The Custis Trail runs for 4 miles from mile marker 4 of the W&OD in Arlington down to the end of the Mount Vernon trail in Rosslyn. It follows and runs alongside I-66 for its duration. Although it's kind of through the parks that line the highway, at times there aren't really sound barriers so it can be a loud ride. Also, while the highway is relatively flat, the trail tends to go up to the level of bridges, then down to the level of underpasses. It makes for a very hilly ride.
Not the best trail in the area, but its not too long, and the only good way to bike to Rosslyn and from there get to the Mount Vernon trail or into DC. I will also occasionally go up this way on my way home for work for a change in scenery.
Google Maps
Monday, May 28, 2012
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Rides this week - 5/26/2012
I biked to Battleship and then a haircut and pet store run Sunday, totalling about 14 miles, and then managed to commute on Friday. I've got two baseball games today and one tomorrow, but on Monday I'm hoping to do a good long ride somewhere. Perhaps I'll convince Caitlin to come pick me up at the end of the W&OD.
Sunday 5/20 - 14 miles - Around
Friday 5/25 - 16 miles - To work
Friday 5/25 - 16 miles - From work
Next weekend I may or may not post my rides this week since I'll be up in New York doing a few rides with Erin. I'll be sure to backfill though at some point.
Sunday 5/20 - 14 miles - Around
Friday 5/25 - 16 miles - To work
Friday 5/25 - 16 miles - From work
Next weekend I may or may not post my rides this week since I'll be up in New York doing a few rides with Erin. I'll be sure to backfill though at some point.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Mirror's Edge Review
So I just found this in my drafts, even though I thought I'd published it a few weeks ago. So here's the first video game review I talked about before -
Overall Rating - B
Quick Summary: Mirror's Edge is a free running game. In a distopian future where the police state controls everything. "runners" (who basically do parkour over the tops of buildings) carry people's secrets for a little cash. But some shit goes down and suddenly everyone is coming after you. You spend the rest of the game running - away from cops, towards answers, and really just all over the place.
Gameplay: B
Graphics: A
Story: D
Music/Sound: C+
Replay: B
Multiplayer: N/A
Depth: Low
Playtime: 10 hours
I heard a lot about this game when it first came out which was early in the PS3 days. It was graphically stunning, and one of the first actual free running games that had ever been made, so the idea was new (it's since been copied quite a bit). It was fun to get in and play something that I heard about a few years ago.
While the graphics can't be considered quite as state of the art anymore, they still look great, and really add to the feel of running through a futuristic city. The story was garbage, really just an excuse for you to be going everywhere you are at the speeds you are, but the cut-scenes between the 11 levels go to a sort of cartoony/anime style graphics that were fun. I think they did this because the cut-scenes have a lot more on the people/characters that you never get a good look at while you're playing, so it was an easy way to give them life without having to high definition detail them.
Now onto the gameplay, which is really what this game was about. When the game worked, it worked great. You would dash along a rooftop, slide under a vent, then vault over a fence while running along a wall to get to another rooftop. It gave you the sensation of flying. Usually the game worked when you had to move fast, but occasionally there'd be certain spots where it just didn't want to let you do what you were doing everywhere else. There was one point where you had to run along a wall, and for whatever reason 9/10 times that wall didn't let you run along it. Since falling to your death set you back 2 minutes, it was annoying to have to do it over and over again, particularly since there were some hard fights right after that took me a few tries to make it by.
There were also times in the game where you didn't have to go fast. Nobody was chasing you, but you needed to climb up a building or through an overly complicated sewer system or something. Here the game really got frustrating. Fine movement controls didn't work well for things like when you needed to get right up to the edge of something before jumping, so half the time you just walked right off the edge. Oh well. Despite the frustrating sections here and there, by and large the running mechanic did what it was supposed to and kept it fun.
There wasn't much to the music, but the sounds did a good job of letting you know when people were after you, and also of letting you know that you had hit the rooftop, or caught the pipe you jumped for. Also, one of the best little additions to the game was what happened when you fell off the side of a building. Rather than just saying you die, the game kept going until your reached the ground. The ground starts coming closer and closer, faster and faster. You start flailing. Things get a little blurry. The sound ramps up from light wind to faster and faster wind around your ears. The splat/crunch at the bottom was especially well done, and everything cuts out. I wasn't entirely expecting it the first time it happened, and it was kind of terrifying.
All in all this was a fun little distraction. At only about 10 hours to play through the story, it was a quick easy playthrough. Once you complete the story there's a number of time trials and speed runs and things like that that you could spend some time with, but after trying a few of them I decided to move on. Perhaps at some point I'll come back to it and try a few more.
Overall Rating - B
Quick Summary: Mirror's Edge is a free running game. In a distopian future where the police state controls everything. "runners" (who basically do parkour over the tops of buildings) carry people's secrets for a little cash. But some shit goes down and suddenly everyone is coming after you. You spend the rest of the game running - away from cops, towards answers, and really just all over the place.
Gameplay: B
Graphics: A
Story: D
Music/Sound: C+
Replay: B
Multiplayer: N/A
Depth: Low
Playtime: 10 hours
I heard a lot about this game when it first came out which was early in the PS3 days. It was graphically stunning, and one of the first actual free running games that had ever been made, so the idea was new (it's since been copied quite a bit). It was fun to get in and play something that I heard about a few years ago.
While the graphics can't be considered quite as state of the art anymore, they still look great, and really add to the feel of running through a futuristic city. The story was garbage, really just an excuse for you to be going everywhere you are at the speeds you are, but the cut-scenes between the 11 levels go to a sort of cartoony/anime style graphics that were fun. I think they did this because the cut-scenes have a lot more on the people/characters that you never get a good look at while you're playing, so it was an easy way to give them life without having to high definition detail them.
Now onto the gameplay, which is really what this game was about. When the game worked, it worked great. You would dash along a rooftop, slide under a vent, then vault over a fence while running along a wall to get to another rooftop. It gave you the sensation of flying. Usually the game worked when you had to move fast, but occasionally there'd be certain spots where it just didn't want to let you do what you were doing everywhere else. There was one point where you had to run along a wall, and for whatever reason 9/10 times that wall didn't let you run along it. Since falling to your death set you back 2 minutes, it was annoying to have to do it over and over again, particularly since there were some hard fights right after that took me a few tries to make it by.
There were also times in the game where you didn't have to go fast. Nobody was chasing you, but you needed to climb up a building or through an overly complicated sewer system or something. Here the game really got frustrating. Fine movement controls didn't work well for things like when you needed to get right up to the edge of something before jumping, so half the time you just walked right off the edge. Oh well. Despite the frustrating sections here and there, by and large the running mechanic did what it was supposed to and kept it fun.
There wasn't much to the music, but the sounds did a good job of letting you know when people were after you, and also of letting you know that you had hit the rooftop, or caught the pipe you jumped for. Also, one of the best little additions to the game was what happened when you fell off the side of a building. Rather than just saying you die, the game kept going until your reached the ground. The ground starts coming closer and closer, faster and faster. You start flailing. Things get a little blurry. The sound ramps up from light wind to faster and faster wind around your ears. The splat/crunch at the bottom was especially well done, and everything cuts out. I wasn't entirely expecting it the first time it happened, and it was kind of terrifying.
All in all this was a fun little distraction. At only about 10 hours to play through the story, it was a quick easy playthrough. Once you complete the story there's a number of time trials and speed runs and things like that that you could spend some time with, but after trying a few of them I decided to move on. Perhaps at some point I'll come back to it and try a few more.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Battleship Review
Quick Summary - Aliens come to earth. They fight some warships.
Quick Review - Meh
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1440129/
I was excited for battleship, even if nobody else was. Aliens show up, and trap some battleships in a forcefield, and create a grid, and then they have good old fashioned blind naval warfare to duke it out. And from the makers of GI Joe!
I must say, I was disappointed. About an hour into it I was thinking holy crap this is awful. The initial setup was overly long and even more overly pointless. The characters weren't particularly likable, and every decision they made was just obviously wrong. And aside from the aliens and the ridiculous premise, the basic premise of things like it being a navy ship and how that ship was run didn't make any sense and were poorly done. The obnoxious absurdity outweighed the enjoyable silliness, and the result was not good.
