Calax

Two things: One, GD, I'm pretty sure a lot of the notes you posted were just layoffs. Not all of which were directly connected to Obamacare. The Rocketdyne one really caught my eye due to a personal attachment to one of the companies involved (Aerojet, my dad's old company before he retired). They're dropping people, not because of Obamacare, but because they're merging with another company, and you don't want redundant positions. You can't have two "Director of Human Resources" for that company can you? On a silly side note related to that, My dad had to fight every single brand new CEO of Aerojet because his group was probably the #1 expense in the company's ledger. So they'd want to look good and investigate if they could cut his budget, so he fought something like 6 investigations into his expenses, and each CEO backed off when they learned that his group was probably the most advanced water treatment crew on the planet right now. Honestly, if you wanted to gut the expenditures, you could probably just do a complete overhaul of military spending. There is hundreds of millions of dollars being tossed into R&D projects that basically no longer exist, and even more being thrown at projects that are VERY far behind their targets, and very far over their limits, simply because of how... contractor bias the entire thing is.

I think krookie was more the kid than any of us.

Not entirely - it's a matter of expectations. Planescape as a fantasy universe comes with a set of expectations that it almost immediately breaks as it turns out not to be Tolkien inspired. This leaves players free to approach it without preexisting bias. Assassins Creed creates expectation of a historical setting which it fulfills for a good while but then suddenly it moves into the direction of a poorly handled sci-fi. In the end AC was always doomed to become a mess story-wise as you cannot make a long-running series work with conspiracy theories. You either need a new bigger mystery for every revelation you make or simply never resolve anything. Finally a good answer. Although I disagree about the particulars. I don't know how AC1 starts, but the whole animus thing makes it pretty clear from the get go that this is sci-fi. Or at least fi. AC1 starts with you in a memory, the the animus flips out because you aren't that well "synched" to the ancestor. Basically the reasons you're doing ALL of the memories, is the macguffin at the end of each game. You have to start MUCH earlier however, just so that your mind doesn't outright reject the memories you're digging up (I think). Anymore, the concept of Synching has been abandoned story wise. Particularly in Brotherhood, where Desmond must re-synch with Ezio... who's life he'd just lived to that point. That's the annoying thing about the Animus, when you look at it. ANYTHING you point at and say "THIS DOES NOT WORK!" can be waved away as "You're in the Animus, he might have done it slightly differently but the system just showed you this to scoot things along"

I'm actually kidna pleased with the Spielberg not being involved thing. New Spielberg has kinda sucked, because he's not being moderated, similar to Lucas.

The republican party, as we know it, is dying. They can't pick up the womens vote with their overly anti-female stance. They have no minority votes because of their reliance/enjoyment of the rich white demographic and it's particular issues. Their scientific side isn't much better, with their pandering for the hyper conservative stuff. Basically they HAVE no electorate because of the fact that White Male voters, as a whole, aren't going to be NEARLY as dominant as they were in previous decades/elections. The Plurality of African and Latin voters with democratic whites, and other minorities, means that the democractic party has a fairly solid (and growing) base. The Womens issues that have come up over the election cycle just sealed the coffin. Right now I'd suggest we'll end up seeing the Republican party break in half, and the Democratic party will either go far more liberal, and have the Moderates break off and make a third party with the others of their kind, or vis-versa, with moderate republicans joining the democratic party, and the radical democrats getting peeved and breaking into their own group.

The Economist disagrees with you Raven... and right now I'd trust mag's over a blog.

