It's Craney... FYI 🤷‍♂️ Profile Photo

It's Craney... FYI 🤷‍♂️

Northern Network Engineer now In Dorchester in the south of the UK. Father to two boys 👨‍👩‍👦‍👦 Husband to a hard working nurse 👩‍⚕️ Owner of a 3 legged cat 🐱

Essay

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    2023/2024 Subscription Review 💸

    Subscription costs for apps and services is a part of mainstream life now, and just as developers get the benefits of recurring revenue streams for ongoing development and improvement of their apps, we also get the benefit (if we choose to) of looking at the state of the service, the market they sit in and how much value these things truly bring, then voting with our wallets. In theory…if we sit down and do the work! 1

    That being said, here’s what I subscribe to currently, as well as what’s staying/going in 2024!

    🚨 Note: Any monthly subs I’ve put in the yearly price of the sub in my estimates 🚨

    Applecare Warranties - £167.76/Year

    • AppleCare/Apple Watch Ultra (£59.88/Year) - I think I might risk this and cancel. My old Apple Watch even after 2 years wasn’t even eligible for the battery replacement. This has been the case with my last 3 watches. 👎

    • AppleCare/iPhone 15 Pro Max (£107.88/Year) - My phone is one of my most important devices. I can’t risk getting rid of AppleCare. 👍

    Streaming/Storage - £697.17/Year

    • AppleOne Premier (£443.40/Year) - Ok Ok, hear me out! This subscription gives Apple Music, Apple TV, News+, Fitness and 2TB of Storage to my whole family (Me, My Wife & 2 boys). Un-Bundling or reducing a tier and adding storage saves basically pennies so it’s just not worth it. I really really need to use the fitness components of this in 2024 to make it worth it though. 👍

    • Crunchyroll (£59.99/Year) - I’ve really re-discovered my love of Anime this year and the service is pretty cheap. I need my Gundam and Lupin. It’s staying. 👍

    • Disney+ (£109.90/Year) - I really enjoyed watching some shows on this. The Bear. The Old Man. The kids watch stuff on it…The movie choice is ok but….that’s a lotta money with the new renewal price… I do prefer it however to….🤷‍♂️

    • Netflix (£83.88/Year) - I loathe Netflix. The reduced content, the increase in prices, the restrictions on sharing….but the family love it. I guess it’s staying. 🤷‍♂️

    Game Services - £275.87/Year

    • Xbox Game Pass £155.88/Year - If I play at least 3 full price games I Would have bought, then it’s worth keeping. Especially for the value the kids get from it as well.👍

    • Playstation Plus Premium £119.99 - Took this out on a discounted rate. The service is hot garbage. Absolutely not worth the price. It’s gone. 👎

    Apps - £183.44/Year

    • Sofa £29.99/Year - Bought on a discounted rate. Won’t renew. It’s clunky, complex and I always feel like I’m wrestling against it vs it helping me. It seems MacStories has moved onto Sequel which seems more streamlined, has more interesting features and is cheaper. Think I’ll switcheroo. 👎

    • Final Cut Pro £49.99 - I tried to be a video editor. I am not. Easy cancel. Back to iMovie. 👎

    • Footpath £21.49/Year - I need to actually use it more in 2024 to justify it. It’s an elegant piece of software. It’s well priced for what it does. It stays for 2024. 👍

    • Lose It £34.99/Year - What would Jan be without another attempt at weight loss. It appears they’ve added IF features to it now as well. It stays as it’s due for renewal mid-year. We’ll see how I get on with it. 👍

    • Ivory £24.99/Year - Probably not a popular opinion, but I don’t feel like it’s justified the price for me personally. I’m not using Mastodon as much at the moment I’m gonna go back to the official app and take my chances whilst I trial some alternatives. 👎

    • Bear £13.99/Year Grandfathered - Finally 2.0 came out… aaaaand it’s still a bit clunky, underbaked2 and not precisely what I’m looking for. I stuck with you for a damn long time but it’s over. Tagging and linking is clunky, Bear for Web is something I’m just not interested in either. Time to learn Obsidian instead for the grand price of free and move on. 👎

