Category: Personal

My Top 3 Video Games of 2016

One of the nicer things this year is the amount of video games I managed to play in 2016. I’ve not been able to play as much as I’d like in years gone past, so to play a lot of games this year has seen a welcome change.

With that said, the amount of games I did play was quite lacking, instead focusing on a few games rather than play a range of games. As such, I think I only played a small number of games in 2016. Here are my three favourites.

3. Golf With Your Friends

This was quite a find in Steam’s early access. Golf with Your Friends brings me back to my childhood of playing mini golf with my friends. Running around courses, not playing to the rules, but having a whale of a time. GWYF is probably my favourite Steam game I found this year. I covered it in a video below, but since playing it I’ve noticed more courses have been added to the game. This game is still well worth picking up.

2. Pokemon Go

For sheer changing the world, Pokemon Go should be up there. For a few weeks over the summer this game was my life. I was going out and exercising with friends on long walks, even having dates with my girlfriend which involved walking to the nearest pub or two. This usual ten minute walk took upwards of 45 minutes. As we were catching Clefaries, Machokes and Mr. Mimes. It was huge, so huge. Hell, we got so addicted so quickly that a pub crawl with a friend of mine saw us drink one pint in 90 minutes, as we were busy catching Pokemon.

It had a huge impact, but sadly fizzled out quicker than it began.

1. Overwatch

No game has taken more of my time in 2016 than Overwatch. I’m a huge fan of Team Fortress esque shooters and when I played the early beta 3 weeks before launch, I was immediately hooked.

Since May – when it came out, I’ve not played anything else.

I love Team Fortress shooters, as stated above. This is my new favourite. It combines a genuine e-sport with an in-depth lore. Characters are memorable, maps are engaging and Blizzard are geniuses. Content has been added constantly, with 2 new characters, 2 new maps, endless games and three seasonal events (even if I didn’t get the Tracer UK Skin or the Mercy Halloween Skin. Boo!). All for free. I cannot see me stopping playing this anytime soon.

Also, shout out to my fellow Symmetra Mains!

What were your favourite games of 2016?

Yes, I am Well Aware that I’m In The Metro Today talking About Jeremy Paxman Saying “Don Quicks-Oat”

So here is the tweet.

And Here is the story in the Metro. Which you have no doubt read and are reading this because a) you are a friend or an acquaintance of mine and b) you have read the story in the Metro.

So thank you for telling me about it, but there is really no need. I spend a lot of time on the internet and egosurf my name thanks to Mention. So I had an email alert about it. I can get away with egosurfing my own name as there aren’t really that many “Rhys Wynne’s” out there. There’s one who plays cricket. And one who plays for Mold Alexandra, and one who edits the Welsh Wikipedia (that I get copied into tweets constantly for) but that’s about it.

To be fair if that is a bit of my 15 minutes of fame, there are worst things to be famous for, commentating on high brow BBC2 entertainment. Even if I am proving Cunningham’s Law.

Right. That’s done. Now carry on with the day.

Thoughts of a Pisshead on Dryathlon

So, it’s October, and I’m delighted to announce I successfully completed my Dryathlon. I had a few challenges, but overall it was fairly straightforward, and I had a few wobbles.

I surprised many people, but mainly I surprised myself. Last year’s dryathlon I managed about 15-20 days. Whilst I raised a decent sum for charity, I did notice a few things at my end. Here are some things I noticed during my Dryathlon.

I’m £300 Better Off

It is so scary how little money I spent this past month. I wouldn’t say I drank a huge amount recently, but this month the £20 on drinks, £15 on food, and an Uber home sure adds up, and they were gone this month. Instead of going out, I stayed in – and that saved me a small fortune (I worked out it was about £300). Hopefully in the months that follow I won’t go out as much as I did beforehand.

I Wouldn’t Say I’ve More Energy

One thing when people say they give up alcohol is “You’ll have more energy going forward!”. That I can say is bullshit, at least in my case.

Sure I’m waking up a lot easier and it’s nice not to feel like crap, but I don’t have quite as much energy as I thought I would.

That being said, it’s been so long since a hangover, I cannot remember what one feels like.

I Don’t Think I’ve Lost Weight

“You’ll lose weight!” they also say. I’m not convinced I have. I think because in the past month I’ve eaten a fair bit of crap (I’ve been so busy, and my diet has suffered), so whilst I’ve been exercising okay, I’ve been eating a lot of rubbish. So I’m not saying this doesn’t happen, I just think it didn’t happen to me.

It’s something I’m keen on fixing though, I’m going to buy a slow cooker for the winter so I can prepare lovely stews and warm hearty meals for the winter (I love warmer meals in the winter).

My Belly Is Smaller

With that said, I feel my belly is a bit smaller now than it was at the beginning of the month. My guess is that I’m not as bloated as usually am.

