Favourites - Contest Outcomes - Plugboard - Polls - Plz Collection

-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------

Walmartism and the Culture of No Mistakes

Now, when I say Walmartism, what do I mean?, I mean something akin to other economic theories, such as Capitalism, Marxism, and Stalinism.

Walmart is, literally, one of the largest economies in the world. Using Wolfram Alpha ( [link] ), if it were a country, it would be the 23rd on the scale of GDP, (out of 231). Walmart can also directly and unilatery affect the US's Multi-Trillion-Dollar Economy, and this was back before the recent fall, when the US was the world's ONLY economic super power.

Their corporate policies can and do have an effect on the entire world. Unfortunately, the countries that Walmart is the most successful in, the workers have the lowest share-of-wealth in the world. Funny enough, Walmart has pretty much failed to take in countries where workers are well taken care of. To put it bluntly, Walmart does it's best where working conditions are at it's worst, and this is obvious in it's policies.

Warlmartism: Rather then focusing on skilled labour, hire the cheapest person possible who can ostensibly do the job. Employees are to be treated as nothing more then easily interchangeable parts. With the world's 23 largest economy, this is taking hold in the rest of the world. Walmart depresses prices, and therefore forces all of it's suppliers and ancillaries to do the same. This can best be likened to Black Friday, when 1/3 of Canads's manufacturing sector was layoffed at once, starting with the idiotic cancellation of the Avro Arrow, (which, honestly, would match or exceed most modern fighters for the needs of the Canadiuan Forces Air Command; as a side note, most of the engineers went over and worked on the Apollo missions).

Anywho << Walmart pays their employees next to nothing, (in fact, from it's very inception, Walmart has been trying to work it's way around Minimum Wage Laws, and this goes back to when Minimum Wage Laws were first created, (the trick was it only applied to companies with certain numbers of employees, he got the idea to pretend all his stores were different companies...)) Walmart demands that their suppliers lower their prices as well, and their purchasing power is such that it becomes industry standards. Now, for the suppliers to lower their prices they have to lower their wages and benefits as well. These industry standards drive the people the suppliers do business with into lower prices, which means... lower wages and benefits for their employees.

In order to keep up with Walmart evergoing charge to the bottom, people have to follow in Walmart's footsteps.


And now for the Culture of No Mistakes.
This one is a bit easier to describe, in that Employers expect NO mistakes, at all, in any shape or form.

Now, you might say that it's reasonable to expect that people not make mistakes, except that one of the irrevocabl etruths of the universe is that humans make mistakes. It is IMPOSSIBLE for people to not make mistakes. Not matter what your job is, no matter how good you are at it.

Now, for Doctors, this means that someone, someday, WILL DIE. Horrible to say, but yes. For businessmen, this could be mean millions or billions of lost contracts. For burger flippers at McDonalds, this could mean that someone's 3-5 dollar hamburger might get a bit burnt...

now, who do you think has the most scrutiny?, yes, that's right, the burger flipper.
Managers are always completely infallible. Basically, what this means is they won't let themselves EVER admit to being wrong. Instead they will tell you to do something horrible moronic over and over again until you do it, thereby proving themselves right. They cannot allow themselves to ever have the hint of wrongness about them, which means that suggestions from employees are completely, completely, completely ignored.

While not every company does this, by far most of them do... and it's getting worse. Intelligent, thoughtful, hardworking employees are to be slapped vigorously for ever trying to do their jobs... better...

Because the Managers can tell them exactly how to do their job... (often without the slightest hint of what the employee actually does).

Mistakes happen, and dealing with them is as important as anything else. Sometimes, there could be simple solutions, (maybe brought forward by one of those employees you just slapped vigorously). Sometimes simple things can be done to greatly, greatly reduce the effect of mistakes, without massive amounts of useless paperwork, (to prove you did your work, but in truth, you had to pick between doing your work or doing your paper work, and knowing your boss, he wouldn't notice if you didn't do your work, but would fire you for not doing a single line of the uselss paperwork).


....




kind of pooped myself out there...

