Category Archives: Miscellaneous

May 4, 2012

Belize: Days 7 & 8

By Carla Harker

The final days of our trip.

Day 7

Day 7 saw us up early again for the trip to the Actun Tunichil Muknal cave, also known as the ATM cave. I should have suspected something was going to be off for the day when our guide wasn’t satisfied with simply saying, “Anyone forget anything?” Instead he went through a checklist. “Did you get your sunscreen? Your bug spray? Your water bottles? Your socks?” “Yes.” “Did you get any medicine you might need?” No response, because no one had any medicine. “Any medicine? Any medicine?” Finally I told him yes to shut him up.

That turned out to be the start of the most awful guide experience of the whole trip. After a long bumpy ride to the parking area, he then told us shortly before our 1 1/2 mile hike to the cave, “We want to get in before the other groups arrive, so we’re not going to stop to look at anything.”

At this point Joe and I started making sarcastic remarks to each other. “No time to enjoy the sights, folks! What do you think this is, a vacation?” The guide started hauling ass until he realized about half of us weren’t keeping up. Not because we couldn’t; it was a nice, level path. Mostly because he wasn’t going to make us to race through our trip. So he was forced to slow down.

ATM cave entrance

The start of  our caving adventure required a short swim through a pool of water. You can see it in the picture above. In fact, the majority of your time in the cave is spent in water. Most of it wading, but that wasn’t the last swim. I wasn’t able to get many pictures during this time because we were moving in a single file line, and I didn’t want to block the people behind me.

I’ve been in only a handful of caves in my life, but this was the toughest of them all. It was also the most fun (guide excepted). There was bouldering, swimming, maneuvering between narrow crevices, climbing up and down, and almost all of it done in water.

Our guide started getting very irritated and bossy around this point. I mentioned earlier a family of four that was on the same tour of us and how they had a couple of boys, ages 10 and 13. Well, boys that age can be curious and at times a little out of control. They were good boys, and they didn’t do anything wrong, but they were kids. And our guide was a complete control freak. His instructions started to get more demanding. When people didn’t do exactly what he said, and I mean exactly, as in, “Put your foot here. No, I said here,” he got angrier and angrier. Somehow it never dawned on him that we were able to get ourselves into another country without completing flubbing it. Heck, two of our group even managed to produce children and keep them alive! The way he acted, you’d think we were lucky to be able to tie our shoes without impaling ourselves on our shoe strings. I don’t like bullies, and I don’t like people who treat me like an idiot. He was both of those.

Anyway, at the end of the trail, you climb a boulder to another level, where we removed our shoes (socks only; very important) and were taken through the archaeology portion of the trip. This is where the Mayans held their ceremonies and ritual sacrifices. It’s a live archaeology site, so watching your footing was very important.

It’s hard to see from this angle, but the forehead is flat. The Maya tied a board to their infants’ foreheads to flatten the forehead. It was a sign of beauty.

This was the least interesting part of the caving tour for me, simply because it was more “looking at things.” Except for one ladder climb (modern aluminum, not ancient Mayan), the path was nice and level and safe. If Joe and I ever did it again (hopefully with a different guide, because I’m pretty sure I would snap if I had to deal with him again), and we were alone, we would tell the guide we just wanted to turn around at the boulder. Once you’ve seen a few skeletons and broken pottery, you’ve seen them all.

A pile of skeletons

The tour ends (at least for tourists) before a virtually intact skeleton called the Crystal Maiden. That link also tells about some of the other skeletons found in the cave, including those of several infants and children. The picture below makes it look as if we’re right next to the skeleton, but there’s actually a wire fence blocking access.

The Crystal Maiden.

All together, we spent about four hours in the cave. It’s a testament to how awesome the cave actually is that despite mentally directing every expletive in both English and Spanish I know toward our guide, it was second only to the Black Hole Drop in my enjoyment. (If you’re wondering, when I filled out the survey from the travel agency, I specifically mentioned this guide. They called to follow up and said they’d look into it to see if he was just having a bad day or if that was an ongoing problem).

Day 8

It’s time to go home! Our vacation was fantastic, but I missed home. Since our flight wasn’t until the afternoon, our final trip was to the Belize Zoo. Unlike a lot of zoos, the Belize zoo focuses only on animals native to Belize. Sorry, I didn’t take pictures. It was very hot that day, and I was tired. A lot of the animals were hidden beneath their foliage because of the heat, so it was hard to even see them.

