Working for the weekend

[dr_kromm]

I had a crazy-busy week, and I suppose I should be out partying or at least in bed sleeping. Instead, I spent most of the afternoon editing a Department of National Defense paper, and I'll probably do the same thing tomorrow. Naturally, since they're hiring a freelancer to work on it, it's nothing exciting, never mind classified -- just their day-to-day. On the bright side, the government sure does pay better than the games industry. They can afford it, since they get a lot of it back as taxes. I don't know how I get into these things (actually, I do: I need to pay the bills).

All is not work, however. Bonnie made our Christmas fruitcakes today. For those not in the know, there's nasty fruitcake with the density of osmium and a crust of sugary gunk . . . and then there's proper fruitcake that's more fruit than cake, and that sits in a rum-soaked cloth for two months to improve. Ours is, fortunately, the second sort. Luckily for me, one must bake a small "sample" cake -- you know, to test the outcome -- and eating this took the edge of working whilst inhaling a delicious baking smell.

I also found a few hours to try out Civilization IV: Colonization. It's a fun trip down memory lane for those of us who played the original, but it has less replay value than Civilization IV. Right now, I'm finding it hard to get anywhere. I suspect that this has to do with having the game for only three days during a crazy-busy week.

Comments

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

I remember the original Civilization fondly. I twice played it till my eyes were raw from staring at the screen to long. Eventually I had to uninstall it; it was too profoundly habit-forming. I really liked the complexity of the decision-making process.

[dr-kromm.livejournal.com]

I've played all four Civilization games, every major expansion, and all the spinoff games like Alpha Centauri and Colonization. I think that "profoundly habit-forming" is about right. However, I hold replay value to be the highest virtue in game design. I'd rather have one or two games of extreme complexity that I can play for years -- trying every configuration and tweak -- than an entire shelf or hard drive full of games that I'll discard a few weeks later. This probably explains why I work on GURPS, and why it has been my near-exclusive choice for tabletop roleplaying since 1986 (previous to which I probably played 30-40 different RPGs).

Then again, I'm also a die-hard monogamist (married at age 23 to my then-girlfriend of four years, meaning that at age 41, I've been married 18 years and in this relationship for 22 years, or better than half my life). It seems that I prefer to commit wholeheartedly to things.

[philreed.livejournal.com]

I have never played Civilization. The game has always looked interesting, but I've never taken the time to try it out.

Fruitcake soaks in rum for two months? I never knew that. Does it absorb all of the rum by the end of the two months?

[dr-kromm.livejournal.com]

I have never played Civilization. The game has always looked interesting, but I've never taken the time to try it out.

Or perhaps you've never had the time? It simply doesn't "do" short-and-sweet, hour-out-of-the-day gaming. It's one of those games where you only feel like you're getting your money's worth if you sit down at noon on Saturday and play it until midnight. Okay, I'm exaggerating . . . maybe only from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. But it's like that, and my understanding of your gaming habits is that you prefer smaller chunks.

Fruitcake soaks in rum for two months?

Some does and some doesn't. It depends entirely on the recipe and the baker. If you're going to age a cake for months, though, you must use rum (or other booze) . . . or else. Nobody likes sporecake.

Does it absorb all of the rum by the end of the two months?

That and more, because you re-soak the wrappings on a regular basis. But for the teetotalers out there, it's important to realize that this doesn't actually imply alcohol content. You re-soak precisely because the alcohol evaporates rapidly. You stop reapplying the rum a week or two before you're ready to serve it, and by the time you're slicing it, the alcohol is all but gone. This doesn't mean that the rum taste is gone, though; that's due to various compounds, like esters, with higher molecular weights and lower vapor pressures.

Verbose -- it's a way of life.