Thursday, September 09, 2010

knots, tongue-tied.

during a climbing class last night, i couldn't stop staring at my belay knot for a period of minutes.

a classmate, my belayer, walks over and asks, "what's wrong?"
"oh .. um," i start to say,

don't say fundamεntal grοup,
don't say fundamεntal grοup [1] ...

.. crap: what do i say, then?

then the instructor walks past and curious, he looks over. "looks fine to me," he shrugs.

"oh good," i say. "i must have spaced out, i guess."
"no worries," my belayer replies, "ready to climb?"

i nod, move to the rock wall, and try not to wonder for a while.

[1] yes, i know that the rope is not a mathematical knot, so it can be untied into a line segment and its π1 is zero. now if you joined the ends together .. q-:

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