Adjustment to Yesterday’s top 5, Civ V, and Day 1

Trying to get things done quickly often leads to mistakes. I mistakenly left out a couple of shows in yesterday's top five of the week, that really feel deserve to be in there – Halt and Catch Fire and The Bridge.

In what may be the series finale of Halt and Catch Fire, I realize I like the idea of this show much more that what shows up on the screen. I love the concept of watching the dawning of the computer age unfold on the television, but that isn't really what we ended up getting. Instead, we saw the underdog get smacked around and eventually left in the dirt by three of the main characters and with the fourth, just moving through the paces. There is potential that the series could get another season to show what Cameron and Donna's Mutiny operation can do (which could be interesting), but to me this could justifiably be the end. I am not really interested in Joe (Lee Pace) anymore – his charisma and mystery have given way to self destruction and pity, and I'm not sure that's something good to try to base a show around, and Gordon as CEO isn't really a compelling tale at this point. If this is the last episode of the show, I have to say that I enjoyed the series – perhaps they can jump ahead a bit and gloss over some of the hard to work out of corners they wrote themselves into at the end of the season.

The other show I mistakenly left out of my list is The Bridge (S2E5 – Eye of the Deep). This by my opinion should be my number one show of the week. The complex story lines and characters really make this one of my favorite shows of the year. There are so many good points, I'll highlight three:

  • Marco's (Demián Bichir) trip to the prison seeking out revenge was wonderfully portrayed and I am glad for the resolution provided. It will prove interesting to see how he and Fausto Galvan interact going forward now that the favor has been delivered.
  • Sonya's continued relationship with Jack perplexes me and I really see nothing positive to be gained now that her sister's killer has been cremated – I wonder how much Jack knows about her sister's death.
  • The DEA asking Fry to investigate how the CIA is involved with Groupo CLIO and Eva's agreeing to testify against Captain Robles keep up the tension and intrigue and really sets my anticipation for the next episode.

I really like this show!

Another few centuries in Civ V

The mighty German civilization marched through time and ended up in 1360BC (turn 66). Actually, they are not too mighty, only having a Spearman and an Archer for troops. They have expanded to 3 cities – Berlin, Hamburgh, and Munich and have pretty much taken control of the top portion of the continent they are on.

So far, we've run into the Dutch, Portugal, and Babylon, and a couple of city-states. I've been focusing on technological advancements, but took a diversion as I focused Berlin's citizens on producing a Great Library, which we were able to beat the other civilizations to. The result was that while 3 other cigs made it to the Classical Era before us, we vaulted there once the Library was complete.

Along the way, we were also able to found a Pantheon – the first time I've gotten one. I decided to grab the Messenger of the Gods which gives +2 science for each connected city. I figure that will speed up my research pretty well. I also finished off Bronze Working, Masonry, Calendar and Drama & Poetry, and am almost done with Mathematics.

With 3 solid cities and a good science foundation, I feel pretty good about my position in the game. I think I am going to start working on suppressing Babylon since they only have one city and are between me and the southern part of the continent.

Back to square one

After Comic-Con and a week long illness, I gave myself a further week of rest before I started back up on my fitness routine. I am starting back at day one of my core challenge and got through the exercises pretty easily.

  • 6 push-ups
  • 15 seconds plank
  • 10 plank reaches

This is post 11 in my Blaugust Challenge.

#Blaugust #CivV #CivilizationV #HaltAndCatchFire #TheBridge #TV