Critical Role
4x08 Fanged Revenge [1st half]
[Watch it (again) for free on YouTube, or for subscribers on Beacon or Twitch.]
Monday, 15 December 2025
TV
Fiction
Doctor Who: Ten Days of Christmas by Steve Cole
1. Under Control
This short story collection was released to tie-in with the 60th anniversary two years ago. I bought it then and didn't read it, obviously, and then didn't get round to it last year either, so this is third time lucky, I guess. It's not quite as advent-calendar-y as the previous Christmas-themed collections (which I read both of in 2021 (I never would've gussed it had been so long!), because with 25 stories between them they made an advent calendar), with only ten stories (because it marked the return of David Tennant... let's just overlook the fact he was actually the 14th Doctor at the time), so I don't feel as beholden to reading one a day. Hopefully that'll help me actually finish it in time...
1. Under Control
This short story collection was released to tie-in with the 60th anniversary two years ago. I bought it then and didn't read it, obviously, and then didn't get round to it last year either, so this is third time lucky, I guess. It's not quite as advent-calendar-y as the previous Christmas-themed collections (which I read both of in 2021 (I never would've gussed it had been so long!), because with 25 stories between them they made an advent calendar), with only ten stories (because it marked the return of David Tennant... let's just overlook the fact he was actually the 14th Doctor at the time), so I don't feel as beholden to reading one a day. Hopefully that'll help me actually finish it in time...
Video Games
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition
After days away from Skyrim, I could have played for hours and hours and hours — especially as I'd just arrived in a whole new area, replete with new things to do — but I cut myself off at 4½ hours, having done a few (but by no means all) of those new things, including buying my first piece of land and beginning to build a house of it. Along with all the crafting and smithing stuff, I seem to be enjoying that side of things more than I thought I would. Despite the endless praise it receives, I always thought I'd find Stardew Valley boring and/or like work, but maybe I should try it after all...
For those keeping track ('future me' only, I suspect), said new 'area' is the city of Falkreath, the third city I've visited out of ten cities in the game. It isn't as big as Whiterun or Markarth,* but I still kicked off a good few quests as soon as I arrived and spoke to everyone.
* I keep saying the game has ten cities, but they're really split into two types: major cities (when you enter them, the game loads it as a separate area) and other/small cities (effectively big towns/villages, which you can just walk into as part of the overall open world of the game). There are five of each (one was added by an expansion, but the Special Edition includes all expansions), with Whiterun and Markarth being examples of the former and Falkreath the latter.
After days away from Skyrim, I could have played for hours and hours and hours — especially as I'd just arrived in a whole new area, replete with new things to do — but I cut myself off at 4½ hours, having done a few (but by no means all) of those new things, including buying my first piece of land and beginning to build a house of it. Along with all the crafting and smithing stuff, I seem to be enjoying that side of things more than I thought I would. Despite the endless praise it receives, I always thought I'd find Stardew Valley boring and/or like work, but maybe I should try it after all...
For those keeping track ('future me' only, I suspect), said new 'area' is the city of Falkreath, the third city I've visited out of ten cities in the game. It isn't as big as Whiterun or Markarth,* but I still kicked off a good few quests as soon as I arrived and spoke to everyone.
* I keep saying the game has ten cities, but they're really split into two types: major cities (when you enter them, the game loads it as a separate area) and other/small cities (effectively big towns/villages, which you can just walk into as part of the overall open world of the game). There are five of each (one was added by an expansion, but the Special Edition includes all expansions), with Whiterun and Markarth being examples of the former and Falkreath the latter.
Tabletop Games
EXIT: The Game Advent Calendar:
The Silent Storm
December 13th–15th
I haven't abandoned this, it just wasn't important enough to make time for over a busy weekend. Shame. Anyway, onwards!
The Silent Storm
December 13th–15th
I haven't abandoned this, it just wasn't important enough to make time for over a busy weekend. Shame. Anyway, onwards!
Sunday, 14 December 2025
Films
The Boss (1973)
[#97 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2025]
I actually started this on Friday, but paused it less than half-an-hour in and promptly fell asleep! No fault of the film, I was just more tired than I realised. (I guess I could/should have logged the beginning then, but here we are.)
