Friday, October 31, 2008
More Nerd News
In a recent decision by the Federal Circuit, it looks like the types of business method patents that are allowed are now considerably more limited. Now, one can only get a business method patent if the process is (a) tied to a specific machine or (b) "transforms a particular article into a different state or thing." There's a good analysis on Patently-O.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
It's All Relative
So going to Mile End for climbing tonight went relatively smoothly, with only a few bumps.
The first bump was that I couldn't find my driver and, apparently, my driver couldn't find me or anyone else. So as I was wandering around the general area in the dark, I saw a car drive by with the correct license plate number. The driver had sent me an email with his number, and my top talent in life is memorizing strings of letters and numbers -- so I knew it was him immediately. The problem was that the car was going away from me. I chased it. It got away. I called the cell phone number he had also given me -- no answer. Next thing you know, I see the car again going past me in the other direction. This time I run up to it when it gets to a stop sign and jump into the car, which is currently empty except for the driver. "Sorry I'm late I had a lecture until 6 and I couldn't find you but then I saw your license plate and I knew your license plate from your email and so I tried to call you but you didn't answer so but then you went by the other way and then I caught you and I only was able to find you because I recognized your license plate because it was in the email but I had the lecture until 6" and on like that for a while. He answers, "So you must be Nika." We eventually find the other 3, who had been waiting just across the street from the driver since 6PM promptly but hadn't known his license plate number and who didn't realize it. So they got the back seat. Suckers!
Other than that, things were mostly good. Except that at Mile End, my climbing pants unexpectedly had a hole in the butt. And the hole grew at a surprisingly fast rate throughout the night. So that was a bit of a problem. But whatever. Now Nick has a pair of pants to fix for me when he gets back.
The first bump was that I couldn't find my driver and, apparently, my driver couldn't find me or anyone else. So as I was wandering around the general area in the dark, I saw a car drive by with the correct license plate number. The driver had sent me an email with his number, and my top talent in life is memorizing strings of letters and numbers -- so I knew it was him immediately. The problem was that the car was going away from me. I chased it. It got away. I called the cell phone number he had also given me -- no answer. Next thing you know, I see the car again going past me in the other direction. This time I run up to it when it gets to a stop sign and jump into the car, which is currently empty except for the driver. "Sorry I'm late I had a lecture until 6 and I couldn't find you but then I saw your license plate and I knew your license plate from your email and so I tried to call you but you didn't answer so but then you went by the other way and then I caught you and I only was able to find you because I recognized your license plate because it was in the email but I had the lecture until 6" and on like that for a while. He answers, "So you must be Nika." We eventually find the other 3, who had been waiting just across the street from the driver since 6PM promptly but hadn't known his license plate number and who didn't realize it. So they got the back seat. Suckers!
Other than that, things were mostly good. Except that at Mile End, my climbing pants unexpectedly had a hole in the butt. And the hole grew at a surprisingly fast rate throughout the night. So that was a bit of a problem. But whatever. Now Nick has a pair of pants to fix for me when he gets back.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
It's Official
As discussed, HLS has changed its grading policy to a High Pass - Pass - Low Pass - Fail system. There was apparently a lot of debate at the law school about how the transition would occur. It appears that Dean Kagan has decided to implement it with no retroactivity, so only the current 1Ls will have transcripts that are all in the new system. Additionally, current 3Ls are not going to have it implemented for them at all -- this year, they will still be graded with letters. Meanwhile, current 2Ls are the stroppiest -- they will be graded with letters this year but next year, as 3Ls, they will be graded with the P/F system. They're a bit cranky about what this will mean for their transcripts and for honors.
Of course, I'm kind of a 2.5L right now. This means that next year, during my final HLS semester, I will most likely be getting P/F grades. Additionally, this year will show up only as a P/F on my transcript (with no HP/LP options for this year). Meanwhile, I'll also have two years of undistinguished letter grades. So this will be tricky to explain to people. I don't really mind other than that, though, and I also figure that I'll already have some explaining to do based on this year alone. However, some of the other kids from HLS doing this program with me are getting somewhat up in arms about the whole thing. Additionally, current 2Ls who would do this Cambridge program next year would be in the same position -- they'd have two semesters of grades, a year of P/F based on their time in England, and a final semester of HP/P/LP/F. I wonder if they'll be stroppy too.
