Bouldering, success?

Ok so I was in a bouldering competition a few days ago up in Belmont, CA and was climbing in the advanced category hoping to get in the top ten but something happened that I was not expecting, I got bumped up to the open category. This kinda bummed me out because I was hoping to get a top score or something in the advanced category but i guess if you get a score higher than that of the top 5 problems in the category with all flashes then they bump you up to the next level.

For those of you who dont know much about bouldering or climbing i'll break down how the scoring works. So the way that they do it at the comps I've been at is there are a certain number of problems throughout the gym that are numbered, these problems were from 1-40, 1 being the easiest and 40 being the hardest. There were three categories and they were broken down like this: Recreation(1-16), Advanced(17-30), and Open(31-40). Now in bouldering there is what is called the hueco scale or V-scale. The V-scale currently goes from V0-V16, although V16 is still being debated on. V0's are the easiest climbs and are somewhat like ladders because they usually have very large holds, we call these jugs, that are easy to hold on to and also many different footholds or places to put your feet. Other types of holds that you wont see on the easier problems are; sloppers, crimps, and pockets. The ratings are based on difficulty of holds, how long or sustained the problems are, and how many difficult moves there are.
So in the comp the Recreation category was V0-V2, Advanced was V3-V6, and Open was V7+(aka V7 and above. and they broke down that points by taking the problem number you did and multiplying it by 100. So number 4 would be 400, 18 would be 1800 and so on. The way you would get a top score on a problem is by sending it on your first try, every attempt after would be 10points less but after 10 tries theres no point to keep trying a problem because it is only worth the amount of the next one down. So you have 10 tries before you have to give up on a problem at a comp. The top possible score for the Open category would be 19000 for a comp with 40 problems and that can only happen if you flash all 5 of the top problems aka send them on your first try. The top score for the Advanced category is 14000. My score was 14480 so I barely passed the limit. I think this is why I was bumped up a lvl. So what this tells me is that from now on I'll have to train a lot harder so that i can get to the top 10 scores in the Open category =).

On another note I sent another V6 tonight making my V6 count 6. Hopefully this means I'm getting stronger because there is still one comp thats coming up next month and I want to keep progressing forward. A motto that I picked up this year/ made up this year for myself is Strive to always surpass your limitations. If I'm always seeking to do that then hopefully I will never let my self down. Well these are my thoughts for today so until next time.

-The Red Headed Step Child

family tidings

Sisters in Europe, brothers are in love. What the F*&$ am I doing with my life and other stuff. I dont quite have a clue, not sure what to do. So I think I'll write a blog and think it threw. So we go through life, find purpose, a reason to survive. But when will I find mine? Don't wanna work just want to finish school but they kicked me out, so I'm not feelin to cool. Maybe one day I'll find something for me but until then I'll just learn to play serenity. Because where do you go when you just don't know? and how can you re-light your flame when it's low? why should/could/would we dream if our thoughts mean nothing? and however will we learn to control? Using your fingers to create music is the closest thing to doing magic. Why does my mind always go towards thoughts that are maddening? Putting a block in my creativity and making me blind. To the world God has made, with all its beauty and clout, shocking me out of my misery. Bringing me to a place where I belong. So I'll take a pint and maybe a shot to boot and continue this crazy life and see it through.

The Red Headed Step Child

a song from my soul to yours

tattoos of rain on a canvas that started out plain, goin through life as if it were just a game. tryin to hold on to the things that might not matta, but who's to know whether or not you'll get any fatta. the point is we all get old, grow up and out until our bodies die and grow cold. so what are you livin yo life for? are you passin through, or could you have a purpose given by the one who created you? don't think that this life is just a joke cause you have no vision of bein different from a demon or lycanthrope. just remember that you were sent here to do the work of the divine, call it what you will but keep this in mind that God has a plan so you betta understand that when you seek, you shall find. once you can comprehend just take His hand and you can be part of this adventure too. join Gods family and you'll always be free, don't give in to the one who'd pull ya unda the see. keep from sin and all that is evil, accept Gods love, become a believa. do that and yo life will change, it'll turn around and you'll see betta days. not ev'rythin'll be easy but you'll soon find out when you die you'll be in heaven with Jesus reachin out. He'll say he's with me cause he's always got yo back  follow behind him and stay on track. then you can rap with Jesus and all ya bros, know Gods taken care of you and all ya woes.

