I do have Nioh and Nioh 2 remastered for the PS 5 but I didn't play too much before the divorce (and I got an Xbox).
I tried Dark Souls 3 after playing Elden Ring and couldn't do it. The lack of a dedicated jump button was too much for me to deal with.
Nioh lacks jumping and it does occasionally feels jarring, because you could handle a lot of obstacles and shortcuts better (or at all in many cases).
Now I wonder, does Ghost of Tsushima permits jumping?
Hey Folks. Long time no see. ^_^
I do have Nioh and Nioh 2 remastered for the PS 5 but I didn't play too much before the divorce (and I got an Xbox).
I tried Dark Souls 3 after playing Elden Ring and couldn't do it. The lack of a dedicated jump button was too much for me to deal with.
Nioh lacks jumping and it does occasionally feels jarring, because you could handle a lot of obstacles and shortcuts better (or at all in many cases).
Now I wonder, does Ghost of Tsushima permits jumping?
Yes, lots of it.
GoT is my 2nd favorite game all time behind Elden Ring.
Well, it's going to be an interesting day. Started work at 5:30 just to be sure I could get off work extra-early for the Memorial Day Madness.
I checked traffic yesterday at 3:00 pm sharp and the trip to Roseville was a modest 129 minutes, so 36 minutes of delays (at 4:30 in the morning it's a 93-minute drive). I'm guessing the delay today will be closer to 136 minutes so I've already arranged to get out of work early and get moving.
Let's see just how unpleasant things get...
Holy carp. My 20th anniversary of working for Global Megacorporation is coming up in a couple of weeks and my "service reward" is a straight-up $400 cash payment.
It's not a jaw-dropping amount, but it ain't chump change, either. I'll take it.
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three eggs and a boneless ham steak pan-fried in olive oil, seasoned with salt, black pepper, and a bit of clove, topped with melted aged white cheddar . . . .
this diet is amazing.
It's frustrating to be an overplanner who deals with non-planners.
I spent the last 5 days warning Impus Major that traffic would be sheer hell and he and his friend would have to be ready to leave ridiculously early for the concert to be able to get there on time; even leaving at 3:00 pm would be optimistic for a 7:00 pm concert.
And we finally hit the day of and as predictable as the sun rising, at 9:50 am sharp the delays started climbing (all dad think they're being smart by getting out the door "10 minutes early to beat the traffic), so it's hilarious how predictably traffic starts piling up at 10 minutes before the hour.
The trip has gone from 90 minutes to 125 minutes in the last 12 minutes and it's only going to skyrocket from there.
So of course Impus Major is still in bed and his guest can't be ready before 1:30 pm.
It's going to be a hellish afternoon.
three eggs and a boneless ham steak pan-fried in olive oil, seasoned with salt, black pepper, and a bit of clove, topped with melted aged white cheddar . . . .
this diet is amazing.
Keto?
Or was that Bruce Lee's character in 'The Green Hornet'?
Now I take a break from butting my head in frustration against Nioh 2's final boss. Ugh.
I woke up in the morning when I woke up, and tried again... Defeating him on the first attempt.
Now I am moping up the remaining quests and testing weapons I was passing over before.
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Tuesday: major storm warning, work canceled, tornado sirens going off all day. Storm hit 40 miles away, we had a couple garbage cans get knocked over.
Today: no warnings, storm hit right on top of us and knocked out power and running water for 12 hours across half the county. According to the bulletin the power company sent out, 34,840 people reported outages.
Tuesday: major storm warning, work canceled, tornado sirens going off all day. Storm hit 40 miles away, we had a couple garbage cans get knocked over.
Today: no warnings, storm hit right on top of us and knocked out power and running water for 12 hours across half the county. According to the bulletin the power company sent out, 34,840 people reported outages.
That sounds like a normal summer day in California with no storms. :-P
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We're safe in Roseville after our 89-, minute drive took just over 3 hours, even leaving early. But it's a cool day in the valley so we're hanging out in a park and it's quite nice.
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three eggs and a boneless ham steak pan-fried in olive oil, seasoned with salt, black pepper, and a bit of clove, topped with melted aged white cheddar . . . .
this diet is amazing.
Keto?
essentially, yes, it's keto -- a slightly more permissive version of the carnivore diet. it took less than 30 days for me to get my blood glucose and triglycerides under control, and i've started eating more eggs to build a better balance on HDL/LDL ratios. now i'm nine months into the diet, and the good results i've gotten have proven easy to maintain. as much as i love pasta, beer, and Dr. Pepper, i have probably gotten down to less than 100 grams of carbohydrate intake per week, on average. i'm trying to phase out the cigarettes (again) and develop an exercise regimen outside of the workplace, but really all i've changed is the food i eat. and the benefits have been nothing short of spectacular, already.
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Results of Thursday's writing jam: fleshed out several bare rooms and completed two new encounters. A lot of time was spent re-familiarizing ourselves with a project we apparently haven't touched since 2018, so future workdays should be more productive (we hope).
So I have a neighbor, every Saturday it's nice out the dude Jack's up his truck and pulls a tire off and starts working on his brakes. And the entire time he is taking copious swigs off a cheap whiskey bottle.
Bad design decisions are the curse that keeps on cursing.
My father owned a 1970 Volvo. He attached a $0.50 buzzer to the lights so that whenever the ignition was off but the lights were on, a buzzer sounded. Not particularly intrusive, and incredibly effective: None of us ever ran the battery out on that Volvo.
Fast forward 36 years and car manufacturers have attempted all sorts of far-more-expensive, far-less-effective idiocies, from the lights automatically turning off after a few minutes (not great in an emergency, which is typically when you'll have the lights on and the engine off) to the lights turning off when you open the driver's side door (even worse, and the Prius' chosen method). The Celica has a decent method; if you turn off the ignition the lights turn off, then you have to manually turn them off and on again to get them back on so it's a very conscious decision, but that's still way more expensive than a simple buzzer or bell. And unless you're one of those geeks who actually reads the owner's manual (looks in mirror), there's no way you'd know about this mechanism.
This tirade brought to you by the Prius' battery being drained by a family member for the fourth time in roughly a year. This time they were picking someone up, so they gave themselves plenty of time for once, got there early, and waited in the car. Because it was misting, California law required them to have the headlights on. Because they were waiting for their friend to come to them, they never got out of the car.
So yeah, friend ran late, family member sat in the car unknowingly with the lights on for 40 minutes or so, and the Prius has an intentionally-undersized battery because the assumption is that all it's there for is to run the electronics to get the real battery up and running. It's not designed to keep the lights on with the ignition off.
They managed to get a jump, but seriously. When your family members are consistently running out the battery because of daytime running lights, something's wrong with the design of the car.
And speaking of self-fulfilling prophecies, it was kind of disturbing just how bad driving was yesterday.
I warned the kids (Impus Major and a friend) that it was going to be a nightmare getting to Roseville. The normally 93-minute drive took 181 minutes. What surprised me was that it never got any worse. We got to Roseville early and got to enjoy some time in a park and a leisurely dinner, and I checked traffic every half hour or so waiting to see the big rush I'd predicted and it never came; the drive maxxed out at 3 hours by 1 in the afternoon and didn't die down 'til after 8 in the evening, but there was never an, "OMG, don't get on the roads!" moment.
As I started up the Celica for the drive home, I told them, "We're heading out onto the freeways at midnight on the deadliest driving weekend of the year! Whee?"
On the drive home, I had THREE cars misjudge distances and swerve into my lane. Two of the three would have definitely hit me had I not adjusted. The third was a hard call whether they'd've hit me or missed by a few inches. I've occasionally had ONE car do that, but never three. So the dangerous drive lived up to its reputation. As I told GothBard, none of the collisions would have been particularly major; I was toodling along at 70 and they would have clipped my front end at around 90, but it's surprisingly easy to recover from being clipped in the front. Getting clipped in the back is where everything goes to heck. But 3 near-misses in a 93-minute drive was appalling.
Speaking of electricity and design.
There is a storm right now, and after a thunder striking a few kilometers from here, there was a noticeable spike in power - the light (going from the same power outlet as the one used by computer and modem) flickered for a fraction of second.
Computer withstood it without problem, not shutting down nor resetting itself (hurray for modern power supply!). The modem reset itself cutting me off the net for a minute or two.
Speaking of electricity and design.
There is a storm right now, and after a thunder striking a few kilometers from here, there was a noticeable spike in power - the light (going from the same power outlet as the one used by computer and modem) flickered for a fraction of second.
Computer withstood it without problem, not shutting down nor resetting itself (hurray for modern power supply!). The modem reset itself cutting me off the net for a minute or two.
LOL. I've owned computers since the 1970s, and every single one I bought until at least the 1990s said, "Plug this into a surge suppressor, NOT THE WALL."
Fortunately, surge suppressors seem to last decades, so I still use them. And the Bay Area averages less than a lightning storm a year, so it's not especially an issue.
And speaking of "morning brain", I finally received my Costco Visa. And I was trying to put, "Please check ID" when I noticed there was no signature strip. And I thought, "Wow, so they've finally given up and recognized that no vendor ever checks those strips in the U.S." (in Europe I was pleasantly surprised that every vendor checked the strip).
Then I realized that I was staring at my photo on the bottom left of the card, and that was better than any signature.
Speaking of electricity and design.
There is a storm right now, and after a thunder striking a few kilometers from here, there was a noticeable spike in power - the light (going from the same power outlet as the one used by computer and modem) flickered for a fraction of second.
Computer withstood it without problem, not shutting down nor resetting itself (hurray for modern power supply!). The modem reset itself cutting me off the net for a minute or two.
LOL. I've owned computers since the 1970s, and every single one I bought until at least the 1990s said, "Plug this into a surge suppressor, NOT THE WALL."
Fortunately, surge suppressors seem to last decades, so I still use them. And the Bay Area averages less than a lightning storm a year, so it's not especially an issue.
The power strip I am using (and which powers all three of: the computer, the modem, and the lamp) does have surge protection (maybe not industrial quality, but still). It wasn't the increase in power but the drop of power that caused light flicker and modem reset.
I have two sockets in the wall in rather inconvenient place so I do have to use extension cord to make use of them anyway, so I always pick the one with surge protection.
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You must have been in a very wild place.
Here no one checks the signature, because no vendor is handed the card in the first place, the customer swipes the card through terminal (or over the terminal, with proximity cards being the norm) themselves.
The newer card don't have the strip for signature anyway.
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Going downtown, there's a lot going on today apparently so should be a fun day!
You must have been in a very wild place.
Here no one checks the signature, because no vendor is handed the card in the first place, the customer swipes the card through terminal (or over the terminal, with proximity cards being the norm) themselves.
The newer card don't have the strip for signature anyway.
Interesting. Our experience was:
U.S.: You hand your server your card. They leave with it and keep it for up to 10 minutes while they wait for the central kiosk to be free. They return with a physical printout where you enter your tip and signature.
Western Europe: Your server brings a portable scanner with them, but you still hand them your card. They swipe it and hand it back to you without it ever leaving your sight. A physical printout is optional. The U.K. still includes a tip line for gullible 'Merikuns. Most mainland places don't.
Ok, I admit that I don't frequent restaurants much, and if I end there someone else pays with card, so there might be causing some difference in perception.
On the other hand, paying with phone app or proximity card is widespread here—unlike in, for example, Germany (Gorbacz's facebook rants about Germany—where he works—backwardness when it comes to payment methods before pandemics were fun), there is no need for swiping them, merely touching the terminal.
Handing over your card or phone and getting it out of your line of sight is inconceivable, either way.
One of my coworkers got some stuff charged on his credit card because the server took his card back out of sight.
It’s why I try to keep enough cash on hand to pay at restaurants. I’ve also been known to follow the server back to the counter if I do have to pay with a card. Or sit at the bar, because usually they have a cash register behind the bar.
