Call of Duty: WWII

After several games set further and further into the future, the Call of Duty series is turning back the clock and returning to its World War 2 roots. Titled Call of Duty: WWII, the next installment of the mega franchise will have us once again storming the beaches of Normandy and driving the Nazis back into the heart of Germany. Our character will be a solider in the US 1st Army Division, and the story being told is intended to be a more intimate and human tale of war, as opposed to Call of Duty’s usual bombastic tales of supermen action heroes. Having watched the singleplayer campaign reveal trailer for the game and read a few articles on what to expect from it, I’ve got some thoughts on WWII that I’m going to share with you today. If you’ve not yet seen the reveal trailer for WWII, I’ve embedded it below. Keep in mind that WWII is a war game and it is rated M, so expect some mature content in it.

At the outset let me say that I’ve been a fan of Call of Duty games since 2007 when Modern Warfare came out, so the announcement of any new Call of Duty has my interest. Though I can only speak to the singleplayer campaigns of the games I’ve played, I can say that Call of Duty has rarely disappointed me and the series has rightfully maintained its position as a juggernaut within the world of video games due to the undeniable level of quality in each mainline entry of the series over the past decade. There is a certain level of excellence that can be reasonably expected with Call of Duty, and at the moment I think we can assume WWII will at least be about as good as any of the other games from the last ten years.

As for the game’s setting, I can completely understand why Call of Duty is going back to World War 2, given the success experienced by the rival Battlefield series in setting its latest game in World War 1, as well as the general sentiment that gamers were getting tired of the futuristic Call of Duty games. Going back to a time before advanced technology could be just the refreshment that some Call of Duty players want, and might even bring lapsed players back into the fold. Personally, I never experienced the World War 2 fatigue that catalyzed a lot of shooter games jumping to the modern era back in the mid to late-2000s, and I’m currently not tired of futuristic shooters either, but I recognize that I’m kind of an atypical person so I’d be the wrong guy to ask regarding when a game series should make a radical change.

Storywise, I’m not sure what to think just yet. From what I’ve read I get the feeling that the storytelling will be somewhat like The Last of Us or Spec Ops: The Line, (neither of which are Call of Duty games) in that we will get a very personal tale centered around a small cast of characters. This could be a good thing, but at the same time that’s not what I normally associate Call of Duty with. In my mind, with some exceptions, Call of Duty stories are usually about over-the-top craziness and plots whose main purpose is to give a reason why you’re engaging in absurd action set pieces. It also occurred to me when reading about WWII that Call of Duty is going to be retreading some old ground with the story of this game in that it will focus on a soldier from the US 1st Army Division. We already got a Call of Duty game centered on the 1st Army Division back in 2005, so I wonder how closely the campaigns from each game will match up. The last thing I noted about the story when I was reading about WWII was how one of the main themes appears to be the horror of war. The horrors of World War 2 were already handled very well by a previous Call of Duty game, namely 2008’s World at War, which as an aside is one of the few exceptions to the bombastic trend of Call of Duty storylines from the past decade, so we know it can be done. World at War, however, was set in the Pacific and the Eastern Front, whereas WWII will be set on the Western Front, so I think it’s fair to say the horrors depicted will be a bit different in this game.

Until an actual gameplay trailer or demonstration is released I can’t write much about WWII’s gameplay, but there are several things that are currently known about it. Obviously, being set in World War 2 means there will be none of the drone strikes, exosuits, and advanced weapons that have been prevalent in recent Call of Duty games. Instead, we’ll be back to using M1 Garand rifles and other guns common to World War 2, and we’ll probably be fighting at closer ranges, seeing as how very few weapons back then had scopes. WWII is, however, changing the gameplay in two small, but very important areas. First, regenerative health has been tossed out the window, so instead of hiding for a few seconds when wounded, you’ll need to crawl over to the nearest medic to get patched up. Second, and closely related to the previous item, ammo is no longer just lying around on the ground, so when you run out of bullets you’ll need to find a squadmate who can give you a fresh magazine for your gun. These two changes to the Call of Duty gameplay formula could work well, or might be really annoying. I honestly probably won’t have made up my mind about these changes until I’ve been able to play the game myself.

