rebelpeon.com

Blog

  • The Weekend

    Damn, talk about a great weekend to go climbing.  This weekend was the “call out” trip for uiuc’s climbing club (damn that’s a hot website).  My friend James and I headed down to Jackson Falls at 5:30AM on Saturday.  It takes around 3.5 hours to get there, so we met up with the people who left on friday or earlier around 9 at the camp site.  Needless to say, they were still eating and getting ready.  James and I were ready to climb, not sit on our asses and wait for people.  We head out in the gorge, looking for easier places to climb for the beginners.  However, since it was already after 9, all the easy routes already had people on them (good thinking there club).  So, we kept hiking until we got to a place called railroad rock.  Our warmup was a 5.10a/b (don’t remember which nor what it was called).  Already this was off to a typical outdoor climbing experience with James, warming up on something that I’d have some trouble with normally.  Plus, this was only my second time outdoors (the other time, was around a year ago and we warmed up on a 5.10a/b called Venom).

    We left our only dynamic rope up on the 10a/b and moved around to another face of the rock and James jumped on an 11.  However, we only had a static rope for this climb.  Now, for those of you that don’t know the difference, a dynamic rope has a lot of “play” in it.  Therefore, when you fall, the rope stretches to reduce the instantaneous force.  Now, a static rope is what you normally use in the gym for top roping because you’re not falling as far as when you lead a route.  Now, if you fall on a static rope for any distance, it feels like smacking into pavement; a very short and abrupt stop.  Now, the real kicker is that all the force is directed to your harness which is right around your crotch.  You really don’t want to take a large, or small, whipper (fall while leading) while on a static line.  It hurts both you and your belayer like crazy.  Thankfully James didn’t have a problem with the 11 and setup the static rope for top roping (so others could use it).  I then scrambled and pulled myself up that one after him.

    Feeling totally dejected after the 11 (a little bit beyond my ablility), I lead and setup a top rope on a 5.8 for some of the other people.  That definitely helps get your confidence back, eventhough it was a retarded easy climb.  I love big jugs!

    Back by the 11, there was a new route that nobody knew what it was.  It had a nasty overhanging bouldering problem as the start.  Think, wedging your leg into a crevasse, hanging upside down, doing the splits and then doing pullups, and you’ve about got the first move.  James wanted to lead it.  However, he couldn’t get passed the 3rd bolt no matter what he tried.  And let me tell you, he tried about everything.  He took probably 10 whippers off that route.  Thank god for the grigri.  So, he came back down, but since he didn’t make it to the top all the gear was still on the bolts, MY brand new gear.  Another guy that we met there gave it a try, but also couldn’t get passed the same spot.  However, he setup this this sling with the rope, so that he could clean all the gear, tie the sling into the bolt, feed the rop through the sling, and then when he pulled the rope through the sling (once he was at the bottom), the sling would slide through the bolt.  I was more than impressed. 

    One of the other guys (Nate) saw that there was a biner and a sling up on the anchors at the top though, so he hiked around to the top of the route then rappelled (rapped) down to grab the booty.  While he was up there James told him to setup a top rope.  While Nate was setting up the top rope, I went and lead another 5.8 further down and setup another top rope for others to climb.  When we came back, James jumped on the top rope and climbed it.  I sat around and watched the other scramble thier way up after James.  We then headed back because it was getting dark. 

    Yesterday we headed to the other side of the gorge.  Before we setup the first route, one of James’ friends (Bill) showed up.  Apparantly he called James’ wife and found out we were down here.  Warmup was once again a 10 I believe (Cherio bowl).  I should’ve gotten it onsite, but I made a few stupid moves which got me off course.  Bill also wasn’t a fan of his ascent of Cherio Bowl, so we went off and did some 5.8’s by ourselves.  It was much nicer because we didn’t have to wait for anybody, and it was just the two of us.  He lead 2 and I lead 1.  We each cleaned each other’s routes (my first time actually cleaning a route).  We were just finishing up with our last route, when James came around looking for us.  Apparantly everyone else had taken off and left him.  So, we headed back to where Cherio Bowl was and climbed a “5.8,” according to James, called Captain Kangaroo.  I was REALLY pissed that I didn’t onsite that one.  One stupid move, and I had it.  I actually had the damn move, but I couldn’t hold on to it.

    All in all, it was a good weekend.  9 routes, 3 leads, 3 cleans.  Hopefully the weather holds out for next weekend, because we’re heading back down!  I just can’t get enough.  It’s so much better than climbing in the gym.

  • Yay

    It’s my birthday.  I accept cash.

  • 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.