Comments Posted By Kevin Kim
Displaying 3,391 To 3,420 Of 4,392 Comments
If the 8K trail produced complaints about shortness, I can only imagine what people will say about a 6K trail. Here’s hoping the runners’ portion of the trail is ten times more difficult than the walkers’ portion. Fewer complaints that way.
Is there ever any confusion about old chalk markings from previous Hashes, or does the chalk fade after a day or so?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 03/March/2019 @ 10:04 pm
Back to a relatively tranquil life, I hope! Welcome home.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 02/March/2019 @ 6:01 pm
Oy. None of this motivates me to visit the Philippines.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 02/March/2019 @ 1:32 am
For goodness’ sake, John! You saw the “Don’t be a victim” sign the other day, but you stepped in it, anyway. Unbelievable.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 01/March/2019 @ 4:16 pm
*meanT to add*
Grrrrr.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 28/February/2019 @ 8:05 pm
Oh, yeah: I mean to add that that’s a nice Johnnie Walker logo, and that you and the Hulk both look as if your pushin’ out some bigguns!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 28/February/2019 @ 8:04 pm
Enjoy your time in the concrete jungle!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 28/February/2019 @ 8:00 pm
One beer for each Apostle. Nice.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 27/February/2019 @ 7:42 pm
What percentage of Hare-laid trails would you say go beyond the 10K mark?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 26/February/2019 @ 6:04 pm
May your Hare-training session prove educational.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 25/February/2019 @ 5:40 pm
One lifetime, many lives (prologue)
Eloquently put. I look forward to your future entries.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 24/February/2019 @ 6:05 pm
How’d you place? Top three?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 23/February/2019 @ 11:52 pm
I may be too late in leaving this comment, but good luck with the tourney! I hope your house doesn’t have any cracks in it (or any crack in it, for that matter).
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 23/February/2019 @ 7:55 pm
Colin Fletcher was one of my inspirations for doing the big walk in 2008. Great writer, very no-nonsense, with an obvious love of the outdoors. I’ve never read anything other than his The Complete Walker III (which I highly recommend), but at some point, I’ll likely buy some of his other works.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 22/February/2019 @ 3:37 pm
We need to get you reading hiking guru Colin Fletcher, a crusty Welsh-American who was a dedicated solo hiker. Fuck that buddy-system bullshit. Heh.
By the way, logic check:
“Only a cut and some scratches thankfully, but it underscores why you don’t want to be without a hiking partner should the worst happen.
Anyway, I’m thinking maybe I’ll just forego joining the group henceforth.”
Am I reading this right? You’re miffed about being left behind because the buddy system is safer and provides camaraderie… so your solution is to hike alone on Wednesdays?
Hey, put down the axe. I’m just yanking your chain. On a more serious note, maybe talking with the guys about what happened, and how you felt about it, will lead to a return to the ethic of “no man left behind.” Maybe they simply forgot on that day.
Anyway, that problem aside, congrats on the darts win!
I’ll end with a typically harsh quote from Fletcher:
“But if you judge safety to be the paramount consideration in life, you should never, under any circumstances, go on long hikes alone. Don’t take short hikes alone, either — or, for that matter, go anywhere alone. And avoid at all costs such foolhardy activities as driving, falling in love, or inhaling air that is almost certainly riddled with deadly germs. Wear wool next to the skin. Insure every good and chattel you possess against every conceivable contingency the future might bring, even if the premiums half-cripple the present. Never cross an intersection against a red light, even when you can see all roads are clear for miles. And never, of course, explore the guts of an idea that seems as if it might threaten one of your more cherished beliefs. In your wisdom, you will probably live to be a ripe old age. But you may discover, just before you die, that you have been dead for a long, long time.”
This guy was a badass. I have his The Complete Walker III.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 21/February/2019 @ 8:44 pm
From my point of view, as a distance walker who’s mostly on smooth, flat bike trails, I picture these Filipino trails as hellishly hard. Going back and trying the parts you missed is true dedication. Too bad it doesn’t earn you karmic credit when the time comes to choose who sits on that block of ice!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 19/February/2019 @ 7:22 pm
How did they figure out you’d done the short-cut? Did you get back to On-home that much earlier than everyone else?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 19/February/2019 @ 6:50 pm
“Forest bathing” is called sallim-yok in Korean, and it’s a Japanese notion as well (shinrin-yoku). The Chinese characters that give rise to the expression, san + rim + yok, respectively mean “oxygen + forest + bath.” The idea of a “forest bath” is that you’re in an oxygen-rich environment and soaking up O2 along with other beneficial chemicals called phytoncides (“figh-tahn-sides”), which prevent rotting, and which therefore have some sort of revivifying effect on us humans. Or so it’s argued. Who knew a stroll in the woods could be so healthy?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 18/February/2019 @ 6:18 pm
Time to buy a UPS!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 17/February/2019 @ 6:55 pm
Good luck!
