Starshard0's Super Blog

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T05:00:00.000-07:00

Enjoy this picture of a bunny!

Hey everyone, I've been having a pretty solid vacation, although I'm not looking forward to going back to work in the least. Hopefully you're having a decent April as well.

I'm planning on leaving tomorrow and should be arriving early Tuesday morning. Then I'll start looking for a house, and hopefully I'll have internet in time to start regular posting on the blog.

Starshard0's Super Road Trip

2011-04-16T06:18:00.001-07:00

I've never been much for road trips. Being prone to carsickness, I was always incredibly bored as a kid because I couldn't read or play video games during the ride. Also my dad listened to country music the whole time.

So when I was faced with the prospect of a 20 hour trip from New York to Minnesota, I wasn't exactly what you'd call excited. Being in the car, with nothing but the radio for company, it didn't sound like a lot of fun. And it wasn't. But in the end I made it with no problems. Here are some of the things I learned on my trip:

I-90 is one big toll road

Whether you call it the New York Thruway or the Ohio Turnpike, I-90 ate up all the cash I had on me as I meandered through the Northwest Territories. I did end up getting some cool dollar coins as change though.

The Angola Travel Plaza in Angola New York is staffed exclusively by Asians

Nothing wrong with that, I was just confused. The Travel Plaza is basically a huge rest stop with a McDonald's and a Denny's and some other restaurants. I got a chicken wrap while I was there from a wrap place.

Big cities are impressive to drive through

I managed to pass through Buffalo, Cleveland, and Chicago, and each one had awesome buildings to show off. The closest I'd been to the Sears Tower previously had been when I had a stop at O'Hare.

Sleeping in a car is no fun

At least in the front seat. Unfortunately during my return drive the back seat will be full of boxes.

In closing

I expect my return drive to be a little more fun since I'll have my wife to keep me company and serve as my navigatress (a word I admittedly made up). Does anyone have any advice for making a road trip not suck?

Leaving for Leave

2011-04-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I won't be posting much (if at all) during the month of April, since it's my vacation. Mostly I'll be spending time with my wife and looking for a house. Also I'll be doing P90X, so I'll let you all know how it turns out.

Let's Get Classy this Thursday

2011-03-31T05:00:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, I found some cool links on deployment that you may already know about, but in case you don't:

First, open three tabs in your browser.

Second, open this.

Third, open this.

Fourth, open this.

Finally, get classy!

Political Talk Radio Blows My Mind

2011-03-30T05:00:00.000-07:00

I was riding with a friend the other day, and he was listening to a conservative talk radio show. I've never actually listened to a political talk show before, and I've only ever heard parodies. To be honest I couldn't tell the difference.

I can only vaguely remember what the issue was, but it was something involving Israel. I'm not going to try to get to in-depth about it, since the whole purpose of this post is to explain why I dislike political talk radio.

First things first, most of what political pundits put out is false. The whole purpose of punditry is predictions, and unless these people have a (working) crystal ball, then odds are they're going to be wrong as much, if not more, than they're right. Here is an article that claims that political pundits are no more accurate than someone picking randomly. And here is another article which claims that the more famous a pundit is, the less accurate his predictions are.

That right there ought to turn you off talk radio forever. You should probably steer clear of TV pundits too while you're at it.

Spening Your Tax Return Not Stupidly

2011-03-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

Filing date is actually April 18 this year.

For some reason, I really enjoy doing my taxes. For that particular reason, I never put it off any longer than I have to. This year I didn't get much of a return because I didn't pay a lot of taxes because I was overseas. Most people will tell you that it's not good to get a return because the money was yours and you let the government borrow it interest free. That's not what this post is about though.

No, today I'm going to discuss what you can do with your tax return that won't make you look like an idiot. First some suggestions about what NOT to buy:

Anything with a big screen

-This includes TVs, smart phones, iPads, and gaming devices. Most electronics with big screens are overpriced and not terribly useful. A giant-screen TV might look awesome, but in the end it's still just a TV.

A motorcycle

-Unless it's going to be your primary means of transportation.

A boat

-Unless you're going to live in it and sell your house.

A pool

-Unless it's a foot deep and for your kids, and even then...

Anything that requires you to borrow money to pay for part of it

-I think that actually covers most of the former items.

Okay, I think that about covers everything you shouldn't buy, now onto the good part, what you should be using that money for:

Pay off your debt

-And if you don't have any debt...

Invest it in something

-And if you're already rich...

Give to charity?

-Not really my kind of thing, but you did say you were rich.Otherwise...

Go ahead and pick one of the items from the top list, or whatever else you were going to buy

-I can't really argue with someone whose already out of debt and has a decent amount of money tucked away.

So there you have it, several ways to spend your money that won't make me laugh at you. One really cool thing you can do is buy "I" bonds directly from the treasury with your return. Turbo Tax did it all for me automatically, but if you're doing your taxes manually there's a form you have to fill out. I think it might be the same one that you use for direct deposit.

Viva Tropico!

2011-03-28T05:00:00.000-07:00

Before you freak out, I don't have the Mac version.

Over the weekend, I spent a lot of time playing Tropico and Tropico 2: Pirate's Cove. I would have played 3, unfortunately, my computer is a netbook and barely understands the concept of 3D gaming. I'll be primarily focusing on Tropico, because it's what I spent the most time playing.

The Story

You play as the dictator of a small island in the Caribbean. That pretty much sums it up. When you first begin a map, you pick the traits that flesh out your background, such as how you got to power, your strengths, and your weaknesses. Strengths are pretty straightforward, like Hardworking or Financial Genius, and the weaknesses can be pretty entertaining, although they usually hurt your relationship with different factions. Speaking of factions, onto...

The Gameplay

Once again, gameplay is king when it comes to playing games. In this case, Tropico is similar to other city building type sims out there in that you place buildings and try to keep everyone happy, or at least happy enough to not revolt. One interesting feature that shows up more in RTSs than city building games is the real-time construction of buildings. When you place a building it's not actually built right away. You have to wait for your workers to flatten the land and actually construct it.

In order to not lose, you have to maintain a good relationship with the factions. These include the environmentalists, the intellectuals, communists, etc. Obviously it's difficult to get on excellent terms with everyone, so usually I just pick a faction or two and try to convert the majority of people to that faction.

The ultimate goal of the game, besides just avoiding a coup, is to make everyone as happy as possible, with as much money in the treasury as possible, and with the biggest presidential slush fund possible. When you start a map, you can select one or all of these goals and that will affect your score at the end of your time in office, which you can also adjust at the beginning of the game. Adjusting the starting conditions affects your score at the end by multiplying it by a percentage to obtain your final score.

The Graphics

Tropico's graphics are similar to the games in PopTop's other series, Railroad Tycoon, specifically Railroad Tycoon II. That said, they're not bad, but they're not exactly Avatar either. As I've said before, graphics get a free pass from me as long as I can tell what I'm doing in the game.

The Controls

Tropico uses the mouse along with keyboard shortcuts, like most RTS games. Being able to adjust the speed on the fly means that you don't really need to race the clock in order to win, and can focus on a good building strategy.

The Music

I usually don't write about music in my reviews, but I have to at least mention that the Tropico soundtrack is awesome. According to Wikipedia, the game features Latin-styled Dominican music. I'm not entirely sure what that means, but you'll certainly never get bored with it.

The Issues

I didn't find any bugs during my time playing, and my only real complaint is that building things seems to take quit a long time, even on the very fast speed setting. That's just mean whining though, since it probably does take a long time to build and airport using just some shovels and hammers.

The Conclusion

If you've never played Tropico before, I highly suggest it. Especially if you're a fan of city building sims or even RTSs.

Patience is a Virtue

2011-03-24T16:16:00.000-07:00

Yes, people say it a lot, but it's really true. If you can't be patient, then life's going to be a lot harder than it has to be. Take for example, waiting for a computer that won't arrive for over a month. If you can't manage to deal with that, then when much more difficult things happen (say, you have to spend a year in Afghanistan) you won't have to capacity to deal with them.

Being patient sucks. Nobody likes sitting around waiting to get what they want. Still, it's a fact of life (unless you're super rich, and even then) so you have to get used to it.

In other news, my computer is currently delayed due to a back order on the heat sink fan. It should be here by early May. This actually turns out to be a good thing though, since no one will be here to receive it for the next month anyways. As always, my trusty netbook is on life support.

In other other news, leave is rapidly approaching, and I'll finally get to see my wife again, as I'm sure I've mentioned several times in the past. As excited as I am to finally see her, I'm not to pumped about the 20+ hour drive I'll have to make there and back. Road trips are not my thing.

Man, all this waiting really does suck.

The Afghanistan Diaries: Epilogue

2011-03-23T05:07:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone. Sorry about the recent dearth of posts. I've finally returned to the United States, where the streets are paved and the toilets flush. I've been getting settled in the past week and a half, and attempting to not go crazy from the gaming overload. Although to be honest, I looked at the selection at my local Gamestop, and I'm convinced that not a single good game came out in the year I was gone. If someone disagrees, please let me know because I'm desperate to find something I can really get in to.

In work news, we're only doing half days until April, which is when I go on leave. Thank goodness. Also in April, I will finally see my wife for the first time since last summer. Additionally, I'll be moving her out to live with me for the first time since 2007 (has it been that long?). I don't expect to make too many updates between now and going on leave, but stranger things have happened.

I apparently have a PT test right after my 30 days of leave, which basically means that rather than relaxing and trying to forget that past year, I'll have to work out every day in order to be in good enough shape to past. Yay Army! I do plan on taking some time every day to write a post, either about my progress or one of the topics I usually talk about.

Thanks for reading, and please stay tuned for more updates!

The Afghanistan Diaries: Final Countdown Edition

2011-03-04T05:00:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! My title should have given it away, but I'll be out of here soon. It's been a crazy year, but it's finally almost over. Soon I'll see my wife and my family again, and I'll get to drive and play (more) computer games and wear actual clothes. Also I'll have weekends. And good food.

My new computer plans are currently on hold, since trying to order stuff while I'm deployed is kind of a hassle. In the meantime, I'm still using my netbook on life-support. I'll probably continue using it until April. Minecraft will have to wait I suppose.

The Afghanistan Diaries: Sporadic Updates Edition

2011-02-17T05:00:00.000-08:00

Today's post brought to you by the Creeper.

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, my computer is on life support. I'm still on the hunt for my new gaming rig, but it's starting to wind down. My current plan is to order a custom PC from cyberpowerpc.com so I don't have to worry about screwing up the assembly. However, in the spirit of learning the important skill of computer building, I've decided to build my wife a scaled-down (read: much less powerful) computer so we don't have to compete for screen time. That, and if I build her a computer then we won't need a TV.

On Minecraft

I talked about Minecraft a while back, and not being able to play is definitely starting to wear on me. I've resorted to watching "Let's Play" videos of other people playing. All the watching, of course, has made me want to make my own "Let's Play" when I finally actually get to play. I'll give it some more thought when I get back to the States, and I'll ensure any videos I make get posted to the blog. That's probably the only place people will watch them anyways.

My character!

Recombobulating the Blog

While there might not be any outward signs, I've been working hard behind the scenes to improve your experience here at Starshard0's Super Blog. Most of the changes focus on the focus of my blog. While I've advertised in the past that I cover gaming, money, and politics, I don't really keep up with politics as much as I'd like to, and I stick to older and indie games which I imagine most people aren't interested in.

With that in mine, I'm thinking of moving more towards the "Personal Blog" style of blog, so I can justify talking about the random things I like to talk about. If you have any thoughts on the matter, please let me know in the comments.

Other Good News

I'm pretty stoked because the first wave of our replacements arrived, meaning we can finally start shifting our workload to them (yeah right!). It does mean I'm that much closer to going home now. In fact, we're scheduled to fly out in under a month. I'm not exactly counting down the days yet, but I do plan on ordering that PC I mentioned earlier pretty soon.

The Afghanistan Diaries: Making it Work Edition

2011-02-05T05:00:00.000-08:00

I finally got wi-fi in my room. You might be wondering how I managed that with a broken computer. Well I'll tell you. First, I borrowed a TV/monitor from a guy I work with. Second, I borrowed a VGA cable from a guy who lives in the room next door. Then, I hooked it all up to my broken computer, and voila, I have a functional computer again. For now at least.

My quest for a new computer has been both fruitful and expensive. I'm still not entirely sure if I want to build it myself or just buy a custom computer. I imagine that building it myself would be slightly more cost effective, but is it worth the hassle of trying to put together a computer on my own? If you have any opinions on the subject, please make them known in the comments section.

In other news, I should be going home soon. I'm currently looking at my housing options, and hopefully I'll find a nice place for me and my wife. I'm not looking forward to jumping right back into regular work when I get back, but at least it's better than being in Afghanistan.

The Afghanistan Diaries: Winding Down Edition

2011-01-29T05:00:00.000-08:00

Sorry about the recent lack of posting. My schedule has been pretty crazy with all this end of deployment nonsense. Don't let the title of this post fool you, I'm not winding down at all. I was actually in the process of writing another entry where I praised the merits of becoming a Fobbit again, but never found the time to actually complete it due to the aforementioned crazy schedule.

A Lost Friend

Something like this.

Don't worry, it's nothing like that. I just ended up breaking my computer's screen through my own foolishness (I left an iPod Shuffle on the keyboard when I closed it). I'm not too bummed out about it, since it was only a $300 computer and I can still recover all the files on it if I plug it into a monitor, but I am upset that I can no longer play Minecraft, which leads me to...

A New Obsession

Minecraft. Just Minecraft. This is, along with Wurm Online and Dwarf Fortress, one of the greatest games I have ever played. Ever since I discovered it, I haven't been able to put it down. Until now anyways, without a computer, I have to wait until I get back to the States and get my new desktop PC to really dig into it. The anticipation is already starting to kill me.

Totally player made.

Also, Minecraft has sort of been cutting into my blogging schedule. Maybe the loss of my computer's screen was a good thing after all...

Behold the Awesome

2011-01-29T02:05:00.000-08:00

The new header is finished and up. I think it looks great! Many thanks to Sean Thorne of thornewerx.com for the excellent design.

When Your Pageview Chart Looks Like a Mountain

2011-01-19T05:00:00.000-08:00

I just checked out the stats helpfully provided to me by Blogger. I haven't looked at them in awhile, probably not since November. Looking at them kind of bummed me out, because while most bloggers probably have a pageview count chart that looks something like this:

Mine looked like this:

It's kind of bummer to think about all that time spent writing with few people reading. It's not exactly unreasonable though, since I was doing missions and not really writing much from late November to early January. I can't expect people to read stuff that doesn't exist.

In the meantime, I'll be resuming my normal blogging schedule. Hopefully readership will pick up again. What would you do if you realized no one was actually reading your blog?

Financial Goals You Should Set This Year

2011-01-18T05:00:00.000-08:00

As I've mentioned previously, 2011 is here and it's not going anywhere. You've probably already got tons of resolutions this year, but feel free to add a few new ones about some financial stuff you should knock out this year:

Get out of debt

If you've got a lot of debt, this might be a multi-year thing. If you've just got a little bit though, you should focus on getting rid of that ASAP.

Save some money

If you don't have any money in your savings account, you should probably work on that.

Open and fully fund an IRA

I wrote a post about IRAs in the past. One goal you should set for this year is to open (if you don't have one) and fully fund a traditional IRA or Roth IRA. Get Rich Slowly has an excellent post that explains how and where to open a Roth IRA.

Fund your employer-sponsored retirement plan

At least fund it enough to get matching contributions if your employer offers that. Mine doesn't :(

Spend less than you earn

This should probably be at the top of the list, but seriously, how hard is it to spend less than you earn?

Sports Games

2011-01-17T05:00:00.000-08:00

It's Monday, and in my attempt to get back into regular blogging after being tossed about on missions for that past few months it's time for a post about video games. Today's topic is sports games, a genre of video games I rarely touch. In fact, the only reason I've been playing NCAA Football 2011 at all is because the only other game available is Black Ops, which isn't really my cup of tea.

