I recently went to Colorado Springs for nine days to oversee an install for work; most of the time I was stuck beneath a mountain in a computer lab, but I did have one adventure that I wanted to tell. The context is that since I was in Colorado over the weekend, I decided to go skiing at where else, but my favorite resort, Breckenridge.
2:40 - I've been skiing for several hours. My legs are tired, but I'm just starting to get into a rhythm, and get out of the "my first time skiing all season" feeling. I decide to do one more run to get practice on the rapidly forming moguls on Peak 8 before returning to Peak 9 to return my rental equipment. At this point I notice that the snow storm has picked up earlier than the predictions from this morning.
3:35 - I make it to my car in the parking lot after taking the bus back.
4:05 - I have driven the 10 miles to get to from Breck to Frisco to merge onto I-70 West. I quickly notice that the traffic is almost at a standstill. Commercial trucks are instructed to pull off to the side to put on chains.
The drive for the next 13 miles to the Eisenhower tunnel was the most difficult of my life.
4:20 - I pass an electronic sign that states the drive to the tunnel is taking 1 hr and 10 min. Traffic started moving at about 5 mph, over a series of climbs up steep grades. Five to six inches of snow has accumulated on the road and no plow has been able to come through due to the intense traffic. I see a pickup truck spin out and begin to slowly fish tail across the three lanes of traffic. In order to maintain momentum, I have to move to the far left and accelerate past him. My basic strategy was to follow in the tracks of the car in front of me to maintain traction and speed. The problem was cars kept fishtailing in front of me, so I had to continually change lanes to avoid getting stuck and hit. Thank God my Ford Taurus had traction control! I ended up in the right lane at one point and another truck spins out in front of me and goes basically off the road. I then had nothing but untracked, messy snow in front of me and my traction control light started going crazy as I began to spin out. I barely managed to make it over to the left lane. At some point I passed a section where two cars were stalled and only one lane was getting through (double tractor trailers had to merge around them). This was apparently one of the major choke points, as I actually started to get some momentum before slowing down again. I probably saw at least 5 cars spin out, 5 cars stalled on my way up the mountain, and one SUV with a guy pushing it from behind!
6:00 - I made it to the tunnel and the last major up hill section!!! The sign was wrong; it took over an hour and a half to get this far. At this point we are starting to move downhill which is a welcome change, and I can barely make out snow plows far ahead of me.
6:30 - I make it to the town of Georgetown. At this point my next crisis arrives; my windshield wiper accumulates enough ice to not actually wipe my windshield and it's beginning to get hard to see. Luckily all I'm focusing on is the headlights in front of me, but I'm getting nervous again. There is nowhere to pull off except for a small shoulder covered in deep snow. So of course I pump up the defrost to 90 degrees and then proceed to drive while reaching out my window and knocking of the ice when the wiper comes close enough (thank God for go-go gadget arms!). I manage to clear enough off to have a partial view.
7:00 - I come to a complete stop outside of Idaho Springs. I think I'm in the clear once we start moving again, but there are two more tough sections remaining. First another steep uphill, although this time traffic is moving at about 30. Again a few cars can't make it and stall or spin out, so it gets interesting but it was piece of cake compared to before. Finally a series of long, ride your brakes, down hill sections, to keep my nerves on edge.
7:45 - I see the sign: one mile to I-470. Finally a new road after almost 4 hours! I start the 26 miles on I-470. I ignore the common courtesy to only pass in the left lane because damn it, the left lane is the one most clear of snow and ice. I'm moving about 40 mph now, but a few SUVs are flying by me on the right.
8:30 - I make it back to Denver and merge onto I-25 S. I contemplate stopping to relieve my steadily numbing driving leg, but decide to push on. The going is relatively easy as there is not much snow falling at this point and the road is pretty clear. I probably average about 50 mph (the normal speed limit is 70).
9:45 - I see the Arby's sign two blocks from my hotel, and decide that man cannot live on trail mix alone. Only the drive-thru is open, so all feeling in my leg is lost.
10:00 - I pull into my hotel with my beef and cheddar and curly fries in hand. I hobble to my hotel room. Total drive time is just over 6 hours. I vow to stay in my hotel room all day Sunday!
12.17.2007
11.10.2007
B&B X the recap...
It's the time of year when I get to recap the infamous, 10th annual Blades and Booze Halloween party. Sarah and I put in much less effort than previous years, but still managed what I think were good (not great) costumes right out of the pages of your mythology book (hint: she is Medusa and I'm Perseus):
Since it has been a while since I've been a judge at the Blades and Booze party I figured this year for my post-party entry I'd give my own slate of somewhat non-conventional awards:
1) Most Costumes that are essentially a T-shirt: I'm not going to name names, but I think the evidence speaks for itself...
2) Most Innovative Costume not Present: Jaime R. apparently went as Admiral Spaceship from the SNL short Laser Cats. He didn't actually attend the party this year, instead favoring something closer to his neck of the woods in Seattle. Regardless, until actual pictorial evidence of his costume surfaces, we'll have to go with this artist's rendition.
3) Most Self-Deprecating Costumer: Rob S. did go as a Flower this year...yes, a flower. A bit of an inside joke, but the gist of it is that Rob semi-jokingly suggested going as a flower a few years ago. I and a few other friends of the male race thankfully stopped him that year. It has become quite of a joke, but I still can't believe Rob actually did it.
