Christian Thoma

I’m not one to put in a C-C-C-Combo Breaker when it comes to The Princess Bride, but I’m also not averse to doing a redirect either. So while the title is a quote from that amazing movie, the header image is of someone who would definitely want a peanut: Anya from Spy x Family. If you haven’t seen the show or read the manga yet I highly recommend it as it’s clever and adorable. There’s even a game coming to the West later this year, although I’m concerned it won’t be dubbed (fingers crossed it will be).

Speaking of games coming out, Persona 3 Reload is out on Friday! I’ve been heavily addicted to the Persona series this past year so it’ll be nice to have a new group of virtual friends to hunt shadows with. While I impatiently wait for my next obsession, let’s answer some questions!

Last week's layoffs and the concurrent cancellation of the Untitled Survival Game left an early black mark on Blizzard's fortunes in 2024.

The Azerothian Archives is the newest Dragonflight group event to arrive with patch 10.2.5 and after finishing the epilogue quests it's pretty much the only new thing to do in game until patch 10.2.6 arrives in a couple months.

I very rarely follow a Cory queue, so I don’t often get an earworm. I did switch with Anna this week — but I’m still not following a Cory queue because the divine Liz P was up yesterday. Fortunately(?) she replicated Cory’s earworm formula and so I’ll be writing this queue by a crystal blue Italian stream. Unfortunately the weather forecast is:

Look around
Leaves are brown
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter

Oh wait, that’s a different Bangles song. Fun facts: Manic Monday was written by Prince, and A Hazy Shade of Winter was originally a Paul Simon song performed by Simon & Garfunkel. If I had to pick just one Bangles song, though, it would be In Your Room which while a top 5 at the time is largely ignored now. Probably because Walk Like an Egyptian is just as iconic of the band as Manic Monday so those two get all the airtime.

Long story short, they should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside the Go-Go’s and Pat Benatar. Hopefully they’ll be 2024 nominees.

Anyway, while I clearly have an eternal flame for the Bangles, let’s actually answer some questions!

Dragonflight patch 10.2.5 arrives this week and while it does not herald a new raid tier or Season there's a lot of new activities coming for players with the new patch.

Dragonflight patch 10.2.5 arrives next week and with it will see the extension of Dragonriding throughout the World of Warcraft as players will be able to use their Dragonriding mounts in any zone that currently allows flying (sorry, Timeless Isle fans).

Dragonflight Season 4 will see the return of the Fated Raids first introduced in Shadowlands.

Despite the week being shorter due to the New Year’s holiday it feels like it’s been twice as long as a normal work week. I’m pretty dang tired — but when Liz asks for a sub, I’ll always find the energy to help!

No ramble in my preamble, let’s just answer questions.

… if I had one!

So the whole family got matching pajamas to wear for Christmas, and Marshmallow got a bandanna that also matched. He looked super-cute in it too.

And then it disappeared. We have no idea what happened to it. At some point it was no longer around his neck, and we haven’t found it anywhere. As near as we can guess it fell off while he was outside and then blew away, but that’s just a guess. I suspect it’ll turn up in four months.

While we lament the cute picture that could’ve been, let’s answer some questions!

Today is 2024 and while many of us are thinking about what we want to do this year, I'm still reviewing 2023 in my head to see if I fulfilled my resolutions for the old year.