For those not versed in lame-o rockclimbing lingo.
Choss
is the word that generally gets used to describe crappy rock that is not really worth climbing. A lot of what I climb as a staunch MD local could be categorized as such. I’m somewhat of a connossieur of choss.
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So when we moved to the canton / patterson park area (jezz… its coming up on 5 years now), it was still changing allot. For one thing, there were allot more prostitutes and for the most part you could see the water along most of the water front. I remember when they started to build a big stretch of over priced row homes, oh I mean town houses in front of the sip and bite, Cherokee was beyond pissed off. Not that more yuppies were moving in, because that was going to happen, not that they weren’t buying real houses, because clearly a real row house is too small for all that stuff, but that they were taking up the water view all for them selves. Sure for years the Baltimore waterfront had been eaten up by industry, but through years and years of industrial decay, us the citizens had gained a little water front view from much of the east side. What pissed Cherokee off was that here were people being so selfish as to buy up the view for themselves. Leaving the view only for those who could afford it.
This has become more and more a theme along Baltimore water front development, instead of the city buying up the dead industry, and say oh I don’t know building a stretch of park land along the water that would then spur development along it, that would give the waterfront to the public and money to the developers, they just pass it along to developers to do what they will. What they have done in general is build more and more condos, while row houses around the city are plentiful. Build big hotels, which while generally beautiful, don’t really do anything for those who live here, instead saving the view for those who can afford to visit.
hopefully people are getting the idea, that this sucks… I read this article in the sun today, about how a developer wants to buy up one of the only public boat launches and park parking, in order to build… you got it condos. Thankfully, the city officials and community association is standing up a bit. The developer will contend, its just a parking lot, and not the park, but once again your blocking the view. I pass this stretch every time I have to drive home, and its like a reminder that Im home. Seeing the cargo ships, and the fort reminding me Baltimore is still Baltimore. This bit of public back bone combined with what looks like in fells point as the expanding of the promenade shows a rethinking of things a bit. The harbor might have been lost by the tugs and waterman, lets hope the rest of us don’t loose it to the condos.
pic of a tug in fells point
After sleeping for 15 hours straight, I recovered from jet lag and am now getting around to posting about my trip to San Diego. The conference I went to was all about pop culture, and it was not quite what I expected. There was wierd mix of hip punk rockers and seriously old tenured faculty, and a really wide variety of panels. Read the rest of this entry »
Ive always loved the question “so what do yo do”, you know the adult version of “whats your major?”. I always loved it because its one of those questions people ask each other as an excuse to not say “so how about this weather” or “how bout them o’s”. Plus its begs the question: are you what you do, and is what you do your work? I always liked to respond with, “do you mean what I do for a job?”. On this question I have been feeling paid work less and less. I used to love getting depply involved in the geek of it all, reading geek speak all the time, and really wanting to learn more of it. I just dont anymore, This weekend I was in the midst of a couple geek discussions w/ my dad at the beach, and I just couldnt muster up the argument, because I just dont care.
This feeling started comming on more and more when holden was born, and now its dead set in my mind. Generally when I drop him off at my moms to go to my 2 days in the office I leave by saying “ok boy ill see you later dad has to go do more meaningless work, on meaningless things” or some derivation of that. Alot of times I long for teaching, where at the end of the day no matter how exhausted I was, I knew that my days work meant something, that with all the frustrations pushed aside I was doing something that the world really needed. When im with the boy durring the day I feel this, but working at a desk w/ a screen bearing in on my brain, I feel more hungry , more tired, and less fulfilled then ever.
this post brought to you by:
this pic of holden on the rides in oc, he did like it after all
and this quote from “i told you so” by new order off of the new albumn “waiting for the siren’s call”
“its an occupation, that I dont like, but it pays the rent and turns on the lights” , “if it aint the job, and it aint the place, its your pretty face that makes me miss”
SPring Break Day one:
I decided last night to NOT go with plan A. drive to wilkesbarre for a ZOMBI / CONELRAD show tonight. hope the weather in the gunks was OK. It seemed like a lot of driving for a longshot. Last night I rode around, left flyers for the bikes burritos bands show at CCAS at a few places and then went to the Proteus cycles community night. Now, I felt a little like a dilettante going from college park bikes to proteus bikes in a night. I’ve heard complaints about both shops from this person or that person, but all in all they are both pretty great. CPB is pretty much guaranteed to have whatever it is you need and is still independently owned. Proteus is super punk rock and they don’t even know it.
Last night I went to the pot luck night that they have every thursday. It was interesting to see everybody from teenagers on up hanging out in the same area listening to system of a down (a band that is at times, a guilty pleasure for me) and eating curry and pasta putanesca. In between the discussion of mortgages and the peace corps, you would periodically see someone (not always a kid) rip by you on a bmx bike and do a (fakie air?) on one of the two ramps INSIDE the cramped shop. I also enjoyed that underneath the counter you see the normal slew of bike parts etc. and also a spice rack.
I returned home and slept for 12 hours (9:30-9:30) and am trying to formulate the plan for when jen comes back.
I’m still very open but the following options are on my plate: climb at Gov Stables, Climb at great falls, clean :P, ride around the DC area, and get off this damn computer. bye.
So today on a msg board, and an old friend posted a link to an article in the pittsburgh city paper, where it talks about allot of punk kids who are buying homes (out of respect to missy and others (including myself), these are now punk home owners, but punk who happen to be home owners). Its an interesting read, mostly because I know most of these people in the article, and generally think its rad that kids are taking this step. Punk culture tends to be so engraned in being temporary and staying “young”, that I think home ownership among other things scare kids. When in reality if you really do believe in controling your own destiny and making a difference in your community , than home ownership makes alot of sence. I think the ill fated sowebo and hampden are examples of what can happen in a community when the kids and artisits who would normally rent do actually buy.
