Tag: gaming

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A Lot for a Little Run

I got up early so I could go to Fort Smith with Summer for her run this morning. I had an anxiety attack as I was getting ready, but it didn’t seem to affect me long. I was still pretty exhausted as we left, but it was a smooth ride. We made it to Ben Geren park only to discover a disappointing number of runners, running anything from a 5k to a marathon, depending on how many times they looped back around the track. It didn’t really seem like many people knew each other, but it was a seriously tiny group of maybe 20 people. One of them was Hot Springs native, multi-title world champion, professional arm wrestler, “Monster” Michael Todd, who arrived in a giant motorhome wrapped with giant pictures of his face. There appeared to be no fanfare. We arrived early, because Summer anticipated it would take her some time to get her packet, but we spent all that extra time wandering around in the hot sun.

I had forgotten to load my Onewheel, so when the race finally started, Muad’Dib and I walked over to a pavilion with some picnic tables and sat in the shade. We had a surprisingly strong breeze over there, which I hadn’t felt at all when we were walking around. It felt really great over there as we waited, expecting to see Summer come around the bend. I took a picture of a couple cheering on their son, then shared it with them. Summer never showed up though. Evidently her run took her on another path, and we found her back at the finish after less than half the time it took us to drive to the race in the first place.

We didn’t stick around, and instead drove to a place called Digs in The Bakery District. I guess it was a little grouping of places in one spot. We found parking across the street and walked up to the patio where they were doing yoga. A server greeted us, had us pick a seat, and then the food service was quite quick. Muad’Dib did well with some passers-by, and we had a really tasty, elevated, expensive brunch. We had a couple cocktails and shared a bagel board with a couple fancy cream cheeses and peanut butter. Then Summer had a sandwich, and I had a burrito. Everything was really tasty, but definitely priced as an upscale establishment in a rich part of town.

Lastly, we swung by Truong Son on the way home to browse for some Asian foods. We didn’t get much, but I picked up a smallish can of Café du Monde coffee and chicory blend to add to my collection. I made a cup when we finally made it home, but found it mostly bitter. Summer and I lounged around the house the rest of the day, both exhausted from the morning adventure. I eventually had some leftover chicken salad for an early dinner, and cleaned a bunch of moth-filled boxes of cereal out of the pantry. We played a Netflix miniature golf game on the TV, and then Summer watched the worst of the Ghostbusters movies.

I did a bit of cleaning, but it was overall a very quiet evening until bed.

It’s a vibe.

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Porky and Friends

I woke up super early this morning when the power flickered and killed my CPAP again, and decided to just get out of bed. That left me pretty tired the rest of the day, but the hope was that I would be able to sleep at night. Summer got up and we mostly lounged around. We watched a bunch of Wolves of Glendale videos on Youtube, and she eventually left for the gym while I cleaned up and showered. I didn’t feel great after that, but the only thing we really wanted to do was grill something for dinner.

It was pretty hot outside. I got my Anbernic RG DS from Vine and tinkered with it for a bit. We eventually made it to the Neighborhood Market to see what was on sale. We ended up getting some bone-in pork chops, potatoes, and a few more veggies to go with the zucchini and squash that had been on the counter for quite a while. As we were finishing up, Johnny called to say he was in town and wanted to know if I wanted to go out to eat. We had him over to join us for dinner at the house instead.

Summer prepped the veggies and made mashed potatoes while I got the grill started, and everything came together surprisingly well. Everything turned out super good, and the chops were some of the most tender I’d ever made. I had her slice up a fresh pineapple that I grilled on top of each one, so that may have helped them stay moist. It was a great dinner.

We didn’t visit for very long after that since Johnny had to run. I waited until it cooled down a bit more, then took Muad’Dib on a run to my parents’ house. It was gross outside and my Onewheel was slightly low on battery, so we took a short trip home, then got to bed quickly.

Don’t look down.

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A Different Sonic Blast

I received some docking stations this morning that we ordered from Amazon, and I was tickled to see the prior shipping labels were to Woot.com. I spent much longer swapping David’s docking station than I expected, but at least he was out. Back in my office, I had run out of space, so I decided to clean up and sort through all the laptops that had found their way to my desk. I was also notified that we had someone coming to do some data entry, but that turned out being less of an employee situation that would just be temporary. That got me tinkering with onboarding processes again though, since I haven’t had a secure way to onboard new users onto an Intune device without just handing over a temporary password. I really wanted to figure out how to use the Temporary Access Pass instead.

We had an Aptean call in the early afternoon, so we took an earlier lunch to go to Sonic. I don’t know what it was, but it upset both of our stomachs. Muad’Dib threw up everything he had eaten before we left the office, as well as what he had with me at lunch. I didn’t throw up, but I felt indigestion for the next several hours.

Near the end of the day, I got a call from one of the guys at Roy’s saying he loaded up the air conditioner at the old house with nitrogen to test for leaks, so hopefully we’ll see where that is and get it going again soon. By the time I was ready to leave, we had gotten locked in the office, so we left out the back. It was a quiet ride home, and I cleaned up a little bit while I waited for Summer to get home. She ate some leftovers, and then I took Muad’Dib out for a run while she bathed.

The weather outside felt great for the first part of our run. We made it to my parents’ house and I warmed up some fish soup for dinner. Then we didn’t get back home until after dark. I laid on the couch with Summer until she went to bed. Then I accidentally hopped into a Discord channel with some of the guys.

Johnny had called yesterday to say he was interviewing for the Pottsville IT Director position, and this morning he said they offered it to him about half an hour after he left. With school starting next week, his last day at Nabholz would be Monday. I typed at the guys while they chatted and played Rocket League. Then I tinkered with remote play on my Steam Machine, and I think it may be a viable option until I have room to set up a docking station for my old Steam Deck.

I was up super late toying with that, long after the guys had all left. I’m just super excited to have some options after so long without.

steamdeck

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Lefthandyman

I woke up surprisingly early this morning, but put myself back to bed since Summer was still out cold. We eventually got up for some brunch. She made herself an egg, and I had some Long John Silvers. I had some coffee and sat with her on the couch for a bit, tinkering with the Steam Machine. I got some laundry going, and she went to the gym. Eaddie got around and eventually started cleaning up her areas.

I kept going all day long, barely stopping, but didn’t have a whole lot of good to show for it. My biggest project went off the rails because I thought it would just be a simple power outlet replacement. I figured Eaddie’s bathroom socket was the culprit, but after I pulled it, I still had no power to the lines coming in there. I checked our closet receptacle and found that it was the end of the circuit, so I went back to the bathroom.

I ended up pulling out the outlet and both wall switches. One was just a switch for the heater and had no power coming in behind the switch. The other switches in the two-gang box had three lines coming in. I eventually worked out which was the power in, and then the other two were just lines to the light and the vent fan. There didn’t appear to be another line going out to the outlet, so that whole project was a wash. I did learn that the fluorescent light in our closet actually worked though, and just needed bulbs. I’ll have to see if I can find LED alternatives for it, otherwise I’ll end up pulling the whole fixture for some better lighting.

Summer got home and mowed, then threw together a quick pasta dinner for the three of us. I got the new shower fixture installed, but not at all to my liking, so that will have to be swapped again too. By the end of the night, I ended up using the new diverter with the old shower head and wand, but the diverter itself seemed to be inhibiting some of the awesome water pressure we had gotten used to.

I finally took a shower, Eaddie finally finished all of her cleaning, and Summer made it to bed. At least there was some success.

Back to work!

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It’s a Machine

My shower wasn’t great with a messed up diverter this morning, but it could have been worse. It was still better than a hotel shower by a huge margin. We got to work, and things were again pretty quiet. I spent a large part of the morning troubleshooting a weird Start Menu issue where it keeps reverting back to category view. I found several articles mentioning group policy, but I couldn’t find anything similar that would have affected it in Intune.

I took a really late lunch and ended up at Wendy’s for a spicy chicken sandwich in a Minions & Monsters meal. For some reason they felt the need to serve it to me piecemeal, so I got my Frosty first. Then I got fries. Finally, my sandwich was delivered to my table. I guess at least the food was fresh?

