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shaoleung

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Posts posted by shaoleung

  1. You could contact the Spanish Dept of your local high school. Often times they have students that will tutor for cheap and they know the curriculum your kids will be using. Tutors that are not involved in the school district will often teach them more region-specific vocab and structures which are great for communicating, but not so great for testing and grades. PM me if you want more ideas of things to ask/look for.

  2. How about if we consider ourselves multidimensional climbers that don't have to be pigeon-holed into "a particular-level climber"? How cool would that be. No disrespect to John Long, but come on. Climbing is fun whatever you're climbing. I'm all for pushing the limits of my ability and ratcheting up the levels as I can handle it but if I climbed so that I could be called "a 5.11 climber" I would be a much unhappier climber. It's just freakin' fun!

  3. ... education is expensive here (is it those evil teachers unions or the special education laws, a different method of accounting for those expenses, or something else?)

     

    One of the most costly parts of US education are legal fees/costs. Our legal system facilitates (encourages?) lawsuits over just about anything that a parent thinks is wrong. While some things are reasonable, often they are not. Even simple legal issues like the FOIA become huge expenses. I worked in a district which had to spend thousands of dollars on a simple request for email records regarding their student... just because the parent wanted to exercise their right to see the documents.

  4. We spend shit loads, more than any other country, and the ROI we are getting on that investment blows.

     

    Actually, Denmark, Switzerland and Austria usually spend more than us. Plus, really that's a misleading stat. It's like comparing minimum wage in the US to what we pay the kids in china to make all our shit.

     

    Best to look at education spending as a percentage of GDP. There we came in 37th for 2011.

     

    How you figure "the ROI blows" baffles me. For most of modern civilization education has been considered a privilege. Since mandatory education laws came into effect we have seen the development of most of our modern comforts. For as much time as you spend on CC, you should show a little more respect for the education system. The internet wouldn't exist were it not for the investment made into education.

     

  5. Since my first son was born, I don't think I've scaled anything back, but I have been much more careful about planning and learning about methods to keep me alive longer. Learning about new techniques and gear. Opening up your options when it comes to decision making time. Instead of cowboying myself up rock or across glaciers, I am thinking more.

     

    You're asking a very personal question and you're going to have to put all the pieces together for your own situation. As usual, there's no right answer and someone will always think your approach is irresponsible or extreme. No matter how sweet and juicy the peach, there's always going to be someone who doesn't like your peaches.

  6. We could work on a new form of climbing. Slymering? Slippering? Slipslidering? Kinda like canyoneering, except on cold, wet rock that is potentially great. We'd all get famous as pioneers and start whining on July 15 every year when shit dries out!

  7. Bring on the bolting wars! WOOHOO!

     

    If we're going to talk about which is worse, we should make sure to include in the mix the excessive square footage of paving. I mean, holy crap, talk about an environmental disaster. If you want to climb, you should have to hike in from the nearest river after having paddled in your cedar canoe made from a wind-felled tree and stone tools! Recreation is all or nothing in my book.

  8. Cerro Torre is in Chile! .... Unless you ask an Argentine. The Chileans have the best maps of it though. I believe you have to through the Chilean Military to get it. If you go through Santiago, there's a huge store/museum. Ask for El Instituto Geográfico Militar de Chile. It's a few blocks South of the financial district.

  9. Right on... The Tooth is a fun, easy climb that gives you a taste of Alpine. Close to Seattle. A couple other alpine rock routes that are great: South Early Winter Spire SE Arete; Kangaroo Temple; Ingalls.

     

    If you're looking for glaciers and snow, Olympus is incredible and the glaciers are not quite as hectic as Rainier. El Dorado is a great climb too.

     

    Try the Nelson and Potterfield books. They've got some great ones.

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