Red Rocks Trip, Day 3

Really, more like Day 1 since today was the first day of actual climbing.

Willow Springs Area

  • Peaches, 5.7 — Decidedly tricky. Followed the thinning crack up (too far?) until I felt forced to escape on a blank traverse. Then cruiser to the top.
  • Tonto, 5.5 — Mike’s second-ever trad lead. More wet than we would have liked, but fun and interesting climbing. He did awesome.
  • Coronary Bypass, 5.5, 2 pitches — Spent an hour or so trying to get to the Mossy Ledges Crag from two different directions, only to find that without a guidebook or pictures from Mountain Project, we couldn’t be sure what we would be climbing. Ended up evaluating the wrong climb for almost an hour, then finally found what we thought might have been the actual route on our way down. Pictures later confirmed. Still a cool hike despite not getting on the route.
  • Motorcycle Mama, 5.6 — Wanted to get in one more climb while we could. Heinous approach (we took the wrong path again) to an excellent climb. Felt super solid and flew up with only three pieces in 90 feet. Practiced a double-rope rappel on the way down with my new rap cord. Feeling ready for a big 7-pitch climb tomorrow.

Post Climb

Made it off the Scenic Drive just in time. Back at hotel and showered within an hour. Walked down the strip to a taco joint filled with people. Quite the ordering experience, but resulted in excellent food.

Stopped at Walgreens on the way back for snacks and beer. Saw a quick circus act when we got back to our hotel/casino, and spent the rest of the night showing Mike the Vision Pro and watching Dodgeball.

Good day.

I’m about a third of the way through the “John Siracusa Windowing Method” video and, so far, even though it’s not how I use my Mac, I’m on board. 👍

🆕📝 Scott Yu-Jan’s Macintosh Studio

You may have heard of Viticci's MacPad, but how about a desktop version with...an iPad mini? This thing looks awesome!

A vintage-style computer on a desk with the word ‘Macintosh’ overlaid on the left and ‘Studio’ on the right.

🆕📝 7 Things This Week [#137]

Blogrolls, weird and wonderful tech that reminds me that we're in the future, old-school tech that's still awesome, a couple of wild websites, and that one jazz album.

Alright friends-with-long-hair, I’m going for it for the first time. Should I be doing anything special during this awkward mid-length phase? Get a trim? Just let it go?

A man with combed-over hair and a mustache is looking at the camera, standing indoors with a frosted window behind him.

Here we are again… 🥱 Gonna be the first person American Airlines sees when they come to work. ✈️

Empty airline check-in counters with signage for “American” Priority and Self Service Check-in, set against a blue and white backdrop in a terminal.

I’ve found myself with some unexpectedly free hours in a tiny hotel room in the middle of a blizzard…so…Ask Me Anything!

Or help me decide… What I should do first?

  1. Catch up on Crashing Clockwise blog posts
  2. Watch Killers of the Flower Moon
  3. Release my ‘Markdown Memes’ shortcut
  4. Finish For All Mankind

Welp, my travel plans are well and truly bungled. Was supposed to fly out at 3:40pm today. Canceled. Rebooked for tomorrow at 5:11am. Canceled. Now the earliest seat they could find is 5pm on MONDAY. I took it, but you can bet I’ll be at the airport at 5am tomorrow to snag any seat that opens up. ✈️

🔗 Time To Make The Donuts — canneddragons.net // Robert Rackley

Someone from the soup kitchen (one of the staff — not a volunteer) made a statement about not letting the guests have too much choice. Too much choice, I thought, these people barely have any choices. The least I could do was offer them some agency in what donut they would get!

Let’s not default to denying people the dignity of choice where we can. A little autonomy goes a long way when you feel like you have none elsewhere in your life.

Experiencing Moon Hooch tonight without any prior knowledge about their band was such a treat. Masters of their craft.

(A few videos are in my Instagram story.)

🔗 Digital wallets and the “only Apple Pay does this” mythology — birchtree.me

I hope what you take away from this post is that while Apple Pay is a great way to pay for things and that Apple did a great job mainstreaming digital wallets like this, what they do is not unique in the industry. DPANs are great for making it harder to track one person’s purchases across multiple merchants and they make customers less at risk in the event of a data breach of payment card info.

