More Supergirl?

It's not clear yet whether Supergirl will be renewed for a second season. It would be a real shame if the involved parties couldn't come to an agreement.

The first season, which wrapped up a few weeks ago, could charitably be called uneven. Some of the writing is downright atrocious, particularly if you have low tolerance for awkward romance or one-dimensional villains. The plot pacing feels way out of whack, as if the writers were given a barrel of ideas and told "put all these in, whether they fit or not, leave nothing out." The show's superhero stunts and effects are good for television, but still feel a little underwhelming considering how much we see of that kind of thing in big-budget movies these days.

Balancing those shortcomings, though, are some amazing performances and a whole lot of old-fashioned fun. Melissa Benoist is incredible in the lead role, making the portrayal of a Kara/Supergirl dual life seem effortless. She and Chyler Leigh have great chemistry as the Danvers sisters, David Harewood is an excellent J'onn J'onzz, and even Calista Flockhart's Cat Grant was growing on me by the end of the season. The vast majority of the show is relentlessly upbeat, with Supergirl refusing to be anything but optimistic in the face of any situation.

Supergirl started with pretty good ratings, but dropped significantly over the course of the season. That's true of many first seasons, of course, but in this case I think the problems I mentioned above made it worse. Those sinking ratings mean that CBS is thinking hard before bringing the show back for a second season. According to The Wrap, CBS is paying around $3 million per episode to Warner Brothers Television, which is a whole lot for a show with that downward rating slope.

The best solution would be for CBS and Warner Brothers to work something out to deal with the high cost. There are rumors that perhaps moving production north would help, for instance. They need to find some better direction in the plot pacing and writing areas, also. If they can't find a solution, maybe it would be possible to move the show to the CW, which already has Arrow and The Flash. Neither of those shows is perfect, but both are miles ahead of Supergirl in the writing area, so perhaps the production teams could help one another. Even if a network move means some major changes to the cast and/or setting of the show, it would be much preferable to a non-renewal.

In any event, I hope the networks can figure something out to allow Supergirl to continue. There were some outstanding acting performances in the first season, and the consistently upbeat and cheerful attitude is great. I'd love to see that continue, wherever it happens.

The Illogical Nomination

A year ago, it seems like we'd never be down to only one Republican nominee for President. It finally happened yesterday, though certainly not in the way anyone expected when this whole thing started.

I don't go out of my way to follow presidential primaries, but I don't have to. I do watch the news regularly, but I don't even need to do that. Just this morning, I was out for a walk around my neighborhood, and saw plenty of Trump yard signs. Takes very little beyond sticking your nose out the front door to hear about the presidential race these days.

None of the Republican candidates in this primary cycle were viable for me personally, as I've indicated before. So I'm just an observer when it comes to that particular circus. The way it all played out is interesting from the political science perspective, though.

Despite several months to get used to the idea, it still surprises me that Donald Trump (or Drumpf) is actually winning votes. He's broken all kinds of political rules that would sink any other candidate. In no particular order (and this is by no means a comprehensive list):

• Outright repeated lies: Sure, all the politicians bend the truth in their speeches, intentionally or otherwise. Trump takes it to another level, though. According to Politifact, less than 1/3 of his statements are even half true. (At least, of those significant enough to be fact-checked.) I see quotes on the news and the Internet about Trump "telling it like it is," but he really isn't.
• Offending large chunks of the electorate: Trump didn't waste any time offending people. When he announced his candidacy, the speech included a section calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals. He's said all kinds of unflattering things about women. I suppose everything offends someone, but he's a master.
• Insane promises: Again, all politicians do this to some extent. I don't think anyone else has suggested the insanity of walling off the entire border with Mexico and making them pay for it, though. At least, not while still winning a major party nomination.
• No understanding of foreign policy: Trump's idea of fighting terrorists is to "bomb the s--t out of them." He said that he'd be willing to bar all Muslim immigrants to the US, and I can just imagine how that would affect how the rest of the world sees our country. (Not to mention how that ignores the entire concept of religious freedom.) 

If anyone else was going around saying these sorts of things, they'd be lucky to win a local school board election, much less a major party presidential nomination. Somehow, Trump has managed to convince otherwise sane people to simply ignore a good chunk of what he's said and vote for him anyway. Maybe they think he'll change his tune once actually elected, or think that his promise to shake up the political establishment is one he'll actually be able to keep. Or perhaps they actually hope he'll act according to his statements against other countries, minority races and religions, and women. I hate to think that would be case, but it happens.

Whatever the reason, Donald Trump is going to be prominent in the news for at least another six months. Maybe longer, if he wins the general election. One thing is for sure, whenever he opens his mouth, fact checkers are going to have their work cut out for them.

May the 4th Be With You

May the 4th be with you  - it's Star Wars Day.

According to Wikipedia, the first time someone used that particular phrase was back in 1979, in a London newspaper. To celebrate Margaret Thatcher taking office as Prime Minister, of all things. Who knows if that's really the first usage, of course, but it makes an interesting anecdote. And the timing makes sense, only two years after the original movie release.

This seemed like the most appropriate day to go see The Force Awakens again. I enjoyed it the first time, though not so much that I've felt the need to go search out another showing over the last few months. This felt like the most appropriate way to spend a couple of hours of May 4th, though.

The local cheap theater still has The Force Awakens playing for $5. I remember when cheap theaters were a lot less than that, but I guess inflation hits everybody. Unfortunately I also got a reminder of why the cheap theaters aren't always the best choice. Some guy came in late, made a bunch of noise, coughed up a storm, and was just generally annoying. After a few minutes he settled down, but then about halfway through the movie he started coughing again and then yelling at the screen. I asked him to be quieter so the rest of us could watch, but he was having none of it. Started going on about how the movie woke him up (which explains why he was quiet for a while) and he was on meds and so on. So, I went and got a theater employee from out in the hall, and just as we were coming back, he walked out...guess he knew what was coming. That sort of thing could happen at any public place, I suppose, but it's probably more likely at cheap movie theaters. On the upside, outside of that guy, everything else was fine...place was clean, seats comfortable, no problems with picture or sound.

The movie itself was exactly what I remembered from my first viewing: a rehash of just about everything from A New Hope, moved forward a generation. That's not always the case with second movie viewings. Sometimes you get a different perspective, or notice some new details that change the way you think about the overall experience. Not in this case. This film stuck so closely to the formula that I couldn't help but see the similarities as the overwhelming focus. I noticed a few details that I'd missed the first time, but certainly nothing to change my overall impression.

I'm still glad I saw The Force Awakens one more time in the theater, annoying random people aside. There's enough impressive effects to be worth a trip to see them a big screen. And of course, it's a great May 4th activity. May the 4th be with you!

Hearthstone: Arena of the Old Gods

Typically, I'll play only one or two of Hearthstone's Arena runs per week, focusing mostly on playing the right classes and deck types to complete daily quests. I've been doing more than usual for the last week or so, though, after the Whispers of the Old Gods expansion release.

Doing almost every daily quest for quite some time now has allowed me to build up quite a bit of gold (that's the in-game currency). I could spend a bunch of it on packs when a new set releases, but I generally prefer to do Arena runs instead. It costs 150 gold for the Arena run vs only 100 for a pack, but you're also guaranteed to get a pack at the end of your Arena run. And with the latest game update, that pack is always from the most recent expansion. So the net cost for an Arena run is only 50 gold, if you would have bought the Old Gods pack anyway.

I like the Arena format enough that it's worth the 50 gold just for the opportunity to play. Better yet, if you win enough games, the additional rewards will be enough to cover the cost. I'm not good enough (or possibly, lucky enough) to always win that much, but occasionally a good run will net quite a bit more. So on average, I generally come close.

I've played every class but Warrior at least once in the last week, and Shaman most often. 