Past Experiences

Although I've played sports games before, I never really got into them with the fervor that a lot of sports games fans have. It might be because I don't really know a lot of the rules of most sports. For example, I didn't learn there was a "shot clock" in basketball until just last year. Of the sports games I've played in the past, most of them are of the Mario variety (Mario Tennis, Mario Golf). I like the RPG-like system that allows you to improve your skills and work your way up by practicing. So when I heard that there was a similar system in NCAA Football 2011 I was actually intrigued.

It's called Road to Glory mode, and essentially you pick one player and you only get to play as that player. If you create a new player you start at the high school playoffs and have to work every game to improve your caliber (skill level) and impress college scouts. For my most recent (and successful) playthrough, I chose to be a wide receiver.

Road to Glory

My career is chronicled by a female sportscaster named Erin Andrews. The game makes a big deal about it, but I've never heard of her. Of course, the only experience I have with actually watching sports is when it's on TV while I'm eating in the chow hall.

During my in-game college career, I have to maintain my grades (by going to library), but I also have to opportunity to improve my game by going to the gym, studying the playbook, or visiting the trainer. It vaguely reminds me of a dating sim, minus the dating.

RPG-like Elements

Behold the awesome!

As I mentioned earlier, my favorite sports games are the kind that allow you to improve your skills and get an edge on the competition. For the most part, this was mostly limited to Mario sports games and some other games, like SSX and various golf games, where you can purchase skill points for your character to improve your performance. As a fan of RPGs, the availability of this feature can make or break a game for me.

It's not limited to sports games though. Racing games and first-person shooters are made a lot more fun as well. I can't tell you how much time I've sunk into Borderlands or even Need for Speed: Underground. Probably not as much as I've sunk into RPGs proper, but it's still a lot.

In Closing

That about wraps it up for this week. Next Monday I might do a review of NCAA Football 2011, but hopefully I'll have something even more awesome in store. Keep your eyes peeled.

2010 In Blogging and Other Stuff

2011-01-13T05:00:00.000-08:00

2010 will forever be remembered as the year I started blogging hardcore. Despite some rough patches, like not being able to blog while being on back-to-back missions these past couple months, I think I've done a pretty good job. My new header picture is on it's way, and I'm currently in a position where I'll have more time to spend writing.

The Good

The good news is that my blog is here to stay. It's not going to end when I get back to the states, although the topics might change since the Afghanistan Diaries won't make sense if I write them from the comfort of my home.

If you've never blogged or written a substantial amount of words before, then know that it can be quite a challenge. I was never much for writing in school, but I'm pretty proud of the work I've managed to put into this blog in such a short time.

The Bad

Back-to-back missions killed my posting schedule and probably any reader base I had accumulated. My goal in 2011 is to get lots of people reading and commenting on my blog. How do I plan to do that? Your guess is as good as mine.

The Ugly

Have you seen my picture? Man, talk about ugly.

2010 In Review

2011-01-11T05:00:00.000-08:00

Just pretend he's looking back on the last couple of years.

With 2010 now happily behind us, we're all looking forward towards an awesome future in 2011. Over the past two years I've managed to accomplish quite a few things, and I'm going to list them for your enjoyment.

In 2009...

I completed language school

I didn't foresee it actually happening, but somehow I managed to pull myself together and actually pass the final test. As if learning Arabic wasn't hard enough, there was also all the extra Army stuff I had to deal with.

I obtained my AA degree

Another thing I wasn't exactly expecting. Through a combination of passing the final test of language school, getting good enough grades throughout my time there, CLEPing out of several subjects, and having taken AP courses in high school, I managed to scrape enough credits together to get an AA degree. I know it's not much, but geez, I can't believe I actually have a degree.

I completed advanced individual training

And I thought the language stuff was hard. AIT was like language training on steroids. Couple that with the fact that the Army stuff stepped up considerably and you've got a recipe for failure. Somehow I managed to pull together and pass the course.

Then in 2010...

I deployed to Afghanistan

Talk about rough. I didn't really like the Army before, but this pretty much cemented my feelings. It wasn't all bad though, I get a little bit of extra money which will help me on my way towards financial independence.

I actually went on missions

Man, as if sitting on a FOB wasn't bad enough, I started actually leaving it. This job is definitely not for me.

My net worth hit ~$80,000

In the grand scheme of things, that's not much, but I'm definitely on track.

And now in 2011...

I have to get a place to live

So I'm scouring Craigslist and the rest of the internet looking for apartments on the cheap. It doesn't do me much good to get back from deployment only to blow my savings on an expensive place.

I have to get a phone

I'm thinking of getting a pay-as-you-go cell phone, since I don't make a lot of calls but so people can call me if they need to. I'll have to look into the details once I'm back in the states.

My net worth should hit ~$100k

But it would be awesome if I could do better than that. Hopefully by keeping expenses low I'll be able to do so.

And that wraps it up for my year(s) in review.

A Brief Overview of the Mission

2011-01-02T05:00:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, I didn't take any notes on this past mission, but I do remember it pretty vividly.

The Facts

We walked about 5 km, if I remember correctly. That may not sound like much, but on uneven terrain (mostly tilled farmland) with ~100 lbs of gear it can get pretty miserable. Of course, this distance was covered over about five days, which made it a lot more bearable.

We pushed into an area that is apparently famous because even the soviets never made it that far. Of course, the soviets would have had no reason to attempt to take this particular land because there's not much there.

I must have eaten around 8-10 MREs, as well as plenty of local Afghan cuisine courtesy of the Afghan police.

My Thoughts

I am desperately out of shape for an Army dude. I also complain a lot. The two may be interrelated.

Officers appear to have no clue what they're doing most of the time. Maybe they act like that on purpose or maybe they're just truly incompetent, I don't know. I do know that we ended up in a lot of ridiculous situations that could have been avoided with some proper planning. Apparently when the higher-ups espouse good planning it only applies to us lower enlisted folks (note the term "lower").

I'm sick of Afghanistan. I've seen enough. I don't want to go on any more pointless missions and I want to go home. Heck, I'm sick of the Army in general, I can't wait until I get out.

In Closing

Basically, I'm going to be doing missions until we go home. Don't expect too much new material unless something changes.

Back Temporarily

2011-01-01T19:00:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone. Happy New Year! I'm back from a ridiculous mission that involved a lot of walking with ~100 lbs of gear. I hope the end of 2010 was better for everyone else. I'll be back, possibly for a couple days, before I rotate back out.

No Rest For the Weary

2010-12-25T19:00:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, I'm back, but not for long. After a 12 day mission that lasted right up until Christmas afternoon, I'll be heading out again for another long mission within a couple days. This is allegedly the last big push of the year, so hopefully I'll get more opportunities to post once it's over. Merry belated Christmas to everyone, and I can't wait to do some good writing in the new year.

The Afghanistan Diaries: Upping the Tempo Edition

2010-12-11T05:00:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone. We finally got back from our mission on Thursday. I'm starting to notice a disturbing trend in the estimated time for the mission and the actual time it takes. We were supposed to get back on Monday. I didn't write right away because the tempo has really stepped up around here and there's a lot more that needs to get done. Needless to say, my computer time has been drastically reduced.

Luckily for me, I didn't get sent on our most recent mission, so I have a little bit of time to catch up on e-mails and blogging. Unfortunately, I should be heading out again soon, so I likely won't have too much new material. If the missions ever slow down like they're supposed to then maybe I'll finally be able to get back into the habit.

The weather has really take a turn for the cold here, and our "snivel gear" has been coming out of hiding to keep us warm. The porch we generally hang out on has become empty at night, as well all huddle into our truck/office to keep warm. On missions it's even worse, since the only warm place we have is our sleeping bags, and we can't exactly stay in those all the time (people will yell at us).

On this past mission I got to hang and fire an 81mm IR illumination round, which I don't normally do because I'm not a mortar man. I also got grilled about why I don't celebrate Christmas. People were shocked to find out I was so "cheap". They were also shocked to find out I was atheist. To each his own I guess.

But yeah, that's it for this week. I hope that I can find more time to write and blog in the near future, but I don't know how likely it is and I don't want to make any promises. In case I miss it, Merry Christmas everyone!

The Afghanistan Diaries: Rockin' Out Again

2010-12-03T05:00:00.000-08:00

By the time this gets posted I should already be out on yet another mission. It's supposed to only last a few days (I've heard that one before), so hopefully I'll be back in time for next week's posts.

This week went by pretty quick. I ordered Rune Factory 3, which everyone else here has and is already playing. I'm pretty excited to get into a new DS game. I got to the end of Final Fantasy VIII, but couldn't beat the final boss and just gave up. I've beaten it in the past and it just doesn't have that much replay value that I feel the need to grind in order to finish it. I started a new game of Final Fantasy VII, but promptly returned the PSP so I'm not caught between two games when Rune Factory 3 arrives.

This week was mostly spent playing Escape Velocity. I play "strict" mode which means that when I die, my save file is deleted and I have to start again. It can get pretty maddening, but I've found it's the only way to prevent myself from save scumming.

I had to pack my bags yet again since a new packing list was released. This one is just as physically impossible as any other I've ever received, and the thought of dumping them out in order to check for contraband is incredibly frustrating. It's hard enough packing them without the added stress of having to hurry.

Like I said earlier, I'll be gone for a few days, so I'll see you all when I get back.

The Future of My Blog

2010-12-02T05:00:00.000-08:00

As you all might know, my computer resources in Afghanistan are limited. I can't download any programs, upload any pictures, and my bandwidth and actual computer time is determined by how many people are using the computers at any one time.

All of these factors combined have resulted in some pretty lackluster blogging. It also prevents me from really working on a template myself, and limits my options for self-hosting my blog. As I stand poised to return to the United States (in a few months), I also stand ready to make some major changes around my blog.

Once I have access to a computer of my own, I'll be able to design my own logo and template, as well as having more free time to work on posts and carving out my niche here in the blogosphere (do the kids still say that?). Obviously, this is all going to take some time since I'll have to learn about web design and probably some programming that I'm not currently familiar with. I'll probably also take some creative writing courses at the local community college or online.

I'd like to thank everyone for their continued support as I work to make my blog actually readable, and I hope you'll all follow me into the next step on my blogging career. If it's true that 80% of bloggers quit their blog within a month, then I think it's pretty clear that I'm in it for the long haul.

-Starshard0

America Voted...

2010-12-01T05:00:00.000-08:00

And I guess the Republicans won or something. I seriously have not been following politics much since I got to Afghanistan. The only exposure I have is when the news is on while I'm eating chow. I guess I could research it myself online, but I have better things to do. Like writing this blog.

Pictured: Better things to do.

You may or may not be wondering whether I participated in the vote. I did not. There are multiple reasons for that, mainly that the state I'm a resident of isn't really the state I'm from and also voting absentee is a bitch. Also I'm lazy.

If you voted, great job, and keep up the good work. I'll hopefully manage to get back into the political circuit upon my return to the States, and if that doesn't work out then I'll certainly manage to get more involved when I move to New Hampshire as part of the Free State Project.

Hey Everyone!

2010-11-30T10:17:00.001-08:00

I've switched back to a basic Blogger template until I can get the comments issue and picture squeeze thing worked out. I'm not really a web designer so I have to talk to one in order to get it sorted out.

Some good news though, I should have a sweet new logo soon. Keep your eyes open over the next few weeks.

Save Money this Holiday Season

2010-11-30T05:00:00.000-08:00

How else could he afford that sweet hideout?

With Thanksgiving now thankfully behind us (ever eaten a Thanksgiving dinner delivered by a Blackhawk helicopter? Try it sometime), we're all looking forward to Christmas and New Years. Or maybe we're not. One thing's for sure though, with the holidays comes some big spending. Last year we managed to spend enough to keep our economy going one more year, and odds are this year will be the same.

But if you're hurting for cash (or your sanity), then I've found the perfect solution: don't celebrate the holidays. Think about it. No decorations, no presents, no family visits, no hassles. Yes, I realize I might sound like the Grinch or Ebeneezer Scrooge, but let's face it, Christmas gets bigger every year; it starts sooner every year; it gets more ridiculous every year.

You can end it all, and you can end it this year. Simply let your friends and family know that you're done with it all, and that they shouldn't expect presents or visits this year. They'll probably think you're crazy, but I've found it's a lot better to be thought crazy than to be broke.

So that's it, that's my tip for saving money this winter. Merry Christmas everyone!

Missionforce: Cyberstorm Review

2010-11-29T05:00:00.000-08:00

I recently finished playing an excellent turn-based giant robot strategy game by the name of Missionforce: Cyberstorm. As far as turn-based giant robot strategy games go (what are there, like three?), this one provides a lot of fun for a decent amount of time. Onward with the review!

The Story

Cyberstorm has quite an interesting story, but you likely won't pay much attention to it since it's revealed slowly every time you gain a promotion. Long story short (and without revealing any spoilers), a corporation called Unitech is attempting to clear an infestation of AI robots called Cybrids. Nothing terribly fancy.

The Gameplay

Like ~~most~~ all games I review, the gameplay is the heart and soul of Missionforce: Cyberstorm.

Your main goal is to defeat the AI invasion. In order to do that, however, you'll need to build your army of robotic exoskeletons and create pilots to pilot them. You gain credits by completing various missions, ranging from mining for a special mineral to "hot dropping" into Cybrid infested territory.

You can customize each individual robot (called a HERC in the game) with various weapons, armor, and useful devices which can speed you up or make you harder to hit, or even blow your HERC up if the situation calls for it.

As you complete more missions, you gain promotions which unlock new and better weapons, HERCs, and accessories.

The Graphics

For a game released in 1996, the graphics are as expected. There's not too much detail, but I didn't notice any issues while playing. If my love of Dwarf Fortress has taught me anything, it's that graphics don't make the game. If you want good graphics, go watch Avatar or something.

The Controls

You use the mouse to issue commands to your HERCs, and since it's turn-based you don't have to worry about trying to work quickly. Like a game of chess (except speed chess), you have as much time as you need to make your moves.

The Issues

The only issue I have with Missionforce: Cyberstorm, is the lack of replay value. I would love to see a sequel or something that fleshed out the storyline more and added more gameplay. (They actually did release a sequel, Cyberstorm 2: Corporate Wars, but it's generally seen as a victim of sequelitis.

The Conclusion

Missionforce: Cyberstorm provides solid turn-based strategy gameplay, with the awesome addition of giant robots. Like all games I review on the blog, I highly recommend it (mostly because I don't have time to play crappy games).

Back Again

2010-11-26T05:00:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, I'm back from yet another mission (which was really just an extension of the previous one) and I should have some new content up and running next week. It looks like these last couple of months are going to be a crunch time though, so I might not be able to stick to my schedule as much as I'd like.

Once I'm back in the States, you can bet that I'll be revamping the whole site and making it a lot more awesome then it currently is.

Also, comments are currently broken. Thanks to Jake from Debt Sucks Blog for pointing that out. I'm currently working to fix them.

Well Geez

2010-11-20T12:00:00.000-08:00

I've got some good news and some kind of bad news.

The good news is that the new template is up and looking pretty good. I'm still working on fixing some issues (preview pictures are squished), but for the most part I like the way it looks.

The kind of bad news is that I might be heading out again on Sunday, so there might not be any new posts for a while.

In the meantime, tell me what you think of the new template in the comments section!

The Afghanistan Diaries: Back From the Mission Edition

2010-11-19T05:30:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone. I just got back from the longest "three day" mission ever. I'm totally worn out, and also bummed out that I didn't plan enough posts to last an entire week. I'll be back to regularly posting by Monday unless another mission comes up, so make sure to keep your eyes peeled for some excellent new stuff.

Cleaning an M-4 Series Rifle

2010-11-13T05:00:00.000-08:00

This is kind of an experimental post to see how many people are interested in what I actually do in the Army. If you like it or don't like it, let me know in the comments.

Sadly, my M-4 is not nearly this awesome.

