A New Dawn

Some songs really make the most mundane things in life a bit more epic. For example The Touch  by Stan Bush when you are sitting in the buss on your way to your work place. First day at the bank is over and it feels really good. I haven't been this calm for a long time. The sun is staying much longer and lights up the world once more and the same can be said about my life. Hopefully there is no dark clouds on the horizon.

Other things that have happened since the last time? The new social democratic leader has been elected and it, to everyones astonishment, actually went to someone who really can be classified to a blue-color worker, or at least once. He is probably most famous for being the head of the industry union the last six year. I'm of course talking about Stefan Löfven. And suddenly a sound of relief was heard across the left and a sound of interest and small optimism from the right. This is a man that has talked favorably about nuclear power and EMU. A man the social democrats pin their hopes upon to deliver from their current position as opposition and back to the governmental power. Frankly, due to his past actions and statements even I could vote for him, if I wasn't so influenced by the liberal ideologies. Of course, I'm also a bit pessimistic about how he will be able to turn the party toward his ideas that I support. The first day he was already "threatened" by some of his party members that he can't stand for his own ideas, but must always express what the party congress has decided. Although yesterday he seemed to express the use of a loophole in the text they wrote so maybe he could change the party that way. The consequence of this however is that his own members are putting him in a very bad starting point. See, every time he has to talk about an issue that he has already expressed that clash with the party, we know if he lies, but if he speaks for himself and what he sees as the best course of action he will put himself in front of the knives that already cut down two party leaders. Will he be able to survive that or is it just a matter of time before the circus starts anew?

Paranoid

I'm on fire. It was quite a long time ago since I actually made this many posts a week. I would guess new inspiration with all that is happening at the moment and that I feel my situation looks brighter in comparison to the time right before christmas. So, lets look closer on the current political events in Sweden. As you all probably know Juholt has resigned and the Social Democrats is free-falling in the polls as well searching for a new leader to lead them over next election in 2014. Juholt fell due to a combination of back-stabbing in his own party as well as several mistakes made from him, mostly a constant flip-flopping on issues as well as bending the truth. Now this doesn't suit those who sided with Juholt who blame the media for hunting him down due to him being a "hillbilly" or something like that (excluding the fact that of all the other seven only two comes from the capital, the rest is as much "hillbillies" as Juholt). Also, they try to neglect all the mistakes he did by comparing it to Reinfeldt. Fair enough, but there is some mayor differences. One site published all 18 mistakes Reinfeldt done since 2009 (believe me, they would have published more if they could). Then look at Juholt's track record, 13. Oh and that is during a span of 10 month, and 1 month he had a vacation not showing up in media. This is probably something those who are blinded don't quite grip. Juholt constantly did those mistakes. People makes mistakes, we all make them, but he did it more often then anyone, in areas that was supposed his specialty (defence if anyone wonders). And they still defend him and complain about unfairness from the media. Do they not see a pattern here comparing something like 4,5 faults a year compared to 13 in LESS than a year? Then again, social democrats have some problem admitting their own fault since they always do the right thing.

Edit: Yeah, I can't really count, first I thought it was 5 years, when it closer to 4 or even 3, but you know I had trouble with the economics and math so I will blame that.

Star Fox

Rumors has it that Retro Studios (the studio that breathed new life into Metroid with the Metroid Prime-trilogy and Donkey Kong Returns) are gonna revive the Star Fox-series with a game to the Wii U. Would be nice with a new entry for the series since the last true new game was back in 2006. I probably can give a better run-down of this series compared to Fire Emblem since I actually played all the games in the series. And I have a hunch you don't actually care about the circus that is the social democratic search for a new party leader, especially since everything that comes out is "we want Wallström" and "No".

The first game was Star Fox, or as it was called here in Europe, Starwing. Just pure coincidence that we got it in the family since we bought it second hand on a whim, or we, my oldest little sister did. i guess it was the funny animals on the box. Didn't play it that much since it took me a long time to get how you played it, but I actually finished it on the easiest route. Today I feel a bit sadness that I don't have it anymore. The music was wonderful although the graphics aren't that good looking today. A bit blocky if you asked me, but it was a fun ride.

