On June 26, 2014, I beat my first Deity game in Civ 5. I decided to play a Highland map surrounded by mountains, huge, with maximum city states. Luck of the draw pitted me against Genghis Khan, who was never able to march an army to my capital in time due to the long, almost impassible mountains that stood between us.
My niece and nephew were over at the house a couple of days ago and I ended up playing Eurotruck Simulator 2 with them as I had picked it up during one of the past Steam sales. In it, you want to start a freight company but you have no money so you take driving jobs. As you amass capital, you establish your own trucking business, setup a headquarters, acquire new equipment, and increase profits. You can even program your radio to play your own mp3 files.
We made omurice this afternoon because it’s Saturday and that means the family comes over to watch Korean dramas. They are in the final episodes of Rooftop Prince, one of my favorite shows of all time, and those of you who see it know the main characters are obsessed with this particular meal. [mainbodyad]Omurice is…
After viewing the fields of Ojai yesterday, we decided to go to Pasadena today, with a quick detour to La Cañada Flintridge. A big thank you to A Patel, who suggested in the comments on the post about Montecito that we stop by The Huntington Library, Art Collection and Botanical Gardens. This place is wonderful! I knew next…
After writing about the mathematics of Borda count voting systems as applied to the Eurovision contest, I realized I never posted the Russian performance, presented by the virginal 17-year old Tolmachevy Sisters. Bask in the symbolism of both the staging and the orchestration choices. Those of you with a history or music background will spot it…
The Washington Post this morning had a story about the political discontentment in Russia over the outcome of the 2014 Eurovision competition. Given that a few days ago, I outright said I’d personally emigrate were I living in Russia, this confluence of events is particularly timely. I’m going to use it as an excuse to talk about something known…
I spent my morning taking the Moroccan empire to victory in Civilization V against the world thanks to an extensive network of highly lucrative trade routes before going to the bank with Aaron to sign the contract for a new working capital line of credit our banker recommended. The whole experience was a pleasant surprise.
After dinner at Pierpont’s in Union Station, we made our way over to the symphony hall, arriving a few minutes before the orchestra took the stage. Tonight is a big departure from our usual Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Particularly of interest to us were the second and third groups on the program. The second was Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez for Guitar and Orchestra, which was performed by Jiyeon Kim, a guitar virtuoso.
My youngest sister made our day yesterday by stopping by the house to visit for a few hours. She had been at the NakaKon convention in Overland Park and saw an 8-bit pixel Metroid collectible she thought I’d love. She was right. Upon holding the specimen, I temporarily reverted to a six year old, 1980s-living, NES-dominating beast. Behold, and listen to the theme if you need some adequate inspiration.
Having reached the end of the road in the third installment of the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy, requiring 150+ hours of game play over a four year period to climb the highest levels of power in creation and culminate in a conclusion to the series, I’m struck how the entire thing is really a well-done repackaging of Plato’s Euthyphro dilemma. In case it’s been awhile since you delved into the classics, the philosopher’s famous question posed in Greece more than 2,300 years ago can be summed up as (made singular since a majority of world religions are now monotheistic): Is something “good” because God says it is good, making it dependent upon His will or does God say something is “good” because it is inherently “right”, making goodness independent of His will?
