Making the Most of Spare Time

This afternoon I find myself with a spare hour and am not quite sure what to do with it. I want to be productive and active (sitting and writing my blog is not active). My neighbors keep bringing over treats and I can't help but sample them. Sure I could plop down on the couch and watch a movie or show while I gorge myself on candy, cookies, and other various Christmas goodies, but that is not a good way to prepare for all the food I will eat in the next week or so.

I could go tune another pair of skis. That at least keeps me active as it is a lot of work walking back and forth the length of the skis. I might not get a lot of miles traveled but I do get a fair share of steps. Unfortunately tuning skis makes a mess and I have already cleaned myself up for the day. I guess I'll pass on that.

I could go through my Christmas list and make sure everyone is shopped for and gifts are wrapped. Well, I actually did that yesterday and did not see anything forgotten. Everything is wrapped nicely and ready to go under the Christmas tree. My son even sent me the clue I am supposed to give my grandkids letting them know they will be going to Orlando in February. We should have a great time. 

I could go for a walk but that is what I will be doing in an hour anyways. No need to double up on that. Besides, I spent the morning skiing at Alta with all of the skiers that decided to go to my ski area instead of staying at Park City as there is no snow there. There is enough to keep one run open but with the hoards of people trying to ski the same run, it is probably chaotic.

I have checked in with my parents and offered condolences as they had to put their dog down yesterday after a good 19-year run with the pet. Needless to say they are besides themselves with grief. I understand as I thought it to be a particularly bad day when my wife had to put our dog down. That is why I checked in on them.

I supposed I could go clean the bathrooms in the house but my wife did that earlier today while she needed to kill some time. We also worked together to take out the garbage as the garbage men will arrive tomorrow and we want to make room for all of the Christmas wrapping paper. 

Writing in my blog is not that active but it did take 10 whole minutes to put this together. Now I only have to fill 50 minutes. What to do? What to do? 

I Thought a 4K Monitor Would be Enough

True to my word I am trying to stay busy during my Holiday break. This morning I got up early and skied for an hour at Alta before it started getting crowded given how many runs are open. I did do a bit of exploring so that when we get a lot more snow, I know what other parts of the mountain look like. I also managed to see an old family friend, Junior Bonous who turned 100 in August and he is still making it up to Alta for some turns.

I came home and got some food before heading to the ski tuning room to scrape and brush a pair of skis for Christmas eve. Then I headed to my office and put together a ski video describing the early-season conditions at Snowbird. It is a bit different than my usual videos.

One comment I have received is that I sound so monotone as I narrate my ski videos. Today I opted to create the video first and then add the narration afterwards without a script. I'm not sure I will do that again as I think it took a lot longer to create the soundtrack than normal. I also wanted to say a lot more and ended up leaving many of my comments out of the video.

Creating the narration track at the same time as the video required me to have both Garage Band and iMovie running at the same time. My Mac has a 4K monitor and so one would think I have more than enough space to do everything. That is not the case. I like to use iMovie so it takes up most of the screen. I do the same with Garage Band. A second 4K monitor would really be useful but I don't have one readily available.

I remember when I first started using the 4K monitor. It is the same resolution as 4 HD monitors running at 1080p. I thought it would be easy to divide up the screen into 4 sections and have them act as 4 independent screens. Nope. Once you have a high-resolution monitor, you use it all. I like being able to have my web browser take up more than a quarter of the screen. I also reserve extra space for my e-mail window. It just goes to show that no matter how high a resolution monitor you have, you will use it all. 

The Start of Christmas Break

Yesterday I worked the last day of the year for my company and now I am on Christmas break up through January 4th. I always appreciate the 2 weeks my company provides to relax at the end of the year and spend time with family. This year I plan to maximize my time off and get a bunch of personal projects completed.

Last night my wife and I checked into the local Marriott so we could use the pool and hot tub. I had hoped my grandkids could join us but they are fighting the flu and courteously stayed away. Instead my wife and I had an enjoyable evening before checking out and coming home. We only needed the stay to meet my requirement for 25 nights to remain a gold member of the Marriott loyalty club.

This morning I woke up and headed skiing alone to Alta. I wasn't totally alone as I met my daughter who is an instructor up there before she started teaching a large group of kids. I skied Alta yesterday before work and thought they could use a lot more snow. They got 3 inches of snow overnight but probably need a good 3 feet. I skied around the mountain today looking at the general condition of things and then decided to come home when the runs started getting crowded.

Once home, I talked with my wife a bit and then headed to the ski-tuning room so I could wax some skis. The waxing process is somewhat lengthy if you run through the whole thing. First you have to run a file over the edges to make sure they are sharp so you can carve a turn on ice. Then you need to put a coat of wax on and hot scrape them to pull any iron filings out of the base. After using a steel brush to make sure no shavings remain, you get to wax them again. They need to sit overnight before scraping and brushing them. I don't know if it is fortunately or unfortunately, but I have about 7 pairs of skis and so if I stay on top of ski maintenance there is always a pair ready to ski on.

