Advent Calendar 2021 (part 2)

This year my lovely wife gave me both an Advent beer calendar and an Advent wine calendar: 'Take a Wine Advent-ure'. Each wine bottle is half the size (375ml) of a regular wine bottle (750 ml). Given the amount of wine involved, that’s too much daily drinking for one month, so I delayed enjoying the …

Advent Calendar 2021 (part 1)

This year my lovely wife gave me both an Advent beer calendar and an Advent wine calendar. Given the amount of wine involved, that's too much daily drinking for one month, so I'll enjoy the wine advent calendar in January, and post on it. Anyway, on to the beer. I wrote about the beer advent …

Cryptocurrency, Medieval Venice, and Among Us

My wife and I have been investing in the stock market with the company Robinhood. Just a little play money, to supplement our investments and to amuse us. One of the things we have looked into is cryptocurrency. It's a currency not backed by any government (so far) and not necessarily widely usable for payment …

Among Us: Behavior, Good and Bad

I wrote here about the game Among Us and what it can teach us. As a frequent player, I am always happy to find other players who behave sensibly. They do their tasks. They respond to a crisis like a reactor meltdown or oxygen depletion. They try to figure out which crewmate is really the …

Everything I need to know I learned playing Among Us

You are part of the crew of a space ship (alternatively, flying headquarters or frozen base). You have a mission to perform, but among you is one (maybe more…) impostor who wants to stop your mission, including by killing crewmates or destroying the ship. You have many tasks to perform throughout the ship to keep …

Designing medieval fantasy armies: Ylaruam

I recently posted a guide to authors who wish to include armies in their medieval historical or fantasy stories, or in background materials for role-playing games. I want to follow up with some examples and what is done well or poorly in each. In the next post I looked at the army of the Duchy …

Designing medieval fantasy armies: Glantri

I recently posted a guide to authors who wish to include armies in their medieval historical or fantasy stories, or in background materials for role-playing games. I want to follow up with some examples and what is done well or poorly in each. In the next post I looked at the army of the Duchy …

Designing medieval fantasy armies: Karameikos

I recently posted a guide to authors who wish to include armies in their medieval historical or fantasy stories, or in background materials for role-playing games. I want to follow up with some examples and what is done well or poorly in each. An example of army design done wrong is found in the Mystara …

Designing medieval fantasy armies: doing it right, doing it wrong

Let's say you're writing a fantasy story, or some fiction based in the medieval world, or writing background information for a role-playing game in a medieval-like fantasy setting.  Appearing in your story, or your game campaign, is some interaction with the army of the kingdom.  You want to write something believable, but you're not an …

Open letter to Microsoft

Dear Mister Gates (or whoever runs the place now) Please stop restarting my laptop with no warning. I already set my preferences to have you only restart it at night. You're obviously not sticking to that. Can you at least please give me a day or so warning before you dump everything I have open? …