5.9 Clean Baby!

I am totally proud of myself: tonight when Chris and I went climbing, I cleared a 5.9-rated route without falling or taking a break. Chris said that I'm certainly no longer a beginning climber (do victory dance here). I will likely plateau after I develop my 5.9 abilities and will have to learn a lot of technical skills to move into the 5.10s. Exciting!

Tonight I also worked more on the crack climb and ended up cutting up my hands a little bit in the process. Totally worth it though because I almost finished it. All in all it was a pretty good night of climbing. Another trickier route has become my project. There are some tricky feet holds that I have to work on.

After climbing, I had to start studying for a midterm that I have tomorrow. I'm still wishing that the U will declare a snow day (one of my professors already sent an email saying that we're not going to be having class tomorrow due to the weather). Oh please Snow God: make the roads impassable! Careful driving if you have to!

Can you stomach it?

A team of researchers conducting a gene study on the bones of Stone Age adults have discovered the absence of the gene necessary to digest milk, supporting the theory that that gene became prevalent throughout Europe after dairy farming was established. The gene mutation rarely exists in persons of Asian and Native American descent, but is very common in people of European descent. Interesting stuff.

Official member!!!!

WOOHOO!!!!!

We went to get our year memberships at Vertical Endeavors tonight since they were having their hour-long sale. There were quite a few people there, although there were apparently more previous years. The whole process took only about 15 minutes though which was awesome.

On the form, there was a question asking why we were purchasing a membership, and I wrote "I love climbing" - the woman taking the forms thought that was funny. So now it's official: I'm a member of Vertical Endeavors, and all of you will have to continue reading about all of my "adventures" climbing..........unless of course you decide that you're sick of hearing about how much I love climbing and stop reading..........but then you would miss out on all of the cool stories that I post............I really don't want to see that happen!.............I just wanted to see how long you would continue reading........but wait, how can I tell that you read the whole thing? shoot...............hahaha (I'm just giddy that I got the membership and my goofy side always tends to shine through when I'm giddy; giddy = goofy....ok, I'm done for real this time :D)

For Single Guys Everywhere

Just watch.

The commentary is what makes this so great.

Neat look at the Great Lakes

NASA's Earth Observatory took this picture on February 5 of Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. Weather is an amazing phenomenon.

Talk about a sacrifice

This story from the Discovery Channel just screams painful:

An Australian lizard endures what may be the world's worst pregnancy — due to anatomical restrictions, pregnant Australian stumpies must hold a gut-busting infant weighing more than a third as much as an adult, without any swelling or extra body space.

The feat is equivalent to a woman giving birth to a seven-year-old child.

I can only think of one thing to say: abstinence.

The ups and downs

Another night at the climbing gym. Chris and I spent between two and two-and-a-half hours working our way through routes tonight. I have gotten into the bad habit lately of getting really mad at myself for not being able to finish routes that I should be able to finish quite easily. I got really pissed when Chris was attempting to get me to relax and have fun by being funny. I was less than thrilled. But it is very true that I need to chill out. Instead of enjoying the moment and just having fun with it, I have been taking certain routes way too seriously, which causes me to mentally psych myself out.

What started everything was that in order to get me to slow down and make more controlled moves, whenever I hit my knee, Chris would have been do a route below my skill level. It is a really good way to get me to concentrate on good feet placement, give me the benefit of being able to take my time and not stress out about it, but I managed to frustrate myself to the point of getting pissed that I didn't finish an easy route. I really have been setting too high of expectations for myself. Nothing new there.

On the bright side, I have been trying to work on more difficult routes as well, trying to improve my skills, and I've been working some more on the natural wall. I have been making some real progress I feel, like being able to hang onto the wall when my feet unexpectedly give out, being able to better problem solve by finding holds or using different techniques, etc. So I just need to focus on having fun and stop taking everything so seriously! I got into climbing because the first time I did it, I instantly loved it. I need to bring myself back to that point.

Don't Go Taz!!!!!!

Sadly, the Discovery Channel posted an article regarding the near-extinction of the Tasmanian Devil. A mutant cancer is causing tumors to form in their face which leads to a rotting of their jaw, ultimately rendering them unable to eat. The disease was discovered back in 1996 and healthy Devils are being transported to zoos around Australia. Extremely sad! I love Taz and I don't want him to go!

R.N.A..

The Star Tribune had an article today describing how the Hennepin County Board will fine people 50 cents for using an acronym while giving a presentation. That's R.D.A.: Ridonkculous News Article. The fine is an attempt to keep all of the presentations understandable to the public since bureaucrats tend to use "government-speak" when talking about specific programs whose acronyms may be unknown by the audience. Although I have to admit that this is an interesting way to deal with a language, I think that they should S.T.A.: Scrap The Acronyms.

