For those of you who saw me on one of the first times I climbed (Thanks Jeff for both introducing me and scaring the absolute crap out of me), you found out a few things.  One, I have no talent for climbing and two, I have one of the more respectful stances with regards to gravity that you will ever meet.  Basically, heights bother me when I feel exposed.  Yes, I know I live 400ft off the ground, but the view and bullet-proof glass make it worthwhile. 

Regaling some months back, at the top of my first climb, every muscle in my body was completely tensed so that I wouldn't fall off.  Too bad that that strategy works against you.  I was so fearful, to say I felt uncomfortable releasing my death grip on the wall so that I could be lowered down, is like saying King Kong was just a monkey.  As an aside, I now have a lot more respect for his free climbing of the Empire State building.  With such big fingers, he had to have crimped all the way up.  And that, without any protection from falling and the unblanced load of Fae Rae.  I'll admit, if you had placed a piece of coal in a strategic spot on me, you would have had a diamond by the end of my first night of climbing.

Well, I at least no longer have the fear of falling while top belayed in an indoor gym.  After three months of concerted climbing indoors, I was finally talked into going outside by Ellen on a beautiful Spring-like day this past Sunday.  There, Bernadine met us for a couple of hours of fun at Allenbrook, a bluff overlooking the Chattahoochie River just outside of Roswell proper.  I will blame Bernadine as much for getting me out there as she was the first to adopt me into a great group of friends and climbers with which I currently climb each week.  If my tennis, volleyball, or cycling groups are worried, don't be.  This climbing group rips into me with their caustic wit just like you do.  Ellen's happy that I seem to be deflecting a great deal of what she used to get.  Glad I can be there for everyone.

The fear I lost from my experience in the indoor gym did to some degree alleviate some of my trepidation in climbing outdoors.  But DEFINITELY not all of them.  At the park, we hike down this nice little path and we get to the top stone outcropping of rock.  Beautiful view of the Hooch.  It had rained a great deal the day before, so there was a little waterfall going and everything just felt clean.  Ah, the outdoors.  But, we were a long way up from the river, which was disconcerting to me.  Ellen walks to the edge of the rock (can you believe there wasn't a guard rail), looks down, and throws the rope over.  I cautiously stay a good 10 feet back from the ledge.  I can already feel another diamond forming, if you know what I mean.  It just feels that the nearer a ledge I go, the more something inside pulls me toward and over it.

Kasia -

To find out about what's happening with Polonia w Atlancie << click on the underlined Polish words!

It used to be that even though the game might be a boring blowout, you could always count on the commercials for entertainment during the Superbowl.   Seems like the tables turned this year, as except for some highlights, the ads this year just didn't live up to par.  I blame this on Janet Jackson's warddrobe malfunction.  Only GoDaddy.com took a shot at making fun at last year's lapse in judgement and gave a full frontal (literally) assault on the "sex sales" adage.  Most everyone else played it extremely safe.  The NFL's pendulum swung the hardest trying to sell Sir Paul's aging star power to the masses.  At least us Baby Boomers enjoyed the show. 

What happened to the level of ads that gave us Bud Light's talking gecko's or models wrestling in fountains?

As to the ads, Ameriquest was the big winner in my book, spending 5 million dollars on a minute's worth of advertising space (that's 2.5 million for every 30 second spot).  With a tag line of "don't judge too early", the visuals of a boyfriend holding the girlfriends cat with a knife was hysterical.  The mace in the face of the store owner thinking he was being held up also scored high.  There was a Anheuser-Busch's great tribute to the troops and the cute kid that tricked his Mom into making a Valentine's cake for her.   It was nice to see that the Hammer still has the moves during the Frito Lay spot.   

But, what was with Napster's complete lack of originality (some guy wearing a cat head in the stands), those annoying singing bottles, the frozen guy in the convertible (which ran twice within 5 minutes of each other).  What a waste of $5 million.  The CareerBuilder monkey ads were a cheap shot as everybody loves crazy monkeys.  There were some bright spots in there, but most of it was annoying.  What's with animals in most of these spots anyway?  And Gladys Knight at a rugby contest?  How random is that?

At least the game was interesting for most of it.  Too bad the Eagles lost interest in trying to win it with 5 minutes left.  Is it too cool to hustle and play a little no-huddle when you're down 10 with less than 5 to go?

There were 50+ ads, so which did I miss and deserve praise or a little mud slung there way?

We have finally been given our come uppance as this week's competition proved stiff.  However, if a couple of points go the other way, it could just have easily been our win this week.  Beth and I lost 7-5 in the third, while our twos, Greg and Fran, were even closer; losing in a tiebreaker in the third!  Arghhh.  Our guy opponent, Ken, did share with me the fact that his claim to fame was that he had taught Pam Shriver to hit an American Twist serve.  He kept me nearly in the other court all day returning that crazy thing.

