text:
July 1, 2009
It's July 1st
59 comments:
- Tyler said...
... and this was written a few hours early, before Bouwmeester happened. 5 years/$6.68 mil for the Flames. And a couple people are happy about this.
Not a whole lot of places that a big, fast, good puck-moving D man won't fit in.
- July 1, 2009 at 12:47 AM
- Tyler said...
And that's pretty much that:
Hossa turns down 10 year deal from Wings.
"A source compared the length of the deal to the deals Johan Franzen and Henrik Zetterberg signed. It's believed the deal-breaker was the average salary which fell between $3.75 million and $4 million."
Good news for the "pro Hudler" campaign, one would suppose.
- July 1, 2009 at 1:34 AM
- cmk said...
And I still say to Hossa: "Glad to have known ya! Good luck where ever you wind up." I think the Wings will be better off not having another huge salary to worry about. This last season was brutal when players became injured for short periods of time and no one could be called up from GR. This whole thing will be very interesting to watch play out.
- July 1, 2009 at 2:50 AM
- Tyler said...
From Khan:
"Holland made an offer to right wing Mikael Samuelsson, believed to be a slight increase from last season's $1.2 million salary. But Samuelsson is expected to explore the market and probably won't return."
I just shed a tear. Also, the Wings cut ties with McCarty and Downey.
Not surprised about Sammy though. This is his only chance at a cash grab so he needs to explore his options.
- July 1, 2009 at 2:58 AM
I wish Hossa the best - but it is better for him to be gone. No amount of candle lighting can overcome that bad mojo.
Mr. McCarty - I will miss you. May you have a wonderful life of sobriety with your family and friends. I think I will eat a turtle sundae today in your honor.
- July 1, 2009 at 9:13 AM
I can't wait for Samuelsson to get a $4M deal from an idiot team and spend more time stewing in the penalty box than pooping in the goal box. The guy deserves his payday, but he's not worth more to the Wings than what he got paid last year.
- July 1, 2009 at 9:36 AM
- Dave said...
I think Allan Muir from SI has the right idea. I am pretty sure Helmer is expected to make the team this year but I also wouldn't mind seeing Gator spend most of the season in Detroit and Kindl get regular call-ups. That'd be tough to do if Hossa re-upped with Detroit.
- July 1, 2009 at 10:29 AM
I'd officially like to invite everyone to join the SAVE HUDS! campaign
For only about $2mil/year you can help save a Hudler and bring unbridled exuberance and streaky scoring to our lives for a few more years.
- July 1, 2009 at 10:52 AM
- Tyler said...
Sedin gals staying in Vancouver:
"The Sedin twins are staying in Vancouver. The Vancouver Canucks re-signed Daniel and Henrik to five-year deals averaging $6.1 million, sources tell Sportsnet."
Also, Dany Heatley is weird.
- July 1, 2009 at 11:35 AM
$6.1 each is just about perfect for the Sedins in Vancouver. Their numbers get overlooked a bunch, but considering it's Vancouver we're talking, the team hasn't earned a discount. They'd be worth about $5-5.5 in Detroit.
- July 1, 2009 at 11:38 AM
- Tyler said...
A somewhat depressing look at how nobody wants to go to Edmonton.
I don't know. Easy for a schlub like me to say, but everything else being equal, I'd value playing in a place where the people really care about their team over playing in a night-life-y type of city.
- July 1, 2009 at 11:43 AM
- Tyler said...
Yeah that's a pretty good deal for the twins. I still find it strange how they're like one entity ... I feel like I don't even know them as individual hockey players.
- July 1, 2009 at 11:53 AM
Mattias Ohlund is the Eastern Conference's problem now. $3.75m cap hit for Tampa Bay is actually surprisingly good for a team that loves to overspend on guys.
- July 1, 2009 at 12:32 PM
- Cameron Kittle said...
Hossa is supposedly close to signing with Chicago, if TSN is to be believed.
- July 1, 2009 at 12:46 PM
- Tyler said...
"Hossa is supposedly close to signing with Chicago, if TSN is to be believed."
- July 1, 2009 at 12:52 PM
- Tyler said...
"Mattias Ohlund is the Eastern Conference's problem now. $3.75m cap hit for Tampa Bay is actually surprisingly good for a team that loves to overspend on guys."
Yeah, it's even downright surprising. They should be the ones making trades for Scott Gomez.
Hossa to the Hawks has me seriously rattled.
- July 1, 2009 at 12:58 PM
- Cameron Kittle said...
Deep breaths Tyler...the Chief tweets that some guy chollis tweeted that some guy kausatoday tweeted that the somebody on NHL Live said the Wings are not out of the picture for Hossa.
Note to self: never use tweet as a verb more than once in a sentence. Sounds dumber than Samuelsson talking.
- July 1, 2009 at 1:05 PM
- Tyler said...
Speaking of Sammy: it should be mandated that wherever he ends up, the running "poop in a box" joke must follow him to a blog of that team. It probably would require some explaining, though.
- July 1, 2009 at 1:18 PM
- Brent said...
Oh Sammy. We'll miss your comic relief.
- July 1, 2009 at 1:19 PM
- Brent said...
Hossa talking to Bruins.
Better than Chi
- July 1, 2009 at 1:29 PM
- Tyler said...
Definitely better than Chicago. Anywhere but there. My gut has told me the Habs this whole time, although, my gut always tells me people are going to Montreal since they have eleventy million $$ in cap space.
- July 1, 2009 at 1:31 PM
- Cameron Kittle said...
Meh. Depends on your definition of better. I live in New England and I'm not shy about my colors, so I'd never hear the end of it. Uncool.
- July 1, 2009 at 1:32 PM
- Tyler said...
@ Cam:
That's the benefit of reppin' South Lansing. Any word on the improvement in Brady's knee? I'm kidding. But really, that must be annoying.
- July 1, 2009 at 1:34 PM
- Cameron Kittle said...
Guy from TheFourthPeriod saying the Hawks have signed Hossa. He's just waiting on confirmation.
I don't even know what to think.
- July 1, 2009 at 1:50 PM
- Brent said...
"TSN: Dreger sources say Hossa deal to #Blackhawks is done"
- July 1, 2009 at 1:52 PM
- Cameron Kittle said...
LeBrun reports that the Hossa deal is 12 years, $5.2 million per.
My reaction: Really? That's it? He turned down 10 at $4 mil per with the WINGS for 12/5.2 with the HAWKS?
Life just doesn't make any sense anymore.
- July 1, 2009 at 2:04 PM
Hossa in Chitown. Hmmmmm. Kind of brings a new reason to renew my love/hate relationship with Chicago. Love the town. Love the Hawks jerseys, but not so much that team. I see some Chicago Amtrak trips in my future.
- July 1, 2009 at 2:05 PM
- Cameron Kittle said...
This feels like the Fedorov deal to Anaheim all over again.
- July 1, 2009 at 2:05 PM
That damn deal makes it impossible to hate Hossa for signing this. He got to go to a contender and he got a long-term deal. That's exactly what he said he wanted all along. There are very few players I could get mad at for taking a deal like that, Hossa's not one of them.
All I can hope is that the cap situation blows up in Chicago's face and they lose Kane and/or Toews in the backlash.
- July 1, 2009 at 2:15 PM
- Cameron Kittle said...
I'm not mad about Hossa signing with ChiCity, but I'm absolutely befuddled that he only chose $1.2 million more per year than the Wings' contract.
Guess he didn't like Detroit as much as let on during the year. Oh well.
- July 1, 2009 at 2:16 PM
Got to admit - the Chicago/Detroit rivalry just got turned up a notch.
I sure wish he would have gone somewhere else. I have a gut feeling that he will haunt us in Chicago. I take back that "I wish him well" crap.
- July 1, 2009 at 2:22 PM
Kopecky to Chicago too. I had a hunch the kid would follow Hossa around like a lost puppy.
- July 1, 2009 at 2:27 PM
- Dave said...
LA would have been best if Hossa didn't re-up in Detroit. They are up and coming but not as much of a threat as the Hawks. Instead the Hawks continue their attempt to become West Detroit. Bastards.
- July 1, 2009 at 2:45 PM
- Tyler said...
Wow. This is what happens when you leave the computer for an hour on July 1st. Hossa is a Hawk.
I agree: I have no idea what to think.
- July 1, 2009 at 2:49 PM
- Tyler said...
KOPECKY TOO??? What do we do NOW???
- July 1, 2009 at 2:52 PM
- Tyler said...