-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------

Conquer:





-------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------

Caveat:
I write fiction. Nothing that happens in my stories are based off real events, nor are any of the characters meant to associate with real life figures, (except Jack Thompson). Some of the things are illogical, immoral, or downright illegal: don't do them!

All monkeys are properly trained, and none were hurt during the production of my works.

Please address all flames and irrational comments to
devNull@yourMother.ca

-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
Linkage

Polls
Shipment
Ye Who Watcheth Me
Plug Board
Blogs: The Great Discontent:
Has Spoken (movie and game reviews)
Incoherent Ramblings (incoherent ramblings)

-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------

Half-Assed Stamp Making:




Stamp Collecting



Artist Stamps






defunct stamps:
:thumb37910030: :thumb55584966: :thumb51002650: :thumb80480499:

Favourites - Contest Outcomes - Plugboard - Polls - Plz Collection

-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------

Norway Solves the Superbug Problem
[link]

How, you might ask, by NOT PRESCRIBING ANTIBIOTICS. This isn't a never prescribing antibiotics, but only when it's absolutely necessary. They can still fully use antibiotics that are considered antiques elsewhere, because overuse made them completely useless.

Oh, yeah, and some other reasonable stuff, like isolating the sick people, giving parents sick days when their kids get sick, and some other simple things.

Also, drug companies cannot advertise AT ALL in Norway.

-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------

Conquer:





-------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------

Caveat:
I write fiction. Nothing that happens in my stories are based off real events, nor are any of the characters meant to associate with real life figures, (except Jack Thompson). Some of the things are illogical, immoral, or downright illegal: don't do them!

All monkeys are properly trained, and none were hurt during the production of my works.

Please address all flames and irrational comments to
devNull@yourMother.ca

-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
Linkage

Polls
Shipment
Ye Who Watcheth Me
Plug Board
Blogs: The Great Discontent:
Has Spoken (movie and game reviews)
Incoherent Ramblings (incoherent ramblings)

-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------

Half-Assed Stamp Making:




Stamp Collecting



Artist Stamps






defunct stamps:
:thumb37910030: :thumb55584966: :thumb51002650: :thumb80480499:

Favourites - Contest Outcomes - Plugboard - Polls - Plz Collection

-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------

US Laws vs. the World
[link]

The US has often come to lagerheads with the world with their nearly zealous vainglorious belief that their laws, (however flawed), should become the universal standard,

but here we have the US with a law that directly contravenes the laws of a neighbour, (their north-bound neighbour ).

Basically, every flight through US airspace, whereever it is headed, now requires complete disclosal of passenger information, (and some sleuthing for even more info then is usually gathered), and this directly contravenes Canada's privacy laws, (PIPEDA). The airlines are either required to break the laws in the US or in their native Canada.

Now, they Us has looked into this and come up with a solution, they can get out of it by instituting all of the TSA's massively psychotic security regulation, (like the new pants-bomber related ones, and being banned from a flight because they appear on the completely non-transparent and poorly managed no-fly list). I'm pretty sure a number of them also violate Canadian laws...

-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------

Conquer:





-------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------

Caveat:
I write fiction. Nothing that happens in my stories are based off real events, nor are any of the characters meant to associate with real life figures, (except Jack Thompson). Some of the things are illogical, immoral, or downright illegal: don't do them!

All monkeys are properly trained, and none were hurt during the production of my works.

Please address all flames and irrational comments to
devNull@yourMother.ca

-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
Linkage

Polls
Shipment
Ye Who Watcheth Me
Plug Board
Blogs: The Great Discontent:
Has Spoken (movie and game reviews)
Incoherent Ramblings (incoherent ramblings)

-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------

Half-Assed Stamp Making:




Stamp Collecting



Artist Stamps






defunct stamps:
:thumb37910030: :thumb55584966: :thumb51002650: :thumb80480499:

Favourites - Contest Outcomes - Plugboard - Polls - Plz Collection

-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------

Avatar

Disappointingly Good.

Yep, Disappointingly Good. One of the best movies of the year, and it is disappointingly good.

I say disappointingly good before it didn't reach as high as it shot. If you look (too) closely, there is enough to pull you out of the experience, but if you just like to sit back and enjoy the show then GO AND WATCH IT.


oh, and just a note, Avatar is a horrible name for the movie... and with a planet called Pandora there's like 50'000 better ones to choose from.

