Lord Ba'al
Well Known GateFan
So, what's going on around here these days? I haven't been around for a while. Seems like the forum layout completely changed. Is anyone still active here?
I've been keeping busy with work. So much so that it seems I'm heading towards a burn-out. But, I've managed to get myself a three-day weekend right now, so hopefully that'll help a bit.
Been playing video games on PS5 lately. None of them are actually PS5 games by the way, pretty much all PS4. Just last week, a new Ratchet & Clank game became available for pre-order. What's the fucking point of that if I pay full price but I still won't be able to play the game for another 4 months or so? Are they f*cking bonkers or what? And it costs 70 pounds too!!! I don't think so. I am anxiously awaiting the sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn though. Man, what a game. It's available for cheap for PlayStation and it's definitely worth the money. Double the money or more even. I'm sure the sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, will become available for pre-order at some point this year as well, but I will similarly ignore it if I don't get a discount for pre-ordering or if it doesn't get me any extra goodies. Paying around 70 pounds for a game is WAY more than I have ever spent on a game in my life. It will be a threshold for me. Right now, I'm not sure whether I will spend that kind of money on Horizon Forbidden West, but the fact that I'm not sure says a lot about how much I enjoyed Horizon Zero Dawn. The game is available for PC by the way, released last year, three years after being released on PS4, but it doesn't come cheap yet.
I actually haven't watched many movies or TV shows at all. Watched season 5 of The Expanse of course, after all the episodes were out. As for movies, I've watched none of them for months, aside from a bunch of Christmas movies my wife forced me to. Aside from The Expanse, we've been watching The Masked Singer, both the US and the UK versions. It's kinda alright. Somewhat well-known people dress up in some costume which makes them completely unrecognizable and then it's a matter of guessing who each one is. It's a singing competition too, so eventually there is one winner. I'm finding it very hard to make guesses, since I generally don't follow on celebrity stuff, so basically I don't stand a chance of making a correct guess, but still, I find it enjoyable. There's something about seeing a sausage sing a song so well that it invokes a physical reaction inside your body somehow that is rather enjoyable. The sausage is not a euphemism by the way, it's a character on season two of the UK show which just finished. Spoiler alert:
Another spoiler:
Anyway, if you're bored, why not give The Masked Singer a try. Maybe you'll like it.
What else is going on... Well, we're still not leaving the house. My wife hasn't left the house since we came back from our trip from USA in March 2020. I go to the store around the corner once in a while. But generally, everybody stays in, and we order stuff to be delivered to the house. Like food. Speaking of which, I should order some food now, because I've been drinking Scotch since I got up two hours ago and I haven't had anything to eat. Omelet sounds good right about now. Ordered. Delivered. In the belly now. Feels better. By the way, it's not like I'm drinking Scotch all the time, I basically rarely drink alcohol. Wine, almost never. Beer, slightly more often than wine, but still very infrequently. Whisky, my favorite drink, but too expensive to be drinking often. I'm pretty content drinking water most of the time. Lately been switching between water and sprite/7up. So, not an alcoholic! Anyway...
I have been planning to build a computer (actually two) for the living room for a while now. Unfortunately, though I have obtained some of the parts, the finish line is far from in sight. I had even designed a piece of furniture in AutoCAD (after many revisions/iterations) that would hold the two computers, as well as the PS5 and all the other equipment we have near the TV (router, TV box, HDMI-switch, Alexa cube and Google Home mini) and possibly even an Xbox Series X. I was going to build it myself, but of course being me I didn't choose an easy design. I'm certain that I'll be able to build it, but it'll just be a lot of work. Though the design was finalized a long time ago, I haven't yet started on the build process. Main reason is, I don't have a workshop. I also don't have all the required tools, but I could get those. But not having a workshop is a bit of a road block. In theory, I could do stuff in the (small) back yard, but that place is a mess and honestly not really suitable for the work that would need to be done. My wife keeps talking about buying a place of our own though, and she tries to sweeten the deal with a garage I could use for a work shop. The parts I do have are two motherboard trays, four 4-bay hard-drive enclosures, a 1200 Watt power supply suitable for connecting two computers, a 64 GB kit of 4000 MHz DDR4 RAM (2 sticks) and some card for being able to hookup the 16 hard-drives the system could hold.
If you've been keeping somewhat up to speed with the goings on in PC hardware land, you'll probably be aware that there's a significant shortage on both CPUs and GPUs, particularly the AMD processors and Nvidia 30-series graphics cards. This is another reason I've been holding off on the build. I don't intend to pay double the price of a component on eBay because assholes are buying up all the parts and trying to scalp them. Instead, I've resigned myself to waiting for the next generation at least. Presumably, the next generation AMD Ryzen processors will move to a new CPU socket. I'm not entirely sure on this. But, the AM4 socket has been used for quite a while and I think it's about time for a change. Intel changes their sockets pretty much every generation or two. So, I'm looking forward to news about the future generations of Ryzen processors later this year. I don't see any point in investing in CPUs, motherboards and graphic cards until I get close to completing the project. Same is true for SSD and hard-drives. There are just so many developments going on at the moment. The idea was to have one gaming system and the other computer act as a home media server. Looks like it may have to wait until we have our own place.
Our cats are all doing fine. The Maine Coon doesn't look much bigger than he did a year ago, but he certainly feels weighty when he comes over and lies down over my arm on my desk while I'm working. He's becoming a big boy for sure. An extremely naughty big boy. He likes to bite. He likes to mess around with stuff he shouldn't be. The other two kitties are mostly good boys and girls. The bad boy likes to chase them. But, he looks so cute!
Regarding all this virus crap, I believe 99% of it is bull shit. Whether it is orchestrated or not, the result is that people are being conditioned. And there is obviously an angle of social pressure involved here. So called tests being used are completely worthless because almost all of the results are false positives or false negatives. The test was never meant for this kind of use, the inventor of the test has said so. Numbers are way out of control because every kind of illness is suddenly automatically related to COVID-19. Governments are reacting in completely ridiculous ways to all the false numbers. Media are demonstrably biased towards pro-virus positions to help keep the "new status quo" in tact. I've seen a doctor in a Spanish hospital get interviewed on TV and he calmly rebutted the interviewer's "questions" (more like disguised statements in question form) about a "second wave" stating that in actuality there was nothing extraordinary going on in the hospital and that it was very quiet there. We're now living in a world of fear for no reason other than it being forced upon us. Economies are suffering and small businesses are getting wiped out. I find myself wondering which parties are benefitting from all of this.
Anyway, how are you?
I've been keeping busy with work. So much so that it seems I'm heading towards a burn-out. But, I've managed to get myself a three-day weekend right now, so hopefully that'll help a bit.
Been playing video games on PS5 lately. None of them are actually PS5 games by the way, pretty much all PS4. Just last week, a new Ratchet & Clank game became available for pre-order. What's the fucking point of that if I pay full price but I still won't be able to play the game for another 4 months or so? Are they f*cking bonkers or what? And it costs 70 pounds too!!! I don't think so. I am anxiously awaiting the sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn though. Man, what a game. It's available for cheap for PlayStation and it's definitely worth the money. Double the money or more even. I'm sure the sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, will become available for pre-order at some point this year as well, but I will similarly ignore it if I don't get a discount for pre-ordering or if it doesn't get me any extra goodies. Paying around 70 pounds for a game is WAY more than I have ever spent on a game in my life. It will be a threshold for me. Right now, I'm not sure whether I will spend that kind of money on Horizon Forbidden West, but the fact that I'm not sure says a lot about how much I enjoyed Horizon Zero Dawn. The game is available for PC by the way, released last year, three years after being released on PS4, but it doesn't come cheap yet.
I actually haven't watched many movies or TV shows at all. Watched season 5 of The Expanse of course, after all the episodes were out. As for movies, I've watched none of them for months, aside from a bunch of Christmas movies my wife forced me to. Aside from The Expanse, we've been watching The Masked Singer, both the US and the UK versions. It's kinda alright. Somewhat well-known people dress up in some costume which makes them completely unrecognizable and then it's a matter of guessing who each one is. It's a singing competition too, so eventually there is one winner. I'm finding it very hard to make guesses, since I generally don't follow on celebrity stuff, so basically I don't stand a chance of making a correct guess, but still, I find it enjoyable. There's something about seeing a sausage sing a song so well that it invokes a physical reaction inside your body somehow that is rather enjoyable. The sausage is not a euphemism by the way, it's a character on season two of the UK show which just finished. Spoiler alert:
The sausage won.
It was Joss Stone.
What else is going on... Well, we're still not leaving the house. My wife hasn't left the house since we came back from our trip from USA in March 2020. I go to the store around the corner once in a while. But generally, everybody stays in, and we order stuff to be delivered to the house. Like food. Speaking of which, I should order some food now, because I've been drinking Scotch since I got up two hours ago and I haven't had anything to eat. Omelet sounds good right about now. Ordered. Delivered. In the belly now. Feels better. By the way, it's not like I'm drinking Scotch all the time, I basically rarely drink alcohol. Wine, almost never. Beer, slightly more often than wine, but still very infrequently. Whisky, my favorite drink, but too expensive to be drinking often. I'm pretty content drinking water most of the time. Lately been switching between water and sprite/7up. So, not an alcoholic! Anyway...
I have been planning to build a computer (actually two) for the living room for a while now. Unfortunately, though I have obtained some of the parts, the finish line is far from in sight. I had even designed a piece of furniture in AutoCAD (after many revisions/iterations) that would hold the two computers, as well as the PS5 and all the other equipment we have near the TV (router, TV box, HDMI-switch, Alexa cube and Google Home mini) and possibly even an Xbox Series X. I was going to build it myself, but of course being me I didn't choose an easy design. I'm certain that I'll be able to build it, but it'll just be a lot of work. Though the design was finalized a long time ago, I haven't yet started on the build process. Main reason is, I don't have a workshop. I also don't have all the required tools, but I could get those. But not having a workshop is a bit of a road block. In theory, I could do stuff in the (small) back yard, but that place is a mess and honestly not really suitable for the work that would need to be done. My wife keeps talking about buying a place of our own though, and she tries to sweeten the deal with a garage I could use for a work shop. The parts I do have are two motherboard trays, four 4-bay hard-drive enclosures, a 1200 Watt power supply suitable for connecting two computers, a 64 GB kit of 4000 MHz DDR4 RAM (2 sticks) and some card for being able to hookup the 16 hard-drives the system could hold.
If you've been keeping somewhat up to speed with the goings on in PC hardware land, you'll probably be aware that there's a significant shortage on both CPUs and GPUs, particularly the AMD processors and Nvidia 30-series graphics cards. This is another reason I've been holding off on the build. I don't intend to pay double the price of a component on eBay because assholes are buying up all the parts and trying to scalp them. Instead, I've resigned myself to waiting for the next generation at least. Presumably, the next generation AMD Ryzen processors will move to a new CPU socket. I'm not entirely sure on this. But, the AM4 socket has been used for quite a while and I think it's about time for a change. Intel changes their sockets pretty much every generation or two. So, I'm looking forward to news about the future generations of Ryzen processors later this year. I don't see any point in investing in CPUs, motherboards and graphic cards until I get close to completing the project. Same is true for SSD and hard-drives. There are just so many developments going on at the moment. The idea was to have one gaming system and the other computer act as a home media server. Looks like it may have to wait until we have our own place.
Our cats are all doing fine. The Maine Coon doesn't look much bigger than he did a year ago, but he certainly feels weighty when he comes over and lies down over my arm on my desk while I'm working. He's becoming a big boy for sure. An extremely naughty big boy. He likes to bite. He likes to mess around with stuff he shouldn't be. The other two kitties are mostly good boys and girls. The bad boy likes to chase them. But, he looks so cute!
Regarding all this virus crap, I believe 99% of it is bull shit. Whether it is orchestrated or not, the result is that people are being conditioned. And there is obviously an angle of social pressure involved here. So called tests being used are completely worthless because almost all of the results are false positives or false negatives. The test was never meant for this kind of use, the inventor of the test has said so. Numbers are way out of control because every kind of illness is suddenly automatically related to COVID-19. Governments are reacting in completely ridiculous ways to all the false numbers. Media are demonstrably biased towards pro-virus positions to help keep the "new status quo" in tact. I've seen a doctor in a Spanish hospital get interviewed on TV and he calmly rebutted the interviewer's "questions" (more like disguised statements in question form) about a "second wave" stating that in actuality there was nothing extraordinary going on in the hospital and that it was very quiet there. We're now living in a world of fear for no reason other than it being forced upon us. Economies are suffering and small businesses are getting wiped out. I find myself wondering which parties are benefitting from all of this.
Anyway, how are you?
I thought you had just left, and considering how the place has changed, I couldn't blame you! But I am going to give this a go again and try and morph it into a "platform". How are is wifey and the cats? I lost Siete to cancer in December. I have two new cats. Please feel free to give suggestions!
