Finally.
After GOLD was down for maintenance all day, I was finally able to check my grades tonight, and low and behold the news was good. The studying paid off as I received the expected grades in all three Econ classes. So then there was one final quarter before graduation. The requirement is simple now, 2.54 or greater and I graduate. With five classes to work with, I really don't expect it to even be close. My intention is to be so satisfied with the way things are going into the final is even a worst case scenario wouldn't deter me. I plan to make frequent trips over to the gnome rooms and stay ahead of the game.
It's not like I need more motivation than the fact that I either graduate and move on with my life, or screw things up royally.
Today I spent some time downtown with a friend, at a new section just recently built called "The Grove." It's over behind CBS studios adjacent to the Farmer's Market, and is really a cool place. We had fun running around FAO Schwartz reliving our youth, and spent the mandatory half hour browsing around the multi-story Barnes and Noble. Eventually we made it over to the theater where we watched Bend it Like Beckham a film originally released in the U.K. but has made an appearance over here although not in wide release. She recommended it, I'd never heard of it, so of course I went in not expecting much. She said it was partly about soccer, so I figured it couldn't be that bad. As it was I was pleasantly surprised. The whole thing was really entertaining, with the plot basically revolving around a young Indian girl trying to rebel against the traditionalist parents by playing for a football (soccer everywhere else but here) team. It had a very fat greek wedding type feel, but I actually enjoyed it even more. Course I was probably partially biased because both lead actresses were cute. Then again, it was probably because they were playing soccer part of the time. Dude, soccer chicks rule. Like, really rule. Huge brownie points. But yeah, either due to biases or the actual entertainment value of the movie, a whopping 5 M's to this one, I recommend it.
Ack was gonna write more but I'm leaving early for Snow Summit. More later.
Wednesday, March 26, 2003
Monday, March 24, 2003
Carvature. Carvation. Carvin up a Storm. Carvilicious.
I was trying to come up with more fun exclamations along with the above all day yesterday. For some reason, my second day snowboarding took me from making slow progress learning to stay upright toe edge on the bunny hill, to making gigantic progress on my first run down the steep stuff, to carving massive ruts in lengthy s's throughout the remainder of the day. It's actually kind of strange, I think the gentler slopes were actually making it more difficult to learn to be more effective at carving turns. Although the steeper stuff is more visually intimidating, especially since once you turn your board downhill you're going to start moving in a hurry as you try to make the turn, it actually made it easier to learn.
Don't get me wrong, I had some particularly ugly falls, along with my fair share of skid outs. Man did I have a good time though. Being able to go screaming down the hill yet be confident enough that you can carve a toe edge turn just before running into the tree/small child/fallen snowboarder/cliff/mud patch/obstacle in front of you is quite a rush. The people I went with were of varying skill levels, but we were all able to get up and down the mountain a bunch of times. Lift exits were as usual somewhat challenging, but on the whole we avoided taking each other out more often than not. Top eat on the day went to my good friend whose talent on skis is unfortunatley less than his talent in real estate. The express lifts are a bit challenging at first, and he managed to get laid out horizontal right underneath it. Overall though he improved dramatically during only his second day on skis. Unfortunately I managed to save my worst eats for the last run of the day, having almost avoided doing anything really painful until then. One involved me trying to travel too fast in a straight line (for some reason much more difficult than me than carving s's) and somehow flipping through the air landing flat on my back. My friend got a great view of this one and chimed in with a nice "ooooooooh that looked like it hurt" immediately following. The second is a classic example of why turning around to look behind you for your friends while hauling ass is not the best idea. I had slowed down a bit and was just plowing down heel edge with my board perpindicular to the slope when I made the mistake. Somehow I leaned too far forward digging in the front edge, and as most snowboarders know that meant an immediate and abrupt faceplant. This one my friends missed out on, but a few of the cute girls in the area asked me if I was okay. Nothing like a faceplant to boost your pride.
The road home was long, as we had to take a side trip to Temecula to switch cars and drop off one of the friends we'd picked up on the way up from where we'd spent the night in San Diego. I did catch part of a hot air balloon convention of whatnot in that area though, had been a long time since I'd seen those in person. A ride in one is of course on my life list of things to do.
I'm now very comfortable with most any kind of slope, although carving down the double diamond stuff is probably still out of the question, most anything else is great fun. Too bad it costs so much. :/ Note to self, even though wearing sunglasses gives you a really weird tan line everyone makes fun of, it's much better than the alternative which I tried yesterday. All evening and even this morning my eyes were more red than white, and although I don't have strange tan lines (albeit I am burned in a few areas of my face) the headaches were definitely not worth it. I will be Joe Cool in his shades on the slopes from now on.
I was trying to come up with more fun exclamations along with the above all day yesterday. For some reason, my second day snowboarding took me from making slow progress learning to stay upright toe edge on the bunny hill, to making gigantic progress on my first run down the steep stuff, to carving massive ruts in lengthy s's throughout the remainder of the day. It's actually kind of strange, I think the gentler slopes were actually making it more difficult to learn to be more effective at carving turns. Although the steeper stuff is more visually intimidating, especially since once you turn your board downhill you're going to start moving in a hurry as you try to make the turn, it actually made it easier to learn.
Don't get me wrong, I had some particularly ugly falls, along with my fair share of skid outs. Man did I have a good time though. Being able to go screaming down the hill yet be confident enough that you can carve a toe edge turn just before running into the tree/small child/fallen snowboarder/cliff/mud patch/obstacle in front of you is quite a rush. The people I went with were of varying skill levels, but we were all able to get up and down the mountain a bunch of times. Lift exits were as usual somewhat challenging, but on the whole we avoided taking each other out more often than not. Top eat on the day went to my good friend whose talent on skis is unfortunatley less than his talent in real estate. The express lifts are a bit challenging at first, and he managed to get laid out horizontal right underneath it. Overall though he improved dramatically during only his second day on skis. Unfortunately I managed to save my worst eats for the last run of the day, having almost avoided doing anything really painful until then. One involved me trying to travel too fast in a straight line (for some reason much more difficult than me than carving s's) and somehow flipping through the air landing flat on my back. My friend got a great view of this one and chimed in with a nice "ooooooooh that looked like it hurt" immediately following. The second is a classic example of why turning around to look behind you for your friends while hauling ass is not the best idea. I had slowed down a bit and was just plowing down heel edge with my board perpindicular to the slope when I made the mistake. Somehow I leaned too far forward digging in the front edge, and as most snowboarders know that meant an immediate and abrupt faceplant. This one my friends missed out on, but a few of the cute girls in the area asked me if I was okay. Nothing like a faceplant to boost your pride.
The road home was long, as we had to take a side trip to Temecula to switch cars and drop off one of the friends we'd picked up on the way up from where we'd spent the night in San Diego. I did catch part of a hot air balloon convention of whatnot in that area though, had been a long time since I'd seen those in person. A ride in one is of course on my life list of things to do.
I'm now very comfortable with most any kind of slope, although carving down the double diamond stuff is probably still out of the question, most anything else is great fun. Too bad it costs so much. :/ Note to self, even though wearing sunglasses gives you a really weird tan line everyone makes fun of, it's much better than the alternative which I tried yesterday. All evening and even this morning my eyes were more red than white, and although I don't have strange tan lines (albeit I am burned in a few areas of my face) the headaches were definitely not worth it. I will be Joe Cool in his shades on the slopes from now on.