Assassins Creed III... what to say. Structurally the story is hampered. The first three sequences that you run through are with an alternate protagonist, who's background and motivations are left unknown for reasons that are made clear later. This ends up leaving the player fairly underwhelmed and annoyed at the game because they don't know why they're doing the stuff they're doing. Later the story does get more coherent and relatable, but the main character doesn't have any charisma (mostly because he's using the stereotypical "Native American" style of speech, with no contractions), and it's clear in some of the dialogue that they wrote in a few witty one liners... that are entirely killed on delivery. Also Connor's motivations seem relatively minor. It's a parental revenge, but the way it's done doesn't make you feel like he's got a good motivation. Ezio's story made you feel more for him beacuse you spent your tutorial with him as a carefree teen having fun with his lovers, brothers, sister, and mother. So when they were killed, it hit the player as much as with him. Conner, on the other hand, has a mother... she shows up for a sequence with his father, is mostly cold until magically getting the hots for daddio and boinking him. Next time you see her it's with a young Conner and she's promptly killed. Part of this ties into the Tutorials. This game LOOOOOVES tutorials. The first 5-6 sequences are all based around tutoring you to play different facets of the game. There's sneaking, fighting, running, climbing, tracking, shops, inventory, hunting, shooting, Goin Boatin, fast travel tunnels in each city, city liberation, homestead management, and forts. Each of these is taught to you... in the most awkward ways possible, and they draw that sucker out for about 4-6 hours, depending on play style. And even then it's not necessairly explained that well (I discovered for myself how to fast travel between major zones). Mechanics wise? The game is a major eeeeehehhhhhh. A lot of the elements from the first two games are there, Counterkills return, although they make it MUCH easier to pull them off. The biggest thing is that they removed their "Puppet" controls. Meaning that your face buttons aren't attached to various actions by the fact they're in the same place as that bodypart. The only major gameplay change I learned to SEEERIOUSLY hate, was their noteriety system. Previously it'd been just a notification (AC1) or a chart (AC2) that showed how the guards were reacting to your actions. Now it's a four tiered system based on how open your kills are. It's just that when you hit your third level, you might as well flee the country because the mobs are SO dense, and they add more with each level of notoriety, that you end up being entirely unable to reach a town crier or poster to lower your notoriety. Oh, and they added a pile more guys who are immune to your counters, meaning that you have to get a TINY bit better at combat before you are staying alive. Finally, there's an overall design flaw with the game. And that's the fact that your business endeavors are no longer automatic. In AC2 and it's sequels, Ezio bought up property, and gained income automatically from the businesses that were founded there. This meant less micromanagement from the player, and more actual gameplay without inconvienence. Now, you have to micro EVERY BLOODY THING, from harvesting raw materials, to making things from those materials, to making products from those things. THEN you have to organize convoys to a shop in the city, which will, after 30 minutes, finally earn you your money. I'm sorry, but that's just to stupidly complicated for words. When I play Assassins Creed it's to stab a yahoo, and put my tomohawk through another guys head. NOT to play "Logistics For Dummies" or Sim Homestead. Sad part is, that homestead, and earning all of the artisans and production crews is probably beefier in terms of content than the main story, AND is your primary source of income. So you want to upgrade your Boat huh? Well, you gotta play the menus until you're asleep to pick up a decent amount of money. The other thing that folks were worried about was the "dripping with patriotism" issues. It does pop up, mainly in Connor's worship of Washington, but it's also undercut. First by your british intel guy, and second by one of the characters within the game itself. Both point out that Washington was, when you look at it, a TERRIBLE general. Along similar lines is the notification that the Founding Fathers were hardly moral guardians of all that is Just and True and the Taxes that they were so frustrated about was just levied to pay for a costly war with France. The game hardly goes after the Fathers with the vitriol that means they're just on a crusade to undercut the guys, but I'm sure that some of the "Patriotic" citizens will be frustrated with the not-flowery picture of the men who are held up as paragons of virtue and America that we consider.

Trump just ranted against Brian Williams for making fun of The Donalds twitter feed. Sounds like the Daily Show is going to have a FUUUUN night with that.

I don't understand WHY we're leaping to the 2016 race. Can't we get 1 day before we enter the next political/presidential contest and the insanity that comes with it? That said, I think Obama is going to get much more done now, because he can spend his political capital and doesn't have to worry as much about popular opinion.

