Ha!

Your 'Do You Want the Terrorists to Win' Score: 98%

You are a terrorist-loving, Bush-bashing, "blame America first"-crowd traitor. You are in league with evil-doers who hate our freedoms. By all counts you are a liberal, and as such clearly desire the terrorists to succeed and impose their harsh theocratic restrictions on us all. You are fit to be hung for treason! Luckily George Bush is tapping your internet connection and is now aware of your thought-crime. Have a nice day.... in Guantanamo!

Do You Want the Terrorists to Win?
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

I nearly scored perfectly. The only reason I hadn’t is because I didn’t vote for Kerry in the last elections. That’s better than both Mr. Yglesias (where I found the quiz) and Mr. Henley. I feel so proud. Hello from the radical left wing fringe! There’ll be cookies and punch later on.

Also, yes, I'm ashamed that I spotted the spelling error in my prize and corrected it even before it was caught by my spellchecker....

It Got Cold All of a Sudden

Review time again. A little confident of a few of the things I put up today. Some of the things I didn't put up, though, I'm less proud of. I'm not sure why but writing, today, seems to have turned into pulling teeth once again. I don't know if it's that I'm spending too much time gaming or doing other things but it's like I'm moving through lead again. Just in a bad mood for whatever reason and it's starting to tell in my many works. I'm just churning out dross again and I'm not liking it.

Anyhow, spent today mostly putting up Christmas decorations. And cleaning things up to be able to do so. The highlight of the day had to be the Bruins beating USC. That just drove me into a night of celebration and drinking and anticipation as my friends and I discussed just how things might tumble in Michigan's favor now. All I know right now is that a rematch between OSU and UofM is going to be a circus that makes last month's game look tame by comparison. And it would be just awesome to see.

The other day I mentioned that I was having problems with my roof and, specifically, with the persons hired to repair it. I still am, of course, that sort of thing just doesn't go away in a day or two but I'm getting over the initial shock of the roof over my head crumbling around me. I'll be looking into a few different companies as well as the original one to see if I can't get a better deal, somehow. And, well, one of the ways I've done so is through a little place called ServiceMagic. They take your information about the type of work you want done and match you with contractors in your area. You can view their references, licenses, insurance, and other information online in one easy package. And they also offer a lot of other references about dealing with such workers, getting work done, and other home repair and renovations. There are other places like it but this one was passed on to me by a friend who heartily recommended it. And from what I can see, I'd have to agree.

So, there's a lot of things going on and pressures from a lot of directions and I think I'm feeling a bit run down by the various mundane catastrophes of life. Even though I have a lot to be happy about my enthusiasm is being drained away by trudging through such things. Also, Auto Assault is turning out to be pretty blah. I'm stuck in low-level grinding at the moment with my main character and I haven't yet hit on another class I'd like to play. I wrote a bit about it earlier as a sort of "pre-review" I guess. It's not that I'm playing the game to have something to write about, mind, it's just that's how I always approach these sorts of games - I just don't usually bother to publish my notes. But I do have an eye on evaluating what I'm playing even as I'm able to just sit back and play. Maybe I'd be having more fun with the game if I wasn't looking to express my thoughts on it to someone else but, well, I'm having a lot of playing that sort of game, too.

Outlook: I'm going to be hungover tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get drunk on something, too.

[1] - 20 minutes start to finish.

Gamma Testing: Auto Assault

Playing a free trial of Auto Assault. Just as a remaindered for those among my fanbase who are not quite yet rabid enough to follow my every footstep.

I now remember why I never tried the game’s demo before. It’s 10Gigs. That’s a freaking huuuuuge file to someone who remembers it was amazing when games spread over more than one floppy disk (As an aside, I have two 200+GB harddrives currently mounted in BaseStar One. And they’re both full to the brim with files, movies, pictures, music, games, and whatever else I’ve stuffed them with. It’s not that I don’t have the space it’s that I had to get rid of some other things I was saving. Sigh, I’m going to have to break down and get some form of eternal storage because my poor, old CD-R just isn’t up to the task of shunting my data into a more permanent, archival form any more.) and when you throw in the installer and the time to patch, I’ve been waiting since last night to actually start playing. Yet again, this is another thing that reminds me of why I love Guild Wars (And can’t stand more traditional MMOs with their patch based updates that ignore streaming technologies. They’re learning, though. Look at WoW - you can walk the entire world and not hit a load screen between zones. Give it a couple years and see what happens.). All it took to get me into the game, originally, was a 90some kb installer and maybe five to ten minutes of installing and registering before I was playing. These days it’s ballooned to maybe a gig or two but in the early days – when other games were bloating to 4 or 5GBs, Guild Wars made a point of keeping below 1G. As a note to any designers – that’s a good thing. Bloated design is poor design and things should get simpler as they get better not bigger. Keeping your product accessible means that more people are likely to at least sample it. And that means more people are likely to stick around and enjoy it. 10Gigs of a game I’m only playing for 15 days and am hardly going to see all of is a colossal waste and a real barrier for me playing the game. Totally imba imho! And the little message that says “Patching – this may take a few minutes” for a freaking hour? Pisses me off no end.

Sorry, that old playtester hat is hard to put down. But, well, now I’m going to shift gears – so to speak – and talk more about the game itself. Personally, I find games of this sort fascinating. Some team of developers, programmers, designers, marketers and everything else spends years working and refining their product – one that’s just a little step away from the norm – and the collective reaction from the public is a big “so what?”. It’s the failed ideas and concepts that are often the most informative, after all. But, well, Auto Assault – I find – is a solid game but not a spectacular one. It takes a fresh approach to the MMO genre – you get to play as Mad Max, basically, with the serial numbers filed off – while sticking closer to some of its conventions than I would have guessed.

Starting the game I selected a Mutant Champion as the first class I’d play and spent my first game session powerleveling all the way up to the 10^th level (I know, it’s a sickness.). Now, I could care less about what the class is called just what it does. In this sort of game, at least, I’m a stat junkie. I want the character that’s going to give me the best chance of playing the game the way I’d like to play it. Mutants, as a race, have a built in bonus to their defense – they constantly regenerate health at a slow but steady rate. Figuring this would mean that if I was ever injured I’d be able to heal myself automatically and not have to sit around so much I was sold on that particular choice. Of the other races – Humans and Biomeks (think Cyborgs) – humans have a forceshield which also regenerates which, I admit, was tempting. But, fearing a Protoss situation where although the shield might come back their actual hitpoints would be extremely difficult to regain I passed – I’m a fan of the underplayed races, anyway. Biomeks just have more hitpoints than the others. As for the class, I went with Champion because it was, to my eye, the closest thing to a warrior or tank available. High offense, lots of defense, just a character class that’s out to dish out some punishment. That’s exactly what I was in the mood for when I was rolling up a character and that’s pretty much what I’ve gotten. Champions seem to agree with my playstyle. The regeneration was very nice. At lower levels. Now that I’m level 10 and have well over 200 hit points regenerating less than one a second isn’t all that effective. There are ways to upgrade that ability, of course, but for it to feel effective to me, I’d need to get about 1% of my total health back in a second – ideally, I’d like all my health back inside of a minute but that’s unrealistically fast as far as the designers are concerned, I’m sure – and I can’t get that at my level. The marginal upgrades to my regen I could get just aren’t worth the cost to me at right now.

Once in-game I was initially disappointed with the game. Oh, the interface and everything is beautiful and the hotkey bar to fill with goodies was like an old friend to someone who’s cut their teeth on Guild Wars. But the game seemed a little clunky and the controls were a bit difficult, for me, to manage. But, I kept at it and I discovered why I was initially put off by the driving. I was trying to strafe. Unlike most games there’s momentum when moving your character around. Since I’m using the old mouse/WASD – a controller format which is not particularly well suited to a driving game – it took a bit of getting used to having to brake and turn and power-slide and all the rest. Once I did, I stopped getting stuck or crashing into things. Otherwise the interface is clean, clear, and easy to use. There’s a lot of customizability – the power from your engine can be redistributed, for example, to give you more speed or more firepower or better armor at the cost of the other two, for example, and it’s possible to switch it on the fly (which I’m still getting a hang on) – although the character creation screen leaves a bit to be desired (But, then, I’ve seen the glory that is CoH’s character creation so I’m a bit spoiled. It does the job.). And plenty of ways of upgrading your character/car and plenty of stats and modifiers for those upgrades. There’s a lot of depth involved in tricking out your ride and I’m just getting a feel for it. I mean, for your weapons is it better to have a higher DPS or a longer range? Or is the other way around? I have no idea (I’ve deliberately not sought out the sorts of places this kind of information can be found. I’m not trying to play this game for the rest of my life so I figure if I can’t pick up these things on my own, at least a bit, I probably never will.) but it’s interesting to figure it out.

Combat is fast. Since it’s between cars, mostly, there’s a lot more movement than the typical MMO. It’s much more like an FPS where you’ll be constantly moving, circle strafing and pumping ammunition into your target until you or they drop. Each class has its own special abilities that can be used in combat and out further opening up possibilities. I ran up to level 10 the other day just to see the second tier of skills and how they’d play. Of my two favorites (and I have absolutely no idea what their names actually are nor do I care to learn) one lets me regenerate a little bit of health over a short time at the cost of losing the ability to fire a weapon – it’s saved me a few times and it’s great to speed recovery as I’m rolling towards my next waypoint. Now that I’ve sampled the other skills available, I’m going to invest heavily in it so it becomes even more effective. My other fave is a nuke, in so many words, a skill that does massive damage to any one target with a built in speed debuff. On lower levels it was almost assuredly an instant kill. At the level I’m at now it’s not so lethal but it still takes a good chunk out of an opponent so I can soften them up with my guns. I’ve only had one death and that was when I tried to take on three lv12 creatures with my cocky little lv8 death dealer. It doesn’t bother me much because of the lack of a death penalty and I’ve been much more cautious since.

At level 10 I’m still stuck in newbieville so I’ve yet to sample the PvP opportunities. I’m sure that I’ll stink up the joint at first but I intend to hop into it as soon as I’m able. Should have a real deathmatch feeling to it, if PvE combat is any indication. High end raiding content, so to speak, is likewise out of my range. I’ve yet to even party with anyone as I’ve been able to advance rapidly through solo play. As I expected, most of my XP has come from the many quests scattered throughout the land and I’ve been completing them as the NPCs were my drug dealers. As for the quest themselves, well, they’re nothing out of the ordinary. Some text box dialogs for flavor and then it’s off on a fetch quest or a snipe hunt or to pull this lever or that. Hopefully, later opportunities will be much better – more original and grander in scope – because there’s only so much “kill x of creature y to get drop z” that I can take. Tomorrow I’m going to sample a few other classes and see how the other races play. Then, I think I’m going to track down some leveling guides and maps so I can work my way out of the training grounds as quickly as possible (I am on a 15 day timer here) and hopefully get to see some of the cooler stuff.

One of the things that surprised me was the depth and complexity of the crafting system. It’s easily as complex as some I’ve seen in other games. Again, there are a lot of options and avenues to explore in taking apart and putting back together items to get something new. I haven’t done much of it myself because that’s really not my type of game and I’m more than a little overwhelmed by all the moving parts at the moment. There’s just sooo much (I’ve even acquired player housing along the way.) and although it’s familiar it’s also not quite the same as everything’s been given high-tech, sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, auto-mechanic names and concepts. Unless I find a good resource, I’m just not sure where to start or what good it’ll do me so I haven’t bothered.

Until I see more I’m going to reserve a decisive judgment for or against the game. Of my limited impression so far, I’m not going to be opening up a paid account. It’s fun enough that I’ll exhaust my trial account (and, probably myself) but I’m not sold on the game. And it’s getting a little boring. It’s got that “NCSoft” feel to its gameplay and I’m definitely a fan of that. But, well, here’s my thing at the moment: When loading between zones there’s a little progress bar. In other games it gives you a percentage or lets you know what files are being unloaded and unpacked or whatever. But in Auto Assault the conceit is that you’re downloading data from a satellite and the developers have gotten extremely cute with it. That little bar say all kinds of things like “checking core temperature” and “scraping elf paste off of wheels”. I’ll probably tire of it the more I see it but, at the moment, I find it mildly amusing (I’m a hard laugh to get). It’s exactly the sort of tongue-in-cheek, out of left field humor I was expecting from the game. But, elsewhere on the loading screen are descriptions of the zone you’re about to rez into. Well, if I may be unkind, those are crap. Filled with dry text from the game’s voluminous lore. Which, I’m sure someone worked very long and hard on it, and I even know a few people who do that sort of thing, but it’s just not that important. And it’s that sort of thing that’s filling the text boxes for the quests and everything else. I’d much rather have a game that doesn’t take itself too seriously and pokes fun at genre conventions (and it has a lot to jab at because it’s drawing from so much) with more than a little gleeful irreverence. In short, the game’s taking itself too seriously and it’s nowhere good enough to do that. This isn’t LoTRO with a vibrant backstory and a living game world with a dense mythology. It’s a little sci-fi MMO where people drive around in cars, it needs to loosen up a lot. For me, anyways. But, I'll let you know how I really feel in a few weeks, hopefully.

The Fallacy of Thinking Outside of the Box

Thinking outside the box.

No doubt a fresh idea when it originated but constant repetition by an army of consultants and businessmen who’ve understood the words but not the concept have rendered it a cliché. Unfortunate, but perhaps this will help. Tear down the walls. Free yourself of any constraints and preconceptions. Use any and every resource and viewpoint at your disposal when encountering a problem. Locking yourself into any one approach leaves you ill-equipped to deal with the entire problemset.

Thinking outside of the box still admits the existence of the box you’re trying to escape. Don’t think outside of it. Think without the box. Imagine it into nothingness and look with a set of eyes – at a world similar but different from your own.

The Fallacy of Showing versus Telling

Bah, can’t find a good link to set the stage so I have to do it myself.

Today we’re going to be talking about design. Specifically, about designing a sentence. So, let’s start with some words of wisdom from an old master:

“Perfection (in design) is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but rather when there is nothing more to take away.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

For all the writers out there, allow me to translate:

“Omit needless words.” - Strunk and White

You see, in any writing class I’ve ever been in I’ve been told to “show” but not to “tell” – to use vivid, descriptive passages in order to create a well crafted sentence (And one that’s, as you might imagine a bit longer and wordier and more complicated than the other way around. Here’s some examples. Look at that word count bloat as the design iterates.). But in any design class I’ve been told that simplicity not complexity is the goal. To reduce clutter and redundancy and strip things down to the essentials. Yet I hold these are not irreconcilable opinions (Just as I hold they’re not unentirely unrelated fields of creative expression.) so, why then, do apparently well-designed sentences tend to be longer and more intricate when the principles of good design would seem to say “I went to the store” is the height of elegant construction?

Telling someone “show” and don’t “tell” is all well and good when they’re first starting to learn. Descriptive, active writing is, of course, a nice thing. And getting people to put aside their preconceptions and stretch themselves creatively is a goal in and of itself. But it’s a false stricture. A way of telling people to write efficiently if not effectively. Whether something is showing or telling depends not just on the one sentence but upon the whole text. If I’ve spent he past three chapters (or paragraphs, or sentences, or whatever) describing “I” and the previous two the “store” then there’s no need – if I’ve done my job as a writer – to include such description in that one sentence because the rest of my design has encoded that information into the text already. It’s redundant and if a sentence like “I went to the store” fits my style and compliments the rest of my design – either by enhancing or contrasting it – then it’s a perfectly good way to write. A sentence rarely stands along in writing and it’s the effect of all of them together than determines what’s being shown and what’s being told. And in a story that’s been consciously designed you’re telling each and every line to the reader. What matter is not that you can stick to some arbitrary rules but whether or not you can do that telling efficiently. Because not wasting any effort is the hallmark of good design.

Next time: I take a baseball bat to anyone who ever said to me “write what you know” not “write about what you’re passionate”.

Post-Industrial Strength Blogging

In archeology there’s something known as the three age system. You’ve most likely heard of it – at least the gist thereof. It’s the whole Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age thing. And, as I understand it, there are any number of criticism to be leveled against it (such as the fact that it’s overly dependent on technological innovation and ignores other methods of development) but perhaps none more damning than the fact that it doesn’t work. Not, at least, once you get outside of the European stream of progression. Which is where the system was originated. And what it was designed to understand. Move it to other areas of the world and ages are skipped and what poor, old provincial European scholars thought of as necessary for a civilization to progress gets a bit hazy – take, for example, the Maya who charted the stars over a millenia before Galileo and who also discovered just about every use for the round things with holes in them except the most obvious one. Were they backwards because they didn’t have the wheel or where they ahead of their time thanks to their mathematic and scientific achievements? The system, like a metaphor, breaks and falls apart the more you stretch it.

All of which is to say I’ve thought of my own little system for numbering (What can I say, I’m a disciple of the Pythagoreans of the Renaissance, after all, who held that the world was created by God through the numbering of things. And Adam didn’t name things, he gave them numbers. Registry entries, if you will, in the database of the universal consciousness. Philosophy was really interesting back then, you know. I’ll spare you the link because it’ll take you some digging to get after it because it is deep and ingrained in that culture the way electricity is in mine.) the ages of man. And one that, unlike the three age system, incorporates the entire span of history that we can see and not just the bits before the current, modern age. Here it is:

Age of Cultivation – increased farming methods provide a level of surplus crops allowing for population growth. This level barely rises above subsistence farming. Food is the primary source of wealth and the source of all economic activity.

The dawn of civilization happens when people begin to farm. Sure there are hunter/gatherers and nomads long afterwards but these are relics and hold-overs from prehistory (As not every tribe advances at the same rate every “age” will have some contact with those from others and blur the distinctions. These categories are not hard and fast rules but more guidelines for a theoretical model for consideration. Think (link Turing Machines). But civilization is the province of the cities. And it’s only when you can grow enough food that you can start to develop cities. There, although the vast majority of people are tied to the land and must spend the majority of their time providing their basic needs, inside the safe walls of the city and with the full stomachs that a full silo of grain provides individuals can begin to specialize – to a degree that most primitive settlements and clans of wandering herdsmen cannot. Most are farmers but you get your bakers and brewers and doctors and scholars and soldiers and kings and everything else.

Age of Industrialization – farming techniques evolve to the point where a small subset of the population can support the rest. This displaces a large portion of the population that would formerly have been chained to the land to move on to manufacturing jobs which create a surplus of goods. More people producing more goods lowers their price and increases their availability which raises living standards. Trade goods are the main unit of barter.

If the previous age began with the farm then this one begins with the factory (And I’m not talking about smokestacks belching soot, I’m talking about any means of production that’s going to churn out a consistent product at a decent clip. So, when talking about Europe I put the Industrial Age a lot earlier. Probably 1200~1400, if not earlier. Maybe even as far back as the Romans. It depends on if I want to see the history of Europe as a continuum with peaks and valleys or if I think that the Roman civilization completely backslid into the previous age if not oblivion and a new civilization arose from the ashes.). Once the specialization occurs in the first stage then those individuals who are able to devote themselves to a particular area or field of endeavor will refine their skills. Over time, techniques are improved as newer and better technologies as well as the knowledge and experience of using them are dispersed through society. And, at a certain tipping point, the innovations made allow for a shift in the way that society is structured. No longer having to farm for subsistence it can devote yet more efforts into specialization. Cities grow as the population moves from the countryside to the urban areas where things tend to accumulate and newer and more interesting jobs and choices abound. People can now afford to get food easily as long as they have some other source of income. After a while this ready supply of labor allows for large-scale industrial manufacturing. And, again, as the means and methods of production are improved the cost – both to produce and to consume – lowers. And wealth – of many kinds - previously unimaginable is possible.

Age of Communication – Now, a small subset of the population can support the rests’ material needs. Those workers who would be chained to the factory or the assembly line are now freed to concentrate not on materials but on concepts. Ideas become the new currency and their trade becomes the focus of the economy.

Logically speaking, the cycle of better methods requiring fewer and fewer workers – which allows for ever greater specialization of skills – has no reason not to continue. After a certain point, the cost of labor and of producing what I’d call consumer goods becomes so low that nearly everyone can afford what have become the new basics. Not just vital essentials but the “modern” conveniences – TVs, cars, telephones, computers, and everything else – become widely and easily available. At that point there’s again a large pool of people with a lot to offer the shifting society who wouldn’t have been there in previous times. Since I’m more than a bit of a futurist and cyber-geek, I’d say that it’s the digital revolution that’s going to become the new model for doing things, if it hasn’t already. Not so much that people will be using computers – we’re already doing that now, thank you very much – but that the ways people have of communicating are getting better and more varied. And, to me, once you have your basic needs, and your material needs taken care of, then what comes next is your intellectual needs. Ideas and concepts are what you shop for because the methods of transmitting them have become so widely available thanks to all that lovely manufacturing.

Now, I’m thinking about this because as I mentioned the other ( day, I’m not quite sure what a post-Industrial society will look like. Just that we’re moving towards one. Where I was born and raised this is more than a little scary because it’s a place that’s heavily invested in manufacturing. And these days it seems that manufacturing is drying up and blowing away (I mean, in my lifetime, I fully expect General Motors to be merged or to close its doors. This was unthinkable even twenty years ago.). The solution given to most of those auto-workers who’ve lost their job because of this or that is that they need to be retrained. Learn new skills for the modern workplace, computers and the like. So, as you might imagine, there’s some deep skepticism that it’s going to be book-learning that gets us out of our current morass and venturing boldly into the future around there. Even I’m a bit skeptical about this whole thing that there’s profit to be made without something physical to buy and hold. But, that’s because, as I see it, we’re only dipping our toes into this new era and it’s going to come with as many upheavals as transitioning to the other ones did. But, the thing to remember is that even though food’s incredibly cheap to buy and for a farmer to grow there are still people who spend a lot of time and energy farming. Each of my eras doesn’t erase the one that’s come before – the way you won’t find much Bronze in the Iron Age – but instead grows out of and builds on the success and infrastructure created by the earlier one. In so many words, even though we’re entering a brave new world of memes and tubes and everything else on the cyber frontier we still need what we’ve had in the past. Mortgaging our futures by selling away our ability to manufacture is blindingly stupid because we desperately need those things – or the easy ability to get them – if we want our tribes to continue to live in the manner to which they’re accustomed. The easy way, of course, is if we - as a civilization - control them directly. And, yes, I think I’ve just argued myself into thinking that protectionism (in so many words) might not be such a bad thing after all. Guess I can’t go to anymore libertarian meetings. Which is a shame because they have some very interesting people at those things.

