Kelly's World- A View into the mind of Uber Geek, Kelly Adams

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Kelly Adams — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Title	Star Wars: the Old Republic
Developer	Bioware
Type	Massively Multi-player RPG
Platform(s)	PC
Kelly Score ™	95 / 100

Massively multi-player role playing games have, with very few exceptions, a standard motif. You create a character, complete a few “orientation” or introductory quests, and are then left to your own devices. Thousands of boring and repetitive quests combine with your character having complete lack of any perceivable impact or even place within the background story to encourage a kind of hamster like behaviour. You run in your little questing “wheel”, seeking levels or gear to help you continue to run in that wheel. Your long term goal: running in the wheel long enough and fast enough to eventually jump to the big, shiny end game hamster wheel of raid content. Raiding is where you get to spend all of your time staring at a wall, or the back end of some other person’s character, for hours on end as you beat some giant monster to get more shiny gear so you can do the next bigger raid. Most people don’t even read the story associated with each quest, and in many MMOGs that is a blessing: the stories are vanishingly thin and comically trivial. They have to be, since your character has no impact on the world whatsoever.

Star Wars: the Old Republic (SWtOR) breaks out of that motif. It plays more like a single player RPG, where your character is the hero of his or her own story. Other players and “group” dungeons (flash points, operations, and Heroics in SWtOR parlance) certainly exist, but the personal story your character is playing through is paramount. It is a refreshing and welcome change, even though the basic mechanics of the game are otherwise pretty traditional.

The Story is the Thing

SWtOR is all about the story. It is important to put this in perspective: many readers will likely say “but all MMOGs have a story! Just read all of the quest info.” True, many MMORPGs have a tremendous amount of background lore: several novels worth, at least. However, that lore acts purely as a background, and your player barely interacts with it. Quests may mention (for example) the King of Hubbabubba, and if you take the time to read many of these quest descriptions you might perceive some relationship or additional bit of lore linking them together with in some interesting fashion. However, the quests have no impact on either your character, your interactions with other NPCs, or the Kingship of Hubbabubba itself. Only the quest reward and the experience points it brings matter. Watch how most players deal with quests: the quest dialog pops up, they click to accept the quest instantly, and off they go to kill sixteen kobolds, or gather nine Tears of the Bubba, or what have you. In fact, most games even conveniently place all of the quest givers in a single location or “hub” so players can click through and accept/complete as many quests as quickly as possible. A few hours later, you gain a level, and move to the next quest hub. Or perhaps you come back and take the same quests all over again, to get another level.

It is perhaps worthwhile to spend a moment giving some story-based context given the importance of story in SWtOR. The world of the Old Republic is set about 3,000 years before Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, and their friends. In this era, users of the Dark side of the Force are openly practicing their dark ways on the side of the Sith Empire, and the Light side exists as the Galactic Republic. However, the power balance is fairly close: the Republic has recently largely destroyed the Empire forces and, in fact, had thought them utterly defeated. But the Sith are like cockroaches: they don’t die easily, and they have sprung back up to recapture their main world, Korriban. It is wise to mention at this point that I have played a single character, a Sith Inquistor, and so only know of the other classes and their stories indirectly.

In SWtOR, each class has a complete story sequence carrying them from level 1 to level 50. There are massive story sweeps, with tangible changes to the people and places you interact with. You gain friends and enemies, and alter the relations between factions. Your intangible power and prestige in the story changes, as your character grows from a young peon, through promising apprentice, and ultimately to a true power to be reckoned with. And yes, you get experience and gear, and can complete dozens or hundreds of less-relevant side quests along the way.

For most of the time the game plays exactly like a really, really big single player RPG. If you’ve ever played any other Bioware games like Knights of the Old Republic, or Mass Effect, or Dragon Age, you know exactly what kind of game to expect. You gain companions, and can choose to make your character good or bad (and observe how the non player character’s reactions to you change), through the beautifully crafted and expertly voiced story chapters. Unlike the single player Bioware games, however, there are other players around. You can join with them to accomplish more difficult goals. Those “flash points” and “operations” I mentioned earlier come into play here. But the main benefit to these multiplayer instances isn’t simply loot and experience: completing them grants you more access to the story, and more options to define who your character is through dialogue.

The story for each class is complex with many well-drawn foes and friends, and plenty of opportunity to make your character’s personal mark felt on the progress. It is important to note that this is the very first time I have ever played a MMORPG where I actually wanted to play *just* to find out what happens next. It is a tremendous single player experience with optional multiplayer content and, if you like that, you are in for a treat.

Beyond the Story

I can hear the MMOG folks out there screaming “but what about the end game? How about the raid content/PvP? Are the guild tools fully featured and reliable?” I’ll be perfectly frank: if you don’t care about the story, and mainly just want PvP and big raids, you probably should consider another game. Or at least a different review: since I don’t care about that stuff, I have very little awareness of how good or bad SWtOR is at satisfying your raiding/PvP/guild organization interests.

From what I’ve heard, however, there are some interesting ideas and some serious problems. Like with any MMOG, it is entirely possible to power through all the “story” content and get to the maximum level (50) in a week or so of 16+ hour days, especially if you ignore all of the side quests. I shudder to think of the incredible waste that would entail, but whatever floats your boat. Once you arrive at maximum level, there are some novel PvP activities, encompassing both faction (Rebel versus Imperial) and team (e.g.: Huttball) competition. For smaller groups, there are high-level operations and flash points, with selectable levels of challenge (e.g.: easy, normal, hard, nightmare). On the problem side of the scale are the usual issues with balance: the open world faction PvP areas can be gamed and spawn locations camped, the game lags terribly when large groups (over 50) are involved in battles, and it is possible to reach maximum rank in some competitions in a matter of a week or less.

The early indicators are that the end game raids/PvP are not much better or worse than other games, but that there isn’t enough of it nor is it challenging enough for the long term. I expect Bioware will invest a lot of time and money correcting this, which is terribly unfortunate: their strength is the story and they should stick to that as their differentiator. As far as I’m concerned, the folks who don’t give a damn about the story and power through to the end game should go to another game entirely: there are dozens focussed on their predilections. There is really only one MMOG currently available that can appeal to those who enjoy the story: SWtOR. Yes, story is incredibly expensive and time consuming to create, but the people who enjoy it will stick around so long as there are new “chapters” to explore.

