Sunday, January 27, 2008

Resort Skiing is Overrated

I grew up skiing resorts and have skied resorts ever since I was 5 years old. A few years ago I decided to branch out my skiing to the backcountry as well as the resorts. For Christmas about three years ago Jess got me a pair of used Alpine Trekkers and a pair of used skins. Later that season I picked up a beacon and commenced to go on a couple of tours.

The next year I toured more but probably still spent about 80% of my ski time in resorts. Last year my ski time was split about 60% resort, 40% touring. So far this year my time has been about 50/50 but that will quickly change.

This past Monday Jessica and I went night skiing (she boarded) at Brighton. After about two runs I had my fill of the resort. It was all right, there was new snow, but there were so many people that it was almost ridiculous. If there hadn’t had been new snow we both probably would have said “let’s just go”.

Yesterday we went and skied Solitude. It was better than Monday. There wasn’t any new snow, but it snowed recently so it was still decent. We had fun (especially with the little ‘chocolate scavenger hunt’ type game they had going on at the resort that day) but still wasn’t super stoked on it.

The previous Saturday I went touring up Days Fork with my buddy Matt. It was dead. We saw about seven other people the whole time on the trail. Six were snowshoers who stayed on the main skin track and one was a solo skier we passed once we hit the steeps. The environment around us was absolutely serene. In all we spent about three and half hours worth of skinning to make two laps. It was totally worth it.

I could get behind skiing a resort on a super deep pow day if it wasn’t packed with people. I’ll keep skiing resorts, especially now that we are beginning our family, and it is the best place to go to teach the kids (only one, but undoubtedly we’ll have more). But from now on if given the choice I'll choose to go touring.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

How To, Part II: Finding Songs on Your New iPod Shuffle

Now that you are the proud owner of a 30 GB iPod Video Shuffle you probably are getting sick already of always having to listen to shuffle. I know you must be asking yourself "Eric, how the devil do you know what to do, you can't see the screen?" Have no fear, you can actually find music you are looking for and have fun at the same time.

The other night Jess and I were driving and wanted to listen to the Voodoo Glow Skulls so we had a good time figuring out how to get there. Just follow these steps:

1-Turn your iPod on.
2-Press "menu" a bunch times so you get all the way back to the first menu (you won't know, so press it six or seven times).
3-Scroll the wheel to the left until the clicking stops, this will put you on "music", press the center button.
4-Scroll the wheel to the left again until the clicking stops. Scroll the wheel to the right one click. This will put you on "artists", press the center button.
5-If you don't know what the last artist was you listened to, scroll either all the way to the left (or right depending on where your desired artist falls in the alphabet) until the clicking stops.
6-Scroll for as long as you think you need until you think you are close to your desired artist, press the center button.
7-This puts you on the "albums" menu so press the center button two more times (one time puts you on the "song" menu and the second time plays the song).
8-Listen to first part of the song and determine who the artist is.
9-If it isn't your desired artist, press the "menu" button three times to get back to the "artist" menu.
10-Repeat steps 6-8 until you dial in the desired artist.

This is actually a pretty good time. It took us about 5 minutes to dial in the Voodoo Glow Skulls but we had fun getting there. It's also a great way to play music trivia because no one can cheat and look at the screen. You'll also be forced to become really familiar with what you have on your iPod.

Good luck and happy hunting!

Monday, January 14, 2008

How To, Part I: How to Turn your 30 GB iPod Video into a 30 GB iPod Shuffle

I thought that I would begin a "how-to" series on my blog. This is my first go at a how-to so I hope it goes well.

How to turn a 30 GB iPod video into a 30 GB iPod shuffle
1. First you must own a 30 GB iPod video.
2. Place iPod video in the outside pocket of your backpack, with the screen facing outwards.
3. Place backpack in car.
4. Place baby in car.
5. Now get backpack and baby out of car.
6. While getting both out of the car, accidentally drop backpack, face down, onto the ground.
7. Rewind back to step 6 making sure to bounce the face of the backpack off the bike parked in the garage.
8. Bring backpack and baby inside.
9. Remove iPod from backpack. If it looks something like this:


then you were successful.

An interesting part was figuring out how to get to "shuffle songs".

Monday, January 07, 2008

Recycle those old electronics

I recently read an article about a great electronics recycling company. The name is Second Rotation. Second Rotation will buy back some of your old electronics, giving you cash that you wouldn't otherwise get for that junk sitting in your drawer. If your stuff is too old, or too damaged, they will still take it back and recycle it for you. They have a series of standards that they follow so you know your stuff isn't just ending up in the landfill. It's better to sell the stuff now. The longer you wait, the more the price will drop.

The best part is shipping is free in the lower 48 states.

I went through some our stuff like one old cell phone, a Mini Disk player, and a camera and we'd only get about 25 bills for our camera. I don't think we'll take them up on that offer since we still use the camera. Although once one of us gets a new cell phone I'll definitely send in the old one.

It's nice to see that someone has created a viable, accountable way to help recycle the massive amounts of electronic waste we have in this country.

Friday, January 04, 2008

That's a funny looking hat.



The long-sleeve t-shirt I was wearing today got a hole in each elbow. It's a wicked old, worn out shirt. I said to Jessica "grab the hole and try to rip off my sleeve". She did, and it ripped right off. I put the torn sleeve on my head as a hat, then I took it off. Jess tore off the other sleeve, put it on her head as a hat and said "quick, put on your hat, we have to go find the neutrons."

We had a good laugh and then took the picture.

Yet another reason why I love my wife, she says and does silly things that she wouldn't when other people are around.