Black Mtn, yet again!

Past Saturday was yet another trip to Black Mtn. Just a day trip, a posse of a crew headed up Black Mtn:

Myself
Johnnie aka "The Purdy Lady"
Dan aka "The Man"
Jenny aka "Johnnie's Roommate"
Patrick aka "The Prettiest One Here"
Noel aka "You Don't Need Feet to Climb" aka "Shut up Noel!"

We also managed to meet up with two other climbers who we met through a mutual friend - Laura and her brother Alan. The South Dakotan siblings. (I'm on a roll with the nicknames today)

After nearly running Laura and Alan off the dirt road to Black Mtn (their first time there, long and boring story as to how that happened), we go to Boulder Basin. Showed them the usual boulder for "warm ups" of an overhanging flake, a thin overhanging seam and Courier Flight. It was the traditional "welcome to black mtn, leave your ego at the door and prepare to get spanked".

Next, we headed to the Pink Crack area. Johnnie's decided that this will be her project for the summer, and she's been making definite progress with the two times we've gone so far. I'm glad to see that she's more comfortable with the height as she gets on this thing. As for me, I decided I wanted to try 4 wheel drive sans key crystal. Yes, you read it right - if you've climbed this problem before, you know there was a critical feldspar crystal in the slab. Well, it's gone - fortunately I mangaged to do this problem. And in case you're wondering, it's no harder or easier... just takes a little more mental focus.

Second half of the day was spent up near the Visor. This is where I decided to actively attempt to climb something at my limit. I've decided that the easy variation on Can Opener would be perfect. Of course, being the retard that I am, I foolishly decided to try this problem again with shorts. After a few attempts, I regained my intelligence and put on the long pants that I brought, along with taping my knee for one of the moves - of course, by this time it was too late for me to give it a good go, despite having made progress. Oh well - I think it's better to try it later once the skin on my knee fully recovers. Can Opener. Good name for this problem...

Hiking up the hill, we next visited a roof crack problem from the previous weekend. Once again, I forgot the tape gloves and gave it a good go. For additional machismo, I decided not to use a shirt, thereby fully proving to the world my incredible stupidity. My entire body, my arm especially, looks like it got gnawed on by a hungry doberman named Butch. But, I made progress on this problem too!

I do love making progress on problems that are at my limit - both of these are great for that. :) I can't wait till I come back from Japan in a couple of weeks (and the weddings... *sigh*). Looks like no climbing for me for a month. Hopefully I'll remember the sequences of movements for these things.

Dinner was a 4 x 4 protein style with fries and drink. Nummy.

Cold shower needs? Try this -

As a guy (and probably for a girl too), if you ever need a cold shower and can't get to one to cool your pants, imagine the following:

Condoleeza Rice pole dancing in a chilly room

*shudder*

Hello old love

Ahhh... Black Mtn. How I missed her so - like a long forgotten surrogate mother who enjoys kicking my ass just b/c I looked at her the wrong way.... err... *cough cough* never mind.

First trip back to Black Mtn this season - and what a great trip! This time around it was just Johnnie and myself meeting up with my buddy Jason and his crew at the bouldering Elysian fields. Notable areas that we played at: Visor area, NRA area, Boulder Basin and Lookout Tower area.

I was a little nervous about climbing this weekend since I've been taking a long hiatus to try and keep my shoulder from getting injured / aggravated so I slowly ramped up what I tried over the course of the weekend. Started up and sent some warm up boulder problems from V0 to V2. Once those seemed like they weren't hurting me, resent Visor Lip (after a really ugly couple of tries...). Overall the shoulder kept up nicely.

What made the trip so grand was that I was introduced new problems that I could try that didn't seem to hurt me (see previous post on how to entertain me...)!!! A problem that had vexed me for years, a relatively "easy" (note the quotes) variation of Can Opener was shown to me - a key kneebar and a good throw to a nice sidepull! It's getting me all goose bumpy thinking about it... On top of that, my friend Jason showed me a nice long fist to offwidth 15' roof crack that just works every single muscle in the human body. I've never fallen out of crack with every muscle tissue failing all at once near the lip of the crack. I think my eyebrow muscles were sore the next day...

