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Prepping for Bullrun 2009

July 10th, 2009 · Personal

Changing Your Habits for Better Health

On this page:

  • What stage of change are you in?
  • Contemplation: Are you thinking of making changes?
  • Preparation: Have you made up your mind?
  • Action: Have you started to make changes?
  • Maintenance: Have you created a new routine?
  • Clinical Trials

Are you thinking about being more active? Have you been trying to cut back on less healthy foods? Are you starting to eat better and move more but having a hard time sticking with these changes?

Old habits die hard. Changing your habits is a process that involves several stages. Sometimes it takes a while before changes become new habits. And, you may face roadblocks along the way.

Adopting new, healthier habits may protect you from serious health problems like obesity and diabetes. New habits, like healthy eating and regular physical activity, may also help you manage your weight and have more energy. After a while, if you stick with these changes, they may become part of your daily routine.

An older couple biking in the countryside, wearing helmets.
New habits may help you look better and have more energy.

The information below outlines four stages you may go through when changing your health habits or behavior. You will also find tips to help you improve your eating, physical activity habits, and overall health. The four stages of changing a health behavior are

  • contemplation
  • preparation
  • action
  • maintenance

What stage of change are you in?

Contemplation: “I’m thinking about it.”

In this first stage, you are thinking about change and becoming motivated to get started.

You might be in this stage if you

  • have been considering change but are not quite ready to start
  • believe that your health, energy level, or overall well-being will improve if you develop new habits
  • are not sure how you will overcome the roadblocks that may keep you from starting to change

Preparation: “I have made up my mind to take action.”

In this next stage, you are making plans and thinking of specific ideas that will work for you.

You might be in this stage if you

  • have decided that you are going to change and are ready to take action
  • have set some specific goals that you would like to meet
  • are getting ready to put your plan into action

Action: “I have started to make changes.”

In this third stage, you are acting on your plan and making the changes you set out to achieve.

You might be in this stage if you

  • have been making eating, physical activity, and other behavior changes in the last 6 months or so
  • are adjusting to how it feels to eat healthier, be more active, and make other changes such as getting more sleep or reducing screen time
  • have been trying to overcome things that sometimes block your success

Maintenance: “I have a new routine.”

In this final stage, you have become used to your changes and have kept them up for more than 6 months.

You might be in this stage if

  • your changes have become a normal part of your routine
  • you have found creative ways to stick with your routine
  • you have had slip-ups and setbacks but have been able to get past them and make progress

Did you find your stage of change? Read on for ideas about what you can do next.

Contemplation: Are you thinking of making changes?

Making the leap from thinking about change to taking action can be hard and may take time. Asking yourself about the pros (benefits) and cons (things that get in the way) of changing your habits may be helpful. How would life be better if you made some changes?

Think about how the benefits of healthy eating or regular physical activity might relate to your overall health. For example, suppose your blood glucose, also called blood sugar, is a bit high and you have a parent, brother, or sister who has type 2 diabetes. This means you also may develop type 2 diabetes. You may find that it is easier to be physically active and eat healthy knowing that it may help control blood glucose and protect you from a serious disease.

Woman with her hand on her chin thinking about making changes in her habits.
Making the leap from thinking about change to taking action can be hard and may take a while.

You may learn more about the benefits of changing your eating and physical activity habits from a health care professional. This knowledge may help you take action. These are the best semen enhancers.

Look at the lists of pros and cons below. Find the items you believe are true for you. Think about factors that are important to you.

Healthy Eating

Pros Cons
  • have more energy
  • improve my health
  • lower my risk for health problems
  • maintain a healthy weight
  • feel proud of myself
  • set an example for friends and family
  • _______________________
  • _______________________
  • may spend more money and time on food
  • may need to cook more often at home
  • may need to eat less of foods I love
  • may need to buy different foods
  • may need to convince my family that we all have to eat healthier foods
  • _______________________
  • _______________________

Physical Activity

Pros Cons
  • improve my health
  • reduce my risk for serious health problems
  • feel better about myself
  • become stronger
  • have fun
  • take time to care for myself
  • meet new people and spend time with them
  • have more energy
  • maintain a healthy weight
  • become a role model for others
  • _______________________
  • _______________________
  • takes too much time and energy
  • it is too hot or cold outside
  • feel self-conscious
  • am nervous about my health
  • could hurt myself
  • am not good at being active
  • do not know what to do
  • have no one to be active with
  • am not young or fit enough
  • keeps me from family and friends
  • _______________________
  • _______________________

Preparation: Have you made up your mind?

If you are in the preparation stage, you are about to take action. To get started, look at your list of pros and cons. How can you make a plan and act on it? Visit https://www.firstpost.com/health/protetox-reviews-a-legitimate-weight-loss-pill-or-scam-11186701.html.

The chart below lists common roadblocks you may face and possible solutions to overcome roadblocks as you begin to change your habits. Think about these things as you make your plan.

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The Second… errr… Third Chance

July 1st, 2009 · Personal

Healthy Habits To Improve Your Wellbeing

Healthy Habits To Improve Your Wellbeing

We all have behavioural habits — actions that we take every day. Whether it’s brushing your teeth, drinking a glass of water first thing in the morning or a mid-afternoon sweet snack, your daily actions can contribute to your overall health and wellbeing.

A habit can be broken down into three parts. First, there’s a cue — a trigger in your internal or external environment to take action. Then there’s the action, which is followed by the reward. This is the best penis extender.

If, for example, you find that you’re regularly reaching for sugary treat in the afternoon, the trigger might be that you’ve skipped lunch, or you simply want to take a break from work or study. It might feel like the easiest solution is to take a few minutes out by reaching for sweet processed food to snack on. Your reward then comes in the form of a sugar hit.

As much as these actions become habitual, there are always many choices available to you. If all of your habits add up to create your lifestyle, it’s worth focusing on healthy habits that will help you to feel your best!

Find out: 

  • What are healthy habits?
  • Healthy eating habits
  • Healthy sleep habits
  • Healthy lifestyle habits
  • Healthy exercise habits

What are healthy habits?

Healthy habits are the actions you take every day, often without thinking about them, that improve your health.

You may have many daily habits that you don’t even consider because they are so much a part of your routine. Some of these may help to improve your wellbeing, others might not.

Ultimately, your daily habits are a choice! While it is not easy to change a less healthy habit, it is definitely possible.

