University of Missouri-St. Louis: a lot like Weekends Only Furniture Outlet

I feel relatively comfortable making the claim that the University of Missouri-St. Louis is the Weekends Only Furniture Outlet of higher education.  Even setting aside the architectural similarities (they both look like box store warehouses!), we can see that, philosophically, the UM-St. Louis (as they prefer to be called) follows ideals set by the cut-rate furniture retailer.

A.) Both minimize costs by restricting hours of operation

Weekends Only Furniture Outlet keeps costs low (and possibly avoids some regulatory laws, I don't know) by restricting their hours of business to... weekends only.  It means that they cram all of their customers into a two-day period every week, maximizing the amount of work they get out of their employees (in terms of sales/hours worked), and minimizing the amount of customer service (complaints) they will have to field.  After all, if the entire staff is busy, there's no one available to handle any issues the customer may have with their purchased merchandise.

Point being, limiting the hours of operation works for the bottom line, regardless of whether or not it is better for the customer (it's not).

Well, earlier this week,while I was working on some calculus at University of Missouri-St. Louis's Thomas Jefferson Library, a voice came booming across the PA system strung throughout the building.  "It is now 4:30, the library will close at 5:00.  Please bring all materials you wish to check out to the front desk by 4:45," the voice called out.  Now, on a Thursday, even on a break, 5:00 PM is a little early to be closing up shop at a university library.  U. of Missouri-Columbia, my alma mater, stays open until 8.  So I did a little checking up on some of the other student facilities from the two universities and how they compare:

All times listed are regular semester weekday hours

Main library closing times:
University of Missouri-Columbia: 2 AM
University of Missouri-St. Louis: 10:30 PM

Fitness center closing times:
University of Missouri-Columbia: 11:00 PM
University of Missouri-St. Louis: 9:45 PM

Available computer labs:
University of Missouri-Columbia: open 24hrs (Pershing Commons)
University of Missouri-St. Louis: 1 AM (SSB 103)

I won't even go into comparisons with the more well-regarded St. Louis universities (and UM-St. Louis comes up short even when put next to Maryville University!), but when UMSL charges the same amount per credit hour for tuition (every school in the UM system does), and in fact charges more in student fees than the flagship school (a margin that will only increase next year with the proposal that all students will be charged parking fees, regardless of whether or not they drive to campus), they clearly shows what they value: low overhead and high revenues; just like Weekends Only Furniture Outlet.

B.) Both offer cut-rate products

"The place is definitly(sp) no-frills and you get what you see. I think they purchase "need to go items" from other stores and sell them under one roof at [Weekends Only Furniture Outlet]."

"To me this place is a waste of time.  The only thing we found was most of the items in the showroom were what you see is what you get.  The prices were not that reduced unless it had been sitting there for a long time and so obnoxius(sp) that it probably would not sell unless they gave it away."

The quotations above are excerpts from two different Yelp reviews of the Weekends Only Furniture Outlet located in Bridgeton, MO.  This pretty much sums up the experience of shopping there.  The cast-offs and worn furniture that other retailers couldn't move, at prices hardly any lower than a dealer with a larger, higher-quality selection.  I have personally gotten a rug-burn from the sofa my family purchased at a Weekends Only.

Much like Weekends Only Furniture Outlet, the University of Missouri-St. Louis's curriculum offerings are:
-Sparse (60 credit hours will take 3.5 years to complete, due to certain prerequisites only being offered in certain semesters and electives being next-to-nonexistent)
-Overpriced (the aforementioned tuition rates and fees levied being comparable to/greater than those at U. of Missouri-Columbia)
-Low quality (this semester I will have my first instructor with a doctorate, out of four classes total taken--Applied Statistics I, taught by a Doctor of Philosophy)

I could go into the similarities in attitude (in terms of hopes/plans for the future) of those who patronize Weekends Only Furniture Outlet and UMSL, but as a member of the UMSL student body, I think that might be too depressing.

