Still Around

Donkeys In The Road - Gunlock, Utah

Man I feel like I've been up to a lot and a little at the same time. 2011 feels like it only lasted a few weeks!

But this year has proven to be both simple, and drastic. The simple part is: I worked some trail jobs and build my Freelance Portfolio. The drastic part is: I stopped pursuing a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

Yeah, that's right - no more Engineering Degree for me. And for a very good reason. I had this huge awakening in February and realized that my passions really are in making websites and helping people via nature (hence the freelance work, and consistent trail jobs for the past 6 years). Not so much on the mechanical side of things (even though I was getting straight A's). However, I will still watch a rocket take off in awe and sit there and think about how it all works :)

I've been working pretty hard this year at building up my skills in website awesomeness. I have new clients, and new strategies for how I run things. I'm pretty happy with it all. Overall, running my own business as a freelancer has been hugely rewarding, but is also just as challenging and at times can be super tough. Right now my portfolio is not up. I took down the old site because I just didn't like it very much. As soon as the new site is up, I'll be sure to blog about it so you can go check it out. Most of my work comes by word-of-mouth anyways.

I LOVE trail work too. Nothing in the world beats going out for many days, or weeks at a time and living off the land (with Anasazi) or camping out (with Aspiro). Yeah, I forgot to mention that this year I tried something new: I spent the Summer (and Fall) at Aspiro. It was a totally great new experience and really opened up my eyes to what other programs are like. That's what I went for. I loved what I learned at Aspiro, and especially the people I got to know there. I am also very excited to return to Anasazi in the Winter and come back to some of my roots that I've planted there. I think I will always want to have a part in this type of work - even when I grow up (I haven't grown up yet, okay?)

Well...

here I am, still in Utah. I keep pushing back my plans to move to AZ for the Winter due to various reasons:

• Ended up working at Aspiro for a few extra weeks
• Decided to stay and help out some family with moving their stuff
• Working on some websites with clients located locally
• The Holidays... why travel around when you can just stay here?

So by the time November came around I didn't see any reason to travel back South again just to come back up here for Thanksgiving and Christmas. So I decided to stay here until after Christmas.

Not that we even have any big Christmas plans.

Yep, my family is pretty cool. We don't ever make big plans, and just see what happens. It annoys most other people. I'm proud of it because I'm always ready for whatever happens. Comes with the territory.

Have a good life, and in case I'm not back here by the time Christmas rolls around... Merry Christmas.

--WBC--

Meanwhile...

Southern Utah - Photo by Steve Kugath

Meanwhile, in The World Of Brian:

A Summer full of the Aspiro trail, canyoneering, rock climbing, website building, and some good 'ol fashioned family time.

Looks like I'm hanging around Utah for a while longer before returning to Arizona.

Stay tuned...

--WBC--

Summertime

Dragon Fly that landed on our rope while climbing Black Rocks. St. George, UT

My goals this week are to get a new vehicle and get www.WhatIsNoni.com up and running.

First, the vehicle - since I'm not living in Salt Lake anymore it has been tough to get around on just a bicycle. Plus I have been asking for rides more often than ever. That can only last so long before it becomes necessary to get a vehicle again. An opportunity came for one, so I'm taking it: A 1997 Dodge Minivan. The price is right and with a little bit of work on the breaks I should have this thing registered and up and running in the next few days. And the first thing I plan to do with it is drive up the canyon and go rock climbing! Yes, it will feel good. The best part is (for me) that I can sleep in it when I have to, and keep my bike in it for some good riding whenever I want. Oh, and I'll be parking it by any river I see just so I can tell the kids that "I live in a van, down by the river." For those of you, like my mom, who dislike the thought of me living in a van, my next plan is to get some land and build my own house on it. Yeah, whenever Recreation Jobs actually pay enough money to do that, I will.

The website, www.whatisnoni.com is a new purchase of mine because my brother and I are planning on selling Noni Juice online again. If you don't know what Noni is, you'll have to google it for now, but by the end of this week we should have the site up with some good information about Noni. I hope that within a short time WhatIsNoni.com will become a main resource for people wanting to learn about the Noni fruit and a great place to find coupons for different Noni products.

