I don't have anything witty to say about the lack of GPs in the UK,
apart from to observe that maybe it'd have been nice to be able to allow
skilled physicians and surgeons to cross the borders and enter Britain
more easily than they can now. Maybe with a freedom of movement
agreement married to membership in a trade union or something.

Play:
--=--

Virtua Fighter 2 (PS3) - I have this stupid game on like six different
platforms now (counting where it's included as a feature of a Yakuza
game) and I always seem to come back to the PS3 to play it properly. The
PS2 version is very nice, but I seem to get the most action where the
save data is easiest to manage. I hit a personal best this past weekend
and made it all the way to the fight with Jeffry without using any
continues, which is unusual for me because usually Pai stomps me flat.

Space Hulk Tactics (PS4) - Put this on after having picked it up a few
months ago and I have no idea what's going on. Which makes it a perfect
simulacrum of the tabletop game. Truthfully, I can't tell any of the
Space Marines apart (by function or by faction) and one misshapen alien
being looks like the next. I suppose the biggest failing of Warhammer
40k is that it's so divorced from anything we know in reality that any
newcomer needs hours of explanation, and it's weird that I'm still
clearly a newcomer even after being aware of the property for 40 years.

Want:
--=--

To want to play things - I do this thing with the streaming services
where I browse around some of the programmes on offer, decide that
everything is terrible, and then put on some music. But not from a music
service because literally none of them play anything I actually listen
to. I carelessly turned on the Sexbox on Saturday (to install updates)
and I did the same thing with the Gamepass games. It's a sea of crap
that I don't want to be sold. I wonder idly if anybody at Microsoft
looks at my usage history and goes "Why is this guy playing that RPG
with no DLC and no online features?" and then wonders why they can't
sell me on a download that will make them the most money because
licensing of games now works like movie ticket sales, where only the
first two months matter.

Bin:
-==-

DHL - For all their faults, UPS was always able to get a parcel 600
miles away to my house in under 36 hours. That particular game store
switched to DHL while they were working out the labour strike issue, and
DHL has thusfar not only been unable to deliver along the same route in
a week's time but has also lost track of the package. DHL has been
incompetent and crooked for twenty years running now and I wish they'd
spent at least some of that time getting a little bit better at their
jobs.

Phantasy Star Online 2 (XSX) - It was gone from the PC, and now it's
gone from the Sexbox. I never played it and it took up... My gods, 90
gigs? Were they mining Ethereum on the side while I was looking for the
one fun feature in the game after four major revisions?

Monster Hunter Rise (XSX) - See also. It's a Gamepass game so I wouldn't
have ended up keeping it past the expiration of my subscription in
January. I just don't have any affection for the new design, the new UI,
or the fact that you can ride a dog into battle. I'm just too married to
the classic Monster Hunter to like what it's become now.

Metalworking - The cheap replacement belt I bought lost its reversible
buckle after no more than three days of me wearing it. And it's not like
I was going out swinging from trees to carry out ninja assassinations or
anything, this was just me pottering around the house trying to split my
time between tending to mental health and working my ridiculous day job.
My attempt to bodge together a tap-and-die fix resulted in me somehow
shearing a bolt in half with nothing more than my elderly hands and a
standard screwdriver. Meanwhile, tightening the screws on my office
chair saw me somehow cracking a Phillips head bit. Insert joke about
shoddy Chinese manufacturing here.

Expenditure:
-----=-----

Balance forward - $3,044

Like a Dragon: The Man Who Erased His Name (PS4) - $40
Like a Dragon: The Man Who Erased His Name (PS5) - $40
Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection (NSW) - $70
Elminage Original (PC) - $7

Total to date - $3,201

-KKC, who needs to get a handle on his scattered PS4 discs.

On 14 Aug 2023 at 00:45:22 BST, "Kendrick Kerwin Chua"
<kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:

>
> I don't have anything witty to say about the lack of GPs in the UK,
> apart from to observe that maybe it'd have been nice to be able to allow
> skilled physicians and surgeons to cross the borders and enter Britain
> more easily than they can now. Maybe with a freedom of movement
> agreement married to membership in a trade union or something.

Sounds like communism to me.

I checked in with my docs this morning looking for an appointment, but
they only had some available clashing with another appointment I already
had today. I'll check again tomorrow. My local practice seems to be
better at the whole 'making appts available' thing than many.

