Awareness is not an antidote

Susan Walsh wonders if female knowledge of Game precludes its function:

1. Does female knowledge of Game reduce its effectiveness?

We know that in matters of state, politics, athletics, and commerce it’s important to keep strategy secret for maximum impact. If a competitor finds out what you’re up to, it’s very difficult, if not impossible, to recover. Is this true in dating as well?

Little Miss HUS has experienced some serious negging and push-pull in the last couple of weeks. Rather than feeling intrigued, she’s ready to Next this guy. As she said to me:

Can’t game Blogdaughter, bitch!

This was said in jest, but does it have an element of truth?

No, unless one confuses principles with tactics. And even then, it usually doesn't matter. The principles of Game would stand intact even if a specific tactic were to become less effective with foreknowledge. However, as Roissy has pointed out on several occasions, the fact that a woman is aware a man utilizes Game is no more going to make him less attractive to her than the fact a man is aware that a woman is wearing a push-up bra makes her any less attractive to him.

If anything, men tend to both enjoy the view provided as well as appreciate the woman showing that she is willing to put in the effort to be attractive. When women claim that a specific Game tactic isn't effective on them - snowflake alert - because they are aware of it, in most cases, this is only the obvious consequence of the man who is using it being of insufficient socio-sexual rank. Game isn't magic and it's not going to turn the average man into Tom Brady or whatever the Hollywood flavor of the day might be.

Whether they care to admit it or not, women enjoy getting negged and dissed and push-pulled for the sake of the experience. As Penelope Trunk has demonstrated, they even enjoy "domestic violence" for the sake of the drama and self-importance it provides. And the enjoyment exists regardless of whether their enjoyment of it is enough to push a man employing such tactics into the attractive zone or not; notice that Little Miss HUS didn't actually state that it was the Game tactics that were the impetus to throw the guy into the discard bin. They may be the only reason she hasn't done so already, even if she doesn't think she is intrigued.

It sounds as if even with his apparent knowledge of Game, Mr. Push-Pull was always borderline in Little Miss HUS's eyes. The informative thing would be for Susan to track if similar behavior were to prove successful when utilized by a more attractive young man, or if stronger Game were successfully employed by a young man of comparable attributes.

GTOPG: One Line Team?; Pens Lose 1-0

By GTOG Staff

We knew this game was coming.  Not just because all win streaks must come to an end, but because the Kunitz-Malkin-Neal line was carrying too much of the burden, and the rest of the forwards were doing very little.  That's a formula for the occasional 8-game win streak, but it's not sustainable long-term.  One loss isn't going to ruin our optimism about this team, but it does afford us the opportunity to voice the concern we have been openly suppressing during the win-streak: the Pens rely WAY too heavily on one line.

This may have been his 11th consecutive minute on the ice

If you go to the Pens website and view the roster, we swear there are three great lines on there.  Unfortunately, the centerpieces for two of those lines are injured.  With Sid, no one knows what is going to happen.  But what we do know is that Jordan Staal will be coming back in a couple weeks and when he does he will carry, you guessed it, The Onus.  Before he got hurt, he accepted The Onus.  But when he gets back, he's going to have to live with The Onus, embrace The Onus, maybe make love to The Onus.  He must become The Onus, and The Onus must become him.  Because right now, Evgeni Malkin is orgying with multiple Onuses and it's going to wear him out.

Thoughts on the actual game after the jump...


- Brent Johnson is getting a lot of praise for his performance. It's deserved, because he did exactly what a back-up goalie is supposed to do: Keep us in it. He's not expected to steal games like MAF did the night before. Beej saved his job by stopping 23 of 24 shots, but the goal he allowed was a perfect illustration of why he doesn't start in this league. Notice how he overcompensates and slides about 5 feet out of the net anticipating a quick shot from a streaking Clarke MacArthur. 



- We've always liked Beej. He competes out there, and he's capable of big moments and big games. But he's also has plenty of moments like this. Brent Johnson is a back up goalie because Brent Johnson likes to go swimming.

Swimming, swimming, in the swimming pool...

"Sometime I like to do da swim too"

- One thing you have to give the Pens credit for is their camaraderie.  On the MacArthur goal, it's obvious that Letang and Orpik like each other soooo much that they just have to be on the same side of the ice.  How sweet.

- Matt Cooke has been plenty noticeable this week, scoring a goal and generally infuriating the Maple Leafs, their friends, and their families. If he's finally found that elusive middle ground between Lady Byng and Billy Tibbetts, that's great news for the Penguins.

