Nick likes to write

Deep Within

     The penultimate musical track to M-Flo’s flagship album Planet Shining, Deep Within is probably the largest departure and experiment within the array of sounds on the album.  This track always stands out above the rest, not for being the only full English track on a Japanese album, but for leaving hip-hop, R&B, and even pop to unleash a beat poetry masterpiece.

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Political Science Constitutional issue paper

This is a paper I wrote for a political science class I took last semester. I decided to play devil’s advocate on the subject of gun control and (with some help from my friend Ryan) put forth the argument that if handguns do a good job at home protection, bigger guns with larger clips do an EVEN BETTER job at it!

DISCLAIMER: I don’t share the opinion of the stance I make and believe in strict gun regulation and limited possession. This was an attempt to play devil’s advocate, or write a response “A Modest Proposal” style on the subject of the 2nd amendment.

I think the paper came out pretty well in the beginning, yet there’s a definite point where the language gets a lot looser and it’s obvious I was running out of time to complete it.

District of Columbia v. Heller, McDonald v. Chicago, and impermissible restraint through California gun laws

Through the recent Supreme Court case of District of Columbia v. Heller the second amendment has been interpreted to include the right for citizens to possess firearms to the extent of self defense in the home. Expanding on that foundation, McDonald v. Chicago incorporated the Second Amendment through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, thereby extending the Second Amendment to states and localities. Laws and regulations concerning limitations on gun ownership within California impermissibly restrain citizens’ rights to exercise the decisions of these cases.

California’s gun regulations are some of the toughest in the country and include restrictions that unduly burden California citizen’s right to bear arms under the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution, including, but not limited to, a ban on magazines and firearms of certain type and quantity, i.e., a ban on assault weapons, a ban on drum-type magazines, and a ban on detachable magazines with more than a 10-round capacity.

The United States Supreme Court held in the landmark decision of District of Columbia v. Heller that the Second Amendment protects individuals’ right to bear arms independent of the militia described in the text of the Firearms Control Act Of 1975 in Washington’s District of Columba. This law “prohibited the purchase, sale, transfer, and… possession of handguns by D.C. residents other than law enforcement officers or members of the military” (Jones, III 138), clearly abridging the rights of D.C. citizens to exercise their Second Amendment right to bear arms. Through this act the District of Columbia imposed a complete ban on handguns and required all shotguns and rifles, (or “long guns”), to be unloaded and either disassembled or rendered inoperable by a trigger lock device rendering long guns eviscerated for use as a defensive weapon. The Supreme Court found these requirements impermissibly interfered with the right to bear arms in a self-defense context because handguns are “overwhelmingly choose[n by Americans] for the lawful purpose of self-defense” (Heller Pp. 56-64).

The Supreme Court thus recognized home defense as a special context creating immunity for firearms against implicit regulation. In other words, Heller stands for the proposition that the Second Amendment protects individual’s right to bear arms for home defense, that regulations which impermissibly interfere with that right are unconstitutional. “The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home,” and thus “the handgun ban… violate[s] the Second Amendment” (Heller Pp. 2-53).

Since Heller was a federal case in federal jurisdiction, and the Bill of Rights does not apply to states and localities, an absence of incorporation in the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment affords states with the option of impermissible restrictions. McDonald v. Chicago solves that very problem, holding that the Second Amendment is “fundamental” and “implicit in the concept of ordered liberty” (McDonald Id., at 27-28, 33), and that it is selectively incorporated into substantive due process. Therefore, Heller now applies to both states and localities through this incorporation, a “process by which the Supreme Court has applied the Bill of Rights to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment.” (Monk 215). The facts of McDonald are very similar to that of Heller, the principal difference being that McDonald concerned the City of Chicago, allowing the applicability of Heller to the California context to be addressed. “The Fourteenth Amendment makes the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms fully applicable to the States” (McDonald Pp. 19-33).

