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Random Terrain

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Blog Entries posted by Random Terrain

  1. Random Terrain

    Starfield (Xbox One)

    By Random Terrain,


    GAMES
    Last Updated: 2023y_10m_26d_0403t (Started: 2023y_10m_21d_0538t)
     
    I'm sure I'll forget most of this stuff once I stop playing, so here are some random thoughts and tips in case I or anyone else wants to know in the future.
     
    I had some gift card money built up, so I bought Starfield on September 13, 2023 for $74.71 without realizing that the only way it works on my Xbox is through the "cloud." So I bought three months of Game Pass Ultimate at Amazon.com. I've been disconnected from the cloud countless times and the game randomly freezes up (just like all the Bethesda games I've played before). It's very irritating when the game freezes up when trying to save.
     
    There could be semi-spoilers below depending on how much you don't know about the game. Read at your own risk.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Do Not Trust Auto Save
     
    Always save manually since you could lose hours of gameplay if you trust auto save. I've also had the game freeze up while trying to save manually, so expect that to happen more than once.
     
     
     
    Favorite Weapon
     
    Commander's Advanced Orion
    ENGY 234
    AMMO 3KV LZR - MAG 40
    ROF 33 - RANGE 60 - ACC 85.2%
    Long Barrel Recon Laser Sight Medium Scope Focus Nozzle Ignition Beams Amplifier  
    That's after I fixed it up at weapon workbench with all of the crap you need unlocked and a bunch of resources. I've tried all kinds of weapons and none of them seem to be as good as my fixed up Orion. My Orion kills just about anything in a few shots. Weapons that are supposed to be at least two times more powerful seem to do less damage.
     
    Since I only use one weapon, I buy 3KV LZR CARTRIDGE AMMO every chance I get. I have almost 4,000 in my inventory at this time. I had more the first time I played if I remember correctly.
     
    I don't know if it's because I was at level 80, but I found and fixed up a new Corrosive Commander's Advanced Orion. It has the same stats as above (except it has ENGY 222 instead of ENGY 234). It also deals double damage to targets with full health and randomly deals corrosive damage and reduces the target's armor over 6 seconds.
     
    I found this at level 81 or 82:
     
    Eternity's Gate Legendary Particle Beam Rifle
    PHYS 163 - ENGY 608
    AMMO Heavy Particle Fuse - MAG 20
    ROF 25 - RANGE 70 - ACC 81.6%
    Long Barrel Recon Laser Sight Recon Scope Focus Nozzle Ignition Beams Amplifier  
    I'm using this new one for now.
     
     
    Favorite Spacesuit
     
    I don't really like the special spacesuit you get after finishing the game a certain way, so I went back to the Mantis outfit. I fixed up all three pieces the best I could and it seems to be better in general than the other spacesuits I've fixed up and tried.
     
     
     
    Favorite Powers
     
    Personal Atmosphere
    This is my favorite power since I collect a ton of stuff to sell when taking out a bunch of bad guys (I quickly get encumbered). I can create a bubble of oxygen for a certain amount of time and run at high speed.
     
    Sense Star Stuff
    See living humans even when they are behind walls. Helpful when fighting bad guys or trying to find crew members on your large ship.
     
    Elemental Pull
    Instantly extract nearby resources from the ground.
     
    Void Form
    Becoming invisible is great for stealing ships from bad guys.
     
     
     
    Ship
    FUEL 1300
    HULL 1576
    CARGO 38460
    C REACTOR 41 - CREW 8
    JUMP RANGE 29 LY - SHIELD 1500
    BAL 74 - MSL 581 - PAR 38
    TOP SPEED 130
     

     
    I adapted the Star Eagle and now the cargo hold capacity is 38,460. I got tired of going back to the basement of the Lodge. I can keep most of my resources on the ship and upgrade things using the ship's workbenches.
     
    Thanks to this page I found out that the Stroud Battle Station 2x2 (sold in the Stroud-Ecklund shop in Neon) increases crew capacity by a significant amount.
     
    I didn't know until my second time playing that I could put stuff into or take stuff out of my ship's cargo hold from a fairly long distance away from the ship. For example, you can be up the stairs past "The Rock" in Akila City and still access the cargo hold. Press the menu button, use the left stick to select SHIP (bottom left), press the A button, then press X for CARGO HOLD. It's nice to know that if you are close enough to the ship, you can put things into and take things out of the cargo hold.
     
    In case you didn't know or in case I forget, the cargo hold is accessible when dealing with shop owners (switch between the seller, you, and the ship using the bumper buttons) and any resources in your cargo hold seem to be available when you use a workbench anywhere on any planet.
     
    My 2-story ship has the Cabot C4 Bridge with the stairs. The only ladder is at the far back where the docker is.
     
     
     
    Selecting Multiple Parts of Your Ship When Editing
     
    I didn't know how to select multiple ship parts the first time I played. I moved individual parts too many times to count and it was boring and annoying. The second time, I looked it up and pages like this said we could select multiple parts using the right bumper. Click on each part that you want to move with the right bumper to change the color, click on any part of the highlighted section using the A button, then drag the whole section where you want.
     
     
     
    Beware of Asteroids
     
    If you shoot asteroids, there is a chance that some of them will stick with your ship. I have 8 stuck around my ship at various distances. They can't be shot and they can block your view of an enemy ship. I've shot at my phantom asteroids countless times when trying to shoot at real asteroids.
     
     
     
    Selling Contraband
     
    The first time playing, I looked up how to sell contraband and I got some kind of complicated crap about joining a group of some kind and doing a bunch of missions before I could sell my illegal stuff. So I just dropped it all into space. I eventually found out that all you have to do is go to a star system called WOLF that is to the right of SOL and above ALPHA CENTAURI. Simply dock with THE DEN that is orbiting Chthonia. Sell your illegal stuff and anything else you want to sell to the guy at the Trade Authority.
     
