Snowboarding Crazies

A few weeks ago i went up to a local mountain near where I live and took my camera with me. I couldn't really afford to go get crazy like I secretly want too, because the older you get, the harder it hurts when you fall.

Damn it how age is like that.

So I decided to get pictures of other people getting crazy off their big air jump. I camped myself by the jump and just snapped shots of people getting air. I have no idea who any of these people are and I don't know if they really wanted me to get their picture or not, but I did so I guess they'll just have to survive.

I don't think there is any law so to speak of taking random pictures of people, as long as you don't make a proffit off their photographs or use them in some way that is, well, hmm. . . What is the copyright policy on using other people's images anyway? I probably should look that up. Anyway, it appears that you can't really tell who these people are, but they undoubtedly would know that it is themselves if they were to see the images I would think.





I think I need to take my camera into the shop. I beat the crap out of it.

Snowboarding in the East when you're Used to back West

I discovered today that I am spoiled. I am from West of the Mississippi River, and when I say West, I don't mean I'm from the Plains States. I'm normally from a mountainous region, a region in fact that is blessed with not one, not two, but five reasonably mountains within a two hour drive.

Yes, I am a snowboarder. i've been snowboarding every season for about nine years now. It's crazy to think that I've been snowboarding that long, and if I could have, i wish I had started a good five years sooner, because as I am just south of thirty, as you tend to get a little older and with age, you don't take as many risks. I'm the kind of snowboarder that I really like to just ride, and I prefer going with other people when I do. I wish I was more dare devilish and would take more jumps, but a couple trips to the Emergency Room on account of my snowboarding hobby has caused me to be cautious in this sport.

Quite truthfully, I really can't afford to go to an emergency room because of a concussion due to a bad spill off of a big air jump. My boss would give me a good glare and a talking too. Besides, I don't get much out of that anymore. I'll jump the little mole hills and call it good.

Anyway, I've been to the mountain about six times already this season, which is actually pretty good for me, considering I average about three trips up a season.

So work brings me East of the Mississippi for the time being, and I researched and discovered that there are some mountains in the area. Awesome. I brought my snowboard so I could go carve some mountain when I could, since the season isn't over yet, right?

I'm not so far East to make the Appalachian Mountains, but mind you I am Rocky Mountain born and bred. Looking at this particular mountain, I noticed it shows five ski lifts. Five ski lifts means there's got to be some decent runs, right? I mean, the smallest of the mountains I'm used to has three lifts (and a tow rope, but who's counting). Not to mention that on top of five lifts, it too has a tow rope, and two little

Right?

Um, so I drive up to the nearest mountain, which is about an hour and a half away and sign in, get my ski pass, and strap myself in, notice it's crowded as all hell, and just get through the crowds and past the bunny slope.

Thirty seconds later, I'm at the base of the hill.

That's it? Seriously? Really, I thought the hill I was on WAS the bunny slope! I check it out on its map later after carving up the entire mountain, and discover the entire thing is a bunny slope. They have one area designated as a Black Diamond and I'm staring at it incredulously. No freakin' way. It's a Blue. Maybe. Everything that's listed as blue is green. The only thing this mountain has going for it is the fact that it has a pretty decent terrain park, a good enough one that the mountains back home would be proud of it. But that really is the only thing its got. It has a little ski race course, but I did it about four times and realized it's set for skiers, and I saw that I was the only snowboarder attempting it. I couldn't get fast enough to make the turns and found myself struggling for an extra two seconds to make bronze. I gave up after smacking onto the pole the fourth time and going down. Hey, I never said I was the best snowboarder out there.

Chances are, I'll hit this hill again. It's fairly close and a decent price considering there is NOTHING around here comparable. I guess I could make the trek to West Virginia, which probably has the closest decent mountain comparable to what i'm used to, but I better make sure it's worth the time and effort to go down there before I go. Otherwise, well, there's always next year.

Meanwhile, I just have one thing to say.

If you really like snowboarding, and you're used to the Mideastern states and what they have to offer, I highly recommend taking the trek back west one of these days and see what a real mountain is like. You'll never want to go back.

On Writing

"Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster, and fling him to the public."
-Sir Winston Churchill

A family member gave me a bookmark with this quote on it and it is indeed a true statement. Writing is one of my hobbies, and often one that consumes a lot of time I have. And it isn't so much the blogging aspect of writing but rather the idea of writing a story.

