Friday, May 30, 2014

My army of squirrels: a follow up.

Since I'm busy (really? ...), a really quick follow-up on my army of squirrels.
There is a new member in the platoon.
Please stand up and salute Lieutenant Shiny Balls.


Hi there... :)


If you're wondering why such a colorful name, just look closer at the picture...











(totally unrelated topic: there are rumors about a new Faith No More album... I could die due to complications related to too much happiness...)

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

The uselessness of empty talks...

Quick post, just to point out how useless and empty are most of the talks of the people.
I don't care what you have done during your weekend, I don't care what you're thinking about the weather, I don't care what happen to your friend/son/mother/wife/whatever.
Also you shouldn't care of me: I won't answer to your questions.
Open your mouth just to say important things.
Thanks.



Friday, May 23, 2014

General Patton and the squirrels of doom.

I'm assembling my own squirrels army.
Here is how it started.
Two weeks ago I saw a squirrel on my balcony.
The squirrel is cute, I love animals, etc etc., long story short, I started feeding it.
I decided to call it General Patton.
I checked it out and General Patton is a female, but the name is too perfect for changing it.
Anyway, in the beginning she was shy, and she was showing out only after I was preparing her food.
Then she started to show up before and looking inside my apartment but still, she was kind of scared of me going close.
Now she really doesn't care if I'm close or not: she wants the food and she's not going away when I'm preparing her food (look at the picture).
She's really smart: she knows when I'm home and when is time to be there.
This morning we also reached a new level of commitment.
At (almost) 6 am, she was calling me. Also, she showed up with a friend.
If it keeps going with this ratio, in a couple of months I will have my own squirrels army.



General Patton this morning.









I'm listening a lot of Grave in these days, so there you go:




Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Hug a tree!

This comes out straight from this post.
And to be specific, from the very last few sentences:

"In other words, those ultra/trail runners are peaceful tree-huggers. I should try to be more like them... I don't know if it's in my nature. Probably it is, but my assholeness prevails..."

Basically, the idea here is to try to be more in peace with myself and with the rest of the world. Try to don't blame anyone and don't get mad with everything.
Just be happy and hug a tree.
What a fuck, I love trees. I have a degree in trees (I'm not kidding by the way). I'm 100% qualified to hug trees. It shouldn't be so hard.
Since I won't be able to hug a tree for real all the time that something stupid or some random asshole (or a group of assholes) will bother me, I will just image me doing that. I won't get mad, I will just image myself in a peaceful forest while I'm hugging a tree.
I will be in peace.
I will be in my zen-zone.
I won't eat your heart and soul...
Let's see for how long it will last.
I'm pretty sure it won't last at all.
...but at least I've tried.
I'm an asshole and I can disguise what I am.
I'll try to be a peaceful asshole.
I will tell you to go to fuck yourself, but I will do it while smiling from the top of my tree.
...and I have an unlimited reservoir of "go fuck yourself".


Gojira: they really hug trees.



Monday, May 19, 2014

Whispering Pines results!

Sorry.
I've been missing from the blog for a whole week, but I was really busy.
...also, I wasn't in the mood.
Beside all the usual fucked-up-things in the lab, I was feeling weird: two weeks ago I had the stupid intestinal flue... Try to run in that conditions. Horrible!! Every step was a potential biohazard...
The last week instead, I was really weak and my legs hurt so much. It was impossible for me to run 10 km without suffering. I didn't know if it was just because I was at the peak of my training-work, or it was some physical condition that I wasn't aware of, or if I was just broken and I couldn't play with my legs anymore...
I was tapering, and it was good to be forced to run only few km, but still, I was really worried. Worried of not being able to run the ultra.
And that's why I was in a bad mood, and that's why I wasn't writing anything.
Anyway, with this bad feeling in my mind, I went to Tyler on Friday night (Tyler, a dry city with a lot of gun shops: you kill people but, hey, you're sober).
5:00 am, Saturday morning alarm's beeping. The ritual of the carbs load with pasta, and it's time to go.
The motivations were high, but still I had the ghost of not making it flying over my head...
The Tyler state park is a nice forest and the weather was perfect. Moreover, the nice attitude of all the other dirty runners helps a lot*.
Closer I was getting to the starting gun, better I was feeling, and I was starting to feel ready.
At 7:00 am sharp the ultra started (together with the 20 miles).
The course was a really nice trail of about 10 miles (3 loops for the ultra) with steep up-hill in the beginning and in the end (the last 2 km of the loop were so hard) and smooth up- and down-hill in the middle section.
Right after the start, I was feeling really good and the first loop went out easily. During the second one I was feeling even better and I increased my pace (in some point I was 4:50/km).
Now the ghost was gone. I knew that I wasn't in a bad position, but I didn't know exactly how many runners were in front of me. Close to the second aid station, I passed one guy of the 20 miles and he told me that I had only a couple of runners in front of me, but I didn't want to believe it (because I'm realistic [doesn't mean I'm pessimistic]).
At the end of the second loop I stopped at the aid station for a quick refill of my water-bottle, and again they told me (by the way, thanks for the big support from the guy of DDR) I was second or third.
So, I stated to believe it a little bit harder, and I complete the third loop with no problem at all (honestly, I was feeling so good that I could run for 20 or more km...).
Final result: 3rd place over-all and first of my category. It took 4 hours, 43 minutes and 5 seconds.
Not bad! I was happy!

