Infinitely Entertaining Bioshock

"After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world" (Phillip Pullman)

   I’m not going to get into any spoilers here (or at least attempt not to, I know the concept of spoilers is pretty flexible, so if you don’t want exposure to ANY part of the game, even what might have been in a review, turn back now!)

Unfortunately the game does not play on infinitely

   Bioshock Infinite is one of those games where you feel like a developer has explored every niche possible and still manages to produce great stories. After riding the wild trip through Rapture, the underwater city (twice), 2K games asks players to step into the past (well, further into the past) to 1912 America, where the enigmatic Booker Dewitt is sent to the flying city of Columbia to rescue Elizabeth, a girl held captive by the mysterious ‘Prophet’.

   So after spending the last two games investing yourself into the 40’s and 50’s motifs of the underwater city of Rapture, with it’s crazy gang of splicers, water hazards and megalomaniacs, you as a player are rocketed (quite literally) into the sky to deal with a new band of miscreants. 

   I am a huge fan of the Bioshock series, let’s just get that out of the way here. I never played System Shock, which is the spiritual precursor to the Bioshock games, but I assume it is great too. Bioshock manages to fuse incredible, detailed story telling with the frantic pace of a great first person shooter. They even manage to squeeze in some exploration elements into the game, often rewarding players with special or extra powerups for those who explore off the beaten path. The original series of Bioshock, taking place in the underwater city of Rapture is chock full of memorable characters and experiences that are sometimes hard to find in the video game medium, and Bioshock Infinite lives up to these expectations and more. 

   For those of you who might be on the fence about the whole Bioshock franchise, perhaps playing the first game and part of the second one and finding it samey, I encourage you to give Bioshock Infinite a try. Set in a considerably less dreary and dark flying city in the sky, the first portion of the game plays out relatively similarly to the Bioshock model, which is go get someone/something, and getting sidetracked along the way by various obstacles that need to be overcome. I can tell you it is different however, because about halfway through the game the story puts you on a one way ticket straight to crazytown and everything starts going nuts. The first half of the game still features an engaging, detailed and interesting storyline, but the second half is really when they pull all the new stuff together in a way that is still leaving me scratching my head. 

When the worship George Washington as a Messiah, that should be your first indication that you're going to get sold a ticket to crazytown

   One new feature I enjoyed was the character of the girl. She’s a self-starting woman who could have very well been her own heroine if not for the situation she’s found herself in. I find this is a really great step for the video game industry as a whole, which has a tendency to cast women in games in less than favourable roles. Most of the time it’s the damsel in distress in need of rescue but unwilling to get herself out until her hero comes along, less often the female character is a sexed up pin up model with doe eyes and usually a very oversized weapon, other times they’re cast as submissive, or bimbos or clueless, none of which do women any favours.

   Not this girl though, Elizabeth (I think I’m safe to name her right?) is a self made woman. Although she was trapped in a tower, she totally would have escaped herself if it wasn’t for a warden who was physically capable of foiling her every attempt, and that still didn’t stop her from mastering lockpicking. Rather than while away her time waiting for rescue, she teaches herself the history of the world, geography and all sorts of other topics while she grows up. She does end up going with Booker, and she starts off a bit naïve to the ways of the world, but as the going gets tough she increasingly comes into her own. She goes with Booker because he promises to take her away from Columbia, but as things are revealed, she goes through her own struggle of what to do, and it’s always clear that she’s making her own decisions, rather than being towed along by Booker. By the end of it she’s totally ready to take any matters into her own hands, with or without Bookers help. 

   You spend the bulk of the game adventuring with Elizabeth and when many games would saddle you with a useless escort character (as in escort them and keep them from harm, rather than any sexual context) Elizabeth scrounges the map for ammo, health and salts (Infinites equivalent to EVE) and always attempts to keep you stocked. When in combat, she keeps herself out of the way (technically, she is immune to all damage, which is still nice to not have to worry about).In any case,  I think this a very positive step for gender role assumptions in the video game industry, combined with the revamped Laura Croft from tomb raider we may be entering an era of strong female leads in video gaming.

   One thing that stayed the same that I enjoyed was the ability to find recorded messages throughout the game. This was used to great effect in the original Bioshock and I appreciated the way the game justified having portable voice recorders around in 1912. These messages serve both as ways to advance the plot without having to wide through minutes of cutscenes (you can go about your business with your message playing in the background) and also as a way to reward exploring players. Often you’ll find the recordings in plain sight, but a few are tucked away in hidden places. On top of advancing the plot the recordings often shed light onto side characters that otherwise might not get much attention, or helping explain the motivations of the primary characters. If you manage to collect all the recordings (I found 70/80) it gives a much clearer picture of what is going on in the game, rather than what has just been thrown at you though fixed story points in the campaign. 

