Things that I would like to make

Another set of little half-ideas for games/things. None of which will actually happen:

1) A parliamentary politics board/card game. It allows for: 1) non-zero sum player interaction, 2) Power differentials which still allow for weaker players to influence the course of the game (to make a government, you need 50%, so you can have dominant parties beholden to smaller ones), 3) Dynamic rules! 4) Meta-games which aren't "gang up on the leader"

2) Some sort of a counterinsurgency war game. I know there's a GWOT game out by GMT, but it's not quite what I'm looking for... you'd have to do it as a computer game, or have some really nifty ways of handing assymetric information, as well as a way to overcome the "HA HA" problem.

3) A fun little 3/4-player wargame set during/after the death of Jan Huss. It's at a great period in time, the early part of the gunpowder era, and you have such great factions!

4) A thorough analysis of the evolution of empire from the economic perspective.

5) Magic button which accomplishes thesis work and/or gives me infinite time to sleeeeeep

6) MORE BLOG POSTS! THE POSTS MUST FLOW!

What's the Big Idea, anyway

So, I was considering beginning with a proper content post, rather than this bullshit meta* stuff, but it felt forced, like I was walking down a deserted street and began loudly talking to myself. So I figured I brief introduction was in order. I'm Ned, a senior graduate student at an east coast university on a particle physics project, but for purposes of this blog, that's mostly irrelevant. What IS relevant is that I'm loud, opinionated, and full of self-loathing. Therefore, I've decided to write about things, partially to ensure that my writerly self doesn't completely atrophy from years of slave** labor*** in the code mines of Academia VI,  partially because I like crafting arguments that make sense, and writing is the easiest way I've found to do so****, and partially because I want to be nerd funny on the internet*****.

The blag will primarily focus on games, both board and computational, because that's a huge chunk of my free time, with occasion deviations into politics, culture******, academia, and other things that I enjoy talking about and/or am annoyed with. Basically, you get a free copy of me. Shouting. CONSTANTLY.  INTO THE INTERNET.

The update schedule is roughly bi-weekly (as in once every two weeks), but with a high variance. I'll leave the exact calculation of this value as an exercise for the reader*******.


*Now it's double meta (all the way)
**read: paid, voluntary
***read: slacking and general laziness
****and the medium allows for FOOTNOTES, my favorite thing!
*****A rich and unexplored niche, for sure
******read: I like movies and read Harpers
*******PROTIP: FFT that shit.