In defense of Baguio
Everyone seems to be bashing baguio. Most of the complaints was on how it has become. Mom would compare it to Quiapo, which was a bit extreme. Still for someone who can't compare it to what it was under the care of the American bases, It wasn't too bad.
I guess it was really the expectations that got older folks down about Baguio. One would wonder what there was for someone like my wife and me. Being total nerds we had a bit of a cerebral and an emotional approach to the trip. One particular challenge was my own relectance to travell that had any measure of inconvenience (even when I'm used to 4 hour drives). "If I wanted to go someplace, I would read about it" was my say about going to far of places, even knowing what Locals had to say and that of a book would be worlds different.
As we were forced to pass by the towns and cities since the SCTEX had its limits, I was visibly disgusted because of what I know about how dynasties tend to "rob" progress away from the towns people. The fear of being stuck in a town under these people injected some fear into my imagination. Then there is the aspect of my unusual nature that will make social interaction awkward and myself at a disadvantage.
During the trip, I had to soften myself up a bit to take in the scenerey. It was nice, when it hid its flaws well. Conversation was mostly about economics and business challenges.
To sum up baguio to the nerd whose family was wealthy enough to let him see europe when he was too young to enjoy it is that its not bad. It can be good, it just largely depends on your expectations. Baguio is really more for those who want a change of scenery instead of a place to "have fun". Fun is for beaches, thinking, meditation and a quiet time is for baguio.
If you are like us and avoided many of the other tourists then you will find Camp John Hay has ample room. The Starbucks and Little john (in Mile Hi) is a nice place to write with your laptop or notebook and surf with a mobile internet connection. Little john has very little space, barely enough for two people on one table with just one laptop.
The $8 (P400) per hour pony ride is worth taking. The view that is signature of baguio can be hiked if you take more than 2 hours for the ride. We spent P1,600 plus tip. If you are like me take advantage and ask as much about the horses as possible as well as the area you are hiking in. Its P1,600 better max out your buck.
Path of Least resistance is my personal moto in many descision (paths which happen to be in large regions of adversity and difficulty). If this is your moto than you may want to mark out key cafe's and resturants with views and write and hang out there. Walking there and watching the different crowd of people is also another contemplative but interesting thing to do in Baguio. Checking out the 50-60s dress of the older population is both strange and a bit facinating. Observing the industry at work and disecting how their economy works and figuring out the potentials and posibilities were my own thoughts that preoccupied me while I was there.
My own thoughts again. Business is a very interesting game, It sometimes would come to my mind how awesome some of the minmaxers or my brothers would be if they applied it to commerce and business. After the novelty of youth, I wonder if any of the guys were to try their hand in min-maxing on business, like with a entrepernureal or MBA study. A lot of the strategic thinking in games were very much the same values that can be found in business... the difference being that the stakes are a bit higher (unless you strategy would allow you to plan your defeats).
If I only kept in touch of my own gamer friends in college and help them I would.
Our family value system, like many others, are plagued with many internal inconsistencies. Our parents authoriative approach, instead of a diplomatic one, is one of the key source of issues my siblings and I have had for the longest time. Experience has allowed me to understand my parents and their fears quite thoroughly and given that I share mom's disposition to panic it is no surprise how stupid we can act despite how smart we have proven ourselves to be. Mom was an intellectual, while others in the class we belong to have their stength socially Mom was like the few who really had their strength in numbers and practicality.
Typically people of the upperclass come into wealth and success through great social skills and connections or a keen mind on how to make things work and make a profit. Everyone has varying degrees of such, but strengths are pretty easy to see if you know a person well enough. My own dad is well loved my many of the circles he is in and is his social strengths are in his aimiability and reputation. My mom is a pragmatic, shrewed, and cunning business owner and manger.