4) Most Costumes Imitated at a B&B Party: Not to toot my own horn here, but not only have I had a cat named after me, I've now had two people go as previous costumes I've worn. Can you tell the differences...
We caught up with old friends, we drank a lot, and we stayed up super late despite not having that extra hour to fall back -- all part of the recipe for a successful B&B party!
Since it has been a while since I've been a judge at the Blades and Booze party I figured this year for my post-party entry I'd give my own slate of somewhat non-conventional awards:
1) Most Costumes that are essentially a T-shirt: I'm not going to name names, but I think the evidence speaks for itself...
2) Most Innovative Costume not Present: Jaime R. apparently went as Admiral Spaceship from the SNL short Laser Cats. He didn't actually attend the party this year, instead favoring something closer to his neck of the woods in Seattle. Regardless, until actual pictorial evidence of his costume surfaces, we'll have to go with this artist's rendition.
3) Most Self-Deprecating Costumer: Rob S. did go as a Flower this year...yes, a flower. A bit of an inside joke, but the gist of it is that Rob semi-jokingly suggested going as a flower a few years ago. I and a few other friends of the male race thankfully stopped him that year. It has become quite of a joke, but I still can't believe Rob actually did it.
4) Most Costumes Imitated at a B&B Party: Not to toot my own horn here, but not only have I had a cat named after me, I've now had two people go as previous costumes I've worn. Can you tell the differences...
We caught up with old friends, we drank a lot, and we stayed up super late despite not having that extra hour to fall back -- all part of the recipe for a successful B&B party!
10.20.2007
Painting Time...
The painting is finished! And when I mean finished, I mean we are finished painting for a while. Is all the painting finished that we want to do?? That's a big hearty NO. However, we did complete Phase I of house painting, the main level. We finished the foyer and the living room, so our main floor finally feels livable. We are taking a hiatus from painting to concentrate on other important things like:
BEFORE
AFTER
- Recovering from ankle sprains: Unfortunately I randomly turned my ankle during volleyball practice that sidelined me for a couple of weeks. The good thing about widely spaced blog entries is that I'm better now and back to volleyball!
- Halo 3: Trying to keep up with Mr. Fancysocks (Mike P's screen name) Halo 3 skills is a full time job. I think since he doesn't have a full time job he has an unfair advantage.
- Halloween Costumes: Crazily, another B&B party is approaching faster than Milhouse can say "jiminy jillikers." We don't quite have our planning up to par compared to previous years, but we'll see what we can put together.
BEFORE
AFTER
9.12.2007
Our New Home...
We've been busy, so I'll make this a short entry. We moved into our first house about two and half weeks ago! It's been really fun so far, but a lot of work. The first thing I noticed about owning rather than renting is that when you rent and notice something you don't like you either live with it or call maintenance. When you own the first thing you do is calculate how much work and how much it will cost to fix -- a completely different mindset. Needless to say our lives have been full of projects large and small. We started with things like unpacking, then moved to work like buying furniture (read: all day IKEA trips) and shaving doors so the would close. However, our first big project is painting. We are transforming our main level and I get to post my first before and after pictures for the blog. There were giant mirrors and yellow paint in the dining room -- now the yellow is not quite so overwhelming (the entire main floor is yellow) and we don't have to watch ourselves eating! We had to remove and dispose of mirrors, put up new crown molding, and repaint everything. Here are the results:
BEFORE
AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER
8.13.2007
The Commute...
I have returned to the "normal" DC area commute since starting my new job in Clarendon. I say normal in quotes because although it is a tad long for me, the DC area is repeatedly near the top of the rankings in terms of average commute times and it seems pretty normal for these parts. If you have already glanced at my nice graphic breaking down my everyday commute, you can see that I have embraced public transportation for the majority of my daily trip to work. The main reason is the dreaded 66 HOV restrictions inside the beltway for all lanes between 6:30-9:00 AM in the mornings and 4:00-6:30 PM in the evenings. It basically means I'd have to leave my house by 5:30 to beat the traffic and HOV restrictions. Luckily, we happen to live almost exactly 1 mile away from one of the main bus stations (known as the park & ride) in Fairfax County. So I can actually take the express bus from the park & ride to West Falls Chruch metro, then take that a few stops on the Orange line to Clarendon. Our building is so close to the metro station that there is actually an underground tunnel directly to our building check in. I hate getting up early and I hate driving in heavy traffic, so the public transportation route was a fairly easy choice. How long does it take? Well I haven't been timing it quite as often but going in takes an average of about 50 minutes (45-55 minutes) and coming back in the evenings takes 55 minutes (range from 50 - 60 minutes). Both the buses and the metro trains come pretty much continuously in the morning, but both come slightly less frequently in the afternoon. The bus is always faster in the morning because there is a "secret" exit from the park and ride to the highway, but unfortunately no secret entrance, which means you have to go through a few stop lights in heavy traffic on the way home.
That being said, sometimes public transportation blows...
That being said, sometimes public transportation blows...
- Buses are damn hot in the summer: combine tons of people with spotty air conditioning and 90+ temperatures and prepare yourself for a sweaty bus ride. Never, ever sit on the back row on the bus in the summer - the engine is directly underneath the seat cushion. At first I was like "this isn't too bad its like the seat warmer in fancy cars", except this one goes to about 150 degrees and you can't turn it off
- Being a Metro Sardine. It doesn't always happen but sometimes there are mechanical problems and every train is crowded or you just don't feel like waiting another 8 minutes and squeeze your way on...in any case less crowded are just more pleasant.
