No, I'm not talking about AA sessions or visiting the shrink here. I'm talking about learning how to get myself out of a tough situations while climbing. (Perhaps I need some other forms of help as well, but that should be discussed in another post, another day).
Max is starting to push himself on trad closer to his real climbing limit. Two weekends ago at Cathedral he and Andreas went up Airation and I don't think I have ever heard Max make so much desperate noises before. I was too tired to try it on TR, but I really didn't want to TRonsight it anyways.
With him pushing closer to his limit, I worry. Not because I do not believe in his climbing abilities. I think he is a SOLID climber. But it never hurts to learn things that can prevent disasters from happening. The chance of me belaying him while he is climbing at his limit? Extremely high.
So when the opportunity came through MITOC to take a self-rescue course with Mark Synnott, I signed up immediately. How is it possible, that after climbing for all these years, that I never thought about taking this class? I encourage any trad climbers to take it, because you just never know when you may need the skills.
We spent the whole weekend working on the basics, such as the munter-mule hitch, which looks extremely difficult in the book that I have. But once we tried it a few times at the crag, it made a lot more sense. I tied the hitches repeatedly until the muscle-memory kicked in. Hopefully it will stay there as I go on my next adventure this afternoon to Yosemite!
It's going to be a big group of 10 climbers. I think we are going to have a blast in the valley. Carlos and Adrian will join the Eastcoasters (A1, Keith, Kristian, Carrie, Max, and I). Brian and Nancy from SF will also climb part of the week. Hopefully the weather will be much better than last year, so that we can try all the climbs on our tick list. I think we are hopeful and there are lots of excitement with all the emails going around.
As A1 says on FB, "Even if we have to do Royal Arches 8 days in a row we're getting it"
I hope that you guys can do it this time - in a day!
The best part, is to be away from it all and just focus on one thing and only one. Climbing!
See you all later.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
message in a cookie
While getting my coffee this morning, I found a fortune cookie message pinned on the bulletin board at the office kitchen. I've always enjoyed opening fortune cookies. Some of the messages are ridiculously boring, but sometimes you get some that are enlightening.
Four basic premises of writing: clarity, brevity, simplicity, and humanity
This one was strange for a fortune cookie, but totally true.
Be patient: in time, even an egg will walk
Very appropriate message for me, often the impatient one.
I used to collect all the messages that I liked (and discard the ones I didn't, ha). I would stick them around my work computer monitor. I'm not sure when I stopped putting them up, but I kind of miss having them around. Perhaps I should start it again, now that I have wide-screen monitors at my desk and more borders to paste the message. When I see these the messages, they remind me to keep smiling and do what I love to do.
Four basic premises of writing: clarity, brevity, simplicity, and humanity
This one was strange for a fortune cookie, but totally true.
Be patient: in time, even an egg will walk
Very appropriate message for me, often the impatient one.
I used to collect all the messages that I liked (and discard the ones I didn't, ha). I would stick them around my work computer monitor. I'm not sure when I stopped putting them up, but I kind of miss having them around. Perhaps I should start it again, now that I have wide-screen monitors at my desk and more borders to paste the message. When I see these the messages, they remind me to keep smiling and do what I love to do.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Meaningless jobs
While the western economy is shrinking and unemployment rates are rising, I am noticing a new trend among people in their 30s. They are quitting their jobs. Leaving jobs they have worked at for many years in pursuit of something else. Generally something more meaningful, whether it pays or not becomes secondary. It was an interesting phenomenon to me, but not surprising. I believe that they are often in their 30s because that's when they start to have some money saved up and don't really need to depend their monthly paycheck to survive.
While I do not have the luxury of doing so due to my foreign status, I do enjoy reading about other people's transformations and voyages through their blogs and posts on FB.
The Economist last week talked about the difficulty of companies retaining the most talented in their workforce. The article said that the gap between the most talented and the rest of the population is widening, including their compensation. So while everyone else is stressed out about the downturn, these highly desirable workers are being aggressively sought after.
Why makes them so sought after? And why are there so few of them?
Some say that many of the important innovations and decisions are made by a small percentage of people. But these people are constantly generating new ideas that are viral and spreading to the rest of he population.