     
     
     
     
    Useful Links
     
    Ship power allocation randomly changing
    Xbox Shipbuilding - Multi-Select
    No ladders 2-story ship
    Starfield Glitch Gets Player Unexpected Traveling Companion
     
     
     
     
     
     
    MORE TO COME
     
     
     
     
     
  2. Random Terrain

    Have a lump? Get it checked!

    By Random Terrain,


    PERSONAL
    I have a little "apron" of belly fat (called the panniculus according to Google) and I developed a small lump under it about a year ago or maybe a year and a half ago. I hoped it would eventually go away by itself.
     
    Around August 17, 2023, the lump started getting larger and very hot. As it grew, it got even hotter. It was so hot that it felt like it might burn my Nitrile glove covered hand if I left it on the lump for too long. I cleaned the area and put Neosporin on it a few times every day with a Nitrile glove on my hand. I also started eating a fresh clove of sliced raw garlic once a day beginning on August 20. I would eat a sliced clove of fresh garlic on steak or a hamburger once in a while at the last house I lived at in 2020/2021, but I kind of got out the habit after moving to the house I live in now. I don't know if it was the garlic or the Neosporin or both, but the lump got smaller each day. I thought I was getting better.
     
    On Thursday (August 24), the lump started leaking reddish stuff that smelled like a rotten potato, so I went to urgent care to see if they would put me on antibiotics. The person I saw there squeezed out as much as they could from the lump, then said that I needed to go to the hospital and have intravenous antibiotics. He said I'd probably have to stay at the hospital for a couple of days.
     
    After the usual long wait in the hospital waiting room and a scan of the general area (the kind where they inject contrast dye), I was put in a room and bag after bag of antibiotics were dripping into me until Sunday morning (August 27). The doctor walked into my room a little before 9 a.m. on Sunday and said that I could go home after the discharge papers were ready. That was good news because he told me on Saturday that I might have to stay until Monday or Tuesday.
     
    Later that day a nurse brought the papers and took the PICC line out of my arm. Some hospitals I've been to made discharged patients ride in a wheelchair, but not this hospital. The nurse said I could just walk out, so that's what I did. Now I'm taking an antibiotic pill every 6 hours at home.
     
    What did we learn? If you have a weird little lump in an embarrassing area somewhere below your belly button, even if you hate doctors messing around down there, get it checked out before it turns into something that could be deadly. 
     
     
     
    Hospital Tidbits
     
    They were surprised at the hospital that I didn't have a fever.
     
    The quality of the nurses varied wildly. The nurses working at night were usually better than the ones working in the day.
     
    My last nighttime nurse (Saturday night/Sunday morning) was kind of angry that they put the PICC line right in the bend of my arm instead of higher up or lower down. I had to keep my arm perfectly straight or the alarm would go off. Made it hard to sleep.
     
    The PICC line in the wrong spot wasn't the only thing that made it hard to sleep. As you'd expect, there were people coming in and out of my room throughout the day and night. There were all kinds of random loud noises that would wake me up. Sometimes it sounded like two giants were playing catch with a dead body and they weren't very good at catching. I was right across from the nurses station and they'd be talking as loud as they could and laughing at the top of their lungs. Sounded like they were having a party day and night. One night it was as quiet as a library and I asked my nurse about it. She said the supervisor was there that night. It was nice to have a quiet nurse station for a while.
     
    I heard one of the nurses at the nurses station talking as loud as she could about one of the other patients. They were all giggling and laughing as she talked about how gross a procedure was.
     
    The Saturday daytime nurse looked at the IV stand like she was trying to solve a cosmic riddle. She had a look on her face like it was the first time she ever saw one. She was my daytime nurse Saturday and Sunday. The first morning, she shook up the antibiotic bag to get it ready, then she tried to hang it upside down and about a fourth of the bag squirted out all over her and the floor. She eventually figured out that the end with the long tube faces the floor since the patient isn't on the ceiling. She never called anyone to clean up the puddle. She just left it there for someone to possibly slip in. Next time, she ended up squirting some out of another antibiotic bag, but it wasn't as much as the first time. Watching her do anything was like watching a new feckless employee at McDonald's trying to use the register. Problem is, she wasn't new. I don't see how she hasn't been fired by now.
     
    Speaking of trying to hang bags upside down, this happened on Friday. They were also giving me saline since I was slightly dehydrated and the big bag was hanging off a green plastic thing to make it lower and the bag eventually fell off. Scared the crap out of me. I pushed the button for the nurse and a baby-talking lispy girl came in who looked like she could have still been in high school or maybe even middle school. She picked up the big saline bag and tried to hang it upside down. It was just too hard of a puzzle for her. One end has a place for hanging and the other end has a long tube coming out of it that runs to the patient. A child could figure it out in seconds, but not her. She was standing there banging the tube end up there, totally mystified. My Friday daytime nurse walked in and took it away from her and hung it up the right way.
     
    The hospital pharmacy was a complete joke. I have various important pills that my doctors have me take twice a day, but the hospital gave me something like one pill on Friday, a couple more on Saturday, and a little pile of pills Sunday morning. You're not allowed to take your own pills, but they won't give you the pills you're supposed to take twice a day. I ignored them and worked around the problem to keep myself alive. No wonder so many people die in hospitals.
     
    What did we learn? Some nutty-ass low I.Q. people might be working at your local hospital. If you catch a problem early, you may not have to go to the hospital and that means some moron won't have a chance to "accidentally" kill you. I don't consider it an accident when a person is so stupid and incompetent that they clearly shouldn't have a job in health care.
     