Before I started writing this post, I was not even aware that students at UM-St. Louis pay more in fees than students at UM-Columbia, but I am now even more outraged than I was before.  Why should the facilities be closed earlier--and be of poorer quality--than they are for those who pay less in yearly fees at the flagship school?  My first semester at UM-Columbia, every course I took was taught by a full professor.  Why am I paying the same tuition to be taught by grad students?

Suffice it to say, we deserve better.

Wii U Karaoke

Note: This image is not from the Wii U karaoke system

Well, I said that Nintendo would be fools if they didn't consider making karaoke software available for their new Wii U console, and it looks like I was proven right.  They released a Nintendo Direct video (video is in Japanese, but you can get the gist even if you don't speak the language, especially if you've ever done Asian-style karaoke before) about a week ago that shows off software that, partnered with Joysound's support, will allow Japanese Wii U users access to about 90,000 songs for karaoke-ing.  The songs will be available at hourly rates, as well as longer-term rates for access to the song library (currently 90 days is the maximum access period that can be purchased, which will cost 2000 yen).

Although 90,000 songs seems a little low compared to Joysound's total catalog, it is far larger than the 1000 songs available on Wii's Joysound software, and 10x as many as the 8000 available on the company's similar offering for the Playstation 3 in Japan (Joysound Dive).  However, my main gripe is that Nintendo/Joysound still cannot see the benefit of releasing this software in the US!  I remain firmly convinced that if karaoke boxes were to pop up (and be more inexpensive) in American cities, karaoke would become every bit as popular here as it is in most East Asian nations.  Bringing over software that replicates that experience not only would be a step towards legitimizing karaoke in America, it would also be a huge windfall for Nintendo.  The only problem that I can imagine is that Joysound may not have the rights to use many English language songs, especially in the US.  In order to succeed in America, there would need to be both a solid stable of classics to choose from and at least relatively quick updates to add songs that are popular right now.  Joysound may have that kind of clout in Japan, but I don't know if they can come over to America and do that with US recording companies.

But let's figure this out, Nintendo & Joysound.  This could be huge for you, and launch is when you need these kinds of novelties the most.

Just what is the deal with Peter Molyneux's Curiosity? (UPDATED)

What is that black monolith pictured above?  That's just Curiosity.  A cube made of (according to the information included with the app) billions of smaller cubes.  You destroy the smaller cubes by tapping on them, and once an entire layer is cleared, on all sides, the next level becomes available for tapping destruction.

The hook is that, whoever destroys the final block at the center will receive a link to a video.  What that person does with the link is his or her own business, but creator Peter Molyneux promises that the contents of the video will be life-altering for whomever receives it.  Will it be life-altering for everyone who sees it?  The answer to that could give a clue about the nature of whatever is contained within the video.

Peter Molyneux has been responsible for other big stories in gaming, including the Fable series, which was supposed to be a revolution in RPG realism, and the now-infamous Milo demo for the Xbox Kinect, which Molyneux claimed we were not ready for as a gaming society and which many have speculated was pre-scripted.

Suffice to say, Molyneux is known to be a man long on ideas and short on execution.  That's why it should come as no surprise that his Curiosity - What's Inside The Box? has run into some technical snags since going live on Tuesday.  Many have had problems getting access to the server, and others (myself included) have lost part or all of their balance of coins after server hiccups.  He promises that his team is working on the problems and that the latency issues (sometimes you can be tapping right along and then discover that someone else has already cleared that entire area, rendering your efforts meaningless) and log-in problems should be eliminated sometime this week.  After that, he wants to bring out new modes of play (it seems they will be mandatory) that tweak the experiment and measure how we, the players, react.

However, independent of all the promises in the world (I was the 500,000-something-th player to download and play the game, so I regard my chances of being "The One" as very slim), it's an independently enjoyable experience.  The game (and it IS a game, regardless of what online naysayers may nay-say) has skill components, reward mechanisms, upgrades, cooperative play (if you want to think of it that way--like co-op with 500,000 other people) and offers a sense of achievement over time.  

