The CragBaby

I haven’t written on this site for a couple weeks, the longest I have ever gone without posting.  My last post, which I removed, was about The Future of Climbing.  I wrote it with the intent of creating a discussion about how the climbing industry structure could change and how crag access and other climbing issues could be addressed through climbing professionals.  I was amazed at the response of this post.  I received numerous positive emails and twitter posts, but also received a good handful of negative blog comments.  Negative blog comments always surprise me because in my 5+ years of blog reading I have never had a need or desire to personally attack someone on their own site.  

The negative comments made me realize that perhaps I had written the post incorrectly or in a format where my true tone didn’t come across.  I was honestly trying to create a discussion, but had posed my thoughts in questions which could have been taking as finger pointing.  I realize this now.

I considered re-posting my entry, but have decided against it because I realized that perhaps I don’t need to create these discussions.  I also realized through this post that perhaps I don’t want to spend so much time talking about climbing.  

I have been writing this blog for 2 years (no, I did NOT start it when I went on my road trip.) I started this site because I work as an analyst for a venture capital firm, with my industry of focus being online technologies.  In order to understand these technologies, I must use them.  I started the Wasatch Girl blog, but was struggling at first to find my online voice.  So I started the Cragbaby blog with the hopes that talking about my hobby, climbing, would be a catalyst for my business posts.  This technique truly worked and I continued to write on this site for the sole reason that people seemed to enjoy stopping by. =)

With the response to my last post though, I finally realized that my time would be better spent focusing on the Wasatch Girl and my career, rather than the Crag Baby and my hobby.  I think climbing for me is meant to be simply enjoyed.  Climbing will never be my life nor do I want to work in the outdoor industry, so I am going to focus on just loving the act of climbing rather than talking about it.

Working the moves on Devoted. Buttermilks, Bishop. (Photo by Dan Brayack).

I plan on continuing to post on this site, but with less frequency.  I want the few posts I do upload to be content focused with information that might be useful to you readers.  I will still post the occasional photos of my recent destination stops, but want to focus more on trip beta write-ups (like this Rock Town post which many of you readers have emailed and mentioned was useful), problem suggestions for each area and how-to posts on road tripping (for instance this post on Living the Nomadic Life).  I might continue to post my gratitude lists on this site, but think I will move my thoughts on volunteering to the Wasatch Girl.

Hope you readers are well.  

Best.

Rachel

As I am reading through my Google Reader today, I thought I would do some link love in order to share some great blogs and posts with you readers.

I read a handful of blogs, but some of my favorites include the following:

• LifeHacker – This is one of my favorite technology blogs.  Most of their posts are useful technology tidbits, but they also posts up other great content posts such as 10 Ways to Save Money in a Recession.
• Zen Habits – I love this blog as it focuses on living the Zen lifestyle.
• Hoover’s Business Insight Zone – The writer of this blog is Tim Walker, who I was fortunate to meet at last year’s SXSW.  He writes a business blog but also integrates many excellent posts for normal day life.  Some of his recent posts that I enjoyed: What To Do When Your Friends Are Laid Off, The Basic Basics: Thank Someone and Committ to Having Better Problems in 2009.  You can also follow him on Twitter; he is @TWalk.

This week there were many excellent climbing blog posts that I wanted to share with you readers.

• Dave (who I often reference as H.I.P. #2) writes on Motivation.  I particularly liked this post because I have noticed my thinking of grades and trying hard projects changing since I have been on the road.  Previously I wouldn’t even attempt anything that I felt was out of my range.  On this road trip I have hopped on numerous lines out of my range including a couple v9s.  And funnily enough I have often surprised myself and now have sent lines two grades harder than my best send at home.
• I just came across new blog Onsight Nutrition: Sport Nutrition for Rock Climbing thanks to Ben’s post.
• Rock Climber Girl writes Us and Them: Living Life Unconventionally.  Hilarious!
• All Climbing posts Data on Climbing Accidents and Fatalities.
• Steph Davis bids against the BLM oil and gas auction and wins.

And other notable news..

• Dabtronics opens their blog up for comments. =)

I recently integrated a new plugin on both my blogs called Disqus (pronounced discuss).  It is a service that ‘makes commenting easier and more interactive, while connecting websites and commenters across a thriving discussion community’.  I wanted to try the plug-in as I had heard through my tech friends that it has helped create further communications on their blogs.  But really I wanted to try it because it is a portfolio company of a venture firm, Union Square Ventures, that I truly respect.  =)

When I first saw the service (actually on one of the first sites to implement it, my friend Charlie’s blog) it required that a commenter register in order to leave a comment which I found incredibly annoying and resulted in me almost leaving the site without posting a comment.  Sometimes I just get so tired of registering for services, increasing the odds of getting more spam.  But the company has improved the product giving the commenter the choice to register or not. If you register, you will be notified if the blog writer responds to your comment.  If you don’t register, it is just like leaving a normal comment without any notification.

As the writer of the blog, so far I like the service because:

1. It allows me to reply back to individual comments, being able to create a handful of conversations within the comment thread
2. It creates a community page on Disqus where I can see all my comments
3. As a commenter on other blogs I can see all the blogs on which I have commented.  Pretty cool.

I will admit that the integration of old comments into the Disqus system was trickier than it should have been.  There weren’t any straight forward directions and the forum was quite convoluted.  I finally solved the problem by swapping tweets with Daniel Ha, Disqus co-founder, on Twitter.  The key is you have to enable the plugin, then go into manage and then import.  This didn’t seem straight forward to me as once I enabled the plug-in, my comments disappeared and so I thought I would have to export or import prior to enabling.

Basically, though, I am writing this post to see if any of you readers have any thoughts about this new comment system.  Do you like it?  Have you even noticed the change?  Have you seen it on other blogs?  And is this a post that truly should stay on the my tech / business blog of the Wasatchgirl? =)  I thought I would post here as the WasatchGirl has been quite dormant since I hit the road.

I have been on “vacation” since August 1st.  I thought I would have tons of free time and would blog regularly.  Yet these high hopes have not come to fruitition as I instead have jammed my free time with climbing,  hanging out with friends and just having a great time. I will stop being so lazy now and attempt to resume my usual blogging schedule while enjoying the upcoming months of freedom.  Look for new posts soon…. =)

I just realized that my Seattle based friend Chris is blogging. I have looked through about a dozen entries this morn and am impressed with his blog, especially his photos. He writes on all topics I know nothing about: photography, pop culture, music, movies, etc. I really dig it. Check it out here or it will also be linked on my blogroll. The above shot is his and called Artificial Nature.

Last night I told Shaft that I thought I had lost my few readers when I moved to my new site because I hadn’t seen any comments since the web address shift. Then he suggested I look in the moderation section. Ha ha ha ha! I guess it helps if I check that on occasion. Thanks for all of you that have commented and sorry I was so slow to approve. Neal, thanks for the feedback. Whew, that text is hard to see. I will look into fixing it. =)