It’s Been a Long, Long Time
Yes readers, it has been a long time. Lots of exciting new posts are in the works, so until them, enjoy a song by my hero, Guy Forsyth.
September 17, 2009
August 27, 2009
Million Dollar Idea
My ears generate an excessive amount of wax. They always have. At least once a year I experience complete blockage in one ear and resort to probing the depths of my canals with a foreign object. This is largely unsuccessful and generally results in pain. I’ve tried the wax removal drops, which also don’t work. Yes, I’ve even considered buying the candles that FRR so eloquently debunked a few weeks ago, but after spending 15 seconds thinking about the logic behind them I decided to save my money. Last year, I resorted to a health center visit after a week of hearing loss to have my ears irrigated. My ears were probed with a sonicating metal rod shooting out water and peroxide. I should add that I was prescribed antibiotics to fend off the "probable" ear infection resulting from this treatment.
Saturday, my ear clogged up again. Do I stick something up there to fish around for that pesky piece of wax? Do I run to the health center for a costly irrigation? Do I go to Target for some pseudoremedy? Nope. I steal a 50cc syringe from lab, a plastic pipet, some olive oil (extra virgin) from the kitchen, and grab some cotton balls. Before bed, I place a dropper full of oil in my ear, stick a cotton ball in so it doesn’t leak all over my pillow, and I sleep on my side with the troublesome ear up. In the morning, I fill the syringe with warm water, aim my ear to the sink, and flush 50 mL of water through my ear canal, 3-4 times. On day three of this treatment, my hearing returned as I was greeted by an inch long flake of wax in the sink (that I quickly snatched up for fear that it would go down the drain and clog my sink). My hearing was so clear that I did the same process with the other ear, with similar disgusting results. The world seems so loud now…
Anyway, on to the Million Dollar Idea. I need to package a 50cc syringe, a medicine dropper full of oil, and several cotton balls together, write up some instructions, and sell it as an ear wax removal kit that really works. Seriously, it is dirt cheap, easy, and effective. Who has some start-up funds? If these hacks can sell candles (that people actually buy) that don’t do anything other than posing a fire hazard, then surely I can sell something that really works…I just need marketing ideas. The words "soothing, organic, all-natural, essential oils, safe, herbal, green, and hormone-free" need to be worked in somehow.
August 13, 2009
my coherently composed essay…a guest post
Who knew. There are people out there that read this blog. Better yet, Dr. Miller of Mad Scientists took up my challenge of defending ObamaCare and wrote a guest post. As promised, I am posting it below. (And just when I was going to write a light-hearted, non-political post to break up the recent trend)… In an effort to respect the flow of his post, I have refrained from inserting comments directly in the middle of the text and instead reference my come-backs thoughts at the end of the post. Take it away, Dr. Miller:
We can (and most likely will) argue about this forever and never agree, but here is the best case I can make for universal healthcare. There are two reasons to change the current healthcare system, moral and economical. The moral case is that healthcare is a BASIC right and we should feel ashamed to live in a country where ANYONE is denied adequate healthcare due to the lack of money. [1]
The calculation in your previous post assumes 10-15 million involuntary uninsured American citizens, which I would say is a lot of people who could potentially suffer due to the current system. While I find this reason compelling, many (i.e. Tim) don’t. [2] So let’s consider the economic case for universal healthcare. Here are some facts:
- The US spends more per capita on healthcare than any other country in the world (Source: Human Development Report, 2007, United Nations, http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0934556.html)
- The US has a lower quality of care than many industrialized countries who spend much less per capita. The US ranks 29th in infant mortality and 24th in Disability Adjusted Life Expectancy (Center for Disease Control, http://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/news/20081015/infant-mortality-us-ranks-29th; WHO, http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthy_life_table2.html) [3,4]
- Much of this cost disparity is a result of administrative costs of private insurance companies (I am working on a reference for this one, but it seems to make sense since virtually all industrialized nations have universal care, spend less, and have a higher quality of care). [5]
Some argue that we should not insure the 47 million people currently living in the US (many of whom are undocumented) who are currently uninsured. Let me remind them that they are already paying for their healthcare. The uninsured are given care in clinics and hospitals and the bill is payed by tax dollars. The center for American Progress estimates that 8% of healthcare premiums are to cover the uninsured (http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2009/03/cost_shift.html). If we could offer these uninsured people preventative care, studies have shown that the savings would be very significant (http://www.newamerica.net/publications/policy/estimating_the_hidden_tax; http://www.newamerica.net/blog/new-health-dialogue/2009/cost-emergency-room-utilization-rise-13225). [6] So the conservatives are offering a false choice between paying for the uninsured or not. The real choice is between maintaining the current, broken, expensive system or replacing it with a system that will result in universal care and reduced costs for all Americans. [7]
[end] The boxing match begins…
[1] I disagree. I suppose this is what separates the left from the right, but think about this comment from an NRO article:
"The fundamental problem with the idea of a right to health care is that it turns the idea of individual rights on its head. Individual rights don’t infringe on the rights of others. Smith’s right to free speech takes nothing away from Jones. The only obligation Jones owes to Smith is not to interfere with Smith’s exercise of her rights. A right to health care, however, says that Smith has a right to Jones’ labor. That turns the concept of individual rights from a shield into a sword. The underlying goal of a legally enforceable right to health care is to provide quality medical care to the greatest number possible. Perversely, making health care a "right" would make that goal harder to attain."
Furthermore, if healthcare were a right, wouldn’t I also have the right to deny it? The current house bill would tax me 2.5% of my income if my health insurance fails to meet a government determined standard.
[2] It’s not that this number doesn’t compel me to action, it’s that I don’t think it takes $1 trillion to insure 10 million or 50 million!
[3] Quoting this policy analysis:
"[the infant mortality statistic is not] a good indicator of the quality of a country’s health care system…Overall, the chances that an infant will die at birth vary widely according to such factors as race, geography, income, and education. These factors have nothing to do with the quality of (or access to) health care. A better measure of a country’s health care system is mortality rates for those diseases that modern medicine can treat effectively…The annual rate of cancer deaths is 70% higher in the UK than in the US. Slightly fewer than [20% of men] in the United States diagnosed with prostate cancer dies of the disease. In the UK, 57% die…At 30 percent and 25 percent, respectively, death rates from prostate cancer in New Zealand and Canada are still well above that of the US."
That same WHO study rates Singapore, Oman, Portugal, Colombia, Israel, and Costa Rica higher than the U.S. I bet no citizen of those countries has ever come to the United States in search of better health care. If your baby gets sick, would you take her to a Colombian hospital?
[4] To quote an analysis of the same WHO report: "To use the existing WHO rankings to justify more government involvement in health care is to engage in circular reasoning because the rankings are designed in a manner that favors greater government involvement."
[5] Administrative costs are necessary to reduce the overall cost of health insurance. This is addressed here:
"The traditional fee-for-service Medicare program does relatively little to manage benefits, which tends to reduce its administrative costs but may raise its overall spending relative to a more tightly managed approach."
[6] You admit that the uninsured are getting care when they need it. I agree that we could cover them more cheaply, but why does this have to cost $1 trillion? We’re already paying for them. Why do we have to spend an additional $1 trillion to keep covering them? Additionally, what’s to say that the uninsured will all receive coverage? The public option will still collect premiums. Why does anyone believe that they will be willing to pay the government insurance premiums?
[7] We have more than 2 choices. NOBODY is proposing that we keep the existing system. Instead of ‘replacing’ the system, reform it by encouraging competion in the free market (and not through the introduction of a government option). There are other options. I support Senator Tom Coburn’s proposal, briefly summarized here. IMHO, this would achieve all that you hope for in health care reform and more, all at a much lower cost. Why is this superior bill not up for debate?
Anyway, thanks for the post, Dr. Miller. I think we both agree that reform is needed, and I hope that you agree with me that our representatives should both (a) read the bill before making a vote and (b) listen to their constituents. Anyone else? I’ll post any other guest posts that come in, at my discretion.
August 6, 2009
Turning myself in…
From the White House blog:
"…rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation [and blogs?]. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov."
Seriously? What are you going to do with those flagged? Can I flag the White House itself when it makes fishy claims? I think I’m going to turn myself in to see what happens…in the meantime, I’m exercising my right to disagree with the President.
August 5, 2009
D’oh! More on Health Care.
A loyal reader of this blog stated today that he/she disagrees with everything I believe about health care reform, then declined the opportunity to back up that statement. I realized that in my past posts on the issue I have spewed my opinions and neglected to offer referenced support for those opinions. To you, I offer the opportunity to conduct your own research and will post any coherently composed, researched, and referenced essays that either agree with me or support the need for a government option. Here goes:
The major argument in favor of reform focuses on the uninsured, 47 million in this country, according to 2006 census data. LOOK at the census data. 10 million of the uninsured are non-citizens. That means there are only 37 million uninsured Americans. Another 18 million earn over $50,000 a year, and certainly can afford to buy their own insurance. 19 million are in the 18-34 age group, and likely choose not to purchase insurance…I know several people that make this choice, regardless of their ability to pay for insurance. The census data includes those who are between jobs, a majority of whom are uninsured for less than 4 months. This leaves 10-15 million Americans that are involuntarily uninsured, about 3% of the population. Are we really getting bent out of shape for such a small fraction of the population? I don’t think I’m a cold, heartless person, but really? Assuming we were trying to cover all 47 million of these people, why does it have to cost over a trillion dollars? Put $50 million in an interest bearing account, $1 million for each uninsured person. At a 3% annual return, this gives each person $30,000 a year to spend on a private insurance plan. There. Problem solved, at a savings of $950 billion.
Proponents of a public insurance option claim that it will increase competition and drive down the cost of health care. This is flat out false. A government option would reduce competition by driving the private sector out of business, not as a result of providing better coverage at a lower cost, but because the government is an unfair competitor in the market. The government can hide its true costs, creating artificially low premiums. Furthermore, the implicit guarantee of a bailout that a public option realizes would further lower costs. Wait, didn’t Obama say this?
"No matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise to the American people. If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what."
I find that hard to believe, given the Lewin Group estimate that 120 million Americans would be forced to move from private to public insurance. The Associated Press says "White House officials suggest the president’s rhetoric shouldn’t be taken literally." If adopted, a government option would very quickly become the only option by driving all other companies out of business. Think about it: the government is backed by the U.S. Treasury, is free of any taxes, and can increase the costs of competitors by introducing new legislation.
What about efficiency and profits? After all, private insurers are driven by profits and lack the efficiency of the government, right? (When have the words ‘government’ and ‘efficiency’ ever been synonymous?) The Congressional Budget Office reported that less than 3% of premiums go toward profit for the insurer. Albiet small, this profit motive drives efficiency. Without this incentive for efficiency, a public option will stray in the direction of inefficiency. A couple examples: (1) It took Medicare 30 years longer than the private sector to include prescription drug coverage into benefit packages. 30 years! (2) Bear with me. Medical errors add a huge amount of expense to the price of health care. Private insurance started forcing providers to pay for costs resulting from medical errors as early as 1929. Medicare didn’t begin this practice until 2008, and STILL reimburses providers for the cost of medical errors in some cases. The U.S. government is thus rewarding providers for committing medical errors. That’s efficient? Only 23% of Americans actually believe that costs will go down with a government option.
A public option will discourage innovation. Take this example:
"Park Nicollet Health Services, a hospital and clinic system based in St. Louis Park, Minn…started…spending as much as $750,000 annually on more nurses and on sophisticated software to track heart failure patients after they left the hospital. It reduced readmissions for such patients to only 1 in 25, down from nearly 1 in 6. But the reduction has been a losing proposition. Although the effort saved Medicare roughly $5 million a year, Park Nicollet is not paid to provide the follow-up care. Meanwhile, fewer returning hospital patients mean lower revenue for Park Nicollet. "We’ve kept it up out of a sense of moral obligation to these patients, but we’re getting killed," said David K. Wessner, chief executive of Park Nicollet. "We will totally run out of gas.""
Profit incentive from the private sector drives innovation. Competition drives innovation. A government health insurance option will kill the private sector, competition, and innovation, all at a huge price to taxpayers. If any of you still disagree with me, write a coherent post with links to references explaining why free-market proposals will be more harmful to health care in the U.S. than the current legislation up for debate in congress. I will post it on this blog for all to see. Just so you know, I’m not the only one against this:
August 3, 2009
Cash for Clunkers
I’m full of opinions lately, hence the addition of a new category to my blog: Politics. Whoever thought up Cash for Clunkers deserves a high-five slap-in-the-face, and here is why:
(1) The government is encouraging people to borrow money. Awesome…it’s not like this recession was caused by too much borrowing and spending, right?
(2) Car sales are up, helping out a flailing auto industry. Didn’t we just bail out the auto industry? This sounds like another bailout to me, but you claim its for the environment, so I guess that’s ok.
(3) All clunkers "will be crushed or shredded within such period and in such manner as the Secretary prescribes." Yeah, lets get all of those gas guzzlers off the road and destroy the used car and parts industry. Wait…people can’t afford new cars right now, why would we destroy perfectly good used cars? Oh yeah, because they hurt the environment…gotcha.
(4) What’s a billion dollars anyway…after all, it will last until November. What? The billion dollars was used up in 4 days? Oh well, throw another $2 billion at the program. We can spend our way out of a recession. I’m willing to help out those who can afford to take advantage of this program. It’s only $21.74 out of my pocket.
All sarcasm aside, stop spending my money on this. Can I also point out how awesome our government is at budgeting money? I mean, how can one honestly predict that $1 billion will last 4 months when instead it is all promised out in 4 days? You expect me to believe your predictions on the cost of health care after this?
July 29, 2009
July 22, 2009
July 21, 2009
On Healthcare Reform:
Alright, I can’t hold my tongue any longer on this issue. Health care consumes over 15% of the country’s GDP, and you want to ram through a bill in the next 2 1/2 weeks that will completely reform it? What happened to bipartisan efforts? There are other ways to get this done, and they certainly don’t need to be acted on by August. Here’s MY idea (and this is by no means original):
(a) Get rid of employer sponsored coverage. Workers that receive coverage through their employers are getting government subsidized health care that puts the rest of us at a disadvantage when shopping for health insurance with our taxed dollars. Drop the benefits and add the money saved onto worker’s (taxed) salaries. Better yet, the government could offer an income tax refund on money spent on health insurance. Sound familiar? This gives everyone the same purchasing power and puts consumers in charge of their insurance. Once consumers are paying their own premiums they may think twice about visiting the doctor for a cold. Employers don’t cover homeowner or auto insurance, why should they fund health insurance?
