C0rk.W0rd

Ski.Weekend.February.2004

This weekend's ski trip was one of the most enjoyable we've had in years. It didn't start out to grad though. We were about 30min down the New Jersey Turnpike when I realized I had left my season pass at home. It took us an hour to double back and retrieve it, but my Dad said the roads were easier to travel at the later hours. I'm not sure if he was just trying to keep me from feeling bad, or if this was actually true. We arrived in Killington around 1am, shared a few post drive drinks with Rob and Raja, then to bed.

Skiing the next day was cold but fantastic. We were concerned that the sleet and freezing rain on the ride up may have ruined some plush snow from earlier in the week. Luckily, this was not the case. We took some top-to-bottom runs, and spent some time on Bear Mtn. It was cold, but not nearly as bad as the last trip. The temperature hovered around a manageable zero degrees. We skied the better part of the day before quitting to make a Long Trail run.

We arrived at the Long Trail about 20min before the kitchen is slated to close (5pm). We were a little panic stricken. The place was mobbed, and the likelihood of us securing a table for 12 in time for Yaki Wings and Onion Rings seemed grim. I secured a few pitchers of brew from the bar and we were fortunately squeezed in at the very last minute. The yaki wings were AWESOME and the Onion Rings were the very taste of beer battered perfection. Combined with some Hibernator, some Hit-The-Trail, and some Long Trail Ale, these delightful eats were the 'perfect' après-ski treat. We managed to get back to the condo, made for the hot tub, and enjoyed a nice soak before a little dinner/snack and sleep.

Sunday was an awesome day of skiing. Rob, Raja, and I woke of reasonably early and were out of the slopes a little after 9am. Not stopping for anything, we managed to ski 6+ hours. Eating on the gondola made things a little easier, and meeting up with the rest of my family on the mountain helped keep things at a workable pace. Raja was kind enough to capture a few videos with his new digital camera. I will be sure to post them as soon as he sends them to me.

Sunday was also my mothers Birthday that meant plenty of festivities for the evening. After packing in the ski-day we dressed and headed for the Goombay capital of the world "The Grist Mill". A few rounds of Goombay goodness had us all feeling really groovy. The Happy Hour beef ribs, and the 3 orders of nachos also helped to remove any edge that dared to rear its head. The Grist Mill was followed by another two hours at the Back-Behind. This restaurant/bar was the 1st place I had even been served a beer when I was a young 13. 14 of us filed in for dinner, and ordered up another round of drinks (beer & wine). I distinctly remember my 4ft tall cousin looking me in the eye and saying "YOU'RE TRASHED!!". He might have been right. Dinner was good, but all the alcohol in my belly made it hard to put any 'quantity' down. Toward the end of the evening my aunt and Kelly began putting away quite a bit of wine - They "overachieved".

When it comes to drinking - "ACHIEVE and MAINTAIN --- do not OVERACHIEVE"

Everyone predicted a slow moving c0rk for the next morning, but I was my eager, energetic post-drinking self. I was up around 8 and ready to ski around 9. Aside from some body fatigue from the previous days of skiing, I didn't get the sense that the alcohol had any effect on my head. --- no hangover. Monday was a sunny and reasonably warm day of skiing. The wind, however, kept a significant portion of the mountain inaccessible. No worries though, we found other ways of amusing ourselves. My uncle, my oldest cousin, Rob and I tackled some glades and other wooded ski elements in search of moguls and tight-turning powder in steep spots. A run down big dipper glade had plenty of moguls and a nice patch of ice for me to fall/slide down. We visited Lowrider, and enjoyed the trees along with the powder which made any mistakes just a little less painful. I finished up the day with a few sweet GS turns down Rams Head. The ski day was followed by a quick tub a shower and a little grub.

