RogerBW's Blog

Reading Boardgames Social 26 April 2015 30 April 2015

Seven of us this time, at the Wild Lime in the drunken quarter of Reading.

[more]
HMS Middleton 29 April 2015 - 8 comments

The Hunt-class minesweeper HMS Middleton was open to the public at HMS President. No, they didn't let me look at the engines, and I understand she's recently been given new ones anyway. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.

[more]
Revolution Tournament at Thirsty Meeples 28 April 2015

With my Men in Black hat on, I conspired with the boardgame café in Oxford to run a Revolution! tournament. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.

[more]
Salute 2015 27 April 2015 - 2 comments

Salute is the UK's biggest wargaming show of the year. I didn't buy anything this year, but still had a good time. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.

[more]
Aldnoah.Zero second season 26 April 2015

2015, 12 episodes: AniDB

Mecha series, continuation of last summer's Aldnoah Zero. The Martians are still invading Earth, but things have bogged down.

[more]
The Circle, Peter Lovesey 25 April 2015

2005 mystery. A publisher's house is burned down, with him in it. What's the connection with the local circle of unpublished writers?

[more]
Centre of Population of Great Britain 24 April 2015

Since the data are available, I thought I'd calculate the population-weighted centre of Great Britain.

[more]
Fixing the Forever City 23 April 2015 - 4 comments

The Torg adventure The Forever City didn't need as much fixing as The Possibility Chalice, but there were still some tweaks that made things work better.

[more]
Cross Ange Tenshi: to Ryuu no Rondo 22 April 2015

2014-2015, 25 episodes: AniDB; vt Cross Ange: Rondo of Angel and Dragon.

In a magical/tech society, the princess is discovered to be a non-magic-user, stripped of her rank, and exiled to the high-casualty, low-empathy defenders of the kingdom.

[more]
A Moment of Silence, Anna Dean 21 April 2015 - 4 comments

2008 historical detection, first in Dean's Dido Kent series. In 1805 at Richard Montague's engagement party, he suddenly puts off his fiancée Catherine and leaves for parts unknown. And a woman's body is found in the shrubbery. Catherine's spinster aunt Dido tries to clear up the mystery. US vt Bellfield Hall.

[more]
ASR-HW April 2015 20 April 2015 - 3 comments

I didn't feel like organising a Mild Day this year, so there was an ASR (Scary Devil Monastery) meeting at the Bootlegger in High Wycombe instead. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.

[more]
Kantai Collection 19 April 2015

2015, 12 episodes: AniDB

Schoolgirls with the spirit of WWII Japanese fighting ships take on an alien navy.

[more]
Constantine season 1 18 April 2015 - 4 comments

2014-2015: John Constantine, broken magician, must protect the innocent from magical threats.

[more]
Sunglasses After Dark, Nancy A. Collins 17 April 2015 - 6 comments

1989 horror, prototypical urban fantasy. Sonja Blue, vampire killer of vampires, is locked up and medicated in a mental hospital. But that isn't going to stop her for long.

[more]
Peacock Butterfly 16 April 2015

I've seen these around from time to time, but finally managed to get a decent picture. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.

[more]
Thirsty Meeples April 2015 15 April 2015 - 3 comments

Back to the boardgame café. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.

[more]
Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso 14 April 2015

2014, 22 episodes: AniDB vt Your Lie in April

Modern romantic comedy. Kousei was a child prodigy at the piano, but gave it up. Two years later when he's in high school, he randomly meets Kaori the violinist, who insists that he should be her accompanist in a competition.

[more]
Wolf in Shadow, John Lambshead 13 April 2015 - 2 comments

2013 urban fantasy. Rhian, a young woman from the valleys with some unusual talents, finds herself in east London, where ancient magics are mixing with modern in a distinctly unpleasant way.

[more]
International Tabletop Day 2015 in Reading 12 April 2015

Yesterday was the third International Tabletop Day, and the first time I've got involved in events for it.

[more]
Good Enough for Nelson, John Winton 11 April 2015

1977; ninth of Winton's novels. The Artful Bodger (Commander R. B. Badger, RN) is now in charge of the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth.

