An End All

What would happen if Wile E. Coyote caught the Road Runner? Or if Anakin could save his wife? Or if Littlefinger was able to win the affection of Catelyn Stark? All of these are impossible tasks, that, if they happen, would be an end all for the plot. Would Tom just continue living his life without Jerry, or would he feel an empty void and seek to find a replacement to continue his cat and mouse games?

Let's apply this to a none television plot. Take, for example, an explorer who spends their life trying to discover the secrets of the Mayan empire. Or a scientist that spends their life trying to find a cure for cancer. Or a guy who's trying to get out of the friend-zone with a girl? Or a person trying to get their dream job? Or even, a Donald Trump getting elected to the presidency? All of these are possible, but if and when they happen, it's like, "Where do we go from there?" Will an explorer be satisfied and never seek to explore again or will they feel that drive and desire to move on and explore the next mystery? And where would be the next step? Just some food for thought.

Organ Attack! Kickstarter game!

I just recently played a game called OrganAttack! IT was super fun and I highly recommend it.
It was a Kickstarter that was successfully funded and is now available for play. The game is simple. Each person is given a series of organs. Each person lays them in front for all to see. Each person draws 5 attack cards.  The attack cards contain diseases, vaccines, immunizations, and others cards. Your objective is to kill all organs of the opposing players. Whoever is the last one standing wins. Pretty simple right? There are a few more rules than that, like wild organs research, etc... but you'll have to buy the game to find that out.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/theawkwardyeti/organattack-a-card-game-by-the-awkward-yeti

Mike Pence, stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Up until yesterday, most people thought Mike Pence was about the best thing out of the Trump presidency. When paired against Tim Kaine for the vice presidential debate, Pence came across as cool and collected, while Kaine came across as outspoken and obnoxious. Many people were relieved to see Pence was chosen instead of the many other choices that had been thrown around by republicans. Yesterday, though. that all changed.

Mike Pence made the tie-breaking vote in favor of confirming the controversial Education Secretary nominee, Betsy Devos. And his decision may very well come back to bite him. But the real question is, was it really his decision, or was he contractually obligated to support the Trump nominee?

Now, I know you're thinking... He hasn't supported Trump in the past. They have differing opinions on a lot of issues, and he has been outspoken and expressed those. And to that, I would agree. But voicing an opinion on an issue and actually having to vote to represent it are very different things. Whether or not he mentally supports Trump's nominee, it would have looked far worse from an administration standpoint to have the vice president not support a pick for a cabinet nominee, even if they are an unfavorable choice. That's not to say he couldn't have decided vote against her anyway, but it would definitely create a lot of tension within the administration, and would not make for a pleasant work environment, especially since they haven't been in there long and are still figuring things out. And I'm sure Trump would have called him out on it, and that wouldn't have looked good for either of them. Especially when their predecessors were known to get along so well.

So like it or not, Pence did what he did, for whatever reason he did, and if he is as smart as I hope him to be, there was not a doubt in his mind that if it came down to it, he would have ha
d to make that vote. But I suspect that now anything Devos does from this point on, Pence will be held accountable for it. And I feel bad for the guy because even though I don't support his views on a lot of issues, or his decision on this, I feel like he was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Betsy Devos Small Senate Conformation Hearing!

The Betsy Devos's senate committee confirmation was yesterday and was she was approved 12//11. What people don't know is how idiotic the hearing was. If you have any knowledge of the general election and how ridiculous that was, this really fit right into all of that.

A little background first before I tell the story. So, Devos is the most controversial person to be nominated to this position in history. The second most controversial person to be nominated to that position, Lamar Alexander, was the chair of Devos's senate committee confirmation hearing. Devos is controversial because she has no experience in public education. She has neither taught nor
been a student of public schools and has the opinion that education should be privatized and students should get government funded vouchers and attend private schools

When it came to the voting. 22 members were present. 1 was not. So when to voting commenced, the one who was not there was declared a yes in proxy. That sparked annoyance in the opposition and after the vote was declared, Senator  Murray asked about rule 6, which you can read here.
http://www.rules.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=RuleVI
Basically it states the vote should count only those present, so it would really be 11 vs. 11. Upon her saying this, a recess was called, and when the recess was over, she asked again and was told she should have asked earlier, but it never states that you need to ask earlier in the rule. The chair made that up. The Democrats then asked to have the chair's decision overruled, and to have a discussion to overrule. The chair said "no, we are just gonna vote.", and they asked then to have a vote for the overrule discussion of the vote to overthrow the chair. Either way, it was going to be 11 vs 11, but then the chair would always count the absent person's vote in his favor.

