T w e n t y S i d e d

The next Final Fantasy 1 Pixel Remaster session, below the fold:

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Final Fantasy 1 (part 003)”

Paige Francis He/him

I had a weird week. Even as I wrote this I heard a bang that sounded *exactly* like a box of chicken strips falling to the ground because an overactive cat knocked it over. All week has been like that. We don’t even have boxes of chicken strips in the house very often, and this one was especially-well-protected…but the cat just tried to pull the box of chicken strips out from under the bottles of cleaner weighing it down. I was, believe it or not, actually well myself this past week but ended up driving people to doctor appointments, or picking up meds, or driving people to other appointments, or installing someone’s multifunction printer that is used almost entirely for printing from an Apple iPad, and other things I’m probably not even remembering right now. Oh, and picking up a car from a mechanic and working on another one; neither of those was hard. I have been trying to stay out of my office when I don’t need to be in here, and while that’s helping a lot of things I’m not sure it’s been good for my productivity on computer-related issues. The jury is still out on that issue.

Infinity Nikki has been added to Steam as a “Coming Soon” title, however it is still listed as using kernel-level anticheat, ACE. Just adding a title to Steam doesn’t automatically overcome the issues kernel-level anticheat introduces for Linux users, but I noticed Steam Deck support is still listed as “unknown” so I’ve chosen to believe Valve is possibly going to introduce a work-around…and there is a decent chance this will eventually find its way to Linux.

I have been catching up on Foxmaster‘s “self-aware” Lara Croft, as I noticed he upgraded to the remastered editions (the “official” remasters) somewhere around Tomb Raider III. Foxmaster is almost done with III at this point, and I believe he has already posted some “shorts” footage from IV. I still recommend these videos, although Foxmaster did stop providing updates on the game-playing routine. The bloopers reel he does for every level still gives some insights into the iterative processes needed, but honestly getting Lara through any given level is as much a matter of luck as it is scripting polish. The Lara Croft “commentary” is still created the same way as initially outlined, with the updates I’ve already talked about to increase the speed of level generation. Again, the bloopers reels provide some insight into the various ways commentary can go on any given playthrough. Occasionally the output included in the bloopers is better than the produced video. Foxmaster usually points this out as regrettable. As far as I can tell he tries very hard to make the produced video be the product of a single actual playthrough to maintain consistency…and this means sometimes better results are left on the cutting-room floor, so to speak.

Incidentally, while I’ve been a big fan of Brother laser printers for personal use (multifunction or otherwise), I will point out that the process for getting a new one going is *not* currently as good as HP’s or Canon’s. IMO, of course; that is based on how my own mind works and others may interpret the instructions differently. It took a few tries to get started, but did work in the end. On an unrelated note, I will also need to setup a new iPad soon. This is purely because the old one is a 32GB model that needs its entire memory cleaned out in order to install the latest (as of a year ago, I’m guessing) update.

I’ll be adding another post tomorrow when I’ve had some time to sit and relax for a while. Sorry about the split post; hope everyone had a great weekend!

Paige Francis He/him

In an effort to spend less time in my office and more time connecting with my family, I have ended up watching more movies. Just as last week I ended up thinking about existential horror, this week I wondered about expectations. And a few failures, honestly. But the expectations were the big one, and that’s where we will start, with 2024’s Winter Island. Spoilers for the entire movie are contained, if you wish to watch first. As well as spoilers for the 2023 The Boogeyman and 2020’s Behind You, although those are pretty minor. All are free on TubiTV, which is my primary go-to for viewing pleasure. Sorry about the ads, if you’re watching on a TV, tablet, or phone app.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “What We Can Learn from Winter Island, and some other horror movies”

Paige Francis He/him

I have spent a lot of the last few weeks “being a parent.” I have also spent about half of that time extremely sick with, the best I can tell, a bad cold. Everyone but me complained of flu symptoms (body aches, etc) although that only hit me very briefly. Not to brag, although saying that is inherently bragging, but I handled this about as well as I could handle an illness. It was clear everyone had been/was/was getting sick, so as soon as I felt it coming I started taking NyQuil every six hours. I slept for about 2 1/2 days straight (not in one sitting…the most I’ve ever done from sickness in one sitting was 18 or 21 hours). Following the sleeping, I would take one DayQuil (my spellcheck says I should replace this word with Gayquill, or something like that, which is funny) during the waking hours then one or two NyQuil appropriately. After a couple days of that, I was down to, and currently am, taking DayQuil only if the congestion gets bad…which it hasn’t (gotten worse than it normally is…we live in an *extremely* dusty area.) Along with getting meds for a few other people and making sure they take the medicine, the last few days has primarily been focused on horror movies, house cleaning, and YouTube. And being a parent.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Doin’ Some Life the last few days”

Paige Francis He/him