(b) Promote competition. This can largely be accomplished by removing restrictions that prohibit us from purchasing insurance across state lines. Premiums could drop as much as 15% as a result.
Two ideas that don’t cost any money and would go a long way to reform health care. ObamaCare, on the other hand, would cost $1-2 trillion in the midst of a recession, and promises to save money? Obama proposes to fund the new plan in part with $500+ billion in savings from reducing waste in the Medicare system. If you can find $500 billion in waste in one government run program, why the hell would you start a new, broader one?
“That is why those who are betting against this happening this year are badly mistaken," Obama said. "We are going to get this done. We will reform health care. It will happen this year. I’m absolutely convinced of that.”
President Obama, I’m betting against you.
July 17, 2009
On Economic Stimulus:
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (AARA) was supposed to turn the economy around and prevent job loss. As unemployment climbs to nearly 10%, it is evident that the $787 billion plan is not living up to original claims. The administration is now stating that the AARA was only designed to "stabilize" the economy as opposed to stimulating a full on recovery as the name might suggest. I’m not going to go on about this, but would instead like to reflect on the last economic stimulus that was passed.
In May 2008, I received a $600 check from Uncle Sam. This stimulus plan received much ridicule, even from me. After all, what is $600 going to do to stimulate the economy? Despite it’s downfalls, the plan did put money in to people’s pockets. Back to me. I spent my stimulus check entirely on my first professional dSLR camera. A few months later, I helped start a small business that would not have been possible without that purchase, made possible by the stimulus bill. Today, just over a year after I received my check, the business has 8 clients (and counting) and is spending revenue on website hosting, a photo management site, print and book ordering, business cards, membership dues to a local business group, local and federal taxes, et cetera. I have purchased a second camera body, lens, and lighting equipment for the sole purpose of improving the quality of the service that the business offers. Not to mention the fact that we are offering affordable photography services to couples who can spend the money they save on booking us as their wedding photographers elsewhere. I accept that I am a unique and rare example, but how’s that for stimulating the f’ing economy?
EDIT: I just did the math. Obama’s $787 billion plan comes to $5,703 per U.S. taxpayer. I could do a lot of stimulating with $5,703 in my pocket.
July 15, 2009
June 29, 2009
Carbon Art Website
Back in February, I built a website for Carbon Art Photography. It was a big step for us to actually have a website, but deep down I still wasn’t entirely happy with the design. After over 20 hours of work in the last 2 weeks, I present to you www.carbonartphoto.com (2.0). Not a whole lot has changed, but the new layout is sleeker, the homepage more effective, and the galleries up-to-date. I learned what a CSS sprite is and used a sprite for the navigation menu. I also ripped some code from a template and used it to design an iphone friendly (read: not flash) slideshow for the homepage. Screenshots below. Be sure to visit the site for the full effect.
June 26, 2009
Chasm Lake
I’ve slumped into a general state of laziness over the last month. Chemistry. Photography. Life. Blog posting. I’ve decided to start doing some speed ascents of hikes and climbs within an hour of Fort Collins in an effort to get off my ass. The idea (at least thus far) is to wake at an obscene hour of the morning, ascend the route so as to reach a photographic destination by sunrise, and make it to work by 9:00. Fast, smooth, and light.
Today I left home at 2:00 and was on the Long’s Peak trail by 3:15. My pack contained 3 liters of water, insulating and waterproof layers, my camera and wide-angle lens, a polarizing filter, tripod, mountaineering ax, 2 zone bars, a twix, and a basic first aid kit. I reached Chasm Lake at 5:00 with just enough time to scout out a location by headlamp before sunrise. I stuck around until 6:00, shooting around 100 photos of Long’s Peak and Chasm Lake. It was absolutely beautiful, and I stopped taking pictures more than once to just sit and take in the whole scene. I was back at my car at 7:15 and at my desk at work before 9:15. At work, I took a step back from my project and re-evaluated its direction. Hopefully this summer can end with a productive bang. Meanwhile, what route should I tackle on my next speed ascent? Pictures from this morning below. I also did a giant photo dump of the last month’s adventures for the latest few posts.
June 20, 2009
June 7, 2009
June 6, 2009
June 1, 2009
May 31, 2009
May 24, 2009
First Flatiron
I climbed the Direct Route up the First Flatiron today, complete with a near-death experience (go HERE for a better account). On a ledge 2 pitches from the summit, I felt the most bizarre buzz of electricity-literally a flash of warmth, an audible buzz, followed by the standing of every hair in my body. This happened probably four times before I reached the summit, where I was quickly joined by Brandon. While setting up the rappel, we were hit by lightning. I’m feeling very lucky, because according to Wikipedia, 9-10% of those struck by lightning die, and the odds of being hit in the first place are 1:700,000 (although I suppose one could cheat those odds by hanging out on the summit of the First Flatiron in a storm). Needless to say, we both have Powerball tickets for this weeks drawing.
Perhaps the strangest part of the experience is the lack of introspection that I felt. There was no moment in which my life flashed before my eyes, merely a heightened sense of the dire need to get off of the summit before lightning struck again. Despite being cold, wet, and terrified, I have never moved so quickly or efficiently in my life. Never again will I turn down an opportunity to bail off of a route when conditions become potentially life-threatening. On the bright side, I can make another check on my to-do list.
May 22, 2009
Happy Anniversary!
Today marks my Two-Year Anniversary in Colorado. (You can read about Year One here). It has been an eventful year, but instead of writing about it I’m going to let the pictures tell the story. Coincidentally, I purchased my first dSLR almost a year ago (and my second today!), so there were quite a few pictures to go through.
As soon my D1x arrived, I peeled out of the driveway with Jeff and caught the sunset at Pawnee Buttes.
Finally, a gas grill. It has changed my life.
First camping trip of the year in RMNP.
I went home for the River Festival, built my stage, and came back the next day to this. I miss thunderstorms.
Moonrise as seen from Horsetooth Rock. Too bad there were too many clouds to see the moon.
The first picture pretty much sums up our trip to the Great Sand Dunes.
Ryan and I thought that it would be dry enough to backpack the Rawah Trail in July. Wrong.
Jenni, Aaron and I climbed Castle and Conundrum Peaks. And glissaded down.
Backpacking Take II. Success. Along with summits of Chiquita and Ypsilon.
Mile High Music Festival brought these two together in my living room. Now they’re married.
Kelso Ridge to Torrey’s. Epic.
First trad climb in Gregory Amphitheatre, followed by Standard East Face of the Third Flatiron.
Watched a triathlon and a bet-gone-wrong. Yikes. Still have those tan lines Aaron?
420’s and bouldering at Independence Pass.
Joe’s Valley.
Fall trip to Boston to see Joe, then bouldering with Aaron in Lincoln Woods.
About this time I became obsessed with off-camera lighting. My first big project was a CFL.
We met Aaron and Dan in California for a weekend of bouldering in Bishop.
After Christmas, I climbed my first pitch of ice.
I took a few days off to check out the X-Games in Aspen…
…and then had the best powder day EVER at Steamboat.
A new light bulb made an appearance with my bamboo.
Jeff and I launched carbonartphoto.com.
In Ouray, I was lowered into a 135′ canyon with 2 ice axes.
Deadpoint Magazine published one of my photos from Lincoln Woods.
I passed my 5th cume.
In April I finally broke down and pieced together a rack…and then took pictures of it.
Jeff and I shot our first wedding of the season.
Spring climbing.
Then Felix came for a visit…
…and the next week I passed my orals.
So ends another spectacular year in Colorado.
May 14, 2009
May 8, 2009
Ridiculous Face Edition
Yeah, we climbed at The Bog last weekend and frustration was abundant. I don’t think you are truly trying until it looks like you’re taking a crap.
and my favorites…
May 5, 2009
Danny MacAskill
You don’t have to ride a bike to realize that this guy is incredible. Watch and be amazed.
May 2, 2009
Aid Bouldering
It is raining outside, I just tied a pair of aiders, and I needed a break. Enough said.
April 29, 2009
Facebook Ads
Acros, you don’t belong on facebook. How dare you assume that I waste time at work on my computer surfing facebook. However, I was just informed that we once again have money, so I think I might order some LDA and N-Boc-tryptophan-OMe from you. And DMF. Someone keeps breaking the bulb on our solvent system.
April 23, 2009
Jam at Registration Roller 2.0
Rant warning. Stop reading now if you don’t want to hear me bitch.
The namesake for my blog title is the error message that I get to read daily on our POS printer. You can read about my woes here. In keeping with the theme of writing about all things that will delay my graduation date, I will add to the list.
(1) Put the damn syringe pump back when you are done. Back does not mean the back of your hood. More importantly, why the hell do you need a syringe pump to dispense reagent from a 10 mL syringe at 88 mL/hr? Stand there and push the plunger yourself, because I’m pretty sure that a 6.8 minute addition is approximately equal to the amount of time it took you to find, program, and start the pump in the first place.
(2) How hard is it to order toner? Does it not make sense to have a new cartridge for the printer on hand should one run out, especially when the toner low light has been flashing for a month?
(3) Learn how to operate the solvent system. Last I checked, opening the valve at the bottom when the bulb is under vacuum is probably just going to suck air into the bulb, negating the entire purpose of a solvent system in the first place.
(4) Do 5 gallons of acetone really weight that much?
(5) "Let’s put the metal to the pedal and get roaring here." And by "GET TO WORK!" you mean, take Friday off to go climbing? Done.
Whew. I’m done. On to another topic…
Now that I have more than one notebook, they need to be labeled. I need to think of something clever to write on the spine, given that "Big Book of Lies" and "Headaches" are already taken. Suggestions? On that note, I’m excited to have hundreds of pages of virgin white space to litter with frustration, bad chemistry, profanity, and acronyms like "WTF! N/R? S.M.! Argh."
April 22, 2009
Wedding: Karissa and Kraig
Jeff and I shot a wedding in Johnstown last weekend. My favorite shots below.
April 17, 2009
I Forgot How Awesome Photoshop Is…
I pimped out a couple of the gear pictures that I took on Sunday. Did I mention that Photoshop is awesome?
April 15, 2009
HDR 2.0 Tests
In my last post I talked about an alternative to HDR that I discovered. I dug up a couple old photos to try it out, and used some flashy gif animations to prove my point.
The first photo is a river in RMNP at sunset. In the original below (with some exposure, shadow, and contrast correction), the sky looks awesome, but the foreground is too dark. You can tell there are mountains there, but not much else.
I followed the steps outlined in yesterday’s post and came up with this:
I was able to keep the sky dark, lighten up the mountains, bring out the valley, and darken some of the highlights in the water. It took me less than 5 minutes, and the results are better than Photoshop’s HDR script could do.
For the next example, I found a picture of a climber on top of the Church of the Lost and Found boulder in Sherwin Plateau. It was really sunny, so the shadow’s on his face are harsh, and his jacket lacks any detail in the shadows. Boosting the exposure kills the blue sky and the mountains in the background. The original, with my usual minor edits:
After applying my new trick…
and zoomed in for better detail…
Not perfect, but I think it is an improvement. It almost looks like I was using a fill flash from climber’s left. Anyway, I’m adding this to my arsenal.
April 14, 2009
HDR gets Old School
I’m adding another blog to my roll. Drew Gardner (UK Photographer) gave me an idea that is so utterly simple that it has me wondering "Why didn’t I think of that?" Simple. Brilliant. Alternative to HDR.
High dynamic range imaging (HDR) has been around for a while. Film and digital sensors are incapable of capturing detail in every tonal range of a scene. Imagine you are taking a photo of a sunrise over a lake high in the mountains. As the sun rises, it casts light in the sky and on the peaks of the mountain. The lake reflects some of that light. The foreground (the surrounding forest) is still dark. If you meter for the lit mountain peaks, no detail will be captured in the foreground and the trees will just be dark shadows. Alternatively, correctly metering on the dark trees will blow out the sky and the mountains, and the warm tones cast by the rising sun will be lost, defeating the entire purpose of waking up early for sunrise. Good example:
There are a few solutions. The first would be to use a gradient filter on the lens that darkens half of the frame. Spin the dark half to cover the sky and mountains, and the light half over the trees. You can get a couple stops of exposure out of the trees while keeping the sky dramatic. I don’t own such a filter, so the only option for me is to set my camera on a tripod and take several photos, one exposed for the mountains, the other for the trees and the third somewhere in between. I can open all three in Photoshop, merge them into an HDR image, and have the magical mathematical formulas even out the image so that everything is correctly exposed. The video below shows a before and after shot:
My main beef with HDR is that the images come out looking fake. It doesn’t replicate the image that the human eye processes at the original scene, but artificially boosts levels to give the next best representation. More importantly (for me), this can’t be used for action shots. Since multiple frames have to be captured, the scene can’t change in any way. The clouds can’t even move. Anyway, on to Drew’s idea.
He picks one frame that he likes from a sequence of action shots and creates 2 duplicates. To one, he boosts the exposure. To the other, he drops the exposure. The overexposed image is added as a layer below the original. Using the eraser tool with a suitable opacity setting, he erases dark areas on the original to reveal some of the more detailed exposure beneath. He repeats this with the underexposed image, erasing the hot spots on the picture. The results are believable. While my mind is telling me that some of his shots aren’t photographically possible, my eye doesn’t think "that looks fake." It really reminds me of my days in the darkroom, burning and dodging areas of the negative as I exposed it to the paper. Simple. Effective. Check out his post on the subject, with samples.
As I find time, I’m going to dig up some of my photos to try this on. Keep your eye out for the results.
April 12, 2009
Alien Bee Battery Pack
I’ve had a few google hits for my Alien Bee Power Pack post from people searching for electrical schemes. Since I created a scheme before ordering the parts, I figured I’d post it for anyone trying to build their own. Keep in mind, I don’t remember the official electrical symbols, and I created this figure in ChemDraw.
I used a 12v 10Ah NiMH battery with this smart charger, a 180W pure sine wave inverter, and Anderson connectors and fuse holders.
