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  • More Climbing!

    I know you’re all probably sick of reading about my climbing adventures, but, well, tough.

    This weekend Colleen and I were going to head down South to Jackson Falls to go climbing with our friend James.  However, for all of you that live around here, you know that our spring monsoon started this week.  Needless to say, it was supposed to rain all weekend, so we decided to cancel it.  I can only imagine how wet the rock would’ve been.  And the campsites were probably flooded by the creek that runs through everything. 

    Instead we headed over to Upper Limits.  It was quite a productive day while we were there too.  We left here around 10:30, and didn’t get back till 5:30ish.  Granted it takes 45 mins to get there.  As soon as we were finished warming up, Colleen and I became lead certified.  That took no time at all, since all that’s required is running up a 5.7, and then lead belaying the other person.  After that we moved into the silo’s.  After a quick warmup we started leading.  James and I got in 4 or 5 lead routers, while Colleen got in an additional one on us (so 5 or 6).  Then it was on to a few top rope routes, just because. 

    We took a snack break and then headed to the cave.  James decided to try and kill us by getting us to climb on the ceiling the whole way.  Now, I was already tired from everything else that I had done, and this was just icing on the cake.  So, we’re trying all these (impossible) problems while hanging upside down.  Talk about difficult.  Keeping my ass from falling all over is a pain.  I’m really surprised my abs aren’t complaining more today.  It is early though.

  • Wierd but True

    At the Fitness Center, the treadmills that they have, have heartrate monitors.  It’s always fun to see what my heartrate is like after my runs.  Now, there’s a chart on it for how high your heartrate should be depending on what age you are.  For people around 20 60% I believe is 120bmp, and 100% should be 200bpm.  Now, after running my normal 2 miles, I grabbed the sensor to find that my heartrate was 77bpm.  Now, I’m thinking to myself, this seems a wee bit low, so I let go of it, wait a few seconds, then grab it again.  81bpm.  Obviously I have a busted machine, so I brush it off and go lift. 

    After lifting, I come back to the same machine and walk a little to cool off.  I grab the heart rate monitor as soon as I jump on though.  110bpm.  It’s quite scarey that lifting accelerates my heart that much more than running for 2 miles.  Now, it’s not that I’m not working while I’m running, by the time I’m done I’m sweating.  It just seemed very weird last night…

  • The Future?

    So I got James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing from gamefly this week, and I must say, DAMN!  This is how video games should be!  Now, I’m not referring to the media check that makes making backups a pain, but instead “movie” feel of the game.  Instead of making a new Bond movie, they decided to do a video game.  They have voice overs from all the people in the bond movies: Pierce Brosnan, Heidi Klum, etc, etc.  From the little bit I’ve played, I’m more than impressed.  The controls make sense, and I’m not getting overwhelmed by the amount of buttons on the controller in such a small area (something that has a tendency of happening with me, since I’m a computer gamer all the way).

  • Leading the Way

    To begin with, I’m sorry to everyone that was having a hard time getting their rebelpeon fill yesterday.  It seems as if insight was having fun playing with their DHCP server, and my machine didn’t acknowledge the latest and greatest IP Address.  Hopefully that won’t happen very often. 

    Just so everyone knows, my birthday is coming up (March 31st), and I only accept cash.  Since my weekends are fairly packed for the next few weeks with climbing, I decided to head home to the tundra region last weekend.  My thinking was that I could get my birthday gifts early.  What I wanted was a set of Petzl Spirit quickdraws and some Petzl Attache locking ‘biners.  I really wanted these early so that I could use them for the next few weekends.  Well, I still needed to get my brother a birthday gift, so while I was up there, I got his, and he got mine.  I got him the Dave Chappelle Show Season 1 DVD and Unreal Tournament 2k4.  He got me 3 of the locking ‘biners.  Later that day my parents and I went around to various places looking for the quickdraws.  Unfortunately we couldn’t find any.  Most of the places had the Spirit ‘biners, but not the draws.  Unfortunately, if you buy the ‘biners and the webbing separately you end up paying more.  The last place we went was Moosejaw, and they didn’t have the draws either.  However, being the nice people they are, they pointed me to Planet Rock.  Now, I had been to the Planet Rock in Ann Arbor (sweet place), but I had never been to the one out in Pontiac.  It turns out it was just down the road from where we were.  So we head over there and they had them in stock!  Turns out they have both the anodized and non-anodized ones too.  The guy first told me the price of the anodized ones, and not knowing which one he was referring to, almost left the store right them.  $25 for a quickdraw is a little steep.  However, the ones I wanted were only $20, PLUS all the spirit draws were 15% off.  Ends up being just about the same price as the cheapest I could find on the internet.  And I get the instant gratification of having them right away.  So, my parents pick up 5, and I buy an additional 5.  That should be enough for right now, but I’ll probably get 6 more sometime in the near future (after I get my next paycheck). 