I’m going to start calling your puffy-lipped frown the Angry Adama Look. (That joke might not mean anything if you never followed “Battlestar Galactica.”)
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 15/February/2019 @ 10:46 pm
Great meals, both Jollibee and the BBQ place. And that birthday cake was quite beautifully done; you’ll have to remember that baker (assuming the cake tasted as good as it looked).
St. John the Divine, swooping in with his gifts. A good day, indeed.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 15/February/2019 @ 4:27 pm
I’ll look forward to the images, whatever the volume of food.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 15/February/2019 @ 4:02 am
I do hope you take numerous food-porny photos of your dinner spread. Feeding twenty is no easy task. Good luck!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 14/February/2019 @ 7:06 pm
I like how Claire Hendricks’s flowery top turns her chest into a topological problem to be solved by mathematicians. Meanwhile, Margot Millan (am I spelling that right?) leaves none of her topography to the imagination.
That first climb looked painful. And the ribs look great! You can thank Chef John, on YouTube, for mentoring me.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 12/February/2019 @ 10:52 pm
My dirty old man’s eye zipped right to contestant #2 (as did the eyes of all the other dirty old men, I’m sure), so I’m glad to see she was one of the winners. Congrats on your award and your BBQ gift certificate.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 11/February/2019 @ 6:45 pm
Congrats on the darts win!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 10/February/2019 @ 7:56 pm
She sounds less like someone to strive for and more like someone to settle for. Is this what you want? If a person repeatedly proves congenitally selfish and inconsiderate, in both minor and major ways, maybe it is better to cut off the fingers and not just the nails. You can certainly put aside your pride and practice forgiveness with her, but that only sucks you back into this un-constructive cycle. It’s Charlie Brown, forever running at Lucy’s football. There must be better women outside of that vortex. (And they’re probably not at the bars.) Me, I’d say, “Good luck in Manila.” She’s more baggage than treasure now; that’s obvious.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 09/February/2019 @ 7:50 pm
I’m not seeing a mess. The roast looks great.
As for relationships, here’s an insidious thought: what if women, who are known for their intuitions, can smell your intense need to be in a relationship and are turned off by what they interpret as dependency/neediness? Maybe it’s time to put the No Fucks Given hat on and see what happens. Bruce Lee is quoted as saying “Try softer,” the opposite of “try harder,” in the book Zen in the Martial Arts by Joe Hyams (he’s a screenwriter and the ex-husband of actress Elke Sommer). Success isn’t always about striving urgently toward a focused goal; sometimes, you just have to let go and allow things to happen of their own accord. With one eye always on the goal, you only have one eye left with which to find the way.
Please keep in mind that the above is merely spitballing. In all honesty, I don’t have a fucking clue. I never do when it comes to relationships. I’m mainly going by things you’ve written on your fascinating—sometimes morbidly fascinating—blog.
(…maybe Hyams should’ve called it Zen in the MARITAL Arts…)
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 08/February/2019 @ 6:59 pm
I hope you have a chance to try the Alps someday. I’ve done very small parts of the Berner Oberland, not too far from the Swiss part of the Alps. It’s all quite majestic. I’ve also done mountains at the Taos Ski Valley in New Mexico; you start at 9200 feet, where the ski lodge is, and walk up to Williams Lake at 11000 feet. The air is thin enough to get an unconditioned person wheezing; my whole family had trouble merely climbing the hotel stairs during our first couple of days there; after a week, though, we had all gotten stronger and hardier thanks to the lack of oxygen. I can see why Olympic athletes engage in high-altitude training.
In terms of the view, though, nothing beats places like the Berner Oberland and the Alps. Those vistas can make you cry. On two occasions, I’ve hiked (and camped) around Lake Brienz, one of two lakes flanking the town of Interlaken, Switzerland. The view is incredible whether you’re looking up at the actual mountains or down at their perfect reflections in the lake. Unforgettable.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 08/February/2019 @ 3:45 am
Practice doesn’t make perfect…
«« Back To Stats PageThis is a true victory, sir, and this is how you navigate. Perseverance pays off. I’ll be hoisting a non-alcoholic mug in your honor tonight, that’s for sure.
Great post. Bask in your victory, rest on your laurels a bit, then go back out and pound the fuck out of that trail. It’s your bitch now.
Question: you gonna name it? It starts and ends at your place, right?
“McCrarey’s Loop” has a nice ring to it, although in salty-tongued Hash parlance, that might morph into “McCrarey’s Cock Ring.”» Posted By Kevin Kim On 31/January/2019 @ 5:22 pm