Two other bits of news:
Of course, I'm kind of a 2.5L right now. This means that next year, during my final HLS semester, I will most likely be getting P/F grades. Additionally, this year will show up only as a P/F on my transcript (with no HP/LP options for this year). Meanwhile, I'll also have two years of undistinguished letter grades. So this will be tricky to explain to people. I don't really mind other than that, though, and I also figure that I'll already have some explaining to do based on this year alone. However, some of the other kids from HLS doing this program with me are getting somewhat up in arms about the whole thing. Additionally, current 2Ls who would do this Cambridge program next year would be in the same position -- they'd have two semesters of grades, a year of P/F based on their time in England, and a final semester of HP/P/LP/F. I wonder if they'll be stroppy too.
Two other bits of news:
- Halloween isn't a big deal in England, so apparently my college seems to have no qualms about having a Halloween bop on November 1st. November 1st is the day to gorge yourself on candy and be recovering from events -- not the day to have a Halloween party. Halloween is over by then! Arghh. Also, I had a craving for candy corn the other day, which they definitely don't sell in England, so I've made Nick buy some for me in America and bring them to me on Friday.
- I have been working on laundry for the last couple of days, which has unsurprisingly been a bit of a bumpy ride. I've found some interesting things in laundry machines along the way, though. The other day I found a L1 coin in a dryer, and then today I found a metal spoon in a washing machine. Curious.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Finis
The last day of our trip!
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
So this was the last day of Nick's and my France road trip! It was good. We packed up at Fontainebleau in the morning, and headed out. On the way, our cat from the night before made an appearance and jumped into my lap again, which was good -- it meant that it didn't die from the raw chicken it stole the night before. Also, we're pretty sure we saw, across the campsite, an English couple that had camped near us at Orpierre. We were in a rush, and they looked like they were too, and we weren't 100% sure it was them (Nick and I debated), so we didn't say hi -- but I think it really might have been them.
After packing up the campsite and eating breakfast, we drove off to Versailles. The plan was to spend 3-4 hours there, and to go into the palace, but when we got there, the ticket line was extremely long. Really, really, really long. It would have taken several hours to get a ticket. So Nick and I gave up and decided to wander around the grounds instead.
The grounds were nice, but chilly.
Unfortunately, there were a number of fountains on the grounds that weren't running. Nick claimed that they probably only ran occasionally on special-event days in the summer.
We also got a nice view of the Orangerie, which we didn't initially realize was the Orangerie.
At this point, Nick and I wandered back around to the front of the palace to see if the ticket line had gotten any shorter. It had not. We decided that visiting the palace definitely wasn't going to happen for us today, and also decided that next time we would buy tickets ahead of time, because if you already had tickets there was no line to enter the palace. It appears you can do this at FNAC or SNCF, whatever they are. That would definitely have been a successful strategy.
So Nick and I took a few more photos before we headed off.
At this point, Nick and I gather up our stuff and head off. On the way out of town, though, we drive past the Orangerie again, and decide that it would be a good place for lunch. There also appears to be free parking nearby -- on the sidewalk. Tons of other cars have done this too, so Nick does the French thing, drives right up on the sidewalk, and parks. So we eat lunch right next to the Orangerie.
From there, we have a rather boring drive to Dunkirque. When we approach Paris, I do get to see the Eiffel Tower from a distance.
The Périphérique proves somewhat exciting, and also challenging for Nick's GPS system, which at one point sends us straight through Paris (I did see what appeared to be the L'Oreal headquarters). Eventually we manage to navigate our way through.
Interestingly, Nick's GPS is as temperamental as he is. While it was fine on this day, because it was so overcast, the day before when it had been sitting on the dashboard in the sun, it occasionally would stop charging its battery because it would overheat. Nick loved that excuse to turn up the air conditioning -- "Even TomTom is hot!"
We made it to Dunkirque immediately before loading ended for the 6:00 ferry. We were technically booked for the 8:00 ferry, but we were hoping to get on the earlier one so that we didn't get back to Baldock too late. As we were waiting in line to check in, with only two cars ahead of us, the "Next Ferry" sign changed from 18:00 to 20:00. However, Nick was determined.
So we checked in, and were assigned a lane to wait in for the next ferry. Then we went through immigration, and it was actually by far the easiest time I've ever had at immigration from France to England. So we headed to our lane, but Nick's strategy was to just attempt to follow the cars in that lane for the earlier ferry, which were still being loaded. The car in front of us seemed to also be in our position, and also take our strategy. So, we acted clueless and just kept driving in behind the 6PM cars -- and were successful! We made it onto the earlier ferry and didn't get kicked off.
The ferry ride back to England was actually pretty tough, though. It's a 2-hour ride on this Norfolk Line, and the seas were bumpy. It was really poor weather outside, with lots of wind and rain. There were some pretty high waves we had to go over, too. At first, Nick started to feel seasick, but then I did too. So we walked around the ferry in circles for a while. Well, staggered. We definitely couldn't walk straight. At one point I noticed a sign mentioning "crockery" -- which appears to be quite a popular British word.