One of the things I've had to do since basic training is perform weapons maintenance on the M-16 assault rifle and the M-4 carbine. They're very similar for the most part. I currently carry an M-4, so I'll be writing about that. Feel free to follow along at home.

The first thing you should know about cleaning a weapon in the Army is CLP, or cleaner, lubricant, and preservative. Basically it's an all-purpose oil that you put on the metal parts of your weapon to clean, lubricate, and preserve it.

I'm convinced it's magic.

Step One

So you've got your weapon in your hands and you're all excited to get it nice and clean. Before you get down to business, however, you have to clear it. That means you need to drop the magazine, and then pull back the charging handle to ensure that there are no rounds left in the chamber. Honestly this step should be a no-brainer, but people are still killed or injured in gun-cleaning accidents each year so I think it bears mentioning.

Step Two

Alright, you've properly cleared your weapon and ensured there are no rounds in the chamber. Good for you, now we can start cleaning the exterior. Take a brush (toothbrush, barber brush, paintbrush, hairbrush) and clean all the dust and dirt off of the outside. Use cotton swabs or pipe cleaners to get into those hard to reach places. Remove the hand guards from the barrel and wipe it down with a clean cloth. Once the exterior looks shiny and new, it's time to move on to the next step.

Step Three

Now we have to actually disassemble the rifle. This part should be pretty easy if you're used to taking apart an M-4 or M-16. If you're not, then it's as easy as removing the front and rear takedown pins. This will allow you to separate the upper and lower receivers. Then remove the bolt carrier assembly from the upper receiver.

Might as well be a Rubik's Cube.

Step Four

Remember that bolt carrier assembly we were talking about? Now we have to disassemble that. Remove the firing pin retaining pin (1) and allow the firing pin (2) to slide out of the carrier. Then push the bolt (4) into the carrier. Now twist the cam pin (3) 90 degrees and remove it from the bolt. Finally, pull the bolt (4) out of the carrier assembly.

You can break down the bolt further by removing the extractor retaining pin and removing the extractor from the bolt. Clean all this stuff with a combination of cotton swabs, a clean rag, pipe cleaners, a scraping tool, and of course, CLP. Boom, onto the next step.

Step Five

Now we have clean the upper receiver. After the bolt carrier assembly, this should be a cakewalk. We'll start with the barrel. Push a barrel brush through the barrel in the direction the bullet travels. It's important to only go in this direction because you could damage the barrel. You can do this from five to thirty times, depending on the level of clean you want.

Next, you'll want to run a small arms barrel swab (a tiny cloth) through the barrel the same way. Do that until it comes out clean (you might have to use more than one, duh). Move onto the breech (often called the "star chamber"). Use cotton swabs and a scraping tool to remove any dirt or carbon buildup.

Use a rag and a toothbrush to clean the inside of the upper receiver. Then use cotton swabs or a pipe cleaner to clean around the gas tube.

Step Six

Onto the lower receiver. You'll need to remove the buffer and buffer spring by depressing the barrel buffer restraint. Once you've removed them, clean them both with a clean cloth.

Then you can move onto the trigger assembly. This part is simply no fun to clean, and you'll need to use a combination of cotton swabs and CLP to get it as good as you can. If you're friends with (or are) the armorer, they can generally take the trigger assembly apart so you can clean it much more thoroughly. You can do the same thing if you're feeling adventurous, but be aware that it's difficult to put back together if you don't know what you're doing (and you might get in trouble, just saying).

Step Seven

Put it all back together. If you've followed along until this point and was hoping I'd give you step-by-step instructions on how to put it back together, then you are currently stuck with all the pieces of your rifle lying in front of you.

Good luck and See you next week!

The Afghanistan Diaries: Pre-Mission Edition

2010-11-12T05:00:00.000-08:00

I'll be on a mission this Friday, so I'm writing this in advance. I should have all my posts scheduled out, so there should be no interruption of fresh new content each day. Just be aware that I might not get back to your comments and e-mails as often as I usually do.

The Week in Review

I pretty much had this week off, but I spent most of it hanging out at our office like usual. It was nice to get to sleep in, and it's just what the doctor ordered after last week's nightmare of a mission. The food in the chow hall was relatively good, but I missed breakfast (the most important meal of the day) most of the time since I was sleeping late.

I spent a majority of the week continuing my play-through of Final Fantasy VIII, and I started a new game in Dragon Quest IX (this will be my third time playing through). Additionally, I wrote up a PT plan (yech!) that will go into effect upon my return from this mission (double yech!).

My basil plants remain dead and withered (R.I.P.). I haven't touched Plants vs. Zombies for a few weeks since I beat it. Our first wave of stuff slated to go home is packed up. We're eagerly awaiting the arrival of our replacement unit so we can get the heck out of here. The chow hall had ice cream this week.

Looking to The Future

Fighting the good fight.

In the next week, I hope to write up a guest post, continue fleshing out my trading card game idea, and help my wife with her novel. I also hope that I'll manage to beat FFVIII and DQIX so I can move on to something different. I also hope to roll out my new template that ought to blow your minds.

In the meantime, keep fighting the good fight by reading my blog. It can only get better from here.

College Life

2010-11-11T05:00:00.000-08:00

Today I have a question for my readers. Actually it's more like two questions for two different sets of readers:

1. If you attended college immediately following high school, what was your experience?

2. If you chose not to attend high school immediately following high school, what prompted your decision?
Bonus Question: If you attended college later on, what was your experience?

I ask these questions because I will be attending school in a few years and I want to get a better idea of what I can expect.

My current views on college have been formed and shaped by films such as Revenge of the Nerds, Animal House, and Van Wilder, among others. I'm guessing that being married will severely hamper any possible partying I may encounter (though it didn't stop Will Farrel's character in Old School). By that point in my life I might even have a kid.

My idea of college isn't entirely limited to the cinema, however. My dad taught at a stat university for a few years, but it always seemed like a strange, alien world that was somehow rife with learning and gratuitous merriment*, all at the same time.

*And by that I mean the copious imbibing of alcoholic beverages.

I hope that you, my awesome readers, can help me with my predicament, and assist me in better understanding what college is all about. Feel free to contribute in the comments. Thanks!

My Financial Situation

2010-11-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

If you've read anything I write on Tuesdays, you've probably wondered what I think makes me qualified to talk about money. So to answer that question, I'd like to take some time today to talk about my financial situation.

The Caveats

Just because I've gone through all this stuff and learned a lot about personal finance, I'm still not really legally qualified to give people financial advice. I'd have to go to school for that (which I plan to). So, be aware that while some stuff has worked out for me, it might not work out for you and if you're in a serious financial situation, you should talk to a certified financial adviser.

The Beggining

As I mentioned on my About page, I had what I like to call my "near debt" experience (get it, it's a pun!) in September of 2008. I was completely addicted to an indie MMO called Wurm Online; I didn't get a job and subsequently couldn't pay my rent.

It ended with me joining the Army, forcing me to be away from my then future wife* for over 3 years (and counting). I had zero dollars to my name when I arrived at basic combat training.

*In case the terminology is confusing, she was my girlfriend then, and now she's my wife. And hopefully she'll continue to be my wife in the future.

The Middle

Obviously there weren't a lot of ways for a basic training private to spend his money, so I didn't.

I arrived at advanced individual training (AIT) at the beginning of 2009, following over 9 weeks of excruciating (to me) training. Unfortunately, I couldn't manage to pass a PT test for a few months upon my arrival, so I wasn't allowed to leave the base. I got used to being what's called a "barracks rat." I continued my newly discovered habit of not spending money.

The Discovery

It was within those first few months of arriving at AIT that a fellow soldier recommended the website Wisebread.com. Since I had no intention of returning to the aforementioned state of "zero dollars", I absorbed as much financial knowledge as I could. Soon my list of regularly read financial blogs included Get Rich Slowly and The Simple Dollar, among others.

That was about the time I started investing my money as well. I opened a Roth IRA with help from Get Rich Slowly, but I was sadly only able to contribute $3000 before the deadline passed. Since then I've contributed the maximum amount each year. Additionally, I opened a brokerage account through my bank and started investing in mutual funds.

I was eventually able to leave base after passing a PT test, but I continued my "no spend" policy. To be honest, that policy still remains in place for the most part.

The Definition

I've often been called a miser, or a cheapskate, or various other finance-related names with negative connotations. I'm personally fond of miser, since I think it accurately describes my monetary policy:

mi·ser n. - One who lives very meagerly in order to hoard money.

That about sums up how I've been living for the past couple of years. I don't own a lot of stuff the Army hasn't provided for me, and I've been trying to get as much money as I can. Money is just a means to and end for me though, in that I'm trying to save and invest so I can retire early and live the life I want.

The End

Since that time, a lot of things have happened. I've gotten married. I've lived in Texas and New York. I've been deployed to Afghanistan. But still, I continue to accrue money by living relatively simply and spending wisely.

In the future, I plan to attend school to become a financial adviser, with the goal of obtaining my Certified Financial Planner qualification and offering low-cost fee-only financial advice to people who need it. You can continue to follow my journey by reading my blog as often as you like (though I make an attempt to post something new every day). Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you back again in the future.

What's a 401(k)?

2010-11-09T05:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the sixth and final installment of my personal finance education series What's a Blank?. Today I'll tackle one of the more advanced topics of financial planning, the mysterious 401(k) retirement plan.

The Origins

The name 401(k) references 26 U.S.C. § 401(k), a section of the Internal Revenue Code. A 401(k) plan is like a traditional IRA in that any money put into the plan will reduce your taxable income. Of course, you have to pay taxes on the money you pull out.

A 401(k) plan is primarily employer sponsored (meaning it's established by the company you work for). employees elect to have a portion of their wages paid directly into their individual 401(k) account, which is managed by the employer. Such payments are known as "contributions". As a benefit to the employee, the employer can optionally choose to "match" part or sometimes all of the employee's contribution by depositing additional amounts in the employee's 401(k) account or simply offering a profit-sharing contribution to the plan.

The Match

Matching contributions made by your employer are pretty much the coolest things ever. It's essentially free money, and it's incredibly foolish not to take advantage of it. In most cases, employers will only match a certain amount, so you'll need to check with your employer to find out how much is available (assuming a 401(k) plan is even available through your employer.

The Options

For the most part, you can invest in the same types of stuff you invest in with your IRA. That is, stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. The exact investment options offered by your employer will vary however.

Some people choose to invest all of their contributions in their company's stock. This generally isn't a good idea, unless your company is something huge that will never collapse (sorry former Enron employees).

The Drawbacks

Their are some consequences of early withdrawal, similar to those imposed on IRAs, but these consequences are imposed by your employer rather than the government (although you'll still have to pay excise taxes on whatever you take out). Employers can also restrict withdrawals except in certain situations. For the most part, you should avoid taking any money out of any retirement account because of the penalties involved.

The New Plan

Much like a Roth IRA, the newly introduced (in 2006) Roth 401(k) allows you to pay income tax now to avoid income tax on later withdrawals. This is generally an awesome idea, but not all employers offer the new plans. Like anything else I've mentioned, you'll have to check with your employer to see if a 401(k) is an option.

The Closing

All of the information I provide in my What's a Blank? series is obtained from a combination of Wikipedia and my own personal knowledge on the subject. Yes, all of this information is available here, but I'm pretty sure most people don't trawl Wikipedia for financial info (me being an exception).

If you're interested in opening a 401(k) plan through your employer (and you should be), then talk to the human resources department at your workplace. Happy investing!

Dwarf Fortress Review

2010-11-08T05:00:00.000-08:00

Say hello to your little friend.

Today I'll be reviewing Dwarf Fortress, a sweet indie text-based simulation and adventure game. I'll be reviewing the simulation portion of the game, since that's what I primarily play. Dwarf Fortress is free, with further development paid for by donations. You can obtain it here.

The Story

There's no real story to speak of, other than a group of seven dwarves have set out to establish a new mountain hall in the wilderness.

The Gameplay

This is where the real fun is. Dwarf Fortress has been described as a dizzyingly complex hybrid of Dungeon Keeper and The Sims, if all your little people were manic-depressant alcoholics. This is probably the best way to sum it up.

You can't give orders directly (except to military dwarves), and instead you must designate areas for different things (mining, cutting down trees, gathering plants, etc.) or setting a workshop to produce various goods. You must ensure that your dwarves are fed and watered (boozed?), and protected from attacks by various enemies. Other than that, you're pretty much free to do whatever you want, whether that be building a magma-fall (a waterfall but with magma) or building a giant dwarf tower, or collapsing the floor beneath an entire fortress (200 souls were lost).

Needless to say, there's a lot going on in Dwarf Fortress, and the best way to better understand how to play is to visit the wiki.

The Graphics

Visit the gallery to get an idea.

The Controls

You use the keyboard to play (and sometimes the mouse), and once you get the hang of it (which can take a few days to a few weeks) it's very easy to do what you want quickly.

The Issues

Dwarf Fortress is still in alpha, so obviously there are some crashes to be expected. There are tons of bugs as well, but new versions come out regularly so you can keep up with the most recent and hopefully bug free release.

The Conclusion

Dwarf Fortress is simply an awesome game, and tons of work has been put into it being no less than a fantasy world simulator. I recommend it for anyone who has the patience to learn how to play. Since it's free, I definitely suggest giving it a try. Don't freak out if it's too difficult, the wiki has some excellent tutorials you can follow to get the basics down.

The Sunday Dredge

2010-11-07T05:00:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, it's Sunday again which means yet another Sunday Dredge. Here are today's posts:

Starcraft II Woes - Here I lament how overpriced and unplayable (for folks in Afghanistan) Starcraft II is.

The Magic of Compound Interest - A lot of people talk about the magic of compound interest, but I explain it and provide some examples.

The Free State Project and You - I'm a member of the Free State Project, so I try to spread the word on my blog as best I can.

And that wraps it up for this week, tune in next Sunday for another edition of the Sunday Dredge!

The Afghanistan Diaries: The Mission That Never Ends Edition: Part Two

2010-11-06T05:00:00.000-07:00

Day 3

Day 3 began bright and cold and early around 0500. I finally got an opportunity to shave. A majority of the day was spent attempting to charge the PSP with my dwindling supply of AA batteries and avoiding eating too many MREs. Fun.

Day 4

Day 4 marked a turning point in the mission. I finally accepted that we would be staying indefinitely and began chronicling my adventures in my notebook. It was overcast all day, which meant it was pretty cold.

Up until this point, I haven't really mentioned any attacks. There was sporadic small arms fire and various explosions each day. I pretty much stopped caring the first day. We did get to watch some pretty sweet air strikes though. Also there were helicopters.

Day 5

Day 5 was the first day I realized we wouldn't be leaving on day 5. I had suspected it before this point, but I was holding out hope that we might actually head back to the base.

To put my situation in perspective, I packed for about 3 days. I took one change of underwear and a t-shirt, and two extra pairs of socks. I had one disposable razor. I expected it to be cold, so I brought a jacket and some gloves. If I had known we'd been there so long, I would have taken a lot more.

I was officially placed on guard on the night before. This resulted in less sleep, but a lot more stupid to write about.

I've been making attempts to communicate with the Afghan police, which is difficult because I don't speak Dari and they don't speak English. I speak Arabic, as I've mentioned previously, which helps since I can write out new words to get the proper pronunciation.

In addition to conversing with them, I've been sampling the local cuisine, mostly just the tasty flat bread. They also get rice, meat, potatoes, apples, and muffins. They even have their own halal* MREs. They seem to enjoy our MREs though, and have no problem taking them off our hands, or out of them.

*halal basically means the meat has been prepared in accordance with the dietary rules of Islam. Sort of a Muslim version of kosher.

And as long as I'm on the topic of the ANP, I'd like to mention that they occasionally get high and shoot at nothing. Fun.

During my downtime here in this rural village, I've been trying to come up with new ideas to speed up my journey to an early retirement. In addition to working on some existing ones, I've been working on an idea for a trading card game that I'll be developing over the next few years.

It's pretty cool how missions like these give me time to think and reflect on my life, especially when they drag on on for what seems like forever.

