Author: Sleepypete

Random thoughts today ! Completely random ones ! Anything could happen in the next half page !

Really looking forward to the Easter break. I’m having mine next week because I’m pretty beat. Energy reserves are low, combined with the effects of a heavy cold which just isn’t shifting. (I feel better today and was croaking along to Seal last night).

But yeah, that kinda sums me up on the bus this morning.

Before getting in.

Before the teacake.

Teacakes are life.

Did I mention something about randomness ?

Dunno what I’ll be up to next week. It will definitely involve lots of chilling. I won’t be doing that Voyager Challenge thing in Elite, I’ve not actually been in game for a couple of weeks. Elite is like that with me, a bit hot and cold. I feel as if I’ve done all I want to in the game except for grinding the rank to get to the best ship.

There’s an operative word there : “Grind”. When a game becomes more of a job than what you do at work all day, it’s time to walk away from the non fun game and find something more fun to do.

Nanoblocks ? Perhaps. I still have a bunch of nanopokemon to put together. Not tonight though.

Computer weirdness – it’s been stable for a couple of weeks now. I was worried … due to a couple of hard crashes (where it just stops responding and a buzz comes out of the speakers – something even more drastic than the Blue Screen Of Death). But it’s been ok. It’s weird though with things like watching game streams, where I have to stop it doing the science sums or the stream breaks up. The science sums run at a lower priority, so the machine does what you want it to do taking resources away from the sums. You normally don’t notice it running although it does get in the way of the games a bit. I usually remember to turn it off before embarking on a games session.

What have I been playing ? As well as From The Depths (the Typo 0 will be a Thing next week. Yep. An Ugly Thing probably !) there has been Darkest Dungeon. It’s one of those games that scores with gameplay over anything else. It’s another brutal game … You take 4 heroes into a dungeon where it’s getting darker and darker. If you run out of torches … the monsters get very tough, although your heroes (anti-heroes?) punch harder too.

Character death comes quickly in this one. I’ve lost 3 so far in this play through as I’m learning what they can do. Oh and my Vestal decided to go on a drunken bender that saw her absent without leave for 3 weeks.

Yep. It happens. Shoulda send her to the cloisters instead. She wouldn’t have gotten syphilis there !

And now you’re giving me the Really Strange Looks.

Yep. Darkest Dungeon, I recommend it. The stronger games for me are the ones that tell a story of their own. A story that can be different with every play through. In this one, instead of you being herded down a linear story so straight it might as well be a book, the overriding story is a light part. The true story is the one your heroes are going through. It’s good when the games throw you unexpected events. It makes them different, makes them interesting, makes you come back for more playthroughs.

I need to restart the Alphabet of the Human Heart posts. I haven’t forgotten those and it’s a lovely book and one of the best, most thoughtful presents I’ve had for a while.

I have more plans for Comic Con ! Perhaps a stop off in part of London after instead of heading straight back. That would be real good. Long day ? Yep. But definitely worth it. Still no clues on the potential cosplay outside of acquiring a black DJ, a bowtie and pretending to be James Bond.

Come on. Every boy wanted to be James Bond at some point in their life.

I had the model Lotus Esprit carsub too. Wonder where that went ?

Computers ? I saw a story that said that retail sales of PCs is in severe trouble at the moment because the free Windows 10 (which I am holding off on*). And if they have lots of stock, that means they’re cheap … Could mean I could upgrade this one for pennies.

*(this language has changed, I am now contemplating Win10 instead of keeping it at bargepole length)

Except when you look at it. In the last few months, I’ve changed Power Supply, Graphics, Sound, I should have put a new hard disc in too. All that’s left is the mainboard and processor, which are only a couple of generations old. If you get a retail machine, it’s likely to be using sub par components and they’re usually not upgradeable.

I’m better sticking with what I have. The processor is ageing but the rest of it is real good, especially with a modern graphics card pushing pixels around.

Plans ?

Allegiant is likely to be Wednesday. I don’t see anything interfering with that at the moment.
PIZZA ! Friday. Maybe. Depends what I get up to in town on Friday pm. I may well disappear back home again and collapse in a heap.

But if anyone has plans they’d like me to be involved in, you know I’d jump up and say Where to ? :-). Especially if Easter Eggs are involved. I have one of those tempting me in the kitchen cupboard that needs to be passed on to someone.

How to refer to people ? Seen a few things about this lately. I like to call ladies as I see them : Pretty Lady or for the seldom few : Very Pretty Lady. You may not think it yourself but there’s that Eye of the Beholder thing. All women are gorgeous. Some just don’t realise it. Saying that though, my mind always goes back to pulling certain pictures of one special lady out of my head.

It’s sad though. Some people take it the wrong way. I saw a comment on the Register by a particularly anti-fun feminist that basically said that any kind of advance is sexual harassment. I bet they’d report anyone who held the door for them too. That’s really sad. I smile at everyone equally, I hold the door for everyone. Gender is irrelevant there.

That said though – there is a point to the gender politics. It’s not equal. And it should be. I know women who are really smart and know what they’re up to, they get ignored or their ideas get overriden by idiocy coming from other areas. That’s wrong. Especially when the ideas were dismissed “because she’s a woman”. I’ve heard that from colleagues and despaired for them. All sides of it, the bigoted scumbag, the project that doesn’t go the optimal way and the woman who will think twice the next time before bringing forward the great ideas.

I’m fairly careful with how I interact with people. I like to have an idea of how they will react. That has made me inhibited in the past, perhaps still inhibited now. I’ve heard some comments that people think I’m flirting when I’m just trying to get a chuckle out of someone.

Is that flirting when there is no further intention behind it ? Perhaps how the gender politics end up getting silly. No. There’s more to it than that and Bad Touching is just one example of what should not happen.

Gosh – this was supposed to be random stuff ! (Ed – yep. Pretty random. Objective achieved).

Closing thought – be good to each other.

And I’ve been typing so long that my speakers just did the biddly-boop noise they make when shutting down due to not being used for too long.

More noise required !

Next week off work should be good and I definitely want to have as many excuses as I can get to escape the confines of the house and Do Stuff.

PS How could I forget ! It’s International Pi Day. The only one there will be in our lifetimes seeing as the numbers won’t like up again until the year 4159.

Another picture heavy post today !

Hmm. I wonder if that means there will be fewer words in the Wall Of Text. We shall see. At this point in post writing, I rarely know myself how it will end up.

