There are no just good or just bad unique buildings

Even though the title suggests different, there are basically no just good or just bad unique buildings (and units). Every UB and UU has to be evaluated in the context of the game settings and overall strategy it´s supposed to be used in. A (fictional) unique unit archer that gets +100% against melee units is useless in an game played on Islands, where you have no (military) contact with your opponents until Astronomy is researched and archers are long obsolete. A unique building is good if it significantly supports a (playable) strategy.

Bad

Pavillon
Unique building for the Chinese; Replaces Theatre
+3
+25%
+1 per 10% rate
Can turn 2 citizens into artists
+1 from dye
Stele
Unique building for the Ethiopian; Replaces Monument
+1
+25%
+1 for Charismatic leaders
Obsolete with Astronomy

Both the Stele and the Pavillon provide a bonus of +25% . The first argument against this building in multiplayer is that cultural victory is only in very rare circumstances an option (sometimes in an Ironman or on very specific, only once in a CCC or so played settings in the Special Event there). The second and main is that there any many other civs that provide you with a bonus that is more important in order to win by getting those three legendary culture cities. One of many examples would be a building that provides an additional +2 letting you having a GreatPerson-city grow higher to pump out those additinal Great Artist you need for the culture victory.

In any case there is no use for those two unique buildings outside a game where you know from the start that you want to achieve a culture victory and even there – as said and without having done the math for all possible situations – it probably wouldn´t save you many turns (a city full with wonders that bring a lot of might get a little faster to legendary status) anyway since most of the culture comes from Great Artists.

Never of any use in multiplayer. Not entirely sure about something like a Solo Game or a game on Islands in single player where you just want to get three cities to legendary culture as fast as possible – but what kind of settings would that be ?!

Good

Rathaus
Unique building for Holy Roman Empire; Replaces Courthouse
+2
-75% maintenance
Can turn 1 citizen into Spy
Required to build Forbidden Palace
Available for free on modern and later starts

Ikhanda
Unique building for the Zulus; Replaces Barracks
-20% maintenance
+2 with Nationhood
+3 EXP for new land units
Required to build Heroic Epic

Both the Ikhanda and the Rathaus reduce maintenance cost, one by 20%, the other by 25%. That´s a gain of 50% / 40% on an opponent without those buildings. This is a huge advantage which has to always be reflected on the actual, absolute maintenance costs during a game on specific settings. In a game where you build four cities till mid-game and mabye an overall of 6-8 late game, while not being able to solely focus on research (for example a teamer 3v3 Renaissance) maintenance costs in relation to overall GNP are much more negligible then for example in an Ironman, where having 20 and many more cities at some point is normal procedure. The other big factor is the difficulty the game is played on. the higher that is, the bigger the maintenance costs get, while the overall GNP stays the same. Already on Noble in an Ironman, but especially above on Monarch etc. maintenance costs play a significant role. Being able to have 50% / 40% less maintenance cost then your opponent can mean a huge difference in saved commerce.

As a last note I´d like to point out that the Ikhanda is more expensive then normal barracks. The difference is rather insignificant for normal game play though (on fast game speed 40 to 33).

For Good UB – Bad UB part #1 click here
For Good UB – Bad UB part #2 click here
For Good UB – Bad UB part #3 click here
For Good UB – Bad UB part #4 click here


There are no just good or just bad buildings

Even though the title suggests different, there are basically no just good or just bad unique buildings (and units). Every UB and UU has to be evaluated in the context of the game settings and overall strategy it´s supposed to be used in. A (fictional) unique unit archer that gets +100% against melee units is useless in an game played on Islands, where you have no (military) contact with your opponents until Astronomy is researched and archers are long obsolete. A unique building is good if it significantly supports a (playable) strategy.

