The Top 25 Largest Corporations in the World according to Forbes

1	Citigroup	United States	Banking	108.28	17.05	1,484.10	247.66
2	General Electric	United States	Conglomerates	152.36	16.59	750.33	372.14
3	American Intl Group	United States	Insurance	95.04	10.91	776.42	173.99
4	Bank of America	United States	Banking	65.45	14.14	1,110.46	188.77
5	HSBC Group	United Kingdom	Banking	62.97	9.52	1,031.29	186.74
6	ExxonMobil	United States	Oil & gas operations	263.99	25.33	195.26	405.25
7	Royal Dutch/Shell Group	Netherlands/United Kingdom	Oil & gas operations	265.19	18.54	193.83	221.49
8	BP	United Kingdom	Oil & gas operations	285.06	15.73	191.11	231.88
9	ING Group	Netherlands	Diversified financials	92.01	8.10	1,175.16	68.04
10	Toyota Motor	Japan	Consumer durables	165.68	11.13	211.15	140.89
11	UBS	Switzerland	Diversified financials	62.22	7.10	1,115.90	89.16
12	Wal-Mart Stores	United States	Retailing	285.22	10.27	120.62	218.56
13	Royal Bank of Scotland	United Kingdom	Banking	46.65	8.66	1,119.90	108.95
14	JPMorgan Chase	United States	Banking	50.12	4.66	1,138.47	129.98
15	Berkshire Hathaway	United States	Insurance	74.21	6.36	181.86	138.74
16	BNP Paribas	France	Banking	55.08	5.80	1,228.03	64.39
17	IBM	United States	Technology hardware & equipment	96.29	8.43	109.18	152.76
18	Total	France	Oil & gas operations	131.64	8.84	98.69	151.13
18	Verizon Commun	United States	Telecommunications services	71.28	7.83	165.96	99.64
20	ChevronTexaco	United States	Oil & gas operations	142.90	13.33	93.21	131.52
21	Barclays	United Kingdom	Banking	41.22	6.27	1,002.09	70.22
21	Fannie Mae	United States	Diversified financials	52.38	7.69	989.34	56.58
23	Nippon Tel & Tel	Japan	Telecommunications services	106.30	6.17	170.12	68.38
23	Pfizer	United States	Drugs & biotechnology	52.52	11.36	123.68	197.99
25	Altria Group	United States	Food, drink & tobacco	63.96	9.42	101.65	134.75

d20 Modern Session - "Find the Cure"

In our last episode... Ryan and Atanaska successfully installed a tap to steal encryption keys from Lightwave.  In so doing they exposed the seedy underbelly of the mob.



However, Ryan is becoming more ill by the day.  After becoming infected months ago with vampirism, the disease is finally taking it's toll.  The thirst has started and daily taste for murder wears at Ryan's already withered soul.



A benefactor provides Ryan with a simple message.  "A cure has been found at 68W 20S."  A simple note that launches the group in to South America.  Flying to Brasilia they find Dr. Juan Cortez, an archeologist familiar with the ruins located at those coordinates.  Cortez organizes an expedition and within a week Ryan, Atanaska and Amelia journey to the site.  Being a full vampire, Amelia is carried as baggage by porters in to the wilds.



The sight contains a pyramid and a sacrifical pit.  The pit descends to catacomb of ancient rooms.  The rooms contain the tortured remnants of the "gods" the temple once served.  The gods prove vulnerable to bullets and frag grenades.  Eventually the puzzle to unlocking "the Hope" is solved.  However "the Hope" has been lost in the centuries since being placed here.  The room containing the hope is advanced and depicts a holographic image of a spot in orbit that can be used to find more of "the Hope" (thought to be the cure).  A device is found that seems to relate to the message.  Ryan pushes the button...

Slaves of a Nation

I'm feeling a bit frustrated with society lately.  It seems in USA we have fallen victim to our own most hated export - Marketing.  We believe we live in the most "enlightened" society with greatest good-will, quality of life, education and wealth of all the world.  Well it's BS.  It might have been true at one time.  But it is not anymore.  However, we seem to continue to drink our own kool-aid and act like it is true.



Let's take a stab at a few major pillars of our lives and think like a 5 year old about what they mean...



The Legal System: Would you go to court and defend yourself?  Heck no!  Why not?  Because you'd go to jail.  Because the system is so complex with literally millions of pages of laws that no citizen could hope to understand them all.  A system that can not be understood by the majority of it's participants is prone to abuse.  Despite how you might feel about lawyers, I think it's safe to say they aren't helping much.  Language is too flexible over time to pin down exactly what a law was intended to do.  Puting more verbage into a law doesn't help.  Devoting a massive portion of our economy in to the business of laws also isn't helping.  In my opinion a system that can not be used by the People is of no use to the People and needs to be re-worked.



I don't even have to mention the inequity between classes (rich people don't go to jail and are often never held accountable) or the other flaws in capital punishment, prisons, etc.



