cynicalwoodsman

Pm'd you

Cool thread. For me, goin' to the crag or the gym is like goin' to the mall. I'm surrounded by all the popular kids in new gear buying stuff at every new expensive store in the place 'n all I can afford is a cinnabon and a $5 CD from the dusty discount rack!

E-rock, where 'bouts in WNY u at, 'n what phily 'burb you from? We do have some common ground. It's refreshing. But the big diff is u got a girl worth hangin' for. I don't. Things aren't great. Usually they kinda suck. Point is it ain't worth livin' here. My pops has alzheimers in ROchester. My mom was june cleaver for almost 50 years and the real world has kicked her ass with my dad bein' unable to make decisions anymore. My self-serving brother lives nearby and has been in her ear more than I'd like. It's hard to have an impact from 6 hours away. The lake front house south of 'cuse my folks were forced to move out of lays empty and starting to look unkept. And I have a standing offer to wrench bikes in Syracuse. My gf, may or may not come with me. I'd like to see the effort, but it's probably for the best if we just cut our losses 'n call it quits. At least syr is do-able for her. Seattle, where I have another standing offer to wrench bikes, is not do-able for her. I just couldn't bring myself to tell moms I'm gonna bail that far away when she needs me to be around 'n lend a hand, so I haven't really considered the cascades, but it sure as hell is knockin' 'round my noggin'! To thicken the plot, I have a potential opportunity for a job that's actually in my field that pays good moncy, but it's here in Cleveland. Tempting! But I'd be prolonging my bad relationship, still too far from the 'rents, and still not anywhere close to the hills. I have a few days to make my final decision. I'm gonna be drinkin' a lotta beer. Anyway, thanks for the thoughts, dude. GOod stuff.

So after 3+ years of living in the wind-swept flats, I'm finally movin' out. I even got a job offer in Redmond, Wa! But I'm gonna head to Syracuse to help my mom deal with my alzheimers-stricken pops and take care of the house. Duty calls. Hurts turnin' down the washington gig, but at least I'll be closer to the hills, trails, 'n ice! Maybe next year.

Wow thanks!

Thanks dude. Should I change my handle? I'll never get to be spray master. Don't worry about it. Spray Master is not all it's cracked up to be. The yoke is heavy. Very heavy... It's no walk in the park just posting in here sometimes. What's the trade-off? Do you get free ice cream? Cuz that would be rad.

Ya got me thinkin'... this usb interface thingy I got defaults to dumping down in the form of an mp3 so I uncompressed it into a wav file. It opens it up to what it was in the first place. mp3's are SO compressed. I hate 'em. When i first dumped it on soundcloud and listened to it I could hardly tell it was stereo. So I replaced it with the wave file and it's a massive difference. Headphones, as always, are the best way to listen to it. I also ended up panning the rhythm guitars really hard L/R and put the bass/drums/lead all toward the middle. That helped a lot with separation. Thanks dude. Should I change my handle? I'll never get to be spray master.

Instrumental Guitar: http://snd.sc/wuJDio

THanks! I just realized the better mix didn't end up there... I'm fixing that now. I did the whole thing on a Zoon MRS-8 digi-studio. It uses an sd card. A cpl hunert beans more 'n I could'a got one that had on-board cd. I hate dealin' with the computer so intimidation and bad reviews on zoom's software and goin' via card-reader 'n all that kept me from finally mixing down a master track and gettin' it off the recorder. So I bought an analog-digi (numark stereo io $50 at sam ash) that has rca's (2 in 4 out) which is what the main L and R outs are on the recorder. Recorder-> interface-> computer via usb. It dl's what it needs immediately upon pluggin' into usb. moments later I was live. I'm gonna get goin' on a fresh project today! Hopefully it won't take me another 4 yrs to finish. IT sure is a lotta fun though... far cry from the old cassette 4 tracks. And I can avoid computer-recording, which is the big thing to me.

Ok looks like that works. The analog to digi interface, that took me 5 stores to find, and that also distracted me from pickin' up the new VH record, was the key. 50 clams well spent. Maybe I'll get another one down soon.

ok its on soundcloud. What now? THis stuff is another language to me.

