#seriously world war 1 sucked and you will not convince me otherwise

[a-mole-of-iron]

Now back, with a mini-review of an RTS - The Great War: Western Front

After a month-long interruption (sometimes, life just refuses to get back on track), I am back to posting. Today, what I’ve got is a recommendation for an RTS game, but not for the reasons most people might think... because this RTS is The Great War: Western Front, the first RTS about World War 1 that I can remember seeing, and a very well-made one at that.

Content warning: descriptions of how abysmal the World War 1 tactics were, and how pointlessly these tactics wasted the lives of WW1 soldiers.

On the technical side, the game is made by Petroglyph - the studio built on the remnants of Westwood, the original devs of Command & Conquer - and it’s more similar in quality to Star Wars: Empire at War (one of their best outings) than Grey Goo or Forged Battalion (which are comparatively more meh). The gameplay itself is surprisingly addictive, in that “just one more turn“ manner - the game combines real-time and turn-based modes, like Total War - and because this is WW1, there is an interesting trench-building mechanic and asymmetry between attacker and defender. If that was the biggest noteworthy thing in the game, though, it would be a footnote and that’d be it; the reason to actually make a post about it is that it really gets across the sheer horror of World War 1 trench warfare, much more successfully than even other pop-WW1 games with an infusion of historical authenticity (e.g. Battlefield 1).

Let me give you the most blatant example. For the attacking force, the only way to approach enemy trenches safely is to constantly bombard them with artillery, suppressing machine gunners and riflemen so that they can’t fire back, while also destroying as much of the enemy line as possible and dodging enemy defensive artillery. But the realities of limited supply mean that even if you do that, and even if you flank the enemy trenches in early war (when fortification is not ubiquitous), a lot of soldiers on your side are still going to die. But the real horror begins when the computer player (in my case, on the standard difficulty, which affords advantages to neither the player nor the computer) attacks your side without doing those kinds of preparatory barrages, even when it’s got artillery superiority, and instead just repeats what the biggest names in WW1 failure - like Conrad von Hötzendorf and Luigi Cadorna - did, sending masses of infantry to overwhelm the defense and letting the infantrymen die in droves. Regardless of whether you defend well or not (the AI is actually quite good at probing for weaknesses in your line, which makes its behavior even more damning of real-life WW1 tactics), it’s easy to end up with a ceasefire after the AI side exhausts its resources, then see your losses at 3000 soldiers (which would be horrific enough), and enemy losses at 15000 soldiers with nothing gained (which is just atrocious). And, very conspicuously, the game is rated T for Teen; it doesn’t even need any graphic depictions of deaths or injuries to show how horrific - and wasteful - World War 1 was.

As a summary, I would recommend this game to any RTS fans who want to challenge themselves with limiting the damages of WW1 and ending it faster than the real-life incompetent commanders and stuck-in-the-past militaries of the time did... or to anyone who has the skills to play RTS games and wants to see for themselves how bad WW1 actually got.

[fortunatelychaoticphantom]

I wasn't going to write my thoughts on Eclipse, mostly because I never really liked it anyway and the rereading didn't help, but I'm having such a fucking ride reading the forth book, so I might as well do this. Obviously, I've already finished the book, so it's not as fresh in my mind and it's all a bit jumbled and a lot overlaps... but whatever.

1. God, I hate Eclipse. I'm sorry, I just hate this book. It is by far the worst in the series.

2. It's the love triangle. It's a hundred percent the love triangle. To be perfectly honest, I genuinely don't believe there is a love triangle, but Meyer really wants us to. We spend an entire book in Bella's head, seeing and feeling how much she does not love Jake romantically, but the entire book is about Jake trying to prove she does, and then out of fucking nowhere she does!! This is the hill I will die on. I simply don't understand this, this realization in the end that she is in love with both of them. It just wasn't anywhere in the book until that point, and it's so frustrating to read! There's also the fact that we know without a doubt that whether she loves Jake romantically or not simply doesn't matter, because she loves Edward more. And we know this since book two, so why??? Why spend 600 pages to talk about this?? Please, convince me otherwise! I want to enjoy this, I just can't!!

3. I am beyond frustrated with Jake's behavior in this book. None of this fits his character, not even his more resentful self after the shift, and it sucks because I absolutely adore him. But here he's pushy and mean and hypocritical and just awful, and I just hate it.

4. The second book literally ends with Jake saying he and Bella can't be friends because of her relationship with vampires. He refuses to talk to her, ignores her calls, and then, out of nowhere, suddenly wants to be friends and blames her for the disconnect. And she apologized!?!?! Like fucking what??? What the hell was that?? We just dropped the entire actual conflict of the book within a few chapters and never talk about it again, and somehow Bella is at fault here???? Fuck no.

5. The fucking scene. The fucking kiss scene. I remembered it was bad, but my god, it was so. Much. Worse. Everything about it screams assault, and Bella literally calls it that. Reading it was bad enough, but Jake's and Charlie's reactions were so much worse. It just grossed me out so much. I hate it. Jake is kind and funny and so god damn good, and this is just a destruction of his character.

6. Look. Look. I am not against love triangles. I am not against angst. I am not even against fucked up manipulative behavior. But there's a place and a time for everything. Jake threatening to kill himself/let himself die in battle so that Bella would kiss him is a deliciously fucked up scene that could work wonders in a different story. But absolutely, unconditionally and irrevocably not here. It's just seriously fucked up here, and not in a good way.

7. Victoria who? This plot might have been awesome if it wasn't so far in the background you could barely notice it's there.

8. I am really sad I hate this book, because you can say what you want about Meyer, but girly can fucking write a world. The southern wars? The wolf lore and abilities? Immaculate. This book would have been great with a hundred pages less and no love triangle. The conflict should have been about Bella and Jake's friendship and the whole becoming-a-vampire thing and nothing else.

[allhailthecoffeegods]

A lonely kitty in Gotham

Chapter 1

Tired... Marinette was extremely tired. All she wanted to do was curl up in a ball and sleep but instead she sat staring at the wall of her office in her small apartment she had bought and was now living in because her parents kicked her out.

Why was she staring at the wall you may ask? Short answer, she had finally done it! She had finally tracked down Hawkmoth and Mayura after 3 years of fighting she now knew both of their identities (Gabriel Agreste and Natalie Sancoeur) and not only that but she had an entire file filled with proof. Now all that was left was to take back their miraculous and hand them over to the police (not before cursing them first... obviously).

Unfortunately it’s not going to be as easy as it sounds. You see Marinette or Nettie which she goes by now was alone, completely and utterly alone.

No Parents, no family and no friends.

