So, here I am, sitting here at home... seeing as I got let go (or as SeaWorld puts it, that I resigned my position)... getting more and more pissed that I can't land a job. I had gone for another review of my VA Disability, to try to correct their fuck up from before.
Long story short: Fought with VA for a year to get into the system. Get in finally. Fight for another half year roughly to get disability review and started to get paid (10% rated supposedly). After some time, had another review, and got rated to 30% (which at that rate, provides compensation for dependents). Later got another review and rated up to 40%. Went with that rating for quite some time, roughly 2 or 3 years? My back started getting worse (the disability), so I requested another review. This time, they didn't do a recent MRI or XRay, and when the "ruling" came down, they reduced me to 30%... this dropped off about $200 a month from my allotment.
Reviewing what they used for the ruling, they hadn't included about 70% of my problems that should be documented within my VA medical records (not sure, seeing as when I attempted to get a copy of my records myself, yielded nothing). So I attempted to write the letter that they said I could do... sent it off as requested (have a year to get it to them, and got it to them within 60 days). I got no corresponding info back from them and later they went ahead and applied that 30% rating. That happened back in February of this year. Seeing as supposedly the case was closed, I had to re-start the review process.
After some time, I managed to get the appointment finally to see someone, and this time, it wasn't even within the VA system, it was a third-party doc. I didn't get any MRI, nor XRays at all. Doc went through his paperwork, which honestly, didn't cover even half the problems I have, and even more, he had no access to my VA paperwork to be able to review my past, or present problems. He wouldn't even take down any info that I was attempting to give him to be able to add to the review. The review was short, and at one point he'd asked about XRays or MRI, to which I of course answered no. He didn't even say he'd request for either to be done for him to look at.
This brings us to today... wherein I get a review decision paperwork in the mail, not even 2 weeks after seeing that "doc". They want to reduce me to 20%!!! What the flying fuck? My condition is degrading, and they're reducing my rating?!?!?
The paperwork has a number to call, which leads to a long ass pre-show voice-box "choose your own adventure" crap box. After delving in the system for 20 minutes, I finally get to the part where I can choose to talk to a person within the department I'm after ... the system then states "We're sorry, we cannot complete your call at this time, please try again later" ... yay.... Delve around for another 10 minutes in different options trying to get a live person to no avail.... and it's only 3:30 EST!!! Get fed up enough to be sweating from the hatred of their system, their choices in my disability rating, and their inability to actually help those that need help. I then attempt to go to their website that is listed on this paperwork to find individuals that can assist. Browse around, put in Florida (as a whole) to get numbers and names of individuals that supposedly work with this kind of thing. Unfortunately, every number that was listed for Orlando (closest city that was listed) yielded either no answer, or a wrong number.
Pissed even more that their own website was not trolling me and keeping me from my goal of getting properly paid for my disability, I contacted the American Legion nearest to me. The place sounded packed (no, haven't ever been into an American Legion office, nor dealt with them previously, so no clue what they even truly do), but the person that answered got me the phone number of someone that should be able to help. I called this person, who stated they've been running into much of the same problems themselves, and then suggested a personal friend of his to contact, that is an attorney. After chit-chatting with this guy for a bit (older vet, so he's been dealing with the VA for a while now, and felt the need to talk about it in length... fresh "young" ears I suppose), I got to call the attorney's office, and now have an appointment for a free consult tomorrow morning at 10am.
Hopefully this guy will be able to help me... Lack of a job, and now the VA wanting to take even more of my residual income, and already being behind on mortgage payments ... it's not looking good for me over here. I don't have many friends personally... and the ones I do have are financially in the same boat as me ... no spare funds what-so-ever.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Gaming front? Well, with the pain I've been in lately, and the distress over loosing the job I had ... and now even MORE distress over having to fight even more to get my disability straightened properly... I've not been doing much gaming. Sure here and there I'll pop in something for a short bit.. but for the most part... my time in front of the computer has been getting spent on looking for jobs... or browsing reddit ... The little gaming that I've done, is well, just that ... little. I've popped in games that I really enjoy, only to quit out of them the moment something goes sour after a trying period.