One of the hardest things is not being able to talk to my wife. True, being in a long distance relationship for over three years (and counting) has made it easier to endure this deployment, but I really enjoy getting to communicate with her online.

Day 6

Day 6 brought a glimmer of hope; we were scheduled to leave in the afternoon. I didn't look forward to packing all my stuff, because I imaged a lot of scenarios which would result in us staying longer, and retrieving my sleeping bag is always a pain. Hopefully, though, this will be the last thing I write before posting, otherwise there's going to be a lot of complaining further down.

End of Mission

Luckily, there were no problems getting back to the base. There were no IEDs and no breakdowns. It was surprisingly uneventful.

I learned a lot from this mission, mostly that I don't like going on missions (but I already knew that). Hopefully with winter coming, the command will lay off the missions but I don't know how likely that is. I've been given a few days off to rest, and I plan to use that time to schedule some more posts in preparation for any upcoming missions that may show up.

The Afghanistan Diaries: The Mission That Never Ends Edition: Part One

2010-11-05T12:00:00.000-07:00

Remember a few weeks ago when I wrote about my overextended mission? This week's mission was a similar experience. It was supposed to last 1-5 days, and I naively took that to mean 1 or 2 days, as opposed to the 5 to 6 days that they actually meant. Each day brought with it new challenges and new stupidity.

Day -1

On day -1, I had just woken up after returning from a previous mission when I got the word that I would be heading out again. Needless to say, I was not happy. After making some phone calls, we managed to get out of going... or so we though.

In reality, the mission was only pushed back a few hours. This was done without our knowledge until about an hour and a half before we were supposed to leave. And so, tired, hungry, and grumpy, we began our odyssey.

We arrived at an outpost that night and slept under the stars on a concrete slab (comfy!). We were originally scheduled to leave at 0300 the next morning, but were awoken in the middle of the night with a new departure time.

We were now scheduled to leave at around 0200, but we needed to meet up between 0100 and 0130. I went back to sleep, not knowing that the fun was only just beginning.

Day 1

We woke up on time and packed our bags. Groggily we made our way to the truck we were slated to ride in. We loaded our gear and climbed aboard. This was at 0130. We left at 0400. Fun.

The first road we attempted to take was inaccessible to our massive trucks, so we were forced to turn around and take another route. This was at 0500. Fun.

We proceeded down the new road until about 0800. It was around this time that our truck broke down. We attempted to cram into another, smaller truck with limited success. Our team ended up being split up as we continued towards our objective.

Me and one of my teammates were basically stuck in a truck for the remainder of the day. Fun.

Home sweet home.

As it began to get dark, I was further separated from my team and placed in yet another truck, away from my bag and subsequently my PSP. This truck was far less comfortable, and I spent the night cold, cramped, and bored. Thus ended day 1. Fun.

Day 2

Day 2 began well enough. Someone in charge finally found me and had me link up with my team again. Thank goodness. I returned to the truck with my gear, and spent the day attempting to play PSP games and watch American Dad. The lack of a reliable means of charging the PSP meant my fun time was limited. Not fun.

As day faded to night, I was finally moved to an actual building with my teammate. I finally got a chance to lay out my sleeping bag and get a decent nights sleep.

To be continued...

Pardon the Interruption

2010-11-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

I'd like to apologize for the absence of new material over the last few days. An unexpected 1-5 day (explain the logic of that number if you can) mission came up and caught me while I was behind on scheduled posts.

Luckily for everyone, I took a notepad with me and wrote up some awesome stuff while I was away. Expect a new Afghanistan Diaries post soon.

Revisiting Final Fantasy VIII

2010-11-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

Although my buddy's copy Fallout: New Vegas arrived last week, I likely won't be playing it any time soon (he will). In the meantime, I have borrowed his PSP and have been playing Final Fantasy VIII. I'd like to take this time to do a quick review of this timeless PlayStation classic.

The Story

Like other Final Fantasies, VIII drops the player into a large world and an epic storyline spanning multiple discs. You control Squall, a student at Balamb Garden, a school for mercenaries. The game takes place in a sleek, futuristic world, unlike previous Final Fantasy games.

The Gameplay

I'm a big fan of FFVIII's junction system, which allows you to customize your characters by altering their stats with magic. You'll encounter monsters randomly while running around, similar to previous games. Enemies will level with you, for the most part, which allows for the interesting challenge of beating the game at level 8.

Triple Triad, a card game mini-game, can provide some awesome rewards early in the game as well as later, since you can convert your cards into items which you can then convert into powerful magic, allowing you to power through the game with relative ease.

The Graphics

As you'd expect for a late 90s PlayStation RPG. It's a big step up from FFVII's graphics, but obviously they can't really compare to more modern games. The cutscenes are beautifully rendered. I've found that for the most part as long as graphics don't interfere with gameplay, they're not an issue, though your mileage may vary.

The Music

There's a lot of awesome music in the game. And from my experience you'll never really get sick of it. Most people agree that you generally only notice the music if it's bad or annoying, and this is definitely not the case with FFVIII.

The Controls

The controls are very natural for a console RPG, and even playing it on the PSP without the additional shoulder buttons is no issue.

The Issues

The only issue I've ever had playing through the game is the lack of PocketStation support, which blocks out the option of playing Chocobo World. The PocketStation was never released in the U.S., so it sucks to see an entire gameplay element removed from the game.

The game is also the easiest of the Final Fantasies, which some people might not enjoy. I'm sort of a sucker for easy games, since it makes me feel like I'm good at them.

The Conclusion

While Final Fantasy VIII has been around for over a decade now, it can still provide a fun and nostalgic experience for seasoned RPG veterans. While it's lack of difficulty might turn of more hardcore players, it's still an excellent game and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys console RPGs.

The Sunday Dredge

2010-10-31T05:00:00.000-07:00

I just noticed that I totally forgot to do the Sunday Dredge last week. I'm guessing nobody else really noticed. Here's this weeks links:

Great Ideas, Great Expectations - This post was about great ideas everyone has, but never acts on.

Possum Living Book Review - Here's a review I did about the awesome book Possum Living by Dolly Freed. If you want to learn about living on almost no money, I highly recommend this book.

The Afghanistan Diaries - This was my first Afghanistan Diaries post, back when I was still a Fobbit. Now that I've gone (and am currently going) on missions, I don't think the term applies to me anymore.

Halloween Cometh!

2010-10-30T05:00:00.000-07:00

What will you be dressing as?

I will not be dressing up this year for obvious reasons (hint: I'm in Afghanistan), but my wife will be going as a Lost Boys-esque vampire. I don't know if anyone will get the reference this late in the game (it came out in the 80s), but I'm sure she'll look exceptionally awesome.

Next year is open season for costumes though. My wife wants to go as Daisy Duke, and I may have volunteered myself to go as Enos. For reference, I've never watched the Dukes of Hazzard or seen the movie. I'm not sure what I'm getting myself into.

The last Halloween I can remember dressing up for was in 2008. I dressed as a surfer, which basically involved me grabbing some swim shorts, goggles, and a boogie board. This was for a Halloween run, by the way, and I ended up running about a mile with the boogie board. I would have run in sandals too, but I realized that would suck.

From left to right: me, a Freudian Slip, and what appears to be a runner.

Other Halloweens I have dressed as Sonic the Hedgehog, Hercules, and a mime. I remember that I dressed up more than three times in my prodigious trick-or-treating career, but I can't seem to remember what the costumes were.

The Afghanistan Diaries: Magic Cards Edition

2010-10-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

This week has been relatively excellent for me. Despite a mission that came up, things have been going smoothly. Recently, flyers have been cropping up all over the base advertising the existence of a group of Magic: The Gathering players. They play on Fridays and Saturdays. I haven't played in several years (since high school pretty much) but I think this might be something I'd be interested in checking out.

Now entering nerd heaven.

As for the mission, it only lasted about an hour, but we had to stay overnight at a different base for some reason. Also it was a fifteen minute drive from our main base. I'll never understand Army logic. Mostly I just sat around talking and playing my DS the whole time. Also there were puppies!

I'm back on day shift again, which is fine with me. The video game consoles are getting packed up soon, so I'll be back doing the PC gaming thing on my laptop for a few months. Mostly I'll be playing Dwarf Fortress and the Geneforge series.

On the weather front, winter has officially arrived in my opinion. Temperatures are dropping and I may have to start wearing pants. I'm hoping that it starts snowing soon, since apparently it's never going to rain to get rid of the incessant dust that's clogging my lungs.

I've finally managed to find a way to upload pictures. Expect some awesome photos of the landscape and maybe me eating an MRE next week!

I Hate Mosquitoes

2010-10-28T05:00:00.000-07:00

Nom nom nom.

If you've never lived somewhere there's a lot of mosquitoes, then you are incredibly lucky. I've spent a good portion of my life being bitten by mosquitoes, and you'd think I'd have developed an immunity to it by now. Sadly, that is not the case, and every day here in Afghanistan I'm greeted by the itchy little bumps left by hungry hungry mosquitoes.

Today's post is brought to you by the letter "M".

The Fun Facts

-"Mosquito" comes from the Spanish or Portuguese meaning little fly. Bonus fun fact: the word "mosque" (for an Islamic house of worship) comes from the Spanish or Portuguese meaning fly.

-Only female mosquitoes drink blood. But you already knew that. But do you know what the males eat? Both male and female mosquitoes are nectar feeders. Female mosquitoes only require the supplemental iron and protein found in blood to develop eggs, which leads us to:

Fact: This is a mosquito

-Mosquitoes lay their eggs in water. They can develop from eggs to adults in as little as 5 days, but it generally takes 10-14 days in tropical conditions.

-The saliva of a mosquito contains various anti-clotting and anti-platelet substances, which prevent blood from clotting as the mosquito feeds. These substances also result in the familiar inflammation that occurs after a mosquito "bite".

-Mosquitoes are the vector agent for various diseases, including yellow fever, dengue fever, and malaria. HIV is thought to be almost impossible for mosquitoes to transmit.

-Mosquito larvae are apparently incredibly tasty; dragonfly nymphs and several species of fish eat them regularly. At least one animal, however, considers mosquito larvae a delicacy: other mosquito larvae.

-Mosquitoes prefer some people over others. This is based on the scents given off when you sweat. If you're one of those unlucky people, make sure you have some anti-itch remedies on hand.

The Reason a Third Party Will Never Win an Election in the U.S.

2010-10-27T05:00:00.001-07:00

As you may have noticed, I talk a lot about third parties on my blog (primarily on the libertarian/minarchist side of the house). That's because there are loads of other political blogs out there, and they generally tend to focus on the Republicans and the Democrats. I like to think I'm doing my part to get the word out about the various other options that are available.

The Reason

Getting back to the main point of this post: the reason a third party will never win an election in the U.S. I'm often quick to blame the voters, because nearly everyone I've ever discussed third parties with considers a vote for a third party a "wasted vote." Essentially, they won't vote for a third party because they don't believe that party will win. This of course turns out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy and creates circular reasoning that further fuels the cycle of avoidance of third parties.

The lack of voter support is certainly a rational reason, but what began this vicious cycle in the first place? In order to discover that, we need to travel back in time, to the early years of our country.

The Founding Fathers

Our first president, George Washington, was not a member of any political party. Furthermore, he hoped that political parties would not be formed, fearing conflict and stagnation (sound familiar?). Nevertheless, the beginnings of the American two-party system emerged from his immediate circle of advisers.

The first two parties to take over politics in the United States were the Federalist Party and the Democratic-Republican Party.

Eventually, the Democratic-Republican Party split into the Jacksonian Democrats (which later evolved into the modern Democratic Party) and the Whig Party.

The Republican Party rose in the second half of the 1800s, and adopted many of the economic polices of the Whig Party.

A Republican or Democrat has won every presidential election since 1852, and either party has controlled Congress at one point or another since at least 1856.

The Vicious Circle

As you can see from this diagram, voters are only a small portion of the problem. The United States' election system itself is also to blame.

Obviously, the Republicans and Democrats who benefit from the system have no interest in changing it to really give third parties a chance.

So What?

If you've never looked at any of the platforms of the various third parties of the United States, then I highly suggest it. You may just find that they're more in line with your own than either of the two major parties. Here are some links to get you started (and be aware there are many more third parties out there):

The Libertarian Party Platform

The Green Party Platform

The Constitution Party Platform

The Socialist Party Platform

Even if you decide that a third party isn't for you, then you can still help improve U.S. politics by encouraging your friends to vote if they don't. I also encourage you to vote as well, if you don't already. I think it's kind of embarrassing that the highest voter turnout we're generally able to muster is 40%. You'd think more people would be concerned with the fate of our country.

What's an IRA?

2010-10-26T05:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the fifth installment of my money education series What's a Blank?, today I'll be discussing IRAs, both the Traditional and Roth varieties. As part of my initiative to improve my blog, this post will be a lot more informative and entertaining than previous What's a Blank? entries.

The Run Down

If you're not a financially savvy individual, you might think today's post is about the Irish Republican Army, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, or maybe even the Indian Reorganization Act (which was instrumental in the returning of many Native American tribal lands to their rightful owners). Sadly, today's post will only cover the topic of the humble Individual Retirement Account.

The Individual Retirement Account is a retirement account that provides some tax advantages for retirement savings in the United States. Of course, if you were on Wikipedia, you'd already know that.

There are two different (there are actually more, but for the purposes of simplicity and my sanity, I'll only discuss two) flavors of the IRA, commonly called the "Traditional" IRA and the "Roth" IRA. I'll talk about them separately, because despite each carrying the IRA moniker, there are some major differences between the pair.

The Basics

Maybe you can just get this guy to watch your money.

The first thing you have to do in order to open an IRA (either type) is pick who the custodian is going to be. No, not the guy who cleaned up your high school. "Custodian" is just fancy talk for someone who watches over your money. So if you have a savings account, the bank is considered the "custodian".

The custodian you choose will likely be either a bank or a brokerage firm. You can check with your current bank and see if they have the option to open an IRA. I personally went with a brokerage firm, because I found that they have lower fees for maintaining your account. Mine is currently free.

The major brokerage houses where you can open a low or no-fee IRA include:

Vanguard

T. Rowe Price

Fidelity

The Traditional

Much like your grandma's home-made cookies, the Traditional IRA is the timeless classic of the IRA family. Introduced in 1975, contributions made to a Traditional IRA are referred to as after-tax, because you can deduct the amount contributed from your taxes for that year.

So for example, if you made $30,000 this year, your taxes would look like this:

$30,000 @ 10% tax rate = $3,000 in taxes

But if you contributed $5,000 to a Traditional IRA that year, your taxes would look like this:

$30,000 - $5,000 IRA contribution = $25,000 @ 10% tax rate = $2,500 in taxes.

(Be aware that this is an incredibly simplified example of how taxes are calculated for use as an example. Seriously, don't try to use these equations to do your taxes. Use tax software or talk to a professional)

For most of you, this will translate into a larger refund at the end of the year, depending on your job. If you're self-employed and make estimated tax payments it will result in smaller payments throughout the year. Of course, if you're self-employed you can open a much cooler version of the Traditional IRA called a SEP IRA.

The Roth

The Roth IRA is like the new guy, who shows up to the party already drunk and ready to have a good time. It was established by the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, and was named after the late Senator William Roth of Delaware, who may or may not have enjoyed partying hard. Either way, he was the bill's chief legislative sponsor.

I like to give a lot of love to the Roth IRA, so it would be awesome if I could just stop the post right here and tell you to go and open one right away. However, it behooves me to at least give you all the facts so you can make an informed decisions based on your own situation.

Contributions made to a Roth IRA are referred to as pre-tax because you have to pay taxes on the money before it get's put into the account. This shouldn't change your tax situation, so if you like getting a gigantic refund every year (hey, there's not accounting for taste), this type of IRA may not be for you.

The magic of the Roth IRA happens when you go to take the money out. You don't have to pay taxes on it. Well in some cases you do, but for the most part if you pay attention you won't have to. And getting money without having to pay taxes on it is about as special as a Christmas Miracle. It's the kind of thing Wall Street types talk about in backrooms and dark alleys.

