selkirk

Dru = becoming predictable That doesn't sound like the good crazy in da bed.... she kind of sounds like the knife wielding variety :0

oh, oh, oh, should I get all Taoist? Damming a stream might take a thousand rocks, but diverting it might only take 1 :) If she's feeling persecuted and is on the defensive she'll never go along with anything even if it's in her own best interests. If you can get her off the defensive and not try to assign blame you might get lucky and she'll see reason. You can always escalate and change the locks but you can't ever de-escalate.

Are you sure that's not the meth talking It is thursday afterall and everything moves slower on thursdays.

I've only had the pleasure of one crazy roomate. Seemed to be normal at the outset.... turns out he was passive aggressive ass. Couldn't abide the dishwasher, shower, or any running water when we was anything resembling asleep. He was an ex submariner, so he said the sound of the water freaked him out. Of course he worked odd hours so was asleep in the afternoon/early evening, and in the morning. Ranted and raved and bitched and moaned and threatened. At one point he showed up in the kitchen with a hammer threw it on floor and said my roomate could make more noise with that. Because we all know how loud making microwave popcorn is Luckily it only took the tense unpleasant, this situation is as untenable for you as it is for us, so what will it take for you to leave? He may have been an ass but he wasn't completely unreasonable. I think a lot of it was just figuring out how to approach him that so he didn't go on the defensive immediately. Kind of phrased as we could have handled it better, he could have handled, we don't care who's right/wrong, but it's making everyone miserable (him included) so how can we fix it. Of course if she's truly just a whack job who's having fun tormenting you all then you're up a creek on the flip side I had an aunt who went through 4 roomates in her first year of college before the school determined it was easier to give her own room. She just proved she was a bigger bitch then they where. You, know the fun little touches like lighting off firecrackers under their bed in the middle of night.

aaah, group hug! And I think climbing chicks are by definition hawt. Most athletes are! Strong, confident, and willing to take risks and challenge yourself is a very good combination.

Best of all get a #4 and a #1 DMM

I've got an Edelweiss Laser, 9.8. Has held up quite well. Only thing that is less than ideal is that it has a bit of a stiff hand to it. Not exactly slinky like the Mammut's or Beals I've played with.

As a side bar - Has there been any discussion of modularizing a halfbag/parka/bottom sheet system? It seems like most people I know always have a parka with them, even if they're also taking a bag so there might be an option to optimize the 1/2 bag parka system a little bit. Add in some sort of mating system (buttons or zippers) at the top of the bag and just inside and above the bottom of the parka to avoid the gap between them. Insulation only on the top of the half bag and footbox, with a replaceable bottom sheet. Make the 1/2 bag, parka shells, and bottom sheets out of eVent so that for a short duration trips a separate bivy bag isn't necessary. Then add an additional zip in bottom sheet that mates with the zippers on the parka to keep all the loft above you. It might be necessary to tweak the parka hood design as it would initially be facing the wrong way, but that could be modified with a detachable hood. The double bag sounds like a useful product but only to a very very limited market.

If you can sneak into a med school lecture at UW, Tom Hornbein give's a hell of a talk on altitude illness and his climb of the West Ridge of Everest! Talk about incredible pictures.

oh, you got to excited and overshot it archie! I didn't thing chicks dug that

Hows the new gig? Or is it still a big secret so we don't harrass you too much?

10 Commandments for Beginning Philosophers (Bertrand Russel I think?) 1) Do not feel certain of anything. 2) do not thing it worthwhile to produce believe by concealing evidence, for hte evidence will surely come to light. 3) Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed 4) When met with oppositiong, even if it should be from your husband, your children, the president, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependant on authority is unreal and illusory. 5) Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found. 6) Do nout use power to spuress opinions you htink are pernicious, for if you do, the opinions will supress you. 7) Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric. 8) Find more plesure in intelligent dissents than in passive agreements, for if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter. 9) Be scrupulously truthful, even when truth is inconvienent, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it. 10) Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness!

There are many levels of veterans. Please identify your units, job classifications, whether or not you've served combat duty in Grenada, Panama, Somalia, Haiti, Desert Storm/Shield, OIF, OEF and if it applies which deployment phases. I think this will help seperate the men from the boys. Come on Gotterdamerung - I usually agree with about 3/4 of what you have to say but every time somebody with military service spouts off this shit it pisses me off. It doesn't take being in combat on the ground to have an informed, intelligent, and valid opinion on our current foreign policy and how were prosecuting it. And it doesn't take having served to have the right to have on opinion and you know it. Some people seem to percieve a desire to serve the public good as weakness of intelligence and overabundance of machismo, and those people should be strung up by their thumbs. But there are more ways that are just as honorable and necessary to serve the country and the world than through the military. That said, welcome home, glad you didn't get shot, and your service is appreciated. Same goes to all the vets on here. It's good to have a voice to argue against us godless, America hating liberals. Or even us unabashed moderates Dems. and old school Republicans.

