Me: I should buy Civ VI.
Greene: Do you like your life? Because it will be over the moment you buy that.
Greene: "Yeah, she was a cool person. Then she bought Civ VI."

Considering the mood with Trump, it's interesting to note that Obama was nicknamed "the deporter-in-chief" because he really clamped down on illegal immigration. Not as stringent as Trump is being, and although the administration did say they were focusing on people caught at the border and violent criminals, there were plenty of people who had been living in America for years that were sent home. I remember listening to news stories that were intended to tug the heartstrings of children being deported.

Also, Bush gave more assistance to Africa than any other president. Billions of dollars, interventions, programs to help with AIDS/HIV along with other diseases... He is still fondly remembered there. At the end of his term Obama was actually chided because his legacy in Africa was severely lacking compared to his predecessor.

Because of our perceptions, sometimes it's hard to look at our presidents outside of their party, but like any other human being they're complicated with mixed opinions that can change over time. It's easier to study history in the Middle or Classical Age because we're far removed from the events. The issues don't matter to us anymore. If I started talking about how the Carthaginians attacked Saguntum, would any of you care? Or how the internecine fighting between Guelphs and Ghibellines affected the trade routes to the Champagne markets? No, not really. We don't have emotional investment in the game. But because we've lived under Obama, Bush, and Clinton, our ideas can skew because of our experiences. That's why I appreciate people who write about current leaders since it's so much more difficult and you can receive so much more hate.

People have been visiting us so much and sleeping in my room that I've been tidying up my room constantly, trying to hide the random crap lying around behind the closet door or in the dresser. Now I can't find jack shit. Do I even own my own room anymore?

Mom complained it's hard for her to hold up hard cover books, which is usually what the library supplies. So Harlan gave her a Kindle and figuring out how to put library books onto it is rather difficult. I had to first sign up for "overdrive," which apparently is handling the NYPL's ebooks instead of NYPL itself, and then even after I find a book I still have to go onto amazon's website to borrow it. And even after all of this, I've noticed the ebooks selection is rather sparse; dozens of the authors that mom reads aren't listed. Older ones that she's read like Inspector Maigret I can understand, but nowadays aren't almost all newly published books come with an ebook option? How the hell aren't these online somehow?

My God, Fox just dropped Bill O'Reilly. I feel like my adolescence is crumbling around me. We would boo and hiss this dude, thinking he was the literal worst Fox News could produce, not knowing people like Glenn Beck were just down the road. The Bush administration, Republican congress, and Fox News were this triad that liberals tried to smash against but only produced broken bodies afterward. Democrats were just a mess with no one steering that ship, but Fox News and Bush could provide a coherent, singular message that never seemed to break even during the most difficult points of the Iraq War. And now it's the Republicans who are scrambling even when they have their own dude in the White House, and O'Reilly has fallen from grace. It's crazy to see how quickly the sands can shift.

What throws me off is why now? Yeah, this all started thanks to an article at The New York Times, but we've known for years that O'Reilly is a sexual harasser. That's nothing new. It's like bringing up that Cheney is a dick. We're all aware of it.

Why the hell do I suddenly have an urge to play Diablo III? I have so many other games going on. Well, I guess at least I haven't bought Civ VI yet. Then I would truly be lost.

The Truth About New York City's Elite High Schools

Eh... I don't know. One thing I definitely can say is Bronx Science was a POC school. White people existed, but they were the minority. So that's why I don't feel like it's a discrimination issue per say and more of... just fucking man up and study. For example, I came from Fieldston. That was not a test-based school. At all. I had to learn how to fill in bubbles on scantrons and shit because we simply did not do that. Math also wasn't one of its strong points either (more of a liberal arts, fine arts place), so I had to hit the books and practice to take the test. And I spent all of Freshman year adapting because Science is a test-based school. Yeah, you gotta come to class and do homework, but holy shit I remember weekly English quizzes, math was every other week on a Wednesday, my physics teacher made sure we had at least a test a month. If you can't handle that from the start, how the hell are you expected to survive?

Is Moham doing this with anyone else or is it just me?

dundun: Son.
dundun: Talking to you is like this sometimes:
dundun:
Rizhall: I... don't send anything that drastic.
Rizhall: .. Do I?
dundun: You sent an ASCII art of a gun along with a message about us dying together in the middle of us chatting about Zelda.

