Vermont, Part 2: Snowboarding and Insanity

Today, we woke up and went snowboarding. Holy jeez, is it nice up here. There are 119 trails on Okemo Mountain. Many of them had POWDER! Actual POWDER! In some places, they had TWO FEET of powder, which turns out to be very difficult to snowboard in. I loved every second of it; even when I wrenched my left arm nearly out of its socket. Yup, even then I was having a phenomenal time. Snowboarding in Maryland and Pennsylvania will never be the same. My new nickname should be the Mogul Killer.

The night turned out to be even more interesting. We attempted to go to dinner. Some of the roads had snow on them, and one of the party found a cul-de-sac at the bottom of a snow covered hill. Said party member also had nearly bald tires, and couldn't get back up the road. After he tried for twenty minutes, he let me try. When that happened, I managed to put his car into a four foot snow drift on the side of the road. Much digging later, and two more times getting stuck on the snow drift, and we finally got back to square one.

Meanwhile, Irene was up at a house trying to get help from a less than helpful gentleman who decided to chastise her about not having snow tires. Oh, Vermont, you kidder! This guy called his plow guy, who came without any sand to throw down. Still, with his plow, he was able to get to road into a state that allowed us to get the car back up the hill... finally.

We were an hour late for dinner. The dinner was remarkably tasty, and we spent it humorously assigning blame to the various party members. Let the drinking begin!

Vermont, Part 1: The Drive

It's Monday. The GPS is remarkably useful, but also a damned liar. We began at 10:45 or so. The ride was actually pretty pleasant for being well over four hundred miles. The key, if you ever decide to drive north, is to skip Manhattan. That will save you three hours. We learned this when we drove to Connecticut, and so we got lucky this time; no Manhattan. As for the GPS, it originally told us we'd be here at 5:45 PM. We got here at 7:00 or so. Granted, we stopped for food, but this should have bumped us to only 6:15. The snow cause a phenomenon I like to call "minute creep," which means that, for ever two minutes you're on the road, the GPS's estimated arrival time creeps up one minute, which can make the GPS a new-age torture device when you have to pee.

The real fun began when we hit the Vermont line, though. That's when mother nature decided to see if the Mazda would handle like a snowboard, or at least I assume so due to the snow it put on the road. Every mile, the snow got just a little worse. At that point the Girl was driving. That was interesting, since her foot REALLY likes the brakes. Every time she stopped, I thought we would careen into a slide. Thankfully, we did not, and she actually did pretty well.

When we got near to our destination, we had to call to obtain step-by-step instructions for getting to the place. At that point, the snow had built up to the point that the Mazda's traction control was probably praying for the pain to stop. I eventually took over so that I could weasel our way up the mountain in the snow, inch at a time. We made it though, and it's snow-licious up here. I can't wait to see what snowboarding on powder is really like. I hope my camera can take a run too. I've always wanted snowboarding pictures.

Gamey

Do you like first person shooters? If so, then I have three words for you; Left 4 Dead. OK, so that was two words and a number, but you get the idea. It fills a nice empty space in my brain; the space that wants to shoot zombies in a party-like atmosphere with my friends.

The premise for the game is interesting, but it's really not necessary. After all, the only action in the game, really, is shooting zombies. It bears mentioning anyway, though. You and three friends (or you and friends and AI) are actors in a movie. There are initially four movies in which you can participate. In each move, you have to get from the beginning, which is an area that is infested with zombies, to the save point, which is where other survivors pick you up and remove you from the area.

As for the rest of this weekend, it was also full of games. Forrest was down, and so we played Smash Brothers Brawl pretty much every second we had down time. Another game to just wail on stuff.

The main purpose of the weekend, though, was Friday night; the Jonathan Coulton concert. It was pretty much awesome. Paul and Storm opened for him. The venue, the Birchmere, just makes the experience more awesome. It's a dinner theater-style place. The food is too expensive, but the atmosphere makes up for it.

I miss the gamer part of me. It's been so long. Forrest is really the only person who brings it out in me, too. Playing solo just isn't as fun. Computers can either be too challenging or not challenging enough, but you can always feel the algorithm in whichever way they swing. Humans are algorithmless thus far. It makes things more interesting...

Well, Is It?

I feel happy. I feel accomplished. I feel like I could build a house. What I couldn't do, however, is build one that remains standing for any period of time. Oh, it would stand initially. It would almost certainly come tumbling down like a house of cards, though, after a short time. Have you ever played poker with 2x4s? I bet it's hard.

I helped frame a wall today. It may well be the best wall ever. I don't know why. I just get the feeling that it could be.

The girl practiced knitting today, a skill she acquired yesterday. I'm proud. She made the most magnificent, slightly deformed eye cover ever. It's just the right speed for somebody with my particular inability to be normal.

I then came home, had a beer, and blogged. Does it show?

Speedy Little Demon

The new beast arrived on Monday. So,

Monday, Construction...

Tuesday, Testing...

Wednesday, Operating Systems...

Thursday, Software...

Friday, Benchmarking...

Saturday, More Benchmarking...

If you haven't figured it out by this point, benchmarking means playing Portal and looking at the frame rate. The results? Portal is steady at 240 fps, peaks at 300 fps. That's with EVERYTHING turned up. :-)

This machine RULES!

The Philadelphia Auto Show

It's like really expensive crack, especially for somebody with as much car envy as I have. We got to go to the show today; 'we' being the girl and my parents. I had a few specific goals in mind, but I also got a few pleasant and unpleasant surprises.

First off, the unpleasant. I felt sorry for the girl because the cars were spinning; even the ones that weren't on rotating displays. She was dizzy all day.

To the car surprises. I got to see a new Camaro, which is awesome. I got to see a Dodge Challenger, which is also awesome. The Dodge Challenger is probably just as big as any of the older cars were. It's a rolling tank. I didn't think any car could ever appear larger than the Chevy Caprice, but, to my amazement, this one could take it in a fight.

I also got to sit in a few fun ones besides the Camaro and Challenger. I got to sit in a Mazda RX-8, and Subaru Impreza WRX, a Mazda 3, and Honda Civic Si. More on them in a moment. Noticeably absent were the VW GTI 4-door and the Mazdaspeed 3.

What I wanted out of this was a chance to see some interesting cars, and to consider what I might buy for a next car if I were shopping. So what got 'nixed from the list? The Audi A4. I hated it. It was a lot like the owner of Audi got a bunch of really old guys together and said, "How can I make this car look really new but feel really old so that I don't sell it to people?"

What didn't get 'nixed, then? Well, here's the list...

• Subaru Impreza WRX - Despite the interior being a bit plain, it still looks great on the outside and the seats are comfortable


• Mazdaspeed 3 - It wasn't there, so I can't cut it


• Civic Si 4-door - I felt lukewarm about it before, but I really like the interior. I just hope it doesn't suffer the same problems my RSX does. The interior of the RSX, after a bit of wear, seems to be, well, wearing more quickly than it should


• VW GTI 4-door - Another that wasn't there. This also looks really good on paper.
  

I think, despite the interior, that I still want the WRX. It's also got a nice, juicy place to put a CarPC. Plus, as an extra added bonus, somebody's already done it! If he can, why can't I?

An Active Imagination

I have an active imagination. It's also about as scattered as the continents. Yesterday, I went off. I saw a ditch in the side of the road, and I thought about how water and wind erode the land. I thought about how much water it would take to turn that ditch into a river, and when that might happen. I thought about the flooding that seems to be happening a lot these years in the mid-west, and I thought about how new rivers might form out there because of the erosion. I thought about how map makers will have to update maps due to things like this.

I don't know why I think these things. My brain just goes, and I can't stop it.

So where do you think new rivers might show up some day? Which mountains do you think will erode first?

In Memoriam

Before this all happened, I decided that I wanted to make a beer for when our child was born. The girl told me that the only beer she really likes is a chocolate stout, so I decided that's what I was going to make so that she could partake.

I still want to honor him. I still want to celebrate the fact that we got to spend 42 minutes with our baby boy. We made the chocolate stout today. The girl helped brew it.

Rest in peace, baby boy. We love you. We miss you. We'll never forget you. Hopefully, we'll get to meet you again one day.

Thank You

Throughout this mess, there have been a few good things to happen. Mainly, we've realized that we're lucky to have such wonderful family and friends. Everybody has just done so much for us. You have all cooked and kept us company and consoled us when we've cried and taken our minds off of our tragedy and generally just been the most supportive people we could ever have hoped to have.

So thank you everybody! Thank you Mom and Dad and Matt. Thank you mom-in-law and dad-in-law and brother-in-law. Thank you Amanda. Thank you Karina and Kohnke. Thank you Sandrew. Thank you Katie and Jon. Thank you Laura and Jonah. Thank you Ken and Liz. Thank you Tim and Samantha. Thank you so much for helping us feel better and for waiting on us and providing for us and being so generous. Thank you also to everybody who has sent us a card letting us know you're thinking of us.

The Worst Day of My Life

It's been nine days since it happened. It's taken me this long to build up the courage or the ability to write about it without collapsing into a ball of tears and blubber on the kitchen floor. I probably won't even make it through writing this.

On New Year's Eve, the Girl had pains in her abdominal area. After awhile, she realized they were semi-regular, and that we should probably time them. I search all over the Internets and eventually thought that this was a case of Braxton-Hicks contractions. It was way to early for anything else. When she noticed blood, I panicked.

We called the doctor, got in my RSX, and did 80 mph down Rt 2 to get to the Anne Arundel Medical Center. I pulled into the spot doing 30, stopped, and a nice nurse helped us to where we needed to be. We went into the triage room and I was panicking. The first thing they did was look for the heartbeat, which they didn't find right away. I freaked out, and then suddenly they came across it and I collapsed and started crying the first time. I was so scared the baby was hurt. That was about the only good thing that happened...

The bad news began here. They told us that they thought she was in labor. I don't understand why or how. All I know is that I was back to panicking. As soon as they said it, I asked if our baby even had a chance at survival. They told us that they were going to see how far along the labor was, and, if it was early enough, they'd try to prevent the labor for up to six weeks. I really hoped that this would work out. At 29 weeks, a baby has a much greater chance of survival. At 23, there's next to none.

They took her to a delivery room, and when they checked her out, they told she was fully dilated and that the baby was coming. I nearly had a heart attack. They asked the Girl if she wanted an epidural, to which she said yes. Before the doctor even left the room, the baby was coming, though. About 30 seconds later, at 7:48 PM, our baby boy was born. They immediately took him over to a NICU table to try to help him. His lungs, heart, and esophagus had not developed to the point that he was ready to come. They kept trying to intubate him to help him breathe, but his poor little passageways were just too small. He tried so hard.

At 8:30 PM, our baby boy died in our arms. He never got to cry, never got to open his eyes. About all he got to do was hold the Girl's finger. I never got to feel him kick in the womb.

Now, all I can think about is how his life was robbed. He'll never get to experience the things we've grown to love and hate. He'll never get the chance to walk, to cry, to laugh, or play. He'll never get the chance to go rock climbing or play soccer. He'll never get the chance to learn everything he may or may not have wanted to learn. He'll never get the chance to appreciate the beauties in the world. He'll never get to experience the wonders that happen every day.

Rest in peace, baby bear. Rest in peace, Andrew Gregory Ambler.