I went rock climbing in Leavenworth on Sunday which was absolutely fantastic. It was probably the best climbing experience I've had outdoors so far. We left at around 8:30, got there at 11 or so, and didn't end up leaving until 5:30. I climbed some pretty hard routes and finished a couple as well, so I was pretty happy with how I did overall. I did manage to completely trash my hands, legs, and muscles though. Climbing outdoors is so very, very different from climbing in the gym. I'd almost say it's harder because there aren't easily marked routes for you to go. It is certainly more gorgeous though. Being in the woods with snow around you on a 75-80 degree day climbing big boulders is nothing short of amazing.

I have a bunch of pictures, some of which include me on said boulders which I'll have to upload and post sometime today (hopefully). I think a couple of them came out really well. I need to take my tripod next time, which I keep forgetting. I'm also jonesing for some new lenses, but that's so not going to happen if only because they're ludicrously expensive. I hear there might be one or two good ones I should pick up for $150 or so, but I'll have to talk to my camera expert friends before I go traipsing through that field.

Tags: climbing, leavenworth

I climbed a V5 for the first time last Saturday. It was awesome considering I've been stuck at a V4 level for quite some time now. I think I've finally surpassed the point which I've been at for close to a year now. I'd say more than likely it's a combination of me getting in better shape, climbing without a break for 5 months (probably the longest stretch I've gone), and rowing on my machine for cardio. Today I managed to get most of the way through a hard V4 and I'm fairly certain I can get it either the next time I'm there, or the time after. Fantastic stuff.

On a completely unrelated topic, I hate Gamestop with a passion. I call to see if they have a game in stock that I wanted to pick up (with a gift certificate) and they tell me they don't have any copies unless I pre-ordered it. So very, very lame. I'm sick and tired of them requiring pre-orders, asking me if I want to sell any games anytime I go in (when I have nothing in my hands), and of them being general dicks whenever I'm in the stores. God it makes me hate. If I ever make lots and lots of money, I'm creating a video game store that doesn't suck donkey balls. SO MUCH HATE.

Tags: climbing, hate

Gold bar was certainly fun (although MUCH more scary than at the gym). There were only two pictures taken that came out from Victor's camera, which you can view here and here. Yes, it was beautiful. Of interesting note is that the rock Zach is climbing on in the first picture was in the middle of a bunch of tree stumps, mini rocks, brush, and all around nastiness. I was standing below him and if he had fallen he probably would have hurt either him or me in some capacity. Thankfully he didn't fall :). I had tried that same route but got scared at the second to last move and so downclimbed it to safety. Fun stuff all around.

Oh ya, seeing a mustang car almost fall off the side of the trail halfway up and then seeing an accord with two flat tires as well was weird. This was a serious 4x4 trail people, why are you bringing those cars up there?

Tags: climbing, gold bar

Last Saturday Zach, Colleen, and I went to Gold Bar and Index to try to find the Gold Bar bouldering area. We had bought crash pads, brought along some food and water and were all set to go climbing for a couple of hours. Gold Bar is about an hour northeast of where I live, so it was a little bit of a trip out there, but we had fun, saw the correctional facility (and the AMAZING looking high school next to it), so it wasn't that bad of a drive at all. Unfortunately, once we got to the area, the directions we had were pretty shitty. They consisted of "Once you get onto the road, go a couple of miles and then turn left onto the 4x4 track with a huge puddle 30 feet off the road. Once you get onto the road, continue until you get to the clearing." We found something like five dirt roads, some with puddles, some without and had one hell of a time figuring out where to go. We ended up on the top of a mountain by a power station our first time, obviously picking the wrong path. That time took us 30 minutes to get up there. The second time we ended up in the town of Index, which is this small town next to a crystal clear river that is just beautiful.

We got out of the car and ended up wading the river over to the other side and ate lunch there. It was pretty awesome. Colleen ended up wading back, but Zach and I were carrying bags (my camera and the food), so we found an alternate route that wasn't as wet. When we got back, Colleen showed us a ton of blackberries that she had picked that were fantastic. After that we turned back and tried another of the 4x4 trails (the correct one), but stopped half way up the mountain again because it was looking sketchy and we didn't want to repeat our first mistake. Finally, we tried a third trail (also correct I believe), but went the wrong way on it. We found a bunch of guys driving off road vehicles including the rock hoppers. Those things are crazy. They're massively large dune buggies that climb over large boulders, tree stumps, and tons of other debris almost flipping over or getting stuck in the process. They also REALLY tear up the forest, which was kind of sad.