In case you were considering what that message was, here it is:
IF YOU WERE KILLED TOMORROW, I WOULDN'T GO TO YOUR FUNERAL CUZ I'D BE IN JAIL FOR KILLING THE MOTHER ****ER THAT KILLED YOU!
..._.....____________________, ,
....../ `---___________----_____] = = = = = D
...../_==o;;;;;;;;_______.:/
.....), ---.(_(__) /
....// (..) ), ----"
...//___//
..//___//
.//___//
WE ARE TRUE HOMIE'S...
WE RIDE TOGETHER...
WE DIE TOGETHER...
bang..

How Technology Has Failed to Improve Your Airline Experience

I'm not entirely certain this is technology's fault and rather just... economics. OK, neither technology nor economics excuses what happened to that gentleman on United, but I'm talking about things like lack of legroom or paying for checked-in luggage. It's like Amazon Prime: Yeah, shipping is free... except the shipping costs are now just integrated into the price of the item. You were paying for your checked-in luggage before but you didn't see it because it was simply part of your plane ticket. Let's take Spirit Airlines as an example. They don't give you jack shit. No blankets, no food, nada. But they're dirt cheap. So if you want extra services, you pay more.

I think technology has helped people find something cheaper, but the ultimate blame is on the consumer. Although we complain about the lack of amenities, clearly our highest priority is price or else we wouldn't find ourselves in this shithole. If we really cared about whether we can check in unlimited bags, we would've just chosen the airline that provided that instead of something cheaper. Going back to Spirit Airlines, it gets universally bad reviews and yet it's expanding.

The author in this article also mentioned rampant capitalism being the blame and... yeah, it is. But so what? Let's say we implement laws insisting that people get free blankets, pillows, and lunch. You can demand that criteria all you want, but that still requires money and prices would increase across the board. And apparently since we look for cheapness over everything else, that wouldn't make us happy.

I guess what you should do is shop around, but unfortunately because a lot of the airlines have been absorbed it's harder to find competition that's willing to give you the better amenities. Still, I think there are decent airlines still around that may not supply you with a good lunch but will make the experience not horribly miserable. Support them, and perhaps years down the line the other companies will join in.

I finally played Breath of the Wild and it's.... well, I'll just show you what I said to Moham:

dundun: Son.
dundun: I played Breath of the Wild
dundun: It's a good game, but it's not a Zelda game.
Rizhall: That's the feeling I got when I saw it.
dundun: It's like... it's not the open-world aspect that bothers me.
dundun: Let me give a few examples of what's weird:
dundun: 1. There are lots of different weapons like a regular RPG or action-adventure game, and they have attack stats.
dundun: 2. Those weapons break all the fucking time.
Rizhall: That sounds extremely annoying.
dundun: 3. Armor too. He's not wearing the traditional Link clothing. They have defense stats.
dundun: 4. THERE'S FUCKING VOICE ACTING.
dundun: 5. It's almost... futuristic in a way? It still takes place in a fantasy world, but there's sci-fi shit like fucking everywhere. You're literally carrying a smart phone with you at all times.
Rizhall: Son, that samurai game I'm playing right now? Nioh.
dundun: 6. You pick horses yourself. No Epona subplot thing. You catch them in the wild and can have multiple ones.
dundun: LIterally it feels like another game, a good game, but it's another game with Zelda slapped on it.
Rizhall: That sounds like it should have been a new IP.
Rizhall: They had a public alpha demo out last year, and the weapons you got had durability, and they broke all the fucking time too.
Rizhall: So you had to keep replacing your weapons.
dundun: SOn? That weapon replacement is actually getting out of control.
dundun: Like, I'm literally breaking two per fight.
Rizhall: So many people hated that shit that by the time the game actually came out, they removed the durability function entirely.
dundun: And it's everything: swords, boomerangs, bows and arrows.
dundun: Seriously, that's the worst fucking part of the game.
Rizhall: That sounds very annoying.
Rizhall: Honestly, son.
dundun: Jen can't handle it to be honest. She just starts throwing bombs at people instead.
Rizhall: I don't think I've played a single game where the durability feature added to the enjoyment of a game.
dundun: Yeah, seriously. Diablo even started phasing that shit out a bit too. You just do it after you die and check it every now and then to make sure it's OK.
dundun: Yo! Bombs are another different thing too!
dundun: You can only use one bomb at a time.
dundun: And you can detonate it whenever you want.
dundun: But after you use it, you have to wait... maybe five seconds before you're allowed to use another.
Rizhall: That's weird as fuck.
Rizhall: Why'd they do that?
dundun: It's because your cellphone is generating the bomb I think.
dundun: It can only handle one at a time.
Rizhall: Well that's stupid.
dundun: Oh yeah, THE most important thing.
dundun: You can't fucking roll anymore!
dundun: I'm running places and I can't fucking roll!
Rizhall: WHAT.
dundun: They took it out of the game!
Rizhall: NO CRASHING INTO THINGS?
dundun: You can jump now, but it's maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad slow.
dundun: NO CRASHING INTO THINGS. YOU HAVE TO PICK UP A HAMMER AND SMASH SHIT, AND THEN IT BREAKS.
Rizhall: WHAT THE FUCK.
Rizhall: What's even the point of the game anymore?
dundun: I don't know. I just... I don't know.
dundun: I think I would enjoy this better if it weren't a Zelda game.
dundun: Because the entire time I'm thinking, "Why are they doing this? Why did they design it this way?"
Rizhall: It sounds like they're shooting so hard for realism now that they're removing a lot of enjoyable shit from the series.
dundun: Well, if they wanted to do that, they should've fucking worked on the graphics.
dundun: Coming off of FFXV, this looks...... eh.
dundun: I mean, it's pretty and colorful, I'll give them that, but it's still...... eh.
Rizhall: You know what's crazy?
dundun: What?
Rizhall: This is gonna affect all future Zelda games from now on, at least for a while.
dundun: OH WAIT, I FORGOT TO MENTION THIS.
dundun: IF YOU CUT GRASS, YOU DON'T GET RUPEES.
dundun: RUPEES AREN'T LYING AROUND ANYMORE.
dundun: NEITHER ARE HEARTS.
dundun: YOU HAVE TO FIND SHIT ON THE GROUND AND SELL IT LIKE IT'S FUCKING FFXII.
Rizhall: WHAT THE FUCK.
dundun: AND YOU HAVE TO COOK FOOD AND EAT IT.
Rizhall: WAHT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING, NINTENDO?
dundun: THAT'S HOW YOU HEAL YOURSELF.
dundun: I DON'T KNOW!
dundun: I DON'T FUCKING KNOW
Rizhall: WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU FUCKING DOING.

