Getting to the Root of the Problem

 The Vernal Equinox has arrived!  Sadly, this doesn't mean balmy days, rather we have now begun our transition to summer.  Temps will fluctuate.  Hopefully we'll get rain, though if this year's the same as the past few, most of our seasonal precipitation will not fall until the months of May and June.  No longer is the phrase, "April showers bring May flowers."  Nope.  Still, this past winter was colder than what we've been having so there's a chance that old adage might still be relevant.

Yesterday was a good day.  Howie and I went to the park and walked over a mile.  That's a lot for him, remember, no matter how big he seems, he's still a puppy.  He's got another 2 weeks before he hits 8 months, and he is big.

I also got an upper body workout in.  Nice.

Last evening I "beat" Skyrim, as gamers like to say.  That means I successfully finished the last "boss" fight.  I killed the dragon Alduin, and am now a Dragonslayer.  There are still other quests needing to be completed, so I'll probably continue playing the game for a bit, especially since I can now speak dragon.

Did a little yard work.  Howie tried to get to the root of the problem, though I don't know what exactly the problem was other than his having a root in the house.

There was a townhall for our local Republican ass Scottie Perry, not that Scottie had any plans to show up.  You see, Scottie is one of those spineless Republicans who believes that he can tell Americans how to live their lives without have to answer any of his constituent's questions.  Scottie is also one those Republicans who asked the Orange Anus for a pardon at the end of Orangie's first term.  Sounds like someone's more a bit culpable.

In Wyoming, Harriet Hageman, a Republican Congress woman who wallows in the MAGA lunacy, was booed, and jeered, and in return mocked her constituents, dyed in the wool Republicans who voted for her.  She will never learn.  They will vote her out of office.

Democrat Sean Casten, from the Chicago area, had a confrontational townhall, in which the police escorted one of his constituents out of the building.

Let's be honest.  A moral degenerate, catering to the a number of different voting blocs, the 2nd amendmenters, the Evangelicals, the anti-vaxers, groups that were happy as pigs in shit he was spouting their lingo to the world, won the election.  While dancing around in glee, they would have better spent their time paying closer attention to what the Orange Anus was doing, who he was contacting, and bargaining with, rather than just flippantly ignore him with  a "well, that's just the way he is." comment.  Now people are up in arms because this isn't what they voted for... sorry, this is what you voted for.  So many Americans are to blame for this and not one of them will admit to it.  Instead they will point fingers.  There are many roots to this problem, but accountability is a big one.  No one wants to admit that they are responsible.  

Betrayal

 While the weather here in Central PA is moderate, the mood is stormy.  Marched came in like a lamb, for those of you who remember that saying.  Does this imply that it's going to go out like a lion?  We shall have to wait and see.

And yesterday was quiet.  I didn't shop.  I didn't buy anything on line, hey, I didn't even browse.  Sadly, I didn't use the time to do anything really constructive.  I did cook a nice chicken dish for dinner, and last evening I played Skyrim.  It is escapist.  Let me tell you, there is nothing more satisfying to killing orcs, and bandits, and daedras is a good way to release pent up frustrations.  Sometimes I use a Dwarven great sword to lop of heads, other times I use a mace and throw fire balls.

I do get to go to work today.  I'm interested in seeing if we made our plan yesterday.  The area around me is rather conservative, so whether enough people stayed home might be questionable.  I did see that Wall Street gained a bit, but not enough to offset losses.  Yes, February was a losing month for all of those owners of stocks and bonds.  And on Tuesday, the tariffs kick in because we have a moral degenerate in the White House who's referencing 1880 when validating his belief in tariffs.

Of course, Orangie and Vancey Pants, following Putin's order, created a scene in the Oval Office... and the world was shocked.  A telling fact is that Tass, Russia's national media arm, managed to get a reporter into the press pool and if not for the eagle eye of Reuter's reporter would have been broadcasting live to Russia; they knew what was planned and they were prepared.  It's nice to know that the White House had to scramble, claiming there had been a mix up, before the Tass reporter was expelled.  Isn't it interesting that the Russian national press can get in but the Associated Press can't?

Except for the MAGA cultists, Americans see this as a betrayal, siding with Orangie's blow bro Vlad instead of Democracy.  Condemnation was universal on social media, except for the cultists who demanded an apology.  Good luck with that.  Here's a short list of those reviling Orangie's attack.

One of the things that stood out to me in this ambush of Zelensky was Orangie's comment about being a business man (can you hear me laughing?)  He might be very good at laundering Russian Rubles, but when it comes to business his history of failures is long.  His startup businesses have all failed badly after the initial grift is earned.  