The Tax System: Do you understand tax laws?  Heck no!  Does anyone?  Even my accountant misses things.  Even the richest men in the world fall afoul of tax laws.  Again... A system that can not be understood by the People is doomed to become a tool to control them.  When no reasonably intelligent person has any hope of being able to navigate the tax law, the tax law is too complex.



The Medical Industry and Insurance: A major benefit of organized society is the ability to care for the aging, the sick and the disabled.  Each society has a means to accomplish this goal to some greater or lesser degree.  But lets look at our system here in the US...  Let's make money on it!  We will let the "market" determine the price of the "goods" sold like good capitalists.  What?  People will pay *any* price for extending life?  HELLUVA GOOD MARKET, EH!  Brilliant!  And when the individuals can no longer afford any health care, we'll bring in corporations to sell insurance so that the bills can continue to increase.  Because corporations are really good at making good humanitarian decisions.  Wait... corporations only make money for shareholders...



Charging profit on medical care was bad enough.  Adding the ability to pay virtually any price through an Insurance system was like throwing an oil tanker on a forest fire.  Now medical prices will continue to soar with both sides (the doctors and the insurance companies) claiming the other side is the problem.  No one will notice that both sides are becoming massively rich.  Oh by the way... folks in the US often pay 10 times as much for pharmaceuticals as other countries.  These medices don't cost more make here/ship here, we just pay more.



A capitalistic system based on a societal need will inevitably produce an inhuman system of profit over care.  Our system maybe better than some for the rich, it isn't going to improve the quality of life for the People.



The Media: If it is on CNN it must be true.  Think about how dangerous that statement is.  Not that the good folks at CNN are trying to rule the world.  But if one were inclined to sway the public opinion of the US, you don't have to do anything more than influence the writers at CNN.  Any war can be justified, any election won, any legal issue quashed, any minority ignored.  With just a few minutes of news time you can divert the attention of the nation from World Policy to latest Hollywood scandal.  If I were President, I'd use this tool every day to make sure no one paid too close attention to what I was doing.  Whenever my foreign policy became unpopular I'd stir up a debate about the value of religion and family.  Get the population to slog it out over bullshit issues I care nothing about while I continue to secure ridiculous wealth for myself and my family and my friends.



The conclussion:



slave: one that is completely subservient to a dominating influence



We are slaves of the nation.  We the People work 40+ hour weeks to make corporations more money to give less than 1% of the population 95% of the wealth.  We spend our spare time paying taxes, insurance and buying goods that continue to give less than 1% of the population 95% of the wealth.  We are expected to tend to our plot of land and keep it neat (or be fined).  We are expected to support this system, die in this system and perpetuate the justification of this system to our offspring.  Our cage might be gilded, we might have TV's, video games and cheetos, but in the end we spend our entire lives producing for the less than 1% that control 95% of the wealth.  Our own Marketing has made us believe this is freedom.  But it isn't.  To some degree I have a choice of owners, but I am still owned.  My sweat is still shed for someone else and I don't have the choice to not give it. Choosing to go to jail or watch my family suffer are not choices.



These elements combine to create a highly productive mass of workers that can do little else other than focus on the day-to-day of living and not on society, the goverment or humanity.  The most frightening thing about this is that it is doomed to bloody conflict if we can't change it.  While today the system might be tolerable, history has demonstrated repeatly that things don't get better unaided.  The system will continue to bleed more and more from the populace until a revolution is declared.  We've been lulled in to complacency... we believe in the general good-will of humanity--which I still believe is true.  But governments, churches and corporations are not agents of humanity.  They are dominate systems of control to extract wealth and power from the masses and give it to a few.  Fight it!

Tiny Weasels

I spent the morning yesterday at kindergarten graduation for my youngest son and daughter.  It was only a couple of hours, but I wanted to spend a few minutes remembering it here.  I thought as I got home about all the work I have to do (very busy lately) and then smiled when I realized that years from now, I'll not have a clue what I was doing at work today and I'll only remember spending the morning with two of my kids.



My first two children are mine with my ex.  Gabriel was given to me with my wife.  So I have a total of three.  They are Gabe (5), Sabrina (6) and Chandler (7).   Gabe was only 2 when I met Amy.  His biological father has never acknowledged him.  I hope I don't unexpectedly meet him on the street.  Sabrina and Chandler come to my house everyday after school and now that summer is starting, they'll just spend their days at my house with Amy.  I don't get to see them as much, but I do get to see them every day.  Every other weekend they stay with us and we're planning a giant week long family vacation in June.



Having so many kids all about the same age all the time can be a little wild.  But I can honestly say that I enjoy each of them.  Right now, their world is still pretty much our family.  But soon friends and activities will pull them away.