    So, last night, I head over to Vertical Plains, and learn how to lead from James.  All in all not too bad.  I definitely need to master the art of clipping, but that will come with practice.  Tonight I’ll be heading back to VP to do it some more, and Colleen will come with to get more practice leading, since she’s only done it a few times.  This is a great week to be learning this stuff because it’s spring break here at UIUC, so I pretty much have the gym to myself.  The only down side of learning to lead, is now I have rope burn on both of my pointer fingers.  I’ll have to remember to tape that area tonight before I start, otherwise it’s going to hurt a lot.

    For those of you that have shown interest in climbing, I’d recommend coming out to VP sometime this week.  If you get in touch with me, I can probably get you out there for free too.  I think Colleen has some free passes.  I’ll be there tomorrow and Thursday, so just lemme know.  The guy that’s working there this week, James, is great.  He is by far the best person I’ve met for learning how to do various things.  Even if you’re brand-spanking-new.

  • Deep Breath And..

    *sigh*

    I suppose I should elaborate a little.  I don’t know why, but lately I’ve been feeling very, “bleh.”  I know one of the reasons I feel this way, is because I felt very weak today at the gym.  I was there with a couple guys that I’ve been climbing with lately.  I don’t know why, but lately I’ve felt like I haven’t been able to do anything at the climbing gym.  I’m sort of worried about going down South in a couple weekends.  It’s not that I am worried that something bad will happen or anything, but I just don’t think I’ll be “as good” as I could/should be. 

    It’s very annoying, but it shouldn’t be.  I’m not as good as the guys I try to keep up with at the gym.  I shouldn’t be.  They’ve been climbing a lot longer than I have (which is only a year or so).  It’s just that 2 weeks ago (before I went to Grand Rapids and fell off my schedule), I felt as if I was able to keep up with them a lot more.  I haven’t been able to get to the gym as much nor as regularily as I’d like in the past 2 weeks, and I think it’s started to show.  Who knows, though.  I could just be full of it, and am only thinking this way because of the way my mind seems to be set. 

    I think it started with that stupid test.  And it feels as if it just keeps compounding.  It most likely isn’t, and there’s no reason it should feel like this, it just does. 

    Ahh the joys of wanting to be great…(key word being “wanting”).

  • EOH & Vacuuming

    So, today was a productive day.  I went and worked out from 10-noon, then came home and showered.  I then headed Engineering Open House (EOH).  Now, both my junior and senior year I was involved in EOH (I wasn’t in the engineering school for my freshman and sophomore years).  At the time, I thought EOH was pretty dumb, but a great reason to get out of classes.  However, now that I’m not (required) to have a project on display at the MatSE  building.  It’s great the projects that the students do, eventhough they don’t necissarily think they’re that great.  I have fond memories of coming up with something the night before.  However, the looks on the kids, hell and even the parents, is great.  It is probably one of the best teach someone.  All these displays on things that most, normal, people have never even heard of is fascinating.  And talk about a great day to have it too, eh?  I mean, perfectly clear, barely any wind, and somewhere near 60 degrees. 

    So, after that I went out to Meijer to get a few personal hygeine products: toothpaste and deoderant.  While I was up that way, I swung into Best Buy and bought the new-ish Bonnaroo CD.  I definitely like it a lot better than the 2002 CD.  I enjoy the bands that they had in 2003 more I do believe.  I walked out of Best Buy with it for $10, since I had a gift certificate from when I purchased TurboTax there.  Then, I went and got my car washed because it needed it incredibly badly. 

    Came home, had a snack, ripped the CD to MP3, got it streaming to the xbox, then started cleaning the house.  Now, I’m sure you’ve all seen the dyson vacuum commercials by now.  You know, the one with the black background, with just the guy talking about how he hates all vacuums because they loose suction.  So, I started vacuuming, and I remember how much my vacuum sucks (no pun intended).  Tempted to just run back out to Best Buy and check out one of his vacuums, instead I (being an engineer) rip apart mine.  Now, if you’ve ever ripped apart a vacuum, no matter how little “ripping” may be to you, it creates a mess.  Well, I didn’t actually take the whole thing apart, this time (don’t ask).  Instead, I did exactly what Dyson does in the commercial; I open up my bagless vacuum, and check out the filter.  “Holy shit,” I think to myself.  The filter is caked in dust/dirt.  I start thinking about it, and I can’t remember ever cleaning the filter.  So, I take it out and start banging it on the outside of my apt.  Well, it seems to be working half way decent, only large chunks are falling off the filter, and much of it remained on the filter.  And of course, there’s a bunch of small little groves in the filter that are hoplessly clogged.  Drastic measure call for drastic actions.  I go grab the knife and begin scraping it off.  I swear I scrapped off at least 3-5 lbs of dust.  I had a huge pile of the finest, non-man made silt I think I’ve ever seen (think of brownie mix, and then reduce the particle size by five times).  So, I put everything back together (and being the good engineer that I am, everything went back together with no missing or spare peices), and start vacuuming the room over again.  I was disgusting the amount of dirt I collected after I had already vacuumed it once.  So, I had to clean off the ottoman that the cat likes to sleep on, so I whip out the attachment, and I almost lose a finger because of how powerful the vacuum is.  Never, ever, has it been able to suck my hand against the tube.  Now, it hurts if I put my hand over it and it grabs hold.

