a longer trip.

Photos of Maple Canyon on Flickr

Arrival

Khola and I are now in Salt Lake City. These last couple weeks it's been really hard to say goodbye to all of my great friends out in the bay area. Every dinner was a going away dinner. Every time I saw a friend it was the last time I'd see them for a while. I don't think moving or changing is supposed to be easy though. It's been hard for me to leave because the last 4 years were so good. I'll miss all the great people I'm leaving behind, but you've all got an open invitation to come visit me in SLC.

On the positive side, I am now officially "retired". At least that's what I'm calling it. I'm working for the fun of it, not for the pay. I live in a cool city close to the mountains and work part time as the product manager for Guyot Designs. Sure, I'm not making much money, and at my current pay rate I'll have to work forever, but the work is fun and not too burdensome. This whole thing should be a really valuable experiment for me. Is this really what I want? Can I follow my passions and find happiness? Only time will tell.

So, for now Khola and I are staying in the guest bedroom of my good friends Mike and Cheryl. They're on call at the hospital for the next 30 hours, so I've got the run of the place. In no particular order goals for today are:

• Look for more permanent rental housing
• Read the manual for my new D-SLR camera cover to cover
• Go climbing
• Update Blog (Done)
  

Beach Party, Going Away Party

Had a wonderful, sleep deprived, party at the beach on Saturday after the all night mountain bike ride. It was really nice to see everybody that came out. The weather was perfect. A special thanks to Dave Asmussen who made the whole weekend smooth and easy. Thanks especially for the beautifully constructed beach table decked out with grilled and marinated vegetables, sausage, brownies, chips. Can you tell which people were biking all night?



Flickr Photos

Night Biking for Geoff's 30th

This was an epic weekend. I realize that the term "epic" can have a variety of different connotations, and this weekend was an epic weekend in a variety of different ways. One of my favorite uses of "epic" is to describe an adventure that has gone terribly wrong due to bad luck, and/or poor planning. Lots of climbers can tell you stories of "epic-ing" on this climb or that mountain. Stories of getting stuck on ledges overnight, dropping belay devices, getting off-route, cutting stuck ropes. Simple adventures become dangerous and uncomfortable, but then later in the retelling they become great stories. Of course an Epic adventure doesn't necessarily have to be accidental. Sometimes you can push yourself into one on purpose.

That's what we did this weekend. Friday, my "last day" at Velocity11. Geoff's 30th birthday. We needed an epic. Geoff provided the inspiration: Poach the "Something to the Beach Trail". The name of the trail has been changed to protect the guilty. The Something to the Beach Trail runs 30-35 miles from the top of Something at about 2,500' all the way down to the beach. Why poach it? Why change it's name? Why be vague? It's a hiking trail; biking it is illegal. It's in the bay area and normally crawling with rangers and snot-nosed kids. We had to legitimately worry about getting caught. Of course, we also had to worry about how to get there and back. Who would drive which vehicle, who would ride who would camp where would we camp?

Wednesday we met at my house for planning and pizza and beer. We talked and researched and Dave, playing secretary, laid out the entire plan on the pizza box lid (see first image). I then translated it into text and sent this email:

"Everyone* but Geoff and Amber meet at Velocity11 (3565 Haven Ave Menlo Park CA) I don't care when you arrive, but we're leaving promptly at 8PM. That means all the bikes are loaded and we're pulling out of the Velocity11 Parking lot at 8**. Arrive enough time before then to get your shit together and into the truck.

From V11 we'll drive Ryan's truck and my car up to [Something] where we'll meet Geoff and Amber. We'll plan to leave the parking lot just after 9PM***. My car will stay and Dave will drive Ryan's truck to Mike's parents house on the beach and set up. Meanwhile we'll ride. The trail's about 31 miles so figure like a 6 hour ride. Get's us to the end around 3AM****. From there some people pile into Amber's car and drive to Mike's, they pick up Ryan's truck and come back to get everyone else.

Then we sleep on Mike's parents beach until we wake up, then we'll drive up the road a-ways to the beach party location, set up and have fun. Rides will be leaving from the party going to various locations. There will definitely be rides back to Palo Alto after the party, but can't guarantee exactly when."

And that's pretty much how it happened. With only a few minor changes or explanations:

*"Everyone" wasn't actually everyone. It was Ryan, Dave, Mike H, Thorsten, Adam, Karla and me. At the last minute Mike N and Mike W got in on the ride and at the last possible second Forrest found a bike at 7PM Friday and made it out. All told there were 12 people on the ride. That many people riding for that long that late at night almost guarantees an epic. Something has got to go wrong.

**We actually left Velocity11 at 8:08PM. Only 8 minutes behind schedule. Not bad.

***Unfortunately we didn't leave Something till 10PM. It took Geoff and Amber almost 2 hours to drive from the end point where they'd stashed Amber's car to the starting point and that delayed our start.

****The ride actually ended up taking 7 hours even after we cut took a short-cut and substituted 4 miles of road for 5 miles of trail. We finished the ride at about 5AM but it took another hour to get all of our stuff shuttled to Mike's house. Ryan Karla Jeff and I crashed under a tree as the sky started lightening. Everyone else slept in the field right by Mike's house. We were too tired to bother moving down to the beach. We woke up at 11AM after about 4-5 hours of sleep, packed up and headed to the next beach.

Overall, the ride was amazing. I can't believe all twelve of us finished the ride. I'm not too surprised that things ran later than we'd intended. Actually, I'm pretty stoked that we estimated it as closely as we did. It seems like everyone was well prepared for the ride. Nobody ran out of battery power, nobody crashed super hard, nobody had massive mechanical problems. Everyone had a enough food and water, no one got whiny or bitchy. Everyone had a blast!

The trail itself was pretty darn fun too. Long sections of downhill, some interesting technical sections, and (unfortunately) a pretty decent amount of climbing that we weren't expecting. The trail seemed to constantly hug a steep slope or cliff on the left. If the trail was on the slope of a hill, the top of the hill was always to the right. Forever. Geoff said he'd subtitle the ride "Or, how I rode 31 miles with a cliff on my left", and at the time it was a very funny thing to say. Having the cliff constantly in your thoughts might have made the ride a little slower than it otherwise would've been, but most of the time it didn't dampen the ride, and did provide for several spectacular views of moon-soaked ridges heading to the ocean and one spectacular crash where Mike N. went tumbling down a 70 degree sandy slope for a good 30 feet. Overall a really fun trail.

This was my first time riding at night (I borrowed a light from Marc. Thanks Marc!) and it was really a blast. It's amazing how fast you can ride with a light. Especially in the beginning when the batteries are fresh and there isn't a cliff on the left. It was almost the same as riding during the day. Tons of fun. Tons of riding. I was impressed.

Flickr photos Sorry they're not so great.

More concrete plans

This is a purely informational post for those of you trying to keep track of me.

Work Schedule: Friday was the first of two "last days" at Velocity11. I'll be back in the office for one more day on Thursday Sept. 6th. That will really be my last day. Spreading it out gives people time to adjust to my absence and start asking the questions they should've asked before I left. Then I'll come back for a day and answer those questions. At the same time it gives me health care coverage through September, which is a definite benefit.

Moving Schedule: September 5th Goldstar vanlines will show up at my place and carry all my boxes and furniture into their truck and drive it away to store it until I call them to bring it to me in SLC. Friday September 7th I'll be in SLC. I'm not sure if I'll leave Thursday night, or early Friday morning.

Moving Eastward

Dear Everybody I know,

A common theme among self-help books and 12-step programs is a piece of advice meant to help you find your life's calling. Do now what you would plan to do in retirement. It is also a common question asked by every high school guidance counselor:

Q: "What would you do if you could do anything you want?"

A: "I'd live in a fairly populous location close to high quality climbing and biking and work for an outdoor gear company working on conceptual designs for products, but I'd have a lot of free time to get outdoors."

So, based on the advice of an archetypal guidance counselor, I've decided to move to Salt Lake City in September. I'll work part time for Guyot Designs (check out GuyotDesigns.com) and possibly do some contract work for Velocity11 while working on my web and photog skills, which I would currently describe as "nascent". I should have a lot of time to get out in the mountains which are nearby and filled with climbing and biking and skiing. Moab, The Wind Rivers, Joe's Valley, LCC, Maple Canyon, etc etc. The list is very long all of it is within a 4 hour drive.

I'm sad to leave behind all the great folks of the Bay Area. Thanks for all the wonderful memories and adventures. I'll be back to visit, and you've got a couch to sleep on in Salt Lake City when you come to visit. Not that I know where I'm living yet. But when I've got an address I'll send it out. Same old cell phone number and email address.

Hope you're all doing well.

-Ben

Memorial Day

Hey Folks, Finally published a new adventure: Memorial Day weekend. The pictures have been up for a while, but now there's a story to go along with them. I haven't finished it yet, but the first installment is up.