    • Infuse 8.99/Year I honestly forgot I was subscribed to this. I don’t use it at all anymore… 👎

    Services - £384.90/Year

    • YNAB £90/Year - I love it. It helped me create this list and look at costs. It gave me the confidence to plan to quit a job that was harming me, take time off and move myself in a different career. I had that financial confidence due to this app helping me plan. 👍

    • ‌Micro.Blog £80-ish - What you’re reading this post on! So it’s gotta stay! I did upgrade to premium for the video hosting, but trying to get something to stay in the small file size limit is more trouble than it’s worth, plus I have no plans to start a podcast or newsletter anytime soon, so I’ll probably go back down to the $50 (£40-ish) plan again and embed my videos via Youtube instead. 👍

    • Tinylytics £40-ish/Year - Fun! Elegant and shows me that on occasion someone actually reads the stuff I put on my blog :) Absolutely staying. 👍

    • NextDNS £19.90/year - Essential. Adblocking and enhanced security for the whole family. Simple to setup with Apple products and smart. Highly recommend it. 👍

    • 1Password £55-ish/Year - I’ve used 1Password since it launched, it’d be ridiculous to stop now. It’s had some ups and downs since it was gobbled up by VC’s but I can’t ever imagine switching. 👍

    • Nest Aware £50/Year - I need it for my Next Cameras to use with my Starling Hub to pipe them into HomeKit. Maybe at one point I should look at proper HomeKit cameras instead. 👍

    • Microsoft365 £50/Year - I always get this on a deal with some antivirus software which I never even install as it’s cheaper. Family licence and it’s used more by my kids and my wife than me. 👍

    Total Costs

    Current cost of subscriptions £1709.14/Year or £142.43/Month

    Revised cost of subscriptions 1402.31/Year or £116.86/Month.

    Potentially we can drop this further if we ditch Disney+ and/or Netflix even for a period of time. Maybe do a few months with one then flip to the other… We’ll see. Still fairly pricy but considering spreading it out over the services and the fact a lot of these don’t just serve me but the whole family… not too bad!

    1. Don’t be complacent with your subs! Really contemplate how much value these things give and act accordingly! ↩︎

    2. Finally Tables!….But you can’t sort or re-arrange them. ↩︎

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    ✈️ Japan Diaries : Day 7 Osaka

    Osaka is only a brief 30 minute train ride away from Kyoto, so it was always on the books that we’d day trip out there and take full advantage of our JRPass.

    A canal with a pedestrian bridge adorned with white lanterns, buildings with commercial signage, and a large chef statue on a rooftop.

    Osaka is known for its street food, especially Takoyaki [^1] and its party atmosphere. Residents are apparently known for their friendliness and relaxed attidudes, more so than residents of Kyoto and Tokyo apparently!

    It’s also got a really great shopping street renowned for its kitchen supplies and even a special store that sells the plastic food re-creations you’ll see on the front of so many restaurants.

    This was our mission. Full bellies and kitchen goods. Let’s go!

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    Stuff this week #9

    Trio the cat Sleepy on the Sofa

    I’ve had a little break from blogging as It’s been a busy time of the year at work and at home, then I got a cold 🤒 and have generally been feeling a bit crappy and not like wriiting.

    I’m now making an effort to put a bit more pep in my step! 💪

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    Stuff This Week #8

    A steady week all in all as the weather finally cools and the nights draw in 🎃

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    Japan Diaries - Day 6 Arashiyama Bamboo Grove & Higashiyama

    Our plan today was to visit the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove using the Randen Tram line in the morning. In the afternoon we were going to explore the old town area Higashiyama some more.

    We wanted today to be more relaxed. We’d had a later one last night exploring and had been running around pretty much non-stop. Today was all about slowing it down.

    Breakfast at Smart Coffee

    We spotted Smart Coffee when we were wandering the Shotengai around our hotel and had seen people queuing to get in. We’d made a mental note to try it out, and what’s more relaxing than a luxurious breakfast?

    After a short queue we were shown to our seats and this place was fancy 🧐.

    Myself and my boys had Iced coffee’s with my wife going for tea. We ordered Hot Cakes[^1] and French toast both served with a generous cup of maple syrup.