For example... One of my friends, has been able to gift me quite a few games as of late after his contract job he just finished got done. He got me FTL, a cool little game I'm sure everyone's heard about that is even interested in the gaming side of my blog (even though it's lately been rants about crap I've been putting up with outside of gaming). Took me a long time to even beat it the first time on Easy setting.... but it's replay-ability is great. He then had a spare key for Torchlight 1 ... and he said that if I liked it, he might get me Torchlight 2 ... I did enjoy the first one, and told him as such... so then he got me the second one! Extremely grateful, we both attempted to pop in and play the moment it was unlocked on steam ... Mainly so we could both pop in and multiplayer together. Unfortunately the servers were all wonky and got hit HARD by everyone trying to either sign up, sign in, or even just start a multiplayer game.
Eventually we did get in to MP with each other the next day. We played through for a while, and got pretty far. Had a blast, and over the next couple days, finally beat it. Went into the new game mode, and started rocking our way through that. Gradually we got to the end area again... I got to a point where I was wanting to do more and more... so I started doing the map room stuff, and got to level 100 (we were at NG+ at that time). I picked up some good sets of gear, full sets... for both of us (I as outlander, he as engineer). I stopped getting some stuff eventually at that point, and figured maybe I'd get more by going to the next "NG" rating. Unfortunately, being level 100, when I hit the NG+ person, it put me on NG+++ ... not NG++ ... when my friend eventually got back on to join me, I told 'em to go to the next NG to play again (can't play cross NG ratings together). He went to NG++ though, as he wasn't level 100 :( ... so now, he has to go through the game in NG++ solo, and in the process I'm sure he'll get level 100 and then be able to join me again.
Next up, he had pre-ordered for a hard-copy of XCOM: Enemy Unknown from somewhere (probably amazon, I didn't ask). Unfortunately, on steam, there was a preorder thing where if they got enough pre-orders, and you'd preordered, you would get a copy of Civ 5... he kind of wanted that ... and seeing as the cost of Civ5 was about the same or something like that ... he figured if it got to that preorder state, he'd just get me XCOM:EU, and keep the civ5 for himself LOL. Well, it did get to that point... so he got it for me. Although, he'd wait for the hard-copy and give me the activation code out of that rather than gifting me the game in steam...I watched him stream it for a while when he first got it unlocked on steam, and thought it was cool... later that evening (around 7pm OUR time) the package showed up at his place, and I was able to get it on steam, then of course had to download it.
Being that I'd never played any XCOM games, and normally sucked at the tactical squad shooter genre, I choose to start at the Easy difficulty. I started through the main objectives, doing the best I could. Did the tutorial stuff in tune, wasn't that hard, but I wanted to do some stuff (like queue for buildings to be made, craft more stuff that I had the resources for, etc) before the tutorial was done ... there wasn't any "cue" to say that the tutorial was finished really ... only the fact that I could finally do what I wanted. I got to a specific map, wherein I had to rescue some civilians, and these spider-like guys (crysalids?) that can turn people to zombies were present on the map. I didn't have much in my arsenal... not even nano-armor ... there were a couple civs up on the roof of this 3 story place, and I had no external access to them, nor could I see a way to them from the inside ... The crysalids though found a way and well... it didn't turn out too well. One of my guys bit the dust there due to a window/doorway bug, wherein even though my medic came to the spot right next to where the guy took the hit and was unconscious and slowly dying... I couldn't stabilize him. The next few turns I attempted moving on top of, 2 spaces away, and even inside the building to be able to do it. Unfortunately nothing worked, and seeing as he took a hit from the crysalid ... he zombied up and had to be dealt with sadly.
I got kind of pissed at that, but continued through the map, eventually getting my crew inside to try to save some others, and get to some guys that refused to come outside. I eventually got to this doorway that was two squares wide ... no doors, just a doorway between two rooms (the room I was in was like a kitchen maybe? I dunno). I had my guys posted up on either side of the doorway... a crysalid came up and posted up on the opposite wall... figured what the heck, I'll stun capture the guy, as he was the last target on the map. I shot him with two of my guys, got him down to 1 health. The person RIGHT NEXT to him (one square away, just the wall separating the two... so in move rate, 2 steps away and I'd be next to him, or 3 steps and I'd be on top of his corpse if he were dead). I attempted to use the stun gun (that only that soldier had anyway) ... and it wouldn't work ... said no valid targets ... yet I could shoot him if I wanted to. I ended up having to move those two blocks INTO the same room that the crysalid was in to be able to stun him. All that buggyness pissed me off to no end ... I wanted to re-load or re-start so that I could focus more on upgrades and stuff before the main storyline.
