Sheepskin coat

I'm presently placed ahead of about seven million competitors in Fantasy Premier League. The problem is I'm lagging behind another three million. Still, it's a bit of fun. Haven't taken part in a fantasy-football league since the early 2000s. Back then, I was on a soccer-mad (magazine) subeditors bench. I also only spend about five minutes each week tweaking my team, so I can't very well expect to be among the frontrunners.

Watching: "Westworld" S2 [Foxtel].

Every family's got one?

AncestryDOTcom emails me intermittently to inform me that so-and-so, also in their DNA database, is my Nth cousin. If it's a close enough connection, I'll tell my mother the name and she can usually work out whose son or daughter they must be. With the latest person - a "1st or 2nd cousin" - she wasn't able to do so. I Googled the mystery man's name. He appears to be a professional astrologer.

A horse is a horse

Enrolled in a free online course about detective fiction. The last such course I did, I completed in December 2022. Why the break? It wasn't so much that I burnt out on online learning as that I was struggling to find topics of sufficient interest to the little grey cells. This one should be good.

In the land of the blind drunk, the one-beer man is king

My Fitness To Drive Request Notice arrived; an annual occurrence since the government changed the regulations pertaining to some forms of vision impairment. It means a trip to the optometrist, followed by a trip to the GP. The former should afford me the opportunity to photograph new street art. The GP visit doesn't suggest anything exciting. I s'pose I could drop in at the nearby South African grocery store and grab biltong. Been yonks since I had Castle Lager, but I bet it's expensive as a specialty import these days. They make the biltong themselves.

Playing: "Regency Solitaire II" [Steam]. I'm a sucker for Solitaire-based light adventures.

Watching: "Strange New Worlds" [Paramount+]. Astoundingly consistent in its beautness.

Recent (re)viewing

"Arachno", "Constantine", "S/M/B", "Hunt" and "Legacy" all rewatches.

* "Arachnophobia" (1990) [own copy]: Flimsy story. Extremely well executed - especially climax.

* "Bastille Day" (2016) [Netflix]: Atypical action thriller. Parisian chases, tussles, twists.

* "Beavis And Butt-Head Do The Universe" (2022) [Paramount+ free trial]: Smart-arse idiocy revival prompts occasional chuckle.

* "Constantine" (2005) [Prime Video]: Honestly not that bad/unfaithful, in hindsight.

* "Resident Evil - Death Island" (2023) [Prime Video]: Stunning animation, insane "stunts", variable voicing, BIOWEAPONS! AND: Deadweight history aside, superb use of medium.

* "Super Mario Bros" (1993) [Kanopy]: 10,000 wrong decisions. Zero intentional laughs. Fascinating!

* "The Hunt For Red October" (1990) [Apple Store rental]: Novel's 40, movie's great (if total sausagefest).

* "Tron - Legacy" (2010) [Disney+]: Intro sucks. Protagonist meh. Grid sequences AWESOME. BUT: Michael Sheen's glam publican steals the show.

<<< Pick of the bunch is "Arachnophobia". >>>

ANZAC Day tomoz

Would love to attend a Dawn Service somewhere. That's not feasible in my given situation. Will settle for catching snippets of commemorative events from around the nation on telly.

I note there are three games of NRL. Three! On a Thurs! Only two of AFL, but they're also holding one tonight. (No Pacific Super Rugby or A-League.)

It appears that, along with remembering the sacrifices of fallen servicepeople and munching homemade ANZAC biscuits, I'll be watching a fair bit of footy.

Knowing when to fold

Uninstalled poker puzzler "Balatro" [Steam] after 77 hours. Was still achieving/unlocking stuff. Very slowly, though. 1-2 Glengarry leads per night. Diminishing returns. And it was keeping me from exploring other gameses. Am satisfied with the entertainment derived for my 20-buck outlay.

New listening

Finished "Servo" (highly recommended). Will begin the audiobook of this tragic memoir from 2023 on my Monday walk. Gotta tackle something serious in paper soon as well. At the moment, my traditional reading is confined to gamebooks, "SFX" and "Retro Gamer" mag, and "Batman" comics.

Blurb:

A novelist’s gripping investigation of the forces that led his childhood best friend from academic stardom to the psychiatric hospital where he has lived since killing the woman he loved

When the Rosens moved to New Rochelle, New York in 1973, Jonathan Rosen and Michael Laudor became inseparable. Both children of professors, the boys were best friends and fierce rivals who soon followed each other to Yale University.

Michael blazed through Yale in three years, graduating summa cum laude and landing a top-flight consulting job. Then, one day, Jonathan received a devastating call: Michael had suffered a psychotic break and was in the locked ward of a psychiatric hospital.

