Yesterday, I finally received my permanent belay card at Berkeley IronWorks.

For those of you unfamiliar with the lingo, "Berkeley IronWorks" is a gym in Berkeley with several climbing walls. Elizabeth and I have been taking up rock climbing in our spare time, and Berkeley IronWorks -- in addition to being one of the best climbing gyms in the country -- is right down the street. It's called "IronWorks" because the building actually used to be an ironworks. They've retained most of the internal ironworks structures inside the building to give it some character.

As a side note, I can't believe that as a Miami student for four years, I had the opportunity to get free climbing lessons and climb the wall at the Rec for free. The walls at Berkeley IronWorks are higher, and there's more of them, but it would still have been good to do for four years.

Second, "belay" is what the person at the bottom end of a top-rope does. A pulley is affixed at the top of the wall, and one person climbs up the wall, while the other person takes up slack as the person goes up and stops the person if he or she starts to fall. We've been to Berkeley IronWorks about four times now, and every time you go, you have to take a belay test to prove to them that you know how to belay. I mean, people's lives are at stake. If you belay incorrectly, someone could die.

If they think you're okay at belaying, they'll give you a belay card for the day, which means you'll have to re-test the next time you come in. If they think you've done it perfectly, then they'll give you a permanent belay card, so no more testing when you come in.

Even though Elizabeth and I belayed rather well the first time we came in, they still gave us temporary cards. I think it's their policy to not pass anyone the first couple times they take the test, just to make sure they get everything down right.

Rock climbing is actually one of the most inexpensive of the outdoor sports. We found a deal at a local sporting goods store where you can get a climbing harness, shoes, caribeener, ATC belay device, and chalk bag all for $140. This is probably a $50 savings, as harnesses themselves cost about $60 and shoes start at around $90. The caribeener and belay device would probably be $30. And a bag of chalk and chalk to fill it with would probably be $10.

You think that's expensive? Compare the price of rock climbing with the price of skiing, in which it costs about a hundred bucks just to ski for the day. A membership to Berkeley IronWorks is $60 a month, and you can come in and use the climbing walls, weight machines, cardiovascular machines -- whatever, with no restrictions. Also, a pretty good set of climbing equipment (sans rope, about a $90 value) costs about $170. A pretty good set of ski equipment costs a few thousand dollars. Plus, with climbing, you're not freaking cold all the time, and you can go indoor climbing even when it's raining outside!

And guess what? It turns out I'm good at climbing. I have the upper-body strength of a man, but the flexibility of a woman. And I don't weigh a lot. That all adds up to "rock climbing superstar," except when it comes to routes with small holds. Then I don't shine so much. I usually just fall a lot or get fed up and come down.

The film Munich is, like Syriana and Paradise Now, a fascinating look at terrorism. The movie opens with the 1972 slaying of eleven members of the Israeli Olympic Team at the Munich Olympics by Arab terrorists. This is re-told through a combination of dramatization and real TV footage from 1972. (Howard Cosell lives again!)

The film then follows an Israeli intelligence officer as he is given a covert mission by the Israeli government to kill 11 Arabs, all of whom were responsible for planning the Munich event. We follow this intelligence officer as he and his team get involved in assassination and international terrorism. The main character, Avner, loses his moral simplicity and discovers that it's a lot easier to say that we need to kill people than it is to actually kill people.