Pryamid Scheme Sales: Liars and Cheats

Below is a letter written to one of my college professors about some recent job-search woes. I needed to vent my furor over these job predators and help the people who are fooled into working for them, making less money for harder work than the average person in retail. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Dear Dr. XXXXX,

It's been a while since graduation now and finding a job has been harder than I thought it would be. Even getting businesses to sit down and talk with me has been near impossible. I don't know whether to blame the current state of the economy or my own ineptitude, though I've been hearing that XXXXX is having similar problems.

In any case my job woes aren't the main reason I'm contacting you, but rather something I stumbled on during my search. The pyramid scheme. It's something I wanted to bring up because I think discussing this job-trap would be a good addition to the professional seminar. It's something that a lot of writers, especially those interested in PR, are likely to run into.

Most of these jobs pose as lucrative PR or Marketing firms. To name a few by name I found EFG Marketing, PURE Marketing, and Vizion Management (Though there are many, many more). These companies start by saying they're selective firms that only want the most dedicated and driven individuals. They'll contact you the same day or the day after you apply congratulating you and giving you some arbitrary reason why you're exactly what they're looking for. Their websites look professional enough, though they always seriously lack any real information.

They bring you in for an interview, which happens to be with maybe twenty other people (But I thought I was special!) then they proceed to sell you the job through their brainwashing techniques, for lack of a better term. You don't need to sell yourself for the job, you're already perfect, they try to sell you into a commission-based sales job that you don't want so they can promise you the world and abuse you like the replaceable sap you are.

Basically they prey on recent graduates who are new to the job market, don't know any better and have been having a difficult time starting their career. It makes me furious because it's wasted my time and almost my money. They post hundreds of job openings on sites like Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com, and Yahoo Hotjobs. Let this be a lesson to me that entry level writing and PR jobs aren't easy to come by and when you see them in droves because some strange company you've never heard of is “opening a new office” you should approach cautiously.

The website Ripoffreport.com has user submitted experiences with pyramid-scheme companies and every job searcher should check it out before applying for a job that may not be what they think it is. Nobody let me know that the job market isn't all sunshine and roses, there are predators out there looking to use struggling, wide-eyed college grads.

Anyway, I hope you've been having a better semester than my last few months. I just wanted to share my mistakes with you with the hope that none of your future students will have to make them.

Sincerely,
XXXXX

Barack Obama: Yes We Did

It's finally over. Perhaps I can actually stop talking about politics for a while. The polls were accurate, and at around 11 pm last night Senator Obama became President Elect Obama in an electoral landslide. A political shift has occurred in this country and our new president is going to be facing challenges that we haven't seen since FDR took office. For better or worse, the United States of America is entering a period of change and after this historic event, we've gone from living in depressing times to exciting ones.

So what's going to happen? Will the race issue get better or worse? Will President Obama get our flailing economy back on track? Will the war in Iraq finally come to a close? I don't know the answer to any of these things. Right now I feel a combination of relief and pride and I believe that last night was something that I'll never forget. It doesn't feel like the Democratic party won last night, it feels like America won last night.

Election Day 2008: It's Time

Go out and vote. Double check which candidate you checked off especially if you're using computerized voting machines. Don't let anybody tell you that you can't vote. Make sure you fill out a real ballot and not a provisional one. Make this election end differently. It's your civic duty.

270toWin 2008 Polling Tracker

McCain's Pennsylvania: The Hate-Land

Things are starting to get pretty bad in my home state of Pennsylvania, and I have to say at times I'm disappointed in both sides of the fight. This election is bringing out the worst in everybody and I wish it would just be over with already. But in the case of McCain, he's created a monster with his negative campaigning. Tying Obama to terrorism with lies and Muslim extremism by emphasizing Senator Obama's middle name. This isn't the only video like this out there, and its by no means even the worst example of belligerant McCain supporters, but since it took place in Pennsylvania which is where I live and where I believe this election will be decided it's the one I chose to include. It's scary really, its like watching people come out of the shells of their normal daily lives to give a brief peek at who they really are deep down inside, and it isn't pretty.

I think Colin Powell put it best when he made his endorsement, what if he was a Muslim? So what? That sort of speaks for itself. All of a sudden Muslims can't be Americans? Another video showed the McCain campaign in a more positive light, where McCain party officials came out to silence anti-Muslim McCain supporters. Unfortunately that's not the case here. This isn't just a fringe of McCain supporters as he wants us to believe, this is an entire string of Pennsylvanians being disrespectful and at times down-right offensive and even racist. It makes my blood boil that people like this can exist in an civilized country, let alone my own country, and even my own state. Worse yet, it's all done under the guise of being a patriotic "Real American" as if it's some kind of free-pass to be a bigotted, ignorant asshole.

