The Night Sky

I've always been interested in night sky photography.  Night sky photography is actually what sparked my deeper interest in photography in college; my collection of old Soviet-era manual cameras speaks well to that point.

When I moved more to digital photography I always thought that the night sky photos I'd been able to pull off with film - and more importantly with a commercial photo lab at my disposal when I worked at Ritz - were beyond what I could do with digital.  Recently, I've been trying to prove myself wrong.

The above is a combination of around sixty 30-second exposures, each exposure separated from the next by around 30 seconds.  The north star is in the upper right corner.  The big dipper started in the upper left corner and moved through the frame through the exposure (for those who want to try to pick out individual stars).

Also caught in frame were a number of planes and a number of fireflies.

Things to do in Lansing, Michigan: Mini-Golf at Hawk Hollow

So you've found yourself in Lansing, MI.  You have a few hours to kill, perhaps?  You're looking for something to do, maybe something outdoors.  Let's assume for a moment that it's not winter.  You need to make your way up to Hawk Hollow Golf Course.  No, not for golf, at least not for the bag-of-clubs version.  What you're on your way to do is play some mini-golf.

There is a brief semantic discussion to be had here, which should clear up any misunderstandings that might be going on even at this very moment.  When I say mini-golf you might picture windmills and clowns and astro-turf.  While you do in fact utilize some aspects of golf while engaging in such activity it should not be confused with what I am not talking about.  Clowns and windmills, or to be fair any walls (invisible or otherwise) create the game known as putt-putt.  With all due respect to putt-putt, what I am talking about is mini-golf; true to form, golf, miniaturized.   

The Little Hawk Putting course is one of the best little secrets that greater Lansing has to offer.  It is insane how many people live in this town for several years and never hear of it.  I was fortunate to learn of it from friends after living in Lansing for less than a year.  

The Little Hawk is a mini-golf course with 18 holes.  As I've (strongly) inferred, the twist is that you're not going to see any windmills or clowns here - the Little Hawk is all dirt and real grass, manicured better than some actual golf course greens I've played on.  This makes for a very unique, fun, and challenging experience.

I've brought people to this course that have been golfing their whole life and have never seen anything like it.  If I lived an hour away I would still probably make it out here fairly often to have a good round with friends.

There are sand traps.  Water comes into play, perhaps more than you'd like.  There is fringe and rough.  Someone in your party will make a decision about taking an unplayable lie (the first time they'll generally make the wrong decision and try to play it).

The Little Hawk Putting Course at Hawk Hollow is some of the best fun you'll have in greater Lansing for under $10 (it's somewhere in the range of $6-8 depending on time of season).  Bring your family, bring your friends.  Bring a little bug spray if you're playing in the evening.  Bring an extra ball, or even your own putter if you want to feel like a seasoned pro.

It's worth a quick aside to note that if you do have your own putter it would be wise to bring it, as you want to learn the feel of it, not some other putter.  The balls are also standard balls you'd find at putt-putt, so they are kind of dead - if you bring your own ball you'll get a better feel for how these skills translate to an actual course. 

If you've had experience playing competitive golf, you no doubt had a coach tell you over and over that putting is where you shave the most off your score.  Play a round of actual golf sometime and count your putts.  You may be surprised for what proportion of your score they account.  If you're a golfer this course almost feels like cheating - you will get better at putting, and you're doing exactly what your old coach would have wanted.  It's like grinding up a pill and mixing it in ice cream to trick your kid into taking medicine.

So get out there.  Do something outdoors, enjoy the weather, and impress your friends by sinking those 40-footers next time you're out for a game of (full-sized) golf. 

Oh, and check out coupons on their website at http://www.hawkhollow.com/ if you're thinking ahead and want an (even better) bargain.

An Open Letter to Netflix

An Open Letter to Netflix
Or
Why pissing off idiots without giving them institutional recourse other than abandonment is a bad idea


I've been having some problems with Netflix the last few days, and finally became angry enough about it that I decided I should drop an email to customer service.  I wasn't planning on wasting a bunch of time on this, but it appears I have.  Why, you ask?  It is because Netflix does not have customer service. 

It's true, at least in part.  Netflix does not have email customer service - the only way to reach them is via phone.  To some (like those living in the 90's) this might actually sound like a benefit - you get to talk to a live person to discuss and resolve your problem.  Unfortunately, we live in the 2010's, and we have been dealing with live customer service for some time.  And it sucks.  Unequivocally.

