The last couple of nights I’ve fallen asleep to the Syrric YouTube Channel. It is a group of dudes who read out fun facts about video games. The thing that differentiates it from a bunch of other channels? It’s not designed to be watched – but rather listened too as you fall asleep.
Last night I had a hectic day and wasn’t in until about 9pm. I try to fall asleep between 10 and 11pm, so when I went to bed I was still rather awake.
10 minutes of hearing a calming voice talk about the history of Super Mario Brothers? Zonked out.
Also, quite nicely, as their output has been so regular the inevitable questions about it being AI generated came out – which they were quick to answer in this video.
In short, I’ve really enjoyed this channel, and recommend checking it out. Hope it continues for ages as they’ve been burning through franchises like nobody’s business!
This website has catalogued all 1000+ of the Pokémon 30th Anniversary logos that exist. The Pokémon company has created 1000 of them, that are sent to individual users by replying to the official announcement on that dead bird site. Thankfully Joe Merrick has done the Lord’s work meaning we don’t have to go there, horray!
I must admit, Pokémon is a franchise I enjoy probably more in the sum of it’s parts rather than the individual elements. I was probably half a generation too old to play the games (Red & Blue), and the cards passed me by, but did enjoy the cartoon.
This is fun. Dialed is a small time waster of a game where you’re shown 5 colours and have to match what you’ve seen by hue, saturation and luminescence.
The score to beat!
I started well in the game on this site, however it all fell apart midway through – but recovered at the end. I was on for so much more. Maybe it is because my blue is green?
Anyway, I’ve created a game for those who find this link and check it out. It’s linked in the title. Let me know how you get on!
If you’ve been on Instagram recently1 (probably the only major social media platform I tolerate), you’d have seen the “Me in 2016” trend doing the rounds. Though trying to find a page somewhat relevant to link to is tough mind (there was a “Me at the start of 2016 vs me at the end of 2016” meme trend from 10 years ago that was popular after the world went to shit), but if you’re not aware, people are sharing photos of themselves from 10 years ago. Yes. Ten. No I can’t believe it either.
Wanting to jump a bit on the bandwagon, and based on a comment I replied to on the Under Consoletation Podcast Discord group, I thought I’d turn it into a blog post, as rather surprisingly to me I was pretty active blogging here. Granted, a lot of it is cringey unboxing videos as I think I was trying to start a YouTube channel for reasons only known to myself, but I thought I’d share some highlights.
Brexit and Trump aside2, 2016 was a good year. I did a fair bit of travelling and actually was settled with everything before the world went to shit. I wasn’t sure if I was going to go freelance (that was a couple of years later), but instead I was focusing on actually enjoying myself, and enjoy myself I did. My highlights were:-
Euro 2016
Euro 2016 was the first time I saw Wales (now with 2 Euros, a women’s Euros and World Cup under their belt) qualify for a major tournament. I cannot begin to talk about how much that tournament meant to me: I’ve 5 photos of Hal Robson Kanu’s goal against Belgium in my house. For context, I’ve 4 of my family.
But mainly, whilst the UK was going to shit with the run up to the Brexit referendum, in France, the Welsh were having a great time. So many fond memories of the 2 weeks I spent in France, the nights in Bordeaux with about 3 groups of friends from high school, university and Wales away, the bar in a spa hotel in Kortrijk, Belgium I was staying at and the memories that included (which was largely me, a German couple and a Spanish barman talking about life. But there was a funny moment where a Welsh couple stayed a night and didn’t realise that Wales were in the Euros, they had driven to buy a caravan). Exploring Toulouse, drinking in the main square, and seeing friends from all walks of life. Just an incredible two weeks for me.
Honestly, I’d wager that it (along with the Euros in Germany a couple of years back) were the last great international footballing tournaments, and even now the World Cup doesn’t interest me, even if we qualify, given the state of the world.
The other highlight of 2016 for me was probably the worst Wrestlemania in years, certainly the worst between 30 and 40. Whilst the actual event was terrible, the memories from the trip to Dallas and New Orleans will stay forever. This is arguably a more impactful trip for me, as I’ve got a couple of really good friends from it that I still speak to most days – one of which has moved to London. So, whilst Wrestlemania was bad, the trip? Life changing. I remember the food, the golf day, the day after Wrestlemania which involved a lot of drinks in the sun (made the flight home terrible) and some other stories I only feel comfortable sharing in person. Just a fantastic time really. Hopefully America sorts itself out so I can visit again.
Finally, the third biggest impact (and another happy memory)3 was the wedding of my brother to my sister-in-law. It was my first visit to Krakow, and the wedding was excellent. I also got to meet my sister-in-law’s family for the first time, who are wonderful people. Plus I fell in love with the city of Krakow as well. I’m probably going there twice this year – once for WordCamp Europe, once as there’s been talk of a 10 year celebration.
The rest of the blogs were seemingly dedicated to a Dryathlon I did in 2016 – which is funny reading considering how much I hated non alcoholic beers back then. They’re pretty much my go to now. Funny.
Anyway, how was your 2016?
I said “recently” when I mean “since the start of the year”. This post has been sat in drafts for a while needing images. Soz. ↩︎
Which is like Mrs Lincoln saying “That aside, I really enjoyed the play”. ↩︎
Also, through it I discovered the Internet Archive Wayback Machine Link Fixer plugin, which pushes your blog posts to the Internet Archive (something I’ve installed on the site now – so it’d be interesting to see how it works). Very cool. And there’s probably dead links all over this blog. Will report back.
As always, it was good to speak with Nathan and Michelle, and good to meet MarcBenzakein too!
