Archive for April, 2008
Change is hard. Today I left a job I’ve been at for 10 years. I know it is the right thing to do. Everything in my life for the past year or more has been steering me in this direction. But it’s still a difficult thing to leave people you care about and to leave a secure, familiar environment.
I learned quite a bit from this career I’m leaving behind. Quite a bit about what you should do in business, and what not to do. I’ve also found my “professional persona.” I know what I believe in and I definitely know more about how a business operates.
What will I do now you ask? Well, I’m actually busier for the next few months than I have been for the past year. I’m traveling, doing some remodeling projects on my house, writing, working more on Outdoorzy, launching an online magazine, consulting, sleeping in, doing a week on the AT, several multi-day paddling trips, spending more time with my wife, heading down to the Bahamas, and hopefully doing a bit of relaxing along the way.
Thanks to everyone who has supported me through this transition period. I promise I’m not going crazy.
..well, no crazier than I already am.
Sweet image taken by Fir002 on Wikipedia.
April 30th, 2008
The half hitch is simple knot and is basically a variation of the overhand knot. If the half hitch is tied by itself, it slips very easily and cannot hold anything. However, the half hitch occurs as a component in many more complicated knots to bind the standing part of the rope to the opposite end. This knot was used twice in the standing end of the Trucker’s Hitch to bind the knot to prevent the rope from slipping.
April 29th, 2008
You may see the blog down sometime in the next 48 hours for about 1 hour. We need to update our blog software. Just wanted to give everyone a heads up. Thanks!
April 28th, 2008
You gotta give the guy props, but… our buddy Lance Armstrong got an entry in Dickipedia I saw via The Piton.
If you hate Lance, this is a must read.
If you like Lance, avert your eyes.
My favorite line is the closer….
“By the way, he hangs out with Matthew McConaughey. All the time. They go jogging together, shirtless.”
April 25th, 2008
Coghlan’s is probably a familiar name to many of you who camp alot. They make quite an array of camping gear
that is sold in many fine outdoor retailers. Gear like; saws, whistles, lighters, air pumps, headlamps, lanterns, eating utensils, raingear, ropes, knives, biners, tent pegs, candles… you get the picture.
They sent me one of their latest products to test, a tiny LED lantern for your tent afixed to a small keychain clip. When I opened this tiny little thing up I thought, “Great another one of these cheap keychain lights that breaks after a month and doesn’t light up a birdhouse. ” But I was surprised. The little fella lit up a big area. I couldn’t wait to test it out, and as luck would have it I was invited to a bonfire this past weekend. I stashed it in my pocket and headed out the door. Once at the bonfire I realized I left my camera in the car. So I pushed the button and started walking. Someone said, “Dude, that light is bright as $**t.” And I knew the light was ready for the backcountry. 
It isn’t intended to be a “flashlight” per say, and won’t shoot a beam. But it does a great job of creating ambient light that fills a small area, such as a tent or a car.
Here are the stats…
- Weighs less than 1 ounce
- 2 inches tall
- Lights 2 meters diameter
- Emergency strobe feature
- Will shine continuously for 25 hours
- Water Resistant
- $7.99 at most retailers
- Great for doing general tent chores at night
I’m hoping they send me their new clip-on headlamp next. It is one of their other new products for 2008, and I’m a cap wearer and have been thinking about picking one of these up.
April 25th, 2008
Sierra Blogging Post had and article yesterday talking about the link between Nalgene bottles and cancer. This was the first I had actually ever heard of this.
Nalgene recently announced they are pulling their hard-plastic bottles from shelves nationwide in the next few months. The polycarbonate plastic bottles, made with bishephonol A (BPA), have been found to cause cancer and increase risks of other serious health problems.
from: Sierra Blogging Post
April 24th, 2008
Cycling is a very enjoyable but demanding sport. I am extremely short and small so I have a 13 inch frame and it still doesn’t quite fit me. I have to keep my seat completely lowered so that I don’t fall over when we stop:) After an all day trail ride, this arrangement (and the fact that I am too cheap to buy a custom bike) causes my body to shift and become unbalanced. In other words, I need some serious deep stretching to cope.
Yoga for Cyclists DVD and book is exactly what the doctor ordered especially if I’m trying to avoid injury. The book is lightweight enough to put in my camelback and use during breaks and the DVD has a warm-up/cool-down session and a training session for when I can’t make it to the trail or road.
The two sessions featured on the DVD are designed to cultivate strength, balance, flexibility, and endurance and of course these are all things cyclists need to enjoy their sport. I am always on the hunt to strengthen my wrists and keep the numbness out of my seat.