I can't believe August is just about over. This Summer has flown by and I feel like I'm just getting started.

--WBC--

Up at Aspiro

Car rides!

Just a quick update: I've been working at Aspiro in Utah since May. It's a great therapeutic adventure program. Instead of survival based, we go rock climbing, mountain biking and some backpacking. I've been really busy working on some web projects during my off-weeks. Life's good. Still full of challenges as usual. I'm doing a schedule where I work 2 weeks and then I have 2 weeks off. The past two weeks I was in Moab and Escalante for work. It was awesome! Now that I have some time off I think I'm going to enjoy some movies and swimming. Then finish a few websites that have been awaiting my attention.

--WBC--

El Norte

I left Phoenix (shown above with the sunset) and took a trip to Salt Lake City this week. Not so much as a vacation, but to get some things done. I hitched a ride to St. George with my buddy Lincoln and Reggie ("my buddy" includes 2 people). I spent the week sleeping on the couch at Tamra's house. Got to meet her awesome and roommates: Caroline, Kandace and Jenny. They live in a beautiful duplex on a hill that overlooks the city. Each morning Tamra made the most healthy smoothie in the world, and after she and Kandace and I would go for a run. St. George has some of the most beautiful scenery surrounding it hands down. I don't care where you are from, and no matter how green and magnificent you think the mountains are where you live. Nothing compares with red and white sandstone hills with etched markings of wind and water, with black lava rock and green junipers painting the rest of it.

While there I zipped over to Moab and attended the Aspiro Tryouts. Aspiro is an outdoor therapeutic program similar to Anasazi, but they do adventure based activities (rock climbing, skiing, mountain biking, etc.) instead of wilderness survival. After the tryouts I was pulled aside and offered a job right away! This made me really happy, but I had to postpone the offer because I'm committed to work at Anasazi until May. If you're thinking I'm leaving Anasazi for good, that's not true (it never is for those of us who are "lifers" there). I'll be coming back in the Winter to Anasazi as usual.

I have made a big decision: not going to pursue a degree in Engineering anymore. I realized this in January when I got my acceptance letter into the program. I was not excited when I got it. I didn't want to believe it, but it was true. Needless to say I've decided to pursue Experiential Education as a career choice at this time. It is what I've loved doing for many years now, and so much that I hadn't realized how far I had come with it. My education is in it, and 90% of my work experience is with teaching in the outdoors. It's not that I don't like math and science and rockets and computers... I love it all, but my passion has shifted to people.

I'm still doing math and programming on the side. I have a need for this technical stuff as well in my life. I still want to know how things work. I'm pretty happy doing these two things as a balance.

Really, if I could contribute anything to society right now, it would be the understanding of the true connection we have with out planet and how our modern technology is actually a part of it. Let me explain for just a minute: we are connected to our Earth. Not just in a spiritual way but literally physically. Our cells, and atomic structure are based off of carbons just like our planet. We resonate with it, whether we realize it or not. Most people don't see this. We only watch movies about it (like Avatar) and wish we had it too. But my message is that WE DO! This has become more apparent to me the more time I spend in the great outdoors - sleeping on the ground, and not separating myself from nature with modern camping equipment. I hope I'm not sounding too off the wall here. I completely support the expanse and discovery of our modern technology. Someone told me this a few weeks ago and I agree: "What we are doing with technology is natural, because our planet has produced us and given us this ability to create what we have made." Now I still believe we have to fix how we do things and make our technology cleaner and less intrusive to our planet. The paradox of our existence is our ability to create and destroy simultaneously. But I wish we respected the balance of our planet among all this invention and modern living. Too many people are scared of nature, see it as dirt, or disregard its importance. I get to work in a place right now where I take kids who don't understand nature and after a few weeks in the wilderness they realize how ALIVE and connected our Earth is. And once they realize that, they become better people too (thus is the concept behind therapeutic wilderness programs). We seem to take for granted how dependent we our on our planet until something changes - like a natural disaster - and that is when we realize how fragile we are without the complete support and cooperation of our planet Earth. I wish the general population would understand this better. I know there's a lot of people out there who know this, but there is still too many individuals preoccupied with their image or their bank accounts to care enough about where it all comes from. We are married to our Earth, and must understand it. Our practices need to change more than just using a recycling bin. The best thing is knowledge. Learn what our Earth is and understand why we are who we are - because of our planet. Lastly, I'd like to build myself an earth home. They are pretty dang cool.

