The Joy of Skiing

They've implemented a new online registration process for getting season passes at the ski area.

You know, when you put it this way it doesn't sound like fun at all:

I am aware that the sport of skiing/boarding/sliding involves numerous risks of injury or death, including, but not limited to, injury due to loss of control; falls; the failure of skiers/snowboarders/sliders to ski/ride/tube within their own abilities; use of ski lifts; collisions with or falls resulting from trees, rocks, lift towers, fences, snowmaking equipment, snow vehicles, signs, other skiers/snowboarders/sliders and other manmade or natural obstacles.

[I have to say that the bit about "failure of sliders to tube within their own abilities" is especially ridiculous. You sit on a tube, and gravity does the rest. How is there any skill involved in that?]

I understand that I may encounter obstacles that are inherent in the sport, including but not limited to, bare spots, variations in snow, ice and terrain including bumps, moguls, terrain features, stumps, forest growth and debris, rocks, and other slope hazards or obstacles whether they are marked or unmarked, manmade or natural, or a result of slope design or modifications. I understand and agree that ------- ----- ------ shall have no duty to warn me of or to remedy any natural or manmade risks, dangers or hazards.

[I'm only surprised that they didn't mention any other natural hazards, like running into a deer, for example... which actually happened to someone at our ski area.]

I agree that, as a skier/snowboarder/slider, I have responsibilities to myself and to others to ski/ride/tube safely and in control.

[I'd guess that 90% of all injuries in skiing and/or snowboarding happen because people ignore that one little sentence.]

I also understand and agree that it is important to my safety to pay attention while loading, riding and unloading ski lifts, and I agree that I will not attempt to load, ride or unload a lift unless familiar with the proper way to do so.

I understand that I am voluntarily choosing to participate in the sport of snow skiing/boarding/sliding at ------- ----- ------ with knowledge of the aforesaid risks of injury or death involved and hereby expressly agree to accept and assume all such risks of injury or death associated with the sport of snow skiing/boarding/tubing.

As lawful consideration for being permitted by ------- ----- ------ to participate in the sport of snow skiing/boarding/tubing, I hereby agree to release from any and all legal liability and agree not to sue or make a claim against, and to indemnify, defend and hold harmless ------- ----- ------, all of the owners, officers, members, agents and employees for any and all claims for damage, injuries, death to myself or any person or property, including all defense costs, attorney's fees, and other expenses of any type, caused by or resulting from my participation in the sport of snow skiing/boarding/tubing or other alpine activities while on the premises, whether such costs, damage, injury or death was caused by their negligence or from any other cause.

I authorize ------- ----- ------ Ski Patrol to administer treatment in the event of an injury to myself or to the the minor for whom I am signing.

And that's why they pay us the big bucks!



Oh, wait...



Actually, we're a volunteer patrol, which means that we don't get paid.

But our ski area gives us free family & guest passes, they offer discounts on food & gear, and they pay for first aid supplies and equipment for the patrol, which more than most other ski areas do for their patrollers. We pay for our parkas and our annual membership fees to National Ski Patrol, but we get to ski for free, we have lots of fun, and we help people.

Seems like a good deal to me!

Math, in the Blink of an Eye

As someone who has studied a lot of math, I find this article intriguing.

Be sure to check out the fun little "blink and you'll miss it" counting test that is referenced in the article.

I believe that our ability to do math probably involves several different areas of the brain. I can do calculus, but for me, it mostly just involves following the rules. On the other hand, anything involving geometry has always been very intuitive for me-- I can easily visualize Statics, Kinematics, and Dynamics problems in 2-D, or even 3-D.

SIDEBAR: For the non-engineers in the audience:

• Statics = How loads are distributed through (hopefully) non-moving objects like bridges.


• Kinematics = How mechanisms (like levers and gears) move.


• Dynamics = How things accelerate and impact other things.

My master's thesis involved developing a computer program to calculate the forces and moments generated at the shoulder due to dynamic, 3-dimensional arm movements.

But I can't do basic math in my head to save my life.

My husband can do all sorts of calculations in his head, while I'm lucky to be able to add one two-digit number to another. An average fifth grader could easily beat me in a multiplication time-test.