Eventually we finally made it back to the port in Dover. At this point it was pitch dark outside and icky weather, but we made it! From there, the drive back to Baldock was really pretty uneventful. Nick had no trouble readjusting to the left side of the road. Nick's parents were still on vacation in Portugal, so we had the house to ourselves to do laundry and generally spread stuff all over the place. (Also, we had to leave for Cambridge first thing the next morning, so unfortunately we seemed to leave a bit of a mess for his parents -- Nick's mother said "I was quite surprised to come back from Portugal and find a tent in my bathtub!")
So that was our trip! Next step is to upload residual photos to FB. Stay tuned.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
So this was the last day of Nick's and my France road trip! It was good. We packed up at Fontainebleau in the morning, and headed out. On the way, our cat from the night before made an appearance and jumped into my lap again, which was good -- it meant that it didn't die from the raw chicken it stole the night before. Also, we're pretty sure we saw, across the campsite, an English couple that had camped near us at Orpierre. We were in a rush, and they looked like they were too, and we weren't 100% sure it was them (Nick and I debated), so we didn't say hi -- but I think it really might have been them.
After packing up the campsite and eating breakfast, we drove off to Versailles. The plan was to spend 3-4 hours there, and to go into the palace, but when we got there, the ticket line was extremely long. Really, really, really long. It would have taken several hours to get a ticket. So Nick and I gave up and decided to wander around the grounds instead.
The grounds were nice, but chilly.
Unfortunately, there were a number of fountains on the grounds that weren't running. Nick claimed that they probably only ran occasionally on special-event days in the summer.
We also got a nice view of the Orangerie, which we didn't initially realize was the Orangerie.
At this point, Nick and I wandered back around to the front of the palace to see if the ticket line had gotten any shorter. It had not. We decided that visiting the palace definitely wasn't going to happen for us today, and also decided that next time we would buy tickets ahead of time, because if you already had tickets there was no line to enter the palace. It appears you can do this at FNAC or SNCF, whatever they are. That would definitely have been a successful strategy.
So Nick and I took a few more photos before we headed off.
At this point, Nick and I gather up our stuff and head off. On the way out of town, though, we drive past the Orangerie again, and decide that it would be a good place for lunch. There also appears to be free parking nearby -- on the sidewalk. Tons of other cars have done this too, so Nick does the French thing, drives right up on the sidewalk, and parks. So we eat lunch right next to the Orangerie.
From there, we have a rather boring drive to Dunkirque. When we approach Paris, I do get to see the Eiffel Tower from a distance.
The Périphérique proves somewhat exciting, and also challenging for Nick's GPS system, which at one point sends us straight through Paris (I did see what appeared to be the L'Oreal headquarters). Eventually we manage to navigate our way through.
Interestingly, Nick's GPS is as temperamental as he is. While it was fine on this day, because it was so overcast, the day before when it had been sitting on the dashboard in the sun, it occasionally would stop charging its battery because it would overheat. Nick loved that excuse to turn up the air conditioning -- "Even TomTom is hot!"
We made it to Dunkirque immediately before loading ended for the 6:00 ferry. We were technically booked for the 8:00 ferry, but we were hoping to get on the earlier one so that we didn't get back to Baldock too late. As we were waiting in line to check in, with only two cars ahead of us, the "Next Ferry" sign changed from 18:00 to 20:00. However, Nick was determined.
So we checked in, and were assigned a lane to wait in for the next ferry. Then we went through immigration, and it was actually by far the easiest time I've ever had at immigration from France to England. So we headed to our lane, but Nick's strategy was to just attempt to follow the cars in that lane for the earlier ferry, which were still being loaded. The car in front of us seemed to also be in our position, and also take our strategy. So, we acted clueless and just kept driving in behind the 6PM cars -- and were successful! We made it onto the earlier ferry and didn't get kicked off.
The ferry ride back to England was actually pretty tough, though. It's a 2-hour ride on this Norfolk Line, and the seas were bumpy. It was really poor weather outside, with lots of wind and rain. There were some pretty high waves we had to go over, too. At first, Nick started to feel seasick, but then I did too. So we walked around the ferry in circles for a while. Well, staggered. We definitely couldn't walk straight. At one point I noticed a sign mentioning "crockery" -- which appears to be quite a popular British word.
