And Why Are You Telling Us This?

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So, here we are post mid-term Republican take-over of the legislature. As one might expect, my Facebook feed been awash with bitter and angry lefty losers (Although it hasn’t been quite as bad as I expected. I guess the election outcome was not much of a shock). Posts range from the typical “I don’t know anyone who would have voted for these monsters” to expected sour-grapes cries of cheating, etc. Fortunately, there were none of the usual calls to violence and injury as I have seen in the past:

Something came across my feed this morning that had me thinking, and when I start thinking it’s usually a good idea fore me to log off of Facebook and take to my blog where my rants won’t lose me friends (and won’t be read by anybody). A friend of mine linked to an article about the CEO of ULINE and how he was the a big-time contributor to conservative candidates and causes across the state. He is, as the headline put it, “The Koch of conservative politics in Illinois.”

As an aside, What’s with the left and their continual need for boogeymen when advocating for their causes? These days Koch brothers are the anti-christ du jour. Had this article come out ten years ago it would reference Haliburton. Ten years before that, maybe Mark Furhman? I guess there exists a sort of transitive property in politics that makes any problem more dire simply by association. And before you cry partisan foul, I realize that Republicans can do this to… I remember ACORN… but I feel it is much more rampant on the left.

Anyhow, back to the matter at hand. This friend linked the article then proclaimed that, of course, he will no longer will buy anything from ULINE again. Now, I am all for using the pocketbook to express a political position. You think GMOs are bad, by all means buy your organic small-batch artisinal what-nots to your heart’s content. But I don’t quite understand what the end-game is here, especially since he felt fit to announce this to world via social media.

Let’s just say everyone sees his post and decides never to satisfy their cardboard shipping needs at ULINE ever again. ULINE closes shop and all the workers, drivers and office drones there, regardless of their political convictions, are out of a job (something like 2000+ employees). I don’t think that’s the result anyone wants. Ok, if that’s not what we’re after, let’s say the CEO is starting to feel the economic pressure of the boycott. Then what’s he supposed to do, abandon his political convictions in favor of yours? That seems rather narcissistic. Why should everyone agree with you? As the old cliche goes, do you think you have a monopoly on the truth? Here in Chicago, if I only patronized the businesses of people I agreed with I would go hungry real fast (grocers are a secret Marxist cabal from what I hear).

I think what really burns me here is that the boycott is being called not because of the way the company runs its business, rather it’s to punish one man over his political beliefs, and, in the process, punish tons of people who are just living their lives. Can’t we just accept that people have different views? Don’t be a fool, buy from the company that offers you the best product at the best price and use whatever money you saved to fund your pet political cause and don’t let petty politics run your life.

How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness by Russ Roberts (8/10)

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In this book Roberts (of EconTalk fame) takes Adam Smith’s other major work, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, and makes it understandable in a modern context. There isn’t much economics here. Rather, Smith’s work is essentially an Eighteenth Century self-help book that lays out theories as to why, as self-interested beings, people behave in altruistic and moral ways. At the core is the premise that we all desire to be “loved and lovely” and if we can achieve that we will find happiness. I don’t know if this book has changed my life, but I think I may return to it again for inspiration in the future.

Dead Space: Downfall (5/10)

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The creators of the Dead Space series must be really proud of the little story they came up with because it feels like they have retold it like four times now. This animated film depicts the events in the Ishamura just after the marker was taken. It’s filled with cliches ripped straight out of every post-Aliens sci-fi action movie and features a completely annoying and unlikable lead character. She spends the whole movie mad at everybody and acting stupid. The drawing style also looks like a modern Scooby Doo episode. Yuck.

A Bell Is a Cup Until it Is Struck by Wire - CD (10/10)

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Wire continues its slide towards mid-eighties dance music with this collection of songs. There’s a dreamy, goth-y quality to this album which may take a little getting used to if you jump from Wire’s first records to this. I know it took me several listens to accept it and fully embrace dance-Wire. I now consider songs like “Kidney Bingos” and “Boiling Boy” to be among the band’s best work.

