re-post
You may not have a baby at crawling age
But if you ask visitors to your home to remove their shoes, you send a message that it is acceptable to keep your home shoe-free. That makes life easier for those who do have crawling babies.
You may not have a new carpet
You may have an old carpet that needs replacing or a wooden
floor that is covered in scratch marks. But if you have a shoes-off policy, it will make it easier for those who do have a new carpet to do the same.
You may not live in an area where there is pesticide on the ground
But if you have a no-shoes rule in your house, it will send a signal that it is okay for those who do.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Saturday, September 11, 2010
"It's Better With Your Shoes Off" by Anne Cleveland (1955)
In 1955, Anne Cleveland wrote a classic comic book about life in Japan from an American perspective. The books illustrates the life of an expatriate couple, Mr and Mrs West who are in semi-permanent residence in Japan. An amusingly satirical work, this book introduced Japanese culture to many who knew nothing of the country.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Foreign or Exotic?
Shappi Khorsandi, a female British-Iranian stand-up comic says that "Exotic means the same thing as foreign, except you don't dislike it."
Exotic conjures up images of the far east or the New World. It is exciting colourful, sensuous and maybe a bit sexy. Foreign means something from another culture, but the word somehow lacks the exciting emotive power of the other word.
I am convinced that the English pronounce the word 'foreign' with a certain acidity. When we say the word 'foreign', there is a slight tightening of the mouth and a subtle narrowing of the eyes.
I have mentioned before about the different reactions of British and Americans to shoe removal in Scandinavia and the Far East. Expatriates in Japan and other Asian countries usually love removing their shoes and often bring the custom back, while many expatriates in Scandinavian countries find it really irritating. I suspect that the exotic/ foreign distinction at work.
When a tourist in Thailand has to go barefoot in restaurants and guest houses in Thailand, it is exotic. It is a taste of the colourful and sensuous east. On the other hand, when the same person is on a business trip to Norway and his Norwegian business partner makes him walk about the house in socks, it is foreign. Just like all the other foreign things he hates like undercooked steaks in French restaurants, bossy German policemen, overpriced everything in tourist areas and disdainful Italian waitresses.
Foreign is different, but it has a familiarity to it. Shoes-off in Japan reflects the beautiful alienness of that whole culture, shoes-off in Sweden just reminds you of those irritating fussy people back home (like me) who make you take your shoes-off to protect their carpets.
Nevertheless, we have to challenge our prejudices. We may find that steaks served very rare can be pleasently different. We may find that Germans do have a sense of humour and those Italian waitresses are quite pretty even if they think you don't deserve to be in their restaurant. And you may find that even if Nordic people are fussy about their floors, it actually makes a lot of sense taking shoes off.
Exotic conjures up images of the far east or the New World. It is exciting colourful, sensuous and maybe a bit sexy. Foreign means something from another culture, but the word somehow lacks the exciting emotive power of the other word.
I am convinced that the English pronounce the word 'foreign' with a certain acidity. When we say the word 'foreign', there is a slight tightening of the mouth and a subtle narrowing of the eyes.
I have mentioned before about the different reactions of British and Americans to shoe removal in Scandinavia and the Far East. Expatriates in Japan and other Asian countries usually love removing their shoes and often bring the custom back, while many expatriates in Scandinavian countries find it really irritating. I suspect that the exotic/ foreign distinction at work.
When a tourist in Thailand has to go barefoot in restaurants and guest houses in Thailand, it is exotic. It is a taste of the colourful and sensuous east. On the other hand, when the same person is on a business trip to Norway and his Norwegian business partner makes him walk about the house in socks, it is foreign. Just like all the other foreign things he hates like undercooked steaks in French restaurants, bossy German policemen, overpriced everything in tourist areas and disdainful Italian waitresses.
Foreign is different, but it has a familiarity to it. Shoes-off in Japan reflects the beautiful alienness of that whole culture, shoes-off in Sweden just reminds you of those irritating fussy people back home (like me) who make you take your shoes-off to protect their carpets.
Nevertheless, we have to challenge our prejudices. We may find that steaks served very rare can be pleasently different. We may find that Germans do have a sense of humour and those Italian waitresses are quite pretty even if they think you don't deserve to be in their restaurant. And you may find that even if Nordic people are fussy about their floors, it actually makes a lot of sense taking shoes off.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Some Serious Theology: Are you a Tramplian or an Offalist?
re-post
If you are an Evangelical Christian, you may be sick of the Calvinist/ Arminian debate, so let me introduce you to some new theological terms; Tramplian and Offalist.