So then, what is it about the game that interests people who know they have no chance of being the one winner?  For me, the game has two draws  One, I enjoy cleaning up the mess that others leave behind.  Undoubtedly, the quickest way to clear blocks is by zooming out the screen and tapping furiously, destroying the cubes at a much quicker rate in a manner similar to a shotgun.  However, that leaves pockets of blocks just hanging out on the surface, and they must be cleared before the next level can be unlocked.  So I come along and impose order from the chaotic scatter of remaining blocks.  Two, it's satisfying to look at something that's been designed to be impossible to complete, and know that we're going to take it down, anyway.  I'd like to see what the status of the cube is next month--assuming it hasn't been destroyed--after the publicity and novelty has faded, because with only hundreds, or even thousands, as Molyneux had originally anticipated, I do not believe it will ever be destroyed.  It's not an issue of ability or of interest, but rather one of morale.  Half of the time that I play only comes about because I want to log in and see what kind of progress has been made.  It would be a huge blow to morale if you logged in one morning and the cube looked exactly the same as it had before you went to bed.  People are the key to this experiment being a success.

So what do I think is inside the cube?  If I had to guess, it's going to be some kind of sobering truth, like "With all the tapping you did on this game, you could have powered New Zealand for three years, don't you feel bad about yourself?" or something.  But I'm okay with that.  For me, it's largely irrelevant what's inside the cube.  I would like to know, but more than anything, I just want to take the sucker down.

Curiosity - What's Inside The Box? is currently available for iOS and Android operating systems, and it's free.  Go download it and help us bring down this beast.

UPDATE: While I was playing last night, a screen popped up telling me to touch the 'facebook' icon, and that 22 Cans had just upgraded to 'super-servers'.  I'm a little skeptical about the 'facebook' button that I had to press, but apparently the server update did its job, and now that everybody can play at once, the cube is losing about a level a day (which should only get faster as the cube gets smaller).

Image above is taken from Apple App Store.  All rights belong to 22Cans Development Studio.

The Mountain Goats: Transcendental Youth

After dumping on the past several things I've reviewed (although I was highly complimentary of that Ukranian joint at which I feasted), I began to feel like I should change the name of my site to "Stuff Josh Is Going To Complain About, Because He Feels Like Having A Blog Is Just Like Having A Soapbox."  While SJIGTCABHFLHABIJLHAS would undoubtedly achieve great commercial success, it would also keep me from the pure joy of reviewing The Mountain Goats' latest release, Transcendental Youth.  And it is a joy.

In several interviews that John Darnielle has given to the press, he has stated that, thematically, Transcendental Youth is about wresting moments of triumph from despair.  It's never more clearly broadcast than in the first track ("Amy aka Spent Gladiator I"), which starts out with the lines "do every stupid thing that makes you feel alive / do every stupid thing to try to drive the dark away" and whose recurring lines in the chorus are "...and stay alive / just stay alive".  It feels much more like a rambunctious and carefree melody than we've gotten from The Mountain Goats in a while, and it's a good indicator of what's to come on the album.

From there, we're taken through a down-but-not-out character studies, masterfully written through Darnielle's lyrics, which evoke images of people seeing their lives slip away from them (the minor-key, propulsive "Lakeside View Apartments Suite"), lifetime hospital patients (the gorgeously haunting "White Cedar"), or Frankie Lymon, in what may be the standout track on the entire album, "Harlem Roulette".  After watching Darnielle's explanation of the basis for the song, the line "the loneliest people in the whole wide world / are the ones you're never going to see again" is heartbreaking.

It's not all roses.  Like most Mountain Goats albums, the end sags a little bit.  The title track, "Transcendental Youth," (which also closes out the album) while not a bad song, has repeatedly failed to leave an impression on me, despite the fact that I've listened to the album about twenty times by now.  There's also no really aggressive songs on this album, like a "No Children," "Lovecraft in Brooklyn," or "Estate Sale Sign," and while it's not a requirement for a great album, I get really excited when John gets angry.