Hell I might even make an appearance at this one Anyone interested in a couple hours at VW beforehand?

Your making all of us cubical monkeys very jealous!!!! It's good to know someone's getting some good climbing in even if it isn't me!

you mean besides you?

A few shops seem to be ok with demo-ing tools as well. Jim at PMS lent a couple of us a pair of Monsters to spend an evening drytooling with, and heard some scuttlebut that Marmot led a fellow demo a pair of DMM Rebels last weekend

Congratulations on the new job Archie! Hopefully it pays better than snowboarding and breeding wieners and is just as much fun

Irresponsible owners suck. Two of the nicest dogs I have ever known where a pit and doberman. Sweet as can be. Though the pit wasn't allowed in the house since it smelled like ass. It had never had a bath, and decided it was never going to. It liked being sprayed down with the hose on occasion though. Used to wrestle with the doberman all the time. Pits' are just such powerful dogs that you can't afford to have them at all ill behaved or they become a danger. Only dog that I've ever been bitten by was my own miniature schnauser growing up though.

Nail polish works pretty well, especially if the biners/gear has any raised areas on it (like stamped logos or strengths' along the spine). It'll get into the depressions and lasts pretty well. Either that or you could just get the biggest heaviest biners/pulleys you can find so no one wants to steal them

The weak point is "improbable" Everyone knows that there are three kinds of lies.... lies, damn lies, and statistics. The probability that we came into existence through coincidence happenstance and evolutions is awfully low as well, yet somehow we ended up here.

"we can't know his intentions" is evasive BS. If your going to apply that line of reasoning, it applies to what you believe is the right thing to do as well as the wrong. My interpretation of "In his image" has always been in reference to the capacity for rational abstract thought and free will. Everything else should stem from that. Of course I'm a very bad Christian so what the hell do I know.

As a good christian, Seahawks, what is your position on free will/predestination the action of God? I've always thought that for the god you believe in to have meaning he can't take action in this world. Didn't understand the second part (meaning). Willing to answer what I think. May not be the answer though as I've never met God. Free will/Predestination - alot arguments about this stuff, I do not claim to have the answers. I think you have been given totaly free will, God didn't want robots. What good was a creation if we all were robots. I think the predesination part comes in becuase God knows what decision you will make before you make them. Lots of stuff I struggle with, one big one for me is why God keeps himself so secretive. Then I think maybe he just can't stand the crap that is going on here and rather than destroy it all, he keep himself from it and hopes people will wake up. Flame away. Just my thoughts and not preaching. No flaming at all. My thought has always been that if we have free will, the predestination falls apart. Nothing controls your actions, God may or may not know, but he can't/won't influence. Which is why he is secretive. To reveal himself in this world in any way would be to directly affect our choices which would destroy our free will. For God or salvation to have any value or meaning (and it they don't the whole system implodes) we have to be free to choose something else. It can only be achieved through a leap of blind faith. Along the same lines, I think christianity's view the Satan is all screwed up. He can no more tempt us without tampering with free will than God can. We have to have the choice to do as we please, for the choice to do as we see right to have any meaning. Why else would God have allowed Eve to eat the apple, or the snake to tempt her, or Job to disobey his will or ........... Once you go down this path, the Bible becomes a work of man. Inspired by belief in God, but a work of man none the less.

That's just it. If your completely comfortable with your belief and the fact that it is baseless then there is no need to become defensive or aggressive about it. I've always thought that people get defensive when asked to prove or support their belief, when they don't understand that it's based on faith and nothing more (or less for that matter). It's possible to progressively back yourself (or someone else) into a corner, where seemingly everything that supports your belief has been stripped away except faith and choice. It scares the hell out of people who haven't come to terms with it, as it appears that their belief system has just crumbled, and they fight tooth and nail for that not to happen. But in reality it's that leap of faith to believe in something (or the leap of faith to believe in nothing for atheists) which makes that belief simple, beautiful and powerful.

On a completely different note going back to a comment of KK's Why in the world do people seem to latch on to either/or propositions and insist on seeing dichotomies where non exists? Evolution is not inconsistant with the Bible. Neither is the big bang theory for that matter. And why o why do people insist on reading portions of the bible literaly, and other portions allegorically? The whole thing was written by people. People who are inherently fallible and attempting to explain a belief system and series of stories and legends that they were (and still are) incabable of grasping. grrrrrr I hate that!!