Tramplians like to trample the carpets or flooring of their homes with their shoes on. They find it rather objectionable to be asked to remove their shoes when visiting somebody else's home.
The central principle in Tramplian theology is the freedom of the will. They believe that they should be the ones to decide whether they take their shoes off at a dinner party. Their attitude is "I decided what outfit to wear. I decided what shoes to wear. I should be able to keep them on if I like". They do not believe that a hostess should impose shoelessness on them.
Tramplians have a strong belief in the goodness of hosts. They consider that a hostess should be above all concerned for her guests wishes and convenience above keeping her home clean. They believe that if a hostess likes them enougth to invite them into her home, she will accept them with their shoes on.
Tramplians believe in the power of their own ability to keep their shoes clean. They consider themselves to be grown-up and to be careful about what they tread on. They do acknowledge that their shoes can be tainted by the corruption of dirty streets, however they hold that this can easily be dealt with by wiping their feet on their hostess' doormat. Their shoes can be restored to cleanliness by the exercise of their will.
Offalists in contrast, always remove their shoes at the door. Offalists believe in the Total Depravity of the soles of their shoes. The corruption of city streets has completely ruined the condition of their shoes, they argue, and the only hope is a change of nature for their feet, namely into slippers or clean socks. The Offalist pays heed to warnings about the health risks of pesticide, lead paint and animal excrement.
The Offalist upholds the sovereignty of the host. The hostess has been very generous in inviting her guests, however, she is sovereign over her own home and has the authority to set the rules. She will not allow anything corrupt to defile her home. Those who would enter her home must not come in their own shoes, but must meet her condition of a change into slippers or stocking feet.
The Offalist holds that the root problem of the Tramplian's theology is human pride. The Tramplian is proud of her ability to make decisions about her outfit. She is proud of her Manolos, her Prada heels or her Jimmy Choo boots. She is too proud to combine her outfit with stocking feet. She resents the idea that her hostess would not accept her in her own shoes.
The Offalist argues that if the Tramplian would only forsake her pride, she would actually find that she was far more comfortable in slippers, socks or bare feet. Her determination to remain in her stilettos will in the end hurt her feet and drag her to destruction. She may well remain outside the dinner party in the outer darkness.
If you are an Evangelical Christian, you may be sick of the Calvinist/ Arminian debate, so let me introduce you to some new theological terms; Tramplian and Offalist.
Tramplians like to trample the carpets or flooring of their homes with their shoes on. They find it rather objectionable to be asked to remove their shoes when visiting somebody else's home.
The central principle in Tramplian theology is the freedom of the will. They believe that they should be the ones to decide whether they take their shoes off at a dinner party. Their attitude is "I decided what outfit to wear. I decided what shoes to wear. I should be able to keep them on if I like". They do not believe that a hostess should impose shoelessness on them.
Tramplians have a strong belief in the goodness of hosts. They consider that a hostess should be above all concerned for her guests wishes and convenience above keeping her home clean. They believe that if a hostess likes them enougth to invite them into her home, she will accept them with their shoes on.
Tramplians believe in the power of their own ability to keep their shoes clean. They consider themselves to be grown-up and to be careful about what they tread on. They do acknowledge that their shoes can be tainted by the corruption of dirty streets, however they hold that this can easily be dealt with by wiping their feet on their hostess' doormat. Their shoes can be restored to cleanliness by the exercise of their will.
Offalists in contrast, always remove their shoes at the door. Offalists believe in the Total Depravity of the soles of their shoes. The corruption of city streets has completely ruined the condition of their shoes, they argue, and the only hope is a change of nature for their feet, namely into slippers or clean socks. The Offalist pays heed to warnings about the health risks of pesticide, lead paint and animal excrement.
The Offalist upholds the sovereignty of the host. The hostess has been very generous in inviting her guests, however, she is sovereign over her own home and has the authority to set the rules. She will not allow anything corrupt to defile her home. Those who would enter her home must not come in their own shoes, but must meet her condition of a change into slippers or stocking feet.
The Offalist holds that the root problem of the Tramplian's theology is human pride. The Tramplian is proud of her ability to make decisions about her outfit. She is proud of her Manolos, her Prada heels or her Jimmy Choo boots. She is too proud to combine her outfit with stocking feet. She resents the idea that her hostess would not accept her in her own shoes.
The Offalist argues that if the Tramplian would only forsake her pride, she would actually find that she was far more comfortable in slippers, socks or bare feet. Her determination to remain in her stilettos will in the end hurt her feet and drag her to destruction. She may well remain outside the dinner party in the outer darkness.
Forever...
What a weekend!
