beanrob.com

Salutations! Welcome to the mid-August update. I've not too terribly much to tell, but I do have a few things worth mentioning.

My RPG escapades are proving fruitful. I'm running D&D tomorrow, which is exciting, because I've missed playing with those players. And, I've started Rime of the Frostmaiden with some friends from home.

In my quest for the perfect MtG deck I am making progress. My second deck made by me, headed by Gisa the Hellraiser, is doing numbers among my usual playgroup. Many, many zombies get made, it's crazy. And she even acts as a zombie lord, which is something incredibly nice to have in the command zone. If you're at all interested, take a look at the decklist on the card gallery.

Lastly, I simply have to mention my latest obsession: a new farming sim called Fields of Mistria. I have been having a lot of fun. It's such a breath of fresh air to play a farming sim which is... er, well, not Stardew Valley. It has a number of improvements over that game and I am enjoying it so verily. I will perhaps write a little bit more in-depth about what is just so enchanting about the game.

Hello all. A brief update on the site today.

Firstly, a new page: card gallery. This is for my various MTG ramblings and to show off my collection.

Secondly: I am forming a webring. It is called Wizard Webring and it is for people that like wizards and fantasy media. I made it because I've got a few friends making sites, and so when they're done we can link our sites together via it. But, if you're reading this and I've not mentioned it to you yet, feel free to contact me about joining.

That's all this update. No other news on my life. So, I'll see you in the next post. Until then.

Hello all. 'Tis August, so I thought it's about time I updated the old blog. So, here I am!

First thing's first: behold my latest bakes! Fistly, brownies. I usually just make chocolate fudge cake because it's my go-to easy cake. However I wanted actual brownies this time, and took to BBC Good Food. The recipe is a bit expensive because it needs lots of dark chocolate, but it produced perhaps the nicest brownies I had had in a long time.

Secondly, an olive oil cake. I was a bit sceptical about this one but it was actually really lovely. The olive oil really enhances the texture. Can recommend! Shoutout to Lily for lending me her ultra-fancy actually-from-Greece olive oil for it.

Cuppa Conquest was a fun project for my holiday in Norfolk. Now I am home though, so don't have much to add to it for now. Perhaps another time! Norfolk was great though, lots of nice places to go to, and we were right by the beach. Most relaxing!

I got back from holiday just as Bloomburrow prereleases began, and on that weekend I met with some friends for lots of MtG gaming. We played with our new Bloomburrow Commander decks and it was so much fun. Miss Bumbleflower is an absolute beast! Of the 3 games I've played with her so far, she has won me 2 and got me joint second in another (me and the other last player were having an infinite value showdown and ended up calling it a draw because we were hungry). We also split the cost for a draft booster box of Phyrexia: All Will Be One, and that was really fun. 'Twas a great weekend!

One last thing on the topic of MtG: I keep making cards based on me and my friends' D&D characters, so I might make a page for those at some point soon. And I also might make a page to dump my MtG dekclists. Keep your eyes peeled.

Anyways, I'll see you in the next post. I must get back to having a whimsical and joyous summer! Until then!

Good tidings. I have one thing on my mind right now, and it's Bloomburrow. I am so excited for this new Magic set it's crazy. The cards have such cute art and the cards seem actually wuite powerful (a nice change after the last 2 sets). I have the Peace Offering Commander deck on pre-order and I cannot wait to go and collect it. I have 2 friends also getting Commander decks from the set and I'm very excited to get to paly with them. It's just been a while since I had some new cards, so I'm really looking forward to it.

I also have something to annoucne: a new page on the site, being Cuppa Conquest. It's my quest to find the best tearoom around by rating them all comprehensively. If you're interested, do check it out. I've just gone on holiday so there'll be lots of tearoom trips soon, so I should have a good amount of reviews soon! I will also add a map to it at some point to show my tearoom-faring adventures.

That's all. Might have some holiday photos posted here soon. Until then!

Hello all. I hope this log post finds you well. I've done a little bit of renovation in the log department. Mainly, we now have an RSS feed! You can paste in the link to the RSS feed into your RSS feed reader of choice to receive notifications whenever I update the log. How dandy!

https://beanrob.com/log/feed.xml

Another small change: posts are now presented in pages. Might make browsing a little less painful since you won't need to load every post at once merely to see one post.