:::::on the road:::::

We arrived back in Voorhees around 11:15 last night, and despite getting to bed at a reasonable hour... I'm feeling pretty whacked today... dragging anchor as it were... Not to worry... There are a lot of interesting things coming up for me to write about, and some more political discussions ahead... ;-)

Bitchin' Cold Weather, but SWEET Skiing

Skiing this weekend was awesome, despite the harsh weather conditions. The temperature on Saturday was -24 @ the peak without wind-chill and -16 at the base - Again, without wind-chill. I think this is the coldest weather I have ever successfully endured while skiing. While blazing down Needle's Eye (trail name) my eyes began to water, as they often do when I am cruising at high speeds. I made the mistake of blinking, which resulted in one of my eyelids freezing shut. Attempting to ski without depth perception is super FUN! Staying out for more than 2hours without a gondola run was pretty impossible, so we made an effort to time our gondola runs to help maximize our ski time.

Raja and I drove up in Thursday night. It was about -8 I'm told, and unless I used re-circulated air, my car refused to stay warm. Only a few of us, including myself skied on Friday, due to the extreme cold. Friday night, we went to dinner at the Wobbly Barn to celebrate my father's birthday. The Soup & Salad Bar was superb as always, and my end cut of Prime Rib was juicy and delicious.

Rob arrived late Friday night, and the despite the cold, Rob, Raja, and I skied for about 4-5 hours. We got out early and quit early. Aside from some spotty ice, the snow was nearly perfect. Saturday night was the annual Killington Grand ASC Owners Party. We raced down to the banquet room (located in the condo complex) and made for the bar. My family is always excited about the Owners party since it features an open bar. Rob, Raja, and I managed to fill an entire catering table with empty cocktail glasses, and I was harassed by just about everyone, since I was apparently turning a dark shade of purple from all the booze. We capped the party off with a few beers, raj and I sampled the hot tub, and retired.

My aunt, uncle, and sister departed early Sunday morning to attend the Eagles game. The rest of my family enjoyed some MORE skiing with slightly warmer temperatures Sunday morning and early afternoon. Raja, Rob and I quit around 2pm, and headed for the Long Trail Brewery for some Yaki Wings. After 3 orders of Yaki's 2 orders of Beer Battered Onion Rings 2 beer Samplers and 2 Pitchers... we retreated to the Grand's Owners Lounge for the game. We drank another case of beer during the game and ate a few pizza's while cheering the Eagles to victory over the Packers! E-A-G-L-E-S Eagles!

The rest of my family departed after skiing on Sunday to attend my sister's Honor Society Induction Ceremony thing, but Rob, Raja, and I stayed for some more skiing. Monday was the BEST skiing all weekend. The temperature was hovering around 5-10 degrees, which felt like beach weather as compared to days prior. The snow was nearly perfect which allowed me to really let my K2 Axis Mod X's really ride and carve. We're talking sweet-ass GS turns baby, the edges just turning over and riding like a champ --- smooth, fast, and sure.

We departed around 330 Monday afternoon. I drove through about 4 hours of snow, and then another 2 hours of poor road conditions home to Exit 4. Pulling in the driveway between 930-10, I drug my gear into the house. I was spent.

I have a few pictures and videos from the trip (nothing TOO amazing) that I will be uploading shortly, when I find the time. Regardless, I had a kickin' ski weekend despite the cold temperatures.

No Skiing Pics?

For someone who skis and punks around the net as much as I do, it's amazing how few pictures of my ski outings are available online. I did have quite a few photos and some videos posted on my old site @ Comcast, but they were all deleted along with the site not too long ago. I'm going to do my best to get some more ski related media onto THIS site soon. The Plus account I have with TypePad only allows me to house 100MB of data on their server, but I am going to look into housing the bulk of my data elsewhere (Drexel or Comcast) and linking to it from here. Either way, you can expect some more ski related content to be uploaded here shortly. I have a ton sitting around on my hard drive from previous years, and with 2 digital cameras floating around my family, I'm likely to have many more quite soon.

In lieu of any SKIING pictures, feel free to checkout the existing photo albums linked to in the left-side menu.

28-10... E-A-G-L-E-S!

