I was right again...

On November 12th, 2016 I wrote about how I had previously predicted Donald Trump would become president. I also predicted what his presidency would be like:

I myself think that the times are about to get darker, unfortunately. Once Trump is elected, he will be undermined at every turn and challenged by sinister forces, and this growing mass of idiots is going to pose a danger to everyone who is capable of rational thought.

I might as well be a modern day prophet. I predicted with impeccable precision Russia Gate, Stormy, fake impeachment nonsense with Ukraine, you name it.

And the divide between those that think and those that don't know how to think has become ever more apparent and polarizing.

What I did not predict however, was that Trump was being spied on from the beginning. The establishment, not wanting to allow this NON establishment candidate to get in, did everything it could to try and sabotage the man, but they failed.

And now Ghislaine Maxwell has been arrested (about 26 days ago?). In those 26 days we have heard precious little.

I wonder what happens next. I know what I HOPE will happen next, and that is that a lot of deep state heads will roll.

I would love to see it. But past experience suggests that the status quo will be maintained and that the boot (establishment) will continue to smash into the face (the people) in perpetuity forever.

It COULD go differently, and I would love to see it, but I'm just not convinced it will.

I balk at the coming elections. If anyone in their right mind can say that Joe Biden is worthy of the office, then they are out of their goddamn mind.

One thing that Trump has revealed, is just how useless and incapable lifelong politicians are. They are so accustomed to feeding from the public trough that they never really had to develop any meaningful skills outside of some basic modicum of eloquence or charisma, and Joe Biden doesn't even possess these...

Which candidate is more resourceful?
Which candidate is more intelligent?
Which candidate is more creative?
Which candidate is a more strategic thinker?
Which candidate is braver and more willing to stand up for fairness?

These are all rhetorical questions of course. The answer to each and every one is Donald Trump.

That this is even up for debate...is frankly alarming.

I am sad to admit that I am beginning to agree with the world elite. Most people are too stupid to make decisions. They are too moronic to be able to discern the proper decision of two candidates given the facts. Not only are they stupid, but they do not know HOW to think, and further, are not even aware of their own stupidity.

It takes a baseline level of intelligence to recognize your own lack thereof. This would be why so many idiots are overconfident.

I am excited and nervous for what is to come. For I do not know what comes next. Either the establishment succeeds or it partially succeeds.

I see a lot of dissent right now. But its largely meaningless. People posting on a forum, or a meme on youtube, or some other social media platform.

Reddit, the Donald dot win, or somewhere else.

While these things are interesting to spread the truth and perhaps sway an election towards sanity, the truth is that meaningful change does not happen without major catalyzing events.

And no, I'm not talking about the paid for by George Soros rioting and terrorist movements happening inside of the US. That shit is fake, its manufactured. It isn't a real grassroots movement. Its just a bunch of angry sad dispossessed losers being made to feel powerful by evil rich interest taking advantage of them.

Its abuse, its horrid.

You want real change? You want to see the ruling elite play fair? You want to see them stop robbing people of their money and rights and privileges?

Here's how that happens:

Picture a mob of people storming a live in progress CNN broadcast, and they surround Don Le-Mahn and literally tear him to pieces like in a zombie movie. People on TV watch in horror as the life expires from his disembodied head. The message is clear, the people will no longer tolerate propaganda and lies.

You wanna win? You need to strike fear in your enemy.

You think they're afraid of a fucking forum? Of memes on Twitter?

Do you know how much of a badass George Washington was? Ever read the state slogan in New Hampshire?

You think George Washington would content himself with memes? He'd amass loyalists and would start shooting. There would be more blood than you or I could stomach.

And that's the irony of it all. So many people have been pacified by modern living, by the just enough comfort provided to keep them from rioting en mass that they wouldn't risk it all.

Trump has been president for 3.5 years, and he's having a lot of difficulty draining the swamp. But if the people got behind him and struck deep fear into the swamp...then anything would be possible. I'm alarmed by a lot of what Trump is doing, but then I remember he has to work within the confines of a relatively fucked up system of Government. If you want real change the size and structure of Government needs to change...drastically. It needs to get much lighter, much smaller, and much more focused on simple things: Law, and civil order. Everything else should be in the hands of the people.

The mother of all creation is necessity. If you want people to be strong and capable, you need to give them responsibility. If you treat people like helpless children, do not be surprised when they behave as such and lack the confidence to try and expand.

People have to be willing to give up their comfort. Instead we're all wondering if some jackass is going to harass us for not wanting to wear a mask right now just so we can get our groceries, go home and rest up before the demands of the following work day.

As our Governments continue to print money and bury us further in debt.

As they continue to think quite foolishly that Government stimulus can help create wealth and prosperity.

As we continue to allow the further erosion of civil liberty, civil society, free speech, family values, and goddamn common sense. And ironically, God.

As we continue to bury our heads in the sand hoping it will all work out.

As the young dispossessed generation wakes up to the reality that the world does not belong to them or ever will, and that they must simply accept what they have inherited.

As career criminal politicians continue to milk the system and lie to our faces. Or get away with crimes in your face and never face the repercussions (spying on Trumps campaign is such a red herring, I just don't understand how people are not outraged over this, there should be MILLIONS rioting over this until justice is served, but we're too addicted to our iPhones...).

There are parasites clinging to us all, and we're doing our best to keep our blood clean and pure and healthy and our strength up, otherwise...it all falls down.

Infinity War - a Spoiler filled Review

So I have a confession to make.

I have not seen The Last Jedi.

I didn't see Rogue One in theaters either.

It all started when I saw The Force Awakens in theaters and hated the living shit out of it for being a cheap ploy to rekindle the synapses in my brain that formed when I saw the first original star wars film.

Since then I decided not to watch another Star Wars film again and have not regretted the decision one bit, considering how much the fans absolutely HATED the Last Jedi.

So it is with this in mind that I want to discuss Infinity War.

You see, it is interesting to me to note how two franchises that are part of the same company can be run so differently and have such wildly different results.

I am, admittedly, a late adopter. I don't generally get into things right away, I wait to see how others have reacted and follow up according to their feedback. For reference I got my first smartphone in 2011, several years after everyone else

The same is true of Marvel films. Outside of the first Ironman, which I admittedly adored, I never really got into the other films nor did I see the first Avengers.

Several years later, having gotten a subscription to Netflix and perusing the films there, I saw many Marvel films in their catalog, Captain America 1 and 2, Thor 1 and 2, Guardians 1 and 2, etc..

I started binging on them pretty hard and was amazed at how every film seemed to at least be competent. The early Thor stuff was a bit tonally unsure of itself, and the sequel admittedly a bit too derivative, but overall the quality of the films is quite high.

This is coming from someone who largely DESPISES modern cinema. But I have to admit, the films are well written, the dialogue is tight and relate-able, the energy in the films is fun, and they feel quite satisfying.

Since I binged, I started going to all the films. I went to see Ragnarok and Homecoming, both of which were very well made films, and I was further impressed at how this Studio kept consistently making the right decisions while at the same time taking risks so it doesn't become stale.

Okay now all that out of the way, I want to talk about Infinity War in more detail. I went to see it on the Saturday of its opening week end, and the energy in the room was astounding. People gasped, cheered, wept, and openly applauded the film at the end, an ovation from the audience, something that I have almost never seen in a theater.

The film should be a fucking mess. They were juggling so many characters, so many subplots and so many story threads that it shouldn't have worked, but it did. It shouldn't have felt cohesive, but it did. The degree of difficulty of this film is impressive. Really impressive. They aimed for the sky and got damn close.

There are faults to the film, for starters I thought RDJ was beginning to get bored with the role of Tony Stark, and they don't give Chris Evans enough to do in the film, but overall its gripping, it's pacing is great, the humor isn't overboard and doesn't undermine the serious moments.

What makes this film transcendental though, is the fact that the filmmakers weren't afraid to push the envelope, they didn't stick to a formula, they kind of reinvented it.

For those of you who haven't seen the film, do not read on.

Admittedly, I didn't react much to the ending, knowing there's another film coming in a year and also knowing that the key plot device includes a gem that allows you to reverse time SEVERELY diminishes the weight of all the deaths we see on screen, never mind the sequels that are already in the works due to contracts. I highly doubt that Black Panther and Spiderman are not coming back, or Gamorrah (is that how you spell it?).