What else have I been up to? Well, not too terribly much. Desperately, and unsuccessfully, hunting for jobs is the main thing, since I need a way to make money for rent next university year. Other than that, I've mostly been playing lots and lots of video games! I am perhaps biting off a bit more than I can chew though: I am currently playing through 4 RPGs. Which is definitely a lot! But I just had lots of games I wanted to play this summer.

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My current favourite is The World Ends With You. Until this summer I didn't really know anything about it. I had heard people speak well of it in past, saying it was an exceptional DS game, but I had never really looked into it properly. The way I ended up playing it was one of my friends wanted to do a Pokemon soul link for Pokemon HeartGold Version. I wanted to play on original hardware, so I spent a bit of time getting my old DS flashcart working. When I was loading it up with ROMs, thinking about what I should use it to play, I remembered hearing good things about TWEWY, and here I am.

My thoughts on the game are fond. Combat is still quite hard to me even though I'm on week 2. It's just a bit overwhelming having to handle the combat on both screens. But I do like it a lot. The pin system is so customisable. And the story is pretty decent too. But what I love most is the music and aesthetic of the game, because if you take one look at the game you can go "Yep, that was made in the mid-2000s." Which is something I love. Not sure why, but I do just love how games were then.

So I'm having a very good time with TWEWY! I definitely want to play the sequel when it comes out. And, FYI, my favourite chracter is, by far, Minamimoto. He's so funny and I like his hilarious way of speaking. He's one of those characters that just makes me feel very seen.

The other games I'm playing throught at the mintue are the aforementioned Pokemon HeartGold Version soul link, as well as Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Bros. and the Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door remake. Though I don't have much to say on those. You know me: love my Pokemon, love my Mario, simple as.

Anyways, that's all. If you subscribe to RSS, please do let me know. I'll se you in the next post. Until then!

Hello all. Here's a little update on how my summer has been going.

Recently I made the trek to Warwick Castle with some friends. It was a very good outing. I had been there twice before, but both instances were many many moons ago. I think since then I have acrued a lot more medieval fantasy based interests (D&D, Fire Emblem, etc.) which made me enjoy it even more this time. I can very much recommend it. The castle and dungeons were great, the jousting was spectacular, and it was an all round good day out.

A project me and a freind have been working on this past week is assembling Ultimate Monopoly by jonizaak. We thought if we had a bunch of people over to play it one afternoon it'd be most hilarious. However, we didn't expect it to be such a pain to compile: it needs resources from Monopoly, Monopoly Stock Exchange, Monopoly: The Mega Edition, and Monopoly Super Add-Ons. It took us a while, but we got there. We're going to play the game in August, so after we're done with that I might make a follow-up post reviewing the chaos.

With said friend I also made an orange and almond cake. Not something I've ever made before, but it was very tasty. Can recommend. It was very funny to make though, requiring you to simmer an orange for an hour so it purees more easily.

Dungeons & Dragons is a game very prevalent in my mind right now. I've been playing a lot with my group going through Lost Mine of Phandelver at the minute, and I'm likely going to be playing with another group too, soon. I'm looking forward to getting to make another character. Nothing's set in stone right now, but the updates to the Wizard in the 2024 PHB are really making me want to play an Illusioner. It's just a subclasss I've never really thought about before, but I think really suits my playstyle. I might ask if I can use the updated version since I really like the enw features it gets. We'll see. I'm just glad that I want to play Wizard again, because my old wizard was one of my favourite characters I've ever played. It's a much needed return to my roots.

My quest of learning Magic: The Gathering is going well too. I've made a deck centred around Sefris of the Hidden Ways that makes a ton of value by going through dungeons super fast. It's super fun! If a little strong for the rest of my playgroup. I've managed to find a fourth person as well, so I'm no longer stuck playing 3 player Commander. Huzzah!

I think that's all I have to tell for now. Summer is going well. I have lots to occupy myself, and when I'm not occupied I am quite happy to just sit there and chill. It's nice not having to work constantly any more. So, I shall see you in the next post. Until then!