Sat, 28 Feb 2009

Ad Astra Per Aspera

At dinner with my family a while ago, the conversation turned to the subject of hobbies. I was bemoaning the fact that my kids' hobbies seemed to be pretty much limited to things like achieving high scores on the X-Box, or serving in a godlike capacity as the master of a group of players in an role playing world. I was gently tweaking them over the fact that these kinds of activities were primarily computer based, involved at best a limited kind of interaction with other people, and kept them glued to the computer screen for hours at a time. While advanced joystick proficiency gained by hours playing Halo 3 might make my son a good candidate for piloting a Predator done someday, beyond that these activities didn't involve many opportunities for learning much of anything.

My kids, of course, immediately challenged me right back, asking me about my hobbies: what things did I do to occupy what little free time I had?

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Posted Feb 28, 2009 at 20:55 UTC, 3524 words,  [/rich]  Permalink

Wilderness

Last Fall I was up on Blue Mountain (about 10 mi west of the NE Extension PA Turnpike tunnel. It was very nice too. Crisp at night, but not cold. Near full moon. Clear skies.

An odd thing happened, though.

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Posted Feb 28, 2009 at 16:26 UTC, 1033 words,  [/dan]  Permalink

A Walk up Brunswick Mountain (conclusion)

I lay on a small rocky clearing, a mile above Howe Sound, eyes wide, seeing nothing but black, ears hearing only silence...

Well, that's not exactly true.

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Posted Feb 28, 2009 at 16:22 UTC, 2248 words,  [/dan]  Permalink