Wednesday 19 January 2000

Pic of the day: "So today I have been playing Pharaoh. Some people may argue that I do this all the time..."

Called in sick today. I woke up and was back to the condition of the night before last. I am starting to suspect why this might be, but I do not have the courage to admit it yet. Anyway, I've improved over the course of the day, again.

Hmm, if I am to have a headache, hot face, dizziness and general fogginess, I might as well drink some wine. That's practically the only thing that lacks in my Mediterranean diet. Well, and more fruit I guess. You know that Mediterranean diet is extremely healthy this year? Someone found out that the folks down there have less heart attacks and such. Of course, one may wonder why - if they eat so healthy - they don't live longer than the mutton-gobbling Norwegians, Scots and Icelanders. Probably the scientific community is going to wonder too sooner or later, and fint out that mutton is the key to a long and healthy life. The Californians will then have to run out and buy mutton pills. Taste-free and smell-free, of course, but containing all the essential fatty acids and amino acids and co-enzymes.

I have pondered in the past how (white) people migrate to the south when their life draws towards its end. In America, the ageing ones move to California and Florida. Here in Europe, it's Spain and to some extent Portugal. There is a steady trickle of elderly, affluent Norwegians buying houses on the coast down there. I guess this makes sense, given how many people who collapse and die while shovelling snow. But I feel that it must make for a somewhat weird social environment. Another solution might be to let your engines roar all night long so the greenhouse effect can change Norway and New Hampshire to Florida climate. ;)

Then again, civilization as we know it did not start on the chilly beaches of the North sea, but in the fairly hot valleys of the Nile, Indus, and Euphrates. (And China too, but I can't spell the rivers there. It seems to vary from map to map.) The hegemony of the north is fairly recent, and I don't know if it has yet been fully explained. Perhaps it was a result of Protestantism and the consequent relaxed social cohesion. In the middle ages, the Church had gently pressured the well off to share money with the poor (but let the upper classes keep the land, cementing their wealth). Virtually all protestant sects downplayed this, and the ensuing concentration of wealth in the form of volatile money (rather than land) may have made possible capitalism as we know it. Then again, it could be just dumb luck...

The reason why I suddenly think in terms of civilizations might just be the strategy game Pharaoh from Sierra. Yesterday on my way home from work I noticed there was only one copy left. While I am not yet tired of Civilization II, I thought I better capture this one before it was too late. (The music program I saw a few weeks ago was for instance gone next time I looked for it.)

So today I have been playing Pharaoh. Some people may argue that I do this all the time, but this time I mean the computer game. When not sleeping, eating, mailing and trying to cool off my face, I have started to learn the ropes of this highly complex game. It isn't half bad, though apart from its novelty I might still have preferred Civ2. I've always (well, at least very long) had a thing for ancient history. There were times when I wondered if I knew ancient Sumer better than the suburbs of my own city. So I guess I am pretty much the bulls eye of the target audience. :)

In less civilized news, the landlord seem to be growing greedy. He wants to re-negotiate the rent in April. I guess they have had a too good time for too long, and may need again to rent the flat to someone who doesn't pay and suddenly runs away, as they used to do again and again until I moved in. The rent is currently tied to the consumer price index, and has been following it for over ten years. That's OK by me. I'd hate to have to move; but if the landlord grows too greedy, I shall have to look into other solutions.

No, I'm not particularly thinking of moving to Spain. Or California, though I think I would prefer that over the Mediterranean. At least the Californians speak a civilized language - albeit in a strange way...