LadyCrimson

... can play as adorable fuzzy creature thing and wear cute/funny hats and helmets (very important!). Can ride/fly on things, flashy combat animations, has a photo mode, enemy design looks fun, loot, quests. But I have ... doubts. We've all been fooled before, right? What I'm hoping for is some sort of weird gameplay mashup of (modern) Fallout-y rpg styling and Borderlands speed but with much more stylized/action combat, or something. I'll probably wait a few days for first impressions (especially re: initial performance/bugs), but ... I bet I'll end up buying it. If only because of the hats.

I haven't played much further (my "wife" is leading me somewhere outside) - the lack of manual saving is annoying me since I tend to suck at these type of games - but I thought this was a good comparison article re: ray tracing in this Metro edition. Mostly it seems to brighten/lighten up areas that used to be dominantly black/dark so you can see more details, notice npc's etc more easily in some situations that were too "black" before. Less noticeable general effect outdoors. I still feel like in some cases it makes blacks look a tad "grey" or at least it feels too lit up for my tastes. I'd probably like it somewhere in the middle. I turned the gamma down a notch or two, seems to help. But it does look good, simply a preference thing I suppose. Anyway ... outside of that article's examples, here's a couple of my own early pics I still had of original, vs. Enhanced: ..according to article, this spot was much more "pitch black/grey", now it's warmer and feels sunlit. And just because:

I think genetics - and being in pretty good dancing/cycling/hiking type shape for most of my first few decades - is the only reason I never inflated to 200 pounds in my later years. For my size I can eat huge amounts before I feel even remotely "too full" - I think my stomach is the size of a large burlap sack or something. Also, I lose weight pretty fast if I make any effort at all. Shoulda been a competitive eater.

Is it wrong that all I got from that posting was "LOL, Floogle, snort, snuffle, giggle." If I was really into those smaller indie type games that one is likely to just play through in a day or two, once and then done, I might like a streaming-game sub for that type of thing, if it meant I could play 6 a month for $10 a month or some such. Maybe. But I don't play those kind of games. Even if I can't or don't care to mod something, I've never wanted my ability to play (non-online-MP) games to be dependent on whether or not my internet connection is working.

This Sat. it was pizza while watching "Unhinged", since it seems to have become an Amazon Prime freebie. I was expecting an older style thriller/suspense in the Falling Down sort of vein, except with less social issue posturing. What you get is a completely over the top violence/action film that starts to border on comedy horror cheese. Mr. Crowe seems to be taking his role very seriously but it's just all so non-stop OTP with nary a breather you start chuckling. Wouldn't have been worth *paying* for, but I didn't dislike it - if ya have nothing better to do it's only 90 minutes and it goes well with pizza. Most people will likely have something better to do, tho.

Eww, Photos app. WPV still works fine. Altho I have no idea if one bought/installed Win10 current version from scratch if one could still make it appear. I'm guessing it would still be there if I installed from my 2019-ish USB win10 stick (I did not "upgrade" to Win10 from any other Win version and WPV was still in the files). (late late edit: 2019, not 2018. Me and dates can no longer be trusted, sigh)) Which reminds me, a forum mentioned an open source viewer called nomacs that I still need to check out. I think I'd still prefer WPV for quick looks but it seemed like decent option if it ever does stop working. Better than Irfan anyway, as a simple viewer+some mild other functions.

Win10 update: ---Oh, ugh, Edge. Command prompt, uninstall Microsoft Edge. Thank you. Side effect: if I accidentally click on one of those "web help" links - and such is always an accident, I don't need their stupid interface weblinks - it just flashes white for a second and goes away. Hahah. ---New systray and taskbar shortcut for blutooth and ... Windows Viewer? ... delete/go away. ---Uncheck "let apps try to make text non-blurry" again. ---Recreate Paint Shop Pro exe shortcut again because Win10 update kept thinking I needed a CD to run it from the old shortcut. wtf? My fear is one day Win10 won't let PSP even run, it is a very old program. ---EVGA Precision suddenly seemed to think I only have two gpu fans, not three. Reinstalled, fixed. ---so far it no longer remembers that I want a different background on Monitor 2 (the TV). Goes back to Monitor 1 background if I turn TV off/on. ---everything else seems the same (settings/how I have it setup I mean) but could be some changes I haven't noticed. At least it didn't go totally fubar. I can now ignore "Check For Update" button again for another year or two.