Conclusion

SWtOR is a fantastic single player RPG with a MMOG attached. If you enjoy Mass Effect or Knights of the Old Republic, then buy SWtOR now: I’m 99% certain you won’t regret it. If my experience is any guide, I have played probably 60 or 70 hours getting my Sith Inquisitor to level 30. There is probably 70-120 hours of well-crafted and enjoyable story content to get to level 50 for each class in the game. That makes SWtOR a tremendous bargain, on the order of a game like Skyrim, even if you never interact with any other players. And if you have a few friends to join you in the world, you’ll get tons of extra fun.

If you want PvP, big guilds, and raid content, I suggest you look elsewhere. SWtOR has these things, but they are less mature: and you already have dozens of games to choose from that focus on those things, so get the heck off of my playground!

The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

Kelly Adams — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 07:51:15 +0000

Title	The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
Developer	Bethesda
Type	RPG
Platform(s)	XBox 360, PC (reviewed on XBox)
Kelly Score ™	98 / 100

I have played a few games in the Elder Scrolls series, and each successive one seems to be a little bit better- at least in my opinion. I played Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion, and now Skyrim. And, with a few caveats, Skyrim is basically the best computer RPG I’ve played to date.

Overview

Skyrim is a single player open world fantasy skill-based RPG. Let me explain briefly what that means by breaking out each part of the phrase:

single player: you play one character, although you can add a single companion now and then. You don’t manage a ‘squad’ like in Mass Effect, nor will you ever run into other players like you would in a “co-op” game like Fable 3 or a MMOG like World of Warcraft
open world: except for the opening scenes, you can do whatever you please. And unlike many games that claim to be “open”, Skyrim means it: there are no ‘invisible walls’ preventing you from walking off the beaten path. Yes, the area you have to wander has limits, but basically if you can see it, you can walk to it. There is a main “story” quest, as well as hundreds of smaller “side” quests. You can choose to ignore them if you wish, although you are missing out if you do
- Another aspect of “openness” is the inclusion of lots of things to do outside of simply completing the quests. Crafting armour and weapons, harvesting raw materials, stealing from townsfolk, brewing potions- there are many things to keep you busy if you wish to pursue them
fantasy: Skyrim has dragons, and things like elves, and other things like orcs, and swords, and magic, and metal armour, and horses. It doesn’t have space ships, laser guns, or aliens. If you prefer Tolkein versus E.E “Doc” Smith, or at least like both equally, Skyrim will feel comfortable
skill-based RPG: Skyrim is a role playing game. You create a character in the world, a character that acts as your avatar. Generally, the character you create is vastly different from yourself- in real life, you might be an accountant, but in Skyrim you could be a dangerous assassin/mage whose name is spoken in hushed tones across Tamriel. Skyrim allows you to choose your character’s race and appearance, but unlike some RPGs you don’t immediately limit your character to being a fighter, a thief, or a magic user. Instead, specific skills improve though your actions: attack a monster with a sword repeatedly, and your character becomes better and wielding swords. Put a shield in one hand and block some blows, and you become better at shield use. Cast a spell to heal yourself, and you become better at healing spells… and so on. You do get the choice of where to assign specific points that you gain each level to specific skill-related “perks”, but there are no forced class templates

In addition to these definitions, there are some other characteristics of Skyrim worth noting. The world is filled with thousands of non player characters, each with their daily patterns of activity. A shop keeper won’t always be in their store; they’ll lock the doors and go home at a certain hour, or perhaps wander over to the local tavern and get drunk. If two NPCs run into each other, they might start up a friendly conversation, possibly revealing a hint or two about something in the world. The main NPCs all have excellent voice acting, and even the less important NPCs have a lot of speech: unfortunately, with so many NPCs, it is inevitable that the same voices get used over and over again. A certain Schwartznegger-esque voice actor in particular gets extremely over-used amongst the Nords.

Graphics within the game are very high quality: scenery in particular is extraordinary, with some vistas from high atop the mountains causing me to pause in my journeys for several minutes at a time. There are some problems with physics within the game- the usual “keeps bouncing around after dead” Havoc physics occur regularly. Probably my favourite physics issue is the minor problem with Giant hammer impact.

The “rocket launcher” giants are an example of one other issue with Skyrim. Any game of this size and complexity will have “glitches”, and Skyrim is no exception. Sometimes an NPC will get stuck somewhere, and there are a few things you can do to cause one or two quests to break. But overall I was impressed: very, very few things in Skyrim fail in any way that causes a real problem.

The Story

Warning: some limited spoilers follow

You enter the world of Skyrim after creating your character as a prisoner. In these first few minutes you are introduced to the two main factions you will be dealing with throughout the game: the Imperials (your captors) and the Stormcloaks (the Nord rebels, natives of Skyrim). You also have your first encounter with a Dragon. Shortly thereafter, you learn that (surprise!) you are special: you are Dragonborn, able to read and speak the ancient Dragon language, which can be combined into powerful “Thu’um” or shouts.

From this point you are set free to wander the world as you see fit. There is a main quest, which involves confronting the issue of the unexpected and destructive re-appearance of the supposedly extinct Dragons and your role as Dovahkiin (Dragonborn). You may also choose to side with either the Imperials or Stormcloaks, either of which will launch a lengthy series of quests cementing the dominance of your chosen allegiance.

Whether you follow the main quest through or not, you will be regularly assaulted by Dragons. If I have one issue with Skyrim, it is this: Dragons become trivial foes fairly early in the game. Giants are, arguably, a significantly more challenging foe, as are many types of spell casters. My image of Dragons from years of consuming fantasy novels and playing D&D has always been of a very nearly insurmountable force: not a mere irritant on your way from one side of town to the other, dealt with swiftly and without even working up a sweat. But in Skyrim, that is what dragons become: a mere irritant. Unfortunate, and they could have been so much more.

Your main mission is to understand what has caused the Dragons to re-appear, and perhaps more importantly to discover what being Dovahkiin means. During this journey, you’ll gain vast amounts of power, expand your collection of Thu’um, and ultimately save the world. Its a good story, flawed only by the weakness of the Dragons, but otherwise definitely worth playing through.

