Free from the owl
19th May, 2025
I quit Duolingo last week. It's a real shame, as while I wouldn't recommend it as a sole source of language learning, it has definitely played a valuable role in my ongoing efforts to learn Japanese. However, the time was right to ditch the app – I had finished the course and therefore wasn't learning anything new, and like so many other users, I was disgusted by the company's pivot to being an “AI-first” organisation. My only concern was for friends also using the app, whose Friends Quests I may screw up – turned out, one of them was also thinking of quitting anyway, which made the choice far easier.
When I spoke to my friend about it later on, I joked that we were “free from the tyranny of the owl,” but the humour vanished when I went to delete the app and I was presented with the message “Removing Duolingo? You can't hide from Duo.” Fuck off. I understand why Duolingo has leaned into the jokes about its mascot's pushy approach to daily learning, but lately I couldn't help feeling that it had genuinely gone past what I'm willing to tolerate. My friend felt the same, telling me that “being beholden to a language app, a sleep app, a health monitoring app – it's too much.”
What struck me about this was that I'd been talking to another friend earlier in the day, who had been feeling something similar. She mentioned that she wanted to wean herself off her phone because it was making her miserable, setting daily limits on social apps and blocking certain major sites in the browser. If she was going to visit them, she'd do so at the desk and have some intention to it, rather than absent-mindedly scrolling wherever she happened to be.
I'm fascinated by this, because we're of a generation that grew up with the internet – you have to imagine something is seriously wrong when “digital natives” are starting to pull back from the constant demand for our attention. Hell, the friend who wants to reduce her phone time is one of the first friends I met online, back when we were both teenagers. But as I have to explain to people like my mum, who didn't really start using the internet herself until Facebook was already the top social media site, the internet is so different to how it was 25 years ago. We didn't have a handful of social media giants with algorithms that prioritised outrage because it's engaging, and it just wasn't possible to drown yourself in that anger when the internet was something that you paid for by the minute and didn't exist on pocket-sized devices.
Of course, sometimes outrage serves a purpose. Jonathan Hall KC, the government's independent reviewer of state threat legislation, is reportedly making some alarming comments in a speech to Policy Exchange today. He believes that the UK may need anti-subversion laws in order to protect democracy, and it's rather interesting to see who he believes the people subverting democracy actually are:
"If I was a foreign intelligence officer, of course I would ensure that the UK hated itself and its history," he says in the speech.
"That the very definition of woman should be put into question, and that masculinity would be presented as toxic.
"That white people should be ashamed and non-white people aggrieved. I would promote antisemitism within politics.
"My intention would be to cause both immediate and long-term damage to the national security of the UK by exploiting the freedom and openness of the UK by providing funds, exploiting social media, and entryism."
Bloody hell. Do you think the British Empire might have done some dodgy stuff in the past? Subversion. Do you have some feminist tendencies, or a history of speaking out for trans rights? That's subversion too. Have you ever suggested that we may have more work to do on tackling racism and inequality in the UK? Well then you, my friend, are also a dastardly subversive. It's rather chilling to think that in this guy's eyes, if you aren't saluting a photo of Nigel Farage every morning, you may as well be on Putin's payroll. The way things are going, we may soon be wishing for a time when we only had to worry about the Duolingo owl watching us.
Gearing up
10th May, 2025
I came across the song "idk i just work here" by Durry the other day, and boy does it feel like it captures the mood of the time. Everyone's tired, everyone's broke, everyone's working some kind of shitty job they don't want to do just to get by. It's actually a bit outside of my normal musical taste, but I can't deny that it's catchy – I'm sure it'd be a hit with people in the right sort of venues, if there were any venues left open or anyone with the money to actually go out anymore.
Of course, I'm very fortunate not to have the kind of soul-crushing job that this song is about. I've had those kinds of jobs, though. One night, I was stuck cleaning the barrier for the alcohol section of a convenience store, using a knife to cut through the thick crust of dirt that had built up on the rail. When SGR Colchester started to play Take That's "Rule The World" for what felt like the eighth time that shift, my sanity began to slip just a little bit and I started to question the wisdom of whichever manager had left me with a knife.
My first job out of uni was also a nightmare. I graduated into an unemployment crisis and struggled to find work, so I was very grateful when I was hired by a charity, ending nine months of unemployment. Less than six months later, I was woken up on a Sunday morning by a colleague, who was crying because a recent management hire had cornered him in the stock cupboard and threatened to beat him up. Within a year, the situation was so bad that we had contractors coming into the visitor centre to carry out repossessions.
