Category: Random Musings

Just random musings on random stuff.

A Week Since The Computer Was Serviced…

So it’s been about a week since I got my PC back from the shop and so far, so good… I guess?

I suppose I should bring you all up to speed.

So I’m doing whatever one day and I turn on my PC. For the record, it’s a HP Omen gaming computer from 2017 – 6th or 7th generation, 32 GB of RAM, 2 hard drives, higher end graphic card for its day. So I turn on this PC and the next thing you know, the fan starts blowing really fast and really loud. It’s been like that for a while and I’ve done a couple things; opened it up and had it cleaned out a bit, reset the whole system, that sort of thing. Fan went down a bit at the end, but I’m worried that it might crap out on me again. Because the thing I’m not sure if it’s the case fan that’s acting up or even if it’s a CPU fan thing that might need replacing and… while the former might not be much of an issue, the latter is another story, because that means dipping into thermal pasting and other things that are beyond my capabilities.

See, kids. I can do some basic maintenance on PC. I could swap hard drives and ram sticks. Add in a DVD drive if I really need one, but when it comes to the more advanced bits that involve swapping chips and heavy duty stuff like that, I would like that shit to be handled by somebody else. So I’m going to find a place close that can get the thing checked out. Best case; they replace the parts that need to be fixed. Worst case; it’s a lost cause and I should get a new system… which really sucks because the type of hardware I’m going for… which is mainly for video production, but I’d like to be able to run a few decent games on there… that shit don’t come cheap.

I take my tower to the PC shop and I explain my problem. In hindsight, I wish that I had taken some video of the fan on the fritz so that he’d have something to look for rather than my failed attempts at impersonating a fan on the fritz. So he took the PC into the shop, ran it through 12 hours of the most intense stress tests and outside of the usual activity, he wasn’t able to recreate the problem. Maybe it was software related or poor ventilation. In any event, he cleaned out the inside of the box and even replaced the thermal paste on the CPU. And he told me that if the fan started acting up again, we could replace with a regular fan. Good dude, smart fellow, and it wasn’t a huge colossal dent on the wallet.

This was about a week ago and so far the fan hasn’t acted up on me and on top of that, I did most of what I did before without a hitch… which is just as well because other than the fan, it’s still a fine PC that performs more than admirable. And it handles everything I throw at it quite nicely. I’ve been slowing adding back all my old programs and we’ll see how long before the fan begins to act up again… but so far, it’s been smooth sailing. Actually, smoother than usual, all things considered. The fan has not acted up on me once.

Now, while the PC was out of commission and seeing that I was going to need to eventually get a replacement to continue doing this stuff, I started shopping around for a temporary solution of sorts. I considered one of those refurbished gaming PCs on Amazon and some of them have models similar to the stats I need for decent prices. I had bought a refurbed PC for my father, who needed a new system because his old Acer was on the verge of crapping out and that’s been working fine so far… even if all he does with it is play dominoes and watch Facebook videos.

The caveat was that this was a refurbished PC from the last decade. There might be new components, but it also came with a bunch of dongles for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth; stuff that would normally be built in to PCs today. Most refurbished PC listings on Amazon mentioned something about adapters and things of that nature, which left me realizing that maybe this wasn’t the best idea after all.

So what I ended up doing was buy one of those mini PCs that were on sale. This wasn’t a sudden decision out of left field or anything because I had bought a lesser model for myself a couple years (for minor stuff) and generally speaking, I was quite happy with how it performed. So it made sense to try and go for something stronger. The winner ended up being a Beelink Mini Gaming PC with a Rysen processor, 32 gigs of ram, ’bout 500 bucks… and yes, it’s a step down from the Omen. Obviously, the smaller form factor meant no DVD drive, so I need to use an external… though in fairness, the disc drive is something that was phased out for some time in desktops, so that’s an eventuality that I have to prepare for. There are also far fewer USB slots; a stark contrast to the Omen, which had USB slots up the ass. Obviously, performance is not on the same level (more on that in a bit) and it came with one hard drive, but there’s room for another if desired. I am hoping to add another one on there, if only to have something separate from the main C drive. Because that’s one of the things I like to have is a second internal drive that I could throw all my stuff on while the main C drive remained its own thing. It was actually the thing that sold me on the other one.

However, as far as some of the stuff I’m going for it here… VEGAS worked fine on it and rendering videos was as quick as the old tower. OBS seemed to work fine for recording footage, but tends to stutter or skip frames entirely, which made it somewhat unreliable for long-form recordings. Even on the Capture Card front, the recordings were not quite ideal. For what it’s worth, it runs games fairly well, but as far as recording HD footage or even the rare instance of streaming, I’d need something stronger.

In any event, things are slowly, but surely returning to some semblance of normalcy and here’s hoping we can get things back on track.

The Current Situation

A bit of a quick update and some full disclosure regarding reviews…

June 19th will see one review uploaded. The rest of the reviews between now and August is up in the air… but there’s a technical reason behind this.

So my old Omen that I bought back in 2017 recently decided that it was going to blow the fans really loud. The system still works, I can still play stuff on it, but it’s so loud that I can’t dub and quite frankly, having that thing blow for hours on end is a bit of a headache. I’m looking into getting the thing fixed; if it’s something like replacing the case fan or something minor, it’d be no problem. But if it’s a CPU thing, then I’ll need to take this to a shop and have it checked out by somebody who knows what the fuck they’re doing.

Naturally, this is going to impede my ability to make videos. At the moment, only one video is available for upload this Monday, but the rest are either still in various states of development or non-existent. So the scheduling is going to be slightly out of wack. Fortunately, things isn’t a total lost cause because I recently bought a mini-PC gaming that is supposedly designed with gaming in mind. It runs well enough that I can capture some decent footage with OBS and I have enough portable DVD readers to hook up and rip footage. So I can get some stuff going on.

It’s not the ideal set-up and for all intents and purposes, I do want to get my old tower up and running because it is a nice machine and I’d hate to see it go to waste. But for now, this is where we’re at with technology and stuff.

Will keep you all updated down the road.

Later.

It’s Okay To Like A Franchise And Not Like Everything In It

You’re a big fan of a franchise. You like the movies they put out. Some of the TV shows were pretty good. You’ve even dabbled in some of the official novels and comic books.

But then something comes along and it isn’t quite as good… and much to your dismay, you discover that you not only don’t like this new thing, but you might actually hate it. You consider this an affront to the franchise you’ve grown to love over the years.

It doesn’t end there. Something else comes along and it’s even worse than the other thing. You come to realize that these new things are lesser products devised to set aside all the things you loved about that franchise in favor of trying to appeal that wider, casual audience… otherwise known as the “lowest common denominator.”

All of a sudden, the thing you loved ever since you were a young kid is slowly but surely becoming a thing that you don’t like. You get to that point where you’re becoming the old timer who shouts at the clouds about how everything was better back in the day when the franchise was in its infancy and now everything is just crap or worse.

Does that make you less of a fan?

Of course it fucking doesn’t.

Kids… it’s okay to be a fan of something and not like everything that comes out of it. I have enjoyed many franchises over the years – some of which have been a substantial part of my life in some form or fashion – and I can freely admit that some of the stuff coming from those franchises lately have been… let’s just say “less than stellar.” Does that make me less of a fan of this thing or worse, a “fake fan?”

Of course it fucking doesn’t.

First of all, someone not enjoying the thing you enjoy should not prevent you from enjoying the thing you enjoy. Some things I enjoy are not enjoyed by other people. That does not hamper my enjoyment of these things that some people don’t enjoy as much as I do, if at all. Your enjoyment of something should not be gauged by how many other people are or are not enjoying that something. If you like something that everybody else hates, then more power to you. On the other hand, if you don’t like something that is beloved by many others, that doesn’t make you less of a fan and if anyone else tries to convince you otherwise in a non-joking manner, that’s their problem, not yours.

Like what you like and be done with it. If you like the old stuff, just watch the old stuff. If you like the new stuff, watch the new stuff. If you like everything, then have at it. And if you’d rather spent your time doing something else, then that’s cool too.

I’d tell you not to be a dick, but it seems like every time I hear someone tell people not to be a dick, they eventually become one themselves.

I don’t know what compelled me to type out this piece of business, but hey, it’s something, I suppose.

Cherish Your Mothers

Well, it’s Mother’s Day.

I wish that I could say it’s a happy one, but as it relates to my mother, that’s not going to be the case this year. She’s bed-ridden, with a leg infection that has gone on for weeks, and a possible clot in one of her lungs that they need to perform surgery on soon. We’re doing our best to keep her in high spirits, but to see her in such pain hurts my soul.

I am not one to share personal experiences online unless it relates to the stuff I normally post about here because my personal matters are no one’s business but my own. In this case, I’m sharing this brief story and with it, offer a wish to you all to cherish your mothers while they’re still around. Maybe you’ve got a good relationship, maybe it’s a bit sour, and maybe you’ve had your rows. But your mother is an important part of your life and it’s important to appreciate them for the profound effect that they’ve had in your upbringings.

That’s all.

Later,
Dave

Reshuffling Due To Family Issues

First off, I want to apologize for the lack of scheduled videos this week. Unfortunately, I’ve had my plate full as of late, dealing with some family issues that I don’t want to get into other than it relates to health concerns regarding a member of the family. As a result, I haven’t been in the right mindset to do dubs or edit any video stuff this week and a lot of the text blurbs that were posted recently were written a while ago with the intent to be published later down the road.

For what it’s worth, I recently sat down and finished the final touches on the Indy review and assuming nothing else pops up, I’m hoping to have the video up tomorrow. Above all else, the goal is to try and put together a bunch of smaller reviews so that I can clear the video plate to work on the last stretch of reviews before the big quadruple digits. This is the plan, though it is subject to change should the situation change.

Again, I’m sorry for the lack of video content, but things on the family front as well as my own sanity needs attention at the moment. Hopefully, things will return to some semblance of normalcy around these parts, but I’m expecting the worse. If anything else comes up, I will let you folks know.

Since We’re On The (Sailor) Moonshine…

Since we’re riding on the Sailor Moonshine this week, I guess it would be a good time to mention that Crave (the Canadian streaming service from Bell) has the original Sailor Moon anime… only it’s the newer English dub rather than the one from the 90s when everyone sounded older and for some reason, Luna had a British accent. That is actually the one big thing that I have to adjust to when watching this newer dub because Luna doesn’t have that and it’s hard to visualize her English take without it.

So I’ve been watching bits and pieces of this thing… jumping back and forth, here and there… there’s about two-hundred episodes of this thing and most of it is filler. I guess that’s why I prefer the newer Crystal version in that regard; when it comes to the major story bits, it’s a lot more condensed and little character moments mean something. Meanwhile, there are so many filler episodes between major plotpoints that it feels like we’re repeating the same gags over and over.

That said, I’m actually enjoying jumping into this old show. There’s an element of humor that Crystal was lacking, though I’ll admit that it’s easy to think of Rei in this anime as a totally different character from the Rei featured in other shows. And yes, Usagi cries quite a bit and yes, they find many ways of making the most out of a cheap one-note gag… but if I’m going to be bare, two hundred episodes of vintage Sailor Moon anime doesn’t feature as much as crying as a single season of Star Trek: Discovery. At the very least, I’m being somewhat entertained here.

That is all for now, kids.

Later.

No, I Still Have Not Watched Andor…

So a week or so ago, I re-activated my old Ask.fm account – Ask.fm being a place where people ask questions and you’d supply answers. I’d figure that would be a nice way of inviting more questions for the Q&A segments of the DTM-Cast that I need to start up again. Anyway, almost immediately, I’ve been bombarded with two types of questions. One type involves anything involving sex and relationships – those get tossed almost immediately. Another type involve random questions involving random things; these I will pick and choose to answer while others I will toss.

And then there’s one other person who drops in every day and asks the same question over and over and over again. The question in question: “Have you watched Andor yet? It’s a good show”

I have no idea why I’m being asked this question. The only assumption I could surmise is that someone really wants me to watch that Andor show that’s a prequel to Rogue One – you know, the movie where everyone dies at the end; sorry if I spoiled the movie for everyone. I have not seen the show nor do I have any interest in the show. Asking me to get invested in a character that’s going to die in the end for a whole miniseries seems like a big ask and Rogue One wasn’t a movie where I was big into the characters.

And so for anyone wondering, no, I have not watched Andor. I have no intention of watching Andor any time soon. I’m not going to say that I’m never going to watch it because, you know, some days will leave you with plenty of time to spare, but at the moment, not interested. Maybe next time.

Mixed Emotions

I was never the biggest JDF fan in the world. His online antics over the past few years had soured me on him and as a result, I have said some unkind things about him in the past. There was even a tag that denoted how I felt about him for a while; a tag that smacked of outright immaturity on my part. But the truth is that while his public persona had always rubbed me, I have never hated the man himself nor thought any less of him as a human being. The man had accomplished quite a bit over the course of his life, made a name for himself, had a loyal following, and was responsible for the popularity of one of the biggest media franchises in the world. While I’d frown on whatever stupid stunt he would pull for attention, I’d never wished ill towards the man.
So to hear that this past weekend, he had taken his own life… I don’t know what to say.
I’ve been thinking about a way to pay some tribute… but right now, I’m still trying to process the whole thing. For now, I can only offer my condolences and prayers to his family and friends.

Elon Musk Buying Twitter Could Mean The End Of The Twitter And I'm All For It

So, for those who haven’t heard, some rich dude named Elon Musk bought Twitter and is in the process of implementing changes. One such change being a monthly subscription for a blue checkmark as opposed to the spotty approval process for said checkmark. People are already jumping off the platform as a result and some are even signaling the end of Twitter, either as they know it or as a whole.

Let me tell you something. I am all in on the fall of Twitter.
There is not a single cesspole of online garbage and depravity than Twitter. It is truly the nadir of human civilization where supposedly “grown adults” can go online and spew garbage or follow trends for the sake of likes and follows. It has the ability to turn causes – however noble or otherwise – into giant flame wars and insult bombing that turns said cause into a toxic subject. When the platform becomes the means to “support the current thing” and then act complete retards in the process – and that’s being kind – then it’s either time to clean it up or shut it down.
The day Twitter comes to an end and dies will be a day that most people will mourning.
The day Twitter ends is the day I will do a dance.
But only for my super duper followers.
Fortunately, I don’t have Twitter.
So thank you, Elon Musk, for buying Twitter. I’d buy you a round, but you can afford twenty, so I won’t bother. How about a slot on the list if Twitter dies, eh?