One major downside of the Roth IRA is that after a certain income level you can't make contributions to it. You can view the most recent limits at the IRS website.

Now What?

Don't jump for joy just yet, it's only brass.

So you've picked which firm to be your custodian, which type of IRA to go with, and opened and funded an account. You're good to go right? Pretty soon you'll be rich beyond your wildest dreams! Not quite. Now you need to pick what you want to put in it.

Much like an empty bucket, and IRA is only as good as what you put in it. So tell me, do you want a bucket of manure or a bucket of gold?

If you're like me, you want a bucket of gold (I don't actually recommend investing in gold through your IRA). My personal decision was to invest 100% in stocks, because I'm young and have a lot of time if they're down for a significant period of time. This may not work for you. You have to consider your own situation before you go out and buy pork belly futures or some investment you don't understand to fill your IRA with.

Any of the financial terms I've discussed previously (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and REITs) can be used to fill an IRA.

The Caveats

First of all, I'm not a financial adviser (yet), so make sure you consult someone who actually knows their stuff before you jump into all this. It's possible to do it on your own, like me, but you'll have to do more research than just reading my site.

Second, IRAs have contribution limits, meaning you can only contribute a certain amount each year. While this limits their usefulness to an extent, they're still incredibly powerful investment vehicles, do not underestimate them.

Third, seriously, I'm not an expert. I'm just a guy who had a lot of success opening an IRA and wants to pass along the word about their awesomeness. If you're making $500k a year selling mufflers or being a doctor or something, you can probably get better advice than mine.

My Story

I opened up a Roth IRA through Vanguard in 2008. That year I contributed $3000. In 2009 and 2010 I contributed the current maximum of $5000. For those of you following along, that's a total of $13000 placed in the account. At the time of this writing my account was worth a total of $15,828 and some change. That's a gain of nearly $6,000 which isn't too shabby in my opinion.

Keep in mind that I was investing in stocks during the recession while they were down, so it's not exactly a typical result.

For reference, I found the incredible site Get Rich Slowly helpful during the process, and J.D. has even created an article that will help you open a Roth IRA (though it will help with the Traditional IRA process too, if you decide to go that route).

The End

If you've made it this far, I'd like to congratulate you for being such a great sport. While it might not seem like it now, all this stuff is important to your financial future. Just remember, knowing is half the battle.

As you can see in this handy pie chart.

Plants vs. Zombies

2010-10-25T05:00:00.000-07:00

I offhandedly mentioned Plants vs. Zombies several posts ago, and I thought it was about time I gave a quick review. So here it is.

Behold the awesome!

If you've haven't played Plants vs. Zombies before, then you should know that it's a tower defense game created by PopCap (of Bejeweled and Insaniquarium fame).

Basically, you lay down plants to stop zombies from eating your brains. You have the sunflower, which provides sun which serves as a resource for buying more plants. Then you have the basic peashooter, which shoots peas at oncoming zombies. The wall-nut soaks up a lot of damage and prevents zombies from moving forward.

It might sound simple and straightforward, but it can get pretty complicated. Some of the stronger zombies can take a lot of hits before going down, so you have to plan out your defenses with these threats in mind.

The various stages will take you to the front yard and backyard (complete with pool) during the day and night, and then to the roof. There's a bunch of mini games, puzzles, and a survival mode. One of my favorite things about the game is the zen garden, where you can raise plants you've collected from the different stages.

The soothing zen garden.

I definitely recommend giving PvZ a try. It's easy enough for casual gamers, but offers nuanced gameplay that will appeal to the hardcore crowd (survival: endless mode especially).

My Favorite Music

2010-10-24T05:00:00.000-07:00

This is part four of the My Favorites series. Check out parts one, two, and three. This week I'll discuss my favorite genre of music.

Whenever someone asked me what my favorite type of music is, I usually (if not always) reply with "rock". If pressed further, I can usually manage to say "classic rock." The problem with trying to identify my favorite type of music is that I don't really listen to a lot of music. The music that I do listen too doesn't really fall into clean cut categories. For the record, my favorite artists are (in no particular order):

Michael Jackson
Queen
Styx
AC/DC
Journey
Rush
Weird Al
The Backstreet Boys and boy bands in general (yes, seriously)

So you can probably see where I'm coming from when I say "rock" is my favorite type of music. I also enjoy a few musicals, with the standouts being Wicked and Rent.

In reality though, I like a wide variety of music, provided it sounds good and I can at least partially understand the lyrics (screaming into the mic isn't the same as singing). I like guitar solos and power ballads. I like slow songs and fast songs. I like songs that make me laugh (hence Weird Al).

The only genres I generally dislike are country and rap. I don't mind country in small doses, but my dad listened to country pretty much constantly when I was growing up, and it never really caught on with me. The same goes for rap. Some songs are alright, but I'm not really big into the heavier stuff. I enjoy the older rap though, like stuff from the '80s.

Thanks to Natalie Dee for the sweet pertinent image.

NaNoWriMo is Approaching

2010-10-23T05:00:00.000-07:00

What's NaNoWriMo you ask? It's National Novel Writing Month! Every November, thousands of participants sit down to write a 50,000+ word novel. The goal is to complete it by the end of the month. I don't plan to participate this year (I'm still in Afghanistan, give me a break!), but I think I might give it a try next year. I've had some great novel ideas brewing and would love the incentive to give them some life.

Here's a link to the official site.

Does anyone plan on attempting to tackle NaNoWriMo?

The Afghanistan Diaries: Cancelled Mission Edition

2010-10-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

The mission we were going on this week got canceled, thankfully. It would have involved me riding in a helicopter though, which would have been pretty sweet (I've surprisingly never ridden in a helicopter before). This has given me a lot of time to catch up on posting and scheduling out next week's posts. I anticipate hitting my one hundredth post some time next week, but I likely won't be doing anything special for it. I'm saving that for the thousandth post.

RIP, sweet basil. (Again, not my basil, just a pic I found)

On a sadder note, my basil plants died while I was on the last mission. I didn't think to tell anyone to water them. It's not a huge deal, since winter is approaching and the frost would have killed them anyways. I really enjoyed the gardening experience though, and I'll likely start my own little herb garden when I return to the US.

I've mentioned several times in the past that I'd like to post pictures from Afghanistan on my blog. The main reason I can't do that is because of the restrictions on plugging things like USB memory sticks into the computers I use. I'll make sure I yank a few from my buddies when I get back and make a sort of scrapbook for everyone to gawk at.

This week should be easy enough, I'm back to my regular work of playing video games and watching movies. Another mission is planned for later this month, but I'm not too worried about it. I'll begin packing my stuff up for the return home soon though, which is definitely something I'm looking forward to.

Meditation

2010-10-21T05:00:00.000-07:00

“Meditation brings wisdom; lack of mediation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom.”

-Buddha (Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism, 563-483 B.C.)

One thing that has always fascinated me is the practice of meditation. Wikipedia has helpfully defined meditation as a "holistic discipline during which time the practitioner trains his or her mind in order to realize some benefit." Doesn't that just sound awesome? Who wouldn't want to improve their life by improving their mind?

Take some time and meet your brain.

Sadly, a lot of people (me included) don't take time out of their busy day to meditate. This bums me out, because I think a lot of problems in the world could be solved if people (me included) took the time to understand their minds better.

When you think about the term "meditation", what do you imagine. A Buddhist monk high atop a mountain, humming mantras to himself? Or maybe you think of a guy sitting under a waterfall. This is meditation, for sure, but it doesn't actually have to be anything fancy. You can meditate pretty much anywhere (preferably somewhere quiet), and you don't have to hum any mantras for make gestures with your hands.

I actually checked out a few sites dedicated to meditation, here's some of the ones that stand out:

Learning Meditation - This site lays out the benefits of meditation and provides some tips on how best to relax your mind

How to Meditate - This site hosts some guides for getting started with meditation.

Meditation Center - This site provides instructions for meditation.

Though a lot of sites (including the ones I listed above) offer products to help get started or improve your meditation, they're not necessary. The most important thing (as with most things) is that you actually take the time to do it.

Does anyone meditate regularly? If so, what has your experience been?

The Boston Tea Party (Not the one you think)

2010-10-20T05:00:00.000-07:00

The Boston Tea Party is a political party founded by former members of the Libertarian Party in 2006. It was formed in response to the Libertarian Party eliminating most of its platform's substance at its Oregon convention in 2006. So basically it's like a beefed up Libertarian Party.

Like this, but with less tea and fewer powdered wigs.

I'm not sure how I feel about it. I only became aware of its existence recently, so I'll have to do some more research. The platform seems straightforward enough:

"The Boston Tea Party supports reducing the size, scope and power of government at all levels and on all issues, and opposes increasing the size, scope and power of government at any level, for any purpose."

In addition, the party's members adopted a program for 2010-2012. Its five main points are 1) End the Wars of Aggression and withdraw US troops from around the world, 2) End the Federal Reserve Banking System, 3) End the War on Drugs, 4) End Abuses of Liberty such as the Patriot Act and Military Commissions Act, 5) End the Immigration Fiasco by eliminating government restrictions on human migration.

I think I can live with those points. Especially the first one, since it affects me directly.

In conclusion, the Boston Tea Party is straight up libertarian, so it's okay in my book. Now if only we could all work together to get more third party candidates in office. I'll save that topic for next week's political post though.

We Apologize for any Inconvenience

2010-10-19T11:30:00.000-07:00

Thanks to a super helpful review by Riley Carson from The Wayfaring Stranger, my blog will be undergoing some monstrous renovations over the next several days to two weeks.

If some sort of craziness appears to happen while you're happily reading, fear not, it's just me fiddling with stuff behind the scenes.

I hope to have everything up and running ASAP, so bear with me in the meantime while I work to make your reading experience as enjoyable as possible here at Starshard0's Super Blog.

What's a REIT?

2010-10-19T05:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to What's a Blank?, my series that attempts to answer questions about financial products your may or may not have heard about. Today I'll be discussing REITs.

REIT stands for Real Estate Investment Trust. The REIT was essentially designed to be similar to a mutual fund, except that instead of stocks and bonds, an REIT deals in real estate.

There are two reason why this is awesome. One, you can get into the real estate market without having to purchase any actual real estate. Two, it's generally a lot cheaper than buying actual real estate.

There are actually a lot more than two reasons, but those are the main ones that stick out in my mind.

Some additional great things about REITs:

*REITs are substantially more liquid than real estate. Similar to mutual funds, you can pretty much always find a buyer.

*REITs are for the most part safer than real estate. Since you're not invested in a single property, you can avoid the potential hazards that face a physical piece of property, as well as market trends in a specific area. Obviously if the entire real estate market tanks, as it did in 2008 and 2009, you're out of luck.

*You don't have to play landlord. There won't be any calls from tenants and two in the morning with a leaky faucet. There won't be any property taxes or mortgage interest. Owning an REIT is a simple as clicking and typing a bit.

*You can get started for a lot less. Even if you've only got a thousand dollars to invest, you can still get a pieces of the real estate market by investing in an REIT.

Obviously, there are some advantages to owning actual real estate, but a lot of people don't want to deal with the hassles it often entails. In the end, the decision is yours to make. Some people might prefer to avoid the real estate market altogether, but the REIT is a great way to dip your feet into the waters of real estate investing.

Fallout: New Vegas

2010-10-18T05:00:00.000-07:00

Since I've been playing Fallout 3 recently, it's no surprise that F:NV has piqued my interests. I'm really pumped about getting into a new game that bring some new features to the table while retaining what made F3 so much fun.

Unfortunately, I likely wont' be able to play it until I get back to the States, since I won't have an XBox to play on soon. I look forward to picking it up upon my return.

Some things I think I'll like about the game:

First, the addition of iron sights for weapons. I used to play FPS games quite a bit when I was in high school (primarily Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 2142). One of the things that bummed me out about Fallout 3 was the way manual targeting was handled. The aiming reticule was better than nothing, but being able to look down the sights of a weapon is one of the things that makes an FPS great. It also makes aiming easier, in my opinion.

Second, Las Vegas wasn't directly hit by a bomb, meaning the city is still relatively intact. This will make for a lot of interesting interactions, since there will be a lot more inhabited areas to explore and more people to talk to (all speculation on my part). Fallout 3 was nice, but it was almost impossible to get by without decent weapons skills. In the first two Fallouts, you could talk your way through pretty much the whole game (though in all honesty I prefer to shoot the place up).

Third, I grew up in the Mojave desert, so it's pretty sweet to see that it's being featured in a game. That's all, just a personal thing really. My buddy says he's excited about the return of the New California Republic, which was obviously not present in the 3.

That's about it for reason I can think of for liking it, and obviously it will remain to be seen whether I actually will. Anyone else looking forward to some New Vegas action?

The Sunday Dredge

2010-10-17T05:00:00.001-07:00

This week's Sunday Dredge (like every week) includes some great posts from the past. My blog is over a year old, but up until now I haven't really been much for regular posting. Here are some hits from back in the day:

The Lazy Sunday Post. For some reason this one is really popular according to Blogger's statistics.

Greetings from Afghanistan. This was my first post (second, including admin) from Afghanistan. It marked my triumphant return to regular blogging, and paved the way for the blog you're currently reading.

It's a Poké, Poké World. Making sure that every instance of Pokémon included the "é" was pretty tedious.

That wraps it up for this week's Sunday Dredge. Tune in next week when I revive more dead posts from the veritable crypt that is my blog's archives.

The Afghanistan Diaries: Overextended Mission Edition: Part Two

2010-10-17T05:00:00.000-07:00

The Taliban launched another offensive on our fourth (and supposedly final) day. From what I understand, they attacked us from three sides. Despite their efforts, no one on our side was hurt. The day ended with us packing up our rucksacks and loading them on trucks in preparation for our departure. This is where the stupid starts.

We were unable to leave as planned on our fourth night due to the cloud cover, which was preventing air support. We spent another night in the village, to my dismay. Bright and early the next morning, we piled into our trucks and set out for a nearby Afghan National Police base. Due to a serious of "hilarious" mishaps, we wouldn't arrive until nearly 24 hours later.

We hit our first snag as we waited for route clearance to clear the road of IEDs. They managed to, but only after one of their trucks was blown to pieces. No one was injured, but the wreckage of the truck (along with a massive crater) was now blocking our path.

We waited several hours for a truck to arrive to haul the wreckage, but unfortunately the first truck was unsuccessful. Obviously no one wanted to wait to get home, so we busted out shovels and sandbags and started attempting to create a path around the hole. This proved to be difficult, as either side of the road had a steep drop off that would roll even the hardiest of wheeled military vehicles, and both sides consisted of wet mud.

Despite the challenge, we set about creating this detour. Several hours later (this will prove to be a recurring theme), we had created a makeshift ramp out of sandbags and dirt, and our first truck attempted to cross. Each truck after the first that attempted to cross became entrenched in the mud and had to be pulled out by the wrecking truck.

Several hours later, while attempting to get yet another truck around the hole, the Taliban attacked us. They fired two recoiless rifle rounds at us (similar to an RPG), which struck a wall near our rear truck. Machine gun fire rang out around us, and I took cover in a ditch and attempted to spot the enemy. They were too far away for me to shoot at them, which also meant they weren't going to hit any of us, so we were pretty safe.

I'd like to take this moment to point out that we had until this point been sitting on a road for about 9 hours. Plenty of time to set up a firing position and rain bullets on us.

Following the attack, we all piled back into our trucks and .... waited again. Several hours later, my truck (the last in the convoy) made its way around the crater, and got pulled out of the mud by the wrecking truck. We pulled slightly forward and parked by a wall.

Several hours later, after calling in some help from the Germans, the wrecked truck was loaded on a truck and the crater was filled in. We slowly made our way towards the ANP base. Several hours and a sunrise later, we arrived back at the FOB.

Thus ends a series of ridiculous occurrences that resulted in our mission being extended by nearly a day and half. As I'm writing this, I'm slated to go on yet another mission starting Sunday. Hopefully this one goes a little better than the last.

