And hey, maybe your new friends there will help ya!  Haha, fat chance!

Anyways, if any of you were worried in the slightest that our universe gets cancelled on December 21st of this year, then you can rest easy with the knowledge that the end of days isn’t on its way.  Sorry to ruin it for you.

So here’s the thing with all these Mayan folks.  Despite all the human sacrifices and thinking the Spanish were friendly, these guys were actually pretty smart!  Like really smart.  They tracked all kinds of celestial events and even have some amazingly long calendars.  And it’s that calendar issue that’s getting people all worked up.  Well, not you guys, but others I’m sure.  See, the Mayans liked numbers… 13 and 20 to be exact.  They were like holy numbers.  So, we see that a LOT in the structure of their timekeeping.  Here’s how it goes;  a day is 1.  Duh!  Then it counts up to 20 days.  13 sets of 20 becomes 260 days (used for ceremonies)!  Then there’s 360 (a year).  Then 7,200 days of the Ka’tun (20 years).  Which goes to 144,000 days (20 Ka’tuns), called a Bak’tun (400 mayan years).  December of 2012 marks the completion of the 13th Bak’tun, which isn’t cause for alarm, but mass celebration!  It would have been something to look forward to!  And 13 is a lucky number!

Well there you have it!  The end!  Calender done and all life ends right?  Well… no.  We’re just a little over half way there.  20 Bak’tuns will make up the Pik’tun, 2,880,000 days.  20 Pik’tuns is a Kalabtun.  20 of those is a K’inchiltun and 20 of those is the mother of all long counts, the Alautun.  Which, of course, is a lotta tons of days!  23,040,000,000 days… that’s a bit over 63 million of our years…  it’s a long time.

Oh, and no worries about the calendar just ending, they found a cave with some of the writings so we got an extension to that calendar by another few thousand years.  Good times huh?  But uh, we probably would be freaking out about this if some less than savory conquerors hadn’t burned all the texts in the first place.  Just saying… never a good idea.  >\

Those of you familiar with Futurama will probably know where this is from.  Anyways, a bit more specific than my usual stuff, but I think I get my point across.

The problem with the modern MMO is that of roles, builds, and expectations of those roles.  In the MMORPG world, there is something called the “holy trinity”.  This is your basic group build of a tank (absorbs damage and redirects aggro or the attention of monsters), a healer (they heal), and dps (damage dealers).  Some games, like the early World of Warcraft, had a fourth category of “cc” or crowd controllers that could stun monsters.  Though these were usually damage dealers as well and there were even more roles, such as kiters, buffers, short order cooks (you mages know what I’m talking about), and so on.  Having the right makeup to your group was essential to the survival and success of the group.

But you all know this already.  The issue is that classes (like warriors, priests, paladins, etc) tend to have multiple roles they can fill.  These classes are called “hybrids”.  Through either a system of skill trees or changeable paths, these kinds of classes can fill two or more of the extended holy trinity roles.  For instance, a Paladin in wowcrafts can be a tank, healer, or dps.  But that’s where problems start.  Because of their multiple roles, the general consensus is that they should fall into the “jack of all trades and master of none” category.  Meaning, a hybrid tax.

This tax is meant to keep hybrid classes below the threshold of possible damage output of a “pure” dps class, like a hunter or mage.  I’m using wow terms here, but this echos to almost every MMORPG game.  The theory is that if you can have some mitigation or self healing talents, then you should also not be allowed to toss out as much damage as the other classes that can’t.  Makes sense, but on the other hand, if you are not currently using the tank or healer skill trees, then there should be no reason why you are not on par with the other damage dealers.

To me, if you spec in a dps tree, then you are dps.  Yeah, there may be some cross over with abilities and talents, but in the end you’re still fulfilling a role and there is no reason you shouldn’t be on par.  The only difference between the classes are how they serve up the damage and what utility it provides.  So a choice in styles and flavors are what I like to see.  I mean, they could just boil us all down to mages, but after a while, you’ll be wanting to pick up a few swords to jig things up a bit.  The way I see it, for classic skill tree styled games, you have three trees and even though they spill over, they are like three different classes pushed into one.  So next time you see a dps warrior or druid or marauder… treat them like dps!

Also… there seems to be some new MMOs coming out that seek to break this, like the impending Elder Scrolls Online, which seems to not have any kind of holy trinity setup.  Good times ahead!!!

