Woooo!

also known as "skiing is fun."

I can now (after three lessons) ski better than I can snowboard (four lessons last year). Having independently movable feet and not immediately falling if you catch your down-the-mountain edge both really help. Took 4 runs from the top of the mountain at Jiminy Peak (the mountain is probably Jiminy Peak, but I dunno for sure), left twice (easier slope) and right twice (amazing view!) with NO uncontrolled falls! (Controlled means I realised I was falling more than a second beforehand, which is a pretty long time, and sort of decelerated + leaned up the mountain as I went so there wasn't much falling, just being off-balance and no longer on my feet.) Life and your conception of locomotion change significantly when you're barrelling down a snowy mountain slope and the only really good way to control your speed is dependent on your remembering how to turn (put your weight on the foot that's intended to be the outside one). Turning you learn on the first day. I do that pretty well. It was cold today, though not as bone-chilling as I feared it would be. Then again, a bunch of the other skiiers did retire, citing the cold as the reason. Thank scarfs. The hood of my jacket was also very welcome, for the protection from the snow-making machines. Freshly made snow (as opposed to naturally falling) is painful when it's blasted into your face and freezes on your eyelashes and numbs the area below your chin. Maybe I should have bought the ski mask in Boston. Emulating a ninja with my hood down and scarf over my nose worked pretty well, though. The scarf froze in place once or twice - both times after the run to the left, since that went right through the snow-making machines. Yeah. So. Try skiing or snowboarding, or both some time.

A lot of things have come together in the past week, or two days. I fixed the error that was plaguing my Mathematica Pseudoknot programs, I finished my PE credits, we finished making a language, we put together a video, I just finished my portion of the paper presenting the language... lots of fun stuff. I was going to write more just now but my brain and eyes are giving out. Sleep!!!

Oh and thanks for reassuring me that I'm not just writing to me.

Oh yes, the Williams Fencing Club now has working electrical scoring equipment and club weapons and lames. The sad thing is that the Uhlmann reels we ordered are stuck in customs or something. Fencing with epee body cords connecting the reels to the box is sort of sad, and annoying because the wires tangle you up. Ah well. All shall arrive soon and be peachy.

While I'm at it, here is a 50-min long (with ads) video of the 2005 World Championships. It's good footage, non-fencers will follow the epee stuff most easily but the sabre team final is the most amazing thing. Good old Pozdniakov. Russia is down by 7 or 8 points each time he steps on. Russia wins.

Nuf said for now. Zzzz Di'aho!