Whirlwound

They are, she just regenerated.

I’m going there at New Years and I can’t wait to hit up Akihabara - or what’s left of it at least. Gigo 1 closed at the end of August; that was the one I most wanted to scope out.

Whitley Bay, South Shields, Seaburn, Newcastle, Durham, Middlesbrough, Scarborough. They mostly used to have some brilliant arcades It was all like this. Not your classic cabinets or sit-ins, but tix-for-tat and coin-pushers. The ultimate irony was the presence of Pac•Man. You could see him everywhere, and hear his sounds as well. Just not from an actual Pac•Man game. It was all bloody coin pushers. I didn’t dare go to Seaton Carew or Redcar for fear they had gone the same way. And the thought of Blackpool in similar decline is so depressing.

In all these towns, the only machines I actually wanted to play were the Mario Kart Arcade GPs. There wasn’t a single OutRun. Hell, not even an OutRun2. R•Type, Shinobi, Gradius, Salamander, Street Fighter, Tekken, Mortal Kombat, NBA Jam, Super Mario Bros, Rainbow Islands, Hang-On, Space Harrier… all gone. Remember the classics. If we forget them, we lose them.

I’m of the days when arcades all looked like Flynn’s. Wall-to-wall stand-ups. The sit-ins were epic. HYDRAULIC SPACE HARRIER, for crying out loud. Look it up.

Now? Ye actual gods.

Connect 4 basketball. Giant Hungry Hungry Hippos. A fidget spinner. This Monopoly monstrosity is 15ft tall AND WIDE.

I want you guys to at least get the pennant this year, but winning it all first try would be epic.

This is a major change for me in the LCS tier. No teams that I actively dislike.

That right there is more pinball tables than I found on the ENTIRE LENGTH of Scarborough’s South Bay last year. (Well, working ones anyway; I found five, but two were half-knackered.)

I fear for UK arcades; I went to seven towns, and apart from ONE stand-up machine from 1986, nothing was pre-2010.

We still don’t talk about X-2, then…

In the absence of decent sequels and licenses of Space Harrier, the S&P games utterly rocked.

As in “ ‘Thank you for your attention to this matter’? Yeah, thank you for your attention to Deez Nuts, Fucklechops!”

I’m not particularly a fan of either team, but I wouldn’t dislike a Mariners-Dodgers #WorldSeries2025. At least it’d be a series I could just relax into. And I’d like Seattle to win it at their first try.

Nothing against Toronto or Milwaukee either - but not Chicago. Not as a Cards fan. Stuff them.

And now all I can picture is a final Fantasy VII-Chrono Trigger crossover, thanks for that…

BOM, BOM BOM (a-ee-ah)
BOM, BOM BOM (a-ee-ah)

Not as much as the Phillies going out of the playoffs (I don’t mind the Dodgers) and the Magic hoofing the Sixers by 30. Lousy weekend for PA.

Popcorn? 🍿

"J.C. McCall, reading Viz…"

Two of my proudest gameshow achievements are going perfect on a UC starter and subsequent 3 when the toffs on the box flubbed all three extras, and nailing a 5-pointer on Only Connect that nobody in the studio got. It's the quiz equivalent of rolling a Natural 20.

Nobel Peace Prize 2025 live updates: Venezuelan democracy activist María Corina Machado wins Nominations closed in January but US President Donald Trump had led a public campaign to win the award.

There is going to be SO much ketchup on the walls at #1600, it'll be easier to just call it the Red House.

Suck it, you fat orange fascist bastard.

Ah, but see, which would be which?

Fry is taller so that suggests he’s Luigi, but Laurie is more of a stick, plus he’s by far the flibbertigibbet (LMLWD) of the pair…

Bit rough and ready, but it'll do until I can commit time to something better...

#FuckICE
#BoycottNike
#Don'tDoIt

(Hey, hashtags here can take apostrophes...)

Look me in the eye and tell me this isn't rampant fascism.

A very winnable game lost DESPITE leading the takeaways

classic Dolphins

And as we know, anything north of Leeds doesn't exist.

Save McDaniel for the flight back from Spain. He can always bob around in the Atlantic while ta-(yawn)-talking to-(yawwwwwwn)-to Joe Philbzzzzzz...

I must be a bit behind, Cefalo and Rose aren’t sounding deflated yet, and we’re 3 down at the 2-min warning.

It gets creepier every time.

Bellendcheat sucked ass in Cleveland, he sucked ass at Foxboro pre-Brady, he sucked ass even harder post-Brady. And now... this.

It was all Brady, wasn't it.

Well, I say that - there was the rampant cheating as well wasn't there, let's not forget that.

“Don’t laugh”? Hell with that, I would have gone with YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY?

Pfft. I accomplished that 11 years ago. I work retail.

People act like you don’t exist anyway.

And with the first pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, the Tennessee Titans select...

Just had some of my music collection’s album corrupt on me - bizarrely, just four albums by @jonathancoulton.bsky.social.

I’d been wanting to tinker with some new fonts i yoinked earlier in the week, so I cracked open Affinity Photo, and - welp.

Nice ligatures.

And it doesn’t get nerfed by the worm in RFK Jr’s nut first.

[cough]

That's Rafael. Rafael Edward Cruz.

And never forget that he's Cuban-Canadian either.

But he's also GOP, so he is of course a ragingly pathological fucking hypocrite.

I call bullshit of the highest order.

Why is it a singular? That image's clearly a plural.