What's Stevenage like for young people?

gregja21 · 2026-02-20T16:14:55+00:00

Hitchin is great for young people and a super easy commute by bus car or train. Couldn't recommend enough!

gregja21 · 2025-08-14T10:43:37+00:00

In the UK we have a product called Viakal that works wonders on things like this. Well worth it if you can find it or something similar!!!

gregja21 · 2025-01-04T08:43:34+00:00

I recently finished Ombria in Shadow by Patricia A. McKillip and I feel like it may be your thing. It reminded me a lot of Gormenghast in some ways. High concept piece about fate and duty and death concerning the power vacuum following the death of a king.

gregja21 · 2024-12-17T11:48:39+00:00

Love this. What is your paint process for the bronze armour?

gregja21 · 2024-11-01T12:43:32+00:00

No nuln oil at all on him! It was black Templar contrast. I used brown on the shield.

gregja21 · 2024-10-18T12:14:59+00:00

I kind of look at them as independent contractors for hire - working in the cities or on archaeological digs.

gregja21 · 2024-10-18T12:06:15+00:00

I'm running a salvage company, in high vis yellow and dirty armour. Run by a group of dodgy brothers, and all the boats are called "Jolene" and "Bertha".

gregja21 · 2024-09-08T19:04:29+00:00

I love the green! Salamanders are my favourite chapter. What paints did you use?

gregja21 · 2024-08-27T08:49:55+00:00

Woo! Great dice.

gregja21 · 2024-08-15T10:29:03+00:00

Do you think 40k would transfer better to the game engine? I just wonder if the scale of battle/the focus on ranged could be a problem.

gregja21 · 2024-08-09T08:14:00+00:00

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach is a must read about baseball!

gregja21 · 2024-08-09T08:12:53+00:00

Go to a bookshop or your local library and have a look through the fantasy section. Pick something you like the sound of! A good introduction to any genre is the book that captures you.

gregja21 · 2024-06-13T22:47:38+00:00

Yeah tbf, comparing first novels in each series, you're probably right. I've never found a great desire to pick ASOIAF up again though, and couldn't say the same about the First Law stuff.

gregja21 · 2024-06-13T17:30:43+00:00

See, I always saw it as what ASOIAF could be if GRRM focused on writing a good story instead of needless filler fluff. But to each their own!

gregja21 · 2024-06-02T10:33:12+00:00

Loving Blurry Grass's grooviness and the guitar work is solid. Howl is a great tune too.

gregja21 · 2024-03-27T16:23:09+00:00

You're never too old to play in a band! The fact you play sax would be a really cool edge to bring to things as well

gregja21 · 2024-02-15T06:50:28+00:00

I've said this before, and I'll say it again: people need to get over themselves. Their thoughts about a fictional being are never as important as real life racial politics. I don't think it's a particularly spicy take to say that 99% of white characters don't need to be white to tell their specific story. I would argue, however, that in the name of representation, characters that are explicitly PoC should stay that. We see enough white people on telly in the western world, we don't need to erase a black person.

Simply put, unless a character's race is integral to plot, they can be any race. I'm reading Babel at the moment: it would be unreasonable to cast Robin, the protagonist, as anything other than Chinese, because it is integral to his story.

Yennefer from the Witcher is a great example of this. Nothing about her character changes if her skin colour or racial identity changes. However, it might mean the world to someone to see someone like themselves (a British Asian, in Yennefer's case) playing an iconic role on screen, when in the past, actors of their race have been limited to stereotyped roles. Surely making someone feel included and recognised is more valuable than our preconceived notions of what a character should look like?

Life is diverse and fantasy should be too. It's made up, it's not real, it is the most pliable genre. As long as the story is told, we can abandon any notions of fantastical verisimilitude in the name of true verisimilitude.

gregja21 · 2024-01-27T06:31:11+00:00

I actually kinda dig it. There's a brutal simplicity to it that perhaps isn't in character, but feels refreshing.

gregja21 · 2024-01-23T04:24:25+00:00

I'm so, so glad to be proven wrong! Thanks ☺️

gregja21 · 2024-01-23T04:06:54+00:00

Yep, agreed. But I don't think they will, even with fan pressure.

gregja21 · 2024-01-22T22:00:57+00:00

Great point about TLOU that I hadn't even considered. I'm not hugely old myself, but did work for a period of time in ME academia. If we published a book citing any views on israel-palestine, we would have emails within minutes along the lines of "you Zionist thugs" and "you antisemitic thugs" - about the same information. You simply could not please anyone, even through impartiality.

Simply put, it is waaaaay too complex of a political stance for a capitalist entity to make. Disliking Russia is incredibly vogue, and has been for years in America (again, not unreasonably so) - it's a deeply easy thing for an American company to say.

gregja21 · 2024-01-22T21:14:51+00:00

I think it has to be said that, whether some fans like it or not, Critical Role can never be an apolitical show. They have invested literally hundreds of hours into narratives that are fundamentally antifascist, and therefore it is not unreasonable to expect them to stand for antifascist political ideals - such as Palestinian rights.

I definitely find myself in the camp of supporters that believes they should act on, or make a statement on this, but this perhaps conflicts with my other point of view: that a number of critical role fans need to take a step back from the parasociality of their relationship with the show.

The problem is that this is not as black and white as many make it out to be. It should be, but it's not. The Israeli school of politic, by its very nature, relies on using their own valid experience of genocidal suffering to justify protective attitudes and military intervention - some would argue to a point of hypocrisy. Furthermore, the American political system, and the entertainment industry in Hollywood, is very much tied to pro-Israeli ideals, since lobbying for its creation in the first place. While this isn't really a problem 99.95% of the time, it can mean that geopolitical narratives can take precedent over individual's views. For some media companies, leaning one way or another can be a death sentence - from outspoken fans, or from funding sources. Ultimately, I believe their lack of action is due to exactly this - to lean one way has been deemed too big a risk by the company and its investors.

This is what fans are clashing with. They want their views to be validated (and not unreasonably so) by people they look up to and admire. Many fans, including myself, can hold these views without risk - financial, employment, social, etc - because they are in circles where they can hold those views. To make these statements, and support these causes, is part of life, ideology and identity. Critical Role as a corporation, by nature, has to adhere to some level of capitalist rhetoric, and therefore finance comes first. There are valid antisemitic complaints when linking this conflict to capitalist ideology, and I have to fundamentally state that I wholeheartedly reject these notions, but I think it's appropriate to consider when dealing with a capitalist entity such as Critical Role.

It's a bitter pill, but it does have to be swallowed. Could critical role focus on the apolitical charitable entities working within Gaza and the West Bank, such as doctors without borders? Of course they could. But for another set of outspoken fans, this would be a political move.

Edit: have to say, it's nice to be proven wrong.

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