That being said, I still felt the weight of it to some degree and am HIGHLY anticipating the sequel next year. The standout performances for me were two, one was Josh Brolin as Thanos. While I will admit his motivations are not well enough fleshed out and do not hold much weight (for example if you cut the population of a planet in half, it will double back in about 30 years, also there is plenty of evidence that suggests that overpopulation is not anywhere as bad as Thanos believes it to be), his performance is flawless, and the CGI purple monster has enormous subtlety and weight to it.

His character is extremely well fleshed out and consistent throughout the film. He feels scary, and they set the tone for the villain immediately, killing Loki and Heimdahl (again no idea if this is spelled correctly). This was a very clever plot device because it gave weight to Thanos whenever he was on screen. The plot armor of all these characters were removed right at the start, anything goes and its GREAT. It made every scene with him retain a certain undercurrent of tension and uncertainty, coupled with his immense power and intellect, a captivating combination.

The second standout performance is Chris Hemsworth as Thor. This guy has evolved a lot as an actor. I'll admit Cumberbatch was awesome as Dr Strange, but what we're seeing from Hemsworth is an evolution.

The first Thor was stale, it was predictable and we could see an actor painting by numbers. Competent to be sure, but not sure enough of himself to improvise or step outside of what was expected from a hulking muscular dude.

He has improved IMMENSELY as an actor since, his performance in Ragnarok was flawless and captivating, and here is as good or better. The subtlety with which he balances the tragedies that have befallen Thor and his immense will to overcome them was captivating, and his onscreen time with rabbit as he calls him (Rocket Raccoon) work really well, oh and his entrance to the Wakanda battle kicks ass, the entire theater erupted in a chorus of cheers when he wielded that axe into battle.

Oh I forgot the mention Giant Peter Dinklage...the set pieces are fucking awesome in this movie.

If you haven't seen it, go watch it. This is a cultural event, not just a movie.

The fact is that the film industry has become stale as fuck, and these guys are still finding ways to surprise the audience and entertain. These films are HIGHLY entertaining, they just work. These guys get it, they just get it, and its great to watch.

I'll admit that comic book films will never achieve the level of weight of a film like Lawrence of Arabia or a Network, my favorite kinds of films, which is why for me they'll always be art for arts sake, but honestly I'm beginning to wonder if I'm wrong about that and they can surpass the limitations of the genre. This one feels like it, like they stepped out of the bounds of what a superhero film was supposed to be and subverted expectations in a highly satisfying way.

Oh I guess I should circle back to Star Wars and how much its sucks dog shit compared to Marvel films these days, I'm curious as to why Disney is failing so hard with one and crushing so hard with the other.

Of course failure is relative, The Last Jedi still made a fuck ton of money mostly because fanboys are too brainwashed to recognize its become SJW dog shit...time will tell if those masses wake up.

But Marvel is flying high, and next years film, if its any good, will make as much money as this one, perhaps more if the resolution of this narrative is as satisfying as its cliffhanger was.

10/10. It isn't perfect, but I can't give this film any lower of a score, as it aimed soooo high and got it all mostly right.

Book Review: When all you have is hope

See it on Amazon

So this book is really short and easy to read so I figured I would get through it in a week end and sure enough I did.

The book is less than 200 pages so you could probably finish it in one lengthy sitting or two medium ones.

The first half is quite interesting and gripping. We get a view into Frank's upbringing and his early family life, and he is brutally honest about it.

He recounts a life in which he was obviously very traumatized and troubled. I could not put the book down during this first half.

The second half is where it gets sort of murky. He vaguely describes how he got into the coffee business and how he founded second cup, some of the passages in this part are okay, we sort of get a feel for how he build his business, although most of the innovations were due to blind luck, or so it appears.

Then he sells his half of the company to his business partner Tom, after which the book loses focus almost entirely. The first half had us looking closely at this intimate portrayal of a man's life, then we back up by about 50 feet to see his business, then we back up even further and the structure of the second half falls apart rather drearily.

He jams a random chapter in his book about his wife, a random chapter in the book about kids in africa who have aids (I get it but what does this really matter in the context of his life?)

The book felt rushed, unfocused and uneven, and the great tragedies that befell him as a child, he did not in any meaningful way explain how those experiences helped him to become the man he would eventually become, and further did not go into enough detail as to how he overcame his alcoholism and his depression.

Nor did he explain how he was able to be intimate again after all the sexual abuse he endured as a young teen.

Its filled with holes and overall an unsatisfying experience, but has its moments.

3/5.

Propaganda and the Mind

You out there reading this blog, if indeed anyone is, you're the real thing.

You are the living breathing embodiment or the human condition.

That was 41 years ago. Everything in the film industry has gone downhill. Less interesting, less meat on the bones, dumber language, simpler plots, less aspiration.

Shit, basically shit.

We are living in a dark age, the dark age has come. It has come, we are living in it. There is no point in lamenting the eventual decline, we are amidst it.

The only hope is that humanity has accelerated such that the dark ages instead of lasting hundreds of years, may only last a couple of decades.

The idea is that with the ever increasing advanced of technology, everything else would advance at a corresponding increasing rate.

In other words, the recent events of Trump, Brexit and the meltdown of the mainstream media (which Beale laments above) is happening faster than anyone could have imagined.

And Bitcoin is surging, I blinked and it went for 3K to 6K, and it could be 20 K by next year.

And fiat currency, well its as stagnant as ever.

Things are moving fast, real fast. Its gotten to the point that we could potentially anticipate all of mainstream media being totally replaced by independent media within the next 5-10 years. A complete reversal from the early 90's when big conglomerates bought up every news and radio station in the world.

I'm reminded of a quote from Princess Leia in star wars, the more you tighten your fist, the more systems will slip through your fingers.

The powers that be are losing the information war, ,they can no longer peddle their truth as they once did. Once the consequences of this hits their wallets or their desires to manipulate world events enough, they will hit back, with what I wonder...

Alien Covenant, a review

In my last article, I concluded by saying "What is the point of watching something if you know the outcome?".

The other day I watched Alien: Covenant, and saw about two thirds of the film then abruptly left the theater, fighting off disgust and disdain for the shit show I was watching.

If you haven't seen it and plan to, spoilers ahead. If you haven't and don't plan to, then this won't change your mind either way.

The premise of the film is in essence a soft reboot of the original Alien. An android sabotages a crew in order to make an alien that is reminiscent of an H.R. Giger monstrosity.

What's interesting to note, is that if you haven't seen Alien before, but are half way intelligent, you'll still probably be bored by the film.

I went ahead and saw the original Alien again recently to make a comparison, and what I noticed was that Ian Holm's character in the original, Ash, was extremely subtle about his betrayal. We only discover it when Ripley hacks the computer logs near the end of the film to discover the original purpose of their mission.

What made that plot interesting was the Company's deliberate evil, they were willing to spare the lives of the crew in order to get a living specimen on board.

This time around it appears to be a total accident that they decide to visit this Alien planet, some weird transmission from Prometheus's Dr. Shaw is caught in Danny McBride's helmet (makes no friggin' sense at all) and they decide to take a massive risk and visit this rogue planet.

No bio-hazard suits, no protective gear, no precautions of any kind, they just land and this mysterious black ooze quickly causes two aliens to hatch and the chaos begins.

I must admit, the visuals are stunning, and are blindingly real. What the film lacks is any form of tension and anticipation whatsoever. This is compounded by the fact that the character of David is so obviously a traitor from the get go, the way his eyes gloss over when they mention that they have 2,000 human beings in space pods is laughable.

What is further laughable is the script and the reactions of the crew. Every single action can be deconstructed as totally nonsensical, but for the sake of brevity I will only demonstrate two such examples. (For a silly breakdown of more nonsense: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmwyWerz5KI)

Firstly, Crudup and McBrides wives carry an obviously sick human back to their drop ship, his skin is off color, hes puking out massive amounts of blood and if he does have a viral infection, than they are all contaminated at this point as he has vomited large quantities of blood onto one of the women and coughed heavily in their general direction. Airborne viruses move quickly.

And yet, minutes later, when it is a simple matter of opening the door and letting the woman through because she is stuck in the room with the man who is minutes from having an alien pop out, McBride's wife decides to let her die because she is afraid of contagion, which no doubt has already spread. Then she decides to open the door any fucking way to shoot the alien but slips on the blood fucks up and dies horribly.

The film is about as cerebral and subtle as a deliberate kick in the balls, which is very strange to say about a Ridley Scott Alien film.

