Posts from — December 2008

3421 seconds. That’s how long it took my new laptop to render the de facto radiance benchmark scene. That’s good enough for 13th place on the list, not bad for a laptop marketed to college kiddies and soccer moms. My old laptop is 36% slower in this test, and cost me $700 more than my new one. Amazing.

Full stats:
rpict user time: 3421
proc: Intel Core 2 Duo
cores: 1/2
clock speed: 2.4 GHz
cache: 3 MB
OS: OS X 10.5.6
Radiance ver: 4.0a
compiler: gcc 4.0.1
compile options: -O2 -ffast-math -funroll-loops
results: 691120680 rays
date: 2008-12-29
submitter: robg

I got new stuff. Lots of new stuff. Plenty of fodder for posting in the future. For now you should know that in the last couple of months I got a new TiVo, an iPhone, climbing shit, rollers, and today, the big purchase of 2008, a new MacBook. The box was cute and small. They emailed me my receipt (which caused my iPhone to buzz with delight as I was walking out the front door of the Apple Store). Moments after firing it up, my new mac was already performing a full system backup, wirelessly, to my Apple Time Machine. Brenda’s getting my MacBook Pro as soon as I get everything off of it and do a fresh install, and I’m psyched to be an all-Apple house once and for all (and I’m hopeful that the new graphics on the MacBooks will be adequate for my needs; for now, I’m pretty delighted with the keyboard, the form factor, and the new-to-me version of OS X).

The nice thing about learning to climb at the Boulder Rock Club is that the place is so packed with awesome climbers that you never, ever get it in your head that you are even in the same league as these people. Today Brenda & I were at the gym and I was totally mesmerized by these two women and one guy in particular. Muscle and tendon rippled underneath a thin veil of skin, with not a gram of body fat to be seen. These people owned the walls and I was totally amazed by their talents. At one point I must have said something like “holy fucking shit, look at her go!”, because some dude standing near Brenda & me said that the woman on the wall was one of the top female climbers in the country. It sorta makes you feel better about your own lack of ability when you hear that; at least you know you’re looking at the high-water mark of climbing ability, so you don’t feel so bad about your own lack of form or skill. It’s like everything else aerobic in Boulder; no matter how good you get, there’s someone about to pass you who makes it all look so easy.

This is a door in my office; my office full of engineers. Is anyone still wondering why bridges fall down every once in a while?

Oh, and if you’re wondering, yes the door is locked. Jesus.

With my winter goal of keeping in shape taking… uh, shape, I have gone to the climbing gym a couple of times, and now own a harness, shoes and belay device of my very own. But while climbing is no doubt very strenuous, it’s a lot of short bursts of energy and not a lot of sustained aerobic activity. One of the reasons I want to exercise through the winter is so that I can emerge from the Colorado snow in the spring already in shape to ride in the mountains, instead of spending April and May getting in shape.

And so, while I have every intention of spending a couple nights a week at the climbing gym, I need another thing to get the lungs working. I thought about getting a stationary trainer for my bike, and while I was surfing the web looking at the latest in trainer tech (and boy have they come a long way since my old RacerMate 2!) I came across a deal on a set of rollers. Yeah! Why not?!

I used to ride rollers when I was in high school and college (ever since I first saw the scene in “Breaking Away” where Dennis Christopher is training on them in the rain, eating an apple), but it’s been a long time, for sure. Unlike stationary bike trainers, where the bike is clamped into a sturdy base that supports the bike upright, rollers are a set of three cylindrical drums, two for the rear wheel and one for the front. The front drum is linked to the rear with a belt, and while pedaling the bike rotates the rear drums, the belt in turn rotates the front drum. Basically, rollers are like a treadmill for a bicycle, and the bike is freely wheeling along the drums while you pedal, and the only thing holding you up is your own balance. Needless to say, riding rollers is a lot less mindless than pushing the pedals around on a stationary trainer.

