Top 25 Films of the Decade

1. There Will Be Blood
2. Moulin Rouge
3. The Dark Knight
4. Let The Right One In
5. Gladiator
6. The Lord of the Rings – The Two Towers
7. Love Actually
8. Cloverfield
9. Sin City
10. Closer
11. Casino Royale
12. The 40-Year Old Virgin
13. No Country for Old Men
14. Match Point
15. The Wrestler
16. Brokeback Mountain
17. City of God
18. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
19. Atonement
20. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
21. Avatar
22. Zodiac
23. Old School
24. Rocky Balboa
25. Gone Baby Gone

Devin on Film

Top Ten Films of 2009

1.) Avatar

2.) Inglourious Basterds

3.) Whatever Works

4.) Up

5.) An Education

6.) Up in the Air

7.) Star Trek

8.) I Love You, Man

9.) Zombieland

10.) The Hurt Locker

Worst Films of 2009

1.) Thirst

2.) A Christmas Carol

3.) Pandorum

4.) New York, I Love You

5. ) Saw VI (didn't actually see it, but I can't believe these are actually still getting made)

Biggest Disappointment

Invictus

Belated New Year's Wrap-Up Part 1

So it's been awhile, but I don't have to tell you that. Anyway, for those that don't already know, I went down to Arkansas again for New Years this year. My friend Sarah flew into St. Louis from Denver and rode down with me on Tuesday, Dec. 29th. We ended up getting there pretty late that night, and everyone was all moved into our cabin at Horseshoe Canyon Ranch. This year featured a lot of people that I didn't know, so I got to meet a lot of new people that night when I arrived. Luckily, everyone there was really cool. It was great seeing some old friends too! Unfortunately, it snowed throughout the night on Tuesday so we woke up to snow covered boulders and cold temps on Wednesday morning. After some really strong coffee and a solid breakfast, we went out to do some climbing. As you can imagine, all of the boulders were wet and snowy on top, making full sends pretty much impossible, but we all put in some really good work on the bottoms of a few overhanging roof problems. Here are a few pics of me on a V6 called Fraziac. I worked it pretty good for two days, but never could link all of the moves...hopefully next trip (the brown, orange and blue crashpad that my friend Emily is on is the new one I got for Christmas!)

So after a bit of climbing, Wayne ran back to the cabins, grabbed a broom and spent about an hour going around to different boulders sweeping the snow off the tops to help them dry for the next day...which helped immensely! Wednesday night though, we went to "the barn" (really shouldn't be in quotes, because it really is a barn), but they have some awesome stuff in there. The upstairs has a basketball court, a slackline, an indoor bouldering wall, and a speleo box (a plywood cave for simulating spelunking). I also had my slackline, so we set up mine next to the one there and did a bunch of slacking on Wednesday night. It was nice because I hadn't slacked in quite a while. it took awhile took get everything back, but I was happy to be back at it. We then played barefoot 3-on-3 basketball....and let me tell you...I am OUT OF SHAPE! It was pretty pathetic actually...panting and wheezing and holding the stitch in my side...and that was the first 5 minutes! Needless to say, the next day I woke up with my legs sore as all get out. A night of slacklining and basketball will definitely bring the hurt on.

It's past my bedtime now, so I'm gonna have to stop there for now. I'll hopefully not be so lazy and get part 2 up by Monday night. I hope everyone is well....talk to you soon!

Arkansas Wrap-Up

So I just had a pretty great weekend. In case you missed something, I went down to Arkansas this past weekend with my friend Andrew to do some bouldering.

Here is my pre-trip tick-list with outcomes:

V7
Razor's Edge - gave it 3 tries, got to the crux on the first go, but didn't know the beta to finish. New guidebook down-graded this to V5.
Miho - didn't try
Leatherface - looked at, but it's just a bit beyond me at the moment...maybe in a couple months i'll be strong enough for it.
Orb Weaver - didn't try
Undertow Direct - didn't try, but definitely next time

V6
Pier Pressure - didn't try

V5
Even Dirtier - put in some really good work, almost there, but it is pretty friction dependent. I'm sure i'll send next time when it's cold.
Momento - see 'Even Dirtier' comment
Slopadon Milosevic - didn't try

V4
*War Bonnet - Sent after a bit of work...then found out it was up-graded to a V5, my first of the grade!
Alabama Ahead - just one or two moves away...will definitely go next time...probably first try.
Moondye (stand start) - tried 3 times, each one progressively worse...another friction dependent problem.

V3
*The Crescent - got it! fun problem with interesting beta
Sloping Joe - didn't try

These weren't on my tick-list, but I did them anyway:
V4
*Chainsaw - Flashed it!
*A Little More John Wayne - Didn't think I was strong enough for this one...but I guess so!
*Le Beak - Awesome looking rock

V3
*Rings of Uranus - a classic arete
*Privileged Planet - A fun roof problem

Check out this video I put together of some of my climbs (you might want to just copy and paste the link because it opens in this window, not a new one):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlwPe1xZr0M&feature=related

This is another one with Wayne and Andrew climbing some stuff too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9ne4fPLKPI

I'd give a better wrap-up, but I've had this much of the post written for a week without posting it, so I should probably get it up sometime....