15 + 14 points
The Taking Tree by JJason Recognition
October 3rd, 2008 11:25 PM
To begin with, let me say that the pictures here are of a poor quality, having been taken with my new camera phone. What are you going to do? Nothing. Nothing is what you're going to do.
A true fact about my life since joining SF0 is that whenever I find myself setting off into a situation that is at all notworthy, I think to myself: "Is there a task that can be done here?" The answer, sadly, is too often no - more due to a lack of courage and creativity on my part than any lack of potential from SF0's part. But I really do want to task in these situations, so I am glad that I was able to come up with a task competition that I liked for my four day train ride from Boston, MA to Portland, OR.
The tasking began a few days before I left. Taking a coat hanger, I unwove the hook and folded it into a series of straight lengths, which I then broke apart by bending back and forth until the hanger broke. These lengths were folded into a large hook on one side and a small, folded over hook on the other.
Then came the next day and I found myself in Albany. Well, the Albany-Rensselaer train station anyway, which is not as good as real Albany (although I have never been to real Albany. But I assume). I had prepare three more markers while waiting for the train in Boston, so I went out to find trees to hang them in. Two of the trees I climbed and the third I threw the marker into the tree. It took a couple tries to get it to hang in the
Thoughts On Climb Trees:
My technique for climbing the average tree is as follows:
1. Grab on to one or two low lying branches that can support my weight
2. Brace my feet up against the trunk of the tree
3. Lift myself with my arms
4. Walk my feet up the trunk of the tree
5. Either brace my feet or hook my leg on a branch
6. Pull my torso up past the initial branches and then grab onto another branch
At this point I'm well into the tree where there are plenty of branches to bring myself wherever else in the tree can support my wait. Step 5 is always been the hardest - if the tree doesn't allow for good placement of the legs, it's more or less hopeless.
For those of you wondering about the story and greater cultural significance of the markers, their story is laid out in the captions of the pictures. It draws upon facts first established in Reverse Archeology and Reverse Shoplifting.
A true fact about my life since joining SF0 is that whenever I find myself setting off into a situation that is at all notworthy, I think to myself: "Is there a task that can be done here?" The answer, sadly, is too often no - more due to a lack of courage and creativity on my part than any lack of potential from SF0's part. But I really do want to task in these situations, so I am glad that I was able to come up with a task competition that I liked for my four day train ride from Boston, MA to Portland, OR.
The tasking began a few days before I left. Taking a coat hanger, I unwove the hook and folded it into a series of straight lengths, which I then broke apart by bending back and forth until the hanger broke. These lengths were folded into a large hook on one side and a small, folded over hook on the other.
Then came the next day and I found myself in Albany. Well, the Albany-Rensselaer train station anyway, which is not as good as real Albany (although I have never been to real Albany. But I assume). I had prepare three more markers while waiting for the train in Boston, so I went out to find trees to hang them in. Two of the trees I climbed and the third I threw the marker into the tree. It took a couple tries to get it to hang in the
Thoughts On Climb Trees:
My technique for climbing the average tree is as follows:
1. Grab on to one or two low lying branches that can support my weight
2. Brace my feet up against the trunk of the tree
3. Lift myself with my arms
4. Walk my feet up the trunk of the tree
5. Either brace my feet or hook my leg on a branch
6. Pull my torso up past the initial branches and then grab onto another branch
At this point I'm well into the tree where there are plenty of branches to bring myself wherever else in the tree can support my wait. Step 5 is always been the hardest - if the tree doesn't allow for good placement of the legs, it's more or less hopeless.
For those of you wondering about the story and greater cultural significance of the markers, their story is laid out in the captions of the pictures. It draws upon facts first established in Reverse Archeology and Reverse Shoplifting.
I'm very fond of the Masked Nation lecture series.
