It’s time to admit – I can’t play games anymore unless I know they’re being recorded. For PC it is granted. With GeForce Experience it captures the last 5 minutes of gameplay. With Switch, it also works well, it can capture 30 last seconds. But it means I has to play on the original gamepad, because no other gamepad has the “capture” button. Or, I could connect the console to a laptop running OBS Studio. Which I do.
For other consoles, such as PS2 and Neo Geo, it’s the same setup. I didn’t touch my Neo Geo for months, until I figured out that setup. Because if I can’t record it, I can’t remember it, and if I can’t remember it, it’s not fun, so why play it in the first place?
Category: *.BAK
In March my SanDisk flash drive started to refuse writing anything at all. By some luck I still had it under warranty, so I decided to give RMA a try. It took them exactly 5 months to send me a new one. Five months. By that time I of course bought another one.
Then a couple of weeks back my expensive Philips shaver stopped charging. I took a look and discovered that one of the charging pins broke off and got stuck inside the charger socket 🤦♂️
So I sent the whole thing back. Philips shipped the shaver quickly enought, everything took hardly two weeks. But… Only the handle arrived. Now look, they said in their instructions that I shouldn’t send any accessories. But I didn’t consider the shaver head to be an accessory. And the charger was broken, what was I supposed to do?
In any case, I contacted them, and they agreed to even send me a complete shaver. We’ll wait and see how that works out.
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Hogan’s High Sobriety Cider
Making a cider that doesn’t taste like stale apple juice is hard. Making a low-alcohol cider like that is even harder. Hogan’s does a great job at that. Unfortunately, it’s hard to find in anything but x12 packs, which doesn’t correlate with how much we love cider.
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Engelszell Gregorius
For the good of me, I can’t remember where I’ve got this beer from.
This trappist beer is interesting, because it’s has an almost umami taste. It’s what’s called a “quad”, so 10.5%, pretty strong by any standard. And comes from Austria, which is a rare place for trappist beers.
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Gulden Draak Imperial Stout
Only after visiting Ghent I discovered that one of my favorite beers, Gulden Draak, also comes as an Imperial Stout.
It’s fantastic, as can be expected from Gulden Draak. Makes you lightheaded and slightly sleepy, but that passes quickly.
The taste is smooth, but not as heavy as some of the Imperial Stouts made in the UK.
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Samyang Jjajang Ramen
Today I tried the second pack of jjajang noodles, this time from Samyang.
I’m not sure if they are better than Nongshim, or I just learned to “cook” them (you need to simmer them with sauce until all the water evaporates.
But they were nice, umami, I’d say.
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Brew By Numbers Blood Orange Pale Ale
Tried Brew By Numbers Blood Orange Pale Ale and Brew by Numbers Pale Ale Citra Centennial. Nice almost no-alcohol IPAs, that still preserve some taste. Bought a pack of 8, since they stopped making them, it seems.
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Dalton Reserve Shiraz 2018
After Tulip Syrah fell from grace lately, I was looking for alternatives to “Five Stones Nobility 215a Red”, which became our favorite go-to Israeli wine, something in the same price range.
Dalton Reserve Shiraz is not fabulous, but it also doesn’t make you feel sad and tired afterwards. So it’s a decent alternative.
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Brew by Numbers 85 Triple IPA Mosaic Sabro
A very solid triple IPA, as expected from BBN. Sweet and fruty, gives a bit of lightheadyness, and no hard feelings whatsoever afterwards.
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Pork Floss cake
Today I tasted something so gross I feel I have to write about it: the pork floss Asian cake.
It’s a sponge cake with custard cream, but then it is coated in literally shredded pork meat 😬
It’s salty, and tasted like pork scratchings 🤢
Had to throw the second piece in the trash.
Found someone blogging about making it at home, and I agree with the assessment:
In the end, I didn’t find it very magical of a combination. It is a little strange, I’ll admit. I wouldn’t make it unless you have tried it in a bakery and know you like it.
