Excerpts of the Mind

New Blog Page

2011-04-03T00:52:00.000-07:00

Hey! What are you doing here?! Go read my blog, it's on a new page. http://theverticalmind.blogspot.com/ All my new posts will be there from now on, as well as the old ones. So don't come back here! Read, subscribe, follow or whatever at http://theverticalmind.blogspot.com/.

Kaffee Magic

2011-02-21T12:21:00.000-08:00

We have our own coffee machine in our office at work, literally in the same room I work in, with a cabinet full of various coffee mugs in the kitchen at the end of the hall. Generally one of the first guys in will grab a bunch of mugs and bring them in the office. Almost all of us have a mug that always go for, but occasionally an orphan mug will show up in the office. I've gotten the same one a few times when my mug wasn't there. Each time I've gotten this cup I swore it was black, but when I was drinking out of it I noticed there was some picture on it. I always thought that it was too early to really remember which color coffee mug I grabbed. Until today. I grabbed the same black mug this morning and filled it up with the hot caffeinated magic and settled in at my desk. I waited a minute or two for it to cool off and then noticed a picture of a city wrapping around the mug. Wait, what the fuck? I know I grabbed a black mug, don't fuck with me. But there was this damn picture again. After about the third sip I noticed the black returning from the top and down to about where I had drank. That's when my Sherlock Holmes skills kicked in. Holy shit it's one of those mood rings but in my mug! Fascinated I drank some more and watched night fall over the city on my mug. When the whole thing was black again I went back to the coffee machine and watched the picture reappear as it filled up with the hot caffeinated magic again. Another case solved.

I knew that damn thing was black

In more exciting news, I drove on the Autobahn for the first time last week. Another guy from work and I had to drive 4 hours to a paper plant to help a customer with a busted pump, and we got to take a company car. It wasn't a Porsche or a Beamer, but we had a turbo diesel VW Passat. It's clearly no race car but I still got it up to 210 km/h (130mph). Even though I was on the Autobahn I was still checkin my mirror for 5-0. While on the infamous Autobahn, I became aware of a few things. First, there are parts of the Autobahn where you DO have a speed limit. They generally don't last long though. The second thing is that when you're in a section with no limit, people haul major ass. Cruising speed is about 180 km/h (110mph) for the middle lane. If you're in the left lane, your last name better be Andrette. No joke. I had to keep an eye on my mirror for people coming up behind me. It's not like the US where people will weave in and out of traffic like it's Nascar to get around the slow pokes. That shit is illegal here. You have to pass on the left. The amazing thing is that people here actually do it. There aren't too many jackwagons snailing it in the left lane. You might find a few in the middle lanes and definitely in the right lane, but the left lane is a legitimate fast lane.

Last thing I wanted to mention was that this I'm changing the name of this blog to "The Vertical Mind." I've been wanting to change it to something that relates more to what I write about, which mainly consists of my outdoor pursuits and what I'm getting into here in Germany. I also wanted to wait until I came up with the new design. I chose the name "The Vertical Mind" because most of my so-called "outdoor pursuits" consist of going up and then eventually down mountains. It also touches on the 'moving forward' (or upward) mindset that I try to live by. For me that means training for a race, climbing 5.13, or finding that dream job. Anyone that knows me has surely seen my competitiveness. That's what I'm talking about. The desire to never 'settle for anything less than your best.' Some people are content with what's put in front of them but I want to keep moving forward, or upward

I won't be posting on this blog anymore but I'll keep the site alive for another month or so in case anyone loses the link to the new blog.

New blog link: http://theverticalmind.blogspot.com/

Time's a wasting!

2011-02-16T11:34:00.000-08:00

When the hell am I going to start training? Or writing on this blog? Or go somewhere exciting? Time's a wasting. I'm living in Germany and I have yet to ski in the Alps. Or climb. What the hell is wrong with me? I got comfortable, that's what. Lazy is more like it. I've started to settle for whatever was put in front of me instead of going after the things I wanted. It's about time to put that hat back in the closet, or burn it, and put my game face back on. I've got marathon training to do!

I've been extremely lucky with meeting such an awesome group of friends. They showed zero hesitation in adopting a crazy American into their crew (what were they thinking?!). I'll never forget the kindness they've shown me since the day I arrived. But they are some lazy ass Germans! I thought everyone would be an athletic phenomena. So much for that idea. No one (in my group of friends here) has the slightest desire to get outside and DO something. OK so one of my friends is really into mountain biking but he's been playing the "it's too cold" card since early November. Fine, it's cold. Now pull on a pair of spandex and let's ride dammit!

It's not fair to put all the blame on my friends. I'm generally pretty active and rarely depend on anyone else to join me. I almost always run by myself and when I can't find a climbing partner I take no shame in going to the gym for a boulder session. So why haven't I done that here? Because I'm full of excuses. No running partner, no climbing partner, no car, too cold, raining, blah blah blah. I let myself get lazy and get away with it. Well I've just put a stop to that. I forced myself to man up and go for a run every day this week; except yesterday but I did core training instead. Gotta keep those abs looking nice. I haven't done any climbing yet but past weekend my hangboard finally came in. All I need to do now is build a stand and get it mounted. And hope I don't step on any nails in the process.

Your Representative

2011-02-03T10:00:00.000-08:00

The other day I caught myself wandering in the depths of my own thoughts and realized something that I never knew about myself. I wear a pretty heavy facade when I first meet someone. In fact I wear that bitch half off my face like the Phantom of the Opera until I'm really comfortable around someone. Of course this all depends on the situation and the type of person. If I meet a really outgoing person, chances are I'll let my guard down a lot quicker. Why? Because that person is being genuine. They're being themselves and no one else. It eliminates that initial sense of unnecessary competition, that need to prove yourself to them. If they can be themselves then I can too. Instead I usually keep a serious tone until I have a feeling for the other person, until I have a sense of how they'll react to my characteristic sarcasm. On second thought, I don't think anyone's ready for that.

I think it's OK to feel someone out when you first meet them but we should be careful of how much of a facade we wear. Like Chris Rock said, when you first meet someone you're meeting their representative. Well guess what? No one wants to meet your representative. They're stuck up, too quiet or too damn loud. Drop the charades and just be yourself. Chances are people will like you better. If not, at least you won't have to wonder if you should have just acted like yourself instead of putting on a show. Ditch the mask and tell your representative to take a hike.

Incandescent Rebellion!

2011-02-02T10:16:00.000-08:00

I came home and turned the lights on in my apartment today to witness another bulb burst into light bulb shrapnel. The only lights in my living room are the overhead lights which have, had, 4 bulbs. I'm down to one. When the first one blew out I thought psssh, there's still 3 left. Missing one bulb isn't going to kill me. A few months later the second one blew out. Mother fucker. Whatever, it doesn't need to be that bright in here. I've got a skylight window anyway. Today the fourth one shattered into a million pieces of light bulb shrapnel when I hit the switch and scared the shit out of me. One bulb ain't gonna cut it. It's dark. But there is still hope. There lies the untapped resource of the overhead stove light. At 18 inches long and 72 inches high (yes, that is 6 feet, thanks for doing the math) is a fluorescent to rescue me from the dark. That thing by the way, works like a champ. I can almost turn off the overhead lights and just run on the stove light. Almost. That wouldn't do anything about the two light bulbs that blew out in my bedroom. Otherwise I'd probably put off buying light bulbs until the stove light eventually went out. I'll probably end up buying a box of CFL's this weekend, or perhaps tomorrow after work if I'm feeling really ambitious.

A few days ago I decided to give this blog a facelift. Before now I was using a template that someone made. With those things your creativity is kinda limited to picking from a pool of pictures and swapping some color schemes around. It kinda felt like borrowing a hoody from somone and telling all your friends it's yours. Since I'm not a programmer or web designer, I'm kinda stuck with those templates. What you can do though is upload your own picture. So I got creative with powerpoint and paint and came up with the header that's now at the top of the page. My pixelated work of art is far from perfect but it's my p.o.s. and I'm diggin' it for now. Eventually I'll get crafty with my camera and make a more stylish background with my own hardware. Until then enjoy the pixels.

Blog Fail continued

2011-01-27T09:04:00.000-08:00

For all those wondering, it gets cold here in Germany. And it snows. It's been snowing on and off since Sunday night and it hasn't broken 30 degrees yet. Did I mention winter was here? He ain't packin' up any time soon by the looks of it.

Last week was my first week back in Germany and it just couldn't wait to get started. Seven guys from the US, all Netzsch regional sales managers, came to Germany last week for pump training. Guess who was in charge of most of the training. The American. Lucky for me, we all speak English. American English at least. We went through assembly, disassembly, competitor analysis and a few application visits to a biogas facility (farm) a wastewater treatment plant and a paper mill. All went well except with this one guy. He wasn't exactly firing on all cylinders. When you ask too many dumb questions people start wondering if you belong here. I have strong doubts about this guy. Moving on though. The best part about colleagues coming to visit is going out to eat. I ate out for lunch and dinner every day that week. Lucky for me because I didn't have any food in the house when I got back from my break in the US. I ate damn good that week and all on the company's wallet. All for the sake of entertaining our guests. I was too busy chatting up the waitress, but that's beside the point.

We ended the week on Friday by going out to dinner in Munich. Our development team and all the Americans made for a grand total of 13. First came the biers, then came the schnapps. Then dinner. Schnapps first. I snagged one of the bottles that they came in, each one containing exactly two shots.

It's not expensive or anything like that, but it's got a nifty top that you can close back up, as if you were going to save your second shot for some reason. I've seen it beer bottles before, both here and back in the States. Nothing new, but still pretty cool on a single-serve schnapps bottle. After dinner a bunch of the guys decided to go find a club. I tagged along with the crew that opted to turn in early since I had to be up, and functionable, for a soccer match the next day.

Blog Fail

2011-01-23T05:30:00.000-08:00

I have committed complete blog failure. I let it go stale and now it's like some abandoned car on the side of the road that hasn't been repossessed yet because the township doesn't want to pay to tow the shit heap. It's been over a month since my last update and it wasn't even an exciting post. Neither was the post before that, or before that. EPIC FAIL. Last month I went back home to good old Pennsylvania for the first time in 7 months of being in Germany. It's pretty wild that I've been out of the country for that long. In some ways it doesn't really feel like it's been that long. Kind of like how a semester of school can go by so quick. Then you start studying for finals and realize exactly how much crap you "learned" and now have to re-learn just to pass the test. It feels like that except I don't have the test to worry about. I might kill someone if there was a test. Thinking back on all the stuff I've done since being here and all the things I've learned on and off the job and then putting that into a timeline makes me see that it really has been 7 months. Seven great months. Sure work gets in the way and sends my morale on a nosedive from time to time, but the weekends have a way of muting all that.

Being home was nice though. I've been given the privilege of the German vacation schedule which means I get 30 days per year. Eat that! I took a good chunk of my vacation time to come home during the holidays and visit friends and family. Three weeks of no work and staying with my parents let me shut off my brain and tell stress to piss off . I got to go out to lunch (or dinner) with friends. I FINALLY finished the mammoth Stephen King book I've been reading. I even made it out snowboarding thanks to a friend that had some extra gear I could borrow since all mine was still in Germany. I promised I'd go snowboarding in the Alps, with proof of course, and it looks like I might have a chance of doing that in a few weeks. All in all it was nice to be home. I will say that it absolutely sucked hearing how good the Eagles were doing all season only to watch them get butt-raped two games in a row, pissing away their chances in the playoffs. Same old birds.

I've been stashing some things to talk about on this blog. Right now it's all on paper but it will eventually makes its way into the next post. To be continued...

Please sir, can I have some more?

2010-12-13T12:53:00.000-08:00

I promised there was more coming, so here is more. It started snowing here in Germany a few weeks ago. Within a day or two it accumulated to about a foot. I was pretty pumped to see the town covered in snow. I went for a run on the trails and it looked even better. The entire ground, normally blanketed in bright green moss, had been painted white with snow while the trees boasted a nice coating of their own. I didn't get a picture since I was running but I managed to get a picture of the trees outside my apartment before the snow was melted away by rain the following week.

Since then we've gotten a few dustings on top, nothing more. It was still enough to get me pumped for the skiing season. I'm looking to plan a weekender in the Alps with some friends after the holidays. Speaking of, I'll be coming back to PA this weekend! I've been hording my vacation days so I'm able to spend three weeks relaxing at home with an additional week of work in Exton. In all I'll be home for four weeks, which ain't bad. With the German vacation schedule I'll still have 14 days of vacation for the next year. That gives me about three weeks to play with, which is way more than we'd get in the US. I'm looking at a trip to Gardasee, Italy in the spring with my mountain biking buddy from work. We'll probably go for a long weekend. After that I'll start looking at a trip to England. A colleague of mine offered me a place to stay and a tour. I'm thinking another long weekend trip. That still leaves me with plenty of time to plan another trip or two before my time is up here. I haven't put too much thought as to where else I want to go yet, but I've gotten a handful of suggestions. I'm thinking Spain is a must. It's all just words right now, but I'll post the pictures after it all happens.

Kicking some virtual ass!

2010-12-07T09:43:00.000-08:00

No, I have not forgotten about this blog. It's just that I've been spending a lot more time with my Playstation since Call of Duty: Black Ops came out. That sounds like telling someone "it's not that I don't love you, I just love (insert name of love affair here) more." My computer is a bit jealous too so don't feel bad. For those not in the know, Black Ops is a first-person shooter video game based on the Cold War and involves a lot of shooting and outsmarting other players across the internet. And it is ridiculously addicting. I wouldn't call myself a gamer, but I feel like some people who don't play video games at all have the wrong impression about games like Call of Duty or Halo where the simplified objective is "to kill people." Yes, you kill people. But it's not just the virtue of shooting someone that draws people to play such games. It has a lot to do with entertaining your imagination as well as testing your strategic abilities.

Lots of folks like getting lost in books (I'm one of them). Books give you the opportunity to imagine yourself as one of the characters, doing all the crazy things that they're doing. Movies provide a similar outlet in that lots of viewers will imagine themselves as one of the characters, making them feel like a super hero, a genius, a badass or whatever. Video games let you do the same thing but with a level of control. That control is very rewarding in that you know when you've done something wrong, and failed, and when you've done something right, outsmarted the enemy and downright kicked some virtual ass.

I haven't turned into a hermit yet and I have proof. You can click here to check out some pics of me hanging with my friends at a bar that just opened up in town a few weeks ago. Girls like me here. It doesn't hurt to be the only guy in the group that will dance either, after a few weissbiers of course.

More to come soon. No lie.

Where's my stamp?

2010-11-13T03:21:00.000-08:00

As I might have mentioned to a few people, I was in Budapest this week. A colleague was giving a presentation/training on our current pumps to some of our reps and distributors around the area (Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, etc). I was there mostly to observe since this the same presentation that I will be giving all across the US when I return. There were 16 of us that had gotten together at the Ramada hotel representing about 8 or so different countries and everyone spoke English, sort of. The presenter is from England so he was the only real English speaker. Americans don't really speak English according to England, so I didn't count. Americans pretty much stole the English language and then started changing things we didn't like. No wonder England doesn't like us. We steal everything from them (e.g. music and David Beckham). Some of the group could understand more than they could speak, which was fine since Netzsch would be doing most of the talking anyway.

Let me take a step back for a second. I met up with my colleague from England and we took a taxi to the hotel. We got there around 2PM and didn't have to be anywhere until 8PM for dinner at the hotel. So we dropped our bags off in the rooms, grabbed a few maps and headed out into town. Budapest is divided into two areas, Buda and Pest (pronounced Pescht). They are divided by the Danube River. Our hotel was on the Pest side. Anyhow, we walked into town and managed to navigate to the subway and locate a place where we could get some food and a couple beers. Afterward we trekked down to the river which would lead us to the Parliament building. It's one of many buildings there that still maintain that old style architecture that looks like it came from ancient Greece or Rome. Magnificent sculptures and artwork on the outside of the buildings. Well we got a little too close to the Parliament building and a security guard in a green poncho swooped down to the ground like batman to scold us. A little startled by this angry man, we laughed and continued on our way. My partner in crime thought it was funny that he immediately started yelling at us in English rather than Hungarian. I suggested that he knew we were foreigners because no other idiots would hop over the chain-linked fence that surrounds the building. After that we used our inherited manly sense of direction to get back to the subway that would get us within walking distance to the hotel. We even managed to buy the correct tickets from the automated machine rather than going up to the teller. After getting off of the subway we were greeted by more security guards at the top of the escalator asking to see our tickets. Fuck. I had just thrown mine out in the trashcan at the bottom of the escalator. I figured I was already off the subway so I didn't need it anymore. Well they weren't buying it. My accomplice and I both tried to talk our way out of paying the fine but they weren't budging. 6000 forints ($1 US = 200 forints). Having been defeated, I payed the 30 bucks so they would shut up and we could get back to the hotel for dinner. My stomach was a rumblin!

Dinner was pretty interesting. The food was good, but the portions were pretty small. I'm still hooked on the American diet which means I don't want to see any white space on that plate. Fill it up! I ate everything that was put in front of me and made short work of the bread bowls. The rest of the night was filled with lots of international jokes and conversation that kept us up until about midnight. The presentation went fairly well the next day. I enjoyed the witty jokes that were mixed in while also learning a bit more about some technical issues regarding our pump design. The technical information proved to be too much for some people while others were simply overloaded. The presentation took about 8 hours, plus all the coffee breaks that kept everyone awake (mostly).

After the training was over we all got ready to go out for dinner at a local Hungarian restaurant. Again, the food was good. The portions were a bit better than the first dinner we had, but still falling short of the 'American standard.' Following dinner we drove around to some other historical buildings that were dressed in the same ancient looking architecture as the Parliament building. Imagining how these building were made without all the modern technology we have now is mind blowing. It's incredible how they were able to much such large structures back then and make sure that everything is in perfect alignment. We made about 4 or 5 stops before arriving back at the hotel around 1AM. Lucky me, I had to be up at 6 so I could be on time for my flight back to Munich. I was pretty destroyed by the time I made it back to the office. Somehow I snapped out of it just before a web conference that afternoon.