    My son in front of a plate of large thick french toast

    A plate of “hot cake” pancakes with tiny jug of maple syrup on the side

    The service and presentation at this place was high class. The only thing I could really compare it to in the UK would be Betty’s Tea Rooms

    I was looking at what other tables had ordered, and their egg sandwiches and purin[^2] also looked world class.

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    Stuff this week #7

    A black and white photo of a hotel room

    A week off work this week, so some travelling, some relaxing and unfortunately... way too much procrastination.

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    Japan Diaries : Day 5 All Over Kyoto

    Today was our “Get around and see stuff” day, with our priority being the Imperial Palace. We’d seen a little bakery around the corner we decided to hit up for Breakfast first.

    Breakfast

    We went to Sizyua which was just around the corner from our hotel. A local bakery which has been going since 1948 and is named after the founders wife.

    A breakfast plate with thick white toast and a hard boiled egg

    We had the curious breakfast combo of toast and a hard boiled egg. I had white bread where my family had the fruit bread.

    Whilst to us being foreigners, the combo was slightly odd but still delicious. Thick well toasted and beautifully buttered bread, and a nice hard boiled egg! What’s not to like!?

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    Stuff This Week #5-6

    I didn’t get this out last week as life just got in the way, so this is a sorta doubled up bumper pack of last week and this weeks stuff.

    Trio the cat sat on my wife’s legs

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    Stuff This Week #4

    It’s all about tech mostly this week. With a little bit of food thrown in. And of course the weather, because what sort of Brit would I be if I didn’t mention it…

    A photo of weymouth Harbour taken from the bridge One of the first shots I took with my new phone

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    Japan Diaries : Day 4 Shinkansen to Kyoto & Nishiki Market

    Shinkansen to Kyoto

    Shinkansen pulling into the station

    Our first Shinkansen ride! How exciting! We’d heard all about the Bullet Trains and with tickets booked we made our way to Tokyo Station. You’ll see more on the exterior of Tokyo Station in subsequent blogs, but for today’s purposes, know that is is big and it is bustling. Not only is it a train station, but a shopping mall, a place to buy gifts and so much more.

    With our JRPasses, we’d pre-booked all our Shinkansen journey’s and seats, meaning all we had to do was turn up. I know the cost of JRPass is going up excessively near the end of this year, but the ability to get all our bookings done online ahead of time was fantastic piece of mind for me and my worrying brain.

    For breakfast we got fruit sandwiches from Be! Fruits Sandwich. Mine was grape. I’m not entirely sold on this concept I’m afraid 🤣 The quality of fruit in Japan is exceptional. Indeed, the price reflects this, but it’s just white bread and whipped cream. I’m glad I had the experience, but I am not a convert.

    I also acquired an Ekiben 1 which was much more up my alley. Pre-boxed meals specifically for the trains that come with a variety of meats, seafoods and styles. You can get fancy with these, but I settled for a middle of the road one that was around ¥20002 containing a beef hamburger and some thin steak, alongside rice and a mixture of pickled vegetables. It was delicious.

    Apparently early morning day drinking is acceptable as well, but I didn’t indulge in that 😜

    A train driver leans out of the window on a phone as he drives into the station

    The majestic sleek front of a Shinkansen

    The trains themselves are extremely impressive, and unlike anything you’d see in the UK. Efficient, clean, spacious, thoughtful. Every Shinkansen journey we had was wonderful.

    Me and my son sat in train seats

    My wife and other son sat in train seats

    A sealed Ekiben meal on a train table

    An opened ekiben meal of beef, rice and vegetables

    For oversized baggage there are special seats you can book (5 per carriage). We couldn’t get them for this journey and were a bit nervous of our luggage. It turned out to be a non-issue. Our bags fit on the overheads and even in the space between our seats with room to spare. You’d have to have an absolutely ginormous bag to get yourself into trouble.

    Luggage between our legs on the train seats

    This was our first look at the Japanese countryside as well. Luscious and green spaces with little villages, towns and businesses. Scenery gazing was such fun!

    The green Japanese countryside from the train window

    Kyoto 1st impressions & Hotel

    We stayed at the Hotel Gran Ms Kyoto in one of their Japanese Style rooms with small garden. This space was beautiful and really fun. I absolutely loved it. We got unpacked, freshened up and went to explore the local area.