There’s really not much to say about this trip. It was a zoo. Our guide was nice and friendly and a little shy. He took us to a wonderful local restaurant, where I had some fantastic BBQ chicken, and then he hauled us to the airport. The airport experience was, well, an airport. Wait on planes. Go through security. Go through customs. Etc. Nothing fun.

And that was it! Eight fantastic days of fun and sun and action. This was my favorite vacation. The country is beautiful. The people were on the whole nice and friendly. It’s a very safe, very clean, but very poor country.  I’d love to go back someday, once the pain of dealing with airports and customs has faded from memory a bit. If you’re looking for an exciting vacation, consider doing the Belize Adventure from Adventure Life.

All the photos in this blog series, plus additional pictures, are available on in my Photobucket album.

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April 26, 2012

Belize: Days 5 & 6

By Carla Harker

The Guild Wars 2 open beta weekend starts tomorrow, so I figured I’d better get this done today. Expect a blog post in a few days talking about my experiences in the game.

Day 5

Day 5 in Belize marks our first full day in the jungle. We wake up early and meet our guide, Francisco, for ziplining and cave tubing. Both were located at the same place, a rather tourist-y park with plenty of ways to try to part you from your money.

The zipline didn’t last as long as I’d hoped. There are seven lines of varying lengths and heights. I thought for sure I would be terrified, considering my fear of heights. I was at first. The very first line, just after he snapped me onto the cable, it dawned on me that I was about to trust my life to a carabiner and two cables tied to trees. And then I was gone … and I had a blast!

It’s almost impossible to get a perspective on how high Joe is in that shot, but needless to say, it’s high. After running through the ziplines, Francisco took us on a short walk to the river put-in, where we would be cave tubing through a series of long, low caves. After the sweaty walk, the cool water felt great, but overall, I’d have to give cave tubing a “meh.” The water doesn’t move fast enough to make it exciting, and other than a tiny colony of bats and a bunch of minnows that kept nibbling at our feet, there isn’t really much to see or do.

After the tubing and lunch, it was back to the resort.

Day 6

Ah, this is it. The one event that makes people either say, “Are you crazy?” or “Wow, that sounds so cool.” We’re rappelling the 300′ deep Black Hole Drop. We wake up, pile into the van, and take the short drive to the lodge where we’ll meet our guides and pick up a few other tourists. After signing a liability waiver with bolded words like DEATH and GROSS NEGLIGENCE and NOT RESPONSIBLE, we piled into another bus that took us to the base of the sinkhole. The hike to the top of the sinkhole is an intense jungle trek almost straight up. I was very, very grateful for all the time I spent on the Stairmaster. If you want to know what the hike is like, spend 90 minutes on a Stairmaster in a steam room and make sure you skip every other step about half the time. All that conditioning really paid off, though, because we were able to keep up with the guides without any problems.

Besides us, there was the family of four that had been with us since we left Dangriga. They had two boys, 10 and 13. There was a man and his teenage son (he was 16 or 17), and another family of four with a boy and girl of around 7 and 9. Our turn came about in the middle, just before the family with the younger kids. It was interesting to watch everyone else go over. The older teenage boy was probably the most visibly terrified. The guides had the hardest time convincing him he had to lean back.

Then it was our turn. Now, I’d been rappelling once before, so I at least understood that you had to trust the equipment and you had to lean back. That much I got. I had trouble figuring out where to put my hands on the rope, though, so I struggled at first, since the rope is also kind of heavy. Once I had that squared away, I was over the edge.

See all those ropes and knots and stuff? It’s all very safe. We were probably safer leaning over the edge of that cliff than we were on the drive over. Doesn’t mean I wasn’t nervous, because I was, but I would do it again in a heartbeat. I still had a death grip on the rope, though. That’s why I was glad to hand my camera over to the guide. No way was I going to be able to take even one hand off the rope long enough to take a picture.

The way this system worked, guides on the top and bottom held onto the safety rope. If anything happened, like you started to descend too quickly (hard with the number of brakes we had) they could stop you instantly. They also said you could call up to them, and they could stop if you wanted to look around. Joe did so. Which, admittedly, did make me nervous hanging in the air like that. When we can figure out where the SD card is with the pictures on it, I’ll upload it to my Photobucket account.