...and now, some random considerations: I need to improve my down-hill run. Luckily for me I'm good on the up-hill. The LaSportiva trail shoes are AWESOME! My eyeglasses leash worked perfectly: ugly but effective. Because of the ultra, I've been happy for almost two days.





General note: it's late, I'm tired, I'm busy. I haven't checked out all the typos and grammatical errors. Take it has it come. Peace.

*Note (to myself): I'm usually thinking that humans are trying to kill and fuck each others. But when I see all these runners, happy and friendly to every one, ready to help and/or cheer up perfect strangers, well, my faith in humanity is somehow restored... In other words, those ultra/trail runners are peaceful tree-huggers. I should try to be more like them... I don't know if it's in my nature. Probably it is, but my assholeness prevails...

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Countdown to the Whispering Pines ultra!

Next Saturday, I will run the 50 km at the Whispering Pines Trail.
This will be my first official ultra on trail (last Sunday I ran 53 km on trail, but it wasn't a race), and I'm starting to get psyched!
I've been forced to start tapering this week because I had a stupid intestinal flu/food poisoning and for that reason I've cut down the milage this week (not too much, though).
Once again, I need to do a lot of stretching, but I'm working on it...
I really like this "ultra preparation" concept: it requires a lot of discipline, and strict rules, and tactics. In other words, the total control of the whole process, and that is exactly how my brain works.
I found also a very close relation with climbing: it's a physical and mental preparation, and it requires organization and preparation.
...now that I'm thinking about it, I can also see a connection with science.
Anyway... I was saying I'm tapering: I hate it, but also I know that I need it and I know that is essential. I skipped my Saturday morning run (probably, my favorite run of the whole week) this morning and tomorrow I won't run too much: 30 km tops, I swear (I'm planning to explore the White Rock Creek trail).
Gettin' psyched!


Here some random heavy stuff:


Friday, May 9, 2014

Few words about climbing videos.

Dear new-generation climbers, what is your problem?
Go to climb, send your thing, go back home and go fuck yourself. Do all of that without making video.
I'm sick and tired of all these climbing videos: they are all the same and they all have the same plot.
They all start with you while you're going to the crag/boulder, then there are footage of you trying and failing on the project, and finally the clip of you sending the damn project.
Off course, same dialogues: "I realized it was the perfect climb...", "I didn't think it was possible...", "I've been training really hard...", "I sent it, I'm happy, it was the most important thing in my life..."...
They even have the same kind of music. This pseudo electronic/trance music to show that you're cool, but you're also deep and spiritual...
STOP IT.
So boring.
Especially the ones with the girls.
I don't know why, the girls on these fucking videos are even more annoying and narcissistic than the guys.
Please, stop to pollute the world with those useless videos.
This is not climbing. This is showing up.
This is a "Oh, look at me how strong and cool and cute and good looking I am.".
This is wrong.

Do you want to make a cool climbing video? Here the perfect soundtrack:


Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Snakes, sweat and salts

Sunday I went to Rowlett Creek Reserve to complete my preparation for the next utlra (the Whispering Pines 50 km, here for the details).
Finally, the weather was perfect and the Texan heat was hitting hard: it's all good in preparation for the big challenge of the El Scorcho in July...
Anyway, who cares about this boring stuff...
The important thing is: I saw two snakes!!
Two copperheads:

Hi. :)

One was really big, the other one was pretty much like the one on the picture.
My first snakes since I'm here: I'm happy, they are cute.
Now I want to see a rattlesnake.





Saturday, May 3, 2014

Agonia: a tale about the short life of the best thrash band on planet Earth.

End of July, anno domini 1995, Cairo Montenotte, Italy: four young thrashers, plus one not so young anymore, are ready to start the best live show of the entire thrash metal scene in the history of music.
The band's name was Agonia, and this is the story of the band.
The characters of the story are:
- Wiz, rhythm and lead guitar
- Mirko, rhythm and lead guitar
- Eros, vocals
- Ringo, drum and vocals on Rock'n'roll
- The writer himself, bass guitar and vocal on Anarchy n the UK.