Next game is the one from Nintendo 64 in 1997 called Lylat Wars in Europe. I didn't get this one, I wanted it, but never got it until they rereleased to the Wii VC and 3DS. The one to the 3DS was much better since the controls didn't feel that awkward. A more advanced version than the original, but the music wasn't that awesome. Don't get me wrong, it was good, but I missed the beat from the first stage of Corneria from the original.

Next one was probably the one I really delved into and absolutely love of the Star Fox games. Star Fox Adventure by Rare, the gods of video games during that time. They mostly seemed to have fallen pretty deep at the moment. I didn't care if it was a Zelda knock-of, it was fun in its own way, nice music, gorgeous graphics and a story that didn't feel that far-fetched. Although, since I didn't play Star Fox 64, I had some trouble knowing how to kill Andross since I never fought him like that before. In Starwing it was just shoot the eyes, no one said anything about his hands. Although I can probably agree on that Tricky can be kinda annoying some times. I actually waited for this game since the N64 days, but then titled as Dinosaur Planet. It was pushed forward all the time until the GameCube came out and then it was changed to a Star Fox-game. Funny enough the same happened to Retro Studios Metroid Prime (pushed forward to Gamecube that is). Another funny thing to note is that this was one of the games we won by pre-order it. The other one was Super Mario Sunshine. Yes, we won the games in two different drawings. That is really lucky.

After Adventure I was pretty muck hooked on the series and waited patiently for the next game, Star Fox: Assault. Now you could actually use your blaster. This was a confusing game for me the first time I played it. It had similar control scheme as Lylat Wars, but since I never played it I had some trouble getting used to it compared to Adventures Arwing-controls. Most notable that in Adventure you could just keep the A-button down to fire at the enemies, but in all other games you had to push it. I know, not much, but it caught me of guard. Then we have the plot, which basically feels like a Star Trek Borg episode. The biggest issue was that I didn't know any of the characters beside the main six that appeared in Adventure. I still enjoyed the game and finished it, but it felt rushed. The first chapter for example didn't have any voices in the intro until your team shows up and just made it feel... unfinished.

So after that less of a stellar game, what happens next? Star Fox Command for the DS. The worst game in the series. Controls felt awkward which made it a bit of an ordeal to finish. Especially fly through the circles over and over again. And it felt it was just two different sorts of missions. Shot everything and then fly through a couple of rings or fly through rings destroying missiles. No, I really hope they make a fun new game that ties the knots story-wise. If it gonna be only flying and/or walking? It doesn't matter really, if it works for the story go ahead. Just don't make it gimmicky like this last game.

Sad Wings of Destiny

Nice album cover right? I'm just using the picture as a symbol, showing the current events in Swedish politics. Yes, Håkan Juholt has stepped down as the social democratic party leader. He hold the position for 10 months, that is probably the shortest time any swedish party leader has sat on the throne. The only ones that comes close is Maria Leissner from the Liberal Party and Karin Söder from the Centre Party, but they at least sat for 2 years and left due to personal problems (Leissner's husband died in a car accident she survived in while Söder left due to illness). This also illustrates the fall that the Swedish social democrats is in, traditionally the party leader sat a minimum of 10 years (you can read about it in an old post), but the latest ones have only sat for 4 years and now 10 months. There is a new dawn they are witnessing.

Of course, the party members are now looking for a scape goat. The blames falls often at media due to almost constant barrage of news centering around Juholt during the years. It began sadly the same day as his installation when the news broke that the pension reform he said he coordinated together with the unions was nonexistent, they didn't know what he talked about. Then it followed with his spouses criminal past, his constant flip-flopping on the Libyan issue and probably peaked with the deduction scandal in October last year. Didn't help when he declined to participate in the party leader duel due to him standing beside the Sweden democrats and talking about a written paper which both the green and left party signed. None of the others knew what he talked about, all they had was a mutual agreement that the greens broke, but no paper. And then the final straw was probably how this week began with the obvious blunder. Is media to blame? Only in the sense that they reported it, but would it not be against the free press to stop them reporting on constant failures of the party leader of the current biggest party in the parliament? This has the stuff to turn into Stab-in-the-back legend that will make the climate inside the party much more uglier when the left and the right sides while start the attack new for the price of power. We have already seen the current left-wingers purge certain right-wingers and will probably be more bloodshed to come.