It only makes sense to say that there must be several different types of "math" which are processed by different areas in the brain. Surely everyone has strengths and weaknesses in different areas.

Unfortunately, lots of kids get turned off by math at an early age. (I hated math in 4th & 5th grades.) Maybe there are people who would have discovered an unexpected gift for calculus, but they gave up after struggling through algebra and geometry? It makes you wonder...

Evolution of English

The pastor at my church is notorious for accidentally using non-words during his sermons. Or, to put it another way, he's very adept at constructing new words.

(It all depends on your point-of-view about the evolutionary nature of the English language.)

So today, he came up with the word "correlarities." As in,

correlarities
noun: Things that tend to be associated with each other.

Obviously.

What's not so obvious is why this word doesn't already exist. It's a pretty useful word, and its construction is consistent with other "real" words. So why not?

Several years ago, I met a student from Germany who just raved about how much he loved the flexibility of English.

"You're free to turn any noun into a verb, and any verb into a noun. You can say something like, 'This book is a real page-turner,' and you know exactly what that expression means. If you wanted to say something like that in German, it would be 14 syllables long!"

Nerds & Geeks

There's an Op-Ed article in The New York Times that begs the question: What's the difference between a nerd and a geek?

According to the article (and my dictionary), "nerd" was originally used for someone who was book-smart but lacking in social skills, while a "geek" was just socially inept. But the author suggests that the terms have shifted somewhat in recent years, and based on my personal experience, I have to agree.

My spin on the difference between the two is that a nerd is intelligent but boring, and therefore often solitary. A geek, on the other hand, is smart and yet "differently abled" in the social arena. i.e. Geeks have passions, which they share with other geeks. It's just that our areas of interest are not the same as mainstream culture.



Regardless of the subtleties, it's obvious that the guy who wrote the article knows my husband:

At first, a nerd was a geek with better grades. The word described a high-school or college outcast who was persecuted by the jocks, preps, frat boys and sorority sisters. Nerds had their own heroes (Stan Lee of comic book fame), their own vocations (Dungeons & Dragons), their own religion (supplied by George Lucas and “Star Wars”) and their own skill sets (tech support)...

Among adults, the words “geek” and “nerd” exchanged status positions. A nerd was still socially tainted, but geekdom acquired its own cool counterculture. A geek possessed a certain passion for specialized knowledge, but also a high degree of cultural awareness and poise that a nerd lacked.

Today, my husband and 4 of his friends are camped out in our kitchen, playing BattleTech for 8 or 10 hours. My husband is wearing the t-shirt that I gave to him for Christmas:



'Nuff said.

Correlation, or Causality?

(Just wanted to share another brilliant gestalt from indexed!)

100th Post

According to Blogger, this is my 100th blog post.

That's a pretty big milestone, so I guess I should mark this occasion by writing something significant. I should expound on some important humanitarian topic, or summarize what I've learned about Life, the Universe, and Everything, or maybe talk about how blogging has changed the world.

But instead, I think I'll quote from my very first blog post:

So here I am. Now what?

Because, after all, that quote is as true today as it was 3+ years ago. I still have no idea why I'm writing this blog. It's certainly not to attract mass readership, since I suspect that only 3 people in the world (counting myself) read what I write here.

And that's OK.

What I have discovered along the way is that I write for myself. I use this blog to recognize wonders and celebrate special occasions, to mark moments in time, to mourn losses and vent frustrations, to clarify my own thoughts, and to integrate interesting ideas from other people into my own perspective. Sure, there are times when I want to share these things with other people, but those moments are the exception rather than the rule.

I think that most bloggers, if we're being honest, would have to admit that, at its heart, blogging is a self-centered activity. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.



Dang. I just realized that I really screwed up. I was intending to make fun of the "100th Post" milestone by writing something short and flippant.

Oh, well, maybe next time...

More Lanes, More Parking

They're planning to add a 3rd exit lane to the Fields Ertel exit.

The solution is not more lanes. The solution is optimizing traffic lights.

Cincinnati tends to use traffic lights like airlocks. Light A turns red, and traffic backs up all the way to Light B and beyond. Light B turns red, and Light A turns green, releasing the traffic in the airlock. It stays green for awhile even though the airlock is empty. When Light B turns green, and the traffic behind it starts moving, Light A turns red again.

