barok
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Posts posted by barok
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Here at my 40,000 student State University Jock-ocracy, frat life is all about Abercrombie & Fitch, drinking the cheapest beer possible, football Saturday, date-rape, buying friends, pissing on the underclassman members as much as possible, and cheating on School of Business exams.
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I made up my own cocktail and it is pretty damn good. It's also pretty damn girly, but who cares and who's countin' ?
1 part Vodka
2 parts Cherry Juice
+ garnish (cherries, lime, whatevah. . .)
I call it the Red Door.
Of course you need real cherry juice, which is probably not easy to find in Japan, but is all too abundant here in Wisconsin.
One thing that I like to do if I am on a cocktail kick, is to make ice cubes out of various flavors of juice or whatnot - lime juice, lemonade, orange juice, grape juice. That way you can serve up big glasses full of colorful ice cubes with your vodka or gin and whatever.
fun, fruity, and delicious. -
to stop yawns - just bite your lip or tongue, same thing works supressing a laugh (when you feel the urge to laugh at something stupid one of your colleagues is saying)
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Where do you see yourself in 10 years ?
Where would you like to be in 10 years ?
and most importantly, can you make the 2 visions become one and the same ?
In 10 years I'll be 39.
I see myself working in a hospital pharmacy in a mountain town, married, 2 kids. still snowboarding. Not a bad life.
Where I would like to be is single, at some beach in Europe, suntanned and fluent in enough languages to mack on all the ladies at my wild parties that I throw everynight in my beachfront 3-level.
I don't think I can make them mesh.
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Oh I know what yer sayin'. I tried to volunteer for a shelter once in college, but the funny thing was that the social worker made every effort to dissuade me from helping out.
Slow - why is that the general attitude towards homeless people in Japan ? That "it's there choice." Granted, I don't know too much about the situation, but I hear that line an awful lot. Is there free housing available for these people ? Seems odd to me that anyone would choose to live under a blue tarp in a park.
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Some of you are being way too harsh.
I don't agree with the war either, but I would rather a program like this exist than for me (taxpayer in the US, albeit not an American) to have to pay for the troops R&R. I already have had to pay too much for this war. As dotdbdot said, if you support the troops, great, here is a clever way to do just that. I am sure they will appreciate it.
Who says the airline companies are ripping off the soldiers ? Or that they are being scammed ? They are being given extra time off from their jobs, and they can choose to do what they like with that time. If American taxpayers had to foot the bill for this as well, what would you say "Oh that is sooo American, charging the taxpayers for the war-monger's vacations ! !"
What's "pathetic" is the constant one-line, whiney posts against this or that aspect of America. I too agree with less than half of the policies here, but maan some people just never stop whining. If you really don't like something, at least take the time to criticize constructively.
This is a decent project with good intentions, but a lousy name, so what?!? It seems to be working so far.
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Just don't wear too much. . . Japan is not cold.
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the best you could do would be gala yuzawa, but that would be an hour and a half shinkansen ride for 3 people both ways, every day for 5 days - minimum cost would be 160,000 Yen. The highway wouldn't be much cheaper probably. From Tokyo to Hakuba is a 5 hour drive. Probably a 3 hour drive to Yuzawa.
I don't think your plan is very realistic. If you really want to go skiing somewhere, you really need to think about staying over night somewhere. It is cheap, and much better than making the long trip everyday.
Oh yeah, the time of year is no problem at all.
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I have suffered several concussions. . .
they say that each one increases your chances of Alzheimer's by x% x being a number I can't remember, maybe 4??
Anyways, yeah, once I did a standing backflip to concrete headplant and knocked myself out. Once I was swinging on some ceiling pipes, gymnastics style, got horizontal, and my hands slipped, landing the back of my head on the polished cement floor. And once I fell face first on a big kicker, broke my nose and knocked myself out, bad concussion. These days, I don't sweat them at all, I think my extacy blackouts circa 2000 caused far more brain damage than the concussions, so I still go off big jumps, but with a helmet. Oh yeah, and I spend alot of time "getting to know" the kickers as well. Helmets are a neccessity, ask any mountain area physician how many snowboarders turned vegetables they know, and you'll tie one on.