Test

2010-10-16T18:50:00.001-07:00

This is a test of the e-mail posting system. This is only a test. If this was a real post, it would be much longer. And more entertaining.

The Afghanistan Diaries: Overextended Mission Edition: Part One

2010-10-16T05:00:00.000-07:00

Part one of this week's Afghanistan Diaries post comes straight to you from a rural Afghan village. To put "rural" in perspective for those of you relaxing in front of your computers right now, the "bathroom" is right next to the animal stalls.

Since I have five days to write this, it will likely be longer than most of my previous Afghanistan Diary posts.

One confusing part about this mission is the fact that we've taken over an entire village for some reason. I'm actually sitting inside a guy's house as a write this. To be honest I would expect taking over someone's house would piss that person off a little bit, but I suppose having guns helps out.

The Taliban welcomed us our first evening here with some explosions and gunfire. We, of course, retaliated with some explosions and gunfire of our own. After about ten minutes (I'm told it was longer), the fighting died down and it started to get dark.

The morning of our second day was heralded by the arrival of the sun and a group of local elders. As it turns out, this particular village is even more upset with our presence than I had previously thought. We've arrived in the middle of their harvest season, and we're interfering with their ability to harvest their crops due to the fighting we're inciting. After all, the Taliban aren't exactly going to shoot at themselves. When told we needed to leave, lest we hinder their ability to repay the loans they've taken out to complete the harvest, the officer in charge of this mission responded with, "we can't", despite the fact that he's the one who makes all the decisions regarding the current mission and is the one person who could make that call.

This was, in my opinion, a huge "fuck you" to the elders, since the only reason we're here is to mess with the Taliban and incite fighting anyways. I can only hope that in the future we can change the way in which we conduct missions like these, but it's doubtful.

The remainder of our second day remained relatively uneventful, with scattered gunfire but nothing major.

The morning of our third day brought strong winds along with dust and light rain. The dust was the worst for me because it makes it hard to breathe. Rain is always appreciated here because it keeps the dust down. Unfortunately, rain is really rare during the summer in Afghanistan.

I'd like to take this opportunity to mention that I had a really positive attitude when I first arrived in Afghanistan, but months of slogging what can only be referred to as an "endless field of bullshit", my spirits have been dampened somewhat.

The Taliban returned the third evening, bring with them mortars and AK-47s. We handled them easily, or so I'm told. I wasn't actually involved in the fighting. This attack ended quicker than the first, and night eventually arrived.

Our final day began well enough. Within an hour, however, it turned ruinous as the sergeant major who had accompanied us on the mission decided we needed to wear our vests (up until this point we had not been wearing them since we were inside).

To be continued...

Back from the Mission

2010-10-15T21:30:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Just letting you all know that I have returned triumphant from the mission. I am relatively unharmed, and I even managed to get some writing done. Once I have retrieved my rucksack and subsequently my notebook, I'll make sure to post my special two-part Afghanistan Diary detailing the trials and tribulations I encountered during my time outside the wire.

My Personality Type

2010-10-14T05:00:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things to do in high school was take various personality tests. I was always curious about how my brain worked and how it had an effect on my attitude and persona. One test that sticks out in my mind is the MBTI.

Basically I took the test and ended up with a four letter summation of my personality: INTJ

In this case, each letter represents where I stand on a continuum of attitude, function, and lifestyle.

The "I", in this case, means that I have a preference for introversion, which if you know me is completely true. Introversion in this case means that I draw energy from reflection, rather than action. Extraverts, on the other hand, draw their energy from action.

The "N", is for intuition, meaning I have a preference for abstract and theoretical information, as opposed to concrete stuff. I imagine this makes me good at planning for a retirement that's nearly 15 years away.

The "T", is for thinking. That means that I prefer to make decisions from a detached standpoint, using reason, logic, and consistency.

The "J", is for judging. Judging types like to have "matters settled," which is generally pretty true for me. Remember me locking in my favorites?

Obviously, these tests can't nail down a persons personality in any sort of concrete way (I'm pretty sure there are more than 16 personality types), but the MBTI has the archetypes covered, which is what's important to me.

How about you? Have you taken the MBTI or any other sort of personality test? Did you agree with your results?

I, Libertarian

2010-10-13T05:00:00.000-07:00

If you've been following my blog for any length of time (if you haven't, welcome!), then you've probably heard me mention being a libertarian before. I'm not sure how die-hard I am (or would be considered), but I'm all about personal liberty. As for as I'm concerned, the place of the government is to protect it's citizens and their property. That's it. End of story.

Yes, I realize that's strange coming from a member of the armed forces, but it's the truth. Once I'm done with the Army I plan on moving to New Hampshire and getting more involved with politics as part of the Free State Project.

I've actually considered myself a libertarian since high school, when we watched videos about the political parties of the United States. The part about the Libertarian party really stuck out to me. That same semester I was taking microeconomics, and there were always discussions about free markets and their benefits. Eventually it evolved into me learning more about the party and its ideology.

While I may not be considered as die-hard as some libertarians out there, I like to think that when it comes down to it, I'll fight for liberty if I have to.

What about you, what's your party flavor?

Got Mturk?

2010-10-12T05:00:00.000-07:00

One of the coolest websites I ever discovered (by way of a magazine) is Amazon's Mturk. Mturk is short for Mechanical Turk, a reference to the original Mechanical Turk, which, as Wikipedia puts it, "was a fake chess-playing machine constructed in the late 18th century. From 1770 until its destruction by fire in 1854, it was exhibited by various owners as an automaton, though it was explained in the early 1820s as an elaborate hoax. Constructed and unveiled in 1770 by Wolfgang von Kempelen (1734–1804) to impress the Empress Maria Theresa, the mechanism appeared to be able to play a strong game of chess against a human opponent, as well as perform the knight's tour, a puzzle that requires the player to move a knight to occupy every square of a chessboard exactly once.

The Turk was in fact a mechanical illusion that allowed a human chess master hiding inside to operate the machine. With a skilled operator, the Turk won most of the games played during its demonstrations around Europe and the Americas for nearly 84 years, playing and defeating many challengers including statesmen such as Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin. Although many had suspected the hidden human operator, the hoax was initially revealed only in the 1820s by the Londoner Robert Willis."

The basic idea behind Mturk is that, advanced as computers are, there are still some things they aren't capable of. If you show a computer two pictures, one of a barbershop, and the other of an ice cream shop, odds are it wont' be able to identify which is which. But a human can do it pretty easily. So, much like the Mechanical Turk of old, a human takes the place of a machine and completes tasks which are impossible for today's computers.

A computer can't identify competition for Pizza My Ass, but YOU can!

This is great for everyone, since people who need pictures identified or whatnot can get them identified, and people with too much time on their hands can get paid to identify pictures of stuff (or whatever else needs to get done). Payments can range from one cent to several dollars per HIT (human intelligence task).

I've been a member over at Mturk for a few years, and in total I've made over $100. It's not a lot for the amount of time, but I often find I can do a few jobs while I'm surfing the internet (or blogging) and it doesn't take up any more of my time then I'm already wasting online anyways.

If you're interested in giving it a try and making a couple cents, then head over to mturk.com. And for the record, I'm not getting paid or compensated in any way for linking to them. I just really like what it offers and like to spread the word about cool stuff.

Infinity: The Quest for Earth

2010-10-11T05:00:00.000-07:00

One of the game releases I have been incredibly excited about for a few years now is Infinity: The Quest for Earth. Here's a link. Look me up on the Infinity forums, I'm starshard0l (thanks to a typo). I even have my own corporation lined up, Deep Space Exploration, with a website and logo and everything.

Ever since Spore kind of flopped (still a good game, just not as groundbreaking as expected), I:TQFE has been the one game I've been really holding out for (Fallout: New Vegas might qualify at this point too, but it remains to be seen).

The thing that appeals to me most about Infinity is the huge expansive galaxy available for exploration. If there's one thing I don't get tired of easily, it's discovering something that no one has ever seen before. But if that's not up your alley, there's also combat, and trading, and politicking and piracy and pretty much anything you can imagine doing in a space flight simulation.

One super cool thing is the lack of loading screen, transitioning from space to atmosphere is as simple as approaching the planet you want to land on. Keep going, and you'll eventually crash into the ground if you're not careful (same goes for stars). I could go on and on, but the best place for information is the site itself. The galleries alone should be enough to pique your interest.

Did I mention one guy is doing all the programming?

The Sunday Dredge

2010-10-10T05:00:00.001-07:00

It's Sunday again, which means it's time for the Sunday Dredge! Let's see what kind of awesome crap I can scoop up from the bottom of my blog.

There's my Super Special Starshard0 Saturday Valentine's Day Extravaganza post, where I wrote about Mturk (which I'll be writing about again this coming Tuesday. Sorry, What's a Blank? lovers, you'll have to wait until next week).

I did a special week of political posts (mostly I just linked to other stuff). Read parts one, two and three.

That's all for this week (if I do too many per week, I'll eventually run out of posts to dredge up, so give me a break). Feel free to browse some older posts on your own if you can't wait until next Sunday.

Slightly Less Bummage

2010-10-10T05:00:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, it's me again. The five day mission was pushed back to tonight, which gives me enough time to type up some posts for this week. Happy reading! And I'll see you all when I get back.

Major Bummage

2010-10-09T05:00:00.000-07:00

I just found out I'll be going on a five day mission. Needless to say I won't be posting anything during that time. I'll pick up again as soon as I get back.

The Afghanistan Diaries: Second Mission Edition

2010-10-08T05:00:00.000-07:00

I was surprised on Monday morning to find out we had a mission on Monday afternoon. This was of course after I had finished working a twelve hour shift. I got about an hour of sleep before I decided it wasn't worth it and played Fallout 3 until it was time to go. I'm lucky I had some posts scheduled for the last couple of days because otherwise nothing would have gotten published.

But I'm back now, and with good news. I've switched to day shift (noon to midnight). This is good news because it more closely matches my sleep pattern, which is "stay up late and wake up around noon". I've got a PT test coming up soon, which means I have about three weeks to cram for it (cramming for a fitness test is a lot more difficult then cramming for an exam). I'll probably run and work abs every day for the next two weeks at least, and do upper body stuff every other day. Hopefully I pass, because my life is stupid enough as it is without having to deal with people getting on me about being in shape.

Hopefully there will be enough time until my next mission to get some posts scheduled a week or two in advance. I've got some great ideas (remember the notebook?), but I need time to sit down and type them up.

Additionally, for the record, Plants vs. Zombies is an awesome game.

10 Things to Tell Myself 10 Years Ago

2010-10-07T05:00:00.000-07:00

I got the idea for this post from the 20 Something Blogger forums. Basically I pick ten things I would have told myself 10 years ago, when I would have been 11.

1. You're going to hate every job you have, but don't waste the money you make. Save it and learn to invest it as soon as you can, it will save you several years of misery down the road.

2. DON'T join the Army, no matter what you do.

3. Don't sell your video games, keep them in case you want to play them later on.

4. Don't spend all your money on gifts to try to impress girls. See #1.

5. Also don't spend all your money on video games, learn to enjoy the ones you have. Or go to the library and read some books.

6. When the PSP comes out, wait for the price to go down before buying one. And don't get rid of it right away, because some good games come out for it later.

7. Don't worry about grades in school, but do try to actually learn something.

8. Don't sweat high school, avoid the drama, and get on with your life. That's kind of vague though. Mostly, just don't bother trying to have a girlfriend until at least senior year.

9. Don't bother going to college right away, you'll have no idea what you want to study or what you're interested in. Take 2-3 years and join the Peace Corps or something.

10. Most importantly. When the stock market tanks in October of 2008, buy as many stocks as you can. Your best bet is probably to buy a total stock market index fund.

D.A.R.E. to be Stupid

2010-10-06T05:00:00.000-07:00

I like to think of myself as proof Drug Abuse Resistance Education works. I've never tried any illegal drugs, didn't smoke until after I turned 18, and didn't drink until I was 21.

But as I'm sure you can tell by the title of this post, I harbor no love for the "controversial" (Wikipedia's words, not mine) anti-drug program. The program was founded in 1983, as part of the USs War on Drugs.

Since then, several studies have demonstrated that not only does it not reduce drug experimentation among participants, but that it also often results in increased usage. I guess I was an outlier in that particular experiment.

I don't want to be too hard on the politicians who press for the program to continue (I like to think their hearts are in the right place, as opposed to their wallets). Although I didn't particularly care for the classes, I didn't mind them and they were a welcome break from traditional subjects. My wife enjoyed her time in the classes as well. I personally believe that a good upbringing is a larger factor in preventing drug use, and that's something that my wife and I have in common and the D.A.R.E. program simply can't replicate.

One of the main issues I take with the program is the zero-tolerance stance it takes on everything. Personally I think the drinking age should be lowered to 18 (or in a perfect world, eliminated completely). Marijuana should be legalized as well. Obviously it's not up to the D.A.R.E. program to determine the laws regarding drug use, but it's certainly not helping the cause. It just concerns me that school-aged children are being drilled with what I consider propaganda and misinformation about drugs, primarily marijuana.

I don't want to rant any longer then I have to though, so I'd like to open up the comments and hear what my readers have to say about the subject.

What's a Mutual Fund?

2010-10-05T05:00:00.000-07:00

This is part three of my awesome series What's a Blank?. If you're interested, read parts one (bonds) and two (stocks).

So we've already talked about stocks and bonds. Now how about we talk about something a little more complicated: the mutual fund. Imagine that you got a bunch of friends together, and you all pooled your money and decided to purchase some securities (stocks, bonds, etc.). The benefit is that you have a lot more money and therefore can buy a lot more assets. Add in some regulation by the SEC and IRS, appoint yourself as the fund manage, and you've pretty much got a mutual fund.

Mutual funds are awesome for several reasons. The big one being you don't have to be a super-savvy investor in order to get reasonable returns. Don't get me wrong, you're not likely to become a millionaire overnight, but at the same time you don't have to worry as much about losing your shirt. One of the downsides of this convenience is the fact that mutual funds generally fail to outperform the market, and even if they do their fees will often eat at your returns.

Want a slice?

For this reason I like to compare mutual funds to a loaf of bread (an analogy I admittedly just made up). It's relatively good for you, and you can eat it your whole life, but sometimes it gets a little moldy and you have to throw it out. That's actually a really bad comparison. Let's just stick with the info.

Some of the best mutual funds out there are what are called index funds. Essentially, they're designed to match a specific market index, such as the S&P 500. They generally have lower fees and expenses since the fund manager doesn't have to do as much work. Since most mutual funds either match or under-perform the market, having lower fees is in your best interest.

Another plus for mutual funds is the relative ease with which you can purchase them. There are often no commissions, so unlike stocks, what you buy is what you get. You can buy as much or as little as you like (depending on the minimum investment amount), without having to worry about paying ~$10 per purchase like you do with stocks. Additionally, you get instant diversification with most mutual funds, which reduces your overall level of risk.

This was the first thing that came up in Google Images.

All in all, mutual funds are a great way to get into investing, and if you prefer to keep the work you have to do to a minimum you can invest in them your whole life. I intend to eventually begin investing in single stocks and real estate, but in the meantime mutual funds are working great.

Truly Wireless: A History of Board Games

2010-10-04T05:00:00.000-07:00

Before the cathode ray tube (CRT), and by extension, the television, was invented, there were board games. Senet is considered one of the oldest known board games, and is likely the oldest. It was played in in Predynastic Egypt, over 5000 years ago! It's no surprise that board games remain popular today. After all, what's more fun that getting your friends together, cracking open a few drinks, popping some popcorn, and playing a round of Monopoly or Sorry? Or maybe those kinds of games aren't for you. If you're more into strategy, maybe a game of Risk or Axis & Allies. Or how about The Settlers of Catan or Ticket to Ride? And for a classic, maybe try Checkers or Chess.

One of the great things about a board game is the intimate setting it provides. Unlike a video game, where the players are generally seated next to each other facing the screen (or worse, not even in the same room, or country), players of a board game generally seat themselves around a table facing each other. Everyone has to converse, and persuasion and diplomacy become an integral part of play.

