Blog
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Imajica by Clive Barker
I recently finished reading Clive Barker's Imajica for what I think is the fourth time. It remains one of my favourite fantasy novels, and I'd love to tell you why.
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Not kink-shaming anyone, but I'm not sure I want to go to the 'toilets viewing area'.
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Sign above a door saying 'toilets' and 'viewing area' on separate lines, but looking slightly like they might be a single sentence.
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The younger kids' taekwondo school put on a free 'new years workout' class this morning. It was pretty awesome.
My watch says my heart rate averaged 146bpm, peaking at 169bpm. It's possible I'm not as fit as I used to be. 😅
But at least I don't feel like I might die, like I did during the 'dads go free' promotion last year. Progress?
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In a gym environment with punchbags visible in the background Dan, a white man wearing a black t-shirt, throws a right jab, alongside others who are doing the same.
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![Image representing post: Why I Am So Tired [Video]](https://bcdn.danq.me/_q26u/2026/01/why-i-am-so-tired-title-card-978x480.jpg#27897)
Why I Am So Tired [Video]
A video version of my recent joke about why I'm so tired, which was also made available in article and podcast formats.
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Why I Am So Tired
After dusting off and modernising a joke I first read in a chain email from 1996, I can tell you conclusively that the reason that I'm tired is because I'm overworked.
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As part of my efforts to reclaim the living room from the children, I'm building a new gaming PC for the playroom. She's called Bee, and - thanks to the absolute insanity that is The Tower 300 case from Thermaltake - she's one of the most bonkers PC cases I've ever worked in.
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On a desk cluttered with computer parts, a partially-built PC stands in an irregular-hexagonal prism shaped case with vented yellow sides and a three-pane angled glass front.
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Visualising Forged In The Dark probabilities
Blades in the Dark (and other Forged In The Dark-based games) use a highest-value-from-D6-dice-pool mechanic to resolve actions. I was looking for a visualisation of the resulting probabilities, but couldn't find one... so I made my own.
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A small collection of text-only websites
Terence Eden's maintaining a list of websites that are presented as, or are wholly or partially available via, plain text. Obviously my own text/plain blog is among them, and is as far as I'm aware the only one to be entirely presented as text/plain.
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Tintern Abbey's looking especially beautiful in the fresh snow, this morning.
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A partially-ruined stone monastery juts out of a snowy plain in a wooded valley, under bright blue skies.
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Our dog has decided that the perfect place to lie down at our holiday accommodation is... on a staircase whose carpet is the same colour as her!
I'm grateful for her very-visible blep... or I'd have tripped over this camouflaged pupper several times already!
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A champagne-coloured French Bulldog lies on a step of a staircase carpeted in the same colour as herself, u her tongue in medium-blep.
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Found GC47WME PYVW- Cuckoo Wood
I was in these woods anyway, seeking GC10N80 and figured I'd come hunt for this cache too. A quick find; my geosense spotted a candidate hiding place right from the main path, and I turned out to be right.
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Found GC10N80 Wye Eye
This puzzle cache, undiscovered for 20 months, made for one of the most satisfying geocaching expeditions I've ever done.
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Found GC39NPC Cleddon shoots and falls
Hiked over from Catbrook on the way to a cache up Pen Y Fan and stopped by these beautiful waterfalls on the way. So glad I did!
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D&D 5e is not for everyone
Kai Koehler reminds us that D&D 5e is far from the only TTRPG, with a tight dissection of its specific characteristics so that they can be compared to other, perhaps more roleplay-heavy, games and systems. They include some suggested ideas for other games, too, a couple of which I'm strongly-inclined to try out!
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Found GC7P0AN A Fine Pair # 1089 ~ Parkhouse
The geohound and I walked over from Catbrook this morning "the long way" - over the hill and woods, finding a couple of caches along the way - to this cache.
From both the cache type and my GPSr's map data I fully expected to find a post box here alongside the (decrepit) red phone box, but it's nowhere to be seen! Has it perhaps been removed?
In any case, the hint reassured me that I was in the right place and my geosense told me where to look. A disappointingly tiny cache container (where a larger one could have probably been placed) was soon found, caked in mud, and replaced as-found.
TFTC.