September 15, 2006

The internet for dummies(and everyone else too!)

OK, so, you like to blog. Sweet! But! there are things you must know which will help you in your blogging journey. Such as: spammers and web advertisers will be much less likely to bug your blog "comments" section if you require "word verification" on your little plot of internet. To ward off these Evil Doers (as The Shrub likes to call them) in "Dashboard" you can click on settings>comments> and then near the bottom is an option for "word verification," click YES so random internet uglies won't bother you anymore.

OK, You're welcome and I am off to Bomb's to watch Stairway Denied and then sleep so I can be rested for a day of first ascents with Mooner in the mountains of Orygon. I'll tell ya how it went!

September 04, 2006

OSHA; Your father was a hamster, and your mother smelt of elderberries!

The un-OSHA approved highlites of the summers work so far:
(and I didn't commit most of them)
blackberry fights.
swimming in Cronemiller lake in our underware in front of the "no swimming" sign as recreationists pass.
flipping a small tractor.
Almost losing the F-350 off the forest road embankment. Twice.
Getting the GMC 2500 stuck with no radio or tools.
Flying, attacking "mink-alopes" in the shop.
Antagonizing of hornet nests.
Sleeping.
The "pulaski throw" event.
Dismembering large roadkill.
Wheelies on the ATVs.
Riding powercarriers.
Monica.
Mason's Whaaamp!
The toxic wasteland that is in both the burn pile and the gas house.
Trying to cut a leg off with a chainsaw.
Pissing off wedding parties.

September 02, 2006

Rules of Funhole

Funhole; a person who is wacky, zany, fun, weird, atypical. A funhole is a person who is the opposite of an asshole.
The first rule of Funhole is; Do Not Talk About Funhole.
The second rule of Funhole is; Do Not Talk About Funhole!
Be careful about throwing this word out in random conversation, or wearing it proudly displayed on your T-shirt, for some unknowing person may misunderstand the term funhole to actually be a sexual reference. The term may not be self appointed either. To be a funhole, you must be approved by the committee of four (or was it five?). These are the rules.

http://www.cutegirlsdoasia.blogspot.com/ for more info.

August 28, 2006

August 24, 2006

Coming to terms with myself

I am going to finally admit that I have fallen off the blogger boat. Colleen just joined the pirate crew as I walked the plank. (her blog is now at http://www.colleenpal.blogspot.com/) I havent updated this in what, like, 3 months or something. Absurdity. I haven't forgotten about it either. I just look at it and don't want to take the time to update it. I want to write a new post but don't want tot take the time to. Things like eating, sleeping, and climbing are getting in the way of blogging. But if I were to stop doing these things in order to make time to blog, then I wouldnt have any thing to blog about. Damn you Catch-22!
Its not like I haven't been doing anything worth blogging about. Its just that when I get to the computer, I can't remember what I tried to remember to blog about earlier in the day. So I will fall back on the usual "here's what I have been up to since the last post. (a lot in this case) In reverse chronological order:
Colleen and I sea-kayaked the Canadian side of the San Juan Islands in B.C. this weekend. We saw tons of cute ocean animals and got to even play with a harbor seal who seemed to think our boat rudder was a large herrring. He played with us for about 20 minutes until we left him (he would have played for ever if we had stayed).

Isn't the little guy cute! We spent 2 nights and 3 days paddling inbetween islands and had an incredible time. The 2nd night was a little creepy though. we were camped on an island next to a seriously haunted island and on the beack where we pulled our boat up on there was a VERY freshly dead seal pup, a slightly more rotten dead seal pup, and evidence of at least 2 more dead seals (4 cochlea bones). This shit gave me the heebie-jeebies for the rest of the night!


Here are some more pics from the trip which aren't of dead baby seals.



I also managed to make it up both Mt. Washington and Three Finger Jack with Logan and Lowell. Washington was a blast since I got to lead all the pitches for the first time, but 3 Finger was a disappointment. The summit pitch was fun, but the ball-bearing like approach made the climb rather unpleasant and sketchy. Nevertheless, here are some weekend photos of the fun.
and the dots around logan are hundreds of butterflies all over 3FJ.

And, as a parting gift, I present: Jon Stewart: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdD5Qt3El-k I love the part at 3:10.

June 16, 2006

Just getting to the blog page was exciting; I'm on Ariel's computer and all the menus are in espanol. Anyway, I graduated from College! Survived! Yesssss! Gpa want incredible, but whatever, I made it. I'll still be around for one more term so I can have a second minor, but that is only one class away. No worries. So lets see, now I have to find some sort of permanent job.(con) THAT SUCKS! Wait no, thats cool. No more asking for money from the parents.(pro!) But I have to pay my own bills.(con) But I get to have my own life.(pro!) I dont know what I'll do.
hehe! I'm done!