Whoa, wait a minute.... his cap hit is only 5.2 per? It was worth it to him to spurn two hockey-mad cities in two seasons -- this time to an arch division rival over 12 YEARS -- for only like a million-ish more? I guess. I can't justify blowing up over him leaving. But for that number, to that team ..... eesh
- July 1, 2009 at 2:55 PM
- Cameron Kittle said...
Exactly my question, Tyler. No idea how that number makes the move worth it.
- July 1, 2009 at 3:00 PM
- Tyler said...
"All I can hope is that the cap situation blows up in Chicago's face and they lose Kane and/or Toews in the backlash."
It would seem like that is imminent. They have 9 players locked up in 2010, and that doesn't include Kane and Abe.
Conk to the Blues. Fuck that. I wanted to root for the guy (ok I still will).
- July 1, 2009 at 3:01 PM
- Tyler said...
"Exactly my question, Tyler. No idea how that number makes the move worth it."
I don't know how to ask this without sounding like an ignorant hick, but do you think his European-ness has to do with it? I mean, like, do you think he doesn't have a total grasp of what a Detroit-to-Chicago jump (in any sport) really means? Or maybe he gets a sick pleasure out of doing this.
- July 1, 2009 at 3:03 PM
- Tyler said...
Oh yeah, I meant to say that Chicago has 9 players locked up for about 35 million .... and that doesn't include Kane and Abe.
- July 1, 2009 at 3:04 PM
- Tyler said...
Niederelbow is back with the Ducks. So yeah, we still have that going for us.
- July 1, 2009 at 3:14 PM
- Tyler said...
I think nhlnumbers.com has exploded.
- July 1, 2009 at 3:17 PM
- Tyler said...
Just a thought: Hossa and Havlat were pretty much a wash points-per-game wise this season, given the Hawks lose Hossa.
Shut up, I'm trying to make myself feel better.
- July 1, 2009 at 3:25 PM
- Tyler said...
Jesus Christ -- I meant "given the Hawks lose HAVLAT".
Fuck this day.
- July 1, 2009 at 3:25 PM
- cmk said...
I'm late to this party and the first fricking thing I see is that Hossa signed with Chicago. ACK!!! This will take some time to process. I don't think I will be wishing him well, after all.
- July 1, 2009 at 3:28 PM
- Tyler said...
I won't judge you Cmk.
- July 1, 2009 at 3:30 PM
The worst part is knowing that there won't be a signing out of Detroit today. We need a depth, grit guy and those guys never get signed on day one.
So how long before the Bouwmeester signing makes Calgary the trendy pick out of the west this year?
- July 1, 2009 at 3:33 PM
- Tyler said...
"So how long before the Bouwmeester signing makes Calgary the trendy pick out of the west this year?"
You mean you aren't of that opinion already? 79-3 record, I predict.
I wish I could remember know, but somewhere a Flames blog/board made the claim that they now had the best D corps in the league. I'll still take ours.
- July 1, 2009 at 3:36 PM
Yeah, "sloppy-seconds" Phaneuf and Bouwmeester > The Perfect Human and Raffy. I know you can't see this, but I'm making the most dismissive wanking motion anybody has ever seen.
I've always kind of liked Bouwmeester because he has the exact same birthday as my wife. The terms of the deal is going to be make-or-break for him though. He's going to have to play very well to earn Brian Campbell money.
- July 1, 2009 at 3:49 PM
- Chris said...
Toews is a Wing in 2010, you heard it here first. FUCK CHICAGO.
Congrats ladies and gentlemen, we have a rivalry.
- July 1, 2009 at 4:04 PM
I blame Probert. Ungrateful bastard.
- July 1, 2009 at 4:16 PM
- Tyler said...
Khabibulin to ....
the Oilers. 4/$15mil.
- July 1, 2009 at 4:23 PM
Laperriere goes to Philly. He was the depth/grit guy I wanted. Meanwhile, the Flyers lose even more leeway in the right to complain about how many penalty minutes they take as a team.
- July 1, 2009 at 4:49 PM
- Tyler said...
Knuble to the Caps ... Hal Gill to the Habs (I KNEW IT).
I might be signing off for a while. Final exam tonight. Don't let anything major happen 'til I get back.
- July 1, 2009 at 5:26 PM
- Tyler said...
Good headline:
- July 1, 2009 at 5:34 PM
- Tyler said...
Camilleri to the Habs (I KNEW IT AGAIN). Okay, so the Flames will be 75-7 this year.
Komiserik to the Leafs. No, I don't care about the spelling of these names.
Now the Puck Daddy live chat thing has teased us with "the Oilers are going to make an announcement very soon" regarding signings.
- July 1, 2009 at 6:12 PM
- Tyler said...
Wing killer Sullivan sticking with Nashville for 3.75$ over 2 years(via Dreger ... got sick of Blogger's inconvenient linking capabilities ... we need a new site).
- July 1, 2009 at 6:17 PM
- Brent said...
Word from TSN that CBJ and Nash aren't on the same page.
- July 2, 2009 at 2:13 PM
- Brent said...
Why Havlat was mad from Puck Daddy via Allan Walsh's Twitter.
"Havlat received multi year offers from several teams...except Chicago. After 3 months of negotiating a long term contract, Chicago would not offer anything more than a 1 year deal. So much for taking care of the team MVP."
- July 2, 2009 at 2:42 PM


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subset: commoncrawl


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The reason for today's post? I am cleaning out my freezer and trying to use up the dozens of bags of flour that I accumulated when I was part of the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge. This bread recipe has become hubby's new favorite and I make it at least once a week. The basic recipe calls for All Purpose flour, but in the interest of using my specialty flours, I do substitute some of the AP with white whole wheat flour, regular whole wheat flour, and even Sir Lancelot flour. This post is not really intended to be a tutorial, but rather a permanent recipe card for me so I can finally toss the nasty sticky note with the handwritten recipe.
2 cups flour (about 8 1/2 ounces) I used half Sir Lancelot and half white whole wheat flour for this loaf
1/4 tsp instant yeast
1 cup (8 ounces) room temperature water
Whisk together the flour and yeast in the bowl of stand mixer. Add water and stir well to combine. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rest on counter overnight (at least 12 hours)
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1 1/2 tsp salt
2 TBSP sugar
1 TBSP vital wheat gluten
2 tsp instant yeast
1/2 cup milk (room temperature)
1/4 cup (4 TBSP) shortening, cut into pieces (6-8)
In medium bowl, whisk 2 cups of the flour with the salt, sugar and wheat gluten. Set the remaining 1/2 cup of flour aside.
Add the milk to the starter and whisk to combine. Add the yeast and whisk to combine. Add the flour/salt/sugar mixture and stir to combine.
Attach dough hook to mixer and start to knead dough.. Gradually add in the shortening and then as much of the remaining flour as needed. Knead by machine for about 6 minutes.
Spray large bowl with cooking spray. Transfer dough to bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, gently deflating dough about halfway through rise time.
Cover large baking sheet with parchment paper. Spray with cooking spray and sprinkle with cornmeal or semolina flour.
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Just wanted to remind everyone that we are recording episode 20 live on Saturday, November 27th, 4 PM CST on Ustream. Click the link to Ustream to go to our channel, and sign up for a free account (if you don't already have one) so we know who we are talking to in the chat room! So, this Thanksgiving, after you have feasted on Thursday and shopped all day Friday – spend a relaxing Saturday afternoon with us as we record our 20th episode of Geeks in Running Shoes which will include our first ever giveaway (Details) – thanks to the fine folks over at Zensah. They will be providing give-aways for the live show, so make sure you tune in! Also, we will be making a special announcement pertaining to Episode 21. Be there!
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1. New purpose for plannerlove.com
Douglas Johnston invited me to join him on the D.I.Y. Planner site. He totally, totally rocks. I'll learn much more and help many more as part of something like that than on my own, and it's an awesome opportunity to learn from others. =) I'm putting drafts of organizer-related articles up on plannerlove.com for now, but I'm working on something else for the site on my computer. Instead of striking it out on my own as a productivity blogger, I'm going to make plannerlove.com a fantastic resource for all of you planner-el fans out there... =)
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text: I wish I had dreams like that, Percy. The last dream I can remember clearly involved Mama Fratelli from The Goonies. It was terrifying...The imagery makes me think of a cool Radiohead music video or something. Very vivid. I like it. I have a couple of fag women I go hunting with. - Altoid


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A new study has found that, when it comes to Belfast men, it may not be how much alcohol you drink that matters, but how you drink it. The research, published in the British Medical Journal compared the drinking habits of middle-aged men in Belfast with their peers in France. It found that although men in Belfast and France drink the same amount each week, Northern Irish drinkers suffer higher incidences of heart disease.
