I'm bad, I'm nationwide

A couple of news items have accumulated lately on this blog about Let's Ask America. Which is a little strange because folks in most of the country have never seen the show.

Will that change? A TVNewsCheck story noted: "Warner Bros. is a partner on Let's Ask America and will take the game show into syndication if it deems the ratings on the Scripps stations are strong enough." Oh yes, those pesky numbers. Last I saw, Let's Ask America was doing 1.8-ish household ratings in its seven markets. Decent for a daytime show in today's fractured TV world. But not a slam-dunk for national syndication, especially given the old-skewing demos of traditional game shows.

Let's Ask America was first intended as a cost-cutting measure, of course. Scripps execs got tired of paying the fees for Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy and rolled out the Skype cheapo on seven of their stations to save dollars. The show got some interesting numbers and now there's a little buzz about nationwide exposure.

It's an okay survey show, but they might have to make it edgier to succeed nationally. Right now Let's Ask America is all mom-and-apple-pie. Not that I have anything against mom, though I prefer peach pie. But Family Feud demonstrated that some spice can help the numbers.

The feminized Church is anti-Christ

This man's experience should suffice to demonstrate, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that Churchianism is not only feminist and anti-male, it is explicitly anti-Scriptural and anti-Christ:

This encounter was one for the record books. When I arrived, there were 17 people in the room set aside for our meeting today. Some were elders, some were women from the church, but they all had one thing in common: they were opposed to what I was doing. The only exception to this was one of the elders who had taken my side previously who now sat beside his wife who was opposed to what I was doing and had obviously turned him against me again. The head pastor himself was there along with two assistant pastors who formed a kind of tribunal at the front of the room. This made me smile, but I kept any comments about my trial to myself.

I was asked to sit down in a chair that was in front of the pastoral staff and to the side of the large party to my left. As soon as I sat down, the pastor apologized for the formality and told me that he believed I had the right to face my accusers face to face as Christians should not operate in secret, but the next thing that came out of his mouth floored me. He informed me that I would not be allowed to stay in the church so as to avoid damaging the unity of the church body at large. However, he would allow me to speak not only to him and the pastoral staff, but also to my accusers uninterrupted to speak my case as to why I had done what I had done.

I spoke of many of the abuses society and the church have levied against men on a regular basis. I showed live videos of the pastor offering everything from small hints to glaring insults that the men were an inferior quality of humanity than the women in the church. I offered my perspective on why men were no longer of the same quality that they once were in our society and point to the church as one of the chief culprits in creating the very men they spoke against. I shared with them the proper role of men in the church and how I was teaching these men about the nature of women so that women were no longer a driving force in their lives, and that energy instead could be redirected toward serving God with nothing held back. I explained how the church operated under the worldly view of superior female spirituality. I explained our obsession with making women happy and how it ultimately left both men and women unfulfilled in their Christian lives. I explained women’s almost complete control of men in the home and how it is sanctioned by the church, but that if something goes wrong, the men hold full responsibility.

Several times, women in the room were told to be quiet or leave as they attempted to talk over me and one woman stormed out after her fourth attempt at interruption had failed. Once I had drawn my information to a close, I requested that they look at what I had done for the men who had been coming to my class and let the tree be judged by its fruit. Their lives had been made better by a large margin in most cases and the few who are slow learners were still making excellent progress.

I informed him that I understood that feelings had been hurt, but that the young men who had lived in this unchristian and, in many cases, sinful environment had been harmed even more than the few here who had the courage to admit their grievances to my face. That our church was seeing a huge lack in the number of men willing to participate and that attendance was often sporatic for those who did come at all (myself included). I also pointed out that there was another religion that taught that men had a place of great importance and that women needed to remember their place. That religion was Islam and the number of young men signing up for its tenants were growing every year. I reminded them that unless we want the church to fade out completely, we need to teach the young men how be actual men and not “guys”.

When men are being literally expelled from "Christian" churches by female-dominated cults for the offense of teaching Scripture, it is time for men to turn their backs on those churches.  They are not Christian churches and they do not follow Jesus Christ, they unknowingly follow the ancient Babylonian mystery religions.

The collapse of the Western Church into anti-Christian, anti-Biblical feminist Churchianity may not be the Great Apostasy, but it is certainly a very large scale apostasy.  This is what happens when the Church turns away from the eternal truths of the Bible; for that matter, it is what happens when any organization, from a non-profit charity to a Fortune 500 corporation, does so.  The speed of the collapse is remarkable; it appears that every church denomination that has permitted women to teach in the church and hold authority over men has immediately and rapidly declined.

I haven't done the research yet, but I will do so and post the results here. The danger, which should be apparent even to the most secular and atheistic reader here, is that as goes the Western church, so goes Western society and quite possibly Western civilization.

However, Christian men have to do more than simply retreat from the enemy-occupied territory of the Churchian apostates.  They also need to rescue their fellow believers from it and start new churches with teachings in full accordance with Scripture.  Thus will the seeds of the next great revival be planted.

