Added a few of these to my gotta get to reading list! Surprised to see you read Simon Sinek.
climbing sznnnnnnn. i might have heard somebody get very injured the other day. definitely heard the impact of a body hitting the ground in a way it’s not supposed to…and saw a bunch of medics and SAR in the area on our hike out… thinking about throwing together a post with some recent climbing photos, maybe even some photos from stuff from last year too.
Have you ever read “Games: Agency as Art”? Because this reads as if it’s a paragraph straight out of that book.
wait what. this retirement community has it's own tv programming??she helps run a TV show for the community
awesome!! this the trip you messaged me about a couple months back?!
“ The show was cool though. Perfect night for it, and there were exactly 201 drones operating the show. This number was chosen, apparently, because the previous NZ record for such a show was 200 drones. So uhh, suck it, those guys.” that’s actually pretty funny. is this positive masculinity in action??? never been to a drone show!
i spent 2.5 days on what is, to date, the most stunning, remote feeling, pristine, and beautiful alpine climb of my life. got weepy twice behind my glacier glasses from sheer feelings of awe and gratitude. never have i felt quite so small and insignificant, and yet so vast. i am still very emotionally and mentally raw from that experience. this is a beautiful planet we have, treat it well.
pretty tired of being sick and seeing people around me get sick, but that seems to be the cycle since...september? getting a little worried that the rest of life is going to be a period of 3-4 months of health for me and those around me with 1-2 week illnesses breaking those periods up. pretty sure i'm going to get a coach for a few months for outdoors/athletics performance. happy to spend some money to, at the least, better create my own training plans in the future.
Yeah this article is pretty amazing. Fun what happens when you fuck over all your students :) :) :) For the first half of the article I was wondering where the grift would be and...lo and behold.The paper was published on 14 October 2020 to fanfare. Dias and a co-author, Ashkan Salamat, a physicist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), also announced their new venture: Unearthly Materials, a Rochester-based company established to develop superconductors that operate at ambient temperatures and pressures.
Great lunch today meeting NikolaiFyodorov and seeing kleinbl00 again. Two people far more intelligent and life experienced than I!
Still experiencing very, very high highs, and very, very low lows. I'm really looking to my therapy appointment tomorrow. I had thoughts of self harm a couple of weeks ago. Again this morning. Not suicidal but...not happy about experiencing this again for the first time since 2014. I've had enough experiences dating in the last 7.5 months that it's not so much impacting my self-worth/confidence/etc., but it feels like I keep totally misreading the other person, their intent, our dates, and it's got me to the point where I have little-to-no confidence in my own intuition and understanding of the person across the table. I guess I do feel pretty unwanted. At the same time, I'm pretty happy by/with myself and don't necessarily feel lonely. Just really do desire sharing this life more intimately with someone. Anyway. Here's some photos from Canada last week. That trip was amazing. My body is still sore. oyster if you're still around, sure was a fantastic view of the chateau from Louise Falls!
Typing this out from a log on a beach where I’ve decided to take my lunch break. Mountains are out to the west and to the southeast. There’s a shipping container returning to the pacific. Last Thursday I learned there was a period of time where my employment was in jeopardy, roughly November to February, as me and my team were moved from R&D to Quality. A very frank conversation with the VP of my department, and one I benefited from. It did result in anxiety the rest of that day, then a bit of anger, then empowerment that I’m still here, and a great amount of respect for my direct boss for the support he provided during that time period. Now I’m being told by everyone how good of a manager I am, to keep doing what I’m doing, and that I have a lot of options in what I could do next here. Life’s good. Have a climbing trip this weekend. Have a lot of climbs planned. Meeting some great new people and friends from climbing groups on Facebook, of all places. Putting myself first and understanding what I want out of life…and realizing how much of it is about place. kleinbl00 I think I’m moving slightly closer to ending the search for the greenest grass.
Where do you think this lands? Think we let commercial real estate eat shit and sink a bunch of regional banks in the process, or another massive bailout incoming? I'm thinking ultimately RTO ends up at 65% capacity filled in these buildings which is still...