   I didn’t really like was the way they changed the upgrade system. In the original Bioshock you had money, plasmids and weapons. Plasmids were improved by purchasing or finding upgrades, but the weapons were upgraded through illicit ‘power to the people’ stations that were free to use but limited to one upgrade. While it wouldn’t have made as much sense in Bioshock Infinite I didn’t enjoy how everything was moved to a money based upgrade system, since improving your weapons and powers boiled down to how much money you could hoard, steal or scrounge from the environment. This does allow the game to have a wider variety of weapons, which I suppose has its merits. 

You eventually learn to hate Dollar Bill as his mockery of your lack of dollars.

   In summary, if you own an Xbox 360, PS3 or Computer box and enjoy video games, you really should give Bioshock Infinite a whirl (really all the Bioshocks). It combines excellent gameplay, master story telling with a twist that will keep you guessing (as the Bioshock franchise is relatively famous for). 

Self Discovery in Solitude

"Solitude vivifies, isolation kills" (Abbé Joseph Roux)   

   It’s surprising the things you learn about yourself when you’re left to your own devices for more than a couple of hours. Its day three of being on my own while everyone else is away visiting home and I’ve discovered I become a lazy slob, usually I’m pretty on the ball when it comes to keeping stuff clean, especially the kitchen. As it turns out, when there is no one around to impress other than myself I keep pretty low standards. 

It's not quite that bad, but it may be getting there.

   Also, I apparently gain the ability to neglect eating in favour of other activities. When there is no one around who may also want to eat I decide that it’s perfectly ok to spend 6 hours playing video games, or three hours writing backdated blog posts. So I guess it isn’t all bad, maybe I’ll pioneer the ‘leave it alone diet!’ :P 

   Finally, it's hilarious and frustrating when you're baby sitting a cat and bunny who get along well enough to be in the same room, but the cat has boundary issues so he's always trying to get into the bunny's cage. The end result is a frustrated bunny and a stuck cat. (The problem was solved though so no frantic emails detailing solutions!)

Sunday Afternoon Delight (Sunday's Post)

"Get a bicycle. You will not regret it. If you live" (Mark Twain)

    We had such Beautiful weather here in Halifax that I just had to get out on my bicycle. While I do commute back and forth to work on the thing, I find I don’t often have many chances to just do some free riding. Sometimes the weather is crappy, sometimes I’m busy and sometimes I just don’t feel like cycling. While none of those things has to deter from cycling, sometimes it does. 

For those interested, my route went like this:

Total Distance: 27km

   The first stop was going over the Macdonald Bridge, which for a newbie can be a bit challenging and scary going over the first time. I know the first time I attempted to cross the bridge it was a windy and rainy night, I got about a quarter of the way up the ramp before I turned around. Its challenging because if there is any wind then it will be multiplied by about 100x when you’re actually crossing the thing as the wind whips across the narrows. This can make it challenging enough when the bridge is basically 50% steep incline and 50% steeper decline, but it doesn’t help that every car going over the bridge plates causes the side plates to rattle and shake. Did I mention that the bikeway and pedway are hanging off the sides of the bridge proper? Because they are. 

If you just added some googly eyes this picture would just scream: Om nom nom Imma gonna eat you

   It’s also possible that people may be afraid of the bridge is because the entrance basically looks like the entrance to the lair of some evil monster. It even has signage saying ‘Helmets must be worn past this point’ and ‘cyclists only’ as if to ward away non-bicycle knights from entering. Who knows what evil may lurk past its overhanging metal sheets. 

   It could also be daunting because the beginning of the bikeway looks like it just rises to infinity and there is no guarantee that over the horizon it isn’t just going to dump you into the harbour. While it is pretty easy to convince yourself that no public planner would purposefully allow cyclists to go careening into the harbor, given some peoples opinion on cyclists it wouldn’t be entirely surprising. Also given that this is the human brain we’re talking about, the same one that tries to convince you that that shadow beside you is totally a ghost and that van that’s been tailing you for 20 minutes might be a hit squad waiting to kill you, it’s possible in a fevered state that a demon bridge might try to have you go tumbling into the harbour. 

This is oddly familiar to the art project I was sujected to in Grade 10.

   Once on the bridge you can get a pretty good view of the North End assuming you want to stick your camera between the slats of the big fence. Also you have to brace yourself against the bajillion mile an hour winds that will try to blow you (and your bike) over. If you can manage to do that, you can get a pretty reasonable picture assuming another cyclist doesn’t come along and accidentally try to run you down because you’re standing in their lane. The picture of the south end doesn’t come out as nicely as there are three lanes of traffic and a pedway obstructing the view, also then you might see the netting they have under the bikeway/pedway and have to wonder WHY that has to be there. I mean, I know what it is there, but it just gives me the heeby jeebies thinking that it is there in the first place. 

Alternatively its a screen shot from the lowest of budgeted films, one where the set provides the big widescreen blocks

   Over the bridge you wind up in Dartmouth, which don’t let anyone tell you otherwise (including me) isn’t actually all that bad of a place. Especially the downtown area has a lovely assortment of parks and waterfront that is less crowded than the Halifax side. While every city has its bad areas, I think Dartmouth just has an overly bad reputation, either that or on the weekend all the crime makers sit back and relax… it is the Maritimes after all. 