Eventually we finally made it back to the port in Dover. At this point it was pitch dark outside and icky weather, but we made it! From there, the drive back to Baldock was really pretty uneventful. Nick had no trouble readjusting to the left side of the road. Nick's parents were still on vacation in Portugal, so we had the house to ourselves to do laundry and generally spread stuff all over the place. (Also, we had to leave for Cambridge first thing the next morning, so unfortunately we seemed to leave a bit of a mess for his parents -- Nick's mother said "I was quite surprised to come back from Portugal and find a tent in my bathtub!")
So that was our trip! Next step is to upload residual photos to FB. Stay tuned.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Finishing in Fontainebleau
Monday, September 22, 2008
So this was, unfortunately, our last day in Fontainebleau. As usual, we got going late, because, as usual, it was absolutely freezing in the morning. We ate breakfast at the campsite and lunch in the parking lot, which at this point was unfortunately mostly cloudy. We had more-or-less avoided rain for the entire trip, except for the very first night in the campsite at Fontainebleau and during the original drive down to Orpierre, so we had been pretty lucky, but we wanted to finish without rain. Luckily we did.
We decided to go to Bas Cuvier now that it was no longer the weekend (making it less crowded) and now that I had gotten a bit more used to the poffed footholds. When we got to Cuvier, then, it was cloudy and chilly but manageable. After lunch, we gathered our stuff from the car and headed over.
We mostly worked on the easier Red Circuit problems around Cuvier. I decided to try La Nescafé, a 6A (V3) that has a very slopey topout that I had tried a couple years ago but had slid off of (almost squishing poor Chris, who was spotting me, in the process). The landing is good, and it's not too high, but it still kind of sucks. This time, it took me a couple times to get up to the topout, but this time I stuck to the top when I got there. It was still a struggle, and a couple Frenchies started to watch, and said "Come on" because I don't think they thought I would know allez, but I made it, so that was good. It was a tricky boulder to get off of, too. Nick said "Nika, your descent was just as graceful as your send."
Then, after that, we did some more Red Circuit problems. Then Nick did La Marie Rose, the first 6A (V3) in the forest historically, in a Daddy-style "flash," meaning that he flashed it for about the tenth time. He has the problem bizarrely wired since he loves to do it every time he goes to Fontainebleau. There were too many people crowded around it at that point, though, for me to want to do it again. I had actually done it once before when I was here 4 years ago (which was long before Nick did it, btw) but I didn't remember any of the beta. So I did a few other problems and then went back to it. Interestingly, there seems to be two different ways to do it -- an English (thuggish) and a French (stylish-with-a-Gaston) way. Nick obviously did it the English way. When I walked up to it this trip, I initially did about two tries in the French way, because I'm pretty sure that that's how I might have eventually done it when I was working on it 4 years ago. After I popped off twice, I decided to do it with the English beta -- and I sent again, easily. So that was good.
Getting off that boulder, by the way, is the crux. You either can scarily chimney down between two boulders, which is not easy, or you can do a scary lean-and-fall-across the gap, from which you have to pull yourself across the gap, onto the next boulder, and then continue your descent from boulder #2 -- which is still not easy. So I again gathered an audience who were watching to see whether I'd make it off. There were a couple people watching who didn't speak a common language, but both spoke English as their second language, so they were trying to figure out what I was going to do in their not-so-good English.
So that day was good, in the end, since Nick and I both repeated two 6As (well, one was new for me). Then, after we were done but before dinner, we hiked up a hill near the campsite to go see the sunset. Nick did a death-march because we were worried we would miss it -- and then when we got up we found that we were like 30 minutes early with nothing to do. Unfortunately, there were clouds low in the horizon, so in the end we didn't even get to see too much of the sunset -- it sort of dropped behind the clouds before it actually set.
Then we went back to the campsite for dinner. On the walk back to our site, one of the many cats in the campground took an interest in me and Nick and followed us back to our site. It was unclear whether this was a feral cat or not -- there seems to be a lot of feral cats around, but the campground owners also seem to own some cats and dogs that don't seem to have collars. Anyways, this cat that followed us back was extremely friendly. As Nick and I cooked dinner (a chicken curry-type thing that turned out to be way too spicy), both this cat and some other cats that appeared out of the woods (it was after dark now) showed an interest, but the other cats were much less aggressive than this one at trying to get our food.
At one point, friendly-cat did manage to grab a raw chicken scrap before Nick and I could scare it off, which we felt bad about. But I figured that if it was bad the cat would probably puke it up later. Nick and I had to get out waterbottles to scare off this cat, it was so agressive. Nick squirted the kitty once (gently) with water, and the cat ran off, but it was back in like two minutes. Then I figured out that just shaking the waterbottle had the same effect as squirting, so we did that until we managed to clean up all the food.
