How My Brain Works Without Coffee, Part 57

I was perusing my YouTube feed, and nestled in the Pete Rose stuff* and electronics videos** was this from Michael Bell and Bellular Gaming:

Sorry, just the screencap.

"Hm..." I thought. "Isn't Beledar the name of a character from a David Eddings series?"

Oh, wait. That's Beldar. Eh, close enough.

*Because I'm from Cincinnati, as was Pete, and because I'm from Cincy of course I must be interested in all things Pete since he played for the Reds in their heyday of The Big Red Machine. The reality is that there are days when if feels like I must be the only West Sider (Pete's home turf) who didn't like him very much. Yeah, he could hit, but he was a big asshole, his kid was a big asshole, and the Reds were likely held back during his tenure as manager in the 1980s. 

**Yes, another of my hobbies. This time the videos included methods on cleaning relays. My old Pioneer receiver (bought in 1987) needs some cleaning, and when you click on one of these videos you get inundated with others.

The Cheeriest Spooky Theme Around

I've been hunting down Halloween music for giving out candy tonight, and one piece that keeps coming up in my searches and on the local stations is Charles Gounod's Funeral March of a Marionette.

Gounod wrote it to make fun of a critic of his --and by all accounts the critic instantly realized the piece was about him-- but it wasn't particularly "Halloween-y" back then.

Then along came Alfred Hitchcock.

Were it not for ol' Alfred using Funeral March of a Marionette as his theme music for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, we probably wouldn't even have this piece in the Halloween lexicon. 

Still, I wonder just how many kids nowadays have ever seen an episode of the series from The Master of Suspense; it's not nearly as iconic as The Twilight Zone, which has marathons on some cable channels around the Christmas and New Year's holidays, or The Outer Limits, which was revived and had another run from the mid-90s to early 2000s.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Meme Monday: Quirky Memes

While I was working on the deck this weekend, I caught myself doing one of my quirks: talking to myself out loud. Apparently the majority of people have an inner monologue that they converse with, but I have an unfortunate tendency to respond to my inner monologue aloud when nobody's around.*

That got me to perusing my meme pile for memes that fit the description of geeky quirks.

OMG yes!
From Titbits and Teacups, and from Nerd Quirks,
which is sadly no more.

I could also use this on a book memes
post, but I figured it works here too.
From ifunny.co.

I have been known to do this.
From @MisterD78UK.

And yes, Reading Quirks does exist as an Instagram
feed. Almost makes me want to login to Instagram to
read all the rest.

*Or I think nobody's around. 

Some People go on Vacation to Rest...

...but I end up working on projects instead.

I'm not exactly sure why I derive such enjoyment from working on a project, but I do. Maybe it's that my job is a case study in never seeing anything truly finished*, or maybe that I'm naturally biased toward working on things with my hands, but when a job finishes up there's a wave of satisfaction that washes over me, if only for a little while.

Of course, things are never that easy. About halfway through a project I get an itch to start another one, and that presents a problem. Sure, the new shiny idea does capture my attention when I'm in the middle of something else, but it also means that I've forgotten why I was excited about the original project in the first place. If I can get through these urges, I can see a project through to completion.

As far as the deck goes, yes, I have felt those urges already.

Still, I've been pushing onward.

My workstation on the porch. I thought the
deck was completely attached to the porch,
but having seen the framing underneath, they
are actually separate. Go figure.

Thankfully I bought the miter saw quickstand, because I wouldn't be able to finish this deck project otherwise. The reviews talked about how light the Ryobi miter saw is, and if that's light I'd hate to lift the "normal" weighted saws.

I finished the last of this current batch of wood, but this also involved doing some other work on the deck.

See where that exit to the north is? That's one of the two locations where I'm going to replace the stairs. As you can tell, there's only one post there to attach a stair railing. Since you need two stair rails, that meant either I was going to put in a post now or wait and do it next year when I actually work on the stairs.

I chose the former. Do it now while the area under the deck is exposed so I don't have to take out boards later. 

Painter's tape is a wonderful invention.

I used painter's tape to attach a level, so I could work it without needing an extra pair of hands.

What's hidden by the support board are extra screws attaching
the post to the ledger board.

No, your eyes do not deceive you, that post is taller than
it's compatriot on the left side. I decided it was smarter to
install a longer post and then cut it down rather than
risk installing a post that was too short.

So now, with 2/3 of the rows replaced, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I have 3-4 leftover 16' deck boards that I'll use when the last batch of wood arrives, and once those are all installed I'll be done for the year. I think I'll use this Winter to let my back rest.

*If you work in IT, you know what I'm talking about. Sure, there are "projects" that end up being "completed", but I'd say only 1 out of 10 projects I've worked on ever crossed the finish line to my satisfaction. There's far too much horse trading going on trying to keep the bugs and disruption to a minimum versus finishing within a (so-called) reasonable time frame.

A Truly Remarkable Life

Sometimes I have this urge to post multiple times in a day, after having not a lot to talk about over a week.

Kind of just figures, right?

Several years ago, I was aware of a WoW player named Mats Steen who'd passed away back in 2014 from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, and his parents were surprised when several of  Mats' WoW friends showed up at his funeral. The events were picked up in a story first presented for the NRK (in Norwegian) in Norway in 2019, but translated and presented on the BBC in English.

It was a touching article, and a reminder that the friends we make in MMOs impact far more people than we may never know. People like Mats are the reason why I play MMOs: not for the shinies or the achievements or the story, but for the people. I'm afraid that too many players lose sight that it is people that make these games special, and not just your buddies on a raid team. It's all about the friendships you make along the way. However, I thought that was that, and the memory of Mats faded over time.

Then I was surprised to see this pop up on my YouTube feed on Tuesday:

From BBC Channel 4.

About a minute into the interview, I realized that yes, I remembered the story of Mats, but... What is it with the animation?

Then I realized that someone (Benjamin Ree) had made a documentary about Mats, and his main, Ibelin. I quickly searched for The Remarkable Life of Ibelin and found the trailer on YouTube:

How did I not know this was coming?

The documentary releases on Netflix in the US on Friday; I was concerned it might be only watchable in Europe. It's already garnered a bunch of awards and nominations at Sundance and other film festivals, so that's a very good sign.

And yes, I checked and we have enough tissues so that when I'm ready to watch it, I can.

More Silence on the (Guild) Banking Industry

I figured I ought to provide an update on the Great Blizzard Bank Heist. Kurn dropped yet another YouTube video Monday evening,

Basically, Blizzard hasn't done much of anything, despite Kurn trying to stir the pot to at least get some visibility on the matter. She's also tried to get some visibility by going to Bellular Gaming, Wowhead, and Blizzard Watch (among other people) without so much as even an acknowledgement response. Blizzard saying nothing I pretty much expected --anybody who has had to try to navigate Microsoft's helpdesk knows how frustrating that can be-- but I at least expected better from Michael Bell and Blizzard Watch.

The Retail WoW community in general has collectively shrugged and moved on in the same way that people not directly affected have moved on after Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.

Other than that, I don't have much to add. I guess there's a big patch coming up in the next day or two which also includes some changes to the banks, so... Uh, good luck with that.

Meme Monday: New to MMOs Memes

We've all been new to an MMO, right? Whether it's WoW, Final Fantasy XIV, SWTOR, LOTRO, New World, or some other game, we've all been the newbie to the genre. So this is dedicated to those first few months that we've spent figuring this genre out.

Trying to figure out what MMO to play is always an
adventure, and not necessarily the good kind. And no,
I don't know what game the scantily clad elf is from.
My guess is BDO. From YouTube.

(And if you understand MMOs now, let me know. I still have a curve ball thrown at me every other week, and I've been  playing since 2009.)

Emblematic of all games, but MMOs in particular,
it's hard to understand the lingo and systems
while you're getting acclimated. From Reddit. Again.

Keeping new players engaged is a real
problem, and weaponizing FOMO is starting
to get a bit old. Once it gets past a certain
point, game companies are going to have to
figure out something else, because the cynicism
will overhwelm any sense of FOMO.
From Reddit. (Do I detect a trend?)

Yeah, this sort of thing happens all the time.
From Pinterest.

Interacting with other players can be good, 
but some MMOs encourage toxic behavior
by design. From Reddit (once more).

Some games are highly customizable with addons, 
which... becomes a problem. Then again, a lot of
MMO players turn off the music and sound and
focus on the addons anyway. From Reddit.

And finally, you knew there was a Starter Pack about MMORPGs...

I feel like they're picking on WoW Classic and
Old School Runescape here. From Reddit.