Week Ending 8/2

Hey, it's me...

You know how I said I might have overdone it finishing In Moonlight last week?

Yeah, I overdid it finishing In Moonlight last week. This week has been mostly resting, playing Skyrim, chilling and watching stuff (see yesterdays review of Conan the Barbarian (2011))

The only other thing I did is worked with D creating an Age of Sigmar conversion from the Grand Army of Cathay. Actually, D did all the work. I just reviewed what he came up with and made suggestions for tweaks. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, that's OK. We wrote house rules, converting a new faction from the Warhammer Old World tabletop miniatures game to the Age of Sigmar tabletop miniatures game because we don't play Old World.)

That's really it. A quiet week. 

Onward

Conan the Barbarian (2011)

Hey, it's your roving movie reviewer, back after who knows how long...

I just have to talk to you about the movie I watched today - Conan the Barbarian (2011) with Jason Momoa. I watched this on streaming because, well, I was tired and needed some mindless entertainment. This looked promising for that. 

I can say, it lived up to that promise. :)

Honestly, if this movie had been one of those cheap '80s Conan knock-offs that a lot of men of my generation are embarrassed to admit we enjoyed, it would have been a pretty good one. It's got the big, strong guy with a loincloth and a sword who spends most of the movie hitting people. It's got the pretty girl, who's bare breasts you do get to see in the obligatory sex scene. It's got enough incidental bare breasts to solidly lock in the young adult male audience. It's got a creepy evil sorceress and a scenery chewing villain. It even has a vague semblance of a plot, engaging enough to drive the action while simple enough so you don't really have to think about it.

In short, it's a basic, cheesy sword and sorcerer flick. If it had come out in the '80s it probably would done OK in theaters and spend the rest of the decade being played nightly on Cinemax. 

Unfortunately, it came out in 2011 and so missed it's target audience by about three decades. According to Wikipedia, the movie's own director is horribly unhappy with it and considers it's sole saving grace the fact that it did not tank Jason Momoa's career. Honestly, on that score I think it might actually have helped him... if only by proving conclusively that you can't just give him a loincloth and a sword and expect success.

Still, if you're looking for a mindless guilty pleasure to kill a couple of hours with, you could do far worse.

Week Ending 7/26

Hey, it's me...

It's finished! I have completed the drafts and screenshots for the last ten chapters of In Moonlight. About two months ago, this story was kicking my ass so hard that I had to stop and set it aside for a bit. Then, when I finally felt up to writing again, my game started crashing like crazy, making getting screenshots a virtual impossibility. Now, after all these trials and a couple of weeks of struggling with the most technically complex writing and screenshots I've attempted since I started on SimLit... It Is Finished! It won't actually be fully published for another ten weeks, but it's written (baring the minor edits I always make as chapters get closer to publication). 

I am proud of me.

In other news, I had my doctor's appointment this week. After last weeks blood test debacle, I spent most of the worrying about what was going to go wrong next. Answer - not a blessed thing, as far as I can tell. I had a good talk with the doctor. He explained why he hadn't put in an order for bloodwork (the metformin needs more time to work before bloodwork will show meaningful data). We discussed a couple of other small things that were bothering me and, it turns out, I'm actually doing really well. All the small things are, in fact, small things. 

So, yeah... that's good.

I have probably massively overdone it finishing In Moonlight today, but I'm still too bloody pleased with myself to care at the moment. 

Onward

Week Ending 7/19

Hey, it's me...

What to say about this week?

I've been pushing myself too hard, working on write and getting screenshots for my current Wyrd Tales story. I'm very near the end and I'm excited to get the story finished. At this one, I'm down to two more chapters to write and screenshots for those and five more. It's some of the most technically ambitious stuff I've done both in terms of writing and screenshots. I'm rather proud of it. Still, it's taking a lot out of me and I'm getting frustrated because I can't just work until it's done.

I also had a deal with some extremely annoying blood tests... in that there weren't actually any blood tests. I have a doctor's appointment next week, so I went to the lab to get my bloodwork done. First, the idiotic new hospital managers closed the lab that was across the street from me, so we actually had to go all the way into town to go to the hospital. Then, when we got there, they said I didn't have any bloodwork scheduled. They even called the doctor, who evidently agreed that I didn't have any bloodwork. So an entirely wasted day... and weird because I always have bloodwork before an appointment. Well, we'll find out what's going on with that next week. 

So, I'm worn out and frustrated... but my story is fantastic!

Onward

Week Ending 7/12

Hey, it's me...

Well, let's see... the ongoing computer drama from last week is semi-resolved. Basically, we got my computer back from the repair place. The guy a) failed to actually repair the game, b) updated the game despite my explicit, detailed, written and illustrated instructions not to, c) messed up my browser settings and d) messed up my Windows OS. We had to take the computer back to shop for him to fix the things he broke trying to fix the game. He worked on it. He didn't fix it.

So, maybe not going to the repair place again.

On the plus side, with some help from the Sims Creative forum members, and the time without my laptop to clear my head, I've managed to get my Sims game working well enough that I've been able to get some screenshots for my story again. The game still isn't entirely stable, but that could be for any one of countless reasons. 

In other news... nah, not really much by way of other news. Life goes on. The stress of last week, and the relaxation that comes with having resolved most of it, have left me pretty wrecked. I'm resting. Really not much more I can ask for. 

Onward

Week Ending 7/5

Hey, it's me...

A little late today, but still here. Well, kinda...

See, I mentioned last week that I was having trouble with my Sims game. Well, after several days of testing mods, I managed to get it to work... or so I thought. Then I tried to load my actual saves and get some picture for my next chapters. That was the point where everything when completely pear shaped and my computer started crashing like crazy. 

Long story slightly less long, I sent my laptop in to the local computer repair store to see if they could figure out what was wrong. 

The rest of the week has been complete hell. I've discovered how dependent I am on my laptop for... basically everything. I'm losing my mind... and no, I don't have it back yet. J was kind enough to let me use her laptop for the last couple of days which has kept me somewhat sane, but the longer this drags out, the worse it gets. Of course, basically the last three days were 4th of July weekend, so the repair shop was closed and my laptop is sitting on a shelf somewhere. I have no idea when, or even if, I'll get it back. 

In short, this week sucked!

Cross your fingers for me.

Onward

Week Ending 6/28

Hey, it's me...

Sorry, this week got away from me and I forgot until just now that it was Sunday. 

So, on the plus side, we have not been washed away by flooding (touch wood). We've had some... exciting... weather and all, but we're still good at the moment (touch wood again). Staying safe and keeping alert.

On the minus side, I feel like crap. I think I'm having a bad reaction to my new medication... or possibly to a combination of my new medication and fatty foods. Either way, I've had a couple of really, really rough nights and some long days. 

To make matters worse, I made the mistake of updating my Sims game, which is now crashing all over the place. I'm sure it's a problem with one of my mods, but I couldn't easily figure out which one. I'm having to my very first 50/50 test of my mods folder. That involves pulling out all my mods, dividing them into batches, putting each batch back in in turn and testing to see if the game crashes. When it does, you pull out the last batch, divide it in half and put half of it back... repeat until the game no longer crashes and you identify the bad mod. Then move on to the next batch. I've been working on this for two days and I'm about halfway through my mods folder. It's not exactly fun.

I also had a complete emotional meltdown earlier in the week... combination of stress, fatigue, frustration, hunger, nausea, loneliness and just general misery. (Not helped by the conviction that I'm just talking to ghosts here... but, you know, at least she listens. She always listens.)

So, yeah, rough week. Not all bad, but definitively rough.

I'm going back to taking it easy. Maybe watching a movie later.

Onward