It works great and fits in my small camera case. I’ve powered anything from my Alien Bee B800 to a lamp with a 100W bulb. Battery life has been great. My only complaint is the long (overnight) charge time for the battery. Leave a comment if you have any questions about the setup. More details can be found on Tim Kemple’s blog. If you aren’t concerned about weight, an alternative is the stock Vagabond II system from Paul C. Buff, Inc. I obviously prefer my pack, as it weighs far less than the Vagabond’s 18.6 lbs and is considerably smaller. I also don’t need a special accessory to recharge the battery pack in my car.
Jeff took a shot of the Alien Bee and battery pack in action. It is perched to my right next to the carrying case for the flash head. Things need to dry up so I can try this out at a bouldering session…
Jenga!
It’s a wet and dreary Easter Sunday and all of the climbing gyms are closed. With nowhere to climb, I resorted to taking picture of gear instead. This was my first chance to use the Alien Bee with my "macro studio". I love it. My favorites below.
The above picture is of my set-up for the final picture, and a good example of why you should make your bed every morning.
April 8, 2009
New Links
You may have noticed that the small gathering of links to the right has grown. Mainly for my own convenience, I updated the list of blogs that I regularly visit. I went to the trouble to group them into categories (Chemistry, Climbing, Photography, and Blogroll), but Blogsome won’t sort them accordingly on the main page. Oh well.
When making category assignments, I found a fine line between climbing and photography blogs. The following list of photographers have gained my respect and admiration and their images inspire me to get out of the house and shoot.
Jack Brauer
Tim Kemple
Andy Mann
Tim Tadder
Erik Seo
Andrew Burr
Strobist
I like seeing what local climbers are up to. There are a lot of climbing blogs out there, but the following are ones I actually enjoy reading, and most include decent photos of projects:
Straight Outta Bedlam
Hayden’s Rock Scaling
Mountain Project
Chemistry blogs? Yeah, I’m a nerd.
Totally Synthetic
The Chem Blog
And people I have the great fortune (or misfortune) of knowing. Some are better than others about actually updating their blogs.
Front Range Rants
Mad Scientists
Carbon Art Photography
The Life of Donna J
Carol’s DC Adventures
Enjoy.
April 7, 2009
Trad
[Insert picture of me with giant grin on face here]
Ski season is over, ice climbing is out, so I’ve spent a couple weekends in the last month trad climbing. I let my first pitch of trad ever in Eldorado Canyon, on West Crack of The Whale’s Tail (#1 below). It was awesome.
I want to lead something else, and I’ll soon have new gear to scuff up. Maybe this weekend…my email conversation with FRR went something like this:
Me: "I want to go climbing."
FRR: "done. where?"
In other news, my computer wizardry failed me for once this weekend. My portable hard drive crashed…I froze it (ran it directly from the freezer, actually), and it is still clicking angrily at me. Score one point for technology.
March 24, 2009
New Stool
I got a new stool today. Really it is just my old chair. The question now is do I (a) keep the stool, (b) find a new bolt, or (3) charge a new chair to my A-card?
March 19, 2009
Sting Like a Bee
Mike and Kristin are engaged. I find it fitting that they first met at my house and then returned 9 months later to view engagement pictures. We started out at Fossil Creek park, which was photographically speaking mostly a flop. An alley off of Laurel was a little better, but once again, my favorite pictures were taken in Old Town. Finding new locations around town sucks…suggestions? I suppose things will be better in the spring.
The Alien Bee and its kick ass power pack came along for the ride. I am loving the fact that I can have more lumens of light than I should ever need at my command approximately every second. I started to pack up the Bee and stand to walk 100 yards when I realized I could strap the battery pack to my waist and just carry the whole rig down the sidewalk. 
Jeff’s photo of my set-up in action below.
March 12, 2009
DPM Photo
I’m not quite sure why it took me so long to post about this, but I am proud to announce that I am now a published climbing photographer (ignoring the fact that my photo is not of anyone actually climbing, but of Aaron returning to the car after a day at Lincoln Woods in Providence, RI).
March 11, 2009
Name Reactions: Installment 2
Last spring, I proposed a new series of name reactions that every graduate student should know. I learned a new one last weekend that I call "The MacBook Dehydration Reaction". The experimental follows:
MacBook (2). To a MacBook running Firefox ChemDraw operating at r.t., add hot water (340 mL, 18.9 mol) in one batch, directly over the keyboard. Stare with mouth agape until screen goes black, then disconnect AC power and remove battery to afford worthless shiny white paperweight 1. Drain water and blow compressed air over the keyboard and battery compartment. Place 1 in a large ziploc bag containing drierite (100 g) and seal. Allow to dry at r.t. over 60 hours. Plug in AC power and press power button. Call Apple Tech Support and follow their directions. After determining that your battery is dead, a new one will arrive in 24 hours. Install new battery to afford MacBook 2 as a white solid (2040 g, 100%). MP: 189-690 *C.
March 10, 2009
Portable Power Pack…for an Iron?
It is complete. I’m calling it ‘The Bomb’, because (a) it looks like a bomb and would get a second and third look from airport security, and (b) it is truly ‘da bomb’. Wow, I just raised some flags at homeland security with that sentence.
Above is a 12V, 10Ah NiMH rechargeable battery, connected to a 180W pure sine-wave DC/AC power inverter that spits out 120 volts of beautiful, clean, AC power via either a 3-prong receptacle or USB port. Two inline fuses (20A) offer backup protection for the inverter (even though I think only one is necessary). Originally, I built the pack with connectors from a local electronics shop, but they didn’t seem very secure and placed exposed wire of opposite polarity in close proximity. The connectors heated up quickly, as did the wire to the inline fuse. New Anderson connectors and 12 gauge inline fuses (all rated to 30A) arrived in the mail yesterday. I swapped out the connectors, fired it up, and started plugging in random appliances after confirming that my Alien Bee would work.
I’m really stoked about the versatility of the set-up. If I blow a fuse and don’t have a replacement, I can disconnect the fuses and plug the battery directly to the inverter. The battery can be disconnected and replaced with a cigarette plug, the battery charger powered by my car battery, and the battery charged on the road. Should all of my camera batteries die, I could plug the ac adapter for the camera into the inverter and power my camera…very badass electronics, at least in my opinion. I haven’t weighed it yet, but according to the manufacturer’s specs the whole unit should come in just over 4.5 pounds. It all squeezes into my hip camera bag…oh yeah, I can walk around the house now with a hot iron.
I must admit that this idea is not original. I stole it from Tim Kemple.
March 4, 2009
Light Bulb: Take II
Home Depot had 25 Watt clear vanity bulbs on clearance, so I had to grab one to photograph. All the wiring was done as before, although this time I have the bulb plugged into a dimmer switch so that I can balance the output of the bulb relative to my flash. I’m still debating where to go with this idea…maybe the CFL bulb I used before would make more sense with the bamboo? Anyway, color temperature was an issue with the incandescent bulb. Notice the ring of light from the flash on the right of the vase is blue-white, whereas the bulb output is much warmer. Blah. If only I could have my office hours in a studio…
Engagement: Ryan and Heather
I took some engagement photos of Ryan and Heather on Sunday. I experimented some more with The Robot and think I am finally getting quicker at dialing down the settings that give me the desired lighting effect. My Alien Bee battery pack will be finished tonight, so I’m sure that I will have to add that to the rig on my next shoot…more on that later this week. All of the indoor photos are lit exclusively with my new Alien Bee. I’m pretty happy with the results, but as always, your opinions and suggestions are welcomed. My favorites below:
The kitties weren’t too sure about the bright lights…
February 25, 2009
Obama Goes Digital
I really just want to close this tab on my browser. It’s been sitting there for 2 weeks, waiting for me to post on here. While I’m pissed at Obama for wrecking Tuesday night primetime television last night, I think that it is pretty cool that he is the first president to have his portrait taken on digital media.
The EXIF data for the file tells us that this portrait was taken with a Canon 5D Mark II (21MP) with a 105mm lens at f/10 and 1/125 sec at ISO 100. I’m a nerd. Anyway, thanks for sending that to me Jeff. Office hours are nearly over…
Ice Climbing Extravaganza
Last weekend was a blur. (For another account, see Front Range Rants). We left town at 7:00 pm on Thursday, stopped by REI in Denver for some screws, picked up Aaron at DIA, and passed out in Grand Junction at 2:00 am on Friday morning (driving over Vail Pass with 1 headlight is fun). Five hours later, we were on the road again (after Aaron insisted we stop at Starbucks for breakfast) and were climbing in the Ouray Ice Park by 11:00. Pictures below. First one is Brandon’s, the rest are mine.
DAY 1
Brandon got his tool stuck. I had to climb up to retrieve it. Dr. Smith’s videos below.
DAY 2
All of the pictures from Saturday are in the Pic o’ the Vic area. Kenny was the first to get lowered into the 135′ canyon. The only way out is to climb up. We each took a lap on Tangled Up in Blue. The guy in the yellow helmet was leading a crazy route next to us. We heard he was at least 65. I hope I can still climb at 65.
DAY 3
Kenny is pictured climbing Chinese Water Torture (left) and Dizzy (right).
…and the trip is over.
Dropped Aaron off at DIA and made it home before midnight, only to wake up and go to work 7 hours later. I’d do it again. I will do it again.
Aren’t office hours great? I get to sit here, eat my sandwich, and update you on my weekend.
February 19, 2009
Ouray
I’m going to be climbing the ice pictured below Friday through Sunday. We’ll have an extra rope along that I can hang from to take some hopefully awesome pictures. Should be a great test for my new f-Stop bag.
February 16, 2009
Carbon Art Photography
Last fall, Jeff and I decided that we should shoot weddings in Colorado. We put together a price list, printed a portfolio, and posted online ads, but we lacked a website. Now finished with cumes, we spent the last week building a site that I am quite proud of. It is simple, classy, and hopefully effective. Click the picture below to check it out!
February 6, 2009
January in Review
January was a busy month. In review:
(a) Jenni, Travis, and I skied a bluebird day at Keystone. The Outback was in season and the tree skiing spectacular.
(2) I led a short pitch of ice in the park because Brandon’s hands were "too cold". I failed to mention that I had never placed an ice screw before heading up. Oops. Any votes as to what I look like with a red hood and artichoke jacket? (photo credits go to Kenny)
(IV) X-Games. 7 days and 84 hours of the most boring work I’ve ever done. I still managed to have fun though. I spent 3 days telling people to use the door marked entrance instead of the ‘exit only’ door, and the other 4 searching bags and patting people down at the VIP gate. I missed the Flobot concert. 
(4) Vail. No pictures. Amazing powder. Giant bowls.
(e) Steamboat. 12" fresh champagne powder made for a 4 star day on the slopes. Rediscovered my love of car bombs. Speaking of cars, I brushed mine off in the morning only to get it stuck in a ditch 2 hours later.
(7b) Chemistry? Oh yeah, I did some of that too. Very little of it worked. I ran in to my old boss at the Steamboat conference. February looks to be more productive. Right after I finish tomorrow’s cume…
Dead Point Gallery Down
Remember when Dead Point Magazine posted a gallery of my Bishop pictures on their homepage? I do. If you forgot, take a look at the page view report from my website below. It should be obvious when the link to my site went up, and when they took it down.
January 21, 2009
X-Games
I’ve been in Aspen for 2 days now. Unfortunately I forgot my CF card reader. I don’t know how to write a blog post without pictures. Noteworthy things I saw today include: (a) a giant sign advertising the tent to fill out "WAVIERS"<sic>, (2) Dee Snider (Twisted Sister) on skis, (4) Ed Robertson of BNL (I think), and (d) a lady hula-hooping while snowboarding.
January 10, 2009
Dead Point Magazine Gallery
Wednesday, I had an email conversation with the photo editor at Dead Point Magazine about using some of my photos on their website. You can imagine how surprised I was to see a slideshow of 12 of my photos from Bishop on their homepage last night. My website page views have gone from 0 to 29 in the last 12 hours, with visitor locations ranging from Texas to Oregon, Paris to LA. Now I just need to get a contact page or button up so as to increase the chance of selling a print from zero to slight.
January 7, 2009
Ice Climbing!
Brandon had ice tools, a book about ice climbing, and two impressionable coworkers too cheap to hire a real guide, and rumor had it that ice was beginning to form in the park. A guy has to learn somehow, damnit! I had an offer on the table to hit the ski slopes for what would have been the first turns of the season, but which sounds more adventurous to you? I have to admit, I was having second thoughts the night before. My skis leaned against the wall begging to go down some bumps, and thoughts of the long, cold approach to the ice slab and doubts about my ability to actually make it more than a foot off the ground almost made me pick up the phone for a change of plans. The pictures below should tell you who won out, the ski lifts or the ice climbing n00bs.
Last weekend, we hiked to Hidden Falls and killed 5 hours on some smaller ice while waiting on a group of 15 to either surrender their ropes on the main falls or pack up and leave. They were more than an annoyance…notice the two in the bottom left of the second picture. Yep, the guy in red is actually tying the other guys knot for him.
We tried out some mixed climbing. It was a challenge, but I got some satisfaction in knowing that we flailed around less than the jerks in monopoint waterfall crampons using fancy leashless tools.
One benefit to having my smaller camera along is the video mode. Enjoy.
RAW vs JPEG
I went ice climbing last week and decided to take my old point and shoot along instead of the d1x. My reasons were many: lighter, smaller, better battery performace at low temps, video capability, and the knowledge that I just wouldn’t be getting any amazing pictures on the trip. I’m finally starting to go through the pictures and have once again reminded myself why I shoot in RAW. I’ll keep the discussion brief by using the following example.
Enlarge the picture below and take a look at the histogram. I overexposed the picture a little, evidenced by the peak that is clipped on the right edge of the histogram. You can see that the ice on the right side of the frame is blown out. Sure, ice is supposed to be white. But there IS detail there, detail that I lost.
Had this been a RAW image, I would be able to recover at least some of the detail…probably half a stop’s worth. I started bumping down the exposure and quickly reminded myself that this is not a RAW image, but a JPEG. Notice the peak is still clipped as it moves to the left. It’s not rounding itself out and no tail is forming. There is absolutely no detail contained in the highlights of the ice…I’m just making it a darker shade of gray as I lower the exposure.