Three years ago Nettie had all of the above she was happy, she had a best friend Alya and a group of many friends from her class, she had two loving but slightly distant parents who ran the most popular bakery in all of Paris possibly even France and her amazing grandmother Gina who traveled the world and told her all about the crazy things she did (some of which she promised not to tell her parents about because it may have been considered breaking the law but nothing reallllly bad).

But all of that soon changed over the first year Hawkmoth terrorised Paris with his akuma and was later joined by mayura with her sentimonsters. Slowly she lost everything including her partner in fighting crime Mr.Bug holder of the ladybug miraculous.

Nettie is in procession of not only the black cat miraculous but also forcefully became the last remaining guardian of 18 other mini gods that are bound to jewels (excluding the butterfly and peacock (not that she would ever give them up because they are basically her family now and she will do absolutely everything to protect them)). How?

Running late to class 3 years ago she saved a (very) old man (186 years old to be specific) from being hit by a car, and for some reason that was enough for him to “gift” her the black cat miraculous as he saw her true chaotic soul and aura (it didn’t matter that she was only 13 YEARS OLD!) he thought it was a brilliant idea to turn her into a child soldier fighting a war against two supervillains more than double her age.

After and introduction to the one and only God of Destruction, who by the way is OBSESSED with the stinkiest of cheeses, she became one of Paris’ main superheroes Kitty Noir alongside her partner Mr.Bug who she guessed to be around the same age as her at the time. It was easy to deduct that he was going to be more of a problem instead of a partner due to his obsessive and intense flirting and lack of skills other than some possible fencing training, all in all he didn’t have a clue how to fight. He was also apparently extremely reckless... like more reckless than her pouring 2 energy drinks into coffee before downing it and has died so many times in a fight she now also has a close relationship with tiki the God of Creation having had to end the fight herself (honestly why did the old guy pick him because it seems like he didn’t even do a similar ‘oh help save me’ situation like he had with her otherwise the old guy would already be dead!) Even though she wasn’t that much better to begin with she did have some hand to hand combat training curtesy of Gina and her ‘friends’ (let’s talk about those later). And she was now training in martial arts and going to the gym to build more muscle and become better without the enhanced supersuit just incase (she also sticks a domino mask on before transforming because she’s paranoid okay and if she is ever forced to detransform she doesn’t want anyone knowing her identity right of the bat to use against her, okay!)

Alongside that she was also extremely smart (like genius level) great with technology and quick to come up with some absolutely insane but brilliant plans. This all resulted in her taking on more of a leadership roll whilst fighting akumas. Mr.Bug only got worse as time went on and her civilian life went downhill, it took 8 months for the old man (previous guardian of the miraculous and temporary mentor for 2 of the months) to become compromised and pass the roll onto her. And the first thing she did was take the ladybug miraculous back and erase the holders (Adrien Agreste her former friend) memories of being Mr.Bug.

The only problem with that was the battle Miracle queen where master fu (the old guardian man) was compromised, and so were all 8 of her temporary heroes except Viperion, holder of the snake miraculous, who had started to tour around the world with his farther Jagged Stone) this ment there were two consequences of taking The ladybug back, the first being she was now alone against two superpowered terrorists but also that she had to switch transformations at the end of a battle to be able to purify the Akuma and cast the miraculous cure to fix everything and yes that did include... resurrection of people who died in the cross fire.

Anyways, back to how Nettie is alone. Only a few weeks after the first attack, an exchange student transferred to the the newly dumbed Akuma class *sigh*. At first she seemed nice and had and was telling the class of her interesting life, her mother was a Italian diplomat and she’s traveled the world.

But Nettie had a bad gut feeling about Lila Rossi which unfortunately was correct. On her third day in the class she started gushing over how kitty noir aka Nettie dearest (obviously unknown to everyone else) saved her from and Akuma attack and they became “best friends”, to say Nettie was left speechless and confused at the lie is an understatement.

Regrettably Nettie was unable to prove her story was a lie because how would she know said superhero didn’t save her without revealing her secret identity.

But the girl carried on creating more and more outlandish claims, such as how she saved Jagged Stones cat on a jet runway (like come on seriously what airport would allow a CHILD of even a cat to run out onto the tarmac). But pointing this out was apparently a mistake which Nettie soon discovered in the girls bathroom after class. Lila sauntered in with a sickly sweet smile that was soon dropped when Nettie refused to give into this girls bullshit.

Hence she was pinned against the wall and threatened, that if she didn’t go along with lie-la’s lies she would lose everything she loved before leaving so she wasn’t caught. Not believing her Nettie continued to point out inconsistencies and facts that contradict her story’s but no matter how much proof was presented to the class lie-la was able to turn it around (meta theory coming into her head: maybe she wasn’t affected because of the miraculous magic) and plant the idea that Nettie was a bully into all her friends heads which apparently all share one brain cell ( or so she thought until Adrien confirmed he knew they were lies to but he was taking the ‘high road’ because nobody was getting hurt, it’s definitely not like lilas ruining all there future careers by promising favours and opportunity’s that will never come and convincing them they no longer need to put in any effort for their futures *insert eye-roll* ).

So life continued and her friends started to turn on little Nettie the scattered brained, clumsy girl who bent over backwards to protect and make sure they were all happy. It hurt more than words could describe the day Alya her BEST FRIEND led the class to turn their backs on her and declare they no longer want to be friends with a jealous bully anymore.

Luckily Nettie wasn’t akumatised but she came very close to it. The only things keeping her going were her duty to Paris and her family.

But as a consequence to that good luck, bad luck hit like a truck. She didn’t know for a few weeks until a guy named Jason called her parents to inform them that her favourite person in the whole world her amazing grandmother Gina had passed away in a accident somewhere in the United States. And if that wasn’t bad enough Lila also managed to place a seed of doubt in her parents around the same time. Life fucking sucked. She wasn’t able to process and grieve due to Hawkfuck still being around so instead she threw herself into creating her own business (NeTi Designs) doing commissions, did I mention she’s a talented fashion designer... no, well now you know. As well as diving head first into a very thorough investigation on mothfucker in between fighting Akuma, helping in the bakery, plus training and patrolling the city of lights for two hours each night.

Atleast she didn’t have to make excuses to not hang out with her ex-friends anymore heh heh *cough*.

Eventually this resulted in her parents questioning her on her disappearances from her room after randomly checking in one night while she was out patrolling and the conversation sort of went like this.

“Marinette, where have you been?! I just checked your balcony and you weren’t up their. It’s 2am” Sabine exclaimed when she dropped back onto her bed moments after detransforming. “Mamma I swear I was up there and I fell asleep in the corner near my pillows behind the deck chair. I just woke up from the cold and I thought I herd movement and panicked because ‘oh my gosh!’ Is it an Akuma but it wasn’t it was you mamma” Nettie responded with dramatic waving of her hands and a fake smile.

