Mindspace of Jonketo

Cycling hasn't happened in too long ...

2009-07-05T19:07:00.000-07:00

Since it has been a while since I have been cycling and I need some motivation to go out I have been thinking about a couple projects

1) repaint my current bicycle
2) convert it to a fixie

I am not sure how far I will go, but since my car project is done I will at least paint it. I bought some spray paint at Fred Meyer today, so now I need to do some research online on how to repaint my bicycle. I had been toying around with the idea, but after seeing Lance Armstrong in the Tour de France when it started in Monaco I got more excited about actually starting this project.

Here goes nothing ... I will try to get it done quicker than my car project too!

First Squamish trip of the Season

2009-04-28T10:41:00.000-07:00

An email I sent talking about the my first trip to Squamish this weekend:

Yeah, I fell at Eric's head first landing at Eric's feet and all he could say was 'Jesus Jon!'. Apparently he didn't want to be bothered by my falling.

The back story, so early on Saturday I hurt my hand. I spent the rest of that day following everyone around the forest feeling sorry for myself ... still super psyched to see everyone climbing hard and destroying the 8 point total I had for that day. With high hopes for recovery after eating prime rib for dinner I woke up the next morning with pain still in my hand. Pulling a marbarian I decided to bring some alcohol with me into the woods as it would be another day of spotting. Not to waste the Kokanee we had picked up at the border I brought a 6 pack with me. Thanks to EJ for convincing us at duty free to choose such a fine beer :). Needless to say I was drinking by noon. Eventually we made our way up to Black Slabbath. With EJ and Choi's progression through the problem and the awesome sunlight coming through the trees I decided to take some photos. I started by shooting from the bottom and then from the right hand side. Always wanted to find a new angle I scouted a sweet vantage point about halfway up the problem on the left hand side. I climbed up and approached my perch. I took a moment to suss out the danger level ... mind you I was 4 beers in already. I determined there was no danger and slowly made my way underneath an overhanging boulder to my position. You know, nothing more precarious than anything I had scrambled to for taking photos before. I didn't realize that I was stepping on black slabbath 2 (the mini version) covered in two inches of dirt and moss. Instantly everything I was standing on gave way. I started to fall feet first and thought everything was going to be a-ok. I was just going to land on my feet and Eric would spot me, no problem. The only thing was my left foot caught a root and I fell head first. All I could think to myself was 'FUUUU#$@!'. Then I heard Baisy scream, 'oh, Jon!' I crumpled at Eric's feet, half on a pad and half not, and heard him say 'Jesus Jon!' in a tone as if I had disparaged our family name. I got up, brushed myself off and noticed Choi was still perched on the problem looking at me with a very confused expression on his face. I laughed and he continued to climb. See the attached picture for perch and fall line.

[smoke bomb] But, let us not forget about the time Eric almost slipped off the top of the boulder in Leavenworth. That was hilarious too!

By the way, on the way out of the forest I bashed and bloodied the top of my head by jumping into a branch on a fallen log. Somehow this weekend I managed to injure myself more than any other climbing trip and I didn't even climb.

Bouchon, Las Vegas

2009-01-08T11:03:00.001-08:00

Bouchon, Las Vegas
Originally uploaded by disneymike

My friends and I are going to try it out when we go bouldering at Red Rocks in February. I have heard good things about it.

New Year 2009

2009-01-04T00:09:00.000-08:00

2008 was a long year or so it felt at times. Hope I can improve in all aspects before this year ends. I feel like I have been a little stagnant for a while, so I think will push myself a little harder. I think this will include blogging more, it is good I have this great new iphone application to do it, so now I don't have any excuse not to. That probably means more blogging about climbing because I am not doingmuch else with my free time. I digress. I went to dinner with Kagan and Eric tonight. I hope Kagan has another good year of school.

The Hulk

2008-12-26T11:33:00.001-08:00

The Hulk
Originally uploaded by jonketo

Pictures from Bishop trip numero dos. This trip had a lot of good sending, but I left some projects outstanding. I got sick after the second day and couldn't recover in time to finish things up. It was a great trip and I can't wait for the next one.

