ICYMI, this week's newsletter interviews 18th-centuryist, Actual Play scholar & TTRPG megabrain @friede.bsky.social. It's full of good stuff: on microcelebrity, the Mercer Effect, authenticity & anachronism in historical games, & the world's greatest break-up novel. buttondown.com/TeethRPG/arc...

Cat spines are wild

This Wimbledon men’s final might be an all-timer. I bet my father-in-law a Kitkat that Alcaraz will win. The stakes couldn’t be higher

This isn’t a parody, it’s real, and it’s perfect

I just described my idea for a macaron experiment to @tomsenior.bsky.social and he said it left him feeling 'unsettled in my soul'. No peanut butter and bacon jam macarons for him, then.

Lovely day revisiting Glastonbury town in the blazing sunshine. Xenomorphs, crystals, churches, friendly pub dogs, and cults. All on one street.

Couldn’t sleep so I upgraded the arcade stick

How many red flags can you fit into one paragraph of a job description

The best thing about baths is that you get to become soup for a bit.

I was feeling glum today, but then Dad called and now I get to pilot an EVA! I’m sure everything will be great from here on out

Watching Blade Runner again. The nerd-god Tyrell tells Roy that in his short life burns so very, very brightly. 20 mins later, Roy is prancing around an abandoned building in his underpants. A film student nods sagely and whispers “yesss, THIS is character development”.

We’ve got wood pigeons too, of course. In the old flat I was watching a film with Ems and I said ‘wow they’ve actually got the bird sounds right for England’ and Ems said ‘Tom, the window’s open’

A small Saturday morning ritual: sitting in the garden with the Merlin app on to see which birds are hanging out here today

When Uncle Ben says ‘with great power comes great responsibility’ I don’t think he was imagining someone becoming a sticky acrobat.

I don’t know why, but Ryan Gosling characters die the moment they realise the film isn’t about them.

When you get a cat you think you’re inviting an elegant, graceful apex predator to share your home However, in reality, you look into the front room while cooking and see something like this

Scavengers Reign is perfect sci-fi. Exquisite animation originally exclusive to HBO and now buried in the Netflix archive. Watching again and enjoying the horror Fantasia of it

I’m interested in the last post because my eyesight is too poor to legally even learn to drive (lifelong 3rd nerve palsy double vision). It is hugely limiting to rely on public transport in this country, in terms of reach and expense, especially for employment.

Some interesting business sense-checks on Tesla’s convulsions and the EV market in the last few years podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

In which myself and @tomsenior.bsky.social *really* love Old Skies, and then talk about point and click adventures we've loved for ages. crateandcrowbar.com/2025/05/16/e...

I used to approve marketing thumbnails and now can’t stop loud questions popping in to my head as I browse Disney+ (and all other sites) “Why have you prioritised Bigfoot, Slug Monster and Cabbage Goblin over the life and death clash between the most important characters in all of Star Wars?”

If you’re enjoying Andor it’s worth reading The Secret Agent by Conrad. It captures how fanatics exploit one another, and how grand causes give way to personal grievances and pure greed. It’s somehow scary, quite sad and occasionally absurdly funny.

After playing Blue Prince I will be requiring my kid to pass a weird A-Level to inherit my wealth when the time comes

On the edge of my seat already for Villa v PSG. Arsenal incredible v RM, let’s go

Can we stop building news items around thinktanks plz

It feels like the first day of Spring and Cheddar the Cat is cross about it

New pod! The silliness and restrained ambition of Call of Duty, the delayed excellence of Monster Hunter, and thoughts on Avowed youtu.be/idXzg9v3g9I?...

First music I bought with paper round pocket money was the tape single ‘If You Tolerate This, Then Your Children Will Be Next’ by the Manic Street Preachers. I was 13 I think? The Manics are part of why I picked up a guitar as a kid, and I’ve been chasing that ‘bwoooaaarrm’ intro noise for years…

I've been busy drawing piratical portraits of our esteemed Gold Teeth backers. Thanks to everyone who gurned for me and apologies for what I have done to your beautiful faces.

Happy publication day, Grombrindal! A Realms-spanning story of gods and fate and unlikely fellowship, and - above all else - an excuse to come up with names for a bunch of new kinds of duardin ale.

Thought I’d download the new Call of Duty for some casual play this weekend on the PS5. Checked in at lunch and the download is still going at 251GB plus and counting

I love the dawn chorus, but since getting a cat all I hear when the birds sing is “HELLO! BREAKFAST! HERE I AM, RIGHT HERE IN THIS TREE”

Xmas telly was brilliant this year. Ofc it’s got to be safe and easy to natter over without losing the beats, but all the big shows snuck in a surprise or two.

Huge respect to Aardman for bringing back Wallace and Gromit to terrify a new generation of kids this Christmas

We caught up on all of Gavin and Stacey ahead of the finale later, great show but half of it was recognising pubs, clubs and takeaway shops we’ve been to in Cardiff

Happy Christmas everyone :)

Peak SNL youtu.be/Vbo48BvE9x8?...

Great advice. It sharpened my critical thinking when I had the same feedback way back when

Cheddar the cat has gained a bit of podge. We think he’s getting Xmas treats around the neighbourhood when he’s out. I said ‘he’s going a bit Snorlax’. Ems said ‘nah’ and I said:

I love following artists here and Mr McQue was a first follow when I joined. It’s lovely to open a social media app in the morning to be greeted by this

I’ve always had bad eyes, but as the vision slips further as I turn 39 I am so grateful to UI systems that support larger font sizes. I simply can’t play Path of Exile 2 because vital item info is unreadable on monitor and TV.

Watching Dune part two for the first time since the cinema and it’s just spectacular. I could watch montages of Paul and Chani knocking over harvesters for hours.

You don’t need to know anything about Chess to enjoy the final moments of the world championship www.youtube.com/live/rqA9mvy...

Just got paid and picked up Space Marine 2 only to glance right, mid Tyranid horde, to see this upside-down death stare from the lad

A very good ‘In Our Time’ ep this week on the Antikythera mechanism, a 2000 year old clockwork puzzle box that seems to be trying to describe the universe www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Thinking about Prague and wondering what Kafka would think about the 45 ton rotating steel sculpture of his head in the shopping centre www.thisiscolossal.com/2016/05/a-ro...

I’m familiar with the fabled Cronut, now the new worlds Buffin and Tochi must be explored this Christmas

His journey to becoming a free speech YouTuber is almost complete www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The cat levelled up.

For my first post here I’d like to celebrate that me and my wife’s editorial teams in completely different organisations found the correct pun for our leaving covers…