Exams, Climbing and Gaming

Another long time since the last update, and some stuff has happened... just not a great deal.

I shall start with a list of things to be covered:

1. Learning Fatigue
2. CWIF
3. Peak District afternoon
4. Gaming
5. A Badass Music Video

 1. Learning Fatigue

In response to an email conversation earlier this week I suggested that I would drop some thought bombs on the subject of learning fatigue in the modern age.
A simple analysis of 'schooling' shows that if a person goes through preschool, primary school, secondary school, and then gains a degree at university, then they will have spent about a fifth to a quarter of their potential lifespan in education.

Now, I understand that people need to be educated to exist in the modern world, but doesn't this just seem mental? 21-15 years in education, just so you can get a job that may potentially be nothing to do with your degree!

Now, I'm not saying that this method is necessarily any worse than the alternative methods of education, but I don't think it has worked for me.

I did something like 12 GCSE, I'd count them but I cant remember what I did any more. I then did 4 AS levels and 3 A levels before going on to do a degree in chemistry.

• GSCE - 12 Papers over 2 years
• A levels -  15 Papers, and practical exams over 2 years
• Degree - Who knows... not to mention various projects, assessed labs, vivas and presentations over 3 years

When I was younger I would read books on other subjects and write short stories in my spare time just for the giggles. Unfortunately I think I hit a wall somewhere in my degree, and I feel like I neither wanted to, nor had time for that sort of thing any more.

Put simply,  I hit the wall. I imagine that gaining some Independence from the system allowed me to take a backseat with my studies , and given that I had been pushed for the last 5 years I took full advantage of the wealth of both money and time I had come to receive.

From there it was a bit of a vicious circle of doing badly in exams, led to me feeling less interested, led to me doing other activities, led me to doing badly. I knuckled down a bit in final year and saved myself a vaguely passable grade. But when asked by a woman in HR why my certificate wasn't framed, I just laughed and looked at her like she was insane.

The funny thing is, that at the time I wasnt concerned with my performance in exams. But now that I have had a year out of education, I actually feel a bit guilty about 'letting myself down' given the opportunity that I had. I know I could have done better if I had applied myself better, there are far more stupid people on that course that got better grades that me. But after all those persistent exams in the preceding years, I ran out of juice.

Maybe I am making excuses, maybe I am just a lazy scroat. Either way, my new years resolution is to read more books to try and get my brain back on track. Unfortunately, judging by the huge unread part of 'Game of Thrones' I still have to read, I need to try a bit harder.

2. CWIF

CWIF!
Oh CWIF
CWIF Richards,
CWIFton suspension bridge,
the white CWIFs of Dover

Or as it is known up north, where the people are grim faced and 2/3 have never laughed:

The Climbing Works International Festival

 The CWIF is a bit of an odd competition, in that pros and punters all have the opportunity to qualify for the finals. To split the field effectively this requires a large number of problems, with a large number of difficult ones to split the top levels.

Last year's competition was host to some serious talents in the form of Nalle Hukkataival, Ty Landman and a significant portion of the UKboulder team. This years was no exception with names like Puccio, Sanchez, Barrans, Partirdge, Webb-Parsons, Coxsey, Crane, Wujajstyky, Caminati and more that I cant remember.

Needless to say, watching some of these guys cruise through the problems that I am at a loss with is at once both humbling and inspiring. I might be pretty good down south, in my small town, London based, 20 problem contests against the baying mass of new climbers. But when I come up against a troop of psyched individuals, who have used all the time they spent not-laughing to train...Things turned ugly.

30 problems in 3 hours is no mean feat when the problems start at about 5+/6a and get much harder very quickly. SIBL works out at about 20 problems in 4 hours or so - or 1 boulder every 12 minutes. And those boulders are pretty easy for the most part.
CWIF was a much higher standard and ran at about 1 boulder every 6 minutes!

I was given a round spanking by the works, and while the problems were cool, I dont think I really managed to reflect my ability to climb as best I can. But everyone competed in the same circumstances, and I heard a lot of similar complaints to mine about falling off the last moves of problems. I guess the good people just didnt do that...