-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------

Conquer:





-------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------

Caveat:
I write fiction. Nothing that happens in my stories are based off real events, nor are any of the characters meant to associate with real life figures, (except Jack Thompson). Some of the things are illogical, immoral, or downright illegal: don't do them!

All monkeys are properly trained, and none were hurt during the production of my works.

Please address all flames and irrational comments to
devNull@yourMother.ca

-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
Linkage

Polls
Shipment
Ye Who Watcheth Me
Plug Board
Blogs: The Great Discontent:
Has Spoken (movie and game reviews)
Incoherent Ramblings (incoherent ramblings)

-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------

Half-Assed Stamp Making:




Stamp Collecting



Artist Stamps






defunct stamps:
:thumb37910030: :thumb55584966: :thumb51002650: :thumb80480499:

Favourites - Contest Outcomes - Plugboard - Polls - Plz Collection

-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------

Left 4 Dead 2 - Item by Item
(note: this assumes you are familiar with Left 4 Dead 1)

+ Improvement
- Detriment
+/- Some good and some bad. It often comes down to implementation.
? Changes the game, but not necessarily for the better.
= Doesn't change the game at all, often because their dramatic change is almost unnoticeable.

New Enemies - Special Infected
Charger ( ? ), Spitter( ? ), and Jockey( ? ).
They really change the way you play the game. In Left 4 Dead 1, everytime a special was lurking in the wings it caused your heart to race, making the game even more horrifying. With the new specials, the game is played a lot more straight forward, with you simply adapting to overcome.

New Enemies - Uncommon Infected
Uncommon was a new category. All of the special infected have a special mutated strain of the virus, causing their untoward actions, but the Uncommon Infected are simply infected that were wearing something during their lifetime, or something similar, giving them benefits after infection.
The unfortunate thing about uncommon infected is that there is only 1 type for each campaign, and the special infected still outnumber them. Interesting in concept, but not much in practice, (aside from the psychotically well-done clowns ). There was also a Fallen Survivor that was cut, who had a molotov cocktail that would explode upon death, which would just be awesome, but no... had to be cut.

-CEDA ( = )
Civil Emergency and Defense Agency, a combination of the realworld US agencies the Centers for Disease Control and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Ingame they appear running around in Hazmat Suits, that pop after you kill them. They are just resistent to fire, but since you don't have that much fire anyways, it really doesn't affect gameplay that much.

-Clowns ( + )
Clowns have big, inflatable feet that attract the infected as soon as they see you. These ones are almost as terrifying as Special Infected , and are pretty much treated as such.

-Mud Men ( + )
They basically move quickly through the swamp on four legs and leave mud on you when they attack, (impeding your vision). These guys are cool, but just need to attack in larger groups.

-Construction Workers ( = )
They have hard hats, reflective vests, and hearing protection. They basically act like regular infected but are immune to pipe bombs, (the beeping, not the booming). So, only a few from the group won't be attracted to the pipebomb and have to be killed individually, it's still not much of a problem.

-Riot Cops ( +/- )
Police in riot gear. Cool in concept, but idiotically implemented, therefore making them annoying. Basically, you can't kill them from the front. You have to smack them, (which causes them to turn around), and shoot them from the back.
They have armour in the back, just like the front, and no armour can stop rifle-power from a short range. They should have just been tougher, taking (a lot) more pepper to take them down, and come together in groups, rather then 1 with each horde, where you just push them away a few times until you can shoot them in the back.


Items - Thrown
-Bile Bombs ( + )
Viles filled with Boomer Bile, and one of the absolute BEST things about the "expansion" (Left 4 Dead 2). They can pull out every common infected in the area, leaving you to mow them down with weapons fire, (or, in some areas, you can even throw it into fire to wipe them out even quicker). This is also great against witches, because they can be caught and mobbed by the zombies, and is one of the only ways to 1-hit kill them.

Items - Weapons
-Magnum ( + )
I really doubt that I would have to explain this, although being able to carry a second readied, (but not in hand), for extra ammo would be nice.