Thanks, boss! Way to take initiative on that. Hope it gets your somewhere.
oh pubski things with girl a (girl from Dec.) I think I ended a few nights ago - told her I cannot be in a space with so much uncertainty, and no expectation of receiving any amount of affection/attention/affirmation, and not even knowing when i would see her again. that all of that is not a tenable situation for what i need and want. we ended with "let's figure out a timeline that's comfortable for both of us to reconnect over a cup of coffee or lunch in the future, and in the interim, not have contact". it was a challenging hour long conversation. i returned a couple of small things to her two days ago. but then last night she called me on facetime...i'm about to call her back to see why... girl b - surprisingly awesome date at one of the local spots to catch concerts, just hung out in the lounge/bar and walked around for a while after. soooo much in common. made out in the streets at the end of the night. seeing her again tomorrow night, and i kind of want to try and take things slow with her, i feel there could be potential to build something with her. trading music suggestions over text messages the past couple of days. girl c - also a fun climbing night date, going to see her again after i go on this trip to canmore, alberta, for a week of ice climbing. she's a bit older (6 years older than me) and seems to have a different perspective on some things. it's very unclear at this moment if she's looking for a climbing partner or more than that, but i'm fine with either. edit: girl d - also fun, not as physically attracted to this person I don't think(???), but super interesting, very mountainous, and is an underwater photographer for the smithsonian??? (have i mentioned all of these girls are very intelligent, driven, etc.) so, i'm managing...it's been a very challenging, emotional month of january. i've had a lot of anticipation for girl a, and now trying to not make the same mistakes twice with girl b in particular, and have also had a lot of anticipation for this trip to canmore. where it's looking warm, almost too warm...highs in the mid-30s for ice isn't super great... somebody asked me what would be my ideal for all of this dating. it made me uncomfortable to say "i want a relationship". trying to unpack why that is.
ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh what a whirlwhind the last few days have been matched with somebody on bumble who was really interesting to me! an alpine rock climber, snowboarder, but somebody who also stated they enjoyed exploring themselves and the world around them. and was attractive. we've gone out each of the last few nights, from a first date, to spending the night together, to having come out for some birthday festivities last night and meeting quite a few of my friends. just amazing conversation after conversation, so much laughing, awesome sex, this whole thing almost doesn't feel real. need to make sure i'm actually pacing things, both my feelings for her, and the amount and quality of time we're spending together...but i did jokingly say we should plan a weekend together out somewhere in the mountains, and that then turned into a "no let's do that" conversation. i also won a ski pass at an outdoors film festival last night (which was my bday) and got the details for that february canmore trip. just a lot of exciting shit happening in and around my life right now and i need to be mindful that the level of high right now is temporary, and to enjoy it while it's here.
huh have a date tonight, girl who climbs/runs/kayaks/bikes/etc. seems very smart and funny at least over text. we have a mutual friend so that's cool. what's making me nervous though is last night. friend just finished her residency and had a little party at one of the local breweries, spent half the night talking with a girl i've met through a running club but never really talked to and felt a lot of chemistry, got her phone number, thinking if i want to hit her up today and ask her on a date. makes me a bit nervous just typing that out! climbing is going well. big mountains this upcoming weekend.