    Our Japanese style room with tatami mats and a low seated table

    Nishiki Market

    The colourful enclosed street of Nishiki Market with its multicoloured glass roof and 100’s of stores

    The hotel street connected us directly to Teramachi Senmontenkai Shotengai, and we wandered through that and the other Teramchi Shgotengai’s browsing the independent stores until we arrived at the legendary Nishiki market. Nicknamed “Kyoto’s kitchen” it now is the place to buy local produce from 100+ different stores, but has been in place as a fish market since 782.

    Historically, it was setup due to the cold groundwater at the site that allowed fish and meats to be kept fresh for sale.

    Exploring the market we sampled various tempura, Wagyu kushiyaki 3 and even the local delicacy of baby octopus with a quail egg in its head.

    Baby octopus with a quail egg on sticks at a vendors

    A cooked baby octopus on a stick

    Our favourite was a store that was a mini-market in of itself. With wooden barrel tables and a setup of tiny stalls selling a variety of foods and drinks, we rested our aching feet and sampled a few rounds of different street foods. This place had a great atmosphere. Being able to get Tempura, sushi, beef means there was something for everyone.

    A fisheye lens shot of the eating stalls and hustle bustle

    Me eating wagyu beef on a stick

    My son eating octopus on a stick

    Me with tempura and a beer

    My wife eating tempura squid

    My son eating tempura

    My son with chopsticks having just eaten tempura

    A vignette shot of a couple choosing sushi at a market stall

    Wandering the rest of the market we had a dessert of strawberry mochi’s and Taiyaki 4

    My eldest son and wife laugh as they buy strawberry mochi from a street vendor

    My son holding the strawberry mochi

    A Japanese waffle fish filled with custard in its paper wrapper

    On the way home we walked into the B-Side Label shop, a Japanese artist collective that sells stickers of various styles. We couldn’t resist picking a few up. The staff were really friendly and asked where we were from. They threw some extra stickers in our bag!

    Stickers!

    Kyoto has a different vibe than Tokyo. It feels more compact and discoverable, but still has a huge amount on offer. The mixture of the traditional and the modern, the independent and the large corporation was all on show and extremely intriguing. Just walking the shopping streets around the hotel had give us a laundry list of cafe’s and businesses we wanted to visit.

    A cook selling fried fish and crab with his wares spread all around him

    Smoking sign

    A black and white shot of a fish vendor closing the stall with the steel shutters half closed

    A closed shop with a neon beer sign called happiness comes

    With full bellies and even the excitement of what what Kyoto has to offer, we drifted off to sleep. Tomorrow, The Imperial Palace & more!

    1. 駅弁, railway bento ↩︎

    2. About £11 ↩︎

    3. Beef skewers ↩︎

    4. Fish shaped waffles filled with sweet red beans, custard, chocolate or a mixture of these sorts of things. ↩︎

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    Stuff This Week #3


    • 📱New iPhone is ordered. 512GB Pro Max Blue Titanium. The Finewoven case arrived ahead of time so I’ve done a little look at that.

    • 🎮 I’m really excited to play with the new camera features and see the Ray Tracing/AAA Games in action.

    • ⛈️ As you can see from the picture at the top of this, the weather has most certainly changed and we’re not complaining about the heat anymore. Last night was a huge thunderstorm that lit up the night sky and shouted in thunderous booms. That storm actually killed power between around 5am to 7am, but is thankfully all ok again now.

    • 😓 A challenging and stressful work at week this week, but I’m proud of how I handled it and didn’t let it consume me. Being mindful, recognising behaviours and refusing to overstretch myself means I wasn’t as bothered about this sort of pressure as I have been in the past.

    • 🏃‍♂️ I did workout! Only once vs my planned two sessions, but I’m on-track to continue next week. I really need to keep front of mind how better I feel when I’ve done something physical.

    • 🇯🇵 I have done nothing to move forwards my Japan Diary posts this week sadly. Photos still need editing and stories still need writing. This is higher up the todo list for next week now though 💪

    • 🔪🩸 We watched the new Branagh Poirot adaption. Really enjoyed it!

