Spring is here! /  by Eric Dacus

Spring has finally made it to Salt Lake City and the opportunities for photos have been abundant and fun.  There was an amazing break in the clouds and the sunlight and rain were both streaming down.  The composition isn’t much I guess but it was pouring in full sunlight and I had to try and catch it. There rest of photos of flowers below were taken just after the sunburst.  

blog.ericdacus.com /  by Eric Dacus

Tumblr seems to be an easy solution to “hosting” a blog on ericdacus.com, and I’m going to see if switching over from blogspot will work.  I like how much simpler things are.  Posts are text, quotes or photos and that’s it.  

We’ll see how it goes.

don't buy this piece of gear... /  by Eric Dacus

 As piggy back to the previous post, I found an interesting write-up about gear testing, and the how its easy (definitely me included) for consumers to want the “best gear” but that the high-end gear may not be the best thing. For the record, I own way too many jackets for a single person, and I’m still learning how to turn off the “want better gear” voice.

"We as consumers often have a tendency to look at a product and think, "Is this the best gear?" when the real questions are, "What was this product designed to do?" and "What do I do?" Clothing and climbing gear is slowly becoming more and more specialized; I was looking through an ancient catalog the other day and there were about three pieces in the "Jackets" section, and about four types of carabiners. You know what the average shop looks like now, and likely own a jacket for light aerobic activities, one for pure rain, one for dog walking, etc. The point of this is that we have to understand our own needs pretty well in order to buy anything appropriate.

So somehow consumers have to figure out what the designer made the product to do, and match that with what the consumer will actually do with it. I think one of the greatest improvments in design and sales could come not from more advanced technology, but better educational information on the packaging.”

from Gravsports: Gear Testing

/  by Eric Dacus

“We as consumers often have a tendency to look at a product and think, “Is this the best gear?” when the real questions are, “What was this product designed to do?” and “What do I do?”
— Gravsports: Gear Testing

Don't Buy This Shirt Unless You Need It /  by Eric Dacus

I was talking to Polly last night about this and wanted to pass on the essay.

From the website ChangeThis, and specifically this essay

In an economy of abundance, there is enough. Not too much. Not too little. Enough. Most important, there is enough time for the things
that matter: relationships, delicious food, art, games and rest. Many of us in the United States live in what is thought to be abundance, with plenty all around us, but it is only an illusion, not the real thing. The economy we live in is marked by “not enough.” We once asked the owner of a successful business if he had enough money and he replied, “Don’t you understand? There is never enough.”

We don’t have enough money, and we also donʼt have enough time. We donʼt have enough energy, solitude or peace. We are the worldʼs richest country, yet our quality of life ranks 14th in the world. As Eric Hoffer, a mid-20th century philosopher, put it, “You can never get enough of what you don’t really need to make you happy.” And while we work harder and harder to get more of what we don’t need, we lay waste to the natural world. Dr. Peter Senge, author and MIT lecturer, says, “We are sleepwalking into disaster, going faster and faster to get to where no one wants to be.” We might call this economy, the one we live in, the economy of scarcity. Lest you think the economy of abundance is gone with the old Chumash, consider Europe. Europeans still buy only a few well-made clothes and keep them for many years. Their houses and apartments tend to be smaller than ours; they rely on public transportation, and small, efficient home appliances and cars.

/  by Eric Dacus

“Europeans enjoy a 25 percent higher quality of life than Americans (while we consume 75 percent more than they do).”
— Don’t Buy This Shirt Unless  You Need It

/  by Eric Dacus

Or, look at the people of Bhutan, whose king insists on measuring “gross national happiness.”

Any person or nation can grow fatter and fatter, richer and richer, sleepwalking toward disaster. Or we can choose to remain lean and quick, wealthy in beauty and time and, that word that inspired our forefathers, wealthy in happiness.

its snowing /  by Eric Dacus

I really enjoy the spring weather in a mountainous state. It was warm, windy but clear this morning. Then it started to sleet, and now that its snowing I can barely see across the parking lot in front of my building. Friday’s forecast is a high of 53°F and clear. I really like stormy weather.  Snowbird is expecting 4 to 7” of snow.  Too bad the canyons is already closed for the season; definitely not getting a pass there again.

Thoughts continued /  by Eric Dacus

After thinkin’ some more about personal change, motivation, climbing and life in general. I’m pretty happy with who I am and where I’ve come from. Arkansas kid got married, got outta town, moved west, and is learning to life freely. I think my lack of internal motivation is just a convenient way to say that sometimes its just easier for me to be lazy. I am plenty motivated for somethings, but not most. The last few climbs that I’ve done have been different for me in that they’ve been at my mental limit even though they’ve been 5.7 and 5.8’s. But today climbing with Polly it was a lot easier to enjoy committing to the moves above gear and for the first time letting go of the paralying fear and just figuring things out. I think getting things done, getting in better shape will be similar, letting go of wanting to be lazy and comfortable and getting things in order so I have the time to do the things I am motivated to do.

Thoughts after City of Rocks /  by Eric Dacus

Yeah, this post is gonna take a bit longer to write, but the quotes are where it’ll start.  The premise is that through several aspects of the trip I have found that I’m in need of some introspection and personal change/improvement.  In a nutshell: I don’t climb as well as I’d like because I worry and I don’t keep up with things because I’m not organized or I don’t leverage organized people.  And I don’t like to change. 

/  by Eric Dacus

“Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius-and a lot of courage-to move in the opposite direction.”
— Albert Einstein