u/timeflylikearrow

Hey guys. Just moved here somewhat sporadically - some friends of ours were trying to sell the house next door to where they lived without much success, and my roommate and I had been looking for a place to live that was nicer than where we had been staying somewhat close by on the front range, and things just worked out.

I’m really and truly blown away at just how nice it is, and how lucky I feel to be living where I am. There’s a path that sort of goes through our backyard, and this picture is taken maybe a quarter mile or so down that path. It’s like a painting or something, just breathtaking. I’m still waking up every morning and just feeling stunned at how ridiculously beautiful it is here. There were just about 50 or 60 elk moving through my backyard an hour ago. It’s overwhelming.

I’ve only been here a couple of weeks or so and I haven’t really had much of a chance to go out and do fun things. I’m not a very touristy person and didn’t really come here to do tourist stuff, but there’s a lot of stuff that definitely intrigues me. I’d love to know stuff like what best local coffee shop, best pizza, or just general local tips and tricks. I’d been living over in Coal Creek Canyon for some years so I’m used to living in a high-altitude semi-isolated area in the foothills. It’s actually way less isolated here in Estes, which is pretty refreshing.

It’s been an interesting year for me in terms of cats. Last summer, I happened to make friends with this stray cat, and I’d hang out with her and feed her every day, and we got into sort of a routine where she showed up every morning for food at like 6AM and she’d stick around all morning until I left. She was really trusting and affectionate with me, but she seemed quite feral otherwise.

Anyway, one day in late August she failed to show up, and she was just gone and I was very worried…. But a few days later I heard some high-pitched meowing just outside my door, and found her behind our downstairs neighbor’s outdoor couch in a dark corner, with a 6-pack of little kittens that couldn’t have been more than 2 days old. She’d basically brought them straight to our door, and was immediately fine with me touching and handling them. It was really amazing.

So my roommate and I took them in and basically fostered and took care of them, and it sort of went perfectly - it was almost like a Disney movie it was so cute and adorable and stress-free. Around the same time my longtime 20-year old cat named Jackie, whom I’d had since 2008, was getting sick, and I eventually had to put her down last fall - which was really hard and tragic. But I did have these little kittens I was fostering, two of which had markings very similar to Jackie. So I wound up adopting and keeping them officially - which has gone pretty perfectly.

They’re so incredibly well adjusted and happy, I think because I’ve personally raised them myself since they were like 48 hours old, and I know they’ve ONLY had positive interactions with humans. Nobody has ever been mean to them, and they’ve had no trauma - and it shows. It’s also really fun having two kittens who are siblings - their play is endlessly amusing to watch and they just have a really fun dynamic together.

They’re both in the first pic, then it’s the boy (Enzo; because he’s a baker who really likes making biscuits) and the female (Zelda, because she’s a princess). Oh, and the final pic is the whole litter when they were only a week or two old. I still really miss Jackie, but these two are fun and cute and keep me pretty distracted/occupied on a day to day basis. They’re definitely growing on me. Sometimes they cause me more anxiety than they prevent, but they’re calming down as they get older.

I have just completed Chrono Trigger on my Rainbow Thor Pro! Maybe the 4th or 5th time I’ve played it since (ironically) first encountering it in 1999 on the SNES. The DS remake has been my favorite version of it since it came out in 2007, though.

This is my second game fully completed on the Thor! First one was Xenogears. Though I guess this isn’t really FULLY completed yet - but this ending that you get when doing all the side quests and going through the Black Omen is a decent start as far as Chrono Trigger DS completion goes.

Now I’m gonna go play FFIV (3D DS Remake) with an augment guide, I think. Maybe I’ll go for some onion gear farming if I’m feeling really ambitious by the time I get to The Lair of the Father in that one.

Only one of my tabby kittens seems interested in playing it, but I for one am having an amazing time playing Streets of Rage 2 on my RG Arc S today.

To be honest, I’m sort of in shock at how much I love this handheld. I got it on a whim for $45 on the last Aliexpress sale, and it’s just blown me away with how ridiculously comfortable it is to play, and just how great the buttons feel. I almost hate to say it, but I like this device WAY more than my 6-button RPC, which just feels awkward and slightly “off” in terms of its size and weight and button placement, no matter how hard I try to like it.

If I’d known how much I was going to like this device, I would have definitely gotten the Arc D - both because the shell and button coloring is nicer and because I’d rather have the touchscreen and the option of Android, and twice the RAM of course. Though Rocknix on the Arc S is pretty great. If only the RK3566 was just a *little* bit better at Saturn emulation, then this would be the perfect 6-button handheld for me.