I just returned from a short stay in Seattle where I was able to get out climbing on two separate occasions. If you follow this blog then you know I'm pretty much addicted to World Wall One. I'm not the best sport climber, in fact, I'm still chasing the dream of climbing 5.13, but the World Wall is a great place to train for rope climbing. Soaring gray/white/tan/and even black streaked walls make up this behemoth of rock sticking straight out of the side of Little Mt. Si.
I've been climbing at Little si for almost 4 seasons now and I have managed to tick almost every single route in the 5.12 range, barring some exceptions like Sweet Tooth, Totally Spent, and Propaganda. For the past two months I have been putting in a lot of effort, frustratingly so at times, on a route called Californicator. I had this thing absolutely wired but would always get to this one spot and fall. The move that was constantly shutting me down required some weird foot work and body positioning, and is not power dependent at all. You have to do this particularly technical crux coming right off of doing the majority of the hard climbing of the route as well, but you do have a somewhat decent rest just before you engage in the move so it shouldn't be that hard, right?
Well, not if you're a basket case like me!!
It took me only 6 or 7 burns to get the route down to a manageable one hang. Then the re-occurring nightmare scenario set in. 15 consecutive redpoint attempts yielded the same result:
I would climb the bottom section flawlessly, even using my own slightly harder beta at the third bolt crux, and growl my way through the powerful move at the sixth bolt crux; move left and start resting at the 'typewriter' hold (a long rail with two good incut parts to it), then the anxiety of failure and the pressure of success would come barreling down on me mentally and physically as I reached out left to grab a flat crimp, shuffle my feet over and try to fall into a small but incut sidepull at chest height. This is where I have been falling for the past 21 attempts!
But not on Saturday, September 4, 2010!!
The weather was perfect, sunny and cold. I made plans to meet my two good friends and climbing partners Dom and Laura at World Wall. I hadn't climbed with them in ages and it was really nice to see their enthusiastic faces once again. We caught up on the social comings and goings of Olympia's vast and diverse climbing community, talked shop about new jobs, student teaching, and family and eventually got to climbing. I made the obligatory and somewhat traditional warm up of Aborigine while Dom and Laura did a hand ful of routes. I watched as Laura went for the lead of her project Rainy Day Woman, which will soon become her first ever 5.12a. Then it was my turn. The mood was very light, and as I started climbing I noticed the constant chatter below me and felt good that the spotlight wasn't being blasted too brightly on my attempt. I felt very light and confident on the bottom part, sailing through sidepulls, big lock-offs, and double sets of underclings; before I knew it I was at the typewriter feeling surprisingly good. I've been trying a different style of shaking out when it comes to rests called 'G-tox'. You basically shake each arm out but instead of dangling them by your side you make a conscious effort to shake each arm out above your head for some allotted amount of time (5 secs.) or however long you can manage as well as dangling it by your side. Not only is it scientifically proven but it also focuses your attention on something other than the outcomes of failure or success, hell, it may just work like a placebo!!
In any event, I was really milking the rest and felt better than I ever have and launched into the last crux. To my surprise I stuck the move, it really threw me off a little bit at first but I moved quickly and got my foot up to a good black chip, reached high for a nice crimp, and then made a huge lock-off to the victory jug!! I was absolutely dumb-struck to have made it this far. Now I just needed to shake out and keep it together for the last little crux section, which is no harder then .11b/c, but can feel very precarious when pumped. I finally felt as recovered as I was going to get and made a big lock off to a back-handed undercling, got my foot on a small jib and pulled myself in with a crimp switching the back hand undercling to a regular undercling and stood up grabbing a very friendly finger jug. It was over, a wrap on a sloper, some ticky tack moves over a bulge on crimps and I was clipping the chains.
Dom suggested I write a poem about my experience with the route, but I think I'll just post some pictures of all my friends climbing it:
Third bolt crux!
Lisa clipping off of a set of double underclings.
Antonio heads into the 6th bolt crux!
Dom sticks the finger jug out of the 6th bolt crux, just before you start to head left.
Nick hangs out at the victory jug. It's almost OVER!
I was thrilled to send this route and I feel like it definitely marks a major point of progression for me in my climbing. It is definitely the hardest thing I have ever done on a rope.
If you have stayed with this post this far then you might as well keep reading.
I know my account of 'the epic redpoint of a 5.12d' isn't as engaging, exciting, or eloquent as perhaps Jamie Emerson's recent blog post about his fight with Evil Backwards(V.14) or even Sean Mc.Coll's re-telling of his battle with Punt-X(5.14d) in the Gorge Du Loup, but hey, it's all I got, and in my mind my battle is no less epic or important.
