290 - life update 🍶⛄🖼️
sake, snowmen and sekigahara
Hey there, !
- Small steps, small steps - that's the vibe of this month. Finding little moments of joy in everything and progressing on many fronts. And look, this is just my excuse to show you GAMES because that is joyous to me. This one's called Sekigahara and is a block wargame that is very chess-like, super strategic, and very fun. I've wanted this for many years (like, when I joined the hobby about 10-15 years ago) and I'm so happy to have a. got it on sale, b. played it, c. printed a 3d printed insert for it.
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Celebrancy is now at a confirmed 5/12 completed, with 2 more ready to film. I'm aiming to have 9/12 done by the end of August, which is a bit tight, but we're pushing HARD!! I bought a speaker and a mic so you know it's all happenin'. GET IT DONE VINCE GANBATTE.
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Look at this AMAZING DnD set up that Audrina and Saxon did - just an absolutely amazing amount of effort to do a Christmas in July themed one-shot. Blew it out of the park - heavily impressed at the effort and especially a christmas HAM!
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I went to the SAKE FESTIVAL which was very very fun - look at these costumes and all the sake I imbibed in yum yum yum. Straight off a plane and getting lit af on Saturday afternoon - that's the life. Bought a few for some good prices too (unfortunately not the gold one) :D
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I got part of the art wall up! I've been using 3M command strips, but there's this weird space in the middle that I want to try and mix it up a bit with. It's kind of grid-like at the moment, which isn't bad, but I have all these other frames that I want to try and mix and match as well. I've got a bunch of prints and frames ready - just need to get hanging. At least some are up for now!
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You already know about Singapore - if you missed the posts, read these: You can get a passport in a day and Recent Singapore food recommendations
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Last, but not least, HEEEEEEEEEERE'S GANDALF ❤️
Chat soon :)
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📋Today's Story Kicks Off Some Conflict
Results:
Food: chucked
Plan: A combination of Ambush and Decoy - let's see how that plays out...
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"Alright - Sayla, we're going to run an ambush play, but you're going to have to bait them out since they'll be trying to go for the ship." You rummage through the armory, picking up two rifles and a bunch of explosives. "Ugh, we weren't really ready for a raiding party like this..."
"Okay Cap'n. What do you need me to do?"
You bring up the map of the surrounding terrain, "Ditch the water, head north-east towards the road, hide your wailer somewhere far off from the ship, and activate it when I give you the signal."
"Off the timesuit? Got it." You hear a ripping sound over the comms.
"Meet me at these co-ordinates, and we'll set up an ambush for this 'Bravo' team," you say, as you jump out of the ship. "Jimmy, you got this?"
"Shut up and I'll have it done," Jimmy says, panting, over the comms. "AGH these damn WIRES. We shoulda had an upgrade years ago. When are we getting the new shit?!"
"When you finally chip in!" you say, chuckling. "See ya soon Jimmy."
You head through the darkening forest as the light fades fast. At regular intervals, you stick explosives on trees and hide them in bushes. As you scan through the forest, your heads up view fritzes up as it tries to reconcile terrain and flora from wildly different times.
Purple Chaos, they said at the briefings, is so rarely encountered, but if you get stuck there, well, good luck getting out.
Well, you think to yourself, lucky Sayla and Jimmy don't join briefings.
You start climbing up a gently sloping mountain that's about halfway between the ship and the road, aiming for a plateau you saw that has a good view of Borrowed Time, and somewhat has a view of the road and trainline. You bash through sticky sap trees, muted leaves, and gnarly roots underfoot to finally come out into a small clearing.
Shortly afterwards, Sayla joins you, and you hand her a rifle as you settle in.
"Cap'n - we'll be seen pretty quick here if they have any thermal tech," Sayla checks her rifle but doesn't make any indication of moving.
"Yep."
"Ah...okay," Sayla muses, "The Arbalest job?"
"Yep. We gotta buy time for Jimmy."
You stop suddenly as you see a black helicopter silhouetted against the darkened sky race towards you. From it emerges four pinpricks of light, who slowly fall from the ship.
"Okay, do it," your eyes are glued to the black-clad figures highlighted by their lights, which have landed only a little bit away from you.
Sayla nods, and a klaxon instantly blares through the area.
You watch as the lights calmly and smoothly split up, two towards the wailer, and two towards the ship. They move cautiously, but quickly through the forest. One of them seems to pause, and their light swings towards your location.
Damn, these guys are pros.
✔️Real Life Recommendations
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Kpop Demon Hunters - 4 stars - like, the premise sounds stupid, but it's actually so good. The Sony Animation studio (who did Spiderverse) is in charge of this, and they've consulted really closely with the Kpop scene in Korea - getting singers and songwriters from actual kpop production companies to write and produce songs. The central theme and story is pretty universal (becoming your ✨real self✨) but it's just done in such a gorgeous and catchy way! Highly recommended.
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Clipse - Let God Sort Em Out - thank you to Dru for the recommendation - a legendary hip hop duo that, I guess, came out of 'retirement' and dropped a Pharell Williams produced album which hits pretty good. I don't have the equivalent star rating system for music yet, but it's got some great energy! I didn't know this 'til later, but they had also reunited a few years ago on Kanye's Jesus is King track 'Use this Gospel' which I remember thinking 'okay this is pretty Christian but these bars are fiyahh'. Take a listen!
🚌 Adventures on the Information Super-Highway
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People kept working, became healthier while on basic income - a study from Canada, which unfortunately didn't continue because it wasn't an 'adequate solution'. Lovely to see it had some positive results - life can't always just be late stage capitalism.
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How GLP-1's are breaking life insurance - GLP-1 are the class of drugs that help with weight loss i.e. Ozempic. Life insurance companies measure things like BMI, cholesterol and blood pressure...which these GLP-1 drugs also impact. Looks like you can really fuck with the algorithm right now, before they can update their models!
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Become a person who Actually Does Things - sometimes I wish I read these sorts of things when I was younger. At least the next generation might be able to learn it :)