Hearts Of Iron

~ e.v. ~ Leave a comment

I bought Hearts of Iron IV in the Steam Summer sale. It’s a WWII grand strategy game and it’s engaged me more than I thought it would. I started off a campaign as the UK (of course) and promptly realised I had no idea what I was doing so I watched a few YouTube videos. People advise avoiding naval combat in the first play through, so the UK wasn’t the best choice. The recommendations are to start with either Germany or Italy, so I went with Italy because I’m not quite ready to be a full blown Nazi. And Italy isn’t really famous for its WW2 maritime endeavours… despite 95% of its border being coastline… I should have thought more about that actually.

Everything was going well to begin with; I was happily conquering Ethiopia (the game starts in 1936, when the Italians were invading Ethiopia) and building up my military production which was going mainly into my land units. Then I started developing my colonies in Libya to secure more rubber and oil while working on my air force.

But then Germany decided to go and invade Poland and it’s been downhill from there. Germany is most of the way through conquering mainland Europe, meanwhile my naval fleet in the Mediterranean has been almost entirely destroyed by the French and British navies. Occasionally my bombers manage to take down a destroyer or a submarine, but my fleet is dwindling and theirs isn’t. I managed to kick the British out of Somalia entirely, which is pretty much my only success in the entire war.

Things started to look up after France capitulated to Germany, as more German ships started appearing in the Mediterranean and the French navy disappeared entirely, but even so, Britain is steadily taking Libya both via their forces in Egypt and through naval landings. I’m just about holding on in Ethiopia, but my supply lines aren’t looking great as the British control the Suez canal. Really, the British are a huge problem for such a small island.

Anyway, I feel very enriched for playing this game, because now I can talk authoritatively about the second Italian-Ethiopian war and I can confidently put Libya and Somalia on a map.

Election Fever

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Is something that I don’t have. I’ve been a bit bored by it but I will be excited to see the exit poll tomorrow evening.

Things I would like to see:

  • Labour win in my area (ultra safe Tory seat in 2015, 2017 and 2019)
  • Conservatives down to a double digit seat count
  • Lib Dems as opposition
  • Rishi loses his seat
  • Big losses from the silly end of the party, e.g Jacob Rees Mogg, Suella Braverman, Kemi Badenoch.
  • Penny Mordaunt keeps her seat and becomes leader

Things I actually expect to see:

  • Conservatives around 140 seats
  • Lib Dems 50-60 seats
  • Reform with probably 2-3 seats, including Nigel Farage
  • Kemi Badenoch keeps her seat and becomes leader 🤷

We have had a deluge of leaflets from the Conservatives through the letterbox so they are obviously worried. Monty destroyed and partially ate one of them, which I assume means he wasn’t impressed.

Election!!

~ e.v. ~ 1 Comment

I’m 37 now. The first time I was able to vote was in 2010 (after missing out by about a month in 2005) at age 22. I’m a personification of the demographic problem for the Conservatives, because I’ve spent all of my adult and working life under a Conservative government while they positioned themselves as a party for pensioners.

I’m fascinated by this election because it looks like we’re going from unbeatable Conservative dominance to a total Conservative wipe out. I don’t really understand it. I wonder if COVID sped up the demographic shift?

The campaign seems to be disaster after disaster for them and it’s hilarious. The most recent one is their director of campaigning had to step back as his wife (a candidate) is under investigation for placing a bet on the election date. But given their campaign so far this may work in their favour. The betting scandal is odd because it seems most of the bets were relatively small at a few hundred pounds potential winnings. I don’t know why they would risk their credibility and criminal charges for sums of money that aren’t just not life altering but not even week altering.