One of the key things that made them rise up was the partnership of dad and mom. A partnership which is VERY rare. According to my dad, its like 4 out of 5 have mistresses or fool around. Many of the upstarts who are up to take on the mantle of generation of our fathers just want a pretty (insert body part) to come home to. The chances of having a true partnership is VERY rare, as rare as the success my family has achieved. Experience has helped me see why some guys don't want that partnership. A partnership of equals is a partnership of constant conflict and scruitiny from outside or within. Basically a partnership is a relationship of never ending problems. I defer to the expereince of my Dad and the tastes of my peers when some men admit that they have alot of other needs. Needs that cannot be satisfied with...
Partnerships with strong differences also have other costs, one of them is the unusual family cultures that conlfict and arise strongly as children are raised. Growing up, there was 2 seperate cultures that made up my family. Cultures that created strong inconsistencies and yet created strengths it did not understand or intend.
In my family it was said that Intelligence was a gift from the mother. If so my grandfather molded my mother's intelligence given how strongly she is incilined to say it was from him. Of the 4 children, we took mostly from our mother, but our grandfather (her dad) is who raised us mentally (something I want to do for my own children). Unfortunately conflict with the culture/ the world my lolo saw and what was reality of the times was what conflicted heavily.
Strangely my father's side entrepenurealism and my mother's side grounded pragmatism works perfectly with the game POV mindset. Given the stark difference in personalities and family culture, the hybrid product is this voratious appetite for challenge that progresses through stages of games to life. Looking at the dynamics of both wife's family and my own family culture, there are strong parallels and qualities that would enforce these virtues and values to pass on.
Candalf is also a pretty good all around. She embraces mom's own miserly code more earnestly than mom and more often than mom would like. An arguement over Luxury expenses was one of the few grounds she conflicted with mom. She is highly motivated and has dad's charm. Anything she does will meet with success, of course an edge would be better (like all of us working on the family business).
Gaspar on the other hand is proving to be the most level headed and clear thinking of all of us except for some minor issues which he is already slowly resolving. When I can get carried away with ideas and concepts his groundedness and levity is matched by my wife. Although, he is more level headed he still is challenged and has his own motives and reasons that I could only guess at.
Melchior on the other hand is the most intellectually and charismatically tallented of them all. Unfortunately he has the most problems with our family and the least reasons to use his tallents for business. The irony is just too straightforward that you don't need so much words to describe it. Among us, he had an edge because of the rarity of his level of talent and his ability to attract many of those with the same level of talent. You can go on and on about the advantages he has and the level of advantage or the possibility of him probably being the 2nd comming of the Pre-Screw-up Marcos.
In the end, it looks like its just Candalf and Me, with the possiblity of Gaspar, who might advance the family assets, if fate will be kind. Looking at our strengths, they are mediocre in our range and not enough to create dynamic change to advance any dynastic business to the new generation. It might just end with us, is the bottom line. That kinda sucks and it hovers over my head often.
Personally I would wish my bro would have a change of heart and use his tallents to fix things here. I have mediocre strengths, and I know my limitations very well after this project. I don't personally wish for my bro's tallents because it was him for a reason. In the way history and life plays out, the outcome is always interesting. It be interesting to have a "Petyr Baelish" around making the A$$h0les that stagnate this country (see world bank contraversy) break their heads against each other. That thought of genius strokes of chaos crippling the stagnant hold of those tyrants would make for both ironic and a choice kind of fate for the karma they have earned.
More info.
A pony foal costs about P15-20,000 $300 to $400. They can be trained to ride for only a year. There was about 60 horses, many with an age of 3-15 years. Although 300lbs were the most they would carry a total encumbrance of 200lbs was the ideal. Again considering this is a novelty (they are bred for tourists than for actual work) this price would be considerably lower in places that still use horses extensively.
It just means a horse would be better performing at light encumbrance than medium (near its maximum riding capacity). Still many of the ponies would be within the ST20 range. Given that the horses need running now and then, I could only compare the speed of their gallop to my personal running speed and these sure ponies may have a ground speed 7 or 8 with a rider on light (how much faster i can guess they are compared to me running on the same ground). Probably Move 6 with ground speed 1/2.