   At Alderney Landing you can get some pretty good pictures of the Halifax waterfront that you see in all the promotional material for Halifax. It also happens to be a very nice park to stroll around in. 

As long as the rest of your promotional material doesn't come from Picnicface

   There was also a really neat amphitheatre shaped like a pyramid. When I went inside I expected to see the traditional half shell (or in this case half point) seating arrangement, however there was also some sort of rock exhibit. It featured rocks and bricks from all over the world and was created in honour of a G20 summit in Halifax many years ago. I wasn’t quite sure what the reasoning behind it was, but it was neat to look at. 

IGNORE THE DASHINGLY HANSOM MAN IN THE REFLECTION

   The whole thing was very interesting and I wonder if there are any shows that actually perform in there, or if it is more of a public display of bricks. Either way it goes to show what can be hiding on your doorstep. 

It's like the Egyptians came to Halifax, started building and then gave up because it was too cold

   Leaving Dartmouth I was able to see my all time favourite street name. In downtown Dartmouth resides the Street of Ochterloney. I’m sure it was someone’s name and they wouldn’t enjoy the pleasure I derive from seeing it, but it’s just so bizarre. I feel like it was the mistranslation of some Scottish guy trying to describe how crazy his friend was. Although I never know if I’m pronouncing it right, I would personally pronounce it Ok-ter-lone-y, but apparently even Haligonians don’t agree. Either way, it’s an awesome street. 

I'm not making it up!

   From Dartmouth I rode to Point Pleasant Park, which to those that haven’t been there and live in Halifax you definitely should. It’s a huge public park nestled at the very bottom of the Halifax peninsula and offers great walking trails along with excellent views of the Atlantic Ocean. It’s exposed to the water so it’s great for kite flying, and it has plenty of greenspace for Frisbee, throwing a ball around, or croquet (which I saw played there for the first time today). The park had a wonderful variety of trees and an excellent canopy up until Hurricane Juan in September 2003, where the park was severely damaged. Combined with an infestation of Brown Spruce Longhorn beetle decimated the treescape of the park and it is still recovering to this day. 

Unfortunately, this picture is not photoshopped

   I went there because I had an idea to blog about how the Martello tower in Halifax was named such. I knew that it had a name other than the Martello tower, but being from Saint John where there is more famously ‘The Martello Tower’ I was all ready to call out Parks Canada on its lazy naming policies. However once I got there I was corrected by the helpful Parks Canada info panels, so I guess they were prepared to strike back. 

If you look closely, the tower has a face that is shocked to see you here

   Where I thought that the Tower at Point Pleasant Park was a Martello Tower, which was a type of tower built by the British during the colonial period in defense of the empire all over the world, it turns out the tower in Point Pleasant predates even them. Built as a Prince of Wales tower, it was later upgraded to Martello style, hence the name (and my confusion), so while it is the Prince of Wales tower, it later became a Martello tower as well, so I guess Parks Canada wins this round. I’ll get them some other day on a historical inaccuracy. 

   From the view however, it is not hard to guess why the tower was built in the place it was. 

That's right! It was the towers ability to have trees obstruct their view of the water!

   I biked down to sea level at the base of the park and was treated a full blown collection of Maritime sterotypes. There were people looking out towards the sea (while enjoying a nice picnic),

We just need one of them in a rain slicker for it to be perfect!

boats racing, 

Either that or it was a mother boat attending to it's boatlings, I wasn't quite sure.

there was even a lighthouse! 

If it was possible for there to be one on every street corner, there would be.

All of these things are reasons I enjoy coming down to Point Pleasant Park. That and all the nice monuments, being the entrance to the city from the water makes it a great place to put very pretty statues, mostly military monuments. 

The sword is there for when the soldiers rise up as Zombies, because someone has the fight the Nazi Zombies!

From the park I went to the grocery store and then home. It was a good day.  

Game Day (Saturday's Post)

"A game is like a mirror that allows you to look at yourself" (Robert Kiyosaki) 

 Well everyone went home for the weekend, either to go run errands in their hometown or visit family so I was left with the responsibility of looking after the Animals. So of course what do I do but go and throw a board game party! A well catered one at that!

   I was somehow able to set a new record for least time spent in the kitchen making delicious food, which was especially surprising since I made two things I hadn’t made before. The first was a Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie recipe that I took from my ‘How to cook everything’ cookbook. I already have the basics of making cookies down to a science and I’m discovering different types of cookies are basically just variations on the same theme. I had to substitute shortening in for butter again but they turned out great (or at least my guests thought so when they were snacking on them). 