  3. Random Terrain
    Continued from my previous blog entry. My mother died last night about an hour and a half after midnight (about an hour and a half after Valentine's Day). Maybe she held on long enough so she wouldn't die on an actual holiday. According to Wikipedia, Valentine's Day isn't an official holiday anyway, so if you're going to die near a holiday, Valentine's Day Is better than something like Thanksgiving or Christmas.

    The hospice place has a break room with vending machines and a microwave. I was eating supper in my mother's room around 9 pm and as I walked into the hallway to go down to heat up my food in the microwave, a voice that wasn't male or female said "midnight" in my head (I didn't hear it with my ears). I told my sister about it after I came back with my hot food. A doctor and a nurse said earlier on Valentine's Day that you never know, but it seems like mom probably has at least a day or two left. Later that night, my sister asked me if she should go home and sleep and I said that she might want to wait until after midnight to see if that message in my head had something to do with mom or if it was just an undigested bit of beef.

    I was sleeping in a chair across the room that pulls out into an uncomfortable bed and my sister was napping in an uncomfortable recliner next to Mom's bed. Our mom was still alive around 1:15 and died somewhere between that and 1:35, so she didn't die at midnight, but at least the "midnight message" kept my sister from leaving so she could be there. She was glad that she didn't go home.

    Within a few days, our mom went from talking and kidding around to not chitchatting at all or eating or drinking while breathing slow and hard in a jarring way, to Valentine's Day day where she was breathing fast with gurgling liquid in her lungs that kind of sounded like a coffee pot. At least she didn't have to go through that last stage for more than a day.

    I should probably mention the thing that happened the evening before Valentine's Day. There were nurses and aids around our mother's bed because they just got done adjusting her position. I was sitting in a chair against the wall a few feet away from the end of her bed. Mom seemed to stop breathing and when that happened, the energy in the room changed. There was a hollowed out feeling, as if every drop of energy in the room was removed, and there was what seemed like a slight crackling in the air to me. I didn't see anything with my eyes, but it felt like a large continuous tentacle of energy shot out of my mother's body and hit me in the chest, then snapped back into her body. She started breathing again after that. I don't know if she was stealing some of my energy so she could live past Valentine's Day or what. It kind of felt like the water tentacle from The Abyss projected out of her body, hit me like a snake biting a victim, then retracted back into her body. Maybe I was sensing her energy while it was still connected to an astral umbilical cord? Of course, my chest hurt the most after it happened, but I still have a slight residual sore feeling in the area where she "bit" me over a day later.


    Update (December 4, 2017)

    I've read that it might be true that a human body can continue to live for a certain amount of time without the spirit body controlling it. For example, if a person is drowning, they might leave their body and see their physical body flailing its arms. Now that I've had time to think about it, that might be what happened in the last paragraph above. My mom probably died at that moment and her body was on autopilot for a while after that. I probably felt her spirit body rush toward me.


    Random Terrain
  4. Random Terrain
    The Mandela Effect has been blamed on misremembering/confabulation and that's true when it comes to a lot of the stupid stuff you'll find out there. But there are instances where it seems like something has really changed. Some people say that we live in a holographic universe (that could have glitches or could be hacked by interdimensional aliens). Others say that each person can slip in and out of slightly different realities depending on the vibration that the person gives off based on his or her mental/gut/chakra state. The Mandela Effect has to be more than just false memories.

    My sister and I watched the movie Home Alone on Christmas day this year (2018) and noticed two glaring differences. We've had Home Alone on video tape since the early 1990s and watched it many times over the years. We also fast forwarded or rewound to certain spots to make sure we were quoting the movie correctly.


    Home Alone Mandela Effect # 1

    After Buzz ate Kevin's cheese pizza, Buzz used to say this:

    "Quick, get a plate!"

    But now he says this:

    "Kev, Kev, get a plate!"



    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAznxCJa-bw




    Home Alone Mandela Effect # 2

    After Kevin orders a cheese pizza when he is home alone, he used to say this:

    "A lovely cheese pizza all to myself."

    But now he says this:

    "A lovely cheese pizza just for me."


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RISQc8mptK4



    My sister and I (and our mother) memorized those two spots in the movie and they never changed every time we rewatched it. We got confirmation each time that we were saying the same things that were said in the movie. If critics of the Mandela Effect are correct about the human brain being incapable of remembering anything without mangling it, what's the point of going to school? Ask your college for a refund because you have been thoroughly ripped off.


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  5. Random Terrain
    I must be the only person on the planet that has a hard time reading indented code. If you put "indented code is not easier to read" into Google, there isn't even one result. For me it's like trying to read a whole page of centered text.
     

     
    Or trying to read code that is following the jagged lines of a polygraph.
     

     
    I get lost jerking my eyes back and forth all over the page trying to read indented code. The following excerpt from the page below explains what I'm talking about:
     
    https://uxmovement.com/content/why-you-should-never-center-align-paragraph-text/
     
    Whether it's code or paragraphs, I can read faster and it doesn't hurt my eyes as much if it's in a straight line down the left side and not spread out all over the place in a jagged fashion.
     
     
     
    Random Terrain
  6. Random Terrain
    Below are a few of my thoughts about the game Days Gone.
     
     
    What's Fun?
    It's fun to fight the bad guys, but eliminating zombie hordes is usually more fun (if your character will shut up and not give away his position). That's about it.
     
     
    Slow Walking 
    There is so much slow walking that it makes the game almost not worth playing. There are boring slow walking flashbacks and times when you have to slow walk with a character in the present. Your walking also slows to a crawl whenever you get near someone who might have a mission for you. 
     
     
    Question Mark
    A question mark will pop up on your mini map once in a while and if you go in that direction, you might find items or enemies, but it's usually a huge waste of time since the question mark quickly disappears and it can be nearly impossible to find what the game was pointing out.
     
     
    Screamy McGee
    When you throw things such as Molotov cocktails or grenades at a horde, sometimes your character will scream and that will catch their attention, then you'll have a ton of zombies running at you. I don't see a "turn off stupid screaming" option in the settings.
     
     
    Not For Sale! 
    You can't buy much at camps. Weapons, ammunition, medkits, grenades, flashbangs, and suppressors are basically all you can buy. Everything else you need has to be made from ingredients that can be found out in the world and some ingredients are pretty hard to find. Speaking of weapons, my two favorite weapons are the Rock Chuck (built-in suppressor, so it's always silent) and the .50 BFG (kills most enemies at a distance with one shot and tough enemies with 3 to 5 shots).
     
     
    That's all I can think of for now.
     
     
     
    Random Terrain
  7. Random Terrain
    (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I get commissions for purchases made through certain links.)
     
    I've been planning on making a computer pinball game since around 1985. First it was going to be on the VIC-20, then the Commodore 64, then the Amiga 500, and now the Atari 2600. Maybe this time I'll really do it with some help:
     
    atariage.com/forums/topic/270373-realistic-pinball-physics-on-the-atari-2600/
     
    Anyway, I've been wanting to own a real shiny pinball machine ball for inspiration, but every time I did a search at Amazon, there were complaints about rusty or damaged balls for pretty much every company, so I would give up. In May of 2020, I decided to try again and after a lot of searching I found #ad Ball Baron. There were no reviews under their 1-1/16 inch standard size pinball page, but the other sizes seemed to have good reviews, so I went to the #ad Pinballs/Ten 1-1/16" High Polish Chrome Steel Balls page and ordered them. I only wanted one ball, but I figured that buying ten would give me a greater chance of ending up with at least one ball that wasn't rusty or damaged.
     
    The box of balls arrived much sooner than expected and none of them are rusty or damaged. They were tightly wrapped in a bag, in a bag, in a bag, inside of a box, so they didn't even receive a small amount of damage during shipment. Now I have what seem to be 10 perfect standard size (1-1/16 inch) pinball balls. Below are a couple photos I took with an iPhone.
     

     

     
    If you are looking for balls for your pinball machine that appear to be in excellent condition, it seems like you might be able to trust #ad Ball Baron. [Disclaimer: Buy the balls and use them at your own risk. I only bought them to look at. I have not used them in a real pinball machine.]
     
     
     
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  8. Random Terrain
    The main guy on Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files is supposedly a former FBI agent. If we can use this episode as an example of his powers of observation, I think we might know why he's a former FBI agent. They showed a clip of someone walking in the dark near some trees and they walk past a spider web with a spider in the center. It should be clear to anyone who has been outside that it was a spider in a web, but none of the people on the show could see that. They went to the location and tried various things and couldn't figure out what the 'ghost' was. Update: The clip from the show that I embedded is no longer there, but it is at Dailymotion. You'll have to skip to 7:27 since it doesn't automatically jump there:
     
    dailymotion.com/video/x6fdw8b
     
    Caroline Milligan was mentioned in the video, but can't I find anything at YouTube using her name.
     
     
    Here's a related video:
     
    youtube.com/watch?v=GO5WX7P1TVk
     
     
    Although the spider wasn't on the lens, YouTube is full of ghost/angel videos that are clearly spiders or other little creatures crawling on the lens. This video does a pretty good job pointing that out:
     
    youtu.be/xyR_WHEmO_4
     
     
    Here's a video that I just stumbled upon that is clearly a moth:
     
    youtu.be/r4sjl-ozMNc?t=116
     
      I updated this blog entry on December 26, 2020. Wikipedia claims that the "The Caretaker/Cutter" episode originally aired on November 3, 2010:
     
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fact_or_Faked:_Paranormal_Files
     
    How did I see it in August of 2010? Maybe it was a ghost episode that could travel through time?
     
     
     
    Random Terrain
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  9. Random Terrain
    This Atari 2600 VCS ad was in the December 1980 issue of Playboy.



    No other video game stacks up to Atari.

    You can’t top Atari for fun.

    In fact, the Atari Video Computer System is so much fun you'll want to play it all the time. And you can because Atari has more game cartridges to play than anybody else.

    Right now you can choose from forty different Atari Game Program cartridges.

    There are fast action games like Dodge 'Em and Circus Atari. Thinking games like Video Chess and Backgammon. You can play real life sports with Football and Basketball. And you can learn words and math from Hangman and Fun With Numbers.

    Our most exciting game yet comes straight from the arcades, Space Invaders. Only Atari has it.

    And more are coming. You'll never outgrow the Atari Video Computer System.

    Instead, it grows on you.