After about an hour though it picked up a little bit, and the scales tipped back towards silliness. We got into them playing live action battleship, and we start finding out some more about the aliens. By the end I had at least come to terms with how awful it was going to be and was ready to enjoy some explosions and alien ass kicking. Suffice it to say in that in that, I was not disappointed.
Quick Review - Meh
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1440129/
I was excited for battleship, even if nobody else was. Aliens show up, and trap some battleships in a forcefield, and create a grid, and then they have good old fashioned blind naval warfare to duke it out. And from the makers of GI Joe!
I must say, I was disappointed. About an hour into it I was thinking holy crap this is awful. The initial setup was overly long and even more overly pointless. The characters weren't particularly likable, and every decision they made was just obviously wrong. And aside from the aliens and the ridiculous premise, the basic premise of things like it being a navy ship and how that ship was run didn't make any sense and were poorly done. The obnoxious absurdity outweighed the enjoyable silliness, and the result was not good.
After about an hour though it picked up a little bit, and the scales tipped back towards silliness. We got into them playing live action battleship, and we start finding out some more about the aliens. By the end I had at least come to terms with how awful it was going to be and was ready to enjoy some explosions and alien ass kicking. Suffice it to say in that in that, I was not disappointed.
Monday, May 21, 2012
The Accotink/Cross County Connector Trail
The Accotink trail is the most interesting trail I've written on yet, and is actually becoming one of my favorites. The trail itself goes back and forth from being pavement, to concrete, to packed gravel, to loose gravel, to dirt, and for a very short stretch even runs through a loose, sandy beach. The trail crosses the Accotink Creek a few times, and for two of the crossings you pretty much have to ford the river, which is interesting. There's a couple points where mountain bike trails branch off from the main trail and into the woods, with much rougher paths. I assume because of the varied terrain, the trail is a lot less crowded than the W&OD or Mount Vernon trail, and while there are occasionally other bikers, most of the people who are on the trail are runners/walkers. In addition to being much less crowded, the trail runs through pretty much entirely park and thick forest, which means most of the trail is shady, another big plus as it gets warmer.
The trail starts about two miles south of house. It runs east for a little bit until it hits the beltway, and then cuts south down to Lake Accotink. Theoretically some of that is the Cross County Connector (CCC) Trail which runs from the Occoquan river in the southern corner of Fairfax up to the Potomac in the northern corner. North of our house though, the CCC is really just a walking/hiking path, and you can't easily bike it (I tried once and ended up walking my bike out of the woods). Past Lake Accotink the CCC trail continues and is bikeable, although I've never quite made it to the end. 4-5 miles after the lake, the trail goes through streets and winds its way over a couple highways. I've gotten lost there the few times I've been down that far, each time making it a little further than the last. The last time I went I finally found where the trail is supposed to go, but by the time I did I needed to turn back. I think if I did make it to the end it would be about 20 miles from my house - a perfect weekend round trip ride.
Google Maps
The trail starts about two miles south of house. It runs east for a little bit until it hits the beltway, and then cuts south down to Lake Accotink. Theoretically some of that is the Cross County Connector (CCC) Trail which runs from the Occoquan river in the southern corner of Fairfax up to the Potomac in the northern corner. North of our house though, the CCC is really just a walking/hiking path, and you can't easily bike it (I tried once and ended up walking my bike out of the woods). Past Lake Accotink the CCC trail continues and is bikeable, although I've never quite made it to the end. 4-5 miles after the lake, the trail goes through streets and winds its way over a couple highways. I've gotten lost there the few times I've been down that far, each time making it a little further than the last. The last time I went I finally found where the trail is supposed to go, but by the time I did I needed to turn back. I think if I did make it to the end it would be about 20 miles from my house - a perfect weekend round trip ride.
Google Maps
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Rides this Week - 4/19/2012
As previously mentioned, Bike DC was Sunday, so that was pretty awesome. I also managed to bike to work both Thursday and Friday. Friday was national bike to work day, so I ended up with a free T-shirt for that one along with a free bagel.