Lady Byngly Tibbets

- What's less great news is the disappearance of Pascal Dupuis.  For the first few months of the season, he was the best bargain in the league.  We heaped praise on him.  Then we remember he got sort-of hurt in some game a while back and since then he's been a non-factor.  Here's the lesson:  When you say Pascal Dupuis is good, he sucks.  When you say he sucks, he's good.  Pascal Dupuis, you suck.

- Very encouraging to see the defense bounce back after an abysmal performance on Tuesday.  We have the horses to hold the other team to 2 goals or less on most nights.  We don't know why it doesn't happen more often.

- Big time showdown in Boston on Saturday.  Get out the measuring sticks.  Go Pens.

By Fire & Sword: cossack style cavalry box review

Moving on to the next boxed set, the Polish cossack style cavalry. These guys make up the bulk of any cavalry regiment and will most likely be the most numerous company type on the battlefield when playing the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth.

The box looks identical to the previously reviewed Polish Dragoons box, and the inside is also identical. Horses in one zip bag, riders in another and bases/flagpoles in a third. The horses are completely different sculpts from the Dragoons, but these are more dynamic / look like they move at a faster pace.

There is a great variation in riders, this formation was quite irregular so it is nice to see a real mix and match of equipment and clothes. I counted at 8 different sculpts including the commanders and banner men. Taking into account that you get 6 stands of cavalry, and each company is made up of 3 stands you do get a very nice mix of riders in each company.

Like any other boxed set or blister this one came with a sheet of flags. I really like this feature, getting both banner poles/lances and flags. It's annoying when you have to get those kind of things on the side.

One thing I should mention, which has already been touched upon, the contents of these boxes make complete units / companies. Most companies in this game are made up of 2-3 stands. You can  form multiple companies into  squadrons to get larger units . Cavalry squadrons can be made up of a maximum of 6 bases, while infantry 12 bases. So pretty much all cavalry boxes give you 2 companies/1 maxed out squadron.

Check in again tomorrow to see how a painted up company of these guys looks like.

Cancelled

Who's Still Standing has almost certainly breathed its last. There's been no formal announcement, but there usually isn't. The show's page on NBC.com says the next showing is...blank. Not a good sign.

Strangely enough, the show didn't perform that badly by NBC's admittedly miserable standards. The final episode this week fetched a 1.7 18-49 rating and six-and-a-half million viewers. Considering some of the numbers NBC regularly draws for its disaster-area prime time, the network can (and will) do worse. Much worse.

As for the quality of the show, I don't want to argue any more. Who's Still Standing got trashed a lot on the web, but I liked the pace, the exit gimmick, and the host. But like fans everywhere who see their shows get cancelled, there's not much I can do. Write a letter to NBC? Yeah, sure.

But maybe I'll put up a blog post. With a picture of Ben and a couple contestants. Why not?

The Aspie drama queen

If you want to know why men often react by rolling their eyes when women start babbling about how they have suffered domestic violence, Penelope Trunk offers a perfect example illustrating why:

I am at a hotel. I think I'm dying. I have a bruise from where the Farmer slammed me into our bed post. I took the kids and went to a hotel so I could have time to think. I think I need to move into a hotel for a month. The Farmer told me that he will not beat me up any more if I do not make him stay up late talking to me.

If you asked him why he is still being violent to me, he would tell you that I’m impossible to live with. That I never stop talking. That I never leave him alone. How he can’t get any peace and quiet in his own house. That’s what he’d tell you.

And he’d tell you that I should be medicated.

He's right. I suffered worse "violence" playing indoor soccer last week. It was nine days ago and you can still see the mark on my knee. Being shoved isn't violence, it isn't getting beat up, and it is an insult to every man and woman who have suffered real violence to claim that it is. Is it nice? No. Is it polite? No. Is it indicative of problems in a relationship? Quite possibly. But only a mentally deranged woman would conclude it justifies calling the police and running off with the children.

Especially when she admits that the husband describes her as "emotionally abusive". The fact that she has put all of this out there on her blog tends to prove his case. I'd read Trunk a few times when other people linked to her and wondered why people put such stock in the opinions of an obvious nutcase. But perhaps she'll be able to find a new crowd writing victim porn for Jezebel.

GTOPG: It's Fun to do Bad Things; Pens Win 5-4

By GTOG Staff

Yes, the Penguins were sloppy Tuesday night. Yes, the Leafs had like 30 breakaways. And yes, for two periods the Geno-Neal-Kunitz line was kind of like the slugger who can't find his swing after a trip to the all-star home run derby. None of that matters. That's about as bad as the Penguins can play, and they won.