Another thing I wish (and have wished, since the band achieved some stability), is that John would feel a little more comfortable being selfish in some of the arrangements.  The version of "White Cedar" that made the album is stunning.  But I heard a version that John played by himself at a show, and he just knocked it out of the park. It was quiet, spare, and alone, which suited the subject matter perfectly.  But, for what it's worth, this album represents the smoothest integration yet between John and the band, in my mind. The drums and bass feel like they belong in most of these songs.

In general, Transcendental Youth has a lot of uptempo (though not usually upbeat) songs, and typically strong melodies.  "The Diaz Brothers" and "Cry For Judas," in particular, are musically joyous pieces that I had not expected to hear in a Mountain Goats album.  It's super-listenable, and in fact I'm currently playing it again through iTunes, now that I have been able to purchase it on Amazon.  Is it as good as The Sunset Tree?  No.  But it is the best thing that The Mountain Goats have produced since.  It may even overtake Tallahassee as the second-best Mountain Goats album recorded.  In short, Transcendental Youth is worth buying and listening to twenty times at the very least.

The entire album is streaming for free at rollingstone.com.  Give it a shot.

Darnielle says that the way to transcend despair is to embrace your darkness.  Learn to enjoy the darkness.  If Transcendental Youth represents situations of despair, Darnielle makes it easy to assimilate and enjoy.

Album cover image is the property of The Mountain Goats, Merge Records, the artist, and whomever else they can dig up out of the woodwork.  Video courtesy of Pitchfork Media.  All rights reserved.

Calculus Affords A Man No Spare Time

Brief post this time.  Perversely glad there's no Legend of Korra running right now, because I would have no down periods in which to write reviews.  Anyway, couple of things of interest happening.

Number one, anonymous reports from the French say that Half-Life 3 will be out at the end of next year, or the beginning of the year after.  As with all Valve release dates, the proof will be in the pudding (which will be delicious).  More intriguingly, though, SlashGear (the website from which I got the report) says that the game, inspired by Skyrim and others, will be an open-world affair.  I'm half-excited about--and half-wary of--this rumored change to the established gameplay style of the Half-Life universe.  On one hand, the expansion of the world would allow Valve to tell more intricate and complete stories, which is a very enticing prospect (especially when you have Jay Pinkerton on your writing staff).  On the other hand, Half-Life games have always taken place in very hectic, tense situations, and the world is always portrayed as dilapidated.  I'm not sure that it's a world that I want to explore, nor that the leisurely pace of a The Elder Scrolls game, where you can rack up 100 hours of playtime without ever once touching the main quest, is suitable for the Half-Life experience.  What tilts me toward the positive end of the spectrum, however, is Valve's track record, and the fact that, if they're taking this long to produce the game, it's going to be something special.

---

The other thing that popped into my mind over the last few days has to do with the Nintendo Wii U.  Looking at the screen of this thing on the recently-released trailers (especially the one for TVii), made me realize what the console should really be used for--karaoke.  The Nintendo Wii featured a Joysound Karaoke game that was released only in Japan (although, I just found out this evening that a US version should be coming out this year), but I'm talking about the real karaoke experience here.  Apparently, the Wii Joysound game only featured access to 1,000 songs through a rental package (~30 were included with the game, which will also be the case when the game is released here).

If Netflix and Hulu can stream through your Wii U, why can't Nintendo offer a Karaoke Channel?  Team up with ClubDAM--or even Joysound again (although I personally prefer DAM)--and offer a two-tiered pricing approach.  For those who want the full karaoke box experience, ClubDAM can offer a monthly or yearly subscription package that nets access to their entire library of songs (stream the ones you want to sing and temporarily store a queue in the Wii U's hard drive).  For more casual enthusiasts, offer a Rock Band style option where users can purchase only the songs that they want in their library for karaoke purposes.  And what really makes this perfect is that Wii U gamepad controller, which can be used just like the song-selection screen at a karaoke box.  Just tap in your selection and it will be downloaded to the temporary memory in your Wii U.  Once it is sung, it gets erased.  North American customers get access to a high-quality karaoke experience (for the first time, in some areas), Nintendo gets to stake another claim to living room dominance, and ClubDAM gets an entirely new revenue stream.  There's really no excuse if Nintendo does not explore this avenue, as it's something that Sony and Microsoft have never even considered (outside of woeful Konami PS2 game Karaoke Revolution), and it could make Nintendo's new console stand out among less 'hardcore' gaming consumers.