In general, people ride rollers to improve their bike handling skills, as traditional rollers don’t provide a lot of resistance. But newer rollers have smaller diameter drums, which increases the resistance somewhat. You can also run fatter tires at lower air pressures to increase the drag some more and get a reasonable breathe going, while still getting the extra benefit of improved balance that riding rollers instills in people.

Performance Bike had a sale on a pair of TravelTrac Rollers, and they took another 10% off at the register for a Christmas sale that was going on, so I walked out of there with a brand new set of alloy rollers for $120. I am impressed with the build quality and the bearings, and the non-skid sections on the rails is a nice touch (helps getting on and off the bike).

I set the rollers up in the garage, alongside a shelving unit that is firmly screwed into the wall studs, giving me a nice handle to hang onto (and grab, when necessary) as I started learning how to ride rollers again. I hopped on my bike and started pedaling, and 30 seconds later I had let go of the shelf bracket; I was riding rollers again, for the first time in about 15 years!

Encouraged, I changed into some cycling shorts and put on my cleated shoes and spun along for about 15 minutes or so. A couple of wobbles sent me reaching for the shelf bracket, but I never crashed and in general I would say it was a good re-introduction to roller riding. Hopefully in time, I’ll be able to ride no hands, drink water, look around, etc. Right now it’s all concentration just to remain upright and on the rollers, but practice makes perfect, right? I was able to get a good sweat going, and I plan to get some cheap, fat tires to both help with the resistance as well as save my good Conti tires for the road, come spring (the rollers deposit a fine aluminum dust on the tires, and wear them out prematurely).

Fun!

If you’re curious, here are some links to some good videos that show the good, the bad and the ugly of riding rollers.

Here’s what not to do:
Idiot

Here’s a good basic clip of how it’s done (setting the rollers in a doorway is a great way to have a hand-hold on either side of you for when things don’t go according to plan):
Roller basics

… and this guy is just freakin’ great:
Stupid Roller Tricks

Course Number-Section:
EBIO 1210 - 302

Course Title:
General Biology 1

Credit Hours:
3.0

Projected Grade:
A-

Tonight, I headed back to the rock climbing gym to get checked out on the belay gear, and once that was out of the way, I was cleared to climb all over the joint. I had one day left on my complimentary week-long pass to the gym, so Brenda came with and we figured we could climb together.

The belay test was a joke, and three minutes later I was good to go. So Brenda & I headed upstairs to the little walls and first made sure that she could arrest my fall. Sure enough, the mechanical advantage of the belay device made it easy for her to stop my 200 lbs from falling once I popped off the wall. Pretty impressive!

With all the formalities out of the way, we commenced taking turns up the same routes. After a couple of easy ones, we tried a harder one that I simply could not make the last little bit. I tried a couple times, and gave up. Then Brenda tied in, and proceeded to sprint right up the damned wall; like, in 30 seconds she was at the top. She rappelled down, and I said “how did you do that?”, she shrugged her shoulders, and I half-jokingly said “do that again”, and she proceeded to do it again, just as fast, and just as effortlessly. Wow. In your face, Rob.

Then we went downstairs and Brenda rocked a couple of the taller routes while I was her belay bitch. In my defense, I have received zero training on climbing, all I was shown was how to tie myself in and shit. I think I do alright for making it up as I go, but clearly I have much to learn. This is not a problem, as I need something to do all winter so I can emerge in the spring in shape for once in my life. I think I have found my winter exercise.

So about a year ago Brenda bought me an “introductory lesson package” gift certificate from the soaring school at Boulder Municipal Airport. I finally got a chance to get on the schedule.