Seattle Bouldering Challenge ... Again

2008-12-08T00:16:00.000-08:00

I made it into some of the photos on the Stone Gardens site for the bouldering challenge. None of them were climbing though ... sad face.

Exploring Washington

2008-12-01T00:49:00.001-08:00

Exploring Washington
Originally uploaded by jonketo

David and I went exploring today. He had heard there was some sport climbing development, so he was excited to check it out. No one else could make it, but we had a blast hiking through the woods to get to our destination and we were pleasantly surprised when we arrived. It took a little extra time to find the place, but with his preparation before hand (online map searching and drawing of topos) and my iphone GPS we found where we needed to go. We ended up taking a wrong turn, backtracking, finding our desired path, jumping creeks, crossing rivers, tromping through mud, climbing up and down ropes to get there. We didn't climb, so there was no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for us, but the hike turned out to be a great adventure in and of itself. The fog was beautiful at sunset, but creepy in the dark.

Enjoy the pictures!

Seattle Bouldering Challenge

2008-11-23T00:16:00.000-08:00

Dmitry convinced me to climb in this years bouldering challenge at Stone Gardens. I was going to do intermediate, but got convinced to do advanced. I placed 15th overall! See Results.

I could have placed higher if I hadn't falling when trying to flash a problem, but one of the judges smiles made me bashful.

Pictures coming soon ...

Giraffe

2008-11-23T00:15:00.001-08:00

Giraffe
Originally uploaded by jonketo

Went to the Woodland Park Zoo this morning and snapped a couple photos. The giraffes were getting their barn cleaned. They happened to be outside and were willing to pose.

Audi A6

2008-11-23T00:05:00.000-08:00

When my brother and I were in Vegas I took the following picture:

Just recently someone photoshopped it and did this:

From chop.ee

I was certainly impressed and slightly flattered he chose my photo.

Lucy R.I.P.

2008-11-09T23:33:00.001-08:00

Lucy
Originally uploaded by jonketo

She passed today unexpectedly. She was bad at times, but great at others. What else can you expect from a cat. I will miss her.

Washington Arboretum

2008-10-26T12:09:00.001-07:00

Washington Arboretum
Originally uploaded by jonketo

Haychoi and I decided to go take some pictures at the Arboretum since the leaves are changing colors. It turned out to be a lot of fun and made me want to get a 5D Mark II .... need to be patient. Enjoy the photos!

Almost Live

2008-10-10T08:03:00.000-07:00

I grew up on Bill Nye the Science guy growing up. I also grew up on Speed Walker. I remember him defending the Space Needle against a guy with a huge wrench who wanted to steal it. Anways, the reason I bring this up is because I ran into Nancy Guppy at the coffee shop this morning. Apparently she is big in the local art scene and she says it is really happening .... I am intrigued. Running into her makes me wonder what John Keister is doing now.

Hospital Jon

2008-09-29T20:58:00.000-07:00

Last week my company had a conference in Las Vegas just like they do every year. This year my brother flew down, so we could go climbing together. I was super excited about the climbing, but because of Vegas' grasp on our need to have fun at night we ended up doing less climbing than I had expected, but it turned out to be a great trip nonetheless.

My brother flew in one evening after I did, so I spent the first night hanging out with coworkers and schmoozing during the party around the pool. Despite the pool at the Golden Nugget not being as nice as the pool at Red Rocks Resort the party was still fun. The main attraction was the new shark tank they had coming out of the middle of the pool. They even hired a couple of scuba divers to swim around the shark tank holding 'Golden Nugget Welcomes Avanade' signs. That led to questions of, 'What do to divers in Las Vegas do?' It isn't like there are a lot of places for divers to dive around Las Vegas. The first night ended early for me as I was tired. Going to bed early in Las Vegas in pretty lame, but it let me get up early for our meetings the next day. Having energy for the next day was nice, but whether it paid off in the end is still questionable.