- The Metro crazy guy. Why did I assume he was crazy you ask, well he did take the metro advertisement out and started writing (a monologue I presume) in long flowing cursive on the back. He also occasionally made strange grunting sounds and knocked on the ceiling and asked if anyone was there. Not something I usually do on the metro, but to each their own I guess.
7.23.2007
Business Time...
Flight of the Conchords is a new HBO show about the self-proclaimed "formerly New Zealand's fourth most popular folk-parody duo." Generally the show has been pretty hit and miss and I can't really say that I like the show, but sometimes the songs during the episodes are hilarious. This is my favorite, and doesn't require ever having watched the show...
7.15.2007
Almost there...
We are getting closer to being home owners by the minute. I don't think everyone knows the whole story so we'll play a quick game of catch up and recap:
1) We made our third offer on a townhouse a couple of weeks ago that was in a neighborhood we really like and was priced to sell
2) Intense negotiations ensued on things like the asking price, closing date, and if the fridge had an ice maker (surprisingly the fridge does not have one)
3) The sellers proceeded to change their mind about three times on when they actually wanted to move out, which left us with this complex agreement: closing on July 31st with an offer to pay our rent for August, plus they want to stay in the house until August 13th and rent back from us during that time.
4) Once the closing date was all of a sudden very soon, we began hustling on things like getting a loan, inspection, and insurance
5) Our home inspection revealed an interesting problem in the roof. As with many townhomes and condos built in the early 1980s, the roof contains plywood treated with a fire retardant chemical (called FRT plywood) that was designed to reduce the spreading of fire among adjacent units. Unfortunately, someone forget to check if attic temperatures over 120 or so degrees would cause the same chemical reaction to occur and essentially break down the plywood without a fire present. So half of our roof has plywood that is breaking down (apparently the sellers got gypped when getting a new a roof in 2002 because they were shocked as well), but it sounds like they will replace the roof
6) And finally we changed our lender at the last minute, to take advantage of less fees from a local lender on some good advice from our real estate agent - this was a pain to do but worth it for the extra $$.
In a nutshell, we are really close to finishing this up. Here are two pictures showing off the nice hardwood floors from the entry way and the back brick patio attached to the walkout basement:
1) We made our third offer on a townhouse a couple of weeks ago that was in a neighborhood we really like and was priced to sell
2) Intense negotiations ensued on things like the asking price, closing date, and if the fridge had an ice maker (surprisingly the fridge does not have one)
3) The sellers proceeded to change their mind about three times on when they actually wanted to move out, which left us with this complex agreement: closing on July 31st with an offer to pay our rent for August, plus they want to stay in the house until August 13th and rent back from us during that time.
4) Once the closing date was all of a sudden very soon, we began hustling on things like getting a loan, inspection, and insurance
5) Our home inspection revealed an interesting problem in the roof. As with many townhomes and condos built in the early 1980s, the roof contains plywood treated with a fire retardant chemical (called FRT plywood) that was designed to reduce the spreading of fire among adjacent units. Unfortunately, someone forget to check if attic temperatures over 120 or so degrees would cause the same chemical reaction to occur and essentially break down the plywood without a fire present. So half of our roof has plywood that is breaking down (apparently the sellers got gypped when getting a new a roof in 2002 because they were shocked as well), but it sounds like they will replace the roof
6) And finally we changed our lender at the last minute, to take advantage of less fees from a local lender on some good advice from our real estate agent - this was a pain to do but worth it for the extra $$.
In a nutshell, we are really close to finishing this up. Here are two pictures showing off the nice hardwood floors from the entry way and the back brick patio attached to the walkout basement:
7.01.2007
An American Tradition...
Switching gears a little bit from previous posts (another housing update will hopefully appear soon), I was inspired by this post the other weekend after Ben pulled ahead of Rob and Sarah for most times spending the night in our apartment. One morning, we ended watching what was perhaps the greatest gladiator themed show of our generation, American Gladiators. Thankfully American Gladiators comes on Saturday morning on ESPN Classic, allowing us to continually enjoy this American classic.
We got to see a two of my favorite events:
While doing a little research for this article, I did stumble upon a game called Gauntlet, that I only very vaguely remembered seeing. I think this may prove to be a key clue to the origin of the game Gauntlet (or more like Super-Gauntlet) that we used to play in our college apartment that contained a long, narrow hallway. Instead of the one-on-one version we used to play, it was one player versus 5 gladiators. If you check out the video here you'll notice that some of the pads look strangely like a vacuum cleaner once used in the seldom played version called Super-Gauntlet.
Just one more clip that perfectly captures the cheese factor. If you never watched the show, I think its spirit is best summed up here:
We got to see a two of my favorite events:
- Powerball - the idea of this game was to insert balls into one of several cylinders before being killed by a gladiator (they were two players, three gladiators, and 5 cylinders). The hits in Powerball were pretty crazy: the tended to either be a vicious body slam or a shoulders and above hit. Check out the link to see Jazz rock in the woman's event.
- Assault - This was like the ultimate Nerf game. The player dodged tennis balls fired from a giant air cannon, and had to use various "nerf-like" weapons to try to hit a target. It always looked really fun to play, and you almost never saw a player hit the target.
