So, I was reading one of those slideshow lists on MSN.

23 Great Road Trips Worth the Gas

Now, the ninth of the those Road Trips is Fort Worth to Oklahoma City. Now, I don't mean to insult either city (as a Texas Longhorn I reserve my insults for Norman, OK), but I don't see 200 miles up I-35 much of drive. Now, I should point out that they called them Road Trips, but it seems to me that a great Road Trip should also be a great drive.

So, what makes a great drive? I think we can come up with a few rules for a great drive, and hours on an interstate won't be part of it.

1. Scenery
   
   For me, it is hard to imagine a great drive through the Nevada desert.
   
   I need a quick sidebar here to explain that almost every year of my childhood I was tossed into the back of a station wagon and hauled from California to Utah. Most of those years that meant driving across Nevada on I-80...twice. The stretch of I-80 from Lovelock to Wendover is still, 35 years, my definition of a boring, depressing stretch of road, and the antithesis of a great drive. Close sidebar.
   
   Now, the scenery doesn't have to be spectacular, but it certainly adds to the pleasure of the drive if the scenery is easy on the eyes. Also, I don't much care what the scenery is, mountains, hills, forests, seashore, desert. Just as long as the views out the windshield are nice. Personally, I think that the best drives include scenery that is down right distracting, but that is just me.
   


2. A good road
   
   Now, there are two parts to this. First, the road needs to be in good repair, and well constructed. It isn't going to be a great drive if you spend most of your time dodging potholes. Treacherous is not a word that I associate with a great drive either. A road that is too narrow, or lacks any sort of improvements is not really going to give a good driving experience.
   
   But, I think a great drive requires more than a solid well maintained road surface. When driving, straight is boring, at least if it is too straight for too long. It is possible for a road to be too windy, though a windy road can be a fun all its own, but a great drive requires turns. A windy road presents us with continually changing vistas, which helps immensely with #1. A windy road also means that we work a little while driving, which, for me at least, increases the pleasure of the drive.
   


3. Light traffic
   
   Traffic will kill a good drive faster than anything I know of, so any truly great drive will have to avoid frequently travelled roads. If other people know about it and use it, then it needs to be removed from the itinerary. Now, sometimes, almost every road gets busy, so we should not remove a road from our list of great drives because we encounter traffic once, but the greater the traffic, the less great the drive.
   
   Another sidebar. I am a big fan of Top Gear (the UK version) and they are terribly annoyed with Caravans. In England they don't seem to have the huge motorhomes that we have hear, but they do have smaller ones, and it seems that every summer, thousands of Brits pack up their caravans (usually trailers) and campervans (motorhomes) and head out across the country. Unfortunately, they seem to clog up the very roads that the Top Gear presenters love to drive on. They tend to go slowly, and long lines of traffic get backed up behind them on Britain's smaller roadways.
   
   In the US, I think our trailer and mobile home campers tend to stick a bit more to the freeways, but I think you can see that spending your "great drive" going slowly behind someone pulling a camping trailer is not going to add to your experience.
   


4. Interesting places
   
   The places you can see from your car are one thing. The places you can get out and see along the way are another. They may not technically be part of the drive, but unless the drive is one of a few short hours, then drive is going to include stops, and interesting places to visit along the way are going to increase the enjoyment of the trip.
   
   A trip up the California coast highway (Highway 1) is nice. A trip up the coast with a stop at Muir Woods National Monument is better. It may be a nice drive with a good picnic spot, or a good restaurant, or a quaint B&B for an overnight stay, but something that improves the trip, while your not driving, can turn a nice drive into a great one.
   


5. A fun-to-drive car
   
   If you watch Top Gear, you might imagine that the only way to enjoy a great drive is in a powerful sports car. A Ferrari or Porsche may be an excellent car for a great drive, but I don't think it is necessary. All that is required is that you enjoying driving the car on the roads of your great drive.
   
   Back in #2 I talked about good roads, and the key thing is that you do not want to spend your drive fighting the road. You also don't want to spend your drive fighting your car. I don't think a Ferrari is required, but I don't think that a pickup truck or a Minivan is going to add much to the drive. They really key thing is that YOU enjoy driving the car on the roads that you take.
   


6. Tune-age
   
   Or should it be spelled tunage? I think music can be a great addition to a great drive, but upon reaching this part of the essay, I considered changing the title, but adding conversation to the title seemed overly long, and Sound just didn't seem to say enough. If you have a Ferrari, then the sound of the engine may be more than enough accompaniment to your drive, but in most cars, something else may add to the enjoyment of the drive.
   
   Conversation with a passenger may be even better than music. On a longish drive, a passenger gives you someone to share the experience with, which I think will increase the enjoyment of a good drive. If you don't have a passenger, then music can be another good addition to your drive. A specific sort of music is not required, just something you enjoy.
   


7. More than just A to B
   
   The purpose of a great drive is itself, the journey, so any truly great drive must be about more than just going from point A to point B. You may in fact need to get to point B, but a great drive is unlikely to be the fastest or easiest way to get there. The freeway is faster, but a freeway drive is something to be finished as quickly as possible. A great drive should be something that you enjoy, were the journey is the goal, and the destination is just the end of the journey.

Well, I think that finishes up my look at what makes a great drive. I haven't taken all that many, but the items above are the things that I can point to that have on occasion turned a trip from point A to point B into a great drive.

Buffet King

Buffet King
5451 N. IH 35
Austin, TX

I was looking for a Chinese Buffet that wasn’t too far from work, and I found Buffet King. I had noticed Buffet King a few months ago, before they open while visiting Office Max at Capital Plaza but never found the time to try it out. The restaurant is quite large and well appointed. That may not last (that being the way of buffet restaurants IMO) but for now, in its first year of operation, it looks nice. It is very bright with a lot of dark wood paneling. The price is about on a par with other large buffets, $8.00 without drink, and I had my buffet with only water, because they have made the awful decision to serve Pepsi and their only diet offering was Diet Pepsi…bleah. So, with one strike against them, I approached the buffet.

I was in the mood for Chinese, so that was where I started. For me, Chinese food means Sesame Chicken, Fried Rice, Egg Roll and Hot and Sour Soup. As I searched, I discovered that the buffet is huge. There were two long salad bars I one with green salad and the fixings, and another for fruit, pudding and the like. There were also two long buffets of Chinese with fish selections, various beef and chicken choices, eggrolls, won ton…well, all the usual Chinese buffet suspects. There were also enchiladas, pizza and sushi.

Well, as I said before, Chinese, for me, means Sesame Chicken and I had no trouble tracking it down, and that is where the first chink in the armor appeared. The Sesame Chicken sauce was red, and thin. Next to the Sesame Chicken was General Tso’s Chicken I which was closer to the right color for Sesame Chicken, but also very thin. The fried rice was nearby, but full of large chunks of onion, which I am not fond of.

Well, so they aren’t doing so well, but I find the egg roll and the Hot and Sour Soup and head back to my table. The sauce may be a bit thin and the color isn’t quite right, but it tastes okay, and the Hot and Sour Soup is good, not great, but good. The fried rice tastes good, but I have to fish out the onions. The egg roll is surprisingly good. Steam tables and heat lamps are not the best friends for an egg roll, and most Chinese buffets are plagued by semi-soggy eggrolls. These were above average on two different trips to the buffet.

On my second trip to the buffet and I tried some of the battered chicken that goes with sweet and sour, and I found the cream cheese wontons, which gets a big thumbs up from me. I tried a slice of soggy garlic head, and a Chinese donut, but for most of my eating, I stuck to the Sesame Chicken.

Two more things that I didn’t really try, one end of the restaurant is a big Mongolian stir fry bar, and the only thing I got from the desserts was a small bowl of ice cream. The seemed to have, large selection of cookies, but they looked store bought.

I walked out of Buffet King very full. I wasn’t the best Chinese I’ve ever had, but it was good. Nothing that I picked up was inedible, though most of it could have been better. I’ll probably try Buffet King again.

Great Austin Burger Hunt - Short Stop

Short Stop 12
3811 North IH 35

Sometimes, the exterior and the food don't match. Such was the case with Hill-Berts (link). Unfortunately, such was not the case with Short Stop.

I used to frequent Short Stop when I worked at Dell, not all that often, but quite a few times over the ten years I worked there. I thought I would give it a try and present the results to whoever may be reading these pages.

I ordered the standard double burger, my usual way, no pickles, onions or tomatoes. They do live up to their name, and the burger arrived quickly, with my order of fries. Opening a short stop is not for the faint of stomach. It didn't look good. The bun was nearly squished flat. Also, I am trying to figure out how they managed to wilt the lettuce before they put in on the burger, because I unwrapped it less than ten seconds after they handed it out to me, and the lettuce was already wilted. It was not a brilliant start.

But, my first bite raised the bar a bit. The meat was well cooked, and had a bit of crunch from being cooked on a flat top grill. A couple of more bites were enjoyed, but then I had to look for the cheese, which I couldn't taste. Well, the cheese was there, but it really wasn't doing much for the burger. This is the problem with American Processed Cheese. It is almost cheese in name only.

The burger was filling, but it was not something I enjoyed all that much. The fries were somewhat limp, but they were tasty, and they tossed some salt packets in the bag without me needing to ask for them, so thumbs up to Short Stop for that.

It the search for a quick and relatively cheap meal, Short Stop might make my list. In the search for Austin's Best Burger....it is at the bottom of the list so far.

Photography

Two different posts on Gizmodo got me thinking about photography today, and so I went in search of some Ansel Adams quotes. These quotes and more can be found on Brainy Quotes.

• A good photograph is knowing where to stand.


• A true photograph need not be explained, nor can it be contained in words.

A college professor taught me the first part of this. He told a story about a student how came back from Summer Vacation. The student was excited about a photograph he had taken, and when the professor say it, he was not impressed. The student responded to the professor's lack of enthusiasm with...

"I guess you had to be there."

Next quote...

• A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed.

It seems rather inappropriate to add to any quote by Ansel Adams, but it seems to me that a great photograph also must express how you feel to the viewer. I am sure Ansel Adams would agree.

• There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.

Oh, it seems that he did.

• Not everybody trusts paintings but people believe photographs.

I think this may be changing, thanks to Photoshop.

• Sometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter.

I think that a lot of it has to do with the first quote, and with the long experience of someone with an incredible eye for a good photograph.

• There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.

I went searching for the last quote below, but the other seemed appropriate to go with it.

• Dodging and burning are steps to take care of mistakes God made in establishing tonal relationships.


• The negative is comparable to the composer's score and the print to its performance. Each performance differs in subtle ways.

We sometimes get annoyed when we find that a photographer, or possibly just someone who found a picture, has altered that photo in some piece of software, and yet, what is photo software but a digital darkroom. I watched an interview with Ansel Adam's son where he talked about all the time that his father spent in the dark room correcting God's mistakes in tonal relationships.

Is it wrong to crop a photograph to make it better? What about the digital equivalent of dodging and burning? Obviously, Photoshop can do much more than this, but how much of what is done is just like the adjustments a photographer would make in creating a print from his negative?

It all started with this week's Shooting Challenge on Gizmodo. I followed the link to a blog about Black Card Photography and it mentioned that most photography contests will disqualify any photograph altered in Photoshop. But, I am betting that if you submit a print of a picture that you took with a film camera, that no one will complain if you massaged it in the darkroom.

This seems a little unfair.

Maybe, what is needed is a photo editing program that mimics only those techniques you can perform in a darkroom.

