If you’re a gamer then I’d strongly recommend you get a playlist of bangers from your favourite games. They tend to be high energy, low on distracting lyrics, and if you’ve played the game any amount then they’ve might have gotten associated with a “locked in” brain state so you feel like whatever task you’re achieving is analogous to gaming.

My playlist has tracks from Streets of Rage 2, Golden Sun, Pokémon, Smash Bros and Super Hexagon amongst others.

Where would one go to get a custom made backpack with double stitching?

Bit late to the party, but something to be aware of if you’re buying Solovair. I have a pair of astronaut boots, had them for about 20 months, worn them almost daily and I need to get them resoled now. I went to my local cobblers and they said they don’t do Solovair, they just do glue jobs. I went to Solovair (I’m local to their factory) and they said that they’re currently doing so much business that they’re not able to offer resoling. They provided details of two webshops (keycobbler.co.uk and bootrepaircompany.co.uk) who do offer this service, but that involves sending them off for weeks and weeks. So I’m going to need to buy a second pair of boots to wear while my first pair are out for repair. And the resole is a significant chunk of the original boot cost: I spent under £170 on the boots, and they’re going to cost £70 to resole plus shipping.

I’m still going to do it, I love them and I’d have spent a similar amount on trainers in the same period just through wear and tear, but it’s not particularly a money saver or a convenience.

I guess that when I do have two pairs I’ll be able to rotate them daily so this will be something that comes up every four years rather than every two.

How dare you “two YouTubers” unname then when one is Ashens, king of tat, lord of the brown sofa.

It’s on his second channel for those interested.

Hoplite maybe? It’s on mobile but is a lot of fun.

I found the dark world very tedious, from what I remember. One aesthetic throughout the whole game that was very dreary to look at. Has been many years since I played it though.

I set up a play-money prediction market on whether this would happen, and it doesn’t look like many people have faith in Musk to pull this one off.

I’ve not finished it yet due to limited gaming time but it’s clearly not that long. It feels like it should have some replayability but I don’t think it’s very unreasonably priced. Probably not ideal if you’re looking to squeeze every hour of entertainment out of your dollar though.

Terra Nil is mentioned in the article but I must give it a recommendation, it’s very chill and restoring a wasteland or ruined city to a thriving ecosystem is a great counterpoint to building a bustling city.

Posting this just because I think it’s a neat little short and the few seconds from 0:50 onwards look like a Ray Harryhausen movie which is cool if that’s the intention. Never thought of Scovillain as scary before.

Ooh, I wonder ever you get if you fight Mewtwo with Mew. This is only the third Mew I’ve ever owned, and I’ve never trained one before because they felt too precious to sully with battles.

I never really had strong feelings for fighting types, I really like Heracross since gen 2 but even that wasn’ta top favourite. That’s all changed in the last couple of years though, I think Gapdos is great take on a classic, Iron Hands is a competitive monster, and Quaquaval is one of the most fun starters in a while.

Play-money prediction market: will the exploration find Nessie?

I guess I’d caveat that I’ve never really enjoyed any of the TV adaptations, but they keep making them, so someone must be enjoying them!

The Long Earth series is brilliant, I really enjoyed it. It doesn’t feel very Pratchetty but it scratches an alternate universe sci fi itch in a very satisfying way.

Massive Pratchett fan here so I’m giving the new series of Good Omens a go, and I don’t know why I keep subjecting myself to TV Pratchett adaptations.

There’s the odd giggle, and I like the actors, but three episodes in it just goes nowhere, it’s just a series of skits with Aziraphale and Crowley.

They’re only one component of what made the book great, but I get the feeling that the production crew have gone “Tennant and Sheen are great, the show is now only about them”.

I love how Viking-rune-looking it is. Everything old is new again.

Was this game named by a Bojack Horseman character?

New Futurama is starting to appear on Disney+. Watched the first one last night, and it’s good. Got a few chuckles, re-set the scene, it’s not the absolute peak of the show but if it maintains this level of quality then I’ll not be upset about it being revived again.

Annihilape eats well, again!

I’ve a two year old who isn’t really up to whole films yet, but she really vibed with the 2015 Peanuts movie. It’s a series of vignettes as much as a whole story, so her attention span wasn’t too tested and she could do some colouring or whatever and not miss out.