While doing a little research for this article, I did stumble upon a game called Gauntlet, that I only very vaguely remembered seeing. I think this may prove to be a key clue to the origin of the game Gauntlet (or more like Super-Gauntlet) that we used to play in our college apartment that contained a long, narrow hallway. Instead of the one-on-one version we used to play, it was one player versus 5 gladiators. If you check out the video here you'll notice that some of the pads look strangely like a vacuum cleaner once used in the seldom played version called Super-Gauntlet.
Just one more clip that perfectly captures the cheese factor. If you never watched the show, I think its spirit is best summed up here:
6.20.2007
Strike One...
Our quest to secure a residence in the Northern Virginia area has been temporarily stymied. We made it to the second major step in the process after spending several hours with our new best friend Stan (our friendly Real Estate agent) putting together what I thought was a fair offer on a townhouse in Vienna. Since much of the DC area is clearly a buyer's market, we smartly asked significantly less than the asking price. However, when we finally got the counter-offer back, we were a little weirded out. They came down a little bit, but also added two strange things: 1) they stated that the fireplace came as is (apparently there had been a chimney fire that they never repaired) and 2) they scratched out the home warranty.
It was a little disconcerting that they never got the fireplace repaired. It sort of gets you thinking what else is broken that they never repaired, and how are they going to respond to our home inspection if anything is wrong. The home warranty removal just didn't make sense period. At this point in the negotiation we are still $20K apart, why start quibbling on something that's only $400?? Even with those warning signs, we went ahead and countered, moving up the same amount they went down. When they came back a second time they wouldn't budge, so we countered with "see you in hell candy boy" because we have many more options to consider buying.
This would have been our living room as seen from our dining room if things would have worked out differently:
It was a little disconcerting that they never got the fireplace repaired. It sort of gets you thinking what else is broken that they never repaired, and how are they going to respond to our home inspection if anything is wrong. The home warranty removal just didn't make sense period. At this point in the negotiation we are still $20K apart, why start quibbling on something that's only $400?? Even with those warning signs, we went ahead and countered, moving up the same amount they went down. When they came back a second time they wouldn't budge, so we countered with "see you in hell candy boy" because we have many more options to consider buying.
This would have been our living room as seen from our dining room if things would have worked out differently:
6.05.2007
House Hunting...
As many of you have probably already heard it looks like Sarah and I are going to stay in the Northern Virginia area. We’re excited about staying in one place for a while, although Colorado still seems to be a possibility one day. I ended up accepting an offer for a job in the Clarendon area just a short while ago as the “permanent” job after my rotation program. It’s still with the same company I’m at now, just on a different project with a different customer. We’ve decided that we are ready to buy a place to call our own, and start building some equity. Given that I’m now going to work in Clarendon and Sarah will remain at her job in Herndon, we’re starting to zero in on Vienna as a good area to concentrate on. It just about splits the difference for our commutes, it’s metro accessible, and it’s not super ridiculous to buy a place there (at least for a town house). It will be a little more of a trek for volleyball outings, but I’m sure we won’t let a little bit longer drive get in the way of our volleyball fix.
As we dive into the real estate market, we are learning all sorts of new meanings for things like points, arms, and co-ops. I think we are starting to get the hang of things, but nothing beats the experience of doing something for the first time. We went on our first house hunting trip with our realtor just a few days ago and looked at seven townhouses in the Vienna area. Nothing struck our fancy so far, so we'll continue the search.
We’ll be in touch once we need people to help us move!
As we dive into the real estate market, we are learning all sorts of new meanings for things like points, arms, and co-ops. I think we are starting to get the hang of things, but nothing beats the experience of doing something for the first time. We went on our first house hunting trip with our realtor just a few days ago and looked at seven townhouses in the Vienna area. Nothing struck our fancy so far, so we'll continue the search.
We’ll be in touch once we need people to help us move!
5.22.2007
Vegas Baby…
I finally made it to the city of sin, and returned to tell the tale. Sarah has been working extremely hard over the past few months helping organize her company’s user conference in Las Vegas at the Venetian. Given the prospect of a free room at the Venetian for a couple of days and unfettered access to around the clock gambling…how could I say no??
All of my knowledge of Vegas so far has stemmed from seeing Casino one too many times on cable (the dubbing guy worked for his money on that movie) and occasionally reading the Sports Guy’s Vegas adventures on ESPN Page 2. Previously, anytime I got caught in conversations regarding Vegas, I had zero context for understanding the story…my mind would inevitably wander to something akin to the black and white cartoons that go through Homer Simpson’s brain. Now that I’ve finally taken the trip I want all my friends to repeat any Vegas stories previously told with me around, so that I can finally jump in with my own understanding and opinions.
Other Impressions:
- The environments are so tightly controlled and so precisely engineered at the Venetian that you start to lose touch with what the outside feels like. If we ever build a colony on the moon, we should build it like the Venetian
-The theme of Vegas appears to be boobies, money is a close second, but I have to go with boobies based on my time there
-If you’re cheap like Sarah and me and don’t want to lose lots of money, but actually want to play a game with some thinking /skill involved…Video Poker is the way to go. You can play for a long time on Video Poker with $10 at a quarter a hand. Plus you still get the free drinks! I think we lost more in 45 seconds failing to get the Super Spin on the Wheel of Fortune slot game then we did in probably 5 hours of Video Poker playing over the course of the weekend
-I believe that the time to get from Caesars to the taxi line to the Flamingo (this involves at less one hidden elevator and 2 scary hall ways) is still less time than waiting in a 100+ person taxi line in front of Caesars
-The fountains in front of the Bellagio are cool
-Does it seem odd to anyone else that that there these replicas of great artifacts from Italy, Greece, and Egypt just plunked down in the middle of the desert?