The second example of stupendous idiocy is the scene where David and Crudup's character (pardon but the characters are so forgettable I can't remember their names) stumble upon an alien who has just brutally murdered one of the women in the crew. Crudup does the sensible thing and kills the beast, and David chastises him aggressively claiming that he was building trust with the animal and how could you be so cruel...about an alien that has indiscriminately murdered several of the crew.

Then David brings Crudup into a room filled with creepy experiments, descends into an even creepier basement filled with the classic Alien eggs. Crudup's character is either mentally retarded or has no capacity for rational thought, as he does not suspect David at all, nor does he find the large disgusting eggs creepy, and idiotically listens to David when he says to him "Go ahead and take a close look, its perfectly harmless".

See the script is a hastily written piece of shit by a novice, which is why the characters don't make any sense. Who in their right mind would stick their head near that alien egg, AFTER it opens its flaps? After being led down by a creepy android who is clearly a few screws loose? Not an ounce of suspicion or agency on the part of the character, that would require depth and thinking.

As an audience member who knows with exact precision what is about to happen, you just kind of sit there and wonder what the fuck these people were thinking when they made this piece of shit movie.

I repeat my previous article's statement, What is the point of watching something when you already know the outcome?

Maybe this film was hastily made just to make a buck, I don't know what the point is anymore, whatever happened to genuine inspiration and infusing actual passion into your work?

Fassbender aside (he may be predictable, but he's still somewhat entertaining to watch), there is no reason whatsoever to watch this film, which is why I didn't finish it.

Avoid at all costs.

How the NBA finals are symptomatic of our cultural divorce from reality

So the finals are now over.

The Cavs played very well in games 3, 4 and 5 and still lost, because they had to expend TONS of energy to compete with the MUCH MORE TALENTED Warriors team.

That's right, Kyrie Irving, Bron, KLove and a solid bench got beat.

You can debate the particulars of the series if you want to, maybe Kyrie expended way too much energy with all the flash, maybe Bron and KLove didn't assert themselves enough offensively, maybe Korver just missed a few open 3's he would normally make.

The macro is this:

What Kevin Durant did in the off season is symptomatic of our culture. He took the easy way out, he didn't care about the means, he only cared about the ends.

Our culture is only concerned with appearances, hence our obsession with social media, hence the rise in narcissism.

People do not seem to realize the sheer oddity of a player of Durant's caliber deciding to join a 73 win team that basically was already the best team in the league by a sizable margin. Especially since his team was up 3-1 and had he and Westbrook figured out how to play a decent 48 minutes they would have met Cleveland in the finals.

Now the Warriors are about to sweep the field, and it happened because a player was allowed to tip the balance of power in an extremely lopsided manner.

The fact is that this has never happened before. LeBron went to average or lottery teams and made them contenders, he didn't JOIN a contender to make them a super contender. He still wanted to show that HE was a major part of the reason that his team made it to the top of the mountain, he relishes the JOURNEY.

Durant just wants the outcome. Its like a dude who can't lose his virginity so he hires a hooker. All that matters to him is busting a nut, not a meaningful connection.

We no longer seem to be interested as a culture in an authentic meaningful experience, we just want the outcome that we imagine will make us happy. Our instant gratification culture has bled into major sports now, with this move being defended and glossed over as okay and justified with various precedents.

I am reminded of when I was a teenager and we would go to my cousin's house to play Risk. He would always win, which seemed odd at the time. Years later he admitted to us that he always stacked the deck so that he would always have more soldiers than we did.

The NBA is now a sport where the team with the best shooters wins, by virtue of the fact that officiating is skewed towards the offensive player. When the game is less physical it becomes purely a matter of offensive ability. The Warriors, already having the best offense in the league were allowed to add the best offensive player not on their team onto their team.

And now the anticlimactic result of the Warriors winning has happened, and they will of course win again next year, barring a major choke job or a major injury. They will have home court and will be damn near impossible to beat in a best of seven series.

The Cavs will retool and arm themselves up even further so that they can compete, cementing a fourth straight finals appearance of the same two teams. What a snooze fest.

The reason people are touting around as to why Durant made this move is that supposedly players are only measured by whether they won a championship and by how many they have won and so he did what made 'sense' to cement his legacy...

In essence what they are admitting is that our culture has become so shallow and transparent that we only care about the end result, not the journey, not the details.

We only care about cliff notes, not actually reading the book.

We judge people based on meaningless numbers, not the details.

We read our news in bite size chunks because we lack the patience for meaningful content.

Our news articles contain fewer and fewer facts and more conjecture and propaganda.

Championships are the measure of greatness, not actual skill or impact. It matters not that this was a cakewalk, what matters is the outcome.

I myself have no desire to watch the NBA anymore, no parity, no post play, all threes and layups, every team is adopting the same style of play. The league is becoming homogeneous and what makes matters worse is that the officiating is as terrible as its ever been.

What is the point of watching something if you know the outcome?

The Sheer Stupidity of PC Culture

The other Day President Barack Obama, with his last few remaining months of relevancy, decided to give medals of freedom to a bunch of celebrities and athletes.

If you want the details of who was awarded with this meaningless piece of metal, go ahead and google it.

Freedom....celebrities...athletes.

I just don't get it.

Why do we exalt these people to the status of deity in our modern culture? (I use the term culture loosely here, a culture is defined by a set of rules and norms and limitations on human behaviour, I do not believe our modern existence can properly be defined as culture)

I'm sure there are some humanitarian pursuits that these people have engaged in, but the key aspect that they represent (well the athletes anyway) is hard work, dedication, an elite mindset and sheer willpower. The celebrities represent hedonism, childishness, self indulgence, and immaturity.

What the fuck does that have to do with freedom? Ellen DeGeneres (is that how you spell it?) interviews famous people all day and makes light of everything. Her show is like televised Soma (go read Brave New World).

Why does our PC culture give these people so much importance? They're propaganda puppets for the establishment. Pro-Hillary every last one, shit even my childhood idol Michael Jordan received a useless medal.

Propaganda. We're supposed to do what they tell us, think how they want us, and they want to make us envy this nonsense.

The worst part for me is Kareem was there, I respect Kareem like hell, that is one authentic dude. I guess he's just along for the ride or something, but goddamn the vapidity of our culture is beginning to irk me.

I think I need to quit Facebook.

A Foray into the Club

I'm currently living with some roommates, two of which are young women who wanted to go out last night. Seeing as I was bored and seeking a little amusement this week end before heading back to work, I agreed and we went to this big night club.

Einstein once said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I am reminded of this when I see people engaging in promiscuous lifestyles in the search of satisfaction.

They engage in impulsive behavior, they lose themselves to impulsiveness and the end result is the same, another mistake on the resume, another blemish on the soul, another regret to bury away. They continue to hit the clubs, what for I have no idea.

It is interesting to note that when I was much younger, I abhorred these environments as essentially a bunch of people seeking validation, which is true to some extent, but in truth when the music is good and you enjoy the people you're hanging out with and just dancing for fun, it really isn't all that bad.

No less than three women basically threw themselves at me, one of which wanted me to take her home and I hadn't even said a word to her, she just winked over and over. All three would have been suitable sex partners, but nothing more, which is why I chose not to bite. I'm at the age (34) where I no longer wish to just waste time with a girl unless I think it can go somewhere.

It occurred to me last night that clubs are places where people lose their money and gain very little out of it. I myself spent around 100$ last night, which would have been much better spent on something else, such as some furniture or some new socks, or anything of actual use in my life.

We siphon off people's money in a club with overpriced drinks and dangle the promise of sex in their faces. If I lowered my standards, I could probably end up sleeping with tons of women over the course of a year, and where I would I be at the end of that I wonder? Probably not somewhere I genuinely want to be, but I digress.

This foray into the night club scene made me think about lowered birth rates and skyrocketing divorce rates, of general unhappiness and dissatisfaction in male female relationships as so many people can't seem to settle down with someone and raise kids to maturity without one of them destroying that nucleus to fuck someone else or god knows what.

And I saw it in that club, I saw people who don't want the normal life, the stable family. I saw a lot of tattoos and thugs and their 'bitches'. I saw thrill seeking women who have already had waaay too much fun. I saw lots of thirsty men who had no chance, no game, no confidence, nothing but desperation in their eyes. I saw the thugs, oozing an I don't give a fuck attitude, tattoos, piercings, etc.

I saw women who are desperate for attention and don't seem to like men all that much beyond what they can get from them. Women are more entitled and frosty than they used to be, and it seems to be getting worse.