That’s all I have to say about WWII at the moment. Given that WWII was only just announced a few days ago, there’s not much else to go on, though I’m guessing we’ll have more details soon enough at this year’s E3. As I pondered this new Call of Duty, however, a final realization did strike me as I was typing up this writing piece. The development team behind WWII is the studio Sledgehammer Games, who were also the people that created the excellent Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. With Sledgehammer working on WWII, it seems safe to assume we will not be getting Advanced Warfare 2, which means two of my favorite Call of Duty games from recent years—Advanced Warfare and Ghosts—are not getting sequels. As much as I would have preferred getting Advanced Warfare 2, I guess I’ll just have to let it go and hope that WWII is a worthy replacement. I think I’ll also need to replay World at War before playing WWII. Seeing how two different Call of Duty games treat World War 2 could be an interesting experience.

Cadbury Creme Eggs

Have I ever told you how much I love Cadbury Creme Eggs? Have I ever told you of my undying affection for them? They are among my favorite sweets of all time and were my mental fortitude a bit weaker I might just eat them by the truckload. I don’t know what’s in the creme inside those chocolate eggs, but if you told me it was cocaine I’d probably believe you. One year I bought thirty Cadbury Creme Eggs, and all of them were gone in about four to five days. They would have been eaten even faster if not for a modest show of restraint on my part. This year I managed to limit myself to just buying three Cadbury Creme Eggs, and I got them really cheap since it was a week after Easter and they were sitting on the clearance rack at the grocery store. But you gotta understand, the only reason I didn’t buy more is because at that point nearly all the Cadbury Creme Eggs left on the clearance rack were damaged, and I could only find three of them in good condition. I’m somewhat proud of myself for showing a bit of discipline and not buying any more from the clearance rack, seeing as how I’d gobble them all down regardless of their physical condition, but although this year’s battle has been won, the war will return every single year for as long as Cadbury keeps producing these absurdly delicious chocolate eggs. Next year I might cave and send another thirty or so down the hatch.

Writing Project - April 2017 Update

Not much progress was made this month on the Writing Project, but I did get a few things done. My hope is that by continuing to press forward with small baby steps I can at least maintain forward momentum, which is important with any major life project. This month my main accomplishment was in adding some more details to my chapter/episode summaries. Fleshing out these summaries has been the most productive and helpful thing I’ve done for the Writing Project in recent years, so I’m trying to focus as much energy into them as possible. The other small thing that happened this month is that I revised one of the characters to make him more interesting. The old version of the character was passable, but I think this new version has more potential.

The Ultimate Travel Goal

I was bitten by the travel bug long ago, and since then I’ve been able to accomplish a number of travel-related goals, but there’s one goal that stands above all others. If possible, I’d like to take my parents on a tour of Western Europe. They love the photos and stories that I’ve brought back from my two trips to Europe, and I think I’d be a fairly good tour guide from my previous experience on the continent. In my mind I refer to this trip as the “Best of the West.” The itinerary I’m thinking of would start with a few days in London. Then we’d take the Chunnel train to Paris for a few more days. From there we’d go south, perhaps stopping in one more place in France as we moved towards Italy. In Italy we’d journey from Venice to Florence to Rome. From Rome we’d fly to Barcelona, stop by San Sebastian for a day, (my mom really loves the photos of that place) and then go to Madrid. We’d then circle south, visiting Seville, Granada, and maybe one more place before returning to Madrid for the flight back to America (or, alternatively, a flight back to London for a day or two there, and then fly back to America).

This trip would be expensive, and I don’t know how much money my parents would be able to contribute to it, but if at all possible I’d like to make it a reality. Ideally it would be done within the next few years, seeing as how they’re getting older and don’t have the strength of their youth anymore. This year is a no-go, and next year looks iffy, but maybe if I work hard and save enough money then maybe the year after that it could happen. Hopefully the EU won’t collapse before I’m able to do this.

Unicorn Frappuccino

Starbucks, in their never-ending quest to come up with new overpriced drinks that are tailor-made for social media, released a limited-time drink last week called the Unicorn Frappuccino. I was curious enough to buy one myself, and having experienced the Unicorn Frappuccino I suppose I owe the world my opinion on it. Below is a photo of the Unicorn Frappuccino that I bought.