    So, now that I sit here after vacuuming the apt, the best it’s ever been, I want to thank Mr. Dyson for reminding me to clean my filter, and not go out and buy one of his vacuums.  So, for those of you that haven’t cleaned your vacuum filter lately, do it.  Even if your vacuum preforms to your expectations, clean it, and be amazed!

    On another note, those of you that have a website with me, you should be receiving an email from me in the near future about a new feature.

  • MS Certification

    So, today was my first MS Cert test.  I went in feeling pretty comfortable about it.  I mean, it was test 70-290 (Managing and Maintaining a Windows 2003 Server Environment).  I do this both at work and at home.  I even read the MS Press book cover to cover, and took notes on it.  I did fine with all the questions that were in the book, and the questions that I found online (forgot that the books I got had a CD with extra tests on it).  Needless to say, I figured I wouldn’t have too much of a problem.  Well, if you haven’t figured it out by now, I failed the test.  To pass, you’re required to get a 700, I got a 689. 

    Now, after taking the test, I realize how retarded these tests really are.  Now, all the tests I’ve ever taken usually make sure you know the general stuff.  Well, wouldn’t that make sense, to actually test you on the stuff you’re supposed to know?  Well, not according to MS.  Apparantly you’re supposed to know the stuff that isn’t included in any of their material, and the most obscure crap.  No wonder they’ve had such a hard time with websites such as BrainDumps.  Well, the say I see it, is memorizing the answers (ala braindumps) is worse than wasting the $125 by failing it.  This whole experience has definitely been a turn off to getting an MCSE.  I still want to read all the material, and know the material.  I just don’t think I’m a good enough guesser for passing MS tests, because that’s what it boils down to. 

    After takin the test, it really makes me worried about the types of places that always say that MCSA/E is required.  Very worried…

  • Sports and Me

    So, I went to the fitness center a little earlier today to do my normal run and lifting regiment.  I happened to jump on a treadmill with under 1 minute left in the Illinois, Ohio State game.  I find it hilarious how excited people get about things that happen on the TV.  It’s right up there with people who, when referring to a sports team, use the pronoun “we.”  I’ve noticed that many people from Chicago have this affliction, but then again, it could be just the number of Chicago people slummin in the corn field.  I find it equally hilarious that I work for the athletics dept, and I couldn’t care.  How many of these people screaming at the TV wouldn’t just love to have a job working with all these people?

    I don’t really have much else to talk about right now.  I just found that quite funny today.

  • The Trip Home

    So, I didn’t go in to the shop early yesterday morning.  When they called me on Monday, I had said to go ahead with everything, so there really wasn’t much I could say in the morning.  So, I didn’t hear back, and I didn’t hear back.  The whole time, I’m thinking how incredibly pissed I’m going to be when I didn’t get my truck back by the time they close at 5.  Well, I get a call at 4:15, and my truck is ready.  Thanfully for both them and me, the truck was finished yesterday.  It was exactly as much as they said it was going to be, when I got there too.  After thet guy went through the reciept and everything that had been done, I said, “I don’t think I should be charged for towing.”  The guy started to bring up the fact that it wasn’t his fault, so I asked to talk to the manager about it.  Well, the manager was sitting in an office behind the counter with the door open.  He apparantly heard everything and just said, “Give it to him.” 

    I don’t know if the guy helping me thought that I was personally attacking him this whole time or not.  He quickly because defensive as soon as I became irritated about the tow job, and when I asked for the refund.  However, as soon as it was cleared with the manager, he went back to being a nice guy.  It made totally no sense to me, but whatever.  I got the tow job off, and it was a fairly painless process.

    In other car news, I’m glad that there are 2 latches on hoods.  As I was driving down the freeway, the first one came loose.  Talk about scaring the crap out of you.  Driving ~77mph and see the hood jump 3 inches and start flappying.  Needless to say, I just reclosed it and didn’t have a problem the rest of the trip.

    Square One is all moved in, and for the most part totally unpacked.  The doors are on, and everything was set except for a few electical jack covers and finishing up the ethernet wiring.  All in all, it was definitely a productive 2 days.