Friday’s Are The Worst

Saturdays and the week were incredibly easy to keep, after about half way through the month. The worst has been Fridays, as the post work drinks have become not much fun. Being the butt of jokes for not drinking gets tiresome, and also often being limited to coke, after a hard week in work isn’t great either. Furthermore this month I have been to a lot of free bars.

Never Drink San Miguel 0.0%, but Nanny State is Lovely

Of course, after the first weekend of Diet Coke, I decided to embrace the wide world of alcohol free beers. I drank 6 different non-alcoholic beers in total, and notes on what they tasted like:-

  1. Nanny State – Literally way ahead of the rest in terms of quality. Incredibly drinkable, tastes exactly like beer, and I can see myself drinking this when I return to drinking.
  2. Schneider Weisse Alcohol Free – Again, a really nice beer. Doesn’t have the sharp “yeah I’m not drinking beer” taste as the others.
  3. Erdinger Alkoholfrei – Was nearly 2nd, the aftertaste and the fact that it kept me wired made me not enjoy this as much. But tastes quite nice.
  4. Tesco Bavaria Non-Alcoholic Beer – A bit of a gap between 3rd and 4th. This was served to me in a couple of pubs in London. Drinkable, but a little less beer-tasting put it down the list.
  5. Becks Blue – Again, a huge gap from this to Tesco. This tasted bland with a slight lemony taste. Again, not unpleasant, but definitely not beer. May as well drink water.
  6. San Miguel 0.0% – Urgh. Utter dreadful. Served in a can that you get premixed drinks in. This tasted premixed. Long bitter lemon taste made this horribly unpleasant to drink. Avoid.

I (secretly) Want To Continue

Here is the scary thing, after about day 22 of the Dryathlon I wasn’t missing alcohol. It was nice waking up without a hangover, and the social requirement of drinking beer disappeared. I’m curious to know how long I could go. Admittedly I’m probably will be drinking soon, probably by the time you read this, but as somebody who feels like I’ve never achieved anything, this has been a nice thing to achieve.

You can donate to my Dryathlon here.

Dryathlong Way Gone and Lifestyle Changes

 

to-do

Behold my to-do list. It’s been one of my constants on how to manage things in my life. Whilst Remember the Milk doesn’t have a fancy API (which displeases me so), it is one piece of software I pay for regularly.

Anyway, you may notice some things on my to-do list. including my monthly reminder to watch Hal Robson-Kanu’s goal against Belgium. One thing you don’t notice is one task – go to the gym.

On 1st July of last year I contemplated a lifestyle change. Basically lifestyle changes are more successful than diets in my eyes as, whilst more permanent – they are often smaller. They sound scary, but are actually minor. A diet means don’t you eat chocolate. A lifestyle change means you don’t eat chocolate on Wednesday.

Which one are you more likely to stick to, and which one seems easier?

So my lifestyle change was to aim to go to the gym at least once every 3 days. I love swimming, so my gym is usually going for a swim for half an hour to 45 minutes. I switched to the gym near work. And if it’s lovely weather my exercise is a brisk 3 mile walk home.

In short, I had planned to write this blog post in July, celebrating one year of hitting the gym. But I was behind. Going to Wrestlemania, seeing Wales in The Euros and my brother’s wedding does that to you. But as of the 15th September, I’ve caught up. I’ve now been to the gym at least once every 3 days.

I don’t know if this has got anything to do with my Dryathlon, but I know I’m not skipping the gym to go to the pub now. Even post September, it’s something I really want to continue.

Doing Dryathlon

So here’s the thing: the amount of booze I drink has dropped fairly significantly. Sure, there are still times that I have a drink or 6, occasionally showing up to work with a sore head, but since turning 30 the amount I regularly drink has dropped considerably. I also quite like sober me – he’s funny, with more energy and generally a more pleasant person to be around.

However, August was a heavy month for me, with stag does and weddings drinking everything from a cheeky ale after work to Polish Vodka. Now we hit September I’m looking for a change of lifestyle, maybe taking it easy for a bit.

As such, I’ve signed up to do September’s Dryathlon.

Fun fact: I actually did something similar last year, managing 13 days in October. Then Wales selfishly qualified for the Euros and I ended up celebrating with far too much alcohol on a Tuesday night. I even went on a date sober and everything. However beyond said date (who was confused as to why I was drinking coke in one of Chorlton’s finest real ale bars), nobody knew.

I hope that by publicly announcing it on here I’m able to actually complete the month. Whilst September doesn’t look too dreadful in terms of things on, there are a few things that would see me tempted to drink: Wales qualifiers for the World Cup, the obvious “just one” after work and – the big one – Chapter 36 of PROGRESS Wrestling. I’ll just have to channel my inner Jim Smallman for the last one.

Nevertheless, these sorts of things you don’t do just for yourself, as the chances are nobody will care. This dryathlon is for Cancer Research UK, so the hope is I can raise a some cash. I’ve set a modest goal. If you want to donate you can do so here, alternatively I’d be delighted if you share this post.

Donate to my Dryathlon Challenge

Thank you!