During the Fall semester, my reduced class-load has allowed me to spend a lot more time exercising and working on various hobbies. Here they are, in no particular order:
More than a year ago, while slightly intoxicated, I came up with the idea of getting friends together to play rugby at midnight. After lots of preparation, the game started on Thursday nights in January. Our first game was a brutal three-on-three killing match. However, eventually the game grew larger and larger when more people realized how fun rugby could be.
The Fight Club style allure was huge. We picked teams schoolyard-style, and chose the kickoff by arm-wrestling, rather than flipping a coin. We played a scaled-down version of the rules, with only enough to keep the game looking like rugby. At the end of the Spring semester, we had grown beyond the typical organized rugby game, playing 22-on-22 for the famous last game.
During the Fall semester, the game started to meet with many problems. Even though the campus grounds crew had turned on the sprinklers to drive us off the field, the first few games were successful.
But as time wore on, playing on a cold wet field was taking a toll, and the injury rate grew day-by-day. Finally, in late October, after our third week in a row of serious injury, we had to stop playing. Midnight Rugby will be dearly missed.
My old girlfriend Vicky turned me on to indoor rock climbing at IronWorks in 2002, but I only went once or twice a month until September 2003. Thanks to a gift of climbing gear from my parents, Ellie and I have been going three or more times per week. Everyone should try rock climbing,
it's incredibly fun and a good workout.
Both Ellie and I have progressed in skill pretty quickly. For those of you that know any climbing terminology, we're both doing occasional V2 bouldering problems at this point.
Running
In order to trim down for rock climbing, I've been running a lot, too. Before finals, I was frequently running 30 to 50 miles per week. The "Codometer" on my website reads 381 miles since September.
The Website
My personal site, Codythefreak.net, has been a labor of love all year, as has been my online photo gallery.
Warning: stay away from the site if you don't appreciate lewd humor and frequent cursing. I spent more than a hundred hours working on a major revamp of the site in January and February. During the whole year of 2003, it has received about 100,000 hits, and the gallery has received more than 90,000 just since July. I'm rather proud of its popularity.
Reading my web log is a good way to keep track of what's going on in my life. And viewing the gallery is a good way to see what I've been up to (vacations, parties, etc.).