Peaky Blinders
6x06 Lock and Key [series finale]
Hmm. This does feel like a series finale... but also, there are quite a few things left unresolved, so it's no surprise they've always said there'd be a movie continuation. I had somehow garnered the impression that the series per se had ended and the movie was a kind of additional story and/or epilogue, but from this it feels like it would be necessary to actually end things. Well, I guess I'll see when I watch it.
[Watch the whole series (again) on iPlayer or Netflix.]
Sunday, 29 March 2026
Fiction
The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle
Part 1, Chapters 1–5
There are 60 canonical Sherlock Holmes stories (56 short stories and four novels) and I've read 44 of them, including three of the novels. So what better way to mark reaching 75% — or, to put it another way, arriving at the final quarter — than by reading that fourth novel.
(Not that it's really an occasion that needs "marking". But that's probably for the best, considering this novel is widely regarded as one of the weaker adventures. Either way, it comes next in publication order (more or less), considering I last finished Return; although I've jumped around plenty in the past (I've already read four stories from the remaining two books), so that's immaterial as well.)
Part 1, Chapters 1–5
There are 60 canonical Sherlock Holmes stories (56 short stories and four novels) and I've read 44 of them, including three of the novels. So what better way to mark reaching 75% — or, to put it another way, arriving at the final quarter — than by reading that fourth novel.
(Not that it's really an occasion that needs "marking". But that's probably for the best, considering this novel is widely regarded as one of the weaker adventures. Either way, it comes next in publication order (more or less), considering I last finished Return; although I've jumped around plenty in the past (I've already read four stories from the remaining two books), so that's immaterial as well.)
Video Games
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition
I crossed the 200-hour mark today. And to think the fact it would take at least 27 hours once gave me pause, and I could scarcely conceive of spending 130+ hours finishing it. And yet I’m still nowhere near done — here’s a little “state of the game”…
I have:
• visited 4 major cities and 2 minor cities
• cleared 5 Civil War forts
• bought 2 ‘vanilla’ player houses
• bought 2 plots of land and fully built houses on them
• acquired 2 Creation Club houses
• joined the Companions.
I have not:
• visited 1 major city and 3 minor cities
• visited the island of Solstheim
• cleared 4 Civil War forts
• bought 3 ‘vanilla’ player houses
• bought the 3rd plot of land
• acquired 8 Creation Club houses
• progressed the main quest beyond the very beginning (there are no dragons flying around my Skyrim)
• become a werewolf
• joined either the Imperials nor the Stormcloaks
• joined the Thieves Guild
• joined the College of Winterhold
• joined the Dark Brotherhood
• joined the Dawnguard nor become a vampire.
Obviously a whole bunch of very specific stuff could be added to both of those list, but that’s an overview — the point being: I have done quite a lot, but there’s still so much to do. I wonder where I’ll be at 300 hours? Because, based on what I haven’t done, it’s hard to imagine I won’t hit that mark — at least.
Great game.
I crossed the 200-hour mark today. And to think the fact it would take at least 27 hours once gave me pause, and I could scarcely conceive of spending 130+ hours finishing it. And yet I’m still nowhere near done — here’s a little “state of the game”…
I have:
• visited 4 major cities and 2 minor cities
• cleared 5 Civil War forts
• bought 2 ‘vanilla’ player houses
• bought 2 plots of land and fully built houses on them
• acquired 2 Creation Club houses
• joined the Companions.
I have not:
• visited 1 major city and 3 minor cities
• visited the island of Solstheim
• cleared 4 Civil War forts
• bought 3 ‘vanilla’ player houses
• bought the 3rd plot of land
• acquired 8 Creation Club houses
• progressed the main quest beyond the very beginning (there are no dragons flying around my Skyrim)
• become a werewolf
• joined either the Imperials nor the Stormcloaks
• joined the Thieves Guild
• joined the College of Winterhold
• joined the Dark Brotherhood
• joined the Dawnguard nor become a vampire.
Obviously a whole bunch of very specific stuff could be added to both of those list, but that’s an overview — the point being: I have done quite a lot, but there’s still so much to do. I wonder where I’ll be at 300 hours? Because, based on what I haven’t done, it’s hard to imagine I won’t hit that mark — at least.
