The Power of the Atom
Fallout 3 is my new BFF. I am playing as a “good” character right now, currently at level 7. I’m just starting to get good with small guns, and the VATS combat system is getting really, really fun. Especially with the Bloody Mess perk.
I tried to make my character look like me, but he ended up looking like Chad Hugo from N*E*R*D.
What I really like about Fallout 3 is that it emphasizes the importance of constraints. The level cap is 20, meaning that you can’t max out every attribute and build a jack-of-all-trades character. You have to make a choice as to whether you’re going to be strong, fast, dexterous, smart, or a smooth talker. You can choose maybe two of those things, but you can’t have them all.
Likewise, the gameplay requires you to search every nook and cranny for useful stuff. It takes place in a destroyed wasteland where ammunition, food, etc. is scarce, so anything can be useful or sellable. Plus some items that might seem useless at first glance — motorcycle fuel tanks, lawnmower blades, steam gauges — can be used as parts to build homemade weapons. So every item you find can be potentially useful.
However, you are constrained by how much weight you can carry. So you’re always picking through the wreckage, weighing whether it’s worth it to take something with you.
I really like that — how constraints force you to be creative in the game, just like they do in real life.
It’s like the old saying — “Better, Faster, Cheaper: Pick Two.” That goes for almost everything, from engineering projects to restaurants. We are always constrained by quality, time, and available resources. But the beauty of constraints is that it forces creative choices.
Constraints force us to focus, to create something that may be even better than a product formed from unlimited resources. I think it does this because it makes us work for it.
Dreams from My Father
Finally reading it. This guy is going to be an awesome president.
Waiting…
Fallout 3 comes out in three days. So excited. I mentioned recently that I would be interested in throwing a certain friend off a bridge in order to play it now. I am serious about this. It wouldn’t have to be the Golden Gate bridge or the Brooklyn bridge or anything huge — just a small bridge, like the kind that goes over a creek and serves as housing for trolls.
I really dislike waiting. Everyone does. The thing that I don’t like about it is the helplessness — you’ve done all you can to work toward a favored outcome, and now all you can do is wait for the result.
I’m a pretty “Fire and Forget” kind of person. I’ll do my thing, forget about it, and when the results come out they’ll almost be like a surprise. Right now I’m waiting for Fallout 3 and this other thing, and these two waits have joined together into a wrasslin’ tag team that’s calling me out on the microphone. They’re hard to ignore together.
I was toying with the idea of buying Fable 2 to tide me over — Fable 2 could be my methadone until Tuesday. But that seems silly — I will literally put all other video games aside for Fallout 3 once it comes out. Playing anything less would be uncivilized. Thus buying anything now would be a waste of resources.
I can’t even use the Internet properly, because I keep subconsciously skimming over to watch Fallout 3 gameplay videos and read Fallout 3 forums.
I’m a huge Fallout nerd, but there are people that are far worse than me. There are serious Fallout Wingnuts who have sent death threats to the developers of Fallout 3 because it uses a first-person view as opposed to the classic isometric 3D view used in Fallouts 1 and 2.
Those people scare me.
Deluxe
This is the best election season ever! Full of colorful explosions, gaffes, and delicious, delicious moments.
Story of the day: An innocent female McCain campaign worker is taking money out of the ATM machine when she is mugged by an evil black man! He sees that she’s a McCain supporter and in a fit of rage, carves a B into her face. B for Barack Hussein Obama, no doubt!
Problem: She made the whole story up. The cops are pressing charges against her!
NOM NOM NOM — oh, it’s so delicious!
In other election news, Apple opposes Proposition 8.
Because the haters only use Dells.
Lush
Currently Reading: Lush Life by Richard Price.
I really love reading about police procedure and how crimes are solved. Richard Price was one of the writers on The Wire and the author of Clockers; reading his latest is to put yourself in the hands of an expert.
The whole thing also feels like a postmortem slice of a society that’s changing. Particularly of gentrification — the book concerns a murder in the Lower East Side. You get an extremely detailed view of the world surrounding the crime — the recently-arrived gentrified hipsters, the been-there-forever Latinos and Chinese, how the cops have gone from “suiting up like it’s Baghdad” to hanging out in fake cabs and pulling people over for no reason.
It’s a great book — lots of fun, lots of neat details.
For the third time in its lifespan, my desktop Mac broke. And for the third time, the good people at Apple fixed it for free — even though it’s way past its warranty.
I have a feeling that the fourth time it breaks, I’m going to need to buy a new computer. At that point I will embrace this fact since my present computer will have lived a full and fruitful life.
But damn the new iMacs are pretty great looking. And running Windoze when I need to would be very useful, especially for playing those Roguelikes that are only compiled for PCs. I sorta almost want my current computer to break again so I’ll be “forced” to buy a new one, but in this economy it’s definitely worth it to keep your current possessions running for as long as possible.
Powell
In my eyes, Gen. Powell redeemed his highly problematic statements at the United Nations at the beginning of the Iraq War with his recent endorsement of Barack Obama.
“I think he is a transformational figure. He is a new generation coming into the world–onto the world stage, onto the American stage, and for that reason I’ll be voting for Senator Barack Obama.”
To me, the best part of Powell’s endorsement was his story about Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, one of our American soldiers who died in Iraq and happened to be a Muslim. Powell makes a very strong point about how instead of denying that Obama is a Muslim, we should be asking ourselves, “Well what if he was? So what?”
The Republican party has a serious problem. By pandering too much to the right and one particular ideology, it is causing its base to shrink. And as America gets more diverse, the base will continue to shrink until it becomes a fringe party.
The GOP needs to be more inclusive than exclusive; the idea of economic conservatism is a good one. It’s shared by a lot of people across ethnic and religious lines. If the party is going to continue to survive, it needs to throw away its old identity and embrace what America is becoming. I think that concerns a lot of what General Powell is saying.
Like Chris Rock says, on some things I’m liberal, on other things I’m conservative. Very few people are one issue voters. The Republicans need to get with the program — throw the haters out, embrace people of color, and become a party for the 21st century.
Awkward
I am greatly amused by this pro-Proposition 8 commercial that lets us know that if Prop 8 doesn’t pass, we will be forced to have very uncomfortable discussions with our children.
Gayshock!
My favorite part of the commercial are the lady’s facial contortions when confronted with “King and King”, a children’s fable about the magic of manly love. What’s cool is that “King and King” is an actual book.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t parenting all about having uncomfortable discussions with your kids? Explaining to them why some people have to sleep on the sidewalk, why some people are mentally deranged, why some people are racist? Isn’t that sort of your job?
But I love how this lady’s face freaks out in at least three different ways. Perfect casting!
My Work in Print
Year Zero
Available from Samuel French and Amazon.com
Cowboy Versus Samurai
Available from Samuel French and Amazon.comFor a complete list of books containing my work, please click here.
