Bent Forks and Broncos

It's been a while. That's all I've got to say about that.  I've been getting my outdoor climb on recently. This is quite the change from previous years, when I was essentially a gym rat. Not that being a gym rat is a problem, but it's not as much fun as going outdoors. Not nearly as much fun. Of course it helps that I now have a rope (+the other equipment) and a Boulder Canyon guidebook.  Looking down from the Second Anchor on Hunky Monkey (5.11a/b), Lost Angle Wall,Upper Dream Canyon One of my new favorite locations is Upper Dream Canyon. Although it's a little off the beaten path (it requires a 15+ minute walk), and a bit of a longer drive, it's simply amazing. In addition to the spectacular sport climbing there (trad racks are expensive...I don't even know where to start), every time u take a breath and look around, you see massive cliffs surrounded by pine trees speckled with yellow aspens, with a creek providing a soothing symphony of rolling ...

Turns out I've got a disease. A bad disease. Well, it's not actually a disease. It's just an anti-diarrhea of the mouth. Think of as verbal constipation. As in you get into to a conversation or argument with someone, and only when it's all over do you actually realize how both of you were wrong and right. To keep running with the constipation theme, something isn't right, but you can't get it out until it's too late. Hmmm…I might have just taken that too far. Point is, the stuff you wanted to say, you suddenly never got the chance to say. And the stuff you did say was just dumb. Writing's a little different. Rather than being caught off guard and having conversations getting steered into directions you weren't expecting, you've got the chance to put your thoughts down. Read them over. Find the holes in your logic yourself. Fix them. Find the holes again. Leave 'em, and see whether somebody else catches them. It's essentially common knowle...

Well, it's been a while, as an astute reader noted. Since my last entry, healthcare reform passed (good?), the Winter Olympics happened (cool?), I passed non-linear controls (no idea how this happened), the Gulf of Mexico turned into the world's largest oilfield (and it seems like we're doing nothing about it), the Nuggets and Avalanche got eliminated in the first round (glad the Avs made the playoffs, disappointed the Nuggets didn't do better), I discovered K'Naan ( If Rap Gets Jealous ) the Shins & Arcarde Fire for the first time (loving Funeral & Chutes Too Narrow + New Slang , jury's out on Neon Bible , Oh, Inverted World, & Wincing the Night Away ) Iron Man II came out (haven't seen it (or Avatar )), the iPad came out (awesome, except for the whole proprietary aspect), the Chilean Earthquake probably shifted the Earth's axis & shortened it's days (thank you Wikipedia), Eyjafjallajokull erupted (still no idea how to pronounce it...

Once again, I've got a mild form of writer's block and I'm convinced my taste in music is better than everyone else's so they should listen to it too. See, if it wasn't I wouldn't listen to it. It's that simple. So go listen. So, without further ado, 3 albums that have been seeing lots of play of the past month. Because I can never figure out what that fifth album should be. Yeah, the fourth album wasn't coming to me either. It's Never Been Like That , Phoenix. I blame The Basketball Jones , a basketball videocast/podcast that discusses the NBA (unfortunately, without an added emphasis on what could be the greatest team ever: your Denver Nuggets), for getting me hooked. Napoleon Says , their intro song, is awesome. Got me hooked enough to try using the $5 mp3 credits I've been accumulating from buying textbooks on Amazon to go buy the album. Of course, right after I click the 'Buy Now' button, I get billed for $5.99. Turns out the credits...

In honor of my tradition of living slightly vicariously through my younger brother, I've got a story too good not tell. One of his friends hucked a 40 cliff...on a non-powder day, with a flat landing. He hit the ground so hard that his knees hit his chin. Oh, he also literally shat himself. I'm not joking, there's video (of the jump, I don't think they actually showed any of the shit). I went to the most expensive superbowl party ever. Everybody was told to bring beer or food, and I chose $16 worth of the former. I then proceeded to enjoy the game a friend's place. Unfortunately, this friend lives in Gold Run. That's the place were some really dumb college students managed to set their place on fire. Twice (it was different set of college students the second time). One of my friends actually lost almost all his stuff in the first fire (for the record, he didn't start it). So why am I telling you this? Because fire hydrants are on the passenger side of the st...

Ooooo! Embarrassing story you've all been waiting for! It's new and improved! Get it while it's hot! Ok. So, I've been trying to train for a marathon. I say trying because skiing kindof gets in the way (4+ hours of driving 3 days in a row + skiing 8:30-4:00 …. yeah, it gets in the way). Since I've fallen behind a bit, I decided to do what my magic spreadsheet that I must obey at all costs told me to do: 2 miles GP, 2 miles T, 2 miles GP. In English, that means 2 miles Goal Pace, 2 miles Tempo pace, and 2 miles Goal pace. Since I haven't exactly set my GP, I decided for this run for it to be 7:00 minute miles with T at 6:30. Which almost worked great. For the first 2 miles. And even the third. But at the beginning of the fourth it hit me. Hard. Like, I can't run any more, and am walking slightly goofily. Shit. I got a bad case of runner's craps. Or runner's shits, I'm not sure what the technical term for it is. So I'm in the middle of east bou...

In the fourth week of the first month of the year two thousand ten, the Prophets arrived. Oh, and don't worry about the slight drone you hear in the background that's just me still drooling all over them. To be more specific, they're the Prophet 100's. Since my old pair of skis was the new skiing hotness back when I was in elementary school, the only one thing stopping me from bombing everything on these snow eating monsters is….snow (and bindings, but I'll be taking care of those soon). I think the best way to describe current mountain conditions is that the current conditions would be awesome if it was still December. It's almost February. I wish there was a skiing equivalent to trying to snowboard a T-Bar. A place where, 90% of the skiers eat it on their first try (for the record, I didn't). And have to go again. And of the 10% that make it, say 50% eat it on the way up. Yeah, that would be sweet. I think I could spend half a day watching it. But since it...

It's a good thing I'm good at engineering (maybe), because common sense I obviously lack. Oh, and when mother nature and karma join forces, I should be afraid. Very afraid. Hmmm…you really can't tell what's going on in that picture. There's some blood, but…well…not enough. Yes, that's a little gratuitous. But anyways, what exactly do mother nature, a chunk of skin the size of a paper clip, and karma have in common? Well, sorry to bombard you with pictures, but I'm pretty sure it may have started with something like this (this was taken last Wednesday at 5:30). That's me. My legs. Yes, my bike. In two inches of snow. After I had just biked home (ok, full disclosure: by the time I made it home, walked inside and grabbed my camera some of the snow fell off, and I had to make a short lap around my neighborhood to get this picture, which is only half as snowy as I originally was), I took this photo. I wasn't expecting snow at 6:00 AM when I biked to a ...