Enoch

Man, I sunk a whole lot of time into Bane of the Cosmic Forge back in the day... until my install bugged out on me and prevented me from finishing. And my computer couldn't run Wiz 7. (It required a whole megabyte of video RAM!!)

Well, today I put in the application for that promotion possibility I mentioned a few pages back. And tomorrow, a dumpster is getting delivered to my driveway so that the demolition phase of our kitchen relocation project can take place next week. I'm tired. And now I'll be spending the weekend carrying the entire contents of that part of the house into the basement.

Good to hear. I'm no great ARPG fan (and I've never played Titan Quest), but the only 3 people with whom I do multiplayer games all seem rather excited about this one. So if they get the multiplayer working right, I'll probably be playing it. (I never last more than a few hours with a Diablo-like in single-player.)

Thanks for humoring my stream-of-consciousness career-planning and work-envy narrative. It does help to have someplace to write out my thoughts as they coalesce. And, re-reading what I wrote, your collective feedback is pretty much what I would say were I in you-all's position. (Although I doubt that I would have come up with anything as entertaining as Wals' response.) The logic I'm settling on is that, if they can't find anybody better than me, I'd rather do it myself than I would work for somebody worse than me. It hurts not a bit to be on the list of candidates, and the application process is (after some inquiry) actually pretty painless. I just have to prepare myself for the fact that, in all likelihood, this will end with the Powers That Be deciding that somebody else is Better Than Me by their criteria. Which may sting a bit (depending on whom they select), but I'll probably get over it relatively quickly-- by working with New Boss, I should be able to establish quickly either that they were right and NB is Better Than Me, or that upper management are total idiots for selecting him/her. I also may be able to get some additional backstory on all these management moves early next week. I have a lunch set up with somebody who may be willing to divulge a bit more when speaking outside the building.

It is a consideration, albeit a small one, that even if I'm not one of their leading candidates, upper management may take note of those who display some measure of ambition, which can lead to opportunities elsewhere. I hesitate to add that there is another guy in particular who I suspect might apply for it, and who appears to be "in" with upper management moreso than I am. (With good reason-- he's had some more experience running a high-profile office-wide endeavor, and has been better about volunteering to help other teams and such.) In the long run, I'd probably be fine with working for him, because I have a lot of respect for his intelligence and work ethic. But it would probably take me a bit to get over the ego bruise, because he started this job on the same day I did. (Also, we sometimes attend the same after-work poker game, which could get awkward.)

So, my immediate boss is transferring to an equivalent position elsewhere in the office. I have about a week to decide whether I want to throw my name in the hat to try to get her job. It'd be an almost totally defensive move. There is some appeal to doing broader, higher level work, and it's a more impressive title, but due to a quirk in our compensation system, the pay is the same, and the workload, deadline pressure, and associated stress would be multiplied. Plus, I've never really been anybody's boss before, and this would put me "in charge" of at least 2 folks (and hopefully more, as we're presently rather understaffed), both of whom have more experience than I do (but who are, for varying reasons, somewhat unsuitable for and/or uninterested in management). Honestly, I think I'd be a longshot for the position. But it is conceivable that the folks in the office (note: Office = 130 or so people; one group is normally 5 or 6 folks, including a boss) who have the better management-track resumes might give this one a pass, as it's a group with somewhat intimidating subject matter and some folks who have been management challenges in the past. (There's a reason why my present boss is taking the lateral move she was offered.) And I would probably be better than most at navigating those particular difficulties, as I've worked in this area and with these folks for almost 7 years. Also, moving me up a rung would make the group even more understaffed than it already is. And I do have a tendency towards "don't try because you might fail and feel bad" thinking. Which I try to discount, but I find the best way to do so is to acknowledge it openly. But still, breaking in a new boss is a pain in the ass. And, if the "good" candidates decide to skip this one, I don't want to spend years working for a second-rate supervisor.