Like usual work weeks, I plan to ski every morning and then do something productive. I have a number of YouTube videos I want to create and so I will be spending some time in front of the computer putting those together. My wife and I are getting ready for all the vacations we plan to take next year and so that will require a bit of research on the Internet. Right now we have 3 trips planned to Disney World. If you haven't noticed, that is where our grandkids want to go. It might explain why we have annual passes and own a condo there.

I think the most important trick with the Christmas break is to not sit around watching really bad low-budget Christmas movies. Trust me, there are a lot of them out there. If you must, spend some time in front of the computer but then get outside and do something healthy for yourself. I like skiing as it is great exercise and I otherwise hate to exercise. 

You Can't Unsend a Text Message

This morning I awoke to my mobile phone announcing I had received a text message. I immediately rolled over and went back to sleep without reading it. Later when I got up and got ready to go skiing before work, I read through the message from son in Ohio. He made a comment about how he can take his whole family skiing on Christmas Eve out there for the price of a single lift ticket at Alta. That includes lift tickets and ski rentals for his 2 girls. I immediately thought about sending a response letting him know that people get on airplanes to come ski Alta and nobody would do that to ski Ohio. I mentioned my response to my wife and she responded that I probably shouldn't send that. I kept my comment to myself and headed up skiing.

Early in my career at Oracle doing technical support work, I responded to a fellow coworker with an angry sounding e-mail about how he wasn't doing his job and shouldn't expect me to do it for him. That didn't sit well with him and he replied being sure to copy my boss. I realized that I probably should have waited a bit before responding to his original e-mail and sent something much more professional. I responded to him with an apology stating that I sent an e-mail without taking the time to properly articulate my thoughts and that I did not mean to offend him. That smoothed things over but probably wasn't ever forgotten.

While skiing this morning I continued thinking about my son's text message and realized that my son is probably missing family close by and would appreciate a positive response instead of me making fun of Ohio skiing. I got home and responded that it is great that the whole family will be skiing on Christmas Eve even if we won't be at the same ski area. He liked my response.

This experience reminded me that you can't unsend a text message. While you may want to quickly respond in the heat of the moment, sometimes it is best to sit back and think about the best response. Your quick joke may not be received with the same jovial spirit with which you sent it. When anger needs to be diffused, you may be adding fuel to the fire. In my case, my son is missing our Christmas traditions in Utah and needed reassurance that it is fine for him to have Christmas at home with his own family. 

Latest Ski Season Start in a Long Time

Friday night I returned home from Japan and fell asleep right at 8:30pm. I slept all the way until 6:30am, meaning I got a solid 10 hours of sleep. I must have been tired due to having a 36-hour day because of flights and crossing the International Date Line. Fortunately I have not really had any jet lag to deal with.

On Saturday morning I woke up and got ready to go skiing at Alta with my wife. All of the resorts in Utah are hurting for snow as this is something like the worst start to ski season in 30 years. Alta has 4 lifts running and I am glad to got to make some turns. I did feel a bit rusty but quickly started carving and quickly felt comfortable.

I headed off to Japan the day before skiing started at Snowbird and Alta. While in Japan, I had a free day and looked at trying to ski somewhere there. They are set up for business travelers so that when you walk into the rental shop they will rent every last piece of equipment you could possibly need including base layers, goggles, helmets, and gloves. I checked the resorts a quick train ride from Tokyo but they won't open until this weekend. I also looked at the resorts in Hokkaido, Japan's North island. Unfortunately they had something like a 7.6 magnitude earthquake and that closed down all the resorts up there. Ultimately I didn't end up finding a place open for skiing other than an indoor area that I have already been to. Yes I could have gotten an extra day by going there but opted to do something else.

Having my first ski day on December 13th means this is the latest I have skied for the first time in the season for many years. Last season I skied 126 days. With such a late start, I will have to work to get 100. It is a noble goal and I hope to make it.   

Mobile Phone Service in Japan

This week I am back in Tokyo and glad I have an international plan built into my mobile-phone service. It is always helpful when my airplane lands in a city outside the United States to immediately get a text from T-mobile telling me I have free data and texting. Should I want to make a regular phone call, I can do that as well for very inexpensive rates. Instead I actually just find a WiFi spot, like at the hotel, put my phone in airplane mode, and use WiFi calling to talk to someone.

Yesterday I had a bit of extra time to do some sightseeing and so I left my hotel early hoping to avoid rush-hour on the trains. Nobody likes being shoved into an already crowded train and out of respect to the locals, I wanted to get to my destination early. Then I could return early and get some important work done.

I assumed I could buy an entry ticket at my desired destination and didn't worry about purchasing it online before leaving the ubiquitous WiFi of my hotel. I got to the famous Japan site only to discover I needed to purchase my ticket online. Furthermore, I needed to download a special app to display the ticket. This is where you really need an international plan for your mobile phone.

There are always lines in Japan and so I used my time in line to download the special app. This is where my limited data plan broke down. It took about 30 minutes to download the app. At my hotel it only would have taken a minute or two. This is something I wish I had known before heading out- to do some sightseeing. I waited rather impatiently for the thing to download and then purchased an entry ticket. Once the app could display my ticket's QR code, I obtained entry and could visit the site. The only casualty of the day is the extra time my phone spent sucking the life out of my battery. At the end of my sightseeing trip I returned to my hotel with only 6% of my battery life left. I quickly put it on the charger before going out and doing anything else.

I know I am not the only tourist that has drained their smartphone trying to get into this attraction. Inside they had a battery-rental service so you could top up your electricity needs. I sort of felt like it is a racket though. Let's charge people a fee to get in only to make it almost impossible and need a battery charging service once inside. That is the life of a tourist. They don't vote in local elections and so nobody opposes extra fees and taxes for people visiting the area. Don't believe me, just look at your hotel bill the next time you have one and add up all the taxes.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals

As I begin today's post, I must confess I am not much of a Black Friday shopper. I prefer to spend the Friday after Thanksgiving skiing and not standing in line trying to get a good deal on stuff. Unfortunately the ski areas around me in Utah are still closed. Yes I could go to Brighton or Solitude but the limited terrain available has kept me home. Being home still didn't convince me to go shopping on Black Friday.

Cyber Monday rolled around and that is known for great online deals. I received a number of e-mails letting me know about great prices on things I might be interested in purchasing. While some of the deals looked interesting, I didn't make any purchases on Cyber Monday either.

Travel Tuesday followed Cyber Monday and I must confess that I finally made a purchase. My wife and I plan to go ski Alyeska in Alaska during the month of March and so I kept my eyes open for deals there. I didn't receive any notifications. I just looked at the ski area website and saw they had a limited sale going on. The only catch is that you have to prepay the entire stay and if something comes up prohibiting you from the trip, you have to eat the cost of lodging. My wife and I are pretty set on going so I purchased plane tickets and then paid for the slope-side hotel. We are now ready for our trip.

At the beginning of the ski season, I started looking for a new ski jacket. About a month ago my wife found me the perfect one and so I purchased it at a really amazing price. Unfortunately I still get daily e-mails from ski jacket companies trying to entice me to buy their wares. The prices for jackets I looked at always seem to be dropping. My hope is that I won't be inundated by Alyeska asking me to book another trip to come ski with them. My trip is scheduled and unless the snow is extra amazing, I don't plan to go back. I would rather try new areas. I'll be interested to see what happens.

This is the same sort of phenomenon that happens when you donate to certain charities. They then use the money you gave them to solicit more donations from you until you politely asked to be removed from their mailing list. Even then, you will still probably get a few more requests. 

Are You Feeling Lucky?

Last week my wife and I got to see the movie "Wicked: For Good" at a free screening. We received 3 tickets and brought our youngest daughter who is in her 30's. While I enjoyed the Broadway play, I found the movie to appeal more towards a female audience and suffered through it. I know my wife and daughter loved it so I attended with them. They came out extolling the virtues of the film while all of the men in the audience came out shaking their heads saying, "What a weird movie." When I mentioned that to my wife, she said it appeals to women because the two primary characters experience what 90% of girls in high school do. That seemed like a good enough reason for me not to question her logic.

This morning I received another invitation to a free screening for the same movie. I do not plan to attend but I sent it out on our family text message stream should anyone else in the family be interested in seeing it for free. Perhaps my daughter-in-law wants to see it a second time or something.

This got me thinking about a study I once read regarding people that feel lucky. The study organizers asked a group of people to come in and answer a bunch of questions. The question book contained a message to study participants to show the message to the organizers and they would receive actual money. I think it amounted to something like $50 but I could be wrong. At the end of the study, the same people that claimed to be lucky happened to be the same ones that received money. Those that claimed to be unlucky missed out on the extra cash. The takeaway from the study is that sometimes people are not more nor less lucky, they are just more observant.

Being more observant is very important in today's society. While I received an invitation to a free screening, I also received an invitation to participate in a number of scams this morning. Your powers of observation will allow you to determine legitimate offers and bogus ones. 

I remember once getting a call from a guy telling me I had won a free Samsung tablet. He immediately blurted out that I really had won something and not to hang up thinking it might be a scam. I remembered entering the contest and after a bit of conversation provided the necessary details for them to send me the tablet. Fortunately I didn't have to provide much more than my physical address as asking for personal information such as my Social Security Number would have been a deal breaker.

There are lots off opportunities out there and it just takes a bit of careful research. You might get free movie tickets or even a free tablet. The trick is to ask the right questions and use your common sense.