Sleeping without getting Touched

I laid on the thin mattress that laid on the clean floor, with my heart beating fast.
Then something moved - it was HIM.
He came closer and closer, and I could hardly breathe. 'Die liao, this time confirm kenna SM.'
A huge shadow came before my eyes. Before I could say 'F__ Off', I felt a nice warm comfort.


Adrian just placed a comforter over me. Damn touched in the heart. If you need a sleeping partner or a real nice guy, please head to Blk _, Room 4.2.

zx reli sux

so he got drunk!

and he pirated our msn! me and liuli, gawd and he and ks attempts to edit my posts urgh

pardon those skimpy messages gawd.

see u guys in training argh...............

Speak Good English Movement. Wat-dever.

this video (retrieved from mrbrown.com) will serve as a reminder for all NUS climbers to speak good and proper english. *contains hokkien vulgarities towards the end of the clip. and i seriously thinks he needs help.

What's with the Upside-down Jugs?

There's this sick habit of climbers in NUS, not restricting to the team, of turning nice decent jugs into something else other than a jug, like underclings, slopy pinches, bad side-pulls. We need more jugs, then jugs are bought and put up as underclings. Right. Could someone please put more decent holds in decent orientations after the next clean-up?

This reminds me of impressions from other climbers that NUS climbers are strong. Well, even though I'd like to say "that's not true", there is a little truth in it. Not everyone are strong, I for one, am weak. *cough* Fat and weak. *cough*cough*

A few reasons why some NUS climbers are strong:
1. Not by choice - the tiles are placed until like that, don't become strong how to climb?
2. Strong Dinos - Climb with strong people sure become stronger also
3. Knowledgable Dinos - Can learn a lot on route reading, techniques and training methods from them
4. Passion - Want to become stronger so that we can climb more routes and enjoy climbing more
5. Inspiration - NUS team climbers simply dig watching climbing videos, gaining lots of inspiration. Alas, I'm not really into watching those, still got several giggs of videos collected but still unwatched, which may be why I'm still weak.

Disclaimer: This post is written cos I'm too bored and got nothing better to do, it is just for entertainment and by no means reflect the whole truth.

On a side note, you all may notice a nice owl-clock in the gym, replacing our old worn-out and quite koyak yellow clock. I'd like to express thanks to Liu Li's friend Sun Zheng (one of our regular recre climbers) for contributing it to the gym. Though I think in one year the grey owl will turn into a snowy owl.

Guys, remember the drinking session on Tuesday night! And I mean guys only... =)

Random Rhyme

What's your poison?

What's your preference?

For the lack of style

And a point of reference,

And a better substitute for FUN,

Why do you climb?

Spend a day in the sun

Before you've "gotta run".

I choose to move,

Feel alive among the stones

To dance smooth

Across nature's playground

Safe within this fluid zone.

I'd sooner ask why you climb

Before how you'd climb;

Like learning to walk

Before you fly.

Pfft.

Good luck for those taking part in the finals later...

Video entertainment.

For your entertainment, my favorite boulder video. This is Bernd Zangerl on Dreamtime. V15. Sick.


And for comparison, here's Chris Sharma.


And bonus entertainment. Dai Koyamada. My jaw dropped. And ning feng might want to tell him to slow down his climbing.

Not Climbing Related

So this post is not climbing related. But I find this extremely helpful and strangely therapeutic. It may cheer you up after long hours of slogging in ClimbAsia, or you are up in the night due to jetlag, or you got nothing to do but you cannot climb as the fingers hurt, or you are just fretting from Rockamania this coming weekend. I wouldn't say this is, "Highly recommended!!!111" like all the other reviews since it is a cliche lah.

"I heart Adrian muacks"

Lucky Star anime series! It is from the producers of 'The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" and this series started airing around April. There is no story line, kind of like South Park where the director takes a snipe at the things going around him. There is a change of director from the fourth episode, but otherwise the style does not fluctuate much.

I recommend it for people who has a good background on geeky and nerdy stuff...anime, online games...those who are tired from work and all. There is really a distinct sense of cute-ness and realism in this series.

With that, bye-bee!

It is highly recommended!!!111. Argh.