As a Floridian, this is one of those things that’s been bugging me about our state and its politics.  See, for whatever reason the powers that be have decided that “non-native” invasive species of plants and animals are “bad”.  While on the surface you may agree; being that certain species can threaten the entire ecosystem and balance therein.  On the one hand, yes, plants and animal species not from this biosphere can cause damages on a massive scale.  The lack of predators and limiting factors allow alien species to flourish unchecked and sometimes they can just overrun everything, and if the environment doesn’t prevent growth, they can destroy that too.  It’s amazing how destructive such innocuous creatures from outside an ecosystem can ruin everything.

So by now you might not be seeing a down side to the extermination and control of such things.  But here’s the problem, they might not be all bad!  See, invasions and rebalancing happens all the time in nature!  It’s not just a part of nature, it IS nature.  While equilibrium is the natural state of things, discord and chaos are also a part of this process.  The constant destruction and rebirth are just cycles of the greater picture, we just have to step back and look at it objectively.

I guess the issue with us is that of reluctance to change and convenience.  We don’t like change and especially don’t like things that inconvenience us.  But nature is an ever present force and to quote Jurassic Park, “life WILL find a way”.  It has a way of spreading and beating upon the walls of our civilization with the strength of a thousand hurricanes.  While it can not be contained or controlled, it can be managed… and can be destroyed.  It is a paradox; both powerful and fragile at the same time.  And unfortunately, the more we humans interfere, the worse things usually end up for everything that’s not us.

Some more specific problems with Florida would be with stuff like the Brazilian Pepper, that destroys some of the natural foliage (specifically the plants that are structural to the coastline… ie… very very bad) or the anaconda and those cute little iguana lizard things as well as a number of birds (like parrots) and even monkeys.  I think what we need to do here is try and draw a line in the sand with what we are willing to exterminate.  Some stuff moves in and fits right in, like the monkeys and parrots, while others destroy public property (like the lizards), some just like to fight with the gators for predatory dominance (snakes), and some are just plane destructive like that pepper tree.  So the question is, at what point are we willing to mass murder a species?  Is it because it needs control because it causes hazards to the environment and its inhabitants?  Or is it because they are pests to us humans?  We’ve already seen how we humans can over hunt/exterminate a species into absolute extinction just because, well, we wanted to.  There are many many creatures on the “never to return” list because of us.  And we need to really take a good look at what we are doing because at the end of the day… WE are the invasive species.

That’s right, if you ever go to Florida or have ever lived there… just look around (or remember it)…  Everything you see there was, at one point, the ocean floor.  The native species of plants an animals were oceanic.  Seaweed was our grass and fish our birds.  Fastforward many years and through a series of mishaps, accidental wanderings, mass invasions, destruction, and rebirth, we find this state as a lush ecosystem of flora and fauna living in balance.  Then we show up and everything goes to hell.  But at least after a few decades of destruction we’ve gotten the hint and given the EPA a lot of mess to clean up.  We’re getting there though.  So before we start adding our little buddies to the “kill on sight” list, maybe we should take a big ol look at that big objective picture.  Because the invasion, destruction, and rebirth cycles have been going on for millions of years now… and who do we think we are to stand in the way of that?  Just a little food for thought.  (queue up the “the more you know” jingle)

Can someone please fill me in here?  In the last decade, it seems that the civil liberties of the people of this country have been in constant bombardment from the government and corporations!  I’m sure we can all think of a few good reasons why, but that’s another debate.  What I really want to talk about today is what constitutes as a civil right, something personal and private, when it relates to the internet.  We all know that the internet isn’t private, however there, in theory, should be some sort of reasonable sense of separation from your personal online habits and the interests of groups such as the government, companies, and other third parties.

So what got me all sparked up by this was a recent court verdict that made use of Facebook “liking” grounds for dismissal from your job or any other organization AND the act of liking not subject to the First Amendment.  Liking, for those who don’t use social media, is just clicking the little “Like” buttons on most websites, including mine (HINT), and links that somehow to your personal Facebook page.  At the face value, it’s pretty harmless.  It’s like favoriting(?) or bookmarking a webpage or article, but linking it publicly to yourself.  Really now, it’s just another social media thingy that people are into, but at the end of the day, it’s fairly pointless and doesn’t mean anything.  BUT, some jerkwad Sherif decided to fire his employees when he found out that they “liked” through Facebook his opponent during an election.  One thing led to another, yada yada yada, and the courts decided that this was fine.  Nope, totally not discrimination at all.  Even though it is.

