Heisenberg Posted January 18, 2015 Posted January 18, 2015 Hello everyone. My name is Al. I'm a 32 year old from Upstate NY (and by upstate I mean like an hour north of Albany). My journey to here started in 2007. I started following the Presidential primaries that year (I'm not actually sure why I suddenly became interested, I had never watched anything political before) and in doing so I discovered Ron Paul. I had always considered myself a Republican, in hindsight it was because I fell for the laughable description that Republicans were for smaller government, and I even voted for George W. Bush in 2004 based on my naivety (my birthday is in Dec. so I missed out on the 2000 election by about a month). I was your basic little info voter. Though I now find politics to be a pretty detestable endeavor, it was my initial interest that set me upon this path. When I saw Dr. Paul and listened to what he was saying it made a lot of sense to me. I watched the debates (my particular favorite Paul performance was at the Reagan Library during that cycle, where Paul had the fantastic quote, which pretty much sums up politics beautifully, that McCain and Romney were arguing over "who said what, when" instead of foreign policy) and felt like I was having a revelation. The message of liberty spoke to me in a deep way. I guess the best way of describing it would be to quote Giordano Bruno, "The revelation of this immensity... was like falling in love." I now hungered to learn more. I bought books, read articles, watched videos. This would open me up to more and more. I found Tom Woods, Lew Rockwell, Schiff, Mises, Hayek, Hazlitt, Rothbard, Adam Kokesh, and eventually I landed on a Stefan Molyneux video. Each source leading me to another and leading me further down the rabbit hole. From Republican to miniarchist to eventually, after much thought, (and listening to argumentation put forth by people like Kokesh and Stef) the only position that made any sense if I indeed held that initiating violence was immoral. Anarchy. As for religious affiliation, I would consider myself an antitheist. I went to church as a child (my parents never made me and they didn't go themselves) but I don't recall ever actually believing any of it nor do I recall ever praying. Looking back I think I went because of the community. I was in the Awanas (sp?) which is basically a more religious boyscouts/girlscouts with workbooks and badges and all of that. It was fun. Now I consider myself to be on the Christopher Hitchens (love that guy) side of the religious argument (minus the warmongering stuff). Outside of taking part in stuff like this I spend a lot of time reading (I like fantasy stuff), watching baseball (NY Mets fan), rock climbing (awesome job on Tommy and Kevin conquering the Dawn Wall), chilling with my niece (shes a little over 1 y.o.), and keeping up on all the cool scientific and tech stuff that's going on these days. And that's about it. Any questions feel free to ask. 1
Jeff_NH Posted January 19, 2015 Posted January 19, 2015 Welcome to the forums. I lived in upstate NY for 7 years (Plattsburgh) before escaping the evil empire and settling into relative freedom in NH. Always glad to see someone who recognizes that 'upstate' does not mean White Plains!
AudreyM Posted January 22, 2015 Posted January 22, 2015 Hi Al, Im from upstate new york as well. I had a similar journey of coming to accept the morality of anarchy after partaking in the 2008 presidential election. I also recently started rock climbing, its so much fun! Nice to meet you
Heisenberg Posted January 22, 2015 Author Posted January 22, 2015 Glad to meet you Yeah, it's pretty amusing when people think Albany is upstate It's like, you do realize there is a couple hundred more miles of NY north of Albany right? Plattsburgh, ahh, I dated a girl who wound up going to college there a long while back, dear heavens there is nothing to do, perhaps that's why it was one of the top party schools in the nation for a while Im definitely thinking about getting out of here but looking further away than NH 1
Heisenberg Posted January 22, 2015 Author Posted January 22, 2015 Nice to meet you as well What part of upstate you from if you don't mind me asking Im from right near Lake George And yes climbing is amazingly fun, gets you in shape really quickly, a super social activity (well bouldering anyways) Where have you gone climbing? Had the chance to get outdoors or just inside so far?
AudreyM Posted January 27, 2015 Posted January 27, 2015 Im from Rochester. So far Ive only done indoor climbing, and yes it is definitely a workout! Im surprised at how sore my muscles are afterward, definitely in a good way though. Outdoor climbing is intriguing, but I cant believe some people do it in the winter, brrr! As far as I know Rochester only has one indoor rock climbing place, called rock ventures. Have you done any outdoor clilmbing?
Heisenberg Posted January 28, 2015 Author Posted January 28, 2015 Ive done a bunch of outside climbing. Mostly bouldering, much cheaper, I live in a pretty nice area for climbing but its either mostly trad (which is expensive) or bouldering Lets see, been to Keene Valley (gorgeous place), McKenzie Pond, The Shawangunks down in New Paltz, Rumney in NH, a place in Indian Lake, and several more local spots Another reason I prefer bouldering: I'm terrified of heights lol We have a few local indoor gyms Ive been to, participated in a few competitions for fun
AudreyM Posted February 6, 2015 Posted February 6, 2015 Thats awesome! My friend who got me into climbing is actually afraid of heights, I really admire her bravery. I dont think Ive been to any of those places, but maybe someday ill get to climb them. Im grateful to live in such a beatiful place as upstate new york, even with the winters
Heisenberg Posted February 7, 2015 Author Posted February 7, 2015 Some really great beautiful areas, if you ever get the opportunity you should certainly take it up, for the scenery if nothing else heres a decent resource: adkbouldering.blogspot.com and another: southernadirondackclimber.blogspot.com maintained and updated by some locals who are always out looking for new spots and putting up sick new lines also, you should pick up some climbing vids if you already haven't, BigUp Productions comes out with some great stuff, showing some of the best climbers in the world doing some of the coolest and hardest lines all over the world, nothing gets you more excited then seeing some hard stuff go down, really motivating
AudreyM Posted February 10, 2015 Posted February 10, 2015 Woooow! So flippin cool!! Those people are crazy! Or are they brilliant... or both. Thank you so much for the resources! Perhaps if their is not a finite amount of courage within me I will add intense and incredible rock climbing to my to do list right along with conveying the brilliance of peaceful parenting to people and fostering my own self knowledge. All terrifying but potentially immensely rewarding
Heisenberg Posted February 10, 2015 Author Posted February 10, 2015 You should. From what I've seen from my own experience is that the climbing community is exceptionally chill and open. I don't know how many times where I've been climbing somewhere with my buddies and another group of people will want to climb on the boulder or problem we are on and everyone just jumps in, spotting, encouragement, all that stuff. Then next time you know you're chatting about any and everything. It might be a fantastic way to introduce yourself to people and let them know about your stances on parenting and such. Glad you enjoyed the resources. I've been to a bunch of those places. Some really hard and beautiful lines. There's a place in Indian Lake, Snowy Mountain (I'm sure theres some videos from that place in the resources), that has these crazy huecos in these sandstone type boulders. Crazy stuff with dynos. If you're ever in the area and need a guided tour I'd be glad to either get you in touch with some people that do that sort of thing or if you got a group of friends you're with you can come along with my group if we're going out. Not to worry, I think only 2 of them are serial killers but you don't fit the profile they like so you should be good. Should be. lol
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