greymatters

I managed to tear myself away from work long enough to hike two small mountains this weekend. #1 was webster slide, and easy approach to the west of Moosilaukee. A moderate ascent brings you to an alpine lake with a few camping sites and a rope swing (!), then it's a steep ascent up the slide itself for fine views of the lake and nearby still-snowcapped mountains. This would be a good hike to introduce someone new to backcountry camping to the concept - I'm considering a newbies trip over the summer to get back to that rope swing in more-appropriate weather. (It was 40 degrees and windy - no swimming for me.)

Day 2 was an ascent of Mt Roberts, the second of the "52 with a view" in the Ossippee Range. (We bagged the other - Mt Shaw - last fall.) The Ossippees are geologically unique in the Whites, as they form the remains of an ancient supervolcano with igneous rocks instead of the usual granite. Look at the range on a satellite photo and it's almost a perfect circle, left over from when the volcano blew its top. These days, it's a moderate grade to the top with fine views of lake Winnepesaukee on the way up and Mt Washington at the top. As a bonus, the trailhead begins at a mansion called "castle in the clouds", which has a panoramic front lawn looking out over the lake. Dr_sunflare wants to get married again so we can have the ceremony there. Is that allowed?

#26/52

St Patrick's Day: Ran the 5k ras na heireann", enjoyed a pint at an irish pub, and faced down the "challenge course" at MetroRock. We had a good group of mixed climbing skill to tackle the latter, and it was indeed more challenging than I expected. I have completed many a ropes course in my day and have been consistently underwhelmed. ("Go up high and do something easy. But you're up high!") This one was physically demanding and took some serious balance. My hardest element involved three ropes crossing each other with a few feet of separation - the transition in the middle was tricky. After two runs through the course, most of us were pretty exhausted, but retired to the lower kiddie course for a bit more freeform games. I doubt I'll do it again, but it was fun to be challenged once.

It's been two months since I left student life and returned to the world of honest employment. It's closely related but a bit different to anything I have done before. I'm a strategy consultant, which means that what I produce is advice. As it was starkly explained to me upon joining, "Ford makes cars. We make powerpoint presentations." So far my projects have been interesting. I'm obligated to not talk much about them. The hours have been long and unpredictable but I'm learning a lot. Let's see how this goes...

3 trends have converged lately that have changed my fiction intake: (1) school finally ended and I feel like reading again (2) dr_sunflare received a Kindle for Christmas and (3) I got a new phone. All the sudden, we're buying books like crazy, I'm reading them on my high-def mobile screen, and I feel good about it. In the last 30 days I have read more fiction than the previous 2 years. Notable:

• Surface Detail - Iain Banks just keeps making the Culture deeper and deeper.
• Hunger Games Trilogy - played with enough YA tropes to be interesting. Will be interested in how they adapt book 3 into a movie.
• Reamde - Stephenson has lost the balls-to-the-wall gonzo energy that infected his earlier books, but it's still a fun read
• We Need to Talk About Kevin - good character study, detailing people we don't see profiled very often

Next up: 3 Cups of Deceit. It really is amazing how much a little frictionless commerce will change your patterns.

After last year's craziness, we dialed Soup Swap back to 16 swappers and 15 soups. Casualty count was light this year, with the sole injury arising from socks on slippery stairs.

• The theme of the year was "two." We had 2 gumbos, 2 pea soups, 2 misos, 2 lentils, and 2 chilis. All were differentiated enough that repetition was no problem at all.
• The other themes of the year were "spicy" and "asian." At least half the offerings fit one of these categories, many both. Apologies to frf frf, who doesn't like either.
• "First sellout" was won by stripeyg for his hot and sour soup. He keeps winning "most popular" year after year. What is his secret?
• "Best telling" was won by mom, mostly by currying favor at not having a kitchen during the preparation process.
• "Best label" went to sg's "Monster Miso" because you can't lose when you put Godzilla on your soup.
• My soups this year were the (1) Angry Rooster (an aromatic siracha-based chicken soup perfect for opening the sinuses of sick people) and (2) Smack Yo' Ass Tomato Stew (a hearty vegetarian complement to grilled cheese just made for post-sledding). Both were spiced at "supermarket medium-hot", which deterred quite a few people and left both selling out in the last 75% of choices. Every year I promise myself that I'll underspice in order to increase popularity, and every year I just can't bring myself to do it.
• My greatest strategic error revolved around yuper's coveted sprout chili, which I stupidly skipped with only 1 remaining quart to pick another untouched offering. The rigors of hosting can make it very hard to strategize properly, so I missed out on a much-desired option. (She did very well, considering that she was the only newbie in the pack.)
• The "artificial scarcity" strategy continued to be popular this year, with both jt and countlibras preparing a split bill of 4 primary soups and 2 extra soups.
• I can't wait to try mw's linguica soup. 4 pounds of sausage? Sign me up!

Now my freezer is packed with 16 quarts of soup and I'm ready to ride out the winter.

