Hotel Critic

I'm going on my third week in a row of being on the road. Drinking, eating, and no exercise has driven me to this point. Now, I'm laying in sheets that don't compare to the Westin's white fluffy heavenly bedding, yet I'm here with a refreshed outlook. I'm committing to new minimum standards, 1. eating vegetarian, and 2. at least 20 minutes of exercise a day.

On my flight to Atlanta tonight I sat next to a self proclaimed Schizophrenic. According to http://counsellingresource.com, symptoms include:

- a Major Depressive Episode,
- a Manic Episode, or
- a Mixed Episode
- delusions
- hallucinations
- disorganized speech (e.g., frequent derailment or incoherence)
- grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior
- negative symptoms, i.e., affective flattening, alogia, or avolition

Only one symptom is required if delusions are bizarre or hallucinations consist of a voice keeping up a running commentary on the person's behavior or thoughts, or two or more voices conversing with each other."

She told me many things about her life including deaths in her family, how she found her birth mother since she was adopted, her marriage, her divorce, her illness, her age, her and her boyfriend's income, her smoking addiction and recovery habits, her religious views, and her plans to move west. At the end of the conversation (which I had to preemptively cut off since I think she would have enjoyed talking with me all night) she reached over and put her hand on my arm and said in an asking way, "at some point in your life, accept God... and make it soon. I like you, I want to see you in Heaven."

Her plea for me to follow God didn't go far but I did relate to her in the sense that she believes in something strongly, and I believe in other things strongly. These values, different for everyone, form the foundation of our lives, our balance, and serenity. For me, I believe in all parts equal. The parts that I believe must be strong for a person to feel whole, in not such an exact way, are love, eating, health, exercise, work, inspiration and stimulation. I believe that everything happens for a reason, and I believe in spirituality in an undefined way.

I'm not upset that she asked me to follow God. I could easily ask someone to eat Vegetarian. I ask people to join me to compete in triathlon events all the time. The point being, people spread news about the things they care about most.

Meanwhile, I'm going to further my following of Vegetarianism tonight by reading China Study, and suggest that you read it too ;-)

GDC, not Jackson Hole

Another year at Game Developer's Conference (GDC) has come and gone. People always say, "Wow, there must be so many nerds there", or "How many guys hit on you tonight." It is true that there are mostly guys at this conference and some are stereotypical of gamers... well actually everyone is a gamer... but, everyone is not a nerd.

The business of gaming is pretty neat- mostly because everyone is passionate about what they are doing and because the business is quite complex. If you're not in it, then you don't know who is a publisher, who is a distributer, who is a developer or who is a producer. You wouldn't know that being in Developer Relations is like being in that old Tom Hanks movie "Big." And, you wouldn't know that most people at these events are very cool and very fun to hang out with.

There are however a few things that are annoying about GDC. Firstly, you will never meet more 20 something year olds who call themselves "C-Level." And on the same note, they all claim to have been brought into the company to "help clean it up." In other corporate businesses, you won't find people talking about stuff like that unless they are successful, older, and typically in VC.

Next, and perhaps due to the over-concentration of people who spend most of their time interacting with avatars, you will have far more guys who come in a little hot. Meaning, they try to act funny by saying something extremely crass (and most of the time they actually get away with it!?), or, they'll have one of their gaming buddies advance you and start with the line "see my buddy over there, he is so cool, seriously, he's the man." Meanwhile, the buddy is slobbering drunk and sitting across the table from you unable to understand much English, since he just flew in from France... or someplace else.

Ok, the stories above are true. Luckily, these scenarios are offset but running into familiar faces. I was so pleased to see my friends Sumi, Gabe, Adriano, Scott, Stephane, and Jeremy. You will always run into the same people time and time again at game conferences, which makes these events akin to visiting family.

