A Town Hall Meeting with Congressman Amash

I went to a town hall meeting today held by my congressman, Justin Amash, just down the road in Hastings, MI. He holds these regularly, and I've been to several in the last couple of years. I don't call myself an Amash supporter, because he and I have very different views on a lot of issues (mostly economics). Due to the heavily conservative West Michigan district where I live, that's pretty much unavoidable.

Leaving aside my disagreements on the issues, I very much approve of how Congressman Amash executes his elected office. He communicates with his constituency more than any other politician that I've ever had as a representative, or heard about elsewhere. He explains on Facebook why he votes for and against particular issues. These town halls are held several times a year, across the area that he represents, and conference call versions are held as well. He's polite to everyone, even the most strident and contentious, and is willing to engage in conversation to the extent that the format allows.

In the opening minutes of the meeting, Amash discussed the big political story of the day: the Speaker of the House. With John Boehner stepping down as Speaker, the question has been who will replace him. Amash believes this is about more than just who will be the Speaker. He wants the House to be run with more input from all its members, rather than a "top-down" approach where the leadership determines the content of legislation and puts it up for a vote. Amash is supporting Daniel Webster, because he believes that Webster will run the House differently than Boehner has. Jake Sherman at Politico wrote an excellent piece yesterday describing pretty much exactly what I heard from Amash in the town hall today, and I encourage reading it for more details.

One thing that piece doesn't cover in detail is a point Amash made about the position of Speaker. He believes the Speaker should be focused on things that affect the House as a whole, not just the majority party. The Speaker is almost always from the majority party, of course, and he's often seen as the leader of the majority. There's another position for that, though, the Majority Leader. Amash would like to see the Speaker step back from the party leadership aspects, and let the Majority Leader be the public face of the party, discussing the positions and politics. The Speaker would focus more on the process of moving legislation through the House, and any constitutional questions (such as whether the other branches of government are overstepping their authorities).

None of that sounds like a bad idea, but it also seems pretty idealistic to me. Getting input from more representatives seems like it would slow the already-glacial legislative process even further. Asking the Speaker to step above the party-line bickering sounds fine, but is it realistic? I can't say I have a strong opinion on the way the House is run, but I certainly think that it could use improvement over what's happened in the last decade or so. Perhaps Amash has the right idea, perhaps not; but any change at this point seems like a good idea.

After the Speaker issue was discussed, the floor was open for questions and comments. The very first one came from an older gentleman (and almost everyone there was older; I'm 40 and I'm pretty sure I was the youngest adult besides Amash and his staff) saying that Social Security cost of living increases were too low, and his income was stretched tight. Another question later asked how people with pre-existing conditions would get affordable health insurance, if Obamacare was repealed (as Amash and the Republicans have repeatedly attempted). In both cases, the congressman was polite and sympathetic, but basically said nothing would be done. Interesting how even in the deeply conservative West Michigan area, people find that liberal policies like universal health care and guaranteed retirement income are important enough to ask their representative about.

I had the chance to ask a question, which I used to bring up one of my least favorite political issues, the federal debt ceiling. I asked Amash why he would vote against raising the debt ceiling, which basically meant refusing to pay money that Congress has already allocated. He contested the point about "already allocated", saying that if the debt ceiling wasn't raised, the government would simply have to cut spending from that point onward. The congressman also said that he didn't believe that a failure to borrow further would be catastrophic, because incoming payments would cover the most essential expenditures (like Social Security and the military). Finally, Amash also said that he sees the debt ceiling as a tool provided from past congressional action to force the government to be fiscally responsible and balance the budget.

Unfortunately the format of the town hall didn't allow for further debate on the issue, but I don't agree with any of his responses. "Already allocated" is indeed a reasonable description, as this analysis shows: if nothing changes, the government will be $68 billion short of funds needed to cover already-scheduled expenditures from Nov 10th to 30th. (And it gets worse after that, of course.) I believe relying on incoming payments to cover "essential expenditures" would not work, for two major reasons: first, stopping "less essential" payments would have a major suppressing effect on economic activity; and second, because the Treasury can't easily choose which bills to pay (as the Washington Post pointed out back in 2013). As for using the debt ceiling as a budget-balancing tool, I can't speak for the intent of past congressional action, but I do know that the globally connected economies of today do not react well to massive reductions in government spending. One needs only look across the Atlantic to Europe (most notably Greece) to see that, and it would be even worse here if such reduction happens suddenly via a debt crisis.