I ended up as 87/189 who put in cards (quite a few didnt bother). I think this probably verges on respectable, but I am 100% certain I can significantly improve on this next year with a small amount of fingerboard and stamina training.

3. Peak climbing!

After being beaten up by CWIF we went out to burbage edge and flailed ineffectually against West Side Story. I am sure that if I can get up to the top sidepull I will be able to do the problem. Unfortunately, it is a bit tricky to get up there. I blame the heat.

After falling off this, we resolved to go to the Excreta Buttress, where I was once again beaten up by a filthy slopery 7B. I think that if it was slightly cooler, and I did some more fingerboarding (again) I will be able to do this problem. Unfortunately it was not to be, and instead I focused my attempts on the 7A+ linkup through the roof called Hemline. We sorted out the beta pretty quickly and easily and I sent it in 4 'redpoint' attempts. Quite happy to do something after my abject failures elsewhere during the weekend.

4. Gaming

My new thing to chill out with after a phase with Rubiks Cube, Ukulele, Juggling, Climbing, Fives, Harmonica, Slacklining, Photography and being all indie and shit with music, is competitive Starcraft 2.

In review, I am definitely getting better but I still feel like I am awful. I suppose that given the non competitive nature of most of my activities, it is quite easy to feel bad when I lose against someone who completely outplays me. I believe the experience can be looked at as 'defeat therapy' whereby your ego is given a nice beating and you become a little more level headed. It is frustrating that given my ability to 'pick up and play' almost any other sport I attempt at the moment, that one where I get to sit down and compete with my fingers and my mind is the one where I am beaten most frequently and apparently easily.

Indeed, this is what fuels my desire to get better. I know I can be, so I am going to try!

Outside of SC2, I spent this weekend playing a combination of 'Costume Quest' and 'Bastion'. I know I am quite late to the party with these games as they have been out for ages, and the reviews have been so good that I really should have attempted to play them a little earlier.

Costume quest is cute and very well written, but the gameplay became a bit too repetitive for my liking so I stopped playing after a while and switched to playing Bastion.

Bastion is simply gorgeous, I knew I was onto a winner as soon as the game opened and the narrators voice cut in. Great gameplay, great music, great visual style, great story integration.

I'll let total biscuit explain what is going on, because he is good at that sort of thing and I dont begrudge him the ad revenue.

I realise it is a long video, but if you have time I think it is worth a quick watch if you had considered getting the game. He mentions the music at one point, and it really is beautiful.

In honour of such beauty, I have decided to do my best to butcher it!

Yes - it is time.

For another.

AceEebie Music Production!

I'm hoping to go to font this weekend, needs some planning.
If things work out, and conditions are good then I am going to
CRUSH.
THAT.
SHIIIIIT!!!!

I just need to come up with a ticklist now!

I have lots of photos from CWIF and the peak on my facebook, but I cant link them from work.

I shall upload to flickr or the like and get some posted up on here soonish.

Toodles!

Happy Birthday to me!

Cough...anyone at work going to say anything?

Nope just me then.

S'all good.

I wrote this in celebration

"He floated, looking out into the inky blackness of space for what seemed like an eternity. The comlink had died 3 days ago and since then the only suggestion of contact had been a single blinking light on the console, telling him that his oxygen was running out.

Across the porthole soared a majestic planet, crowned with rings of gold and purple. He had seen it before many times as his science ship had orbited gathering research about the planets atmosphere, and after the first awe inspiring experience it had soon grown to merely become another part of his environment that he glanced at from time to time. This time however, he pulled himself towards the window, aware that it may be the last time he got to see anything so beautiful again and drank in the size and grandeur of the galactic behemoth. The red light continued to blink.

After it had passed out of sight he pushed himself back to his seat, and considered his options. Of course, since he had been out of contact for days, the space research centre located in the nearby system would be looking for him. But as the craft had only power for a weak localised homing signal, the chances of them finding him were slim to none. He knew this.
Even so, he checked the signal was transmitting and tried to conserve energy.