[#97 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2025]
I actually started this on Friday, but paused it less than half-an-hour in and promptly fell asleep! No fault of the film, I was just more tired than I realised. (I guess I could/should have logged the beginning then, but here we are.)
Fiction
The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
2 The Adventure of the Norwood Builder
4 The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist
For some reason, my copy has Solitary Cyclist before The Adventure of the Dancing Men, though every other source puts the latter first, hence why I seem to have skipped a story here.
2 The Adventure of the Norwood Builder
4 The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist
For some reason, my copy has Solitary Cyclist before The Adventure of the Dancing Men, though every other source puts the latter first, hence why I seem to have skipped a story here.
Saturday, 13 December 2025
TV
Critical Role
4x07 On the Scent [final hour]
[Watch it (again) for free on YouTube, or for subscribers on Beacon or Twitch.]
Critical Role Cooldown
Campaign 4, Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on Beacon.]
Collection Count
Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.
Three additions this week, all new 4K releases of older films.
Number of titles in collection: 3,648 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 979 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,669 [up 3]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 491 [up 3]
Number of discs in collection: 8,767 [up 7]
Number of films: 4,680 [up 3]
Number of additional cuts: 478 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes: 10,188 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,280 [no change]
It feels like Christmas is imminent, but there's actually another 'regular' week to go before my Christmas haul comes in. I say "Christmas haul" — for years now, any given regular week has the potential to be much, much bigger than the trifling few titles I can persuade people to buy me as presents. Ah well. Not long after that, it'll be time for the end-of-year totals, and that's always fun.
See you over the next few weeks for all of that, faithful reader.
Three additions this week, all new 4K releases of older films.
Number of titles in collection: 3,648 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 979 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,669 [up 3]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 491 [up 3]
Number of discs in collection: 8,767 [up 7]
Number of films: 4,680 [up 3]
Number of additional cuts: 478 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes: 10,188 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,280 [no change]
It feels like Christmas is imminent, but there's actually another 'regular' week to go before my Christmas haul comes in. I say "Christmas haul" — for years now, any given regular week has the potential to be much, much bigger than the trifling few titles I can persuade people to buy me as presents. Ah well. Not long after that, it'll be time for the end-of-year totals, and that's always fun.
See you over the next few weeks for all of that, faithful reader.
Friday, 12 December 2025
TV
Critical Role
4x07 On the Scent [middle hours]
[Watch it (again) for free on YouTube, or for subscribers on Beacon or Twitch.]
The Game Awards 2025
I wasn't planning on watching this, although I was aware it was happening, I guess because I'm into games now or whatever; but I happened to notice it was about to start a few minutes before it began and so thought, hey, why not? Especially as I didn't have to be up in the morning (a good thing, as it went on past 4:00am my time). It was... interesting. The whole awards bit seemed kinda arbitrary, when they rushed through whole clumps of seemingly-major awards without even giving a statuette to the winners, and instead invested tonnes of time to adverts and announcements. Very different to... every other awards show I've ever watched. Equally, maybe the Oscars could learn something from this. If they had trailers/reveals/etc for major upcoming films sprinkled throughout the show as exclusives, maybe they'd attract lapsed/new viewers?
[Watch it (again) on YouTube.]
Comics
2000 AD
Prog 2456
I may not have read any for almost three weeks, but I'm still aiming to get caught up on 2000 AD by the end of the year, so here begins the final push.
Prog 2456
I may not have read any for almost three weeks, but I'm still aiming to get caught up on 2000 AD by the end of the year, so here begins the final push.
Video Games
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition
Ended today's 3¾ hours of play by arriving in Falkreath, a place I was invited to... wow, so long ago I can't even remember; but it's been a loooong time, in terms of how many hours I've spent in this game. So, that's city 3 of 10 I'll be venturing into next time. Busy weekend ahead for me, so that might actually not be until Monday — gasp!
Ended today's 3¾ hours of play by arriving in Falkreath, a place I was invited to... wow, so long ago I can't even remember; but it's been a loooong time, in terms of how many hours I've spent in this game. So, that's city 3 of 10 I'll be venturing into next time. Busy weekend ahead for me, so that might actually not be until Monday — gasp!