Questing

There are hundreds of quests awaiting you in Skyrim aside from the main story quest. Some are born out of other things you do or choose not to do: an entire murder mystery, complete with false leads and misdirection, plays out in one city- you don’t just walk up to the barkeep and ask what work there is to be done to discover it. Although you can do that, too- there are lots of smaller quests of the sort you might call “grunt work”: retrieve the family heirloom, kill 10 bears, slay the local bandit leader. But even the simplest of them is well crafted, and has a sense of being a real part of the world, not simply the result of a developer pressing CTRL-C… CTRL-V several dozen times.

Some quests will get you into all sorts of interesting trouble- perhaps an encounter with a vampire will cause you to become infected with vamperism? And of course choosing one side or another in the war between the Stormcloak rebels and the Imperials will substantively change how the rest of the game will play out for you. Over all, the quests are extremely engaging, and there were a tremendous number that made me care about what my character did and how it impacted the other residents of the world.

Guilds

One of my favourite “quest” paths in Skyrim turned out to be those that related to the various guilds or societies within the game. The Companions (fighters), the Dark Brotherhood (assassins), the College of Winterhold (Mages), the Thieves Guild… my character became guild master of all of them. I loved the fact that, although my Khajit (cat person) was mostly a thief/mage, none of the guilds turned him away. That meant I got to enjoy the lengthy series of quests each had to progress through the ranks. And then there were the benefits: free housing, companions, money, armour, weapons, spell materials… the list is endless. The fact is, I nearly forgot the main quest entirely for a couple of weeks, just working my way through the various guilds.

Crafting

I’m not a crafter. I know there is a crafting system in Skyrim, and my nephew Shane tells me it’s pretty good, but I have no opinion. Apparently you can make some pretty cool armour out of all of the dead dragon parts I have stuffed in a chest in one of my character’s houses. I wouldn’t know…

Conclusion

If you like single player RPGs, then Skyrim is worth the money. I got over 100 hours of play time from the game, and could add another 30 hours or so to that by playing through again and choosing a different race, following the imperial faction path, and maybe choosing to play my character differently. The world is rich and beautiful, the quests and story line interesting and relatively deep, and the combat/magic/character development systems are fun and result in truly unique characters. I heartily recommend the game, without question.

First month of 2012

Kelly Adams — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 06:26:53 +0000

Christmas is a distant speck in my rear-view mirror, and we are already most of a month into 2012. I wouldn’t really say I have any “resolutions” for the New Year, but I do have some goals. It is odd how the completely arbitrary change over of a calendar causes me to re-examine my life, but I will take advantage of it. It is time to give some thought to what I want to focus on in the next year.

Things I intend to do in 2012

Spend 25% less money: 2010 and 2011 were incredibly expensive years for Irene and I. It wasn’t all just big things like motorbikes and new roofs, either. I have to stop treating my depression with expenditure: both Irene and I want to at least have the option of retiring before 65, and unless we decrease our current burn rate significantly, Freedom 95 starts to look optimistic. It is important to note that I don’t say “spend no money”- Irene and I want to still enjoy our lives. Interestingly, I said something very similar last New Years, but this time I’m going to make it stick
Get lots of motorcycle riding in: I had a ton of fun and experienced a fair amount of personal growth as a result of my motorcycle rides last year. During 2011, I put nearly 24,000 km on my motorbike. I intend to keep that up: not necessarily the same mileage, but lots of trips. However, I’ll be looking for ways to minimize what my longer rides cost- I’ll probably be buying a tent and a sleeping bag, for example, and stopping in campgrounds instead of hotels at least part of the time
Be prepared for unpleasant work changes: My career is jeopardy. My employer doesn’t have much room for technologists who don’t want to travel 50% of their time, and even less for technologists from North America who make substantially more than their Indian counterparts. I don’t expect my job to be the same, or possibly even exist, within the next year. Irene and I need to be ready for a substantial reduction in our circumstances
Find ways to be more at peace: I might lose my job, or reach the point where I can’t tolerate staying. If that happens, Irene and I will have to give up a great deal, most likely including our house. And that’s just the “small” stuff- life is happening all around, and much of it isn’t pleasant. The problem isn’t all of this “stuff” that is happening- the problem is that I dwell too much on eventualities I can’t be certain of and frankly have little to no control over, and not enough on the good fortune I have already
Write regularly in my personal journal: I’ve found over the last few years that problems, aggravations, and worries lose their power when I write them down in my journal. The process of writing the thoughts down causes me to formalize my concerns, and it put problems in a different perspective. And maybe writing things down forms a kind of “resolution” or closure, allowing me to put some issues to rest that otherwise reside perpetually in my mind. I usually write regularly for a couple of months, then get out of the habit, picking it up again months or years later. I will do better this year
Keep on struggling with my weight: I’d like to find a healthy balance of sorts, but I definitely haven’t yet. I managed to get my weight down to about 180 pounds by May of 2011. By August, I was over 190. As of January 2012, I am 200 pounds: 10 pounds heavier than New Years of 2011. I know why: I don’t like exercise, and I eat for comfort. l don’t expect any great changes this year, but I don’t want to give up the fight

I’d also like to say that I’ll communicate more with my friends and family, or that I’ll spend some time making new friends and acquaintances: such thoughts are inspiring, but I know they are a struggle against the deepest parts of my nature. I need to pick my battles: that’s what the list above is intended to document.

Server OS Upgrade

Kelly Adams — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 07:22:18 +0000

I shut down the site over the weekend and upgraded / migrated to a new server operating system. Kelly’s World was running on Mandriva 2008.1 prior to today. As of now, the site is live on a Fedora 16 server. My main reason for performing the migration was to get an OS in place that could be updated more consistently.

I still have a lot of things to fix, but the basic functionality seems to be in place. Hopefully you won’t notice any difference…

Motorcycle Road Trip #2: the Coastal Highway and Computer History Museum

Kelly Adams — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 19:13:39 +0000

My second big motorcycle trip of the year took me down the Coastal Highway (Highway 101). Road trip #1 had already established that I enjoyed motorcycle touring, so now it was about seeing where that enjoyment would take me. I still had questions I wanted to ask myself during the ride: how far in a day is too far, are scenic roads just a little more enjoyable than “main” highways, or a lot, and is driving through unfamiliar cities on a motorbike ‘way more scary than in a car? I packed up my bike and set out on August 1 to see what new things I could learn about myself…

The Coastal Highway trip

Link to Gallery: Coastal Highway pictures

I was fortunate to be able to start my second motorcycle adventure joined by my brother Colin. He travelled with me right from my house, crossing the border with me that early Monday morning. It was great to have his company, and he got me off to a fantastic start.