Second image was retrieved from Engadget.  Press photo from Nintendo, all rights reserved.

Is a Blu-Ray Version of Avatar: The Last Airbender on Its Way?

Keep in mind that I have no real evidence that a Blu-Ray set of Avatar: The Last Airbender is on its way.  This is just a couple of things I noticed mounting up into a surmise.

First of all, when I was on Amazon a while back, I noticed that the prices on all the DVD sets for Avatar had dropped pretty dramatically.

Screen capture taken on August 22, 2012

This is at least five dollars cheaper than I've ever seen these sets priced on Amazon.com, and they've been priced this way for at least a month.  So I began to wonder why.  Then, a bit later, I saw some posts that Bryan Konietzko had made on his Tumblr blog, stating that he has been revisiting some of the old DVD cover art for the original series (links here and here).

Now, I have seen it happen in the past (right before an Xbox 360 redesign, for example) that Amazon will drop prices of something they're worried about being able to unload due to a newer, better version of the product being on the way.  If Brian has been revisiting the artwork for the DVD covers for the old series, maybe it's because he's designing/refining them for a Blu-Ray release, and Amazon wants to try to squeeze all of the sales they can out of the old DVD box sets, then turn around and sell the new Blu-Ray set to those same customers.

Again, I have absolutely no hard evidence that this is the case, nor do I have any confirmation that there will be Blu-Ray versions of any of the series' in the Avatar universe.  But wouldn't it make sense to use the Blu-Ray release of The Legend of Korra (which will almost definitely see a Blu-Ray release, since it was animated in 720p) to reignite the buying passions of Avatar fans around the world?

We will see.

UPDATE:  And now seasons two and three are selling for around $15.50.  Come on, now.  Something's up.

"The Most Depressing Thing I Ever Saw": I. Missouri Voters

This is the first installment in a new series I have been planning to do for about a week now.  Originally, I had thought to make my first post about Grave of the Fireflies, because... what could be more depressing than Grave of the Fireflies?"

Ask and ye shall receive.

Our good friend Todd Akin said some things that rubbed a few people the wrong way earlier this week.  Seems that some women (the loose ones, probably) and men (the gay ones, probably) took exception to the idea that there are degrees of raped-ness.  For example, if you didn't really want to have sex, but were wearing thigh-high boots and a miniskirt, that counts as a three-quarters rape.  You're probably gettin' pregnant on that one.  If you were wearing a sackcloth on your way to Wednesday night church, you're pretty much in the clear.

Well, as sorry as I am about Todd Akin's views, I'm glad he aired them out to the public.  It's important for voters to know that these are the types of opinions that inform Akin's--or any candidate's--decisions, which represent the people of Missouri in Congress.  I wish all politicians were so honest.

What depresses me is that, first of all, despite 79% of people polled disagreeing with Akin's comment (a figure that still seems woefully low), he still holds the edge in election polls.  That people are willing to overlook a viewpoint this crass and discriminatory, that they themselves disagree with, regardless of how you feel about abortion, is ghastly.  When did the maintenance of our country turn into such a bitter battle of wills?  How is electing someone who may be worse for the job, REGARDLESS of which party they represent, an event that grants personal vindication?  This is our future!  We can't be governed by the philosophies of 'I told you so!'

But what really depressed me is that Todd Akin is a politician, and politicians don't say anything in public, especially in an interview, and ESPECIALLY during election season, without carefully considering its impact on their campaign.  How it's going to play with the public, the voter base.  Missouri voters are not the people you see on TV.  There's a whole world of people out there that you forget even exist.  I personally know several people who would privately agree with Akin's views on rape.  Todd Akin said those things thinking they would make him appeal more to Missouri voters--and he was right.

And I knew, practically as soon as I saw the video of his gaffe, that he was still going to win this election.

Image found on sodahead.com.  All rights reserved.