@matt@isfeeling.social has the deets only an industry insider would know and only a blogger could explain to this crowd.

🆕📝 My Wishes for AirPods (4th gen)

Mostly, I just want the 2nd gens…but better. 😅

🔗 Why I redesigned my home page? — om.co // Om Malik

And of course, I still blog. In other words, I write posts. I ponder on things. I link to good work around the Internet. I curate as much as I create. In my early days as a blogger, my day job was writing for magazines. My features and interviews, what is now known as long reads, were published by them. Today, my essays and interviews find home on my website.

🔗 U.S. DOJ Sues Apple Over its “Monopoly” on iPhone, the Device Apple Created

If you want to buy and use a smartphone, you never have to give Apple a dime and still participate in the vibrant economy of modern apps and services available today[…]. You can read ebooks, purchase digital movies, buy sleazy in-app game upgrades, and watch Netflix, all on a device not made by Apple.

How is this possible? You can use an Android phone on any of the same U.S. wireless carriers that power the iPhone. You can live your entire life participating in the modern tech world and never use an Apple product.

Some example photos and videos from the Meta Ray-Bans in my recent posts. (Pretty good, I must say!)
/cc: @ericmwalk

Took advantage of stellar weather last week to climb at The Gunks! I was very fortunate to meet some new friends willing to take on an orphan climber into their gang. Got on a bunch of new climbs and shook off the rust. Ended the day with delicious pho. 10/10 would recommend. 🧗📷

A person is climbing a rugged rock face outdoors with trees above and a rope trailing below. A winding road cuts through a forested landscape, with distant mountains under a blue sky; pine branches frame the view from a high vantage point. A smiling person wearing a helmet and backpack is rock climbing amidst trees and boulders. A rock climber ascends a steep cliff face with trees at the top edge, casting shadows on the rocky surface. A group of people is dining together, smiling, and posing in a restaurant with exposed brick walls and artwork. The table has remnants of a meal with some beverages.

I think people overplay the “I’m 30 now so my body is breaking down and I’m old” to a frustrating degree. But I can’t deny that my body is jittering uncomfortably after a single (small!) caffeinated beverage today. I used to pound Mountain Dew like it was going out of style.

Probs a good thing, TBH

I had the distinct pleasure of summiting Giant Mountain with Hector and Renata this past weekend. And because they were such awesome hikers, we tossed in Rocky Peak Ridge for good measure! There’s still snow in those hills, folks. Stellar day out with great views and even better company. 🏔️ 📷

Two hikers stand smiling before a sign for “Giant Mountain Wilderness Area,” surrounded by sparse snow-covered ground and leafless trees. The sign includes trail information and conservation messages.

Our new favorite restaurant in the ADK, the underappreciated @thewoodshedonpark, has an excellent duck dish special this week. Superb service, amazing atmosphere, and delicious food and drink. Perfect date night location. 😉 📷

Sliced duck breast arranged next to a scoop of risotto, a rolled green leaf, mushrooms, and puree on a round white plate, suggesting an upscale dining experience.

Great use case for Vision Pro: keeping an eye on baby monitors while watching other media. www.threads.net/@shabzco/…

Another “ugh.” I’ve procrastinated making these posts because they required going through a bunch of photos and framing them just right. And then Instagram pulls this shit. (Been stuck for 20+ min.) Gonna have to do it all again. Glad I at least composed the captions in Drafts.

Notification banners with text read “Keep Instagram open to finish posting…” displayed above a blurred background image.

If you’re gonna move over to your Threads account for Fediversing, it’d be awesome if you make a post like this so we know to follow you there!

PSA: I have started federating my Threads posts via @alexheath, which means they should now be visible on here, though I can’t reply to / follow Mastodon users from Theads yet.

My posts will be at that profile going forward, and hopefully I’ll soon be able to redirect this account to avoid any confusion.

🆕📝 All eBooks Are Not Created Equal

I got a nasty surprise when I purchased an ebook version of a climbing manual this week.

🆕📝 Now, March 2024

Taking a page out of Maique's book and trying a more bite-sized /now update.

Whoa! Slick new place that Apple is linking to all their products' documentation.

😍 support.apple.com/en-us/docs