Those were the major issues that were discussed. A few others came up: a farmer asking about funding for some sort of quality control act, a guy who quoted Teddy Roosevelt on immigration, a lady asking bluntly if there was any hope for a functioning government, and one guy who was adamant that the FBI should immediately arrest Hillary Clinton for treason over Benghazi. (No, really, I'm serious. And I'm afraid he was, too.) I'll say again, I'm impressed with how smoothly the congressman handles these things. He's polite, refuses to directly accuse anyone of anything, doesn't promise anything more than to have his office look into the issue, and moves on to the next comment.

My thanks to Congressman Amash for his efforts to communicate with those he represents, and my compliments on how he handles the responsibilities of the office. We may not agree on the issues, but I respect the way he does the job.

Trying Out Star Wars: The Old Republic

I've been meaning to try Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) for some time now. It's been around since late 2011, and has had a free-to-play option since late 2012. I decided this week to finally give it a try. I only have a few hours of playtime thus far, so don't expect any deep analysis of the game. Just first impressions.

I'm not a huge Star Wars fanatic, but I know as much as any self-respecting sci-fi nerd who grew up in the 1980s. Love the original trilogy, read some of the comics and books in the '90s, was greatly disappointed by most of the prequel trilogy...the usual. I also played a bit of Star Wars Galaxies, the previous Star Wars MMORPG that shut down in 2011, but I never really got serious about it.

Registering and downloading the game went as smoothly as such things can, which is to say it took a half-hour or so of entering info and walking through the setup, and another few hours of waiting for downloads. I appreciate that the designers spent the effort to make the starting areas of the game playable while the bulk of the download finishes. I still waited about 2 hours to get to the point where I could start; fortunately, I expected that and left the download to finish while I went about my business elsewhere.

One note for the security-minded: SWTOR does have the ability to do two-factor authentication, but it's not particularly user-friendly. You have to download their own app to your iOS/Android device, rather than using something standard like Google Authenticator. There's no option to skip the 2-factor step when logging in from a known IP address, so you have to execute that extra step every time you log in. You do get a bonus (100 cartel coins for the in-game store) if you use it, though.

Immediately upon entering the game on a free-to-play account, it's made abundantly clear that getting your money is a priority. The second choice you make in character creation (after Republic or Imperial faction) is race, and most of the options are hidden under little dollar-sign icons. This is a recurring theme. Now, I've played a lot of free-to-play games and I get the concept...it's in the designer's interest to remind you regularly that the game will be so much better with a little cash outlay. But I've rarely seen one that's so in-your-face about it as SWTOR. Every time you walk into a cantina or other resting location...pop-up, saying only subscribers get the benefit of rest XP. Take a look at your character's outfit...there's that dollar sign, saying you can only hide your helmet in cut-scenes if you pay. Open a vendor window...reminder, subscribers pay less! I'll have to play a lot more before I can tell if the game is effectively pay-to-win, requiring you to spend money to get through, or if it's possible to ignore all this stuff and still make reasonable progress. But one thing is for sure, it's seriously annoying. I'm not averse to spending money on games I like, but I'm stubborn...I won't do it just to get ads out of my face. In fact, that just means I have to like the game even more to overcome the annoyance factor before I'll consider paying for it.

SWTOR has the Bioware label, and if you've ever played another Bioware game, the story aspect will look very familiar. Conversations are via cut-scene, with your character given lots of opportunity to select various conversational branches. I appreciate that all the characters are fully voiced, adding to the immersion effect, although I still have to turn on subtitles to make sure I catch everything that's said. In just my first couple of hours as an Imperial Bounty Hunter, I've already had my crew murdered, made a deal with a Hutt, sent some hapless kid off to the Sith academy, and allowed myself to be bribed by a trophy hunter who wants to kill off the native aliens for sport. I did have some opportunities to be merciful, but where's the fun in that? Pretty much exactly what you'd expect from an evil money-obsessed Imperial!