    [boxes shown in the ad are listed below. Notice that Star Ship wasn't included]

    3-D Tic-Tac-Toe
    A Game of Concentration (used to be called Hunt & Score)
    Adventure
    Air-Sea Battle
    Backgammon
    Basic Programming
    Basketball
    Black Jack
    Bowling
    Brain Games
    Breakout
    Canyon Bomber
    Casino
    Championship Soccer
    Circus Atari
    Codebreaker
    Combat
    Dodge 'Em
    Flag Capture
    Football
    Fun With Numbers (used to be called Basic Math)
    Golf
    Hangman
    Home Run
    Human Cannonball
    Indy 500
    Maze Craze
    Miniature Golf
    Night Driver
    Outlaw
    Sky Diver
    Slot Racers
    Space Invaders
    Space War
    Street Racer
    Superman
    Surround
    Video Checkers
    Video Chess
    Video Olympics



    Random Terrain
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  10. Random Terrain
    My sister and I were in Greensboro, North Carolina yesterday and on our way out of a Sweet Frog frozen yogurt place, there was a huge black bug on its back, right next to the front door on the sidewalk. The twitching beetle had large mandibles that looked like pincers (some might call them pinchers). It was our first time seeing a bug like that out in the real world (some might call the "real world" a highly advanced holographic computer simulation). Here's a picture of the beetle:
     

     
     
    I looked it up when I got home. It's called a giant stag beetle:
     
    google.com/search?q=Giant+Stag+Beetle&tbm=isch
     
     
     
     
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  11. Random Terrain
    I ordered a set of 5 items from Amazon and only one item was in the box. I couldn't figure out how tell Amazon that they sent one item instead of five items and that I wanted the other four. All they provided were return options. I posted my problem in my status update and Razzie.P had the answer. Here is an adapted version of what was posted:
     
     
    I did that and opened up a chat window with a bot. As you would expect, the bot was no help, so I asked it to let me chat with a human. The human was helpful and I'm supposed to get the other four items in about 5 days.
     
    If a similar thing happens to you, now you'll know how to get the rest of the items that you paid for.
     
     
     
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  12. Random Terrain
    Have you seen this weird staged Ellen video from March 27, 2020?
     
    youtu.be/RA9EgZvOnVo
     
     
    For those who don't want to watch the short video, Portia de Rossi is cooking food in the kitchen and Ellen tries to keep Portia in view the whole time as she shows some LEGO Architecture sets. Ellen shows us the Great Wall of China and Dubai sets first, then she says "Oh my God, look at that one" while picking up the Trafalgar Square box. The last one Ellen shows us is the Eiffel Tower set. Right after that she says "that's what's gonna happen soon," jerks the camera so Portia is more in view, then Portia act's like she is burned and says "ouch!"
     
    Ellen jerked the camera first; it wasn't moved as a reaction to the "ouch," so it looked very staged. Showing the Great Wall of China, Dubai, Trafalgar Square, and the Eiffel Tower while following it with the words "that's what's gonna happen soon" and "ouch" could make inquisitive people think that it might be some kind of nefarious message instead of an innocent video about putting together LEGO sets in the near future.
     
     
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  13. Random Terrain
    Remember, if phones suddenly have limited functionality and the Internet stops working for everyone starting sometime between March 30, 2020 and April 10, 2020, it will probably only last 3 days. Don't worry. Don't panic. It may not even happen, but if it does, you can be a calming influence for your family, friends, and any freaked out neighbors. Just tell them to stay home and play cards or board games or enjoy other activities that might help them deal with their social media withdrawal symptoms.
     
    Note to Dummies: This blog entry does not contain politics, religion, or "conspiracy theories." This is an uplifting message that phones and Internet should be back to normal in 3 days IF phones suddenly have limited functionality and the Internet stops working for everyone. IF that event really happens, there's no need to panic. In other words, don't worry, be happy.
     
     
     
    Random Terrain
  14. Random Terrain
    While watching TV on March 25, 2020, an Emergency Alert System Test came on during the commercials and it had white text scrolling inside of a light green bar. We couldn't read the text. Whoever is in charge of that might want to take a look at this page: Readability and Backgrounds.
     
    Here's what it looked like:
     

     
     
    Here is a closer view of the white text in the light green bar:
     

     
     
    They better change that to black on light green or white on dark green or some other readable combination if they expect people to read the text.
     
     
     
    Random Terrain
  15. Random Terrain
    Update: As of February 28, 2020, I'm still playing this game on my Xbox 360 (or my sister's Xbox One). The main thing I don't like about Iron Brigade is that it only has three survival missions where you can play for 100 waves. I wish the makers of the game would let us play any of the missions in survival mode. I would especially like the Village (in the Pacific) and Mars Landing to have survival modes. Those are my two favorite normal missions, but they are too short. If I could play 100 waves in the Village and Mars Landing, I'd be the hap, hap, happiest person since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny bleeping Kaye. 
     
    I previously finished wave 100 on Survival: Hospital (Solo), but now I finally did it on Survival: Swamp (Solo).
     
    Like I said last time, since I'll probably forget, I'll post what I used in case I stop playing for a while and want to play again later:
     
    Chassis:
    Honeychurch Mk IV
     
    Legs:
    Speedy Biped Legs
     
    Weapons:
    Muerte Fiesta Numero 6
    Muerte Fiesta Numero 6
     
    Emplacements:
    Piercing Sniper Turret
    Super Shredder Turret
    Dampening Generator Mk III
    Impeccable Collection Pod
     
     
    It's almost the same thing I used on Survival: Hospital, but this time I used a Muerte Fiesta Numero 6 in both weapon slots.
     
     
     
     
    Update (July 8, 2013)
     
    I've been playing this survival mission for a few days and last night I got to the final wave and finished again. I was just playing around and plopping turrets in different places and was surprised when FINAL WAVE popped up on the screen. I think I might play this survival mission some more before moving on to something else.
     
     
     
     
    Update (July 11, 2013)
     
    Finished the final wave again this morning. I think I'm done playing for a while.
     
     
     
     
    Update (July 15, 2013)
     
    I was in the mood to play and finished this mission again today.
     
     
     
     
    Update (September 14, 2013)
     
    I've finished this so many times since July that I'm not even going to post it anymore when I finish it.
     
