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.
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 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.
I wrote about it a couple of times on the blog 10 years ago, “We’ll Always Have Bordeaux” and “Je ne veau pas aller travailler“. The first was written after I came home, the latter was after we were eliminated.
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.
I wrote about it with “That Shit Cray(fish)” and “Dallas Flyers Club“.
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.
I talked about the travelling bit of Krakow on a blog post here “Only here for the Krakow“.
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?
This week I was on the WP Builds “This Week in WordPress” podcast episode 365. The main focus on my discussion was this blog post by Elliot Richmond which I love about where he publishes his content. It’s something I’ve been thinking a lot of, on where I publish my work.
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 Marc Benzakein too!
I was in the third edition of the Dealgorithmed email, an email dedicated to the fun side of the web.
It’s not available online, so in my interview I shared a website I love (Cloudhiker), content I’m loving at the moment (Evercade) and waxed lyrical about some of the early Jackbox games from the early 00’s I wish came back – Acrophobia (which was a backronym generator for multiplayers) and Cosmic Consensus which only exists in this screenshot…
…but it was excellent. Imagine a Family Fortune style board game, where you could advance one, two or three squares depending if you picked the most/second/third most popular answer.
Anyway, hello if you came from that newsletter! I hope you enjoy your stay here, sign the Guestbook. 🙂
I really enjoyed reading this article from The Guardian about the Quake Brutalist Jam: a jam that makes new maps for Quake.
I’ve recently been playing through Quake again (the base game is on Steam) and I’ve really been enjoying it. The beauty however is how easy the game is to mod.
I remember how much I loved picking up CD’s full of total conversions. I remember a Marvel themed Quake TC, and a few other ones stuck out in my mind. Heck Team Fortress started life as a Quake Total Conversion.
I had a few maps that I made and edited a few textures in the 1990s. Usually with garish primary colours, that stood out from the actual game, but it was a formative experience, tinkering and playing with games. Something I still enjoy nowadays. Part of me has got me thinking whilst shooting Fiends, Shamblers and Ogres in the id classic has got me wanting to make a level. Just to dust off my chops.
So seeing it evolve 30 (yes, THIRTY) years later to what it’s become and the modding community getting it’s flowers is nice to see.
Now to find the big box version that I’ve got somewhere.