After passing that mission, the world was in a state of panic (before going on that mission, everything was 1 or 2 bars of concern or whatever it is... and afterwards, only loosing that ONE person on the map... everything was at least 3-4 bars) ... completely stupid in my opinion for one lost person ... granted ... I will admit ... out of the 12 civilians on the map, due to the buggy rooms, and the fact that I didn't have much movement or ability to even get to about 5 of the people ... I only saved 5 total on the map when the map finished ... so yea ... lost 7 civilians to either crysalids or other aliens ... probably pretty distressing ... but to have the WHOLE WORLD in fear over 7 people? ...
Oh, other illogical things I'd noted... Set up a defense network, get ships built, go to distribute these "early responders" that are used to intercept the UFO's ... it takes 3 days ... 3 days to transfer a ship from the USA to Europe? Are they driving these interceptors through some under-ocean tunnel behind a VW bug? And the troop ship you use to fly between missions? yea... it must be super-sonic in flight capabilities ... as it can fly half-way around the world in little under 10 "minutes" ... Why can't we put that propulsion on the interceptors? I haven't gotten to the point of being able to re-fit weaponry on the interceptors ... but watching my friend's stream of him playing ... it takes them 2-3 days to re-fit the weapons on these things too? ... current technology allows for weapon load-outs on combat aircraft to be done within minutes... at most, maybe an hour if it's having to re-mount a different gun... but they'd prefer to take another craft that already has that weapon on-board. Despite that though ... still ... anything more than an hour seems completely silly for re-fitting of weaponry.
Over all though, it's a cool little game ... just can't stand the bugs with doorways/windows, or be assed with dealing with the stress that I'm under currently that makes everything more exaggerated when shit doesn't go the way I plan.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Thursday, September 13, 2012
…
Can't think of any "stunning titles" for the post, so you get the ASCCI ellipsis instead.
So…What's been going on? Well, quite a bit, so lemme just fill in some blanks of time with some info and stuff.
The job with SeaWorld, unfortunately has ended. See, about a month ago, my back started doing it's normal "I'm going to shut down now, enjoy life" deal. I started having to use my cane more and more at work, until it eventually got to the point where I was working with it next to me. Luckily the supervisors that were there were kind enough to try to work with me on it, and kept me on stuff that wasn't stressful for my back. Unfortunately, standing and walking around, even in small areas, was making it worse as well. I went to the HR department about a month prior to this happening, and was attempting to get conditional FMLA approval so that I could get some time off to recover some. Unfortunately being seasonal meant that I wasn't eligible for that at all. So, the next best thing they could do was get my VA doc to fill out a "fit for work" form, stating my limitations for working.
The VA doc put in limitations that were well beyond what I expected her to put me on (that of no pushing/pulling/lifting anything over 10 pounds, no running, no jumping, no climbing, must have change in position every 30 minutes [meaning I can't stand, sit, walk, for more than 30 minutes at a time]). I then ended up not being able to do anything in the area basically due to those limitations. Positions were 1 hour at a time for where we were at. Even then, if you were at the start of the rotation, you still had 2-3 hours before you could stop, sit, and relax. The higher supervisors tried whatever tactics they could to possibly put me in another position employment wise, but they couldn't make any connections for me within the park operations department. They gave me a little under a month then from that point to apply for other positions within the company, and they'd try to push me into the position faster, but with no "extra credit" so to say as being already with the company.
Looking through the employment stuff, I did apply for their IT position, but was declined (possibly because I have no PBX experience ... I mean I know it's the packard bell exchange system for their phone system on property, but I've not worked with it directly). All the other positions required 50 pound or more lifting capabilities. So basically I got fired because I'm broken LOL. No, sorry, wasn't "fired" ... I "tendered my resignation" by not getting a new position within the company. Before that happened though, I went ahead and printed off the last of my complementary tickets so that I can take the kids to the park for Halloween. Supposedly their Halloween event is pretty nice for kids.
