Words On Wednesday

I love a good bock, and I am always super excited to find a new one. Name: Andygator Source: Abita Style: Helles Doppelbock ABV: 8.0% IBU: 25 Price: $12 per pack ($2 per bottle) My wife and I went to The Lost Cajun for a date night a few months ago. Our dates usually consist of going to a restaurant that our kids would never consider eating from, and maybe having a few drinks while we’re there. I didn’t plan on drinking that evening, but I saw that they had a doppelbock on the beer menu. Given how uncommon of a brew that is, and how much I tend to like them, I had to try it. The waitress brought out a bottle, and the first sip was just as good as I hoped. I didn’t plan on getting more there, because I hate paying restaurant prices, but I had to have some for home. I looked up where it was available in stores, and the only place around me seemed to be The Lost Cajun. Unfortunate that it wasn’t in a grocery store somewhere, but hey, at least I was in the place where I could get more. One...

RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic  is a mobile port of the old amusement park  simulation game released on PC back in 1999. The original had an undeniable charm, despite dated graphics and some gameplay restrictions. Does Classic manage to capture the same experience of the original, or does translation to mobile leave something to be desired? Story - ?/10 There isn’t any story to a simulation game. You own a theme park. You need to make it profitable and satisfy some scenario criteria. That’s all we needed before, and it’s all we need now in my opinion. General Gameplay - 9/10 Gameplay is the core element here. The problem is that the quality or goal for a port is different depending on who you ask. Some people want the exact same experience on a new platform. Others want more of a remake, keeping the spirit of the original, but revamping and updating where possible. Personally, I like something in between that. If there are obvious opportunities for quality of life improvements,...

You might remember that I started a master’s degree at SNHU a few years back. I never actually finished that. For all intents and purposes, I am a college dropout right now. I didn’t really mean to  stop taking classes , at least not for an extended period of time. I was taking advantage of tuition reimbursement from QS/1 to cover half the cost of classes. Things started looking a little rocky for the company, and I was afraid I would get caught mid-class and the company suddenly stop the tuition reimbursement policy. After taking 5 classes, I stopped until the future of the policy was a little more certain. Unfortunately, that future never came. I was terminated from QS/1 before I started classes again. I planned on starting again during my time at System Logistics, but the HR department never actually gave me any information about the tuition reimbursement program despite multiple requests. I left System Logistics and started at Michelin, but only as a contract employee. The con...

For the past few weeks, I’ve been trying to update and organize my photo library. Fortunately, “digiKam Recipes” by Dmitri Popov is helping me learn a few tricks to improve that process. Admittedly, “digiKam Recipes” is not a book that I would expect just anyone to pick up, nor would I encourage it. Despite the name, this isn’t actually a recipe book. It exists in the space somewhere between a user manual and a tips list for the digiKam product. If you don’t use digiKam, or ever plan on using it, don’t bother. If you don’t care about digital asset management (DAM), you will not gain anything from the book. However, if you’re interested in improving the organization of your personal photos and videos, and you haven’t yet settled on a definite tool for the job, I might suggest this short work as a sort of high level overview of what it offers. Furthermore, if you use digiKam in any capacity already, I would highly recommend it. Novices might learn about new features they didn’t realize d...

After using free forms of cloud storage for several years, I believe it’s almost time that I pay for more storage. With all the options available, what should I choose? I held off for a long time. The proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back is Google’s decision to make Google Drive files count against user storage. Part of what drew me into using mostly Google Drive was the fact that I could make Google Docs and Google Sheets files with reckless abandon. Now that they count against my quota, that previously unlimited source of storage is going to dry up pretty quickly. Logically, I could continue using Google Drive and just pay for a Google One subscription to get more storage. But really, why should I throw money at something without determining if there are better options. Tons of services provide cloud storage now. I personally have used Microsoft OneDrive and Dropbox as well. If I’m going to start paying for a service, I should at least do some research and make sure that I ge...