How about a song that always gives me a tear at the end?
This song by Hank Green always makes me realise that I don’t think there is ever enough time in life to spend with those we love.
Category: Blog Page 14 of 50
The Great Luke Ski, or just Luke Ski, has been around on the filk scene for a very long time, this is a wonderful parody song about the Disney takeover of Marvel.
I think a lot of us were, at the time very worried, and I would like to think that for the most part the concerns have mostly been proven to be unsubstantiated.
Anyway, enjoy!
We have been here for a few months, and I must admit, it’s not actually that bad.
People said the neighbourhood was rough, but in all honesty, other than bonfire night, it’s been alright, but hey, I am from the west end of Newcastle so, rough is a relative term.
The sea air, as weird as it sounds, has helped, I need my inhaler a lot less and my lungs feel a lot less heavy, and there is something about waking up to a sea fret, that’s almost magical.
There are some issues here, our kitchen is so so small it’s difficult to cook in, and the wi-fi on the router is so bad we are going to invest in a mesh system.
Whilst I miss aspects of the old house, what I do like is having my own space, but I am struggling to keep it tidy.
I think in the long run the move is positive, but I do need to make sure the doctors are issuing my repeat prescriptions when needed as this far they are doing awful at that.
What I Am Modelling
I started with a trio of Kataphron Breachers for my Adeptus Mechanicus
Started off with a Praetor in Terminator Armour for my Ultramarines.
And followed up with a Techpriest Enginseer to join my Death Korps of Krieg.
After that I concentrated on the officers for the Imperial Fists and painted up a couple of Praetors first, the Legion Specific in Artificer Armour, and the Praetor Tribune.
And a Praetor in Cataprachtii Armour and Chaplin.
Then it was the Vindicare Assassin from my Warhammer + Subscription.
And then I finished a final pair of Kataphron Breachers
After which I completed an Imperial Fists Legion Champion and Master of Signals.
So what’s coming up next week?
- Imperial Fists Tactical Squad x 10
- Orruk Gutrippas x 12
- T’au Crisis Team x 3
- Imperial Fists Contemptor Dreadnought
- Ultramarines Intercessors x 5
- Silver Tower Heroes
- Blood Angels Repulsor
- Imperial Fists Templar Brethren x 10
- Hobgrot Slitaz x 20
- Leagues of Votann Kâhl & Einhyr Champion
What I Am Reading
I finished up Zachareth by Robbie MacNivan, and you can read a review of that here.
And I started Sanguinius: The Great Angel by Chris Wraight
Continuing my listening to the Doctor Who Monthly Series, I listened to The Spectre of Lanyon Moor and Winter for the Adept.
What Tabletop Games I Am Playing
Wasn’t sure where to put this but my Board Game Geek Secret Santa arrived, and it’s the incredible Arkham Horror!
What Video Games I Am Playing
Darktide hit GamePass, so I got that installed on my PC.
I also decided to play my first game on the PlayStation 5, specifically God of War, which is proving rather fun so far.
What I Am Backing
The Car Wars CARnage project
I completed my Backerkit survey for the TT Combat Paints and Washes project and picked my two paints, went for Supernova Chrome and PHR Bone.
What I Am Winning
A while back I won a competition run by Durham Prints Store for anything in their Etsy shop.
So I opted for this personalised slate signed with “Kill, Maim, Burn” on it, the warcry of the World Eaters, cause I thought it would be funny!
It’s taken a few weeks but it’s finally arrived and I am super happy with it!
What I Am Spending
I need to get back to streaming properly again, and I decided to spend my sponsorship money on a new toy, an Elgato Stream Deck Pedal, which is gonna sit on my floor and be useful for things like muting the microphone, which I think the fellas on Edge of Empire will appreciate!
- Mood:- Annoyed
- Caffeinated Beverages Consumed:- 0
- In My Ears:- Twiddles – Misbehavin’ Maidens
- Tabletop Game Last Played:- Just One
- Video Game Last Played:- God of War (2018)
- Book Last Read:- Sanguinius: The Great Angel
- Movie Last Watched:- From Bedrooms to Billions
- TV Show Last Watched:- Star Trek: Enterprise
- Current State of Projects:- Imperial Fists Tactical Squad at the highlighting stage
We all love the Misbehavin’ Maidens and their NSFW sea shanties, and this is a great one that flips the idea of a girl in every port on its head!
Its a great song, but I strongly recommended not listening to this round the bairns!
Once again, if you know me, you know how big a Trekkie I am, my earliest memory of TV is, usurpingly Star Trek: The Original Series on the small black and white TV my parents had before we moved to London.
So no surprise that I like a lot of Star Trek themed songs, and this one from Warp 11 is very cool, you should give their stuff a listen, it’s really great, and entirely about Star Trek!
