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Tonight I actually sat down at my kitchen table, turned off Ricky Royal’s playthrough of the Halls of Hegra and set up my scenario for The Lord of the Rings LCG. I have already built my decks according to the Fellowship of the Ring guide, so I have a Gandalf, Eowyn, and Thodred deck, and a hobbit deck of Sam, Merry, and Pippin. It took a long time to get through the first round as I was constantly checking the rulebook to make sure I was correctly doing the action windows. I’m not even sure I was so I will watch Colin’s playthrough of A Shadow of the Past again to make sure I’m doing it right. ...

A very important announcement: Halls of Hegra has arrived. This might be the only true solo game in my collection. There is no two-handed mode, no solo-varient, it is just a one-player game. I will be playing as the Norwegian army holed up in Hegra fortress attempting to resist the Nazi invasion as much as possible. Lucky for me I already had a bunch of card sleeves laying around so I’ve not had to fork out extra, and my game is ready to put on the table. ...

Well episode two has been watched. My thoughts on it, in chronological order, were: Completely expected that the world is green Was surprised that the sheriff still collapsed Unbelievable cringe speech from the strong guy to the fighting mob. Calling their part of the silo the “down deep” as opposed to the “mids” or “up top”. Seriously, the silo has fewer levels than many office blocks, there’s no need to resort to Snowpiercer levels of segregation1. “Here in the down deep we just get. shit. done.” Urghhh that’s already knocked three or four points off of the score Lots of shouty swearing I can’t stop seeing that mayor as the “bitty” mummy from Little Britain Just realised the other sheriff guy is that astronaut-driller from Armageddon Is the guy from Spooks name really “Wholesome”? Getting pretty sick of hearing about this “rebellion” without being given more info Black Panthers? In my silo? It’s more likely than you think Not really enjoying watching Rebecca Ferguson shouting, screaming, or moping about all over the place The writers are using this old workshop woman to accelerate through Rebecca Ferguson’s character development so fast I’ve got whiplash, terrible writing So much exposition dump it is making me want to just turn it off Subtle hand touching - show, don’t tell, very good “Everyone knows about us” - oh ok, tell, don’t show then, I guess It was here that the episode took a turn for the better. ...

I had never heard of this show before but decided to give it a go as its got that nice combo of dystopian sci-fi and mystery that keeps a show interesting. I also thought I’d have a go at an episode-by-episode review of the series until it’s either done or I am bored with it. Let’s be honest, considering what I’m like, it’ll be the latter, but still, it will kill some time. ...

It must have been a few months since I last bought a board game. The last one was Lord of the Rings LCG: The Two Towers Saga Expansion back in August, so I am well over-due. It is good for me to slow down on these purchases anyway. I am really only interested in completing some of the Living Card Games from Fantasy Flight Games for now. That includes Arkham Horror, The Lord of the Rings, and Marvel Champions. ...

Here we go with another read through of some Marvel Comics, some very suspect rating of each story, and an overall percentage score for the issue. This time its Strange Tales from 1952: Spooky AF The Boy Who Was Afraid A heart-warming story of a boy being physically abused by his father for liking gay shit such as reading, rather than winning sportsball trophies. He is afraid to step on the cracks outside! After his father takes him to a psychiatrist he is forced to step on the cracks! Then they all die falling down the cracks. ...

It will be of absolutely no surprise to anyone that there is a resistance to the “RETURN TO OFFICE” mantra being released from the mouths many CEOs across the world like so much raw sewage into our waterways. The pandemic changed the relationship people have with their jobs. The power CEOs had over their employees melted away like their promises of pay increases1. If people did not realise how much time they were wasting on commuting2 to and from an office, they surely did now. I was working as a software developer at a medium sized firm from 2017 to 2022 and, like most jobs back then, it was an office job. All my jobs had been office jobs. This had never made sense to me. Software development is one of the prime examples of a role that can be done from home, and in my opinion, suffers for being in the offce full-time. ...

I’ve been spending some time recently thinking about what I want to focus on in my career as an very average software developer. I do not want to just be a code monkey that can be replaced by AI in about 3 months’ time. Nor do I want to be an architect that just talks about code and has no real involvement in the process. My current skillset, such as it is, consists of C#, .NET, Python, SQL, and JavaScript. ...

A young woman is forced to undergo experimental treatments in an attempt to make her appear “normal.” This episode opens with a shot of a lady laying in a hospital bed with comically large bandages covering her entire head. She talks with the nurse about what the day was like, as she is obviously unable to see anything, and when can the doctors take her bandages off. The nurse tells her that the doctors are still trying to work out how to “fix her face”. The lady says that her face must look pretty bad and that she never really wanted to be beautiful1. ...

A man on a walking trip of post-World War I Europe gets caught in a storm. He comes across a remote monastery with a mysterious prisoner. The episode starts off without Rod’s usual exposition dump, and instead the protagonist is telling us about some crazy shit he has experienced years ago. INTENSE STARING. JAUNTY CAMERA ANGLES. ALTERNATIVE EXPOSITION DUMP. He was on a walking tour of some WW1 beaches and got lost in a massive storm. Lucky for him he saw some light emanating from a nearby building… ...