Every day that goes by I regret more and more the unfortunate circumstances that have seen my return home. Reading about how awesome other peoples lives are going is not really helping. Really I should simply avoid social networking sites until my humour improves, as it would prevent me thinking terrible things that make me feel like a cunt. You’d think the free time would make up for it, but in reality I have rarely been so entirely unproductive. But while doing some file housekeeping (exciting!) I did a customary search to see what anime series I was waiting to watch have finished (no way I’m watching week to week like a peasant!). While doing so I came across a preview of the Fall season in the ever useful chart form. My thoughts on whats coming up can be seen below. Though likely it’ll be late Spring or early Summer before I get to watch any of these. Continue reading…
Let’s Read – 2000 AD – Prog 0002
Well moving house is continuing to eat my time in a totally unexpected way. I suppose deciding to re-decorate hasnt really helped speed things up. Especially as my tiles are sassing we with their supposed adhesive qualities. I read Prog’s 2-10 some time ago, which means I had to refresh myself a little when it came to writing this. Something I’ve run into is that its hard to read an entire issue, not because I dislike any particular story. But because its hard not to stick with the one strip and read ahead as opposed to reading a few pages and moving on to another story. To be honest, not sticking with the one strip until the end, especially as they’re all “complete”, is basically in direct opposition to how I’ve “trained” myself to consume all forms of media over the last few years. First world problems, eh? The other thing I didn’t realise about “Let’s Read” is that it really slows things down when you just want to read the thing in question. So I think I might just “guarantee” a Let’s Read of 10 Progs a week but read on at my own pace in the inbetween. Continue reading…
Schedules of the idle poor
I think that everyone who plays even a moderate amount of computer games has a backlog of games that they have yet to play or complete. Some of these will never be completed, they were rented for an evening or borrowed from a friend (or GOD FORBID, pirated) – they didn’t grab you and youre not going back. Other’s though are quality games that came out during a particular glut of such and didn’t get played or completed. Or perhaps you’re a fan of particular genre’s that tend to have massive playtimes (Strategy titles, RPG’s, etc.) and thus exacerbate the problem of an ever growing backlog. If you are reading this wondering what the fuck I’m talking about then you should a) rejoice in not being shouldered with a similar Sisyphean load and b) tip on (or read on, “whatevs” as the cool kids say). Continue reading…
Let’s Read – 2000 AD – Prog 0001
So here we go, thirty four years of comics, nearly two thousand issues. Since I first come across it 2000 AD has been responsible for introducing me to some of my favourite fictional characters of all time. Of course as a kid my disposable income was rather constrained, and by constrained I mean largely non-existent. So I only got to read 2000 AD sporadically, the highlights being the monthly specials (collecting entire story arc’s from various strips) and the annuals. During my teen’s the issues that I stumbled across seemed very different from my earlier experiences, a lot of them stuffed with the mindless violence that epitomised the dreary “Iron Age” of comics. Continue reading…
End of the Metaverse campaign and role-playing in general
*Cross-posted from the forum* Well it looks like this has wrapped up. Still we got four or five enjoyable sessions out of it so it wasnt entirely wasted. I suppose we started at a poor time of year, after illness, false starts and holidays delayed the game we ended up too close to the end of the year and 1/4 of the player base leaving. Which sort of killed my interest, so I suppose its really my fault the game fell through. A pity I suppose. I did learn a few things though. Continue reading…
(Planned) May Viewing – Anime Edition
Didn’t get a lot watched this month, or done, actually I have no fucking idea what I did this month. Worrying. Anyway, on to the anime. Continue reading…
(Planned) April Viewing – Anime Edition
To quote the Mick of March “I got a fair bit watched this month. But as always, about half of it wasnt on “the list”. Upon reflection I think that may be because nearly everything I had listed in the previous article was either a) depressing, b) “srz biznez” or c) both. To be honest, sometimes I just want to throw on something thats just enjoyable. Whether its fun, light-hearted, mindless action or all of the above. Which is what most of my “unscheduled” viewing was.” As with so many things in my life I can easily identify the problem but seem incapable of addressing it. Well thats perhaps too much wangst for this kind of post, so on to the anime Continue reading…
30 Days of the terrible things that live beneath the skin of the world – A Summary
30 days ago I decided that I would disseminate a selection of the various weird subjects I had come across on Facebook and Twitter. For two main reasons, the first being that I think most of these things are genuinely interesting or intriguing and its always good to know more. The second being that I wanted to give myself some impetus to read or re-read the rather large amount of material (literally thousands of pages) I had amassed. The second reason has borne fruit and I’m hoping that the first did likewise for anyone who has been following along. I’ve collected all of the “entries” in the “series” here. Continue reading…
Mick’s Mighty Mutated Marvel Draft – Origins Part 2
Esteban Corazón de Ablo was born on May 1st 1500 AD. He lost his parents to disease at an early age. Despite being nobles, living in the lands outside the city of Zaragoza in the kingdom of Aragon, modern medicine was simply unable to cure their condition. Left to the care of his uncle Pedro Esteban spent his youth learning both the skills required of a noble and everything he could find about medicine. Esteban planned to become a doctor in order to try and save people from the same fate as his parents. Leaving his home in Zaragoza Esteban traveled to Switzerland to study in the famous University of Basel. It was here that a young Esteban met the eccentric and somewhat infamous Paracelsus. Esteban’s quick wit soon caught the attention of Paracelsus and a friendship quickly formed between the two young men. Continue reading…
Mick’s Mighty Mutated Marvel Draft – Origins
Well a whopping total of zero people were interested in this. I HATE YOU ALL! Perhaps because my previous post wasnt entirely clear. Oh well, I think I’ll forge ahead and give it a go myself. Unfortunately a one man draft lacks the questionable excitement of having your potential picks nabbed before you get to them. In order to try and emulate that I’m going to add four “phantom” draftee’s. Basically I’ll be going to the Marvel wiki after I make my own picks and using the random function to make four random picks. I’ll be going for one pick a day. Day’s 1-7 will be hero picks, Day 8 team names, Day 9 villain pick, Day 10, “Wildcard” picks. Then I’ll throw together a summary of my first “six issue” story arc.
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