Here’s Where It Gets Interesting

So, USC lost. Florida won. This leaves the championship picture about as murky as could be imagined heading into this weekend. Had USC won, they’d have been a lock, of course, and only the most die-hard of Michigan fans could have argued (I mean, I wouldn’t have. OSU would have crushed them, though, I’m just saying.) that this shouldn’t be the case. But Florida rests on swampier ground, so to speak. Their loss came against Auburn in the middle of the season. Now, Auburn itself was at one point touted as a championship contender (As were Arkansas and LSU. I’m just saying that if you get an SEC with a fair loss then they somehow automatically enter into the discussion.) but, like Florida they didn’t really play much of anyone. Not outside of the SEC, anyway (Florida did play FSU, true, but they play FSU had a horrible year)..

And while it can be argued that the SEC is an extremely difficult conference to go through undefeated – after all, no one did this year – by my count they have several teams that managed to get to the finish line with one or two losses. So, I’d stack the SEC against the Big 10 and consider them about roughly equal. I mean, if it wasn’t for Ohio State and UofM then Wisconsin would be getting due consideration alongside of Florida. But they’re not even going to a BCS bowl because each conference can only send two teams. That’s three legitimate national championship caliber teams to throw into the ring. And the next run down the ladder – Iowa, Perdue, and Penn State – are no less of opponents than the also-rans of the south. So, I’d say the strength of conference metric is too close to make much of a difference – they’re both good and they’re both tough to play in, anything more than that is extremely subjective. Likewise for out-of-conference competition. Michigan played Notre Dame but the Irish’s value is extremely overinflated by their reputation. Their record against actual opposition is extremely poor – twenty point losses to USC and UofM will do that for you. Michigan handled all of those but then, too, did Florida.

Consider the loss each team suffered. Florida lost against middle of the pack SEC team Auburn – at Auburn - just as the conference season was getting underway and then ran the table the rest of the way. Michigan went undefeated and largely unchallenged until the final game of the season against their arch rival and the only undefeated team in the nation OSU. Down by 14 points they rallied to only lose by a field goal. And the game was played in the Horseshoe. I’d think Michigan’s loss is the better one, if there is such a thing. Now, personally, I’d also think that it doesn’t matter when in the season you lose just how and to whom. The current system rewards teams for losing early in the season and recovering. And punishes them for losing late. So, I’m probably wrong about that as I am about a lot of things.

Very well then, let’s set aside the issue of which loss is somehow more acceptable. Each team has one against fair opposition at the very least. Each team played well against every other team they faced. And each team comes from a conference loaded with tough opposition. Balancing that equation everything comes out equal. So, for me – and admittedly, I’m exceptionally biased here – it comes down to which team is going to provide the best game for OSU in the title game. Florida hasn’t played anyone flying at that level yet. Michigan has. And in enemy territory they very nearly won. We know what a UofM-OSU game looks like already (And there are those who’d say that having seen it once we shouldn’t again. I don’t quite see the logic there. If it had been Texas left with one loss to OSU I don’t think there’d be as much opposition even though OSU already beat them. That loss would have come early, of course, but my point is that this game is about matching the two best teams in the nation – whoever they are – and I don’t care if they’ve played ten times already. The championship is on a different level and won’t be the same game a second time around. I mean, if the Celtics played the Lakers during the regular season would you mind seeing them decide the finals? Personally, I think that the two teams have met already just makes the game that much more intense. Especially when the stakes are higher. Still, it’s a valid point of view and there’ll be no doubt those in the “anybody but Michigan” camp for that reason alone.) and, personally, I thought it looked pretty damn good. You’re going to tell me that on a neutral field with a hundred year old rivals meeting to decide the championship directly for the first time that’s not going to be a game for the ages before it even begins? Please, the hype and excitement (and ratings) would blow the first meeting so far out of the water it would be ridiculous. These teams know each other now. They’ve seen the tricks, they’ve seen the schemes, they’ve seen the plays, and they’ll have a month or so to work on beating them. A rematch is going to test each team to prove they’re really better. And I for one, would pay a dollar to see it.