June 07, 2006

Things that go clunk

I pulled a rock out of my elbow today that made a clunk on the bathtub floor. I crashed in Mac Forest on a really long first ride of the season and ate shit where the trail ends and the road begins. stupid! I have to look into getting some health insurance because I am sure that should have had stitches. Bryan was able to get the head of a qtip into the cut no problem when he was cleaning it. Anyone know of good health insureance for someone like me?

May 24, 2006

South Sister board descent

Dev, myself and Leo climbed South Sister in a 2 day trip and got the sweetest back country run ever. The pics are on my webspace but here are a few.
Classy Pabst summit photo.
Yea, we bushwacked and had to do a few stream crossings. COLD!
The heavenly summit ramp.

Car Parts

I was so stoked that I had some money saved up from this month (my bank acct is usually hovering near zero at this point in the month), but then I realized that my brakes on my car were paper thin, so I had to drop 70$ to get those fixed along with a new fuel filter which hadn't been changed in ages. During the disassembley of the front brakes, Bryan realized why my car makes a strange whirring noise; the barings are shot! crap! and a seal was broken on a ball joint in the steering, and my rear axle might be a bit loose ...basically the list kept getting bigger and bigger. Damn. Stupid cars that we can't live without. Maybe I'll just lock myself in a room with 100$ worth of top ramen and play videogames for the rest of my life. (and believe me, 100$ of ramen will last me the rest of my life)

Colleen kicks ass

I just got a call from Colleen and she got a job in Albany(20 min away) teaching! This is so huge because Oregon is one of the hardest states to get a job in as a teacher. She already has her sights set on Corvallis or Bend school districts next year but those can wait. HUGE!

And while Col is accomplishing huge things like that, I am just plodding away toward graduation and a summer job. I'll be in Corvallis for a while longer still working for the forest this summer.

May 03, 2006

6th graders are nuts

I just finished my week volunteer teaching at the Philomath 6th grade outdoor school and I gotta say, the little buggers have way too much energy. And a LOT were on ritalin, but many more needed to be on it. In all reality though, it was a ton of fun and I encourage everyone I can to volunteer for outdoor school. By the end of camp, all the staff are delerious practically. The jokes we make are just retarded sounding to anyone who hasn't been surrounded by kids and swearing is completely foreign.
I managed to learn a lot about patience in that week, but not from the kids. In my spare time I had a lot of interesting experiences with the wildlife around camp. I managed to pet a little wren after observing it for a long time and creeping closer. I followed a hummingbird to it's nest and got to look at its two baby hummingbirds which were just hours out of the egg. Each was about the size of a lima bean. Sadly I didn't have my camera handy. One of the other interesting things my kids found was a Pacific Giant Salamander that was about 10 inches long(the grow a lot bigger). I guesss they are pretty rare to see at that size.
For a few days before ODS I was at Smith climbing (cheers to no class on fridays!) and got on my hardest trad climb to date. .10a in the gorge is no small feat but I managed to get up Cruel Sister with one fall. Stoke!
After outdoor school was over I came home, repacked and went on a Mountain Club rafting trip on the Rogue river for the weekend. I can't believe it all worked out, but 34 people in seven boats and 3 kayaks made it safely down the river. The only flipped boat was Bryan's when he tried unsuccessfully to run Rainey Falls. 34 people, 10 craft, 25 gallons of beer, 3 cars, 2 nights, 0 vomits, a lot of green, and no BUIs! Woohoo!
My obligation to OMC is almost at an end, and I gotta say, I was wrong in my lamentations which began this blog in October. OMC is functioning perfectly as a community group. Through several donations we have a new library beginning, and some equipment, and soon a first aid kit. Oh, and membership for the year is at 36 currently and trips are heading out every weekend for this whole term. OMC will survive!

April 12, 2006

I survived another birthday

Yea, I'm 23 now. And really I think last night rivaled my 21er! I even got a call from Keith and Mel in Korea :) I think my dad called but I didn't notice and he probably heard me hooting and hollering at Bombs Away. Oh well. Shots are fun too. Its been a while since I've done shots at a bar.