Besides finding out how terrible our legal system is set up, what have we learned from this?  Well, we have already heard that anything you post, comment, or blog about online can be used against you by a company or organization if it deems it conflicting with their values.  So if you say “Company X sucks” on your blog, they can take legal action.  If you say “Company X sucks” and you work for them, you can be fired!  If you say “Company Y is awesome” and you work for Company X, then you can be fired!  Hell, they have gone so far as to request (legally) you Facebook login and password when applying for jobs (and universities).  To some, this is a grossly obvious miscarriage of the Constitution.  Which, as you know, it is.  The First Amendment protects your right to free speech.  Sure, there’s some things you can’t say, but those things are very few and far between.  The spirit of the amendment was to protect your ability to speak your mind freely and without backlash.  While we can argue that it was a bit narrower, meaning you won’t go to jail for spouting off, and while it won’t protect you from getting the cold shoulder from your friends and neighbors, it stands to reason that it would also extend far enough to protect your civil rights in the workforce as well.  Even beyond that, you shouldn’t lose your medical insurance if you “Like” holistic medicine.  But for right now, it looks like what happens in the hours surrounding 9 to 5, anything and everything you do can get your fired.

Officially, from the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, you can’t discriminate against ” race, color, religion, sex, or national origin” (unless advertised upfront, then they can be all kinds of bigots).  With a further case law and whatnot prohibiting discrimination based on pregnancy, political affiliation, language, citizenship, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or marital status.  But that STILL leaves a lot of room for companies to discriminate against you.  Heck, in some jurisdictions, they can fire or not hire you because of your height or weight.  So stuff like hair color, tattoos, the music you like, favorite color, or any of the hundreds of other stupid reasons people use to perpetuate hate against their fellow man are still available as ammunition for the firing squad.

My point is this… A company has 0 (zero, zed, nada, nothing) rights to discriminate against anything more than how productive you are.  Obviously if you don’t do your job then out you go.  But if you are in any way different, then logically there’s no reason for all this angst!  Really now!  What does it matter if I have a mutton chops?  If I do the same work as someone sans-mutton then what’s the difference?  Besides me looking much cooler…

Back to the original topic though… The internet is probably the single most significant creation of the last, well, ever.  It has brought the collective knowledge of the whole of humanity in one place, breaking the bonds of classes, and spreading instantaneous communications between the people of every nation.  But with that, we have to take the good and the bad.  As it is now, the internet is something of a wild west.  The intent and the use are two different things and I guess we need to start clarifying how we plan to regulate and enforce things like civil rights.  Because anonymity is pretty much just a facade, we must consider the consequences of our actions and fight for our rights.  Above all other things, we HAVE to uphold the First Amendment.  It is #1 on the list for a reason.  The ability to speak one’s own mind without recourse (besides getting called out for BS or trolled) is the absolute foundation of our most basic human rights.  It is the expression of our individuality and it can NOT be used in any shape or form as a means for discrimination.  I personally believe that every one of us has a voice and should be able to speak our minds.  Sure, there are certain times and places where this may not be appropriate (like, I keep my site mostly friendly, so anything really mean, especially towards yours truly, gets permabanned) but on the level of law and employment, there is absolutely no reason for the things you do or believe in on a personal and public level to be used against you.  That means, firing you because you “like” Wallmarts when you work at Target should not get you fired.  It is discrimination based on your personal preferences and despite the conflict in interest, as long as you are performing your job at an acceptable level, then there’s no reason for any of these shenanigans!

On the other hand, what if someone was working at a daycare center and Facebook “likes” NAMBLA?  Think I might have to play my hypocritical trap card with that one cause I probably wouldn’t be ok with it.  But this isn’t about me… I can be contradictory.  >)

Oh, and if the lawyers of that Facebook case are reading this, then you should really play the “can’t discriminate against political affiliation” card because even though it’s not, apparently, a First Amendment issue, I’d wager my lunch money that you can get them on a Civil Rights violation.  It’s ok if you didn’t think of it.  You can send me a 10% consultation fee…  XD

Source: Courthouse News

Anyways, what do you guys think?

One of the things I tend to notice in my travels through games is the level of immersion offered by said games.  They can achieve high levels by doing many things, such as perspective, story, interactions, familiarities, and even little things lying around like decorations or, food!  Maybe not so extreme like in Fallout New Vegas where the hard mode makes you starve without eating for long periods, but more like WoW or even Forsaken Worlds, where cooking is a central part of the game.  Well, not central so much as something that reminds you that you got to eat while giving you a little buff as well.  Just like in the RLs.  I really liked leveling the cooking stuff for the great benefits.  And just like a real dinner, in raids, a food table can really bring a group together over a nice roasted beast with a fine chianti.

But then I look at this place far far away and a really long time ago and can’t help but notice the lack of delectables.  Sometimes you will see some wine bottles laying about, but I don’t ever remember seeing just a nice turkey diner spread out.  In fact, 99% of what my character consumes is in the form of stim, injection, missile, or medpack.  Not exactly what I would describe as filling.  So this is something I’d love to see expanded upon in the swtor universe!  A cooking profession is always a good thing!  It’s one of those extra little thingies that occupy your time with.  A side quest sort of deal.   And I think it adds that extra little bit of immersion that we all love so much.  It doesn’t have to be fancy, but even making some vendor foods with a little buff would be nice.  (Yeah, I know they have some that give Presence, but idk, it doesn’t really seem like enough.)

What do y’all think?

Might be a little slow on the draw with this one… but not too long ago (when I wrote down the idea), the Canadian Dollar had actually surpassed the US Dollar in value!  Sure, it might only be just a few cents, but historically we US folks generally considered getting Canadian currency from vending machines to be something of a misfortune.  Mainly because, in our eyes, it was mostly worthless.  I guess you could slip one by if nobody was looking and sometimes the soda machines will take them, if they were an older model.  But for the most part, you can’t use them for much of anything.  I suppose you can say that about most foreign currencies, but Canada is like right there and our coins are pretty similar in shape, size, and color.  Thus, we get a lot of them from time to time as well as bouts of rage from virtually losing a coin.

But now the glove’s on the other foot, eh!  That Canadian Quarter you got from the vendomatic is (err… sporadically and temporarily) worth more than your stinky old US Quarter!  Kind of a bad measure of economics I suppose, but at face value it doesn’t look very good for us.  Ya know, since both currencies are soooo close in value, why don’t we just do the Euro thing and merge them?  Our countries are kinda glued together so it makes sense… well… for simplicity anyways.  Makes you wonder if we should just do a single global economy since it seems to be all tied together already.

Oh, fun little fact about currencies!  A few years back they tried pushing the “Sacagawea Dollars” and I guess their idea of integrating them into the system was to stock vending machines with them… and only them.  Kind of backfired because I remember getting a ton of them from soda/food machines and every place I went refused to take them.  Guess it was because they looked like foreign coins.  I think I ended up turning them in at the bank for real money.  heh!  >)

Happy May The 4th Be With You!!!!

One of things that is absolutely paramount to the continuity and awesomeness of the Star Wars series is the lightsaber.  Without a doubt!  However, in game form, certain concessions must be made to accommodate the MMO setting.  That is, of course, gear and progression.  MMOs do well with having better gear from leveling, questing, crafting, and raiding.  This gives an unending cycle of acquisition and replacement, and that’s actually a good thing!  It gives a lot of purpose to play the games.  But one major thing is missing in the SWTOR game, that’s distinguishability.  Totally a word.  What I mean is this; in many other similar games, the weapons and gear are obvious.  They are big and glowing and have things floating around them… so you can tell when something is an upgrade.  Visually, it looks more powerful.  With the lightsaber, all you have is the hilt and the blade, which have limited visible differences.  The hilts (am I using that right?) are way too small to really be noticed and the blades, well, they’re lightsabers.  I guess there is some distinction with color intensity, variety of colors, and different colored cores, especially with limited availability with certain combos, but at some point, there will be an end to the combinations.  Well… unless they make my rainbowed sword of justice…

So how do we go about fixing this?  Or does it even need to be fixed?  I’m loving the remoddable gear and sporting a certain look, so maybe… just maybe, this whole thing is a non-issue.  BUT, to play Sith’s Advocate for a second, let’s brainstorm some ideas.  One thing I really like about the sith assassin types is there little electric blades.  Not sure what that is, but visually it’s stunning!  Now, I’m thinking of an “enchanted” kind of look.  Think of a fiery or an icy enchant!  An enchant of undeath!  These are wowcraft references, but you get my point.  I think exterior glows, little zaps, fire, snowies, floating things, etc… all ideas for blade additions.  (obviously wouldn’t be actual enchants you add, but just visual enhancements to the leet gear drops)  Another idea would be “activation effects”.  What’s cooler than a lightsaber and striking a pose?  Firing one up!  It’s that sound, the slow draw of the blade, the glow… these things add up to be quite an intimidating weapon.  So, additional effects might help to give better visual ques as to the strength and power of the gear level.  For instance, stronger/louder/more crackled draw sounds can really beef up the effect.  Even stuff like a large flash of light or lightning or sparks on draw would be an amazing plus.  Oh!  How about effects in addition to the assassin lightningy thing like overcharged glows OR big uncontrollable flamed blades!  Like the energy’s all out of control!

Well… those are some ideas anyways.  What do you guys think?

Yikes!  This one ended up being a little more gruesome than I originally intended… buuuut I think I made my point.  >)

I think this might be the only time I may ever concede that a “game” could promote violence.  And here’s my theory… There have been a few little games out in the last few years that use a basic form of EEG to convert the electromagnetic activity of the brain into a game controller.  At first, there were only a few, mainly just moving a ball back and forth (suspended by an air jet) and all you had to do was “think hard” or concentrate to move it.  Of course, there was a Star Wars one and something that’s more useful for console or PC controls.  The idea is pretty simple; the brain sheds tons of electromagnetic waves all around the exterior of the head, which is why they can give you brain scans and such to measure activity.  I haven’t used one so I can not comment on the accuracy of control, but many reports say it’s pretty responsive.

But here’s the rub… Look up at my drawing again.  Now down at me.  Now up.  I’m on a horse!  And not just that!  I’m on a high horse with a crazy supposition!  That EEG thingy is resting right on the frontal lobe just above the eye.  This region controls a whole host of psychological activities!  One of which is your emotional responses to anger.  (which is why old lobotomies would shove an instrument through your eye and scrape a little gray matter)  So my stretch of imagination says, “if you exercise the part of your brain that’s related to anger, rage, strong emotions, and even been linked to stuff like schizophrenia, then all you’re doing is making that area stronger in those types of things”.  Long story short, if you lift weights with the evil hand, then you’re going to punch puppies or something.  *I’d like to insert here that this is all just massive speculation!

The way the EEG works is by measuring the electromagnetic energy being produced in an area.  This much you know.  I’m redundant.  But that energy is caused by the electrical activity of that area… it’s like looking at a hard drive; if you access your picture files, they are on one part of the disk, if you access your music, they are on another, so without looking at the screen, you can figure out what’s being accessed by looking at what part of the hard drive the read write head is at.  Same thing, parts of your brain light up like Vegas when doing different things.  For instance, a very specific part of the brain lights up when a person is asked to imagine playing tennis.  Cool stuff!  But my point with all of this is that forcing yourself to concentrate on certain areas might have unknown effects.  It may make this area overactive from stimulation and cause undesirable thoughts, or make you have better control of that area, idk!  So if you focus or concentrate on the area that deals with tennis, does that make you a better tennis player?  Even when you aren’t thinking about tennis, just concentrating on that location in the brain?  I don’t know.  That’s for the lab coats to decide.  But I will say this, I think we’re entering a very cool, but very dangerous area of technology that starts to incorporate the brain directly into our activities.  I encourage the development of this, but also warn of the dangers.  Messing with the processor is really something you should do when you’ve got a fairly decent idea of what you are doing.  Like, I am deathly afraid of overclocking my CPU because I’m 100% sure that I’ll probably fry it.  So same thing here, when we tamper with the old sponge we need to proceed with caution.

That said, I’m all for the integration of technology with biology.  I’ll probably be the first in line for cyber implants!  Well… for nothing else but to have blinking lights everywhere.  What can I say?  The SWTOR feng shui bug has gotten to me.  However, I just want to be clear… Before we start rolling out with technology that directly influences the brain or specific regions within, we need to be absolutely sure that the effects will not cause us to hoard bodies in a suitcase under our beds.  Just saying, it’s good to err on the side of caution.

Can’t we all just get along?

I really don’t know what the big deal people have with cosplayers.  They’re a fun lot!  I’ve worked a few conventions now and I’ve seen it all!  Some costumes will make you cringe, but many are really well done!  An amazing amount of creativity.  But it seems like they get kind of made fun of (outside the nerd scene) and that just boggles my mind.  I guess it’s because liking gaming, or role playing, or cosplaying, or anything we geeky folks like tends to fall outside the norm.  I guess it’s not so much counterculture as it is a subculture, but still… there’s no reason for any hating if it’s not part of the mainstream.  Why can’t we have our own culture?  You’d be in some deep doodoo if you were to outwardly say the same about geeks as you would say Chinese or Jewish or Irish people (just shooting off the top of my head).  My point is this, it’s a culture; we’re here, we’re dorks, get used to it!

