Did I Get Rich Quick?

The 2018 FIFA World Cup is over, and France took the big-ass trophy home with them. But how did my personal, get-rich-quick scheme turn out?

My month long career as a betting man did not start well. I’d planned to use Betfair as my online bookie. That way, I could take advantage of some of their bonus offers for new players. But I couldn’t for the life of me manage to transfer any money to the service. Every time I tried to make a deposit from Neteller, I got a absolutely worthless error message. “Transaction failed”. But, why, Betfair? Why!? Since I had an account with Unibet that I used during the European championship in 2016, I tried to transfer money from Neteller to Unibet as well. But Unibet gave me a similar meaningless error message.

In the end, it turned out the problem was between the chair and the keyboard. When Betfair and Unibet was asking me for a Neteller authentication code, I entered the code Neteller generated when I registered my account with the site. But that was not the code Betfair and Unibet were looking for. Instead, the correct code was the Neteller two-factor authentication code. Unfortunately, I figured that out when trying to deposit money to Unibet, which meant that my entire betting NOK 1000 fund suddenly found itself on Unibet. Not a complete disaster, but I missed all the Betfair bonus offers.

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Tropico 5.

Read my long overdue Tropico 5 review to find out why the fifth installment in the series doesn’t live up to the expectations.

I hope you don’t mind me continuing to review semi-ancient games. Tropico 5 was released way back in 2014, but for once I didn’t wait until the game and all DLC were on sale to purchase it. Since I really enjoyed Tropico 4 (review here), I bought Tropico 5 in 2015, quite close to the release date by my standards. I even started writing this review in 2015, meaning it’s been in my drafts collection for three years before I now finally managed to get it published. That’s probably not a good sign for the final score.

Many of you are already familiar with the recipe used to cook the Tropico series, but for new readers, here’s a quick summary. Tropico is a series of city builder games where you play as a dictator, El Presidente. The goal is to build and manage a thriving city on an island (or several islands, depending on which game in the series), and to stay in power. If the rebels, or a foreign power, manage to throw you off the island, it’s game over, man!

The games have a great tongue-in-cheek sense of humor, and is pretty laid-back. I’d perhaps go as far as to call both Tropico 3 and 4 borderline casual games. And that was one of the most appealing aspects of both of them. Kick back, relax, and rule your island with an iron fist! Tropico 5, however, makes a few changes to the Tropico formula, changes that make the game a lot more stressful than its predecessors. The experience is even downright annoying at times.

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American Truck Simulator.

Does SCS Software manage to recreate the trucking magic from Euro Truck Simulator 2 in American Truck Simulator?

You might know Czech video game developer SCS Software from their raging success Euro Truck Simulator 2. I reviewed the game back in October last year, and gave it a solid 4 out of 5 score. The game is also enjoying a solid 96% positive score on Steam, making it one of the platform’s highest rating games. Since SCS Software was funded in 1997, it has developed no less than 25 games, with American Truck Simulator being the latest addition to their catalogue.

American Truck Simulator takes everything you know from Euro Truck Simulator 2, and moves it across the pond. As the name of the game implies, you’re trucking the once great United States of America. Making a truck simulator set in the land that has given us fine trucking movies like Convoy and Smokey and the Bandit seems only natural, but does American Truck Simulator manage to offer the same experience that ETS2 does?

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July One-liners.

It’s July, which means there’s time to add some more one-liners to the ever-growing one-liner collection. This time, I’ve mainly consulted marvelous popular quotes collection provided by Goodreads.

  • Any joke is a one-liner if the notebook you write it in is wide enough.
  • When prison inmates fall in love, do they finish each other’s sentences?
  • A liberal is a conservative who got a hospital bill once.
  • “Golf is a good walk spoiled.” — Mark Twain
  • “It is better to take what does not belong to you than to let it lie around neglected.” — Mark Twain
  • “A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read.” — Mark Twain
  • The same people that made fun of me for my calculator watch in high school are now wearing Apple watches.
  • “Some say I’ve aged like a fine wine, but I just wish I could get back those 15 years I was locked in a cellar.” — Nick Jack Pappas
  • “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.” — Albert Einstein
  • “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.” — Bernard M. Baruch
  • “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” — Robert Frost
  • “A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.” — Elbert Hubbard
  • “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” — Oscar Wilde
  • “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • “It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.” — André Gide
  • “All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” — Charles M. Schulz
  • “Whenever I feel the need to exercise, I lie down until it goes away.” — Paul Terry
  • “Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.” — Albert Einstein
  • “Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.” — Abraham Lincoln
  • “I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.” — Groucho Marx

Electric Cars Are Total Nonsense!

Now that I’ve got the undivided attention of both the pro- and the anti-electric cars crowds, let’s get cooking.

I grew up in the small town of Notodden. As a kid, you normally ended up in one of three crowds: The petrolheads, the jocks, or the nerds. As a flimsy boy scout who played a lot of computer and role-playing games, it’s pretty obvious that I was quickly labeled a nerd. I had a few jock friends, but the petrolheads never really appealed to me in any way, shape or form. It’s a very prominent group of people in my home town, though, and the sub-culture most Norwegians associate with it. Not surprising, since they staged a damn riot back in 2007 when a section of the road they drive back and forth on was closed down. Documentary crews have also visited Notodden in numbers to poke their investigative sticks at the phenomenon.

When I left the city at the age of 18 to do my year of mandatory military service, I lost all touch with the petrolheads. But when I re-joined Facebook in 2016, I got another look at what was going on in that alternate universe. They share all kinds of – what’s the best way of put this – interesting stories. It’s often political material that doesn’t sit too well with my world view, and everything they come across that put their number one enemy, the electric car, in a bad light. Some of the articles are, interestingly enough, shared by my junior high science teacher.

One of the articles was a five year old interview with one Paul Rosenquist. I’ve never heard of him before I read the interview, but I assume most petrolheads know who he is. And old man Rosenquist certainly doesn’t like electric cars.

Paul Rosenquist. Photo: YouTube screen capture (https://youtu.be/R99kJfMPeWI).

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