Instead of falling down the fiscal cliff, lets jump it instead!

Posted on December 3, 2012 by SJ

I personally believe that the fiscal cliff was a calculated move from the start.  In 2010, Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives.  This put the writing on the wall that Obama could be facing a repeat of what took place in 1994 and forced former President Clinton to moderate his goals and realistically work with the other side of the aisle.  Obama is incapable of actual decision making or compromise.  He simply states a goal that he wishes to achieve and relies on those beneath him to do the dirty work.

Generally speaking, any time Obama says something in public which I actually agree with I can be sure that his actual intentions are the polar opposite…  Spending over the past 4 years has been an acceleration of the Bush era fiscal policies which in themselves jacked up our national debt significantly.  The problem is that the threat of Republicans neutralizing his own fiscal policies could not be ignored, so a plan was devised which would take advantage on the predictable gridlock that would occur between a Republican House and a Democrat Senate.

The first goal of this plan was to create the appearance of concern over spending and debt, thus a ‘super-committee’  was created with the task of creating a plan to reduce the deficit.  The fine print here was that should no agreement be reached, immediate across the board spending cuts would take place which would total about $1 Trillion over 10 years.

The second goal of this plan was to shift blame for the fallout to the Republicans.  Most fail to realize that the Republicans have only been in the majority in the House of Representatives since January of 2011.  For 2009 and 2010, the brunt of Obama’s fiscal policy had been enacted by the previous congress, so at best when the Republicans took the House in 2011 all they could do is attempt to stop further increases.  The die had already been cast with billions upon billions of so called “stimulus” spending and the passing of the Affordable Care Act.

The final goal was to disenfranchise supporters of the House Republicans by carefully guiding them into a no win situation. The Republicans do not want to increase taxes on anyone.  The Democrats do not want to cut spending or entitlements.  Should we hit the fiscal cliff, the media as well as the administration will immediately blame Republicans for putting the top 1% ahead of everyone else.  This will feed into the class warfare attack model used by the modern Left to redirect culpability to anyone but themselves.  Should we avoid the fiscal cliff but allow tax increases – any tax increases – the Republicans will be seen as weak by their supporters and I’m sure someone has calculated the effect this will have on the 2014 congressional election cycle.

I have absolutely no faith in elected Republicans to stand their ground here.  Generally, the establishment will play it safe (for themselves) and cave to the demands of the Democrats.  I would not be surprised if the plan is already drafted, and conspirators on both sides of the aisle are simply running down the clock in order to pass a plan at the last minute sometime before they recess early next week.  Personally I believe we should not only hit the cliff, but jump it.

Should the Republicans stand their ground and no compromise plan be made, everyone’s taxes will go up on January 1st as the Bush tax cuts expire.  Discretionary spending will be cut by $100 Billion dollars per year over 10 years.  That is the money spent by our Government that is not mandatory like Medicare – it requires Congressional approval.  The debt ceiling is going to increase dramatically (some articles I’ve read say upwards of $2 Trillion).  Now Obama is playing the long-con here.  His goal is to both increase spending for entitlements as necessary to support the millions of Americans who either actually need them, have earned them as a result of retirement or military service, or have become reliant on them due to the piss poor economy and its effect on the job market – as well as increase “revenue” by increasing taxes on anyone earning over $250k per year to the tune of $1.6 Trillion dollars.

By pushing us to the fiscal cliff and returning tax rates to where they stood during the Clinton administration, there will be an immediate bump in revenue as all taxpayers are forced to pay more… however higher taxes never generate higher long term revenue.  The wealthy (who contrary to popular opinion are not all Republicans) will find new ways to shield their income from taxes, and more businesses will quickly run for the borders with the yapping dogs of higher tax rates and the Affordable Care Act nipping at their heels.  The unemployment rate will skyrocket along with entitlement spending to soften the blow for the unemployed and working poor while enabling greater dependency on those entitlements.  All of this considered, the suffering endured – if played correctly by the Republicans – could yield majority control of Congress and quite possibly de-fang Obama’s agenda…albeit many years too late.

All things considered, if we hope for any real change to fiscal policy in this country that stands to improve the economy and persona liberty – it will only be done by embracing Conservative ideals and supporting politicians who espouse those principals.  Not only will the next generation of Conservative leaders have to overcome a massive media machine hell bent on supporting the status quo, they will also have to overcome the road blocks placed by their own establishment leaders who continue to put their own interests ahead those of our nation.  To be clear, 20 years from now this period will be lauded in history as the dawn of a Marxist era in the United States of America unless the testicles of Conservatism finally descend and we begin to try and make a nation that our great grandchildren could be proud of again.  There is absolutely no way that we can reclaim control of Congress without true Conservative leaders.  There is absolutely no way that we can reclaim control of the White House without a true Conservative candidate.  There is absolutely no way forward for us unless we are bold, take control of the debate, and free ourselves from the shackles of Socialist ideology one voter at a time.  We’ve fallen behind, we’ve not only lost ground, but handed it over to the other side without pause for far too long.

It’s going to have to get far worse before it gets better, and that may be the price we all pay for sitting back as the very ground beneath our foundation of liberty is washed away by the illusion of security so happily offered by our elected leaders.

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Far Cry 3

Posted on December 2, 2012 by SJ

I’ve played the Far Cry games ever since it’s very attentive AI enemies would locate and kick my ass for making the mistake of shuffling through the not-high-enough high grass.  Since then, it’s blossomed into a full on sandbox style FPS with Far Cry 2.  Now FC2 was OK, although I still have yet to beat the game because it simply got too repetitive for my tastes (the curse of any big sandbox title is the tendency to fill the empty spaces with repetitive grinding that makes the game redundant and boring).  Still,  after seeing some of the previews for the 3rd in the series I decided to give the game a try.

I’ve put in about 10 hours so far, and from my POV the game’s biggest weakness is that it was published/developed by Ubisoft.  Nothing like trying to play your new game and getting the pimp hand because yet again their back-end DRM infrastructure has broken.  I’m sure that might dissuade a handful of software pirates but like gun control and Obamacare – it just ends up hurting the folks it was intended to “help.”

FC3, like many other shooters released over the past few years has decided to incorporate many RPG style features such as leveling, skill trees, crafting, and looting.  When a friend asked me to describe the game in a few words, I replied “It’s Skyrim with machine guns.”  Of course, I got bored with Skyrim after committing a paycheck worth of time to the game because it became too redundant and boring.  I’m not quite there with FC3 yet.

You start the game on a tropical paradise overrun by pirates.  You and your friends were there on vacation, and ended up being captured then held for ransom by the pirates.  With the help of your older brother who’s a soldier on leave, you escape and the game begins.  Immediately you’re approached by the indigenous people who have been struggling to overcome the pirates and regain control of their homeland.  Your skills expand through the addition of a “tatau” which is a tattoo on your arm that illustrates your choices on the skill tree and identifies you to everyone as a warrior for the islanders.

It’s not hard to start making money, collecting weapons, crafting syringes from plants (health, other boosts) and other accessories with the skins of various animals roaming the massive landscape.  Want to carry more weapons?  Kill some animals and craft a larger holster.  More ammo?  More health? Better armor?  That’s right.  You start with the ability to carry 1 gun and a pathetic amount of ammunition and health syringes.  While stealth is key to many of the games missions and other tasks – it isn’t necessary.  At least it isn’t so necessary that it is annoying and distracts from gameplay (ie Deus Ex, Splinter Cell, Dishonored, etc…)  They make stealth fun.  Sure, you can just run into a stronghold shooting, but you can also do it from a distance with one of my 2 favorite weapons – a silenced sniper rifle or the recurve bow.  Accomplish the task without being detected, and you get various bonuses like the ability to carry even MORE ammunition…. YEAH!

I’m not bored with it yet – even though it took me 2 nights of play to return to Minecraft for a break from the action… It’s still worth the price of admission.

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5 Simple Rules For Republicans To Win Elections

Posted on November 27, 2012 by SJ

So we’ve got at least 4 more years of the Neo-Socialist agenda to run unchecked in America.  Taxes will rise, spending will rise, everything is going to cost more, and the best chance we had at changing direction was wasted on a guy who blew his load in the first debate and spent the remaining time until election day playing it safe, moderate, and to lose.

Back in 2008, I predicted that the Republicans couldn’t win an election by running a moderate, and that they collectively lacked the balls to do anything but.

The only way Republicans have any hope whatsoever to win seats in the House, Senate, or Oval Office is to be bold.  They need bold and dramatic ideas.  They need to take the fight to the Democrats, stand their ground, and do whatever it takes to win.  I’ve heard a lot of the talking heads I generally agree with start to complain that the only way the Republicans can turn the tide is to take back the schools…  To go after the revisionist history being taught and the Liberal indoctrination permeating our educational institutions.

Talk about some really stupid smart people.

Before I get to what needs to be done to win, we need to accept some simple truths.  First, the media is lost.  The schools are lost.  The tide has turned and a majority of voting Americans are openly supporting Neo-Socialist, Progressive, Liberal ideas regardless of whatever truth is professed by the dissenters.  The American people have the attention span of a horny Beagle in a puppy farm and will gladly sop up whatever is reported by the mainstream media or taught by public and higher education.  Attacking the schools will be as successful as attacking the media… you can’t kill the messenger, however you CAN and MUST change the message.

Obama was RIGHT when he attacked Romney and the Republicans for running on old ideas.  It didn’t matter what the ideas were.  He said his piece repeatedly and the silence from his opposition was DEAFENING.  It was one of the common themes throughout the campaign season… The Obama campaign and its supporters made an accusation, and with very little exception – the Romney campaign took it and then pulled the string on his talking point See & Say which hadn’t been updated since 2008.

Taking a queue from the Romney campaign, I have my own 5 point plan for winning the elections to come.  We already know our ideas are better, but what nobody seems to grasp is that NOBODY CARES.

1. BE BOLD. During the election, Romney proposed tax cuts, spending cuts, balanced budgets that would take 20 years to achieve.  12 years ago, we elected a man who promised just that and regardless of extenuating circumstances set the stage for what we are enduring right now and will continue to endure long after Obama has constructed his presidential library and pads his coffers with paid speaking engagements.  Don’t cut income taxes, ELIMINATE THEM ACROSS THE BOARD.  IRS? YOU’RE FIRED.  Don’t cut spending, ELIMINATE IT.  Don’t allow big government to persist, EVISCERATE IT.  We need to flood the pool of human resources with unemployed federal workers.  ENTITLEMENTS?  ELIMINATE THEM.  Give a helping hand when its needed, but make it easier for the free market to lend that hand.  TAX BREAKS for businesses that provide free food, free education, free health care.  Take the ideas that are rooted in Conservatism, that work every time they’re tried, AND PUSH THEM TO THE LIMIT.  Oh yeah BTW – GET VOTER ID PASSED.  Every American has a Social Security number, every American has a face and a name, tie the 3 together on a *FREE* ID card and make sure that every vote cast in an election is VALID.  Votes should also be cast INSTANTLY, and each voter should get a RECEIPT for their vote.  It’s a transaction like any other.  Provide ID, cast your vote, confirm your choice, get a receipt.  ENHANCE ACCOUNTABILITY AT EVERY LEVEL!

2. CLEAN HOUSE.  John Boehner?  Please.  It’s BONER, not BAINER.  The guy is a moderate and needs to go.  The Tea Party acted boldly and managed to regain the House for the Republicans by loudly and unabashedly supporting the campaigns of Conservative politicians.  The Republican establishment responded by putting the biggest RINO since John McCain in charge.  There are many places online where you can find lists of RINO’s.  One such example is provided by the “Club For Growth” – a PAC which monitors the votes made by politicians and actually scores them based on their support of pro-growth (that’s economic, not Government) Conservative policies.  There are 33 seats in the Senate up for grabs in 2014, 5 of the 13 Republican seats are held by RINO’s.  That means that unless a true CONSERVATIVE candidate challenges them, it will either change hands to the Democrats or remain RINO.  With 20 Democrat seats up for grabs, I’d say at least 9 show enough of a split that they could go either way.  With Democrats already working to rewrite the Senate rules (which they enacted during Bush) so that a super-majority is no longer required to break a filibuster, they’re already stacking the deck and preparing for 2014.  SO SHOULD WE.

3. BE TRANSPARENT.  One of my biggest gripes about Romney, beyond my simple assertion that neither he or Paul Ryan were Conservative enough, is that he wasn’t nearly as transparent as he should have been from the start.  How much time did we allow the media and the Obama campaign to control the message by focusing on his tax returns, his history with Bain Capital, or that he explained his policy proposals with generalizations?  How much ground could have been gained if he’d been completely transparent from the start?  Perhaps enough to overcome the hesitation of voters due to his less than dyed-in-the-wool Conservative record?

4. REDEFINE CONSERVATISM.  The tenets of American Conservatism have not changed.  Limited government.  Free market.  Individual liberty and responsibility.  Ok, so you can get us 12 million new jobs in 4 years by cutting taxes and eliminating loopholes… HOW?  We can shout how every time Conservatism is tried, that it has worked from the rooftops until our vocal chords snap – unless we can clearly, concisely, and undeniably illustrate EXACTLY how that idea can work, why it will work, and how we can make it work from DAY ONE (bold ideas don’t take 20 years to reap results) – the Democrats will continue to control the message.  Bush gave us tax cuts, tax cuts that even Obama has been afraid to meddle with the past 4 years… WHY IS THAT, EXACTLY?

5. TAKE CONTROL OF THE MESSAGE.  If I’m watching the news, and I don’t hear a report or an opinion which rubs me the wrong way – then I automatically KNOW I am being lied to.  I’m not talking about when Fox News tries to report on Fast & Furious or Benghazi, I’m talking about when they sit back as John Boehner and the Republican establishment pull our future out from under us by not standing up for the people.  I’m not talking about when ABCCBSNBCMSNBCCNNETC rant on about a War on Women, I’m talking about when months after a successful terrorist attack on our Embassy in Benghazi, they continue to sugar coat it and give the administration a pass.  The media should be the last line of defense between a government and its people, and not a shill for the party in power.  I *LONG* for the days of when they covered George W Bush, and every gaffe, every decision, every single aspect of that Administration fell under the microscope of media scrutiny.  Essentially – the media is a lost cause for Republicans and Conservatism.  The Left doesn’t take Fox News, or the countless other alternative media sources seriously, and the Right can’t hope for any accurate and objective journalism from the mainstream.  The Left sets the tone, creates the dialogue, and the media delivers that message like Moses on the mountain.  Education is a lost cause.  I had 1 openly Conservative teacher in all my years of schooling, the rest either happily prattled on with opinions rooted in Left Wing ideology or remained silent and just did their jobs.  We need to cut out the middle men here, make a bold statement, and back up that bold statement with dramatic action.  We need to take control of the message and deliver it straight to the people by any means necessary.  We need to flood the hearts and minds of our population with so much truth that by proxy the mainstream media INCLUDING FOX NEWS look like the manipulative and idiotic preachers riding the coattails of the very government they were provided constitutional authority to PROTECT US FROM.  Every time some talking point is delivered by an Administration (regardless of party affiliation) only to be echoed and amplified by a media megalith without contest, the first 5 words out of every American’s mouth should be “ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?”

The table we are sitting at today was prepared long ago by our apathy, by our propensity to settle for what we have been given without question, by the fact that every single day since our nation was founded we have collectively and willingly sacrificed the reality of our liberty for the illusion of security.  Politicians have cast aside the people in favor of preserving the state – and we all let them.  I believe that the only way to stop this American De-evolution is to be bold, to support Conservatism and truly Conservative candidates, to get up from the table, throw it aside, and start taking our liberty back.

End of sermon.

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Most Wanted? Most overstated.

Posted on November 25, 2012 by SJ
Finally got my hands on Need For Speed – Most Wanted (the new one) – They decided to take an open-world route with the game ala Burnout Paradise (same developer, Criterion) – graphics and physics are great for an arcade racer but the complete lack of structure beyond the racing makes the game a royal pain in the ass. It’s like driving with cheat codes… Every car in the game is accessible from the start, you just need to locate them. To upgrade each car, you need to complete a handful of races in order to make them competitive enough to defeat the ‘most wanted’ car at each level with your goal being to achieve ‘most wanted’ status. I put about 7 hours in to the game before I called it quits. I’m all for open world sandbox titles but for those of us who desire some level of structure to our games, it provides endless possibilities, infinite results, and absolute tedium. What a pain in the ass.
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There are few things in life which are certain…

Posted on November 14, 2012 by SJ

One of them you can count on though, is that a Call of Duty title will be… AWESOME.

I decided to cave on the evening of November 12th, and make an attempt to find something that could break my Minecraft habit (note: I still play it when I need a break from CoD).  The past handful of games I’ve invested in, besides Minecraft, have been stinkers.  Skyrim, Sleeping Dogs, Dishonored, all big titles with huge fan bases that managed to lose my interest within a few hours, if not days of game play.  Most times I purchase games, I wait for a sale and then buy a title at a heavy discount.  Investing several hours of hard earned pay is a risk.  I’m paying a premium in the hopes that I get gameplay which encourages me to see it through until the end.  I don’t even care if I’ve spent countless hours playing a game only to move on… My rule of thumb for a good game is that from the moment I install it, I can’t stop playing until I’ve completed it.

Call of Duty – Black Ops 2 had me from the first gunshot.  Above the cut scenes, plot, graphics, professional voice overs, the game play had me sold.  The entire plot revolves around a new terrorist, 25 years in the future who has plans on (what else) getting the remaining superpowers to kill each other off so he can walk in and take control.  Not a new idea, but who cares?  The story takes you forward and backward in time, as you fight through key events in the timeline that lead to the rise of the terrorist and his eventual grand assault.

Weapon selection varies depending on the time period.  I’m having more fun with the future weapons which include sights which pick up the heat signature of an enemy and make it easier to target them…  One of my favorite aspects of a CoD title is that depending on the weapon and the wall – if an enemy is taking cover, you get to shoot them THROUGH THE WALL.  It never gets old.  Another perk which has made a return is the ability to change the fire mode of a weapon.  I don’t like wasting ammunition, I don’t like running and gunning, I like to put the bullets where they need to go as efficiently as possible.  Earn the add-on through game-play, and you can modify compatible weapons with any number of features including select fire.

I’ve seen a few glitches so far, the occasional AI character who just sits idly by as you approach with a mandate to take their life… A mission where you operate a drone aircraft which fails for no apparent reason, then returns you to the fray with an inability to fire that leaves you stuck on the map, and fairly vague controls of a mainframe computer where you need to hold down a specific key on the keyboard while swiping your mouse.  Nothing major, nothing that can’t be overcome with a Google search or a quick save/quit/reload, but annoying nonetheless.

The game is scripted, at times you are limited in your movements and actions, but overall the developers have successfully hidden most of the script.  You have to get to the destination, and while you are able to leave the mission area which results in a reset – overall you can choose your own path to get there.  I’ve also found many places where the game is utterly chaotic, like the missions where you assist the Mujaheddin in pushing back a Soviet assault.  You get a horse, a gun, a stinger, and a huge freaking map to lay waste to.

One last complaint about an otherwise stellar title is the inclusion of strategic/squad combat missions.  When I first saw this, and went through the tutorial I quietly cursed under my breath…  I don’t like squad combat games.  I want a mission, a target, and a gun…  The squad combat involves several objects that must be protected with a handful of soldiers and equipment in a geographically diverse map.  At any point you can zoom out to a tactical view, select a unit, and reposition them as needed.  You can also take manual control of any individual unit and join the fight.  Since its not my bag, I just moved everyone to the central location, let the enemy destroy everything else, and held out until the time ran out.  I found it all rather clumsy – but again, it’s not my bag.  I was also very satisfied when I discovered that the squad assault missions are optional.

Once I finish running through the game this time, I think I’ll even venture online for some multiplayer just to mix things up a bit, but I can honestly say that they’ve done it again, and what you get for the $59.99 sticker price (please don’t take this as a suggestion that they should charge more) is MORE than what you pay for.  It’s a blood and guts tactical shooter that has yet again set the bar…. until Modern Warfare 5 comes out. 🙂

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Re: Benghazi

Posted on October 31, 2012 by SJ

Like many others, I’ve been following the developments regarding the attack on our embassy in Benghazi, Libya and the slowly building firestorm surrounding how we let it happen, why we did nothing to stop it, and why the Administration kept pushing the idea that it was a spontaneous assault resulting from a now 7 month old video on YouTube.

I’ve heard from folks in the intelligence community, talking heads, pundits, etc… that we had assets ready to evacuate the embassy which could have been on site anywhere from 2-5 hours after the assault began… That the White House knew of the attack within minutes due to the alert being sent by ‘flash traffic’ which requires that the information rapidly ascends the chain of command straight up to POTUS…. That requests for additional security leading up to the assault had been denied… That we had a predator drone flying overhead which allowed the scene to unravel real time on monitors within the White House… as the attack escalated and sacked the embassy, as well as the “safe house” kilometers away… two Navy Seals went in against orders in a heroic, yet doomed attempt to rescue and protect our people.

It’s a nightmare, an absolute nightmare.  11 years after the largest terrorist attack on US soil, we have another coordinated attack on our embassy…  No straight answers from the administration which is still apparently waiting for the investigation to complete…  It just doesn’t make any sense to me.  Times like these are when I firmly attach my tinfoil hat and start to think of various scenarios…

Did this happen because the President was stumping on having Al Qaeda ‘on the run’ and Bin Laden sleeping with the fishes?  Did it happen this way so that the illusion Obama has been trying to construct for the duration of his campaign could endure?  I’d say that would be the most obvious, if not cynical explanation.

Did it happen because the administration was fearful of further mirroring the Carter administration with a failed rescue attempt similar to what took place in 1980 and cost the lives of 8 servicemen?  Obama has a record of voting “present” when a big decision comes up, but the President can’t vote “present” – he’s there to make the tough calls.  Where was his gutsy decision making ability on 9/11/12?

What’s the outcome here… Every day more information comes to light showing that the administration knew what was going on and had plenty of time to act… but didn’t.  Instead, brave Americans died under his watch and were left behind without support, while focus was shifted to the scapegoat on YouTube.  We shouldn’t be in the dark, yet we are – and we can’t blame it on Hurricane Sandy.

One thing I’m afraid of here folks, is that either we won’t get a clear answer on what transpired until after the election – or that Obama will complete his term, and the entire event will fade into our distant memories if/when Romney is elected to office.  Personally, I believe we as Americans deserve better.  I believe there will always be un-answered questions here, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t start answering them.

If the President had the information and the opportunity to do what was necessary to save our people if not stop the attack – and failed to act… I’d have more respect for him if he just came out and said it.  I’m not holding my breath.

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Nobody likes Sandy in their ass…

Posted on October 31, 2012 by SJ

What a freaking calamity that was.

I already had a generator which back-feeds into my home via the garage, plus bread, milk, juice, eggs, chocolate, ice cream, etc…  I remember on Saturday thinking ‘it is way too calm out right now.’  It was overcast, but warm and hardly any wind.  Then on Sunday afternoon it started to pick up, and it just kept coming.

Irene didn’t really affect us much, the surprise snow storm last October 29th did more damage for us – its the reason I picked up the generator in the first place.  Our power went out around 8pm on Sunday, and the Internet remained active until about 11pm.

I’ve never felt/heard/seen wind like that before in my life.  The house shook a few times, we didn’t get much rain at all though.  The next day I went outside to survey the damage – many large and small branches were torn from the trees in my yard… 5 shutters were ripped off the house… a 2 foot section of aluminum flashing tore off the roof… my barbecue (which fell over on Sunday afternoon/evening, and was moved up close to the house) was again on its side back where it started which I found pretty odd.  The little vent for my dryer was torn up… but overall we fared well.

Yesterday I went on a trek to replenish my fuel supply as well as locate a bigger fuel storage container. My generator holds 7.2 gallons of gas, and I get about 2 hours per gallon…  I’ve been using 3 separate 2 gallon containers which is fine and dandy, but with a questionable power situation locally I didn’t want to have to worry about not having a bigger amount on hand if I couldn’t get to any stations that were up and running.  Pretty much every home center in the area that had power was completely out of anything but the smallest gas cans.  I ended up driving out to a Gander Mountain store in Dickson City, PA (just outside of Scranton) and picking up a 12-gallon fuel cell for a motor boat.

While the container cost significantly more than a typical gas can ($120 vs $20-$40), the largest gas can any store carries is around 5 gallons so at 12 gallons I can have significantly more on hand.  The other advantage is that it is heavier duty than a normal gas can, has a fuel gauge, a vent, and most importantly a hookup for a fuel line.  I still need to scrounge up a siphon pump, right now I start the siphon with a turkey baster to the fuel line…  Eventually what I would like to do is hook the fuel cell up to the generator’s petcock so I could feasibly run the machine for up 38 hours before I needed to refill it.

According to O&R, the power in my area should be restored within 10 days, generally they have it up much faster than that… They can’t get it up soon enough for me as spending $50 a day on gasoline is getting expensive pretty damned quick.

Compared to other areas of the east coast hit by this hurricane, we fared very well.  I’ve heard reports of beaches and boardwalks completely blown away, entire communities ravaged, fires, floods, etc…  I’m sure that like every other disaster we’ve collectively faced – we’ll all pull through, come out no worse for the wear, and get back to arguing over stupid shit in no time.

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Maybe Best Buy would be better off if pretentious gits just stayed home?

Posted on October 29, 2012 by SJ

Maybe Best Buy Would Compete Better If Their Employees Acknowledged Customers

The commenting system at The Consumerist has been offline since the last time mysterious hacker types caused problems… so when I see posts like this come up I’m forced to fight my desire to reach through the screen and choke the person sharing their story.

Long story short, person goes to Best Buy to purchase a tablet.  He finds what he wants on display, but can’t find the actual tablet to pick up and purchase.  So he waits about 15 minutes, watches various Best Buy employees moving about, doing their job, and grows frustrated that not a single one has come over to hold his hand.  He finally decides to break out his smartphone, thinking that one of the employees will have a moment of clarity and realize ‘Hey, this guy on his smartphone isn’t checking his email or Facebook, he’s price matching!  He’s going to buy the tablet on Amazon!  Red alert!’  Nobody came after another 8 minutes or so, and he finally went ahead with purchasing the tablet via Amazon on his phone.

Now folks, I’m no Best Buy fan boy.  I’ve had more than one experience where I wanted something that was listed as in stock, that a phone call verified was in stock, only to get there and not have it in stock.  I’ve dealt with their idiotic price-match policy which refused to cut me any slack when a competitor 10 minutes away through the Holland Tunnel could knock $500 off the TV I wanted to buy.  They’re no saints, they’re in trouble, and it’s really no secret why.

All that being said, is this guy serious?  You’re not standing in a Tesla dealership, you’re one of many consumers standing in a busy big box store with a bug up your ass thinking that some lowly blue-shirted minion should be kissing your ass instead of every other person in the store.  See, here’s the thing folks – there are businesses run by assholes, and assholes who sometimes run to businesses.  When I’m out and about, shopping at a store, do I always rely on a representative coming to me and offering assistance?  Nope.  Most times, when I’m asked – I already know what I’m looking for and where to find it.  Still, I’ve been in the same situation as this guy, where I can’t find what I’m looking for, or when I need some help – and that random offer from a rep would be a great help.

In those cases, I take a moment to realize that I’m not standing in the formal menswear department at Nordstrom, or peering through the window of a Fiat 500, I’m in a big ass department store surrounded by several dozen other nameless, faceless consumers who also may need help.  I could sit there, and get pissed off that nobody is coming over to hold my hand and tell me its all going to be OK…  I find the nearest rep in that department, and I actually ASK THEM FOR HELP.

So yes, Best Buy isn’t the best – but part of good customer service is the “good customer” – and if the original poster for this story was really hell bent on buying that tablet and having it in their hands that day, they would have found a rep and asked them for help.  The fact that they supposedly waited nearly a half hour and bought it on Amazon just tells me they’re a pretentious git who would rather have something to bitch about than expound the effort required to ensure they’d have nothing to bitch about.

I hope his delivery is delayed… twit.

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Medal of Honor – Warfighter

Posted on October 29, 2012 by SJ

When it comes to gaming, there are a few genres I swear by, and a few that I wouldn’t touch if you paid me to.  Medal of Honor – Warfighter manages to touch a bit of them all without actually doing anything as of yet that makes me feel it was worth the effort required to install it on my PC.

The Medal of Honor series has been around for years, providing your typical war-based FPS experience.  Recently, like its main competition Call of Duty, they’ve branched out of World War II and into modern battles.  Their previous title of this series reboot – Medal of Honor – received many complaints which IMHO didn’t make any difference to me because the game was fun.  The biggest complaint was that the game was on rails.  Basically, the game had a script and you were tied to it.  Just about every FPS out there has a script to move the game along (not the plot, not the dialogue, but a sequence of events and a route through the map that brings you from a start point, through a battle, to the end of the mission), but the best ones enforce this script without you realizing it.

I didn’t mind the script in MoH, it was there, but it helped move things along.  The script in Warfighter is so set in stone you’d think the developer slowly walked down from the top of mount Sinai with grand stone tablets in hand.  This script gets in your way, incessantly.  There’s no chance to deviate, or room to explore alternate tactics.  While you have the ability to walk, run, crouch, jump or crawl – depending on the script, regardless of what you see your squad mates doing, you will only do what the script wants you to do.  Run to catch up with your squadmates?  No, not until you clear the area that you just saw them run through.  Want to knife that bad guy from behind?  Not if the game tells you to shoot him.  Want to shoot him?  Not if the game tells you to knife him.

Probably my biggest complaint about the first MoH was that your squad has an amazing ability to jump into your line of fire, while you’re firing, and then bitch at you for it.  The same thing happens in Warfighter, although so far it hasn’t gotten to the point where I’m mocking the AI for doing more to protect my targets than take the bastards out.

Another bit of ridiculousness involves the lack of balance when it comes to providing a ‘gritty, based on real events’ experience, but setting up situations where you’d likely get shot through the door.  Most games like this, when you breach a room you either kick it open and toss a flashbang, or blow the door open – afterwards you get some bullet-time where you can take advantage of the surprise and pick off a handful of unsuspecting bad guys.  In Warfighter, when you need to breach, a menu pops up and lets you select the method… kick, axe, crowbar, shotgun, etc…  If you kick, a good kick opens the door. Any of the other methods appear to involve smashing the doorknob 2 or more times until it falls out and THEN you kick the door.  Something tells me that if you’ve got a room full of armed gunmen, and they start to hear the doorknob getting smashed by a crowbar, they’re going to begin shooting before the door is even opened.

They follow this up with a sniper mission where you actually have to factor in the glide-path of the bullet to eliminate several RPG toting enemies about 175 to 200 meters away.  It’s a nice feature unless you are the type who prefers zooming in and picking them off.  It’s something they actually do fairly well, but with so much of the game being ‘point, click, dead’ it didn’t really fit.  They even give you a spotter who doesn’t do anything beyond letting your know there are ‘bad guys over there.’

Vehicle chases aren’t anything new in the genre, snowmobiles, quads, Warfighter ups the anti by having you chase quite possibly the best handling Land Rover ever manufactured.  It’s a tall SUV, you’re in a small sedan, yet it cuts through traffic with the greatest of ease as your ride constantly slams into everything like you’re driving on butter.

The graphics are spectacular, and the CG in the cutscenes are equally impressive.  My now 3 year old Intel i7 gaming laptop handles it well even with many of the settings maxed out.  Eye candy abounds… yet I really can’t find myself all that impressed by the game.  On one hand it tries to be Modern Warfare, on another it tries to be Arma 2.  A game I love, and a game I hate.  I can’t stand squad based shooters, nor do I enjoy all out warfare simulators like Arma 2, in the process of trying to incorporate aspects from both – MoH leaves me wondering what the point is.

You get spectacular environments, but you can’t veer off the scripted path – if you manage to, you fail.  You get a decent array of weaponry, but reloads take FOREVER, as does switching to melee halfway through a reload to eliminate one of the random AI enemies that magically appears right in front of you.  Weapon accuracy is also dictated by the script.  Sniper rifles require that you factor in the effects of distance on the shot you take, while sniping from a scoped M4 is generally dead on balls accurate…until you try to shoot someone when the game wants you to call in an airstrike.  I had the target dialed in, but watched as the bullets veered off in random directions every time I fired.  I managed to land a shot close enough that the AI was able to get a bead on me with non-scoped AK47’s and kill me with minimal effort.

The game is OK, but doesn’t warrant the price, and IMHO they didn’t learn much from the last MoH game, making it worse.

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Wolf!

Posted on October 24, 2012 by SJ

@realDonaldTrump

I’m scratching my head right now… Since last week I’ve heard a lot of talk about Donald Trump having some big announcement that could affect the outcome of the presidential election.  The hour finally arrived, and well… Huh?

To paraphrase – if Obama releases the applications and records related to his college career and passport, Trump will cut a check for $5,000,000.00 to a charity of Obama’s choosing.  This is to establish the transparency that Obama promised and never delivered.  This is so people will actually know something about their president.

I kinda sat there in stunned silence…  All I could think was… “that’s it?”

What could possibly be revealed here to change a thing?  We know Obama’s political agenda.  We know the people he’s aligned himself with over the course of his life, terrorists, Communists, racists…  Bill Ayers, Frank Marshall Davis, Jeremiah Wright, Big Bird.  It didn’t make a difference in 2008, how could it make a difference now?

My best guess here is that Trump is just f’ing around with Obama for giggles.  2 weeks left until the election, no record to stand on, no agenda beyond November 6th…  Yeah, free press for Trump, a little hope that he got the campaign to sweat, and in the end – Trump’s crying wolf about a man we already know is a wolf.

In other news, CNN released a report today that water – despite evidence to the contrary – is wet.

 

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