I finished Kazuo Ishiguro's first book last night: A Pale View of Hills. Some of the themes were familiar from the others of his that I have read: postwar Japan, loss and longing, things left unsaid, regret. It is a beautiful, elegant novel that surprised me with its depth. He always catches me off-guard somehow, no matter how many of his books I read.
__
I don't remember if I mentioned my rest day yesterday - I managed to onsight Lavender Eye, 12a, and Sonny Jim, 11a, and to do Grand Dragon, this fairly terrifying v7. Grand Dragon was a tentative goal of this trip. I tried it once last year, and took a bad, 15 foot, fall on it and almost landed in a hole in the pads. Not cool. I kinda wanted to do it, but I knew I would only try it if I felt sure that I could just send it without any questions. I felt good yesterday, so, after doing some sport with Randy in the morning, I wandered over there, and saw some Minnesotans working on it. There were lots of pads, and I felt good, so I went for it. The crux, for me, was turning the corner, which is this spot where, if you fall, you scrape down this sharp boulder and then careen into this multi-level pit. I felt insecure doing the transition, and just squeezed the hell out of the holds, hoping that I wouldn't blow off and rip my face off on the rock. Yuck - I will never do that thing again. I'm glad I did it.
Today was another great day out at the crag. I went with a bunch of other Minnesotans (most of the freakishly strong and obsessive ones) to Cowell. I did a couple of easies to the left of Fred's Cave proper, and then got into Fred's Roof, a v10 in the steep part. It is one of the best climbs I've ever seen or experienced. There are three rails of good crimps and a huge jug at the top, and you do these huge throws between.
After maybe an hour of work, I had managed all the moves, and, when I stuck them, they just didn't feel that bad. I couldn't link it, though, and every time I tried, I felt a little more tired than before. Not ideal. This is now an objective that I would like to achieve before I take off for Minnesota. It's nice, and unsettling, to have stumbled on something else that I want to do before I leave. I'm glad, because Glass Bowl and Flash Gordon were both hard on my joints, and I'm not into that one bit.
After not doing Fred's Roof, I moved over to My Space, a v8, and, with a couple of creative beta solutions from Nic, I did that one in a few minutes. That is a very good problem.
They convinced me to go down and check out Off the Rails, this v10 in the New Font area. It deserves every bit of attention and praise it receives. It's this long traversing problem on sloping rails and crimps that finishes on this semi-insecure topout. I was half out of my mind with exhaustion at that point, but decided to give it a few tries. I managed to do all the moves, although only two at a time. Then I tried to link it, and, within a bunch of tries, had managed to link into the last crux. When I got there, it was like I couldn't even see straight and didn't even want to climb anymore, I was so tired. I made it to that point a couple of times, throwing and not sticking the crux move. None of us did the problem, unfortunately, although we had a great time trying. The crew I climbed with today, Nic, Pi, Noah, and Jordan, are some good, strong climbers. Fun to hang out with, fun to climb with. Good fellas. I'm looking forward to more trips with them in the future.
The trip is drawing to a close. I'll take a rest day tomorrow (i.e.: Shoney's All You Can Eat Breakfast Bar & reading), and then do my best to finish off Fred's Roof on Saturday - And off the Rails?! I have now started receiving instructions about what I am supposed to do to prepare for Tuesday (note, NOW, NOT at any time in the last two weeks). I suppose I may have to go back a day early to deal with that.
In other news, it sounds like Saya Steve is coming into town next week, and staying with me. That is going to be a hell of a lot of fun. Enough so that I'm excited to get back home.
Wish me luck for growing skin, Icy Hot miracles, and then Fred's Roof on Saturday.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Book Seven
I finished Paul of Dune late last night. It was incredible. I haven't enjoyed a Dune book that much since reading the first. It took me a little while to get used to the writing. It is sloppy and sometimes silly (not that I'm Steinbeck or anything - it's easier to criticize creation than it is to create).
The fast and loose writing does not change the fact that you get to learn more about Paul both before he went to Arrakis (before Dune), and Paul after he becomes emperor of the galaxy (after Dune). If the writing isn't super duper, the plot line, at least, satisfies. I found myself hanging on each plot thread as they were woven, all the way to the end, and even after five hundred pages, I was left wanting more. Delightful.
A new order:
9) Chapterhouse: Dune
8) Heretics of Dune
7) House Corrino
6) House Harkonnen
5) God Emperor of Dune
4) Children of Dune
3) House Atreides
2) Paul of Dune
1) Dune
I'm a little concerned that I'm going to read those other books - Butlerian Jihad, Sandworms of Dune, and some other that I can't remember. I have a feeling that they would end up at 10, 11, 12. Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson are coming out with Jessica of Dune at some point. I think I will check that one out.
_______
Today was a good day for climbing. You may recall that I worked Ab Lounge, a v10 a couple of days ago, and made some progress. I think I said something along the lines of, 'I can't say for sure, but I feel like I'm close on it'. A friend from Minnesota showed up late last night, Randy, and we decided to climb together today. I took him out to Fountaine Red, where I showed him some classics - Le Beak, Rings of Uranus - and I climbed a few ones that I hadn't done before, in the range of v0 to v4. All of them were superb. One of them, Let Mikey Do It, a v1, is among the scarier climbs I've done here in Arkansas. It brought me back to my R rated trad climbing days (not that they were very long). As I climbed down, I realized that the thing was about as tall as The Wall at Carleton, where I learned to climb. The crux is all the way at the top. What I would have thought, ten years ago, of myself climbing a boulder that tall?
After, I took him over to the Invasion area. I wanted to see if I could make any progress on Ab Lounge, and thought he might be into working that, Electralica, the awesome v8, and the worthy v5 around the corner (with the long name). I gave him lots of beta on Electralica, and he flashed it! It was exciting.
Then we headed over to Ab Lounge. It looked kind of wet (It just poured yesterday), and the cliff above was draining, unfortunately, right onto the top of the boulder. Luckily, the sun had dried the face, and it was overhanging enough that the water dripped off without running onto the holds. The ground was disgusting though - I continually had that extra-heavy tennis shoe feeling where you double the weight of your shoes with mud caked to the bottom. But our spirits were indomitable, and I worked on the climb.
On my first try, I almost managed to finish it! I tried this cross over to one of the last holds, and blew off from high. He got excited about that, sharing my previously tentative and unconfirmed belief that I was close to doing the thing. So we talked beta for a while, and he stacked a big pile of pads up, and I grabbed the upper holds to try to finish from them. When I pulled on, he spread the pads back out, and I just went for it. I tried making a dyno gaston move to a decent, flat hold up high, and it worked! I topped out on the wet holds, feeling pretty damn good about the whole thing. Now that I had done all the moves, I decided that I needed a good long rest, so we went and checked out the rest of the broad Invasion area, including the name sake route, a beautiful 12d.
When we went back, I still felt a little unsure. For some reason, v10 is still a forbidding number to me. I get a mental block about it, and think that I can't possibly complete a climb at that grade. I struggled with that today.
I tried it from the start, and fell from high on the problem, almost sticking the last move. Then I tried again from the start. I moved through the lower moves reasonably well, but made a couple of small errors so that my hands were not in the best position, stuck the high bad crimp, stuck the gaston, and topped out!