   For those of you who don’t know, How to cook everything is a great (if large) cookbook that is not only full of recipies but also has many, many instructions on going through the basics of cooking. Grouped by category, each section will start with a few intro tips on how to either prepare that group or some sort of technique. For example at the start of the ‘Vegetables’ category it spends a page going through all the ways you can prepare vegetables. The book has a Vegetarian edition and a book called ‘How to cook everything: Basics’. I’m not sure what would be in the basics category since many of the recipies in the main cook book are pretty simple. It’s a great buy for anyone who wants to get into cooking but doesn’t know very much (and you can always google the rest) 

Because this book will only take you so far, and is also the saddest book ever. Not only can you only cook via Microwave, you're also lonely!

   After the cookies were done I followed the instructions for easy to make oven baked potato fries. These are different from regular fries in that they are potato I cut myself and then drizzled with olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme. They are nominally healthier than store bought fries because they don’t have batter but are still just as delicious. Taking inspiration from my Dad I threw a few cloves of garlic on the pan. While the potato fries bake, they absorb some delicious garlic flavour, and once they’re done the baked garlic makes an excellent complement to the fries. All around awesome! Plus once again the guests liked them too. 

   Finally I anchored the meal with my classic meatloaf. If there is one thing that I had to say I made the best, it would be that. I have yet to offer a non-vegetarian/vegan meatloaf and had them not like it. It is so elegant in its simplicity, but it’s deliciousness makes it one of my favourite meals as well. You just throw down some ground beef, toss some celery, oatmeal, an egg, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and some salt and pepper and you’re good to go. You can add a sauce based top but I never bother, as the loaf alone is great. 

I was able to cheat because I have an abundance of frozen vegetables in the fridge that can be microwaved/boiled to preparation. I simply waited for guests to arrive at picked based on consensus. The consensus ended up being green beans because they’re amazing.

Not that kind of Meatloaf, unfortunately the first 5 images of google image search disagreed.

   Once the group showed up we were ready to play. One of them arrived earlier than the other so we played a quick game of dice Catan. It’s essentially like regular catan but smaller and played with dice. You roll 6 dice (with pictures of the five catan resources: Wheat, Sheep, Brick, Ore and Wood) and build things with the combinations. You can roll up to three times before you score; if you can’t build anything after the 3^rd roll you get -2 points at the end of the game, which is awful. The game goes for 15 rounds while you build up your little Catan map on game provided pieces of paper. Gameplay for two people lasts about twenty minutes as is an excellent game to bring for travelling. I have the deluxe edition so it came with an awesome dice rolling cup.

   Once everyone showed up we broke out the Puerto Rico. Published by Rio Grande games puts you in the position of a plantation owner trying to make the best of his landholdings in Puerto Rico. The objective of the game is to grow crops and ship them back to the mother country, which depending on the time period you might think yourself playing it would be Spain or the USA. This places it in the hard to sell category of games that ‘sound super boring but end up being really interesting once you know how to play them’. 

This category contains games like Agricola because trying to explain them goes like this: “So you’re playing as a plantation owner shipping crops back to Spain, but here’s the thing, you get to PICK your crops, and you have to chose wisely. All the crops are worth the same victory points but have different money values, so you have to figure out what the best points/money mix is… wait, where are you going? Don’t leave it’s really fun once you get to know it!” It’s like being the homely cousin in a Disney movie, you know you have inner beauty but not of the characters can get past the frumpy outside.

What it is sometimes like to get people to sit down and listen to you describe a board game

   I enjoy Puerto Rico because it has roles that you get to pick each round, but everyone benefits from them. So you have to ask yourself ‘is this role going to benefit me more than everyone else combined, or can I wait for someone else to pick it. It leads to some very Machiavellian thinking and can make it very combative. Nothing is more satisfying however; than watching everyone pick the roles you wanted them to pick leaving the most optimal move for yourself. This is possible because board games are a social creature, if you want someone to do something; you just have to open your mouth and try to persuade them to do it. 

   We finished with Starfarers of Catan, which is basically Catan but in space. This theme is extended with the five resources of Space Wheat, Space Ore, Carbon, Fuel and Trade goods. This means that it is everything you love about Catan but in space, which according to the rules of geekdom makes it at least 2x as awesome.  It was also three steps away from being a 'Once upon a time' scenario with my old gaming group. It lasts much longer than a standard game of Catan, clocking in at about 2 hours for a 4 player game. What makes it worth it though, is that your space ships that move around the board are represented by a massive space ship each player owns that you physically modify as you upgrade. Plus you can fly them around when it’s not your turn going ‘skew skew skew’ and if that doesn’t convince you I don’t know what will… 

Seriously, who wouldn't want to play with that :P

…except for the fact that every turn before you move your stuff, you have a chance of having a random space encounter. What makes these great is that while there are only 5-6 scenarios, the outcomes for them are randomized enough that you never know what is going to happen. ‘You’re approached by a merchant; do you give him goods (0-3)? Oh you gave him 1 good, you get nothing. You give him 3 goods, he was a stingy merchant and he gives you nothing, 2 goods; it turns out they were SPACE PIRATES and they try to make off with your goods and now you have to have a SPACE BATTLE.