Overall, the conference was successful. I got to meet with prospects from all over the world including the UK, Germany, Madrid, and California. The more that I get to kabitz with gamers, the better I start to understand the business. There are so many neat things to do and be a part of within the world of gaming, that "hanging out with nerds" is much more fun than it sounds ;-)

Live Simply

Life in Jackson Hole in a word is simple. Get up, go to the mountain, ski, drink beer, go to bed. It was so nice to be back.

We stayed at Chris’s CEO’s house in Driggs, which is just over the Pass from Wyoming. Equivalent being Carbondale to Aspen, except in Jackson there is a huge Pass in between the resort and the house which can be gnarly on a winter dump day. Luckily for us, the drive was easy. It was warm when we arrived and progressively got warmer as the week went on.

We arrived late Saturday night, or actually early in the morning. So on Sunday we lounged around the huge mountain home retreat all day long. It was so relaxing.

Monday and Tuesday we skied Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. It was super fun to show Chris the mountain, and luckily I remembered it very well so it was easy to find the powder stashes. We followed this by a day in the backountry, a day at Targhee, and a snow-shoe adventure in the park. Here are the details:

JH, First Day Runs – Tram to Rendezvous Bowl & down the Hobacks; Gondola to Thunder Lift, from there down the Grand, skiers right through the trees. Gondala to skiers left cut through the woods to mid Casper Bowl. Up Casper lift, skiers right traverse over to Moran Woods, quick side step up around a special rock which once you’re over it opens up to totally untracked goodies. From there down to Apres Vous, and up to Saratoga Bowl.

JH, Second Day Runs – Gondola to the Headwall, we bootpacked up the stairway with Julie. This was pretty tough since we were shouldering our skies, and the steepness on the way up was a bit nerve-wracking. From there we skied down the Crags, which was absolutely beautiful and filled with deep untouched snow. Tram to Rendezvous Bowl, cut left to go down North facing side of Laramie Bowl. We did this a couple of times. Also, we skied the Thunder lift and hit the mogul fields lookers right.
At the end of the day we headed to the shop Julie works in to check out the boots. When the guy went to take my liner out, my whole boot cracked in half! So, I bought a nice new pair of Atomic, a well overdue purchase.

Teton Pass, Third Day – We hiked the South side of the Pass over to Edelweiss Bowl. It was pretty easy to get there and the snow was absolutely awesome once we arrived. See pic below, our tracks are the obvious large ones lookers right of middle (not down the nose). This was probably our best backcountry day yet. The run continues down another slope making it well worth the skin in.



JH, Fourth Day – We celebrated with Nate for his 25th birthday on the slopes. Also, I got to pick up my new setup (new boots adjusted to the binding and skis). When I arrived, Weldon says… Abby, Abby, Abby… we gotta talk about these skis… then he showed me that the core of my ski is basically splitting away from the metal, which means a new ski purchase in my future.
Highlights were skiing lookers right of Expert Shutes, hiking up Pepi’s Bench to hit the top of Casper Bowl, and skiing Alta Shute #1, just to prove that we could.

Targhee, Fifth Day – Wholly crap I was tired. We didn’t even start skiing until 1pm. The temps were high and we were skiing in just a tee shirt. We did climb up the Peaked Mountain where the Cat skiing is, but once we got to the top we found out that there was a big mountain competition for teens, which prevented us from dropping into the nice North facing slope. Chris continued to hike up though and caught some nice turns down the face. I was so tired that I just sat in the snow and took a video of him coming down. After that, I was cooked. I was so tired that I had to stop while on the Cat Track to take a break!

Teton National Park, Taggert Lake, Sixth Day – We were tempted to climb up to Edelweiss again, but considering that our quads were near explosion quality the day before, we decided to head into the park to catch some views of the Tetons. We definitely lucked out on weather and views. With just a short show-shoe journey into the Taggert Lake area we got awesome views of the Grand, the Middle, Owen, and South. On the way out we drove into the Elk Refuge and saw thousands of Elk, pretty neat.