When I see a phone number on a website it strikes me in one of two ways.  It may be that the company is small enough or distributed enough into small bits that you're getting a line to either the heart of the company or a local branch.  That's a pro!  Unfortunately Netflix is the definition of a faceless centralized company (mostly by their own choosing), and so it hits the second way - this phone number is a joke.  That's a con.

It may as well be a string of random digits, truthfully.  I don't think my eyes would even really register if it was 15 digits, or 4.  It's just a footer on the page - maybe it's a page number.  Could be my account number?

If you're trying to get something done on their page, and if that something isn't related to getting lost in unhelpful looping choose-your-own-adventure faqs, there are really only two options.  One is the random string of digits, the other is deactivation of your account.

What I want to do is send a quick email.  I've learned what customer support requires in order to function.  I will send a quick bulleted list of problems and the things I have tried to fix it.  They can solve it at their leisure.  I don't have to sit there while my phone call goes half way around the globe - you can outsource my email to the moon for all I care.

What I don't want is to wait on hold on the phone to talk to someone, only to find that they have no idea what they're talking about.  Then I wait on hold for another person, who also has no idea.  Transfer, transfer, transfer.  Instead of transferring me, and making me angrier and angrier, just forward my email along.  It will not get angry.  It is an email, and it is unfeeling.  It lacks the capacity for emotion.

Truth be told, I'm not even saying that your phone customer support is bad.  I have no basis for that; I've never called.  And I never will.  Banks and credit card companies and computer companies and Microsoft and Microsoft and Microsoft have already shit in the pool, so to speak, and I want nothing to do with it.  I don't want to jump in a shitty pool.  I don't want to talk to your customer service people, because I will hate them.  I don't want or need that hatred.  When I get back the poorly worded email that doesn't address any of my points I don't feel hate - I feel pity.  That, that I can live with.

There's a deeper point, here, and it relates to the flak you've been getting from all corners of the internet over your recent price schedule changes. 

Now, I'm not going to complain about this price hike, because I realize that it is necessary.  I frankly think that the people complaining about it are fairly ignorant of all the facts, whether by their own choosing or through neglect.

You, as a company, are getting hosed.  Movie and television studios have caught on, and they know two things: Netflix has big pockets, and big cable has bigger.  Those two things make you a tempting target.  They want you gone, but they want to empty your pockets into their own first.

You see, a company like Comcast is scared of you.  And they rightly should be.  They should be very very afraid, because you are the calculator to their slide rule.  The VHS to their betamax.  The printing press to their abbeys full of monks. 

In a fair open market you should be decimating them.  There is no real reason for Comcast to make it into the next decade unless they diversify and completely change the face of their company.  They have represented al that is evil for so long, and angered so many people over the years that vilifying them should not be difficult at all.  The real problem is that we are not in a fair market.

Comcast (or whoever you want to blame) has huge pockets, and some of those pockets may in fact actually contain movie studios, or distribution houses.  They want to put you out of business, but they can't just not sell to you - that would make them the bad guys.  Beyond that, they want to make some money for themselves while stringing you out for the long game.  And if they can turn the public against you, all the better.

And that they have done in spades.  You are vilified in the social cloud since your price hike.  People are calling for your demise over $6, and it's hard to not get caught up in it.  $6.  Do you understand this?  $6 and they are at the gates with pitchforks and torches. 

Movies cost money, and your movies just got a whole lot more expensive.  Oh, not on the consumer side, on your side.  What we should be understanding is that you need to raise prices because the movie and tv studios are basically bending you over the table, having their way with you, and then picking your pocket.  And we don't care, for a few reasons.

First off, you need to dig for that information.  No one is talking about it.  You should be screaming it from the rooftops.  There should be a grassroots movement against these studios.  You should call some bluffs, and see if studio X doesn't mind that their product is no longer going to be on Netflix.  Tell the people what you're doing and what they are doing.  Get the people on your side!  They are your customers, and they care about you.  Or at least they would, if you didn't:

Completely lack a face.  You see, that's your second problem.  As a company you are as faceless as a pedestrian on Google Street View.  When I think of Netflix I think of your logo, and that's it.  Thinking about it; it's almost scary.  Is your CEO a recluse?  Who invented Netflix?  Have you ever tried to personify your company in the slightest?  Is it your design to come off as a completely dehumanized organization?

You see, it's important.  Because when you want to fight a war the first thing you need to do is dehumanize your enemy.  And big cable is fighting a war with you, and you're doing the work for them.  You are handing them your head on a plate.  The masses are eating it up like pudding. 