As for this comic, well, I find that the whole “jock vs nerd” thing is completely insane.  There seems to be this made up line between being a nerd and a sports fanatic.  If you wear a baseball jersey or the uniform shirt of your favorite hockey player… you are cosplaying.  Least that’s how I see it.  And what of the sports fans?  Sure, it’s fun to pick on the guy who can quote any line from Star Trek, but what of the person that knows every statistic of the New York Yankees for the last decade?  Where is the line?  What defines unacceptable nerdom?  Is it a genre thing?  I highly don’t understand that as an excuse.

Bottom line… y’all are nerds!  I don’t mean that meanly, I’m a nerd after all!  But if you’re fanatical or passionate about anything, that makes you a nerd of that genre.  As there are sci-fi nerds and fantasy nerds, there are also sports nerds, art nerds, history nerds… nerds all the way down!  I think we need to stop seeing the differences between people and celebrating our similarities!  It’s not a mocho thing either, since I’ve seen all makes and models of human come by my booth at the cons and, to me, it’s almost an affirmation of our unity despite any superficial factor.  Well, I guess there’s still the Star Trek vs Star Wars people, but that’s a whole other topic for another time.  >)

This… this right here drives me endless amounts of madness!  This here is the fallout of an economy in shambles.  I have applied to many, many companies in a variety of genres and even more of the postings I’ve seen have had almost unobtainable requirements.  Between education, experience, and skill sets, the best I can figure is that the majority of these positions are looking for either retired CEOs or 20yr vets of the job OR for someone with the skills of multiple people.  To make matters worse, they want to pay them beans!  Beans!  Just look at any job posting on monster or craig’s list and you’ll see the same thing.  The tie in factor is high expectations with low reciprocation.  It’s definitely a “buyer’s market” if you get my drift.  And you can observe this in the job industry as a whole; many jobs have consolidated because of layoffs and there is very little reason to rehire those old positions.  Why should they?  If you can bleed the work out of one person doing three jobs, why pay the salary of the extra two?  I think we’ve gotten ourselves into a bit of a bind here.  A catch 22 if you will.  Because even if the economy was fixed tomorrow, world wide, what possible reason would the people that laidoff employees to save manager bonuses have to rehire people when their current staff, running above reasonable productivity, can do the consolidated job for less?

But I don’t have a fix for y’all this time.  This is a very perplexing issue that we’ll see develop over the next few years and you’ll probably start seeing a larger gap between upper and lower classes.  What really needs to happen is to have money circulate again, like just not even stick anything in the bank… go hog wild and spend spend spend!  Capitalism is a dirty word… lets say “the life cycle of currency”.  It gets passed along to buy things, those things need to get made so people get paid to make them, and the cycle persists.  The issue starts when money stops circulating.  Just like your blood stream…  when it starts to pool, then less money is in the cycle to work, and when the number of members of the cycle stays the same or increases, and the money starts decreasing, that’s bad.  It causes shock and more people horde money, thus, recession.  Keep holding money and it prevents the number of jobs available and thus layoffs and thus more getting held and thus and so forth… TL:DR, hording money = bad.  And the solution to that isn’t so easy.  Adding money to the cycle reduces its value.  You can’t really force anyone to give up their savings and new taxes will just make people clam up even more.  I guess there’s always reducing population so picking a fight with someone might be a good way of doing it… that is… if you’re going for some darkside points.

I guess if you really want to jumpstart the whole thing, set a goal.  A major goal.  A public work like none have ever seen!  Look at what we have done in the past and the massive amounts of money circulation it has generated!  Sure, it takes a bit of upfront money to kickstart, but once huge amounts of money start to circulate, then the economy has no place to go but to follow.  However, it has to be done well with some sense of finesse, because it’s one thing to build a Hoover Dam and employ hundreds and hundreds of people, and another to hire some company that will buy cheap labor and pocket the excess…  One of those methods will have the same results as any of our other fail attempts… guess which one.  >)

Anyways, that ends this week’s rant about the evil job market.  Let’s just hope I’m totally wrong and out of my mind and things get better soon.

Rather than a poll today, lets brain storm some ideas on how we can get things back on track!  How do we get people back to work and start the cycle of cash flow once again?