Reid Main

World War 3 has started. Good thing tech bros let us bet on what's gonna get bombed next.

Watched Project Hail Mary

I have written about how much I enjoyed the book Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir and I am happy to report that the film adaption is fantastic as well. If you enjoy hard sci-fi like The Martian (Andy Weir's other book / adapted film) I have no doubt that you will also enjoy Project Hail Mary.

It is also one of those stories where the less you know going in the more you will enjoy it. So if you are reading this and you haven't heard a word or seen any trailers, put on horse blinders this very minute and drive safely to your nearest theatre to have your mind blown.

Factorio

We are up to 96 hours of Factorio and have probably explored a little over half of the solar system. We have expanded to three other planets where we subdued the native wildlife and begun the strip mining. In April the goal is to reach the edge of the solar system so we can declare victory and immediately do it all over again (unless Satisfactory v1.2 comes out first).

Joking aside, Factorio has continued to prove that it is nearly a perfect game. I am truly amazed that I am not growing tired of it. Every single second I am being torn in dozens of directions not just because there are so many new things to explore but I constantly want to go back and redo previous builds because obviously I'll now be able to do them "better".

Season two of The Pitt

We are now 12 episodes into season two of The Pitt and I am running out of ways to describe how great it is. They are starting to lean into the melodrama between characters a bit more than I would like. But at the same time the pressure cooker environment they are in does kinda justify it so I find myself oscillating back and forth between enjoying it and rolling my eyes.

Last month I wrote that I was going to be interested in seeing how many catastrophic scenarios they'd need to pull out of their ass before things got stale. But surprisingly the writers have been able to lean into the "regular" problems that ER doctors face which are proving to be incredibly engaging. Sure you're probably not going to see all of these so close together in a single 12 hour shift. But in the moment I don't feel like this incidents are contrived or shoe-horned.

Sadly only have three hours / episodes remain in season two, but the writers and directors of The Pitt appear to have their production cadence down pat so I am already looking forward to season three in January 2027.

Watched the first two seasons of The Diplomat

The Diplomat may be the most schizophrenic TV show I have ever seen.

The first three episodes were absolute bangers. Especially watching them in the weeks after the United States declared war on Iran. You'd be forgiven for thinking perhaps Nostradamus or some time traveller wrote the scripts. I thought I had discovered a serious political drama, an R-rated West Wing that was going to deep dive into the real political machinations that could actually being occurring in the lead up to World War 3. Oh how wrong I was.

The show immediately takes a hard right turn into simply bonkers conspiracy theorist plots. Imagine 24 crossed with Grey's Anatomy and you're still not truly appreciating how asinine things become. Each cliffhanger is outdoing the previous one until you get to a point where even Donald Trump's actions seem more thought out than whatever is going on in this show.

I made it through two seasons before utterly losing all interest. I read a summary for season three and actually laughed out loud when I saw how they ended it. Do yourself a favour and avoid The Diplomat like the plague.

Beat Pokémon Pokopia

A blunt way of describing Pokémon Pokopia would be that it is a mix of Animal Crossing, Viva Piñata, and Minecraft, with a splash of Pokémon for flavour. If that sounds like something you'd enjoy you probably will. I certainly did for 30 hours. But at the same time it is a very shallow copy of all of those games. If there was something in particular about one of them that you really enjoyed, you may be disappointed with how Pokémon Pokopia kinda half-asses it.

If you really like Animal Crossing, the towns don't feel as lived in or dynamic. You're able to build homes for various Pokémon but that is pretty much it. You're not really making friends or giving special gifts or building any relationships.

If you really like Viva Pińata, the way you attract Pokémon to your town is much simpler and once they've moved in there aren't really any reasons to enhance what you built.

If you really like Minecraft, you cannot destroy and build as easily (or as freely). Animations and targetting are so slow and plodding that I never wanted to build anything unique because it took so long. And to add insult to injury, after you beat the game you finally get access to an ability that makes building things a bit easier.

But I think the most telling thing about Pokémon Pokopia is that if you removed the Pokémon from the game it would not have succeeded. Again, I'm not saying it is a bad game, but the word "Pokémon" in the title is what got me through the door. There is absolutely no way I would have purchased it otherwise and I think a large portion of the 2.2 million people who bought it would have done the same.

Watched season two of One Piece

I haven't watched any of the first season of the live-action One Piece show from Netflix because I just assumed it could not possibly capture the spirit of the manga. But Elsie really wanted to watch season two so we did this month and by god they hit it out of the park. They did not hold back when trying to capture the campiness of the manga and have stayed incredibly faithful to some of the most iconic scenes like this one where Zoro goes sword shopping for example.