At the end of the day that's not what I want.  I want you to succeed, and big cable to fail.  Like I said, there's really no reason for it to exist in the near future.  You cannot let them stick it to you over $6.  Cable companies raise their rates by $6 without reason, constantly.  If you keep turning a blind eye and letting these shots graze your hull, eventually your ship is going to start sinking.  (Okay, sorry for the nautical analogy, I just watched Hunt for Red October the other night - such a good movie, and it's on instant) 

The conclusions to be drawn are actually a bit counter-intuitive.  To put a human face on your company you need to have email customer support, instead of the actual humans on the phone.  Because the only way I can ever deal with phone customer support is to completely dehumanize them, and that's just hurting you more.

Now fix my Netflix!  


Best Wishes,
Paul

Improving the Portal 2 Variant of Arkham Horror

So after play-testing the Portal 2 variant of Arkham Horror I went back and looked over my comments and tried to make some changes to the game to even things out a bit and make some of the effects simpler and/or more useful.  There are a number of changes, so I'll go over them a bit one at a time.

Changes to the overall story and guardian/herald/ancient one:

One of the main takeaways of the play-test was the growing hassle of figuring out who had to roll a die when and what that roll was for.  I've collapsed all the die rolls that occur during a turn to a chart on the overall story card which then references you to the individual effect on a different card.  By only rolling one die you are guaranteed that something is always going to happen.  The roll takes place at the start of mythos so that monsters placed as a result move during that turn.

Changes to herald, Cave Johnson:

It didn't feel like Cave Johnson was doing too much in the play-test, so I added a few more small effects.  I like the idea that there are a limited number of sentry turrets, but I'm realizing that I forgot to specify how many that should be.  House rule!  Choose your own adventure.  Also, if you don't get the reference for 'protect the things that matter most' you should probably search you tube for...wait, I can just link it here...

 

 

Changes to guardian, Wheatley:

Minimal change to Wheatley - 'failure to grasp the basic rules of mathematics' upon closer inspection actually has some very complex math behind it.  If you're paying one clue token to get an extra die you have a 1/3 chance of success.  The extra clue token gets you to 2/3 by switching to a 12-sided die.  However, you could have just spent an extra clue token to get an extra roll at the 1/3, thereby also increasing your odds to 2/3 over the course of two rolls.  So, before you start rolling each are equivalent.  Well, sort of.  If you roll the first and succeed, then you've only spent one clue token instead of 2.  If you roll the first and fail, you now have 1/3 odds again, as the rolls are independent of each other.  At that point, you should look back and say "I should have done the 12-sided" but now you can't.  And even that is somewhat flawed, because you're basically in the same place as you are when you started, with a choice between 1/3 odds on one roll or spending the extra to get the 2/3 on the 12-sided.  And you're STILL going to pick the 1/3 odds because it's only one clue token and you're hoping to get lucky even though you just didn't.  

So...long story short I changed it to a 20-side.

Changes to ancient one, GLaDOS:

Cleaned up the language a bit, lowered the doom track length and set difficulty to -1.  This one might take some iterating.

Changes to the portal gun:

The portal gun was a fun item, but it felt a little underutilized due to the limitations on it.  I didn't really want to make the base item too much more powerful, so I figured it would make it interesting if players had to earn a better version.  The better version, the 'advanced portal gun' is quite a bit more powerful and tied to the players' story cards, making them all the more important to finish.  I also cleaned up the base guns' cards to remove the weapon aspect (which they aren't).

 

Changes to the gravity gun:

Originally just way too powerful.  Toned it down a little and tried to improve the 'push' feature.

Changes to the characters:

The biggest changes to the characters was a little (needed) nerfing of Gordon Freeman.  I also took away one of his starting skills in lieu of some more items.  The other players should only have minor tweaks for the most part.

Changes to character stories:

Biggest change here is the inclusion of the advanced portal guns as rewards.  Also, since Gordon's story requires other stories to be completed (to get advanced portal guns) his benefits are a bit larger, since he basically has to help the others during the early part of the game.

Changes to other cards:

Some of the cards just needed minimal wording changes to work with other cards.

Cards without changes can be found in the original posts.

An Open Letter to Borders Books

Hi - I don't necessarily want to complain, but I want to share the experience I just had in an attempt to buy a book from you that might be insightful to how you try to be competitive with services like Amazon (which - spoiler alert - won out in my recent purchase).

