R.J. Sikes
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On "The Ankor-Nimbul" War Myth
It would be a bold claim to assume that nobody in the history of the world discovered the land that would become Gloria before Demiscans. There are some tales from other cultures about journeying to close lands and being stuck in a seemingly endless storm in which ‘the waves and the winds battled’. Perhaps this started as poetic language in a letter sent home from a traveler to loved ones, though if so it has taken on a life of its own. Early Glorian storytellers would spin it into all sorts of tales about the old war between two creatures: Nimbul and Ankor.
By R.J. Sikes2 years ago in Fiction
The Imaginative Glorian Psyche
It is rare that we look within our current times to pull what will be the largest and most significant societal changes and makers. Ancient archivists filled plenty of scripts with the importance of Demasia’s innovations in terraforming. Discoveries in large-scale damming would allow water to be spread throughout their lands. Demasia would become known for its advanced canal and boating routes, but not for thousands of years after these predictions. What is credited with advancing Demasia into surviving among the ancient early peoples were actually improvements in rope-making and weaving. Through developing stronger and more purposeful textiles, the Demasians were able to improve agricultural effectiveness, create bigger and sturdier buildings, and begin learning about weight distribution.
By R.J. Sikes2 years ago in Fiction
Frostpunk’s Book of Laws & The Agency of City-Building Decisions
Frostpunk is awesome. I haven’t gotten that far in it, but I have played enough to get the gist of the game and to explore a few different styles of playing. It’s a unique twist on the city-builder genre because on top of building a city, you build a city that is in an intense freeze. There are the standard resources to worry about, housing and food and healthcare, but there is also heat. Buildings that are farther away from the center are colder, and are more likely to cause sickness.
By R.J. Sikes2 years ago in Gamers
“The Common Good” and Necessarily Lukewarm Left-Politics
Robert Reich’s The Common Good is a good book, and a great book to recommend. It’s nothing revolutionary itself, but for someone who’s attached to some big names in politics (Presidents Clinton, Ford, and Carter), he’s surprisingly more left than center-left. I first noticed him from his Netflix documentary Saving Capitalism, named after his book of the same name. It was a bipartisanish approach at exposing lobbying. It looked at a real problem both sides should be able to agree on, and said, “Shouldn’t something be done about this?’
By R.J. Sikes2 years ago in BookClub