When I posted that photo on Facebook and Instagram, I joked that Starbucks had created a drink whose primary ingredient was LSD. In all seriousness, I do have to give Starbucks credit for coming up with something that does look like it came from a land full of candy, rainbows, and prancing unicorns. The taste, however, leaves something to be desired. Probably the best way I could describe the flavor of the Unicorn Frappuccino is that it’s a weird mango-ish taste. There are sweet and sour patches throughout it, but I thought the sour parts were too sour and too plentiful. A little sour taste it fine in drink like the Unicorn Frappuccino, but Starbucks should have erred on the side of making it sweeter. A rainbow-colored straw would also have been a nice touch, or maybe even a straw that looks like a unicorn horn. Overall I’d have to rank the Unicorn Frappuccino towards the bottom of the various Starbucks frappuccinos that I’ve tried, but I guess I can applaud Starbucks for trying out something new.

Avoiding the Nuclear Option

In a move that surprised absolutely no one, Senate Republicans took the Nuclear Option earlier this month to get Neil Gorsuch confirmed to the US Supreme Court. A lot of ink has been spilled since then about the ramifications of this move, but today I wanted to briefly talk about a possible compromise deal that I heard about that could have avoided the Senate going nuclear. From what I understand, small bipartisan group of senators was trying to hash out a deal whereby Gorsuch would get confirmed, but at the same time one of the older liberal justices on the Supreme Court would resign, and Merrick Garland would take his/her place. You might Remember Merrick Garland as the Supreme Court nominee that Obama put forward after Antonin Scalia died but never got any hearings due to Republicans gambling that a Republican would win the next presidency and substitute a more conservative nominee in Merrick Garland’s place. This compromise deal to get both Gorsuch and Garland on the Supreme Court obviously didn’t pan out, but had it come to fruition it could have been a very special moment in our current political climate, with Republicans and Democrats coming together for a deal that would give both parties some of what they wanted and avoiding the Nuclear Option. Seeing Republican and Democratic leaders shaking hands on such a deal could have been a publicity coup and finally given Americans a reason to believe that their leaders were actually capable of working with each other. Instead, however, we got confirmation that things really are as bad as we thought.

Motorcycle Ownership

I’d like to own a motorcycle. There’s a fair chance it will never happen, but it remains a life goal of mine. The main reason it may never happen is not because I couldn’t afford a motorcycle. Rather, the reason is that whenever I’ve thought about buying a motorcycle I’ve been discouraged from it because of the impracticality. Living in Colorado, my motorcycle would be out of action for about a third of the year, so I’d be paying for insurance and maintenance on a vehicle that I couldn’t use all the time. Also there’s the whole utility problem of a motorcycle having a very limited capacity to carry things. That said, I can’t shake the desire to own and drive a motorcycle from my mind. It’s a goal that only has a small chance of ever being realized, but it’s a goal nonetheless.

Connecting to disconnect

I find myself checking Twitter more and more while I’m at work. Just about every hour I’ll pause what I’m doing, open up the Twitter app on my phone and see what the people I follow are saying. It used to be that I’d only check Twitter about twice per day, so something has changed to get me connecting to the world of Twitter with such increasing regularity. I suspect that I’m using Twitter as a means of brief escape from the depression of my job. For an hour I grind my way through spreadsheets and then for sixty seconds I disconnect from that world to immerse myself in the comings and goings of other peoples’ lives. It’s kind of sad, now that I think about it. Other than a moment of forgetting about my job, I’m not really gaining anything from this new habit of mine. Then again, if reading Tweets for one minute each hour helps get me to the end of the workday, then maybe it’s not entirely a bad thing.

So close to buying

I came within inches of buying tickets to Japan last week. One night I decided to take a look at plane tickets and to my surprise there were a few roundtrip flights on Delta Airlines from Denver to Tokyo that were prices at about $860. That’s insane. My airfare to and from London in 2012 was about $950 and my flight to and from Paris in 2015 was about $1,000. I clicked on the flight, convinced that there was some sort of catch or important detail that I was missing. No, it was exactly what was being advertised—an economy class ticket that flew from Denver to LA, and then from LA to Tokyo, with the return flight following the same path. The hours were even reasonable, with the flight having a midday departure from Denver, following by a two hour layover in LA before the overnight flight to Tokyo. I wanted so badly to just buy the tickets right at that moment, but with my future job situation still in flux I couldn’t do it without taking on more risk than I’m comfortable with. A few days later I looked again the same flight was still there, but at a much higher price. The opportunity had come and gone. I was close, so very close.

