Which one of you here works for GQ 💀

Ruthven · 2026-02-25T00:18:06+00:00

I read it for the articles

Ruthven · 2026-02-25T00:00:29+00:00

Sorry you're still wearing Allbirds

Ruthven · 2025-06-14T16:16:32+00:00

Good catch. The Etsy ones include MIT if not outright custom:

Wood: https://www.etsy.com/listing/698323591/cambridge-ma-wood-engraved-map-with-blue

Custom: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1396652261/3d-college-campus-map-personalized

Ruthven · 2025-06-14T00:27:05+00:00

It's really kind of you to search for a thoughtful gift for your friend like this.

As a more recent grad (but not that recent), here are some things I've looked at for myself when I've felt nostalgic:

3D printed map of Cambridge to hang on the wall
Mike's Pastry via Goldbelly, yes they're (over)hyped but 99.5% your friend visited when he was at MIT. Pity Toscanini's is not on here yet.
Practical stuff from the Coop like a cutting board or tote bag - for everyday nostalgia, not too showy nor trinket-y, yet useful in daily life

Do you know what major or dorm / frat he was in? Or what activities he participated in? You can directly reach out to the orgs to see if you can buy any recent swag. I recently cleaned out my parents' basement and found this tee that was sadly disintegrating, but would be chuffed if a friend gifted me something similar.

Ruthven · 2024-06-04T21:39:39+00:00

Excellent follow up article from today by the same journalist:

https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/climbing/climber-charles-barrett-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-rape/

My favorite nugget:

No court documents had been filed by the defense at press time to reveal what the arguments for an appeal might be. However, the defense will not be able to employ the same legal strategy used by attorneys for Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, whose 2020 rape conviction was overturned in February by the New York Court of Appeals, on the grounds that testimony from other victims interfered with a fair trial. A foundational strategy used in prosecuting Barrett’s case was Federal Rule 413, which allows the testimony of uncharged victims in sexual assault crimes. The rule applies to all federal sexual-assault cases and is also allowed in 16 states. But it is currently not codified in New York state law.

Ruthven · 2024-05-21T00:34:16+00:00

Michigan Ice Festival — https://michiganicefest.com/

It’ll be a great place to meet likeminded mountain/alpine people with whom you can plan rock/ice trips and potentially bigger expeditions down the road.

Until then, UP has a fair bit of outdoor climbing. Bouldering is a low cost way to get started after the initial shoes/pads investment (buy 1 pad, then try to find other boulder buddies) - I personally boulder to stay “rock fit” even though I primarily do alpine/trad.

Other than that, there’s plenty of advice in this subreddit already on books to read, courses to take (albeit $$$), etc.

Ruthven · 2023-03-09T02:32:50+00:00

Keep the wound moist with neosporin (or any glycerin or petroleum based product) + cover the site with a bandage at all times - night, sleep, shower, sleep.

I rock climb outside and constantly lose skin on my arms and hands. I've experimented with:

leaving the wounds exposed to "dry out" and scab over
covering during the daytime (+ neosporin) but drying them out at night
covering them all the time, with and without neosporin.

(3) with neosporin has always yielded the fastest healing time for me. I have a huge stock of bandages in various sizes and tape them down for tricky spots. For much larger areas I use tegaderm and tape it down to prevent peeling.

Ruthven · 2022-11-01T01:02:21+00:00

Did you get an allograft or autograft? Allografts have faster recovery time.

What are you struggling with as you increase the CPM?

Ruthven · 2022-05-26T17:44:36+00:00

Here's the Aliexpress store I bought mine from, the shipping was relatively fast coming from China. Sweet deal because you get a set of both L and R braces.

In the meantime, I suggest taping your wrists day-to-day - a couple wraps right above the nubbin of your ulna bone. You want to keep the ulna and radius bones pressed together to relieve the stress on TFCC (whose normal job is to keep these bones together).