My overall route looked something like this:

Starting from home, cross the border at the Highway 15 (176 Street) truck crossing
Stay on Interstate 5 to I 405; divert onto 405 to avoid downtown Seattle
Turn off I 5 onto the 101 at Olympia; follow the 101 around the Olympic Peninsula via Port Angeles etc
Continue on the 101 to Seaside, Oregon, where we stopped for the first day
Seaside to Brookings, Oregon on the 101: that was day #2 with Colin
Brookings to Mountain View, California: Day #3, with Colin and I parting ways early in the day at Crescent City, California
- I split off the 101 and on to Highway 1 to minimize the “big highway” part of my trip; I re-entered the 101 near Cloverdale, CA via Highway 128 then on into San Francisco across the Golden Gate bridge

Astoundingly, I was untouched by weather once again: no serious rain, no storms, just perfect riding weather. On the return trip I essentially came straight home on the I 5, and I won’t say much about that part of the trip. Interstate travel, at least based on my I 5 experience, is not a chore at all- it is just very bland. I much prefer the smaller roads, although admittedly the main highways like the Interstates are great when you just want to cover miles quickly.

Colin was with me for the first two days of the trip, and I really enjoyed our ride together. I liked having the chance to visit with my brother under these circumstances: sharing something we both enjoy, seeing beautiful scenery, and experiencing an adventure together. I did make one error with the route during those first couple of days, and that was underestimating just how tiring including the Olympic Peninsula would make day number one. I knew that would add 400 km or so to that day’s ride, but on paper it didn’t look that bad. If I were to do it again, I would have added an over-night to that part of the trip, stopping somewhere around Port Angeles. The Olympic Peninsula is beautiful, but travelling through that scenery on a day with over 900 km of fairly technical (for me) riding is just a bit much. By the time we got to Seaside, I was too tired to care about the hotel or the ocean view. All I wanted was food and a place to lie flat for a while.

Day #2 of the trip was probably my favourite day of the ride. We had fewer kilometres to cover, there was a bit less traffic (although traffic on the 101 was pretty light throughout), and it was just generally a more relaxed and enjoyable day. The second day also brought back to me all my memories of previous trips down this highway. The coastal views south of Seaside, Oregon are stunning.

Colin and I parted ways on the third day shortly after we checked out of our Brookings hotel. He turned North, back to meet his wife Betty in Abbotsford, while I continued on to San Francisco and then Mountain View. I had consulted with friends who told me that the 101 turned inland away from the coast as it approached San Francisco, something I barely remembered from my trips via this route decades ago. So I had planned a break off from the 101, onto the Highway 1, intending to stay right on the coast and rejoin the 101 after I’d had my fill of that route.

My choice was a good one, although I made one mistake. I completely missed the Avenue of Giants, where tourists like myself can split off onto the “old” 101 and see the ancient redwoods. I really wanted to see this, but had forgotten that it was a separate highway and missed my opportunity. Regardless, I can definitely recommend taking Highway 1 off of the 101 for anyone who wants to experience extreme twists and turns while hanging their toes over the edge of cliffs falling directly into the ocean. In other words, it was great, and traffic was fairly light. My path back to the 101 was via Highway 128, which cuts inland through heavy forest and is also a very twisty secondary road. Unfortunately, the road surface on the 128 was in pretty bad shape: lots of holes and back breaking bumps, including some really nasty ones on sharp corners. If you take this route, do *not* plan on going fast: you will definitely regret it if you do, and might suffer more than some rough riding.

I arrived in San Francisco via the 101, which crosses the Golden Gate bridge. Traffic was heavy as I approached the bridge but, thanks once again to advice from my friends, I pulled into a viewpoint park (Battery Spencer) immediately on the north side of the bridge and relaxed for 30 minutes or so before continuing on. That brief stop relaxed me, took the stress off, and amazingly allowed the heavy traffic to mostly clear out of the way.

I had to pay the toll crossing the bridge, which at $6 is pretty steep for a motorcycle. Again, I had advice from friends and had the money at the ready so I didn’t hold up traffic at all. I was able to shut off the engine on my bike, hand over the money, and restart without causing anyone to honk or road rage on me. Shortly thereafter I was at my hotel in Mountain View, planning out my next day at the Computer History Museum.

The Computer History Museum

Link to Gallery: Computer History Museum

The Best Western Plus Mountain View is, as it turned out, pretty much perfectly situated for the geek wanting to visit the Museum. It is barely five minutes away, an easy drive down some low-traffic roads. Once there, the Computer History Museum itself is computer geek nirvana.

I ended up spending two full six-plus hour days at the Museum, totally indulging my desire to experience the history and amazing challenges computer pioneers faced. I would imagine that an average computer buff would have their fill of the exhibits in four hours or so, but there are so many evocative artifacts to see, and the complex thoughts and emotions they brought up made me lose track of time. A big chunk of CHM isn’t just history, it is *my* history: I could remember flicking the switches on an IMSAI 8008 when it was a miraculous piece of the future, the rattle and clunk of my Apple II+’s floppy disk drive loading another surprise, the squeals and chirps of my first 300 baud modem connecting me to an unexplored world. I could have spent time visiting other shrines to computing like the Apple or Google campuses, and one day I will, but this museum hooked me.

As I was leaving on the second day, one of the grey-haired Museum docents leaving for the day recognized me from inside. He stopped by to chat about my motorbike and where I was from. When I said British Columbia, Canada, he said “Oh, that’s too bad: if you were local, I would have encouraged you to join the docent program. You seem to know your history…” I felt a slightly curious feeling of belonging, for a moment, to a rather unique era. I was there when… and I programmed that… not the beginning, not with founders like Turing or Hopper, but nonetheless a true participant in the generation of people who grew up on the cusp of the computing revolution. I’m glad I spent the extra time there, and am confident I’ll be back to the area to see the things I missed on this trip as a result of my deep dive into the Museum.

