This weekend was superb. The highlight was the conclusion of my 8 hour long Saturday classes at RPI. I’ve spent 50 Saturdays at RPI in Hartford since the dawn of this program and I’m really sick of it. After class on Saturday, I went out to a celebratory dinner with Darcy and Schuyler at my favorite West Hartford burger place: Plan B. Then we went back to Darcy’s and watched Old Boy. I think it’s safe to say that it was the single most psychologically disturbing/screwed up movie I have ever seen.

Sunday a whole heap of us helped Irene move into her new place. Afterwards, Darce, Schuyler, Aaron2, and I grabbed lunch at The Funky Monkey, and then Aaron2 and I went climbing before the football game.

After months in Ohio, it was such a joy to go climbing this week. I’ve been suffering through about 4 or 5 months of sporadic exercise, so it’s exciting to work myself back into a reliable schedule. My finger strength is still there, though my finger endurance has suffered heavily. Hopefully I’ll be running laps on 5.tens and 5.elevens before too much longer.

This week will see more climbing and my return to Kung Fu. Hmm. I’ll have to make sure I eat well this week lest my body unduly suffer from the sudden return to fitness.

It’s so nice to have a life schedule again. Take that Ohio!

John and Irene had their annual Halloween bash on Saturday night. I needed a costume that could compete with last year’s nunchucks. I don’t think I surpassed them, but I’m pleased with my costume nonetheless.

The Concept: Scrabble D.

The Execution:

That’s Darcy on the right as a Popple. Also, it should be noted that HOLY CRAP I NEED A HAIRCUT.

Here are some other fun photos from the night:

Darcy eats my scrabble tile as Irene stands provocatively as Madonna.

Darcy was really going at that tile. She likes to gnaw.

without arms, it was difficult for me to eat and drink. Thankfully, Iron man was available to help me out.

Me and Chris (some shrubbery)

Scrabble D and the Popples*

Really, the night was a huge success. More photos may appear later as party participants post photos on facebook.

*Whoa – band name potential?

I’m back in Connecticut! Here’s what I miss from Portland.

Coffee everywhere.
The trips for coffee were really fun. It was like a constant social sunburn. Mochas galore, date bars, chocolate morsels of unmatchable deliciousness, and oh! what a social network! I swear there’s probably more youth traffic through a single Portland coffee shop than through all of Connecticut (Oregon has 22% more 25-35 yr olds than CT).

Fashion.
In addition to the rampant popularity of skirts, the colors of Portland were very Vivienne. Fun bright clothes and awesome fashion statements. Way to go Portland!

Constant adventure.
My days were so tightly packed with thrills. I don’t think there was a moment of my trip when I wasn’t excited about something awesome. Halfway through my Portland adventure I decided that I should really step it up in CT; bring more fun into my daily life. But then I realized that school is adding a pretty significant ‘c’ coefficient into my equation of fun-motion:
mx” + cx’ + kx = Fun(t)sin(wt)

So perhaps I’ll hold off a bit on any more fun packing until February. Come March though? Look the heck out. I’m going to ramp up the umph.

Walking
Portland is a walkable city. Most of our transportation for the week was via our feet. An unexpected bonus of this method of getting around is that it notably de-stresses you. Walking forces you to leave a little early and creates tiny spaces in your day to collect your thoughts and restart the proverbial servers. It’s so relaxing. I walked more in a single day in Portland than I did in a month here in CT.

Alicia, Dwane, and Sarah!
I love my sister. She is awesome. We made SICK garage band tunes together* and had crazy fun walking around the farmer’s market and making dinners. Portland $7 Pesto? Find it and eat it. Dwane and I went to watch Alicia perform with the Oregon Symphony. Daaaang Alicia was good. She and the other flute started with a little duet thing and it was freakin’ absurd. At the end of the piece the conductor came out and had Alicia and her flute playing counterpart stand in acknowledgment to their sweet performance. Wow.