But you did, so anyways, wearing a helmet makes a huge difference. In two incidences, I would have suffered terrible concussions if it weren't for my lid. Once I fell off the lip of a halfpipe onto the flat on my head, landed so hard, I almost passed out, but I was okay, thanks to my helmet. Another time I planed out backwards on an icey kicker onto the back of my head. I hit my head so hard that I thought I lost some teeth. To this day, I think that fall would have split my head wide open, but I was once again okay thanks to the helmet.
Oh yeah, and when doing backflips, frontflips, corkscrews, or anything for that matter, you gotta commit.
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So I got home last Saturday after spending 6 days and nights in Breckenridge Colorado. This is my story. . .
Zwelgen flew into my hometown of Madison, Wisconsin, USA after a long painful flight from New Zealand. As some of you know, she got a job this year in Breckenridge, CO as a cook. While it doesn't sound like a great job, they sponsored her (and alot of other international folks') visa, and by the end of the trip I was jealous of her lack of responsibility, and just the overall casualness of her work environment.
I had the death flu when she arrived, so I carted her over to my sister's appartment for the night, while me, my roommate, the roommate's 1-year old, and the roommates dog recovered from the plague. Zwelly spent the next week or so hanging out with my dysfunctional roommate, and said kid, and dog, whilst I studied, worked, schooled, and tried to get Zwelly her skis - long story short - we got the skis, but don't EVER order from www.getboards.com. We had to cancel our order after dicking around with this company for 2 weeks, but found her Trouble Makers local anyway.
but you don't really care about all that do you . . . we set out 2 Fridays ago - the 21st I think ihtwaz. The drive took us 17 hours with stops only for gas, and to change drivers. When we got to I-70 Denver, I was on the brink of 3am-9am driving shift insanity, so I let Zwelly take over once we got over Loveland Pass (11,900 ft.). The road to Breckenridge is hairy, with lot's of elevation change, runaway truck ramps, and people going 90mph, but she handled it well.
When we got to Breckenridge, it was cold, freezing ****ing cold, and it stayed that way all week. We went to a few company offices to sort out paperwork, and I picked up my season pass ($300 for Breck, A-Basin & Keystone - cheap!!)
We then proceeded to Zwelly's housing project, and after a few misassignments, arrived at the proper flat.
Her roommates were 2 Hungarian cuties, and we talked, had a bite, and caught a nap. I went out later that day for a few runs. It was freezing, and icy, but I was glad to be on the snow again.
The next day, Zwelly had naught to do, and of course neither did I, nor the Hungarians, so we all went up to the mountain to have some fun. It wasn't fun - it was fricken' freezing out there - I mean like -40 Wind Chill and death ice - We were all ridiculous bundled up, but fingers, toesez, and facia all froze up like right quick. The Hungry ones bailed after 2 runs to their lift shacks (they work as lifties), and Zwelly and I stayed out for 2 more before heading home. Aside from Zwelgen loving her new skiis on the piste, it was seriously not cool.
The next couple of days were pretty good. I checked out the board park, where the jumps were already huge, and people were goin' off bigtime. It is at this point that I must curse my new equipment - board: Option Kevin Sansalone - heavy, but otherwise good, bindings: junk-worthy Burton HD P1's - crappy ladders, crappy leather, already falling apart - after a broken board and falling apart bindings, I am starting to wonder whether anyone at this company has a brain, and my new boots: DC Phantom 2 or 3's?, which rule, but unable to work properly, cuz of my suck-ass bindings. So because of my gear, and the icey conditions, I was just feeling like Joe Beginner out on the slopes, and in the terrain park. not cool.
So I spent the next few days riding in the trees and in the park. The trees were not really ready for riding, yet. There were plenty of "snow snakes" that would bite my board and throw me to the ground. Not really cool, because the trees are very tight on the lower runs, and there are plenty of sharp pointies lurking just below the snow surface. I tried to get out of the trees after a few real close calls, but I just couldn't seem to do it.