    • ✍️ I feel like I’ve gotten into a swing with Micro.blog now. I’m loving writing more as a hobby, as well as interacting with the community. Had some great chats about the new Apple products, photography and more! I have a routine for discovery, following (and just as crucial, un-following) to expand my horizons on the platform as well.

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    iPhone 15 Pro Max Finewoven Cases 1st look

    Apple announced at their Wanderlust conference that they were ditching leather accessories due to the environmental impact of the materials at the scales the must produce them. Instead, the official premium cases will be made from a material they refer to as “Finewoven”. Mine arrived the other day, so lets take a look.

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    📱 Apple Press Conference Thoughts

    Here’s my random meandering thoughts from the Apple press conference 🍏

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    Stuff This Week #2

    A hot and busy week for the whole family this week, with the kids starting up at school/college again, hoping we get more into the general rhythm of normalcy next week.

    A seagull sat on the edge of a ship in Weymouth harbor

    • 🍻 My cutting down my alcohol intake continues this week and I have to say I feel better overall for it. Starting tomorrow I hope to expand into some fitness activities as well! 🏃‍♂️

    • 🔨 Speaking of workouts, building new Ikea furniture for the kids yesterday was a multi-hour sweaty affair 😅

    • 🍝 Had a great dinner over at a friends house last night. I’m an introvert/wallflower typically and have to be poked by my family into a lot of larger social interactions, but as I grow older I do find myself putting more importance in my friendships and relationships and find myself enjoying them.

    • 🏙️ My Bluesky invite finally came through. Installed it. Linked it to my domain. Scrolled the timeline for 5 minutes. Haven’t gone back. I think I’m over Twitter/Threads and that whole sort of social media interaction. I’m engaging with micro.blog more and more as I move away from the social behemoths.

    • 🧘‍♂️ We had a little visit to Weymouth beach Friday evening, had a quick splash then ate fish and chips on the harbour. It was so relaxing and uplifting it was almost like a meditation. Much required after the rush of the week.

    • 🇯🇵 We find ourselves missing Japan as we are post “big holiday”. I need to keep the Japan Diaries going as I write up each day and edit the photos I took over there. I really enjoy writing them as a reminder of our time there and find it makes the memories more concrete somehow… Only one thing for it, start planning for the next one?! 🤔🇮🇹❓

    • 🌎 Finally got all my domains under the same provider, moving the final ones away from a horribly outdated and unsupportive company. I’ve been meaning to do it for years and was dreading the complexity of the transfer process. In reality it was flawless and only took 10 minutes! There’s a lesson to be learned about fearing changes there methinks…

    Here’s to cooler weather next week 🤞. Have a good one everybody!

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    Stuff This Week #1

    • 📱 Getting excited about new phone time. Specifically

      • Rumoured periscope lens for better optical zoom
      • Finally getting rid of the gross poor quality leather cases and having these “FineWoven” cases sounds like a much needed change for Vegans and because the leather case quality has gotten so poor lately.

    • 👨‍💻Finally posted Day 3 of my Japan Diaries. I feel like I’m finally getting an easier way to upload these long form posts in a way I like thanks to getting some 3rd party tool involvement. I would like to see Micro.Blog make some improvements in this area natively at some point.

    • ✈️ Been watching H/JACK on Apple TV. Really enjoying it. Has that real enticing cliffhanger at the end of each episode that makes you want to watch just one more.

    • 👨‍👩‍👦‍👦 Summer holidays come to an end and both my boys are starting new schools/colleges tomorrow as they grow up! Blazers have been ironed. Shoes have been shined! Here we go!

    • 🍺 Been trying to cut down on my beer intake. We’re doing ok and non alcoholic beers are pretty good nowadays.

    • 🚀Starfield is here! Having a lot of fun with it. For all the bells and whistles it’s a Bethesda game in the style of Skyrim, and if you go in with that expectation, I think there’s good times to be had. I’ve really enjoyed the writing and scenarios for some of the content so far. Graphics are a bit hit and miss dependant on the place you’re at, but it’s pretty good fun!

