Went to Seoul for a couple of days, did some sightseeing, ate food (sometimes, a little too much), and bought relatively few souvenirs. I did, however, spend too much on a Hatsune Miku x Gundam gatcha, and luckily I got the one I wanted first try.

My aunt told me her friend would be visiting Dublin (where I was living) for some event and said I should drop by and say hi for her. The friend was Kevin Conroy, he was in town for Comic Con. (I did meet him, he was very nice)

Best photo op ever

For anyone girding their loins for political arguments tomorrow, I recommend a moderator’s response to an @askhistorians.bsky.social post from a couple of years ago; it includes a passage about bad-faith arguments from a Sartre essay that knocked me off my feet the first time I read it.

Sokrates vs prejudice is timeless. Fill in the blank with any group you like. (Plato, "Meno" 92b-c)

When we say "no, everything hasn't been digitized," I need you to understand that we really mean is that virtually nothing has been digitized. This is because the realm of primary sources that historians use is incomprehensibly large.

We occupy a very specific niche when it comes to the public discussion of history, and that niche is serious answers to the question of how bamboozled Hitler would have been by big chungus memes. www.reddit.com/r/AskHistori...

I wish boardgames got the same backlash for using AI art in final products that Larian Studios and Expedition 33 did for just using it in pre production Awaken Realms (whose CEO also owns Gamefound) openly admits to it and still raised >$15 MILLION on crowdfunding this year

Because I do a lot of takedowns of DW Griffith, I think people assume that I demand moral perfection from old movies and movie people. I don’t. What I am after is intellectual honesty from modern viewers. Griffith is often painted as a naive sweetie who accidentally made a KKK recruitment film.

incredible stuff over at r/ididnthaveeggs It’s a eggnog recipe

Don't steal pies this Christmas.

Many years ago, when I was working at @chaptersbookstore.bsky.social an older gentleman came in and asked "where's the milk?" Me: we don't have any. Him: what kind of bookshop doesn't sell milk? Me: ...the normal kind. All the kinds. Him: Ah for fucksake. *leaves*

At the risk of hugging the third rail, the truth of the academic job market, at least in history or classics, is neither DEI or anti-DEI. It is that that 1) there are no jobs and 2) our hiring culture treats candidates like they 'spoil' after a few years. No one knows who is mediocre or not.

What wargame or historical game did you play the most in 2025?

Okay, as promised, here are my 25 boardgames that would make good presents for historians or the historically-inclined. - I've played them and enjoyed them - They have to have a historical theme or be related to the practice of history - They were within the first 25 I thought of...

This is a great book, I recommend it to people interested in the ACW but also anyone interested in how historical myths are created and spread. I wrote a review of it some years back www.stuartellisgorman.com/blog/searchi...

The furnace broke. It's very cold, so we're having a sale on an appropriately chilly game!

Morning hive mind. If anyone has a physical copy of yesterday's Guardian newspaper they'd be willing to sell me, I'd like to buy one. RT's appreciated.

But you may not have heard that over the last few weeks all oath swearing-in ceremonies have been cancelled and postponed "indefinitely". Normally you would go straight from your test and interview to have the oath administered. 2/3

What I'm really asking for in this season of giving is if you've read it (or my previous book on crossbows), could you rate it on Goodreads or your platform of choice? Castillon only has one rating and for Christmas my wish is for more. www.goodreads.com/book/show/23...

I've been kind of bad at promoting it, but my second book came out this year and I'm pretty proud of it. It's called Castillon and it's on the last battle of the Hundred Years War, but also kind of the war as a whole. You could, of course, buy a copy for your loved ones (all of them), but...

Talking about the “clean Wehrmacht myth”, this text from a recently released game is a fairly good example. I’m sure the Soviet authorities weren’t specially kind to the population, but they seem to have forgotten to mention some minor details about the Nazis in Russia. @fredserval.bsky.social

A """funny""" thing I've noticed is that if you see a buckwild and totally made up claim on Reddit and then search that claim on Google, trying to source it, the Gemini AI summary will be like "oh, yeah, that totally happened, and my source is that three hour old Reddit thread you were just reading"

For this latest Space-Cast!, I sat down to chat with Paolo Mori and Alessandro Zucchini about their collaborative project, Battlefields of the Napoleonic Wars, and why they decided the world needed another (and better) hex-and-counter wargame. spacebiff.com/2025/12/03/s...

they should build this and make ai ceos live in it as a punishment

@drcrossbows.bsky.social brought this up on Discord, but does anyone on #MedievalSky know of any works that explains the nuts and bolts of how wealthier medieval people managed their widespread and scattered holdings?

