Android: Netrunner - First Impressions

In a rather positive move, The Guardian has started reviewing board games in it's regular games column. For someone who used to play Warhammer 40k when-I-was-a-lad I've been greatly cheered to see that it and some new contemporaries are still going strong. It's also interesting to read about games I was only dimly aware of like Magic: The Gathering.

Scanning through the "favourite board games" article, I noted the glowing review and subsequent article extolling the virtues of Android: Netrunner. Strategy, bluffing and an element of chance all in one game with a dystopian sci-fi theme? Sounds perfect!

One trip to my local friendly games shop and I was equipped with the "Core Set" which contains everything you need to get up and running.

** Support your local bricks-and-mortar shop! ** I bought my copy of Netrunner, and a couple of other games, from the friendly and helpful folk at IQ Gaming in Huddersfield. I kind of wish I lived a bit nearer and earned more money as I'd be down there a lot! Good service in helping me find the games I was looking for and directing me to places where I could find more info on the game and their regular game nights. A good vibe about the place with lots of games taking place in store even early on a Sunday morning.

Tutorials

There is a slickly produced video by Fantasy Flight Games which demonstrates the basic game mechanics. Whilst this gives a basic idea, the best intro video by far is Nam and Jeremy's which covers pretty much everything you need to know delivered with enthusiasm and humour.


Early Results

Me - "I'm going to play this."
Luke - "Hang on, what does this bit mean?"
* share a confused look* 
Both - "RULES!"

Following the recommendations in the manual, Luke and I have played 10 games with Jinteki (corp) vs Shaper (runner) from the core deck taking five goes at each faction. Overall score 6-4 to me and most of the games were very close. Playing with Luke is great because he likes geeky things too.

Luke and I showed the boy how to play and he enjoyed it so much he's been nagging to play again and again. I've also shown Louise how to play and, to my surprise, the really enjoyed it and demanded to play again despite us finishing our first game at quarter past ten on a school night!


Initial Thoughts

The game mechanics take a few games and some referencing the rules to get the hang of but we were into it by the end of the fourth round. No two games are identical, even when playing the same factions, due to the order in which the cards come out of the stack or R+D.

I was also surprised how differently the Shaper and Anarch runner factions played. Shaper is all about building your strong icebreaker rig steadily and a steady economy from Magnum Opus before launching a difficult to defend against attack. Anarch is, on the face of it, much more complicated to play with virus tokens everywhere. With Medium up and running you can quickly start to get lots of access to R+D. Throw a couple of Stimhacks in there and it just gets crazy.

More time is required to get the feel of the finer points of the strategy and I have the feeling that this game could very well being a long standing favourite with lots of replay value!

Geek out.

Musings on city running, art, the big and the small...

Just back from a long weekend in London with some friends which involved lots of catching up, lazing around, eating brilliant food (loads of sushi, Ian's courgetty spaghetti, my homemade focaccia), going to loads of museums and being a complete tourist. The British Museum was a particular highlight for me; seeing the Lewis Chessmen and the Rosetta Stone was well worthwhile. I've no idea how we managed to fit in as much as we did and the days flew past.

Some lovely noms

After eating a not insignificant amount of cake, sourdough bread and goats cheese the day before I felt like I really needed to work off some of the calories so went for a longer than expected trot.

Run.

Following the route we walked on Saturday, I headed out of Blackheath, across the heath itself and past the London Marathon start line before heading past the Greenwich Royal Observatory to find a great view of the city.

From there a short downhill hurtle, startling sluggish squirrels and ponderous wood pigeons and through the streets to the Cutty Sark where I met Albert the Harris Hawk (complete with trained hi-viz arm) on his Monday morning pigeon scaring round.

The waterfront afforded a glimpse of the Millennium Dome (or whatever it is called these days) and the sweep of the river around the Isle of Dogs. The smell of the Thames area seemed slighty salty, rotten and muddy like one of the old wooden jettys that still punctuate bits of the shore. The sounds were the wind, the washing of the river on the bank, clanking of the various bits of industrial units or building sites and the grumbling of passing boats and water taxis. It made for an interesting and pleasant running atmosphere, for the novelty if nothing else.

Pleasingly I had the Thames path mostly to myself apart from the odd jogger coming the other way. Having heard anecdotally that runners in London don't do eye contact, nods or smiles, I can confirm that this is most certainly the case. People in the city, more so than elsewhere I find, seem to exist in a tunnel wherein it is them, their destination and nothing else. I suppose it is a defence mechanism to stop them from becoming overwhelmed by the sheer weight of people on the pavement, on the roads, on the tube or bus. London is so crammed in, so squeezed that even the streets feel hemmed in and enclosed, almost pushing you inside yourself. I guess I'm just calibrated for open spaces.

Art.

There are several bits of modern artwork and sculpture along the Thames as part of The Line. The abstract signpost above is mounted on the Greenwich Meridian, pointing due north with the number representing the number of miles necessary to travel around the globe to arrive back "here" at the starting point. I'm pleased to see they used the correct figure that accounts for the fact that the earth is an oblate spheroid and not a perfect sphere which goes to show you don't stop being an engineer just because you are on holiday. Put that number into perspective with the amount of miles that people drive, run, or cycle every year and it gives you a bit more of a sense of scale as to the size of the planet and perhaps how small we are in comparison.

"A slice of ship, Vicar? One lump or two?"

Proving that folk will nick anything that isn't nailed down, this poor artist has had most of his ship purloined leaving on bricks. He's not going to be able to sail it anywhere, least in the name of art.

Beneath the Emirates Air Line gondola sits Antony Gormley's "Quantum Cloud" which seemingly crackles like static on a untuned radio. You can make out the characteristic Gormley figure inside the cloud and the whole construction sits really well against the backdrop of the sky and the city. Thinking about the relative vastness of space between the elementary particles that make up matter and the cloud of electrons around the nucleus making you contemplate the small through the medium of the very big. If that last sentence doesn't get me in Private Eye's "Pseuds Corner" then I quit.

A bit further than I originally planned to run but I continued out along towards the Thames Barrier. I'd never seen it in the flesh but I remember it being in a book on buildings I read when I was younger so was quite keen to take a look. They could have chosen to dress up these flood gates however they wished but they chose almost pearlescent art deco teeth, appropriate for the mouth of the river. Sadly the vistors centre wasn't open, and even if it was I'm not sure a sweaty Yorkshireman would be first on the list to get in.

So instead of the usual fell top views and ups and downs I traded it all in for the life of a city runner for a day. Whilst it's great to see the sights of The Big Smoke on a run I wouldn't swap it for a blowy moorland shuffle any day.


Aftermath.

Having not run for this distance on hard surface for a long while, I can confirm that my legs were in agony for the next few days. I must meditate on my own advice once in a while!


Strava.

Gisburn

Karl and I went to Gisburn Forest for a bash around the mountain bike trails last night for a cheeky (not as in Nando's) post work circuit. This is the first time I've been to Gisburn and the first time I've done a red trail having stuck to greens and blues before.

The evening got off to an auspicious start after we found a ticket in the parking meter that has already been payed for. If it was you chaps in the Hope van that paid for our parking then thanks! Karl says he's paid for it anyway as he runs Hope hubs on his bike.

There are several stunning views on the Red 8 circuit but I was too busy trying to hold on and keep up with Karl for most of the way to stop and take photos.

The climbing takes it's toll on Karl ;)

He was fine really!

The volunteers who have built the trails have done a superb job. There is a great mix of rocky climbing and descending, swooping berms, gravel road for the climbs, and "north shore" board walks.

Well worth mentioning Hully Gully - the most fun I've ever had on two wheels! Massive swooping berms, maybe 20ft high that you plummet down and whiz up the other side.

Hully Gully (C) www.iancawthorne.co.uk

I swear it felt much bigger than it looks!

When you are descending with your bum hanging off the back of the saddle with your entire world and vision is this wall of earth approaching very quickly before the g-force pushes you back down into the saddle and SWOOP you are at the top and pointing the bars down towards the next one. I looked like the Joker when we got to the bottom I was smiling that much.

"And as you can see, I'm a lot happier."

Plenty of the trail was at the limit of my comfort zone if not necessarily my technical ability and it made for a superb evening out. However, I surprised myself several times after getting through a tricky section or managing to climb a steep rocky bit without stopping. The things I struggle with the most are technical rocky bits and low speed balance like narrow logs. However practice will make perfect!

Ride off into the sunset...

Adventure Bars

*sings*My flapjacks bring all the boys to the yardAnd they're like "I say these are jolly tasty!"

I'm pretty happy with my flapjack recipe. I'm not sure where I got the original recipe from but it's a cracker. I can make it without having to refer to the written recipe as the quantities are easy enough to remember. It's got a bit of flexibility as you can put in pretty much whatever you want.

Ingredients

2 x pints of oats (you could use a pint glass to measure this...)

1 x 340g jar of good honey

1 x 250g block of lightly salted butter

1 x handful of sultanas

1 x handful of other fruit. I like chopped apricots or cranberries

1 x handful of pumpkin seeds (chopped a bit) or perhaps use walnuts or pistachios

1 x handful of cashew nuts (chopped a bit)

2 x heaped tbsp dessicated coconut (optional)

1 x tbsp freeze dried raspberry powder (optional)

1 x handful of cornflakes for added crunch (optional)

Method

• Melt butter (cut into chunks for faster melting) and honey together in a pan
• Add everything and mix well
• Bake in a well greased or lined tin for about 180°C for 20~25 mins (until just going light brown on top)
• You can bake in deep muffin tins to skip the cutting up stage
• Take out and compress gently with the back of a spoon whilst hot to make sure they stick together well
• Leave to cool entirely before handling
• Eat whilst on adventures

Why?

• Fruit sugar for a more instant energy boost
• Honey has lower GI than refined sugar so steadier energy delivery
• High in starchy carbs for medium term energy
• Fats in cashews and pumpkin seeds for longer term energy
• Salt in butter replaces some of what you sweat out
• Not too sweet so you can eat them even when you feel a bit sick during endurance events
• Should be a good post workout recovery food too

Flapjack breakfast at the trig point

Cycling seems to dominate my transport to and from work, mostly because it is a quick and easy, no brainer option, especially along the canal. However, following a resolution to get more running in and try not to lose too much post-Fellsman fitness I elected to have a morning run to work up over Rombalds Moor.

View from West Buckstones

I stopped at the Addingham High Moor trig point to enjoy the sun and eat my breakfast "adventure bar" (what flapjacks are called in our house). Not a soul around, just a grouse eyeing me suspiciously from behind some marsh grass. Plenty of wildlife in evidence today: pheasant, grouse, lapwing, curlew and oyster catcher were all spotted along with a couple of rabbits and a hare.

A nice spot for breakfast

Following the ridge line west I dropped down past a war memorial to a crashed deHavilland Mosquito crew with some faded poppies at its base to the top of Nab End to be rewarded with a cracking view over Silsden and the top of the Aire valley.

View from Nab End over Silsden

Down the road through Brunthwaite and onto the canal for the last blast into Silsden, pausing to chat to a very sprightly older lady taking her friendly dog for a walk. These friendly fellas were waiting for me in the field next to Brunthwaite beck, obviously used to humans as they wandered up to me allowing me to scratch them behind the ears.

Lads!

A lovely cool morning for a trot and well worth the 0630 alarm call. 9 miles in all. If I can do this once a week then I'll feel like I'm keeping on top of the running a bit more. Plus all those extra calories will need replacing :)*dusting pasty crumbs off the keyboard*

Review: Montane Featherlite Velo Jacket

Overall a very good windproof top with a good cycling cut and good breathability.

Background

Spring is sprong-ing all around heralding milder, drier weather, with longer road bike rides around the corner. As I know from other high energy activities, a breathable windproof layer is essential in these conditions to keep the breeze off but allow you to remain dry, especially on those cool mornings.

My existing windproof is a Buffalo Curbar Windtop smock. This has served me well over the last few years of winter fell running and occasionally on the bike but I think Buffalo tend to cut their products to suit people who are a bit shorter than me for a given chest size. They also tend to be a bit more generous around the middle. Net result is that it is baggy around the sleeves (because of the smock style cut) and around the middle. This is fine when walking or running but hilly descents on the bike have it flapping and carrying on annoyingly.

I shall continue to use it for winter shenannigans and probably on the mountain bike where speed isn't so much of a concern. The large chest pocket is pretty fabulous for maps/gloves/snacks/etc. However for road cycling, I wanted something better cut and more visible - the black of the Buffalo isn't the best thing for being seen on the roads!

Also, this top could be doubly useful for long walking/running events like the Fellsman or adventure racing where light weight and versatility is an advantage.


Selection Criteria

1. Cycling specific cut for use on the road bike. Being bent forward, arms out in front mandates longer arms and a longer back
2. Light or bright colour. I could have had my pick of black jackets! Blue, red, white or green for preference, yellow/orange if I must
3. Lightweight and packable. Should weigh less than the 260g that my Buffalo weighs and pack down better too.
4. Versatile

I looked on Ultralight Outdoor Gear, Needlesports and Wiggle and a few other places. Also road.cc had a comparative review of cycling windproof jackets. The best looking jacket was the Montane Featherlite Velo and it came in white (looks cool) but UOG didn't have stock in the white colour. Thankfully Winstanleys had stock of the white jacket in medium and shipped it promptly with minimal fuss.

I like Montane gear and I've got plenty of it (a Minimus jacket and pants, a Prism vest and a Prism jacket) and it performs well and generally fits well.


Spec

Some of the more interesting points on the product page include

• Rear vents behind the shoulders
• Different fabric (or fabric treatment?) on rear of arms and back for increased breathability at the expense of windproofness
• Weight 135g
• DWR treatment on fabric for increased shower-proof-ness
• "Bike specific active cut with articulated, extra length arms and extended drop tail"
• Jacket style so a full zip for easier venting and taking on and off (smock style is a pain sometimes)
• Elasticated cuffs. The Buffalo has velcro tab cuffs which don't stay pulled up your arms
• Elasticated hem, we'll have to see how we get on with this one
• Reflective detail on front zip and rear shoulders
• Little stuff sac for storage, always handy!

I've used a similar scheme to the reviews on the excellent road.cc website for evaluating the jacket. It will be slightly skewed because I don't have much to reference it against so no scores!

Suitability

The blurb from Montane says

"The Featherlite™ Vélo Jacket is indispensable on long cool trail rides, big Alpine tours and city commutes. Featuring rear 'Afterburner' vents that help keep your core body temperature stable, the Featherlite™ Vélo is an essential wind and showerproof biking jacket."

So perfect for spring riding then!

Upon showing the new purchase to Louise she commented that it was the same as her, now slightly faded, yellow jacket and she'd been happy using that for the last few years so this bodes well. I've also spotted that my ickle bruv has a black one as well after a recommendation from a mutual friend. A popular top.


Construction

All the seams are nicely sewn and finished with no raw fabric edges. The detailing around the rear vents is good and the reflective strip running the length of the front zip is a nice touch along with the reflective flashes on elbows and shoulders. Using 3M Scotchlite material means they really are reflective! The elastic waist and cuffs are snug without being too tight. I can roll up the sleeves past my elbows fairly easily and they certainly won't slip back down again yet I don't feel like the blood is being cut off from my arms. Success.

The collar appears to be made of double thickness material which gives it some structure, especially when it the jacket isn't fastened up all the way to the top. When it is zipped up it gives plenty of protection to the neck with plenty of added warmth.

The zipper tab is quite small and can be awkward to find with one gloved hand. I can understand the reasoning behind keeping it small as a large zip would change the aesthetic of the jacket. I may add a small loop of cord as an experiment.

