Author Archives: Devin Reams

About Devin Reams

My name is Devin Reams and I founded this site to provide a useful news and review resource for Colorado skiers and snowboarders (and mountain enthusiasts). I've been skiing since I was a little kid (we moved out here when I was five years old) and I plan to ski for years beyond that. Although cosnow is not my full-time job it is my full-time winter hobby. I've been an "Epic Local" passholder since 2006 (when it was called a "Colorado Pass" or "Five Mountain Pass"). My favorite resorts are Beaver Creek and Breckenridge.

Review: Lord of War

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lordofwar.jpg I’ll be brief, this movie was great. Nicholas Cage’s character, Yuri, is the Lord of War. He rubs shoulders with the worst people in the world and supplies them with, as he puts it, a means to defend themselves. This movie exposes you to the most fascinating … facts or fiction? … of arms dealing. I believe theres many truths to it, and the drama itself is very interesting.

There were a number of memorable quotes from the movie that I’d like to share:

“Governments are changed more often by bullets than votes.”

“After the Cold War, the AK-47 became Russia’s biggest export. After that came vodka, caviar, and suicidal novelists.”

I could go on but the movie is certainly worth watching. There’s a touch of humor and history, how could you not like it? It’s harsh, though. Reality sometimes is. You’ll see bloodshed; much of it is actually occuring as you read this (all seven of you).

If I were to give this a rating I’d say 9/10. IMDB users rated it a 7.5 (which is high). Did anyone else like it as much as I did? Maybe I found it favorable becuase it gave me a chance to test out my new electric blanket…

Highest Lift in N. America

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I went skiing today and would like to point out that I’ve been on the highest chair lift in North America. It brought us to nearly 13,000 feet. The wind was crazy but the view was spectacular. In order to construct it they used a helicopter that could lift up to 10 tons of steel (at sea level). They have a video on their site. In any case, if you felt extra-ambitious you could hike up to the very top of the peak and ski down some other bowls… I’ll just say that getting to the top was enough excitement for me today.

PIP Resolution: Book a Month

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Last year I resolved to read a book a month. I fell a few books short of my goal, unfortunately. In hindsight, I’m not sure why. I think the problem was with how I scheduled/used my time and that’s obviously beginning to change this year.

With that said I’m going to go for a book each month again. First on the list is finishing The World Is Flat. I’m about a quarter through it (of 500 pages). As far as the following months are concerned, I’ve got a few books lying around here and then I’ll head over to my own Amazon wishlist. Naturally, I’ll be posting my thoughts and reviews of each book.

Heck, with all my new free time I was able to catch up on 12 magazines. If I fail this I don’t know what I’ll do with myself…

PIP: Ta-da Lists

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I’ve always used Outlook to schedule my time and keep myself on task but I’ve found that ‘Calendar’ and ‘Tasks’ don’t do much for me. The interfaces seem outdated and not as easy to mange as I’d like. This is why I actually designed my ‘weekly schedule’ in Excel. Although Outlook helps me look ahead, it doesn’t help me look at my days very easily.

I also found that ‘Tasks’ don’t do much for me. I don’t know, but I decided to try out 37 signals‘ Ta-da lists. The lists are great because I can create a bunch of different subjects (Classes, Work, Projects) and just drop tasks into it. I can quickly and easily arrange the order and then check them off when I’m done.

In addition, each list has a dot next to it which is a graphical representation of what needs to be done. A quick glance tells me I have a lot of magazines to read, a few books to finish and a bunch of tasks to do at work. On the other hand, I don’t have as much course work yet. This serves as a nice reminder that even though X is easier, Y has a lot more than needs to be done. Also, I know which lists are priority so I can quickly look at those before anything else (instead of a mashed collection of tasks).

Going back to what I said earlier, I have all sorts of empty space on my calendar so when I find myself just chatting online I quickly reference my lists. I also made a list of my classes which I can then email to people or myself in case I forget. Lists are so good for me, I’m getting a ton done lately… I caught up on 4 magazines last night!

eBay Ego

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Is it just me or is eBay the best place to go to boost your ego? Seriously, it’s been a while since I checked my feedback but I can’t help but get a warm feeling reading compliments like “Excellent Guy” and “honest, reasonable, the best!!!!”. It’s like these people really know me.

dna 11

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dna 11 creates abstract art from your DNA. They basically put your genome on canvas. Looking to say ‘I love you’ this Valentine’s? Get a combined portrait. A beautiful blend of science and art. Oh, they’re kinda expensive though ($400-1000).

