Bye bye, Twitter

A month or two ago, it was announced that Twitter (I refuse to call it anything else) would be gating TweetDeck access to subscribers only. Since I have a lot of difficulty using Twitter without a multi-column view, I decided that I was finally going to take the opportunity to get the hell away from the site. As of August 16, the access to Twitter has indeed been changed, and I’ve deleted my Twitter account.

I’m not really interested in joining another social media site. For a start, they’re still very much up in the air; some of them seem to be run by some very problematic people; I don’t want to faff around trying to find and follow everyone; and doomscrolling is just exhausting anyway.

If you’d like to get in touch via email, there’s one on the Contact Me! page of this site 🙂

Thanks!

Half a century of love for cuddly friends

What do you get when someone, who’s loved cuddly toys since being a child, finds they have a sentimental streak a mile wide? A toy collection that’s long since passed an “unhealthy” size…

How to build an obelisk and piss off your mother

My Twitter followers may have noticed my occasional tweets recently, about having to paint some of the walls of my flat, in the wake of wall insulation being installed. Thankfully, it’s now all done; I bloody hated every last damn minute of it. But it also reminded me of the first time I painted something with emulsion paint, exactly forty years ago, and the mess – figuratively and literally – I got into, in the process… which I can laugh about, now 😀

The Reliant R-R-R-Robin

NSFW advisory for language.

I’ve been playing a lot of Forza Horizon 4 over the past few weeks (thank you, Xbox Game Pass for PC!), and while I absolutely love it, I’m a bit disappointed that Playground Games didn’t include more Reliant cars. There’s one in the game: the Reliant Regal Supervan III from 1972, which will be familiar to fans of Only Fools and Horses and Mr Bean. Dad had one, not long after I was born. Obviously, I don’t remember actually experiencing the ride in it, but I’ve seen it in pictures: light blue, with a huge Mickey Mouse decal on the bonnet. In a sort of tribute to Dad’s vehicle, I chose light blue as the bodywork colour for the one I bought in the game.

The Doubleclicks, live in Leeds!

NSFW advisory for language.
You can click on the images to get larger versions!

I don’t use Facebook often; I mostly signed up with it so that I could enter contests and connect my Android games to it for extra in-game stuff 😀 But a couple of weeks ago, one of my rare visits to the home page resulted in a wonderful, serendipitous discovery: The Doubleclicks were touring the UK and Europe, and they were coming to Leeds, only about 30 miles from me!

Critical Bits: You need this podcast in your earholes!

Advisories:

This article: NSFW for language
Critical Bits podcast: NSFW for language; trigger warnings for body horror, trauma, violence

As I’ve mentioned previously, I’m a fan of Sean Oxspring’s O.M.E.N. Investigations actual-play RPG podcast. In the two most recent episodes (Season 1, Episodes 43 and 44), Sean’s been GMing a G.A.M.M.A. team (G.A.M.M.A. is the nemesis organisation to O.M.E.N.), played by guest players Joel Ruiz, Paul Byron, and Shannon Strucci of the Critical Bits podcast. Having heard their antics in Sean’s game – which are at least as batshit (and hilarious) as those of the regular O.M.E.N. team – I decided to give their podcast a listen. Here’s a “TL;DR” expression of my enjoyment: I liked Episode 1 so much, I downloaded the remaining episodes while still only about half-way through the first!

Blurred Childhood Memories: The New Inn

At least a couple of times a year, when the light and weather is just right in the summer, a memory returns to the front of my mind. Actually, it’s more of a “meta-memory”: I can’t recall specific events for this, as each individual event was pretty similar to the others, so they’ve all coalesced into a general version, which is nonetheless enjoyable to revisit.

O.M.E.N. Investigations – an awesome RPG podcast!

NSFW advisory for language in this article; and for language and body horror in the podcast.

Good evening. This is Brimstone, calling Cairo Team One. I assume you’ve all properly introduced yourselves to one another on the flight. You should be landing at Cairo International shortly, roughly 6pm their time. Incidentally, do be sure you’re using the airline-provided headphones; you are flying economy, and people will hear. This mission is a simple one, as it is your first assignment, and you’re probably all a little green. Possibly literally; our hiring policies are eclectic, and I don’t find it worthwhile to read anyone’s file until they’ve made it past at least one Christmas party.

 – Dr Byron Brimstone, Director of O.M.E.N. (played by Greg “The Stupendium” Holgate)

A short Satisfactory fanfic

NSFW advisory for language.

NOTE: The link to the Satisfactory store page is an affiliate link which supports my friend, variety streamer Molethulu (Twitter; Twitch). No compensation of any kind is received for using the link in this article.

Since the release of Satisfactory, I’ve been having a good amount of fun with it. But now that I’ve completed tiers 0-6, there’s not really been much to do, while we all wait for the next content (this is just a statement, not an entitlement-based rant). So I’ve taken to paving over the planet’s surface, and clear-cutting any trees which don’t start to stand up and emit poisonous gas when I approach them…

I also had fanfic start to buzz around my head, particularly the sundial analogy in the first paragraph below, so I had to get it out! I don’t imagine I’ll get any further than what I’ve written so far, so I figured I might as well put it up on my blog, rather than have it gather virtual dust on my hard drive 😀 Enjoy 😀

Push button, get validation

NOTE: The link to the Satisfactory store page is an affiliate link which supports my friend, variety streamer Molethulu (Twitter; Twitch). No compensation of any kind is received for using the link in this article.

A few weeks ago, I subjected myself to another round of self-analysis, trying to figure out why I enjoyed video games with machines in them: for example, the Feed the Beast mod pack for Minecraft; My Time at Portia; Blueprint Tycoon; Factorio; Factory Town; and now Satisfactory.

And I think I found the answer: I’m a sucker for Skinner Boxes. You know the sort of thing: push button; (often) get reward.