I guess I might as well post about break as well. Col and I drove to Palm Springs in her parents new Toyota Highlander, and managed to not get lost even once because it had a snazzy GPS nav system on it. Pretty handy.
We went to Joshua Tree NP for a few hikes and climbs but mostly just relaxed, enjoying the 2 weeks we had down south.
I eventually headed out to camp with Logan, Brenton, Tyler, Ariel and Aleta in the park.
We got to go and do some incredible cracks in those 4 days. Aleta on The Gem 5.8**
From climbing my first day, I was a little disappointed about the length of a lot of the Jtree climbs, but after hanging out at Hemmingway wall I realized that there are some nice long pitches to be had around there.
Just playing with my camera in the desert

I even got on my first offwidth lead on a 5.8* in Belle CG.

March 31, 2006

TOP GUN

I Love catalina Island! I am sitting here watching Top Gun with several of Rachel's coworkers and we are all trying to out-quote each other. I have never been in a room with anyone who can quote this movie better than I can. Now I am being given a run for my money on who can quote the fastest. Its intense. Oh, an alchohol helps. Did I spell that right?? oh well. And for a parting quote, " Your body's writing checks your body can't cash!"
Peace.

March 08, 2006

Maiden Peak Shelter

Col, Keely, Myself, Dev, Rhiannon, and Allison skied 6 miles into the Maiden Peak Shelter and spent the night all cozy and warm while it was storming outside. On the way out, I got some phat tracks(but it still didn't justify dragging the board all the way up.






Quality adventure.

Bouldering + Buildings = Buildering!

In a midnight icecream run just a moment ago, I realized that I can't wait for spring! More specifically, I cant wait for the rock and concrete that most OSU buildings are made of to dry out. I went and scrambled up a pipe on West Hall during the icecream run and that got me thinking. OSU needs a buildering guide, or at least a buildering movie. Matt and I are going to try to pull together a video about buiildering at OSU in the coming months. I am partly writing this as a reminder to myself to do this before my ADD kicks in and I go running off on other adventures. The plants are budding out, flowers are starting to bloom and the temps are getting better. I can't wait!

Oh, and the roadie to SoCal is going to be in style; Col's parents just purchased a new SUV for us to drive to Palm Springs. SWEET! JTree and Catalina, Here I Come! Additionally, if you live anywhere within a 2 hour drive of the I-5 corridor, gimmie a call and we can stop off to say hi.

2 weeks in SoCal!

Peace out homies... :)

February 26, 2006

PJ Party

Man, I thought a fort building PJ party would be incredible! But it wasn't. Just mediocre. I had all these grand visions of having a huge sock battle between 2 forts and all sorts of drunken schenanigens but it really just ended up as all omc partys have recently. Meg: lets get Greg drunk. Really drunk! Ian: OK!
and everyone else sat in a large fort we built and talked while sipping their beers. Oh well. It was good to see folks anyway. I'll have to start thinking about a new theme for next months party.

Updated on 3/8/05:
The new party theme is "Celebrate Darrel Not Getting Killed In Afganistan" Woohoo! And he made bank while he was there so he is supplying the kegs! I like this theme.

February 22, 2006

Obligatory Chuck Norris Post

Whats the deal! Suddenly everyone has realized what I have known since 5th grade when I watched the Delta Force movies starring CN. Chuck Norris can kick anyones ass blindfolded, tied up, and drunk. I have seen a lot of lists about how much ass CN or steven segal or Jack Bauer can kick,(see below) but I don't know if I have seen a single mention of their sexual prowesses in bed. There is a lot of talk going on about these guys but really, it is mostly just talk. How many of these people have actually watched a Chuck Norris movie(no "Walker Texas Ranger" doesn't count). Lemme tell you what, if you had seen a real Chuck film, the jokes would stop. He can kick some serious ass and the best thing for you to do would be to run and hide.

-99% of Chuck Norris is kick ass. The remaining 1% is pain in your genitals. The other 10% contributes to world hunger because Chuck Norris always gives 110%.
-The quickest way to a man's heart is with Chuck Norris's fist.
-Chuck Norris is 1/8th Cherokee. This has nothing to do with ancestry, the man ate a fucking Indian.
-Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.

And now, just as I am stealing these from the internet to make a point, I find a sexual reference. Go figure.
-Chuck Norris is currently in a legal battle with the makers of Bubble Tape. Norris claims "6 Feet of Fun" is actually the trademark for his penis.

February 20, 2006

Damn, I forgot I even have a Blog

Totally been slackin. Well, I am a slacker.