Conclusions

The Oregon Coast highway was as fantastic as I remember it. Once again I lucked out in the weather department, and experienced a nearly perfect ride as a result. I cemented my perception of touring being the kind of riding for me. I experienced a completely enjoyable time together with my brother, Colin. And I allowed myself the luxury of staring deep into the technology and history of the computing world I love. I am already giving thought to long motorcycle trips for 2012, and I’m expecting to experience lots of new things, both good and bad, in the process.

Motorcycle Road Trip #1: to Edmonton and back

Kelly Adams — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 22:38:27 +0000

2011 is the year I wanted to start taking my motorcycle on some longer, multi-day trips. I had lots of questions to explore: would I figure out how to pack what I need? Would the Road Glide be comfortable for the long haul? And most important: would this kind of riding be the kind of thing I really want to do- in other words, is it “fun” for Kelly?

My first road trip of 2011 was “back home”: to Edmonton. A destination I’m familiar with, through territory I’ve experienced before in a car. I miss my friends back in Edmonton, but haven’t felt particularly like making the trip in the last half dozen years or so. I like where I live, and my friends/family come out here often enough… but the bike gave me a reason to make the trip. And so I packed up and set out on June 25…

The Trip There

My route to Edmonton was intended to be “interesting”: with help from my friend Chris I created a plan that would take me through some scenery I wasn’t familiar with, and would fit nicely within my planned “3 day” time span for the journey. Since a map rendering doesn’t work terribly well (the secondary highways don’t show up), here is a brief list of directions/via points describing my trip:

Cloverdale to Hope via Hwy 1 East
Hope to Castlegar via Hwy 3 East (first overnight)
Castlegar to New Denver- Slocan- Nakusp via Hwy 6 North and Hwy 23 North
Nakusp to Revelstoke (crossing via ferry from Galena to Shelter Bay) via Hwy 23 North
Revelstoke to Canmore via Hwy 1 East (second overnight)
Canmore to Morley- Drumheller- Stettler- Edmonton via a bunch of secondary highways (Colin was leading at this point)

The total trip was just over 1,700 km, with the longest day being day #2 (Castlegar to Canmore: about 10 hours). Weather for my outbound journey was mixed: I had plenty of mist or light rain on the first day, and near perfect weather on day 2. My fully-decked bike protected me from the small amount of rain I experienced- I never felt compelled to put on my rain suit over my leathers. It was cold enough each morning that I used my electric under-jacket a bit, but not so cold that I desperately needed it. I probably could have done equally well with a light sweater under the leathers.

I absolutely loved the trip from Castlegar to Revelstoke: the road was well maintained but small, with lots of twists and turns as well as some beautiful scenery. Best of all, there were hardly any other vehicles around: it was like my own dedicated road.

I was a little uncertain about the ferry crossing, but it turned out to be easy as can be. The ramps weren’t steep, the deck gave decent footing, and there wasn’t anything “special” expected once on board (i.e.: no funny wood blocks or what have you to put under the bike). And since it was an open deck ferry and only a 20 minute crossing, I just put the stand down, turned the engine off, and stayed sitting on the bike- no problem at all.

Over all, I confirmed that I had done a decent job packing, and the packing “checklist” I had created was reused almost verbatim for my second road trip in August. The suitcase on my passenger seat carried most of my clothing, and the bag on the luggage rack carried my extra jackets, shoes, and hat. The left (kickstand side) saddlebag was filled with general “motorcycle survival” gear: rain suit, first aid kit, spare bungee cords of various sizes, Harley toolkit, multii-tool, multi-screwdriver, high visibility vest, duct tape, etc etc. The right saddlebag was filled with my electronic gear: computers, camera, and so forth. The trunk was my “spare” space, and generally housed my motorcycle video camera, any food/snacks I was carrying, my second four day “batch” of underwear/socks, and any riding gear like my chaps that I wasn’t currently using and didn’t fit elsewhere.

As for clothing, my strategy was fairly simple. Bring along enough shirts and pants to change every second day- in my case, that was four of each. Roll the shirts and pants up tight. Underwear and socks are daily-change items: eight of each. But I split them into two sets of four, and packed them in ziplock bags with the air squeezed out to keep them dry and compact with only enough for four days in my suitcase. The second batch went into the trunk. It all worked out well, and I never felt like I was wearing “dirty” clothes. For a longer trip, I would have found a laundry and washed a batch of clothing- I don’t think I’d want to pack more than eight days worth on a motorbike.

The “suitcase on the seat” was a pure luck item. I realized a week or so before I set out that I needed more “carry in” storage for my clothing, and began to look at the available motorcycle-specific suitcases designed to sit on the passenger seat. It the occurred to me that a lot of these suitcases shared dimensions with the “sport” suitcase I had bought for the cruise Irene and I went on and, at twice the price of that little case, it seemed worth testing out. I carried it out to my bike and set it on the seat: voila, it fit perfectly. It even had a couple of solid hook points for bungee cords to fix it in place, and an accessory strap that worked perfectly to restrain the top of the case to my luggage rack. It travelled without incident in this fashion on both of my road trips, for a total of over 7,000 km including some terribly maintained (bumpy) American roads. Better still, the case has wheels, making the trip from bike to hotel room a bit easier. And it made a decent back rest, so long as I was careful to pack less bumpy items on the front side

The Visit

I enjoyed several days in Edmonton with my friend Chris and his family, as well as visits with my brothers Colin and Ron and their families. Chris and I explored the “Art” festival, The Works, that was in progress while I was there. The Works was fun to check out but included a lot of art that didn’t quite speak to me, including a strange tangle of scrap lumber and branches, and a “live art” presentation by a gay native guy acting out the character “Buffalo Boy”.

On the second day Chris invited me over for a barbecue, which gave me the chance to experience something I have missed from my years in Edmonton: a proper prairie thunderstorm. We were dry and cozy inside their covered patio, but Chris got to stand outside in the pouring rain and manage the BBQ. The timing on the storm was amazing: by 9:30 PM, when I was ready to head back to the hotel on my motorbike, the rain had stopped and the sky was clearing with blue patches evident all over.

Back Again

I didn’t take any photos on the return trip, just some on-bike video which I need to edit into some reasonable size. My nephew Troy and brother Colin joined me for the first leg of the trip, staying with me until we reached Edson. For the return ride I elected to stick to major/fast highways, taking the most direct route. Even so, I had over 1,200 km to cover and no particular desire to push myself to the point of pain. Day 1 took me to what I had determined to be just past the midpoint of my journey: Clearwater, British Columbia. I was tired by the time I arrived with about ten hours and 700 km on the road, but making day 1 the “long” day meant I could sleep in a bit for day 2 and my arrival back home. This strategy worked out well, and meant I was back at my house by supper time on the second day.