Dwane, Alicia, and Sarah

It was neat to hang out with Dwane too. Despite my sister’s December ’07 marriage to the Dwanester, I hadn’t actually spent much solo time with him prior to this trip. We were able to talk about work and life quite a bit during our hike around multnomah falls and again as we waited for the Oregon symphony to get cranking. It was really chill. Dwane is wonderful. He has a really fantastic sense of humor and is extremely sharp. On a tour of a submarine he had a discussion with the officer about the method of propulsion for torpedos. Awesome? yes.
I’m very glad he’s part of the Family.

I also got to spend some time with Sarah and despite her ability to effortlessly outsmart me at every Mindbending puzzle at the OMSI**, she was a great addition to the Portland experience. We hit up Powell books, Forrest park, and Henry Weinhard’s brewery (home of my favorite rootbeer!). If you could somehow caffeinate a firecracker you’d get close to Sarah’s addictive personality. So much fun.

I will definitely be going back to Portland. It was too epic of a place to only visit once.

*Check out the garage band creation BIRTH OF SOLITUDE here:
birthofsolitude.mp3

**Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (thanks Michelle & Thor for the free tickets!!)

Friends, I’ve left Portland, OR. I’ll be posting more pictures of the trip and stories of Karaoke in the near future. The day of departure was a very sad day. But in the meantime…

My travels led me to experience a few of the most exciting travel experiences a traveler can experience.*

Let’s take a look at these travel highlights.

1. A red-eye flight with a seat next to a woman with a chaordic elbow.

It was remarkable. With undeniable regularity, just as I began to fall asleep a random elbow would fly out and bash me in the ribs, or the arm, or the face. well, not the face. But certainly the rest of those places.

2. Shockingly inconsistent hotel shower temperature adjustment

My fingers actually went prune before I got the water to an acceptable temperature. I’d try to coax the hot water to be more of a team player and then BANG! HOT ROASTING STEAM BURNING FIRE BUCKETS!

3. Ohio is a black hole of captivity!

I thought I’d be coming home Wednesday night. Now it’s looking like Thursday night, or Friday day is more likely. This is a bummer. Especially because this weekend leaves little to look forward to. In fact I might go so far as to suggest that next weekend will be the opposite of this past weekend. Instead of amazing music, fun people, delicious food, and relaxation there will be midterms, homework, papers, final exams, and class. A lot of class. and okay… maybe a little bedazzling. I ordered a bedazzler to create the Fibonacci Sequins t-shirt. Hmm. maybe the weekend will find redemption yet. Cross your fingers.

*best sentence ever?

After the mayhem of last week’s classes, the weekend was truly a welcome relief. Friday night I zipped home after class for Saturday’s big event. That big event being Jon Abad and Emily Abad’s wedding party. It was well attended and the crowd was wonderful. It’s always a joy hanging out with the WPI folks. Kurt was wearing his snazzy new hat, Tim and Ian had their snazzy new motorcycles, and Jon had his snazzy new wife. Congrats Jon!

That night I spent some time with my folks and grabbed dinner with Chef Sarah. And then stayed up too late playing fantastic contraption. (WARNING: DO NOT PLAY. EVER.)

On Sunday I drove back to CT. Around three I went to Vivienne’s place. We baked cupcakes, watched IRON MAN, and then ate some Indian food. Vivienne’s kitchen… gad zooks. It was disgustingly well stocked. The kitchen is graced with two fridges and three freezers, all bursting with fullness. There were cupboards everywhere full of both common and completely uncommon foodstuffs. A truly remarkable place.

And all that leads up to this morning. I’m sitting at Bradley airport waiting for my plane to start loading (6am departure). For whatever reason, the airport is playing polka music. Adding polka to an already draining scenario, like travel, is really pretty strange. It’s kind of like a weird Disney movie.

This past weekend was absurdly classful. Thursday night 6-9pm, Friday night 5:30-9:30, Saturday 8-5. Following those 16 hours of class I spent my Sunday breathing a bit.

