Civ 4 is consuming me

My brother picked up the original Sid Meier's Civilization when I was about seven years old. When he wasn't around, I'd try my hand at it, because if my Big Brother was playing it, then it had to be awesome.

(Big Brother is ten years older than me. This resulted in a lot of hero worship on my part.)

It took me a whole year and multiple tries before I finally beat it on the easiest level, but I was so bloody proud of myself for it.

A few years later, after Big Brother had left to join the navy, I got my hands on Civ II. I played it for a couple of months and then lost interest in it.

Fast forward to college, where I was constantly looking for a game to goof on instead of reading for my classes. One night while going through my old games, I came across Civ again and decided to fire it back up. (DOS emulators for the win!) Things that had confounded me at eight were now blindingly obvious. I set out and beat a game of it in a weekend. Later I pulled Civ II out of storage, and I've periodically played it off and on ever since.

I like to play as the Russians. I don't know why.

Since installing Civ 4 on Friday, Sam and I have been playing it several hours every day, trying to figure out what's new and different. The last couple of nights we've been trying our hand at a multi-player game (which I suspect is a direct result of finally beating FF13 after getting it at Christmas. And by finally beating it, I mean getting all but one of the achievements. *grumbles about stupid Treasure Hunter*)

All of this to say, even though I'm continuing to keep an eye on the internet for new and interesting things, my brain power is currently dedicated to trying to take over the world through religion and culture.