Stereotypes? Ugh.

Thumbs Down to the IR’s journalism in general, but especially this article on snow sports. (It’s too bad they didn’t put the stunning artwork online. Really, hand drawn by Peter Bovingdon and everything.) Honestly, if your story has to come with a disclaimer, that’s an automatic red flag. “I realize these characterizations may offend some people, and in one or two cases, they may not actually be true. For that I ask your indulgence.” I’m a skier turned snowboarder, switched over about 8th grade or so. And yesterday, I spent a worthwhile day of my winter break up on the slopes at Great Divide.

We’ll ignore the two sections on skiing for the moment. As for the snowboarders:

You are a Snowboarder if … You arrived at the hill: by being dropped off by your juvenile probation officer. For lunch you had: Twizzlers, Red Bull, cigarettes. Your theme song is by: My Chemical Romance. You believe: The lift line is a great place to sit down and do your bindings. After boarding, you will be: At Anchor Park. You are annoyed by: Your home arrest ankle bracelet fitting badly under your boots. When you aren’t boarding you: “pwn” everyone at Gears of War on the Xbox 360. Your Motto is: “Whoa, sorry dude!”

As a matter of fact, I went up with my dad. To be specific, I drove up and he drove down because I’m too scared to drive down the icy hill. For lunch I had a sandwich I brought from home, some famous Great Divide fries, and a Snapple. I’m sure people eat Twizzlers and Red Bull for lunch, but in the ten or twelve years I’ve been going up there, I’ve maybe seen four or five people smoking. Total. And none of them were high school delinquent snowboarders. I hate My Chemical Romance. Obviously personal preference, but I wouldn’t say that genre is music to board to. (Haven’t heard them before? Check out the free download available this week at last.fm.) But anyway, back to my rant. For those boarders (i.e. me) who haven’t quite mastered the skill of getting on and off the lift with both feet strapped on to a snowboard, yes, it takes a few seconds in the lift line to undo one foot. But it most certainly doesn’t require sitting down. Not only is the Anchor Park comment a generalization toward snowboarders, but toward Anchor Park itself. I’ve spent many a quality afternoon at Anchor Park. And just within the past few years the City of Helena presented a number of possible remedies at a city-wide meeting. I’m not even going to comment on the ankle bracelet statement. Contrary to popular belief, I don’t converse in “1337 5p34k” on a regular basis, I don’t own an Xbox, and I’ve never had to apologize to anyone while boarding.

So here’s to you Peter Bovingdon. And next time, if you have to write a story with a disclaimer, just don’t write it.

You Know You Live In America When…

I bought a laptop today.  It’s a Dell Inspiron E1405 Dual Core and I got most of what I wanted for $783.  Even got free shipping thrown in on top of it all.  Not bad if you ask me.  But the point of this post is actually aimed at American society, not at Dell.  (On a side note, thumbs up to Dell.)  However, during checkout, Dell gave me many different payment options for my new computer.  I’ve been pre-approved for a Dell Preferred Account!  Yay!  On another note…PayPal, payment over the phone, mail a check, redeem my Dell gift card, and of course, credit and debit cards.  Alright, I’m feeling a credit/debit mood today, let’s go with that.  Now I have two options: “Pay with one credit/debit card online.”  Okay…  “Pay with two credit/debit cards online.”  WTF???  Thumbs Down to you America.  Thumbs Down to the ridiculous amount of consumerism in today’s society.  Thumbs Down to the fact that the average American today has more than $8,000 in credit card debt, and Thumbs Down to even being offered the option of paying with two.  If one’s budget is so tight that one needs two credit cards to buy a sub-$1000 laptop, then one probably should not be buying said laptop.

Survey Time!

Thumbs down to it being the last Friday before school restarts.  Are you sick and tired of the short “happy secular holidays” break?  Do you want your voice to be heard?  While I actually kind of doubt anyone reads these things, here’s something you can do.  Go here, (the district’s 07-08 schedule survey), and pay close attention to #4.  GO.

Hunting, eagles, unemployment, and MSU.

See the verdict here.

More on Line Rider

For those of you incurably addicted to Line Rider (see previous post), there is hope.  Thumbs Up to Line Riders’ Anonymous, a wiki dedicated to tricks of the trade and other Line Rider talk – a place all Line Rider addicts belong.

Hmm…

The Helena Independent Record has this week’s official list.

While I agree wholeheartedly with the concept of a designated driver, I almost wonder if the IR’s emphasis on the new “Tipsy Tow” service might serve another, albeit unintended, purpose.  Obviously free advertising (even stated as such in the full-length story), does the offer of such services for more than just emergency use perhaps unconsciously promote drinking until one is unfit to drive?

Thumbs up to Line Rider

I think that I do not stand alone when I say that Line Rider is probably the best free game on the internet.  This game consists of a little guy in a toboggan with a little red scarf fearlessly sliding down a line that you drew.  The longer you play the game, the more amazed you become at is endless possibilities.  Flips, summersalts, loops, the line rider can do them all.

After playing the game a while, you begin to realize how hard it is to do some of these complicated moves.  That is why courses like this are so amazing.

Even though all of this is crazily awesome, I give a BIG thumbs up to the new version of line rider, which now includes some new features.  You can now draw, in addition to the normal lines, acceleration lines and scenery lines (which he can’t run into), and there is a straight line drawing tool and an eraser, both of which greatly increase the possibilities of Line Rider.  There is also a flag tool, which I think saves the position of the line rider when he is riding on the line, so you can pause it, draw more lines, and hit go again, and he will start from the place he left off.  Also, during the riding mode, there is a number in the upper righthand corner of the screen which tells how fast the guy is going. 

The guy who created line rider is doing pretty well right now.  A company named “inXile” has bought the rights to line rider, and games for Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii are scheduled to come out next year.  I think that makes us all wish that we had had some crazy idea like that.