We ended up driving home kind of sad that we didn't make it to boulder, but also happy because we had a lot of fun in the process. We stopped at a shop on the side of the road that sold vegetables and fruits that were grown in the back of the shop and picked up some good stuff that we cooked when we got home (penne, pesto, and vegetables were delicious).

Yesterday I picked up the guide book to Leavenworth and Gold Bar so now we can go to those two places without getting lost! I'm bummed that the internet seems to think not telling people where these places are is a good thing because they want to keep it private. Maybe that's a good thing? I don't know. I guess I'm still new to this whole climbing outdoors thing and don't know the etiquette or something. Regardless, it was fun and I hope we get to go back before it turns into raining season here again (which should be fairly soon).

Tags: climbing

I often catch myself looking outside and just staring into space when it's a nice day like today. The sky is nearly clear and while it's not exactly warm (54F), it still looks inviting. Zach and Colleen both bought new climbing shoes yesterday, so I think tomorrow is the first day I try to go rock climbing after taking a break. I hope my body has healed in the interim, because I really, really miss it. I can't wait for summer. I want to be able to play video games, read, climb, exercise, and just lounge again without having stress. It's going to be fantastic.

I finished my taxes yesterday. I tried to do them a month or so ago, but I didn't know my last year's gross income, so I just left it until yesterday. The returns were already accepted, so I'm hoping that I'll receive my $600 deposit soon. Money :D. It was surprisingly easy even though this was the first time I had done my own taxes.

I saw BT at a club on Friday night and it was an incredible experience. The dj before him was just as good and the company was fantastic. It was just John and me and he found someone to talk to part way through so I got to just stand, listen, and feel the music (literally as I was fairly close to the speakers and could feel the pressure increase/decrease). I would close my eyes and just let the wash of music go over me. Hearing some of his songs in a club atmosphere with him stretching them to ten or fifteen minutes was something I wish could happen every weekend. I often found myself smiling uncontrollably, which was a nice change of pace from the past couple of weeks. The club closed at 3:45am or so, but I was so amped up I didn't go to sleep until 5 or so. One of the best nights of my life in recent memory.

Tags: bt, climbing

I somehow managed to roll my ankle while climbing yesterday. I didn't even notice until last night when I was walking around the house and felt a twinge when I walked a certain way. Today it's kind of sore and it really sucks. Finished two V3s yesterday though, so that made me happy. One of them I'd been working on for a couple of days. I started working on a V4 that I'll probably finish next time as well as another V4 that's only about five moves or so.

This is the best I've ever been climbing, and I think it's partially attributable to the fact that I've been listening to my body and learning how to climb so I don't hurt it.

Tags: climbing

I've been slowly getting a case of burnout working so much on school work, the student association, and trying to find a job. It's pretty rough and it's starting to really affect me. I spent the better part of today working on the programming test I received from Insomniac Games. It's not that it was terribly hard (it was actually pretty easy), it's just that I had a hard time concentrating. I'm hoping the fact that I'm starting to run again will give me some more energy. I've got two major assignments due this week aside from Alpha. It's not going to be an easy week, yet I need to try to find time to handle job stuff, student association stuff, and probably hanging out with people since Zach is going to be having Colleen visit this week. It sucks watching him not have to do much at all since he has a job, no classes, and barely any responsibilities right now while I have a shit-ton. It almost makes me want to quit game class, but I certainly don't want to leave my team in the dust, nor do I actually want to quit working on the game. I just want more time.

I finished two more V3s at the climbing gym today. My body seems to be holding up quite well as long as I pay attention to what I'm doing and not stress my wrists. Those seem to be my weak points and I'm going to figure out how to strengthen them so I don't feel so weak on the crimps.

Tonight's Studio 60 was the last one that is going to air. I guess the show isn't doing that well so it's going to be canceled even though it has been paid for 24 episodes or something like that. Kind of sad too since it was one of my favorites shows.

I should sleep since I have to get up in less than 5 hours. I hate how when I get stressed I tend to sleep less which just perpetuates the problem.

Tags: climbing, school, studio 60

I've been going rock climbing three times a week again. Anytime I try to go more than that (like on a Saturday), I inevitably fuck up a wrist, finger, arm, elbow, or something similar. It really sucks too because I want to go more often :(. Any day that I have an off day sucks because I'd rather be climbing.

