Will

Really glad there are going to be more available, I’ll definitely be putting an order in!

I’m writing this to make sure that noting comes up on the main page as I just realized that I spoiled the race in my reply and that is not a very nice thing to do. I hope nobody saw it and that this is long enough to cover it up. My reply to the thread is in the spoiler tag.

Maybe on the COVID front it would be good to just start new threads on specific topics? I did quite enjoy some of the heated debates in that thread but it also overwhelmed some legitimate topics that would have benefited from some close discussion. It’s definitely something we need threads for at least.

Preparing for our move to the UK with some home office equipment: A couple of monitors A Wave-3 microphone with a few extra pieces. Have wanted this for a while so quite happy it was randomly 50 quid off.

Yeah, I’m sure it will be exactly the same for me. We’re not in a huge rush and the longer it goes on the more money we have, would just be nice not to have to waste too much money on rent.

I’m jealous! Have been thinking I’ll see if I can pick up a second hand one when I get back and do exactly the same thing.

Forgot to update on this. Details came back and it looks like we can get a mortgage as soon as we’re back in the UK for around about the amount we were expecting. As expected there are some issues with buying flats but they were within what we’re able to do so doesn’t actually cause us any problems. The flat we were quite keen on has been sold which is a shame, but lead us to look at some other properties. Currently really like a 3 bed semi which has had a big extension put on the back which adds a huge open plan living area. It also has a garden office at the bottom of a pretty sizable garden which is great as we wouldn’t need to use a bedroom for my office. The only downside is it’s a little further from town that we’d like to be. I’m pretty sure it will be long gone by the time we get back, but at least we have more ideas on the kind of things we’re keen on.

I need to kit out my home office and monitors are a pretty important part of that. Now is a good time to be buying with lots of good deals to be found - does anyone have recommendations for what to go for? Currently my top choices are: Dell Only 1080p Looks good Expensive USB-C LG Better resolution Nice stand Good price Too big Lenovo 4k Good price Way too big Not keen on the general look Any others I should consider? I’ll be using them with a MacBook Pro and usually have one in landscape and one in portrait. 24 inch is my sweet spot for size and I’d prefer as small bezels as possible. Having USB-C is very nice but not essential.

Either Leamington Spa or Warwick dependent on where we find a good place. Definitely around that area though.

Yeah I was pretty shocked when I saw the draft. Will have words with them. Think this is the first time I’ve been Pocket Gamer.

Started my new job and they wrote a nice press release about me: Press Release

It’s pretty much the same story as Ubisoft. These “leaders” have perpetuated a toxic workplace for years and now they’ve been called out on it they will do the absolute bare minimum to look like they’ve addressed it but in reality continue with he status quo. Given that most huge deals such as CoD marketing will be done at multiple levels of the company this will make it very hard for Kotick to remain in the position. I’m sure other partners (especially American ones) won’t be too far behind in condemning all of this. The shareholders only care about making money, as soon as Kotick has a negative push on that, which it seems is not too far away, he’ll be out.

Mortgage advisor will be sending me our options tomorrow - very excited to find out how everything is looking. We’ve been keeping an eye on what is available over the last month and definitely have a pretty good idea on what we’re looking for now. Hopefully our wants and the mortgages available will align for us.

May as well send some Pikmin off to complete them, they’ll just be back in the morning. I’m so annoyed, I thought the event finished later so instead of going out earlier I thought I’d walk around for a bit while the baby is put to sleep. Now I’ve done 8,000 steps and nothing to show for it.

I’m up to 3,500 steps on the challenge. When it gets a bit cooler outside I’ll walk around the condo until I hit 10k. Everyone else going to try and complete it?

Yeah for sure, really nice seeing what they’ve come back with and then sending them off on some other missions. Ah that would be awesome. If there were parts to collect that turned into something it would be pretty cool, maybe you can only get certain things from certain places and have to trade to complete the thing. Would be very true to the brand and actually add a ton of longevity to the game. I just saw this. I’m not sure if it’s due to being in lockdown so much and not walking but isn’t that an absolutely insane amount of steps??

I’m really quite enjoying this as something to do a few times a day and just grow my little gang of Pikmin. I think they’ve actually done a pretty good job of making something that fits with the IP, which I absolutely love. The UI could be a bit more intuitive but other than that it’s all good. I do wonder if this will have much longevity? Pokémon totally makes sense that people will spend years collecting the hundreds and hundreds of them but there’s like 10 Pikmin now? Not sure how much putting a Mario hat on different ones every so often will entice most people. Added everyone above and my code is 9921 2212 0532.

Wanted to take some pictures of the planes that fly over our apartment so got a zoom lens for my camera: Also needed a new portable hard drive as my current one is really unreliable, got this 1TB that should fit my needs nicely:

I just binged the whole thing today!

I’m watching!

I stand almost all the time while I’m at home. I’d like to get something I can kneel on (I often do this as a bit of a break with my chair) and we have some balancing stools in the office which are quite nice. My favourite chair of all time was the Patrick chair from IKEA: Not sure why, but it just really suited the way I sat and I felt super comfy in it - I wish I could still get hold of one.

I’m exactly the opposite, I love the fact that I have my office at home and can just switch off from work and be ready to enjoy my free time. I have everything set up just as I want it and nice equipment rather than any old crap I might get in an office. I don’t think I’ve ever felt less burnt out and pissed off about work.

That’s OK, there definitely seem to be more things to be mindful of with new builds. I do wonder if a lot of that is down to the fact that “new build” is such a massive all encompassing term that anything bad with any element of any new house gets lumped together with “new build bad” type thinking? As you say, so long as we look into everything properly there shouldn’t be any nasty surprises. First thing we need to do is speak to an advisor and see what is actually possible for us. Affordability shouldn’t be too much of a problem, but given we now have no financial history there I’m not sure what issues that will throw up.

Have to say, of everything we’ve seen so far, it’s only really the new build flats that seem to match how we like to live. We’ll see what we can work out on that front and take things from there. We’ve only really used rightmove.com for the search so far as that was what I used when I was last in the UK - are there any other sites we should be making use of too? I’m looking forward to actually being there and being able to get some of this stuff moving properly.

That bag looks nice! I was pretty lucky as they were doing a pretty decent launch deal and I got a bag, extra battery, and memory card all included. I also got a mini-tripod / Bluetooth controller included which has been pretty good so far. The gorillapod is a great idea! Now that I think about it I actually have one somewhere, I think I bought it when I moved to Japan and used it with my phone to take time lapses sat in Starbucks while I studied - I’ll try and dig it out as it would definitely be easy to bring around with me.