Vibrations is that sneaky class that the University of New Haven surprisingly forced upon me. I attended on Thursday (having missed the first two classes) and quickly learned that we have a quiz next week. This will add to the mayhem of this first week of October.

I did get a little fun time this weekend. Saturday night I hung out with Darcy and Schuyler which is always fun. Darcy and I played scrabble. She won. Then we ate delicious foods.

Sunday, I hit up the climbing gym with Irene and also watched the first two episodes of Dexter – a showtime series about a serial killer who kills serial killers. It’s a pretty well put together television show. I approve.

Looking ahead, this week will be a bit more stressful than usual with the looming quiz on Thursday and a moderate sized presentation on Friday.

I’m going to have to get a big cup of coffee at work this morning.

This weekend was peppered with multimedia. Firstly, you’ll note a new Kung Fu Party Trick in the feature section. It was definitely a fun one, and amazingly, we hit it on our first try. There will also be some wakeboarding photos and videos that may pop up this week as well as some adorable pictures of Tony and Paulette’s new puppy.

This week I’ll very likely start going back to school at the University of New Haven for those last pesky credits. This frustrating class will limit fun – most specifically my rock climbing. I signed back up at the rock gym last week with the expectation that I’d be able to devote two nights a week to the walls. Sadly, it looks like I’ll be pushed back to only one night a week. Weak.

I’m reading House of Leaves. It’s amazing in its individuality. Go find a library and pick it up. I want to talk to people about the book.

Last week’s Kung Fu wound is healing nicely.

It’s developed a dark purple core with an amber halo. Thankfully, it no longer hurts to walk – although my leg still feels a bit weak.

This past weekend was decent I got to hang out with Darcy a bit on Saturday night. We painted her bedroom shades of fig, made lemonade sodas, and shared some food from Whole Foods. Sunday I did some work to start cleaning the garage and then made pizza with Tony and Paulette. Sadly, I’m still not feeling back up and chipper from a sickness that I came down with late last week. Hopefully I’ll be back in an excited healthy state soon.

Keep your eyes out for a sweet science write-up in the feature section this week.

Did you guys have good weekends?

Friday was the start of my fall semester. This is both exciting and tragic. It’s tragic because losing Friday nights (and selected Saturdays) tends to put a damper on fun, especially if those nights full of potent potential are replaced with sitting in a classroom. The start of the semester is exciting because there are only two semesters left of this feisty MBA; that means the countdown is on. As of right now, I have a mere 29 classes left. That’s 156 hours. Look out friends… we’re close. Friday was okay. I love the professor of my Organizational Change course, but it’s still course work. And like a college shower, the classrooms at RPI have the unfortunate characteristic of being either Way too hot, or Way too cold. Friday was way too cold.

One good thing about class in Hartford is that it’s amazingly close to Darcy’s house. Post class I met up with Darcy and Schuyler. They introduced me to the fantastic Jobonga and we all hit up Plan B for burgers. Have I talked about Plan B before? Oh man. It’s a place in West Hartford and they really know how to make some delicious foods. If you’re a CT resident or a lover of beef, you must must must check it out.

Saturday, I worked. Afterwards, I zipped up to Darcy’s yet again. This time to meet with Vivienne and James. We did some crafts, ate Ethiopian food, and watched some movies. It was a welcome release after a day of work.

On Sunday I went to the New Britain American Art Museum with Dr. Scott. There was an exhibit on Chihuly’s glass work. Whew. That guy can Glass it up. Unfortunately, we couldn’t take pictures of the glass exhibit, but there was this cup exhibit which was pretty impressive. The photo doesn’t quite do it, but it certainly gives an idea of the glory.

Art can be pretty fun, I need to spend more time at museums.

