tvashtarkatena

Other than dropping it numerous times on rocks, dragging up several cliff faces while hauling the pack, stepping on it accidentally, wresting it from my dog's mouth, and exposing it to numerous rainstorms, it's been treated with tender loving care.

If you want to get remote, go to any trailhead in the Cascades, have your blindfolded buddy pick a random spot on the compass dial, and start walking. I guarentee that 3 miles into you it you'll be more remote than you ever were in Europe or California.

So I took the SD200 apart. Inside it's clean, silver shell is a Gordian knot of flexstrips. The on/off switch appeared to be undamaged, but as for the rest of it...I think it runs on magic.

The article doesn't mention that the FBI also began sending Seagal Burger King and KFC gift certificates, which also may have help erode his box office draw.

I just ordered a Canon Powershot SD800. I'll autopsy the dead SD200 just for kicks to see if it was something obvious.

NAMBLA's poster child or Hitler Youth recruitment brochure?

I get faster responses here.

It took us over 7 hours to drive. The hike in takes 5 + and is about half backcountry travel. The Chewak TH is about 4.5 hour drive, and hike 18 miles on good trail.

Trip: Cathedral Peak, Pasayten - Date: 8/8/2007-8/13/2007 Trip Report: “Jesus, I didn’t realize BC was so…WIDE. We might as well drive to the Rockies at this point.” Never have so few driven so far to save so little time for so little climbing. The plan was sound enough: avoid the 18 mile trudge into Cathredral Peak from the south (we looked into renting a mule; for $275/day, do we get to eat it afterwards?”), Eric (aka 'Ivan') and I opted for the ‘reach around’, an interminable drive to the km 38 point on the Ashnola River Rd in Cathedral Provincial Park. It rained 3 out of 6 days, and threatened to rain the rest of the time, but armed with enough whiskey, wine and smokes, we persevered and managed to sneak up Amphitheatre’s Ka’aba buttress on the 2nd try, a fun solo jaunt up Amphitheatre’s NE buttress (straight up from Cathedral Pass), a failed attempt after trying several ‘new’ lines on Cathedral’s SE butt, and finally a consolation climb of same via it’s fun and interesting W ridge. Other than Ivan’s slight tussel with gravity while leading the final pitch of Ka’aba (from his pre-fall sound effects, I mistakenly assumed childbirth), we had a relaxed time in a beautiful area. In general, we found the rock on Amphitheatre is much better than the flared and more weathered stuff on Cathedral. This is one very long escarpment that begs to be played on. Approach: Drive the Ashnola River Road to km 38, take the unsigned footbridge and trail. Take the R fork to the cowboy camp. Cross the creek, follow the boot track up the ridge, then right through meadows/swamps to the 1st pass. From here, either a) traverse around to the pass E of Cathedral, then down to the trail, then over Cathedral Pass to Upper Cathedral Lake or b) Pick through cliff bands into the valley between you and Cathedral, then re-ascend for the Lake. Cathedral, from Amphitheatre Ivan in self discovery on Amphitheatre’s Ka’aba Buttress A rash from a sudden bout with gravity Upper Cathedral Lake, from the summit ridge of Amphitheatre Looking S to Remmel, from Amphitheatre Lichen on Amphitheatre Not exactly Gaston. Summit ridge of Amphitheatre Riding the maoi Dandelion. Upper Cathredral Lake Buckwheat Small Milkweed Bug Gear Notes: Gear to 4", whiskey Approach Notes: See above

When I get to Mars I'm going to get a puppy.

I wanna rove you all ov-ah all ovah again I wanna rove you all ov-ah till da nigh clozez in till da nigh clozez in!

I'm thinking about a move...to Mars. Any suggestions? Equatorial region, or go for the dry ice skiing further up?

by battery powered probes?

Too late. I've already killed myself.

If I were you, I'd switch to non-metallic fillings.

Mars is being roved as we speak, so not to worry.

The Republican or the anarchist?

I have a vacuum tube tester, would that work? Actually, I'll come clean. I used to design portable electronic equipment with rechargeable battery packs , and testing their viability can get complicated, although I do have a multimeter and can do some crude diagnostics. Having said that, most rechargers will not give you a green light for a faulty battery, as mine is now, so I suspect it's the camera itself, which has been dropped a few times now. Just thought I'd see if anyone nearby has a known good battery pack for a quick check. Thanks for the recommendation on what to avoid and what to go for. There's a pretty good chance I'll be in the market for a replacement camera.

I'm going to miss Karl Rove. It's one thing to see a guy that's as dumb as an El Paso hitching post stumble over his Tex Mex lite vocabulary on CSpan, as Speedy did recently, but quite another to see the Brightest Fat Kid in the Room slowly and painstakingly march off a cliff the rest of us could see from space, and take over six long years to do it. I just want to personally say "Thanks, Karl, for everything you've done for and to your party." From No Child Left Behind to the Iraq War to...OK, I guess that about sums up the past six years...you've worked tirelessly and unwaveringly to help bring about the kind of revolution many of us have been wanting for quite some time. For my part, I will, from now on, refer to our highest mountain as "McKinley", Karl's most beloved historical mentor, rather than the revisionist, apologist "Denali".

Would you guys like to go on a trip to the desert with me?

Why don't you go off into the desert and shoot some conservative dissidents.

Dems are in charge of the purse strings now. Somehow I don't see any balanced budget coming from them anytime soon. Once gov't has grown, it tends to stay that way, and no Dem will ever shrink gov't. Personally, I'd like to see a balanced budget amendment to the constitution. The last time that was tried, it seemed to upset all the power-brokers in WA, who came up with good excuses why it shouldn't be passed. Or we could balance the budget by doing the hard work of changing our priorities, borrowing and spending less, and taxing more; a bipartisan effort (you know, despite the Dems 'overwhelming' majority) that might just require a bit more than yet another Constitutional side show. Let's see, which really expensive failed budget line item should we address first?....

Always glad to give a little tech advice to you older guys Eh? What wuz that, sonny?

Thanks, guys. I'll admit, I don't get out to the electronical stores much. That'll solve my photo recovery problem. After that I can have fun taking my camera apart and trying to find which one of it's quarter million micro-components isn't showing up for work.

If there's one thing I can't stand it's gun toting Harvard liberals pushing their doomsday scenarios. Everything has been fine, and therefore will continue to be so. This is the cornerstone of modern conservatism, a movement with a string of recent success stories that speak for themselves....which is a good thing, since the movement doesn't seem to have any actual people left to speak for it.