PIP: Personal Improvement Project

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I’ve started what I call my ‘PIP’ or ‘Personal Improvement Project’. The new year has sparked a lot of change already. So far I’ve dropped BusinessBits, established my own domain and completely reorganized my workspace.

But now I’m on to bigger things.

As mentioned the other day, I’ve started a biphasic sleep schedule. I went to sleep two nights ago at 1am (in order to ween myself into it) and woke up at 6. Last night I napped from 8:30p-10p … and then again from 10:03-midnight. Oops. I think my body doesn’t yet realize what I’m doing, which is fine… I expected this. Anyway, I got up at midnight, got some things done and went back to bed at 2. This morning I was back up at 6. I plan to try the nap again tonight.

My ultimate goal is to get through four sleep cycles each day. This means I hit REM sleep three times at night and then once during my nap. I wake up immediately after the cycle is complete. Now, I’ve read that most people’s cycles are about 90 minutes long but it looks like mine are only about 75 minutes long. I’ve discovered this now having looked back at the two times I woke up without an alarm. Going back to my goal, four cycles equates to five hours of sleep. From what I’ve read, this could be more than plenty.

So, I’m going to adjust a bit and see how things go. Technically I’m on my second day and I’m not feeling tired or anything.

Facebook Privacy

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Okay, I know I have a problem, but I was ‘poking’ around on Facebook today (pun intended) and I usually click around and see if I can find anything new. It’s kinda hard to find out if there’s a change anywhere becuase Facebook doesn’t have a blog or anything (ahem, Noah?) but that’s okay, I clicked on ‘My Privacy’ today and bam!, it’s different. I refreshed the home page like 20 times and haven’t seen any mention on the ‘Next Step’ either.

I hated this page because it was like, 2047 check boxes with 32 different radio buttons to select. But now it’s narrowed our privacy settings down to ‘Normal’, ‘Reserved’, ‘Paranoid’ or a custom mixture of options.

New Facebook Privacy Options

This seems like one of those little things, but for some it’s kinda a big deal. With a lot more people jumping on the site now (alumni, staff, even parents!) it’d be nice to make sure you can be as open as you want without the whole world knowing about you.

It also looks like you don’t need to know a person’s email address if you want to block them anymore. It’ll do a search for you and let you select them to be blocked. This is much simpler and almost one of those no-brainers… it’s about time.

Also, for those who aren’t yet married yet but are planning on it, it looks like ‘Engaged’ has been added to the relationship status. Very exciting! I’m sure this applies to plenty of people. I already added a girl friend of mine as ‘Engaged’.

engaged.JPG

Since she already accepted it I don’t think I need to buy a ring…

SSOTD: AEAllAccessPass.com

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I bring to you another Shoddy Site of the Day. This one comes from the clothing retailer, American Eagle. I’ve always had a problem with AE’s style because the girl’s clothing looks so nice and sophisticated whereas the guys dress as if they can’t really see the mixture of colors they just put on.

Now I feel the same about their ‘All Access Pass’es website. I don’t know if their designers really saw what they put together. Heck, I don’t even know if they tried it out themselves.

I guess what everyone is trying to do with websites these days is stand out. Yes, a weird unusable website is what makes you unique… just like everyone else.

In any case, this user-interface is laughable. I don’t even want to share it but you can see just from opening up aeallaccesspass.com and clicking one of the buttons. Warning: yes you indeed are at risk of having a seisure from all the movement. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. It gets worse if you actually login. Honestly, I don’t pay $60/month to watch the website load itself. I thought the point of high-speed was no waiting.

Again, this looks like a classic designer’s case of ‘I can do it so I should‘. Hovering navigation windows and popup windows are so ‘cluttery’ that I absolutely detest having to take on so many active objects at once.

Plus, in Firefox the page loads, you can see it but there’s something in the background that takes another (literally) 5 minutes to load the page. During this time you’re held hostage and you can’t click on anything else.Oh, and when you click any of the navigation the image breaks and shifts down and does all sorts of troubling things. Essentially the one way to get around the website breaks when you want to use it.
This website sucks as much as the men’s shirts. This site alone is too much trouble. I don’t care how much I can save on jeans next time I stop in, I’m done with the ‘All Access Pass’.

Keep it simple, stupids!