Examples of airlocks can be found all around Fields Ertel and Mason Montgomery area. The whole area is just one gigantic, grid-locked parking lot. There's simply nowhere for cars coming off of I-71 to go when they reach the end of the exit ramp. Adding more parking on the exit ramp isn't going to solve the problem.

The interchange of Reed Hartman and I-275 is another perfect example of an airlock system. When I lived up on Fields Ertel, I used to take Reed Hartman to get to work everyday. And every morning, I would wait through 8-10 light cycles to cross over I-275. (I had plenty of time to count them, as I sat there for 20 minutes drinking my coffee.) They attempted to "fix" that interchange by doubling the number of lanes, at a cost that would probably boggle my mind if I knew what it was. Reed Hartman now has EIGHT lanes, but traffic still doesn't flow across I-275-- There are just twice as many cars parked in the airlock now.

Traffic planners in this city seem convinced that the purpose of traffic lights is to stop traffic, but really, the purpose should be to optimize the flow of traffic. When I was working on my thesis up in Cleveland, I had to drive across town to Metro Hospital every day. I could drive on Carnegie Avenue all the way from I-90 to Cedar Hill (a distance of over 3 miles through a densely urban area) at nearly 50 mph without stopping for a single light. The lights had been optimized to move traffic out of downtown as quickly as possible during the 4:30 - 6pm rush hour, and I can tell you from first-hand experience that it's simply amazing to see what happens when lights are used to keep traffic flowing.

Thousands of cars sit idling at lights all over Cincinnati right now. Starting and stopping burns much more fuel than keeping cars moving. Think of how much gasoline usage and auto emissions could be reduced if traffic planners just eliminated airlocks and optimized lights to keep traffic flowing.

Education Prognostication

I believe that home-schooling will continue to gain momentum in the next five to ten years. My prediction is that home-schooling families will form co-operative groups where one parent teaches Math and Science, another parent teaches English and Social Studies, and yet another parent teaches Art and Music, for example.

And we'll look at them and wonder why it costs $13,000 for each child in public schools, when families can do it for less than $500 per year.

Happy, Happy Day!

My all-time-favorite restaurant is finally opening a location in Cincinnati!!!

When I lived in Cleveland, I got hooked on the food from a little Lebanese/Mediterranean restaurant called Aladdin's Eatery, and I have missed it terribly ever since I moved to Cincinnati. For the past 10 years I have been whining about how much I miss Aladdin's. Anytime we are anywhere near Cleveland, I try to arrange a detour so that we can eat there, but that only happens every couple of years, and it just isn't enough.

So today, my husband and I were on our way up to Jungle Jim's, when I happened to spot the Aladdin's logo on a new shop front along Union Center Boulevard! It made my day! Heck, it made my year!

Now, if they would just open an Arabica coffee house, my life in Cincinnati would be complete!

Snow Geek

My husband is a geek. (That's not an insult-- He's proud of it!)

He's on the phone with his dad right now. They're curmudgeoning together about the stupidity of the news broadcasts. (It's how they bond.)

Changing the subject, he says, "Have you noticed how every surface is covered with a perfect, three-dimensional parabolic arc or dome? I just think that's really cool!"

When we first woke up this morning, he called me over to the kitchen window to point out the dome of snow on the post-light in front of our garage.

Entitled Brats

Your indulgent parenting is spawning a generation of entitled hipster brats.

Discuss amongst yourselves.



What amazes me is that this little bit of common sense is no longer common:

Greg Ramey is a child psychologist with nearly 30 years of experience counseling families and children at Dayton Children's in Dayton, Ohio. He says the biggest change he's seen is that parents no longer want to act like parents. "Over and over, I see parents who try to be their kids' best friends," he says. "That's a flashing red light. Our kids don't need to be our buddies. They can like us when they're 30. Mostly what kids want is for a parent to be in charge."

Think about what the phrase "spoiled rotten" really implies. Would you want to be around a person whose character is atrophied, rancid, or decayed? Neither would anyone else. How have we come to view Indulgence = Love and Discipline = Abuse, when in fact the opposite is true?