Anyways this also has made me think more and more about getting a real estate license. My mom has been a realtor since I was a wee babe, and I think I generally understand the buis pretty well (although the nitty gritty of it boggles my mind still). Ive been thinking of getting into it for a couple reasons 1) it would bring some more income in and maybee eventually allow me to quit my job and have a more flexibile schedule then I already do w/ the boy. 2) I know alot of kids who would think about buying houses in baltimore but dont because it seems so impossible…. I think thats mostly because they dont understand it. Im not talking about selling crazy expensive houses, but having the skill to help people make that switch.
not that im awash in time to go to realestate classes, but I think its something I need to look into the next couple weeks.
This would also mean that I would be continuing my process of reliving my parents professional lives … currently Ive done my dad ( became a teacher, quit out of frustration and went into computers ) guess my moms career path needs a try.
ok probably not… but i do think its rad… the spark a local baltimore hxc band, who are hella good and friends of ours, now have their own skate board made by conformist skates…. if you skate… you should get one… i dont skate, and am still tempted.
So I have been bugging the lady about applying for a faculty position at this school opening in Hawaii. Now there are a bunch of reasons why I can say she should do it, that could be professional/career minded. Yet the real reason I was bugging her about it was that the idea of living in Hawaii cracks me up, and in the cold of this slow onset spring… it seems like a very good idea. The reality is that it would be kind of silly and difficult to do. Yet mental masturbating over it (looking at housing costs / pet quarantines) , I started to realize why I was even thinking about it. Essentially I have come to the realization that if we don’t make a major move in the next 5 years it will become incredibly difficult to do so. I wouldn’t want to put the boy in the situation of feeling like he’s being left behind. Not that were unhappy where we are , in fact where extremely happy, and have commented often that it would take allot to make us leave/move… to the point of having discussion about adding a third floor ye old row house if we needed more room at some point… but the idea is fun to masturbate on.
Another reason why the lady, among 1000000 others, wouldn’t want to do this, is in her mind I have moved 2 - 3 times for her and her job, and never for mine. Her thinking is, next time it should be on my terms etc. but I can’t ever imagine me being a “career” person who would have a need to do such a thing. If we moved on my terms it would be something like this “so I was reading about {insert place name here} and I think we should move there” , but seeing as im a undeceive wuss this will never happen… so last night in return I asked the lady for a contract which says this
“I do here by promise that every 5 years we will embark on a stupid trip, stupid trick is defined by a long length to an unusual or undetermined location”
our first of these is planned for 2008/9 where we will be going to the phillipines/austrailia/new zeland… I figure if I can get this document and the 10 stupid trips in my life time (assuming i make it to 80) , I be more than willing to leave her alone and go w/ what ever / where ever happens.
I just realized this post does not flow and is only interesting to us… so I want to thank the dick at the guitar shop who mistakenly sold me a 100watt marshall combo that he thought was 50watt, for at least $150 below market value.
I always get crap from mike that I never look/read the blog and I barely ever post. It mostly has to do that other than Holden, job and homelife, not too much exciting stuff goes on. Jen and I did manage to go on our first ladies only shopping trip, where I forced her to try on things with poofy sleeves (though they weren’t that poofy) and things that had a little pink in them (sorry Jen), but she definitely withstood my recommendations:P It’s hard to go shopping with Captain Chaos in tow, so the boys watching Holden that afternoon was a great help!
One realization that I did make while in the shower (and it just goes to show how birdbrained I can be), was that the final episode to carnivale is on Easter Sunday. For those of you who don’t watch the show, and if you don’t I can understand why, its basically about the battle between good and evil set during the depression. I dont’ know if the carnivale people planned that out purposely that the show ended on the “day of resurrection” or not, but will be interesting how it works out. There’s allusions to the nuclear bomb and future atrocities thrown in there every once in a while,. It did take them a long time to get the show moving in any sort of direction, but its finally started making some sense the last few episodes. While its interesting, it can’t keep Mike’s attention, and the Wire is definitely more preferred.
I also had my annual review today, which I think worked out well for the most part. I do dread the annual review and this “effort report” we have to fill out every year, which turns about to be about 13 pages or so. It at least allows me to get everything I’ve done on paper, which lets me feel that either I’ve done enough or not done enough. This year, I think I did enough, definitely areas for me to improve in, like research, etc. Teaching is a mixed bag, depending on the topic and how prepared I am, but anyhow….
the one good thing today…realizing I could plug my ipod into my computer speakers! good times.
in the basement fixing the bike today my back spasmed and has been hurting all day, clearly this is the result of yesterday’s Governor Stables Comp. I also got 2 nasty flappers. All worth it.
I broke out the knee brace and hoped for the best. The radiation from TMI must have worked in my favor because all in all, it was a great day of climbing. sent a soft v3, worked on some problems that I didn’t think I would be able to even get on (yeast and juggernaut), couldn’t repeat casablanca because of the knee, found some problems that I really want to do when I am fully functional (circ arete, and slopey dom), and my personal highlight was repeating the pyramid.
It’s only a v1, but it’s a TALL V1 . most people would walk by, try it and fall (the first couple moves are trickly slab). The others would walk up and send it with no fanfare and no commentary. For me, at the top, I guess I didn’t do a great job of hiding my dislike of tall boulder problems because my shaky legs drew the cheers comparable with those of a no legged man finishing a marathon.
after the comp, we decided to check out a restaurant that always seems to pique our interest. Immediately after entering, it was painfully obvious that we weren’t wanted there. The food was good enough, but overall thumbs down review from jim.
Tim put his sick-ass climber muscles away for most of the day and pulled out his sick-ass fancy camera muscles instead. His pics are here: I may post mine later.