According to google, this is the 'Most awesome science fiction picture' but it should be a picture of a ship flying through space carrying canisters of space wheat and fuel while battle pirates and making friends with aliens. If that picture does exist then some artist needs to GET ON THAT.

   If that doesn’t convince you, there is also a fame mechanic, every two ‘fame’ rings being worth a victory points. This means that games can be won or lost based on your strength in the galactic future version of American Idol, a mechanic one of the players used to rush to victory, and I suspect will never let us live it down for the rest of our days. 

   I really enjoyed the whole afternoon/early evening of board games party concept. We may have played one more game but one player had to go home and study. I think it shows age progression. Gone are the days where I invite people over at lunch time and board game until the wee hours of the morning. I am now satisfied inviting people over for a half dozen hours, entertaining them, feeding them with hand crafted food and schooling them (or being schooled) over a few board games. Is this what adulthood is supposed to feel like?

   So it just goes to show that if you leave me alone in a house full of animals, I will… call all my friends over and play board games all afternoon/evening. My rate is $20 day and I can be there by next Saturday. 

Terrorizing Academics and the Kijiji Conundrum

"A man who does not think for himself, does not think at all" (Oscar Wilde)

   I find some things are just too unbelievable to wrap my head around when reading about them. Other times I am just flabbergasted by how people go about doing certain things. I don’t get ranty very often, or at least not intentionally but today has just been a variety of things that I just can’t help but shake my head at.  From political posturing to kijiji antics, I’m not quite sure what has been so special about this Friday to have graced us with so much ridiculous, but here it is.

‘Committing Sociology’

   I’m not a huge fan of Stephen Harper and the way that the Conservative Party of Canada runs the Government of the day in the first place, but yesterday they have just being ridiculous. When Harper was questions about the arrested Via rail terror suspects he suggested now was not the time to ‘commit sociology’. This is with respect to Justin Trudeau’s comment that the American populace shouldn’t jump to conclusions about the Boston Marathon bombers before the ‘root causes’ could be investigated. What I don’t understand is why the Conservative party is always so sensitive to shore up its image as being tough on terrorism. I think everyone really wants to be tough on terrorism, and the Conservative Party is already the law and orderiest of the bunch.

   What is especially insulting is the idea that there are situations where the Social Sciences aren’t supposed to move in with their research and objective methodology. Surely in cases of attempted terrorism we should just swoop in, arrest all suspects, lock them away forever and forget it ever happened. All thanks to the efforts of the Canadian Law Enforcement and Justice agencies. While apprehending criminals and terrorists before they have a chance to act is a noble concept, it shouldn’t come at the expense of research which could help lead to better crafted policies which might be able to prevent the crime/terrorism in the first place. The problem with the arrest first, think about why they did it later mentality is that it doesn’t do anything to prevent such issues from arising again in the future.

   Sociology often gets a bad rap for not being exceptionally applicable to the problems of every day society. People don’t often look to the power of culture to prevent being mugged on the street. It is gaining new prominence though, especially in Nova Scotia with all the cyber-bulling cases, solutions for that are completely up Sociology’s alley, it just needs time to research. The key issue at stake here though is when you belittle one segment of the social sciences; really you’re hurting all of them. The same logic that we shouldn’t commit sociology when terrorism is involved can be spread between all of social science. Have a problem dealing with a dictator you don’t like? Don’t get all Political Sciencey over it, just bomb them out! Notice a group is having a mental health breakdown? Don’t break out all that fancy Psychology, just throw them in a mental institution, and you better not coming running to do Economics next time there is a major financial crisis, you better just throw out some rescue money to whoever you think needs it.

   Really, this line of thought can be applied to all of academia, not just Social Sciences. Don’t know why fire is hot? Don’t worry about it just don’t touch it. How do bridges stay up? I’m someone else can deal with that. By attempting to trivialize Sociology as a response to an extreme event, the Conservatives reveal at heart they are anti-academic. Stemming from long complaints of federal scientist muzzling, and playing public policy by whatever panders to their voter base, the Conservative party really doesn’t care for evidence based, researched backed solutions to problems facing Canada today.

Kijiji Klowns

   I’ve been making the most of being 25 and not owning my own car, or having reliable access to one. I have owned cars in the past, but it has always been a fleeting period of time, generally over a summer. I make due pretty well without one, I commute on my bicycle to work, I walk or bike to the grocery store and I take public transit everywhere else. On the few chances I take to go see family, there is a new inter-regional bus service that will take me there. Certainly a car would be more convenience, but strictly it is not necessary. Every so often though I get the itch that it would be so awesome to have a car again, I would still commute to work by bicycle though, probably.

    When I get this itch I scratch it by going window car shopping. I really like several new models of cars on the market but I can never justify the idea of spending $200-300 a month in a payment, plus the presumably many hundreds of dollars of a month in insurance. Obviously this will be outside the variable expenses such as car supplies, fuel and maintenance, so in the end I’d probably be out an extra $400-500 a month for the luxury of owning a new car, something that just isn’t feasible right now. Usually this diminishes any desire I have for a car, but sometimes I think ‘what about a used car…’ and that leads me down the festering rabbit hole that is Kijiji.