Unfortunately, despite the beautiful beautiful weather, I really didn’t get outside much yesterday. There was some mighty climbing going on, but I felt like I needed something with a little less time requirement. Frisbee would have been perfect or perhaps just a BBQ on the grass with friends. Sadly neither of these things came to pass. Next time good weather rolls through, I’ll have to plan a picnic.

This weekend had too many highlights to point out a single all encompassing winner. It’s like a chili contest too close to call; everyone might have a specific favorite but each chili has its own unique quality that pushes it past delicious. This weekend started with a Friday night of guitar and a fun visit to Tony and Paulette. Saturday kicked off with a Kung Fu class where I was promoted to Brown belt (picture pending) and concluded with a fun dinner out with Darcy and Kate at Plan B in West Hartford. Sunday, I visited the family and then ventured over to Kurt’s house warming party.

Oh man! What a house! There’s a game room which immediately reminded me of this. It has dark walls, huge soft couches, and a fireplace that bring a sort of mysticism to the room. At the party Ian owned me in Horseshoes and I got an opportunity to talk a bit to Math Tim about prime numbers. You very well may see a new mathy link show up in features this week. Also at this party was a whole ton of Meat. Crazy amounts. Kurt manned the grill like a champ providing all sorts of meats to the guests. Oh, and needn’t I forget the baked beans. Whew.

After more chatting and more fooding, I departed and promptly got dinner with the folks. Eventually returning to CT for Labor Day proper.

I was hoping to start off with some climbing, but it didn’t happen. What did happen was some more wakeboarding. I went out with Brandon, Jesse, and John. I saw some fantastic improvement from my first attempts. I consistently got out of the water and started maneuvering more comfortably around the wake. Hopefully I’ll have some video by the end of the week.

After wakeboarding, I went tubing. This was… more than just a ride. It was a trip of insanity. Brandon was driving and was effectively trying to get me to fall off. After about 5 minutes he succeeded. I was thrown from the tube and bounced across the water like a well thrown pebble. As I pulled my beaten body back onto the boat, I looked down at my arm to see a streak of bloodied bruised flesh. This battle wound surely came from the moment when I was first flung into a spin, I lost both of my hand grips but whipped my arm around the tube itself in time to maintain some control. My full body was in the water, just a single limb desperately draped across the tube keeping me on. Yes, it was an awesome awesome ride.

This weekend wasn’t as “weekendish” as I would have liked, but it still had some enjoyable moments. It started with a seven hour work day Saturday. Working on Saturday isn’t actually that bad. It tends to be amazingly productive because of lack of interruptions and usually someone brings in doughnuts. I was out by about 3-4pm and at that point went up to Coventry to take Mandy up on an invitation for some wake boarding.

Oh man. Wake boarding is really fun. We started with some tubing and then moved to the boards. Brandon, the boat owner, just got a new boat a year or so ago and has it stocked with gear. It is furiously fun. Five of us were on the lake for a good three or four hours Saturday evening. What a refreshing break. I hope that I’ll be able to go out again this season.

As for this week? I’m only in Ohio today and tomorrow. I really want to try and sneak out to visit my sister in Portland, OR for labor day weekend – though it depends a bit on how work is looking when I get back to CT. Unfortunately, classes start back up on September 5th, so I think this is my last opportunity for a multi-day trip for a little while.

Back!

Sorry about that little vacation there. I was really fed up with stuff and figured that anything I posted would have been far too self-critical to make for fun reading. Anyway, what’s new? Well this past weekend was a mix of work and play. Our presentation on Friday night went really really well. It was very well received by both the class and the professor. I’m proud of the result. You can see two of our 6 clips over in the features section on the left. The grapevine one is a higher quality clip, so I’d recommend that one if you only have time for one.

I still have a few more projects to do for my other class, but hopefully they won’t be too painful and I’ll be able to get through the week smoothly. Then I will be on summer break which will be totally righteous.

