Nikki Haley and the presidential primary debates

As the 2024 presidential contest heats up, heading into this crucial election year, I wanted to reflect on my thoughts so far concerning Nikki Haley as a person and as a presidential candidate on the republican primaries. 

First off, I do appreciate her throwing her hat into the ring, and putting her name out there in general.  Whether she wins or loses, I think she brings very important aspects and conversations into the republican party this year.  For one, she is a woman who is very accomplished in many ways - whether it be her career as a governor or her family's service to this country overall.  Whether you like Nikki or not, her family's record of public service is undeniably honorable. She also is excellent at articulating her positions and stances even though some people have called her a "flip flopper" in terms of her support for trump in the past, and her current distaste with the former president.  I think that such things are simply par for the course when it comes to politics, so that doesn't bother me too much.  I think that she's had an overall good performance in the recent debate, something that is reflected by her poll numbers.  Even though she isn't as  popular as Trump himself, Nikki is gaining ground on other presidential candidates such as Ron Desantis and Chris Christie

I think that, unless something changes, she could very well be the one that primarily challenges Trump in the primary nominations.  Its too early to say if this will actually happen, however, and even if it did, there is no way to know what her chances are against Trump.  The polls have been wrong before, as my father and others have said, the only poll that really matters is the one on election day.  In this case it would be the election on the presidential nomination day.  at the moment, I prefer Nikki over any of the other current candidates.  I may not agree with her on some of her foreign policy views - namely those of intervening in global affairs, I do, however, think that we ought to be more aggressive than our current stances with China and the Hamas terrorists in Gaza.  

To wrap up, I would like to say that as of right now I mostly support Nikki Hailey in the primary presidential candidacy race.  Honestly though, I would take any one of the current candidates, Trump included, over our current president Joe Biden.  As everything that has happened with Joe Biden has been an absolute disaster.  

Heading into the New Year

 Todays blog post will be about what feel about the concept of new years resolutions, and how that concept may help or hinder individuals.  There are many ways that people have done their new years resolutions.  Just in the circle of people that I know, such as family, friends, and acquaintances, new years resolutions have been a relatively good thing - so long as they are planned right.  These resolutions can also be a bad thing if there isn't meticulous planning on how to accomplish said resolution, it also helps a lot if the goal is actually feasible.  I have had some good goals and some bad ones.  A personal example of a bad goal that didn't exactly go as planned would be this:

A few years ago I had to write a rough draft of a book that I was hoping to publish as one of my lifetime goals - something that I considered to be rather admirable.  The trouble was that I had no system in place for accountability, progress, deadlines, or even short term rewards to assist with the progress.  This was one of the new years resolutions that I made and then promptly failed to fulfill because I had no feasible execution plan. 

A personal example of a good goal that actually came to fruition would be this:

        A few years ago I had a goal to improve my walking capabilities.  As someone with cerebral palsy, this is extremely difficult and many persons with my disability fail to improve in this specific category.  In some ways this will continue to be an ongoing goal for the rest of my life  - since the effects of cerebral palsy will always affect me.  However, I have progressed significantly in my goal over the past year.  This was due to the system that I have in place that enables me to hit more milestones on the road to being able to improve.  

I don't know what goals you may have nor what challenges you may have either right now or down the road, but the important thing to remember is this; no matter what your challenges are there is a sphere of things in which you can control and there is a sphere of things that you cannot control.  I encourage everybody, heading into 2024, to do what they can and choose a goal that resides within the sphere of control in your life.  Make sure to avoid setting a goal for yourself that isn't realistic, where you wont be able to accomplish by yourself, whether because of time constraints, will power, or a lack of ability. 

If you or I choose goals that we know we can achieve, such goals will give us courage for the future, and allow us the willpower to work over time.  This works even when challenges outside of our control happen to us.  This isn't easy, and I'm definitely not perfect, and so I consider this a permanent new years resolution that will never go away for me.  Overall this has helped me, and I've been able to achieve things that I never thought was possible for me to do. 

I invite you, whatever your situation may be, to look forward to 2024 with positivity and determination to meet the goals that youve set for yourself. 

My take on Donald Trump, and his legal persecutions

 For anyone that has been tracking the legal proceedings against Donald Trump, you already know that it has become a controversial issue.  Whatever side you may find yourself on for this topic, there is no denying that this situation is being unusually handled by the media and the justice department.  I do not have all of the facts that the justice department may have, but I say that it is time for the justice department to "put up or shut up".  They need to show all of the evidence that is available, not just accusations but actual evidence. If they cant do this, then they need to drop the whole premise.  At this point if you don't have any evidence, then you are just wasting taxpayer money in the slandering process.  Such funds would be better used in further investigations.  They need to move on,  let Trump rise/fall by his own actions without trying to interfere so heavily in ways that are, at the very least, questionable in legal premise.