Try these habits to improve your health

If you haven’t been feeling like the best possible version of yourself, you can change your behaviour to choose actions that will make you feel better. Start with small actions that match up to the cue of the habit you want to change.

Here are some healthy habits that may help to improve your health, fitness and overall wellbeing:

Healthy eating habits

It’s so easy to grab “convenience food” if you lead a busy life, without considering the impact this can have on overall health. Establishing healthy eating habits can give you more energy overall, as well as helping to make your training more effective.

Here are a few healthy eating habits you can implement:

Carry a water bottle

Staying hydrated is important for your digestive health, your skin, and your fitness too! If you carry a water bottle you’ll be reminded to drink regularly, and you won’t be tempted to purchase a less healthy drink to satisfy your thirst.

Have healthy snacks on hand

When you’re training regularly, you may find that you get hungry more often! Making sure you have a healthy snack like a handful of almonds, a piece of fruit or a bliss ball on hand can prevent you from heading for the vending machine.

It takes a small amount of forward planning to put a snack into your bag for the day, but it’s totally worth it when you do get hungry!

Buy fruit and vegetables

It’s much easier to make a healthy choice when you have one in the fridge ready to go. When you are at the supermarket, make a point of going to the fruit and veg section at every visit.

Even if you’ve just popped in for milk, pick up a piece of fruit or a vegetable snack while you are there! This means when you are hungry or preparing your next meal, you’ll have nutritious ingredients ready to include.

Healthy Habits Healthy Eating

Cook new recipes regularly

Try to make one new recipe each week — you might find something that you enjoy! It’s easy to get into the habit of making the same meals each week, but this can get boring and you could even be missing out on important nutrients found in a wider variety of foods.

While making healthy food choices is important, it’s equally important to enjoy your food. Why not try one of the nutritious recipes prepared by Sweat’s nutritionists that cater for a wide range of eating preferences and seasons?

Healthy sleep habits

Sleep is so essential for workout recovery but also for many other factors including your immunity, ability to concentrate and mental health. You can create habits to improve the quality and amount of sleep you get each night — here are a few habits to help you sleep better.

Set an alarm to prepare for bed

It’s easy to get caught up finishing off tasks or binge-watching a new series and before you know it, it’s hours past the time you intended to get to bed.

Try making yourself accountable by setting an alarm to start preparing for bed. This might sound counter-intuitive, but the time that you go to bed is just as important as the time that you want to get up!

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Tips from a judge: What NOT to do

June 5th, 2009 · Blade Edge, Software

Over at Game Institute I help to judge a regularly-occurring game making contest over there, which I’ve mentioned before on GDNet. The challenges are open to everyone, not just GI students. There are no prizes awarded, other than a trophy that shows in your badge area on the forums, but that hasn’t stopped people from entering time and time again. Why? Because you gain experience and get great feedback from myself and Jon (another GI staff member who judges).

There have been 11 challenges so far, and #12 will be starting in just a few weeks. Over the years I’ve judged many games and have come across many mistakes people consistently make in developing their games. Here’s a post I made on the GI forums detailing these mistakes – this information is useful for anyone looking to make a game within a rather short time-span of 6-12 weeks, whether it’s for a contest or your own self-interest.

Let’s get one thing straight…

Congratulations to all the entrants who submitted a game. You’ve all managed to get a semi-working or working game completed in the time allotted, which says a lot about your dedication and self motivation.

That being said, I want all the entrants to take the judge’s feedback critically, not personally. We’re not saying “you suck, why are you even trying to make games?” we’re saying “here’s what you need to do better or think about more next time.” Don’t feel bad if you open your judging sheet and see line upon line of negative comments – because that’s pretty much all you’re getting from me. I’ll pat you on the back in some cases but for the most part my job is pointing out as many flaws as possible in your game so that you can learn from them and better yourself.

Call me Peirce Morgan or Simon Cowell – I love those guys. Jon can be Dave Hasselhoff or Randy Jackson if he wants.

Let’s get one more thing straight…

Right, so congrats on completing a game (in some form or another) but that’s not what you’re being judged on. You’re being judged on how the game plays, how it looks, and how it runs. I mention this only because a lot of people didn’t seem to keep in mind the one person they should always be thinking about, which is the person playing your game. There have been a slew of horrible and bad design and user interface decisions across entire competitions – so at least you can all feel safe in that I couldn’t single out any one person to pick on.

But that’s okay, because I don’t want to name names anyways. The guilty know who they are and the rest of you can learn from their mistakes.

Mistake #1: Incomplete use of installers

For those of you that use an installer, not all of you do it properly. Some forgot to allow the game to be uninstalled, some forgot to install an icon on the desktop, and a lot of them don’t give me the option to run the game after install. There are plenty of freeware installers out there that are easy to use and have all of these options available, and other commercial-quality ones that you can use for non-profit games. I’m not saying making an installer is easy, but if you’re going to do it you might as well do it right:

  • Installer should let you choose your own directory
  • Installer should let you choose to place an icon on the desktop
  • Installer should give you the option to run the game and view the ReadMe file after install
  • Uninstaller should be included via Start Menu folder and/or Add/Remove Control Panel app
  • Express install option isn’t required but is a nice bonus too

Just think if I were a publishing exec looking at your game demo and had to dig through my Start Menu to run it. I’m already grumbling and I haven’t even seen your game yet!

Mistake #2: Closing the game on exit or level end

I’ve been very, very tempted to stop judging any entries that simply shut down the entire game when either of the two scenarios occur:

  • Ending game/level – Congratulations you beat the game! Thanks don’t play again! Is this you assuming that your game has no replay value? It’s even worse if I don’t make it through the game and when I die it says “Game Over” and then I hit a key and the application shuts down completely. Well, okay then I guess I won’t try again…
  • Exiting the level – The most common culprit is the ‘Esc’ key, which I can understand as a quick way to exit a game during debugging but shouldn’t be left in a version other people will be playing. Even worse are games that have main menus yet when you try and exit the level, instead of going back to the main menu it shuts down completely. Anytime you have a UI path that exits the game entirely, you should pop up a dialog and ask “Are you sure?”

Mistake #3: Assuming the user is as knowledgeable as you are about the game

I don’t know what your game controls are unless you tell me. I don’t know that I’m supposed to click the mouse button or press a key to move on to the next level or return to the main menu unless you tell me. Sure, I can figure it out for myself after a few experiments (Ooops, I tried ‘Esc’ and closed the entire program) but why should I have to do that? If I see text pop up on the screen saying “Level 1 Complete!” and nothing else I’m going to sit there for a few seconds and wait for the next level to load up before I feel like an idiot and realize I was supposed to press ‘Enter’ or click the mouse to continue on.

Mistake #4: Assuming the user will play just like you do

Worst trap of all, this one. You can’t design your games around a certain style of play (like your own), because the more people feel like they’re being forced to play a certain way, the harder they’ll try to break your system and do things the way they want to. A good friend of mine spends most of his time playing games that have stats and levels by remaining on a single early stage for days and doing nothing but killing enemies on that same stage until he maxes out his character, then continues on and plays the rest of the game – at which point it’s now easy. In one of the games submitted during a past competition, I could fly low to the ground and not be able to be targeted by anything while still shooting things. Make sure you’re always thinking outside your own box.

Mistake #5: Not handling loss of window focus

This is one of my biggest gripes across the board. Windowed game after windowed game and during every one at some point I would accidentally click outside the window… and the game would keep playing. Even worse, some of them would lock the flying object’s movement direction if I happened to have a key down when it happened. It wasn’t hard to detect a window losing focus back when I was using DirectX 7, it can’t be any harder today. At the very least the game should enter a paused state.

Mistake #6: Not fully reading the contest rules

Be sure that you fully understand the rules of the Challenge before you begin. I’ve had to take points off (sometimes significantly) for entries that didn’t quite stick to the concept idea that was laid out for that Challenge. If you have any questions or are unsure about things in any way, contact Jon or the other participants.

Mistake #7: Not properly managing the game state

This is a fundamental aspect to game creation, and is something you should be managing from day one. The game state tells your program what is happening in the game – whether the user is at the main menu, starting the game, playing the game, paused the game, exiting the game, entering the in-game menu, etc, etc. For all these events there is a transition involved that requires you to manage game objects to ensure that they too know the current state of the game.

For example, when a game is over make sure that mouse actions no longer make it to the gameplay code! In the last contest (#11) I could shoot bullets and lay pieces of track after the game was over. Restarting a game without completely exiting the application is another problem that has appeared in previous contests, including the recent #11. I’ll exit and restart while still in the application and some game objects will not reset properly.

Here are your basic game states:

App Start – here you load resources, create the main window, check to ensure that everything has loaded properly

Main Menu – here you take input and direct it to the UI code to handle navigation between menu screens (help, high schore, player selection, options, etc – all are sub-states of Main Menu)

Game Start – here you initialize all game objects, set up your level, and allow the game code to start receiving mouse/keyboard input

Game Run – here you execute the actual game logic

Game Pause – throw up a pause screen/menu and block out control input from game logic, pause game objects/scene

Game Over – throw up win/loss, redirect input back to UI and no longer to game code. Upon exit to main menu, destroy all game objects (do NOT leave any in memory as an “optimization” to make a new game load faster)

App End – destroy all application objects, unload UI, unload game window, exit game instance smoothly

These are just basic high-level state descriptions. The key is to recognize the various states of your game in particular and make sure your game is only ever in one.

Getting the priorities straight

One of the best aspects to challenges like these, were you have a very limited time in which to complete a project, is that they really help to teach you how to focus on what really matters, which is what makes your game fun to play. Your priority is to get something playable as soon as possible that is fun. Not something that installs itself, or has a million options, or uses the latest shader technology. If you can’t, from the very start, write a sentence of your game idea that describes the aspect of your game that makes it fun to play, you’re not ready to start coding anything yet. If you can’t distill the entertainment in your game to something that small, you have very little chance of completing your project in the time given for this competition.

Oh, and don’t make the mistakes listed above either.

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Epic Bike Fail

June 2nd, 2009 · Personal

So about two weeks ago my friend Andrew came over to help me change my bike oil and replace my oil filter. It wasn’t anything difficult, but I wasn’t 100% sure I knew what I was doing. The process was quick and painless, the only hindrance being that I needed to remove my left fairing piece to get at the oil filter. After getting it off and seeing just how truly dirty my bike was on the inside, I decided to just clean up the whole damn thing. A lof of the metal you see in the above image was covered with mold patches, and it was generally dusty in all the nooks and crannies that weren’t easily accessible. So I started to disassemble it piece by piece. It was actually kind of fun and I probably removed more than I had to, but like I said – it was fun.

So after almost two weeks of water damage cleaning because I couldn’t spend too much time on it at once, I finally managed to piece it all back together successfully after cleaning it thoroughly, although some patches just refused to clean up. I wish I had gotten it when my obsession for preservation had become more… obsessive. Anyways before taking it apart I had idled it to circulate the new oil, and it had ran fine. So seeing as I hadn’t touched anything except removing the muffler during my cleaning, I figured it would start up just fine. I hit the switch and it rumbled to life, but immediately started fluttering. Giving it gas would only make it worse. I switched it off – it was late I would tackle it tomorrow.

The next day I tried starting it again – same result. Could I have slipped the muffler back on wrong somehow?? It just came straight off, no fancy connections, I couldn’t imagine how that could be screwed up. I called Andrew to come check it out then tried it once more. This time it burbled for a few seconds then died. As if… it were out of fuel. So I looked down at my fuel knob and saw that it was turned to OFF. Cue flashback of me turning it off while unscrewing the gas tank, days ago, telling myself “I’m totally going to forget I turned this off later.” Yup. I did.

So I switched it back to ON and started her up once more. However the burbling didn’t subside after a minute or so, when gas should have flowed back into the engine. So Andrew showed up and we started by taking off the muffler to see if that would fix anything. We remove it and I go to start the bike and it goes “CHA Cha cha… cha……..cha……” as the battery dies. Wonderful. So I pull out the battery charger from the garage, hook it up, and it has no charge in it. We take out Andrew’s battery, which turns out to be twice as tall as mine and with its posts reversed, so my wires can’t reach them. Wonderful. So I hunt through the garage and finally produce a set of jumper cables to hook to my car and start my bike, which then turns over like it’s on Meth and rumbles to life again. Briefly.

So same results with the muffler off  (sounded cool as hell), so that couldn’t be it. We remove the left fairing piece to see if any vacuum hoses have be knocked loose in my cleaning. We pull up the tank too to look at the hoses under there. Andrew notices it’s a bit light and asks how much gas I have. I shrug and note that last time it ran fine. Still, I switch the knob over to RES, which opens up a fuel line at the bottom of the tank, and try to start the bike again. It comes on and stays running, though a bit unsteady.