I received an email today for 50% off a single item.  There isn't a Borders in my area, so the only time I really get to use these coupons in person are when I'm visiting friends in a market that has Borders.  I often do use them when they reach around the 35-40% threshold, as that seems like a pretty nice cut.  The promise of a 50% coupon made me look into the idea of using it online (something I've not done before). 

I didn't have any book in mind, but searched a bit on your site and found something that looked good, a book "Standards of Brewing"

(http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?type=0&catalogId=10001&simple=1&defaultSearchView=List&keyword=standards+of+brewing&LogData=[search%3A+26%2Cparse%3A+79]&searchData={productId%3Anull%2Csku%3Anull%2Ctype%3A0%2Csort%3Anull%2CcurrPage%3A1%2CresultsPerPage%3A25%2CsimpleSearch%3Atrue%2Cnavigation%3A0%2CmoreValue%3Anull%2CcoverView%3Afalse%2Curl%3Arpp%3D25%26view%3D2%26all_search%3Dstandards%2Bof%2Bbrewing%26type%3D0%26nav%3D0%26simple%3Dtrue%2Cterms%3A{all_search%3Dstandards+of+brewing}}&storeId=13551&sku=0937381799&ddkey=http:SearchResults) 

The regular price that you sell it for is around $32, so I figured I'd check what Amazon has to say about it.  They're selling it for around $27.  Well, they're better, but you're giving me 50% off, though I did note it would be 50% off the retail price.  That said, you even list the discount as a line item 'promotional' discount of $11.99 off the regular price, which is *actually* a discount of 37%, not 50%.  So you've already lost me a bit there, as this is starting to feel like a shell game.  I figured it would still be a better deal given that it should come out around $20 or so. 

Anyway, I'm still on board, and enter some personal information to get a cart going.  Shipping has popped up, and I'm looking at about another $4.  I stop for the first time and start to weigh my options.  I'm going to have to put in more information, put in credit cards, etc.  I'm now looking at about $24 to about $27.  Your shipping is 3-8 days, and Amazon gives me free two day (as I have Amazon Prime Student).  Is this worth it to me to spend the time doing it?  I don't need the book in two days, so I'm still saving.  I honestly don't care if it gets here tomorrow or three weeks from now, as I'm a bit busy and likely won't get to it for a while.  I debate internally, briefly.  Yeah, just barely still worth it.  I like supporting Borders.  I continue. 

Now I'm at the cart, and the total is coming in a little higher.  Ah, tax.  I can't fault you for this, and I really should be faulting Amazon.  I'll eat this later on use tax, but in the moment it's tax and shipping vs neither.  I justify tax when I use an in store coupon by taking into account that I get the book right away and don't pay (or evoke) shipping.  With a shipping cost already built in the tax just feels like the last straw.  I'm now sitting at $25 and some change (Borders) vs $27 and some change (Amazon).  The gap is now insignificant, especially considering the work I've put in on your site and the fact that shipping will take longer vs a 30-second endeavor on Amazon that will get me the book by Friday. 

The scale has tipped, I close the window.  Sunk cost be damned, I'm done with that transaction and only take away a bit of knowledge that buying at Borders.com isn't worth it.  By your math, Amazon is giving me very very close to a 50% off coupon every single day.  A 60% off coupon I guess might get me there, but it seems like it would still be just barely better, and I don't really see 60% off coupons very often.  Oh, and don't get me started that to get this coupon in the first place I had to 'like' you on facebook.  The ultimate act of desperation and selling out is forcing people to use one of the worst parts of facebook to get something.  My full intent was to like you for the coupon and then unlike you immediately (already done, actually). 

In the end, I decided that I'd rather give Amazon an extra $2 than support the circus that I had to go through to save that $2.  Like I said, I'm not complaining, because it does feel almost unfair in points.  I just wanted to give you some actual thought process of a customer that was swayed away from you.  Hopefully this will help you in the future.

Oh, and don't make the defense that I could sign up for the Borders Super Special Rewards or whatever to get an additional discount and free shipping.  It's not free if it costs $20.  If I had a Borders store in my town I might, but who knows.  Granted, I have Amazon Prime, which seems unfair, but even if I didn't have Prime this book at $27 still would have fallen into Amazon's free 5-8 day shipping as it's past the $25 mark.  And the fact that Amazon gives students free Prime is simply another good thing on their side. 

Anyway - again - hope this helps.

