And the Knobby Knees Are...

Saturdave! It was a beautiful day in San Diego... if you are elsewhere, you have my condolences.

The days... they blend into one after a while... I may have to do something drastic to shake things up a bit! Not that I'm complaining (much). I mean, my life is certainly comfortable, entertaining, safe, pleasant... I was laying on the couch last night at 2 am, staring at the ceiling, Chronicles of the Black Company open on my chest (waiting patiently), while I contemplated just this thing.

I have tons to be thankful for - I certainly don't want to trade lives with anyone at this point. Yet, I have settled into a routine that has me looking up now and then to see that weeks have gone by, without much distinction between days. Part of me wants to break up the monotony by doing something ridiculously out of the ordinary.

Meh, this is probably just a facet of my "mid life crisis" or something. Nevermind.

Today slid by without much of note happening. We went to two pet stores today, looking at fishtanks. Eldest Daughter wants a 30 gallon tank for her upcoming birthday. Came home and played a dozen or so rounds of BF2, until it got to be too frustrating. I know when I start pounding the desk and roaring, it's time to stop.

It's so odd - sometimes I can play and just enjoy it, regardless of how well or poorly I play. I'm mellow and it's a buttload of fun. Other times, every little thing frustrates me to no end. I wonder what the dynamic is. Must be the mindset/mood I'm in when I start. Wish I could discern my mood/mindset before I began - save myself some angst.

Well, enough with the boring blather. Here's something awesome for you to watch:




If you ever get a chance to watch the movie that this clip is from - called First Descent - in high definition on a big TV, by all means, do so. It really is a great flick, and I can watch that section of the film over and over and over... (not everyone liked the movie, though...) HERE is another re-cut of that clip, edited more like a music video, and has some spectacular fly-by's at the very end. For some reason, YouTube disabled the embed feature on that clip, so I have to link directly to it instead.

I've been snowboarding several times, up in Tahoe, with Don, Joe and Johnny boy, but I'm pretty much a wuss. I don't go too fast - the fear of injury makes me board like a little old lady. Nowhere near Terje's nad level. I can't believe he had the minerals to tackle an insane run like that.

But that's what I was talking about earlier... doing something totally out of the ordinary to break up the routine, you know? Maybe a road trip, or go shooting, or go up to the high desert or something... I'm enjoying my life lately, yet at the same time, I feel like I'm not living. Does that make sense?

I wonder what it is in some people that makes them push things that far? Adrenaline junkies have always been around, I guess. Sometimes it's fatal - like with Dan Osman, the speed climber. Check out this clip:



I guess it's not enough of a thrill to rock climb, or to free climb without any safety gear whatsoever... this guy needed to see how fast he could free climb. Did you see those leaps he made at various points? Insanity. Needless to say, Mr. Osman is not alive anymore. He invented this extreme activity whereby he strung up safety ropes on crazy-high cliffs just so he could purposely fall - like bungee-jumping on steroids, I guess. That's the activity that eventually killed him. Here's a clip of his last successful jump, if you're interested...

Anyway...

Still wrestling with the script for the latest comic. I'm slated to get the next two discs of Big Bang Theory on Monday. Such are the extreme things that occupy my life. Guess I could really go wild and take up checkers or something...

Well, tomorrow is church day. Gonna go read and then get some sleep. Until tomorrow, live long and perspire.