Deep Weekend

Two weeks ago, I was sick. Last week, we were in the middle of a monsoon. This weekend, it felt great to just to be able to do something! The above video clip is our dive in Martin Lake on Saturday.

Martin Lake was our first diving adventure. It's a deep lake and our first visit, we didn't feel comfortable doing deeper then 60 feet, especially on our first dive. This time, we are both more confident divers and were eager to do more exploring and see what was down there. The visibility wasn't great, but it was much better then our first visit.

The first task was finding the underwater platform, which we did fairly quickly. It almost looked like we knew what we were doing! We descended down to the platform, made sure we were both okay, then started the express elevator down to the first boat. I didn't get too far down when I felt a tug on my fin. Not sure what to expect, Becca showed me this:



By pure chance, I missed seeing our underwater friend on my decent. I have to admit, I'm glad I missed him because it I probably would have screamed like a little girl...and lets be honest, it's more fun to tease Becca for freaking out instead of me! Later on the surface, Becca's comment on seeing our friend "I almost swallowed my regulator". What I really want to know, on our first visit to this lake we went with a number of local divers, I made a comment that it would be funny to put a skeleton in one of the boats. Not a single one of them made mention that that skeleton was even down there! So, ha ha you guys! Way to not let on to the new divers that somebody already thought of that idea!

I was surprised at the number of boats that are down there, it's a boat graveyard. We found three and we still didn't cover all the water we wanted to. We'll have to go back again for sure, just to make sure we see everything. We burned through air much faster then I wanted to. At least Becca's excuse could be the huge gulp she took when she saw our friend, but in my case I can't explain it. I just like breathing, mmmm good air. I'll blame the cold though, it was 41 degrees from everything deeper then 60 feet. We made it down to 75 feet, about the same as our deep water dive in our advanced class, but it was 5 degrees colder here in Martin Lake.

Our second dive the week end took us to Long Lake. There was an underwater geocache that we've wanted to do for quite awhile. It's always a challenge to swim on the surface with your dive gear on, but then add holding a GPS over you head and not only do you look silly, but it's harder then it looks. After getting over the correct coordinates, we dropped down to look for our treasure. Visibility was only a few feet, which wasn't bad, until Becca dropped down in the muck and stirred everything up! Leave it to Becca, always wanting to increase the difficultly level! I can't say I followed an orthodox search pattern, but it was good enough because we found it.

After our goal was completed, off we went to search for something else cool. Well, we didn't find it! Long Lake seems very strange, typically the deeper you go the better the visibility gets, instead here it was the opposite. Deeper then 30 feet and it was the lights were off, there was more sediment, and the bottom was invisible. We ditched that plan and stayed above 30 feet for most of the dive. The second highlight for the dive for me was during our safety stop, which we did swimming back to shore, I got a little freaked out because sand got kicked up right in front of me. My first thought that a boat went over our heads and I knew we weren't very deep, then it dawned on me that I would have heard that. Looking around, there was a huge carp swimming around. Apparently, we got to close to it and spooked it and it cause the sand to kick up.

That was the extent of our deep weekend. All in all, it was fun and I didn't get scared when I saw the skeleton ;)

Four TD's In One Game

Al Bundy once scored four touchdowns in a single game in High School. That was his claim to fame and even though he's a fictional character, I have to admit it would be cool to always have a memory like that. It's safe to say that if I played football, I probably wouldn't even be able to walk right now! So, it's probably a good idea I didn't attempt my legacy in sports when a trip to Maui can cause my knee to swell for months. If I have any claim to fame, it's in the virtual world of computer games. The contact is far less physical, but the competition is just as heated.

My game of choice has been the Unreal Tournament series. It started back in 99, and evolved to 2003 and 2004 versions. I don't even want to think about how many hours I've spent running around levels shooting friends, strangers, enemies, and everything in between over the years. Even when I think of people playing computer games, I think of pale skinned nerds with no life. I can't even avoid the stereotype, yet I've met some of my best friends (who don't fit the mold either) running around in a game trying to kill each other. That alone is kind of amazing to me that it's even possible.

To play an online game, especially one where the object is to shoot and kill the other person, you need a tough sounding name. This is where Ace comes from, it's my online name that comes from ten years running around in games (There's a much longer story behind the name that I'll save for another blog entry).