Made a few attempts at Cracker Boy but to no avail. After three attempts, it started tweaking my shoulder and decided that I should try it after a nice long rehabilitation of the shoulder. Besides, I was destroyed the second day - not by being sore but by feeling like I had been hit by a case of mono. I blame the 2 dollar tijuana hooker in my dreams for that. Well, that or the lack of food and proper rest the day before.

I think the two highlights of the weekend was watching Johnnie climb and the In-and-Out stops. It's so nice to see Johnnie progressing so much in her climbing these days. It's infectious watching her make an extra move each time she gets on a problem. Not only that, but just seeing the difference from a year ago - i.e. how much more she trusts her footwork or how less nervous she is about the height of a boulder (i.e. on Pink Crack). Too bad the lethargy hit me hard on day #2, otherwise I might have been able to smile and show her. I'm sure she understands how happy I felt and that it was all because of the emergency botox injections I've been getting that I couldn't outwardly smile (I am from L.A. afterall... gotta do these things every once in a while...).

As for the In-and-Out stop offs, Johnnie and I were craving MEAT and CHEESE on Sunday night. So what better place to eat dinner than to get a 3 by 3 Protein Style with grilled onions with french fries and a large coke? :D The thing is, 20 miles down the road, I decided I was still hungry - so we stopped again and at a different In-and-Out and ordered a 2 by 2 Protein Style with grilled onions. Then I was sated for the eveing. Final tally: 5 by 5 with fries and a drink vs me... and I won.

I think my metabolism got kick started after climbing that weekend. What do you think?

how to entertain obi

take him climbing where he doesn't get injured
plop him infront of any video game console that doesn't get him injured
randomness
present unique and intriguing stimulation that doesn't get him injured (you have a sick sick mind...)
present shiny beepy thingy
let him stare at the swirly patterns that cream makes a cup of coffee (it's a galaxy being born! ooooh.... awww....)

pumpkin grenades and such and such

If you're in a war, instead of throwing a hand grenade at some guys, throw one of those little baby-type pumpkins. Maybe it'll make everyone think of how crazy war is, and while they're thinking, you can throw a real grenade at them.

• Jack Handey 12/11/93

Göring: Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.

Gilbert: There is one difference. In a democracy, the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars.

Göring: Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.
In an interview with Gilbert in Göring's jail cell during the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials (18 April 1946), [3]

• 
  

So long and thanks for all the brownies...

One of our student receptionists brought in cookies and brownies this morning. When asked what the occasion was, she replied "Today is my last day!" with a grin.

I happily accepted a brownie and said "Congratulations!!!!"

She giggled. After thinking about what I said, I gave her a puzzled look and said "uhh... what is the appropriate response to someone leaving?"

We (including 2 others sharing in the brownies and cookies) thought about it for a few minutes. Then I finished my brownie and went back to work.

Never did figure out what's appropriate - guess it depends on the circumstances. But if you want to make idle banter while swooping down upon free brownies, instead of taking the time to find out, what is the polite thing to say?

How optemetrists relate to Air Supply

The human mind's ability at associative behavior and cognition is just amazing. I remember learning various forms of associative psychology, behavior, etc when I was an undergrad and I was absolutely stunned how much of our thoughts can come from such a seemingly simple (almost mechanical in its automation) system.

Take the classic Pavlovian example. Ring bell, serve food to dog, dog salivates. Rinse and repeat. eventually ring bell and dog salivates.

Then we have things like coffee. If memory serves me right, coffee doesn't have any actual physical addictive changes in the brain unlike things like heroin. But the association between coffee and good feelings is there.

Even more stunning to me is when I can relate these theories to my own experiences. I went to the optometrist today to get new glasses and contacts. Since it's been a while, the optometrist dilated my eyes. I'm not sure if it was the pupil dilator or if it was the local anesthetic for the eye pressure test, but a) my eyes started to feel like they were watering b) my eyelids started feeling puffy and heavy lidded. Basically by the time I left the optometrists' office, it felt like I was crying. And no, they didn't *actually* make me cry... even though that eyeball pressure test was a bit unnerving... (I'm going to have this eyeprobe touch your eye!).