my main climbing partner who’s become an amazingly good friend is moving as expected now that her travel contract is up, so she’s back to the northeast where she spends half the year with her partner gonna miss her still have no desire to date this weekend rock climbing in oregon weekend after on glaciers in northern washington weekend after that a big rock climbing weekend i pretty much have climbing plans through november and a tentative ice climbing trip in january i keep meeting climbers who i get along really well with and have such a wider community than i did a year ago is this what’s it’s like to be actively living the life you’ve envisioned
oh and i had to rescue someone on a rock climb this past weekend
well well well i'm still in that whole "today is amazing" and "today is fucking terrible" phase and doing way too much shit all of the time. This weekend is going to be an awesome nightmare. I'm climbing tonight, have a date tomorrow night, going to a concert with a couple of friends Friday night, going down to Mount Rainier National Park to instruct mountaineering skills Saturday (kleinbl00 I still gotta send you those details), going to a concert Saturday night, and going climbing Sunday. Big yikes. Last Thursday was amazing though. Let's talk about that. Went to see my favorite band, Yo La Tengo perform for the 2nd night in a row. The 1st night I went solo, but on Thursday I went with a good friend of mine who I do a lot of mountain climbing with, and his friend who also happens to be his boss. So few things. Got an AWESOME dinner at a cash-only Thai place before-hand. Got along really well with his friend/boss. Keep in mind, my friend is mid-40s, his boss is probably 60. Lifelong research in childhood oncology. Incredibly good/well-known at what he does. Skier, former climber, big into music. We go to the show, drink a few beers throughout the night. YLT is amazing as always. We're the guys in the back of the main floor, against the railing. Cute girl next to me all show. YLT does their shows where they do a 1st set, 20ish minute break, 2nd set, then an encore. This girl was there by herself and I was like I'm going to do something different, let's try talking to her. So do that, it goes well. Between the 2nd set and encore I get her phone number. Now we're going on a date tomorrow night! I know nothing about her and am kind of excited about that? Also at the end of the night, my friends boss invited me to a concert at his house that is this Saturday. They've done 80+ shows and had some big names come through their house, I'm so excited. What's funny about the girl/date situation is literally the day before I was telling kb and one of my other friends that people don't meet at concerts anymore and was very adamant about that, so fuck me. The other exciting part about all this is I really want to reintegrate more music and art and that side of things into my life, as awesome as running and climbing is, I don't want to be 1-dimensional in my interests and hobbies.
OKAY SO here's the latest and greatest: We're going to reference the last Hubski for numbers. - Girl 1, went out again last night. Another good date? More good sex? She's really cool, but I'm not sure if I'm feeling enough of a spark with her to really keep things going. Idk, she's really pleasant and genuinely interested in me, my interests, and I feel the same about her...but... - Girl 2, went out a great 2nd date for dinner over the weekend. She's pretty much out for the next 2-3 weeks though due to a work trip and subsequent family trip. The thing with her is we already have some more common interests, and there's just a lot more flirting/ribbing/roasting back and forth which is super entertaining, and makes for great conversation. - Girl 3, out of the running. Overall though, here's the rub: VP of my department asked me a few weeks during our monthly 1:1 "why am I here", and "why do I work", and "what's stopping me from doing everything that I want to do" and spent some time telling me how she sees flashes of greatness from me at work. This is something I feel is true in nearly every part of my life, and is a truly fleeting feeling. I have enough savings to fuck off and not work for 2-3 years, but would like another $35ish thousand in the bank to really go off and do whatever. And to take an aid and big wall climbing course. It's a weird feeling - kind of Willy Wonka-esque. I've kind of gotten everything and more I thought I'd ever want and have in life up to this point, and it's like, what now? What happens next? Maybe I need to spend some serious time on figuring out more deeply who I am, what my values are, what my vision is for myself.
Made it to the other side, y'all. This is the first weekend since 1/1/2023 that I don't have plans to go 2+ hours away at least one day of the weekend. That might change...but I'm not dying for it to change. Last weekend I took a snowmobile up to North Cascades National Park for some incredibly stormy backcountry skiing, and now, I'm kind of done with winter and being wet and cold all the time. The part where we almost rolled the snowmobile on day one was real fuckin' stressful. Skiing was incredible though. Dating is going a lot better, I think? At least I feel mentally healthier about it but maybe that's because I give a fair amount less of a shit. - Went on a 2nd date with a girl Monday night, she's into cross-country skiing, yoga, and hiking, and is generally a very pleasant and attractive person. Might have slept with her, which I'm trying not to do with people on the first couple-few dates...but no complaints there. Going out again early next week. - Went on a 1st date last night with a climber girl who's actually down to earth with her climbing and has other interests, also attractive! Super fun night, figuring out when a 2nd date will happen with her. - Aaaaaand have a 2nd date this weekend with the girl I met at that concert a few weeks back.