Great game.
Saturday, 28 March 2026
Fiction
The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
13 The Adventure of the Second Stain [the end]
Considering I only opened this up as an interim measure between novels, it feels like an achievement to finish off another volume — and a very good story to end on, too... although I might just read some more Holmes next.
13 The Adventure of the Second Stain [the end]
Considering I only opened this up as an interim measure between novels, it feels like an achievement to finish off another volume — and a very good story to end on, too... although I might just read some more Holmes next.
Collection Count
Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.
The headliner this week, as far as I'm concerned, is John Woo's Hard Boiled on 4K UHD from Arrow. There was a time when Woo's movies from that time were among a whole bunch of classics that seemed like they might never get released again due to rights reasons. I even caved and bought some bootlegs a while ago, just to get them in HD (I do still have DVDs knocking around). It's wonderful that we now get proper restorations in full UHD.
Number of titles in collection: 3,675 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 965 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,710 [up 3]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 518 [up 3]
Number of discs in collection: 8,824 [up 6]
Number of films: 4,724 [up 4]
Number of additional cuts: 487 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 10,134 [up 2]
Number of short films: 1,293 [no change]
Also, it's time for the latest monthly running time update...
Total running time of collection (approx.):
616 days, 8 hours, and 16 minutes.
(Up 13 hours and 30 minutes from last month.)
See you next week, faithful reader.
The headliner this week, as far as I'm concerned, is John Woo's Hard Boiled on 4K UHD from Arrow. There was a time when Woo's movies from that time were among a whole bunch of classics that seemed like they might never get released again due to rights reasons. I even caved and bought some bootlegs a while ago, just to get them in HD (I do still have DVDs knocking around). It's wonderful that we now get proper restorations in full UHD.
Number of titles in collection: 3,675 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 965 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,710 [up 3]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 518 [up 3]
Number of discs in collection: 8,824 [up 6]
Number of films: 4,724 [up 4]
Number of additional cuts: 487 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 10,134 [up 2]
Number of short films: 1,293 [no change]
Also, it's time for the latest monthly running time update...
Total running time of collection (approx.):
616 days, 8 hours, and 16 minutes.
(Up 13 hours and 30 minutes from last month.)
See you next week, faithful reader.
Friday, 27 March 2026
Thursday, 26 March 2026
Video Games
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition
Weird not to have played this since Sunday! It was because I hadn't decided what I wanted to focus on next, and I didn't want to run around doing much of nothing just for the sake of playing it. I still haven't exactly decided, but I progressed some quests and did a bit of skill levelling with specific goals — in fact, I got my first skill maxed out to 100! — so at least I feel I achieved something today. And somehow, that made over two hours of my time just disappear!
Monument Valley
Ida's Dream
One final multi-part level, originally created for charity. It's been good to play things like this and Upstairs in between bouts of Skyrim. I have dozens of other similarly-short games in my massive backlog (not to mention a bunch of games I'd already started and should go back to!), so I think I'll try to play some more of them here and there, rather than leaving them until I complete Skyrim (because goodness knows when that will be!)
Weird not to have played this since Sunday! It was because I hadn't decided what I wanted to focus on next, and I didn't want to run around doing much of nothing just for the sake of playing it. I still haven't exactly decided, but I progressed some quests and did a bit of skill levelling with specific goals — in fact, I got my first skill maxed out to 100! — so at least I feel I achieved something today. And somehow, that made over two hours of my time just disappear!
Monument Valley
Ida's Dream
One final multi-part level, originally created for charity. It's been good to play things like this and Upstairs in between bouts of Skyrim. I have dozens of other similarly-short games in my massive backlog (not to mention a bunch of games I'd already started and should go back to!), so I think I'll try to play some more of them here and there, rather than leaving them until I complete Skyrim (because goodness knows when that will be!)
Wednesday, 25 March 2026
TV
Critical Role Cooldown
Campaign 4, Episode 11
[Watch it (again) on Beacon.]
Tale Gate
Discussing Up To C4E11
Critical Role's new talkshow, which airs an episode live after each arc concludes. Except I'm so far behind I have to catchup recorded, obv. I watched the longer version, exclusive to Beacon, which has an extra segment titled 'The Night Cap' where they answer questions from subscribers.
