Quotation for the day

"What a strange thing that which men call pleasure seems to be, and how astonishing the relation it has with what is thought to be its opposite, namely pain! A man cannot have both at the same time. Yet if he pursues and catches the one, be is almost always bound to catch the other also, like two creatures with one head."

-Socrates, as written by Plato in the Phaedo (Grube translation)

Yellowstone Thanksgiving, Days 2-3

Thanksgiving day was not quite as bluebird as Wednesday, but still pretty good. We headed out to explore the foothills of the Washburn range, the northern edge of the Washburn Bear Management Area which is closed to humans for most of the year.

We saw big views, coyote, bison, elk, mule deer, hoarfrost, big trees, and dozens of elk sheds.
This was the highest concentration, but we saw them all day. Yellowstone has over 10,000 elk, and it would seem that a lot of them are here in February when they drop their antlers.
M gave snowshoeing her stamp of approvel, and I agree. We carried ours for almost half the distance, and wouldn't have gotten far without them once we got high enough to strap them on.
The rest of Thanksgiving was spent soaking in the Boiling River hot springs and feasting in the hotel.

Today we woke up tired, touristed around a bit.

And came home. Now it's back to the grindstone for the final three weeks of the semester.

Yellowstone Thanksgiving, Day 1

Today was a gorgeous, bluebird day. Calm, mid and upper 20s, snow, trees, critters. Very thankful.

Nothing more to be said.


Those are wolf tracks.

Last week I re-modified our classic, 9 year old Black Diamond Zippo pack. The work I did a few year ago just wasn't getting the job done. Roman's pack looked pretty neat, so I emulated it.
It's good for hauling snowshoes. That's the place for snowshoes, inferior transit form though I think they are; they're good for early season stuff with inconsistent cover.

We ran into some bison on the way back through the Lamar, and got to hang out in the truck for a while watching the old guys be surly, and the young ones chase each other through the sage.
I love watching bison.
We were lucky enough to see this little one too.
M won for correctly identifying it as a fox, rather than a coyote, as it ran down the road ahead of us. After it ran off I went down and checked out its tracks in the snow. They were barely there.
I'm very thankful this year, not the least of which for all of you. Thanks for reading.

Ffooooooooooooodddd!

Gratin on the left, chicken-leek pie on the right.

Smells soooo good.

Bye.

Happy birthday

The most consequential book in the history of natural science turns 150 today.
Insofar as birthdays are public events. Darwin returned to England in 1836, and sat on his book for quite some time, in no small part because he didn't want to piss people off. He did anyway, perhaps moreso in the last few decades than at any other time.

Of course, the book's importance and genius can be measure by the extent to which it continues to allude human understanding. I'm currently struggling to write an essay about the place of relativism in social work. I've got a very respected social work textbook that gets relativism staggeringly, tragically wrong. The section gets a little over half of a page, and cites a single source (which I'm currently waiting for on Inter-library loan) only. Ironically the textbook concerns using research in social work practice, and emphatically discusses always giving research and ideas the benefit of the doubt, and critiquing something based on the strongest case one could make.

I think both of these things reflect how incapable humans are of living with deep uncertainty. Evolution by natural selection operates by a set of criteria that are forever changing, with no end goal in mind. A difficult concept to grasp, but I think that many people's instinctive dis-ease with evolution is accurate, however misguided the arguments might be. Evolution by natural selection does have metaphysical and epistemic implications which challenges human hubris very deeply.

Thank goodness.

Thanksgiving

Planning is crucial. Here's ours:

-Presuming a key meeting this evening isn't a disaster, we've off to Yellowstone tomorrow thru Friday.
-We're staying in the Absaroka Lodge in Gardiner rather than camping, to facilitate our goals of: relaxing, exploring the park via snowshoes and skis (hopefully we can find better skiing than last year), and doing some work. I've got a draft of an essay to finish, M has the LSAT to study for.
-Eat lots of good food, almost all of which we're prepping in advance.

The menu (to be consumed over four days):

-Chicken and Leek Pie
-Beef and chili goulash (this recipe, modified, and with beef short ribs rather than pork shoulder)
-Potato Gratin
-M's top-secret twice-cooked BBQ-Marinara meatballs
-Lentil and Garbanzo bean stew (my own recipe)*
-Bacon-Onion-Cheddar Biscuits
-Corn and Wild rice

Along with bread , beer, and other things.

Should be good. I hope to come back to town at the end of the week happy and relaxed, and with a good draft of what is right now a very ambitious essay. It is the time of the year where everything is going fine, and will end up fine, so long as nothing goes wrong. If anything does wrong, shit will go to hell real fast.

Game time it is.