Man what do I start with. Girl or climbing. Girl? Girl! Last Tuesday a friend of mine had a little party/social by renting out part of one of the local breweries to celebrate her finishing her residency. She's now on a road trip for a wedding, climbing trip (she's so excited to be able to climb regularly again) and other stuff with her boyfriend. So happy for her! She invited a handful of people, maybe 10, from one of the running groups out here, which is the group I met her in! I spent some amount of time hanging out with a few friends and drinking free beer, and shuffling around talking to some of the people from the running club who I didn't know very well. One girl was there who I ended up really, really hitting it off with. We ended up spending probably half the night together getting to know each other and I got her phone number. We went out on a first date Thursday night, that went great, and a mini-date Sunday night after I got back from a long run and she got back from Mount Hood. Stayed the night at my place both times, and Sunday night she even brought her dog over. Very smart, she's getting her phd, we're the same age, she's big into running, not at all into climbing, has a very similar taste in music, and i've felt so, so conversationally and intellectually stimulated and engaged around her and talking with her. she's also very attractive...she has said she doesn't want to rush into anything, and neither do i! yet here we are, texting each other daily, and her sending me a photo of her new tattoo while she's back home on the east coast...she also gave me (to borrow), unsolicited, her copy of ocean vuongs latest book of poetry. The catches are: she had been in an on again-off again relationship for 3 years with the person who started the prior mentioned run club...and i have no idea what she's looking for and don't really want to have that conversation anytime soon. either way, i'm happy, and she invited me to her birthday run weekend that's in two weekends! CLIMBING: another friend of mine had to get helicoptered off a mountain because of a bad fall he took, probably a 50ft fall. fractured his facial bones, and a bunch of other stuff. is in a neck brace, and has some other moderate injuries. no surgeries needed it sounds like. but we're up to 2 friends who have had to be rescued and walked out on their own, and 2 friends who have been helicoptered off of a mountain, and it's only late June. Really has me wondering how much alpine climbing i want to be doing this year, it's got me a bit spooked...
i owe kleinbl00 and a few others many beers still doing the thing with the girl - we've definitely scaled things back this week - she went on a "date" with someone else two days ago, and we're going on a date tonight unrelated, ever since taking 2.5 weeks off from climbing I have been absolutely crushing it and broke through a plateau in that realm!
I'm sorry, what?They're making a documentary on it and are interviewing me for it.
Climbing Today is a rest day from ice climbing, thank god. In the last three days I've climbed 15 pitches which is...a lot...for someone who doesn't do a lot of this. Unfortunately, while WA state is amazing for so many outdoor activities, ice climbing is particularly tricky to get good conditions due to lack of regular cold snaps and other factors that go into forming these flows. I can feel my technique and form get much, much better over the course of this week and the people I'm climbing with are becoming new friends! It is incredible to me to be in Canada this week climbing with some absolute legends of climbing in Steven Swenson and Jim Elzinga. Still having trouble believing I'm really here this week. Not Climbing Still talking to one girl in particular, "girl b" from last weeks pubski! Had an amazing 2nd date with her last Thursday and am hoping to talk to her on the phone tonight, with a 3rd date either on Monday or Tuesday. She wants to take things slow and so do I, I think that was my biggest takeaway from recent experiences. If I want something sustaining and nourishing, which I do, I need to take some different actions and repeat to myself "I am not in a hurry". Y'all have any 3rd date recommendations?
Feeling more calm than I've felt in quite some time. Sounds like it is noticeable too, based on the number of people who have told me "you've been really, really chill lately". Kind of doing my own thing, getting a lot done at work, back to long runs (17 miles each of the last 2 Saturdays, 13 miles the Saturday before that) to train for my next 50k. Rock climbing is off to an AWESOME start to the season. Most importantly, I'm learning how to say no to things and to people. Maintaining Tuesday and Wednesday nights as my "routine" nights where I go to a run club, and go gym climbing with the same friend, respectively. Feeling...good? Content and like I'm actually committing to myself and some goals I have for this year, and finding ways to learn and be okay with the trade-offs I'm making to pursue them, which is a new feeling.
What happened with that ~$1 trillion that was in forbearance during the pandemic? Doesn't seem like it tanked the economy...
Does the recently leaked conversation between RFK jr and Trump change your view at all?
I think I'm done dating for now? I think I'm just going to climb and run a lot? Already shifted gears. Ran 14 miles Sunday. Went rock climbing Friday and Saturday. Went to a group run / potluck with friends last night. Ran another 9 miles (workout) today...loving it. Maybe it's the sun and warmth. I'm feeling much more inspired with my fitness and outdoors activities for the first time in a hot minute and much less like I give a shit about dating and relationships.