Now I understand the context of this video isn't 100% fair. Nobody likes to be confronted by protesters they don't agree with, and some people just don't like protesters in general, but we have a constitutional right to do so. It's kind of funny how a lot of these people are all for the second ammendment but if it was up to them the first, a much more important ammendment, would be done away with. If they were for the moral values they say they are they'd turn the other cheek, but they'd rather create drama. What's worse is they're doing so on camera. These aren't comments they make in private (I'm sure those are far worse), these are comments they're not ashamed to be caught on film saying.

Honestly I don't care if you vote for McCain or Obama. Your judgement and your world view may be completely different than mine. The problem is that demonstrations like this are showing more and more that it's hate fueling some of these votes and not facts or issues and that's what scares me. And as stated the McCain campaign is partially to blame for this even if McCain has tried to tone it down and confront these people, it's too late for that now. I'm seeing shades of the 1960's and honestly that's a decade I really don't feel this country needs to repeat. It's like some of these elderly people put the time of their life and their mentality before the civil rights movement into a deep corner of their pockets, waiting for this day when they could pull it out again. It's gotten to the point where I honestly fear for Barack Obama's life if he wins this election.

Back in the primaries Obama made what he called "his biggest bone-headed move" when he talked about Pennsylvanians clinging to their guns and God at a campaign stop in California. The truth is it may have been a bad political move, but he was absolutely right. Because of people like this, we're the laughing-stock of the civilized world right now, and to go from the most influential country on the planet to one big joke is a travesty. This needs to end. America needs to change.

Election 2008: The Final Countdown

Hello blog! No I haven't forgotten you. I've just been a combination of busy/lazy/frustrated with the current state of political affairs. A lot has happened in the presidential race since I last blogged about it. A lot of my opinions have changed and since we're in the home stretch this may be the last time I get to talk about it.

In 2004 a man with a funny name gave an incredible speech at the Democratic National Convention and I stated that Barack Obama would be our next Democratic president.

And in 2008, yes, I still support Barack Obama 100%, now maybe even more than ever. Republicans have fought tooth and nail to crush Obama in the last few months and he's somehow stayed ahead in the polls, giving me some hope that most of America is either getting over or getting sick of dirty politics. Obama is the only one offering me the things I need such as good healthcare without worry of being rejected for my pre-existing condition and much needed tax hikes for the wealthy so that we can start balancing the budget and maybe paying off a bit of this ridiculous $10 trillion debt we've racked up. I'm also looking forward to the Democrats restoring some of the regulations that we've been busy repealing since the Reagan years and what's gotten us into this sorry mess of a economy that's spiraling into oblivion and bringing the rest of the world down with it.

As you know if you've read my blog in the past, I wrote that out of all of the Republican candidates running for election that I liked John McCain the most. He was the most liberal candidate, he wasn't afraid to ruffle feathers within his party, and because of all that he seemed like the most likely Republican to run in a post Bush world. He used to be harshly critical of Bush despite his voting record and he seemed to embody the bi-partisan spirit that the United States needs right now.

Well all that's changed. McCain who never really pandered to the evangelicals before was now pandering to the religious right. Absolutely ridiculous attack ads started to pop up such as Barack Obama's association with William Ayers, a former domestic terrorist member of the Weather Underground. Let's just ignore the fact that today he's a successful English professor and a valued member of the Chicago community, even at one time winning a person of the year award. That's okay though, just say that Obama is working with terrorists and don't explain it to make it look like he's done something wrong. So let me get this straight, if I took a class with Ayers would I be a terrorist?

Anyway, a big bomb dropped when McCain announced his candidate for vice president, Alaska governer Sarah Palin. Oh dear God. McCain who said he'd chose someone he was close to and could work with choses a woman he only met twice in his entire life. Now why would he do that I wonder? That's right, to go after angry Hillary Clinton fans or people who will vote for anything involving a vagina because they think they'll be voting for gender equality or some bull. Well I've got news for you, neither McCain or Palin supports equal pay for equal work for women so I wouldn't believe Palin's statements about breaking the glass ceiling. Not only was this obvious and insulting to women voters, but Palin is also an Evangelical and pro-life to get the religious right crowd in line since McCain has never been particularly popular with them. Way to alienate all of the feminist voters in the process. I have a hard time believing John McCain really wanted this woman as his running mate. He's gone from the "maverick" centrist he claimed to be to a simple tool of the Republican party ever since getting their nomination. I guess that was the stipulation.