I found that the “main highway” trip to be much less enjoyable- it was still travelling on the motorbike, but the long hours at 100-120 km/h began to drain me. There were, of course, more cars and trucks on the main road, meaning more passing and less opportunity to experience the environment and scenery. That said, I made it home safe and sound, and in good time.

My total mileage for the trip was just a bit under 3,000 km, with about five actual travel days. Although there were some days when I was a bit stiff and sore, nothing was “agonizing”.

What did I learn?

The answers to all the questions I started out the road trip with were positive. My packing was pretty close to ideal, and now I have luggage and placement as well as packing checklists figured out for future trips. The Harley Davidson Road Glide continues to be a comfortable bike, far better than my Vulcan for this kind of long distance trip. It keeps me out of the worst aspects of the wind and rain, while still letting me get that riding experience. And there is no question in my mind that these longer, multi-day motorcycle expeditions are fun for me. With a different bike this might not be true, but I seem to have done a good job matching the bike to the kind of riding I want to do.

I will be heading off on other long-distance road trips in the future. I’m not interested in “endurance” riding, though: on the Edmonton trip I started to experience my limitations in terms of hours and miles in the saddle, and I’ll continue to explore those limits and figure out where my comfort level is. When practical, I will be taking the “less travelled” routes: there is a balance here that I need to figure out, as the scenic routes are almost always going to extend the trip, meaning either more miles per day or more days. I could have extended the return trip, but I also like to have several “down time” days once I get home before I have to head back to work- I’ll have to give that some thought on subsequent journeys.

And Jasmine too…

Kelly Adams — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 17:47:52 +0000

We knew it was a possibility, perhaps even probable. But that didn’t make losing Jasmine at the end of May any easier.

Irene and I both noticed something wrong as soon as we came back from our week-long cruise. Jasmine looked “puffy” around her chest, and seemed somewhat disinterested and dull. After a few days, she seemed to be having problems breathing. An X-Ray showed fluid and a possible mass in her chest cavity. Fluid was drawn, and ultrasound performed. The mass was quite large, 4 cm by 2 cm, and looked like a tumor. The fluid drawn from the chest, which eased Jasmine’s breathing for only a day or so, was also tested: it confirmed the worse.

Lymphosarcoma. A highly aggressive cancer. Without FeLV, the prognosis is pretty bad: chemotherapy is only effective in about 30% of the cases, and most of the time only buys a year or two. With FeLV, the prognosis is worse than abysmal. Within 24 hours of diagnosis, Jasmine was struggling to breathe. We took her to emergency late that night, and helped her quietly leave us.

I was angry again for a few days just after losing Jasmine, just as I was with Harley. These kittens were both incredibly loving and loveable, and an uncaring world full of thoughtless, self-centered humans took them both away from us. Jasmine, who we knew longer than Harley, possessed a personality so clear and strongly defined that she took control of the house. The gap left in her absence became palpable as my anger subsided.

Jasmine’s favorite game was the string game. She had a ratty old piece of string, originally the waistband string from a pair of Irene’s pants, which was very dear to her. She’d find it somewhere in the house, and bring it to Irene and I: mrrowling and purring the whole way. Then you’d play with her for a few minutes, and toss the string somewhere, preferably into the next room or the other side of the couch. Jasmine would chase after it, and a few minutes later bring it back to you to start again.

On the last day she was with us, she struggled to find the energy, and managed to drag that ratty old string to me as I sat in the kitchen- she meowed, a painful squeak as she tried to catch her breath. She was too weak to play with it, and couldn’t chase it even a few inches.

I cried quite a bit for the first two days after Jasmine was gone. Since then I’ve found some comfort in the thought that we were lucky to have had her and Harley in our lives, even if just for a short time. I still feel this huge empty spot in my life and our home, where Jasmine used to play.

Recording my rides: the Race Optics EVO-HD Camera System

Kelly Adams — Sun, 15 May 2011 08:11:50 +0000

It occurred to me shortly after I bought my first motorbike last year that video taping my rides might be kind of interesting. I started investigating the various options, ranging from duct-taping or velcro-strapping an off-the rack home video camera onto my bike, through custom-built video rigs specific to motorcycling. What I settled on was probably overkill for my needs, and turned out to have some unexpected frustrations: the Race Optics EVO-HD Camera system.

Looking at the options

I more or less rejected the idea of jury-rigging a home video camera attachment onto my bike right from the outset for two reasons. First, motorbikes are tough on electronics: exposure to the elements, vibration, and shock will take years off the life of any standard camera, to say nothing of immediately voiding any warranty. Second, anything attached to a motorbike needs to be fastened securely: unless it has proper mounts and fittings, it can become a distraction at best or a projectile at worst.

Googling motorcycle-specific video cameras leads to a lot of helmet mount gear which, although interesting, isn’t really very appealing to me. I am less interested in the gritty realism of jerky and sudden angle changes and re-orientation than I am in getting some nice looking video. Also, I have no particular desire to add a piece of equipment to the top of my head: I don’t have a practical reason for this other than imagining how silly it would look when I have to get off the bike at some point.

For the longest time, the only choice that looked like a fit for what I wanted was the the GoPro HERO line of cameras. These highly rated sports cameras are supposedly durable and well-designed but, no matter how many times I looked at them, the design just didn’t appeal to me. The camera is an all-in-one unit, with recorder, lens, and display in what looks like a traditional “point and click” camera body. Finding a place on my bike to place it would be hard. The handlebars wouldn’t work on a full-fairing bike like the Road Glide, and mounting it on (say) the highway bars would mean effectively having to dismount to stop and start the camera. If the camera could just be remote from the recorder/control unit, that would solve my problem.

Early this year I came across the Race Optics product, which looked like exactly what I was wanting. The camera and recorder/control unit are separate components, meaning the controls can be located somewhere convenient while the camera head is positioned somewhere that it can actually capture an image. After much pondering, I finally decided to take the plunge in late March and ordered the EVO-HD kit along with a 32 GB SD memory card.