Slipping into unconsiousness wasnt a bad way to go anyway, at least there wasn't any pain. He had heard of a troop of scientists and marines who had landed on one of the planets, only to discover that the ground gave way to reveal a lake of fuming acid, cloaked by a thin film of impenetrable dust. Suffocation was the best of a bad job compared to that."

I may continue, I dont know. Anyone feel like a critique of that start?

I am all busted up from sport. nothing seems to be going particularly smoothly recently, maybe going to the peak this weekend, but then again, maybe not since the weather is looking a bit shite.

Time for lunch.

Also, Easter would be nice in spain.
Summer in SA

I need to get to doing some fucking training though, I feel like I have barely even been climbing at all.

I have been enjoying htis song though, so that is good.

The AceEebie way of life

So...Snowboarding is frickin awesome...

From learning on nursery slopes on Monday, to attempting black moguls and off piste powder on Friday I don't think I have had quite so much fun on any other holiday.
I simply cannot wait to go back.

Since I returned on Saturday it seems to have been a bit of a whirlwind in my life.

I went to Portland on Saturday with Ed, and tried my hand at some of the longer routes there, which ended badly for the most part.
It appears that trying to do stamina routes after a week of snowboarding, and a day of being cramped up in a car is not the best way forward. Especially if you miss breakfast and fuel yourself with service station food.

Nevertheless, I tried to climb and did a 6a onsight lead, and tried a 6b but got rained and hailed upon before running out of ideas and steam. I then did a 6c on toprope after Ed tried his hardest to convince me it was a good idea, and I will confess, the route was excellent.
After that, we left and headed to cuttings so that I could give Liquid Sunshine a blast.

I sent a V6 in about 3/4 attempts using utterly broken and lanksome beta, and then got down to the business of being completely shut down by my intended target. I think being tired was a large factor in the failure, but I just felt completely clueless about the moves and not even close to putting it together. I shall have to get down there again for a decent session sometime in the near future.

After accepting failure we trekked back up to the new cuttings, and I sent Ed up my first ever 6c route outdoors. The Unworthy is a short route, with potential for a tasty lob from the last move due to a hidden final hold. Ed flashed it of course, and when I went up to clean the gear, it certainly felt a lot easier than it did when I first climbed it. Of course, that was about 3 years ago now, but it is still nice to see that sort of improvement in solid terms.

Monday was first day back at work, and by the afternoon I felt like curling up and dying from fun withdrawal symptoms. Instead, I got dragged into a squash match against a few of the teachers. Despite not having played for a good few years, I eked out a clean sweep of victories against all challengers. Unfortunately I am now a bit of a broken man from all that running and whatnot.

Tuesday was another fives session and a long day of preparing and cleaning practicals, before helping to adjudicate in the house climbing competition
Wednesday has been a long one too. I finished working at 3:15, then went down to the school wall.
I started by climbing all the problems in the competition and then working some of the new hard ones.
Sadly though, I was climbing awfully and didnt feel good at all.
I eventually left at about 7:30/8:00 after setting and testing a few new problems.

Basically, I need a rest if I am to have any intentions of putting in a showing at the Reach on Sunday.
However, even if I don't climb there, I am going to go to my first 'Barcraft' with a couple of friends in the afternoon! If you don't know what one is, Google it, repress your first thoughts (which are just close minded), and come experience it with me!

Gnight all.

WWOOOOOOOAAAAAH, I'm back!

Holy shinkleficks everyone!

I am back and with a vengeance,
Since November - the last time that I wrote on this blog, I have been doing a shed load of exciting and awe inspiring things.

Hoorah!

Unfortunately, this means that this post may end up being quite long and backwardly relevant. Indeed, those of you that have actually spoken to me in any time in the last few months will probably know all about my exploits already.

Nevermind.

I proceed forthwith!

1st of all.

ETON FIVES TOURNAMENT IN LONDON

I went to my first senior tournament!

