LadyCrimson

Bigger is better. At least for TV's. Our next living room TV (maybe sometime in summer) is going to be at least a 65." Looks like a still out of some movie. ....I've been madly cleaning and buying/washing all cotton blankets, quilts, and throws so I can toss all acrylic/man-made material type blankets/covers in the garbage. A little % of polyester in a mostly cotton fill is fine, but that's it. Hubby wanted a Mexican serape throw but (online) they almost never say what they're made of. I'm sure there's a cotton one somewhere but.. One actually had a description of: " Made from 100% hypoallergenic recycled synthetic material." No thanks.

The Outsider, eps. 3. A chr. named Holly was introduced. She immediately is interesting and can't wait to see more of her chr/actress. The show is still glacial-paced. Also, it's one of those shows that is very grey and dark - literally. Some scenes are lit just fine but there's a lot where I kept raising brightness/contrast higher than I usually would so I could see **** better. At least with Amazon Prime/HBO-sub method.

The husky-hop.

TLDR: Bought a couple Levoit brand air "purifiers." One smaller, one larger. They don't use Ozone (not legal in California and Amazon/companies can't/won't ship such here, anyway), just True Hepa/activated charcoal filters. They don't use a lot of wattage/energy. Levoit seemed best bet as a first try for relatively inexpensive home filtration. If they seem to help I might buy a couple more of the smaller ones. Don't have tons of faith but we'll see. Why do my allergy/environment reactions get worse and worse every year, wah. And this is with no cats/pets for a very long time. (longer rambling) The meter we've been using to measure air quality in the house spikes like crazy when you cook on the (gas) range, and goes up a fair bit in the living room when the gas wall furnace is on - which in winter often runs almost non-stop for several evening hours to keep overall house at 70F-ish for hubby, so the area/walls/floors close around it is over-warmed/terrible. Meter measures VOC's, CO (those are what go nuts in the kitchen) and general particulate (everything that is "dusty" I suppose), but not CO2. Whenever I leave my PC/room (my only sort-of "allergy haven") and stay in the rest of house for a while, my nose runs like mad. If I'm not covered up head to foot, my skin itches (it's not just a nose thing). I refuse to wear a ski-mask, ha, so the face always itches. If I open the doors/windows and/or leave the wall furnace off allergies and meter readings improve a fair bit, but then hubby freezes (in winter/early spring/late fall) because he's a total, total, wuss. Laminate fake wood floors/kitchen counters, bedroom carpets, old painted cabinets, other plastics/acrylics everywhere, 1950's house with who knows what under all those paint layers ... way too much gas-off potential and particulates. Plus the usual city pollution and outdoor allergens that can leak in. *scratch scratch sneeze, sniffle*.

Frankly the only reason I started buying on GoG was for digital versions of very old games. After that I'd occasionally buy one because I liked having a full version I could download that was not tied to any launcher. So one day if I retire to a log cabin in the woods I could maybe still play those games even if I had no internet. But their selection is still sparse in terms of stuff I'd personally buy/play, even if they have been getting more and more of the newer indies. Saying their launcher is amazing isn't a real (objective) reason to buy from GoG, imo. Some people feel that way about Steam's launcher. Some hate all launchers, period and the whole reason they want GoG games is to avoid launchers. Still personal preference. I'm not sure why one would want to completely halt buying from GoG tho, unless it's about wanting the most games on a singular launcher only (Galaxy doesn't = not having to have other launchers installed). Steam is probably still the best for that sort of thing, for now. Myself, I simply buy a game on the platform I dislike the least, if there is one - or I don't buy it.

Never had thrush (yet). All I get is ever worsening gum disease/receding gums with pockets that seem destined for the planet core. I seem to be genetically inclined or something, no matter what they try.

First two episodes of "The Outsider" on HBO (based on yet another S. King novel, unread by me): Acting is good all around. Super serious atmosphere. Plays like a crime/CSI/detective series initially, with the barest hint of maybe supernatural to come. 2nd episode has an unexpected development (if you haven't read the book anyway) which was interesting. But it is rather glacially paced in favor of a lot of ... brooding? scenes. If you know the book and can't wait for "somethingsomething" to happen in the series, that might help the pacing seems less slow. Still interesting enough to have me wanting to watch more episodes when they're released. That and the lead detective actor. I'm liking him/he fits the given role well.

You could try one of these. If you're made of money. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007WKZ1K/ref=psdc_510192_t4_B073GD2C3 They do have a "Jr" one that's only about $400 instead. But it's the brand FEMA/Red Cross touted during our 9/11, if that means anything. ...I've been tempted to try one myself lately, because allergies and sensitivities get worse and worse even in "clean" homes. Especially to formaldehyde/other VOC's. I'll try a cheaper one first probably, tho.

Finally, I don't have to play that "find the fave Pentatonix in the song/video" game (not that I don't still love the group minus Avi, too). That beautiful, deep voice all by itself. And so far I love his style. I could lie in a grassy field or a forest and listen to it on headphones for a few hours...

I could watch this all day on loop.

I just now noticed this Amazon customer product question + replies. Which for some reason made me chuckle. Love the internet.