The Eagles defeated the Giants on Sunday. Starting off with a fumbled kick-off I wasn't certain of the Eagles ability to push their division rivals even farther down into the NFC East rankings barrel. My doubts were quickly put to rest as the Eagles pushed on for a 28 to 10 victory. It was the 1st decisive victory I saw all year. McNabb finally seemed to emerge from the muck, and made his 300+ passing yds look like child's play. The Eagles seemed to be firing on all cylinders yesterday at the LINC. I can't say I'm SORRY I doubted them... you don't have to follow the Eagles for too long to know that despite this win, things can go VERY wrong, VERY fast.

I hope the Eagles can snowball this momentum through the rest of the regular season, not to mention the post-season and beyond. I don't know how a team that looks so wretched on paper manages a 2nd place standing, but I'm not going to complain just yet. Go EAGLES!

btw - nothing makes me smile more than seeing Jeremy Shockey's injured ass stinking up the Giants bench. I hope the fact that you're just as powerless now as you were when you were on the fields sits really well in that peanut sized brain of yours.

I'm ALL Smiles

Since I've never been one to involve the general public with my personal affairs, I will keep my explanation of the weekend 'short and sweet' (laughs at the irony of the word choice). I spent two extraordinary nights out with Maria, who, for lack of better wording, made my weekend. THAT'S about all you're getting out of me concerning that.

I went to the Eagles game on Sunday. They defeated the New York Jets 24-17. Perhaps more importantly, this was the first game in which the offense actually looked semi-efficient. Commentators are saying that McNabb is out of his rut. I'm not willing to go that far just yet; When you're playing as bad as he was, is there anywhere to go but up?

GOOD WEEKEND!!!

The EAGLES Performance... Or Lack Thereof!

I thought I would write a second post regarding the EAGLES. As many of you know, they won Sundays game but the slimmest of margin, and purely based on the efforts of one Brain Westbrook, who seems to be the only offensive player pulling ANY kind of weight. In the 1st quarter, Donavan was 5 for 5 passing but was 9-27 (or something like that) for the rest of the game. The defense on the other hand is managing some incredible things despite missing something like 6 starters. We may have won the game, but it is a long season, and as far as I am concerned we are WITHOUT an offense.

There is discussion over whether or not Donovan will be playing next week on account of his thumb and leg injury. Frankly, I think he should be pulled for other reasons --- arghm - performance. Nevertheless, I'm hopeful that Andy Reid will do SOMETHING resembling the RIGHT thing. Maybe a benching is just what Donovan needs to get him performing again. It'll show him that they're willing to pull him if he doesn't get his act together and start making plays. The excuses for Donovan's lack of performance are no longer acceptable. Philly fans demand change. I'm not buying into the whole "needs to build confidence" crap. The media and the coaches have been making excuses for him for too long. It's time to put-up or shut-up.

The only offensive player that earned their pay on Sunday was Brian Westbrook... period...

...but at least we're not at the bottom of the division... (knocks on wood)

A Late Afternoon @ The LINC

I spent the morning hauling a buncha mulch around the yard and balancing the hot tub so that I could free up my afternoon for the Eagles game. My Uncle had 2 extra tickets to today’s game against the Redskins so Raja and I decided to go along...

The new stadium is very nice, and my uncle’s seats (season tickets) are even better. I was actually closer to the action than I was at all those HS football games, and I had primo seats (in HS) because I was in the marching band. Anyone who watched the game knows that it was quite an exciting one that kept the fans on their feet throughout. My throat hurts a bit from yelling, but I'm hoping it will be better in the morning. Nevertheless, the Eagles were victorious, marking their first win in the new stadium. Hopefully we can look forward to more of this in the future.

I'm not going to go on at length about the progression of the game, I'm sure that those of you who are interested in the outcome either watched or read the recap... and ummm... since I'm a little tired at the moment... I'll have to leave it at that, in the interest of sleep. Goodnight all!

