Happy Flag Day

In 1777 on June 14th, the Second Continental Congress adopted an official flag for their new country. We in the United States also celebrate the birth of the US Army on this day - that same congress had reached consensus on the army two years earlier.

Flag Day isn't one of the most well-known holidays, but in my family we always paid attention. Not so much for the flag part; more because it happens to be my Mom's birthday. Very fitting that she was born on a day with such historical importance, given how much she loves the subject of history.

For a year or so when I was a kid, my family lived in Baltimore. I don't remember a lot about our time in Baltimore, but a trip we made to Fort McHenry has stayed in my mind. I particularly remember viewing the original Star-Spangled Banner, the flag that was flying over the fort during the Battle of Baltimore. It was that flag which inspired Francis Scott Key to write the poem that later became our national anthem. I highly recommend it to anyone who has the chance to visit that part of the country.

So happy birthday to my Mom, the US Army, and the official adoption of the US flag. Many happy returns to all three!

Solforge Revisited

There's been a new Solforge client in the works for a good long time. It was released late in May, and it did not go well.

I've barely paid any attention to Solforge for several months, since I wrote about it last November. My feeling at the time was that the game had some interesting concepts in terms of gameplay, but had some technical problems (such as lack of turn timers). It also suffered from the usual TCG issues where the guy with the bigger collection has a huge advantage, and a few popular deck archetypes dominated the constructed play scene.

The Solforge team sent me an email when they released their new client, so I decided to check it out. It was completely unplayable right after release. Just about anything that could go wrong, did go wrong...slow server response, UI bugs in the client, you name it. Things were so bad that the game was put into a testing mode, where you could play basically for free, but no progress would be saved. That was eventually turned off and everyone's account was restored to the pre-testing state, but the fact that it was necessary gives you an idea of how messed up the new client release was.

They're still working on fixing problems, but the game is playable now. The client certainly looks different, with a cleaner user interface. There are still some interface issues, such as changes to cards made during play not always showing up in the UI, but it mostly works OK. I don't really see a major difference from the old client in terms of functionality, to be honest, but maybe I just don't play enough to see how it's better. I did notice that playing a game against the AI no longer counts as a win for daily reward quests, which is a major step backwards, if it's not a bug.

I was pleased to see that a turn timer is in place, although it's a weird implementation. The default timer is three minutes and forty-five seconds, for the whole game. You have 20 seconds to take each turn before it starts to count down. It seems unnecessarily complex to me, but it's better than nothing.

As far as gameplay, nothing seems to have changed. I tried a few constructed games and got destroyed, by opponents who played mostly a bunch of top-rarity heroic/legendary cards. Draft games were a lot closer, although it would take some practice to learn what strategies are actually good. A few cards seemed different from what I remember, so presumably some balance changes have been made since I last played, but I'd have to spend a lot more time to understand the differences.

I don't see anything in the updated Solforge client that gives me a reason to start playing regularly again, even if you leave aside the terrible launch. If the team is looking to improve the game, they need to get back to the drawing board.

Forty-One

Doesn't feel any different than forty, really.

Thanks, Google.

Which is always the case, right? Each day or month or year feels much the same as the one before. Then you look back a bit further and see how things have changed little by little. Forty-one may not feel any different than forty, but it's a far cry from thirty or twenty!

Lots of good birthday wishes today. Some came in the old-fashioned way, by mail and in person, over the last week or so. Many showed up on Facebook, which seems to be the standard well-wishing platform these days. Even an email or two, kind of in-between the old and the new.

Gift from my parents, a nice T-shirt featuring Japanese slugger Sadaharu Oh.

I'm not doing anything special today, but next week I've got a trip planned with friends to the Origins gaming convention in Ohio. That's my birthday present to myself. Should be a good time.

Thanks to everyone who sent birthday wishes and/or gifts. Appreciate the good thoughts!

Diemer Run 5K 2016

Whew, that was humid. Good run, though.

Today was the Brian Diemer family of races, over in Cutlerville. It's a fairly small event, with about 1200 runners. (By comparison, the River Bank Run gets over 20000.) It takes place every June, and parts of the proceeds from the race go to various charities.

I like the course for the Diemer run in large part because it's so flat. There are no real hills, just a few gradual slopes. That's especially nice when it's as humid as it was today. The temperature was around 75° F at 9 AM when the race started, but it felt a whole lot warmer. By about halfway through the run, I felt like I'd been swimming...a far cry from the near-freezing conditions back in March!

A few bands had set up a various points around the course. One spot was playing a recording...maybe someone couldn't make it? But several others had folks playing live music. The music is a nice touch for a small event, and makes a nice distraction as you're pushing through the middle distance.

This weekend is also the Cutlerville Days weekend festival. There were some groups of people already set up to see the parade later on in the day, which added a few extra spectators. It also made parking a bit of a pain, but it wasn't too terrible. Not a big enough event to have real issues.

After the finish line, the usual tables of water and snacks were set up for the runners. They even had one table with a bunch of ice cream sundaes. I wasn't feeling quite that adventurous, but I did have a banana.

The Diemer Run is a nice small event, and I enjoy going out for it. Thanks to all the organizers and sponsors who make it happen!

State-Run Lotteries

The lottery is everywhere. Billboards, TV ads, radio spots, every gas station and convenience store, and a whole lot of other places. It's incredibly popular, and that's a sad thing.

Personally, I've never understood the attraction of the lottery. Don't get me wrong, I get the idea of gambling, and even enjoy a bit of it myself on occasion. But the lottery is a different animal than going to a local casino or out to Vegas. The odds on the big games are so low that I'd barely consider it gambling. More like waving your arms on a clear day in hopes that a storm will suddenly form and hit you with a lightning bolt.