What I got in the box

The EVO-HD comes nicely packaged and more or less complete, at least on first glance:

Inside the box is a nice, fitted case with all the miscellaneous pieces:

There are lots of accessory cables, two batteries and a charger, an adapter to connect the SD card to a computer’s USB port, a few simple mounting brackets, a wireless remote, and a case for the recorder with velcro straps. In total, it seems like a worthy collection of components to cover all of the basic mounting, recording, transfer and playback needs. Everything is well made, especially the camera head itself. This piece is constructed similarly to a Maglight, meaning it is heavy anodized aluminum.

All of this heaviness and the multiple components present a downside if you are planning on mounting the camera on a helmet and, say, heading out for a day of snowboarding. That’s why I’d suggest this is the wrong camera for that kind of purpose- instead, a small helmet cam or the GoPro camera I linked to earlier is a better choice if you want a “human mounted” camera system. In my case, however, it is going on a motorbike, and I’ve already indicated helmet mounting is not my desire. Which leads to a couple of my gripes regarding the EVO-HD.

The remote that isn’t

One thing that really attracted me to the EVO-HD was the inclusion of a remote control to stop and start the camera. I imagined this would be ideal: I could mount the camera head, and place the recorder in a concealed location such as perhaps in one of my fairing compartments. Then I could mount the remote control on my handle bars to easily stop and start the camera without having to place the recorder in harms way. Unfortunately, the folks at Race Optics neglected to prominently mention one flaw with their remote- it is an infrared, line of sight only device. I have no idea what the point is of such a remote, given that it has to be pointed at specific point on the recorder without any intervening obstructions. So the remote is, for all intents and purposes, totally useless other than as a bullet point on the feature list to potentially suck in people like myself. This was problem number one with the EVO: I honestly felt like I had been conned by the manufacturer.

The challenge mounts

I took another close look at the camera and recorder itself once I overcame my disappointment and irritation regarding the remote. I decided that the gear still looked pretty solid, and still has an advantage (the separation between controls and camera) over the GoPro and similar options. So the next question became: where can I mount the camera head and recorder on my bike?

The recorder turned out to be fairly easy to find a place for. With the velcro straps on the included case, I was able to attach the recorder to one of the storage compartment doors on the Road Glide’s fairing. Once the straps are tightened it sits fairly firmly and, with a bit of extra velcro, I was able to “lock” the case in place. Not something I’d want to leave out while the bike is parked, but acceptable on the road.

The camera was more of a challenge. Most of the places I really wanted to mount the camera head turned out to be unusable. What I was hoping for was partial concealment of the camera head under the fairing, but all of these options ended up interfering with the bike’s steering, which is not acceptable. The camera head is bulky, and the massive “military grade” (their words) cable and fasteners interfere with placement: that heavy and solid build is a drawback at times.

Once I eliminated my first choices, I went to my fallback position: the outer edge of the highway bars. I started with the simple velcro and zip tie mount options that came with the EVO, but I wasn’t satisfied with the stability. Basically, all they did for me was allow me to test various placements, but for the long haul I personally can’t abide by wobbly mounts on a motorcycle. Fortunately, both the EVO camera and recorder have standard camera tripod mounts, so I went to the company that makes the most robust mounts in the business. Of course I’m referring to National Products, maker of RAM mounts.

Getting the mount set up the way I wanted ended up adding another $75 or so to the price of my camera configuration. And for future reference, there is a Canadian distributor of RAM products I can recommend, GPS Central, that will save you a few bucks on shipping and duty charges/hassle. But the RAM products are something I feel confident recommending to anyone trying to attach gear securely to a vehicle: very well made, and a truly robust perch for gadgetry.

Under-charging

Once I got the camera located and powered on for the first time, I was fairly impressed by its function. The little display on the recorder is primarily of use for insuring that the camera is pointing the right way up and so on- like most, it isn’t really useful for review beyond getting the most general sense of what was/is being recorded. It also totally fades out in any kind of bright light, making it nearly impossible to tell if the thing is even on at times. A big bright LED with different colours (i.e.: red for on, green for recording) would be more useful in this regard, but alas no such luck.

I’ve already expressed my disappointment in the remote control. But there is another problem with the unit: battery charging.

The included charger seems either mis-matched or woefully under-powered. It takes 18 to 24 hours using this thing to charge one of the FUJI NP-120 Lithium-Ion battery packs from empty to full. Each battery pack only gives about two hours of recording time. The 32 GB SD storage will handle eight hours of recorded HD video. This means that travelling with the camera will be challenging: after just half a day of recording filling only half of the available memory, you’ll need to stop somewhere for two days to be ready for another half day of recording. This doesn’t add up very well, and means I’m looking now for a better charger for these battery packs. Of course that’s more money (and hassle) on top of an already expensive solution.

Conclusions

I think the EVO-HD is a great camera, with some really bad choices made by the manufacturer on the accessory side of things. It is almost like there were two completely different sets of objectives here: one from the video designers focusing on quality and performance, and another from the accessory team trying to cut corners and make things as cheaply as possible. This is exemplified by the battery charger issue: surely someone tried this out before it left manufacturing, and noticed that the charger was horribly inadequate for the batteries. But the failings extend to the design side with the pointless infrared line-of-sight remote control in particular: it makes no sense at all but is baked in to the hardware design.

I am really not sure quite how to take this camera kit as a whole. I am into it now for nearly $600, so I’m stuck, and it *does* do a decent job of recording. But I’m inclined to think that there must be some smarter alternatives out there with the same combination of features appropriate for motorcycle mounting without the strangely inconsistent functionality.

Sample Videos

Here is one of my videos in both standard and HD resolution for comparison, recorded on my motorbike with the Race Optics EVO-HD camera on a RAM mount:

The HD version of the above

Lung infection and six months on my Harley

Kelly Adams — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 07:43:31 +0000

Two weeks ago I came down with a cold, and a week ago I was diagnosed with a lung and sinus infection. The doctor said it was probably a variety of “mild” pneumonia, what is sometimes called “walking pneumonia”. So I’ve been coughing, clearing my sinuses, and generally feeling crappy.

On the plus side, the weather has been generally unpleasant as well. That sounds funny, I know, but for me there is nothing worse than being sick when it is beautiful and sunny and the birds are singing: it just feels doubly unfair. There were a couple of decent days this week, today not being one of them: however, it wasn’t raining, and I was feeling a bit better. This meant that was overwhelmed by a desire to get out on my motorbike, which I did.

