Bent Forks and Broncos

If you're moving to Boulder your going to get fantastic climbing: be it outdoors, with Boulder Canyon, the Flatirons/front range, and Eldo; or indoors, with Movement , the Spot , and the BRC . If you're moving from boulder, your not. I'm moving from Boulder. So naturally, the first thing I want to check out is the local gyms and local crags. There are two different gyms in DC: SportRock in Alexandria and Earth Treks in Rockport, Maryland. If these websites don't impress you, it's for a reason: they're not Boulder gyms. I've always been curious about other climbing gyms because an incendiary Colorado Daily staff writer trashed St. Louis/east coast gyms , and almost started a riot on Mountain Project . If you want to see an online climbing flame war, skim/read the comments.  So, what's good about a climbing gym in DC? (1) It's a climbing gym in DC. It's a gym, that's dedicated to *climbing* in DC. Yes, read that again. It's true....

I landed at Reagen National Airport at 12:50 yesterday (Sunday). For those of you unfamiliar with national airports, DCA (Reagan's acronym) is in DC. It's a culmination of a half a semester long job search that wasn't anything like I was expecting. How I got here is a long story. Out of the blue, one of my Senior Projects team member asked me when I was graduating/if I was interested in a job with the company he was working (Emergent Space Technologies). I said I might be interested, a phone interview + an onsight interview later, I got an offer. At that point I still wasn't sold on the job. Over the past semester/year, my only job requirement was that the job wasn't out East. But as my search went along, offer's weren't appearing at my doorstep. But there's something about actually having a job offer that affects the way you think. Especially when jobs don't magically appear. So, after some rough negotiation (primarily because I thought I negotia...

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...