There's plenty of Star Wars in the world design, as you'd expect. Plenty of aliens, quick travel by speeder bike, droids rolling around the city areas, a Hutt gangster boss complete with slave girls, a nearby spaceport, and so on. The backwater planet where my bounty hunter is stuck for now is only the tip of the iceberg, of course. Plenty more of the universe out there.

The combat is pretty standard MMO button-mashing, at least at the low levels that I've seen to this point. Shoot, stand there waiting while your skill recharges, shoot some more. No dodging, cover, or other combat tricks. Maybe some of that shows up later. I actually hope it doesn't, because combat maneuvering isn't the easiest thing. I've already had some trouble lining up for melee skills, ending up out of range due either to lag or my ineptitude with the very coarse control scheme. Not a big deal for a blaster-happy bounty hunter, fortunately.

I haven't yet tried to interact with any other players. Judging from the various restrictions that have been popping up in the tutorials for free-to-play accounts, such as limited chat options, I may just stick with the solo approach. That's my preferred method to explore MMO worlds, anyway. Go through the story alone, learn how things work, then worry about finding groups to do more difficult content.

There's a whole lot more to SWTOR than what I've seen in a few hours, of course. I look forward to exploring it, if I can stomach all the cash-grab advertising long enough. The story aspect is by far the best part so far, and I see no reason that will change any time soon. It's a Bioware game, after all, and the story your character builds through the game is the core of every Bioware title I've ever enjoyed. Looking forward to seeing where this one goes.

After 99 Years...Cubs win!

It's fairly well-known that the Chicago Cubs haven't been to a World Series since 1945, and haven't won one since 1908. Much less publicized is the fact that those Cubs have spent 99 years playing in Wrigley without once winning a post-season series there...until last night.

Wrigley Field actually opened two years before the Cubs moved in, in 1914, under the name of Weegham Field. The Chicago Whales played there for two years, and actually won the Federal League championship in 1915. They didn't play a post-season, though.

Since the Cubs moved into Wrigley, they managed only one post-season series win, in 13 tries. That was in 2003, against the Atlanta Braves, but the clinching game was in Atlanta. They went on to lose the next series to the Florida (now Miami) Marlins.

This year, the Cubs played their arch-rivals in the NL Central division, the St Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals have been in 45 postseason series since the Cubs took up residence in Wrigley, and won 29 of them.

Last night, the Cubs finally won a post-season series at home in Wrigley Field. For Cubs fans, the win is the most important thing...but having it happen at home, against those Cardinals, made it just a little bit sweeter.

Got my flu shot...have you?

I actually didn't get flu shots for quite a few years. When I was in college, I got my flu shot one year, and got really sick anyway. That experience gave me a ready excuse to avoid the slight inconvenience of going out of my way for the flu shot. And guess what, I got sick in some of the years that I didn't get the shot, too. When I thought about it logically, avoiding the shot made no sense.

Last year, you might have heard how the flu vaccine was less effective than usual. That's because the creation of the vaccine is basically a guessing game - experts pick a few varieties to include in the vaccine, a bunch of that vaccine is produced, and we all hope that the flu varieties which actually show up in the wild match the vaccine. Sometimes the guesses are good, and sometimes they're not.

But none of that means getting a flu shot is a bad idea. Even if the guess isn't very good, the vaccine can still provide some protection. And if the guess is good, having the protection can mean a much lower chance of the misery that comes with having the flu.

It's very easy to get the vaccine, too. There's the doctor's office, of course, but that's not your only option. Some employers bring the flu shot to you. A lot of corner pharmacies offer the shot in their stores. Almost every health insurance plan covers the cost of the flu shot (though you'll want to make sure you check your plan for approved providers beforehand), but even if yours doesn't, the shot itself is usually around $30. Probably a lot less than you'd spend on medicine if you get sick!

So now, I get the shot every year. Some years I get sick, some I don't...but I'm convinced that I'm avoiding at least some instances of being miserably sick. And that's worth a little pin-prick once a year.

Night Raid 1931

Night Raid 1931 is a good example of a combination of many genres: historical fiction, action-adventure, mystery...a lot to cram into 13 short episodes!