    • 💻 Got a no name under desk mountfor my MacBook Pro and I love it! This thing has given me even more desk space back on my little desk.

    • 💡 This is inspired by GR36 and Maique who were further inspired even further down the line.

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    Japan Diaries : Day 3 Shibuya,Shinjuku & Kabukichō

    Today’s plan was to hit a lot of the more famous central locations within Tokyo.

    Shibuya, Shinjuku and a quick roam around the natourious Kabukicho.

    Shibuya

    A Timelapse of Shibuya crossing as the blur of people cross the street

    Of course, where else do you start apart from at the famous Shibuya Crossing! I once heard Chris Broad say it’s just a crossing and he doesn’t understand the hype, and I can absolutely see what he means 🤣

    The back of a street sign covered in colourful stickers

    It’s a lot smaller in person than I expected. It was cool to see and walk across, and see some of the other local legendary spots like 109, but Yeh… I wonder if tourists to the UK feel the same way about Piccadilly Circus

    The entrance to basketball street in Shibuya. Colourful ribbon streamers welcome you to to the neighbourhood

    I remember Times Square truly taking my breath away the first time I joined onto it… Maybe I’m just mor of an old grumpy jaded bastard now. 🤪

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    Japan Diaries : Day 2 - Senso-ji Temple & Akihabara

    Asakusa & Senso-Ji Temple

    Walking towards Senso-Ji temple on a hot summer day

    We set off to Asakusa around 10:30 and it was already extremely busy. The heat was intense but bearable. Navigating the Tokyo metro was amazingly easy and we soon found ourselves walking down Nakamise shopping street towards the temple entrance.

    A crowded temple gate My two children posing for a photo at the entrance

    We posed for some photo’s at the entrance and took in the sight. A sweet older Japanese gentleman came up to my eldest son and asked if he could practice his English. They had a short conversation about where we were from and how long we were staying in Japan.

    People bathing in the incense smoke from a large bowl

    We saw the Jokoro, a large incense burner. People gather around this and wave the smoke over themselves as it’s believed to have a healing effect.

    We drew Omikuji. Fortunes you gather by turning a box filled with sticks then looking at the writing to match up with a particular drawer containing your fortune.

    A time lapse of the temple entrance. People blur into the distance

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    Japan Diaries - Day 1 - Flight out and arriving in Akasaka

    I’ve always wanted to visit Japan. For your typical reasons of being into games, anime, extremely salty food 😜. Being British we also share the Japanese passion for queues and excessively saying sorry…

    Visiting Japan with my best friend Chris was something we always talked about in my 20’s. I wish we could have made it happen before he sadly passed away. I did finally make it on my 43rd birthday with my wife and my two boys (13 & 16).

    My family wasn’t as hot on visiting Japan as I’d always been. It just wasn’t really a place that was massively on their radar outside of Wagamama and Sushi. During the great COVID lockdown whilst stuck in our house and working from home we decided to watch a huge pile of travel content YouTube. From webcams across the world to more curated content old and new.

    Of course, a portion of these were people based in Japan. From Abroad in Japan, Only in Japan, Sharmeleon, Rion Ishida, Tabieats, Tokyo Creative,Junk Food Japan, Tokidoki Traveller and Seerasan my family started to get as interested as I was in what Japan had to offer.

    With my eldest son reaching 16 and finishing his GCSE’s my wife Jen proposed we have a big blast family holiday and she said she’d like us to go to Japan! The planning then began and we’ve just got back from two week trip! I’m going to post about our experienceson the journey as well as some of my favourite pictures on the trip. So here we go!

    Travelling out

    We flew out with British Airways on my birthday. The flight was scheduled to be twelve and a half hours but ended up being closer to fourteen and a half as there was a faulty chair stuck in recline which kept us on the tarmac as engineers hacked away at it.

    I’m aware unless you are willing to pay in the mid thousands of pounds the golden days of air travel are over, but boy I was shocked at just how dated and worn out the interior was. Torn/dirty trim visible and my in flight entertainment headphone socket would only work if I kept my hand on it to position it correctly. I can’t believe other carriers are this poor. Last time I flew was to Florida in 2017 with Virgin and that felt more modern than this flight. My family was a little more forgiving than me, but I would actively avoid flying BA in future given the choice…

    They did however have their own BA/Brewdog collab beer on the flight! Delicious! 🍻

    Finally we did touchdown in the afternoon Japan time, got our JR Pass,the essential Suica Cards and made our way on the Monorail to our first hotel!