According to our guide, these ponies are meant for the mountain terrain of the local province. Many times in the trail there were times a hiker on foot would have taken extra time negotiating, the horse seemed to have as similar challenge.
Since they were raised and trained in these paths and they had the difficulty of being in Light Enc (-1 DX) I would give them a DX 11. I would let the horse make a running DX based roll and for a faster paced hiking a hiking DX based roll.
Given our frequency of breaks and the sweat i could feel and see while I road the horse and my questions with the guide. I figure that these horses would have an average HT11. Still I think that they could easily have a HT12 if they were privately own, had better equipment, and feed.
I think given better quality feed and better care, I think these horses could be much stronger, probably ST21-22. At 21 the horse is already fit for skirmishing cavalry. At 22 they would be enough for light lancers (like the goths in the 6C gothic war with Belisarius).
IMO players should be able to purchase horses at their untrained price (1/3) their cost. Unlike a car, a horse requires familiarity and a high level of involvement with its owner. It would be only natural for a character to purchase the horse at foal costs and train it themselves. I think one can use Int based Riding check to train a horse, but Animal Handling would have a huge difference in training time. Animal Handling would probably allow a character to prevent many bad traits from setting in. Training horses with just the Riding skill would give the horse probably a bad trait, a few bad quirks and would have familiarity penalties with other riders.
Allowing players to purchase horses at 1/3 would be appropriate if they were adventurer types and those with Skill-12+ (Since these characters have horses part of their daily regiment). Other non-adventurous characters with riding-12 should pay 1/2 the cost for partial training or for the full cost for horses that can be used by anyone.
Byzantine Warhorses were roughly 7 solidi ($2,520) purchased by soldiers. Fully trained horses sold were 3x the cost (21 solidi). These were untrained since soldiers were expected to train them (Strategikon). Assuming these horses were a much more refined breed compared to the legendary horses of the Fargana Valley (Warhorse: Cavalry in Ancient Warfare by Philip Sidnell) of ST13.5-14 hands, I think they would have ST23+.
I guess it was really the expectations that got older folks down about Baguio. One would wonder what there was for someone like my wife and me. Being total nerds we had a bit of a cerebral and an emotional approach to the trip. One particular challenge was my own relectance to travell that had any measure of inconvenience (even when I'm used to 4 hour drives). "If I wanted to go someplace, I would read about it" was my say about going to far of places, even knowing what Locals had to say and that of a book would be worlds different.
As we were forced to pass by the towns and cities since the SCTEX had its limits, I was visibly disgusted because of what I know about how dynasties tend to "rob" progress away from the towns people. The fear of being stuck in a town under these people injected some fear into my imagination. Then there is the aspect of my unusual nature that will make social interaction awkward and myself at a disadvantage.
During the trip, I had to soften myself up a bit to take in the scenerey. It was nice, when it hid its flaws well. Conversation was mostly about economics and business challenges.
To sum up baguio to the nerd whose family was wealthy enough to let him see europe when he was too young to enjoy it is that its not bad. It can be good, it just largely depends on your expectations. Baguio is really more for those who want a change of scenery instead of a place to "have fun". Fun is for beaches, thinking, meditation and a quiet time is for baguio.
If you are like us and avoided many of the other tourists then you will find Camp John Hay has ample room. The Starbucks and Little john (in Mile Hi) is a nice place to write with your laptop or notebook and surf with a mobile internet connection. Little john has very little space, barely enough for two people on one table with just one laptop.
The $8 (P400) per hour pony ride is worth taking. The view that is signature of baguio can be hiked if you take more than 2 hours for the ride. We spent P1,600 plus tip. If you are like me take advantage and ask as much about the horses as possible as well as the area you are hiking in. Its P1,600 better max out your buck.