I was paired up witha  fine young player called Tony Baxter from St. Olaves School, we played pretty well and won a couple of games in our group. Unfortunately, we also came up against the eventual winning pair...and the outcome was not pretty.

Despite thinking that I was playing quite well, and believing that my partner was playing slightly better than myself, we succumbed to a 12-1 12-2 loss...We weren't even remotely close to having any impact on the game. I mean, our opponents didnt even take off their tracksuits...yeah....

This colourful gentleman was a member of the Eton fives club.

Basically, it seems that there are a few levels of Eton fives ability.

1 - BEGINNER - utterly useless, hides from the ball and loses with aplomb
2 - NOT SO BAD BEGINNER - Can actually hit the ball consistently with both hands, but doesnt have a clue what they are doing
3 - INTERMEDIATE - Capable of hitting the ball with conviction, can return the ball from the buttress with some skill, but for the most part loses because of poor shots selection
4 - DECENT PLAYER - Can cut well, hit some good shots and win points against better opponents, but the odd weak shot will leave him at a disadvantage as the rallies get longer and the game drags on
5 - GOOD PLAYER - Cuts well, good shot selection, plays with some guile and deception, targets holes in opponent pairs and will win most matches against similar opponents
6 - OBSCENELY GOOD - These are a rare brand of player, and no one knows where they come from or train, but they must have their own private training camps, where they congregate and become ridiculous volley machines, with reflexes like those of that annoying fly that has been buzzing around your room for the last 20 minutes, that you just cant hit with your rolled up copy of the tv guide. These pairings are largely unbeatable, and rare errors will be the main cause of defeat when they meet. For all other standards, damage limitation is the word of the day when coming into contact on court.

Anways, after we fell out of the group stages, we entered the 'A' Plate, which is really code for the grade 5 players and below. Fortunately, we kept our game together and won that competition, another victory to put under my belt, but sadly there was no trophy to take home.

Here is the short and shabby video that I made of the tournament.

http://vimeo.com/32919901


SWITZERLAND #1

We went to Switzerland in December and I crushed hard, that's right. I crushed like a fridge which not only produces ice cubes, but will also make those same cubes into smaller versions that melt quicker and therefore cool your drink more effectively! I was on fire! not literally of course, because then I would have been warm, and that - I was not.

Although the temperatures were slightly warmer than they were on our previous trip they were still not toasty. Indeed, we were beset upon by great clouds of snowy precipitation, that sought to waylay our advances from high on one side of the valley to high on the other side to Chironico.

Fortunately, we managed to get out and keep up a vague schedule of two days on and one day off.
Despite still carrying my gammy A4 pulley injury from the trip to font earlier in March, I was able to tape up and send most of the problems I attempted. Come to think of it, I dont think there was actually very much that I failed to succeed upon.

My ticklist for the trip ran to: -

Erm... I cant remember, and I dont think I really wrote it down anywhere.
I know I did a 7B and perhaps a 7B+ (that one is in dispute)
I did  bunch of 7A problems too.

Anyways, without further ado
I proudly present, my two hardest climbs from the holiday
YAY...CHEERS...APPLAUSE!

http://vimeo.com/34294475

After I got home, it was time to have a little rest and a series of food filled parties around the country.
Christmas,
Boxing day,
Jonny's wedding (crazy christian heebiejeebies but lots of wine)
New Years party (G&T all evening till it turned messy and we went to bed)

I think there was some climbing in there somewhere as well, but my memory fails me.

Oh yes, I went to TCA for a climb, and then afterwards I went out to try my first 8a sport route with Tris and G. Parry.

I managed to do the bottom crux, but the top was too hard for me in my fatigued state and I settled for taking some photos of Gaz.

After all this, I eventually went back to work, and have started climbing a lot at the school wall, setting all sorts of mean and evil problems for the kiddies and myself.
They must have been having some sort of effect, as I have been placing noticeably higher in all the competitions I have started to attend in the start of this year.


I placed 6th in the Reading round of SIBL (However, I am first to admit that the usual crowd of ultra strong wads was not there to show me up for once, but I drew with a chap who has climbed 8a+ before, and for me that is a great achievement in itself.)