I think overall we liked it, although we ended up pretty exhausted by Sunday morning; we stayed up too late and our alcohol to water ratio was too high. We’ll probably end up going back someday (at least as a starting point for the Grand Canyon), but I wouldn’t say it’s one of our top destinations.
All of my knowledge of Vegas so far has stemmed from seeing Casino one too many times on cable (the dubbing guy worked for his money on that movie) and occasionally reading the Sports Guy’s Vegas adventures on ESPN Page 2. Previously, anytime I got caught in conversations regarding Vegas, I had zero context for understanding the story…my mind would inevitably wander to something akin to the black and white cartoons that go through Homer Simpson’s brain. Now that I’ve finally taken the trip I want all my friends to repeat any Vegas stories previously told with me around, so that I can finally jump in with my own understanding and opinions.
Other Impressions:
- The environments are so tightly controlled and so precisely engineered at the Venetian that you start to lose touch with what the outside feels like. If we ever build a colony on the moon, we should build it like the Venetian
-The theme of Vegas appears to be boobies, money is a close second, but I have to go with boobies based on my time there
-If you’re cheap like Sarah and me and don’t want to lose lots of money, but actually want to play a game with some thinking /skill involved…Video Poker is the way to go. You can play for a long time on Video Poker with $10 at a quarter a hand. Plus you still get the free drinks! I think we lost more in 45 seconds failing to get the Super Spin on the Wheel of Fortune slot game then we did in probably 5 hours of Video Poker playing over the course of the weekend
-I believe that the time to get from Caesars to the taxi line to the Flamingo (this involves at less one hidden elevator and 2 scary hall ways) is still less time than waiting in a 100+ person taxi line in front of Caesars
-The fountains in front of the Bellagio are cool
-Does it seem odd to anyone else that that there these replicas of great artifacts from Italy, Greece, and Egypt just plunked down in the middle of the desert?
I think overall we liked it, although we ended up pretty exhausted by Sunday morning; we stayed up too late and our alcohol to water ratio was too high. We’ll probably end up going back someday (at least as a starting point for the Grand Canyon), but I wouldn’t say it’s one of our top destinations.
5.11.2007
In Memory...
Sarah and I lost a good friend that many of my readers knew or at least met at one time or another. Matt Hodges died late Wednesday night after collapsing during a flag football game. He had a hereditary heart condition known as a thickened heart (or HCM). We were able to visit with his wife and family last night for a few hours before Sarah flew out to Vegas this morning for work; they are doing as well as can be expected given the circumstances. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers in this time of shock and sadness.
Although its impact is now bittersweet, when I think of Matt, I think first of this picture when we showed up at a New Year's party wearing the same outfit and had a good laugh...
Although its impact is now bittersweet, when I think of Matt, I think first of this picture when we showed up at a New Year's party wearing the same outfit and had a good laugh...
4.20.2007
Outsourcing: The Next Generation...
Outsourcing is an interesting subject these days, typically referring to the the practice of American corporations using labor provided in other countries to perform some of their operations; exploiting the differences between the American economy and third-world nations to get services cheap. I don't want to get deep into this issue and whether the trade off of cost versus quality is beneficial to the end consumer and if it is really amounting to the loss of US jobs, because frankly that is not what this blog is about (if you want some commentary on outsourcing from a good non-validated source, I recommend wikipedia). What I thought was interesting was a Washington Post article I spied a couple of weeks ago (I started this entry when the article was fresh, but Mike P constantly cut into my blog writing time to play Halo2 on Live). It deals with the convergence of outsourcing with our entertainment culture.
The article talks about how you can now pay a third party company called IGE in Hong Kong to boost up your character in World of Warcraft. I must admit I'm commenting on this issue without direct experience playing this game. I played my share of the early Final Fantasy games, but there were more definite goals to achieve and this was before the subscription based model for all-human players in a universe came to fruition (in the so-called Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game genre).
On one level this seems rather ridiculous: you're buying a game to entertain yourself, then you actually pay someone else to play the game for you because you're not having enough fun. It's sort of like buying a baseball glove and paying someone else to break it in. Although maybe the payoff of the level boosting in WoW is a more than a broken-in glove, you'd think you'd enjoy the game enough to actually play it.
This genre of games essentially creates a virtual life for users to progress through, and just like real life it's more fun being rich, powerful, and having the prestige of a high level as opposed to someone weak, poor, and who gets beat up a lot. In this case you can pay someone to move you up to the next caste fairly quickly, and then you can enjoy your increased status without having to go through the pain to achieve it. Essentially you can skip past high school, and move right into all-night parties in college.
The interesting thing is that the game-maker doesn't want you to use these services, and will actually kick you off if it notices something fishy going on. I guess since they make oodles of money on the subscription services, they don't want anyone short-cutting the process. Why would Blizzard want to you to be able to finish your journey faster, and thus perhaps cancel your subscription. If you could get to the high level 10x faster, then you may also get bored with the game 10x as fast.
