Wednesday, March 13, 2002

As expected, much of my non-job search time is being sucked up by Civ III. Mastering this one is going to be a hell of a lot harder than Civ II, but that's the point, after all. I'm having a ball with it, and it's helping drive away the unemployment blues. A guy couldn't ask for much more out of a distraction.

When I'm not playing the game, I'm reading. I've just finished the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, which I highly recommend to anybody who wants to read a Great American Novel with a comic book theme. Last night, I started David Sederis' best-seller Me Talk Pretty One Day. I picked it up on the recommendation of my brother Geoff, the toughest audience I know. He read a passage to me a few weeks back that made him laugh to the point of tears, so I'm expecting many a giggle fit from the book myself.

The best bit of reading I've done recently combines these two main leisure activities: this FAQ for Civ III written by Dennis "Fox" Doucette. Most such works are pretty dry laundry list affairs devoid of style, humor or even a basic command of syntax. This one is funny, engaging and well-written. One moment he's doing a great riff on gamers' propensity to see themselves as the gods of the scenarios they play, the next he's referencing Ricardo’s Law of Comparative Advantage. The FAQ is almost more fun than playing the game itself, and further proof that good writing is good writing, regardless of the subject.

Posted @ 4:15 PM

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