I'm Back

So let's pretend that I have been posting for the past few months, last two to be exact. So you already know what has been going on in my life and what games I am playing right? If you don't well then just pretend that I went to Mars on a secret mission to see if Russia had planted a space station the mine the planet of its life essence to use in a super lazor! (Yes, I know I spelt laser wrong). In any case I'm back and better than ever...a Nick 2.0 if you will.

What I would like to talk about today is an issue I have seen recently specifically revolving around the President. People have a tendency to blame any given President about a number of things; whither it be the economy or a war. But what they don't realize is that in terms of actual power the President has little to none, he (and I say "he" not because I don't think women can be President we just haven't had any yet) in actuality affects the economy and wars very little. Sure they implement laws and proposals and ideals into the time that they are President but we need to think about a very limited resource that they all posses and that is TIME.

In terms of economics, there is something called Inside Lag and Outside Lag, and they both effect not only the economy but policy as well. What Inside Lag means is that when the President of Congress implements a quick fix so to speak, this in turn tries to either jump start the economy or have a policy put in place that will immediately try to fix a problem or cause some change. An example would be a Stimulus Package. Outside Lag  is a piece of policy or legislation that attempts to solve an issue and create change but it takes much longer to take effect. An example would be Tax Reforms. Outside lag is what causes the most change and it usually occurs over a few years...like 4-8 years. Inside lag takes about a few months.

What does this have to do with the President? What I am trying to show is that in order to evaluate a situation you need to look into the past to see what happened. Look at what Clinton had going for him, there is something called the "Dot Com Bubble Burst" which actually burst after Clinton left and Bush took over. What happened was that there was a push for the Internet and it's stock ballooned (like the housing market did) until the market started to level itself out, like it's supposed to do you also have to throw in Y2K. This played a huge part in the "Dot Com Bubble Burst" as well. But people have a tendency to blame Bush for everything. Now I don't agree with everything the man did in office but you can't pin everything onto one President. It's just not accurate to do that.

So now we come to these past few years and you can see many people blaming Obama for what has happened, and for being to liberal (which he always was by the way). Here is the thing with that, you can't blame him for everything! Sure some of his policies are good ideas like his Health Care reforms but someone needs to pay for it, which I will talk about in the next few days.

So my basic argument is to actually look into the former Presidents and see where issues started and what they tried to do to fix them. That's why most history books don't always attribute things to Presidents because they didn't necessarily do anything to help. Just look at WWII.

Time For Finals

Well it's that time of year again when college students spend many hours studying for those dreaded finals. I too am stuck with them this year and have a lot of stuff I need to do for them. Fortunately I have something that is going to help me after my studying and stressing. SWTOR is going to be starting early access on the 13th of Dec. That will defiantly help with my sanity but not with my time.


On a different note I am going to be studying for the LSAT and GMAT, even though I have been studying on and off I will now be doing that everyday after finals are over. Now I need to go write a script for one of those finals...

Until next time...

End of the Semester woes

Hello everyone, seeing how it is the end of the semester I figured I would update you on what is going on. I AM SUPER BUSY WITH GETTING READY FOR FINALS. And because of that I haven't had much time to really post anything on this blog. In the next couple of days however I will post a review on Star Wars: The Old Republic, now that the NDA has benn lifted I will be able to actually talk about the game(for the most part).

That being said in the next few weeks you may see some Facebook posts or tweets about how much I hate finals and think they are a waste of time. Just warning you all now.

Until next time...

Ooops it's been a month since the last post

Hey everyone...so it's been about a month! Sorry, but it's getting to be that time of the year that requires more of my time. After all I am on retail so we are starting to get busy, also it's the middle of the semester. That plays a part of my busy schedule as well.

In other news I have started studying for my LSAT and GMAT tests, even though I won't be taking them until about Febuary. I want to get a head start so I will only have to take them once. They are very long and difficult tests.

So in the realm of video games and stuff of that nature. There are two games that are coming out pretty close to each other that I want and will most likely have to wait to get. They are Skyward Sword the new Legend of Zelda game and Skyrim. Thats about 120 bucks in the same month! Not cool game developers, I want your games but I cannot afford them.

Until next time...

Busy With Life

Hey all I know its been a while since the last post but I have been a little busy with life. As many of you are probably aware, I am planning on going into law school. Since that is a priority I need to stay focused on my school work. Even though I slipped up here in the past week with doing all the assignments and all of the reading but I am determined to get back on track. This also means at least once a week posting on the blog, I figure if I make myself schedule it I will be more likely to do it.

Second thing I would like to talk about, after my neck heals I am going to be starting an intense weight training program. The goal is to put on about 25-30 lbs by this time next year. Also I am going to be increasing my speed again. The overall goal is to be physically able to play college football if I go to a Grad school that has a football team. The secondary goal of this is for my overall health...gotta watch out for Stage 1 Hypertension (already showing signs of it). I will he doing this by running for 30 mins a day, lifting weights for 2 hrs a day and doing p90x also. I am going to better budget my time between these activities and my course work...I have weekends and holidays to play video games.