Acronyms are appropriate in certain cases, such as NAFTA or HIV/AIDS, when the problem is well-known. However, I think it is highly annoying when an author makes up their own acronyms in their papers simply because they don't want to write out whatever it is that they are attempting to shorten. So there.

Weekend fun

We spent the weekend in Nisswa at Gina and Perry's "cabin" and had a great time. All said and done, there was a group of eleven of us. Chris and I drove up Friday, which was a wild mix of craziness, and spent Friday afternoon/night playing with the puppies, playing video games, playing caps, and having a grand ole time. When I was playing/torturing Maverick (one of the puppies), I realized how much I miss having a puppy to play with. I miss Pokey!

A small group of us went for a walk on the lake Saturday morning with the pups and I found out that Chris is really good at knocking me on my ass. Luckily there was a couple inches of snow to break my fall and to saturate my jeans. I attempted to get him back, but was unsuccessful. However, I totally kicked his butt in a tickle match in the house; the group had to be reluctant witnesses. haha That night we all watched the movie Bottle Rockets, Owen Wilson's first movie. Terrible haircut, but funny in its own weird way.

Now I'm really tired and have quite a bit of work to do for my RA position, so it makes a lot of sense that I'm blogging :) My mind, as I'm sure you've noticed, is a little off at the moment which is causing the random thoughts. The logical response: what's new? With that, I'm going to get back to work...woohoo!

I kicked some major Valentine butt!

What's the most romantic thing to do on Valentine's Day? Going out with your loved one to eat at a nice restaurant? Working on homework together? Hell no! Going climbing is the correct answer :)

Yep, you guessed it. Instead of going out to eat or doing homework (which I'm going to start as soon as I'm done with this post...hee hee), Chris and I went to the gym. After warming up a bit, I tried a new route, a 5.9 which is a little bit above my skill level (I am usually climbing 5.8s - the larger the number, the higher the skill level), but I totally rocked it! It was such an awesome feeling because everything just clicked. I was mentally in the zone and my mind was solely concentrating on what move I had to do next. I was confident in my feet placement even when it didn't feel solid, and I just went for it. It was a really fun route, but tricky in spots. It required the use of not only the hand holds, but also the natural holds with an interesting start.

Anywho, it was a fun climb and it completely boosted my confidence because of how I worked through it and tried different moves and techniques. Woohoo! Great way to spend Valentine's Day :)

Busy busy

I recently got a research assistant position at Humphrey which I will only be working at until March 8 as the findings of the research are going to be presented in Washington by the lead researcher on that day. Myself and another RA are attempting to track down where research and development dollars spent by states are going and what collaborations there are and what trends we can flesh out of the information we are obtaining. It's quite interesting, although quite overwhelming at the moment as well. I just sent out about 100 emails today and have been receiving tons of responses already as a result, which is great because I have found some wonderful contacts already, but is proving to be a bit crazier than my normal routine. I'm really excited to be a part of the research, and my earnings will pad my savings quite nicely.

Very cool picture

Link to cool picture, click here.

If you're curious what it's of, you're going to have to check it out now aren't you :)

Just in time for Valentine's Day

The Discovery Channel posted an article about the discovery of two 5,000 to 6,000-year-old people found buried together in a loving embrace. What's more is that the couple were discovered near Verona where Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" was set. Archaeologists are going to study the remains and the few artifacts found around the site to determine more information. It's kind of an emotional picture given that the bodies are in such a position, but maybe that's just my soft side talking.

I tackled the crack

That just sounds bad...

Anyway, what I meant is that I started learning how to crack climb. Instead of using your fingers, you make jams out of your hands - essentially wedging your hand in and squeezing. It's surprising how strong those holds are. It did start to hurt after a bit because the crack that I was attempting was on the natural wall meaning that it is meant to simulate real rock and is therefore very rough. It was exhilarating! I got more than halfway up (I cheated with my feet though by using the various hand holds). The next part is curved up towards the left meaning that I have to stick my entire arm in the crack and use it as a brace. I will attempt that on Saturday I think. Until then, I will daydream about it...

Steve Jobs says let's get rid of it

The Economist just posted an article talking about how Steve Jobs, the head honcho at Apple, said that music should be sold without the digital rights management technology. This would mean that music downloaded from iTunes would be compatible with competing music players. The main push for his change of heart has been the pressure from Europe (see my post about it on January 25). It's amazing how quickly someone changes their minds when money and markets are involved.