The white fabric really stands out against most backgrounds, both urban and rural and is quite striking, even slightly fashionable. Caveat: my sartorial judgement is generally questionable! I'll probably keep this one off the mountain bike for now as I'm not expecting the white colour to last long with me inside it but I'd rather prolong it as long as possible!

The stuff sac is a good size and highlights just how small this jacket can be packed away. However I'm not so sure about the large strap on it and how useful this is. I can't think of anywhere on the bike that I'd strap it to apart from maybe the saddle rails. Perhaps a smaller diameter Velcro strap could be useful for attaching the stuff sac to more points?

Rear pocket. One one hand it might be nice to have a couple of rear pockets for general stuffing of things like phone, food, etc. However this would compromise the lightness of the jacket and probably it's intended purpose of being worn over a cycling jersey (with pockets). This isn't a criticism, just pointing out the compromise.


Performance

First ride was a morning sprint to work on the road bike with a smelly old synthetic base layer underneath. The temperature was about 3ºC and minimal wind, very cool but not quite chilly. Down the short hill to the main road from my house is usually a cold start to a ride but apart from cool arms the rest of me was fine. Ratcheting up the speed meant I was getting warmer but despite putting in a good effort this morning I was a perfect temperature on arrival and despite the fact I'd been sweating I was quite dry. A longer ride in the evening tackling some larger hills led me to becoming quite warm but not uncomfortably so with the zip down. I didn't notice much billowing of the back during longer descents, perhaps the rear vents were doing their thing and equalising the pressures.

Colder rides is where the jacket shines. Once up to temperature on the inside (pedalling required) it helps regulate temperature brilliantly. The collar keeps the neck warm, an area where I tend to suffer as I seem to have lots of neck.

My commute isn't a long ride so by the time I've warmed up properly I'm often only a mile from work. When it is cold, I tend to overdress more than I would for a long ride. With this jacket that consists of the usual long sleeved baselayer with a Montane Prism Vest underneath to keep my core warm. This is a good combination when the temperature is between -1ºC and 3ºC.

One very windy commute (14m/s = 30mph headwind) showed the windproofness off brilliantly, with nothing getting through the jacket.

The jacket is good in light drizzle with the water beading up lightly on the outside. I haven't taken it out in heavier drizzle yet but I'm not expecting it to be as good a a waterproof as that's not the point.


Durability

So far so good. Dirt thrown up by the back wheel onto the back wipes off well, probably aided by the DWR treatment.

The shoulders are showing no signs of "pilling" like my Buffalo top after several rides. Washing in Tech Wash gets the dirt out OK, my only concern is how long it will stay white for.


Weight

The kitchen scales report 135g for the jacket which is spot on with the spec. The stuff sac adds another 15g to take the total to 150g. The Featherlite name is very appropriate.


Comfort/Cut

I hardly notice that I am wearing it which is a good sign. Cut is good, it doesn't flap around in the breeze. The cuffs stay where they are. There is a tiny bit of hem lift under a rucksack hip belt but nothing major.


Value

I payed £50 for the jacket from Winstanleys with free shipping which I think represents very good value for such a comfortable, well cut and lightweight jacket.


Summary

I would say I'm very happy with the comfort and performance of this jacket. It fits me well, and ticks all the main requirements I had. I would definitely recommend it to a friend.

Pedalling to the Polls.

I rode Herman ze German up the short hill to the polling station. It wasn't very busy as it was still early and the ladies inside were very cheerful.

"The only wasted vote is one that you don't believe in." This quote has been rolling around my head for a while. So instead of "voting tactically" I followed my beliefs for the party that most represents my beliefs and voted Green. Best of luck to Ros.

The climb up the hill was worth it for the super fast bumpy descent through the golf club to the canal followed by a "yeah!" to disturb the ducks. The new bell on the bike is great, got a really clear, long DINGGGggggggggg and doesn't ding itself on the rough stuff.

Fussed the sheepdog at the farm too for bonus points. A good start to the day.