After all the hype last month about the winter olympics, I was contemplating maybe getting this Vancouver Olympics DS game that I had seen advertised.

I was midly interested, but not enough to plunk out the cash. So I more or less forgot about it.

Then just the other day I was over at the post office, and in the parking lot I spotted an abandoned DS cartridge! I picked it up and turned it over and surprise! It was the vancouver winter olympics cart I had been thinking of getting. Coincidence? Hmm…

Well, when I got home I popped it in my DS and then found out why it had been abandoned. It didn’t work – not recognized. Upon closer inspection, I saw that the plastic casing had a bit of damage – nothing obvious, but just a slight ‘dent’. I pried the cartridge open and pulled out the board inside, and then I could see the real problem.

The precious mask-ROM chip was cracked. Maybe the cart got slammed in a car door or something. Just enough to crack the ROM chip but not enough to really disfigure the cart or damage the circuit board.

I tried some different tools but the ROM was most-assuredly deceased. The EEPROM was still alive and accessable though, and I was able to retrieve the game saves from it. So, 222 and shadow, whoever you are, I have your game save data. The game itself though is toast.

Anyways then I was reading about the game, and found that there’s this bit where you have to try and save winter because some bad guys have stolen the snow spirits and it isn’t going to snow any more anywhere ever. The one little snow spirit who escaped is all like begging for help to save his friends so they can make it snow again…

No more snow? Yeah… see I’m kinda ok with that. Good luck though.

I thought I was done with olympics stuff after the other post, but it’s very pervasive – like it’s all they talk about on radio and tv at the moment. So here’s some more tidbits and commentary.

Olympic Bouquets: I heard them talking on the radio about how these bouquets that were given to the medal-winners were specially designed to represent Vancouver / British Columbia, how they were all green and so forth. Am I the only one who immediately thought the bouquets were made of pot, or at least contained some weed? I know it’s one or two olympics ago, but when I think of winter olympics, vancouver, and then you think about snowboarding, and that’s just where my mind goes. Anyhow, they probably don’t have any weed in them, but I think it would have been classic if they did.

That Electronic Starting Gun: Appearantly I’m not the only one who thought it was wierd, there was a newspaper article about it. And it wasn’t brought about because Canadians are wimps about firearms — no, this time it’s the terrorists we have to blame! Yeah, normal starting guns can’t get through airport security any more so they had to come up with something else.

Winter Special Olympics: They do exist but they call it the Winter Paralympics. They happen next month. However, they don’t get to do luge, bobsled, skeleton, or any of those fun/crazy/dangerous sports. No snowboarding either, I think. They just get hockey, skiing (downhill & crosscountry) and curling. Oh but they do get biathlon! Hurtling down a concrete-and-ice chute is too dangerous, but rifles are ok, appearantly.

Biathlon: Speaking of which, I confirmed that they do still use real (.22 cal) rifles in this sport. So for now at least, no zappy laser-tag guns. Though I wonder, if biathletes can get their (real) rifles on and off airplans, how come those gee-whiz-guys at Omega can’t get their (blank-firing-only) starter pistols through? I’m suspicious.

Medals: I came across this which I thought was cool. The medals are among the largest/heaviest ever used in an olympics, weighing over a half-kilogram (more than a full pound) each. I found a neat little video on how they were made. Each medal is actually unique, so that no two are alike. If you put them all together though they form some very cool artwork. I heard the gold ones cost over $200 each to make. I wonder what it’d cost to buy something like that. They should have knockoffs for sale in the e-store. Though I shudder to think what that’d cost – I mean $40 for a cowbell? Sheesh!

The round ones are for the olympics, the square ones are the paralympics. I think. And hopefully the ribbon bit is really well-attached – give that a few swings and you could seriously brain someone.. a pound of metal on the end of 18 inches of nylon? Good luck getting that through airport security.

I know there’s ground beef, and then there’s ground turkey, but do they make ground hog? I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that.

Another thing I don’t know is what ground hogs have to do with February 2nd. I’m curious as to how this whole thing came about. It’s a pagan holiday, of course. Imbolc. One of the major sabbats, one of the crossed quarters, falling between Yule and the Vernal Equinox. A festival of light, bonfires, celebrating the turning point of winter..

But how ground hogs came into play, escapes me.

Read more »

So much going on, but aside from the occasional rant, I’m not focused enough to make complete topics of anything in particular. So, point form.