Six months on a Harley: my thoughts

I’ve been riding my Road Glide for six months now, a bit over 4,000 kilometers. Three of those months were winter months during which I only got out for two wheel therapy a couple of times. However, I feel I’ve had enough opportunity to ride the Road Glide Ultra to go beyond first impressions. On that basis, I’m rounding up my observations of the Harley Davidson FLTRU:

Comfortable: This is a bike that is meant for longer rides. The frame mounted fairing and lowers, along with Harley’s newer touring frame, provide a rock steady and “planted” feel. Things that tossed my Vulcan around like wind gusts and road tar “snakes” are basically ignored now. I felt this the first time I test drove the Road Glide, and nothing has changed my feelings.
Deeply Powerful: The big 103 CI (1688 cc) engine has tons of power. 102 foot pounds, and something bordering on 100 horsepower, is nothing to laugh at. But this is also a big, heavy bike: people looking for racetrack experiences should look elsewhere. But for me, the low-revving, high-torque Harley engines are a perfect fit. At highway speeds of around 100-120 km/h, I can run in 5th gear at around 3000 RPM with comfort and ease. I still have another gear to go if I want even lower revs, but generally 6th is reserved for 120+ km/h. I should note that I find the Road Glide far easier to ride in the 120 km/h range than my Vulcan: at those speeds, the Vulcan started feeling a bit scary for me. Not so the ‘Glide
Excellent fit and finish: After six months, everything is still where it belongs. Nothing shakes loose, nothing has cracked, chipped, or started to fail. All the latches and clasps close and open as easily as they did the first time. Every time I wash the bike I find new and satisfying aspects of the build quality: deeply chromed metal, smoothly finished welds, and heavy-duty bolts and fittings. The Vulcan, on the other hand, disappointed me: I’d find wobbly bits, plastic pieces where I didn’t expect them, and bolts that looked under-engineered. I’m certain that the Vulcan is well designed, but even pieces you can’t see easily on the Harley are heavy, solid, and impressive
Engine and drive train is solid: The late-model (i.e.: after the ’90′s) Harley engines seem very robust, and the engine on my Road Glide has been no exception. Every time I crank it over, it rumbles to life like some sort of sleepy tiger, slightly irritable but ready to prowl. And that sound…well, I don’t like it loud, but I do like that Harley grumble. It’s uneven, eccentric, intentionally engineered to sound more raw than it is, and yet truly refined at travelling speed. It puts me in mind of the sound my brother Ron’s over-bored and race track ready Chevelle SS engine made, and that’s a good thing
Expensive to service: I haven’t had a single problem with my Harley thus far. But regular service is expensive: oil and inspection is about 30% more on my Road Glide than on the Vulcan. Of course you can do it yourself and save lots ($100 per hour shop charges add up fast), and in a year or two I will probably start doing at least every second oil change myself. But the cost of the bike doesn’t mean you get any savings on the service costs: exactly the opposite
Incredible sense of joining a “club”: You buy your Harley, and you get a year of membership in the Harley Owners Group. For that, you get a never ending stream of reminders that you “belong” to some sort of community. Patches, pins, annual touring books with hundreds of pages of high quality maps and guides, monthly magazines… and everything is of top quality. The pins are a small example: there is a membership pin, and a mileage pin, both of which are of the sort of quality you’d spend five or ten bucks for. Then you get annual “rockers” to chart your membership years, as well as mileage “rockers” for major milestones. Even without the HOG membership, I receive a monthly catalog or letter from Harley reminding me of that big bike waiting patiently for the next ride

Addictive and expensive accessories: I find it increasingly hard to stop myself from buying Harley branded gear. I like to shout out a bit that I ride a Harley, but that’s only part of it. Everything I’ve bought that has a Harley logo on it has been good quality. As an example, the luggage rack on my trunk is very well constructed. But you have to be careful: some things, especially the Harley-branded helmets, are just mass-market products with a Harley logo and 50% price bump added
Incredibly massive: this isn’t a comment about the Road Glide specifically, but about big touring bikes in general. They are frickin’ huge. This is 900 pounds of bike: if you miss your balance point and it starts to go over, it’s damn hard to keep up. I could easily use another 20 pounds of muscle, but even if I looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger I think I’d still find the weight of this bike formidable. All of this mass means that the bike sits firmly on the road, and that is great for touring. But it also means it isn’t the kind of bike you slalom through traffic, or whip through chicanes at breakneck speed. The Road Glide is extraordinarily handy at low (parking) speeds for a bike its size, but you have to make allowances for that always-present mass waiting to overpower you. For a new rider like me, it can be scary at times: a few degrees of lean while pushing the bike around can lead to far more weight than I can handle coming down. It’s intimidating, and if there is one regret I have it is this- the bike I love can turn into a real beast very fast. I’ve had it on its side two or three times on our 20% incline driveway as an indirect result of trying to scoot it along the sidewalk beside the house. There are few things more scary than trying to put a bike this size back upright when it wants to go sliding back down a hill. Inclines, low speed, sharp curbs, soft ground, 6 inch clearances, and immovable obstacles: any one or two of these is fine, but too darn many calculations and risks can overwhelm me. Lessons learned- in a perfect world, I would have decades of experience with bikes of increasing size and weight under all sorts of conditions before owning my Road Glide

More miles to go

Six months isn’t a terribly long time, and I’ll likely be revisiting this topic as milestones pass in the future. But overall I’m very happy that I bought the Harley Davidson Road Glide Ultra. It’s the right bike for me at this stage in my life. I’m looking forward to a couple of multi-thousand-kilometer trips this year, during which I’ll presumably learn a great deal more.

A million visitors in 8 years

Kelly Adams — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 18:19:30 +0000

I looked at the banner of my site today and see that Kelly’s World has broken the 1 million hits mark. Whoopee, and so forth.

I would like to imagine that this number represents some count of real people visiting, but the reality is less pleasant. I’d guesstimate that about 99% of the visits to my site are some combination of spambots and web crawling robots. For those of you reading this who can comprehend what I’m saying: thanks for being a real human being taking an interest in something I have to say.

I appreciate the time you spend here, and hope you visit again often. As for the spambots, scripts, and webcrawlers: 0110101101101001011100110111001100100000011011010111100100100000011000010111001101110011