The most annoying part of this to me was that I don't feel that the chair should get a vote in whether of not to overrule himself. I don't know if that's an actual rule or not that they get to vote, but that sounds really dumb if they are permitted to get that vote.

Lamar kept stating the Democrats asked Betsey Devos 25 times the number of questions Obama's 2 appointees were asked by republicans, and that additional questions to her were unnecessary. But there is a HUGE difference here. Obama's appointees were not controversial and actually had worked in the public education sector before. Now Lamar did say he heard some democrats had said they were gonna vote no either way even if she answered their questions which isn't smart of them to say. But I feel that if their questions were relevant, then they should have been asked, just like I think a discussion about Devos before the voting would have been beneficial, however, that was overruled too. Surprise surprise. And that's politics for ya folks!

Disney Infinity, why it died in 5 reasons

Now as I'm sure most people are aware by now, Disney infinity has been canceled.

That was announced back in May of 2016. It only came out in August of 2014 so I was quite surprised by this news... Well sort of.

At the time, I was thinking, why would this Disney based electronic game be canceled. It is completely different from everything they're done before, and it has a lot going for it. It offers a large character pool to choose from, collectible figures that appeal to all generations, collaboration and teamwork, creative mode to create and craft your own worlds, and many playsets that offer new and exciting challenges with very different styles of gameplay. And now, I shall break it down for you and explain the 5 reasons why it failed.

1. Tons of characters?

Yes there are a ridiculous number of characters to choose from, and yes, I do own them all.

They aren't that different though in their powers. Generally, the 2.0 and 3.0 characters are more exciting to play as and offer more abilities than the 1.0 because that was before they had special powers. 

The 1.0 characters are less than impressive. Other than the Incredibles, the figures of each movie series all have the same moves. Examples include... Jessie, Woody, and Buzz...Jack Sparrow, Barbossa, Davy Jones...Sully, Mike, and Randy (Can I just say, they should have done monsters inc, not monsters university, and Randall should have been able to turn invisible like Violet from the Incredibles could.) 

Other characters in later versions have similar moves too, like all 4 of the Cars characters, many of the star wars figures, some of the marvel figures, Finding Dory characters, Inside Out figures, Wreck-It Ralph figures have the same far ranged attacks, and Mickey and Minnie are very similar. 

2. Unfairly matched figures?

Generally, most characters have a close ranged attack, a far ranged attack and some sort of special power. But some are amazing and some are amazingly awful. For example, Violet is super OP. She can just go invisible and sneak up on nearly any Mob, and because she only has a single attack, you can just stack it and spam button push to always win. Anakin and Darth Vader are also quite impressive with their unique force abilities. The marvel characters are all for the most part decent, as are the star wars figures. However, unless you are in the car toy box or the toybox speedway, the cars characters are just horrible. They can't attack like normal figures and fall off the maps very easily. So you can get all the figures, but only a handful are good, many are average, and quite a few are just sad.

3  Poor Playsets, Games and Creative Mode?

Yes there are many playsets, and to be honest, I'm only familiar with the ones in 3.0. That being said, I'm gonna go through them and explain the good and the bad of each.

There are 3 star wars playsets that generally all play the same with a general story loosely based off the movies which are for the most part interesting and engaging. They also then have tedious and often boring mini games to obtain most of the unlockables. They are often challenging and have very little point to them.  

There's Inside Out, which is similar in many ways to playing a Mario game, including the tedious and often annoying levels. There are also some balloon thing you are supposed to pop, but it's nearly impossible without a second player and prior knowledge of where they are because it is timed. In fact, much of that playset would benefit from a second player. I'm not sure you could even win with just one. And in order to complete it 100%, you will need all 5 figures for it.

The Captain America one is a fighter vs fighter/s game and though it is alright,  it feels very repeative and to be honest, it bored me too much to finish it.

Finding Dory was good overall. It provided a unique experience with realistic unlockables and interesting fun levels. That being said, the game also felt rushed and lacking in depth. There were mini games with no rework for completion. There were not many characters to choose from. The levels took forever to load. And I felt like it was intended for a younger user than the other games because it was far easier to complete.