When I think back to that misery, it's clear that nothing in my current job can come close. Of course, that's not to say that I don't need a break now and then, so I did finally book some time off as I said I would last time. That's a couple of weeks away though, and I've found myself writing about Game Gear games before I go. This has been very interesting, because the Game Gear is one of those systems that doesn't get a whole lot of love. In some ways, I understand that – there are plenty of games that are practically identical to their Master System counterparts, or just cut-down versions of Mega Drive games.
However, the console has plenty to offer. There are naturally some worthwhile exclusives, with highlights including the two Shinobi games, Defenders Of Oasis, Arena and Popils. The games that I think are easier to overlook are the ones like Fantasy Zone, as despite sharing a title with the arcade game, it's actually a brand new game with new backgrounds, enemies and bosses. In much the same way as Sonic The Hedgehog shares some similarities with its 16-bit counterpart but also does its own thing, Ristar includes unique stages and bosses. Then there are the fan translations, which make games like Kishin Douji Zenki, Royal Stone and Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict accessible to English-speaking audiences. Hopefully you'll enjoy the feature when it's done, and find a new favourite or two.
Speaking of handheld games, the GameBook Advance from Ninty Media is now available to order, starting from £35. It's a 400-page book covering the Game Boy Advance, featuring plenty of beautiful original artwork as well as writing from dozens of contributors. I was pleased to be among them, and I wrote a love letter to Gunstar Future Heroes – a sequel that isn't universally beloved, but one that meant a lot to me because of what it represented when it launched in 2005. If you missed the GameBook Color, I also contributed a piece about Street Fighter Alpha to that book. Do consider buying one or both of them, if you love Nintendo's portable platforms.
Easter break
21st April, 2025
You know how sometimes, it's easy to get caught up in things and not take time off work? Well, I've done just that. I wanted to take some time a while back, but kept telling myself "Christmas wasn't that long ago" and putting it off. Now we're most of the way through April and I haven't had any holiday since September, and I've only got a couple of single days coming up. As a result, this long weekend has felt like a long time coming.
What hasn't helped is that it's been a tough time at work. The magazine comes out once every four weeks, regardless of whatever else is happening in the world. To account for that, we sometimes have to shift our deadlines by a day to account for bank holidays – and over Easter, we just lose time. Between the deadline shift and two bank holidays, we've lost three days from our final deadline week. Additionally, boring production changes have caused a bunch of stress (mostly for the other members of the team). So, safe to say I needed this long weekend, and I didn't realise just how much until it arrived.
So, what to do with the four days? Well, I actually did have plans to visit a friend, but it turns out that it suited both of us to cancel. With that settled, I had thought about watching Wrestlemania, but ended up not doing so. It's funny, after having cancelled my WWE Network subscription in November 2021, I thought that WWE coming to Netflix would mean that I'd watch it more since I subscribe anyway. Increasingly, I'm coming to the conclusion that it's just not for me these days. The first Raw didn't do anything for me, and the Royal Rumble was okay but had really deflating finishes. Cena's heel turn was real good, mind.
Looking at the Mania card ahead of time, there wasn't really much of interest. Then came the procession of stupid interview statements from the likes of Reigns, Cena and Triple H – support for Donald Trump, fawning over the alleged sex trafficker who used to run the company, you know. Hearing about the show from others, the general consensus seems to be that it was an underwhelming show anyway, so I'm happy giving it a big ol' miss. AEW does me just fine for new wrestling (Dynamite was particularly great this week), and there are other promotions and loads of back catalogue matches to watch if I get bored.
So I've spent my break playing Penny's Big Breakaway on the Switch. The game came out last year, but I've had to wait for my physical copy to arrive since I don't really buy digital games. It's been a joy, with quirky characters, fun little challenges and a difficulty level that has provided me with a sufficient level of friction to overcome. I'll be honest, I was a little worried that it would be too complicated to control based on some of the reviews I had read, but it's actually nice and intuitive.
Nearly 30 years ago, Super Mario 64 established the standard for 3D platforming games in large part because it managed to create fun through the simple act of moving around. That joy of traversal is a hallmark of the best games in the genre, and Penny's Big Breakaway nails it, combining the momentum-based movement of the Sonic games with a combo system that is reminiscent of extreme sports games at their best. Jump flow into swinging on the yo-yo, right into riding it around. It's marvellous, and the stages so far have been sufficiently creative to hold my attention.
Honestly, I haven't been so excited about 3D platform games in a long time. Sonic X Shadow Generations really delivered last year, Penny's Big Breakaway is just a great time and I'm very excited to start Astro Bot in the near future. Maybe that's something to do when I finally book that week off I keep promising myself?