Path of Least resistance is my personal moto in many descision (paths which happen to be in large regions of adversity and difficulty). If this is your moto than you may want to mark out key cafe's and resturants with views and write and hang out there. Walking there and watching the different crowd of people is also another contemplative but interesting thing to do in Baguio. Checking out the 50-60s dress of the older population is both strange and a bit facinating. Observing the industry at work and disecting how their economy works and figuring out the potentials and posibilities were my own thoughts that preoccupied me while I was there.
My own thoughts again. Business is a very interesting game, It sometimes would come to my mind how awesome some of the minmaxers or my brothers would be if they applied it to commerce and business. After the novelty of youth, I wonder if any of the guys were to try their hand in min-maxing on business, like with a entrepernureal or MBA study. A lot of the strategic thinking in games were very much the same values that can be found in business... the difference being that the stakes are a bit higher (unless you strategy would allow you to plan your defeats).
If I only kept in touch of my own gamer friends in college and help them I would.
Our family value system, like many others, are plagued with many internal inconsistencies. Our parents authoriative approach, instead of a diplomatic one, is one of the key source of issues my siblings and I have had for the longest time. Experience has allowed me to understand my parents and their fears quite thoroughly and given that I share mom's disposition to panic it is no surprise how stupid we can act despite how smart we have proven ourselves to be. Mom was an intellectual, while others in the class we belong to have their stength socially Mom was like the few who really had their strength in numbers and practicality.
Typically people of the upperclass come into wealth and success through great social skills and connections or a keen mind on how to make things work and make a profit. Everyone has varying degrees of such, but strengths are pretty easy to see if you know a person well enough. My own dad is well loved my many of the circles he is in and is his social strengths are in his aimiability and reputation. My mom is a pragmatic, shrewed, and cunning business owner and manger.
One of the key things that made them rise up was the partnership of dad and mom. A partnership which is VERY rare. According to my dad, its like 4 out of 5 have mistresses or fool around. Many of the upstarts who are up to take on the mantle of generation of our fathers just want a pretty (insert body part) to come home to. The chances of having a true partnership is VERY rare, as rare as the success my family has achieved. Experience has helped me see why some guys don't want that partnership. A partnership of equals is a partnership of constant conflict and scruitiny from outside or within. Basically a partnership is a relationship of never ending problems. I defer to the expereince of my Dad and the tastes of my peers when some men admit that they have alot of other needs. Needs that cannot be satisfied with...
Partnerships with strong differences also have other costs, one of them is the unusual family cultures that conlfict and arise strongly as children are raised. Growing up, there was 2 seperate cultures that made up my family. Cultures that created strong inconsistencies and yet created strengths it did not understand or intend.
In my family it was said that Intelligence was a gift from the mother. If so my grandfather molded my mother's intelligence given how strongly she is incilined to say it was from him. Of the 4 children, we took mostly from our mother, but our grandfather (her dad) is who raised us mentally (something I want to do for my own children). Unfortunately conflict with the culture/ the world my lolo saw and what was reality of the times was what conflicted heavily.
Strangely my father's side entrepenurealism and my mother's side grounded pragmatism works perfectly with the game POV mindset. Given the stark difference in personalities and family culture, the hybrid product is this voratious appetite for challenge that progresses through stages of games to life. Looking at the dynamics of both wife's family and my own family culture, there are strong parallels and qualities that would enforce these virtues and values to pass on.
Candalf is also a pretty good all around. She embraces mom's own miserly code more earnestly than mom and more often than mom would like. An arguement over Luxury expenses was one of the few grounds she conflicted with mom. She is highly motivated and has dad's charm. Anything she does will meet with success, of course an edge would be better (like all of us working on the family business).
Gaspar on the other hand is proving to be the most level headed and clear thinking of all of us except for some minor issues which he is already slowly resolving. When I can get carried away with ideas and concepts his groundedness and levity is matched by my wife. Although, he is more level headed he still is challenged and has his own motives and reasons that I could only guess at.