The article talks about how you can now pay a third party company called IGE in Hong Kong to boost up your character in World of Warcraft. I must admit I'm commenting on this issue without direct experience playing this game. I played my share of the early Final Fantasy games, but there were more definite goals to achieve and this was before the subscription based model for all-human players in a universe came to fruition (in the so-called Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game genre).
On one level this seems rather ridiculous: you're buying a game to entertain yourself, then you actually pay someone else to play the game for you because you're not having enough fun. It's sort of like buying a baseball glove and paying someone else to break it in. Although maybe the payoff of the level boosting in WoW is a more than a broken-in glove, you'd think you'd enjoy the game enough to actually play it.
This genre of games essentially creates a virtual life for users to progress through, and just like real life it's more fun being rich, powerful, and having the prestige of a high level as opposed to someone weak, poor, and who gets beat up a lot. In this case you can pay someone to move you up to the next caste fairly quickly, and then you can enjoy your increased status without having to go through the pain to achieve it. Essentially you can skip past high school, and move right into all-night parties in college.
The interesting thing is that the game-maker doesn't want you to use these services, and will actually kick you off if it notices something fishy going on. I guess since they make oodles of money on the subscription services, they don't want anyone short-cutting the process. Why would Blizzard want to you to be able to finish your journey faster, and thus perhaps cancel your subscription. If you could get to the high level 10x faster, then you may also get bored with the game 10x as fast.
3.11.2007
The Big Island...
In case you didn't know, Sarah and I recently took a big vacation to Hawaii. We stayed on the Big Island for our entire trip and put over 1000 miles on the rental car during our stay. The Big Island (also known as Hawaii) is the bigger than all of the rest of the Hawaiian Islands combined. Considering we took over 700 photos (thank you $20 2GB Memory card) and probably 25 videos, I think a photo tour across the island is in order:
1) We started at my Aunt and Uncle's house, a nice one-story house in the town of Waimea. It was great having a home base and expert advise on everything we did; this greatly outweighed having to put in a few nights getting used to the air mattress (plus no lodging expenses!!). In a testament to Hawaii's near perfect climate the house had neither a heating or cooling system (other than opening windows).
2) The Luau at Mauna Kea resort was a lot of fun. Think of a big buffet of Hawaiian food, including an entire pig that had been roasting underground all day, plus a Hula show and fire dancers. And yes fellas, the dancers were wearing coconut bras.
3) Hiking to Pololu Valley. Our first hike to the Pacific Ocean was pretty cool. We started in green covered valley and steadily descended to a black-sand beach. The views were breathtaking, including a few authentic surfers taking advantage of the rough surf.
4) Rainbow Falls - This aptly named waterfall, although not exceedingly tall, is located in a near perfect backdrop of exotic plant life, and it gets its name from the readily visible rainbow created from its mist.
5) Helicopter ride to Kilauea - The helicopter ride was actually fairly disappointing; especially compared with other more enjoyable, less expensive alternatives. Our flight was canceled in the morning due to cloudy/rainy conditions and even though it was rescheduled, you guessed it, it was still cloudy and rainy. Viewing steam rising from lava flowing (unfortunately the lava flow was entirely underground during our stay) into the ocean was impressive...flying through thick clouds isn't really.
6) The walk across the Kilauea Caldera - One of the most unique experiences I've ever undertaken; we did two 3.5 mile hikes across the two main craters of the most active volcano in the world. The trails were marked by piles of rock, sulphuric steam was rising all around us, and if you wandered too far off the trail the ground seemed a little unstable (and I did get us somewhat lost at one point). The terrain itself had an eerie fascination, especially since the non-overlook trails were basically devoid of people.
7) Super Bowl Sunday at the Hilton - We spent one night in the fancy Hilton resort to get a real bed and some alone time. This also happened to be the day of the big game, so we actually ended up watching bits and pieces of it while downing island drinks at different outdoor bars. We ended up having a nice romantic dinner of fresh Ono (also better known as Wahoo!) and finally got a nice Hawaiian sunset pic.
1) We started at my Aunt and Uncle's house, a nice one-story house in the town of Waimea. It was great having a home base and expert advise on everything we did; this greatly outweighed having to put in a few nights getting used to the air mattress (plus no lodging expenses!!). In a testament to Hawaii's near perfect climate the house had neither a heating or cooling system (other than opening windows).
2) The Luau at Mauna Kea resort was a lot of fun. Think of a big buffet of Hawaiian food, including an entire pig that had been roasting underground all day, plus a Hula show and fire dancers. And yes fellas, the dancers were wearing coconut bras.
3) Hiking to Pololu Valley. Our first hike to the Pacific Ocean was pretty cool. We started in green covered valley and steadily descended to a black-sand beach. The views were breathtaking, including a few authentic surfers taking advantage of the rough surf.
4) Rainbow Falls - This aptly named waterfall, although not exceedingly tall, is located in a near perfect backdrop of exotic plant life, and it gets its name from the readily visible rainbow created from its mist.
5) Helicopter ride to Kilauea - The helicopter ride was actually fairly disappointing; especially compared with other more enjoyable, less expensive alternatives. Our flight was canceled in the morning due to cloudy/rainy conditions and even though it was rescheduled, you guessed it, it was still cloudy and rainy. Viewing steam rising from lava flowing (unfortunately the lava flow was entirely underground during our stay) into the ocean was impressive...flying through thick clouds isn't really.
