The Weekend that was: I moved! What the crap!? I haven’t lived this far from family in a long time. We moved out Friday, drove up to Oakland, then unloaded Saturday. Lots of stairs in our new place, so my legs are still pretty sore.Where I am at the moment: At work in our San Francisco office. Today was my first attempt at my new commute - driving to BART and riding into the city. Pretty uneventful. It’ll be nice once I find my iPod headphones so I can zone out on the train.On my To Do list this week: Lots of stuff to do at work. Now that I’m in this office full-time, I can actually stay on top of things better. Hopefully, I can get my little office space setup soon. At home, there are lots of things on my “honey-do” list.Procrastinating about: Yard work. Yup, I have a yard to take care of now. Low on the priority list at this point, but it’d be nice to have a clean yard.Music that seems to catch my attention this past week: MGMT. Purchased Fleet Foxes, but haven’t had time to listen to it. Listening to Last.fm at work right now.Next Trip: I’d be happy if I didn’t take any sort of trip for at least a month.
How Im feeling about this week: Surreal
"Mirando" - climbing film from Bishop
I wrapped up the editing of my new climbing film, Mirando. Check it out:
Trip to Bishop
Friday
Took Friday off and drove out to Bishop. Met some great people and managed to get a lot of good looking video of some hard climbs.
I showed up Friday and met up with Brian Hedrick and Mark Heal. Mark worked on “Stained Glass” (v10) for awhile before the rock tore up his fingertips. Nearby, Giovanni “G” Traversi made an incredible send of “Haroun and the Sea of Stories” (v12). Got that one on video. Daniel Woods, Ethan Pringle and Doug Munsch showed up just before the send. Afterwards, the whole group was led by Charlie Barrett across the valley to “Xavier’s Roof” (v12).
The whole group took shots at it, but the sends went to Daniel and Brian. After that, we cruised down to “Zen Flutes” — a v10 face with a long dyno finish. I worked on a v7 around the corner. (when I find my guidebook, I’ll have a name for the thing, but since I didn’t complete it, no rush.)
The crew finished the day on “Solitaire” (v8). The problem starts on a low sloping rail on a angled wall, followed by a long move to another sloping rail, then a full dyno to a sharp edge over the top. Once again, the send train rolled in and everyone who tried it, made it up.
Brian and Mark went off to Vons for camp food while G, myself, Daniel, Ethan, and Doug grabbed burgers at Whiskey Creek. G got his own hotel room (lame) and the other 4 of us split a room at a local motel.
Saturday
Woke up long before everyone else, and laid in bed rifling through work emails and catching up on Twitter and my RSS feeds. We got out to the Milks around 10am, met up with Emanuel Moosburger and his pal David from Austria. The 8-man crew tromped out to Secrets of the Beehive — a ~30ft tall v7 with a crux finish. Ethan made the first send and made it look easy. Mark came up second, followed by Brian, then Daniel. I took a few go’s at it, but couldn’t make it past a v5/v6 move at the bottom. Doug made it up “Queen Sweet Nectar” (v9) from the 2nd move on — he swears he’ll get it from the start next time.
Ethan and Brian made a attempts on The Swarm (v14). Doug and I did a little v6 around to the right that was fun. Brian said he felt good on The Swarm and thinks he can get it this year.
The session was capped off by Ethan’s ascent of “Flight of the Bumblebee” — v8/v9, maybe 35ft+ with a bad landing. His first go, he got up the left-to-right flake, but downclimbed before moving over the bulge. He sent on his second go — great footage to come.
We loaded up the cars and headed back towards Grandpa Peabody where we ran into Matt Birch, Wills Young, and Lisa Rands. Matt was working on “Indirection” — a cool line that starts at “Go Granny Go” and moves left to join “Thunderbird” (need to double-check my facts on that finish). Daniel climbed up the backside of Grandpa so he could throw a rope on the “Rasta Man” project.
I played around a bit on “Go Granny Go”, then ran up to “Mandala” where Ethan was working on the v14 sit and Brian was working the v12 stand. I got two good angles of Brian — his second go, he sent. As the sun went down, the pads got stacked below Evilution. Canadian Jeremy Smith made two very excellent attempts at pulling over the lip, but couldn’t hang on. Next to this show, Matt and Daniel worked on “Rasta Man” together. Just before the headlamps turned off, Daniel made a final go — sticking the long throw to the terrible pinch, but unable to stick the next move.
Saturday night was pizza, then back to the motel for some lame telvision and a few beers.
Sunday
We didn’t have a full day, so we decided we’d get up early and push out. But when Doug’s alarm went off, the room stayed quiet. We got out there around 10am. Daniel took a few more go’s at “Rasta Man”, Doug worked on “Stained Glass”, and I got totally shut down on two easy climbs I’d planned to do… my body just refused to hang on to anything.
I finished my trip shooting video of Lisa Rands attempting “Haroun…”. Wills found a knob to hang some pads off the boulder opposing the climb — without them you’d fly right into the boulder if you’re feet popped. Lisa made three good go’s while I was there. She made it through the middle crux, but could not hang on to the finish.
I left around 12:45p and managed to drive straight through to Oakland — 6 hours. Not bad.
Video to come…
The Thin Line of Instant Messenger
In person, it’s quite easy to know who you’re talking to. You’re at lunch or at a bar, and the person you’re looking at is the person you’re talking to. Granted, there may be someone eavesdropping or the person you’re talking to may be calling the police because they have a restraining order against you … but the point is this: in order to change conversations, you must do something physically with your body: turn to the left or right, walk to another table, etc.
