The Red in the Fall

The Red, in my opinion, is one of the best places to climb in the fall. The scenery of the trees that appear to be on fire is astounding to the human eye. The hills that are carved by the Red River make the scenery look as if there are waves of burning trees illuminating against the sky.
And to even further the poetic landscape; the crispy cold air offers a nice relief to regular Red climbers who braved the harsh humidity of the summer. The air also makes the friction on the rock harder, resulting in a stronger grip than what a climber thought she/he had. The slightest sloppy finger pocket feels like a regular pocket when one grades the hole. The hardest idiotic moves, such as the one at the start of Fuzzy Undercling gives the gumby an extra bonus for the tremendous climb that he/she is about to embark on.
To even further my argument that The Red is a great place to climb in the fall is the tremendous amount of people that show up and climb there during the weekend. Places such as Roadside Craig and PMNR are over-flowing with people. Not to mention that Miguels has an overflow of cars and every tent is at the most, eight feet apart. This can be annoying to those who can’t handle the tremendous amount of people, such as Cincinnatians, who like myself, complain about the overflow of people at places like Roadside. The Red is still one of the best places to climb during the fall, even though you have 20 people fighting to climb four routes that you are trying to send.

Coffee!

Hello to those who skim this,

I now work at Coffee Emporium in Cincinnati, Ohio. This is a sweet job. I wake up, go to work in whatever I want to, drink coffee all day and serve the best coffee in Cincinnati. This is a new adventure for me because I am out of school and have a full time job... most then what some can say. I am looking forward to this upcoming year.

I also met this awesome girl, Megan, who helped me get this job. She is sweet and I look forward to spending more time with her and hopefully getting some climbing adventures in with her too.

Joe

Philly

I am writing this from Bolder, CO; which is a sweet place. I spent some time in Philly and had a good time. That city was sweet! There were bicyclist all over the place and atmosphere was great. I skipped walking at graduation to watch the USA play England in a pub in Philly. I have no regrets and I heard it was super boring.
I had Pat's King of Steak's Philly Cheese steak. I didn't think it was that good as they hype; maybe a second try is needed.
The art museum was great as well. The paintings of different painters were phenomenal to see.
Well this post is brief and there is more to come. I have only slept 4 hours and right now I need that sleep for tomorrow.

Regards,
Joe

Georgia!

I just got back from Georgia yesterday. Some friends and I went to Rocktown, which is a climbing area. It was a sweet place now that I am thinking about it. There was a lot of climbing to be done there and even some stuff that is not listed on the Dr. Topo guide.
It was a good trip, mostly because the people were fun. Also the camping was primitive car camping and I always love sleeping in a tent and not having much of anything around me besides nature. I didn't get much climbing in because of the late nights, but the climbing I did get in was good.
I was able to connect with nature a little because of this setting, but I think three days wasn't enough to experience nature as a whole. My friend Jesse mention that the concept of not having trees is strange to him. He thinks that hiking or camping without trees is abnormal, which is mostly due to the fact that he grew up in a setting were trees were abundant. My attitudes to a treeless camp or hike is indifferent. I grew up in a semi-treed suburban area and played sports mostly in a complex that is largely open. However, my own experiences hiking and camping are with trees.....

I am looking over this post and realized it is a dumb post. It is me writing b/s. To be short, go climb and look after those trees!

Climbing

I been thinking about climbing and what it means to me. It is spiritual and I think anybody who climbs outside will agree with me. But I wonder if our obsession with accumulation and challenging ourselves becoming the dominate mentality of climbing. Challenging yourself is important and those who push the boundaries of climbing are doing what climbers have done from the beginning; going after the next big route. But to be honest, I don't care if I ever climb 5.15, because in the end it is rock and rock doesn't give you anything back to you.
But the great thing about climbing is that you need someone to do it with. This is something exponential. We are forced to spend time with people because we need that belayer or spotter. I think this is important in climbing, which is the people that we climb with. I don't care if I am climbing in Squamish or at The Red; what matters to me, is who is with me. I found the love of climbing through a friend, Sam, in British Columbia and not the rock.
So next time you climb, sit down with your partner, get them a beer and talk about something else then climbing...like what else makes them tick.