     
     
     
    Random Terrain
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  16. Random Terrain
    Update: As of February 28, 2020, I'm still playing this game on my Xbox 360 (or my sister's Xbox One). The main thing I don't like about Iron Brigade is that it only has three survival missions where you can play for 100 waves. I wish the makers of the game would let us play any of the missions in survival mode. I would especially like the Village (in the Pacific) and Mars Landing to have survival modes. Those are my two favorite normal missions, but they are too short. If I could play 100 waves in the Village and Mars Landing, I'd be the hap, hap, happiest person since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny bleeping Kaye. 
     
    I previously finished wave 100 on Survival: Hospital (Solo) with one thing to protect and wave 100 on Survival: Swamp (Solo) with two things to protect, but now I miraculously finished 100 waves on Survival: Settlement (Solo) on Mars with three things to protect. I was starting to think I'd never finish it. Protecting three things for 100 waves (single-player) was extremely hard for me to do. I had to do a lot of running back and forth, but I tried to mostly stay on the hill at the end of the bridge near the big decoy. That location lets you see where all of the bad guys are coming from. You can run off the edge if you see some nasty bastards coming out of the place that is farthest away and you can be there in no time. I didn't use the two decoys until after around wave 96 to make sure I'd have a shot at finishing and it worked.
     
    [Edit: It's amazing what practice can do. I went from barely being able to finish in 2013, to wishing there were 200 waves instead of 100 in 2014. Or how about unlimited waves? That would be nice.]
     
    Like I said the last two times, since I'll probably forget, I'll post what I used in case I want to play again later:
     
    Chassis:
    Honeychurch Mk IV
     
    Legs:
    Speedy Biped Legs
     
    Weapons:
    Muerte Fiesta Numero 6
    Muerte Fiesta Numero 6
     
    Emplacements:
    Piercing Sniper Turret
    Super Shredder Turret
    Dampening Generator Mk III
    Impeccable Collection Pod
     
     
    At this time, there are only three survival missions. Settlement is the last and hardest one. I think I'm done playing this game, at least for a while.
     
     
     
    Update (September 14, 2013)
     
    I've been in the mood to play this the past couple of days and I finished it again tonight. Wasn't as hard as the last time I finished it. It's more fun now and less of a struggle.
     
     
     
    Update (September 16, 2013)
     
    Finished it again last night. Since this is getting so much easier to beat, I'll probably stop posting updates when I beat it. [Mini update: I finished it again tonight. Since this is so much easier to beat than before, I'll probably play this mission from now on when I feel like playing this game.]
     
     
     
    Update (November 21, 2013)
     
    I've finished this so many times that I couldn't even guess at a number. Sometimes I beat it twice a day.
     
     
     
    Update (February 16, 2014)
     
    I beat the game yesterday using a Muerte Fiesta Numero 6 and a Perforator, so today I tried using two Perforators. It worked! I beat the game using nothing but Perforators:
     
    Chassis:
    Honeychurch Mk IV
     
    Legs:
    Speedy Biped Legs
     
    Weapons:
    The Perforator
    The Perforator
     
    Emplacements:
    Piercing Sniper Turret
    Super Shredder Turret
    Dampening Generator Mk III
    Impeccable Collection Pod
     
    At least for a while, I'll use two Perforator machine guns whenever I play this game. I can just hold down the fire button instead of needing to press it over and over again.
     
     
    Random Terrain
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  17. Random Terrain
    Update: As of February 28, 2020, I'm still playing this game on my Xbox 360 (or my sister's Xbox One). The main thing I don't like about Iron Brigade is that it only has three survival missions where you can play for 100 waves. I wish the makers of the game would let us play any of the missions in survival mode. I would especially like the Village (in the Pacific) and Mars Landing to have survival modes. Those are my two favorite normal missions, but they are too short. If I could play 100 waves in the Village and Mars Landing, I'd be the hap, hap, happiest person since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny bleeping Kaye. 
     
    I've been playing Iron Brigade on the Xbox 360 and finished all of the missions, including the Mars stuff, so I've been seeing how far I can get on the survival missions. At around 2:30 this morning, I got to level 100 on Survival: Hospital with the hospital health bar down to around 25 percent. I didn't know that the mission ended at 100. When you get to 100, the game tells you that it's the final wave. I read comments in forums about people getting to 100, but I didn't understand that you couldn't play beyond 100.
     
    Since I'll probably forget, I'll post what I used in case I stop playing for a while and want to play again later:
     
    Chassis:
    Honeychurch Mk IV
     
    Legs:
    Speedy Biped Legs
     
    Weapons:
    Muerte Fiesta Numero 6
    B0-7T6 The Hole Puncher
     
    Emplacements:
    Piercing Sniper Turret
    Super Shredder Turret
    Dampening Generator Mk III
    Impeccable Collection Pod
     
    After many attempts, I finally figured out that placing piercing sniper turrets in safe spots is only for the beginning of the game. Once the scrap starts rolling in, I can place piercing sniper turrets anywhere and it doesn't matter if they get destroyed because I can plop down more. The most important thing is keeping the hospital safe. When I stopped trying to protect my emplacements, the game got a lot easier. I'll go back to playing the two other survival missions now and see if I can get close to 100 on them. Maybe being less protective of emplacements will help me get farther.
     
     
     
    Update (June 26/27, 2013)
     
    I played this tonight and finished all 100 waves again, but this time it was a lot easier and more fun. Here's what I used this time:
     
    Chassis:
    Honeychurch Mk IV
     
    Legs:
    Speedy Biped Legs
     
    Weapons:
    Muerte Fiesta Numero 6
    Muerte Fiesta Numero 6
     
    Emplacements:
    Piercing Sniper Turret
    Super Shredder Turret
    Dampening Generator Mk III
    Impeccable Collection Pod
     

    Looks like the only thing that is different is that I used another Muerte Fiesta Numero 6. Now that I'm used to it, Survival: Hospital (Solo) is hard without being too hard, so I think I'll do this mission whenever I'm in the mood to play this game.
     