Sunday 5/13 - 53 miles - Bike to work day
Thursday 5/17 - 16 miles - To work
Thursday 5/17 - 18 miles - From work via Custis
Friday 5/18 - 16 miles - To work
Friday 5/18 - 16 miles - From work
High School Playoffs continue this week (I had three days of three-man umpiring this week, although 2 of them were 1 game, perhaps more on that later), so while my schedule is wide open right now, I'm likely to end up with a few games as the playoff picture becomes clear. So we'll see how much I get in next week.
Sunday 5/13 - 53 miles - Bike to work day
Thursday 5/17 - 16 miles - To work
Thursday 5/17 - 18 miles - From work via Custis
Friday 5/18 - 16 miles - To work
Friday 5/18 - 16 miles - From work
High School Playoffs continue this week (I had three days of three-man umpiring this week, although 2 of them were 1 game, perhaps more on that later), so while my schedule is wide open right now, I'm likely to end up with a few games as the playoff picture becomes clear. So we'll see how much I get in next week.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Let the Bullets Fly Review
Quick Summary - Robin Hood like bandits in 1920s China ambush a new governor who has just bought his position and is on his way to his new province for the first time. Since nobody knows who the new governor is, the head of the bandits decides to take the governor's spot. He doesn't play by the normal rules though, and pretty soon runs into trouble with the local rich drug lord who actually runs things. Pretty soon we have a Robin-Hood style story where the benevolent governor is trying to return the people's wealth to the people. Guns are involved.
Quick Review - Amusing but dissapointing.
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1533117/
Quick Review - Amusing but dissapointing.
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1533117/
After seeing the previews, recognizing a few of the cast, and hearing it was the highest grossing film in China, I was pretty excited for this one. I was expecting a Smokin Aces style chaotic action/thriller with lots of gunplay and some comedy mixed in. Instead it was more of a Kung Fu Hustle type of comedy with a little bit of action that wasn't all that thrilling. And as with most Chinese movies, some of the comedy gets lost in translation. Oh well. It wasn't all bad, and I still enjoyed it on some level, but after having such high hopes it was definitely a letdown.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Bike DC
Bike DC yesterday was a big success. The weather was perfect (low 70s and sunny), and the biking was good. A little bit of miscommunication meant we never met up with Erin's other friend who was doing it, but that's ok.
We metro-ed down to the starting point. The ride was supposed to start from 7:00-7:30, but since the first train doesn't leave until 7:00 on weekends we didn't get going until about 7:45. We had to book it a little since at some point they were going to unclose roads, but there were lots of other people who had done what we did and started a little late, so we weren't in any real danger. There was also a shorter "family ride" that started at 7:45, so we kind of got stuck with them right at the beginning, but we went around a lot of them and pretty soon they split off for the easier path.
The route started off in front of the Capitol, and took us up Pennsylvania avenue in front of the Whitehouse. From there we went up the Rock Creek Parkway, which winds along the creek into Northwest DC. We turned around right about where you get off for the National Zoo. Coming back we wound along roads past the Kennedy Center to the Roosevelt Bridge across the Potomac into Arlington.
From there we were directed up the George Washington Parkway which runs along the Potomac from Alexandria through the entirety of Arlington and up to where the Beltway crosses the Potomac in the North. There was a big hill we had to work our way up as the parkway gets higher and higher above the river leading up to Great Falls. Shortly after that crested we turned back and flew back down the hill. Next we went up some side roads to cross Rt 50, and made a spiraling loop around the Iwo Jima memorial. Then we cruised along the edge of Arlington Cemetary past the pentagon, to a rest stop that was at the Air Force Memorial. From there we doubled back to the Roosevelt bridge to cross to the finish line at McPherson Square. The whole thing reminded me a little of the N64 racing game "Crusin USA" where you race through famous US cities and fly by all the landmarks (which in the game are not at all correctly geographically placed).
It was pretty crowded the whole way, which meant we couldn't go quite as fast as we might have liked at times, but it didn't hold us back too much. And it was nice to not have to worry about traffic lights or cars. If we'd gotten an earlier start we might have been better off since we could have avoided the family riders, but oh well. You could definitely tell where the family routes were and weren't since the number of kids increased substantially. Most of the time though we were on at least 2 lanes of road or more that we had to ourselves, but sometimes that included both directions of bikers.
