Hello everyone,
I was probably due to post something again late last week but had a little illness episode again … Seems like when I get the bugs, they blow through quick. I seem mostly back to normal now. But first … thumbnail ! What shall we have today …
Isn’t it adworable ? Perhaps not the right word but I’m pleasantly surprised by how much customisation is possible with their site. I could even have Dwagon riding on a motorbike.
Disclosure note – this isn’t a paid thing, someone posted the link to the site and it went from there. I am highly tempted by Dwagon although it looks like it’d be $45 to get one (30mm scale) miniature over here in fully painted form. Crikey ! Here’s a link to the site. More disclosure stuff – they have a “(If your show/channel is not monetized in any way, you may use Hero Forge® assets without completing this form.)” note on their site so we’re good to go with posting the pic because this site isn’t monetized at all.
I’ve been watching / observing various people play Baldur’s Gate 3 and I’m getting far more tempted by that one than I had been. It’s also been amazing watching Amelia Tyler’s narration outtakes on the Youtubes. (Youtube link to the latest – audo only, very NSFW) I wonder if you could make something suitably dwagony in that game. I haven’t bought it, mostly because I always seem to bounce off games like that, such as Baldurs Gate 1 and 2, Solasta, Divinity Original Sins (1 and 2). They’re all there in the library waiting their chance to get played.
What I have been greatly enjoying is Dredge :
I’ve been describing this one as a cozy spooky game with excellently implemented tight and fair gameplay. And the story is (short but) good at bringing you into its world and giving you things to do. Here’s the Steam link for the game. I’d highly recommend it. Also on discount until 17 August.
I only have 3 more achievements to go before getting 100% in the game. That’s : catch all the right fish, catch all the wrong fish, get all the other achievements. It’s been a fun journey and I’ll keep going back to this one to replay it. It’s been very enjoyable and easy to play.
But about those bugs … I was in Dredge last Thursday evening when I suddenly noticed I was feeling extremely cold. As in wanting to find a blanket. And as I did more of the session, my arms went numb. Both of them. The left one too !
It’s not supposed to do that ! Going numb is the job of the right arm !
(I’m joking there of course but that was something pretty new and weird)
I’m pretty much ok now, it feels like the worse of it burned through on Thursday evening on Friday afternoon. Just waiting for my insides to return to something resembling normal as I barely ate anything until Saturday evening and that takes time to work its way through.
Last up for today is cars … which has been on the brain a little bit.
I’m not in danger of doing a car change any time soon. I’m very happy with Red and the more it’s driven, the more it seems to be freeing up. Red is a Lexus CT200h (aka Posh Prius) from the 2018 model year and it does what I want it to do. I like the smaller hatchbacks, they’re flexible enough to be able to support shopping, travel and occasional carrying of stuff around while being little enough to have fun throwing around the roads.
But the varied ranges of cars seem to be dying out these days in favour of SUVs. I’m not a fan, they’re higher up which makes it more difficult for my crunchy hips, they’re higher up which means they’re more awkward to through round corners. Oh and they don’t seem to be particularly Sport or Utility. I can’t see how you get the shopping in the Lexus UX without putting the back seats down.
Then I looked at the sales figures. They’re curious reading and it’s good of Lexus to make them available (Linky). What I’m getting out of them is that after being around 10k sales per year, the sales started dipping in 2007 before starting to recover in 2011 when the CT came out. It and the IS300h made the brand accessible to a new range of buyers like me. Half their sales in 2011 were CTs. The new IS joined the party in 2014 followed by the NX in 2015. (All hybrids) The ES300h came out in 2019 and stole the sales going to the IS300h (which went in the bin) and the UX came out in 2019 and immediately stole the sales from everything else in the range.
So I think that was the clear message that went out – people wanted SUVs. Or Lexus people still wanted Lexii and their options had been cut to the ES and the SUVs.
I wonder if it’s a factor of families owning multiple cars ? The small SUV becomes the flexible economical car that can take all the family, while they own a bigger car with a usable boot that gets used for the shopping or longer away trips.
I think we’ll see more trends come out in the future as a move to electrification causes a gentrification effect on car ownership. With fossil fuel cars due to go in the bin, the people being able to operate cars will be the ones who can spend the time to charge them up with them secure(ish) on the drive.
I’m not in that position, I barely have room for one car here and if I were to charge it, I’d need to stretch a cable over the public pavement. That’s not going to happen.
It’ll be curious keeping an eye on movements in the market over the coming years, with politics having its impact as well. We don’t exactly have credible or competent politicians over here at the moment.
On that note … time for me to hit post and go back to reading Deliverance, book 1 in another series by the prolific M R Forbes. I’ve been enjoying his books and the 5 Forgotten Colony book set was next up after completing the Starship For Sale series. It’s been a good, tense read so far. Would recommend.
Later everyone !