February
Feed – The Written Report?
Didn't want to listen and watch me waffle on for 20 odd minutes (yes I do drone on). Then here is a precise of what was in my vlog.
Health
My friends
and long time followers will know I’ve been battling long term health issues of
which mental health plays a significant role these days. I’ve been undertaking 5 weeks of daily
therapy to my brain in the hopes that the areas afflicted with my malady can be
treated. It became apparent halfway
through the regime that the course was not having the desired affect but that I
would complete the full treatment in the hope that changes may occur. Needless to say at the end of the five weeks
I am feeling worse than when I started the process. This means further reading of the entrails of
chickens and divining a future that was written in stone and cannot be avoided.
Games
Thankfully
I have a circle of bad friends who pretend to let me lose at every game I
play. I do this spectacularly well. I’ve played 19 games this year, 14 games with
9 people.
- Risk Legacy (5 games)
- Animal Kingdoms (2 games)
- Age of Civilisation
- Carnival of Monsters
- Downsize
- Hero Realms
- Paladins of the Western Kingdom
- Railroad Ink: Deep Blue Edition
- Roll Player
- Roll Player: Monster
- Sorcerer City
- Spirit Island
- Tiny Epic Galaxies
- Undaunted: Normandy
In Animal Kingdoms, each player takes on the role of a house leader, battling to gain control of the five kingdoms. Cards in your hand represent noble beasts that have pledged their allegiance to you. Over the course of three ages, you must deploy your beasts to the various territories – making sure that you adhere to each kingdom’s decree – to try and improve your influential position in the kingdoms. The house that gains the most influence by the end of the third age is declared the one true leader of the realm.
—description from the publisher
June, 1944: Through the D-Day landings, the Allies have seized a foothold on the beaches of Normandy. Now you must lead your troops forward as you push deeper into France and drive the German forces back. You will face intense resistance, machine gun fire, and mortar bombardment, but a great commander can turn the situation to their advantage!
Undaunted: Normandy is a deck-building game that places you and your opponent in command of American or German forces, fighting through a series of missions critical to the outcome of World War II. Use your cards to seize the initiative, bolster your forces, or control your troops on the battlefield. Strong leadership can turn the tide of battle in your favor, but reckless decisions could prove catastrophic as every casualty you take removes a card from your deck. Take charge amidst the chaos of battle, hold fast in the face of opposition, and remain undaunted.
—description from the publisher
Engines purring, goggles down — the seaplane is set for take-off! Welcome to the whimsical world of Wayfinders in which intrepid explorers race to chart new paths through the skies.
You will need to think on your feet and outfit your planes with the right gear to arrive safely — but building hangars on islands and stocking them with parts can help you zip around with ease! Be sure to be keen in your planning and you will unlock the charms of the islands. Wheels up — adventure awaits!
—description from the publisher
My Biased
Opinions
Virtue
signalling and demanding rights for certain groups within industries without
merit is anathema to me. There is no free meal at any table to a person who
does not have a promise to meet the criteria to perform. This has been the way of the world from the
day people competed for resources and self importance.
As can be
seen from the woeful low ratings of the Oscars – people are not interested in
elitist virtue signalling individuals telling the rest of the world how to
behave, or how unequal or unfair things are.
When I buy a game I do not want to be confronted by the creators or
companies ideology dogma. The recent
kerfuffle on content and consent annoyed me no end. As a onetime quality manager and document
controller part of me agrees with it inclusion purely on the “doing it by the
book” way that I’d approach to document production and control. However that being said, I also would look at
the way in which meaning and intent is conveyed to the greater community. If the level of absurdity continues will
there be warning signs on the covers of all books or games “warning, contents
may disturb or offend.”
TV Series
I love my
period detective series many of them I tie them to my love of Call of Cthulhu or narrative style
miniature games. I am a man mired in the
past, having lived so much of my time there!
Two series that I have acquired thanks to sales (usually two for the
price of one) have been Father Brown
and The Murdoch Mysteries. I only acquired (yesterday) I Zombie which my wife and I
particularly love. Long time followers
will also know I have a particular fondness for Rex Stout’s Nero Wolf detective series which was
dramatised well on TV and was even better as a radio series in the golden age
of radio.
The series is set during the mid-1950s, in the fictional Cotswold village Kembleford, where Father Brown, priest at St Mary's Catholic Church, solves murder cases. A bumbling police inspector, who often arrests the wrong suspect, gets annoyed by Father Brown's success.
Father Brown uses the distinctive skills of his close friends as well as his own wits to solve cases, occasionally to the neglect of his more mundane parish duties. His vocation as a priest often gives him an insight to the truth, so that justice (but sometimes, not the letter of the law) may be served. His commitment to obeying the Seal of the Confessional often presents unique circumstances. The time period is when Britain was still struggling with deprivations and other hardships in the aftermath of the Second World War. At that time the country still applied the death penalty as a sentence for capital crimes such as murder. Father Brown opposes capital punishment.
(Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_Brown_(2013_TV_series) )
The series takes place in Toronto starting in 1895 and follows Detective William Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) of the Toronto Constabulary, who solves many of his cases using methods of detection that were unusual at the time. These methods include fingerprinting (referred to as "finger marks" in the series), blood testing, surveillance, and trace evidence.
Some episodes feature anachronistic technology whereby Murdoch sometimes uses the existing technology of his time to improvise a crude prototype of a technology that would be more readily recognizable to the show's 21st-century audience. In one episode, for instance, he creates a primitive version of sonar to locate a sunken ship in Lake Ontario. In still another, a foreign police officer has a photograph that Murdoch needs as evidence, so Murdoch asks the other officer to overlay the photograph with a grid numerically coded for the colour in each square, and to transmit the numerical data to Murdoch via telegraph—with the end result that the foreign officer has essentially sent Murdoch a bitmap image they call a "facsimile"—a telefax. This aspect of the show has been described as introducing elements of the steampunk genre of science fiction, although it is not a standard theme of all episodes.
Detective Murdoch is assisted by the three other main characters: Inspector Brackenreid (Thomas Craig), Doctor Julia Ogden (Hélène Joy), and the inexperienced but eager Constable George Crabtree (Jonny Harris), who aspires to be a mystery novel writer. Brackenreid, Murdoch's immediate superior, is a blunt and sceptical Yorkshireman with a fondness for whisky who prefers conventional methods of detection over Murdoch's eccentric methods, though he is typically pleased and proud when Murdoch is successful despite the odds. Crabtree is often unable to grasp the more advanced methods, but his enthusiasm and loyalty make him a good assistant. Like Crabtree, Dr. Ogden is a great supporter of Murdoch's methods. Her skill in pathology usually helps by revealing a great deal of useful evidence to aid Murdoch in solving cases. Throughout the series, Murdoch's growing infatuation with her, and his inability to express his feelings, provide a light subplot. In the fifth season, after Dr. Ogden is married to Dr. Darcy Garland (a colleague she met in Buffalo), a new doctor is introduced, Doctor Emily Grace (Georgina Reilly). She and George Crabtree show some romantic interest in each other.
Real history is an important element in most episodes, and the plots, though fictitious, sometimes involve real people, such as Buffalo Bill Cody, Annie Oakley, H G Wells, Nikola Tesla, Wilfrid Laurier, Jack London, Arthur Conan Doyle, Queen Victoria, Theodore Roosevelt, Oliver Mowat, Orville and Wilbur Wright, Henry Ford, Sir Winston Churchill, Bat Masterson, Alexander Graham Bell, Emma Goldman, H. P. Lovecraft, Harry Houdini, Thomas Edison and Helen Keller. Future events are often foreshadowed. For example, it is implied that secret British-American government co-operation has produced a highly advanced aircraft similar to an airship, and Crabtree and Murdoch allude to the building of a secret government facility in Nevada and New Mexico "at Concession 51" (an allusion to Area 51). Characters also refer to actual inventions of the 19th century and extrapolate from them to future inventions such as microwave ovens, night-vision goggles, computers, the games "Cluedo" (marketed as "Clue" in the U.S.) and "Hangman", the toy Silly Putty, and a silencer for small arms.
Another underlying theme of the series involves the fact that Murdoch is a Roman Catholic in what was at the time a predominantly Protestant city and the prejudices that he occasionally encounters as a result. Other subplots that overarch multiple episodes include women's suffrage movement in Canada, a movement that was taking place during the time the series is set in, and the discrimination towards racial minorities in Toronto at that time.
Till next time
The Honourable John
