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Yesterday, our kid's school had a student free day... it's a bit of a strange sort of event when the kids are learning from home, but this is the last week of that malarky, and the primary school kids will be going back to school next week starting on Monday. That means that we can have a bit more of the day to aim to be a bit productive! Well... as much as musicians can be in this time of stasis.
Anyway, normally we would take these student free days and go to a museum or outing somewhere, either in Den Haag or some other town. These free days aren't co-ordinated between schools, so it gives us a good chance to visit some places without them being completely packed like they normally are in the holiday periods. Last time it happened, we were in a gentler restriction period, so we were able to go to NEMO Science Museum in Amsterdam and experience it without the crowds of school excursions.
This time, it everything is closed... not even restricted numbers... just closed. Plus, the weather was pretty terrible outside, so not even a bike ride and picnic were on the cards for the day off. So, we opted for a family gaming morning (followed by a film afternoon!)... sometimes, you just have to let yourself enjoy the day and free yourself from any expectations of getting anything done!
As a gamer and a father, I'm always trying to steer my kids in the direction of decent gaming rather than time wasters and barely veiled gambling machines. Recently, my oldest child started on Cities: Skylines... the spiritual successor to SimCity. It's a game that I have been meaning to play for myself, but hadn't gotten around to... but she saw it on my Steam library as we were looking for games that would be suitable for her, and she immediately wanted to play it! She loves building and sim-type games.
My wife had heard us nattering away about our two little towns (I play on my laptop whilst my daughter plays on my gaming rig)... and she wanted in on her own town as well. So, we all decided to play Skylines in the attic together... two laptops and one gaming rig (everything offline so that Steam wouldn't have a fit....).
... but first we needed to set up the youngest with a tablet game. In the end, she wanted to play with Khan Kids Academy... she loves those characters!
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So, my oldest ended up on the gaming rig... and her town was doing pretty well. Until, she hit a snag with forgetting to provide water to some of the residential zones... then of course, you run out of money. The CIMS start complaining...
Normally, you would probably wait it out or de-zone the buildings... however, my girl thought that she didn't want unhappy people with no water in her town.. so she bulldozed her houses! HAHAHAHA... suddenly her income plummeted, and she was deep in the red. I can imagine it now:
POLICE: Are you happy in there?
CIMS: Yes, we love the town. But recently we ran out of water...
POLICE: ALRIGHT THEN, BLOW UP THE HOUSE!
... after she did this, I told her that she should just bulldoze the abandoned houses only and rezone! Maybe I'm raising a psychopath?
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Meanwhile, my wife was struggling with the intricacies of road building. She fell into the noob trap of trying to design the PERFECT city at the start, which leads to running out of money and having the perfect half city with no water and electricity. Restarting the town fixed that... but then she placed the sewage drain upstream from the drinking water... which led to some complaints and sickness.
She was also intent on building the GREEN CITY OF THE FUTURE! However, she quickly realised that if she wanted to grow fast, then coal was on the cards supported by wind. That could be fixed later (probably...), but it would have to start like that. On the other hand, wind only could have supported a tiny slowly growing town I guess...
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My city is growing quite nicely... I'm a gamer and I've played these types of games before. It's expanded quite a bit from this initial little humble beginning... and I did have a little bit of a hiccup when I ran out of money and didn't build a cemetery beforehand... which led to people dying and not being removed from homes and shops... which would lead to the building being abandoned!
However, I'm now well on the way to cutting a greener path... I've got a nice chunk of my power being supplied with windmills, with a baseline of coal. I'm hoping to wean myself off this mix and onto a solar based version soon enough. I've got bike lanes everywhere as well, and started the long term vision of a city divided into districts with a large freeway roundabout connecting and servicing the various districts. Long term goals... but the groundwork is starting to take shape slowly!
It's really nice that we can all play the same game together, and then chat about our little towns. It is a pity that the little one is too small to play this game... perhaps in a couple of years, and then we can all talk about how our little towns are faring over dinner. I was really surprised that my wife wanted in on the game as well... although, time will tell if it was just a one day interest, or she is really aiming to building the best little simulated town in the house... she can be really competitive after all!
https://steemitimages.com/0x0/https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmQgdKBYt2WqqK4iNvDmFsZHUJfu9t62Hz1JxHAwJ7SyoB/thealliance_pagebreak.png
# <center>Splinterlands (aka the best blockchain game out there!)</center>
<center><a href="https://splinterlands.io?ref=bengy"><img src=https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://files.steempeak.com/file/steempeak/steemmonsters/guQaRL9o-120splinterlands202400.png><br/></a></center>
# <center>[Humble Bundle](https://www.humblebundle.com/monthly?refc=Zio8ho)</center>
Have you heard of [Humble Bundle](https://www.humblebundle.com/monthly?refc=Zio8ho)? It's a place to get some really great deals on Games, e-books and comic bundles. However, if you sign up for a [Humble Bundle](https://www.humblebundle.com/monthly?refc=Zio8ho) Subscription (12 USD per month) you get some really nice bonuses!
1. A 100+ USD bundle of games delivered direct to you each month, redeemable on Steam, Uplay or direct download (depending on the game). This includes recent Triple A games!
2. Access to the [Humble Bundle](https://www.humblebundle.com/monthly?refc=Zio8ho) "Trove", a list of 60 games (and growing...) which are free to play as long as you remain a subscriber!
3. Additional Discounts on the [Humble Bundle](https://www.humblebundle.com/monthly?refc=Zio8ho) store, with the choice of supporting charities, [Humble Bundle](https://www.humblebundle.com/monthly?refc=Zio8ho) or developers in whatever percentage that you wish!
[Humble Bundle](https://www.humblebundle.com/monthly?refc=Zio8ho) Subscriptions, it's a no brainer for the dedicated gamer!
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<center><sub>Upgoats by ryivhnn
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<center><sub>The classical music community (Subscribe at [Steempeak](https://steempeak.com/c/hive-193961/created) and [Peakd](https://peakd.com/c/hive-193961/created)) at #classical-music and [Discord](https://discord.gg/ppVmmgt). Follow our community accounts @classical-music and @classical-radio. Community Logo by ivan.atman</sub></center>
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