Mat Bowles (He/Þei)
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matgb.uk
Mat Bowles (He/Þei)
@matgb.uk
440 followers 870 following 5.1K posts
Displaced Devonian in Yorkshire, ageing goth who yawns a lot (2 sleep disorders and chronic fatigue). Never been a "real man" so a little bit NB, here for the SF, history, science and friends

Icon from Doomtown, best card game ever made
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matgb.uk
Me? This is the view FROM the field they're planning to build in. It's not the best shot, overcast & with my phone, but it's the best I've got

You can see all the way up the valley to Elland. To me, with the wind turbines, the works, the church, the houses? That's beauty

Well, apart from Elland
Foreground: recently cut field with mounds of grass/fodder ready for collecting by sileage thingy. Then a line of oak trees, the remnants of the edge of Barnsdale Forest of Robin Hood fame. After that a town on two hills facing each other, you're looking up between those hills to more distant hills and another town in the distance. Clearly visible is a church, wind turbines, terraces of houses, etc The sky is overcast and gray, with many clouds
November 23, 2025 at 12:24 PM
matgb.uk
Soon I discovered that this rock thing was true
Jerry Lee Lewis was the devil
Jesus was an architect previous to his career as a prophet
All of a sudden, I found myself in love with the world
So there was only one thing that I could do
Was ding a ding dang my dang a long ling long
The pope looks like he's singing into a microphone
November 23, 2025 at 7:37 AM
matgb.uk
Can you imagine being so bought into the Musk project/mystique that you do this WITH YOUR MONTH OLD BABY?

Fucking hell
Text screenshot: For years, Davis had been Musk’s right-hand man. After Musk bought Twitter, Davis and his wife, Nicole Hollander, slept in the San Francisco headquarters of the Twitter office with their one-month-old child while they helped Musk cut the social media company to the bone. Once, according to a Musk biographer, they spent a Christmas Eve helping Musk move data servers.
November 23, 2025 at 4:39 AM
matgb.uk
Waaargh! The Orks, 1990, page 67:
www.scribd.com/doc/57706197...

Not always the best or most powerful faction, but always the most fun to play
"Orkses is never defeated in battle. If we win we win, if we die we die so it don't count as defeat. If we runs for it we don't die neither so we can always cum back for anuvver go, see!" ~Commonly held Ork view of warfare Pic: grot carrying a pile of grenades
November 14, 2025 at 7:07 AM
matgb.uk
Couldn't resist screenshotting this one
Jay's above post followed by a retweet of a post advertising the new RPG "Eat God"
October 31, 2025 at 7:45 PM
matgb.uk
Sometimes, the sheer scale of America compared to Europe astounds me, we're so cramped over here. 50 years before the below, Jack Smeaton built the Calder And Hebble canals to—literally—put the town I live in on the map

Here's Spike (RIP) enjoying a stretch of it
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calder_...
Ginger lurcher on long lead by canal path going past a modern building (Sainsburys) towards a bridge with an old flour mill (Rokt climbing gym) in the background. There's a narrowboat moored ahead and the canal, at one of its wider points, isn't very wide Close up view of ginger lurcher by canal path. There's a narrowboat moored ahead and the width of the canal, at one of its wider points, is visibly not wide. The boat cannot be more than 5 metres wide by regulation
October 18, 2025 at 12:54 PM
matgb.uk
I think what Amazon mean here is the van just left the depot unless they've got a really weird route
Amazon update map showing '3 stops away' but the dot is the wrong side of the Pennines leaving Rochdale on the M62
October 18, 2025 at 10:16 AM
matgb.uk
If you see this, quote post with your favorite Pokemon
(wrong answers only)

(photo credit for first pic: @cupcakegoth.bsky.social )

I love that a very recent pic of Clovis and the ~25 year old artwork have with with the same pose of ears
Photo of cute fluffy bunny plushy wearing a dashing bowtie and an ankh necklace. He has fangs, and is over 35 years old and still looking good Clovis the Devilbunny card from the Doomtown CCG, art is a good replica of previous photo of actual stuffed toy, and is drawn by the husband of the owner of said toy (Pete Venters)
October 15, 2025 at 1:25 PM
matgb.uk
On the subject of Eurovision, the EBU organisers had a VERY political founding, but the first actual meeting was held at The Imperial Hotel in Torquay

Stewarded some charity events there as a teen, gorgeous place, Agatha Christie based several of her hotels on it

And the view from the terrace?
View looking straight out from terrace, mostly blue sea, boat cruising across midview, rolling hills and cliffs in background View looking down and right from terrace over Torquay harbour and headlands, blue sea very prominent View looking down and left from terrace, many trees in midground, sea then cliffs behind them View looking down and left from terrace over blue swimming pool, lots of trees and sea in the background
September 22, 2025 at 4:32 PM
matgb.uk
Awhile back I found a download app that would let me clip videos so I could post review excerpts within BlueSky's then video length limit

But I never got around to posting the vid I tested on, not certain it's from the same show but the Chumbas played Rockpalast a few times, always good
September 12, 2025 at 4:24 AM
matgb.uk
Without saying Voltron, what is your favorite giant robot?
Full page comic scan of the very first Death's Head appearance, High Noon Tex Tex kicks the door to DH's office in, says he's going to kill him in revenge for his brother's death. DH appears to be looking out the window but it's a dummy, which opens to reveal a bomb, explodes and killing Tex. "If I can't kill for profit, I at least have a laugh" Real DH is shown walking away from the rubble
September 9, 2025 at 5:25 AM
matgb.uk
Would I get one?

