It’s been one of those quiet times around here hasn’t it? It’s due to a mixture of not having too much to talk about and being crazy busy with work really, but I still shouldn’t neglect this, so here’s what I’ve been up to.
Ghost
I’ve had a blog for what must be 10 years or so now, and being a technogeek I like to keep up with current trends. One thing that caught my eye a while back was Ghost, and in October it finally became available to the world at large. It’s a bit different to the likes of WordPress because it’s not just a case of uploading a package to your cheapo shared host and running the install script. Really it needs a server of its own for the time being, due to running on a completely different architecture than the usual SQL+PHP, and I found that a super-cheap $5/month VMS from DigitalOcean does the job nicely. It’s still very early days (version 0.3), but it’s really promising and very nice to use.
Games
My re-kindled love for boardgames shows no signs of abating. I’ve been keeping an eye on the bargain threads on BGG and using things like my Waterstones points wisely, and picked up some real bargains. The latest-and-greatest for me is Village, which I had my eye on a while back. It’s a proper Euro with a great board, lots of paths to victory, and a unique generational mechanic where your villagers succumb to the inevitable march of time and die off! Great fun, and with Escape: Curse of the Temple and Love Letter, I’ve got my fix of Cult of the New for the time being.
Village board – gorgeous Euro goodness
Training
Training is a sore point for me at the moment. I managed to get along again, but since then I’ve had successions of niggling things preventing me to getting back again, which is enormously frustrating. Chief among these things is work, which is crazy at the moment and I don’t really want to get into in case I develop a spontaneous ulcer. I’m keeping fit and strong though – or trying to at least – in the gym at work three times a week. It’s certainly better than nothing until I can get in the dojang.