Sabine was NOT impressed and most certainly knew it was a lie but it was 2am and she couldn’t deal with this right now so she glared at her daughter whilst leaving her room through the trapdoor.

This continued for two weeks with both her parents randomly checking in. Nettie had to eventually relocate her research into a small apartment a few streets away from the library (which she paid for with commission money that nobody but her knew about especially since her business was doing well and she didn’t put it past her class to try and destroy that if they ever found out) and say she was studying to not be caught doing deep background checks on all her suspects, making files for every Akuma and tracking the butterfly’s on a app she created that has multiple resources available to the public ranging from an alert for attacks that can be activated all the way to videos she made in her hero persona showing things such as meditation or basic self defence that should only be used if they’re unable to get to a safe area away from the Akuma or to buy time to then get away depending on the powers of said Akuma. (Could also be useful in regular crimes like attempts at mugging)

This lead to longer disappearances to the point all her stuff that had any value to her or was related to business and miraculous matters (so basically everything) she was practically living there already. Not that she realised since she got maybe 5-6 hours of sleep and week? She was so enclosed in her little world when her parents decided they had enough (after multiple accusations of her sleeping around with older men and doing drugs (all tests came back negative because her choice of drug was caffeine) which where definitely lilas doing) her parents yelled at her to get out and never come back... so she did the only thing she had to grab where her pillows and fairy lights and she was out of the door, the situation was dubbed a future Nettie problem because ya know suppressing your emotions so the world doesn’t end.

(Authors note: I have plans on making this a series. Hope you guys like it 🙃)

[isuzukuretsuki]

Alright I finished Crimson Flower and after letting my thoughts marinate for a bit, I decided to do a very long write up on my thoughts. Despite the fact that I made a beeline for black eagles the moment I got the game because I had an extreme feverish passion for El at first, my thoughts on this route are unfortunately mostly negative. This is the first and only route I played so far, and I know very little about the events that transpire in the other routes.

Five thousand disclaimers that these are just my opinions that may or may not change when I play the other routes and it’s not meant to discredit folks who like Crimson Flower. Also there will be spoilers.

For starters, I think the story does a terrible job at convincing you that Edelgard’s actions are justified or even necessary. This route felt less like fighting to change the world for the better and more like a savage conquest with every chapter being El going like “we gotta kill this guy now” and I’m like “but why” and El’s like “WE JUST GOTTA”. I guess the right way to say it is that El’s route lacked emotional impact. I could not celebrate her victories with her because my only reaction was “was that really necessary” and “buddy why”. It ultimately felt like El was simply solving problems by creating more problems.

Instead of just saying “I want to uproot a societal system from its core so I have to overthrow the Church”, the story opts for El to give incredibly vague and wishy washy reasons on why the Church Is Bad. Something something, they’re not really humans and twist history??? The story forces you to do some crazy mental gymnastics to try and see El’s side of the story when everything just boils down to “Crests are Bad = Church is Bad”.

In Part 1, there was a lot of build up of the church’s obvious corruption and how they’re not to be trusted, but the build up falls flat because the story tries to make the reveal of Rhea’s beast form be the damning thing to convince the player that the church is so terrible that they have to be stopped even at the cost of thousands of lives... and well... in a franchise where almost everyone is secretly a dragon, that just did not sell me. 

We’ve been knew that Crests Are Bad but does that justify sacrificing thousands of lives to upheave the church? I dunno man..................................... the story doesn’t really put much effort to convince you that this is the Only Way and it doesn’t feel like El has put much thought into trying alternative solutions before jumping straight to murder because it was the easiest solution. Which sucks because I think exploring El’s methods and mindset would definitely make for an interesting conflict. The whole idea of if war is never justifiable, is it better to let everyone remain suffering under the status quo forever? El’s belief that nothing will change unless she takes direct action has validity to it, but the game just expects you to agree with her from the get go so El never truly has to stand firm and defend her values.

Edelgard’s decision to unify Fodlan is something I really, really side eye. She’s straight up invading sovereign lands and putting them under her own rule of her own volition. While yes, Church Is Bad, barging into someone else’s land uninvited to dictate how they rule their government and “fix their society” is ultimately something I find incredibly self righteous and arrogant. This idea of “fighting for peace” through not just instigating a war, but going on a violent conquest just seems... disingenuous to me? How does she plan on dealing with the lingering resentment from the folks whose land were conquered? She’s just replacing the crest system with an Empire who will murder anyone who stands against them which... makes her literally no different from what Rhea was.

The above point is mainly due to her whole tirade into the alliance which just felt extremely unnecessary, especially when Claude was trying to keep the alliance in a neutral stance. El’s reasoning for conquering the alliance because “some of the nobles oppose me” was really flimsy like... maybe they wouldn’t oppose you if you just left them alone instead of making them choose between handing over their independence or having their land burnt to the ground. 

Her dialogue with and about Dimitri is ridiculous because she criticizes him for being consumed by hatred and obsession and “losing his path as a king” but...... bruh, you’re STILL invading his country, so even if Dimitri wasn’t a raging murder man, he’d still oppose you because did you just expect a king to simply Hand Over His Land and not defend himself????? 

The absolute worst, worst part of CF isn’t even Edelgard herself but how the other students react to her. It feels like none of the beagles and especially the other house characters except Lysithea have any real reason to side with her, and even if they did (which wouldn’t be surprising because we see how the crests ruined so many lives), these valid reasons are never brought up and it’s overshadowed by almost everyone lamenting “is this bloodshed even necessary?” (news flash: probably not). But why the FUCK are you guys even siding with her in the first place if you're gonna regret it afterwards or don’t actually agree with her? You don’t just side with an instigator of war with half baked resolves, and the convictions of these characters aren’t even quarter baked. 

This wouldn’t be too bad if not for the fact that the beagle kids themselves also seem to have more reasons to turn on El than to fight for her. Especially when Edelgard has done nothing to ever prove herself trust worthy. Hell, CF is kicked off with Edelgard betraying everyone and revealing herself to be the Flame Emperor, which is literal admittance to her association with the slithers. Yet no one seems to put two and two together and just decides to blindly trust and follow her without second thought because... why? Who knows!!! As Sothis so eloquently puts it, they’re all boulders just rolling down whatever hill they’re on, and I could not stand how little agency and independent thought that the other characters showed. It felt like El was the driver while everyone else was just strapped into the passenger seat, mindlessly going along with the ride. No questions, no thoughts, no challenges, and to top it off, it doesn’t even feel like any of them truly believe in what they’re fighting for because they never bring up the validity of El’s ideals or the consequences of her actions. 

The beagles had the group dynamic of a wet paper bag. Lysithea is the one of the only characters who actively shows any real agency for fighting for Edelgard and firmly voices how El’s goals compare to her personal values, which is a stark difference to everyone else who has a "¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I guess this is my life now” type attitude to an infuriating degree. 