As somebody who appeared in a community theater production of Fiddler when he was roughly middle-school-aged (as the character known only as "The Rabbi"), I have to wonder what is meant by the "Jr."? Did they somehow re-write the story with no pogroms or something? ("That guy Tevye sure is poor! And his 3 daughters get married! Mazeltov! Close curtain.") Anyhow, the in-laws are in town. I drove them out to Shenandoah Nat'l Park and we took a short hike to a spot of some familial emotional resonance (i.e., where we scattered the ashes of our stillborn son). Got as close as I've ever been to a bear in the wild, and she had 3 cubs with her. When I first spotted her (long after she had heard me coming, I'm sure), she was probably only 40 feet away. Thankfully, both she (with her cubs) and I (with my wife and in-laws) were content to keep moving in different directions. Neat experience.

I signed a contract for some significant home renovations. We've got a 1930s-vintage house in an inner-ring DC suburb, which has a tiny little galley kitchen. It also has a 9'x14' (roughly 3M by 4.5M) "sun room" off the back of the house that currently lacks functional heat or AC. The plan is to knock the sun room walls and roof off, re-build it from the slab up as a kitchen, and use the existing kitchen as a butler's pantry and wet bar. It's... not going to be cheap, but we've got the savings to manage it out-of-pocket, and it'll transform a rather useless space into a place where we'll spend a lot of time. I do 95% of the cooking around here, but it'll still be nice to be able to fit more than one person into the kitchen without bumping elbows.

It's one of the game options you can select at launch. Instead of picking a particular tech each time, you have 4 general research areas, and can choose to emphasize any or all of them. I think they were shorthanded into "Explore," "Build," "Conquer," and one other that meant pure blue-sky science, like the theoretical physics techs. The game would then choose for you which tech was up next, in line with your general guidance. As I see it, that makes what would be a pure strategic-thinking decision into one that is tinted by roleplaying-- Morgan would be all about Building, while Deirdre probably would emphasize the "Explore" techs, as they help to understand the nature of Planet.

Yeah, I loved the "blind research" option. Which is another very role-playing-ish option that strategy-gaming folks would likely disdain as inefficient play.

I think of SMAC as the 4X/TBS game for RPG fans. It is unrivaled in atmosphere, narrative, exploration of interesting themes, and character development. It even has a crafting element in the custom-designing of unit prototypes. But it is also generally true that RPG fans are more tolerant than most of weak gameplay design, and SMAC has more than its fair share of that. The factions are not particularly well balanced, and there are some rather transparently exploitable strategies. The Civ games (well, at least the post-SMAC Civ games) work better as 4X/TBS games, IMO, but don't have that unique RPG-crossover appeal that SMAC does.

Curious choice of wording in the thread title. Surely "EA Purchased Star Wars License" would be more accurate than "Granted," no?

I can't speak for WF, specifically, but I have worked as a bank teller. It's has a lot of the drawbacks one generally associates with customer service jobs, but it ain't bad. The worst part is the pressure from management to leverage client contact into selling additional products (e.g., make referrals to investment advisors). The best part is that you get to know the local business owners who come in regularly to deposit their take and get coin & small bills for customer change. Knowing the owners of local shops, diners, etc., has perks. Also, you get very good at using an adding machine and keyboard num-pad. I got a physical on Tuesday and went back this morning so they could take blood for a cholesterol test. The guy who scheduled it misled me-- he said that I could come in as early as 8, even though the appointment he made was officially 9:30. I get there at 8:15, and end up waiting for 45 minutes or so before they could get around to sticking a needle in me. Historically, I've done fine on cholestol tests-- or at least better than I have any right to expect, given my middling overall fitness level-- but it's been a couple years, so it'll be good to get another data point. The Doc did recommend going to see a dermatologist to make sure none of my moles are problematic. Not exactly looking forward to that.