Even after the food was gone, though, the cat really liked us. It even jumped up into my lap while I was sitting there for no apparent reason. At one point, Nick and I both walked up to the bathroom blocks, and the cat followed right along with us, and sat outside meowing until we came back out. So this was honestly the friendliest cat, by far, that I have ever met.
So that was it for climbing on our trip, unfortunately! It was getting colder and colder, though, so it was probably for the best. The adventure for our final day, Tuesday, was planned to be a stop at Versailles before catching a ferry back to England.
So this was, unfortunately, our last day in Fontainebleau. As usual, we got going late, because, as usual, it was absolutely freezing in the morning. We ate breakfast at the campsite and lunch in the parking lot, which at this point was unfortunately mostly cloudy. We had more-or-less avoided rain for the entire trip, except for the very first night in the campsite at Fontainebleau and during the original drive down to Orpierre, so we had been pretty lucky, but we wanted to finish without rain. Luckily we did.
We decided to go to Bas Cuvier now that it was no longer the weekend (making it less crowded) and now that I had gotten a bit more used to the poffed footholds. When we got to Cuvier, then, it was cloudy and chilly but manageable. After lunch, we gathered our stuff from the car and headed over.
We mostly worked on the easier Red Circuit problems around Cuvier. I decided to try La Nescafé, a 6A (V3) that has a very slopey topout that I had tried a couple years ago but had slid off of (almost squishing poor Chris, who was spotting me, in the process). The landing is good, and it's not too high, but it still kind of sucks. This time, it took me a couple times to get up to the topout, but this time I stuck to the top when I got there. It was still a struggle, and a couple Frenchies started to watch, and said "Come on" because I don't think they thought I would know allez, but I made it, so that was good. It was a tricky boulder to get off of, too. Nick said "Nika, your descent was just as graceful as your send."
Then, after that, we did some more Red Circuit problems. Then Nick did La Marie Rose, the first 6A (V3) in the forest historically, in a Daddy-style "flash," meaning that he flashed it for about the tenth time. He has the problem bizarrely wired since he loves to do it every time he goes to Fontainebleau. There were too many people crowded around it at that point, though, for me to want to do it again. I had actually done it once before when I was here 4 years ago (which was long before Nick did it, btw) but I didn't remember any of the beta. So I did a few other problems and then went back to it. Interestingly, there seems to be two different ways to do it -- an English (thuggish) and a French (stylish-with-a-Gaston) way. Nick obviously did it the English way. When I walked up to it this trip, I initially did about two tries in the French way, because I'm pretty sure that that's how I might have eventually done it when I was working on it 4 years ago. After I popped off twice, I decided to do it with the English beta -- and I sent again, easily. So that was good.
Getting off that boulder, by the way, is the crux. You either can scarily chimney down between two boulders, which is not easy, or you can do a scary lean-and-fall-across the gap, from which you have to pull yourself across the gap, onto the next boulder, and then continue your descent from boulder #2 -- which is still not easy. So I again gathered an audience who were watching to see whether I'd make it off. There were a couple people watching who didn't speak a common language, but both spoke English as their second language, so they were trying to figure out what I was going to do in their not-so-good English.
So that day was good, in the end, since Nick and I both repeated two 6As (well, one was new for me). Then, after we were done but before dinner, we hiked up a hill near the campsite to go see the sunset. Nick did a death-march because we were worried we would miss it -- and then when we got up we found that we were like 30 minutes early with nothing to do. Unfortunately, there were clouds low in the horizon, so in the end we didn't even get to see too much of the sunset -- it sort of dropped behind the clouds before it actually set.
Then we went back to the campsite for dinner. On the walk back to our site, one of the many cats in the campground took an interest in me and Nick and followed us back to our site. It was unclear whether this was a feral cat or not -- there seems to be a lot of feral cats around, but the campground owners also seem to own some cats and dogs that don't seem to have collars. Anyways, this cat that followed us back was extremely friendly. As Nick and I cooked dinner (a chicken curry-type thing that turned out to be way too spicy), both this cat and some other cats that appeared out of the woods (it was after dark now) showed an interest, but the other cats were much less aggressive than this one at trying to get our food.
At one point, friendly-cat did manage to grab a raw chicken scrap before Nick and I could scare it off, which we felt bad about. But I figured that if it was bad the cat would probably puke it up later. Nick and I had to get out waterbottles to scare off this cat, it was so agressive. Nick squirted the kitty once (gently) with water, and the cat ran off, but it was back in like two minutes. Then I figured out that just shaking the waterbottle had the same effect as squirting, so we did that until we managed to clean up all the food.
Even after the food was gone, though, the cat really liked us. It even jumped up into my lap while I was sitting there for no apparent reason. At one point, Nick and I both walked up to the bathroom blocks, and the cat followed right along with us, and sat outside meowing until we came back out. So this was honestly the friendliest cat, by far, that I have ever met.
