Oh that’s adorable. I love the cell-shaded art style

I’ve just seen the Storygraph challenge - that makes it easier to keep track, thanks! However I noticed that the announcement and card link are the ones from 2024 so you’re aware :)

Any books in the Slough House series by Mick Herron (the jerk being Jackson Lamb).

The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa (who passed away a couple of weeks ago)

Neat! I appreciate all the work that has gone into this (the design of the bingo card is excellent and clear).

Now to look at my TBR and work out what would fit best… I was planning to read One Hundred Years of Solitude next anyway, which I think would be suitable for several squares (Number in the Title, Author from a Different Continent, Minority Author, Now a Major Motion Picture, Late to the Party)! As it’s one book per square I’ll have to work out which one is most suitable :)

Hey, if it works, it works :3

I can definitely relate to some of the points you’ve made here. Regarding things feeling the same day-in-day-out, I get this feeling when I fall into a rut. Like get home from work, play the same game I’ve been playing for a few weeks, watch the next episode of a show I’ve been watching, tidy up etc. When I notice this happening, I realise it’s time to shake things up a bit; go for a walk, draw something, alter my schedule and try a new game. Variety is the spice of life and all that.

I think it’s pretty normal to move on from old friends after a while - life kinda just gets in the way and you get out of rhythm with them as you say. Maybe you need to find a new community to involve yourself with, one that reflects your current social needs. I might get downvoted for this, but on a personal level I’m quite glad I found the furry community after I moved away from my hometown. There’s a lot of hate online for the group, but at the end of the day it’s filled with cool nerdy people who don’t take life too seriously, and this feels especially valuable at a time when we’re bombarded with depressing news of politics and war. Obviously you don’t have to join this group in particular, but having any kind of community around you I think is really useful.

And like someone else has said, try to step away from social media if you use it at all. The algorithms usually steer towards negative, controversial topics that gather the most clicks. It’s not a healthy thing to consume.

I worked at a McDonalds for a month. I’d done bar work before that and really enjoyed it, but fast food was depressing. Although my colleagues were pretty cool, the managers were absolute assholes. They made fun of all the staff and took the piss for the fact that I had a degree but was having to work somewhere like that. I was ‘sick’ for my notice period (I’d found work elsewhere).

When I was younger I won a copy of the board game ‘Game of Life’ through some online giveaway. Think I played it once or twice xD

I also wonder cinema tickets for me and some friends. It was a competition a local cinema did for designing a costume for Stuart Little, around the time that film came out. The tickets were a runners up prize, but I remember it being pretty great - about 10 of us and we were given free drinks and snacks!

I’ve just finished Part 1 (around 200 pages out of 1000 - unfortunately the flights I had planned were cancelled, and I didn’t get time to read over the weekend!). So far I’ve been introduced to the characters and the book has explained their natures as well as the dynamics between each of them. It’s quite heavy reading at points, especially some of the religious discussion and the fact that there are a good number of footnotes explaining certain references in the text. That said, the web of interactions and different moralities is quite fascinating. It requires a level of concentration to get through, but there’s enough of an interesting story and exploration of big ideas to keep me hooked so far.

I recently started The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I’m a 100 or so pages in, and slowly getting a feel for the characters. It’s a large book, but I’ve got some long flights coming up so hopefully I’ll make a good dent in it :)

I thought both games were excellent, but yes there was definitely something about BOTW that set it apart. In addition to what you’ve said, I think it’s partially that BOTW was such a unique experience the first time through - little things like the stamina meter for climbing, the cooking to help you craft items that warm you up etc. Discovering these features and setting off in whichever direction you fancied was a joy. TOTK didn’t have this same joy, as I already knew about these mechanics. And it felt like there was much more of a push to get the player to go in a specific direction, rather than leaving the exploration up to them.

I reckon they probably did the best job they could’ve with a sequel, but it was never going to be possible to live up to BOTW.

I also have a Libra 2 and it’s great! Nice size screen and very lightweight. Just to note as the OP asked for colour, the Libra 2 is B&W but they now do Libra and Clara colour versions :)

Good dopamine I guess, and I’ve found the collection side of things to be fun. But I could never understand why someone would spend £18.49 (!!) to get a ‘rare’ card that doesn’t really exist. I’d never spend any money on this game.

Damn that was excellent, great points from Cowboy.

Perfectly sums up this whole, sad phenomenon of people getting angry about nothing.

Just had the bathroom flooring redone and some boxing removed, which has exposed some wall that wasn’t visible before. Need to fill in, sand and repaint this section so it matches the rest of the room!

It’s so weird. Because it has a black protagonist and isn’t ‘historically accurate’? In a game series in which a fictional secret society of assassins controls the world?

I’ve seen some hate on Lemmy too. Is there a legit reason to hate Ubisoft or is it mostly just terminally online losers scared of ‘wokeness’?

I’m out of the loop here - why is this game getting so much hate? Reviews seem ok?

Glad to see this game mentioned! I played it last year and it was pure fun throughout. Super charming

I suppose if you try and distil any history down into a single unified theory it’s gonna have caveats. Yes, the world is infinitely more complex than the simplistic version he creates, but I think the broad strokes are there. If nothing else it’s a jumping off point to get people interested in the evolution of civilisations and will hopefully encourage people to follow up with their own research.