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Skipping breakfast
Strangely enough, I got accustomed to skipping breakfasts. Funny, because we’re taught that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and all that. I would still drink coffee, and sometimes eat something around 11. But often, I’m alright until 2PM. And sometimes I even feel better without breakfast.
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Vocation Honeycomb Chocolate Stout
I like stouts. This one is oversweetened, and hits like a pillow. One can, and everything goes quiet for a while.
I think I grabbed it from Waitrose, or maybe M&S.
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Gruut Wit and Corsendonk Agnus Tripel
Tried a couple of beers we brought from Belgium.
Gruut Wit was a disappointment. To me, it had zero smell and zero taste. Just poured it into the sink.
Corsendonk Agnus Tripel was surprisingly gaseous and with a very stubborn “head”, which is uncommon for a tripel. It was nice, but nothing spectacular in terms of taste to compensate for the gases.
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Lambiek Fabriek Oude Kriek Jart Elle
As can be expected from a lambic beer, it’s very sour. And also very foamy. Not too sweet though, which is great for a kriek.
Worth trying some other lambic from this brewery. But not this one.
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Choose a main series – rooflemonger
Fantastic breakdown for different Samurai Shodown characters.
And another video for Virtua Fighter 5:
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Brasserie Dupont Beer Biere du Miel
A much welcome alternative to Barbar, another Belgian honey beer.
Stronger than it looks, 8% ABV.
Has a more “burn honey” taste than Barbar, in my opinion, more resembling a honey cake.
Should be available in the UK from BeersOfEurope.
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Brew By Numbers 100 Baltic Porter
As you’d expect from Brew By Numbers and Imperial Stout. Smooth, a bit like coffee or chocolate, and kicks like a mattress.
Comes in a 250ml can, that lessens the kick somewhat.
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Cognitive dissonance
Another reason I stopped writing for Russians was that during the first days of the war, Russian MoD was continuously reporting that “there are no casualties”.
Meanwhile Ukrainians were posting photos of Russian soldier corpses, including pilots (rare, easily identifiable), and videos of Russian soldiers taken captive.
I was reposting some of those. Thought it would change the attitude of some of my readers. Cause a cognitive dissonance between what they see and what they’ve been told.
It didn’t.
A year later, I see Ukrainians mourning people they never knew, but I don’t see Russians doing the same.
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Northern Monk Death Star Stout
A very good Imperial Stout. And by “good” I mean it is smooth, and make you calm as a cucumber. A bit oversweetened, to my taste, but hey, it’s an Imperial Stoud available from supermarkets.
Available from Tesco, and maybe Waitrose as well.
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How Russian became obsolete
I’ve been carrying that thought through the year.
My family always spoke Russian. And I have been writing my blog in Russian for 20 years. But since the war started, it became obsolete.
What’s the point of writing about games in Russian, if most of those that stayed in Russia soon won’t be able to afford playing them?
Then, a lot of the people I spoke with during those 20 years turned into fascists. All that talk of “liberating Ukraine from Nazis” that I started hearing from housewives and amateur photographers that actively dodged army service made me sick. Even sicker made me some Russian speakers from the States, that “trusted only Russian MoD” and started claiming how Kyiv will fall every day now, and that Zelensky has already escaped to Moldova/Spain.
I knew those people were nostalgic about USSR, had half friendly banter with them about it for years, all that “tastiest icecream in the world” kind of stuff. All that talk that “USSR had to invade Finland to protect itself from Hitler”, “USSR had to invade Afganistan to protect itself from the US”, and “did you know jews in Israel even made a medal for Hitler before WW2 started”.
But I always assumed that if a real war started, if somehow USSR would ever come back, they would immediately understand.
It did, it did, and they didn’t. They happily embraced the war and “you should have kept the President we chose for you” narrative.
So, there’s no point in writing in Russian for me anymore. I’m not interested in that audience. So, that’s why for a year now, it’s English for me.