Vacation - Part I

We went to South America and had a great time. Flew into Buenos Aries, stayed at the chic "Art Hotel" for 2 days, then hopped over to Santiago, Chile. We stayed there for 2 more days, then rented a car and drove south, and south, and south. Chile is a tall country, but there's quite a bit of interesting stuff along the way. We rock climbed, camped, met lots of interesting people, including the grandaughter of a mapuchi indian chief, and spoke a lot of hilariously bad spanish. We drove back to Santiago, flew to BA for another day, then headed home. Overall it was a 3 week vacation.

First, while in Buenos Aries outward, the hotel was incredible. The Art Hotel is a renovated building along a tightly-packed block (like most) in a nice section of Buenos Aries. Use cabs in BA, since the subway is old. It's the oldest in the southern hemisphere. There are little lamps on sconces along the interior, and the windows are full-open. Kinda fun, but so stinky and slow that a cab ride it worth it. You don't have to tip the cabbies much. It's just accepted as a way to get around.

Buenos Aries has all the mix of a city's nice, standard and poor areas. Depending on your frame of reference, the poverty may be worse or equal to places here in the US. The tourist areas are typically interesting from a cultural perspective, and we managed to see 3 or 4 musuems, a famed cemetary, several city parks and monuments, and lots of shops and cafes. We talked about living there. It's that nice. Our perspective was severely limited though, since we didn't get outside the city proper. Next time.

Chile - now this was the majority of our trip. Chile appears as a bit poorer as a country, but it's undergoing a noticeable amount of change. Santiago is a bowl of smog, but the metro is brand new. Prices are slightly more expensive than the US, which surprised us a bit. Folks there were very friendly, from those we met and spoke to.

We took the metro to a downtown neighborood in Santigo, visited a local guiding service, and reserved a guide for a day of climbing outside the city. It was very fun, and we ended up spending the day with our guide for both the scheduled climbing, but also for lunch, and talking with her friends. The crag was similar to Smith Rock, OR, so we were comfortable. THe routes spanned the range, but we managed to keep up with anywhere she dropped the rope.

Other friends in Santiago held a BBQ, and the house was just spectacular. The cabbies in Santiago, from our experience are a bit more sneaky, taking you on winding routes or other tricks. We didn't use them as much, since the Metro was so easy, and the buses are very easy to take. The buses pick you up and drop you off wherever you want along the route! That was nice.

The car was a pugeot 207, which is a great little rally car. After Santiago, we headed to Picalemu, on the coast. This town was nice, but now outside the city, the typical level of poverty of towns hit us. Industrialization of most businesses is there, but the majority of the population doesn't live on that level. Instead, the family farm, shop or business is typical. This is quaint and appealing for a tour, but don't expect and flat line of quality across the areas, it's hit or miss.

After our jaunt along the coast, we found two hitchikers along Rt 5 heading South, like us. After picking them up and learning they were native Chileans also on an unplanned "trek", we agreed to link up and travel together. This was a great turn of events, since it made the trip much more colorful.

They translated spanish for us, and taught us all along car trips, which was awesome. We learned spanish faster than we expected (still at the level of about a 5 year-old). Especially nice was the ability to get some cheaper rates on places to stay by sending the native into the lobby first to negotiate the prices. We usually spent the difference by treating them to dinner. Everything worked out great.

Camping in the foothills of national park for Mt. Villarica, we found hot springs and great little hikes. The vistas were outstanding, but the roads were terrible. Several initial trips to somewhere make us all think "we are never getting back out on this road", but the little car managed to keep bumping along. The noises were scary, and i'm sure there's a few pieces still back on the road, but it ran and ran.

Look for more details in Part II

Progression

There's an interesting effect in a reltionship. Familiarity. As two people spent more and more time together, working through both their individual demons and the friction of a life shared, a peace arrives.

I speak autobiographically of course. The Portland, OR winter has been a soggy one, with jaunts outside fewer than in recent years. We've also taken on a large number of indoor projects. After publishing our first game, deploying a rather nice art display, managing some remodelling and constructing a bouldering wall in the basement, there's been tons of time with a roof over our head.