Weakness in numbers
7th April, 2025
AEW Dynasty was really good, wasn't it? Will Ospreay and Kevin Knight got things off to a hot start, and while there wasn't much drama in the Tag Team Championship match, the Hurt Syndicate are super over. Toni Storm and Megan Bayne had a cracking match, with the champion surviving her powerful challenger to live another day. Kenny Omega, Ricochet and Mike Bailey had a crazy action-packed battle over the International Championship that stole the show. It might not have been quite the classic that Revolution was last month, but there was plenty to love.
But of course, there's the elephant in the room – that main event. I was hoping that last night would be the night that AEW put the belt on Swerve, hit the off-ramp on the Death Riders thing and revitalised the title scene. Of course, that's not how things played out. Instead, with all of the usual suspects having been occupied during their attempts to interfere in the match, the lights went out and when they returned, the Young Bucks inexplicably cost Swerve the match, allowing Moxley to retain. It was an incredibly deflating end to the show, especially with the crowd so tired five and a half hours into the show.
"But if you're rooting for a face to take the belt off the hated champion, surely that's just good heel work?
Unfortunately, that's just not the case. Any of the intrigue that the Death Riders angle ever had is long gone. We know why they betrayed Bryan Danielson, and Wheeler Yuta has very firmly picked his side and he's sticking with it. What initially appeared to be a war of AEW against the Death Riders has petered out, as the random attacks have ceased in favour of focused attacks on whoever their title challengers are at the time. What remains is a heel stable protecting a champion in dull and repetitive ways, never showing any signs of vulnerability. Right now, I don't want to see Moxley beaten – I just don't want to see him, and that sucks because he's been such a great, consistent performer for AEW.
When I was trying to work out just what the whole thing reminded me of afterwards, it struck me – it was the worst of WWE's heel factions. Remember in 2002-2003, when just about every Triple H match played out in the same way, with the champ holding on to the belt after interference from Ric Flair? More recently, there was the Bloodline doing the same, and that era of WWE was unbearable to the point that I cancelled my WWE Network subscription. I gave the company another chance because Clash At The Castle 2022 was on BT Sports, only to get a similar "all his allies are gone, whoops there's a new one" stunt in the main event between Roman Reigns vs Drew McIntyre. That serves as an example of how the whole approach only generates legitimate "go away" heat for me, the kind that I will eventually act on if it persists.
The Death Riders thing hasn't been a total disaster, in so far as AEW has done a great job of turning Wheeler Yuta into a detestable little shit, and found something for Marina Shafir to do. But it also stopped being interesting a long time ago, and I have no faith that it can ever become interesting. There's so much positive stuff to talk about in AEW right now, and I can only hope that the Death Riders dismount soon so the main event scene stops being the exception.
So I set up a website
6th April, 2025
Hello there. Welcome to my website.
This is something I've been thinking about doing for a little while. I first read From My To Me by Olia Lialina some time ago, and the narrative of how the personal internet has become lost to consolidation and corporate control really resonated with me. My whole career can be traced back to my decision to start a Dreamcast fan site as a teenager, more or less.
So why did it take so long to actually get off my arse and do something? Really, it was a matter of effort balanced against incentive. I've been wanting a place to stuff miscellaneous writings for a while, but things like Substack seemed too much like a fucking "side hustle" and I don't need to monetise any more of my free time. I've also abandoned Facebook and Twitter, for reasons I hopefully don't need to explain in too much detail – I have no desire to support any of Musk's enterprises because of his repugnant politics and the general decline of the site under his ownership. As for Facebook, if you had me there you can see what I said about cutting the site out after 18 years of using it.
That left me with the desire for a place to share things, and fewer existing places to do so, so I figured I'd make a place that is uniquely mine for that purpose. Sure, Neocities may close or become infested with rot, but I can at least take this and move it to another host. However, even though I used to do my own sites, it's been over a decade since I last seriously made an attempt at doing so. Thankfully, I found Sadgrl's Template Builder following a bout of insomnia overnight, and that was enough to get me over the effort barrier actually into making the thing. I even remembered just enough to customise things to my preferences.
There isn't a lot here right now - really, just this post, a few links and a review of the 2024 series of Gladiators, which I originally put up elsewhere. But I've already started to write things to put here – stuff that I don't typically have a professional outlet for, including wrestling nostalgia stuff and whatever else comes to mind. More than likely, I'll end up posting my experiences at various gigs here too.
So, there you have it. If you're ever wondering what I'm up to and you don't fancy following me on BlueSky for whatever reason, this is where you can do that. Big thanks to anyone who spares their free time to do so.