Writing in the Snow

As you may or may not know, if I want to use the Internet I have to go outside (currently -30) and down to a little shack. I'm not allowed inside the shack, but an Ethernet cable comes out. Unfortunately, in this weather, there are more cracks than a plumber convention and thus actually getting on the Internet is quite the ordeal. (For some reason Yahoo IM almost always works, but God help you try to get a browser.)

Anyway, the result is that I sit here for hours. Meanwhile the restrooms are clear at the other end of the camp, and obviously in this weather you don't want to leave a laptop unattended. Thus, I do a lot of squirming, and occasionally, I make use of Mother Nature. (This is more dangerous than it sounds, as there are packs of coyotes very near here. They are generally scared of humans, but quite attracted to urine. Go figure.)

Since we've gotten about 39 feet of snow here I have been able to witness the phenomena known as “name writing.” I think you know what I'm talking about.

Since I'm generally civilized (and more importantly, usually live in warmer climes), I have never really had the opportunity to do this whole calligraphy thing. I thought it might be kind of a lark, but what I noticed was that my “hand-writing” was terrible! My words were more illegible than “Smells like Teen Spirit” and “Louie Louie” combined! Oh the humanity. I have thought about this for several days, but am unable to come to any conclusions as to why.

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On a completely unrelated note, I got this giant pencil for my birthday last year . It's like this, except mine was red.

My neighbor gave it to me, and she jokingly said I could use it for Sudokus. (This was back when I was quite the fan. Now I find them so easy as to not be worth the effort.) However, the pencil, while funny looking, was almost useless to write with. I think it's because it was so big and so long. When you get something that big and long it becomes very difficult to control the writing flow, and you're left with gibberish. Nice idea, but I guess that's why giant pencils have never caught on to write with.