6) The walk across the Kilauea Caldera - One of the most unique experiences I've ever undertaken; we did two 3.5 mile hikes across the two main craters of the most active volcano in the world. The trails were marked by piles of rock, sulphuric steam was rising all around us, and if you wandered too far off the trail the ground seemed a little unstable (and I did get us somewhat lost at one point). The terrain itself had an eerie fascination, especially since the non-overlook trails were basically devoid of people.
7) Super Bowl Sunday at the Hilton - We spent one night in the fancy Hilton resort to get a real bed and some alone time. This also happened to be the day of the big game, so we actually ended up watching bits and pieces of it while downing island drinks at different outdoor bars. We ended up having a nice romantic dinner of fresh Ono (also better known as Wahoo!) and finally got a nice Hawaiian sunset pic.
1.25.2007
Calling Ron Mexico...
I've been waiting to do a sports themed blog entry for a while, so I figured I would start with the ever-controversial Michael Vick.
What makes Michael Vick a fascinating character?
-He's a news-maker
-He's controversial and polarizing
-He's the best running quarterback of all time
-He's a "coach-killa"
-He has the IQ of a zucchini
-He occasionally masquerades as Ron Mexico when he gets treatment for herpes
As a disclaimer I have to mention a few facts about my background, given that Vick attended Virginia Tech:
-Yes I'm a UVA graduate and fan
-Yes, I've never actually rooted for Virginia Tech in anything...ever, even when they are playing Maryland (unfortunately that match-up is not satisfying not matter who wins)
Do I take the UVA-Tech rivalry too seriously? I don't think so:
-I have many friends who go to Virginia Tech
-I've recently kept very quiet about the rivalry as we have gotten spanked in Football over about the last 5 years, and I am really worried that Tech may actually be better than us in basketball
So I think I can give a least a somewhat unbiased look at the issue:
Is he a good Quarterback?
I guess that depends on how you define good. I must say I don't think there is a definitive answer, but I'll look at three interesting statistics:
1) Quarterback Rating - Check out his official stat page on NFL.com, his career passer rating is 75.7. A great passer rating for a season is around 95, a good about 85, a 75 typically puts Michael Vick around 20-25th in the NFL. That means is typically worse than 2/3rds of NFL starting quarterbacks.
2) Wins and Losses - Michael Vick certainly fairs better in the wins/losses category than pure passer rating. During his tenor with the Falcons I think he is around 39-28-1, which is certainly a respectable winning percentage in the NFL. Although I wasn't able to get hard data on this, it certainly places him among the top 10 of active quarterbacks. The thing is, although I can't argue that QB is the most important position in football, I still don't think he deserves all the credit or blame for wins and losses. Great quarterbacks have lost on bad teams (Dan Fouts) and mediocre ones have won on good teams (Jim McMahon, Trent Dilfer). The thing I get annoyed with Vick apologists is they tend to give Vick all the credit for Falcons wins, but blame all the losses on the rest of the team. Note that the Falcon receivers, although you'd think would lead in the league in dropped passes for all the attention they received, were average in the league for number of drops (I feel like they need to hire a physiologist just to work with the bruised egos of the receivers as each drop they make gets replayed again and again).
3)Rushing yardage - No argument here...Vick is the greatest running QB of all time. He just broke NFL records for yards per carry and total number of yards by a QB this year. His athletic ability is almost unparalleled (I have to give Landian Tomlinson and Reggie Bush props here too) and he's clearly a cut above any other quarterback.
My take is that he is below mediocre QB in terms of decision making and passing, but potentially the best of all time at running. That puts him at a mediocre NFL QB because most offenses rely much more heavily on the pass than the run (although he was a great college player, where running QBs are more the norm). Can Atlanta eventually find a way to use his talents at the QB? I personally doubt it, but it will be interesting to see how it plays out. I also think his zucchini-level of intelligence will continue to get him in trouble one too many times, and eventually (like his brother) he will be out of football and give SNL more material like this:
What makes Michael Vick a fascinating character?
-He's a news-maker
-He's controversial and polarizing
-He's the best running quarterback of all time
-He's a "coach-killa"
-He has the IQ of a zucchini
-He occasionally masquerades as Ron Mexico when he gets treatment for herpes
As a disclaimer I have to mention a few facts about my background, given that Vick attended Virginia Tech:
-Yes I'm a UVA graduate and fan
-Yes, I've never actually rooted for Virginia Tech in anything...ever, even when they are playing Maryland (unfortunately that match-up is not satisfying not matter who wins)
Do I take the UVA-Tech rivalry too seriously? I don't think so:
-I have many friends who go to Virginia Tech
-I've recently kept very quiet about the rivalry as we have gotten spanked in Football over about the last 5 years, and I am really worried that Tech may actually be better than us in basketball
So I think I can give a least a somewhat unbiased look at the issue:
Is he a good Quarterback?
I guess that depends on how you define good. I must say I don't think there is a definitive answer, but I'll look at three interesting statistics:
1) Quarterback Rating - Check out his official stat page on NFL.com, his career passer rating is 75.7. A great passer rating for a season is around 95, a good about 85, a 75 typically puts Michael Vick around 20-25th in the NFL. That means is typically worse than 2/3rds of NFL starting quarterbacks.