As a follow up to my success on Saturday I returned to World Wall on Monday, yesterday, with Dom, Jimmy, and Andrew. I had the strongest day out climbing that I have ever had. I'm still chasing that elusive 5.13 benchmark, but I managed some really strong repeats:
I warmed up on Technorigine(5.12c), then stepped left and repeated Psychosmatic(5.12d), then stepped back right and repeated Californicator(5.12d), I even made it through the first crux of the Californication(5.13a, californicator into techno) extension before falling going to the mail slot. I'm very stoked on this line at the moment and really hope that I can make this my first 5.13a, a very proud .13a in my case. I even managed a lap on Rainy Day for good measure, after taking a 25 footer off of a second lap of Techno almost ripping my arm out of my socket (yikes!).
All in all, it was an amazing two days of climbing for me and I hope I can keep getting stronger and eventually climb Californication and Chronic this year.
Stay tuned...
I just returned from a short stay in Seattle where I was able to get out climbing on two separate occasions. If you follow this blog then you know I'm pretty much addicted to World Wall One. I'm not the best sport climber, in fact, I'm still chasing the dream of climbing 5.13, but the World Wall is a great place to train for rope climbing. Soaring gray/white/tan/and even black streaked walls make up this behemoth of rock sticking straight out of the side of Little Mt. Si.
I've been climbing at Little si for almost 4 seasons now and I have managed to tick almost every single route in the 5.12 range, barring some exceptions like Sweet Tooth, Totally Spent, and Propaganda. For the past two months I have been putting in a lot of effort, frustratingly so at times, on a route called Californicator. I had this thing absolutely wired but would always get to this one spot and fall. The move that was constantly shutting me down required some weird foot work and body positioning, and is not power dependent at all. You have to do this particularly technical crux coming right off of doing the majority of the hard climbing of the route as well, but you do have a somewhat decent rest just before you engage in the move so it shouldn't be that hard, right?
Well, not if you're a basket case like me!!
It took me only 6 or 7 burns to get the route down to a manageable one hang. Then the re-occurring nightmare scenario set in. 15 consecutive redpoint attempts yielded the same result:
I would climb the bottom section flawlessly, even using my own slightly harder beta at the third bolt crux, and growl my way through the powerful move at the sixth bolt crux; move left and start resting at the 'typewriter' hold (a long rail with two good incut parts to it), then the anxiety of failure and the pressure of success would come barreling down on me mentally and physically as I reached out left to grab a flat crimp, shuffle my feet over and try to fall into a small but incut sidepull at chest height. This is where I have been falling for the past 21 attempts!
But not on Saturday, September 4, 2010!!
The weather was perfect, sunny and cold. I made plans to meet my two good friends and climbing partners Dom and Laura at World Wall. I hadn't climbed with them in ages and it was really nice to see their enthusiastic faces once again. We caught up on the social comings and goings of Olympia's vast and diverse climbing community, talked shop about new jobs, student teaching, and family and eventually got to climbing. I made the obligatory and somewhat traditional warm up of Aborigine while Dom and Laura did a hand ful of routes. I watched as Laura went for the lead of her project Rainy Day Woman, which will soon become her first ever 5.12a. Then it was my turn. The mood was very light, and as I started climbing I noticed the constant chatter below me and felt good that the spotlight wasn't being blasted too brightly on my attempt. I felt very light and confident on the bottom part, sailing through sidepulls, big lock-offs, and double sets of underclings; before I knew it I was at the typewriter feeling surprisingly good. I've been trying a different style of shaking out when it comes to rests called 'G-tox'. You basically shake each arm out but instead of dangling them by your side you make a conscious effort to shake each arm out above your head for some allotted amount of time (5 secs.) or however long you can manage as well as dangling it by your side. Not only is it scientifically proven but it also focuses your attention on something other than the outcomes of failure or success, hell, it may just work like a placebo!!
In any event, I was really milking the rest and felt better than I ever have and launched into the last crux. To my surprise I stuck the move, it really threw me off a little bit at first but I moved quickly and got my foot up to a good black chip, reached high for a nice crimp, and then made a huge lock-off to the victory jug!! I was absolutely dumb-struck to have made it this far. Now I just needed to shake out and keep it together for the last little crux section, which is no harder then .11b/c, but can feel very precarious when pumped. I finally felt as recovered as I was going to get and made a big lock off to a back-handed undercling, got my foot on a small jib and pulled myself in with a crimp switching the back hand undercling to a regular undercling and stood up grabbing a very friendly finger jug. It was over, a wrap on a sloper, some ticky tack moves over a bulge on crimps and I was clipping the chains.