Be on the lookout for more updates. I have Bishop pictures to post, ice climbing adventures to tell of, and new gear reviews. In the meantime, I’m looking for a compact camera bag to take climbing with me. It must be durable, compact and not a backpack. I have an idea for strapping one to my crashpad, and I’ve also been looking at f-stop’s messenger style bags…other ideas?
December 11, 2008
I’m Breaking up with the Snooze Button
The snooze button and I have a very intimate relationship. The alarm goes off, I smack it and convince myself that in 9 minutes I will really get up, sleep 9 minutes, and repeat (10-15 times). Reality always sets in when I realize that the time to shower, eat, make lunch, and drive to work is greater than the difference between the current time and 9:00. I beat myself up for sleeping in so long and vow to never do it again. Today I went so far as to google "how to get out of bed when the alarm goes off." I’m going to give the first hit a shot. Wish me luck.
To summarize the strategy:
(1) Realize that you make shitty decisions when waking up (aka: snooze).
(2) Stop making decisions when you wake up. How? Turn getting up into a habit. (see #3).
(3) Practice getting up to an alarm. (At night, set your alarm for 5 minutes, get in bed, and then get up when the alarm goes off. Repeat over and over).
(4) Set your alarm for the same time, every day, Monday through Sunday. When the bell rings, salivate.
UPDATE: 6:15 a.m. Day 1. I’m awake. KICK ASS!
6:00 a.m. Day 2. w00t.
December 10, 2008
December 1, 2008
Felix
My week of cat-sitting is over. No more 5:00 a.m. wake-up calls, stinky butt-wiping, or litter box cleaning. Hell, I’m not going to pretend it wasn’t fun. Felix was my #1 fan for a week, following me around the house, head butting me, and cuddling on the couch over a bowl of popcorn and movie. I promised Jenni that I would take some pictures of him. Felix might have a future in modeling…my favorites below.
Bishop Numbers
3 days, 2000 miles, 25 bouldering problems, 52 stars, 5 heart flutters, and 697 pictures.
Tick List:
Sherwin Plateau
(1) Church of the Lost & Found, V1, 3 stars
(2) Cossaboom Bang Bang, V0, 2 stars
(3) Pocket Wall, V1, 2 stars, 1 heart flutter
The Happy’s
(4) Pig Pen, V2, 3 stars
(5) Pig Pen Slab (Unnamed), V1, 2 stars
(6) Corner, V0, 3 stars, 1 heart flutter
(7) Veruca Salt, I Want You, V0-, 3 stars
(8) A Flake as Marvelous as You, Veruca, V0-, 2 stars
(9) Happy Hooker, V0+, 1 star
(10) Grant’s Christmas Present, V1, 1 star
(11) Heavenly Path, V1, 3 stars
(12) Celestial Trail, V0-, 2 stars, 1 heart flutter
(13) Donkey Boy, V0+, 2 stars, 1 heart flutter
(14) Up Your Skirt, Left, V2, 2 stars
(15) Dumb, V0-
(16) I Killed A Man…, V1, 1 star, 1 heart flutter
The Sad’s
(17) The Arete, V0-, 3 stars
(18) The Groove, V0-, 3 stars
(19) Prozac Nation, V2, 2 stars
(20) Garden Pest, V0+, 2 stars
The Buttermilks
(21) Hero Roof, V0, 3 stars
(22) Hager Boulder (unnamed), V0
(23) Tut Boulder (unnamed), V0, 2 stars
(24) Robinson’s Rubber Tester, V0, 2 stars
(25) Green Wall Essential, V2, 3 stars
Trip photos to follow. If you’re on the edge of your seat and can’t wait for the next post, check out my climbing gallery.
November 18, 2008
Engagement Shots of a Married Couple
Even though they’re already married, I shot some ‘engagement’ pictures of Jeff and Sarah on Saturday afternoon in an effort to scout out good locations downtown. My four favorites are included below. It looks as though I’ll have some more time to experiment after Thanksgiving, hopefully after fixing my flash.
November 13, 2008
Great Idea!
I got a package from Hong Kong today. Well, yesterday, seeing as how it is 1:15. Needless to say, getting home late tonight didn’t stop me from trying out my new wireless flash trigger. I’ve been concocting an idea over the past week, the basis of which I’ve stolen from Strobist. His execution is far better, in my opinion. Remember that I am working with only 1 speedlight, compared to 3 that he needed to pull off the idea. Here are the two best shots, straight from my camera without any photoshop trickery.
Don’t think I’m done with this lightbulb yet. I have several tricks up my long sleeve. You suggestions/comments/ideas are welcomed.
November 11, 2008
Macro Studio
Last night I built a macro photo studio, inspired by the Strobist Blog that I’ve been reading a lot lately in anticipation of my new toy that is due to arrive from Hong Kong soon. I stayed up way too late taking pictures that I’m not entirely excited about, but I have some new ideas after processing the batch of photos. I have one more piece that I want to buy for the DIY studio.
On another note, I realized how awesome RAW files are. My SLR batteries were dead (and my old Nikon takes better macro photos anyway), so I shot in JPEG with my Coolpix 4500. I had to do a lot of post-exposure white balancing and exposure compensation, and the JPEG files couldn’t handle as much processing, losing a great amount of detail that would have otherwise been retained had I been editing a RAW file. Like I said, I’m still learning. Note to self, use the camera’s built in white balance. On to the photos. Let me know what you think.
Any guesses as to what the crampons are resting on below?
More macro shots to come, right after I clean up the disaster that is my basement. I’ll take a shot of the setup for a later post.
November 5, 2008
Congratulations, President-Elect Obama
Hopefully you figured out that Barack Obama won the election. His acceptance speech was eloquent and reverberated with the promise of change for the next four years. We aren’t screwed because Obama was elected, and you shouldn’t be scared of what is to come, but I have a hunch that we won’t be seeing much change in the next year, or even the next four. Unfortunately for P(E)OTUS Obama, his agenda is largely predetermined for him. Obama now has the real world to face. Congress ultimately has to write and pass new laws, consumers decide whether or not to buy that fuel efficient car, and public approval limits the risks a president is willing to take. Obama surely realizes that 48% of American voters did not vote for him and that it is their support that he must gain as he rallies for change. I also am not certain that the Democrat majority in Congress will work fully in the new president’s favor. I’m sure there are Senators with their own ideas about health care. Only time will tell which of Obama’s silver-lined promises are realized, and which of those are put aside to deal with more pressing issues.
Now, on to what I would like to see as this decade comes to a close. The economy needs to improve. Profits are down for most companies, and the last thing they need to deal with is a tax increase. Keep the tax cut you promised me ($500, according to the Obama website) and invest it in the NIH and NSF. According to www.sciencedebate2008.com, Obama proposes to double the budgets of the NIH and NSF. This promise of funding for basic research should be a priority. New discoveries will spur new business and help to solve problems facing the world, from disease in 3rd world countries to alternative energy sources. In addition to the economy and research, I’d like to see the world’s impression of us improve. This is one area in particular that I think Obama can excel at. That’s all for now. I’m done talking about politics for a while. I hope Senator McCain and President-Elect Obama are taking a much deserved nap right now. I think I deserve a nap too, but chemistry calls.
October 30, 2008
Procrastination
I’m going to make this quick since I should be studying.
(1) I’m listening to Ingrid and have just decided that I should marry her. I think I should call her up and tell her that she was my first love. She’s only 28. November 14th she is playing a show in Denver…who’s coming with me?
(b) I seriously want to hop on my skis. I know the skiing sucks right now, but I still want to go.
(c) The Office was awesome tonight. I wonder if Darrell would drive me and Ingrid to Ithica, where I could be the big red bear for Cornell. I also kind of want to go as the Joker for Halloween.
(5) I got my post-Office laugh of the night when I calculated my tax credit using the Obama calculator. We all know that I make over $250k on my grad student salary, and apparently I "will probably not get a tax cut under the Obama-Biden plan." Why can’t they just say ‘Sorry. You get a tax increase.’ But then again, I guess I don’t have to worry about that since I don’t make $250k.
On the bright side, I remembered that command+control+shift+3 will take a screenshot on my mac. See Jeff, I’m learning. Now if I could just get PowerPoint (not responding) to quit. Yes, I tried force quit and it isn’t working. I’m cropping my screenshot and adding my fancy shadow and border with PP, and it froze when I clicked ’save as picture.’ Word did the same thing. And now Excel. Great. All three Office programs are frozen and will not quit. No picture for you. That’s all for now.
October 27, 2008
Pharmaceuticals
I thought I was done injecting my political bias into this blog, but hey, it’s my blog and I’ll write what I want, dammit. If you object, you can (a) stop reading here, (2) write your own blog expressing your own opinions, or (d) leave a comment.
People bitch about the high cost of pharmaceuticals, but fail to realize the vast amount of research that it takes to bring a molecule to market. It takes teams of researchers years of synthesizing and testing hundreds of compounds before the risk is taken to subject a molecule to costly clinical trials. Most promising compounds don’t even make it through clinical trials. When a drug is approved, you bet it is going to cost a lot. All of the expense incurred in research and development has to be recouped, and other less-profitable research programs have to be funded. As the quote below points out, it costs far less to produce a drug than it does to develop one, thus the lower cost of generics.
The following quote is from a lengthy report put out by the CATO institute, evaluating the health care plans of McCain and Obama. Read it here. I’ve interjected some old macro photos of mine for your viewing pleasure.
"As with the insurance industry, Obama frequently criticizes the pharmaceutical industry for “dramatically overcharging Americans for what they offer.” Specifically, Obama would have the federal government negotiate directly with drug companies to set prescription prices under Medicare Part D. And, he would allow the reimportation of drugs from Canada.
Both proposals are defensible in the abstract. Since in the case of Medicare Part D the government is the purchaser, there is no reason that the government shouldn’t be able to negotiate about what it pays just as it does with any other goods and services that it purchases. And consumers should be able to purchase goods at the lowest price they can find, even across borders. In practice, however, both proposals are likely to be implemented in ways that will have serious adverse consequences.
American research and development provides the innovation that produces most of the modern pharmaceutical breakthroughs that have helped cure diseases, improve the quality of life for millions worldwide, and saved countless lives. In fact, U.S. companies have developed half of all new major medicines patented worldwide over the past 20 years.
On average, it takes 12 to 15 years and costs as much as $800 million before a company can bring a new drug to market. Those costs must be recouped if innovation is to continue. As a practical matter, however, Americans end up paying for most of the costs of drug R&D while the rest of the world free rides. That is because most of the world imposes various levels of price controls and refuses to pay market prices. Because the actual production of drugs, as opposed to research and development, is relatively cheap, pharmaceutical companies have been able to segment their markets, selling drugs cheaper in other countries while U.S. consumers pay full cost. For example, brand-name drugs can cost as much as two-thirds more in the United States as they do across the border in Canada.
Ideally, if consumers were free to reimport those less expensive drugs from Canada, the pharmaceutical industry would respond by refusing to sell their product in Canada under that country’s price control regime. Canada would be forced to raise prices to market levels, and share some of the research and development costs. Prices would eventually seek an equilibrium: lower in the United States, higher in Canada.
Taken this way, reimportation would not only be unobjectionable, it would be a step toward freer markets generally. However, Obama appears to lean toward a set of reimportation regulations that would prohibit companies from limiting supplies or raising prices abroad. In the Senate, he voted for the Pharmaceutical Market Access and Safety Act of 2004, sponsored by Sens. Byron Dorgan and Olympia Snowe, which would have allowed reimportation under precisely such a restrictive regime. Pharmaceutical companies would have been prohibited from trying to undercut other countries’ price controls.
In effect, allowing reimportation under these restrictions would simply create a “parallel market” with drugs being reimported from low-price to high-price markets. Eventually all drugs would go to the low-price markets, where companies can’t recover research and development costs, only to be reimported to high-price markets, effectively importing foreign price controls to our markets. As Senator Dorgan said, “It is my intention to force the pharmaceutical industry to re-price their drugs here in the United States.” The results would be devastating for the future of pharmaceutical development. In exchange for this risk, American consumers would see relatively little gain. Although some patients with very high drug costs would undoubtedly see substantial savings, the Congressional Budget Office found that allowing drug importation would reduce overall health care expenditures for the average American consumer by just one percent.
Similarly, allowing the government to directly negotiate prices under Medicare Part D would likely yield minimal gain in exchange for a great deal of potential pain. Private plans under Part D have already negotiated substantial price reductions. The CBO estimates that, unless Medicare were willing to impose rigid formularies that would deny beneficiaries access to many drugs, allowing the government to directly negotiate prices is unlikely to yield substantial additional savings.
But even if having the government negotiate with drug companies were somehow successful in reducing prices, any cost savings would come at the expense of pharmaceutical innovation. Benjamin Zycher, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, estimates that allowing Medicare to negotiate prices could reduce pharmaceutical research and development by as much as $10 billion per year. That would substantially reduce the number of new drugs coming to market."
…by eliminating jobs that I will be competing for in a few years. That’s just great.
October 23, 2008
Howard Stern Interviews
I’ve mentioned before about my belief that uneducated voters will ultimately decide the election. Here is further proof. While this commentary suggests that people are voting for Obama because he is black, I argue that other uneducated voters may select Obama because he is (a) more charismatic, (b) younger, (3) not republican, (IV) more well spoken, and (e) less likely to die in the next 4 years. Of course, there are educated voters out there who may actually look at his policies and vote based on issues and democratic party ideals. None of this really matters, however, because the uneducated outnumber those of us who give a shit.
October 15, 2008
Boston
Not like you were eagerly checking everyday thinking that I would update this thing, but there will be a break in posts until next week. Who knows, maybe I’ll get stuck in an airport with free internet and write a post. I’ll admit though, chances of that are slim. Until then, check out the many fine blogs linked to your right. —–>
October 7, 2008
A Break from Bouldering
I apologize for the loll in postings. Chemistry has been working, frustration has been low, and my time and motivation to write lacking. To summarize the last 2 1/2 weeks:
(1) My first trip to Utah. Ever. Joe’s Valley and Triassic offered spectacular bouldering challenges that pushed my abilities to the limit and took all but the last layer of skin from my fingertips. Angler is an amazing, classic problem (not to mention photogenic).