I feel a bit sorry for Rishi Sunak because I don’t think he’s the worst PM since 2010, and might actually be the best (i.e. least worst), so it must feel a bit bewildering that he’s got to take all the blame for his predecessors’ failings even though they seemed to be incredibly popular at the time. David Cameron caused the EU referendum with no thought as to the consequences, Theresa May followed through on it with only slightly more thought and Liz Truss almost caused a market rout. Boris, I don’t know. Brexit was partially his fault but that was before he was PM. COVID wasn’t his fault and his vaccine program was strong… but the initial response was slow and led to a lot of people dying unnecessarily. There was also a lot of personal sleaze but that is mostly inconsequential. Rishi is a bit rubbish and seems to lack any kind of political sense but hasn’t really done anything to leave a mark. David Cameron is the real source of the problems they face as his austerity policies set in motion the resentment that led to the brexit vote and all the political and economic chaos since then, and, ironically, the problems they now have with Reform taking their votes.

Reform is an odd one. Their candidates are simpletons, but they won’t win more than a handful of MPs. Their biggest asset is Nigel Farage. For all the appearance he gives of being a slick political operator, he also goes on TV and says it was the West’s fault Ukraine got invaded. There have been questions about Russian involvement in the Brexit campaign and in my opinion they are yet to be resolved. I don’t think Farage is going to enjoy the increased scrutiny when he becomes an MP. But I will.

Apparently I live in a Lab/Con marginal now, which is a bit of a surprise to me because it used to be a Lib/Con marginal before the former imploded in 2015 and then became a safe Con seat. In fact it looks like my constituency may be (I assume) pretty much the only in the country to return a new Conservative MP, as the incumbent got kicked out of the party due to a deluge of complaints about his behaviour towards women (and is now standing as an independent, for reasons known only to himself).

Current polling has it roughly 50/50 between Labour and Conservative. I have had leaflets from the Conservative and Lib Dem candidates. Nothing from Labour – perhaps nobody has told her that she has a chance of winning? The Labour candidate looks like the weakest of the lot but it looks like that’s who I have to vote for. To be honest I’d prefer to go with Lib Dems because I generally think they do good work on civil liberties and both Labour and Conservative can be very authoritarian, but there we are.

Material possessions

~ e.v. ~ 3 Comments

I’ve been playing Hitman. Apparently I got it free on Epic Games at some point, so I thought I’d try it. It’s a fun game in an unexpected way. It almost plays more like a puzzle game and isn’t what I expected at all. It’s very detailed. My one criticism is that there is too much focus on making the targets bad people so that the player isn’t too offended by the idea of murdering them. Hello, the game is about a hitman. It’s very patronising as your boss insists in your ear-piece that the world will be a better place without these people, and, believe it or not, I don’t accept a shady assassination-for-hire business as being a reliable arbiter of morality.

In other news, ROYAL MAIL!

I have ordered a little set of steps for Monty. I’ve been letting him upstairs more recently, now that he’s a bit more well behaved(!) and his new favourite place is my bed. When he jumps off my bed he seems to land very heavily and I think he would benefit from not doing that. So I found a really nice looking collapsible set of steps designed for dogs to get on and off beds.

It was despatched on Wednesday, with Royal Mail Tracked 48. You might think that this means it will be delivered in 48 hours, but, no, it’s just a brand name. It was estimated to be delivered either Friday or Saturday. Was it? No. It’s now Monday and the tracking has not updated past “Sender has despatched item”, which means Royal Mail are not yet admitting to actually having the item. What does this mean? Actually, it means nothing, because their tracking doesn’t work at all. I looked at some past orders and Royal Mail tracking shows no progress on any of them, even though they have each been delivered.

I just want my little set of steps!