After the days meetings it was time to pick my brother up from the airport. The timing of his flight and the company dinner was not timed well. I expected to be able to pick up my brother from the airport, pick up the rental car (audi a6, which is awesome btw) and get back in time for food, but by the time we had gotten back to Jillian's on Fremont Ave. the food had all been put away. We got a couple drinks and walked around looking for my friends, but we couldn't find any of them. One of them played their early night card and another stormed off after USC lost to Oregon State. It was time for my brother and I to fly solo and get something to eat. He looked at the Vegas travel guide and decided to head to the Hard Rock. I hadn't been there last year, so I was game. We put on our collared shirts and designer jeans and headed out. We hit the strip with windows down and music blasting. It was pretty cliché actually and we looked just like everyone else out.

We walked around Hard Rock Hotel briefly and ended up at Mr. Lucky's. It was time to get some $10 all you can eat prime rib. I was excited since I had not eaten since lunch. We made our way to the front of the line, mainly through attrition, and we were going to be seated next when the hostess told us that the kitchen was going to get backed up, so we had to wait to be seated. This is where the fun begins. Throughout the day I felt fine. At the time I felt a little fatigued, but who wouldn't after 10 hours without eating. The next thing I knew I was feeling flush, getting sweating and my vision started to blur. I was leaning against the hostess podium, but I ended up passing out in the people behind me. They caught me and the next thing I remember was a woman asking whether I was ok. 'Yeah, it's cool. I just fell asleep', I replied. (honestly, that must have sounded retarded, but they believed me). They ended up standing me up again and my brother asked the hostess if we could sit down. I am unsure why, but she didn't want to let us sit down. I didn't remember that part, but my brother told me that. I only remember seeing the woman's face asking if I was ok, replying and then I was on the floor with my shirt open. I had passed out a second time only 10 or 15 seconds after the first time, my eyes rolled back and I tensed up, so a registered nurse eating at a nearby table said I was seizing, so I was put on the floor. Because the hotel's security was located in the back of the restaurant they had arrived as I passed out the second time. I guess combination of my low heart rate and the security guards inability to find a pulse led him to believe I had a cardiac arrest and I stopped breathing. As my brother puts it, he went 0 to 60 in no time, tore open my shirt and start giving me chest compressions. After a couple compressions I woke up and thought to myself, 'wtf, why am I on the floor with my shirt ripped open?' He told me I stopped breathing, asked my age and whether I was on drugs. Of course, the answers were 26 and no. After a couple more questions about whether I had taken drugs or if I was on medication bystanders (who I appreciate greatly) lifted to my feet and then security took me to their headquarters. I sat down in a chair and started to feel much better, a little groggy, but I was responsive. Just then, the EMTs rushed in with a gurney. Eric talked to them as they came in and answered questions about their confusion about why I was not overdosing and on the floor. Apparently the report they received said, 26 year old male with cardiac arrest, 3-5 minutes of chest compressions and I was defibrillated. When they came in they were like, what are you guys doing giving this guy CPR for, he is fine. I was still sort of confused this whole time. When you pass out it is hard to stay on top of things when everyone is coming and going and asking questions. I felt tired and just wanted to go home and rest, but since the over-excited security guard pounded on my chest the EMTs wanted to take me to the hospital to x-ray my chest. Supposedly, when CPR is performed properly the sternum gets broken. In this case it hadn't because this guy didn't know how to properly administer CPR … thank goodness. So I rode in ambulance to Spring Valley Medical Center. The EMTs were nice and friendly. They were honest with me about the whole situation and how stupid the security guards were. They also told me they expected to find me dead because of the report they received. I gave them some entertainment for the evening. I was admitted to the hospital and ended up spending the night there. I had blood and urine tests, an EKG and a chest x-ray. In the end they told me I was dehydrated and I didn't have cocaine or amphetamines in my system. At 6:00 am I was released, so Eric and I headed back to the hotel to get some much needed rest. I am sure it was interesting welcome to Las Vegas for my brother.

