It took a while for me to work out. But fear kept popping up in my head and I kept shoving it down. So when I sat down and confronted why I kept thinking fear i made some realizations. I think I let so many opportunities slip by when I was younger that at this point in my life I'm afraid to let any more go so I make a point to try and do everything I can. I was afraid of being old and alone so I struck out and found my partner, who I love dearly. I'm not an angry or jealous person so those aren't really motivations for me. I'm not even really that ambitious I just have a high opinion of my personal abilities and don't want to get trapped in a job I hate so I work hard to advance, again elements of fear. I know there is a deeper more complex reason than just fear so I have plenty to think about for a few days.

Sax Russel and Nadia

Agreed, for the same souls bit. Africa following the same line of history makes sense to me though. It wasn't until the colonial era that Europe influenced Africa and China would fulfill the same role as Europe when that time came. There were no clashing cultures to advance sub Sahara Africa as there were in Asia and the Middle East.

I will have to read 2312 next then. I'm almost finished with Rice and Salt I love the way he worked in characters similar to Da Vinci, MLK, and Marie Curie as souls and eventualities. That just made me think of Isaac Asimovs Foundation Series with the concept of psycohistory. Are you familiar with it?

More spoilers. I thought the moral of the story was more about growing up and how when your environment changes the way you interpret memories also changes. For example when I was a kid fishing with my grand father always made me happy now that he has passed those memories are bitter sweet. That's why Sadness was trying to touch Rileys core memories with blue before everything else went down. Those were no longer happy memories.

If you didn't cry during the the pit escape scene you are a monster. What would you say your driving personality force is?

That is a really interesting article. Thank you for linking it! I'm glad they kept it simple and in the spirit of a kids movie.

Hahahahaha!

Job fair. I went to one with about 15 copies of my resume and spoke with every table I could.

Lately I've been working through some of Kim Stanley Robinsons work. So far the Red Mars trilogy, Shaman, and the Years of Rice and Salt. Shaman was my favorite story but, Red Mars is amazing for learning the theories on space colonization.

I just got this! Took me hours.

Mushroom jokes are great but sometimes they take awhile to grow on you.

Hahahaha! That's awesome.

You would think that but tis the C they love.

I've never heard the sneakers one before that's gold! You know what a pirates favorite letter is right?

Those damn Pachyderms

They can give you so much. If you have a few militaristic city state friends you don't really need to build an army, a few actually will give you unique units like winged Hussars or conquistadors. If you run patronage they will give you science. And faith city states make getting a religion early game really easy. In my opinion unless they have a strategic position you should never conquer them

San Antonio Texas. It's summer time here so that means river tubing time!

Diplomacy. Go Siam, Venice, or Greece then down the patronage tree while focusing on making as much money as possible. Everytime a city state gives a quest for donating money or double money rewards do it. Try to save a up a big nest egg for the end game so when the world election rolls around you can buy every city state out and win.