2) Wins and Losses - Michael Vick certainly fairs better in the wins/losses category than pure passer rating. During his tenor with the Falcons I think he is around 39-28-1, which is certainly a respectable winning percentage in the NFL. Although I wasn't able to get hard data on this, it certainly places him among the top 10 of active quarterbacks. The thing is, although I can't argue that QB is the most important position in football, I still don't think he deserves all the credit or blame for wins and losses. Great quarterbacks have lost on bad teams (Dan Fouts) and mediocre ones have won on good teams (Jim McMahon, Trent Dilfer). The thing I get annoyed with Vick apologists is they tend to give Vick all the credit for Falcons wins, but blame all the losses on the rest of the team. Note that the Falcon receivers, although you'd think would lead in the league in dropped passes for all the attention they received, were average in the league for number of drops (I feel like they need to hire a physiologist just to work with the bruised egos of the receivers as each drop they make gets replayed again and again).
3)Rushing yardage - No argument here...Vick is the greatest running QB of all time. He just broke NFL records for yards per carry and total number of yards by a QB this year. His athletic ability is almost unparalleled (I have to give Landian Tomlinson and Reggie Bush props here too) and he's clearly a cut above any other quarterback.
My take is that he is below mediocre QB in terms of decision making and passing, but potentially the best of all time at running. That puts him at a mediocre NFL QB because most offenses rely much more heavily on the pass than the run (although he was a great college player, where running QBs are more the norm). Can Atlanta eventually find a way to use his talents at the QB? I personally doubt it, but it will be interesting to see how it plays out. I also think his zucchini-level of intelligence will continue to get him in trouble one too many times, and eventually (like his brother) he will be out of football and give SNL more material like this:
1.14.2007
Working Hard or Hardly Working...
So what's my excuse for the sabbatical from blog entry writing - this time I'm going with "working hard." However, in an ironic twist, I'm basing this particular entry on the excuse for my latest layoff from blog writing. There are a few points about working hard that I have to make. First off, I've been very fortunate thus far in my almost 5-year career to essentially set my own hours and I've never been pressured to work more than a standard 40 hour week. As a salaried or exempt employee I don't get compensated for any hours I work overtime anyway on most projects. My general rule of thumb is as long as I am meeting my deadlines and goals and my managers aren't asking me to do so, there was really no need to put in needless extra hours. Doing a quick Google search (http://www.bls.gov/opub/ils/pdf/opbils09.pdf) the average Male aged 25-54 in the US works for 44.1 hours a week. Counting holidays, appointments, and vacations I'm probably about or slightly below on average throughout my career.
My current project has been a little different, I've been asked to work weekends, holidays and put in long hours to meet some hard deadlines. I've been working more like 50+ hours a week, and although that doesn't sound like much more let me see if I can logically get back to my original excuse. Upcoming deadlines require a series of rather tedious tasks, and it hasn't been my choice to work longer because I've been "asked" to do so. This extra hour+ a day is spent working hard and efficiently on tedious stuff that I didn't want to do on my own. This requires an equivalent amount of "decompression" time when I get home from work (as Sarah likes to call it). Each extra minute past my normal baseline work day (a 9 hour day or less) causes an extra minute of staring at the TV blankly when I get home. Thus I have a least an hour less to devote to blog generating ideas and writing entries, and here we are back to my original excuse. The silver lining in all this is that it shouldn't last forever (deadlines are approaching) and this project will actually pay me for overtime. Otherwise I'd be in the same situation as Alice here:
Unfortunately (depending on how you look at it), I appear to be getting somewhat more used to the longer hours (I certainly was able to do this during my college years), so I hope to get more back into the swing of things regarding blogging.
I guess it could be worse, according to the National Science Foundation if I had a PhD and worked at a university, my average work week would be 50.6 hours. This is opposed to 47.6 hours for PhDs in industry/self-employment, and 45.2 hours for those in government. Hope they get paid overtime...
My current project has been a little different, I've been asked to work weekends, holidays and put in long hours to meet some hard deadlines. I've been working more like 50+ hours a week, and although that doesn't sound like much more let me see if I can logically get back to my original excuse. Upcoming deadlines require a series of rather tedious tasks, and it hasn't been my choice to work longer because I've been "asked" to do so. This extra hour+ a day is spent working hard and efficiently on tedious stuff that I didn't want to do on my own. This requires an equivalent amount of "decompression" time when I get home from work (as Sarah likes to call it). Each extra minute past my normal baseline work day (a 9 hour day or less) causes an extra minute of staring at the TV blankly when I get home. Thus I have a least an hour less to devote to blog generating ideas and writing entries, and here we are back to my original excuse. The silver lining in all this is that it shouldn't last forever (deadlines are approaching) and this project will actually pay me for overtime. Otherwise I'd be in the same situation as Alice here:
Unfortunately (depending on how you look at it), I appear to be getting somewhat more used to the longer hours (I certainly was able to do this during my college years), so I hope to get more back into the swing of things regarding blogging.
I guess it could be worse, according to the National Science Foundation if I had a PhD and worked at a university, my average work week would be 50.6 hours. This is opposed to 47.6 hours for PhDs in industry/self-employment, and 45.2 hours for those in government. Hope they get paid overtime...
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