Bouldering at Joshua Tree National Park

Sometime recently I got the crazy idea to go to Joshua Tree National Park to go bouldering. Usually I do it indoors at Stone Gardens in Seattle, but I have been wanting to try outdoor bouldering for a while now. Since Joshua Tree is only a few hours away from where I live I figured it would be worth the trip.

The morning started out by me waking up late. I planned to get out of the house at 9:00 am, but since I forgot to set my alarm I didn't wake up until about 10:00. I hopped in the shower and got packed. First I had to stop at the grocery store and wal mart, so I could get the things I needed like water and flashlight. I didn't plan on staying late or getting lost, but I figure it is better to be safe than sorry when going to the desert. I did't get out of San Clemente until 11:00, so I was already trying to make up for lost time and I was not even 5 miles from my apartment.

I knew that driving up I-5 on a beautiful sunny day would be bad, so I took another route. This is the only part of the trip I prepared for the night before. Rather than going up I-5 to I-10, which is the simplest way, I drove through the Cleveland National Forest on the Ortega Highway. This got me to I-15, which I could take to Highway 91. Once through Riverside it was a short time to get to I-10. This plan sounded simple enough, but I was not the only person with the plan to get on Highway 91. Highway 91 is also known as the Beaches Highway. Highway 91 and I-15, at the interchange between them, was packed with cars going west to the coast. Why would anyone want to spend a sunny Saturday at the beach? That would be crazy.

Once I got to I-10 I was on my way. I was finally going at speeds that are normal for highways down here and that was going to get me to Joshua Tree in no time. Joshua Tree is located about 100 miles east Los Angeles, just north of Palm Springs. Palm Springs also happens to be in Coachella Valley where some one of the three largest wind farms in California. Turthfully I thought it was kind of distracting to drive through the windfarm, as I was drawn to stare at the many slowly rotating wind mills. They never turned in unison, so I was mesmerized for a short period of time until I passed the farms.

I got to the northern entrance to the park at about 3:30 in the afternoon, far later than I had expected to be there. I made a quick stop in the visitor center to pick up a map of the park and a book on bouldering. With those two things I was able to find the routes in the park.

My first stop in the park was Ryan Mountain Campground. There are some easier routes here climb, so it was a good start. The first thing I learned was how different the ratings are for indoor and outdoor routes. The V0 routes at Joshua Tree are nothing compared to the V0 routes at Stone Gardens. They are much more difficult. I did a couple V0s on the boulders right in the campground and then decided to take a break by climbing some of piles of rocks. From the tops of them I there were some amazing views of the parks. After climbing to the top of the one boulder formations I went to go find some more routes. Here is a short video of my climb up an easier route I found (16 MB).

Once I had my fill of climbing and I was too tired to climb anymore I decided to do that whole tourist thing. I went to Keys View and saw where the San Andreas Fault lies just south of the San Bernadino Mountains. That was a pretty amazing thing to see. It was clearly evident where years of the two plates on either side of the fault coming together had caused the earth to start to rise up.

I drove around a to Hidden Valley Campground and Intersection Rock to see what they were like and I would definitely like to return to those places to do some more bouldering. After taking some photos as the sun was setting I decided to head home. I had planned to stay the night do some climbing in the morning, but I was not looking forward to another 3 or 4 hour drive if there was traffic, so I got on the road and was headed home by 9:30. Luckily the drive back was only 2 hours, so I was home early to get a good night's rest.

I can't wait to go back and boulder and camp with my friends there.

Batman Begins The Notebook

So this Friday I went to see Batman Begins with a bunch of people from work. I must say, it was one of the best movies I have seen in a while. Granted some of the dialogue was bad, but the story was far better than the original Batman. I highly recommend going and watching the movie. I think that the fighting was believable and a lot of it was kept in the shadows ... much like Batman would really fight. He does need to be big and buff to throw guys around, but he is Batman, so he doesn't need to just into the thick of things and fight his enemies off all at once. He is too smart for that.

Another good movie I saw this weekend was The Notebook. This is a romance movie based on the novel written by Nicholas Sparks. This is a really great love story about two teenagers who fall in love and then get separated. There lives continue on without each other until later their lives bring them back together. My coworker Jean lent it to me and said I would cry. I didn't think I would, but ....... well thanks for the movie Jean. Susan had told me to read the book a while ago, but I never got to it. I think I am going to ask her if I can borrow it again.

Graduation!

Sorry guys it wasn't my graduation this time. It certainly will be next time I go though. Even thought it wasn't mine I still had a great time going to UW's graduation this past weekend. I bet I had a better time this weekend than I will have when I graduate. Anyways, I'll get to the details now.

The first event of the weekend was Jesse's graduation from the business school. It was great to see Jesse graduate. He has always worked hard this graduation definitely showed that. Jesse was honored by the business school for his achievements, which he well deserved. One of the things I remember from college were the times I was on the phone and Jesse was telling me about all the new projects he was invovled in. He never failed to have something new in mind .... and he still does.

After watching Jesse's graduation it was time to watch the university graduation in Husky Stadium. We went to watch Jesse, Jayson and Sandra graduate. The whole ceremony was great until the clouds rolled in and it started to rain. I forgot to bring my umbrella and so did Sandra and Jayson. I was getting soaked in the stands and they were getting soaked on the field. Luckily Eric was nice enough to let Jayson and Sandra use his umbrella. That was nice of him, because otherwise they would have gotten drenched. When I tried to give the umbrella to Sandra and Jayson the security guards would not let them come near the rail. I was stupified as to why. It is understandable that you don't stuff being passed from the stands to the floor for security, but serviously are you going to make the students get drenched, freeze and then get hypothermia? I mean be realistic.

