Happy (Con)trails

Well, well, this place has gotten a bit dusty. *looks at the last post* DECEMBER! I have been neglectful, even missing my blogoversary. True that RL has kept me pretty busy, traveling to Korea in February to see Black Panther, and preparing for a trip to Germany for some Hefeweizen later this month. (Not really. Both trips have been for work, and I don't even like beer.) My autumn's ramped-up travel schedule is only continuing—and even increasing—this spring.


Which brings me to this post. I just canceled my WoW subscription again yesterday evening. I had barely played since November, and Neither has Scooter, who canceled her account before it billed again this month. Technically, mine is active until mid-April, but I am unlikely to get a chance to jump back on before it does. And because it's due to scheduling rather than lack of interest, I don't have any other game I'm planning to replace it. This is the first time in nearly 12 years that I am not actively playing or at least subscribed to some MMORPG.

What's that mean for IHTtS? I'm not sure. I suspect I've fallen off several blogrolls of late due to my inactivity. Life rolls on, I suppose. And it seems like Scooter and I are busier than ever. Even our tabletop efforts have fizzled. Too many of my blog posts over the past year or two have been sort-of apologies for not posting more, but there we are. I'm not taking down the blog, but I'm not sure when I'll be posting again, and what I'll be posting about. I may share some photos from Korea, and Germany, as I have in the past, but I have no plans to turn this into a travel blog. And I'm active-ish on Twitter and Instagram. So, if you're subscribed, you may see a post come across your inbox every once in a while, but don't expect it to be any kind of regular for some time to come.

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This article from I Have Touched the Sky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If you repost part or all of the work (for non-commercial purposes), please cite me as the author and include a link back to the blog.

Scooter proofreads almost all my articles before I post them, for which I am very grateful. However, any mistakes are mine and mine alone (unless otherwise noted). If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after publication. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

The Last Spoiler

Or

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Porgs

So Scooter and I went to see The Last Jedi on Thursday, a week after it opened. Because I wanted to view the movie with as few spoilers as possible, I managed to avoid the online backlash (39 point negative critic/audience gap) and the backlash against the backlash. I have a few things to say about it myself. But to avoid spoiling anyone who still may not have seen it, I will hide it behind a break.

BE WARNED: THAR BE SPOILERS AHEAD!

Out of the Loop

Greetings Traveler,

It seems like I've done little other than travel, myself, over the past couple months. As you may have gleaned from reading this blog in the past, my job takes me all sorts of places. But from the beginning of September until today, I've been out of the loop for half the season. And it won't really get any better in the coming months. The computer I built earlier this year has proven to be less portable than I would like. And even when I do bring it with me, I run into technical issues like the hotel TV not producing sound from the HDMI connection. Which means no big time gaming for me. Not really much table-topping either. After having played MMOs for so long, I am spoiled by not having to worry about the arcane dice rolls that are at the forefront of Pathfinder and similar pen and paper endeavors.

I should think this would be the perfect opportunity to get some fiction writing done—no need for sound to type in Scrivener—but my muse has proven elusive on that front of late. The inertia of not blogging has taken its toll as well. It's not a superhuman effort to post, but since I'm not gaming much, I don't really seem to have much to post. Nor am I involved in group efforts like MMOGC posting updates with the Battlebards.

I am considering a tablet in order to read and write in more informal settings. My phone is really too small to comfortably read for very long, and so I am halfway through two books that really interested me, because I am reluctant to read them on that tiny screen. But then, I am caught between getting an Android that would be compatible with said phone or a Windows tablet that would be compatible with my PC.

Anyway, hopefully this breaks the non-posting funk I've been in for the past few months.

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This article from I Have Touched the Sky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If you repost part or all of the work (for non-commercial purposes), please cite me as the author and include a link back to the blog.

Scooter proofreads almost all my articles before I post them, for which I am very grateful. However, any mistakes are mine and mine alone (unless otherwise noted). If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after publication. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

Legends of the Secret World

Greetings Traveler,

Much like an NPC that just sits in town, I did not go adventuring into Secret World Legends upon its launch a couple months ago. It's hard to tell for sure, but it seems like the core RPers I follow on Twitter have made the transition. No way to know what they actually think without asking directly, which I am reluctant to do for some unknown reason.

I downloaded the game at home before going on a trip last month. But then, it would not start properly. I had to uninstall and reinstall to get it to work. Of course, I was in a hotel at that point, which meant a very slow reinstall from the internet. Then, trying to start my new character was a little frustrating. (a bit NSFW after the break)

From the Desk of Rowan Blaze

Greetings, Traveler!

For the past couple weekends, I have been traveling around, myself—usually with Scooter along—gathering materials to craft a proper place for my trusty gaming rig. You may have seen some of these on Instagram or Twitter, but I figured I should share them here.

The frame holding up the desktop is made from 3/4-inch pipe held together with structural fittings (allen-wrench driven screw clamps). I bought all the metal hardware from Lowes. In the picture below, the frame is upside-down and back-to-front, as well as missing two of the flanges I used for feet.

The double braces about a foot from the bottom are probably overkill structurally, but provide a place for a shelf. In the end, I moved the long cross bars further back to provide more foot room. The long lines seem out of square in person, but I checked and rechecked the level. The desktop itself is from Ikea, both light and sturdy.

Below, you see my almost-finished setup. I have swing-arm monitor stands clamped to the back, but I need to get a DVI cable for my slightly obsolete HP monitor (shown on the left). I plan to use it mostly for holding open browsers and other programs while gaming on my newer one. I also dug out (well, Scooter did) a set of self-powered speakers (including a subwoofer, just visible below my keyboard) that have better quality than the on-board output of my monitor. (While I like Viewsonic OK, getting the one with speakers was a complete waste of money.) I also plan to get a cord hammock from Ikea the next time we're down there.

All told, the dimensions are 59" x 29½" x 40" (150cm x 75cm x 102cm). It's high enough for me to stand at the desk if I want to, but I got a bar stool with a tractor saddle for when I want to sit. You may have noticed the bare concrete floor. The house suffered a minor flood in April, and the carpet had to go. The room needs to be repainted before we put down a new floor, when Scooter and I get a chance for another home improvement project. Which (lol) will involve dismantling both my new desk and the repurposed kitchen table I took apart in order to get it into the Game Room in the first place.

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This article from I Have Touched the Sky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If you repost part or all of the work (for non-commercial purposes), please cite me as the author and include a link back to the blog.

Scooter proofreads almost all my articles before I post them, for which I am very grateful. However, any mistakes are mine and mine alone (unless otherwise noted). If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after publication. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.