Tag: 2025

SubscribeStar Saturday: Sid Meier’s Colonization (1994)

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Before I dove headlong back into Civilization VII, I spent a solid two or three weeks playing Sid Meier’s Colonization on Governor difficulty (the penultimate difficulty level).  I finally won a game as the Dutch, with a strong colonial basis in modern-day Argentina and Chile:

I first played this game in the mid-1990s when I was a kid.  I was hooked immediately, and this game is largely responsible for sparking my interesting in teaching American history.  It also ignited a lifelong interest in the American Revolution.

So, how does it hold up thirty-one years after its release?

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Reassessing Civilization VII

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Yours portly has finally dived back into Civilization VII after almost three months away from the game.  The hiatus was not due to disinterest, but rather to the overwhelming busyness of the end of the school year.  Longtime players of Civ games—or any other franchise or game in which picking up after an extended break is difficult—will understand how the thought of returning to a half-finished save file is challenging, as you’ve likely forgotten what you were doing and what your goals were.

That made it difficult to return to my last save file, but when I play Civ VII, I need hours of uninterrupted time to lose myself in the game.  I’ve never been good at playing for an hour or two and then heading to bed.  I need to know I have three or four hours to dedicate to the game, and that my plate is clear of any obligations or tasks.

Naturally, that state of limitless free time is rare for yours portly, except for two months every year:  June and July.  Yes, I’m keeping busy with writing blog posts, teaching lessons, practicing piano, filming silly YouTube shorts, planning a wedding, etc.; but after dinnertime, I’ve got hours of gaming goodness ahead of me.

That’s all to say that, after a few weeks of dipping into Colonization, I’m back to Civilization VII.  The game has had a number of updates (with version 1.2.2 coming soon, promising massive map sizes and other improvements), and they have really improved the gameplay experience.  It’s still not perfect, but the game is getting better.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Fondled!

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Yours portly has been flying more frequently, which is out of character for me.  My older brother lives in Indianapolis, and I’ve flown up there twice this year so far for various events (and will do so a third time this summer).

Between the two trips, I’ve somehow set off TSA’s full body scanner three times.  No, dear reader, yours portly is not some kind of chaos agent attempting to smuggle more than three ounces of shampoo into the airport.  For some reason, my manly area is setting off the scanner.

At first I thought it was the pants I was wearing.  I wear these Member’s Mark mason pants (just $15 a pair at Sam’s Club!) and they have a brass (or some similar metal) button above the zipper.  I figured those were setting off the scanner.

So on the way home from Indy, I wore a pair of shorts with a plastic button.  Surely, I thought, I’d be immune from setting off the scanner, but I set it off nonetheless.

Is it the zipper?  We’ve all heard of microplastics; are there micrometals?  Is my personal area full of tiny particles of metal?

Regardless of why I keep setting off these scanners, let me explain to you, dear reader, what it is like to be fondled by Uncle Sam.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Minecraft Camp 2025 Postmortem

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Ah, ’tis the season for postmortems.  I’ve gotten another Minecraft Camp in the books, and it was another good year.

For my British readers who might find the conflation of “Minecraft” and “Camp” confusing, allow me to clarify:  in America, “camp” can be a.) a woodsy outdoor adventure, consisting of “roughing it” in a cabin or tent and staying overnight in such accommodations or b.) any sort of hobby or activity in which children (or, in some cases, adults) spend part of a day (or a full day, or overnight) pursuing for fun or learning.

Minecraft Camp is the latter—it is a “day” camp, meaning children just attend for a few hours (9 AM to 12 PM) and then go home.  When the camp first began way back in 2014, we actually went from 9 AM to 3 PM for five days, but I found that was too much for students (and me).  When the school instituted summertime hours that closed campus on Fridays, I shifted to a Monday-through-Thursday morning camp.

Even with that reduced camp time, I find that students still start to get a little weary of playing Minecraft by the end of the third day, especially the younger ones.  It’s a bit like a little kid thinking that eating forty-seven scoops of ice cream would be amazing, but by the fourth scoop, he’s ready to stop; by the eighth, he’s ready to vomit.

So I always provide some alternative activities.  The big favorite is LEGOs.  I bring a huge box of them, and kids are free to tinker and build with them to their hearts’ content; some of the kids built some cool stuff this year.  My counselors also started playing Hangman with some of the kids, which was a big hit.  Additionally, we take a couple of “screen-free” breaks in the sunshine, and the kids will shoot hoops or kick a soccer ball around.  On the last day of camp, I brought King’s Hawaiian Rolls—a time-honored Minecraft Camp tradition—which the kids devoured with the pitiless fervor of the sea lion.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Spring Jam 2025 Postmortem

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On Friday, 23 May 2025 I hosted the fifth annual Spring Jam Recital on my front porch.  It is one of two front porch recitals I host each year, the other being the Spooktacular in October.

This year’s Spring Jam featured a fairly intimate crowd, with seven students in total performing, as well as my buddy John playing some pre-recital tunes.  I think it was slightly larger than last year’s, especially as one little girl brought not only her parents and brother, but a number of extended family members as well.  One of the parents, a local restauranteur, brought delicious wings from one of her establishments.

