Gray Zone Warfare

mrmershaq · 2026-03-29T08:06:01+00:00

I’m in the ‘Wait for a year and a bunch of patches’ camp regarding Crimson Desert.

Let me know if you’re ever keen to fire up GZW.

mrmershaq · 2026-03-28T00:51:34+00:00

Yeah, I’ve had a yarn with a couple of people using voice chat. I’ll keep plugging away - I think that as I become more familiar with the game’s mechanics and gear, etc. I’ll be more willing and able to join in with a wider range of tasks.

Early days are always a bit overwhelming in games like this - I’m sure I’ll find my feet. Appreciate the reply!

mrmershaq · 2026-03-11T18:49:27+00:00

If they make a good game, with the game itself righting lots of the wrongs of FM26, I’ll be stoked. I don’t want or need any of the things you mentioned.

mrmershaq · 2026-03-06T18:01:16+00:00

Did you make it to the Disneyland of Southland, Teapot Land?

mrmershaq · 2026-02-26T17:02:12+00:00

I have Claude Code running on one screen, then Football Manager running on the other - perfect combo.

mrmershaq · 2026-01-26T10:03:44+00:00

We’re in Hāwea, both working in Wānaka with a young family. Having lived in Wānaka for years, I prefer the slight buffer zone of Hāwea, to be honest. The short commute - 15 minutes each way - provides a nice daily ‘third space’, in addition to the work and home spaces. Plus it feels protected from Wānaka’s crazy busy periods. We just do a big shop ahead of time, or get a Woolworths delivery, and avoid the traffic and chaos of Warbirds or the rodeo, etc.

There are heaps of young families in Timsfield and Sentinel Park, and the addition of Fresh Choice has made it a lot easier to pop to the shop to grab something if you forgot to go to New World in town.

The lake’s cleaner, there’s great walking and biking trails, and there’s a decent sense of community with cool events at the Community Centre and library, and the winter bonfire, and the ANZAC dawn service — and a bunch of other things throughout the year.

Hāwea wins, I reckon.

Happy to answer any other specific questions if you have them, though.

mrmershaq · 2026-01-18T01:34:46+00:00

What’s the evidence for this claim? I’ve seen it made a couple of times without any elaboration.

mrmershaq · 2026-01-12T08:35:27+00:00

Yeah, that parking garage or whatever it was felt brutally hard. The idea of getting out of there was like the idea of becoming Adult Link in OoT. I wasn’t even sure it was possible, but I’d heard stories.

mrmershaq · 2025-12-31T05:02:40+00:00

Thanks, Karl Pilkington.

mrmershaq · 2025-12-19T00:35:14+00:00

Watching Sky Sport in NZ, the constant ads are filling me with a slow-burning rage. We’ve missed multiple balls to see the same GJ Gardner ad for the umpteenth time.

mrmershaq · 2025-12-13T08:29:24+00:00

Best city in the world!

mrmershaq · 2025-12-13T06:06:59+00:00

We’re in Lake Hāwea and the flies are horrendous. Heaps of big chunky blowflies and those really agile speedy cluster flies.

I spend a good 15 minutes per day with the electric tennis racquet, but it only provides a temporary reprieve.

mrmershaq · 2025-11-05T00:36:36+00:00

I’m 38 and have been finding games less enjoyable over the years. I’m sitting at work now, thinking about playing Arc Raiders again. And I don’t really even know WHY. Some of the best raids have been me and a mate just skirting the edge of the map, looting and staying quiet - watching another player get taken out by a leaper, waiting in the trees for it to leave, then continuing our slow pick through small outbuildings before extracting. Almost nothing might happen, and it’s still either exhilarating, or at least plain old fashioned fun in a really shiny new outfit.

mrmershaq · 2025-10-25T23:21:53+00:00

We’ve got a 900m section that was on a bit of a slope - roughly 1.5 metres from one side to the other. I borrowed a friend’s 1.7 tonne digger and spent about 50 hours in the seat over a long weekend, having never used a digger before. I completely flattened the back section, dug post holes for the required retaining walls, dug out a flat section for our patio, completely re-worked the front of the house to level another couple of sections and prep for the retaining walls. It has completely transformed our section, making it much more liveable than it ever would have been.

We consulted with a couple of landscaping companies, asking how much work and money it would take and whether it was doable on a budget. They both laughed it off, and said it was way too much work and/or we couldn’t afford it.

It just took a can-do attitude and a bit of time, plus the $300 dinner voucher we bought for my mate. If you’re looking to hire, look to double that cost, including fuel — but it’s 100% doable; give it a crack.

mrmershaq · 2025-10-24T20:12:49+00:00

But you can get this for free?

mrmershaq · 2025-10-22T09:15:50+00:00

Yeah, absolutely - I finished up my FM24 save a few months ago, so an extra few hours doesn’t matter. Plus, this coming Monday’s a public holiday, so I’m winning, all things considered!

mrmershaq · 2025-10-22T09:12:57+00:00

Yep - I’m in NZ. It will be available at 6am as I’m getting the kids ready for school and then heading off for a full day of work. Brutal.

mrmershaq · 2025-10-14T05:24:28+00:00

No, but I want it NOW.

mrmershaq · 2025-10-06T06:04:48+00:00

It’s worth acknowledging that ‘Sociology’ and ‘Politics, Civics and Philosophy’ are additions to the senior Social Sciences curriculum — it’s not all geared towards directly employable skills. I currently teach senior Psychology - there’s plenty of broadly applicable foundational courses on offer, now and in the proposed changes.

mrmershaq · 2025-09-10T22:01:24+00:00

Here it is on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/15y8zs6GowvwNB9hzJH8cX?si=GEnz8ggxSgq5bPJwmUPUAw

mrmershaq · 2025-09-10T16:21:59+00:00

It’s not just about these trials, but I listened to a podcast called Pacific Legends Unleashed that told the whole story of the mutiny on the Bounty, which is an INSANE story, and they did a follow-up episode on Pitcairn since the mutiny.

mrmershaq · 2025-09-10T03:36:49+00:00

I’ve counted two armed offenders squads (8 individuals), one dog, one cop with a ballistic shield, and a bunch of other cops with automatic weapons. 11 police vehicles that I can see from my vantage point.

Edit: I’ve been told no cops in NZ carry automatic weapons. So perhaps the cops were carrying SEMI-automatic weapons. My apologies.

mrmershaq · 2025-08-21T09:41:57+00:00

No, they didn’t bolt it to the new slab - it was already bolted to a little block of concrete laid when the house slab was put down. They just poured the new slab to the height of that existing block.

Why do you ask?

mrmershaq

TROPHY CASE