(Source: BBC News)
An officer who fired a shot during a street disturbance in Portadown, Co.Armagh, is to be questioned by the Police Ombudsman's Office. Nobody was injured when police were called to deal with the trouble in the town's Obins Street area. Two men, aged 51 and 36 were arrested. The Police Service of Northern Ireland said the incident was being investigated by the ombudsman in line with normal protocols.
(Source: Belfast Telegraph)
An 88-year-old man recovering from a stroke was confronted in his Carlow home by three masked men demanding cash. The plucky pensioner, who lives in Highfield, Carlow, held his own against the ruthless thieves, who took €100 cash from his wallet and his watch. However, despite the aggressive demands of the thieves, the elderly man refused to give the number of his laser card or the keys to his son's car, which was parked outside.
(Source: The Carlow Nationalist)
The Quinn family are not going away... they are here to stay, according to Sean Quinn when he was speaking at the Ulster GAA Writers Awards (UGAAWA) annual awards banquet in the Slieve Russell Hotel last Friday week. "As regards the Quinn Group... we had a tough year," said Mr. Quinn. "A lot of people had a tough year but at the end of the day, when the going gets tough, the tough gets going," he said.
(Source: The Angle Celt)
A woman had a lucky escape last Friday when her car crashed through a level crossing just seconds before a commuter train was scheduled to pass. The incident occurred around 10.45am at the automated rail-crossing at Caherdaly, just 500 metres from the village of Ardrahan on the main Ennis to Galway N18 road. Her car ploughed through the red-and-white aluminium gates, ripping the barriers off either side of the crossing.
(Source: The Clare People)
An army bomb disposal team organised a controlled explosion on an unstable container of picric acid at the Bovine Blood Testing Laboratory on the Model Farm Road last Tuesday evening. The disposal team was called in after one jar of the acid, which is commonly used in explosives and in ammunition, crystallised and became dangerous. A lab technician in the Bovine Blood Testing Laboratory, which is part of the Department of Agriculture offices, called the local gardai, who in turn contacted the bomb disposal team.
Source: (Cork Independent)
A bid for £650,000 for an open air cinema screen to show major cultural and sporting events in Londonderry during the 2012 Olympiad has been submitted by Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure (DCAL) Nelson McCausland. The exciting plans will involve the erection of a 25 square metres video display with a computer controlled playout and audio system in one of the city's prominent public spaces.
(Source: Lononderry Sentinel)
A group of subcontractors who say they are owed €900,000 since an apartment development was taken over by a receiver are planning a public protest at the development's auction this week. The contractors are owed the money for work they carried out for Ballybofey company Dunnion Construction on a development of apartments in Ballybofey. Navenny Developments, which built the complex, went into receivership in July and 47 apartments are to be auctioned on behalf of Ulster Bank by receiver Patrick McDermott of Patrick McDermott & Co Chartered Accountants.
(Source: Donegal Democrat)
A unique stamp collection which belonged to a County Down aristocrat has sold for more than £3m at auction. A total of £3,045,924 was raised as Lady Mairi Bury's unique 19th century postage stamps went under the hammer at Sotheby's in London. The final figure significantly exceeded pre-sale expectations of £2.6m. Lady Bury's collection of King Edward VII stamps was the top selling lot at the auction. It fetched £66,000, more than three times its guide price
(Source: BBC News)
A Dublin man found storing heroin valued at almost €200,000 following a garda investigation into gang related drug dealing has been given a 10-year sentence. Gardai also found €5,000 in cash, weighing scales, a stun gun and bullet proof vest. Christopher Conroy (25), with an address at Redmonds Court, Kilbarrack, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of the drugs for sale or supply at Melrose Park, Kinsealy, on October 21, 2008.
(Source: Evening Herald)


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School bus driver caught texting, officials sayUPDATED 7:04 AM EST Mar 08, 2013
A man who works as a school bus driver in Seminole County, Fla., may face disciplinary action after he was caught texting while driving for the second time.
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Amazon Misses Earnings View, and Shares Rise Regardless
Amazon shares are higher in late trading, even after the online retailer reported earnings that missed Street views and fell from a year ago, and projected first-quarter sales below Street consensus.
Net income fell 45% to $97 million, or 21 cents a share, down from $177 million, or 38 cents a share, a year ago. Street consensus was for EPS of 27 cents. Sales were up 22% to $21.27 billion, from $17.43 billion a year ago. That, too, missed Street views of $22.26 billion.
For the year, the company reported a loss of $39 million, or 9 cents a share, compared to net income of $631 million, or $1.37 a share, in 2011. Incidentally, that means the company doesn't actually have a trailing-12-months price-to-earnings ratio, since there were no earnings for the past 12 months.
For some reason, though, that isn't bothering investors. Nor is the earnings miss. Nor is the sliding profit. Nor is the light outlook. Shares were up as much as 11% in late trading, and are more recently up 9.5% at $285.
There was one positive, as Dow Jones' George Stahl pointed out: margins rose.
On first look, there isn't a ton to like in Amazon's fourth-quarter report. Sales growth slowed and earnings fell 45%, but one thing easing Amazon investors was an improvement in the company's operating margin. Amazon said its margins rose to 1.9% in the fourth-quarter, not great by many companies' estimates, but better than Amazon's negative 0.2% in the third-quarter and the best quarter for the company since the second-quarter of 2011. In general, investors would rather see less spending by Amazon and more profits.
Still, 1.9% is razor thin.
The company said it expects first-quarter sales to rise between 14-26%, to somewhere between $15-16.6 billion. Street consensus for first-quarter sales is $16.86 billion. It projected operating income anywhere between a loss of $285 million and profit of $65 million. In last year's first-quarter, operating income was $192 million.
The company is hosting a conference call at 5 p.m. ET.


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SAN JOSE -- Until Thursday, Mario Enrique Cuestas stood out in the San Jose Fire Department for all the right reasons.
He was a leader within the rank-and-file and, as the department's outreach director, its primary link to residents. He sang the national anthem at community events on multiple occasions, and also lent his voice to the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Jose.
Cuestas was confident enough to discuss publicly how in middle age he revealed to fellow firefighters he is gay, and how their acceptance helped fortify the department.
It's why his arrest Thursday -- on allegations that he was giving methamphetamine to and having sex with an underage teen -- has been so earth-rattling for his colleagues and the greater community.
News of the arrest gradually spread at SJFD late Thursday, with many expressing confusion, anger and disappointment, Deputy Chief Robert Sapien said.
"The charges and the arrest are shocking to me and to all firefighters right now. Everyone feels horrible about that," said Sapien, the president of the firefighters' union. "To have that compounded by having a firefighter associated with those crimes is difficult. Clearly the behaviors are not in line with what we're here to do, which is to help people."
Agents from the Santa Clara County Specialized Enforcement Team -- a state-run squad assembled from local police agencies -- went to fire administration headquarters Thursday and quietly took Cuestas, 53, into custody before searching his office for evidence.
He was booked into the Santa Clara County jail and is being held without bail on suspicion of possessing and selling methamphetamine, providing narcotics to a minor, child molestation and oral copulation with a minor. He is being held in protective custody and declined a jail interview.
Friday morning, at Cuestas' San Lorenzo home where he lives with his parents, his father, Mario Sr., said police came to his front door Thursday to inform him about the arrest and prospective charges.
"It came as a shock to us," the father said.
He had little else to say beyond asserting he did not believe the allegations against his son, who has lived with him and his wife at the well-kept, single-story suburban home for about a year.
Cuestas has been with the fire department about 20 years, primarily as a fire engineer and driver and for some time as a fire investigator. He took on highly visible tasks, such as organizing Sept. 11, 2001 commemorations. In 2007 he helped lead an open-air drill at San Jose's Municipal Stadium in which first responders trained for a potential biological weapon attack. He was also a volunteer for several causes and organizations, including a junior sports camp.
In October 2011, Cuestas appeared on an episode of "Outlook Video," a gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender monthly public access cable talk show, where he was one of three South Bay firefighters who discussed being openly gay.
Cuestas spoke about being accepted by his colleagues upon coming out. He also said he was previously married with children, including a son with aims to follow in his father's firefighting footsteps.
"When I first came out it was a difficult step to take," Cuestas said on the program. "It starts by looking at yourself in the mirror, whether at home or at work, and just realize this is who I am. I am gay. This is who I am and they have to accept me."