Let’s have a happy song today, and this was specifically written to be happy, and it’s by one of my favourite ukulele artists (I do like the ukulele a lot), Molly Lewis.
She wrote this after reading Mr Ts autobiography and the video I found of her performance has her explain this, and it’s a really fun and happy song!
Aurelio Voltaire is a musician who is kinda hard to classify, his music is folk, but also goth, cabaret and lots more.
I enjoy his music, a lot, especially his Trek stuff, but I think this is the typoe of song that Paul, my meta, will enjoy a hell of a lot!
It’s the 1st December and for the 4th year running, my nerdy music advent is back, so come back here for the next 24 days for a new nerdy song that I love and want to share!
Today we start with one of the original geek rock bands, Nerf Herder and their track Rock City News from 2002s American Cheese, its an awesome rocky song, and its a lot of fun to listen to.
Well it’s been one of those weeks!
Not only have I spent most of it unwell with a nasty tummy bug, but the flat has turned up a few issues.
We were in the process of having a water damaged cabinet replaced, when it was discovered that due to some missing airbricks, there were some geet big holes in the wall letting in moisture!
So we are having to have the plaster removed, get airbricks put and, so a damp treatment and then replaster.
Anyway, due to a shortage of available tradesman, it’s gonna be after Christmas before it can actually get done so that’s annoying, as it was the cabinet with the kitchen sink in it!
Ah well, life does love to throw some curveballs at you!
What I Modelling
I started by finishing off a pair of Necron Tomb Blades.
After that I painted up the Nickar Class Hunter-Killers for my Scourge, which meant I got the airbrush out for the first time since we moved.
And then moved onto a Space Wolves Praetor, not sure I will ever do them in 30K, but I had to model so, why not paint it.
After that I painted up some Blood Angels Assault Intercessors.
And a mob of Ork Nobz
I am now currently working on an Imperial Fists Tactical Squad.
So what’s up next?
- Imperial Fists Tactical Squad x 10 & Officers x 6
- Kataphron Breachers x 5
- Oruck Gutrippas x 12
- T’au Crisis Suit Team x 3
- Imperial Fiats Contemptor Dreadnought
- Ultramarines Intercessors x 10
- Silver Tower Heroes
- Blood Angels Repulsor
- Templar Brethren x 10
- Hobgrot Slittaz x 20
What I Am Reading
Finished up listening to Kasrkin which has been an enjoyable listen.
And a little progress has been made on Zachareth, but not as much as I would have liked.
What Tabletop Games I Am Playing
Sadly none at all.
What Video Games I Am Playing
Sadly not a thing, which I am quite upset about, the ill meant I really struggled to sit down to play anything.
What I Am Creating
Nowt I actually did myself, but I did go on Bez’s daily show.
What I Am Backing
I am in on the Steve Jackson Games Campaign for some Car Wars STLs.
What I Am Winning
I am not entirely sure who this was from, it just came with a plain white piece of paper saying “congratulations on your win”, but I won a black Playstation 5 DualSense controller, which is brilliant.
So this is gonna get used for PC games that work best with DualSense, and the white one I was using will go to Megan.
What I Am Buying
Keeping an eye of eBay I came across a very cheap copy of Guardian of the Galaxy for PS5, so I bought that!
I also got a few more holders for my controllers, and now the PC Engine, CD32, Xbox 360 and 8 Bit Do SN30 are all up on the wall now.
I bought Witcher 3 GOTY Edition, cause the next gen updates for PC look incredible!
I already own it on Xbox, but this looks well worth it!
Speaking of the Xbox I grabbed a dust cover attachment for the Series X to allow me to hang the controllers off it.
- Mood:- Very sore
- Caffeinated Beverages Consumed:- 6
- In My Ears:- My Favourite Games – The Cardigans
- Tabletop Game Last Played:- Just One
- Video Game Last Played:- Destruction Darby
- Book Last Read:- Zachareth – Robbie MacNiven
- Movie Last Viewed:- The Little Hours
- TV Show Last Viewed:- Blue Bloods
- Current State of Projects:- Imperial Fists Tactical Squad and Officers washed
It might have escaped your attention, but I really love the plethora of mini consoles released in recent years.
Well the consoles themselves are cool, and offer a great way to transport some awesome games to play very easily.
I much prefer emulation via RetroArch, but the mini consoles usually bring something with them, as close to original controllers as possible.
I mean you try and get a PC Engine controller outside of the box containing the CoreGrafx Mini!
There is just something so much nicer about playing with controllers that are basically like what we had as kids, and often the knock offs just aren’t as good.
But that leads into another obsession, controllers and that’s a subject for another time!