Here are some photos from the large UW graduation.

The whole Saturday thing did not go over super well because of all the rain, but it was still great to watch everyone, especially graduate. Sunday's graduation was a lot better. On Sunday morning I went to watch Sandra's departmental graduation in Kane Hall. Sandra's parents and most of her family showed up for the graduation, so I had a chance to meet more of the family. The ceremony was nice and small, so it felt really personal.

After all the graduation ceremony we took photos on campus with Sandra's family. This was a nice time to share with the family. Plus the weather was nice so we got to take some excellent photos around campus. After all of the graduation photos it was time to head to Sandra's grandma's house for her graduation bbq. We ate a lot of Chinese food and I got to know Sandra's cousin Allen. I also got to see her cute little cousins run around the yard. The best part was seeing Sandra's dad happy being with the family.

Here are some photos for you guys to check out from the last couple weeks:

Kagan's New Kitten


Chuck's Birthday Party

Don't forget my new rock climbing photos and Jesse's photos of his graduation.

What is it about him?

I just started on friendster and I'm hoping to eventually have a passel of hot asian chicks as friends but I'm not sure how to go about it. Should I tell that that green cards come out of my ass when I shit, or that sleeping with me will get them a 30% discount at Hot Topic, or just that my friendster accout is unexplicably frequented by modeling agency execs who are always looking for girls to do late night commercials for distance learning nursing programs and bar soap.
or maybe I should just tell tham that I'm a pathetic twit with no body hair and and and almost crippling fear that everyone will find out that my left testicle hasn't dropped yet?
whats your secret?
yours truly
Dan's #1 Fan

A response from a friend after looking at one of the many myspace accounts of pea brained dudes posing half naked and have an enormously large amount of asian women friends on their accounts.

XSI User Group

Last night a few of us from Omation took a trip to LA to go to the XSI User group meeting. It was hosted at the Gnomon school. The user group was pretty interesting, but not as exciting since people from Omation were not presenting like the last user group we went to.

Last night we saw presentations on 64 bit XSI. We given a demo of a model being subd'd more than 7 times, resulting in way too many triangles to be able to interactively moved on the screen, but the software was still able to handle it. Next there was a presentation from Psyop, a firm in New York, about how they created one of their last commercials for a European Company. I found it enjoyable because it used 3D to produce a stylized 2D image. That is something I have always thought was interesting. To see the spot, go to Psyop's Website and go to Archive > Aero. Another presentation I enjoyed was the Final Gathering lecture from Barton at mental images ..... mmmm .... raytracing, always enjoyable.

After the whole shindig we went The Cat & Fiddle restaurant. We were able to get a small room together and chat. Mostly I just listened, but I was also able to ask Thomas about when an OS X version of XSI would be released. Of course, it is always a chicken and the egg problem. There are not enough users on OS X. Those of which who would use XSI on OS X would mostly be freelancers, so porting the codebase it economically justifiable. Studios are not willing to move to OS X because they can't use XSI, so until one person takes the risk we won't see an OS X version.

They also had a raffle at the meeting and I won a copy of XSI Foundation. I am pretty jazzed about that. I can't wait to get home and play around with it. You can see me looking like an idiot after the meeting.

Ho Hum

As I sit here on my futon waiting for my roommates to get ready for work I am wondering what to blog about. Actually I am struggling. I think that means something. My life down here has gotten pretty monotonous. Granted I do enjoy my work and San Clemente, but there is nothing new and exciting to talk about.

I had a really great time last week in Seattle. I got to spend some time with Lance and Chuck, who I have not seen in a while. Lance had a going away party that Sandra took me to. It was nice to see him. Coincidentally he went to high school in this area. He knew all about T-Street and boogey boarding by the pier. That was an unexpected surprise. I hope to visit him next time I go to Florida.

Sandra also took me to Chuck's birthday party. That was a lot of fun. Chuck is big into games, so all the guests played a game together. I am not sure of the name, but it is similar to clue, but everyone plays a character. As part of the role you have clues to share with the other guests about the murder, but you also have secret clues that give up your relationships to other people. These secret clues are the ones that help solve the mystery.

On Sunday Kagan, Eric and I went on another bike ride. We rode to Marymoor Park and back, so we were pretty exhausted by the time we got back. The ride was exciting when we were returning because we formed a nice race line. One person would pull the others and the other two would draft. Once the lead rider got tired another would switch. We did pretty well for about 10 or 15 miles. We kept a pretty good pace of 20 mph.

In other news, my friend Jun is heading to China! I hope she has a blog online that I can read. If she does, I will definitely link to it here. I am really envious of her. I would like to go back to Beijing, but I have responsibilities here. I also have a great girlfriend. In the meantime I am just going to live vicariously through Jun. I really hope she has a great time.

Other than all of this, I am starting to miss Seattle. Now I know that I really like Seattle and would like to live there. I am not sure I really like this part of the country. The good thing is that means I probably won't be working down here. The bad news is that the 3D industry is much larger down here than in Seattle. That means if I want to continue in this industry I will have to search hard in Seattle. Or maybe I will just do other things.