I haven’t had much time for boardgames recently 
But getting back on it this weekend!
I play standard slightly off centre alt rock and folk I guess. It’s more about learning how it all works for me. Playing songs I enjoy listening to makes me feel a lot closer to the music. I’m a total Lawyer Guitarist - someone who buys expensive kit as a hobby without any intention of ever being any good or being in a band.
IN the US, FTC regulations require disclosure of compensation. Sadly, they don’t require disclosure of what the actual compensation was, nor is there good enforcement. NZ has recently changed their laws about this.
Having absolutely no idea about music it’s fascinating seeing people talk about the range of guitars in their collection, let alone pedals. I’m not sure I even know what a pedal does, but my brother plays a lot of music and would be very excited for sure. Thanks for sharing! 
As I was waiting to get my vehicle plowed out of the snow today (12.5” officially, but the jackpot in New Hampshire was the town of Croydon with 44”) I continued organizing my junk closet and came across some old friends. They are all fully functional.
An American friend of mine asked me for advice about exploring Scotch whiskies. I ended my guide with the Islays, and closed off by saying “don’t try Ardbeg”. He started with Ardbeg.
I have a bottle of Ardbeg. I serve it to people who don’t wait for an offer of a drink of my whisky.
Ardberg is up their with laphroaig on my list.
Ardbeg and Laphroaig are great, with Laphroaig being my favorite whisky. It was also one of the first alcohols I ever truly enjoyed (Scotch in general was the first). 12 years later, and I still love it.
I started on Glenfiddich and generally prefer Highland malts such as Glenmorangie and Highland-ish Speysides such as Dalwhinnie. But there are gloomy days when I want to listen to trad jazz and drink a sacrifice victim out of a peat bog: then it’s Llaphroaig for me.
Admission: I am a total lightweight when it comes to alcohol. I’m a big-ish guy (100kg), but 2 beers and the world goes blurry. 3 beers and I’m under the table gently snoring.
That stated, I hate most whiskys. There are a few notable exceptions: Sortilege (a maple whiskey which is basically candy), and Balvenie (smooth as silk). A co-worker today recommended Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye, which apparently was nominated as Whiskey of the Year a few years back and is only $35CAD. The one that won the same award this year is a Canadian whiskey from Alberta, which has now become over $300/bottle and basically impossible to find anywhere.
I am thinking about tracking down a bottle of Northern Harvest to convert into Irish cream (one can condensed milk, one can evaporated milk, one tablespoon coffee, a tsp vanilla, and then add whiskey).
You all need to stop making up words.
My true start was Dewars into Chivas, they were the first hard alcohols that didn’t make me feel like I wanted to vomit. My first single malt was Aberlour (12 at the time), which I really liked then pretty sure my next was Laphroaig, which I loved.
After that I was a scotch person, and spent like two years spending waaaaay too much money buying all sorts of bottles for my friends and I. Generally 2-3 a week. Thankfully this was in the early-to-mid 2000s, before the boom here in America and everything doubled and tripled in price.
Spirit vs letter?
Most people would consider Heroclix a boardgame so my small, old superhero collection should not be discussed here. In 2013 WizKidz put out a Pacific Rim version. As a Kaiju fan I had to get a copy. But I’m an indifferent collector and I stopped buying sealed characters for it because I didn’t want to get too many duplicates. Recently I tracked down the mechs and monsters I was missing and paid too much for them. But now I can dance the complete set back and forth and make rawr and pew noises.
I submit to whatever collection of punishments I deserve for posting about it here.
I tend to collect curios from the standpoint of distinct items that attract my curiosity.
Way back when, as a kid who read every Greek mythology book in the school library, there were two videocassettes at the movie rental place that drew me like magnets with nothing other than the titles. One was Harryhausen’s Jason and the Argonauts. The other was The 12 Tasks of Asterix.
My dad picked up all the Asterix books (up to Goscinny’s death) over the years and gave them to me as gifts periodically.
I had a firm hallucination that there was a comic version of 12 tasks that was not stills from the film. I remembered holding it in my hands at Cheshire Cat books here in Little Rock for all that I know I never could have.
The internet confirmed for me that such an item did exist about six years ago and I finally tracked down a copy at a less than crazy price:
So now I have all the Asterix books I wanted and imagined I could have as a child.
That’s amazing! I also have a complete set of Asterix comics! Although not that specific one (the one I have is, indeed, stills from the movie). Oh, and I don’t know if I have the newest (I have Magic Carpet, but I think there is one about a female-only Legion that I’m not 100% I own).
All the others, I have. And all the Tintins except the unfinished one (“Alpha-” something… “Alpha-Art”?).
I also had all the Tintins up till the Picaros (I believe they still are at my parents’ house back in Spain) and all the Asterix comics by Goscinny, and up till Asterix and Son. I must admit the humour on the Asterix comics always cracks me up.
I was also a big Asterix fan as a child 
A highlight of a family trip to France in the early '90s was a trip to Parc Asterix, where I discovered that I don’t like wild boar sandwiches…
My dad used to travel a lot for work, and would sometimes bring me back Asterix comics in the local language (none of which I spoke):
I was trying to figure out if that was the Asterix book I had when I was young. It sounded super familiar, but the picture didn’t look right, and I had a strong feeling that the one I had was much smaller than that (but I’m almost certain it wasn’t stills from a film, either).
Wikipedia says:
It was later adapted into a comic book as well by Albert Uderzo’s brother, Marcel Uderzo as an illustrated text story book and a series of twelve books for young readers.
I reckon the latter is what I had. I’m not sure if I had as many as 12 of them though, so maybe I only had a few of that series.
I had the one with stills from the movie, and it was my least favourite, experimental to say nice things about it. Shame, because I love the original myth with the 12 tasks from Herakles.
A new guitar has somehow made it into my collection …
(Mainly by way of me paying money for it.)
I’ve wanted a Gretsch for a while and I got interested in trying out a baritone, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone 
It needs some adjustments to get it playing perfectly, and I need to get used to the longer scale length/wider frets, but I’m pleased with it.
That is one beautiful looking instrument, sleek… very pleasing to the eye (not that I know much about guitars)
