#415
Sep 13, 2026
Books
This week I read:
The King of Elfland’s Daughter
I think this is probably the best “real-world fairytale” ever written. Lord Dunsany is great at this sort of writing (as aptly demonstrated in his more fantastical stories, which themselves inspired Lovecraft’s dreamlands), and The King of Elfland’s Daughter takes that style of writing but grounds it just enough to fit in some nonspecific part of fairytale-England. Another great book along the same lines is his The Blessing of Pan which I’m now feeling a craving to re-read.
Roleplaying Games
Hot Springs Island
This week felt a little bit unfocussed. The players wandered around the island some, properly met the ogres for the first time (and learned some of their backstory due to a good reaction roll), and had their first hostile encounter with the salamanders. Really, they should have had several hostile salamander encounters by now, I’d just been putting it off for no good reason. But at least they’ve got the picture now that not everyone is friendly if you just talk to them.
Miscellaneous
I set up a little home gym in my conservatory back in July. I wasn’t using the space for anything, and I’ve periodically tried to get fitter but always fallen out of the habit, so I thought why not give it another try but add on a bit of sunk cost fallacy for motivation?
Well, seven weeks in it appears to be working. I’ve been following the Hybrid Calisthenics routine, along with alternating Couch to 5k and a basic dumbbell routine (bicep curls, cross-body hammer curls, lateral raises, and rows). I have one rest day a week which moves around based on what I’m doing, but is usually Tuesday. Things that were very hard at the beginning are now much less hard, I’ve been able to follow Couch to 5k as written, and I’ve progressed to harder variations of the calisthenics exercises and to heavier weights for the strength workout.
A few weeks in I started stretching in the morning with the goal of being able to touch my toes, but I haven’t made any progress with that at all and the stretches don’t feel challenging, so I think I need to find a different routine. But the workout routine is working well.