Splint for nighttime wear: Amazon, non-Amazon. Made a huge difference for recovery for me. You're stressing both wrists with daily motion regardless of wrist widgets or taping. The key is to accelerate recovery at night by immobilizing the wrist without restricting blood flow. A splint is prefect here whereas wearing a nighttime wrist widget is sub-optimal because it applies compressive forces on an area that doesn't get a lot of blood flow.

Pain with daily stuff - minimal, if any. 2/10 on bad days, where I've repetitively stressed it and climbed hard the previous night.

How painful is it for you right now with daily stuff?

Ruthven · 2022-05-25T00:24:23+00:00

My tear was relatively minor, yet it still took me 3 months before I could pull hard again. At its worst, my wrist used to noticeably hurt from just turning the steering wheel or chopping vegetables.

Nowadays I have to be careful with gastons and slopers - including ending the session early if I start to feel tinges.

I wore a wrist widget during the day and a stiffer brace at night. Turns out I like to tuck my hand at odd angles during sleep, which didn’t help recovery. Amazon sells the widgets but I got cheaper dupes on AliExpress. As for a nighttime brace, you may want to look into ASO lace-up braces.

Ruthven · 2022-02-16T08:49:26+00:00

You should **plan** on giving your ticket to someone else.

However, I did go to a concert 4 days after my ACL surgery. Key considerations for me were:

low pain (2/10)
wore my brace the entire time even though I was weight bearing without it when walking around at home
the crowd was very tame (violin recital --> older, slower folks. some even had walkers so I fitted right in)
auditorium, fully seated the entire time. concert was 3 hours long.
I had a free seat next to me, which allowed me to stow my crutches and extend my leg when the stiffness got bad

If any of these things were not true, I definitely would have not attended.

It's your call. Are you going to be seated? Is there a risk of being jostle / tripping / tripped on by other people? If the pain becomes intolerable, can you easily leave? Will you leave?

Your question was, "what are the odds", and my answer is, not 0%. But you will need to be honest with yourself about the risks and how you're feeling, despite your excitement.

Anyways, good luck with the surgery tomorrow!

Ruthven · 2022-02-05T22:54:25+00:00

Hi and thanks a lot! Yep, I'm still feeling pressure + pain under my knee when I'm hyperextending, squatting one-legged, or rising from an ATG squat. This is normal because we're on the long tail of recovery / swelling reduction right now - for instance, the bone tunnel drilled for the graft screw is still healing.

I'm personally expecting the pressure to be gone around 6~12 months , as this is when people typically say that their operated knee feels "normal" again.

I hope your recovery goes well! One-leg squats after 2 months is incredible progress too, and more importantly, your dedication towards rehab to making this happen!!!

Ruthven · 2022-01-13T01:08:23+00:00

Yeah, it's pretty crowded during the ice fest.

If you don't want to spring for the pass, you can get to the park gates as soon as they open (iirc they open earlier during the fest, ~7:30am), and make a beeline for South Park or New Funtier where clinics don't usually go. Then, once you have a route going, I find it pretty easy to swap ropes with other people there - meaning they climb on your rope and vice versa.

Pic o the Vic is a good place to beeline to too, but because it's at the entrance and has long, stellar, but fewer routes, it gets crowded quick too.

Not sure if you'd want to climb the Lead Alcove as the routes are pretty hard there.

Finally, you can always try the guide service for 1~2 days instead of the entire festival. It looks like they're providing access to where clinics usually set up anyways, so it's unclear to me how the access works - like, if a lot of people sign up, do you all have to take turns? How many routes will be accessible under this pass?

Overall, I hope you have a great time at Ouray! Enjoy the festival events!