* Lentil and Garbanzo Bean stew
-soak 1.5 cups green lentils overnight
-saute lots of garlic, a white onion, some bell pepper, sriracha, and a fat knob of fresh ginger root in sesame oil
-add 1/3 cup rice wine or apple cider vineager when veggies are almost done
-add lentils, 500ml veggie stock, and some water
-boil gently for a while
-add 1 can drained garbanzo beans, 1 can crushed pineapple, juice from two limes
-cook a bit more
-add 1 cup unsalted cashews
-mix, let cook for a few minutes, serve (or decant to tuperware and eat later, hot or cold)

Training

Holistically.

Iowa on the brain

I took some nice relaxing hours yesterday evening shuffling parts and rebuilding bikes for our Trans Iowa rigs. A nice break from writing and group meetings.

The devil is in the details.
M wanted and got a flat bar and Ergons.
I want a drop bar for Iowa winds, as well as skinny tires and a tall (38:16) gear. The Monkey does everything.
I also took the rear XDX off the Lenz and put on a new one. It'd been on since just before the Rim Ride. Amazing how much slower I wear down tires up here, and me riding less this year is not the most relevant reason.

A few months ago I heard a strange noise when I turned the rear wheel. At first I thought it was a bearing seal dragging, but eventually realized it was an alien booger in the tire. Turns out I was correct.
I got the first TI training ride in this afternoon, and have been hitting the core work hard this week. Feeling really good already. It certainly helps a ton with the high-pressure projects that have yet to be finished to have other things to put energy into.

Wazzup?!

New Dawn

It was a very pretty morning at 8500'.
But I still can't get that damn hair (or whatever) out of the lens.
I've been in a funk for a long time now. It has been occasional, and low level (except when it's not), but it's been there ever since I got back from the Parcour. A combination of the overwhelming grind of school, a reduction in my self-confidence and stress-reduction abilities since I got transferred as a TA back at the beginning of October, and most significantly, a lack of adventure to look forward to in anticipation. My life has needed a steering goal beyond school.

The AMWC should have served as one, but lurking in the back of my mind has always been the financial impracticality of it. The likelihood of keeping up with all my other commitments and raising the ~2000 dollars necessary for the race (raft, entry fee, travel) is just very slim. So unless circumstances change dramatically, I'm letting that one go for 2010.

But TransIowa starting and finishing in the town of my alma mater, that I cannot pass up. I'm hoping for bad conditions as befits an even numbered year, and a battle for anyone to finish at all. I'll be training with that kind of finish in mind.

All of which gave me the kick in the butt necessary to get out the door shortly after 6. The upper glades of Carlton Ridge had filled in pretty well, stump dodging was easy and enjoyable in 4" of fresh on a solid base. The mid section was good too; there are enough trees to keep you on the trail, but enough snow to make mini-turns and checks to scrub speed predictable and fun.

The lower trail was pretty thin, and twice I hooked an edge on a root or stick and went flying. The first time I did a full superman face-scrape down the trail, whacking my chest on a mostly buried stump on the way. Owie. The second time I rag-dolled at a good clip, untangled my plastic and aluminium appendages, and decided to walk the rest of the way down. I'm not especially fit right now, but even if I were, nothing trains your legs for skiing like skiing.

Let the season begin.

??

Lists

What is up with lists? And with numbers. All the magazines seem to have some marketing data that the more numbers they put on the cover ("155 Essential Winter Skills" in the latest Backpacker, what unfortunate intern had to count them all?), the more people will by them.

That bit of data doesn't resonate with me.

However, I'm currently taking a break from writing a guide to APA citation, and listening to All Songs Considered's 50 Most Important Recordings of the Decade, which thus far is very interesting. I'll have to dive into my own pontifications about trips and gear next month.

Update

Our testimony was very well received at the capitol yesterday. Montana legislators continue to impress me with their intelligence, dedication, and accessibility. Our work yesterday laid some very solid groudwork for future endeavors.

We also learned that presentation is important. The bureau chiefs who spoke before the public comment period took up more than their share of time, and there were about 10 people lined up to comment. Most of them were more interested in speaking to here themselves speak than in getting their point across to the people in big chair at the other end of the table. Fortunately I knew to bring paper copies, and rather than read anything, I introduced myself and my work in about 45 seconds, then passed the copies out and sat down. I was later assured that this walk softly-big stick approach was more effective than I thought, had the vice-chair come up after lunch and congratulate me on such good writing, and left for the day with a pocket full of business cards of folks who wanted a copy.

We also took some time before coming home to visit the Blackfoot Brewery, now without question the best brewery in Montana. In addition, we got tipped off to a new taco place down the street, and had the best mex since Arizona last summer.

I do miss Tacos Los Altos.

Eilis also sent me some good news about job prospects. Sigh.