arandia.net

Snowboarding 2006

Last Sunday, my company took a bunch of us peons up to Hunter Mountain for a little winter action. I had signed up to do some snowboarding and take a lesson.

Well, I spent the day there. And I spent about...ohhh.... 20 minutes on the hill.

i got there late. So, it wasn't until around noon o'clock that I got my lift ticket. Then I got my stuff. They had boots in just my size. They felt great! So, I walk outside and put my feet in the board. After about a second, I take them off. They just didn't feel right.

So, I wait to take a group lesson. At Hunter Mountain, they have beginner lessons happening every 15 minutes all day long. One just left, so I had to wait 15 minutes. And so, I took the time to buy new snow goggles.

Here's an important tip: do not buy your snow goggles in the rest stop off the highway. They are crap. You can't see through them. And super expensive. I bought a 43 dollar piece of crap that ended up in the garbage can of the Hunter lodge mens room. And the goggles I bought in the lodge where you would think it would be super expensive? 23 bucks. sweet!

Anyways, my lesson went like this: Hunter Mountain was dead that day. It was super cold. There were all of 2 of us in my group--me and some goofy Polish guy. Polish because he said he was from Poland. And goofy because that's what they call it when you put your right foot in the front of your board. So, the instructor is a young lad. And he just teaches us how to get into our boards.

We walk up the hill and slide down it. It's a small hill. But man, sliding down took tons of energy. And even more energy to slide around on the board back up the hill. I made it up the hill once then slid down it again. After I made it down the second time, I decided to quit. I was just standing there bent over with my hands on my knees. My muscles ached and I couldn't imagine making up that hill again. I was kinda mad. I just had no energy whatsoever to do this.

You're talking to the guy who around this same time last year ran 14 miles in one day. To think that I've gone downhill that much in one year.

The instructor was just about to take us up the lift and down the hill. But I let them go ahead. That guy got a private lesson.

And I returned my stuff and went back to the lodge to do a whole bunch of sitting. Frank and kin made it up there and we hung out for a while. Took Kalin out to play in the cold for a bit. It was so damn cold. The kind of cold that just seems to bite at your face. Kalin didn't seem to think it was cold. Crazy kid.

So, the final word on snowboarding. I need a lot more stamina in order to snowboard. This is something I definitely have to train up to. I will tell my doctors about having no energy and maybe they'll up my dosage of thyroid hormone. But, the fact is that i have gained 20 pounds since last year and I have no energy.

No palm days

For the first time in 10 years, I am palmless. I've had a palm since forever. Ever since the Palm III, back in God-knows-when. Yeah, I know I could look it up but I'm lazy.

I held onto that Palm III until I lost it sometime around 2000, I think. Then I got a Handspring Visor Deluxe. I used that up until late 2004 when I bought a Tungsten T3 for my birthday. That's a good long time for a gadget. 4 years of the industry going from black and white pdas to color pdas. The megahertz went from 17Mhz to 400Mhz. I bought the T3 on clearance from CompUSA. That same month the T5 had just been released. So, I picked up the previous model for 50 bucks less. It's been my faithful companion for the past 1+ years.

Anyways, I decided that for once that I would not hold onto my palm until it is completely obsolete. I using the Palm Trade-in Program to upgrade myself. The T3 in excellent condition is worth $100 toward my new pda. And it is definitely in excellent condition. I always had a carrying case. And I used screen protectors to keep the screen totally scratchless and pristine. I got my shipping label yesterday and fedexed the T3 this morning.

For one month, I will be palmless until they send me back my $100 coupon for the purchase of a new one. Already this morning, I've experienced weirdness when I got gas for the car. Then I realized that I didn't have my palm on me for recording the milage. BAH! Also, there's also the shock of not having Astraware Sudoku readily available.

Before I started using Palms, my life existed in a series of pocket-sized notebooks I kept in my back pocket. I may have to return to that low-tech life temporarily.

So, the future! I intend on getting one of those Lifedrives. It's got basically the same features as the T3. Except wirelessness is built-in and it's got a 4GB hard drive. The screen is the same size at 320x480 and you can't collapse it like you do with the T3. It's an ounce heavier. I wonder if I'll like it?

I'll plan on holding onto it for maybe until the fall when those Linux-based Palms start coming out. Oh, yeah. That will be so cool.

Falling Sand

I totally rocked this. Wow, this game totally wasted my evening. Play it now. Falling Sand.

I like how I totally made this mass of oil on one side and a bunch of plant on the other.

stock buys today

I bought two more stocks for my portfolio.

