Vintage Rock Climbing Shoes are AWESOME

So here's my first pair of climbing shoes ever, purchased in 2002 with the help of Nick. Well, technically they were my second pair, but the first pair that I "grew" into. Let's not talk about the first pair.
Model : Five Ten Rock Socks Slipper (discontinued sometime around 2003 and impossible to find in new condition).
So, after tons of bouldering for a hard 6 months, the edges became rounded and after 6 years of being stored, the glue gave way and peeled from the back.
Sent them in to Rock & Resole in Colorado for a resole...and well, it's OK...not entirely great but still. Here's the review.


Left pair: Neat, straight forward and almost invisible new toecap.

Right pair: Pretty much the same.

Heel cup: Here's where it sucks. Rock & Resole apparently won't do a FULL resole, and they tell me this after the shoe is delivered. I mentioned delamination of the original sole and the "tech" claims the rubber generally doesn't stick well to the "fabric" of the shoe. Well, clearly the rubber sole was glued to the rubber cup around the heel. They lose points for lying.

They also lose points because I'm one picky a-hole. Check out the PATCH work on the right pair. It could have just been glued back down, but nooooooo.....they had to add that huge "goop" to keep the halves of the soles "tied".

Soles: For the resoled "half" which they did do, I switched to Onyx rubber. Stickier than the original C4 rubber. The rubber was ground down pretty well, the seams where they meet are pretty hard to see. Basically, it's a hybrid of Onyx and C4 on the bottom soles. Pretty neat.

Fortunately, the ugly patch on the back doesn't ruin the shoe. For a full resole, in the near future I would probably send it to the Rubber Room , and write a review about it then. We'll see. The overall cost? $50.00. Considering it's a special pair, it was worth it. Technical shoes cost over $120.00. It was worth it, plus it's a little more snug now.

The city preparing for winter.

Thought I'd catch this before I missed the chance. Apparently, you only need a garden hose to make a skating ring.

Weird!!!

My celebratory cigar . . .

FINALLY ! ! ! I'm picture-blogging again. . . On the other hand, my Masters was completed last month . . . and this is why I'm puffing away.

I tried playing the part of Tony Soprano...it didn't work out. The poofy Asian hair was a dead giveaway. . . Rice remains my staple food. . :(

I could get used to this . . .

(30 mins later) .... I didn't think so . . .

(40 mins later) . . . I almost passed out on the couch . .

I'm so tired today, I can't think of a title for this post.

I won't say who it is...But he had to pay a visit to the deserted alley in Chinatown. I just so happened to have my camera handy. *click* and now the blackmail..begins

Bad architecture....slanted buildings. That stupid building appears to be leaning in all the pictures of my balcony.

Heavy rain on Saturday afternoon.. . It was a wall of water.

This was moments after I figured out to settle the camera...Duuh, the "auto" function on the camera was probably set for a reason. Took me long enough and many many blurry pictures to actually think about it.

The shaky hand yet again...

I liked the fountain on the side,...Don't really care if it's artsy or has perspective to it. Shut up and look at it.

One of my nicer..."artsy" shots from this past weekend....

Who killed the electric car? . . Seriously!!!

Great, so now everyone knows where I was at 10:46 pm. I clearly remember the summer I bought my car, when gas was $2.15 and later it became $2.75 ...and I was bitching. Each time I look at the price of a gallon of gas, I count the number of Happy Meals being funneled into my gas tank. Those poor kids....what would the world be like with less Happy Meals to go around. .

Now this pisses me off. It isn't a coincidence that every time I fill up at this station, my expenditure is always EVEN and rounded. I love how it's EXACTLY $75.00!!! God damn pump is rigged to round UP! 16.597 gallons my bloody arse, I thought my car only had a maximum capacity of 17 gallons. If my reserve is 2 gallons...shouldn't it be 15 gallons at the max? I wasn't even on the Empty mark when I filled up. ...

I seriously need to start digging ...or I'll just bike around the place. . .

ps: I like how it says in red, "please pay first". @#$!@#^!@#%#$!!!!!

Spanish Joint - The Acoustic Piano Version

Oh yeah...this is the shit. If only I could figure out how to download this track.

Ramblings... with minimal words, I suppose . . .

I had a feeling something was "wrong" with the air quality. So I opened up the airduct to check the filter. For a moment, it looked as if someone played a practical joke by sealing of the inlet with cement. .

The instructions say, "replace once every 30 days". To be honest, I changed it when we moved in, over 30 months ago. Gee,..I wonder why I needed my nasal corrective surgery really badly after 2006 . Hmmm .....

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Completely unrelated but who cares, you're reading aren't you?

Turtle #1: This one gets all the food. The friendlier of the two.

