A copy of O-Sport was making its way around our club's annual meeting. This is the first time I have seen it, and it is a very nice magazine. Several people in the club have picked up subscriptions, which is nice. I held off due to the cost, but due to the quality of the 'zine I may have to rummage around for the funds.

I've been designing courses for a mass start race on Mt. Joy. If there is not alot of snow on the ground, this should be a fun race with lots of high visibility, and fast, open field, head to head racing. The long course looks to be coming in in the 12.2-12.7k range, not counting an allowed skip. I haven't set courses in a while, and have forgotten how much fun it is. I wonder if course setting is possibly the best form of armchair training -- there is a lot of work of visualizing the circle, visualizing and considering attackpoints, and of course route choice exercises. The other times I've designed courses, my skill level improved. I highly recommend course setting as armchair training.

I'll most likely be setting a sprint race at DVOA's fall '05 A meet. This would also serve as a model event. I'm still anxiously awaiting the OCAD of the area. I'd like to do this as a team fundraiser, as seems to be the trend. I'm debating, tho, whether or not to bid this as an A meet or even a championship. I'm wondering if it is worth the trouble -- what would the benefits of sanctioning be? Could be increased attendance at a higher fee if sanctioned, but would be more work. But would people pay A meet fees, which includes a rather stiff increase in the USOF sanctioning fee, for a 12 minute race? Would USOF waive the sanctioning fee for a team fundraiser? Does anyone know? You would think it would be common sense to do so. The fees could be lower, as the marginal cost of adding a day would not be to much, I suppose. Something to think about.

Movie recommendations on PPV: The Italian Job: worth seeing -- good stunt, action scenes, and direction; acting and plot perhaps a bit weaker. Holes:worth seeing -- campy, offbeat quasi-comedy with a dash of Seinfeldism. Highly entertaining and worth trying to make it thru the first 15 minutes (my wife couldn't). Finder's Fee: must see -- excellent acting and directing; a poker game within a poker game. Like Phone Booth, shot in real time. I think this one may be from the late 90's; I'm not sure.

I don't anticipate updating this page before around 2/20.