Since the release, my results have been all over the place. Each run continues until you've lost 3 games, so winning less than 3 means you've lost more than you've won. Of the first 10 Arena runs I did after the expansion's release, 7 were 1 or 2 wins. That's a pretty terrible showing, even taking into consideration the learning curve with new cards. My last 5 attempts, though, have all been 5 or more wins. I'm sure some of that is experience helping, but I think the largest part of the difference is just dumb luck.

Said luck mostly revolves around which cards are offered during the deck-building phase. In my best two recent runs (Mage 8 wins, Shaman 9 wins), I was able to collect some of the best available cards for each deck. For the mage, some solid minions combined with removal like 2 Flamestrikes, 2 Flame Lances, Twilight Flamecaller, and Fireball - plenty to clear enemy minions out of the way for my own to attack. For the shaman, Lightning Storm, Forked Lightning, Hex, etc for removal, in combination with powerful minions like Fire Elemental, Flamewreathed Faceless, and Thing from Below. I still had to play the cards correctly during the games, of course, but a good portion of those wins were picked up in the building phase when the good cards came my way.

I still have quite a bit of gold stashed, so I'll likely keep playing multiple Arena runs for a while longer. I'm still getting mostly new cards in the Old Gods packs (well, not commons, but the higher rarities). Eventually I'll have most of the non-legendary Old Gods cards, and then it'll be time to cut back to focusing on quest completion again.

Rolling my 401k into an IRA

My long-term retirement savings have been mostly in a 401k provided by Fidelity, which was set up through my former employer. By long-term, I mean money meant to be used after I reach at least age 59-and-a-half, when 401k and IRA funds can be withdrawn without penalty. Recently I decided to take that money and roll it over into an IRA with Vanguard.

I've thought about doing a rollover for a while now, mainly to consolidate my holdings into one place. I already have a bunch of other Vanguard accounts, and this 401k is my only Fidelity account. Moving it over makes things easier for me to keep track of. As part of the move, I can also change how the money is divided across investment types. That's a nice bonus, since I was charged a trade fee when I did that within the Fidelity plan.

The reason I chose to do this now is that recently the Fidelity plan has changed to charge me a fee every quarter. It's not a lot, but any fee at all is a terrible thing when the entire point of the account is to grow money over time. Per their FAQ, Vanguard is happy to provide me a no-fee IRA account, as long as I use electronic delivery for the various documents they send out. Which I already do, for my other Vanguard accounts.

Since I already have Vanguard accounts, it was really easy to get things started. I just logged in and clicked through a few forms that explained the process. All my personal info was pulled from my existing account, so I didn't have to re-enter anything. I was able to select my new investment funds - two index funds, one for stocks and one for bonds. Each has lower fee rates than the funds I had at Fidelity. At the end of the process, I was given a letter explaining how Fidelity should make out the check used to transfer the money.

Next, I called Fidelity to let them know I wanted to perform the rollover. I couldn't do this part fully online, so I called their customer service. I was pleasantly surprised to get a person on the phone in just a few minutes. No long wait time. The representative was very helpful and even explained that I was actually getting a credit along with the fee, meaning that I wasn't losing any money from it. I appreciated that, but I decided to go ahead with the transfer anyhow, for the benefit of consolidation. To his credit, he didn't try to push me into staying with Fidelity. Once I said I was sure I wanted to go ahead, he finished up the process right away.

Then I had to wait while the check was mailed to me. Fidelity doesn't mail directly to other institutions, which is a little annoying but understandable from their perspective. Less potential for a customer to blame them for another company's mistake. When it arrived a week later, I opened it up and put my Vanguard account number on it, then mailed it to Vanguard. Less than a week later, Vanguard sent me an email confirming that they'd received the check and my rollover was complete.

All told, a fairly painless process. Both Fidelity and Vanguard did a fine job of customer service in making this an easy transaction.

Additional Recent MTG Booster Drafts

I had a good time with the Magic: The Gathering booster drafts from a couple of weekends ago, so I've attended a few more.