Ratings: syndies generally droop

The week before Christmas didn't bring too many nice presents to syndicated game shows. They mostly edged down but the damage was not severe. And one show managed a tiny move up. TVNewsCheck brings the blah news...

Wheel of Fortune 7.3 - down a tick
Jeopardy 6.4 - down a couple ticks in sympathy with the soulmate
Family Feud 4.7 - up a tick, Steve has even more to smile about
Millionaire 2.3 - flat
Baggage 1.1 - down a tick for poor last-place Jerry

The viewership averages for the top three shows from TV by the Numbers: Wheel of Fortune 11.4 million (weekend repeat 5.3 million), Jeopardy 9.8 million, Family Feud 7.1 million. Gee, it would be nice to see Meredith in their top 25 syndie list one of these weeks.

Douglas Pucci tells us that GSN enjoyed its best numbers in a while for Christmas week, December 24-30: 356K/281K viewers prime time/total day. Santa was kind to the network. Steve Harvey's Family Feud dominated the ratings completely, of course.

Why men lie

Or, more precisely, why men feel justified in lying to women.

About a month ago, a female reader asked me to lay out a few ideas concerning how she could modify her behavior in order to make herself more appealing as a relationship partner for a man.  Consider this the first in the series.

Let's start with the junior high boy.  He's interested in a pretty girl his age.  He asks her to go steady.  She tells him no, but instead of telling him the truth, which is that she's not interested in him, she concocts a story.  Perhaps she tells him that she's not interested in going steady with anyone, perhaps she claims that her parents won't permit her to do so.

Either way, the lie is quickly revealed when, a week later, she is going steady with a more popular boy.  She's forgotten her little white lie, but he hasn't.

Now we're in high school. The boy is standing right next to his girlfriend when she tells her parents that after the prom, she'll be staying at her friend's house. Later that night, when he's making out with her at the hotel, she assumes that he's forgotten that she lied right in front of him; it's not that he isn't glad she lied, but he's still aware that she did... and did so smoothly and without hesitation or remorse.

Then college.  He's hanging out with a girl, she's just a friend.  He happens to know she's slept with at least three guys that he knows of, one of whom is his roommate, which is why he's astonished when, right in front of him, she shyly confesses to only having had sex with her serious high school boyfriend in front of her current boyfriend.

Now he's married.  He suggests a bit of the old rumpty-pumpty, but she demurs.  "We'll do it tomorrow," she says.  The next day, he's wondering if perhaps she's up for a nooner, or perhaps a little afternoon delight.  She doesn't show any sign of interest, so he waits for her to bring it up.  He's still sitting there, in front of the television, when she yawns, declares that she's exhausted, changes into her least sexy nightgown and slathers a creme pack on her face.

It's only when he hears her snoring that he realizes that she not only has no intention of having sex with him, she doesn't even remember what she'd said the day before.

Now, I'm not saying that men don't lie.  And I'm not saying that women necessarily even realize when they are behaving in a manner that men tend to interpret, rightly or wrongly, as lying.  What I'm saying is that at a certain point, men begin to believe that they have absolutely no responsibility to tell the truth to a woman because she has no regard or respect for it.  This is especially true when telling women the truth of what one is thinking and feeling tends to meet with reliably negative reactions.

There are, of course, reasons to tell the truth even when everyone else is lying.  Moral standards are not dependent upon the failure of others to observe them.  But if a woman wants a man to make a habit of telling her the truth, she is going to have to work very hard to indicate that she is different than most of the women of his experience, and show him that she genuinely values honesty, both in herself and others.  Men value honor, or at least respect it in others, but most have learned that they cannot expect to find it in women.  That is why so many of them feel so free to treat women dishonorably.

Belle of the Ball - Prototype O

» Current Beta Rules PDF [Prototype O]
» Download the Print-and-Play Cards PDF

It's been a while since the last public release of a Belle of the Ball prototype. This is by far the most streamlined and elegant its ever been thanks to the excellent feedback of a diverse playtester cadre. In particular, it solves some of the production challenges introduced in Prototype N. That's less relevant for actual play, but very relevant for getting this game published. Here's an overview of the cards and changes.

You don't see the back of the Belle cards except when they are in someone else's hands. So, the back shows the Belle herself, holding a hand of cards and about to play one.

Belle cards show different things the Belle is doing to the party, such as moving guests around or changing how groups are scored. Because the Belle is now just one character, that left a big space for a diagram to help explain how each card works. I really tried to keep iconography simple and bold so it was readable from a distance or up close. The first line of text shows how to play this card. The second, larger block of text explains the card's effect.

Throughout the game, all guest cards are face-up. In the beginning of the game, some guest cards are removed from the deck and kept face-down. These cards are bribes, not guests, so they always stay face-down. The back design is meant to resemble a kind of currency.

Each guest has a unique combination of three interests, noted by the large icons. Each guest also has a Title and a Country, but those will be used in expansions or variants. Those icons are a little garish at the moment and I'd like them to be more subtle in a final production.

Some guests are lords or ladies and have a white border around their interests. Again, this information will be used in expansions or variants.