There are a ton of different board games out there, but they can generally be broken down into one of the following categories:

Abstract Strategy-this includes chess, checkers, and go. Pretty much anything where the pieces and board aren't too fancy (unless you have a sweet themed chess board. Boba Fett takes Luke Skywalker's Rebel Soldier. Check.)

German Style-also known as Eurogames, this includes such classics as The Settlers of Catan and Puerto Rico. Also includes my personal favorite Agricola.

Doesn't this look like hours of fun?

Race Games-if you've played parchisi or backgammon (I haven't), then you've played a race game. Not to be confused with playing the "race card".

Roll-and-move-are pretty straightforward; you roll, then you move. this includes Monopoly and Life (although you actually spin a wheel in Life).

Trivia-Trivia Pursuit and Scene It come to mind. If you're answering questions in order to win, you're playing a trivia game.

Wargames-Risk, Axis & Allies, if you're using representations of soldiers to fight other players' representations of soldiers, it's a wargame.

Word Games-are dangerously closely related to Educational Games. If someone is making you play them and they're not a teacher and you're not in school, you may want to leave the area. Scrabble and Boggle are two popular examples.

You can't spell "excitement" without Scrabble! Wait, yes you can.

Family Games-are generally fun for kids and old people, and sometimes they're even fun for adults.

There are other types of games out there, but most games fall into the above categories somewhere. Wikipedia has a complete list if you're interested. But you're probably not interested in all the boring details. You want to know why you should turn of your XBox 360 and play a boring old board game, right? To be honest, I can't really give you a reason why you should. But I highly recommend giving board games a try. If your local game shop (you know, the place that sells D&D manuals and Magic cards where all the nerds hang out) hosts a board game night, I suggest going in order to get familiar with some of the more popular games for free. A lot of the games I recommend are pricey but definitely worth it.

This kid just landed on your Boardwalk.

Some of the best games out there fall into the Eurogames category. They are distinguished by having generally simple rules, short to medium playing times, indirect player interaction, and physical components, which are frequently wooden player tokens or markers. The games emphasize strategy, downplay luck and conflict, lean towards economic rather than military themes, and usually keep all the players in the game until it ends. German-style games are sometimes contrasted with American-style games, which generally involve more luck, conflict, and drama. If you or someone you know has ever broken down during a game of Monopoly, then you know what I mean.

So pull up a chair, and a table, and a $40 board game, some friends, and some more tables and you can have yourself an evening. How about it? Are you willing to give board games a try?

Switching to a .com

2010-10-03T21:00:00.000-07:00

You probably haven't noticed, but I recently switched from a blogspot.com to regular .com address. I don't know what kind of hiccups can be expected, but Blogger has happily informed me that everything should be cool within no more than three days. Thanks for reading!

Here's a picture of some kittens to celebrate!

Wrestling Review

2010-10-03T20:30:00.000-07:00

This post was submitted by a reader who is interested in wrestling. If you've never watched a WWE match before, I suggest trying it at least once. The ridiculousness generally makes it entertaining. She'll likely be doing a review every week, or at least discussing it.


Edge, the best wrestler ever.

WWE's Monday Night Raw this past Monday wasn't the greatest in my probably-more-bias-than-nessary opinion. The "Mystery General Manager" was old five minutes after they come up with the idea and the longer they drag it out the less humorous it becomes. Michael Cole becomes more annoying as the weeks go on, which makes me seriously miss the days of "Good Ol' JR".

Anywho, while not finding the episode all that great, I was still able to find some good moments. Granted, that's mostly based on good things happening to wrestlers I like, but since that's how personal opinions work I suppose that's okay. My two favorite moments this past Monday night were: Natalya winning the diva battle royal to become the Number 1 contender for the Unified Divas Championship and John Morrison being named one of the contenders for the United States Championship. My least favorite moments: Edge losing to John Cena (and getting into a fight with a laptop computer AKA: "The All Powerful Raw GM", making him look both stupid and crazy.), The Miz being named the other contender for the United States Championship, and the existence of Drew McIntyre, Cody Rhodes, The Miz, Michael Cole, Ted DiBiase Jr., and many more.

My Favorite Book

2010-10-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to part three of my favorites. Today is more about favorite theory, since I don't have a favorite book.

Determining a favorite book is relatively difficult for a multitude of reasons. For example, must a work be published in book form in order to qualify for "favorite book"? Would one of Shakespeare's plays, which originally appeared in play form but are now available as books count? Would a favorite book necessarily have to be a fictional tale? Do single stories that span multiple volumes count, such as the Otherland series? (It was written as one book but had to be broken down in order to be published)

The whole series is this awesome.

In order to determine my favorite book, I'll have to provide some arbitrary answers to the questions above. Yes, no, no, and yes. I think it would help to divide the favorite book category into fiction and non-fiction halves though.

Based on that, I'd say my favorite book would have to be Otherland, by Tad Williams. Otherland spans four volumes: City of Golden Shadow, River of Blue Fire, Mountain of Black Glass, and Sea of Silver Light. Yeah, I realize the noun of adjective noun is kind of cliche for the titles, but just go with me on this one.

The story takes place in the not-too-distant future where virtual reality is pretty much the norm for online interactions. There's a buttload of likable characters, and quite a few non-likable ones.

As far as my favorite non-fiction book goes, I really can't say. Non-fiction books don't exactly lend themselves to being favorites except in the case of biographies and stuff, which I don't read.

I'm sure this is a riveting tale.

In close second is probably Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire. I would probably include the sequels Son of a Witch and A Lion Among Men in there too. Wicked is also my favorite musical (despite never having seen it).

And how about yourself? Can you narrow down the books you like to a single favorite? Did it change your life somehow? Did you stay up late reading it by candlelight resulting in nearly catching your bed on fire?

The Sunday Dredge

2010-10-03T05:00:00.000-07:00

I'd like to introduce everyone to my new feature, the Sunday Dredge. Much like a dredge sucks up the crap off the bottom of the sea floor and moves it to another location, I will be showcasing some older posts in order to give my newer readers a chance to check out some serious classics. Additionally, Wikipedia informs me that dredging makes waterways more navigable, and I'm glad to be doing my part to keep our ships safe.

Behold! The sludge from the deep!

Let's start with my very first post!

My First Post - This was my first post, published back in distant 2009. Here I layed out my big plans for the blog, and the things I intended to discuss. Mostly I focused on my progress in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

Are YOU a Gamer? - Here I talk about my experiences playing with a non-gamer.

The Financing My Retirement Series - Parts one, two, and three. Here I discuss my reasons for wanting to retire early, how I plan to do it, and how you can do it too.

My first two Friday Round-ups - I haven't done a round-up in a while, since I'm still working on getting my blog on it's feet, but I intend to do them (either on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday). Here's my first and second one.

And that wraps it up for my first Sunday Dredge. Tune in next Sunday where I dredge up some more crap from the depths of my blog.

My Blog is Number One!

2010-10-02T18:00:00.000-07:00

I just checked Google, and the results are in. My blog is the #1 result for "starshard0"! Give it a try and search Google yourself. As far as "starshard" goes though, I have to contend with a WoW weapon and an indie game site.

While you're here, read through some posts and remember that the real #1 is YOU!

The Afghanistan Diaries: First Mission Edition

2010-10-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

Uncomfortable, to say the least.

Good news everyone, I survived my first mission! I'm writing this on Tuesday (which is actually still Monday in the US). The mission was exciting, boring, and excruciating. It was exciting because it was my first mission and I was pretty stoked to see what really goes on around here. It was boring because nothing happened. And it was excruciating because my body still aches (and probably will for a week).

Apparently there's another mission coming up which I'm on board for. Hopefully it gets canceled, but I suppose I can attempt to survive it if it's not. If you've never tried backpacking with nearly 80 lbs on your back, I suggest giving it a try. The 80 pounds comes from the body armor I wear plus the equipment I carry.

I hope that body armor protects me, because I'm sure as hell not getting away from anyone if I'm wearing it.

In other news, the temperature is continuing to drop. This would be great, if there was some way to shut of the A/C in my tent at night.

With October finally here, six of my roughly twelve months in the Stan have elapsed. Hopefully I mange to make it through the remaining six, as well as the supposedly harsh Afghanistan winters.

The Importance of Regular Posting

2010-09-30T05:00:00.000-07:00

Back when I started this blog, I had every intention of posting everyday. But of course, I had nothing to write about because I didn't plan very well. I tried again a few times to start regularly posting, but it wasn't until I found myself stuck in Afghanistan with limited internet access that I found myself coming up with interesting post ideas. I have a little notebook I carry around with me all the time, and whenever I come up with something fun or wierd or informative to write about, I jot it down.

I call it my ideabook! (Not really)

One reason I try to do a post everyday is my desire to establish a big reader base before I bust out the big gun posts. After all, who's going to follow a blog that only posts once a week? It's a little bit easier for me than it is for some bloggers, because I write about a variety of topics, which keeps it interesting for everyone.

In addition to jotting down blog post ideas, I also right down various other ideas I have throughout the day. I've found that this helps me retain some of my great ideas. It's something I think everyone should do, seeing as how unpredictable our memories can be.

But back to the importance of regular posting. I believe that posting once a day, or at least 5-7 times a week, makes a blog look more professional. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of professional blogs out there (and mine certainly isn't one) that don't post super often. And on the other side of that, there are plenty of regular blogs out there (like mine), that aren't any better just because the blogger posts everyday. But for the most part, the best blogs out there have a combination of good quality, and high quantity.

The really big blogs, like The Consumerist and Lifehacker seem to have quality and quantity down to an art form, with multiple posts from different authors several times a day. But there are lots of smaller blogs out there that post one or two times a day and have real quality posts that I enjoy as well. Get Rich Slowly and The Simple Dollar come to mind.

If you have a blog, do you make an attempt to post everyday?

The Simpler Life

2010-09-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

With the recent economic crisis (or whatever you want to call it), a lot of people have been looking into living a simpler, more frugal lifestyle. For a lot of people, their lifestyle expectations will return to normal with the economy. For others though, they will embrace their newfound life and will likely espouse it to everyone they know.

Kind of like this, except not stupid.

Personally, I hopped on the simpler life bandwagon back before the bubble burst. I was a little lucky though, I was living in the barracks and wasn't allowed to leave the base. Needless to say, I got used to not spending a whole lot of money. The extent of my expenditures consisted of occasionally ordering a pizza on the weekend. It was a great life.

When I'm finally released from the clutches of the Army, I plan on attending college. While there, I intend to live in a small apartment, with as little furniture as my wife will let me get away with. When I finish school, I would like to purchase a small house, and continue living simply and frugally.

It's not really a lifestyle that's supported by a majority of people living in the U.S. these days. In contemporary America, people are encouraged to keep moving up, buying new houses, and new cars, and spending themselves into oblivion. That's not the life I want to live. I'd love to have a small, or even large, garden, and maybe even some animals. I'd like to line-dry my clothes, ride my bike to work (if I even have a job), and write on my blog rather than watch TV.

How about you? Is the simpler life something you're interested in?

What's a Stock?

2010-09-28T05:00:00.000-07:00

This is part two of the multi-part series What's a Blank?, today's topic is stocks; what are they, and why are they important?

Welcome back to What's a Blank?. Today I'll be discussing stocks, which are an important part of the world economy, and an excellent way to invest for retirement.

Not exactly the type of stock I meant.

Stock basically means the original capital given to investors when the company went public or anytime thereafter (generally to raise funds). Stock is divided into shares, which are what you're actually purchasing when you invest in "stocks".

There are two different types of stocks. Preferred stock, and common stock.

Common stock generally comes with voting rights, whereas preferred stock does not. Voting rights means that you get to participate in any voting the company might do. Preferred stock is "preferred" because it is legally entitled to receive a certain level of dividend payments before any dividends can be issued to other shareholders.

Close, but not quite.

Dividends are an amount of money that you receive simply for owning shares of a company.

So why should you invest in stocks? One reason is that stocks generally outperform other types of investments, provided that you're smart about it. Another is that you can generally sell your shares whenever, as opposed to a piece of real estate, which might take a lot of time to liquidate (sell).

Diversification is when you buy lots of shares of different companies, so that if the stock of one drops the overall value of your shares won't be affected as much. Diversification is important, because you can't read the future and don't know for sure which stocks will succeed and which might fail. If you did, then you would only need to buy the stock that's going to succeed.

"Stocks rule, dude!"

As far as how to go about investing in stocks, it's easy. Open a brokerage account through with a broker or brokerage firm. You've probably seen commercials for eTrade, which is an example of a brokerage firm. Your bank might also offer brokerage services as well. Put some money in the account. You can generally do this via an electronic funds transfer from your bank. Then, either call your broker, or make a buy order, and pick which stocks you want to buy and how many. How this will work exactly depends on where you open your account. Your order will go through and you'll now be the proud owner of some shares.

It's all very simple, but you could spend a lifetime learning the ins and outs of the market. The most important thing is to buy low, sell high. Too many people forget that, and buy when the stock is high (expecting it to go higher), and then sell when the stock is low (expecting it to go lower). Instead, try buying a stock when it's on a down slope, and then selling when it goes a few points above the price you paid for it.

As far as day trading goes, I don't recommend it as a hobby. Day trading can be risky, and it's important to have a lot of time to devote to analyzing market trends and fancy stuff like that.

Has anyone had any personal experience with stocks?

Facebook Games: The Casual Revolution

2010-09-27T05:00:00.000-07:00

No, I'm not going to bash Facebook games. I'm a firm believer that casual gaming has it's place in the grand scheme of things. In fact, I've played a few Facebook games in my time, and they're not generally all that bad. Some of them are poorly designed, and the forced social aspects are a bit of a turn-off for me, but generally I've found that they have decent gameplay (what do you expect on Facebook anyways?).

The refuge of the bored housewife.

There are a lot of folks out there who feel that Facebook games are a blight on gaming. Or on society in general. I think all gaming can contribute to the overall world of gaming however. Even the worst games contribute something, even if it's just what not to do in a game.

One thing (two things actually) I don't like about Facebook games are the social aspects and the addictive qualities. I hate having to bug my friends to get stuff done in a game. And as far as addiction goes, it's not as addicting as say WoW, but it can still sucker a person in for quite a while.

I have found that Facebook games are great for wasting time, however, which in Afghanistan is something I find myself needing to do a lot. And I can certainly see the appeal for more social people. What's better than working with your friends to succeed in a game? It's like doing a Kaz run for stay at home moms (pardon the WoW reference, and I've honestly never done been to Kaz'rogal in the game).

And that brings me to my conclusion: Despite the comparatively poor overall quality of Facebook games, they have their place among games as an entertainment medium.

Anyone plan Facebook games regularly? Anyone out there who can't stand them?

My Favorites: Part Two

2010-09-26T05:00:00.000-07:00

This is the second part of the My Favorites series, today I'll discuss my favorite movie.

As I said last week, sixth grade was a major time in my life. It was my last year attending Fort Irwin Middle School. I had a 4.0 GPA the entire year, which put me on the super honor roll or whatever they called it. It was also the year I set two of my favorites in stone. I chose sushi as a my favorite food, and I chose Titan A.E. as my favorite move.

Greatest. Movie. Ever.

What makes Titan A.E. great enough to be called my favorite movie of all time? Well for one thing, it's a pretty decent sci-fi story. It was also animated. Is that really enough to make it my favorite? In sixth grade it was.

And the whole point of establishing favorites was to avoid awkward coversations, where people ask what my favorite movie is and I'm forced to reply "I don't know." I think of "I don't know" as a cop out, for people who aren't willing to invest the time to determine a favorite thing. You wouldn't respond with "I don't know" if someone asked what your favorite color was would you? For the record, my wife usually replies with "I don't know" when I ask her stuff like this.

Titan A.E., was sadly an largely unsuccessful movie. It barely grossed half it's budget, and pretty much forced Fox Animation Studios to shut down. This is generally blamed on the animation age ghetto.