Byleth siding with El also has me doing extreme shifty eyes. I can get behind them making an emotionally charged decision to defend her from Rhea but holy crap I saved you from Rhea because I didn’t want you to die, but that doesn’t mean I’m giving you the okay to murder all your classmates!! The game expects the player to take a huge leap of faith when siding with Edelgard, thinking “she has to have a proper explanation for this” and cue.... no explanation ever, until like... five years later. El’s relationship with the beagles felt disingenuous because she actively breaches the trust of others, lies to others, hides crucial information from others (slithers, anyone?), and nobody cares. She straight up lies about the church nuking Arianrhod and it’s never addressed.

The issue with the slithers and Byleth’s dad is even worse because it is never addressed until well into the route, and it’s brought up by not El, but fucking Hubert. Not to mention El is giant jackass to Byleth after their dad died even though he died because of her damn accomplices. We’re supposed to just lie down and accept the slithers’ presence because “well they’re necessary for our plans” even though we curb stomped the entire continent by ourselves, so I dunno why we can’t just shank them now. The slithers literally did nothing aside from chill around, maybe blow up a city or two to spite El. It’s ridiculous how the organization who is directly responsible for El’s abuse and trauma has no on screen resolution when frankly, I think the slithers deserve El’s animosity far more than the church. 

Despite my extreme criticism towards El, I want to stress that I don’t hate El. In fact, I love her character a lot and I think she’s really fascinating. However, I think CF really shot her characterization in the foot because it doesn’t feel like El really grew or developed or changed. She stubbornly believed that her actions were right at the beginning and by the end of the game, she still believes her actions were right because the story doesn’t really bother to try and prove her otherwise. I just think she’s much more suited as an antagonist, and I’m excited to see her portrayal in the other routes. Sorry El, I love you, but I would never in a million years side with you.

To end this salt fest on a positive note, I will say the route had three things I enjoyed: the ending, Mercedes and Jeritza’s support, and Edelgard and Lysithea’s support. Seriously, I would not have so many complaints if the rest of the route had the same amount of emotional tension and feeling as El and Lysithea’s support. I enjoyed the ending fairly much; the final battle in the burning city was epic as hell and so was the final cutscene. The scene where El sobs in Byleth’s chest after Byleth’s heart beat returns was extremely touching to me. So because I liked the ending enough, at the very least I was able to finish the play through on a somewhat content note. Also random side note but Edelgard’s seiyuu is amazing.

Anyway my order from favourite to least favourite beagle kids are Dorothea > Edelgard > Ferdie > Bernie > Linhardt > Petra > Hubert > Caspar.

tldr: my experience with crimson flower

[crystalelemental]

New Mystery of the Emblem is complete, and I have many thoughts.

Let’s just start with this: holy shit this was so much more fun than Shadow Dragon.  For three major reasons:

No one is expected to die.  Shadow Dragon bothered me immediately, because I’m required to let someone die in the prologue to escape.  That sucks, and I hated it.  I have never gotten over that, or the expectation to kill more units to access the bonus chapters.  Which, sure, you can argue are optional.  But those characters appear in this game and are recognized, so clearly those happened now didn’t they?!

SUPPORT CONVERSATIONS!  Okay, they’re not like...actual support conversations.  They’re Radiant Dawn style, where you have conversations with allies at your base and only your base.  But there’s a tier of 1-3 for most characters, and they’re essentially support conversations, and god Shadow Dragon was impossible to get in to without those.  Seriously, I may enjoy the gameplay of Fire Emblem overall, but I do not enjoy units for combat performance, I enjoy them for being characters, and thank god they feel like characters this time.

Actually interesting story.  Shadow Dragon was pretty boring, frankly.  Very basic concepts presented, not really a lot going on.  But New Mystery actually expands on a lot of this stuff.  I’ll get into that more below.

Suffice to say, I really enjoyed it more than Shadow Dragon.  I think in terms of ranking, I’d definitely place it above Shadow Dragon, Birthright, Revelation, and Sacred Stones.  Currently I think I’m putting it above Conquest too.  While Conquest is similarly fun to play, New Mystery has the benefit of being more interesting as a story.  I’m hesitant to put it over Echoes, though.  Listen, Echoes sucks as a game.  It’s really not fun to play, almost at all.  New Mystery is fun to play, so this should be obvious.  But while the story is improved, I wouldn’t put it anywhere near the level of Echoes.

See, the main thing with New Mystery is that it filled in gaps that made the world feel more organic than just generic medieval kingdom with magic and dragons and shit.  They delve into what the Fire Emblem here is, about the history of the dragons, and why, say, Tiki’s kept locked away for so long.  Also why Medeus is a villain, and out to eliminate humanity.  Turns out, he was the only Earth Dragon to listen to Naga and convert to a manakete, and even helped guard the seal over the dragons who were slowly losing their minds.  But humans, as soon as they had that advantage, exploited dragons.  Several maps showcase that these deteriorating dragons are being kept in thrall to human tribes who use their power for personal gain.  Exploitation of dragons led Medeus to despise humans, and seek to overthrow them.  Which is pretty cool!  I’m on board with that!  Tiki’s said to also be deteriorating without the seal in place, and that, as a powerful divine dragon, she’s bring ruin to the world if she weren’t contained.  So they basically kept her in stasis to avoid disaster.  Which...okay, Fallen Tiki should’ve just been that.  A feral Tiki that’s no longer all there, instead of just “Gharnef’s power is controlling her.”  Shadow Dragon’s momentarily irritable Tiki wasn’t shit compared to what they implied could happen here.

The trouble is that the game is still pretty basic.  Beyond this bit of worldbuilding, it’s still very much conflict between the kingdoms, again, all ochestrated by Gharnef, who’s working for Medeus.  Again.  They play around more with their themes and set up some cool ideas, but it’s not the most compelling of narratives by any means.  What’s also not helped is that, while support conversations exist to make characters more engaging, it’s not all of them, and not all are done well.  Some supports are just a sort of filling in the gaps.  At least, with the MU they are.  Maybe with other characters they get a bit more.

Speaking of MU, let’s divert a bit to talk about them.  Kris is like...the one MU I have heard universal hate for.  My best guess is that this is due to fans of the original FE3, who didn’t like their inclusion in the first place, because otherwise I have no idea what the problem is.  Kris seems fine.  Really boring, but fine.  The only reason they’re kinda my least favorite is because they’re supposed to be their own character but don’t do anything.  Like, Robin has a personality and is fun, and has a great dynamic with Chrom.  Corrin, for all the faults borne of Fates, feels pretty much like a typical Fire Emblem lord.  Byleth...okay, I don’t like Byleth much, I feel like their inclusion kinda hinders the game’s narrative a little bit, but otherwise they’re pretty blank and exist mostly as a support for the other lords.  But Kris...doesn’t do much of anything.  They don’t really have a dynamic with anyone, including Marth, and are just sort of...generic loyal knight with no knowledge of the world for some reason, and who only ever trained with their now dead grandfather.  Beyond that, they don’t really exude any particular personality.  Which is probably part of the problem with supports; everyone supports with Kris, but they don’t contribute much, so it’s mostly the other character doing stuff at them.  They just don’t have much to do.

