Mint choc chip 4 lyf.

Although I do like a ridiculous B&J’s from time to time too.

I know there's something deeply comforting about a soggy, thick, gravy covered "Chip Shop" chip, preferably with the tang of vinegar cutting through it.

But fries are better.

Tempy wrote:

But fries are better.

What are you even for?

Jaco wrote:

Tempy wrote:

But fries are better.

What are you even for?

I'm for fries.

I like Five guy's fries the best because they're between fries and chips. Need vinegar though.

I only have chips that I make in the air fryer myself. They're great once you get the hang of using it.

Five Guys cajun fries so best.

OoooH! I've had them! They were nice.

Just gonna do three things i've been thinking about lately

Bosses
In videogames, not real life. I know they're marmite but I love them. Give me a big screen filling monstrosity, or the superior antagonist in a tight arena to fight. I imagine this come from watching my Dad play a lot of R-Type, and also having played a lot of Sonic as a kid. It has continually persisted, and I love a good boss fight more than any other bit of game design, just becuase it's an opportunity for the designers to go wild, and the concept artists to follow suit.

Horror Films
A genre that gets a lot of flack but I love it. I'll watch a naff horror of a ponderous drama any day of the week. It's not about being scared or anything similar, it's just the inventiveness that directors and SFX teams will go to when inventing a spook or a demon or a specific shot. A good demonstration of this is the third Poltergiest film. A needlessly film, with replaced actors and a hokum plot, but well worth watching ifor all of the daft and over the top special effects they put in, many of them involving mirrors. It's a real joy, plus as a film grad wanker I love all the social and cultural stuff you can dig out of them.

Games Workshop
They're tiny plastic men you build and play games with, what more is there to know? Well, the most important thing in my mind is the absolutely, unshakable influence they had on so much modern SciFi and Fantasy. The fact that without them neither Warcraft or Starcraft would exist is well known, but beyond that 40k has been one of the most singular creative images in gaming history, and it all basically comes from the mind of a handful of artists who congregated in Nottingham. Big love to John Blanche who is effectively THE name behind 40k. They opened my eyes to a lot of non-Star Wars/Tolkien SciFi and Fantasy back in the day, with the Eldar and Skaven being revelationary bits of world and character crafting for a 12 year old boy. There was simply nothing like it. Today it's fun to know that a mild curiosity from my early teens is now the leading miniatures company in the world, and that they've properly owned their heritage and are striding into the future with a positive outlook and creating some of the most intricate and wildly realised peices of 3D miniature design in the world. So, some Blanche:

Like Temptress, I love horror. Could watch them all day. I don't think there's any other genre that has the same visceral effect.

40k lore. BEST LORE.

Jon Blanche's art fits the world so well imo. That sororitas pic is fucking rad. Also really like Mark Gibbons character artwork as well.

Yaasss 2000AD

I started strontium dogs last year, need to get back to it.

Some great stories in there, apart from the usual ones, long forgotten now probably.

My list comes with the proviso that most of the things I love, I don’t actually know a lot about. Either that, or I don’t actually get to enjoy them often / at all.

Podcasts
I think I must be an aural learner because I feel like I retain so much information from listening to podcasts than I do anything else. I subscribe to more than I generally have time to listen to, so I accumulate backlogs, but I’m never unhappy about it. Travelling to work, walking the dog, doing housework, I’ll be listening to a podcast.

On Demand
This maybe seems an odd inclusion, surely it’s the things I’m watching on demand that I love, but streaming services just make sense to me. I abandoned watching things through an aerial or satellite years ago. It suits my habit of focussing on one thing for a while. Not binge watching necessarily but, for example, right now I’m working my way through 8/10 Cats Does Countdown before bed each night.

Animals
I loved wildlife programmes as a kid, and most birthdays and Christmases got at least one nature book. I don’t actually know much about the animal kingdom, but I do still enjoy watching wildlife shows. And I love being near animals. I never miss my parents’ regular trip to the petting zoo when my nieces visit, feeding sheep by hand and giving cows a cuddle. And, of course, my own pets. I wish I had my dog’s take on life.

Lego
Let me count the ways. I love just improvising building things with my nieces. I love seeing how Lego’s designers and Master Builders find ways to put the bricks together. I love that building models from instructions can settle me, strip away my anxieties, and kick the black dog into touch. Building Lego is to me what colouring in, or knitting, or crochet is to others. A simple, fairly repetitive task, which requires enough thought to stop the mind wondering too far, but leaves enough room for, say, an uncomplicated film or TV show on in the background.

Hoods
Never underestimate the psychological comfort that a hood brings. I don’t have much more to say than that but, for that reason alone, hoods play an integral role in my day-to-day life and general well-being.

