Switch Pyramid Agreement

That's Switch the company, the West Michigan pyramid they're buying, and the tax agreement made with Michigan governments. (Not to be confused with willingness to swap geometric objects.) The pyramid in question is the old Steelcase building in Gaines Township, MI.

Late last year, there was some question as to whether the pyramid would be sold at all. There was a legal challenge from a non-profit education group seeking to block the sale, but that was denied by a judge back in January. That group could still try to get some money out of Steelcase (though that seems unlikely) but the actual building sale will go ahead regardless.

There was also a matter of taxes - Switch wanted tax breaks before they'd agree to move business into Michigan. Their stance was basically this: if Michigan wouldn't play along, there are other states that would. Getting this done meant that our state government would have to set ideology aside in favor of pragmatism. That's a tall order for our famously dysfunctional state government, but they managed it. The state legislature passed bills in December to grant the tax breaks, and they were signed by the governor. Those bills even included a bit of forward thinking to make sure promises were kept: the data center industry has to create 400 new jobs in Michigan by 2022 and 1000 new jobs by 2026, or the tax breaks will end. Nothing is perfect, but as government action goes, this seems to be properly crafted and well-thought-out. Nice to be pleasantly surprised by something out of our state government, for a change.

I was reminded of all this by a news story recently about Switch taking steps to have their data center declared a "Renaissance Zone". Those zones are areas designated for various kinds of tax breaks by the state. Sometimes they apply for everyone in the area, but more commonly just for a specific project. This particular Renaissance Zone would allow Switch to avoid paying taxes on the equipment they purchase for the new data center, which would easily go above the million dollar mark.

Some of that money would normally go to local governments to provide services to the area, so the exemption isn't too popular with them. Approval from Kent County and Gaines Township is needed, though, so part of the whole package is a "payment in lieu of taxes" from Switch to the local governments. It's a lot less than the full tax bill would have been, of course, but it means the local governments still get support for local services.

All in all, I'd say this agreement is a good example of how I'd like to see government make things happen. It's not perfect, but it takes into account the reality of the situation for everyone involved and makes a reasonable compromise. And it includes some metrics to make sure promises are kept. Now, if some of that thinking could just be applied to paying for infrastructure maintenance...

One More Turn

Conquering the world is addictive.

The 4X turn-based strategy game is a major obsession of mine. It's probably good that I don't have a good way to count up the number of hours spent on such games, since Civilization V alone is up over 200 hours according to Steam. I played both the original Civilization and Civilization IV a whole lot more than Civilization V, so I'm sure I'm easily into a four-digit hour count on the Civilization series alone. Add in all the other 4X games and it might end up being a five-digit count.

That's not to say that I'm particularly good at 4X games. Most of them have 3-5 difficulty settings, and I can usually do well on the middle setting. I might try the occasional game on a higher difficulty, but those tend not to end well. I like the big, sweeping strategy aspect of these games, but the higher difficulties seem to require a lot of micro-management. I don't have the temperament to stay focused on every detail for hours on end.

Civilization is the big name in the genre, but I've played a whole lot of other 4X games. My all-time favorite is still Master of Magic, which is set in a fantasy world (or two worlds, depending on how you look at it). That game is more than twenty years old, and I still fire it up every once in a while to cast the Spell of Mastery. Then there's the galaxy-spanning space games like Master of Orion. The world you conquer can be as large or as small as you like.

Part of the appeal of these games is that there are so many different ways to play. Nearly every 4X game gives you the option of different permanent bonuses, usually tied to a race or character that you choose at the beginning. Games play out very differently depending on which bonus you have. The same goes for choices made throughout the game, particularly technology research. If you're trying to win a military victory, better have your scientists focusing on weapon technology, or you might end up sending spear-waving warriors into a hail of rifle bullets.

Firing up one of these games is a good way to lose several hours at a time. Each time you finish moving all your units, setting your production, directing research, and so on, you naturally want to see how it all turns out. So you end the turn, and inevitably something didn't go quite according to plan, or simply needs a bit more time. So you make adjustments, and take another turn. And another. And another. Then you look up, and it's four hours later.

The next big 4X release on the horizon is Civilization VI, due out sometime in the fall of 2016. I tend to be about a year behind the curve on these releases, largely because I'm cheap and don't like paying full price, but also because there are inevitably bug fixes and balance adjustment patches. Some of the additional content for Civilization V (i.e. Gods and Kings) added features that made it almost an entirely different game. So I'm likely to wait a bit on the newest installment in the franchise, at least until it hits its first Steam sale.

In the meantime, 4X game options abound. Maybe it's time to install Civilization V again. I hear there's a community patch that fixes a lot of the more annoying balance issues. Or there's Fallen Enchantress, or Warlock 2, or Age of Wonders III, or Endless Space, or another half-dozen games still sitting on my Steam wishlist. There's no lack of worlds to conquer.