Thursday, 11 December 2025
TV
Critical Role
4x07 On the Scent [1st hour]
I've got tomorrow off work, and when I booked that however-long-ago I thought, "hey, maybe I'll stay up and watch the new episode of Critical Role when it goes out!" Well, tonight is Episode 9, so... yeah, you can see how that's going. Maybe I'll manage to use said day off to finish this one more quickly than I did the last one, at least.
[Watch it (again) for free on YouTube, or for subscribers on Beacon or Twitch.]
Video Games
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition
Started today with over an hour spent on various smithing activities. It's harder to achieve anything significant than with alchemy — at least at the moment, when I don't own any houses (where you can build equipment and storage), so I have to store stuff where I can and then move it around to places I can use. So, ingredients are very light and therefore easy to transport, but metals and leathers are heavier, and it's better to use them to improve weapons and armour you've already got, so you have to lug those around too. Plus, it's all well and good making expensive items, but then you can only sell a few of them because of merchants' limited gold.
So, actually, I spent a lot of time getting almost nowhere. Sure, I made some money and got shot of some bulk, but I've still got tonnes of loot just lying around. I either waste real-world time lugging it about slowly, and maybe waste in-game time using the 'wait' function to stand around until merchants' gold refills; or I keep sitting on it, improving and selling it gradually. As I noted yesterday, though, I really think it's time for me to stop picking up everything I can and only retain high-value stuff. And once I hit the 100,000 gold mark and gain that achievement, maybe I'll stop caring so much.
Started today with over an hour spent on various smithing activities. It's harder to achieve anything significant than with alchemy — at least at the moment, when I don't own any houses (where you can build equipment and storage), so I have to store stuff where I can and then move it around to places I can use. So, ingredients are very light and therefore easy to transport, but metals and leathers are heavier, and it's better to use them to improve weapons and armour you've already got, so you have to lug those around too. Plus, it's all well and good making expensive items, but then you can only sell a few of them because of merchants' limited gold.
So, actually, I spent a lot of time getting almost nowhere. Sure, I made some money and got shot of some bulk, but I've still got tonnes of loot just lying around. I either waste real-world time lugging it about slowly, and maybe waste in-game time using the 'wait' function to stand around until merchants' gold refills; or I keep sitting on it, improving and selling it gradually. As I noted yesterday, though, I really think it's time for me to stop picking up everything I can and only retain high-value stuff. And once I hit the 100,000 gold mark and gain that achievement, maybe I'll stop caring so much.
Wednesday, 10 December 2025
Video Games
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition
I can’t quite decide what I want to do next (I’ve mainly been focused on quests from and around Markath for a long time now, but should I finish off the few that are still outstanding? Or do I head back to Whiterun and resume the Companions quest line that I paused partway? Or do I pick up one of the threads I’ve had waiting for hours and hours and hours that would lead me to Falkreath or Riften or Windhelm or Solitude? Or, heck, I could do something else entirely (even the main quest!), but those seem like more than enough broad, lengthy options).
Rather than make a choice today, I dove into the pile of ingredients I’ve been saving up for yonks (it's over 60 hours of playtime since the last time I spent a whole session on this) and crafted a shedload of potions. I spent over 2 hours doing that in the end, with my Alchemy stat surging up multiple levels while I did it. I then sold a few of them, but all the merchants I already know aren’t rich enough between them to touch the sides of what I have to sell. I’ve got the same issue with tonnes of weapons (and raw materials to improve them) stashed away. Maybe they’ll be my focus tomorrow… It wouldn't be so ridiculous if I could break the habit of looting every little thing I see in dungeons, etc, but... well, we already know I’m a hoarder by nature.
I can’t quite decide what I want to do next (I’ve mainly been focused on quests from and around Markath for a long time now, but should I finish off the few that are still outstanding? Or do I head back to Whiterun and resume the Companions quest line that I paused partway? Or do I pick up one of the threads I’ve had waiting for hours and hours and hours that would lead me to Falkreath or Riften or Windhelm or Solitude? Or, heck, I could do something else entirely (even the main quest!), but those seem like more than enough broad, lengthy options).
