OT: what blogs you reading, what shows you watching, what games you playing?
With a lull in football and basketball -- not to mention work -- its time to ask: please give me ideas for how to pass the boredom. Er, I mean, what are you reading, playing, etc.
Any good blogs? TTB is always good. The athletic. Anyone got good politics blog? (Besides infowars).
Games? I think I wanna play Oregon trail online at work one day, just because that seems silly and stupid, but fun. Any other old games you'd suggest?
Also, if anyone knows a good actuarial blog, I've been needing one for a while. (Random, I know.)
December 6th, 2018 at 5:07 PM ^
Games: I play Aces High, an multiplayer air-combat sim. Very realistic flying, very fun. I normally play in special events called "Scenarios", where there are two sides of people, a command staff on each side, about 75 in total, themed on a WWII air battle, with the plane types that were in the battle, historically themed objectives.
Reading: For me, it is mostly audio books from Audible. Whenever I'm driving, I'm listening to audiobooks. I go through a couple of books a month. Mostly history, economics, business oriented, science fiction, and fantasy.
Online reading for politics and finance: I like Zerohedge.
Actuarial blog (sort of): Shadowstats. :)
December 6th, 2018 at 5:36 PM ^
Books that to me stand out from my assortment of audio books:
A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bryson (awesome book mostly about science through history, told by master storyteller and humorist Bryson)
The Power of Habit, by Duhigg (very interesting modern take and techniques to program youself for what you really want to do)
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, by Levitt and Dubner (fascinating examples of regression analysis applied to lots of non-economics issues -- very entertaining)
With the Old Breed, by Sledge (if you ever read one book on war in your life, this should be it. Amazingly written as well)
Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy (humorous science fiction, especially awesome when narrated by Douglas Adams)
Influence, by Cialdini (psychology of persuasion and how people are significantly influenced by various simple methods)
Basic Economics, by Sowell (awesome book on macro economics as applied to world and societal issues that people who take an econ course generally still don't know)
The Big Short, by Lewis (Lewis is a great and entertaining writer, and this is about the economic collapse of 2008, turned into a movie that wasn't bad but nowhere near what the book is)
Detroit, An American Autopsy, by LaDuff (great writing, tales of interest about what not to do in cities)
Snow Crash, by Stephenson (the best book by science fiction author Stephenson, in my opinion)
Starship Troopers, by Heinlein (a great SF classic and excellent song by YES :)
The Commentaries, by Julius Caesar (story of the conquest of Europe, by the man himself, including his thoughts as he was deciding things, negotiating, etc. -- quite interesting)
Epic of Gilgamesh (earliest written story known to mankind)
The Professor and the Madman (story of the Oxford English Dictionary -- way more interesting than you might think)
Flu, by Kolota (story of the 1918 flu pandemic, that killed 3-5% of the world's population. It is a fascinating tale)
The Big Fat Surprise, by Teicholz (how a lot of what we have taken as correct food advice is wrong and how it got that way -- very, very thoroughly done in my opinion as a guy with a strong academic science background).
Lovecraft stories narrated by Wade June (awesome Lovecraft horror stories and great narration).
December 6th, 2018 at 7:19 PM ^
Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams should be required reading in High School and College. Both brilliant men and both opened my eyes to the complete lies we have been taught in school.
December 6th, 2018 at 5:38 PM ^
Just got done watching the Manchester city amazon doc and it was incredible!
castlevania on Netflix was a surprise with how good it was
of course new South Park has been good this season.
Games: my son and I just finished Spider-Man and it was a great game. I personally just finished Horizon zero dawn and loved it. About to start red dead 2!!!
December 6th, 2018 at 5:47 PM ^
I'm playing pocket pool right now and I'm winning!
December 6th, 2018 at 5:53 PM ^
Escape at Dannemora is my new can't wait for the next episode show. Showtime - Sundays.
About the prisoners who escaped from the max security prison in upstate NY several years ago who got a little help from the civilian chick working there that they were both banging.
December 6th, 2018 at 6:04 PM ^
T-Minus 5 hours and 56 minutes until I can play Super Smash Brothers Ultimate...
My body is ready.
December 6th, 2018 at 6:09 PM ^
MgoBlog of course.
December 6th, 2018 at 6:16 PM ^
Wife and I recently got into some complex board games, so we have been kind of binging on those every other night and having some friends over every other week or so.
Currently playing the likes of Photosynthesis, Castles of Burgundy, 7 Wonders, Sheriff of Nottingham. Eagerly awaiting Christmas to start Gloomhaven.
December 6th, 2018 at 6:31 PM ^
I'm getting back to the pleasure of reading novels as well as writing my own. Got another one which will be finished by Christmas, God willing (I've other novels and short stories already published HERE)
As far as videogames go, maybe it's my age, but I'm finding myself less and less patient with the modern games unless it's something that really sticks out, like the upcoming DEATH STRANDING. I'm a survival-horror and scifi fan mostly.