What we have...

I sit in my room and I am grateful of what I have. I have this computer to convey my thoughts to the world, a tv to get glimpse of it and books that let me travel from a safe distance. No matter how much we can conclude ourselves, we are still part of the world. We are one single, living ecosystem that encompasses all of humanity. Our economy, that we built, is global. Our culture is becoming global, which is devastating to think of.
When I was in Mexico, I experienced a culture that was adapting to our fashions and our ways of life. Imagine that be produced all over the world. We lose the diversity that we created for something monotone. It is important to experience this, it is important to understand what is different in order to understand humanity. Experiences is what drives us to be different and we should embrace that.
I mention in the previous post that I worry about a job and finding a source of revenue. But what does money bring us? Happiness? It has been proven that it does not. Maybe I should let this go and find something is truly important, which is diversity, which is me.

cerveza con limón

Life is interesting. We always have worries. I worry that I won't get a job and not escalate my debt, but my mom's as well since her name is attached to my loans. I will probably move away to get a job, but I am not ready to. So maybe another year of school is best for me or not.
But my point of this post is simple. When worry becomes too much then we should do one thing; drink a beer with a lime. Not literally, but the act of doing it can be relaxing. So we have to find what is relaxing and remember that life is not fun when all we do is worry.

The Trip

I graduate in a little over four months. I have no professional job lined up for after I graduate, which is fine. I will just be with the other college graduates that don't have a job in the field they studied. There is only one solution, a trip!
The trip will be heading out west and I will be doing it with my lovely girlfriend, Steph. My hope is to do some backpacking, climbing and seeing some old friends along the way. The farthest in planning that we have gotten is starting in Cincinnati, hit up Colorado, Idaho, Portland and Seattle. It will be a great break from school and working two jobs this past year. Hopefully I will come back and have a career utilizing geography.

Dayton and Manufacturing

For most of this decade we have heard that job losses in the manufacturing sector has grown and what was once a proud job to have has become a job to fear. It is tragic that many people have loss their jobs and in return, have put their families and themselves in economic harm. This is extremely relevant in Detroit, but also (mostly known to Ohioans) is the city of Dayton. Dayton last year loss its only 500-Fortune company, NCR (National Cash Register) to Georgia. Why? Because Georgia could provide economic incentives that Dayton could not provide. This is the same with manufacturing jobs being shipped internationally. The labor market is too expensive in the Rust Belt for manufacturing to operate on a profitable scale. Can someone be mad that a company moves in order to survive? A company is like a biological organism such as a human. When your are cornered by death, do we just accept? No and neither will a company accept its own death.
So whats the solution? Simple, attract new industries into the area, but don't forget about the little guy. Big companies will bring in tax revenue and jobs, but it is the little guy that will keep it going! Most of our firms (businesses) in the United States is small guys, so a city needs to develop an economic plan to foster the growth in the small business. If the business is bringing outside money in then it needs to be expanded to bring more. If money is coming from the outside than that means more money coming into the community to be circulated inside the community.
Cities also need to look ahead and at different economic sectors. As mention earlier, our manufacturing sector is becoming kaput! So whats the next big thing? Dayton is developing a tech town in order to establish an IT sector. Will this work? Lets hope, but the city needs to look at not bring in big firms, because they are mostly established were they are at. The city needs to bring the little guy in to compete, because its usually the little guys that bring the latest, cutting edge design. Think about Microsoft vs Apple and Google.

First Post

Hello World,

I hope everyone is enjoying their winter (those who are in the northern hemisphere). Its been raining lately, but I have not had the chance to wear my new rain jacket in the rain. I have had the chance to bike on my new bike though. I just made a flickr account. The pictures are being run on a slide show. The url is flickr.com/photos/diningjr.
Enjoy,
Joe