Ridley is a Saluki crossed with a Greyhound

Greyhounds have the fastest jump speed for short distance running known

Salukis are the fastest at distance and have incredible stamina/endurance

For the first two years, we had to give him THREE HOURS of walks per day

Once is enough
A brindle sighthound at rest in the sun
September 7, 2025 at 6:41 AM
matgb.uk
Yeah, my birthday present arrived this morning, not had time to make it yet but it looks good

And the Ghostbusters firehouse and the modular city buildings are all pretty good, think it's the Star Wars stuff and some licensed stuff that's, well, cash in crap
Lego transformer Soundwave box
September 4, 2025 at 11:15 PM
matgb.uk
It's their purpose built major command centre, it's Letsby Avenue, Letsby is an actual place but it's nowhere near, the developers chose it and the council didn't object so it stuck

Weirdly it's shwoing up in Korean on Google Maps instead of English, but OSM has it right
Clipping of map showing the South Yorkshire Police command centre on Letsby Avenue, Tinsley, Sheffield https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=19/53.395884/-1.399583
August 31, 2025 at 7:29 PM
matgb.uk
Thats clearly an ill chicken
screenshot of a red/pink emoji that's supposed to be an anatomical heart but looks more like a weird chicken
August 21, 2025 at 4:01 PM
matgb.uk
You have reminded me of Torbay, which is the borough minus the Brixham wards

So the border is the coast, there are houseboats on the marina
Map highlighting Torbay constituency showing lots of sea, the peninsula containing Brixham is removed from the highlighted area
August 20, 2025 at 1:57 PM
matgb.uk
I mean, could've been worse...
"The Myrka" from Doctor Who: Warriors of the Deep. A large marine quadruped in the foreground looking away from us towards The Doctor (5th, in cricket whites) and Tegan (in a very 80s multicolour outfit) In reality it's two blokes doing a panto horse but with really badly done costuming, the pictures make it look better than the broadcast when it's moving (and searching for this I found out there's a USian singer and a character in a show both called Myrka which, y'know, baffling)
August 12, 2025 at 9:00 PM
matgb.uk
My favourite Doctor and Companions
Four people seated in a posed group shot, all are formally dressed, they are Barbara Flynn (the stepmother), David Troughton (the son), Graham Crowden (the Skonnan scientist) and Peter Davison (the father-in-law)
August 9, 2025 at 10:43 AM
matgb.uk
Ridley says he'd probably like you but only if you let him sit in the sun patch and watch the tennis
Brindle sighthound sat in sun patch looking at tennis courts
July 31, 2025 at 4:20 PM
matgb.uk
I didn't, just for you :-D
Pic of post saying stop liking this with number of likes displaying as 69
June 21, 2025 at 7:02 PM
matgb.uk
I fart in your general direction!

From en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_o...
(because it really wasn't Hastings then done with)
Wikipedia screenshot "The siege A 19th century depiction of Exeter's defences in the 11th century. When William arrived in Exeter's environs, he made camp, probably at the village of Clyst Honiton. Here, William was met by a delegation of prominent Exeter citizens, who pledged their submission to William and handed over hostages as surety. There are two interpretations of this encounter; firstly that two parties had emerged in Exeter, one hoping for a peaceful settlement, and the other, led by Gytha, being determined to resist, while the second possibility was that this was a bluff by Gytha who was playing for time, hoping for the timely arrival of her grandsons with an Anglo-Irish army. Whatever the intention, when William and his army arrived at the East Gate of Exeter, he found it closed against him and the walls crowded with armed men. In response to this afront, he had one of the hostages blinded in full view of the city's defenders, although this did not diminish their resolve; according to William of Malmesbury, one of the men on the battlements responded by lowering his breeches and farting towards the Normans." Last sentence is highlighted
June 2, 2025 at 4:54 PM
matgb.uk
Here is a picture of Ridley taken on Easter Sunday

See, when Jennie's due home we try to take him to meet her, this seems to have convinced him the act of going to the station means mummy comes home

Dear reader, train don't run Easter Sunday
A large brindle sighthound sits back legs on the red station bench forepaws on the floor, hopefully watching the tracks for a train that won't arrive
May 10, 2025 at 4:22 PM
matgb.uk
I give you the wonder of Bristol Time, until the railways you didn't need more than local time, when they were introduced some Brizzle folk objected so they've got clocks with two minute hands in some places :-D
Clock mounted on stone wall with red roman numerals as numbers, a red hour and minute hand, but an extra minute hand painted black ~10 minutes behind to show Bristol time instead of London time
April 30, 2025 at 11:13 PM
matgb.uk
Scientists prove what most owners know, which is good

A few decades ago I'd get annoyed at researching-the-obvious, but apprently a) it's not obvious to some and b) this can be built on in different ways

Dogs are smart, some are too smart
Large brindle sighthound (Ridley) lying on a pub bench looking hopefully at where the food comes from (there was no food for him that day)
April 15, 2025 at 3:19 PM
matgb.uk
Holy shit

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_...

18 mile wave? Holy shit (we were lucky to get a few metres back home, the "Fat Willie's Surf Shack" branch did not last long)
Wikiepdia text: Before the construction of a causeway in 1968 and subsequent siltation of the river, the Petitcodiac River had one of the world's largest tidal bores, up to two metres (6.6 ft) high. Since the opening of the causeway gates in 2010, the bore has been coming back, and in 2013 surfers rode it a record-breaking 29 kilometres (18 mi).
April 15, 2025 at 10:54 AM