Yellowstone

Note: this blog has been migrated to Medium, with the articles here available to preserve permalinks Please see this post at https://medium.com/@ianrbuck/yellowstone-38d83e77a497

I have wanted to go to Yellowstone National Park for at least 15 years. In my mind as a child, Yellowstone represented the ultimate camping experience. Two summers ago my family tried to go, but we only made it to Mount Rushmore before our van made it clear that it was not going to make it over the Rocky Mountains.

This year, with a shiny new van, we made it.

Ironically before we even left Minnesota we blew out a tire.

This threw off our plans to go see Devil's Tower on our way to Yellowstone, but we vowed to stop there on our way home.
+scott kopp graciously let me borrow his DSLR camera, so I took lots of pictures. The full album is here, but a lot of the pictures will be in this post as well.

Any time that you go on a road trip out west, your first view of mountains up close is always the coolest thing you have ever seen. +Amy Buck and +Jonas Buck were both pretty terrified during that first mountain road.

We went to the south area of Yellowstone first and camped near Lewis Lake. It was really chilly, especially since we were used to the summer heat. +Caleb Buck, Jonas, and I huddled in our tent and played Magic the Gathering for most of the evening. I froze my butt off that night because I took my jeans off.

The next morning mom took the girls to go see some hot springs and work on earning the Junior Ranger badge while the guys went for an eleven mile hike. +Eric Buck and Caleb were wearing hiking packs to train for Philmont later this summer. Almost halfway through the hike I remembered that my tablet could record our route for me, so I turned it on. Here are the stats and a link to the map:

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=203456725916645843981.0004dfdc2350e7a34b8e6

Total distance: 9.53 km (5.9 mi)
Total time: 2:28:46
Moving time: 1:58:11
Average speed: 3.85 km/h (2.4 mi/h)
Average moving speed: 4.84 km/h (3.0 mi/h)
Max speed: 8.91 km/h (5.5 mi/h)
Max elevation: 2430 m (7974 ft)
Min elevation: 2366 m (7764 ft)
Elevation gain: 150 m (493 ft)

That afternoon the girls took us to see the hot springs, which was really cool. Yellowstone has a lot of crazy geological magic going on, and Jonas really enjoyed reading through the little pamphlets explaining exactly what was going on.

We also went to see Old Faithful, and I saw a few people there with cameras that gave me serious lens envy. I took a bunch of pictures, most of which turned out well.

The next day we got caught in a parking lot while a herd of bison ambled through, which was really cool. Most of them looked like they were in the middle of shedding their winter coats (they were rubbing themselves against a lot of trees) and there were quite a few calves.

We also saw some elk.

Yellowstone also has a "Grand Canyon" of its own, looking like something straight out of a painting. And there was a guy there who was painting it.

Then it was time to head up to Belgrade, Montana to visit mom's high school friend Karen. I got to drive because mom and dad were both exhausted from the last few days. Of course, it wasn't until we got there that I remembered that I had left my driver's license at home.

The Hoffmans train horses, so Tanushri and Subashri helped feed them and got to ride them.

Caleb and I ended up with the job of leading the horses because we're young and spry and can run as fast as the girls want the horses to go. It's a good thing that the horses weren't stubborn as the burros I raced in Philmont.

Caleb also got in on the horse riding action, and he almost ran into a wall. It was hilarious.

They also groomed the horses a bit and we got to watch Mike putting on new horseshoes.

We were also introduced to such classy pastimes as cribbage and golf. Caleb and I are pretty good at cribbage, but I don't think any of us can golf.

It rained for a while during dinner (fantastic smoked ribs!) and we got to see a double rainbow. What could it mean??

There was a full moon out that night, and the view of Belgrade was awesome, so I experimented with some long-exposure shots of the city and mountains surrounding the valley.

The exposure times range from 4 to 10 seconds, and they pick up a lot of detail that I myself couldn't see. I particularly like what happens when you use Picasa's automatic color corrector on some of the pictures:

The next day we left Tanushri and Subashri with Karen while the rest of us went on a hike to Lava Lake. I once again recorded our route.

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=203456725916645843981.0004e08b8d0ddd6897ace

Total distance: 10.17 km (6.3 mi)
Total time: 3:11:35
Moving time: 2:21:20
Average speed: 3.18 km/h (2.0 mi/h)
Average moving speed: 4.32 km/h (2.7 mi/h)
Max speed: 5.85 km/h (3.6 mi/h)
Max elevation: 2166 m (7106 ft)
Min elevation: 1653 m (5423 ft)
Elevation gain: 548 m (1798 ft)
The hike was pretty much all uphill on the way to the lake. It also seemed to be a pretty popular route among the locals because we saw plenty of people who were there with their dog or their family or their girlfriend, out for a nice picnic at the lake.

