My name is Max, English teacher in Japan, lover of video games, RPGs and miniature painting.
My wife believes wholeheartedly that the week starts on Sunday, however I cannot abide by that and begin the first full week of 2026 on Monday the 5th of January, the last day of the winter break. We originally plan to drink some energy drinks and power through from 1:00 AM all the way through to the evening in order to fix our sleep schedules which have been ravaged by two weeks of no routines or outside influences.
By Maxabout 5 hours ago in Humans
The days between Boxing Day and New Years Eve merge into a slow, heavy treacle even with events and outings; it feels like everyone is tired, the nice kind of tired like a Saturday morning.
By Max7 days ago in Humans
I am not a coffee drinker. I tried y'know, I really did. But alas, it is not the drink for me. Unfortunately my parents, in-laws, colleagues and most of my students all love coffee. Until recently I was getting my energy through caffeine pills, Monster energy drinks and power-metal blaring through my headphones loud enough that my phone starts sending me health warnings.
By Max7 months ago in Feast
Okay. It's taken about a year but I think it's finally sunk in. I live in Japan. ... No. Still hasn't sunk in, this still feels surreal. Every so often I'll look out my office window that has an absolutely breathtaking view across the bay, or be walking to work and look up and see hawks circling in the sky and the first thing I'll think is "Holy shit, I live here.".
By Max3 years ago in Wander
I’ve been wanting to get this off my chest for a few days. It’s about Hogwarts Legacy so if you're tired of hearing about the "wizard game" don't read. It's fine, honestly you deserve the break because it has been everywhere. But the people buying it have been being very, very weird about it.
By Max3 years ago in Gamers
I'm back on the Halo Wagon. 343 Industries released the tokusatsu themed TROOPER armour for Halo 2 Anniversary, and anyone who knows me knows that I want my grubby weeb hands all over them. But before I can make my dream Kamen Rider and start gunning people down to RealxEyez I first need to earn enough Spartan Points to buy the damn things.
From September 2015 - June 2016 I was a foreign exchange student at Nagasaki University of Foreign Studies in Japan. In September of 2019 I was living in Stirling with my girlfriend, herself a former student there. We would marry each other in December of the following year, in a very small and very hectic ceremony before she headed home to her parents’ for Christmas.
By Max3 years ago in Journal
Yes that's right! We're still reading through the Black Library Sampler! If you'll remember, I first intended to do one article detailing all of my thoughts on the little free tasters that Games Workshop give you to get you hooked.
By Max4 years ago in Geeks
I'd originally wanted to just write one article about the Games Workshop Black Library Samplers that they give you for free to get you hooked on literature. However, I realised I had a little more to say than I thought I did about the 2021 Black Library Celebration book.
First off, I wanted this to be one article looking at both books, but I definitely had more to say than I thought I would! Be on the look out for part 2 where I read through the "proper" Black Library Sampler...
According to my Steam Library my top 3 most played games are Halo: The Master Chief Collection with 136 hours, Dragon Age: Origins with 196 hours and Warframe with 3,632 hours. With the help of a calculator and a Year 3 Maths textbook I figured out that running that time together comes out as just over 151 days. Hell, I've written two articles about in-game events, and even a Valkyr themed D&D subclass on this very website. By all appearances, Warframe is my favourite game.
By Max4 years ago in Gamers
There's a very recent video by Jimquisition about comments comparing The Last Of Us: Part Two to Schindler's List. The short version? Jim Stanton argues that triple AAA games quite simply aren't as well written as the vast majority of big budget movies, they're created to be a product. And comments saying that such-and-such new release is "The Citizen Kane" of video gaming is absolutely incredulous and reading too much into something that's just ... fine.
By Max6 years ago in Gamers
