Destiny 2, despite its obvious flaws and drawbacks, is a pretty fun game. I mean, I can’t understand how Bungie released a second Destiny game that doesn’t have an area, zone, or Clan chat channel. They claim they want you to make friends in the game that you can play with, but how can you do that when you can’t engage people in conversation?
I’m also not happy that they still haven’t implemented an in-game party finder system for end-game content. Why should I have to use another site or even another device to try to get that done? It should be baked into the game.
2017-11-22 – Match End Stats – Destiny 2. Awesome 13.5 Efficiency Rating! =D
Still, the PvP can be fun when you get a group that has good chemistry (for your team at least, probably not for the other guys). I think the PvP is what I like most about Destiny 2. It’s what I liked most about Destiny 1 as well. It’s what will keep me coming back to play more than anything.
I’d like to see more open world activities with coherent lore. I’d like to see more opportunities to interact with other characters. I’d like to see a crafting system. But then, maybe I’m asking for Destiny 2 to become something it wasn’t intended to be? I could really go for a sci-fi MMO. I never played Star Wars Online and I heard that some update or expansion made it trashy so I never will.
I enjoyed the exercise in world building that this book seems to represent. The author laid out the history of Anderith and then used that foundation to give us a story about political intrigue and domination.
I also enjoyed how things played out at the end, though I’m not sure it made much sense. The common people would be the ones to suffer the most, while the elites who manipulated them in the first place would likely escape retribution, like Dalton. So, could that really satisfy Richard’s desire for vengeance? It does make his actions seem more juvenile. What he’s doing at the end of the story is pretty juvenile too. “They don’t like me so I’m going home!” Isn’t this guy supposed to be Lord Rahl? Wouldn’t his past experiences have hardened him up and made a man out of him by this point? Are his actions believable?
I feel like Goodkind spends a lot of time building new characters up and developing them in really creative ways, only to have them meet their ends in extremely anti-climactic situations that felt rushed and left me wondering what the point of learning about them was in the first place.
That rushed feeling permeates the last 60 pages or so of the book. One moment everything is fine, and then suddenly the enemy is there and everything quickly wraps up in catastrophe. It doesn’t feel measured. It doesn’t feel like good storytelling. It feels like the author put too much time into the build-up and then realized he only had 50 pages to find some sort of conclusion. The ending was choppy and unsatisfying. Goodkind also puts too much weight on weak storylines. The prime example is using Franka’s situation at the end of the book to explain Dalton’s change of heart, but for that to be believable Dalton’s relationship with Franka should have been more deeply examined.
The story could have been better if Goodkind had spent less time detailing characters and a culture that were disposable and had spent more time developing the main characters instead. Throughout the story, all of the main characters fail to work together. The actions they take aren’t believable given their situations. Kahlan doubting Richard and the mud people elder about the chicken is the most glaring example. Why would they lie about it, and if it had turned out to be untrue, so what? They’d have checked and maybe killed a few chickens and then they could have settled things. Instead, she gets portrayed as a doubting, whining bitch that slows down story progression, which isn’t fair to her considering who she is supposed to be. Richard has his turn to be an idiot when he doesn’t trust Kahlan’s opinion later on in the story.
The story just feels like a wasted opportunity, or like filler material.
Every year that I’ve been in the United States on Veterans Day I’ve had the opportunity to get freebies from various companies when dining out. For example, Olive Garden offered a free entree and Starbucks offered a free tall (small) plain coffee for veterans. I took advantage of both. There are other sites that have lists of what restaurants offered this year, though. That’s not really the point of this post.
I was just thinking about how great it is that as a veteran these companies are willing to recognize my military service by giving me something for free. Granted, people who serve in the military are essentially putting themselves at risk to preserve the U.S. way of life, including its economy, in theory, and are protecting these businesses as a result, but that doesn’t obligate them to offer discounts or free meals.
I suppose I’m a pessimist. You almost have to draw blood to get wages raised to what constitutes a living wage. Companies cut corners by putting yoga mat material in their so-called meat patties to increase profits. So, to see a company just putting stuff out there for veterans for free still surprises me every year.
This post is basically just a big thank you to those companies and especially to Olive Garden and Starbucks since I’ve gone to those establishments nearly every year on Veterans Day. Thanks!
A driver plowed a pickup truck down a crowded bike path along the Hudson River in Manhattan on Tuesday, killing eight people and injuring 11 before being shot by a police officer in what officials are calling the deadliest terrorist attack on New York City since Sept. 11.
