Bael's Rock: A Text Adventure
1. The Ghosts of the Desert
2. The Trial of Hope
Picked this up during Steam's recent typing-related sale and decided to play it on my Steam Deck. Playing a typing game on the Steam Deck may sound a little ridiculous... and it is. But I kinda wanted to see if it would work, and... technically it does, but typing using the onscreen keyboard is a little slow. As you only need to do simple commands ("examine door", that kind of thing) it's ok, although you can't see the text entry box while you're writing, so that's a pain. But as the game has no Mac version, the Deck remains my best way to play this. Which is daft, but there you go.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition
Started this up today without a real goal in mind; thought I might just read all those notes that were dumped in my inventory by the Anniversary Edition and start the quests. Well, in the end I played for an hour... and actually did stuff! Started some of those quests. Progressed a few. Even finished some — gasp!
Monday, 23 February 2026
Sunday, 22 February 2026
TV
Richard Osman's House of Games
9x66 Week 14: Monday
9x67 Week 14: Tuesday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
The Rookie
7x07 The Mickey
9x66 Week 14: Monday
9x67 Week 14: Tuesday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
The Rookie
7x07 The Mickey
Saturday, 21 February 2026
TV
How I Met Your Mother
1x15 Game Night [2nd watch]
Poker Face
2x04 The Taste of Human Blood
Richard Osman's House of Games
9x64 Week 13: Thursday
9x65 Week 13: Friday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
The Rookie
7x06 The Gala
1x15 Game Night [2nd watch]
Poker Face
2x04 The Taste of Human Blood
Richard Osman's House of Games
9x64 Week 13: Thursday
9x65 Week 13: Friday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
The Rookie
7x06 The Gala
Video Games
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition
Played for over 3 hours today. Still feel like I only got 'a few things' done. I crossed the 170-hour mark, too. Kinda hilarious to think I once balked at the idea it would take me at least 27 hours to complete this.
Played for over 3 hours today. Still feel like I only got 'a few things' done. I crossed the 170-hour mark, too. Kinda hilarious to think I once balked at the idea it would take me at least 27 hours to complete this.
Collection Count
Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.
Two new 4K releases this week: Arrow's edition of Excalibur, which replaces the HMV-exclusive Blu-ray, and Predator: Badlands. I feel like I've had a lot less stuff on preorder this year than usual, but there's still a regular trickle dropping in.
Number of titles in collection: 3,667 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 974 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,693 [up 1]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 508 [up 2]
Number of discs in collection: 8,806 [up 3]
Number of films: 4,706 [up 1]
Number of additional cuts: 484 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes: 10,163 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,282 [no change]
See you next week, faithful reader.
Two new 4K releases this week: Arrow's edition of Excalibur, which replaces the HMV-exclusive Blu-ray, and Predator: Badlands. I feel like I've had a lot less stuff on preorder this year than usual, but there's still a regular trickle dropping in.
Number of titles in collection: 3,667 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 974 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,693 [up 1]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 508 [up 2]
Number of discs in collection: 8,806 [up 3]
Number of films: 4,706 [up 1]
Number of additional cuts: 484 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes: 10,163 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,282 [no change]
See you next week, faithful reader.
Friday, 20 February 2026
TV
How I Met Your Mother
1x14 Zip, Zip, Zip [2nd watch]
Richard Osman's House of Games
9x61 Week 13: Monday
9x62 Week 13: Tuesday
9x63 Week 13: Wednesday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
The Rookie
7x05 Til Death
1x14 Zip, Zip, Zip [2nd watch]
Richard Osman's House of Games
9x61 Week 13: Monday
9x62 Week 13: Tuesday
9x63 Week 13: Wednesday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
The Rookie
7x05 Til Death
Video Games
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition
So, turns out I haven't actually been playing the Anniversary Edition since Monday due to some quirk of how it installs, but (after wasting a bunch of time fiddling today) I now am. First thing I did was buy a backpack — 75 extra carry weight, y'all! Second thing was bump into a courier who gave me a veritable pile of notes to kick off quest. Fun times!
So, turns out I haven't actually been playing the Anniversary Edition since Monday due to some quirk of how it installs, but (after wasting a bunch of time fiddling today) I now am. First thing I did was buy a backpack — 75 extra carry weight, y'all! Second thing was bump into a courier who gave me a veritable pile of notes to kick off quest. Fun times!