The Toybox speedway was a good idea in theory but lacked proper execution. It had some good concepts in the way of tracks, but I wish there were more. There was no story to it. It would be nice if there was a story mode, kind of like the Crash Bandicoot racing games did. There also were so many vehicles to choose from that it was a little overwhelming. It would have been better to have fewer vehicle choices and instead allow players to see stats for different cars to pick and choose what they want, or even allow them to build and style their own. Additionally, the CPU players were very challenging to the point where you just felt happy not to come in last. It would have been good to allow a difficulty setting.

Then there is the Toybox Takeover. That was the best of them. It is what I would have expected from such a game. The characters mash up, take on a villain and try to restore peace by going through the different worlds and fighting bosses along the way. Though I can't say I would not have chosen some of the levels, they were all good and created well. 

The Toybox hub offers some games, but many are hit or miss, and get old fast. And creative mode, though good in concept, was not done well. Navigation is poor, and building is often too limited in many ways and too endless in others.

4. Slow load time and lag...

There are so many. The game has slow load times and often times will just freeze, which is annoying because it has a really slow load time. Get the picture? Specifically, In the force awakens, I experienced horrible lag in certain spots. It did get slightly better in single player, but that's unacceptable for a new game to be that laggy. The toybox speedway is another one that takes forever to load and often crashes. Many of the toybox worlds take forever to load and often crash as well. Even the menu to get to them has a slow load time. This factor alone should have killed Disney Infinity.

5. Multiplayer, or lack thereof.

Yes, there was multiplayer... kind of. You could play with one other player. This is just sad. Most games allow for 4, some even more, but 2? Especially with all the figures to chose from is really rather pathetic. Now, in the Toybox hub, you could connect only and play with 4 players for certain games, but it took forever to find a group and was often more trouble than it was worth. The game should have allowed 4 player mode, at least with the toybox speedway. It doesn't really make for a family game unless you have a family of 2. 

And these are the main reasons (in my opinion) of why Disney Infinity was unsuccessful and needed to die. That being said, I still enjoy the game and do still play it. These are just my critiques, and feel free to add more, challenge mine, ask questions, or share your experiences. 

 

Pro-Freedom and Transparency

As I'm sure the vast majority of the world is probably aware by now, Donald Trump is the president of the United States. I did not vote for him, nor did I vote for Hillary. I voted third party. Now, I know what you are gonna say. "Voting third party is like not voting. You're throwing away your vote." I acknowledge that a third party candidate will likely never win an election, so long as this stigma is still present. I voted third party, not because I wanted to waste a vote, but because I actually liked the candidate and the message they had.

Frankly, there was no candidate that supported all of my views. Generally, in each election cycle, I find that I only agree with most candidates on about 50% of the issues. My view is Pro-Freedom, at least in the social issues department. I feel that we as Americans should have allowed to us the maximum freedom, so long as it does not directly affect the freedom of others. How far this extends, is unknown. Clearly, shooting someone in the middle of time square would not be legal because it infringes on the inalienable Rights of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

So because I realize that you can't have a president that legalizes everything, the next best thing is transparency. Transparency how I define it would be someone who is honest, clear, open, non-secretive and does not have a hidden agenda. Because of this, I did not feel comfortable voting for either candidate of the major parties. Hillary was not always direct or honest and seemed to have a secret agenda, though she did seem very open to listening and working with others. Trump on the other had was very direct and forward but often spoke of topics in a vague way without giving too much information has to how a play would get carried through to fruition.

Because of this, neither candidate inspired me enough to gain their support. I can't say that Jill Stein or Gary Johnson were too much better, but they were at least direct and honest with what they wanted and how they planned to get there. There were no great options this election cycle... Well, except Bernie. I really wanted Bernie. I really wanted Ron Paul in  2008 and 2012. I liked these men because they were both intelligent, inspiring individuals who did what they said and were direct honest people. Both were willing to call out corruption where they saw it, and both were more concerned about getting their message out than winning the general election.

But that is in the past now. It's time to allow Trump the opportunity to prove himself. And if it does go poorly, perhaps another inspirational leader will emerge with enough momentum to take the throne that is the presidency.

Greetings!

Hello and Welcome!

I'm waving to you!

In this blog, I am going to be looking at Graphic Design & Photography, Marketing & Advertising, Social Media, Continued Education, Political News, Real Estate, and any other documents or information I find noteworthy of sharing. If you have an article, topic, inquiry, or anything else you would like me to take a look at, feel free to reach out to me on my contact page at  http://derekrebuck.businesscatalyst.com/contact.html