As for my Civing, here is a bit of trivia you might enjoy.
Back in 1991/1992 I was conscripted into the Swedish Army. But hardly as a warrior. Guess my geekyness was recognized and I winded up becoming a squad leader over a staff assisting a battalion staff. So instead of Guns and Ammo, we had to fight 'printer out of toner' problems. =)
Even in field duty, living in tents way off in the Swedish winter woodlands, we had our hardware. That included everything from a coffee maker to pretty good laptops. This was 1991 so just the idea of laptops was new/cool. And we soon discovered that we could run Civ I on those.
As a squad leader I can say that under pressure, the only 'enemy' we had to fight was sleep. This may sound weird, but you have to be on duty 24/7 and there are only 7 of you, so I know tired. I used to keep a small notebook on who got to sleep when and how much; and balance it as fairly as I could.
Night-shifts between 02-06 was the worst. There is a 15 minute radio watch and other tasks that just have to be performed, and you are so near sleeping you are nauseous. So I came up with the standing order:
- All on radio-duty must play Civ I.
Luckily for my sorry ass, I wrote that down on my chalkboard of standing orders. Because one night an overseer came by. And boy was he not amused.
The below conversation was of course done in Swedish, but I have translated it from memory as best as I can.
I can't remember if he was a colonel or of even higher rank, but his job is to try to fail you. Kind of dude that will go heads over heals just to find something to nag about. And he sure was pretty scary when he yelled at my captain - Are you playing computer games on duty?
My captain had no idea, so he's eyes turned to me and I was all stumbling:
- Yes sir. err, we eh, do that.. kinda like.. to stay awake.. sir.
- So you have ordered them to play games?
- Yes sir. It's on the board right behind you. It's a standing order. To not fall asleep, sir.
- That is just brilliant! Keep up the good work, I won't disturb you further.
And so for a while we could play how much we wanted, and it started to spread to other companies, until some raised the question on who bought this game in the first place and then it immediately got banned.
But by that time, I was hooked and have been playing civ ever since.
Back in 1991/1992 I was conscripted into the Swedish Army. But hardly as a warrior. Guess my geekyness was recognized and I winded up becoming a squad leader over a staff assisting a battalion staff. So instead of Guns and Ammo, we had to fight 'printer out of toner' problems. =)
Even in field duty, living in tents way off in the Swedish winter woodlands, we had our hardware. That included everything from a coffee maker to pretty good laptops. This was 1991 so just the idea of laptops was new/cool. And we soon discovered that we could run Civ I on those.
As a squad leader I can say that under pressure, the only 'enemy' we had to fight was sleep. This may sound weird, but you have to be on duty 24/7 and there are only 7 of you, so I know tired. I used to keep a small notebook on who got to sleep when and how much; and balance it as fairly as I could.
Night-shifts between 02-06 was the worst. There is a 15 minute radio watch and other tasks that just have to be performed, and you are so near sleeping you are nauseous. So I came up with the standing order:
- All on radio-duty must play Civ I.
Luckily for my sorry ass, I wrote that down on my chalkboard of standing orders. Because one night an overseer came by. And boy was he not amused.
The below conversation was of course done in Swedish, but I have translated it from memory as best as I can.
I can't remember if he was a colonel or of even higher rank, but his job is to try to fail you. Kind of dude that will go heads over heals just to find something to nag about. And he sure was pretty scary when he yelled at my captain - Are you playing computer games on duty?
My captain had no idea, so he's eyes turned to me and I was all stumbling:
- Yes sir. err, we eh, do that.. kinda like.. to stay awake.. sir.
- So you have ordered them to play games?
- Yes sir. It's on the board right behind you. It's a standing order. To not fall asleep, sir.
- That is just brilliant! Keep up the good work, I won't disturb you further.
And so for a while we could play how much we wanted, and it started to spread to other companies, until some raised the question on who bought this game in the first place and then it immediately got banned.
But by that time, I was hooked and have been playing civ ever since.
I love sweden.