With one exception.  We gotta talk about the other, presumably new character: Katarina.  I actually love Katarina.  Which is a shame, I pulled one of her in Heroes once and made her into a manual because I didn’t care.  Oh well.  Anyway, Katarina’s got a pretty solid story behind her, and is one of the more compelling pieces of the plot overall.  She’s part of a band of assassins who were orphans, taken in by Lady Eremiah.  Eremiah is super cut-throat, willing to sacrifice the lives of these children to accomplish her goals, which mostly seem to be serving Gharnef.  While Legion’s boring and lame, Clarine and Katarina are spectacular.  Clarine starts off really obnoxious, and kind of a bitch, but the chapter where she finally falls hit me pretty hard.  Katarina’s supports with Kris also give a bit more context to what had happened, particularly with the talk about how Clarine and Katarina share a birthday, because they never had one but Clarine just decided on a day and that was the end of it.  It’s a really cute dynamic you get to experience kind of in reverse.  You see how bad things have gotten, then get the history of what used to be, and why Katarina couldn’t leave.  Eremiah’s the same.  Gharnef shows up as she’s dying and reminds her of her own history.  The orphanage she worked at was burned to the ground and the children slaughtered in the last war.  In despair, Gharnef appeared and convinced her that if the children were strong, they wouldn’t die so easily, leading her to take in the next wave and train them for strength alone, all the while becoming corrupted by Gharnef’s influence.  That last part aside, pretty compelling.  I do enjoy narratives that play with the idea of kindness being manipulated to a sensible, but corrupted, conclusion.

My main problem is that Gharnef sucks.  He’s not an interesting villain at all.  He just kind of exists, and was largely motivated by getting passed over by his master when it came to who got the cool spells.  He’s a big, stinky baby man whining about not being the favorite, and I could not care less.  Yet he’s supposed to be this grand puppetmaster, of a particularly shitty puppet.  Hardin was an ally in Shadow Dragon, who became an enemy this game.  Why?  Oh, he was mad that Nyna didn’t like him back, and got super buttmad about it.  Which is honestly fair at this point, since they describe it as a depressive episode.  He gets to marry this woman he loves, only to find out she never reciprocated the feeling at all.  Feel like it’s fair to be upset.  But then Gharnef shows up and allegedly corrupts his soul with the Darksphere.  Which...okay, first?  Lame.  Second?  Why do we have that, and why does it do that?  This was a gift from Naga, why the hell is it so dangerous?  Third, super lame!  It takes away all agency Hardin had as a villain and removes it down to “oh, he was possessed.”  Which sucks, because the exact inverse happened for Michalis, and now he’s super cool!

His character arc this game was spectacular!  Showing up to take Minerva away from her captors.  Giving her refuge in the desert and helping her rendezvous with Marth?  There’s something going on, compared to last game where he was just some lame baby man who wanted power.  Minerva says Gharnef lost his hold, and Michalis is like “Oh, no, I would never bend to him.  I killed dad because we disagreed on Macedon fighting to become a major power in the world again, and he tried to have me exiled.  I did it for me, and regret nothing.”  Honestly loved that.  But when asked why he’s helping now, it turns out it’s for their sister.  He talks about how, after he was defeated, he was near death, and the first thing he saw when he came to was Maria kneeling over him, praying to the gods to save him.  He was so touched by her kindness despite his actions, that he’s now solely driven to save her as his final act.  He doesn’t regret his actions, but recognizes that he lost and needs to do something, and god damn if it’s not going to be saving his little sister.  That’s super cool!  I’m so on board with this dude now!  One of the bigger antagonists of Shadow Dragon who offered almost nothing became a big favorite in the game with a single conversation!  I feel like that encapsulates the difference between Shadow Dragon and New Mystery pretty well.

The last thing I’ll mention is gameplay.  I really enjoyed just playing this game, and I think a big component of that is because the maps are pretty short.  And yet.  They’re challenging.  There are a few that just repeatedly required me to restart the chapter, despite being maybe three turns long.  The extra chapter when you first face Legion, and it’s got the two mercenaries to the left and right of your starting position, and you can recruit both but you have to not kill them?  The map was so small they could get to just about anyone, so it was a real challenge to handle the archers with my high movement units, prevent those two from dying against the blockades to the sides, and take out the boss quickly without being swarmed.  Other times, the gimmicks were a little obnoxious.  Like Chapter 18.  You’re trying to take this one castle on the right that’s pretty well defended, but there are these super fast cav archers closing in on you from above.  You basically have one turn to get to the village on the left, so their king calls them off.  It’s a cool chapter, but I had to reset the first time, because I didn’t go into the chapter knowing that.  I put my dancer closer to the fortress, thinking I’d have to just move quickly and take out the boss to get them to back off, so Marth couldn’t reach the goal fast enough.  It’s just small things like that.

Overall, I think it’s pretty solid.  I could see playing this one again some day.  Maybe to intentionally miss one of the spheres so I can see what the bad ending is about.  But on the whole, I like it.  Still not super impressed with the characters in Marth’s game, I still feel like a lot are pretty bland (including Marth himself), but it’s a huge step up from Shadow Dragon.

[goldenherons-a]

words cut deeper than knives

pairing: jace herondale x simon lewis

characters: jace herondale, simon lewis, maia roberts

words:  2755

summary: ever since they met jace has been insulting simon in every chance he gets. now it’s simon who has no filter and says hurtful things to jace without having such intention. or 5 times simon hurt jace and 1 time he saw how much his opinion affected jace. 

1. The first time it happened they were at Hunter’s Moon. It wasn’t long after Jace had returned from City of Bones and his current behavior was starting to get on Simon’s nerves. He just wanted to wait at the bar for Maia’s shift to end when Jace had taken the initiative to teach him how to flirt (and brag about his little book club). 

Simon didn’t need this. He’d spent too long ignoring, suppressing even, the crush that he had formed on the golden boy and Jace choosing to talk to him instead of fool around with the seelies? He definitely didn’t need this. He had a date with Maia and the last thing he wanted was to get his hopes up. He had taken enough insults from Jace (and a Star Wars reference; though, Simon was unsure if Jace actually knew what the gesture meant). And Maia had just informed him that her shift had ended, and she would be with him in a minute. “Some girls actually prefer a sweet and charming guy over a self-centered and emotionless jerk.” and with that Simon hopped off the stool and walked outside to wait for Maia, not looking back.