I find that, on the standard map size, game speed, rival-count, and barbarian activity level, barbarians are little more than an annoyance once you get to through the Classical age. If your cities have garrisons and are reasonably close together, any invading Barbs die quickly. Also, even if you don't, local AI rivals are often pretty aggressive in hunting down the Camps. Barbarian ships are probably the biggest pain, if you have sea resources to defend. And even before then, the Barbarians don't come in "hordes," unless you're unlucky enough to have camps on all sides. (Rare on standard-ish map settings-- usually there's a coastline, a mountain range, a rival civ, or a city state that can reasonably ensure no Barb attacks from 1-3 cardinal directions.) In most cases, they come one unit at a time. A garrisoned Archer or Warrior plus your inherent city defenses can eliminate an attacking Brute easily enough, with minimal disruption of your city/Worker/improvements. And if you've got an archer and a warrior, you can go eliminate the camp spawning them. As for early AI invasions, know your rivals. If you start 12 tiles away from Alexander or Atilla, yeah, you're getting rushed. Watch your "Soldiers" ranking in the Demographics panel, and don't let that lag too much. Prioritize researching Archery; build units. (Also, wherever possible, settle on a Hill.) Keep a scouting unit to spot the invasion force, make an exploitative trade with him when you see it ("Hey Alex, I'll provide you with 30 turns of Gems in exchange for All Your Gold Right Now. Good thing you're not planning any Sneak Attacks that would stop me from exporting those Gems in 2 turns!") But it is absolutely possible to defeat an early invasion with a force entirely composed of Archers/CBs plus a Warrior or two. The ranged units go in and behind the city. If it looks dire, make some trades with other AIs so that you can rush-buy City Walls. Keep what melee you have on the flanks, and understand the Zone-of-Control rules-- if an enemy Warrior or Spearman manages to attack your Archer in melee, you've screwed something up. Concentrate fire. Prioritize elimation of any of ranged invaders. When they take too many losses, they'll turn and run. And, if you did this primarily with ranged units, you've just eliminated a nearby opponent's field army, while keeping yours mostly intact (as well as earning some promotions and possibly a Great General). Never a better time to take a bite out of an aggressive neighbor-- a 2nd capital city site is a nice payout for those years of infrastructure disruption. The early Honor policies do help with all that. But that's all they help with. And the Tradition (more population = more science = earlier CBs) and Liberty (free Worker/Settler = more hammers for Units) policies help with that and much more. I do agree on the avoidance of Wonder-whoring. I often don't start construction on my first World wonder until the Renaissance. Units, settlers, and science- and production-enabling buildings are the priorities.

So, I started messing around in Skyrim again yesterday. In games like this, my tendency is to settle into particular method of play that feels "right," after which I can't really enjoy playing some other type of build. I experimented with the game a bit when I first played it a year ago, but I just started a new character in pretty much the same vein as my favorite previous character. So I'm back with an Argonian who came to Skyrim because he enjoys mountain climbing, and who thinks that all these Nords are nuts with all this "Dovalkin" nonsense. (Not to mention being mostly racist jerks or outright bandits.) They've just never seen an Argonian and a Dragon together before: clearly, I can learn Dragon-talk because we're cousins. Archery-Stealth-OneHanded type build. Alchemy is often my favorite part of an ES game (something is just thrilling about discovering all the properties of reagents by blindly mixing them together), but I'm going more into the smithing this time than I have in the past. And I do like how it makes me engage more with the gameworld-- I go hunting for Deer just to get the hides, and discovering a new Mine is an exciting experience. This install is pretty bare-- all I've got is SkyUI and a mod that makes the roads show up on the world map. What must-have mods am I missing? I have none of the DLC, but if this holds my interest for more than a few days, I may look into buying some of it.

This might just be me, but I think Monte may have made a mistake in picking the name. I can't seem to not call it "Nurma-nurma," which makes it somewhat difficult for me to take seriously. And I do participate in a PnP group that I could see possibly playing a campaign in a setting like this.

I don't find Honor to be all that useful, unless you're playing with the "Raging Barbarians" option on. The problem is that most of its benefits accrue towards the production/effectiveness of melee units. And a melee-heavy army is a decidedly sub-optimal choice. Ranged combat rules in this game-- it's the only way to damage an opponent while not taking any damage yourself. 4-5 Archers + your inherent city defenses can repel just about any early invasion force from a single AI. And if I'm planning on doing some offensive warring early in the game (absent an appropriate Unique Unit) I'm doing it with an army of 5+ Archers or Composite Bowmen (which are a G&K addition: an archer upgrade that unlocks at Construction) and as few as 2 Warriors to take cities and to keep enemy melee off of the archers. I find that I'm much better off taking the growth benefits of Tradition and leveraging that into a larger/earlier/more advanced army than I am spending culture on early Honor policies. In my experience, the 2 best windows for conquest in Civ V (with G&K) are Composite Bowmen, and Great War Bombers. (Again, assuming that you're playing a civ without a useful Unique Unit-- if you're China or England, for example, you're nuts if you're not facerolling some rivals with your Crossbow replacements.) 5 CBs and 1 Warrior can take out the capital of your nearest enemy most of the time. And it's not too difficult to get some GW Bombers into the air before your opponents have any actual air defenses, beyond maybe an easily-neutered Triplane or two.

