Oblivion!

Sorry about saying I was back and then not posting at all for several weeks.  Oops.  Here's a new post:

      I've had Oblivion installed on my computer for a while now, but I haven't gotten around to playing it, instead opting to play Morrowind.  Last weekend I was introduced to the total conversion mod Nehrim and, I must say, it is pretty rad.  I've gotten about ten hours of playtime in so far.  The most enjoyable part of the game so far has been the tutorial.  I don't mean to disparage the rest of the game (I've really enjoyed it), it's just that I really liked the tutorial.  There's a nice cinematic, then you're dropped into a dark mine underground.  The tutorial plays a lot like a horror game.  Normally, I don't like horror that much, but I liked this a lot.  I suppose I would probably have enjoyed it a lot less if I had died more than the once or twice that I did.  It was entertaining and I was pretty absorbed in running away from the horrors, but the thing that made me think "this is awesome" was the loading screen when I exited the mine.  Roots had begun to break through the walls and there were a couple hole leading up to a dense forest.  When I opened the door to the outside, the loading screen image was of a hand blocking out the blinding light.  It's details like that that really make RPGs for me.  It makes it much more immersing.  Now, on to the rest of the game:

The Plot:
     Good.

Magicka:  Same dumb name, way better system.
     In the Elder Scrolls III, magicka didn't regenerate.  This made using magic a pain.  You had to carry around a bunch of potions if you wanted to get anything done and it was prohibitively expensive to play as a mage, especially for the early and middle game.  In Oblivion, it regenerates.  That makes it pretty neat.  It's easy to supplement your physical attacks with magical ones and to heal oneself during and after battles.  If you're fighting non-challenging monsters, you don't have to run back to base to buy more potions all the time.  Non-regenerating mana is dumb.

Combat:
     It's alright.  I like it more than most RPGs and FPSes, but I would prefer if the melee required a little bit more.  Archery and magic require aim at least, but melee just requires that you be close enough to your target.  Having an NPC accompany you makes it really easy; if the NPC aggros all the baddies, you can just pick them off.

Lockpicking:
     Dumb.  I like that it's a minigame you can get better at, but picks do not work that way.

The Environment 'n' Stuff:
     Nehrim does a really good job of creating a world.  There's not as much of the "everything is exactly the same" feeling that I get in most games, but everything is still really tiny.  I can walk across the capital of the continent in thirty seconds.  It does feel pretty epic though.

The German:
     Pretty rad.  I like listening to the characters talk while I read the subtitles.  I don't understand a lick of it and it adds some nice atmosphere to the game.

Bleh.  That wasn't a very good post, but I have to post it anyways so I can at least get something up here.

HI GUYS I AM BACK

I mean, guy.  I'm now five months older, and hopefully five months more awesome.  I'll post a post with actualy content later.

DERAILED

So, I am here to accidentally a blog post.  I'm not sure how I can this.  Perhaps if I?  Not, that won't.  Maybe if I for a while it will just.  I wonder if I could accidentally every posts.  That would nice.

Ok, that's enough of that.  Today's topic is... My mouse!  Yes, that is today's topic.  My mouse is made by Rocketfish and it's a bit-hold on, I'd rather talk about commas.  I noticed that I accidentally a comma where I wasn't supposed to one.  This is the only grammatical mistake I consistently make (that I can recall at the moment; there are probably others).  I write things like "The man was old, and he had a wicked cheesy beard."  There's not supposed to be a comma there.  It sounds to me like there ought to be one, but I know there shouldn't.  I guess it comes from my religious insistence on the use of Oxford commas* in lists.  People leave it out all the time, (I DID IT AGAIN) and it bothers me because it means that the last two items in the list could be mistaken as a descriptor for the third-to-last item.

*Cheese, monkeys(This is an Oxford comma -->),(<-- This is an Oxford comma) and old flumes.

Yeah, so...

I've given it some thought and I ended up saying some stupid things in that last post that aren't really correct.  I picked way too broad a topic.  I'm going to have to move on to something else.

Government: 18 or Bust

     Be forewarned:  I might sound like a moron.  I will try my best not to, but I might.

     So, to address the title:  According to the US government, if you're not 18 then you're not a person.  You do have some rights, but not a whole lot of them.  The US is really terrible to its children.  Read this (WARNING: It's a pdf).  To the best of my knowledge, America is one of only two countries who has refused to agree to this section of the Geneva convention.  Now, I actually disagree with it on one point, but it's rather minor and the fact that the US didn't sign it is really bothersome to me.  I'll address my issue with the UN document before proceeding on to America's problems, since I'm on the subject and the US has laws regarding the principle.  In Principle 9, it is stated that "The child shall not be admitted to employment before an appropriate minimum age..."  I disagree with this.  One of my biggest problems with modern governments and people is their obsession with standardization.  Everyone has to be exactly the same.  Sure, people ought to start on an equal footing, but after that, anything's fair game.  With respect to this policy, it means that I think a minimum age shouldn't be established.  It ought to be the decision of the child and the parents when the child is ready to work.  I don't think there's a problem with five year olds working, although it would have to be really easy work, and not last for long.  Children ought to be able to work whenever they want, so long as it doesn't interfere with normal growth, education, etc., etc.  The problem that arises from allowing children to work is that poorer families will send their children to work for the money and the children would not receive proper education and other things mentioned in the document.  That's something I'm not sure how to fix.  There are some solutions, such as requiring an investigation into the finances of every family in the United States, or requiring employers to check on the status of their employees, but both of those solutions violate other tenets that I hold.  I'll think about it more; I might post something in the comments, but I'm not promising anything.
     Well, back on track:  The United States and its policy towards children.  Man, I just realized I know nothing about this topic.  I'm gonna go research it for half an hour or something.