Well, I updated Win10 (PITA, pffft) ... but I have no visual frame of reference for this game - since I never played it for more than 20 minutes or something - so I have no idea if it looks "better" or not. I feel like some darker early intro bits it looked more washed out than before (black levels). Other times it looks perfectly fine. Dunno. I have it basically "maxed/Ultra" but with DLSS on Quality for 4k/50-60fps. Without DLSS/native-4k, it's around 30-40fps. Basically, like Cyberpunk was (for me), 4k/DLSS etc. performance wise, maybe a bit better than CP. ...if I can make myself play farther I'll try to get some shots of something more lighting/RT heavy, if I can figure out what's supposed to be different.

I recently noticed a few people giving me some kind of award icon on Steam forums, and when I looked those up, apparently I have over 52,000 "Steam Points" (yes I had no idea they existed, before), probably largely from purchasing my games. Quickly glancing around it would seem to allow me to "purchase" around 5200 smilie icons (if there are even that many available). I love smilies, but that would be a bit excessive... I see no other use for them that I'd care about at all (fancy profile page stuff? avatar frames? pfft, don't care). I guess all of these Steam thingies are like a whole mini-game unto itself for some people. Me, I don't even care about in-game achievements...

Well I did actually download it (it's a separate "game" install, you don't add onto the previous version) but apparently I'd have to update Win10 for it to work. I don't know how far I'd have to update Windows (absolute latest or just from six months ago, for example). Anyway, I have nothing against updating per se but I am far too lazy at the moment. ...which is my problem with all things PC nowadays. I'm just too lazy to want to deal with all this 'stuff' anymore. ...*takes up knitting*

^ Never mind! Don't need no stinkin' RT Metro update for entertainment. Found a 3rd party map generator for 7 Days to Die that is much better (and much much faster) than the one given in the game. No more biomes always at map edges, I could make it all forest, or all snow, if I wanted, totally flat, etc. Going to take a while to figure out creation of perfect map! Maybe only one giant city? ... Goes up to 16k size (vs. 8k game default) as well as many custom sizes and settings. Pardon me while I get lost.

Anyone trying/going to check out the Metro RT upgrade (supposedly free if you own game already)? ...trying to decide if I feel like bothering putting Steam in Online and d/l-ing/installing it when I know I'll barely look at it. But it's free! ...I'm sure it'd cripple my rig at 4k, but, despite the fact I don't really care about RT, ofc I'm a curious cat who likes to see things with her own eyeballs. Hmm...

So if I eat a few tablespoons of butter with my fruit pops, it should be fine, then, right? ...but then I'd have a heart attack, especially since Type2 seems to keep my triglyceride levels elevated (even tho the other LDL/HDL #'s are "super great" at the same time...). I can't win. ...vegies/small amount of meat and some high fiber bread/grains seems to be the thing for me. Some Type2's state they can't even eat a few common crackers or a single cookie etc but such doesn't bother me too much as long I'm not scarfing down a whole box every day HAHA

It's not access, it's the sugar/carbs. Oh sure, like all such, if I ate one once a week it'd be fine but that wouldn't happen. My self control usually comes from ... not having any such in the house. I didn't buy/eat ice cream all the time but if I bought a pint, it was eaten in one sitting. When I got out of the hospital I was all "veggies and fruits, low carb, low fat!" etc. And I bought a watermelon. Apparently I should not eat watermelon (bananas are apparently pretty "bad" too). Or a lot of the high sugars fruit. When I stopped eating an apple or a pear or a handful or two of cherries with every meal my blood sugar went down/was more stable. Fruit hit me worse than eating a slice or two of bread, or a couple squares of dark chocolate. So now it's largely just veggies/low fat proteins. Anyway ... next time I actually walk-in to a grocery store I might try sugar-free fruit bars (Splenda) ... maybe they'd be tolerable and be half the carb/sugar content of most fruit bars. Amazon Fresh tends to be terrible with more specialty items like that.

The weather is growing warmer and I want strawberry fruit popsicles.