Ouch! - That Had to Hurt

Anyone who has been lucky enough to catch me on one of my Football rants, had probably heard me make mention of the fact that Jeremy Shockey. You know, the loud mouth 2nd year TE for the Giants who did nothing but talk shit his rookie year. The mullet sporting little bastard should be fit for a muzzle, or a ball-gag... take your pick. In spite of him thinking so much of himself, the muscle-head IS actually semi-talented. NOT as talented as his MOUTH would indicate, but he is one of the better TE's out there. I

I was however, very pleased to see how ineffective he was against Bill Parcell's Cowboys last night on Monday Night Football. Shockey has been talking shit on Parcells before the pre-season even began, so much shit that he was forced to make a formal apology when he took things too far. Shockey was 6 years old when Parcells was leading the Giants to Super Bowl victory in 1987, so what personal grudges could he possibly have to warrant such unprofessional trash-talking.... NONE! Can it ASSHOLE, or better yet, keep up your drunken-frat-boy-antics thereby making yourself a target for every defenseman in the league. With any luck, you'll have your head rammed up your over confident ASS by mid-season... helmet and all.

Shockey catches 2 and drops 2... one of which a wide-open touchdown scoring pitch... for a total gain of 8yds. against the Cowboys... OH I LOVE TO SEE ASSHOLES LIKE THIS HAVE TO EAT THEIR WORDS!!!

Click Here for some ESPN humor relating to Shockey's performance against the Cowboy's... (pssst... they reference the Olsen Twins)

It's A Good Time To Be A Gamer

Well... what can I say? It was anything but a good start for the season. The Eagles were shut out at the LINK last night 17-0. So, rather than discuss this very disappointing start, I thought I would talk about what I'll be doing instead of watching the Eagles pave their way to the Super Bowl... Video Games!

State In Gaming...

I was poking around IGN the other day, and it became startlingly apparent to me that the next few months hold a lot of promise for PC Gamers. My bank account will be weeping when it sees the number of games set for release in September and October. That being said... lets look at some of the titles that will command my life over the next few months.

First we have BloodRayne, a 3rd person shooting title that was originally released on console several months back. The game premise is probably more like that of the upcoming film Underworld than anything else, though there is a BloodRayne movie, based on the game, in the works. You take control of a female Dhampir (product of a human mother, raped by a vampire --- Where have I seen this before, oh yea BLADE... or well... sort of) as she slashes, hacks, shoots, and sucks her way through demons and other horrid beasts to prevent the rebirth of the Nazi nation through supernatural means. So I guess it is sort of Buffy meets Blade meets Underworld meets Wolfenstein. Either way, I am intrigued, and will be picking it up shortly as it was released yesterday. The best and worst part is that because it is essentially a console port, BloodRayne will be cheaper than post PC game (around $19.95) - however, this also means a less than breathtaking gaming experience. Need I remind anyone of the horror that was 007 Nightfire for the PC (link to my review).

Next up, every geek's wet dream. No, not a William Shattner and a Karaoke machine, I'm talking about Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. Slated to be released on September 16th, this latest offering from LucasArts looks to be the Star Wars action shooter everyone has been waiting for since the original Dark Forces. With Knights of the Old Republic released for the RPG crowd, action gamers will hopefully be able to contend with this new action packed title.

September 22nd has two expansion packs in store for two EA (Electronic Arts) titles. The first is for the latest from the Command and Conquer franchise Command & Conquer Generals. This expansion pack entitled 'Zero Hour' will be a must have for most die hard C&C fans. Though I was excited for the release of Generals, I'm not so sure I will be snagging this expansion, as I have become weary of the title, though I continue to play Command & Conquer Red Alert 2 (RA2) - maybe because it is the greatest Real-Time Strategy (RTS) title ever created. The second expansion is for what I consider to be one of the greatest First-Person-Shooters (FPS) ever released. I speak of course of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (MOHAA). Details pertaining to the exact contents of the new expansion are scarce other than the fact that it is called 'Breakthrough', but it really doesn't matter, I'm going to buy it anyway. Just like I bought the last expansion 'Spearhead'. Helps funnel some money back into the company that will release the next 'all new' Medal of Honor title Q1 2004.