Civ V's AI is opportunistic. An aggressive opponent (which both the Mongols and English are) will invade you if it thinks it can win. (There's a behind-the-scenes military-strength calculation that it uses to make this decision.) If you're getting dogpiled early by surrounding civilizations, it's probably because they think you're easy pickings. Build more military. The "warmongering menace" penalty seems to depend heavily on whether you lauched a surprise attack, or whether you eliminated another Civ. If you want to attack somebody and don't want to get too bad a reputation for it, Denounce them first and be generally hostile to them in diplomacy. And the Civ-elimination penalty is rather severe-- it's often better to leave a rival in possession of its crappiest city than it is to eliminate them entirely.

I'm not familiar with Bruce Haack but this is ****ing awesome. Here's his badly-in-need-of-paragraph-breaks wikipedia page. The Electric Lucifer was one of the very early electronic albums. A friend of mine loaned me a copy a couple of weeks ago, and it is thoroughly enjoyable. Here's the first track, which I almost posted instead of that one: After hearing that, I was somewhat disappointed that the rest of the album had actual human vocals. When that vocoder (which was custom made by Haack) starts scatting, I just lose it.

Meaning that it was all an elaborate excuse to get a good long look at your butt in tight spandex?

Yeah, I'm getting the itch to play an old-school-ish RPG, but I'm not feeling particularly inspired by any of the options in front of me. (Or, at least, I am sufficiently deterred by the prospect of getting them running, patched, and sufficiently modded.) When is Wasteland 2 supposed to be hitting the streets? (I didn't back it, so I'm not getting the updates, but the cash I threw at Eternity was apparently enough to merit a free copy.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB_075GYKKI

As an American who was born in the year she took office as the PM, I don't have the most immediate of impressions of her. But it is interesting the degree to which she became a polarizing symbol even on this side of the Atlantic. Sure, the Rightward end of the American political spectrum wrap her up in their Reagan hagiography. There also a certain amount of envy at what she was able to accomplish in the Parliamentary system, in absence of American checks and balances (not to mention the fact that, thanks to the Labor-SocDem split, she was able to implement her agenda without even winning majorities at the polls). But I think style counts a lot here. There are many admirers of her often-openly-contempuous attitude towards her political enemies. Which, frankly, is regrettable. And that last point is probably the main reason why the Left in America has much reason to dislike her as intently as it seems to. I mean, her signature economic reforms addressed a system that was beyond the pale for all but the most doctrinaire American leftists-- almost nobody in U.S. politics would defend policies like 83% marginal taxation at the top end and effective state ownership of entire major industries like steel, energy, and air travel. So I suppose I admire her legacy of bringing a frankly necessary rightward correction to British economic policy, but don't particularly care for her legacy of being kind of a **** about it.

Oh god, can't stop laughing. Plus, it's true! I've been called Lex, Hitman, Moby and god knows what.. Discrimination I say! Bald people are not all the same! Clearly, you need to grow an awesome goatee and tweeze your eyebrows a bit, so they can all call you "Ming" instead.

"Political correctness" is a term people use in order to deride those who call people out for making inconsiderate public statements. Being "politically correct" is just being polite. (I have no knowledge of this particular POTUS-related kerfuffle. It's well below the threshold of what I would consider news worth paying any attention. I could see how complimenting a judge on her looks could be inappropriate and inconsiderate in particular types of circumstances.) The analogy to censorship is ill-considered. There is no government action and there is no repression of speech. It's just people being judged by the standards of the society and forced to confront the public relations consequences when they say something inconsiderate, mean, or otherwise unacceptable. What puts people off more than anything, I think, is that there are some folks who have become hyper-sensitive to inconsiderate statements by public figures because they've figure out that doing so gets them on the evening news on a consistent basis. And, yeah, manufactured outrage for personal aggrandizement is annoying. That doesn't mean that the society at large shouldn't react according to its commonly accepted standards of decorum when a public figure does something insensitive.