There we go … taster image !

Yesterday was the first chance in a while for me to sit down with enough free time likely to build the most complicated nanoblock kit I’ve done to date. (Spoiler – it earns its 5/5 difficulty rating). Yep. Easy Saturday staying in, partly because the bugs that have been with me since Xmas were well and truly back in force.

Back badly enough actually for me to admit defeat on Friday and head home instead of having a wander around Bristol centre like that plan had been. Ok, part of that plan had included chilling out at the cinema, dunno what I would have watched though because apart from Allegiant, not much appeals at the moment. And we’re planning to see Allegiant with the work-ish mob. I also have a few cinema vouchers for in town which I thought were running out in June … which actually run out in December ! Must check the actual dates sometimes instead of remembering wrong info.

Pictures ?

Perhaps the most significant time in a ship’s life, the keel laying. That’s the first couple of layers of blocks down, including a couple of 8×2 for it to stand in.

(for all of these, click for bigger).

A few more layers up and you start seeing why I held off until a quiet weekend … Lots of bits ! They’re roughly placed as they came out of their bags. Nanoblocks are a bit disorganised like that. Or organised differently ? Yep. We see my plank (an older plank, distinguished by parts of the edge covering falling off !) getting steadily more covered in random small bits of plastic.

And a ship.

With the cannons coming in.

And the upper deck, prow and aftcastle getting started. Little spoiler. That mast up front … is not supposed to be a mast. I suspect I was showing signs of addled brain bugs when I was misreading the instructions and seeing 3d’ish ness when it was actually telling me that wasn’t supposed to be a mast.

More colour ! And the deck of the ship taking shape even more. Note – there are bits of white off the edges of my plank … I still need to clear up some assorted clutter ! (I thought leaving my white sock in one pic was ok !)

And there we have my error with the … ermmm, that’s actually supposed to be a … bowsprit corrected.

And the amount of cluttery blocks on the plank steadily reduce … That has the foremast taking shape, most of the ship is together at this point.

All that was needed was the most difficult part … The masts and sails ! These were super fiddly.

The foremast and flag were ok but that mainmast … it needed placing on 3 tiny blocks simultaneously and each of those 3 points were super unstable. And I appear to have nearly knocked off the anchor too … Oops !

Really pleased with this one. It looks (small but) spectacular. I must get my old wooden ship down for a comparison.

I still have a few kits to build. A great mate, Luth, donated a couple of Lego kits which may end up being something different to what they’re supposed to be ;-). And I have a few not-quite-nanoblock (same size, different maker) critters to put together to join :

Current avatar … And …

PIKA ! Pika now adorns my speakers and Char has taken up a position next to my other dragons.

PS It did take a while to put together the pirate ship. 4 episodes of Sanctuary and 1.5 rugby matches (finished before the second half of the England game started).

Short post today. Kind of a follow up to Tuesday’s post about the From The Depth imaginary ships.

I’ve had names buzzing through my head and they’re giving me much amusement. I thought I should share ! Saying that though, some of the names will be of Real People, so for those, I’ll just hint here.

Before that though – I did actually have a little look at the game again today and made a start on designing the Typo 0 class battle barge. Yep. I’ll be echoing our glorious Royal Navy’s tradition of using Type numbers to distinguish the major warship classes. Other navies do that too, although I think it’s more things like Project numbers for Russia. China uses the Type designation.

What does our Navy have at the moment ?

We have the Type 45, which is our newest ship (until the new big aircraft carriers come along).

That’s an air warfare ship. Its job is to knock down enemy missiles before they can threaten other ships. Our other major warship is the Type 23 :

That’s HMS Montrose. She was designed at a time when us Brits were worried about Russian subs coming over and lobbing nuclear missiles at us, so she’s designed to hunt those submarines down. The Type 23s are getting old now though, so they’re looking to replace them with the Type 26.

That Type number thing is a good tradition to have. So I’m gonna steal it :-).

Oh – you may have noticed a little fondness for ships. Maybe that started as a result of the fairly regular ferry crossings we used to do ? Partly. Those were from when I lived in Northern Ireland, we’d come back across to see the grandparents at major holidays and we’d take the ferry. A little due to keeping an eye on events like the Volvo Ocean Race (lost track of that one) and the Vendee solo non-stop round the world race ? Perhaps. But these ships definitely have their own personality when you bring all that complex machinery together.

I think that’s what really draws my attention to them. They have so much machinery on board and it all has to work just right. And they’re the home for the people who crew them too. Perhaps the narrowboat I end up will be called a Type 4.5 ?

The Americans use numbers too but it tends to be looking at the first ship in the class. So their Arleigh Burke class Destroyers have the DDG 51 name (DDestroyer Guided missile) and I think the Zumwalt class is named DDG-100. It used to be DD-X while it was still a paper ship.

So about these From The Depth ships and their names ?

RN Tradition had the Type 23 follow the Type 22. Type 45 followed two failed concepts after the Type 42. I think Type 26 has come about because 6 follows the 5 of 45. So here I am starting with the Typo 0 (deliberate typo).

Not much there yet is there … Lots to learn.

I’ll have to do more in the game before I do proper ships. I need to learn the way all the various bits of things like engines and guns fit together before I can go past that Typo 0 class. It’s a bit more involved than watching someone’s videos, even if those people (Aavak and Enter Elysium) are rather good at showing how to design these things.

Fun with ship names ? Here goes. I can’t give the proper people’s names here but here are some.

Boss class high level surveillance … objects. Cos my boss is very tall and sees everything. I think he’d chuckle at that.
Snow Queen class corvette – small, fast, designed as a hunter of stragglers and an expert wielder of Pointy Things.

Aircraft and carriers ?
Kitten class attack helicopter. Release the Attack Kittens !

Truthseeker class helicopter carrier. Just because. There would be a Craziequeen in this class too.
CG (ah ha ! Laputa) class helicarrier. Cupid’s Gift loves the kittens. (The Truthseeker would be an ocean bound ship).
The carriers would have loads of Kittens on board. This will take me a lot of learning though. You can put helicopters, blimps, jet aircraft and spacecraft in the game but it’s a challenge to make their AI behave. EE’s helicopters and jets tend to try and get … intimate … with each other (they appear inside each other). So – small steps and learn gradually.

