Matthew Supert

This past weekend we had a nice extended four day trip down to the Hoosier National Forest area in souther Indiana. I have to say that the trip was a complete surprise for me. I had no idea what to expect for the roads, but man they were great. Most of our riding took place in and around the Hoosier National Forest and our basecamp was in Columbus Indiana. The roads were very narrow and very hilly with blind curves all over the place in and out of the hills. If I am being honest, they were perhaps some of the more technical roads I've ever ridden if only for the small hills that made so many blind entrances. 

On Sunday we rolled into Nashville Indiana for lunch and we were pleasantly surprised to find a very charming artist community. I would 100% love to go back and make a basecamp weekend in this are and rent a cabin or something in the Nashville area. The whole thing is only about 200 mile from Chicago so you can get there and back in about four hours. 

I've been on the lookout for a new GPS device for 2019 R 1250RT for a little while now. I have the Garmin Navigator VI that came with the bike, and while the GPS device itself is still working very well, the user experience with the trip planner Basecamp is poor. Basecamp  has good features and I rather like its trip planner, but the application runs so poorly on my Mac that I have on multiple occasions screamed into my computer while the mapping interface stutters along, unable find basic addresses, or just outright crashes. 

Earlier this year my entire Basecamp library became corrupted and I lost all of my ride data that I had saved into the software. Worse still, the backups I had somehow also became corrupted. Thankfully, most of my data was saved externally as .kml files, but I did lose about six months of rides and the elevation data that comes along with those .GPX files. 

I really began to look hard at some alternative GPS solutions entirely because Basecamp is terrible to use. I was hoping that BMW themselves would pull through with their recently announced BMW ConnectedRide Navigator. Unfortunately, the dimensions do not fit in the nav prep on the K1600 or R1250RT bikes.

I've given some serious consideration to the Garmin Zumo XT, which is very well regarded and does not utilize the Basecamp. I was just about to pull the trigger on it when a newcomer emerged with a CarPlay/Android Auto device called the AIO from Chigee. 

They just released a BMW focused version that fits in the existing Nav prep cradle. I received my AIO-5 this past Friday and put a little over one hundred miles on it today, so here are my first impressions. 

Chigee AIO-5 for BMW 

First up, I think it is worth clarifying what this device is and what it is not. It is not a stand alone GPS device. It requires a smartphone connection and consequently a GPS or driving app on the phone. There are at least half a dozen motorcycle focused apps for iPhone, but I am going to focus on Apple Maps and Rever.co on my first impressions here. 

The AIO-5 has no internal battery, so it can only be powered on when connected to the bike. I was able to get it to read all of the data like engine temperature, tire pressure, etc. but I was unable to get the AIO-5 to respond to the BMW Wonderwheel. Looking at the Facebook Group it appears that my 2019 model RT may require an additional dongle. That's disappointing, but not a deal breaker. 

The Chigee interface essentially has two main screens. The first one shows basic speeds, RPM and other data and mimics the dashboard of the new LCD model BMWs. The other shows the screen in a more grid view. Both screens are fine, but the biggest issue that jumped out at me is there is no "light" mode for the background. Everything is dark, which honestly can be hard to quickly read on a full sun day. 

I also noticed that the screen brightness on my device was a bit wonky, dimming randomly at times. It is also super responsive to switching to night mode. Driving through an underpass had the interface in the maps switch to dark mode. This may just be a firmware issue that could just get updated in the future. 

The only other thing that really jumped out at me is that there are way to many touches to jump between the Chigee dashboard and back to a map app running in CarPlay. I think there was probably 3-4 button presses, which makes it difficult to switch if you are driving.   

CarPlay Interface

If you are at all familiar with CarPlay, the interface here is just CarPlay. It's good, but if I am being honest, I don't really like it on a motorcycle. There is just too much going on most of the time and you can tell that the interface is not optimized for a screen this small, with the rider ~3' away. On a motorcycle, I just want to be living in the map interface 99% of the time. The Split View with the music, while cool, is just a distraction on a bike. CarPlay also has a persistent menu on the left hand side of the screen that prevents any app from filling 100%. I wish that could be tweaked. 

Also, CarPlay does not allow you to remove the phone or Messages icons. If I could I would prefer to turn both of those off entirely. I do not want those distractions while on the bike. 

My experience with Apple Maps was fine. I know a lot of motorcyclists online say stuff like "why don't you just use Apple or Google Maps" for your routing, and for running errands or going to work, that is 100% fine. Any sort of multi-point route planning or multi-day trip planning though is not ideal for those apps. For that, I am going to explore other apps. 

The other big observation with Apple Maps is that the text on the screen is just not big enough. This is probably because it is built for a car with a larger screen, but it is what it is. 

Rever.co

I also had a chance to test out Rever.co today, thankfully it did pickup a lot of the slack that Apple Maps left behind. I am going with Rever right now in part because I think it most closely matches the features that I liked on my Garmin. Having both weather data and traffic data on the map to re-route is incredibly valuable for long road trip planning. 

The Rever app looks pretty good, but their CarPlay capabilities are kinda weak. It looks like it is more or less a screen mirroring device, and I was not quite sure how to trigger a ride recording on the CarPlay screen vs the iPhone app. It also was a bit unclear how to request a "twisty roads" ride from the CarPlay screen. 

The iconography though was much better and easier to read than Apple Maps. The Pro version also has some nice features like notifying people when you get home safe and you can set a privacy buffer for your home or any other address. 

Rever also is most attractive to me for the sharing features of maps, etc. 

Overall I want to develop some multi-day and multi-point routing in Rever in the coming weeks and really put it through its paces. I'll test out some other routing apps before the end of the year as well. 

I was having some thoughts the other day that coalesced around this idea of the "Wild World" and this concept of the unknown. It's a fairly common trope in most fantasy worlds that the world is portrayed as an untamed and dangerous place. Bastions of civilization are focused around a handful of cities and alcoves. I alway found the concept of the regarding the world as we know it and how its relates to our fantasy narratives as very interesting.  

In most fantasy narratives it is implied, if not explicitly stated, that the world is mostly uninhabited. There are pockets of dense populations, often times reflected in larger cities, but generally speaking, when your heroes or adventurers are out wandering the world, they are wandering into the unknown, into the wild. Even the established routes between known population areas are portrayed as dangerous. 

I suppose there is a sense of wonder in breaking away from our now common familiarity of travel. We can easily travel fifty miles without much of a thought with modern transportation and, there is little of the unknown wilderness still to traverse in that travel. Of course one has to be careful and not fall into the colonial concepts of barbarians or uncivilized peoples and portraying those as "lesser". T

Bringing this back to our own world though, it really made me think about what the 19th century and earlier must've looked like to most people. Even into the 1800's there were wide swaths of the world that were largely unexplored and you can see this reflected in all sorts of artwork. It triggers a bit of romanticism does it not? To think about our own world and imagine it more wild, one that is perhaps less populated and full of new places to discover. Would such a world be a better place if we brought modern (western) sensibilities to it? Who is to say, but it is fund to imagine. 

Megan and I saw Dune Part 2 a couple of weekends ago in iMax. It has been years I think since we last went to a movie at the theaters. Probably since before COVID if I had to guess. 

The movie was quite good and I really enjoyed the movie experience. As with any movie adaptation there are some changes from the book and I fully understand how those changes needed to be made. In the movie version there appears to be a much larger emphasis on the Bene Gesserit and their role in the whole prophecy. I would've liked to see a bit more of the space guild and the mentat, if only to highlight a bit how there were more forces as play in the whole galactic politics. 

My only other gripe with the movie that jumped out at me was the handling of Chani's relationship with Paul at the end. In the book she was much more aware of the potential political marriage that needed to occur and stayed with Paul. The movie changed this dynamic quite a bit, apparently having the two split up and bringing forth the conflict between Paul's religious war and the longterm identity of Dune itself. 

It's an interesting take. I got the impression from the books series that the Freeman wanted Dune to become green. The movie portrayed this a bit differently for me, and I got the impression that there is a sector of the Freeman who want to be free, but have Dune remain as it is due to their "heritage". I feel Chani would fall into this camp. The movie conveyed a real sense of dread and devastation. The scene where the Emperor's ship is attacked on the Dune surface was a demonstration of a brutal and devastating blow. 

I had a great time though and despite the hight cost of going to the movies, I would like to get out a bit more and go back. The past few years of movies have not aught me at all. As I posted about earlier this year, I am getting a bit burned out on streaming services and subscriptions all over the place. It was nice to get into that whole movie experience, with the popcorn and everything. Here's to the hope that movies can make a bigger impact as we move forward. 

