Been a bum lately...

I've been a total bum - no climbing for a week now. Have not been inspired to do much but read...

So - I picked up this book - "What philosophers think" - interviews with 22 modern Philosophers.

I really liked the ideas presented in the first four interviews.

Peter Singer - a bit of an animal rights advocate - evokes the moral question of at what point does the life of an animal become more important than that of a human being (today?). No really - if you had 50,000$ - would you buy land for endangered tortoises or allow a child on cancer treatment to live an additional 3 months? Very good question.

Janet Radcliff Richards takes a fresh look at feminism. One of her observations is her belief that suffering is intrinsically bad. Ok - so to me this reminds me of the Dalai's words - the purpose of life is to be happy. May be a stretch. But think about it. I think that suffering is quite pointless. There are those who believe in prolonged suffering to benefit others. I am not talking Mother Teresa here - and in any case, I don't think she would believe that she was suffering at all. I am talking about the 70% of the population that goes around being unhappy for one reason or the other and expects someone else to feel guilty fo them. Snap out of it.

Helena Cronin also had a brand of feminism I can buy into. I guess I was born too late to be a feminist. I am so not looking to burn my bras. Can you say Victoria's Secret? Hello! However Helena correctly points out that the point of feminism is not to act like men. Having worked in a field that tends to have more men than women, I think that I've had to deal with my fair share of expectations from both men and women to behave like men. No thank you. I can do my job just as well - if not better - being myself. Trying to emulate men would be like saying that they got it right - as if!

The inclusion of two Physicists did upset me however - for two entirely different reasons. Alan Sokal - Ok so he has a point - but a philosopher he is not! Also - I think he is over simplifying reletivism just a tad bit. And Russell Stannard - because he is a bible bahser! All the other philosphers are using logic to explain their ideas. Stannards explanation - "Because he feels it!". Dude - you are not a philosopher, and I doubt that you are a good physicist.

More later....

Extreme climbing...

OK - so I am able to climb more and more 5.10s....

Went to Extreme in Miami on Sunday - it was a blast! Lots of climbs, lots of variety - AND - airconditioning! I was able to scale quite a few slopes. It was all in all a very positive experience - even helped my climbing in Coral Cliffs last night. Almost made it through Chris's black climb.

Climbing blues...

Robert put up a new 5.8 and for the life of me - I cannot finish it!

Not exactly, I did finish it once, but I couldn't do it today. It seems more and more like I am getting worse rather than better. It could be that or it could just be that it is too reachy...In any case, a real high gravity day - not good for morale.

This on top of me finding out I need to take more classes to meet my graduation requirements...

Bougs week.

Trip Cancelled / Universal / Gym climbing...

So, we ended up canceling our trip to Sandrock - due to the Katrina fiasco...I guess we did not want to get caught in the back country with Gas shortage and two kids...

So we did what any family would - we went to Universal Studios / Islands of Adventures instead.. The dragons were sweet.. especially on the first row...And Hulk was awesome - but I like the dragons myself. We must have rode them at least 5 times per dragon - till we got too dizzy to ride. The Mummy was great as well. Good time was had by all.

Went climbing in the Gym today. I sucked. Couldn't get off the ground. The climbs in Coral Cliffs keep getting harder - it seems like I can never get any better - Just when I get better, they make the routes harder. I'll never be able to climb 5.10s! :-(

gotta keep working on it...

Katrina Google maps Wiki...

SO...

Here's what can be done to help...

Jonathan Mendez/ Greg Stoll have put together a Katrina Disaster Map Wiki - http://www.scipionus.com/ - brilliant idea. The wiki tracks Katrina related incidents and is already pretty full. Tracks damage, room availability, where people are taking refuge, and missing people.... Good stuff.

My monitory donations are beginning to look pretty inadequate now - Kudos to these two guys for putting this site together.

Gotta go raise more money now.

Trip planned to Sand Rock...

Going to Sand Rock, AL this weekend. I am so...o looking forward to it. Been there once before - but we really didn't know what was going on then.

This time around we've bought our Dixie Craggers guide, plenty of gear, and we are all set to go. Also will be meeting Chris and his buddy there - so it should be fun...

Plan on leaving Friday and getting there latest by Saturday. That way we can have two climbing days. Also this will be the first time we do any sport climbing, so looking forward to it.

3 more days...

New Thinkpad...

The Barkha pad is here - and it is cool!!!

I bought myself a new Thinkpad R51 - it is sweet! 15 inch screen, it's big, it's light, it's fast and it's cool... I still don't have all the software I need installed, but I am getting there...

Laal gets my old notebook - and Kit gets Laal's desktop.

Katrina...

Katrina has come and gone...

No major damage to our property - but the neighbor's had a bit of a nightmare on their hands. A gigantic ficus tree got uprooted - and fell on their house! No injuries, but severe damage. The root ball pulled up some gas lives - so for a while there, we were under the threat of being blown up!

The fire department was pretty quick to respond, and capped the line. All is well now. Oh- we did lose electricity for about a day - but now it's all good. The pool's a bit of a mess, but other than that you could not tell the storm was here.