The trip was totally awesome. Every day we had great turns, lots of beers, too much red meat, and huge tired grins on our faces. I ran into lots of old ski buddy friends, which was really neat. I can’t believe they’re all still there, 5 years later for me, and 7 to 8 for most of them. It does make me wonder if I should have left at all.

Until next year Jackson Hole, I do love you.

Signing out from my white and fluffy Westin Hotel bed in San Fran - awaiting the start of another Game Developers Conference week.

Mouse in the House

I don't know that I've experienced anything as disgusting as this in a while. So, we've been having mice in the house recently. They started in the garage... no big deal. We put a trap out and caught 7 in one night. Right now, there is one hanging out in the trap, probably happily eating the peanut butter and dog food that lured it there.

A couple of nights ago, I was having a very normal Abby craving, cake. I'm mixing up the cake batter, switch the oven on, and buzzing around the kitchen with a grin on my face. As usual, for late, the oven is smoking as it is heating up, and today... it just smells worse then usual. So, in my energetic mood I open the oven and look harder than usual to see what the heck is making it stink so much.

There is a panel at the bottom of the oven with only an inch opening on either side to look into. This panel made it a feat just to look into the bottom of the oven. So, I'm kneeling down, head nearly to the floor to get a good angle, and I saw it. What looked to be a blackened, fuzzy, clump of dead mouse at the bottom of the oven.

Oh my god. I couldn't believe it. I call my dad, call my boyfriend, and the landlord to share the story. No one was around to help me, so I meander over to Cory's house (next door neighbor who is conveniently a maintenance guy). Naturally, he's disgusted but mostly laughing at me and my story. Somehow however I got him to offer his assistance to dismantle the oven.

Now we're sitting in front of the oven unscrewing the bottom panel. I'm getting nervous since I'm about to see the thing. Anyway, Cory removed the panel to reveal a black clump of burnt ashes and fur, as well as a lot of mouse poop. Gross!

The worst was over. We vacuumed out the oven, scrubbed everything down, and reassembled the oven. When I went to cook in it later (and yes I cooked in it later), there was no smell.

Moral of the story is, if you smell something or if your oven is smoking more than usual. Investigate and clean it! Otherwise, you can fantasize about the taste of smoked mouse and poop on your food.

Good night!

I saw yet another pro triathlete today!

Yet another pro triathlete has moved to Boulder! I was in the locker room this morning after my morning swim with Mike Ricci's class and I see Julie Dibens, 2 time winner of Maui Xterra! I nearly asked her if it was her, but then I heard her speak and knew that the answer was yes.

I checked out her racing schedule and first off let me say that it is brutal. She's racing every two weeks. But on a fun note, she'll be racing the 5430 Peak and Long Course! That was really cool to see since those events feel intimate since every triathlete in the Boulder area participates. Of course, the only time I might see her would be in passing prior to the race or when she laps me on the bike. But hey, I'm excited!

Dary Passed INDOC Today!!

My little brother Dary passed INDOC today! INDOC, or Indoctrination, is the first of many sessions that comprise the 2 year training program in the Air Force. Dary is training to become a PJ, who is the guy they call to jump out of a helicopter and rescue men on the ground. This was an 8 week session with weekly tests. 80+ guys started, and at this moment, 8 have passed all the tests. Another 10 have a final chance to pass the tests they failed next week.

Dary accomplished today: 

- 100% on his mental test

- 6 mile run in 40:33 min. This had to be done within 44 min.

- 19 pull ups in 1 min. The goal was at least 13 pullups.

- 84 situps in 2 min. The goal was at least 75.

- 80 pushups in 2 min. The goal was at least 70.

- 4000 meters of finning (fins on and your can't use your hands) in 72 min. The goal was to do this within 80 minutes

- 50 meter swim underwater.

- Go underwater with all your gear on and tie certain knots.

Next up? He's moving on to deep sea diving class!