Month: May 2014
X wing, mistakes were made
So, Iv been acquiring a rebel and imperial force for Star Wars X wing for a while, and Iv got quite the fleet so far, more thoughts on the various expansions are coming, but tonight I wanted to mobilise everything together.
There’s a picture I saw when i picked up my first few packets, the following one
It’s funny, and given the nature of collecting it’s true for a lot of people, especially myself, the combination of collecting, Star Wars and miniatures becomes perfect storm of collecting.
So without any more waffle, the rebel alliance mobilises
This so currently missing a B wing and the contents of the rebel transport kit (alternate x wing and transport ship). I also want to pick up another a wing, plus the unreleased stuff.
And the imperial fleet comes out in force
Again, up to date, but I do want to pick up two more bombers (and again the future releases)
Berlin, thoughts on beer
So, I haven’t talked about the holiday yet, I can summarise it as a truly fantastic time spent with my partner, the food was great, the hotel comfortable, the city pleasant.
For now I have a few things to say about the beer.
We all know Germans like beer, they have it in steins and everyone’s happy. Well yes, that’s true, and it’s really that simple. Beer isn’t a get drunk affair, it’s a drink it and enjoy.
I had a fair few steins of various beers, I had beers morning noon and night and it was accepted. No judgement, and also no drunk Germans either. In fact the only time we saw drunk people were the English in the beer hall.
It’s not unusual to see people in the street during the day with a beer, all shops and kiosks sell them, and it’s a pleasant way to be. Drinking just isn’t a big deal, if you want one, have one. Simple.
Clearly it’s something like this approach that we Brits looked for with the 24 hour licensing laws, but unfortunately those same Brits drink to get drunk, it isn’t the same thing at all.
I did have one small problem with the beer though, or at least the lager. It was the continental head. The continental head of course involves filling half the glass with foam (or fur as my daughter calls it). This is fine, it looks good, unfortunately the foam doesn’t taste of much, and I see it as a half empty,glass. I like the standard centimetre head with beer, I don’t want a wad of foam on top.
Fortunately this only happened once. And actually it’s ok, the glass sizes are far better than the standard British pint
Family guy the quest for stuff
So, quite some time after the Simpsons came family guy, it was edgier, funnier, more random. Now quite some time after the Simpsons tapped out comes family guy the quest for stuff.
Basically, they’re the same game, you get the characters, get them to do tasks, build the town, spend money on doughnuts / clams to get better characters.
However, in recent months (since Halloween) tsto has been fairly poor on update frequency and quality and issues have been increasingly frustrating with customer service and in game bugs. So fgtqfs came along at a perfect time, with a cleaner, seemingly bug free game, with a lot going on and slightly more rewarding characters (levelling up of characters means they stay interesting once the quest lines been completed)
Will I play both? Currently yes. Tsto has had me about a year, whilst I like family guy enough to give it a good fun, I am however at a point where I’m fed up with the simpsons, partly because I miss out on a lot of the premium items and partly because the games become unwieldy and clunky, not to mention the lack of decent updates in an age. Family guy potentially has the same long term issue, but hopefully will learn from tsto and improve upon it.
A quick photo here from my game, I unlocked meg today and the first task she has is to ‘scarf hotdogs’. I feel the silhouette of quagmire getting giggety In his window is the perfect backdrop. Even if meg is ugly
Books, redwall
So, once again Iv reread one of my favourite children’s books, redwall by Brian Jacques. It tells the tale of peaceful abbey mice put under siege by a cruel rat called Cluny the Scourge.
The mice (and various other forest animals) fight back, and uncover a legend of a mighty warriors sword, leading to a quest to recover it and save the abbey.
The stories fairly standard, a typical fantasy plot- a long walk occasionally punctuated by fights- but it’s a pleasant read, with dark moments too. I also find the use of animals particularly enjoyable as different animal attributes come into play (squirrels climbing, sparrows flying, otters swimming etc).
So, why do I keep rereading a children’s book? Honestly I don’t know. It doesn’t bring back any specific memories, it’s just a book i get real pleasure from reading. I don’t reread many books, in fact I can’t think of many others, but this has been read and reread multiple times. At one point I was up to date on the others in the series, I stopped keeping up once time moved forward enough that no characters returned, but the series is good, there are of course ups and downs, but the themes and pleasantries- as well as the darkness- remain constant to it.
But redwall is by far my favourite of the series, I doubt I’d worry too much about rereading the others.
Having said that, I believe it may be the last reread I complete, the book will now find it’s way into my daughters bookcase for her to discover when she’s ready. The rest in the series will hopefully follow
Life, why my partner can’t read my blog part 2
So, Iv been thinking over my reasons for not yet sharing my blog with my partner, and I still feel my main reason is to spare her guilt, she over worries about things, and I want to prevent that.
But something else occurred to me, linked to that same reason.
You see, today I drove halfway across the country for her to meet one of her internet weirdo friends and for the kids to go to soft play, then drove all the way back. When thinking about tonight’s blog I started to write only to realise it sounds a lot like I’m moaning about her all the time. I don’t want her to see that. I mean, she’s a grump, she gets tired and snaps, and she’s moody and bossy a lot of the time, but the good far outweighs the bad. I’m just not very good at talking about the good, so by default only the bad makes it.