Rather than make a choice today, I dove into the pile of ingredients I’ve been saving up for yonks (it's over 60 hours of playtime since the last time I spent a whole session on this) and crafted a shedload of potions. I spent over 2 hours doing that in the end, with my Alchemy stat surging up multiple levels while I did it. I then sold a few of them, but all the merchants I already know aren’t rich enough between them to touch the sides of what I have to sell. I’ve got the same issue with tonnes of weapons (and raw materials to improve them) stashed away. Maybe they’ll be my focus tomorrow… It wouldn't be so ridiculous if I could break the habit of looting every little thing I see in dungeons, etc, but... well, we already know I’m a hoarder by nature.
Tabletop Games
EXIT: The Game Advent Calendar:
The Silent Storm
December 9th—10th
I was rather looking forward to this — as someone who enjoys puzzles or riddles, especially when narratively connected (like point-and-click adventure games), I thought it would be a bit of fun every day — but I'm finding it increasingly frustrating and therefore disappointing. Perhaps it's a skill issue (maybe I'm just not as good at puzzles as I thought), but I do think it's at least partly weakness of design. Day 2 was, at best, overambitious; at worst, poor; and I think that left a sour taste that future days haven't been ingenious enough to overcome. Day 9 is another example where execution doesn't seem to match intention.
It leaves me resorting to the hint guide, which I don't like to do. It offers two hints and then just the solution — I keep finding the first two hints are the 'obvious' bit I've already worked out, so I have to go straight to the solution, rather than getting a 'final step' hint for the point I've got stuck at. More frustration.
I've started so I'll finish (especially as, y'know, I've paid for it), but it's all-round a shame.
The Silent Storm
December 9th—10th
I was rather looking forward to this — as someone who enjoys puzzles or riddles, especially when narratively connected (like point-and-click adventure games), I thought it would be a bit of fun every day — but I'm finding it increasingly frustrating and therefore disappointing. Perhaps it's a skill issue (maybe I'm just not as good at puzzles as I thought), but I do think it's at least partly weakness of design. Day 2 was, at best, overambitious; at worst, poor; and I think that left a sour taste that future days haven't been ingenious enough to overcome. Day 9 is another example where execution doesn't seem to match intention.
It leaves me resorting to the hint guide, which I don't like to do. It offers two hints and then just the solution — I keep finding the first two hints are the 'obvious' bit I've already worked out, so I have to go straight to the solution, rather than getting a 'final step' hint for the point I've got stuck at. More frustration.
I've started so I'll finish (especially as, y'know, I've paid for it), but it's all-round a shame.
Monday, 8 December 2025
Video Games
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition
I've got to be up relatively early for a long day tomorrow, so I knew I wouldn't be watching a film or much TV or anything like that this evening. I still jumped on Skyrim, of course... for 5¼ hours (to be precise). Part of that was making the mistake of going "yeah, I'll just do this quest" and then spending over 2 hours completing it. That's just how they go sometimes (others seem to only take minutes).
I've got to be up relatively early for a long day tomorrow, so I knew I wouldn't be watching a film or much TV or anything like that this evening. I still jumped on Skyrim, of course... for 5¼ hours (to be precise). Part of that was making the mistake of going "yeah, I'll just do this quest" and then spending over 2 hours completing it. That's just how they go sometimes (others seem to only take minutes).
Tabletop Games
Daggerheart:
Dragon Heist in the City of Splendors
&
Curse of Strahd
I forgot to mention these last Monday, not because they stopped, but because I'm still playing them both every day and so sometimes forget to log them just once a week. (Listing them every day feels like clutter, especially as some days it's only a couple of minutes' interaction.)
EXIT: The Game Advent Calendar:
The Silent Storm
December 8th
Dragon Heist in the City of Splendors
&
Curse of Strahd
I forgot to mention these last Monday, not because they stopped, but because I'm still playing them both every day and so sometimes forget to log them just once a week. (Listing them every day feels like clutter, especially as some days it's only a couple of minutes' interaction.)
EXIT: The Game Advent Calendar:
The Silent Storm
December 8th
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