Author: admin

On a lighter note…

Progress, of the best kind, is comparatively slow. Great results cannot be achieved at once; and we must be satisfied to advance in life as we walk, step by step. ~ Samuel Smiles

Bob and I ran the Ned Mega Loop on Wednesday and I felt pretty spectacular. Definitely feeling the miles toward the end of the day but overall ran well. ~4 1/2 hours, 23.5 miles or so (the GPS turned off at one point so that is an estimate).

Geek out on the data, if you feel like it.

~stubert.

Did you watch the movie?

World Ocean impact map courtesy of Nature.com


Out there is our home. Home AUTO, and it’s in trouble. I can’t just sit here and do nothing. That’s all I’ve ever done! That’s all anyone has ever done on this blasted ship. ~ Captain

So there has been a lot of backlash from certain groups surrounding the magnificent film, WALL-E. Apparently, many of these people paid their $9.50 (or whatever movies in their area cost these days), bought their $6 tub of corn and $5 soda, selected their favorite place to sit and completely forgot to watch the moving pictures being projected on the massive screen in front of them.

Warning: SPOILERS AHEAD.

Now I can understand that some of these groups have misguided ideological mindsets that prevent them from rational thought regarding such notions as human impact on global resources, environment, etc. (c’mon, guys… if you have ever looked at a landfill, or say, Los Angeles, it is pretty obvious we are making our mark upon the planet) but the latest group to take offense at the message contained in WALL-E apparently, consists of the overweight. Gawker has a summary.

So this community of fitness-challenged individuals claims that Pixar has made a film that demonizes the community as a whole for being slovenly and contributing to the demise of the planet. So much so that humans are forced to leave earth and send down cleaner robots (WALL-E units) to help tidy things up so that stuff can actually grow and thrive on the surface once more.

Here is where I start to take offense with their criticism as the film make it abundantly clear using several very obvious and specific examples that the largeness humans have attained in space HAPPENED IN SPACE, not on the earth as these groups maintain in their complaints. Sure, Pixar is trying to demonstrate that our current love affair with throw-away products and super-sized, fat-laden “meals” has contributed directly to the state of the planet in which it has become uninhabitable but by no means have they stated that the morbidly obese are solely (or even at all) to blame.

Example number 1: The evolution of the Captain – In one scene, the ship’s captain looks back at headshots of all his predecessors and realizes that they get progressively more obese as time progresses (started out slim, got fat while in space, get it?)

Example number 2: Fred Willard, not so chubby – Now I am not going to say that Fred Willard is the poster child for fitness but any person with functioning eyeballs can see that he is not obese and according to the movie, he was running the show when humans finally had to abandon (earth)ship. So therefore, one can surmise that there were still some skinny people in charge when the proverbial shit hit the fan.

Example number 3: The back-to-earth instruction manual – This document clearly states (and is backed up by known science) that the humans’ bones may have atrophied during their extended sodjurn in space and this may contribute to their no longer being able to walk in a normal-gravity situation. This would lead us to the fairly obvious conclusion that they got this way while in space instead of pre-departure.

Yes, the characters are all slovenly, and obese, and more interested in television than what is going on around them, and seemingly addicted to Super Big Gulp servings of liquid meals but they redeem themselves and all seem more interested in living (a much more difficult) life on earth than being waited on hand and foot in outer-space. The message of the movie is to wake up, get off the couch and find your fucking dog. (Actually, it is to stop spending all your time in front of the boob tube, stop being wasteful and become a steward of the planet instead of a slave to consumerism. Stop buying plastic shit and oversized meals being foisted upon you by big-box, mega-mall shopping centers and fast food joints.) The larger of the human species are not to blame per se but we may all end up floating around on motorized couches and eating our meals through a straw if we don’t get off our asses and do something about the exponentially escallating impact we are creating on our natural resources.

</rant>

~stubert.

Great way to spend the 4th…

Fourth of July Crüe: Ben, Megan, Evelyn, Luke, Caleb

Good times, good times. ~ Jerri Blank

What better way to spend a sunny 4th of July than skiing in the Indian Peaks? Beats what most of the U.S. does (whacking down parasite dogs, drinking shitty beer and blowing stuff up). At least that’s my take on it.

Now I am never one to say that getting up at 3:00 is a good idea but that is what happened this morning. Ben, Caleb, Evelyn, Luke, Megan and I met at the Long Lake trail head at 4:30 to begin our most excellent assault on Apache Peak.

We jammed up the trail and quickly found ourselves reaching Lake Isabelle with the morning sun illuminating the Indian Peaks in the distance. Just a gorgeous morning altogether. Warm, sunny, quiet. Perfect.

The adventure started soon thereafter with Ben, Luke and I bushwhacking around the south side of the lake to access an “ice berg” that appeared to be attached to the southwest side of the lake. Once we got there, we realized that the berg was not, in fact attached, but was about 3 feet away from the bank. Some campers informed us that the previous night, it had been attached to the northwest side of the lake and had drifted overnight to its current location.

Luke went first, then Ben. When I took off from the shore, a foot-wide portion of the remaining snow and ice on broke off and another foot broke off the berg when I landed. Fortunately, I didn’t get too wet. Pretty funny, actually.

We traversed the full length of the berg (~1/8-1/4 mile long) and then Ben wiggled out to the end to get the full effect. We leaped back across (I broke off another chunk on the berg side, Luke broke off a big chunk on the shore leaving Ben with a massive jump back across) and headed back to the trail to continue our approach to Apache.

By this time, the snow fields were really softening up and we quickly caught up with Caleb, Evelyn and Megan then started our journey up the couloir. Luke and Ben led the way, bootpacking up to the top. Megan relaxed at the bottom as we made our way through the portage (100 steps at a time – thanks, Caleb!) and finally we were atop Apache. We hung out for a bit then took turns skiing great conditions back down. Tons of fun. This isn’t a terribly steep pitch and the consequences are not great if one were to fall so that made it a fairly mellow ski out. Good times.

We hooked back up with Megan, then began our trudge back out to the cars. By the time we made it back to Isabelle, the ice berg had moved east quite a bit. No way one could get there from our previous position. Luke and Ben hatched a plan to access it once more from the northeast but the rest of us headed back down the trail (assuming they would either a) figure out it wouldn’t go, b) figure out they were going to have to get really wet to make it go, c) get wet or stranded trying to get on the damned thing). Turns out they used another, smaller berg as a raft and pushed off from the edge of the lake to get on the main berg. Then their raft floated away and so they somehow got a second one broken loose and navigated back to shore. Ha!

The rest of us hung out at the cars until Luke and Ben finally showed. All in all, it was an awesome day, with a great group of friends.

Here are links to photo albums:

Then I came home and took a nap with my sweet, sweet Rach.

Who could ask for more?

~stubert.