so totally sick and rad.com

The ol’ So Totally Sick and RAD theme was beginning to feel a lil bit tired, played. I needed to update some backend stuff here anyway and when I did I realized I’d have to do a crap load of work to bring the old theme up to date, or I could just design a newer more better lookage and feelage.  So I’m in the process of tearing down and remodeling the STSR site.  Thanks to Derek Punsalan from 5thirtyone.com for the sleek Grid Focus theme which will serve as my new ground zero. I plan to hack the shit out of it to make it my own (sorry Derek), so expect the place to look a little bit erm…in flux over the next couple days as I tweak and twiddle trying to get things put in their place.

Holla

I used to struggle with stuff that was too nostalgic / sentimental (ironic because I am so much both).

The peeps at Uppercase Gallery threw this flickr set out there and it totally resonates with me.

I found an old mechanical pencil sharpener the other day – the grey cast ironish and aluminium [sic] kind that mounts on the wall and cranks – and I stole it. As soon as I saw the thing I dredged up the smell of freshly sharpened pencils from the meatlocker of my mind.

One of the most influential books I have read is The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard.   Bachelard dissects the influence of space — in particular, our childhood spaces / home — on memory, perception, and the subconscious.

It’s pretty intriguing.

Some Bachelard quotes:

One must always maintain one’s connection to the past and yet ceaselessly pull away from it.

Ideas are refined and multiplied in the commerce of minds. In their splendor, images effect a very simple communion of souls.

The subconscious is ceaselessly murmuring, and it is by listening to these murmurs that one hears the truth.

…when we discover a nest it takes us back to our childhood or, rather, to a childhood; to the childhoods we should have had. For not many of us have been endowed by life with the full measure of its cosmic implications.

I also just read this passage from Martha Grimes’ book Foul Matter

Imagine how you’d feel if I were, say, an oncologist telling you you only had a couple of months to live. You’d be shocked out of your mind not just by death but by the realization you’d squandered a big part of your life. Think about that. It’s my theory that none of us really believes he’s going to die. We think we believe it, given all the evidence, but we really don’t. Freud said a man can’t imagine his own death. Probably, we think there’s something more due us, and maybe that’s the reason immortality is such a popular idea. What we really want is another chance, and we think we’re going to get it–hte chance to straighten out everything, to get it right.

[[Via: Super Deluxe]]

Crude oil is almost $140 per barrel.

By now you’d think we would know where it comes from. But No one really knows.

There are 3 main theories:

1. Oil comes from algae “The conventional wisdom is that oil descends from algae from eons ago. Lots and lots of algae. Unimaginable mounds of dead algae in quantities no longer found on this planet, pressed, and cooked into hydrocarbon liquids.”
2. Oil is abiogenic (non-organic) “Others, notably the Russians, have an alternative theory that oil comes from non-biological carbon compounds deep in this planet, like the methane oceans we find on other planets.”
3. Oil is produced by bacteria “An emerging third theory is that bacteria living within rocks produce oil. In this theory there is a biological component (the bacteria) which constitute the oil-generating process, but the originating material in not degraded organic material, but rather geological carbon gases.”

[[Via: Wave Geek ]]

why is it so hard for people to submit a compelling cover letter and resume that is appropriate for the position they’re applying for?

It’s almost like they don’t really want a job.

So I’ve been hitting the wall with lower back rehab a bit lately, which has driven me back to the meathead training center. I found a couple cool articles on training grip strength, shoulder strength (think iron cross), and one-arm pull strength. All of these will probably do nothing for my climbing or my back recovery, but hopefully they’ll keep me sane a little longer. The goal is to one day do this (just watch 25 secs):

For Jonny A, Pete, and Marit.

this is my friend amy. she’s rocks harder than you.