There is a powerful lesson you learn when you have to give up living with your children full time.  I know about every parent feels guilty about spending too much time away.  But there isn't a day that goes by that I don't feel a little loss at the days I don't get.  The time I do get is great, but still... all those days lost.  I won't lose one day more than I have to.



Gabe is doubly special.  I truly felt that the currents of fate brought a father without his children to a child without his father.  Our relationship is certainly different, but to him I'll be his only dad.  That makes me try harder.  My relationship with my own step-father didn't really take hold until I was 20.  But then I was 9 when I met him.  My own dad flubbed things badly and that probably also delayed having a better relationship with my step-dad.  No issues with that here.  I formally adopted Gabe because I never wanted him to feel like a dad didn't want him.  I want him to always know that I chose him beyond just being in love with his mother.



There is nothing that inspires more joy in my heart than having the 3 of them piled on top of me watching a movie.  Hug your kids today and quietly thank fate for the time you have with them.

The slippery slope of Play by Post

The time constrained d20 player finds himself (or herself) struggling to get in a good game.  Few child rearing adults have the spare time they once had for 48 hour stretches of power gaming on a regular basis.  So a viable lessor alternative is the concept of "play by post."  I'm sure most of you know how this works, but for the occassional family member that might be browsing my blog... Play by post is simply playing D&D by posting your character's actions to a message board on the internet.  This slows game play down to a single or perhaps a few "actions" per day as each player might only post something once a day or every other day.



The advantage to the busy player is that you can spend just a few minutes a day "playing" instead of an entire weekend.  Unfortunately, it's a very short fix.  It's like giving methadone to a heroin addict...  It might stave off the worst of withdrawl symptoms, but it doesn't cure the addiction.



Soon the small fix of one play by post game isn't enough.  The player seeks out more play by post games.  While each game involves a small time commitment, they do add up.  Since posting is erradically paced sometimes days will go by with no post.  Somedays will see a flood of posts.  The posting lag times are agonizing and may drive the player to dig an even deeper hole and decide to host a play by post of their own.



I would like to warn you all of the dangers of play by post.  It is a slippery slope that leads to procrastination and eating at your desk.  Soon you'll be hiding your web browser behind your other work documents.  You might even begin to sneak player guides in to work in your bags--carefully hiding them under papers or in drawers.  If not books, then you'll seek electronic files for better concealment.  This in itself can lead to the addiction of PDF purchasing.  Soon you'll be selling yourself on the street--pandoring your own PDF's in an attempt to justify the addiction as a legitimate hobby or even side business.  But deep down you'll know... you'll hear the whispers "click refresh just one more time--maybe someone posted..." you will purposely not think about what the 55 downloaded PDF's cost in total...



Then comes the day when a work aquaintance wonders unexpected in to your cube while you frantically try to simultaneously hide the open d20 Star Wars Revised Core Rules hardback book and close the multiple damning windows open on your PC.  As you try to stammer out your non-challant excuses in defense, the mental shout of "GEEK" will ring in your un-pointed ears.



Whoa unto you if you play by post.  It is the devils tool.  Be warned!

End of Sock Hanukah

I personally hate matching socks.  Laundry isn't so bad--washing clothes and putting away stuff is pretty easy on the scale of house hold chores.  But socks vex me.  They never match and sorting out 3 kids worth is a pain.  So I have elected to keep a clean sock basket and just dump all the socks in it.  Then each individual can fish out their own pair.



The unfortunate downside to this method is that I never know exactly how many pairs I have in the hamper... I think I must have the fewest pairs over all.  So after about a week the hunt for socks gets more and more challenging.  It becomes something of a blessing each day to eek out another pair.  Well today the sock basket was one short.  The miracle has ended.

Game Day canceled

Well the game day thing isn't going to work out.  The guys back home were either scheduled to work or otherwise couldn't quite make the drive.  My attempts to make it up there instead have been equally quashed.



I must say I miss having a regular game group immensely.  Seems odd that in a huge city like KC that I can't find a good group.  No one bothered to tell me in High School that I'd only end up with 5-6 hours a week for any free time activities! LOL



Kansas (and probably the whole mid-west) is just a little to repressed to have scads of RPG fans.  There's plenty around, but I think I must require a pretty narrow sub-set of game buddies.  Or maybe I just keep comparing all new game groups to my old one (which is of course the best).  But mostly I think I just don't have the time.  One weekend a month is about the best I can hope for and I never know exactly what weekend that's going to be.  Ah well, seems like a silly thing to be disappointed about.



There's a million more things I should be making time for--like better exercise, fixing the house, general house work, better financial planning, better organization, more time with wife, more time with kids, probably even more time on just keeping up at work.  All way more important than a few more hours of dinking around.



I've been fighting this tide for about 5 years now--just less and less time for gaming.  Maybe it's time to hang up the dice bag for a while.  I bet if I knocked out some of these other things, that free time might magically re-appear.  Dunno for sure... I guess I'll just have to wait and see.