Sadly I'm retreating from BlueSky. I get all the reasons for choosing it over Threads, but over there I see way more posts about things I'm interested in, get a lot more engagement with my posts and it has a spoiler text/image feature which is SO needed across all social media.

I caved and read the transcript of Brandon Sanderson doing a reading of Ghostbloods. A tiny snippet but enough to tide me over for a little bit. Three years to go...

Bird blindness 🤣

It's been a while since I stayed up past 3am playing video games. Enjoying it while I can, back to work and routine next week. Tempest Rising is as good as you could get for an unofficial sequel to Command and Conquer.

That episode of Strange New Worlds (Four and a half Vulcans) was hilarious. Then made even more so by that post-credit scene :D

Really enjoying Tempest Rising, the borderline spiritual successor/copyright infringing RTS based on Command & Conquer. I am a simple man, all I want to do is build an impenetrable base and overwhelm the enemy with a swarm of drones. I never get bored of it.

Dreamt I had a pupil progress meeting tomorrow. Stupid brain, I have one more week left of the summer holidays, dream up something cool please!

Definitely feel more nervous for my daughter's GCSE results than I ever was for my own.

My 16yr old is about to run her first D&D session. She's baked a cake for them all to share. Hope they all have fun!

Cinder loves a good stretch when cuddling.

In honour of assembling my first Gundam, I have decided to start watching the original TV show. Man I'd have eaten this up as a kid. The closest I got was Starzinger which my mum bought a VHS of when I was maybe 8, I think it was a few episodes of the show edited as a film.

Finished Red Rising. 3.5 stars. I enjoyed it on the whole, with two main exceptions that stopped me giving it a higher rating. One is that at no point did I ever feel like Darrow was 17/18. Similar to how I felt about the main character in Will of the Many.

Donkey Kong Bananza is deceptively addictive. "Just one more banana gem" I tell myself. Suddenly 3hrs have passed.

For those concerned that all I'm doing this summer is laying on the sofa with a cat and reading, I have also been laying on the sofa with a cat and playing Donkey Kong Bananza.

@louiestowell.bsky.social Consider yourself an influencer because I've picked up these for my class in September. I turned to a random page of Donut Squad and instantly had the giggles, I think this will be a good icebreaker book for my new Y4s.

That's Tress of the Emerald Sea finished. A lovely book. 3 books in two weeks, I love the summer holidays! I'm torn between going back to and finishing Red Rising, or keeping on with my Cosmere track and going for Elantris which is the only major Cosmere book I haven't read.

Putting this on my CV.

I was just saying in a reply yesterday how music you forgot about is such a treat to revisit. I can't even remember how I came across it today, but looked up N.E.R.D. and gave their first album a listen. Instantly got chills of nostalgia with the first track, Lapdance.

I wasn't sure about The Subway at first. But today I put on my nice headphones and listened to it a few times and I will now be listening to it on repeat for the foreseeable future.

Devoured Yumi and the Nightmare Painter in 3 days. Honestly blown away by it. Never expected romance from Sanderson. I sobbed through those last pages. My favourite quote from it: "Because art is, and always has been, about what it does to us. To the one shaping it and the one experiencing it."

Finished Isles of the Emberdark today. 5/5, way better than I was expecting. I wish Brandon Sanderson could clone himself because I now want a sequel but also don't want him to stop writing Ghostbloods. A must read for #Cosmere fans.

I'm used to FB showing me AI slop but IG seems infested with it now. The videos/pictures are completely unrelated to the captions. It used to be rare to see anything but who you actually follow on there but now it feels like it's going the way of FB.

Hard to know how much I enjoyed Fantastic Four as the experience was ruined by a small group of teenagers. I lost my absolute shit with them during the credits. Said they'd ruined it for everyone and that we all thought they were pricks.

19 chapters into Dungeon Crawler Carl and I think I'm going to have to DNF it. Great narrator. Some good ideas. But I'm finding it incredibly dull. Even given that this particular style isn't my thing, I'm honestly not seeing what justifies all those 5 star reviews. Ah well. Plenty more books!

Loved the first 2 episodes of Strange New Worlds S3. I'm sure some won't like the second episode, but Trek has always had silly episodes and that was a fun one.

Two things that made me feel old today. One, meeting my new class for next year having taught the parents of at least 2 of them. Then when discussing films, having my existing class laugh at me because I talked about baddies which means a very different thing now to when I was a kid.

Looking for a book recommendation for my new class next year (Y4, 8/9yrs old). I have had success with Loki and Podkin One Ear, but looking for something else. No HP or Walliams. To be more specific, I am after something on the shorter side to ease them into longer books.

