Alex's even longer post thread.

[Alex]

Another week is drawing to a close (sort of off tomorrow. Doing gym until 9 and then finishing at 12, so not really a full day at work, plus we have our Friday morning team breakfast/lunch which takes an hour or so out of the working day). It has been warm and wet all week, a condition that is normally described as being 'muggy' in Scotland.

It is also payday tomorrow, although I guess since next weekend we are heading down to Edinburgh for the tattoo, I should be careful with money and not go splurge on stuff.

On the other hand, I saw shiny stuff that I want!

The D&D trailer is causing conniptions amongst a certain subset of players over at least 3 separate points. The woman who transforms into an Owlbear is a Tiefling druid. In 5th edition Tieflings have red skin and druids can't turn into Owlbears. On the other hand, they could have any colour of skin in previous editions and could also turn into Owlbears. The other big talking point is where someone leaps into what appears to be a Gelatinous Cube to avoid the attacks of a Displacer Beast (big cat with tentacles). The Gelatinous Cube would cause more damage with its acidic attacks than the Displace Beast would cause with its attacks.

Yeah because your character is supposed to know all the stats of the creatures in the Monster Manual and know things like that...

Personally, I am just looking forward to seeing a movie that is hopefully better than the last big name one...

Listening to podcasts of someone playing the old gamebooks of my youth. So far he is on the 5th book and has only successfully completed one (and he had to cheat to do that). Listening to the playthrough of one of my favourites, City of Thieves. I took a free month with Audible and it seems that on top of a subscription fee, I'd then be expected to pay for each book on top of that. I decided I'd rather just pay for the real books and skip the pointless middleman bill.

[Alex]

Hired a large metal skip for the weekend so I can do a big house clearance. Lots of stuff has already been dumped in it and I plan on spending a fair bit of time adding to it tomorrow. This has forced Kristi to clear out stuff in our room, and as a result, it seems I have much more laundry to do this week than usual.

[Alex]

For months we'd discussed getting the skip mentioned above. We have some furniture that has seen better days and needs replaced, as well as just a load of stuff we need to get rid of.

Anyway, on Friday the skip was delivered. One of the things we wanted to get rid of was a cherry-coloured Welsh dresser that Ash had managed to rip the doors off. We kept his nappy stuff in the bottom cupboard, and the shelves were lined with books. I'd been asking Kristi to pick out what she wanted to replace it with, but she kept telling me she couldn't find anything she liked. When the skip arrived, I cleared the dresser and piled everything from it on the floor. Funny thing is, within an hour Kristi had found a set of shelving she liked and had it ordered for same-day delivery. Same with the coffee table when I cleared that today.

Well, the new bookshelves have been built and all the books stacked on it. Kristi now has a place she can display her rather expensive Disney ornaments which is safe from Ash. I've also gone through my book collection and got rid of a load more ones that I am unlikely to ever read or if I have read them, reread them. She buys me a lot of science fiction books, regardless of the fact that I don't read much sci-fi. I am very picky on what I read from that genre. If it has a trashy cover, I am very unlikely to sit down and read it, although I do try and read the ones she gets me, I just can't get into them. Anyway, a load of sci-fi books (not ones that Kristi has gotten me, they will sit mostly unread for a while yet. Maybe one day I'll read another full one. They have more chance of being read than the David Eddings one she bought me) are off to a charity shop.

My boss at work sent us a message that he is down with the sickness. The third time he's had Covid. Poor guy, not to mention his wife and two young kids.

[Trevor]

it seems I have much more laundry to do this week than usual.

I never do that 

[Alex]

it seems I have much more laundry to do this week than usual.

I never do that 

I have only just finished doing it. It was something of a mountain. When I was single, I remember sometimes just washing all my clothes because there weren't that many of them and they could all fit in one of the industrial washing machines all at once.

[Alex]

I just spent two days reading a review of a roleplaying game I'd never heard of. Frankly, I'd have been quite happy if I hadn't heard about it.

When a game has 'Anal Circumference' as a stat and seems to mostly be about rape, bestiality and so forth, someone needs to give the writers a good kicking. It came off as being written by Incels, before that term really came into use to describe them. Thankfully the system has sunk with the only remaining trace being people who say "Yeah, this is a bad game, but it isn't as bad as..."

A game called Synnibarr is normally mentioned as being the Plan 9 of roleplaying games. It is terrible, but it was made with the best of intentions and a lot of enthusiasm. To call FATAL mean-spirited would be one hell of an understatement.

I get that at a certain point, RPGs were all about pushing the boundaries with games like Vampire (particularly the stuff published under the Black Dog label, looking at you Clanbook: Giovanni) and Kult. We'd broken free of the whole Satanic Panic and things went wild. That is an understandable and predictable reaction. This however appears to have been the extreme. It does have the distinction of being the longest rule book ever published as well as rated as being the worst. Thankfully the author and his supporters seem to have disappeared since the game came out.

How did such a game ever get released? It was self-published and self-distributed.

The house clearance went fairly well. I finished building the last of the new flat pack furniture about 21:00 last night, and now all that remains is to clear up the floor. Kristi gets the joy of that while I am at work and Ash is at school.

Funny that I am walking away from a good job where I get to use guns. For some people that is the goal of a lifetime and I can't wait to leave it all behind.

[Alex]

I hate people.

No particular reason for that today, I just in general do. Too many of them for a start.