(There’s a reason why CG’s ship is one with lots of kittens that lives in the sky but it would give away something that won’t go past a Facebook that’s locked down to me and friends only)

Sleepy class submarine. You knew I couldn’t leave myself out. Or maybe I’d put my name on one of the fortresses.
Admiral class battleships. And these would bear the names of a few people I know. The Admiral would be where the really big guns start appearing. Or would it ?
Commodore class first ?

I think the fortresses will get named after people I knew who are no longer with us. These are placed over resource collection areas and don’t move. So they’d be memorials.

You need other ships in a Navy too, auxillaries and repair ships. These have a place in the game too but I don’t think I’d want to put real people’s names to them. Old car names ? Ford class, Vauxhall class, Rover class (that would go on the one that keeps breaking down), Lexus class (for the shiny ones). Pet names ? Typo 0 is definitely a Scruffy ship.

For now though, I’ll be looking forward to putting more time into the game so I can build those Dragon trimarans. Perhaps an Egg or Hatchling class for ships I put together before feeling confident enough to build the winged trimarans ?

Some of the other names might come out too. Iceangel class, Bashara class, Finlay class. Nocimi for a stealth ship (not sure if you can do those in game ?) And then there’s TV and other media too. One of our team caused hilarity on Monday when he used “THIS IS THE VOICE OF THE MYSTERONS” as his identifier when dialling into our weekly meeting. Mysteron class, Thunderbird class, Fireball XL-5 class, Stingray. There are also names from gaming like Sarai, Souleater, Zaphyr, Fubb*, Makai, Stone, Luth, Belana, lots more where that came from.

*(yep, if you think you know what that means, you’re right)

When playing Moo2, I tended to take names from the album I was listen to at the time. So at the moment, it would be Beiderbecke class and after that it’ll be Shania or the Twain.

Yep. Lots of amusement thinking up names. And lots of names that I can’t put here due to the privacy policy !

The intended name for the narrowboat is still Sleeping Dragon. Mostly because of this pic :

Any more ideas for ship or class names ?

There’s a game I really want to get cracking on.

It’s like having the tools to make awesome things but … not having the time and mental energy to actually do it.

What’s the game ? It’s called From The Depths and my interest has sparked due to seeing the creations of one Enter Elysium (youtube guy, check him out at the link, I find him entertaining). Here’s one of the ships (from the FTD site) :

Looks rather spectacular doesn’t it ? If a bit crude but … gameplay should beat graphics. If the core gameplay is good, you can always excuse crude graphics. Developers of major titles should take note !

I think part of the appeal is me liking to put things together, combined with liking to see machines do their thing with elegance and efficiency. Big explosions help too. Have a peek at some of the EE videos, there are some very satisfying explosions in there as AI battleships go Boom.

That’s one thing about this game. It looks darn spectacular when the things are going boom. But it’s AI. I’ll pull up a few real life ship pictures in a bit and … I really hope we never have to see them do their thing because, you know, sailors on board, I know a few of them and kinda like them. If they go somewhere dangerous, I’d like to see them come back. We should have confidence in the ships we send our people out in but … hopefully they won’t have anyone shooting at them !

Real ships ? Real stuff is always handy for figuring out what to build in games like this. Yep. Even stuff like Minecraft. You can get inspiration for form fit and function from all things. Even geese like in those Klingon battlecruisers. Yep. I see what you did there Mr Star Trek ship designer. Or gulls maybe, they’re definitely birds of prey when it comes to attempting to eat pasties near the sea side.

That’s the American Zumwalt class destroyer, the most modern warship in the world at the moment. It’s probably the closest in look to how a From The Depths ship would end up looking like, with all flat sides (because that’s what’s easiest to make in the game). You wouldn’t need that big superstructure in the middle though. There’s reasons for that (and on the Type 45 below) which don’t apply to the FTD ships.

That’s Britain’s latest warship. Glorious isn’t it ? Especially with that Dragon on her bow. May it be there for a long time.

Yep. Again with the big tall construction so they can see out a bit further. The FTD ships don’t need those. They don’t need the accommodation or crew support space either because, you know, AI. Just a few blocks will do. (This is part of what I find daunting about the game, putting those AI in and setting them up).

Guns ? Pointy Things ?

At the moment, real life ships typically have stuff on like many defensive missiles, a few offensive missiles, big guns, medium guns, little guns. Whatever fits the need. Maybe we’ll see railguns and lasers coming in sometime. And there will be magazines to feed that. That’s a problem actually :

She is HMS HOOD, (picture from HMS HOOD association website) who sadly did not survive an engagement with the Bismarck. A fairly lucky hit caused an explosion that transmitted to the magazine, blowing off the back end of the ship. Only 3 crew survived out of 1418.

And now you see why, while I find the Boom and explosions spectacular, I want to see it restricted to Game Space and not Real Space. Reading books like Red Storm Rising (Tom Clancy) and HMS ULYSSES (Alastair McLean) are rather too good in their description of the destruction that can be wrought in war.

Game stuff ?

What would I look to design for my FTD ships ? The fun stuff involves :

Railguns – sound great, not too great in game.
Guns of all sizes – of varying effectiveness. They make things have holes, which is a Very Good Thing in games like this.
Missiles – look pretty and go boom. Also good for knocking down enemy missiles.
Lasers – kinda like toothpicks but effective over time.
CRAM Cannon – oh my. The EE and Aavak playthrough involves a CRAM cannon that fires 2m shells. Yep. Boom.

And you need to put on a hull (duh), AI blocks, generator engines, thrusters, propellers, helifans, hydrofoils and balloons so there’s somewhere to put the guns. Oh – shields too. Shields can be pretty.

But that general hullform ? I think I’d avoid the monohull shapes of the Zumwalt, the Type 45 and pretty much every other warship out there. Nah.

That’s RV Triton, a ship built by the Brits as a demonstrator for the trimaran hull form.  You know catamarans like the channel ferries ? Whereas a catamaran has 2 hulls, a trimaran has 3, a big long thin one in the middle and two short ones either side. It’s supposed to allow faster speeds and more efficiency. But there’s also a reason why it hasn’t been used for warships (any ships !), where do you put everything.

Saying that though, the Americans have been trying with :

That’s USS Independence, which is still a trimaran but instead of the outrigger hulls being in the middle, they are drawn back. All that space up top is used for a humongous flight deck.

Again, not something useful for a FTD ship, although the bigger ships in there will be aircraft carriers too (the AI is very dodgy with those).