> Play:
> --=--

Put about 20 hours into Pikmin 4, got into two new types of
minigame/level. It's a delight. I find the dendori one-vs-one battles a
little stressful as I can't track which pikmin are mine, but otherwise
it's definitely a very smartly evolved Pikmin game.

Venba (Xbox, game pass): An hour or so of short story, with emotions and
a not very good cooking game BUT very mouthwatering recipes. I commend
this to break your ennui a little.

> Want:
> --=--

Nothing.

> Bin:
> -==-
> Metalworking

I need to find someone with a CNC machine that can put a perfectly
shaped hole in an aluminium PC case faceplate. Turns out this is hard.

> Expenditure:
> -----=-----
>
> Balance forward - $3,044
>
> Like a Dragon: The Man Who Erased His Name (PS4) - $40
> Like a Dragon: The Man Who Erased His Name (PS5) - $40

.... really? This seems a little excessive.

Cheers - Jaimie
--
"History repeats itself. Has to. No one listens."
-- Steve Turner

Kendrick Kerwin Chua <kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:

> I don't have anything witty to say about the lack of GPs in the UK,
> apart from to observe that maybe it'd have been nice to be able to allow
> skilled physicians and surgeons to cross the borders

I think this may already be happening, just not in the way intended.

> Play:

Oekaki Puzzle (PS1) - while I do like the way this has weird little
congratulation screens when you reach a certain number of puzzles
completed (which I mention as I just got one), it always feels oddly
bittersweet progress-wise due to the game having so many puzzles.
(IIRC it's significantly more than Mario's Picross and the SNES Super
Picross put together.)

> Want:

Nothing.

> Bin:

Having worked out how many puzzles I have left in OP. It's a lot.

-Rus.

In article <kjupjdF4je6U1@mid.individual.net>,
Jaimie Vandenbergh <jaimie@usually.sessile.org> wrote:
>On 14 Aug 2023 at 00:45:22 BST, "Kendrick Kerwin Chua"
><kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:
>
>> Bin:
>> -==-
>> Metalworking
>
>I need to find someone with a CNC machine that can put a perfectly
>shaped hole in an aluminium PC case faceplate. Turns out this is hard.
>

Isn't the usualy way to drill a pilot hole and the use that to center
the hole saw? Unless it is that the hole you need isn't going to be a
perfect circle, in which case your other option is lasers. or a mate
with a CNC machine.

>> Expenditure:
>> -----=-----
>>
>> Balance forward - $3,044
>>
>> Like a Dragon: The Man Who Erased His Name (PS4) - $40
>> Like a Dragon: The Man Who Erased His Name (PS5) - $40
>
>... really? This seems a little excessive.
>

JPN-region disc preorder. Turns out it won't be available on normal
media anywhere else outside of Nihon, and there may be different
language or hardware options available for each. They may not even
support English, so this is an aspirational purchase as much as
anything. Any vague hope that they might patch in a missing English
language subtitle option later sort of runs counter to the notion of
permanent media anyway.

-KKC, who did not cook these potatoes long enough.

On 14 Aug 2023 at 16:43:51 BST, "Kendrick Kerwin Chua"
<kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:

> In article <kjupjdF4je6U1@mid.individual.net>,
> Jaimie Vandenbergh <jaimie@usually.sessile.org> wrote:
>> On 14 Aug 2023 at 00:45:22 BST, "Kendrick Kerwin Chua"
>> <kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:
>>
>>> Bin:
>>> -==-
>>> Metalworking
>>
>> I need to find someone with a CNC machine that can put a perfectly
>> shaped hole in an aluminium PC case faceplate. Turns out this is hard.
>>
>
> Isn't the usualy way to drill a pilot hole and the use that to center
> the hole saw? Unless it is that the hole you need isn't going to be a
> perfect circle, in which case your other option is lasers. or a mate
> with a CNC machine.

Looking to add a roundrect of a specific size. Doable with a drill press
(which I also don't have) and a very very steady hand (ibid).

>>> Like a Dragon: The Man Who Erased His Name (PS4) - $40
>>> Like a Dragon: The Man Who Erased His Name (PS5) - $40
>>
>> ... really? This seems a little excessive.
>>
>
> JPN-region disc preorder. Turns out it won't be available on normal
> media anywhere else outside of Nihon, and there may be different
> language or hardware options available for each.

I remember you mentioning it on the pod now. The exact $40 rather than a
yen cost threw me off :)

Cheers - Jaimie

--
"It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I
have been searching for evidence which could support this" -- Bertrand Russell