Shadow was probably the first Steam game I ever bothered to refund. It should be noted this isn't because I thought it "sucked" - per usual, I'm not willing to judge based on less than 2 hrs. But early on it felt focused more on flash than gameplay, I didn't like the controls, jumping/other mechanics (felt inconsistent), or the gameplay camera. I even disliked the main menu. Anyway I decided it wasn't even a "maybe one rainy day" so I refunded. I was also a big fan of the original TR series but every game or reboot beyond the original series I've liked less and less - Shadow was the first one I tried since maybe ... (looks up a list) ... Anniversary, I think.

Wasn't a huge Rush person, outside of those few earlyish hits, but another one of those "my childhood past is dying" reminders. RIP :(

That might explain a lot. Rented Ad Astra. It's not an action movie, just saying. One of those films that has a slow deliberate pace most of the time. Psychological chr. study mostly, maybe. Some long sequences that felt more like an excuse to pad runtime then anything else, although you could make up reasons for them to exist. Still, it didn't make me fall asleep - to the contrary I remained quite interested throughout. Also watched the S. Korean films Along with the Gods and the sequel The Last 49 Days. Fantasy action re: 7 trials to reincarnation. Action stuff is fun/great, the rest felt like a high budget TV show but is pretty entertaining. Cast for both films was very fun.

The Travolta movie The Fanatic is on Amazon Prime. Heard it's maybe funny-bad, which always piques my curiosity. I'm around 15 minutes past the start credits and I'm already like "wtf." The dialogue lines, what. is this. Travolta is in full blown overact mode. He's no rainman. Well...at least the stream looks great on the 4k TV. Good if you're sleepy and need to take a nap. :P

I went on Amazon thinking maybe I'd finally buy Aliens on blu-ray (I have the extended on DVD already). Didn't find a version of it that I liked but ... everything was so cheap since the last time I looked for movie stuff (I guess 'cause of 4k discs now?). I never bought many blurays to begin with since I mostly stream things these days. But now I wonder if it's time for a 4k bluray player. Didn't see tons of 4k discs I'd want to buy but there were some. Or are they going to have 8k before long. Edit: yup...8k tv's are on the horizon. No 8k content yet tho. I want that LG OLED 75" 8k TV anyway. Haha.

"This announcement has nothing to do with platforms or digital stores." "We will talk about this later." ...just stop pretending, you'll make it Epic exclusive as soon as it's near finished and people have already gotten excited. ...at any rate, I never did play these games. I bought them and got a couple hours into Pripyat. At the time I liked it/seemed decent, but (per usual) didn't end up committing/returning. Still, I'll be curious what a # 2 will end up being like.

I watched that Doom: Annihilation movie via Netflix. At least, if you count watching the little preview images flash by as you FFWD, watching. Actually, the first 10 minutes gives you a tiny hope it'll be watchable despite the TV look and budget, but it falls apart rapidly. That said, in terms of being "Doom," there's a few minor things about it that could be said to much better than that other Doom movie with Mr. Rock. Also, I discovered that linguist guy Erik Singer who does occasional videos for Wired, where he analyzes/comments on actors accent attempts. Watched all in one afternoon. He's low-key and great at speaking/explaining. Occasionally funny, sometimes informative, always interesting. In case you're like me and never know about these things until years later, he's the "Movie Accent Expert" in this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLibNZv5Zd0dzmgAyav3R8SfXc-64Oly_k

Hubby started getting mild constant tinnitus this past year. Can't be sure how severe it is for him but he says most of the time he can ignore it even tho it's always there, only occasionally getting loud enough to be a big issue. I told him to stop using headphones - which means I now get to listen all his "how to" YT videos at loud volumes because he's also become harder of hearing in general. For him that (maybe?) could've sped up or caused it to begin with if he was using headphones at higher and higher volumes, without thinking, to compensate... I've also told him to use something over his ears when using power tools and the like but I don't think he does, still.

After forever, Nvidia's finally ticked me off a bit with their new "d/l Control Panel from Windows Store" shenanigans. As well as (this is only important to me personally ) making the Ansel config tools/options only available through Experience (*waves a watch* you will love Experience, you will use Experience) vs. a separate outside utility. You can avoid the former for the moment in a couple ways (like disconnecting 'net cable upon a wipe/new driver install) but who knows how long that'll be the case. I may buy one of the new consoles when they come out and just hang up (new release) PC gaming/all software entirely. Then my PC should last until the parts actually rust out because everything I already have works fine with old drivers/builds and doesn't need any "updating". Rant rant. Ok I feel better now.

Hehe. Indeed. Thanks for all the replies. Sounds like at least there's no serious tech problems so that's something. There's always been the game here and there with Uplay and Origin I might've been interested in but just didn't want to install yet another "thing" only for a single "could be fun" game or two. Especially as software trends in general is something I dislike more all the time/want to avoid installing anything, really. Haven't even used GoG's launcher. Hard to make up my mind is all.

Does anyone here have Origin launcher installed and/or in one's opinion, is there any major reason to avoid using it, whether technical or "moralistic?" eg, "moral" like how I don't want to use Epic until they stop certain practices. I'm slightly interested in that Jedi game plus I'm currently curious about a technical/performance aspect to Origin version of FFXV vs Steam's. I probably wouldn't use Origin much overall.

Hey, remember the Y2K "crisis?" That was 20 years ago! Happy New Year!