Where would one go to get a custom made backpack with double stitching?

Bit late to the party, but something to be aware of if you're buying Solovair. I have a pair of astronaut boots, had them for about 20 months, worn them almost daily and I need to get them resoled now. I went to my local cobblers and they said they don't do Solovair, they just do glue jobs. I went to Solovair (I'm local to their factory) and they said that they're currently doing so much business that they're not able to offer resoling. They provided details of two webshops (keycobbler.co.uk and bootrepaircompany.co.uk) who do offer this service, but that involves sending them off for weeks and weeks. So I'm going to need to buy a second pair of boots to wear while my first pair are out for repair. And the resole is a significant chunk of the original boot cost: I spent under £170 on the boots, and they're going to cost £70 to resole plus shipping.

I'm still going to do it, I love them and I'd have spent a similar amount on trainers in the same period just through wear and tear, but it's not particularly a money saver or a convenience.

I guess that when I do have two pairs I'll be able to rotate them daily so this will be something that comes up every four years rather than every two.

They were pretty direct remakes with a few new bugs and a controversial art style. I was never a big DPP fan and the remakes failed to change my mind.

I do think any future remakes will be different though, i vaguely remember a story about ILCA who made BDSP and I don’t think they exist in the same form as they did when developing the game.

This is insane. Right now I’m reading The Coming Wave by Mustafa Suleyman (formerly of DeepMind) and I’d been a bit concerned that he was all hype, but giving humanity a 45-fold increase in materials we know about? That’s enormous. The future is going to be a crazy place.

Hoplite maybe? It’s on mobile but is a lot of fun.

I found the dark world very tedious, from what I remember. One aesthetic throughout the whole game that was very dreary to look at. Has been many years since I played it though.

It’s really interesting that (and I’m not musical enough to know any terms to describe this) lots of the bits that were in the foreground of previous versions are now in the background, and it feels like the stuff that’s in the foreground is stuff that used to be in the background.

I’m not sure I like it that much (my preferred rendition is either the early Tennant version or the Orbital version) but it’s definitely engaged me in a way that recent revisions didn’t.

The Lost Rainforests of Britain by Guy Shrubsole. Very interesting if very Guardian-y bit of British lore I’d never even heard about before, and it very much makes me want to take a trip west to see the remnants of our rainforests.

Was this game named by a Bojack Horseman character?

Embrace mobile gaming. Especially the classic Nintendo handhelds. I can rock my baby to sleep and play Pokémon Ruby on my GBA at the same time. Embrace RPGs and other games where reaction times don’t matter. If I’m sat in a chair with a sleeping child I can even play a game where reaction speed matters, like Tetris.

Get a flash cart so you don’t have to switch games or carry a library of carts with you. Keep it in your car for play if you’re out a lot. Oh, and get a decent modern screen mod so you can see the screen outside.

Portal and Portal 2 must be on this list. If you’ve never played then, you must. It is that simple.

Competitive Pokémon is something I’d definitely recommend. It’s similar to speed chess in that there’s a game timer but you have like 30 seconds per move to lock in. VGC is an incredibly deep and constantly evolving meta game. The NAIC tournament finished yesterday and is on YouTube if you want to see it being played at a top level with great commentary.

You can practice singles and doubles for free on pokemonshowdown.com. IRL contests held by The Pokémon Company are always doubles, played on Switch and will be played with Scarlet and Violet for the foreseeable future.