Citrus Service

Thursday, August 13, 2026

The Hunt for Red October (1990)

Was pleasantly surprised by this one.

Based on Tom Clancy's novel with the same name. This movie had my eyes glued to the screen; they managed to make a movie about submarines that engaging!

It is also filled with your typical military/naval jargon, that I have come to be familiar with after playing the best submarine game: Cold Waters (2017). Words like: baffles, screws, towed sonar array and many more.

The movie is starred by:

The Los Angeles class submarine

The DSRV 'Mystic'

The Alfa class submarine

And the largest submarine ever constructed:

The Typhoon class submarine

This movie's establishing shot made me do the Leonardo DiCaprio's pointing meme in real life. As I saw that the movie has chosen the Jane's (an open-source intelligence company) Fighting Ships 1977-78 book. Sine I already have a copy of Jane's Fighting Ships of World War II on my shelf!

As I can't really recommend this particular edition since I don't really have it. I would recommend you flip through the World War II edition of Jane's.

Overall a fun and must-watch for any navy/military nerd.

Links:

Wednesday, August 12, 2026

Victorian dresses (1837 - 1901)

Pictures and illustrations of Cute and pretty Victorian era dresses

Auguste Toulmouche - Dans la Bibliothèque

Jan Frederik Pieter Portielje - The Love Letter

This one, I'm not so sure about it's source. Supposedly it's from the Illustrated Police News December 11, 1869.

A duel between two ladies - Illustrated Police News December 11, 1869

Auguste Toulmouche - Dolce far niente

I like this navy themed one a lot. It's so Cute! Sadly, I couldn't find the source for these ones too.

William John Charles Pitcher - H.M.S. Pinafore costume

Book recommendation: Victorian Fashions: A Pictorial Archive.

Now this here book is exactly what it says on the cover, 123 pages filled with many illustrations of Victorian fashion goodness, mainly dresses. The book only has illustrations and the year that the trend came out, and that's it! So, if you're actually looking for reading material this is not the right book to look up. However, if you're like me and just want to look at pictures then, this is the book for you.

Saturday, August 1, 2026

Way of the Hunter (2022)

This game fulfills a primal need.

I bought this game with minimal expectations and I was quite pleasantly surprised with it. The game has many licensed guns—which is the reason I got interested in the first place—from brands such as: Beretta, Remington, and a smaller brand that caught my eye, called Strasser.

Although I had to buy Strasser's guns separately as a DLC I chose a good time to grab them; as the game was on sale.

The gameplay is competent; having many mechanics that would make the game feel like a simulation but, it has great difficulty settings to shape the experience that you'd like to get; more simulation or more arcade-like.

With my selected difficulty, the animals leave some blood trails to make tracking them easier, in addition to having the hunter senses ability to make identifying, finding and, tracking animals much more easier. Without subtracting from the core experience, that require a lot of waiting and actively looking for preys constantly.

From mechanics like bullet trajectory being affected by gravity and wind, to managing and influencing the gene pool of a specific species; hunting older/younger animals, or specifically hunting lower trait animals to leave the stronger ones to reproduce.

The game shows you how 'good' your shot was in killing the animal. The energy within your selected caliber, the organs you damaged or penetrated in a neat three dimensional X-ray bullet camera, once you interact with the shot animal.

I would've liked a dog as a hunting companion to complete the experience and more guns in the base game, with differing quality, and older robust wood furnished guns.

I realized after I bought the game that the sequel was about to release in early access, with some of my complaints being addressed in it.. Just my luck, huh?

Reading recommendation relating to the topic:

The Complete Encyclopedia of Hunting Rifles and Shotguns by A. E Hartink.

This encyclopedia is a fun read with many nice pictures. (I have the 2004 edition, which has some added and removed entries from the original 1997 edition. Like the removal of the Mossberg entry from my 2004 edition and the addition of TOZ.)

With many beautiful specimens like the Krieghoff Plus combination gun; as in multiple calibers in one gun! Or the artistic engravings on the Lebeau-Courally shotguns.

Sorry for the lack of images on this one; as I don't have a scanner to show you the pages of my book in great detail. You can check the 1997 edition on the Internet Archives, albeit with poorer quality photos within the pages.