It is among the hardest climbs I've done, and the only one rated v10 that I've ever done (The Coffee Cup in Leavenworth, which I originally thought was v10, is called hard v9 by many). I loved that the crux moves were so high off the ground, and so insecure. I had to really go for it.
I have about five days here to make the most of. My stack of books is down to three or four, and there are a couple of projects that I would still like to do. I will persevere to make the most of my remaining time, but, even if I don't get to climb another day, or read another book, I will leave content.
The fast and loose writing does not change the fact that you get to learn more about Paul both before he went to Arrakis (before Dune), and Paul after he becomes emperor of the galaxy (after Dune). If the writing isn't super duper, the plot line, at least, satisfies. I found myself hanging on each plot thread as they were woven, all the way to the end, and even after five hundred pages, I was left wanting more. Delightful.
A new order:
9) Chapterhouse: Dune
8) Heretics of Dune
7) House Corrino
6) House Harkonnen
5) God Emperor of Dune
4) Children of Dune
3) House Atreides
2) Paul of Dune
1) Dune
I'm a little concerned that I'm going to read those other books - Butlerian Jihad, Sandworms of Dune, and some other that I can't remember. I have a feeling that they would end up at 10, 11, 12. Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson are coming out with Jessica of Dune at some point. I think I will check that one out.
_______
Today was a good day for climbing. You may recall that I worked Ab Lounge, a v10 a couple of days ago, and made some progress. I think I said something along the lines of, 'I can't say for sure, but I feel like I'm close on it'. A friend from Minnesota showed up late last night, Randy, and we decided to climb together today. I took him out to Fountaine Red, where I showed him some classics - Le Beak, Rings of Uranus - and I climbed a few ones that I hadn't done before, in the range of v0 to v4. All of them were superb. One of them, Let Mikey Do It, a v1, is among the scarier climbs I've done here in Arkansas. It brought me back to my R rated trad climbing days (not that they were very long). As I climbed down, I realized that the thing was about as tall as The Wall at Carleton, where I learned to climb. The crux is all the way at the top. What I would have thought, ten years ago, of myself climbing a boulder that tall?
After, I took him over to the Invasion area. I wanted to see if I could make any progress on Ab Lounge, and thought he might be into working that, Electralica, the awesome v8, and the worthy v5 around the corner (with the long name). I gave him lots of beta on Electralica, and he flashed it! It was exciting.
Then we headed over to Ab Lounge. It looked kind of wet (It just poured yesterday), and the cliff above was draining, unfortunately, right onto the top of the boulder. Luckily, the sun had dried the face, and it was overhanging enough that the water dripped off without running onto the holds. The ground was disgusting though - I continually had that extra-heavy tennis shoe feeling where you double the weight of your shoes with mud caked to the bottom. But our spirits were indomitable, and I worked on the climb.
On my first try, I almost managed to finish it! I tried this cross over to one of the last holds, and blew off from high. He got excited about that, sharing my previously tentative and unconfirmed belief that I was close to doing the thing. So we talked beta for a while, and he stacked a big pile of pads up, and I grabbed the upper holds to try to finish from them. When I pulled on, he spread the pads back out, and I just went for it. I tried making a dyno gaston move to a decent, flat hold up high, and it worked! I topped out on the wet holds, feeling pretty damn good about the whole thing. Now that I had done all the moves, I decided that I needed a good long rest, so we went and checked out the rest of the broad Invasion area, including the name sake route, a beautiful 12d.
When we went back, I still felt a little unsure. For some reason, v10 is still a forbidding number to me. I get a mental block about it, and think that I can't possibly complete a climb at that grade. I struggled with that today.
I tried it from the start, and fell from high on the problem, almost sticking the last move. Then I tried again from the start. I moved through the lower moves reasonably well, but made a couple of small errors so that my hands were not in the best position, stuck the high bad crimp, stuck the gaston, and topped out!
It is among the hardest climbs I've done, and the only one rated v10 that I've ever done (The Coffee Cup in Leavenworth, which I originally thought was v10, is called hard v9 by many). I loved that the crux moves were so high off the ground, and so insecure. I had to really go for it.
I have about five days here to make the most of. My stack of books is down to three or four, and there are a couple of projects that I would still like to do. I will persevere to make the most of my remaining time, but, even if I don't get to climb another day, or read another book, I will leave content.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Book Six
The Penultimate Truth is one of the better Philip Dick books that I've read. I thought I had read it on my iPad, because it seemed so familiar, and I found the word, "leadies" in the iPad book (which figures prominently in the PT. It turns out that I had read a short story where he uses the same set-up. In the book, he takes it further, and it ends up being more satisfying. I can't say which of his books is my favorite. Maybe Ubik, or The Man in the High Tower. His books do tend to blend a bit. This one was just as good as any of them, even if I already knew one of the revelations, having read the short story that preceded it. Hopefully, I will have read all of his books before I die.
__
Yesterday, we went to this odd little place called Area 74. It is right off a corner of the road, and looks a lot like a roadcut, with paved sidewalks beneath. Not very aesthetic. I guess that's fine. I mean, it's better than Taylor's Falls. It is not, however, anywhere near the quality of the ranch, or the little crags at Cowell, for instance.
I did three problems, but don't know their names or grades. It was fun to check it out, but, again, nothing to write home about. The problems I did were probably in the v4 to v6 range or so.
Today, I got up around 10 in the morning, and decided that I really wanted to get outside. So I took off and went to Cowell. I wanted to try this v8 called Electralica, as well as a v5 nearby. I lost the strap that I was using to connect my pads, so it was a pain to hike down to the cliff carrying all four pads. I must have looked like one of those spoofs where the husband is carrying a hundred bags for his wife while she maxes out the credit cards in department stores.
The v5 was really cool. It started with this powerful move where you stand up to a sloping undercling, then up into these edges, and onto a face with pockets. Fun and tall.
Electralica was totally awesome. Among the best problems I've ever done on any trip. You start on good holds, and climb through a couple of jugs before you get into this amazing crux. From good holds below a roof, you turn around, and get this little pocket with your right hand. Then you drop in with your left, and catch a good edge. That's probably the crux. After that, you work your feet carefully, and power up to a good pinch that you use to dyno to the finishing slopers. The top out is really fun, and not as desperate as it looks. I think it helps that I've been doing a lot of v4s that are composed almost entirely of thrutchy topout lately. I worked out each of the three sections, and then did it clean, on my first try. Not a flash or onsight at all, but it's satisfying to do stuff quickly.
It was awesome, and didn't feel all that hard, so, with my confidence buoyed, I went over to check out Ab Lounge, this 4 star v10 that I had never seen before. It looked hard, but possible. I could see some of the footwork right away, and there were no monos anywhere on it, so I decided to give it a try. Within a few minutes, I had worked out the first couple of moves, and soon I was getting all the way to the crux. It's a little nerve-racking up there without a spot. It's hard to tell where you are going to land, as the moves start to get violent up high.