First Ride Delayed

This past Saturday was supposed to be the day of my first bicycle ride of the year, however I had to postpone it due to a mysterious injury to my right knee that I’m somewhat perplexed as to how it happened. Last week on Wednesday I had finished my normal workout routine and was doing some stretching when I felt a massive shooting pain through my right knee. My workout that day hadn’t been any different than normal, so I can’t isolate exactly what I did to injure it, but injure it I did. The pain was in the muscles that come together at the knee joint, and though I could still walk as normal it was difficult to squat down or bend the knee all the way back. On Thursday and Friday I was back at the gym, though I kept to a gentler workout and stretching routine, and on Saturday and Sunday I abstained from all heavy exercise to give the knee time to heal. As of today it’s feeling better, and should the weather be good next Saturday I’ll try again for the first ride of the year. I finally bought a new helmet, so the only things holding me back are the weather and personal health.

Sargon of Akkad

Last month I mentioned that I had watched a number of videos by a Youtube personality who goes by the name Sargon of Akkad. One of his videos came up while I was searching for something on Youtube, and over the course of several weeks I found myself going back to his channel from time to time to watch more of his content. Around that time I decided that it would be a worthwhile thing to do a writing piece based on what I’ve seen of Sargon and his work, which brings us to today’s post. Much like my writing piece on Milo Yiannopoulos, this is not meant to be a comprehensive detailing of everything Sargon has said and done, but rather a short description of what I’ve seen so far. There could very well be important things about Sargon that I’m not aware of, so maybe you should imagine some fine print at the bottom of this post that says something like “All statements subject to change based on new information.”

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One of Sargon's current avatars

Sargon of Akkad is a British man whose real name is Carl Benjamin. Taking the name of an ancient Mesopotamian king as his online persona, Sargon began his Youtube career began back in 2013 and since then his main channel has been steadily growing, to the point that at the time of the publishing of this post he has nearly 600,000 subscribers (Sargon also has another channel dedicated to livestreams he hosts, and at one time he had a third channel related to gaming). His subscriber base may not be much compared to the biggest channels on Youtube which have millions of subscribers, but it’s still a large number and Sargon can’t be dismissed as some nobody with an insignificant online presence. I think the first time I heard about Sargon was back when the Gamergate controversy first started to explode, but it wasn’t until earlier this year that I actually took a look at the content he produces. In that sense, my experience with Sargon is similar to the one I had with Milo Yiannopoulos, in that they were both names I had seen before but for a long time I never bothered to figure out who they really were. Having watched or listened to a fair number of Sargon’s videos from his main channel, I think I now know enough to make some general comments on him while being reasonably confident that I’m not misrepresenting him.

Carl Benjamin

What I think makes Sargon the most interesting is that, like Milo, he’s someone who breaks the mold of what you would normally expect from someone of his political persuasion. Sargon identifies himself is a classical liberal and is no fan of conservative ideology, and in one of his videos he took the Political Compass test and fell in the lower left quadrant of the political map, so I think it would be fair to call him some sort of centrist liberal with libertarian leanings. That said, even though Sargon falls on the left side of the political spectrum, he has held some political positions that most people would not consider as being liberal, such as being in favor of Brexit and Donald Trump (though to be fair, his support of Trump in the US presidential election seemed to be more about his disgust with Hillary Clinton than his believing in Trump’s policies). These abnormalities might be part of the reason he sometimes gets lumped in with the alt-right, which I’m sure causes him no small amount of face-palming. Much of Sargon’s content is dedicated to criticizing what he thinks has gone wrong with the left, primarily what he sees as the insanity of the progressive wing of liberalism. This means what you have in Sargon is man whose videos are frequently critiquing his own side. The rationale behind this strategy seems to be that Sargon is trying to improve the left by exposing the cancers he believes are festering within it, and by drawing attention to these problems hopefully the left will be motivated to address them.

