Greg T

Well, dang. :-S

The push for the ban was always primarily coming from grifters (insofar as that support translated into an organised political campaign), and the objective was never to do with kids, but rather to create a legislative environment of internet gatekeeping and censorship for collateral purposes.

"Six days until the election": Generic, low-energy, unexciting.

"Six days until the Reckoning": Air of mystery, pleasantly ominous, implies consequences for those who have aimed to thwart you. Recommended.

Was this always a feature in the game that I finished the entire game without using?

I still pity the guy who gets told he has to write a serious pitch for F1 as Best Picture.

I liked F1, but F1 should not win the Best Picture because it is not, by any coherent reasoning, the Best Picture.

Feels very much like a "well I didn't watch any other nominees but I liked F1" kind of opinion, but I guess mainly it's just clickbait.

Can't believe this was my second attempt at posting this and I still made a typo.

Honestly I feel like Fortnite become financially unviable in its current form is the best thing that could happen to videogames as a whole.

And if I were in charge of the nominations, I'd have put:
- Blue Moon between Sinners and Hamnet
- Sirat between Hamnet and Train Dreams
- Life of Chuck between Marty Supreme and Bugonia
- No Other Choice between Frankenstein and Sentimental Value.

Having now seen all ten Oscar Best Picture nominees, here's my personal ranking from best to least-best. (They're all good.)
1 - Sinners
2 - Hamnet
3 - Train Dreams
4 - One Battle After Another
5 - Marty Supreme
6 - Bugonia
7 - F1
8 - Frankenstein
9 - Sentimental Value
10 - The Secret Agent

Having seen it, I understand why it's a non-embarrassing nominee for Best Picture (although it still probably wouldn't make my own personal 10). It's gorgeous edge-of-your seat stuff. But also the absolutely apocalyptic level of product placement - including for Abu Dhabi - is pretty nauseating.

Brad Pitt in "F1" (2026).

Film #51 for 2026 is F1 (2025). This is what you get when you take the most generic possible sports movie and crank up every production dial to 11. It's a film that begs to be seen in IMAX, it oozes with charisma, and Hans Zimmer merges licensed music with a pounding original score. It's good.

I am sure you will do a wonderful job on this, but I also feel like a panel on "the ethics of bans" right now where the panelists are anyone other than a Palestinian, a sex worker and a trans woman is a little bit "nothing about us without us".

Me: *goes to wishlist Gilt, discovers it is already on my wishlist*

Well, okay then.

Harold Sakata as Oddjob in "Goldfinger" (1964).

Film #50 for 2026 is Goldfinger (1964), which I'd seen before. Pure Bond. The franchise, and genre, peaks with the line "No, Mr Bond, I expect you to die". Harold Sakata is underappreciated as Oddjob. Heir to the usual Bond problems, but entertaining from beginning to end.

Image of Canberra from Mount Ainslie with text "The ACT needs a Rental Ombudsman. Getting a fair go as a tenant... shouldn't need you to go to court! Sign the petition" A QR code leads to: https://epetitions.parliament.act.gov.au/details/e-pet-014-26

Getting a fair go as a tenant shouldn't mean going to court.

Sign the petition for a Rental Ombudsman for the ACT, to hold landlords and agents to account and protect your rights as a tenant under law. (And please share widely!)

epetitions.parliament.act.gov.au/details/e-pe...

To be clear on "anti-union": the rhetoric of "there is a good kind of union, but this isn't it" is the central language of union-busting. Sure, it's based on real events, but this is the story he chose to film, not some other story.

Marlon Brando squats with a ship in the background in "On the Waterfront" (1954).

Film #49 for 2026 is On the Waterfront (1954). Yes, it's technically strong, and yes, Brando is great, but it's impossible to separate the film from its contemptible politics. This is a pro-cop, pro-church, anti-union film directed by a HUAC snitch with the intention of beatifying his snitchery.

It is beautifully made at every technical level and the performances are flawless. It simply didn't fully connect with *me* as an audience - but then, it wasn't intended to.

Wagner Moura stands by a yellow car at a Brazilian gas station in "The Secret Agent" (2025).

Film #48 for 2026 is The Secret Agent (2025). It's a movie about confronting and moving on from national trauma, but it's also a rambling 161 minutes that's less a narrative than a series of anecdotes. I am not the audience it is for. I liked it, but it tested my patience. Others will get more.

Me playing Voyager: Across the Unknown: "Hey, what does this button do?"

Six Borg combat rooms I had built, which I had previously been unaware weren't receiving combat power, suddenly come online. Borg Cube I am fighting melts in seconds.

Me: "Huh."

Then as I limp away, barely holding my ship together after the victory, B'elanna says, "That was too easy. Did we interrupt their coffee break or something?"

Well, I won, admittedly with severe hull damage. The game's version of the Borg cube suffers from the fact it only has one phaser on each side, and if you take out e.g. the front phaser then the other sides have trouble targeting you.

Voyager confronts a Borg Cube in the videogame "Star Trek Voyager: Across the Unknown".

Well, fuck.
To be fair, flying up to a Borg Cube with the supremely misplaced confidence I was going to be able to talk or trick my way through this encounter was very Voyager.
(Star Trek Voyager: Across the Unknown)

I honestly think Sentimental Value may be this year's least interesting Oscar nominee in the lead categories, and that's more of a compliment to every other film than it is a knock against Sentimental Value.

Old Skies on Steam A time travel adventure spanning two hundred years! Dive into the past with time agent Fia Quinn as she embarks on seven trips through time. History is up for grabs, from the speakeasies of Prohibitio...

Old Skies is winning a bunch of awards right now (just took Best Story at the Adventure Game Hotshots, for example), and if you haven't played it, you should, even if you're picky about point-and-click adventures. It's really pretty special within this genre.

store.steampowered.com/app/1346360/...

Photo of a letter that reads: “If you don’t like my peaches, don’t shake my tree.” Sincerely, Shirley Jackson

If you don’t like my peaches don’t shake my tree

Also black rendered as blue in comic hair colouring is absolutely not the same thing as "she has grey in her hair". Ugh.

Not sure who was getting "accidentally" exposed to pornography on Pornhub. Possibly people who were trying to type "cornhub" into their search bar and suffered a typo? People whose cat walked across their keyboard and mouse and accidentally navigated them to the world's most famous porn site?

Or to put it another way, there's no way in hell I'm paying $45 AUD for a 128-page e-book.