Civilization IV

Ok a few weeks of playing the phenomenal Civ 4 have passed and I wanted to detail a few things I have learned as a new player.

1. Researching Bronze Working allows chopping trees. This is very helpful hurrying your development in the early game. Make worker, chop trees to give hammers for another worker and/or settler. Note: when you chop down a tree that tile loses one hammer permanently.

2. Bronze working also allows for Slavery civic. Slavery is quite helpful. As you know, city unhappiness is a terrible waste of your resources. Slavery allows you to hurry production (extra button lights up in your city screen) in exchange for population. This is called "whipping"! While you dont want to do this too often this is a great way to keep your cities from getting so big that they get unhappy.

3. Religion makes money. If you can be the first to found a religion then you want to spread it via missionaries. For every city who converts to the religion you founded you gain coins. Sharing religion also makes it less likely they will go to war with you. Also if your religion is in an opponent city your can get information about that city.

4. If your selected unit is right next to an ememy unit/city you can press "Alt" an hover your cursor over the enemy to see the odds of the attack going your way.

5. Check out the Civilopedia in game by pressing F12. This is an amazing wealth of knowledge.

6. Last but not least, Civfanatics.com has a wealth of information and strategy tips.

Letter to my Aunt

This pretty much sums up how I am living lately. This is a letter to my Aunt Sandy who lives in California. What can I say, I am a lover not a fighter.

Hi Aunt Sandy,

I thought I would write to you and tell you how I often I wish I was closer to you and Jack so I could drop by to talk or have spectacular dinners. I miss you both.

Sonja is in her third and final year of residency at Swedish Hospital in Seattle. This is supposed to be her "easy" year but she still often is working 13-16 hrs a day with only sundays off. She is an amazing trooper and keeps smiling. My job is to keep her fed and healthy and not wake her up when she is home. I have recently been cooking a spicy tomato soup as well as a roasted cauliflower and indian chickpea curry dish. Every time I find myself having fun cooking in the kitchen I smile and think that I must have inherited some of your genes.

I also have recently been admitted into a masters program in psychology at Seattle University which begins in September. I am really excited to stop working as a research tech in a lab and go back to school. I hope I can just help somebody out there one day. There is so much that I learn about myself and humanity by studying psychology.

Anyway I do hope you and Jack are living and loving life!
Much love and I will let you know if I can get away and down there to visit.
Love,
Nathan

Civilization IV

Over the past year I have heard a few acquaintances rave about the addictive game Civilization IV. Its a turn-based strategy game where you play a ruler of an empire developing from the stone age to modernity as you compete with 18 other opponent civilizations (computer or human). The victorious empires win by influencing the globe in one of several ways: militarily, culturally, technologically (being the first to go into space), or diplomatically (being elected president of the UN). Here is a great video review to watch.

After researching the game I have really been impressed by the reviews! Its got a huge following of fans around the world as well as fan websites constantly developing new mods increasing the game's diversity and options.

What is really drawing me in however is the multiplayer capabilities of the game! Many groups of friends are staying in contact with one another from across the country through playing semi-regularly online together. I am hopeful that you now reading this will join me so we can all have fun together and keep in closer contact. In Civ IV they have developed a convenient way groups can play muliplayer games together without all having to be online at the same time!

The game is called "Pit-boss." Since Civ IV is turn based strategy game, each person needs to only go online to complete their turn when they are up. Conveniently the game can email you when it is your turn. So this will allow the group of friends to all have a fun time after work and at our convenience!

Cool thing too is the game only costs $30 at Civ IV at Amazon.com
The thing is a friend said the recent expansion is a must to have if playing online because it patches some bugs: Here is the Beyond the Sword expansion to get, it's just $30 clams. Word is that you can save money by just sharing the base game with a friend and then you each only need the "Beyond the Sword" expansion disk to play.

Now you are wondering: Can it work on my PC? System requirements Here. Its not bad! Even a 1.2 GHz machine with at least 512MB RAM + a 64 MB video card + dial up internet can run it.

Are you in!?!

Halo

Calling all Halo fans! Halo3 multiplayer movie out. Looks fun! I can't wait :)

My friends and I have been casual Halo players for a while. Its like being a kid and playing cowboys and indians x1,000.

There is something about playing games with other people rather than against a computer. The competition, the challenge, the choices that you are constantly making to solve how best to win. Dexterity games however are sometimes not as fair as board games which really pit a person's mind against another. I love watching others work to solve the challenge that a game presents. I love it when everyone is at even ability to make the experience more challenging and fulfilling.

Oh, and Starcraft 2 is coming out in a year! Movie

Items of Interest this Week

This week I have been turned onto:

David Horsey: Political cartoonist for Seattle PI. Great cartoons on their site daily!

Dance Dance Revolution: This has been around for several years but I had never played it until last weekend! My little bro Gabe and sis Mia'ana have a rocking two pad setup that we danced on for the playstation2. Between dancing up a storm and then jumping into the pool to cool off I had a blast! I love being a kid again. But more importantly this game was hilarious and a workout! Parties will never be the same.

Home Budget Software: Using Excel has never been so much fun. Now I hope the I can save up enough of our hard earned money to someday afford the coveted CowSlippers! Its going to be beans and rice discipline for me. But seriously, money for rich people like us is just a game of goal making and luxury good buying. I just would like to play the frugality game a while to see where the money is going especially now that I may be out of work soon.
I love my Dear wife Sonja for being frugal with me this week and not going out to restaurant once in 6 days! (its like a record for us). And she is such a champ. She comes home and is excited to try to make some type of meal out just old things hiding in the cupboard and fridge.

Revolution

"The Revolution will not be televised." Do you know who said that? Learn it man. What this quote reminds of is the energy and focus required to understand or learn something. You can't just take what your parents, boss, tv tell you as truth, you got to work a bit to discover it.

There is so much out there that people have no idea of. Yet many things they hold as truth are assumptive beliefs given them by "trustworthy sources."

Close your eyes. There are a multitude of sights, smells, and history out there beyond you. With 6.5 billion of us currently on the planet (and so many that passed before us) can you imagine the diversity of experience and knowledge that exists? Do you think your beliefs/morals/way of life are correct? Does that mean the billions who don't subscribe/disagree are incorrect?

The reason I am noting this fact is because most people I come across have no concept, let alone interest, in confronting this fact. They live in their bubbles, insulated. They have no interest in finding out that much of what them and their loved ones hold as truth is wrong.

Don't be afraid to step into the unknown. Don't impose you views on others but rather have courage to open yourself up to experience. Fathom the possibilities that there are ways other than your own. You don't need to be correct to be good, just not full of your own shit.

"Believe nothing, O monks, merely because you have been told it … or because it is traditional, or because you yourselves have imagined it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings—that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide." --Buddha

Summer Reads - Fiction/Scifi

After recently spending the week with Andy and Mike I began to get an itch to read some good fiction books for some reason...probably because they constantly talk the fantasy/starwars? I did some digging around on Amazon.com and now I have a list of books of interest that I will be trying to read when I am reading my psychology texts.
(note: all these are on my GoodReads.com list you can access and share your books!)

Very Far Away from Anywhere Else by Ursula Le Guin - Coming of age novel not really scifi.
More than Human by Sturgeon - Classic Scifi is the word
The Sparrow by Russell - Supposed to be the bomb~!
The Razor's Edge by Maugham - Older coming of age for ex-veteran (good movie with Bill Murray)
Altered Carbon by Morgan - This is supposed to be awesome SciFi
The Road by McCarthy - post apocalyptic
Crown Duel By Sherwood Smith - Young adult ?
Earth Abides by Stewart - post apocalyptic
Ecotopia by Callenbach - Futuristic ecological existence
Tunnel In the Sky by Heinlein - Survival Scifi classic