What this incorporation means for California is that citizens’ rights should not be abridged if seeking to arm themselves with a weapon among the copious amount of banned assault riffles and shotguns for the purposes of self-defense. According to the rulings of these cases, a state cannot place any restrictions on gun ownership for the purpose of home defense on the basis of gun model or type. If a private citizen felt that a handgun was not sufficient protection for their home and wished to purchase an AA-12 (Automatic Assault Shotgun), which through California gun regulations is illegal due to its 20-round drum magazine and automatic fire feature, that citizen is within their rights through Heller and McDonald to own and operate in a home defense situation.
Similarly, this principle is applicable to the full list of banned assault riffles, which are banned solely on the basis of requiring detachable clips containing more than 10 rounds. In the wake of these landmark decisions the burden of choice for protection on the home is on the protector of the home, not the state.

Right to choice for self-defense is also more imperative than ever with budget cuts which seem inescapable for California law enforcement agencies. In the face of these budget issues the town of Blue Lake, containing a population of 1,150 citizens, has been forced to rely on the Humbolt County Sheriff Department for their law enforcement officers since 2008 when the Blue Lake police chief David Gundersen was arrested on charges of spousal rape and additionally had 111 illegal weapons confiscated primarily from his residence. Unfortunately for Gundersen, his arrest was shortly prior to the decision of Heller and two years prior to McDonald. Had his arrest come after either decision the state’s position would be dubious at best since his weapons were held for the purpose of self-defense.

With a lack of a police chief or any substantial law enforcement presence, Blue Lake is a prime example for personal choice of gun ownership for self-defense. If citizens are unable to effectively rely on police protection, and if their homes or persons are endangered they have a reasonable expectation of self-reliance in the event of home endangerment. To this extent individual preference for defense of the home is irrefutably protected by the Second Amendment decision of Heller and incorporation decision of McDonald, regardless of what California gun laws and regulations dictate.

Based on the decisions of District of Columbia v. Heller, which identified an individual right to bear arms through the Second Amendment, and McDonald v. Chicago which incorporated the Second Amendment to states and localities, gun laws and regulations in California require significant revisions to adhere to the Supreme Court’s decisions. With some of the strictest gun laws in the country, California now has a duty to afford special provisions to gun owners who own weapons for the purpose of self-defense in the home which may be deemed illegal by the state.

Reblog if you legally purchased something BECAUSE you saw it on YouTube or downloaded it.

watertightvines:

And without the so-called piracy, you would never have discovered or gotten into it to begin with.

(via thenjw)

Red Dead Redemption (archive repost)

New in the line of Rockstar sandbox immersion game experiences, Red Dead Redemption (furthermore abbreviated as “RDR”) is a spaghetti western fan’s dream. Although it showcases minor variations from its Grand Theft Auto(furthermore abbreviated as “GTA”) progenitors, RDR is a much needed departure and first step in creating an all-new formula for future sandbox releases. Overhaul and refinement in much needed areas such as storytelling and period research cleverly overshadow recycled gameplay elements, yet ultimately these small variations create an interesting milieu but fail to separate RDR as a completely distinct gaming experience from earlier Rockstar sandbox games.

The most notable refinement from the GTA series is the severely improved dialogue sequence introduction to missions, transforming generic cliched babble into compelling character development. Although players will encounter various cookie cutter spaghetti western personalities the writing staff for RDR seemed to take painstaking efforts to makes these characters actually sound like they’re from 1911, with only a few minor colloquial missteps from time to time. This attention to detail was a much welcomed transition from 100% hard ass gangsters and low-lifes, as characters associated with and encountered by John Marston continually exhibit character evolution and variety. The player’s view of the RDR world is much wider than drug dealers, pimps and crime lords. Among the more distinct missions involved assisting a shady traveling tonic salesman. It served as a tutorial for using the Dead Eye mechanic, but swindling those gullible farmers was extremely fun. And unlike previous Rockstar sandbox games, John Marston actually makes an impact and triggers character development in the people he encounters. The only character who doesn’t seem to evolve is John Marston himself, however considering his motivation is somewhat one-tracked but mimics infamous gunslinging heroes of legend, film or otherwise. Needles to say, I found myself watching the introductions to missions since the dialogue and writing were so quality, starkly contrasting my frantic efforts to skip the constant Scarface monologues during GTA mission introductions.