Process changes this time around:

• Selection order reversed for the 6th round, forcing the swappers with the best initial seeds to take the last-chosen soups. This was well-received and struck most as fair. I may extend this next time by reversing order for both the 5th and 6th round.
• We assigned seeds as the swappers arrived and posted letters/labels on the wall. (best seen here) Soups on the swapping table were nicely sorted by letter. This was originally envisioned as a way to give label-makers a way to showcase their art, but had some ancillary benefits of providing a social focal point and enabled people to construct their pick-lists before the Telling. This was a new wrinkle, so only about half of the swappers brought an extra label. But I think it worked and will be repeated.
• An "on deck" circle encouraged people to be ready to pick as their immediate forebearer was making his/her selection. This had the advantage of keeping things quite snappy, even in a large Swap. Some swappers were surprised at how fast things went and some people said that they felt uncomfortably rushed. I may keep the "on-deck" concept next time, but will try not to actually rush anyone.
• Strict enforcement of the 1-swapper, 1-letter rule. Those who brought multiple soups assigned their physical selection to a proxy, which prevented confusion and gave everyone something to do. I think it worked, though it's a bit hard to explain.

As proposed last year, I did not institute a "sell-out bonus" to reward popular soups. There were enough process changes that I didn't want to layer on anything controversial or confusing.

Swapping is over. May the eating begin.

See also Soup Swap 2007, Soup Swap 2008, Soup Swap 2009, Soup Swap 2011.

It's the first hike of the year, and we're chipping away at the 52 with a view list. We had planned on hiking the Moat Ridge, but the parking lot was so icy and snowy that we had to look for another one. I last did this hike as a snowshoe with my brother over a decade ago. The mountain is pretty much the same, with good views of the presidential range on its last third. The fire tower at the top affords a wind-protected place to celebrate and drink some tea. Clear views, mild temperatures, slight wind. You can't ask for better this time of year.

dr_sunflare and I were joined by grku, yuper, and sasha. Everyone had a good time, from what I can tell.

Biggest highlight: running downhill full-tilt in snowshoes, crashing through fluffy powder.

Let's try something else to connect livejournal with facebook.

Here I am lighting something on fire:

I think I have set up networkedblogs to syndicate my livejournal to facebook. This is a test to see if it worked.

Apropos of nothing, here's me with Boston Light:

The biggest development in music this year was the US launch of Spotify. It's now much easier to test out tracks and discover new artists before buying their music. Fellow spotifiers can check out my 2011 playlist for a listen to my sounds of the year.

This was a year of solid but not outstanding releases from old favorites like Radiohead, Moby, The Decemberists, Death Cab for Cutie, M83, and Cake. My favorite track of the year is probably Exile Vilify by The National, a single from (of all things) the game Portal 2.

There were a few discoveries this year:

• Lana del Rey rocked my world (and kicked off my femme fatale playlist) with her whisky tongue and languid arrangements. Someday she's going to be a huge star of Lady Gaga proportions and I'll be obligated to hate her out of pure contrarianism. Until then, she's my favorite discovery of the year.
• I blasted Adele out of my car windows just like everyone else.
• Lost in the Trees reminded me enough of Andrew Bird's symphonic approach to draw me in.
• Gem Club is a Boston-based act with some potential.
• Kurt Vile's name sounds like a clever pun, but he's totally serious.
• The Black Keys stopped singing falsetto and stopped annoying me.
• Gabriel Kahane's delicate and unexpected harmonies are good enough to overlook his occasionally soft-rock tendencies.

Almost all of my recommendations are coming from NPR Music nowadays. Because I'm not listening to WERS anymore, I don't have a good handle on the local scene and haven't checked out many up-and-coming acts.

Only one topical/zeitgeist song made the list this year, "It Gets Better" (by Rebecca Drysdale) named for Dan Savage's anti-bullying project.

Bad stuff: Tragically, Bon Iver keeps putting out music despite my most polite requests that he stop. I still utterly fail to recognize Kanye West's apparent brilliance. I'm embarrassed to admit that I liked the first track of the new Evanescence album.

We'll call this a general improvement on 2010.

Last year's New Year letter was cancelled due to a near-fatal case of fall semester burnout. Fortunately, this has been a year in which Stuff Got Done. Including the annual update:

The odyssey of my third MIT degree is over, and someone in the registrar's office thinks I'm qualified to hold an MS in "management and engineering." The work focused mostly on renewable energy and included some funding from NREL to write a thesis on integrating wind power in island electricity grids. I will be using this shiny new degree at a small product strategy consulting firm in Boston, building out their cleantech practice. Meanwhile, dr_sunflare's study of the sun took her to science junkets in Paris and Moscow.

Adventure! Our post-thesis celebration was a duck/wine/chateau-drenched cyclotour the Loire Valley. We started a new hiking list, the "52 with a view" and ended the year with 24 peaks. I covered 180 miles in my kayak this season, including a crossing from the mainland to Nantucket.

Sadly, our faithful companion Kaya passed away in spring. She made everyone's life a little richer, and will be sorely missed.

Thanks to friends and family for being exactly who you are. May your next year shine bright.