I initially got Biomutant at a minor discount. It was still relatively new and I thought the screenshots looked impressive. I was really in love with the creatures and the premise. The first time I fired it up I was disappointed in the graphics! It looked really grainy, the fur was just bad, which for a game with many fuzzy creatures just seemed like bad planning. I didn’t even play it that long and got my money back from Steam. Many months later, and with a sizable discount I decided it was worth picking up even if the graphics were…
Yawn
Had to hop out of bed early this morning for a production issue. I was covering for a coworker in exchange for a couple days out of my on call week. I woke, glanced at the phone and had an open issue so I started investigating from my phone (yay SaaS) and turns out it cleared before 7 but got a jump on the day! 🦘
Some Stuff to Share
I’ve been collecting things I would have otherwise shared to FB. Police raid VPN but fail to find user data https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/21/23692580/mullvad-vpn-raid-sweden-police Twitter goes crazy in the absence of verification: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1649146273121857554.html https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gay-pride-parade-canceled-after-anti-drag-show-law-passes/ https://www.demilked.com/funny-illustrations-deliberately-buried-comics/ https://www-theregister-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.theregister.com/AMP/2023/04/06/can_injection_attack_car_theft/ https://katu-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/katu.com/amp/news/nation-world/absolutely-unacceptable-behavior-outdoor-mall-ohio-easter-egg-hunt-apology-organizers-ohio-the-greene-town-center-management https://amp-cnn-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/04/04/world/exoplanet-radio-signal-scn/index.html https://www.salon.com/2023/04/06/ai-company-harvested-billions-of-facebook-photos-for-a-facial-recognition-database-it-sold-to-police/
PC Update
Last week I got the missing brackets and my game SSD so I was all ready for attempt #2. It is now together with Win11. I assembled it yesterday after work. I took my time, was very careful and things went together rather easily. I even managed to get some benchmarks in. Check out this improvement from my previous rig:XenavaX: https://www.3dmark.com/sw/321132GigaPuter: https://www.3dmark.com/sw/415728
Testing the New Upload Speed
First thing I wanted to do was stream some gameplay on twitch to see if I could do it again. I tried 6mb – I think I can up it to 7 since it downgrades it to 1920 x 820 given my resolution of 3440×1440
Displacement of Current Residents of 99 Van Block Ave, Hartford CT
I’m currently at a public hearing for a new development in the neighborhood. They’re going from 60 units to 160 units and every one of the current residents is going to have to be relocated by “relocation specialists”. They’re making things look like this: This is the definition of gentrification, is it not? And it passes. They now have a resolution. I didn’t hear a no in the entire bunch of commissioners. It has been approved with “several delightful conditions”.
Things Are Good!
It’s been a while but wanted to do a positive update! I got through the financial issues I was having thanks to the federal stimulus. I even bought my car off lease so no more car payments! The past year has been something, but I’m fully vaccinated now and we’re just starting to get out into the world again. Of course the kids still can’t get theirs but it won’t be long until it’s only 2 out of 3. I’ll plan to add more later…
GTA Online — My Internal Conflict
My personal conflicts in playing a transphobic game as a trans woman
2020
“I’m starting to think ‘Hindsight is 20/20’ was a warning for our future” It’s been bad. Mainly with the Covid. It’s a weird world it there. It’s got an effect, a blanket, on (almost) everyone. Things are quieter, despite having to speak up to be heard behind a mask. I’m currently without power just seeping electrons into substance. I needed an update, there ought to be something said about it. I feel repetitive, the same days over and over, I leave once a week to go to the grocery store. I can’t describe the difference in feeling in the world…
Comcast’s Box
I decided to take Comcast’s new free streaming box for a spin! I suspect it’s to observe my viewing habits but it cost me $0 at $0 per month to add a new device to my account. It could also be a big push for “Peacock” NBC’s exclusive streaming service. Already I’ve seen a large banner ad pushing it. Everyone having their own service seems to be the way they’re going with CBS having it’s own premium service with exclusive content. The remote is nice, has built in voice search; it’s is the same remote you get with their modern…
It’s Renewal Time
That time of year where I renew the site and wonder what I’m doing with it. Nothing really, it just sits with no updates. There’s quite a lot to get into since it’s been so long I guess I could start at the current pandemic. So the current situation is very unique. Everyone is told to be inside since Covid 19 is running rampant. Social distancing is a thing, it means to keep at least 3 to 6 feet away from people when out and about. The particles of cough or spit can travel a great distance and it’s thought…
Fix it.
I always want to fix something. I am purposeful and accomplished when I fix. I start to get my most anxious when I have a problem that’s there’s nothing I can do to resolve. I’m in trouble, it’s money related, complete with money owed and law firms demanding. I can’t fix it. I have to wait for the consequences. Saving what little I’ve got for when action is needed. I’m so fidgety, uncomfortable, sad, and guilty it’s even gotten to this point. I’m trying to stay positive, look on the bright side but keep imagining myself living out of my…
Colony Collapse
What do you do when you can’t make ends meet? I’ve tried to live simply, to make a good home for my kids. They have their own rooms. I’ve made a home, which is more than I ever thought I’d be able to do. Things seemed impossible this time last year, I wanted to give up. Now I want to keep going… but I can’t. I’ve tried and now I’m at the point of filling out paperwork to figure out if restructuring my loan will do me any good, or if I need to walk away. There’s so much that’s…
Messed Up
Keeping with the latest theme, I feel messed up. My house, my finances especially, and me. I can’t sit still and never know what to do with myself once the kids leave. Time on my own is a deafening silence. I’m trying to clean right now, the robo vacuum decided to work so at least some of the stray kitty litter will be picked up. I’m lacking about vacuum so when it doesn’t work it’s a bit of a pickle. I picked up enough so it could do it’s thing but there’s nothing short of cleaning the bathrooms again. I…
Change Up
I need a refresh. This old skin is tight and restricting. I need to expunge. Putting this here so I remember to do it. There’s very little reason for this site anymore. There’s so much going on in the little facets of the web, no one wants to venture off their individual feed to read about anyone else for more than 280 characters these days. Gone are the one stop shops of individuals, everything about them in one place and leaping from person to person like a social gazelle. It’s been a while, but looking to change this all up…
Serving It Up
Servers servers servers. I have two servers, only because the server rack I picked up second hand came with one. It’s a single rail height, with space for four 3.5″ drives, 2 nic, dual Xeon 2.4ghz My primary is 3 high, with 12 or so 2.5″ drive slots, 4 nic, dual Xeon 2.6ghz This past weekend I moved my external SATA card to the older server, installed Ubuntu 18 server. I installed 2016 on the primary and set it up for remote access w/ DHCP, DNS, and (eventually) the plan is to load balance the dual lines from the gigabit…
Streaming The Great Divide
Started resurrection of another network piece this weekend: the tv recorder. Previously I’ve set up a VM with windows 8.1 Media Center addition. It was the last version of the media center framework which consists of the decoders, network services, player, and program guide. It starts, and xenserver still works! It’s running on a quad core AMD so allocated an extra core for 3 total for the VM. It’s the only one in the server so I’m not worried about overhead. I do appear to be having a bandwidth issue from the HD Homerun Prime as I get stutter streaming…
Things We Do to Windows In the Dark
I am a settings fiddler. I’m constantly optimizing, but there are a few things I do every time I face a new windows install. I figured I’d include some here to keep track of them and maybe help someone out in the process who might not know about some of these. 1.) Data drive – Always keep a separate data drive. This used to be a partition of the main drive, one for the operating system, and one for the data. This helps because Windows doesn’t always live forever, at least it didn’t used to but the latest UEFI booting…