Peyton is looking pretty ripped!

(P.S. For those who don’t know, Peyton is the one on the right. We were apartment-mates for senior year.)

Zodiac: The NC boys are putting on a clinic!! Yesterday the made it to the start of the Nipple and by the time I got there today they were just finishing up cleaning the Nipple. The light was nice and I got some sweet shots of them. When I left they were headed for Peanut Ledge and that was around 2pm. So they will most likely be off today late. A really nice ascent. I noticed that they were in and out of the belays in 5 to 10 minutes and that sure doesn’t hurt the time on each pitch!

Peyton is on the bottom here:

Peyton leading the Mark of Zorro (up top):

Peyton reaching high on the Mark of Zorro pitch:

Whoa.

On Friday my buddy Peyton Hassinger flew into town. He’s enjoying his short summer break from the Mayo Clinic (where he’s a medical student) by climbing El Capitan in Yosemite. This is the Mecca for modern rock climbing and Peyton speaks of it in reverence. He’s going to be doing a 4-day climb with a friend on the Zodiac route. I met up with him in Palo Alto and we grabbed dinner on University Avenue. In response to the recent legalization of same-sex marriage licenses in the State of California, there was a rather vocal protest setup by some right-wing religious homophobes outside Pizza My Heart. The best part? A bunch of guys wearing Guy Fawkes masks came by protesting Scientology, and minutes later they were joined in the same square by tabla-playing Hare Krishnas chanting. I am not making this up.

Check out the forum at SuperTopos, a climbing website. Search for the daily El Capitan report and we can all follow Peyton’s progress. The current status:

Zodiac: The North Carolina boys, Nathan and Peyton were on the rock early after fixing yesterday. They arrived with a lot of very shiny new equipment causing some comments at the bridge that perhaps they were a long shot to make it. Well forget that shiit, fool. They are smoking up the route and had already done the Black Tower by the time I left this afternoon around 3. The lads are looking real solid up there.

~ Tom Evans at the El-Cap Report , 6/29/08

Just looking at those pictures of the climbers on El Capitan makes me think they all have severe psychological disorders. Check out Peyton! (or is it his friend, Nathan?)

On Saturday I took care of some much needed errands then went over to Studio 1 to check out Nader’s new guitar — a Gibson SG. He’s quite happy with it, and it looks and sounds great. He just needs to find some better music…I mean..Juliana Hatfield? Really? But then he took me over to the CCRMA, the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. The FM synthesizer, the thing that was licensed to Yamaha and earns $texas in royalties each year, helped launch this group I think. What’s amazing is that the center bought the President of Stanford’s old mansion and turned it into their building. It’s gorgeous. The computer lab is setup in the middle of a nice dining room. The place is loaded with professional recording spaces, studio equipment, a state of the art listening room, etc. If you’ve taken a certain class, you get 24/7 access to the lab and the equipment. Hopefully we’ll get in there an jam a bit (by “we’ll” i mean nader and jordan…i’ll tag along and leech off their musical talent). The place has amazing views. You go out on the 2nd floor balcony and see the foothills and the Big Dish, and on the other size you see the campus spread out below you. After walking back we synced up with Bikiran and Siddharth and went to Palo Alto Sol for dinner before seeing Wanted. DO NOT SEE THIS. It was soooo awful.

Sunday morning I went over to an apartment to watch the Spain vs Germany Euro 2008 final. Pity Germany played so badly, it was a shame to see them lose. Sunday was also the day of a cookout I organized. I hadn’t seen the Nicks in a while and some other people, so it was a good excuse to put on a get together. The turnout was great. The Nicks came and brought a neuroscience friend. Luke and Dora were there. A sizable NC community too: Amit, Mary, Matt, Terrell Russell, Ben Darnell (Park alum at working at Google), Jordan Price, Nader. Bikiran and Siddharth from EE came too. A good chance to mingle. We grilled some corn-on-the-cob, made fresh guacamole, cantaloupe, grilled portabella mushroom caps with goat’s cheese, burgers, and drinks. We then picked up the Frisbee and everyone got in on a friendly game of Ultimate Frisbee that lasted for about an hour. It was a lot of fun with nice weather and a lovely way to cap a weekend.

One last thing — I got the new Sigur Rós album today, Með Suð í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust (translation: “with a buzz in our ears we play endlessly”). Friends will know that I’ve taken a liking to this distinctly unique Icelandic band. Their previous work has been dominated by deliberate, carefully layered orchestral rock, often brooding and dense. Their new album is so fresh and accessible! One of the songs, Inní mér syngur vitleysingur (translation: “within me a lunatic sings”), just made me feel happy. I have no idea what it is being said, but it feels about simply rejoicing life and its wonders. It’s my summer song. Take a listen…

Nader has been stockpiling the wares of students moving out of his dorm who are probably too well off for their own good. Nader picked up a pair of computer speakers, a monitor, a whole computer, two microwaves, a blender, and yes, a car. He showed me the title. Sheesh. He then called me later to say that he had an executive-style leather office chair. Looks brand new. He didn’t want it cause it had arm rests. Yeah. He’s weird. But I got it from him! We also grabbed a microwave for Simon’s new place. Then found a photo printer in the hallway. Abandoned.

Great news! Melih, a friend of mine who just finished a Master’s in Computer Science at NC State, just took a full-time position at video startup Tokbox and is moving out to San Francisco! He’ll be arriving later this week. Mary and Matt are almost to Cincinatti for Race Across America, and the rest of my family is enjoying some vacation too.

I know it’s hard to see with the small image, but if you zoom in that part between the trees, you’d see this:

The Hoover Tower! I was shocked to see how far we came. By the time we made it to that point, it was 6:30pm and we still had six miles to go on road, plus 3 miles of trails to the camp. Sunset was in about 2 hours. We decided to turn back on Page Mill Road and go back to campus. But, it was a pretty remarkable view. We could see all over the valley, from maybe Menlo Park down to San Jose.

You can make out the giant Moffett Aircraft Hanger. Pretty cool. The trip down Page Mill Road was awesome — six miles dropping 1700 feet with lots of hairpin turns. The houses up here are unreal. I saw one person’s patio that looked to be the size of a basketball court and had a completely uninterrupted view of the vista as shown above.

We got back to campus just before sundown. I was pretty tired…my legs had cramped up pretty badly. I’m glad I did this, if only to determine that I prefer hiking on real trails in the quiet of nature than pedaling on asphalt. I know some people love it, just not me.