Off_White

You mean they have time machines too? Bastards!

It's been years since I've looked at that book, ever since my buddy stole it back from me (it was his in the first place). Is the high price due to the autographs or is it some kind of rare book now? I could do without the hero worship, but some of those shots are great and the essays pretty good too.

Agreed, and if I were to pay for it, I'd feel like I had to watch it to get my money's worth, and that would really cut into my reading time.

I'm open to a picnic, but it seems like folks around here usually have better fish to fry on the weekend than a 75' high sport crag, and the south facing nature of the crag tends to be pretty hostile in the middle of the day during nice weather. As I mentioned earlier though, there is limited public access, so those of you who are both curious and more distant are welcome to make arrangements that suit your schedule. CP - What you can see from the train is the Lemon Hill Quarry, which has only a very small section of "natural" crag and a huge section quarried for blocks. This one is just east of Tenino, on the north side of the valley. Tree growth has been slowly reducing it's visiblity, but you still can't miss it if you're paying attention.

Points for style though, seriously old school. Using street foot wear to burn off the gapers, and no pad!

I dunno GD, I thought it was a good quip, no need to get all brittle about it. So logging in this morning, I see 39 new posts, doubling the size of this thread, and i think, man, there's gotta be some kinda rude fireworks going on in there, I gotta see this. Turns out it's just Fairweather and global warming again. Does this remind anyone else of Pope, Dwayner, and bolting? Does he have some kind of bot combing the internet, zooming in anytime the word "fahrenheit" is used, so that mighty Pro-Industry Man can ride to the defense?

You've been asleep at the controls Doc, that's old news. The obvious answer is... drive to Squamish and go to the Pet Wall.

DPS has hair? Somehow he just doesn't sound like a guy who has hair.

As an aside, I really hope TinTin escapes the comics-into-movies trend, I just know it would wind up ghastly.

Oh my, there's a lot of blood in that penguin's severed head.

Yes Sobo, very astute, it is indeed Tenino sandstone, which is much more solid than Peshastin. The tallest route is only 75' high, and it is an old quarry. Mostly blasted for rip rap, the stone from this quarry went into the first jetty at Westport around 1912. It is in my front yard, and I can see one edge from where I sit right now. It is somewhat open to the public. You have to have a waiver on file, and you have to call (and speak to a real person) each time you come out. Oddly enough, these hoops are enough to dissuade most visitors. Maybe they've just heard that the owners are assholes.

Only in the movies. Mostly, diesel would just make a mess, though you could make a big smoky fire. As to Halliburton making more money with Iraqi drivers, aren't they on a cost plus contract? Presumably their profit is not a fixed number, but a percentage of the cost. High cost = higher profit. Same way it works for oil companies when the price per barrel goes up, their profit increases at the same rate.

Recently, framing guns have started shipping with the "bounce nailing" feature disabled, and you either have to purchase a kit, or in the case of a few manufacturers, just move a switch to enable this traditional nail gun mode. In bounce nailing, holding the trigger down lets the gun to fire a nail every time the nosepiece is depressed, and working with the recoil and body motion you can put out a lot of nails in a very short time. Sequential trip (the new factory default due to liability concerns) means you have to release the trigger every time you want to fire a nail. Finish nailers are usually used this way, since you only want to put one nail, exactly where you want it, each time. In either case, it would be tough to accidentally put that many nails into one head. There's your construction geek lesson for the day. I have seen an x-ray of a guy with a 3-1/2" nail in the back of his head. His buddy was climbing down a ladder while holding the trigger down, and when the gun bumped the back of his head it nailed his hat to his skull. The guy was alright after it was removed though.

