ANZAC Day tomoz

Would love to attend a Dawn Service somewhere. That's not feasible in my given situation. Will settle for catching snippets of commemorative events from around the nation on telly.

I note there are three games of NRL. Three! On a Thurs! Only two of AFL, but they're also holding one tonight. (No Pacific Super Rugby or A-League.)

It appears that, along with remembering the sacrifices of fallen servicepeople and munching homemade ANZAC biscuits, I'll be watching a fair bit of footy.

Knowing when to fold

Uninstalled poker puzzler "Balatro" [Steam] after 77 hours. Was still achieving/unlocking stuff. Very slowly, though. 1-2 Glengarry leads per night. Diminishing returns. And it was keeping me from exploring other gameses. Am satisfied with the entertainment derived for my 20-buck outlay.

New listening

Finished "Servo" (highly recommended). Will begin the audiobook of this tragic memoir from 2023 on my Monday walk. Gotta tackle something serious in paper soon as well. At the moment, my traditional reading is confined to gamebooks, "SFX" and "Retro Gamer" mag, and "Batman" comics.

Blurb:

A novelist’s gripping investigation of the forces that led his childhood best friend from academic stardom to the psychiatric hospital where he has lived since killing the woman he loved

When the Rosens moved to New Rochelle, New York in 1973, Jonathan Rosen and Michael Laudor became inseparable. Both children of professors, the boys were best friends and fierce rivals who soon followed each other to Yale University.

Michael blazed through Yale in three years, graduating summa cum laude and landing a top-flight consulting job. Then, one day, Jonathan received a devastating call: Michael had suffered a psychotic break and was in the locked ward of a psychiatric hospital.

Diagnosed with schizophrenia, Michael was still in hospital when he learned he’d been accepted into law school, and living in a halfway house when he decided, against all odds, to enrol. Still battling delusions, he managed to graduate, and after his triumphant story was featured in The New York Times, sold a memoir for a vast sum. Ron Howard bought film rights, completing the dream for Michael and his tirelessly supportive girlfriend Carrie, and Brad Pitt was set to star. But then Michael, in the grip of psychosis, committed a horrific act that made him a front-page story of an entirely different sort.

The Best Minds is Jonathan Rosen’s powerful account of an American tragedy, set in the final decades of the American century, an era that coincided with the emptying out of state mental hospitals. It is a story about the bonds of friendship, the price of delusion and the mystery of identity. Tender, funny and harrowing by turns, The Best Minds is both a beautifully rendered coming of age story and an indictment of the profound neglect of mental illness in our society.

Six suns

Thanks to my friend JK for linking me to the series of scifi shorts going under the banner "A Thousand Suns". There are six episodes. This is the first -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXaVgAxtYFI

For what it's worth (nothing), I'd rank 'em, best to least best: 5, 1, 3, 2, 4, 6. The sixth is the only real weak instalment. I hope they make more eps.

Mr Suitcase? Nah, Mr Top Pocket

I haven't paid for a 5E manual, boardgame or booster pack* since before the Pando. I've just been trading handfuls of unwanted MTG cards for game-shop credit; initially by mail, but lately in person at my FLGS. I'm preparing the next pile now ($135 worth and counting). Admittedly, it's growing tougher to find shiz they want, but only because the Oz market is so limited. My collection still contains tons of cards I reckon would instantly sell in the US, especially some of the foreign printings. "Whaddaya mean you don't buy Italian Legends?" I can't complain. The process has saved me several grand since 2019. It's also just a fun, OCD-pleasing challenge; both searching through longboxes/display folders for what's "hot" and then attempting to spend the generated credit to the dollar :-)

*Generally speaking. There were Kickstarters, etc.

Yumosity vs yumology

Had a lovely tuna'n'vegetable curry with rice for dinner. There was lemon juice in it already, and I added coriander. Plenty of poppadoms on the side. Thinking about date cake for dessert.

"Hey, smoke up, Johnny!"

A mate of mine started smoking when he was in the army because, as he tells it, you couldn't have a regular smoke break unless you were a smoker. I've 9-to-5-ed in a few high-rises in my time. Colleagues who smoked would have to catch the lift down, find a spot away from the building (and passing foot traffic) to enjoy their durry, then catch the lift back up. If the lifts were busy, this might take 15-20 minutes. I wonder if anyone took up coffin nails primarily to escape the office a coupla extra times during the day.