Wasteland 2 on PC (9/10)

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Soon after I plunked down a few Kickstarter bucks for Broken Age, Wasteland 2’s campaign popped up. Back in my Apple ][ days I knew about, but never played, Wasteland. If I was going to commit time and effort to an RPG, it was going to be Ultima. However, after my migration to Windows, the game’s “spiritual successor” Fallout was one of the first big games I played (it was also the first thing I ever bought on eBay back in 1998. The box smelled like cigars). I really liked the more recent Fallout 3 / New Vegas games, but, like many old-timers, I longed for the deep, turn based combat of the first two games of the series. Brian Fargo’s Kickstarter video promised to bring party-based, turn-based, post-nuclear-based gaming back… to base. To have. I was sold.

And now, unlike some other well-known Kickstarter projects that I perhaps mentioned a paragraph ago, Wasteland 2 has arrived on schedule! And, whaddya know, it delivered on all of its crowd-sourcing promises. The game-plays and feels very similar to the first two Fallout games, but it uses a 3-D engine with fluid animation and camera control. This is still an indie-game, so the game engine and art assets lack the polish of a triple-A title. There’s quite a bit of slow-down during explosions and the occasional weird rendering bug (every once and a while I would lose camera control in combat and would see a glitch where I was panning shadows around instead of changing the view). But these bugs where rare enough not to be a huge problem.

There are two things that really shine here. First, I forgot just how fun and satisfying tactical turn-based combat is. The meditative pacing and planning makes getting that one big kill just at the right moment feel like a real accomplishment. Second, the game is filled with ambiguous moral choices that helped really get me invested in the characters and story. Whereas a game like Mass Effect has very obvious good guy bad guy dialog options, Wasteland 2’s choices will have you allowing one evil faction prosper by eliminating their just-as-bad rivals in order to save a third group that will help you on your main mission. No one gets everything they want and that makes for a unique experience for anyone who plays the game.

Your choices matter. In fact, I was able to get the game to an unwinnable state because I hadn’t bothered to have more than one character develop a certain skill. I’m not very good a character management in RPGs. Fortunately, I only had to go back one save state, before a final level-up, to avoid this problem. I can see a lot of younger gamers hating this sort of outcome, but for me, it just raises the stakes.

All-in-all, despite it’s rough edges, Wasteland 2 was worth the wait and is a worthy successor to both the original Apple ][ version and the subsequent Fallout games.

The Ideal Copy by Wire - CD (10/10)

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After 154, Colin Newman picked up where 154 left off with A–Z and Graham Lewis went the experimental route and formed the almost unlistenable Dome. It seemed that Wire was no more. And then, several years later, comes The Ideal Copy (well, actually Snakedrill EP was first). This second incarnation of the band has them distancing themselves from their punk roots in favor of synths and electronics. At this point they are still straddling that sweet spot between dance music and rock that I like so much (Killing Joke veered this way for a while). Just about every song on this disc is great, but I do tend to hit the skip button when “Feed Me” plays.

Chairs Missing by Wire - CD (10/10)

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Of all the Wire releases, this one is my favorite. The music ranges from dreamy (“French Film Blurred”) to punky (“Sand in my Joints”) to poppy (“Outdoor Miner”) to epic (“Mercy”), all while maintaining the same mix of the punk rock energy of their first LP and a more arty, synthesizer-based sound. Their next LP, 154, would dive a little bit farther into the experimentalism with mixed results—also a great album—but I think I would still pick Chairs Missing in a bar fight.

The Golden Spiders by Rex Stout (8/10)

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Nero Wolfe is a dick. It’s a wonder that this mostly unlikable character spawned such a successful series of books. This is the second book in the series that I have read and it was pretty good, especially the opening chapters. Things get a little too convoluted at the climax, with an array of underdeveloped characters vying to be tagged as the murderer. It eventually does make sense, but, by then, who cares. Thankfully it was a short read, so I left satisfied.

Pink Flag by Wire - CD (10/10)

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Wire’s first album is the one that all my punk rock friends consider their best. For me, it’s a great record but it lacks the experimentation of later releases. That said, Pink Flag is leaps and bounds better than most of punk records of the same era. They are much more aligned with the artsy side of punk than the rock ‘n’ roll-y side of the movement (ala the Ramones or The Clash). There are so many great tracks on this: “Three Girl Rhumba,” “Ex-Lion Tamer,” “Fragile,” “1 2 XU,” and the list goes on…