Bad

Forum
Unique building for Rome; Replaces Market
+25%
Can turn 2 citizens into merchant
+1 from fur, ivory, silk, whale
+25% Great Person birth rate

This is a market that provides a 25% bonus for the birth of Great People. While this sounds like a significant bonus at first, it really is not in any strategy that circles around or involves a focus on getting Great People. That is because any such strategy takes advantage of all or a combination of the Philosphical Trait (+100% on GPs), of the Pacifism Civic (+100%), of the National Epic (+100%) and of the Golden Age (+100%). An additional 25% are insignifanct – they do not result in any additional Great People, even over the course of a long game like an Ironman.

Also take into account that the market is a very low priority, but expensive building (100 on quick game speed) that only finds some use (mostly for its additional happiness) in Ironman games.  Whenever Great People play a role, much more significant bonuses are available without the additional big investment of 100.

Good

Baray
Unique building for Khmer; Replaces Aqueduct
+1
+2
Available for free on Renaissance and later starts

The baray is an aqueduct that provides an additional food to the city that builds it and especially that gets it for free in Renaissance and later then that era starts. The key aspect is the “free on Renaissance and later starts”. Mainly in Renaissance and Industrial games the baray is equivalent to a bonus on buildup, quite similar to an Expansive or an Imperialistic trait. Initial cities grow (and regrow after slaving [or drafting]) faster, new cities get going better.

A simple practical example – imagine you planted your first city in a Renaissance start game, it is size two. You work two 3-food tiles (for example a flood plain and an unimproved corn), that is a surplus of four food. The baray does 25% of that just like that. You probably slave down those cities at first to size 1 for workers for example. Even if you improve a tile (which you probably don´t do till a couple of turns into the game since you are probably chopping forests at first) the baray still provides a significant increase of the food your city accumulates. Overall Khmer´s cities grow sligthly, but significantly enough to matter faster.

Also, the baray makes Khmer the number one pick in OneCityChallenge (OCC) Renaissance (and probably Industrial) games. You grow faster initially (faster initial research allowing to gain an advantage from the start) and in the end can most often grow your city one size bigger then non-Khmer opponents.

The baray is one of the few unique buildings – next to the Dike (hammers), the Feitoria (commerce) and the Madrasa (culture) – that provides an absolute, not percentual bonus on economical aspects where usually none exists.

For Good UB – Bad UB part #1 click here
For Good UB – Bad UB part #2 click here
For Good UB – Bad UB part #3 click here


There are no just good or just bad buildings

Even though the title suggests different, there are basically no just good or just bad unique buildings (and units). Every UB and UU has to be evaluated in the context of the game settings and overall strategy it´s supposed to be used in. A (fictional) unique unit archer that gets +100% against melee units is useless in an game played on Islands, where you have no (military) contact with your opponents until Astronomy is researched and archers are long obsolete. A unique building is good if it significantly supports a (playable) strategy.

Bad

Mint
Unique building for the Malinese; Replaces Forge
+1
+25%
+10%
Can turn 1 citizen into Engineer
+1 from Gems, Gold, Silver

This is just plain useless. Usually every building has a scenario during which it helps. Those that have more scenarios or help a lot in a specific often occuring scenario are good Unique Buildings. This is a forge that additionaly gives your city +10% . In almost all sitiuations you want to keep the research rate as high as possible. Now if you run 80 or 90 percent research, that´s 10% bonus on 10 or 20 percent of your overall GNP – besides maybe for a massively cottaged capital that´s basically nothing, an insignificant amount at least.

If you ran 100% wealth for a few turns to save money and maximize the use of the Mint, you´d still be receiving way less bonus then you would on research with only a library in cities, which gives +25% . Saving money on 100% wealth to maximize bonuses if anytime is effective with markets, grocers and banks build. Those together though give a bonus of +100% – so the 10% of the Mint doesn´t play any role either.

A forge is a forge even if you call it a Mint and give it some kind of weird castle thing as a picture. Or what´s going on in that art ?

Good

Ger
Unique building for Mongolia; Replaces Stable

+4 XP for new Mounted Units

This building finds its uses from ancient to industrial – it´s almost never a game breaker, but especially in clan games in planned out strategies it can play a nice role.