Sour Apple

I got an iPod touch for Christmas. It's very clever product, but I was baffled as to why Apple would ship the iPod touch without at least the same Mail application that comes standard on the iPhone. The Mail application works on both devices, and there are some brilliant hackers out there who have made it possible to break into the operating software and install the iPhone applications on the iPod touch, so that it will run Mail, Maps, Weather, Notes, and Stocks. Obviously, most customers would rather NOT jump through these hoops, but these applications are useful enough to entice hundreds (if not thousands) of iPod touch owners.

So why would Apple not ship the iPod touch with these applications?

As it turns out, it's because they decided to develop a marketing strategy called "Gouge the Christmas Customers."

Today, less than a month after Christmas, I received an email from Apple, advertising these five applications, which will now come standard with all new iPod touch devices.

However, existing owners will have to pay $20 to download these applications.

I'm very disappointed in Apple. This decision represents a shameless abuse of loyal customers, and Apple is generating far more ill-will among their customer base than they are generating revenue for the company. It's a colossally stupid move from a company that should know better.

Don't be a BLY

A busy day... I spent a few hours meeting with three of my friends to discuss stuff related to their jobs/businesses. During yoga, a guy in my class appeared to have suffered a heart attack, and I helped convince him that his symptoms were serious and that he needed to go see a doctor immediately. I also had to go get blood drawn for one more test. (Let's see, this makes the 4th time I've gotten stuck in the arm in just 4 weeks. I'm not really enjoying this mutant thing, and neither is my insurance company.)

I arrived at the testing lab at 3:30, and sat in the unattended waiting room for 15 minutes before someone came out to see why I was there. I presented my script for the testing, and she immediately starting looking for reasons why she couldn't draw my blood, mostly because she said that the office closes at 4pm. (Nevermind that the company's brochures and the signs in the waiting room all state that the office hours are 7:30 - 4:30.) First of all, she looked in a reference manual and found that one version of the test required fasting for 12 hours. I told her that my doctor's office hadn't mentioned anything about that. She double-checked the book and found out that there was an alternate version of the test which didn't require fasting. She called my doctor's office, probably hoping that they wouldn't answer, but they did. They said that I didn't need to do the fasting version of the test. Finally, she settled on the idea that the sample would require "immediate" processing, and the next courier pick-up wouldn't be until 7pm, so she said I'd have to go to a different office to have the blood drawn and collected in a timely fashion. It didn't seem worth having a debate about the definition of "immediate" processing, so I got directions to the other office and went on my merry way.

Things got even more aggravating on my way out of the parking lot. When I came to the end of my row of parking spaces, I was preparing to turn right, into the exit lane for the parking lot. As I was glancing over my left shoulder, checking for cars moving toward the exit, I heard a car horn and instinctively slammed on my brakes to avoid hitting a very expensive Mega-SUV, driven by a woman with an attitude as big as her vehicle. (She had just turned right into the parking lot from the street.) She was actually in MY lane, but apparently it's MY fault that her Land Yacht is way too big to navigate a normal turning radius. Obviously, I must be the idiot in this situation, because she actually rolled down her window to scream obscenities at me.

So the moral of the story for today is: Don't be a Bitch in a Land Yacht.

(Thanks for letting me vent.)

Blog Consolidation

Since Blogger is now offering the "Label" feature, I've decided to consolidate my three blogs down to just this site. My other two blogs were:

• YKYAAW... - Dedicated to those moments when Reality smacks you across the face, and you realize that you ARE, actually, an Adult...
  ...whereas the rest of the time you just feel like a kid who happens to have had more than 18 birthdays and is pretending to fit into adult society.


• Wonder - verb 1. to speculate or be curious to know about something
  2. to be in a state of amazed admiration or awe, especially at something very beautiful or new

I've moved all of my old posts here from the other two blog sites, and tagged them accordingly. Thanks for reading!

First Blog

I hadn't really planned on starting a blog, but in order to comment on my friend Mark's rants and rages about his laptop, I had to create my own account.

(For the record, my comment was essentially: "You should have bought a Mac." If you'd like to see Mark's rants, you'll have to check out his blog at Spitting into the wind. Keep in mind that he works for a major computer company, so the irony of the situation comes from the fact that he bought his laptop from that same company.)

So here I am. Now what?