My Dragon class ? Trimaran with the outriggers being the wings. The ammo and generators go in the centre, where they are protected by all that hull. Missiles can be on the outriggers, to take advantage of that long and thin outer hull. Cover the forward hull in smaller conventional guns. And aft … a massive CRAM cannon overlooking the whole ship.

Something bigger than that big gun perhaps. Yep. You can make some very silly guns in this game.

I do feel though that a Dragon ship would have fire coming out of the bow. Perhaps that’s where the lasers go ? Or torpedoes. But yeah it’s :

Want to put those ideas into some kind of form that can be shown off. Like the Lego/Nanoblocks!
Wanting to beat the game (and it is a rough, tough, very difficult one);
Needing to learn the tools provided;
Watching everything (probably not) do what was intended;
Seeing the Boom happen.
And having other games and real life stuff* drawing the attention too !
*(like more thoughts for a real life barge to live on – definitely a monohull!)

But that would be boom in the game and not in real life. Because games have a save and reload option, we can’t do that in real life with people.

And a Happy Mothers Day too. At least over here in GB, I gather it’s a different day in other countries !

It is another of those festivals/days of the year that’s become over commercialised but we still take it as a good excuse to show the appreciation. Because I live 180 miles away from my mum and dad and the travel is harder for me now*, we look for excuses to gather up again and this is one of the better excuses. Flowers are involved too this time around and they’re definitely appreciated :-).

Me and my dad hold our emotions in somewhat, it’s a trait that we can find it difficult to let them out and express them.

*Travel tiredness ? I’m not feeling it as much as usual today. Perhaps this is a sign that I got better sleep over the weekend as I’m fixing on the outside ? Maybe, hopefully :-).

But you know who the star of these weekends is.

Hello Ben ! I came in quietly so the old fella didn’t rouse too much from his slumber.

Happy sleepy fella. This was way past his bedtime after we finished watching SpaceX launch rokkits again. They put their satellite into the sky with the usual aplomb but disappointment again on the attempt at landing the first stage. It went splat into the recovery barge. Kind of as expected because it was a difficult launch but … you should aim to succeed at even the hard things. They’ll crack it.

First priority in the morning ? Definitely Bacon. He’s a sensible dog, knows what’s important. Like …

Having a good shout at the window cleaner man. I could just hear the thoughts of : “What is that stuff you are putting on our windows ? Take it off IMMEDIATELY ! BARKBARKBARK”. He’s not too vocal is Ben but he brings out the bark sometimes. Look at that tail in permawag too. (Window cleaner man got a little bit of slurp later)

And then conflict … He didn’t know which stimulus to pay attention to after the bacon sarnies started arriving … Look at that, all ready to jump into action.

Yep. Hungry puppy demonstrates that gravity is optional again. (He was getting his ham treats and that’s when he gets his pain and heart tablets too – you can understand how he’s associated treat with yey)

Not all jumpy though, he accepts the proffered rewards like the distinguished old gentle fella he is. A gentle grab with fingers all safe. Yep. Fingers … but not anything in reach of that ever wagging tail.

He does show his age though when he has to take himself off for a little lie down. Poor fella. It’s why we don’t bring Ben and my sister’s dogs together, because the young dogs wear the old fella out. I think he still thinks he’s like a puppy, so he tries to keep up even though the batteries aren’t up to that any more. Ha ! Like me with the cricket.

Normal service resumed. You really don’t want that bacon sandwich but I know someone who does.

He likes to keep an eye out for his people too with Puppy Patrol checking out the neighbourhood. We keep an eye on him when he’s out the front like that. He likes to go out there and check things out but he’s a timid fella who will come back in again rather than violently defend territory like some dogs will, or run off to explore like others. Goldie was a lovely dog but we couldn’t let him out the front like that. He’d be off exploring.

This scene tends to play out around dinner time when we’ve finished munching and the leftovers are there … Ben would like to let everyone know that you should hurry up and take those away meatscrap smells and put them somewhere and that his munchie bowl would be the ideal place.

It’s not all like that though, we train the dogs to not be beggy. This is Ben being around his people but having a little sleep to avoid being too tempted. He’s used to getting food in the kitchen, not in the dining area.

Sunday !

And flowersman threat to people assessed as “Yep. I stay zzzz now.” He was a bit sleepy from all those bacon scraps and ham treats with sneaky pills.

But waking up again later to resume Puppy Investigation Patrol duties. And …

Will you play with me ?

Yes Ben of course I will because you’re still a big lovable puppy at heart. Gentle play because I wouldn’t want to see him try and run around on that poorly paw.

And he’s a dedicated cook’s helper too. Here he is going : “Smells lovely dad, don’t need to cook mine too much, rare will be just right for me.”

He’s a lovely dog is Ben. We don’t know how much time he has left but he still seems pretty strong, despite having to ration his energy out between sleeps. We’ll miss him when he’s gone because he’s a loyal bundle of lovely slurpage. Like we miss big old wolfman Scruff and wannabe greyhound and rapier tongued Goldie.

I’m trying to take as many pics of Ben as I can when I’m there, although he is a bit camera shy. He tends to hide when I wave the phone camera in his direction. It does help to remember them, I have the two old pictures of Scruff and I know there’s another one as he’s about to go SPLASH in a puddle with a massive doggy grin. I have barely any pictures of Goldie.

It’s a shame they can’t stay with us longer. As a pic I saw again today says : “He’s only here for part of your life but you are all of his life.” Awww.

Pets are family.

PS Apparently my phone camera has developed a crack ! Oops, dunno how that happened !

So tired at the moment !

It’s frustrating too because I know there is energy in me somewhere, it just refuses to fire. Actually it does, when messages from interesting people come in, I’ll perk up, bounce around in excitement for a bit and then try and calm down the Grin enough to give a sensible answer.

Yep. Mostly introvert but I do have a particular hankering to interact with people.

I do know part of why I’m really tired today. I found an iOS game called Best Fiends yesterday and … drained the iPad battery playing it. That means it’s so addictive I’m going to try avoiding it in future because it’s really not healthy to get that addicted to something so quickly. Good game though.

Yep. They had a dwagon and I had to have it. They have more Pokemon figures actually, I’ve actually ordered the set but I think I’ll be waiting a couple of weeks before they arrive. They’re not quite as accessible as Lego is …

That’s weird isn’t it ? You would have thought the laws of supply and demand would dictate the opposite of :

Lego – easily available therefore high supply – high price.
Nanoblocks – rare in GB (made in Japan), very low supply – low price.