   Don’t get me wrong, I love Kijiji, I enjoy buying and selling things through the Canadian version of craigslist, but people just seem to go a little crazy when selling cars. I understand that I’ll never find the trifecta of a used car that has low mileage, good condition and low price, which is just being unreasonable. What I find equally unreasonable though, is the tendency for Kijiji car sellers to sneak in ridiculously large flaws with their cars at the end of their ad, and then still put a big price tag on it. Once again, I understand that they could be trying to sell a broken car to get rid of it, which is fine as long as the price reflects the condition. What gets me is the following style of ad:

Awesome car, runs great, drove it to work up until last week when I got a new car. 2002 Nissan Altima, 149,000 KM, Automatic transmission, fully loaded, just cleaned the seats. Also needs new rocker panels, the key tends to stick in the ignition, and if you turn the radio and the air condition on at the same time the car stalls. Won’t last at $3500!

   I understand that cars are expensive, and that owners are probably doing me a favour by disclosing what is wrong with the car before I buy it, but I never understand the price point. If a car has a black book value of $4000, but it needs $1500 worth of work you cannot get away with selling it for $500 off the black book price. As well, if you are selling it privately with no overhead, you probably shouldn’t be shooting for 90% of its black book value anyway.

   Think of how ridiculous that would sound if I tried to sell anything else like that.

‘Oh you know, this computer is great, it has all the gigs and rams, and even some of that operating system everyone is talking about. Also it as 12 viruses and won’t turn on but I’m only asking $300 for it, if it all worked I could easily sell it for $500.’

‘This house is great, three floors, five bedrooms, also it has termites in the basement and sits on a flood plain but for the low price of $299,999 you can figure it out yourself! This project is perfect for the handyman.’

   It could be that the high prices are just a defence against Kijiji lowballers of which exist in multitude. I can only guess at how many other people like myself that the high prices drive away. In either case, it certainly puts a damper on any dreams of car ownership. Unless some family member or friend happens to be falling out of love with a well maintained car with reasonable kilometers for its age and is willing to part with it for less than $1000, or work out some sort of payment plan…

Rant Over.

Haligamesian I: Cosmic Encounter

'Warlike and fairly dim, Humans are not seen as much as a threat' (Cosmic Encounter flavour text for the Human Race)

   All this Mars One news got me thinking of my favourite board game: Cosmic Encounter. Cosmic Encounter has had many iterations since its debut in the heady board game designing days of the 70’s. During that time board games were escaping from the stiff structure of the parker brothers and were embracing quirky design concepts that hadn’t been thought of before. Board games suffered from a loss of popularity during the 80’s and 90’s until the infusion of the Euro-game made board games ‘cool’ again, but that will be the topic of another blog post. Cosmic Encounter made its big splash during this time and went on to have a bajillion expansions. 

   The game is essentially a sexed up version of the card game war. The goal of the game is to get ships on five planets of your opponents, although the planets don’t have to all belong to the same opponents. These are known as foreign colonies. To do this, you fight your enemies by having ‘conflicts’ with them. The winner of the conflict is determined by who played the card with the higher number plus the number of ships they had in the fight plus their allies’ ships. Once you get to five foreign colonies you win the game! 

People complain about this game being too complicated, but really it suffers from a widespread problem of sounding more complicated that it actually is. It breaks down like this: You start with five planets, four ships on each. You draw a card to see who you attack, you send 1 to 4 ships to attack them. The attacker and defender both ask other players (some games can get as large as 8 players) for help, the people helping become known as ‘allies’. Attacker and defender play a card, whoever has the larger sum wins (in most cases). If the attacker wins, he and allies get a planet and an extra turn (but only 1), if the defender wins, the attacker gets nothing and the turn passes to the next player. Whichever side loses has to send all their ships to the warp and reclaim them slowly over the course of the game, so you don’t always want to send the maximum amount of ships.

I have the less awesome 1st print box art, but maybe it's best not to expose new time gamers to the awful power of the Parasite.

   What really adds value to the game is its variety. While I did boil it down to the basics for ease of conveying the point of the game, there is quite a bit extra. In terms of the cards, there are not just attack cards of ascending value. There are also Negotiate cards, which are green cards that basically say you are declaring peace. If they are opposed by an attack card, they automatically lose, if they are opposed by a negotiate card the players enter into negotiation, having a minute to decide on favourable terms (usually a colony for a colony, but it would be card for card or colony for colony AND cards). On top of that, there are other cards that modify combat, like reinforcements and artifacts. Losing a conflict? Throw down a +3 reinforcement card to add three to your side. Don’t like that your opponents are negotiating? Play a Quash artifact and send them packing, while they both lose three ships to the warp. Expansions add new cards like rifts, extra artifacts and event cards that also add variety to the game. 

Pictured, every time someone plays Quash after two players spend the full minute deliberating over their deal.