Our lone bright spot of the day was our threes:  Jim and Jenny pulled out a victory despite not playing there best.  At leat they showed a lot of heart.  This is Jim's knee after the match.  He decided to pull a Boris Becker on the hard courts by hitting a volley and then performing the old stop, drop, and roll.  Jim, we love the attitude, but I'm warning you, you'd better start acting your age or you'll end up like me.  And remember, Boris only pulled that stuff off at Wimbledon, on the plush grass!

Kevin and Lucie seemed to be winning their match every time I looked around.  Kevin firmly believes, and I'll back him, that they won more total points than their opponents, but somehow they ended up losing the match anway.  You just gotta love tennis.

ALTA mixed doubles season is once again upon us.  And man, was I ready for it to be back.  Not so much for the play, which is fun, but mainly for the heckling and camaraderie on the sidelines.  By finishing second in level A-3 last season, we've been pushed screaming and shouting two levels above at A-1.  There are only 3 levels above that one in the league where eighty thousand of us weekend warriors play! 

 I've just returned from two weeks in Belgium visiting my fiancee' and son.  The trip was amazing in so many different ways, but none more than watching Alex go to the next level.  Objectively speaking, he is such a great kid!  He sleeps a minimum of 10 hours a night and then doesn't mind lounging in the bed with us for another hour before getting his first milk of the day.  Of course, he's a handful during the day, as you've got to watch him pretty constantly if you want stuff not to break.  It's better when he's got something like wafers in his hand, as he loves gumming them to death.  Thankfully, he takes 2 hour long naps during the day to give us time for cleaning, cooking, showers, and a little time together of our own.

 
This by far is my favorite picture as it shows the two people I love the most.  Katarzyna, or Kasia (kasha), holding Alex, both smiling, both having fun.  Kasia is from Poland, as many of you know, but now lives in Antwerp, Belgium with Alex.  We're currently working through the Department of Homeland Security so that she and Alex can be granted permanent immigration to the States.  Ever since 9/11, I believe this must have gotten increasingly harder to do.  More background checking is necessary, a crapload of documentation had to be put together, and then, of course, you have multiple departments within Homeland Security that have to bless our reunion.  I've done it all myself, without the help of lawyers so that I really got a good understanding of what was happening.  It's been tougher than a lot of classes I took in college.  It's been a long process, but we've just received noticed that we may only be "120 to 150 days away" from being a family!  Why am I happy about that, well at least the end may be in sight!  It's harder not knowing where the finish line is.  I had a great visit (over 2 weeks) with them in Antwerp and cannot wait to get the Atlantic out from between us! 

Kasia as you can see is quite stylish, so why she was attracted to me is baffling.  Doesn't like a single thing in my closet and wants to completely revamp my warddrobe once she's over here.  While I think she does have exceptionally good taste, I'm quite happy with my well worn, shabby but comfortable look. 

I had the most enjoyable time last night seeing a comedy play and having dinner in Little 5 last night.  The play was at the Horizon Theatre, a neat little theatre tucked away behind a school just off Euclid.  It was called the Santaland Diaries, a nice one act that follows our protagonist through the anguish of a Christmas season working as an elf at a large department store in NYC.  Harold M. Leaver does a great job of taking us through the misgivings, frustrations, antics, and touching moments his role "Crumpet" goes through.  Crumpet has two "helpers" as he takes us through his December journey, and they are outstanding.  The play is crisp and keeps moving throughout.  While it's not the traditional Christmas fare like say the Nutcracker, it turns from cynical to touching in such a way that even the weariest of shoppers this season will still find a reason to want to celebrate Christmas! 

After, we ended up having a little dinner at a Asian fusion restaurant around the corner called the Sweet Lime, formerly where Bang! had been.  Creatlive Loafing absolutely panned it back in July, but those choosing it decided to give it a go anyway, as it probably had gotten better since then.  I was along for the ride and can eat most anything, so no big deal for me, whatever we did.  In the flury of emails about well maybe we should eat here or there, we decided to take the chance. 

Walking in, it had a cool atmosphere, with the bar looking like a great place to hang out and have a couple.  Seating was available right away and the service was attentive, maybe too much so.  Some Pomegranite martinis were served up, again showing the adventuresous side the group.  The menu was pretty diverse including Chinese, Thai, and Japanese dishes.  I stayed safe with the Pad Thai.  Pretty hard to mess up, although the Thai spicing was analgous to the taste of Ragu to more authentic tomato sauce.  But, edible, especially for the price (cheap).  A friend thought she ordered the flounder, but ended up getting the sole ... the as in the sole of a shoe.  Very tough.  With no knife, the table was nearly turned over as she fought her fork through a couple of bites.  Looks like the review was correct, after all. 