Pfft, Reading boulders? Easy.
Credit to Mateuz (sp?) for the great pics.

I placed 1st at a local Craggy2 competition and won some vouchers for free climbing along with the other two winners of the easier categories who were both Cranleigh school kids!
(Again, there were stronger climbers present, who didnt hand in their cards... but you cant win if you dont put in your card, and I certainly beat them at doing that.)

Crushing the Craggy boulders

I then came 6th at the TCA competition, which was a decent showing since it was the 3rd competition in 6 days and the standard of climbing at those competitions is always high.
Unfortunately, I looked at the results and found that I had infact been beaten by the little scroat Laurie SE who mere months ago was certainly not capable of competing with me.
Of course, the fact that he is on the TCA boulder squad with Hamish Potokar and James Squire, and that his father owns the centre may have something to do with the whole thing.

So, I suppose that brings us up to about now.
And right now I am in

SWIZZY #2

Only this time I am going to attempt to stand on a slidey sideways deathboard of terror.

I understand that those in the know also call this  a'snowboard', but I think they are really just showing off.
Since I have managed to stand on a slackline, and walk backwards and forwards and twist around, I have faith in my ability to eventually grasp the damned concept of moving sideways , but if my last attempt aobut 3 years ago is anything to go by, I shouldn't hold out much hope.

Deathboarding lessons start on Monday, but that still leaves a whole day tomorrow for me to get to grips with learning to stand up after I fall over. I hope I wont be too bruised to learn form the teacher :-/

I have my camera with me, and we are right under the Eiger, so I shall attempt to take a moody black and white shot extolling the power of nature and the feebleness of man. In all likelihood, I expect this to look like a distinctly average black and white picture of the Eiger with some clouds, the caption will attempt to add the dark brooding sense of foreboding.

Anyways, staying true to form, it is now 10 to 1 in the mornings here, so I had best be off to bed, lest I fail to rise in the morning.

Wish me luck!

I want to walk around spanish cities at night.

Sitting at my desk, listening to Bon Iver.

Some days are busy, others - like this - are empty, and I just sit here trying to think of something to do.

Yesterday, I solved a rubiks cube in under 30s after a few attempts.
I know how to play 'Where is my mind?' on ukulele.
I played fives with the Brigands.
I did an AS chemistry unit 1 paper.
I solved a crossword.

Maybe I should start learning a language while I am here...


I met Gaz Parry the other day at SSP and had a chat, considering getting him to come to the school to do some setting/coaching.
After that I flashed a few of his new routes; a 6a+ a 6c and up to the last move of his tufa 6b+ problem.

All I really learnt from the experience was that my stamina is thoroughly up the shitter, I was pumped out of my mind after one route! I am heavily missing out on having a multitude of well set circuits at TCA, I might actually go back for a couple of weekends just for that training facility. It is a pretty long trip over, but considering it costs £7.50 for entry to Craggy Island, it probably works out to be only about 10-20 pounds more, and I get to see my friends in the west country again.

I made a video of myself doing some fives training the other evening


Eton Fives trailer from Archie CB on Vimeo.


As it says on the vimeo page - I would like to make a longer video that explains some of the rules, and since there is a large tournament in London at the end of this month - I think that would make a nice centre piece.

Just need to find a partner now.
And sort out my complete and utter inability to return cut.

Another week gone!

So here we are - another week has disappeared into the sands of time.

Since the last post I haven't done a great deal except play a single game of fives on Thursday evening.

I received a callup from Richard Black (whom I had never met) to play for the 'Lancing Fives Club' - Which is a rather grand name for the 4 old men that the team appears to be comprised of. I think someone mentioned to Richard that I was around in the area and keen for a game, and I am glad that they did because the game I played in was excellent. 

After turning up and playing a few points so they could gauge my ability, I was placed placed in first pair to play a best-of-five match against the top charterhouse pairing.

Naturally, as befits any game I have played in recently, the first thing we did was go behind by about 7 points and then struggle our way back into the game. Our opponents were very fast cutting, and made cunning use of the angle, such that I found myself pinned into the buttress a fair few times before finding some form.