Aside from the well researched parlance of the game, the thoroughly researched settings, clothing, weaponry and vehicles pleased my nerdy eye for detail. A common folly which befalls games set in a historic era present a much more lax or negligent approach in creating an accurate representation of the period, more often than not fabricating elements which seem “appropriate” to the era. For nitpickers such as myself, the lazy no research approach can completely ruin a gaming experience, something Rockstar seemed to recognize during development . It’s for that very reason the period specificity deserves a notable mention since anything less in terms of research would have completely dissolved the engaging ambiance, resulting in yet another mindless GTA sandbox clone. While in the expansive wilderness of RDR and aided by the minimalist music, you truly feel alone. Excluding randomly spawning NPCs who will generally try to gain your attention, the countryside is a desolate and foreboding expanse of nature. From time to time without paying attention I would find myself exploring a province for no reason but to roam around the beautiful setting, something I haven’t done since The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

As with most games in this current generation, one must take the good with the bad. The previously mentioned positive elements appeared to be the main focus of the Rockstar development team, as these spectacular pros are quickly outweighed by non-existent updating of carried over GTA features. RDR is symptomatic of severe graphical glitches and some very serious frame rate issues whenever the game requires the PS3 to do a decent amount of processing. During all of the frantic horseback chases I encountered, enemy NPCs will, without fail, approach you from the rear, in order to deal with that threat the player must about-face to gun the varmints down. Every single time I was required to perform this about-face, the game would drop from a constant 60 FPS down to around 15-20 FPS in order to accommodate loading of terrain, animals and other frills which were now in visible range. This sudden drop in frames added an extra level of difficulty to successfully aiming at targets to bring them down, which unaffected by the sudden frame rate drop continue moving as if the game were performing at 60 FPS. During one mission in particular, I was shamefully forced to change my controller settings from “Expert” to “Casual” since the game was completely unable to keep even a stable 25-30 FPS with everything happening on the screen. These framerate slowdowns would be resolved with a couple seconds, but they would generally be a few of the most critical while being pursued by 5-10 or more assailants.
Since witnesses make stealing horses impractical and a lack of alternate transportation is generally unavailable, it’s safe to say Marston’s horse is one of the most important elements of gameplay. I expected Zelda-like accuracy when calling my horse, what I got was a horse with a sheep’s brain. It’s not often I come across AI so stupid it makes Dragoons from the first Starcraft look like brain surgeons, so in order to illustrate my point here is a partial list of some of the instances of horse AI stupidity:

• It proceeded to run past me and clip through a building wall getting stuck. I had to shoot it so I could summon a new one which put a bounty on my head leading to me getting shot in the back by a hidden lawman.
• It ran past me, ran straight off a cliff and died.
• Frequently after summoning, it will continue to run away instead of stopping at John Marston’s position, until it’s chased down and caught. It won’t not stop if this happens and will continue to run away if it evades capture. I failed a number of missions, bounty hunts and other events due to this and began mindlessly mashing the summon button to compensate.
• It wandered off (it will do that a lot too), ran straight into a pack of wolves and got eaten.
• Stopping a ways out from a bounty, I attempted to leave it a distance away so it wouldn’t be an obstacle. It followed me and insisted on standing right in front me blocking several key shots. It got an accidental bullet to the head as a result, leaving me stranded after hogtying my bounty.

To say the least, these issues were extremelyfrustrating as your horse is an integral part of the game. Since the world is so expansive getting around without your horse serves only as masochistic torture, considering while dismounted the number of threats the player will face increases tenfold. What concerns me the most is the lack of attention the Rockstar debuggers gave to these blatant bugs. These issues come up on such a frequent basis I would think they were impossible to miss during development.