The tale end of September has two treats for PC FPS fans. The beloved XBOX title HALO will be released for PC on the 30th, along with Half-Life 2 which is slated to be the next revolutionary 3D Action title. I can't really speak for HALO, the console version was ok at best, but we'll have to wait and see. If you could only buy one game on the 30th, I would have to recommend Half-Life 2. The original Half-Life was revolutionary, and the sequel is looking like more of the same. The Half-Life series has always been hailed for its intricate and fascinating story lines. The depth of the game play is what always made the original shine. Now it will be getting a nice cosmetic upgrade. With any luck, we can expect more of the same gaming brilliance exhibited in the original, and extended by the success of spin-offs like Counterstrike.

These are just the releases for THIS month. October will bring many more exciting titles including XIII, Silent Hill 3 for PC, and the sequel to Max Payne. I'll try discussing those at greater length in a future post.

... I guess I should end this post here... but I wanted to let ya'll know that this summer term was 4.0 term for me. 18 credits of A make me, my GPA, and my parents VERY happy. This should allow me to weasel my way into the Drexel Honors Program. More on that later… now I’m off to spread 40 Bags of cedar mulch!

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL!!!

That's right, its Monday Night Football time, and the Eagles season opener which will be kicking off in just about 3 hours. I'm pretty pumped to see them go up against the Bucks again. I originally thought I might be going to the game, but it became apparent that I wasn't early this afternoon. I'm a little disappointed, but hardly devastated. Though he's not the biggest football fan, Chaz is gonna come over later. We're gonna eat Buffalo Wings, drink some beers and watch the game. Hopefully I will have positive game results to report later on this evening. More on that after the game...

Some people have been expressing concern over my last post. I assure you all that I am mentally, fairly decent. I had quite a few introspective moments on Saturday night that made me feel at odds with the world. Either way I'm over it now, and in relatively high spirits. I spent Saturday night between Coffee Works and Palace discussing various issues with Jessica over countless cups of Joe. It was nice to see a new face, since Voorhees has become pretty desolate the last few weeks. Regardless, I think a good time was had by all, though I think I managed to creep Jess out on more than a few occasions on account of her soft-touch, as compared to my soul-less, heart-less, penchant for unfettered cruelty towards the world --- which is all meant in jest of course, or well… most… some of it. I guess my barbaric sense of humor can come off as overly caustic and hurtful at times... in-any-event, she said it was the most she's laughed in a long time... and I'm not that funny --- so go me!

The rest of my weekend was pretty bland. I saw The Order with Andrew and Merissa, and it almost caused me to loose all the Mexican food I had consumed not an hour prior in an involuntary personal protein spill. PLEASE think twice, no wait, three times before going to see this god-awful film. The concept for the film is GREAT but it cannot save the piss poor execution and seemingly mindless events that occur throughout. This movie has more blatant and poorly written 'filler' than anything I can remember. AVOID THIS FILM!!!

I also helped Andrew set-up his wireless network. Andrew just scored himself a top-of-the-line Alienware that SCREAMS!!! To say that I am jealous would be an understatement. Either way, we were both a little concerned when (after installing the wireless card), the system seemed to freeze up at the Alienware Splash screen. Andrew called Tech Support, and the operator thought removing the Network Card would solve the problem. After this didn't work, I asked Techie to run me through the BIOS resetting procedure for this particular MB. Resetting the BIOS fixed the problem immediately, and everyone was able to breath a little easier. Other than a minor hic-up the operation seems to have been a complete success. Must contain the urge to plunk down mucho $$$ for a new box. - BREATH!!!

It seems that my optimism paid off. I checked BANNERWeb this afternoon, and it pleases me to report that I received an 'A' in CS390D. For those of you that don't know, that’s Level 4 C++ Class. I didn't think I had a shot in hell of getting anything over a 'B', but I always seem to surprise myself. I still have two more grades coming in - one from the obnoxious air-head mentioned in a previous post, and the other for Computer Ethics. I would really like to make this a 4.0 term for me, but I just have this funny feeling that Computer Ethics is going to ruin it for me. Regardless, Computer Ethics class included some really interesting readings and classroom discussions. The Final Paper that I wrote, concerning the RIAA vs. File-Swappers, was also pretty well done, I feel.

I would write more, but I have some wings to eat and beer to drink and football to watch. If anyone wants to join, you know where to reach me.