Still, the fault isn't in media, it lies in the fact that they decided upon a party leader that didn't keep a straight course for a party desperately in need of one. It doesn't help that many of them appears as sect members that see no fault in anyone from S, especially the left supporters that doesn't hesitate to use names as betrayers, fifth columns and so on. They will probably not stand silent, although they usually forget how the media has hunted down not one, not two but three ministers from the right-wing government. If you would you could probably put the last liberal party leader as one as well. Do we on the right complain? Some, but I think most agree that that was necessary due to the problems they brought with them. And still the left complain that "all media is owned by the right", "they are hunting for us" and so on. A bit childish, don't you think? A bit sad actually.

Fire Emblem

Wow, two posts in one one week, that was a long time. It's almost I can remember when it was one input a day. Those were the times. The reason for that is I feel it goes my way at the moment. Yeah, searched several possible jobs today that I guess will lead to nothing (it hasn't done it for the last 12 months), but when I went to get groceries I found they had once again began selling fil with strawberry flavor. It's the small things in life that matters. Hm? Oh yeah, I also got an internship... what?

Leaving my personal search for a job aside, I would like to write about a gaming series I am very fond of. No, not Golden Sun. It's about Fire Emblem. A turn-based strategy RPG set in different medieval fantasy settings were you guide a lord (mostly lords, the GameCube and Wii didn't) to a certain goal (mostly a quest to prevent dragons from destroying the world they live in, again there is exceptions). Anyway, this series is a really old one, but the first western release wasn't until 2004 in Europe. I don't remember why I bought it, what I've had read. I can probably guess it came down to it being a fantasy RPG with similar gameplay as Advance Wars from 2002 and made by the same studio. Since I liked that game I probably didn't mind to much. I got it and the instant I put it on I could feel that it was well worth it. The intro music is a really haunting piece that conveys sadness over what has been lost as well as anger over it. A beautiful piece and that's only the intro. The music score in the whole game is fantastic and doesn't get boring even though you play the same damn map over and over again for days. There was likable characters that you cared about and you would do anything to see them live on, watching them grow as persons and together with each other. And that demanded some sacrifices from the player since this game is famous for it's "killed off for real". And for a game completionist that is a case of several rage quits. With death ever present the story reaches a new level on how much feelings you put into the characters (although when your slowest unit gets doubled by a 30 % critical hit for the 10 time you start to hate that character). A bright future was upon us.

 

Then they released the next game. Not set in the same world, you now battled an evil empire bent on releasing the demons banished 800 years ago while monsters roam the world harassing the populace of your ruined country. Improvements was that they didn't have the linearity from the first game with two branching paths in the story as well as a branching path with the promotions of character give it a wider difference in every game session and you could roam the map and visit old places fighting monsters. The problem is a weaker story and I guess it would be due to the branching path. Too much gets lost when you play the chapter as either character and need you to play the game twice and much get lost, especially in that you meet the same characters, but for different reasons and you feel that in one path it's obvious why they are there while the other just makes it feel out of placed. What they should have done was to play the chapters side by side showing their struggle on both sides and building up more tension against those who hunt you. The other problem is that it is to easy due to the fact with the monster encounters and "training stages" where you can level up all of your characters beyond the least amount of levels needed to beat the enemies. That also means that I don't seem to invest more into the different characters since, if one dies I just level them up and redo it instead of more strategy. All in all, a bit of disappointment compared to the shining star the first game was. I can't even remember any special tunes compared to the first game.

