Cost-Conscious CPUs, CGI Cosplay and Creepy Coincidence

The word of the week is discord.

Oct 3 – Books, Not Reading

Okay, okay: I'm guilty.

At last count, I have over 50 books in my apartment that I purchased over the last two years that I haven't read yet, and that's not even counting the ones on my Kindle. Between one thing and another, I've been very lax in my reading habits.

I find this distressing, in some ways.

Normally, I read around one book a week, which only takes me an hour or so each night as I read before bed. I still keep up the habit of reading to help me fall asleep, but now I do it exclusively on my Kindle because I don't need to have a light on, which always makes falling asleep more difficult to do.

There is a word for people like me:

You have to love the Japanese, in that they have words for many things that Westerners know about but haven't codified in the language so simply. To be able to express such concepts in concise terms is a real communication triumph in any language.

I wonder if there's a word for people who buy video games, but don't play them?

Oct 4 – Back to the 80's

I love the power of animation... 

Sometimes, the only way to really recapture the spirit of some experience is through the magic of animation. Unlike the limited lens of a camera( even with modern CGI )animation can create any world, any time and any place, exactly as imagined by the mind's eye of the animator.

Meaning that if you wanted to recapture what it felt like to be back in the 1980s, you could do something like this:

Also from the 1980s: Hurricane Mumm-Ra?

Last month, I picked up the DVD set of the first season of Thundercats, an animated TV show from the 1980s. In that show, the main antagonist was Mumm-Ra, an undead sorcerer bent on destroying the titular Thundercats at all costs, as he saw them as a threat to his power. So is it weird that Mumm-Ra somehow appeared in the news this week?

This week, hurricane Matthew developed into a major storm and eerily, the weather map picture looks like a red-eyed skull, closely matching the appearance of Mumm-Ra in some weird cosmic coincidence:

Creepy Coincidence!

Yeah... the 80's resurface in the weirdest ways, sometimes!

Oct 5 – Cosplay vs Reality?

I had to look twice when I saw the picture below...

Honestly, I thought this was a CGI rendering and not( as it turns out )a real-life person, albeit one made up as part of an incredible cosplay!

A little background: the character depicted is Mavis from Hotel Transylvania, a CGI animated family movie that came out in 2012. She's the daughter of Dracula, and as you can see from the picture on the left, the cosplayer completely nailed the character's appearance:

Wow~!

Obviously, it doesn't hurt if your facial structure or general build is similar to the character in the first place, and in this cosplayer's case the resemblance was strongly there to begin with. All the same, it takes talent and dedication to be able to so perfectly capture the essence of a character visually, and it's all the more impressive to do so for something that exists only in CGI.

Oct 6 –  Baffled Balance

One side gets better, one side gets worse...

This week, my left leg seems to be healing nicely, supporting my weight for the most part though the tendon still feels tight underneath the foot, so I'm not pushing things.

However, the weeks I'd spent resting with my legs up has resulted in injury to my right leg, as I have likely strained my inner adductor muscle - I suspect because my right leg was laid over to the side for too long each day. I had no idea that this could happen, and it's been a painful discovery to make, leaving me to stagger around this week with a cane on my right side to try and put as little weight on my right leg as possible. Even so, it's been hard to fall asleep at night with the discomfort, and sitting involves a lot of careful shifting every few minutes.

I'm just going to have to keep plugging along, doing my best to pay attention to what I'm doing every minute of the day so that I'm not inadvertently hurting myself along my path to a full recovery. My goal of walking to work soon is going to have to wait a little longer, so that I can give my adductor muscles on the right side more time to rest and reconstitute themselves after my unknowing injury of them.

It's frustrating, but it's just one more challenge, albeit one that has been keeping me up at night and yet again literally hobbling my ability to get things done - it's really sapping my energy to walk around with my weight shifted, and my lack of exercise lately is just compounding the problem...

Oct 7 – Victory in Space!

It's been far too long... since I've played a game of Eclipse!

But that changed today, as I went over to my friend Chris's place for a 3-player game, starting around dinnertime. Setup took about half an hour and once we got used to the rules again( we haven't played since early summer, and before that it was December 2015 )we made excellent progress.

In essence, we each developed our Empires along certain strategies known only to us, eyeing each other's territory warily though covetously. I decided early on to go with a two-pronged strategy of developing my warship technology and planning ahead for an endgame strategy that involved buying a series of space-based monoliths that would give me a massive boost in vital Victory Points at the end of the game( NB: it was my girlfriend's strategy I borrowed! ).

Yep, I'm the Red dudes...

Turns out, my strategies worked, and I was victorious with a score of 45 VP vs a tied 29 VP for each of my valiant foes.

What I really like about this game is that it has potential for up to eight players to enjoy a full game in an evening, as long as no dillydallying takes place - our observed times shows that it takes about an hour to play per person, but that time can be likely be greatly improved if all the players are even passingly familiar with the rules.

I'm eager to have more games of Eclipse this fall season, as the cooler weather lends itself to gaming indoors. I just wish I had both the space and the money to invest in a full-size gaming table which would be a dream to play many different kinds of games on...

Ah well. First I have to get a decent-sized place to put it in, then the table will follow...

Oct 8 – Thermal Limits

Money spent well doesn't have to get expensive.

Yesterday, I completed the second of two upgrades to my computer. The first one( several weeks ago )was the addition of a second video card to my system to help speed up gameplay. This added a nice boost to my games, but it was limited by the underpowered processor that I've had in the system for the last four years.

Yesterday, I took my system into a local store to have the new AMD CPU chip I purchased on eBay a month ago( and which arrived in the mail this week )installed. Normally I would do it myself, but my groin pains won't let me lift things like heavy computers, nor get down on the carpeted floor... which isn't a recommended way to replace your CPU safely, in any case.

The 'new' CPU( an AMD PhenomII x6 1090T, for those who care )was originally released in April of 2010 and cost close to $400 in today's money( I paid only $100 )which was a real deal at the time for its features, including the ability to overclock it easily.

Unfortunately, a few tests today show that my current system set up simply won't be able to stay cool enough to safely overclock the processor by any significant margin. As I don't want to fry the CPU in its own juices, so to speak, I'll have to wait until the new year when I can afford to get a better motherboard and transfer things over to a new case that I've had hanging around for a while that should do a better job of cooling things down. Given the power of the new CPU, it heats up far more quickly and reaches higher temperatures than my old AMD 905e processor, which was designed to run cool and quiet, but wasn't powerful.

My overall plan is to keep the system running for at least another two years, until I can get a new system using the new AMD Zen CPUs and the just-released RX-480 line of GPU video cards, both of which together promised to deliver incredible value for the money.

What's really nice is that by the time I can afford them, prices should have dropped by at least 30% from their release dates - that's the plan, anyway.

Oct 9 – Strengthening Thoughts

It's hard not to feel like a loser these days, at least for me.

One usually measure success by accomplishments, and by my own measure, I haven't accomplished much in the last year: mainly, I feel like I've been treading water. But this is just my opinion, though admittedly I do pay closer attention to what I feel these days.

These latest physical setbacks haven't helped me much, especially as they've been dragging on now for 2 months and more seem to keep cropping up. It's not like I'm getting up each day and wondering what's going to go wrong, nope: I just keep getting blindsided by things I never saw coming in any way and every one of them keeps adding time the clock between me and success.

Four years ago, I finished writing the first draft of my first novel, and to date I've managed to get two more drafts completed as well as halfway through asecond book. Looking at things that way, I've managed to do something major each year since the first words were put to page, but I look back and think of all the time lost that might have been spent writing instead of dealing with life's many issues.

This is why I have to let the negativity go, and just press on.

I have a lot left to do, but I've come so far and I have a much better idea now where I'm going, despite all the distractions( major and minor )that keep cropping up along the way.

I'll get there, under my own power. The only question is how fast I'll be going once I arrive...

Well, I listed my TurboGrafx system on eBay tonight, so here's hoping somebody bites what I think I've listed as tempting bait - it would make the rest of 2016 much easier to that fish get sold. Not to mention making me much happier and banishing the current physical aches with a wash of good feelings for a more secure short-term future.

Disasters, Disuse and Dishwasher Dins

The word of the week is beneficence.

Sept 26 – Life Reboot

In case you didn't know, Wil Wheaton's a cool guy.

Years ago, I ran across his posts on FBook, and they were... different than I'd expected for a guy who was the teen punching bag on Star Trek.

He's changed a lot since those awkward days, becoming an in-demand actor, writer and general g33k icon, mainly through the dint of his own hard work. However, as you can imagine, it can't be a journey of roses without thorns, and in that Wheaton's been more than open about his own challenges along that road.

Recently, he posted a 1-year 'report card' on rebooting his life, which when he looked at things 12 months in the past, didn't seem so rosy. It's honest, simple and insightful, and I recommend having a read if you're at all interested in how you might take a new gander at the life you're living and see if you can make it better. I picked up a few things of note, including this snippet:

In essence, the unexamined life is not one worth living, and Wheaton makes that quite apparent. I'm intrigued enough to take a few pointers

Sept 27 – Animated Indy!!!

Who doesn't love Indiana Jones?

The quintessential adventurer and all-around cool guy as played by Harrison Ford in the 1980s, Indiana is a timeless icon of storytelling and cinema both, firmly steeped in the adventure serials of the 1930s and 40s.

His popularity continues to this day, though admittedly there hasn't been a whole lot of tie-ins in terms of TV series atop the five movies to date... the last two of which weren't all that great, at least in my opinion.

What we really need is an animated series, and finally, we have one - sort of:

Wasn't that incredible? Created by artist Patrick Schoenmaker over the course of 5 years, he has crafted the opening sequence of what would be possibly be one of the best animated series of all time, should it come into being.

I can't believe that after all these decades, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg haven't licensed out the animation option for Indiana Jones, so I'm hopeful that this particular animated intro-homage will lead to renewed interest in an animated series, especially as there's nearly half 1 million views so far in only a few weeks on this video.

Cross your fingers for more animated Indiana soon!

Sept 28 – Tricking Tourists?

Who doesn't love... a good joke?

Humor can be quite subjective, but it's quite funny when people are familiar with the area they're visiting if they’re tourists.

A local artist in New York decided to play a prank on tourists visiting the Big Apple with a fake memorial to a disaster that didn't happen:

This sort of thing makes me smile, because it's harmless and for the most part those people who run into 'art' like this tend to pick up on the cues that it's probably not real… but human curiosity means they have to check it out all the same, just to be sure.

It's exactly the sort of curiosity that makes me want to write, to ask: what if?

Sept 29 –  TG-16 Anniversary!

27 years ago, when I was only 16, I made a big purchase.

It was the TurboGrafx-16, the then-cutting-edge videogame system of its time. Released on August 29, 1989, the TurboGrafx 16 was the North American version of the Japanese PC-Engine, which at the time was the most popular videogame system in that country, even beyond Sega and the NES.

I really enjoyed playing the TurboGrafx 16, as the games were( for the most part ) excellent, with great looking graphics and many of them could be played with more than two players - anyone still up for a five player game of BomberMan'93?

And it's worth a LOT now - hooray! Only 2 million TurboGrafx-16's were sold in North America( 8 million in Japan, where it was FAR more successful as the PC Engine )so it's rare enough that the value has risen steadily over the last 27 years. Check out what this auction went for recently, for a bunch of items that aren't nearly as good as what I'm planning on selling:

It's unfortunate that I don't play the game system much anymore( as in not at all in the last 3 years )as I have many fond memories of it. However, I'm quite tickled that its value has risen so high compared to other game systems that I might have ended up purchasing it hadn't been for my careful research and admittedly good choice that I made back then.

As well, in selling everything as a lot, I can ensure that another collector will be able to enjoy the system as I did for all the years that I owned it.

Sept 30 – McRobots?

The takeover has begun!

In case you haven't heard, McDonald's has been rolling out automated ordering terminals in all of its restaurants for a year now, so as to to decrease wait times and increase order accuracy. They’re recently arrived here in Victoria… and all for the stunning price of $200,000 per location - what???

That's a whole lot of money to replace staff with, but I imagine the cost benefit studies that were done indicated that there would be a large savings in the long term, not only for staff wages not paid but for the accuracy increase in orders overall. 

I'm a little ambivalent on this rollout: though admittedly I don't eat at McDonald's, I wonder if this is the first sign of cost-saving changes that are going to sweep many industries, or if it's just going to be one more option for consumers?

It's hard to say right now, as really these are just a new method of ordering instead of at the counter and not actual robotic workers. However, they do set a precedent and the fast food industry is well known for ensuring maximum efficiency to boost profit margins, so we'll see where this goes in another five years or so, especially with minimum wages rising at long last in many places.

Oct 1 – Step By Step

Progress continues...

Today was the first day I walked entirely without a cane, though I will admit it was just around my apartment building. I was careful to ensure that I went slowly and paid attention to every step I took for any signs of pain: none surfaced.

It's a good sign.

My other aches and pains that have resulted from the original injury still continue to plague me, though to a lesser degree each day: muscles that were compensating for the injury to my left foot continued to complain all on their own.

It's frustrating, but again I'm taking my time and paying attention to what hurts so as to give it a rest or otherwise treat the discomfort as best I can to bring myself back toward balance in a few more weeks - I hope. Being stuck at home when my thunder-footed upstairs neighbour decides to blunder around her apartment( like she did today )is no fun, even with noise-cancelling headphones.

I'm continuing to read through the massive amount of material that's in my Deskbound book, assimilating it and making notes for use so as to avoid this ever happening again. I can't wait to get back to just walking normally and exercising, to getting back on track towards being healthier than I am now.

One step at a time, for the new month.

Oct 2 – Sound business

My ears...

This afternoon, I spent a few hours with my girlfriend's poetry group at a local café, sitting in the back area away from the noise of the road and other distractions. It was a perfect spot for a quiet, contemplative discussion - or so I thought.

I hadn't counted on poorly thought-out acoustics making that difficult.

About 10 minutes after I sat down, there was a prolonged roaring noise from the front of the café. I winced a little and thought perhaps it was the staff making someone an espresso on an especially loud machine, which shouldn't happen all that often.

Fifteen minutes later, the roaring sounded again and lasted the same amount of time, about 2 minutes. Then again, 10 to 15 minutes later: that finally prompted me to stick my head around the corner to see what was making such a racket, echoing off the walls of the large open space in the café.

It was the dishwasher.

The staff used it continuously the entire afternoon, every 15 minutes or so, running it half or even quarter-full for each load.  By the time an hour had passed, I have taken the sticking my fingers in my ears every time, bitterly regretting not bringing any kind of earplugs with me, as I usually do to possibly-noisy places. But as I had been there before and formerly found it was a quiet oasis, I hadn’t bothered – big mistake.

After another half hour, I had to take a break and leave, walking around a few blocks the downtown to use my tension and anxiety, all brought on by a too-loud dishwasher that didn't seem to bother anyone else in the café with its raucous roaring din. There was nowhere to escape it either, as it was placed right in the middle of the open space - really stupid of the owners, if you ask me, not to consider that sort of noise as being bothersome to your paying customers:

If I do go back, it will be with my headphones and earplugs both, and I'll make sure the first thing I do when I get there is to let the staff know about their unintentional noise pollution: I'm sure they're quite used to it by now. It's kind of sad, as the background chatter and music wasn't that loud in comparison to the jet engine that was the dishwasher; it's too bad I didn't think to take a decibel reading.

Me? There's no way I could ever get use to that din. I'd pull it's plug immediately... because dishes washed by hand don't make nearly as much racket.

 I’ve got a short week coming up, thanks to my EDO on Friday, and another short week after that due to Thanksgiving, so I’, counting my blessings. I’ve got little on my plate aside from working and writing for the month of October, so I plan on making the most of things as I'm better-abled these last few days.

Royals, RPG Renaissance and Recursive Thoughts

The word of the week is inadequacy.

Sept 19 – Wobbly Walking

Things are getting better, albeit slowly.

All this week, I ended up getting rides to and from work, mainly because despite the fact that my left foot isn't constantly in pain( though it still often is )it's still complaining whenever I do more than walk from my desk to the break room in back again which precludes me walking to or from work. It's going to be weeks or months before I can just shrug on a loaded backpack and stroll out the door at a fast clip for work without a second thought about my tendons complaining.

Not to mention the related complications from my awkward positioning while resting on the couch at home when I was off for three weeks in August. Sitting and standing as often as I did, in an awkwardly painful way I discovered muscles I never knew I had.

However, it's not all marginal news.

I may end up with this magnificent-yet-cheap-setup someday...

Burning pain has given way to soreness which has faded to discomfort and new twinges over time, all while I'm stretching carefully all day long - not much, just a cm or two every hour, while flexing just inside the twinge threshold.

Work's been manageable( as I write this for a Monday entry, on a Sunday, thinking back over the week )as I've cobbled together a 'standing desk' which consists of boxes stuffed under my mouse and keyboard, with my monitors tilted back - it works. I alternate every hour between sitting and standing, and all the while I'm reading my new copy of Deskbound( more on that later )which is a heavy read. I'm considering making a sturdier, but still cheap, standing desk along the lines of the one in the image above, per these instructions.

Life goes on, if you can stand it: don't take it sitting down.

Sept 20 – New Girl For All Time?

This show's really been growing on me...

I don't know if it's the characters, the sharp situational writing, or the fact that it's not a laugh track from the 1990s, but New Girl's become a favorite though admittedly it's difficult to watch on account that I don't have able tell.

Currently more than a few people at the same, as New Girl has climbed the charts the last few years become one of the most popular sitcoms out there. As this lengthy but revealing multi-season review points out, New Girl's popularity can be summed up in one word: adorkable.

I like that the cast fits their roles so nicely, in that they're real people but without nasty hangups like other shows that feel the need to exploit for shock value... but which also cheapen the show as time goes on, going from shock to shock. Seeing characters get into situations that arise from their own were likely and how they try to get out of them is the essence of situational comedy( sitcoms )and New Girl has honed their writing of these situations to a T. None of the characters try to wriggle out of blame for their decisions, so their honesty helps bolster the show.

I admire honesty, both in writing and in person: well done!

Sept 21 – Anxiety, Animated

I'm not a visual artist, but if I was I would definitely have drawn this: all sorts of images of anxiety, of what it's like to experience the feeling and how it affects your life. The similarities to my own situation this last year are eerie in some cases, and while I'm happy that I didn't end up experiencing things akin to most of these images, the rest hit all too close to home.

It's good to bring these sorts of things up, because most people don't want to share these things, due to feelings of embarrassment or inadequacy. I learned, however, years ago that there's nothing shameful about having stress build up in your life without dealing with it somehow... and talking works, to be blunt. As well, if you( like me )suddenly have panic attacks happening, then you need to sit down and examine the deeper why of it, otherwise you'll just keep having them... or worse.

Myself, I'd rather ask questions of myself, and find ways to deal with the answers.

Sept 22 –  Point Taken, Well done!

Finally, a home run!

My last for acupuncture sessions haven't done much to alleviate my tendon discomfort for more than a few hours, so tonight's session( via bus trip )was going to be the last for a while, as my 5-for-the-price-of-4 discount card was due to run out.

I had a new acupuncturist this evening, and the work he did was amazing!

My sessions have been about an hour, and while tonight was no different, when I left I immediately felt the difference: I could walk( albeit gingerly )without pain! Me being me, I didn't immediately dance a jig, but I did test things a bit by not relying on my cane nearly as much for each step and judging the results.

Don't do this.

Tonight must have been a charmed one for me, as I then hopped( so to speak )the bus to the local grocery store, where I flitted about efficiently to gather a number of sale items( the only way to shop! )and made it back to the bus stop with perfect timing... where the same bus driver complimented me on my ability to get around despite my cane in hand atop the notable load of groceries I was carrying.

I just smiled and told him that I was a firm believer in acupuncture.

Sept 23 – Social RPG?

Speaking of being social...

Everybody busy these days, myself as well, but unfortunately busy does not include getting out and doing things as much the last few months.

Apart from being a shut-in for most of the last month due to my recent injury, I really haven't been getting out much apart from time spent with my girlfriend. It occurs to me that while I have a good number of friends here in Victoria, I don't actually see most of them more than once a month or so.

I remember being far more social 20 years ago, especially when I was in high school and then later in university. Many of the good times I had were spent playing games with my friends, especially RPG's, which is kind of ironic, I know, as role-playing games aren't exactly high on people social lists.

Which is why was surprised to find out things have been changing in that realm the last two years: role-playing games have moved from the realm of social pariahs to acceptable behavior across a wide range of social circles.

How the die has shifted!

Dungeons & Dragons especially has enjoyed a recent renaissance, as I mentioned a few blog posts ago, from the elite of Hollywood right on down to local gamers... which, to be fair, never really stopped embracing it - but are doing so far more openly now. I'm glad to see that more people are interested now in story rather than the competitive or twitch-fest aspects of gaming, like Xbox or the like.

That's all I've got for now.

Sept 24 – Royals Visit Vic

A whole lot of hubbub around these parts, today, all because Prince William and family are visiting Canada and starting off right here in Victoria.

Why all the fuss?

Well, Victoria is well-known for being a very British city( even apart from being named after a famous Royal )and while there's not Monarchist clubs on every corner here, there is a lot of inherited sentimental love of the Crown.

Also, it's kinda cool to have celebrities in town, I won't deny.

That said, I didn't bother trying to be close to the ruckus, due to my lack of mobility and a general dislike of crowds for crowd's sake: no thanks. Instead, I queued up GlobalNews online and watched the proceedings with half an eye while doing other things. Sure, it was neat to see the Legislature where I've walked all dolled up and the lawn covered with admirers waving flags... but that's about it.

Unusually, I did manage to capture the motorcade as it arrived, as for some reason they decided that MY street was the perfect route for them to take to get to the ceremonies at the Legislature:

Note: I thought it'd be funny if I modified the video a little for size... cute! 

I guess what's neat about having celebrities visit is that you get to rub shoulders with a little bit of fame, however earned, in a familiar setting. I equate it to touching the shoulder of someone considered lucky, in order to transfer a little of that love to yourself, One's proximity to fame is often fleeting however, and I'd much prefer to be the person who's earned theirs rather than inherited it.

It should be noted that in no way would I want to rub shoulders with the likes of anyone named Kardashian... or Justin Bieber for that matter. I will admit that I do have a long list of royal descendants, but I have no interest in exploiting that fact, apart from knowing that all those before me managed to achieve quite a lot of things in their lives, and I can use such to inspire my own doings.

So far, the motorcade's driven past my place twice, which I find amusing...

Sept 25 – Doubt

Who the heck is reading this blog anyway, and why my writing?

Every year or so, I ruminate on these questions, and every year I conclude that in the main I'm writing for myself first, then for my audience, which varies week to week. Of the 70 people have listed in my blog group, anywhere from 20 to 30 check-in every week to read the new entries - thanks, folks!

Stats-wise, this blog gets about 6000 pageviews a year, which translates roughly to 500 views a month( half of which can be attributed to random Internet searches and bots )leaving the other half for my friends and family who visit. As I've said before, if I'd wanted to monetize this blog, it would make around two dollars a month, which is negligible enough that I haven't bothered all these years of writing.

This blog is here for you, the reader, to check in on what I'm up to, on what's in my head and my heart and why think it matters enough to write it down here.

So, thanks for being here, whenever you happen to drop by.

That's all I have for this blog entry, the earliest yet this year at 6pm PST: I'm done. For the rest of the evening, I'll be reading, NOT thinking about how the rest of 2016 is supposed to go( WRITE! MAKE MONEY! GET HEALTHY! )and just enjoy the last few hours before bed... as the Royal motorcade rumbles past my front windows for the THIRD time this weekend. You'd think they were driving by just to see ME at this rate...