As it was snowing on day 3 and 4, the piste was nice in the morning, but got hella chopped and iced in the afternoon - big glaring patches of ice, where you have close to zer0 control over where you are going, doesn't help when you are going fast. sliding fast over a patch of ice, then catching your edge when you get past the ice is no good, just no good. still solo, I ducked a few ropes, rode some more trees, and finally started getting 360's on the medium (8 meter) kicker in the terrain park, although I definately wasn't going as big as I wanted to, and often knuckled the lip.
In 6 days, I never really conquered the terrain park, and feel like I need a new board to cope with rails and jumps - something doesn't weigh a ton, and something that won't break like my crappy Burton Dragon did last year - any suggestions ? The Never Summer SL looks like a good choice, seeing as it has carbon beams, but I am worried about the weight.
Zwelly and I finally went out riding together last Thursday, Thanksgiving, and her birthday (all the same day). We hit up the trees, which I had exhaustively explored by this point, and were stoked on the 4 or so inches of powder that we found. But that's it folks, no more neck-deep days like last season, it's a thin layer of pow if yer lucky in Colorado. Zwelgen was having some problems of her own on her new skiis, as she has never really owned fat skiis before. I was still whining about my own gear, so we pissed and moaned, but rode together at Breck from 9 am till 1 pm.
We then took a quick break, ate some hummus sando's, and then drove the car to the famed backcountry area known as Loveland Pass (route 6 I think). The drive was hell on my car, which was already taking a beating from the cold, but we got to, and got up the crazy, snowy road full of switchbacks up the pass. We even managed to pick up a couple of hippies on the way up. People do a drive up, ride down kinda thing there, and have since I can remember.
When we got to the top, I opened the trunk, and it shot up immediately, I thought it was going to fly off. I opened the car door, and the handle flew out of my hand. I got out of the car, and walked towards the drop-in point, and the wind was so strong that it felt like a sandblaster on my face. It straight-up scared me, so we got back in the car, and drove down to a place out of the wind, and built and hit a kicker until the sun went down.
Anyway, we went home and went out to Breckenridge's various drinking establishments to cap off a relaxing week. Drove home the next day, and just lemme say, 17 hour drive by yourself is not cool.
Some overviews: Despite all the whining, while I was there, and in this story, I had a good time. The highlight was the fact that although Breckenridge's male to female ratio is something like 3:1, I spent all my time in the company of cuties. Breckenridge is a small town, but the nightlife is lively. Every night of the week there is kindov' a night for the locals, and people party down. Everybody knows each other, and everyone is really there just to be a bum, party, and snowboard or ski, so it's a good vibe. Colorado's conditions really threw me. Super icy, again, not at all like Japan. And every day there was colder than my coldest day in Japan as well. The terrain was pretty flat, but steeper than Japan, and when they open up the chutes, I will definately be back to claim them. The altitude was a kick in the ass, and I never experienced any problems with it in Japan. And my car was not happy at all, whereas my car in Japan never gave me any flak, 'cept when I crashed it into a snowbank. I saw people getting hassled for riding off course in CO, and was kinda surprised to see it, but they had valid safety reasons for it (A rider died the week before I was there by smacking into a water pipe after ducking a rope). Not as many people rode the trees as I expected in CO, but maybe that was because It was so early. The runs were much longer and wider in Colorado, so the runs never seemed crowded, although the liftlines did suck from time to time, and the lifts seemed much more strategically placed in Breck, than what I saw in Japan. As far as people's levels are concerned, In Japan I always saw 2 kinds of riders - beginners and experts, very few people in between. In Colorado, there are tons of athletic college kids, and businessmen, who have surpassed that beginner stage, but just don't have enough time to really excell past the intermediate level. And oh yeah, almost everyone speaks English.
Anyways, I am going back in December for a few weeks, and I'll give the full report.
peace.
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From what I can determine from this site, they will send this guy out to rescue you - he's pretty strong by the looks of it, and from what I hear, fully trained in medicine, rescue, and yelling. And the premiums are somewhere around １０.７５０円 for the season ? ?
Sounds like a perty good deal to me.