Turtle #2 : The "smaller" one. I don't have names for them. Can't quite recall, probably cos I keep forgetting which is male and female. I'm willing to bet that this the female. I'll explain how you can tell the sexes apart in another blog. And....if it matters, there's no penis to look for like when you tell dogs apart...or sometimes even humans.

*Oops, I mixed up the turtles, #1 is smaller than #2. Yes, I know it is mathematically, but I got the pictures mixed up.

When they're lil hatchlings, you're supposed to be able to tell the sexes apart from the bottom pattern. Clearly, there isn't much difference anymore. Except for the obvious fact one is LARGER. I swear I treat them equally, it's just that one just likes food more than the other.

Everyone already knows this one... High maintenance, bitchy... over weight! Time for a mistress! Actually, I let her get away with murder.... and it's kind of boring without her around to be honest.

The fungus among us . . . (literally)

Current listen . . .

Mmmm...what's that? It's not marshmallows floating in a cup. I wasn't planning on the latest science project, but it's possibly the coolest one I've seen in years. Yes, mom would be proud... Too bad there aren't any leaves sprouting yet....that'll be the day. A beanstalk perhaps?... and I'll climb ...and the rest you can probably figure out on your own . .. Ok...digress, we shall not.

Up close and personal . . . By the way, the medium (for non science geeks, this would be the "stuff" it grew in) was Grape Juice. . . I really do wish there were leaves sprouting . . .

Now this is funny....

Back in the year 2001: So here's a video of our old college band, probably a few weeks after we got together. This was one of the only songs we could play at the time. Yes, I shouldn't have been behind the drums, but I couldn't help "trying" to be Travis Barker. It was afterall, the first complete song I could play on a drum set at the time..wee-hoo. (Note: this is rare footage that will be removed, in the event I become famous later on)



Well compare my playing to this lil 7 year old kid and you'll see why I chose not to play the drums anymore.

Life's a bitch, ain't it. . . ?

Current listen . . .

Obviously, I didn't snap these myself...unless ofcourse I was superman . . I wouldn't need a camera then would I? Every other year something huge comes along the way...and wipes people off the face of the planet. Then came Bush . . .
Sigh . . .

I wonder if the pain that people feel changes as they get older... Fuckin' pansy!

So it seems I need to learn how to adjust the shutter speed on this. :(

My dream would be to live in the penthouse up there... some day. I'm not waking up yet though!

It was probably an aftermath of last week's earthquake at the time of the shot . . .

Still fumbling with the camera settings here. It's not one of those funky giant SLRs, just a simple snap camera..but it's still pretty good if I could only . . . ..

Mango pudding: Aaaaaaahhhh, get me some and you'll be my best friend for life . =)

Here's some pics from Dec'07. No camera happy days til my paper progresses...

Simba: My ever faithful companion. He'll be 13 this December. :)

Yet another random image I took. Well the tree was standing by itself in a clearing. So I thought it'd have some meaning.. NOT!

One of the jungle trails we walked through. I wonder if it was this cool when there were communists up in the hills...back in the 1940s.

This was when we got lost at the top of the hill and we sent my brother to scout for an existing trail. :) I was the cameraman...I just sat and watched. . .

This was how steep the hill was. It wasn't exactly a hiking trail. I was looking straight on but I probably should have been right behind my parents. But unlike me, they didn't have any problems walking up :(

The road that led towards the hill. At least this has some "perspective" to it :P

The side of some hill. I have no idea why I took this picture. Just look at it!

I hate Thursdays. No new pictures! Old stuff from years back.

March 2005: Nick, you'll need to make another trip this year. Can't recall if this was before or after Nick broke it down on the dance floor with the infamous "Jelly-man" moves...

Circa 2001 with my college band members...wee-hOo :)

Island in the sun: May 2002... fun times :)

Tuesday's are awesome, sure Friday's cool too but anyway: Trip to the indoor wall, and

Long way up or down...depending on how fortunate you are. A total of a 100feet all the way to the roof. She's just below the 50 foot mark in the picture.

Jan: Showing us how it's done. The "figure 8" and "fisherman's" knot... I still prefer free climbing though :P Who needs, ropes...

The drive home..... It's imperative that you ignore the blurry image or the bright lights of Michigan Avenue, but instead...please focus on the huge bicep located in the bottom half of the picture.. Yes,..thank you :)

No, life isn't just about me and the cat, it's her birthday!

This is what happens when your friends come over and mess with your camera. That would be a KFC cup next to my bed.... :P

Gwen: Satiated....and in the mood for a belly rub.

This is what I have to deal with every morning! "Meoww....can't you see my bowl is empty? FEED ME!?...or I'll just puke my stomach juice all over the nice wooden floor."