-=≡=-=≡=-=≡=-=≡=-
Relationship front of things? Could. Not. Be. Better!
My girlfriend's moved in, as are her 3 kids. So, now we have an almost literal "Brady Bunch" here with 3 kids from each side of the relationship... only it isn't 3 boys and 3 girls ... it's 2 boys and 4 girls. Kids all are having a blast together, no big arguments that haven't been quickly squelched, nor any bloody fist fights.
-=≡=-=≡=-=≡=-=≡=-
Gaming front:
After working on my girlfriend's computers some, and doing some research, I thought that part of my problem with my gaming rig, was in fact the battery backup itself. I hadn't turned on the computer in like forever, so imagine my surprise when it powered on just fine, no noise squelching out from it's bellows! Thinking something MUST be wrong, I still went around and tried to get stuff all straightened out. Nothing seemed to be wrong. So, I decided to play around a bit. Did some League of Legends, did some Binding of Isaac, some Realm of the Mad God... then when I thought everything was going great... I went ahead and brought on Firefall ... Unfortunate things happened then...
The computer just up and shut down... no blue screen. Complete power off. Wouldn't come back on. I was furious...seeing as I had only JUST gotten the log on screen loaded before it went POOF. I waited a while, and did some other things around the house and spent time with my girlfriend more. I eventually went back to it, and it booted up like nothing was wrong. Tried again to load Firefall right off the get-go, and was welcomed to the new wiped world with open arms. I started plugging away, getting used to the MONTHS of changes that were put in while my computer was "offline". I eventually got to a 'stopping point' in my missions that I could go do some exploring. I explored far and wide, got to see more area that I hadn't seen before. Got to .... POOF ... off went the system... "well F....." was the thought in my head. I figured that maybe it was just over-heating seeing as I had the computer in the bedroom (that is the last room in this house to get the AC) and it was getting hotter in the room with the computer on.
So, I tended to play on and off only simple games, League of Legends didn't put much stress on it so I didn't worry too much about it overheating. But I'd still turn off the computer when I wasn't on it. I wanted to get us some more room in the bedroom, so I decided to move the desk and computer back out to the living room. That took a while, and a bit of pain. Computer out here, hooked up, all good, play some more games (still no Firefall due to fear of it just shutting down on me again), enjoy the times. Until I started hearing a "tick" that bordered on the level of sound that was the "whine" I heard from it before I stopped using it. Gradually it started getting worse, until one night, while playing Isaac, it started the whine again... I was pissed... and already dealing with a headache from being sick (thanks kids in school LOL)...so I shut it off.
This went on for about a week or two... until 5 days ago .... when I decided to play some Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands ... I started a fresh game, no biggie to me, so that I could get used to the controls again, and experience it again. I got through the beginning parts of getting into the palace, when I started seeing "artifacts" as I'll call them ... the graphics started messing up in different areas... specific textures were off. I got a little upset, but it was still playable (told myself I'll just repair the install when I get out). Then, it started getting worse and worse ... Thinking that my GPU was taking a dump, I got ready to shut it down, when the computer gracefully shut itself down like it's done before.
I unplugged it, waited a bit, plugged back in, powered on... no errors ... looked at the temperatures of everything ... CPU was around 48C (it was off for a bit, and I have a pretty kickin cooler on it) ... GPU, I looked, and it was around 60C ... well, that's about normal for after a reboot and if it did in fact overheat. Went on playing minor games again for a bit before wanting to get further in PoP:TFS, and I cranked it back up. Graphics glitches weren't there (I hadn't remembered to check files through steam), and it was smooth... got to the point where the big Ifrit guy shows his head to the player, and suddenly...
POP!!! POP!!!
Yep, two distinct pops were heard, computer shut down, and I hopped up quickly to see if there was physical smoke coming from something (hey, if I saw it, I'd know for certain). Nothing produced visible smoke, but I did start smelling the LOVELY melted/fried electrical equipment smell. Of course, when I hopped up quickly, the power plug was swiftly pulled from the case with vigor (took out some of my LEGO when I did that LOL). After a bit, I didn't see anything, and I figured the stuff was discharged, as no lights were on (at least discharged enough to put hand in there and see if I feel anything super hot, I mean something popped). Video card wasn't as hot as I'd have expected for running that game on highest settings. HDD's were warm, but nothing out of the ordinary. CPU cooler fins were cool to the touch (love copper). PSU? Oh yea, there's the heat ... couldn't touch it long before it forcing my hand away.