That’ll be the demand side of that law. Everyone wants Lego. Yep. Admit it. You too. You can’t go past the Lego in the shop without a little smile remembered from that part of you which is still a child. Never let go of that part of yourself. It’s where the Fun comes from.

Nah. Chilling out with music and videos at the moment. That said, there aren’t actually that many interesting gaming videos coming out at the moment. If it’s not Minecraft (yawn), it’s Far Cry Primal (deeper yawn). I’m currently half listening to an XCom 2 video, may actually play that tonight after cracking and buying it over the weekend.

What’s XCom ? It’s a game from way, way back. You command a squad of soldiers, eventually going up to about half a company in the old game. The old game was very much a grind though, it was much improved (This is HERESY to fans of the old game*) when the original (UFO Enemy Unknown) was remade into XCom Enemy Unknown a few years ago. The gameplay was tightened up, everything that got in the way of enjoyment was stripped out and they came out with an absolute triumph.

*Game fans tend to be very … energetic with their fandom of games. I probably upset half the gaming video population by saying Minecraft is a yawn. It’s the wrong idea – gaming should be about the fun, not the “my game is better than your game” playground antics. Besides, one person’s favourite game (Minecraft) is another’s insomnia cure. People will think my Most Played Game Of All Time (Master of Orion 2) is an appalling waste of time but … it wasn’t my MPGOAT for nothing ! Hopefully the new one measures up.

While I’m at it – part of my chill out has involved having streams on and one of the better ones is HeyChrissa (who I’ve linked before). She only has a small audience at the moment and deserves much more. Great style and fun to be around. (@heychrissa on Twitter which will get you to her Twitch channel which has more links). Oh and there’s a 20% off code there too which will save you cash on games as well as put pennies in her Get Chrissa A Lego XWing fund.

Oh boy !

I started this one with a general plan of nattering a little before linking a list of music tracks for you all to listen to. I guess I needed to natter more than a little !

Oh – really looking forward to London Comic Con at the end of May (this is partly my habit of immediately thinking of a different Pretty Lady after talking about another and I’ll hopefully be escorting said Pretty Lady to London CC). That should be amazing and not just for Pretty Lady’s cosplay. I have a … slightly cheaty idea for a cosplay. Think James Bond. Best idea I have at the moment and it’ll look very dapper.

Music ? I guess there’s still a little time for some tunes.

I’m getting close to halfway through the library listened to since I reset the playcounts. (This is going to be an excuse to listen to some of the best again). Some tunes are awesome for closing the ears and fading into the music.

Possibly my most favourite track at the moment is Ting Tings The Wrong Club. Great simple song, beautiful singer doing the dancing and a message in the lyrics that I think most of us can relate to.

The last album I listened to was Life by the Cardigans, which is their happiest album with songs like Fine. Guaranteed to get you chair bopping as soon as that bass line starts up and humming along when Nina Persson’s voice perfectly complements it.

Next album up is Snow Patrol’s possibly finest, Eyes Open with songs like Chasing Cars. Bit melancholy but always a classic.

Coming soon will be Kate Bush’s Hounds Of Love. One of the best albums of all time, not just for the commercial oriented songs on side 1 like Cloudbusting and Running Up That Hill but for a side 2 where each song magically flows into the next. Highlight of that – Jig Of Life.

I’ve been listening to Carly Rae Jepsen’s two albums as well. And the highlights of those have to be Call Me Maybe (and I’m chairbopping again) and the track that brought her to my attention, I Really, Really, Really, Really, Really, Really (ok, maybe not that many) Like You.

Going back a bit, Simon and Garfunkel had their own magic that got you sitting up and listening. I currently have Cloudbusting going on the desktop (sounds mighty fine with the new sound gear too !) and Simon and Garfunkel’s He Was My Brother going over the hifi. They are competing for my singing along tendency ! (PS Bridge Over Troubled Water – give it a listen and remember how good they could be)

Back to someone more modern and another Pretty Lady – Mindy Gledhill with songs like I Do Adore. You can’t deny the cute.

(Yep, another Pocket Dragon I really need in the collection).

One more ?

Ok. Just one. Alisha’s Attic The Incidentals. For one of you lovely readers in particular.

(Gonna hit publish now but I’m going to be back filling in the links to youtube vids as I listen to and vet them)

Ok, maybe not working.

Because the term working would imply that it’s not firstly for enjoyment. (And that you’re getting paid for it !) Don’t get me wrong there, it’s awesome to have a job where your work brings you genuine enjoyment. I’ve definitely had a lot of Good Times over the years in my various projects. I tend to get that as a result of seeing something awesome and knowing “I MADE (a bit of) THAT!”

Definitely if you see your stuff on the news.

Work’s been fairly hard lately though. I’m keeping up with what needs to be done, it’s just … maintaining the energy is a struggle at the moment. It’s as if I’m having trouble unlocking the potential energy that’s within me. I know it’s there (wiggles tummy), it just refuses to unlock itself.

Next break for me will be Easter and I’m seriously considering having the week before Easter off instead of my more traditional Easter week. Not long left now. There is an ulterior motive for switching the leave date … Voyager challenge !

But first … before I talk about that potential Voyager challenge … thumbnail pic time !

Snowman ! In nanoblocks ! Oh and a Christmas tree too.

I have more nanoblocks to build after they arrived today. But I wanted to practice with something simple and small and the pack above was effectively thrown in free with the other two kits.

I’ve been enjoying the construction hobby. I’m finding a certain catharsis from putting the blocks together, whether it be Lego or now Nanoblocks.

You’re probably wondering what the difference is ? First one is size. I left a 1×1 Lego block off to the left for a scale comparison. Oh there’s also the Tie Advanced off in the background but … there’s that foreshortening and scaling effect that comes from a camera lens that close to the capture object. The 1×1 Lego brick is just smaller than 2×2 on the Nanoblocks.

They’re about as small as they could be and still be manipulated with fat(ish) fingers like mine. Actually, I don’t think my fingers are too fat, although they are thickened up more than average due to all the cricket. Gripping the handle and all that. I have some old tweezers in reserve.

It’s much cheaper than Lego. The TIE Advanced was £40 for 355 pieces. The XWing was £70 for 717 pieces. The snowman and tree were £4 for “over 170 pieces”. The next kit I do (reveal will come with the pictures !) has 540 pieces for £12 (down from £16) and the one after that is 780 pieces for £23. That said, there’s some nifty discounts on the nanoblocks.