I think I'm not going to clubs anymore for a while...for a long while I think....

The Age of Confusion Part 2

So I called it about nine months ago. I'll quote what I wrote back then:

"Can any cosmic force on earth or elsewhere stop Donald Trump from becoming the next President of the United States?"

Why did I make this prediction? Or rather, how did I know, how was I so sure? So certain?

When I was nineteen years old I got into law school. I didn't know anything about myself. I was walking around in a daze, unsure of who I was, what I wanted and where I wanted to go. Shortly after getting into law school, 9/11 happened and my subconscious mind responded to those events very powerfully. I wrote a letter to the Dean and asked to be excused from my studies.

The morning of Sept 11th 2001, I watched, along with my fellow students, a false flag attack. Those of you who think this makes me a tinfoil hat wearing bat shit crazy person, well so be it. Something about it all felt off. By the evening, they knew who had done the attack, we heard the name Osama on the news.

Never mind all the evidence suggesting it was a false flag attack, I felt on some subconscious level that I was seeing a con job. Once upon a time, I was indoctrinated, this event was the turning point that led to my disconnect from the mainstream narrative. I went into political science and literature and decided I was going to be a writer. Fifteen years later I still write for fun, heck I write for a living but its a different kind of writing (software).

The mainstream narrative presents reality as fine. Everything is fine, your Government has your best interest at heart, you have no reason to be unhappy with the circumstances you've been given. Everything is fair and you're exactly where you deserve to be.

The interesting thing about a narrative that can be controlled through sheer repetition and reach (media) is that it is very hard to disconnect from it without experiencing a kind of trauma. Some people never get to realize the basic truth that no, the Government does NOT have your best interest at heart. That no, your rights are not being respected.

9/11 was followed by the patriot act and other strange things. The US Government was becoming ever increasingly authoritarian, the economy was getting worse, and the media kept distracting people from accepting these things as truth.

You see, the reason so many people were genuinely shocked by Trump winning was because they were in a bubble in which truth had become such an alien concept that they could no longer reconcile themselves with it at all. Too many people fed into the narrative, while the rest of America saw the real effects of globalization, of crony capitalism, of the corporate takeover of the world. How for example, can someone who claims to support democracy think it to be fitting to challenge the outcome of a democratic election so violently and destructively?

Those tinfoil hat wearing people, the skeptics and such voted for Trump because he represented change, that's it. Not because they're racist, or sexist, or filled with hate, but because they want a change. They don't believe in the narrative any longer, don't trust the media, don't trust the government, don't feel like their voices are being heard at all. These are the same people that voted for Obama by the way, because he was the change candidate.

In my previous blog post, I said the developed world was very divided and that no matter who won things would be a mess. I hate to say it but I was right. But of course this is compounded by the fact that forces at work are actively trying to spread misinformation and lies.

There are people who are still not disconnected from the false (media) narrative, these people are vulnerable, pliable, and are devoid of any real capacity for rational thought. If they were capable of such, they would not have reacted in such a way. A simple look into Donald Trump's history and actions shows quite clearly he is neither racist nor sexist. But people have forgotten how to think. They only know how to feel.

In other words, we have the brainwashed, and those who see reality for what it is, and the two groups are clashing with each other heavily. And what's more, what is really going to bake your noodle is this; if the brainwashed masses succeed in this conflict, that that false narrative BECOMES the real narrative.

History is written by the victors, never forget that. Here's a book you can check out on Amazon that might upset you:

https://www.amazon.com/Wall-Street-Hitler-Antony-Sutton/dp/0945001533

You see, most people today are too stupid to recognize truth from fiction, they just "react" to whatever it is they're being exposed to and attribute to it good or bad characteristics. And the most sinister part about it is they've gotten so stupid that they just take information from a supposedly credible source as gospel, such as the news or some arrogant celebrity. The book above uncovers a truth that most people would have great difficulty accepting, that Nazism was financed by Wall Street with full knowledge that this extremist movement might bring the US and Europe into a horrible war. They didn't care about potentially killing tens of millions of people, they cared about PROFITS.

Things are no different today, as they were no different during the Roman Empire. The digital age has not helped in curing people of their stupidity. It seems stupidity is just a part of being human.

I myself think that the times are about to get darker, unfortunately. Once Trump is elected, he will be undermined at every turn and challenged by sinister forces, and this growing mass of idiots is going to pose a danger to everyone who is capable of rational thought.

The Age of Confusion

Months ago I wrote that I was convinced Donald Trump would become president, or rather felt there was a strong likelihood of this happening. (Just checked my blog history, it was February, so about nine months or so).

Since then the Presidential race has heated up and has gone full supernova. CNN paints Trump like a buffoon and a fool and states that Hillary is going to win. Fox states that Hillary is a heinous criminal and that the people want Trump.

Alternative media are suggesting she will steal the race, they also suggest that billionaires like George Soros and other such individuals are the true masters, stealthily moving the chess pieces to arrive to their desired check mate.

Trump's been accused of raping children, of sexually harassing countless women. Hillary is accused of (if we are to believe wikileaks as fact then these are more than accusations) colluding with the DNC to rig the primaries against Bernie Sanders, of covering up countless mishaps and blunders (primarily the fucking email server I am so sick of hearing about) and of in general being a woman that the people cannot really trust.

Polls show a very tight race.

I don't know who is going to win, in fact I don't think anyone knows, unless of course the entire establishment is in fact backing their favored candidate (Clinton, this is not debatable I would think, a mountain of evidence shows she has been anointed and chosen by the media to represent the country) and will do whatever it takes, legal or otherwise, to ensure she gets the vote.

Regardless of all of that, I see a much larger problem that is manifesting itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyjnEm8DZkI

Here's a video from five years ago that talks about the information war between mainstream media and alternative media.

Before I go any further I need to explicitly indicate that there is a fundamental logical fallacy presented in the video that is very hard to ignore. The average viewer may not even notice it but it is not all that subtle if you know what to look for. The narrator describes US media as propaganda, which would suggest that alternative media is not propaganda.

I'm here to state a simple fact: it's ALL propaganda, whether it comes from the US, from Russia, or from anywhere else.

The real issue at stake here, I think, is whether or not reality can in fact be objectively communicated at all, whether or not we are capable of transmitting truth to each other.

I would argue that we can't. Our experiences are so very subjective, everyone has a different set of internal beliefs, a different set of values, all we can really transmit are facts, and facts are largely boring. Here are some boring facts:

- The production of coal in factory A is up 5% from last month to this month, but has hired 7% more employees thus some might conclude it is now less efficient.
- The job market has lost X amount of jobs in the salary range of 100K plus a year, but has gained 5X jobs in the salary range of 25-35K.

Facts are indisputable. They measure and report the findings of those measures, nothing more. Facts have no editorial content in them.

The news used to be about facts (Note: this is an OPINION, maybe they were never about facts I don't know).

The news today is all editorial content (Note: this is largely a FACT). Some facts are intermingled into the news, but the news company reporting those facts also tries to manage people's perceptions and reactions to those facts instead of just presenting them objectively for others to draw their own conclusions.

It is ironic to note that the information war that Hillary Clinton alludes to in the video has only gotten worse and worse. Wikileaks would be winning this information war if they had the same budget to spread its message than say CNN, and it would be winning it largely because there is no editorial content whatsoever, they just leak official documents they are given.

Here's another fact, the people are losing faith in the mainstream media, the numbers keep going down.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/195542/americans-trust-mass-media-sinks-new-low.aspx
http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-poll-just-6-percent-of-people-say-they-trust-the-media-2016-4

What these polls suggest is that people don't know where to turn to to find truth anymore. That the United States, or Canada or any large country for that matter, no longer has a united people because everyone is clinging to a truth that is most convenient to them. A nation is built up, it accumulates wealth and power, and then splinters apart again, the US is splintering apart right now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcbElUsLBNo

Divided we fall, as the saying goes. The west is divided, and is beginning to fall, and no one knows where to turn to for answers anymore. And I certainly don't want to wade through 50,000 emails to try and figure it out for myself.

I just want a fair deal from my Government, that's all, I think that's all anyone really wants, a fair deal and maybe a little honesty wouldn't hurt either. But here's what's really going to upset you, there is no objective way to determine what is fair, so really, its all fucked.

Tuesday's election is a watershed moment, the empire is crumbling and neither candidate can really stem that tide at this point.

Musclessss

So I'm lifting a lot of weights lately and I'm beginning to look pretty buff.

