Semicolin's Blog

Just thought I'd mention that today I led my first 5.12 (that's a difficulty rating for rock climbs, for those not into the lingo). I don't mention it to brag because there's lots and lots of people climbing that grade and harder (even 7-year olds and maybe younger). BUT, for me it's good! So, I'm celebrating in my own way with a pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream.

It's a climb called "Corporate Ladder" in Spook Canyon near Socorro. It's a 45' tall sport climb with 5 bolts and listed in the guidebook as 5.12a/b. It was actually a redpoint, but today was only my second attempt, so not bad. My real goal this year is to climb two 12's so that I know the first one wasn't an accident.

Saludos. Be well.

Edit: Soon after, I also did my first "5-Star" Sudoku puzzle. It was out of an airline magazine and it took me about 5 tries, re-writing & starting from scratch after messing up each time. Tricky little puzzle. Oh, such exciting things in my life...

"Living environment/location vs. Working environment - What's more important to your quality of life?"

Actually it's my first poll ever. Vote in the sidebar to the right, I'll give an update in a month or so.

Finally a post not about me or my friends or family, 'bout time eh? Well there's LOTS of cool stuff on the web and I don't want to spend time here replicating everything, but this one is especially brilliant and funny. This past weekend I saw Kimberly Miner's 2003 award-winning animated film about a perpetual motion machine at Socorro's first RioFest international environmental film festival. Click on the image or here to view the 1-minute film (opens in a new window and requires RealPlayer be installed on your computer).

Or, click here for the originating website and info on the artist.

Also very noteworthy were the documentaries Being Caribou by Leanne Allison, Karsten Heuer, and Diana Wilson, and Kilowatt Ours by Jeff Barrie.

The month came and went with a rush and my coffee "experiment" is over. So, what did I learn?

I gotta admit - I'm a very poor test subject. As I stated in my original post, my 12-oz per day goal turned into 6-oz of mojo very quickly. If it wasn't for a small support group at work, the whole experience would've been jeapordized. I told a few people at work about my self-imposed challenge and, as good co-workers should, they gently prodded and urged me to go get my daily fix and build my addiction. It wasn't that drinking coffee was unpleasant or so difficult to remember. Rather, I would tend to ask myself, "Why am I doing this?" The answer, of course, was that there was no real reason except to give my brain a little surprise and take it for a whirl, and that was generally a very poor motivator to track-down my mis-placed mug and get my hind-side over to the lounge to find out the community pot was empty so that I'd have to trudge to the pot in the headquarters and if that proved fruitless motor myself up to mooch out of the the garage's pot because I sure-as-hell wasn't going to spend time making my own brew.

In my defense, I did wind up drinking at least 6-oz per work day. And for work days that I missed, I made them up on weekends. I even brewed-up a community pot at work once, too. I experimented with coffee first thing in the morning, tried moving the stimulant to the afternoon, sometimes did both, tried fancy cafe coffee three times, and gas station coffee twice. I jittered, got an upset stomach, got good & wired and cleaned my kitchen, dehydrated myself while trying to drink coffee while exercising, and at times fell right asleep after drinking a cup. After all was said, done, and drunk, I haven't been able to tell any difference now that I quit. There was a headache at the end, but it occurred two days after my last cup and again on the 4th day, while the middle 3rd day I was fine. This headache made as much sense to me as any other headache I've had in my life, so I'm not convinced it was caffeine-inflicted.

The best parts of this experience were the conversations and comments I had after sharing my foolery with other people. My original blog got two comments. I was warned. I was likened to those making political or health statements. Some thought I was strange to be experimenting with my body. Others asked why coffee when heroin packs a much larger punch? One email exchange about this with my cousin progressed into much deeper political discussions (tho not about coffee - that'd be taking the stuff way too seriously). Coffee does in fact do strange things to the mind and body, but the biggest impact might not be from substances in the little, roasted C. arabica seed, but rather from the excitement people get by having something in common, and the pot of java is the modern-day community watering hole.
And, everyone seems to have a story to tell about a simple Cup of Joe.