These events were at two other stores in the area, different from the two in my previous post. Alpha Players runs drafts on Wednesdays, and they're closer to me than the other stores - only about 15 minutes away. They have an interesting mix of inventory: half the store is Magic and other card/board games, and half is disc golf. Plus a mix of collectibles, like diecast Nascar cars. On Friday nights, Big Kidz Games has drafts after their Friday Night Magic event ends. It doesn't even start until 10 PM, so the playing isn't usually done until around 2:30 AM. They still have good turnouts, though.

In the earlier drafts, I was pretty surprised to finish as high as I did, considering how little I play Magic in a competitive environment. So it's not too surprising that I haven't been doing as well in more recent events. In one session, I didn't win a single match in the three rounds that I played. It's not as bad as it sounds, though, because all three rounds were very close. Two games to one in two of the three matches, and at least one loss in all three cases could have gone either way, depending on what was drawn in the last two or three turns. Which says something about how close these events can be! I also tied for second in another draft, and took eighth (of twenty-five) in my most recent foray.

It's still been plenty of fun, though. Well, mostly. Occasionally you get a match where your deck just doesn't want to cooperate and your opponent just steamrolls you, and those aren't a lot of fun. Usually that happens when you get a terrible shuffle with too many/too few lands, and have to take the mulligan option on your opening hand several times. Fortunately that's pretty rare. Most of the time, at least one game in each round is interesting and requires some thought about how to play for the win.

And of course, there's the new cards obtained in the draft. I was fortunate to pull an Archangel Avacyn in one draft and Nahiri, the Harbinger in another, though I couldn't use either in the actual draft since my other cards weren't the right colors. Nice additions to the collection, though. And sometimes things work out to actually use the big cards, such as the Thing in the Ice from my most recent event. Fit nicely into the blue/black deck I was drafting, and it even won me a couple of games.

Out of all the places I've played in these booster draft events, I think I like Big Kidz Games best. There's a nice big play area, they have a lot of board games and such in addition to the Magic stock, and most of the folks that show up there are pretty laid back (as opposed to hyper-competitive). The late night draft times don't bother me too much, since sleeping in on Saturday morning isn't a problem. I probably won't go every week, but I'll likely be back a few times.

Less Uninterruptible

Woke up this morning to an unfamiliar beeping noise. My first thought was that it must be time to change a fire alarm battery, but those sound a bit different. Turns out it was the UPS behind my computer desk.

That's UPS as in uninterruptible power supply, not brown delivery trucks. I've had this one for years...maybe 8? 10? I don't remember exactly, and I'm too lazy to go look it up. A good long while, anyway. A decent UPS is a long-term device that you don't even notice is there, ideally. At least, until the power goes out. I had this one connected to just about all my media center electronics. The beeping was because the battery had finally given up the ghost and was no longer holding power.

Originally I got this UPS because the power in my condo would flicker on a fairly regular basis. Not every day, but probably once or twice a month. That doesn't sound like much, but if you've got electronics that are always on (particularly computers), that kind of inconsistency can really mess with the system. Fortunately, that problem has gone away as of a few years ago, when the local electric company upgraded the various power delivery systems in my area. I haven't seen a power flicker since, and full outages are rare as well.

The other major reason for having the UPS was that I would occasionally want to access my home system when I was traveling, and for that it needed to always be on. If there was a power outage, everything would turn off, and there was no one at home to turn it back on. With the UPS, as long as the power outage was a fairly short one (under a half hour or so), everything would keep running. Since I rarely do extended travel any more, this isn't really a concern any more either.

The UPS was also a surge protector, again a very important component for sensitive electronics. Especially during the summer, when thunderstorms are in the area. Everything important is plugged into power strips, though, with their own surge protector functions. Short of a direct lightning strike, which would fry anything regardless of surge protection, it should be pretty safe.

So I think I'll just do without a replacement UPS, at least until something changes that makes it necessary to have one again. I'll find a recycling center where I can take the old one - it's got a big, heavy battery so you don't want to just toss it in the garbage - and stick with basic power strips to power and surge protect my various electronic devices.