So why do people do it? I suppose a lack of math skills has something to do with it, but I'm pretty sure the real reason is that people like to dream of a fairy-tale-style life change. Quit your job, buy your dream home, pay off all the bills, travel the world...that's the stuff of dreams. An opportunity to realize them is attractive, even if you know the chances are so low that it's almost as likely you'll pick up a winning ticket off the street as pick the numbers yourself.

All that is fine if you know it going in and have the money to spare. Unfortunately, a lot of lottery sales go to people who can least afford to throw money away. The same "big dreams" effect that makes the lottery attractive is most likely to appeal to those with the least spare cash.

The reason all this has been on my mind recently is the number of lottery ads that I happened to run across. I listen to quite a few MLB radio broadcasts, many of which are sponsored in part by their local state lottery, or at least have paid commercials. I see big signs each time I walk into a convenience store, and in most bars. And I happened to drive past several buses with big lottery signs on the side.

But wait, isn't the lottery money usually used to pay for schools and similar government programs? That sounds great, until you realize that the use of lottery funds is used as an excuse to avoid funding through taxes (mostly property and income taxes). If the lottery ever stops making money, those programs will be in some big trouble. Even if that never happens, this kind of school funding is effectively a tax transfer from the wealthy (who would pay a lot of income and property taxes) to the poor (who buy the majority of lottery tickets).

Rather than go on further in this vein, I'll just put a link here to John Oliver's piece on the lottery on Last Week Tonight. Highly recommended, if you haven't seen it yet. He talks about all the things I've mentioned and a few more besides.

So, what should be done? I'd love to see state-run lotteries eliminated completely, but I know that's incredibly unlikely, since it would require action by the very people profiting from the system. I think the best case scenario is restrictions on how lottery money is considered in funding formulas, such that other sources of funding (i.e. income and property taxes) have to be used to pay the full budget for schools and other public services used by all income levels. The lottery money should be directed to programs used primarily by lower-income people (social services, rent assistance, Medicaid, etc), since they're the ones putting the money in. It's not a great scenario, but it's better than the current one.

CD Closure

For years, I've used CDs as a place to keep medium-term savings. Now I'm about to close out my last one, and things will have to change pretty significantly before I'll get another one.

A CD is a certificate of deposit account. It's like a savings account, but instead of being able to deposit and withdraw whenever you like, the account has a fixed term. You have to pay a penalty fee if you withdraw your money before the end date. In return, the interest rate is higher than a normal savings account. Like savings accounts, CDs are FDIC insured.

Using CDs for savings that I expected to use somewhere in the 2-5 year range made sense, back when I first started using them. I got the benefit of the higher interest rate, and the FDIC insurance meant that I didn't have to worry about losing the money if something catastrophic happened in the financial markets. In an emergency, I could get to the money quickly, though it would incur that penalty fee.

If interest rates are decent, CDs make good long-term investments as well. The usual strategy for this is a "ladder." Buy some longer-term CDs, usually 3-5 years, but stagger the maturity dates so you have a portion maturing each year. That way, every year you have the option of renewing or withdrawing part of the money, while still getting the benefit of longer-term interest rates.

Lately, those interest rates have not been decent. From 2008 to 2010, rates fell sharply as the economy slowed. Since then, rates have remained historically low. (Fortunately for us savers, inflation has been low as well, but it's still not a great situation.) Super-low rates means that CDs aren't much better than simply keeping your money in a savings or checking account, where you have easy access to it all the time.

Without the incentive of a reasonable rate of return, I don't see any point in locking my medium-term savings up in account that restricts access. I may look at CDs again in the future if interest rates rise, but until then, basic savings and checking accounts are a better option.

Distance Driving

I used to love driving long distances. Not so much any more. Partially that's just me getting old, but also some of the reasons for taking a long drive no longer apply.

When I first learned to drive, getting in the car for a few hours was a nice way to be alone for a few hours. Just me and my music - on cassette tapes, this being the early '90s. It was before everyone had a cell phone, so I had no fear of being interrupted. I remember making several-hour-long trips around the Portland, OR area with no destination in mind. Even went all the way up to Seattle and back once or twice. Since I graduated from college and moved out on my own, driving hasn't been necessary to have alone time. Sitting in front of a computer or laying on my couch with a book works just as well.

Living east of the Mississippi is another reason that long distance drives aren't as necessary any more. Getting from one major metropolitan area to another in the western US usually means 4+ hours on the road. Here in the midwest, it's usually more like 2-3 hours. Even less on the east coast, where in some places you effectively never leave such areas.

Simply getting older has taken some of the shine off making long drives, of course. Sitting in a car for hours on end isn't as appealing when your back hurts, but there are ways around it. I find that stopping once every hour or so to walk around for a few minutes really mitigates the aches and pains. Those stretch breaks cause a bit of a slowdown in overall travel speed, but it's worth the time.

When I was on my way to college, I took a trip all the way across the country rather than going straight to school. One long drive across US route 20, from coast to coast. No good reason, other than just to mark the change in life status to college student. It was an interesting experience. You see a lot of the country taking a largely non-highway route over extended distances. I don't think I'd do it again now, but even if I did, it probably wouldn't have the same impact. That kind of trip isn't the same the second time.

I still take the occasional trip that requires multi-hour drive time. Not just for the sake of driving, though - I need some kind of purpose to the trip. And not without breaks to give the old aches a pains a chance to subside.