Words On Wednesday

…he’ll ask for an absurdly hard to find game. And much like the children’s story about a mouse and a cookie, there were a lot of steps before we reached a resolution. This all started a few months ago when I was playing The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest. There was a puzzle in the spirit temple that I couldn't figure out, so I looked up some video guides to find the answer. One video in particular, part of a let's play series by ZeldaMaster, was super helpful and he had finished the entire game. If I ran into more problems, I would just check out his videos to find the solutions. The kids really liked his video, so they kept watching the series. This ended up helping me, because I got stuck a few more times in the spirit temple (worst temple in the game) and they actually remembered what he did to get through. I didn't even have to watch the videos myself. After they finished the let's play series for Master Quest, they still wanted more material. Fortuna

A lot has happened with Runescape since the last time I  posted about it , over 3 years ago. I got max skills, a new skill came out, and then I got max again. The mobile beta that I was playing on saw a full release. It’s been a good time. Now, bear in mind, this post is written WAY before being published. As my previous post indicated, I’m writing way ahead just because I have the time available. These details are based September 3, 2021 and the status of my account then. I can’t tell you where I’ll be once the post is public. So, where am I now? My total level is 2865/3055 and I have both Magic and Invention at 200m experience. All of my skills are at least 99, and I’m working on getting skills to 120 when that provides extra benefit. Beyond working on those skills, I try to continue making enough money to afford bonds. Compared to the most recent post, the way I play the game isn’t even the same anymore. I started at first with a single bond, and then I ramped it up to groups of thr

I normally gravitate toward large bottles of liquor for better value, but there is a time and place for shots or mini bottles. The place is here and the time is now. Let's talk about the party bucket from 99 Brand. A coworker was telling me about a recent time when he had some friends over and they got a bunch of different alcohol to try. His personal favorite was a pack of 99 proof mini bottles in a variety of flavors. He claimed they were super cheap (like a buck per bottle) and really good, which is really the name of the game for me. I was really curious to try them for myself. Normally the price per volume of mini bottles makes them cost prohibitive for me, especially if it's something I'd like a full fifth of anyway. The justification here is the plethora of flavors available here, and the fact that I live in a camper right now making storage space a premium. Mini bottles are tiny, hence the name. One recent trip by the grocery store (yesterday), I decided to stop by

My posts have been mostly consistent lately, but I’m afraid that probably won’t last much longer. Confession, I’ve been writing a bunch while working my notice at Michelin. I was still satisfying my job requirements, but naturally I had less work to do while I was wrapping up my time with the company. As such, I had a pretty good amount of time available for other things. Days when I was in the office, I couldn’t do any work around the house, but I could still write. So I wrote, and I wrote, and I wrote. Pretty much everything posted between September 2021 and now was composed during that window. But I had the opportunity, so why not? Problem is, I’m writing this on my last day with Michelin. I start my new job on Tuesday. I can’t know how much spare time I’ll have with the new job, but I have to assume it won’t be as much as I have right now. Given the situation, I’m expecting I’ll slow or even stop posting again very quickly. I didn’t post at all between December 2020 and June 2021.

That is the question. I like being on the water. Whether it’s cruising around on a pontoon, or getting pulled behind a boat on a float of some sort, I just enjoy lake life. So much, in fact, that I’ve considered buying a boat through the years. Every few years, we rent a boat on Lake Jocassee for a day in the summer. We’ll invite several people, cruise around the lake, and turn it in at the end of the day. It isn’t cheap, a rental seems to go for about $500 per day, plus fees for accessories and junk. The cost is easily worth it, especially if you have multiple people chip in. I considered, though, what if we just bought a boat? If you buy a boat, you make payments on it until you own it, and then it’s yours. Eventually, that cost probably evens out and you’re in for cheap lake days for life. You pay for gas, and I guess that’s it. And then, we could go out on the lake whenever we wanted, without that steep cost for the rental. I ran this idea by a coworker who owns a boat, and he actu

These canned cocktails are EVERYWHERE now, but are they any good? In my experience, yes, but not quite as good as the real thing. They are undeniably drinkable. They are even close to the flavor of the drink they're trying to imitate. I spoke a while back of the Bud Light Mixx Tail, and these are even closer. With the Mixx Tail, you can see what they were trying to get at. Most of the canned cocktails I've had, I'd say it's very clear what the drink is supposed to be and it's pretty close. I worried at first that most of them would taste like a very synthetic form of the intended cocktail. In at least most of the versions I've tried, that isn't the case. My first exposure was the Jack Daniel's Whiskey & Cola. I feared it would taste like it was trying to be a Jack and Coke, but no, it genuinely tasted like a pretty strong pour of Jack and Coke. Now, mind you, we have to look at the companies who make these drinks. Mixx Tail was made by Budweiser, a b

When you get the opportunity to do something new or scary, don’t let fear hold you back. Go for it, take the plunge, and jump. Our seventh grade class field trip was to Earthshine Lodge , in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina. One of the activities we got to participate in was a ropes course. There were several segments to cross between trees, before reaching a rope swing from one platform to another. After the rope swing were a few more tree segments, and a final zipline back down to the ground. I made it through the first segments of the ropes course without any problems. Even without any athletic ability to speak of, I could make it from tree to tree. Everything went fine until I got to the rope swing. The gap wasn’t extremely far, and participants were secured with a harness, but I simply wasn’t confident in my ability to make it across, or the guide’s ability to catch me. There was an exit from that platform back down to ground level, and I took that exit from the course.

A new Ratchet & Clank game has been out for nearly a year, and I still haven’t played it. Anyone who knows of my gaming preferences can tell you that Ratchet & Clank is one of my favorite intellectual properties. I’m talking in the same echelon as Zelda, Metroid, and those kinds of classics. I LOVE Ratchet games. The graphics, the music, the shooting mechanics, it’s just all amazing. I’ll play them like a gosh dang addict until I’ve upgraded every weapon, found every secret, and satisfied every skill point. I even managed to get my wife on board with Ratchet: Deadlocked and we both had a really good time eking out everything that game had to offer. So, you’d expect that I would be on board with a new release on day one. And in some other scenario, maybe I would be. The problem is, I don’t have a Playstation 5 and I won’t, at least not for a long time. I can’t even blame it on console shortages and scalpers buying up the few that are made. I wouldn’t buy one if shelves were stoc

There was a Thursday a few months back that was just one of THOSE days. A day that lives in infamy, and one that you never want to experience again. Actually, that day is today. I’m writing this as it happens so that all the details are fresh, but I can guarantee you I won’t forget it by the time this post is published. I’ll just read through it again and think, “I am so glad that day is behind me.” Everything started in motion over the course of a few weeks before. I really just wasn’t happy with my job. I had a serious case of impostor syndrome, and I wasn’t picking up on it anywhere near as well as I expected that I should be. I started looking around for other work, just because I didn’t want to be a drain on my team, and I expected I would be more successful and happy with my performance back in the software development world. On Tuesday, I received a call as I was leaving work, with a job offer that I was really excited for. Unfortunately, I was scheduled to leave for Ardmore, OK

For several months now, I’ve been trying to refine and improve my workflow for dealing with photos. It still isn’t perfect, but it’s a far sight better than sticking old pictures in some random place and forgetting about them. Import The first step of my process is importing photos from whatever camera they originated. Whether it’s my DSLR, GoPro, or phone, I have a folder on the SD card that stays in my Surface for photo imports. This is the sort of master version that I keep until the photos reach the end of the process. After I pull the photos off of the source, I can delete the true original files. That way, I free up space for the camera to take more pictures, but I also reduce the risk that I’ll pick the camera up in a few months and have photos on there that I forgot all about. The photos in this import folder serve as the sort of raw starting point, and all the future steps are copied, not moved. If I jack up some step in my workflow, I can always go back to these files and kno

Before summer comes and it gets too hot to do anything outside, I want to build a rock climbing wall. I intended to do it last year, but the planning just didn’t come together and the price of plywood went through the roof. I’m hoping that this year, I can follow through with it. The idea came about because my kids climb on everything. My wife mentioned building a climbing wall, and we started doing some research. It seemed out of reach at first, but the more I looked into it, the more I considered that I may be able to manage it. I’ve taken on a few woodworking projects in recent years, and I do alright. I’m certainly not quitting my day job to become a carpenter, but I can put together some simple things. Source: https://img.gs/kjrgscdmbm/700/https://www.garagegymreviews.com/articles/images/30bb3825e8f631cc6075c0f87bb4978c_2.jpg I came across one build in particular that seemed well within my ability. The site gave some basic instructions on how to put together a narrow and long wall

I’ve long said that I don’t really like laptops because they don’t seem to last long, and they are difficult or impossible to upgrade. One company is trying to change that. A coworker introduced me to the  Framework laptop . I had recently purchased my  Surface Pro 7 , but I was immediately intrigued. I’ve always gone budget tier with laptops, mostly because I treat them as almost disposable. It’s going to break down and become obsolete pretty soon anyway, and there’s no sense in paying a lot for one if my best option is going to be replacing it with a new model anyway. My Surface was a tentative bet on more premium lasting a little longer, but there still aren’t many ways you can upgrade it besides swapping out the solid state drive. The master plan of Framework is a device that is modular. You pop open the case with the provided tool and switch components as necessary. Need more RAM? Pop in a larger chip. Processor isn’t fast enough, or you’re working with a model that’s a few years

Some life lessons come pretty easily, but others require a little bit of painful personal experience before we catch on. Normally, I’m pretty quick on the uptake for a lot of lessons. Touch something hot, you get burned. What goes up must come down. I may not have a lot of common sense, but I have enough to realize the basic stuff without a lot of difficulty. Even caution is normally something that comes natural to me. I do a whole lot of things “just in case.” Data backups, an extra layer of padding, and 911 already dialed on my phone are just a few of the things I’ve done because I know things don’t always go as planned. One specific example is the floaty back door for my GoPro. This floatation device ensures that if you lose a grip on the camera in water, it will float to the surface. If I’m getting in water any deeper than a swimming pool, I’m using the floaty back door. I don’t care if it’s just a few shots, I know how clumsy I am, and I know that it’s safer to use a flotation dev