His stature as a vocal, professional, hardworking firefighter eventually grew to a level where his support for local political candidates was touted in their lists of endorsements.
At the time of his arrest, Cuestas was settling into a new role heading the department's office of public outreach, the liaison to schools and community and church organizations. Sapien said the behavior described in the criminal accusations "seems out of character for the person that we know." But he said the bottom line "is the behaviors we saw described in the charges are completely unacceptable. We never want that kind of behavior related to anyone with the fire department."
Sapien said he does not expect the firefighters' union to fund a defense attorney for Cuestas, who has been placed on unpaid administrative leave.
A drug-related tip to the Santa Clara task force -- which is overseen by the California Department of Justice -- sparked a two-month investigation that ended with Cuestas' arrest, DOJ spokeswoman Michelle Gregory said.
She added while Cuestas' online activity was examined by agents, it does not appear he met his alleged victim, a 17-year-old boy, over the Internet. Agents conducted an undercover sting that bolstered allegations Cuestas gave meth to and engaged in sexual acts with the boy, Gregory said.
After his arrest, agents searched his office at the fire department where they confiscated a computer hard drive among other items. Gregory said they also searched his home. It was not immediately clear how Cuestas acquired the drugs.
Staff writer Natalie Alund contributed to this report. Contact Robert Salonga at firstname.lastname@example.com. Contact Mark Gomez at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Considering today's Tour news, I think I'd paint a Yellow Jersey on this mailbox, paint the flag to look like a syringe, and with photos of Ricardo Ricco coming out the back.
2 Comments
Is this in Santa Barbara? Mountain Drive?
[The site](http://sblom.com/mailbox/) it was found on doesn't disclose where exactly. Scroll down the page to find it.


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MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Jan. 30, 2012 – Just in time for Ducks Unlimited's 75th anniversary on Sunday, President Barack Obama issued a special message to DU and its supporters.
In the letter sent on Jan. 27, President Obama recognized the importance of waterfowl, naming them "among our Nation's most precious treasures." He also emphasized our obligation to be stewards of their habitats.
Since its founding in 1937, DU has conserved, restored and protected more than 12 million acres of wetlands habitat in North America. This habitat is critical to the waterfowl and wildlife that dependent upon it for survival, but its impact goes well beyond that, to public and environmental health.
"By working to conserve, restore and manage wetlands and grasslands across our country, we can help improve the health of our environment and protect the resources so vital to the survival of countless creatures," President Obama wrote.
DU's 75th anniversary celebration began late last week, with the kick-off gala still to come on Feb. 2 in New York City. This letter from the White House is another strong reminder of DU's conservation achievements on the national—and continental—stage.
"We are proud to spend this year celebrating a great moment in DU's history, and we thank President Obama for recognizing DU's efforts and the impact we've made on America's landscape," said Dale Hall, CEO of Ducks Unlimited. "There is still much to be done to keep our wetlands thriving and we will continue working toward our conservation mission with the support of the president, our members of Congress, partners, supporters and staff across the country."
The president concluded his letter with words of support for DU's conservation mission now and in the future. "As you reflect on Ducks Unlimited's accomplishments over the last 75 years, I hope you take pride in your commitment to ensuring America's wildlife thrives for generations to come," he said.
A special 75th anniversary section of the DU website, located at http://www.ducks.org/75, provides a comprehensive chronicling of the organization's conservation legacy. The site features an interactive timeline of DU's history, a schedule of anniversary events to be held this year and special video messages from DU's partners and supporters, as well as other exclusive updates to come throughout 2012.
Read the full text of the president's letter to Ducks Unlimited (PDF)
Ducks Unlimited is the world's largest nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving North America's continually disappearing waterfowl habitats. Established in 1937, DU is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, with special events, projects and promotions across the continent. Ducks Unlimited has conserved more than 12 million acres thanks to contributions from more than a million supporters across the continent. Guided by science and dedicated to program efficiency, DU works toward the vision of wetlands sufficient to fill the skies with waterfowl today, tomorrow and forever.
Emily Havens
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President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp Act into law.
First duck stamp, designed by Pulitzer-prize winning editorial cartoonist, Jay N. "Ding" Darling, issued.
Prairie drought peaks.


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The Houston Rockets Plead Linsanity
To read some accounts, Jeremy Lin's ascent through the NBA was less a high point of New York basketball than it was a pax romana, a beautiful, peaceful era where no wrong was done and everything felt amazing all of the time. With the way the banged-up Knicks are playing, it's hard to imagine those former highs being hit any time soon. But on Thursday night, a subtler knife was twist: Finally, it seems like Lin is better off without the Knicks.
Consider the growing pains of his debut last season with the Houston Rockets, who pulled off a coup when they were able to steal away Lin with a weirdly structured contract that the Knicks declined to match. His numbers were down across the board, and he struggled to co-exist with bearded, ball-dominating teammate James Harden. This year, things are different: He's better near the basket and shooting a blistering percentage from beyond the arc, which have helped him to seem less a basketball novelty and more of a real factor on a team that includes legitimate powers like Harden and Dwight Howard.
His second return to Madison Square Garden on Thursday night was less star-studded than his first, but no less effective: The Rockets got the win when Carmelo Anthony's potentially game-winning shot was waved off, and Lin himself chipped in 21 points with a solid all-around effort. "It wasn't Linsanity, not on the court, not in the once-delirious stands," writes Sports on Earth's Howard Megdal. "It was just winning basketball, keyed by an emerging star in Lin." (More amusing, Megdal also writes that Lin's newfound confidence and shooting stroke this season is "like Happy Gilmore just learned to putt.")
Meanwhile, the Knicks are treating Lin like a formerly dweeby classmate who grew up to fund a billion-dollar startup: with no special treatment and perhaps a hint of bitterness. The Star-Ledger's Dave D'Alessandro notes, "[Mike Woodson] wasn't in the mood to talk about Lin ('We've moved on,' was how he reacted to a follow-up), because he had other issues to deal with — not the least of which is how can you lose when you get 69 points combined from Melo and Bargnani?" Beyond that is the less resolvable question of how the Knicks can expect to put more pieces next to Carmelo Anthony, who's never been the easiest superstar to center a franchise's winning potential around. If they continue struggling, who knows what'll happen? A rumored trade of fan favorite Iman Shumpert was received as positively as a sock of quarters to the face. "It will set off another series of desperate, nonsensical moves aimed at achieving an outcome of dubious value to the supposed goal of winning a championship – this time, keeping Anthony from turning down their $129 million max offer after the season," Ken Berger writes for CBS Sports. "All the while, Lin continues to grow and have fun playing the game that gave him the platform to surprise himself and inspire the basketball world two seasons ago." Lin is just 25, and his Rockets undoubtedly show more promise. He's moved on for the better, while the Knicks are still figuring it out.
* * *
Playing word association with Hunter S. Thompson conjures up a few distinct images—the desert, Johnny Depp, Las Vegas, ether-soaked fever dreams—but it's incredibly easy to forget that for all his personal oddities, Thompson had some relatively mundane pursuits, too: He was a sportswriter. Not in the obvious way of regurgitating box scores into a packaged narratives, but someone who could bring the same verve and bile when discussing the Kentucky Derby—the site of one of his most famous pieces—as he could when covering, say, Richard Nixon. What's even easier to forget is that later in his life, Thompson was hired by none other than ESPN to contribute columns for their then fledging Page 2 website—a recurring assignment that would be his most public forum before his eventually self-inflicted death. (Alas, he never made an appearance as a talking head on "Sportscenter," but wouldn't that have been interesting.) Over at the Los Angeles Review of Books, Chris Collision discusses Thompson's brushes with sportswriting and breaks down how he was able to adapt his trademark style toward the lower stakes discussion of athletic competition. For all the public perception of Thompson as a counterculture crank, he was pretty good at breaking down this essentially American pursuit. (Indeed, a love of football is one of the few things he had in common with Nixon.)
"This is a conception fueled by a movie, as much as anything: while 1998′s version of 'Fear and Loathing' surely captured the grotesquerie and cruelty in Thompson's work, it missed both the form: ferocious satire — photographing people with hideous hair through weird lenses doesn't count as satire — and the content: frantic, spasming anger," Collision writes. "Not just a frenzied adrenaline junkie and alteration enthusiast, Thompson was a high-volume crime-scene sketch artist, dashing off caricature after caricature of the professionalized violence that defined the exercise of American political power in his time, a time wrecked by racism, class division, war, and a permanent bureaucracy seemingly benefiting from these awful agents. Such were the eyes, and this the pen, that he brought to the task of writing about sports, too. A writer like Thompson, attuned to the violent clashes and cheap cruelties of America, could hardly avoid sports, or escape writing about them."