"I think I still heart Adrian."

request

Hello check out this review by dave macleod on 'the self coached climber'

Will it be possible for NUS Climbing to get a small collection of such useful books? - on climbing technique, training methods, mental aspects, recovery etc. Then we can pass it around via short loan (im sure we can work something out)

How to win Rockamania.

Rockamania is coming, and for many of us novice climbers, it's going to be our first vertical comp. And since I hardly climb any vertical, I've been thinking of what to look out for on the wall during the climb.

I wonder which is more responsible for the failure to commit to a move, the fear of heights or the fear of falling. For me, it's the fear of falling and wasting your efforts (the act of falling doesn't scare me at all). Which is why I think it helps to think of the whole route as one big long kickass bouldering problem. Since bouldering is very much about technique and energy-saving, you have to know what position to assume to commit the next move, then be confident and just execute. But the only difference is, there is only one chance. Kinda sucks, but I guess thats the way it works. Meanwhile, dispel all fears of heights and falling. Imagine the mattress is just a metre below you.

Another problem with vertical is not fully utilising the features of the wall as footholds. I think this is a result of a lack of confidence in the foothold. Those tiny spikes or pockets look deceptively slippery, but i guess stepping hard on them when executing the move will help stick it better. And smearing the wall helps when there is no good foothold in sight, and your previous handholds just cannot make it for the next move. But you need plenty of balls la. I need to muster plenty of courage just to dare to smear anything at 10 metres up.

Rest points! Shake out as and when you can, especially when the holds are good and you can find some place to sit in or bridge. Don't tunnel-vision, and keep your mind open while focused at the same time. Slow and steady wins the race. Sometimes, at least.

Practise clipping in. The worse thing to happen up there is being unable to clip in properly, and panic like mad, inducing a sick pump and resulting in a 2-3 clip fall. Enough to make anyone's balls shrink. Find a comfortable position to clip in, rather than hanging on a bad crimp and tiptoe-ing, trying to reach that runner.

That's all I can think of. All these coming from someone who doesn't do vertical much, I hope none of these tips that I came up with from simply thinking and analysing from my bed is crap. Seniors and veterans of vertical comps, please advise! Train hard, train safe!

LoveStruck

<3

care for rock shoes

my first post in a long time...

chee kiong tagged on the cbox regarding his dirty shoes and how to clean them...
as a proud owner of a once shimering and glaring V10s, haha shall share with u guys how i restored the shine of my insane downturn slippers...

basically all u need is a toothbrush... rinse it with water and shake it dry... then just brush the cloth portions of ur shoes first... try not to wet it too much la... though i think for 5.10 shoes the material is waterproof... after that u can do the same to the rubber soles... i recommend that this procedure be used for shoes which u still wanna climb in for another 1 yr or so...

in the case of my V10s i just put it under a running tap and use a toothbrush to scrub the inner soles... though the dirt inside can never be totally eliminated, it will smell a lot better... the same goes for the rubber soles and the cloth material... this method would be more suitable for shoes which u dun really use that often... in my case my V10s has been retired for use on natural rock and maybe speed climbing...

when drying them i am sure all of u know that you should only air dry them instead of baking them under the hot sun... your shoes will feel so crunchy so much so that they might just crumble into pieces anytime

about the stink in the shoes, i read an article in climb asia stating that you should not put newspaper your shoes as it will obstruct ventilation and create a suitable environment for bacteria to thrive... think airing the shoes is the best idea... i aint a fan of sneaker balls too... my analogy of putting sneaker balls in climbing shoes is the same as fighting fart with lesser smelling fart... doesnt help at all...

some shoes will get black very quickly... 3 possibilities. a: your footwork sux, b: your feet sweat like hell or c: your footwork sux and your feet sweat like hell... so for people with ultra sweaty feet, suck thumb lor... clean ur shoes more often...

ok thats all... hope this helps!!!

Hong Kong climbing

A teaser for climbing in HK. Bouldering in Tsuen Wan, which is really beautiful. Its up a hill overlooking the entire skyline of HK. I thought we would be crazy to try out the hard problems because we had no crash pad. But we ended doing them anyway.