I'm not taking it for granite

I spent most of the month of May in New Hampshire, climbing and graduating from college.

Some of the highlights of the trip:

-Introduced my friend Ana to the glory that is Cathedral Ledge. Here is a picture of her toproping A Room with a View (5.12a):



-Made another attempt at aid-soloing the Mordor Wall. On my previous attempt, I dropped my bathooks on the second pitch traverse, and was unable to continue upwards...this time, I reached the top of the third pitch and realized I was cold, hungry, and scared-just plain not having fun. I bailed for the second time...looks like it will have to wait.

-Graduation. Ceremony was fun but a bit hot. The university president chastised us for being too exuberant. I know there's a certain sense of decorum, but why be a killjoy, Sara Jayne Steen?

On the procession on the way down to the field:


-Came annoyingly close to onsighting Leafspring (5.11+) but slipped off the big jug at the top because I was too pumped. Overall really fun movement; similar to stuffing yourself into an overhanging broom closet that is trying to spit you out. Oh, and the closet is lined with 20-grit sandpaper.

-Made a possible first gear-only ascent of White Zombie, a 5.12d chimney. It took me about 6 tries over the last year to get this clean. A combination of strenuous chimneying and over-the-head handstacks and finger jams makes for a full-body thrashing...it's not the kind of route that you can try more than once in a day. Here's a video so you can get an idea of the madness.

I have spent the last three years in NH and I will miss the time shared in these majestic environments with truly wonderful people. Thank you all!

Tough Mudder - May 2010

As I mentioned a couple months ago, I had the opportunity to participate in the Tough Mudder, the "toughest one-day endurance race on the planet." I have limited experience with endurance races, but I still feel I can safely say that this race was pretty dang tough.

The race consisted of approximately 7 miles of running, with 16 obstacles strewn along its length, clustered mostly at the beginning and end. Among the obstacles were a mud pit:



...and a crawl under annoyingly low wire:



There was also the largest, steepest slip-n-slide I have ever seen...easily 100ft long, on a 45 degree slope! I should not forget to mention that we ran through FIRE right at the finish line. It was the most fun I have had in months! Even the monster hill runs were a blast; granted, they were Type II fun.

As for finishing times, I finished in 1:15, my friend Greg Dorsch finished in 1:03, and my friend Bill Kolaski finished in an amazing :57! Good job, all of you Mudders out there.

Stuff David Does on the radio!

I recently had the opportunity to be interviewed by David Gaffney-Rosenfeld of This Joyful Noise. David broadcasts live from WHCR 90.3 FM and streaming live at WHCR.org every Monday from 2 to 3pm.

We talked about music, fighting bears, and technology and the wilderness. At some later date, his broadcasts will be available in downloadable form for your listening pleasure.

David and I have known each other for a good portion of our lives and I can call him a close friend. Due to this, whatever I say about him is inherently biased, but I still think that I can say the following with some objectivity:

Keep a close eye on him, he will be doing amazing things before you know it.

In closing, some fun I had with a photo editor recently:

Paletas! (Spatula-things)

I made a run of 5-6 of these 5 years ago, and I loved how they turned out so much I made another 5. They are great for cooking.

I was given the wood by my dad when I saw him in Venezuela recently. He still had the template I made to cut them out last time. Here is the comparison of the older (left) to the newer (right):



The older one is slightly smaller than the new...not sure how this happened, considering I made them from the same template. Part of it may be that the edges of the older run were initially sanded with a belt sander, removing considerably more material. I had no belt sander on hand this time, and used a palm sander. Both were finished by hand sanding them to a nice finish.

A difference in color is also apparent; this is due to dryness/oils absorbed. The older one has been used for the past five years in the kitchen and thus has absorbed a good amount of oil. It also has shown surprisingly few signs of wear; no splitting, splintering, or cracking at all! This wood, red oak, is amazingly resistant to heat and wear.



That being said, remember to oil (mineral oil is best) your wooden kitchen tools regularly, if they don't come in contact with oil already, and never put them in the dishwasher.

Venezuela, Mi Patria Querida

I recently spent 4 days Caracas, Venezuela, the city I was born in, to attend my cousin's wedding. Some highlights:

-Caracas has horrendous traffic nowadays. At it's worst, it took us 50 minutes to drive something it would have taken 5 minutes to walk.

-I got to play First Responder at the wedding. My younger cousin's girlfriend got possible hypoglycemia/dehydration and being diabetic, I had a source of sugar (I carry a squeeze tube full of molasses and honey) but the water resulted being much harder to find. I finally ran into the limo driver for the newlyweds, and he served me the water from the cooler in the limo in a champagne glass. Classy!

-When you are at a wedding, and there is a beautiful Venezuelan woman standing all alone, seemingly waiting for you to walk up to talk to her, like it is straight out of a movie and you are the protagonist, you are mistaken...she is waiting for her boyfriend to arrive with that pack of gum she asked him to get earlier. Let's just say when he showed up and introduced himself it got a bit awkward.

-As cars were milling about in front of the church after the wedding ceremony, I ran into the street to catch a Jack Russell puppy that had gotten away from two boys. I can tell you that chasing a Beanie Baby-sized dog through traffic while wearing a suit is not as easy as you'd think.

-I had the opportunity to drive in Caracas for the first time ever. In this city, lanes are guidelines (if the lines are even visible), turn signals are an invitation to be passed at high speed, and running red lights and stop signs is standard operating procedure...due to the fact that stopping puts you at risk of being carjacked at gunpoint. You simply slow down a bit as you approach the light...look right, look left...and gun it.

-Another fun thing to be done in a suit: Dance to reggaeton and salsa in 85 degree heat.


Myself, my cousin Anabel, my mom, my grandmother and her husband.

Origami Crane Earrings

I saw a pair of these in a store and thought to myself, "I can make those." So I did.

Cutting.


Folding.


Lacquering (clear nail polish, really).


Installing gold hardware.


I folded these cranes from origami paper purchased in a Japanese bookstore nearby. With full-size cranes, you can get away with thicker paper, but these tiny birds needed the thinner paper. Plus, the patterns make for some pretty earrings.



The origami paper was originally 6" square. I cut it down to 1.4" in size. Once folded, I applied 3-4 coats (lost count, really) of a clear nail laminate, making the cranes stiffer and more durable, with the added benefit of giving them a glossy look. The jewelery hardware is 14k gold plate. From cutting to the hardware, each crane took no more than one hour.

Wooden Gymnastic Rings - Complete(?)

Finally got those coats of spar varnish onto the rings. They are a little slippery but with gymnastic chalk the friction improves quite a bit. I've only did a couple pull-ups on them with a false grip (necessary for doing muscle-ups) and that was pretty tough, but then again, I haven't hung from a false grip or done muscle-ups in months. The upside is they probably won't tear your wrists up when transitioning down from the dip to the pull-up portion of the movement.

Regardless, the rings are gorgeous. I expect the surface texture to improve as they are used more. Voila: