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Back at School
The Missus had to report to work today for the first day of school. With class sizes hovering around 30 (and likely to increase) and a crop of new students described as “the class from hell,” she has her work cut out for her. On the plus side, at least she’ll get a raise this fall since she has completed a certain number of graduate credits (15?) on her way to her Masters.
Redneck Montage
Turn up the volume, sit back, and pray that you don’t see yourself in this montage.
Sunday Paper
The LJS apparently loves hybrid vehicles so much they decided to print an article about them twice in Sunday’s paper. I shouldn’t be surprised. The Sunday paper is quickly approaching 0% content/100% advertisements. That the LJS would print the same article twice on the same day is pretty consistent with the overall quality of the Sunday rag.
Pre-Buzz on RV: “A Second Job?”
I may end up writing regularly on the upcoming Roma Victor game. I am seriously looking forward to this one and am currently planning on pre-purchasing the game because, as promised by the devs, pre-purchasers will have exclusive access to the game world 2 full weeks before the commercial boxes hit the stores. The early days of any MMORPG are always a fascinating and fun experience. Yes it can be frustrating too since bugs are worked out and downtime comes with little or no notice when devs bring the game down for maintenance (ie WoW), but I have found it just fun to observe how players begin forming the economy and in-game social mores.
What attracts me to RV is the purported historical accuracy of the game, and the number of options it allows for players. It is much more in line with “The Sims” than any other MMORPG I have played with the possible exception of Final Fantasy Online (which was still a swords and sorcery world but had a very deep crafting system).
Anyway, this “historical accuracy” component of the game has also raised some questions in my mind in regards to how fun it might (or might not) be. There was a recent post in the RV forums which I found to be very articulate and echoed some of my doubts as well. Let me quote at length:
I’ll preface this by saying I’m not in beta, and my research time into RV is roughly a week of reading the forums and supporting sites. Please no flames; I’m just giving my initial impressions and I’m posting this for feedback rather than saying “how I bet RV will be.”
As I read the forums, and the push is realism, realism, realism. Hey, I’m all for realism for things to be historically accurate, but the *true* reality of Rome was that life was tedious, especially by present day society’s current standards of instant gratification.
I’m reading posts with c
ontributing forum members saying things like:
- “If you come to a river, you might have to walk for days to find a good place to cross.”
- “Most people in that time are born, live, and die right in the same spot.”
- “Crop rotation would provide realism, and so would flooding.”
- “If you hurt your arm, it may take weeks of rehabilitation before you can use it again, and there may be permanent damage.”
Now, I’m not arguing that this isn’t realistic. These are ideas that break the mold in a constant stream of cookie-cutter MMOGs. But the bottom line… is it fun? Is the fun sustainable? After waking up at 05:30, working all day and getting home in the evening, am I going to be saying, “ooo, hot-diggity, time for some hot crop-rotating action, and maybe I can chop wood for an hour after that!”
With all MMOGs, there’s a honeymoon period where you’re so excited to play where everything is cool. “Hey look, I’m chopping wood! That’s so neat!” However, in week 6 if you’re still chopping wood, there’s a problem. But hey, that was what life was like back then, right?
I might also add that:
1) In the Roman Empire, in which slaves were the vast majority of the population, the vast majority of the vast majority of slaves really were doing the most brutal and degrading work that existed. For example, a typical slave may be born, worked in mines as soon as he reached an early pre-adolescent stage, and died a handful of years later from mining related diseases or mishaps and maltreatment. Yes there were those slaves who did reach citizen like status, gaining prominence as merchants, crafters, and military leaders, but the vast bulk were treated like human garbage. Thus, if you want “realism” and start in RV as a slave, your doing pretty damn extraordinary if you even manage to get so far as obtain a few nice tools, let alone learn skills or obtain some semblance of private property.
2) The status of women. Basically, women were also treated like shit. They were considered objects and not humans. In RV, female characters just would not have access to particular occupations or skills beyond serving and maybe some other basic manual labor skills and crafting abilities.
Anyway, the debate continued:
In any other game, if your homeland is invaded, put your entire house in your magic bag and go somewhere else. But now, if you are in danger, you fight. Your house took a while to build, its worth something. Think of the game as a second life, but a life where nothing seriously bad ever happens. If you die, you get reborn. If your house burns down, you can build another one. Sure, there might be some work… but there is also a lot of fun. Just like real life.
And here is the response:
If I spent a month collecting resources and money out of abject poverty as a newly freed slave to build a house, and someone comes along while offline and asleep and burns it down, explain to me how it’s fun to start over.
Please, correct me if I’m wrong if this is not how the game works.
Again, this is justification that the game will be fun because it’s realistic. As realistic as we’re dreaming, it is in the end a game with no real world consequences. If repeatedly restarting with nothing because some antisocial, non-RP kid has 24/7 to play and finds it hilarious to repeatedly make good on his pyromaniac predisposition at your expense ...
.. like that doesn’t happen.
Heh Heh. I’ll continue to post thoughts about this one until it comes out later in the fall.
Lincoln’s Downtown Gyro Wars
There was an interesting article in the LJS today about the rivalry between the “Gourmet Grill” and “Ali Baba’s” on the corner of 14th and O. It was nice to get some comprehensive history on these two joints so kudos to the LJS for this one.
I should add, I can chime in a bit on a few of the issues/observations raised in the article:
1) It is also my observation that Naqib isn’t exactly the friendliest guy in the world. He could learn a lot from George in this respect (or for that matter George’s main helper - the guy who always looks like he just rolled out of bed).
2) Although Naqib may not be so personable, his brother and nephew are actually really nice guys.
And 3) - you heard it here folks: not sure if this is provable or not - but it is rumored that the GG uses Kronos gyro meat products (ie known for that ubiquitous “smiling woman” poster) whereas Ali Baba’s uses Grecian Delight. Having known others in the fast food greek/mideast grill type industry, it is well known in that community that Grecian Delight is the superior (and more expensive) gyro meat than Kronos, and the distinguishing diner can tell.
Which is why I go to Ali Baba’s regularly and prefer it to the Gourmet Grill. But beyond gyros - the grilled chicken kabobs are the best - and ask them to use tandoori seasoning as well on it.
Who Turned Out the Lights
Power went out for an hour or two (I wasn’t really paying attention) in parts of Lincoln today. We here at the Wilson homestead (48th & Highway 2 area) were among the affected. I received reports that folks both north and south of the 40th & Old Cheney area noticed their lights flicker, but their power did not actually go out.
Who else was affected? Does anybody have any information on the cause?
Rainy Day Work Day
I am such a grown-up.
I was in a working mood today. I had originally planned to work in the yard, but the rain stymied most of those plans. Instead, I decided to do something that wouldn’t require me to get soaked. Now, there are a hundred things I could have chosen to do. But for some reason I opted for one of the least desirable of all options: I decided to clean the garage.
Garage cleaning is no fun. It’s made even less fun when you don’t do it often enough. There were enough leaves in my garage to re-leave half the trees in the neighborhood. Fortunately, I had a new weapon at my disposal: a brand new shop-vac. Between the very sucky (that’s a good thing) shop-vac and a very capable shop broom I managed to make the garage look like, well, a clean garage. I reckon it’ll stay that way for about two days.
While I ate lunch I decided to read some of the packets of information sent to me by the adoption agency. The most recent packets concerned the trials and tribulations of interracial adoptions. I’ve not made it all the way through, but so far the materials fall into one of two groups: 1) well-written, frank descriptions of things to think about when considering an interracial adoption; and 2) racist liberal bullshit more obnoxious than anything even Al Sharpton could come up with. (Lest you think that, by calling the material “liberal bullshit,” I am identifying myself as a flaming conservative, allow me to remind you that I also point out conservative bullshit with just as much scorn.)
The toilet paper literature I read today reinforced my intention to track our adoption experiences here at Lincolnite. I want to shed light on the positives and the negatives of our experiences so that others can learn from us. The crap I read today wil
l certainly become the subject of a blog post or full article. Heck, if I continue to find so much of the material on interracial adoptions unsatisfactory, perhaps I should gather my thoughts into a book. Certainly there are others out there who, like me, are adopting interracially, but who don’t enjoy being told constantly that: white people are racists; white people have no culture; and you are morally corrupt if you fail to raise your child exactly the way somebody else says you should.
Before I close this post, I should make one thing clear: I am not trying to link our adoption agency with these ideas. The materials they have given to us were authored by others. They were printed in various newsletters, journals, newspapers, and so on. The agency itself may or may not collectively agree with the stuff they send us. It is entirely possible that the materials they send our way are just what are available to them. After all, there aren’t that many domestic interracial adoptions going on. It is fair to assume that there are not, in turn, very many written materials to turn to. I will find out more about the agency’s own beliefs when The Missus and I go to their training session in September. Until then, I’m going to assign no particular ideology to the adoption agency. If I find out they have one, whatever it may be, I will pass it on to you.
The KFOR Cases
An interesting line of cases is about to hit the Strasbourg ECHR Court involving the NATO Kosovo Force which I am keeping a keen eye on. One case involves alleged unlawful detentions of individuals by KFOR. Think Gitmo (without the torture?) except its not the US in control, but KFOR acting under UN mandate. Ironic eh? Another involves the death and injury of two children caused by an unexploded bomb which KFOR allegedly failed to secure (ie they were negligent in failing to protect the civilian populace from unexploded bombs in KFOR jurisdiction). Once again, the extraterritorial application of the ECHR is rearing its head, and I am currently working on an article featuring these cases.
I’m also planning to include a detailed analysis of how the Ilascu case fits in on this (which I have noted in previous articles but not done a detailed examination yet), since dicta in Ilascu does touch on notions of “imputability” vs. “responsibility.” Ilascu - involving responsibility for human rights violations in Moldova by both Russia and Moldova - I just learned, also happens to be the longest case ever issued by the Court due in part largely to internal disagreements by the Strasbourg judges (believe me, if you think dissenting and concurring opinions by scotus is bad, you gotta read Ilascu - its a book).
On another ECHR note - the Chechen cases are really starting to hit Strasbourg now, and I predict that Russia is gonna be the next ECHR bad boy after Turkey (and the UK). Poor old Vladmir. I wonder when he’ll wake up from his state of denial and smell the coffee.
Ribfest: A Quick Report
The Missus and I hit Ribfest tonight. It was the first time I had ever been to Ribfest in the evening; typically I visit during the day since I work Downtown. Overall it was a great experience.
I do have some gripes, all of them directed at Johnson’s BBQ. For one thing, their service was pathetic and slow. In part that was because they used local help (high school aged girls). I’m not bashing the girls necessarily, although they didn’t go out of their way to provide anything better than mediocre service. Considering they were probably being paid minimum wage and I’m certain they received only scant directions on what to do, I can’t really fault them. The behind-the-scenes workers—that is, the guys actually running the joint—were lazy and slow. I realize they’re probably tired, but 1) it’s only day one of a weekend-long event, and 2) I’m paying them way too much money for them to be bums. I ordered a BBQ pork sandwich. The pork was barely (and I do mean barely) done, and the sauce was pathetic. I’m not sure what it was called, but even Kraft pulls off a better barbecue sauce. Last year I ordered their thermonuclear sauce. Now that was a sauce that was worth the money. Anyway, my suggestion: skip Johnson’s this year.
For an encore I decided to try some ribs from Rasta Joe’s. I had overheard a guy talking about how good they were, so I figured I’d check them out myself. Not only was the sauce about 65 times better than the Johnson’s miserable sluice, the ribs were very tender and the meat was impressively flavorful. Rasta Joe’s saved the day.
Throughout the evening Soul Dawg performed on the stage. They started off a little rough, but they really picked up steam as they went along. Their peak was probably early in their second set when everything really clicked. By the time they finished for the evening they had drawn quite a crowd around the stage. There was even s
ome (playful) booing when they wrapped up and didn’t play an encore.
The highlight of the evening, other than Rasta Joe’s ribs, was definitely overhearing two guys in line behind me discuss one’s sexual escapades with his lactating wife. I’ll spare you the details.