Garmin,(GRMN): I got this stock because I've had a Garmin Foretrex 201 since last year. It is the shit. And when it comes to gps doohickies, garmin is the biggest name there. Apparently, I'm not the only one.

Nintendo,(NTDOY.PK): I've never been a nintendo boy. I've firmly been in the playstation camp. My brothers are big into the nintendos. And the big news this week was that the PS3 will be $900 and won't be released this year. The Xbox 360 is $400 and so last year(and made by Microsoft, bleh!) So, logically, the big winner this year will be Nintendo.

RAILS!

I signed up to dreamhost to host my rails applications. I have a newfound interest in learning this exciting new thing. I installed a blog today. Check it out at joelarandia.com.

I have plans to do all sorts of things from online game type things to helping set up the business systems for my consulting gig. It should be all really really cool.

The book I'm reading to learn all this is Agile Web Development with Rails.

Snowed in.

Last Sunday, the morning after the big snow storm. I decided i wanted to walk around and maybe get some pictures of Secaucus under the snow. I got as far as the end of the parking lot and my camera was getting kinda wet. I decided then that perhaps I should just stay inside.

Superbowl

So, after a hard afternoon of working from home and eating cheap crap, I decided that I would like some high quality crap for dinner. I was in the mood for steak.

So, I just go down to my local Outback steakhouse. This is in hope that it being Sunday that it wouldn't be too busy. And when I get there, sure enough, it isn't. I just walk right in. I get seated in booth 24. I'm right next to a group of filipino folks. I recognized the Tagalog. They were a bunch of couples, I guess, and at least 3 kids. 2 babys and a toddler who liked to be chased around the restaurant by some older female mommy-type person.

My waitress is some younger curly haired female. She's kinda perky and friendly as waitresses ought to be. I've read the menu and found a lot of interesting things. I order my regular unsweetened iced tea. But, on the drive there, I had many chances to turn away from my first urge to have steak. I stayed the course and I was there. I ordered the Outback Special: 9-ounce version with a Caesar salad and the jacket potato with only butter on it. The steak would be medium which the waitress described as being pink inside with some red in the middle. I said that was fine. Right before leaving the table, she asked me if I wanted any bread and I said yes.

I got my tea and bread. I had out my Palm and I was trying to do a medium level sudoku. I buttered a butt end of black bread and found it difficult to work the palm and eat bread. Man, I'm getting tired of writing this. But, I am committed to writing more in my blog. And so I shall.

I had planned to do sudoku before I ate. For reading, I brought my current library book, Settling Accounts: Drive to the East by Harry Turtledove. This is my practice when I eat alone. But the food was there, the sudoku wasn't finished. And then the salad came.

For salad, I must put away the palm and open the book. Salad can be easily eaten with one hand. I like Caesar's salad. I like the cheesiness. And in Outback, they have these largish croutons that defy being stabbed by the fork. I feel that the croutons make the salad. I hate vegetables. Salad is only palatable due to the dressing and croutons. And it is kinda annoying that the strategy for eating this salad was of using the fork to shovel the salad more than stabbing it. So, I shoveled the salad for a while. And I began the second chapter of my book.

I've almost finished the salad when the steak and potato comes. There was maybe one crouton and a couple more shovels of salad left. But I'm tired of it. And I really wanted steak. The steak is a chubby roundish sirloin. The potato had a couple rounded lumps of butter in it. The first thing I do is to scoop out the butter and put it on my bread plate. I'm doing bad enough eating steak, there's no reason to add insult to injury. I cut up my potato. And then I cut up the steak. It's hard enough to read while eating. It's nigh impossible when you have to cut steak at the same time. So, I cut up the food first so I can read my book and eat at the same time.

So, I read and eat for a while. I'm down to the last couple pieces of steak and potato when over by the bar I hear some clapping. On one of the tv screens I can see some guy running. I turn back to my book and finish my meal.

When the waitress takes the stuff away she asks if I want dessert or anything else. I said just the check and she brings it. I use my cell phone to calculate the tip. And I leave my credit card in the little folder that keeps the check. She takes it away a while and comes back while I read a few more paragraphs. Dammit! I'm not done with the chapter and I'm in the middle of scene. But, I sign the check and I happen to leave just as the filipinos are leaving.

One of the mommy-types is holding a baby boy as I'm putting on my coat. He's looking at me. I think that I want to say hi to the kid, but I don't. I just smile. And I go back to the parking garage and drive home.