Oh well, I'll find out tomorrow with the rest of us. But, man, "UofM/OSU #2 - this time it's for all the marbles" sounds a lot better than "Florida/Ohio State". Here's hoping that something I'm not wrong about.

Million dollar ideas are a dime a dozen.

Meh, blogger's acting all screwy on me so I'm off to the clubs for the night, then. As that was my plan in the first place, well, I'm not too upset. Expect what didn't go up tonight because I can't get to rich text or html embelishments tomorrow if things are fixed. If not, well, we have problems.

Still in celebratory mode. The giddiness is fading but that sense of accomplishment seems to be sticking. And it's a nice one. I know I'm not the only one nor hardly the first but this NaNo month - and all the associated activities (Did you know I started this blog pretty much only to get research for my novel? And I didn't even write that part of the book yet!) has been transcendent. But, well, I'm exhausted by the pace I've set so I'm going to take it easy, take care of some housework (more on yesterday's problems when I can cast a link again), watch some football (Go UCLA! I so want to see a rematch - failing to see why barely losing late against the best team in the nation is somehow worse than losing early - but I couldn't just bring myself to root for the Irish last week.), all that sort of thing.

I'm also playing a bit of Auto Assault now. I ran my main character up to level 10 already (went with a Mutant Champion because I like driving around in a tank, so to speak, and I felt their natural regeneration would mean less time waiting around healing. So far, I'm happy enough with my choice.) and tomorrow I'm probably going to sample some of the other classes a bit. My initial impressions are one of those things I'd want to post but can't yet. But, simply put, nice game if you're into that sort of thing but not really for me. The game's grown on me as I've played but I'm still not quite sold.

And...oh, man I just had a bolt of inspiration. I'll post it tomorrow as it needs a little time to marinate but, well, anybody want to play a CCG with an ordinary pack of playing cards? I know I have and I think I just figured out how to do it.

Outlook: I've been trying to design a mass market collectible card game, so to speak, for years. And I might have just clued into how to do so. In other words, holy shit NaNo is still paying dividends!

[1] - An hour. But I did have something to write down.

If it’s on the Web it must be true!

Uh oh. Time to mobilize the troops and invade on Kansas because they’re oppressing our religion, man.

This is why I hate cable news.

Having CNN or MSNBC or whatever's on in the background I just heard Pat Buchanan – who’s a lot smarter than most people give him credit for – say, in effect, that the reason Bush should hold firm and not pull the troops out of Iraq is that the world is watching and he can’t afford to lose prestige by admitting defeat.

I humbly suggest that anyone who thinks that way should place a shotgun in their mouth, pull the trigger, and do us all a favor by improving the gene pool by a small but significant amount.

Because the world is watching is precisely the reason why the troops should be withdrawn from Iraq. They’re watching us bleed ourselves to death over a point of pride. And if we do indeed have enemies among them you can rest assured they’re paying attention and taking notes. The fundamental error here is that kind of macho, frat boy swagger that pervades the Bush Administration and the larger conservative movement. It is not weakness to admit your mistakes. It is a strength. If Mr. Bush throws up his hands, goes “Whoops!”, and we end our involvement in a conflict that’s only just heating up then the world will see that. And they’ll know that we can learn from our mistakes, too, and that we’re smart enough to change course when needed. And resolute enough to stay the course when we have to. The only reason to stay the course here is to save face – the nation’s if not the legacy of the President. But our soldier’s blood and our country’s treasure is slowly but surely be frittered away. If we keep this sort of thing up then the only thing left is going to be an empty mask over a hollow shell.

To put it in business terms: This is not the time to double down. This is the time to fold so that we still have a large enough stack to make a difference in the next hand. Or even meet the ante.