Thursday, 19 February 2026
TV
How I Met Your Mother
1x13 Drumroll, Please [2nd watch]
Richard Osman's House of Games
9x59 Week 12: Thursday
9x60 Week 12: Friday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
1x13 Drumroll, Please [2nd watch]
Richard Osman's House of Games
9x59 Week 12: Thursday
9x60 Week 12: Friday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
Wednesday, 18 February 2026
TV
How I Met Your Mother
1x12 The Wedding [2nd watch]
Richard Osman's House of Games
9x57 Week 12: Tuesday
9x58 Week 12: Wednesday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
The Rookie
7x04 Darkness Falling
1x12 The Wedding [2nd watch]
Richard Osman's House of Games
9x57 Week 12: Tuesday
9x58 Week 12: Wednesday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
The Rookie
7x04 Darkness Falling
Fiction
Swords in the Mist by Fritz Leiber
I. The Cloud of Hate
Plunging on into the third volume of collected Lankhmar / Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser / Swords stories. As I wrote when I started the second, I didn't expect to just keep reading them like this, but I'm really enjoying them. I guess it probably also helps that I've ended up spacing them out so much that it doesn't feel intensive.
I. The Cloud of Hate
Plunging on into the third volume of collected Lankhmar / Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser / Swords stories. As I wrote when I started the second, I didn't expect to just keep reading them like this, but I'm really enjoying them. I guess it probably also helps that I've ended up spacing them out so much that it doesn't feel intensive.
Tuesday, 17 February 2026
TV
The Diplomat
3x07 PNG
3x08 Schrodinger's Wife [season finale]
Richard Osman's House of Games
9x55 Week 11: Friday
9x56 Week 12: Monday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
3x07 PNG
3x08 Schrodinger's Wife [season finale]
Richard Osman's House of Games
9x55 Week 11: Friday
9x56 Week 12: Monday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
Monday, 16 February 2026
TV
The Diplomat
3x06 Amagansett
Richard Osman's House of Games
9x53 Week 11: Wednesday
9x54 Week 11: Thursday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
3x06 Amagansett
Richard Osman's House of Games
9x53 Week 11: Wednesday
9x54 Week 11: Thursday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
Video Games
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition
After thinking about it for a while, today I finally caved and bought the upgrade to the Anniversary Edition, which adds 70 fan-made creations released officially between 2017 and 2021. These introduce new quests, items, homes, and other fun stuff (pets! wild horses!) to the game. (In 2023 it was replaced with the "Verified Creator Program", which also sounds like it has cool additions, but those ones disable achievements (the AE content does not), so I intend to consider them once I 'complete' the game... if I still want more of it... which I feel like I well might...)
Some people think the Creations are a collection of worthless clutter and would rather they weren't there; others enjoy what's added. I'm sure there are some I couldn't care less for, but I felt like I was missing out on some of the stuff I've heard about. Plus, one of the major criticisms seems to be that a lot of what it adds is available early in the game but overpowered to be had so early. Well, I'm certainly not early in the game anymore (162 hours! Level 40-something!) and I wouldn't really care about unbalancing it even if I were. I'm playing on the easiest difficulty for a reason.
All this shiny new excitement will have to wait, though, because I'm still in the middle of exploring Windhelm, and I had less than an hour to play today — so I haven't even come close to encountering any of the added content yet. And, of course, I've still got tonnes of the base game left to explore. But now there's even more (hooray!) I'm sure I'll run into it soon enough.
After thinking about it for a while, today I finally caved and bought the upgrade to the Anniversary Edition, which adds 70 fan-made creations released officially between 2017 and 2021. These introduce new quests, items, homes, and other fun stuff (pets! wild horses!) to the game. (In 2023 it was replaced with the "Verified Creator Program", which also sounds like it has cool additions, but those ones disable achievements (the AE content does not), so I intend to consider them once I 'complete' the game... if I still want more of it... which I feel like I well might...)
Some people think the Creations are a collection of worthless clutter and would rather they weren't there; others enjoy what's added. I'm sure there are some I couldn't care less for, but I felt like I was missing out on some of the stuff I've heard about. Plus, one of the major criticisms seems to be that a lot of what it adds is available early in the game but overpowered to be had so early. Well, I'm certainly not early in the game anymore (162 hours! Level 40-something!) and I wouldn't really care about unbalancing it even if I were. I'm playing on the easiest difficulty for a reason.
All this shiny new excitement will have to wait, though, because I'm still in the middle of exploring Windhelm, and I had less than an hour to play today — so I haven't even come close to encountering any of the added content yet. And, of course, I've still got tonnes of the base game left to explore. But now there's even more (hooray!) I'm sure I'll run into it soon enough.
Sunday, 15 February 2026
TV
The Diplomat
3x04 Arden
3x05 Birdwatchers
Weird time jump and status quo changes between episodes four and five, so extreme that it feels like the start of a new season or something. Makes me wonder if they were expecting Netflix to do their two-part release thing, which didn't happen.
Richard Osman's House of Games
9x51 Week 11: Monday
9x52 Week 11: Tuesday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
3x04 Arden
3x05 Birdwatchers
Weird time jump and status quo changes between episodes four and five, so extreme that it feels like the start of a new season or something. Makes me wonder if they were expecting Netflix to do their two-part release thing, which didn't happen.
Richard Osman's House of Games
9x51 Week 11: Monday
9x52 Week 11: Tuesday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
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