I really don’t understand what the point of this was. If the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001 had no lasting impact on New York City, then why run people over with a vehicle? Sure, I’m aware of the whole “we can strike at any moment, you can’t live your lives normally, woooaahahahah” plan, but does it really even work? Is anyone actually going to just shut their apartment door and never go outside again because of this attack? Is New York City going to come to a screeching halt? Of course not.
So really, what was the point of running over some bicyclists? About two dozen families have been directly affected. The rest of the city will pause for a few days and then continue moving. I don’t say that to downplay the scope of the tragedy for those families. Their lives will never be the same and my heart goes out to them. But, what was done wasn’t significant enough to change anything about how the average New Yorker goes about their day.
Furthermore, what was really the point of stepping out of a truck with a pellet gun and a paintball gun? Was this guy a moron or was he hoping to get martyred? Maybe that’s what this was really about. This guy was probably leading a mediocre life or felt like he was being treated unfairly in some way, and to compensate for that and increase his own sense of self-worth he committed himself to engaging in an act that he hoped would lead to his martyrdom. At least then his value would be recognized by someone. Maybe he wanted to die and that’s why he jumped out of the truck with what he hoped the NYPD would mistake for real firearms.
What kind of picture would that paint though? The heroic martyr, going into battle with the NYPD with a pellet gun and some paintballs. What a joke.
Sayfullo Saipov, the moron who was driving the truck, isn’t special because he attributed his nonsense to some dying political ideology in the Middle East. He isn’t a martyr. He’s a clown. And now, if he doesn’t die from the gunshot wound he received and deserved, he’s going to spend the rest of his life in jail where, if there’s any justice in the world, his fellow inmates will work him over regularly for the rest of his life.
So, I just fired Overwatch up for the first time in a few days and noticed this video in the launcher:
Man, I hope it isn’t as hard to pick up these skins as it has been for previous events! They look awesome, especially Zen’s Cthulu look.
Zen’s 2017 Halloween skin.Reaper’s and McCree’s 2017 Halloween skins. I’m not too fond of Reaper’s. The head makes me think of a dick for some reason.Torbjorn’s and Ana’s 2017 Halloween skins. I’m digging the hippy look. Torb’s costume is plain boring.Mei’s 2017 Halloween skin. Cute, but I’m not sure what it’s supposed to be.Symmetra’s 2017 Halloween skin. Spooky!And of course there’s the Halloween brawl mode!
I’ll definitely be sinking some time into acquiring these. It’s nice to see more variety for character appearances. I wonder how many years it’s going to be before Overwatch has as much customization as Team Fortress 2? Or if it will ever be quite the same.
I wouldn’t mind seeing unique weapons in Overwatch that have kill counters on them. That was fun. But, you can’t inspect another character here so I’m not sure how useful a feature it would be.
Only someone who owns a vehicle in New York City knows the jolt and thrill of seeing an open, legitimate parking spot close to where you actually live, as well as that moment of hesitation when you realize a tree overhangs where your car will be.
Junkrat is one of my favorite characters in one of my favorite games.
The loot system in Overwatch makes me want to scream sometimes (like getting quad dupes on anniversary event boxes), but I love the time Blizzard put into the characters’ backstories, like this one for Mei:
I also like Overwatch because I can jump into it, enjoy it, and then turn it off without feeling like I’ve disrupted other people’s gameplay, which is harder to do in an MMO with queued dungeons. Plus, it’s just addictive in its own right.
My previous shooter addiction was Team Fortress 2. Overwatch is pretty similar to it. A lot of the original OW characters were built in familiar ways without being complete duplicates. Even so, Overwatch is like an updated, modern version of TF2 that I really enjoy. I used to play the Demoman a lot in TF2, so I guess it makes sense that I love playing Junkrat. I also really enjoy Soldier 76, especially with his new summer outfit and voice lines.
Found a trail of condoms leading around the corner at 13th Street and Avenue B in Manhattan, New York City last night around 11:45 PM or so, July 21st 2017.I mean, who did this? And how did it happen? Was it a break-up because someone was cheating and someone girl was flinging condoms at her former guy? Or was it happy craziness?
I mean, who did this? And how did it happen?Was it a break-up because someone was cheating and someone girl was flinging condoms at her former guy? Or was it happy craziness?
Was it a break-up because someone was cheating and some girl was flinging condoms at her former boyfriend? Was it happy craziness and people were just tossing condoms around for laughs? Was someone making an important delivery of condoms and their satchel ripped open, leaving a trail?