Not so much a stranger is a friend that I just haven't met yet, more a stranger is just someone who hasn't p**sed me off in some vague way, possibly just by existing.

I finally got my ET (early termination) interview today off the SEngO. He asked if there was anything he could do to persuade me to stay, or anything the RAF could offer me. Since I haven't had an actual pay increase (or even just a pay keeping pace with inflation) for 16 years now, and everything is just so badly run from the top, he really isn't high ranking enough to make any of the changes that would be needed to keep me in. Besides I am not sure anyone could do anything that would get me back to how much I loved my job for the first seven years. If you can't get me back there, then what is the point? It is like staying married if the love is gone. Might as well both go your separate ways and find happiness with someone else.

[Alex]

We had a lovely day for travelling. Nice and warm, but not too hot with gorgeous views.

Seen them all thousands of times before, but it always looks good, although I think winter is my favourite time to travel, seeing the hills and mountains covered in snow.

Ash was absolutely hyper about getting to see his gran and aunt Elizabeth, or gwan and wizbif as he calls them. Well in truth he has been hyper for a week about it since it was mentioned to him we were going.

[Alex]

We took a trip out to Irvine today. The shopping centre in the town does not seem to be doing well. Lots of shops closed and they are thinking on shutting down the Rivergate (shopping mall). I guess all those comparisons of 'mall walkers' with zombies haven't dated well. If only they'd known about mobile phones...

I did get a couple of new skulls from a new shop. I don't know how long they will last, they had interesting stock, but not a lot of it.

Well, I've done what I can to help them out.

I will miss going out shopping when all these places are gone. Too many people just buying things off Amazon instead who then complain about it driving local businesses out. It isn't Amazon that does that. It is us and where we shop. Don't like it, quit buying things online.

[Trevor]

I did get a couple of new skulls from a new shop.

Which shop was this? 

[Alex]

It was called Little Ripleys.

[Trevor]

It was called Little Ripleys.

I will believe that or not 

[Alex]

We spent the whole of yesterday in Edinburgh. Left Ash for the day with his gran and aunt (Gwan and Elifbiff as he calls them). The city was absolutely packed. Between the Tattoo and the Fringe, where it seems every comedian who considers themselves worthy of the name, will spend at least a week, quite often giving free shows. Quite often they will stand outside wherever they are performing begging for an audience. I am guessing that 90% of their customers turn out to be other comedians. I thought Kristi might have been up for trying a few random shows, but she just didn't care to try any.

We went to Frankensteins for a meal, but they've cut down their menu to just pizza and loaded fries. Shame because they did some nice burgers beforehand. Ended up eating an acceptable meal in some random Italian place (Kristi loves Italian food). The queue for the tattoo was a lot larger than I expected. It looks like they increased the seating since the last time I visited the castle. The street leading up to the castle itself is quite confined, making it slow progress getting in, but we got there in plenty of time. The seats Kristi had picked were in the very top row, something I think she regretted by the time we'd climbed up all the steps to the very top row. Anyway, we got a good view. The show started with the massed pipes and drums, then had the US army field band. They had an energetic show (although to be honest I didn't much care for the rap section). The USAF was next with some silent drill (which again, Kristi loves so it was great for her to get to see these things live). One poor guy did drop his rifle and you could hear the shocked intake of breath around the stadium. I figured that no matter how much you practise, these things will happen. Anyway, he did the correct drill to recover it and it isn't like it spoiled the performance or anything. They had some people dressed as Aztec warriors run out and do some stuff and then ran off again. I had expected to see a bit more when they came out of the castle and was slightly disappointed. They were then followed up by Mexicans.

Kristi's favourite drum core (Top Secret, guessing from their flags they are from Switzerland). Two of their guys managed to drop their flags at one point of the display which made me feel better for the poor airman earlier. They had a lot of civilian acts that didn't fit well and neither of us overly enjoyed. It seems to be that they are trying to be more inclusive and include non-military acts. I guess that is the way the world is going, but we wanted to see the military bands. The lone piper at the end of the show looked like some sort of wraith in the distance. I think my highlight of the show was the New Zealanders who broke into 'The Timewarp' at one point.

We both agreed that we'd go again and take Ash when he is old enough. We'd went to the early show, but I think next time I'd go for the later one and see it all in the dark. There is a lot of the show that would have looked more dramatic against the darkness. Anyway, for anyone interested I'll stick up the photos when I get home. Took a lot of videos too. If anyone is interested in watching that kind of thing, let me know and I'll chuck them up on Youtube or something and send them a link.

Kristi was still buzzing when we got home and was too happy and excited to sleep, so she'll be tired today but it was worth it.

[Trevor]

I think my highlight of the show was the New Zealanders who broke into 'The Timewarp' at one point.

[Alex]

The view over the city from the stands.






Kristi's favourite drum core.






The Aztecs. They just kind of ran out, shouted and then ran off again leaving us slightly perplexed.







The Mexican show. I have no idea what the connection between the skull paint and butterflies (or possibly moths?) is. Or why they had a Mariachi band. If anyone knows about the butterflies (Deaths Heads? I dunno).













The sort of stuff I expected to see.



















The New Zealanders.




The Lone Piper.





The best stuff was shot on videos, although I had a few problems with where we were sitting and getting good shots. I'd filmed most of the acts to begin with and then realised my charge was rapidly dwindling (which is why I have no photos of the mass pipe band, or the acts from the USA).