Still, as a one time (or perhaps once a year thing) it was worth the $40. I even forked over the extra 15 for a tshirt. It was cool to see how many people there were out there too (I don't know actual numbers, but at least in the 1000s, if not around 10,000). Drinks and bananas and chips at the finish line were nice too. There were two intermediate rest stops we didn't partake of, and I had brought a backpack with gatorade, a water bottle, some fruit, and some peanuts.
On our way up the GW parkway Erin saw the only crash of the day we witnessed as a few people wiped out. At the very end a little kid ate it too, but that hardly counts. We also passed a few people dragging boom box playing recordings of spin workouts which was amusing. There were lots of weird bikes around including a good number of Tandems, both of the two person and three person varieties), as well as some weird bikes with boxes on the front that I had never seen before. They were like wagons but a rider sat in the back and pedalled. They were weird. About 100 yards from the finish line, Erin shouted I'll race you and took off, cutting me off behind a crowd of kids. Since she thought I was stuck she slowed down though, which I capitalized on after dropping back to take the wide way around, and I zipped past her right at the end.
From the end of the ride Erin and I biked home. We went down to the Mall, then over past the Lincoln Memorial across the Memorial bridge. We were able to hop on the Mount Vernon trail from there and then back up the W+OD like I commute for work. Since Erin wanted to get to 55 miles for the day, we added the Bluemont loop in and went a little further into Vienna than we needed to before heading home. In total we went 53 miles, and including stops it was just over 5 hours. We capped it off with a mothers day BBQ that included ribs and lamburgers. All in all, not a bad day.
We metro-ed down to the starting point. The ride was supposed to start from 7:00-7:30, but since the first train doesn't leave until 7:00 on weekends we didn't get going until about 7:45. We had to book it a little since at some point they were going to unclose roads, but there were lots of other people who had done what we did and started a little late, so we weren't in any real danger. There was also a shorter "family ride" that started at 7:45, so we kind of got stuck with them right at the beginning, but we went around a lot of them and pretty soon they split off for the easier path.
The route started off in front of the Capitol, and took us up Pennsylvania avenue in front of the Whitehouse. From there we went up the Rock Creek Parkway, which winds along the creek into Northwest DC. We turned around right about where you get off for the National Zoo. Coming back we wound along roads past the Kennedy Center to the Roosevelt Bridge across the Potomac into Arlington.
From there we were directed up the George Washington Parkway which runs along the Potomac from Alexandria through the entirety of Arlington and up to where the Beltway crosses the Potomac in the North. There was a big hill we had to work our way up as the parkway gets higher and higher above the river leading up to Great Falls. Shortly after that crested we turned back and flew back down the hill. Next we went up some side roads to cross Rt 50, and made a spiraling loop around the Iwo Jima memorial. Then we cruised along the edge of Arlington Cemetary past the pentagon, to a rest stop that was at the Air Force Memorial. From there we doubled back to the Roosevelt bridge to cross to the finish line at McPherson Square. The whole thing reminded me a little of the N64 racing game "Crusin USA" where you race through famous US cities and fly by all the landmarks (which in the game are not at all correctly geographically placed).
It was pretty crowded the whole way, which meant we couldn't go quite as fast as we might have liked at times, but it didn't hold us back too much. And it was nice to not have to worry about traffic lights or cars. If we'd gotten an earlier start we might have been better off since we could have avoided the family riders, but oh well. You could definitely tell where the family routes were and weren't since the number of kids increased substantially. Most of the time though we were on at least 2 lanes of road or more that we had to ourselves, but sometimes that included both directions of bikers.
Still, as a one time (or perhaps once a year thing) it was worth the $40. I even forked over the extra 15 for a tshirt. It was cool to see how many people there were out there too (I don't know actual numbers, but at least in the 1000s, if not around 10,000). Drinks and bananas and chips at the finish line were nice too. There were two intermediate rest stops we didn't partake of, and I had brought a backpack with gatorade, a water bottle, some fruit, and some peanuts.