I can get a refund on Thursday if they haven’t turned up. Amazon are selling them but with a 10 day delivery time because it’s only on Amazon EU, not Amazon UK (thanks brexit!). I found another shop selling them supposedly with 2-3 days delivery but their product listing is a bit rubbish and doesn’t actually specify the manufacturer so although the marketing image is the same I’m not 100% sure that what will turn up is actually what I expect. I’ve sent them an email…

And then we have my watch. My trusty Garmin Forerunner 245 developed a stuck button (the down button). I tried the standard suggestion of soaking it in soapy water to dislodge any dirt, but it made no difference. I bought it from John Lewis about 18 months ago, and it came with a two year guarantee. Anyway, it’s going back and they’re going to refund me as they no longer stock the 245. I’ll probably get the Forerunner 255 in replacement, which is a little more expensive. Not ideal but I’m only really paying the difference, so it’s not too bad either.

As far as I can tell, the 255 is a very broad incremental upgrade over the 245 in many ways. There is also the 265 which adds a much higher quality touch screen (the 255 and below are not touch). I don’t really want a touch screen on a running watch because I had one on my old Vivoactive 3 and have fond memories of trying to do interval workouts in the rain, with my watch deciding that the rain on the screen meant I was manually advancing the stage of the workout. Plus, some people say the screen is harder to read in bright light, which I can believe. It looks amazing in marketing photos, but I’m not buying a photo. The FR265 is £130 more than the FR255, which seems a bit steep for a screen of dubious usefulness. So I think I’ll go for the 255.

I’m not in an immediate rush though as I have the dreaded tibialis posterior tendon (inner ankle) pain again, so I’m not going to be doing much running for at least a few days.

Max Payne

~ e.v. ~ 2 Comments

I played and finished Max Payne on the Steam Deck. I played the PS2 version (emulated) because I thought it would better map to the controls of the Deck, though actually I found the controls pretty horrible so I might have been better with the PC version after all.

The gameplay is very dated, though it did feel modern in the sense that you shoot people and they die, rather than absorbing 50 bullets first. The storytelling is quite unique in how it uses Max’s eloquent narration and then shows comic book esque drawn panels instead of cutscenes. I suspect they went this route because the graphics and animation are a bit hideous and in-engine cutscenes wouldn’t have allowed them to express what they wanted. It’s a bit weird but it adds a certain charm. The in-world details are nice too. There are parallel stories that run via the TVs in the game. It’s clearly a game that was overseen by someone who really cared about it.

The story is set up three years before the game, when police officer Max returns home to find his wife and newborn child murdered by crazed drug addicts. It’s never really explored whether or not Max is a reliable narrator but I like the alternative interpretation that he’s the drug addict in a semi delusional state and he killed his own family. The dream/nightmare sequences look into his subconscious and hint that he killed his wife though I think it’s probably more just that he feels responsible. But at one point he is given an overdose of the drug, intended to kill him, and he shrugs it off after a nightmare… Because he already has a very high tolerance to it? Hmmm.

Anyway I enjoyed it overall and I think it still stands up today because of the story and its presentation, but the gameplay really is very dated!

I also have to note that although I’m praising the storytelling, a certain amount of the story is progressed by Max breaking into mafiosos’ offices and reading the letters their bosses have sent to them, helpfully putting in writing their criminal activities and plans. I think I can hear Tony Soprano having a panic attack…

I’ve started Max Payne 2 now and it’s a lot less dated.

Over Christmas my sister gifted me Cyberpunk 2077. You can supposedly run this on the Steam Deck but it’s quite a demanding game so I’m not sure it’s the best way to play it. I ended up signing up to Geforce Now, which is a cloud gaming service. So far I’ve been quite impressed at how well it works. My internet connection is an unremarkable fibre to the cabinet. I get about 55mpbs downstream. I think that’s fairly average for the UK, though on a global scale it’s definitely below average (blame the government, I guess). But it’s enough for GFN running at Steam Deck resolution. Network latency is around 10ms and that’s not noticable at all.

It kind of makes me want to build a beefy gaming PC and do it myself (i.e stream the PC to the Steam Deck over the local network), but the cost of Geforce Now is actually quite favourable. It’s £10 a month, and an equivalent gaming PC would be, well, I don’t know, I’m guessing nearing £1000 with GPU prices as they are.

