LadyCrimson

Every time RDR2 goes on sale on PC I think about buying it, then remember it wants a 3rd party account/signup. So I go "nope, still not in the mood for that." It's why I'm not getting the Mass Effect remaster either. Remember when games didn't need you to register for anything and you weren't bombarded with sales pitches? You just saw something on the shelf, bought it, installed, played? Those were good times. And no, it's not about muh privacy - it's games, not my medical records. I'm just tired of everything (not just game services btw) being attached to a registration process and/or constant sales and "club" messages re: the "benefits" in some pre-play UI or in my email or text msg inbox or .... Maybe one day I will just give in to it all, but so far I'm still ... Get off my lawn, companies. I'm more likely to quit gaming/the 'net at this point.

I also watched the LD&R Vol. 2. Or tried to, I kept struggling to stay awake, honestly. 😛 None of the episodes gave me any sort of "wtf" or moments that make you go "hmmmmm." (good or bad) They were all just bland. I wasn't looking specifically for bizarre violence/titillation or weirdness simply for the sake of weirdness, if that makes sense, but none of the eight minisodes were compelling or intriguing. Mind, it's not that they were bad or anything ... but if something is going to be attention grabbing/memorable in 10 minutes, imo it has to have something that grabs your brain or eyes and shakes up expectations a little bit. Technically the animation of some was very well done. I did like the one re: the home robot vacuum unit because it made me humorously snort a bit. The one with the malfunctioning spaceship/home robot was ok but felt too random/pointless (might be a nice intro to a full length movie tho). The "giant on the beach" one was ... well I kept waiting for something interesting to occur but it never does so it just became a dull narration of ... humanities sometimes inhumane/uncaring/forgetful nature? I'm not sure? It's not like I loved all episodes from Vol1 equally - for me Vol1 was fairly uneven overall - but Vol1 did have some that were quite interesting/creative/fun or at least a 'wtf am I seeing' compelling kind of thing going on that Vol2 lacks. Perhaps having only 8 episodes is just too limiting too, because everyone has different tastes (I didn't care at all about the "whales" one, for example) and far fewer shorts = fewer chances that at least a few or several of them will hit for you personally, leading to a better overall impression.

Nothing special or big name brand, he's not the type for such, unless it became more than a temp. obsession/more than learning. Judging from the boxes he bought this set (maybe a few of the sets...): https://www.amazon.com/Ultra-Sharp-Diamond-Sharpening-Stone/dp/B01FPP46W2 As well as a Trend double-sided one (180/600) ... wouldn't surprise me if this one was recommended in some YT video, haha ... I also saw him using very fine grades of sheet sandpaper - I don't know why, probably he was just curious.

I asked hubby to clarify a bit and my mistake ... he said he "probably" wouldn't use it to hold sharpening stones, he just wanted a permanent clamp. eg, he got long-term side-tracked and I misunderstood his verbal babblings. I guess it's one of those "wood working bench vises". Larger than the typical table-surface mounted clamps. Hence, undertable mount. I don't know why he's making 3000000 wood support pieces/making it seem so complicated but that's hubby. I learned not to ask for reasons on anything he does long ago. I figure it's safer. ... hubby likes the journey more than the destination. Thus he will spend weeks/months trying to be a master blade sharpener, get semi-decent at it, then will probably ... never sharpen a knife again. Like how he had a ball making those 3D printers (vs. buying one to just plug in), but doesn't care about actually printing, so now they're sitting on a shelf somewhere. He got into computers for the same reason. "How do PC's work? I must study electricity/physics/whatever and make my own! ... what? Actually using computers? Pfft, boring, I'll be in my secret lab."

Hubby's still obsessed with learning how to become a master blade sharpener (video watching all week, practice, nicked fingers, trying to create/attach the perfect-est sharpening stone holder/clamp to his worktable...) ... that sharpening sound is kind of hypnotic, until its punctuated with a curse or two. Guess I'll make and test play some more 7 Days maps.

HBO Max - "Those Who Wish Me Dead" ...well, that's a stellar cast. I had to look up a couple of the "I know that face" folk but yeah, decent acting choices. Film kind of harkens back to 70's/80's and early 90's thriller/action I suppose. Boy on the run from assassins, forest fire backdrop, danger will robinson. I could've done without seeing Jolie's PTSD flashback bits over and over in the first 30 minutes, I got the point the first time. The young boy actor does well/isn't annoying. Jolie is Jolie. Medina Senghore as Jon Bernthal's wife is the standout in some ways. Anyway, a tad above average for such but not outstanding, entertaining enough while exercycling.

Re: hair - Still can't use a pair of scissors for more than a snip or two. Past few weeks I look in the mirror and have 70's flashbacks. Soon I'll be Cousin Itt from Adams Family, only greyer and a lot more scraggly.

....along with the husband*. *no offense to any of the tidy males out there.

Mobile phone 'net account access: --worked while getting vaccinated (week ago, more or less) --few days ago the signal seemed flaky while watching videos so I switched to home wi-fi --now it won't connect to it at all and I have the little "no access" icon at the top (only wi-fi works) --restarted/rebooted, put it in airlplane, restarted, turned off airplane, etc. --no I haven't dropped it (ever) or used it as a hammer What a piece of fragile expensive junk. Maybe the internal antenna got loose/broke. I guess I have to visit a verizon place and see if they can do something. Edit: or go back to not having one. I think I can live without texting hubby that "I'm done, I'll stand at the corner" if he needs to pick me up or something.

Rewatched Hachi A Dogs Tale. Cried like a baby again. Can't help it. Now rewatching IP Man. I think I remember liking it but I can barely remember now so thought I'd look at it again. 😄 Next morning edit: Yup, IP Man is great. Not just the fun choreographed fight scenes, but overall is a pretty good genre movie. I haven't watched the sequels.

Maybe they pulled a Kirk ("borrowing" clothes from clotheslines) more successfully than Kirk.

It was a bit later, but don't forget about White House Down vs. Olympus Has Fallen. I've heard quite a few ... "debates" on those.

It could've been 60-90 seconds shorter, but it's on point. I chuckled.

"The more complex the mind, the greater the need for the simplicity of play." -- Kirk, 'Shore Leave'

Ice Age is a generally stupid movie (in a harmless sense), but it had Scrat, so I forgive it a lot else. All the Ice Age movies should just be all Scrat, all the time. Twister is a brain at door OTP popcorn movie. I found it hilariously fun at the time. "Cow!" I also liked Dante's Peak ok - wasn't as fun as Twister tho. But they outdrove that pyroclastic explosion! Movies love heroes outrunning ... stuff! Mostly I just liked Pierce Brosnan at the time.... The other volcano movie of that period - Tommy Lee Jones, Volcano (in Los Angeles!) - that was beyond even my limits for brainless disaster movies, because it wasn't even remotely OTP fun. And it was more "Lava" than "Volcano." Which was boring.

Why does everything in this game want to knock me down and rip my face off? NOT a nice doggy. Pardon me, just keeping the mud off my shoes. ...I got to the train, which is probably about where I stopped originally. I circled around a bit and decided to jump down what appeared to be a 6-7 foot drop to an area below a platform (instead of climbing the ladder like game told me to). Apparently six feet is too high or something and I landed so hard I insta-died. I went "Pffft" and exited game again. 10-15 minutes every day, that's about my pace. Hah.

I woke up at six this morning and it was a nicely pleasant temperature outside. Which means it'll be way too warm by mid-afternoon. I keep looking into low/no carb/sugar snack foods (high protein is fine, high fat is not) because while I haven't been doing it much lately, I am still a severe munchie (vs. meal) person. The past couple months I keep wanting this or that and it's wearing on my brain willpower....Keto diet is low carb concept but I'm not sure I'd care for dried cheddar cheese balls ("Moon Cheese"). Also, they're still high in fat/cholesterol, like cheese. Seems like you may as well just eat ... fresh cheese. So I ordered jerky again instead. Gotta keep looking...something besides dried meat or seedy crackers would be nice, is all ...

I missed the large, center single-cities 7 Days no longer does, and this is even more ginormous, would take forever to "clear out" every POI. Thanks, 3rd-party map generator! I also made the block grid size smaller so POI's are closer together. When you run around ground-level, it feels much more like a city or suburb, to me anyway.

🤔 ... 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.