I am no legal expert, but I do not have to be one to think that there might be something fishy going on with the way that they are handling this.  If they are so confident that Trump violated the law, then all they have to do is show the evidence.  The question then becomes "why don't they release the evidence to the public?".  Let me be clear, do I want Trump to be re-elected to the presidency? NO. I would rather he not.  However, everybody should have proper due process and I do not believe that at this point Trump as received due process.  Rather, the current government is throwing everything and anything at him in an attempt to defame him, up to and including the kitchen sink.  And yet they still haven't been able to outright convict him of anything.  

Any honest American should at least recognize that the proceedings against Trump are violating his civil rights.  That alone should be concerning to any and every American whether you like trump or not, re-elected or not.  Therefore, as I said at first, it is time for the justice department to come forward with the appropriate evidence for all to see, or drop the cases that they've filed against him. The fact that they are going so hard against Trump, almost makes me want to support him.  If they just let him alone, I think that he wouldn't have nearly as many supporters that he has today.  By attempting to defame him with seemingly no evidence, it makes the current government seem connivingly suspect. 

Splendor: The card game

 This kind of card game is an "engine building" game, where you are jewelers trying to impress nobility.  There are three different tiers of cards.  Most of the tier 1 cards don't actually contribute to you earning points, but it is how you start building your engine.  The objective of the game is to be the first person to earn 15 points or more.  

This kind of engine building card game supports between 2 and 4 players.  If players are able to quickly make logically sound decisions, the game can go very fast.  For instance, I've played 3 entire games in about an hour of time - this was for two players however.   Essentially each game is roughly 20-40 minutes depending on the experience of the players and the number of players that are participating in the game.  

The reason that I recommend this game is because, as a person with sever dyslexia, this is a good game because there is absolutely zero reading involved in playing, not with the cards, tiles or even the tokens.  Everything is ran on symbols, so that if you can have someone explain the core concept of the game, even someone with sever disability is able to enjoy the game. In addition, the cards and individual pieces are large, heavy and extremely durable, a caveat that is very useful for people with motor skill challenges. 

In addition to this, the game displays all sorts of beautiful artwork, expressing mines, craftsmen's, laborers, jewels and jewelry, various animals and more. However, the game is still challenging, since it requires immense strategic capability.  There is a fine balance between building the engine and earning the points, while at the same time attempting to do so faster than your opponents. 

I haven't been able to play the expansion that is out at the moment, but based on my experience of playing the base game, I do want to purchase the expansion and do a future review on the differences between the two.  Overall this is an excellent game to play with the family, which was purchased for a fairly decent price.  It can be found on amazon for 55 dollars, but if you buy it from a store for about 25 dollars.   This review isn't a sponsorship of all of the Space Cowboy brand games, I just happen to enjoy this particular game which they've created.  Great game!

Until next time everybody, have a fun time playing games!

Board game review: 8-minute Empire

 This is a review on the board game "8-minute Empire".  This game is an "area control" type board game, it is very simple.  The pieces are variously colored cubes for player that represent the individual's armies.  As the name suggests, the concept of the game is to show, in game format, how quickly empires can rise and fall.  This game is capable of accommodating up to 5 players.  Despite its name, each game that I've played lasted about 20 minutes, rather than 8 minutes - this was with the maximum of 5 players however.  The time of gameplay is likely dependent on the number of available players.  

This game was pretty fun.  It is also a good game for people with handicaps or fine motor control issues.  This is because it is easy to place the individual cubes, plus the game board is relatively small, allowing more space to maneuver, not to mention easy storage.  The playing cards are all pictures and symbols, making it simple to understand and accessible for those who cant read, or who struggle to do so.  I have played this game with my 8 year old nieces, and they were able to grasp the concepts well despite the recommended age of 13. My nieces may be an exception however because, in my totally biased opinion, they are more intelligent than the average 8 year old.  

The setup for the game overall is very fast, especially for those who already know how to play.  The same goes for the cleanup of the game.  It is an excellent option for those who have small children, or perhaps persons with handicaps.  The game is fun, and short - similar to games such as risk or Catan, only simplified.  I highly recommend this game, it cost me about 15$ when it was on sale.  