I can squat 300lbs. I can bench over 225 lbs. I'm cut, I'm ripped and the chicks fucking love it.

For those dudes out there who are wondering why they're not getting the results with the females that they want, its all about your T levels.

Let me repeat that for emphasis because it really is all about your T levels.

Scientists have proven that when you win an altercation or an argument, your T levels go up, when you lose they go down. This is why for example when you pass a shit test by not giving a fuck or flipping the switch on a girl she gets more turned on, because you're mind is literally giving you permission to produce more T.

T T T T T T!!!!!

When you win a big poker hand, or a tournament, or outsmart someone or outplay them, the victory stimulates more T production.

But you can short circuit this by lifting, lifting, lifting. So go lift already you fucking pussy! I went to lunch with this beta doctor the other day, every piece of ass that came into the place he started scanning with his eyes like a predator looking for a gazelle to eat. I don't need to explain to the well versed this obvious truth, but for those of you hard case newbs who don't get it, displaying overt interest in a girl before she displays it to you is a LOSING move.

You approach indirectly, you display value WITHOUT a direct intention, this is not done by faking it, it is done by literally NOT BEING THAT INTO THE GIRL TO BEGIN WITH.

WOMEN are seductresses, men are on their path, whatever that path may be. If your path is to get money so you can get bitches, then you're a bitch yourself. Your path should be to self actualize and be the best version of yourself you can be, and when you're doing this, your T levels go up and the seductresses will seek YOU OUT!!

So go the fucking gym and lift already.

This new Ghostbuster Movie

I want to talk about a few different spectrums with respect to this film.

The first spectrum is control vs empowerment.

The movie doesn't stand on its own without the previous two films having existed. Ergo, without the effects of the brand of the previous films, this current film would not even be considered popular in any respect.

The goal of the first movie was to entertain people, the goal of this movie is to bank on the success of the first movie. This is not about empowerment, but about control.

Now lets talk about fear vs love.

When you want to entertain people, you work from a place of love. Your goal is to show them an emotionally moving experience, regardless of what that emotion is. When you want to make money, you try to do something you think will be popular and you make decisions based on market research, polling and other such nonsense. You're trying to make money because you're an executive that is thinking of his career and moving forward and success and all that shit. You're acting out of FEAR when you make decisions based on what will make money, instead of what will make a great movie.

Now lets talk about authenticity vs faking.

The first film featured 2 actors who worked together on SNL (Murray and Akroyd). In fact a third SNL alumn (Murphy) was supposed to join but didn't due to making 48 hours or some shit, I forget. The point is, they purposely put comedians together that had a previous rapport, with the goal of entertaining people. And it showed as Akroyd and Murray were both perfect.

This movie took some popular female comedians and mashed them together in the hopes of it being popular. Why four girls? Because marketing research. Whatever happened to creative people making decisions based on entertaining people?

Inorganic, inauthentic, fear based, control based.

Every single thing about this film is wrong. It is an aberration. Hollywood has become too stupid to even know what to do with themselves anymore. People think that shitty entertainment is no big deal in the grand scheme of things, I wonder how stupid the kids growing up today will be one day, I bet dumb as paint.

We keep dumbing things down, putting out stupider less plausible characters, dumber comedy, everything is getting worse.

Stop destroying old franchises that didn't suck. Stop rebooting shit. Let creative people make movies again.

Yeahhhh..

So here's the real issue with this shit. The real issue is that we have to bank on the mythology of old because people no longer believe in the now, the things coming out now are not having the same traction.

That's because the empire is severely decayed and we prefer to time warp to a period when it wasn't.

Asians have taken us over, globalization and the race to the bottom....

Some more thoughts on the coming elections

For some reason beyond me, many people are convinced that Donald Trump is a joke and should not be taken seriously.

A MULTI BILLIONAIRE who makes winning business deals again and again, who finds ways to get shit done that other people can't, who is running his campaign EXACTLY as he runs his business (he's spending way less that the competition and getting way more bang for his buck).

You know what the biggest problem with American Government is? Incomprehensibly inefficient use of taxpayer money towards the establishments aims, as well as corruption that reduces efficiency. For example generic prescription drugs are not available in the states because the big pharma companies paid the right people and signed the right contract and the end result is pills cost an arm and a leg and companies that would provide said drugs for MUCH CHEAPER are NOT ALLOWED TO SELL THEM. That's not capitalism, that's corruption, collusion, price rigging, the most immoral way to run a business.

And these people who call Trump a laughing stock, well to me, THEY are the laughing stock. Ignorant haters who don't hold a candle to the man's skills and business savvy. These same people would rather see Hillary Clinton be the president.

If you take just ten minutes to google her name with the word criminal, you will find an OCEAN of facts, FACTS that prove the woman has no moral conscience WHATSOEVER. She will make backdoor deals and cares NOTHING for the common man and is a symbol of the inefficiency and nonsense that plagues politics. Furthermore she consorts with cocaine dealers and a ton of the money that has financed her over the years comes from CRIMINALS, because SHE IS A CRIMINAL AS WELL!!

It boggles my mind how stupid the average person has become that their eyes cannot see what is plainly staring at them. The blind lead the blind alas.

Proof of this is that Bernie Sanders is in a fight with Hillary Clinton. She shouldn't get a single vote if the voters were educated and understood up from down and left from right and possessed even the most basic common sense.

I fear humanity has become so stupid that we may get exactly what we deserve.....

A Rant about Trump and America

We're seeing an interesting shift in American politics right now. I am of the opinion that the men in the closed room that own all the assets and make all the decisions are on top of things at all times, that is to say they run the show and have already planned eventualities several steps ahead.

It is with that concept in mind that I would like to discuss one Donald J. Trump.

He's crass, he's genuine, he's super cool. It is no surprise that he is far more popular in polling that Ted Cruz, Jeb (who just dropped out) and Marco Rubio, John Kasick etc...

Its fairly obvious that the bulk of Americans are no longer of the opinion that the establishment serves their interests. The LOGICAL candidate from such a viewpoint would most certainly be Bernie Sanders.

However, that being said let's tell it like it is. When Sanders suggests that meaningful change can only occur with a "Strong grassroots political movement involving millions" what I'm hearing is a sort of soft revolution. Those of you who take an interest in history will no doubt recall that FDR in order to get the New Deal signed and approved had to present the elite with an ultimatum of epic proportions: make this deal or all production stops, all unions go on strike and everything slows down to a crawl. The irony is that such an ultimatum can no longer truly be provided by the working class unless EVERYONE revolts. In the first place there is very little production locally to speak of, the only inconvenience to the elite of a mass revolt in the States would be no body is running the StarBucks or the gas station or waiting tables. North America is a service economy and once that service can be provided by robots or automation or what have you, the large bulk of the population effectively become liabilities to the elite, not assets.

Right now they are of use for one primary reason, they pay taxes to feed the military machine. They also help to some extent to make America appear powerful on the global scene.

Now lets get back to the focus of our article, Mr. Trump. He is the EMOTIONAL candidate for the dispossessed American who's needs are no longer being tended to. The reason he appeals to the emotion of the dispossessed American is fairly straightforward, he is so blunt, so honest, so forthright. He is off the cuff and does not seem to prepare the bulk of his statements. People want change and they subconsciously gravitate towards the person that will provide that change. Sanders has appeal for these people, but I myself, and I do not think I am alone in voicing this opinion, am worried that even if elected, Sanders will find himself with enemies who will try to stop his every move for change.

Trump seems like the type of guy who is willing to break the rules and rewrite them altogether, someone who isn't afraid of standing up the corruption and bureaucracy and unlike Sanders is probably willing to break a LOT of eggs to make the omelet. He's either going to be amazing or the next Fascist Dictator. I'm incredibly fascinated either way and can't wait to see what happens next.

As far as those men behind closed doors who make decisions, what if Trump is part of their plan to radicalize America even further. What if they're several steps ahead of everyone else and have already concluded that the people no longer have faith in the establishment per se and that they need to dangle something new in our faces to keep us passive even longer. What if Trump is their guy from the beginning? Isn't that what they did with Obama? Look you can trust him, you don't need ro rebell, the system will change, he's BLACK for God's sake!

Look you can trust Trump, he's self funded! He's not part of Washington!

I think the young people in America are waking up to some harsh truths and are grasping desperately for answers and are willing to listen to anyone who they think could provide it, Trump certainly fits that bill.

What if the life the baby boomers knew was a fluke in the context of history? And the offshoot of that middle class wealth is slowly dying out now? What if the middle class all but disappears in the future? Isn't that already happening?

