Assassin's Creed Ultimate Collection just arrived in the post.

and while I am looking forward to finally playing AC,

I have already decided to order Kingdoms of Amalur .

no matter how many games I have in my queue I can't

resist another that I know I'll enjoy or even one that I think 

might be good because I don't like every game I buy.

even though I don't have time to play the games I already

have I can't resist  another that either looks good 

or comes recommended.

Kings Bounty: Armored Princes for example looked interesting

and while I haven't played much I put it aside for later and moved

on fairly quickly.

Did Marco Polo really make those travels?

was he really even an Italian or was he in truth a Croat?

Far from being a trader who spent years in China and the Far East, he probably never went further east than the Black Sea.

It is suspected the Venetian 'adventurer' picked up stories about the mysterious lands of the Orient from fellow traders around the Black Sea.

He then put the stories together in a book which purports to be his account of his travels between 1271 and 1291. It details his relations with Kublai Khan, the Mongol ruler.

now an Italian team of archaeologists studying in Japan have cast doubts about one of their country's national heroes....although there are even claims he was born in Croatia and was not even a Venetian!

Professor Daniele Petrella of the University of Naples told Italian history magazine Focus Storia there were many inconsistencies and inaccuracies in Marco Polos description of Kublai Khans invasions of Japan in 1274 and 1281.

He confuses the two, mixing up details about the first expedition with those of the second, Professor Petrella said.

'In his account of the first invasion, he describes the fleet leaving Korea and being hit by a typhoon before it reached the Japanese coast,' said Professor Daniele Petrella of the University of Naples, the leader of the archaeology team.

'But that happened in 1281 is it really possible that a supposed eye witness could confuse events which were seven years apart?'

Polos description of the Mongol fleet did not square with the remains of ships the archaeologists excavated in Japan, as he had written of ships with five masts, while those which had been found had only three.

It was during our dig that doubts began to emerge about much of what he wrote, added Professor Petrella.

'When he describes Kublai Khans fleet he talks about the pitch that was used to make ships hulls watertight. He used the word 'chunam, which in Chinese and Mongol means nothing.

'In fact, it is the Persian word for pitch. Its also odd that instead of using, as he does in most instances, local names to describe places, he used Persian terms for Mongol and Chinese place names.'

The explorer claimed to have worked as an emissary to the court of Kublai Khan, but his name does not crop up in any of the surviving Mongol or Chinese records.

The famous travel book was said to have been dictated by Polo to a fellow prisoner named Pisa while he was in jail after returning from his adventures, and to be fair to Polo, it is thought Pisa embellished many of the stories.

But the latest claims back those made in a book by British academic Frances Wood in 1995 entitled 'Did Marco Polo go to China?'. She argued he never got beyond the Black Sea and that his famed account was a collection of travellers tales.

for the original story by Professor Danielle Petrella - University of Naples

How do you make a stew extra delish?

instead of stew meat that isn't good for anything but scraps....

my last couple of stews were made with rump roast and sirloin steak.

DANG that was good.

today I made an extra yummy breaded aubergine.

I didn't need a new video game since my queue is still on the longish side

and I am still playing Kotor - with a break for Torchlight at times because

Torchlight is a rather fun mindless dungeon crawl that gives relief from the

stress of games that require thinking.;)

Amazon.com with a prime account gives some better deals than Steam or GoG.

I have three games on the way King's Bounty: Armored Princess and:

Assassin's Creed I and II - those 3 for a total of $21 £13 16Euro 26,000Toman

it is also nice to have the games on disc for a change instead of cloggging my PC

up with another download

I'll continue with Kotor but afterwards either AP or AC will likely move to the top of the queue

I learned long ago to let the women/girls have their way in the house.

whether it was my mom/mum and sisters back in the day or a girlfriend

or wife - they all have their own ways and methods and like to keep things

a certain way and it helps keep things calm to not interfere with the way

a woman like to do things.

I also found that if I let them have their way throughout the rest of the home...

they will not interfere in the kitchen and I can run it the way I like without any

....interference.

and besides I have found that most girls appreciate a decent cook who

doesn't expect them do the shopping, fix the meals, or wash the dishes.

Before I had my first serious relationship I had already worked various jobs

such as a fry cook - sorry not Krabby Patties - burgers, hot dogs, chili, nachos, etc.

and in America what we call "hot dogs" are very similar to the wieners sold

in Europe as Vienna Sausage.

Also spent time a "chef" in that uniquely American intitution known as the Steak House.

so I do know how to cook a decent meal.

a couple years later I learned how to cook Filipino dishes from a girl in Angeles City.

but she didn't line her longaniza skillet with aluminum foil until i thought of that

as a method to save time and effort in clean up.

I love cooking and don't mind washing dished or cleaning up the kitchen so....

I have to tell you - while they sound like a good experience if you want

to become familiar with either trucking or farming when you already have

had too much of them you simply can't stand a game of virtualizing

something you left because you already had reached the point of no return.