In 1878 Bismarck said, "Europe today is a powder keg and the leaders are like men smoking in an arsenal. A single spark will set off an explosion that will consume us all. I cannot tell you when that explosion will occur, but I can tell you where: Some damned foolish thing in the Balkans will set it off." And he was right; in 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in Serbia and a few weeks later Europe was at war. Millions of people dead and monarchies were toppled all because one man and his wife were shot in their car. It really shows if the cards are set properly, one small incident can blow up into a major war.

That's why I'm so worried about the Syria situation. People criticized Obama's lack of initiative, but in a way I can sympathize. Could we honestly start World War III over fucking Syria of all places? It's possible. As much as I pity the people there, I'm not certain I want to start a war with Russia over it. One thing I hoped with Trump, who gets along much better with the Russians, is that he wouldn't provoke that sleeping dragon. Going back to Bismarck's quote, his comment about the leaders was a jab at their inability to foresee the consequences of a European war and to prevent it. It's true; the month between the assassination and the first declarations of war could've been used to deflect the whole problem, but with shitty leaders like Wilhelm II and Nicholas II, that wasn't going to happen. There's no way I would expect any better from Trump.

I guess after tonight maybe I should start looking into buying a house in the countryside.

Dad's favorite jam is Bonne Maman, and he keeps a rather impressive collection of flavors maticulously organized in our fridge. And yet my brother, a grown-ass man in his mid-thirties, enjoys jumbling them up just to piss our father off.

My knee has been hurting me recently. Coincidentally I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, and when I told mom and dad they assumed it was for my knee. However it's the gynecologist. Mom then said, "Oh, tell her, 'When you're down there, can you check my knee too? It's right next to it after all.' "

With all this shit about Trump and Russia, I'm wondering if this is his Benghazi. Yeah, there may be something there but does it really matter so much? So long as no one on his team was actually colluding to hack the DNC, really is there anything wrong with having contacts with Russia? I mean, Clinton probably could've done better with Benghazi, but so what? I feel like it's the same with Trump; there's more important shit to focus on and criticize than this. Clearly Putin preferred Trump over Clinton... but so did Khrushchev and JFK. Yeah, I'm not comfortable with his connections with Russia, but I can live with it like I could with Bush and Saudi Arabia. I'm not going to say this is the most insane shit going down at the White House right now.