The afternoon went by fairly quickly just because I ate so late. I had a sudden anxiety attack that didn’t linger too long, and then we made it home. Eaddie had received my Steam Machine that Johnny let me order, so I had been looking forward to opening that.

Summer got home shortly after I did, and I unboxed my new computer while she showered. I had to tinker with my home theater again, because for some reason there was no sound coming out of the subwoofer. Once I got everything set up, Summer decided she wanted Taco Villa for dinner, so Muad’Dib and I went to pick that up.

We ate, and then she went to bed. I cleaned all the stuff out of my car so I can leave it at the body shop, and made it to bed on time.

Now what?

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Keepin’ It Loki

Summer had to leave super early this morning for her race in Barling, so I slept in a while, then got up and had a bath. I played with my Anbernic RG Rotate for a bit since I got it to recognize my ROMs folder last night, and it was tiny and fun. I enjoyed relaxing in the tub a while, and then Summer made it home. She showered, and then I showered so the three of us could go to Brown’s for lunch. We still had a coupon to use, and Eaddie decided she wanted to go as well.

I didn’t realize they were about to close between lunch and dinner, so it was quite frustrating when our server came up to us right in the middle of my first plate to ask if we wanted anything else off of the hot bar before they took it down. Eaddie had a plate with, I think, one piece of fish and some broccoli slaw on it. I got another huge plate and a couple bowls just to keep some food available, and the girls picked at some other stuff while my plate slowly got cold.

We came home after that, and Eaddie left with Eli to watch the Drum Corps International competition in Little Rock. Summer climbed into bed and we finished Funny AF. Then she put on Loki and fell asleep moments later. I laid in bed and watched TV and played on my phone for quite a while before giving up on the rest of the day.

Eaddie came home late and said the competition got rained out. It had stormed briefly here, but it didn’t look like Little Rock was going to get any. She and Eli watched something in her room, and I eventually made it to bed.

Livin’ like a dog.

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Supermeh

Summer had a race first thing this morning, so I went with her to the junior high for that. Muad’Dib and I rode around with the Onewheel, making laps around the building while we waited, and then he got some attention from others as we milled around waiting for results. There was another guy there with a small heeler that wanted to run and play so badly, but he didn’t want to let her off the leash, which was probably a good thing.

Summer got her second place medal just as it started to get really gross and humid, and we headed home for a snack and to clean up before our trip to Fayetteville. Eaddie was in bed until we left, and stayed home with Muad’Dib. We made it to Alma for a charge and pit stop, then continued straight to the Arkadia Retrocade.

We talked to Shea briefly after paying him twice the admission fee, just to show support for the work he’s done, and to share our excitement about the place. I think I actually enjoy it more as a walkthrough museum experience than someplace I enjoy going to sit down and play. I’m always a little disappointed in the condition of some of the machines, which I know are hard to service, but the place was also crawling with mostly unsupervised kids. It’s still a blast, and I would recommend it for anyone. It really seems like a passion project, and I love that he’s been successful with it.

After about an hour there, we decided we were hungry enough to eat a little bit, so we drove toward the Malco. I would have preferred to go somewhere uniquely NWA, but we stopped at Buffalo Wild Wings and sat at the bar for a couple drinks and some buffalo chicken dip. Then we headed to the surprisingly empty, but well-maintained theater for our IMAX experience.

Right off the bat, the audio was just too loud. It distorted dialog especially, and made a few scenes completely unintelligible. I enjoy Jason Momoa, but Lobo’s existence added nothing to the film. All of the characters were short-lived and mostly forgettable, and all of the action was depicted too close up and cloudy/dusty/blurry to be entertaining. The animation and physics felt fake, which could have been forgiven for the sake of a better story, but it just wasn’t good. There were certainly emotional bits, but overall we were super disappointed.

After the show, I found a place called House of Taste, which seemed fairly authentic Korean. At least the old lady running the place felt somehow relatable. The food was good, but seemed unnecessarily expensive. There were several signs about a long wait, but we were only bookended by two other tables during our visit. The food was served impressively hot in near-molten bowls that retained the heat well. My soup was scaldingly hot to nearly the last bite.

The drive home was much more relaxed, with a stop in Ozark to charge again. I hate that the trip is long enough to really require charging twice, since there’s not a Supercharger right in Fayetteville. We’d have to drive further north for that, so we just charge twice inbetween instead.

Eaddie had just finished mowing our lawn when we got home. I took Muad’Dib for a run to my parents’ house, but then waited by the pool for them to get home from Kroger. I helped unload groceries, then headed back home to find Eaddie practicing loudly in the bathroom while Summer was passed out in bed two doors down. I wrapped up quickly and joined her.

Who expected Seth Rogen to be the best part???

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Reedy or Not

I slept in pretty well today, and hoped that would help my recent concerns. Summer and I ate some leftovers and Eaddie left to get ready for Jenny’s recital in the afternoon. The whole day went by pretty quickly, but I tried to stay useful and productive. Summer took some time to get out her old laptop and play Torchlight II, which seemed like a good mental health break.

I got showered and we barely made it out of the house in time to drop Muad’Dib off with Dad before making it to the recital. Eaddie was only playing in one of the songs, but it was a nice, quiet show with just a bunch of the band kids and families. The kids did great, and then afterwards I saw Russ and talked to him for a moment before heading out.

Summer really wanted ice cream, so we went to Las Delicias where she got a cone and I got a mangonada. I didn’t think it was as good as Bocadillos, and I didn’t much care for the atmosphere being dark and loud, so we left and headed back to my parents’ house to get Muad’Dib. We visited there for a while before I really wanted to find dinner.

I wanted to try and find something with a bit more nutrition than the leftover Ridgewood nachos that were in the refrigerator, so we drove across town looking. We turned around at the old Valley Park Center where they had a whole lot of construction finishing up. Then we stopped at Aldi’s to see what aldi fuss was about. It was surprisingly cold and quiet in there, with a pretty limited selection. It didn’t seem worth the drive to me.

I got a box of salad, and we headed home to eat the last of the spaghetti squash casserole that Summer made. Then she cleaned the kitchen while I picked up around the house. She eventually went back to Torchlight and I took Muad’Dib on a run to take some old shirts to Dad before his surgery in the morning.

We wound down a bit more, then I did my best to get to bed on time.

DRINK MORE!

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Let Off Some Steam

Autopilot was a frustration to and from work today, so I spent both drives disengaging repeatedly so I could record feedback. I figure it looks bad for them to have interrupted or shorter drives, even if I’m one person in the 10 billion self-driving miles driven.

I was surprisingly pretty busy today just helping others, so it felt good to be out of the office a bit. It was a nice day out too, so Muad’Dib and I went to Taco Bell. I ended up not eating all of my food, so I took my burrito for later and finished up the afternoon. Janice left a little early, so it was quiet upstairs.

Eaddie arrived at home just as I did, but then left. Johnny called and I talked to him for a little while. Then Summer showed up and we ate some leftovers. I took Muad’Dib for a late run, and then I got to play with my new Steam Controller for a bit as she went to bed.

A storm blew through pretty quickly with some loud thunder, but it didn’t last. Eaddie came home late and gave me the news that Whattaburger closed for good tonight with little notice. I felt like it went downhill when all the knick knacks disappeared and were replaced with generic pictures of food. It would have been nice to see that kind of stuff make a comeback.

Simpler times had lower standards.

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Fast/Slow Saturday

Summer and I slept in a bit today, so by the time we got around, it was nearly time for lunch. Nobody sounded very excited about breakfast anyway, so Summer and I had leftover steak and baked potatoes for lunch. My morning coffee with a bit of eggnog didn’t sit well, so the rest of my afternoon was mostly shot. Summer didn’t feel great either, so she had a bath and I got the monitor replaced so she could watch TV. A little later in the evening, I took a long bath as well.

Eaddie wanted to bring Eli and Ceci over for some games after dark, so they brought some Little Caesar’s for dinner, and then we all sat in front of the TV for some Drawful and then a couple other Jackbox games. It was quite a bit of fun, and the Steam Deck worked great for us to have a quick game without much fuss.

The girls went out at some point to make some slime, which was a fad we thought was long gone. Otherwise it was a quiet evening and then we got to bed a bit late.

In Search of Chargers