Enough About Illness

I'm sick. Leslie is sick. A lot of people are sick. No, being sick doesn't feel good, but... I tend to dwell on being sick a lot when I am sick. Sort of a, "I'm watching the way my body works, because it's so interesting... darn it, I'm leaking nasal lubricant again!" My one hope is that it clears away soon, so I can get substantive things done.

One thing first though... I don't know why, but my first pretense is normally to trace a line of infection... a finer word for blame, maybe, whenever illness happens. Not that we're all maliciously trying to get each other, but... it's interesting to think about just how the disease spreads. How did I get my cold? How did Leslie get hers? Are ours even related? Did one give the other it? Did someone give us both it? Are they completely unrelated? It doesn't matter that much in the end. Sickness is just one of those things you can't do much against... you can be cautious, and if someone else gets it, you can try to comfort them... entertain them, but otherwise... rargh.

Scott's (Hatshepsut) and my (Otto von Bismarck) conquests have gone according to plan so far in Civilization IV. We have been leading a joint attack on the Spanish (Isabella), which are a narrow sea away. (The map is randomly generated.) When we left, Scott had taken one city, and I had lost one. This time, the tables turned. We researched a modern revolution, employing cavalry, riflemen, and (later) cannons against her longbowmen, macemen, and trebuchets. I ended up taking three cities, including her capital, while Scott by agreement took the strategically important Barcelona. After that, we were able to get Isabella to become our vassal, as we also declared our mutual hegemony in a permanent alliance. Now we are going to turn our forces toward Saladin, the strongest player in the game after us, and with no such lack of technology to take advantage of. This means we'll have to actually be strategic instead of simply sensible. (Interesting note... it took a couple of times to get that worked out. Scott would launch a few troops toward Madrid, and they'd get squandered because they didn't have enough support. He lost a general this way. >_<)

Well, interesting for us.