Report I heard stated 10 to 20k per month. A quick web search yields: and for those of you thinking this might be a good deal, Sounds more like 10k a month rather than 20. Figure there are 2080 hours in the average work year, and this one will be bound to have overtime, so call it 2400 hours in the year. That's $50 per hour. Good, yes, but not amazing. It doesn't make me consider quitting my day job. Of course, tax free adds to the take home pay quite a bit. I don't know what Halliburton's mark-up on this is, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's at least 50%, and probably much more. So, yeah, it's gonna cost joe taxpayer at least $200k per year per driver, not counting the truck and the fuel to run it, and nothing to the IRS to boot. It would be a lot cheaper to use regular army to drive the trucks, but I haven't gotten the impression we're awash in military personnel with nothing to do. It sucks for the taxpayer, but the push towards privatizing almost everything is hardly new, and even if folks become aware enough to reconsider this philosophy, it's not a trend that could be reversed in anything less than years. I'd guess there are many Iraqis who could be hired to do these jobs for much less money, and after all, it's their country that needs to be put back together, but what little I know suggests we have some problems determining who are the good guys and who are the bad ones. The private military industry, which Gotterdamerung toils in, is another costly piece of the puzzle. I've heard there are 15,000 corporate warriors, roughly 10% of the total military force, and a larger component than any other nation besides the US provides. While this is a new concept for recent times, mercenaries have been around for thousands of years. I know the current arrangement costs a lot, but I don't have a sense of how it compares to historical costs of military-for-hire versus national forces. GD, I know you've argued that it's worth it, but do you have any numbers and history to support that argument? No matter how you stack it, this will turn out to have been a very expensive proposition, and we can look forward to years of post mortem dissection of all the assumptions and decisions around how this ill advised war was waged.

I've been contemplating agitating for an Olympia/South Sound pub club modelled on Portland's "Rocky Butte" model. Starting next Wednesday, May 12th, I'd like to have a casual climbing/drinking event at my place in Tenino. Ideally, this would evolve into a weekly after work play session, where one could just show up and expect to climb. Here's a pic of the right side of the crag: There is one more short 5.10 to the right, and about 25 more climbs to the left. I'm afraid the easiest climb so far is a 5.9 corner down at the far left end, but this sort of climbing lends itself well to developing a choreography, and things that seemed preposterous your first time start to come together after a few visits, so don't feel put off if the numbers seem intimidating. Conversely, there are a number of 5.12's for those more ambitious, and some potential for other new routes. The property is of course intoxicant friendly, and does feature a great fire pit down in a hollow. Drinking could move to either the Landmark Tavern or the Powder Keg (on the way back to Olympia) for those who find an indoor facility more conducive to inebriation. I don't really want to post an address and map on the web, but PM me if you're interested and I'll send you the info.

Well, the thread may suck but the musical quotations rock. Neil Young and Beck in the same thread.

Yup, it's Robbins Crack. Be aware it's also the descent from the boulder (and taller than it looks in the photo). Follow that crack through to the other side of the boulder and it's Lie Detector, way hard at the bottom, but if you lower down from the top you can do some wonderful 5.10 finger jamming. Woodson really excels in the short crack category, and has some great face routes to boot, but a lot of things benefit from a top rope (though my experience there pre-dates pads, so I don't know if that has changed). I have an antique guide to the area I could xerox for you if you want, send me a pm. As Lummox says, Santee is great fun, one of my favorite bouldering areas on the planet. Lots of thin edgy face climbing, slabby by modern standards, hence my fondness. There's a range of good roped climbing down there too, but that's probably more involved than its worth for a short trip. If it's hot though, do consider Tahquitz and Suicide, they're simply wonderful, and easy day trips from San Diego.

I thought Bamf was a tourist town in the Canadian Rockies. It's not too near Whistler though

They didn't like that little crack about the Halloween costume. Watch your step Lummie.

Another tried and true technique is "spy." You know, spies are super quiet and avoid notice, watching everything going on but not drawing attention to themselves. (Damn, thread drift, spray, I am so suck. Think, think, how to be topical?) Ahhh, I uhh, once spied some glue-in bolts, sorta snuck up on them.

The epitome of three-year-old-itis: "Why, why, why?" Uncle Greg, why does it bother you?

I agree Dru. I once heard someone (with a straight face) assert that the greatest sign that you had been abused as a child was if you didn't remember it. That kind of psycho dreck only detracts from dealing with the all too real aspects of the problem.

Is Bush The Anti-Christ? Research suggests he is.

When I saw the thread title, I said to myself, "Hmmm, I know where this is going to go." Thanks Dru.

Ugh, and I wouldn't be surprised if one could generate a similar list featuring democrats. Sex with children? I don't even get it a little bit. That's just fucked up.