In earlier eras – whenever you´d have build stables anyway, you´ll be happy about the 2 additional experience points bringing you one fight closer to the next promotion level – which can potentially make the difference during an attack with Kehiks, the Mongolian horse archer or with Elephants.

It gets really interesting when you start combining the Ger with Vassalage and/or Theocracy and/or the Charismatic trait. Either two of those combined with barracks and the Ger result in tripple promoted mounted units. That can be Horse Archers or Elephants (Medieval), Knights (Renaissance) or Cavalry (Industrial). A charismatic Mongolian can build tripple promoted cavalry without having to leave Bureaucracy for Vassalage.

For Good UB – Bad UB part #1 click here
For Good UB – Bad UB part #2 click here

There are no just good or just bad buildings

Even though the title suggests different, there are basically no just good or just bad unique buildings (and units). Every UB and UU has to be evaluated in the context of the game settings and overall strategy it´s supposed to be used in. A (fictional) unique unit archer that gets +100% against melee units is useless in an game played on Islands, where you have no (military) contact with your opponents until Astronomy is researched and archers are long obsolete. A unique building is good if it significantly supports a (playable) strategy.

Bad

Salon
Unique building for the French; Replaces Observatory
+25%
+1 free artist
Can turn 1 citizen into scientist
Required to build Laboratory

This is one of the worst UBs in the game – at least on some settings. Unlike other bad unique buildings the salon does not only not support any kind of strategy, it actually is very counter productive in some setups. At first glance you´re getting a free specialist – remembering that for example the Great Library gives you two free specialists and that makes it one of the potentially strongest wonders in the game for many setups, this could be good.

First drawback is the required technology; Astronomy is a mid-game Renaissance / early Industrial technology. So we are looking for ways of using the Salon in a Renaissance/Industrial game, most likely a teamer or obviously in an Ironman (for descriptions of game types click here).

In teamers first of all France is not the civ you pick for making Great People. Due to it´s Unique Unit, the French Muscet, France is picked in Renaissance start games. Beyond that, the unit is useless or not available. In Renaissance though you want to focus on spamming as many of those double-move muscets as possible ´cause next to your team mates´ Knights it is the only unit that gets defense bonus and can defend against pikes during your attack, hence no time for GP making. Also being Philosophical (non-Philo making the GPs makes no sense) robs you of either a muscet-enhancing agressive or of a necessary spiritual trait. In addition observatories come only during mid/late game, at least are not available from the start.

In an Industrial start where they would be available from the start, muscets are obsolete. Now investing 80 hammers for a free artist for a culture bomb might be worth it at the beginning of the game (Don´t forget though, you gave up another civ for France, though you could be Philosophical now). You´d get your first artist maybe a little bit faster, but probably barely. Being Philosphical working 2 artists results in a 6-turn Great Artist anyway and you can do that with a pop 4 city with a threatre. Even if there was a benefit, you are now stuck with Artist GP-points in your GP pool for the rest of the game. The free artists – just like with Great Library for example – can´t be not worked. So if you want to get a scientist to bulb something that requires one, you have a good chance of getting an artist even if you yourself only work scientists.

Imagine an Ironman, where Observatories are a key building, which almost every city gets. Without Representation artist specialists provide one measly science and some useless culture, on the other hand your GP pool gets polluted in every city. Artists are the worst GP you can get in an Ironman since they neither accumulate (significant) Research nor Commerce nor even production. Getting a single Great Artist instead of a Great Scientist to settle in your capital is worth the amount of extra tech you are generating with those free artists combined in an average Ironman already.

Good

Hippodrome
Unique building for Bycantium; Replaces Theatre
+3
+1 per 5% rate
+1 from Horses
Cannot turn citizens into artists.

This theatre is all about happiness. There are two main, wide ranging ways of using this building and all three don´t care about the drawback of not being able to work artists unlike in a normal theatre. Notice first that the Hippodrome gives your empire +1 from Horses istead of from dye like a normal theatre and horse is a strategic ressource hence always available in multiplayer games (unlike dye) which are played on balancd ressources (one horse, iron, copper, oil etc.) in a relatively short range to your starting units, mostly up to 5 tiles in any direction.