Once I did however, we started to play some very good fives, with some long volleying rallies. One even got up to around 20 shots in length, which left me panting up against the wall.

One of the odd things about fives, and fives courts, is that each court seems to be a little bit different. 

Westway has nice even bouncing courts, fairly similar to Eton in size and shape.

Eton has very shiny courts which dont seem to allow for a great deal of spin

Cranleigh has fairly wide courts with grippy plaster on the walls

St John's is just awful.

And Charterhouse has slanty floors.

These slanty floors threw me off for ages during the match, until I worked out where I needed to stand to be in the right position for my favourite shot into the buttress. Unfortunately, because the ball takes a much narrower angle to the floor when it is slanted, it also meant that I was having to hit it much closer to the ground. Which resulted in my 'killer' shot, not only being telegraphed from the back of the court, but also going a great deal slower than usual.

Nevertheless, we pulled ourselves back into the first game and won in good fashion. The second game was equally close, before we finished them off comfortably in the final game.

Fortunately, next week isnt anywhere near as manic on the fives front, and hopefully I will be able to get my heels back to fighting fitness (they get bruised when I play for a long time) Perhaps I need new shoes.

In other news - I went climbing the other day, and since I have been taping my finger during sessions, my pulley has stopped protesting so much - and today it is even feeling good! I'm not sure how long there is till SIBL now, but I might put in a showing at the first round, just because I can. :-D

Hoorah.

Finger Woes

Good day to all,

Another long break since the last post, but no excuses for me except for laziness.

I have been very busy though - Having started my job, and successfully avoided being fired for 5(?) weeks - I can say that I really feel very happy with where I am at the moment.

I work in the chemistry department at Cranleigh school, which is the same place that I went to school. Fortunately for me though, they have built a shiny new centre for sciences and modern languages and this means that I do not have to work in the old, dingy, draughty and dusty department :-)

Added to that, is the fact that the girl I replaced has done a stirling job of setting up the department, such that my only real requirement is to keep things moving in the right direction. I haven't burnt down the department yet, but we have been exploding some hydrogen balloons to great effect.

I am also heavily involved with the sporting side of things - both on my own, and with the students.

A couple of weeks ago I was able to compete with my old fives partner, Phil Roper, in the U25 Fives Nationals. Despite having a 3 year hiatus from playing fives, Phil was still as good as he ever was and we settled into a groove by the end of the tournament that saw us walk out with the 'A plate'.

Phil and Myself with the overall winners trophy (there was no plate available for photos)

Phil, Myself and the Cambridge based Illingworth Brothers

I have to give full credit to the runners up, who were good sports throughout the match. We came very close to losing after we let a close first game slip away, and then proceeded to gift 6 points at the start of the second.
Fortunately after that I found the right state of mind for cut returning and our service games became very competitive. Eventually we came from behind to win another close game and go into the deciding game at 1-1.
My good form with returning continued and we really dominated the final game, running out 12-2 victors at the end.

I have also been playing a lot of fives with the school, as I am in charge of running two sessions on both Tuesday and Thursday with a single session on Wednesday for the new students at the school.
Last night was our first fixture of the season against a roving fives club made up of grey haired, cunning men. Overall, I think that our team looks quite strong at the moment, with potential for some real competition at the school nationals if I can convince them to come down for some training.

Climbing is still taking a bit of a backseat until my finger is where it needs to be for me to pull on it properly. I think this may mean that I will have to miss the first SIBL round to ensure that I can perform properly at the remaining rounds, but so be it.
I did manage to get out to Stone Farm during the recent spell of delightful weather we have been treated too. Unfortunately, the blazing sun also reduced friction horribly and I walked away from a 3 hour session having only achieved a  an obscenely hard '6b+' - difficult to tell given the conditions, but given that both myself and my mate (who has climbed multiple 7b problems) thought that it was nails, it perhaps needs looking at. Video to come.

Anyways, it is about time for lunch now - so toodleoo.