When I got to Budapest no one checked for my passport. There was no check in point when I got off the flight. You simply pick up your bags and leave the airport. Where the hell is my stamp? What good is a passport if you can't fill it up with stamps of where you've been? I want proof dammit! I asked someone at an information center and she told me that you can travel pretty much anywhere in Europe without needing to show a passport (other than to get your boarding pass). There are a few countries that this does not hold true with, but they're like the red headed step children of Europe. I made sure to hold onto a handful of Hungarian cash and coin, so at least I've got something to show for being in Budapest. Aside from nearly getting arrested for trespassing and not having a subway ticket that is.

Prideless Independence

2010-11-04T05:02:00.000-07:00

A week or so ago I had a conversation over the phone with a friend of mine, all in German. At first I didn't think too much about it. Heck I've been here for six months I ought to be able to hold a conversation, even if I still sound like a 3rd grader. The next day when we got together, he told me how surprised he was that I never once broke out of German. Even more surprised was his girlfriend. She had asked who was on the phone and was taken aback when she learned that I was on the other side of the call. It would have been a dead giveaway had we been speaking English, but since we were conversing in German there was no direct indication that it was me. I'll admit, both of their reactions made me feel good. It was a sign that learning to speak German, somewhat fluently, wasn't going to be impossible.

A few days later, I revisited those thoughts and it made me realize something else. Since moving to Germany I've become more independent as well as learning how to ask for help. That's not an oxymoron. I've always thrived on being independent. For as long as I can remember I've always been one to do things on my own, to do things my way and to do it without help. Yeah, I was that stubborn ass and I still am. It is that quality though that drives me. It is the fuel that gets me through grueling track workouts, the fuel that gets me up the mountain, or simply the fuel that gets me through a shitty day at work. It has been the driving force behind my determination and persistence in nearly all that I do. My tenacious character isn’t all gravy though. In fact it’s come back to bite me in the ass on a few occasions. Like when taking a gamble that I was right about something, only to get it really wrong and watch it blow up in my face. Or procrastinating something for too long because I was too stubborn to ask someone for help. But when learn from our mistakes.

Living in Germany has taught me how to better balance the two. There are times where I needed to be self sufficient while also needing to check my pride at the door. Case in point, my survival instincts kicked into high gear when I needed to get some food in the fridge. When I first got here, I had no means of transportation other than a good pair of running shoes and no means of calling anyone unless I wanted to make like Croc Dundee and wake up the whole neighborhood. So I laced up my shoes and started my hunt for town. On the border of walking home in defeat after not finding a store after an hour of searching, I made a final push and asked someone for directions (in German). I made it to the store that day and stocked up. I could tell similar stories of finding the laundry mat, or establishing a bank account, or getting a cell phone. Some things I could manage with a determined search through town while other things I needed to ask for help from my friends. I wasn’t really interested in messing up something like a bank account or getting raped by a ridiculous cell phone plan.

Being independent has taken on a new meaning since moving to Germany. It means being able to get past the fear of trying new things while knowing when to let go of your pride and ask for help. I checked both at the airport.

Boundary Line

2010-10-24T07:19:00.000-07:00

The climbing vs. running analysis spawned from thinking about my climbing technique, strengths, weaknesses, goals and my interest in trying new types of climbing.

Spending a good deal of my time at the climbing gym after work (at home), I generally flock to the boulder walls as many do. It's a great way to build power and expand your quiver of climbing maneuvers while sharing the excitement of working a project with other friends and climbers. It's also more convenient than enlisting a climbing partner to share belays with on the lead wall.

I really enjoy bouldering and the sensation you get after unlocking the moves to a tricky problem and nabbing the send. After spending month after month in the gym and occasionally outside, my bouldering strength went up. I pushed myself to climb outside of my comfort zone and started sending problems that were a grade or two above what I perceived to be my climbing ability. It wasn't long before I started to wonder what I was capable of on roped climbs. What could I do if I pushed myself outside of my comfort zone in lead climbing the way I had in bouldering? That's when I started looking at my strengths and weaknesses as a climber and compared them to that of my running abilities.

While lead climbing together, a mentor of mine told me that I climb with intent in that every hand and foot placement is chosen carefully and mindfully to prepare for the next move, a skill that is generally present among efficient climbers. Efficient climbers. Kinda sounds like a distance runner doesn't it? I started making comparisons and quickly found that my strengths as a runner (stride efficiency, moderate power, moderate endurance, race strategy) dictated my strengths as a climber. Racing mostly at 800 meters - 5k, I fall right into the 'mid distance' or 'sport climbing' range.

I started redirecting my efforts to top rope and sport climbing at the gym whenever I could snag a partner. Before long I was toping on 5.12's and leading 5.11's. The grades themselves were nothing to brag about, but for me it was huge progress. When I stopped thinking of climbs as impossible or 'above my level' I started climbing harder. I learned to do away with the fear of failure and started pushing that boundary line out farther and farther. Now that I know more about my strengths and weaknesses as a climber (and a runner) I know where to focus my efforts to push the boundary line out even more.

"Fear nothing. Defy your boundaries."

Climbing vs Running

2010-10-19T11:00:00.000-07:00

Coming from a running background, I think of different climbing styles in terms of race distances. Bouldering is most like sprinting because both practices require raw strength and power with dedication to form. I look at roped climbs as mid-long distance events due to the focus on endurance and efficiency. During some eh, spare time, I gave the analogy more thought. This is what I came up with.

100, 200 meters = Bouldering
400 meters= High Ball Bouldering
800 - 1600 meters = Sport Climbing / Top Rope
3200 - 10k = Marathon Sport Climbing (Sharma style)
10k - Marathon = Trad/Big Wall Climbing
Triathlon/Ironman = Mountaineering/Alpinism

I didn't really put much thought to top rope but decided to throw it in with sport climbing under the 800 - 1600 meter range because most top rope climbs are the same length as single pitch sport climbs. Marathon sport climbing gets its own category because people like Sharma have noticeably pushed the limits of single pitch sport climbing. A lot of the routes he's established, like the ones in Catalunya, Spain or Yangshuo, China, required a special rope made by Petzl. The next tier is Trad and Big Wall climbing. I chose the race equivalents above because most Trad climbs dip into multipitch territory. Trad climbing is often the gateway drug into Big Wall climbing just like 5k's and 10k's eventually lead to half marathons and full marathons. Often times marathons lead into the ultimate challenge of Triathlons, Ironman's and Adventure Racing just as Trad and Big Wall climbing may one day lead to full-on mountaineering and alpine climbing.

I didn't add ice climbing to this list because I didn't want to unfairly place it somewhere. I would probably put it alongside both the Trad and Mountaineering/Alpinism categories because the skillset is different than other forms of climbing, just as marathoning and ultra-marathoning are far different than your local 5k. In marathons and beyond, you have to worry about replenishing nutrients midrace, unlike a 5k or 10k.

The comparison was just for fun, but if you have any comments feel free to leave them below.

Funkin' Foot

2010-10-15T09:21:00.000-07:00

These last few days of having a hole in my foot have posed a bit of a problem. I generally walk or bike to work, or anywhere else I need to go for that matter. On Monday I was able to walk to work (my bike was still in the parking lot from not riding it home on Friday) since the hole had already begun to close over the weekend and was starting to feel better. Thanks to the new hole the doc made that afternoon and the plastic apparatus he placed in there, I wouldn't be walking anywhere far. By Tuesday afternoon I got fed up with my immobility and rode my bike home using mostly my left leg and very slight assistance from my right. I could only place my heel on the pedal but I was able to travel pain free, sort of. Stopping was a bit challenging because my natural tendency is to put my right foot down first. Not smart. I rode to and from work the next day and had the plastic insert removed that afternoon. Now the wound could officially start to heal and I would be able to wear a shoe again. NOW WE'RE TALKIN'! Yesterday I was able to walk around without anyone noticing a problem. My arch is still tender where the nail went in but it's healing nicely now.

So for the last week I kinda felt like this guy

The nail was the same size. My reaction wasn't quite the same as Marv's, but it sure didn't tickle. Today I'm finally able to wear a sock and shoe again, which means I can cover up the colossal funk that spawned from my foot being bandaged up for 7 days. I can even ride my bike with my feet properly positioned on the pedals. The doc says I should be completely pain free and ready to rumble within the next day or two. WAHOO! As much as I love having a 'get out of jail free' excuse for playing video games, I'm looking forward to playing outside again and getting back in the gym. The guy I weaseled into climbing with me before all this happened will be away on vacation next week, but I've got him locked in for climbing the week after. That gives me plenty of time to make up for the training I missed out on because of this:

After the hole was re-opened and slightly enlarged

Nailed Down

2010-10-12T11:14:00.000-07:00

The two things I love to do the most are run and climb. I've been hitting the trails more often to satisfy my burning desires to escape the cage that is my apartment. I'm still lacking big time in the climbing department. Being in Germany, you would expect me to have climbed in the Alps already. Or at least on some mountain around here. Neither is the case. The tricky thing about climbing is finding a partner that you trust. That trust doesn't come easy. It generally requires multiple climbing sessions together and a thorough knowledge of the sport and its many risks. Since departing the U.S. I have been severed (almost) from my trusty adventure partner and have yet to find a substitute. Actually none of my friends are intrigued by the idea of climbing outside and so far only one has agreed to climb inside with me. I jumped on the opportunity last week and weaseled him into going climbing tomorrow after work. Friday afternoon, the plague returned. In search of some wood for a freestanding hangboard I'm planning to build, I went dumpster diving in the bin at work. I found a few pieces that I thought might serve a purpose in my design before a stealthy 1/8" nail found its way into the arch of my foot.

As signals of pain made their way to my brain I quickly raised my right leg and watched the 4" long nail reveal the other half inch that was previously residing in my foot. Within 3 whole seconds after stepping on the nail I was out of the dumpster sitting on the ground with my shoe and sock torn off applying pressure to the hole in my foot. Feeling embarrassed about not seeing the nail, I wanted to get somewhere that I could clean the wound and bandage it up before finding someone to take me to the hospital. That plan only last about 90 seconds before I lost my calm and the lights went out after walking 50 yards. I didn't even make it out of the parking lot. Someone making a delivery lifted me off the ground and dragged me inside the security guard booth where I was given a glass of water. I quickly came to and had to answer a bombardment of questions, in German. I explained who I was, what I was doing and what had happened, also in German. How's that for "Aware and Oriented x 5?" I had to repeat the entire rundown again plus answer a few more questions when the paramedics arrived to wheel me away to the "Krankenhaus."

About an hour later they were about to discharge me before I started firing off a few questions of my own. Not able to remember when I had my last tetanus shot, I wasn't too keen on walking out of their without one. I found it interesting that no one had confirmed whether I had had a tetanus shot recently. I remember the paramedics saying something about it and I thought they meant that they were going to give me one once I got to the hospital. False. Now I realize that they were asking me if I had one and I mistakenly said yes. So much for that German course. Anyway, I asked the nurse if she was going to give me the shot. When I explained that I had no idea when I had my last tetanus shot she consulted the doctor who informed her that it had to be within the last 5 years. Definitely did not have a tetanus shot in the last 5 years. She agreed it was best to give me the shot and let me on my way, after which I called a friend to come pick me up.

I spent the rest of the weekend with my feet up, surfing the internet and playing video games. Monday came around and as instructed I went to see my doctor. Yes I have a doctor here in Germany. Mr. Agha and his staff of nurses know me by first name. He had to re-open the wound to let it bleed out to prevent infection. With one nurse restraining each of my legs and one nurse on standby, Mr. Agha cut into my foot and recovered two hefty pieces of rubber originating from my shoe. Thanks to the nurses at the hospital that did such a great job cleaning it out! Before wrapping my foot in a whole roll of gauze the doc put some plastic apparatus in there to keep the wound open for the next two days. "Wonderful." I go back tomorrow to have it removed so the wound can finally start to heal properly. Needless to say I won't be climbing tomorrow.

Back to Abnormal

2010-09-30T05:40:00.000-07:00

A while back I proclaimed my intent to sign up at the gym here in Waldkraiburg. I finally got around to doing so last Thursday. I've been in the gym three times now (not including when I'll go today after work) and relishing in the familiar sensation of being sore. Since coming to Germany I've physically tested my body on a number of occasions, but it's nothing like the workload I'm used to subjecting myself to back home. I covet the daily 5 milers and 4+ days of climbing each week that were routine. I've yet to obtain a car and my array of friends lacks interest in physical or outdoor endeavors. This leaves me with limited options for companionship in kicking my own ass at the closest climbing gym or shredding my tips out on the cliffs. That being said, going to the gym (regular gym) in conjunction with running and getting outside on my bike is seemingly a good way to spend my time in between the more lofty outdoor adventures.

However, this regimen isn't likely to feed my appetite for too long. Sooner or later something has to give. Perhaps after a few visits to the climbing gym I'll be able to track down some other loonies like myself to venture into the wilderness with. If that doesn't happen it won't be long before I either start going insane or start planning a solo trip. Outdoor pursuits aside, I'm back to being injury free and my fitness level is rapidly returning. I won't say I'm 'back to normal' since many will argue that I don't particularly qualify for normal. I weighed myself at the gym yesterday on their scale that also tells you body fat percentage. 5.9% with a healthy BMI of 20.5? Yeah man, certainly back to abnormal.

Instinct

2010-09-21T10:28:00.000-07:00

Running before work has not been successful. Running after work has been alright though. I replaced my shoes about 2 weeks ago after taking a look at what I'd been running on. Every time I ran made my left calf muscle hurt more and more. I think this is why:

Just a hunch

My orthodics are long past due for replacing as well, but they're insanely expensive. I'm looking to get away from needing to wear them if I can. A friend told me about a store that would be hosting a race. Any store that hosts a race must have a few employees with solid running shoe knowledge, so I opted to check it out. My assessment was dead on. I could tell by the shoes that they carry that somebody there knew a thing or two about running shoes. The selection was mostly Asics and Brooks but consisted of their top models. I already knew my foot type and strike pattern, but I let the guy check me out anyway. After trying on few different models I was pretty much sold on one pair. The guy helping was trying to put me in a lesser known model from Brooks, but I wasn't having it. Having read some reviews of this shoe, I knew what they were all about and they just didn't compare to the other models I had tried on. It was a recent release that Brooks more or less decided to drop after it didn't receive the feedback they were looking for. They have a great selection of running shoes and this didn't really add much to their line-up so they took it off their website. I figured this guy was trying to get these shoes out of his stock so he could bring in a different model. It's not uncommon for shoe stores to do this. They will never put you in a shoe that isn't right for you, but if it's pretty close to a shoe that is right for you then they're going to push that one a bit harder to get it off their shelves. No harm done, I just didn't want that shoe. I walked out with a pair of Brooks Adrenaline GTS 10's. I've run in several older versions of this shoe so I was familiar with the fit and feel.

While at the store I couldn't help but sign up for the race. Sure, I wasn't in very good shape having not run for a month or better because of that ugly hamstring injury, but this was just for fun. Hmmm, fun. I didn't get much training in during the following week because of work. A bunch of Netzsch employees, and distributors, from America came to Germany for a water treatment conference. I went to the conference on Wednesday and got invited to dinner with our guests on three days out of out of the week. Saturday came up fast and I had only run on Monday. Oh yeah, I'm so ready for this race. I woke up at 7AM to get ready and decided to take a glance at the race flyer. The race was on Sunday. After double checking the date against my watch and my cell phone, I hopped back into bed for a few extra hours of sleep. I made sure not to waste the day and went out for a few miles later on.

7AM came again Sunday morning and I made sure to eat and hydrate well before the race. My friends came to pick me up an hour before the gun would go off, and asked which distance I was planning to run. A bit confused, I justed looked at them. I had been thinking this was a 5k and found out that the race was set up for 7k, 14k and 21k. I should pay more attention to what I sign up for. I settled on running the 7k but wondered why the obscure distance. I realized the logic once I did the conversion to miles. 21k is about 13 miles or a half marathon. We got to the start with about a half hour until the start and the friends I'd soon be running with didn't appear too concerned with warming up. Short on time, I went to get a few laps and some drills in before the gun. I was really just planning to treat this race like a normal training run but when I heard that gun, instinct took over. I strode out with the leaders for a while before settling into a rhythm. About a mile in, the first hill appeared. It didn't look all that bad so I approached it with liberal speed and shortened my stride a bit. When I got the to top I realized no one was opening up on the downhill. This was my chance to let gravity take over and move up a bit. I kept with this strategy throughout the race and managed to work my way up quite nicely. At the 1km to go mark I started eying up the runners ahead of me. They didn't look much like kickers which left me wide open to pass on by. I silently closed the gap before hittin' the throttle at 200meters. I crossed the line at 33 minutes and feeling great. My friend who wasn't racing told me that I had finished in 8th place. Hmm, not too shabby. I suspect that most of the serious runners opted for the 14 and 21k races. My time wasn't anything to brag about but the race was fun and I was happy to be running at my normal pace again. More training and more racing await. Next year I'm going after the 21k!

Untimely Motivation

2010-09-05T12:31:00.000-07:00

I started the weekend off by going to the beerfest in Mühldorf this weekend, spending yet another night in my proper 'German' attire. The climax of the night had to be when my friends got me to stand up on the table with them and taught me a very interesting dance to a popular folk song. Friends from the table across from us thought it was hilarious and captured the act with their cameras and phones. I'm venturing that the pictures will surface on facebook eventually. Perhaps I'll share them here, if I don't destroy the evidence first. Some friends wanted to go again on Saturday night. I reluctantly went along as I did not want to be out too late the night before an early morning ride. As it turns out, my friend and I were right in not wanting to go as the entire place was packed. Reminder: beerfests are like carnivals with all the rides and such, and they serve lots of beer in 1 Liter mugs. Saturday is the most popular night to go and there was not one seat left in the house. After over an hour of endlessly walking around in an unsuccessful search of a place to sit down, eat and drink, my friend and I decided we'd had enough and went home. I didn't bother to ask him if he went back to pick them up later as he said he would. He was pretty heated about event, as his girlfriend was the one that insisted on going and then decided that we had to find a table rather than just heading to the bar. So I decided not to bring it up with him again.