Hey guys! So there was a sale on Aliexpress last week, and I ended up succumbing to two deals I just couldn’t turn down. I’d been wanting an RG ARC for a while, and the S model went on sale for $45 after shipping. There was only one left when I checked it right at the start of the sale, so I just said “screw it” and went for it. The other purchase I made was the RG35XXSP, which was on sale (specifically in the color that I most wanted) at an absurd $34. So I couldn’t really resist that.

Anyway, I got them both today and (for the first time ever in my experience of buying Chinese-made handhelds) neither one of them would turn on at all, initially! Turned out the battery on the ARC had just drained all the way down to zero - so I plugged that in for an hour, and after that it turned on and loaded into the stock Linux firmware just fine. Which was a relief, because it was behaving a little screwy at first with the battery close to dead. Rocknix is going on there right now.

Then, the issue with the RG35XXSP was a bit more annoying - that had plenty of battery, but for some reason (possibly a bad SD card though my laptop read it just fine) it would just get stuck on the “ANBERNIC” boot screen, much to my dismay. So I downloaded the MuOS image for the RG35XXSP, took out of one of my spare 32GB micro SD cards and flashed the image to it, popped it into the RG35XXSP…. Et voila, the MuOS installer boots right up and it installs easily and is now working like a charm. So, problem solved there, too. I love MuOS.

Now for my impressions thus far, just having handled and played each of them for like half an hour at this point:

First off, I’m REALLY impressed and pleased with the ergonomics of the RG35XXSP - frankly, I find it to be a much more comfortable handheld to use than the RG34XXSP - the larger size fits my larger hands quite a bit better, and more significantly the L1/R1 and L2/R2 bumpers are just a lot nicer and more natural and secure-feeling to me. They pop out a bit too much or something on the RG34XXSP. The face buttons are definitely a bit more on the clicky side on the RG35XXSP - but I sort of prefer that level of resistance, if I’m being totally honest, and the noise certainly doesn’t bother me. Curious to see how GBA games feel overall compared to the RG34XXSP - I just did a quick run through of Zero Mission on it a few days ago, so I may play some of that on the RG35XXSP for a little compare and contrast.

Moving on to the RG ARC-S, this one really surprised me in a good way. This thing is COMFORTABLE! Like, really and seriously this might be the most comfortable Anbernic handheld I’ve ever personally gotten my hands on (though I’ve never touched the RG 556 or RG 557). It’s got some nice ergonomic contours on the reverse (which I feel like you rarely see on Anbernic devices) and then the overall Sega controller shape just feels extremely comfortable and natural, at least to me. I was expecting something a lot more similar to my RG353P (which I pictured with it). But this thing has got a bigger screen (4” rather than 3.5) and just has this really big; chunky, nice feel to it. It feels WAY more like a Sega controller than the RG353P feels like a SNES controller - if you get what I mean. Not sure how I feel about the circular D-Pad yet - but it’s totally in keeping with this being an imitation of a Sega Genesis/Saturn controller, so I can’t complain too much.

Overall, feeling really pleasantly surprised with these (rather impulsive) purchases that I made. Was a little worried at first when neither would turn on, but everything seems to be fine with the tiniest little bit of problem-solving. Both came with the works, too - screen protectors, manuals, charger - which is nice to see. The ARC even unexpectedly came with an extra 128GB micro SD - probably loaded with Portuguese ROMs or something if it even works, but I’m not complaining.

Placed my order on April 17th, upgraded from Base to Max around May 7th or so, and it shipped on May 17th. Feel kinda good about that because I really wanted a white one, and that seems to be the only thing that’s never been restocked since around then - white Pro and Max models. Anyway.

I was kinda hoping this would arrive by my birthday (which was last Wednesday) but I’ll settle for the weekend of!

And I’ve got my Gundam Pop Skin ready to install when this arrives! I’ve even got a hair dryer, tweezers, heavy ruler, and fresh utility blade for the install. Should be fun times.

OK, hear me out…. So I was in the market for a good quality 512GB SD card. I’d tried to cheap out getting one that turned out to be a scam, but I’d at least gotten my money back. So I was prepared to spend about $100 on a decent one that ideally wasn’t a fake.

At the same time, I was also doing my usual thing of browsing sporadically on eBay for good deals on handhelds; I recently picked up a perfectly good RG35XXH that was supposedly not working for just $15, so I was feeling pretty lucky about my eBay finds.