Finished Assasins Creed III. Expect the full review (oh come on, like you weren't expecting it?) tomorrow.

It's a generational shift. The crew that grew up in with the stuff as a non-issue are now becoming voters and managing to control the vote and discussion. Also, apparently Michelle Bachman is being ejected from her seat.

Well, extended family issues going on here. On one side, had my family in Sandy, they're all ok, but grandparents are living with aunt and uncle until power goes back on for the grandparents house. On the other side, got my aunt in the hospital with VERY little muscle mass, and a valve on her heart that is bleeding "Severely". No insurance (she's retired) and my uncle isn't sure she'd survive the operation. So if they don't go through with it, she's got a very short life ahead of her.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0BVxO_61HE About the three minute mark, from the second debate.

GD, they already had the insurance precedent in the form of the fact that in order to even DRIVE you have to have insurance on the car you're scooting around in. And in America, a car is not a luxury, it's a necessity (having an inscure mode of transit is not condusive to having a job). As to the fact that we need an insurance mandate, understand, I'm coming at this entire thing from the perspective of a working stiff at a company that is considered the lowest, easiest, and worst paying groups in the United States. McDonalds did NOT offer me an insurance benefit, or any benefits what-so-ever as a crew member or trainer until Obamacare was enacted. They got SOME at the managerial level (and I also get vacation benefits once I become properly certified), but if I got sick to the point of hospitalization, I'd loose my house, clothes, computer and everything else I own to pay for the bills that incurred, and the time missed could be used against me to fire me from the job I was doing. If you know of any universe where that'd be considered good thing, please inform me. You might not see the benefit from having the mandate from the perspective of a "career" job, but at my level it's required for me to be able to stay financially afloat even under normal circumstances do to my meds, dr visits, and other necessities to keep my mental illness at bay. And personally, I'd prefer a president who doesn't say that "getting married before having kids" is an effective form of gun control.

Sands of Time was one of the best balances of combat and non-combat (free run sequences). The other major thing is that it made it's characters, particularly the female lead, have some SERIOUS depth to them. Warrior Within had a much more impressive combat system, but wound up with most of it's story being very generic and shallow, and Two Thrones was just... different.

Because you A) Haven't provided any form of backup to your point... and B) Even Faux News is saying that that's not happening http://www.foxnews.com/politics/interactive/2012/10/31/fox-news-poll-race-for-white-house-dead-heat/

They did, in Revelations. Ezio "Sees" the memories of Altair during specific points in his history (around the Assassins home), where he gets a LOT of development. The thing that annoyed me about 2 was that EVERYONE knew who Ezio was. He popped up with the "I'M AN ASSASSIN" stuff and then yelled at everyone around him that "I am EZIO AUDITORE da FIRENZE! YOU KNOW ME!" really early on. Assassins are faceless blades in the crowd, this runs totally counter to that. AC3 has the structural issues I've mentioned, the OVERLY long tutorial period... and a protagonist that just..... doesn't get to emote at all. It sounds like they were trying to make him the native american stereotype with his voice, but the way he says things and doesn't use contractions gives him all the emotional depth of a can of coke. This become really jarring when he ends up playing Buddy Assassins with somebody who's got a pretty awesome personality. It would have been a lot more fun if they'd given him a better voice (His one liners are doa for the most part).

My wife has had her cheerleaders work two recent McD's re-openings. I think Iowa is a bit out of the way for them, but you might want to check with the local school about such things. Congrats I don't know what they're gonna do. I know if they wanted they could have us re-open with a "Teachers night". Meaning we'd have insane amounts of customers who are all eager to see their teachers Right now we're working in a very confined space overall to try to get our counter and lobby torn out/replaced while still having Drive thru open.