Melchior on the other hand is the most intellectually and charismatically tallented of them all. Unfortunately he has the most problems with our family and the least reasons to use his tallents for business. The irony is just too straightforward that you don't need so much words to describe it. Among us, he had an edge because of the rarity of his level of talent and his ability to attract many of those with the same level of talent. You can go on and on about the advantages he has and the level of advantage or the possibility of him probably being the 2nd comming of the Pre-Screw-up Marcos.
In the end, it looks like its just Candalf and Me, with the possiblity of Gaspar, who might advance the family assets, if fate will be kind. Looking at our strengths, they are mediocre in our range and not enough to create dynamic change to advance any dynastic business to the new generation. It might just end with us, is the bottom line. That kinda sucks and it hovers over my head often.
Personally I would wish my bro would have a change of heart and use his tallents to fix things here. I have mediocre strengths, and I know my limitations very well after this project. I don't personally wish for my bro's tallents because it was him for a reason. In the way history and life plays out, the outcome is always interesting. It be interesting to have a "Petyr Baelish" around making the A$$h0les that stagnate this country (see world bank contraversy) break their heads against each other. That thought of genius strokes of chaos crippling the stagnant hold of those tyrants would make for both ironic and a choice kind of fate for the karma they have earned.
More info.
A pony foal costs about P15-20,000 $300 to $400. They can be trained to ride for only a year. There was about 60 horses, many with an age of 3-15 years. Although 300lbs were the most they would carry a total encumbrance of 200lbs was the ideal. Again considering this is a novelty (they are bred for tourists than for actual work) this price would be considerably lower in places that still use horses extensively.
It just means a horse would be better performing at light encumbrance than medium (near its maximum riding capacity). Still many of the ponies would be within the ST20 range. Given that the horses need running now and then, I could only compare the speed of their gallop to my personal running speed and these sure ponies may have a ground speed 7 or 8 with a rider on light (how much faster i can guess they are compared to me running on the same ground). Probably Move 6 with ground speed 1/2.
According to our guide, these ponies are meant for the mountain terrain of the local province. Many times in the trail there were times a hiker on foot would have taken extra time negotiating, the horse seemed to have as similar challenge.
Since they were raised and trained in these paths and they had the difficulty of being in Light Enc (-1 DX) I would give them a DX 11. I would let the horse make a running DX based roll and for a faster paced hiking a hiking DX based roll.
Given our frequency of breaks and the sweat i could feel and see while I road the horse and my questions with the guide. I figure that these horses would have an average HT11. Still I think that they could easily have a HT12 if they were privately own, had better equipment, and feed.
I think given better quality feed and better care, I think these horses could be much stronger, probably ST21-22. At 21 the horse is already fit for skirmishing cavalry. At 22 they would be enough for light lancers (like the goths in the 6C gothic war with Belisarius).
IMO players should be able to purchase horses at their untrained price (1/3) their cost. Unlike a car, a horse requires familiarity and a high level of involvement with its owner. It would be only natural for a character to purchase the horse at foal costs and train it themselves. I think one can use Int based Riding check to train a horse, but Animal Handling would have a huge difference in training time. Animal Handling would probably allow a character to prevent many bad traits from setting in. Training horses with just the Riding skill would give the horse probably a bad trait, a few bad quirks and would have familiarity penalties with other riders.
Allowing players to purchase horses at 1/3 would be appropriate if they were adventurer types and those with Skill-12+ (Since these characters have horses part of their daily regiment). Other non-adventurous characters with riding-12 should pay 1/2 the cost for partial training or for the full cost for horses that can be used by anyone.
Byzantine Warhorses were roughly 7 solidi ($2,520) purchased by soldiers. Fully trained horses sold were 3x the cost (21 solidi). These were untrained since soldiers were expected to train them (Strategikon). Assuming these horses were a much more refined breed compared to the legendary horses of the Fargana Valley (Warhorse: Cavalry in Ancient Warfare by Philip Sidnell) of ST13.5-14 hands, I think they would have ST23+.
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