The setting for Night Raid 1931 is 1930s China, a tumultuous period when the Imperial Japanese army was occupying parts of mainland China. The story follows a small group of Japanese in Shanghai, ostensibly civilians, but in reality an independent group of spies working for the Japanese government. They take on some of the shadowy activities that official government operatives can't be involved in.

And these aren't just any spies, but spies with superpowers: teleportation, psionics, speed. The exact source of the powers isn't really specified. I got the impression that they came either from mutations or mystical spirits, but it doesn't really matter. The powers are important, but they aren't the central focus of the story...more of a supporting role.

The characters themselves are a big part of what makes Night Raid 1931 work so well. Each character is well defined and has their own motivations. The telepathic girl hunting for her missing older brother. The tight-laced young military man unsure of which side is in the right. The older man in charge of the team's missions, using his mysterious contacts to set up their activities. I found myself wishing the series was a bit longer to explore their backgrounds a bit more, and find out what happens to some of them in the future.

The historical setting is very much in the center of the storyline. Freedom for Asian countries from the colonial powers is a major theme. The Manchurian Incident is a major turning point. The distrust and strife between Japanese and Chinese during this period is made very clear in several instances. I ended up doing some reading up on the period when the show made a reference to something I wasn't familiar with, and what I found fit very nicely into how the story was progressing. The writers clearly know the period and did their best to make things fit.

That's not to say that this is a historical drama. Beside the obvious difference of people with superpowers, the entire plot revolves around a secret organization that isn't in the historical record, and their efforts to change the course of history. By the end, it isn't clear whether the story is meant to take place in our own history, showing us secret events that have been forgotten; or if it's all in a parallel reality, that has its own future that may not be like our own. It didn't really matter to me which it was, because either way it was a well-executed story that kept me interested all the way through.

In the end, my only complaint about Night Raid 1931 is that there wasn't enough of it. For anyone who enjoys a bit of a mystery, set in an interesting historical period that isn't commonly used, and doesn't mind suspending disbelief in the occasional use of superpowers - highly recommended!

It's time for MLB to protect the pivot man

There are times when playing a game requires you to put your body in harm's way. Standing a few inches from a hard round object coming in at 90+ mph. Clearing a puck, then taking a check into the boards. Going up for a header against an onrushing opponent. Carrying a football right up the middle where those 300-lb guys are waiting.

For a long time now, being the pivot man at second base has been one of those times, when a runner comes in with a hard slide to keep you from turning the double play. Last night, Ruben Tejada paid the price, getting his leg broken when Chase Utley slid into him. Utley's slide was very late (didn't even start until he was practically even with the bag), and while he could reach the bag with his arm, his body wasn't near it. Earlier this season, something similar happened to Jung Ho Kang of the Pittsburgh Pirates, and you hear about similar injuries almost every year.

The umpires decided that what Utley did was legal. The rules say you can't go outside the baseline to interfere with a fielder. I can see how the umpires made their decision, but I don't agree with it. When a player's slide is taking him away from the base, and starts that late, it's pretty clear that he's interfering. And the baseline shouldn't extend well past second base, where Utley's slide ended. On top of that, Utley was actually called safe on the play since Tejada missed second base by a few inches. There is a rule for that, known as the "neighborhood play", meant to protect fielders. But the umpires chose not to use it. (One explanation for that being that the rule is narrowly defined for specifically protecting fielders in the process of turning double plays, and Tejada was never able to actually throw the ball).

But whether this particular play was within the rules isn't really the point. The larger issue is that MLB needs to change the rules to protect their players, much like they've already done with collisions at home plate. Clearly the "neighborhood play" rule isn't enough. At the very least, runners need to be required to slide over the bag, and not just have an arm or foot barely able to reach it. It won't stop every collision, but it would keep fielders safe if they are moving away from the base. And failure to comply needs to include not only being called out on the field, but fines and suspensions as well.

For this particular play, Joe Torre is going to review what happened, in his capacity as baseball's chief baseball officer. I hope he thinks long and hard about not only this particular play, but what can be done to avoid this situation in the future.