All of these projects were collaborative, which is how I've arrived at this topic. After the "interesting" moments in a relationship that present new facets of a person's character, the finite set of these moods are exhausted and then one learns to navigate them. I don't believe this is any profound discovery, but one that requires more time and effort than many folks put into their relationship - even after any number of other milestones (dating, living together, marriage, etc).

A friend of mine once said that before commenting on any relationship, "wait until you're somewhat trapped together and utterly bored." Well, that's one metric that I feel this season is presenting. I'm happy to discover that it seems such moments won't be a dry spell for creativity. In fact, we may be more productive than when the sun steals us away to frolic aimlessly.

Even so, I'm excited to abandon winter for a month and head to South America. After my recent lightning-fast mastery of snowboarding, due of course to my wonderful coach, just touring around sounds perfect. Also, a constant flubbering of spanish should be great fun!

J

What's New?

Soooo... what have we been up to? Well, a lot, really. So much so that we simply don't have time to keep this or the homepage up to date! The lack of posts is a sure sign of business rather than an indication that nothing interesting is going on. We're working on the house, building a climbing gym, planning a wedding, and recently wrote a small game.

Sudoku is taking the world by storm, and we have definitely been swept up in it. So much so that we collaborated on our own stylistic version. Jim wrote the code and figured out all the logic and I worked on the graphics and usability. We still have plenty of work we could do on it, but it's in a good place, and there's countless other things we want to tackle.

In fact, with the holidays pretty much behind us, our focus will now turn toward our upcoming Patagonian adventure. 3 weeks wandering about in Argentina and Chile... we should definitely work out some of the details, especially since neither of us speaks Spanish.

Anyway, the link is posted above, download, get hooked, and enjoy. The first release is free... heh heh.

so... back to our life. I mean I need to get back to our life!

happy happy,
h

Start of the Route

A few years ago, I was on contract in Arizona, writing smart little HPunix shell scripts and C programs. An employee asked me if I'd like to join him at the gym that night. I said sure and off we went...to the "rock gym"

I climbed until I was on fire. My interest was lit up, as I went back without him for many nights to boulder around in a pair of new painful shoes. Later, I bought a harness, then some quickdraws...

Skip ahead a few years. Now, I try to climb several times a week, and although I don't have a schedule on when to climb any particular grade, I've gradually gotten better. I sometime concentrate on strength, sometimes efficiency, sometimes stamina. Whatever. It's still one of the most fun things I've found for me. I own lots of gear, although it never seems to be enough.

Today, I wanted to try and describe for non-climbers what the sensation is like to climb. Not your very first climb, but the environment of when you first go up several pitches of a moderate climb outside. Your very first climbing experience is going to be smaller and certainly much more personal. But if you continue with it, you'll soon be in the situation I'm about to describe:

You'll be nervous. Anxiety and it's management are part of almost every climb. Not confusion or panic, but closer to exhilaration. Your partner(s) will be a strong guiding force, double-checking your knots, asking you about your shoes, clothing, food and water, rescue routes. You may or may not be the belayer for the lead, since you'll be on a mild to moderate route.

So you strap on your harness, leave your shoes nearby at the ready. The rope gets flaked out, the leader ties in, and you watch them.

head up
They'll place a bit of gear at the bottom to direct the rope where they want it, they slowly climb further. Nuts, cams, gear go in the rock, with slings and carabiners every which way. They may give you a bit of chat about some
sketchy gear
, but for the most part you'll belay them up onto a wall of rock.

This for me was one of the most exciting stages of climbing. My heart was pounding as I watched my friend head up a lumpy rock, wind in our hair, as I stood clipped into a little ledge we'd hiked to in Washington state's Cascade Range. It was an easy 5.7 on the YDS, but the vista was beautiful, with just the right amount of fog and snow to make us feel like alpine extremists. Little did I know about the world of climbing!

After what will seem like an eternity, with your lead probably out of sight, your neck sore from trying to watch them, and you a little bit chilly from just standing there in climbing clothes, you get the signal: "Off Belay!" will come down from the heavens, or the radio, or through a jerky rope signal. Whatever method you've worked out, you'll let go of the rope, put your shoes on, check your knot one last time, and eventually yell back up "Climbing!"

"Climb on!" your lead will tell you, and you'll be off. Rock is colder and vastly different than a gym. Grit, dirt, strange angles and unexpected smooth surfaces will present themselves to you. Your lead may not take up the rope so much as you've been used to on toprope.
toprope
, giving you a "bouncy" feeling with the rope stretch. You'll be using your arms heavily, burning energy that could be more efficiently used through your legs, but that comes in time. Up you go as the second.second!

Wind! Weather! Hot or cold, there will be lots of new things to deal with. Put your hand in a crack, and a frog might jump out, or a spider may crawl across it. You'll be slowly stepping each foot as carefully as you can, concentrating on not slipping, not "falling" and taking the pro out of the wall. It'll clip to your sling or harness, then dangle and jingle all over. At any crux of the climb, it may seem "impossible" to grip, get friction, reach or balance the way it demands, but somehow, you'll make it.

Soon enough, you'll get a respite on a large ledge and get a view of your vertical progress. All the world will spread away from you in a large vista. A great feeling of you getting yourself here may enter your head. Congratulations…you're climbing!

Eventually you'll reach the belay station, where your leader should pile on ample praise. You may discuss the climb, certain interesting positions, or the gear used. Then, the leader will instruct you on managing the rope, ensure you're safe and as comfortable as possible, and head up again. Repeat.

After a few hours of this, where you may climb 3, 4 or 5 pitches in a single day - which is a lot when just starting out - your concept of height will disappear.


© Hanmi Hubbard Meyer - All Rights Reserved

"High" simply describes where you are, without knowing what measurement applies. The climb may present you with a few more exposed positions, where you have more wind, sun and sky around you than actual rock. During these times, even with a rope tugging you safely up the wall, you may fight the feeling that you're on a precipice.

No matter what though, if you slip and fall or climb through, your belayer has you safe. This trust must be present at all times. If your trust the belayer, their practices and state of mind, safety and skill level , you can fall at any time. Without this, don't climb with them. Poor belayers seldom have repeat partners, and for this climb you're heading to the top with utmost confidence.

The top!

Clip in yet again and relax! The view hasn't changed much over the hours, but the exhaustion of working to get here will mix with the excitement of reaching your goal to be a wonderful sense of relief and accomplishment. Have some food, take your shoes off - clipping them safe - and thank your leader for the great time.

Random Ideas

	Rings/Wristbands/Watches should be keys, with RFID and wireless capability. Shaking hands should be a form of optionally exchanging personal information.
	Phones should be headphones that can play music and make phone calls, record your conversations or photograph what you're looking at. Of course, networked to your watch as it's control panel.
	Shoe inserts should be able to tell you (your new watch) if your gait is causing stress, or if the weight on your feet constantly excessive.
	All the nutritional content of commercally bought foods and ingredients should be organized into a single internet database. Then you could enter your entire diet for the day and determine how good it is for the average body. Or, upon entering certain aspects of your body, how good it is for you specifically.
	Sidewalk cement should have a bioluminescent chemical in it to light up where people have walked a moment before. Just for fun.
	Picture frames should be cheap flatpanels that show a slideshow.
	If gas stations used an underground bay to swap "packs" of several types (petrol, batteries, lnp, etc), but identical dimensions, from underneath the car, we'd not be hindered as much in introducing new technology to power vehicles.
	We should try using a composite of animal hair and waste plastics as a replacement for framing lumber.
	If there was an clean/efficient way to burn paper products, many business would have cheaper heating bills.
	We should convert CO2 in the air into things we need. printer ink, or graphite, grease or paint.
	If classrooms were open to anyone and pay-per-class, like the movies, I believe many more people would further their education.
	Pens should be able to remember what was written with them, and display it digitally.
	Genetic patterns indicating predispositions for certain ailments should be given to people. It may cause them to concentrate on their health a bit more.
	If we enclosed many interstate freeways in tunnels, we may be able to capture large amounts of vehicular pollution. Accidents from adverse weather could be reduced. Fitted with sprinkler systems, vehicle fires could be put out earlier. Speeding tickets would be issued based on when your car passed certain checkpoints (without stopping). Eventaully, this infrastructure would help automate the act of driving itself. The tops of the tunnels would make a great bike/trail system.