But the consoles themselves are pretty cool so let’s take a look at what’s in my collection!
The C64 Mini
The C64 Mini (note not the Commodore 64 Mini) comes with 64 classic games for the Commodore 64 and VIC 20.
The design of this one is just so adorable, yeah the keyboard doesn’t work, but it doesn’t need to, and they even got the discolouration right.
The joystick however, is to be honest, rubbish, I hear that the standalone one is better, and I think I may invest in one.
I never had a Commodore 64 as a kid, but plenty of friends did, and I remember wasting plenty of time playing Speedball and Impossible Mission.
The most irritating thing about it was to have it load up, only for it to fail at the last second meaning you had to rewind the tape and load it up again!
This particular console is great, but I wish I had grabbed the Maxi or the VIC20 for the working keyboard, but that would have taken up so much more space.
NES Classic
Now living in the UK, the NES wasn’t that popular or common. We mostly had the ZX Spectrum and the Amstrad CPC, and when a console did get big, it was the Master System.
I never saw a NES in person until I went to university, but the GameBoy was very common.
I got this when it first came out on release day, and it’s kinda cool, but I guess, the games in it, don’t have the same nostalgia kick for me as they would for others.
I mean I have played a fair few of these games, either in the arcade or in later rereleases down the years.
The big issue with this controller is the puddly length of the controller cables, you can’t use it in the average living room without extension cables.
And the connector itself is a Wii Nunchuck port, so the controllers themselves whilst being very very well built and almost perfect replicas of the originals, they require an adaptor to use them with PC.
Mega Drive Mini
This is my main nostalgia kick, my first console that wasn’t borrowed from a friend, the 16 Bit masterpiece that was the Mega Drive.
My parents got me and my brother one with Sonic the Hedgehog, Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle, and a three pack with World Cup Italia 90, Columns and Super Hang-On.
It also came with the Master System Convertor so we could swap games with our friends who owned the earlier system, as well as buy our own games for that system.
It was far and away the best system of the era, the software was great and there were so many fun games on it, I even saved up the money from my paper round for 6 months to buy Virtua Racing for it, cause it cost an eye watering £100 back in 1994!
The mini version is grand, comes with a lot of the big hitters, but sadly missing Sonic 3, the controllers are just *chefs kiss* but a part of me kind of wishes that they bundled the six button controllers simply because games like Eternal Champions and Street Fighter II work better with them.
PC Engine CoreGrafx Mini
The PC Engine was a weird console, it was technically an 8 Bit console, but it’s 16 Bit GPU, and the lateness of its release meant most people considered it part of the 16 Bit era.
The PC Engine was super rare in Europe, but I did know one kid who owned one, that he imported from Japan, and we did have a lot of fun playing bullet hell shooters!
The mini version is a bit of an oddity, carrying both Japanese and English language games, and there are times in here that I am rather upset didn’t get an English version, Snatcher being the biggest disappointment.
Always wanted to play that game, but the lack of a modern release, and the only English version is for the Mega CD, and that was massively censored.
But there are plenty of other games on there, and even Japanese ones which require little, if any reading.
This is a great little console and the only way to get CD Engine controllers in USB, I know 8 Bit Do have released some similar controllers, but they lack the turbo switches and instead only have a turbo button.
A500 Classic
I had an Amiga A500, our best friends had one as well or in some lucky cases, an A1200, I even had a friend with a CD32!
The Amiga was the dominant platform that wasn’t a console for a very long time, and the versatility of what it offered was wonderful.
We used to have just as much fun with Deluxe Paint, as we did with Lemmings, Sensible World of Soccer, Alien Breed and Zool!
This platform was fantastic and the death of Commodore after the failure of the CD32 was devastating to me, but it did essentially allow to IBM PC platform to become the dominant force it is today.
The A500 Mini is the most recent addition to my collection and thanks to the developers awesome system, I have a 32GB USB stick, with every game ever published for the platform on it, including all of the CD32 games.
My only criticism is that the game pad, whilst clearly taking inspiration from the CD32 controller, is quite a bit different, but I guess I can live with that.
SNES Classic
Being British, the SNES, well it wasn’t as big a deal as it’s Sega rival was to us.
I did have a friend with one and there were some absolutely killer games released in the platform. The Mario games are up there as classics, for a long time it was the only way to play Street Fighter II at home, and Mario Cart made its debut here.
The SNES Classic is one of the best mini console offerings, the controller cables are a bit longer than those offered by the NES Classic, but are still rather short.
Playstation Classic
This is the dud of the collection, Sony looked to jump on the bandwagon and put together this offering which in all honesty, just missed the mark, by a long shot.
Ok you have some classics, like Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy VII, but so many games that should have been on here aren’t.