Kings of Colorado - a review

Kings of Colorado David E. Hilton 2011 Simon and Schuster First, I should admit that I am well acquainted with the author. We work at the same place, what one might call his ”day job” while waiting for his book to hit the bestseller list. Second, ignore the cover, this isn’t a western. Now, as someone whose general choice of reading material generally falls into a fairly well-defined genre, science fiction and fantasy, this is an important piece of information for me to pass along. Kings of Colorado is not a western, nor is it science fiction or fantasy. In fact, it is not something that I would normally have been attracted to, especially based on the book cover. But, “never judge a book by its cover” has rarely been more true than it is for Kings of Colorado. The story starts slowly with William Sheppard being laid off. This event isn’t really important to the story, but serves as the catalyst for William to record the events of his childhood. Back in the early 60s at the age of 13 Will Sheppard stabbed his father and was sentenced to two years at a Reformatory Ranch in Colorado. The author does an excellent job of creating a family situation where most of us might have reacted as the protagonist did. The father is abusive, not just of the son, but more importantly of the mother and it is the abuse of his beloved mother that pushes Will over the edge. Some might complain that the abusive father is an over-used plot element and they’d be right, but it works here, in part because it is not dwelled on overly long. We are quickly moved along through this dysfunctional family picture to the first crisis point and then Will begins his journey. A long bus ride from Chicago to the high mountains of Colorado ends at Swope Ranch, his home for the next two years. Swope Ranch uses the boys to break horses. Wild horses are captured and brought to the ranch where they are broken and then sold. There are several guards, one mean, one nice and the rest sort of in between. If this all sounds a bit formulaic, well…I could say it is, but it seems more formulaic as I write this review than it did while I was reading it. I suppose that I am saying that it works, and when the formula works then it isn’t a problem. The Ranch is no easy place. It may be called a Reformatory Ranch but there are few attempts at reform, though there is plenty of punishment. Fights are encouraged between the boys and some of the guards bet on them. Will develops a circle of friends and the story revolves these friends almost as much as Will himself. Will also finds a friend in the Ranch nurse who treats him after his first fight, and the series of injuries that mark his time at the Ranch. The climax of the story comes during a trip out from the ranch in search of some lost horses. Now, you have an idea about the story, but I will leave all the details for when you read it. This novel is violent. I would say this is the biggest reason why, despite a 13 year old protagonist, this is not a young adult novel. The violence is important to our understanding, both of how Will ends up at Swope, as well as how Swope affects him. Unfortunately, because of that violence, Kings is depressing at times. A few times I considered whether I really wanted to continue reading. Fortunately, the author has made Will a likeable enough character that I wanted to find out what happened to him. This points out one of the strengths of the novel, the characters. The author has created a believable and in a few cases likeable cast of characters. Yes, a few of them, especially a couple of the antagonists, are sort of stereotypically bad, but this works well, because the story is told exclusively by Will. We see everyone through his eyes. Those who torment him most are one dimensional to him, because he never gets to know them. Just as most of us never really get to know the people we don’t like. I found the story engaging and at times even compelling. The author has done a good job of keeping himself out of the story and letting Will come through as the storyteller. The story feels right. The characters aren’t forced in ways that feel unnatural. Without going into fanciful flights of prose, the author gives as details about the high mountains and horses that help the reader feel like they have actually seen, heard and even smelled Swope Ranch. After Will leaves Swope the novel moves along quickly giving us a brief glance at his life after Swope, until the day, decades later, when he finally feels compelled to write an account of his days at Swope Ranch. Will’s life after Swope is quite average. It was only after finishing the novel that it occurred to me that Will’s victory is more than just surviving Swope, it is managing to build and live a good, if average, life. Will has another moment of crisis after writing about Swope, but the depression that brings on that crisis seems more about being old and alone, his wife of many years having died a few years before, than it is about the tragic events at Swope. At that moment I felt greater sympathy for Will Sheppard than at any other time in book. After this crisis, the book ties up with a happy ending that would seem more out of place if it were happier. Now, that sounds odd to me as I write it, but it seems to hit the mark in its own way. I’d hate to give away the ending, so I won’t say too much about it, but Will returns to Colorado, and we get the sort of cathartic ending that the novel seems to need. Kings of Colorado is an impressive first novel. It is engaging and rewarding, but it isn’t a fun read. So, if you are in the market for something that is not a fluff read, check it out.

Why Don’t I Use my Tablet More?

This question has bothered me a great deal. I wanted a tablet very badly. Of course, when that desire bloomed they were called UMPCs or Ultra Mobile PCs. This goes back years before the iPad and long before Android. I never had a plan for all the cool things I would do with one, they were a toy, and little more.

My wife bought this one, and I eventually inherited it. I was happy with it for a time, but now I look at the host of Android tablets and I have that itch again. But…it is very hard to justify the cost of a new tablet when I feel like I don’t use this one enough.

There are many possible reasons why I don’t use my tablet more. Let me go through a few of the more common questions raised, especially about Windows 7 tablets.

Boot Time

This is a significant concern with a windows tablet, and yet it is not a deciding factor. Once I start up my tablet, I don’t shut it down, I just put it into suspend and it comes back from that in less than two seconds, so it is not boot time that keeps me from using it.

Battery Life

Another legitimate concern. Window portables have usually had a battery life of 2-3 hours. The 10 hours claimed by Apple for the iPad may be about like the 5-6 hours claimed by Dell, but it certainly much better than I get with my tablet.