Additionally, if you pause a conversation, you don’t usually forget who you’re talking to when you’d like to restart communication. Your eyes see who’s in front of you and they tell your brain, which usually (unless incredibly intoxicated) will deduce which person you’re conversing with.
The same cannot be said about instant messenger. For me, sometimes, there is a very thin line between conversing between your friend and your boss. And depending on which window your clumsy mouse has chosen to select, you may get a very different response.
Case in point:
Friday Update
The Week that was: My brother-in-law few up to stay with us. We went into the city on Saturday, then kicked it at home Sunday to watch the Charger game. It was sad.
Where I am at the moment: At work in our San Francisco office. I stayed at work pretty late last night, so I didn’t feel too bad about coming in a little late this morning. But I’m starving, so after this post, I’ll be heading to the kitchen to make myself some oatmeal.
On my To Do list this week: Busy week here at Transpera. We’ve got a release planning meeting coming up on Monday, so I need to be prepared.
Procrastinating about: Organizing my shoes at home. I keep dropping them off in random places and I’m pretty sure it’s pissing off my wife.
Music that seems to catch my attention this past week: Middle Class Rut. Deftones (old stuff I’d never heard before! thanks, @markrebec!)
Next Trip: Thinking about heading to Sonoma next weekend to visit a friend from work, but will probably stay put. I want to get moved in some more and weekends are my only chance to do that.
How Im feeling about this week: Tired
Protest Fail
Ooo! A map of Prop 8 donors! Go kick the crap out of them for participating in the electoral process.
Look, I hate discrimination as much as the next guy, but threatening violence in this situation serves no purpose.
Afterwards, go destroy a random business because someone you don’t know was murdered.
Today's Tunes
What I’m listening to today at work — kind of all over the place, but it’s getting me through:
Mission Cliffs Climbing Competition
Long story short: on my last trip to San Francisco for work, I brought my climbing shoes and entered a friendly little climbing competition. I entered the Men’s Intermediate division (v3-v5, middle of three divisions). I placed 22 of 69 people. Not bad for my first-ever comp, and being a little out of shape.But here’s the weird part. If I had instead chosen to enter the Men’s Advanced, my total score of 19,280 would have put me in 17th place in that division. Huh? Shouldn’t they average out the scores and then divide?
I don’t get it.That’ll teach me to be an underachiever. Yes, I should be in the Men’s Advanced group. Yes, I can fly a plane. Yes, I can perform open heart surgery.
Monday Update
The Weekend that was: Hectic. Flew up to San Francisco with Erin on Friday, then drove around all weekend looking at apartments. We picked our favorite and applied Sunday. We fell in love with the Inner Sunset district of SF — hopefully, it will be where we live!Where I am at the moment: At work in our San Francisco office … planning software releases and constantly checking my phone to see if we’ve gotten a call on that place yet.
On my To Do list this week: Well, that depends. If this place falls through, I guess I won’t go climbing next weekend, which means I need to create a new list of places to visit next weekend. Aside from that, we’ve got a big software release at work Wednesday. So I’m prepping for that, as well as doing planning for upcoming releases.Procrastinating about: Hah! Same as last week: “Unfortunately, I dont have to luxury to procrastinate about anything during the next 30 days.”Music that seems to catch my attention this past week: This past weekend was spent driving around in the rental car, listening to “Live 105” (105.3) here in San Francisco. It was so-so. Maybe 1 out of 5 songs was decent. The rest was cluttered with Incubus, Sublime, and other worthless crap. Been liking the MGMT record more and more.Next Trip: We’ll see. Either I’m heading to Red Rocks, Nevada to go climbing with my buddy Aron, or I’m coming back up to SF to apartment hunt. I’d prefer the former.How Im feeling about this week: Stressed, nervous, excited.
Monday Update
My buddy Lars turned me onto a good little update template (who took it from his friend Marko). I like it.The Weekend that was: Packed boxes all day Saturday. Made my wife breakfast Sunday and packed a few more boxes. Exciting!Where I am at the moment: At work in Santa Monica. Sterile office with little to no human interaction all day (IM and email certainly don’t count).On my To Do list this week: Holy crap. It’s big. Dealing with our current place, finding a new place in San Francisco, and dealing with our rental in San Diego. Break-lease fees, security deposits,etc etc. Bleh.Procrastinating about: Unfortunately, I don’t have to luxury to procrastinate about anything during the next 30 days.Book I’m in the middle of: “Quicksilver” by Neil Stephenson … but I may set it aside. I thoroughly enjoyed “Cryptonomicon”, but this book isn’t doing it for me.Music that seems to catch my attention this past week: I totally burned out the new Kings of Leon record, so now I’m stagnant again. I found an AIR app to run Pandora called “Dorame.” Cool stuff.Next Trip: This Friday to shop for an apartment in San Francisco. We really need to find a place this weekend — I’d rather not have to repeat it all the following weekend (which I’ve set aside to go climbing with a friend of mine).
How I’m feeling about this week: Stressed, nervous, excited.
How I’m feeling about this week: Stressed, nervous, excited.
Hi there, I'm Jon.
Writer. Musician. Adventurer. Nerd.
Purveyor of GIFs and dad jokes.