...

I'll come back to this tomorrow, I promise.  Maybe I'll do some installments on childrens' rights violations instead of a one big post on how America hates kids.

On the Evolution of Igors

How would an Igor evolve?  That is the question I have asked myself and propose to answer in this post.

     First, for those of you who may not know what an Igor is:  An Igor is a fictional creature in the Discworld series.  All members of the species are named Igor (like the Q, if you've heard of them) and they serve as assistants to mad scientists.  They are much like humans except that they are very skilled in the realm of mad science.  They are usually quite sane, unlike the masters that they serve.  The thing about Igors that would affect their evolution is the fact that they do a lot of surgery on themselves.  They can remove and replace limbs with ease.  This led to them passing down body parts like heirlooms.  An Igor could have his father's hands and his mother's eyes, literally.

     How would this affect their evolution?  Well, if one assumes they pass on a random set of body parts (organs can be passed on as well as limbs), if they were to not pass on their reproductive organs, then the base Igor would become steadily worse, and body parts from ancestors more and more valuable as Igors degraded due to poor genes surviving on the coattails of relatives.  This would, of course, eventually reverse itself when the supply of ancestral body parts ran dry.  I do not think that this has happened to the Igors in Discworld, otherwise they would not still be as smart as they are, since they can't (obviously) pass down brains.
     Instead, I believe that they pass on their reproductive organs.  Odd as that may sound, it might be the only way for Igors to survive.  If they were to do that, strong genes would be able to produce more offspring for much longer than they would be able to if they died with their original owners.  It does seem to be a bit of a strange concept, but it seems to me that this would be the only way for Igors to survive.  This would accelerate the process of natural selection because there would be an intelligence deciding which genes ought to be passed on.  Like I said before, if they didn't do this the weaker Igors could survive with stronger bodies from their ancestors and would weaken the gene pool.
     Now, the question that arises from this conclusion is:  Who chooses which reproductive organs to keep and which to throw away?  Would it be individual Igors?  There's another concern that factors into this.  When do the Igors start swapping parts?  For the purposes of this post, I'm going to assume they start swapping when they reach maturity.  Now, back to the topic at hand: I think it's more likely that individual Igors would decide.  With other body parts, the parents and relatives pass on their limbs or organs by their own choice.  I would think that they would pass along their reproductive organs if they saw that the children produced by those organs were healthier or stronger or smarter or just better than other Igor children.  Though this is the more logical explanation, I prefer to think that there is a council of Igors who judge other Igors on their reproductive ability and decide whether or not those organs ought to be passed down.  It amuses me to think of a council whose only purpose is this.
     And on that note, I'll end this post.  I think I had something else to say about it, but I've forgotten what it was.  That tends to happen a lot.

Just Making Sure I Don't Go a Whole Week without Posting

So...  I guess I ought to write about something.

I know!  Triplanetary!

     Triplanetary is really old board game.  The rules can be found here.  It is played on a map with hexagonal tiles.  The interesting thing about this game is the gravity tiles and movement system.  In other games, ships enter orbit usually by flying into a planet.  In this game, the ships must first slow to orbital speed, then adjust trajectory in order to hit gravity tiles just right.  It will be easy to understand when I explain the rules of movement, as I am about to do.  In fact, that is probably what I ought to have done first.
     Ships have a limited amount of fuel and a limited amount of fuel able to be used each turn.  A ship may use a unit of fuel to alter its trajectory by one hex.  Refer to the rules for pictures.  So, a ship that can use two fuel units per turn may accelerate or decelerate by two hexes per turn, with no maximum speed (except that determined by the amount of fuel it has).  To alter a trajectory, one first pinpoints the hex a ship would land on without any interference from the thrusters (a ship will continue to move at the same velocity as it did the last turn if left alone; there is no friction in space).  Then, one changes that end point the same number of hexes as units of fuel used.  The manual has pictures and is more clear.
     So, gravity tiles are tiles with arrows pointing towards the center of gravity.  A gravity tile accelerates a ship one tile in the direction of the arrow the turn after the tile is entered.  Again, the manual has pretty pictures that are easy to understand.  Using this, one can enter orbit, or use it to change direction or as a slingshot.

     I really like this game, since it happens in space and I have a fondness for space, but it needs more special ships and buildings, which I plan on adding.