I worked it on and off for a couple of hours, and got so that I was on what I think is the crux crimp, going for the last holds, which are much better than anything else on the problem. You can't really rehearse the upper section because there's no way to get to it without a boost or a ladder, so it's hard to tell if I'm doing it the right way or not. It's also tough to tell whether I am really close to being finished on it. I think so on both counts. I'm tired and out of sorts when I get to the crux, but I don't think it's any harder than any of the other moves. If I can get up to the crux with energy left over, I think I can finish it up. And I have gotten to know the problem pretty well, now. So there's a chance that I could do just that.
I am stuck in the cruxes of three v10s here: Glass Bowl, Flash Gordon, and now Ab Lounge. Time is running out.
I am glad I got to do the problems I did, but I hope I get to do at least one of these three before I leave.
__
Yesterday, we went to this odd little place called Area 74. It is right off a corner of the road, and looks a lot like a roadcut, with paved sidewalks beneath. Not very aesthetic. I guess that's fine. I mean, it's better than Taylor's Falls. It is not, however, anywhere near the quality of the ranch, or the little crags at Cowell, for instance.
I did three problems, but don't know their names or grades. It was fun to check it out, but, again, nothing to write home about. The problems I did were probably in the v4 to v6 range or so.
Today, I got up around 10 in the morning, and decided that I really wanted to get outside. So I took off and went to Cowell. I wanted to try this v8 called Electralica, as well as a v5 nearby. I lost the strap that I was using to connect my pads, so it was a pain to hike down to the cliff carrying all four pads. I must have looked like one of those spoofs where the husband is carrying a hundred bags for his wife while she maxes out the credit cards in department stores.
The v5 was really cool. It started with this powerful move where you stand up to a sloping undercling, then up into these edges, and onto a face with pockets. Fun and tall.
Electralica was totally awesome. Among the best problems I've ever done on any trip. You start on good holds, and climb through a couple of jugs before you get into this amazing crux. From good holds below a roof, you turn around, and get this little pocket with your right hand. Then you drop in with your left, and catch a good edge. That's probably the crux. After that, you work your feet carefully, and power up to a good pinch that you use to dyno to the finishing slopers. The top out is really fun, and not as desperate as it looks. I think it helps that I've been doing a lot of v4s that are composed almost entirely of thrutchy topout lately. I worked out each of the three sections, and then did it clean, on my first try. Not a flash or onsight at all, but it's satisfying to do stuff quickly.
It was awesome, and didn't feel all that hard, so, with my confidence buoyed, I went over to check out Ab Lounge, this 4 star v10 that I had never seen before. It looked hard, but possible. I could see some of the footwork right away, and there were no monos anywhere on it, so I decided to give it a try. Within a few minutes, I had worked out the first couple of moves, and soon I was getting all the way to the crux. It's a little nerve-racking up there without a spot. It's hard to tell where you are going to land, as the moves start to get violent up high.
I worked it on and off for a couple of hours, and got so that I was on what I think is the crux crimp, going for the last holds, which are much better than anything else on the problem. You can't really rehearse the upper section because there's no way to get to it without a boost or a ladder, so it's hard to tell if I'm doing it the right way or not. It's also tough to tell whether I am really close to being finished on it. I think so on both counts. I'm tired and out of sorts when I get to the crux, but I don't think it's any harder than any of the other moves. If I can get up to the crux with energy left over, I think I can finish it up. And I have gotten to know the problem pretty well, now. So there's a chance that I could do just that.
I am stuck in the cruxes of three v10s here: Glass Bowl, Flash Gordon, and now Ab Lounge. Time is running out.
I am glad I got to do the problems I did, but I hope I get to do at least one of these three before I leave.
Friday, December 23, 2011
Book Five
I have had Things Fall Apart on my reading list since high school. Between my junior and senior years, my favorite teacher in high school, Mr. Mueller, gave us an optional reading list. It was on this list, and it's been in the back of my mind since. I probably bought the thing six or seven years ago, and for some reason, it just never got read. I think it has a lot to do with the unbelievably ugly cover, which has always been a sure way to keep me from reading an otherwise good book.
This is not a simple book. It describes injustices of both African and African Colonial societies. I have never read a book like it, although I've seen lots of mediocre movies that deal with similar issues (cultural identity, colonial invasion, warrior societies, rites of passage, African children's stories, and more). I don't know, I felt some culture shock experiencing the culture of the Ibo for the first half of the book. Some of it was just out there from a contemporary western perspective. Unsurprising. When the missionaries showed up and started saving everyone, it didn't get any better, it just got bad in a different way. I think anyone who cares has read and watched lots of things that depict what it was like to be in an African society under colonial control. What I loved about this book was that it challenged me to enter this other culture, and I felt like I learned about as much as an anthropologist can in such a situation. That is, you can take notes, and pay attention, but you can never completely understand what is happening.
__
I took a rest day yesterday. I woke up with pain in the posterior-lateral head of my right deltoid this morning. I couldn't figure out what had happened. I never strained it while climbing. After a lot of thought, it came to me. I'm pretty sure I hurt it during deep concentration over a game of solo eight ball played between dueling Sean personalities late last night. When in this situation, I always talk to myself as two different characters: stripes and solids. It's more fun to play against yourself when you can convince yourself that you are playing against someone else. And if I really focus, I actually forget, as I set up for shots, that I am alone, and I feel the same sense of competition as if another brain was in the room (not another personality, which actually is in the room).
Anyway, my shoulder bothered me today, so I took another day off until around 4pm. I saw a truck that I thought I recognized, and thought some Arkansas climber friends of my mine might be up in the Idahos. So I packed my shoes, guidebook, and chalk, and headed up, thinking that I would socialize the hell out of of the next hour of sunlight. They weren't there, so I pulled out the book, and found all the one and two star v0s to v3s in the Idahos that I hadn't done yet. I did a bunch of those, including some that were really tall, and actually had a pretty good time. On top of one of the taller boulders, I caught a sound from a couple of hundred feet away, and dropped down to investigate. I found this other guy working a tricky v4 dyno (Chuck Wagon. Really fun). I gave him beta and spotted him on that, and then wandered off to do another v0 mossy highball, which scared the shit out him, and he ran over with the pad to throw under me. Nice guy.
I scoped out Cloud of Stars, a v9, and feel like it might be something I would enjoy working. Really hard looking, but I think I can feel the body positions that I'd need to have, even if I can't achieve them, yet. I might give that a shot, or if my finger, elbows, and shoulder feels good, maybe tomorrow I'll give Glass Bowl a couple of burns. Maybe both.
Happy Sean's birthday eve.
On to Philip Dick, and another Dune book.(1)
__
(1) I thought I'd propose a list of the Dune books I've read in order of awesomeness, where 1 = really awesome.
7-9)Tied for last: Dune Messiah, Heretics of Dune, and Chapterhouse: Dune
6)House Corrino
5)Children of Dune
4)House Harkonnen
3)God Emperor of Dune
2)House Atreides
1)Dune
This is not a simple book. It describes injustices of both African and African Colonial societies. I have never read a book like it, although I've seen lots of mediocre movies that deal with similar issues (cultural identity, colonial invasion, warrior societies, rites of passage, African children's stories, and more). I don't know, I felt some culture shock experiencing the culture of the Ibo for the first half of the book. Some of it was just out there from a contemporary western perspective. Unsurprising. When the missionaries showed up and started saving everyone, it didn't get any better, it just got bad in a different way. I think anyone who cares has read and watched lots of things that depict what it was like to be in an African society under colonial control. What I loved about this book was that it challenged me to enter this other culture, and I felt like I learned about as much as an anthropologist can in such a situation. That is, you can take notes, and pay attention, but you can never completely understand what is happening.