So yea, PSU was bad... go figure. Had a spare here, that was more wattage than the one that just popped. it was a bit smaller than the original one too, so I actually took down the back of the case, re-built it around the new power supply, and even re-worked the back panel so that my "fan grille" was similar to the one on the side, instead of looking half-arsed. All said and done, I am still a little fearful of popping on Firefall or PoP:TFS right now, or any other graphical game.
I then decided to try it's limits so to say, and see what else is wrong. Popped in Trine for a test run (got it on one of the humble bundles, never played it) ... got in and ..... blue screen??? oh my ... well, at least we're not shutting off instantly. Blue screen dumps memory and reboots. Get a dump file reader... supposedly ntfs.sys failed or something... basically it couldn't write to the HDD from memory for some reason. Do some digging and research, try the fixes that I found... to no avail, as the check disk utility doesn't want to run for some reason on the C drive (which is my 1.5TB) doesn't want to scan properly. It gives some vague explanation about why it can't run, but boots into windows too quick and I didn't have a camera handy to take a quick snap. Tried some other "fixes" including system file checker utility to possibly fix something, but nothing was found wrong. I went to try to do update...
Wait... Security center is off? ... turn on ... WHAT? you can't turn on? .... ok, the service must be turned off ... what? why is "security center" not in the services AT ALL? ... ... Ahh, there's the security center service, and it's running. Ok, Back to security center window... Firewall off? Ok, turn on ... Never easy eh? I'm still plugging away at this thing trying to get this all fixed up here, I think at some point in my attempts to get a home-based job... one of them in particular didn't recognize AVG as a valid antivirus, and suggested I get windows defender, or mcafee . So, I had uninstalled AVG and gotten windows defender. Sometime after that, not sure when, but I apparently got infected with some trojans ... Again, not sure HOW long ago those came into my system, so I don't even know where to begin, other than the point where I had uninstalled AVG ... but since then I'd gotten many more things installed (game wise of course)...so I don't think a system restore back to that point would do me much good (if it even exists). But it may be the proper thing ... ... bah, all the stuff I've done to try to fix it has wiped the previous restore points gone, so that's not even an option now.
So, here I sit, now with AVG on it ... windows defender supposedly isn't even installed anymore (go go virus programmers that will uninstall the crappy stuff anyway), Scanned, with AdAware as well, cleaned up a lot of things, but still have to dig around, and maybe even go look up what the virus' do that I had on the system... Perhaps that'll give me a heads-up as to what I need to do to fix it. Not sure if all this will make it better... but I certainly don't want to have to re-install Win7, and all this other stuff that I have installed already ...
Oh... and my friend (that had gotten me this vid-card in the first place)... did some researching on his own, and found that the vid card I have, has a minimum wattage requirement of 450 ... guess how much my PSU that blew up was? ... 450 ... so right there yes ... but with 3 HDD, a DVD Burner, and 3 fans? ... yea, not exactly allowing for any surges/dips ... even though it's on a battery backup ... This may have caused some of the problems, but meh. The virus' probably have more to do with my current problems...
So…What's been going on? Well, quite a bit, so lemme just fill in some blanks of time with some info and stuff.
The job with SeaWorld, unfortunately has ended. See, about a month ago, my back started doing it's normal "I'm going to shut down now, enjoy life" deal. I started having to use my cane more and more at work, until it eventually got to the point where I was working with it next to me. Luckily the supervisors that were there were kind enough to try to work with me on it, and kept me on stuff that wasn't stressful for my back. Unfortunately, standing and walking around, even in small areas, was making it worse as well. I went to the HR department about a month prior to this happening, and was attempting to get conditional FMLA approval so that I could get some time off to recover some. Unfortunately being seasonal meant that I wasn't eligible for that at all. So, the next best thing they could do was get my VA doc to fill out a "fit for work" form, stating my limitations for working.