Each week Sargon normally produces at least two videos—one being part of his recurring This Week In Stupid series, and the others being videos focused on a particular topic or current event. As you can probably guess from the title, the This Week In Stupid videos are Sargon talking about and mocking things he saw in the previous week’s headlines that he thought were stupid. The topical videos oftentimes are also reflections on current events, though with a deeper dive than what he usually does in This Week In Stupid. Being British, many of the topical videos are related to things going on in Europe, but he also does plenty of videos on things that people in America and other parts of the West might be interested in, such as censorship, identity politics, criticism of the mainstream media, social justice, modern feminism, and immigration. It’s in these topical videos that I think Sargon is at his best, as these are the ones that he seems to put the most time and effort into. Even if you disagree with Sargon, and a quick Youtube search will show you that lots of people do, you can’t deny that he takes his work seriously and I appreciate that Sargon tries to be thorough and includes links to the sources of his research. Seeing as how his primary sources of income appear to be Youtube revenue and a Patreon fund, I’m guessing he has a good incentive to produce quality content.

For my part I have found Sargon to be a very interesting voice to listen to over the preceding months. Like Milo Yiannopolous, Sargon is a mixed bag of things I like and dislike, but I do commend him for his commitment to his craft and I think it’s well within the realm of reasonable possibility for his channel to one day pass the one million subscribers mark. If reading this post has gotten you interested in checking out Sargon for yourself, below are links to several recent videos of his that I think give a decent idea of the sort of videos he produces and would help you decide if he’s worth your time or not. I’ll also link to an interview he did with Dave Rubin a year ago in which he tells some of his personal story and goes into a few topics not covered in this post, such as his involvement with Gamergate. Be aware that Sargon is not afraid to use colorful language, so if that’s not your thing then his videos may not be for you.

The Natural Enemies of Youtube (mainstream media criticism)

Why Don’t I Criticize the Right (self explanatory)

This Week In Stupid (for April 9, 2017)

Year Zero: The First #Vault7 Leak (analyzing the Vault 7 documents released by Wikileaks)

Dave Rubin interview

Some Things I Miss About Boulder

Even though I’m not an outdoorsy person, there were a number of outdoorsy things I liked to do when I lived in Boulder. Where I live now has some outdoorsy offerings of its own, but I still miss those things I used to do in Boulder once or twice a month in the warmer seasons. I miss taking a bike ride along the Boulder Creek Path and up a mile or so into the mountains. I miss walking along the Pearl Street Mall when all the flowers are in bloom. I miss climbing Mt Gagazet. I miss going to the Farmers Market, which I know is a really weird thing to miss, seeing as how I never bought anything from it. Thankfully my job is in Boulder, so at least I’m there for some amount of time each week, however when I’m at work I’m stuck at a desk, so I don’t get any actual enjoyment from being in Boulder. At some point in the future I intend to move back to Boulder, and then I’ll actually be able to enjoy the city again. It’s something I look forward to.

Flat Earth Theory

Mankind has known that the Earth has a spherical shape for over 2,000 years now, but it’s come to my attention that over the past several years there’s been a small resurgence of persons who believe that the Earth is flat. Flat Earth Theory postulates that the Earth is flat, with what we think of as the North Pole being at the center of the large disc that is Earth, and Antarctica actually being a large ice wall around the edges of the disc that keeps all the water from falling off the edge. Apparently the UN patrols the edge of the Earth to keep anyone from going over it and discovering the truth (I don’t know who they say patrolled the ice wall prior to the creation of the UN in 1945). A Google Image search will reveal some very interesting concept art for what these people think the Earth looks like. Below is one of the images you can find showing the map of the Earth according to Flat Earth Theory.

Flat Earth Theory is one of those ideologies that leaves you scratching your head trying to figure out why anyone would believe it. Unlike other theories, such as the ones about the Moon landing being faked and there being a second shooter at the JFK assassination, Flat Earth Theory ought to be easy for its proponents to prove. All they would need to do would be to go down to the tip of South America, (or South Africa or Australia) charter a private plane, and fly south over Antartica. If they reach the edge of the planet then clearly the Earth is flat and they could bring back footage vindicating their claims. To my knowledge none of the Flat Earth theorists have done this as of yet. Instead they appear to be content in making articles and Youtube videos of dubious scientific value and arguing with people in the comments section. Perhaps most disturbing is how quickly many of them will dismiss any contradictory evidence to Flat Earth Theory. No amount of orbital footage, mathematical calculations, observations of the horizon, knowledge of the laws of physics, or long-distance travel will convince them. The round Earth is a massive conspiracy, and they stand bravely for the truth of a flat Earth. Never mind the fact that a conspiracy of this size would be impossible to maintain. Sadly, thanks to the Internet, this theory is not going away any time soon.

