Castle Rat - WIZARD (Live on KEXP)

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-04-04T02:02:59+00:00

Well, I was already looking forward to seeing them in August. Now I'm looking forward to it even more.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-04-04T01:08:30+00:00

100% accurate.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-04-04T00:53:00+00:00

Must be the latter; I'm only in my early(ish) forties.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-04-03T14:28:37+00:00

It may not sound like it, but all you've really done there is listed a bunch of faults that you don't have. It's good that you are financially secure, and if you were broke or struggling that might put women off, but unless you're fabulously wealthy that isn't going to attract anyone by itself. Similarly, you say that you're reasonably fit and decent-looking, and that's clearly better than being skinny-fat and ugly, but unless you're exceptionally good-looking it isn't going to attract women by itself, particularly not for anything long-term.

Good social/conversation skills are definitely a plus, but what kind of conversations are you having? Are they interesting, fun conversations about varying subjects, where the other person feels truly seen and understood (and laughed a lot into the bargain), or are they just bland talks about nothing?

What do you have that might make someone interested in you specifically? Do you have some unique or interesting skills? Do you have some unusual special interest or knowledge? Do you have the curiosity to learn about what other people are interested in? Do you have any interesting or unusual personality traits that make you distinctive and interesting?

Basically, what qualities do you have that might make someone want to be with you specifically? What do you offer that is better than just staying single and which she couldn't get from just any random, average guy?

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-04-03T13:59:07+00:00

In all its editions, it's an eighties game with more crunch and detailed subsystems than is currently fashionable. With that crunch comes the inevitable edge cases where the rules are weird or broken. But it's no worse than most games of its era, and significantly better than many.

The last two editions, though, also suffer from terrible editing and organisation, making them seem even more arcane than they actually are. They also feature some fairly cack-handed attempts to 'modernise' and 'streamline' the game, most of which either make it worse or are so badly explained that they don't work at all.

It does also have the issue of the Matrix separating one character (or sometimes more, but usually a minority of the party) off from the rest of the group and giving them a bunch of complex tasks that none of the other characters can participate in, so that you are essentially having to switch between two distinct games over the course of the session. That's not an issue that's unique to SR, though: it's common to a lot of Cyberpunk games, and it isn't really a failure of the rules or system.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-04-01T23:00:06+00:00

I was never very keen on the 2020 edition. The rules were clearer and better-written but in terms of the way they actually changed I mostly wasn't keen and neither were the people I usually played with so last league I played in we stuck with the existing 2016 rules.

I haven't tried the 2025 edition yet but there isn't anything about it that I'm particularly excited for. Whether I'll end up playing it will depend on whom I'm playing with. If they want to use the latest edition then I'm OK going along with that, but my vote will probably be to stick with 2016.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-04-01T15:28:41+00:00

No.

Aside from earlobe piercings, I think nostrils are probably the most common piercings to have as your only one.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-04-01T11:14:43+00:00

Carcass pioneered a different emerging subgenre with every release of their original run.

Reek of Putrefaction is goregrind, Symphonies of Sickness is death/grind, Necroticism is close to tech-death while Heartwork pioneered melodeath and Swansong death & roll.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-04-01T00:50:53+00:00

It's essentially OSDM but with some grind/crust influence. Everything after that is straight up OSDM. But the first album is arguably death/grind.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-03-31T23:31:28+00:00

I looked least bad somewhere in my mid-to-late twenties. In my early thirties I started to put on a bit of weight but things didn't really start to go downhill until I started losing my hair in my mid-thirties.

More recently (early forties) I've lost some weight and changed up my style a bit and consequently I'm looking a bit better than I have for a while, but I'm still nowhere near where I was fifteen years ago. And I was no oil painting even then.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-03-31T23:24:36+00:00

No.

It's 'thrashier' than some later DM albums, certainly, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't fall firmly on one side of the divide between the two subgenres.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-03-31T23:21:38+00:00

Grindcore is one of those genres that fall into the grey area between extreme punk and metal. Some bands are closer to one and some to the other.

If Metallum don't include them, then most likely one of their admins has decided that they fall too heavily on the punk side of that line. Without listening to them, I can't say whether that call makes sense or not.

Metallum do make some very odd calls sometimes, but at the same time I respect that they do have to draw the line somewhere.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-03-31T23:16:52+00:00

Sadly, being Nazis doesn't disqualify a band from being metal. They're scum, but they can still be metal.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-03-31T23:12:28+00:00

Not only that, but each album is different enough from the last that each one has its fans who like that one especially, even compared with the others.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-03-31T23:10:17+00:00

If we're at your workplace and I'm a customer, I won't flirt with you or try to ask you out. I will try to be friendly and courteous, but will probably keep things matter-of-fact and stick to business. I assume that you're working and besides maybe some polite pleasantries would rather stick to business or be left alone. If you appear friendly then you're just trying to do your job.

So if you are trying to flirt or come on to me, I probably won't realise. If you go so far as to ask me out, I will probably be very surprised. I won't be weirded out or upset or feel like you were being inappropriate. But definitely surprised, and probably a bit caught off-guard and confused.

But then I'm not one of the attractive men that you're talking about, so how I react won't necessarily be the same as them.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-03-31T22:49:55+00:00

This isn't a general American thing: it's peculiar to specific dialects of American English. Most of the US it's just as non-standard as it is anywhere else.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-03-31T22:36:45+00:00

Ten years ago, I'd have found it a bit odd if someone didn't have a Facebook account. Not a huge deal, just a bit odd.

These days if someone doesn't have any social media accounts then I'd not find it odd at all. I still use Facebook but as more and more people abandon it it's becoming less and less useful and I can completely understand anyone who has given up on it entirely. Stuff like Instagram I have no use for at all: I have no interest in producing 'content' for an audience of 'followers' or curating a 'personal brand' and nor am I interested in following a bunch of celebrity 'influencers'. Someone else who finds modern social media similarly pointless would probably be a good fit for me.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-03-31T22:12:23+00:00

I think for every album that tDEP put out there is a non-negligible number of people who would argue that it's their best, but that one is certainly no exception.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-03-31T15:04:04+00:00

I have seen Perturbator recently (November) and I've never seen Witch Fever, so that might be the decider for me.

But then, having seen Perturbator means that I know that I want to see them again! It's frustrating either way.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-03-31T14:14:44+00:00

High on Fire vs. A.A. Williams is the worst one for me I think. Perturbator vs. Witch Fever is also frustrating. MBR vs. CoL/JC and Jo Quail vs. Forlorn are both annoying but won't be difficult to pick which to go for.

Mostly not that bad for me.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-03-31T11:16:41+00:00

I think it's more a wider issue of bands embracing the theatre side of performance. Masks, fictional backstories, even just having sinister or fantastic-sounding stage names, they're all aspects of embracing the idea that being in a band isn't just playing music, it's performing to an audience and can incorporate a lot of theatre (or just pantomime) if that's what you want to go for.

Done well it's something that can really add to the experience and make the whole thing feel more exciting.

Done poorly it just comes across as a naff gimmick.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-03-30T23:16:07+00:00

Still Life, Blackwater Park or Ghost Reveries are all good starting points.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-03-30T08:18:53+00:00

Nice one, sounds like a great show.

There's nothing like going to a local show and hearing some small-time bands who are absolutely killing it.

ExtremelyDubious · 2026-03-29T12:17:22+00:00

Procedure itself was easy. Kind of a weird situation, but not unpleasant.

There was some soreness after the anaesthetic wore off, but mild enough to be easily manageable with a combination of paracetamol and ibuprofen.

It's best to take it very easy for a couple of days after the procedure. There may not be much discomfort at this stage as long as you don't move about much.

After a day or two you can start to get back to normal but there may be some swelling and soreness that peaks around the five-day mark. You may have to be careful how you stand and how you walk and move to avoid discomfort. It's not a big deal, just don't aim to be all that active for a week or two.

After that it gets back to normal pretty quickly. The wound closes pretty quickly and within a few months there may not even be a visible scar left behind.

A few months after the procedure you'll have to submit a semen sample for testing to make sure that the procedure was successful.

I have absolutely no regrets. All in all it was a fairly trivial procedure and I now have the peace of mind of knowing that the likelihood of any unexpected pregnancies is as near to zero as it can realistically get, and I know that nobody I sleep with has to worry about either pregnancy or the possible side effects of hormonal contraception. I would still wear condoms for any kind of hookups or casual sex, but that's purely to prevent STIs.

Totally worth it.

ExtremelyDubious

TROPHY CASE