I wanted to test out Google+'s new "auto-awesome" features, so I made sure to take some panoramic shots. I think it did an excellent job stitching them together.

Then it was time to check out the north part of Yellowstone. While the rest of the family went to find a camp site, dad, Caleb, and I hiked over Mt Washburn. Because of the elevation change on that hike, we were expecting it to be very challenging. However, the path was more of a gravel road the whole way, so it was actually a lot easier than Lava Lake.

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=203456725916645843981.0004e08b9347ddf833393

Total distance: 10.43 km (6.5 mi)
Total time: 2:45:01
Moving time: 2:34:04
Average speed: 3.79 km/h (2.4 mi/h)
Average moving speed: 4.06 km/h (2.5 mi/h)
Max speed: 5.65 km/h (3.5 mi/h)
Max elevation: 3116 m (10224 ft)
Min elevation: 2656 m (8713 ft)
Elevation gain: 452 m (1483 ft)

At the top was a fire lookout station with a nice room with paintings that labeled what you were looking at off in the distance. Unfortunately, the building prevented me from taking a full 360 degree panorama. But what can you do?

We camped near Mammoth Hot Springs, which is a huge tourist area near the north entrance to the park. We went to a gift shop and bought some shirts and got some ice cream. That was nice considering we had been camping for a while.
On our way out of the park we took a picture by the sign and the original arch that was built for the park.

On the way home mom and dad decided to stop at Little Big Horn National Monument. To our surprise, it was free admittance and there were tons of people there. Turns out we showed up on the anniversary of the battle (June 25). I think that is the craziest coincidence I have ever experienced in my life. There were riders and runners from the Cherokee and Souix nations celebrating with a parade, and it was pretty cool.

We walked around to all of the monuments and grave markers, which was sobering. The markers were placed where the men fell, so of course there is a large cluster at the site of the last stand.

Tanushri and Subashri once again did the Junior Ranger program. The ranger who swore them in added a line to the oath about the Little Bighorn Monument being the coolest national park in the country.

By evening we made it to Devil's Tower, which is so far out of the way that I guarantee you wouldn't find it unless you knew where it was. While we were hiking up to it we saw a few black widow spiders and a rattlesnake that Tanushri startled. Luckily everyone stayed calm and it went down a hole. So that was officially the deadliest hike I have ever been on.

Tanushri and Subashri didn't want to hike all the way back to take down camp, so I stayed with them at the visitor center and helped them with the Junior Ranger book while the rest of the family went back. The funny thing is that I learned more about Devil's tower from the Junior Ranger book than I did from the informational signs on the path around the tower. For example, most native cultures from the area called it "Bear Lodge" or something similar, which I think sounds way cooler than "Devil's Tower".

The ranger who gave them their badges told me he liked my shirt, and I'm not sure if that means that he went to Morris and lived in Gay Hall or if he is gay. Come to think of it, he had really good handwriting (not to proliferate stereotypes or anything.)

On our way around the tower we saw a couple of climbers making their way up it, as well as the stake ladder used by the first two people to make it to the top back in the late 19th century.

I of course recorded our trek.

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=203456725916645843981.0004e08b966f4b6e5377f

Total distance: 5.48 km (3.4 mi)
Total time: 2:00:03
Moving time: 1:26:40
Average speed: 2.74 km/h (1.7 mi/h)
Average moving speed: 3.79 km/h (2.4 mi/h)
Max speed: 5.96 km/h (3.7 mi/h)
Max elevation: 1322 m (4339 ft)
Min elevation: 1159 m (3803 ft)
Elevation gain: 204 m (668 ft)

For our last night we splurged and stayed at a KOA. I know, it's not real camping. Seriously, they had a pool and wifi. We weren't complaining.

Over the course of the car rides I listened to a ton of podcasts and read Star Wars: Scoundrels and its companion novella Winner Lose All both by Timothy Zahn. I'm sure I'll be telling you all about them soon enough.

