I Goofed Off Last Night

First things first. The Wings won game 1 against the Avs. I missed the Wings’ dominant first period. Colorado apparently scored first. Ozzie let one in with 11:07 left in the period, annoyingly after only two previous shots on goal. The scorer’s name is Statsny (can you tell I never see regular season hockey? I have no idea who the fucker is—who virtually any of the Avs are). But Hank Zetterberg replied definitively with a goal at 10:14 left in the period. Dan Cleary scored with 6:12 left in the period. I arrived just in time for Johan Franzen to score the Wings’ third goal with 2:37 left in the period. By this time, Colorado had roughly 6 shots on goal as opposed to the Wings’ 12, which is pretty normal for a Wings’ game. By the end of the period, the ratio was 16:7 in favor of the Wings. The offense was looking fine. Still, it’s disturbing that Ozzie let that first goal in. I didn’t see it, so I have no idea how soft it was.

Second period was almost an antistrophe. Johan Franzen scored again with 18:47 seconds left in the period. An Av named Liles scored in response with 14:43 left in the period. The Avs scored again (Hejduk) with 3:31 left in the period. The Wings still outshot the Avs 21:14 in that period, but the Avs picked up production. Moreover, they hadn’t shot many of those shots when Liles scored. So, naturally, I’m worried about Chris.

The third period was scoreless. Shots on goal had more parity, 10:6 in favor of the Wings. Ozzie made some beautiful saves. Prognosis: The Avs were sloppy in the first. Chris lost focus in the second. The Avs didn’t slack off in the third and Chris was back in form. So far, it looks as if we can win the series if we don’t slip up. As with most teams in this league, they just don’t have our firepower. They’re going to come back at us hungrier next game. Quote of the game:

Osgood is hoping the old memories stay in the past.

“If you were to ask the guys that played in those series, they wouldn't be commenting on this one now,” he said. “So, I don't really feel that this is the time for me to comment on or compare the series because there's new players on both sides.”

Well, I don’t expect anyone is expecting the ghost of Patrick Roy to come flying out the tunnel to beat anyone up. What an asshole!

Civ 4

I played Civ 4 for the first time in weeks last night. Craig wanted to watch some blood and gore movie and I was too tired to grade, so I indulged. I had played Tokugawa in the Warlords version (aggressive and protective) for several iterations, wondering if I could develop a conquest machine. No luck. I had a combat-hardened, well-trained military, but you can’t really produce enough units to overwhelm one’s opponents later in the game. I even deliberately kept away from huge cultural developments. I instead focused on trying to create an efficient economy to support the military machine. But no luck. I’d fall behind in technology by the late medieval period. When my military was out-classed by new technology, it was still professional enough to fend off any attack. But I’d fall far behind in score. A hyper-seasoned military doesn’t seem to be an asset.

So in this latest iteration, I’ve been FDR instead (Industrious and organized). I was definitely the wealthiest Civ in the world. But again, toward the late medieval period, I’d fall behind in score (if not really in technology). I was on a very peaceful Confucian continent with Elizabeth and Mansa Musa. Elizabeth and I would up losing a city each to one another due to limited cultural development (I really invested in my city, but the cultural gravity of her nearby capital proved to be too much). The global hegemon, Montezuma came to curb Elizabeth’s power. I was in the bottom half of the game in terms of score from the late medieval period onward, though I was second to Monty in terms of finance and culture. I needed to be creative with my money, but I was way too tired last night to think of anything. It’ll be weeks before I play again.

I’m coming to the conclusion that Civ 4 is just too complex to be much fun. When I do well against the machine, it’s because I’m planning. Who has time to plan for a game? I have enough trouble planning for life.