Merry Chistmas!! My thoughts on the Christmas season

 This Christmas season, I have many thoughts.  First, with everything that is going on in our modern world that is crazy; war, crime, political uncertainty, and economic uncertainty; it can be rather discouraging and difficult to culture hope within ourselves.  I'm not even including anybody's personal difficulties, just what is happening with the world around us overall.  With everything going on, we may ask ourselves "how can I have joy at Christmas?", "How can I believe in hope for the future?".  My answer to this would be that if you are religious in any way, or believe in a higher power, it can be very helpful to maintain a standard of hope in your lives.  Even if you aren't religous, Christmas does tend to be a cultural time where there is an increased feeling  of caring for your fellow men and wanting do do as much as you can in order to help make other people's lives better - even if that thing is just something simple such as a "how are you doing?" or bringing a meal to someone who may be in need.  

In short, we don't need to solve all of the problems in the world, we just need to do everything that we can for the people around us.  We may not be able to make a huge difference in the world as a whole, but we can definitely make a difference in the lives of the people around us.  Personally, I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Am I perfect at following the tenants of my religion? no, but I definitely try.  I believe that during this time of year, God would have us reach out to as many people as we can, even if it is only in a seemingly small and unimportant way.  I believe that these small actions, are what is expected of us.  We are expected to help our fellow men, albeit not more than we are able.  We are asked to remember the Christ child and what His life gave to us and how much he loves us.  For those who are of other faiths, God would have us do what we can to assist others, so long as we are capable.

I would encourage everybody at this Christmas time, and throughout all the holiday season, to remember to have an increased measure of patience and love for our fellow men.  At times this will be difficult, but it is possible.  I am reminded of the story of the WW1 Christmas truce of 1914.  Where even in the harshest battlefields, and many areas of the front lines, an unofficial truce was agreed between both sides of the war.  These individuals came out of the trenches, exchanged gifts, Christmas greetings, and played sports - right there on the frontlines!  This is only possible because each individual on both sides harbored the spirit of Christmas within them.  

Might I then suggest, that although it may not be as big as the Christmas truce in WW1, that we make a Christmas truth within ourselves.  Then reach out and forgive others who may have wronged us, striving to make other peoples lives just a little bit easier.  Just as the Christmas truce didn't resolve WW1, the Christmas truce I am suggesting will not solve our personal problems and disputes.  This will allow us to have more peace during the Christmas season, just as Christ was the master of peace.  

Merry Christmas

Why I don't like the Marvel movies anymore

Even before the whole argument arose concerning "WOKE" ideologies showing up in movies and medias,  I personally feel that Marvel's "Endgame" was the high point of their cinema.  Even if you take away the woke themes out of Marvel movies, they've sort of pinned themselves in a corner with the Endgame film.  It is pretty difficult, if not impossible, to create something that is better than endgame overall within the marvel universe franchise - forcing them to only backtrack for better stories and make less significant spinoffs.  Now, would I still watch all of the movies that came after Endgame? Yes.  I'm saying that everything that was made after the Endgame movie are simply there in a failing attempt to squeeze more money out of the marvel franchise to the point where they aren't even trying to tell good stories anymore.  It has become painfully obvious that their sole motivator is now money. 

The same thing could be said for many of Disney's other endeavors such as the Star Wars franchise.  Now, I am a huge star wars fan and have been ever since I was little.  The star wars story is structured in a way that  it allow many individual plotlines and sub stories.  It also is structured in a way that you could create countless new characters and stories without much difficulty. I am basically trying to say that I still like star wars as a whole (mostly its history), but I don't like what Disney has turned it into. Here's an example of the absolute garbage that Disney has mutated star wars into: The entire sequel trilogies full of unnecessary political messaging, they are full of unnecessary modern Mary sue characters. Just for clarification purposes, a Mary sue is defined as...

 A Mary Sue is a character archetype in fiction, usually a young woman, who is often portrayed as inexplicably competent across all domains, gifted with unique talents or powers, liked or respected by most other characters, unrealistically free of weaknesses, extremely attractive, innately virtuous, and/or generally lacking meaningful character flaws.[1][2][3][4] Usually female and almost always the main character, a Mary Sue is often an author's idealized self-insertion, and may serve as a form of wish fulfillment. Mary Sue stories are often written by adolescent authors.