Diagnosed with schizophrenia, Michael was still in hospital when he learned he’d been accepted into law school, and living in a halfway house when he decided, against all odds, to enrol. Still battling delusions, he managed to graduate, and after his triumphant story was featured in The New York Times, sold a memoir for a vast sum. Ron Howard bought film rights, completing the dream for Michael and his tirelessly supportive girlfriend Carrie, and Brad Pitt was set to star. But then Michael, in the grip of psychosis, committed a horrific act that made him a front-page story of an entirely different sort.

The Best Minds is Jonathan Rosen’s powerful account of an American tragedy, set in the final decades of the American century, an era that coincided with the emptying out of state mental hospitals. It is a story about the bonds of friendship, the price of delusion and the mystery of identity. Tender, funny and harrowing by turns, The Best Minds is both a beautifully rendered coming of age story and an indictment of the profound neglect of mental illness in our society.

Six suns

Thanks to my friend JK for linking me to the series of scifi shorts going under the banner "A Thousand Suns". There are six episodes. This is the first -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXaVgAxtYFI

For what it's worth (nothing), I'd rank 'em, best to least best: 5, 1, 3, 2, 4, 6. The sixth is the only real weak instalment. I hope they make more eps.

Mr Suitcase? Nah, Mr Top Pocket

I haven't paid for a 5E manual, boardgame or booster pack* since before the Pando. I've just been trading handfuls of unwanted MTG cards for game-shop credit; initially by mail, but lately in person at my FLGS. I'm preparing the next pile now ($135 worth and counting). Admittedly, it's growing tougher to find shiz they want, but only because the Oz market is so limited. My collection still contains tons of cards I reckon would instantly sell in the US, especially some of the foreign printings. "Whaddaya mean you don't buy Italian Legends?" I can't complain. The process has saved me several grand since 2019. It's also just a fun, OCD-pleasing challenge; both searching through longboxes/display folders for what's "hot" and then attempting to spend the generated credit to the dollar :-)

*Generally speaking. There were Kickstarters, etc.

Yumosity vs yumology

Had a lovely tuna'n'vegetable curry with rice for dinner. There was lemon juice in it already, and I added coriander. Plenty of poppadoms on the side. Thinking about date cake for dessert.

"Hey, smoke up, Johnny!"

A mate of mine started smoking when he was in the army because, as he tells it, you couldn't have a regular smoke break unless you were a smoker. I've 9-to-5-ed in a few high-rises in my time. Colleagues who smoked would have to catch the lift down, find a spot away from the building (and passing foot traffic) to enjoy their durry, then catch the lift back up. If the lifts were busy, this might take 15-20 minutes. I wonder if anyone took up coffin nails primarily to escape the office a coupla extra times during the day.

Double agent

I got away with a little in high school by joking around with my teachers. Not doing homework, handing assignments in late, goofing in class... Similarly, there's often a person in a company who lucks into a smoother ride. When I was at Kmart, there was a fellow in my department who worked for us through the week, then performed the *exact* same role on weekends for our main competitor, Big W, at a branch not 10 minutes' drive away. It wasn't a secret. Management didn't care. There musta been many times when he was tempted to send a punter to his other store, if there was a better deal on what they were seeking. Didn't worry me. For one thing, he was a decent dude. As a casual keen for shifts, I was only jealous that he had two jobs!

Pickup only

We sold some gear via Gumtree. The people were nice and we threw in a free item worth more than they paid. While we've had no-shows, I don't believe there's ever been a classifieds customer come to the house who wasn't nice - or who left empty-handed. A positive of the Collector Gene is we care for our stuff, meaning it retains maximum value. A negative is we accumulate too much and eventually need to sell bits on places like Gumtree.

Malebog

While I was recovering from my heart operation, my therapist had me doing colouring in to help with the anxiety. It worked. It works. Did some today. Gonna try to get back into the habit.

Recent viewing

Kinda making a liar of myself here, after saying I'm no longer getting the same kicks from flicks. Bear in mind that these were viddied over a month, where once they'd have only taken me a week.

* "24 Hours With Gaspar" (2023) [Netflix]: Plodding Indonesian detective melodrama. Token futuristic elements. AND: Too much voicing over, flashing back, smoking.

* "Agent Game" (2022) [Netflix]: Tangled spy tale doesn't justify its existence.

* "The Holdovers" (2023) [Apple store rental]: Proper cinema.

* "Meg 2 - The Trench" (2023) [99-cental mental rental]: Treads water until spectacularly silly, fun finale.

* "Road House" (2024) [Prime Video]: Expectations lowered, found it genuinely (mindlessly) entertaining.

