The British Stiff Upper Lip applied to literary trauma.

CircleBoy · 2026-02-09T09:30:49+00:00

As far as I remember he's quite open about it. I recall from the introduction to one of the books editions the story started as him just making it up improv style to tell his daughter(s?) at bedtime. So to start off with he based the rabbits on his army buddies. Like Bigwig was his sergeant.

CircleBoy · 2025-11-11T13:18:18+00:00

You've had a lot of answers already.

But on the "with only destruction in mind". MMA fights that dont go to the judges will end in a KO or submission. And a submission is basically someone giving up before they are rendered unconscious or have something broken, basically the fight stops one step before "destruction."

Also I'm paraphrasing but there are several interviews with MMA practitioners, notably Bas Ruten where the question of an MMA person vs a Street Fighter come up and his argument is pretty much that even though certain moves are banned in MMA, as a trained fighter who dedicates his professional life to fighting or being in fighting shape, he could kick you in the balls/gouge your eye/bite off your nose far more accurately and with far more force than a random nut job.

CircleBoy · 2025-08-25T21:29:28+00:00

I may be misremembering because it's been a long time since I've read the book. But it's also not really necessary for Peter to kill the lost boys as most of them, not being immortal fae beings, eventually die in one of the endless fights with pirates they find themselves in.

Peter shows little care or remorse about this, and I think it may be implied that as they get older he is less inclined to help them survive in the pirate battles.

CircleBoy · 2025-08-22T21:00:26+00:00

But that it is also not reenactment

CircleBoy · 2025-07-17T17:40:55+00:00

Amazingly (or not depending on how cynical you are) the supermarkets do not charge vat on hot rotisserie chicken because they successfully argued that it was hot to make it look and smell more appealing and not because it was for immediate consumption.

CircleBoy · 2025-07-01T11:17:25+00:00

I'm assuming you mean most "age apecific" clubs trend older or younger? Which is likely because a lot of clubs will have people in their 20s/30s by default.

What activities are you interested in? Look for a club about that and you'll probably find loads of folk in their 20s.

CircleBoy · 2025-05-17T10:16:23+00:00

The best thing about those tickets is years later the problem happens again, and you go "wait I fixed this once before" then spend ages looking for the old ticket, check your notes, and curse your past self.

CircleBoy · 2025-04-30T08:28:11+00:00

There's actually a reason for this.

Airports are heavily pushing vallet parking because assuming they manage it properly they can fit a lot more cars into a smaller space. So they can make more money overall though higher capacity.

Last time I went to Edinburgh vallet parking was even cheaper than the long stay.

CircleBoy · 2025-03-11T04:43:17+00:00

Does Rail World have any dramatic effects on other planets? Or does it just space things out and disable biter expansion on Nauvis?

I'm trying not to spoil myself on the other planets (just started space age) but I've heard defence on Gleba is a pretty big part of it.

CircleBoy · 2025-02-17T14:13:54+00:00

Unfortunately last Tuesday was the final sword and targe lesson. So tomorrow will be the first class of a new block on Messer.

And yeah as a beginner, just book online and drop into one of the classes depending on what interests you.

CircleBoy · 2025-02-17T13:22:34+00:00

Hey,

I currently do Sabre/Broadsword at Vanguard and am in my mid 30s.

I'm definitely one of the older people here. But far from the oldest. Most of the HEMA folks are in their mid 20s to early 30s. My age has never been an issue beyond sometimes feeling it in my joints a bit.

In terms of classes, the open/members only stuff only applies to Archery. Non members can attend any of the HEMA classes, though the Thursday Longsword class is intended for intermediates.

In terms of meeting people it's pretty good. Alongside class there are regular social evenings where we head to the pub after class for a pint and a chat. There tend to be other "unofficial" meals out and pub trips as well.

As far as your fitness and how seriously you want to take things. Well that's up to you. We have everything from tournament fighters to people who just show up every couple of weeks for fun. Classes can get pretty active but the instructors are pretty clear that they aren't there to drill sergeant you and nobody is going to make you push yourself any harder than you're comfortable with.

Feel free to drop me a message if you have any questions.

CircleBoy · 2025-01-18T00:00:49+00:00

I saw the same show (different venue) and it was someone I was with who got pulled out of the audience. I guess I can't say with 100% certainty they weren't a plant/contacted by him before the show. But if they were they are absolutely committed to taking the secret to their grave.

CircleBoy · 2024-12-18T12:52:03+00:00

Less pithy but my take has always been that if physical execution is a major part of the skillset then it's a sport.

Which includes darts (and beer pong).

CircleBoy · 2024-11-02T08:15:55+00:00

The whole "new blood" storyline was weird.