Eh, with all the discussion of free market economics it seemed like you were leaning (like Ron Paul) to "No rules" economy. For the auto buyouts, It was really the only option if we wanted to save the industry (see the economist article). And on the Obama care thing, that WOULD have enforced the insurance mandate, but would have offered an option that was financed and serviced by the feds. So you didn't have to buy from a third party, You could have gotten it from the feds... but that got shot down during amendments. I mean if you have an issue with the mandates as a whole... not just for Health Care, but also Auto Insurance and the like, then that's an entirely other matter. I think it's mainly designed so that if I get in a minor fender bender, I won't lose my entire livelyhood because somebody with a suit thought that I was easy pickings. The reason I said that is because each state would end up laying down it's personal tax code, with the Feds having a much smaller amount of control over the legislatures. So you'd end up with companies like Monsanto and Disney being able to HEAVILY influence smaller poorer states to create tax havens in return for moving their company to that particular state. The more you decentralize that aspect, the easier it is for corruption to seep into the system. I mean, consider if we did turn EVERYTHING except defense over to the states as was originally laid out in the Constitution... Iowa would be deader than a doornail because of the lack of federal subsidies to farmers. Most states right now are taking money from the federal government for their operations. One of the few states that's actually returning money is California, so they'd be... ok on their own. Technically oil production is up... and Unemployment numbers over the last 4 years are skewed because Obama took office after the economic mess had become a disasterous fireball flying down hill at mach 4. I think around this time, Bush Jr and his crew were throwing out TARP to try to save it... and then couldn't figure out where things went. And the Candian Oil Pipeline isn't a very good prospect. It's a heavy investment on the short term, but generates about a dozen jobs overall. I don't know what it'd do to the gas prices, but *shrugs*. Personally, the one thing that should be heavily invested in is a non-car based infrastructure. High Speed Rail or some other alternative would probably do fantastic, and cut down the use of oil.

Ok, I'm gonna throw out there that you're entirely wrong with the "Leftest viewpoint" stuff. Yes, some groups do use it as a club, but with regard to Religion it'd probably be more that they're trying to prevent A SPECIFIC religion from attempting to control the entire national conversation to the detriment/supression of all others. I'm, at best, a-religious, and get seriously cheesed off when somebody comes up to me proselytizes their particular religion in my face, and gets offended if I say I don't want to talk about it. Capitalism, as a solitary concept on it's own, without any checks on it, will lead to corruption, and a lack of human life on such a scale that would be frightning. Capitalism is effectively Darwinian Economics, with the fight between private enterprise to drive the economy. However even within our own lifetimes we've seen how that gets manipulated and distorted once one company has becomes so successful that no others can compete. Look at Standard Oil, Microsoft, Debeers... these companies are entirely able to control the market for their product, without competition (yes I realize Standard Oil is an older one...), and thus are completely ripping apart anything remotely close to a "capitalist system" that we'd have. And one thing to keep in mind is that Humans are Bastards. Particularly a human who's good enough to "Win" a monopoly. That's why you find so many "Liberal" job regulations in place, so that a company can't order you to do 80 hours a week for a pittance, and then fire you when their equipment hurts you. The "Free Market" isn't some magical thing that'll solve all our issues on it's own. It's a system that will be manipulated and used to the benefit of those who can control it. And with constant globalization, simply having states regulate stuff on that level will be disastrous for the state and federal economies because the states would be entering into a "tax haven" system much like we find in the world today. As to stuff like the EPA... do you REALLLLLY want to have your tap water LIGHT ON ****ING FIRE? Either member will increase bounds of Federal power, and that their office will hold. Right now, Obama has the Economists (magazine) endorsement because while they might not like his policies per-se, he's the one who managed to salvage the entire economy from a depression, and their examinations of Romney's rhetoric makes them think that he'd have let everything fail and we'd all be hiding our paychecks in our mattresses at this point. (the Economist thing was found via leading to this article

Fully manager at work... just in time to take over and shut down the lobby tomorrow so we can do our remodel. Which is going to be annoying for people methinks.