But don't let that worry you too much about my nerd side, it will be fueled by podcasts and movies, also the occasional late night of gaming.... I'm in college i can do that kind of thing.

Until next time...

Dear Netfilx

As many of you probably know Netflix is now splitting into two separate entities, Netflix for streaming and Qwickster for mail DVDs. Now I don't have my own account so this really doesn't affect me too much, but I can understand the concerns. So here is my a letter that I would like to write to the CEO of Netflix.

"Dear CEO,

I am sorry but I have to say that this idea is not necessarily the best one you have had. While diversifying may be a good idea, you also have too look at what your service originally was designed to sell. It wasn't just quick access to streaming DVDs and then a separate service for mail DVDs, it was one service that people loved.

I can understand your worry about becoming like AOL or Borders, but with a unique company such as yourself don't you think your initial market segment couldn't grow if you marketed both services together? Not only will it save you money, it won't look like you are trying to split into two separate companies that would ultimately compete against each other and probably combine into a single company again.

What about the cost of reorganizing the company? Do the benefits really outweigh the costs? If so then I am sorry for this trouble, but if not then please leave this service alone. People are already upset over the price increase and now this? Does this really look like a move a strong company would make? No, it does not. If Apple were to split into a company that only sells computers and a company that only sells iPods it would appear that Apple was trying to sell off assets in order to stay afloat. What you are doing seems like this very concept. 

The last thing I would like to bring up is the e-mail that Netflix sent out. First off all I know that you Mr. CEO did not actually send out this E-mail, it was probably a secretary or and aid of yours. Secondly, do you really think a single E-mail will solve the problem of communication? No, it would be a better idea to set up a forum and get customer feedback and then use that data to inform your decisions. Let the customer perform the SWOT analysis and crowd source the issue rather than stay stagnant and use traditional methods of diversifying. If you really want to be a leader in the business world you have too look ahead to what the Internet has to offer.

Sincerely,
Nick Picard"

After you read this "E-mail" take a second to consider the other side of this argument too. It could be very possible that Netflix is a failing company and is trying to stay afloat by selling off services. While I do not think this is the case it is always something to be mindful of in the economy that we have today.

Until next time...

Continue

So this is a continuation of my last post. I have decided that the reason for the drama is actually about two misunderstandings. The overall concept of using a blog as a journal can be taken to a level that was unintended and cause this break down in communication.

Now since that is cleared up I  would like to offer my commentary on the fact. Starting with the reasons for the mess. First of all using a blog as a place to vent can be a good thing but you have to be careful. Often people will read them so you need to know your audience, obviously Student X failed to notice his audience, and around that particular subject one must be very careful. As to his points about the college itself, I would like to point out that it is his opinion of the school and not an indictment sent down by every guy who attends there.

As for the response to his post I would like to say that Student Y's attempt at either one) was actually offended by the post or two) just trying to troll (which I doubt is the case) may have had some valid arguments to the fact that men shouldn't be on the campus. It is after all a women's college.
Now I'm sure you have all either read or know about the blog so I wont express my thoughts on that any more. What I would like to do now is to voice my opinion about the matter.

Here it goes...

First of all I have to say that the quibbling over a blog post is not only sophomoric but it is also very unnecessary to have a decent conversation. The basic rule of thumb for the Internet is don't be a jerk or trolling if you will(actually trolling is something very different and I may cover that in a future post). How can you let yourself lose that much control over yourself and let out a barrage of response's that quickly after you have read a blog post? It makes no sense to be that petty over the matter.

Secondly I would like to mention topic of having men on campus. I believe that there may be a double standard that is populated by the students. I fell that the administration has enough maturity to handle themselves at a much higher expectations. This double standard I speak of is the idea that men shouldn't be allowed on campus. So do you mean all of the male professors too? What about the security guards? Or how about you get rid of the Graduate program as well! See what I mean? If the student body wants to go around and say that men shouldn't be on campus because it's an all women's college then they can't just look at the idea of students being men...and to that effect just undergraduate men.

And for the traditions I personally wouldn't have gone to them anyway. I don't like to support hazing, which it is, and I for one am glad that I didn't have to go. But for orientation I did have to go to the majority of the activities which was fine until I had an awkward experience at an improve event where they portrayed all men as rapists. That brings me to another point and this may offend people.

FOR A SCHOOL THAT PRIDES ITSELF ON EQUALITY THERE IS AN AWFUL LOT OF DISCRIMINATION GOING ON...just saying.

Now don't get me wrong I loved Sage, I miss my friends there but I did have some issues there. But I didn't go around and post them on the Internet for everyone to see. So that's one strike against the MAAP who wrote the posts. It wasn't all his fault though, because the person who responded should of had the common sense enough to just go ask him to take them down. People really need to learn how to talk to each other like adults.

And that is all I will ever say on the matter...unless of course you want to talk civilly about it.

Until next time...