Controlling John Marston through the world was no small feat either. Moving him around felt like trying to control a severely drunk man like a marionette with half the strings missing. This is another area of the game that should have been reevaluated as it’s the exact same control scheme carried over from the GTA games. The lazy approach to this port of controls made me woefully reminiscent of pointlessly running into walls and other obstacles due to the player’s character having a turning radius as wide as the Epcot Center. Additionally, requiring the player to mash a button on the controller to run instead of making the analogue stick pressure sensitive isn’t a novel idea, it’s another example of lazy programming. Combat, although refined from GTA IV and Vice City, did a good job in making me feel like I was revisiting Heavy Rain. While aiming, Marston’s turning radius is equally as horrible as when he’s walking and being incapable of doing a quick 180 spin makes speedy combat reflexes impossible, boiling combat down to luck, how full the Dead Eye meter is, and terrible enemy NPC aiming.
Multiplayer has similar incomplete elements which often times make it a frustrating experience. Allowing players to use full auto-aim through the first 50 levels encourages other players to shoot on sight and behave like degenerate jerks, however this could just be a reflection of those player’s personalities… Respawn locations in the main world and during mini-games prove easily predictable and usually result in the first player dead getting constantly killed for lack of a quick 180 spin. Leveling imitates MMO quest grinding through survival challenges, killing enemy NPC gangs and mindlessly killing other players and after the player’s armory is full only provides faster mounts and more unlockable characters. Additionally my favorite element from single player, the lasso, is stupidly absent. More forethought into making it impossible to abuse in an unfair way would have made players encounters mimic the single player’s morality meter more accurately, (if you’re curious pick honorable, you can hogtie everyone in the world and receive no bounty), and made for hilarious moments when “Nick expertly lassoed X_Jerkplayer_666” popped up on the screen.

Overall the 15-20 hours of missions are the most compelling part of the game, and if you feel like killing some time there’s tons of mindless fun to be had playing poker, tracking bounties, assisting randomly spawning passerbys in distress and plenty more. A myriad of graphical and bug oversights greatly overshadow an otherwise perfect atmosphere coupled with expertly executed writing and research. Recycled controls and gameplay mechanics are unfortunately reminiscent of a lack of refinement and development through a number of previous Rockstar sandbox games, ultimately closing the gap between the GTA series and this shining beacon of hope for future endeavors.

Heavy Rain - The Taxidermist and other impressions (archive repost)

Last week an add-on chapter to Heavy Rain was made available for those who received a pre-order voucher or saw it on the Playstation Store. Supposedly picking up where the main game ends, the new chapter features the sexploited, insomniac reporter Madison Paige who is investigating – one assumes since this is never made clear – a lead implicating a local taxidermist as the mysterious figure in Madison’s ending.

The Taxidermist adds an element of gameplay Quantic Dream seemed to feel was lacking from the main game: stealth. This new dynamic doesn’t so much add to the overall experience of Heavy Rain as it does add to the list of persisting problems. Serving as a median between the exploration and action sequences of the chapter, the stealth aspect accomplishes the opposite of Quantic Dream’s intent and puts an even larger spotlight on the game’s unrefined controls. During this segment I had more trouble navigating Madison through the house (see my review on Heavy Rain) let alone to a safe hiding location. In the end I decided wrestling with the controller to move Madison was a pointless endeavor and opted to forgo stealth by running directly into the antagonist’s field of view. Speaking of which, the Taxidermist must be the dumbest criminal mastermind in the history of serial killers. I hoped this extremely thick serial killer would notice every door in his house had been opened in order to speed up the horrible stealth segment, but the only differences he seemed to notice were disturbed items on the storefront counters. Even the door to the room with the rotting corpse being ajar didn’t phase his determination to ignore my presence in his house, making the absence of quality control painfully obvious yet again.

Once again the action proved to be a matter of deciding between survival or failure, press the button or don’t, and just like the main game these QTE choices determine the final outcome of the chapter. Due to my quick reflexes I was able to subdue and eliminate my opponent thanks to a conveniently gassed up chainsaw in the garage. The ending that followed conveniently ignored the fact that Madison broke into this house and killed a person with no witnesses, yet she’s revered as a hero once her story breaks. This was only one of about six to eight endings, as far as I was concerned I had received the full gaming experience from just playing through one ending.

Playing this new chapter put a sour taste in my mouth with regard to the Heavy Rain experience as a whole. All of the elements I found compelling and worth exploring in the main game were curiously absent from the add-on chapter: compelling storyline, a plot no error in gameplay can falter and a colorful cast of characters. The Taxidermist chooses to ignore all of these strengths in favor of everything I hated about the main game. Honestly I was hopeful this new chapter would be an improvement on any of the list of problems which plagued Heavy Rain, instead I was forced to endure more of the same without the creativity which made the main game a great experience.