I have flown gliders exactly one other time before, back on the east coast. A friend of a friend offered me a chance to fly a Schewitzer 2-33 from Van Sant airport in Pennsylvania, and I had a ball despite the overcast day which meant no thermals, which meant we went up, and basically came right back down. Since moving to Boulder, I have pretty much stopped flying airplanes save for a few checkout flights, due to cost and time constraints. But apparently Boulder Colorado, in addition to being a veritable Mecca for cycling, rock climbing, hiking and trail running, is also somewhat of a worldwide destination for soaring. Boulder’s location, tucked up against the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, makes it a great spot to launch from. The summertime Colorado sun generates plenty of thermals and the wintertime wave action over the mountains creates conditions ripe for skilled pilots to take a motorless aircraft to altitudes above 20,000 feet. Naturally, I was intrigued. I guess Brenda got tired of hearing me say “I really need to go over there and try the gliders”, because she got me this really great Christmas present last year that I finally got to cash in on this past Saturday.

Unfortunately, the weather was rapidly deteriorating (a huge front swept in Saturday night and dumped a bunch of snow on us, and it’s 1 degree outside right now), so I only got to do one tow. My instructor was originally from Hawaii, and with me from New Jersey, we met in Boulder, towed to 2,000’ AGL and proceeded to get the shit knocked out of us.

But what a view!

This is us approaching our release altitude, with Valmont Reservior to the left and the Flatirons filling the windscreen. The turbulence was fairly severe, and several times there was an uncomfortable amount of slack in the tow rope as towplane and glider each got smacked around in their own little shitstorms of air. After we released, we were able to easily hover in place if we pointed the ship directly into the prevailing west wind, which was fun, but my instructor sensed it was only going to get worse and so we cut the lesson short and headed back to the airport.

I still have two tows coming to me and hopefully I’ll get those in sometime soon. I am in the enviable position of working a mere mile and a half from the airport these days, so a lunch hour launch is not out of the question.

Getting the glider pilot’s license is merely an add-on rating for me, since I already possess a private pilot’s certificate. Rental rates are cheaper, and since the gliders don’t burn any gas, after the tow, it’s a pretty sustainable activity. So, I’m certainly interested in pursuing the rating, but it’s still an expensive hobby. We’ll see. At the very least I can look forward to a couple more flights, and I’ll be sure to document the fun right here.

It’s been a while, but tonight I finally tried something new: rock climbing. More specifically, I took a belay course at the Boulder Rock Club, that included a little rock climbing. Brenda got into rock climbing about a year and a half ago, and at the time I had no interest in joining her. I was riding my bike around while she was hanging from tiny little pieces of plastic bolted to the climbing walls in the gym (and later, from chinks in the rocks of Eldorado Canyon), and that was fine with me; she had her hobby, and I had mine. Once she started her classes last year, Brenda absolutely fell in love with the challenges: the physical challenges as well as the mental puzzle-solving challenges that go with the territory. Still, I just thought rock climbing wasn’t for me. I’m too heavy, too klutzy, too weak. Too outta shape.

And then I saw some climbing movie, and everything changed. I want to do that, I thought. And so tonight I made the first tiny baby step towards becoming a rock climber, by signing up for the Wednesday night “Belay Basics” class taught at the Boulder Rock Club.

I showed up at the Boulder Rock Club after work tonight and met Joe, my instructor. Turns out I was the only person signed up this week, so I got one-on-one instruction for the whole lesson! He gave me some shoes and a harness; I thanked him for the gear and realized that he could have handed me a pair of Crocs and a garden hose and I would have thought I was properly equipped. I would spend the next hour or so becoming familiar with these pieces of equipment as well as the belay device, a simple piece of aluminum with a cable attached to it that allows the belayer (the dude on the ground) to stop a fall easily.

Joe gave me a tour of the place, a large complex of several rooms with ceilings over twenty feet high, with ropes everywhere, and all manner of hardbodies—men and women who could totally kick my ass—hanging from the ropes like they lived there, and others doing Spider Man impersonations all over the climbing walls. I was intimidated. But then we went upstairs to what apparently is the beginner room. A few nine year-olds were wandering around and doing their OWN best Spider Man impersonations. I was intimidated, again.

But no matter, I was simply here to learn to belay, this requires one’s feet on the ground. Baby steps.