Last Saturday, my wife and I were in Long Island City. We wanted to head to Central Park to get some exercise, so I opened Google Maps to plan out our route. I noticed that there was a nearby bridge and I thought to myself that walking into Manhattan could be great exercise. I ran the idea by my wife and she agreed, so we started making our way towards the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge via Queens Boulevard. Near the base of the bridge, I noticed that the path indicated on the map is a bike path and there is a Citibike stand nearby.
Citibike bicycle stand on the Queens side of the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge.
I don’t know why, but I was suddenly very interested in the idea of riding a bicycle over the bridge. I hadn’t been on a bike in about 9 years. The last time I rode one was when I was living in Singapore. Every so often, my wife and I will take a walk in Central Park and we’ll see people riding their bicycles and we’ll talk briefly about buying bicycles for ourselves to use for fun and exercise, but we never quite make it into a store. Standing there, looking at those bicycles and the bike path and the bridge ahead of us, I think everything sort of just clicked and we decided to stop thinking about riding bicycles again and to just do it instead.
Figuring out the process for renting a Citibike wasn’t too hard. The instructions are clearly printed on the machines that take payment and provide access codes to unlock the bicycles from the stands. Once you take the bike out, you’re responsible for bringing it back. Each one has a unique identifying number. Failing to return the bike would result in a huge fine. I think it is about $1000.00. You also have to put a $101.00 deposit down on the rental that is charged against the card you use. It sits there as a pending purchase for a few days. The most annoying part about renting a Citibike is that you have to dock it at the same or another station within 30 minutes of checking it out or you incur additional charges. That can be challenging if you haven’t memorized where all of the Citibike locations are. Thankfully, there are apps like Citymapper for Android that help out with that problem.
As for actually riding the bicycle? I thought I was going to die, pedaling my way up that bridge. I felt cramps in muscles I didn’t realize I had. I regretted all the desserts I’d recently eaten and all the times I put off starting up an exercise routine again. Hitting the downhill side of the bridge, where it crests over Roosevelt Island and descends into Manhattan, was a relief. It was also a bit dangerous though because the path is narrow and I had to share it with pedestrians and other cyclists going in both directions. There’s also a really dangerous U-turn at the bottom of the ramp. I can’t imagine there haven’t been accidents there.
Once we got into Manhattan, we were a little nervous. Riding a bicycle over a bridge is one thing, but riding a bicycle on New York City streets is on a whole other level. There were Citibike racks nearby, so we could have just parked the bicycles and moved on, but we had paid for 24-hour access. We wanted our money’s worth and we also wanted more than just a little taste of the thrill of speeding around on a bicycle. I suggested we continue to Central Park so we could use the bicycle paths there. My wife agreed, so off we went up 1st Avenue.
Looking at Google Maps now, we should have followed 1st Avenue to 70th or 71st Street and then used the cross-town bicycle path to head towards Central Park but by the time we hit 66th Street, I had begun to wonder if there were any nearby cross-town paths. I was trying to juggle finding the next Citibike station to dock our bicycles with figuring out where the bicycle paths are. I didn’t notice a way to turn on bicycle paths in the mobile Google Maps app, though it must be there because I can see it on desktop, so I gave up and we rode crosstown on 66th. Maybe Citibike should consider posting maps of nearby bicycle routes on bicycle stand kiosks?
When we hit the park at 5th Avenue, we walked our bicycles along the sidewalk until we found an entrance that could get us to East Drive. I think we were the only ones following the rules. It’s illegal to ride bicycles on the sidewalks and on most of the paths in Central Park, but everyone else I saw was doing it anyway. I don’t want to be the one that gets a ticket, though, so I did the right thing anyway and walked the bicycle where I was supposed to walk it. I also walked my Citibike in places where most people were riding, namely up some of the steeper hills along East Drive and West Drive. The Citibikes seem kind of heavy. That along with the fact that I’m not a seasoned cyclist wore me down pretty quickly. I still had a blast though.
Here I am, rolling through Central Park, struggling a bit near the crest of a hill.
We rode those Citibikes around Central Park for about 2.5 hours, checking them in here and there at the Citibike stations along the edges of the park on 5th Avenue and Central Park West. It was an amazing workout and it was good fun. It redoubled our interest in purchasing bicycles of our own to use, even if we have to throw out our couch to make room for them in our apartment.
This is the world’s largest Rilakkuma. He’s sad and lonely AF, because at $1200.00, no one can afford to take him home. So, he just sits there. He poses for the photos, hoping it’s his chance to find a family, but he is always left behind.
Bradley's Old Fashioned Weblog 