Kentucky Route Zero Acts I & II Review

Note: this blog has been migrated to Medium, with the articles here available to preserve permalinks Please see this post at https://medium.com/@ianrbuck/kentucky-route-zero-acts-i-ii-review-fbb4552dc7c1

Kentucky Route Zero is unlike any game I have played before, and so it is pretty hard to explain in terms of genres we are used to. It is definitely a point-and-click game, but it has very few puzzles and it never uses the pre-rendered static backgrounds that have been common in the genre since the 90s. The visual style is simple, but it is a sight to behold. It is amazing what the artist was able to do with flat shapes; shadows and contrast are used heavily to give the scenes depth, and the game actually looks gorgeous in 3D as well.

Some of the scenes utilize angles very creatively to hide objects from you until you have done a bit of exploring. Of course this only works because the game has complete control of the camera the whole time.

The plot centers around a truck driver named Conway who works for an antique shop. He is trying to get to Dogwood Lane in order to make a delivery, but of course that turns out to be much more difficult than he originally anticipated. The gas station attendant that you meet at the beginning of the game tells Conway that he is going to have to take "the zero" and you spend the first act looking for Kentucky Route Zero.

Everyone who gives you directions is pretty cryptic, and the landmarks they navigate by border on the surreal. Once you're on the road, you have a lot of freedom and there are more odd places to visit that have nothing to do with the plot of the game, but they add to the atmosphere nicely.

I really liked the conversation system they use. You always get to choose what your character says, but I am pretty sure that the story line does not diverge based on that; the choices are purely to shape the character in your own mind.

The game sometimes switches the character that you are controlling. Most of the time you control Conway, but when they were introducing Shannon the scene played out from her perspective; Conway was simply marked as "Stranger." This gives the player the chance to decide what kind of person Shannon is before she joins the group.

If I have convinced you to buy the game, stop reading and go play it now. I'm going to start talking about Act II and I don't want to accidentally spoil anything.

At the end of Act I you find The Zero. There, I spoiled it. If you were hoping that finding The Zero was going to be Conway's big break, you'll be disappointed. The Zero is a strange circular highway underground with a very confusing navigational system. Depending on whether you are going clockwise or counterclockwise you will find different landmarks. If you turn around at a particular landmark, you will enter that landmark's layer and you will see different landmarks than before. It's easy to get lost, but don't worry- there is always a way out.

Act II continues the outside-the-box storytelling. In one scene the narration and conversations are being related through people who witnessed the scene to a museum staff who is trying to figure out what Conway and Shannon were up to. I found it refreshing and quite delightful.

Now seriously, if you are planning at all on playing this game stop reading now. I'm just going to straight-up tell you the craziest stuff that happens.

My favorite crazy moment was when I was trying to find a clerk who was supposedly on the fifth floor of an office building. I enter the elevator and see this:

"Third floor. (Bears)"

No, it couldn't possibly mean real bears. So I go to the third floor.

Oh. Bears. Bears that just sit there and watch me as I walk around.

And then there was the time when we all went riding around on a giant eagle to find a hidden forest far away from the highway system.

So that happened.

The forest scenes were absolutely gorgeous, and some of the images are downright mind boggling. Look carefully at the eagle and the car.

So yes, I would highly recommend this game to anyone who has been getting tired of the same old games over and over, anyone who enjoys the surreal or magical realism, anyone who is looking for something artsy. It is definitely worth the $25 it normally costs, and right now it is on sale on Steam. The first two acts are out now, and the other three will be releasing as they are finished.

As always check out all of my screenshots.

Dream: Paul Miller at E3

Note: this blog has been migrated to Medium, with the articles here available to preserve permalinks Please see this post at https://medium.com/@ianrbuck/dream-paul-miller-at-e3-b830c1e42d6b

This dream started out with some nonsense where my mother and I were driving around trying to find a mechanic to fix my car's lug nut problem (see Eight Bit #36). We found a guy who said that it was perfectly fine to drive it around as it was.

Suddenly we were at a convention that just so happened to be E3. I was having the time of my life, when suddenly I got a phone call (apparently I have a cell phone).

"Hello?"
"Hey Ian! How are you liking E3?"
"Uh, who is this?"
"It's your buddy +Paul Miller!"
"Oh, hi! Wait, how do you know I'm at E3? Are you here?"

I started scanning the crowd for him; somehow I knew that he was carrying a huge box. After seeing two other people with huge boxes I spotted him going around a corner.
"I have some free stuff for you if you can keep up with me," I heard him say on the phone. And the chase was on.
The rules (which of course I knew immediately) worked like this: Paul was running on a predetermined route, and he would pass by three stations. When he passed them, they would reveal several items that I could choose from. The longer it took me to get to the station, however, the worse the items available got. I was pretty far behind in the beginning, and by the time I got to the first station the only thing left was a laptop. I didn't even look twice at it. At the second station I found some headphones that I took for some reason (they were pretty terrible headphones). At the third station I had several choices that included several controllers and mice. I asked if any of them were wired controllers for my desktop, but the only one looked really uncomfortable to hold, so I took the mouse instead.