* * *
Kids, man. Kids with their Snapchat and their selfies and their Katy Perry and their "Pretty Little Liars" and their Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill 'Em All—who can understand anything about kids, and the way they act? That was some of the consensus reaction to the bizarre story a few months ago that former NFL player Brian Holloway's home in upstate New York had been ransacked by a group of marauding teenagers, who'd broken in and decided to stage the rager of a century. Windows were smashed, walls were spray painted, a thick paste of beer and God knows what else was smeared throughout the house: It was an explosive night, according to all the photographs and Tweets posted by partygoers celebrating the event. After the news broke, Holloway decided to not press charges but instead call upon those easily identified teens—again, they'd posted their illegal activities on social media—to turn their wayward souls around and help him clean up the house. He was praised for this moment of kindness and understanding, but it might have not been that simple. Grantland's Jay Caspian Kang spent some time digging into the unreported aspects, and came away with a much more complicated picture: The kids might not have done that much damage, and Holloway might've been leveraging the publicity to benefit himself and amend some of the more precarious situations in his life. In Holloway himself, he finds a multi-faceted personality capable of coming off one way or the other at a moment's notice—enough, he says, to reconsider some of those well reported details with a more skeptical eye.
"There are two stories about the party in Stephentown. The first, the one we already know, stars an accomplished, morally stout man who took a stand against a horde of teenagers whose minds had been destroyed by Molly and social media," he writes. "But that redemption saga holds up for about as long as a quick, three-minute segment on the news or a newspaper column about these goddamn kids these days. Prod just a little bit more, even gently, and Brian Holloway's quest to save 300 lives starts to fall apart. The second story about the party in Stephentown is worse."
Found a good column from the world of sports? Don't keep it to yourself — write to us at firstname.lastname@example.com and we'll consider your find for inclusion in the Daily Fix. You can email Jeremy at email@example.com.


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Shannon Thomas and Chris Clark were honored with a wedding shower on Feb. 24. Pictured are, from left, Mary Campbell, the groom's grandmother; Janet Clark, the groom's mother; Chris and Shannon; Vivian Thomas, the bride's mother; and Ruby Clark, the groom's grandmother. The couple will marry on Saturday, March 29 at Campbellsville University's Ransdell Chapel.
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From a QCAD user:
Is there any plugin or modification to QCAD that will allow resizing of Jpegs without using the scale tool.
I think I have read in posts that to suggest such a thing is wrong as QCAD is a design package not a graphics package.
However I work in a school where students are designing layouts for cutting out using a laser cutter. Using the scaling tool to resize graphics isn't ideal for them.


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Guild Wars 2 and Progression
Posted 25 November 2012 - 08:57 AM
Progression in Guild Wars 2 - What Happened?
Before we even begin talking about the current reactions of players in Guild Wars 2 in regards to progression, it's first necessary to consolidate information about what progression actually means. Progression in any MMORPG essentially consists of the growing and/or strengthening of a character over time, to improve their abilities and add a sense of advancement and, well, progress to the gameplay. It doesn't necessarily have to be becoming stronger in flatly numerical terms, but oftentimes that's what it amounts to. But since there's a thousand ideas of what progression should be in particular in Guild Wars 2, it's therefore a better idea to look to two other games that are closely related and often compared to Guild Wars 2: the original Guild Wars, and World of Warcraft.
Hopefully, by doing so, we can come to a nuanced conclusion that explains why players are upset about the current state of progression in Guild Wars 2, how it compares to other games, and what can be done about it going forwards.
World of Warcraft: Vertical Progression
Almost everyone that has experience in MMORPGs knows or has heard of World of Warcraft's approach to adding in progression. In World of Warcraft, if you aren't level grinding, you're gear grinding. An ever-increasing amount of numbers is what progression in World of Warcraft embodies, at its heart. Once you've spent three months gaining max level, you then spend three months gaining the best gear possible to end up grinding your way into the best raid groups, and be able to dominate the most in the PvP that exists - only to repeat the process in the next expansion.
This works spectacularly in World of Warcraft, because all of the most devoted players realize that advancements are going to be ephemeral and there will always be something new to work towards. And for the most part, it's pulled off flawlessly. For all of the game's faults, Blizzard did an incredile job at creating a very real sense of advancement and increasing power - indicated by the game surviving and being popular as long as it has. And it's also important to note that the "raid subculture" that's spawned here (usually) does not mind the carrot-on-a-stick marketing, because it's what keeps them interested.
At the same time, however, there's a small issue: this very heavy "cliff" of progression can scare away many less devoted fans of the game from experiencing much of the content if not balanced perfectly, and the raid subculture of these games is oftentimes loath to give up what they consider to be their hard-earned work. It functions as a "badge" for them that they worked to get there. But this leads to two problems: one, there can often be a great deal of animosity between them and more casual players, since the hardcore players feel the casuals want the gear they worked for, without working for it. Second, if by any occasion they find themselves dissatisfied with the game, they're very unwilling to leave all of their virtual belongings behind - it's like abandoning your Purple Heart and going to another battlefield to earn it all over again. Yes it's an honor, and yes you're damn proud of it, but would you really earn it all over again?
And it's also important to note that in many cases, no, they wouldn't. I think this is a fairly big reason why many so-called "WoW clones" fail - simply because they can't attract the hardcore fanbase in quite the same way, or in the same numbers, that WoW did. But that's besides the point.
Guild Wars: Lateral Progression
Here's where it gets interesting.
In comparison to World of Warcraft, where progression was much like scaling a cliff, in Guild Wars 1 progression was much more akin to a zone of influence. After the very short grind of getting your character to max level and getting the best armor you could (which got even shorter after the release of Factions), your character would never get "better" in terms of stats. However, there was still a sense of progression because even if the digits on your health bar didn't increase, what you could do with the stats did.
There were thousands of skills in Guild Wars, all of which were usable by any character and all of which had to be gained slowly but surely. There was always a sense of achievement in earning another skill, even if you'd never use it, because the scope of what you could do and what you could accomplish had broadened. And by adding in various prestigious armor tiers that cost huge amounts of platinum to buy, ArenaNet was able to lure in many subsectors of the hardcore crowd as well by giving them an incentive to work for a "badge," too.
In many ways this was an ingenious solution to progression. Casuals could still get by with more limited options; hardcore players looked way better and had a lot more skills on their fingertips but still were on a broadly equal playing field. And since no new "tiers" of progression were added, yet more skills and armor sets were, both casuals and hardcores were pleased, avoiding the issues with the vertical progression system entirely. Even the storyline did this very well, since completing quests and missions ended up unlocking new areas in PvE to explore, and the areas were just hard enough to give a very real sense of progression without alienating players.
This even worked wonders in the PvP metagame! Even though both casuals and hardcore players had the exact same tools at their disposal, additional familiarity with what skills did could greatly aid hardcore players, and they would be better able to use their own options as well - thus leading to a relatively skill-based, strategic PvP system where fights were often fluid and required a large amount of clever tactics to win.
Guild Wars 1 wasn't a perfect game by any means: skill imbalance lead to the PvP often being lead by a hugely dedicated "meta" who figured out the most imbalanced and powerful builds, before being countered by another equally imbalanced build; the PvE content was oftentimes a bit repetitive (especially in regards to title grinding) and got way worse after both heroes and some of the more infamous PvE builds; and some of the classes, especially Dervishes and Paragons, got utterly shafted since they never got any skills to replace the ones they missed out on earlier. In many ways, it was a game with a fantastic concept and a quality of content just good enough to do it justice, even if it could be improved - and due to this all, it developed a "cult" of loyal players who utterly loved it.
Which leads into the third game...
Guild Wars 2: Progression?
Let's be very honest here.
In Guild Wars 2, after the slog to max level and obtaining all of your exotics, there isn't a whole lot left to do that leads to any discernible improvement to your character.
At least before the infamous Ascended patch, progression in Guild Wars 2 was generally unsatisfying and half-baked. The slog up to level 80 was somewhere inbetween the short breeze to get to level 20 in Guild Wars and the gigantic upwind gale to 60/70/80/85 of World of Warcraft; but afterwards, all you had to get was your Exotic items, which for most people was simply a weeks' worth of grinding in Cursed Shore. Class skills, which were once a huge thing in Guild Wars, are now relatively static and uninteresting: each class has an incredibly modest selection of weapon skills to choose from, coupled alongside three generally-situational utility skills, out of a pool of about 8 usable ones per class. All in all a character usually has access to most, if not all, of their decent options by level 50.