Best,
Paul

Playtesting Arkham Horror Portal 2 Version

So I had a chance to play the Arkham Horror Portal 2 Variant last night with a few other people, and the overall consensus was that it worked pretty well.  There were a few things that could potentially use some tweaking, so I'll probably do that in the next week or so when I can spare a bit of time.

To begin though I'll hit a few of the bullet points of how things played.

1. The initial overall plan of the game was to play with GLaDOS (ancient one)/Wheatley (guardian) and then at the halfway point switch to Wheatley (ancient one)/GLaDOS (guardian).  We made it though the first part with GLaDOS as the ancient one and Wheatley as the guardian, and that took a bit of time.  GLaDOS' doom track got up to 9 out of 12 before we woke and defeated her.  It may be that I need to take the doom track down a bit to make it workable as a two part game. 
2. At the beginning I was fairly torn with character selection, as I couldn't decide which to play.  I eventually took Chell, and she played fairly well.  I ended up spending a huge chunk of the game completing the story, which meant I ended up neglecting her power of falling through gates.  I was happy that I felt that my actions had to be one or the other, and that I was faced with a dilemma of which I should be worrying about.  Chell also turned out to be great at sneaking, which worked well with turrets, and is something I rarely ever end up doing with other characters.  
3. The turrets were nice, as they actually did make sneak into something a bit more useful rather than just something you sometimes do to stop yourself from dying.  They were also nice in that they were fairly often found guarding piles of clue tokens, rather than just having clue tokens be free for the taking.  
4. Cultists were good, though a game mechanism made them +2 toughness, for an overall +4 toughness, which was very difficult for a while during that effect.  Cultists and turrets overall appeared fairly frequently, which caused us to hit the monster limit more times than we ever have before.  This was great, because we were actually really worrying about the terror track, which we usually aren't.  At game end the terror track was at 9, and all the stores were closed.
5. The robots' stories were not as easy as I thought, as Atlas ended up failing his in fairly short order, and P-Body simply never finished either way.  It might be the case that I can make the rewards for them a little better to compensate.  Gordon's story was meant to be solved in the Wheatley part of the game, and turned out to be very hard in the first part.  The idea was that any character could get a card that sent you to the science building to have an encounter, where they could then drop a portal for him to enter.  It simply didn't happen.
6. The gravity gun may have been a little overpowered on the combat bonus, but the special action was never used.  I may need to work that in a little better.
7. The portal guns were used a bit, but were drastically nerfed by having them wiped when you entered a gate.  Atlas started the game in Kingsport and left a portal there, but after returning was knocked unconscious, wiping it.  Later P-Body was able to produce a stable link between Arkham and Kingsport, which was useful.  Overall, I was worried these were going to be overpowered, but they actually played very nicely.  If anything it might make sense to take the moment cost away from them to make them a little more usable. 
8. I was afraid that clue tokens were going to be very easy to come by, but it turned out that they really just kept piling up on gates.  Since you don't get them until you close/seal the gate, they didn't help in sealing, so you still had to be aware of how many clue tokens you had at any given time.  There were two or three turns where as a group we failed to get the necessary 2 clue tokens, and at the end of the game the board was getting pretty sparse in terms of clue tokens remaining.  
9. There was a lot of rolling at the beginning of rounds, and it was a touch confusing who had to roll what when.  It might make sense to just have one person roll three dice in sequence or something.  Also, we decided that cultists should be played before mythos, as then they move during that turn.
10. GLaDOS was not very hard to defeat, though we had a decent number of weapons and things by that point.  We all had a decent number of clue tokens from closing late-game gates, as well, so she wasn't really a huge threat.  It might make sense to make her a bit tougher.  

Anyway, that's how it played through the first time.  Like I said I'll tweak some things on some of the cards and repost them with changes.  Do certainly take the time to leave comments if you have a chance to playtest this yourself or have any other thoughts or comments.

Interesting Internet Video Part 1

I don't watch a ton of YouTube, but there are a number of channels that I really find quite amusing.  I've decided to highlight a few of these over a number of posts.  The first post is dedicated to the good (Canadian) folks over at Epic Meal Time.  The idea behind this exceptionally unique series of videos (new one released every Tuesday) is that eating food should be nothing short of extreme.  The first video that really showed me how high they set the bar was last year around Thanksgiving.  They decided that a turducken is just a little too simple.  Instead, they put a series of birds into increasingly larger birds, and then finally into a pig, which they smoked.  The video is below, and from there you can find the rest of the channel.  Keep up the good work, guys!