Brandon captured video of Aaron and Kenny’s ascents:
I decided to put down my camera and brought up the rear of the send train (photo by Aaron).
This was the first time that I brought my fill flash for climbing photography. It did an amazing job at evening out harsh lighting conditions. Other notable firsts of the weekend included: (a) first enjoyable warm beer (Old Chub, which I happen to be currently consuming, warm), (2) first visit to a state-run liquor store, and (d) first broken bone that I have been in earshot of. On to Day 3 in Utah: Triassic. The first 3 pictures are of Kenny, Brandon, and Aaron climbing ‘Golden’, described as one of the best V1 problems on the planet.
Brandon tried to jump the gap between two boulders. Aaron pieced together the multiple video angles into this compilation:
You probably noticed that several (4) of the pictures above stuck out as being more (over?)processed than the rest. I picked out my favorites from the trip and spent some time in Aperture adding an artistic touch to each of them by increasing contrast, altering the color balance, and adding a vignette. Is the overall style an improvement over the rest, or do you find it distracting?
(2) The Saturday following the Utah trip, I climbed in the Horsetooth Hang.
I managed to pull a muscle in my stomach (abs?) on the first problem of the day, and determination helped me through the rest of the day more than 3 ibuprofen could. Jenny got a great picture of a successful dyno attempt:
The Horsetooth Reservoir is full of classic problems that I look forward to working in the years to come. It was a fantastic day of climbing. That evening, I won a rope thanks to my new membership to the Access Fund and joined the crew in sending Aaron off to the east with a Rock Band and IPA party.
I have since taken time off from climbing to heal, written my first research report, taken a miserable cume, heard the elk bugling in RMNP, started pursuing new direction with my project, and learned to slackline. And now I could use some sleep. Good night.
September 24, 2008
Take the Test!
I really don’t care if you are Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal. I’m not going to force my political opinions on you. However, I hope that you give both candidates a fair shot and make an informed decision based on your own standards and not on bullshit tests like barackobamatest.com. After taking the test, the site reports your score and the phrase "I hope this will help you make an informed decision on Election Day." Bullshit.
Questions come from all kinds of issues, the idea being that if you support Obama’s stance a majority of the time you should cast a vote for him. Sample questions from the test:
"Some say Barack Obama’s plans to implement sweeping environmental regulations will raise the cost of gas, groceries, heating and air conditioning. Do you favor or oppose Obama’s environmental plans?"
"Tell me which of the following top individual tax rates, which combine income and social security, do you think is most fair?
28% under President Reagan
38% under President Clinton
55% under would-be President Obama
60% under President Hoover
70% under Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter"
"Some say Barack Obama’s plan to raise taxes and increase trade barriers are similar to those created by President Herbert Hoover in the 1930s, which contributed to worsening America’s economy. Do you think Obama’s plans will worsen the economy as well, or do you think they will help the economy?"
"Do you agree or disagree with Barack Obama’s $65 billion plan to institute taxpayer-funded universal health coverage, which would provide health insurance for those currently uninsured, including illegal immigrants."
I’m sure there is a similar test for John McCain. I haven’t looked. Are you surprised that the majority of test takers of this Obama test are informed that they don’t agree with Obama and should not vote for him? I laughed when I first saw the test questions, but then I realized that shit like this will be the determining factor for some voters, like this one:
" ‘I don’t know what to do. I really don’t want to vote for McCain. You can tell he only cares about rich people. Sarah Palin wears glasses that cost $300. McCain’s wife wears Gucci clothes. Which means they don’t know anything about people like me.’ Into that stew of assumptions, she adds: ‘I hear that Obama’s a Muslim. If he is a Muslim, that would be a problem, because the terrorists already attacked us.’ (taken from Yahoo News)
I guess I can’t get too worked up about the election when ignorance will ultimately cast the deciding vote.
Tornado?
I received the following two emails yesterday:
2:31 P.M. - "The [University] Police Department has been notified that a tornado is approaching from the west. Please take cover in a shelter designed to minimize damages. Please be careful."
3:10 P.M. - "The email message that went out regarding a tornado was a TEST ONLY. There is NOT a tornado coming through town. We apologize for the miscommunication."
Who sends out a test message without using the word ‘test’ or ‘drill’ in it? My theory is that campus police wanted to determine the volume of phone calls their system could handle. Maybe the university should invest in tornado sirens.
September 23, 2008
New Gallery
I know, I know. It has been over a week since I last posted an entry. I have 2-3 new topics to blog about, which I will get to after I get some chemistry going. Until then, check out the new gallery that I added to my website.
September 11, 2008
Yearbook Photos
I haven’t had the most productive day. While waiting for the rotovap, I decided to recreate some yearbook photos using Yearbook Yourself. See if you recognize anyone. I’ll post the identities later in a comment.
September 10, 2008
Novel, Gas-phase Recrystallization
I used to laugh at my colleagues who would go out of their way to climb a floor or two up in another wing of the building to avoid using the bathroom at the end of the chemistry wing. I argued that it was usually reasonably clean and didn’t smell too bad. The return of the undergrad hordes has changed my opinion, however. The following theory that I propose is by no means original. I will however commit fraud and present it as my own, despite the fact that either Aaron or Brandon originally gave me the idea.
The source of my theory is the men’s room at the end of the hallway. It has 2 stalls, 2 urinals, 2 sinks, and a shower that I don’t think ever gets used. It also has no ventilation. Lately, I’ve been holding my breath upon entering. It is my theory that the unventilated air is a great solvent for the stench of shit. Think of it as supersaturated with gaseous shit. This smells bad enough on it’s own, but as soon as one enters a stall and drops a deuce, that piece of shit drops a seed crystal into the air that causes all previous shits from the week to crash out of solution. I get excited when this happens in my flask in the hood; it means that pure crystals of my compound are forming and I get out of running a column. I don’t want to smell your purified shit smell, however, so I now go 2 minutes out of my way to avoid your seed crystals.
Before / After
September 8, 2008
Independence Pass Climbing
I ticked off some items on my To Do list this weekend. We camped off of Independence Pass near Aspen on Saturday night and spent all of Sunday climbing in the area. Not only did I send several boulder problems, but I also led my first outdoor sport climbing route (a 5.7). Pictures of the trip below.
We started out with some warm-up problems.
This is on the same boulder as Jaws. We had hoped to climb Jaws, but changed our minds when we saw the 20′ top out. Notice Aaron’s face smear top out on the right.
Several of the next pictures are on a problem called ICBJ. The pictures don’t do the sketchy landing justice. Brandon was an awesome spot, basically bear-hugging anyone coming off the rock and placing them on the mat.
Kenny topping out on a highball problem with a sketchy landing below.
September 4, 2008
Organic Bouldering Mat
By now you’ve seen pictures of Aaron’s new crash pad, made by Organic Bouldering Mats.
Now that I need one, I have started thinking of design ideas, despite the fact that it will likely be next summer before I actually order one. Organic customizes mats to customer specs, as long as all lines in the design are straight and it isn’t too complex. Here are some of the more intricate examples given on their website:
I want something outside of the typical intersecting triangle look. Unless any of you can come up with a better idea, I have settled on the KU gameday flag. It is substituted for the standard KU flag on top of Frasier Hall on home game days, and it is a symbol that I viewed every gameday walking to class for 4 years. Any KU fan would recognize it, and I think having a crash pad representing the flag would be simply amazing.
September 3, 2008
Climbing Overload
In the past month, I have climbed a flatiron, and bouldered at Miramont, The Spot, Chaos, Horsetooth Reservoir, 420 boulders, and Carter Lake. My fingertips are one layer of skin thinner, and I think that the A2 pulley in my middle and ring fingers is tearing. I need a break, but Independence Pass is beckoning after the cume this weekend.
Highlights of our day in the 420’s are pictured below. I was proud of myself for (a) remembering to charge my camera battery, and (2) actually bringing my camera along.
Back to work. I need to rest.
Green Skepticism
In a recent post, I shared my thoughts about the issue of carbon credits and the green movement. I just found a Wall Street Journal article by Stephen Moore and am pleased to report that I am not the only skeptic of the green movement. Sure, he’s very conservative, yada-yada-yada, but he makes some good points. Highlights of the article are below:
"But now the environmental movement has morphed into the most authoritarian philosophy in America. The most glaring example of course is the multitrillion-dollar cap-and-trade anti-global warming scheme that would mandate an entire restructuring of our industrial economy. This plan, endorsed by both presidential candidates, would empower climate-change cops to regulate the energy usage and carbon emissions of every industry in America. If we do this, the best estimates are that we could reduce global temperatures by 0.1 degrees by 2050 and save on average about one polar bear a year from early death. But no burden is too great when it comes to helping the planet — even if the progress to be made is infinitesimal. To weigh costs and benefits is regarded as sacrilege — the refuge of global warming "deniers.""
"The latest rage among the more radical environmental groups is to encourage the government to monitor and ration every individual’s carbon footprint — how much you eat, drive, fly, heat, air condition, throw away and so on. Why? Because the average American emits twice as much carbon as the average European (which is another way of saying we are more productive than they are). This is all promoted as a form of shared sacrifice. But under this system some people are more equal than others. People with enough money like Al Gore can purchase carbon offset credits to justify chartering a plane rather than having to fly commercial."
"Do-gooders also once wanted to "celebrate diversity," but total conformity seems to be the aim of those in Seattle these days, where the city has started putting green tags on garbage cans of homeowners who don’t recycle. Enthusiasts boast that there is a very positive "Scarlet Letter" effect to subjecting noncompliers to public scorn. So you can almost hear the kitchen conversations: "Jimmy, I don’t want you playing with the Williams boys anymore; their family doesn’t recycle." But wait, aren’t these the same ACLU members who oppose public registries of multiple sex offenders?"
"In reality, household recycling is mostly about absolving the guilt of [those] who just hate themselves for enjoying an affluent 21st-century lifestyle. The aim seems to be less saving nature than building self-esteem."
August 28, 2008
Why Can’t I Afford My Hobbies?
It’s official. My graduate student salary needs a boost. I just stole Aaron’s pictures from the past month and they served as a painful reminder that I do not have the means to support my hobbies. Exhibit A: Torrey’s Peak.
While I was perfectly comfortable making Class III moves up Kelso Ridge to the top of Torrey’s in my trail runners, I also realized that to wear them up a Class IV route would be next to impossible, not to mention dangerous. Fine, I accepted that and purchased mountaineering boots. Now to do this in winter, I just need crampons, better gloves, a breathable water- and windproof hardshell, softshell, and pants, and an ice axe (oh wait, I already bought that), at the bare minimum. Shit. I haven’t even mentioned the backcountry skis, bindings, skins, and boots that I hope to one day carry up the mountain with me. On to Class V climbing:
While climbing the third flatiron, I realized that I have the great fortune of having friends and coworkers who own climbing gear. In the above picture, I am donning a helmet, harness, ATC, and climbing shoes that I own, but I am also using a rope, slings, locking carabiners, and relying on a trad rack, all of which I one day hope to own. I suppose I could start soloing routes, but then I’d have to add a life insurance policy to the bill. OK, I’m not done yet. Enter bouldering:
Notice the sexy Organic crash pads protecting our falls? Yeah, three people I climb with own them, but they are all leaving in the next year. Last weekend I was also saddened by the hole that is forming in the toe of my left climbing shoe. I taped over it, but they need to be retired in the next two months. I want to replace them with two pairs, a technical bouldering shoe and a more comfortable shoe suited for longer climbs.
Sigh. I’m headed to REI later this week to buy my season ski pass. On the bright side, I think I’m set in terms of ski season gear. As my mom would now encourage me to do, I shall get back to work and studying, because I’m not going to have the time or need for any of this if I fail out of grad school and am forced to leave Colorado. Send money Mom. And the rest of you.
August 27, 2008
Great Scott!
Last night, I was shocked to see a clump of brown shit, not only on the ledge around my deck but splattered on the screen of my kitchen window. Cooking dinner wasn’t the same with this crude distraction blocking my normal view out the window.
I am still pondering (a) what exactly this is, (b) where did it come from, and (3) how did shrapnel end up on my screen, over a foot away?
August 25, 2008
Readership is Down
I’m waiting on some pictures (I forgot my camera) from my weekend adventures, but in the meantime I wanted to state that the readership of this blog sucks. In fact, I’m a little depressed that I have so few friends, and by few I mean one. For a limited time only, I’m offering a referral bonus for recruiting new readers. The fine print: (1) no spamming, (2) referees must post a comment to this post stating the name of the person who referred them, and (3) new readers must revisit the site at least twice, with 24 hours separating the visits.
What do you, oh loyal reader, get in return? A check in the mail (I need your address) for each new reader that you recruit. New visitors to Jam at Registration Roller get the satisfaction that comes from reading my nonsense and the joy of pouring through the archives in search of more reading. Grow little referral tree seed, grow…
August 21, 2008
Rockies Scoreboard Message
My research group is taking a trip to a Rockies game later in September. One of the perks to being a large group and buying lots of tickets together is a complimentary scoreboard message. Suggestions?
The rules: (1) no advertisements, (2) must be 33 or fewer characters, including spaces and punctuation.
August 13, 2008
My Introduction to the Flatirons
Aaron, Brandon, Kenny and I recently spent a couple days climbing near Boulder. We spent our first day in the area climbing trad routes in Gregory Amphitheatre. Most of routes went up the 2nd Pinnacle, but we did climb one route up the 1st Pinnacle.
I crossed several firsts off of my list in the amphitheatre; first (1) trad climb, (2) chimney, (3) simulclimb, (4) rappel in ~10 years, and (5) multipitch(ish) climb. We had to watch out for poison ivy. Aaron was convinced that every green leafy plant was poison ivy, but a picture of the real deal is below.
We revisited the area a couple days later to climb the Third Flatiron. This slab is a very popular climb near Boulder and seems to draw out all of the crazies (the standard east face has been climbed in rollerskates). The faint outline of the letters ‘CU’ can be seen, as it was painted on by students over 50 years ago, scrubbed off, repainted, scrubbed off, painted over, etc. Check out the video below for a brief history of the CU debate.
We reached the trailhead parking lot around 9:30, hiked to the base of the flatiron, and climbed the Standard East Face in two teams over five pitches to the summit. The views of Boulder and the surrounding Flatirons were amazing. Add soloing the Third Flatiron and climbing it by moonlight to my todo list.