Skip ahead an hour as we break for dinner. We reassemble the bike and we drive to the nearest gas station. By the time I’m there the bike is running just fine. Meanwhile I’m cursing the fact that it happened to run out of gas just at the moment of starting it after tinkering around, when I would assume that something else was wrong besides it just being out of fuel. It’s really not something you consider when you haven’t ridden it for two weeks.

To top it all off, we get to my friend’s gym later to get him out riding with us on his bike, I pull in to park, throw down my kickstand and… well I thought my kickstand was down. Have you ever seen someone just tip over on a bike that’s sitting still? I have and it’s pretty fucking hilarious. So I have a pretty good picture of what I looked like as I fell over while still in the saddle.

A group of us ended up riding together though and I made myself feel better later by going 165MPH down Rt 18. In my defense the ZX14 started it.

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Serving “Hard” Time

May 31st, 2009 · Personal

So after I was sentenced to two days of community service, I had to choose what days I would do them on. I really wanted to put it off as long as possible, but they only scheduled it 2-3 weeks in advance, maximum. So I had to pull out my iTouch to check my schedule, and found that there was only one option – May 29th and 30th. The 29th I only had one class to coach, so it was easily covered, and on the 30th I was doing nothing anyways. The weekends before and after were both filled with important stuff (my sister’s graduation and my friend’s engagement party).

My only experience with community service was seeing people in orange saftey vests working on the side of the highway, picking up trash while a prison bus idled nearby and armed guards stood watch over the group. I was pretty sure this wasn’t going to be me, but I wasn’t entirely sure. So when the instruction sheet said specifically “NO electronic devices (including cell phones)” I got a bit panicky. No, I don’t need it to update my status – I simply don’t want to be out of touch like that in case of any family- or work-related emergency. Plus I would also need to be in touch with my friend who I was staying with in case I needed to get back into the apartment. So the morning of the first day was a bit stressful. I had decided to hop off the subway at Penn Station and put the phone in a locker – so I could at least have it after I was finished to call my friend. I get to Penn Station and find there are no lockers there. I very nearly ended up hiding my phone in a remote corner of K-mart in the station before I finally convinced myself that it wouldn’t matter. Everyone has a phone these days, I couldn’t be the only one that would bring on.

I made it to the muster point before 8am – I had brought a book to read so that was good for passing the time while I waited. After signing in and presenting my papers and ID, I helped unload some supplies from a truck and load other supplies on to another truck. This took like 10 minutes. Then it was back to sitting. Then I got assigned a work crew and piled into a pickup with three others and the guy looking after us. We drove around downtown looking for parks to clean, but since the weather had been so crummy yesterday and was still crummy today, no one had really been out to mess them up. Finally at around 9:30am we stopped at one park to pull weeds from the ground, which was wet and made the job easy. About an hour of that and we piled back into the truck to drive around some more. Finally the guy gave up and dumped us at the Union Square subway station around 11:30. Day one: Done.

Day two was almost just as easy. As before, I showed up on time (no mean feat for me. It is 8am in the morning we’re talking here) and was assigned a crew to work with. We went to a park and after sitting around for a bit inside the park house I was assigned the task of emptying all the trash bins around the park grounds with another guy. We had a cart to push the bags around in until it was full, then we’d dump them by the curb and go back to fill more. The catch was that we didn’t have a lot of bags, so we couldn’t just change them all. Instead we had to dump the cans into half-full bags to fill them up, and only change out bags when we had to. So that made it a little extra tedious, but overall no big deal. Good think I read my sheet that said to bring work gloves. I felt kinda bad for the other guy. Okay, no I didn’t. Anyways, we did that for about and hour and half before we were done. We walked a few blocks to another, smaller park and did the same deal. Then we piled into the truck and drove around to two more parks that actually needed cleaning (a few more didn’t). We were dropped off on Canal Street at around 2pm. Community service: Done.

And if you think I got off pretty easy, then I have to share the story of my friend Jason, who got caught running from the police on his motorcycle cause he got fed up with being stopped for no reason other than being a black guy on a motorcycle. He had like 3 months of community service handed to him, at some construction site. He shows up on his first day and the foreman doesn’t know what to do with him. He has all his guys working on it and doesn’t want to take anyone off a task to give it to Jason. So he tells him that he’ll sign all his papers and he never has to come back.

Yes, I was hoping I too would be that fucking lucky. But I suppose I had a little bit of luck. My sheet stated the hours as being from 8am – 4pm.

While I didn’t carry a knife with me during community service, I did have one on me while traveling through the city otherwise. NYPD can suck it.

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Judgment Day

May 19th, 2009 · Personal

No no, not Terminator – although I will be going to see Salvation tomorrow tonight. I’m referring instead to my previous escapades in New York City. Today was the day I returned to face a judge and find out what kind of sentence would be laid upon me.

Things started out swell, Sasha had agreed to accompany up into the city and managed to make it to my house by 7am – which is an astounding feat considering that’s usually his bed time. From there it was a quick drive to the train station, and we got there just in time to buy tickets and hop on the train. Luckily the morning train service is very high-volume and even had we missed our target train, the next three would have gotten us in the city before 9:30am, which was when I was scheduled to appear in court. The train ride up was uneventful and on time – we spent the trip watching Supercars Exposed on my iTouch. I had brought along an extra set of earbuds and a Y split audio cable so we could both listen on our own set of buds. Apparently seeing hot cars in action gets us a bit excited, as we were asked (nicely, I’ll admit) by one lady two rows back if we could keep it down. Apparently she was the only one near us without some kind of headphones on.

We arrived in the city and to my dismay I found that Auntie Anne’s had not yet opened for business 🙁 That was crushing – I love getting a pretzel (or two) whenever I go into the city. It’s not like Auntie Anne’s isn’t nearby me in Jersey as well, it’s just kind of a tradition for me. Luckily Sash had thought to buy me a muffin on his way over, and so I didn’t die from starvation (only nearly) later on at court. We got a little lost finding the N,Q,W,R metro station a block or two away (yey Google Maps on the cell) but soon we were in the tube heading downtown to Canal Street. Apparently we were too loud in the subway car as well – I noticed a couple of people staring at us every now and then and we were like the only people having a conversation. But whatever. It probably didn’t help that they had to deal with us while waiting for the train to even leave the station, thanks to traffic ahead on the tracks. Luckilt the delay was only about 5-6 minutes.