The Red Headed Step child

The other part of you

What are relationships if not pieces of you that were missing to begin with? we all strive to make friends, although many of the relationships we start won't flourish into deep and strong friendships. We still reach out towards others to make ourselves significant in one anothers lives though. So what is the key factor that will create a more significant relationship, what brings us to the point of trusting another human being with our deepest dreads, wishes, or insecurities? I don't thing there is any single answer to any of those questions but I still have to ponder the thought as is splinters its way into my conscious mind, how many people have I given a significant piece of myself to and how many more will I give before I find someone whom will want to reciprocate that token of something more than a casual friendship? I seem to have acquaintances and standard friends coming out my ears but finding a genuine friend whom cares about you just as much as you care about them is much more difficult to come by. It may be that I'm just feeling the effects of loneliness more acutely now that many of my friends have significant others to spend much of their time with, It makes me wonder when my time will come to share my life with someone I care about as well.

It's often very frustrating to have friends of the opposite sex be overly nice, because that can recurrently be misconstrued as affection for you and put hope in your heart that something might come of it but that is rarely the case it seems. I blame myself for these encounters for I oft find myself indecisive on whether or not I would want anything to be more than what it is and in doing this I fear that I lose an opportunity that might have been seized. Hopefully this will change sometime soon. Wish me luck.

The Red Headed Step Child

Wouldn't it be nice

Don't you think it would be awesome if everyone just dropped their facades and fessed up to

who they really are? Well I do, it would also be nice if there wasn't any beating around the

bush. If you've known me for any length of time you probably know that I'm a bit blunt but

hey at least I'll tell you how it is right? This came to mind because of a conversation about

how people can seem fake. Have you ever been around someone who will be one way with

one group of people but then they become a completely different person when they're with

another group? Well I've known people like that and it really gets on my nerves, but when I

stop to think about it don't we all do that to some extent? From what I've seen most people

are far different with their parents than they are with their friends. Have you ever stopped

and wondered why this is? If not maybe you should even if its just for a self evaluation so see

if you might be one of the people who does this. What is the point of hiding behind a false

you, or could the false you be the true you? If you have a problem with being two or more

different people with different friends ask yourself why. Is it so that you can impress a certain

person that you are with or is it just due to the influences that other people have on you when

you are with them? The constant need to 'fit in' to feel loved is a sad truth of our society

these days, we must conform to fit into the container that society puts us in or we might risk

social rejection. But where should we draw the line? Since people who don't conform in any

way or at least try to broaden their scope of existence can sometimes become serial killers,

extreme sociopaths, child rapists, or maybe just the kid at school who decides that since

nobody will accept them they should just kill all of the people that don't accept them,

somewhat like the killers at columbine. In some of those cases our society's nonchalance

about rejecting these people may have made them into the socially inept people that makes

them stick out in our minds as evil or psychotic. When all someone has known is social

torment from classmates and parents and teachers their whole life how are they supposed

to find a way to cope? Instead of finding productive things to occupy their time they might

instead get thoughts of revenge towards the people who make them feel unloved or rejected

the most. This makes me wonder whether or not a good Christian friend or two could have

made all the difference in their lives by showing them Christs love and compassion but not

just from a Christian mask that they wear but from the 'real' person that loves Jesus.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could do our best to love God through loving people like these

who are hurting the most? Even an enemy could become a friend, if all you ever show

towards them is love how could they turn any animosity in your direction? Eventually they

might start reciprocating the kindness that you've shown them and start helping people who

were/are just like them. This kind of reminds me of the movie pay it forward, if you

help...what is it like 3 people and then those 3 help 3 and so on and so on then the world

would definitely be a better place. But doing something that could change someones life is

difficult to do all at once. Wouldn't it be better to show people the love of Christ from the

start? Then they would be more likely to stay away from that downward spiral that would

bring about the destruction of their souls. So don't put on a mask when you walk out the

door, be your one true self and use that self to show Gods love to everyone you come in

contact with so that we might help to cure this social distortion that stains our world.


I think I may have rambled a bit to much but I hope you could get something out of this.

Sincerely, The Red Headed Step Child

Books

So as I was updating my profile tonight I was thinking about all the books I've read and re-read so I thought I'd make a list of the ones that I've finished. Hopefully I will be able to do this in the most organized way possible.