At the bottom we had lunch, the guides told us a little about the Maya who used the caves at the bottom of the sinkhole for their ceremonies, and then it was time to return. Returning meant climbing a 30′ aluminum house ladder. It was anchored to the wall, though, and they hook your harness up to a safety rope, so it’s not particularly dangerous. What was actually the most dangerous part of the whole thing was that final bit of climb to the resting spot, because it had started to rain, and the rain had made the rocks and roots slippery. I was almost done when it started to get slippery, so I only had a taste, but Joe, who was several minutes behind, said it was probably the scariest part of the whole trip.

And then it was hiking down. The rain made the trek slow going to keep from falling.

Thus ended day 6.

Next week: the ATM cave, the Belize zoo, and finally, home.

Additional pictures here.

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April 20, 2012

Belize: Days 3 and 4

By Carla Harker

I wanted to get back to this sooner, but editing my current WIP got in the way.

Day 3

Anyway, day 3 in Belize was our first (and only) full day on the atoll. Today was a full day of kayaking, snorkeling, and sail kayaking. Today also happened to be our 18th anniversary! (Ignore the date on the camera; it was actually the 26th).

The first part was a 3-mile, 90-minute kayak out to another caye. About halfway there we stopped on a sandbar for snacks and pics.

If you ever decide to go ocean kayaking for 90 minutes, I highly recommend lots of arm and shoulder exercises. Even with all the exercise we do, I still reached muscle failure at one point and had to let my arms rest for a bit.

Once we arrived on the caye, we were told we would be snorkeling for about 90 minutes, which would then be followed by lunch, a short walk (which ended up being cut short for some reason), then we would sail back.

During this particular outing, our guide, Mike, took along a speargun to kill lionfish. He explained that this is a particularly invasive species of fish that was introduced into this ocean a few years ago. He managed to kill three or four while we were there.

That’s not a lionfish. I have no idea what it is, but it looks pretty dumb.

After a yummy lunch–as all the meals were–it was time to throw a sail on those kayaks and sail back. As I was the navigator, that meant I got the awesome job of controlling the sail. Along the way we saw some manta rays and reef sharks. At least I think they were reef sharks. Hard to tell for sure.

We returned home, cleaned up and relaxed before dinner.

Day 4

Our final day on the atoll. There was one final snorkeling trip, but I didn’t go on it because I wasn’t feeling well. Instead I enjoyed a relaxing morning on the beach finishing the book I’d brought along.

After that, we took a boat ride back to the mainland, then caught a van to our next destination, Pook’s Hill Lodge. Along the way, we got our first bit of unexpected adventure. The tire blew, and the driver didn’t have a spare. As luck would have it, his brother happened to be coming from the other direction, so we didn’t have to wait for a Good Samaritan, but it meant the rest of us were left stranded on the side of the road–in the middle of nowhere in a foreign country–while he went to Belmopan for another tire.

But finally we arrived at the lodge.

This place was fantastic. Electricity! Flush toilets! It was like heaven after two nights in safari tents. Our huts were gorgeous, and the grounds were so beautiful.

The managers, Kat and Dave, were fantastic about telling you exactly what you needed to do, what time you needed to get up the next day, and where you’d be. In the evenings before dinner, they had a little get-together with chips and salsa, to let people mingle and enjoy drinks.

Oh, and at night, you can hear the howler monkeys in the jungle. They sound like Darth Vaders.

(This isn’t my video; I just found it on Youtube).

And that’s it for day 4. Days 5 and 6 include zip lines, cave tubing, and rappelling!

More photos here in my Photobucket album.

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April 13, 2012

Belize: Days 1 and 2

By Carla Harker

I meant to start this blog post earlier, but first Joe got sick, then I did. I’ve also been on a Skyrim kick lately. I think my Minecraft love is finally waning. I can go actual days without playing.

So we returned from Belize a couple weeks ago. By far, it’s my favorite country of the ones I’ve visited. Which isn’t many, admittedly, but it’s still my favorite.

Day 1

Day 1 was all about travel and logistics. After getting the cats to the vet for boarding, then racing to DFW, then being the last on the plane (we were perilously close to missing our flight), we were off. Two-and-a-half hours later, we set down at Belize’s international airport. Or maybe “international” airport would be more accurate. It’s a very tiny airport in a very tiny, very poor country.

From there, we took a charter flight on a Tropic Air Cessna Caravan to Dangriga, a coastal town, where we stayed at the Pelican Beach hotel for the night. It was a nice way to wind down after the hustle and bustle of dealing with airlines and security and customs.

Day 2

Day 2 started off with a nice, if hurried, breakfast by the beach.

