Nick

Nick Broughall.
Writing again.

Tech journalist with 20+ years behind me. Running BTTR.reviews. Writing here about everything else — music, family, food, the odd rant, and the weird stuff in between.

I’ve been playing through the _Mass Effect _trilogy for the past year and a bit 🎮. I’m in the end game stages of ME3, and I’m so emotional. I love these characters.

There’s a scene after one of the last missions where Tali - an alien character who has to live in a special suit to keep herself safe from infection - decides to get drunk after a mission.

It’s great, you have a nice conversation with her as she battles her demons. You only experience it if you opt to go to her after you complete that mission.

But then, after talking to Tali, I went to visit another character on the ship - the last survivor of a long-dead alien race who was in stasis for 50000 years before I saved him - and Tali was drunkenly talking to him over the ships intercom.

It was sweet, hilarious and cute at the same time.

There are so many of these little interactions between characters (and my character of course) that I really feel like I know them. It’s not something I’ve experienced in too many games.

I’m going to be sad when I finish it, that’s for sure.

Just ripped my second pair of shorts this month. You may think it’s because I’m gaining weight, but it probably has more to do with the fact I haven’t bought new shorts for about 10 years.

Driving home got funnelled into an RBT. First officer did the test, asked if I had my licence and when I reached for it, said he believed me and waved me along… to the last officer, who made me get my licence out and tested me again. 😂

I have too many products to review. That isn’t a bad thing, it just means time management is important.

I suck at time management.

Finished Boba Fett today. Really love how there are subtle construction differences for similar features across the helmets.

close up of the Boba Fett Lego helmet

Nothing like having Covid to give you time to get through a book.

Had to restart it. But too much politics for my liking, but overall a decent story.

Finished reading: Bloodline by Claudia Gray 📚

Last year, I started playing Good Sudoku’s daily challenges on a quest to get the yearly streak challenges.

Yesterday was day 364.

And I forgot to play…

Finished the year with an Outer Rim win. First time playing with the expansion, which was a lot of fun. The great pirate, Hondo Ohnaka, could not be defeated. 🎲

Spent today with the Gerni and my mother in law’s house. Pretty knackered now, but everything looks much nicer.

We watched Days of Future Past with the kids the other night, so I was telling them about how the Quicksilver kitchen scene was created in Adelaide and how I got to go and see how it was done for this article.

Finished building the Boushh Lego helmet today. I love it. The way the mask came together with the last bag was fantastic. It’s so clever!

The Lego Princess Leia Boushh helmet all put together.

Started building Leia’s Boushh Lego helmet. Forgot to take a pic after bag 1, but I’m loving how the details and shape are coming together after bag 2.

The Star Wars Lego Princess Leia Boushh helmet partially constructed, being held up in front of the box showing the completed product.

Somebody in Canada has come to BTTR, viewed 24 pages and clicked on 88 different affiliate links in one session. Because they are Canadian, they aren’t going to convert. They have, however, stuffed up my performance metrics for the week.

Just watched two (2!) absolute bell-ends do 3 point turns over double white lines in a school zone.

A little old nanna walking past me couldn’t contain her shock. That’s how ridiculous it was.