Douglas E. Berry

Hey, I actually got a victory out of Civ IV today! Domination victory with about 80 years left. I was playing the Mongolians on a random map that created two major continents and a few large islands. I really lucked out in terms of resources, I had early access to cows, elephants, rice, and horses. I was also lucky in that two of my three neighbors were weak. I concentrated on wonders and specialists that allowed me quick tech gains. When I finally went to war with Montezuma (I needed access to the sea) I was sending macemen, knights, and longbowmen against his axe-wielding forces.

I quickly consolidated there, then turn on Peter the Great before he could turn on me. Turns out he had recently been warring with Saladin, so the Russian cities fell into my hands like over-ripe fruit. Since my armies were right there, I just charged on and conquered the Arabs as well. By this point I had actual infantry and my navy was going from sail to steam. After hunting down Arabia's last outpost, I turned to my last rival on the main continent. Now armed with tanks and artillery, the Mayans fell quickly.

One trick I've learned is to build cultural items like temples or theaters in captured cities. It makes for happier citizens, and spreads your influence faster. Needless to say I was doing the same in cities not near the war zone. I was gearing up for an invasion of the French continent when I got the message that I had won a domination victory, and saw this video.

Chieftan difficulty, standard size, temperate world.

I enjoy playing the free card games that come with Vista, especially Hearts. I just finished this game:

( The last round is the killer. )

Massive geek points to anyone identifying the source of all four players.

We're dismantling the main system and locking it away for the trip. Which starts in just over an hour.

I have no idea when I'll be updating again. See y'all later!

fearsclave: If you like, leave a message for me at the Embassy Suites about getting together for drinks or something.

Now I just have to deal with my first international trip (as a civilian) in about, oh thirty freaking years.

I've just taken part in a thread spread across several groups. It started as a burst on Moon Hoaxers screaming their usual screams and, as predicted, refusing to accept the LRO photos of Apollo landing sites. But it blossomed from there into a general bad science wank fest.

It culminated in a guy claiming that Andromeda is currently colliding with the Milky Way, and we're all DOOMED. Now, current models do show that we're on a collision course with our neighboring galaxy, but M-31 is still 2.5 million light-years away and the best estimate for a run-in is 2.5-3 billion years from now. Multiple posters tried to explain this to the moron, using good sources and cites, and he kept refusing to believe it.

He kept confusing solar system with galaxy. At several points he claimed that the "elites" would be fleeing Earth to avoid the collision. (Six days to Zyra! Six days to Zyra!) He was also unable to understand that the Voyager and Pioneer probes were coasting after their launches.

A fun break from bashing Moon Hoaxers over the head with Moon Base Clavius

If you watched today's Heavy Metal Sunday, you might notice that one of the buildings destroyed is EMI Japan's headquarters. The band was pissed at their label for mishandling their debut album, and felt "massively ripped off" by the label. So they took the opportunity of their reunion tour to take a swipe at their old label.

I know how they feel.

Not sure if it shows, but I actually put some thought and planning into HMS. I like to plan two months ahead to make sure I have a good mix of new and old stuff, different subgenres, and interesting material. Since our trip to Montreal is fast approaching, I was thinking about doing something related to Quebec or Montreal in the mix. Alas, information and videos by Quebecois metal acts is rare. The closest thing I could find was Aldo Nova. But then it hit me. One of the best metal albums of all time, Queensrÿche's Operation: Mindcrime, was born when Geoff Tate and Michael Wilton found themselves in a small church in Quebec watching the interactions between a priest, a nun, and an obviously strung-out young man. From that chance encounter, they had the genesis of one of metals truly stunning efforts.

Great, I thought, I'll slap up something from Mindcrime! A quick look at YouTube showed that there were very tasty versions of The Needle Lies and Speak up. But Queensrÿche is an EMI act.. and EMI has disabled embedding on all their videos.

You freaking morons! I'm trying to expose your acts to an audience that may not have heard of Queensrÿche! Or any of the other bands I feature on HMS! That's part of the reason I've been doing this for almost two years. To show friends who may not be metal fans that there is a lot of good stuff out there. But you possessive idiots don't get that. Hell, it's not like I make money doing this.

Grrr.

One of the nice features in iTunes is the Genius sidebar. Not only does it suggest songs and albums to buy based on what's currently playing, but you can click the little atomic symbol and get a suggested playlist based on the song of your choice.

Yesterday, I asked it to give me a 50-song playlist based off the 1989 Anthrax/Public Enemy team up of Bring the Noise. ( This is what I got: )

The Tubes - What Do Your Want From Life?

into

Green Day - Welcome To Paradise

( Me as a Superhero )

Created at The Hero Factory

Found something oddly disturbing when making the map for the last post.

Go to this map page. Click on Street View.

That's the house I grew up in. That window on the left was my bedroom for a very long time.

Very odd feeling.

My new computer is great, but the keyboard is, well, lacking. Y'all may have noticed a number of dropped capitals in my recent posts? It's the keyboard.

So I'm cruising Think Geek when i see this. Holy crap, I could program it to show all the commands for Madden! Offense and Defense! But i really doubt that Kiri is going to let me spend close to 1,600 bucks on a keyboard, so I think i'll just plan on getting this one. I can also set it up to at least give different Madden functions different colors.