On Tuesday, Orangie's tariffs are going to kick in and our trading partners, the countries we've traded with if not for decades, than for centuries, are going to go elsewhere, you know?  Like the waiting arms of China.  What we do import, will be at a much higher price, and our exports will diminish.  It's going to get very expensive fast.  The world is going to punish us and their ain't no stoppin' it.  We are racing towards the FO stage of American political evolution.

The Assumptions of Trump

 Golly gee whiz, can you believe it, we've got another damn polar vortex slamming southward and, sad as it is, Central PA is not on the fringe.  True, right now the temps are in the mid 30s (F) and expected to get as high as 50 (F),  but this afternoon high winds are going to blow the cold  into the region.  Shit.

You'll notice, I'm not using my sailor language.  I think it behooves me to keep things rather PG oriented, but, just in case you're interested, the fucks fly freely from my mouth when I'm verbalizing my opinions.

I did work yesterday.  It was slow... at least for me.  My fellow flooring specialist managed to get 2 measures while I focused mostly on getting in my steps.  We all have our priorities in life.  My measures and sales are so good right now, I can use this slow period for other more important things.  For instance, while my associate spent an hour describing the fascinating, intricated differences between a polyester carpet and a nylon carpet to a husband and wife, I was using my PC to check out the marriable followers in Skyrim.  I know how to keep my eye on my priorities.

Not that there wasn't some excitement.  One of our customers brought his pet tortoise into the store.  This guy is over 18 inches long and weighs over 45 pounds.  Wowza!  

While there are those who believe the Orange Anus moves with purpose, more and more I'm thinking he is simply blundering around, throwing as much shit on the wall to see what sticks with his base.  Because of his multiple bankruptcies, he is known mostly for being wily con-artist relying on the court system to keep him afloat rather than as a shrewd businessman.  He is more comfortable playing the part of a door to door bible salesman than reputable retailer.  He makes many mistakes, carelessly blustering through them without concern or consideration for who might get injured, and by doing so he is making the worst mistake people in power can make:  he assumes.  He assumes he's smarter than anyone else, and so he brags about it.  Then something bad happens and Orangie blusters quickly onto something else.  One of the many things he's said that define his reliance upon assumption was that those Federal workers being terminated from their positions can get jobs in the private sector.  Another assumption of his is that people will accept all of these spending cuts, even when they are effect personally.  He is non-thinker.  His assumptions blind him, and his base, on the true effect he is having on America; he is pissing millions upon millions of people off.  Chaos is coming, and he assumes he can deal with anything.  Like so often in the past, he is wrong. 

Retail Crush

 Can you believe the weekend has arrived?  Forecasters are calling for snow here, followed by possible freezing rain, though in may end up just being rain.  Forecasters have us getting about one half inch of snow.  The freezing rain will total out at possibly .03 of an inch, which, if we were sitting on a donut, would be considered a very light glaze, probably so light you'd be embarrassed to call us a glazed donut.

I left my barley cook dry while I was making my breakfast.  Blame Howie.  I was busy throwing his new pink octopus and wasn't paying attention.  I ate one bowl and then fed the rest of it to the birds.   My house now smells like over toasted barley, or well maybe that's not right, possibly light burned might be a better description.

My sporting laptop shut down in twenty-two minutes into a ride yesterday.  I was not happy.  This has happened before, and every single time it seems to have been triggered by an update.  Yesterday 2 (one from Garmin and one from Microsoft) downloaded simultaneously.  When it shuts down like that, everything is lost.  Boo.  Hiss. 

And now for something light.  I'm playing through Skyrim again, and there are 20+ characters you can team up with, let's call them followers.  Each follower will add a bonus to your skills.  Many of them will only add that bonus up to level 30.  After lever 30 the benefits no longer have any value and so they just tag along making silly comments.  Except for one.  Roggi Knot-Beard.  His benefits are good up until level 60.  So, I'd like you to meet my new follower.

I am scheduled to work today.  I don't know how busy it's going to be, since we are supposed to get a dusting of snow, though I can tell you we have been slow.  Because our customer footsteps are down, I was not surprised to see this graphic in Bloomberg.  This past January, retail sales dropped.

Is it Trump's fault?  Off the cuff, I'd say that a damn good possibility.  Unless you have a lot of bouncing buckos in the bank, I would not purchase any big ticket items for the foreseeable future.  This is terrible news for all of those retail giants who toasted Orangie's win, believing they were going to get both a big tax cut and golden sales.  Ouch.

And, in case any of you missed it, Orangie's team fired over 300 people who maintain our nuclear arsenal... and then quickly hired them back once they realized what their zombie brains had done.  I'd put money on the fact that this stupid team is anything but Woke.