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It's not superpipes that I don't like, Northstar at Tahoe has a great superpipe, it just was Dyna's that I didn't care for. . . Just no trannies.
Big transitions are one of the major advantages of superpipes - it makes them safer even than regular pipes because you don't crush on the flat. Dyna should really try to widen theirs, and it would be perfect.
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yep it's true, sparks,
and I'll have you know, samurai living in ancient New Zealand spoke the best English of them all, which probably explains why everyone in "The Last Samurai" speaks so well.
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whoah the Dane-meisterino, don't you owe me an email ? or maybe I owe you.
Anyways, fave trick is FS 540's when I can land 'em straight, but the BS 360 just feels super cool when you don't quite land straight but maybe 45 degrees left to go, and you just cruise that extra angle out on the tail as you ride away. probably doesn't look real good, but it feels cool because you are essentially just hanging on blind.
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47's park was the best one I have ever hit. I agree with enderz'z azzezzment. pow run to park keeps you nice and warm, and keeps the terrain fun and variable.
Yanaba was pretty good, but they really didn't take good care of the jumps, so I never trusted the big stuff there.
And sorry, Fatts, I felt the same way about Dyna/Takasu's park - too icey when we were there, and in general, not well-maintained enough. Plus that superpipe had almost no transitions, just looked like 2 walls with a flat in-between, much more a skier's pipe I would guess ? ?
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Yeah, last year's "afterbang" was by far the best I have seen.
RobotFood's new one "lame" is out now, but I haven't seen it yet.
The best new vids for this year are rumoured to be the aforementioned "lame" and Kingpin Productions' "Back in Black" - neither of which I have seen.
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I generally don't use a Visa,
I find MasterCard to be much more conbini.
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best when pronounced
"naawaddimsehn?"
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aww come on Sparks, no cred lost, everyone who has studied history knows that all the Samurai spoke excellent English.
yep all of them.
yep excellent.
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hard not to get the "you look kinda Canadian" comments when you look like this. . .
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I've heard Whistler sucks, because Intercorp owns just about everything and they have you by the balls and they know it. but that could be dead wrong.
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Oh yeah Ocean, the straight guy's girlfriends just looove it, that is I'm sure, until her man starts taking longer to get ready than she does, and starts asking if his pants make his ass look big.
That's one case. The other being that the guy keeps up this image half-assedly for 3 months, until that expensive, yet somehow shoddily made and quick to go out of fashion wardrobe wears out, then it's back to reality.
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Yeah, it helps. Even if you don't have anything strapped to your feet. It is all about visualizing a trick or a jump or whatever. And then simulating that mental process as quickly, safely and effectively as possible.
Those freestyle skiers train almost exclusively on trampolines in the summer, or so I hear, lots of pro snowboarders do as well.
My folks have a trampoline at their house, and I had alot of fun recently trying various flips and spins on it. I was able to put into practice alot of the body mechanics that I had only previously visualized, and it felt great. I think if I practiced on a tramp every day, all of those freestyle tricks would get a whole lot easier.
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yeah this has been one of the more irritating things to pop up recently. One of the things I liked about living in Japan, is I never had to hear about these phony media constructed groups of people. I'm sure Japan has them, I just don't understand the language well enough.
The word "metrosexual" comes to us courtesy of British author Mark Simpson. It is purely ridiculous, as dressing well, etc. does not, a new form of sexuality, give rise to, even if you are in love with yourself. The term/concept has been heavily adapted by the media, in an effort to sell expensive clothing, accessories, and hair products to otherwise oblivious straight men.
Thank God straight men are still oblivious despite all the hype. These people simply don't exist, at least not anywhere I have seen. I guess I have seen a few people wearing nicer shoes lately, but it hardly seems worthy of the attention.
Why anyone who is not selling expensive clothing, accessories, or hair products would see a benefit to wussifying an entire generation of men, or what that benefit might be, is totally beyond me.
New World Trade Center
in General off-topic discussions
Posted
Lloyd, take a disco vacation in Bali, yah kangaroo-rootin' convict phuck.
I think the design doesn't lack so much unity with itself, but definately with the rest of the Manhattan skyline.