Saturday night I saw The Dark Knight. It was excellent. And Sunday was climbing and BBQ. Unfortunately, my Monday started with not enough sleep and ended with a very stressful evening. Work is heavy at the moment, I’m in the midst of the assembly phase of my project. We continue to identify problems as they come up and tackle them as quickly as possible, but it’s a tiring process. I’m certain everything will come together, it’s just how smooth that path will be.

Anyway, I hope you’re all well. Posts should continue for the remainder of this week.

This weekend the Mosquitoes hit up my elbows like they were buffet tables. Perhaps it’s because I can’t carefully monitor my elbows like I can my forearms, or perhaps it’s because I’m flawed when it comes to bug-spray application, or perhaps… perhaps my elbows are just really tasty… Whatever the reason, my elbows were annihilated this weekend. First at Astronomy night, then at Dave’s sister Amy’s birthday bbq, and finally during Sunday’s climbing.

My left elbow took nine hits. My right? eleven. And they itch like you wouldn’t believe. Sure, my ankles got one or two, and my right hand got a frustrating one right on the knuckle… but those are nothing in comparison to my elbows.

Curse you mosquitoes. Curse you.

To create the perfect weekend juxtaposition, on Sunday afternoon after getting all riled up at Roller Derby, I went to watch Polo with a couple friends in Greenwich. It was really unique.

Polo in Greenwich and Roller Derby in Holyoke are pretty much complete polar opposites. On one side we have women with fishnets and tattoos bashing into one another, and on the other side we have men on horses striking a small ball with a long mallet. And if it’s not evident by the players themselves, it’s evident by the spectators.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

I’d never been to see anything like Polo before. Crystal happened to be going with some peers and, since you pay by the car load, it only made sense to fill it up. They had an extra seat, and I grabbed it.

Horses are awesome.

It was actually pretty intense. The horses were very very fast. And when the players raced by, going near 30 miles per hour, the ground thundered. It actually rumbled.

Polo fields are huge. You can fit nine football fields onto a polo field. So it’s a bit hard to get a feel of all the action. I think each team only has four players out on the field at a time. And they nail that ball like it’s going out of style. I was pretty impressed.

At ‘halftime’ they invite the crowds to come out onto the field to stomp divets in the grass. Here’s a picture of me putting a big chunk of grass back in its place.

Know your place grass. Know your place.

The polo match lasted a couple hours. We showed up a bit late, but still got to see plenty of horse riding action. It was a fun trip to wealthy-ville.

I dare say, Pete and Crystal, you look dashing. Just dashing.

Thanks for inviting me Pete&Crystal!!
(feel free to check out some of Pete’s photos here.)

Good morning!

We’re back! This weekend (actually most of last week really) was pretty much non-stop work. Friday saw class, Saturday saw class, and Sunday saw 11 hours of work on an engineering project. So really, not all that super.

BUT, there were moments of joy nestled in between the mayhem. First, I had dinner with Schuyler and Darcy on Saturday night. We got a little dance dance revolution and guitar hero in before I headed out overwhelmed with exhaustion. Those people are so much fun.

Saturday’s class was rather exciting as well. The class I’m taking is ‘Management Failure Analysis’ We’ve been talking about big failures and what went wrong and how to fix them. This week we had Rear Admiral Thomas Atkin come in to talk to us about Katrina. Admiral Atkin was the Chief of Staff for the federal government’s response to Katrina. His commentary was great and, whew, what a cool guy. Tall, clean cut, and dressed in his coast guard uniform he walked into the classroom with an aura of authority. He was extremely well spoken and really knew what he was talking about. He discussed federal and state law during emergencies and some of the challenges that he and the others (federal, state, and political) faced as they tried to rescue the people of New Orleans. We discussed future disasters, the role of media, the organizational structure of emergency response, and some specifics to Louisiana.

It was totally awesome.

All in all, the travel went pretty well last week. The meetings were smooth and the dining out was A+. After getting home I zipped out to Cape Cod to relax a bit with my sister and her fantastic friends Amy and Kevin. We played dominoes, ate excessively large burgers, and chatted about all sorts of things. It was a nice break from the typical world and despite the fact that the vacation was short, it did the job of resetting my frustration clock.

