> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://lowpolymess.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # #31 - All the small things - URL: https://lowpolymess.com/31-all-the-small-things/ - Published: 2026-10-15T09:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-15T09:00:00.000Z - Author: Thomas Orry - Tags: Tom Orry Minute, life, comedy, video games, awkward, News, art, parenting, greatness, stories, funny Ever feel like there’s just too much happening in the world for you to possibly cope with it all? If you’re an online person, like me, who relies somewhat on having a social media presence, there’s this pressure to have thoughts about everything. You must be seen to be a thinking person or else you’re nothing. Combined with an actual hectic life, sometimes just scrolling down the latest news on the BBC is overwhelming, so occasionally I like to focus on the small stuff instead - the things I am mostly in control of. What could possibly go wrong? did you pay for this? Can you pay for this? Will you pay for this? Please pay for this Listen, I want everyone to be able to read my inspiring words on ~~video games and~~ things, but I also have bills to pay and a desire for nice things (like a pizza pretzel from Lidl). If you can, I'd really appreciate you upgrading your subscription to a paid plan. Or, if you are mega loaded, just scroll to the bottom and tip me an obscene amount of money. I've heard whales (high-paying fans) exist - maybe that's you! [Pay Tom ](#/portal/account/plans) Lunch. Lunch is a small thing I can look forward to. A little break from work, and I love eating. As I opened the newly delivered loaf of bread, pulling apart the sticky tape that had been holding in the freshness, a joyous and delicious meal lay before me. In a few minutes I’d be eating a vegan pastrami, cheese, and mustard sandwich. What a delight! Except, this delight was to be rudely ripped apart. For this loaf hid a dastardly secret. After pulling back the first crusty slice to get at the bread proper I was greeted by the most heinous of sights: a wide hole, running through the first six pieces! My fevered anticipation instantly turned to sorrow. I would be eating less of a sandwich than I had been anticipating. While I’ve obviously hammed this up significantly, I can’t deny that cracking open a fresh loaf to discover a tunnel running through it is up there as one of the most disappointing lowkey everyday moments in my life. Yes, I could have reached beyond the tarnished slices and picked out two without craterous blemishes, but that’s just going to make life worse for whoever wants bread next. It was hard not to feel slighted, as if the bread gods had decided I wasn’t worthy of a full loaf. How could lunch, a most special time of the day, go so terribly wrong? Life’s full of these little moments that irritate more than they should, often building on top of each other to really get you down. In the very same shopping order from which came the volumetrically challenged loaf of bread was a bag of bagels. Yum. Lovely cinnamon raisin bagels for breakfast at the weekend. A nice bag of five… what kind of freshly baked hell is this!? Four bagels! FOUR! I checked all over the bag to see if this is another case of shrinkflation, but no, it says there should be five bagels. It’s right there in print. I’m iridescent with rage. I’ll not stop until someone pays for this grave error! Of course I do absolutely nothing about it apart from silently seeth. Later on I point the thievery out to my wife, once again achieving nothing except making another person mildly peeved. I’m being dished out these micro aggressions from the universe, and I’m just taking them. What a chump. I’m meant to be enjoying the small stuff! Later that same day, once my bagel bile had subsided, we decided to take the kids to the park, mostly so our youngest could ride her bike. A lovely little trip out of the house. Or not!. Since she last rode her bike she’d clearly grown a lot, so the seat needed to be raised. Fine, we managed to work it out and had the required allen key. Obviously, if you raise the seat you also need to raise the handlebars, but of course that needs a completely different sized allen key. We had bought a set of allen keys for moments exactly like this, but could we find it? Could we fuck! ![Image showing three different versions of an allen key set. It's yellow and black.