Bicycle Rack

Somewhat related to yesterday’s post, I’ve decided that whenever I buy a new car, which will likely be sometime next year, I want to get a car that can either have a bicycle rack mounted to the top of it, or at least have enough internal space for me to easily fit a bicycle inside of it. Yes, I know you can get one of those bicycle racks that attaches to the rear of the car, but the shock absorbers on my car’s rear axel aren’t very good and I don’t want to put any more stress on them than necessary. Also, the cost of repairing them is greater than the value of the car itself. If I end up purchasing a car similar in size and shape to the one I already have, then I’ll get the rear-mounted bicycle rack. The main thing is I don’t want to ever transport my bicycle again in the way I’ve transported it in the past, which is stuffing it awkwardly into a small car and badly dirtying up the rear seats.

Riding Season is Almost Here

Winter is over, temperatures are rising, and it won’t be too long now before I take my bicycle out for the first ride of the year. My bike has been cleaned in preparation for its coming days of usage, so now I just need a pair of things to happen. First, I need to buy a new bicycle helmet. Second, I really need the wind to die down (seriously, was it always this windy?). Once those two things are in order I’m going to try to do one 40 to 50 minute ride per week on Saturdays. While I’m not anything that could be construed as a bicycling enthusiast, which should be apparent by the fact that I don’t ride all year long and don’t wear those cotton spandex outfits you see real cyclists wearing, I do look forward to Riding Season, and maybe this year I’ll get one of those GPS apps to keep track of how far I ride.

Juggling

At the moment I’m juggling four different writing-related projects: the “regular” series of shorter posts that appear on this website, a pair of longer writing pieces that have stalled recently, the chapter/episode summaries of the story I’m working on, and making progress on the game I’m playing for the upcoming Replaying the Classics series of posts. I’m in a war on four fronts, and all of them are bloody campaigns of attrition. Were I unemployed the situation would be tenable, but seeing as how my job consumes such a large chunk of my life I’m struggling to keep up this juggling act. The obvious solution to this problem is to just let one or two of these projects get put on the back burner for at least the near future, but somehow that feels like failure. I can’t bring myself to let one of them go, even though I know this sort of multitasking brings only misery. I need a breakthrough on at least one of these writing battlefields. Either that, or I need to force-feed myself some humble pie and let one of the balls fall.

Destiny 2 Announcement

The existence of the sequel to Destiny has been known for some time now, but near the end of last month developer Bungie finally gave their official confirmation of the exact date that Destiny 2 is coming out this year. As a fan of the original Destiny, I’ve been reading the news about Destiny 2 with great interest and today I’m going to give a brief rundown of part of what’s been revealed about the game and some personal notes on those details.

Destiny 2 is scheduled to launch on September 8th on the PS4, Xbox One, and PC, with an open beta occurring sometime this summer. As always, it’s highly improbable that I’ll be playing Destiny 2 when it first comes out, though I’ll likely take part in the open beta. If I end up making good on my goal of traveling to Japan this year around mid-September, then there could be an even bigger delay before I rent or purchase Destiny 2.

The story of Destiny 2 will have a much greater focus on the Cabal, which was one of the four enemy factions from the original Destiny. After killing all of the Cabal’s high-ranking officers in various missions in Destiny, it would seem that the Cabal have launched a massive counteroffensive in Destiny 2 and in the reveal trailer we see that they are overrunning the last city on Earth. Hopefully Destiny 2’s storytelling with be more like what we got in The Taken King expansion pack than the barebones presentation in the base version of Destiny.

Related to what’s happening in the story, all weapons, armor, and other gear that players have stored in their vault in Destiny will not be transferring over to Destiny 2. The vault where Guardians store their stuff gets destroyed in the reveal trailer, so there’s an actual story explanation for why none of your old equipment is around for Destiny 2. Some people are understandably upset about not getting to carry over all their cool gear from Destiny, but I personally don’t care too much.