Websters defines the verb form of "to civilize" as:

"to cause to develop out of a primitive state; especially : to bring to a technically advanced and rationally ordered stage of cultural development"

 

1. Fast Food restaurants - Fast food was invented for "people on the go" I guess.  To alleviate that waste of time called dinner or lunch break or whatever.  That would give us more time to do the things we want to do, right?  Look at what it's done to our society:
   • Our youth is overweight at least partially from the junk that is currently served up
   • If eaten every day, it can actually be toxic to your body.  See the movie "Super Size Me" if you want some dramatized proof.
   • Because people eat more on the go, they spend less quality time as a family unit.  With already busy schedules, the dinner meal used to be the holy of holies where families could still act like families rather than seen as scheduling challenges.
2. Video Games - again, kids might be getting some good hand eye out of it, but a lot of it is mere repetition.  Plus, they are sitting on their bums not enjoying the natural world around them which leads to another leading cause of our youth's weight problems.  No big deal?  You don't mind that the habits little Billy incorporates today may take a decade of vital living from him later? 
3. Cell phones / beepers / Blackberries - You may draw the line here, that this is actually an advancement.  But a cell phone is only really good when YOU want to use it.  The rest of the time it's an electronic leash that your boss, spouse, etc... can yank at whenever they want.  Yes, I'm Mr. Techno boy, but what many of you might not realize is that I don't take calls when I'm already in a meeting or speaking with someone (rude), and turn it off when I don't want to be reached.  It's on because I either need to use it or I don't mind someone needing to reach me. But why does it make my list:
   • They cause accidents/deaths on our roads.  Either by taking one's eye off the road to dial (or fumble trying to find it), or in a conversation that makes one think spacially (like telling someone directions on where to get somewhere) - a person is not concentrating on driving.  When you are traveling at 5 mph, not such a big deal.  At 70 mph, you are travelling at a little over 102 feet a second.  If you take you're mind off the road for say, 3 seconds, you've just traveled a football field without paying attention.  Bad things can happen in the length of a football field.
   • They cause irritations with those that one deals with when one put them on hold to take a call, or continuously checks their machine for new messages.  This can give those in their physical presence a feeling that they are not paying attention.  These frustrations have carried over to restaurants that have rules about the use of cell phones in their establishments.
   • The majority of us are now working even longer hours than we used to.  One's mind can never be completely at rest at the unconscious level when a phone can ring at any minute.  This leads to increased stress, worsened health, and shorter life expectancy.

My point is that perhaps we were better off, and perhaps more civilized when we were more of an agrarian-based society.  People lived on the land in harmony with it, not destructively like we do now.  Have you seen the vast chunks taken out of the rain forests we've carved out in the name of advanced civilization?  While you perhaps worked a manually hard day back then, you had natural good health, time at the table with your friends and family, slept better, and stressed when the droughts and floods came.  Have you ever worked hard all day (sun up to sun down) and then came in for a meal at the end of the day?  Is that not some of the best food you've ever eaten?  Did you not slumber more deeply and restfully than normal? I think it's because we've done all that we can for that day.  And that's enough.

In today's society, we stress about so much more.  Yes, we now have modern conveniences like washing machines for clothes and dishes, but are these really saving us time?  Thoreau had ideas on the matter:

"The cost of a things is the amount of what I call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run."

Basically, what he means is that to get that washing machine, we've got to go out and work.  That takes time away from us actually living our lives as we bend to meet the needs of others so that they give us pay to get the washing machine.  And as we become more and more commercially brainwashed and keep believing that each new invention actually saves us more and more time, we work even harder to get them.  Thus, we actually end up with less personal  time.  It's insidious.

And now, before you call me a hypocrite, please understand I am just positing these thoughts.  I, like the rest of us, have been caught up in this maelstrom that we call modern life.  But I have cut down on the number of times I hit the fast food shops, sometimes going entire an entire month (which for me is something).  I don't play video games, and I'm relatively conscientious about the use of my phone/ipod/PDA device.   But I still work for someone else, I don't own a farm, and I have way too many toys.

Before I come off as proselitizing, everyone has the right to live the way they feel is right.  I do not judge others as it's a waste of time and effort.  The revelation may be peculiar to just me.  So be it. However, taking a personal inventory of what's important every so often isn't the worst thing you can do for yourself.  Having the courage to change your priorities, as necessary, is the tough part.  As Socrates put it, "The unexamined life is not worth living for man." 

Come join the cycling group for a relaxing night of fun listening to fellow cyclist Doug Walter's band, The Commitaphobics, at Front Page News this Friday night.   Doug plays the bass and will try to get us some premium seating if I can tell him how many of us are coming.  So come out and be a band groupie!  Please comment back if you think you can make it!