Dom suggested I write a poem about my experience with the route, but I think I'll just post some pictures of all my friends climbing it:
Third bolt crux!
Lisa clipping off of a set of double underclings.
Antonio heads into the 6th bolt crux!
Dom sticks the finger jug out of the 6th bolt crux, just before you start to head left.
Nick hangs out at the victory jug. It's almost OVER!
I was thrilled to send this route and I feel like it definitely marks a major point of progression for me in my climbing. It is definitely the hardest thing I have ever done on a rope.
If you have stayed with this post this far then you might as well keep reading.
I know my account of 'the epic redpoint of a 5.12d' isn't as engaging, exciting, or eloquent as perhaps Jamie Emerson's recent blog post about his fight with Evil Backwards(V.14) or even Sean Mc.Coll's re-telling of his battle with Punt-X(5.14d) in the Gorge Du Loup, but hey, it's all I got, and in my mind my battle is no less epic or important.
As a follow up to my success on Saturday I returned to World Wall on Monday, yesterday, with Dom, Jimmy, and Andrew. I had the strongest day out climbing that I have ever had. I'm still chasing that elusive 5.13 benchmark, but I managed some really strong repeats:
I warmed up on Technorigine(5.12c), then stepped left and repeated Psychosmatic(5.12d), then stepped back right and repeated Californicator(5.12d), I even made it through the first crux of the Californication(5.13a, californicator into techno) extension before falling going to the mail slot. I'm very stoked on this line at the moment and really hope that I can make this my first 5.13a, a very proud .13a in my case. I even managed a lap on Rainy Day for good measure, after taking a 25 footer off of a second lap of Techno almost ripping my arm out of my socket (yikes!).
All in all, it was an amazing two days of climbing for me and I hope I can keep getting stronger and eventually climb Californication and Chronic this year.
Stay tuned...
Summer Comes to an End
Hmmm, seems so close...
Jimmy and I had such a great time in Squamish we decided to head back the following weekend. Despite the rain on the very first day at the very first stop, we packed up our shiz and decided to check out a new area called Paradise Valley which was miraculously dry, sunny, and amazing! Great problems on friendly holds and flat landings, what a gem of an area!! The rest of the trip was spent between the Grand Walls, theNorth Walls, and Paradise Valley (which was affectionately referred to as PV for the remainder of the trip).
Since I took my sweet time to finally make this post I'll just talk about some of the highlights of the trip.
Jimmy crushed as usual, but the stand out send for him was one of his hardest ascents yet: Worm World Cave Low. I watched him suss out beta and go from falling at the very first move to falling at the very last move before I was able to pick my camera up and immortalize the ascent on video (unfortunately I wasn't quick enough and he dispatched the first crux before I could press play, but I got the rest on film which I will post soon, I know I keep saying that but I promise I will!!)
He also put down impressive V.7 and V.8 flashes of the Fridge and the Rookie, as well as dispatching the Rookie Low, very nice trip for him!!
I had a great time falling off some classic boulder problems, but I also managed a V.8 which was very fun called Storm Troopers at PV, as well as sending Styx at the North Walls on my second go, due only to the impressively staggering amount of pads that the Hsu and Wolff families were carrying around. Styx is probably soft for V.7 but is such a fun problem on a sweet slightly overhung face. Definitely worth doing (if you have like 8 or 9 pads like we did). However my favorite problem of the whole trip had to have been The Tugger(V.4), one of my all time favorite problems anywhere!! Great movement, great rock, perfect landing, what more do you want??
So, until next year Squamish!!!
Rookie Low(V.10)
Worm World Cave Low(V.10)
I just thought this was a weird photo.
Trad Killers (V.4)
Heart Break Hotel (V.2)
Adios Antonio!
Antonio on Aborigine(5.11b)
This summer I met a great climber from Ojaca(spelling?) Mexico. Antonio is a really mellow guy who climbs like he was born to do so. He works as a climbing guide back in his hometown in Mexico and has been a beast on the rock for a while now. He stayed in Olympia for the majority of the summer and it was really fun to climb with him and get to know him. He moves very intuitively up the rock and watching him figure out sequences and climb 'lightly' on steep terrain was very inspiring as well as thought provoking. I'm really glad I was able to climb with him as much as I did, and we even got to project Californicator together. These are a few pics of our last trip to World Wall with Antonio, where he made some really significant progress on Californicator. We'll miss you Antonio, and I might just take you up on that invitation to Ojaca someday.
Antonio on Aborigine.
Antonio enters the crux of Californicator(5.12d)
Antonio working out the next few moves on a rest.
Jimmy nearing the top of Technorigine(5.12c)
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