She delivered a cute lil' ol' country gal speech at the Republican National Convention and for a moment McCain pulled into the lead. She re-invigorated the Republican base and attracted media attention away from Obama, something the McCain campaign was seriously struggling with in the early months. Unfortuntely for McCain in terms of intelligence when Palin isn't performing a practiced speech she's the second coming of Mr. Potatoe himeself, Dan Quayle. She was crushed in interviews with Charlie Gibson and especially Katie Couric who were just trying to learn more about the Governer and her beliefs and ideologies. She proved herself completely unworthy to take the place of McCain if he were to die in office and the campaign railed against the media claiming they were trying to smear Palin when all they were doing is what they were supposed to do, ask questions and recieve answers. Well McCain, you wanted more media attention, you got it, deal with it. Claims like sexism and "gotcha" questions are absurd, the media is not as biased as people tend to believe it is. Making the media an enemy instead of a friend is never a good idea since they're your bridge to the public. It's hilarious to hear Republicans call journalists "elitists" in any case. The best thing to come out of Sarah Palin is the Saturday Night Live skits with Tina Fey who is a dead ringer for Palin.

With the economy dropping like a rock and Obama trying to discuss the issues, McCain has resorted to throwing everything he has left at Obama like a handful of spaghetti and hoping something will stick. The Ayers thing has come back with a vengeance and McCain has attempted to sew seeds of distrust among the American people. This has been good and bad for him. The Republican base is eating out of his hand but the general public seems to be getting frustrated. The country is in a time of crisis, Obama is offering hope and answers, McCain is offering the school-yard bullying tactics of the Republicans when they're down in the polls and people really don't want to hear it. Do we hear Obama cry about Sarah Palin abusing her power in Alaska? No, because that's not what's important right now. Another unforseen consequence of McCain's negative campaigning is he's gone a bit too far in brainwashing is supporters. People going to his rallies and making threats on Obama's life or calling him an arab or saying they're scared for their children's safety in an Obama presidency is making McCain's supporters look like the party of lunacy and it's not helping him one bit, in fact it's forcing him to reign back some of the negativity he's unleashed. It's a bit too late in the game to close Pandora's box however.

So yeah, I'm a little biased, and I'm furiously dissapointed in what John McCain has become during this election and I really see he's not the man I thought he was initially. I usually say that people should vote for what they truly believe is right, to ignore my ramblings or take from them what they like and toss out what they disagree with. In this election however, the country is in dire need of a serious change of direction, and John McCain is not it. I urge anybody out there who might stumble upon this rant who is of voting age in he united states to help elect Barack Obama our next president. If I'm wrong, and the country is worse off in four years then you can say you told me so. I've said it to Bush supporters 2004. I predicted the worst economic disaster since the great depression if Bush were re-elected, and now in 2008, here we are. Put aside any social disagreements you might have with the Democrats and think economy, think national debt, think jobs, think energy, think environment, and think blue state.

DS Game Review: Bangai-O Spirits

Last year when I was told this game was coming out I did not believe it. There was no reason for me to believe it after all. Bangai-O was an obscure action title for the Nintendo 64 (in Japan) and the Dreamcast (International release) and the Dreamcast version was the one I had originally played. It doesn't look like a Dreamcast game with tiny little 2-D sprites and fairly mediocre graphics but once the action starts to ramp up you realize why serious hardware is required to play it.
The game was developed by Treasure, a small privately owned developer in Japan. Ever since one of my favorite games, Gunstar Heroes, Treasure has dedicated themselves to making the games that they want to play, catering to a hardcore video game crowd not just by making difficult arcade style games, but making difficult arcade style games that reak of quality. Their shooter hit Ikaruga has made them synonymous with oldschool style games. Though it wouldn't be fair to say they're trapped in the past as they take old concepts and twist them with new and innovative game mechanics and graphical experiments to create something positively unique.
Though they often times make licensed games, or even work as a second party to big companies like Sega, Nintendo, and Konami, Treasure has even managed to make excellent games with licenses and under pressure from much larger developers. They're the little team that could, and every once in a while one of their sought after original titles is released. Unfortunately, Treasure games are targetted at a niche audience, so often times they're not produced in high numbers and quickly become rare. In any case I could talk about Treasure for hours, but I'm here today to talk about Bangai-O Spirits.
Up until about the Gameboy Advance era, Treasure wasn't known for releasing sequels. Their policy was that once a game is finished, it's a complete work, and there's no need for a sequel. This changed a bit as Treasure said if they feel like they can improve upon a game they're revisit it. Though you can argue whether or not they have improved upon past games with their sequels is up for debate, but we'll save that for another time.