Christmas soon

~ e.v. ~ 2 Comments

My mum keeps asking me what I want for Christmas. I’m really struggling to think of anything at all. I keep googling variants of “best gift ideas” and… I don’t know, I don’t think she’s going to buy me an iPhone or a £700 projector (????) and there’s only so many phone chargers and USB cables I really need in my life. The people who compile these lists are even less inspired than I am.

All I’ve really come up with is a miniature guitar amplifier, which seems like a better idea the more I think about it. I don’t play mine much since getting Monty because my setup is to plug into my PC and use a software amp simulator… but I don’t spend much non working time sat in front of my PC anymore, so the only time I really play is a few minutes here and there when I’m thinking (!). I think it’s a pretty good idea actually.

In nerd news:

First: I have decided to put Linux on my desktop PC. It is currently running Windows 10 and nagging me to upgrade to 11. I have 11 on my laptop. I can’t bring myself to install an operating system that puts adverts in my start menu. Especially when it costs over £100 for a license. I mean, wtf. So, Linux here I come. It’s been a while. I need to read up on the modern distributions but I’m thinking Manjaro at the moment.

Secondly: I have been a bit addicted to Vampire Survivors and Brotato on my Steam Deck. They are such simple games but so engaging. Vampire Survivors is interesting in the sense that it could reasonably be created by one person who has a strong grasp of programming, a weak grasp of art and a medium grasp of music… i.e me (actually I’m being unfair, the music is amazing).

So of course… I decided to make my own game. Yep. I have been playing around with Godot (game engine) and have been quite pleased with how quickly you can put things on screen. The problem I will have is the art side of it, but it’s all a learning experience. I have some vague ideas as to how to make it not just a Vampire Survivors clone, but we’ll see how it evolves.

Excused

~ e.v. ~ 2 Comments

I went to the physio about my knee, after all. I wouldn’t normally have done so but I thought I was going to be on jury service for a few weeks so I might not get another chance. Though I’ve been excused from that, thankfully. Anyway, he thinks my quads are too tight and my external hip rotation is quite poor on my right side but OK on the left. So I have some stretches to do. I also found this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K5k5o_8kyQ for external hip rotation, which I tried yesterday and does seem to relieve some of the tightness.

The jury service palaver made me realise my anxiety has been pretty bad lately. It kind of creeps up on you and only after a while you realise you’re having more bad days than you used to. I think it got kicked off by the virus I had in September and has been a bit hyperactive ever since. I’m going to try going on a total news detox and see if that makes any difference. I seem to spend a lot of time browsing the news on my phone or laptop now. It doesn’t make me feel good and it’s such a waste of my energy.

Jury service approaches

~ e.v. ~ 3 Comments

My jury service starts next week. Yesterday they sent me an email to try to assess my suitability to sit on a five week trial.

I wasn’t exactly pleased about having to do it for two weeks, and the thought of five sent me into a panic. I started drafting a response citing the disruption this will cause to my tiny employer, plus the fact it offloads my responsibilities over Monty onto my parents, which is unfair on them…

… And then at 5 o clock this morning, when I’d already been awake for hours because I was stressed about it, I realised that was the answer right there. Why was I panicking? Because I have an anxiety disorder. I’m on medication for it. I went though over a year of counseling for it. I missed a lot of time at work because of it. I’m not just “a bit stressed”, I have a health condition for which I am still being treated.

That’s what I need to say. I can say the other things too, but I need it to be clear that I have a legitimate mental health condition and their demands are negatively affecting it.

I may yet get excused entirely…

I owe it to my own wellbeing to try, anyway. And I certainly owe it to my parents, who don’t really want to be looking after a crazy, high energy dog for five weeks at their age.