The next day I missed my meetings because I was resting up from the disaster the night before. The lesson learned was to stay hydrated. And the next day I tried hard to do that. In the evening we made our way out to Calico Basin to do some bouldering. We warmed up a little bit and the headed to the The Pearl. After some work on that we headed back in town to see Ka by Cirque du Soleil. Last year I had seen O and thought it was amazing, so my expectations were still high even though I knew it would not be the same as O. The differences were noticeable as soon as we entered the theatre. Ka's theatre was much wider and the seats were at a much shallower angle than those of O. Each side of the theatre had multi-tiered catwalks where actors were running around, swinging and jumping from level to level. Some were even connected together by ropes and would use each other as counterweights to move up and down from catwalk to catwalk. It was pretty neat. The story was about a brother and sister who get separated and the civil war their separation creates. The costumes and way the two of them performed had very anime-like feel, which was interesting. The stage was amazing and just like O, the transitions from scene to scene involved an elaborate and creative use the stage. In O, parts of the stage moved in and out of the water, but in Ka they made use of a hydraulic platform. The platform could spin and tip, which provided for interesting fight scenes where at one moment the actors would be running on an incline and the next moment they would be scaling a vertical wall. All in all it was a good show and I would recommend it to others.

Saturday afternoon was the day for our sport climbing adventure. An employee at Desert Rock Sports recommended we try the Black Corridor in the Calico Hills area of Red Rocks Canyon. We made our way to the Black Corridor and when we found it all I could think was how much it seemed like a climbing gym. Not because of the climbing, but because of the number of people climbing at the same time. My brother and I quickly got warmed up on a nice 5.9. It was time to choose the next route. There was some confusion about the grading of some problems between everyone there because we were all using different guides and it was apparent that new routes were put up that were not included in some of the guides, but included in others. I got on what we thought was a 5.10, but it ended up being a 5.11c, with a crux near the top. The first 30-40 feet was featured with scoops and huecos. The climb was a little tough, but it could have been 5.10 or 5.11. I am not good at telling the difference. The crux was above the lip where the rock changed from being featured with big jugs, pinchers and slopers to an almost featureless slab of about 5 feet. With all my sport climbing experience I thought it would be a wise idea to skip the bolt on the slab and try to find a jug, crimp or some sort of positive feature at the top of the slab. I thought I found something nice, at the lip of the slab, but it wasn't good. I let out a short yell and blew off the problem. I took a nice 15 foot whipper just as everyone was watching me. The fall was a little scary, but it was fun at the same time! I enjoyed the feeling of working hard and being on the edge because most of the time I sport climb I stick to stuff I can do and if I think the move will be too hard I will not try it. I would like to try the problem again, but I won't skip that bolt. On a funny note, you would think I would learn my lesson, but the next problem I worked on I skipped the second bolt and if I had fallen at the third bolt I would have certainly decked. Afterwards I asked Eric why he didn't tell me that I skipped the second bolt and he told me that he didn't notice. … what a great combination. It was turning out to be a pretty exciting weekend.

Saturday evening we went to Tournament of the Kings at Excalibur. I could not help but wonder whether any of the actors took themselves seriously. The show ended up being a blast, Norway lost, so I was disappointed in my section. Eric and I both almost lost our voices cheering and it was all for not. After the show we watched a couple fountain shows at the Bellagio and the pirate battle at Treasure Island. The pirate battle is great and it is best to watch on the south end, because that is where the siren's ship is. The pirate battle was fun to watch because it was almost like a shortened version of a show you could see inside one of the hotels. It had a plot, fire, pyrotechnics and a sinking ship. What else do you need?
Our last day was relaxing. We just did some bouldering at Red Springs. There are some pretty good problems in close proximity to each other, but it is not good if you want to climb really hard. I would recommend going all the way to the Karft boulders. The only nice thing is the cave can provide some shade and the boulder has problems on all sides, so you can find something to climb regardless of where the sun is in the sky.