As usual, my Mom made her famous Rotel dip, this time with sausage added.  My Dad and my younger brother grilled up some all-beef hot dogs, and Dr. Fiancée helped with selling t-shirts and getting the table set with my mother.  My niece and one of my nephews played, too; it’s always fun having a family get-together mixed in with the recital.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: More Dubious Graduation Day Wisdom

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Today is another graduation, which means it’s time for yours portly to dish out some more dubious graduation day wisdom.  The older I get, the more I realize that the only certainty we can have is found in Jesus Christ.  Human frailty is such that, no matter how hard any of us try, we are going to let even people we love down—and they’ll let us down (don’t worry, no one I love has let me down lately—ha!—and I hope I haven’t done the same, I’m just noting a general Truth).  Perhaps that is the greatest wisdom I have to offer, younglings:  put your trust and faith in the Lord.

But besides the preachy stuff, what about more spicy nuggets of enlightenment?  Come, gather at my feet, and let me teach you.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: “Irish Clover”

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Pickup my newest release: The Galactic Menagerie!  Use promo code obesekangaroos to take an additional 20% off all purchases on Bandcamp!  Code expires at 11:59 PM UTC on Friday, 4 April 2025.

Want to play the sax?  Read my ultimate guide to getting started for under $350.

Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive.  To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.  For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.

With Saint Patrick’s Day earlier this week, I decided to compose a little piece to commemorate the holiday.  Due to some pressing work, it took me a few days to finish it, but it’s a jaunty little piece.

Here’s the manuscript of the piece, which I jotted down on Saint Patrick’s Day (17 March 2025):

“Irish Clover” is written for piccolo, flute, classical guitar, and harp.  I have no idea if I composed the harp part correctly (in other words, if it is actually playable on a harp), but it sounds good!  That’s the beauty of electronic music:  you can do whatever you want!

That said, I always try to make the pieces realistically playable.  I love the idea that someday, someone somewhere will put together a little ensemble and play some of my pieces.

Regardless, today I’m sharing the WAV recording of the piece, as well as a little video, for subscribers.  Don’t worry, non-subs:  you’ll get to hear the piece soon!

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SubscribeStar Saturday: SCISA Music Festival 2025

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Pickup my newest release: The Galactic Menagerie!  Use promo code obesekangaroos to take an additional 20% off all purchases on Bandcamp!  Code expires at 11:59 PM UTC on Friday, 4 April 2025.

Want to play the sax?  Read my ultimate guide to getting started for under $350.

Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive.  To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.  For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.

This past Thursday was the annual South Carolina Independent School Association (SCISA) Music Festival, a major event for my music students each year.  The Music Festival is an opportunity for students to perform solo and ensemble pieces for judges.  The judges are typically doctoral students at the University of South Carolina School of Music, and they often give excellent, detailed feedback to students.

Students can earn one of three scores:  a Gold/Superior/I; a Silver/Excellent/II; or a Bronze/Good/III.  Even students who earn a Gold/Superior often get invaluable comments (in other words, not just things like, “That was amazing!” without further elaboration, although that does happen occasionally).  While I stress to my students that our aim is to get a Gold on our performances, the real value lies in 1.) challenging ourselves as musicians in the first place and 2.) taking constructive feedback to heart so that we can improve as musicians.

I also make sure they know that simply playing at the Festival is a testament to their courage as performers, as it is very difficult to expose one’s self to criticism, even when that criticism is designed to help us improve.  For me, signing up and working hard to prepare a solo is the most important victory; everything else is icing on the cake.

That said, I am very pleased to announce that both my Middle School and High School Instrumental Ensembles earned Golds for their performances.  My Middle School Music Ensemble competed in the Large Instrumental Ensemble category, and played an arrangement I put together of the Rodgers and Hammerstein song “Edelweiss” from The Sound of Music.  The High School Music Ensembled competed in the Small Instrumental Ensemble category, performing the 1930s jazz standard “All of Me.”

In total, we took home twenty (20) Gold medals, five (5) Silver medals, and three (3) Bronze medals.

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Open Mic Adventures CXV: “From Greenland’s Icy Mountains”

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The Sunday before the Inauguration I cheekily proposed to my pastor and our deacon that we should sing “From Greenland’s Icy Mountains” for our morning congregational hymn in honor of Trump’s then-upcoming Inauguration.  I had practiced the piece a bit Saturday evening, but with a pretty gnarly bout of sinus drainage, I found the high notes hard to hit.

Instead of singing the piece—a very old missionary tune by composer Lowell Mason, with words by Reginald Heber—either on my own or in church, I played it a few times as a bit of instrumental prelude music.

The melody for the piece is interesting, with a few suspensions and some unusual timing, like the long half-note pickup at the beginning and midway through the piece.

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River of Tear

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Trump is in office, and what a glorious start it has been.  It seems like finally—finally!—something is going to be done about illegal immigration.

Pictures and videos circulated yesterday of a chubby Mexican woman shedding crocodile tears upon realizing that the “punch-for-a-free-green-card” app the Biden administration had been running was no longer functioning, and all hearings for entry into the country via the app had been stopped.  It was glorious:

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I’m not normally one to gloat about human pain and suffering—I do understand why people are desperate to get to our awesome country and away from their pitiful hellholes.  But we can’t and shouldn’t take everyone in, and it seems like the majority of Americans have finally come around to that perspective.

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