Check out this nice design diary for Queen of Spies, posted by my design partner @beyondsolitaire.bsky.social @saltandpeppergames.bsky.social boardgamegeek.com/thread/36203...

JK Rowling got a full *decade* of press as a martyr for being "cancelled" (declared passe by people online) and meanwhile nobody considers it very interesting that a prominent left wing author is basically banned from entering or publishing in the United Kingdom for her politics

so this is like, one of the biggest free speech infringements by a western democracy in our lifetimes right?

Update on Dandies & Dandyzettes: hardcover test! www.kickstarter.com/projects/204...

Time for a ✨ Holiday Special Giveaway ✨ (also to celebrate 6k followers!). Includes a Tamashii Nations 2025 Exclusive Gundam Mk-II figure, and lots more! To enter: Follow + Like + Repost. 🍀 Winner will be picked at random next Friday 28th November, international post all ok! Good luck 🎉

Come watch Pierre and I chat to @seedlinggames.bsky.social and @lukegearing.bsky.social about @samsorensen.bsky.social's ridiculously ambitious massively multiplayer rpg(?)-wargame(?) hybrid!

oh it's Trans Awareness Month? well, are you um aware that my weird boutique board game company Hollandspiele is having a sale until this Sunday with $5 off all boxed games, 10% off orders of $100+, & a free card game if you buy 2+ games? support a cool trans woman (me) hollandspiele.com

Ugh, so hard to choose. First ones that come to mind: Castles of Burgundy Here I Stand El Grande Nevsky Arquebus Memoir '44 Korea: The Forgotten War Pueblo Love Letter Mage Knight Would be a different list tomorrow, if not later today.

This week on the blog: Hoplites! We're taking a crack at explaining the long-running debate over the nature and significance of the ancient Greek heavy infantryman, the hoplite, and the phalanx in which he (mostly) fought. acoup.blog/2025/11/14/c...

Been thinking about this overnight and I have come to the horrible realisation that I do in fact very much want a lavish in depth book detailing every single ridiculous Dungeons & Dragons toy, colouring book, back of cereal packet hologram, view finder etc God help me.

This is the same administration that has ordered the return of a Confederate monument to Arlington National Cemetery--one which celebrates the "loyal slave" narrative as represented by the images of the "faithful mammy" and a body servant (slave) in Confederate uniform. 🗃️ www.cnn.com/2025/11/13/p...

sale's on! hollandspiele.com

My partner and I have watched over 50 Film Noirs in the past two months. We're keeping a spreadsheet of them all, with a single sentence for each to remind us of what happens in it. These are presented for you without their attached film titles, hopefully for your amusement.

Basically every professional evaluation I've had, a cycle: Me: I know the previous feedback, & my weak areas, so I expect they will focus on X, Y, or Z. Feedback: No mention of previous criteria, here's some out of left-field random critiques that probably aren't even in the evaluation document.

I may have been working on other things recently, but if I see somebody talking about crossbows (especially ones I quite admire, like those in the Met) I cannot help but watch. In that vein, I really enjoyed @tested.com's latest video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zret...

I may have been working on other things recently, but if I see somebody talking about crossbows (especially ones I quite admire, like those in the Met) I cannot help but watch. In that vein, I really enjoyed @tested.com's latest video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zret...

A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death. Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written." Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating. 🧪🧬🧫

SDHist is proud to announce War Story: Occupied France as the recipient of the fourth annual Summit Award: sdhist.com/war-story-oc.... Congrats to designers Dave Neale and @djackthompson.bsky.social and publisher @ospreygames.bsky.social!

We're thrilled to announce @amabel.bsky.social's video essay “Vonnegut’s Board Game: Preservation, Annotation, Context” as the recipient of the 2025 Bobby Nunes Memorial Award. More info on the award here: sdhist.com/amabel-holla.... Check out the essay here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xXy...

My partner and I have watched over 50 Film Noirs in the past two months. We're keeping a spreadsheet of them all, with a single sentence for each to remind us of what happens in it. These are presented for you without their attached film titles, hopefully for your amusement.

The first photo of my new book, courtesy of my editor... "The Most Awful Responsibility: Truman and the Secret Struggle for Control of the Atomic Age" comes out in early December! Feel free to pre-order it today! www.harpercollins.com/products/the...

Can not overstate how important this is