Both strategies take advantage of the easily accessible happiness the Hippodrome generates.

Medieval

Lately Bycantium has been banned from the CCC medieval tournament due to its strength (though the culprit here is mainly the caraphract) – having a clearly more powerful and its strategy one sided civ in a setup can become boring overtime and so a change is sometimes forced via a ban.

Get as many cities as possible (around 5-6) with barracks, stables, forges, preferably religion (if you get one) and Hippodromes until your team researches Guilds. Then slave out Cataphracts the rest of the game, not having to worry about happiness due to your UB – if necessary just turn the culture slider to 10% or 20% and you´re fine.

Industrial

This is where the Hippodrome shows its strength to the fullest. An Aggressive/Spiritual Montezuma of Bycantine gets a couple of workers, farms most his land and switches to Nationhood to draft Rifles. Usually the unhappiness resulting from drafting in the same three cities (the three from the 3 starting settlers) every turn would result in lethal unhappiness very fast, stopping or at least very weakening the plan of getting enough rifles super fast in order to rush and kill an opponent.  The unhappiness goes so far that even if an opponent dies, the Bycantine player first has to recover and switch to a less devastating way of production. This is a skill and experience demanding slot, but if played correctly and not perfectly defended by the opponent can be very rewarding.

This strategy, applied in this extreme way is unique in the civ world and woulnd´t be possible without the Hippodrome.

For Good UB – Bad UB part #1 click here

There are no just good or just bad buildings

Even though the title suggests different, there are basically no just good or just bad unique buildings (and units). Every UB and UU has to be evaluated in the context of the game settings and overall strategy it´s supposed to be used in. A (fictional) unique unit archer that gets +100% against melee units is useless in an game played on Islands, where you have no (military) contact with your opponents until Astronomy is researched and archers are long obsolete.  A unique building is good if it significantly supports a (playable) strategy.

Bad

Research Institute
Unique building for the Russians; Replaces Laboratory

+1
+25%
+50% spaceship production
+2 free scientists
Can turn 1 citizen into scientist

This is a laboratory that provides you with 2 free specialists in the form of scientists. This is huge. By itself – imagine chosing whatever unique building for your first city in an ancient start – this is the strongest building in the game. It still sucks and is basically unplayable with maybe an exception in certain OneCityChallenge (OCC) setups. Why is that ?

Two free scientists provide you with additional 3 base technology (6 if you are in Representation) and 3 GreatScientist base GP-points each. The first problem is that laboratories come very late in the game, even if you rush on them – and rushing them delays other stuff. This results in a comparatively short time during which you are actually going to use them, no matter whether the game ends on time, gets called on points or finished with a space ship.

The second and main problem though is not the relatively short time you are going to use it, but that all strategies which would profit from a Research Institute – mainly Space Race – profit from other buildings (much) more. For example simply having +2 from a Hammam in the late game just enables you to work those 2 specialists anyway, but also over the course of most of the game is very useful.

Summary: The Research Institute´s effect is very strong in comparison with other buildings, but it comes too late in the game to be useful in any scenario (maybe Industrial start OCC) – or in other words, the effect is too weak compared to its timing both in Ironman or Industrial start team games.

Good

Terrace
Unique building for the Incans; Replaces Granary
+2
Stores 50% of after growth
+1 from Corn, Rice, Wheat
Available for free on Medieval and later starts

This is one of the best buildings for any game that starts in ancient or classical and still decent in medieval. The main use of Incans and their UB+UU is of course an ancient start teamer, CTON or Ironman. Granaries are by themselves one of the most important buildings in any settings. The Terrace provides half a Creative trait, making building monuments unnecessary. This are early 20 you save for each monument (click here to read, why saving early is so good). Additionaly the Terrace enables a player to plant his first cities more flexible, not having to make sure the city´s food or strategical ressource is in the inner fatcross to be able to work it right away since usually building a monument and waiting 5 turns for borders to expand would delay that.

Summary: The terrace is a granary, which you most of the time want to build as the first building in a city anyway, now you always can (never monument first) – and it´s better then a monument, too with its +2 instead of +1 . City planting is more flexible and most important of all: It saves early hammers.

Edit: Just realized how good that +2 instead of +1 actually is. It gets you a second border expansion (40% defense!) just in time against a first big stack instead of just against a theoretical second one unlike a monument which needs 50 instead of 25 turns to achieve that!

Cold can be good or bad. There’s also neutral types of cold, like the one which is nowhere near you. In effect, it is good cold (no cold, no problem) but in reality it is irrelevant.

Bad cold is the one in your room. Good cold is the one outside your room because it makes you enjoy the warmth inside even more. Bad cold is the one you feel when you’re sitting at the computer. Good cold is the one you don’t feel because you’re dancing. Bad cold is the one no one knows you’re feeling. Good cold is the one you share with a friend or loved one. Bad cold is the one which makes you oversleep when you have to go to work. Good cold is the one that motivates you to leave your room as soon as you’re awake. Bad cold is the one which you have no idea how to get rid off. Good cold is the one that goes away when you light many candles. Bad cold is the one after you go out of the shower. Good cold is the one you feel after you climb five floors and enter your room. Bad cold is the one that keeps you awake rubbing your palms, good cold is the one encouraging you to go under the covers early. Bad cold is the one freezing you limbs. Good cold is the one through which you can still type.

One and the same cold can be both good and bad. Ultimately, it only depends on what you see in it.

True story.

Do you think customer service has improved in Portugal? I do! Here are some examples: Clinica Cuf Cascais; Heath Club Visconde; Medis; Millenium Bank. What do you think?

What is harmony? How does it impact our life? It is a simple equation of balance, the LHS (Left Hand Side) equal RHS (Right Hand Side).

I think the society focus on the wrong thing. We keep trying to solve the “problem” by fixing it. And debating on the extreme side; Right and Wrong, Ying and Yang, Good and Bad, Powerful and Weak, Left and Right.

I believe that maybe the solution might be “harmony”. In the modern world, everyone is trying to be god or some super being and forget about the nature. How the animal on earth live in harmony. My understanding of harmony is 50%:50%, the balance of Good and Bad. Any one side is going to be “bad”. Simply saying “Flu season is here, wash your hand to keep clean”. If you keep washing the whole day and your hand will be dry and crack. But if you don’t wash them, they might be dirty. So, the balance of that is very subjective. That is also why it is tough to be in “Harmony”.

Maybe if I practice Tai Chi more, I might get enlightenment.

OK… let learn some Tai Chi.

Something that came across my mind.

Did you notice that, the END of the day always concludes on your reaction of the WHOLE day.

Like…

Lets say I went to Gold Coast and had the most funnest time ever, playing games etc.

But than something tragic happens. Maybe I lost my wallet or broke my glasses.

That day is then concluded as the Worst Day Ever.

or Maybe.

Its the start of the day, and you get hit on the balls with a baseball.

But later through the day. near the end, you have the greatest time ever -singing with your friends.

Therefore thinking it was the Best Day Ever.

.

o.O” pretty strange…yea?

Or is it just me?…seeing it in a strange way.

.

Mushrooms are the “fruiting bodies” of fungus ?  Fungus – “fruit” ? !             When did this happen ?

Apparently this is not new information, but to me it was. For most of my life, mushrooms have adorned my pizzas,  salads, omelettes, burgers ……  I  have happily eaten and enjoyed them,  especially when sauteed with a healthy dose of garlic and olive oil.

Sure, they are classified as “edible” fungus (fruit !) - but this now presents a mental dilemma. The term “fungus” brings to mind something bad – to be avoided – toxic. Some mushrooms are poisonous – period !  But on the other hand, good has come from fungus, such as penicillin, and yeast. So there are “good” mushrooms and “bad” mushrooms !

