It’s been yet another busy week for yours portly. I feel like lately I have just been going nonstop all day, every day. It’s not overwhelming, just a constant dribble of little tasks that need my attention.
So it is that I bring you another abbreviated Phone it in Friday, featuring yours portly foolishly eating incredibly bitter chocolate.
In looking back at posts from February 2024, it seems that February is a busy month, in that I tend to fall behind on posts during it. I’m not sure why, but I just seem to lag behind in February.
Speaking of, I’m way behind observing this dubious holiday, the day in which a subterranean rodent in Pennsylvania predicts the weather.
With that, here is 1 February 2024’s “TBT: Groundhog Day“:
Last week I wrote briefly about my first game of Civilization VII, which was still in process. At the time, I was in the Exploration Age, playing as Spain with Benjamin Franklin. My plan initially was to play as the United States of America in the Modern Age, but then I unlocked Siam.
While the USA was clearly the more fleshed-out Modern civ, the incongruity of going from ancient Rome to Middle Ages Spain to modern Siam was too tempting—and with Benjamin Franklin as the leader, it just seemed like a total blast. Indeed, it was: Siam was fun to play, especially their elephant-mounted ranged riflemen.
Siam’s whole conceit is to cultivate international influence, so I found myself edging towards the Economic Victory. The idea is that you build enough railroad depots and ship enough goods to accumulate 500 railroad points, at which point the possibility of establishing the World Bank opens. To open the World Bank, you have to establish a branch office in every foreign capital, which involves spending both money and influence (think of influence as the “currency” of diplomacy). The cost increases in civilizations that are hostile to you.
My new album, PRISM, released Friday, 7 February 2025. Use promo code “photon” to get 20% off this release, my biggest and longest to date!
I’m working on a new album, which will be something of a cosmic zoological exploration. I thought I’d feature a particularly prickly track from that album this week.
Welcome, folks, to The Portly Politico Presidents’ Day Extravaganza! I hope you all put out milk and cookies for George Washington and Abraham Lincoln so you can get 0% APR financing until 2026 on your next vehicle!
In all seriousness, today is just a quick filler post. As readers know, this weekend was a bit of a whirlwind on Saturday, followed by a relaxing Sunday with Dr. Girlfriend. Yours portly is back in Lamar and Murphy is getting a much-needed bath and nail trim at the veterinarian. I’m taking advantage of the quiet to knock out several tasks around the house and for work.
I’ll be back to regular programming tomorrow (God Willing). February always seems to be an unusually busy time. Work hasn’t been too crazy, which is blessing, because I’ve had quite a few other things to attend to at home and in my personal life. Everything is good—it’s nothing bad or difficult—just a lot of getting my proverbial ducks in a row so I can feast on metaphorical mallard in the future.
I’m thankful for another day off—we’re in the midst of our “Winter Break.” Teachers return tomorrow for a professional development day. We’re going through the lengthy reaccreditation process, and we’re working on our curriculum guides. Mine have been done since our teacher workday back in January (the one on my birthday—ha!), so I’m anticipating a pretty easy day.
Famous last words? We’ll see. Here’s wishing one and all and Happy Presidents’ Day!
It’s been a whirlwind weekend for yours portly and Dr. Girlfriend. Dr. G is on a particularly brutal ER rotation at the moment, which sees her awake at 4:30 AM and out the door around 5:15 AM. It’s a rural emergency room in a very poor county, so she sees some truly heartbreaking and troubling stuff. She also had a schizophrenic patient throw an EKG machine and a bag of nickels at her, her attending physician, and a nurse. On top of that, she had to work a twelve-hour in-patient shift at a larger urban hospital Saturday, so she is beat.
My exhaustion stems from more self-inflicted sources: two late nights with Civilization VII. My nephew also had his birthday party yesterday morning, so I woke up at 4:30 AM alongside Dr. Girlfriend (in something of a show of solidarity, but also to make the party on time) and drove about three-and-a-half hours from Dr. G’s to see my family. It was a great party and I was glad I could attend.
I then turned around and drove back to Dr. G’s, and knocked out several things around her place. She has been so mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted, I wanted to lighten her load. I managed to get some laundry done (still in the process of that), clean her kitchen, pickup dinner, take care of Murphy and her sweet dog, and get a few other small tasks done.
The elation that she experienced upon seeing all of these menial household tasks attended to was well worth the effort expended. We enjoyed a great pizza dinner and some tea before both proceeding to sleep for hours. I think I slept for about ten hours, which is a lot for me. Dr. Girlfriend slept for probably twelve hours, and is now dozing some more after her morning (well, early afternoon) espresso and Bible reading. I’m updating the budget after our nice Valentine’s steak dinner and a lot of gassing up from traversing the Carolinas the past few days.
I am so very thankful for the Lord’s many Blessings. The Sabbath is surely one of them. Dr. Girlfriend and I always attend church on Sundays, attending at either her church or mine. I made the executive decision, however, that we would “lay out” today, as I think the rest will benefit both of us spiritually far more than the contemporary rock band and lengthy sermons at her church (the sermons are excellent, but definitely a tad too lengthy). Instead, we’ll do a devotional together this afternoon and observe the Sabbath the way the LORD Did when He Created everything.
We are both very tired, but very happy. It is good.
I’m celebrating my nephew’s sixth birthday today and have been on and off the road all weekend, so it will be a delayed post today, folks. God Bless! —TPP
Today is Valentine’s Day, so I figured I’d pull from the legendary SubscribeStar archives to let the unsubscribed masses bask in my dubious wisdom (which can be yours seven days a week for just $1 a month).
Dr. Girlfriend and I are enjoying a steak dinner tonight. We’re looking forward to it after a busy week. Let’s just hope I’ve gotten her some flowers—gulp!
With that, here is 24 February 2024’s “In Praise of Valentine’s Day“:
Yours portly is forty-years old, but still suffers from a crippling LEGO habit. Perhaps my saving grace is that I am so busy, I don’t have much time to sit down and assemble these massive LEGO sets. I have some awesome ones from Christmas that I still need to dig into and build.
My first really big set meant for “adults” was the one featured in this old piece. It’s a pretty cool “medieval” blacksmith’s shop. It was an absolute blast to build, and took me several hours across a couple of days.
Note that the posts below may contain Amazon Affiliate links; I honestly can’t remember. If they are there, and you make a purchase through those links, I get a portion of the proceeds, at no additional cost to you. Amazon requires me to write that, so I’m covering my butt to appease a corporate megalodon.
With that, here is 8 February 2024’s “TBT^2: Getting Medieval… with LEGO“:
Yours portly has been unusually busy lately, and woke up this morning realizing he had not scheduled anything for today!
So, with a bit of a time crunch, I figured I’d share about what I’ve been doing with the little bits of spare time I have in the evenings: playing Civilization VII.
The Portly Politico 