On our way up the GW parkway Erin saw the only crash of the day we witnessed as a few people wiped out. At the very end a little kid ate it too, but that hardly counts. We also passed a few people dragging boom box playing recordings of spin workouts which was amusing. There were lots of weird bikes around including a good number of Tandems, both of the two person and three person varieties), as well as some weird bikes with boxes on the front that I had never seen before. They were like wagons but a rider sat in the back and pedalled. They were weird. About 100 yards from the finish line, Erin shouted I'll race you and took off, cutting me off behind a crowd of kids. Since she thought I was stuck she slowed down though, which I capitalized on after dropping back to take the wide way around, and I zipped past her right at the end.
From the end of the ride Erin and I biked home. We went down to the Mall, then over past the Lincoln Memorial across the Memorial bridge. We were able to hop on the Mount Vernon trail from there and then back up the W+OD like I commute for work. Since Erin wanted to get to 55 miles for the day, we added the Bluemont loop in and went a little further into Vienna than we needed to before heading home. In total we went 53 miles, and including stops it was just over 5 hours. We capped it off with a mothers day BBQ that included ribs and lamburgers. All in all, not a bad day.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Rides this week 5/12/2012
Rain and baseball have been on opposite days, so I didn't get any rides in until today. Strangely enough I've only had baseball rainouts on one day this year though.
Saturday 5/12 - 22 miles - W&OD to Herndon and back with Erin!
Tomorrow is bike DC day. I think the target is 55 miles. That may require biking past home and then back, so we'll see how far we end up going.
Saturday 5/12 - 22 miles - W&OD to Herndon and back with Erin!
Tomorrow is bike DC day. I think the target is 55 miles. That may require biking past home and then back, so we'll see how far we end up going.
Monday, May 7, 2012
Fairfax County Parkway Trail
The Fairfax County Parkway is basically DC's second beltway in Virginia, running from Rt 7 in Herndon down I95 in Lorton, about 10 miles out from the real beltway. The FCP trail mostly runs along it but there are a few breaks. The trail runs for 30 miles, and was paved originally although it is not well maintained so you need to watch out for roots/pot holes. It's not all that nice a ride either, since even though it's called a "parkway" it's basically just a highway, and for the most part the trail is right alongside the road, not behind a barrier or even through a few trees.
Until recently, I thought the trail only ran from I66 and North, because the trail splits from the parkway there and you need to take the trail along side roads to get back to the trail on the other side. Apparently it ends abruptly again down in Burke and you're forced onto the actual roads to get around the mile break. I've never ridden the southern section, but its on my list of rides to do. This weekend was actually the first time I'd made it to the Northern end.
The very end in the South meets up with the Accotink trail, and the trail crosses the W&OD in Reston (the furthest North I've been). It's about 7 miles from my house to the trail, but the roads between the two are very bikable. I've made the loop with the W&OD and the FCP trail a couple times. I may try the loop with the Accotink at some point too.
Google Maps
Until recently, I thought the trail only ran from I66 and North, because the trail splits from the parkway there and you need to take the trail along side roads to get back to the trail on the other side. Apparently it ends abruptly again down in Burke and you're forced onto the actual roads to get around the mile break. I've never ridden the southern section, but its on my list of rides to do. This weekend was actually the first time I'd made it to the Northern end.
The very end in the South meets up with the Accotink trail, and the trail crosses the W&OD in Reston (the furthest North I've been). It's about 7 miles from my house to the trail, but the roads between the two are very bikable. I've made the loop with the W&OD and the FCP trail a couple times. I may try the loop with the Accotink at some point too.
Google Maps
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Rides this Week - 5/5/12
42 miles on Sunday in 3:15. Not bad at all. Then 4 days of baseball. And today was the first time I've ever made it to the end of the Fairfax County Parkway Trail.
Sunday 4/29 - 42 miles - Home to W&OD MM 35. Back to Reston (to get my car)
Friday 5/4 - 16 miles - To work
Friday 5/4 - 16 miles - From work
Saturday 5/5 - 32 miles - Home to Farifax County Parkway Trail to North end, return on W&OD
Jen will be here tomorrow, plus I have a game, so probably no ride tomorrow. I'm hoping to ride to work on Wednesday. Next weekend is Bike DC. My sister's coming to town and we're going to do the ride, then bike home. So that should be fun.
