Recently updated blogs

One of my goals for 2024 was to buy fewer minis, and paint more of the minis I already owned. I made a big spreadsheet of all the warhammer that litters my house: some real “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it” energy. That saying is a bit dubious, but I do think there was value in seeing what my pile of shame looked like concretely. I would …

Hey, campers... I may have stopped collecting the Five & Dime stats for everyone else - but I haven't stopped collecting my own!Here's my own personal Five & Dime list (the games I played 5+ and 10+ times in 2024).As always, I include only face-to-face games and games played with human opponents over apps/online. What that means is that games that I play only solo via an app or website …

Happy new year, everyone. I've updated my .plan file in celebration. All of the usual warnings apply.

During the second Arbuckle trial of January 1922, the District Attorney of San Francisco, Matthew Brady, subpoenaed a witness who shed light on the comedian’s conduct in the immediate aftermath of Virginia Rappe’s during the early afternoon of September 9, 1921. This was Warden Woolard, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. His purpose was to contradict Arbuckle’s testimony from the first trial in November on two points: (1) whether …

Driving back from family travels for the holidays, two things happened on the way, which I thought connected in a useful way. There was “dry smog” over Montréal, caused in good part by all the fireplaces burning wood to have nice holiday fires going for Christmas the day before. On the radio, a short report on the popularity of fireplace videos on YouTube and Netflix. When critiquing technology, we often …

One hundred years ago this month, Grace Kingsley got to see two movies based on the works of her favorite author, Harry Leon Wilson. Just like his contemporary and occasional co-writer Booth Tarkington, he’s now nearly forgotten, but back then he was a best-seller. She started out her year with a film based on Wilson’s 1919 novel, Merton of the Movies, which she found to be “very good indeed.” It …

I don’t post here much and when I do it’s kind of grumpy. I’m just not gaming a lot these days, and my time and energy and writing are focused elsewhere. If you’d like to hear from me more consistently, about happier things, and are okay with it not being all about video games, check out my new site: 😋 Dan Yums: A Blog of Simple Pleasures Every day of …

Vincennes Review of Books 2024 is here!Key:* = Excellent, highly recommend~ = Actively bad, do not recommendFirst readsNobber-Oisín Fagan Turn Life’s Milkshakes into Lemonade-Flynt Flossy How to Do Nothing-Jenny Odell A Net for Small Fishes-Lucy Jago A Guide Through Finnegans Wake-Edmund L. Epstein *Finnegans Wake-James Joyce *The Other Half-Charlotte Vassell ~Systems Ultra-Georgina Voss *Where Are Your Boys Tonight?-Chris Payne *For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain-Victoria MacKenzie …

Ludwig, S01 E04

The original: Se nell’Anno cadente ottantadoi Hai goduto quel ben, che t’augurai, Men congratulo teco, e più che mai Dal Ciel tel prego, e da’ Pianeti suoi. Guidi lunge da te Saturno i Buoi, Che tranno il Carro suo carco di guai. Nè la spada malefica già mai Sfoderi Marte iracondo a danni tuoi. Giove t’arrida, e Venere con lui, Nè il Sol, Cintia, o Mercurio influssi rei Sparga mai …

It’s my 15th anniversary of doing these annual wrap-up posts (following 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2024), and yes, I still really enjoying creating them. For me, it’s not just about looking through what I consumed during the year and figuring out what was my favorite in each category, but it’s also a way of coming across everything that I missed …

The Beano Super Stars was yet another spin-off of D. C. Thomson's most enduring weekly humour comic, published monthly for a full decade between January 1992 and January 2002. It was very similar to the bite-size Comic Libraries and Fun-Size Beanos, with each issue telling a single long-form story over its 32 pages, but with the obvious added selling points of being in full A4 size, on glossy paper and …

To everyone who has been visiting Skookworks in 2024 – Thank you! I had a great time creating the daily illustrations and I feel like I’ve mastered Clip Studio Paint enough to get back to drawing comics. My first story will be a second Mighty Nizz piece. You’ll be able to read that at MightyNizz.com. I’ll provide links when it is up. Because I’ll be focusing on comics (and commission …

The act of weight training is governed by a multitude of factors. Of great importance is the biological factor: our physical response to training. Within this factor are multitudes of smaller factors, each contributing to the goal of getting bigger and stronger. Understanding these small factors and knowing how to manipulate them is how we grow. So we are told by the science-based advocates in the gym community. Jeff Nippard, …

As I see in the new year quietly for once, I’m remembering the turn of the millennium, a mere quarter-century ago, and being on BBC One as the nation’s Millennium Bug correspondent. I spent most of the day in TC1, the main studio at BBC Television Centre in London, while an array of presenters and guests were wheeled on and off, covering the New Year celebrations from around the world. …