I won't go into details about the plot (you can read the Wikipedia or Tvtropes summary, or just rent the movie), but I'll tell you that the Earth is destroyed and it's up to the hero of the story to save humanity.

I think that about covers it though. Tune in next week for another awesome post about my favorites.

Am I a Hippie?

2010-09-25T05:00:00.000-07:00

I would totally drive this.

Say "hello" to my new feature, the Saturday Short Post!

It's a question I sometimes ask myself. Sometimes others ask it for me. After all, I support the legalization of marijuana, and I have a general disregard and dislike for authority. On the other hand, I support people having firearms, and I'm in the Army. It's almost like I'm two different people.

My sister is a lot more of a hippie than I am, that much is for sure.

The Afghanistan Diaries: Yay For Basil!

2010-09-24T05:00:00.000-07:00

My basil plants have been sprouting nicely all week. I've been adding coffee grounds to the cardboard box lined with a trash bag and small rocks that I've been using as a planter everyday, and ensuring that the "soil" is kept moist. It's been getting pretty cold during the night though, and I'm a little concerned for the well being of my adorable little green friends.

For the record, I work in one of these.

In other news, there's a sweet new type of MRE out there called the "First Strike Ration", which contains nearly three times as much food in a package that's about the same size as a regular MRE. The food is also better. If you've never had an MRE before, I suggest you try one, at least a novelty if nothing else.

I've really begun to pick up the pace on writing posts for the blog. I'm nearly two weeks ahead of schedule as I write this, and plan to have even more posts lined up by the time you read this. Some great posts coming up this week include info about stocks, Facebook games, and living a simpler life.

The temperature has been fluctuating quite a big, with a difference of almost 30 degrees between the day highs and night lows. I find myself cranking up the heater in my "office" at night, and blasting the A/C during the day. The A/C in my sleeping tent blasts 24 hours though, and it's funny to go to sleep with one sheet, then wake up after a few hours to add another, and a few hours after that I just get in my sleeping bag and throw both sheets over the top of it.

This isn't MY basil, but it IS basil.

That's all I've got for today, I hope everyone has a great week and I look forward to all your wonderful comments.

Learning the Harmonica

2010-09-23T05:00:00.000-07:00

I bought a harmonica (or mouth organ, which sounds more intriguing, and vaguely sexual) when I was living in Monterey in order to impress girls. I didn't succeed in impressing any girls (at least not using the harmonica), but I was successful with waking people up at seven in the morning trying to practice.

This is a harmonica, FYI.

One of the great things about a harmonica when compared to other instruments is portability. Next to the kazoo, it's one of the smaller instruments out there, but it remains incredibly versatile. One of the first things one must learn in order to play the harmonica is that you generally only blow into one hole at a time (that's what she said!), unless you're playing a chord. One of the harder things to learn for me has been the proper mouth form for playing, because having a big mouth makes it difficult to play only one note at a time.

But once you've gotten the proper mouth form down, and you've learned the notes, playing the harmonica is pretty straightforward (as I imagine any instrument must be). The hardest part for me is moving quickly between notes and actually remembering which note I'm supposed to be playing.

This guy is playing two instruments at once, woof.

I used to play guitar (let me rephrase that, I used to attempt to play guitar), and it's definitely harder than playing the harmonica. Some people are somehow capable of playing both at once, like Bruce Springsteen and the guy in the picture on the left.

So while I someday hope to be able to play the harmonica well enough to panhandle on a street corner somewhere, for now I'm stuck in Afghanistan, practicing a little everyday.

Anyone else have any experience with the harmonica, or another instrument?

Knowing Arabic

2010-09-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

One cool thing about being in the Army is the fact that I got paid to learn another language. I spent nearly a year and a half learning Arabic in beautiful Monterey, CA. Besides the language itself, I also learned the about the various cultures of Arabic speaking countries (of which there are 22 IIRC).

This sign says "stop".

Seeing as how we're currently occupying Iraq (or whatever it is they're saying we're doing there), knowing Arabic was a pretty exciting prospect. I'd have been able to talk to people, barter with merchants, and impress officers. Sadly, in Afghanistan Arabic is not a major language. Sure, people know it a little bit because they're Muslim and the Quran is supposed to be in Arabic, but for the most part everyday people don't speak it regularly.

As you can probably imagine, my Arabic is a little rusty. I luckily got waived for the test because I'm in Afghanistan, but I have to take it six months after I get back. I'm not too excited about it.

I like to think that knowing Arabic puts me in a bit of an interesting position when it comes to some of the ridiculous things that happen in America (the "Ground Zero Mosque" debate comes to mind). Since I like to think that my understanding of Arab culture is a little more in-depth than most people's, it's hard to avoid doing a face-palm when people start making ridiculous claims (It's not a mosque, and it's not at ground zero, deal with it).

Does anyone else know another language?

What's a Bond?

2010-09-21T05:00:00.000-07:00

This is the pilot post of a series called What's a Blank?, for the next few weeks I'll be covering some basic financial terms and how they affect us.

A lot of people are big into trading stocks, but what about bonds? They're not the most exciting security out there, but they can still play an important part in an overall investment strategy. Let me break it down Barney-style for everyone:

A bond is a formal contract to repay borrowed money with interest at fixed intervals.

This is one type of bond, but not the kind we're talking about.

Which basically means that you lend someone money, and they pay you back with interest. The "someone" in this case being a government or company. So if I buy a bond from the government, they have to pay me back not only what I paid for it, but also a little extra. There are lots of different types of bonds.

The most basic type of bond is the fixed rate bond, which pays the same level of interest over the life of the bond.

Floating rate notes have an interest rate that follows a reference rate of interest. The interest rate is recalculated every so often, typically every one or three months.

Zero coupon bonds don't pay any interest, but they sell for less than you redeem them for. An example of this is the Series E savings bonds issued by the U.S. government.

This is another type of bond, James Bond.

Inflation linked bonds have an interest rate which is tied to inflation.

That's just a smattering of the different types of bonds, but most bonds fall under one of the above categories. War bonds, for example, can be any of those four types. One reason that people generally prefer stocks over bonds is because you can generally make a lot more money with stocks. This is due to the fact that the market rewards risk. Bonds are one of the least risky investments you can make (unless you buy junk bonds). Since they're generally issued by government or companies with good credit, you're practically guaranteed a payment (unless the government goes under, but in that case you've got a lot more to worry about). Nearly all retirement planners recommend that as a person ages they invest more in bonds, to avoid the fluctuations of the market as they near retirement.

As for my personal recommendation? I think that while bonds are nice, you shouldn't invest in them unless you have enough money that you can live off the interest they generate. This would likely place you in the million to two million range, assuming a relatively average cost of living. Until you have that much money, it's worth investing in stocks (or real estate, or whatever) until you have the money you need.

Does anyone have any experience purchasing bonds?

The Games We Play

2010-09-20T05:00:00.000-07:00

Despite being in Afghanistan, we've got no shortage of video games. We currently have a 360, PS2, PS3, and Wii set up, with dozens of games. I've currently been playing Dragon Age: Origins, which is pretty cool. Sort of a fantasy Mass Effect. Yes, I realize the game came out last year, but I'm a little behind the times when it comes to gaming.

Some of the other guys in my squad prefer to play sports games. It's one thing I never understood, but as I understand it they've started adding some RPG elements to them, so I might have to give one a try soon.

As far as shooting games, I prefer to play my FPSs on a computer, but I'm alright with consoles as well.

My current gaming plan has me finishing Dragon Age, then finishing up Red Dead Redemption (which I was close to completing before being caught up in Dragon Age). Once those are both beat, I might try either Just Cause 2 or a sports game, likely NCAA Football.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

My Favorites: Part One

2010-09-19T05:00:00.000-07:00

This is the first part of a multi-part series about my favorite things in a variety of categories. Today's topic is food.

When I was in sixth grade, I finally got tired of people asking about my favorite things. My favorite book, my favorite movie, my favorite song, etc. I was so fed up, that I made the decision to "lock in" some of my favorites. I ended up establishing my favorite food as well as my favorite movie. Neither of these have changed, despite the nearly ten years since then.

While other kids were claiming that pizza, spaghetti, or ice cream were their favorite foods, I decided to take it a different direction.

Mmmm.

So despite never having eaten sushi (sashimi, in particular), I was drawn to it for several reasons. One, I like rice. Two, I like seaweed. Three, I like fish. It should come as no surprise then, that I would enjoy a tasty and delicious dish consisting almost entirely of those three things.

When the moment of truth finally came, about six years later, I found out that not only was sushi my favorite food, but I also enjoyed it.

I don't know if it was the build-up over the years of claiming sushi as my favorite food, or maybe it just tastes delicious, but I enjoyed every bite. I went back to the same sushi restaurant several times, and each time was better than the last.

Sadly, Afghanistan is a landlocked country, so I'm SOL on the sushi situation (also my food is prepared by Army cooks, so it wouldn't be that great anyways). When I return to the states though, I plan on having a big platter of sushi to celebrate.

Now if I could just get my wife to enjoy seafood...

So what about you? What's your favorite food?

Reader Mailbag

2010-09-18T05:00:00.000-07:00

Hey, I didn't get any mail this week, what gives you guys?

The Afghanistan Diaries

2010-09-17T05:00:00.000-07:00

It's been another excellent week here in the Stan. We're expecting rain soon, which will hopefully reduce the ridiculous amount of dust in the air (and everywhere else). I'm currently growing some basil seeds that one of my buddies got in a care package. I'm using coffee grounds as fertilizer. I likely won't use the basil on any of my food, but I like plants and it will add a touch of green to our otherwise brown area.

I'm currently working a different shift than usual due to some schedule changes, which affects what times I get online. The only problem with this is that a lot more people are trying to use the computers at the same time as me, resulting in a lot of lag. If I don't post in the next few days, that's why.

My wife's computer is broken (I'm guessing a virus is the culprit), and I haven't gotten to talk to her in a while which is bumming me out. Hopefully it gets fixed soon because my list of stuff that I'd like to discuss with her is backing up. It includes some ideas for our belated honeymoon, as well as possibly starting a business.

And that's all that happened this week, tune in next week for another update, and if you have any questions feel free to ask in the comments or via e-mail!

My Dream Job

2010-09-16T05:00:00.000-07:00

Growing up, my dream job changed quite a few times. First I wanted to be a train engineer (the people who drive them, not the ones who design them). Then I wanted to be an ambassador at the UN. Then I wanted to be a business analyst. After that I didn't WANT a job. Matter of fact, I still don't WANT a job, but apparently I HAVE to have one. Point of contention there, but I'll save that for another day. So what do I want to do these days?

Well, besides starting my own business (yeah, Pizza My Ass!), I'm really interested in becoming a financial advisor. I like this job for two reasons: I really like money, and I really like helping people in financial trouble. In fact, that's part of the reason I started this blog. Though I'm not as successful as big blogs like Get Rich Slowly or The Simple Dollar, I like to think I bring my own flavor to the personal finance blogging world. For example, a lot of blogs focus on getting out of debt, while other focus on money saving tips for moms. I fall into neither of those categories.

My personal favorite PF-related blog is Early Retirement Extreme, which is about a guy who retired early, as the name suggests. Retiring early is part of my life plan. Didn't I tell you I hate working? So in order to make enough money after college to retire early, I'll need to have at least some money coming in.

What's your dream job?

The Writing on the (Bathroom) Wall

2010-09-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

Being that I'm in Afghanistan, on a base full of young infantry soldiers, it should have come as no surprise to me that the level of the conversations that occur on the walls of the restroom stalls wouldn't be too high. I wasn't exactly expecting a philosophical conversation on the nature of war or anything, but all I've seen so far has been pictures of penises next to people calling other people fags. It kind of makes me ashamed to be soldier (not that I'm not already, don't you worry).

I imagine in the times before the use of "gay" to refer to homosexuals that people would have had a harder time coming up with things to write, since "homosexual" is one of those $5, polysyllabic words that the people who write on bathroom stall walls probably aren't capable of comprehending. I suppose it's not all bad though, it gives people something to do while they spend time on the toilet, and it acts as a primitive kind of message board for everyone. At least until space runs out. If I had a camera, I'd probably take some pictures of the ridiculous things I've read. In fact, I think I'll borrow someone's next time I have to go.

Start Investing Now

2010-09-14T05:00:00.000-07:00

It's Tuesday again, and you know what that means: another post about personal finance!

There's a Chinese proverb (or maybe some other country, but a proverb nonetheless) that goes something like: "The best time to plan a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now." Investing is a lot like growing a tree. You take a little bit a money now, and by planting it in the right place and with the proper care it will eventually grow into a mighty nest egg. But even if you didn't start investing twenty years ago, you can still invest now. In fact, it's probably easier now than it was back then, thanks to the advent of the internet.

So why should you invest now, in a recession of all times? Well that's a no-brainer. When's the best time to buy stuff at the store? When it's new or when it's on sale? During a recession, stock prices drop, and you can scoop them up for a lot cheaper than they were during the boom. Once the economy picks back up again, your stocks (or whatever you invested in) tend to go back up as well. That doesn't mean you shouldn't invest while the market is strong though. You never know when the market will peak, so buying as much as you can as often as you can is the best idea.

So here's what I propose you do. Go to Vanguard.com, and open up a brokerage account. Go ahead, do it, my blog will still be here when you get back. Then, transfer some money to the account from you bank (this might take a few days, feel free to read ahead). Take that money and invest it in one of Vanguard's many excellent mutual funds. I'll let you do the research for that on your own, since everyone has their own tolerance for risk. Mine is pretty high because I'm relatively young, but some young people might prefer more conservative investments.

Next, wait 20 years. If my blog is still around then, go ahead and post about your success.

Single Player Games With Multiplayer Features

2010-09-13T05:00:00.000-07:00

It seems like multiplayer gaming is the go-to gimmick for game designers these days. I recently picked up a copy of Dragon Quest IX for the DS. One thing included is a feature that allows you to play with friends over a wireless connection. Similar to Zelda: Four Swords, I imagine (since I've never played it). I also picked up a little known game called Magical Starsign (for the discount price of $15). This game includes a feature that allows you to unlock new characters by connecting to other players. Needless to say, I don't have any friends who also have this game, and since I'm in Afghanistan I can't exactly meet up with other players. Pokemon has had this feature since it's inception, with the inability to collect every Pokemon unless you have a friend with the opposing game.

Something I forgot to mention about DQIX is the inclusion of a "shopping channel" type store, with the catch being that you have to connect to Nintendo Wi-fi, a bit of a feat when you're stuck in a third world country. I suppose that my main complaint here is that I purchased games which I assumed were single player (they're all RPGs), and with the exception of Pokemon I didn't expect that I would need to have friends or an internet connection to beat the game 100%.

Along those same lines is huge rise of DLC. I was playing Dragon Age: Origins, when I ran into a merchant. In order to complete a quest for him I needed to download some extra content (I'd have to pay for it, of course). What this tells me is that the content was available when the game was released, but they decided to charge extra on top of the $60 cost for the game. It's a worrying trend. Would you pay $700 for a new dryer, only to discover that in order to actually heat anything you had to pay an extra $100 for the heating unit? I certainly wouldn't stand for that, especially if I didn't have access to a way to "download" said heating unit.

Has anyone else had an experience with these games, or a similar situation?

Super Saturday Links

2010-09-11T05:00:00.000-07:00

It's been a dull week here in The Stan, but here are some links to make everyone's Saturday exciting:

J.D. over at Get Rich Slowly had a book week this week, reviewing several books and topping it off with a top-ten list of money books.

Kotaku has an article about health and healing in the upcoming Diablo III. I'm sure every nerd is eager with anticipation over the release. I'm a little hesitant after StarCraft II.

Trent from The Simple Dollar had Summer meal #15: Butternut Squash and Carrots with Coconut Milk and Curry. Yum! Sadly, it's the last of the Summer meals series, but hopefully the Fall meals are just as tasty.

That's all I got today. I don't get a lot of internet time, so these are the main sites I check everyday.