I haven't had anyone check the signature on my card since circa 2003, and like Drejk, the procedure I'm used to is the vendor handing me the terminal after keying the amount in so I can check it and then do whatever's necessary.
These days I pick self-checkout whenever I can anyway.
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One of my coworkers got some stuff charged on his credit card because the server took his card back out of sight.
It’s why I try to keep enough cash on hand to pay at restaurants. I’ve also been known to follow the server back to the counter if I do have to pay with a card. Or sit at the bar, because usually they have a cash register behind the bar.
We had that. Pretty appalling. One server starting stealing card information on every one of her shifts. So when we filed a police report we were one of about a dozen people, and tracing our common locations led to her arrest within about 3 weeks of her stealing the card numbers.
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So, to be clear, in California it's only at bars or restaurants where you hand your card to the server. Everywhere else (grocery stores, gyms, pharmacies, museums, what-have-you) it is indeed, "The scanner is in front of the customer and the employee never touches nor even really sees the card."
But bars and restaurants are still old-school, "Hand your card to the server and wait for them to come back from the centralized register" dealies almost universally.
And I'm fairly convinced it works well because since credit card companies are on the hook for any fraud, if they were losing significant amounts of money to it they'd force restaurants and bars to use at-table services in a hot second.
I've never known any or had any servers that stole my credit card information.
But bars and restaurants are still old-school, "Hand your card to the server and wait for them to come back from the centralized register" dealies almost universally.
The exception seems to be restaurants that have those at-table mini-kiosks with games, trivia programs, and the like, which give you the option of paying using them rather than giving the waitstaff your card. Only places I've seen those though is mid-tier restaurants - things that aren't really fancy dining but are more expensive than fast-food or fast-casual places. Olive Garden, Texas Roadhouse, Outback, places like that.
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To kill bad smells at your lair, laboratory, sacrificial pit of your temple, or your lavatory, as needed. Maybe even all of those.
I've been playing Dragon's Dogma 2.
So far it's just okay, nothing to get excited about or anything you should pay full price for. But if you want some mindless button mashing and Diablo 4 isn't your thing then it's not bad. But it's also not good. So.
Wow.
Quiet.
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We’re hunting wabbits.
I'm hunting Good Will.
How could you?! The man's a saint!
But he's less dangerous mark than Evil Will, and more attractive target than Ugly Will.
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Happy Memorial Day, FaWtLies of America!
To those who served and sacrificed, and the families and friends of the same, I offer a heartfelt "Thank you."
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Wow.
Quiet.
Shiro's in town for the weekend. Too busy overeating to tirade...
<pokes head out of Palace of the Dead>
Sorry, I was... occupied.
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Shiro's in town for the weekend. Too busy overeating to tirade...Wow.
Quiet.
Please give Shiro big hugs from me!
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At quarter to six this morning, Hermione became a teenager.
We're having a quiet at home day because power is out at school and there are flash flood and tornado watches and a SIP order.
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The really sad/disturbing/odd thing about Shiro's visit is that it's Memorial Day weekend, typically when the major studios start releasing their summer blockbusters...
...yet of everything on our bucket list of things to do this weekend, "Go to Fremont, see a movie, and have dinner at Sala Thai," has failed because there isn't a single movie in theaters that any of us are willing to see.
Not a great start to the "blockbuster" season.
Tornados have been especially nasty this year.
So I have heard. Are you and yours alright?
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Tornados have been especially nasty this year.So I have heard. Are you and yours alright?
Yeah, Mom has had a few close calls, and same with Owen. That I-35 corridor between south OKC and Norman has had a few problems but most of the damage in oklahoma has been up near the Tulsa area from what I've gleaned. One came out near the OKC/Moore are pretty much after everyone had said it was just going to be severe thunderstorms most likely and just back-built very quickly to a tornado. Very little warning and a lot of people had gone to sleep by the time that happened. Could have really caused some damage if it had stayed around.
A lot of states further out have been hit harder than usual.