One example that a lot of people point to is the female lead character "Rey" from the entire sequel trilogy starting with "The Force Awakens".  In these films, she can do no wrong.  I have nothing against strong female characters, I just hate when the strong female characters are used by modern feminists to display their ideologies as a part of their political agenda. In addition, Disney ruined Luke Skywalker's character by portaying him as insufferably weak and depressed as opposed to how strong his character was in the original trilogy despite his flaws.  I have no problems if they would have portrayed Luke as unsure or even depressed while determined to do something about it  and move forward.  That would have been more faithful to his original character.

In my opinion, the only good star wars project that have happened under modern Disney was "Rogue One", "The Bad Batch" animated series, seasons 1 and 2 of "The Mandelorian", and possibly the "Andor" series. But out of everything, these were the only ones that I was able to enjoy because it is simply good material, with no agendas in the film making process.  Everything else made under Disney in recent years has been the epitome of pandering to specific groups of people.  This has taken the appeal out of Disney's content overall for me. Aside from the possible exceptions listed above, the prequels that so many people didn't like and still don't really like (like "The Phantom Menace"), look like absolute and artful masterpieces in terms of star wars storytelling compared to what modern Disney has done to star wars overall. 

Wikipedia contributors. “Mary Sue.” Wikipedia, 27 Nov. 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sue.

Review: BANG!! The Dice Game

 BANG is a fun game in my opinion.  It only cost me somewhere around 20 dollars at the time of purchase around the year 2020.  There are two different versions of this game that are available on the market.  The original (which I haven't played yet) and BANG the dice game.  The original game, has a longer playtime overall, and structured more like your average card game.  When it comes to the dice version, the gameplay time is about 20 minutes.  This game is playable with 3-8 players at a time  - making it the perfect party game, which is one of its most attractive features in my estimation.  The game structure is somewhere between your average card game and Yahtzee.  However, there is an element of secrecy that requires admirable social detection skills.  

In this gamer there are several different scenarios that you can start out with based on the number of people that are playing, allowing the game to adjust the difficulty and length of playtime based on the number of players.  As someone who suffers with motor skill disabilities and dyslexia, I really appreciated the simplicity of this game because it is primarily composed of dice, pictures, and tokens all of which are easily identified via symbols and easy to handle.  The only reading required for the game is the descriptions that are on the character cards, something I was able to overcome easily through simple memorizations.  If it is your first time playing it can help if you have someone at the start who is able to tell you what each character card says.  

Overall, this is a very simple and fun game, and I would highly recommend it to any and all party game lovers.  

The Fourth Republican Primary Debate

 Today Id like to reveal my take on the fourth republican primary presidential debate that occurred on December 6th.  Out of the four candidates that were present, I greatly disliked two - Ron DeSantis, and Vivek Ramaswami.  DeSantis lost my favor because he continually danced around the questions that were posed to him, or would simply ramble about an unrelated topic whenever the questions were difficult.  I don't appreciate it when any politician does that.  I recognize that  nearly all politicians do that from time to time, that doesn't change the fact that I don't like it when it happens and DeSantis dodged his questions way too much for my liking.  As for Vivek, I will admit that he makes some good points in regards to how the media suppresses information, and that even if the suppression of information for the 2020 election wasn't deliberate, it still effected the outcome of the election, possibly skewing it in favor of one candidate or the other.  I also happen to agree with his stance on some of the financial issues that our country faces such as the unfair business practices of the Chinese.  Despite all of this, Ramaswami comes off as if he is trying to hard to emulate Trump in his mannerisms and viewpoints.  I don't really want a Trump copycat.  If I had to choose between a copycat and the original, I would prefer Trump himself each time.  Additionally, Ramaswami came off as confrontational with his accusations against Nikki Haley and Chris Christie.  Now, I recognize that personal attacks have become standard procedure for modern day politics, something that Trump is also guilty of, however, Ramaswami didn't do it in a way that was tactful, giving him the appearance of one who is immature and purposefully rude.  Wither you love him or hate him, Trump just has some sort of dark charisma that makes his abrasiveness almost endearing, whereas with Ramaswami it irritatingly exasperating.   

I don't have much good or bad to say for Haley other than she was able to hold her own against the attacks made towards her - something that not a lot of people can do under pressure, and I really liked that.  Her positions on foreign policy and Medicaid were also good.  