__
I took a rest day yesterday. I woke up with pain in the posterior-lateral head of my right deltoid this morning. I couldn't figure out what had happened. I never strained it while climbing. After a lot of thought, it came to me. I'm pretty sure I hurt it during deep concentration over a game of solo eight ball played between dueling Sean personalities late last night. When in this situation, I always talk to myself as two different characters: stripes and solids. It's more fun to play against yourself when you can convince yourself that you are playing against someone else. And if I really focus, I actually forget, as I set up for shots, that I am alone, and I feel the same sense of competition as if another brain was in the room (not another personality, which actually is in the room).
Anyway, my shoulder bothered me today, so I took another day off until around 4pm. I saw a truck that I thought I recognized, and thought some Arkansas climber friends of my mine might be up in the Idahos. So I packed my shoes, guidebook, and chalk, and headed up, thinking that I would socialize the hell out of of the next hour of sunlight. They weren't there, so I pulled out the book, and found all the one and two star v0s to v3s in the Idahos that I hadn't done yet. I did a bunch of those, including some that were really tall, and actually had a pretty good time. On top of one of the taller boulders, I caught a sound from a couple of hundred feet away, and dropped down to investigate. I found this other guy working a tricky v4 dyno (Chuck Wagon. Really fun). I gave him beta and spotted him on that, and then wandered off to do another v0 mossy highball, which scared the shit out him, and he ran over with the pad to throw under me. Nice guy.
I scoped out Cloud of Stars, a v9, and feel like it might be something I would enjoy working. Really hard looking, but I think I can feel the body positions that I'd need to have, even if I can't achieve them, yet. I might give that a shot, or if my finger, elbows, and shoulder feels good, maybe tomorrow I'll give Glass Bowl a couple of burns. Maybe both.
Happy Sean's birthday eve.
On to Philip Dick, and another Dune book.(1)
__
(1) I thought I'd propose a list of the Dune books I've read in order of awesomeness, where 1 = really awesome.
7-9)Tied for last: Dune Messiah, Heretics of Dune, and Chapterhouse: Dune
6)House Corrino
5)Children of Dune
4)House Harkonnen
3)God Emperor of Dune
2)House Atreides
1)Dune
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Book Four
Reamde is the best thriller I can ever remember reading. I expect from Neal that I will learn something new about math, science, computers, or technology, and Reamde did not disappoint. I learned about gold farming. I learned about massively multiplayer online games (sic.). I learned about Iowan male culture. I learned about private jet use. I learned a lot about guns and combat. Well, especially guns and combat.
I have read Zodiac, The Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon, and Snow Crash, and think, of those, this is up there. For disclosure's sake, of my top hundred favorite books, all of these are on the list. Of my top thirty, all but Zodiac are on the list.
Although it is many wonderful things, Reamde devotes most of its energy to action. In this regard, it outpaces even Snow Crash. What qualities make the best book? It does not have the page to page velocity of the others, but Cryptonomicon has always been my favorite, because it brought such beautiful math to life, and remained entertaining throughout. The Diamond Age shone in this way as well, with its handling of code. Does Reamde show enough techno-fun stuff that it can keep up with these? With as much action (and exceptionally well-written action, at that) as it has, does it matter? As you maybe surmised, I've changed my mind about four times while writing this so far.
The volume of combat action is so great in Reamde that it threatens to overwhelm the other, more enjoyable, technical aspects. That said, the action propels the story forward. On a side note, each of his previous books had a character or two that I found myself embracing: that skater girl with the bumper stickers, the lady of the primer, and the cryptographer, for example. I know it's a cliche, but he brings the characters to life. I feel as if I know what several of them would say in most situations, and how they would spend their time given certain conditions. It would be fun to sit down and talk to several of them.
I don't know whether I could tell you if Reamde is better than Cryptonomicon. I know the tech ideas in it are more exciting, even if all he gives them are a supporting role. Maybe the best thing to say about it is that it left me hungry for more of his ideas, and was exciting enough, from a plot/action standpoint that I wasn't bothered reading a long book (1044 pages, it turns out).
I didn't really go into this with a thesis, so hopefully the structure of those ideas don't annoy the crap out of you. I'd say to spend a few hours reading the thing. It's a shocking, funny, entertaining book.
____
I didn't climb today, but I did climb yesterday. I got it in my head to go and work on Hang Ten, this v7 that I tried last year and got totally shut-down on. No one else was there, but I walked with some measure of shame back to my truck that night. I didn't know if I was tired, or if the climb was really hard for me (or just hard), or if I just wasn't into it, but I did not do well.
This time, I decided to go back armed with lots of pads. So I used my car tie downs to cinch the three full sized pads together, and carried the briefcase pad along. I stopped at the Sloping Joe boulder, and did a bunch of problems there, including this kind of scary v6, with a very insecure (sloping) topout that made my left elbow hurt for the rest of the day. I did it last year, but it took me lots of tries, and I did it this year on my second try, so that was nice.
Over at the Undertow boulder, I took a long look at Hang Ten. It is a ten foot, swooping roof filled with sharp, positive pockets. It has a couple of testy little moves at the beginning, and a couple of big dynos at the end. When I tried it last year, I only had one pad. Yesterday, I carpeted the ground with the things. And I worked it from the end, doing the last dyno and topout on my first try, linking into them from the middle of the route, and then figuring out the start. I found a couple of easier ways to do each of the moves. After all that, I gave it a couple of tries, screamed a lot, and then, suddenly, felt confident that I would be able to do it. I gave it a good effort from the start, fell at the last move, and then, after resting a moment, I went back to the start, and managed to link the whole problem.
Why devote so much space to talking about it? I think because, for me, it was a technical problem, and I am glad that I was able to piece it together more effectively than I was last year. The extra planning (excessively taped fingers to prevent skin shearing on sharp pockets, carrying 4 pads over by myself, using my feet more carefully, giving it my full attention, and drilling down the beta on each move) felt silly when I was doing it, but actually worked. I ended up being successful on a problem that I could not do last year. Feels like progress.
Afterwards, I went over to the North 40 with just one pad, and cruised around doing some problems that I hadn't done before. I did this amazing pair of v5s called something like Bad Days and Better Days, which got me thinking of that Ralph Fiennes movie set in 1999. (When I finally watched it, last year, I was underwhelmed, but glad that I wasn't watching some of the other abysmal sci-fi that came out around the same time: Johnny Mnemonic, or that Russell Crowe piece of crap. At least Ralph Fiennes is an unparalleled badass (well, except maybe paralleled by Daniel Day Lewis)).
I also did maybe half a dozen v4s and under, which, all told, made for a great way to spend the rest of the day. I noticed the sun set behind The Prophet wall just as I was topping out a problem and walking down, and I got to thinking how sad I was that the day was over. I had done some things, was sore as hell, and I'd made the most of it. I guess, when the time comes to stop, that's about as much as you can ask for.