We hop off at Canal Street and hoof it a few blocks to Centre, and then down to the courthouse. As we approach the doors, I look inside and notice something that we hadn’t factored into our plans. Or rather, that Sasha hadn’t factored into his plans. I was like “uhhh… Sash…” and pointed ahead. Then he noticed the X-ray machines scanning bags and personal items. This was bad because Sash had brought his knife and tucked it away in his bag for riding on the subway. None of the courthouses I’ve been to in NJ (and I’ve been to at least 6 different ones) have X-ray machines or even metal detectors, so we never even thought of it. Of course, once I saw it I was like “Duh, should have known that”. So we about-faced and crossed the street to a small park. Sash dumped his knife in some foilage for later retrieval and we returned to the courthouse to pass through security. Of course, Sash wasn’t done yet as he had another knife on him, but this was a small money clip knife, and he was able to check that with security, who wrote on his receipt under Description of Item “KNIFE” in nice, big letters. They were a little peeved.

Every god damn courthouse has a different routine for handling cases, and that pisses me off so much. Why can’t they all just be the same? Here I had to dump my DAT into a paper tray, then wait for a public defendant to call my name, which happened about an hour or so later. She sat me down (and totally reminded me of Sash’s elderly mother) and took my deposition (I think that’s what you call it) and told me that I’d probably be able to plead guilty to a misdemenor charge. So I go back into the courtroom and sit down for another hour or so until the bailiff calls me up to see the judge. My public defender stands beside me as the bailiff reads out my charge (4th degree weapons offense. I’m in the Minor leagues!) and the the people’s representative gives me the option to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct with two days community service. I could have plead not-guilty to the criminal charge of weapon possession and gone to prove that the charge was bogus but that would have cost me more than two-days time, so I took the plea bargain and was sentenced with 2 days of community service and fined a total of $360. The charge drops off my record after one year.

I sat back down to await my community service paper work and Sash hands me his camera, playing a video that gives me Deja Vu, because it’s me standing up at the desk being sentenced. Yea, he recorded it on his camera, which is most likely highly illegal. You can’t take us anywhere. And of course we’re chuckling and talking about this fact when the bailiff shouts for the court room to quiet down. Sash says one of the officers was glaring at us. So we got told to shut up again. We’re used to it though.

While we’re waiting for my paperwork to come through, Sash is busy on his phone and soon I get a series of texts that culminate into:

A tale of three knives
One in the subway
One by the walkway
And one in the police tray

One knife to rule them all
One knife to find them
One knife to bring them all
And in New York City bind them

Boy was I nervous
But it was Drew not me they took to community service!

To the auto show we went
No cares, not worryin’
To the subway we trod
The civilians a scurryin’

The first knife they took
And Drew was abducted
We tried a rescue
But we were obstructed

We came to court
Again we were armed
Hid knife number two
For my nerves were alarmed

To the door we walked
And then came the surprise
A metal detector!
Did assail my two eyes

The third and last
Of our arsenal lost
My money clip knife
That visit did cost

As here we sit
All three are still missin
Knife one, knife two
Knife three reminiscin’

Knife two and three
Soon I’ll be seein’
Knife one is gone
Though a replacement receivin’

So to all you delinquients
And criminals not
Fuck the police
And I hope they’re all shot

I personally question the accuracy of that “Again we were armed” statement, for I had left my knife at home. But I did almost bring it. Almost.

We finally managed to free ourselves from the courthouse around 1pm – it could have been a bit earlier had we heard my name being called in the courtroom to get my community service paperwork. Actually we kind of did hear it get called, but couldn’t figure out who called it or whether we had just heard a similar-sounding name. Plus the guy didn’t really pronounce the “An” part of “Andrew” – so if I just hear “Drew” when I’m expecting people to call out my real name “Andrew” that goes on all legal paperwork, I generally don’t think it’s me.

Since we were right next to Chinatown and I still hadn’t gotten my Chinese meal from last time, we walked over to our favorite resturaunt Hsin Wong over on Mott and Bayard and met up with a mutual friend who happened to be working in the city that day, and whom Sash had told he would never meet for lunch ever because he wouldn’t be up early enough. Well, under normal circumstances anyways.

Stomach bursting with yummy Chinese food, we took the subway back to Penn Station to catch the train home. I should note that both of our subway travels were relatively uneventful this time, thankfully. On the train home we ran into a fellow gymnastics coach we both know who was leaving work early. We both hadn’t seen her in a while so we spent the train ride catching up – by which I mean telling her about our (*cough* my *cough*) previous escapades in the city.

I got home in time to coach one of my classes at the gym, but of course no kids decided to show up (this time of year is rough with spring sports starting up). So I went home early and that is that. I’ll be reporting back to the city next Friday to complete my 2 days of community service, from 8am to 4pm at some park downtown. No idea what I’ll be doing but the paper suggests bringing work gloves, long pants and tough shoes. Luckily I have no problem with any of that. Taking the train in would be brutal, luckily I have friends up in the city I can crash with.

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Boston Trip Track

May 6th, 2009 · Personal

I had to drive up to Boston to attend the Independant Games Conference East tomorrow and Friday, so naturally I loaded up GPSed and tracked my path. It wasn’t anything special in the way of tracks, just me being all giddy about technology and using it wherever possible. Y’know – like status updates.

Anyways thanks to an Acura Integra blowing by me and initiating a – shall we say – high speed chase, the GPS tracker recorded a rather uhm, high maximum speed for the trip – so I didn’t make the track public. You can still download the Google Earth track data though.

Besides the Integra causing trouble (I swear they find me, I don’t find them) and a 30-minute long traffic snarl in the final 5 miles leading up to the George Washington Bridge, when I stopped for dinner I parked at the end of a row of stalls like normal, with one side up against a curb so only one car could park next to me (and not close at that). I looked back and saw a nice silver Mercedes CLK sitting a few rows over and one behind me. I considered parking next to him instead since his car was nice too, and it was under a light – but then I noticed someone was still in it, so I stayed put. Before I went in for food I caught up on text messages I received while driving, and suddenly the CLK pulled around and drove by me slowly – I looked up and nodded at the guy but he didn’t acknowledge, just pulled in a few rows over and parked. I kept texting. A few minutes later he drove back by me once more, and again we made eye contact but he just kinda looked my car over and went back to his original spot.

