I hesitated to use that quote since I can’t provide an attribution, since it was submitted anonymously, but the comment on my “Us and Them” article is just too well written to not give some credit to. While I know the comment wasn’t meant as a compliment, the poster was generous enough to direct me to a couple of authors that I’m familiar with only in passing, so now I have some new items for my reading list. And, even more fodder for a post I’ll someday post when I feel like *really* inviting a backlash… but today’s not that day.
Instead, how about some quick hits.
Blake at Spraycaster.com and Sharp End LLC is promoting his new iPhone application, for sale on iTunes. Part of the proceeds go to support the Red River Gorge Climbers Coalition. I don’t have an iPhone, so I can’t play with the app hands on, but it’s a tool for folks to “score” their climbing days, based on “how much effort” they spend during the day, according to Blake. It allows you to spray your updates directly to their website and to your Twitter account, and they’re working on new features and translation to additional languages. Here’s a collection of reviews of the software, so check it out.
In “Stuff to Read” updates, some guy is still climbing hard in Spain. Courtesy ClimbingNarc. Peter Beal just posted Five Reasons Climbing Competitions Will Never Catch On With the General Public over at mountainsandwater.com.
Every day should be a “be-you-to-the-fullest day.” Nice turn of phrase, Chetroy.
On the “Shameless Commercialism” front, get the to your nearest Costco, and pick up a Samsonite Wheeled Duffel for substantially less than the $79 shown at this site. I paid less than $40, and this sucker is awesome. Allow me to show you just *how* awesome.
All this:
(that’s, from left to right, shoes, rope tarp, rope, sleeping bag, harness, chalk bag, helmet, pack, rack, thermarest, bivy, and thermarest pillow)
Fits in here:
Like so:
In the lower compartment, goes the empty pack, the rack, the sleeping bag, the shoes, the harness and chalk bag.
In the upper compartment, goes the rope, tarp, helmet, thermarest, bivy and pillow.
Left over is room in the top and bottom for a teeny amount of clothes and personal items.
Pity the poor TSA person who dares to open the bag for inspection. I’m going to try to refine the packing technique (maybe using dry bags, or something, to make packing and repacking easier)… and depending on how much I’m forgetting I may have to check two bags, but I think this monster may actually allow me to check one bag and carry one on with everything else. I don’t have a scale, so I can’t weigh it, but I’ll let you know an update after I actually do fly with the sucker.
I’ve got to cut it short today, lots of duties call. Stay tuned for my first Climbing Magazine reader blog post, set to go live sometime soon… and perhaps I’ll actually go live with the aforementioned post that’s sure to raise hackles. Today, though, I’ll try (one never knows) to remain uncontroversial and just say…
It’s a gym night tonight. My shoulder is doing great. I’m going to keep up with the bench press, but am going to reduce my weight a bit, to see if that helps with my shoulder stability (which, really, may be an issue with my glenoid bicep attachment and not my rotator cuff), and am going to take it easy climbing since my right index finger is a bit clicky, still, after working a hard bouldering problem a week ago. The Red Rock trip planning is… eh, never mind. It will turn out great, and will be a fun time had by all, I’m sure.
How are things in your world?
My first post for Climbing.com’s Reader Bloggers project has gone live. I’m super excited… it’s pretty wild to see my name up in lights on climbing.com. And, even more cool to see some of my friends’ names up in lights in the photo credits. You seriously have no idea how hard it is to get a decent photograph of me. That Kari and Shawn manage, on occasion, to get a shot where I neither look like a sausage, nor, am making some sort of pained, scared face, is a freaking miracle. Shawn confided recently that he’d shot a ton of pictures of me on my “big proj” boulder problem at Red Rocks, but they were all awful.
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