So now we’re back at work. The Problem Light remains on but I’m confident that my sunburn will be a consistent reminder of the weekend relaxation.

These Mondays keep sneaking up on us. We’re all relaxed into Sunday night and then… BANG. It’s Monday morning again. Here’s a recap on all things Mike D.

Work.
The next two weeks are going to be a bit off the charts with respects to work. Between travel and deadlines, it’s going to be out of this world. The problem light remains on.

Our band.
Our band continues to rock without a name. I started learning “Mailman” by Soundgarden. DANG. Wow. I really really appreciate soundgarden. Jesse and I spent some phone conversations this weekend trying to figure out the timing in the verses. I was thinking it was: 4, 4, 4, 4, 6, 3, 4. But Jesse figured out that it was 8, 8, 7, 6. Look up the song on Youtube and count the beats. It’s truly a remarkable tune.

DDR.
There was a DDR get together on Saturday night. Darcy, Shaun, and I danced with powerful vigor.

The Website.
Ryan Schenk continues to be annoyed at the advertising. He’s going to be especially excited when he learns that I was just contacted by a new advertiser. Perhaps I can sell out even more (yes!).

School.
We’ve been reading about political work styles. Perhaps I’ll make a post about it, it’s moderately interesting. Despite this, all the homework is really putting a damper on my…

Climbing.
Haven’t been. School’s been annoying.

Kung Fu.
I hope that work and school won’t bust up my kung fu plans. I really want to get to those seminars next week.

Cape Cod.
It’s Cape Cod season! I’m hoping to zip out to Cape Cod this weekend for some fun with my sister. It’ll be nice to escape.

The Eating.
I’d mentioned wanting to improve my diet. This weekend was a good one for food. I had a wealth of veggies and tasty meals. I made my Dad’s Sour Cream Coffee Cake recipe, my sister’s Pan Fried Noodles, and my dad’s Pizza recipe. Delish! And on my Mom’s suggestion, I’ve started having a small bowl of yogurt with granola as a tasty breakfast additive. It’s a good move.

And that’s it! How are things in your life?

This weekend my sister T was ceremoniously rewarded her PHD in social psychology. It was a really fun ceremony. There was a monster parade and bells and drums and hundreds of people wearing robes and various hats.

T walked across stage where the administration gave her the diploma and placed the hood over her head. It was triumphant. The raucous crowd cheered heavily. What perfect weather as well! It was a proud day in Rhode Island to be sure.

Yay Tree! Great job!

The rest of the weekend was reasonably relaxed. My memorial day was spent out at East Peak with Pete. I worked Rat Crack and Cat Crack with some practice ascending. Rat crack was kind of miserable. it wasn’t really a crack so much as an off width – and I hate off widths. Cat crack, on the other hand, was a totally intense crack. For crack climbing you have to jam your joints and fist in between the rock to help pull yourself up. It’s extremely intense. Every move hurts. Today my arms are all sorts of scratched and scarred from the climb.

Then last night we had some pizza and some rockband. This was a good weekend.

I tried to hit the reset button this weekend. I had a great jam session with the band Sunday, and my classes on Friday and Saturday showed promise to be some of the better classes I’ve had at RPI (a welcome relief). Also, I got a good amount of sleep Saturday night and again last night when I went to bed at 8:30pm. Yet still, I feel dead this morning.

I’ve decided to improve my diet a bit. The past month or two has had me eating really really poorly (cheddar bratwurst, kielbasa, pork, limited veggies, etc). Today my lunch is significantly improved with some pineapple for a morning snack and a chicken rice dish with a side of brussel sprouts for lunch.

Hopefully the improved foods and more established sleeping hours will improve my energy levels. I’d like to enter the age of 27* in overdrive.

