The Inaugural Post

Welcome to Skiing, Gaming and Guns!

My name is Charlie, aka NH_Operator on various websites that you may have linked here from, or UndercoverDeath if you are here from one of the gaming services (Steam, XBLA). 

I will start with a little bit about me, for anyone who happens to care. I am currently a Police Dispatcher, Ski Instructor and zip-tour guide. I have a B.S. in Criminal Justice from Bridgewater State University and am in the process of getting my A.S. in Information Technology from NHTI. I am in a transition period on the 'professional' level from a Criminal Justice oriented path to a IT oriented career. 

In my free time, my main hobbies, are quite obviously, Skiing, Gaming and Shooting. I do all that other regular stuff that everyone does for fun too, but that stuff is boring so very little will be said about that. 

I have been Skiing since I was 4 years old or so, which puts skiing as pretty much the only thing I have really been interested in my entire life. I had a brief hiatus from it during college, between being away from the mountains and a fairly major (non-skiing) related knee injury. It still affects me to this day unfortunately, but it hasn't slowed me down much. This is the main reason you probably wont see me hitting any really big jumps in the park anytime soon, or likely, ever. I started instructing last year (2012), and boy, did it ever rekindle the love of skiing for me. Between getting to ski 3-4 days a week, and getting to share and teach that passion to others for the first time it has been absolutely amazing, even if the pay is total shit. As long as nothing major changes, I will be instructing again this year (and probably all future years, free season passes are awesome). I am planning a major ski-tour around New England, but I will go into more detail about that in a later post (most likely the next post). My home mountain is Gunstock Mountain Resort, located in central New Hampshire, it is also where I instruct and work as a zip-guide. I am a park rat on the mountain, I am not too great at it yet but I am working on it. My true calling on the slopes however is in the glades. I love tree-skiing and powder skiing, but being stuck on the East Coast, I don't get to do nearly as much of it for obvious reasons. 

My gaming 'career' has been going on since, well, pretty much birth. I have played or owned basically every major console from the Sega Genesis forwards. Right now I am primarily a PC gamer, but I will play Xbox 360 or PS Vita if the right title comes out on them (GTA V anyone?). I play pretty much every genre, but my favorites are FPS's and Strategy for the moment. I may write some reviews or opinion pieces as well, but I don't have anything planned.

As far as shooting is concerned, my primary focus is defensive handgun tactics. I compete and help run IDPA matches (International Defensive Pistol Association)  as a Safety Officer. I am currently ranked pretty much dead center as a Marksmen in the Stock Service Pistol (SSP) Category. I compete with an XDm 9mm. I do occasionally dip my toes into the waters of 3-Gun competition, but unfortunately at the moment, I do not have a rifle to compete with, and trying to hit 200 yard shots with my Kel-Tec Sub2000 is just brutal. I also enjoy shooting Trap & Skeet, but I do not have an appropriate shotgun for that at the moment either. Again, I will occasionally post about this stuff, but don' t expect too much during the winter months as I will be out skiing whenever possible, and the fact that shooting in the cold is not particularly enjoyable. 

Well, if you made it this far, I applaud you. I hope to post fairly regular updates to this, but it will really vary based on how much interesting stuff I am doing. I do not want to be one of those blogs that updates you about every single tiny aspect of my life. Frankly I don't want to tell you that much detail, and I am fairly sure no one actually cares. Constructive feedback is always welcome and appreciated! Also please excuse the most likely frequent changes in format and theme for the first few weeks while I learn my way around the interface and settle on a setup and style I like for the blog. 

Additionally, if you would like to follow me on social media where you will get more frequent updates on most of my skiing related shenanigans, you can find me at -
Twitter - NHoperator
Instagram - NH_Operator

Thanks for Reading! See you soon.

Copyright Charles Boulanger and Skiing, Gaming and Guns, 2013-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog's author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Charles Boulanger and Skiing, Gaming and Guns with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.