Spider-man
Above all other superheroes. I haven’t read many comics, I don’t know much about the different iterations. The character just appeals to me, the costume, the abilities. Perfect superhero design. You can only begin to imagine how much I’m enjoying the Insomniac game just now. I thought Spider-man on PlayStation in 2000 was the best thing ever, then Spider-man arrived on PlayStation 2 in 2002. I have Web of Shadows on 360 and, I think, The Amazing Spider-man on Vita. And, I just like the films since 2002, I love them even when they are a bit shonky, just because they’re Spider-man.

Apples
Braeburn, Macintosh, Pink Lady, Jazz, Kenzi, Granny Smith... as long as it’s not a Golden Delicious (a trades description double-whammy) I love an apple.

Marble runs
I’ve never owned one but if, when I’m lying on my death bed, I haven’t built one, I’ll die with at least one regret. I love watching them on YouTube, be they plastic construction sets, intricate wooden designs, or large scale, complex contraptions.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking Glass / The Hunting of the Snark
I love the imagery, the nonsense, the portmanteau words and the way he constructs the language. I also love certain representations/interpretations; very specifically, for example, the Mad Hatter’s tea party in Disney’s 2010 version. I have several copies of the Alice books including three different Folio Society publications. One of them cost a small fortune.

The films of Tom Cruise
I know that Tom the man is problematic, and I know he’s not the best actor (although I would say many are unfair in their criticism of his acting ability) but he just utterly engages me when he’s on the screen, and it’s rare for me to dislike a film he’s in.

The films of Mel Gibson
I know that Mel the man is problematic, and I know he’s not the best actor (although I would say many are unfair in their criticism of his acting ability) but he just utterly engages me when he’s on the screen, and it’s rare for me to dislike a film he’s in.

Gil Elvgren pin-ups
I might as well get this one in while I’m on my ‘problematic’ entries. I’m a little uncomfortable with liking these. But I do.

Indian takeaway
If money were no object, this would be my choice over other takeaways, and I’d have it every week. (There was a time in my life when I was having one every week, but that was more reasonably priced. It was also when my depression was out of control.)

CHVRCHES
Anyone who keeps track will be sick of me mentioning that I can thank Reg for this, when he nominated their song ‘Recover’ for a B&B album of the year. Their songs just really get to me, and make me really emotional. When I started playing their most recent EP, with orchestral/acoustic versions of songs from their last album, so many feelings just welled up inside me. It’s like their songs have a direct link to my heart.

MC Escher
Another entry shared with others here. I think my first exposure was seeing ‘Relativity’ on something in an Innovations catalogue one Sunday afternoon. I’m also sure that, around the same time, Mayim Bialik’s Blossom had ‘Night and Day’ on her bedroom wall. I tend to prefer it when he plays with perspective than his interlocking tiles but I’ve often thought that if I ever got a sleeve tattoo, ‘Angels and Demons’ would look good over the shoulder area.

Sweet & Savoury
Pancakes with bacon and maple syrup, chocolate coated salted pretzels, sweet and salty popcorn, honey roasted nuts. Give me all of it.

Green Day
I know some people will snort at this, but I don’t care. Like so many people, the first I knew of them was Basket Case, and I got hooked. They became probably my third musical obsession (Queen, then R.E.M., if you were wondering) and the group from my youth that I probably listen to most often now. While I’m never likely to get the sleeve I mentioned above, I’m very likely to get, “There’s nothing wrong with me, this is how I’m supposed to be,” tattooed on me at some point.

Going to the cinema / a restaurant / on holiday... alone
I know what you’re thinking; no girlfriend, no mates, he’s got no choice but to enjoy that. But, even when I’ve been in relationships, I’ve either found or made time to do this. Don’t ask me to explain why, I don’t know. I can explain the non-negative - that I never, ever feel lonely when I’m alone - but there’s more to it than that.

Watching scary films alone in the dark
For different reasons to the above, this is more to do with the different way you engage with the material. And one way to make sure you get scared is watching alone, in the dark. As for the subject? Despite not being religious, the possession stuff really does it for me. Best of all, though, it’s...

Zombies
Even though they’ve over-saturated popular culture for a while now, when they’re done well, they are the best horror device. I have no preference over fast or slow (although the film version of World War Z can get fucked) or even ‘true’ living dead zombie or rampant infection ‘zombie’, I just think they’re the scariest. I think it’s partly my fear of being eaten live that does it.

Scaled down (motorised) vehicular toys
Hornby train sets, Scalextic, radio controlled cars and boats, Tamiya track racers, Hot Wheels tracks... I love all of these things. I’ve never had the space. If I won the lottery, I’d buy / build a house with a large, open plan attic room so that I’d have the space for a Hornby train set, Scalextric track and Tamiya track just permanently out, to be played with on a whim. I’d love to try the Anki Overdrive stuff, and I’m looking forward to seeing where Scalextric go over the next few years. I love seeing train sets with detailed dioramas, and just watching the trains trundle around their routes. I keep on eyeing up the Lego Christmas train despite the fact that I would have nowhere to set it up.

I like zombies. I really should do a proper post here.