The Princess Bride by William Goldman. Technically I didn’t finish it yet, but while reading the afterword that was added in the nineties I started to get annoyed by the author. I’m not sure yet if I’ll finish it or start a new book tonight.

The rest of the book (I skipped the foreword, also written in the nineties) was nice. It’s funny, kind of a weird story but a lot of fun to read.

Over here fireworks were only allowed on New year’s eve, mainly because of safety reasons. Every year there are people who get maimed for life, lose eyes, fingers or sometimes even die. Of course you can celebrate whatever you want throughout the year, you just can’t use fireworks.

Oh man, even more than one holiday… Are fireworks allowed all through the year over there?

Yeah, it’s terrible for animals and traumatised people. We have a dog and while it’s been okay this year so far, we usually can hardly take her for a walk at night as we get closer to the end of the year. And we have a residency for people who’ve been granted asylum nearby with a lot of people who’ve fled the war in Ukraine. I can’t imagine what it must be like for them :(

Fireworks.

I live in the Netherlands and New year’s eve is hell on earth here. Even the weeks leading up to it are bad. This year is the first year that consumer fireworks are banned, but of course there are already people going to Germany, Belgium or Poland to buy them anyway. And it’s not just the pretty stuff, it’s more like bombs. It would be so much better if it just disappeared.

Well, it was the number one news story here in the Netherlands. The government also presented a tech strategy today, and so the responsible secretary gave an interview in an important news show tonight. They first showed a report about the protest and then immediately asked her for a response.

Will it change things? Maybe not directly, but at least the resistance is the topic of conversation now.

Oh yes, I did a lot of rosebud cheats in The Sims back in the day. But it’s not like you’re taking anyone else’s money, so who cares? Then, after building homes got boring, I challenged myself to try the game without money cheats and it was like a whole new game.

Right now I’m playing Ori and I wouldn’t even know how to begin to find cheats in that game.

I don’t know, the terms and conditions say that after a year of closing your account, they may give your email address to someone else. That sounds like a privacy disaster waiting to happen.

Yeah, that’s what I think is scummy. You expect it to be cheaper, not more expensive. Good thing you noticed it. And thanks for your post, now I’ll make sure I check the prices on those things.

I just noticed your Skyrim screenshot says “items included in this package” instead of bundle, so a package must be different from a bundle. It’s kinda scummy to me with expectations like this though.

Edit: this link has more details: https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/2592234299566324683/

Yeah, this is weird. I already own the game and the package is still listed for €16,49. Normally it would say something like “complete your bundle” and list the price of the item you don’t own yet as the total price, but it doesn’t. So I guess this isn’t listed as a bundle and that’s what’s causing the issue. Probably Bethesda’s decision.