I have read Zodiac, The Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon, and Snow Crash, and think, of those, this is up there. For disclosure's sake, of my top hundred favorite books, all of these are on the list. Of my top thirty, all but Zodiac are on the list.
Although it is many wonderful things, Reamde devotes most of its energy to action. In this regard, it outpaces even Snow Crash. What qualities make the best book? It does not have the page to page velocity of the others, but Cryptonomicon has always been my favorite, because it brought such beautiful math to life, and remained entertaining throughout. The Diamond Age shone in this way as well, with its handling of code. Does Reamde show enough techno-fun stuff that it can keep up with these? With as much action (and exceptionally well-written action, at that) as it has, does it matter? As you maybe surmised, I've changed my mind about four times while writing this so far.
The volume of combat action is so great in Reamde that it threatens to overwhelm the other, more enjoyable, technical aspects. That said, the action propels the story forward. On a side note, each of his previous books had a character or two that I found myself embracing: that skater girl with the bumper stickers, the lady of the primer, and the cryptographer, for example. I know it's a cliche, but he brings the characters to life. I feel as if I know what several of them would say in most situations, and how they would spend their time given certain conditions. It would be fun to sit down and talk to several of them.
I don't know whether I could tell you if Reamde is better than Cryptonomicon. I know the tech ideas in it are more exciting, even if all he gives them are a supporting role. Maybe the best thing to say about it is that it left me hungry for more of his ideas, and was exciting enough, from a plot/action standpoint that I wasn't bothered reading a long book (1044 pages, it turns out).
I didn't really go into this with a thesis, so hopefully the structure of those ideas don't annoy the crap out of you. I'd say to spend a few hours reading the thing. It's a shocking, funny, entertaining book.
____
I didn't climb today, but I did climb yesterday. I got it in my head to go and work on Hang Ten, this v7 that I tried last year and got totally shut-down on. No one else was there, but I walked with some measure of shame back to my truck that night. I didn't know if I was tired, or if the climb was really hard for me (or just hard), or if I just wasn't into it, but I did not do well.
This time, I decided to go back armed with lots of pads. So I used my car tie downs to cinch the three full sized pads together, and carried the briefcase pad along. I stopped at the Sloping Joe boulder, and did a bunch of problems there, including this kind of scary v6, with a very insecure (sloping) topout that made my left elbow hurt for the rest of the day. I did it last year, but it took me lots of tries, and I did it this year on my second try, so that was nice.
Over at the Undertow boulder, I took a long look at Hang Ten. It is a ten foot, swooping roof filled with sharp, positive pockets. It has a couple of testy little moves at the beginning, and a couple of big dynos at the end. When I tried it last year, I only had one pad. Yesterday, I carpeted the ground with the things. And I worked it from the end, doing the last dyno and topout on my first try, linking into them from the middle of the route, and then figuring out the start. I found a couple of easier ways to do each of the moves. After all that, I gave it a couple of tries, screamed a lot, and then, suddenly, felt confident that I would be able to do it. I gave it a good effort from the start, fell at the last move, and then, after resting a moment, I went back to the start, and managed to link the whole problem.
Why devote so much space to talking about it? I think because, for me, it was a technical problem, and I am glad that I was able to piece it together more effectively than I was last year. The extra planning (excessively taped fingers to prevent skin shearing on sharp pockets, carrying 4 pads over by myself, using my feet more carefully, giving it my full attention, and drilling down the beta on each move) felt silly when I was doing it, but actually worked. I ended up being successful on a problem that I could not do last year. Feels like progress.
Afterwards, I went over to the North 40 with just one pad, and cruised around doing some problems that I hadn't done before. I did this amazing pair of v5s called something like Bad Days and Better Days, which got me thinking of that Ralph Fiennes movie set in 1999. (When I finally watched it, last year, I was underwhelmed, but glad that I wasn't watching some of the other abysmal sci-fi that came out around the same time: Johnny Mnemonic, or that Russell Crowe piece of crap. At least Ralph Fiennes is an unparalleled badass (well, except maybe paralleled by Daniel Day Lewis)).
I also did maybe half a dozen v4s and under, which, all told, made for a great way to spend the rest of the day. I noticed the sun set behind The Prophet wall just as I was topping out a problem and walking down, and I got to thinking how sad I was that the day was over. I had done some things, was sore as hell, and I'd made the most of it. I guess, when the time comes to stop, that's about as much as you can ask for.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Book Three
Again, I finished The Graveyard Book a couple of days ago, but the internet connection was bad. I just had dinner, and, fed up with the poor connection in the cabin, I came over to the Lodge to use one of the computers in the basement.
I never know what to expect from Neil Gaiman. In early 2000s, it started to look like he was using the same template repeatedly: person gets transported to fantasy land and must complete a quest, escape, or both before the freaky malevolent creatures, quite at home in said fantasy land, eviscerate the protagonist. Let me be clear - I would read a hundred more of his books if they used the same template that many times.
But The Graveyard Book takes a slightly different tack, and Gaiman manages to showcase all the stuff he does so well. The mythology is expanded; the adventures and setting are new. Every time I read one of his books I feel a little better equipped to deal with ghouls, under-revered gods, and the endless. You get this sense of, "Jeez, that didn't turn out very well for that guy. If the Goddess of Cats shows up, I'll know what NOT to say."
I hear people say of Coraline, "I can't believe how scary this is. Isn't this supposed to be for kids?" I think The Graveyard Book will leave you with the same impression. And for the record, my response to that is:
1) Yes, these books are freaky.
2) The adult books that Gaiman writes (American Gods, Anansi Boys) are different in content because they contain more gore, and some ... adult themes ... that Gaiman doesn't put in his children's books. They are equally scary. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
3) As to whether this is OK or not. It is. First, kids are dealing with the world same as we are. I don't know about you, but I was way more scared of stuff like clowns, potential kidnappings, etc., than I was about fantasy stories. Second, there is a long tradition of scary as hell books for kids, e.g.: Brothers Grimm.
On the day I read The Graveyard Book, I climbed... I can barely remember. I do remember climbing in the North 40, doing a few v1's through v3's that I hadn't done before, and doing a v7, also that I hadn't done before: Celestial something. Maybe five tries or so. It had a bunch of throws to sloper sidepulls, and finished with a powerful throw to a wide pinch.
Then I went down to the Leatherface boulder, and worked hard to do this thing called A Little More John Wayne, rated v4. The thing was great. It took me more tries than the v7.
In other news, getting over the last term is taking me longer than usual. It's hard to say why. I think being here, and not being able to climb very well, or really work on things that are near my limit has been tough for me. I've done a few v7s and v6s, and all that, but I don't consider that my limit. I climb those in a few tries, or on my first try. It could be that I have just done all the v8s here that I can do, and now I'm just struggling with the ones that don't quite fit my style. It could also be that I am still tired from the term. I don't like to think along those lines, because it feels like a copout for poor performance, but it seems the most likely.
On the first day here, after finishing exams, sleeping a few hours, and driving the twelve hours down, I was so shaky that I thought I might actually keel over while I was checking in. I still climbed that day, and the two days following, but I never really climbed very well.