Our wardrobe

Really interesting article on the National Geographic website regarding the billions of microbes that are on our skin. What I found most interesting in the article was the number of various microbes that were living on our skin, the fact that the composition of microbes is the same on both arms and varies over time depending on our environment, and that microbiologists refer to these microbes as "flora". It's a cool article that I suggest reading. I wonder what else is on our skin...

Holy crapola

So this morning's commute was interesting. I saw that it was snowing outside, but it didn't look like too much. How wrong I was. I left Champlin at 9:00 and didn't get to Humphrey until 10:30. Kind of a crummy drive [insert sarcastic tone]. Luckily I wasn't involved in any accidents; I saw many on the way in, and quite a few involved several vehicles. The funny (well not so much funny as ridiculous) thing was that I wasn't worried about getting into an accident until I got off the highway when some idiot almost rear-ended my car. Following a little close there buddy?! Fortunately I'm here though and the car is fine. [insert phew]

Even greater fan of Google

Google is the best search engine hands down. I'm doing a lot of research for my professional paper at the moment, and I am completely in love with the feature that combines all the sites that have the same title, which has been a great help when one of the websites that I'm trying to download a paper from doesn't work so that I don't have to do another search for it. It's all right there. It's a beautiful thing. I can't believe that I wasn't using their search engine before. Soy loca.

Some new workout/researching music

I recently downloaded the ExerciseRadio.com podcast which is a various mix of techno, about an hour long, that is pretty decent. If you're looking for some techno music to work out to instead of your regular songs, I would suggest taking a listen. Mind you, some of the music in the mix is a little strange, but each "segment" is only a few minutes long, so you can fast-forward through it. I like listening to it when I'm researching :)

I wish I would have discovered this when I was teaching those cardio kickboxing classes. Music was always difficult to find.

The start of the Hansa II season

I have gone back to my soccer roots (haha). Humphrey's intramural soccer team (actually there are two since there are so many people that want to play) faced off for the first time this Sunday, Hansa I played at 4:15, followed my Hansa II at 5:15. We play at the field house at the U and play with a soft, tennis ball-like soccer ball. The cool thing about this form of soccer is that there is no such thing as offsides, although you have to worship the whistle (they got really pissy about anyone not following the shriek of the whistle). Also the game is only two 23-minute periods, which is much more conducive to our school-kid schedules. We don't practice at all aside from game day because the team tends to have different people a lot due to regular players having other commitments and therefore bringing in subs and due to its fun nature.

In my former life as a soccer star (again, hahaha), I played primarily defense and midfielder, which is what I play now. I knew that all of the running would be a major challenge for me given that I haven't actually ran any distance for over six months now. My lungs were giving me the big f*&% you, but I decided not to listen, until they forced me to listen. When I was working out all of the time, I had my lungs trained and therefore had my asthma under control. Hopefully it will get better though; I'm counting on it.

It was a good time to be out there again, and realize how not playing since grade school really affects my level of playing now. It's a really interesting emotion when you think you are passing to the teammate to your left, and the ball ends up going out of bounds given your major miscalculation. Yes I know Mom: practice makes perfect. But to be honest, I'm not in it for the glory this time. I will give it my best when I'm out there, and that's good enough for me. I'm all about trying not to pass out :)

I love climbing!

I know that I've said this already, but I heart climbing! We went last night (we've been going about twice a week) and I can't get enough. I never thought that I would be so passionate about a sport, but climbing certainly has my vote. It's a great feeling to make that move that you've been working on and to end the night with your forearms completely spent and your fingers sore.

Last night I got over the big overhang, a route where you have to climb upside down and reach around to complete it. I got onto the two big holds up top, and was hanging by my hands for a couple seconds before getting my feet onto some holds. I was too tired to finish, but next time I will do it. It's so fun!

Negative savings rate

The Washington Post ran a story regarding the personal savings rate of the United States; it was negative 1 percent for the year of 2006, the worst since the negative 1.5 percent in 1933 during the Great Depression. One of the proposed reasons behind people spending all of their income and either dipping into their savings or borrowing more is that many of the middle-income workers are continuing their spending patterns despite the fact that they are earning less actual wages than before. This is a great contrast to the necessity reasons people spent their savings in addition to their wages during the Great Depression.

We should all be concerned given the fact that the baby boomers are beginning to retire and will be drawing social security payments. But it's ok because my generation always knew that we wouldn't have social security, and there's always credit cards right? JUST KIDDING