I'm going to start running again tomorrow and I know it's just going to kill me. I haven't been doing any cardio at all except for my football games on Sunday nights and I can definitely feel it. I just don't feel as energetic as I did last semester.

So yesterday when I went rock climbing I finished a hard V3 and proceeded to finish my first ever V4 (my previous highest was a V4-). Both of them had really, really hard moves in the problem so I was extremely happy when I finished them. To have finished them both on the same day was pretty damn cool as well.

I've been watching a lot of climbing videos lately and I've come to the conclusion that the guys in it are insane. They're all perfectly toned with bodies that are sculpted out of the rocks that they climb. They're able to do things like V15's, while I'm stuck being happy with V4's. Pretty damn crazy stuff, but it's sure as hell interesting to watch.

Tags: climbing

I tried to go rock climbing today for the first time in a week. The reason I haven't been going lately is because it snowed a shit-ton here and they don't have the equipment or the knowhow to clean up the roads. I didn't really want to be driving in the snow with my car, plus I didn't want to have to take the 20-30 minutes to dig it out of the snow in the first place. Also, Zach's girlfriend was in town, so he didn't particularly want to go either (I don't blame him). Anyway, we tried going today, but when we got there they were inexplicably out of power. It was weird because there wasn't a storm or anything today, so they couldn't explain why they didn't have power. Oh well, I guess we're going tomorrow instead.

It's time for me to get back into the swing of things here. It kind of sucks since I don't really want to work, but I have to. I have six classes again this semester, and I can't wait to be done. I'll have to start applying to companies soon, which I'm actually very excited about.

Also, it seems Zach is going to be staying in town. Kick ass. I don't have to be president now :).

I ripped a bunch of cds to my computer today that I've had for quite a while. I really hate the cd format and wish I could just download my music in FLAC format from a reputable website and pay the same amount. I'm tired of all this DRM bullshit, lossy quality music that is out there. itunes is a piece of shit and I hate what Apple is doing with it. They've screwed over one of my friends already by not allowing them to redownload music when their hard drive crashed. How dumb is that? Hate.

Tags: climbing, hate, school

Tired but want to work. Can't concentrate long enough to finish. Stressed. Both eyes have been twitching for two weeks now fairly non-stop. One more week of hell to go. Three finals, one essay, three minor programs, one game engine in XNA left to do. Think I need a break? Ya...

Can't wait to go home and sleep without having anything necessary to do once I wake up. That is the best feeling in the world. I think I tend to sleep for 12 hours once I get home and can actually relax.

The Toblo guys are kicking ass with all the awards and what not. Good for them. I wish it was me, but they definitely deserve it.

Body has been deteriorating over time lately. Climbing is fun, but my arms, wrists, and elbows have been hurting lately. Sometimes quite a bit. It generally doesn't last much longer than an hour or two past climbing, but it's definitely there. I tend to ignore it while I'm climbing, but I'm sure that's not a terribly good idea as my body is most likely trying to tell me something.

Zach went to Chicago for an interview. I'll pick him up from the airport tomorrow. Should be interesting to hear how his weekend went.

Our first playable is done. It went fairly well and I'm proud of what we have. If we had models from artists, our game would look 2000 times better than it does now. Still though, what we have is impressive and I actually think it's one of the furthest along games, which surprises me. I thought people would have stuff way ahead of what we do, but I don't really think that's the case. Our engine is pretty damn stable and we're finally getting to that point where we can mess around with the game itself instead of build the underlying part of it. Next semester is going to be all of the fun stuff.

Tags: climbing, ddzh, school

Finished my first V4 tonight. Also finished a V2+ that was looking easy. Only took me a couple of tries, mostly because my foot kept slipping off of one hold and not because it was hard or I was tired.

Good stuff. My new goal is to finish a V5 before Christmas. Zach thinks we can do it and I think he may be right. If not a V5, at least a V4+ or V5-.

What's odd is we're still stuck on two V3's that we can't finish. Zach is ahead of me by a V3 (that I actually haven't tried more than once) and a V4 that I can't get past one move on. I know exactly what to do but I keep trying either when I'm tired or can't seem to have enough strength to do the one move. One of these days I'll get it. He leaves for a week for Thanksgiving, so hopefully I'll be able to catch up.

I love climbing. So. Much. Fun.