I spend a lot of my time daydreaming, mainly creating other worlds and writing stories along with them in my head. I've done this for as long as I can remember, when i was a child I would fall to sleep to a story I was creating and the next night I would continue to flesh out the story from the night previous. I don't know who does this, but I did it a lot. In fact, my stories would get so complex as I developed them that I didn't remember where they began. I would play act stories as well, my brother and I would play War with stuffed animals and would continue our story each time we played. It progressed to figures as I got older, until I got to old to play, but I was always creating these stories and these characters, all of which I don't remember now and I wonder about it.

I didn't actually start writing down these stories until I was seventeen, when in a writing class I was told to write a story about a character. I did so, and I liked the character so much I decided to write more about him. And my addiction to writing began.

I have a bajillion stories in my head at any given moment I assume. My writing is far from clean and coherent. My first story is so painful to read now due to grammar errors and style (though the story itself isn't bad) that I've wanted to rewrite it, and have tried except for I have come across a problem, that story has already been told, I am not interested in retelling it.

If I could have any profession in the world, I think I would be most satisfied with being an author. People have asked me why i don't publish my stories or at least allow people to read them and I have thought about this myself. However, I see my stories as something for myself and it feels odd to share them. Also, I think the subject matter I dwelve into has something to do with that.

I'm not interested in happy stories apparently. If I care about a character, I put them through a hardship that no sane person should ever have to endure. Its the precise opposite of what I would want somebody to go through in real life I would think. But I have discovered that this is how I personofy my character, how they become real to me is how they handle various hardships. Recurring themes are also present, making me wonder if I'm just writing the same story with a different set of characters under slightly different circumstances.

But i think it is the nature of the hardships these characters face that makes me reluctant to let anybody read them. Being a conservative, my writing sometimes appears to be the antithesis to my beliefs, and I would think that a lot of people would look at the story and wonder what I was thinking when i wrote it. Why would I be interested in this.

I think my stories also help me articulate how I view different stances, or looking at a social issue, I tackle that issue and let the story write itself. And I think in some ways, the stories reflect myself, making them deeply personal. As I think about it now, looking at my stories and how they are written, it makes me wonder how I illustrate various aspects of the story and tackle recurring themes.

At last count, I think I have close to eight or nine stories (some are continuations or closely linked to others, so the count is a little skewed on account of that) that are rather lengthy, in the neightborhood of 200+ pages, with the longest somewhere around 600. And there is no end for some of them that I see.

And every now and then, i will go on a writing binge where all i want to do is write.

Yes, this is a monster of a hobby that can suck your life away.

I need a new hobby. One that doesn't kill my time like writing does.

Introduction

This must be the fancy place where I introduce myself, and my blog.

I am an individual who has had a web presence in the past. for reasons I cannot go into detail with here, I had to convert into a more anonymous presence. Not to say that I mind if you can figure out who I am or my previous slightly infamous webspace, because it's more of a case of starting from scratch so I don't have the insane amount of readership or perhaps the increasingly searchability of finding me on the internets that I did before. It often ended up as nothing but trouble before. But I enjoy blogging so the point of it now is to allow me to keep doing it without the pesky problem of being personally known for what I write.

So this is me starting over again.

So, what can you come to discover about me and the purpose of this blog? I guess it can be divided into different categories. For instance...

Opinion - This is probably what I will post most. My opinions on anything I want to discuss. Mostly my opinions are political in nature. And I am a conservative. Hence the link to the conservative blog roll to the right.

Hobbies - I might post stuff in regards to hobbies of mine. My hobbies are diverse and include art, photography, writing, and adrenaline enducing sports, among other things. Whatever the case, if I do something I wish to share, I might share it.

Adventures - If I go and do anything worht noting, it might find itself under this label. Like skydiving, or bungee jumping, or such.

Travel - It kind of goes hand in hand with adventures, sometimes. I tend to travel a lot.

Work - This is one place where I can't go into a lot of detail. But every so often, if I find tales worth telling, where I can remain somewhat vague on what it is I do, maybe I'll share? Or maybe not.

Personal - While maintaining my anonymous nature, I might be able to share a thing or to about, well, myself. It goes under this tab.

I'll think of some other things to share with. Later.