More than meets the eye

wow.... pretty f*in' good movie.  How good you may ask?  let's just say i've never heard an audience cheer and clap so much during a movie... ever. 

"AUTOBOTS!  TRANSFORM AND ROLL OUT!!!"  I got chills every time I heard Prime say that... and yes I already know I am a dork.  Irregardless, this movie was an all out adrenaline rush, plots/characters not as developed as they could've been, but hey, it's Michael Bay, what do you expect?  Anyone that did not like the movie is just crazy, simply put. 

memorial day weekend

well, summer has unofficially begun.  I'm looking forward to this summer in the city.  Outside of the ridiculous humidity and heat that often plagues this urban jungle, I'm hoping to explore as much of this area as I can and have as much fun (w/in reason of course) that I can.  I guess I started accomplishing that goal by going out each  night of the holiday weekend.  Friday  night was fun, Saturday night was kind of painful because I think I just stayed out till the sun came up just because I could... even though I was falling asleep at the bar and at the korean restaurant by the end of the night.  I hate it when you hear the birds chirping before you get into bed... arrrgghh!  Sunday night was cool, Nhi's bday at AER.  A trendy bar/dance club.  Thankfully not as late of a night as Saturday. 

I also enjoyed this unofficial initiation of summer by officially losing my cell phone!  crap.  So for the 2 people that call me (i.e. mom and telemarketer guy), don't bother calling until i get a new cell phone, hopefully by the end of this week.  So if you're reading this and have nothing better to do (which is probably the case because you're reading this to begin with), send me you cell phone #!!!  thanks.

Enjoy the summer folks! 

Change

New York City,

17 March-2007 - ?????

gunks part II

Took another trip out to the gunks again this past weekend.  It was a packed day:

arrive at camp area at 2:30am

set up camp, go to sleep at 3:00am (@ below freezing temperatures i might add... NOT FUN)

wake up 7:30ish am

eat breakfast at deli near base camp.

climb 8:00am-5:00 pm (Mostly sunny, ~40F, great climbing weather)

Overall, a good trip.  Climbed 5 multi-pitched climbs all ranging from 5.5-5.6, not that bad, just long climbs, or at least i thought they were long.  This was my second time trad climbingand it was a great experience.  There's just so much to climb at the gunks, there will always be something to satisfy your climbing desires.  some pix:

One of the many faces to climb at the gunks

 view of the near trapps.

view from top of "maria", a 5.5 climb, great view of the fall foliage

more of the same foliage

and even more, gotta love the colors of fall

near the top of "layback" another 5.5 route

me looking like a goof at the top of "layback"

sunset, view from top of "layback"

all in all, a thumbs up on the trip.. till next time...

 PURE ENERGY!!! can you just feel the raw energy that is DJ optik???

Midnight Burn

Entered my very first bouldering competition this past weekend.  It was quite the experience.  It took place at Philadelphia Rock Gym (PRG).  It started at 2:00pm Saturday and there the open heat lasted for about 3 1/2 hours.  I woke up at 1:00 pm that day and decided to go check it out at 1:45, so much for preparation.  I had my doubts but it turned out to be a lot more fun than i had anticipated. 

It was literally a whole crowd of people packed in a tiny gym with score cards ready and hands all chlked up and ready to go.  What would happen is that you would submit your score card to a judge and wait for your name to be called.  You'd tell the judge what bouldering problem you'd liek to attempt and then go at it, balls to the walls baby.  If you flash the problem (complete it in first attempt) you'd get the full amount of points, otherwise you keep losing points for every attempt you take.  I had a great time.  Just a whole bunch of people climbing and having fun.  The finals were pretty sick and it's amazing what some people can do when it comes to climbing.  Unfortunately i have no pictures, but i didn't do tooo shabby.  I entered the novice level since i'm not that great a climber and i didn't know what to expect.  By the end of the day, i tihnk i must have inhaled at least a bag full of chalk in my lungs!  The joys of bouldering. 

If you haven't tried climbing, i highly recommend it.  the simplicity of it all, just you and the rock, there's just something to it.  You're always challenging yourself and there's always a problem to keep you motivated and keep those gears turning in your head.  It sure beats tossing weights around at the gym everyday, trust me!

http://www.philarockgym.com/images/MB06/Results/PRGMale10-28-06Results.htm