So the cold hard “how many kits can I get for my money ?” is vastly in favour of the Nanoblocks. They don’t attract the Lego premium and also don’t attract the Star Wars premium.

I’m going to enjoy building the next two kits … and I need to find the ones after that (Pokemon avatars coming soon !)

I don’t think they do moving parts though, just the basic bricks. Still gotta go Lego or K-Nex or Meccano for things that move, like engines and wheels.

Here’s the thing though. I have a few construction games for PC and I’ve never really got on that well with them. I think I’m much better when I have a template to work from. I should really open up From The Depths and have a good go at that, I have a series of ship designs in my mind based on the Trimaran hullform :

A trimaran has 3 hulls. One long thin one in the centre, with an outrigger either side. It opens up a lot of deck space, although it can make the internals a bit cramped. It gains you a tonne of speed and efficiency. And the outriggers make it look like it has wings. Dragon theme ! Just need to get with the mouse and clicking and they could happen. Yep – trimaran with lots of guns, missiles and lasers.

Although there’s that Tired thing again. I’m feeling really beat up at the moment. Physically, I’m fairly ok. My outsides continue to heal (slowly) and my insides are sore … but doing ok. It’s keeping the energy levels up that’s hard at the moment. It means I throw everything I have into work … and crash when I get home. It’s one reason I’m not learning the new games, because I don’t really have that mental energy to invest in them.

I do enjoy watching the videos of other people playing games though. When they’re good games and interesting presenters. I’ve changed who I watch lately, as I got bored with some (most of Yogscast) and found some others to watch (Heychrissa, Enter Elysium). But that’s when the games are interesting.

But those are negative thoughts. Wait, curious that I’ve been enjoying building stuff with the lego and nanoblocks but I’ve been finding the Minecraft gaming video stuff to be creatively dead and utterly boring. And Minecraft is building stuff with blocks !

Oh back to gaming to finish off. I mentioned the Voyager challenge … This is a combination of Star Trek and Elite. The premise of the Star Trek Voyager series is that they get grabbed by a being called the Caretaker, who pulls them 70,000 light years away to the other side of the galaxy. And it’ll take 75 years to get home. The Voyager challenge is to get an Elite Dangerous ship to the same system … and race back.

They reckon that with Elite’s gameplay systems, you can get back in 40 hours. I wonder …

Nah. I won’t do 40 hours of Elite straight but I may well make my out to the Gamma quadrant wormhole (as seen in Star Trek Deep Space 9) before heading across to Voyager’s spot. And then I’d head back, probably on my own time. Cos 40 hours of anything straight is a bit silly, games especially.

Unless it’s sleep. I feel like I could do with 40 hours straight of sleep at the moment !

Cya next time and hopefully I’ll think of something to post (another A to Z coming “soon”). Been having a bit of blog block lately I think …

Yep.

Spot the Doctor Who quote. Although I think it’s the other way round in that.

Where has this week gone ? Feels like time has been sped up, it seems to be going faster when you look back and wonder what you got up to. This week seems similarly rushed. Let’s see if I can remember.

Monday – late at work, followed by a very late (50+min wait) bus and then I took advantage of zero traffic in the main road off my road to head over to Supermarket with the Harvester. It’s tricky to get out of my road at the moment, there aren’t many roads out of my part of Bristol and considering that they’ve closed one of those exits (to build the highly unpopular Metrobus), the traffic is absolutely nuts.

I needed more popcorn anyway. And there happen to be Easter Eggs on offer with a Buy 2 Get 2 Free, on eggs costing £1.50. So I have 3 more eggs waiting in the cupboard. Well, actually 2 because 1 will be going to someone else :-).

Can’t honestly remember what happened Tuesday or Thursday evening, save that I didn’t bother leaving the house after I got in. Think it will have been video watching and general chilling out.

Wednesday was Deadpool which …. I’d thoroughly recommend for some brainless entertainment. It’s rude, crude, nasty, funny, irreverent, topped up with all the references. Definitely not one for the kids because it’s a proper Deadpool movie with everything that goes with that, the good, the bad and the extremely adult content. Would I watch it again ? I don’t think so. But I did enjoy it the first time. And XMen Apocalypse (Deadpool brings in a couple of XMen) should be incredible. I did think the first trailer for Dawn Of Justice showed off that film better than the weak trailer before Deadpool.

Friday ? Ermmm … I may have taken advantage of my flexi credit to expand the Fleet … I must get a picture of the whole Fleet at some point when the next addition is built. Oh and then chilling out to a Heychrissa stream last night while I was so exhausted I could barely keep up with reading a Waterways World magazine after watching the cricket (England disappointed again with their batting and fielding).

And a fair bit of Elite piloting today.

The Fleet ?

The one at the front is one I’ve had for years. Very ickle, very cute. Little things tend to be very cute don’t they ? I know some very cute small people and there’s one in particular who I’m hoping can be tempted to go to London Comic Con … Could well be the first time I’ve driven into London deeper than the tube stations. Car will work out better I think.

The snowspeeder at the back is a new one and was a little bit of Build Therapy yesterday. I should really dive into the From The Depths game (check out EnterElysium’s videos) because that looks like fun.

But an idea cropped up with the pic.

(pic credit to Merrena off Deviant Art, Google sent me to the pic which I’ve used in the background!)

You know how there was an old fad for Geese on the wall as decorations ? How about 3 snowspeeders … I know. Silly. This is the thing about having fun. Sometimes fun involves being very silly. That can be the best kind of fun. I know I was having the most fun in cricket when I could be silly while still getting the job done. Things like fielding while standing on your head. Yep, did that once, had the grass stain on the hat. Can’t remember if I got close to the run out but I was upside down as part of full commitment to getting the ball fielded and back in.

Gave myself whiplash once too … If you imagine a clockface with straight ahead as 12 o’clock, I was going full speed to 12 o’clock and had to throw to 7 o’clock and to do so and get leverage on the throw, I had to throw myself backwards. On to my head. Yep, saw stars that time. But it almost got the job done, definitely gave the batsman a fright.

Wonder if there is a bigger Snowspeeder kit ? I vaguely remember snowspeeder toys being very popular so many years ago after Empire Strikes Back had them in the Battle of Hoth.

