Review of 2008

2008 was another interesting year. Still managing to hold down two jobs, which should be getting easier but doesn’t seem to be. Rocksource continues to grow despite the chaos on the world financial markets and the best efforts of some of our more random partners. Life at the Uni is also good, published a lot of papers last year and finished up several projects. The Virtual Outcrop stuff just keeps getting better, especially with the addition of the hyper spectral element. The stressful relationship between Norway's largest oil company and myself, momentarily warmed but then took a nose dive. Fortunately several other, larger companies are now supporting our work so it's more of an irritation than a problem.

As always didn’t climb as much as I should have but still managed to haul my inexorably increasing bodymass up the odd 6+ and a few ice routes. Had a couple of great kayak trips, plenty of good boarding and a fantastic offroad bike trip in Aus. Just got back from an excellent holiday in Central America with Katharine and getting ready to start another year…

On the international front, was delighted to see Obama win the US election, maybe there is real hope for change after the utter, totally avoidable, cretinous diaster that has been the last 8 years. With a million dead in Iraq and the World economy in tatters, Bush and his cronies should be tried for crimes against humanity. On a lighter note it was great to see lots of investment bankers loose their highly paid jobs although the capacity for the system to reward failure with massive bonuses never ceases to amaze. The financial crisis could be an amazing opportunity for restructuring the system and building a much better and greener future, like Roosevelts New Deal of the 1930's, but in reality the huge cash injections will probably disappear into the pockets of a few scum bags. Well that's something to look forward to...

Anyway on a more personal note, 2008 can be summarized with the following numbers...

2000 - Kilometers ridden offroad in Australia
550 - The number of whales saved from Japanese whalers by Sea Shepard
154 - Post on my blog
150 - Horsepower engine on the boat I bought
11 - Scientific articles published (a record year)
10 - Friends that have added to the world population
9 – Number of lives used up by Florence :-(
8 - Ice routes climbed
7 - Countries visited outside of Norway (quite a small number by normal standards)
6 - Visitors from the UK who stayed at Karmasotra
5 - Trips to the land of the large
4 - Garages that have failed to fix the persistent knocking in my car
3 - PhD students finished during the year
2 - Masters students finished during the year
1 - Volcano seen spewing lava in Costa Rica...
-2 - The current temperture outside