No Gran Turismo, Wipeout, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Crash Bandicoot or Tomb Raider to name a few.
The controllers are great, but it really feels like Sony just couldn’t be arsed with this one.
The modding scene around it is great, and it’s something I should probably consider, but this is technically Lindsay’s as I bought it as a birthday present for her, so she would need to approve any modding!
What Next
Well there are other options out there, the main one I really want is the SNK Neo Geo Arcade Stick Pro, which will combine my desire for an arcade fighting stick, and a Neo Geo games machine.
An Atari Flashback 9 or better is also wanted, as well as the Mega Drive Mini 2, but that looks to be out of production after only being released in October.
But beyond that, that would be it, unless a Master System Mini or a Dreamcast Mini hits the market. I really cannot see a PlayStation 2 Classic, due to the poor response to the PlayStation Classic and the technical issues would probably prevent development of a Saturn or N64 Mini.
I already have a PlayStation 3 and a Wii, which can play GameCube games, so realistically the only think I want that’s not a mini console, is a PlayStation 2.
What I Am Modelling
I painted up a unit of Sicaran Infiltrators to add to my Adeptus Mechanicum army.
And begun the painting of a T’au Fire Warriors Strike Team, which I finished up last Saturday night.
I am then finished a Necron Chronomancer.
And I am currently working on a pair of Necron Tomb Blades.
So what’s coming up next on the horizon?
- Necron Tomb Blades x 2
- Imperial Fists Tactical Squad x 10 & Praetor
- Ork Nobz x 5
- Kataphron Breachers x 5
- Oruck Gutrippas x 12
- Blood Angels Assault Intercessors x 5
- T’au Crisis Team x 3
- Imperial Fists Contemptor Dreadnought
- Ultramarines Intercessors x 10
- Silver Tower Hero’s
What I Am Reading
I listened to The Great Clans of Rokugan Volume One, which was pretty good, but I had read a couple of the stories before I think.
Still working through my re-listen of the Dr Who Monthly Advenntures, and I listened to Red Dawn this fortnite.
I am also listening to Kasrkin, and I am very happy to hear that the Cadians remain, Space Geordies!
Also slowly making my way through Zachareth.
What Tabletop Games I Am Playing
On Saturday, myself, Lindsay and Megan played a game of Ticket to Ride London, and I lost, really badly, Megan blocked a route which ruined my whole strategy, but that’s the game!
On the Tuesday I enjoyed a couple of game of Just Oney with Lindsay, Megan and Jane, we only scored 5 on one game and a perfect 13 on another.
What I Am Spending
I grabbed the new rulebook for Dropfleet Commander so I can sort out running some battle reports and demos of this amazing game!
I also bought the Leagues of Votann dice, I am not sure if I want an army of these guys, but I grabbed the dice in case I do.
I got a four pack of USB Sticks, I only wanted a single 16GB stick, but turned out the 4 pack was the cheapest option for that, weirdly.
I needed a 32GB stick as well for the Amiga games, so picked up the same type, just bigger.
And I replaced the little drawer I keep my USB sticks etc with a new one.
My beloved fridge, that I have had since I started university in 2001, has died, it was a fair few years old when I got it, and it’s lasted for 21 years with me, at times having to serve as the houses main fridge.
The last 10 years it’s been exclusively for the storage of pop, snacks and medicine, and since we moved was kept in my studio.
But last week it ceased functioning all together, and we had a look on eBay and Facebook Marketplace and found this London themed Husky fridge for £50, and we picked it up on Wednesday night.
I managed to score a cheap copy of Marvel’s Avengers for PS5, I know it’s had mixed reviews, but you can’t go wrong for £8.
I wanted the PS5 version because it has Spider-Man in it!
We also grabbed a 4TB Hard Drive to add to the PLEX server, adding Paul’s library has taken up a considerable amount of space on the existing drives.
Adding this drive we found sealed and unopened on Facebook marketplace, for a killer price, had allowed us to expand the server space to 13TB in total.
For Dropfleet Commander, I grabbed some Nickar Class Hunter-Killers for my Scourge fleet.
Also some fleet condition tokens, but they have all been put away now!
What I Am Winning
A little prize came, a cast photo from Star Trek: Picard Season 1, and that made me very very happy!
- Mood:- My feet are sooo sore!
- Caffeinated Beverages Consumed:- 4
- In My Ears:- Oliver’s Army – Elvis Costello
- Tabletop Game Last Played:- Just One
- Video Game Last Played:- Destruction Derby
- Book Last Read:- Zachareth – Robbie MacNiven
- Movie Last Viewed:- The Little Hours
- TV Show Last Viewed:- Blue Bloods
- Current State of Projects:- Tomb Blade given first wash