[Watch it (again) on YouTube or the longer version on Beacon.]
Campaign 4, Episode 11
[Watch it (again) on Beacon.]
Tale Gate
Discussing Up To C4E11
Critical Role's new talkshow, which airs an episode live after each arc concludes. Except I'm so far behind I have to catchup recorded, obv. I watched the longer version, exclusive to Beacon, which has an extra segment titled 'The Night Cap' where they answer questions from subscribers.
[Watch it (again) on YouTube or the longer version on Beacon.]
Fiction
The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
9 The Adventure of the Three Students
10 The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez
I can't quite decide which novel to read next (do I immediately continue Redwall? Return to Lankhmar? A long-belated continuation of The Once and Future King? Or something else entirely), hence why recently I'm using the meantime to take in some unread Sherlock Holmes stories. No bad thing.
9 The Adventure of the Three Students
10 The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez
I can't quite decide which novel to read next (do I immediately continue Redwall? Return to Lankhmar? A long-belated continuation of The Once and Future King? Or something else entirely), hence why recently I'm using the meantime to take in some unread Sherlock Holmes stories. No bad thing.
Tuesday, 24 March 2026
TV
Critical Role
4x11 Make Merry [2nd half]
And finishing with the Soldiers, wrapping up the session that began last episode, and their first arc along with it.
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, or for subscribers on Beacon or Twitch.]
4x11 Make Merry [2nd half]
And finishing with the Soldiers, wrapping up the session that began last episode, and their first arc along with it.
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, or for subscribers on Beacon or Twitch.]
Fiction
The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
8 The Adventure of the Six Napoleons
Another particularly well-known one, I think. Certainly, though I've never read it, I've seen it adapted (faithfully or in part) often enough that I knew the solution just from the title.
8 The Adventure of the Six Napoleons
Another particularly well-known one, I think. Certainly, though I've never read it, I've seen it adapted (faithfully or in part) often enough that I knew the solution just from the title.
Video Games
Inertial Drift
Another hour-ish and I feel like I'm racing (hoho) through Story Mode. But that's fine — I don't think the game's over when the 'story' is over; it's far from the only mode on offer. Indeed, I suspect it's deliberately designed to introduce you to all the different tracks, race modes, etc, so afterwards you can just play around learning how different cars control across various combos of tracks and modes.
Another hour-ish and I feel like I'm racing (hoho) through Story Mode. But that's fine — I don't think the game's over when the 'story' is over; it's far from the only mode on offer. Indeed, I suspect it's deliberately designed to introduce you to all the different tracks, race modes, etc, so afterwards you can just play around learning how different cars control across various combos of tracks and modes.
Monday, 23 March 2026
TV
Critical Role
4x11 Make Merry [1st half]
Continuing the episode with an extended sequence with the Schemers (who won't start their first dedicated arc until episode 19).
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, or for subscribers on Beacon or Twitch.]
Peaky Blinders
6x04 Sapphire
[Watch the whole series (again) on iPlayer or Netflix.]
4x11 Make Merry [1st half]
Continuing the episode with an extended sequence with the Schemers (who won't start their first dedicated arc until episode 19).
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, or for subscribers on Beacon or Twitch.]
Peaky Blinders
6x04 Sapphire
[Watch the whole series (again) on iPlayer or Netflix.]
Video Games
Inertial Drift
Today, starting a racing game I actually own. This one looked fun but I was slightly wary of the control scheme (it uses both sticks for navigation, one for steering and one to control your drifting), but I took to it pretty naturally. I mean, sure, I kept hitting barriers and stuff, but I do that plenty in regular racing games. I only played for half-an-hour, not because it was bad but because it's not open world, so you don't get that time-burning exploration/discovery gameplay. I enjoyed it a lot though, so definitely intending to stick with it.
Today, starting a racing game I actually own. This one looked fun but I was slightly wary of the control scheme (it uses both sticks for navigation, one for steering and one to control your drifting), but I took to it pretty naturally. I mean, sure, I kept hitting barriers and stuff, but I do that plenty in regular racing games. I only played for half-an-hour, not because it was bad but because it's not open world, so you don't get that time-burning exploration/discovery gameplay. I enjoyed it a lot though, so definitely intending to stick with it.
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