Pond Hockey

When I was about 10 or so, we thought about moving from Iowa to Minnesota. We eventually stuck around the Hawkeye state, but I wonder from time to time what my life would have been like had I grown up in a stronger hockey tradition.

What brings this up is the US Pond Hockey 4 on 4 tournament in Wisconsin this February. I've never really ice skated before, so the idea that I can talk three friends into joining this tournament two time zones away is probably insane. On the other hand, it might be fun. They don't appear to have a "complete newbie" league, so it might be just as well. A lot of the folks playing in this can probably skate and everything.

I've done weirder things. Trying to plot anything for NaNoWriMo this year. I've signed up and my track record is pretty good. (Participated three times, finished twice. Last year I lost my will to write or do anything but stare blankly at the TV for a while.)

The first year, I wrote sort of a fantasy about a world where console RPG physics were real. Characters had save points, etc. It was OK. Still makes me laugh, though I doubt there's much in it.

The year after that, there was a hard-science space opera thing about colliding galaxies that didn't turn out how I originally planned, but went OK.

Perhaps I'll take another stab at the story I wrote last year. Or I might do the thing Kevin and I were discussing the other day--cyborg ninjas fighting sharks and Nazis with dinosaurs.

That might help my nerd powers regenerate. It took me a whole day to remember the name of the Star Trek episode where the flying fried eggs take over Spock. And I still had to look the damn thing up.