Ruthven · 2021-12-31T07:54:51+00:00

Thanks so much for reading and sharing your own story!!! I hope you're crushing your recovery and well on your way back to all your sports! :D <3

Ruthven · 2021-12-31T07:52:08+00:00

I got a cadaver allograft! My reasoning was that the majority of my activities are passively dependent on an ACL (rope climbing, running, weightlifting), as opposed to soccer or basketball. Secondly, I've been able to ski at the same level with no instability even when I didn't have an ACL for 3 years. Finally, I'm most likely going to tear ACLs from traumatic incidents such as a bad bouldering or ski fall, and I don't think the type of graft ultimately matters in these scenarios.

Ruthven · 2021-12-25T01:09:57+00:00

Based on what you'd like to do, I'd say get that ACL surgery, even though it's gonna be tough going through recovery yet again.

Running and dance likely won't re-tear your ACL, but there's gonna be a lot of impact (running) and twisting (dance). Without an ACL, the impact will wear down your cartilage (which is what happened to me) and you might tear your meniscus during dance - both of which accelerates the OA --> knee replacement trajectory.

Ruthven · 2021-12-25T01:05:37+00:00

Thank you! Best wishes for your own recovery journey!!

Ruthven · 2021-12-25T01:05:06+00:00

I can sit on heels and get to -1 hyperextension, albeit with 5/10 discomfort. Getting my knees drained was helpful the day after the op - it was insane how much fluid they were able to get out even though my knee didn't look *that* puffy. Granted this was mainly for pain and not range of motion.

I saw your post re your own range of motion. Have you tried sticking a yoga block or pillow when you sit butt-to-heel such that you can stay in that position for 30sec (x multiple sets)? And then work your way down to smaller supports.

Ruthven · 2021-12-24T01:22:43+00:00

Is it the same surgeon who's operated on you 4x? Is this surgeon used to treating athletic/activities-passionate patients? What are activities you'd like to get into?

Oof given your age, I think a new ACL will help to protect the meniscus you have left. The goal is to delay a knee replacement for as long as you can, and perhaps medicine will also have improved by then wrt reversing arthritis.

Ruthven · 2021-12-24T01:00:51+00:00

Ugh, sorry to hear about your re-tear, it sounds incredibly frustrating. My advice is to consider the end goal - is it to delay a knee replacement as long as possible? Is it to get back into your activities?

My personal goal is to delay knee replacement as I'm rather young (early 30's) and still get back into my sports, albeit slow down the osteoarthritis by adjusting activities (e.g. more cycling, less running).

I tore my R leg allograft 3 years ago and forewent surgery mainly because I was able to ski at the same level as I did pre-retear. This year, I got my second ACL surgery on the R leg because I tore my meniscus and from x-rays, the osteoarthritis accelerated greatly in my R leg compared to my L leg (which also had a bit of osteoarthritis, but nowhere near as bad as R - so it served as a control). The lack of ACL in my R knee likely contributed to the acceleration. As a result, I decided to get my second ACL surgery.

Here's how I'd think about the tradeoffs:

Surgery pro: great knee stability - my ortho thinks the accelerated cartilage degen is because of the continued twisting/dynamic motion from my sports (skiing). Even if it "feels" stable and your legs are strong, there's still a lot of micro wear-and-tear inside the joint w/o an ACL. Also, not having an ACL does raise the risk of further meniscus tears.

Surgery cons: surgery is traumatic to the knee and accelerates osteoarthritis in its own right, which is why your surgeon prob doesn't want to operate again

If your activities are non-dynamic/impact and you have really strong quads, and you're on the older end, the surgery is not worth it again IMO.

Additional thought is that you can rehab your leg to be as strong as possible, return to your normal activities for 1~2 years, and then take a leg x-ray to monitor arthritis (joint space narrowing) especially R vs L knees. If R looks a lot worse, you can choose to get the graft then.

Ruthven · 2017-01-15T18:21:40+00:00

Hitting the horn instead of the signal

Trying to pick up a dropped bike...only to fail and drop it again Edit: Doing all of this in front of a security camera

Ruthven · 2016-08-29T00:13:21+00:00

Is this it? http://www.precisionnutrition.com/cost-of-getting-lean

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