I started reading the ACOTAR series a little of a year ago and the behest of my wife who had been reading these books for quite a while. It was only after seeing the continual clips on TikTok that I decided to give the the series ago, if only to see what the fuss was all about and to connect with my wife on what she was reading.

I liked the first book, but I didn’t love it. I could see the appeal, but as a pure fantasy novel, I wasn’t entirely taken by the story that was presented. I continued on reading the second book and I could see how the writing improved significantly. While working through the series it was interesting to observe my interpretations of the scenes and development compared to my wife. I saw things that she didn’t and vice versa.

By the end of the second book I was hooked. I was really drawn into the world and if I am being honest the love story between Rhys and Feyre was very well written. The overall story was just “OK” for me, but it was the personal moments and the family that she built that really had me invested in this story.

I love that the third book gave us the opportunity to really learn a bit more about the other kingdoms and get to know those characters. The war with Hyburn was a nice topping point to the whole series. In the end I only had a couple of minor quibbles with the final book, and most of those issues arose near the end. The first issue is the sudden reappearance of the Archeron sister’s father. For me it came out of nowhere with no context. I dont even believe Maas connected his coming to Lucien setting out to find the one human queen. The other major issue was that none of the major characters or other lords died at the end of the book. It made for a happy ending sure, but it seemed a bit improbable and removed some of the gravity of the situation.

I was also a bit confused when the other high lords who were able to change into a beast during the final battle. Rhys and Hellion I believe both did this. I though that was Tamlin’s specific power as the lord of the Spring Court? All of the other lords have distinct powers, but if they all can change into beasts what does that leave Tamlin with?

In the end though, this who series was about the relationship between Feyre and Rhys and it had me fully invested. It was touching and quite beautiful and I love how Maas showed how much they actually cared for each other.

I’m not sure if I will continue on to the other books in this series, but I think I am definitely a fan of Maas and her writing, and I will certainly check out some of her other series at some point.

I’ve been playing Baldur’s Gate 3 for the past month or so, since it came out on the Xbox. People have been praising this game since August so I was pretty excited to get into the game. I am a huge D&D and TTRPG fan afterall, so the prospect of bringing that to a videogame seemed pretty exciting.

I’ve just hit Act 3 this past week and I think I am about 60-70 hours in. If I am being honest, I dont think I like this game very much and it almost entirely boils down to the combat.

But before we really get into that, let’s talk about some other things in the game that just don’t seem to connect with me. The game is very heavility influenced by the actual D&D roleplay mechanic system. Unforuntely, that brings all of the similar trappings that come with playing D&D, but without the benefit of having the ability to get contextual information or clarification form your dungeon master. Roleplay is probably my favorite part of D&D and Baldur’s Gate on the whoile does a pretty decent job of this. However, it obfuscates the skill checks and rolls in most roleplay or social situations. I very often will find myself in a conversation which results in a roll, but I have no way to know which character may be most appropriate for the situation or context. Furthermore, when a roll like Persuasion is required I have no idea what the stat for the chracter that I have select is. If the game didn’t explicitly have a dice roll in these situations, I probably wouldn’t care, but if it is going to show me that actual roll, every…single…time at least let me see what my modifier is before I select that as a dialog option.

Contextual clues are the biggest frustration I have with this game. There have been way too many situations where I am walking around the world where combat will just suddenly start, or worse yet, I think it will, and it doesn’t resulting in a conversation that has to preempt combat. Just today I wrestled with a combat scenario against some Githyanki in a hidden library. I must’ve run this combat 6-7 times. After getting obliterated the first time I tried to sneak and get surprise on the enemy for an attack. every single time I would get a spell off and then the conversation would trigger and then waste the concentrate or spell I just cast. I had a nearly identical level of frustration with the combat that occured at the entrance of the Moonrise Towers in Act 2.

I basically had to “cheese” the combat to get an upper hand due to the action economy. Almost every combat has significantly more combatants than your party.

Let’s continue our conversation though on that Githyanki fight and the way it was structured. There were two portals on the sides of the room, summoning in more Githyanki each round. Those portals were placed just sor perfectly to be out of reach of any of my spells like Fireball, etc. This is frustrating game design, because it is almost impossible to know that those exist until you fail at a first attempt of combat. There was no way going into that room to know how to position my characters and accommodate for that specific setup. So many of the combat encounters have this same sort of thing and it is just driving me away from wanting to continue to play.