I was happy to get home early, in anticipation of the mountain biking ride scheduled for the following day. Sundays are the day for the weekend warrior to embark on adventure since there isn't much else to do. No stores or businesses are open. So aside from house work, blahhh house work, Sundays are best for getting outside. However, after settling into bed I got a text message from my biking partner telling me that he was in dire need of a rest day. A bit bummed, I understood completely. Some days you just need a break. Instead I decided on going for a run, and not a 12k. I backed it down to 5 miles today and kept the pace down as well. I didn't feel all that great since I hadn't eaten anything yet, but dismissed the feeling in favor of capitalizing on the present surge of motivation. I paid the price. Just 2 minutes into the run I could feel that my breathing was a notch faster than usual and that my stomach felt like it was imploding. That's more or less what it was doing; eating away at every bit of fat/energy left inside me. It was one of those runs that you just have to battle through. Couldn't motivation have waited until after I had eaten? On a positive note, my hamstring didn't cause me any pain today. I didn't even notice any tension. 'Sighs of relief.'

My plan this week is to run in the mornings before work. I always tell myself that I'm going to start running in the morning but I've yet to really commit. I might go once or twice before concluding that I'm still too tired for this crap at 5AM. I get plenty of sleep as I am generally in bed by 10:30 during the week, so I can't play that card. The issue is that my body is simply used to getting up at 7, regardless of what time I went to bed the night before. It's routine. So I just have to force myself into getting up at 5, hmm maybe 6, until my body adapts and accepts it as routine. Come on motivation!!!!

On a side note, I replaced the tube to my camelbak a few months ago after it was claimed by mold. The bladder isn't so difficult to dry out as you can generally find something to stick inside it (aside from the thing that camelbak sells) to let air in. But how do you get air into the tube without taking the valve off? What's your solution camelbak users? Do you hang it upside down or something? I'd like to find an effective remedy so I don't have to replace any more tubes in the near future. I can sense someone telling me to read the instruction manual. But when do guys read instruction manuals?

Time to kick the plague

2010-09-02T13:09:00.000-07:00

That ugly bruise on my hamstring has disappeared completely. It didn't give me any problems during my last biking trip either. Both good signs that I'm pretty excited about. I went out for a short run last week, thinking that an easy 5km would be alright. It probably would have if I hadn't changed my mind. The 5k loop that I was planning on doing is 100% flat and the scenery, while a nice wooded area, is the same throughout and I wanted something a bit more interesting. So I decided to change course and follow a trail that parallels the roadway and eventually enters a town that a friend of mine lives in. Having made the trip by car several times I had a feel for the distance and estimated that it would take me about an hour to run out-and-back. This run is much more interesting. I arrived at my turn-around-point at approximately 33 minutes. Right on target. I had taken the pace a bit slower than usual so I could pay more attention to how my hamstring was holding up. It was a bit tight, along with my calf, so I took a few minutes to stretch before making my way back. I knew from the start that there was a well known hill that I would have to climb on the way back. This was what I came for. Still feeling OK, I decided to keep the pace down as I had on the way out. Better not to push it too far yet. Nearly 10 minutes later I was facing the hill. Long and rather steep looking. Short strides, lean forward. No problem. I was up the hill in no time and not feeling beat up at all. I made it back at 68 minutes. After cleaning up and getting dinner I logged the run at mapmyrun.com and discovered that my 5k turned into 12k (7.82 miles) and that my pace was around 8:30/mile. Around a minute slower than usual. Given the mileage and my usual pace, I would have normally clocked in around 58 minutes. How bout that 1 hour estimate?

There's still a small knot lingering in my hamstring, but it's getting smaller and should be gone within another week or so. I'm going to chance it on a bike trip into the mountains on Sunday. I can't wait to kick this plague of injuries. I haven't done much climbing since I've gotten here, but I'm looking to remedy that next weekend in Frankenjura. Depending on how my finger reacts, I may opt to get it checked out. I'm pretty fed up with not being able to climb on it. It's about time to figure out what's wrong with it so I can do what's needed to get back to climbing status.

In addition I'm looking to get back to running status. I've been wanting to get into racing shape for some time and I've got enough motivation built up right now to do it. A friend of mine suggested the Leadville Trail 100 to me and it got me psyched. This ultramarathon is in Leadville, CO and loops around 100 miles of the Rocky Mountains and climbs nearly 3,000 ft. Although mostly known for the 100 mile mountain bike race, they also host a number of shorter races. I'm really psyched on training for the marathon. Not quite as bad ass as the 100, but it still looks awesome. I figure on running it after I'm officially back from Germany, so that gives me more than a year to train properly. I've got good opportunity to run at altitude here since I'm fairly close to the Alps. I plan on signing up for a few road and/or trail races to supplement my training here and get used to racing longer distances again. At this point I'm not looking to beat any specific time since this will be my first ever marathon, and a rough one at that. This will be solely about enjoying the run, the people and the course. I'm looking forward to training at full strength once this hamstring injury lets up.

Alps Trip Rewind

2010-08-31T10:37:00.000-07:00

The recap of my recent trip to the Alps is a bit tardy but it will have to do. No, Alps does not always mean snow, but it does mean AWESOME! Netzsch owns/rents a cabin in Zillertal, Austria that houses 12 people if you follow the rated capacity (dirtball climbers could fit way more). We rallied up 10 people, some from Netzsch along with their respective ball and chain, for a weekend full of drinking and grilling. While most had no plans of leaving the cabin, a few of us only figured on sleeping there. Four of us brought our mountain bikes and set out to explore the surrounding mountains.

We hit the trails, in this case paved or gravel roads, at 8AM. Our "veteran" leader had advised us all to eat well and not drink too much or stay up too late. What do you know, he's the one with a wicked hangover while the rest of us are ready to tear it up. I took point with the drunkard's girlfriend and began the climb. Starting at about 900 meters above sea level, we climbed 1000 more up to about 2000 meters at the peak. This was my first trip riding with clipless pedals and I absolutely loved it. Cyclists praise them for the additional power and efficiency you gain, especially while riding uphill. I concur. I felt much more connected with my bike (nah, really?) and felt like I had more control. Aside from struggling to click in when starting back up, I only had one fall because of the pedals. That's because my dumb ass thought I was slick and clipped one foot in before trying to start up again after we had paused in the middle of hill. Well I had some trouble getting started again and the foot I wanted to put on the ground to stabilize myself was clicked in. So down I went. I got back up and started off again, without clicking in until I was moving steadily.

During water breaks we'd peer over the staggered switchbacks to see how our "leader" was doing. Nearly to the top, his hangover began to fade and he caught up (we waited a bit). At the top we took a break to have lunch and refill on water before tackling the downhill section. I normally hesitate to build up too much speed on downhills for fear that a rock or root I didn't avoid in time would send me flying over the handle bars and down the mountain. Feeling a bit more in tune with my bike that day, I decided to try ramping up the speed a bit. Flying sounds fun anyway, so what the heck? The only time this decision caught up with me was when two guys on ATV's came flying up the trail around a bend and I had to slam on the brakes to avoid being obliterated by one of them. I managed to get off trail in time and stop my bike, but my body continued moving in an upward pivot around my front tire and then slammed down onto the frame once gravity took over. I had a nice bruise from it that went away in a few days.

After that we struggled to find this small trail that spurs off from the main one and would lead us back to the cabin. We never found that trail and ended up going down a bit further than planned. This meant riding back up 300 meters of steep elevation to get back to the cabin. The way back was marked with trail signs and the group gave me the green light. ;-} After the long downhill section I was feeling well recovered and ready for some climbing. What seemed like endless switchbacks finally lead me to the cabin. When greeted by the cabin crew and asked where the others were, my only reply was "hinter" meaning "behind." When the next member of our group came in, the cabin crew suggested that I was been back for a half hour already. Since they were mostly drunk and I was the one wearing the watch, I say it was only 10 minutes. I managed to snap some pictures during the ride a few pics of the outside of our cabin. Have a look here.

Battle Gear

2010-08-18T10:28:00.000-07:00

I came into work Monday morning intending to start some testing with the concept pump, right after sipping a cup of coffee while putzing around on the internet until 8 o'clock, per usual. 8 o'clock came and I was informed that a pump we had been running an endurance test on had erupted. I quickly realized why I hadn't heard the normal buzzing of the pump on my way in to work. It was not because the test was finally finished. The pump was finished. It hurled the ceramic slurry it was pumping all over the lab, which then began to flow outside. I don't know the volume of the tank, but I'm sure a few pics will give you an idea of the sloppy mess that I would be tasked with cleaning up.

The tank all covered in gooo!

The wall too

I can't show the pump, but you get the idea. We haven't figured out what went wrong yet, but the splatter patterns tell us that a valve was likely closed and the pump started building pressure. That pressure eventually has to go somewhere, so it found a way out. All over the floor too.

This stuff is a ceramic compound that gets super thick and clumpy when it starts to dry. It's almost like a clay. This was sure to be a mess so I needed some battle gear.

Duck boots

Coveralls

Now that I was all suited up, hazmat style, I went to work. The first thing on the list was to get it out. I had to get majority of the floor cleaned up before I could go to work on uncovering the pump. Against my better judgement, I opened up the gate, grabbed the water hose and squeegee and started washing it out of the lab. This stuff was pretty thick so I wasn't so sure it should go down the sewer drain, but that's what I was told to do. So on with the show.

I knew this stuff was going to go all over as I continued adding water. So I built a blockade!

My blockade, ahem! Containment barrier.

Eventually enough people got upset seeing me wash this crud down the storm drain and called the professional in. I didn't argue one bit as most of the responsibility went from my hands to his. A guy came with big truck capable of sucking all the crap out of the drain and cleaning off the lot. Afterwards he blasted the pipeline with high pressure water to be sure that it wasn't clogged up. The good news is no one was upset about the whole thing and no fingers were pointed. Oh man if this shit happened in the US? This would not fly.

Anyway, they had someone else come in and clean up the lab the next day. I haven't been down to look at it yet, but I've been told it looks a lot better. Perhaps I'll be able to do the testing I had planned sometime next week.

Full Throttle

2010-08-08T06:22:00.000-07:00

For the past week I've been waking up scratching at bumps that weren't there the night before. Don't get excited, I recognized them as spider bites. I've had my fair share of them being as how I spend a good deal of time in mountainous activities and I've learned to distinguish them from other bites or forms of poison ivy. But how am I getting all these spider bites at night? In my apartment? Then I saw him, the teeny tiny little critter responsible for my mysterious itching. He managed to escape me on our first encounter, but I'll be looking for him. I was hoping he may just decide to leave but this morning I walked through a tiny web he created across the archway into my living room. Beware little buddy. Authorities have been instructed to squish on site.

The bruise on my hamstring has nearly vanished but it's not quite ready for the rigors of climbing, mountain biking or running yet. Soon enough though. I'm heading to a cabin in the mountains of Austria in two weeks. A few us are bringing our bikes up, so my ham better be ready by then. The weekend after is the reschedule date of the climbing trip in Frankenjura that I had to bail on a few weeks ago. Injuries don't really agree with my full-throttle personality but they come with the lifestyle I live.

None of my current injuries kept me off the go-kart track yesterday though. The track was super slick from all the rain the night before, but my friends had already made the reservation and they don't let you reschedule. So we gave it a go. The corners were streaked with black rubber along the line that most drivers take around each bend. On most days this a good indicator of the best line to take around the turn, but not today. Rubber on rubber makes for horrible traction when water is involved. So we took the turns high and wide. Most of the time. I quickly learned that if you tried to brake in the blackened areas of rubber while going into a turn, you were guaranteed to spin out. And I did, dozens of times. So high and wide, no exceptions. By the time I got a feel for the track, the kart and the conditions, it was too late. The race was practically over and I was getting owned by the other drivers. It was still a ton of fun though. The karts go pretty fast and you have to wear a full helmet. Next time I'll know better and hopefully the conditions will be better. I'll be out for redemption and it will be full throttle the whole way.

And the smoothies too

2010-08-03T13:45:00.000-07:00

Before I had the chance to go climbing this past weekend, I pulled my hamstring the week before while warming up for a casual company soccer match. Raining and somewhat cool out, I did not warm up enough before doing a few sprints before the match started. The miscalculation cost me to sit out the game and continue to hobble for the next few days. It wasn't until a week later that I finally noticed the gruesome bruise on the back of my leg. It scared the absolute crap out of me. I was familiar with the pain having injured both of my hamstrings on multiple occasions. Such a bruise has never accompanied any of my past injuries.

Nearly two weeks after the event, the bruise has begun to fade and the pain minimized. I can walk around and ride my bike with no pain, but I have yet to try anything much more physical. Frequent stretching has told me that this little bastard intends to stick around for a while longer. Being as I am not one to sit still for too long, I plan on signing up for gym within the week. "Jim, you just said you pulled your hamstring." Yeah yeah yeah, shut face. I've rehabbed myself enough to know how to cross train and work other muscles when one isn't feeling up to snuff. I've got a plan, no worries. About this gym though.

I haven't paid a membership to many gyms other than the climbing gym, but I know that they generally hold a fairly hefty price tag. So when I came across this gym in town offering a membership for 20 Euro per month, I had to see what was up. Bottom line, the gym is nice. Very good equipment. So for 20/month (flat rate) you get basic gym usage whenever you want. For 30 Euro per month however, you get unlimited gym usage, unlimited access to the "help yourself" smoothie bar, access to the vibraflex machines and access to the tanning beds. You bet your ass I want the all-inclusive package. The point that really sold me was the vibraflex machines. I'll try to explain for those that aren't familiar. The simplest version is a platform that vibrates about two axis. To use the machine, you stand on the platform and do things like lunges and squats. You can also do push ups and dips on it. The basic principle is two-fold. First, it forces you to balance and engages more muscles in the exercise. Second, the thing vibrates at 30Hz. That means your muscles contract 30 times per second. I've used one before at a rehab facility after having surgery on a torn meniscus. Well it worked. So I'm pretty excited to have the same machines available at this gym at such a low membership fee. OK, so I want the smoothies too.

Supplementary Habits

2010-07-21T07:58:00.001-07:00

The two-week “you thought you were finished with school sucker!” German course is officially finished and I am now a professional in the art of Deutsch sprechen. Sike! My German still sucks but I’m speaking much better than I was when I got here. When anyone gives me crap I just tell them I’m American. Surprisingly I haven’t been beat up for that yet.

So the status of my climbing-injured finger doesn’t appear to have changed since the last time I tried to hang on the trim molding around the door. I’m going climbing next weekend anyway. A climbing friend from the States lives a few hours from me and invited me up to her place to climb. Since I am a known masochistic outdoor adventurer, I accepted. I plan on taping my fingers up to the point of nearly cutting off circulation and hopping on a few easy climbs before succumbing to taking my rightful place as belay bitch for the rest of the day. I’ll also be taking my fancy camera along to snap some sweet shots of the area. Regardless of my level of success at climbing next weekend, it should be a fun trip.

I really do miss climbing though. It’s nearing 3 months since the last time I climbed anything more enthralling than the 3 flights of steps it takes to get to my apartment. If I don’t notice any progress in healing then I will have to temporarily supplement my climbing addiction with other endeavors. Namely running, mountain biking, drinking large amounts of German beer while meeting excessively attractive fräuleins, reading novels and playing games that distract me from anything productive and OCCASIONALLY dabbling in the study of the German language. Hmm, on second thought I better bump the “language study” part up a few notches in priority since it currently conflicts with the potential for meeting said excessively attractive fräuleins. I better get on that.

Lay down the hammer!

2010-07-05T07:39:00.000-07:00

Has anyone been watching the World Cup lately? Given the time that it airs in the States, probably not. We have the advantage of the games airing at 4PM and 8:30PM. I remember people skipping class to see the games during my freshman year at Widener. If you think that's a bit overboard, you should see how big the WC is over here. They have huge tv screens outside at some places for public viewing. Biergartens are the most popular site to be at for gametime. Imagine the outdoor seating at your local sports bar, multiply that by about 6 and then add a 1 Liter mug of beer in each observer's hand. Then you're getting close. Don't forget that Germany is still in the running to win the whole thing. Remember when the Phils won the Word Series? That's how ALL of Germany will be if they win the cup. The Germans have incredible national pride and don't hesitate to show it one bit. People were driving around blowing their black, red and gold vuvuzelas and honking their horns after Germany beat England. Mind you it was about 10:30PM when this happend. Damn vuvuzelas.

I was in Munich for the game against Argentinia. This was expected to be a tough match for Germany, but that first goal set them on a rampage that ended in a 4-0 shut out. Aufwiedersehen Argeninia! I won't be going back to Munich for the game on Wednesday. I'll suffice for watching it on my friend's nice HDTV.

After the Argentina game I went to a bar with a few friends and played my first German drinking game. It wasn't much of a drinking game except that it is incredibly more difficult, and entertaining, when drunk. Additinionally the loser buys the next round of drinks. Anyway, the game is played on the top of a large log. More like a tree stump honestly. It's 2 feet in diameter and about 3 feet off the ground. Table height. Each player is given a standard nail, the kind with a nice, big, flat head to aim for. The game starts by tapping the nail into the log with a hammer, just barely enough to get it to stand up. Now the fun starts. Each player must hit their nail into the log until the nailhead is flush or below the surface. But you have to do it with the opposite side of a pick hammer. Like this one:

Get the idea now? To make matters more difficult, you are not allowed to place the hammer overtop the nail during the wind up. You have to start your swing with the pick end touching the edge of the log. One upstroke and lay down the hammer! Add a few beers and this game is way more fun than beer pong. The first person to sink their nail into the log completely is the winner and the last person to do so must buy the next round of drinks. Then it's game on again! Oh yeah, and don't put your drink on the log (table).