We rapped off the back of the Third, set up a top rope, and climbed Friday’s Folly. Hiked back to the car, grabbed some burritos at Illegal Pete’s in Boulder, and ate them at Left Hand Brewing in Longmont. It was an awesome weekend in the Flatirons. Back to work. I suppose I need to get something done this week.
August 5, 2008
Shameless Self Promotion
10:28 AM "Jeff: i didn’t realize this until today
http://www.apple.com/aperture/resources/plugins.html?sr=hotnews"
Jeff inadvertently contributed to my lack of productivity today when he sent me the above message. Basically, Apple’s nifty little piece of photo editing and organizing software "Aperture" has a bunch of plugins available for download. I took a quick glance at them and did a double-take when I saw the flash album creator. I lack the time and knowledge to create a custom, dynamic website, not to mention the money for a host that I would need to support php. There are quite a few pieces of software available that can automatically create a web gallery (flash or html), but I have been largely disappointed by the outcome. I built the galleries for my photography website last year using Adobe Lightroom and was impressed by the result, but frustrated by the lack of control that I had over modifiying the standard layout. Enter the Flash Album Exporter plugin for Aperture. While I still only have 5 layouts to choose from and a limited set of options, this plugin quickly pieced together a sexy flash gallery.
I jumped back to the plugin tab to close it out and noticed the Aperture BorderFX plugin for creating batch custom borders. It took some fiddling with to figure out all of the options, but I soon created a look that I was happy with (what do you think?). My main gripe with BorderFX is that it crops my pictures vertically a bit when adding the border. I can’t find a way around this, and had to go through one by one to adjust my picture within the frame. Why can’t it just tack the border on the top and the bottom? It isn’t clipping the sides at all.
It didn’t take much time to figure out that this was the quick and easy way I had been looking for to update my year-old website. I did a few trial runs, selected a look I was happy with, and started whipping out new, updated galleries. Here’s the final look of the wildlife gallery:
I ended up keeping the same homepage, but I had to change around some of the links. This required a quick on-the-spot Flash refresher course as I tried to create a new, matching button.
The new plugins still lack the control I would like to have. I am still unable to add anything to the flash gallery layout, such as a logo or link back to the homepage. Whatever. I just updated my site in less than half a day. It should be easy enough to keep up-to-date. Click this link to check out the new look. Let me know what you think.
August 4, 2008
Lots of Rocks
My weekend can be summed up by the word ‘rock’. Friday night, I rocked the Art Walk in Denver, heard some Rock ‘n Roll at the piano bar, slept like a rock for just over an hour before heading to the Torreys Peak trailhead to climb some rocks, was violated by some rather large rocks while tubing down the Poudre River on Sunday, and finally dried off and climbed the rock wall at the gym. Tasks that were not accomplished over the weekend having nothing to do with rocks: laundry, cleaning, reading, lab work, and sitting on my ass. I’ll focus on Torreys Peak for now as (a) it is the only adventure that I photographed, and (b) it was the most rewarding of my rocky adventures.
I woke at 4:15, a mere 1.5 hours after getting back from Denver. After an eventful drive up the road to the trailhead, we donned our packs and were on the trail by 8:00. The large parking lot was full, and cars were parked along the road for the 1/4 mile leading up to the trail. Grays Peak loomed ahead of us, as did the hordes of people. After about 20 minutes, we had a great view of Torreys Peak and our route to the top via Kelso Ridge.
We ditched the masses and peeled off toward the class III ridge. Aaron was once again skeptical about my trail runners, but they out-performed my expectations as I climbed a steep chimney. We met a duo of Nebraska natives heading down the ridge, a feat which I would be very weary of attempting. A decent amount of route finding was necessary to avoid the scree slopes in favor of more solid footing.
Along the way up, the masses of people on the summit of Grays Peak and on the ridge between Grays and Torreys were visible.
We soon reached the "crux" knife edge just below the summit. Chatter on internet forums hyped up this 20′ of the ridge to be insanely exposed and to exceed the class III rating. All three of us crossed the anticlimatic dull knife edge without incident and scrambled up some scree to the peaceful summit (14,267′). The ridge took just over 2 hours to ascend.
We reached the saddle with hopes of continuing up to Grays Peak, but the dark clouds rolling in convinced us to keep heading down. The view of Kelso Ridge was great from the main trail.
After seeing the crowds on the two peaks, I think I lost any desire I have to summit Grays Peak. Kelso Ridge was a great climb, but I saw no real challenge in summitting Grays. I was home by 5:00 after a stop in Denver for dinner. Now I just need to make the drive to WY to try on some mountaineering boots so I can move on to class IV climbs…
July 31, 2008
Don’t Stop Believing
Journey - Don’t Stop Believin’
Billy Joel - Piano Man
Tom Petty - Mary Jane’s Last Dance
Jimmy Buffett - Margaritaville
Neil Diamond - Sweet Caroline
Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl
What do these songs all have in common? Wrong. They are all way overplayed at piano bars. I will be at a piano bar tomorrow night with some fellow chemists, and while I will inevitably hear the above 6 songs at least once during the night, I seek to change the face of classic piano bar favorites and propose the following requests for a slight change in tune. I’m sure some of these are requested occasionally, but I doubt every night. Your suggestions are welcomed.
Radiohead - Creep
OK Go - Here it Goes Again
Billy Joel - The Entertainer
Flobots - Handlebars
The Police - Message in a Bottle
Guns N’ Roses - Sweet Child of Mine
Elton John - Rocket Man
Malvina Reynolds - Little Boxes (Weed’s Theme)
Stevie Ray Vaughn - Pride and Joy
The Beatles - Ob-La-Di
Barenaked Ladies - One Week
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Dani California
Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love
Men Without Hats - Safety Dance
4 Non Blondes - What’s Up
Yeah, it’d be a good night if they played all of those songs. Don’t get me wrong, I love "Piano Man", but it gets butchered by fast singing and bad, over-used jokes.
Oh, how I love bachlorette parties, drunk people who think they can sing, and people with more money than me that get their crappy country music and Jimmy Buffett played. Sigh…
July 29, 2008
Should I Feel Guilty for Using My Fume Hood?
Penn & Teller ridiculed some of the bullshit behind the "Green Movement" in their latest episode of Bullshit!. Here’s a quick preview:
One of the biggest loads of crap that they discussed in the episode was the idea of Carbon Credits. The idea is that we all inevitably emit CO2 into the atmosphere by driving our cars, eating food, and running the air conditioner. Shit, my fume hood is on 24/7, consuming the same amount of electricity as a single-family home annually. Talk about CO2 emissions. Companies like AtmosClear think that I should feel guilty about this and purchase Carbon Credits from them.
Using their Emissions Calculator, I emit 19 tons of CO2 a year, under the national average of 25 tons. If you factor in my fume hood, I estimate an additional 10 tons per year, bringing my total to a whopping 29 tons. In order to become carbon neutral and clear my guilty conscience, I should purchase $185 worth of carbon credits to offset my emissions. I estimate that the chemistry building has around 100 fume hoods, and at 10 tons of CO2 per hood, plus the extra 2 tons of CO2 used in the form of dry ice by our lab, the chemistry department owes Earth about $5,000. Wait a second, AtmosClear is pro big business. How is it that buying CO2 in bulk is any cheaper? Buying 100 tons in bulk offers a savings of over $1000!
Where exactly does your carbon money go? According to the AtmosClear website, it looks like most of it goes to Des Plaines Landfill, where methane gas given off by trash is trapped and used to power homes. A great idea. New Belgium Brewery does that too. My point: AtmosClear has a great business strategy; prey on global warming fears and guilt consumers into paying money for living. You don’t have to buy carbon credits for driving your car, or working at a fume hood. I don’t feel guilty, and until someone can prove that global warming is real and caused by humans, I will continue to not feel guilty. I drive my car as little as possible, keep my thermostat turned up in the summer, and lower my hood sash at night, not to save the earth, but to save money. Watch the Bullshit! episode below for Penn & Teller’s opinion.
July 25, 2008
Weeds
Lately, I have started watching the Showtime series "Weeds". If you haven’t heard of it, check out the wikipedia article. To summarize the premise behind the show (a) the husband of Weeds’ heroine, Nancy, dies; (b) Nancy becomes a weed dealer to support her family and their affluent lifestyle; (c) hilarity ensues. The show is brilliant. After watching the opening theme, it should be obvious to you that the show is best described as a satire about suburban life.
I should note that this is one of the few TV series of which I watch the opening theme (OK, I watch the LOST intro, but it lasts all of 5 seconds). After Season 1, the song "Little Boxes" (written and originally sung by Malvina Reynolds) is covered by a different musician each episode. Last week I became a fan of Michael Franti at the MHMF, and I was surprised to hear him singing the theme for the episode I watched last night. Anyway, I have NMR time now…
July 23, 2008
Guide for the Perplexed Organic Experimentalist
A group down the hall recently cleaned out their lab space and a number of free books appeared in the hallway. I quickly snatched up a book published in 1978 entitled "Guide for the Perplexed Organic Experimentalist." My admiration of chemists of the past has grown over the years. It is easy to take for granted the NMR located 30 feet from my desk or the instrument facility downstairs to which I can submit a sample for MS and receive a spectra back in less than a day. Not to mention the wonders of my computer, which I can use to quickly draw chemical structures, predict NMR shifts, process/print/and store NMR spectra, render accurate 3D models of my molecule, determine if a substrate that has never been synthesized in a lab will (theoretically) fit in the binding pocket of a protein, search published chemistry literature for a specific reaction (as long as no one else is trying to do the same), type and revise manuscript or report drafts, and email coworkers or colleagues and potentially receive speedy replies to my inquiries. The list goes on…
Over the past month, I have been reading Loewenthal’s guide, noting his particularly witty or outdated remarks for this weblog entry. I’m not writing to pick fun at the old ways of chemistry, but rather to spread my appreciation of modern practices. All quotes are taken from Loewenthal, H.J.E. Guide for the Perplexed Organic Experimentalist, 1978, 1-174. My commentary is in italics. Loewenthal’s in bold. Enjoy.
Refrigerators and Cold Rooms. These may malfunction, and catch fire or explode, at any time. Really? Good thing my hood is 2′ away from our freezer.
At least once a day while in the laboratory stop and ask yourself what you would do should an accident or fire occur at that moment: …Where is the nearest sand bucket? Does it contain sand or cigarette butts? Just checked. Our sand bucket contains neither sand nor cigarette butts.
When the components [of a prep-TLC plate] are coloured in the visible region one is often tempted to preserve the plate for posterity as the dernier cri in post-impressionist painting (anyone wanting to go in for his seriously is advised to use crude products from an oxidation with dichlorodicyanoquinone). Our million dollar idea, Jeff? I think Carbon Art LLC needs to sell mine.
In many institutions the demand for cleaning tissue reaches alarming dimensions at which point it becomes clear that it is being used for purposes best described as non-scientific. I now suggest a reasonable and far more economic alternative: toilet paper. In principle, it is exactly the same. You will soon get over the psychological block; and if the secretarial staff do not, so much the better. Non-scientific? But Bob told us not to pick our noses in lab.
…that part of any library which houses [Beilstein’s Handbuch] is the most frequented one and that area should be reserved for Chemical Abstracts readers only. It should also go without saying that no volume of this work should ever leave that area and that its binding should receive special care. I love interlibrary loan. I haven’t been to the library in search of scientific literature in months.
There was a time when the abstract would refer directly to all new compounds made, their melting or boiling points and possibly other physical properties, and outline details of their preparation. And at that time the actual papers were just as boring as the abstracts.
[When writing to the author of a publication], do not forget to check whether there has not been a change in address from that given in the article, lest you commit the unpardonable offence<sic> of not knowing that the man has moved to a more prestigious institution. I hope his email address hasn’t changed.
On organizing your information: ‘Having it at your fingertips’ is a figure of speech commonly used. You can turn it into reality only in the form of a Card Index. There should be a card for every topic, and there should be cross-referencing cards pointing in all feasible directions. You should always have a supply of cards with you; envelopes or paper napkins get lost, mixed up or used for other purposes. There is no need to use the customary stiff cards; slips of ordinary paper cut to appropriate size will do just as well…Your Card Index is an extension of your memory cells and as such should remain strictly your private domain. As your stack accumulates your popularity as a source of information with your co-workers will grow, but-never ever lend out cards to anyone else. Am I screwed if my computer password is written on a napkin?
It is safe to assume that any author who has taken care that his work is reliable and reproducible will have taken equal pride in describing the work accurately, clearly and unambiguously. For example, the word ‘treat’ (’the solution was treated with…’) is frequently a convenient term to use when the author has forgotten exactly how it was done. Wait, I’ve used the word ‘treated’ before…
It has been reported that placing a sheet of aluminum between the stirring motor and reaction flask improves evenness of stirring… I love my IKA stirrer/hot plate combo. And I don’t even have to use foil to make it work.
Above all, their [a Dewar’s] protective metal enclosure makes magnetic stirring well-nigh impossible. Did I mention that I love my IKA? I don’t have to use foil AND it can stir through a Dewar.
Wooden boiling sticks (applicators) are quite out and should be thrown away or put to some quite different use. If applicators have been ‘out’ since 1978, why the hell are my students still required to use them when boiling a solution?
In many laboratories [ensuring an inert reaction atmosphere] is tackled by an array of often colorful and sometimes grotesquely (not to say downright Rabelaisian) shaped rubber balloons at strategic positions. This looks cheerful on slides, but one soon finds out that this approach has severe limitations. My balloons are quite festive. They look cheerful in person, too. I have yet to discover any limitations worthy of the ’severe’ descriptor.
On rubber septa and syringes: Some people swear by their use. Many others swear while using them. Only the most expensive types of septa are made of an elastomer which is resistant both to chemical attack and to the results of repeated puncturing. Also it is difficult to find septa in a sufficient range of sizes to fit various openings or even just to fit all standard joint openings in common use. A quick walk down to the stockroom and I can outfit my hood with appropriate sized septa for all of my glassware, resistant to chemical attack AND repeated puncture. I both swear by their use and swear while using them, but then again, I tend to swear a lot.