J.K.Rowling:
Harry Potter and the Sorcerers stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,
Harry Poter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince,
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The Tales of Beedle the Bard
The Casual Vacancy

Dean Koontz:
Odd Thomas, Forever Odd, Brother Odd, Odd Hours, Fear Nothing, Seize the Night,
Twilight Eyes, Lightning, Cold Fire, Hideaway, False Memory, Relentless,
The Voice of the Night, The Taking

Stephen King:
Carrie, Under the Dome

R. A. Salvatore:
Homeland, Exile, Sojourn, The Crystal Shard, Streams of Silver, The Halfling's Gem,
The Legacy, Starless Night, Siege of Darkness, Passage to Dawn, The Silent Blade,
The Spine of the World, Servant of the Shard, Sea of Swords, Servant of the Shard,
The Promise of a Witch King, Road of the Patriarch, The Thousand Orcs,
The Lone Drow, The Two Swords, The Orc King, The Pirate King, Canticle,
In Sylvan Shadows, Night Masks, The Fallen Fortress, The Chaos Curse, The Ghost King

Frank Herbert:
Dune

George R. R. Martin:
A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows

Stephenie Meyer:
Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, The Host

Walter Greatshell:
Xombies: Apocalypse Blues , Xombies: Apocalypticon

C. S. Lewis:
Out of the Silent Planite, Perelandra, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters,
The Magicians Nephew, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Horse and His Boy

Marie Brennan:
Warrior, Witch

William Shakespeare:
Julius Caesar, Hamlet

Seth Grahame-Smith:
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

C. E. Murphy:
Urban Shaman

J. R. R. Tolkien:
The Lord of the Rings; The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers,
The Return of the King, The Hobbit

Michael Chriton:
Jurassic Park

J. B. Huggins:
Leviathan

Michael Scott:
The Alchemyst

Rick Riordan:
The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, The Battle for the Labyrinth,
The Last Olimpian, The Lost Hero, Son of Neptune

Garry Chapman:
The 5 Love Languages Men's Edition

Anne Rice:
Interview With a Vampire

Ray Bradbury:
Fahrenheit 451

Stephen Hawking:
Georges Secret Key to the Universe, The Grand Design

Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman:
Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Dragon of Winter Night, Dragon of Spring Dawn, Time of the Twins, War of the Twins, Test of the Twins, Dragons of a Fallen Sun, Dragons of a Lost Star, Dragons of a Vanished Moon

James Lee Burke:
The Tin Roof Blowdown

Christopher Paolini:
Eragon, Eldest, Brizngr, Inheritance

So I posted this post almost 4 years ago and as I was using it to update my goodreads profile I decided to amend it and add all of the books that I think are missing from my list. So the following books are from the last 4 years or if the author was already listed above I added the new title in red so that it would be clearly a new addition.

Larry Niven:
The Mote in God's Eye

Neal Stephenson:
Snow Crash

Kurt Vonnegut:
Slaughterhouse-Five

H.G. Wells:
The War of the Worlds, The Time Machine

Aldous Huxley:
Brave New World

Arthur C. Clarke:
Childhood's End, Rendezvous with Rama

Dan Simmons:
Hyperion

Philip K. Dick:
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Robert A. Heinlein:
Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship Troopers

George Orwell:
1984

Veronica Roth:
Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant

Isaac Asimov:
Foundation

Douglas Adams:
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Mira Grand:
Feed

James Dashner:
The Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials, The Death Cure, The Kill Order

Orson Scott Card:
Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind, Ender's Shadow,  Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Giant

Suzanne Collins:
The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay

I think I had already updated this now that I think about it but I didn't add in which books were new and which were old. haha oh well with the new editions according to my goodreads account I have currently read 147 books 11 of the ones I added were from 2015. My goal is to read 50 new books this year so with 5 months down I only have 11 I think I need to get to work, 39 more to go and I am currently ready about 17 books so if i finish those I'm about half way there. Time to get reading!!

The Red Headed Step Child

blah blah blah

hmm the world of blogging has just been opened up to me so I haven't the foggiest of what to say for my first post...how about a poem of my surroundings.

Couches cover floors as the wind blows through, heat resonates both inside and out although testosterone that festers in the air may make us go insane, those lacking the y chromozome enter our sanctuary of solitude. As the estrogen mixes with the thick male musk, anger and vengence subside back to a low hum. sheathing their light-sabers they call it a draw refusing to admit to the defeat that was inevitable after loosing extensions of their core.

well I'm not sure how that was being the first poem I've written but I hope it is enjoyable.
till next time I bid thee all adieu

The Red Headed Step Child