This was the showcase game in Marc-Andre Fleury's "Grant Fuhr Tour": It doesn't matter how many goals he allows; he's making a half dozen saves every night that make you open your mouth and then close it again, because you don't even know what to say. And Malkin, always looking for a new challenge, seems intent on showing he can win the Hart and Art Ross trophies solely on the basis of his work in the third period and shootouts. Not many players in history could consistently flip a switch during the second intermission and suddenly take over the game like Geno.

"Come to me, my children!"

We could look at this game and say the Pens were lucky because they were.  But as we've said for a long time, good teams win games that they shouldn't.  Last year the Pens had ZERO third period comebacks.  Last night, you absolutely knew the Pens could get to 4 goals before the buzzer (the only question was whether the Leafs would have 8 by then).  It's a totally different feeling.  There's belief everywhere.

Much more, including thoughts on the Fleury-Johnson question from Finesse's Dad after the jump...


 - With this lineup, the concern has to be that if Malkin gets shut down or at least contained for a single playoff series, the Penguins are toast. Fortunately, his line is about as close to unstoppable as you can get. The way that trio cycles in space - they have no use for the boards - and gets the puck to the net at such a high volume and with authority, it's reminiscent of 1993's Lemieux-Stevens-Tocchet juggernaut. Two bulldozers with velvety hands as bookends to the league's greatest talent.  One-minute mark:

 

- Steve Sullivan has really answered the bell that Artistry rang. After starting the season on the top line and seeming like a great complement to Neal and Malkin, he started getting pushed around and was rightly banished to Richard Park's left flank. But right around the start of this 8 game win streak, he started to assert himself again. And he came all the way back last night against the Leafs, sparking the comeback with a beautiful shot to make it 4-2, and generally looking like Marty St. Louis for the rest of regulation and overtime. There was fear in the eyes of Toronto's defensemen when Sullivan set up behind the net in the third. It was unmistakable.

- The defense was terrible. That's largely because Toronto has blazing speed up and down the lineup and Phil Kessel is a super-unathletic looking scud missile. But it's also because the defense was terrible.

Sure, go right ahead.

- Finesse's Dad weighs in with his thoughts from being inside Consol last night:

No offensive flow at all last night. Terrible in the offensive zone and shaky in between the blue lines. They turned it over like Pitt usually does. But we have Malkin and they don't. All the third period scoring was right in front of us. We were almost square behind the net, 10-12 rows up. Crowd was quiet except for the manufactured noise with the decibel meter, the film clips, and the old couple they always spot for the kiss. 

Tonight has got to be filled with angst for Bylsma. You know he wants to start 29 and keep the streak going and you know after a week off that 29 is ready to go. But... If Johnson slips again they will have to do something soon to find a more capable back-up. Johnson under serious pressure tonight and I'm sure he knows it without anyone else telling him. The Leafs are strong at home and they'll be fired up tonight after their fall from grace last night. Who will be the first period pugilists, or should I say, who will go with Phaneuf tonight? 

But we've got Malkin.

- We've also got Soft Tissue.

Pictures from a Dystopian Wars game

There was another gameday down at the club this weekend, I was completely exhausted so I did not play anything - actually I mainly went there to get a glimpse of Dystopian Wars since two of our local gamers, Peter and Micke, had painted up their fleets and were going to try out the rules.

Naturally I brought my camera. Micke played Kingdom of Britannia while Peter fielded a mix of Rising Sun and Prussian ships. From what I could see the rules played rather easy and well. There were a few interesting features, the ship turning template was a nice touch of adding realistic turning rates to ships. There also seemed to be a fun mix of long range weapons, weapon field of fire requirements, AA fire, fighters and bombers, dogfights using up fuel units etc.

One thing I really liked was that each ship required a specific amount of direct hits before damage was applied - so most of the time the small escorts had to link their fire to have any chance of damaging the larger frigates and battleships. Once you reached the damage value the ship lost hull points - and you could also score critical hits if you surpassed the required damage threshold with enough dice.

The only thing that got complaints was the rulebook which seemed to have a clunky layout which made finding specific rules a bit too time consuming.

The battle ended a victory for the Kingdom of Britannia.

Before heading home me and another buddy, David, went to the best burger place in Lund - "Viggo". It's located next to the train station and has phenomenal homemade hamburgers the size of a fist and amazing French fries. Lots of "toppings" on the hamburger menu as well. Nothing beats this place when it comes to hamburgers.

So, if you are in Lund, make sure to check this place out (and come hungry as hell)!