Dropwise addition from a syringe, except when using an expensive and space-consuming device, can never be as simple and accurate as from a burette. In my opinion the use of a syringe can be justified only where volumes of less than 0.05 ml are involved. Just did a dropwise addition from a 10 mL syringe yesterday. It was simple enough.
[Removal of grease from joints] is best done by wiping them several times with a tissue paper lightly soaked in a solvent such as carbon tetrachloride. Carbon tetrachloride is scary shit. Stick to hexanes.
On packing a column: In all cases the column should be perfectly vertical and should be vibrated by hand or with an electrical vibrator until the adsorbent has completely settled. You keep a vibrator in the lab?
On TLC: How did we ever manage without it? On the question of whether to make your own plates or to invest in the commercially available ones it is hard to give any definite advice. How did we ever manage without commercially available TLC plates?
[Spotting TLCs] should always be done as uniformly as possible and reliance on home-made capillaries is not recommended. Hey, my capillaries are home-made. I’m damn proud of them too.
There is no sense recording [Rf values] unless with reference to a standard substance run on the same plate and at the same time [under the same atmospheric conditions]. Unless you are working in a laboratory which has automatic air conditioning these are entirely beyond your control. I have air conditioning and I still see no sense in recording an Rf value.
It was said of Adolf von Baeyer that his success [in recrystallization] was in large measure due to his large beard harbouring seeds of every compound ever made. However, even if beards are in fashion again this alone is not a good enough reason for following his example. Some people believe in mascots or singing operatic arias; at least it cannot do any harm. I need a mascot for my recrystallizations. Suggestions?
Should you come across an ancient sewing machine, of the foot-operated type, requisition it. The treadle, when connected to an electric motor, is a very suitable support for items to be shaken, and the open lattice work usually encountered makes firm attachment by springs or rubber bands an easy matter. Talk about space-consuming. Geesh. Just use the sonicator. It doesn’t require the use of springs and rubber bands to work.
A good tool for cutting [small filter paper circles] out of larger sizes is a very sharp and scrupulously clean cork borer with the appropriate diameter. I wonder if the stockroom sells cork borers. Wait, they sell every size of filter paper I could ever conceive using.
That’s all for now. I doubt Loewenthal realized that he was writing a comedy for the 21st century. Let it be known that I love my IKA stirrer, teflon stir bars, rubber septa, commercial TLC plates, argon balloons, the stockroom, and my computer. In all fairness, I should also note that this book contained good suggestions that are still relavent to the modern perplexed organic experimentalist. Not THAT much has changed. This book is available for checkout on my desk…just don’t steal my giant stack of notecards.
July 22, 2008
Mile Hi Hi
The last week has been a crazy blur filled with old friends, music, and beer. My sister was in town for a few days, so we checked out some of the local attractions breweries. We arrived at Budweiser at 11:00 a.m. and kicked things off with a couple samples and a walk through the barn. The horses were a little taller than us.
We decided to grab lunch at Rasta Pasta, then headed to campus to pick up Mike and Jeff. Sarah, if you happen to read this, Jeff is my friend from KS that you didn’t meet. Coincidentally, he looks just like the Jeff you know, and is just as special. Your Jeff was hard at work in lab. The four of us hit Odell’s next, after a quick stop at New Belgium for tour tickets.
We made the short drive back to New Belgium, grabbed some samples, and went on a tour. Mike volunteered to pour samples at the mid-tour break…it took a few hours for the giant grin to wear off his face. The tour was extra-awesome, and we finished it off with a slippery-slide ride down to the first floor. My elbow got burned on the way down.
The four of us finished off the brewery tour (yes, we skipped the brewpubs) with Ft. Collins Brewery. Their taps, while not as cool as the ones at New Belgium, still pour some tasty beer. 21 different brews were sampled that day at 4 separate breweries. Yum.
Day 2 had it’s moments too, but I’ll spare you the details. Michael arrived that evening with a 1/4 barrel of Ad Astra Ale from Free State Brewing Company. It only took him a 9 hour drive to deliver it to us! A few hours later, DD Kim drove the crew to Mike’s house to grab Rock Band. 3 separate trips later, we had all of the pieces and rocked the night away. We had a slumber party afterwards.
Less than four hours later, we woke up and drove to Denver for the Mile High Music Festival. Steven Kellogg and the Sixers was the first noteworthy band that we caught. Did I mention there was a baby rabbit on my deck licking up spilled beer from the night before?
Saturday, we also saw Jason Mraz, Bob Schneider, O.A.R., Andrew Bird (pictured below left), Michael Franti & Spearhead (pictured below right), and Mofro. Wait, Tom Petty was there too.
One of my favorite Andrew Bird songs made it on Youtube. Check it out.
Sunday we did it all over again, and caught Ingrid Michaelson (awesome, btw), Brett Dennen, Tea Leaf Green, The Black Crowes, John Mayer, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Colbie Caillat, The Roots, Martin Sexton, Flobots, and Dave Matthews. I don’t have any pictures of any of these people, and don’t really feel like commenting on each band (I’ll write about the exceptional new bands I discovered in a later post), so this little paragraph and a video of Ingrid is all you get.
July 14, 2008
And by Chipmunk Lake, they meant Marmot Lake
Back in early June, I made reservations for a backcountry permit for RMNP. They are very picky about backcountry camping, and only allow camping at designated sites. Permits are required, fires are forbidden, bear precautions are necessary, and a toilet is provided within 100 yards of the campsite. Yes, a toilet. I wish I had taken a picture, but it was a metal base with a toilet seat mounted to a wooden platform covering a hole in the ground. No walls. Just a shitter with a great view.
Anyway, we picked up the permit around 2:00 (4 hours after they had cancelled it due to our tardiness…woops) and were at the trailhead by 2:30. We couldn’t figure out what Sarah had managed to fill her pack with.
Mike and I kept a brisk pace and hiked the 4.5 miles to our campsite in 2 hours. The tent was distributed between all of our packs, so Mike and I sat on our pads and read while waiting and swatting at the mosquitoes. I am currently reading High Crimes, a book about the corruption surrounding Mt. Everest. I’m sure I will write a post about it after I finish reading it. Anyway, we made the short hike to Ypsilon Lake and checked out the falls that drained into the lake. Jeff and Sarah rolled in a couple hours behind us. Sarah started unpacking her pack to reveal at least a weeks worth of food for all four of us. Needless to say, I had two meals planned that filled 2 sandwich bags that could have fed us all for the 2 day trip.
We set up camp and headed to the river to fill up on water. While Mike pumped his little heart out, I snapped some pictures of Ypsilon Falls. It was dark, I didn’t feel like fussing with my tripod much, and the falls fell at an angle, so I struggled to align the camera perpendicular to the horizon. After some adjustment, I think this is spot on (even though it still looks cockeyed).
The next morning, our tent started stirring at 8:30 (3 hours after my alarm went off). After a quick breakfast, Mike and I headed down the trail with the intent to summit Mt. Chiquita and Ypsilon Peak, while Jeff and Sarah took off the opposite direction to find Spectacle Lakes. Since there is no established trail from the Chipmunk Lake side, we did some serious bushwhacking to reach the east ridge of the peak.
After climbing above treeline, we were forced to continue our ascent over talus. Our route to the summit was steep, tedious, and boring. Mike was forced to turn back near the summit due to altitude sickness, while I pressed on to the top of Mt. Chiquita. Along the way, I found tons of Columbine patches, reflected on the climb up from Chipmunk Lake, and spotted Chiquita Lake.
As I approached the summit, I saw scores of fat marmots relaxing on the sunny rocks atop Mt. Chiquita. I was downwind from them, and a couple allowed me to get within 10′ of them.
This one was my favorite. I wish I could sit at 13,051′ all day and get fat! I think the last picture in this group is my favorite. I call it "Sleepy Marmot".
I think he needs to go in for some teeth whitening, though.
The marmots got tired of me, hopped off their rocks, and led me to the summit register (seriously, the motioned for me to follow them). I signed the book and headed to the saddle between Chiquita and Ypsilon. 40 minutes later, I reached the summit of Ypsilon Peak (13,445′). As I flipped through the log, I found some familiar names.
A group of three approached the summit shortly after me, and the first of the group asked me to hold his hand as he approached the edge. He professed his fear of heights, clenched my hand, and after viewing the unnamed lake below said "That’s good enough for me. I’m ready to get the hell off of this mountain!" I started down what I believed to be Donner Ridge, a class III route to Spectacle Lakes. I reached a long class IV move that I wasn’t comfortable descending solo, headed back up the ridge, and descended the peak by the same route I had taken up. I summited Mt. Chiquita 50 minutes later, waved at the marmots, and started the shitty descent across the talus.
From left to right, the ridge below Chiquita, Ypsilon Peak, columbine with Ypsilon in the background (2), and a panorama of Chiquita and Ypsilon (although I think that only a false summit of Chiquita can be seen in this picture).
I picked a more direct path back to our campsite to avoid some of the talus and made the descent in just over 2 hours. Jeff, Sarah, and Mike were waiting for me in the tent (they were trying to escape the bite of the mosquitoes).
The first words out of them were "Hey, if we pack up now, we can make it back to the car before dark!" I dropped the bear bag after determining that it was at least Mike-proof.
We made a speedy descent to the car with a couple picture-and-pee stops on the way down. As we neared the car, we realized that a group picture hadn’t been taken. I didn’t feel like setting up my tripod, so we settled for testing out my sweet wide-angle lens.
My friend Kristin from Kansas was in Estes Park, and we met her at the Estes Park Brewery for dinner before driving home for some much needed rest. I’d like to point out that the last 4 posts have received ZERO comments. If this pattern continues, I am going on strike.
July 11, 2008
Two Posts in One Day? (!)
I recently purchased a pair of shorts from Steep and Cheap that have a gusseted crotch. I had no idea what a gusset was, didn’t really care, and forgot all about it after placing the order. Three days later, I unwrapped the shorts, washed them, and broke them in on the bouldering wall at the gym. The shorts were amazing. They never got in my way as my legs reached for distant or awkward holds. Could it be the gusseted crotch in action?
In part, I attribute the success of the shorts to the 97% cotton / 3% spandex content. They stretch! Cool, but what about the gusset? Upon close inspection, I found an extra seam and a wedge shaped piece of material that tapered off near the end of the normal inseam and reached peak width at the crotch.
(It’s been an odd day at work…I’ve googled both "wallet back pocket" and "gusseted crotch")
After a bit of research, I have concluded that the extra material is for (a) extra mobility, (b) added comfort, and (c) increased durability of pants. Gusseted crotches are popular in bike shorts, as they eliminate a seam on the shorts that rides directly on the bike saddle, causing discomfort. Together with 3% spandex, the gusset makes one hell of a climbing short for me to wear while bouldering. I look damn sexy in them too.
The Great Pocket Switch
Recently, I was faced with a difficult decision. I blew the right back pocket in both pairs of jeans that I own within a week. My choices were (a) keep my wallet in the right pocket and risk losing it out the gaping hole, (b) patch the pocket, (c) buy new jeans, or (d) move my wallet to the left pocket. Since (a)-(c) all had the potential of costing me money, I decided to make the great pocket switch.
The first few times were hell. Even just walking down the sidewalk, I felt like someone was constantly grabbing my ass. After I got over the new feeling on my bum while walking, I tried sitting. I think after 10 or so years of sitting on my wallet in the right pocket that a permanent indentation has formed, allowing me to sit comfortably without noticing the presence of the wallet. Lacking this indentation on my left side, it felt like I was sitting on a rock. I persisted, and have overcome the initial discomfort.
I am proud to say that 2 weeks after the switch, I now consider myself ambidextrous when it comes to wallet-pocket placement. Last night, wearing shorts with perfectly good right and left rear pockets, I instinctively replaced my wallet in the left pocket. The transformation is complete, and I saved myself money.
July 5, 2008
Castle and Conundrum Peaks
Our journey began Thursday. After passing over Independence Pass and deciding that we needed to come back on a climbing trip, we soon realized that any future trips to the area should avoid the town of Aspen. We grabbed some chicken strips on the patio of a local dive and enjoyed a productive hour of people watching. It felt like we were watching a parade go by, except that the passing schmucks failed to throw any candy at us from the pockets of the sweaters tied around their necks.
We continued down Castle Creek Road and found a campsite near the non-existent trailhead. After a short night’s sleep, we woke at 4:00 and hopped on our bikes at 5:20. The bikes were Brandon’s idea. We completed the first 3 miles riding/walking our bikes up the 10% 4WD road. Aaron is pictured below with Castleabra towering in the distance.
We ditched the bikes behind some bushes, consulted the map, and continued on.
Upon encountering some snow along the trail, Aaron gave Jenni and I a quick ice axe tutorial.
The path leading to the saddle became apparent as we continued. My ice axe got a workout. I pulled out my big lens (which Aaron said would just be dead weight) and took a few shots of Aaron and Jenni following me up the snow bank.
I spotted some skiers coming down the Conundrum Couloir, which Aaron later ascended.
Did I mention it was the 4th of July? Independence Pass, views of Capitol Peak, and this guy all reminded us.
We reached the basin below Castle and Conundrum Peaks around 10:00 and decided that Aaron and I would summit both Castle and Conundrum peaks (Aaron by way of the Conundrum Couloir and me via the saddle), while Jenni would meet us at the saddle after our descent from Conundrum Peak. From left to right below: Conundrum Couloir, a view of Aaron climbing the couloir (left) viewed from my ascent up the saddle, and looking up at a skier topping out the saddle climb.
I reached the top of the couloir via the saddle and, hoping to get some pictures of Aaron, started hiking to the crest. My leg post holed through the snow hip deep, and I realized that I was stuck. I had to dig my way out with my ice axe and hands. Some onlookers later met Jenni on top of Castle Peak, and when asked if they had seen two guys on Conundrum said, "Yeah, this guy in a KU hat got his leg stuck in the snow." I guess my misfortunes made me famous (or infamous). I got a picture of the giant hole I left on the way down. At least I had a good view.
After that little fiasco, I summited Conundrum Peak (14,060′) around 11:30 and watched Aaron finish the climb to the top. He was pretty excited to finish his first solo couloir. In the lower left picture, the Maroon Bells, Capitol Peak, and Pyramid Peak can be seen. Castle Peak is pictured behind Aaron in the lower right picture.
We watched two skiers descend the couloir. I wished for my skis after watching them.