  • God Dammit

    So, I’m writing this from my Aunt’s Mac.  Yes, I won’t be coming home tonight as originally expected.  If I could, I probably would, but as of right now it is physically impossible for me to drive home.  Yes, that’s right kids, my car is kaput.  So I drove the 4 hours up here, no problem.  I happened to pull into my Aunts driveway right before her kids.  Needless to say, we needed to swap cars so that they could get out in the morning.  So, I’m pulling out, and I start to turn the wheel.  I hear this thunk, so, thinking I just hit her curb, I start to pull forward.  I hear this nice grinding sound, like I picked up something from backing up and was dragging it.  I get out and look, it turns out that I didn’t pick up anything, but sure enough I was dragging something…my left side tire rod.  Joy.  I don’t think I can explain the joy I was feeling at that moment.  Well, being that it was Sunday night at 7pm, I had to wait till this morning to call anybody.

    This morning I call the car shop at 7:11am EST, 6am my time.  I haven’t seen 6am in about forever.  So, I tell them what’s going on and ask if they’ll be able to look at it today.  I kinda needed it, so if they would’ve said no, I definitely would’ve called someone else.  They said it wouldn’t be a problem, and that they’ll send a tow truck out in about an hour.  I’m thinking to myself, sweet, maybe this won’t be that big of a deal, and I’ll be able to head home tonight still. 

    So, by 11:30 I hadn’t heard back from them yet, so my Aunt and I decided to drive by the house to see if the car was still there.  Sure enough, still there.  Joy.  I give the shop a call again, and they tell me that the guy should be there in an hour. 

    I drive by again at 1.  Guess, what?  The car was still there.  Screw calling them, I drove down there and went in and talked to them.  They got on the phone with the tow company (a 3rd party company) and they were told there was a guy on his way right them.  Ok, so I’m thinking they’ll at least be able to look at it, and potentially start working on it.

    I haven’t heard from them by 4pm.  What the hell?  I give them a call, and yeah, they haven’t even started looking at it.  M*ther F*cker.  So, I drive myself down to the shop.  Synopsis of conversation follows:

    “Yeah, so I just called and found out that you haven’t even looked at my truck yet.  I called at 7 this morning asking for you to look at it as quickly as possible because I’m from out of town and need to drive home.  You told me it wouldn’t be a problem”

    “Yeah, the tow company didn’t get around to getting your car till after 1.  We called them multiple times about it.”

    I’m thinking to myself, “Right…you called 2x, because that’s how many times I bitched at you.”

    “Right, but I called you and you said you’d take care of it, which you didn’t.”

    “This isn’t our problem, you could’ve had someone else tow your car.”

    “No, I specifically called you at 7am, and you said you’d take care of it.”

    “Right, but it was the tow company’s fault.”

    “Ok, then you have beef with the tow company.  I have beef with you.  You told me at 7am that you would take care of it.  After that point it was YOUR responsibility in my eyes.  It’s not like I could’ve called a different tow company after you had said you were going to take care of it.”

    “…”

    “So, now that you’ve made me stay an extra day, what are you going to do for me?”

    Guy #2…the guy with SOME customer skills, “What exactly do you mean?”

    “Well, I don’t feel as if I should pay for the tow job, and you guys need to make this right in my eyes.”

    “After we check it out we’ll see what we can do.”

    So, I head back to the office, awaiting my phonecall before 5 (the time in which they close).  At 4:55 I’m like this is pointless, if they thought I was pissed when I went in at 4, they haven’t seen anything yet.  At 7am they are gonna have one pissed off customer in their lobby.

    5:05 they call back.  They told me the that left tire rod was busted (no shit) ($), and that the right tire rod was about ready to fall off to ($$).  They then tell me that while they had the car apart, they checked the spark plugs, and stuff.  Turns out that the electrode is actually coming out of the plug and there is significant charring on the end.  They recommend replacing those ($$$).  The belt that runs the alternator is severly cracked, and the rachet that autotightens it is broken ($$$$).  The transmission, brack, and differential fluid is about as thick as mud ($$$$$).  And, they saw the oil change sticker on my windshield that was over due ($$$$$$).

    The damage…$1300.  Joy.  I tell them, might as well do all of it.  They say it will most likely be ready by 5 tomorrow.  Currently, I’m not holding my breath.  Needless to say, tomorrow morning, I’m going to stop by and make sure that a) they didn’t charge me for the towing ($60), and b) that I’m getting some other deal because they seriously screwed me over.  I’m sure I’ll get the same bs about it being the towing company’s fault, but once they said they’d take care of the tow, it became their problem.  It’s there job to then bitch at the towing company as to why it didn’t happen.  I just don’t see tomorrow going well, especially as well as it went earlier.  Joy.