what may or may not be hard reality

Went out skiing the other night with my father. Quite an experience. It's been some three years ago since I last skied, but I found to my annoyance that I knew exactly what do to, however, I didn't quite have the muscles to do it with. However, my father was kind and we took it (relatively) slow. I say relatively because the snow was absolutely incredible. A few lazy pushes with the poles, and it felt like we were flying past. It was amazing, just us, and the thin tracks, and the silent dark forest briefly illuminated by our headlamps, the snow gleaming and glittering everywhere. We skied to a golf course that's about 3 kilometers from here, that has several tracks of different length going around it. It's a beautiful place, and every time we stopped for drinks we'd turn our lamps off because with the snow it's never completely dark. The night was wrapped in a gentle fog that seemed to shine from within with the moonlight refracted through every tiny drop of water, and trees were visible as dark shapes on the ridges, with an impenetrable mass of forest as a backdrop. Geography was completely lost to me as the track wound it's way around the course, and before I knew it we were back at our smaller track going through the forest and back home. We went a total of some 12 kilometers (8 miles? maybe?) and boy, did I feel it in my legs the next day. I'm quite satisfied with the experience, though, enough to last me this winter, and maybe the next one too, but it was indeed gorgeous, and any number of other pretty words that wouldn't quite do it justice.

And then on to a completely different topic. Skip the rest if you're allergic to rants.

Current pet peeve of *doom*:
I play a fair amount of Othello (Reversi) online against live players, and what I *hate* above all else are the miserable cowards who leave the game when they make a mistake or when they appear to be losing. Oh my God. I mean, I can accept it if someone would use the little chat function and let me know that "I'm sorry, I have to leave.", but that hasn't happened yet. But innumerable are the times when I've *just* (through hard concentration and intense playing) claimed a significant corner, and a little window pops up that tells me that "Your opponent has left the game.". Good God, it's so tremendously rude; just because it's anonymous DOES NOT make it ok to act like complete asses. Grow up and learn to honor your commitments, or don't play at all. (And I'm not implying that anyone on my flist does this, it's just a generic statement to the general public, not for people with manners to be concerned with.)

I would have cut the rant for, well, ranting, but on the off chance that someone should stumble across this journal who's ever done that, I wanted it to be readily visible, because I want them to know that it's   N O T   O K !