May time hibernation

Gosh - 8 days since last post.

I've been pretty tired again lately. I suspect the bugs that I had over a fortnight ago now are having a more long term effect on my overall energy levels.

I was able to rouse the old bones for Comic Con on Sunday (worth it !) but apart from that, the exhaustion hits quite quickly. I can do what I need to do (like the shopping today !) but I'm definitely looking forward to being able to crash out for the rest of the week. I'm off work this week and hopefully that'll allow me to get some healing in for my outsides and to replenish those energy reserves.

I have the photos from Comic Con but that enervation is getting in the way of me pulling the photos off the camera so I can organise them for Facebook etc. Soon :-).

Comic Con always brings out the special, the odd, the beautiful, the ... revealing, the downright wonderful and always outfits that the wearers and makers can be pretty proud of. I haven't done one yet but I think I have an idea for something that could work and be suitably understated. Here we are :

That's the Alliance Dress Blues from the Mass Effect game, although I think I actually prefer the Cerberus outfit.

Looks good. They did a good job with the outfits in the game.

Yep. Comic Con was pretty good this year. It feels like it is getting bigger each year, although that's me remembering back to a few years ago when I went to London MCM for the first time. It's definitely bigger than the version at Birmingham NEC. It seemed like there were more artist stands this time around. I really must ask one of them to do a Dwagon Waving Hi for me at some point.

It's a long, tough day but the show and most definitely the company makes it very much worth it. And if you're going to one of these events yourself, look into the whole day and not just the convention. You really need to look after yourself to get through a day like this so you can Really Enjoy It, which means making sure you're topped up on things like water (the location is very hot and humid inside - very unhealthy enervating conditions) and having breaks when you need them. Take a few minutes to chill out having something to eat and drink. It's worth it because that fuels you through the day.

The Lords run is a longer day (starts earlier) but works well with this too. With 3 games, there are short breaks at half time where the teams change sides (loo break for spectators !) and longer breaks between the games where you can scoot around the stadium looking for foods, drinks and scouting the usually excellent Lords shop. I think I've well and truly mined out that shop though but I'm sure I'll find something good this year.

Like at Comic Con !

The lovely Cupid's Gift came away with an excellent selection of goodies (and a smuggled plushie !) and I acquired 2 Star Wars themed t-shirts which will get shown off at work on the Fridays soon, plus 2 Nanoblock kits (BB-8 and Cookie Monster - pictures to come when they're built) and I also got a book of Mass Effect posters.

Good loot.

That other bit of planning involves what you do around the show too. So for Comic Con and the Lords run, there is a Westfield trip after. It's a massive shopping place ... which also has munchie areas. Good food is fantastic for fuelling you through a day. And it's tasty too. I'll have a good scout around before leaving London on the 8th. The alternative is to head off down the motorway until you find somewhere acceptable and motorway service stations are all about fuel food, not tasty food.

I'll be doing the cricket watching as well this holiday - extraordinary game yesterday where England almost got demolished in record time. When that happened in my playing days, it would often result in what we called a Beer Leg, where the teams would hang around for a friendly/practice where we'd have bowlers batting and batsmen bowling. Bit of fun to get us more cricket in during the day.

I was about to say "Where I could have more fun being a nutter in the field too" but this was when I still had fear of the ball, before I figured out that being fearless hurts less in cricket than when the fear hesitation leads to fumbles and ouches.

Comic Con pictures soon. I need to get them off the camera.

Perhaps games soon too, I have a selection on my current play list :
Stellaris - yep. I'm on this one again. After starting a game with a bunch of Space Raptors who were the Devouring Swarm, I'm in one with Space Snakes who will turn into a Devouring Swarm (everyone hates you because they think you're out to eat them - which is true) later. The Raptors had too many enemies to survive that game but the Snakes have been able to slice up races peacemeal. To ermm ... make meals out of them.

Yep. Stellaris still gets my attention.

I've opened Rebel Galaxy again, which has confused me because I'm having to recalibrate my play away from "I can take on anyone !" to running at the first sign of trouble. It's a good space game, more about space battle barges than the fighter type craft in Elite.

Darkest Dungeon might get some more time ...

Then there's Motorsport Manager, where my campaign has been on hiatus because it got boring. My team is a long way ahead of the competition. Incidentally, this is why Formula 1 has been better this year, as Ferrari have caught up with Mercedes and you genuinely don't know which of them will win the races.

And I really should go back to Mass Effect Andromeda and make a push to finish that. It has good outfits too :

You can probably tell that if I were to find myself in a science fictional universe, it would almost certainly be Mass Effect as the preferred one. There is good variation in races, huge potential to explore and they just created a galaxy full of wonder.

Back there soon !