Guard Dog

Baldur's Gate got me through my divorce. I wasn't much of a gamer before that. I still don't play a whole lot. Usually I buy one game every two or three years and play the hell out of it. The BG I & II, Icewind Dale, FO 1-3 & NV, Morrowind, Oblivion, & Skyrim, the TW series, PoE, MOO 2-4, Stellaris, and OOTP are my entire game library. I've enjoyed all of them but none of them recaptured the magic of BG that first time. Although PoE came close. Stellaris and OOTP (Out of the Park, a baseball sim) are the two I spend the most time on by far these days. I've bought every OOTP version since I discovered it at OOTP 8. They are announcing OOTP 19 tomorrow. For me gaming started as a cathartic, even therapeutic pastime. Now it's just light entertainment. Like Lady Crimson and Shady and others I'm not much of a TV watcher other than sports. But I am a voracious reader. So games that let you live a good story are ones I look for. But I want them to be big. 100+ hours with multiple replays. OOTP is more like chess. A mental exercise.

@ Gromnir & smjames I think it would be more apt to describe it as deliberate arrangement rather than "intelligent". A few years back I read a book by UC Santa Cruz professor Bruce Schumm called "Deep Down Things" about the four forces of particle physics and the exactitude of the balance between them. It completely changed the way I thought about physics. You won't find "proof" of the existence of God in the study of physics and cosmology but you will absolutely debunk the notion of randomness. I'll hit this more later. I'm at work at the moment and don't have the book here with me.

I f-----g knew it! https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/5414736/swearing-research-happier-healthier-intelligent-honest/

In other news Arthur Wagner one of the leaders of the AfD ( Alternative for Germany) party has made news by converting to Islam. AfD is the group that said "Islam doesn’t belong in Germany. We see the ideology of multiculturalism as a serious threat to societal peace and cultural unity.” and Wagner himself accused Merkel of "mutating" the country by allowing in Muslim refugees. https://www.thelocal.de/20180124/leading-member-of-far-right-afd-in-brandenburg-converts-to-islam I guess if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Someone ( I didn't actually read the article... ) released rankings of the countries in the world. USA was #8. Woo hoo! Suck on THAT France! Canada was #2 which tells me the judges were Canadian. Sure they love Canada and have that smug superiority complex thing (French influence there) but are too self effacing to vote themselves #1 Edit: Doh! Forgot the link the article https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/overall-full-list Also Donald Trump is less liked than Vladimir Putin. Let THAT one sink in. He hasn't even invaded anyone.... yet.

I've read all of Cormac McCarthy's published novels but one. This one. I started it last night. It's not one of his best, but even good from him is better than great from others.

how cool is this: https://flaviar.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAtJbTBRDkARIsAIA0a5NqbBePOtiw2_ea2rdVtKCA7NrbRRuT42aGTAUcXxa8AcqaJO39Vy0aAjXeEALw_wcB

My neighbor (that is the closest house to mine) is selling his place. He called me today and asked if I wanted to buy it. He has 44 acres. Yeah... don't I wish! I think that will be a bit beyond my means.

Men's shelters? Hmmm... what are... oh wait, I got it. We call them bars down here in the states.

If the government hadn't gotten involved it's very likely healthcare costs would not be out of reach.

This whole shutdown is a farce. It's a bunch of drug addicts trying to teach us a lesson by swearing off drugs for a little while. It's only been three days and they all have the shakes.

You are SUCH a cynic!

It's an amazing thing about communist countries. They provide food for their people but there has never been one where people didn't starve to death by the millions.

That's the Independent's headline, though, Oxfam uses 'bagged' and 'went to' which shouldn't be anything for you to get upset over - https://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressreleases/2018-01-22/richest-1-percent-bagged-82-percent-wealth-created-last-year It isn't. I'm just tweaking Ben here. I always get a kick out of hearing the commie types cry about how one kid got more cookies than another.ah come on, put in some effort here. The complaint is that one kid makes the cookies and the other one gets (almost) all of them just because he owns the oven. Then tell the kid that makes the cookies to buy an oven and make cookies for himself. People do that every single day. Heck the guy that owns the oven he's using now did that at some point. Or someone in his family did. The way I see it you have two choices. You can whine about who gets cookies or you can make your own cookies. Well I guess there is a third choice. Enact a government that kills than man with the oven, takes over the cookie factory and gives everyone a cookie. If there are enough to go around. If not... oh well. But even if there is I hope you like the cookie you're getting because they will never get any better and there will never be any variety.

That's the Independent's headline, though, Oxfam uses 'bagged' and 'went to' which shouldn't be anything for you to get upset over - https://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressreleases/2018-01-22/richest-1-percent-bagged-82-percent-wealth-created-last-year It isn't. I'm just tweaking Ben here. I always get a kick out of hearing the commie types cry about how one kid got more cookies than another.

LOL the rich just "took" it huh? Were they wearing little masks and holding a little cloth bag with a $ on it? Oh well, someday you'll get to the chapter in your economics book that discusses investing.

Well... crap... I don't like the Patriots but i have nothing against the Boston area as a whole. I have nothing but negative associations with the city of Philadelphia but I have nothing against (or for) the Eagles. So I just hope the game doesn't suck. I won't care who wins.

I've always thought the term "cracker" referred to whip cracker from the slavery days as it applies to white people. I have no info to back that up, that's just what someone told me a long time ago and I took as the truth. Well, you all know my take. If someone is an a-----e you can call him and a-----e. It even works in plural form. But it's never used to deride and entire ethnicity. So, don't use ethnic terms, just call them an a-----e. Edit: One other thing. If you won't call a man an a-----e to his face, don't do it behind his back either. That is just low. I won't say anything about someone I wouldn't tell them while looking them in the eye. Probably why I have so few friends.

Hi res image from the Juno spacecraft. Jupiter cloud tops. It's amazing how the centrifugal motion is churning out dozens of "hurricanes" each larger than the continent of Asia. You have to love Jupiter. It's a big, high gravity "catcher's mitt" scooping up most of the random rocks and comets that otherwise might have hit us. Without it's mass in the exact place it's in it's likely none of us would be here. It's difficult to dismiss the notion of a designed system when you consider this is yet another example of the exactitude of the balance that makes life on this little blue marble possible, So much so that one of the considerations of exoplanets as possible habitability is the presence of hi mass outer system cousins.

In Great Britain you don't have to buy a sex doll, the let you rent them.

I’m going to Nashville tonight to watch the Panthers beat the Preds. We’ve got great seats too. 12 row lower bowl. High enough the glass won’t be a hindrance to seeing.

The US Government has run out of money and shut down. The sun still rose. The stores all opened. Life goes on like normal. So.... anyone else think that maybe they make far too big a deal about this? You have to figure the worst thing that could happen to the "political class" is for people to realize they are like the fleas on a dogs back.

About halfway through this one. I'm wondering if this is really the same guy who wrote "The Martian". This is nowhere near as good. Jazz is an interesting enough character to keep me reading but the story is... and I'll be kind... lightweight.