There have been other challenges that I've experienced, lately, and I think that is dragging me down a bit. In reference to that, it's difficult to care very much how hard I'm climbing. I almost have to remind myself that it's important to me to push myself, because I only get so many chances to be in a place like this. When I am pushing myself, I really need to be willing to go for it on a visceral level. Lacking serious drive, even at an unconscious level, keeps me from climbing my best.
I think anyone in my life can tell that this term was among the hardest on me so far. Perhaps they will just get worse. Personally, now that I am emerging from the post-exam funk, I am getting a little more optimistic about the next one. This term had a great deal of what felt like micro-management: meaningless busy work, and "tracking" of learning. It just translated into more hours spent not studying, but proving that you were studying. Which meant that I was constantly stressed that I would forget to evidence that I was studying all the time, which would translate into a poor score in the course. Sorry, but I thought that that was the point of the test.
I'm thinking/hoping that the next course director will have a different personality, potentially, and that their style of course construction will jibe more with what works for me: self-driven, self-structured learning.
I climbed today, and did pretty well, but I haven't finished REAMDE, which is like a thousand pages or something, so I'm not going to tell you about it until I do. Maybe I'll finish it soon, or maybe I won't. I've been reading it for a couple of days, and I swear, if I'm not careful, it could easily take me the rest of my break.
Oh, and here's the first round of thanks to Brice for recommending it. It's a hell of a book. Also, I never publicly credited him for getting me to read Infinite Jest (probably the best work of fiction in the last fifty years), although I did credit him for getting me to read the Temeraire series (A sweet story about wars with dragons and stuff). Brice, thanks.
In case anyone forgot - Happy Sean's Birthday week.
I never know what to expect from Neil Gaiman. In early 2000s, it started to look like he was using the same template repeatedly: person gets transported to fantasy land and must complete a quest, escape, or both before the freaky malevolent creatures, quite at home in said fantasy land, eviscerate the protagonist. Let me be clear - I would read a hundred more of his books if they used the same template that many times.
But The Graveyard Book takes a slightly different tack, and Gaiman manages to showcase all the stuff he does so well. The mythology is expanded; the adventures and setting are new. Every time I read one of his books I feel a little better equipped to deal with ghouls, under-revered gods, and the endless. You get this sense of, "Jeez, that didn't turn out very well for that guy. If the Goddess of Cats shows up, I'll know what NOT to say."
I hear people say of Coraline, "I can't believe how scary this is. Isn't this supposed to be for kids?" I think The Graveyard Book will leave you with the same impression. And for the record, my response to that is:
1) Yes, these books are freaky.
2) The adult books that Gaiman writes (American Gods, Anansi Boys) are different in content because they contain more gore, and some ... adult themes ... that Gaiman doesn't put in his children's books. They are equally scary. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
3) As to whether this is OK or not. It is. First, kids are dealing with the world same as we are. I don't know about you, but I was way more scared of stuff like clowns, potential kidnappings, etc., than I was about fantasy stories. Second, there is a long tradition of scary as hell books for kids, e.g.: Brothers Grimm.
On the day I read The Graveyard Book, I climbed... I can barely remember. I do remember climbing in the North 40, doing a few v1's through v3's that I hadn't done before, and doing a v7, also that I hadn't done before: Celestial something. Maybe five tries or so. It had a bunch of throws to sloper sidepulls, and finished with a powerful throw to a wide pinch.
Then I went down to the Leatherface boulder, and worked hard to do this thing called A Little More John Wayne, rated v4. The thing was great. It took me more tries than the v7.
In other news, getting over the last term is taking me longer than usual. It's hard to say why. I think being here, and not being able to climb very well, or really work on things that are near my limit has been tough for me. I've done a few v7s and v6s, and all that, but I don't consider that my limit. I climb those in a few tries, or on my first try. It could be that I have just done all the v8s here that I can do, and now I'm just struggling with the ones that don't quite fit my style. It could also be that I am still tired from the term. I don't like to think along those lines, because it feels like a copout for poor performance, but it seems the most likely.
On the first day here, after finishing exams, sleeping a few hours, and driving the twelve hours down, I was so shaky that I thought I might actually keel over while I was checking in. I still climbed that day, and the two days following, but I never really climbed very well.
There have been other challenges that I've experienced, lately, and I think that is dragging me down a bit. In reference to that, it's difficult to care very much how hard I'm climbing. I almost have to remind myself that it's important to me to push myself, because I only get so many chances to be in a place like this. When I am pushing myself, I really need to be willing to go for it on a visceral level. Lacking serious drive, even at an unconscious level, keeps me from climbing my best.
I think anyone in my life can tell that this term was among the hardest on me so far. Perhaps they will just get worse. Personally, now that I am emerging from the post-exam funk, I am getting a little more optimistic about the next one. This term had a great deal of what felt like micro-management: meaningless busy work, and "tracking" of learning. It just translated into more hours spent not studying, but proving that you were studying. Which meant that I was constantly stressed that I would forget to evidence that I was studying all the time, which would translate into a poor score in the course. Sorry, but I thought that that was the point of the test.
I'm thinking/hoping that the next course director will have a different personality, potentially, and that their style of course construction will jibe more with what works for me: self-driven, self-structured learning.
I climbed today, and did pretty well, but I haven't finished REAMDE, which is like a thousand pages or something, so I'm not going to tell you about it until I do. Maybe I'll finish it soon, or maybe I won't. I've been reading it for a couple of days, and I swear, if I'm not careful, it could easily take me the rest of my break.
Oh, and here's the first round of thanks to Brice for recommending it. It's a hell of a book. Also, I never publicly credited him for getting me to read Infinite Jest (probably the best work of fiction in the last fifty years), although I did credit him for getting me to read the Temeraire series (A sweet story about wars with dragons and stuff). Brice, thanks.
In case anyone forgot - Happy Sean's Birthday week.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Book Two
I finished the Bean Trees yesterday, but the internet connection has been bad, so I couldn't post. This book has been sitting on my shelf for two or three years, gathering that haze that unread books on your shelf do. You think when you get it that maybe you would like it, then put off reading it, and every time you look back at the bookcase, it gets less noticable, as your eyes get more used ignoring it. I originially bought it from Goodwill, as the 1.99 pricetag reminded me. Barbara Kingsolver. This book is amazing. If you haven't read her before, read something of hers post-haste. Her writing is effortless in the way that only the best writing is, and she has a great sense of humor. I think saying anything about the plot woudl be a disservice, so I will let you go in blind. Her characters are the kind of characters that are irresistably likable.
I finsihed the book yesterday, so I'll talk about what I did yesterday. I'm hopeflly taking two rest days starting tomorrow, so I can then write about the book I'll finish tonight, as well as what I did today. I started yesterday with a trip to the Idahos, a boulder field just uphill from the cabin. My finger was sore from doing the mono on Glass Bowl, so I decided to just go and try to do a bunch of problems that I hadn't done before. It turns out, unfortunately, that I hadn't done them for a reason: they are justifiably unpopular, unchalked, dirty, and often awkward. I think one of the most important things as a climber, however, is to put yourself on as many problems as possible. Sometimes, the problems that are the least attractive are exactly the problems you should be trying, if you want to improve. What isn't attractive is probably more about your weaknesses than it is about quality.