Well, whether or not ”edible” mushrooms are going to harm anyone, I am reminded that I need to take responsibility for whatever I put into my body – to be aware of any benefits, or possible harmful effects. This also pertains to my spiritual health as well. “Good” teaching will be of great benefit, “bad” teaching will poison my soul.

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits……..every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit…….therefore by their fruits you will know them.” (Math. 7:15-20)

Be  “A-ware” of what is good – or bad (fruit) ………so you won’t be poisoned !

“Affliction: Life and Death”

T-short writing spotted in UCI, California

The picture accompanying this which T-shirt has a beautiful lady with a crown on her head. On the Left side of this lady, toward her head is a devilish persons or being and on her right was a saintly looking being. Toward her legs, around the waist line, have similar depiction of devilish and saintly beings. Only this time, each of the held a sword. Their swords crosses each others as if in a fight.

Not having any idea, of who the lady is or those beings are, I only sense the constant battle we as individuals face daily. depicting those as eternal to our nature, come close to my believe that a persons nature can be influence by his environment to be either good or bad depending on how s/he responds to the battles between good and bad happening around him and in his mind day and night.

I think this article in The Telegraph is particularly interesting for the responses – and yes I’m proud of what people are saying about us!

The last couple of years have brought massive amounts of growth and expansion for me – far more than I ever imagined when I initially set out to do some healing and start living more authentically.  It kind of boggles my mind when I try to think about who I was then and who I’ve become now.

One of my biggest lessons has been to learn to stop hiding from painful emotions.  It used to be that I’d do anything to avoid really feeling emotional pain – mostly I did this by working excessively and burying myself in more classes and commitments.   When I finally decided to be courageous enough to face and experience those painful emotions, I was shocked to discover than in burying those so-called negative emotions, I’d also blocked the emotions I wanted (joy, excitement, happiness, love, etc) from coming to me.

I don’t really believe there are good or bad emotions. I think we give them much more power than is necessary.  I know that if we just let them be and stop resisting (or judging) them – the ones that hurt move through much more quickly and the ones that feel good stick around a lot longer.

When we open to any emotion – painful or not – we open to joy.

Open to Joy

Close my eyes
Listen
Hear the pulse
Beat of the earth

Rising up

Open up
Throw open my arms
Let the joy
Flood
In to out

Springing forth

Rain falls
Washes over me
Soft touch
Sparkling bright

Flow of joy
Fierce power
Soft as water

Radiant light
I won’t turn away
But embrace
The pulsing beat

Breaking through

Open my eyes
See
Feel the rush
Joy cascades
Covers all the earth

Larry and Eileen Kugler have returned to Port Elizabeth to volunteer with one of the schools we work with. This blog says better than me how well placed, well matched, well briefed and skilled volunteers can make a difference in a short volunteer placement!

Yes, it's right!

I'm one happy guy.

I had a conversation recently with a person who made the following statement, “For my own happiness, it’s important that people think I’m right.” The statement made me pause and literally step back. I think the person has his personal happiness tied directly to whether or not he is right. Later, I asked him if he would rather be right or happy? His response to that question was even more revealing. He said, “I am only happy when I think I am right.” Please note that in this discussion, “right” means correct and has nothing to do with politics.

The feeling that I got from this conversation is he would go to almost any extreme to prove somebody wrong in order to make him right. He is willing to sacrifice a lot, such as relationships or respect, just to be right. I’m not sure if he realized that people who make others look bad generally make themselves disliked. I know that while I talked with him, I got an “unlikeable feeling” from just our conversation. It all stemmed from imagining how he was making others feel so he could be “right.”

Sort of right

I think fundamentally, there is a choice here. Would you rather be right or happy? Now, I know that it is often very complex and not as simple as one or the other. Having stated that, “being right,” where one sees the world as one big competition and winning translates into the end result of right as compared to happy, is not realistic. A person cannot, or at least should not, always expect to be right.