My mother was like that - she'd leave the front-street living room curtains open all day. There were zero curtains in the family room/kitchen. She'd enter my kids bedroom, cluckcluck at me, and throw open my curtains like I was a plant that needed sunshine. Then she'd leave and I'd close them again. Makes sense to switch office spaces if you have different preferences. ============ Unrelated, but the convo made me wonder if I could take a picture of how dark my room is during the day if no lights on. With the phone. It's seemingly impossible because of all the auto-filters and focused auto-exposure phones like to do. I had to put it on "Pro" mode and still only got sorta-kinda close - and the reflections in the TV look purpl/brighter when they're not. Actually I'd like it a bit darker for watching movies/TV. Need to toss up a new black sheet on each window I think. It's noon when I took it. Edit: if you have your display brightness way up, it's gonna look way brighter than it should be, too.

^ You could hire hubby. ...at any rate, re: windows, you just need black curtains. Multiple layers if they get actual direct sun exposure, because over time that will fade the black into brown/purple. If no direct sun exposure, it won't fade much. So a couple white sheets, then a couple black sheets over that for example. It won't be pitch black (well, unless you go all-out with window coverings of some kind, like nailing boards up) but it'll be dark enough. If too much light around window edges just tack stuff to the wall to cover those. :P Plus black curtains don't show up reflected in monitors much.

^ I feel like making a basement dweller joke, but I shall refrain. ...If we had a basement I'd prefer to be in it because it would likely be a lot cooler in summer.

I don't think they have a consensus and/or don't care - they just focus on Earth, because Earth is obviously super special. Also, according to one such believer asked in a Newsweek article, our sun is "special" because it doesn't "twinkle" like other stars. https://www.newsweek.com/we-asked-two-flat-earthers-what-about-other-planets-728959

I've probably said it before but times like these I'm happy I'm an extreme non-social introvert. My current order of pounds of kimchi arrived. So I am now going to make some beef/veggies with a little bit of rice, and then eat it with an excessive mound of kimchi next to it. After that I will probably go into a food coma and take a nap. Altho I slept a lot yesterday so maybe not... ... after 1st vax shot, my arm/neck muscles felt a little sore a few hours later. Then I grew really sleepy and napped - woke up - an hour later was really sleepy again and fell asleep for 12 hours. Woke up. My arm /neck is still sore. Otherwise it's fine. Cross fingers 2nd shot when it comes won't be too much worse than that. Oh and hubby got his first shot too.

I will never understand serious anti-vaxxors. Smallpox, polio, tetanus ... y'know? I have two vaccine scars (young kid ones), shoulder and top of foot. I don't know what what they were for, I assume smallpox was the shoulder one. Didn't grow a 3rd eye. As an old-fart-chicken I understand being nervous and wanting to be cautious about new ones, but actually anti-vaccine... pffft. If covid continues to be a thing, eventually it'll just become the norm to younger/not yet born gen's to get vaccines for it, whether at schools or the annual checkup. It won't seem weird/scary to them because it'll just be part of life. And to travelers it's just one more that they have to have. Sure there may be some as adults who become lazy about keeping it up but that's always a possible factor.

Nudist beaches* are cool. No one cared about what clothes, style, hair, anything, say about someone. You just waved and kept on walkin' down the sand. Outside of weather or environment protection, clothes are a pure social construct anyway. *...waits for Keyrock to make another hipster comment

It was my mothers. :P I had it in a closet for ages but I think last time we moved over a decade ago I finally tossed it. I see ppl selling similar for $200-$300 these days. Drat. In other daily news: I was poked by Pfizer. It was just a quickie tho ... Pfizer got no time for foreplay. The worst thing about leaving the house is having to get dressed in real clothes. So uncomfy. I wonder if anyone would care if next time I just stay in my kitty night-shirt and fuzzy slippers.

The screencap was just to show the overused roar animation expression that I dislike. It's reached the point where I don't even like it on real animals, eg a rabid (real bear actor) grizzly in some horror movie. In terms of CGI: think of the first two Alien movies and close ups of the Alien's face/opening jaw or when its face is close to an actors face. It feels present and there and 3 dimensional, because it was filmed that way (or at least mostly). Things like the cave troll do not feel "present" within the scene, to me. when paired with live-action actors or other things - they do not give me the illusion of actual 3D on a 2D flat surface - eg, a video game effect. Maybe in another 20-25 years they'll finally have perfected such creature CGI.