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Thank you very much, Allenby, for passing this award to me. Let me tell you, I've been spending a lot of time looking through AARs to find next week's WOW and it's hard work. There are so many good ones out there. I've greatly enjoyed writing Gustavus Envy and I enjoy the comments that people post in my AAR. It's nice to see that a few people are actually reading and enjoying (hopefully) my work.

While my life is not as interesting as Allenby's, I shall bore you with the details. I was born in 1979 in Dallas, Texas. I was my mother's first child and a large one at that. I was about 12 or 13 lbs when I was born and, am told, her epidural did not work until after I was born. So, to recap - first child, 13 lbs, no medicene. I don't know why my mom doesn't hate me. Anyway, at about the age of 10 we moved from Dallas to Abilene, Texas where I remained for the next 12 years. Indicentally, if anyone sees the move "Friday Night Lights," Abilene High, my highschool, is featured in the movie. I also played for Coach Gaines briefly when he came to AHS before I screwed up my knee and ended my football "career."

After highschool, I began college as an art major at Hardin-Simmons University, a private Baptist college. Upon seeing the light, and switching a few more times, I ended up as a history major. However, when I found out that I was going to have to stay an extra semester anyway, I added political science as a new major and now have a degree in both. After realizing that political science came much more easily to me than history, and skipping a hell of a lot of details, I moved to San Marcos, Texas and began graduate school at Texas State University (formerly Southwest Texas state) where I recently earned my MA in political science.

I do have a pet but he's not small enough to stick on the end of a stick and use as a toilet brush. He's a nice little (about 50 lbs.) 7-month-old German shepherd named Dirk. I have a job, but I'm currently looking for one in the Dallas or Austin area because I hate my job here. :D So if anyone has any connections . . . ;)

I enjoy writing my AAR and am currently trying to decide on my next one, though my Swedish one won't end for quite some time now.
 
Rensslaer said:
So will that Scandinavian-like goddess Ann Coulter appear in your story anywhere? ;)

Rensslaer

Alas, only in my signature. ;) This one's not really a time-travel AAR so it might feel a bit out of place if she showed up and started putting liberals in their place. :D
 
A belated congratulations to every writer (winner) of this award. Now I'm going to start reading the AARs that generated this award. :cool:

Joe
 
A belated congratulations to every writer (winner) of this award. Now I'm going to start reading the AARs that generated this award.

I hope you have a lot of spare time, not only are some of these WoW winners top notch in style, but also in content and length too :)


Great job Josh!
 
Very, very tough decision this week. After a lot of reading and a lot of consideration, the WoW is . . . Rensslaer.
 
Congrats, sir! Very well deserved. Now step on up and tell us about yourself.
 
Josh! Thank you very, very much. I am honored to be considered in the circle of wonderful writers such as yourself and the many others who have already been honored and those who I know certainly deserve to be!

Fire Warms the Northern Lands is a joy to write, with or without recognition, but I am really glad that you are enjoying it.

As for me, I have been playing "simulation games" since I was a 10-year old kid. It's in my blood. And all my life I'd been wanting a manageable world conquest game that took the whole world into consideration. With HOI, and now Vicky, I have it/them. All other games have been set aside now that I have my dream games. :D

My first job is as a public relations hack and writer for a public official here in Colorado. I love writing, and I love politics, and I've been fortunate enough to be able to marry the two. Oh! And I almost forgot... I darn near (very near) got to meet Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, as he was here on a state visit the other day. That would have been very fun for a Victorian-age afficionado.

And speaking of marrying... I have a lovely wife and three kids ages 8-15. I married into the family about 2 years ago, and am having a wonderful time as a stepdad. Though I do have to sneak away at odd hours to go "meet Vicky". :rolleyes: My wife just doesn't understand...

My second job, where I do most of my writing for the AAR, is as a security guard. I work for a Swedish-owned security company which must have a relationship of some sort with Paradox, as they seem willing to pay me to sit and work on personal projects, in between occasional walkarounds, including writing the AAR. :D

For writing, I use an "avant fin de siecle" (before the end of the century) 486 laptop with 16 megs of RAM and a 60 meg hard drive that runs Windows 95 and is completely freaked out by the frames on the Paradox website so that I can't read it at all. It is for this reason -- my aged laptop -- that I get any writing done at all... otherwise I'd be playing Vicky at work!

And (best wishes and prayers are welcomed!) it is my hope that sometime soon I may be able to start my own conservative newspaper -- I would be owner, reporter and editor. So, do not be surprised if I someday soon have a link in my .sig to my own journalistic enterprise!

I have been amazed by the community here at the Paradox fora. The constant willingness to help out those who need a hand, and the constant encouragement from all of you. It's really an amazing place!

Because of that, and the quality of the writing and gameplay contained hereabouts, these WoW award choices are difficult to make. But I will enjoy undertaking the awesome responsibility of finding our next WritAAR of the week... This will involve some work, but I know I will also enjoy reading the cream of the crop out there. Many great writers I'm already familiar with, and others wait to be discovered!

Thank you, friends, again!
 
Congrats Rensslaer! I'll have to stop by and read your AAR!

Joe
 
Thank you to all those who have voiced their congratulations!

I'm still reading AARs from the various fora, and all I can say is... May I have several more WoWs to give out??? :D Just kidding!

I'm seeing alot of really incredible content and gameplay, even if I don't always understand some of it from EUII. I'm definitely intrigued by EUII (I've played HOI and Vicky), and will have to get it someday.

Renss
 
Rensslaer said:
May I have several more WoWs to give out???


I know exactly how you feel. I already had a list of candidates that I'd give WoW to if I ever got it and it was STILL hard. There are so many that deserve it and I didn't want anyone to feel that I was saying otherwise.
 
All right... This is a little late, as it appears the site was down for much of last night...

This week I have spent time looking at several very good and worthy EU II AARs, in addition to many Vicky AARs, many of which I have been reading weekly or daily for some time. As I’ve said earlier, the quality and interesting variety of these AARs is really stunning. There is a lot of talent on display on these pages.

This week’s WritAAR of the Week is primarily an EU II writAAR, where he has been around for some time. But he has recently begun a very high quality Vicky AAR (which takes the “diary” style of writing to an extreme!) and I believe he is relatively unknown to many of those who may have remained in the HOI or Vicky boards (though I've been following since the beginning).

This writer also has a wide variety of AARs in other styles -- everything from straight narrative to fanfic to hopscotching from one country to the next. One of his works even takes EU II back to the Carthaginian and Punic Wars!

I believe his consistent display of skill with such disparate styles is deserving of recognition by a wider audience. And so, it is my pleasure to introduce to you this week’s WritAAR of the Week -- Singleton Mosby!

I would encourage even those who don’t normally like fanfic or diary style AARs to take a look at
A Dutch Officer in the Empire of the Rising Sun because, while the game behind the writing is mostly hidden as yet (he's only just begun), he achieves the alternative goal of engaging us history buffs in what feels like the reading of a real 19th century diary, with associated pictures and trinkets enclosed.

Rensslaer