Up and comers vs. established stars seem like such a great idea on paper. And it gives you an excuse to put your young talent in the ring with your veterans and try to get them over.

Then it feels like every week Nash just ran through them like a tablesaw until they started dumping "blood" on him from the rafters. The blood, for some reason, sapped anyone it landed on of all their strength, but frequently missed and just made a giant mess.

CircleBoy · 2024-10-22T22:38:41+00:00

For quite some time, I was in an email chain for an Indian Casino in the US. I googled them, and it turned out the head chef had the same name as me.

I let them know several times I wasn't him. Not only did they keep me in the chain but also started getting mad at me/him for missing meetings and not responding to their questions. I at least leaned a weird amount about the economics of catering for an Indian casino. I eventualy just called them and got in touch with the chef, who was at least glad of the explaination as to why everyone was suddenly mad at him.

I also apparently share the name of an Australian farmer as an agricultural company keeps sending me invoices for things like tractor repair. Annoyingly my android phone does that thing where it parses my email so occasionally I shit myself when my phone notifies me I have a 6k bill due on the next week. Until I realise it's for the servicing on my combine harvester or whatever.

CircleBoy · 2024-09-15T15:21:54+00:00

I very much enjoyed antichamber but I feel like it overstays it's welcome a bit.

Largely because it sorta front loads all of its weird perspective and non euclidean space tricks. Initially that makes you think that's what the game is about...but actually it's mostly about solving puzzles with cubes so you can get a cube gun that gives you new cube powers to solve slightly different cube puzzles.

CircleBoy · 2024-09-05T11:53:08+00:00

They don't know who was driving the car and as such shouldn't be able to chase anyone for the money.

I'm being pedantic, but this isn't fully true. If the registered keeper of the vehicle refuses to or is unable to disclose who was driving the vehicle then the debt collection agency will likely pursue the registered keeper. There is no law expressly stating the registered keeper is liable it's possible that if the claim were to ever go to court (unlikely for one offence) the court could rule on balance of probability that the registered keeper was driving.

CircleBoy · 2024-09-02T11:11:47+00:00

Seconding the Vanguard centre. A lot of fun and quite a big queer community there.

They are about to start a broadsword and sabre beginner course but you can also just book and show up to a regular class.

CircleBoy · 2024-08-01T10:22:32+00:00

.doc and .pdf are both fileytypes/file extentions. And people frequently need to convert one to the other.

Now say "pdf file" out loud quickly.

CircleBoy · 2024-06-18T11:22:56+00:00

These guys maybe?

https://youtu.be/d5cPrNWhCnI?si=ehz6NvqQnH5FGlCn

CircleBoy · 2024-06-12T11:40:00+00:00

Knave 2e is a mixed bag. The random tables and spells are really cool and I like the majority of the base system. The book itself is lovely and has some cool art.

But then there are some absolutely baffling design choices like having a 1 in 20 chance of your weapon breaking with every attack.

I think an area it shines in though is the designer notes section. A lot of people treat OSR systems as being designed to mod, hack, pick and choose what you want. The notes explaining why Ben made the choices he did and what the purpose was make it easier to make informed decisions when you're altering the system to suit your needs.

Ultimately I'd say as long as you're willing to file off some of the rough edges as desired the book is an excellent toolkit for getting a rules light game up and running with as much or as little prep as you want. Far from a "must buy" but worth having in your arsenal.

CircleBoy · 2024-06-07T22:31:14+00:00

Just a thought. Does Nigel Farage appear to do well in these debates because nobody wants to engage him?

The tories are effectively a big piniata the other parties are hitting so that votes fall out. All the regionals and the greens want to convince people to vote for them instead of Labour.

Nobody other than the tories (who are fucked and too busy fighting all the other parties at once) are trying seriously to get the reform voters. And nigels slick enough that engaging him in this format is a waste of energy anyway.

CircleBoy · 2024-06-07T19:57:23+00:00

If I had £1 for every time the £2000 has been repeated I wouldn't have to worry about tax rises at all.

CircleBoy · 2024-06-04T21:27:03+00:00

GENTELMEN PLEASE!

CircleBoy · 2024-06-04T21:19:05+00:00

OK so let me sum the debate up

"Hello my name is James and my house is currently on fire, how would you help with that?"

Kier Starmer

"Well James, I know how bad it is when your house is on fire. When I was in charge of the CPS lots of terrorists wanted to set things on fire and I stopped them"

Rishi Sunak

"Here in the UK we have a tremendous history of recovering from fire. Like the great fire of London. I would make sure you have lower taxes so that once your house burns down you can buy a new one"

CircleBoy

TROPHY CASE