My post about Disney earlier today made me realize I need to share with you my latest obsession: a board game called Villainous. If you have a cunning and ruthless side that enjoys plotting optimal strategy, buy it. You won’t regret it.
I am a huge fan of the work of biographer Ron Chernow (many of you know him for writing Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., which is the best biography on the oil giant that has ever been published). Back in 2004, he wrote a biography of Alexander Hamilton. If you don’t have a copy, you should buy one and read it. My edition is marked-up, highlighted, cross-referenced, and scribbled upon. Through 800 or so pages, he lays out the story of one of America’s founding fathers.
With so much of my time spent away from the site in the past 4-6 weeks, I thought I’d give a “here’s roughly what’s been going on” round-up. I had intended for a lot of this to turn into their own stand-alone posts but this will be faster.
Remember back in 2012 when Jimmy came on one of his regular house guest trips to visit Aaron and me in Kansas City? The time when we went to the Kansas City Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art? Today, he took us to the Art Institute of Chicago. You already experienced the incredible Thorne miniatures installment in another post,…
As I’ve grown older, I find myself fascinated by the power of social capital; specifically, how it encircles the person who possesses it with a halo that sets them apart from society even when they are far from the only snowflake. People often mistake fame with competency or ability. This tendency is part of human nature so it…
I had so much work to do today, but I’m going to be up all night finishing it because I … uh … may have spent six or seven hours playing Tales of Xillia 2, which was released last week. When I woke up, I just didn’t feel like going anywhere or doing anything so I threw on comfortable clothes, grabbed a cup of coffee, made myself a plate of white cheddar, honey, and golden raisins on baguette slices, paired it with a big glass of milk, and went to the living room to lose myself in the world of Rieze Maxia and Elympios.
The economics of the movie theater industry are interesting. In many cases, up to 70% of the ticket price goes to the movie studio that created the film and the distributor who sold the rights to it, leaving the remaining 30% for the owners. This creates a situation where most of the profit comes from…
After my post on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air earlier, I began thinking about the media industry. One of the things I find most fascinating when studying history, businesses, mental models, and the human experience, is the unexpected cultural phenomenon. There are certain things that happen, at certain moments in time, that are only…
On June 26, 2014, I beat my first Deity game in Civ 5. I decided to play a Highland map surrounded by mountains, huge, with maximum city states. Luck of the draw pitted me against Genghis Khan, who was never able to march an army to my capital in time due to the long, almost impassible mountains that stood between us.
My niece and nephew were over at the house a couple of days ago and I ended up playing Eurotruck Simulator 2 with them as I had picked it up during one of the past Steam sales. In it, you want to start a freight company but you have no money so you take driving jobs. As you amass capital, you establish your own trucking business, setup a headquarters, acquire new equipment, and increase profits. You can even program your radio to play your own mp3 files.