Life should not be a competition of who is right or wrong, but instead, I think it should be viewed as a cooperative endeavor where happiness is the end result. The best approach is for all of us to realize that everyone is on a learning curve. Cooperating instead of competing will help create a world of happiness instead winners and losers. I know that when I was teaching, having my students focus on cooperation instead of competition allowed more and better learning for all.

Each of us must decide what we value. If we value winning above happiness, then how can we be happy when we lose? Oh, I know, we won’t lose. Now, is that realistic? No, but people who value winning instead of general happiness often will not take chances for fear of failure. They will often make “lying” statements of “I don’t know” when they’re sure they do. Of course, no one knows everything, but a fear of failure will cause us to lie about what we know — the “I don’t know” syndrome often seen in children. Wow, that reminds of the classic statement of, “The only thing I know is that I don’t know.” I believe that is almost a “Socratic Statement.”

This “right or happy” is just a matter of choice. We need to decide for ourselves what kind of person we want to be. One who chooses freely and is responsible for the choices. One who gives and takes freely and is responsible for the give and take. One who knows that between competing and cooperating, that one is about being right and the other is about being happy! Of course, sometimes we can do both, but when we can’t, which one do you choose?

Yes, we chose happiness!

Ended up not doing anything yesterday – other than spending an inordinate amount of time on Facebook. I remember why I avoided it for so long now! Horrible horrible timesink… tempting little games and frivolity.

Anyways… today is Friday, end of the week, first time that Ivy is only down at daycare for half a day rather than a whole one on Fridays. We did some gardening (wish my camera wasn’t flat because Lauren was so beautifull dirt covered by the end of it! She’s going to be a great garden helper I think, if I can prevent her from pulling up the plants I want to keep…), pottered around and it’s almost time to drop her off. It’s been nice actually.

Oh, Ivy has just started to get ‘good’ and ‘bad’ – I think it’s because until now she’s happily watched her programmes on Playhouse Disney, but she’s old enough now to be getting bored with them and wanted to try out another channel. And the shows are so different, she said to me this morning – thats a bad guy, and thats the good guy – and I realized that until that point they had all just been people, some who make good decisions some who don’t.

It made me think back to the conversation we had about why the Phantom (of Phantom of the Opera, her fav movie until she saw the Labyrinth last year) was being so ‘mean’ to Raoul and Christine. We had a big talk about how sometimes when people are sad (in this instance because Christine loves Raoul) they get angry and do mean things, we had lots of really quite deep conversation about it, and related it to every day life, and she could see how sometimes when she is upset about something she gets mad. It all made sense. There were reasons why people behaved in the way they did, why they made the choices that they did.

And now it’s simply that some people are bad and some are good – there is no reasoning behind it.

It’s an interesting shift. I wonder how long it will last? I guess as long as the TV shows she watches portray some people as bad and some as good. I guess I find it a little disturbing, but I can’t put my finger on why exactly.

Take a look at this article in the Times yesterday 9th August.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/news/article6788628.ece

2 things annoy me – one the exploitation but also the suggestion that young adults cannot make a meaningful difference as volunteers – they can and do but they have to be well matched and well supported

So today we had Pseudo Brit come over for painting. I’m pretty sure this is the first time he has painted. ASMA also painted and worked on his new painting which is continuation of the Ron Jeremy painting… ASMA got ADD half way through and needed to stop. Sometimes he is like a needy child. We then set up to play one of the board games that Pseudo Brit brought over – my favorite one – Pandemic. Very interesting game in which you play against the board game and collaborate with each other to win and stop infection from becoming outbreaks, which if you have too many outbreaks – the game is over. We lost both times as we did when we first played, nevertheless, it was still good fun and at least if we lose, we lose together. Todays painting is crap but I don’t mind, that is how it goes… somedays you have to get out the crap so you can shine the next day. Yesterdays painting though I like very much and I am thinking of doing more like this. Perhaps a dream I had that involved jumping from skyscraper to skyscraper. Here are some photos of our day…