Blogroll Produces
Ever since I began the blogroll a few weeks ago I’ve noticed the hits on this site jumping a fair bit. The new visitors haven’t been commenting, but that’s ok. I don’t mind lurkers. Hi lurkers!
For those of you who don’t know what this whole Lincolnite thing is about, I suppose I should explain. Eventually Lincolnite will be a neato community resource for the city of Lincoln. But it’s a work in progress. I chip away at it when I can.
If you have any suggestions, or if you would just like to de-lurk, drop me a note in the comments.
Don’t Let Your Kid Catch The Gay
James Dobson offers some helpful advice on how to keep your son from catching The Gay. An excerpt:
Meanwhile, the boy’s father has to do his part. He needs to mirror and affirm his son’s maleness. He can play rough-and-tumble games with his son, in ways that are decidedly different from the games he would play with a little girl. He can help his son learn to throw and catch a ball. He can teach him to pound a square wooden peg into a square hole in a pegboard. He can even take his son with him into the shower, where the boy cannot help but notice that Dad has a penis, just like his, only bigger.
If I didn’t know better I would’ve sworn Dobson’s piece was really written by somebody from Landover Baptist.
Pig Out
I’m headed off to Ribfest in a couple hours. I hope you are planning to attend. Even if you’re not a pork fan there are plenty of other options, including beef, chicken, and a little seafood. Vegetarian? Uhh, I think you might be out of luck. You could always chew on a used napkin or something.
Everybody’s favorite band Soul Dawg—featuring my high school track coach (and cross country coach, and history teacher, and citizenship issues teacher) Ted, and my favorite substitute trumpet teacher and fellow bus rider Joel—is performing tonight at 6:30. Look for me near the stage; I’ll be the one trying to throw rib bones into Ted’s saxophone.
Friendliest Bus Riders?
Have any of you who ride Star Tran—all 25 of you—ever noticed how friendly the riders are to the bus drivers? I’m not talking about “the regulars” who know the drivers and go to their kids’ birthday parties. I mean the occasional riders, or the ones who ride frequently but who don’t ever interact with the drivers. I’ll bet a good 75% of the riders say either “Thanks” or “Have a good day” when exiting the bus, even when leaving via the back door. And they even say those things to the crappy and/or surly drivers.
I first thought about this after talking with a friend who currently lives in New Jersey. She was very surprised by how different the people are, and she noted that she earns curious stares when she says things like “Thank you” to folks like store clerks. If nothing else, the fact that Lincolnites say “Thanks” to their bus drivers is yet another small reason that I enjoy living in Lincoln.
Frisk Granny While Ignoring the Big Stuff
CNN’s recent story on cargo security at U.S. airports highlights the ridiculousness of harassing the crap out of passengers—the most common offense of whom is carrying a pocket knife or nail file—while ignoring the larger danger of unscreened cargo. Why do we so assault grandma’s dignity in search of razor blades when the real danger lies elsewhere? Two reasons. First, the TSA’s actions within airport terminals are visible. Thus, they can claim “See, we’re doing something about the terrorist threat!” Even though in reality the TSA’s largest success is as a massive jobs program. Second, there are no good or cheap ways to screen all the cargo that makes its way onto America’s airliners. Any attempted solutions using today’s infrastructure would hardly make a difference.
The United States loves to overreact to yesterday’s terrorist tactics. That’s why today you can’t take a pocket knife onto a flight or carry an unsearched bag onto a subway car. Personally, I would rather defend against today’s or tomorrow’s terrorist tactics. We can’t say we don’t know what those tactics will be. Stumped? Ask Hollywood. Or ask anybody. Terrorists aren’t likely to use any tactics that haven’t already been thought of—and warned about—by dozens of people.
Gas Prices Go Up. And Up.
Oil prices passed $65 per barrel yesterday, and although gas prices keep climbing, Americans keep driving. Prices in Lincoln yesterday were in the $2.50 range.
I’ve said it before, but this is the first time I’ve said it in print: $3.50 per gallon is the breaking point in the U.S.A. That’s the point at which Americans “officially” decide to make real, substantive changes in their attitudes and behaviors related to energy consumption.
You heard it here first.
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