The issue with Guild Wars 2 is that the highly lateral progression of Guild Wars 1 was completely abandoned, and it wasn't replaced. Developers seemed to want players to invariably come to the conclusion that going towards a Legendary was an end-goal: but some players, myself among them, looked at the legendaries and paused before going what the hell is this? In spite of their hugely prestigious reputation, some of the legendaries looked ugly as sin: I wouldn't be caught dead using the Meteorlogicus on my Necromancer, for instance, and due to many of the "common" skins looking even better than some legendaries, many players didn't bother.
This has also affected the PvP poorly - as most or all choices ingame are so homogenous, there's not a huge amount of time before all players learn what all skills do, and due to the limited amount of tools at players' disposal, most PvP instances are or will become become very generic, consisting of the same few general builds ad infinitum, using the same tactics against each other, in the same arenas - because 70% of a fight in Guild Wars 2 is decided before the battle has even begun, and there are so few choices, everyone ends up with something pretty damn similar to everyone else.
So then the issue becomes both relatively obvious, and two-pronged: there is a lack of real progression at the endgame in Guild Wars 2, and the "badges of honor" don't appeal to a great deal of the playerbase. The latter is easily fixable, the former... not so much.
ArenaNet's response to this: add in Ascended items, and promise more Legendaries in the months to come.
Ascended Items
After the introduction of Ascended items, there has been a definite shift in terms of Guild Wars 2's progression philosophy, slanted towards the vertical school. Issue is, in its current state, this hasn't been executed terribly well.
A vertical progression scheme necessitates a "gear treadmill" a la the World of Warcraft example to sustain itself. In a vertical system there always has to be some drive forwards to keep getting more stats - the treadmill can't just slide off after a certain point. The endgame right now in Guild Wars 2 is an example of why this is: after the vertical treadmill is over, many players sit at the end and wonder what they're even working towards. However, be this as it may, Ascended items were a very poor misstep in even promoting vertical progression, as right now they require a very specific method of allocation that can and will annoy many casuals and WvW-centric players. Not to mention the Infusion slot, which is hideously expensive to fill and only affects PvErs - the least likely to be annoyed about Ascended items to begin with!
That aside - at the moment, all that Ascended items do is give a short extension of about 2-3 months on the current "progression wall" until many players start catching up, at which point it's back to square 1. And the new "badges" promised in more Legendary items do little to alleviate this, as 1) the players who already hugely wanted a Legendary have already got one, and 2) thus they're less likely to work towards yet another, leaving the people who were probably lukewarm on legendaries to begin with. If ArenaNet is truly dedicated to promoting a vertical progression system in Guild Wars 2, then almost by necessity, they will have to introduce another item tier after Ascended items.
So what are ArenaNet's options?
The Future of Vertical Progression
This is the reason why so many people are incensed by the Ascended items.
The future of Guild Wars 2 in terms of vertical progression would mean a focus on stronger gear, more grinding, and more dungeon content over other aspects of the game: but the gearless PvP in Guild Wars 2 is incompatible with this system as they aren't affected whatsoever by these changes - slightly alienating them despite ANet's insistence at making PvP an e-sport. At the same time, casual players - who came to Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 in droves to escape the gear treadmills in World of Warcraft and other similar MMORPGs - now find that their older progress is rendered obsolete as the wheels keep turning. And even the hardcores would be a bit miffed, due to ArenaNet's standard policy of punishing overgrinding - see diminishing returns in Guild Wars 1, and the continual rebalancing of loot, especially regarding tokens, in dungeons.
At the same time, the development team is rushed to create new content - much of which would likely be similarly buggy to the Southsun Cove event - but on the plus side, the new gear is trivial to create, as all it involves is modifying a few digits. The hardcore crowd and the dev team's sanity are the only real winners in this regard, but again - trying to cater heavily to the more hardcore crowd is usually a losing prospect, because if you've earned a Purple Heart you usually wouldn't start over and earn it again.
Not to say this future would be all bad - but it's certainly not what was promised.
The Future of Lateral Progression
Lateral progression isn't exactly what the developers promised before the game came out, but it's a hell of a lot closer.
An increase in focus on lateral progression would focus on new skills being developed for classes, an increase in the types of stats on gear rather than the amounts (think Apothecary's), older areas being retooled to be relevant even at level 80, more depth added to the PvP, and new game mechanics. This approach has its own faults too, of course - the dev team can't exactly fart out hundreds of skills in the matter of months without an immense amount of bugs, it may require complete changes to fundamental aspects of the game like the weapons system, it'd violate their statements saying they wanted to avoid the "feature bloat" in Guild Wars 1, new game mechanics could range from highly praised to widely reviled, and retooling of older areas may result in extremely unsteady progression if not done perfectly.
On the plus side, if it's done right, Guild Wars 2 could again reach Guild Wars 1's ideal of appealing to casuals, hardcores, and everything inbetween. If done wrong, Guild Wars 2 could become a buggy, broken, bloated mess filled with everything good and bad except players.
The real cause of the issue
None of this changes the fact that Guild Wars 2 was, for better or worse, released without a true progression philosophy, and thus it's not going to be optimized for either vertical or lateral progression. However, it's much easier to tweak a few numbers here and there, and then throw the "new" armor and weapons out into the game at ludicrous prices, than it is to end up introducing new skills, new mechanics, and a broader scope of goals that increase options rather than power.
In hindsight, the largest cause of this was probably the dev team's insistence that "the game is the endgame." While it's good to introduce content that is relevant at all levels, the issue is that not every part of the game is going to appeal to everyone so you can't simply make the endgame PvE or WvW or PvP, and on top of this you still need to add something to keep peoples' attention. MMOs run on the carrot-on-a-stick philosophy on a incredibly deep and nearly defining level. You can't just take away the carrot and leave the stick if you want to make an immersive game that will continue to grasp people's attention - it's just not how modern MMOs operate.
The end perspective
I think that we'll most likely be seeing a future prospect similar to the vertical future, with possibly some minor aspects of the lateral future mixed in. Simply put, it's far less demanding on a dev team that's already overtaxed fixing god-knows-how-many bugs and desperately flailing to keep the servers operational and the game running smoothly.
And on a qualified level, I agree that there will be more gear tiers beyond Ascended items. It's simply necessary if you're going to adopt a vertical scheme - and even though Ascended items are meant to buy time to make more new content, I think it's still pretty certain that said new content is going to be the content that can actually be bug-tested and released in two to three months. And that means more vertical progression.
Guild Wars 2, most of all, will be held back by the lack of any real progression philosophy upon release. And while implementing one is more or less necessary at this point, alienating at least one player group is going to be inevitable. I just hope that ArenaNet makes the right decision, whatever it may be, that will allow the playerbase to remain involved and intact; the dev team not overworked to death and back; and that will give a true sense of progression in the game.
But regardless of what the right decision is, I've already earned one Purple Heart by getting to the top. I don't know if I could stand to work towards another.
Posted 25 November 2012 - 09:08 AM
Falfyrel, on 25 November 2012 - 08:57 AM, said:
He's a different question - would the situation be this problematic if GW2 wasn't an MMO, but rather just an online game?
Posted 25 November 2012 - 09:42 AM
Protoss, on 25 November 2012 - 09:08 AM, said:
No. FPSes have succeeded fantastically for a very long period of time without any implemented grind except leaderboards, but as the Ascended patch has proven, the game can't be said to be anything other than an MMORPG if a potential gear treadmill was that easy to introduce.
And before the Ascended update, there were a fair amount of posts complaining about the lack of progression in Guild Wars 2 anyways.
Posted 25 November 2012 - 10:31 AM
Falfyrel, on 25 November 2012 - 09:42 AM, said:
And before the Ascended update, there were a fair amount of posts complaining about the lack of progression in Guild Wars 2 anyways.
I think that's the biggest issue here - their model is pretty darn good, it's just not compatible with the MMO genre. If GW2 would have been a game that is designed to be quit, instead of being a game that demands that people continue playing it, we'd have a much better game on our hands.
Posted 25 November 2012 - 02:58 PM
Protoss, on 25 November 2012 - 10:31 AM, said:
Which is interesting to me, since I believe I heard Colin say at least once or twice before that ANet is okay with people playing their game, leaving for a while, and coming back when they find something else fun to do.
Actually, that might have been Stumme talking about GW, but it seemed like the same attitude would have been held by developers of GW2.
