Cow’s Life - Thinking Outside Of The Barn

So far, I haven’t had a chance to visit any other ski resorts but Breckenridge. I went there again last Saturday with the fear I had from the previous week. Luckily, Breck has opened up all runs on Peak 9 and the fresh power WAS GREAT!

Last Saturday was my 8th day learning how to snowboard (6 days from last season and 2 this season) and I am still taking hard falls. This sport is a whole lot more painful than rock climbing. I probably took 70+ hard falls during the 5 hour full day class when I was learning snowboarding for the very first time last year. My legs and my butt were covered with a dozen or so big and small bruises. I don’t remember I’ve ever endured so much pain by doing anything else. I thought this year would be a bit better. But in order to learn how to link my turns together, I had to take more falls. Although I came more prepared this year with bum protection, new wrist guard and better looking helmet (if that helps), couple hard falls on my knees still made me dropping a few painful tears. But I did it! I made my first smooth link turns from heel to toe and toe to heel on Saturday, thanks to both Rick and Matt’s patient teaching!

Although it was fun to play in the snow, the learning process is still quite stressful. To relax a bit, I went to Clear Creek to rock climb the next day. I know it sounds strange but I can’t tell you how relaxed I felt when I was on the rock. Doug once said to me, “Everything is in your head. It’s just a mind game… “ I guess it is true that our minds control almost everything we feel if not all. I am going for another snowboarding lesson this coming Saturday. I figure if I can conquer the fear of falling, I should be able to cruise down the mountains with fancy turns in no time! After all, it was just a few bad bruises plus 5 minute pain.

I was supposed to fly from Denver back to Nashville for the Thanksgiving holiday this evening. Well, it’s 4 hours passing my original flight schedule and I am still in Denver. The flight got delayed and delayed and then further delayed until I couldn’t bear anymore. I rent a car and came home. I guess I will have to give it another try tomorrow.

After experiencing countless delay and cancellations, this scenario is no longer strange to me, although still pissing me off from time to time. A lot of you may travel to see your families and friends in the next few days; I figured I’d offer some lessons learned from my past travel experiences to make your trip a less stressful one:

1. Always buy e-ticket. If you have access to a computer and a printer, check in online, print out the boarding pass before heading over to the airport. You can go directly to the security line. How nice!
2. Instead of checking in one big luggage, bring two carry-on pieces. The flexibility is extremely important if the agents have to reschedule your flight. And you can pretty much hop on any flights on the same day without paying extra fees.
3. Always check the flight status before you leave home. Majority of the airlines let you check the flight status online and it is in sync with the airport systems. If the flight is severely delayed or even canceled, you don’t have to waste too much time.
4. If your flight is canceled, don’t line up to talk to the agent if you need to rebook. It takes forever unless you are the first 10 customers. Instead, call the airline reservation number directly and talk to someone to reschedule your flight. When a flight shows up as “cancel” status, the reservation agent on the telephone will be able to rebook you without charging you.
5. Most importantly, don’t get frustrated. It took me a long time to realize that getting stressed out of something that is out of my control simply doesn’t do any good. Try to focus on working out the alternatives when situation arises.

Hope everybody has a pleasant trip and happy Thanksgiving!

If you didn’t notice, today is the launch day of XBOX 360! As expected, many fans started forming lines since last night trying to get a piece of the ass kicking new console at 12:01am this morning. Some people started forming lines at 9:30pm for the stores to open at 8am! Wired has an article on XBOX360 lines in San Fran.

Chicago sold out XBOX 360 todayand the campers were pretty happy since many walk-ins returned with empty hands. You can read about their “camping in the rain” experiences.

Wow, I don’t know if I should call that “anticipation” or “craziness”. According to the Cnet report, not all retailers expect shortage problems. I am curious if I go to the Best Buy or Wal-mart nearby tomorrow (I am currently in Nashville, TN), will I be able to get one without waiting in line for 10 hours? Well, there is no rock to climb nor snowy slopes to play in Nashville. So I AM going to drive around tomorrow just to see if the hype is for real. Stay tuned…

Here is my previous entry on XBOX 360 launch.

Update on Nov 23
I just came back from a Best Buy store located in Nashville. The store was awefully quiet when I walked in. Well, that tells me something. A store clerk told me that by Monday evening 5pm, they’ve got 50+ campers outside of the store waiting for the 9am Tuesday opening. However, they’ve only had 40 units. So literally, the boxes were sold out even before the store was opened. “Most of the stores only received 30 - 40 units”, said the store clerk.

The rumor says that Microsoft is building up a buying frenzy by deliberately sending retailers minimal numbers of the consoles. But the company said that notion was not correct. “The truth is we’re not holding anything back. We’re going all out with the Xbox 360 launch to ensure that we put every product we’re capable of making on the shelves on the 22nd” said Microsoft spokeman Hufford.

I call that another total bullshit of Microsoft’s marketing strategy. I am saving my precious dollars for the PS3! Sorry Bill! Not everybody appreciates the way you treat your fans by sending just 40 units to a giant Wal-mart or Best Buy store. If you are distributing millions of Halo 2 copies on the launch day, put at least a million XBOX360 out there instead of just 400,000!

Forget about XBOX 360 for a while. Here is something cool and innovative! – The new Nintendo’s Revolution Controller!

At first glance, I was quite disappointed to see the remote controller style since I am used to the old school style with both hands on. Where the hell is my analog stick??!!

But after reading this article, I can’t wait to try one soon. Here is the highlight:

The controller for Nintendo’s upcoming Revolution home console system is a cordless remote-control-like device designed to be used with only one hand. Two small sensors placed near the TV and a chip inside the controller track its position and orientation, allowing the player to manipulate the action on screen by physically moving the controller itself. For example, you could slash an in-game sword by actually swinging the controller from side to side, turn a race car just by twisting your wrist, or aim your gun in a shooter by pointing the controller where you want to fire.

An expansion port on the bottom of the unit allows for add-on hardware to compliment this “remote controller” like a second controller piece Nintendo demonstrated that comes equipped with an analog stick and two trigger buttons. So you still get the play the old games in old style.

Here is the full length article about this new controller.

The Japanese made a short intro movie to show you how the motion sensor changes the way we play games. It’s a zip file of 16 mb. So be patient. Check it out.

Thanks to Paco for the links!

On this very special day, I have the worst job on the planet!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I DON”T BELIEVE IT!!!

Someone paid $15099 for the new XBOX 360!!

This is the first speechless post on Yunasville, ever….

For the very first time in my life, I broke a piece of my bone.

I was unloading from a lift chair when my right foot slipped. My butt landed pretty hard on the binding. It was so painful that my tears came out right away involuntarily. I probably took a hundred falls on my butt ever since I started learning snowboarding and this one was by far the worst. I didn’t know I broke my tail bone at that time. I fell so many times that the pain was already part of the game.

After 15 minutes of struggling, I strapped my feet back in and rode down the hill with the rest of the class. An hour later, I found myself having difficulties sitting in the cafeteria. Even my favorite hot beef stew couldn’t keep my mind off the pain.

Three hours after the fall, the pain was still so persistent that I started having a hard time walking down the stairs. Finally, my friends put me in the back seat and drove me back to Denver. I still didn’t think I broke anything until the doctor gave me an examination in the ER and told me I broke the tip of my tail bone. I was very disappointed when I heard the news. I have the next two weekends planned to go to Wolf Creek and Vail. Now, I can’t even rock climb. Bummer!

Although I can still walk (slowly) and sit on a donut shaped cushion for coupe of hours, driving still gives me a lot of ass-ache. I tried to go to the nearby Target today and the 2 mile roundtrip was quite a struggle when dealing with the road bumps. I probably pissed off a lot of drivers by going 10 miles an hour.

My friends showed so much caring after I got injured. A girl I met just a few weeks ago postponed her night out with her friends and drove me from Breckenridge back to my apartment. A close friend of mine also missed a portion of his party and took me to the ER and got me medications and food. A few people called today to let me know that they are only a phone call away if I needed anything.

I wrote a very moody post just a week ago when I felt very lonely. But when a situation like this happens, people do care and they do anything they can to help their friends. I am truly grateful that after just a short period of time living in Denver, I’ve had a few people whom I can rely on if I am ever in trouble. This is a very comforting thought.

Thank you guys for helping me to grow my tail back. I will do the same if you ever have problems with your tails or paws. Hehehe..

Before I say anything, take a look at the following chart:

(source: www.crutchfield.com/TV)

The Tube CRT offers the best quality of picture in the 13” – 36” range. A 36 inch CRT old fashion Tube TV costs probably 400 bucks while a same size Plasma costs $1999! I don’t know if I can convince myself to spend $1500 more just to get a flatter look. It seems kind of waste of money. So I am going to stick with my 100 dollar 27 inch old fashioned Panasonic CRT for a while.