Oh, I should explain the lack of postings over the last two weeks. During the first part, I was developing some explanatory graphs to test my tension balancing implementation (fun, fun :p), and during the second part, I was hanging out with my Mom, Aunt, sister, and neice in Estes Park, CO. Mom moved out there a few years back, and it's a very nice place to go visit.
The cinematic highlight was a 2-day 1-night hike in Rocky Mountain National Park. I stayed in Hayden Gorge, and this was my first explicit-bushwhacking trip. It's maybe 8 miles in from Bear Lake, which took me around 11 hours, and 3 miles out to Trail Ridge Road which took about 10 hours :p. Take a look at this deceptively non-topographic map. The hike up to Trail Ridge from the bottom of Forest Canyon is up a mile in a mile, and it's about a third each of pushing through dense forest, bouldering, and open hiking. Took me about 7 hours, and I ripped the sleeve off my shirt :p. Had a good time though :).
Besides hiking, I cooked with Mom, talked about people's views on homosexuality with my sister, defended my stuff from my niece, hung out with my Aunt and the dogs, and learned a lot of family history :). Good times.