Spain is Insignificant?

I was sitting at my desk taking a short break from my university course thinking about a particular video game I'm currently interested in. The game is called Civilization III a very interesting game. The game includes 16 different civilizations and a number of events from recorded history. Obviously, it is far from historically accurate being a video game but it includes a civilopedia, which not only tells how certain thing function in the game, it also gives an abbreviated account of its roll in history.

I was a little upset because I had decided which people to lead; I had decided to lead the Spanish empire, only to discover that the game did not include Spain! A little miffed I mentioned it to Ted sitting on the couch. He said, something along the lines of not having a significant leader in their history. (each nation is portrayed by a "portrait" of a significant historical figure i.e. Cleopatra.)
We spent the entire day arguing about it. It only recently ended with me calling him ignorant to world history, and him calling me a nitpicky video game nerd.

My basic point was that the game was lacking one of the most important nations in the history of the world! Had Spain not funded Christopher Columbus we might not exist in life as we know it today.
Oh, in response to Ted's challenge to finding a historically significant figure for Spain, Philip II.

Thanks Uncle Bill

This week I finished reading Call of the Wild by Jack London. It's a rather interesting book about how a dog is wrenched from life as he knows it and is turned into a sled dog. The time frame for this is during the Yukon gold rush. Oddly enough I got the book from Uncle Bill for Christmas and in the little note inside it said "direct from the Yukon". Cool. You know Uncle Bill to my memory has never managed to disappoint me at Christmas. I rarely get to see him yet he seems to get me the right gift. This meaning when I went to Grammy's I left the book I was reading home so when I opened this I had something to read. I could have finished it a lot sooner but when I got home I had lot's of other books to read (the down side to home school).