To climb or boulder?

Went to Cliffhanger with my brothers on Saturday. My oldest brother and I took our middle bro for his birthday. Little did I know when I booked the two-hours with a belayer, we all have an intense fear of heights. It was like an acrophobics anonymous meeting. But we all made it to the top and nobody puked or passed out. Way to go, guys!

It'd been a while since I've been top-roping, and I was beginning to think I'd never get over my fear of getting up that wall, but it wasn't so bad. I did a 5.9 route and made it up without having any kind of deer-in-the-headlights panic attack. Those are awful.

Since I had a good time, I'm now undecided about whether to get a pass and keep top-roping or go to the Hive and just focus on bouldering. I love the idea of totally conquering my fear and getting good enough to climb a sheer rock face outdoors (as in "real" rock climbing), but I think I'm just more fascinated by the technique and skill needed for bouldering. Not to mention it seems to take a hell of a lot more upper body strength, and I could really use that kind of workout. These grover arms are keeping me from knocking off the "Do 50 push-ups" item on my bucket list...

A Taste of Toastmasters

Checked out a Toastmasters meeting in Port Moody on Thursday. It was just as delightfully nerdy as I'd expected. About 15 people, mostly middle-aged, sat around wearing business casual and sipping water from dixie cups. The meeting began at precisely 5:30 p.m. and ended at exactly 7 p.m. The anally retentive part of my personality was overjoyed at how well this group kept to the scheduled agenda, which included introductions, a formal welcome of the guests (me), a prepared speech about whiskey, a "table topic" section, (three or four people speaking off the cuff about various things), and some other random house-keeping items. A brand new member received her name badge, which she will wear at every meeting, or suffer the consequence of having to pay a dollar fine. Nerdfest!

Towards the end of the meeting I was asked if I wanted to speak for a couple of minutes during the Table Talk. I thought about it for a quick second and declined. I wasn't ready. There are a few things in life... okay, there are a LOT of things in life that scare me. Public speaking is one of them. I know I'm not alone on this one. But this is the first step on the path to enjoy, rather than avoid, speaking in front of a crowd. I have visions of one day, when I become a Toast Grandmaster or whatever it's called, being asked to speak at events all over the world. Just like this guy:

Going to check out one or two other clubs to see what kind of vibe they have going on, then pay my dues and start on the path to perfect diction and awesome anecdotes.

365 days of Dining in Richmond

So Tourism Richmond has come up with a brilliant marketing scheme, in the same vein as last summer's Live@YVR campaign. This time, it's finding a blogger to eat a great meal every day for a year (yes, that's 365 consecutive days of free food!) and exclaim about it online so the world can find out about the variety of amazing culinary options the city has to offer.

They're looking for someone who's already into blogging, Tweeting, and Facebookery, with a general love of food, travel and adventure. Sign. Me. Up. Doesn't hurt it pays 50 grand and comes with a gym membership!

I think this one's awesome. Everyone in this city loves food. I think the term "foodie" may even originate in the Metro Vancouver area. If not, it should have. We like our food, and we like it good.

New camera!

Bought a new DSLR camera today - the Canon EOS 7D kit, with a 15-85 IS lens. It's going to be main tool (besides my laptop) for doing business with Rogue Wave Communications. Can't wait to start playing around with it, get used to all the bells and whistles. Not only does this camera take great shots, it's also on the forefront of digital camera technology for shooting nice video.

Now to get a shotgun mic and a good tripod with fluid head.

Open for Bidness

Registered my business name today on the government website. Took all of five minutes, and now I have a business number, so I'm officially accepting contracts for writing and editing. Don't have a vid cam yet, so I'll have to hold off on web video production, but I'm getting there. It's pretty exciting!

Final Cut Pro

Took the next step in launching my writing/editing, web video business: installed Final Cut Pro 7. Or rather, the local web video guru, Ian MacKenzie, installed it for me. Thanks, Ian! Can't wait to get a camera now, and get to creating some awesome mini docs and promo videos! 

Master of Toast?

So I'm thinking about joining Toastmasters to improve my speaking and communication skills. On paper, there's always time to delete and re-phrase, check over spelling or grammar mistakes, and there's never any "ums" or "ahs." On the phone, or in talking to someone, however, there's much to be improved upon.

I remember elementary and high school speeches being mandatory in English class. I didn't mind them, but I was never great at delivering a knock-out talk. Watching Ted talks makes me think it would be pretty amazing to hold an audience's attention and move and inspire people with my spoken words...without using cue cards.

I've heard Toastmasters is a well-organized program to learn to give a good speech. I'm sure many a best man has signed up for the program in order to get some tips in being a better orator. Nothing impresses like a good, witty speech delivered with confidence and eloquent turns of phrase. I'd like to be able to be ready at any moment to step onto a soap box and gesticulate wildly about anything at a moment's notice. Be good to have that skill in my back pocket.

But is Toastmasters all it's cracked up to be? I haven't heard of any of the "famous Toastmasters" listed on the organization's website. They seem to be mostly American senators. I have no aspirations to wax poetic about US politics... so maybe there are other options I've yet to discover. But I'll check out what a membership to Toastmasters is all about and maybe drop in on a meeting at least once, just to see if it's actually a cult. If anyone has any advice about other ways to improve speaking skills, I'm all ears.