Joe taught me the basics of checking your harness, how to tie the knots one needs, and the basics of belay jargon before he set off on his merry way up the wall, providing a real-live belay experience for me. Some pointers ensued, and after a few more runs up and down the wall, he said to undo the belay device and he handed me the other end of the rope and the next thing I knew I was standing in front of the wall and I hear someone going “OK give it a try, why don’t you follow the blue tape, that’s a 5.6 route, nice and easy.” It was Joe, and he was talking to me.

Right. Wait, what? Step on these little things?! Well shit, the nine year-old is halfway up the goddamned thing, so I guess I’d better get moving…

Next thing I know I’m at the top, and for lack of a better thing to do I tapped the bar at the top of the climb and then Joe said something and then apparently I needed some training to descend too. (I was trying to go down the way I came up, sort-of like descending a ladder, but you’re supposed to lower your butt stick your legs straight out, and enjoy the ride down.)

After riding a slide down to the lower floor, we looked for some more free ropes to continue the lesson. There were none free in the back room, so we headed toward the front, that room by the entrance. By now I had been all over the joint, and I had a decent idea of the lay of the land: we were now in the inner sanctum. The walls here often splayed away far from the vertical, the muscles on the climbers here were ripped. Chalk dust coated everything and everyone, and they all seemed to be in some sort of zone.

Joe set us up out of the way and I got some more practice belaying, lots of belaying. Taking up slack, braking the rope to arrest Joe’s falls, etc. I was getting pretty comfy with all of that. And then he decided I should try another climb. In the inner sanctum.

By now I had sort-of gone into a trance of my own, the end result of being exposed to so many senses and experiences all at once. So, up I went, following the brown tape. Encouraging words from Joe in a couple spots, and… tap. Twenty feet up, I start the ride down, looking at my neighbors hanging from their own ropes, and I smile.

Sensing we are wearing out our welcome, Joe retreats us to the back room again, where we find a free line this time. A harder route still. I finally run into a dead-end. I fall off the wall trying to work it out. Joe lowers me and shows me a couple things (after all, this was supposed to be a belay class, but since I’m the only student, I get some free climbing tips in the bargain). I try again, and this time I get past that first hurdle, and past a few more, but I never make it to the top. I am done for the night, tired, but really happy. I take a look around from fifteen feet up, and glide down.

I have to go back in a couple days to do a belay test with another instructor to make sure I remember everything, but then I can rent some shoes and a harness and start climbing!

Yeah so it’s been over a month since I’ve posted, and it’s not that I fell over dead from surprise that this nation elected a black President. Been busy, been distracted, been lazy. Lots of my friends whose blogs I read are either resorting to posting infrequently and populating their pages with twitter links and whatnot, or giving up altogether.

But I kind of like this blog thing. I’ve had some sort of presence on the web since 1998 (starting with a crappy little static page on my old panix account that I can’t even find on the wayback machine), and a “formal” blog, complete with archives and shit, since late 2002. I have documented some thoughts about 9/11, the deaths of my Grandfather / Father / pet cat of 17 years, my move to Boulder, Colorado, commuting in various forms, bacon, TiVo, and of course, all kinds of people who bother me. You know, the idiots. And I don’t want to stop.

In the meantime, I have discovered Facebook, Flickr and lots of other sites that vie for my web attention dollar. Oh and I also have decided I might like to become a veterinarian in my lifetime, and have started taking classes in that vein.

But the fact is, I also just like to write. Life is getting interesting around here these days, and it seems that when I’m doing interesting things that’s when I do my best writing. And when I’m writing, I find myself thinking about writing, even more. And that leads to more writing, for better or for worse.

So I’m going to take some time these next couple weeks as the semester winds down (good lord, is it ever odd to have my calendar revolve around that time frame again) and think about how I might go about this. There is much to do. Update blog software. Maybe a site makeover, with some organizational changes. Maybe finally add in all the missing content and keywords from the last three makeovers. But even if none of that housekeeping gets done, I can at least start writing again, which is what I plan to do.

I’ve got some stuff in the hopper of life and I hope it all bears fruit—on here, and out there.