LadyCrimson

Hope all goes well with your hospital trip, GD. Azdeus ... *converts meters* ... oh, so around the height of my brother - perfectly normal then. It is funny how some people react to tall people. Similar to "short" reactions in a way I guess. Most males and some of the females in my family/extended are/were either close to six feet or over six. So despite my own smurf height, to me anyone much under six feet looks a little on the "short" side.

Hubby and I watched the first two episodes of "James May: Oh Cook!" via Prime. We were laughing in the first minute. What a fun, often amusing take on the cooking show. That's James may for ya. If you haven't already, stream it!

*google* ... notice it comes in 4TB. Notice it probably needs a different mobo etc. ...hey guys stop giving me reasons to spend more money, I'm trying to wait a few years, kthx.

Every alpha or two I redownload 7 Days to Die and check it out. It still gets a bit prettier all the time. Textures, lighting, all 1000x better than six years ago, for sure. Fun to explore, loot, fix up pre-fab houses or build your own, chasing chickens, managing weather and starvation, and moving ever onward over the vast horizon. But I no longer like the zombie/tower defense aspect at all (I used to, changed too much tho) so I have them off ... which makes the game a little dull after a while. Still, a good looking walking/survival/crafting simulator. And I don't have to spend 3 hours "learning" a new game!

Our "retirement" possibilities have really opened up the past few years, far beyond what we ever expected. I still can't quite wrap my head around it and largely ignore it, outside of slowly becoming one of Amazon's best customers. And is it changing us in some way that might be a little negative? I'm not sure. Maybe in 5 or so years we'll get bored and go trotting around the globe like a gleeful senior citizen version of some exotic travel YouTuber's. Except, that sounds rather tiring. Turtling and consumer-ing it is, then. For the moment.

...I found some of his comments interesting re: a possible change in our ability to retain and form memorable memories of film/tv because of streaming, instant access, binging at home. I think I largely agree with him/streaming affects me the same way, long-term. I don't really miss the movie-theater itself, and I certainly hate having to wait week to week for new episodes, but I think that all did result in less long-term memory of something (heck half the time I can't even remember if I already saw a film/show from a couple years ago) and "binging" tends to make me a lot more blase (and a lot faster, because way more consumption over a shorter period of time) about tropes, trends, whether something seems cool, amazing, interesting, everything.

Problem for me is, I do notice. Well, I notice some things, like color shifts, contrast changes, minute grain changes, and other such things. As I've said before, DLSS is very functional/looks "good" at this point and if I seriously need it to run a game acceptably (my definition of acceptable, of course), especially if that meant not needing to buy another expensive gpu yet, I don't have any major issues with turning it on. It's not like I'm going "ewww" or something. But I still prefer it off. Hence, native 4k. "Dynamic" anything so far largely annoys me. I mean it's a game by game thing really, but overall from what I've seen so far. Some of this could be because I like to sit so much closer to a big screen than most people, some could be, perhaps, because I tend to look at it all from a photographer's point of view vs. a video point of view. I don't know. Reminds me a bit of the old debate over which is better, matte or glossy - I've always preferred a light/faint matte and hate glossy (this doesn't really apply to video, just mean re: visual preference debate).

So, I watched some videos of FFXV with 3080/9900k (my cpu) at 4k/max (including nvidia works, which I usually only have Hairworks On). Actual playing the game/combat etc, not "benchmarks." ....it's a tad better than the 2080ti, but there were effects and moments where it would still drop below 60 briefly, and these videos weren't in the known harsher spots (the actual FFXV benchmark tool dropped below 60 too). I can mostly achieve the same having those 3 largely useless nvidiaworks off and maybe turning shadows to Average. Now, FFXV isn't the best ... stable performing game in the first place, mind. Then the game Control/Ultra, RT with DLSS on, couldn't break/stay at 60 most of the time - which is still far better than my 30-40fps ofc but...) ...this isn't me saying "3080 sucks." Not at all. Only that while 30xx series is what I'd call a fairly better 4k gpu than previous, to me the label "true 4k" gpu won't be until 40xx or 50xx (or AMD equivalent). Especially if one wants to native/no DLSS. Want RT too? Good luck. Sigh. So I guess this is my long-winded way of saying ... that I have a while to wait, yet.

I don't know what you're talking about. Late 70's/early 80's was rockin' eyewear. ....not. And those weren't cheap ones, back then, either.

I remember way back when, I'd make all this effort to shrink or crop screenshots from 1080 to smaller and tiny sized. I still compress them a lot but ... and yeah, if one isn't on a faster net or mobile speed, threads like this can be cumbersome. Also, have we reached the end of this page yet so every time I load it I'm not first staring at Keyrock's man in a diaper shot? Edit: nope, not yet. Darn!

They always have those $99 frames, but I need smallish, narrow rectangles with nose-bridge pieces, with somewhat flexible, thin metal frames/earpieces (I lie on my side a lot) and such are never cheap apparently. Typically frames = 30%-40% of the price, exam+lenses and any lens coatings the rest. Last time all together I think it was around $700. But I rarely buy new glasses. Usually it's once every 7-10 years.... ...may change as I get older tho. I've already largely stopped wearing contacts because of being near AND far sighted now, so glasses get more use.

Turned on this game for the 1st time in a while...per usual I wasn't too far in I think. Came across this guy wanting to sell me potions. Toooo cute. I don't know what it is, but I would like one, please.

I saw a review for this movie (they said it was ok/decent, for its genre) but all I saw was the distinctive face of the lead actor ... MR DEATH! (he played Death on Supernatural). Therefore, I must watch it. But it's only on Shudder. Therefore I had to get the 7-day trial, at least. There's apparently a couple bad Nic Cage movies on there that I haven't seen, too! Score! I'll be up late tonight.

Not really food, but went to the store today, walking by the usual stockpiles of bakery sweets at the front door (they always have to have them by the front door!) and ... gosh darnit, I want PASTRIES AND COOKIES AND SUGAR. :( It's been months with largely nothing but a small square of dark chocolate bar once a day, and an orange tic-tac now and then... ...those cookie things taste like thin chewy soft oreos except no ucky white frosting. Not sure I would've liked them eight months ago but they were great now. They have a lot less carbs/sugar than your average cookie (doesn't mean I can eat a lot of them tho). The toffee is just ... cheap toffee. No I didn't eat it all but I ate more than I should. Now excuse me while I go exercise like a mad woman to try to curb the blood sugar rise. ...I still want real cookies, tho. :( :( :(

^ I am a little confused re: HBO Max. I sub to HBO thru Amazon Prime. When I go to HBO listings, at the top/there's a banner that says I can access HBO Max w/my Amazon login. I click on that and it just shows me ... the same list but in a slightly different formatting. >.> Are they the same or what? Is HBO just called HBO-Max now? Edit: HBO Go, HBO Now, etc. I officially have/chose none of those either and thus have no clue what's mixed in with what. Why do they make it so confusing. Wikipedia: for US

New SSD arrived! Me: "Hey honey, help me, where do I put it in?" Hubby: " [ censored censored innuendo censored censored ] " Me: ... ... men. ...anyway, got most of my Steam game installs transferred over - left FFXV on main boot drive and a few oldies on HDD. Plenty of room now to buy more games!

So is that why I find showers such a chore/waste of time. But when I do shower, I still like my suds. So maybe ... I'm SEMI-PRO! Yeah, that's it. Good 'nuff.

I need to post more game pics, I have a rep to uphold! It still makes me sad that Ansel looks to be going/is extinct tho - even if I understand it (proprietary/expense and all that). Every game photo-mode these days is almost exactly the same. Serviceable but no true versatility. Limited range/angles and scope, no clipping thru walls with it (hehe), and most importantly, no Super Resolution options. They're just scene framers and you (typically) still need a screenshot taking program/overlay option to capture the picture.

I think I'm going to go blind playing this game. When it's not blinding me, it's just lightly hazy - definitely not a colorful game most of the time. And if platform-y feeling rooms are going to be frequent, I don't like/suck at that stuff. DX11 version runs fine - but still had to turn a few things down a notch to get to 60fps/4k. Still at the beginning, I can't take the "glow" for long. Bits feel interesting but not sure if I want to keep it or not.

I really have very few memories/nostolgia, let alone memento's, re: Xmas. It wasn't that big of a deal in our house. The two main things were running around with my siblings "catching" tumbleweeds that we would stack by three (we left them round like snowmen), spray paint white, and turn into our Xmas tree, and the electric train on a board that it was placed on. I loved that train, had headlights and noises, a tunnel, etc. I don't have any pictures of it tho - unless I pulled out some old slides of my father's and transferred them to digital somehow maybe. But the sight of similar on TV or in stores always makes me nostalgic. Oh and there was a nativity set we kids hand-crafted that mom set on the fireplace mantle every year. I have no idea who ended up with the train or that nativity set - it wasn't me. By the time I was eight both bro and sis were in college and we stopped having any kind of tree altogether, outside of this tiny potted pine mom had in their bedroom.

Edit: also, this one

We've been under a 10pm-5am curfew recently. initially until near Xmas (could get extended tho). No you won't get arrested if you want to walk your dog or buy milk at 11pm. Probably a response to rising cases as well as trying to curb holiday gathering. No theaters, no gyms, other indoor gathering business etc. At least I don't need to stock up on toilet paper again.

Being sensible won out and I only ordered the 2TB ssd for games. It's not the same feeling as buying a TV that has an everyday wow-factor, visible use. The main thing I'd like all-ssd for is noise/heat and space reduction - otherwise little benefit (vs cost) for storage medium. But I might change my mind in a few days.

...my mind went to strange places.