As you probably know, I like to cook and I like to do it from scratch and with good ingredients. Semi-finished products definitely have their place, but if I get full control all the way, it will be better. One of the areas where I am absolutely not willing to ever compromise is jam.

Whether it's pancakes with strawberry jam, waffles with cloudberry jam, peanut butter sandwiches with raspberry jam or thick pancake with lingonberry jam - I want to have been able to do everything myself. Consequently, a lot of berries are picked in the summer and especially in the autumn. If you want to be economical, it's free raw material in most cases and the only thing that needs to be added is sugar (I usually choose jam sugar in most cases, though).

So... That's why I was out in the mountains on Sunday with family members and picked around 40 liters of lingonberries. In addition to a really nice day, I now get to do one of my favorite pastimes - make jam. A nice feeling of how it used to be and lovely to be able to get jam consisting of around 60-70% berries of top class and nothing else.

Picture from today. Full in the pantry, full in the freezer and a happy pickle-eater all winter long.

Over the years, in addition to Swedish and English, I have studied Japanese and German, among other things. However, my knowledge is quite limited, and I can only handle very banal and basic conversations. During the summer, I made no less than three trips to Germany, and noticed that I would actually like to get a little better at German again.

In addition, I was planning to visit Japan next year, a country where you definitely can't count on getting around in English everywhere, something I remember from my last visit. After asking friends and googling a bit, I decided to go for the app Duolingo - which seems to be described as almost ridiculously good.

After driving it for a few weeks, I still have to say that I am impressed. The setup is perfect for those who like gaming with a game-like setup, online features and plenty of Achievements. You can choose to see all that as nonsense, but I still notice that I don't want to break my streak of days I've run my courses, and therefore spend 5-15 minutes every day doing a few repetitions, where little by little new words are sneaking in.

Already when I watched Alice in Borderland, I noticed that the Japanese skills had come back to at least some extent and that new words had settled. Does this mean that I will be fluent in Japanese when it is time to leave? Of course not, but it means that I already got a little better foundation and will be able to cheat my way forward if necessary.

So... I would like to recommend those of you who wanted to learn any language, perhaps Japanese or German, to download Duolingo. It's completely free (ad-supported, but can be paid off cheaply), so you have nothing to lose by trying. If you like the setup as much as I do, you'll quickly be hooked.

A few minutes a day becomes both a recurring repetition so it settles, as well as quite a long time overall.

A lot of nice plastic guitars have appeared lately, especially for Xbox. The reason for this is debatable, but there doesn't seem to be a new major music game on the way, and the music mode in Fortnite is said to have flopped. Maybe it's just been so long that people are eager to rock a little again?

Whatever the case may be, Rocka Band 4 willdisappear for good this Sunday, when the ten-year licenses expire. However, you who bought the game can of course keep it and the DLC, and can continue to download the rub you own. The DLC for the game will also be gradually removed as the licenses expire.

For my own part, I've realized that it was damn fun with these games, and started playing again. The new guitars are better than ever before and the new consoles (Playstation 5 and Xbox Series S/X) eliminate loading times. So... My simple tip is therefore to quickly visit the Playstation or Xbox store to buy Rock Band 4 Rivals Bundle if you ever think you'll be in the mood to get a plastic rock again.

This bundle costs 99 SEK and contains basically all the music you need (but you can of course buy more if you want). Then you just get a plastic guitar or two on the day the craving returns and rock out with friends, partner, children or the golden hamster. If, on the other hand, you haven't bought Rock Band 4 before October 5 - well, then your music career is unfortunately over.

You need to buy this as a preventative measure before it is gone forever. Plastic rocking is still a lot of fun.

As you know, Sonic has tried most things over the years, in addition to his successful platforming career, we have also seen him drive karts, fight, play tennis, play sports with Mario and even a little role-playing.

But... Far from everything has been successful. One of the most overlooked chapters in Sonic's long history is undoubtedly Sonic Shuffle, Sega's attempt to challenge Mario Party, which was released for the Dreamcast in 2000. Unfortunately, the game received a rather cool reception when it started, and it didn't reach Mario's levels - but the basic idea was still there and there are actually good reasons to believe that it could work significantly better today.

The most obvious is that Nintendo releases its Mario Party so rarely so there are big gaps where people are screaming for minigame enjoyment. Party games with board game elements, mini-games and classic Sonic characters are really a perfect combination. Sonic Shuffle had all that and charming presentation as well as some fun ideas. The problem then was Sega's stress with the poorly selling Dreamcast and the threat of having to leave the hardware segment, which meant that it never really got the love it needed.

But this is where today's gaming climate opens the door. Sega today has significantly more experience in managing Sonic in different genres, and is today a rock-rich and competent developer and publisher. In addition, there are the digital marketplaces that make it much easier to release niche titles that still reach a wide audience. Playstation and Xbox gamers would probably throw themselves into a good party game with Sonic and the gang. In addition, thanks to the arcades, Sega has enormous expertise when it comes to creating good and intuitive gameplay loops... and it also seems that they are eager to take on Nintendo again.

Then complement that with good online support (Nintendo Achilles' heel in virtually all games), and we could have a challenger to social party games like Among Us and Fall Guys. Sonic Shuffle, with its unique card-based board game mechanics, could easily stand out from the crowd and give Sega a long-awaited expansion of Sonic's universe with a title that suits just about everyone.

In short, it's time for Sega to dust off Sonic Shuffle and give it another chance. The fact that it flopped was never because the idea was bad – but because the game didn't measure up. With the right skills behind the controls, redress is deserved.

How keen would you be for a Mario Party-inspired Sonic game?

I've written several times about built-in vs replaceable batteries in controllers, where I think the latter is completely superior. This makes the controllers cheaper, more future-compatible, and makes it incredibly easy to make sure everyone has the perfect batteries when it comes to playing local multiplayer.

That the Joy-Cons don't have that is a shame, but still easy to understand given their design where there is not a single extra wasted millimeter to use, but for the Playstation 5 it's more of a shame. Therefore, I am happy to hear that Sony may now have reconsidered.

A fairly well-known Polish insider, who previously leaked accurate information, now says that Sony is working on a new revision of the Playstation 5 controller - which seems to be introduced with the new Playstation 5 Pro, which we previously wrote about. We don't know exactly what news we'll find on this controller - but one of them we may know... namely replaceable batteries.

A rumor as I said, but now I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's true. This means that it will be a controller that you know will work even in 20 years since the battery has given up (and no spare parts are available anymore), which will be a little cheaper to buy and which means that you can immediately play on wirelessly even if they are discharged.

What do you think about the issue of replaceable batteries in controllers?