Bangai-O didn't seem like an obvious choice for a sequel. It was well recieved but not very widely known. There was room for a sequel with more levels and what not but it was also fine as a stand-alone title. The premise of the game is that you fly around in this little (at least the sprite on the screen) robot and you'd launch either homing missiles or reflective lasers at your enemies. The gimmick was the more danger you put yourself in the more missiles (up to 400!) you could launch when you used your special attack. The sprite-based game could cause so many bullets and explosions to fill the screen that it would even cause the Dreamcast to grind to a hault with slowdown. Some people would say this is a bad thing, but when you're playing a Treasure game you'd feel ripped off without slowdown because it means they weren't trying hard enough. It also helps you adjust to the frantic pace of the game so its mostly intentional. In any case the game was also filled with horrible Engrish which was hilarious and a, well, sort of a story? All that mattered was that the game was ass seeringly difficult yet it was one of the funnest, most addictive, and unique games on the Dreamcast.Bangai-O Spirits isn't a direct sequel, but it expands on the original in almost every way. Obviously, you've got more levels and new weapons which make the game a bit deeper and more strategic than the original. The weapons allow you to mix and match like Gunstar Heroes with varying results and melee weapons like the sword and the baseball bat change the dynamic of the gameplay completely. Some weapons are perfect for one level, and completely useless in the next, forcing you to use your head and promoting trial and error. For most games trial and error sounds like a bad thing, but in Bangai-O and Spirits the levels short enough that even if you die for the umpteenth time you don't get frustrated and you usually know what you did wrong which is amazing in a game where most deaths come from being swarmed by bullets. Another interesting thing about Bangai-O is that not all levels are balls-out action, but rather slower paced puzzles, which really helps mix things up and keep it interesting.
Besides your regular shots which you have a selection of mixing and matching now with the regular homing and bounce shots to the more exotic drill-tipped break bullets or napalm missiles, you can do the same for your special "EX" slowdown-creating-screen-clearing-blast-of-death. Reflect works sort of like the game Giga Wing where instead of launching your own missiles you send the enemy projectiles back at them. There's also an EX move that lets you freeze time for three seconds which doesn't seem like a lot but in this game it's an eternity. Direct is another EX choice, which clumps all your shots together for one devestating forward blast. The game's tutorial references the "Wave Motion Cannon" from Space Battleship Yamato when explaining Direct EX. The EX attack works a little different from the original game. Not only do you have to put yourself in direct danger to make a bigger blast, but also you need to have a few seconds to charge up before releasing in order to get the full potential. Because of the DS's graphical limitations it can't do the 400 missile shots, so instead it makes your missiles larger and larger for the maximum of 100 of the largest missiles that are about three times the size of Bangai-O itself and it's truly a sight of devistation to behold. In the original game you also refilled your EX bar simply by causing explosions, here however the "space fruit" isn't just for points, and you need to collect it in order to refill your EX bar making things a little more challenging.
Unlike the original game there isn't really a story, which is fine because there really shouldn't be one. The tutorial introduces a few characters and makes some self-referential humor, definitely displaying that they know what kind of gamers they're targetting with this niche game. It's pretty amusing I don't want to spoil it, and there's even an "ending" of sorts after you beat the "Treasure's Best" levels. Speaking of levels, I didn't count, but there's apparently over 160 in the US version which has been tweaked and improved over the Japanese one which is also common for Treasure titles.

I haven't tried to multiplayer yet, but it exists, and the game also comes with a level editor which is Treasure's wat of addressing the original game coming to an end. Interstingly, the game uses a "sound transfer system" and you can save custom levels to your computer by recording the sound, then put them on the Internet for other people to download by playing the sound through headphones over the DS microphone. I have tried this with some custom Japanese levels and it works great. Lots of American levels are popping up on Youtube already and I hope the trend continues so I'll have an excuse to keep playing this game for years to come.
Treasure has delivered one of the best titles on the DS, though it isn't for everyone. Casual gamers might find themselves scratching their heads at the difficulty, the unique gameplay elements, and non-linearity and lack of any kind of story. Hardcore shooter fans and even puzzle-gamers might find a lot to like about Bangai-O Spirits however. Though it doesn't replace the original game, it makes a lot of adjustments and improvements to the formula that really makes this a must have for fans of the first Bangai-O. At first I griped because it doesn't control the same, using two x/y axis in a sort of Smash TV or Robotron sort of way. Once you get used to it though it becomes second nature and the game gets a bit easier. Once you learn the pros and cons of the various weapons and attacks and the weaknesses of the enemies the difficulty shouldn't scare you away like it would for say, Contra 4, though this game was designed with Treasure's fanbase in mind, so expect to die... a lot... Unlike Contra however the deaths never seem cheap or frustrate from the addicting gameplay.

In any case don't be afraid to try something new and support one of the most dynamic privately owned video game developers in the business. I've been getting reports that this game is difficult to find in stores due to it being a niche title and not being heavily produced, so grab it before it becomes rare! Trust me, if your mind is sharp and and your reflexes are in need of a workout then Bangai-O Spirits will deliver. BANGAI-O! GO!
Score: 10/10, it's not for everyone but it perfectly achieves what its set out to do and is one of the best, and most unique, games on the DS.