     
     
    Update (June 29, 2013)
     
    Since posting on June 27, 2013, I beat Survival: Hospital (Solo) 4 or 5 times with two of the Muerte Fiesta Numero 6 shotguns. I wanted to see if I could beat it with two machine guns and I just did. Now I don't have to keep pressing the fire button. I can just hold it down for rapid-fire. Here's what I used this time:
     
    Chassis:
    Honeychurch Mk IV
     
    Legs:
    Speedy Biped Legs
     
    Weapons:
    The Perforator
    The Perforator
     
    Emplacements:
    Piercing Sniper Turret
    Super Shredder Turret
    Dampening Generator Mk III
    Impeccable Collection Pod
     

    It's a little bit harder with The Perforator, but it's worth it so I can have rapid-fire.
     
     
     
    Update (June 30, 2013)
     
    Beat Survival: Hospital (Solo) a couple of times with The Perforator, then beat it using the L-2 "Faster Blaster" machine guns:
     

    Chassis:
    Honeychurch Mk IV
     
    Legs:
    Speedy Biped Legs
     
    Weapons:
    L-2 "Faster Blaster"
    L-2 "Faster Blaster"
     
    Emplacements:
    Piercing Sniper Turret
    Super Shredder Turret
    Dampening Generator Mk III
    Impeccable Collection Pod
     

    Update (November 29, 2015)
     
    I'm still playing this survival mission, but not as much as the one on Mars. I wish we had more than just 3 survival missions to play. I'd especially love 100 levels on the Trainyard, Village (with the 3 huts), Volcano, and Mars Landing.
     
     
     

    Random Terrain
    [Do you like Amazon? I buy stuff from Amazon every month.]
    __
  18. Random Terrain
    (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I get commissions for purchases made through certain links.)
     
    I had a gray-ish View-Master (Sawyers Model G) in the late 1960s. It looked like the images below from #ad Amazon:
     


     
     
    My View-Master had no imperfections between my eyes and the images. The view was completely clear. I don't remember what happened to that View-Master. I or my mother might have eventually given it away, thinking I was too old for it. If I would have known that most other people didn't see like I did and that the View-Master would be my only way to see in 3D for decades, I would have treated it like it was the last bar of gold on Earth.
     
    My family bought a couple of new View-Masters (I'm guessing around 2015) and both of them had imperfections that make viewing 3D images less enjoyable. Seems like fewer companies care about quality as time goes on. Maybe that will change sometime in 2020 after a great number of people are awakened and they stop living in a trance of mediocrity.
     
    Back to the late 1960s, I didn't have many reels, but of the few sets I had, "Winnie The Pooh And The Honey Tree" was my favorite. These reels weren't cartoons, they were 3D photos of miniature sets. I was surprised to find out that the reels can be purchased at #ad Amazon after all these years.
     
    Lance Cardinal has a page that shows all of the images from the reels:
     
    http://lancecardinal.blogspot.com/2014/04/winnie-pooh-and-honey-tree-vintage-view.html
     
    The images on that page aren't as vivid as what I saw in my View-Master, but it's still nice that Lance Cardinal took the time to take a photograph of each image and post them. The image below, courtesy of Lance Cardinal, is my favorite image from the reels:
     

     
    It looked much clearer and detailed in my old View-Master.
     
    If you're interested in the miniatures that were used in View-Master reels, take a look at this:
     
    http://lancecardinal.blogspot.com/2014/04/vintage-view-master-scans.html
     
     
    I also had the 3D miniature photo reels of "Disney's Peter Pan." That's also available at #ad Amazon. Lance Cardinal has scans of those reels too:
     
    http://lancecardinal.blogspot.com/2014/04/disneys-peter-pan-vintage-view-master.html
     
    Lance Cardinal has a lot of other things at that web site. Be sure to check out the miniatures and models section:
     
    http://lancecardinal.blogspot.com/p/miniatures.html
     
     
     
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  19. Random Terrain
    I saw a Magic Window when I was sitting in a small waiting room around 1973 or 1974 and thought it was kind of fun, so I eventually got one. It wasn't the greatest toy in the world, but it was fun to mess with once in a while. It was like playing with ocean waves. It was a stress relieving toy where the only purpose was to make patterns (similar to the Space Fidgit).
     
    It took me until 2005 to find the name of it. I remembered that it seemed to have blue and white 'sand' inside of a clear thin plastic oval, but that's all I could remember. The name of it never stuck in my head. I also never knew there was a pink and white version back then.
     
    Here are two related YouTube videos:
     
    youtu.be/PwaTSricrOA
     
    youtu.be/wHHN43KZgEo
     
    (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I get commissions for purchases made through certain links.)
     
    Amazon sells a bunch of #ad similar-looking toys, but none of them look quite right to me. Maybe you can find one that's close enough.
     
    Below are a few pages that have more information and images:
     
    https://clickamericana.com/toys-and-games/magic-window-toy-memories-1973-1979
     
    https://web.archive.org/web/20161028175621/http://www.magicwindows.org/history.htm
     
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wham-O#Other_products
     
    https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1765753946864203
     
     
     
     

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  20. Random Terrain
    A similar thing happened to the director's sister:
     
     
    The full interview was yanked off YouTube. Here's a few minutes of it:
     
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8tq53IQ9EA
     
     
     
     
    Movie trailer:
     
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFhJAMUW6WA
     
     
    You can buy the movie from #ad Amazon.com.