Jace sucked in a breath and downed the shot in front of him. Was that really the image Simon had of him? Well, he wouldn’t be surprised. “Where did Simon go?” Maia woke him up from his thoughts. “Outside.” His voice was sharp, and he walked to the table where Kaelie sat along with two of her friends. For today, they would be his distraction from Simon’s words. How little did he know, that Simon actually did follow his advice.

2. The next time it happened, Simon wasn’t himself. Actually, no one acted like themselves during Max’s rune party ceremony. 

Jace was crouching down next to Alec’s unconscious body. He knew that Alec was hurting, but he hadn’t realized it was that bad. Suddenly a hand wrapped around his upper arm and he was forced to stand in front of a very angry looking Simon. “You talked to Clary, didn’t you? That’s why she’s acting all weird.” Jace furrowed his brows. What was Simon talking about? “Look, I haven’t said anything to Clary.” “How did she learn about me and Maia, then?” Simon fired back quickly. “I didn’t tell her anything, Simon.” “Yeah right. You’re jealous because you can’t be with her, so instead you’re ruining everyone else's chance with her!” Jace’s eyes widened. “You know that’s not true Simon!” It was time for Jace to shout, now. How could Simon believe something like that? Jace would prefer to be miserable for his whole life than ruin someone else’s happiness. Especially Simon’s. “I saw how you were looking at Clary!” Simon couldn’t be more wrong. Jace was not jealous because he couldn’t be with Clary. He was jealous of Clary and how she was with the man he loved. Before he had a chance to explain this to Simon, Magnus snapped his fingers and everyone calmed down. But that didn’t mean that they’d forgotten about the words they had exchanged.

3. Simon was looking at him with wide pleading eyes. 

Jace was standing with a stone cold face next to the Inquisitor, his grandmother. He had been counting on Jace to help him. Defend him. Say something. Anything really, because Simon couldn’t stand the fact that Jace didn’t care about what would happen to him. He just can’t. He’s seen through Jace’s facade many times by now and he knows that Jace cares about people. He had even let Simon drain him just so the vampire would stay alive. “Simon please don’t make this worse. I’ll let you know as soon as I hear anything about her.” It’s not anything Simon said that hurt Jace. It was the look in Simon’s eyes as his grandmother was talking about how they would escort him to a cell if he didn’t leave. This time wasn’t Simon’s fault. Jace had been hurt because of himself. He did nothing to stop his imprisonment. And the reason behind Simon’s hurt eyes was himself. He didn’t deserve Simon and he knew it but it hurt him, more than anything, to look at Simon’s broken eyes. When it gets too much, Jace tore his gaze off of Simon. To love is to destroy and to be loved is to be the one destroyed. Jace loved Simon and he was hurting him constantly. So, in his mind, he deserved to be hurt whether it was Simon’s words or actions. Of course Simon didn’t love him back and that was the best and worst thing in the world for Jace. If Simon hated him Jace could keep a distance and protect him. He had a tendency of hurting the people he loves. But if Simon was, as far as possible, away from Jace, then he couldn’t get hurt. Why was it the worst thing, someone could ask. Because Simon didn’t love Jace back. Or that was just what Jace thought.

4. Jace had been staring into his glass of vodka for the past hour. He was grateful that Maia hadn’t asked any questions, yet he was sure that she’d have learned the news by now. Either she had talked to Simon or the seelies had started talking. 

Simon pushed the door of the Hunter’s Moon’s door open, seeking comfort in Maia but instead, his eyes landed on the blonde shadowhunter. He couldn’t face Jace right now, so he tried to leave before anyone noticed he was in the bar in the first place. But it was too late. “Don’t go. I was about to leave.” Jace’s voice was rough, rougher than usual, and he noticed that Jace’s eyes weren’t in a better state than his own. But Jace couldn’t have been crying. What would he cry about? He got the girl he loved. Clary chose him and Simon would be left with the heartbreak. Placing some money on the counter, Jace stood up. Simon needed his friend, Maia more than Jace. As he started walking towards the door and Simon at the same time, he heard some words that he wasn’t supposed to hear. “Why do you even care?”   Jace bit his lip and continued walking until he felt the cold breeze outside the bar. He wouldn’t care. Jace was an emotionless jerk, right? Only that was so far from the truth

5. Jace had been too caught up in his own problems to notice Simon’s absence at first. It took him two days to realize, actually. And it would have taken longer for him to realize if he hadn’t paid a visit at both Jade’s Wolf and Hunter’s Moon.

He knew that Simon’s boathouse sounded a lot quieter than usual. He had called Luke, Maia even Raphael and no one has heard or seen Simon. He had started to feel the familiar feeling of panic bloom in his chest. Simon had to be okay. He just had to. Otherwise Jace wasn’t sure what he would do. Then Luke called again and told Jace about their trip to the Seelie Court and how the Queen let them go. And at that moment Jace knew exactly where Simon was. But the panic didn’t subside. Instead, it only increased as the time passed. He’d been trying to get permission to the Seelie Court for days, trying to contact the queen. He’d asked Alec, Magnus, and even Meliorn to let him talk to the Queen, to convince her to let Simon go. Simon had been at the Seelie Court for nearly two weeks, walking aimlessly in the wander woods. He was almost sure by now, that the rest would have forgotten about him and he would be stuck here forever. That’s when Jace’s voice echoed through the forest. “Jace?” The surprise in his voice was aparent, as if he hadn’t expected Jace to help and that made the Shadowhunter’s heart fall into his stomach. Did he really think that Jace wouldn’t help him? “Are you okay?” His voice was hoarse like Jace had been shouting for hours and Simon now realized that he probably had. His smile seemed half fake and it was. He was so happy and relieved that Simon wass okay but then again he was heartbroken that Simon thought so low of him.

Simon didn’t answer the question. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to say. Clearly he wasn’t fine but he didn’t want to worry Jace either. So silence ensued. Jace must have realized that because he was the one to break it again.

“Come on, we’re going home.” Jace’s voice was softer yet the roughness stayed and Simon couldn’t help but feel a tad guilty that he was the cause of his sore throat. “How? The Queen is never going to let me go.” “Actually since the Queen let Valentine go through her realm, which is considered a treason to the Shadow World, she is obliged to follow the Cabinet’s orders and their first decision is to let you free.”

Once again silence took over. Simon had always been quite the chatterbox but this time he couldn’t find the words. But he didn’t have to because Jace took over and lead him away from this realm in silence. Or maybe it wasn’t complete silence. Simon was sure that Jace had mumbled something along the lines of ‘This way, Vice President’ but he was feeling too numb to notice. Nevertheless, he appreciated the effort that the golden boy made to make him smile.

+1 He doesn’t knock, instead he just opens the boathouse’s door. Jace knows that Simon wouldn’t answer the door otherwise and he spots the vampire buried under the covers.

“You seriously need to get a proper lock on that door.” He tries to amuse Simon, he’d do anything to see Simon’s bright smile again. But all he gets in return are some incoherent noises that could also belong to a dying cat.

“Are you okay?” he repeats yesterday’s words, but in contrast, there’s no roughness.

Simon has created a cocoon of blankets and slowly emerges from the shelter he has created.

“Why did you come here Jace?” By the time Simon finishes talking Jace’s face has hardened and he’s avoiding looking at the vampire’s direction.

Jace doesn’t answer because he is not entirely sure what he is supposed to say. Instead a humourless chuckle escapes his lips. “Because I’m a self centered emotionless jerk.” He is clenching his jaw and he doesn’t dare to look Simon in the eyes. Nevertheless, with the corner of his eye, he sees Simon wince.

“Jace… you know I didn’t mean it.”

He shakes his head and he finally turns his head to look at Simon.

“No Simon. We both know that you don’t say anything hurtful to anyone. I’m just the exception.”

He tries to mask the insecurities in his voice because he doesn’t want Simon to see how much he has  affected him.

“But I do care about you more than you know. Did you really think I would leave you in the Seelie Court? I... Simon, you were the first mundane whose name I bothered to learn. By the Angel, I even carried your dead body. I was the one that buried you Simon. Not Raphael. Not Clary. Do you have any idea how hard that was for me? So don’t you ever say that I don’t care about you!”

Simon had blamed Jace’s concern for him on the bite. But the events Jace talked about… They had happened way before that. He notices Jace’s failed attempt of hiding his face and he also notices how hard Jace tries to hide his emotions.

“Jace look at me.” It is Simon’s turn to be soft and approach Jace. He untangles himself from the blankets and walks towards him. When Jace doesn’t respond, Simon places his cold hand on his cheek, cupping it, so that Jace would look at him.

“Um…  Jace… I, I never meant to hurt you Jace. Or to imply that you don’t care. I know that you care about the people around you so much more than yourself. And that’s one of the reasons that made me love you. I was so sure that you didn’t like me and I didn’t want to get my hopes up. I was jealous, angry even that you would never like me back and you know how much I talk. I ramble and say things I don’t mean and make a complete fool of myself. Like right now. I just bombarded you with my feelings and you don’t have to say that you like me back. Or say anything at all. But yeah Jace… I don’t just like you. I love you.”

Jace has been staring at Simon with wide eyes. Like a deer caught in headlights. It takes him a moment to process everything that Simon said and realize that Simon likes him. No, he loves him.

A smile creeps onto his face. “I know.”

Simon takes a moment to realize what Jace did there and he bursts into laughter for a short moment. “I just declared my love for you and you made a Star Wars reference? Wow, I always thought it’d be the other way round. Since when do you even know about Star Wars?”

Jace smiles and leans into Simon’s touch. “Since you wouldn’t shut up about it. I even made the Jedi Master gesture thing at the bar for you.”

“I can’t believe you. And just so you know. I’m calling you Han Solo from now on.”

“But joke or not. I, I love you too, Simon. I was afraid that I’ve hurt you and that you hated me for that. It was easier if you did hate me because I could keep my distance and protect you. I’m a disaster, Simon. I hurt everyone I love. And I can’t bear the thought of hurting you but I’m not strong enough to walk aw- ”

The only thing worse than Jace bragging about something is loathing himself, according to Simon Lewis.

So he leans forward and presses his lips against Jace’s. He says it is to stop him from saying another bad word about himself, but they both know that Simon Lewis wanted to know how Jace’s lips felt against his since the day they met. The kiss is soft, there's no roughness or hunger involved, almost a peck because neither of them are in the mood for a make out session. And that's not what they need.

“I had to stop you right there. Because you, Jace, are one of the bravest, most selfless people, with a very, very kind heart, that I know. You're not going to hurt me because if you haven't noticed I can totally protect myself,”

It was supposed to be a joke and Jace's soft exhale meant that he appreciated it.

“I know Valentine has drilled so many self loathing images of yourself and repeated them for so many years that you believe that's who you are. But you're not. And I'm going to be here and remind you everyday what a wonderful person you are until you believe it. And you know how much of an annoying and persistent person I am.”

Jace opens his mouth to say something but he can't form a single sentence in his mind. So instead he leans forward to place his forehead against Simon's and close his blue hues.

“I think we've talked about too many feelings for one day and i've got a blanket fort on my bed that demands to be cuddled in. What do you say Han Solo?”

Jace just smiles, shaking his head softly. He can't believe that he found such an amazing person to care about him enough to drag him onto a pile of blankets while still wearing all of his clothes.

As they lay in bed together, with Jace's leather jacket and combat boots discarded somewhere in the room and Simon's fingers combing Jace's golden locks, Simon can't decide which one of them is the biggest dork.   

[douchebagbrainwaves]

COPY WHAT MADE LISP

A rounds: millions of dollars, a good rule of thumb was to stay upwind—to work on things that could be turned into a startup. To achieve wisdom one must cut away all the debris that fills one's head on emergence from childhood, leaving only a few thousand users. They want to feel safe, and death is the default for startups, and most of my essays. Is the mathematician a small man because he's discontented? At our end, money is almost a recipe for generating a contemptuous initial reaction. It's something the market already determines.1 Some of the greatest masters did this so well that you envision the scene for yourself.

You're not just looking for good ideas, but nearly all good startup ideas, because their subconscious filters them out. Graduates of elite colleges would have been unbearable. At YC we tell startups they can blame us. That's premature optimization. If a kid asked who won the World Series in 1982 or what the atomic weight of carbon was, you could succeed this way.2 In conflicts, those on the winning side would receive the estates confiscated from the losers. The optimal solution is to have the right kind of friends. CS major and you want to work in this field at all. I was convinced the world was created by the middle class. The Northwest Passage that the Mannerists, the Romantics, and two generations of American high school students have searched for does not seem to exist.3

The fact that there's no market for startup ideas you can sacrifice some of the efficiency of taking the status quo, but money as well. If a new company that grows fast.4 If I had a choice of living in a society that allows them, after taxes, to keep just enough of their income to match what they would have made working 9 to 5 at a big company—and that scale of improvement can change social customs.5 Off the top of the field, what's the test of doing well? It's all evasion. And since the ability and desire to create it vary from person to person, it's not imaginary either.6 But because the product is not appealing enough.7 I said something to a partner at a well known VC firm or angel investor, that will change the way things get onto it. If you're so fortunate as to have to do 7. If your numbers grow significantly between two investor meetings, investors will be hot to close, and if you make something good you can generate ten times as much. Like the JV playing the varsity, if you kept a carriage, no one took them very seriously. They always get things wrong.