How do ya post audio? I finally laid down a master track of my 4-year project. I wanna share.

My first fuzz box

Drink.

The reviews look good. I haven't bought an album sight-unseen since Kiss released Love Gun. Maybe I'll do something "crazy" today!

Which one's the fuzz?

How big is that "sprinkler"? Them thing's ain't engineered to take that kinda load in that direction I don't think. Hope ur dick beater feels better. That sucks.

Mass wasting's a bitch. Can my guide handle that for me?

I eat way too much cake.

Ok that's what I thought. Just checkin'. Camper, backpacker, gym climber, crag climber, and then there was always that next logical step that I can't, after having learned "the ropes" 10 yrs ago, seem to get myself out there and actually do it. I always thought it was cuz I lacked the knowlege: avy rescue, glacier travel, etc that all seem like pre-req's for what you guys do. I don't have any of that. But evidently, it doesn't really change that much; it probably wouldn't mitigate objective risks enough for me to get "up there". It would probably be like everything else I learn about the game. It just makes me more scared. Damn is it only real risk that yields the real payoff? Can't perceived risk yield real payoff? WHy can't we be happy gettin' our rocks off gardening or something? The first time I backpaced solo I slipped crossing a sream and banged up my knee pretty good. It was my first day. I was only 2 miles in, 3-4 miles from help in the relatively benign Northern PA backcountry. I'd been backpacking forever. I'd taken my WFA course and grew up the son of a Forest Ranger in the finger lakes of upstate NY. I'd learned how to camp and "survive" from the best of 'em. And I was suddenly absolutely, for a quick second, scared out of my freaking mind. I could die out there from a mild case of pizza knee. "So THIS is what they were talking about during my solo class!", I said to myself. Like the time I first dropped acid at a Dead show and suddenly noticed Jerry's guitar waifing around my brain and swirling around JFK, I thought to myself, "No wonder! I get it! I get It!" I've been wanting to get my ass out there and tie into the sharp end for some moderate alpine rock and ice FOREVER. But the looming fear and intimidation I feel when I get out there is huge. Not to mention I've got no business leading anything at all... is what I often feel. I've led 2 short pitches of WI4- over the last few years. The elation felt when clipping the anchors was shrouded by incessant guilt over the fact I, both times, ran it out well above groundfall territory and I put my totally inexperienced belayers, on both occasions, in potentially a really bad spot. I couldn't decide if I should feel proud or terribly petty and selfish. And whether it be geology or weather or just reading stuff, the more I know and do the more I'm scared. Like me bumping my knee, bad stuff most often seems to happen from slips & falls. Ya read about folks dying in the mtns. Their partners are asked, "... what part of the climb were you on?", and dude says, "He wasn't climbing, he was just walking. It was the freakiest thing. He just slipped. Next thing I knew he was cartwheeling down the fall line". I think a lot of you guys who start early, grow up in the steeps and know how to tie a figure-8 before you know how to ride a bike definitely have a maligned ability to distinguish between what risk is perceived and what is real. I think when you grow up back east, are a late bloomer and mature and spend months healing from an injury at some time, and then you start out, it's a lot different. Ignorance is bliss I guess. That or some of you folks just have an insane 'optimum level of arousal'. Gardening just ain't gonna cut it. But is it actually the real risk that is required? I'm still trying to figure it out. I always thought I was just lazy or a whimp; not that I'm not both, but as much validation I feel when I read stuff like the Gadd article, it's also a bit disheartening. I don't know if I'll ever apply my skill set to the peaks, but when I fantasize about it from my couch, it will have lost something. So I was right. You guys are a bunch of crazy sob's. Or maybe I'm just overconcerned with my own longevity.

indeed - anyone who has will note the wrought iron foundation of said deathray - i explained to my son that it must have been ripped out by an equally impressive suction-bomb, which could only have been the foul work of the vulcan-klingon alliance. I call total BS!! It was Magneto, hands down.

Hellyeaz!

If ya tossed in a steak I wonder if he'd back off.

Are you climbing/holding on to the last hold(s) you set as a method of marking/eyballing where the next move (that you can't do yet) should go, or are you throwing a bunch of holds up there 'n then climbing it?