M&M

2010-06-27T10:04:00.000-07:00

So it would seem like I'm due for another post. Well get comfortable. I've got some catching up to do here.

To star things off, I have to talk about my first trip to Munich. I was scheduled to go there for a language course lasting one week. Classes were roughly 9-4 with a 45min lunch break. During that week I stayed with a family that collaborates with the firm that I took the course through. They more or less rent a room out a student taking a course there, with the cost being built into the overall cost for the course. Work paid for the whole enchilada so I wasn't too worried about that. Anyhow, I took a train into Munich and it was like no other train I've been on. First off all, I walked in and saw stairs. Stairs on a train??? Heck yeah, I'm goin' up! It was a double decker train. The train had rows upon rows of bucket-style seats, never more than two per row, with some rows faced towards each other for groups traveling together. Each seat was generously padded and had a small trashcan, with a lid, at each window seat. This thing was clean. The train ride took about 45 minutes but along the way I noticed a few people wearing backpacks. Not just regular backpacks, backpacking backpacks. Climbing backpacks, with climbing shoes attached to the outside. I knew I was heading in the right direction. I had already researched a few climbing gyms in Munich so I knew their had to be a shop with climbing gear somewhere in this city. I would be on the hunt.

When I got off the train, I took a taxi to the family I would stay with for the week. Let me tell you about this taxi. It is NOTHING like what you would find in Philly or NY. All the taxi's here are Mercedes with full leather interior. Some are sedans and some are station wagons. There is no barrier between you and the driver. It honestly feels like riding with a personal chauffeur more than riding in a taxi. The rearview mirror has a few buttons and the meter display, showing you travel distance and fair price in real time. Lastly the drivers aren't Arabic or any crap like that. Just regular ass men trying to earn a living. Not a bunch of dirtballs either. Anyway, when I got the house I met the man of the household first and was pleasantly surprised by his friendliness. Combined with strong English speaking skills, I felt very relieved. We exchanged stories over coffee and I learned that he is an artist for a living. He mainly does sculptures with stones. Sometimes the sculptures take up a while wall or room. Some are meant to be centerpieces inside large buildings or offices. You know how companies like to jazz up their buildings these days. Half of his time is spent on his artwork and the other half is spent painting houses. Gotta pay the bills somehow. I think it's pretty admirable that he's found a way to live his passion while still managing to be a good provider to his family.

So, the language course. I took the subway into Munich, which by most counts is very convenient and cheap. I bought a pass that allowed me to ride any of the subway lines and buses for the entire week for about 13€. I'd call that a deal. Once I got to the course, I realized that I would be sitting one-on-one with an instructor. I expected this. What I wasn't quite ready for was how much German this instructor was going to spit at me right off the bat. She started talking at me like I should understand. When I informed her that I didn't understand, she continued to try and explain, in German, what she just said. Did you not fuckin' hear me? NO ENTIENDO DEUTSCH DUMBASS! Mind you I took a fairly inclusive entry exam online several weeks before arriving. Upon filing out this exam, I was also asked to indicate my background in German. ZERO. So when this lady started speaking to me in German and getting upset when I didn't understand her, I wanted to curse her out and ask her if she bothered to read my file. Eventually she got a whiff of what I was trying to tell her and she began speaking a little English. However, the tone remained much the same as she continued to teach mostly speaking German and expecting me to be able to understand. Since nearly every word she spoke was new to me as of the moment she spoke it, it took a while before I was able to dissect what she was saying. This wasn't like any class you'd come across at a university. I was mostly being talked at instead of getting any kind of explanation. Since I don't do well with being talked at, it took a lot of self control to keep my thoughts to caged up and just take notes. Lunch came and I couldn't have bee more happy to escape. I walked around the block to see what kind of shops were nearby and settled on a sandwich place before making my way back to the class. The second half of the day was with a different instructor. He followed a similar pattern of talking German at me except that I could barely decipher his words. His pronunciation was horrible. At least I could pick out words when the other instructor spoke, even though I didn't know what they meant. I had to stop him a bunch of times, but I made it through the rest of the day.

When the next day started off the same way as the first I had had enough. I needed to set the tone now if I was going to get anything out of this course. I set her straight pretty quick and she began speaking more English. The day went much better afterward. It was a little frustrating when she wasn't able to translate certain words. I wasn't remembering certain words that she had mentioned the day before. For instance, she mentioned three words that she said all meant "for" but in different ways. Well that doesn't help. How am I supposed to know when to use which one if you can't tell me the differences? I got pretty pissed off and made a note to look this words up when I got home. Google translator revealed the secret that she could not explain. One word actually meant "for", another meant "since" and the other meant "at." Trusty ole Google. I informed her of the translations I had found and she immediately agreed. So why couldn't you explain that yesterday? Grrrr. I had a different guy in the afternoon and I much preferred his approach. He began with some German but actually asked if I understood and then proceeded to go over it, in English, so I could understand. He was much more methodical about how he taught. I was much happier.

The rest of the week got a little better. I still got frustrated occasionally, but that's mostly because I've been trained as an engineer to ask questions until I know exactly how it works and why. I was looking for a little more insight to how the grammar works and for some clearer, more literal, translations of some words so I would know when and how to use them. After some pestering and some research I got what I was after. I continued taking notes and firing off questions when I needed to. Since they threw so much at me in one week, my plan was to just keep it all organized and then study it later. It would have been way too much to try and memorize right away. Note cards and post-it notes have been doing wonders.

So after the course was over around 4, I want walking around Munich. I wanted to explore a bit. I was hunting for something. Mission 1 was to find a French Press. My flat came equipped with an electric kettle that makes hot water in less than 2 minutes. With that in mind I figured I didn't really need to buy a coffee maker. A French Press would be cheaper, doesn't need wasteful paper filters and I'd be able to pack it easily when traveling. The problem was I hadn't been able to find one in the small town of Waldkraiburg. I figured Munich had to have one. So I started off down what looked to be a main strip of stores. The first store that caught my attention was one selling backpacks. All kinds, from school bags to handbags. I came across a 28L Deuter pack. Since I was in need of something small enough for a bike trip but large enough to hold some gear, I snagged it. The aluminum frame was nice, but I think the built-in rain cover is what really sold me. So I checked out, put my books from class inside and slung it over my shoulder. Onward.

I was in need of a new pair of shoes. Nothing sport specific, just something comfortable but with a bit of style. I sure picked the right street because there were a LOT of shoe stores. I stopped in a few of them, but kept on moving when I didn't exactly what I was looking for. The first sign of potential came when I stumbled upon a Timberland store. They had some cool stuff, but I didn't want to make any hasty decisions because I saw a Columbia store just across the street. They had an interesting selection but I wasn't quite sold. There was a nice rain shell I might go back for though... Moving on.

I was making my way a little further down when I was surprised to see a Starbucks. I didn't really plan on going in until I saw the French Press sitting on the shelf. HARD RIGHT! I swooped right in and nabbed it. I got a coffee too.

My last stop of the day was at North Face. It was happy to find a few outdoor retailers around. I walked straight back to the shoe rack and began to assess their stock. Not too shabby. I walked around the rest of the store before coming back to the shoes to make my decision. I walked out with these.

The next day after class I walked down the same street, passing by all that I saw the day before, and continued my hunt. I still hadn't found everything that I was looking for. I found a whole bunch of shops that kinda reminded me of Modells or Dick's Sporting Good. They seemed to have a surplus of your typical sports equipment. Biking, hockey, running, soccer, swimming etc... Not quite what I was after. I was getting to the fourth sports store of the day when I arrived at Schuster Sporthaus. Tons and tons of sporting equipment. Everything you could possibly think of for fitness. The first floor was covered in Soccer gear. The second floor was mostly running shoes and clothing. The THIRD had mountainbikes, roadbikes, triathlon bikes and whatever else you can think of or need for a bike. The fourth floor was mostly hiking and outdoor clothing. This is when I started to drool over how awesome this store was. The fifth floor sent my jaw dropping even further when I saw all the backpacking and hiking gear. I nearly lost it when I saw the mannequin at the top of the stairwell leading to the sixth floor. He had a harness on with cams, biners and slings on it! Racing up the stairs I found what has the be one of the most amazing assortment of climbing gear in one place. Endless amounts of shoes, biners, draws, slings, rope, and pro! I'll let the pictures do the talking. Check out the "Munich" pictures.

After experiencing Munich for a week it was back to Waldkraiburg. Lame. Before getting back to the daily obligatory task more aptly known as work, I went on my first mountain biking trip in Germany. I went with a friend from work and his girlfriend. We piled in the car at the ass-crack-o-dawn for the 1 hour ride to Rosenheim. Our intention was to ride the trails around Samerberg. (berg means mountain). We ended up doing so without a GPS. Needless to say, we took a few "unfortunate" turns and occasionally found ourselves attempting to climb what were clearly trails intended for downhill riding. Oops. Still a fantastic ride. The landscape here is absolutely amazing, not to mention a few animals... Again, the pictures will explain it better than my blabbering. Check out the "First MTB trip in Germany."

Now it was back to work. Things are starting to pick up as I'm becoming more involved in the project now. I've been popping out 3D drawings like it's my job.... But I still managed to get my ass on the track a few times for some workouts. I was recently introduced to some running trails that are labeled for 5k, 7k, 10k and 15k. I hit up the 5k trail last week after tacking on 3 miles beforehand. Next time I'll be after that 10k or 15k!

Now I'm back in Munich for one more week of this dreaded language course. I did the note-card thing like I planned but I know that I'm going to fumble for the right words when the professor asks me something. Or I just won't understand what she's saying. Either way I'll be happier when this week is over and I can continue to learn German at my own pace and in my own way. I'll let my computer teach me. (Rosetta Stone!)

Seeing as how my hands are cramping from typing this run-on post, I'm gonna call it quits for now. Over and out.

The latest of late

2010-06-01T12:12:00.000-07:00

I've passed the due date for my weekly expat update. I got lazy, get over it. I'm pretty settled in at work, plugging away with drawings and designs. A component here, a piece there... the work is adding up but it's all manageable. Mostly simple things that need to be drawn and dimensioned so we can find out the cost to manufacture it. One piece at a time, it'll all get done.

The search for a sick mountain bike is over. I wanted to get a bike that I could take into the REAL mountains out here. Something I don't have to worry about collapsing underneath of me when I land a jump off some rocks. I wanted to be sure that it had good components that would last. There is no doubt that I have found and purchased the right bike. It's green!

The components are a respectable level of Shimano (XT-combo) with a solid full suspension and disc brakes. Time to tear it up in the mountains! A guy from work is going to take me out to break it in during one of the coming weekends, when the weather breaks.

This past weekend I found the laundry mat. Just in time. Until recently getting the gear and clothing that I mailed to myself, I was running low on clothes. More specifically I was running low on underwear, even after the relief shipment. So I was on a mission to find the laundry mat this weekend. I asked a fellow apartment dweller if he knew of a place in town where I could do my wash. After quickly explaining, in German, that my German was still horrible he went to get his son who surprisingly speaks English pretty well. He then explained to me where the laundry mat was. Off I went and no such luck. Right where the kid told me to go was a dry cleaner. Balls. I couldn't blame the kid, I could "clean" my clothes here. Just not in the manner I was looking for. I peeked in the store to find no washers or dryers. No dice. Onward. After cruising around the small town for a while I started to realize that they would not put something as boring as a laundry mat along the main strips. I started looking to some of the bordering side streets, making a perimeter around the somewhat circular downtown area that is Waldkraiburg. My logical reasoning had paid off. Just barely off the main strip, just enough not to be an eyesore, was the laundry mat that I was looking for. I happily pulled out the bag of clothes from my pack and followed the instructions above the washer. Coming prepaired, I settled into the book that I'd brought along for the wait. After making some generous progress in the pages of my book, I retrieved my now clean and dry clothes and headed for home. That's not before stopping off at small burger joint on the way. It was a little sloppy to be honest, as I was not expecting this to be a fast food type of place given the appeal of the outside. Just the same I happily drank my coffee and ate my double cheeseburger.

The way they serve coffee here. Real coffee has froth!

The rest of the weekend was fairly uneventful as I chose to read for most of the day. After getting restless from sitting for hours, changing positions trying to avoid getting stiff, I could no longer resist the urge to run. I had only gone for a run once since my running shoes came in with the rest of my gear. The roads were calling and I could deny them no longer. Mindlessly suiting up in my moisture wicking runner shorts and shirt, I strapped on my Nike watch and took to the streets. Whenever I find myself in a new place, I generally look to a run to get a feel for my surroundings. I took this opportunity to venture out beyond where I had already ridden my bike. The trails around here are incredible. A vast amount of the roads here are accompanied by nearby forest and have trails that run parallel to them. Some are close to the roadway and serve as walking and bike trails for general travel. I hoped on one such trail that follows the contour of a fairly popular road, one that I was confident would continue for a long time and would permit me to run without dwelling on my direction. I made a good choice. This road was endless and the trails re-connected as intersections broke the gravel path I ran on. At one point the road would be sandwiched between to thick walls of pine and then suddenly fan out into the open fields of farmland. Enjoying the scenery a bit too much I noticed the winds pick up. Not too far off were the storm clouds I was looking for. At nearly 25 minutes into my run it was time to shift gears and head home before mother nature decided to unleash havoc. I made it back before the clouds did, getting out of shower just when the thunder and lightening began to pick up. Perfect timing. Then I made chicken carbonara with pasta for dinner.

The past week or so I've been gearing up for this presentation on I project I'd spent a lot of time working on before departing for Germany. The presentation was to be delivered to some upper management folk here at NETZSCH Germany. That presentation was today. Presidents, department managers, research and development directors, etc. Seven people in all, but each exceptionally important to the company in a different way. My presentation lasted for nearly two hours as I had expected it. What I had not expected was the amount of positive feedback and praise for all the work I had put into this project and presentation. My boss' boss's boss.....the guy in charge of the department I work in, awarded me 1000 € as a bonus for coming to work in Germany and giving such a good presentation on my project. WHAT!?!?!?!?! Sweet deal. It's almost like I didn't drop a whole paycheck on that bike....

Week 2

2010-05-23T06:43:00.000-07:00

Week two has commenced and I'm starting to settle in. Work is getting more interesting. I've been given the task of retro-fitting our pump to fit into the dimensional constraints of a competitor's pump. Basically we have a customer that doesn't like our competitor's pump anymore and wants to put ours in it's place. The pipework has already been fitted to the dimensions of this other pump and the customer doesn't want to redo everything. So I get to design some mods to our pump to that it will fit. I spent the last week drawing up some ideas in 3D (since everything is done in 3D here). Real design work! Sometime next week we'll talk about it and decide what we're going to do.

I still haven't gotten my clothes and gear from customs yet. Someone from our shipping department contacted me about a packing list and a declaration of goods. I had to confirm that there were no alcohol, drugs or weapons in my stuff. With all documents forwarded along, all I can do now is wait for them to finish and tell me when I can pick it all up. I hope it's soon. I've been rotating between 3 sweaters and two pairs of jeans for the last two weeks. I think the guys at work are catching on.

After going to the bank and making a few calls to my bank in the US, I discovered that I can't just transfer money from one bank to the other. I don't understand why not. If I have the account number it doesn't seem all that difficult to me. I pay my bills just by supplying an account number. I wonder if I could set up a bill payment to my German bank account.... Anyway, I found out that I get free international withdraws from ATM's and that I can take out up to $1000 per day. Not a bad deal to be honest. I can take out money at the ATM outside the bank and then walk in and deposit it. I also avoid any kind of transfer fee. Good deal.

Earlier this week I got a few particulars about the language course I'm supposed to take. Starting June 7th I'll live with a host-family in München for a week while I attend the course. The course lasts from 9-4 each day and is said to be pretty intense. The program requires living with the host family in order to totally immerse you in the language and force you to use what you've learned. It's going to be pretty wild. The good news is that I won't have to worry about work stuff while I'm there. After this week, there is a 2 week break before I return for a second week. I'm looking forward to being able to speak to Germans without a translator. It's kind of a pain when you can't talk to anyone at the bar.

On Friday I decided it was pretty important that I get a bike so I can ride around town and figure out where things are. I went to the closest bike shop and picked up a secondhand mountain bike for 100 €. Good enough. Saturday I threw on my pack and took the bike out for a spin. First stop was getting a haircut at a salon that a friend from work goes to. This was going to be tricky. How am I supposed to tell them what I want? Easy, a picture! Lucky for me there was someone there that spoke good English. So I explained to her what I was looking for with the help of the pictures I brought. She then relayed the requests to the hairstylists and we were good to go. Before I sat down they asked me if I would like a coffee. Yes please! That's so cool that they ask you that here. It made me feel pretty relaxed. It also helped that the hairstylist was good looking. She took her time with the cut and did an awesome job.

Happy with my new cut I decide to go and explore the town a bit. Riding down the street the first thing that catches my eye is a giant sign with a skier doing a backflip with his skis crossed. I take a closer look at the store and notice Deuter backpacking packs on display in the window. I hit the brakes, pull over and lock up my bike. When I walk in I'm immediately drawn over to the packs. Most of them are Deuter, a German brand that I'm familiar with from outdoor gear shows, gear shops and outdoor film festivals. Sweet packs. On my left I see a small rack with spools of rope, cord and webbing. A little higher and I find the Edelrid slings and Mammut draws and lockers. Not a very big selection, but still comforting to know that it's here. I continue to walk around the store and take inventory. The store is an odd combination of an EMS and Dick's Sporting goods. There's a good selection of outdoor clothing and hiking shoes/boots with a small section of sleeping bags and tents. There's a fair selection of running shoes which I also like. Yeah I stopped long enough to see which models they carry. Moving on I see they carry an assortment other sports equipment, most dominant is the fußball(soccer) equipment. Soccer is so much bigger here than it is in the states. It probably won't be long before I need to buy a pair of cleats for pick-up soccer games.