Here are some of the muscles and benefits focused on during the two sessions:
leg strength; hips; butt; abdominals and lower back; arms; chest expansions; shoulders and wrist strength; forearms; increasing lung capacity; increasing circulation to the pelvic area
The poses are designed to give us something to work toward so there is a nice challenge and they work to strengthen muscles so when we do crash, we can take the impact better and recover faster.
As with all of Andria Baldovin’s specialized yoga programs, there is a wonderful meditation sequence and breathing exercise. Most of all however, I really liked that there was a strong connection drawn, before each session, between what muscles the poses work and how those muscles relate to biking.
April 24th, 2008
Several weeks ago, I posted “Knot Today” which discussed seven outdoor knots that everyone should know. With the summer coming, many of us are going to be breaking out the canoes and kayaks and floating or padding our favorite waters. I don’t know how others travel with their favorite water craft, but mine in on top of my truck shell tied down with ratchet straps. Before ratchet straps and cam straps, many had to use just regular rope and the trucker’s hitch.
“The trucker’s hitch, also known as the power cinch, is a self-binding knot commonly used for securing loads on trucks or trailers. There are several variations of the knot, all of which use a loop in the standing part of the rope as a make-shift pulley in order to obtain a 3 to 1 mechanical advantage. The version depicted here has the advantage that it can be tied anywhere in the rope (without access to an end). Once tight, the knot is secured with a half hitch, usually slipped for easy releasing.” – Wikipedia
The following image is from Pro-Knots which produces plastic, easy to use knot cards. I have one of these for fishing knots and carry it with me in my boat bag just in case I need a quick reference.
April 23rd, 2008
Earth day is a great idea. But humans are lazy. So, I’ve collected some easy ideas that will take you only a few minutes…
- Recycle something (and make a pledge to recycle ongoing)
- Walk or bike somewhere (and make a pledge to do that at least once a week)
- Tell someone else it’s Earth Day, and why that’s important
- Attend an Earth Day Event - find one here
- Buy some re-usable grocery bags - they are pretty cheap and you can forget the stupid plastic ones that collect under your sink and end up in a creek
- Plant a tree - get a free one here ($7.95 for shipping)
- Buy something organic (local organic is preferable) I bought some local organic carrots a few months back and OMG… it really was crazy how much flavor they had. I actually liked these carrots and I’m not a carrot guy… okay rambling now…
- Enjoy the Earth -go to a park, enjoy what we’ve been blessed with and hopefully it will inspire you to do more to keep it safe and clean.
*Outdoorzy is not responsible for readers who stare at that rotating Earth image and go insane…
April 22nd, 2008
I love to be outside in the summer. I like it when it’s hot and I can go down to the creek and float all day. There are days that the heat is unbearable in the Southeast US though. And summertime is the time for movies. So on those really bad scorchers many of us like to head into a cool theater and let them pay for the electric bill.
Hollywood has focused largely on horror movies with a little girl in the trailer saying something like, “They’re coming,” the last few years. The Into the Wilds and Touching the Voids are rarities. So, I was wondering if there were any “outdoor adventure” oriented flicks debuting this summer. Below is a list of what I found…
Mongol - see trailer here
The life and times of Genghis Kahn. If Braveheart and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon had a baby, this is what it would look like. Great
cinematography and beautiful scenery on the Asian plains.
The Happening - see trailer here
M. Night Shamamalalamamama has scared us with The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs, while not really wowing us with Lady in the Water. But this one looks interesting to me. Basically something is “Happening” and everyone is dying from some biological agent. Leave it to Marky Mark to traipse around the countryside and solve this problem. Maybe those Good Vibrations will save the day?
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - see trailer here
The original adventurer. Ole Indy is in fact getting some age on him, but we’ll see if he can still dodge arrows and outrun giant stone balls. Now this is going to be fun…
BlindSight - see trailer here
“Set against the breathtaking backdrop of the Himalayas, BLINDSIGHT follows the gripping adventure of six Tibetan teenagers who set out to
climb the 23,000-foot Lhakpa Ri on the north side of Mount Everest.” … You had me at “set against the breathtaking backdrop the Himilayas.
The Fall - see trailer here
If ever there was a movie that should win an award for costume design… based purely on what I’ve seen in the trailer… it would be The Fall. This is one of those movies that nobody will see in the theater, but looks like it could become a beloved classic. The story of a little girl, sick in the hospital, and a dying man who tells her a story to keep her mind from her pain. The landscapes look like they were inspired by a Dali painting.
Surfwise - see trailer here
Midway through this century, when it was rare for people to stray from the mainstream, a man loaded his 9 children and his wife into a 24 foot RV and hit the road. They found surf spots from Florida to Venezuela and bonded as a family. This looks like an interesting documentary with commentary from the kids today about how it changed their lives.
April 21st, 2008
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