Not that long ago I came across an article by Douglas Rushkoff that someone posted on Facebook about whether or not the jobs we know today are obsolete. Before reading about this guy, I had always thought that Malcolm Gladwell was the one that came up with the term viral media. Regardless of who came up with the idea first, both had in my humble opinion some thought-provoking messages about how information is passed in our world, as well as who gets ahead.
The Economist last week referenced the Rushkoff article and counter-argued that Mr. Rushkoff is not exactly correct. Instead of stating that there is simply not as many jobs to go around for everyone, that the definition of a job is evolving.
As America moves from being an industrialized country to a more service-based industry, the population needs to evolve with the job demand. But it is not doing so quick enough. It is also difficult (or impossible) to reorient the entire workforce and retrain them to think and work differently.
I read an article that divided the typical white collar job into three main categories, but for some reason I can't find it anymore (bad memory). But the general idea of it is that there are three tiers of white collar jobs: the ones that do repetitive work that can be replaced by machines; the ones that do somewhat repetitive tasks that cannot be replaced by machines but can be replaced by someone else cheaper in another country; and the third is someone that has to constantly create new things or solve different problems.
Creativity, is the last hope of the west to stay ahead of China or any other emerging countries. Without it, we are more expensive and not necessarily better. This is also what I found when I went to China earlier this year. Creative people are hard to retain, because once they get bored at a job, or find the job meaningless, then they move on. But it is what every company wants, someone who is able to influence and create new ideas to make the company stand out among the rest.
The other message from all this, is that the creative folks are the ones that can control their path. You want to work remotely? Fine. You want to take time off to do something else? Fine. You want to spend your time at work thinking about new things rather than doing menial tasks? Fine. There is so much leverage on their end to make the relationship work with their employers as long as they want to.
It's up to you.
Are you doing something meaningful?
While I do not have the luxury of doing so due to my foreign status, I do enjoy reading about other people's transformations and voyages through their blogs and posts on FB.
The Economist last week talked about the difficulty of companies retaining the most talented in their workforce. The article said that the gap between the most talented and the rest of the population is widening, including their compensation. So while everyone else is stressed out about the downturn, these highly desirable workers are being aggressively sought after.
Why makes them so sought after? And why are there so few of them?
Some say that many of the important innovations and decisions are made by a small percentage of people. But these people are constantly generating new ideas that are viral and spreading to the rest of he population.
Not that long ago I came across an article by Douglas Rushkoff that someone posted on Facebook about whether or not the jobs we know today are obsolete. Before reading about this guy, I had always thought that Malcolm Gladwell was the one that came up with the term viral media. Regardless of who came up with the idea first, both had in my humble opinion some thought-provoking messages about how information is passed in our world, as well as who gets ahead.
The Economist last week referenced the Rushkoff article and counter-argued that Mr. Rushkoff is not exactly correct. Instead of stating that there is simply not as many jobs to go around for everyone, that the definition of a job is evolving.
As America moves from being an industrialized country to a more service-based industry, the population needs to evolve with the job demand. But it is not doing so quick enough. It is also difficult (or impossible) to reorient the entire workforce and retrain them to think and work differently.
I read an article that divided the typical white collar job into three main categories, but for some reason I can't find it anymore (bad memory). But the general idea of it is that there are three tiers of white collar jobs: the ones that do repetitive work that can be replaced by machines; the ones that do somewhat repetitive tasks that cannot be replaced by machines but can be replaced by someone else cheaper in another country; and the third is someone that has to constantly create new things or solve different problems.
Creativity, is the last hope of the west to stay ahead of China or any other emerging countries. Without it, we are more expensive and not necessarily better. This is also what I found when I went to China earlier this year. Creative people are hard to retain, because once they get bored at a job, or find the job meaningless, then they move on. But it is what every company wants, someone who is able to influence and create new ideas to make the company stand out among the rest.
The other message from all this, is that the creative folks are the ones that can control their path. You want to work remotely? Fine. You want to take time off to do something else? Fine. You want to spend your time at work thinking about new things rather than doing menial tasks? Fine. There is so much leverage on their end to make the relationship work with their employers as long as they want to.
It's up to you.
Are you doing something meaningful?
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