Dave

Albert #parkrun again this week, first serious run after taking a couple of weeks off with a knee thing. It was a lovely clear, warm-but-not-too-warm morning, and my old body felt pretty good.

Ended up with a parkrun PB of 26:47 (26:16 5k)!

Also got a good long look at an otter in the lake at the finish line.

I'm a convert to the idea of minimalism in my #retrogaming. I discovered early on that if I have everything, I play nothing, and moved to a more methodical curating process where I just load up what I want to play.

So I was immediately taken by Russ from RGC's concept of a "5 game console". That is, a handheld with just five carefully chosen games on it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2rMB5z9dQw

Here's my version (six games, not five, because that's how many fit on a screen).

What would you include?

#Miyoo

It's so weird playing GTA: Vice City here in 2026... It's a game that I have nostalgia for, but it's also a game built on 80s nostalgia.

It's like a double hit of the sweetest drug.

Cruising around listening to Emotion 98.3 is still as compelling as it always was.

#Gaming #RetroGaming #GTA

No trip to #Saltburn would be complete without a mooch around its weird tat shops, enjoying the taxidermy mice, creepy dolls and dinosaur lamps.

A reminder to those tempted by the promise of shorts: March is a month of lies and false hope.

In any discussion on what's happening in Iran, it should always be remembered that we did have a deal with Iran to limit their nuclear ambitions, negotiated by adults, that would have prevented them obtaining a weapon and provided intrusive oversight by a range of countries.

It was cancelled by Trump because he didn't want a Black president to have a legacy.

The JCPOA wasn't perfect, but neither is fabricating a crisis and then bombing a country to the stone-age.

#USPolitics #Politics

Sigh. Time to memorise the map of the middle east again.

#InterestingTimes

Another FOMO #parkrun at Albert this week, as I focus on getting my knee back in good working order.

Was going to volunteer, but tomorrow is the #Boro half marathon, so all of our local parkruns were chokka with volunteers from early in the week. So I just walked it and enjoyed munching on a couple of tiny oranges.

Really confused some marshals with my civilian garb (and tiny oranges), and finished with a respectable 44m03s.

I almost dread to scroll back in the #totp feed and see what people thought of Tower of Strength by The Mission...

It's fine, Dave, they all loved it. They're all sensible, rational, lovers of fine music. It's all fine.

Another two #totp episodes in the can. Two steps closer to the dawn of Crazy Frog and the end of everything.

@racingdaily@mastodon.social It's actually Jessie Eisenberg, playing Mark Zuckerberg, the lead singer from Cast.

You've 'ad yer moment, Tiff. Do one. etc.

#totp

I've never felt a relief like the kind of relief I felt when that song ended.

#totp

This sounds like three terrible songs playing at the same time.

#totp

Went up to Cotsford Fields for #parkrun this morning. I'm nursing a poorly knee so I volunteered as tail walker. Managed to get my highest ever finish position (40th)! It was a really nice course with an idyllic stretch along the cliffs overlooking the sea. Very small, very friendly, hope to return and actually run it some time.

I just finished up Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia on the Nintendo DS. Really loved it, I think it might be my favourite Castlevania game on the DS, beating Dawn of Sorrow. I wasn't too keen on the separate map structure of this game at first, but it really grew on me. Very convenient for nipping back to town. Mostly, this game reminded me how accomplished the DS was at 2D pixel art games. And the second screen is perfect for games that need a map. #RetroGaming #Gaming #NintendoDS

Having recently enjoyed "Mole Mania" and "For the Frog the Bell Tolls" on the original #Gameboy, I find myself constantly impressed by how well games on that old console hold up!

And this week I've become engrossed by "Cave Noire", another game I'd never heard of before.

It's a Japan-only (played via a translation patch) Rogue-like game from 1991. You enter a randomly generated dungeon on a set quest (find X gold, rescue X fairies).

It's turn based and slow, but incredibly fun.

#RetroGaming