 

Next followed the GameCube game Path of Radiance. A step up with good voice acting in certain cut-scenes  (which by the way were gorgeous looking), some gameplay changes with the ability to move units on steeds again after the attack creating a new tactic of hit and run, a new race of shape-shifting animals (which was just the next step from the manaketes from the earlier games). The support system from the old games changed from amount of turns next to each other to how many maps they fought together simplifying it and make it easier to talk with them. A great story once again where you invested much more into the characters as they were hunted down by the dark empire as they seek shelter with the last heir to the crown of what the mercenary group can call their homeland. The hero fight for ideals he believe in as well as trying to find revenge on the person who killed his father, the Black Knight, one of the highest ranking generals in Daein. You have slave trade, corruption, genocide, racism, isolation and inhumane experiments on animals, beorcs and laguz. Subject still interesting. What is then the problems? Well, the graphics are not as nice, the 3d character models are a bit... blocky? Blurry? They still had the 2d (cell-shaded?) character portraits and they were as good as ever. The other is that the laguz is not that good. They can't promote beyond their first class so they get 40 levels instead of the 20 for any other class, but you still don't want to use them since they hog experience compared to every beorc and they aren't that useful when they only can fight at certain intervals in the battle when they are in their animal form when they have to avoid battle as they are defenseless in human form. No wonder they are discriminated.

 

The following game was the continuation of Path of Radiance in Radiant Dawn. Same everything except more characters, improved the use of laguz by at least give them some defence mechanism with claws and a larger story. Still, almost the same subject, but they changed the order a bit. The game is separated in parts with the first part being the liberation of Daein with a underground resistance group challenging the oppression of the invading army from the last game (not the army you lead in the first since you gave up the command to the empire of Begnion that supported you, a bad move in hindsight with all the corruption and extremism in the Senate). The second follows the unrest in the struggling kingdom of Crimea under her new Queen as she fights a conspiracy of nobles trying to take the power in a civil war. The third part is back with the hero from the last game as he and his mercenary team is enlisted in the war between the laguz and Begnion. All the struggle awakens the two opposing gods, one of chaos and one of order (in a "twist" the god of chaos is more good since order means the destruction of all living things since they are "unpredictable" and therefore chaotic). Next part is when all those forces you have been playing are united and decides to vanquish the god of order, fighting their way trough imperial soldiers pushed on by their mislead and corrupted leaders. Still, same problems as the last game although small improvements, but some new problems arrived. For example the support system was gone, but at least you could still interact with the characters giving it flesh on the story bone. Then we have the story structure, good that we could see all sides, bad that many of the characters you played with in part 1 disappeared until part 4. That's too long of a break to build a lasting relation with them. People I liked in the first part was forgotten when I got back and left me with the hero from the last game as my favorite, since I played him the most (his story part was the longest of them). Too fix that it would have to been a longer campaign with more character development in the last chapters to remind me why I like these new character more than the old ones I played for almost 3 years.

 

At least that game was better then the remake of the first game. The story is pretty normal for a Fire Emblem-game, but where is the filling? There is no support system so you don't know more about the characters than their joining commentary, what's their motives? What's their background? What are the relation with the other characters? Then we have the graphics. The maps and movement models of the characters are OK, but the fighting stage? Same problem as the 3d games (well, obvious since they also are 3d models). The GBA-era had distinguishable faces (maybe not the best, but you saw eyes and mouths). Not in this, blank faces. It just makes the characters... inhuman. And the characters portrait, GOD the characters portrait. They at least have faces... but not the townspeople. They have eyes, and yet not. Empty sockets that stare at the gamers. Yes, they stare at the gamers while playable characters and enemies look at each other in the corner of their eyes. What the HELL? What happened? Boring story, ugly character graphics and scary portraits, it couldn't get worse.

And it didn't, the next game fixed most problems and was a remake of the second part of the Marth story. You created a character that was your avatar and could interact with the others (probably a throwback to the first international released Fire Emblem with its Tactician character), the support system was back. Still not satisfying graphics, but the story was said to be more fleshed out. Was said? Yeah, they haven't released it outside of Japan yet, and that came out more then a year ago and now the rumors is up for Fire Emblem 3DS, more or less implying we won't see that story. Europe (and the US) gets screwed over once again. Why, oh why?

