Day 25 - That's brisk baby!

Finally headed out to the local pond and had a skate with the kids.  Not exactly a "skate" because I spent about an hour cleaning snow and then about 15 mins before someone had to go to the bathroom (not me).   But we did stay out for quite a bit, in spite of the -12 C weather.  Not too cold at all - I still wonder how people can do it in weather where skin freezes in minutes, but whatever.   I was talking with a guy at Friday hockey who lives in Calgary.  He says they play there outside without much equipment all the time.  The city cleans the ice a couple of times a day, but there are lots of rinks.  Thing is, it's at least -25 C there and they wear long johns track pants, hoodie and a hat.  He said it is fine as long as it isn't windy, but when the wind kicks up it can burn in a few minutes.  Just gotta keep moving - I wasn't that cold because of the shovelling in spite of wearing jeans and no long johns.  Blue jeans are a pretty poor choice for winter wear because cotton radiates heat pretty well.  It's good during the summer, but not the best.  Long johns, particularly woolen ones, provide a nice barrier between the radiant outer wear and the nice warm flesh.  I haven't worn them for a long time because I'm usually too hot.  When I was a kid, my mom would bundle me up so much that I'd start sweating within minutes and I'd be cold anyway.  When I got older, I realized that you're always warm for a few minutes (coming from inside) and if you are active your body warms up, so that by the time the cold has penetrated your body is generating enough heat to maintain a good balance.  When the experts talk about surviving where it is cold, they stress avoiding sweating.  If your under layers get wet, they need to be dried off or changed or else you will freeze.  See any cold-weather episode of Survivorman.

Anyway, my older son declined to skate, but stuck around for the majority of the time, driven inside by the cold.  My younger son had to use a certain facility and decided to remain inside after that.  For me, I think it was a good outing as I didn't notice how cold my legs were until I was inside for a few minutes.   Plus I got some nice fortified hot chocolate out of the whole deal.

Something very interesting that I saw on Slashdot yesterday was the Monty Python Goes YouTube, DVD sales spike.  I had a look at the Monty Python channel when it was first mentioned on /.  and it was pretty cool.  Sketches and so on, nice chunks, done with high quality.  For someone like me who is pretty familiar with most of the material, the channel is a great place to send someone if they don't understand a bit I just quoted or referred to.  Really, that hasn't come up yet, but I assume it will.  I think the tremendous jump in sales is a result of accessibility of the material - that thing the RIAA hasn't figured out yet.  If people can purchase interesting material readily, they'll buy it legit.  If it's "hard to get" (read: expensive) they won't bother.  So this is an excellent example for the RIAA and MPAA on the use of "new media".  After watching more of the clips, I'm going to have to get Live at the Hollywood Bowl.  They have the best version of the Travel Agent sketch.