Food for thought, I used to make about 4200$ per month after taxes and would spend up to 2500 a month on food, rent, car, cell, expenses, you get the point. That's 1700 a month savings (of course I'm splitting rent and food with my girlfriend at the time, much more expensive solo). This is what you would call a middle class life in a 3.5 apartment in a downtown area of a major metropolitan city, eating well, going out regularly.

That 1700 a month is a decent amount to save certainly, but by the time I can afford a home without a 30 year mortgage that makes me pay overall 200% of the property value in interest I need about 200 months (16 years) straight of savings.

16 years of no vacations. 16 years of no splurging on nice shoes, new clothes, a leather couch.

16 years of nothing but work, groceries, laundry, and the occasional restaurant. No ski trips, no hotel getaways, no deviation from the daily grind.

16 years of no concerts, no spa visits, no new car, no new anything really, just work and pray the company remains stable enough that your position is still needed in 16 years.

The point is that in the 70's we know how affordable things were for the middle class, how easy it was for them to obtain property, work a solid job at the same place, move up the ladder, and improve their life.

Today that has been choked to a fraction of what it was. in 16 years ill be 49. And in 16 years that house that used to cost 340K will cost 500k (or more who knows).

Contrast this with baby boomers who had a 2 year mortgage to own a home. And you wonder why birthrates are down? Why marriage rates are down? Why things are failing? Here's a discomforting truth, maybe the middle class is being weeded out and that this is a process that has been happening for decades.

Back to Trump. In order to reverse this and give the middle class a leg up, we would need to see a return to manufacturing, a return to investment of corporate profits into infrastructure, education, jobs, the "LOCAL" economy. This requires either more heavily taxing the ultra rich, or redirecting the huge military budget towards those domestic goals. I find it incredibly hard to accept that either of these things would be allowed to happen given the current state of politics and the current balance of power.

But at least its entertaining to watch.

American Politics at a Glance, February 2016

Thought I would right some things down about Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton and all the rest of it. I guess we should mention Donald Trump as well.

Before I delve into these topics I should first stipulate that I do not believe in any way shape or form, that the US president actually makes meaningful change in the United States. I believe that meaningful change is rather engineered by multinational firms, central banks, corporate lobbyists and the rest.

To me the President of the United states is a glorified public relations agent whose purpose is to make more palatable to the American People and the public at large, the intentions and machinations of the Military Industrial Complex. In other words, the President is the president of spin. When a new trade deal is proposed that will hurt the US, the president's job is to convince the people that this deal is not a rip off and will in fact serve their interests. When Edward Snowden blows the whistle, the purpose of the President is to quell people' disgust with government by saying "its for your own good, trust us...".

And so it is with a sort of bored detached amusement that I look at these elections before us and I ask myself a few key questions.

A. Is Hillary Clinton actually a human being or is she a carefully constructed cyborg whose purpose it is to simulate emotion and like-ability based on research and polling her staff does? i.e.: Is she into gay rights and feminism because its popular or because she actually believes in these things? i.e.: is there anything of any authenticity whatsoever coming out of this woman's mouth, at all???

B. Is Bernie Sanders actually for real? It's hard for me to accept that he's for real, he seems legit, he seems like he's not a corrupt piece of shit politician. And yet the real tragedy of this is, that if he IS for real, he will most certainly NEVER become the next President of the United states.

C. Can any cosmic force on earth or elsewhere stop Donald Trump from becoming the next President of the United States?

Lets start with A and flesh that out a little more. Hillary is totally false. Shake hands, kiss babies, say the right things, act in ways that offend as few people as possible, pretend to care about the people, etc. Almost half he twitter followers are fake accounts, everything that comes out of her mouth was placed there by a staffer, her mannerisms of speech are filled with pauses and gaps because she is constructing a fabricated identity. She worked for the fifth estate, serves corporate interest almost to a default, sucks on the teet of shadow government power with glee in the hopes of getting on the biggest stage. Her ego is the size of an 18 wheeler. The only thing she cares about is making herself appear as something of substance. I submit to you that there is simply NOTHING THERE. She doesn't stand for ANYTHING. She just says what she's been told people want to hear. She is trying to convince people that she is presidential, and in fact she would be a very good president if the goal of American politics for the future is to pass the buck, do the same fucking thing everyone before has done, pretend to fight for the rights of the people but make the deals that matter behind closed doors.

B. I have to admit, I think Bernie Sanders IS for real. I think he IS genuine, fair, and believes in democracy, which is why he cannot be elected president. If he is elected corporate forces and lobbyists and the industry of greed and evil will do all in its power to prevent him from exacting any meaningful change whatsoever. It's just not gonna happen for Bernie, and its a crying shame because I wish he would win, I wish the people would take back their country, I wish the working class of america would picket and fight (in fact probably all of these things are happening at all times, but the media is careful to ensure that news of these things NEVER spreads too far). If the working class of the country were to engage in an all out revolt and take to the streets, then Bernie would probably be the perfect president. I am of the opinion that a moral man who believes in good and evil CANNOT be elected president, it just can't happen. This guy would tax the rich and corporate interests and use that money to invest in infrastructure and jobs, which would GREATLY stimulate the economy in the short and medium term.

C. Then of course there's Donald Trump, who I would vote for in a second because it makes SENSE. He has big balls, he's an alpha, a leader, doesn't give a FUCK what other people think and is GENUINE. Does he articulate the popular rage? Of course!! But unlike Hillary, hes real, and unlike Bernie, he seems more RESOURCEFUL because of his skills in business dealings and his success in the private sector. He seems like a good negotiator, a good businessman, a strong willed individual. He's ACTUALLY COMPETENT AND PROVEN. Most politicians are USELESS IDIOTS. But will he help the common working man or help grow the middle class? I HIGHLY DOUBT IT. Instead I picture heaven for businesses. There is however the possibility that he would try to stimulate medium and small sized businesses by empowering them with loans and protection, which COULD be a good thing. I trust he is capable of improving the country, but doubt that he will try to really. I wonder what he would do as president, probably usher in an era of extremism.

Now if I had to pick a candidate in ideal circumstances it would be Bernie, for sure. I wish circumstances were ideal, but they're not. I fear for Bernie, and I shudder to think what would happen if that bloodless witch Clinton wins the democratic Nomination and he decides to be her running mate, makes me want to puke.

A review of Nostalrius PvE - from a somewhat experienced PvE player

I used to LOVE World of Warcraft.

I distinctly recall my first 1.99$ trial DVD that I purchased, back in mid 2006, before the Burning Crusade had come out.

The environments were lush and immersive, there was a player community that seemed vibrant and plenty of action was happening on the server. I leveled as a Rogue and by the time my first Deadmines run was completed, I was HOOKED. The loot, the showing off to other people, the displaying of ones skill via the dps meters. I wanted loot, and what I needed to get it was other people, and what they wanted was me to do was dps well and avoid stuff that kills you, and so I forced myself to get better at the game. I wanted to feel like the dude in Ironforge who's sitting on his mount and has the coolest shit you've ever seen and people just stare at him in wonder.

I got my wish into Burning Crusade, became a top raider, got to see all the content before most anyone else, got to kill illidan and archimonde and almost got Kil'jaedan. I burnt out and quit as the guild I was in was progressing on him, because I just didn't give a flying fuck about it anymore. I had transferred servers a few times because the guilds I was in had become stuck and were unable to move forward.

I played some more in WOTLK, and a tad more in Cataclysm, but that was it. For the past four years I have not even picked up WoW, and have not really wanted to either. The truth of the matter is that I was tired of the time commitment to be a top raider, it seemed like the main thing you needed to invest to get them purple pixels was time. Time is a valuable commodity and I can't feel good about spending it on a relatively fruitless hobby.

Recently I heard about a Vanilla server called Nostalrius, I heard about it on a suggested Youtube video, so I tried it out.

To my surprise, I found it to be very addictive (at least initially). The reasons for this are as follows:

• Vanilla WoW was HARD and required you to group up to get anything meaningful done (Elite quests, questing in general, pulling more than 1 mob at a time is dangerous for most classes, etc)
• The time commitment in Vanilla was intense, such that people with full dungeon sets were committed, you could tell who was a serious player just by their appearance, the speed of their mount, the way they enchant their gear, what gear and spec they use, etc. While it is harder to get things, getting them becomes that much more meaningful as a result.
• The need to communicate with your fellow players: because there is no dungeon finder, no server transfers, no name changes, etc, you HAVE to network, you HAVE to converse with others, you HAVE to play nice. You must ingratiate yourself into the community otherwise you don't get very far.

Overall my experience with it made me realize quite a few things. The reason we liked hard mode WoW was because it felt rewarding. When I rejoined in Cataclysm and saw how easy it was to gear, how brainless the Raid Finder raids were, I was kind of disgusted. It defeated the whole purpose of Vanilla WoW, it undid the entire initial motivation to play.

Once everyone could get epics, epics didn't feel epic anymore. Here on Nostalrius, having a good set of Blues feels like an accomplishment, you feel GOOD about it. But it takes a lot of time, time that most people with an active life cannot accommodate.

I find it interesting that WoW changed because of the periphery of players that could not keep up with the hardcore players. As such the game changed and became much more casual, and so the Hardcore instead of being WAY ahead of the casuals, were just slightly ahead, such that a casual could jump into a raid with the Hardcore players and be geared enough from casual content to contribute right away.

The demise of WoW, once it does finally happen, will be blamed largely on this I think, and it makes me wonder why we place so much importance on having something someone else does not, particularly in a virtual setting in which real skill is very hard to determine.

I raided Sunwell when it was super hard, when you needed to chain drums of battle constantly, when you needed to pop haste potions on cool down for every progression fight. When Felmyst was a fucking PITA. I can tell you that it was challenging, it was fun, and when it all clicked for your raid and the boss went down, it was awesome, but the hours upon hours I sacrificed for this, I can never get back and I goddamn well know I could have spent them doing something more productive.

Furthermore I would argue that skill in a PvE setting is largely a matter of practice and having basic reflexes. Being a competent high level Arena player requires FAR MORE skill and twitch reflexes, and so the purple pixels largely represent time investment, not gaming skills, but networking skills.

I can't blame Blizzard, their purpose was to hook us, take our time and our money and capture our minds, enslave us in a manner if you will, and in so doing they rake up the cash. Once again I can't blame a business for acting like a business.

And as the game got older, they reduced the time commitment needed to achieve the same goals, such that those goals got less and less rewarding when achieved. And now you can't even get that feeling playing retail WoW anymore.

This has led me to conclude that the time commitment needed for these games to feel rewarding is what will destroy them. Nostalrius recaptures this quite nicely, the game makes more sense this way than it does with the easy as pie retail model, but I fear becoming one of these junkies again, raiding all day, eating when I can, not catching up with friends, letting my life deteriorate for a few fucking pixels is simply something I will never do again.

If you never got to experience Vanilla or TBC and only joined in WOTLK and onwards, I strongly suggest you try Nostalrius, and if you want to relive the past, you can play around as well, but if you're a casual gamer, I would stay away, you'll only end up frustrating yourself with this one.

My full and FINAL review of Diablo 3

Seriously though, this time, it's for real. I am going to review this game one last time in a somewhat lengthy detailed analysis and then I am going to stop talking about it on my Blog for the sake of sanity.

But before I get to the game itself, I want to talk about cycles and how they apply to all sorts of aspects of life.

For example, there have been countless studies done on Empires, how they start, how they grow, how they decay and how they die. Countless examples throughout history suggest that this cycle is largely consistent and that in many cases the same thing happens again and again and again.

The empire cycle can be studied elsewhere with much greater detail than here, but I will gloss over some of their aspects so as to later draw some parallels.

And empire is usually built out of some change, a rebellion, a catalysing event, some major movement. The empire grows and builds great wealth, enters its prime and eventually due to over-stretching its bounds via imperialism and placating its populace through bread and circuses, decays and eventually is overrun by an outside force, and then the cycle continues.

A brief example of this is the American empire, that rebelled from the British empire in the 18th century because the British Government was large and corrupt. The founding fathers rebelled from England, established a small and effective government and experienced the largest growth in wealth any empire has ever recorded in history. America was filled with great workers, great minds and industry kept exploding. Fast forward and the Government is essentially a re-creation of the large bloated corrupt entity it was escaping in the first place. It's tax code is 16000 pages long, it has corrupted its people and is overstretched...you get the point. This empire is experiencing the end of its cycle.

Now lets move back to our topic of discussion, Diablo and more importantly, Blizzard, which itself can be likened to an Empire that has grown big and bloated.

You see, when I play Diablo 3, I feel as though I am engaging in a very beautiful very polished simulation that on the surface, appears to offer me a wide variety of choices and interesting things to do. Imagine you are in a room with clean white walls and a bunch of buttons on a gorgeous central panel made of polished glass. Each button has a very distinctive icon on it, like the pommel of a sword. One of them has the semblance of an elephant on it. You press the button and it sinks into the panel with a satisfying click. Seconds later the walls display an African savannah and you can smell the greenery and the mud around you. You are in the midst of a herd of Elephants! Rumbling through the wilderness, heck the ground in the room is even trembling! After a minute or so, the scenery dissipates and the vibrating stops and you find yourself back in the room. The next button is that of a whale. You press that one and the room is transformed into a section of ocean deep under the surface. You see whales as big as basketball court swimming by.

Then a third button has lions on it. You press that one and...the wall displays a 2d image of a lion and it roars at you then disappears. You think something is wrong so you press the button again only to replay the same dull animation, again and again and again, until you almost go mad. The panel is made of material and craftsmanship so great, it must be VERY expensive. The way they made the floor vibrate and all the amazing effects, why go to all the trouble to make such a quality simulation and leave so much of it unfinished?! It makes no sense!

This is how I feel when I play Diablo 3. A lot of it just doesn't make any sense, at ALL.

Their budget was bigger than any budget. Their team worked on the game for a DECADE.

I played two classes primarily during my experience of this game, a Wizard and a Barbarian. I played from 2.1.1 to 2.1.2 post ROS release. I did not play prior to this, I did not see the RMAH or any of the problems players used to have back in INFERNO or whatever you call it.

My experience as the mage was pretty fun initially. The combat in diablo 3 is TOP quality. The simulation is great, the effects are great, the physics are brilliant, the animations are perfect. Every interaction you see on screen is brilliant. These are well designed SYSTEMS. A SYSTEM is a set of rules that define an interaction. For example, we have a leveling SYSTEM. You gain XP and get to the next level which gives you more stats and opens up new skills.

Design within a system is not just fine tuning math, but making sure as well that some events and experiences happen at regular intervals or happen at all, to ensure the player gets to experience these things. An example of design is for example the careful coding and design of the camera controls in God of War. If you've played God of War, you would know the way in which the camera displays things to you plays a big part in framing the action, in suggesting to you where to go next, and in subtly hinting to you special areas that contain valuable power ups.

Back on topic, what I see in Diablo 3 is a game whose systems are in place, but whose game is not yet designed. To use a metaphor, its like mixing the best ingredients known to man into a dish and half cooking it. You can still sense the quality of the components, but because it has not properly meshed together, you find it somewhat lacking in several respects.

You see, once I hit max level on the Wizard, I began to acquire the best end game set for the Wizard, firebird. Eventually I had a ring of royal grandeur and enough pieces to enjoy the six piece set bonus. Suddenly I found myself doing way more damage than before and was able to clear up to GR 35!! I felt GREAT, I was mastering my class and the style of play, AND I was progressing and learning.

Along the way lots of items were dropping that were interesting for other potential builds, but because there was no set with a super powered six piece bonus to fit those items (that suggested playing a cold Wizard), those choices were severely sub optimal and basically useless. In other words, if you are playing a Wizard and want to progress and enjoy the end game, you are going to play a Firebird Wizard or you are going to have difficulty clearing content and progressing at all.

Further, you need a weapon in this game that has good damage (physical dps) to deal good spell damage, a role playing purist would find this abhorrent to say the least. Back to the loot for another second, you see because the firebird set is top, you have to mostly wear those pieces, and your OFF pieces are mostly going to be those that provide +% to elite damage, because all other mods are worthless compared to this, causing the pool of items you actually want to be very small.

Most of the items that drop are very very generic and do not feel legendary, have basically no flavour at all.

My experience with the barbarian was worse, because while I enjoyed playing the Raekor set, I am an old school player who loves whirlwind. What I would frequently do when an item dropped that was good for whirlwind is I would try the build out, then after 10-15 minutes of seeing my kill speed cut to 1/3, I would go back to using Furious charge and the raekor set.

Essentially, Diablo 3 is unfinished. 3 years later, millions of dollars later, the game is largely unpolished and lacking in actual design outside of the SYSTEMS. The items need to be designed, they are NOT. The builds need to be designed, they are NOT. The end game content needs to be DESIGNED, instead they have automated systems that generate random dungeons.

I decided to do what I used to do in Diablo 2, which is BOSS runs. So in adventure mode I went ahead and killed Diablo and then Malthiel or whatever his name is. They dropped crap loot, I got no bonus experience and the entire experience felt pointless, like I had pressed the lion button but the developers had left an IOU or TODO sign there instead of actual content.

If I had to compare Diablo 3 to a dish of food, it would be sweet and delicious pork ribs that were mishandled during cooking and as such not enough meat was left on the bones, so Im sitting there sucking at these bones for scraps of meat and occasionally getting a nugget in my mouth, but mostly just hoping there was more meat on the bones.

There isn't enough to do, the items are not well designed, build diversity was killed by set bonuses (Which could be solved if they had actually shipped with sets for a wide variety of builds that were all endgame viable, but that did not happen). And the endgame consists of doing the same thing over and over. Why not just let the player go to a particular dungeon or environment they LIKE with a specific set of monsters they LIKE and let them grind for loot there? There is no CHOICE, there is no DESIGN, there are only systems that you must accept, its quite brutal.

The Greater rift system for example is quite stupid in its design. Eventually the monsters deal so much damage that you have to have a tank and CC and dps to clear, in other words solo is impossible beyond a certain point unless you spec a VERY limited and stringent way. The game essentially forces you to play a certain way. While I would love to play whirlwind, not only is the damage far too low, but the survivability sucks. Furious charge continuously stuns all the enemies around you, and without constantly stunning them in greater rifts, you would die over and over VERY quickly.

In other words, the game systems were put in place and no design or attention to detail was put into ensuring the player could try to solve the problem in different ways. There is often only one way to try and overcome the challenge. All that money you guys paid went to shareholders and Bobby Kotick's fat ass. Attention to detail an quality design are not the concern of a multi billion dollar company, they know you will buy their game on reputation alone, so they don't even need to deliver you the good shit anymore.

Funny thing is, the game itself is classical conditioning and it is no different than buying the game. You kill monsters and get upgrades over and over until eventually even if you don't get upgrades, you keep killing the monsters HOPING to get upgrades.

You play blizzard games over and over because theyre good, and eventually, you keep playing and buying them HOPING they're going to be good.

And now we come back full circle to the empire analogy I started with. Blizzard got too big, too bloated, so successful it things it doesn't even need to finish its games anymore before releasing them. The indie developer it once was, with attention to detail and quality has become the very thing it was running from, big corporate and unpolished.

I would wager they are at the end of their cycle as the tier 1 developer. Some barbarian horde is ready and waiting to take their territory.

And yet, there's Hearthstone

This game by contrast, is designed with a very specific intention by a team of people that are clearly dedicated and LOVE their product.

The card design is flavourful and mostly balanced (I suppose Flamestrike comes to mind as one card that is a tad overpowered compared to others).

The game feels well tuned, the experience is enjoyable almost indefinitely. The game is damn good.

While there is a not insignificant potion of luck involved, there is a good amount of skill as well. In fact it could be argued that this game has a better luck/skill ratio than Magic the Gathering, by virtue of the simple fact that in Magic you have to roll a dice every turn to EITHER draw something you can use to affect the board and outcome of the game, OR you draw a land and do little to nothing that turn. In person you can bluff that you just drew a good card, but online this is not so. Furthermore, because players have access to hero powers, and because cards are very well balanced in Hearthstone (not all the case in Magic), games tend to be much more interactive with a healthy back and forth before someone claims victory.

Time will tell if Hearthstone is able to maintain this without resorting to power creep to keep people engaged. This is extremely telling in Magic the Gathering. Once upon a time a 2/2 for 2 passed the vanilla test. Then it became a 3/2 for 2, then a 3/3 for 2, then it gets haste or some other plus ability etc.

Cards in MTG have gotten so swingy that I wonder whether the starting hands need to be smaller and the starting life needs to be higher (perhaps 30 or 25).

Regardless, lets shift our focus back to Hearthstone. Another reason it kicks solid ass is that the micro-transaction system they have is basically perfect, that you can do a draft (arena) for just 2 bucks and if you are a busy kind of person, you can do one or two drafts a week off of daily quest rewards alone and never have to invest any money. BUT you can always splurge on a few packs or binge on arena if you so choose by spending very modest amounts of cash.

Furthermore, the Arena system is much much better than MTG drafting. You can pause picks at any time, play as many games as you want in one sitting. Overall this product while casual friendly, still appeals to the hardcore because of the very real optimization and perfection of decision making in a game and the tactical challenges in both picking cards and playing the games.

Now it does have its faults, but those are perfectly acceptable and make the experience better overall. One glaring fault is that you may get very unlucky during arena drafting and be presented with mediocre cards and might face off against someone who was very fortunate during their draft. Your chances in this sort of match up are usually marginal at best, regardless of player skill and decisions. But of course, if you have the exact same quality of draft deck every time, it would get stale pretty fast, so this perceived weakness is in actuality a strength.

I must admit I can find no actual obvious flaw in this game.

My last post on Diablo 3 and Blizzard games for a while

Here is all you need to know about Diablo 3 as to whether or not you want to play it.

The unique items (legendary I suppose) have about 80-90% of their stats rolled as random.

In other words, no two copies of the same legendary are alike, this is especially true for item slots with a wide range of affixes.

In other words, the legendary items are not exactly legendary or designed at all, they're just random stat holders with shiny colours that are a shade more golden/rust looking than the yellow rares, but are basically as useful as said rares if they don't roll precisely the mods everyone wants out of them.

In other words, there is no intention to the game play of Diablo 3, the items were not at all designed, thus the characters were not designed, thus the gameplay intention was not designed. Sets were designed to pinpoint specific gameplay, but that leaves little to no interesting gearing decisions to the player.

In other words, the decision to make Diablo 3 was entirely a monetary one not because there was anything interesting to add to the genre. Things were added to give the illusion that they had something of value to add to the genre, everything was put in place to give the illusion of substance, however there is none to be found.

In other words, Blizzard is as I previously stated, is dead.

RIP Blizzard entertainment, 1991-2012 (about the time the RMAH was released, nail in coffin of final type)

Blizzard Entertainment stops being Blizzard Entertainment

So I've been playing more Diablo 3 the past two days since the patch hit. I've never found myself playing a game as much as this and asking the question frequently "Am I enjoying this?". I find the game mechanics to be largely untuned and the mob damage is too spiky.

Many melee oriented builds are straight up nonviable in torment 6 because you can literally get one shotted by a combination of abilities in rapid succession.

It got me thinking about how this game was likely made by marketing research and studies in what would be popular as opposed to people rolling up their sleeves and doing the nitty gritty work of fine tuning combat mechanics and values.

They did nerf jailer damage, that much was clear, but other spiky sources of damage were not tuned down because players complained about them less. Another thing you're seeing is design as a response to player complaints on the forums.

Heck I remember back in the day World of Warcraft was hardcore as fuck. You couldn't get good gear, the five mans were hard and brutal, boss fights were so tightly tuned that only min max extremists were consistently successful.

Then the massive incomparable wave of QQ from the mostly casual player base came and Blizzard buckled and made WoW much more casual, much easier to gear up, handed things to players on a silver platter or a spoon. And for a while this worked to retain large casual player bases.

Blizzard made their games much more casual but it was okay so long as their reputation was retained as Blizzard. The chips are starting to show however and the ramifications of the dumbing down of their games is beginning to be felt. Many players no longer regard the developer with the same reverence, after buying Diablo 3 and realizing it was just another action RPG and not the best game in the genre by far, I find myself much more hesitant to buy the next expansion for Diablo 3. I feel as though I am going to get the game that the developers think their audience wants, when what I want is the work of a creative mind delivering something they love.

Passion in your work shows, it used to show in Blizzard's products, it has since diminished in my estimation. What they need is someone to take a risk and deliver a game or features in a game that are not marketing approved, that will slightly piss off the casual player base but make the hardcore gamers look twice. Besides, if all the cool kids and streamers are playing their game, it will attract all the casuals as they are mostly followers anyway...

Yesterday I saw that D3 was significantly more prominent on Twitch TV than previously, suggesting that the new patch has indeed reignited interested in the game. Time will tell if this interest endures in a week or two.