So I did a couple of ugly v4s, a v2 arete, another v2 arete, and found them dirty and unpleasant. The v4s were the toughest kind: much harder than you want a v4 to be, and really awkward, so you are worried that someone will come around the corner and see you screaming and wildly thrashing on a v4 that looks like a piece of shit anyway. Even though no one saw, I felt kind of dirty after those.
After, I went back to the Dig Dug boulder, and gave the last three problems on that face a try: Tree Left, v4, Tree Right, v3, and A Long Road Home, a v7. I did the first two in a couple of tries, and Tree Left, with its high crux, was particularly exciting. The v7 I managed on my first try, which was cool. I had been on all the problems on the face, and had the chance to carefully look over what I was about to do beforehand, so I wouldn't assign any kind of climbing lingo to it. But it's really nice to do something quickly.
After that, I decided that Cowell would be the place to go, and Mom wanted to come along, so we packed the Honda, and headed south. After a couple of wrong turns, we made it to Fountain Red, where I wanted to try Le Beak, v4, and Center Splooge, v10. So I got on Le Beak, and tried, and managed to onsight that, and it's such a great problem (maybe the most beautiful v4 and under problem I've ever seen). And then I went up to the other one. I had heard and read that the crimps at the top were really brutal, and that it was easy to get up to them, and very hard to go the last five feet. The problem is tall, but I brought all four pads over, and set them up so the fifteen foot drops were relatively comfortable. I had seen a video online of someone doing it with some crazy beta with high steps on the right, so I gave that a shot, and manged to do it in maybe four or five tries. I got to the top, got excited that I was pulling over the jugs, and then, once I was on the other side and walking down, I started to think. Crap, that felt like v6 or v7, not at all v10, which I'd say is pretty near my limit.
I came down, and walked around the crag a bit, and found this guy and girl that I had talked to before. I asked them about the problem, "Did I grab something I wasn't supposed to?" They were both obviously the sort of people you'd want to hang out with, and the guy was a phd student in orthopedics and kinesiology. He said, "Well, I think do whatever, and who cares about rules or whatever, but, yeah, there's some controversy over what is the proper line."
I was glad I could tell the difference between a v7 and v10, and glad that I hadn't gone home and sprayed all over the place that, "I'd done my first v10 and it was easy." So he and I went over, and, over the course of a few minutes, he careully explained what holds were on, and which were off.
I was increasingly disappointed by the whole thing. I don't know about you, but I think we should do whatever we want, and climb things how we choose. If someone finds an easier way to do something, say a v7 method rather than a v10 method, then the problem is v7. You can still tell people, "If you don't use those holds over there, then it's v10" But then it's a bullshit eliminate. And I think eliminates are bullshit (repeat). So it's a really classic v7, with the crux moves all the way at the top, and satisfying jugs to finish. Why ruin it? Why say it's a v10 when it just isn't? I mean, I don't climb this hard, but it'd be like walking up to the Mandala, and eliminating a couple of holds, and doing it, and claiming that the problem is a "sick v16". I'm all for pushing yourself, and if you want to take some holds off of a v7, go ahead and pat yourself on the back for doing something really hard, but don't claim that it's then a four star v10. Gag, Gross.
So anyway, I climbed this great thing called Center Splooge, which was a really fun v7. Then we went over to Fred's Cave, and got on My Space, v8, and was shut down pretty hard. I got to thinking, "I can't do this v8, so maybe I'll go work on the v11 over there." Which I promptly did. Fred's Roof is completely stunning. It's the rightmost line in the cave, and straight up, and has all of these huge, powerful moves to crimps the whole way up. Beautiful. I started working on it with this guy Isaac, and he was doing pretty well. We got to talking, and it turns out it was Isaac Caldiero and his girlfriend that me and mom were hanging out with at Fred's Cave (a professional climber, and strong fellow). It's always nice to meet someone you've heard of doing hard things. Turns out he's friendly, soft-spoken, and unassuming. And fun to climb with. The guy is just a beta machine. I think I can sometimes see beta from looking at rock, but this was something else. We climbed and chatted for a while, and then, when I was not making any progress whatsover, and felt vaugely undead, I decided it was time to go home, and we wished them well.
I guess I did what I went to do, Le Beak and Center Splooge (A V7!).
The book I started last night is great. I can't wait to tell yopu about it. Happy Sean's Birthday week.
I finsihed the book yesterday, so I'll talk about what I did yesterday. I'm hopeflly taking two rest days starting tomorrow, so I can then write about the book I'll finish tonight, as well as what I did today. I started yesterday with a trip to the Idahos, a boulder field just uphill from the cabin. My finger was sore from doing the mono on Glass Bowl, so I decided to just go and try to do a bunch of problems that I hadn't done before. It turns out, unfortunately, that I hadn't done them for a reason: they are justifiably unpopular, unchalked, dirty, and often awkward. I think one of the most important things as a climber, however, is to put yourself on as many problems as possible. Sometimes, the problems that are the least attractive are exactly the problems you should be trying, if you want to improve. What isn't attractive is probably more about your weaknesses than it is about quality.
So I did a couple of ugly v4s, a v2 arete, another v2 arete, and found them dirty and unpleasant. The v4s were the toughest kind: much harder than you want a v4 to be, and really awkward, so you are worried that someone will come around the corner and see you screaming and wildly thrashing on a v4 that looks like a piece of shit anyway. Even though no one saw, I felt kind of dirty after those.
After, I went back to the Dig Dug boulder, and gave the last three problems on that face a try: Tree Left, v4, Tree Right, v3, and A Long Road Home, a v7. I did the first two in a couple of tries, and Tree Left, with its high crux, was particularly exciting. The v7 I managed on my first try, which was cool. I had been on all the problems on the face, and had the chance to carefully look over what I was about to do beforehand, so I wouldn't assign any kind of climbing lingo to it. But it's really nice to do something quickly.
After that, I decided that Cowell would be the place to go, and Mom wanted to come along, so we packed the Honda, and headed south. After a couple of wrong turns, we made it to Fountain Red, where I wanted to try Le Beak, v4, and Center Splooge, v10. So I got on Le Beak, and tried, and managed to onsight that, and it's such a great problem (maybe the most beautiful v4 and under problem I've ever seen). And then I went up to the other one. I had heard and read that the crimps at the top were really brutal, and that it was easy to get up to them, and very hard to go the last five feet. The problem is tall, but I brought all four pads over, and set them up so the fifteen foot drops were relatively comfortable. I had seen a video online of someone doing it with some crazy beta with high steps on the right, so I gave that a shot, and manged to do it in maybe four or five tries. I got to the top, got excited that I was pulling over the jugs, and then, once I was on the other side and walking down, I started to think. Crap, that felt like v6 or v7, not at all v10, which I'd say is pretty near my limit.
I came down, and walked around the crag a bit, and found this guy and girl that I had talked to before. I asked them about the problem, "Did I grab something I wasn't supposed to?" They were both obviously the sort of people you'd want to hang out with, and the guy was a phd student in orthopedics and kinesiology. He said, "Well, I think do whatever, and who cares about rules or whatever, but, yeah, there's some controversy over what is the proper line."