Start of the New Political Year 2012

Looking back, I didn't write much about politics at the end of last year, but the two last entries were both about the crisis in the Social Democratic party. The first just sums up their leaders mistake and ends on a political scientist joke (aka maybe not that funny) about the similarities about Juholt and Nixon. The second one more or less is a pretty decent (from my perspective... I wrote it so that's obvious) run-down of what ails the party. Then it became quiet, Juholt was on vacation in Mexico and the governmental parties said hardly anything meaning it left the field open for the other parties to finally get their voices heard in the media shadow that is Juholt. That was to good to last many social democrats felt and they were right. This monday he returned, the same day a poll was published leaving his party at 23,6 %. And the social democrats thought 27,7 % was bad. (Of course that was two different polling institutes so the numbers aren't that good to take at face-value, but it's still a big contrast to the 40 % party we know and love to hate)

It doesn't end there though. He returned to speak at the "Folk och Försvar" conference (direct translated as people and defence, a conference discussing event around the world and how they affect Swedish or even the worlds security and stability). His primary speak goes as planned, everything seems forgiven and forgotten... and then comes the follow-up questions. It's about the new defence that are unveiling in front of our eyes where the draft has been abolished and we turn it into a volunteer armed force. The decision was taken 2009 and 2010 when the Alliance had a majority in the parliament and Juholt himself was part of the defence committee and have had a place there since 1994, even being chairman of the committee at one point. So defence questions should be easy for him. What happens? He totally screws up. In an attempt to force the Sweden Democrats (SD) upon the Alliance he told the press (and the world) that the new defence was made together... before SD even entered the Riksdag in September (or was it October, it's hard with wikipedia down) 2010. Most caught on to that rather quickly (especially tragic for him is that SD would have supported S since they preferred the draft like S) and his attempt at the defending the statement was that he used more drastic languish to illustrate the problem with a minority government (although S have been in minority government almost all the time except certain instances in the 50's (when they governed together with C) and after their 50 % victory in the red waves of 1968). So his defence was to illustrate a point about a question that wasn't true, when it didn't even apply? And S still keeps him because...?

And today it's time for a party leader debate in the Riksdag. One of the high points in a political scientist year and I'm currently waiting on the analysis from the newspapers and SVT to see what was said. Yeah, I hardly listened to what they said, better get the summarize plus some outside perspective. This gonna be interesting and probably one of very few debates since there's no election until next year... and that's just the church election. Usually we could look forward to the European parliament election, but that isn't until 2014 and that's if EU don't collapse on the euro.

Year 2012

So a new year has come, I'm one year older and it was an OK christmas at home without anything fancy. A bit disappointing in that my parents have moved, but the house is not finished. In fact it isn't even begun yet due to a very slow-paced bureaucracy that takes forever to handle this matter (guess it has to do it being close to the sea and Sweden having a beach-protection law to make sure that everyone in theory should have access to the beach which they don't get if someone builds a house there). So we had to eating christmas dinner in a torp for two... we were seven. A bit tiny, but we outsourced some of us to the hostel nearby so everything worked out. New Years Eve it was just me and two of my sisters there.

Everything was the same as usual year with some small exceptions. Our christmas day visit to grandma was pushed the day after due to grandma being invited by my cousins instead so we just switch them around We also made a visit to the cinemas to see the latest Stig-Helmer Movie. A fun little film, and of course we watched the rest of the movies during the week, either on DVD or when SVT showed the movies. And then the 28 of December arrived... and nothing special happened. A boring day, a day no one cares about so we don't speak about it.

After that a small reflection upon last year. It began decent enough with the last university course I took and I got my examination papers. Then unemployment and with that I broke my New Year promise which was to get a job before the end of the year, so I just renew that and hopefully it will be a better situation at the beginning of 2013. The truth is I begin to feel the stress, doesn't help that I have to find a new apartment without an income. I'm being eaten alive from inside and it's time for action to break this dullness... but what am I supposed to do? Maybe it's time to throw in the towel and join a political party. It couldn't hurt, but it wasn't the plan. Although, nothing seems to be the plan at the moment.