Superman was enjoyable. A little too much going on. I think Lex was the weakest aspect. Loved Mister Terrific. 3.5 stars, would like to see more.

Predictable as ever, Ironheart gets review bombed. I'm sure all 17k of them watched the whole show. I can't even be bothered to go out and rate shows I do like, who has the energy to do this for ones they hate? Just...don't watch a show you don't like? Is that hard?

So Ironheart was...great? Why on Earth has Disney put the bare minimum into promoting this show? Top 5 MCU shows. Maybe higher.

I take anything advertised on TikTok with a pinch of salt but dear lord this Shark misting fan is incredible. I do not have space for air-con in my room but this thing with the mist on is very, very cooling. Pricey but worth it.

At this point I would pay not to see low follower ad accounts on TikTok trying to flog Monster energy drinks, cat litter or cheap electronics.

The only thing I'm not sure on with Fantasy Life i is how do they deliver the crack to your bloodstream?

This makes me sad. SNW and Lower Decks both could have gone on for a few more seasons. I wonder if budgets are the problem? So many shows now take 2 years to cough up 8 episodes. I'm risking becoming a cliché, and I LOVE new Trek (inc. Discovery and Prodigy) but...

I'm not getting the Switch 2 hate. It's not revolutionary, it was never meant to be. It's a faster Switch. That's it. Most of the criticisms you could throw at most consoles. It does feel like there's some kind of active campaign to moan about it on social media though.

Fantasy Life i is starting to sink its teeth into me. I feel I shouldn't really be doing all the Life tutorials first. I took a little detour to advance the plot, now I'm back to it. Just 3 of the crafting ones to go. A lovely blend of Animal Crossing and Zelda with a huge dose of weird.

I have some thoughts about going solo to the #ukge It's my 3rd time going but due to scheduling my first time going alone and I did not enjoy it as much. By quite a bit. Don't get me wrong, I played some lovely players in the SWU tournaments but even with that the magic was gone.

Late to the party but Youtube Music served me up Music of the Night and it gave me goosebumps. Phantom of the Opera is not something that's ever been on my radar before but I feel I will be hunting down tickets very soon.

It'll be my first time going solo to the UKGE this year. I've been twice before but was unable to rope friends into coming this year. Sadly it's doubling as a "Get your end of year reports written" retreat. Ah well. Gaming by day, report writing by night.

I've caved and pre-ordered a Switch 2. Fantasy Life i calls to me.

Well that's Lost finished (again). Forever cemented as one of the best TV shows of all time. The ending was perfect and that continues to be the hill I will die on. I can't think of another show that has me sobbing through the majority of the finale like that.

Almost at the end of Lost (for the 3rd time). Jin and Sun's deaths still hit the hardest.

Just finished Caliban's War. I loved her in the TV show but the books have really made Avasarala my favorite character. Jefferson Mays does a great job narrating the audiobook. On to Abbadon's Gate!

I woke up at 4 and made the choice to watch the last 3 episodes of Andor. My only regret is that I don't have the time to immediately watch Rogue One. I cried twice. Just absolutely brilliant.

My one wish for Clair Obscur would be an update that allows you to save a configuration of weapons, abilities, pictos and lumina. Eg. I would like a different setup for parries, tanking, shredding shields, single/multi target focus etc.

I can't understate how satisfying it was to finally take this MOTHERFUCKER down. Down to my very last character. It had a sliver of health, as did I. He was doing his insta-kill move. 163 parries. I am BUZZING. Hahaha this game is so good. #clairobscur #expedition33

In other news, sadly I have sold my Steam Deck today. I really need the extra money this and next month and it's something I don't even use every month. Sad to see it go though as it's an excellent piece of kit. But I only ever game at home, and rarely is there a benefit to playing on the sofa.

It was my birthday today. Never much of a fan of it at the best of times. But getting the Ofsted call at work has made this one birthday I particularly have not enjoyed. I work in a great school. Even so, this level of pressure is insane. I want the next 2 days to go very, very quickly.

[Giveaway] To celebrate the Nintendo Switch 2 launch, we're doing our biggest social media giveaway in our 17+ year history. Repost and follow for a chance to win a console bundle with Mario Kart World. Ends June 1, 2025, open worldwide.

I cannot believe how good Clair Obscure: Expedition 33 is. It really captures the feeling I had playing Final Fantasy 7/8 as a teenager. Takes a bit of getting used to with the dodge and parry. As does the magic system.