Yet another ride!

So, I think my horse-back riding group is in great denial that it is indeed winter and we have to stop riding soon. Today, we headed up to Elk Meadows, near Cripple Creek, Colorado, at 7:00 this morning. My first clue that it was either a) early or b) cold was that there was no guard in the entrance to the park...it is $5 to enter per vehicle. However, the thermostat on Eriks truck answered the question for me...definately b)...cold. Try 17 degrees cold...I was so glad I wore longjohns!

Incredible ride, but we didn't see any elk at all. Lots of footprints of big cats (cougars or bobcats), fox, coyote, rabits, and even some wild turkey. :)

Politics makes me ill...

if it wasn't enough to see the political candidates slamming each other on the TV and hearing it on the radio, I've found that work is no longer a sanctuary from the political scene. I work as a contractor for the government and thus, most co-workers tend to be conservative Republicans. I'm fairly middle ground, actually clinging to morals/standards/ideas from both conservative and liberal "agenda". It's funny hearing the conservatives slamming media for being so liberal...yet the conservative talk shows I'm bombarded with at work, are just as accusitory, hateful, defamatory, deceptive, etc. as they claim the liberals are. So what gives? To here them quote scripture from the Bible, and then gossip, etc. is just plain sick.

Pardon, while I head off to vomit in our under-construction restrooms...

...maybe it's the paint fumes and not the radio shows...I just don't know anymore. :)

Winter approaches...

this weekend marks the beginning of the end for me...but in many, many areas.

It's probably the end of the horse-back riding season.
It's the beginning of ski season (or close to it).

I've already bought my buddy pass for Keystone/Breck/A-basin and am looking forward to skiing. I didn't ski at all last year due mostly to my economic situation.

Temperatures will be dipping in to the 20's at night this weekend. No more gardens to take care of...no more grass to cut...but the beginning of shoveling snow, etc. :)

On-line gaming (part 2)...

With high speed access comes the ability to enjoy one of my favorite past times...on-line computer games.

My friend Brad (he'll have to give you his blog link) got me addicted to EQ years ago. However, he and most of his friends quit the game before I hit 30th level. :( So, I ventured out to Dark Age of Camelot. It's been a fun run, but alas, all good things must end and this MMORPG (massively multiplayer online roleplaying game) has evolved into a haven for power gamers...of which, I am not.

Brad was nice enough to invite me to EQ2 Beta, which is a blast...but nowhere near as captivating as the original EQ...but I'll keep at it.

This last weekend, I tried City of Heroes...wow, is that a neat game. You get to play as a comic-book-like superhero.

However, World of Warcraft will be coming out in Nov/Dec this year...it looks insane. :)

On-line gaming...

I live a ways out of town...about 16 miles from the nearest grocery, gas station, etc. I don't think it's that far, but most folks do...including interet service providers. Because of this, I've had dial-up for nearly five years. Two weeks ago, Qwest called to inform us that DSL was indeed now available on our dirt-road-accessible, horse-property, last-to-plow-your-area house! I was incredibly doubtful...to the point of calling them cruel and unusual torturing liars...but my partner, Scott, insisted on trying to get it anyhow.

First the modem was not delivered on the day they said it would. My doubts increased.
Then, when the modem did arrive, the letter said that the lines would go active at 5:00p.m. (on Friday night!) to which I raised a curious vulcan-like eyebrow. How would I get tech support if it was the weekend?
Finally, when I did hook it up and try it, the configuration program didn't work and when I phoned tech support, it said all of Denver and Colorado were experiencing difficulties. "On yeah..." I thought, "...SURE they are!" At 9:00 p.m. I tried again...and this time it worked.

A quick browse out to http://www.bandwidthtest.com/ indeed showed that I was receiving 200K/second!!! Over four times faster than my dial-up speed.

Heaven I say...pure heaven.

First posts...

I've begun a blogger to officially ramble in just one location rather than many. Perhaps I'm getting old and forgetful...not to mention bitter. :)

I do notice that I copy/paste more and more as I want to inform folks of things going on in my life. Thank goodness for bloggers!

Besides, I hear this is a required step for my Geek undergraduate studies...so there!

Jim (and yes, I do live in Colorado)