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.

Yesterday I spent 5 minutes telling my kids how Batman & Robin was so bad it’s actually funny.

This included me quoting Mr Freeze – complete with Austrian accent – saying, “Ice to see you”.

Today, I discovered he doesn’t actually say it. That quote was from The Simpsons.

🫠

Yesterday was such a big day I’ve been little more than a vegetable today, lounging around without any energy. I would have loved to put Saturday on repeat, but I just don’t have it in me.

Just got home from a great day out with the family. Saw Wakanda Forever, enjoyed a great dinner and then saw David Gray play his White Ladder tour. Still buzzing.

I used to think I would one day write a great novel, but these days I feel I’m probably not creative enough.

Then again, maybe that’s the burnout talking. Who knows what the coming years will bring?

One and a half weeks left to go at work. As much as the meetings tire me out, I will miss working with some of these people.

Years ago I went on a tour of the Bundaberg Rum distillery. I came home with this barrel full of rum, but it was all absorbed into the wood or evaporated before I could drink it.

Now the barrel sits on a shelf drying out, unused.

Still looks good though.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been playing through the Batman Arkham games for the past few months. It’s an incredible franchise, though now that I’m close to finishing Arkham Knight (again), I feel I can say that Arkham City is the best of the three.

I do not have the mental capacity today to try and find a creative way to include the word aluminium in a post. So you get this fairly lazy attempt instead.

I happily left Facebook and Instagram years ago. I want to leave Twitter too, but I just can’t stop myself from opening up that horrendous bird app to watch the implosion.

I’ve been having some pretty deep conversations with my kids recently. Now they are both in double digits, it’s increasingly challenging to adjust their outlook on the world, to acknowledge the good with the bad and the bad with the good.

Tonight I had a couple of glasses of wine and then bought tickets to take the family to go and see David Gray next weekend.

I should have bought those tickets months ago. I am so excited - he’s an amazing performer and now I get to share it with the kids.

I really loved Tales of the Jedi, particularly the last two Ahsoka episodes.

Star Wars is a huge universe, but I really think Ahsoka, somehow, has become my favourite character. And I have a suspicion that I am not alone with that.

Cannot wait for her show to land.

Passion

One of the recurring themes of this little writing experiment so far has been my coming to terms with my life as it is versus my life as I thought it might be. …

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This year I bought (and played) a lot of board games, but so far I’ve not found a good way to display them. I have a few on floating shelves, but the weight scares me. I need a dedicated shelving solution, but I’m not sure I have the space for it. Suggestions welcome.

I’d consider becoming a politician if I could become the minister for self-doubt and procrastination. You’ve got to play to your strengths, right?

I still have three weeks of work before I finish up. Time is dragging along, every day slower than the one before. But with every passing day, I am becoming more and more certain that moving on was the right move. I am ready for something new.

I am watching a conversation on Slack between the editorial and sales teams. It’s already 100 messages long and they don’t seem close to reaching a consensus. I should weigh in, but I’m feeling pretty sick today and don’t know if I have the energy.

Absolutely devastated for my little girl, who is going to have to miss her first camp tomorrow (technically it’s a day camp) after 2.5 years of lock down and general crappiness because she’s too sick.

So far the entirety of the 2020s has been one great big disappointment.

Last week a colleague told me she was pregnant.

While congratulating her, I had an insight: Now that my own kids are a bit older and more self-sufficient, I feel like I need them more than they need me.

I wish I could have given them more of my time when they really needed it.

I am currently trying to migrate my morning coffee from a latte to a long black. Short blacks are just too intensely bitter for my taste.

I’m listening to a playlist created by my 13 year old. It’s filled with rock from the 90s, peppered with some tunes from the 80s, an echo of my own teenage years.

🎬 Am I going crazy or did Monsters Inc. have credits scenes playing out parts of the “play” they invented in the movie? Just watched the Disney+ version and there was nothing. I am now questioning my memory.

I wish I was exempt from getting sick. I’ve been battling illness all week and it’s exhausting.