Because I’m a fairly positive person, or I’m not, but I’m not negative and Iv spent a long time reassuring her all will be alright after a seemingly endless series of events and catastrophes that made our life harder, and all this non negativity has blocked up the negativity, meaning it needs to escape somewhere. This blog seems to have become that, so whilst I will soon enough show my partner the blog, I want to get the negatives aside and get some more of the good down to balance things out.
If any of you have any thoughts about things you’d like to know, please, give me a topic to expand upon.
Simpsons tapped out, building my town
So, after about a year I’m still playing the simpsons tapped out. This weekend I finally starter trying to organise my town into something beyond just dropping stuff where it lands
First up, my forest, with hank scorpios hidden base deep amongst the trees, as well as obvious forest buildings, I like chalmers rocking in the clearing
On the outskirts of the forest sits the power plant, because of course, such natural beauty has to be destroyed by mr burns. No surprise to see the poverty stricken population of the town living in range of foetal affecting radiation. Sorry cletus.
Frink’s up next, with a yard full of strange machines and devices, walled off of course to prevent anyone tinkering with the smadoigens
Finally for now, the cemeteries. Obviously the human and pet cemetery sit together, the pet next door to the race track, for those instant disposals of slow dogs, whilst the diner digs up it’s latest meat for serving the hungry. Nearby is the Buddhist temple, because if zombies are to rise there’s an iconic rightness about Buddhist beliefs.
That’s it, but when I get a chance il be focusing on squidport, the rich folk and town centre
I have a dream, of driving from the back seat
So, last nights dream was strange.
I land in an airport with my family from an unknown destination, then get the girl in the car and drive home. No idea why my partner and the boy were left behind.
On the way home it gets dark so I get out of the car and then back in, I start driving and can’t work out why the car has changed shape.
A police car drives past and I panic as I realise its a weird shape because I’m sat on the back seat. The gear stick and wheel are much further away.
That’s it, dream over. I don’t think there’s any deep hidden meaning there, it’s just a strange one
Films, Abraham Lincoln vampire hunter
So, with my attendance of the local gaming night occurring on our traditional date night- not that traditional, but we’re trying to maintain it- Saturday became our date night. After a day out with the kids and my partner we were tired so I let her choose the film without any input from me, and she chose abe Lincoln vampire hunter.
Now, I hate vampire films, or at least the vampire films she likes (twilight and that sort of crap), but I was ok with a historical approach. The film actually turned out to be quite enjoyable, the approach felt original enough, and the action scenes were well done (not all in darkness this is a big deal for me )- specifically the horse stampede fight was a cool approach to the traditional fight on a train.
What was also enjoyable was the links to reality, the names, dates and events were all true to abe Lincoln’s life and the American civil war, with the addition of hunting vampires.
It was also nice to just cuddle up on the sofa (a very new, very expensive sofa I should add) have a beer and some pleasant time with my partner, Iv been struggling and exhausted, whilst she’s always exhausted and having a bit of a downer at the minute, so to switch off to trash that turned out to be quite good was a nice end to a good family day
Life, despair and always being right
So, today my partner was in tears, disability and the restrictions or brings are getting her down- this is obvious but recently it’s been more so.
She doesn’t have the energy levels to do all she wants to and is too stubborn to take it easy or relax until it’s too late.
This creates a few problems for me,
Firstly, it reiterates my recent post regarding always being right and not knowing what to do, I don’t know how to help her. Or when i do, I don’t know how to switch her ears on to make her listen.
Second, her despair leads to my despair leads to us both struggling, and you can’t be struggling with two kids running around, they sense it, and play up to it
Finally, guilt kicks in again. She has repeatedly referred to me as her rock, the stable calm crutch to her crippled body, and now I feel as rocklike as jelly. I don’t have answers, or even supporting words, you see, all that time I was her ‘rock’ I was just cheating, by constantly reassuring her all would be ok, because all was calm it was. But now, when that doesn’t work I don’t have the answers for her, or the words.
It’s tough to reassure her and keep her spirits up when mine seem so crushed and non existent, but I do feel as though my recent lifestyle changes have had an immediate impact on my mood and temperament, I’m on a fitness kick and I’m making social steps, so with any luck my reserves will stock up again, and I’ll firm up to rock level again
Films, dark knight rises
So, again the hype of a film has ruined it for me. Yeah, I finally watched the dark knight rises and you know what? It was quite good, but the hype and praise it recieved completely overshadowed it.
Batman begins was fresh dark and exciting,
The next one was overshadowed by health ledgers death. The problem is that his performance was fantastic and the film successfully continued it’s dark gritty efforts, but whenever someone dies it changes all perception.
This one was the same, yes ok, there was no death but the appreciation of the film was the same so the hype was mental and everyone declared it a best ever.
But it had some problems for me, first off, batman was crippled, then he recovers, then his back was broken, then he recovered, then he couldn’t reach to escape the pit, then he could with no further preparation. The general story was mostly predictable, and the ending was cheesy and corny all in one hit.
Like I say, it was good, but overshadowed massively and not what I’d been led to believe it would be.
hobbybutterfly 