The fun part of Breakneck Ridge is at the beginning. The first 0.5~1 hours, depending on how fast you hike, can be pretty challenging for people who don’t hike often. After that there are many trail choices, and you can plan a loop of almost any length. This time the 7 of us split to 3 groups: riki couple was really fast and went ahead a lot; Jack/Sharon/Xiang took photos and fell in the middle; xw and I were really slow and took the shortest possible loop…

Little Stony Point park has small beaches. It’s warmer this time so we hang out there for a while. Most of my photos on Instagram of this trip were from here.

The whole team rendezvoused at a French restaurant in Cold Spring. It’s an interesting feeling to walk into this beautiful town after 1.5 years. I saw those nice buildings, yards, bench by the river which had been so clear in my memory stayed exactly the same, only the season changed. Such a quite and timeless town.

It was actually my dream to revisit all these beautiful places I had been in US with xw again. Breakneck Ridge and Cold Spring are the first step!

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1. Hiking by Myself – Breakneck Ridge
2. Hiking by Myself – Little Stony Point & Cold Spring Village
3. hiking – Big Basin Redwoods State Park

Basically it’s a tool to import time logs from toggl to JIRA. It reads logs on toggl by toggl REST API, then pushed them to JIRA by some ruby wrappers (soap4r and jira4r) of JIRA SOAP API.

JIRA is heavily used in FreeWheel. In my current group, almost everything I do can be tracked by a JIRA issue. JIRA serves as the todo, report, and bug tracking system here, and keeps everything visible to everyone.

Fortunately we just upgraded JIRA from 3.x to 4.4 so the SOAP API is much better than JIRA 3. This upgrade made it easier to import work log to JIRA because the API is upgraded a lot. If we had JIRA 5, the new JIRA REST API would be an even better option.

I have been trying to track and manage my work time for a while. Most time-tracking tools are designed for works with billable hours, such as freelance programmers or outsourcing workshops. But I think it’s also beneficial to keep time logs for other jobs. I had tried quite a few ways or tools before, none of them worked very well until I found toggle:

• Directly log on JIRA: In this way you’re “estimating” how much time you spent after finishing a task. What I need is a “timer” to really track it, different and better. Also, it’s easy to forget to log time in JIRA. When a process brings more troubles than tangible benefits, people will tend to forget or ignore it.
• A very simple OSX dashboard widget I can’t remember its name. It’s too simple. Features like idle detection or exporting logs are still necessary for me.
• Harvest. A very powerful one. I used it on iPhone for a while, but found it didn’t work very well because I often forgot to stop/switch timer. “Idle detection” is actually more crucial than it looks. And Harvest is only free for 30 days.
• JIRA worklog assistant. It seems really nice at first: seamless integration with JIRA, lots of useful features. But soon I found the Mac client crashed so often and had lots of bugs. A tool with such a bad quality won’t be accepted by the team.

Toggl is the best tool I found so far. Its client is very well designed and polished, easy to use and intuitive. It has a REST API  so I can export the log and import to JIRA easily. Toggl also has pretty nice report features, but I still want to keep all records in JIRA for maximum visiblity. And all my needs can be satisfied by Toggl free edition, sweet.

In the last, I want to clarify: the purpose of tracking time allocation is definitely not to measure “how hard you work” or “did you work 8 hours a day”, but to analyze “where are our time spent” and “how long a project/task actually takes”.

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The vocabulary of this book is at a moderate level, much much easier than read The Game of Thrones. So it’s a more enjoyable reading experience. It’s a little hard for me to understand why this book has been so popular. It was said to be the successor of Harry Porter. But I don’t think the fictional world in Hunger Games is not as spectacular as HP, neither is its story. Maybe it’s popular because it’s more close to real life? Or because it’s more bloody?

As a Chinese, I do realize some similarities between the model in Hunger Games and in the famous novel “1984″. And some descriptions did remind me of my life in China, especially in the middle school. Fortunately those uncomfortable memories are only memories for me now.