Here is the first video I made of myself running around. All the people in this video are friends, but I made this specifically to goof on Diablo45. He's a real character both inside the game and outside the game. This clip is a perfect example of him telling you a complete BS story with a straight face only at the end, laughing to give away his joke in the final seconds of the story. That's Diablo45. Camping is the term given to a player that stays in one spot and attempts for easy kills. Diablo45 was very vocal that he never camped, this video shows otherwise:



This next video is probably my favorite, not because it took the most time to create, but because of story behind it. It's common to find gaming highlight videos around, but there are some seriously talented people that not only make them, but are supremely skilled in their gaming abilities. Part of the fun of making the videos was learning new things, for example what is involved from the encoding to capturing and editing. Lets face it, I'm never going to be a director, but even the amount of effort to make even a short clip like this is time consuming. Not only did I meet IceColdFever (another gaming name if you couldn't have guessed) by playing games, but we also shared an interest in learning how to put these videos together. As it started, I think I made a quick video of me pwning (gaming for owning) IceColdFever in a couple of clips. That's all it took, then it became a mission to not only make a better videos, but get better clips of us killing each other. The beginning of this video includes the previous video IceColdFever made of himself pwning me. Of course, this one is called IceCold Payback:



Just like with anything, gaming can make friendships for life, but it can also make enemies. This next video probably is my 4 TD game, because it was labeled the Grudge Match. The story behind it was some cocky players, who I really didn't care for, came around talking all kinds of trash. It was decided that a Grudge Match would take place to stop the bickering. The match would be the best of three, 3 vs. 3, team deathmatch. Concept is simple kill the guys on the other team as often as you can in a set time limit. My teammates were Diablo45 and Optimus Prime. As far as I'm concerned, two of the best gamers out there. The first game we crushed the other team. The second game proved this really was going to be a Grudge Match, the other team beat us. Now the stage is set, one more game to get bragging rights. It was an absolute dogfight the whole way when disaster hit, Diablo45 got disconnected from the game in the final minutes. When this video starts, we are down 62 to 60 with ten seconds to go and it's now two vs. three. I don't want to spoil it, but I force overtime and the good guys win!



Yeah, it might not be 4 TD's in one game, but I think it was a very cool comeback. Anybody who thinks computer games are all fun and games, let me tell you, my heart was absolutely racing and my hands were actually sweaty. That situation was intense! I was so relieved that we won the Grudge Match, I even followed through with my promise to Diablo45 and took a couple of puffs on his cancer stick in celebration that we won. My first and last time EVER making a promise when it involves a cigarette!

Oh, and my other favorite part of this story (now that it has a happy ending), was listening to Diablo45 going crazy and screaming when he lost his connection to the game in the final minutes. Makes me smile just thinking about it ;)

Old Passions

Even though this is Michigan, no it hasn't snowed...yet! An old friend found me on Facebook and it made me think about skiing again. It won't be too much longer and the white stuff will start flying again. Maybe, if I look forward to getting some skiing in this season, it will make for a mild winter! I would take a mild winter, but it also would be nice to get more skiing in, so I guess no matter what happens this year, I'll win.

Uggh, it's been fifteen years since I REALLY spent time with this passion. It's hard to believe it's been that long since I practically lived on the slopes. Sure, I've got some skiing in since, but it just doesn't seem the same down here in the middle of the flat cornfields. I do miss my old stomping grounds. Luckily, I do still get to go back for visits from time to time.

Here's video of me doing my favorite move (a daffy) on my favorite hill, South Peak, at Caberfae Peaks:


I remember two situations from that year that define me. The first, I loved skiing almost until closing time. It was as if I had the slope completely to myself, me against the mountain (okay it's really a hill, but for the story it's a mountain). The chairlift rides to the top in complete silence, huge fluffy snow flakes falling, and dreaming about the up coming run in anticipation. On nights when snow was really falling, all tracks would disappear and it was new every time. It was perfect! No rules, the isolation meant I could ski however I wanted, it was complete freedom. I'll never forget those feelings. There's something to be said to do what you want, when you want and how you want, I like it!

The second, was the companionship. As much as I love the isolationism and being alone at times, there are other memories of mine that I enjoy just as much, because of being with friends. Now imagine that same chairlift ride, but the silence is replaced with hysterical laughter as another friend crashes in the most prolific way! Or the dares, only with friends would there be a need to take a run down a closed run, in complete darkness, through the trees. Having friends around to joke around with and challenge you to try new things, that's special too.

Here's video of me doing just that. I'm sure Becca didn't want or think she could do this, but she's a better person for me "talking" her into trying South Peak.


May the snow fall late this year, but hope to see you on the slopes soon and I can revive this old passion!