Toby

It is with great sadness that I report that Toby – a border collie I affectionately refer to as my rental dog – was put to sleep on July 13th. Among other issues, he had never quite been the same after being kicked in the head by a horse and was also suffering from the blood borne disease, anaplasmosis. (Note: I once went out on a date with someone named Anna Plasmosis).

Ha ha, not really. But I did once go out on a date with a heavy smoker named Sima [pronounced see’-ma]. However, it was to be our only date as I made the tactical error of calling her “Empha Sima” when she lit up.

Anyway, Toby was really the dog of my close friend and neighbor Vickie. When Vickie was away, she would only trust Toby with me or one other person, Jon. Toby was cute, personable, and amazingly intelligent – he understood full sentences, even when they didn’t contain his name. Like most border collies, he was driven and obsessive, but was always lovable and endearing. We spent many a morning over the years walking in the woods, on the beach and at local parks. I miss him.

Here is a picture of Toby: http://www.airsicknessbags.com/Toby.jpg

Because I was apparently not sufficiently sad and reflective enough in some deity’s divine master plan, I turned 50 in July (or 106 if you believe Facebook. When you’re 106 Facebook stops serving you ED ads.)

I initially thought that being 50 and childless was an indication of a failed life, but then I realized that was just plain silly. Being 50 and still blogging is a much better indication of a failed life.

To celebrate the milestone, my mother Noa Miller and her husband Jerry invited all of my dearest and closest friends to come to Hull for a celebration dinner. The event made me feel truly fortunate to have such a wealth of friends. I mean, so what if I don’t have any resentful children who hate me?

If you’re not a reader of Backpacker Magazine (and even if you are but don’t read all the fine print cover to cover) you may have missed a short piece they recently wrote-up (translation: I wrote up) about the “Best Weekend Hike in Massachusetts”. It’s a trip that Craig Richards and I did about 10 years ago. It was actually his idea, but I co-opted it for the piece. To see the short article: http://www.fatpacking.com/resume/images/Backpacker201108.jpg

But I guess my biggest recent news concerns the Fatpackers Reality Show. I just signed a contract with a production company called Renegade. The option gives them exclusivity to pitch and represent any number of reality concepts based upon Fatpacking to various networks (many of which you’ve never even heard of!)

This came about in a roundabout way via Facebook. I had posted some pictures of a recent backpacking trip and a Facebook friend made a comment whose gist was “This would make a great reality show.” I followed up with links to a few concepts I had written up and out of the blue, my high school Physics partner, Mark Krasselt, (who works for the aforementioned production company) saw it and made the shidduch. .

I recognize that the odds of my show ever seeing airtime are very remote. However, in anticipation of such an event, I’m seeking arrogance training so I can learn to talk about myself and how great I think I am all the time. Come to think of it, after re-reading this newsletter, maybe I don’t need the training after all.

Anyway, I think the takeaway regarding the reality show is for high school and college students: Learning Physics is more important than you think.

Finally, I will completely eschew any Air Sickness Bag drivel as I have a few irons in the fire (cookies in the bag?) that may require lengthy in-depth analysis in the next newsletter.

Until Then, Stay Mild!

Steve

I thought Mildly Informative went out of business!

Most of you have probably gotten over the shock of not receiving your Mildly Informative IV Drip for some time now. If you haven’t, I know a mediocre therapist who won’t solve your any of your issues, but will sympathetically hand you tissues while ignoring you pour out your heart.

Two forces have conspired to prevent my heretofore semi-regular dissemination. The first was a full-time programming job I accepted at the beginning of 2010. As this was my first W-2 job since 1984, you can imagine what a massive fail this was. It underscored poor financial decisions, but worse it exposed my severe lack of skills in starting a venture which I had hoped would be wildly successful and lucrative, but is instead mildly monetarily successful at best, even if it does provide an amazing quality of life.

The second force causing my lack of communication is that I’m male. Ha ha, just kidding. It’s Facebook. I could probably tell you all the reasons Facebook obsoletes predecessors, but my guess is that you’re more savvy with the platform (I’ve never poked anyone) and would come up with several reasons that I overlooked.

When I began my search for a full time position (I still cringe at those 3 words), Fitpacking was languishing and I thought I’d have to close up shop. I also found that my web programming skill set was dated, so I learned ASP (I’m not nearly the disciple of Microsoft that corporations seem to be), using the Fitpacking web site on which to learn it.

By the time the hideously ugly Fitpacking site was completely transformed into its now moderately ugly state, I was working full time. Unexpectedly however, the overhauled site starting bringing in new business. By the time summer rolled around, I was far too busy running trips to keep the job, so I quit. Note: “Yay!”, is the proper response here, unless you inexplicably want to be in some kind of stable relationship with me.

I met some amazing people last season and visited Redwood National Park, Yosemite, Crater Lake, Shenandoah, Mt. Rainier, Canyonlands, and the White Mountains. However, when the season ended in October it was back to work.

This time however I accepted a contract with Abt associates in Cambridge. I worked on and deployed (great resume word) TRI.Net for the EPA … a program that monitors toxics dumped into the environment. Finally, computer work I could feel good about. In fact, you can download and use the program yourself if you’d like to monitor toxics in your area (or your co-worker’s cubicle) http://www.epa.gov/tri/tridotnet/index.html .

In December, my Aunt Diana Zimmerman passed away. She was the last remaining member of my father’s family, or at least in that generation. So it was sad not only to lose her, but to think of my father, who died just over 20 years ago now. Not only did I just start thinking about my father again and reflect for quite some time … after writing that, it makes it really hard to segue into anything else.

Anyway, back to self-serving detritus. The March issue of Backpacker Magazine contained a feature article about Fatpacking. I could try to hype it, but I’m not as attached to you reading it as I used to be when I was a lot more insecure. http://www.fitpacking.com/BackpackerArticle.pdf . It was actually pretty good exposure and I want to thank the writer Jim Gorman for making Fatpacking somehow seem like a desirable outfitter.

I’m not going to drag you through all the other dumb media exposure Fitpacking has been fortunate enough to generate, but two cool ones are Money Magazine and CNN / Money.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/27/pf/computer_hiking.moneymag/index.htm
http://money.cnn.com/video/pf/2010/05/28/pf_sa_fit_packing.moneymag/

Oh, and lest I forget to mention Barf Bags, last fall I went to New York City and was interviewed by Adam West (you might know him as “Adam West” on Family Guy, or possibly as Batman) regarding the Air Sickness Bag collection. It’s for a pilot he wants the network to pick up. It was fun, absurd, cool, surreal and educational (?) all at the same time.

So many other amazing things have happened to so many other amazing people I know but I don’t know what they are. So at the risk of this tome becoming moderately informative, I’ll stop here.

Steve