 

From there, it was a bus to the docks, where we took a boat to Southwest Caye on the Glover’s Reef Atoll. This would be our home for the next two nights. The safari tents we stayed in were okay, but I have to admit, I could really do without compost toilets. I think I like my accommodations a wee bit more upscale.

After getting situated, it was time to hit the water! The first thing they wanted to do was train us in kayaking. It took a little too long, admittedly. We were there for snorkeling, after all, and making us wait while they showed us how to flip a kayak, how to steer, how to paddle, etc. was a little annoying. One of my first impressions of Belize was that they’re a very safety-conscious country. But I enjoyed the kayaking, so it wasn’t all bad.

Finally, it was on to our first snorkeling. This was a guided “tour” of a nearby reef, where we saw a lot of beautiful wildlife. Here’s the part where I make people doubt my sanity. I found snorkeling merely okay. It was neat. I saw some awesome underwater life. But in the end, it was sticking your face in an aquarium. It was looking at things. I don’t hate it, and I’m not saying I wouldn’t do it again. I just simply didn’t think it was the mind-altering event everyone else seemed to think it was. I enjoyed the kayaking much more.

So ends day 2. We returned to the beach to clean up and rest until dinner. The food on the atoll was exquisite. I’m not exaggerating when I say I’ve never had food that good every single meal. Even stuff I normally might not care for was absolutely delicious.

Next week, days 3 and 4. Day 3 is another day on the atoll, day 4 takes us back to the mainland and into the jungle.

For many more photos, click here to see my Photobucket album.

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February 24, 2012

Belize

By Carla Harker

I mentioned in a previous blog post that we’re going to be vacationing in Belize, and since I don’t have any games to talk about (really, all I do is play Minecraft and I TOTALLY HATE YOU GUYS FOR GETTING ME ADDICTED TO THIS AWESOME GAME).

What was I talking about?

Oh, right, since I don’t have any games to talk about, a friend suggested I talk about our trip. This is the trip we’re taking, and I can say this: if we die there, it better not be in a car wreck!

The first couple of days we’ll be on an atoll in the middle of a marine preserve. I’ve never been snorkeling, and I have a fear of being eaten by giant animals with huge teeth, but I’m going to go gamely into water in which things with dead eyes can swim up from underneath me and oh god maybe I’ll just stay on the beach and drink mai tais.

Assuming we survive that, then it’s on to Pook’s Hill Lodge and ziplining and cave tubing. Did I mention I am also acrophobic? (You’re going to sense a pattern to my phobias and this vacation). Seriously, I once couldn’t step off a ladder onto the roof of my house; I was too paralyzed to will my limbs to move. And yet, I’m going to strap myself to a harness attached to a cable in a third-world country and go hurtling through the oh god maybe I’ll just stay at the lodge and drink mai tais.

Cave tubing will be fun, though.

Next up is what I consider the apex of the trip: the Black Hole Drop. Just thinking about this can give me an adrenaline rush. What is it? It’s a 300-foot rappel into a sinkhole in the middle of the jungle. Yeah, I’m that insane acrophobic who can’t step off a ladder, and I’m going to strap myself in a harness and step off the side of a 300-foot oh god I’m definitely staying at the lodge drinking mai tais.

The last adventure is a hike into Actun Tunichil Muknal, a cave that once served as a Mayan sacrificial chamber. I have absolutely no claustrophobia, however, so that’s good.

I have a new waterproof digital camera, so I should have a billion pictures when we return. If we return.

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January 27, 2012

A post about stuff

By Carla Harker

—

First, everyone go congratulate my friend Morgan Dempsey on being made Assistant Editor of Scape.

—

I haven’t played many different games lately. Mostly just Minecraft and SWTOR. My SWTOR subscription is up soon, and I won’t be renewing. Not a bad game, but like I’ve mentioned before, theme park games can only hold my interest in small doses. I tried a French MMO in open beta called Wakfu. It’s an intriguing title, far more complicated than the cutesy graphics would indicate. It’s going live in a few weeks, and they’re planning a server wipe, so I haven’t wanted to get too involved in it. Still, I’ll probably check it out again when it’s ready.

—

We’re going on vacation in Belize in a few weeks, so we’ve been upping our workout routine. I’ve added swimming to my weekly schedule, and I’m starting to get my endurance up. I’m up to a half mile, and now I’m working on needing fewer stops between laps. Our Belize vacation includes snorkeling, sea kayaking, caving, ziplines, rappelling, and hiking, so it should be a blast. Yeah, can you tell I’m not really a big fan of the whole “lounging on the beach with a book and a margarita” type of vacation?