Sunday 4/29 - 42 miles - Home to W&OD MM 35. Back to Reston (to get my car)
Friday 5/4 - 16 miles - To work
Friday 5/4 - 16 miles - From work
Saturday 5/5 - 32 miles - Home to Farifax County Parkway Trail to North end, return on W&OD
Jen will be here tomorrow, plus I have a game, so probably no ride tomorrow. I'm hoping to ride to work on Wednesday. Next weekend is Bike DC. My sister's coming to town and we're going to do the ride, then bike home. So that should be fun.
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Fucking 800 numbers
Does anyone have an easy way to record phone calls? Because I am sick and fucking tired of calling 800 numbers 3 different times and talking to 6 different people who give me 9 different stories, and having absolutely nothing except my word (which they don't believe) to say that this is what someone else just told me, and therefore please do this. It's bullshit. And they think if they give you the runaround long enough you'll give up. And every time you ask a question they put you on hold for 20 minutes.
Verizon is by far the worst offender, (I can't tell you how much of a pain in the ass it was to move because they screwed things up again and again and again) but it's Bank of America who's pissed me off today. A little while back I called them about a mistaken late fee on my April mortgage payment. The lady said pay it, we'll waive it, and it will get deducted from next month's payment. This didn't seem like a great idea, but after confirming it a few times very specifically I went ahead and did it. When it didn't get deducted this month, I called back today, and they tell me they waived a late fee for May, you can pay however late you want this month. I told them they were idiots, it was for last month, and you need to refund me what I payed, and they say well now that you've payed it we can't refund it, but if you had told us at the time we could have waived it for April right then on the phone.
I had a name (Kelly) and extension (4064) for the lady I talked to the first time, but there was never an opportunity to enter an extension, and when I tried to say can I talk to her again they said no, you're auto assigned. So why the hell did she give me that info and tell me to call her back to verify it got waived?
In the end I bitched enough that they got me to the right person and it was taken care of, so that's something. And it only took about 50 minutes. Verizon I would probably still be on the phone tomorrow trying to get it sorted out.
I just feel like if I could record the calls easily I could confirm that I wasn't making this stuff (which is a possibility) and plus they would make for great blog posts or news stories or something about how terrible this entire process is.
Ok, I'm done venting.
Verizon is by far the worst offender, (I can't tell you how much of a pain in the ass it was to move because they screwed things up again and again and again) but it's Bank of America who's pissed me off today. A little while back I called them about a mistaken late fee on my April mortgage payment. The lady said pay it, we'll waive it, and it will get deducted from next month's payment. This didn't seem like a great idea, but after confirming it a few times very specifically I went ahead and did it. When it didn't get deducted this month, I called back today, and they tell me they waived a late fee for May, you can pay however late you want this month. I told them they were idiots, it was for last month, and you need to refund me what I payed, and they say well now that you've payed it we can't refund it, but if you had told us at the time we could have waived it for April right then on the phone.
I had a name (Kelly) and extension (4064) for the lady I talked to the first time, but there was never an opportunity to enter an extension, and when I tried to say can I talk to her again they said no, you're auto assigned. So why the hell did she give me that info and tell me to call her back to verify it got waived?
In the end I bitched enough that they got me to the right person and it was taken care of, so that's something. And it only took about 50 minutes. Verizon I would probably still be on the phone tomorrow trying to get it sorted out.
I just feel like if I could record the calls easily I could confirm that I wasn't making this stuff (which is a possibility) and plus they would make for great blog posts or news stories or something about how terrible this entire process is.
Ok, I'm done venting.
Video Game Reviews
I finished up Mirror's Edge last week, so I think I'm going to make that my first VG review. To start thinking about how I wanted to write a review, I looked over a few different review sites and decided that sites that gave ratings in individual categories were the most useful. It's tough to split things out though because games come in such completely different types/styles. How do you compare mario to Starcraft? Halo to Warioware? In many cases, the only thing two video games will have in common is that it shows up on your TV.