Aaron and I began the descent to the saddle as Jenni climbed the ridge to Castle Peak. She beat us by a good ten minutes. We summited Castle Peak (14,265′) at 1:00, with clear skies in all directions.
I took some pictures from the summit before heading back down the ridge to the saddle. We watched several groups glissade to the basin on our way down, some more gracefully than others. The last picture in the group below is of Aaron, with Conundrum Couloir to his left.
The three of us reached the saddle and glissaded down to the basin.
Glissading was awesome. It beats making a treacherous hike down any day. We were able to make a total of 6-8 glissades on our descent.
The rest of the climb down was quick and uneventful.
We reached the bikes, and I plastered myself with mud on the fast descent to our campsite. My Rockhopper lived up to its name. We grabbed a quick dinner in Aspen, laughed at the parade of Aspenites that walked by our table, and headed home. Jenni was gracious enough to park facing the fireworks at the gas station in Leadville, allowing me to enjoy them from the comfort of the front seat of her car.
My To-Do list for the next five years definitely grew after this trip. Unfortunately, my acquisition wish list also expanded to include an ice axe, mountaineering boots, crampons, and gators. Sigh.
June 29, 2008
Are you Kidding Me?
Ryan and I had a brilliant plan to hike the entire Rawah Trail over a weekend. We left Friday night and hoped to hike 6 miles to camp below Twin Crater Lakes. The skull and backbones foreshadowed the trek to come.
My new headlamp was awesome and made Ryan’s look like a candle in comparison. We made it to the Rawah Trail and started to see snow. Our "hey look, snow!" comments soon turned into "shit, where are we going to camp tonight" as the snow deepened and the trail became harder to navigate. Our hopes of reaching the lakes were soon dashed. We found a dry spot among the snow and marsh and called it a night.
The next morning, we continued along the ‘trail.’ The duo that passed our camp turned back due to the snow. We soon lost any sign of the trail and did some route finding to reach Grassy Pass. Our route included several bogs, lots of snow, and one deep river crossing.
There were lots of animal tracks in the snow, but the bear tracks followed by a long trail of blood were the most ominous.
After the river crossing, we continued toward Grassy Pass, still trail-less. We passed the guy who had a 45 minute head start on us on the way up. I hope he made it…we never saw him again. A few minutes later, we stumbled upon a fragment of the trail, completely flooded by the melting snow. A couloir of sorts loomed ahead of us that we soon had to ascend.
After the mini couloir, the snow disappeared and we climbed to the "summit" of Grassy Pass, a saddle point between two peaks. Numerous jokes were cracked; "Hey, we made it over the lowest possible point between to maxima," and "the derivative equals zero here!"
The view at the top was awesome, but our hopes of an easy descent were crushed at the sight of more snow blocking our path. We headed to Rawah Lake #3, stopping for lunch in a sunny dry patch along the way.
The snow slowed our progress. In places, we were able to walk across the surface of the snow, but then in others we would fall through knee deep. At one point, I fell through a snow bridge over a small creek and lost my shoe in the muck. We reached a steep section of snow and slid down on our butts. It would have been really fun, had the snow not filled my shorts on the way down.
We had no idea where the trail was, but headed in the direction of Rawah Lake #2. There were 4 lakes in probably a square mile, but we managed to miss every one of them. Good thing we weren’t playing darts.
Things started looking really bad when we reached a steep bank leading to the roaring river below. A giant branched covered log spanned the width of the river, which I made it across without incident. Ryan, however, fell after two steps, caught himself by his feet and one hand, and hung from the log with the water rushing just below him. I watched helplessly from the other side as he pulled himself up and crawled across the remainder of the treacherous log. This picture doesn’t do the situation justice.
We tracked through more snow, bogs, and marsh before finally picking up the trail again.
After passing Rawah Bog, we filled up on water and waved goodbye to the last of the snow. The real trail wasn’t much better than our bushwacking, as the forest service hadn’t done any maintenance on it yet this season. Fallen trees blocked our path every 100 feet that we either had to crawl over or hike around.
We found a campsite near Halfway Creek around 5:30, started a fire, and put up the tent.
6:30 came too quickly the next morning. We lit a fire, cooked apple crisp for breakfast, and headed down the final 4.4 miles to the trailhead after a quick stop for water.
We caught a glimpse of the road below us and thought the worst was over when we saw this covering the trail 0.2 miles from the trailhead.
We crossed the finish line, then realized we still had to hike 4.7 miles of boring road to get back to the car. Several cars passed us along the road before one guy stopped and picked up Ryan after 3 miles of walking. Ryan brought the car back, picked me up, and we drove home. The Poudre River Burger at the restaurant in Rustic was amazing.
I know it sounds like the trip must have been terrible, but we honestly had a fun time. 21 miles, 40 hours, and 2 nights. We made it.
June 26, 2008
Waste of Time
Gripey Post Warning
It all started yesterday with a "jam at registration roller" printer error. Things went downhill from there. I returned to my desk to find that my function keys had stopped, well, functioning. F12 failed to pull up my dashboard, while fn+F12 still raised my speaker volume.
At home, a flash drive I had ordered to back up my computer arrived in the mail. I then wasted 10 minutes telling Time Machine what files I could care less about backing up. Seriously, who thinks it is a good idea to design a piece of software that makes you select the folders that you DON’T want to back up.
I called it quits with Time Machine to go change my oil. I pulled the plug and filter, let my oil drain for half an hour, put the plug and new filter back on, and poured in the first quart of new oil. As I started cleaning up, I noticed a metal washer that I had failed to replace on the oil plug. After cutting the top off an empty quart of oil, I pulled the plug, drained the quart, and put the plug (and washer) back on.
This morning, I tried to pay my electric bill over the phone. They installed a new, ‘better’, automated system that took me 10 minutes to navigate. It took two painful trys for my payment in the correct amount to go through (the first time they were only going to charge my card $0.69). And now, all I want to do is look at the supporting information for an Org. Lett. paper, and all Safari wants to do crash and play with mac’s stupid spinning pinwheel.
Finally, to take a screenshot of frozen Safari, I had to google "screenshot mac" to find that you have to press command+control+shift+3 to take a screenshot, all because Steve Jobs won’t taint his pretty keyboard layout with a ‘print screen’ button. F.
June 23, 2008
Great Sand Dunes Nat’l Park
The plan was to leave town at 5:30 on Saturday morning. It ended up being closer to 6, but after some effort and creative packing, we managed to load camera gear, food, and gear for 7 people into 2 sedans. This is particularly impressive considering a smaller group of six filled 2 SUV’s two weekends ago for RMNP. After the 4.5 hour drive, we found a good campsite after some speculation that we would be sleeping among the fire ants, then headed to the dunes.
Before I continue with the trip report, I feel like venting a bit about my camera sensor. I spent my first week with the camera making nerve-wracking attempts at blowing a small hair off of the corner of the sensor. I thought things were great after I finally got rid of the hair, but I noticed a giant dust spot in every picture that I took last weekend (enlarged and darkened for your viewing ease):
I’ll have to fight with that later…I have to be in the right mood to look at my sensor. Anyway, back at the dunes, I decided to keep my flip-flops on for the hike up the dunes, as I didn’t want to mess with dumping sand out of my shoes.
I was fine for the first half of the hike, but as the sun heated up the sand, it soon became unbearable to take more than 5 steps up or down a steep grade. With every step, my foot would sink into the hot sand a few inches. It’s one thing to step on a hot driveway in the summer; the grass is only a few feet away. At the dunes, however, there was absolutely nowhere to go, except to sit on my ass with my feet in the air. My credit card has bits of sand stuck between the numbers as a result.
OK, I’ve established that it was hot and my sensor was plagued with a giant piece of dust. The lighting also sucked for pictures. Those three things aside, it was a lot of fun. Jumping down sand dunes was a trip, and I think those around me were mildly amused by my burning feet misfortunes.
We went back to the campsite, I showered and cleaned out my wallet, and Mike decided to take a shit in the bushes next to the road.
We made the short drive back to the road to photograph sunset over the dunes, and later returned to see the stars. It was really windy, so we didn’t last long.
The next morning, we headed home through Buena Vista and Leadville to avoid I-25. Mental notes for self: (1) the route home was much better, but avoid I-70 and I-25 between 3:30 and 6:00; (2) wear shoes on the dunes next time; (3) avoid the dunes in July and August, maybe February would be good?; (4) set an alarm for sunrise; (5) Jeff, don’t use your polarizer when taking panoramic shots that you intend to stitch together.
Great Sand Dune Nat’l Park was amazing. It is really a unique experience to view towering (the largest in North America) sand dunes set at the foot of towering 14,000 foot peaks. I highly recommend taking a trip if you’re ever in the neighborhood.
June 20, 2008
River Festival
Driving home to KS, I decided that (a) Western KS is far better than Eastern CO, (b) I miss being able to watch storms move in from 100 miles away, and (c) I really should stop on the first ring from nature’s call. I pieced my stage together on Day 1 in record time. That night, a storm hit that knocked out the power for an hour, blew down the tent over my stage, and added some new hail dents to my car.
I guess the wind can’t read the signs reading "Keep Aisle Open." The tent company showed up late the next day, put up a new tent for us, and we were finally able to set up the sound gear as dusk settled in. I called it a night at midnight and was at the park at 8 the next morning to kick off the 2008 River Festival. My stage featured all kinds of music, from polka to zydeco to classical/hip-hop to acapella to jazz. Two Grammy nominees performed throughout the weekend, leading me to wonder if I could get nominated for a Grammy if I produced an album in a new genre that I have yet to invent. Progressive Improvised Chemistry Funk? I could sequence my vacuum pump…it’s making some pretty awesome sounds right now.
From left to right above: Angela Hagenbach (jazz/blues), Black Violin (classical/hip-hop), and Manzanares. Hands down, my vote for best festival performance went to Entrain. Manzanares also really impressed me. I’m pretty sure they just finished working on the Sin City 2 soundtrack. I also got to hear Mofro on Saturday night.
That was my sweet ride for the weekend. It had 9" steel rims, an obscenely loud horn, vinyl bench seats, custom paint job, and a foldaway back seat. It also went fast enough to make passing ladies yell at my crew for speeding.
I had a great weekend off; Stage II ran smoothly (thanks to the sound guys and my crew), the weather was mostly awesome, and I got to see my parents for the first time since Christmas. I saw a few of my high school classmates, but it seems most of them are off doing grown-up people things. I need to go to sleep…my little 5 hour evening nap has me wide awake now.
June 19, 2008
Horsetooth Rock
A River Festival post is coming soon…I just need to get all my pictures synced up to my laptop. Anyway, I finally found a respectable backpacking tripod yesterday at JAX. It is lightweight, compact, and is able to support my 3+ pound camera. I came up with the brilliant, "novel" idea of hiking to Horsetooth Rock to see the moonrise over Ft. Collins. Apparently, my ideas aren’t so novel. These people thought it was a good idea too. So did the 6 other groups we met later in the night.
We had Avo with us, who did an awesome job hiking and not sniffing too much stuff on the side of the trail. I think he traveled several more miles than the rest of us. He was thirsty. And sleepy.
We climbed to the top of the "teeth" and waited for the moon to rise. Unfortunately, the cloud cover was too thick, so I entertained myself by taking pictures of the new Fat Tire cans. Ft. Collins is lit up in the background.
My guide book claims the hike is 3.5 miles one way, although I found a website that states 2.5 miles. In any case, the trail was very well maintained and climbed steadily to Horsetooth Rock. The trip took 5 hours (including driving time), and we spent nearly 2 hours on top of Horsetooth Rock.
My tripod out-performed all of my expectations, and Mike failed to attract any females with his new "Indy" hat.
It was a fun trip. I want to go back soon…with a head lamp.
June 11, 2008
I Used to be Flippin’ Adorable
The years have not been good to me. Not sure what happened, but as proof that I was once adorable, I have taken pictures of the photos in my album. Excuse the poor quality…they were quick pictures of pictures taken through matte sheet protectors.
As you can tell, I’ve always like to climb things. At 9 months, I scaled the piano bench. I moved on to the bookshelf later in life. My days as dare-devil began when I slid down the stairs in a clothes basket for the first time. Colorado was fun because it had big rocks.
School picture days were always fun. Did anyone else get excited about the free comb that you got for being good? From left to right, preschool, kindergarten, and 4th grade (no glasses, huge plastic glasses, bowl cut).
I had to throw this last one on here when I found it. My dad knew that it was fashionable for guys to wear pink 10 years before everyone else caught on.
June 9, 2008
Do Not Approach the Wildlife
Saturday marked the end of cumes until September, so I went camping in RMNP to celebrate. We set up the tents after arriving late in the afternoon and headed to Moraine Park in search of adventure. We hiked a short distance up the Cub Lake trail and found a yellow-bellied marmot and a chipmunk.
After waiting for the elusive marmot to emerge from his rocky hiding place, we decided to get back to the campsite to start cooking dinner. On our way back, Sarah spotted an elk and 2 fawns a short distance from the road.
Finally, we made it back to the campsite, cooked food, and sat around the fire roasting smores. Some in the group had problems keeping their smores out of the fire.
After sunset, Mike, Jeff, and I drove up Trail Ridge Road to photograph the stars. Our hopes were dashed when it started raining, then snowing. Jeff swore we could drive above the clouds to get a clear view of the sky. That never happened. We had to turn around before reaching the summit due to poor visibility, not, however, before filling the bin on top of Jeff’s car with snow. On the way down, we saw a porcupine. The poor guy looked cold.
The next morning we packed up and drove up Trail Ridge Road, which was closed due to high wind and snow drifting. We drove south to Wild Basin and started the hike to Calypso Cascades. A woman on the trail informed us that we just had to keep our eyes open for the "rare" Lady’s Slipper Orchid (aka the Calypso Orchid). According to her, they are hard to spot and are only in full bloom for 1-2 weeks out of the year. Lucky us.
After numerous stops for orchid sightings, the whole group made it to Calypso Cascades.
A quick hike back, loop through the park, dinner stop, and hour drive later, we arrived home.
June 6, 2008
Start the 2 Year Countdown…
I started growing a pineapple yesterday. In just about 2 years, I will be eating my very own home-grown pineapple. Here’s a shot of the proud mother:
