The Slow Down in Posting

Hey all, it's that time of year again where work is busy and on top of that my "writing fuel" is being used in the preparing of the current campaign my party is playing through. I'm also behind on recaps of that, but for now I thought I'd just share some links that I liked which you might also enjoy. 

Starting off with some feats of engineering we have the process of "rescuing" a pretty big tree house, and China brings future tech closer by having robot fighting matches and first flying cars?! That's cool but surely going to cause air control some headaches. If you prefer your fighting to have a more human element you might enjoy these clips from FreeMMAGyms, and the archer Blumineck.

Music wise I've really been enjoying Mac Glocky's restyled songs, as well as Warframe's Lullaby of the Manifold and Yoko Kanno & the Seatbelts's recently extended version of TANK! Lastly if you want to both have a laugh and be impressed by yodeling, here's Chicken Attack, which I would never have encountered if not for Juris! Thanks dude!

Jack Ryan: Ghost War and Punisher: One Last Kill

When you need gun action!

Jack Ryan: Ghost War

This flick continues on from the series and finds a retired Jack Ryan (still played by John Krasinki) being roped back into what's supposed to be an easy mission "to meet a guy", but its never that simple. Chase scenes and combat sequences shortly follow but plot wise I can't help but think that Jack was only required for the second half or last third of the movie, as it looked like all the other characters had it handled - even the comedy relief guy? My overall feeling is that unfortunately, the movie is weak. :(

Punisher: One Last Kill

This episode length special continues its series, starring Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle now better known as the titular vigilante. In it, it explores what happens when Frank's killed everyone he's wanted to kill and goes too deep in his own head. But don't worry! Bad guys are stupid and by the second half he is back to ruthlessly executing the hordes of scum that decide to take him on. For its length and given it works as a standalone, it's super entertaining! Recommended! :) 

As a bonus for other gun nuts, here's a review of the Zev FDP gun... which turns out to not be so practical. 

Busy September

Between working on "my own" TTRPG (in quotes because there's lots of external source inspiration) and actual work which is kicking my butt I've been a bit slack in posting. Hopefully that changes soon.

In the meantime you can try play around and make your own 6 second AI generated video for free! The site is Chinese but it can work with an English prompts. Tech advances are wild man. I'm also keen to see the remote machine guns Ukraine is developing (also, they've counter invaded Russia). Now gamers can really get into the fight? Curious to see if it will be stationary sentries or mobile with tracks or legs.

Then of course there's good old low tech sabotage and subterfuge, to do things like getting your enemies communication devices to just explode. That's pretty impressive too.

August 2024: Countries clash... in the Olympics!

We're more than half way through the games now but prior to the start Israeli athletes had been threatened a repeat of Munich. Israel's response was to take out some of the leaders of their known enemies and just get on with it. Meanwhile in the USA someone had tried to off Trump who is running for President again, but it was current President Biden who pulled out from running for his second term, finally understanding that he might be too old.

That shooter wasn't Olympics worthy unlike this pair (Kim Yeji and Yusuf Dikec).

Not all is well in the Olympics though with complaints ranging from uncomfortable beds to the Seine river (used for some swimming events) being so dirty its causing athletes to fall sick. Russian troops in Ukraine know all about bad water as they have a shortage of it, resorting to drinking whatever they can find. To be fair they might be dying too quickly to care about it anyway, but are still gaining ground regardless. On the water itself it's still humorous that the Russian navy is getting sunk by a country without one.

Some of this is made possible by drones. These things can do everything it seems, from spying on Olympic soccer training to killing helicopters. The UK has recognized the threat at has made an anti-drone laser system (which probably doesn't work well in fog, snow or rain but neither would flying drones). The crafty Ukranians solution is just to shotgun them from an old Yak-52. On a random tangent, I checked if someone made a laser to kill mosquitos and the answer is yes, but it currently isn't practical. Damn.

Meanwhile more bad news for Ukraine as Hungary is upset Ukraine is blocking their oil (despite them blocking aid to Ukraine for over two years) and NATO has also deemed Ukraine too corrupt to join them. Perhaps Russia's joint venture with China to establish a moon base, possibly in Mare Tranquillitatis Pit if they can claim it first, might take some heat off? With the ISS being retired in a few years that would be a pretty big achievement.

Not sure how China plans to bank roll this given their current financial troubles, but maybe it involves assimilating the Tibetans? They've still got around 10 years to work it out anyway. Not sure the way Thailand is handling their finance would be the answer. They're simply handing out digital money to citizens!

Scattershot

It's time for a random bits containing all the miscellaneous stuff I found just never got around to posting over the past few months!

Starting off with an unposted [Chess Campaign] post (remember those?) where I actually beat Stockfish 4 (as White) using a London vs its Pirc and got its queen early with a pawn push, then had two games against Rose, the first one I was White and sed a London but found myself constantly on the backfoot, staving off checkmates from Queen + Rook and Queen + Bishop but Queen + pawn finally got me and in the second game I played Black. Caro Kann won early pawns for me then we went into a LONG game where both sides were attacking and I lost pieces for her pawns. Eventually got a slayer queen to constantly check her king to clean the board and she resigned when it was just her king left against five of my pawns. I also discovered Josh's ELO is 1300, and then promptly stopped playing Chess entirely because I got sucked into Elden Ring (then forgot to go back).

I had also tried out a solo card based RPG called Deathship where you are a slave aboard an alien ship you must do your best to ... get a high score? What? Yep, your escape will only end in your death - but you might be able to make some friends and kill some guards on your way there. Not recommended. I can't even find the link to this anymore.

Speaking of RPGs, do you need to generate a city map really quickly? This free online Medieval Fantasy City Generator might be just what you need. Other things I found interesting was this method of watering plants using a fog condensation net, weapons testing against a Prince Rupert's drop glass and the Sphere Stadium in LA. That exterior just looks amazing and can be lit up to look like almost anything!

As I usually spruik a musician in these types of posts, for this one I'll highlight the young Aimee Carty who has some good composition and performance skills. Also if you just want some free music, check out NEFFEX. Props to Heartlessgamer for that bit of info! Switching into something funnier, here's an AI's attempt at close captioning the German National Anthem. Might as well follow that with more funnies from Yoleendadong, ISMO, and this old but amazing clip of how to win a cotton candy eating race while maintaining composure. :P

December 2022: Virtual Reality

I'm back from a nice vacation where I got to try out a couple of VR tech things - firstly the Oculus, which is a headset and a controller for each hand that has a variety of buttons and joystick thingies, was really interesting. Pressing button combinations let you pick up, throw, point, push, holster (or back holster) many digital things and you can "cast" what the player is seeing on a TV monitor if you want an audience.

For a simple game like Beatsaber, where you just hold two light sabers and have to hit incoming boxes in the correct direction, it was fine. That game is really more like repetitive exercise since your memory is what will win you the stages.

For more complicated ones like Walking Dead all those hand things are far more important as you'll not only be picking up, crafting or healing yourself (by getting bandages and virtually wrapping them around your arm) - you'll also need to be stabbing walkers. Velocity is a thing so light hits won't kill the zombies  and the system is smart enough to know if you are doing a two handed strike, or holding the walkers head before you strike etc.

My main problem with the Oculus might just be a "me" thing: for the Walking Dead I got super dizzy because while your arms are functional, you move using the thumb controlled joysticks... it just felt super unnatural.

Then we also tried Far Cry VR at a Zero Latency arcade - its basically a large room you book for 30 minutes or so and pay per head. Again you get a headset but this time your controller is a rifle - and that's it! Six of us went in this cooperative game to play against Vaas and his goons (though it can go up to eight) and it splits you into two teams for most of the match. Expect to be moving a fair bit to take cover and don't worry about what you look like in real! :P

For safety if you move towards a wall or another player in the real world bit red caution shields appear to warn you of the fact. That wasn't a problem for us though, and no one ran into any walls or each other. Super fun experience that I highly recommend and want to do again. Oculus? Not so much.

Any who, that's all for now - hope you've all had a good Christmas and are having a Happy New Year! :) 

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Stable Diffusion: Portraits of "the Sky"
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Skill and the Machine

A small collection of cool things.

Usually I'd work these into the end of month posts but since those have been preoccupied with the Ukraine / Russia conflict, I thought I'd just give them their own post here:

Have you ever played the browser based Game of Life?  Since it is a Turing machine some people have done crazy things with it - like compute a Fibonacci sequence! If that's too abstract for you perhaps Really Bad Chess would be more your speed, or this Powerball simulation which lets you play and win (and lose, big time) fictitious Powerball draws. Excellent if you want to see just how far your adds are of winning.

If you are feeling "artistic" instead, you might like to try Stable Diffusion - where you simply supply a prompt and their "browser" amalgamates what it thinks you want to see from images it can find. This text to image result can be horrific - I love it! I'm thinking maybe I should share me masterpieces (*snicker*) here on a regular basis. Definitely give it a try. :P

August 2022: Day 188 of the war

Ukraine has managed to hit targets deep in Crimea, which the USA agrees is part of their territory. This has sent Russian tourists in that region fleeing back home and leaving the resorts empty. You can actually check on this webcam if/when people start coming back. That said, exploding stuff and retaking territory are two different things, but the counter offensive has begun.

Russia has settled into a defensive stance in anticipation of this so the battle lines haven't moved much from last month. Reports state that they are failing to pay some of their troops, but that doesn't stop them from threatening to explode nuclear power plants and deploying Steven Seagal. It might require one of these powerful exo-suits to stop that guy.

While this all might be "same/same" and war fatigue for you, Ukrainian redditor Saberflux gives daily updates from Kharkiv which seems to be on the receiving end of Russian missile strikes almot all the time. Redditor PCX99 also has daily war summaries for those interested.

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Warframe: Chroma and Xaku
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Cthulhu: Death May Die - A Night at the Museum

Even monsters can visit, just don't touch the displays!

A board game session from Cthulhu: Death May Die.

It was the middle of the night when Rasputin (Juris), Adam (me), Miss Ives (wifey) broke into the museum with new members "the Kid" (mom) who has latent magical abilities and Jack (DL with same character, but afflicted with psychotic tendencies). It is handy that the artifacts needed to disrupt the gates here are just lying around - they just needed to be collected and placed by two of the three portals simultaneously.

The first hurdle is the massive shoggoth blocking the way which survived the opening salvo from the ranged team members so Jack took it upon himself to lure the creature and other cultists to the South hall to stay away from the team. Sure enough, his psychosis triggers multiple times and what initially looks like a Jack suicide turns out to be the annihilation of everything chasing him!

Meanwhile both Rasputin and the Kid are arrested by the night watchmen, still on patrol and somehow oblivious to the gates, monsters and cultists around. It doesn't take the pair long to get free  and by this time the others are already in position with the artifacts and disrupt the ritual, summoning a weakened Hastur into the museum right next to Jack!

An epic brawl erupts between them as a pistol wielding Rasputin and a random golden retriever he found joins the fray severely weakening the King in Yellow. Miss Ives and Adam wearing an ancient queen's tiara provide ranged support blasting holes in the abomination but this enrages him, and quickly impales both to death using his tentacled throne (at least we hope its a throne) in one hit. Hastur just diced amazingly well - even through rerolls, everything was a hit. Twice! >_<

The kid arrives immediately after this, wielding a shotgun in one hand and Excalibur in the other - laughing manically as she puts down what's left of this incarnation of Hastur in what amounts to be an epic curb-stomp finisher.

Side note: There is actually an "XCaliber" Shotgun.

MISSION SUCCESS (first try, though I did make an error with the order of Hastur's AI cards)!

Insight: We got lucky with Jack's ability here especially since fighting a shoggoth makes it really easy to trigger. Also while the guards are annoying, don't be afraid to get arrested if you can get the artifacts next to the gates.

January 2021 Review: Speeding Up

Belated Happy New Year! Feels like its been awhile since I've done one of these yet I don't have a lot in the way of news. Well, that combat nerf update in Neverwinter Online is live now, and it's surprisingly not too bad and since the New Sharandar module is set to appear next month, I've been grinding the current one like mad since I can already foresee a shortage in Feywild supplies to continue our stronghold progress. 

I've also upgraded my internet which means its more possible for me to get those bigger titles now and there by get distracted from the Feywild farming. :P

That's a decent improvement!

Blog wise I'm also trying to compress down my posts in waiting so that I can get through them faster. You might be seeing more of these multi-targeted things shortly as I'm actually getting tired of having stuff "ready to go in advance". Might mean less posts afterwards but certainly more spontaneity.

On to some future tech, since powered exoskeletons have that problem of "power" - did you know there are unpowered exosuits already in use? Dang. That's news to me! Lastly this little fox named Finnegan (and the saveafox foundation) has really kept me entertained lately. Now you know the answer to "What does the fox say?"

 Lose 1kg this month (fail)
 Web comic (-error: no progress detected-)

BLOG STATS

One Year Ago

I wrote an Ode to some of Neverwinter's forgotten/removed content. That seems to be status quo now as the New Sharandar module next month will completely remove the old one.

Five Years Ago

I was playing Arkania and it's sequel Star Trail. Also our guild hall in Neverwinter was at rank 4... we've come a long way since then!

Most Viewed Posts in the last 30 days

MGSV: The Hammer and the Snake
GTFO: R4A1 - Cytology (Extreme)
MGSV: Fog of Skulls

While I kinda expect the GTFO tutorials to show up here I'm a bit surprised with  the two MGSV ones. Maybe it's because they have epic screenshots? :P

November 2020 Review: At the Helm

Following up from last time, our guild is now at the helm position of the alliance (for a few months)! Yay! Ideally we'd like to push our level to 16 or beyond in this time, but really any progress would be cool.

Almost as cool as this.

Now for some future tech... I previously posted about the Tesla Model 3 which is already quite advanced for my standards but if you want to take it a step further you can literally fly with the KleinVision car! Just need to put weapons on that now and... oh wait, South Africa already did that for real. :P

   Lose 1kg this month (last month result: fail)
   Web comic (nothing, nada, zip)

BLOG STATS

One Year Ago

I started the Wild Hunt while Neverwinter Online was just about to head into Avernus... and it's still there right now! Unsurprisingly this is simply too tedious for some, myself included.

Five Years Ago

I was much more into Neverwinter Online, exploring foundry quests and using it as photo story inspiration. The Rage of Demons questline written by R.R. Salvatore was released at this time too.

Most Viewed Posts last Month

Justice League Dark: Apokolips War
GTFO: R4A2 - Foster (Extreme)
Metal Gear: A Soldier's Diary

Again another walk through makes top three, though for some reason the massive interest in Apokolips War eclipsed it. Curious that the new story diary is up there too! I guess Metal Gear has a way of catching attention? "!"

Tefal Cook 4 Me = Fire Hazzard

This nice device really helps in getting meals ready, automatic a bit of the cooking process for you. Unfortunately, it comes with a design flaw. Basically, this little pot is a type of pressure cooker and releasing the steam/pressure is one of those automated processes to help out the user.

It's actually really handy; when not starting fires...

It does this through a vent in the back... which happens to be almost above where the power cord plugs in. Not a problem if it was only steam coming out, but so does some liquid (we make a lot of soups/stews). Liquid that drips into said power cord which causes a short! Lucky our breakers are working.

Anyway, due to this I strongly recommend NOT BUYING this product and if you already have one be sure never leave it unattended. Kinda defeats the automation at that point doesn't it?

Tesla Model 3

I managed to ride one of these quiet beauties recently and boy, does it scream "THIS IS THE FUTURE" for me. Gone are your standard car displays behind the wheel. This time you just have a laptop sized screen that shows all the information plus navigation, music, and anything else you want to set down to seat, wheel, and mirror adjustments based on the user. I also quite liked the 3D rendering display of the car's immediate surroundings thanks to all the cameras lining the vehicles exterior.

Not only can you set these to record and save to both an internal USB and to your remote server on "Sentry Mode" to look out for bad dudes, it also uses it to literally drive itself. You can let go of the wheel and the car will handle speeding up to the limit you set or slowing down if something is detected ahead. Just indicate to switch lane and it will do it for you, again using the detectors to determine a safe gap to do so.

Not as clunky looking as the earlier models.

Yes, by the same means it can also park itself and using a "summon car" app on your phone (which is one of your main IDs to access the vehicle) it can drive itself to you as long as you are in range. I assume that means "parking lot" size and not "home to airport" distance, though the latter would be funny especially if you put a dog in the driver seat and set the car to "dog mode" (keeps the car cool even if "off"). Imagine some cops trying to pull that over!

Not sure you'd actually want a dog in there though as the interior is really slick and comfy, and the glass roof really makes it spacious. It takes around a full evening to recharge the car back to full (as your battery is now your gas) or much faster if you use a super-recharge station which will do the same in a matter of minutes.

There are limits though: The self drive ability only works on roads with lines, so freeways and such are the best use of the feature. Off road or joining/leaving a freeway is best a manual task. Also the car can "panic" if it gets confused which will cause it to wail loudly while returning manual control so no snoozing for you drivers! Obviously any service must be conducted by a Tesla shop too as your local mechanics might scratch their head at what's under the hood.

Lastly, the thing is basically a 2 ton app now and apps can be hacked, tracked, and the like. I mean, it already intentionally tracks itself (again, anti-theft device linked to your phone) but it really looks to be the future of the automotive industry. A second intelligence that helps prevent accidents? Hell yes! Would I get one? Definitely! Why don't I? Because it's super expensive. :P

The Cursed: Gloomfrost Reflection

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The Gloomfrost happens to be the top of a really tall mountain and after the team deal with some polar bears, frost salamanders and yetis use hastened invisibility once more to reach the cave at the summit. This cave is mainly home to remorhaz and ice golems - none of which see the party run past.

Upon finding the seer and requesting for help, she simply gives them a plain mirror and tells them to show it to Wyldfene. Marchon is a bit pissed at this ("we traveled all this way for a mirror!?"), but fortunately the seer also teleports them back down the mountain afterwards.

Maybe it's one of these future tech mirrors?

As instructed, the six adventurers then return to the barbarian camp and are once more granted an audience with King Wyldfene, who is more interested in just executing them on the spot this time. However when shown his own reflection, the spirit dragon inhabiting Wyldfene goes berserk and flees - leaving the corpse of the barbarian leader to collapse in a heap.

Insight: There are traps on the second level of the Gloomfrost, but triggering them won't break invisibility so you can just alternate leads to tank the damage.

Today I Smiled: Historical Lego

Been awhile since I did one of these, and since this clever use of lego did leave me smiling I thought I'd share it with you all:  WWI In LEGO - The Capture of the Amiens Gun - By Brickmania :)

Not lego but equally entertaining is this commercial I stumbled on for Trulicity. I'm guessing the format is normal for US citizens but it is so hilarious for me given that the disclaimers take up more time than the rest of the ad.

Tech wise did you know about this thing called Gate Box which gives you a holographic companion at home? The invention is cool, but the users border on creepy. Anyway, I'm going to finish off with a music link as per usual - this time the legendary Sir Tom Jones being coaxed by fellow Voice judges and the audience to give an impromptu performance. Despite his age, his voice is still fantastic!

Hope you enjoyed at least some of those! ^_^

Blaugust Topic Idea: Future Tech

I am always interested in learning about new technologies and devices, hard ware in particular. So while you can talk about the new OS of your phone, I'd be much more interested in hearing about exoskeleton power armor advancements and electromagnetic levitation.

Yep, that last one came to light for me during the Masterchef Australia 2018 finale when Heston Blumenthal had food on a floating pillow. I know he used a floating plate in a previous season but it wasn't as visually stunning as this.

No strings, just the magic of magnets.

Turns out you too can get your own levitating items from Levitating X: Levitate Everything. Their "how to" video is particularly good, you should go check them out. :)

Beneath a Steel Sky

Australia... in the Future!

This point and click adventure has very simple controls (left mouse/right mouse/F5 for options) but is quite well made. Despite the obvious age, the backdrops are decent, character motions are fluid, and almost all lines of dialogue are voiced (though some incorrectly).

Obviously made before the Opal card system.

The script is also quite humorous though it's definitely for a mature audience and the midi tracks are decent background music. While I didn't run into any logic holes (can't progress because of unobtainable item), it is quite easy to get stuck in the game through three things:

• Dialogue - only when your character knows about things do other options become available elsewhere
• Pixel Hunting - the bane of this sort of game, where "the correct spot" is only a 2x2 pixel cluster on the screen
• Online World - logging in to the virtual reality system gives you a variety of abilities, all of which aren't very user friendly

For the most part though, some thinking will get you a long way. Despite getting stuck a few times, I quite enjoyed this game and can recommend it to others who enjoy this genre. I give it 2.5 Joeys out of 5.

Ghost in the Shell: The Scarlett Johansson Version

There must be no jails in the future, because Section 9 is all about killing.

Based on an anime of the same name this movie cherry picks a bunch of stories from the original content and mashes it up into one narrative, much like how the previously Asian protagonist is put back piecemeal with a pinch of amnesia into Scarlett Johansson. There are certainly worse bodies to get resurrected into!

I'm kinda glad none of the others wear a white, form squeezing body suit. :P

As expected from a GITS story it has a terrorist group, a corrupt company, a bunch of fight scenes and a lot of eye candy. I mean other eye candy, apart from Scarlett. Section 9 is well represented too, with a good choice for Batou, an almost cameo for Saitou and Togusa, and an elderly yet authoritative Aramaki. Who only speaks Japanese, while the rest of the cast speaks English. Yeah that did bug me a bit. The meshing of stories also made for some plot holes.

Also, by making trying to make this somewhat kid friendly by removing the gore and nudity (and blood) featured in the animated counterpart - it does make it fall short to GITS veterans. The futuristic capacity also had some ludicrous looking moments with things that don't translate well into real life. Keep your eyes open for people wearing ridiculous bubble helmets filled with ads. Even the opening surgical staff could probably not see where they were going at all.

So, not as entertaining as the originals but still worth a watch if nothing better is on. I give it 2.5 spider tanks out of 5. Would I watch it again? I'd probably give my consent, but not anytime soon.

Skyrim: What's Inside

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

I sat for awhile in Hjerim, watching the Morag Tong assassins bleed out all over the floor. Some didn't have their heads attached any more. I barely noticed when Bo, who I had sent to scout the perimeter, returned with a bloody parchment in hand. There were no other assassins nearby, but she did find another corpse - one with a strange letter on it indicating a dead drop in town. I wasn't really in the mood for any adventuring but she persisted. She had gone to the dead drop, and found another parchment: one indicating that another dwemer ruin (these seem to just keep popping up) contained an Elder Scroll.

Such an artifact could not fall into the wrong hands so I got up from the chair and headed out to the "really obvious" location. I say that because it had a pillar of light shining right above it. It was also guarded by a dragon. Not just any dragon - a DWEMER STEAM DRAGON! Cool! I didn't want to destroy such wondrous technology if I could avoid it so I tried use Bend Will...

And destroyed my enemy by making it my friend. :)

It must be the only dragon so far that hasn't gone hostile on me after the shout expired. Happy with that outcome I let it go and continued with Bo to the entrance of ... The Lifeless Vaults.

Today I Smiled: Second Wind

Sorry for the post frequency slow down, that last daily run really burned through my prepped content (and me) but don't worry, it will probably be back to that in a few weeks when I catch my breath. This is just a small post just to say that one of my Neverwinter Foundry Quests got second place. Woohoo!

I lost by .9? DAMN!

While there wasn't actually a prize for second place, I still got 132,000 Astral Diamonds for tying in the Best Story section. Woo! At least I won something... ;P

I also learned a few things since my last post, such as not counting the word "The" in alphabetical listings (so I fixed my lists on the top right there), that all snakes are deaf (but can "hear" vibrations), and that 3D pens are actually a thing (a must see for artists).

Lastly I'll leave you with an video links for an old but funny Mountain Dew Ad, a talented tight rope artist, and a silly site where you compare meerkats. Hope you all have a great day!