Paul and I went and hung out in what appeared to be a youth group lounge in the basement of some small-town church. +Sam Roth (a friend of mine in real life) was there as well, and we hung out and talked about whatever it is buddies talk about. Eventually Paul and Sam had to leave, and I sat there and looked around for a while. I realized that they had both left their bags behind. I took them both, opened the window, and left through it.

I woke up before I could find either of them. So Paul and Sam, my dream self has your stuff. Come claim it if you want it.

Google Music: All Access

Note: this blog has been migrated to Medium, with the articles here available to preserve permalinks Please see this post at https://medium.com/@ianrbuck/google-music-all-access-c763fda83a33

With Google I/O going on right now we've been hearing lots of exciting announcements from Google (we cover all of the important ones in a Nexus Special.) Most of the news wasn't too surprising, or it doesn't affect me. However, there was one really important announcement that I think might change my life: Google Music's All Access program.

Google Music has been around for a while, and up until now it has been a strictly "you have access to the music you uploaded or purchased from the Google Music store" business model. I love listening to music, and I have built up a modest collection of songs ripped from CDs my family owns and songs I bought from Google and Amazon.

In order to get your music from your computer into Google Music you have to download the Music Manager program. It can take music from iTunes, Windows Media Player (and you can choose specific playlists to upload), or from a specific folder.

Google Music is definitely the best way to get music onto an Android device; it is also pretty convenient that I can walk up to any computer with an internet connection, plug my headphones in, and listen to my music.

Now you might ask me at this point why I don't just use Pandora or Grooveshark or Spotify. The problem with those services is that they either have ads (which I absolutely despise) or you have a limited number of skips, or you aren't in complete control of the playlist you are listening to. I'm also pretty sure that they do not let you download MP3 versions of your songs. Google Music lets you download each song you own up to two times from the web interface, and you can download your entire music library any number of times through the Music Manager.

Enter the All Access program. It is a subscription-based service that costs $10 a month (but if you start a trial before July it will only be $8 a month, so you should get on that quick). The music player, your library, and playlists are all left intact, with the only difference being that every single song in the Google Music store is now available to be added to your library and playlists. For someone like me who still has tons of music that I intended to purchase but haven't had the spare change, this is a perfect service. This will cap the amount of money I spend on music to $8 a month (barring those few songs that do not get released on Google Music) and I now have the freedom to check out artists I would previously not have had the money to discover. And since the playlists and library work the same way, I still have complete control over what music I listen to, in what order. Google calls it "radio without rules."

They have also changed the UI of the Android app

The only downside that I can find is that even once a song is in my library there is no option to download it. Don't worry, you can still download the songs you uploaded or purchased before making the switch to All Access. It makes sense that you cannot download the songs you did not buy, but it sucks for things like Audiosurf or Beat Hazard which are both games that take an audio file and vary their gameplay according to the mood of the song.

So I started looking for a way around this limitation.

The best way I have found is actually through the Music Manager.

There is a Big Friendly Button there labeled "Download My Library". I used it when I built my desktop to get all of my songs at once. As I added my new free music to my library, I noticed that the number listed in the Music Manager was also going up. I have not actually tested it yet, but I think that my new songs will be downloaded along with the rest of my library. This is obviously not ideal, since I don't want to have to download everything every time I discover a new awesome album.
The alternative would be to play a song and record it in Audacity. Please note that I am not condoning piracy and there are easier ways to pirate music anyway.

So that is Google Music's All Access program! Definitely worth a try.

Dream: Gibberish

Note: this blog has been migrated to Medium, with the articles here available to preserve permalinks Please see this post at https://medium.com/@ianrbuck/dream-gibberish-9f0370e6e4ac

A few weeks ago I had a weird dream, and I jotted down some notes so I would remember and write a blog post later. Now that I have time, I looked at what I had written down:

"Crappy road going to Dairy Queen.
Dairy Queen didn't have anything interesting.
Making cakes?
Suddenly in a canal, lots of people there with floating things like the big pink chair.
Sharks or something in the water, had to stay on top of floating things to avoid being eaten.
A bunch of people I know were there, including my dad."

I have absolutely no recollection of what my dream was about, so your guess is as good as mine. Apparently I am not very coherent in the first few minutes after I wake up.