Civilization IV

November 3, 2007 – 8:36 pm

I was a bit sick this weekend so took it easy and looked over some of the games I had available. One I have played a few times is Civilization IV, which I believe I got free with my video card. It isn’t half bad and some things in it I find pretty neat. As one builds a city and researches technologies, each one has an interesting quote to go along with it, and it is even voiced by Leonard Nimoy. All of the quotes are pretty good, you can read them half-way down the page here: Civilization IV Quotes.

The ones I found most interesting are below.

“Meditation brings wisdom; lack of meditation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back.”
- The Buddha

“Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are both true and kind, they can change our world.”
- The Buddha

“All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts.”
- William Shakespeare

“I have gained this by philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.”
- Aristotle

“One doesn’t discover new lands without losing sight of the shore.”
- Andre Gide

“There is no wealth like knowledge, no poverty like ignorance.”
- Ali ibn Abi-Talib

“You can get more of what you want with a kind word and a gun than you can with just a kind word.”
- Al Capone

“Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.”
- Benjamin Franklin

“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.”
- Sun-Tzu

“It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.”
- Winston Churchill

“Compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe.”
- Albert Einstein

“I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.”
- Galileo Galilei

“You would make a ship sail against the winds and currents by lighting a bon-fire under her deck? I have no time for such nonsense.”
- Napoleon, on Robert Fulton’s Steamship

“We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles.”
- Thomas Edison

“For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.”
- Leonardo Da Vinci

“Never trust a computer you can’t throw out a window.”
- Steve Wozniak

No More Neighbors

September 29, 2007 – 8:42 am

I live in La Habra, CA right now, and it is a bit different nowadays on our street. There have been quite a few houses for sale on our street, which isn’t too out of the ordinary for California, but now both houses to the north and south of us are vacant. I believe one foreclosed and the other was being rented out by the owners, but the rent wasn’t covering their increasing mortgage payment, so now it sits there empty waiting for a buyer. The house that was rented looks pretty normal (Zillow.com shows it worth $613,000 as of today):

Neighbors

The other house is a serious fixer-upper (Zillow.com still says it is worth $567,000 as of today, and I learned just now that it was sold at auction a couple months ago for $495,000.  Ouch.)….

Neighbors

It seems when the moved they even took the blue tarp covering part of the leaking roof, and who knows how that garage door ever got closed. The garage door honestly had not been closed in at least 4 years, possibly longer, and during that time had folded in half at least one, requiring a bad repair job.

Oh well, I’m glad those neighbors took their 6 (yes, 6!) little yipping dogs with them. They would often escape their backyard, and run right to our yard to get our dogs into a barking fit. Here’s to a better night of sleep!

Catching Up

September 7, 2007 – 6:34 pm

Well, originally I was planning on going to the river with Dad but after Japanese class on Thursday, I have this growing feeling I am getting a bit behind on vocabulary, phrases and such, so I decided to stay home and work on catching up on school and getting some other errands done.  So I will be going to language lab tomorrow (since 800 minutes / semester is required to get full credits anyways), and to help with learning.

Besides that, not too much else is new.   Work is going fine, and our team is back in the #1 place on the team statistics page.  :)  While Dad is gone at the river, we have free room on the driveway so got the mustang moved to the front of the house and washed it since it had months of dirt piled on it.  Cleans up and runs nicely still.  Drove it around a while to try to use up some of the gas in it, before that goes bad too.  Well, that’s about it!  Time to do some studying.

My cars

Trying to be Artistic #1

August 26, 2007 – 4:30 am

This is the Highway 10 bridge over the Colorado River from California to Arizona, in the early morning hours.

Bridge Over Colorado River

Bridge Over Colorado River

Slowing Traffic on Highway 10, It’s Plane Parts!

August 26, 2007 – 4:17 am

Transported plane wings holding up traffic

Recreational Flying

August 25, 2007 – 9:09 pm

When I’m not at work and have some free time at home, this is my RC Helicopter which I fly around open areas here. It is an E-Flite Blade CP Pro with carbon fibre blades, brushless motor upgrade and gyro upgrade. It is pretty squirrelly but good practice.

My Helicopter