Dwarf Forte
I think I've squeezed all over the goodness from the Fortress mode of Dwarf Fortress.
I've gotten to the point that I can make a fortress stable enough in the early on that I get huge waves of migrants - and that really strangles the fun. You litterally can't dig out new bedrooms fast enough for the immigration wave, and then they have the nerve to start breeding.
My own style is to select a brookside location and dig a single entrance large enough to welcome a caravan, dig stairs, stores, and stockpiles around the depot, and then build my dwarven mine beneath it. Highly defensible, accessible, and dwarfish. The Mines of Moria I wasn't, but then who is? (I delved too greedily and too deep once...)
Still, I got pretty good at making awesome things in my underground refuges. I've tapped rivers from beneath to irrigate my underground farms, I've created public meeting places with elegant walls, columns, and pools (and figured out how to keep most of the dwarves from drowning in them) I've mined platinum, crafted it, studded it with gems, and sold it for insane wealth. I've survived three sieges in a row before getting bored and overly successful. I've executed a noble for being worthless.
I haven't had a catsplosion, but I've had to take steps against it. I was too wise to fool around with magma - how many hours of your effort can you lose in a single keystroke, anyhow?
So now I'll try out adventurer mode and see if I enjoy that - it sounds nice. Then again, I may have to rig my console-style controller up to work with the game - my hand is worn out from working the number pad.
The job front is not looking like it has picked up any. Pretty soon I'll need to take a crap job just to pay the bills. My biggest problem right now is that I'm staying home to save money, but getting cabin fever worse than ever in my life. Pretty soon I'll be amusing myself by gnawing off limbs. Maybe even my own.