Posted 25 November 2012 - 03:15 PM
Posted 25 November 2012 - 04:07 PM
This is a game. It isn't and shouldn't be work. It should be fun.
If you're playing for any reason other than fun, you're doing it wrong.
Just because a certain game has made a gear treadmill a usual thing doesn't mean that the usual thing is the right thing or the best thing. If people need to feel that they're WORKING toward something, then perhaps they should find a more productive hobby than playing a game. Go build a bird house or something instead.
In my not so humble opinion, anyone that requires any kind of progression at all beyond what this game already provides should find another hobby.
Edited by Calebrus, 25 November 2012 - 04:13 PM.
Posted 25 November 2012 - 05:56 PM
This is the big problem with GW2, combat is boring. Yes, BORING. It's fun at first but then you realize from level 30 onwards you are mostly using the same weapons (with locked in skills) and a pool of probably 5 or so utilities. Even the skills themselves are so generic, everyone does the same thing essentially, it's just looks different. Then there are the mobs, instead of kiting you and using strategy they just zerg you until you put them out of their miserable existence.
If combat was engaging the grinding would not be grind.
Posted 25 November 2012 - 06:30 PM
Posted 25 November 2012 - 06:39 PM
Ghostwing, on 25 November 2012 - 06:30 PM, said:
Yeah, I remember - rep grinds even existed in Factions with the Kurzick/Luxon influence thing. I realize that the OP is simplified in some ways (and I specifically thought of the rep grinds at some parts when making the OP), but I figured it better to provide a big-picture overview in 4 pages rather than all the nuances in 40. It's long enough as it is.
Posted 25 November 2012 - 07:13 PM
I definitely wasn't a fan of the title grind that you did in factions though but at least it was account wide and you could get a decent rank in it from doing fun stuff like Alliance Battles and Missions (and later from Vanquishing).
Edited by Afyael, 25 November 2012 - 07:13 PM.
Posted 25 November 2012 - 07:13 PM
Also, with the henchmen (and later heroes) it was possible to do just about all the content in the game while playing alone. This is particularly friendly to casual players, since when you have limited play time its often not reasonable to find a group to play with. After doing world completion, I am struck by how much there is in each zone that I really couldn't have a shot at doing because they were simply not possible to do solo. I get that they wanted to encourage group play, but making it not optional (even for skillful players) really is a mistake in my mind. When you add in the fact that a huge world spreads the player-base thin and that the playing population declines over time, a fair amount of content is becoming unreachable and the game's only been out a short time.
I myself prefer lateral progression for a lot of reasons, but it seems as though GW2's way of having progression at all is inherently flawed. One actually wonders if they WANTED players to play less to keep server costs down.
Posted 26 November 2012 - 01:03 AM
Anyway, I don't have the time or inclination to go into as exhaustive a post as the OP (well done by the way Falfyrel) but I'll sum it up by saying I played WoW since its vanilla days and if you're going to imitate WoW's treadmill, you had better damn well imitate the player tools that WoW gives. In the mean time GW2 was a pleasant distraction for a while, but the ball has been dropped from where I sit and once more, a potential rival becomes a niche contender. Too bad as I had better hopes than this.
Posted 26 November 2012 - 01:10 AM
Posted 26 November 2012 - 01:11 AM
That in itself can be a problem though, because people want to look a certain way, ie. using certain skins.
This is quite different to GW1 because you could pick the skins you want and still be able to change your skills. I mean a caster could pick a staff or wand/focus combo and still use the same skills. Not so in GW2.
Posted 26 November 2012 - 04:26 AM
When I did start to get around to doing the events I was pretty much blown away: I loved everything about it. The mini games, the fights, the scenery, and even the tower to an extent. I was a bit bummed by the lack of direction in acquiring the newer skins, but I still could've gotten a ton of keys if I wanted to (just be broke as hell).
But even then, I remember fighting the King and thinking that this was just what I was hoping more: "More of THIS, just kick-ass looking areas with fun fights that are open to tons of levels".
To put it plainly, the Lost Shores update...isn't really what I had hoped for, and it's real disheartening. I was still moderately enjoying the game while still having a couple doubts about it, but most if not all of that changed with the Halloween update. I thought that was the direction they were intending to go. just making new looking gear to show what you've accomplished, so to see them not only create a purposefully repetitive dungeon, they created gear gaps.
Now, the other thing in Guild Wars 2 that made me love it besides the Halloween update was finding out how easily I could purchase decent exotics off of the TP. Prior to that I was worried at what it would take to get what was the 'best gear' - but in barely half of a week I was able to get all my armor pieces and my weapons. This was a feeling I got in Guild Wars 1 when I reached the gear gap, and it was glorious. That was it, I didn't need to worry about my drops and only needed to worry about 'looking like awesome', and it was great.
I don't think that's what Guild Wars 2 wants to do anymore, and it hurts, just feels like they got my hopes up. And I'm bummed to say it but it does actually affect my incentive to play the game. I can't help but be worried about what they plan to do after this, but I'm still a bit hopeful. We'll have to see their next move.
Posted 26 November 2012 - 10:15 AM
Falfyrel, on 25 November 2012 - 08:57 AM, said:
In GW2 it seems that the designers made 30 different looks and just distributed them randomly into the different categories. Which resulted in a lot of - generally considered as - pretty skins to be easily available and a vast majority of legendaries with generally rather unattractive skins.
Strangely enough the GW2 devs seem to think that all players like stuff that looks bulky, glowing, unrealistic, overly spikey and demonic. While for instance a lot of people played mesmer in the original GW series just for the nice and tasteful gear looks. ANet forgot to cater that part of the playerbase it seems.
If I'd ever craft a legendary I'd use a transmutation stone to reshape it to one of the prettier exotic or rare skins.
Which can't possibly be the intention behind it.
Edited by Arquenya, 26 November 2012 - 10:32 AM.
Posted 26 November 2012 - 10:23 AM
Arquenya, on 26 November 2012 - 10:15 AM, said:
Which can't possibly be the intention behind it.
Posted 26 November 2012 - 11:03 AM
Calebrus, on 25 November 2012 - 04:07 PM, said:
Personally I don't really see the appeal of world completion; endlessly searching for 100s of POIs and vistas bores me to death. But I would like to see pretty legendaries that I'd actually want to have. Or CTF PvP because I really enjoy that form of PvP. Guild Halls. I don't see why that is wrong?
Posted 26 November 2012 - 11:12 AM
Arquenya, on 26 November 2012 - 10:15 AM, said:
In GW2 it seems that the designers made 30 different looks and just distributed them randomly into the different categories. Which resulted in a lot of - generally considered as - pretty skins to be easily available and a vast majority of legendaries with generally rather unattractive skins.
Strangely enough the GW2 devs seem to think that all players like stuff that looks bulky, glowing, unrealistic, overly spikey and demonic. While for instance a lot of people played mesmer in the original GW series just for the nice and tasteful gear looks. ANet forgot to cater that part of the playerbase it seems.
If I'd ever craft a legendary I'd use a transmutation stone to reshape it to one of the prettier exotic or rare skins.
Which can't possibly be the intention behind it.
Sorry, but that made me chuckle. Obviously - if armor style don't appeal to your very personal sense of aesthetics then ANet forgot to cater to people who just want a "nice and tasteful" look.
If you designed a range of armors which appeal to all sorts of people and their sense of fashion, please - let me know. I'd spend quite a fortune to have something in my hands that appeals to everyone universally.
Just because you don't like the legendary skins, doesn't mean that Arena Net doesn't value you as a costumer - what sort of nonsense is that even? There will be other legendary skin, hopefully something among them will please you, if not - well then what are they to do? Put in a feedback form for each player to design their own legendary for the humbly fee of one of their artists, 3D artists and programmers pay check?
Maybe Sandbox MMOs would please you better. They're out there.
Posted 26 November 2012 - 11:32 AM
Afyael, on 25 November 2012 - 05:56 PM, said:
This is the big problem with GW2, combat is boring. Yes, BORING. It's fun at first but then you realize from level 30 onwards you are mostly using the same weapons (with locked in skills) and a pool of probably 5 or so utilities. Even the skills themselves are so generic, everyone does the same thing essentially, it's just looks different. Then there are the mobs, instead of kiting you and using strategy they just zerg you until you put them out of their miserable existence.
If combat was engaging the grinding would not be grind.
This. Why wont people understand that GW2 combat lacks the depth of GW1.
GW1 required far more reflexes and reaction than Gw2, also skill building, synergy with team, coordination, chat, tactics/strategy, you name it. Dodging red circle requires no skill. And zerging 100000000000000000hp static boss is just stupid.