I cannot wait to see what they are going to do with Crocodile and Franky.

BBQ smoker recipes

Spring is finally start to peak out from around the corner so I was able to clean out my electric smoker and get in my first cooks of the year. I wanted to document my recipes not only so I'd have something to share but to track any changes / improvements that I make over time.

Chicken Wings

Obviously you gotta start with chicken wings and these are the steps I took this month.

1. Brine the wings in vinegar for two hours. This should help tenderize the meat and also "lock in" the juices to help them not dry out as easily when being cooked. I put three pounds of wings into a large Ziploc bag and filled it with enough apple cider vinegar so the wings are covered when the bag is laid down in the fridge.
2. After the wet brine is complete take the wings out of the bag and pat them dry. By removing as much moisture as we can from the skin they will crisp up better in the smoker.
3. Dry brine the wings using some sort of spice. It can be as basic as just salt if you plan to sauce your wings later or whatever complex mixture you want to impart the desired flavour. I personally put the wings in an aluminium tray, cover them in my chosen spice, and then put the tray into the fridge for 30 minutes to encourage more moisture to leave the skin.
4. Preheat the smoker to 225 degrees.
5. Most recipes will now tell you to put the wings directly on the grill but I choose to cover the aluminium tray in foil and put the whole thing into the smoker. The reason for this is that I want to effectively steam cook the wings for an hour and keep them as juicy as possible.
6. Increase the heat of the smoker to 425 degrees. The goal here is to finish cooking the wings while also crisping up the skin. Ideally you'll only have the wings on for another 45 minutes but that will be something that is dependent on how fast your smoker is able to come up to temperature. For my smoker it generally takes 30 minutes to go from 225 to 425.
7. Remove the foil from the tray. We want the skin of the wings to be directly exposed to the heat to crisp them up. Cook for 15 more minutes before removing the wings from the smoker.

While this recipe created some fantastic wings there are two things I want to dry differently for my next cook. The first is remove the foil from the tray earlier. The goal is to cook the wings for 45 minutes after changing the temperature to 425. But I think the foil needs to be removed from the tray so that the skin is more directly exposed for 20 or 25 minutes. The second is that while steaming the wings in their own juices does create fall of the bone wings, sometimes too much juice remains and the bottom of the wings can become soggy. I would like to get some metal grills that I could put at the bottom of the tray to still allow the wings to be steamed but keep them off the bottom of the tray.

Regardless, these are some of the best wings I have ever had in my life and am I looking forward not just to seeing how can I cook them better but what sorts of spices and sauces will bring out the best flavours. If you're looking for recommendations I have been loving Whisky Bent's drunken pineapple.

Ribs

The next smoker staple is ribs so I bought a big rack from Costco and went to town. I use the 3-2-1 method, cook for three hours at 200, two hours at 225, and three hours at 250.

1. Pay the ribs dry with a paper towel and cut into more manageable chunks if they are too long.
2. Cut or rip off the silverskin (the white membrane) on the back of the ribs. The reason you want to do this is because it will not soften in the smoker and will just become a chewy mess if left on.
3. Cover the ribs in some sort of binder to allow the spices to adhere better. I personally use dijon mustard.
4. Cover the ribs thoroughly in your spice of choice and then put them into the fridge to remove as much moisture as possible.
5. Preheat the smoker to 200.
6. Place the ribs directly on the grill for three hours.
7. Remove the ribs from the grill and wrap them in foil. Use multiple layers because odds are you going to poke a hole in one of them. Place a generous amount of liquid in the bottom of the foil that will help keep the ribs moist and impart some flavour. I used apple cider vinegar but you can literally use anything. Cola, beer, water, etc.
8. Raise the temperature to 225 and cook the wrapped ribs for two hours.
9. Gently unwrap the foil to expose just the top of the ribs and slather them in whatever sauce you want.
10. Raise temperature to 250 and cook for one more hour.
11. Take ribs off the BBQ and let them set for 10-15 minutes before serving.

These ribs were absolutely fall off the bone. Literally I just pulled every single bone out and essentially had a brick of perfectly cooked pork.

Beat Shadowrun Returns

I beat Shadowrun Returns this month which is the first in a trilogy of new Shadowrun games by Harebrained Studios. I have actually played the other two games (Shadowrun: Dragonfall and Shadowrun: Hong Kong) and would highly recommend them for anyone in the mood for a CRPG.

Review March Goals

• 🙅🏻‍♂️ Run 25+ kilometres.
• ✅ Play Pokémon Pokopia.

April Goals

• Run 50+ kilometres.
• Lift weights 12+ times.
• Paint some miniatures.
• Play a new board game.
• Read a book.