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The ending was not as bad as I expected, maybe because there had been too many bad words about the ending of this game so my expectation couldn’t be lower. I don’t think its ending is especially bad, compared to other parts of this game. In my opinion, the whole game is quite boring.

The battle system is too similar as ME2: barrier/shield/armor, fast weapons, slow weapons,  skill system almost stays the same too. I can hardly find any new interesting places in ME3 battles, after playing through ME2 for 3 times. Actually, I think it’s even worse because of a few glitches. For example if you want to stay behind a cover of “L” shape, you’ll notice Shepard turn to some directions you don’t want. It turned out to be a very annoying problem because this is not a game encouraging you to rush and melee. So at most times you have to stay in cover and deal with glitches. And those cool melee skills don’t seem very useful to me.

In the ME3 story I feel almost everyone died. I got 4 companions at a very early stage, and ended up with these 4 comrades.. Tali joined a while then killed herself. I guess there is some way to get more companions alive, but I want to experience the “original” gameplay in the 1st pass. And my feeling is the story is very simple: need to gather power => [get a mission => mission accomplished, someone died] x n => final mission. The structure is so simple that I don’t see any suspense. Again, boring.

An obvious improvement in ME3 is there are much more weapons. And grenades become more useful. I can see they built a pretty big gun system, maybe for online play, maybe for catering shooting game lovers. But I don’t really like this. If I want to use 100 different guns and throw grenades, why not I play CoD?

Anyway ME3 gave this trilogy an ending. Maybe I’ll try another pass or online play. But now, after finishing the 1st pass, I’m not in the mood.

Related posts:

1. Mass Effect 2
2. Mass Effect 2全成就达成
3. CoD:MW3 and FFXIII-2

Then I realized my teeth count is less than my age now…

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“The Game of Thrones” is the hot one now. I’ve been enjoying it a lot, to see characters and plots in book picturized. Xw doesn’t like it very much though, as the TV series get rid of too many stories from the book.

“The Office” is a good one recommended by Netflix. We watched 2 episodes and found it very hilarious. People in my office look much more reasonable compared to those weirdos in this TV serial.

北京爱情故事(Beijing Love Story)……I can’t fucking believe I’m watching it!!!

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读英文版的感觉跟读中文版还是有些不一样。感觉好像写得更细致了，其实应该是因为读得慢所以读得更细致了。不过有些章节人名跟以前读的前四部中文版对不上的时候真是一头雾水。

以下轻度剧透

说实话这一部的情节推进感觉还是挺慢的。大家都想看龙的戏码，但一直就吊着没进展。其它各条线东一榔头西一棒子的看得人很心急，几个大坑反倒一直不填。直到70%的地方才开始让人兴奋起来，基本上从这个地方往后算是这一部的高潮吧，各种出乎意料的情节开始出现了。直到最后三四章发了一堆大盒饭，看得我晚上都睡不着了……

下一本书是Hunger Game。这个简单多了而且也短很多。看了个开头感觉不错。

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1. Well…Some stupid Chinese corps are laughed at again

总的来说感觉很不错，达到了我的期望。这已经很难得了。。Beta版一共大概是两小时左右的流程，我通了野蛮人，武僧和法师三个职业，xw通了巫医和恶魔猎人。我个人觉的野蛮人早期最强，2人游戏难度可以轻松solo；武僧攻速很快，等级高了会有光环和辅助技能，基本是Paladin的对应版；法师瞬间DPS很高，但限于魔法量，打boss没有野蛮人快；恶魔猎人就是amazon的对应版，加上点陷阱技能；巫医看起来最猥琐，某主力技能是扔坛子，联机的时候噼里啪啦的声音不绝于耳感觉好像在扔尿盆。

图像不用说是进化了很多，画面有些昏暗，还算符合Diablo一贯的风格吧。配置要求很厚道，我这个3年前的MBP也能勉强跑跑低配置，不过要在windows下面跑。一年前的台式机就跑高配置毫无压力了。操作手感一流，毕竟这游戏卖的就是手感，就是让你一直砍砍杀杀几十个小时的。