• Snail babies – lots of them. Clutches number one, two, and four all had a whole lotta babies in them. Clutch number three was mostly a dud. However, I’m not finding myself overrun with baby snails so I assume that the die-off rate has been high after all. I’ve only seen 4 or 5 snails that are larger than a BB and 3 of them are definately from the second clutch. I don’t know if there’s actually a thousand million baby snails hiding under the gravel where I can’t see them, but I figure if they were, they’d have to be getting bigger and I’d start seeing them…
• Winter crazies – as the end of the year approaches, the days get shorter, the dark gets darker, I’m filled with an overarching sense of running out of time. Projects are coming due, crisiis are looming, and stress is building. Monday I was having a panic-attack or anxiety-attack or something, and stopped functioning completely for a few hours. Then there was the insomnia and general lack of restful sleep. By Tuesday the panic/anxiety had subsided a bit, but it’s starting to build up again now.
• Work hazies – part and parcel with the above. Not sure which is the cause and which is the effect. Work deadlines lead to stress, stress leads to crazies, crazies lead to malfunctions, malfunctions lead to missed deadlines, and it’s all this big spiral of confusion and discombobulation.
• Tax mazes – one of the companies I work for is getting a tax audit. I just made the connection, the audit is starting on the 21st – the winter solstace. Also known as The Darkest Day Of The Year. Seems appropriate. And I promise never to say the word ‘nitwits‘ while filling out tax forms, ever again.
• X-mas lazies – not the right word, but I’m running out of things that rhyme. I don’t wanna x-mas. Bah humbug! Hah bumhug! I don’t mind buying gifts for folks, but I don’t have time to shop and don’t know / can’t remember what people want. And I don’t want anything tangible (though I’d really like More Time.) I just want to cancel the holiday this year. The only part of the tradition I care to maintain is the Ice-Cold-Beer-on-a-Hot-Xmas-Morning. And maybe some hors-d’oveurs from M&M.

That’s about it for now. No pics or illustrations, no time.

There’s something about night-time and snow. Dark sky, light ground. Quiet, cold. Still. It has a very particular feel to it.

A few nights ago, I took a few photos after everything was dark and quiet. I’m pleased with how they came out.

Looking out the front of the house, at the old church across the street…

Then out the back of the house, at my backyard…

Technical details: The camera was my 60 year old Zeiss Ikon Nettar, using GP3 Pan film at ISO 100. Processed for 7 minutes in TMax 1:4 developer.

This year, more than others I can remember, I’m really feeling displeased about autumn.

And for the record, it’s Autumn, not “fall”. Fall is what you do after you trip. Leaves fall in Autumn. Fall is not a season. I don’t care if I’m wrong. It’s Autumn. So there.

Anyways. Every morning it seems to be darker out. And the wet, grey, miserable dampness… every morning it is harder to function. Harder to find the motivation to get up and out. And every day it gets a little colder. Last night I had to add another blanket to my bed, I was freezing!

As much as I love Canada, I just don’t think I’m cut out for the weather here. And as bad as autumn gets, it’s just the prelude to winter! That’s another reason I dislike autumn.

For that matter, I think the real problem is working for a living – I’m getting mighty tired of that too. I mean, if I didn’t have to be at work every day, then I wouldn’t have to get up in the cold/wet/grey/dark and wouldn’t have to worry about finding the motivation or energy to carry on. I could just hibernate through the winter, or at least, stay indoors, crank up the heat, and survive through take-out and delivery services. Sure I could venture out now and then, on the warmer days. But I’d wait till the sun was up and it was well and truly daylight. And I wouldn’t be out for long – just a quick dash for supplies, wine, toys or whatever, then hurry back to my warm cozy house.

Actually, if I’m going to daydream, why not daydream big? If I could do anything, have anything, live anywhere I wanted, I would move to a tropical island type place, like Waikiti – I would have a small 1-room appartment above or behind a clubhouse type bar. I would spend my days messing around on the water with boats, or buzzing around in bizzare flying machines, and my evenings would be wasted away relaxing in a big comfy easy chair, with some nice chilled German wines.

I probably wouldn’t live long, but I’d live well.

Almost any kind of camping can be a peaceful experience. (Well, I said almost didn’t I?) When it’s done right… I mean canoeing in, finding somewhere way off the beaten track, where it’s just you, the tent, the water, the trees, and perhaps eleventy-zillion mosquitos.

One kind of camping that I’ve only done a few times (and none of them intentional), however is winter camping. It brings a whole new level of peace and quiet, when it’s too cold for the bugs, there’s nobody else around for a hundred miles (no-one else was dumb enough to go camping in this weather) and the air is still and quiet.

It is almost indescribable, waking up in the morning, and being able to hear snow fall. If the world is quiet enough, you can hear it snowing. It is almost magical.

Of course, the subsequent canoe trek through the blizard was sort of the downside anti-climactic non-magical moment… but even then, it had it’s fun. Like stopping in the middle of the lake to have a snowball fight in a canoe. (Yes, we were young, stupid and insane in those days. We’re older now.)

I don’t know why I thought of this today, in late July. It is just one of those moments, those memories, where Nature revealed some of her magic and beauty, and I feel fortunate to have experienced it.