Looks like this is the big weekend.
What big weekend, you ask?
The weekend of the big move. For the first time since coming to the new building on March 7, 2002, I'm being moved. It's the end of an era, in many respects, since there are only two other people who have been occupying the same workspace since the move (there are a few more people who ( Read more... )

I like Slinkies.
And free hot chocolate.
That is all.

The key to all rituals of prescience is the involvement of the random. Tea leaves, palmistry, phrenology, the Tarot, all share the same quality: the information to be read is encoded in the random results of some event or events.
There's something to be said, here, about the need of humans to impose order on disorder and our fundamental inability ( Read more... )

Due to potential size considerations, I've made a post out of this, rather than replying to the _guy_incognito post that spawned this little essay. So when I say "you," I am referring to the specific "you" represented by Mr. Incognito.
Commerce issues in Civ 4
Several of your questions seem to revolve around your money supply, so I'm going to address fundraising ( Read more... )

WTF, mates?

My last post no longer shows up on my friends page.
Or on assfingers' friends page.
But it does still show on my recent entries page.
I'm being blackballed, and I DON'T MUCH CARE FOR IT.
Weiners. EDIT:

_guy_incognito has fixed the glitch. MAD PHAT PROPS TO THE @ MAN.

We're coming up on year in review time, and I will probably not post one. Just like I didn't last year. On the other hand, I might. You never know.
Regardless
In the spirit of the year in review, I've compiled a list of all the books I recall reading over this last year, which I have conveniently broken up: the former is the list of books I read ( Read more... )

Dear Asoka,
You must have been furious when I rejected your asinine demand for dye. A wise ruler, however, would have realized that just because the two cities you can actually see are only defended by a pair of axeman each and you have war elephants does not mean that the rest of the glorious Spanish empire cannot be brought to bear in short order ( Read more... )

Hokay, so:
I have begun playing Civ 4. I've completed one game, am dominating a continent on Terra circa AD 1300 in another, and have taken a stab at multiplayer. It should not surprise anyone, then, that I am about to ramble on about Civ 4 for a bit. After all, I'm always thrilled to natter on about subjects of interest to no one but me.
The ( Read more... )

The following is an excerpt from an email my brother sent me, congratulating the lovely kazac and I on our engagement:
As I was informed, I expect the wedding to be during peony season. However ( Read more... )

Apropos of not much:
Every time a discussion comes up regarding any one of several Asian languages, you hear comments about tonal languages, that the intonation of certain words in, say, Mandarin changes their meaning. This is generally followed up by a comment about how it might be difficult for an English speaker to understand, because English ( Read more... )