My media center using Amazon Fire TV

I've had an Amazon Fire TV for about a year now. Recently I did a full factory reset, in large part because I needed to upgrade several of my apps anyway. Seemed like a good time to document what I'm using, both for my own use the next time I need to do this, and in case anyone else is doing something similar.

Back to Factory Defaults

The factory reset is easily accessible from the Fire TV Settings, under System. Be careful! There's one "are you sure" dialog, and then it happens...no additional prompts! So be sure you're ready to reset.

It's best to use the original Fire TV remote when you're going through the setup. I don't use it normally (see below about the Harmony remote) but I needed the original to get through the initial setup steps, before activating the other remote. You also should remove any USB devices...my FLIRC kept the remote from working properly during the initial setup, and other devices may do the same.

The actual setup steps are nothing more than connecting to your network (if necessary...mine needed no configuration) and entering your Amazon.com account info. Then you'll see a intro video (feel free to skip through that) and get back to the home screen with nothing but the default content installed. At this point, accessing Amazon Music and Video works, and very little else.

Preparing to Add Apps

In the Settings, under System:

• You may need to update the time zone. Mine defaulted to Pacific time, so I had to change it to Eastern.
• Under Developer Options, enable both "ADB Debugging" and "Apps from Unknown Sources". These will be needed to load up non-Amazon-store apps, like Kodi.

On your PC/Mac/Linux box, install ADBFire. It's the simplest way I've found to work with sideloading apps that aren't on the Amazon app store, and it's especially useful with Kodi. Once you've installed it, open it up and set up the connection to your Fire TV. If you run into any issues, go to Help->Help in ADBFire and select Connection Tips for help. Once you're connected, installing apps is as simple as clicking "Install APK" and selecting the APK file for the app.

Apps

Firestarter

Firestarter is an app launcher, an extremely useful thing to have since Amazon's default home screen won't let you directly launch non-Amazon-store apps. Once you've downloaded the APK, install it via ADBFire. You'll need to launch it once by going to Settings->Applications->Manage Installed Applications, selecting Firestarter from the list, then select Launch Application. Now you'll see the Firestarter screen whenever the Fire TV starts up or you press the home button, and it lists all installed apps (not just the Amazon-approved ones). There's plenty of other things Firestarter can do, such as launching apps automatically on restart, but I only use it as a launcher.

Kodi

I use Kodi as my front-end for watching over-the-air TV, my local video files, and music. Download the Android ARM version and install it with ADBFire. Kodi can do a ton of things and I won't list it all here, as there's plenty of info out on the Interwebs for that. I mostly use it for connecting to my MythTV system (which I use to record over-the-air TV), as described on the Kodi wiki.

Streaming Media

Just about everyone uses some kind of streaming service these days, and I use more than most since I'm not a cable TV subscriber. My current list, and where to get each:

• YouTube (web videos): Amazon App Store
• Crunchyroll (anime streaming): Search for Crunchyroll on Google Play. Note that you'll need APK Downloader, which is also available on Google Play, installed in your browser in order to download the Crunchyroll APK.
• Sling TV (ESPN, TNT, TBS, etc live TV streams): Sling website
• Netflix (streaming video): Amazon App Store

There are others, of course, this is just the list that I use most.

Extras

You can get by fine with just the original Fire TV remote, augmented with either a USB keyboard or something like the Amazon Fire TV Remote App (available on the Amazon App Store) to make keyboard entry easier. I like a bit more flexibility, though, so I added a couple of extras.

Harmony Hub and Remote

Logitech's Harmony remotes are excellent universal remotes. I have the Harmony Companion model, so I can use either the remote or an app on my Android tablet (which has a keyboard function). It controls my TV, sound system, DVD/Blue-Ray player, and the Fire TV. It does take a bit of initial setup, but it was pretty straightforward and didn't take too long. I especially like the one-button selection of configurations, so I can easily switch from the Fire TV to the DVD player to my PC as input sources, without having to modify the TV and sound inputs every time.

FLIRC

I use a FLIRC dongle to add a bit more flexibility to the Harmony remote configuration. You can do a lot of things with the Harmony setup alone, but the FLIRC adds a ton of additional options, especially when it comes to controlling Kodi.