—

I finished another round of revisions on my last book and started the first draft of another. Not willing to really say what it’s about yet, because I usually don’t know what it’s about until it’s done. But it’s coming along very well. Almost 20,000 words and I haven’t yet hit a drag point. I will eventually, of course, but I’m enjoying the ride as long as I can.

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December 30, 2011

Top 3 of 2011

By Carla Harker

Since everyone else is doing their Top [X] of 2011, why not? Some things didn’t come out in 2011, but that’s when I read/saw/played them.

Books

 

Since getting my iPad, I’ve read more books than I usually do in any given year, and I’m happy about that. These were all digital purchases.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them.

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved—that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.

Non-gamers might not find this one as interesting, but I absolutely loved every minute of it. I like the fact that the author knows games, and it’s obvious he holds a deep fondness for them. His OASIS is the perfect computer system, and anyone who loves MMOs will understand the appeal.

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

In America’s Gulf Coast region, where grounded oil tankers are being broken down for parts, Nailer, a teenage boy, works the light crew, scavenging for copper wiring just to make quota–and hopefully live to see another day. But when, by luck or chance, he discovers an exquisite clipper ship beached during a recent hurricane, Nailer faces the most important decision of his life: Strip the ship for all it’s worth or rescue its lone survivor, a beautiful and wealthy girl who could lead him to a better life.…

In this powerful novel, award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi delivers a thrilling, fast-paced adventure set in a vivid and raw, uncertain future.

I almost didn’t read this, because I tend to have a dislike for long paragraphs unbroken by dialog, and that makes up the first couple of pages. But the story significantly picks up the pace, and I could barely put it down once I got into it. I’ve read a lot of YA dystopian fiction this year, and this is my favorite by far.

Johannes Cabal the Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard

A charmingly gothic, fiendishly funny Faustian tale about a brilliant scientist who makes a deal with the Devil, twice.

Johannes Cabal sold his soul years ago in order to learn the laws of necromancy. Now he wants it back. Amused and slightly bored, Satan proposes a little wager: Johannes has to persuade one hundred people to sign over their souls or he will be damned forever. This time for real. Accepting the bargain, Jonathan is given one calendar year and a traveling carnival to complete his task. With little time to waste, Johannes raises a motley crew from the dead and enlists his brother, Horst, a charismatic vampire to help him run his nefarious road show, resulting in mayhem at every turn.

It’s hard to say how much I love this character. He’s completely amoral, highly sarcastic, and easily annoyed. Think Gregory House, if he could raise the dead and had fewer ethical qualms. I would gladly read any story he was in, and I hope the author is able to write many more Johannes Cabal books.

Runners Up: Divergent by Veronica Roth and Johannes Cabal the Detective by Jonathan L. Howard

Games

 

Minecraft

I avoided this game for a long time, even knowing millions loved it and friends raved about it. The graphics were a real turnoff to me. But a friend convinced me to try it, knowing my love of sandbox games, so I took the plunge. I came up for air the first night six hours later, bleary-eyed but eager to play more. I convinced Joe to play it, and now two months later, we’re still playing almost every night. We have a server with a handful of friends playing, have added some of the biggest and best multiplayer mods, and I’ve probably put more hours into our world than I have every game combined in the last six months. Oh, and I found a gorgeous texture pack to apply to the graphics.

Skyrim

If you know games at all you know this one. It’s the fifth installment of the Elder Scrolls series. It’s an open-ended roleplaying game set in a fantasy world of elves and dragons and magic. It’s easily one of the best-looking games out, but more importantly, it’s an exciting, sandbox world where you get to decide what you’re going to do and how you’re going to do it. I’ve only put in about three dozen hours (for the reason, see entry above), and I’ve only just touched the main quest line. Some days I just get in and read a few of the in-game books. Other times, I go out until I stumble upon a cave or dungeon or house and just see what’s inside. I put literally hundreds of hours into the previous Elder Scrolls game, and I expect to do the same with Skyrim.

Everquest 2

I’ve mentioned before that Everquest 2 is the best theme park MMO out, and I stand by that. Their latest expansion, Age of Discovery, is filled with content, including a new dungeon creator that allows players to make dungeons for others to complete. And the items for those dungeons are found from drops, giving you even more reason to go out questing. I’ll go back to this game in the future.