Still tired

~ e.v. ~ 2 Comments

I have finished with the coaching for now. I sent her the email and she replied saying she was going to recommend the same thing, because I obviously wasn’t recovering well enough to benefit from it. I have never felt that she was out to make money (and probably undervalues her time) so I think it was genuine. I might start it back again when I’m feeling better. At the moment I am running 3x a week with that being split between a 60 minute long run, a 30-40 minute easy run and a 30-40 minute ‘fartlek’ (i.e. impromptu speed bursts as and when I feel like it). I am still feeling really tired. My fartlek this week was Parkrun, which I completed in an underwhelming 27 minutes (in the middle of a 40 minute run overall), and I felt completely exhausted in the afternoon.

The other thing is my knee. It was bothering me a bit a few months ago and seemed to have sorted itself out… until, ironically, I was unwell and really cut back on the running. Basically it seems to be classic runners’ knee, i.e patella femoral pain syndrome (PFPS). PFPS is thought to be caused by the kneecap moving slightly out of alignment with the groove it’s supposed to sit in, which can be caused by the usual suspects (tight muscles, overpronation, lack of hip stability). In my case this means vague aches and tightness around the kneecap. It doesn’t really hurt, it just feels a bit off.

I was going to phone the physio yesterday but I had a few other thoughts over the weekend. Some points in no particular order: 1. My outer hip (glute, maybe IT band, probably TFL too) has been tight and achy lately. 2. I know my lateral quad is tight because I can often feel the tendon clicking just above the knee. 3. I’ve noticed lately when running I often catch my foot on my opposite ankle as my leg swings through. This article about the issue has the classic ‘your glutes are weak’ line, but also says it might be due to poor hip extension causing you to twist to get the range of motion that you need. Now that’s interesting because 4. Since I had the coaching, my stride length has massively increased, which means… I need a lot more hip extension than I used to.

So before I phone the physio I’m going to try seriously fixing things myself this week, which is going to involve a 20-30 minute hip strength session every other day and daily stretching and self massage. I actually had the same thing last summer and it seemed to resolve itself with some more attention to general strength and stretching, so I shouldn’t really need a physio appointment…

Stopping

~ e.v. ~ 1 Comment

My running isn’t going very well at the moment. This is partly because of the virus I had a few weeks ago (COVID?) and partly because of the coaching. The virus sapped my energy levels, which is fine, but I feel, ironically, that the coaching is intefering with rebuilding because there is such a focus on strength work that it’s leaving me with too little energy for running. The outcome is that I seem to be paying to add kilograms to my deadlift, which isn’t that exciting and not something I’d really put a monetary value on, if I’m honest. So I feel like we’ve lost the plot a bit. Last week I felt really down some days, possibly from the virus, possibly from fatigue, and thought about it a lot, and… I’ve mentally checked out from it now. Before my next session I will email her and let her know I won’t be continuing with it past the current month, but to be honest if we could just stop right now I’d be happy. It feels like when you give notice in a job and suddenly it seems completely pointless.

In gaming news… I did get bored of Mad Max after all. I went back to Fallout 4 but I struggled to be interested in that too. It just seems very mediocre. In the end I went with Wolfenstein: The New Order, which I must have got free a long time ago but never played. I had low expectations but they were completely surpassed – this game is great! It has you go from breaking out of a hospital to breaking in and out of a concentration camp to stealing nazi helicopters then stealing a nazi nuclear submarine and then infiltrating a nazi moon base to steal the nuclear warhead encryption keys. All in a day’s work for Captain Blazkowicz. But it’s well written despite being kind of stupid and doesn’t take itself seriously at all. I really liked Frau Engel, the seondary villain.

I enjoyed it so much that I bought a pack of three other Wolfenstein games. I have now started the next one (The New Colossus) and one of the more unusual things is that you can overhear some of the nazi enemies talking about the events of the first game and discussing how they found it traumatic to be hiding from the American lunatic with the laser rifle while he slaughtered their friends and that they still have nightmares from it. Err, sorry 🤷‍♀️