Now here are some rule changes.

• The Belle of the Ball is now just one character, which leaves a lot more room on the front of the Belle card to depict a diagram of play.
• The guest deck is now just 60 cards. I removed one of the rare interests and redistributed the remaining 12 interests.
• You use face-down guest cards instead of chips. Chips are now replaced with these face-down cards called "BRIBES."
• The game begins with three bribes per player and that remains for the whole game. Bribes are never added or removed from the economy and they do not count as points until the end of the game.
• Bribes always stay bribe-side-up and never ever get flipped. This solves two problems in one: We remove guest cards from the deck to add unpredictability AND we render moot the need for separate cardboard chits.
• Belles and Guests are shuffled together in the same deck. Players do NOT start with Belles in their hand. When you take a Guest card from the line, it goes into your party. When you take a Belle card from the line, it goes in your hand.
• Players begin with a starting party of one guest in each group, dealt at random. This is a nice way to speed up play and remind everyone that a party has room for four groups.
• At the end of the game, you score one bonus point per bribe in your possession, one bonus point per Belle in hand, and one bonus point for every two cards in your party. This was a way to at least make your unfinished groups worth something.

Now, there are surely some balance tweaks that need to be done to the Belle cards, but I'm keeping Prototype O in stasis while I send out prototypes to publishers. Don't expect another prototype any time soon. Hopefully the next time you see this game, it'll actually be for sale!

» Current Beta Rules PDF [Prototype O]
» Download the Print-and-Play Cards PDF

The Coldest Day of the Year

Today, January 3, is climatologically the COLDEST DAY OF THE YEAR in Seattle (actually the airport).  Here is the proof, based on the period 1948-2012.  The average maximum temperature drops to 43F and the minimum temperature to 33.  Then then warming begins!

Seattle Climatological Data

For Portland, the situation is similar, but not quite as crisp:  the lowest minimum temperatures (33F) are during the next few days, and the lowest maximum temperature (44) occurs through January 11th. 

Portland Airport

Similar story for eastern Washington...check out the Spokane Airport. The average max bottoms out at 32F during the next week or so, and the minimum hits its low on Saturday.

Spokane Airport

So we now at or close to the bottom for temperature, Thus, here in the Northwest our lowest temperatures are approximately two weeks after the winter solstice, (December 21) when the warming radiation from the sun is least and the days are shortest.   Interestingly, in the summer there is a much longer lag between the maximum solar radiation on the summer solstice (June 21) and our warmest temperatures (early August). Clearly, solar radiation at the top of the atmosphere is not the only story for surface temperatures-weather systems and clouds play a role as well.  For example, in summer we have lots of low clouds and onshore flow in June and early July that slows the warming.

Talking of climatological records, December broke one: Seattle had 27 days of measurable precipitation last month, an ALL TIME RECORD for December.  The old record was 26 days.

There is now a large pressure difference across the Cascades, with high pressure entrenched over eastern Washington (see map) and an offshore trough approaching.  The result has been very strong

winds in the Gorge, with some  "favored" spots hitting 70-80 mph.  One of the windiest places is the Vista House at Crown Point, where recent gusts have hit 78 mph, with sustained winds in the 40+ mph range (see graphic).

Finally, lets end with something we have not seen in while...a nice sunset shot.  But this one had an added twist.   Taken from my department, here was a low level contrail from a jet that left a shadow on a higher cloud deck....its above the third tower on the left side of the photo.

The feelings slut

Susan Walsh lists seven reasons why women reject over-eager men.  But she probably could have quit after number one:

1. Women understand the male role as the gatekeeper of commitment, just as we are the gatekeepers of sex.

In the same way that a man may question the long-term potential of a woman who grabs his junk on the first date, women are wary of men who are “emotionally promiscuous.” 

Certain it is I liked her, 
And boarded her i’ the wanton way of youth: 
She knew her distance and did angle for me,
Madding my eagerness with her restraint, 
As all impediments in fancy’s course 
Are motives of more fancy; and, in fine, 
Her infinite cunning, with her modern grace, 
Subdued me to her rate: she got the ring;
Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well

What men need to understand is that when they leap to profess their feelings at the first opportunity, they are viewed by women as being akin to the male version of the woman who doesn't hesitate to make herself sexually available on the first date.  In other words, in the same way that men feel no responsibility to reward a physical slut with a relationship after she presents them freely with her body, women feel no responsibility to reward a feelings slut with sexual relations after he presents them freely with his emotions.

From the female perspective, the highly indifferent man is the male version of the highly chaste woman.  He is a trophy worth the hunt, the virgin for whom great sacrifices are both required and merited.  To be free with ones feelings is to be sluttish and despicable.

This shows where and how Susan and other women have gotten the "male slut" concept completely backwards.  The "male slut" is not the man who has indiscriminate sex with numerous women and yet remains emotionally aloof; he is ironically more akin to an analogical "male virgin".  The real "male slut" is the man who declares his love on first sight, who wears his heart on his sleeve, and who engages readily in grand romantic gestures.