don't believe the hype

Well, here's what I got for Christmas:

• Signed copies of Rockclimbing in Australia and World Climbing by Simon Carter, which Kylie managed to arrange (nice one)
• #2 Black Diamond C4 Camalot
• Dosage 3 climbing DVD (see Big Up Productions)
• Chemical Brothers Singles '93-'03 DVD
• $700 worth of gift vouchers towards whatever we spend our engagement money on
• Bosch drill and 200-piece drill set (so I can fix all those things that need fixing)
• 2006 Australian Climbing Calendar
• Wheelbarrow
• Best of the Best sci-fi anthology (20-year retrospective of The Year's Best SF series)
• Cane basket for keeping/carrying records in
  
• 3 pairs of boxer shorts (well that had to happen I guess)

So as you can see I managed to get a huge quantity of presents!!!

Now we need to work out what to buy with our gift vouchers and engagement money. It's looking like we might get a home theatre system but we'll see.

Well, it's that time of year again... hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Christmas with your loved-ones. I'll be pretty busy tomorrow - breakfast at my parents' house, lunch with Kylie's mother's side of the family and dinner with her father's side. Looking forward to some goodies - hope you all get some great presents too!!

Went to the Rock on Sunday.... got up at 5.30 and got to the climbs at 7.30. Rob led Scratched Knees and took quite an impressive fall ;) Then we got spanked while toproping The Staircase. After that I led that strange little climb that may or may not be in the guidebook. It has awkward pro -- nothing seems to fit exactly but you can get lots of not-quite-bomber placements ;) Too hot after that so we went home. A fun day.

Here they are....

Try and beat an overall score of -1 on this minigolf game!!

Update (Sat. 10): Since that post I got -4.
Update 2 (Mon. 12): Got -5.

Well, today I managed to get an article onto Slashdot!! And also my records arrived, a lot earlier than I thought.... so now I have about 3 times as many tracks to play with. I gotta get those photos I took of my new turntables on here.....

For those who haven't run across it already, you should check out http://www.digg.com - it's a great example of the way the interactivity of the Internet can be used to create something better than any traditional newspaper. This is pretty much exactly the kind of thing the article I posted a couple of days ago was talking about. Of course, digg.com focuses mainly on science/tech/geek stuff because that's what the readers are interested in, but it's only a matter of time before we start seeing sites like this with a "mainstream" news focus.

Here's another article showing the ways the Internet is going to change our society - this time in the area of newspapers and journalism:

A Recipe for Newspaper Survival in the Internet Age