* "Saltburn" (2023) [Prime Video]: Overrated cliches, obvious twist and shock scenes. BUT: Pike and Grant nail the entitled idiocy.

* "Scream" (2022) [Netflix]: Slasher requel dressed up in continuity, metacommentary.

* "Suzume" (2022) [Netflix]: Allegorical journey looks/sounds fab, surprises, moves.

* "The Books He Didn't Burn" (2023) [Kanopy]: Multiple authorities scrutinise Hit ler's library for motivations. ALSO: Surprisingly politically relevant, with understandably worrying implications.  

<<< Pick of the bunch is "The Holdovers". >>>

Jabiru

We had our flu shots today. The appointment was for half eleven. The receptionist rang and asked if we could come an hour early because they were running ahead of schedule/not busy. I thought, "Yeah, right, that place is always chockers with the walking wounded." She didn't lie - the surgery was empty. Am not expecting any side effects from the jab. Covid boosters hit me hard for 24-48 hours, but I don't think I've had any such trouble from a flu shot. I guess one conflicts with my nanites and the other doesn't.

Expressions of disinterest

Bloke in front of me at BWS earlier was buying a case of beer, a bottle of rum and a loose can of beer of a different sort. Can you say "roadie"? :-) My own modest purchase will be enjoyed with fish'n'chips'n'anime in what's become something of a Friday tradition.

Made in Randwick

Have smashed every available episode of those programs I mentioned last Wednesday. Also "Mindhunter" S2 [Netflix], "Sand Land" and "Renegade Nell" [Disney+], and "His Dark Materials" S2 [Foxtel]. Presently making my way through "Foundation" S2 [Apple TV+] and "H/D/M" S3.

I overdid the movies during the pando. Now, I can't seem to get motivated to put them on. The upside is I've regained my ability to devour telly shows. It reminds me of when I was a film reviewer and would occasionally wish I could skip the preview screening of the latest arthouse masterpiece - in a comfy private theatre, with a fine wine - to rush home, turn off my brain and watch trashy reality TV. Boo-hoo-hoo, right?

I was planning to write about carparks, until I...

Centralised (consolidated?) all of my RPG box sets and books into a single bookcase, after eons of having them unhelpfully spread across six bookcases. Took a whole arvo. The new arrangement is ridiculously satisfying. It "sparks joy", as Marie Kondo would say. She's a high-level cleric/mage, you know.

UFO 3000

UFC 300: Pereira Vs Hill is this Sunday (Australia time). It's being billed as the greatest lineup of bouts in combat-sports history. Maybe. They do look awesome on paper/electrons, but let's see how they play out. I'm particularly interested to observe how debuting superstar Kayla Harrison goes after a weight cut that was once deemed impossible for her to make.

The UFC has held 17 events here in Oz, six of which I've attended. I went along to UFC 110: Nogueira Vs Velasquez in Sydney as a punter. Then UFC 127: Penn Vs Fitch, UFC On FX: Alves VS Kampmann, UFC On FX: Sotiropoulos Vs Pearson (Gold Coast) and UFC Fight Night: Hunt Vs Bigfoot (Brisbane) in a journalistic capacity. For UFC Fight Night: Rockhold Vs Bisping, I was either back to punter status or else I deliberately chose to watch it from the stands with mates rather than in the media section. I recall a couple of our group were late due to hangovers from a rock gig we'd been to on the previous evening. I was frantically texting them updates about the opening stoushes.

Depending on your locale, undercards can start early here - around 9-10 on a Sunday morning. Like church. I'm eagerly anticipating this week's service, beamed via satellite from - I shit you not - Paradise, Nevada.

Amusing ambling

Listening to the audiobook of this recent release on my daily constitutionals.

Official blurb:

An odyssey of drive-offs, spiked slurpees, stale sausage rolls and sleep-deprived madness.

Most of us have done our time in the retail trenches, but service stations are undoubtedly the frontline, as Melburnian David Goodwin found out when he started working the weekend graveyard shift at his local servo.

From his very first night shift, David absorbed a consistent level of mind-bending lunacy, encountering everything from giant shoplifting bees and balaclava-clad goons hurling cordial-filled water bombs from the sunroof of their BMW, to anarcho-goths high on MDMA releasing large rats into the store from their matching Harry Potter backpacks.

Over the years, David grew to love his mad servo, handing out free pies and chocolate bars on the sly as he grew a backbone and became street smart. Amidst the unrelenting chaos, he eventually made it out of the servo circus - and lived to tell the tale.