*occasionally I read Craigslist personals. Lately there’s been a strange trend of the ages of people being switched to 27. This is horribly unfortunate if you are actually at the cusp of 27 trying to find people of similar age. Try it out! go to any craigslist place in the country and check the ‘women seeking men’ section. the few sites I checked all had at least 30-40% of people were twenty seven. But then, if you open some of those, they will describe people who are definitely different ages. I presume it’s some sort of bug or spam, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

I got quite a bit of work done this weekend. While I spent much of my Saturday and part of my Sunday doing work for work and school, I did have an opportunity for some sit down time. The time spent sitting was spent mostly with a guitar in hand as I worked out the intricate details of my VOX toneLab which, as I learn of its potential, has me wondering if I need a hardcore Amp Head. This pedal just might have enough to keep the sound heavy. I’ll keep you updated.

And last night the Fun Club got together to check out BlindSight. It’s a documentary about 6 blind Tibetan teenagers who go on an adventure climbing one of the peaks adjacent to Mount Everest. It was both heartbreaking and inspirational. In Tibet, if you’re blind the populous assumes it’s because you did something horrible in a previous life. Because of this, many of the children were scorned by their parents and families. Some were openly called a burden and a disgrace. They got out of their houses and went to a school for the blind where they developed new skills. And then, they got a unique opportunity to meet Erik Weihenmayer the first blind individual to climb Everest. Erik motivated them and got a team of guides together to help the kids climb a 21,000 ft peak next to Everest. They suffered from altitude sickness, stumbled, and lost faith but kept onward. I won’t tell you what happened, but I will say that after their adventure, those six kids were able to go onward and achieve really amazing things.

And now it’s Monday! And we’re back in business.

Weekend hours awake: 41.5
Weekend hours of fun: 3.5

% of weekend that was not fun: 91.57%
% of weekend that was fun: 8.43%

This weekend’s timeline.

(more…)

This weekend was packed.

Saturday was a day of Kung Fu, Taxes, and Homework. Taxes turned out to be a phenomenal punch in the gut as I tried to carefully deduct every receipt that I had for House of Rock repairs in 2007. Too complicated friends. Much too complicated.

So let’s just scratch Saturday as a day of frustration. Sunday however… Sunday was enough to redeem the weekend. It was the ultimate day of adventure.

At 8am Pete and I were at Cathole setting up a few climbs. Pete started with a lead of a 5.6 called ‘elegant monkey.’ It did not feel even remotely like a 5.6

5.6′s should be reasonably comfortable, with plenty of hand holds where you can rest and relax. After Pete lead it, I followed and even with a rope above me I felt really uncomfortable. It was an intimidating overhanging route and required some fist jams and finger jams to get through it. Pete didn’t look concerned at all as he worked through a dicey crux. I have no idea how he pulled it off so smoothly. Despite all the brutal difficulty, it was exceptionally fun. After we finished that route, I jumped on Pegasus (5.8) again.

Pegasus is a very comfortable climb, but I didn’t perform too well. I strung myself out a little too much and had a piece of gear that wasn’t as bomber as I would have liked. I think when climbing I need to make sure to remain patient and not rush gear placement. One thing I’m very proud of is my top anchors. They have progressed considerably from last year.

After Pegasus, I zipped down to Stratford for band practice. We pretty much went through all songs learned to date, and really… they weren’t too bad. Heavens my guitar is fantastic. I can’t even begin to tell you how much joy it brings me. Once our band secures a bassist and a bandname, we’ll be probably about two months of regular practice away from a show.

After jamming, I drove up to Irene’s place for a huge dance dance revolution (the Hottest Party) get together. It was amazing. There were four hours of dancing. FOUR. We had two pads and probably about 6 active dancers. Darcy will probably throw up a review at some point, perhaps even with incriminating video. Check out her blog here.

And now it’s Monday… and I’m starting the week with a Keg of Coffee.

On Saturday night I headed into Boston with a wonderful group to see Alicia perform with the Firebird ensemble and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project.