Runner Up: Fallen Earth

Movies/TV

 

I watch so little TV and movies that I’m lumping these together.

The Wire, Season 5

Finally finished the show up. This is quality TV the likes of which you rarely see on screen. It’s not always easy to watch. Characters you like often do terrible things. The good guys aren’t always easy to identify. But even when the focus is on the politicians, the show still holds your interest. It feels real in a way no show has ever felt before. Oh, and it’s surprisingly funny. Laugh-out-loud funny.

Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil

I heard about this one mentioned by Candace Havens on Twitter, so when we were looking for a movie to rent one night, we decided to give it a try. Watch the trailer and see for yourself. I’m always worried with comedies that all the funny parts are in the trailer, so I was pleasantly surprised to find this wasn’t the case with this movie. It was genuinely funny, and the two heroes are dumb but sweet.

Psych

I won’t pretend this is the greatest show in the world, but I enjoy watching James Roday and Dulé Hill as the heroes of this comedy detective series. The two work well together and have great comedic timing. I’ve been watching some episodes of The West Wing, and it’s funny to see how different Charlie Young is from Gus. I think Dulé Hill is an underrated actor, and I hope he keeps working for a long time.

Runner up: In Plain Sight

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December 23, 2011

Protect a censorship-free Internet

By Carla Harker

Short post before the holiday weekend. SOPA is on hold for now, but it’s important for people to understand why it’s such a terrible idea. Watch this four-minute video to understand why if SOPA passes, a censorship-free Internet may become a thing of the past.

 

I have a suggestion for all the search engines and DNS providers: hold a week of protest in which you remove every site for every company and organization that supports SOPA. Remove them from search engines. Cut off their DNS. In other words, show them exactly how it would feel to be banned from the Internet.

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December 8, 2011

Has it really been so long?

By Carla Harker

I didn’t intend to go three weeks between blog posts, but two long vacations and a Minecraft addiction sort of made time run away. Yes, I’m still playing Minecraft. A lot. As in, I only have 30 hours in Skyrim since release because the rest of my time has been spent in our world. This is a game with so many endless possibilities, it redefines the phrase.

Several years ago, we visited the Great Sand Dunes National Park and climbed the dunes. In many parks, you’re expected (and sometimes required) to stay on designated trails, both for your safety and to protect the park’s resources. The Dunes aren’t like that. You’re free to go anywhere, take any route. It was exhilarating.

Do we take this really high dune now, since our ultimate goal is the highest dune in the park, or take that downward path, knowing it only means more ascending later? Do we travel along the top of this dune to that spot further from our goal and then ascend, or take this shorter path that requires more climbing? Sometimes we picked wrong (like in that picture, where we were sure it was a gentle rise when we headed for it. The sand really plays havoc with your depth perception).

Just as I love forging my own path in real life, I love doing it in games. Minecraft hands you the tools to do whatever you want and then steps back and says, “Go for it.”

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November 11, 2011

Delaney

By Carla Harker

She came from a no-kill animal shelter, the only cat in the cage actively looking around, examining her surroundings. She caught my attention immediately, and when I held her, I knew she was the perfect cat. After I signed the paperwork and paid the adoption fee, the woman who had cared for her all but cried when she handed her over. I could tell she was going to miss her, and it soon became obvious why.

She’s so sweet and loving. When she was young, she was awake and active more than any other cat I’d ever seen. Her favorite toy was the string from a pair of sweatpants. She carried it with her everywhere. She would drag it into one room, play with it, then carry it somewhere else to play with. I found it in a different place all the time.

She isn’t the smartest cat in the world. In fact, I think she might be one of the dumbest. When she climbs on the kitchen counters, virtually the only place in the house she isn’t allowed, she meows loudly, letting us know very clearly what she’s doing. She used to do somersaults and try to look cute when she did something wrong, in the hopes the cute would make us forget what she did. Sometimes it worked.

She’s perfectly content sitting in our laps, or sleeping under the blankets in bed, curled between my arm and side. She loves having her belly rubbed. When we put a pet door in the door to the attached garage for the litter box, she discovered heaven in the form of an un-air conditioned garage during a Texas summer.

She’s almost 15, and she’s been with us for 13 years. She’s in a lot of pain, having a lot of problems, and it’s only going to get worse. We don’t like seeing her suffer. Tomorrow morning we take her to the vet. She won’t be coming back.

I wish it could have lasted longer, but I’m glad I got to know her.

2 comments   |  tags: , | posted in Miscellaneous

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