Since the last post I attempted and successfully climbed Mount Hood with 7 other folks. I am really amazed that a group of 8 could move as fast as we did. We even beat the sun to the top by 15 minutes. By sliding on my ass, I hit 20mph on the way down! (GPS speedometer)

I am taking a class now that is the forestry equivelent of the notorius "biochem" classes. I have never been so befuddled or lost in any class as in this one. It uses calculus to find the optimal combination of variables in a spreadsheet which can be rediculously huge. We are only dealing with spreadsheets of 30x50 variables but I am still completely lost. Half the class failed to get a 70% or better on the midterm and half of those who failed got less than 40%. My main criticism of the teacher is that he is a very poor teacher(you can tell he is rocket-scientist smart but he can't teach this worth a damn!)

Friday night almost ended with me drinking 40z at home by myself but I found a drinking buddy in Molly, which led us to Ariel which led to a drunken plan to go climb Rooster Rock the next day. What a bad idea. The route was covered in snow and ice, enough to make anyone turn around at first sight, but not me! I led a 5.4 pitch which was possibly the sketchiest thing I have ever climbed. It ended up more as wriggling and body friction than real climbing but I made it to the top of the single pitch route in around 1 hour and we were off in 2. Nick would be proud of me for this stunt. To recoup, Ariel and I organized a beer pong game Sat night which turned into a pretty good party at Matt's.

Sunday was climbing at columns with friends and that was a really nice bit of climbing after the nonsense we put up with the day before. Ariel took her first set of lead falls (on my new gear!) while mock leading and I pretty much just vegged out for a day.

Mooner and I have been trying to get a ground up FA on a new wall near a local bouldering area. This place really isn't that impressive, infact, it's downright shitty climbing, but we both needed something to do last week. This is my intor to aid climbing and let me tell you, aid is tedious and ghetto fab. The rock we are drilling in is hard as hell and has already eaten one drill bit. To go free, the climb might be in the 5.12 range. We'll see.

Oh, and if you havent heard of O.A.R. (of a revolution) I suggest you download some. I heard these guys at the Circuit bouldering gym and have been hooked ever since.

Hows that for a blog post! Now it's time to write the usual Tuesday OMC email.

January 12, 2006

Recalled X-Mas Presents

So to this date, other people have contributed most of the hardware to my climbing gear collection. The latest addition was a set of new CCH Aliens off Ebay. And then Mooner sent me a link to a photo sequence of a guy falling and blowing out an orange alien (which they recalled 200 or so over the summer because of a misdrilled hole) but this one was completely mangled; the wire just pulled out of the brazing. Then rumors started, an independent set of tests was done, and found that they broke far under the rated strength. RECALL!!! And my set was 8 months older than the recall date. Well, I'll climb on 'em. Poor CCH though, if they survive this financially, it'll be a miracle.
So the ancient eqyptions used to remove the organs of the deceased before embalming. For the brain, they would insert a blade through the nose, scramble the brain into little chunks and then pull it out of their nose. ...I know what that feels like now. I sat through 3 hrs of Forestry 457 "Linear Programming" and didn't comprehend anything. It felt like what he covered in 3 hrs should have taken a whole month of classes. And the worst thing is, I can't blame ADD on this one because I know I was paying attention to John Sessions the whole damn time trying to comprehend SOMETHING! Its just too complicated. This teacher is a crackup too; totally old fashioned and his work is his life, litterally.

January 05, 2006

8 words with two meanings

I just spotted this and though it was blog worthy:

Eight Words with two Meanings
1. THINGY (thing-ee) n.
Female...... Any part under a car's hood.
Male..... The strap fastener on a woman's bra.
2. VULNERABLE (vul-ne-ra-bel) adj.
Female.... Fully opening up one's self emotionally to another.
Male.... Playing football without a cup.
3. COMMUNICATION (ko-myoo-ni-kay-shon) n.
Female... The open sharing of thoughts and feelings with one's partner.
Male... Leaving a note before taking off on a fishing trip with the boys.
4. COMMITMENT (ko-mit-ment) n.
Female.... A desire to get married and raise a family.
Male...... Trying not to hit on other women while out with this one.
5. ENTERTAINMENT (en-ter-tayn-ment) n.
Female.... A good movie, concert, play or book.
Male...... Anything that can be done while drinking beer.
6. FLATULENCE (flach-u-lens) n.
Female.... An embarrassing byproduct of indigestion.
Male...... A source of entertainment, self-expression, male bonding.
7 MAKING LOVE (may-king luv) n.
Female...... The greatest expression of intimacy a couple can achieve.
Male.. Call it whatever you want, just as long as we do it.
8. REMOTE CONTROL (ri-moht kon-trohl) n.
Female.... A device for changing from one TV channel to another.
Male... A device for scanning through all 375 channels every 5 minutes.