So, what have I been up to?

Not much. Bob’s Burgers continues to be a source of much needed joy. I started playing Far Cry 5 again, because blasting away at a facist theocratic cult seemed like a nice escape from the real world and yeah… Given that, I switched over to Saints Row 3. I also got some texts from Craig Kelly and while I deleted them immediately, I was almost pleased to get them, as I was starting to feel left out. Even so, I have been mature, and not gone on Twitter and called Kelly an incompetent fool who’s a member of a climate denying death cult who’s shackled his career to a career con artist. I may have tweeted him a screencap of one of the Iron Sheik’s more abusive tweets though… I’m not a saint. 

in good news, there’s a new Iron Maiden album! I’ve only listened to it a few times so far, which means it’s far too early to give a proper review. It brings joy, unsurprisingly, even tinged by some fear, given singer Bruce Dickinson’s recent positive Covid test.  Every time I’ve seen them, it feels as if it could be the last time, but I don’t want it to be. I’m not ready for them to end yet, nor do I think I’ll ever be ready. That band is 5 years older than I am and it’s members have a combined age of over 350, so logically the end is closer than I’d like. I expect when they finally call it a day I’ll feel as if the sun won’t rise again. But that is not today…

There’s change coming to the TARDIS as well, with the announcement that Jodie Whittaker and Chris Chibnall are leaving Doctor Who. This also meant I had my about once a year or so look at a certain Twitter account and yes, it was as horrible as I expected. Said person has also been trying to get a Babylon 5 revival started and it makes my skin crawl to share a fandom with them. There’s disturbingly large parts of Who fandom that’s incredibly toxic, and  it’s that why I carefully curate what parts I involve myself with. That said I’ll really miss 13, not just because the pandemic meant we missed out on so much time with her or how angry she makes chunks of Who fandom. Making the right people angry is delightful. I used to be grumpy and rank the Doctors, whereas now I’m grumpy and I just love them all. Besides, the lockdown message that Whittaker put together was both pure joy and much needed advice and if you don’t like it, then you may not have a soul.

My house has been keeping itself busy – we watched the 1932 version of The Mummy recently, and while good fun, I mostly found myself wanting to watch Pyramids of Mars again, which is never a bad thing. I introduced my wife to the first John Wick film and she didn’t hate it, which is what I was hoping for, I guess? There was an air of “What, was that it?” To be fair, the world building only really kicks in in part 2, but it seems like she’ll let me subject her to it. We’ve also watched Babylon 5: The Lost Tales, which was…. hmmm. The first tale wasn’t great, the second was mostly carried salvaged by Peter Woodward’s glorious scenery chewing. We’ve also started Crusade tonight, and were about half way through ep 1 before she needed to sleep, I can report her initial thoughts were “Oh hey, it’s Gary Cole!” and that Daniel Dae Kim is very pretty. She’s not wrong.

In good news, I found a place that has a cavalier hat blank A: at an affordable price and B: that actually has my size! Therefore, treat yo self! I figure, yes, I can wear it at events and at LARP’s, but mostly because it’ll make me happy. Unfortunately, they turned out to be out of stock, but gave me a refund. The search continues… I’ve found a couple of massive ones in leather, here and here, that have me tempted, but might be a bit too much for me, style wise. At least, for now….  There was a motivational quote I found recently that said: People will stare. Make it worth their while. I like that and may adopt it. It’s certainly come to mind when I’ve been gathering firewood while out walking on the weekends. Mind you, the other quote that comes to mind is “If no-one comes from the future to stop you from doing it, then how bad can it be?” We all find motivation in different ways. 

And yes, I continue to miss LARP. I’ve been eyeing off a sword or two, also under the treat yo self rule, but I keep coming back to ask myself, will I actually use them? Yes, I did order a main gauche, but it’s mostly reminded me that the most recent Captain Alatriste book was published in 2011 and still hasn’t been translated into English. Also, I’ve not seen the TV adaption, and while the movie version was beautiful, it’s telling small excerpts from the books instead of telling one book is infuriating. Still, Viggo Mortenson as Alatriste was near perfect casting. But I digress… Buying stuff just to make me happy doesn’t work as well as it used to, I need to have a purpose for my stuff. Yes, I could use a pretty sabre or another cloak, but with no games running at the moment, a short term happy “I have a shiny thing” boost will likely be overtaken by “Another thing I’m not using” sadness. Mind you, I have been eyeing off a fencing jacket, wanting one that’s both A: fitted to me and B: not in regulation HEMA black. It seems a more sensible long term investment and the dark purple it comes in is… wait for it…

There’s more I could discuss, but sleep beckons. So yeah, take care of yourselves and each other, and I’ll be seeing you.