But, battery life has not really been the reason why I don’t use it more. Rarely have I run up against the bottom end of my battery. As I mentioned above, I put the tablet into suspend mode when I am not using it and that allows me to use it off and on across my workday. Since I cannot spend eight hours using it while at work (I do have to do SOME work), I feel like I get by just fine. Now, I might use it more, but so far it hasn’t been an issue.

Something Better at Home

I am not a fan of the iPad. Not too long ago I wrote that I thought most iPads would be gathering dust within six months of purchase. In my opinion, they are too large to be convenient to carry. They require a bag, which means most men won’t carry one everyday/all the time. I also said that at home you are unlikely to use it because at home most people have something that does all the same things, only better. That device is a PC and remember that a Mac is still a Personal Computer (PC).

This one hits home. When I am home I rarely use my tablet, except to write my journal. For any other sort of writing I use my PC.

Recently, I read an article that gave a home use. Most of us don’t use out PCs in front of the TV, even when we have portables. The author described watching the Oscars with his SO and checking email, facebook, and twitter on his iPad. It allowed him to keep up with his friends’ reactions to the show while sitting at home without them.

Now, the article was about how the SO did not appreciate him having his face in the little screen when he should have been enjoying the show with her, but it still showed me something to do with an iPad of home that a PC may not be better at. Now, you could use your phone, but the bigger screen is better.

Now, this gives me something to shoot for, but there is a problem. This thing is terrible for facebook and the internet, etc. There an several reasons for this and they cut straight to the heart of why I don’t use me tablet more.

No Multi-touch

I run Windows 7 of my tablet and it works fine. Windows 7 does multi-touch just fine. I’ve experienced it myself on an HP Touchsmart PC and I have seen many things demonstrated on an HP convertible (they may use the moniker “tablet” but tablets don’t have keyboards). Unfortunately, the Samsung Q is a rather old design and the screen does not support multi-touch. Without multi-touch this thing is a pain to use on the internet. Most internet pages don’t fit very well on 1024×600 and it is much worse in portrait mode. Without multi-touch and the gestures that come with it scrolling around a webpage is just annoying.

1024×600

The resolution of the LCD on the Samsung Q is a bit of a problem. 1024×600 may not sound bad, but that is in landscape mode. Personally, I prefer the idea of using a tablet in portrait mode. This makes the tablet more like a sheet of paper, or a book. Holding a tablet in landscape mode feels clumsy, awkward. Holding it in portrait mode feels balanced and natural.

Now, you may wonder why I have gone on about portrait versus landscape at such length in a discussion of resolution. Well, 1024×600 really isn’t so bad, but 600x1024 is a much bigger problem. Many Windows dialogue boxes are wider than 600 pixels and trying to resize windows with a stylus or a finger is a pain unless you have gestures.

Windows Phone 7

If you have followed this blog, then you know that I have an HTC HD7 with windows Phone 7. After months of using a phone with multi-touch, I am sold. I am also sold on having an OS that is designed for the device, rather than one that is designed for a completely different device with some features added for tablets.

So, there you have it, a rather long-winded discussion of tablets and why I don’t use mine more.

This essay has helped me understand why I still look at and dream about tablets. Mostly, it helps me with figuring out exactly what I want in my next one.

Inspiration

Not so long ago, I came back to the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) after a prolonged absence. It's been more than 25 years since I first joined and in some ways it is a lot like starting over again.

I spent many of those years making armour. For anyone who doesn't understand...check out this link.

Red Dragon Armoury

I want to start making armour again, but I find myself lacking motivation. To help with the motivation I have been looking for inspiration, but even that has proven allusive.

I started learning to make armor all the way back in 1986. Back then, having anything that resembled period armour was enough to make you stand out from the crowd. Now, I see pictures from Pennsic or Gulf Wars (2 big SCA wars) and what I want to make will put me in the category of "another of those guys." It is nice to see that the SCA has gotten better, but it is not quite as inspiring to work towards being another in a group.

Trying to find inspiration I have rejoined the Armour Archive, but even there I am having a hard time finding inspiration. Oh, don't get me wrong, there is plenty of great stuff being shown off there, but I haven't found my inspiration.