I was glad I could tell the difference between a v7 and v10, and glad that I hadn't gone home and sprayed all over the place that, "I'd done my first v10 and it was easy." So he and I went over, and, over the course of a few minutes, he careully explained what holds were on, and which were off.
I was increasingly disappointed by the whole thing. I don't know about you, but I think we should do whatever we want, and climb things how we choose. If someone finds an easier way to do something, say a v7 method rather than a v10 method, then the problem is v7. You can still tell people, "If you don't use those holds over there, then it's v10" But then it's a bullshit eliminate. And I think eliminates are bullshit (repeat). So it's a really classic v7, with the crux moves all the way at the top, and satisfying jugs to finish. Why ruin it? Why say it's a v10 when it just isn't? I mean, I don't climb this hard, but it'd be like walking up to the Mandala, and eliminating a couple of holds, and doing it, and claiming that the problem is a "sick v16". I'm all for pushing yourself, and if you want to take some holds off of a v7, go ahead and pat yourself on the back for doing something really hard, but don't claim that it's then a four star v10. Gag, Gross.
So anyway, I climbed this great thing called Center Splooge, which was a really fun v7. Then we went over to Fred's Cave, and got on My Space, v8, and was shut down pretty hard. I got to thinking, "I can't do this v8, so maybe I'll go work on the v11 over there." Which I promptly did. Fred's Roof is completely stunning. It's the rightmost line in the cave, and straight up, and has all of these huge, powerful moves to crimps the whole way up. Beautiful. I started working on it with this guy Isaac, and he was doing pretty well. We got to talking, and it turns out it was Isaac Caldiero and his girlfriend that me and mom were hanging out with at Fred's Cave (a professional climber, and strong fellow). It's always nice to meet someone you've heard of doing hard things. Turns out he's friendly, soft-spoken, and unassuming. And fun to climb with. The guy is just a beta machine. I think I can sometimes see beta from looking at rock, but this was something else. We climbed and chatted for a while, and then, when I was not making any progress whatsover, and felt vaugely undead, I decided it was time to go home, and we wished them well.
I guess I did what I went to do, Le Beak and Center Splooge (A V7!).
The book I started last night is great. I can't wait to tell yopu about it. Happy Sean's Birthday week.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Book One (A post from Arkansas)
I've decided to write a blog post every time I finish a book while I'm on this trip. A couple of thoughts on the book, and then what I've been doing. Book Report and Trip Report.
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
This is a throwback to a time when science fiction was young. The idea here is that Martians, full fledged two legged, nuance cultured, enlightened beings with telepathic powers. This is the kind of thing you'd have to be a ten year old to even consider writing, and I mean that in a good way. If you can get past the conceit, this book is a stunner. Shortly, you come to realize this isn't so much about Martian culture, as it is about the culture at the time. It speaks most notably to racism and civil rights, class warfare, ideological warfare and censorship, nuclear warfare, and a dusting of anti-McCarthyism. For the little boy in me, I loved the Martians. They were cool as hell, doing crazy stuff and killing it all the time. The more demanding side of me enjoyed that Bradbury was just using this ridiculous construct (and entertaining) construct to comment on the time in which he lived.
My mom recently moved to Minnesota, and it's been great having her there. We spent thanksgiving together, and occasionally, I have chance to go up to her house, an hour away, to carry something heavy, or fix something, or the like, which is an easy way to feel like a useful human being. We got to talking about the holidays this year (my birthday's next week), and thought it would be fun to spend them together, for the first time in a few years. So I asked her to come along with me to Arkansas, thinking that that was kind of unlikely. She said sure, we left on Thursday morning at about 630, and, after 11.5 hours of driving, and 1 hour of rests, we got in around 700 at night.
I thought once we got here that she would walk up once to see what the boulders looked like, and then head back to the cabin for reading and needle-stuff, but she had a good time climbing over scree, and moving over creeks, and watching me and others climb. Undettered by the exhausting day of climbing yesterday, she says she's up for another day of it, so pretty soon we are headed again to look for good boulders.
I did a few v4 and under problems yesterday, and worked Glass Bowl, my v10 project, for maybe an hour. I managed to do the last couple of moves, and almost linked it from after the crux to the finish (what I couldn't do last year, even though what most people think is the "crux" was not that bad for me). So I suppose I should be happy about that. After finishing exams, and still having two assignments left after I was done with exams (!!!), and then driving 12 hours, I'd say it's good that I even tried the problem, and better that I managed to do a couple of the moves. Wish me luck today. I'm still not sure what I want to climb. I found yesterday that I have to carry all four of my pads up to Glass Bowl to make it safe enough for me to feel comfortable really going for it. So that's kind of extreme. I feel like Christain Core carrying six vertical feet of foam down to Gioia. Hopefully I find something exciting to work on.
Happy Sean's birthday week. I'll check in again when I finish The Bean Trees.
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
This is a throwback to a time when science fiction was young. The idea here is that Martians, full fledged two legged, nuance cultured, enlightened beings with telepathic powers. This is the kind of thing you'd have to be a ten year old to even consider writing, and I mean that in a good way. If you can get past the conceit, this book is a stunner. Shortly, you come to realize this isn't so much about Martian culture, as it is about the culture at the time. It speaks most notably to racism and civil rights, class warfare, ideological warfare and censorship, nuclear warfare, and a dusting of anti-McCarthyism. For the little boy in me, I loved the Martians. They were cool as hell, doing crazy stuff and killing it all the time. The more demanding side of me enjoyed that Bradbury was just using this ridiculous construct (and entertaining) construct to comment on the time in which he lived.
My mom recently moved to Minnesota, and it's been great having her there. We spent thanksgiving together, and occasionally, I have chance to go up to her house, an hour away, to carry something heavy, or fix something, or the like, which is an easy way to feel like a useful human being. We got to talking about the holidays this year (my birthday's next week), and thought it would be fun to spend them together, for the first time in a few years. So I asked her to come along with me to Arkansas, thinking that that was kind of unlikely. She said sure, we left on Thursday morning at about 630, and, after 11.5 hours of driving, and 1 hour of rests, we got in around 700 at night.
I thought once we got here that she would walk up once to see what the boulders looked like, and then head back to the cabin for reading and needle-stuff, but she had a good time climbing over scree, and moving over creeks, and watching me and others climb. Undettered by the exhausting day of climbing yesterday, she says she's up for another day of it, so pretty soon we are headed again to look for good boulders.
I did a few v4 and under problems yesterday, and worked Glass Bowl, my v10 project, for maybe an hour. I managed to do the last couple of moves, and almost linked it from after the crux to the finish (what I couldn't do last year, even though what most people think is the "crux" was not that bad for me). So I suppose I should be happy about that. After finishing exams, and still having two assignments left after I was done with exams (!!!), and then driving 12 hours, I'd say it's good that I even tried the problem, and better that I managed to do a couple of the moves. Wish me luck today. I'm still not sure what I want to climb. I found yesterday that I have to carry all four of my pads up to Glass Bowl to make it safe enough for me to feel comfortable really going for it. So that's kind of extreme. I feel like Christain Core carrying six vertical feet of foam down to Gioia. Hopefully I find something exciting to work on.
Happy Sean's birthday week. I'll check in again when I finish The Bean Trees.
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