Make one up for future tellings? "AND then kids, I SAW THE MONSTER! AND The explosion from the military killing it catapulted me across the neighborhood so I had to backflip to stay standing and it was only because I landed on that foot, with a block of cement and two trees landing on top of the foot, that it even THOUGHT about breaking!'

AC3 Patriotism in the past is fairly thick, but they deliberately have your Snarky English Man sending you emails and giving you speeches about the other less publicized version of the founding fathers. Including "racist sexist homophobes" in relation to them.

See my titanic post in the previous thread. As far as I know He gets squat for upgrades, and for Conner I have yet to find any upgrades to buy, only trade goods so you can improve your homestead

Yes... and no. They added more to the open world, so you're roaming the wilderness.... but all it has really amounted to is a Red Dead Redemtion (with FLINTLOCKS!) feel. The only real interesting mechanic has been the running up and through trees. They took a big giant crap on combat, with it basically being instead of "One button for block, and if you time a second button, you counter" it's "Hold one button to block and you may automatically be offered a (very large) window to trigger a counter". I haven't gotten the hang of it yet, so it is just getting more and more frustrating. But there's something even MORE frustrating that I've been running into. During the hype up to the game, they were adamant that you weren't playing a colonist fighting against the magical tyranny of the British. You'd be a neutral party who fought for and against both sides. Well the way the story has been framed as far as I'm in, that's just BS. The story's structure has MANY flaws. First it starts with a not-Conner assassin, who's backstory and motives and such are entirely out of nowhere, and just putzes around for about 2:30 hrs. Mainly he's the combat tutorial, with a bit of stealthing. You chase his tale for that long, then leap into the REAL Protagonist (of the Animus anyway), and are treated to *gasp* MORE TUTORIALS! mainly along the lines of "This is how you hunt, and new eagle vision powers!" However, one of the things they don't explain very well is "Fast travel" and how to properly use the map (they changed the control scheme), so often you'll see the "next mission" objective pop up... and run 12 miles to get there. Basically the story is spending nearly 6ish hours JUST on tutorials... And once you're finally done with the tutorials, it doesn't feel like you're actually, you know, being an assassin. It's at this point you meet the "Patriots" and start getting "dragged" into their issues/conflicts. Yes, Ezio and Altair had both been in famous conflicts, and had seen to the assassination of pretty powerful people, but this is just... hack writing. You're given a list of targets over the course of the tutorials, but you never really get to see them working together, to figure out who they are. They're cardboard cutouts of characters that could easily be replaced with "The Drunkard" "The Vandal" "The Classy One" and such. For all the lack of characterization that the guys got in both AC1 and the Ezio Saga. At least you knew who the hell you were killing, and had a firm motivation to do it. Conner just doesn't feel like he's got the reason for it. Ezio had his family hung IN FRONT OF HIM by his opponents, Altair didn't care as it was just a job, and was more concerned about regaining his rank in the Assassins. But here... it feels like they want us to sympathize with Conner like we did Ezio, but the connection that we have is tenuous at best due to their style. I'll spoilertag when I dig into what I mean there for those who care about the story. That said, it's really bad when you want a character to show up at a major event in the US Revolutionary War... and have to do it by :"Oh, [Patriot] sent a letter! He wants you to help him with [Event]" "I am not a part of their movement! I see no reason to help!" "It mentions [Target]" "OH I AM TOTALLY THERE DUDE! WHERE'S MY SCALPIN AXE!?" He keeps protesting these events (So far, Boston Tea Party, and the Battle at Lexington and Concorde have shown up) and then going through them without getting ANY return. At the Tea Party he even GLARES AT A TARGET in range of any flintlock... but does nothing. Lex and Concorde feels about the same. Anywhoo...... The game honestly feels more like it was designed from a "OK, lets set it in the American Revolution and watch all those events unfold! IT'LL BE AWESOME!" standpoint, with the Protagonist and the plot chaining everything together though up at a later date and packed in along side the "Fight for freedom".