I’ve been back into Elite today as well. One of the strengths of that game is the variation in what you can do in it. It’s a fairly lonely game but my interest is kept by changing the target for what I’m up to. The priority has gone through :

Building up to bigger and bigger ships – I reached the Anaconda (was biggest ship for a while).
Touring the galaxy trading rare items – started doing this again.
Helping out with Community Goals – where you take items to a station in return for rewards.
Running missions to get rank with the factions.

The Community Goals keep a faint story going too, today’s piloting was spent setting up for one of those by working towards getting a bigger ship. Of course I could have gone directly to the place to get the ship but where’s the fun in that ? So I meander about doing missions while on my way to the good shipyard.

I did manage to get one run into the latest Community Goal place. I’ve done things like fetch metals to build shiny ships (Imperial Clipper, still got one of those beauties) …

… build space stations and the latest involves taking slaves to a planet where they will be freed and given their own colony. Yep, totally not smuggling the illegal items at the moment.

They should put paint jobs like that into the game actually. It’s another Gimp product, where I’ve used its shading/recolour feature and because the front of the ship was Extremely Bright White, it hasn’t recoloured. I like the effect as the purple takes over further aft. You can get a Purple Clipper paint job but … I don’t like it. The solid purple doesn’t work in my opinion. Plus it’s like £5 for a cosmetic item, no thanks.

Gosh – ramble wall of text alert is going off – time to close.

More cricket to watch tomorrow ! Hopefully better results for both the women and the men’s teams tomorrow. No more playing cricket for me though. I am tempted now that I’m so close to being fixed on the outside … but my insides are more battered than ever. I thought I could get away without seeing the doctor about my hip and shoulder but … the shoulder isn’t particularly happy at the moment. Feels like it has loosened up more and it likes to pop into positions which aren’t quite right. Yep, numb hands and things like that. I can manipulate it back into where it should be but … long term solution needed I think.

If I played cricket again, I’d throw myself into it 100% and damage myself more. Hell, even my left shoulder (which wasn’t dislocated but was so badly jarred once that I could barely move the arm for a few days) is creaking and grinding now.

Falling apart ? Maybe.

That’s where the games come in – they let me enjoy stuff without the physical intensity.

Oh – I mentioned Waterways World up there in the cloudy top of this post – the narrowboat barge life still has my full interest. I’d love to move onto one. There are 3 options for where to keep it :

Centre of Bristol – convenient for town, not so much for car mobility.
North of Bristol – great for motorway and for nipping up to Worcester for cricket watching, bad for non car travel.
East of Bristol – not so good for motorway, excellent for non car travel (nearby stations).

And then there would be the adventures touring the canal system. It’d be great to combine touring with being able to remotely work. Don’t think that’s a possibility in my current line of work though.

But it is good to read about the temptation that trip reports in Waterways World give. It’s a quieter, peaceful, idyllic life, at least how they present it.

Peace is good !

I better start by saying that this is perhaps not the Valentines Day post you were looking for.

HAHA ! 🙂

I mean, you’ll have had Valentines Day stuff for ages now right ? And I try to avoid following the crowd by avoiding trendy topics. (Unless it touches a nerve that is).

On Valentines though, I do hope you had a good one, whether that’s enjoying doing your own thing as a single person (cricket and rugby chill out for me and now listening to game vids while tapping this out) or being in great company. I’ve noticed that online dating has been in the news a lot lately too, I have a post coming sometime on that (positive to the online side) but … not just yet. For now, if you are looking for people, check it out just be wary (like you would if you were meeting people for the first time anywhere else) and see what’s there, not what you want to see.

And I’m also listening to Lucy Spraggan’s excellent first album. She’s one with the crowd when it comes to singers. She does great, intelligently written songs that literally anyone could sing along to. They’re great stuff.

An Old Love ?

What else could it be !!!

Yep. Finished !

Oh wait. That’s actually two old loves. Star Wars and Lego. Today is not about the Star Wars though.

That’s my new Lego X Wing, I finished building it the other night and as you can see (perched precariously on a couple of boxes and my nasty sofa), it’s rather impressive.

It reminded me actually of the old time Lego. Lego and Airfix models were a great way of keeping me occupied way back. It was a staple Christmas present from the parents and they rarely disappointed. I think there were a few Christmas Eve frenzied stressy shops too in the hunt of more Lego for the precocious pre-teen that I was back before discovering the cricket.

Good times.

There it is again in landing configuration with the wings folded up and the landing foot extended. There’s a couple more bits too, a landing ladder, a mechanic’s trolley and 4 figures. You might be able to spot the pilot there and a mini BB-8 giving a sense of scale.

This puppy is big. Maybe 40cm wingspan, 50cm length. (Those are rough by eye measurements, where did I leave my measuring stick ?). I’m super impressed with it as a kit. Things seem to have improved since way back when I was getting Lego for Christmas presents. The instructions book seems better than I remember and the parts are divided up into bags labelled with numbers that show the order in which they are opened and added to the kit. That’s awesome.

And the X Wing makes me want to get more and build more !

Trouble is though, I’ve been looking at the other kits though and after the XWing, I’m not too bothered about the other Star Wars kit. Maybe the Millenium Falcon (it is an iconic ship after all) and the shuttle but not about some of the prequel stuff and the Imperial stuff. Perhaps the miniatures ? You can even turn the Millenium Falcon kit into one of the big Elite ships.

Gosh, that’s an old pic (oops – look at the dust!). It’s from my older Lego fleet where I’d put the mini XWing and Tie Bomber on top of my old amp. The XWing is winning in that pic because it has the Imperial ship in its gunsights.

I used to enjoy the Technic models a lot. The engineer in me would put them together and they’d share a lot of genuine engineering principles. They did a technic car which had rack and pinion steering, McPherson strut suspension like in a normal car, double wishbones and engines that had pistons that moved in the cylinders.

If I get more Lego, it may well be one like that.

One drawback though, the pneumatic Lego worked well for a short time but would then stick and freeze up. (Which I remember back to later and realise that it was because it wasn’t dry air, the wetness causes problems)

The trainset was another classic. Pretty massive though. If I remember right, the gauge of the tracks was maybe 2 inches, or more than twice as big as the old Hornby OO scale. Is that still used ? I think it is. The advantage with Lego trains is that you’d build the trains and carriages. With Hornby, you’d buy the trains and build the scenery. I was more interested in the trains.

The last ones I can remember are the Lego boats.