Fus Ro Dah

 Well, I did what I said I was going to do yesterday.  My alarm clock went off this morning... and I got up.  To be perfectly honest, I'd have turned the sucker off and gone back to bed, however Biggie had a very full bladder which took priority.  Some things are more important than grabbing an extra half hour of zzzz's.

They got snow out west, we're getting showers in the east, at least that's what they're forecasting for this afternoon.  We've got a week to go before we finally change seasons.  Spring will be welcome this year.  The bulbs I planted in my front yard flower bed are already pushing their leaves well of the ground.  I'm anxious to see if the tulips bloom.  Sometimes they don't, and need to be replaced.  Oh, and last year I did not dig my Dalilah bulbs up so they will need to be replaced.

I bought some new glasses from Zenni.  If you wear glasses, check out their website. They're a lot less expensive then buying them from your optometrist.  Unless, of course, you're one of those who need to wear designer frames.  Not me.

I check every now and then to see if there are any Xbox Series X consoles available for purchase and the regular price,  Desperate people can buy one from a scalper for over $900.  Not me.  I do want to have one by the time the new Bethesda game arrives, probably in November.  A new IPO called Starfield, I suspect it's going to be as popular as their most famous... Skyrim.  I remember picking it up at Best Buy 10 years ago and having the clerk tell me he already had 70 hours in game time.  One of the first interactive games, as dragonborn you could use  the microphone on your headset to shout commands, the first you learn is Fus Ro Dah!  Here's the original trailer.  I didn't just fall into gaming, I dove in headfirst.

A decade after it's release, Skyrim still sets the bar high for Role Playing Games.  

And this should come as no surprise.  Biden's first prime time address nicely smashed the ratings of Loser #45's first address rather badly.  Ratings were the life blood of Loser #45.  This means Biden is continually kicking his ass.  Now, doesn't that give you a nice, fuzzy, warm feeling?

Remastered

A long, long time ago, back in 2011, I walked into a Best Buy with my friend Betsy with the soul purpose of checking out their game selection.  Back in those times you could actually buy the hard copies of the games, I mean you still can, however many now simply down load.  Anyway, one title jumped off the shelf and hit me right between the eyes, a little thing called Skyrim.  When I gave it to the clerk to ring out he said, in a very, very calm voice "this is great, this is really great, I've already have over 60 game play hours in."
Skyrim went on to win hundreds of gamer awards.  That's right, hundreds.  And it made hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. At one point, there were over 5 million people playing Skyrim concurrently (at the same time) on Steam.  The total revenue this game has earned is staggering.  And tonight, at midnight, Bethesda is releasing the original, remastered to UHD and it's selling like hotcakes.

And, of course, tonight at midnight, PST, Skyrim is set to download onto my Xbox one.  If only life were always just that simple.

Setting Danse free

Sometimes we just err in our judgement, I know I do... on occasion.  One of those times was when I decided to buy Fallout 4 for my Xbox One rather then buy the game for PC.  For those who don't know, there is a big difference.  Games look a lot better on PC's because they're written on PC's.  Also, and this is very important, some game studios, like Bethesda, allow you to modify (mod) the content of their games, and for that you need to own a PC version of that game.  For Bethesda, this  approach has been quite beneficial.  In 2012 they put out a game called Skyrim which is still in the top 10 games being played on Steam, mostly because of all the mods that were done.  You want your characters to be soaking up time in a hot tub, sipping wine and snacking on cheese?  Well, that's one of the mods for Skyrim.

In Fallout 4 there is a companion named Danse who will stay in his power armor the whole game... unless you mod him out of it.  After a quest called Mass Fusion he becomes about as useful as a storage shed... unless you mod him into action.  And because Danse is a very popular companion, I suspect Bethesda did this on purpose.  They're sitting back and letting the games modify Danse.  Oh, and if the mod is good enough, they will actually incorporate it into the game or, as in Gary's mod, becomes so important it runs as a stand alone game.

Anyway, since I bought a console version of Fallout 4 rather then a PC, modding is out of the question for me.... for the time being.  Eventually, when the price drops in a couple of months, I'll buy the PC version and set Danse free.  The gif below gives you an idea of what that will be like.

I'll bet you never thought video games could be so... interesting.

Bill Gates Returns (almost)

Bill Gates is returning to Microsoft - albeit in an advisory mode, or... something like that.  When I heard that all I could do was wonder what took him so long.  Face it, 2013 was not a banner year for the corporation, in fact it seemed as though every month or so someone with Executive Status was shooting themselves in the foot.  I'm sure Mr. Gates was not at all pleased.  Take Windows.  That's his baby.  He was responsible for an operating system which was unbelievably popular because it worked well.  Windows 8 was loathed by many, including me.  It had been pre-installed on a newly purchased laptop.  I wrote about it back then.  Why someone would create an OS designed more for touch screens then anything else was something I just could not comprehend.  You can use a tablet to view reports, verify information, and send email... oh, and putz around on, but you can't use it for data entry.  Try writing a report on one and you'll realize how time expensive it is.  Windows 8 was so unpopular they tried to do an update and they cursed us with 8.1, which turns out to be just as crappy.  I'd heard it was turning so many Lenovo tablets into expensive paperweights they stopped installing it. I don't know who the pudding brains were who thought Windows 8 and 8.1 were good ideas, but I do suspect they are now working in the mail room.

Almost back in the saddle again

Then there was the Xbox One, which was going down like the Titanic until Microsoft started caving in.  This was really a WTF moment in history.  They forgot that the Xbox was designed for video games.  What Microsoft did, in fact, was drop a shit bomb on gamers and try to turn the Xbox into a "Media Center."  They did this because they made too many assumptions about the Kinect.  You see, they sold a shit load, and as a result some jelly brain at Microsoft thought just about every family room in America had a Kinect attached to an Xbox.  What this jelly brain didn't realize was that he was, in actuality, having a brain fart.  You see, a lot of those Kinects they sold were in kid's bedrooms.  I'm not a kid and I bought one, not so I could do the Zumba, but rather to yell commands while playing Skyrim and Mass Effect 3.  The issues kept rolling out and Microsoft started backpedaling because they had no other choice and that made them look dumb as bricks.

I think Bill Gates is coming back, even in a limited capacity, because in 2013 Microsoft failed in a big way.  They failed to understand the needs of their customer base, and not just their needs, often their basic requirements.  To be a successful corporation in today's world you need to fulfill your customer's expectations.  You need to keep your base happy, because they will turn on you in the blink of an eye and the whole world will know how much they disapprove.

More pudding heads at Microsoft

In case you didn't know it, yesterday was the big reveal for the new Xbox.  I received emails reminding me to watch and I ignored them.  However, I'm sure there were quite a number of people out there who were glued to their tablets, and phones and monitors breathlessly waiting in anticipation.  What did the get?   Unlike the Playstation 4 reveal they got a chance to see the product.  Last evening I watched and read some of what Microsoft made public and I was not impressed.  A Kinect is necessary which is going to raise the price.  You will be able to tell it if you want to play a game or watch TV, sounds okay, however I immediately started wondering if this was a service you will have to pay for, like the Xbox Gold

There had been a lot of mish mashing chat going on about whether there were going to be DRM issues.  If they were going to build some sort of digital management into the new Xbox, how was it going to effect retail merchants like Gamestop.  Hell, there are quite a number of gamers out there who play through a game and go trade it in on something else.  How would the new Xbox deal with this issue.  In fact there was so much chitter chatter going on Microsoft finally came out unofficially ahead of time and said that was not going to be an issue.  Of course they were right, it isn't an issue, however those pudding heads at Microsoft weren't completely honest either.  Old games aren't going to play on the Xbox One, only new games.  They did say there will be 18 titles available when the system hits the retail market.  Ain't that enough to give you a little boner?

I think this is going to be very, expensive

This means that if you only are interested in playing one or two of those titles, well, that's it until something else you might find interesting gets released.  You're not going to be able to run out to Gamestop and buy another game, not of them will work.  The Halo you love to play so much on your 360 will not play on your One.  So, if perhaps you've never played Halo and decide to give it a try you will need to play it on your old system, not the new "One" which may have cost $700 to purchase.  This means that the games I already own, some of the near and dear to my heart (like Skyrim) will not play.  Do you think this is a really good selling point?  I don't.  Will I run out and buy one?  Hell no!  You have to remember, the same pudding heads who thought Windows 8 was a good idea, and who now have to come out with 8.1 because of all the hate, also thought about the new Xbox One.  Will people really give up their 360's for a One or will they wait until reason hits the pudding heads and they  come out wit some sort of update that gives a little common sense to their insanity. 

kinect to Skyrim

Yesterday I went out and added to my electronic toy collection by purchasing a Kinect.  I did this not because I wanted to play one of the available fitness games but rather because I wanted to give voice commands while playing Skyrim.

There are 200 voice commands you can use.  Instead of pressing going to the map using your controller, you simply say "map" and then say where you want to go.  There are follower commands and item commands and, most importantly "shouts" which can be said in either English or dragon.  I don't think you need to be an Einstein to understand this is where gaming is going.  I don't think you need to be an Einstein to understand this is where gaming is going.  Gaming becomes much more interactive.  You're no longer just using your hands and game play becomes less instinctive and much more personal.

Speaking of Mass Effect 3, the first DLC becomes available today.  I'll wait and watch it on Youtube.