In thinking through what was important, I decided to split my rating into 6 categories, so when I review a game I'll give an overall rating, along with a rating in each of the 6. Also, since numeric ratings of subjective things are entirely too misleading, I'll be using an A through F scale (with no E). Haven't decided on whether I'll use +/-s to go with them. My 6 categories are -
Gameplay
Graphics
Story
Music/Sound
Replay
Multiplayer
The overall score will be independent of any of the category scores as opposed to an average or anything like that, since there can be great games that get bad scores in individual categories. In addition, depending on the game, I will have a few other things that I won't rate A-F, but will have a quick summary of, such as depth, play time, or unlockables. These are things that a grade doesn't make sense for but are things to knowing what type of game it is.
Here's what each category will rate -
Gameplay: Gameplay covers things like controls, game mechanics, game speed, and difficulty/learning curve. In my opinion, by far the most important category. A game with poor gameplay is not likely to score high, even with A's in every other category. Gameplay is what makes games fun.
Graphics: Pretty obvious here. Realistic graphics are usually a plus, but games with artistic styles (even if 2d) can score well too. Detail is very important here, and it will depend a lot on what works best with the game/what the designers were going for. Graphics are what make a game engrossing and help you forget that you're not in whatever world you're playing in.
Story: A good video game story has a lot of the same qualities as a good book or movie. The story rating will cover the plot, character development, originality, and engagment. The story is what pulls you in and keeps you playing until the end.
Music/Sound: The games with the best music/sound are games where you don't even notice it. But terrible voice acting or poorly placed music can really detract from a game. While probably the least important category, music and sound can be what make a good game great. Music is what builds the atmosphere and pulls in your emotion.
Replay: As someone who still has every game I've ever owned (less some of what's been stolen/destroyed, and I've even recovered many of those), it's important to me for a game to be worth playing twice. Or three times. Or hundreds of times. I think it's also telling if by the end of a game you never want to play it again. Replay value is what keeps you coming back again and again.
Multiplayer: Here I'm just rating a game based on its overall multiplayer experience, including things like competition level, speed/lag, and ease of getting in/out of games. Some games are made for multiplayer, others just tack it on. Games that are single player will get an N/A here, and that's not a bad thing either. A good multiplayer is what keeps a game fresh.
In thinking through what was important, I decided to split my rating into 6 categories, so when I review a game I'll give an overall rating, along with a rating in each of the 6. Also, since numeric ratings of subjective things are entirely too misleading, I'll be using an A through F scale (with no E). Haven't decided on whether I'll use +/-s to go with them. My 6 categories are -
Gameplay
Graphics
Story
Music/Sound
Replay
Multiplayer
The overall score will be independent of any of the category scores as opposed to an average or anything like that, since there can be great games that get bad scores in individual categories. In addition, depending on the game, I will have a few other things that I won't rate A-F, but will have a quick summary of, such as depth, play time, or unlockables. These are things that a grade doesn't make sense for but are things to knowing what type of game it is.
Here's what each category will rate -
Gameplay: Gameplay covers things like controls, game mechanics, game speed, and difficulty/learning curve. In my opinion, by far the most important category. A game with poor gameplay is not likely to score high, even with A's in every other category. Gameplay is what makes games fun.
Graphics: Pretty obvious here. Realistic graphics are usually a plus, but games with artistic styles (even if 2d) can score well too. Detail is very important here, and it will depend a lot on what works best with the game/what the designers were going for. Graphics are what make a game engrossing and help you forget that you're not in whatever world you're playing in.
Story: A good video game story has a lot of the same qualities as a good book or movie. The story rating will cover the plot, character development, originality, and engagment. The story is what pulls you in and keeps you playing until the end.
Music/Sound: The games with the best music/sound are games where you don't even notice it. But terrible voice acting or poorly placed music can really detract from a game. While probably the least important category, music and sound can be what make a good game great. Music is what builds the atmosphere and pulls in your emotion.
Replay: As someone who still has every game I've ever owned (less some of what's been stolen/destroyed, and I've even recovered many of those), it's important to me for a game to be worth playing twice. Or three times. Or hundreds of times. I think it's also telling if by the end of a game you never want to play it again. Replay value is what keeps you coming back again and again.
Multiplayer: Here I'm just rating a game based on its overall multiplayer experience, including things like competition level, speed/lag, and ease of getting in/out of games. Some games are made for multiplayer, others just tack it on. Games that are single player will get an N/A here, and that's not a bad thing either. A good multiplayer is what keeps a game fresh.
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