For anyone who's ever toiled under the unforgiving fluorescent lights of a customer service job, SERVO is a side-splitting and darkly mesmeric coming-of-age story from behind the anti-jump wire that will have you gritting your teeth, then cackling at the absurdity, idiocy and utterly beguiling strangeness of those who only come out at night.

Onya, Stevo!

Stephen King has been publishing novels (and much more) for 50 years! His career demands a full-blown documentary series. To celebrate him right now, though, have a listen to this podcast. Those involved are very well qualified to discuss Kingy's work.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/05/books/review/podcast-stephen-king-50-years.html

The first tome of The K-Man's I bought was the 1985 short-story collection "Skeleton Crew". However, I believe the first one I read was illustrated novella "Cycle Of The Werewolf" (1983), borrowed from the public library. Both deserve revisiting.

Must've been the lentils

After last night's high winds, I had to walk around the yard for an hour gathering fallen branches and twigs. They half filled our green wheelie bin. You wonder how the trees can afford to lose so many. I suppose it's like me cleaning hair out of my brush and comb every morning, yet somehow not bald. Yes, that was a fart joke in the heading. At a 2000 Olympics party I attended in Sydney, there was a fella with a T-shirt that said "RESPECT FARTS". I've been pondering that slogan like a Zen koan ever since.

Third-choice voice

Am still doing Danish lessons on a daily basis. Progress is slow. Wish I'd learnt it when I was young. Our only options were French and German, and not 'til we reached high school. My buddy DJ studied the former from Years 7-10, while my pal DQ did likewise with the latter. They regularly compared grammatical rules and whatnot. Such talk washed over me. I was clueless as to the enormous value of being bilingual (or multilingual). When my father was a wee lad, his friends were all Greek - the sons'n'daughters of his parents' coworkers. He picked up their language naturally. One of the other kids' mothers would remark that he spoke it better than her own children. But Dad never used it again when his family moved from the area. I'm not sure he remembers a single word of Greek now. Don't really know where I'm going with this... I mean, ideally, I'll spend time in Denmark in the future, solidifying what I've learnt in my Hobbit hole. The problem with that is - assuming money and responsibilities weren't an issue - I'd rather live in Iceland or Norway.

10,000gp richer

It's the 40th anniversary of the sixth Fighting Fantasy gamebook, "Deathtrap Dungeon". Woulda been at least 30 years since I last opened my copy. Gave it a reread today to mark the occasion. Died three times and accidentally lost my place once before emerging victorious from the famous labyrinth.

Some thoughts: From a 2024 perspective, the monsters are mostly pretty basic (the wonderful bloodbeast being an exception - blisters bursting to reveal additional eyes is unforgettably gross). The main gem-collecting task is tricky but not too cruel, unlike similar puzzles in later FFs. What makes the book such a winner, though, is the atmosphere. You really do feel like you're competing against other adventurers, and the moments where you encounter/interact with them are still great 40 years on.

The events of "Deathtrap Dungeon" actually commence on May 1, but I couldn't wait until then. I'm sure there'll be something else to document on DGN on that date. Workers unite! And dungeoneers fight!

The Irencrag declined

Currently watching:

Netflix - "Delicious In Dungeon", Season 2 of "Physical: 100".

Apple TV+ - Season 3 of "Slow Horses".

Disney+ - "X-Men '97".

Foxtel - Season 2 of "Our Flag Means Death".

Recommend the lot.

Don't have Prime Video at the moment.

Mouldy Tuesday

My window is hemmed in by bookcases, and blocked by a big, wooden, farm kitchen-style table covered in computers and consoles. It was time to move everything and give the window it's (roughly) five-year clean. There was mould that needed eradicating, lest it colonise my lazy lungs and/or turn me into a worshipper of Zuggtmoy. So... Twice over with vinegar and water. Twice more with metho and water. Both sides. Fly screen and blind done separately, outside. The hardest part was rearranging all of the device cords "correctly" (anal retentive) after things were back in place. OK, we're sorted for another five stretch.

Easter Monday

What is Easter to me now? Nothing religious, I'm afraid. Mainly chocolate. The public holiday aspect doesn't mean much when you work from home and rarely go anywhere. Speaking of holidays, I've been reading and watching a ton about Iceland for a writing assignment. On Ash Wednesday in Iceland (Oskudagur), kids dress up in costumes, visit local businesses and sing songs/tell jokes in exchange for sweets. A further parallel with Halloween is that they will sometimes play a trick on a person by pinning a tiny bag of ashes to their back. Or at least that was the tradition. It's probably just singing for candy these days. Imagine if you sang an old Sugarcubes number and received sugar cubes in return. I've sworn off chocolate until Christmas...or maybe my birthday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFQPNApwJGU