Awkward orchid, tingly bunny

Played "Gloomhaven" with the lads. The scenario was an escort mission, featuring a plant-man NPC designed to run into trouble. If he'd died, we'd have instantly failed. That almost happened at the very start, then we healed the foolhardy bugger up and kept him safe until the boss monster in the final room of the "dungeon" (actually a series of forest groves) was slain. A fun challenge.

Digital sport declined

A mate was telling me how he used to compete against his father at "Tetris". It made me envious - even the part about his dad's masterful trash talk.

The only videogame I ever got my own father to play was golf title "Leader Board" on the Commodore 64. Thanks to a lifelong passion for the real game, his club selection and shot direction/strength were spot on, to the point where his involvement felt like a cheat code.

Alas, after a single spirited session, he declared, "Nah, I'll get too addicted to this," walked away and never played it - or any other videogame - again.

--

Viewing: "Wheeler Dealers - World Tour" S2, "Ancient Justice" (history), "Truthseekers" (also history).

Stay in your space lane

After enjoying the audiobook of Matt Dinniman's "Dungeon Crawler Carl" novel so much, I had to buy TTRPG "Xcrawl Classics", which is thematically v. similar. I had to buy it all.

While we're on the topic, here's a list of things that sprang to mind while I was listening to "D/C/Carl". Why? Because I like making lists. One or two inclusions may surprise you.

* "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy"

* "Solo Leveling"

* The Denis Leary song "Asshole" (mainly due to the narrator's delivery of the darkly humorous portions)

* "Mad" magazine (or perhaps downmarket imitator "Cracked" would be more appropriate)

* Something with sassy talking animals in a swords'n'sorcery milieu - "Spellsinger"?

* "Beavis & Butthead", AND

* Fan fiction.

"Doctor Who And The One With The Maggots"

Whenever I see a person wearing a heavy-metal shirt, the headbanger in me has to take a closer look. Going up the road for sushi just now, there was a chick at the opposite end of the carpark sporting an obvious metal tee. Except...when we passed each other, the stylised logo said "GANDALF" and the picture was of the famous wiz looking like a badass. Well played, madam.

Dwarves and halflings be listening at doors

(OSR role-playing reference. Not a slight on those of shorter stature.)

COMIC COVER OF THE WEEK

By Dan Panosian. Am waiting for my pre-ordered copy to land in the mailbox.

SONG OF THE WEEK

"Resonant Strings" by Morfonica (Japan). Tops track. Bonus: Violinist is a cutie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8XFRxh0TeA

LARGELY WASTED EFFORT

Some hypocrisy highlighted, but LT won't be changing any minds.

SATURDAY NOSTALGIA HIT

I was reminded how technically well written these ripping yarns are.

Layer 2

Intransigentleman

You tell yourself you'll read all of the Booker Prize-winning novels one day. You won't. But you've read a handful. And you're hurtling through last year's winner.

Publisher's description:

"Fifteen-year-old István lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. New to the town and shy, he is unfamiliar with the social rituals at school and soon becomes isolated, with his neighbour – a married woman close to his mother’s age – as his only companion. These encounters shift into a clandestine relationship that István himself can barely understand, and his life soon spirals out of control.

"As the years pass, he is carried gradually upwards on the twenty-first century’s tides of money and power, moving from the army to the company of London’s super-rich, with his own competing impulses for love, intimacy, status and wealth winning him unimaginable riches, until they threaten to undo him completely.

"Spare and penetrating, Flesh is the finest novel yet by a master of realism, asking profound questions about what drives a life: what makes it worth living, and what breaks it."