Spring break!

Posted by

0

I know, I know, I haven’t written here for a while. I’ve thought about writing another post here, but this one is going to be short.

My spring break starts today, and I’ve been looking forward to that. Unfortunately, after spring break I don’t know what the next long weekend or break from school will be. Maybe Easter weekend, but I haven’t made any plans for that yet.

My plans for this next week include going to see some friends in another city, being home and seeing family for a few days, and then returning to work the second half of spring break. It would be better if I didn’t have to work at all, but such is life. My plans may not be as conventional and exciting as going to Cancun, Florida, or somewhere warm and tropical, but I’m not a huge fan of sun and people anyway, and I’m sure there are plenty of fellow college students on spring break engaging in the stereotypical debauchery and partying.

I’m still single (despite the creation of a few online dating profiles), and there’s not been much progress made on that front. I’ve thought about trying to “spruce up” my various profiles, perhaps by changing what’s written or uploading different photos, but at the same time I also have been enjoying the single life. While it would be nice to have someone to make plans with, I also am not looking for anything serious right now.

According to what I’ve heard from my ex-girlfriend, she’s happy in her relationship, so that’s nice. We haven’t talked much, and most of my interaction with her in the last month and a half has been giving her rides to Wal-Mart an average of about once a week. She hasn’t talked much the last few times I’ve seen her, and I’ve thought of a few questions I’d like to hear her answer, but I don’t expect her to answer them any time soon.

One thing I’ve wondered is if she is interested in being friends, or whether she’s just using me because I’m the only person she knows in this city with a car. Another question is whether she’ll talk to me this summer, or if she’ll go home for the summer and never talk to me again. At the moment, 2.5 months (roughly) since we broke up, she only contacts me if she wants help (i.e., a ride somewhere) or for wake-up calls for my Tuesday/Thursday morning class if I haven’t texted her that I’m awake by 8:30.

I think it seems likely that if she breaks up with her boyfriend she might contact me and want to get together again, but I could be mistaken. Maybe she absolutely hates my guts for having the temerity to not want to get married and, if her and her boyfriend break up over the summer (for example), she’ll continue to not talk to me and try finding someone else.

Of course, I also haven’t heard her say anything about problems in their relationship. The first week of the semester, as I previously have written here, she mentioned a couple times where he hadn’t talked to her for a day or so, but she’s said since then that he has been better about talking to her. They have only been dating for about two months, so the “honeymoon period” probably is still very much in effect.

I know she’s mentioned a couple times her plans to spend spring break with her boyfriend. If I had a girlfriend, I certainly would want to spend spring break with her.

Well, I can’t think of anything else to say. It probably would help the recovery process from the breakup if I met someone else, though I’m not sure how that would happen in my daily life without making some changes (asking out classmates? I don’t know), and I am curious about how my ex might react if I told her that I had met someone else and/or was seeing someone new. Maybe I’ll find out one day.

Fortunes for the Bold: Part 1

Posted by

0

Current AAR project: Stellaris 1.9 with assorted mods
Here follows the state of the Vrinn Consortium at the beginning of the 2220 CE elections for Chairman, which resulted in the re-election of Chairwoman Vikal Taras (born 2165) to her second 20-year term.

The Vrinn Consortium

Ethoi: Pacifist Materialist Xenophile
Authority: Oligarchic
Government: Trade League
Civics: Corporate Dominion, Mining Guilds

Planets

Jara (Jenisha I): Vrinn homeworld and capital of the Consortium
Type: Tropical
Size: 18
Population: 12.2118 POPs (approximately 12 billion Vrinn)
Economy: +17 energy, +10 minerals, +3 unity, +2 Physics, +7 Society, +6 Engineering,
+2 food per month
Industries: Agriculture, finance, light and heavy industry, research and development, education, energy, culture

Malh Toledurk (Rijin III)
Type: Tropical
Size: 23
Capital: Enterprise
Colonized: 2206.6.13-2208.7.1
Population: 3.6925 POPs (approximately 615,500 Vrinn)
Economy: -0.4 energy, +2 unity, +2 food per month
Industries: Agriculture, culture and tourism

Vi Talas (Bisanavi II)
Type: Ocean
Size: 25
Capital: Vikal’s Landing
Colonized: 2210.3.16
Population: 2.9601 POPs (approximately 194,000 Vrinn)
Economy: +0.6 energy, 1 food per month
Industries: Agriculture

Valk Goram (Bivham II)
Type: Desert
Size: 22
Capital: Endeavor
Colonized: 2217.12.22 – 2219.8.1
Population: 1.1242 POPs (approximately 15,000 Vrinn)
Economy: 1 energy and -1 food per month
Industries: None of significance

Winter Winds

Posted by

0

The title for this post comes from the Mumford and Sons song, though considering my recent YouTube music consumption, a song from Hudson Taylor would also be appropriate, and arguably more so considering my ex-girlfriend introduced me to Hudson Taylor a few months ago.

I’m not sure how to begin. As I wrote in my last post, I’ve thought about writing about my relationship that ended just over a month ago, but after explaining the title I chose for this post I realized that I wasn’t sure what to say. It’s tempting to relate the title to the weather, which has been quite variable lately (bitterly cold, snowed and near 0°F early last week, warmed up to near 60°F this weekend, rained yesterday, around 35°F and windy today and some snow this evening), but I’ll try to resist the urge to digress too much. Continue reading →

Beginnings and Endings

Posted by

0

I hadn’t realized it had been more than six months since I wrote here, but somehow that’s not a surprise. I know I had forgotten I had this blog until recently- and I don’t even remember what reminded me. I think it was visiting some site that used WordPress.

Anyway, the big story in my personal life of the last month is breaking up with the girl that I had been in a relationship with for two years. While I’ve been wanting to write about it (particularly since we have sort of started communicating again), I also am leery of writing too much here. Among other reasons, it’s weird imagining her reading anything I write here (though I don’t think I ever told her I had a blog), to say nothing of her current boyfriend, her family, or Internet archaeologists of the future. Haha. Anyway, to abbreviate a long story, she had started talking about wanting an engagement ring and a wedding proposal soon, and I didn’t want to propose to her. After several weeks of arguing about it and her departure for the winter break, she gave me the ultimatum of either proposing or breaking up. I didn’t want to propose, so we broke up. We maintained sporadic contact (mostly initiated by her) for about the next week and a half, and at some point I apparently made her think I had changed my mind. Once I told her that I hadn’t, she said she didn’t want to talk to me unless I had changed my mind or unless it was about getting her stuff back. Aside from a few text messages, some of which I’m sure were intended to make me jealous or otherwise upset, we had stopped talking, which has been its own adjustment. I can write more about that later.

Unfortunately, the spring semester began Tuesday. On the bright side, I only have one class Tuesdays and Thursdays, but this good news is somewhat marred by the fact this class is at 9:30 AM (not good news for this night owl, especially on nights I work until midnight) and the fact that Mondays and Wednesdays this semester I have three classes spaced out between 11:15 AM and 6:45 PM. Of course, since the semester just started, I haven’t had any serious assignments yet, but I’m not looking forward to having assignments and projects due.

In other news, I’ve been playing a lot of Stellaris lately (and this was particularly true before this week). I decided to start working on another AAR, this time based on playing as a Trade League (ethoi: Pacifist Xenophile Materialist) after playing a brief game because I had never tried the Corporate Dominion civic. At the moment I’ve been having mild “writer’s block” not quite knowing how I want to start it. I have decided I want this to be sort of a history, rather than the narrative story based on another Stellaris game that I played last summer. With that in mind, I’ve decided I want to start with a sort of prologue of the first ruler’s term covering the first twenty years of the game. Right now I think I’ve decided on listing the achievements of the first term (information about planets colonized, technologies researched, economic growth, diplomacy, etc.) before I start writing the history proper. Of course, before I write that history, I’ll also have to play past 2220, and decide whether I want to go with the random election, or burn most of my current Influence reserve and keep my current ruler for another twenty years. Decisions, decisions.

Well, I’m overdue to go to bed, so that’s all for now. I’ll try to write more here later- if nothing else, writing a blog post might make me feel more accomplished than some of the alternatives.

In the Summertime

Posted by

0

Well, I’ve done it. I decided to go ahead and finally install Ubuntu on my computer, so I’m currently running on one hard drive as of a couple days ago. Not quite how I wanted to set it up, but I think the 1 terabyte drive I did have (and still want) my personal files on (as opposed to my operating system’s files) is messed up enough I’ll probably have to just format it. Every time I try checking the disk, it comes up with a bunch of errors, and nothing seems to change, so my assumption is that the file system is, to use one colloquialism, “borked”.