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  21. Random Terrain
    Ortho Home Defense MAX Insect Killer Granules is sprinkled around the outside of the house and around any storage buildings.
     
    Ortho Home Defense Insect Killer for Indoor & Perimeter with Comfort Wand is used in the house, basement, and attic.

    Read the instructions. Reapply as needed. Use at your own risk. Goodbye spiders, ants, and more.
     


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  22. Random Terrain
    You'd think this would be a huge story in the mainstream news:

    The war between the white hats and the black hats has been going on for a long time, but the white hats are finally winning. It seems a disgusting man in the big chair has agreed to work with the white hats. For decades, most men who sat in that big chair have worked for the black hats, so this is good news.
     
    The Fiji Water Girl was supposedly a message from the white hats to the black hats that human trafficking, SRA, and related open secrets will no longer be tolerated. We may be seeing more helicopter swarms doing mysterious "military training exercises" in the mainstream news before this year is over.
     
     
    Update (2019y_07m_08d)
    Jeffrey Epstein arrested on sex trafficking allegations.
     
     

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  23. Random Terrain
    I saw a made for TV movie or miniseries in the mid 1970s about an ape that had to go to court to try to win his or her rights to do something. I don't remember if it was supposed to be a chimp or a gorilla, but it was clearly a small human in a weird-looking ape costume. (The person in charge of the ape had to take him or her to court.)

    I must be using the wrong words when Googling. I can't find one mention of it. Does anyone remember seeing it or is anyone better at Googling? I'd like to know the name of the TV movie or whatever it was. Thanks.


    Update #1

    I should have mentioned that it had nothing to do with the Planet of the Apes movies.


    Update #2

    s0c7 mentioned Skullduggery below. It could be Skullduggery and I'm just remembering wrong. I saw it on TV somewhere between 1974 and 1977. I thought it was on a major big three channel in the USA (maybe a movie of the week type of thing). There were network commercials for it, if I remember correctly. I remembered it having a "made for TV" look to it and the courtroom scene looked like it was in the USA. The judge wasn't wearing one of those goofy white wigs. I also don't remember Burt Reynolds being in it. It's like the TV movie I saw was based on or inspired by Skullduggery.

    If I remember correctly, it was on TV in the same basic time span as TV movies such as The Questor Tapes and The Reincarnation of Peter Proud.



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  24. Random Terrain
    Blog post last updated on: 2019y_06m_25d_1317t

    In my Protection for Bad Home Putters blog entry, I described my little home miniature golf setup. We had to put it away when we lived in an apartment, but now that we're in a house again, we got it back out.

    We were saving up money to have a guy mow our yard, but he never found the time, so I had to do it. My sister said we could spend some of the money on something fun and while we were out shopping the other day, we stumbled upon an officially licensed Skee-Ball tabletop game. It comes with 5 wooden balls. Each one is almost the size of a golf ball, so we thought we could play Skee-Ball Miniature Golf at home, especially since we got out the putting mat just a few days before. Here's a photo showing one of the wooden balls next to a real golf ball:



    Unlike the Callaway Kickback Putt Cup, the Skee-Ball game doesn't return the ball, but it's not difficult to pick up the balls with a grabber.

    Here are two photos of our Skee-Ball home miniature golf setup:





    I made a video with my aging HD video camera:
     
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZFzXxo8-Co
     

    If you want a setup similar to ours, below is what you'll need.
     
    Skee-Ball tabletop game: https://amzn.to/2I4O79n
      A long, straight putting mat: http://amzn.to/2mHnVqQ
      A putter: https://amzn.to/2EXiCw0
      If you don't want to or can't bend over to pick up the balls, you'll need a grabber: https://amzn.to/2Uw1XbV
      If you'd like to have more balls, you might want to get some practice foam golf balls since real golf balls are too heavy. We bought a pack and they work great: https://amzn.to/2MwLFMV
      We have a tabletop game called Connect 4 Shots that we don't really like that much. It has 12 yellow balls and 12 red balls that are similar to table tennis balls (ping pong balls). Since we never use the game, we tried hitting the balls into the Skee-Ball tabletop game on June 10, 2019. We expected them to be too bouncy, but if you don't swing the putter as hard, they're not bad. These wacky balls are a little more fun to hit than the original wooden balls or the foam golf balls. You might want to try some colorful table tennis balls or beer ping pong balls: https://amzn.to/2IAA36i
      While at a store called Dollar Tree, we bought a pack of All-Star Sports Plastic Toy Golf Balls (8 count) that are almost the same size as the wooden ones that come with the Skee-Ball game. These toy golf balls are lighter than the wooden balls and not as bouncy as table tennis balls. They're pretty close to perfect as replacement balls (lighter, not as noisy, and less wear and tear on the Skee-Ball game). Below is a photo comparing one of the toy golf balls with a wooden ball.

     


    Disclaimer: Use this home version of Skee-Ball as a miniature golf game at your own risk. I am not responsible if you damage the wooden balls or the game or break a window or something else. Use your brain and be careful.


    If you're interested in Skee-Ball, you might want to read the book Seeking Redemption: The Real Story of the Beautiful Game of Skee-Ball.



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  25. Random Terrain
    I just found out the other day that one of my quotes is in a book called The Best Advice Ever Given. So I got it from the library to see for myself and it really is in there.
     
    Front cover:

     
    Page with my (Duane Alan Hahn) quote on it:



     
    Update (2019y_05m_19d)
     
    My name or web site seems to be in more books:

    randomterrain.com/about.html#google_books
     
     
     
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