Good To Be Back

Returning to Anasazi this Winter has been a great decision. I've loved being back on the trail and working with kids in the outdoors again. Everything from cooking on a campfire to sleeping under the stars and working with TrailWalkers. I love it.

Lately I've been really sick. For 2 straight weeks I've had a bad cough and been in bed. But today I feel much better (a friend told me a few days ago to stop eating bread and processed food, and only eat veggies and oranges). Since doing that I've been getting well quickly. Here's a picture of when it all started...

I fell asleep like this because I was so sick

Being sick so long has given me a lot of time to sleep and think about life. The University of Utah has accepted me to start school this Summer in their Mechanical Engineering program :) but I've had a lot of second thoughts about returning to school. I'm planning on giving this more thought, as my other option is to stay in Outdoor Education and work on some business ideas I can do with the experience I have.

I plan to visit California next week and go sailing with my buddy who's living there right now on a sailboat. It should be tons of fun. I'll take some pictures to show y'all when I return. In the mean time, please enjoy these pictures from the Anasazi Trail...

Swimming Hole

Making Fire

Wild Edibles

Cooking on the fire

Work Motto

So recently I realized that I've been stressing out about my workload. I have an online Calculus class to finish, websites to build, and regular life to live (including moving into a new place this week). I've been working for too long - pushing too much. Need a break.

It's really just too much work. So I've started making some changes: I turned away some web clients, because I currently have enough work, AND Calculus is actually more important to me so I can be prepared for school this Summer.

What is it about life that causes us to get into these tough places? I try to find a balance in my life, but often find that I'm playing or working too much, without a balance in the middle. I guess my motto might have something to do with it:

"Work Hard, Play Hard, Die hard."

But maybe I should change it to this:

"Work some, Play some, Never die."

It's funny how these things go. I kept thinking I needed to add more to my life, and now it's time for me to appraise what I'm doing and shave away the non-essentials.

I spent most of today working on 2 things (among other things):
1. Putting some new links and images on my portfolio: www.wbcobb.net
2. Updating the QuikCamo website: www.quikcamo.com

Winter '11

It seems that blogging has not been a priority of mine for quite a while now (around a year). I've been blogging since 1999 fairly consistently, and with pleasure. But I don't know why lately I've been neglectful of this blog. Perhaps I lost interest because of other things. Or perhaps I just felt like I shouldn't be telling the world about my personal life as much. I can't really say for sure. But those reasons are a slice of it.

It has been interesting how things have evolved over the years in the blogging world as well as the wonderful attention the internet has now as compared to 10 years ago. Obviously Facebook has captured the biggest audience by being the best at re-creating our social lives online, which I believe has a significant impact on how we communicate with each other today. i.e. I was just talking to my roommate who created a Facebook group so he can get addresses of all his friends to send wedding announcements to. It was then that we realized: "How did we ever get all of the addresses of our distant friends and family before Facebook?" As the saying goes "Everybody is on Facebook." Whatever. I think it's a great trend, and I think they're big enough now that they will always be successful - kind of like Microsoft. Both companies can get away with a few dumb mistakes and still recover just because they are so well known.

Moving on...

It's Winter now. And those of you who know me know that I am more of a desert rat than a snowboarding junkie. I think that's why I'm loving Arizona so much right now :) Working the trail has never been better, and I'm keeping super busy during my off-weeks doing Calculus and freelance web development. I feel like I'm pushing my limits with all of these things I'm doing. It's a good push though - because I'm always finding more efficient ways to do things and multitasking. I am definitely more productive and efficient than I have been for years.

So here I sit in my room and finally taking time to write on my blog again. I have a feeling I will be blogging more often. I also feel like there are some more adventures which await, and that keeping a blog through it all would be worthwhile.

If you've read this far I am impressed. I'd be bored by now ;)

Here is a fun video for you: The "Techno Viking" in Berlin...