Indy Telecom & Industrial Media

Sorry for the lack of updates, folks. Been a little busy lately.

Take last week for instance. I woke up bright and early in Cincinnati on Monday morning (3:45 AM bright and early, not 7 AM bright and early) and headed out to Dallas. Spent Monday and Tuesday in Dallas, and got sloshed enough on Tuesday night that I almost missed my flight on Wednesday morning to Chicago. Spent Wednesday morning in the hotel lobby working and “socialized” on Wednesday and Thursday. Flew out to Cincinnati on late Thursday night (past-midnight late, not 10 PM late).

Drove on Friday morning from Cincinnati to Atlanta to Lorenzo’s wedding and spent Friday night getting sloshed. I was one of the groomsmen and after the wedding and reception on Sunday, headed out back to Cincinnati late Sunday night. But given the weather (and the fact that I had work to do), Lana and I stopped at a hotel in Tennessee and headed out next morning (Monday) to Cincinnati. And of course, by the time we reached Cincinnati, it was Monday night and I had to do some administrative-type tasks and pack for my trip to Dallas early Tuesday morning (once again, 3:45 AM early). And later today, I’m headed back to Cincinnati.

So, yes. I’ve been a little busy.

After having a very busy two weeks, I decided to unwind a little on Sunday and went to Loch Vale (~10,160 ft) to do some ice-climbing.

There were four of us, Steve, Constance, Jeff and I. Steve was our guide and Constance and Jeff were doing mostly mixed climbing while I was doing mostly ice. It was extremely cold and windy, very long (~5+ miles each way) and very tiresome and stressful. But it was totally and absolutely worth it! Read on for some pretty pictures.

On the way to Estes Park

On the way to Estes Park

On the way to Estes Park

Driving through the Canyon

Driving through the Canyon

Driving through the Canyon

Driving through the Canyon

Driving through the Canyon

Steve hiking through the snow

Constance posing for the camera

Steve with a grin

Karthik finds something funny

Constance in the snow

Constance giving the fingers

I’m tired and I need a drink

Karthik at Loch Vale - yes! We’re finally there.

Folks getting their climbing gear on

Gorgeous Ice Formations

View of Loch Vale

View of Loch Vale

Steve leading

Steve leading

Steve leading

Steve leading

Finally, the top-rope has been set

Natalie from Roy’s team climbing the Chimney

Natalie from Roy’s team climbing the Chimney

Jeff climbing

Steve belaying with a grin

Oops, Jeff just lost his grip on the ice-axe

Constance climbing in the snow

Constance climbing

Constance climbing

Constance climbing

Constance climbing

Constance climbing

Jeff belaying Constance and Steve doing something in the snow

Karthik brandishing his ice-axe

If at first you do not succeed, mountaineering is not for you

Karthik trudging through the snow for his climb

Karthik posing for the camera

Do I crack this rock or do I crack this ice?

Okay, the ice-axe is stuck. Damn!

Karthik hanging on his ice-axes (take the picture quickly, damn it!)

Traversing rock and ice with crampons is hard

Steve (or is it Jeff?) climbing

Steve (or is it Jeff?) climbing

Karthik trying to climb

Damn, this ice is delicate

Karthik climbing (top middle in blue)

Heavy snow

It was snowing heavily, and the wind was terrible

Jeff and Constance posing

Top roping the Chimney

Top roping the Chimney

Top roping the Chimney

That looks like an impossible climb

Steve giving us a ‘demo’ that the climb is hard but quite possible

That overhang looks so hard

Steve manages to make a hold for his ice-ax

Steve’s almost there

Steve makes it to the top

Ice-axes are Karthik’s weapons of mush destruction

Constance on the rocks

Constance on the rocks

Oh, Constance lost her ice-axe. So, she uses a ski-pole to lift it up!

Constance picks up her ice-axe!

Karthik climbing the Chimney

Jeff having a little ‘fun’ with the tree

Damn, this tree is harder than the rock

Karthik climbing up the Chimney

Karthik climbing up the Chimney

Damn, I’m almost there

This is harder than I thought

The ice is too thin up here

Oh man, is he going to make it?

Jeff posing for the camera

Random gear picture

Karthik dragging his backpack across the snow in the parking lot

Obviously, everybody thought it was the funniest thing ever

The team - Karthik, Jeff, Constance and Steve

Constance tried giving me horns but was too late. Hah!

Goodbye, Blue Sky

The whole climb lasted from ~9 AM till about 4:40 PM. By the time we got done and got back, it was almost 6:30 PM. After this trying experience, Matt and I went to a fantastic Nepali restaurant called Himalaya (!) and had a wonderful dinner. T’was a trying but fun day.

I’m back in Cincinnati, and Delana is visiting me for Halloween (the only time of the year when you can dress like a freak and be perfectly normal - not that it’s stopped me otherwise). This weekend, Lana, Beck and I went to the Monster Bash 2006 Halloween Party hosted by the Cincinnati Sports League.

The original idea was that Delana would dress up as an Ice Queen, all in blue, and I’d be a Ringwraith. However, both our costumes didn’t quite turn out the way we wanted. Delana’s costume didn’t quite fit her, and my Ringwraith costume was hard to put over the face (and almost ripped apart).

So, here is how we looked when we started out.

And following a trip to a restaurant in our monster outfits, we decided to go ahead and make changes to our costumes. Delana changed her Ice Queen costume to a black dress, so she became the Dark Ice Queen.

My Ringwraith costume had a headgear that was hard to breathe through, and it almost ripped apart, so I went ahead and put on a scary-looking mask. Here are some pictures of the Dark Ice Queen and the Ringwraith.

Beck showed up a little later, in her Cat Woman costume, looking cool.

And do not ask me what the hell that whip is for. Whatever makes people happy and all that.

See how happy the Ringwraith and the Dark Ice Queen look?

And as you can probably tell, the three of us are one big, happy abnormal family.

Of course, there were other things such as a band whose lead singer/guitarist was a banana. And there was this guy who was dressed up as Big Boy, with a huge, umm, burger. Yes, that’s what it was. There was also an almost clean-shaven Jesus dancing to Livin’ on a Prayer and better yet, postal workers! Better than a couple of years ago, of course, when someone was dressed as a Republican.

Then there was Cat Woman with the Wraith mask.

Of course, there were some funnies — an Asian dude who wanted to look like Prom King, but everyone thought he was Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite. So, he borrowed Lana’s Ice Crown to look like a Prom King. Hilarity ensued!

Wraiths need a drink too, damn it!

And Wraiths need love too.

Finally, here’s us drinking to our total evilness.

T’was a fun night, folks.

Not that I have all that many books, but I’ve been recently trying to update my compilation of books that I own.

So, here is the list of books that I own for your reading pleasure (horrible pun, I know).

The list is not entirely complete, and I still have a couple of hundred books in storage that I want to add to the list. And of course, I buy a few books every week, so no list is ever going to be up-to-date.

At this point, the count is at 461. It’s not a particularly impressive number to me, but apparently it is to some people — just last week, I had a visitor ask me if they could take a photograph of my book collection.

And on this note, I’d definitely appreciate any suggested readings that you folks may have based on what passes for my reading preferences.

Update: This one is for The Cydonian — just figured you might be interested in looking at the autographed D. Adams book.