As a result of all of this, I'm sitting here a few hours after my appointment feeling kinda sad and morose. Nothing emotional happened - I think it's just the association my brain has between the puffy eyes and tired tear ducts (flushing out those chemicals...) to a post-cry depression. In other words, as far as I can tell my brain thinks it's time for me to be feel like I had been sad this morning.

Honestly though I should be happy - I have data to play with, I got free food and coffee this morning (albeit a bad cup... but it was free!), and the optometrist did not molest me. Aside from the ocular chemicals. But there's no morning quite like a morning with ocular chemical exposure!

Funny how these things work. Incidentally, I have this odd urge to listen to some Air Supply...

Ode to being blonde

Lately I've been finding that I've been inadvertently saying hurtful or mean things without really meaning it. It's starting to bug me. (waaah). I don't know what it is, but I'll say one thing meaning it in jest or in complete innocence (and sometimes as a compliment) and I think others have been taking it poorly.

Case in point, last night I was asked by someone to give her an adjective describing someone else I knew. It was for an awards ceremony and was going to be part of the speech. So I blanked out my mind, thought of the person and said the first thing that came to mind:

"blonde"

Now, out of context (or perhaps in context, I don't know...), this was totally not a dig on the girl I knew. It just so happened that when I brought up the mental imagery of the person, her stark long blonde blonde blonde hair was standing out. It's so blonde it's almost white in mind. So that was the first word out of my mouth. I guess it seemed a little insensitive if you didn't know the context of my thoughts (I wonder if I'm subconciously writing my own defense right now... hrm....).

In any case, I've been raising the filter levels of the things coming out of my mouth. In the past though, people have accused me of being elitist or too aloof for doing it (I guess I appeared uninterested in what people were saying). Truth be told, I'm just spending the silent moments going over what I would say before I blurt things out. It's kinda funny to think how negatively people think of you even when you have the right intentions.

And people wonder why I find it tiresome to be around people for too long...

Cosmic laws:

1) no matter where you are in the country, you can always find a country / western station on
the radio.
2) No comic book superhero stays dead forever.   Their probability of resurrection is directly
proportional to their perceived capital worth.
3) No science experiment ever goes as planned.  If it appears to have gone as planned, recheck
results.
4) A roadtrip must and always will have an "adventure".  An adventure is any event where the
crap hits the fan and all those involved escape relatively unscathed.
5) Nothing is ever foolproof.  They will always build a better fool.
6) In a classroom setting, there is always going to be: a) that guy who asks too many questions
b) that other guy who is really annoying c) that other other guy who just doesn't get it. 
Sometimes you don't spot 'em right away, but they are always there.  Sometimes, they're really
efficient and it's only one person doing the job of all three...
7) Hindsight is always 20/20
8) Mechanical / electrical / computer problems can never be repeated in the presence of a repair
person.  
9) Despite driving for hours and being on a perfectly straight highway, you will never approach any
hill / peak in Arizona even though you maybe driving straight towards it

Superman is dead?

The computers in my lab are all named after superheros (for the most part). We have Superman, Wonderwoman, Cyclops, Hulk, Hawkman, Hammerhead, Casper and Firefly (Casper is arguably a "super" hero at best. Firefly is just cool - just deal...). A couple of days ago several of our machines started crashing so large signs were posted on the computer monitors that read something like:

Superman is DEAD

Which is a great segue for a superhero conversation with my coworkers: every great superhero / comic hero has died in one way shape or form in their respective series. Of course... they get resurrected somehow (good ol' capitalism can't keep them resting in peace...) but that's beside the point. The point is each great superhero of our time has suffered some kind of death at the comic artist's pen.

Take superman - a few years ago he was killed off by DC. Cyclops? Death in the movies. Casper the Friendly Ghost? dead to begin with. I think in the marvel universe they've ended and restarted the entire genre... something about someone in the comic books with wishing powers wishing that there were no more mutants and WHAMMO - 98% of Marvel's mutant superheros were gone. Go figure. Maybe it's some cosmic law. I hate cosmic laws. I also hate that particular someone who wished for all mutants to disappear.

But it's all ok because California is going to break off from the U.S. to go join Hawaii. Alaska can come too.