Thursday, 21 September 2023

Fiction

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
Chapters 102–115 [the end]

Well, it took me longer than I hoped when I started it back in June, but finishing a novel in under three months is a relative rarity for me nowadays — lest we forget, the one before last took 14 months (albeit including a 13 month pause).

Anyway, I enjoyed it very much, and will definitely read the sequels. But next, I have some Who to attend to...

Games

The Dragon Staff of Maladoria
2–4 March 2021

These three days consist of, respectively, finding a shield, opening a treasure chest, and taking a rest. Sometimes, it really feels like it pays off to be playing several days at once.

Wednesday, 20 September 2023

Podcasts

Light the Fuse - The Official Mission: Impossible Podcast
2x13 What Makes "Dead Reckoning Part One" Work with Bilge Ebiri Part 2

I recently switched jobs. It was during the last few days of my old job that I began listening to podcasts on my commute, often getting through an episode each way — look back through the "Audio" tag and see all the days with two episodes? That's (mostly) that. But my new job is significantly closer, meaning a shorter commute. So I actually started this episode yesterday (just forgot to log it), then continued it today, but won't finish it until tomorrow. The new drive is not so good for listening to podcasts, but I definitely prefer the shortness overall!

Games

The Dragon Staff of Maladoria
27 February — 1 March 2021

Tuesday, 19 September 2023

Monday, 18 September 2023

Sunday, 17 September 2023

Audio Drama

Doctor Who: The Legacy of Time
Part 5 The Avenues of Possibility

It’s funny that Part 1 of this box set seems to the best regarded, because I thought it was a bit clunky and awkward and padded and I generally didn’t really care for it all that much, whereas I’ve largely enjoyed every episode since. Maybe I just needed to get my ear in and I should give it another chance? Maybe it’s just that tastes differ. Anyway, hopefully the finale (up next) is good too.

Fiction

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
Chapters 95–101

Comics

2000 AD #2349

If I'd read this issue on Friday (as I planned), I could've said that I'd finally caught up, after seven months of working on it. But that would've been short-lived anyway, because Prog 2350 arrived Saturday morning — so I'm behind again. (Sort of: it's not officially out 'til Wednesday; getting it early is just a subscriber perk.)

Well, that's how it goes — there's always more to come. And besides, I've still got a small pile of Regened issues to go back to, so technically I wouldn't've been fully up-to-date anyway. I'll feel able to start my American comics eventually...

Games

The Dragon Staff of Maladoria
18–21 February 2021

this week on 100Films.co.uk

A mid-month update from 100Films.co.uk!? What's going on?! Well, no new reviews, for starters, just a bit of a musing on the state of things...


What a waste of a week
I’ve just left one job and am about to start another, with (to quote myself) “a small amount of time off in between”. That was 11 days, to be precise, which are now coming to an end. My plan for that time had been to “cram a bunch of films in… I’ve certainly got plenty that I want to catch up on.”

Dear reader, I have not crammed. In fact, I have watched… just checking my notes, adding them all up… one (1) film.

Look, for once it’s not my fault...
Read more here.


More next Sunday, maybe. But probably not.

Saturday, 16 September 2023

Films

Spy (2015)
[2nd watch]
[#68 in The All-New 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2023]
Last time I watched the extended cut. I enjoyed this slightly-shorter theatrical version more.

Audio Drama

Doctor Who: The Legacy of Time
Part 4 Relative Time

Comics

2000 AD #2348

Games

The Dragon Staff of Maladoria
15–17 February 2021

Magic: The Gathering Arena
I'm not going to log this every time I play it going forward, because it's a bit "casual" for that (there are several casual games I play all the time that I never mention here, precisely for that reason), but I felt my third session was worth noting (a) for that reason, and (b) because I completed the first stage of the initial challenge, which culminated in my first match against another real human being — which I won! Hurrah!

Collection Count

Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.

Five new additions this week, although that's rather masked by some of them being upgrades. On the other hand, almost every category sees a change in numbers — except the total number of titles, ironically.

This week's acquisitions include: two brand-new film releases (both on 4K; one an upgrade from Blu-ray); one title that's arrived a week early; a box set I finally picked up thanks to Amazon's 25th anniversary discount (only £5 off, but every litte helps); and the latest addition to the Doctor Who classic series Blu-ray Collection, which Royal Mail told me was going to arrive on Monday but then turned up this morning. Hurrah! Not that I'm going to watch any of it immediately, but it is part of my 60th plans, so it's nice it's here.

Also worth mentioning is that we're finally reaching something of a tipping point in that Collection series. What I mean is, I'm intending to replace all my classic Who DVDs with the Blu-rays, and I've been ditching them as we go along... except I've been hanging on to any where the special features haven't made the leap to BD (usually because they've decided to move it to a different story) or, even more importantly, box sets with multiple stories from which not all have been released on Blu-ray yet. Now, this new release sees the number of discs go down (it's a nine-disc set that replaces ten discs), as well as the number of episodes (because it replaces some cross-season box sets). This tipping point was always gonna come, and some future releases may be even more extreme than the results seen here. Of course, it makes sense that we're at that point: this is the 14th release out of at least 26 (hopefully 27), so we're definitely over halfway through.

Number of titles in collection: 3,155 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 1,022 [down 4]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,133 [up 4]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 294 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 7,714 [up 7]
Number of films: 3,873 [up 6]
Number of additional cuts: 340 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes: 9,621 [down 7]
Number of short films: 1,078 [up 1]

See you next week, faithful reader.