Destiny 2’s first two expansions appear to be centered around the characters Osiris and Rasputin. Osiris was a crazy warlock who disappeared long ago and whose name is attached to one of Destiny’s multiplayer modes. Rasputin is an AI that was created to protect Earth from the first invasion of the Darkness but since then has gone rogue and its true motives and goals are unknown. On one hand I am a little disappointed that Bungie is already revealing DLC months before Destiny 2 comes out, but I also recognize that this is just part of the marketing plan to stir up more interest in the game.

That old clock

A thought crossed my mind the other day. It asked what the oldest thing in my room was. I looked around and saw multiple objects that I’ve had in my possession for many years, but one item in particular caught my attention. Atop my desk is an old Sony digital clock that also serves as an alarm clock and radio. I’m not sure exactly when I first got it, but it’s been in my possession since at least the time I was in Sixth Grade, which was almost twenty years ago. Every weekday morning, from elementary school through high school, I was woken up by the sound of its infernal alarm—a sound that has such a negative connotation in my mind that the mere remembrance of it still inspires rage to this very day (but that said, that clock’s alarm is also probably the most effective way to wake me up, seeing as how it gets me leaping out of bed, seething with anger). I stopped using the clock’s alarm functionality just before starting college when I got a cell phone, but it has remained a faithful timekeeper on my desk and I have no plans of getting rid of it so long as it continues to work. One day either it will finally give up the ghost or I’ll be forced to get rid of it, and when that day comes I’ll be parted with a relic from long ago. Below is a photo of the clock for those curious to see it.

She’s back

In other political news, Hillary Clinton has decided that it is time for her to start making public speeches again. While Hillary certainly is free to address a crowd if she so chooses, I’m somewhat surprised that anyone on the political left would want to be seen with her or be interested in what she has to say. To put it bluntly, Hillary has now suffered two major presidential election defeats—the first one being in the 2008 Democratic primaries where she lost to Barak Obama, and the second, and much more humiliating one, being the loss to Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. As I said last year in the aftermath of the election, the Hillary Clinton brand is so toxic that she couldn’t beat a clueless populist demagogue who alienated potential voters and regularly embarrassed his own supporters. I don’t think Hillary is doing her party any favors by returning to the public spotlight, but then again the Clintons are still a powerful force within the Democratic Party, so I suppose there’s no way they could get rid of her even if they wanted to. Perhaps the path forward for the Democrats is to just allow Hillary to talk, but quietly distance themselves from her.

Mike Pence and Dining

Tempting as it may be, I’m still not ready to write anything about Donald Trump’s presidency, but I do feel compelled to say something about the all the brouhaha that erupted a week or so ago regarding Vice President Mike Pence’s dining habits. As we all now know, Mike Pence has a policy of not dining alone with women who are not his wife or a member of his family—a policy that’s he’s submitted himself to since about 2002. The Internet and the press promptly erupted with both ridicule and outrage upon learning this, showering him with a level of scorn usually reserved for men who beat their wives. While I can understand why people would disagree with any number of Mike Pence’s political positions, it’s been disgusting to watch the mudslinging that he has endured over this personal rule. Here is a man seeking to esteem his wife, protect his marriage, and maintain his personal integrity by not spending intimate time alone with women who are not his wife—an unusually honorable policy for a Washington DC politician. I do not for a minute believe that Mike Pence hates women or thinks of them as nothing more than temptresses that can’t be trusted. If you don’t believe me, maybe you’ll believe Mary Vought, one of his former staff members who published an op-ed in the Washington Post in his defense, which can be read here. Seeing as how she worked directly under Mike Pence, I’m inclined to believe her when she says his personal dining habits never held back her professional career, and as a side note I would go so far as to say that if your career advancement is dependent on having private dinners with an opposite sex boss, then something is very wrong with your organization. I have known a number of men in my life with similar personal policies to the one Mike Pence lives by, and though I realize that the experience of one individual cannot be taken as authoritative for every circumstance, I will say that those men are likely the most upright and honorable men I’ve ever met. If you want to tear down Mike Pence go after his actual political positions. Attacking him for his commitment to his wife just makes you look completely out of touch with reality.