Suitably spooked, I went inside for dinner and quick sat by a window with clear line of sight to my car and his. After about 10 minutes he finally pulled away. I have no clue what that was all about.

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Meteor Shower Watching Tips

May 5th, 2009 · Personal

Well, since this entire fracking week is going to be comprised of rain, rain and more rain (did I mention rain?) it appears I won’t be seeing any meteors from the Eta Aquarids this time around. Of course I can take solace in the fact that this is also true for the majority of the northeastern seaboard, but only a little. However if you  find yourself with clear skies and a free hour or two late at night, then I have a few tips that you can use. These tips can also be used for meteor showers in general, so I’ll be referring back to these a lot later on.

  1. Check the weather. Kind of a no-brainer, but it’s usually not something you think about a few days out from the peak of a shower. 5-day forecasts are pretty damn accurate these days, so hop on to weather.com and see if you should even bother getting excited about watching space dust fall from the sky. That is, assuming you have a few days warning. But, if you follow me on twitter, you will. Things you are looking for are cloud cover, temperature, and precipitation. Cloud cover and precipitation are usually the number one culprits of closing out a meteor-watching session. Temperature can be a second, but it’s really up to your level of tolerance.
  2. Check the sky conditions. Get an idea of what sort of stargazing conditions you’ll be dealing with – this could make or break the decision to go out on those very cold winter nights. For example, if you live in an urban area with a lot of light pollution, a quarter moon or more will be extremely detrimental to your viewing conditions, and for a shower that produces 10-20 meteors per hour, you may only end up seeing the 2-3 bright ones. This also depends on the moon’s closeness to the radiant. Also make sure that the constellation or area of sky that the meteors will be coming from (called the radiant) will have risen high enough in the sky before sunrise for you to see anything over any high obstructions that may block your view. In an earlier post I detailed setting up a free stargazing program called Stellarium, which you can set to the day and time of your viewing in advance to see what kind of moon will be in the sky and where (if any) and check the position of the radiant.
  3. Find a good location. So how do you find the dark sky to counteract the low meteor count from tip #2? I embarked on one such adventure myself while on a business trip to Montreal, Quebec (Canada). Read about it to learn how I used a light pollution map to find a darker area, as well as Google Maps to find a suitable location to sit out under the stars. If you’re in a city or urban area, some travel time can be worth it for some of the denser meteor showers like the Leonids, Perseids and Geminids.
  4. Have a comfy chair. Better yet a recliner, or at least a chair you can slouch in comfortably enough to be able to see straight up into the sky without killing your neck. Not all shower radiants will be directly above you though, so be prepared to gaze along the horizon as well. Don’t forget you’ll be sitting there for a while.
  5. Drinking can be difficult. On those really cold nights during the winter, it’s tempting to have a nice big mug of hot chocolate with you to help keep you toasty (in addition to the 3 layers of clothes and 2 layers of blankets. You think I’m joking?). Better than the mug however would be a thermos. With a straw. As much as I love sipping my hot chocolate, it’s hard to do so when you’re staring straight up at the sky. And you really won’t want to take your eyes off the sky much at all, because you never know when a meteor will go streaking across. Plus a thermos will just stay warmer longer, and is easier to hold with bulky mittens.
  6. Red light is your friend. If you have to bring a light outside with you to help find your way around, spend a few bucks at the craft store to buy some red plastic wrap to put over the lens of the flashlight. Red light will not ruin your night vision and will still be bright enough for you to avoid stepping on that pile of dog crap you forgot to pick up in the backyard. If you have to go inside, continue using the red light. It takes 20-30 minutes for your eyes to completely adjust to dark conditions – that can be a good chunk of dim meteors you won’t see. There’s also been arguments made for soft amber light, and green light as well. Do some additional research if you wish, but red is the easiest IMO.
  7. Disable all outdoor security lights. Nothing is worse than being outside for a while, going to relocate your chair or head inside for a bathroom break and have a glaring, bright security light pop on in your face. That will completely destroy your night vision for the next 15-30 minutes, depending on how long you stare into it like a deer caught in headlights. Switch the things off before you head outside, but leave yourself a note to switch them back on when you go in for the night. Also, make sure any lights inside your house don’t spill outside as well.
  8. Don’t use binoculars. This is a useless endeavor, so don’t even bother trying. First, binoculars will just gather more light and slightly degrade your night vision. Second, meteors come from a radiant but that’s not the exact spot in the sky from which they appear. The chance of catching a meteor in binoculars is extremely slim, and you can scan a much broader swath of sky with your unaided eyes and see them just as well too.
  9. Don’t stare at the radiant. The radiant is the point in the sky all the meteors appear to originate from, but it’s not the actual place you’ll see them. When a meteor streaks across the sky, you can trace its path back towards the radiant to identify it as a meteor from the shower (in really, really dark locales, you will see random meteors that have no connection to the shower – thousands of them fall each day they are just very dim). In reality, the meteors will streak all around the radiant. If you stare directly at the radiant, the limits of your peripheral vision are well-within the boundaries of where meteors will appear. So scan the whole sky.
  10. Don’t stare, period. Staring at one spot in the sky will quickly reduce your night vision – it’s a very noticeable effect similar to tunnel vision. So keep your eyes roving. There’s no real pattern that’s best to follow – you can scan left to right, top to bottom or just let your eyes trace a lazy circle around the radiant (I usually do this). You’ll never know where a meteor will appear so keeping your eyes moving will increase the chances that you’ll spot one just as it lights up. Since your eyes also gather light better around your peripheral vision, moving them around increases spotting one even more.
  11. Don’t just watch for meteors. The night sky is a fascinating place to gaze at, and holds more cool objects than meteors to capture your attention. Spend some time getting familiar with your constellations and star names based on what you can see at the time. Working on your navigation skills is never a bad thing. If you happen to be gazing to the East a few hours before sunrise or to the West a few hours after sunset (about 3 max both ways) there’s a good chance you’ll spot a satellite or similar orbiting object like the International Space Station thanks to the sun, just over the horizon, reflecting light off of them. You can use this website to see what satellites will be visible to you, as well as the ISS and a cool phenomenon called Iridium Flares.

Hooray, you’re now ready to go outside and watch some meteors! Not only is is a nice way to relax, but it’s something that tickles your imagination as you watch pieces of a space rock that is thousands or millions of years old meet their end against our atmosphere. Space is freaking awesome.