The Cast:
Me.
Ryan Schenk
Ruth
Math Tim
Chef Sarah
Kelly
Chris

The Arrival

We all arrived in Boston at different times. Ryan, Ruth, and Math Tim met me in town around 6:40 for beverages . Chef Sarah, Kelly, and Chris came a bit later. As I walked these three up the stairs to our balcony seats Kelly asked…

“What type of music is this anyway?”
Mike D: “Modern.”
Kelly: “Modern?”
Mike D: “Very modern. It could be really strange.”

The show.
The event started with the world premier of a piece composed by Alejandro Rutty called “The Conscious Sleepwalker Loops.” It was fantastic. The music was sweeping and epic with some A+ percussion. Ruth spent much of the first song leaned forward looking over the balcony rail at the drum player who was rocking out.

The second piece was the world premier of a piece by Derek Hurst. The music is described on the bmop website as “a precarious balance between visceral solemnity and muscular jocularity.” The Firebird ensemble was featured and really? it was very strange. The beginning was really powerful and had the stringed instruments of the Firebird ensemble plucking their strings aggressively. I looked over towards Ryan Schenk who gave two thumbs up. After that the song became a bit more academic, and it was very tense and got me feeling a bit uncomfortable.

Intermission came and went and the second half started with the music Ken Ueno with yet another world premier. This one called “On a Sufficient Condition for the Existence of Most Specific Hypothesis”

DANG!

Ken is an overtone singer. and I was BLOWN away. He generated these powerful deep growls from within his throat that would occasionally be coupled with really high squeals. Behind his intense singing was some really wild string work which had the musicians sliding their hands up and down the strings creating a sensation of the music slowing and speeding. The other members of my group were not as thrilled with the vocals – they thought it seemed too painful or sounded too much like something you’d hear out of a horror movie. For me? I couldn’t be more awestruck. It was brilliant.

The final piece was a premier of a song composed by Lisa Bielawa called simply “Double Violin Concerto.” It was a very beautiful piece. The two violinists really worked well off one another. There were two things that were especially unique about this piece. The first was that there was an accordion player (yes!) The second was that the featured female violinist sang while playing. I don’t know how hard this is, but she did a pretty bang up job.

Overall, the event was really fun. It’s always a little weird going to these events, but definitely worth it to get a few new experiences.

This past Saturday was a blast. After a moderately intense kung fu class (we did conditioning… I’m sore), I headed over to the rock climbing gym with Irene, Tony, and Paulette. Where… wait for it… I started work on my first 5.13.

5.13′s are extremely hard climbs.

I didn’t finish it. In fact, I didn’t get much further than about 12 feet off the ground, but that alone is far better than I’ve ever performed on any 5.13 that I’ve tried in the past. Also, it should be said that I am still not a comfortable 5.12 climber. There’s a 5.12+ which is royally kicking my butt and a handful of 5.12-’s and 5.11+’s that cause me considerable grief. Still, getting on a 5.13 and working the moves feels really amazing. I’ve been told that the crux of the climb is actually at the top… very far from where I am. But have faith! I’m climbing harder than I’ve ever climbed before and I think that this route may be something I can accomplish. I’ll keep working it.

Sunday we had band practice. We started working on a Soundgarden tune (My Wave) and dang. Let me tell you: Soundgarden does some truly amazing things. My Wave is in 5/4 and has some really intense transitions. We sounded pretty good. I’m hoping to be ready for a show by June-ish.

After the band rocked out, I came back and put together a monster turkey feast for the roommates and our Roller Derby crowd. Chris, Irene, Keller, and I went over to check out the CT Roller Girls. Check out the review over on the left. The bout was incredible. Keller and I ended up staying at the After-party until about 11:30pm. It was a good time.

The next bout is on March 16th. It’s an interleague match and CT’s stepford sabotage will need our support. Let me know if you’d like to join our group.