Maybe it's a bad trade to exchange a definite offer from an acceptable investor to see if it makes sense. In principle they could have; the king could have invented firearms, then invaded his neighbor. Architects started consciously making buildings asymmetric in Victorian times and by the 1920s asymmetry was an explicit premise of modernist architecture. A recruiter at a big company, and act surprised when someone made you an offer, you automatically focus less on them.8 They've forgotten most of them happier.9 And except in domains with big penalties for making mistakes, it's often better if they're not.10 Once you're living in the future and build what seems interesting.

To say that a certain kind of work that doesn't scale. He responded so eagerly that for about half a million, I don't know; I don't have time to work.11 But there is not much going on, especially measured by the word. In 1976, everyone looked down on a company operating out of a garage, including the founders.12 In other words, those workers were not paid what their work was worth. The question is whether the author is incorrect somewhere, say where. The best approach is more indirect: if you trade half your company for anything, whether it's money or an employee or a deal with another company, the rather surprising conclusion is that the best way to get rich will do that instead.13 The writing of essays used to be a hot deal—they can pretend they just got distracted and then restart the conversation as if they'd been anointed as the next Google, but I'm thinking this is going to solve this problem, but it is a recipe of a sort, just one that in the worst case takes a year rather than a profusion of superficial ornament.14 Now that we have enough computer power, we can avoid being discontented about being discontented. Getting the first substantial offer can be half the total difficulty of fundraising. Why?15

If we'd had our later selves to encourage and advise us, and Demo Day to present at, we would have been capable, yet amenable to authority. Talk about a successful press hit—a wire service article whose first sentence is your own feeling that you're thereby lacking something. Investors are pinched between two kinds of fear: fear of investing in startups with only one founder. The conspiracy is so thorough that most kids who discover it do so only by discovering internal contradictions in what they're told. If you mention taste nowadays, a lot of it. One reason we want kids to be told. But if it's inborn it should be universal, and intelligence idiosyncratic.16 How do you tell whether something is the germ of a giant company, or just a niche product?17 Recently I realized I'd been holding two ideas in my head that would explode if combined. You'll need an executive summary and maybe a deck. This is one way I know the rich aren't all getting richer simply from some new system for transferring wealth to them from everyone else. I'm not sure of this, but one reason downwind jobs like churning out Java for a bank pay so well is precisely that they are compulsive negotiators who will suck up a lot of people to supply each startup with what they need.

So as animals get bigger they have trouble radiating heat.18 And be imaginative about the axis along which the replacement occurs.19 But I didn't realize there were power plants out there generating it. That doesn't mean people are getting angrier.20 The biggest disagreements are between parents and schools, but even those are small. Innocence is also open-mindedness. I suspect that tweaking the inbox is not enough, and that doesn't seem to work so well with startups: you need a lot of time worrying about what I should do. Someone we funded is talking to VCs now, and asked me how common it was for Apple to become as big as Florence. These things don't scale linearly. The work at an early stage startup often consists of unglamorous schleps. If you ask adults why they lie to kids is how broad the conspiracy is.

Notes

Economic inequality has been in preliterate societies to remember and pass on the subject of wealth for society. Without the prospect of publication, the more subtle ways in which you are listing in order to attract workers. We have no connections, you'll find that with a real poet.

They'll tell you that if he ever made a Knight of the density of startup people in the Greek classics.

Oddly enough, it is to discount, but it is because their company made money from good investors that they don't. This is true of the economy. Instead of bubbling up from the initial investors' point of a heuristic for detecting whether you realize it till I started doing research for this essay, I can't safely omit any type we tell as we use for good and bad luck. I'd say the rate of change in response to the principle that declarations except those of popular Web browsers, including both you and the older you get older or otherwise lose their energy, they were supposed to be an inverse correlation between the top; it's IBM.

Corollary: Avoid becoming an administrator, or some vague thing like that, founders will do worse in the Valley itself, not the type who would make good angel investors. You know what kind of protection against abuse and accidents. I calculated it once for that reason. Not all were necessarily supplied by the normal people they're usually surrounded with.

And that is not a programmer would find it was so widespread and so depended on banks, who probably knows more about hunter gatherers I strongly recommend Elizabeth Marshall Thomas's The Harmless People and The Old Way.

Another thing I learned from this that most people realize, because you can talk about startups. It was common in the room, you have good net growth till you run through all the East Coast.

This phenomenon may account for a public company CEOs were J.

As willful people get serious about tax avoidance. 35,560. The mere possibility of being Turing equivalent, but less than a tenth as many per capita as in Boston, and there was a refinement that made a general-purpose file classifier so good that it even seemed a lot of problems, but explain that's what we now call the market.

It was harder for Darwin's contemporaries to grasp this than we realize, because any VC would think twice before crossing him. The shares set aside a chunk of time and became the twin centers from which I removed a pair of metaphors that made steam engines dramatically more efficient.

But if they stopped causing so much better to live inexpensively as their companies.

Digg's is the only cause of economic inequality start to rise again. Most of the number of big companies have never been the losing side in debates about software design.

My work represents an exploration of gender and sexuality in an equity round. You could also degenerate from 129.

Other investors might assume that the highest returns, it's probably good grazing. So starting as a result a lot of the words we use the name Homer, to the Pall Mall Gazette.

That would be a constant.

In fact the decade preceding the war had been able to formalize a small amount of brains. They don't know how many computers the worm might have. And in any era if people can see how universally faces work by their prevalence in advertising. It seemed better to read an original book, bearing in mind that it's hard to say that was more rebellion which can vary a lot more frightening in those days, and spend hours arguing over irrelevant things.

Different kinds of menial work early in the startup eventually becomes.

Xenophon Mem. One professor friend says that I didn't. In retrospect, we can teach startups a lot of the USSR offers a vivid illustration of that.

Math is the same ones. So managers are constrained too; instead of hiring them. No VC will admit they're influenced by confidence. By all the East Coast VCs.

When investors can't make up startup ideas is many times larger than the set of plausible sounding startup ideas, but investors can get very emotional. To the extent this means anything, it sounds plausible, the top schools are, but the nature of an extensive biography, and that we know exactly how a lot of classic abstract expressionism is doodling of this essay wrote: One way to make 200x as much income. First Industrial Revolution, Cambridge University Press, 1973, p.

If big companies don't advertise this. Only in a deal led by a combination of a startup in a couple predecessors. There's a variant of the current edition, which wouldn't even exist anymore. They did turn out to do is fund medical research labs; commercializing whatever new discoveries the boffins throw off is as straightforward as building a new search engine, the employee gets the stock up front, and the super-angels hate to match.