Bicycling & Gaming
Oct. 12th, 2008 12:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aA busy day today (well, Saturday). I spent much of it in Walnut Creek, because Alex had invited me and a few other folks over there for some gaming ... but I made a day of it.
Biking. I've been jealously looking at maps showing bike trails over the hills in Walnut Creek and nearby towns, so I headed over the hill an hour or an hour and a half early, with the idea of getting off the BART train at Lafayette, and then riding a bike trail the 3.5 miles or so to Walnut Creek.
The catch: what I thought was a bike trail was actually a creek. Mind you, this isn't as stupid as it sounds, because I'd been looking at another trail (the Iron Horse Trail) that runs right along a creek, so when I was flipping between the bike trail maps and the Google Maps, and I saw the Iron Horse Trail marked (or rather, the creek next to it marked), I thought that I'd found a new symbol for bike trail. Sigh.
Not a biggie, there actually was a bike trail another block or two on (the Lafayette-Morago Trail) and beyond that bike lanes pretty much all the way to Alex's house. In fact, lots of people were biking. Alex says that people train for cross-country riding over there because there is lots of straight, flat land. And, hey, if those were people training, I did a pretty good job of keeping up! (Or, at least, falling slowly behind.)
Once I got to Walnut Creek, I headed past the downtown, and also checked out the Iron Horse Trail, itself which runs from Concord to Dublin or so. It was OK. The "creek" it runs next to is actually a culvert, and so it wasn't a very pretty trail, but I'd like to ride it sometime.
Overall, not as long as some of my recent rides, but a pleasant diversion.
Over the Hills. I actually quite enjoyed being over the hills. It straddles the line between suburban and rural as you ride from Lafayette to Walnut Creek, and as such it reminds me of the San Jose that I grew up in, with dry, brown hills, the foliage typical of California, and habitation that hasn't yet taken over the area. I don't see that in the much more urbanized East Bay, so it was sort of like coming home.
The weather was nice over there today. I was actually surprised that it was very windy (just like it was on this side of the hills). I was pleased it wasn't hot. I wouldn't want to be over there in the summer, but today was a great day for riding in that area.
And as for Walnut Creek, when I got to the more urban downtown: it just screams of affluence. It looks like the whole town came of out a ritzy catalog. It's attractive, and I wouldn't mind visiting there, but the whole place was certainly shut down by the time I left (around 11.30); contrariwise when I got back to Berkeley, there was still the occasional place that was hopping.
Gaming. Only a little to say about the gaming, though I played an impressive four games that I'd never played before.
Roborally I'd long wanted to try this and I wasn't disappointed. Programming games are cool, even when you get totally hosed (which I did).
Zauber Cocktail was a weird trading game, like Pit was some more shiny bits. I like Pit, so I liked this one too.
Turfmaster was an enjoyable horse racing game with very interesting strategic decisions, particularly in the fact that you can't go as fast if you're in first place (a pretty common tactical* point in racing games). We played a game of three rounds, and I came in first three times, so clearly I can never play this game again.
Galaxy Trucker was last up, where you race a timer to build a ship that (hopefully) won't be destroyed by random events. Also a lot of fun. I liked the creativity of putting a ship together. Eric called it Factory Fun but fun. Actually, I enjoyed Factory Fun, but I'd call this Factory Fun but funner.
It was all good, and overall a good day. I'm glad I've been feeling better to enjoy this sort of thing; though I still have weird aches, headaches, and sinus pressure, per my illness of the last three months, I'm increasingly certain they're lessening and thus I've been able to do more things.
* Yes, Mr. McCain, I do mean tactical, not strategic, and yes I do know what those mean; you do not.
Biking. I've been jealously looking at maps showing bike trails over the hills in Walnut Creek and nearby towns, so I headed over the hill an hour or an hour and a half early, with the idea of getting off the BART train at Lafayette, and then riding a bike trail the 3.5 miles or so to Walnut Creek.
The catch: what I thought was a bike trail was actually a creek. Mind you, this isn't as stupid as it sounds, because I'd been looking at another trail (the Iron Horse Trail) that runs right along a creek, so when I was flipping between the bike trail maps and the Google Maps, and I saw the Iron Horse Trail marked (or rather, the creek next to it marked), I thought that I'd found a new symbol for bike trail. Sigh.
Not a biggie, there actually was a bike trail another block or two on (the Lafayette-Morago Trail) and beyond that bike lanes pretty much all the way to Alex's house. In fact, lots of people were biking. Alex says that people train for cross-country riding over there because there is lots of straight, flat land. And, hey, if those were people training, I did a pretty good job of keeping up! (Or, at least, falling slowly behind.)
Once I got to Walnut Creek, I headed past the downtown, and also checked out the Iron Horse Trail, itself which runs from Concord to Dublin or so. It was OK. The "creek" it runs next to is actually a culvert, and so it wasn't a very pretty trail, but I'd like to ride it sometime.
Overall, not as long as some of my recent rides, but a pleasant diversion.
Over the Hills. I actually quite enjoyed being over the hills. It straddles the line between suburban and rural as you ride from Lafayette to Walnut Creek, and as such it reminds me of the San Jose that I grew up in, with dry, brown hills, the foliage typical of California, and habitation that hasn't yet taken over the area. I don't see that in the much more urbanized East Bay, so it was sort of like coming home.
The weather was nice over there today. I was actually surprised that it was very windy (just like it was on this side of the hills). I was pleased it wasn't hot. I wouldn't want to be over there in the summer, but today was a great day for riding in that area.
And as for Walnut Creek, when I got to the more urban downtown: it just screams of affluence. It looks like the whole town came of out a ritzy catalog. It's attractive, and I wouldn't mind visiting there, but the whole place was certainly shut down by the time I left (around 11.30); contrariwise when I got back to Berkeley, there was still the occasional place that was hopping.
Gaming. Only a little to say about the gaming, though I played an impressive four games that I'd never played before.
Roborally I'd long wanted to try this and I wasn't disappointed. Programming games are cool, even when you get totally hosed (which I did).
Zauber Cocktail was a weird trading game, like Pit was some more shiny bits. I like Pit, so I liked this one too.
Turfmaster was an enjoyable horse racing game with very interesting strategic decisions, particularly in the fact that you can't go as fast if you're in first place (a pretty common tactical* point in racing games). We played a game of three rounds, and I came in first three times, so clearly I can never play this game again.
Galaxy Trucker was last up, where you race a timer to build a ship that (hopefully) won't be destroyed by random events. Also a lot of fun. I liked the creativity of putting a ship together. Eric called it Factory Fun but fun. Actually, I enjoyed Factory Fun, but I'd call this Factory Fun but funner.
It was all good, and overall a good day. I'm glad I've been feeling better to enjoy this sort of thing; though I still have weird aches, headaches, and sinus pressure, per my illness of the last three months, I'm increasingly certain they're lessening and thus I've been able to do more things.
* Yes, Mr. McCain, I do mean tactical, not strategic, and yes I do know what those mean; you do not.
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Date: 2008-10-12 07:46 pm (UTC)