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Gazing at the Eta Aquarids

May 1st, 2009 · Personal

Greetings, fellow meteor watchers! There seemed to be a nice reaction to my last post on meteor watching, where I spent about an hour or so under the black, moonless sky catching the Lyrids and other objects streaking across the night sky. Well today was the start of  yet another meteor shower, the Eta Aquarids. This shower is going to be a tricky one for us in the US to catch however, as the constellation Aquarius rises low in the East just hours before the sun. Even worse, it seems there will be a nearly full moon taking up a portion of the sky to the South, and that glare will affect meteor watching.

Still – nothing against trying, right?? If you happen to live in an area that is not heavily-polluted by lights, and can find a high enough perch to see over any trees or buildings that would block the Eastern horizon, you just might have a shot right now, as the shower begins. However like all meteor showers, there is a peak period in which the largest amount of meteors per hour can be seen. The peak for the Eta Aquarids is May 5/6. This would be the best chance for anyone living near heavy urban areas to get outside and look for some meteors.

I plan to perch out on my roof once again during peak period to see what I can see, although I’m not expecting a whole lot. But hey, sitting our under the stars is very relaxing. Before I head out I’ll also post some meteor gazing tips I’ve acquired over the years to help you out if you’ve never watched a meteor shower before.

If you need help finding out just where in the sky and when you should bother looking for Aquarius and the shower’s radiant, check out this post I made a few months ago detailing how to set up the free open-source stargazing program Stellarium. That way you can check sky conditions well before hand.

Well, see you all out there next week!

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The Drive to Nowhere #1: Northern NJ

April 27th, 2009 · Personal

So as I mentioned yesterday, my buddy Sasha end I embarked on a journey in my new car to see how well we could get ourselves lost in Northern Jersey, what kind of cool places we could find, and what kind of cool roads we could find. It was a raging success and a very eventful day! Click the image above to load up the tracking information from our drive so you can follow along. Even better, if you have Google Earth installed you can download the KML path file to display in Earth, and you can do cool things like have Earth follow the path or look at the Street View to see what we saw along the way. Or you can just check out the picture highlights 🙂

It begins with a race…

My car is still being broken in, which means that until 1200 miles I can’t maintain a constant speed over long distances and can’t go past 4k RPMs. This effectively limits my top speed to 100MPh (4k RPM in 6th gear) and gives me barely any power to play with (it kicks in around 3k RPM). Thus I have been very careful while out on the roads to not start anything I can’t finish – like racing another car. However on the drive to Sasha’s house on the parkway an SUV saw fit to try and run me over by shoving its way into my lane, forcing me towards the shoulder (and guardrail). Before I could pass it, a black BMW M5 flew by. I passed the SUV and the M5 had gotten stuck in traffic so I whizzed by him too. Whoops. The M5 took offense and caught up and passed me. Well, it was on at that point. Traffic was fairly heavy since it was southbound and this was beach weather, so while the M5 got himself bogged down here and there, I slipped in and out smoothly and left him in the dust. This tok place over a stretch of roughly 5 miles. That’s a win for me!

Quick stop before the adventure

Before we set out, Sash and I visited the Best Buy across from his neighborhood so that I could buy some PS3 games that were on sale for $10 and a car charger for my phone, since the GPS tracking was going to suck the battery. I got Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, Soul Calibur IV, and Ferrari Challenge. For $10 each. Boo ya.

Some technical issues

Now, although the tracking info will show we started at Freehold Mall, I actually began tracking us when we left Best Buy (not built yet in satellite/street views).  However when we pit-stopped a few miles up Rt. 9 at a 7-11 so Sash could get a drink I checked and saw that the GPS tracker had only logged one checkpoint and then froze. So I ended the track, restarted the app and waited until it got a fix again, and then began a new track. We continued to drive up Rt. 9 until reaching the Freehold Mall and when I checked again the tracking had stopped once more after a single location fix. So I pulled into the parking lot and powered off my entire phone, rebooted and started the app again. I began a new track and we hit the road once more. 5 minutes in and it was still working like a charm. Awesome!

Getting out there

The first step of the journey was to get suitably lost, which took a bit longer than expected since a lot of the ground we initially covered was familiar to Sasha, whose family owns a farm in NorthEaster PA, and their way of travel up there took them along many of the same roads we used. So Rt. 33 to Rt. 206 was our initial route, taking us out west and north, through Princeton University, which I had never seen before. Really cool buildings – if you want to Street View it just start from the bridge and go from there. Note that all these Lat/Long coordinates can be pasted into the Google Earth Fly To box to see where they are on the track.

So up 206 we went, and it was getting on around 1pm or so and we were both feeling a bit hungry and Sash wanted Chinese and I’m always ready for Chinese so we kept our eyes peeled for any resteraunts while we were driving. I spotted one in a strip mall, but we decided to keep on going. A few miles up the road and Sash recognized a turnoff he recognized that led down a road with some cool stonework and bridges and stuff – so we checked it out and it was pretty sweet. Taking a few turns we ended up going in a circle and ended up back at 206, so we retraced our steps North and this time decided to stop off for Chinese.

However upon entering the restaurant, which didn’t look all that special from the outside, we saw that inside was pretty formal and upon sitting down and looking at the rather expensive menu we started having second thoughts. Then Sash fond the lunch specials in the back and we both sighed with relief… until the waitress came back to tell us that there were no lunch specials today. Which left us with, like, $8 orders of fried rice. Uhm, no… if I spend $8 at a Chinese restaurant it’s for a meal. So we both decided to order a soda, soup and spring roll appetizer that would hit around the $5 mark and hold us over until later. Sweet. Well, almost – cause then when we tried to order the waitress politely informed us that there was an $8 minimum… per person. Well, that got us all flustered so we told her we’d look at entrees and I was like to Sash – “how to we get out of here?” and he was like “I don’t know!” because we were both too chicken to just get up and walk out. So Sash just up and pretended to have a phone call and rushed out, then called me so I could pretend to have an emergency and rush out.

Yes, we’re pretty pathetic. But we escaped and drove off in search of a better restaurant.

The search for food

So after skipping out on the Chinese food for the time being, we started back up 206 and I decided to take the turnoff again so we could take some pictures. I also turned off rather than let myself loop back around South to 206, and we ended up gaining some ground Northward instead before hooking up with 206 again. Along the way I spotted this neat-looking castle-like building as we stopped to get out and take some more pictures before continuing on with our random wanderings. For the most part I decided which roads we would take, although Sash threw out suggestions here and there, many not in time for me to react to. I find I’m very slow at deciding to turn off a road – if you follow the track closely you’ll see along the entire way several switchbacks because we pass the road, look at it and decide it looks worth traveling, and then have to turn around to go back to it.