-AK-47 ( + )
This has become my default weapon, now, (but that's partially because the shotguns got nerfed).

-Mk. 16 SCAR ( +/- )
This is essentially an M-16 with a somewhat larger magazine, better accuracy, and 3-round burst instead of automatic fire. This would be a great idea for those who have ammunition use issues, but in order to add it, they actually nerfed the M-16's accuracy.

-Crome and Combat Shotguns ( +/- )
The idea of this was to give a choice to the gamer, with two new shotguns that have better range but worse close-range performance. Unfortunately, you can't pick which of the lower-grade shotguns to start with, (negating any choice), and they nerfed the range of the Pump and Tactical Shotguns to add them.

-Grenade Launcher ( +/- )
A fun weapon, but this replaces your large weapon, crippling you more then it helps.


Items - Adrenaline ( +/- )
Interesting in idea. This replaces the pain pills, and while it provides some healing, it increases your speed, and prevents you from getting tired from shoving. Unfortunately, to use it, you have to stab yourself in the heart with a giant needle in the middle of a zombie horde.


Items - Pickups
These items essentially replace your health kit, so it had better be worth it.

-Ammo Upgrades ( + )
This adds one magazine's worth of ammo of either incendiary or explosive to your main (large) weapon. This is handy if you use it properly.

-Defibrillator ( = )
Paddles that can mysteriously revive any deceased at any time. Unfortunately, this takes place of your medkit, which you could have used to heal yourself, preventing yourself from dying, and just like the last Left 4 Dead, if you die, the other survivors will find you locked in a closet later on, making not as much of a necessity. Paradoxially, that extra medkit is absolutely required for higher difficulties, but deaths are far less likely on lower difficulties.


Items - Melee Weapons ( +/- )
All of the melee weapons can take down enemies in a single blow, (at least for common infected), and so there really isn't that much difference between them. This means that there is nothing preventing the development team from adding more varieties, like golf clubs, wrenches, axe handles, tire irons, 2x4's, hoes and shovels, rakes, pool cues, brooms, boken, baseball bats, and canes and umbrellas, to name a few. Of course, one of the ones they do have is Kitana, which can be casually found lying around everywhere, even on stoves in place of frying pans, O.o).

Now, melee weapons are dandy, but they also REPLACE your pistols. If that wasn't aggrevating enough, there is naturally an achievement to finish a campaign using only a melee weapon, but when you get incapacitated, your pistols returns out of no where, and if you hit your attack button one-too-many-times, you completely fuck up your achievement. Further, you have relatively lower ammo in this game, compared with the first, making the pistols even more of a necessity, making even more of a douchebag move to have it replace your pistols.


Other - Graphics ( + )
Only thing that is universally better about the game.

Other - Ammo ( - )
1) There are more enemies compared to your ammo in L4D2, meaning that you will almost always run out, having to rely on your other weapons, or pick up a weapon you'd rather not.
2) Shotguns got an ammo nerf, because people can't use proper fire control with the assault rifles, and therefore good shotgunners had an unfair skill advantage, (ah, sniff, I remember when skill wasn't considered a balancing issue).

Other - Campaigns ( ? )
The campaigns in Left 4 Dead 2 have a lot more set-piece incidence, which while fun, reduces the replayability and the wonderful randomness of the previous experience.


All in all, still should have been an expansion pack.

-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------

Conquer:





-------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------

Caveat:
I write fiction. Nothing that happens in my stories are based off real events, nor are any of the characters meant to associate with real life figures, (except Jack Thompson). Some of the things are illogical, immoral, or downright illegal: don't do them!

All monkeys are properly trained, and none were hurt during the production of my works.

Please address all flames and irrational comments to
devNull@yourMother.ca

-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
Linkage

Polls
Shipment
Ye Who Watcheth Me
Plug Board
Blogs: The Great Discontent:
Has Spoken (movie and game reviews)
Incoherent Ramblings (incoherent ramblings)

-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------

Half-Assed Stamp Making:




Stamp Collecting



Artist Stamps






defunct stamps:
:thumb37910030: :thumb55584966: :thumb51002650: :thumb80480499: