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And apparently this is tonight's episode we'll be playing through.
It's a good one. Nice watching...
Oh, you mean that your GM runs it as a scenario in that Not-Babylon 5 campaign?
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Gods, I am sick of the smell of dog. A few years ago, my parents took it upon themselves to start taking care of the stray dogs that kept showing up in the neighborhood. Said strays had puppies, and puppies had puppies, and...its a lot of dogs. They aren't officially my parents, but they feed them and do their best to make sure they are cared for because there isn't a shelter for this county, and the only ones close will only take them if your address is for that city.
About a week and a half ago, one of the pups showed up with a wound next to her eye. At first we thought she got into it with one of the bigger dogs, and were keeping an eye on it. Last week, I was checking her over when I saw what I thought was infection coming out of the corner of her eye. Upon closer inspection, it was something metal. So we took her to the vet. Some jerk shot a 3 month old puppy with a pellet gun. It looks like we got her to the vet in time that her eye looks like its going to fully heal, but she's in the house with a cone of shame until next week at least.
Then over the weekend the storm rolled through. My parents bought a couple of extra kennels, and we've had way too many dogs in too small of a house and all I could smell was dog. The space factor wouldn't be so bad if my dad wasn't a hoarder (though that still wouldn't help the smell). Its a 5 bedroom house with 2 living areas, but 1 bedroom and the second living area have been taken over by my dad's tools and miscellaneous hardware, lumber, and plumbing supplies, and its starting to encroach on other areas of the house. Thankfully, it warmed up enough today that with the exception of Bitsy (what we've named injured pup) all the outside dogs are back outside. I spent the past 2 days cleaning up the resulting mess.
Nice watching indeed...
Whelp. Nioh 3 demo is downloading. I will know if I can even play it in 20 17 minutes...
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My mom’s side of the family has a burial plot, but mom and dad only have a token of ash there with their head stones. My dad got emptied out at an overlook of the Mogollon Rim. And my mom is on my grandfather’s homestead. We don’t own it anymore. She’s actually on national forest.
Whelp. Nioh 3 demo is downloading. I will know if I can even play it in2017 minutes...
AAAaaaannnddd...
The game started... So far so good. The first cutscene looked ok, for absolutely minimal visual settings. Character editor had some glitches. Ah, well. I quickly picked a character appearance without playing with details that wouldn't be seen anyway...
Then the combat tutorial.
Still worked. I picked the weapon, (re-)learned the basic, mostly the same as in previous games, won the sparring against some other lordling...
Then the cut scene started, showing the yokai invading the city.
Hanzo jumps to the rescue, tells us to flee underground...
And then the black screen ends it.
Ok, somehow I got past the black screen - maybe changing resolution to the minimum 1280 freed enough RAM to proceed?
But now I got even weirder glitch, when after speaking to old master guy I can't move. It's not a game freeze, because I can still move camera around...
Ah, his guardian spirit should join me, but it floats in the air instead...
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And apparently this is tonight's episode we'll be playing through.It's a good one. Nice watching...
Oh, you mean that your GM runs it as a scenario in that Not-Babylon 5 campaign?
Yep, the one where we said we wanted to be action heroes and instead we're diplomats and investigators, so it's, "Who has a good interrogation skill?" "Um, none of us took that." "Well, OK, who has a good search skill?" "Um, none of us took that."
It's an embarrassment of buffoonery, as if you went to the local gym, grabbed the buffest people there, and then asked them to solve a murder mystery.
It's do-able, it's just not sensible.
My favorite moment of the investigation so far: I managed to finally use my stealth abilities to determine the warehouse where the missing food shipments were hidden (see Babylon 5 plot). The rest of the party tried various methods of sneaking/bluffing their way in, then gave up, chopped the door down with an axe, and utterly curb stomped the poor guard watching the food. When he said, "Boss guy'll get mad and come for you," instead of trying to find boss guy, we said, "Let 'im," and made ourselves very public to force a giant fight. Because we'd be better at it.
Ok, somehow I got past the black screen - maybe changing resolution to the minimum 1280 freed enough RAM to proceed?
But now I got even weirder glitch, when after speaking to old master guy I can't move. It's not a game freeze, because I can still move camera around...
Ah, his guardian spirit should join me, but it floats in the air instead...
Stubborn brute-forcing your way through for the win!
I started from the beginning, hit a few other glitches but they passed after reloading allowing me to progress further. Now I am at the first (real) boss and I am getting stuck because I can't react fast enough to some of his attacks.
Anyway, the dream of wastefully buying it to have it for my birthday died a slow and painful death because the game, while nominally working on my computer, is a blurred mess.
I delayed buying extra RAM because I had other expenses, and because DDR4 is not even the newest RAM type so it's price obviously won't go up...
Hmmm... Or maybe a rash on the palms of their hands would work better?
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Why not both?
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Have I just impulsively bought a used computer for 700 760 złoty?
Nooope.
Well, sort of. A friend saw my complaint about RAM and offered a whole computer (though with only an 250 GB SSD) for the price of 16 GB RAM stick. Including old monitor and speakers.
It's not new, but CPU and memory are more or less comparable to mine (might be slightly slower), except it has an actual graphics card instead of relying on integrated one.
It will arrive here on Sunday.
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For the record a year and half ago, I bought the 1 TB NvMe SSD disc for 350 złoty...
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You will be alarmed to know that even Wal*Mart carries them...
Not alarmed, but delighted
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Watching a lot more of the AI training we're supposed to take and I'm really getting a strong sense of why I mislike it so much: We're not being encouraged to use it for repetitive gruntwork for which it would be ideal ("Go through this 1200-slide course and make sure every title is in proper camel case"), but instead we're being encouraged to have it think for us: "Write up a summary of the meeting," or, "Propose three actions that could improve our bottom line."
One of the fundamental limitations of large language models (our current generation of AIs) is that it is not creative. It predicts the next-most-likely token based on everything it's ever learned, with no creativity involved.
So asking the AI to do our thinking for us is to melt our minds and destroy our creativity.
Let it do the grunt work. Stop asking it to do our thinking for us.
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No.
Do the grunt work.
Once that gets handed off to others you lose respect for it.
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Why I can't have nice things...
...like a screen door...
...and she acts so innocent...
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Bonus: Livin' the Freehold life.
EDIT: I was doing the evening pud check and couldn't find him for anything. Called him. Opened food. Nothing. Finally sat down and noticed the laundry on the dining room table and there, barely visible in the blackness, was His Idleness, completely comatose.
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Bonus: Livin' the Freehold life.
EDIT: I was doing the evening pud check and couldn't find him for anything. Called him. Opened food. Nothing. Finally sat down and noticed the laundry on the dining room table and there, barely visible in the blackness, was His Idleness, completely comatose.
I don't think that Freehold sheds that much.
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I don't think that Freehold sheds that much.Bonus: Livin' the Freehold life.
EDIT: I was doing the evening pud check and couldn't find him for anything. Called him. Opened food. Nothing. Finally sat down and noticed the laundry on the dining room table and there, barely visible in the blackness, was His Idleness, completely comatose.
You would be surprised.
And apparently this is tonight's episode we'll be playing through.Next time, leave your mic on and just start watching the episode loudly. If the GM asks what you're doing, say "I just thought I'd watch the story instead of listening to you retell it."
As I've mentioned, I've turned Wednesdays into FFXIV crafting nights. On Wednesday I made 8 pieces of top-level gear.
I consider the game somewhat akin to having a podcast on in the background while you do something else.
Random thoughts on a Friday morning:
- Today at work it's a "calm before the storm" day: I have absolutely nothing to do. I'll likely spend the day taking deeper-dive training on Python or AI. But if I watched YouTube or played video games all day no one would notice. And I suspect that fact that I won't, but instead I'll focus on trying to take some useful training, is a strong indicator of why I keep my job... at least for the moment. (Amazon's massive layoff will likely have echo effects in lesser megacorporations, so we may get a surprise round in February.) Starting on Monday, I have two overwhelming projects to do at once. And nope; I've done every little bit of prep work I can before the formal start, so it's just going to be ugly.
- Today at home our finances are being saved by the most ludicrous of sources: Costco cash-back awards. I *just* got my notification that I earned $800 in cash back, and since it's over $300 I can direct deposit it. Yes, please!
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And speaking of Freehold... hand-held massagers.
Now that I have his attention, the Fluffernutter is too old to properly groom herself, and she ends up with a nightmare of insurmountable knots in her fur. GothBard doesn't keep a regular-enough schedule to keep up, so we've reached the point that poor kitty needs to be shaved.
The vet wants me to drug her up to keep her calm during the procedure, but I had a better idea. I ordered the top-rated pet clipper and it arrived last night. This morning I went into the room with her and turned it on. She started a little, and then thought, "Oh, silly human is doing something noisy again."
So I brought it over to her and let her sniff it. "Noisy, but seems harmless enough."
Then I started using it to pet her. Obviously the vibrations felt good in her old bones and she was thinking, "Ooooh... this is OK."
So, I'm going to pet her every day with the groomer. She'll get used to the idea of the noise and the vibration as something pleasant. Then when the vet does it her reaction will not be a terrified, "Oh my gosh what are they doing to me?", but rather an annoyed, "Wow! These humans are really really incompetent at this."
Understanding animal psychology makes animals happier.
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GothBard: It's National Boycott Day! You have to avoid buying anything in solidarity with Minnesota!
NobodysHome: OK. Not a problem.
GothBard: No, not you. Today you have to not buy anything with intent.
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Why I can't have nice things...
...like a screen door...
...and she acts so innocent...
Hmm. Percentage chance for a Thief to Climb Walls at L1...