Since I’ve been “suffering” withdrawal from some of my games (namely Stellaris and Crusader Kings 2), I’ve decided to go ahead and install them. At some point, my goal is to have this computer set up the way I want it so I can then transfer my files over (or create new ones, whatever), instead of running with the bare minimum. I should probably aim to get everything fixed before the fall semester starts next month, because school and my girlfriend will definitely cut into my free time even if I, by some miracle, manage to work fewer hours during the semester.

Speaking of work, tomorrow will mark my fifth anniversary with my current employer. I don’t know if that’s what I planned when I applied/started, but I have certainly been able to get plenty of hours, so I guess that’s good. At some point I should look for jobs in my desired field, but I’ve been hearing that for a while. At least now that I have a computer with an operating system again I can actually look for jobs and fill out applications/write cover letters/work on a resume, rather than being limited to my smart phone.

My work schedule for the next couple weeks, as I learned last night, is the same as the current schedule. which was unexpected. I had been planning a trip to the grocery store, but there’s no reason to buy a bunch of perishable food if I’m going to be out of town.

I need to clean my apartment, but at the same time I don’t like doing anything before work.

Well, it seems I may have been premature – apparently my hard drive went read-only for some probably stupid reason while I was trying to install Stellaris. Hopefully it’s not a major problem- I hated messing with a hard drive randomly going read-only earlier this year. These two stupid hard drives are not only “new”, I’ve only had them like three months, so I don’t know why I’m having any problems. Bad luck, I guess. Well, I’ll write more here later.

So long (in various senses)

Posted by

0

Once again, the time has come for me to write here. I hadn’t realized until I logged in and read my notifications that my last post was nearly a month ago- I guess I forgot.

Near the end of last month I realized that my summer was about half over, which was somewhat sad, and I have about a month and a week until my fall semester begins August 21, so that doesn’t help. Unfortunately, my computer has not been working for roughly the past two weeks, so my plans to play many hours of Stellaris have hit a roadblock and I’ve been badly suffering from withdrawal. Well, not really. Unfortunately, my most recent game of Stellaris (featuring my custom empire of theocratic xenophobic militaristic Space-Elves, and the story I had/have been planning based on the game) has suffered; I hope that I won’t have to completely reboot, but it’s possible that I may have to format the hard drive that all of my personal files were installed on, and I may end up losing some things. Continue reading →

Long time no see

Posted by

0

I haven’t written here for a while, but once again, since I renewed my domain registration I figured I might as well write something here.

I’ve been working a lot this week, unfortunately. I’m very close to being overtime (due to agreeing to work 4 hours on two of my three days off this week), so I was told to come in an hour late tonight. I may have to do that again tomorrow night, but I suppose we’ll see. I’m hoping tonight isn’t busy, but again, I guess I’ll find out for myself in a few hours.

I feel like I should be writing more about what I’ve been up to lately, but at the same time it doesn’t seem like there’s been very much. Working, as I’ve already mentioned. I was a full-time student again during the last academic year, and this past spring I took a web design class which was interesting and covered HTML, Javascript, Bootstrap, and XML. I also took a finance class because it’s required due to my major being part of the College of Business at my university. I took it online, which in hindsight may have been a mistake, but when I re-took that class as an intersession class (during the three weeks between the spring semester ending and the start of summer classes), I improved my grade from a D to a B, so that was satisfactory.

Since my class ended last week (has it really been a week?), I’ve been enjoying my increased free time by playing lots of Stellaris (when I’m not working). I may write more here later, and considering I’m paying for this domain, as I’ve said, I really should start writing here again more often.

For now, auf Wiedersehen.

Midway

Posted by

0

It’s weird thinking about how 2016 is half over.

I think my summer break might also be close to half over – recently, thinking about the onset of July has made me realize that I have just under 2 months until the fall semester starts in August. While I’m all in favor of cooler weather (though that won’t probably happen until closer to October), I’ve kind of enjoyed the break (even if I haven’t done much other than work).

I haven’t written here for some time, I know, and April suddenly seems like a very long time ago. My semester ended okay, I suppose, and since it ended I’ve spent a lot of time not doing much of significance. Work, the Internet, and playing games have been how I’ve spent most of my days, and while I’ve thought about writing about some of my games that has yet to happen.

The Florida game in the Super States mod for Europa Universalis 4 that I’ve mentioned before has been played (as of last week) to November 11, 1494 (fifty years since the game started), so I’ve been wanting to write an overview of North America at that time.

There’s also my Crusader Kings 2 game in the After the End mod as the ruler of Springfield, Missouri and, last but certainly not least, my Stellaris game as the Commonwealth of Man.

While writing extensively about Stellaris may have to wait for another time, suffice it to say that Stellaris is a science fiction strategy game, and the Commonwealth of Man is a xenophobic military dictatorship descended from 250 thousand human colonists who left Earth near the end of the 21st century aboard a ship using experimental wormhole technology. When the game starts on January 1, 2200 the Commonwealth (one of a few pre-defined empires) has a few differences from the United Nations of Earth who remained on Earth, including their use of laser weapons on ships (in contrast to the United Nations’ nuclear missiles) and the use of wormholes to travel between star systems, rather than the warp drive used by the UN.

Sometime I may also have to write about my first game of Stellaris as the United Nations of Earth – to some extent, some of the things that happened were probably due to release version weirdness. For example, the initial President of the United Nations in my game (which began two days after the game was released) had an African name and wants to legalize slavery, despite that not being possible with the ethos being used. That’s… weird, to say the least.

I could probably write more, but now that I’ve renewed my domain registration, I’ll have to try writing here more often, or at least doing something so the money seems well-spent instead of basically spending it for no reason.

April come she will

Posted by

0

I know, I haven’t written here for a while. Spring break was nice, but that was about a month ago. I can’t remember right now anything particularly interesting that happened since my last post, but I know I’ve worked and attended classes. Easter weekend (a couple weeks after spring break) I went with my family to Oklahoma City, so that was fun (though more because I had never been to Oklahoma, rather than my “enjoyment” of professional basketball games or crowds).

Strangely, I have only a few days left before turning 25. Getting old is weird. How am I nearly halfway through my 20s?

In other news, the weather has (unfortunately) been nice lately, which I suppose isn’t actually that bad, but I wouldn’t mind more cold, rainy days.

I guess I don’t really have any coherent reason to write a blog post, but I know I have stuff I should be doing (dishes, accounting homework, the next paper for my writing class), but I don’t really want to do anything before working from 4 to 8 PM tonight. It’s weird to think about there being only about a month left in the semester, but it’s true. My German teacher said something today about there only being a month left of class, which means we only meet 9 more times after today.

Lately I haven’t been reading or writing anywhere near as much as I would like, but I’ll have to figure out a way to change that, even if new updates for Crusader Kings 2 and Europa Universalis 4 force my favorite mods to update. My recent games have been enjoyable, but the latest EU4 expansion came out today, and I’m definitely looking forward to the Super States mod being updated (though sadly, my  game as Florida from the previous version of the game will probably be ended once I reach 1500 or so).

It’s kind of frustrating having ideas and insufficient time to act on them, but it probably wouldn’t hurt to be more diligent (or something).

Deeds of the Dukes of Chariton, part IX

Posted by

0

Deeds of the Dukes of Chariton

A Crusader Kings II: After the End mod After-Action Report

Part IX: Wars in the North and South
November 2694 – January 2699

On May 19 2695 Mayor Isaac of Rock Port, who had spent 31 years as Mayor of Rock Port, died in his sleep at the age of 59. After a brief meeting of the city council, the leading citizens of Rock Port elected Isaac’s eldest son Everett to succeed him as Mayor of Rock Port.

In early October 2695, Duke Lyman noticed that his wife had developed an interest in romantic poetry, and sent her books of romantic poetry purchased in Des Moines, Rock Port, and Carrollton.

In late June 2696, there were sordid rumors that Muriel (a courtier of Duke Lyman’s) had been seen in the company of King Franklin.

In August 2696, Theodora Nodaway, the natural daughter of Spymaster Lavon’s wife Pamela, was betrothed to Asa, the heir to the Barony of Lincoln in the Kingdom of Platte.

In December 2696, Muriel gave birth to a son, who was named Morris. She claimed King Franklin was the father, and once the word reached Des Moines King Franklin acknowledged the child as his own. In the same month, Theodora Nodaway was married to Asa Lincoln.

In February 2697, rumor had it that the Rust Cultist Oligarch Grimhilt of Cuyahoga had stood firm and dealt a defeat to the the Ursuline Abbess-General, which prompted Abbess-General Bella Dompierre to make peace with Oligarch Grimhilt and call on her flock to adhere to the peace treaty and pray for guidance.

In early March 2697, Abbott Lee of Bethany requested permission to duel his rival, which Duke Lyman granted. On March 16, King Franklin summoned his vassals for war against Jarl Ollrod of Saint Anthony, declaring his intent to return Rochester and the surrounding lands to their rightful place as part of Iowa. While the armies mustered, Duke Lyman was charged with training troops near Des Moines.

In June, Micaiah, self-styled Governor of Missouri, died and was succeeded as Governor of Missouri by his 17-year-old son Micaiah, who claimed his father had originally come from Atchison, near the State of Missouri’s northern border with the Kingdom of Platte. A few days later, Duke Peter of the Quad Cities announced his interest in assuming the Iowan throne. Later the same month, 4100 Iowan men began to lay siege to Rochester.

On July 1 2697, Duke Lyman summoned his vassals for war against the State of Missouri, declaring his intent to press Count Napoleon of Thompson’s claim to the County of Saline. Duke Lyman’s 2200 men from Maryville and Kirksville, as well as Count Hannibal’s 200 men and Count Napoleon’s 200 men, were ordered to meet at Moberly.

In late July 2697, it was announced that Duke Lyman’s wife Juniper was pregnant.

In early August, Duke Lyman’s army of 2600 men united near Moberly. Duke Lyman’s friend Lavon was given overall command, with Count Napoleon of Thompson commanding the right flank and Theophile Lucerne in command of the left flank. Lavon was ordered to march on St. Joseph.

King Franklin’s first wife died in July after a period of illness, and King Franklin married Rosa Steinbach, a sister of Duke Keifer of Illinois, in late July or early August. Duke Keifer of Illinois accepted his brother-in-law’s call for aid and joined the war against the Jarl of St. Anthony in mid-August.

In late August, the Chariton army began to lay siege to Saint Joseph.

Rochester fell to the Iowan army by mid-October, and on October 18 Ana, wife of Duke Truman’s steward Phineas, gave birth to a daughter named Bertha.

On November 6, Duke Lyman’s steward Phineas was killed by a mob of angry peasants while trying to collect taxes. He was survived by his widow Ana and two daughters. Sheldon, who had previously served as Duke Truman’s steward and Duke Lyman’s steward in his minority, replaced Phineas as Steward. Sheldon’s son Paul, a friend of Duke Lyman, was appointed spymaster and Solomon, Sheldon’s youngest son, was appointed chancellor and sent to Rolla to improve relations with the Duke of Waxhaw.

In January 2698, Duke Lyman questioned his steward about some money that was missing from his treasury. After Sheldon’s confession, Duke Lyman ordered him to pay back the money he had stolen.

In February, King Franklin’s youngest brother Count Cole of Fort Dodge announced his interest in sitting on the Iowan throne. On February 23, 2698 Duke Lyman and Duchess Juniper’s first son Zerubbabel was born.

In late February, a heathen army of 4600 men from St. Anthony and Jarl Ollrod’s allies took Rock Rapids while King Franklin’s army was laying siege to Winona.

On June 11, after a siege of 9 months, St. Joseph surrendered to Duke Lyman’s army. Pinola, the mother of the Count of St. Joseph, and Fanny, an infant girl whose father was unknown, were taken into custody. Duke Lyman’s army marched south and began to lay siege to Platte City.

In early August, Duke Peter of the Quad Cities was captured by Jarl Ollrod of St. Anthony after the battle of Rochester, which saw 4200 Iowans face some 4500 Northlanders. Nearly 3300 Iowans were killed or wounded, while only some 400 Northmen were killed or wounded. In mid-August, Duke Lyman’s chancellor Solomon married Lily, a woman from the county of Hannibal.

On August 24, Platte City surrendered to Duke Lyman’s army, which began to march south to besiege Kansas City. Duke Lyman’s 2200 men began to besiege Kansas City on September 20.

On January 6, 2699, Kansas City surrendered to Duke Lyman’s army. Mayor Fitch of Kansas City had tutored Governor Micaiah Atchison of Missouri and served as the Secretary of State of Missouri, but was unable to personally surrender the city to Duke Lyman’s army due to his being in the field and commanding troops in the Missouri army, or so the delegation of prominent citizens that surrendered Kansas City informed Lavon and the other commanders of Duke Lyman’s army. After accepting their surrender, Lavon’s army marched east to besiege Marshall in the County of Saline, but after hearing that the Missouri army was laying siege to St. Joseph the Chariton army crossed the Missouri River near Carrollton and marched west to St. Joseph.