TV shows, that's easy: mst3k.com
December 6th, 2018 at 6:34 PM ^
Reading:
MGoBlog; Patrick Ruthfuss series: The king slayer chronicles: The Name of the Wind, and, The Wise Man's fears. The third will hopefully be released next year, excellent excellent reading, seriously check these out.
Shows:
Netflix and Hulu
Games:
RDR2, but you better have some good free time for it... I binged for a full weekend to make it though the story, now just playing side quests and exploring in down time.
December 6th, 2018 at 11:07 PM ^
Love the Kingkiller Chronicles, but I'm starting to see them as being like a Song of Ice and Fire and the Gentlemen's Bastard series, hostage to authors who take their writing WAY too seriously and thus are subject to crippling bouts of writer's block. I don't think any of those series are getting completed.
December 6th, 2018 at 6:40 PM ^
Watching: The Good Place.
December 6th, 2018 at 6:41 PM ^
Board Games: Terraforming Mars is the best game I've ever played, and I don't think it's close. Has a solo play option and great expansions. Concordia and Orleans are also very good.
Video Games: Ballon Fight with my wife on the Classic NES. Super C. Waiting for NCAA to come back on consoles.
Blogs: MGoBlog; WolverinesWire.com (not really a blog)
Podcasts: How I Built This; Michigan Insider; Reply All; Plant Money; Shutdown Fullcast; In the Trenches; Attack Each Day; Stuff You Should Know; Unshakeable; The Tony Robbins Podcast; and Revisionist History (that got progressively worse, unfortunately)
December 6th, 2018 at 6:50 PM ^
I recently lost my dad and as we were cleaning out the house I found my old Atari 2600 with about 30 games. Man talk about some good memories. I thought my parents sold it at garage sale years ago! I can’t believe it still works.
December 6th, 2018 at 7:55 PM ^
I'm sorry to hear about your dad.
December 6th, 2018 at 7:06 PM ^
I’ll join in..
watching Friday Night Lights reruns
playing Red dead 2
December 6th, 2018 at 7:59 PM ^
BLOGS: I only really read MGoBlog.
BOOKS: I started reading Brad Thor novels, and I'm hooked. I'm also reading "Zombie Spaceship Wasteland" by Patton Oswalt.
SHOWS: "Black Mirror" and "Family Guy"
PODCASTS: Joe Rogan Experience, Fantasy Footballers, Talking Football Podcast
December 6th, 2018 at 8:40 PM ^
For Michigan sports I have added WolverinesWire. They have content and news that MGoBlog doesn’t really provide anymore. Also, I listen to the Harbaugh podcast-not for news (there isn’t any) but it does give the listener a peak into what makes Harbaugh tick. Listen to this for awhile and you will ignore the Harbaugh back to the NFL stuff.
December 6th, 2018 at 10:49 PM ^
I'm playing Fallout 76, when not playing Total War Warhammer 2. It's imperfect but don't have a console for RDR2 and it's fun to shoot stuff even if it just makes me want Fallout 5 to come along.
Unless of course they botch that. :(
Will play the new China themed Total War in a few months.
Read about 2-3 Sci-Fi books a week. Whatever is cheap or free on Amazon/Google usually. The free hook book to the series. Then if they're interesting the rest are usually relatively cheap. Amazon has a ton of free books and rotating ones. Some have super cheap audible add-ons if you take a lot of long solo car trips.
December 6th, 2018 at 11:04 PM ^
Books: City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett. It's fantasy but in a setting that's different from what we're kind of traditionally used to. Great characters and interesting plot, highly recommend.
Hap and Leonard series is great fun.
Red Queen's War series is also terrific fun and very humorous with a great protagonist, I really enjoyed it and the books are quick, easy reads which is nice in a world of long and dense books being the norm.
Watching: Occupied, Norwegian series on Netflix imagining a world in which Russia occupies Norway to keep it producing oil.
Games Played: Spiderman on the PS4 is a TON of fun and I'm looking forward to Red Dead Redemption 2.
December 8th, 2018 at 6:48 PM ^
Who is the author of the Red Queen books? (Audible has a bunch of books with "Red Queen" in the title by different authors.)
Thanks for the recommendations. I'm going to start with City of Stairs.
December 8th, 2018 at 6:52 PM ^
For series to watch, Legion is *awesome* (if you like quirky stuff).
Also, Rick and Morty, and Silicon Valley.
Silicon Valley is hilarious, but also for anyone wanting to be an entrepreneur, it should be required watching.
I also really liked Halt and Catch Fire.
December 8th, 2018 at 6:57 PM ^
Since we talk a lot about football here, I also liked the series Ballers. It's not awesome, but fun -- and has The Rock and Rob Courrdry.
Oh, and the series Wild Wild Country was awesome.