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Hmm. Percentage chance for a Thief to Climb Walls at L1...Why I can't have nice things...
...like a screen door...
...and she acts so innocent...
Well, definitely more points in that than Hide In Shadows...
I don't think that Freehold sheds that much.Bonus: Livin' the Freehold life.
EDIT: I was doing the evening pud check and couldn't find him for anything. Called him. Opened food. Nothing. Finally sat down and noticed the laundry on the dining room table and there, barely visible in the blackness, was His Idleness, completely comatose.
I don't. I trim.
GothBard: It's National Boycott Day! You have to avoid buying anything in solidarity with Minnesota!
NobodysHome: OK. Not a problem.
GothBard: No, not you. Today you have to not buy anything with intent.
I did make purchases at local businesses. And steam for a sale. Still avoiding large chains and even small/medium ones.
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I am also doing deep breathing to calm down after a ...disagreement... with my boss today.
He forgot about a conversation we had day before yesterday, and either did not read, or was confused by an email I sent that was a follow up to that conversation. This email was sent the day before yesterday as well, after the conversation. He did not respond to the email. Maybe I should have sent a second email, but that seems to belabor the point.
I am calm. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
I am calm. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
I am calm. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
I am calm. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
I am calm. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
I am calm. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
I am calm. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
I am going to shovel the car out.
Then I am going to enjoy Front Mission 3.
No, I am going to play Mechwarrior 5. I need to blow something up.
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Mom's birthday, I need to call with the wishes.
I'm no captain yesterday, but...I dont think I did so bad. Guy behind me helped a bit after a while. But i have a path to the street and room in front and behind to advance/back up. We will see if another storm comes or not.
Great, now Dad was diagnosed with anemia, so they are setting him up for more tests to check what's up...
Hope he's OK, Drejk.
Oh, he is far below even the most generous threshold for being OK for years now, with bad heart him being unable to do anything requiring any amount of stamina...
*sigh*
A lifetime of cigarettes, alcohol, and driving everywhere took its toll to undo the fitness he built in his youth as a sport boat rower.
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Assassin's Creed Valhalla finally broke me.
I was cool until I rescued my brother and and you know, rather than help him with his trauma and delusions i go and help my blacksmith find a Welsh wife...?... and then they decided they'd throw a super obnoxious rogue lite section as Niflheim as the god dream side quest.
F#~& you, Ubisoft. F~~&. You.
Anyway.
Time to find a new game.
Nioh 3 is releasing next week.
Just saying.
FRONT MISSION 3333333333333EE3333EEEEEEEEE
Painted some minis today for the first time in a year or so. These are from a batch of several dozen minis I printed and primed but never actually got around to painting. It was my first time trying out a zenithal prime. Although I definitely need to touch up a couple of spots on these, overall I'm pleased with the result. I don't think I'll ever use a rattle-can primer on minis again, though. These ones are ok, but looking at some of the other minis I primed with them, there are too many details lost. Some are bad enough I'm debating whether or not if stripping them is worth it since I don't really have anywhere right now to set up my printer to re-print them.
Nioh 3 is releasing next week.
Just saying.
I have an Xbox.
Also, I didn't like the second one.
They just added Space Marine 2 on Game Pass so it looks like i found a new game, for awhile at least.
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Restaurants that decry the growing resentment against tipping need look no further than their peers.
Last night Gothbard did an online order to a new place for us. We understand that staff gets below minimum wage whether they're doing in-house or takeout orders, so she added a 15% tip. Impus Major arrived to pick up the food. GothBard's tip was listed as a "gratuity" among the itemized subtotal, sales tax, and so forth, and then there was a big, "Tip" area below that where he could check 15%, 20%, or 25%, so he did. And thus we double-tipped the restaurant.
It's the sleaziest example I've seen, but not the first. And the result? We'll be far more careful about tipping in the future. So to make a few extra bucks now, they're biting the hand that feeds them. Even worse for them, we won't go back to them, ever, and we eat out a lot.
To put the cherry on top Impus Minor got a parking ticket during his time away, and I tried to pay it online and as I clicked through there it was: A $3.85 "convenience fee" for daring to pay online at all. Didn't matter if you were paying by bank account so they weren't paying fees, they just wanted their share of the pie. Nope. Closed the browser and wrote out an old-fashioned check. Which, given that they have to pay people to sort the mail and pull out and feed the checks into the machine, will likely cost them more than if they'd just accepted the electronic payment.
[/grumping]
Linux installed on the new computer.
Trying to install Nvidia drivers messes up the display. *sigh*
Let's see if I can run anything on Steam?
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Drejk is playing Nioh 3. I can see him.
Drejk is playing Nioh 3. I can see him.
I wish. It starts with a fatal error and crashes. I have not managed to get it actually run on Linux so far.
Now trying Remnant II. I hope that processing Vulcan shaders is a one time thing... At least we are past the point where it refused to work on integrated gfx card.