Post-Christmas

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.  Just as quick as it got here, it is over.  Time to take the tree down!

My 2013

Google produced this short video with all of the pictures and videos I have uploaded over the past year.  I thought they did a great job at auto-magically making this for me!

The Duet

At the Christmas Eve church service, our daughter had the opportunity to play flute with the organist accompanying her.  They sounded great.

On Christmas morning our living room went through its normal transition...

Ugh. . . France

Yesterday England, my ally, asked me to help defend them in a war against France.  For a moment I hesitated but did accept my way into this war.  I had no real intention of defending England, I was just going to continue colonizing Brazil.  

Within the first year of the war I was made to regret my decision.   Large ships started to enter my waters and blockaded my ports.  I took a look at the score and noticed that there was France and roughly eleven allies on one side of this war and the other side was made up of England and me (Portugal).  

France wasn't actually the nation that came to conquer me. It was Poland that wanted my blood.  5,000 men jumped from their boats and landed on my shores.   An additional 15,000 men arrived by land through Castille (Spain).  

My army was only 6,000 men at this point so they were out numbered nearly 3 to 1.  I sued for peace.  Although I was being invaded by Poland it was France I had to negotiate with.  They were the lead party in this war.   France agreed to let me out of this mess on the following conditions.  

I had to give them a ton of money which would require several loans to pay.  These loans would increase inflation and cause me to pay interest.  In addition, France demanded that I end my relationship with England and Castille.   

While I mulled over this offer the Polish army continued to besiege my cities.   I accepted the deal and the armies walked away.  I immediately sent a diplomat to Castille to explain I still wanted to be friends with him.   Then, I sent another diplomat, this one went to France.  No, I don't want to be friends with the French, but it was time to befriend this world power. . .for now.

This experience was one of the stories that came out of a game I have been playing over the past week.  Europa Universalis 4 is a massively complex game of politics, exploration, war, and economics.  Once you figure it out it is an amazing game.   Some games tell you a story.  This game allows you to create a story.  That's what makes it so great. 

Quadcopter - yes please

I am pretty sure I need to own my own drone.   

Now saving up some $$$

Christmas Photo 2013

We thought we were going to miss it this year, but we finally made time for our family Christmas photo.  We might even get the card to your house before it's time to take the cards down!

An Addiction

She has a very serious problem.  Proven in this video.

QR and Me

If you have a smart phone you can download an app that reads QR codes. . . if you are interested.

YouTube of the Week!

I would never try this.  Not even once.

A Dying Industry - PT2

I'm not convinced that the cable companies are even trying to survive.  They are just going along their merry way not wanting to change.   This reminds me of A Dying Industry - PT1 : The Newspaper Industry.   

Before they know it, these cable providers will be struggling to survive and will act surprised about it when that day comes.  

Here is a story about the decline of subscribers.  LINK

They can't say they haven't been warned.

Chocolate Covered

Cari took me for a brief grocery shopping trip on Friday.  Every attempt by me to fill the shopping cart with snacks was met with rejection.  But then I picked up some chocolate covered cherries and dumped them into the cart.   

The funny thing about it is that these were accepted.  It turns out that as long as there is chocolate content in my junk food, it will remain in the cart.  

Lowering the Flag

The Pickens County sheriff will not be lowering the flag at his office in honor of Nelson Mandela.  Here is an image from his Facebook post on the matter:

I have read through the rules about flying the American flag and I agree with Sheriff Clark.  It starts to be a pick and choose of who to honor if you start this.  It should be lowered for Americans.

Shopaholic

Despite the title, this post isn't about Cari.  It's about me.

Actually I hate shopping.  If you send me in shopping for something expect me to pick up the first thing that fits your described request and head to the check out.

The exception to my loathing for shopping is video games.  It's my weakness.  So last week when Steam (online delivery of games) had their Fall sale I was like a woman heading to Kohl's on black Friday.

Every day Steam put a collection of games on sales.  Often they would be near 30% off.  In addition, every eight hours around four more games were put on "flash sale" that would put the game at 50-80% off.

At the beginning of the Fall sale there were no games that I wanted to buy.  I couldn't think of one that I would even be interested in and I was disappointed that I couldn't go on a shopping spree.  

By the end of the week I had purchased more games than I have time to play.

I can't wait for the Christmas sale coming up!

Who Should I Call?

It's time to get the Christmas lights out of the attic and strapped to the gutters.   This is one of two times each year that I put the extension ladder year to use.  The second use is taking the lights off of the gutters.

I recruited a few helpers for this task but it turned out they refused to get on the ladder.  As I made my first trip up the ladder they asked me who they should call.  

I asked what they meant and they asked if they should call mom or call 911 when I fall to the ground.  "It depends on if I'm breathing.", I answered.

Their lack of confidence in me was a bit surprising considering my 100% non-fall rate over the years.

YouTube of the Week

Um... no.