I left the rural life and moved to the city when I could so no more farming!

and I lived to stress filled life of a trucking dispatcher for too many years

so no I don't want to play a video game that will duplicate that feeling:shock:

While this is in Europe my experience was trucking and railroads across

North America but also air and marine shipping containers to anywhere

in the world including Kuwait and Iraq during the Gulf Wars.

I went to Kuwait to load and and offload a couple of times.

I also took care of inspecting the nuclear waste shipments for a

couple of years and I can assure you the Air Force was not lax in safety.

we used three of those triple strength Hefty bags and TWO twisty ties

to insure there was no radioactive leakage :roll:

For those who don't appreciate a joke:

(truth of the matter you would not believe how thick the steel was

on those containtaners - and I went over them with a geiger counter

many times - one shipment of only one tractor trailer would take me

and the crew 16 hour day to inspect andcomplete the paperwork)

I found my old plastic Luger cap gun.

It reminded me of the war games we played when I was a boy.

I also had a plastic Mauser and German helmet.

and a grey confederate slouch hat.

I also had a Josh Randall "Wanted Dead or Alive" sawed off shotgun.

that and Johnny Yuma the Rebal were my faves when I was little.

I was always the "bad guys" - like the James Gang

or if it was Civil WarI was JEB Stuart or Bobby Lee and

if we played Cowboys and Indians I was Blackhawk.

it if was the Seventh Cavalry I was Sitting Bull, the one who got

to scalp Custer the guy who came and killed out woman and raped out cattle.

it wasn't that simple back in those days but even then my best

friend was half Sioux and I went to school with several Native

Americans so we had a different take on the wild west than

much of the rest of Amerca in the 1960s and 70s.

when we played world war 2 I was the Germans.

after all my grandma and grandpa and several aunts and uncles

spoke German and home.

I still have some of my old "toys"

one of the cap guns is pewter and full size with a removable cylinder.

in the ensuing years I have accumulated a couple of replica six shooters

in addition to my genuine firearms both hand gun and long gun.

and we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon,

over a Christmas bowl ofsmoking bishop, Bob!- A Christmas Carol

Has anyone else ever wondered what the heck that is?

Smoking Bishop sounds.....like you need to get out the old bong:D

but I don't see Bob Clampitt...I mean Cratchitt and even the

New Improved Ebenezer Scrooge having a Christmas toke.

SO i looked it up and here is the recipe for a Smoking Biship:

- Feliz Navidad - Maligayong Pasko -Saal-e no mobarak -

- Wesoych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia!

the preview let me see that Korean still is not acceptable in GS.

and some of the Polish letters were Romanized/Angliscized :(

There are more ways to say Merry Christmas these are all I know.

YALDA

this blog is about Yalda, the origin of Christmas in more than one way.

a Happy Longest night and A Merry Christmas.

Yalda is the ancient Persian celebration of the birthday of Mehr

(Mithra to Romans)which took place on the longest night of the year.

The Romans, especially the aristocracy celebrated the birthday of Mithra,

the Persian Goddessof the unconquerable sun, on December 25.

It was believed that Mithra, an infant god, was bornof a rock.

MITHRA

the birthday of Jesus Christ was celebrated in January the 6th. But the religion of

most of the Romans and the people of many of the European countries was still

Mithraism. But when Christianity spread, the priests, since could not stop the practice

of celebrating Mithra's birthday on December the 25th and declared this day as

Jesus's birthday which is still so. The whole of Mithraism rituals entered Christianity.

I will on Christmas Day make scrambled eggs for breakfast and borscht for dinner.

In the borscht will be sour cream and boiled eggs.

in the breakfast scramble will be at least cheese and mushrooms.

they would be more traditional if the girls here were not so American that

they only like bland food.

I am the only one in the family who likes borscht.

the truth is rather plebian.

the original Kama Sutra as written by Vatsyayana was not illustrated.

it was dedicated to Kamadeva, the Hindu God of Love:

In other words the Indian Cupid.

My Iranian friends, and those who are familiar with Zartosht and

the Zoroatrians (or if you just played Garshasp the Monster Slayer)

will be familiar the him as one of the diva, divs, deevs.:shock:

and to my Hindu friends the Rigveda has a different viewpoint.

the Devas were the Gods of those who were in opposition to the

ancestors of the Zoroastrians in the early times and this gave rise

to some of the mythos of both people and some interesting stories.

All this aside - when the English translation was first being sold

in 1880s London the illustrations were a focal point and are what

made this book such a hit.

There are some instructions regarding positions in the original

manuscropt but without the illustrations.

HOW do you advertise 200 pages of relationship advice?

which is basically what the original manuscript was.

Vatsyayana lived sometime in the in the first 6 centuries B.C.E.

relationship advice from India during that time period would be

rather useless in 19th century England - it was the racy illustrations

that were added to make it a best seller and turned this from a

book of advice into what might be the first printed best selling

dirty books.