January round-up

Not much happened in January. I think the highlight was skiing in the middle of the month. We headed to Sunrise, me with the hopes of taking up skiing and actually managing to make it down a slope that wasn't the beginners area. I've never managed it with snowboarding (all of twice I've tried it) because stopping on a snowboard is hard and I don't like it when I can't stop (also the reason I've never gotten good at rollerblades).
So my hope came true. By the end of Sunday I could wend my way down the hill with only a few stops to get past the most steep bits or to get myself in a good position to go across them. And now I'm conflicted. Because I got on well with skiing I want to try snowboarding again - because the slope in sunrise is very learner-friendly. But at the same time I feel I should stick with skiing until I can do parallel turns. We're thinking of going this weekend again, but I get the impression I'm the only one who really really wants to go.

What else happened? I made 2 t-shirts. I had a bunch of them from PAX which were too big for me so I cut them up and made them into t-shirts with raglan sleeves. I'm pretty proud of them. So of free t-shirts from PAX, one is a bodice and two are still t-shirts, but different.

I've come to a grinding halt with Altaran (aka book 2). I have no idea how to make act 3 work out the way I want. I don't really even know what the way I want is. So I'm going through what I've written and sorting out what happens (yes, I am pretty fuzzy because, while I had a plan, I made a lot of the story up as I went along) to see if I can draw a good (dramatic, tense, satisfying) ending from it all.

I think that was pretty much January. We're thinking of going to D&D encounters again. A new story is starting on Wednesday. I've been playing Neverwinter Nights and my head is filled with D&D. For the first time ever, I actually get how a bunch of rules I never understood before work (like identify and the difference between spot and search). Of course, it is 3rd ed rules, but oh well. I should just play Pathfinder instead.

Right. I think that's mostly that.

Overdue Catchup

I just went for a walk up to the post office. This place is so weird. It's 2degrees out and I walked up with just a vest and tshirt on. And I wasn't cold (okay, I had a hat and fingerless gloves on too, but still). It felt like a day near the end of April, when you are just feeling comfortable going out without five layers on - like 16degrees or something. I'm actually a bit worried that if 2 feels like 16, what will 20 feel like.

Pedestrian lights here are funny. The go man is a man, but the stop man is a hand. And it's kind of funny when some of the lights are missing. There's this set down by us and it looks like the vulcan greeting hand, then there's one by the post office that looks like a stag with antlers.

We went to The National Museum of Nuclear Science & History on Sunday. It was pretty cool - there was loads of old stuff, and lordkilljoy and I both marvelled at how much like Fallout it was. There were missiles and bombs and planes and loads of cool things.

I went to see Tangled last week. It was brilliant - I love Disney. We finally got to see Tron as well. I really enjoyed it. And we saw Green Hornet too. It was funny.

We got a car with cruise control, so hopefully we'll make it to SantaFe for snowboarding next weekend. lordkilljoy didn't feel like it last weekend.

I'm 10,000 words into book2. Yeay.

Snowboarding again

So, all last night and this morning, I couldn't stop thinking about snowboarding. I got really annoyed, actually. I've been snowboarding before, in New Zealand, and there I could get the board to go, could stand up and do leafs down the learner slope. It was good and fun and amazing. Now, 5 years has passed, but it's not like I'm an old dame now. I should still be able to do this.

I kind of came to the conclusion that Sandia Peak's learner slope is too steep for learners. It's more like an intermediate beginner slope. And your brain might lump learners with beginners, but there is a difference. The learners slope should be flat enough that when you are trying to stand up your board doesn't try to slide down the hill with you. I seem to recall Mt Hutt's learner area being a very gentle gradient. Sandia Peak learner area was just as steep as the main areas. That's not fair to learners. I'm annoyed now. I feel like yesterday was wasted, but the competitive person in me wants to learn to get good and I feel that our local slope is against me. (Just found an article saying Sandia is the 3rd steepest learner slope in the US, not sure how accurate that is, but at least I'm not just fooling myself that it was the terrain's fault and not mine.)

Anyway. I'll go now.

snowboarding

We went snowboarding today. While I enjoyed being outside at 9,000ft and hanging out in the snow, I am absolutely terrible at snowboarding. I don't know if it's that I have no balance, or bad posture or what, but I couldn't hardly even stand up on my board.
Maybe next time we go I'll get skiing lessons instead.
We're thinking of taking the tram up and walking around on top of the mountain next weekend. That would be really fun.

wheee, stuff. woo woo. i mean, snowboarding, a job and other miscellaney

so... we got chairs. :) that, however, happens to be the least of what has happened over the last week or 2 or however long it's been.

we went snowboarding. it rocked! i am now obsessed, it's the most fun i've had since archery. so in one year i've found 2 sports i like. go me. i can't wait to go snowboarding again, but since i have a dwindling bank account, that's not going to happen any time soon.

good news looms, though. coverstaff rang and they have a job for me and askea. askea (being the poxy one that she is) may have a job for a few weeks / months (the company is recruiting and it will depend on how long it takes for them to find someone). humble me gets a job for 3 days and then to sit at home wondering about money for snowboarding some more. not that i've not been trying. i've applied to 4 different places. none have getten back to me yet, though. ah well - 'tis early yet. (as i was writing this otago university library got back to me saying it was a permanent position, blah).

also, the christchurch film festival starts in 2 weeks and they have a mad animation program. i want to go to 5 things, one being the first venture of Gorou Miyazaki (yup, son of legend Hayao Miyazaki). That is one i absolutely don't want to miss. It's called Tales of Earthsea, based on LeGuin's works. So hmmm. Askea also wants to go see Snow Patrol - tickets are 79 / 89 dollars. That's kind of a lot. But Iain Archer is supporting them and i quite like him.

what else is new... the figure skating from my last post never happened. we went to see harry potter - i liked it, but prisoner of azkaban is still my fav. me, askea, simone and brian went playing crazy golf yesterday. that was a whole tonne of fun. the course was indoors and each area was themed. it was fun. and hard. i lost terribly, with a sore 46 over par. simone won at 10 over. ah well - it's the fun that matters, right? right...? well, i'm smiling anyway.

i think that's about everything. i think my stomach dosn't know what to do with the sudden shock of winter. i'm hungry all the time and recently my stomach has been a bit wierd. i think we had some gone-off yoghurt and i ate a bit of that without knowing. anyway. i have to consciously limit the amount of food i eat, cause at the moment, i have dinner and an hour later i'm back in the kitchen looking for something filling. i'm definitely getting enough, cause i'm not all shakey and food-deprived all the time.

anyway.
i'm going to go now. i'll add more if i think of anything i've forgotten later. (i still have 1hr 17 mins on here)