   On top of that, in every game you get to play as an Alien Race. These all have awesome flavor text (text adding to or supporting the theme of the game) that describe what your racial motivations are, how they bend the rules in some way, or add completely new rules. For example: The Zombie doesn’t lose ships to the warp, so they always send four ships in Combat. The Macron ships count as four ships each, they can only ever send one into combat, but attacking them is really difficult. More complex races are the Healer, which brings ships back from the warp for a free card and the Void, which remove ships from the game entirely when they are on the winning side of combat. 

   Some people argue that this game relies too much on randomness for its game mechanic. While it does employ a fair bit of random chance (who you are attacking is determined by a card draw, you draw your hand, some alien effects are random) I think the enjoyment comes out of seeing how your friends react each game, and part of that is thanks to the random element. Bitter enemies become allies of convenience when they can both attack the third guy out to win the game. The look of horror someone gets when their diplomatic offer of negotiation is met by a 0 value attack card. The face of rage when you just start the game and someone plays the Plague artifact card (yes, it is as bad as it sounds). 

   Although I have had many contenders for the top spot, I still think after five years of ownership, it is still my favourite game, and one of the best games on the market. This is of course depending on what your taste in board games is. If you want to know every aspect of the game is within your carefully plotted plans, this one might not be for you, especially when the person with the Loser power declares that the winner is actually the loser! 

Ultimately, it teaches everyone to get along, unless one of the player flips the table and storms out of the house.

Night at the Library Part III: The Wrath of Fines Unpaid

"...Look, if you think this is about overdue fines and missing books, you'd better think again..." (Lt. Bookman, Seinfeld Episode 22, 'The Library')

   More often than not people have an irrational fear of libraries. They feel like you have to be as quiet as a field mouse inside one at all times, that library staff have better things to do than wait on you signing out books and some higher power help you if you lose or damage a book while it’s on loan to you. For the most part none of these things are true. Most modern libraries tolerate some level of noise within their space. Many academic libraries will have reserved ‘quiet’ areas, but they are generally well labeled and far away from the high traffic areas. Library staff will always be able to help you, or at least refer you to someone who can help you, especially in terms of signing out books; fundamentally it’s what we are paid to do. Finally, in terms of damaging books or losing books, most libraries are very understanding of these situations. When books are damaged, as long as you come clean about it most places have an in house repair service that they will send it to free of charge. If a book is lost or overdue, then yes generally a fine is levied that has to be paid.

It usually isn't like this.

   Once you get a fine, the worst thing you can do is not pay it. This is especially true with academic libraries which usually have the authority to mess up your school experience in all kinds of ways. Where I am, once a fine gets over a large enough or has been hanging around long enough we suspend access to the library account, but more importantly the school account. While you are still able to log into school computers you can’t access your grades or order transcripts. The majority of people (sadly) can get by without access to their library accounts, but they usually can’t handle the stress of not knowing what their grades are.

   If this happens, the library (and eventually the University) does everything within its power to contact the individual and let them know what happened. We are more concerned with recouping potential losses than we are with blocking a student’s academic resources. Infrequently, students do fall through the cracks, either they graduate and don’t update their contact info, they drop out and move away, something like that. When that happens is when the real problems begin.

It does occasionally get to be like this though.

   In this case, there was a patron who had graduated over five years ago and was trying to get a transcript. This transcript was the final remaining document to fulfill the terms of a conditional job offer.  They had been waiting on it for months and finally the University had tracked them down to let them know why they weren’t releasing the transcript, but only told them that they had ‘library fines’. As it turns out the fines were related to a book that had been declared lost. Obviously the patron was very upset at having not been contacted about it for so long, and that it has held up the critical transcript.

   I was left to explain that unfortunately sometimes we are unable to contact the patron in a timely manner, although ultimately it is up to them to settle accounts. Anyone who has ever dealt with unpaid fees knows that the logic of ‘If I don’t see/hear it, it doesn’t exist’ doesn’t work very well. Fortunately the patron was reasonably understanding of the whole matter. They weren’t happy that they hadn’t been contacted and that this fine was holding everything up, but in the end they paid the fine to the library.

   Having a fine for many years sitting around certainly doesn’t display the Library in very good light. Length of fine outstanding however is no excuse for not paying it, nor does it provide a logic for the fine to simply be waived, especially when it is a book replacement. To put it in context, if an institution instead owed an individual money, I’m sure there would be outrage if they simply said after many years they were just keeping it. Each provincial government have a whole department set up to administer unclaimed Estates, keeping the money in a big pool in case someone comes to claim their share. While recently there may have been a precedent set up for a statute of limitation on heinous crimes, there is no such precedent on monies, fines or otherwise.

   So in the end, Library fines are sort of like the Government, you can try to ignore them, but they always ‘fined’ you. Even if it takes ten years to do it, we’ll get our money back; we’re essentially the Mounties of the Academic World ‘we always get our patron’.

Except replace the gun with a pen, and the angry looking renegade with a student, and the hat with... Fine we're NOTHING like the mounties. :(

Excuses, Excuses...

"Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our success or failure." (Norman Vincent Peale)

   I regret to say that I have not been very persistent in keeping this blog updated. I’d like to say that I had too much going on in my life but really it was just that I had a dearth of topics to write about. I am hoping to resolve that issue by sticking to a more consistent update schedule. I plan to make at least one blog post a week updated around the middle of the week on Wednesday. I may end up posting more than once a week; it is not intended to be a hard and fast rule. I hope by having a deadline to keep me motivated I may form ideas of what to blog about for weeks I don’t happen to have an awesome travel story or food post to post about.

   To shake off the mindset of having to physically experience something in order to blog about it, I am going to post something every day this week. It could just be a short thought about board games, travel or something going on in my life or the world, there are no guidelines. I’m also hoping to get away from the format of writing 1500-3000 words per blog entry, as I’m sure only the most dedicated readers read these posts from end to end. 

I would add a fifth being 'writers fatigue' from trying to expel 5000 words from the human body in 3 hours

   If I had to say that anything had been keeping me from posting it would be job hunting. My position is a term contract that expires June 30^th 2013 and since it is a maternity leave position it is unlikely my contract will be renewed. Anyone who has been involved in a lengthy job search can sympathize with the sense of impending doom that creeps up in unemployment or near unemployment. Thinking back it starts in High School, by the time Grade 11 rolls around guidance councillors are attempting to get students thinking about life after high school. This can be a struggle since University is two whole years away. ‘Two years ago I was just starting high school’ says Grade 11 Ian ‘I’ve got plenty of time to figure out what I’m doing after school’.

   Planning for the post high school experience is only part of the challenge. Figuring out how to pay for it is another story entirely. While the easy outcome is to get a summer job, finding a job that won’t demand at least casual hours when high school resumes in the fall is challenging. Outside of government (at some level) funded programs there aren’t many employers who will hire ‘just for the summer’ especially in the suburbs. Perhaps working through High School isn’t such a terrible idea, since if you want to graduate University debt free (if you choose that option) working at least one part job will likely be the norm.

Looking for a job in high school effectively boils down to this

  I was lucky in that I was accepted for the Youth Apprenticeship Program which was basically a summer job placement funded by my school district. It also provided training for life skills, business etiquette and other important business and personal development stuff but most importantly it offered two back to back summer job terms, usually with the same company. So I was lucky enough to get a job that was simply June – August and then back to just school in the fall. Once I got to University the story got a little different.

   The creeping feeling gets worse in University because suddenly you have a $4,000 bill payment twice a year (double that if living in residence/on your own) so not being employed means not going to school. For people not living at home (or going home in the summer) the pressure is worse since rent payments have to be made in the summer too! By working two part time jobs a year I managed to hobble my way through University and finish without debt. I took the first job I could find when I graduated which ironically enough kept me in the Library I had spent my Undergraduate years toiling through study but also through the work that paid my way. I noticed that many jobs I was interested were looking for graduate degrees to I started planning for that.

   The next year I went back to school (fully funded thankfully) and worked away at that for a year. Once again upon graduation the job market was looking pretty scarce I took the first job offer I had, again back at the library. That was on a term and now that term is almost up. It’s funny because Halifax has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the Atlantic Region (6.2%) so you think there would be more opportunity. The rate can be misleading though since it doesn’t account for people who give up looking or move away, so Halifax could simply have a disproportionate number of people who sit at home all day or pack their bags for golden pastures. As one of my Ontario friends put it Halifax didn’t ‘turn out to be the Mecca of Job Opportunities I imagined [hoped] it would be’

   So I have been furiously sending out resumes and cover letters over the last six months to less effect than I hoped it would .I admit that I have been picky about what jobs I applied for since most of them would start sooner than my current position would finish. So I’m slightly restricted in the fact that I won’t leave my Library job to take part time at Tim Horton’s but that’s about it.

   The extra difficulty is the reality of modern day job hunting. Where so many employers have centralized, digitized or outsourced (or some combination of the above) their hiring process you are basically reduced to what how you appear in your resume and cover letter application. While you could walk down to your local business and ask in person if they are hiring, more often than not you will be directed to whatever hiring process you use rather than talking to a manager or hiring person. What’s more, is that if you want to call someone within the organization it may not be directly apparent who makes the decision on hiring. The manager of a department may oversee a new position directly but have only minor inputs on the hiring process so that provides difficulty as well.

   As far as I’m concerned the most important thing about job hunting is not to give into despair. It’s easy to get discouraged when you send out 50 applications and only hear back from one, but that is basically the ratio for advertised jobs. Unless the job is specifically catered to you and literally has your name on it, there is a strong chance you won’t hear anything back. The idea is to stay positive. Eventually you will find a job that is a good fit, even if you have to take a job to pay the bills in the meantime. As long as you show your resume and cover letter to everyone and take lots of constructive feedback, you’ll land a job eventually. Although networking also helps, make sure you do lots of that!