最大的变化可能就是不需要自己加点和选技能了。每个职业的属性点增长是确定的，技能也全是到等级就解锁。也就是说不需要为了不同的build来练新角色了，只要等级到了，就可以任意尝试新的技能组合。我非常赞成这个设定。以Diablo系列level up一个角色的时间投入来看，如果只能尝试一个战术，那结果就是每个职业很快就会出现几类最优的build方法，甚至连最优装备也固定下来，战网上也千篇一律的都是这些面孔，或者他们的轻微变型。这样的话那么多技能的设计说实话就浪费了许多。还记得我最早玩D2的时候用amazon加了好多点的爆破箭，觉得很好玩。后来上战网看到大家build的就那么几种，根本没人鸟爆破箭这技能……强是强了，但没什么意思。

D3的技能系统变化非常大。不再像D2那样只用鼠标左右键来发动技能，同时也不再允许随时使用所有技能。鼠标左右键和数字键1~4是六个技能栏位，每个栏位可以放置3～5个技能中的一个。也就是说每个键上的各个技能是互斥的，一场战斗中只能选一个来用，切换的话要开菜单而且有很长的cooldown。左右键的技能通常没有cooldown，1~4的技能通常有cooldown。另外还有三个被动技能的栏位可以在十几个被动技能中选择。真正让这个技能系统变化多起来的是符文系统（虽然也叫rune但是和D2的rune没什么关系）：每个技能有五种(?)符文变化，随着升级会解锁各种符文，每种符文都是这个技能的一种不同的强化。这玩意儿要说清楚很费劲。。可以看官方的技能计算器。总的来说我觉得是很漂亮的设计。玩家可以一边升级一边尝试各种不同的技能组合，乐趣应该比只用一个特定打法要多很多。

D3取消了蓝瓶和紫瓶，红瓶有了很长的cooldown，怪物会掉血球可以直接吃来补血，应该都是为了增加流畅度和减少对瓶的依赖。我现在还记得曾经看到我表弟玩过一个叫“破天一剑”的国产网游，打怪的过程就是带上几千个血瓶，然后不停的按攻击键和血瓶键，弱智到可笑……

装备系统感觉上没什么大变化，还是前缀后缀的属性组合，beta版里看到了蓝色和金色装备。比较不同的一点是装备直接显示DPS了……于是比较起来十分直观，懒得细算的话damage攻速啥的也不用考虑了直接看DPS就好。村里的铁匠可以给钱来训练升级，然后就能造比较好的蓝色装备。在beta版里看铁匠升级之后能造的装备还挺牛，比我捡到的强。蓝色装备捡回村可以卖也可以拆解成铁匠造装备的素材。箱子的容量貌似很大。一个帐号所有角色的金钱是互通的。

尝试了一下拍卖所。测试版似乎只有金币拍卖所，拿个装备设定一下起拍价和直接买走的价格就可以挂上去卖了，我挂了几个标了几百金币都很快就卖掉了。支持很多搜索方式，还有自动推荐……看了一下美元拍卖所，默认起拍价是1.25$，嗯。。不知道真开始了之后会是什么状况。

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1. Diablo III Announced

刚玩D2的时候在西单那儿没窗户的小游戏房从一个角色的beta版开始玩，一个小时一个小时的续，一玩一下午。后来在那儿一个人打任务，游戏房老板还过来看，跟别人说这小孩打的任务多，估计是因为他们看不懂英文不知道去哪儿做任务……后来高中几个同学一起去联机玩得热火朝天，成天讨论技能搭配角色强弱什么的。上网的时候还经常上游戏论坛看别人讨论战网的事儿，看着各种pvp的战术贴，牛逼装备意淫，虽然那会儿连个能自己玩的电脑都没有。感觉那会儿最大的梦想就是能上上战网了。