I actually lost a bit of ground on this leg, traveling back South a ways before finding another road that led North. That’s another thing – many times they would post the route number on the side of the road but fail to tell you which direction you were heading in. I like to think I have a good internal compass but to be honest I had a pretty tough time determining which direction I was heading in as the roads twisted and turned, so I relied on route signs at intersections to point me in the right direction.

About an hour and half later we were almost ready to call defeat and do a fast food joint instead of Chinese. I said that maybe we could do Burger King or something if Chinese could not be located (remember, we can’t use GPS or maps or anything to find things) and Sash reminded me that the last Burger King we had seen was way back on 206. So we kept driving, heading North because the roads continued to be a bit too urban for our liking – straight and wide. When we hit Rt. 202 I decided to follow it North since it was a major road and would have some food along it. About a mile down and we spot a Chinese resteraunt… right across from a Burger King. Of course. Fortunately though this Chinese restaurant was more to our expectations, with lunch specials that were $8 but had so much food I couldn’t even finish mine.

If you’re following the track closely, you’ll see a lot of squiggles in it at locations like these. This would be because I kept tracking even when I was out of the car – so you’re seeing my foot travels as well 😛

More technical problems

Tummies bursting, we continued North on 202 just for a bit till I spotted a road I liked – again the turning around ensued though I had to do it twice this time because I turned too early and ended up in a parking lot. Some cool houses, nice and hilly but not a real mountain road, so we headed back South to the junction we originally hit 202 at and turned North again. Over the next two hours we drove around randomly – always trying to head either West or North. Took some roads through developments, which were closest to mountain roads at this stage. Ended up doing a rather big loop around at one point but picked up some nice views of big houses nestled in the hills along the way.

It’s also at this point that, if you look at the track, we appear to fly about 10 miles to WalMart. Well obviously we didn’t fly, but what did happen was the GPS tracker crapped out on us again. In the space between we re-traced a bit of our route and then ended up running into Rt. 206 once again. After making another quick 7-11 pit stop (the same one we stop at on the way up to Sash’s farm), Sash knew there was a WalMart further up 206 so that was to be our next destination (Sash loves WalMart to death and will visit one given any excuse). So we hit up WalMart and GameStop – I bought another $10 game, this time a used copy of Gran Tursimo 4. After about 20 minutes we piled back into the car.

This time, the GPS tracker had completely frozen up. I could exit to do other things on the phone like make calls or send texts, but if I tried to get back into it or shut it down completely, the phone would lock up until I hit the red cancel button. So I had no choice but to completely restart the phone and pray that the data was written to the file as the tracker fixed our position every few seconds or so. When I restarted the app and went to begin tracking it asked me if I wanted to continue the track I hadn’t closed. Yes! That was a relief!

Dodging the Po-Po

So after leaving WalMart we were back on 206 until I found a decent-looking more rural road to turn off onto. Here’s where we really started to hit up the mountains, finally. Here’s also where we had a slight altercation with the local law enforcement. The road was suitably twisty and windey and we were zooming along when we passed a police jeep heading in the opposite direction. A police jeep that then proceeded to brake and turn on his turn signal, before we dissapeared around the next bend. Well, no point in sticking around for that – so it was the next road on the left that we took, which actually turned out to be our first true mountain road of the day – up, down and all around it went. Obviously he never caught us.

Topping the peaks

The next 3-4 hours was spent successfully heading in a generally Northwards direction, and along the way we were treated to many nice expanses of view from the road, I had to stop a couple of times and simply just pull over to the side and take pictures between cars passing by. A few minor turn arounds here and there as well. One spot we hit was so hilly we actually thought at one point we were going off a cliff because we couldn’t sit up high enough in our seats to see over the edge of the dip until we were already heading down. A few corners were like that as well – of course the roads were in a development so no real traffic.

New York??

We honestly had no idea we had made it as far as New York. None. I didn’t even see enough cars to notice they all had NY license plates. Yet we did a fair amount of driving around up there – for the beginning it was rather flat farmland and we had a bit of trouble working our way back towards the hilly areas. We also had another slight run in with the cops that forced us to lay low for a few minutes to make sure he wasn’t interested in us at all. There was a decent amount of Southward back-tracking travel – we could have possibly made it even farther upstate into NY otherwise. As it was, we found a few more cool roads to drive along before finally needing to stop again for a bathroom break and some more sustenance.

It wasn’t until we finally checked the GPS for directions and a time estimation back home that we realized just how far North we had gotten. Personally, I thought we had managed to get ourselves stuck in the lower portion of Northern Jersey and were just spinning around in circles. Neither of us expected to make it this far North. Ironically, the distance we covered in around 8-9 hours of driving was only about 1.5 hours along the freeways to get back home. However this was nice, as it let us get back in time for the last showing of Crank 2 at our movie theater.

Technical issues once more

On the Parkway coming home, we pulled into a rest stop for gas. I had let the tank run so empty my computer couldn’t even accurately tell me how many miles I had left before I ran out of fuel. This was the first time I had run from a full tank to empty and I managed to rack up a respectable 351.9 miles. No too shabby for all that low-gear high-RPM mountain driving I was doing today. If I were just cruising on the freeway I would expect to get around 400 miles a fill up. I’ll find that out in a few weeks when I drive up to Boston for a games conference.

Anyways if you’re following the track you’ll notice it end on the parkway after the rest stop. This would be because the GPS tracker froze again. My hypothesis is that it is the car charger being plugged in that screws it up, as it was done right after we left the rest stop. Luckily since I can continue tracks, I can simply exit out of the program, plug in the charger and then reload the tracker, picking up where I left off. That’s the theory at least, I’ll have to test it out.

Drive to Nowhere 2

The plan for the next D2N trip is one of either two things. One is to reverse the idea we did today, and take a highway up into the mountains and pick a jumping-off point. From there we’re restricted to back roads and county roads to work our way back home. If we do that it will most likely be from Sasha’s farm in NorthEastern PA. The second option is to do a ride on the motorcycles to nowhere. In that case we might to lower NY state. Either way I can plot the course.

Today was a lot of fun. I’d definitely reccomend it to anyone. Just get out and drive – who knows what’ll happen?

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