George 🕊️

200kg! Also ow!

16.25kg on one side of a squat bar

Some ridiculous amount of weight on one side of a squat bar. Double it and add 20kg.

Me vs my husband

175kg. A marginal but still actual PR. (Watch my neck turn right red immediately.)

YouTube video by Failbetter Games Rich Stories in Mandrake | Rural Life Sim

We'd really like to hear what fans of rural life sims make of the dialogue system we're using in Mandrake. Is that you?

I technically allow myself an hour to check it, twice a week. I could theoretically spend that time scrolling reels or whatever and have it be ‘ok’ by my rules. But it turns out it’s honestly only appealing to me as a quick fix for wandering attention. Treated as a destination, it holds no interest.

At the start of the year, I decided to venture onto social media less. It’s still useful, so I set two ‘check social media’ windows each week. It’s staggering how boring social media becomes when it’s not available to fill the gaps in my time. I log on to check stuff and am out within 5 mins.

Three pigeons in a sunbeam on a wall

Les pidges.

Knights in Tight Spaces poster

Shadows of Doubt poster

Nivalis poster

Nightfall of Stygies Warhammer cover (an Adeptus Mechanicus story)

Doing work planning for the next six months and looks like I'll have slots available for freelance work, esp around Feb-April. So if you need someone to write STUFF or do narrative /story consulting, HMU!

Things I've worked on over past few years (and am not NDAd about) include!

Olivia’s gorgeous husband sitting on the floor by a squat rack. He has a beautiful octopus tattoo.

Happy New Year! My best friend and beloved already has me at the gym. We’ve become that kind of couple, gross I know.
Anyway, here’s the person who makes my life one of joy, who encourages me to successes. @thewizardlockwood.bsky.social thank you for being you.

TBF I also hated the one before this and that’s like 97% on there.

What an absolute turd of a film.

For a movie that spends 80% of its time explaining things and why they’re happening, it sure still makes no sense whatsoever.

‘The audience finally breathes a sigh of relief after an hour of utter nonsense when you come on screen’ is a pretty great mark to hit as an actor.

So far the watchability of the movie is directly proportional to the amount of submarine on screen.

Absolutely carrying it.

a cartoon of homer simpson driving a green car Alt: a cartoon of homer simpson in a spinning green car with a totally baffling overdesign

The Final Reckoning (2025)

Taking a shot every time someone says ‘fate of the world’ and now I am dead.

I’d better see a fucking submarine soon.

I think the number of (allegedly) Meaningful Speeches so far is about double the number of ‘things that have actually happened in the film’.

I’m also not a ‘stories must conform to real-world logic’ kinda guy. But if there’s no sense of internal logic to a story (or indeed, real emotional stakes), it’s just a bunch of random crap that happens one after another. In this case, stuffed with a load of portentous-but-meaningless dialogue.

It’s a long movie, but to be fair it seems to contain 30% of all the previous movies in the form of unnecessary flashbacks, sometimes more than one of the same moment.

I’m not a ‘yells at TV’ kinda guy, but I’m about two more away from giving up. I really feel like it’s not even trying to make sense? Even action movie logic sense?

Watching THE GREEN KNIGHT again

"The product of writing is not words but meaning. And generative AI can’t understand meaning, or perspective... It can only algorithmically guess at what you expect to hear, with varying levels of success."

Thanks RPS for talking to our Narrative Director @chrisgardiner.bsky.social for this one.

Eurasian Jay on the ground, looking for peanuts

Eurasian Jay, the best bird, perched in a tree

Walk friend

The Excavation of Hob's Barrow by Clock and Dagger is 55% off during the Steam Winter Sale!

Explore the moors of rural Victorian England as you uncover the mysteries of Hob's Barrow.

What lies beneath the soil?

Find out here: store.steampowered.com/app/1182310/...

I always feel the impulse to apologise for sharing this stuff, and I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. But I’ve been working my ass off at this for the past two years, and am really, really proud of that work. (Though fundamentally, I do it because I like it. Moving my body makes me feel good.)

Also tested my 1.5mi run time at 11:51, about 50s faster than 6 weeks ago. Not setting the world on fire with that, but I am a) quite heavy and b) pretty new to running. Very pleased with the improvement.