So that was it for climbing on our trip, unfortunately! It was getting colder and colder, though, so it was probably for the best. The adventure for our final day, Tuesday, was planned to be a stop at Versailles before catching a ferry back to England.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Fontainebleau Fussing
Sunday, September 21, 2008
So this was our second-to-last climbing day of the trip, and we were now back at Fontainebleau. I was bouldering somewhat better than I was the first time around, and was fussing a little bit less about trick beta and glassy footholds. In the morning we almost had a disaster where Nick just barely managed to get bread for breakfast before everything closed down for the day, but he managed it, so that was good. We ate lunch in the parking lot of Beauvais-Rocher du Duc East, an area neither Nick nor I had been to before. We also noticed that some sort of triathlon involving running, mountain biking (vélo tout-terrain), and bouldering had happened that morning (there were posters about it). Nick was happy about this, because he and some of his friends had heard about this before, but had never actually known any details. So I think he's fantasizing about doing this some year.
After lunch we gathered our things to actually head into the forest for some bouldering, but unfortunately we found out that somehow his camera had gotten a little bit squished in its case, pushing the lens cap into the filter that was on it and breaking the filter -- and apparently it's an odd-sized filter that's tough to find. So that was too bad. We don't really know exactly what happened to it. But we gathered up our stuff anyway to head in for the climbing. After walking about 20 feet up the dirt path toward the boulders, I realized that Nick had forgotten the crashpad, and had to send him back to get that.
Now we finally had everything and headed up to the boulders. It was pretty cold at first, but the sun started to come out and it turned warm enough when we were actually moving around. We did mostly Red Circuit problems, some of which we were successful on and some less so.
At one point, Nick wandered off to go see where some more of the problems on the circuit were while I stayed at one cluster of boulders with the crashpad. It kind of seemed like Nick had been gone for a while, and I started to get annoyed -- he had the the guidebook and I was bored. Eventually he showed up with a scraped arm. "Nika I hurt myself." Apparently he had seen a problem on the circuit and decided to quickly jump on the start of it without the pad. Just as quickly, he managed to shoot himself backwards off of it and into a tree on like the first move. Poor Nick.
I went over to go see the problem -- and it turned out to be really easy. I don't know what his problem was. I pointed to a birch tree about two feet away, directly behind it, and said "oh, is that the tree that got you?" No. The tree that got him was about five feet away, diagonally, down a little hole. I really don't know how he managed to land on that one.
Eventually we decided to finish up there after a couple hours. It took us a long time to the correct path to the way out, since Nick didn't know the area and I wasn't paying any attention to how we came in. We eventually found a path that spit us out a good 5 minutes from the parking lot. But we did find the car in the end.
From there, we headed over to Canche aux Merciers for Nick to work on his long-term project, a 6C+ (V5+) called Le Nez. It's a traverse into a roof, with a hard move on the roof and then a topout. It's all comically close to the ground -- the top of the boulder is about waist-high. But it was a surprisingly good problem. Nick has apparently been working it for ages, so he did a few of the moves, and then launched into trying to link it. I worked on it for a little bit while he was trying it, too, but I wasn't able to do the crux bump move on the roof. But so after a little bit Nick managed to send! That's the hardest-graded climb that he's done at Fontainebleau, so it was great that he finally sent.
So it was overall a good day. At one point I got stroppy when Nick insisted on following me up a problem I just did in his sandals, but I got over it when he admitted that that was a jerky thing to do. At this point Fontainebleau was finally starting to grow on me.
So this was our second-to-last climbing day of the trip, and we were now back at Fontainebleau. I was bouldering somewhat better than I was the first time around, and was fussing a little bit less about trick beta and glassy footholds. In the morning we almost had a disaster where Nick just barely managed to get bread for breakfast before everything closed down for the day, but he managed it, so that was good. We ate lunch in the parking lot of Beauvais-Rocher du Duc East, an area neither Nick nor I had been to before. We also noticed that some sort of triathlon involving running, mountain biking (vélo tout-terrain), and bouldering had happened that morning (there were posters about it). Nick was happy about this, because he and some of his friends had heard about this before, but had never actually known any details. So I think he's fantasizing about doing this some year.
After lunch we gathered our things to actually head into the forest for some bouldering, but unfortunately we found out that somehow his camera had gotten a little bit squished in its case, pushing the lens cap into the filter that was on it and breaking the filter -- and apparently it's an odd-sized filter that's tough to find. So that was too bad. We don't really know exactly what happened to it. But we gathered up our stuff anyway to head in for the climbing. After walking about 20 feet up the dirt path toward the boulders, I realized that Nick had forgotten the crashpad, and had to send him back to get that.
Now we finally had everything and headed up to the boulders. It was pretty cold at first, but the sun started to come out and it turned warm enough when we were actually moving around. We did mostly Red Circuit problems, some of which we were successful on and some less so.
At one point, Nick wandered off to go see where some more of the problems on the circuit were while I stayed at one cluster of boulders with the crashpad. It kind of seemed like Nick had been gone for a while, and I started to get annoyed -- he had the the guidebook and I was bored. Eventually he showed up with a scraped arm. "Nika I hurt myself." Apparently he had seen a problem on the circuit and decided to quickly jump on the start of it without the pad. Just as quickly, he managed to shoot himself backwards off of it and into a tree on like the first move. Poor Nick.
I went over to go see the problem -- and it turned out to be really easy. I don't know what his problem was. I pointed to a birch tree about two feet away, directly behind it, and said "oh, is that the tree that got you?" No. The tree that got him was about five feet away, diagonally, down a little hole. I really don't know how he managed to land on that one.
Eventually we decided to finish up there after a couple hours. It took us a long time to the correct path to the way out, since Nick didn't know the area and I wasn't paying any attention to how we came in. We eventually found a path that spit us out a good 5 minutes from the parking lot. But we did find the car in the end.
From there, we headed over to Canche aux Merciers for Nick to work on his long-term project, a 6C+ (V5+) called Le Nez. It's a traverse into a roof, with a hard move on the roof and then a topout. It's all comically close to the ground -- the top of the boulder is about waist-high. But it was a surprisingly good problem. Nick has apparently been working it for ages, so he did a few of the moves, and then launched into trying to link it. I worked on it for a little bit while he was trying it, too, but I wasn't able to do the crux bump move on the roof. But so after a little bit Nick managed to send! That's the hardest-graded climb that he's done at Fontainebleau, so it was great that he finally sent.
So it was overall a good day. At one point I got stroppy when Nick insisted on following me up a problem I just did in his sandals, but I got over it when he admitted that that was a jerky thing to do. At this point Fontainebleau was finally starting to grow on me.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Mile End
So today I went to Mile End again with three other CUMCers. One of them, Alex, mentioned that he had been to Boston when I told him where I was from. He then managed to launch into a speech about the Freedom Trail that was really remarkably similar to Nick's standard monologue on it.
Mile End was as expected. I just bouldered while we were there. Interestingly, though, it seems to have comicly misinterpreted a suggestion. So, here's the deal. Mile End, in theory, uses a color grading system where the color of the taped tags is supposed to indicate the difficulty of the route. Now, in theory, I don't have a problem with this system, and I understand the rationale behind it (to emphasize that you can't compare indoor and outdoor climbing, or really the climbing at one gym to that at any other). However, in practice, these systems never work that well because they cover too broad ranges of grades, and they are also often a proxy for other issues with the gym.
So my impression (in seeing the aftermath) is that someone suggested to Mile End that they grade the problems with the V-scale rather than set by color alone. The problem is how Mile End put this suggestion into implementation. What it did was print a number of plane white tags with a V grade written on them. It then set a bunch of problems on a set of wall with these tags. So, for example, every hold on the V3 problem had a tag on it that said "V3" on it -- making it difficult to distinguish from the other problems on the wall that also all had white tags with a small V grade printed on them. These replaced the colored tags that were the old setup.
So what has happened in practice is that it is now even more impossible to figure out what's supposed to be on route (and believe me, it didn't use to be easy). Annoyingly, the gym also seems to, in practice, set the routes by color-of-hold, too, bringing up all the issues that go along with that that I won't even go into. So these tags give the gym the ability to set two routes of the same color next to each other and have the only thing distinguishing them be the number on the tag. How does England even manage to come up with such things?
Mile End was as expected. I just bouldered while we were there. Interestingly, though, it seems to have comicly misinterpreted a suggestion. So, here's the deal. Mile End, in theory, uses a color grading system where the color of the taped tags is supposed to indicate the difficulty of the route. Now, in theory, I don't have a problem with this system, and I understand the rationale behind it (to emphasize that you can't compare indoor and outdoor climbing, or really the climbing at one gym to that at any other). However, in practice, these systems never work that well because they cover too broad ranges of grades, and they are also often a proxy for other issues with the gym.
So my impression (in seeing the aftermath) is that someone suggested to Mile End that they grade the problems with the V-scale rather than set by color alone. The problem is how Mile End put this suggestion into implementation. What it did was print a number of plane white tags with a V grade written on them. It then set a bunch of problems on a set of wall with these tags. So, for example, every hold on the V3 problem had a tag on it that said "V3" on it -- making it difficult to distinguish from the other problems on the wall that also all had white tags with a small V grade printed on them. These replaced the colored tags that were the old setup.
So what has happened in practice is that it is now even more impossible to figure out what's supposed to be on route (and believe me, it didn't use to be easy). Annoyingly, the gym also seems to, in practice, set the routes by color-of-hold, too, bringing up all the issues that go along with that that I won't even go into. So these tags give the gym the ability to set two routes of the same color next to each other and have the only thing distinguishing them be the number on the tag. How does England even manage to come up with such things?
Friday, October 24, 2008
Weekend Plans
So I don't know what I'm up to this weekend. I'd like to go climbing, but that seems problematic because (a) CUMC seems to be thinking of going to Wye Valley, and when I mention this to people, I don't get very encouraging responses on the nature of the climbing there; and (b) CUMC seems to be unable to find drivers, anyways. Arghhh.
Chris-from-Oxford is visiting tonight, though, so I get to go see him. Tomorrow, one of the kids in my house is having a birthday party at a different house -- so I can go to that for a bit. Sunday one of the LL.M.s might be having a potluck dinner. But I'd like to go climbing! Meanwhile Daddy at home is at Red Rocks. So not fair.
Chris-from-Oxford is visiting tonight, though, so I get to go see him. Tomorrow, one of the kids in my house is having a birthday party at a different house -- so I can go to that for a bit. Sunday one of the LL.M.s might be having a potluck dinner. But I'd like to go climbing! Meanwhile Daddy at home is at Red Rocks. So not fair.
Driving back through France
Saturday, September 20, 2008
This was a pretty boring day on our trip. We had decided to leave behind Orpierre, which had become genuinely sunny, so that we didn't arrive at Fontainebleau on a Sunday and have to deal with French closed shops. Additionally, we had run out of 5.10s to do at Orpierre that were listed in our guidebook, and I don't think either Nick or I felt like working hard on 5.11s there. So in the morning, Nick packed up and fed me breakfast and lunch while I took photos and goofed off. I did take charge of the tent poles, though.
So, from there, it was a loooong drive back to Fontainebleau. This time was more boring than the trip down from Fontainebleau because I didn't really sleep for any of it, so I was just awake and sitting there. We also didn't stop once -- we were initially planning to, but then we decided we wanted to make it there before 7 so that we could get food before things started to close. So I got bored and took pictures from in the car.
Some of the area near Orpierre was pretty nice because we weren't on the highway yet. We even saw hangliders. And I got to see a lot of the rock in the area, much of which looks like it should have some good climbing on it.
By the time we started getting close to Fontainebleau, though, things started getting pretty boring. Because we were on the highway, there weren't even any concerns about Nick accidentally getting on the wrong side. By the way, he only did that once this trip, and very briefly. It was after we left the Formule 1 on the morning we went to the Camargues and the Pont du Gard. When we turned out of the hotel, I turned on my iPod and started giving a speech about how much I liked it while Nick happily drove down the little suburban road towards the first rotary we hit. He didn't realize he was going on the wrong side until his GPS indicated that he was supposed to go around the rotary in the opposite direction from where he was pointing. Whoopsies. We didn't crash into anyone, but I think the car that was in the rotary when we got there that saw Nick looking as if he was going to drive into it the wrong way (he didn't) was probably concerned. But so anyways, nothing exciting was happening on this highway drive except occasional really expensive tollbooths that Nick was still not great at getting close enough too. Boring. Also, I have been wondering about this lump on my left foot for a while. You can see it in the foot picture. It's just a random lump on top of the foot that doesn't hurt at all, but doesn't look like it should be there. My right foot doesn't have a matching one. Does anyone have any thoughts about it?
So we got to the campsite just after the campground office had closed at 8 (we were there at like 8:03). So initially the plan had been for me to hide in the car while Nick paid for one, but because the office was not-very-open I had to go up too in case we had to explain things in French. Then a person showed up at the office, so I wandered over to the pizza guy who apparently comes to the Fontainebleau campground on Saturday nights in a little pizza van to sell pizza -- which was our dinner plan.
French pizza is interesting: first of all, they tend to put the toppings under the cheese, rather than on top of it. Second of all, ham seems to be their pepperoni. Like, every single pizza option seemed to involve jambon, but there was no pepperoni option. Unless the French word for pepperoni is really weird and unrecognizable, which I doubt. So we got a jambon pizza with the ham baked under the cheese.
So we were happily back in the Fontainebleau campground and in the tent-in-the-puddle site again. Success!
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