后来大一的时候发现学校里面还很流行这个，有zixia和pku的战网。但那会儿没电脑也没什么机会玩，直到第一个寒假跑去北大机房跟同学通宵玩了几次，发现这战网上玩好像就不是一个味儿了，一小会儿就升到六七十级，然后就来来回回的k那几个boss。同学都在上面做着倒买倒卖的生意，言谈之间都是谁谁有多少“财产”，各种装备的行情价。我在run了一晚上m之后就突然失去兴趣，寒假回来买了电脑也懒得玩了。

本科上到中间好像有一个假期在家很无聊的又捡起这个来玩，因为出了毁灭之王的资料片，于是拿了个刺客自己单机打到六十多级，hell打到一多半，变得难打起来就放下了。

到了大四下学期，宿舍几个人保研出国都定了，于是还联机玩了一阵，大概玩到个三四十级吧。就记得上自习的时候riki在QQ群里喊什么“暗黑是我家，练级靠大家”，然后就纷纷回宿舍开始玩……

再后来就是认识xw之后惊闻她没玩过这游戏，于是就一人开了一个号从normal一直玩穿hell。那还真是我打得最完整的一次了，我用德鲁伊她用女巫，就老老实实一路打到最后，没刷boss没卡关没修改，感觉这就是Diablo应该有的体验吧。

我觉得D2对我的游戏观影响还是挺大的。这个游戏让我确立了很多游戏方面的态度：比如修改是破坏游戏乐趣；比如我enjoy的是开荒的时候捡到个蓝色装备也要鉴定一下的感觉，而不是在战网上trade一身极品装备来搭配的感觉；又比如我非常反感重复劳动来积累财富的游戏玩法，以至于以后只要遇上需要重复练级的游戏我基本就敬而远之；最后就是我对和很多陌生人玩网游有了抵制的态度，最多只会和认识的几个人联机玩。

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1. Civilization V

I bought a few XBox games in last Thanksgiving season. Then Skyrim occupied my game time for over a month. I traded it in to Amazon after getting all achievements. I got that game for 60$ and traded it in for 20~30 bucks. Skyrim was a really long game. But some games are really short, like CoD if you don’t play online. And some games may turn out not to be my dish after trying it out. Dark Souls is a good example… So I decided to give game rental services a try. There are not many choices so I picked GameFly easily.

I started with a one-game plan, which means I can keep one game in my hands. Then upgraded to 2-game plan for a month. When the 2-game plan was about to end I tried to cancel, but GameFly website said they could give me one extra free month. OK, why not? So I enjoyed one more month 2-game plan then cancelled it…

So here are Pros and Cons of GameFly, by my personal experiences.

Pros:

• As I said above, it’s a very nice service to try “short games” and “potentially bad games”.
• The system is pretty transparent. You can view game availabilities. New titles are available on time, though you need to be very lucky to get it at the first time.
• Lots of promotions: the introductory price and the extra month before you cancel made me feel guilty..
• Good if your gaming style is one by one. Not good if you like to play a few different games in parallel.

Cons:

• Shipping time is long for NYC. It’s surprising that they don’t have a shipping center in NYC. Most of my games were from Pittsburg. Usually it took 3~5 days to arrive, and 3 to 5 days to return. Well if you’re on a 1-game plan, that means 1/3 of your money may be wasted.
• The “GameQ” is tricky. If you put lots of games in it, you may never get the game you really want. But if you only put several your really desiring games in it, you may need to wait for a few days if they’re hot.
• Usual prices are still expensive. 15.95 for the 1-game plan and 22.95 for 2-game. It would make more sense if the shipping is as fast as Amazon Prime.
• It somehow makes you want to rush because you’re “renting” the game. At least I don’t want to spend a month to get all achievements of a game I rent.

Anyway I have to say console games are fading out. There are a few super titles and some great titles which still have lots of fans. But the whole market has been sliding down so much in the past 10 years. Mid-tier and independent productions are totally moving to mobiles. This market is now much less prosperous and lack of creativity compared to the golden era of console games. Coming back to game rental services, I found there are actually very few games I wanted to rent. My queue was never more than 5 games and only 2 or 3 when I cancelled the service. I may consider to restart the service when the summer or Christmas game season comes, but not now.

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1. My Wii, My play
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