Tags: climbing

A bunch of the routes we already finished were V3's as graded by the people who work there. I think we had totaled about 3 or so that we had finished already. What's funny is today we worked on a V2 that kicked our asses although we both ended up finishing it. We then proceeded to try a V2+ (somewhere in between a V2 and V3) and couldn't get past one of the moves because we were so tired. Kind of funny that some of the V3's are seemingly easier than the V2's, but that's how it goes. It's all subjective. We've been working on some of the V4's as well and I think we'll be able to finish at least one by the time Thanksgiving rolls around.

I really need to take a camera and take some pictures of us climbing. Some of the moves we do are pretty damn amazing when you think of it (hanging upside down by one hand and have your foot above your one hand hooked on a hold). If I got a good camera I think it'd look pretty awesome.

Hot shit!

Tags: climbing

Zach and I have been climbing regularly three days a week for around 7 weeks or so now. We've progressed quite a bit and I'd say we're somewhere around a V3-V4 difficulty level. It's pretty fantastic as it's the best I've ever been and I can notice a difference. I've tried to climb more efficiently and with less stress on my muscles so that I don't have to take a break like in the past. My left elbow area hurts occasionally, but only on very specific climbs or moves that use it in one direction. I've been able to rest it by learning how to climb without stressing the one area; I mostly hang instead of trying to be close to the wall. Considering that's how you're supposed to climb, it's a good thing for me to learn regardless.

I've never climbed a V4, and I'll have to wait until they mark up the tournament scores with actual climbing difficulties, but I'm pretty sure we're close to being able to do one. It's nice because traditionally I've been behind Zach by about a grade of difficulty because he weighed 50 pounds less than me, but had the same reach. I've toned down to somewhere around 25 pounds more than him and I'm now able to keep up with him. Sometimes I'm able to do a move that he can't and sometimes he can do one that I can't, but it typically doesn't take long for us to figure out another way around the move/problem.

Climbing has been one of the best things I've taken up in a long time. I actively look forward to the days that I get to climb and am sad when days happen in which I don't get to climb. I don't think of it as working out since I have so much fun, and yet it builds muscle on my upper body like no other. I've never really liked lifting weights since it's so monotonous, but I find myself doing that anyway just so I can get stronger in climbing. It's making a difference in not only my climbing, but my body structure as well.

Anyway, I love climbing. It's such a fantastic sport that I dig and I hope I never have a disability that makes it so I can't climb anymore. I'd actually rank it above any other sport I've done aside from perhaps soccer (and if it's not above it, it's damn close to right next to it). I can't wait until I get done with school so that I can take trips to famous places that are outdoors and start climbing the hard stuff that takes days to do. Days in which you're literally sleeping on the cliff face and climbing during the day. Should be fun.

Tags: climbing

I went to the shooting range today to shoot pistols for the first time. I've shot my fair share of rifles, and a couple of shotguns, but I've never shot a pistol before today. It was quite an experience, to say the least. I shot a 9mm Glock (not sure what kind) and a .40 Sig P229. I think I liked the Sig better, as it felt heavier and more sturdy, but I also think I shot worse with it. I was fairly scared to shoot it in the beginning; I had troubles putting the bullets into the clip. But after my first five shots of ammo, I was ok with it again. It's interesting to see people's different reactions to guns. For instance, some of the people I was with had never shot a gun before. They were trying it out. Some liked it, some seemed a bit freaked out about it.

I was thinking about how guns are used, and I realized I don't ever see myself using it to go hunting or on a killing rampage. I do enjoy shooting guns, but purely as a sport. I enjoy the patience and skill it takes to be good at shooting guns. Also, as a machine I find it incredibly fascinating. To be able to fire a small metal object just below the speed of sound is amazing to me. Granted guns have been used for extremely bad things in the past, but they're not going to go away anytime soon.

So then it got me thinking about what if I ever owned a gun and was placed in a situation where I would think I needed to use it for self defense. Could I pull the trigger knowing that doing so might cause someone to die? Could I do it knowing that not pulling that trigger might cause someone I hold dear to me to die? I'm aware that a lot of people die from guns in the house, but I also believe that it's caused by improper storing of the gun or misuse of it. Gun safety has been taught to me by my family very, very hard. Always treat the gun as if it is loaded and ready to fire unless blatantly obvious it isn't (clip is out and chamber is open). Never point a gun at something you aren't willing to destroy.

Anyway, I had fun going and would consider doing it again. It cost something like $20 for a couple of hours worth of entertainment. I'm hoping that when I go home, my dad will let me shoot his gun since he has something like 1000 rounds of ammo for it and hasn't shot it in a couple of years. I'd also like to try out his rifles that he got when my uncle Matt passed aw