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ea/97/ea97ed15-0c14-4ee7-821b-976b8be55f76/content/images/2026/10/image-5.png) I realise this is an exceedingly dull image for an article, but I swear we bought one of these sets. If you've seen it around, let me know. Thanks. Still, even with the handlebars lower than they should be, and our trip delayed by 30 minutes because of the DIY repairs, our daughter did get to ride her bike. A lovely ride up and down the path that runs beside the park. Inside the playground was less lovely. Someone had let their dog shit all over the place, meaning kids were running wild in excrement. I saw one little boy standing on a piece. I wanted to think this was an accident, but he was so perfectly on top of it that it’s hard not to think he squashed his foot through it on purpose! Thankfully he chose to run up the slide just as we decided to leave. It’s all good. What would life be without these minor irritants to keep us on our toes. Life can’t be a series of little joys all the time can it? Who really wants a life without friction, anyway? Well, me, actually. I’m extremely keen on the idea. Is that possible? I’ve had enough of things and stuff going wrong. Back home I settle for a nice relaxing cup of coffee. Only the machine didn’t have enough water in it, so it trickled out like the mid-night whiz of a man closer to retirement than to youth. I drink the weak coffee in a stupor, and distract myself by thinking about an upcoming holiday to the New Forest. Thankfully the new trainers I bought for the trip arrived. Same brand as I always buy, same size, no fuss. Of course they are too big! And it costs £4 to return them! What the fuck, universe?! What’s your problem? ## Sign up for Low Poly Mess A sideways look at life and a variety of other things. A new mind dump every week. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. --- After reviewing [Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds](https://www.eurogamer.net/sonic-racing-crossworlds-review?ref=lowpolymess.com) in a previous life what seems like an eternity ago, I thought I’d give it another whirl this week to check out all the DLC I’d missed. In classic “How did no one think of this?” fashion, starting up this game after a long absence results in a stream of notifications about new content that feels like it’s never going to end. I almost turned it off before reaching the main menu. Anyway, when I finally got into the game I tried out the Minecraft, Spongebob and Pac-Man courses, and came away rather unimpressed. They are fine, but it mostly reminded me how I didn’t love the game in the first place. [Like what you've read? Throw a tip my way](#/portal/support) --- This newsletter was mostly about how you can be beaten down by a million small cuts, but I’ve been doing plenty of other stuff. I’ll have a think about some other bits and pieces and round them up in the quick reviews below. I’m a critic, too, you see. --- Things I can review: - Tumble Dryer (shops): Having survived in a four-person household (including two kids) drying all washing on a rack alongside a dehumidifier (I forget the name of this, so just Googled “pull water out of the air machine”) for a long time, we finally had enough of that musty room-dried clothes smell and bought a tumble dryer. It’s a heat pump dryer, which I had thought weren’t great at drying, but it’s revolutionised my life. I love it. You empty out a water container stored within the dryer, so you don’t need a hose to the outside world. It even plays a little jingle when it’s finished drying, as if it’s really pleased with itself. We’ve called it Terry. 10 dry towels out of 10 dry shirts. - They Will Kill You (Sky Cinema/Now TV): I’d seen a few negative reviews of this action horror, but I think a lot were overly harsh. While the film, which sees a woman attempting to rescue her sister from some rather bloodthirsty rich people in a hotel, does lose a bit of steam towards the end (and it’s not that long in the first place), when it’s firing on all cylinders it’s very entertaining, if very violent. I’m not sure what it takes to earn an 18-rating any more, but I’d have put money on this being given one. It wasn’t. It’s a super gory 15, but the comic tone probably helps on that front. There are a handful of great scenes that make this well worth watching. Just don’t spoil anything else about it, if you can. 7 slices out of 10 shotgun blasts. - LEGO PlayStation (shops): I’ve not got much to say about this as it’s being saved to build as a family over Christmas (you may well get to read about that in a future newsletter!), but the box looks nice. As does the box for the little Astro Bot build. I’d buy so much LEGO if I had more money. I wish the Mega Drive set was a full-on big build like the PlayStation is. While I appreciate it is far more affordable, I would have loved a larger premium set that includes a Mega CD for the Mega Drive to sit on top of. I can dream. Anyway, PlayStation and LEGO, maybe do a PSP next. Thanks! 8 days of forecast building out of 10 momentarily lost bricks. ![Photo of the LEGO sets for the PlayStation and Astro Bot.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ea/97/ea97ed15-0c14-4ee7-821b-976b8be55f76/content/images/2026/10/image-7.png)