The most surprising performance in my opinion was championed by former governor Chris Christie.  I never really like Christie up to this point as I felt that his only reason for running the race was to desperately prevent trump from winning the presidential race.  While I can understand that, I feel that that is not a sufficient reason for vying to be president.  However, this debate was the I felt that Chris Christie actually was serious about the presidential candidacy, in doing what he felt was right for the country as a whole.  I also appreciated that even though Christie and Haley are current rivals, Christie came to Haley's defense on some of the unnecessary personal attacks that DeSantis and Ramaswami were making.  One key example is when Ramaswami accused Haley of being a Neoconservative.  Now, I personally disagree with the Neocon sentiment that the U.S. should be the world's police force. However,   the use of personal attacks in this context (especially because Haley's husband has served in the military),  I believe the jab was very uncalled for.  Especially, when Ramaswami was accusing her of ignorance in terms of territorial defenses in Ukraine when there is no evidence that Ramaswami himself is aware of such information.  I really like that Chris Christie called Ramaswami out on that in Haley's defense as it shows a portion of Christie's true character.  I recommend taking a closer look at Christies views and points, and i will do the same myself

If you wanted declare an overall winner, I would have to pick Chris Christi due to his clear goals, concise speech, and knowledgeability on the issues he wishes to address.  He also called out Ramaswami for his idiocy, which I'm sure a lot of people really appreciated. 

Struggling through Challenges: Dyslexia

 Today's post will be centered on the challenges that you can face with having dyslexia.  I have dyslexia and it greatly impacts my day to day life.  There are some methods that I use to help me get around such challenges.  Struggling with severe dyslexia has made it so that I can't functionally read anything of a true value.   This has made it very hard from me in many aspects of life.  The first time this really impacted my performance, was during high school.  Something that they did to help me get through high school was that they would read the test questions to me and allowed me to answer verbally.  This really helped, especially when it came to subjects such as history, government, or English. The reason this was so successful was because of my unusually good memory and recall abilities.  However, when it came to subjects such as math and science, my dyslexia had a huge negative impact in impairing my ability to progress in those respective disciplines.  As a result, I couldn't receive my high school diploma.  

This really impacted my ability to seek higher education in a traditional sense.  My severe dyslexia has, in essence, prevented me from understanding the basics of mathematics and science, despite my great proclivity for memorization.  The fact of the matter is that this is the case for a lot of people who suffer from extreme dyslexia, and are unable  to manage those symptoms in a way that is meaningful.  I will never be able to successfully achieve a higher education, but I'm not revealing this in an attempt to garner sympathy or pity, I am simply stating this as a matter of fact. 

For the longest time my inability to learn effectively was greatly impacted by the fact that I have only been diagnosed recently, and have only been receiving.  This new information would have been great to know earlier, because it likely would have changed how I was taught, and who knows? maybe I would have been able to get my diploma.

My hopes are to encourage any parents who have children who are struggling in their schooling, to get them checked clinically to see if the child is suffering from a learning disability - so that perhaps they might have more recourses available to them, giving them more assistance than I might have had in my high school days.  I would encourage parents to see their children with learning disabilities as people who are advantaged, rather than disadvantaged because there are still many avenues in which their children may become successful.

In the modern day there are, thankfully, a whole lot more options technologically and service wise that allow people with similar challenges, including several state and federally funded educational programs.  I encourage all people to do their best to seek understanding of dyslexia and other learning disabilities.  Lastly, I would like to invite everybody to reach anyways, despite whatever difficulty they might be facing. 

Starfarers of Catan Review

 Starfarers of Catan is a standalone version of the Catan series.  As the name implies, you settle different regions of space as apposed to an island.  A unique aspect of this game is that you also are discovering new regions as you play.  In my opinion this is one of the main differences between Starfarers and other versions of the Catan franchise.  You are never quite sure what you are going to encounter, nor the order in which these encounters occur.  The base Starfarers game can accommodate up to four players, however, there is a five to six player expansion just as the other games of the Catan franchise (I own the expansion, but haven't tried it as of yet).  I plan to create a follow up post to cover the differences of the base game and the game with the expansion. 

This game typically costs about 100$.  As a person suffering from severe dyslexia, Starfarers is a particularly good version in the franchise because it is primarily made of pictures and symbols - meaning that the only real skill you need to play the game is a good enough memory to remember all of the pictures and symbols associated with the game.  There are various differing scenarios which you can choose to play - which is another great aspect of this game in comparison to the original Catan game.  In addition, there are fewer recourse cards within the Starfarers of Catan game, making it less cumbersome when playing and setting up the game.  

One of the negatives of this game is that the board is much larger than the original, requiring a lot more space just to play the game.  This is just my own opinion though, I simply say so that you can take this into account depending on the amount of space that you might have in your living situation

Solid 4.5/5