Jupiter Ascending

Jupiter Ascending is a science fiction space opera. Lots of special effects, various aliens, threats to end the world...the usual.

The story follows Jupiter Jones, a Russian immigrant girl in Chicago who happens to be the genetic reincarnation of a space queen. Various people show up to capture or kill her, she falls in love with a hard-bitten mercenary type, many things explode, and in the end she goes back to her plain-old-Earth-girl life. It's about as engrossing as it sounds, which is to say, not at all.

Which is too bad, because I think Jupiter Ascending had some promise. There's certainly plenty of action, and the effects seemed mostly to be well done. The sound effects could have used some more work, I thought, since all the high-tech alien weapons sounded like they came out of a cartoon. But the visuals were solid, and no more ridiculous than what you see in every movie of this kind.

As a backdrop, the idea of a universe run by mostly-immortal humans intent on living forever didn't seem too terrible. Their plan to "harvest" the Earth by turning everyone into immortality-body-wash makes an interesting way to threaten the planet, but I never really felt any suspense over the possibility.

Largely that was due to the villains being incredibly bland and inept. Three siblings take a run at getting Jupiter-reincarnated-as-their-mother to either join them or go away, but none of them felt like a serious threat. Even the guy who steals Jupiter's family and holds them hostage was so transparently planning to wipe out the Earth (and them with it) that it was impossible to believe that she'd ever go along with him.

The heroes weren't much better. Jupiter pretty much just wanders around wherever people lead her, gets into trouble, and waits for Caine (the mercenary-type guy) to save the day. For his part, Caine has basically no personality, but of course he can survive anything and overcome any obstacle. There are hints of more interesting character development, such as Jupiter being desperate enough for money to sell her egg cells to a fertility clinic, or Caine's need to belong to a larger organization. But after establishing those things, there's not really much in the way of followup.

You expect over-the-top heroics in space opera, but usually there's some attempt to surprise the viewer with a twist or two. I didn't feel like any of that happened in Jupiter Ascending. Maybe I'm just jaded from seeing too many stories of this type, but this one didn't stand out in any way. Every step along the way felt predetermined.

Jupiter Ascending isn't bad, exactly, just generic and uninspired. The world-building was serviceable, the characters did what they needed to do, the special effects were pretty...but none of it made me want to see more. If you like the genre and you happen to have the opportunity, Jupiter Ascending is worth watching. But I wouldn't go out of my way for it.

MTG: Further Adventures with Soggy Brains

I've played the Soggy Brains deck a few more times since its first outing. To this point it's winning almost exactly half the time.

Between two more Friday Night Magic evenings and a few pickup games, I've played around a dozen matches with the deck. About half of those were wins. The losses have mostly been instructive, although a couple were just terrible draws...always have to deal with that when playing card games. And to be fair, a couple of the wins were due largely to terrible draws by my opponent, so it evens out.

A couple of the match losses were to Eldrazi decks, which are a pretty tough matchup. I've had losses to both an aggro Eldrazi deck and a ramp version. The aggro version was running creatures like Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher that are really tough to handle in a delay deck like Soggy Brains. Worse, it had Stratus Dancer to counter my Engulf the Shore. The ramp Eldrazi was pretty happy with all my delay tactics, since that just gave it a chance to ramp up to Ulamog, The Ceaseless Hunger and exile my Brain in a Jar and/or lands. I felt a lot better about that matchup once I sideboarded in some counterspells, but didn't get a great draw and lost the second game anyway.

Another loss was to a super-fast Elf deck, which just dumped about half a dozen Elves into play on the first 3-4 turns and then finished the job with Shaman of the Pack. Not much a blue deck can do about that short of countering the Shaman or bouncing all the other Elves when it's played, but my draw didn't support either option. That Elf deck has all kinds of trouble against other control decks, though, so I doubt it will show up too often.

And then there were the losses due to pilot error. Two of those stand out, both against mostly-red aggro decks. In one case, I chose to cast Engulf the Shore to bounce my opponent's creatures before he actually declared his attackers, which gave him opportunity to activate a Needle Spires and hit me for four. That one hit turned out to be the difference when he was able to just barely finish me off just before I got the zombies and Part the Waterveil out for the win. In the other case, my deck was refusing to turn up Rise from the Tides, but I had three Part the Waterveil and a ton of mana. So I used the awaken cost to make a 6/6 land and attacked with it for three turns...which adds up to 18 damage, not 20. Basic math fail. Would have won that if I'd just used the awaken option twice, which I could afford, but just didn't think about. Those losses are frustrating, but good learning experiences.

This isn't the only deck running around with waterlogged zombies. Another mono-blue version without the Brain in a Jar and a blue-black version with the Brain were played at Grand Prix Manchester. I'd considered the blue-black version myself, but without cards like Languish and Dark Petition it's not really feasible. Maybe if I find someone willing to trade them someday. Anyway, it's nice to see that the zombies-from-the-surf concoction has some viability even at high levels of competition.

License Renewal Time

It's June, which is my birthday month, which in turn means it's license renewal time.

Michigan requires each person to renew their auto registration, license plates, and driver's license on their birthday. Same as most states, I assume. The auto registration happens every year, and you get a new license plate tag. My car's actual license plate is less than 10 years old, so I don't have to replace it just yet. Driver's license is every four years, which for me falls on this year.

I'm pretty happy with the Michigan Secretary of State office's renewal system. The online system works very well for basic renewal functions, so on most years I don't have to go stand in line anywhere. The last time I had to actually go to an office was four years ago, at my last driver's license renewal. That's mostly just so they can update your picture, which happens at every other renewal.

It's a bit unfortunate that the renewal cost hasn't gone up. I've paid the same for at least the last four years. (I'm too lazy to go look up prior years, but it's been a while since it's changed.) That sounds odd, I know - who wants to pay more?

You may remember the road funding package that our state legislature finally passed at the end of last year, which included raising registration fees. But that doesn't take effect until 2017, conveniently after the next election. Even when it does kick in, the extra fees (and higher gas tax) won't provide all the funding requested by the Department of Transportation. Meanwhile, the roads continue to get worse.

So yes, I'm a little disappointed that my renewal fee wasn't higher. It will be next year, and that's at least a step in the right direction. Not a big enough step, though. Perhaps next year, on a non-election year, the state government can get their act together and create a road funding plan that makes sense. Also, pigs may fly, but I'm not holding out much hope in either case.

Disc Golf: Earle Brewer Park (North)

Decided to try another disc golf course near me, out at Earle Brewer Park. Turns out they have two different 18-hole courses in the same park. Played the north side this time out. Some of the tees and baskets look fairly old, but I didn't have any trouble following the course.

I think this is the overall longest course I've played. Several of the holes are 300+ feet, and in a few cases have blind corners so you can't see the basket from the tee. I'm still working out how to get decent distance on my drives, so it took me quite a few throws on a few of the longest holes.

About half the course is in the woods, but the trees aren't very thick on the ground. That didn't stop me from hitting them, but someone with actual skills would likely find the trees fairly easy to avoid. A couple of the baskets are in front of thicker woods, though, so if you overthrow then it might tough to get back out.

I was there just after the Memorial Day weekend, and the weather was great. Sunny, not too humid (at least when I was there in the morning), and just a little wind. Hadn't been much rain recently, either. Even so, there were quite a few stretches of muddy ground, so I suspect parts of the course would be pretty much unplayable after a recent rain. On the upside, there's no open water to lose a disc in - you might get muddy, but errant discs are retrievable.

Many of the holes run beside (or in at least one case, around) large stretches of fairly tall grass. Some of it looks like it hadn't been mowed at all, so it's probably some kind of protected habitat area. The pollen count was crazy high, to the point where I could actually see the dust gathering on my clothes when I inevitably had to chase an errant disc into the grass. Plenty of bugs, too. Remember your allergy medication and/or bug spray!

I'll probably spend more time at shorter courses like Old Farm Park, at least until I get better at distance throws. Easier on the allergies there, too, and fewer bug bites. Nice to have this course around, though, for a bit more of a challenge.

A Month (or more) of HBO NOW

I've waited until June, when most of the broadcast TV show seasons are done. Time to see what HBO has done this season.

When I was using Sling TV last year, I subscribed to HBO for a couple of months through Sling. I've since cancelled the Sling service, but fortunately HBO has another option for us non-cable subscribers. HBO NOW is a Internet streaming service that skips the cable company entirely. Turns out that I actually get the first month free since I've not used HBO NOW before, which is a nice bonus.

Strangely, when you go to HBO's main website and click order HBO, there's a description of the HBO NOW streaming service, but no link. Once I did find the link (back on the main page, at the top), there was still no sign-up option, instead directing me to open the app. So I installed the HBO NOW app on my Amazon Fire TV, and signed up there. That process went fairly smoothly, linking the subscription to my Amazon account. Then I had to re-enter my email address, and go back to the website (where I was in the first place) to finish up. Not exactly an efficient process, but it worked.

My primary reason for doing this now is that Game of Thrones is in the middle of its sixth season. I can catch up with the season thus far, and watch the rest of the episodes as they air. There are also plenty of episodes of Last Week Tonight that I haven't watched, which are always amusing even if a bit outdated. And HBO has a bunch of movies that I've vaguely thought looked interesting but never bothered obtaining.

So there's plenty of entertainment for my free month. Like most of my streaming service subscriptions, I expect I'll cancel it after a month or two. But for now, there's plenty to keep me occupied.