Deuter packs

I decided to part with my bike in exchange for walking and really taking my time to get to know the town. Continuing my stroll I find dozens of little coffee shops with a wine shop scattered in here and there. I also noticed a bunch of places selling fresh fruit. Not having much room in my pack, I decided to make a fruit run the next time I come back.

Next I stumble across a book store. Another weakness. Not expecting to really find much, I walk in. I don't recognize any of the books or authors at first. As I proceed to browse the shop I notice German versions of books that I'm familiar with, most notably is the Harry Potter series. I've read the first four books in the series, but being as that the copies here are in German I keep walking. Eventually I get to a section that reads English. I'm fucked. I know I'm walking out of here with a book. I just finished an awesome book called "A Million Little Pieces" and I'm dying for another adventure. I won't get my books until all my stuff is released from customs, so I'm in need of a book. I recognize a few of the titles, and after picking up some of the others I determine that they're not worth buying. Back to the ones I know. I read the back cover of a half dozen books and none of them thrill me. I'm left with one alternative. The Twilight Series. I was kind of hoping to find something else when I saw these books here. No such luck. I delved into another vampire series by Laurel K. Hamilton well before the Twilight books came about and I really enjoyed them. I intend to finish the series actually. Being as that this other vampire series was entertaining I figured I'd give this one a try and ignore any stigma that may come about from reading a "love story." There and vampires and werewolves, it's gotta be good! Look at Underworld. Those movies were awesome! So I bought it. I'm about 30 pages in so far; no real opinion yet but I'll be sure to comment on it later.

At the end of my tour I stop at a sandwich shop that I'm familiar with. A friend from work took me here for lunch the day before. Liking what I had, I came back. They roast turkey on a vertical rotisserie device and then scrap off shavings to make a sandwich. It kinda looks like the chopped up meat you would see in a cheesesteak except that it's turkey. It's sooo goood! They serve it on a kaiser roll that they flattened and grilled in a sandwich press; the kind they use for panini sandwiches. They cut the roll about 3/4 of the way through and then stuff it with turkey the way you would a pita. Anyway, they dress it up with a mayonnaise-like sauce, lettuce, onion, tomato and sprinkle a paprika seasoning on it to make it spicy. Gooood stuff. It's pretty cheap too. 3 €. One of those and a drink is all you need.

Throughout the day I noticed tons of bike racks. There's one outside every other store almost. So many people bike to get around here, I love it. I've even seen a bunch of old people riding around. Some of these folks have to be in their 70's! Crazy! So cool though. I hope I'm biking around town at that age.

One of many bike racks in town

Now thats a bike rack! Look at all those spaces!

My European loot left over from the day

I got home and relaxed for a bit before making dinner and watching the Bayern München game. They got shut out by Inter Milan. Boo!

I'm beginning to feel the effects of this six hour time difference to the east coast. It's made it really difficult to chat with friends. When I hop online after work everyone at home is still in the middle of the work day. When they get home from work, I'm in bed. That makes real-time conversation an inconvenience or an interruption for someone no matter what time it is. I've been getting by mostly on facebook comments and wall posts. Emails are certainly better when I have a lot to say but I find myself waiting longer for a response since most would prefer to send emails from their computer instead of the short messages that are so easy to send from a phone. I'm trying to be as patient and positive as I can, but this six hour time difference makes for some solemn hours in my apartment.

Up and running!

2010-05-15T07:53:00.000-07:00

OK. So it took just under a week to get some internet in my new flat in Germany. With the help of a colleague here at NETZSCH Germany, I now have mobile internet via a USB stick, and a cell phone. Pretty sweet that I can have internet anywhere now! It certainly makes me feel human again. I can finally talk to people! Now it's time to post about my past week in Deutschland. Where to start....

The Plane Flight:
The flight wasn't so bad to be honest. At the airport I bought a universal power adapter so I could plug things in as soon as I got here. That was a clutch decision. It at least enabled me to use my laptop for music. I wouldn't have lasted long without music. I also took out 100 euro so that I could buy food and such upon arrival. This was also a really good idea since a lot of places around here only accept cash. So during the flight I ended up watching Invictus. Not a bad flick. They had some other fairly recent movies that I haven't seen yet. Halfway through the movie they started serving dinner. Priorities first. I finished the movie after dinner and managed to fall asleep shortly after it was over. I woke up with about 2 hours before we were expected to land. From there they served a bit of a breakfast (a pastry and coffee) before landing.

Saturday:
After getting off the plane I was lucky enough to meet up with another employee of NETZSCH Germany who happened to be on the same flight. He stuck around to make sure that I met up with a few people from the team that I'll be working with during my stay. When the arrived I was told that we were going out for a "real Bavarian breakfast." For those not in-the-know, that means weissbier and weisswurst (really good wheat bear and white sausages). Beer for breakfast? I'm down. They serve soft pretzels as an appetizer at most meals.

Weisswurst and pretzels

(not actually from the restaurant)

The waitresses at this restaurant were also wearing the beermaide outfits that Germany is so well known for. Yeah, I'm really diggin' this whole Bavarian breakfast thing.

Next they took me to my flat.

The living room/dinning room

(with a few welcome brews on the table)

The kitchen/dinning room

The kitchen

The refrigerator (it's a little small, but it'll work)

The bathroom (with dual flush toilet!)

The bedroom

The bed

Weird nightstand (it's green though)

The desk

Dresser/Closet

Sweet rotating overhead lights

More overhead lights (living room)

The German light switch

The German door and lock

(not the door to the apartment)

Skylight window

Skylight window (open)

Bedroom window (closed)

Bedroom window (open: method 1)

Bedroom window (open: method 2)

Sweet mini-vacuum cleaner

Spice rack

Kitchen ware

Coffee maker :)

Toaster

Before leaving, they let me know that they'd be back to pick me up later for dinner at a local (mini) beer fest. Nap time. I'm pretty beat from this whole jet-lag phenomenon. It's time to recharge a bit. The mini beer fest turned out to be a bbq at the local firehouse. They cooked up sausages (go figure) with fries, "steak" with mashed potatoes, and fish. I'm not a fish person so I stayed away from that. I had sausages for breakfast so I kinda felt like trying something else. Steak sounds good. Right away I was warned that this would not be the steak I'm used to. It's steak so it can't be all that bad right? I'm hungry, just give it to me. "Steak," mashed potatoes and weissbier it is! We all get our food and sit down. Naturally I'm the first to finish my plate and one of the last to finish my beer. They refilled the beer shortly after. During the meal someone asked how the steak was. I thought it was OK. Kinda like cafeteria steak. Low quality, but it's still food and it made me happy. I was later told that it was pig and not cow. Fine with me. In the middle of my second beer I still felt hungry and went back for a weisswuerst and fries. After dinner I asked if we could stop at a market on the way back to my flat so that I'd have food for Sunday.

Sunday:
SLEEP! So after sleeping in I made some breakfast and went out for a run on the trails that start right next to my flat. What else was I going to do? The trails are right there, I can't ignore them.

Trail entrance (from my bedroom window)

Another trail shot (from my bedroom window)

It turned out to be a pretty productive run. They cross over a few main roads so I got a bit of a feel for my surroundings. The trail goes out for a mile or two and then loops around. As the trail gets closer to home again it dips through some thicker forests where there are some logging trails. I made some food, unpacked a bit and took it easy for the rest of the day. Thankfully I had my laptop for music and a good book to occupy my mind.

Monday:
First day on the job. Most of it was spent in a meeting with two consultants from London that are working with our team. It was nice to be around a few other people that speak English. Their accents weren't too difficult to understand. It's better than listening to most of the team argue in German and not being able to understand a damn thing. I'm still using Rosetta Stone and the books I bought, but so far I've only accumulated a handful of vocabulary and minimal grammar so I still sound like a first grader. The company has me set up to take a language course sometime soon. Hopefully it's REALLY soon. So during work I discovered that the coffee here is SO much better than in the US. It's a lot stronger and much better tasting. I don't need nearly as much cream or sugar. Good deal. After work I went out with one of the guys from work to buy a badass video camera for documenting our tests. They dropped 1000 Euro on this thing! Afterwards we stopped at a restaurant to have pizza. It's pretty customary to eat pizza with a knife and fork here. It's not cut into slices for you, but some people will cut it up and eat it like we do in America. I tried the knife and fork thing. Kind of a pain, but I managed.

Tuesday:
More meetings. More yelling in German. Time for more coffee. As the day wraps up I get ready to go out with some guys from IT. Luckily our IT from the US was here for some sort of training. At least I have another American with me. We all go to another small beer fest, only this one is more like a carnival or fair. All the rides and games set up for the week. We sit down and order a round of drinks and then our dinner. These beers come in 1 Liter mugs. Are you fucking kidding me? A nalgene of BEER? This is awesome! I had two that night and I could feel it. Two liters of beer is nearly 5 beers back in the US. After dinner one of the German guys we were with bought a bunch of tokens for the bumper cars and insisted that we join him. I can't remember the last time I was behind the wheel of a bumper car. It was pretty fun riding around looking to T-Bone the guy across the track from you. Needless to say I had a stiff neck for the next 2-3 days from all the whiplash.

Wednesday:
The London guys went back home today so we had a little time to focus on our regular work. My first job was to draw up some 3D lettering that was going to be put on our pumps. Not a difficult task except that the program was in German. Luckily I've used the program before so I was able to recognize icons and such. It was still a pain to make it do what I wanted though. I still honestly need a fair amount of training with the program, regardless of which language it's in. Later on I got to see the pump get put to the test. First go, not so good. We got some vibration that shouldn't be there. We took it apart and checked a whole bunch of dimensions to see if anything was off and then checked to see if anything was slipping. Nada. We put it back together and tried again, this time adding a little more tension to the belt drive. All systems go this time around. It's still running even now. They're running the pump for 500 hours. That's quite a test!

Thursday is some sort of holiday here and since we didn't have work the next day a few of the guys wanted to take me out to a bar called Sudpfandl. It's a pretty cool bar that used to be a brewery. It's got two bars (one smoking, one non) and a dance room. We walked around a bit and ended up at the non-smoking bar. Good choice. I started off with a good ole Weissbier and then switched to cubra libre. That's what they call a rum and coke. Fine with me! We went through two bottles that night. You can order a bottle of rum and a bottle of coke. They'll put it in a bucket full of ice for you. I talked with a few people that spoke a bit of english, so that made the night a little better.

Thursday:
SLEEEEP! We were out until somewhere around 2AM so I needed sleep. When I finally got up I made some breakfast and started making some modifications to the presentations I've been working on back home. My boss volunteered me to present my work before a bunch of the big-wigs here at NETZSCH Germany. THANKS ASS!!!! I really didn't want to make any changes and I really don't feel like presenting this crap. I don't have much of a choice since my boss already put me on the agenda for this big meeting on June 1st. I better get my act together and quick!

Friday:
Most people took off since Thursday was a holiday. The guy(s) I work with are a little crazy so we went to work. They gave me some more 3D stuff to work on. This one is A LOT harder though. They gave me a 2D drawing of a competitor's pump and told me to draw it in 3D. This would be tough even with the english version of the program. This is going to take a few days. I'm pretty sure we have this pump down in the lab so I'm going to take a look at it on Monday to get a little more familiar with what I'm supposed to draw. Sometime next week I think I'm supposed to meet some of the guys in the design department. They'll teach me more about the program and such. This will be good stuff. Later on we went to the bank so I could set up an account. The girl we met with was smokin' hot! Short black hair, tan, and a slammin' bod. I might be stopping in the bank a few times a week.... After that we went and got set up with a cell phone and mobile internet stick. So far so good! The phone is in German though so that takes a little bit of work. The T9 is all for German words, so I'll be texting in German. Great.

Saturday:
Today I woke up and went right out for food. My stockpile is getting mad low. I went out for food on Wednesday before bar night. It took and hour or so of walking around before I found the supermarket. What a pain. You have to pay for your bags too, so you learn to pack the heck out of them. Today I knew the way so I didn't waste any time. I brought a small backpack and the bag I bought the last time I was there. I went prepared this time. Every time you go to a supermarket in the US, you notice shopping carts everywhere. Not here. They have a pretty nifty system for that. The carts all have a chain attached to the hand rail. On the free end is a key. This key is pushed into a locking device on the cart in front of it (closest to you). So essentially all the karts are changed to each other. The only way to disconnect this chain is to insert a coin (1 euro) into the locking device. This pushes the key out and free's up one cart. When you're finished shopping you have to put the cart back and use the key from another cart to lock it up. When you push the key in, you get your euro back! It's a pretty neat incentive to put your cart back where you're supposed to.

So shopping itself was pretty interesting. I can only understand a few words on any of the labels so I'm basically looking for pictures for things that aren't so obvious. Buying fruit, veggies, milk, meat and cheese are fairly easy so I opted for those items first. Pasta isn't too hard to figure out either. What took the longest was trying to figure out which bottle was body wash and which bottle was shampoo. Some shampoo bottles were shampoo & conditioner and others were shampoo & bodywash. Both are VERY common here as opposed to all the specialty items we have in the US. Not knowing any of the four terms in German made for some tricky deciphering. I'm pretty sure I got it right though. At least I'll smell good either way.

Shopping bags

A well stocked fridge

Milk, OJ, tomato sauce, ketchup and mustard

Bier, bacon, lots of yogurt, sausages-a-plenty, apples,

oranges, cheese and bologna.

Pasta, TORTELLINI!, coffee, raisins, dried plums,

PEANUT BUTTER and peanuts.

I found peanut butter!

After shopping I saw this really cool Focus parked on my street. Who knew they made an ST version?

The standard Focus

I've seen over a dozen Focus's over here. All different models. The Ford Fiesta is also a really popular car here. It's been around for a while. We'll see the newest model in the states for the first time in 2011. The new Focus should be statebound somewhere in 2010. Keep an eye out!

That's all I have for now. I hope this post was long enough to make up the long wait. I'll be posting more stories as they come and the pictures that go with them.

Hurry up and wait!

2010-05-07T08:13:00.000-07:00

This past week has been absolutely insane. I packed up my apartment in all of two days and spent the next two cleaning it. All my backpacking/climbing gear was sent to Germany by air freight on Wednesday. I turned in the keys to my apartment. I discovered that you do not acquire the title for your car until you pay off the loan you took out to finance it. I also discovered that you cannot sell said car without the title. So I guess I'll be hanging onto this car for a little longer. Lame.

My bags are packed and repacked. We're good to go! Hurry up and wait, until 6:30. So far away. I'm starting to realize that this is going to be a long ass flight. 8+ hours is a long time to be packaged up like a sardine and my knees are not looking forward to it. I can't sit still that long even when I have all the leg room in the world. My body doesn't like sitting still. I need to run, climb and bike! This is going to be rough. Not to mention that being away from my best friend is going to eat at me every second I'm on the plane. You mean the world to me! Worst of all is that I won't be able to do anything about it. I'm not looking forward to this feeling.

Tick tock, tick tock, tick...

Good Anesthesia

2010-04-26T18:04:00.000-07:00

So I started making hamburger helper for dinner tonight when I realized that I didn't have any milk, or butter. If you've made the amazing slop that is hamburger helper, then you know that you need milk, or butter. I had already started cooking the ground turkey (yeah I said turkey) when I realized my dilemma, so I couldn't just go out and get milk. I am in a tight situation here. Desperate times call for desperate measures. So I reached for the vanilla creamer. I knew it could be weird, but I couldn't just use water alone. It was weird. Still enjoyable though. I'm just glad that I was the only one eating it so I didn't have to justify my executive decision.

On a different note, Wawa apple dippers do not come with nearly enough peanut butter. The peanut butter is gone before I get halfway through the apples! You think I'd learn from this discovery, but I keep on buying them. Maybe I'll keep a jar of peanut butter at my desk to make up for it.

Getting my wisdom teeth pulled tomorrow. I hope they give me some good anesthesia.

Mega What?

2010-04-08T18:26:00.000-07:00

I've spent the last two weeks working on this mega lab report and presentation for the project I've been working on. I must have typed the word "analysis" at least 50 times and I have to concentrate for each one. Usually "anal" flows right from the fingertips but it takes a half second for them to react to the second part. Beats me. I just know it's getting annoying every time this word slows me down.

A new Wawa opened up this week on my way to work. Gas station and all. I got gas there on Monday after putting the gas light to the test. I'm pretty excited because it's much bigger than the mini-wawa it replaced just a half mile up the road. Also it means a Wawa gas station semi-close to home. That means free compressed air! Yeah I know what you're thinking. "So what? Who cares about that?" You would if you had a slow leak in your left rear tire. The leak isn't bad enough to really warrant replacing the tire/rim so I put up with it. So free air at the gas station saves me quarters for wash.

Watch this. It makes me laugh every time I see the monkey.

Map My Send

2010-04-05T19:11:00.000-07:00

I guess it's been a while since I've put my thoughts down last. I could try to sell you on trying to 'save up some good stories' but no one would buy it.

Anyway, I've been pretty intrigued with http://www.mapmyrun.com/ lately. It is obviously based on a runner's log since it allows you to create and save workouts in addition to the standard feature of creating and saving routes that you've run on the roads (or trails if you're really good at estimating). Either way, I have found it to be one of the better runner's logs that I've used. I used nike.com's running log for approximately 3 years. Not a bad tool to be honest. My only complaint is that it could be slow at times. Unlike nike.com, mapmyrun allows you to log in all kinds of sports and exercise activities. I like that it automatically calculates your running pace, if applicable, as well as the amount of calories you burned (if you put some personal data in upfront like height, weight, age, sex, etc). Climbing happens to be one of those activities, so I'm pretty happy about that. The other bit I like is that it calculates all your totals to date, including your green stats. Green stats are how much gas you saved from traveling under your own power, how much money you saved, and the carbon offset you achieved in lbs of CO2. Very cool site and very easy to use.

On the topic of exercise, all this nice weather has got me pretty excited to run and climb outside. I got some good miles in last week and was able to climb at Birdsboro with my best friend on Saturday. We started off with a few light climbs to get warmed up. Then I started eying this 5.11b on the lower slab wall. It took some work to figure out the moves and a whole lot of cojones to do them. It was fun though. I'm really glad that I could push myself, with some awesome encouragement, to get through it. I tried for the send a little later. It was definitely smoother but I got tangled up on a few moves. I was unhappy about not getting the send but still really glad to discover that it's within reach. Next time. :-)

I found $5 in the laundry this weekend. Yup.

Spring Ahead

2010-03-14T17:37:00.000-07:00

I hate using the bathroom right after I've cleaned it. I spent all that time trying to make it nice and I want it to stay that way, at least for a few days. So I've been doing things a bit differently in the bathroom like bowing my head further when spitting out my toothpaste or sitting when I pee so I don't spray all over the place. OK that's kinda weird, but the toothpaste thing makes sense. It gets all over the place I brush my tongue.

Anyway, I stocked the kitchen this weekend. I'm not a happy camper when there isn't any food in the apartment, believe me. Not to worry. I've got enough food to hold me over for about 2 weeks....maybe.

I'm glad the weather seems to be improving. Food shopping in the monsoon sucked. The forecast looks good after Monday though. Perhaps some outdoor climbing next weekend??? We'll see. Chances are I'll be back in the gym, but one can hope. Speaking of climbing, the hole in the knee of my favorite climbing pants is getting bigger. I thought about sewing it, but I think a patch would do a lot better since it's torn in multiple places. I might sacrifice some material from a pair of hiking pants that are getting a bit snug in the waist.

Whether I get to climb outside or not, I at least intend to get some outdoor running in during the week. I got 5 days of running in last week, so I've got to keep the momentum going. I'm looking to get back in shape so I can run a few trail races, and a few road races.

By the way I forgot about daylight savings until 6:45PM. I got all excited when I thought I had showered and eaten by 5:45 after a sweet day of climbing. Friggin' daylight savings.

I miss my iPod

2010-03-10T17:42:00.000-08:00

A few days ago I saw a really cool commercial with Yvon Chouinard. He shed some light on rock climbing and discussed removing a dam that no longer serves any purpose. Its removal would allow for the native fish to spawn again as well as providing the nearby beaches with much needed sand. Have a look!

I usually listen to Pandora while I'm at my desk at work. I noticed that every time I change stations a wonderful VIDEO COMMERCIAL comes on! What is that about?! Yes, advertisements pay the bills for many websites. I get it. A commercial EVERY time I change stations is excessively annoying though. Being as that my iPod decided to up and take a crap a while back, Pandora is still the most convenient choice. Grrrrr.

A co-worker and I came across a cool website today. www.passwordmeter.com
You type in a password and it rates the strength or ability to be cracked. Higher scores have less of a chance of being cracked. As you might have guessed, the best passwords are ones that have upper-case and lower-case letters, numbers, characters (shifted numbers) and don't use words or sequential numbers or letters. Basically as random as you can make it. Still pretty cool.

Oh, and I still don't have any tp in the house. I might have to confiscate some from work.

A Not So Rainy Weekend

2010-03-08T17:48:00.000-08:00

This past weekend was a blast! I spent the whole weekend with my best friend Monica! We went to the Banff Mountain Film Festival on Friday night. Saturday we went running in the morning and climbing in the afternoon. That night we went to my parents' house for my going-away party. I hate that name. It's kind of depressing and makes me not want to go to Germany. The party was fun anyway. It was really great to have my friends and family there to support me. After my cousin made a fairly nice toast in my honor someone else chanted out "speech." The idea of giving a speech never really crossed my mind, so I passed. Folded under the pressure. They all know how I feel, but looking back at it I wish I had given a speech. Even if it was just something small. If I could do it over I would have said something like this:

"Over the years I've encountered quite a few challenges. Be they the mental rigors of school, the physical demands of sports or the emotional battles of life, I've had my fair share of each of them. Regardless of the challenge, my friends and family have always been there to support me. Without that support I would not have accomplished half of the things that I did. Without that support, I would not have been given the opportunity that lays before me. With that being said, I would like to thank you all for being here tonight to support me once again."

Call it cheesy if you will. Every word is true. Anyway, on Sunday Monica and I went hiking around the Delaware Water Gap where we were introduced to some trad climbing spots. We'll have to check it out when it's a bit more dry. Running this weekend got me motivated to start running on a regular basis again. I ran during my lunch hour at work today. The weather was fantastic. All excited to be running again, I decided that I would make running at lunch a daily thing. Later on someone ruined my plan by telling me that the second half of the week is going to be miserable. Damn the rain!

Get in, sit down, shut up & hold on!

2010-02-22T16:51:00.000-08:00

That was on the back windshield of the truck I was driving behind on the way to work today. I want to know where he got that sticker. Absolutely awesome.

Germany is getting closer, but feels so far away. I got word that all the necessary documents were submitted to the appropriate authorities there and now all I can do is wait. LAME! My departure date is anyone's guess at this point.

Snowmageddon

2010-02-12T05:28:00.000-08:00

I need to say that I love snow. Without it, winter is just fuckin cold. So I'm glad that we got our fair share this year. I hoping to get on the slopes within the next week or two while the snow is still around.

I find it interesting that so many people that go into panic mode when we get more than 5 or 6 inches. Everyone is racing to buy shovels and salt. Why is it that so many people wait til the last minute to buy shovels? My parents have had the same 3 shovels for the last 15 years (no lie, I remember using the shovel). Others feel like they need to stock up on food and go into hibernation. Seriously? Snow isn't some kind of plague that you need to seal yourself off from. Either way, people hugely overreact when we get snow. Act like you live in the northeast. This isn't LA, we get snow, lots of it.

I'm loving all the snow just as much as the next guy, but I was none too happy when my computer decided to crap out on me during my day off from work. You picked a hell of a day computer! Just when I needed you for entertainment you up and quit on me! There's been some kind of virus on laptop for a long time now. It only recently started to get a lot worse. I ran several virus scans and anti-spyware/adware programs, but this cockroach was persistent. The scans picked up a lot of things and essentially showed that my computer was clean. I determined otherwise when my browser still redirected me whenever I clicked a link from a google search. No good. Anyhow, I went to turn my computer on on Wednesday and was greeted with the infamous blue screen of death. Damn, restart and hope it goes away. Fuck, blue screen again. Try again, in safe mode this time. Nope, still fucked.

So now I'm looking at getting a new hard drive and running the old one as a slave to see if I can recover the music and photos that are on there. I REALLY don't want to lose that stuff. I'm pretty confident that I can recover it. That means buying a new hard drive first. It's always about money. Damn you money. My company has some deal with dell though. Since my computer is a dell, that works out nicely. So I might be able to get a decent discount. :)

Until then I'm pretty much screwed for internet access. I can only get on during work, when I really shouldn't be messing around aways. Shit the boss is coming, ALT-TAB!!!!!!

Acceptably Lazy + Moderately Productive

2010-01-31T13:32:00.000-08:00

Last night I went to World Cafe Live in Philly for the first time to see the guys of Jealousy Curve play. They totally commanded the stage with their energy. The new material is even more amazing than their last two albums. I can't wait for the new release. It was really cool to see them play at such a great venue. I'm used to seeing them play at small cafes and smoky bars with terrible acoustics. World Cafe Live is none of those things. Smoking is not allowed. Awesome. They have two levels, both of which have their own stage + bar. Sweet! The acoustics are fantastic and the many tables + standing room makes it a very comfortable place to listen to great music and hang with friends. I'm looking forward to going back soon.

I decided to dedicate today to being acceptably lazy and moderately productive. Let me explain.

-I woke up around 8:30AM: acceptable for the weekend.
-The first thing I did was start my laundry: productive.
-Made coffee and played guitar for 2 hours: lazy.
-Watched the Winter X Games while folding laundry: lazy + productive.
-Prepared food for the crock-pot while watching the movie War: productive + lazy.

4(lazy) + 4(productive) = acceptably lazy and moderately productive.

Good enough for me.

Video Retard

2010-01-25T16:41:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty excited for all the climbing that will take place once I get to Germany. It might take me a little while to find a partner I trust though. Aside from that, I want to be able to share my experiences with all my friends back home. Pictures are super cool but I have another idea in mind. Recently I have taken interest in getting a video camera. It will take some shopping around because there is no way I'm going to buy a crap camcorder. I want to get a legit video camera so I can learn how to edit and make decent looking videos. I'll be honest, I'm no audio/video/computer guru. But I'm not technologically retarded either so I'm pretty confident that with a little bit of hard work and a few screw ups I'll figure it out.

WTF Comcast?!

2010-01-18T17:58:00.000-08:00

Comcast is is a French bastard child. They have deleted my email account of 8+ years. FUCK YOU! I used that email address for so many websites. I recently moved to a new apartment so I had to terminate service at my old address. Upon doing so some gene-ass decided to delete my account. I fucking signed up for comcast at my new apartment! Why would you delete my email account?! I am mad. Very mad. Comcast is a red-headed step-child and they officially suck billy goat balls.

Happy Refrigerator

2010-01-16T16:15:00.000-08:00

I'm so glad it's the weekend. This week really whooped me. It's a little relieving to know that I'm officially going to Germany though. For a while I wasn't sure I'd make the team. But I did so HAH! I was so beat by the time I got home last night that I didn't bother to go out or look for something to do. I got pretty comfortable in front the tv and that was it. I was a bit more productive today though. I was invited to visit a professor of mine from high school and check out what the engineering club was doing. My friend Matt and I took all three engineering courses available while we were there. By junior year we were finished all the courses so we decided to enroll in an independent study in 3D autocad. Afterwards we proposed to the school board that they create an official 3D autocad course and that they purchase Autodesk Inventor. The following year, they did. So it's really nice to go back and see how far the tech ed/engineering department has grown. They've got tons of cool stuff there now like a 3D printer. We didn't even have one of those at Widener!

After I got home I decided that I had to go food shopping. My cabinets were looking pretty bare. Well lets just say that I spent $181.46 and that my refrigerator is happy. I've got a few recipes that I want to try out. Considering I don't cook often, this should be pretty interesting. I've got a few crock-pot recipes and I'm pretty confident I can't mess those up too bad. I'll post the verdict later.

Back to the daily grind?

2010-01-14T16:12:00.000-08:00

The holidays came and went and to be honest nothing exciting happened. I spent two days helping my old housemates clean up our house so that we could get the security deposit back. Apparently we got it clean enough to get our money back. I should be getting about $400 sometime early February. I'm pretty surprised that we're getting it back because our landlord was a complete bitch. She tried to get us to pay for an extra 2 months of rent because we didn't "notify" her by mail early enough that we weren't renewing the lease. Well fuck her because the realtors didn't let her collect. I'm not complaining though. I'll be lookin forward to that 400 bucks.

Aside from spending Christmas with family and New Years with a friend, I was honestly just hoping to go back to work as soon as possible (I had off work between the two holidays). Well work did not disappoint. It started right on schedule and boy did it get busy. Lots of pressure from the boss to "half-ass" a few projects just to get them done so I could move onto the next bs project. Most of this week was spent sitting in day-long meetings and putting band aids on all the problems that stemmed from the boss's hasty choices. As payment to those that sat in 2 days worth of meetings the boss took us out to Victory Brewing Co. for dinner and a tour of the brewery. Man do they make some awesome beer. I also staked my claim as a contender for the company's biggest eater when I put down a large pizza by myself that night. Oh yeah...

This opportunity to work as a design engineer for a new product being developed at the German headquaters of the company is starting to look up. When the project manager gave me a test to assess my "engineering skills" I got a little nervous. I hadn't figured on taking some test. Luckily I had time to take it home and put some work into it. Today I got to sit down with Erwin (the project manager) and talk about the test. Amazingly enough I did quite well and he was rather impressed with the rest of my work for the company. It was a huge relief to hear him say that he wanted me on the team. I have my passport so now it basically comes down the the bureaucracy of obtaining residency and a permit to work in Germany. It's not as simple as getting a passport and visa. The company will take care of most of that though. All the paperwork could take a pretty long time so we're estimating on departing at the end of February/early March. I better get a move on with that rosetta stone.

Snow!!!!!!!!

2009-12-18T16:35:00.000-08:00

Weatherman says we're due for about a foot of snow. I say bring it on! I'm ready. Who am I kidding. It's going to be a lonely ass weekend when I'm stuck alone in my apartment. It will be a long weekend of movies, gaming and surfing the internet. That plan could go down the pipes super fast if the cable gets knocked out. Man would that suck. Then I'd be stuck with reading one of the dozens of books sitting on the shelf. I suppose that wouldn't be so bad. I do have a lot of really good books I've been meaning to read. Meh, one day.

I'm glad it's finally the weekend. This week has been all kinds of crazy. I've been training with one of the "engineers" at work in the past few weeks and consequently stopped working on all the side projects that my boss had me working on. Well that kinda backfired. This week my boss asked for updates on all those research and development projects that he assigned to me. Apparently he expects me to be able to train AND conjure up results on all these r&d projects. He's not much of a realist. On top of that, Terry (the guy I'm training with) is catching wind of my plans to work in Germany. He doesn't know exactly whats going on, but he has been saying all week that he knows something is going on and that he's going to get "fucked." As of January, he is supposed to begin his retirement plan by moving to 3-day weeks. He's pretty sure that won't happen. Somehow he can sense that the company is going to dick him over and ask him to stay on full time. I feel pretty terrible because I know that by going to Germany I'm basically fucking up his retirement. There's no way that I can turn down this opportunity though. I can't pass this up, no way. I'm going.....Sorry Terry.

Aside from being busy at work, I heard from my old roommates that the realtor is trying to make us pay for January and February because we didn't tell them that we weren't renewing the lease. That's pretty messed up. The original lease that we signed didn't have a renewal option checked off. We signed a new lease when we changed roommates 1 year into the lease. Well that one had the "Lease will automatically renew unless tenant provides 60 days written notice to landlord" option checked off. Fucking con artists. They changed the terms of the lease. I'm mostly mad that I didn't catch it earlier, but I'm still pretty mad that they want money that they really don't deserve. The owner of the house called us a while back and asked if we were renewing and we informed her that we were NOT renewing. She didn't say anything about it so we assumed we were OK. Then someone got a call from the realtor. Con artists I tell you. The owner actually went to the house today with a realtor and put the house back on the market. I wasn't there (because I moved out and I was at work anyway) but my roommate Karyn told me that the owner didn't say anything about the extra two months and that we might be off the hook. Well she and I both agreed that until someone starts asking for that money we're keeping our mouths shut.

In other news, rockandsnow.com awarded me $25 for all the climbing gear purchases that I've made this year. Sweet! They are a really great climbing store in New Paltz, NY. They also have a website that allows for online shopping and they ship super fast. Maybe it's because they're in NY and I'm in PA, but I swear they send me an email on the day I make my purchase saying that "your item(s) have shipped." Before I know it there's a package at my door and I'm super happy with my new gear. So I think they're great. I'll probably use the $25 to get carabiners or something. A few more never biners on your harness never hurts.

Speaking of climbing and online-purchases, I just bought a really cool Osprey travel backpack from moosejaw. Check it out. They are another company that I LOVE ordering gear from. I can't wait to spend all the reward points I've accumulated.

Until something more exciting happens, wood signing off.

Auf Wiedersehen

2009-12-13T14:40:00.000-08:00

I have officially moved into my new apartment. With the help of my parents, my brother and a friend, we were able to move everything in one day. It was a long day, but I'm glad we got it finished because it's pretty nasty out today. I went out this morning to pick up some food a few other things. It's pretty miserable outside. I should be more excited about being in my own apartment. I don't have to worry about the headache's that come with having roommates (four actually). I have all the privacy and freedom one could ask for. It kinda sucks that I won't be here for very long though.

My boss called me into his office on Friday. He more or less started off by asking "You're single, right?" I'm thinking to myself 'yeah, what of it?' After responding "yes" my boss goes on to tell me about a product design team that is being assembled for the development of a new product and how he would like me to be a part of it. Then he proceeds to tell me that I would need to move to Germany for 12-18 months. WHOAH!!! My first thought was 'I can't go to Germany, is this guy nuts? I just got a new apartment.' Then he tells me that the company would pay for an apartment in Germany, the early termination fee for my newly signed-for apartment here, and of course all the travel expenses. Not only that, but my salary would increase. After calling a few people I calmed down a little bit and decides that this is an amazing opportunity. A free ride to Germany for over a year! I'd be close to tons of mountains. Most notably would be the Dolomites.

I'm pretty hype about the whole trip. Now I just have to sit here and wait until it's time to leave. It probably won't be until the end of January or early February. Between now and then I have to figure out a few things. First, what I'm going to do with all my stuff. Most likely a big ass storage unit. Second, I'll have to learn to speak German mighty fast. I don't want the locals trying to pull one over on me.

Black Temptations

2009-11-29T17:37:00.000-08:00

I have discovered that days off from work are just as amazing as days off from school. I had off from work this Thursday and Friday and I absolutely loved it. The timing couldn't be more perfect. My mind was overloaded with the outrageous ideas that my boss comes up with. I began my Thanksgiving holiday by carbo-loading for the alumni 5k race that my high school cross country team hosts every year. Last year I came to the race 9 months out of any kind of running and got my ass handed to me by a 40-something year old coach. That had crossed the line. When you get spanked by someone twice your age, it's time to start training again. So this year I made sure that I at least had some basic mileage under my belt before showing up. The miles certainly paid off. I ran a respectable race and got to see some friends. Overall it was a good morning. (We ran at 9:30AM)

Sean (my brother), Matt and I after the race.

Afterward, I went to my aunt's house to have dinner with the family. As usual, not all the cousins were there. Some were at their wives'/girlfriends' houses instead. We still had a good time exchanging stories and making fun of my grandmother and aunt for having a few too many drinks. My grandmother insisted that all the grandchildren (myself, my brother and my cousins) wash all the dishes from the meal, even though my aunt (the host) repeatedly told us that we didn't have to do that. It was all going in a dishwasher anyway. We got a good laugh out of listening to her though.

Oh Black Friday. I don't remember ever going shopping on Black Friday. It's not because of the whole "mob" of people that you have to battle through or the traffic that you have to dodge just to make it to the mall. I just never felt the need to go shopping. I shop when I need something, not just when there's a HUGE sale going on. As it stands, I actually did need some things this year but moving into a new apartment has me saving wherever I can. That said, I went to Walmart on Friday. What? I needed groceries. After staring down this mp3 player for a good 20 minutes, going to get my food, and then coming back for another look at the music box, I left Walmart with nothing more than a car load of food. I escaped Walmart without buying any electronics! It was pretty tough, but I'm quite proud of my self-control. My headphones still hate me for neglecting them though.

Pancakes vs Waffles

2009-11-24T05:26:00.001-08:00

I was on my way to work this morning listening to Preston and Steve on WMMR talk about the difference between pancake batter and waffle batter. Steve, Preston, and Nick were all convinced that it was the same stuff. Casey was about to have a caniption trying to convince everyone that waffles taste and smell different. The bickering was put to rest when a chef called in to set them straight. Aparently the only difference is that waffles include more egg and some oil. Go figure. While they were on the topic of breakfast, one of the hosts mentioned that he makes hot chocolate for his kids in the morning. So one morning he grabs the cocoa packets, makes them their hot chocolate and notices that the box says "Pick-Me-Up Hot Chocolate." Hmmm, that sounds like some bangin' hot chocolate. So what's in it you might ask? CAFFEINE!!!!! "With as much caffeine as a cup of coffee." So needless to say, his kids were bouncing off the walls that day. His wife failed to notice the caffeine part when she bought this hot chocolate. Bad move mom, bad move. Anyway, this whole converstation was pretty funny and made my morning drive a whole lot better, even though I got stuck in traffic because of some accident that happened in front of me.

Oh yeah, and here is a picture of my climbing shoes sticking to the wall all by themselves. These things are magic, I swear.

Fantastic Friction

2009-11-22T15:51:00.000-08:00

This weekend I went bouldering at Haycock with a bunch of friends. I made some new friends as well. The day was perfect for climbing. The cool fall air makes the friction on the rock amazing. The weather was great too. No wind, plenty of sun and NO RAIN. Beautiful fall day. We went to the Hanger 18 side of Haycock, which doesn't see as much traffic. We pretty much had the area to ourselves. With a little bit of hiking, we managed to get on some really cool problems. Probably the most memorable was 3 Star. I could be wrong, but I think it was a V4 R. You follow this crack line up 25' or so and top out. I nearly bit it when I stood up too far and my foot slipped. It was a sweet problem though and we had it really well protected. I think our 8+ crashpads and spotters had it covered. Tsunami had a really cool top out as well, after you get passed the crimps of course. Of course there was a sweet sloper problem that was a lot of fun.

Sunday I went to the gym with a friend for some top-rope climbing. We were both feeling kinda beat we roped up anyway and had a lot of fun together. What a weekend! Thankfully I have a 3 day work week leading up to Thanksgiving. I can't wait for all the turkey and stuffing I can handle!

Night Runner

2009-11-17T17:28:00.000-08:00

It's official! I got the apartment. I pay the security deposit on Thursday. I'm still thinking about the layout in my mind. I've mentally purchased the pieces of furniture I'll need. Talking to the property owner of the other apartment wasn't all that bad. She tried to offer me a 1BR but I turned her down when she told me it was still nearly $200 more than the one I'm now signing for. So that's taken care of. Now I need to start getting electric and cable under my name.

Ever since I stopped running track/xc in the middle of my junior year in college I've been trying to keep some sort of a training schedule. I didn't run at all during my senior year but instead turned my focus toward climbing. Since graduating I've made an effort to bring running back into my daily routine. I'm not looking to race at the same caliber as I did in college but I still want to stay in good shape and run an occasional road race. Recently I've been trying to get back in shape for the alumni 5k race that my high school cross country team hosts every thanksgiving. SO,.... I was out for a run on Sunday and I felt absolutely horrible. My legs felt heavy and I had zero energy. My body just did not want to move. I managed to log about 4 miles before calling it a day. Last night however, I was feeling way better. I was back on my regular pace and logged 6 miles. I was starving the whole way though. Every house I passed by emitted a different aroma that made me more and more hungry. I swear I recognized the smell of burgers at one house and then steak at another. Somewhere in there I KNOW I smelled mashed potatoes with butter and garlic. Not everything my nose picked up smelled appetizing. A sudden whiff of garbage inspired me to speed up a couple times. I didn't have any potatoes in the house, but I still whipped together a pretty solid dinner to feed my appetite. I didn't smell anyone's cooking tonight but I did have a great run. Another six mile night with a sweet new look when I finished.

Train Track Tumbler

2009-11-16T05:30:00.000-08:00

I came across this clip yesterday and it really amazed me. Some woman from Boston falls onto the train tracks and lives. How stupid do you have to be to fall onto the train tracks?! She's all over that yellow line that you're NOT supposed to stand on. (Strike 1) The train is coming, you can hear it coming from a half-mile away. You don't need to stick your head out there to check. Talk about some horrible balance too. That fall looked mad awkward. Then she starts flopping around like a fish on land but never makes an attempt to get up. Did she think she could fit under the train without getting mashed up? That doesn't even work in the movies. Luckily the train operator saw all the people waiving their arms and was able to yank the e-brake in time. Check it out.

I'm pretty psyched about moving into my new (prospective) apartment. I'm already planning the layout in my mind. At some point today I'm going to have to deal with the property manager of the first place I applied to. I have to break it to her that I won't be signing for that place. She might be a little pissed at me.

Apartment Hunters

2009-11-15T13:48:00.000-08:00

The end of our lease on the house is getting closer and closer. We officially get the boot on December 31st. In lieu of that, the past few weeks have been dedicated to apartment hunting and boy did it get interesting. My roommate and I looked at a few places before applying to one. To make a long story short, I got approved and he didn't. The following week I contacted the property manager and asked her to allow the two of us to move in the apartment since I was approved. After an email and few phone calls, we got the green light. Later that day my roommate tells me that he cannot afford the apartment. I asked if he could afford a cheaper apartment and he said that the only way he could afford an apartment is if he gets one of the 3 or 4 jobs he "applied" to, one of which is in Maine. He goes on to tell me that if he doesn't get one of those jobs then he's going to move back home with his parents. So basically there's a pretty good chance that I'm going to get boned if we move in together. At that point I decided it best to start looking for 1-bedroom apartments. I found one right here in Media going for $675 with heat and hot water included. This weekend I went to check it out. It's got plenty of room for me, it's in a cool neighborhood and it's close to my friends. I'm sold. I should hear back on Monday or Tuesday about approval. With any luck I'll be moving in by December 12th!

Oh and those Evolv's I was talking about.....The right foot fits pretty well but the heel on the left foot is terrible. I've got no control on heel-hooks; my heel keeps sliding around. I'm considering buying a second, smaller pair for my left foot. I can't decide whether to downsize a full-size or half-size though. I'm not sure it's worth the gamble. Any thoughts?

Daylight Whatings?

2009-11-01T16:28:00.000-08:00

Ever since I becoming old enough that trick-or-treating felt awkward, I've lost interest in the holiday. Halloween has since become a time to go out and party in wild costumes and issues girls a slut pass for the weekend. Instead of searching for some party I elected to go to a climbing competition at my local gym, PRG They a had a pretty solid field of competitors last night. Matt Bosley was there along with PRG's own Rob D'Anastasio. Both of them got beat out by Vasya Vorotnikov. He sent all three problems and flashed two I believe. Pretty wild.

So what got into the Eagles this weekend? They wouldn't let up on the Giants at all. I like how Any Reid put Jackson in on a kick-return right before the half was going to end just to see if he could run up the score. Gotta love that.

Just about everyone I know is probably going nuts about the World Series right now. I honestly don't care. Baseball just doesn't do it for me, sorry guys.

Today I ordered a pair of Optimus's from Evolv on a close-out deal. I couldn't pass up $59 for a sweet pair of climbing shoes! My friend Dustin let me try his Optimus Primes (the velcro version) and they are amazing. $59 is basically half of normal cost so I had to nab them. I'll write a review after I climb in them for a bit.

I totally forgot about daylight savings until I went to turn the Eagles game on today and it wasn't on for another hour. I was already up and moving around 10 (9 for those of you who turned their clocks back) to go for a run. Normally I would be mad about not taking advantage of the extra hour of sleep, but I was already plenty rested. Oh well, now to get ready to take on another week at the office. Sigh. I'd rather be climbing.

Scruff McGruff

2009-10-28T17:06:00.000-07:00

So if I ask you for your opinion about something, doesn't that mean I want to hear your opinion? I ran into this issue yesterday when I asked a few friends, whose opinions I value, whether or not I should grow a beard. No one gave me a straight answer! "I don't know" doesn't answer my friggin' question. Come on people! I'm looking for a definitive answer here!

With no help from my phone-a-friend, I elected to shave it off. I figure that a scraggly looking beard says one of two things; Either you don't care what you look like/what other people think or you're trying to prove that you can grow facial hair. Not quite the image I'm looking for. On the other extreme, I could go buy a mach 27 and (without cutting myself) make my face smoother than.... well I've got nothing to put here, but really really smooth. That sounds like a lot of work and I'm not sure I want my face glimmer when the sun hits it, although I wouldn't have to wear a watch to reflect the sun in your eyes. So those two options are out. The last option is more or less to let the 5 o'clock shadow grow out a bit and trim it when it gets too long. Basically the "scruff" look. Just enough wild man without giving off the "bum" vibe. I'm down for that.

Monday Discoveries

2009-10-26T09:43:00.000-07:00

Last week I discovered, again, how expensive it is to eat out everyday for lunch. Ten dollars at Wawa each day adds up! So I finally decided to go food shopping this weekend and stock up on quick and easy meals that I can bring with me to work. I grabbed a bunch of soups and instant rice/noodle dishes. Along the way I decided to try this new "Chow Mein." It's by the same people who make Ramen noodles. Stick with Ramen noodles. This chow mein stuff is not special. The sauce is a little thicker, but that's about it. Save your money.

I made another food related discovery this morning when I left my pop-tarts in the toaster for too long. The sugar from the icing began to burn. The pop-tart was not too enjoyable to say the least.

So maybe those food choices were sub-par, but at least I bought plenty of fruits and yogurt. Yeah that's right, yogurt. It's good stuff, look into it.

On another note, why is "House" cancelled tonight? Instead they're playing "So you think you can dance." Come on FOX. Honestly, what were you thinking here. Your dance show has its own timeslot. Don't fuck with House's. Now I have to settle for Monday night football. Go Birds!

Kiss My Budget!

2009-10-24T14:50:00.000-07:00

"This is the best presentation I've seen here in a very long time." - the BIG guy

So the presentation went really well. I'm told that he NEVER makes compliments like that. He came to my desk later in the afternoon to congratulate me again. He even went as far as to have my supervisor write me an official letter saying how good it was. Are you serious? It was a presentation. It was OK by my standards but not great. I stumbled my words once or twice. Either way, I got my budget approved and I was relieved to have the presentation out of the way. It turned out to be an even better day when a bunch of the guys at work decided to order pizza for lunch. The pizza was over 25 minutes late so we ended up getting the pizza for free. EVEN BETTER!!!

How good is getting stuff in the mail, even though you bought it. My new tent came in the mail the other day and since I had nothing better to do last night I decided to set it up in my room. The best part is that it actually fits in my room. The tent is really cool though. I can't wait to use it when I go backpacking on the AT in a few weeks.

Rain sucks. It needs to stop so I can go climbing.

D-Day

2009-10-22T18:34:00.000-07:00

I got fed up trying to schedule that presentation at work, so the other day I told my boss that since everything revolves around his schedule that he should schedule the meeting. I didn't phrase it exactly like that, but it was fairly close. There was definitely a glimmer of "fuck you" in the way I said it to him. He agreed to schedule it though (1 point for me!). So the big day is tomorrow at 7:45AM. Yes, 7:45AM. The guy is in meetings ALL day tomorrow. I do not envy him. Today I realized that if everything goes to hell tomorrow morning, this presentation has the potential to ruin an entire Friday since it is so early in the morning. How crappy is that? I better make some plans for tomorrow night so I have something to look forward to.

Going a bit off topic, my new tent came in the mail today! I bought it from Moosejaw. They are a really great company. They sell mostly backpacking, climbing, and general outdoor clothing and gear. Their customer service is terrific, the rewards program rocks and I love getting their emails with sayings like

"If you order something and get the free $21 Gift Card and then return the something but don't return the Gift Card we'll deduct $21 from your credit. Sorry for being so mean about it."

You gotta love that. These people are so down to earth. Everyone should go check out their website and buy lots of stuff from them.

Ode to Media

2009-10-18T11:55:00.001-07:00

This weekend was a good reminder of why I love living in Media, PA. Friday night I went to Joclyn's to see my favorite band, Jealousy Curve, play. They have a new album coming out in a few weeks and everyone should pre-order it. The best part about Joclyn's is that it is within walking distance of my house. Today my roommate and I went to our favorite hippie coffee shop, Seven Stones. It is also within walking distance. On the way there we watched a squirrel jump out of the bushes and ricochet off of a parking meter. I felt bad for the squirrel but I couldn't help but laugh at the expense of its stupidity. Or maybe it was retarded.

So often I'm not home during the weekends that I forget how great it is to live in such a fun town. One of my roommates and I intend to get an apartment when our lease on the house is up. I think we'll stay in Media.

However, I need to find some outdoor climbing in the area. Hopefully some nice bouldering. Who wants to go boulder hunting with me? It would be nice to find a moderate area to climb close to home. Most of the good outdoor climbing takes an hour or more to get to. I don't mind making the drive generally, but it can be hard to find a partner that is willing to go. If I could find something closer to home, I wouldn't mind going by myself.

Doomed

2009-10-16T15:01:00.001-07:00

I have a presentation that I've spent most of this week getting ready for. Today I had just finished working out my script when my boss comes up behind me and asks if I'm going to send him my slides so he can "be prepared" for my presentation next week. He has asked me twice already, so this time I had to comply. I figured if I could avoid sending him my slides until the day before the presentation he wouldn't have enough time to dissect it and rip me a new orifice next week. So much for that idea.

So not only does he have my slides, but my script is written on the notes pages attached to each slide. FML. Now he's got everything. I am naked. Doomed. SOL. Up shit creek without a paddle. I feel like I've been getting ready for battle. I gathered up all the weapons and ammunition I could find and I came up with a killer strategy. Well all that went down the shitter when a spy leaked my plan to the enemy. I have been exposed. Great! I can't wait to see how big my new orifice is. Should I bring a white flag?

On a different note, this morning I got up to go to work as normal. I have my coffee in one hand, wallet and cell in my pockets, rain jacket on (its raining)..... I'm good. Let's go. One step outside and I realize that I have both locked the door and forgotten my keys. That's swell. Luckily I had my cell phone with me so I could at least text my roommate to open the door instead of banging on it and waking everyone up. I still felt pretty dumb but I had to laugh. What a great way to start the day.

The Time Has Come

2009-10-15T15:22:00.000-07:00

The time has come folks. It is finally here. WE CAN ALL WEAR SLIPPERS!!!!! Yeah, my house is finally cold enough to the point where I can justify wearing slippers. They are awesome. I have the moccasin type with plaid fleece on the inside. Stylin! My roommate attempted to turn the heat on yesterday with an epic fail close behind. It let off this terrible smell and set off the smoke/carbon monoxide detector. Well bag that idea. I'll just strut my stuff around the house in long johns for the winter. I've got enough to worry about with the R2D2 virus going around. CO poisoning can stay the heck away.

Spin Those Wheels!

2009-10-14T18:26:00.000-07:00

Does anyone ever feel like they are always working against their colleagues? I mean really working against them. I'm talking about the people who are supposed to back you up and be there as a resource and give you direction. Yeah those people are worthless. My supervisor at work is one of them. I got tossed into a bunch of projects that no one seems to want to be a part of, not even my supervisor. I get the sense that someone has tried to do what I'm doing now and has been shut down by the boss. So they're all gonna let me spin my wheels just to watch me get owned by the big guy during presentation day. Fuck you guys.

I came up with a pretty solid plan that the guys all like and I've worked out all the expenditures and managed to make it look rather appealing. So now that I'm putting my proposal presentation together I find out that my supervisor doesn't have my back. She told me it's too expensive. Really? She knew what I intended to ask for because I kept her updated every step of the way. If you were worried about the plan being too expensive then why didn't you give me a budget when we started the damn thing?! So now that my plan is 'expensive' she thinks it's a bad idea. To hell with you. Strap on a set and ask the boss for money.

Bilingual Much?

2009-10-13T13:36:00.001-07:00

So I've recently had the urge to become fluent an another language, or two. I'm debating between Spanish and French. I have a solid base of Spanish from taking it in high school for 4 years. It would be fairly beneficial in the states since it's spoken ALL over Cali as well as many others. French on the other hand, is commonly spoken in the northeast and in Canada; popular climbing areas. If at some point I travel overseas, likely to Europe (for more fun climbing), I'm thinking that knowing French would be a bit more useful. Plus French sounds way cooler, and sexier. So I have to decide which Rosetta Stone package to get.

Metabolism or Hard Work?

2009-10-05T18:32:00.000-07:00

I've been a toothpick for my whole life. I don't really have a way around it, I've tried. There's the lifting + protein plan. Yeah I tried that, not my thing. It didn't work anyway. Then there's the eat everything and get fat plan. Yeah.... that doesn't work. However, I am leaving one part out. I've been a runner for 10 years. I don't compete anymore like I did in college, but I still run 5 miles a day to stay in shape. I also fell in love with rock climbing a little over 2 years ago. I climb twice a week after work and usually again over the weekend. I'm also giving yoga a fair amount of time. So what I'm trying to say is yeah, I'm a skinny guy. At the same time though, I lead a crazy active lifestyle and I'm not going to stop. Even with graduating and starting my first REAL job I've managed to find time and balance for all the things I love. So to all you folks out there that love to tell me "oh you're still young, enjoy it while it lasts," I'll send you guys a postcard of my six pack when I'm 50 years old, running 5k's, climbing 1,000ft mountains and shredding powder on the slopes.

Traffic, how I hate thee

2009-09-28T15:33:00.000-07:00

Why do they have a traffic report during the 6 o'clock news? If you're watching, then you know what the traffic is like because you just spent the last 45 minutes in gridlock trying to get home from work. You don't need someone to give you the replay. You just got out of that shit! Yes, I have road rage. So do you, don't deny it.

Sucker for a lemon

2009-09-19T13:25:00.000-07:00

My car died on me the other week. It straight up and quit on me. All power cut out for about 10 seconds before coming back on. Now my car is in the shop and the mechanic is telling me that the warranty company won't cover the repair(thus far). He still hasn't found the route of the problem which means that the bill could get even higher. I'm hoping that it gets high enough to total the car. My insurance would waive any further payments on that car and allow me to finance a new car. I hope they total my car out before the repair bill gets too high but not high enough to total it. I seriously want to take this car back to the dealer and set it ablaze in the black of night. That would surely bring me some satisfaction.

All for nothing, nothing at all

2009-09-11T19:08:00.000-07:00

Maybe it's just a coincidence but I'm convinced that I have the worst timing in the world when it comes to girls. I have this tendency to chase after girls that are either unhappy in their current relationship or mentally unavailable. By the latter I mean that they are either single yet do not wish to be in a relationship or their attention is taken by some other guy. I know what you're all thinking. "You should have seen the signs, she clearly wasn't interested." Fuck you, I saw the signs. I'm just too damn stubborn to let go of what I want. Besides, I'm up for a challenge. Who am I kidding. My timing just sucks.

Student Loan Sharks

2009-09-10T16:39:00.000-07:00

Student loans are for suckers! Sadly I am one of said suckers. My parents weren't able to offer any substantial help in paying for my college tuition, so my solution resided in good ole student loans. I took out one student loan per year to pay for tuition, room and board. I just graduated this May and already my loans + interest total $80,000. Yeah, I'm pretty pissed about it. I'm paying them off all on my own, so basically life is going to suck for the next 20 years. In the very least it will be fairly tight unless I get a salary increase in a few years or take on a new job that pays better. We'll see which one comes first. I've considered fleeing the country. Unfortunately I'd probably have to get my passport to make it through customs, therefore guaranteeing that I'll get caught. Fucking government.

Frugal my ass

2009-09-09T19:21:00.000-07:00

I am the worst when it comes to saving money. I have this tendency to develop really long mental lists of things that I want. Most of them have to do with rock climbing or various other outdoor endeavors. However, when I finally have a bit of money that doesn't need to go to bills right away.... BAM!!!!! That shit is gone. Since getting paid last Friday I have purchased cams, biners, climbing shoes, a guitar and an amp. I'm hoping that since I went on this 'shopping spree' that I'll have it out of my system for a while and be able to start saving. I have this strange feeling that it won't happen that way because my gear list keeps building all the time. Damn having hobbies!

Obama's right, get over it.

2009-09-08T16:05:00.000-07:00

Is the American society really this stupid or do we just like bashing our President? Obama gave a speech to students all over the world today. His general message was that students are responsible for their education and that they ought to work hard in school. "At the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents and the best schools in the world, and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities." Pretty good message to send to students right? Yet parents complain that they don't want their children to hear such things and that students should be able to decide for themselves what they want to do. Oh yeah? So school is optional? I must have missed the memo. Education is virtually a requirement by most parents. So are you saying that 'doing well' in school is optional. Gee I missed that memo too. The last time I checked, you don't go to school to do shitty. You want your children to succeed in school. You want them to succeed in life. So why are parents saying this? If you ask me, America just likes to pick fights with their president and insist that they know better than him. Yeah, right people.

Common! He made a great point. We could supply the best teachers in the world but it doesn't mean squat if the students don't want to learn. Ever try to show an old guy a 'new' way to do something? Ever try to show your grandparents how to use email? Exactly, they don't want to learn. That is the case with too many students today.

I agree with O 100% Students need to take responsibility for their education and honestly apply themselves in the classrooms. That is the only way that education is going to work.

So begins reality

2009-09-07T17:16:00.000-07:00

Being out of school for a few months now, reality is settling in. All those loans I took out for school? Yeah they want their money. I also need to start looking for a new place to live starting in January. Anyone need a roommate? In all honesty I'm doing pretty well. I've got plans to get a place with a college friend of mine who also climbs and shares a lot of my ideals. We get along well. My job allows me plenty of time to climb at night and on weekends. I've been successfully getting to the gym twice a week and usually climbing outside one day of the weekend. The only thing I need now is a girfriend that climbs. That's a tall order but I'm certainly working on it.

Changes

2009-08-23T11:10:00.000-07:00

The new job is going well thus far. I certainly have a lot to learn though. It seems like I'll be doing a bit of self teaching in a few areas. I'm glad to have job security though given the economic situation.

I like that my job is so close to the rock gym; now I can go right after work. It gives me some motivation to get in the gym and step up my climbing. Now that school is out of the way I'll be able to climb more on weekends too. (outside as much as possible)

Music

2009-03-01T19:56:00.000-08:00

Music has been a love of mine for so long. It relaxes me, it motivates me, it just makes me happy. I would really like to learn how to play an instrument, particularly the guitar. Above all other instruments, it is the one that speaks to me the most. I think that is mostly because of the type of music I listen to and the appreciation I have for the talent of some guitarists. I'm going to give it a shot.

Today's Tomorrow

2009-02-21T17:33:00.000-08:00

Graduation is coming closer and closer. Soon enough I'll be completely on my own. Paying my own health insurance, car insurance, rent, you name it. I'm so ready. A lot of my friends say that they don't want college to be over. They claim they aren't ready for the real world. I am. I've always thrived on being independent. This is just the next step for me. I'm excited to hold a real (engineering job) and then do whatever I want on the weekends (climb) without having to worry about homework or studying for a test. The real world is coming and I say bring it!

Hollow

2009-02-17T20:43:00.000-08:00

Some days I feel like my mind is analyzing at Mach 3. In just 30 seconds I've already come up with 8 different ways that my day tomorrow could pan out. It's ridiculous how fast my mind works. It makes meditating extremely difficult some days. Today I had to stop in the middle of meditating because I couldn't stay focused. I kept on thinking about tomorrow. So I stopped and just let my mind do its business while laying on my bed. When I felt like the bulk of it was over, I began to meditate again and had a bit more luck this time. Some days I just need a re-do.

Mind's Eye

2009-02-09T21:37:00.000-08:00

I had a great day today. The first thing I did today when I left the house this morning was go to "Bryn Mawr Running Co." They are a running store that I grew up buying my running shoes from in Bryn Mawr. Well not too long ago they opened a store in Media. HOW CONVENIENT! I have been living in Media the past year with some friends while attending college. So today I decided that I wanted to check out their new store, as I was in need of a new pair of running shoes. I ended up getting a great pair of shoes that my orthotics fit into very nicely. This can be an issue as my orthotics are often wider that the sole of the shoe. Then I went for a nice 3 mile run in them. They felt great right out of the box. (you can do that without the break-in period when you wear orthotics) My day continued to be great and lead to an amazing meditation today. At first I focused on my breathing as usual. I got myself to a point where I am breathing so softly, yet deeply, that I couldn't even feel the air passing through my nose. I felt so calm. Later in the meditation I began to focus on resting my eyes. You know how you can let your eyes get unfocused? Well I did that while my eyes were shut. I felt as if it gave me focus and really enhanced my calm. I also found it as a great way to bring myself back when I've drifted into a thought. What an incredible day!

The Unconscious

2009-02-04T21:18:00.000-08:00

I'm having lots of trouble focusing this week. I've been letting myself get really worked up about stupid stuff, such as my roommates not including me in basically anything. Anyhow, I initially tried to focus on my breathing. I was still losing focus, so I tried something else. I tried to see with my eyes closed. I wasn't trying to see anything in my room but rather the light passing directly through my eyelids. I attempted to make out any shapes that were there. As I did, I noticed that my mind started generating random thoughts, phrases and memories that had no relevance to anything. Nothing that happened today. It seemed as if there were no trigger to the thoughts, they just came naturally. I'm not sure how to interpret it. I didn't feel stressed at all so I don't see it as a negative experience. I don't know what to think of it.

Worth the Effort

2009-02-03T20:27:00.000-08:00

I almost want to say that today's meditation was not even worth the effort I put into it. I was all over the place. Three different songs began playing in my head, all I could see was the climbing wall at school and I repeatedly played back things that people have said to me today. However, I will not believe that today's meditation was not worth the effort. It may not be a success by my standards, but it wasn't for nothing either. It is going to take me some time to truly harness my subconscious. I will just have to try again tomorrow and hope for better results.

Moving Forward

2009-02-02T21:23:00.000-08:00

I am really happy to be moving my meditation time up to 10 minutes. 5 just didn't seem long enough to really gain control. When I did, time was practically up. I am ready for the challenge. I am ready to dedicate 10 whole minutes to sitting peacefully.

Think Away

2009-01-30T21:15:00.000-08:00

My shoulder has really been bothering me the past week or two. I'm pretty sure I aggravated it climbing. It's given me problems before I was a climber, but it seems to have gotten a bit worse. Anyhow, I decided to focus today's session on my right shoulder. I imagined all the pain being sucked out of it as I inhaled and pushed out of my body as I exhaled. I tried to imagine my shoulder getting better with each breath. Clearly that won't actually work, I'm too much of a realist to believe in something like that. It was fun to imagine though.

Race

2009-01-29T21:48:00.000-08:00

During my meditation today I started thinking about when I ran track. I want to pick up running again. I won't necessarily compete for a team, but I would like to get back into the shape I was when I was racing. I might enter unattached to some races eventually. We'll see. I definitely want to run though. I've got the itch!

Here and There

2009-01-28T20:37:00.000-08:00

I tried to imagine myself meditating outside. I still focused on my breathing, but imagined doing so in a field somewhere in the mountains. It's a place where I feel most at home. I want meditation to be more than simply controlling my breathing. If I have something else that I can focus on, it'll will be worlds easier to avoid any stressful thoughts.

Unfulfilled

2009-01-27T21:04:00.000-08:00

I come out of today's meditation feeling like something is lacking. I still have some issues blocking out all my thoughts, but that's not a big issue. I feel as if there is something deeper that I could be feeling when meditating. I have always imagined meditation as a time when your mind travels to a different world and can even give you insight. That is what I want. How do I get that?

Pressure Drop

2009-01-26T21:23:00.000-08:00

I used the same technique that I did yesterday in focusing on my breath. Today I really tried to focus on the sensation of cool air entering my nose and hitting the back of my throat. Also very cool was the feeling of releasing the pressure build up from inhaling before even exhaling. Normally when you exhale (when focusing on breathing), the tendency is to push the air out. Instead, I sort of released the pressure and let the air flow freely on its own.

Air Flow

2009-01-25T21:10:00.000-08:00

Today I observed my breathing in a different way. When inhaling, I imagined air flowing into my nose and pausing at the back of my throat before exhaling and traveling down through my chest and ending in my stomach. I guess it traveled there because that is where the 'hara' is said to be; nearly behind the belly-button. My focus was very strong in the beginning and began to falter only slightly at the end of my meditation. It lasted 8 minutes though.

Forgive and be thankful

2009-01-22T21:59:00.000-08:00

As usual I began my meditation by focusing on my breath. Gradually I transitioned to acknowledging all the things that bothered me or worried me today and excused them. I let them pass so that I could move on. To end my session in a more positive light I revisited all the good things that happened to me today. To no surprise, the good holds more weight than the bad. Today I am happy to forgive the events that hindered my mood but relished in my thankfulness for those events that shone brighter than the sun.

Tired

2009-01-21T21:07:00.000-08:00

I should really quit meditating when I'm tired. I can't get around it though. Meditating right before bed is generally the only time that I am home and not doing something. I'll have to make time closer to when I get home. My focus is slowing improving, but its my awareness that is making good progress. Initially my mind would wonder in all directions and I would not even know it. Now it is easier to realize that I am drifting and that I need to re-focus. Yeah progress!

"Nothing" is too much

2009-01-20T21:53:00.000-08:00

So even when you are thinking of "nothing" the mind is still thinking of something. My focus was a bit better today. Only very simple thoughts came to mind, not so frequently and only came to visit just to say hi. Actually it was like a recap of my day. Not so bad. More focus to come!

Nothing Explored

2009-01-19T20:22:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I wonder if it is physically possible to think of nothing. What exactly is nothing? Is it darkness? But that would be something. If I thought of darkness I would think of caves and then wilderness and then Bear Grylls. No, it can't be darkness. Trying to think of nothing is pretty damn difficult. There it is! My mistake. In trying to think of nothing, I am thinking of nothing. I am trying to imagine nothing. My task is to generate no thoughts at all. This is going to be much more difficult.

Without Religion

2009-01-18T21:54:00.000-08:00

I have been so for several years now. I do not believe in any supernatural. For that reason I don't think I will be able to fully believe in one's 'hara.' That being said, I still believe that there is a purpose and a reward for meditation. It is a way of clearing the mind and relieving it of the many worries of each day. With these thoughts in mind, I will continue to meditate. I will free myself of worry even if it is only for a short time each day.

Climbing on the brain!

2009-01-17T22:05:00.000-08:00

I could not stop myself from thinking about climbing while meditating today. I just got back from the Winter Burn. It took all day, so all I could think about was climbing when I got home. I even knew I was thinking about climbing but could do nothing to change it. Just one of those days. Tomorrow will be better I'm sure.

A Little Slip

2009-01-16T20:23:00.000-08:00

I tried to think solely about my breathing and finding my hara today. While I still cannot feel my hara, I can focus on my breathing. I could feel myself blocking out any thoughts trying to enter my mind. Then I slipped up and realized I was thinking about Mountain Leadership School in New Hampshire. I quickly realized it and refocused. I'm gettin there.

Not Too Shabby

2009-01-15T20:54:00.000-08:00

It's been two weeks now and I'm very satisfied with the progress that I've made. In the coming weeks I hope to be able to feel my hara better. That will be my main focus in the sessions ahead.

Take In Life

2009-01-14T20:45:00.000-08:00

I really enjoyed today's session. It seems kind of funny because earlier this evening I did not feel like meditating and thought about skipping it. It was then that I told myself that I wasn't going to be lazy, that I was committed. So after watching some of Dosage IV (a climbing movie) I decided to meditate. Today I envisioned myself breathing in life and relieving myself of all my worries upon releasing my breath. Today just felt great.

More to Learn

2009-01-13T21:51:00.000-08:00

I simply couldn't gain control today. My thoughts overpowered me during my first attempt, so I took a break and came back later to try again. This time I was a bit more successful and was able to block out a good portion of thoughts. There is much more that I stand to learn though. I hope to gain greater control as I continue to learn more about meditation.

The Breath

2009-01-12T21:14:00.000-08:00

I had a small infiltration of thoughts early in today's session but was able to recognize them and let them pass. From there I continued to focus on a mantra that I developed. Mentally, I say "What is this ball of consciousness?" on the inhalation and "Hara" on my exhale. This really helps me gain focus and control. From there I can really pay attention to my breath and my breathing becomes naturally deep and calm.

Hara

2009-01-11T11:38:00.000-08:00

Today I tried to focus on my breathing and finding my hara. I felt it only very slightly, but it gave me greater focus. I was able to concentrate on my breathing without the overflow of abstract thoughts coming to mind. I think today was very successful and will help lead to greater control of the mind.

More or Less

2009-01-10T23:08:00.000-08:00

In the past few days that I've been meditating I have found that it lasted much longer than 5 minutes. Today's meditation however, only lasted about 6. That being said, less thoughts were passing through my mind. I was able to focus on keeping a clear mind and dismissing any thought that threatened my mental silence.

Does This Count?

2009-01-09T20:32:00.000-08:00

Tonight I am very tired and still attempted a meditation. While still very relaxing, I feel more tired than anything else. I really should try to do this in the middle of the day sometime. Work seems to get in the way usually. Today's meditation might not be perfect, but I will do better tomorrow.

Not Quite

2009-01-08T21:23:00.000-08:00

Maybe I'm expecting too much too soon. I still feel like I'm not in full control of my thoughts. Then again, that is what I am supposed to be learning, so I can't simply expect to naturally have that ability. I could definitely use a bit of guidance. I need something to focus on. Often when I try to meditate my mind wanders to find something that feels reasonable to focus on. In searching for that focal point, my mind is processing and analyzing. Meditation should be a time to give my brain a rest from operating at high speeds. I need to develop a plan before beginning to meditate so that I do not waste any time/effort into thinking about it while meditating.

Take Two

2009-01-07T22:17:00.000-08:00

For the past week, I've been meditating while laying down on my bed. While very comfortable, this probably is not the best suited position for meditation. Today I meditated in the normal fashion, sitting up cross-legged. At first, I had an incredible amount of thoughts flowing through my mind. Before I knew it, I had exhausted my 5 minutes. I was not satisfied though. I had never gained any kind of control over my thoughts. So I gave it another go. This time I was able to focus better and relieve my mind of the many thoughts so recently present. This was a good meditation. I look forward to meditating tomorrow.

Nature's Own

2009-01-06T21:40:00.000-08:00

Today's meditation was very cool. I took Kathryn's idea of separating past and present with the two flowing rivers. Being an avid outdoors man, I imagined myself hiking up a fairly prestigious mountain. The ground I covered represents the events of my past. Not once however, do I turn back to look down the mountain. There is no past. There is only the present. There is only now.

As I progress toward the peak, the terrain becomes more difficult, but I am ready to tackle the mountain. My pack is full of all the right tools. The peak is covered in snow and more is trickling down through the tree line.

I have not yet made it to the top, but I know on the other side lies what will become my present. My present, not my future. The future cannot be predicted, but I am ready to live the present. Live the moment.