For those who live under a rock, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was released ten days ago. I’m already nearly 70 hours into this game, and there’s still a ton of stuff I haven’t done. That said, I figured I’d post a few quick thoughts about this game. In short, this is easily one of the best games I’ve ever played.

There is simply too much to do in this game. You could spend all day making potions, crafting items, enchanting items, or simply exploring the world, all without ever starting a single quest. I found myself completing many of the “miscellaneous” quests long before I joined any particular faction, or started along the main quest line. There are still giant chunks of the map that I have yet to visit, which is incredible given that I’m so far in.

The game’s graphics are outstanding; head and shoulders above Oblivion’s engine. I’m really impressed with the draw distance, and every dungeon, cave, and mine has a unique feel (fixing one of Oblivion’s few failings). It’s also silky smooth on my system, running on the “High” detail level. Story lines have been interesting so far (though the Thieves’ Guild seemed a little weak), and I’m loving the Dragon Shout abilities. Blasting an enemy off the top of a mountain is so incredibly fun.

I do have a few complaints. The user interface on the PC is pretty terrible, though I’m hopeful that a mod will come along soon to fix that. Voice acting is good, but some of the voices are reused way too much for my liking. Perk points (a new way of leveling your character) are too rare. Give me 2 or 3 points per level, not just 1! Finally, as is usual with this type of game, there are still quite a few bugs. Another patch is coming after Thanksgiving, which should hopefully smooth out some of the rough spots.

If you like role playing games, and you enjoyed the previous Elder Scrolls titles, you’ll like this title. It’s an instant classic in my opinion, and has taken its rightful place in my “best games of all time” list.

I like reviewing services that I feel do a good job for me, so I thought I’d post some quick thoughts on a gutter cleaning service I hired this morning. Before going to work today, I noticed that the upper rear gutter on my house was overflowing (it has been this way for quite some time). As a result, I looked around online for recommendations on who could come clean them out for me. I would typically do it myself, but (a) the gutters are higher than I have equipment to reach, and (b) the upper roof line is too steep for my liking. After a brief search, I found a number of people recommending Major League Gutter Cleaning, so I gave them a call.

For the low price of $50, they came out and cleaned out all of the gutters around my house (something I’m not sure has ever been done). The owner came out this morning (an almost immediate turnaround), and he completed the job in just 15 or 20 minutes. If you live in the Triangle area in North Carolina, and you’re looking for someone to clean your gutters, I highly recommend this outfit. They also do power washing and window washing as well, which could be useful. Here’s the contact information:

Major League Gutter Cleaning
(919) 783-4271
Owner: Pete Weist

Having recently completed Portal 2, I thought I’d share a few thoughts on the experience. As usual, I played it through on the PC, so my review comes from that vantage point. I have yet to try the co-op portion of the game, so my thoughts are limited to the single player experience.

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Yesterday, I finally finished reading the Lord of the Rings series for the first time. I can finally scratch them off my list of shame! As I did for the previous two books, I thought I would provide some brief thoughts on each.

The Two Towers

I found it interesting how this volume told two stories in separate chunks (books 3 and 4), rather than interleaving them. The first book follows the adventures of Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, Merry, Pippin, and Gandalf, from beginning to end. The second follows Sam, Frodo, and Gollum. In the movie adaptation of this book, the stories are intertwined, helping to remind the viewer that various events are happening in parallel. Telling each story in its entirety in the novel was much more rewarding from a reading perspective. I never lost track of what was going on during each story, and I found them that much more engaging. It’s interesting that Peter Jackson decided to move the scene with Shelob into the third movie, since it really happens at the end of the second novel. Again, this was a top notch novel, which I enjoyed cover to cover.

The Return of the King

To me, this book differs more from its movie adaptation than the previous two. In the book, the army of the dead is used to gain ships for Aragorn and company: nothing more. They are released from service after helping the company obtain these ships. In the movie, the dead travel with them and fight Sauron’s army with the company. I think I prefer the novel’s version here. Likewise, I prefer the ending of the novel over the movie. How could the film’s writers have left out the scouring of the Shire? When Frodo and company return to the Shire, they find it in ruin. This was a key scene omitted from the movie, much to the movie’s detriment, in my opinion. Novel for the win!

Now for a few final thoughts on the series as a whole:

• It boggles my mind that Arwen is a bit character in the novels. Having seen the movies before reading the books, I guess my vision of her importance was tarnished. She barely has any speaking lines in the books, and is left out of the second story altogether.
• While I enjoy Peter Jackson’s movie adaptations of these books, the novels (as usual) far exceed them. Key elements were left out of the films: interacting with Tom Bombadil, several scenes with the Ents, and the scouring of the Shire (along with the deaths of both Saruman and Wormtongue). I guess it’s hard to beat a book.

Back in December of last year, I made the decision to ditch my land-line telephone and go wireless only. I decided to pick up a smart phone, and chose the Motorola Droid: both because of the Verizon network (with which I was relatively happy) and because it wasn’t an iPhone. Now that I’ve had an opportunity to play with it for a few months, I’d like to share some thoughts on the device.

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As shameful as it is for me to say, I had not, until just recently, ever read The Hobbit or The Fellowship of the Ring (or, for that matter, the other two volumes of The Lord of the Rings). I’m not sure why I never read them. Perhaps it’s because I heard from some people that the books were hard to read. Well, I’m finally getting around to reading them, and I must say that I’ve enjoyed them thoroughly. Here are some thoughts:

The Hobbit

Though technically not a part of the The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit is clearly where it all starts. As such, I read this book first, and I’m glad I did. Reading this story first provides a great deal of context for things learned in Fellowship. I particularly loved the way the book was written: it always seemed to me like an old man was telling me the story as we sat around a camp fire. Often the narrator would go off on a tangent, then later realize that he had gotten onto a tangent, and would finally have to apologize to you, the reader. Very enjoyable. The one thing I didn’t like about this story was the abrupt ending. After the climax is a single chapter, wrapping up a number of threads in a short period of time. Such a jarring transition seems detrimental to the whole story on some level. Overall, however, a terrific story.

The Fellowship of the Ring

This is by far one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. Tolkien’s command of the English language is outstanding, as is his inventiveness. Every character feels alive and their interactions are wonderful to experience. My absolute favorite scene is at the parting of the Company with Galadriel and Celeborn from Lothlórien. Galadriel gives each member of the Fellowship a gift, and she asks Gimli, the dwarf, what he would like. At first he says he wants nothing, but she presses him, so he answers that a single hair from her head would be his heart’s desire. He then continues to assert that he doesn’t want this; he’s only saying so because she commanded him to speak. Here is her reply:

The Elves stirred and murmured with astonishment, and Celeborn gazed at the Dwarf in wonder, but the Lady smiled. “It is said that the skill of the Dwarves is in their hands rather than in their tongues,” she said; “yet that is not true of Gimli. For none have ever made to me a request so bold and yet so courteous.”

She then asks Gimli what he would do with such a gift, and he replies that he would simply treasure it, in memory of her words to him at their first meeting. This pleases her, so she gives him not one hair, but three. Gimli takes them and vows to have them set in an imperishable crystal to be an heirloom in his house, and a token of goodwill between the Dwarves and the Elves until the end of time.

Scenes like this one are peppered throughout the text, and are truly wonderful to take part in. I’m greatly looking forward to the next two books, even though I know how the story plays out.

Having played through it a few times now, I thought I’d post a few thoughts on Torchlight, the action role-playing game I’ve talked about a time or two here on the site. For those who don’t already know, the game is essentially a Diablo 2 clone (with, what I would argue, are terrific updates). Read on for my take on this title.

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A month or so ago, I looked on the Car Talk website (official web home of the popular radio show) for a recommended mechanic in my area. One of the highest rated shops happened to be just up the road from my workplace, at the corner of NC Hwy 55 and NC Hwy 54: Wasp Automotive. I’ve been to them twice now, once for my 120K tuneup and once today for a check-engine light problem (which turned out to be a problem with my car’s emissions system).

I can’t say enough positive things about this shop. At my 120K tuneup, the mechanic pointed out that my brakes had about 8 or 10 thousand more miles on them, so he recommended holding off on changing them. He gave me the same advice for my timing belt, which had about 15,000 more miles on it. It’s the rare place, especially in today’s economy, that would advise you to not give them your money.

Today, while waiting on my complimentary ride to work (a nice perk), I fired up my laptop and discovered that they have a wireless access point! I quickly started my company VPN connection, and hopped online to check my email. Incredible!

The folks at Wasp automotive are friendly, the service is extremely fast, and the prices are very reasonable. If you’re in the Triangle area of North Carolina and you want a great mechanic, check them out. You won’t be disappointed.

Way back in January, I bit the bullet and signed up for an account at Mint.com, a free, web-based personal finance tool. Moving into a new house had brought with it a substantial amount of financial responsibility, and I wanted an easy way to track where my money was going. Now that I’ve been using it for 7 months or so, I thought I’d post a few thoughts on the service.

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When I moved into my house last year, I bought an LG front-load washing machine. Having never owned or operated a front-load washer, I didn’t quite know what to expect. For those who don’t already know, front-load washing machines typically spin clothes at a very high rate of speed (mine tops out at 1050 RPM), removing a large amount of excess water in the process. This high speed spin process usually results in substantial vibration. The problem is compounded when the washer is located in an upstairs room (as mine is), and not on a solid, ground level floor (I’ve read that concrete floors are ideal).

Not knowing about this at the time, I was really surprised to see that my entire house vibrated when I washed a load of laundry. The shaking and noise got bad enough that I decided to look into solutions to the problem. I read some about vibration reducing pads online, and picked up a set at a local home improvement store (for about $30, if I remember correctly). After installing the pads with the help of my dad, I noted an improvement in the amount of vibration in the floor. However, the vibration was still bad enough to cause some sympathetic vibrations in my dryer (a major source of noise, oddly enough). Also, these pads were flat on top, so the washer tended to ‘walk’ off of them when a load was particularly unbalanced. Like before, the problem became bad enough to look for another solution.

I found another pair of pads online that had good reviews, and picked up a set (here’s a link: Good Vibrations Washing Machine Pads). These pads are round, not square like the others I had bought, and have a recessed area for the foot of the washing machine.

Wow! Not only does the washer no longer walk off of the pads (thanks to that recessed area), but the vibration in the floor has been reduced by what seems like an order of magnitude! My dryer no longer suffers from “sympathetic-vibration-syndrome,” and the entire wash cycle is noticeably quieter. A set of four pads are $36.95 as of this writing (plus shipping). The sellers accept PayPal, so if you’ve got some money stored up (like I did, thanks to a recent donation to Born Geek), you can pick up a set pretty easily.

If you’ve got a front-load washer and have issues with large vibrations, I recommend the “Good Vibrations” pads. They work remarkably well.