These had a big floaty shaped hull underneath and you’d build on the superstructure. I don’t think you can get these any more. They floated ! Lego as a bath toy ! How cool is that ?

Yeah. Loved Lego. It was a great discovery finding it again and I can thank my sister for reminding me of it a while ago and a lovely Youtuber/Streamer called HeyChrissa for making me think of getting some now. Here’s HeyChrissa’s Ghostbuster’s car build. I reckon some time she’ll be tempted into building the XWing (cash permitting!).

Hmm – quick peek in the archive … Nah. Can’t find it (will post it if I can !)

I had a little spell over 10 years ago where Ravenwolf got me doing the Lego again but to be honest, I had other things on my mind then instead of Lego. That’s when the old fleet got built. Let’s see – mini XWing, TIE Bomber, AT-AT, AT-ST, 2 pod racers, snowspeeder, mini Falcon, Y-Wing (one can never have too much Lego), mini AWing, mini Slave1. I think I need to find somewhere to pose the Fleet.

I think I’ve rattled on enough for today though.

Lego – Eveything is Awesome ! (It says so in the movie). And it was an excellent relief after a couple of weeks when the stress was getting the better of me.

I have something I’ve wanted to show to more people for a couple of days now.

I’ve been getting more creative …

Please. Don’t be too scared. I am limiting it to making things of peace that could not harm anyone. (Ok, technically they can like all objects if it hard enough but I’m not planning to do that). Nah, taking over the world is for another day.

So what do I want to show people ?

Yep. I made that. Me. It came about from a comment along the lines of “where is the dragon’s cricket bat ?” Red rag. Had to do something for that ! (Especially with she who asked, that’s why I’ve held off posting actually, wanted her to see it before posting it a bit more publicly).

There’s a curious thing about creativity. It brings with it a need for approval. Did I do it right ? Is it embarrassing ? Does it meet expectations ? Does it look like something a 5 year old came out with ? (there are some great drawings by 5 year olds) Will people laugh at it and think it’s terrible.

I don’t have much artist in me (I think!) but I do like to create things. New things. That goes for work, where I’m far more interested in making new stuff than doing things with the old. I’ll raid pictures from Google but … I’d actually prefer to stuff I have already.

And then I go super critical over what I’ve done, thinking I could have done better. One thing I’d like to use the iPad for is sketches, although there my engineer perfect drawing attitude will fight ferociously with what’s appropriate for sketches.

Let’s see – from the picture above, it starts out as the Another Monday dragon and in order of how I did things :

Helmet – I don’t like the helmet to be honest. It looks a bit too much like one of those melon helmets some sports fans will wear. Does the edging on the brim work ? The edging for the grill is way rougher than I’d like it to be.

Why Pink ? It’s remembering back to the Pink Hat season, where I wore a pink cap to remember a colleague lost to breast cancer. I still remember the small smile that The Rose wore, she’s still missed. And I have another friend (only seen once but that’s enough to remember this lady’s character) who is now fighting her own breast cancer. She’s in the early days of chemo and if you think that’s rough, it’s probably going rougher than you imagine. But she’s a trooper, is fighting and I really hope that K.E. comes through the chemo and beats the cancer.

Cos we’ve lost too many good ones already.

Gloves – they look kinda like crayon don’t they ? I went with the theme of white batting gloves, didn’t get ambitious by adding more colour (although it’s there with the green paws poking through) and added on the black from the webbing behind most gloves that keeps them tight.

Pads and the V neck – similar, except that’s keeping the angles right.

“Dragon” insignia – England players have 3 lions on their breast, I couldn’t resist trying something similar. Looks kinda like someone’s sponsor logo isn’t it (the one that looks like a crocodile). Not intentional, just shows my lack of drawing skills – haha 🙂

As an aside – you’re seeing the creative person’s tendency to be supercritical of their own work. I follow a few artistic people on Twitter and they all show that self critical, self loathing, self destructive tendency where they cannot see the worth in their own work. I’d like to mention a couple of people there :

Tabby (@tabrakadabra on Twitter) who does super cute drawings. I thought they were good enough to borrow one of them as an avatar for a bit a while ago but I don’t think she liked that (I dunno, no feedback!). Look her up, give her commissions. Encourage the talented artist !

Zoey Proasheck of the Yogscast. Love what she does but she’s been having confidence issues. She says how she struggles to post videos because she wants them to be perfect. If they don’t match up to her expectations, they don’t get posted. It shows how the artist’s impression of their work differs from the viewer, we love all that she does and the imperfections are part of that. They’re what make her stuff lovable.

Back to the dragon !

That bat – oh my. It started out bright yellow and then I aged it down to the brown-ish colour. I was aiming for something that looked like wood. I think it’s done ok.

My impression of the finished article ?

I think it looks like something a kiddie would come out with. That’s my depressive side talking. I am slightly embarrassed by it but that’s my shy side talking. I’ve shown it to a few people, who say they liked it. And that’s what counts.

What do you think ? The little pads and the holding out of the hands as a “Hey ! No nerves !” even though his face is showing “I don’t wanna be here” have a certain charm. Although part of that charm is from the genius which was Real Musgrave’s talent at making the original pocket dragons.

I think I’ve nattered enough already !

If you know creative people, encourage them (trying not to patronize because that can be counter productive). Ask if you can use their art. Ask if they’d like to make art for you. Sometimes they need an idea to make more art. In the case of the Cricket Dragon, I borrowed an idea from Cupid’s Gift. And it was a good one. That also gave me the all important motivation to create.

I’ve done stuff for a few other people, although I’m being a little more selective there now. I’d do the doodles for the Yogscast people … but they’re not at all good at giving feedback. Ok, sometimes they do but most of the time it’s absolutely nothing. (Partly because they have lots of fans that send them messages, can’t reply to them all)

But if it’s someone who shows appreciation, that’ll keep me buzzing for days.

And making more stuff.

So if anyone wants me to make pictures for them, send the idea along and I’ll see what I can do :-).

Of course it may end up looking like a 5 year old’s crayon drawing but hey ! I haven’t been drawing much lately. Need the practice.

Cya !

PS I was going to post pics of the XWing that’s in build at the moment but … kinda run out of space ! I’m impressed. First Lego I’ve done for years and … it’s kinda therapeutic. And very high quality. Seems like the quality has gone up. Now to find a place where I can photograph it and show it off (when it’s built, 2 more wings to go).