I vaguely recall a similar, if not the same, film preceeding a few shows, intermixed with the Sluggo, Vatos and another member's heads in a graveyard to intro a song before the show started. Anyone else remember that? You can even hear some of the musical influences in their early song writing throughout!
Recently I ran across a PS5 with a disc drive for $300.
I brought it home and decided to test it to make sure it works and within a few minutes it was overheating.
So, I tore it apart and found that it had previously been torn apart, with markings for the screw holding the cooling mount to the board previously having been marked.
Long story short, the liquid metal was spread thin, so I replaced the liquid metal with thermal paste I had onhand and reassembled.
When I turned it back on it worked, so I reset it back to factory specs but I turned my attention to the controller, where the buttons were sticky.
I left the PS5 running, disassembled the controller, cleaned it with isopropal, and reassembled.
When I got it reassembled, I decided to retest it and the buttons worked perfectly, however the touchpad part was still sticky.
Then the PS5 gave the overheat warning and shut down as the fan spun loudly and hard.
So I ordered some Thermal Grizzly which arrives this week to replace the thermal paste that's not working and returned my attention to the controller.
I now have the controller apart, the touchpad out, and am trying to figure out how to separate just that part without breaking it but it seems attached to each other, and when I looked online it seems the part assembly is sold separately as a single mulipart piece.
Is there anyway to get between the two pieces without breaking them so I can clean out the stickiness or do I need to just purchase a replacement f the whole assembly and install it as a new part?
In 2016, I voted against the Orange Skidmark because I thought we (The U.S.) would lose the respect of the world for a generation, and said so to others.
But in the following 4 years, the rest of the world, while you all didn't like him, and were offended by him repeatedly, focused your, shall we say, discontent on him and him alone, treating the U.S. citizens with sort of kid gloves for making the mistake of electing a known rapist, liar, pedophiac, and con artist to the highest office to the land.
He then spent the next four years chumming up to foreign leaders who were the antithesis of who we thought we were, the list is too long to even mention, while he attempted to "renegotiate" long standing agreements, trade deals, and support that the U.S. had pledged in an effort to somehow gain an advantage.
In 2020, during the height of a global pandemic, he was thrust from office (well, "thrust" might be too harsh a word seeing that he lost by only a few percentage points) and the U.S. citizens became subject to the most divisive day in modern history, when Joe Biden assumed control of the Executive branch and the world breathed a sigh of relief that the nightmare was over.
But it was a short lived reprieve.
Republicans never lost faith in his ability to control the masses and in 2024, after yet another absolute Debacle of performance Democrats are notorious for, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, the U.S. citizens reelected the Orange McDonald back into the White House, and he returned like a man on a vengeance tour.
He began by tearing down down longstanding agreements, some of which even he, in his first term signed as being better than previous ones, and imposed tariffs on everyone, hell, even on an island that only had penguins, just in case they could be a threat to the economy.
And he also returned to his threat on the campaign trail of "annexing" complete other countries, namely Canada, with his 51st state rhetoric which brought rousing applause at his campaign style, verbal diarrhea spews he liked to call rallies, and Greenland for reasons no one, even his close "advisors" can't comprehend his obsession over.
And the rest of the world had finally had enough with him and the U.S. citizenry who elected him back into office as if nothing had changed between when he left office and returned.
And it wasn't even close this time around, states he flat out lost, or were contested in 2020, but were close, instead all went in his favor this time.
One of the criticisms I've heard from foreign folks is that the Democrats should have revolted and done everything they can to prevent his return, but as I said before, that's simply the Democrats weakness, they are more well known for own goals than victory and are now, once again, suffering because of it, as are the rest of the world, stuck on the sidelines of this shitshow, but suffering the consequences regardless.
That brings me to "American Exceptionalism," a concept that, over the course of the last year and a half I've become more than accustomed to hearing about as the rest of the world has taken their muzzles off and used almost without reservation after years of U.S. citizens have traveled the globe, demanding that they be treated special or how they think they should be treated.
The examples are too numerous to mention, from U.S. citizens talking loudly in restaurants, to U.S. citizens demands at front counters of hotels, to U.S. citizens expectations in markets to receive special discounts, the list goes on.
That's another thing, the lists keep going on and on as example after example keep coming up, over and over, and the rest of the world has, unfortunately grown tired of dealing with it.
So, while the orange turdstain once was seen as a novelty, he's now seen as only an example of the U.S. populous.
While most of the world still holds an affinity for the idea of the U.S., unfortunately, you all despise for what its citizens have done with it.
As a U.S. citizen, I'm truly sorry for what my fellow citizens have done.
I grew up as a proud U.S. citizen, honored to claim my piece of the glory that once was, we were taught, some say propegandized to believe, American Exception.
Now that American Exception has turned to feces in the eyes of the rest of the world, or should I say, the rest of the world now makes no bones about its disgust about it.
The views you hold may not have changed, only the words you once used privately have begun to surface into public media.
Just know this, what you once thought you knew about yourself may come crumbling down around you, as it has done for me, but stay beholden to your belief that we are better than this, as a human species.
I recently purchased the remaster Trilogy despite my never having made it past the first boss in any soulslike game simply because I didn't understand how to play it, nor did I find anything that explained why I was constantly dying other than a simple "Git gud" response.
I've tried multiple soulslike games in the past, Elden Ring, Bloodbourne, Life of P, etc, but it was always the same, turn it on, make it through a couple battles, die when I got to the boss, repeat.
But Dark Souls, and its like have a distinct following.
People rave about how good the games were, so I decided to get the trilogy and just go for it, spending my time to figure out what I was not getting about these types of games.
When the trilogy arrived, I put in Dark Souls Remastered and immediately began to repeat the process once again, often quitting after an hour or so to watch video after video to figure out what I was missing.
But the basic problem with most beginner guides I watched is that they seemed to take for granted many of the things that seem so foreign to a new player, or worse, gloss over the basics with a word or two in an aside that should be made as a critical statement.
A thing like, "So, you just parry and beat the boss, then you go to here."
But that glosses over how you parry, what kind of timing you need, what kind of timing window you need to look for, and how much patience you need to endure to look for the attacks.
And that's not even getting into how this game, unlike games of the past, doesn't allow for spamming the buttons when the opportunity arises; how each button you press is critical and stacks so that while you're in an attack it locks the character into the next action even before it completes the action it is currently executing.
But once you learn that, even most basic step, everything else just follows suit.
It's akin to learning to ride a bike, but the one teaching glosses over the part of steering, as if that should be obvious, but the reality is, if you've never ridden a bike before, you may know that how to steer will come, you just don't know how essential it is just to get started, that's where training wheel come in. As you're learning everything, you keep riding with the training wheels attached until you get to the point where they barely touch the ground and you're finally ready to have them removed.
Soulslike games don't have training wheels, so the player is forced to have to learn everything from the ground up, crashing and burning into the pavement repeatedly until they learn to ride upright.
Hint - If any of you like to make videos of how to play the game, make one that talks about even the most basic things, like the ones I've talked about here, and don't gloss over ANYTHING you might think is just obvious. To a new player, it's not, and can keep them from enjoying the game you love.
Later, I will get into what I've found in this game, how it was designed, and why I can now see why it's a revolutionary idea.
30 years ago, I lived further down on 1st Ave, the west side and it was a quieter time, when the most controversial one could have was not missing Pioneer Days.
It seem that last week, Chico entered that sad fraternity of towns plagued by the epidemic of senseless gun slaughter.
Used to be, a meth lab blowing up was the only real danger you could face in that town (although I did have a run in with a drunken gun toting fool who decided to fire toward me in an orchard up north of town off the 99).
But I survived that one, and you folks still living there will too.
Stick together and be willing to embrace one another as all good small towns do.
And that's having a team qualifying for the post-season based on the first half result? In other words, if the team is in first place before the All-Star Break, they automatically get to play in October. The second place teams get to play for a Wildcard berth.
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It might increase interest in games earlier in the season and help sell tickets for teams that have a playoff berth already locked up.
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As well as make mathematical elimination later in the season.
I've had several Zippos over the years, but recently my preferred shelled one has been giving me issues I cannot figure out how to fix.
It doesn't want to light.
Allow me to explain what I've done so far.
I've replaced the flint, but it still sparks.
I've added lighter fluid, still won't light.
I've used another lighter to light it, it burns strong.
I've kept it burning for a few minutes, attempting to burn off excess fuel in case it was flooded until it wouldn't stay lit.
I've left it open to allow the fuel to dissipate.
I've replaced the wick.
I've repacked the cotton so as the wick meanders to the bottom across the width of the lighter several times.
What possible solution am I missing?
Side-note: As I've been writing this post, I reached for a smoke and the lighter, and flicked it open and it lit almost instantaneously for the first time in months of "fixing it." So I'm totally at a loss as to whether it's now fixed or not. But I will welcome all suggestions still.
For years back before the internet, games were short and had only 3 lives, but more importantly, they were designed to hook you into just one more quarter, or just one more game during a late night session, such as PacMan, or Asteroids, or Super Mario Brothers.
Do those quick played types of games even exist anymore?
Now, with all the longform games being produced, "Just 1 more" could mean another couple of hours on the couch if it does rely on a limited number of lives.
If those quick play games still exist, what's your recent favorite?