Which was when I saw a slightly used RG476h pop up for sale at a decently reasonable $115 - I think to myself, if I were actually in the market for one (and didn’t already own an RG477m) that would be a pretty nice bargain! Which is when I look closer and see that (apparently) a 512GB micro SD card is also being provided in the sale - a great bargain, the seller notes. I look at the pictures and the 512GB micro SD card is actually an Emtec SD Express card - whoa. The seller does not have a PERFECT feedback record - but it is above 90% and there’s a lot of reviews, the recent ones all good. So I roll the die and go for it - worst case scenario I have to wait a few days for a refund.

Package finally arrived and I’m pleased the my “gamble” seems to have worked out quite nicely. The 512GB SD express card is totally legit and tested out just fine to my delight, and the handheld looks to be in *nearly* perfect condition. I can’t find a single blemish, scratch, or scuff anywhere on the all-glass front, and it works perfectly - came with GammaOS already installed even.

There’s one thing though - a slight issues with the L2 trigger, which seems to be very slightly scraping against something when pressed down even at a slight angle. This isn’t something that’s a serious functional problem, but I don’t like it and I’m hoping there’s some way I can fix it. The trigger feels a bit loose in its slot, like it may not be fully secure, or something. Replacing or fixing it might be a fun project and hopefully not too expensive or difficult.

All in all I’m pretty pleased with myself, though. I got a good new 512GB micro SD express card for $115, with a (nearly perfect) RG476h as a throw-in. Pretty neat.

Picked this little guy up for $15 on eBay last week - supposedly it didn’t turn on and was just the handheld (no charger or box) for “parts only” but I noted in the description that it seemed like the owner had only tried using the stock Micro SD it came with…. So I figured why not, worst case scenario I’m out $15 and best case scenario I’ll be able to get it working with a fresh SD card.

So it arrived this morning and it was JUST the handheld, but it looked to be in fantastic condition - not a single blemish on the screen or anywhere on the front of the device that I could find, and maybe one scuff on the back that didn’t seem to come off with a microfiber cloth. I plugged it into my standard 5v charger and the light turned right on, indicating it was at least accepting a charge - so that was a good sign.

Anyway, after that I downloaded the MuOS image file for the RG35XXH and flashed it onto a spare micro SD card I had. Then I popped it into the RG35XXH and held the power button (and my breath) for a few seconds while I waited to see if it would turn on or not. And amazingly it did! Turned right on, like a charm. I finished the MuOS installation (which was very cute and amusing) and boom - I was good to go.

Gotta say my initial reactions about this device are very positive. It feels very.. refined, like the final product of multiple evolutions. Kind of absolutely perfect for what it is.

Hey guys - longtime Constant Reader here with a brief confession to make - I have a habit of holding back King books from various eras so I’ll have something new of his to read every now and then when I desperately need it - The Institute was one of these, and I’d been toying with the idea of finally reading it lately, especially since the Miniseries came out and I didn’t want that to be my first experience of the story. Decided to take the plunge last week.

So I finally finished it this morning and I’ve gotta say that I was really surprised at how much I ended up enjoying it. The whole time I couldn’t help but think of it as a sort of…. Twisted take on Harry Potter? Special children with “magical” powers get plucked out of their ordinary everyday life, and are brought to a fantastical place with children just like themselves! Except instead of chocolate frogs and butterbeer they get cigarettes and fireball nips, and instead of a happy magical school it’s… well, The Institute. But it did seem like a twisted King take on Hogwarts to me, nonetheless. Part of it was that I liked the sense of community and friendship that he evoked in the scenes at The Institute. Just time passing while people hang out and do routines - that sort of thing. King (and Rowling) do that very well.

Another thing I was struck by was how much I truly and intensely loathed the “bad guys” in this one. I’m usually able to sympathize with antagonists and negative characters in stories, but this was the first King novel I can remember since Under The Dome where I just LOATHED the villains and wanted them to DIE miserable torturous deaths, and when they got their comeuppance I was practically cheering and felt very satisfied. It’s just…. I dunno, the way these characters acted really activated my “HATE” circuits, I guess. Which I found kind of amusing because I actually sort of hated Luke a little bit at first, before he got abducted. He’s this ultra-smart genius kid and everything is awesome and comes so easily to him, it’s tough not to feel annoyed when he gives a sunny smile and says he aced the SATs at age 12. And I subsequently felt REALLY awful for feeling that way about Luke several chapters later, but I think it was all very much calculated and intended on King’s part.

All in all, The Institute was a fun ride and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It read extremely fast and was very engaging and not too long, which seemed to suit the story well. I also felt that it was one of his better and more well-thought-out endings, too. It felt quite tightly plotted, in that sense.