Links:

Thursday, June 11, 2026

Jeeves and Wooster (1990)

A splendid British classic!

I got into this show through a weird roundabout way; I recently—at the time of writing—learnt that an old search engine called Ask Jeeves has been sadly terminated after many years of service. This marked the first time that I've heard of the name Jeeves.

Now, this wasn't the only thing that pushed me to look forward to watching the show, I was window shopping some old books on Amazon, there I spotted The Encyclopedia of Trivia by Worth, Fred L, published 1974 and what I usually like to do with any book that catches my attention, is that I look for the book on the Internet Archive to assess whether the book is worth acquiring or not. By complete chance, as I was skimming through the pages, I landed on the name Jeeves. The entry says:

"Butler of Bertie Wooster in P.G. Wodehouse novels".

At that moment my curiosity was at it's peak. I had to look it up. Through Wikipedia I learned about the existence of the show.

cool vintage cocktail suitcase!

I'm now in season two and I must confess: The two couples getting engaged and then unbetrothed multiple times for the silliest of reasons, is really getting quite dull and samey.

Cool picnic basket!

The main appeal for me is the character of Jeeves. A seemingly unassuming butler, who is mysteriously more classy than his employer and is cunning in a most underhanded way to achieve his, or his master's goals.

Cool breakfast tray!

Bonus: Looking up this type of silverware, I discovered the term Hukin & Heath. Which is a manufacturing firm for silversmiths and electroplating.

Links:

Sunday, June 7, 2026

Grand Theft Auto Online (2013)

My favorite franchise is Grand Theft Auto, and one of my favorite games of all time is Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. I love the setting, environments and, what they draw inspiration from (crime thrillers and car chase movies). I have played GTA Online since day one, on the Xbox 360 back in 2013. My playstyle is mostly solo and sometimes with friends, due to the fact that this is one of the most toxic online games by design, but I won't delve into all that; there are many videos and essays about this whole exploitative ecosystem, and I won't be bringing anything new to the table so instead, I'm going to talk about what I like in this game, specifically from it's latest major update.

The latest and possibly(?) the last major update to GTA Online, A Safehouse In The Hills brings a new storyline, the appearance of a main character in Online and the titular safehouse being purchasable mansions.

I chose the The Vinewood Residence as my mansion.

I love the paintings purchasable in the mansion. Some are so nice that I wouldn't look twice if they were in an exhibition or a museum, and some include inside jokes and references to GTA and Rockstar's other games.

Impressionist painting of the GTA IV map.

A reference to Red Dead Redemption 2's side character.

Besides the paintings, there is a trophy room. I only have a couple as they are hard to achieve. Except this one.

A car that I acquired through its limited time-window; the 2014 Valentine's Day Massacre Special.

Although, it has since been made available for purchase indefinably.

Albany Roosevelt on a mansion's podium.

My nitpicks:

1. The armory is simply underwhelming. I really wish they'd add a wall with your acquired weapons; to show them off. Something like the John Wick movies.

Like the Sommelier's Armory from John Wick: Chapter 2 for example.

Or my absolute favorite, the Antique Weapons Museum from John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum.

Another shot from the Antique Weapons Museum.

2. Most of the freaking vehicle workshop features are locked behind a GTA+ subscription.

3. You can't invite private dancers to your mansion, but you can for your apartment.

4. Decoration options leave more to be desired.

5. Can't bring your purchased art and paintings from the casino's penthouse to your mansion.

I've been writing this post since the update came out last year on the 10th of December. My procrastination has gotten the better of me, I'm afraid. Better late than never, I suppose.

Links:

Friday, May 15, 2026

La Domenica del Corriere (1899 - 1989)

Browsing the ol' Pinterest I came across this masterpiece of a newspaper.

La Domenica del Corriere (The Sunday Courier) was an Italian weekly newspaper which ran from 1899 to 1989. I really can't add anything more to this except, the art included in each edition is truly wonderful—that I decided to share a sliver of the ones that I liked; since they're all almost equally beautiful.

You can view an archived copy that I liked from 1958/7/20 on the Internet Archive.

The artist who drew many of these pieces—including an infamously historical one. Achille Beltrame, is credited with drawing the cover of this newspaper from the beginning of the twentieth century till World War II.