[more]
Laggies 10 April 2015

2014, dir. Lynn Shelton, Keira Knightley, Chloë Grace Moretz; IMDb / allmovie

Megan is approaching thirty, but her career and personality more or less went on hold when she left high school ten years ago. One night, as she's fleeing from an unwanted marriage proposal and other complications, some high-school kids ask her to buy them beer, and she gets on with Annika better than with her own peers. Things move on from there. vt Say When in the UK and Ireland.

[more]
Raisins and Almonds, Kerry Greenwood 09 April 2015

1997 historical detection. Ninth in Greenwood's Phryne Fisher series (1920s flapper detective in Australia). A man drops dead of strychnine poisoning in a bookshop; the owner's the obvious suspect. But Phryne is unconvinced.

[more]
Have You Seen This Bird? 08 April 2015 - 5 comments

We have a new visitor to our bird-stand. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.

[more]
Thoughts on an Eastercon: Dysprosium 07 April 2015 - 1 comment

I spent some of last weekend at the Eastercon. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.

[more]
Eighth Harpoon PBEM AAR: Gulf Escort Deja Vu One More Time 06 April 2015 - 1 comment

This scenario took a while, because two Blue players in a row became unresponsive and had to be replaced. But we got there in the end.

[more]
GURPS Boardroom and Curia, Matt Riggsby 05 April 2015

This supplement is not called "GURPS Organisations", but it might as well have been.

[more]
Doctor Who Re-Watch, series 20 04 April 2015 - 4 comments

As always, spoilers abound. See Wikipedia for production details)

The Doctor - Peter Davison
Nyssa - Sarah Sutton
Tegan Jovanka - Janet Fielding
Vislor Turlough - Mark Strickson
Kamelion - Gerald Flood

[more]
Every Secret Thing, Laura Lippman 03 April 2015

2003 suspense. Seven years ago, two eleven-year-old girls stole a baby, which died; maybe one of them killed it. Now they're out of juvenile detention… and a young child has gone missing.

[more]
CSI season 15 02 April 2015 - 2 comments

2014-2015: the crew of the Las Vegas Crime Lab continue to use forensic science to solve crimes.

[more]
The Rhesus Chart, Charles Stross 01 April 2015 - 4 comments

2014 modern occult secret service, fifth in the Laundry Files series. Everybody in the Laundry knows there's no such thing as vampires. Why are they so very sure?

[more]
Search
Archive
Tags 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 3d printing action advent of code aeronautics aikakirja anecdote animation anime army astronomy audio audio tech aviation base commerce battletech beer boardgaming book of the week bookmonth chain of command children chris chronicle church of no redeeming virtues cold war comedy computing contemporary cornish smuggler cosmic encounter coup covid-19 crime cthulhu eternal cycling dead of winter doctor who documentary drama driving drone ecchi economics en garde espionage essen 2015 essen 2016 essen 2017 essen 2018 essen 2019 essen 2022 essen 2023 existential risk falklands war fandom fanfic fantasy feminism film firefly first world war flash point flight simulation food garmin drive gazebo genesys geocaching geodata gin gkp gurps gurps 101 gus harpoon historical history horror hugo 2014 hugo 2015 hugo 2016 hugo 2017 hugo 2018 hugo 2019 hugo 2020 hugo 2022 hugo-nebula reread in brief avoid instrumented life javascript julian simpson julie enfield kickstarter kotlin learn to play leaving earth linux liquor lovecraftiana lua mecha men with beards mpd museum music mystery naval noir non-fiction one for the brow opera parody paul temple perl perl weekly challenge photography podcast politics postscript powers prediction privacy project woolsack pyracantha python quantum rail raku ranting raspberry pi reading reading boardgames social real life restaurant reviews romance rpg a day rpgs ruby rust scala science fiction scythe second world war security shipwreck simutrans smartphone south atlantic war squaddies stationery steampunk stuarts suburbia superheroes suspense television the resistance the weekly challenge thirsty meeples thriller tin soldier torg toys trailers travel type 26 type 31 type 45 vietnam war war wargaming weather wives and sweethearts writing about writing x-wing young adult
Special All book reviews, All film reviews
Produced by aikakirja v0.1