Overall I had a good time and I can't wait until flyback next year. Maybe I will stay longer and actually climb more instead of trying to find time between the late night shows and late wake up calls. Pictures will be coming soon.

Baby Gorilla!

2008-08-17T16:15:00.001-07:00

Woodland Park Zoo
Originally uploaded by jonketo

I made it to the zoo the other morning and it ended up being a really grea trip. I finally saw the gorillas (including the baby), giraffes and jaguar. I did't get a good picture of the jaguar because it was pacing quickly and kids kept running into the pictures .... oh well. Oh yeah, I set my ISO to 1600 to shoot the gorillas and forgot the lower it for the rest of the day. I feel like a noob for that and it shows in the pictures, but fortunately the polarizer was able to salvage some of the pictures.

Saw a nice sunset today.

2008-08-15T01:04:00.001-07:00

Sunset 3
Originally uploaded by jonketo

Fortunately I had my camera so I snapped a few pics. I also put up a few older sunset pics I took. Hope you enjoy them.

ATD

2008-07-23T22:03:00.001-07:00

ATD
Originally uploaded by jonketo

Climbing in Squamish the past few weekends has been blast. Everyone has been climbing well. I finally got ATD. Choi managed to take this cool photo on one of my attempts.

Sunset over Howe Sound

2008-07-23T22:01:00.001-07:00

Sunset over Howe Sound
Originally uploaded by jonketo

I finally got to do some donuts in the dirt with my car. It is a lot funner than snow, but harder to clean up after.

There are two sets of tracks. The first set of tracks coming in from the right are from my brother coming in hot drifting the corner and then heading up the hill. I followed suit, came in did two donuts and then headed up the hill. The tracks we left behind were priceless.

Squamish Overload

2008-07-19T00:00:00.001-07:00

Great light at American Gigolo
Originally uploaded by jonketo

Overload is lying, but we seem to have been there a lot this summer. Everyone has been crushing, it is great. The motivations levels are high. We spent some time at American Gigolo when was Joy was with us. The light happened to be really neat.

Chilean Flamingos

2008-06-15T02:23:00.001-07:00

Chilean Flamingos
Originally uploaded by jonketo

I made a panorama of the new flamingoes at the Woodland Park Zoo. Turned out kind of interesting.

Chilean Flamingos

2008-06-15T02:12:00.001-07:00

Flamingo Bath
Originally uploaded by jonketo

I went to the zoo today and saw the new flamingo exhibit. This trip was better than my last trip because I got more photos that I thought were good and I ended up seeing more animals.

You know you own an Impreza when ....

2008-06-13T16:13:00.000-07:00

I came across this great thread today. You know you own an Impreza when ....

Sadly, I could relate to most of them.

Diabolica

2008-06-08T23:08:00.001-07:00

Diabolica
Originally uploaded by jonketo

I took a trip to Squamish this weekend. It is number three this season. I am pretty amped at how often we are going up there. This time my brother came up with a list of new problems to look at. Surprisingly we ended finding four pretty decent problems. The best find was a 3 star v5 called Diabolica. It is right near Black Slabbath. I think it is probably the best v5 in Squamish.

Qwest Field - Brazil v Canada

2008-06-04T19:50:00.001-07:00

Qwest Field - Brazil v Canada
Originally uploaded by jonketo

I created a new panorama today. The pictures were taken at Qwest field during the Brazil v Canada friendly soccer match. Because of policies I could only take my wide angle lens into the stadium, so a panorama was about the best I could do. Enjoy!

Qwest Field During Sunset

2008-06-01T22:47:00.001-07:00

Qwest Field During Sunset
Originally uploaded by jonketo

I went to the Brazil v Canada soccer game this past weekend. It was a great game even though it was a friendly. Neither team got blown out and it was a close game to 3-2, Brazil.

The game got me excited about Seattle's recent move to get an MLS team.