Hell, Even Dhuum beats any boss that's current in GW2.
Posted 26 November 2012 - 11:46 AM
Illein, on 26 November 2012 - 11:12 AM, said:
If you designed a range of armors which appeal to all sorts of people and their sense of fashion, please - let me know. I'd spend quite a fortune to have something in my hands that appeals to everyone universally.
Just because you don't like the legendary skins, doesn't mean that Arena Net doesn't value you as a costumer - what sort of nonsense is that even?
I just pointed out that GW was better at giving you a sense of progression by horizontal gear advancement than GW2 does. I'm not taking it personally (enough to do), it's just that I do know that quite a lot of people would find it an (extra) incentive to play.
I always thought that catering every taste or playstyle would be the easiest/best way to attract and keep players. And it's really not that hard to assess how pretty people would judge certain skins. Which doesn't mean that there's a "one for all" but with 4 or 5 legendaries you sh/would have the option to make each the prettiest within a certain category.
Posted 26 November 2012 - 11:55 AM
If it was meant to be GW1, they would have just not made the game... If it was meant to be WoW, they woulda cloned that (or had a board meeting and found it stupid to produce yet another wow clone).
The middleground they are trying to achieve isnt for everyone and isnt meant to be. GW2 is a game that people will either "love or hate" as Anet has stated.
I find games like GTA boring, or skyrim.. Other people love them and they are best sellers. Modded to heck and back on the PC and generally on most gamers top played list. To me, GW2 is more fun.
All these state of the game and progression posts all more or less state the same thing over and over - how bad GW2 is
Posted 26 November 2012 - 12:13 PM
Arquenya, on 26 November 2012 - 11:46 AM, said:
I just pointed out that GW was better at giving you a sense of progression by horizontal gear advancement than GW2 does. I'm not taking it personally (enough to do), it's just that I do know that quite a lot of people would find it an (extra) incentive to play.
I always thought that catering every taste or playstyle would be the easiest/best way to attract and keep players. And it's really not that hard to assess how pretty people would judge certain skins. Which doesn't mean that there's a "one for all" but with 4 or 5 legendaries you sh/would have the option to make each the prettiest within a certain category.
Not sure what 4 or 5 legendaries you're referring to. But fact is, that most weapon families have/had a single choice since release for their legendary - some like them, others don't. There is no doubt that there will be more legendaries to choose from, if given the time. So while the Bifrost, as a popular example, doesn't appeal to a lot of Necromancer/Guardian players, there will surely be something that catches their eye at one point.
So far, we've had really...colourful ones so far, maybe the first expansion will introduce a gloomier breed of legendaries - only time will tell. Critizing designs you don't like, is all good and fine - but claiming they made them so and so, because they don't care about one part of their population is a bit far fetched, imho. That's all I said.
Posted 26 November 2012 - 12:19 PM
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Shuler opts to peddle his influence
Published: Friday, December 7, 2012 at 4:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, December 6, 2012 at 7:02 p.m.
Theres nothing like serving three terms in Congress to learn your way around Washington. So its no surprise that Duke Energy tapped U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler for a job as a D.C. lobbyist once he ends his term serving Western North Carolina.
On Jan. 4, four days after he steps down as our representative, the Waynesville Democrat will go to work as senior vice president of federal affairs for Duke, the nations largest electric utility. In a similar move, U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, a Missouri Republican, announced Monday she is leaving Congress to become chief executive officer of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.
These are just two examples of the revolving door in which former members of Congress find second careers in the industries they formerly regulated. At least 36 members of Congress are stepping down this year.
Not much is stopping lawmakers and staffers from going straight into Washingtons most powerful lobbying shops, collecting handsome salaries for their high profiles, skills and contacts, Politico says in a roundup of the exodus.
Congressional ethics rules bar Shuler from voting on any matters affecting Duke Energy for the remainder of the 112th Congress. By law, he wont be able to directly lobby his former colleagues for a year.
In his new position, Shuler pledges he will continue to promote deficit reduction efforts, increasing domestic energy production to put our country on a path to energy security and breaking through the hyper-partisan gridlock that plagues our great nation.
Duke officials were delighted to have Shuler on board. Heath is well-known in Washington for working with leaders from both political parties and for bringing people together in his district, said Keith Trent, Dukes executive vice president for regulated utilities, in the News & Observer of Raleigh.
The issue here is not so much about Duke or Shuler. It is about the power of money and lobbyists to influence Washington, the symbiotic relationship between lawmakers and the industries they regulate that many Americans view as a plague.
Members of Congress owe their loyalty to the people they represent, not to big companies offering them future riches, says Republic Report, a group that tracks the influence of money in Washington. The group recently sent a letter to 36 retiring members of Congress calling on them to disclose to the public if they are negotiating with a private interest for a future job.
Meanwhile, Represent.Us, a coalition of campaign finance activists, has launched a campaign for legislation to limit lobbyist fundraising, Roll Call reports. The proposal, dubbed the American Anti-Corruption Act, would ban members of Congress from raising funds from those who lobby them unless they recuse themselves from actions to benefit those donors.
The revolving door between K Street and Capital Hill is not illegal, nor is it not anything new. But as long as it continues, it will reinforce Americans suspicion that our nation has gone from government of the people, by the people, for the people, to government of the lobbyists, by the lobbyists, for the lobbyists.
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.


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text:
SAN FRANCISCO -- Matt Cain has spent three years teasing Jeremy Affeldt for cutting his finger while separating frozen hamburger patties. On Tuesday, Affeldt finally got his revenge.
Cain missed his scheduled start against the San Diego Padres after slicing his right index finger while making a sandwich before batting practice.
"I was the first one to go see him," Affeldt said. "I'm just glad Cain was good enough to make me feel a lot better by joining my situation."
Cain expects to make his next start and the Giants were able to laugh about the sandwich stabbing because of Yusmeiro Petit, the journeyman who stepped in on short notice and paced an easy 6-0 win at AT&T Park.
Petit had not pitched in eight days and didn't even throw a bullpen session during that time because he never knows when manager Bruce Bochy will call his name. The right-hander was working on such short notice Tuesday evening that he didn't even have time to go over the Padres lineup with catcher Hector Sanchez. The two just decided on a sign in case the Padres got a runner to second base and then took the field.
Even that was a moot point; just one Padre reached scoring position as Petit, Jean Machi and Santiago Casilla combined on a 105-pitch shutout. Petit gave up three hits in six innings, lowering his ERA to 2.61.
"What a great effort," Bochy said. "Any time you lose your starter and the swingman goes out to give you six innings like that, that's such a lift for the club."
Cain received plenty of good-natured ribbing from his teammates, and the hitters may have teased him with their bats, too. Already this season, Cain has been on the wrong end of 1-0 and 2-1 losses, but the Giants scored five runs for Petit in the first three innings.
Angel Pagan led off the bottom of the first with his second homer of the season, and Buster Posey hit a solo shot two batters later. The Giants had not had two first-inning homers in a game at AT&T Park since July 22, 2008, when Fred Lewis and Bengie Molina went deep.
The run support kept flooding in as the Giants knocked left-hander Eric Stults out of the game in the third inning. Sanchez had a two-run single in the third and Brandon Crawford added an RBI single. Sanchez had a sacrifice fly in the fifth inning to put the Giants up by a half-dozen on a night that could have been a rough one thanks to the late pitching change.
Even Cain was able to crack a smile while recounting the story of his accident. He was in the clubhouse kitchen before batting practice when he dropped a knife and tried to catch it.
"Affeldt was in there helping me out," Cain joked. "Obviously, it didn't work out too well."
The half-inch cut didn't seem bad at first, but when Cain tried to throw during batting practice it kept opening up.
"It's really, really bad timing, but Petit did a great job," Cain said. "He's a huge asset for us. It's nice to have him. If a starter gets in trouble, he can pick you up, and today he really paid off."
Giants trainers expect the cut to close in time for Cain to face the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday. That surely won't bring an end to the ribbing, though. Affeldt didn't pitch Tuesday night, but he was happy to fill reporter's notebooks when asked about Cain's strange injury. He was thrilled to be out of the injury spotlight, too.
"Now I get to feel like an idiot," Cain said.
For more on the Giants, see Alex Pavlovic's Giants Extra blog at blogs.mercurynews.com/Giants. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/AlexPavlovic.
Wednesday's game
San Diego (Robbie Erlin 1-3) at Giants (Tim Hudson 3-1), 7:15 p.m., CSNBA


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