    Hotel 1 - Mimaru / Area - Akasaka Tokyo

    Our first hotel Mimaru was a great experience! We’d booked their more traditional Japanese style room vs their more western offering, which comes complete with a small kitchenette and (as seems to be standard in Japan) a refrigerator.

    Comfortable, clean and surprisingly spacious, with friendly staff and an incredible roof terrace to relax on. We got some food from the konbini over the street, spent some time on the roof terrace taking in the incredible views, sneaking our first peek at Tokyo Tower!

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    Xbox 2023 Showcase Thoughts

    E3 doesn’t exist anymore, but game still don’t stop, so lets get stuck in! 🎮

    The Intro

    • The swelling music and cut after the first few trailers was…very odd. This conference is off to a weird vibe.

    Fable

    • Like the potty mouth slightly edgier tone to this. Title card cut before and after really made me laugh.
    • I feel these games have had a better atmosphere than they’ve actually played, so it’ll be interesting to see how this one goes.

    South Of Midnight

    • the stop motion style to this trailer is great
    • Love some blues 🎸
    • Ace atmosphere and an interesting world. Excited to know more.

    Star Wars Outlaws

    • This CG has had a lot of Money thrown at it
    • Massive games? Is it Division like? Or a true open world game?
    • It’s not 1313 tho is it 😔

    33 Immortals

    • Great animation
    • This sort of game is just not for me

    Payday 3

    • I had some good times with Payday 2 for a small period of time.
    • Think this game does suffer from its audience a bit, like some other co-op games. The other players always expect you to know as much as they do. Not a great player base.
    • Who wouldn’t give HEAT the video game a try? 🤷‍♂️

    Persona 3

    • Persona games continue to have the best music ever.
    • These games have styyyyyyle
    • Also….though…. Just not for me.

    Avowed

    • Great this is all in-game footage from the off
    • Looks incredible and varied as well when it comes to landscape and enemies
    • All in on this 💯

    Sea Of Thieves Monkey Island

    • Sucks they didn’t involve Ron Gilbert…WTF?!
    • Good they got Threeps voice actor at least
    • And the other actors as well!
    • This makes it even more odd they didn’t involve Gilbert… Again. WTF?

    Flight Sim 2024

    • As always it looks incredible and I could look at it for hours
    • I don’t have time to learn how to play this
    • Rescue and career mode is amazing feature.
    • That plane ate a plane 🫢
    • Yo Hot air balloons! 🎈
    • DUNE ORNITHOPTERS?!?!?! OK I guess I am playing this then…. That is AMAZING

    Hellblade 2

    • I need to play the first one of these. I know it’s a classic, and I’ve loved Ninja theories previous content.
    • Man, Ninja Theory is such a great company. I’m so glad they’re out there doin’ work.
    • The Audio is so well done.
    • I really need to play the first one of these.

    Yakuza

    • The Yakuza games are some of my favourite things ever made.
    • Interesting start to a trailer 🤣
    • Is this 8 or something else?
    • I need to finish 7. I got my head in a mess with the RPG mechanics. I guess I’m more of a Judgement guy nowadays when it comes to Ryu Ga Gotoku content.

    Fallout 76

    • Hard pass. Next.
    • Don’t get me wrong, I love Fallout. But I’m a 1&2 guy. Maaaaaaaybe 3. Not this.

    Path of the Goddess

    • Onimusha is crying
    • That character animation and the PoV is great
    • Excited to hear more!

    Forza

    • I’m ready to play this. GT7 was a sliiiight return to what I liked about that series, but I think Forza could bring it home for me this year.
    • That ray traced paint is very very sweet.
    • God I hope it has auto tuning/downloadable tunes. I couldn’t care less about faffing with car configuration. I think this and GT7 get this wrong about racing…. How many drivers are actually playing with suspension values and wings? Or are the experts doing it? If I’m the driver just let me drive the damn car….
    • Why do supercars insist on having the most uncomfortable looking steering wheels (steering squares?) ever.

    Elder Scrolls Online

    • Same as Fallout 76. Call me when the ‘real’ game comes out.

    Overwatch 2

    • One of the worst managed games of all time
    • Not my cup of tea

    Persona Tactica

    • Neat if you like tactic games. I’m sure it’ll be well put together

    Starfield

    • I do like the art style of this game a lot.
    • The engine looks nice. I’m excited to see the extended 30 minute watch.
    • Even the space combat looks good
    • September 6th! Goddamn!

    Jusant

    • Zelda esque climbing vibes
    • Oh snap! it’s a Don’t Nod game? You had my curiosity, now you have my attention!
    • I trust in Don’t Nod. I love a climbing game as well. Assassins Creed, Zelda. The Climb in VR. All in.

    Still Wakes The Deep

    • The only The Chinese Room game I’ve played is Little Orpheus on Apple Arcade. I hope this is better than that game.
    • Nothing interested me about that. But I’ll try it on gamepass.

    Dungeons of Hinterberg

    • This game has styyyyyyyyle
    • I thought it was lo-fi girl at first at the start of the trailer 🤣
    • That perspective change from 3rd person to a Diablo style isometric was interesting. Wonder what the mix/options in game will be.
    • Very interested in this.

    Cyberpunk Phantom Livery

    • Keanu! Idris!
    • I still like this game in spite of itself. It could have been so much more than it was.
    • Keanu was having fun cutting this promo 🤣
    • So this is how they’ll ‘cure’ V?
    • Oh finally actually using the swimming mechanic that wasn’t used in the entire game huh?

    City Skylines 2

    Metaphor Re Fantazio

    • Damn, lot of Atlas joints in this presentation.
    • I didn’t need to be told this is from the creators of Persona….don’t worry, you can tell 🤣
    • This has a whole lot of style. Wow.
    • Even that title has styyyyyyyle
    • It absolutely showed a modern city with cars at the end. Just a flash.

    Towerborne

    • Transition to 3D for this studio. Good looking 3d as well.
    • Looks like an action game? I’d be interested in that

    Clockwork Revolution

    • Wow, this is extremely bio shock infinite
    • I loved Arcanum and I absolutely get steampunk vibes from this game as well.
    • Time Travel?!
    • The art style of this is really really good
    • Yeh, This is my jam

    Summary

    The highlights for me are Fable, South Of Midnight, Avowed, Yakuza, Forza, Starfield, Jusant, Clockwork Revolution. That’s a good pike of games to be interested in, as well as the ability to give many others a try thanks to Gamepass. There’s a lot riding on Starfield however, and some of those games on my list are not going to be first party exclusive.

    The start and the finish to the weird patriotic swelling music was absolutely a very weird tone. Were they trying to pull in Starfield vibes? It did not work…

    Also, Phil. You can’t say “One more thing” in a Steve Jobs style way and not have an ace up your sleeve. You cannot just say that for an extended look at Starfield. That is unforgivable. 🤣

    ∞

    On Leaving Reddit...

    Tried one of the reddit export tools, seems to have a bug where it doesn’t export all your comments. Doesn’t export posts/images etc, so I’m going to wait until Reddit processes my GDPR request for data before removing my content and account. I want my data wrapped up by them and delivered with a bow.

    I’m interested to see exactly what info they have and what you get in the archive… 15 Years I’ve been on that site…

    Once I’ve got the data, I will use a script to edit all my content/comments and then bin off the account. Just like Twitter, it feels quite cathartic to disconnect from Reddit, and drift towards micro.blog and Mastodon. I’m actually looking forwards to less but more real interactions vs what these services promote…

    I was daydreaming yesterday about my first times on the Web as a 14+ Year old. When the web was IRC, Independent web Forums, Usenet!

    Really unique and different communities hosted across a plethora of providers using different software! You could explore the web, find out its secrets and surprises.

    When Yahoo! listed web sites by category the web was so small and fresh and exciting.

    Man, how much have we let the web get amalgamated by big business? You can still see what it promised if you squint…. but what a lot of it has become? Just kinda makes me sad…

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