"Agonia" is the italian word for "Agony": we're starting already very high here. 100% thrash.
Everything started when Wiz and me, friends before the kindergarten era, decided to play an instrument. Pretty much at the same time, he bought his first guitar, and I bought my first bass guitar (a blue 4 strings Washburn like this one).
We were metal, we were young and we were playing sort of death-metal/thrash music. The first incarnation of Agonia, was  a band called "Ossuary". We were usually playing in my garage as a duo but we weren't going anywhere.
Then Mirko became the third head of the group and we started to fly high. Wiz was becoming a wizard of the 6 strings, and Mirko was already really really really really good. I sucked as usual, but it was fine: nobody cares about the bass anyway...
So at this point we were almost complete, and we started to take it more seriously: we moved our sessions into a "real" studio and we were playing a lot of Metallica and Megadeth cover.
One cloudy Sunday (yes, I have a sharp memory and I remember details, deal with it), Wiz knock on my door: "We have a drummer.".
The drummer was Ringo: I've never known his real name.
Actually I don't think he has a name. He was (he is?) a weird guy: much older than us, he was a classic thrasher 80' style, with skinny-dick compressor black pants, sneakers and an underground-thrash metal band t-shirt. He had very long but very few hair and he had the particular characteristic of smelling like a fish while he was sweating. This was due to the fact that he was working at the fish-market, so we couldn't blame him for that (by the way, he was the only one with a real job: at that time we were all going to high school, and we had only summer jobs [I was actually building this ship, but this is another story]).
Anyway, now we were really ready to kick asses. We were playing a lot of covers, we had a bunch of songs written by us and we were perfect.
Then it happened.
There was the real chance to play live.
We jump in and we got the date. We were playing at the local summer beer fest in our small city.
Maybe it sounds lame, but for us was bigger than opening for Metallica.
In that moment the band wasn't Agonia yet. We didn't have a name. We were too busy on our rehearsals. The name came out from Mirko mouth when one of the organizer asked about the name. The conversation went pretty much like this:

Organizer: "Guys, we need a name to put on the flyer... What's the name of your band?"
Me: "Eeeeemmmhhhh.."
Wiz: "Aaaammmhhh..."
Ringo: "What?..."
Mirko, out of the blue: "Agonia."

...and Agonia was.
The date of the show was coming closer and closer, we were playing basically every day (ah, the old good day of summer vacation with no school) and the set list was getting perfect.
But, wait, we were missing something.
We were missing a fucking singer.
We realized that three (3) days before the show...
Now, Cairo Montenotte usually lacks in thrash singers, so we were a little bit desperate.
Luckily, we know this guy, Eros: it was already a good singer and he was partially listening our stuff, so we proposed him the deal.
He joined us, and after 48 hours of a full immersion into the thrash world, we were -kind of- ready to kick asses on the stage.
The show was awesome: we played in front of -to be generous- maybe 50 people, most of them our friends, but as I said, for us was really huge.
We played (not in order): Enter sandman (Metallica), Symphony of destruction (Megadeth), Fade to black (Metallica) [I still remember the climax reached during the second solo: Wiz and me playing the rhythmic session, I looked at Wiz, he looked at me back with the "Fuck-yeah-kind-of-eyes" and I got goose bumps], Last cares (Metallica version [c'mon how many other bands have you ever seen playing Last cares? I'm telling you how many: none.]), three instrumental songs written by us, Rock'n'roll (Motorhead), Nothing else matter (Metallica. This one was for the "love-moment", because we were thrasher but also, we were romantic) and we end with Anarchy in the UK (Megadeth style, but since I was singing, he came out more Sex Pistols style [note: I have zero singing skills], also because I had part of my hair dyed with blue in that period, so it was really punk).
Everything was recorded and I have the mp3 file. Every once in a while I listen to it, and honestly, I'm a kind of proud of it (do you think is shit? Try to do better, asshole. [sorry, this is the angry me talking]). It was something small, but still really huge. We were just 4 teenager (plus 1 teenager only inside) that built something starting from nothing, with no money and zero help. We were professional and we believed in the project. Honestly, I think we did something really big (angry me again: do you think it's easy motherfucker? Come on, do the same, and do it better if you can...).
Anyway, it was a hell of a show and we were so proud.
After that single show, like every great artist, Agonia just dissolved in the air.
It was a real short life, but it was lived at 200%.
Agonia lives!







By the way, everything here happened before the Rockwool era.



Little up-date.
Thanks to Mirko here is the original flyer of the show:



AGONIA IS ALIVE!

Thursday, May 1, 2014

The oiled-up naked runner

Family guy has the greased-up deaf guy, in Dallas we have the oiled-up naked runner.
This morning I saw this runner: shirtless, wearing only a very minimal shorts (actually, my underwear is bigger than his shorts) and running-sleeve, all oiled-up with I-don't-know-what kind of grease or oil or whatever. It was glittering in the morning light.
He skipped the "being funny" and the "being ridiculous" steps and he went straight to the top shelf: he was gross (also his stride was gross: popping his but left and right like a naked ostrich).
Seriously dude, I really don't care how you like to run, but at that hours in the morning there are other runners, family going to work and kids waiting for the school bus. You should consider these variables in the equation "how much naked I'm going to run this morning"...
Do you want to feel free during your run? Go to run in a forest or go to run at 5 o'clock in the morning: beside me, no one else is out and, as I told you already, I don't care.