The VA doc put in limitations that were well beyond what I expected her to put me on (that of no pushing/pulling/lifting anything over 10 pounds, no running, no jumping, no climbing, must have change in position every 30 minutes [meaning I can't stand, sit, walk, for more than 30 minutes at a time]). I then ended up not being able to do anything in the area basically due to those limitations. Positions were 1 hour at a time for where we were at. Even then, if you were at the start of the rotation, you still had 2-3 hours before you could stop, sit, and relax. The higher supervisors tried whatever tactics they could to possibly put me in another position employment wise, but they couldn't make any connections for me within the park operations department. They gave me a little under a month then from that point to apply for other positions within the company, and they'd try to push me into the position faster, but with no "extra credit" so to say as being already with the company.
Looking through the employment stuff, I did apply for their IT position, but was declined (possibly because I have no PBX experience ... I mean I know it's the packard bell exchange system for their phone system on property, but I've not worked with it directly). All the other positions required 50 pound or more lifting capabilities. So basically I got fired because I'm broken LOL. No, sorry, wasn't "fired" ... I "tendered my resignation" by not getting a new position within the company. Before that happened though, I went ahead and printed off the last of my complementary tickets so that I can take the kids to the park for Halloween. Supposedly their Halloween event is pretty nice for kids.
-=≡=-=≡=-=≡=-=≡=-
Relationship front of things? Could. Not. Be. Better!
My girlfriend's moved in, as are her 3 kids. So, now we have an almost literal "Brady Bunch" here with 3 kids from each side of the relationship... only it isn't 3 boys and 3 girls ... it's 2 boys and 4 girls. Kids all are having a blast together, no big arguments that haven't been quickly squelched, nor any bloody fist fights.
-=≡=-=≡=-=≡=-=≡=-
Gaming front:
After working on my girlfriend's computers some, and doing some research, I thought that part of my problem with my gaming rig, was in fact the battery backup itself. I hadn't turned on the computer in like forever, so imagine my surprise when it powered on just fine, no noise squelching out from it's bellows! Thinking something MUST be wrong, I still went around and tried to get stuff all straightened out. Nothing seemed to be wrong. So, I decided to play around a bit. Did some League of Legends, did some Binding of Isaac, some Realm of the Mad God... then when I thought everything was going great... I went ahead and brought on Firefall ... Unfortunate things happened then...
The computer just up and shut down... no blue screen. Complete power off. Wouldn't come back on. I was furious...seeing as I had only JUST gotten the log on screen loaded before it went POOF. I waited a while, and did some other things around the house and spent time with my girlfriend more. I eventually went back to it, and it booted up like nothing was wrong. Tried again to load Firefall right off the get-go, and was welcomed to the new wiped world with open arms. I started plugging away, getting used to the MONTHS of changes that were put in while my computer was "offline". I eventually got to a 'stopping point' in my missions that I could go do some exploring. I explored far and wide, got to see more area that I hadn't seen before. Got to .... POOF ... off went the system... "well F....." was the thought in my head. I figured that maybe it was just over-heating seeing as I had the computer in the bedroom (that is the last room in this house to get the AC) and it was getting hotter in the room with the computer on.
So, I tended to play on and off only simple games, League of Legends didn't put much stress on it so I didn't worry too much about it overheating. But I'd still turn off the computer when I wasn't on it. I wanted to get us some more room in the bedroom, so I decided to move the desk and computer back out to the living room. That took a while, and a bit of pain. Computer out here, hooked up, all good, play some more games (still no Firefall due to fear of it just shutting down on me again), enjoy the times. Until I started hearing a "tick" that bordered on the level of sound that was the "whine" I heard from it before I stopped using it. Gradually it started getting worse, until one night, while playing Isaac, it started the whine again... I was pissed... and already dealing with a headache from being sick (thanks kids in school LOL)...so I shut it off.
This went on for about a week or two... until 5 days ago .... when I decided to play some Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands ... I started a fresh game, no biggie to me, so that I could get used to the controls again, and experience it again. I got through the beginning parts of getting into the palace, when I started seeing "artifacts" as I'll call them ... the graphics started messing up in different areas... specific textures were off. I got a little upset, but it was still playable (told myself I'll just repair the install when I get out). Then, it started getting worse and worse ... Thinking that my GPU was taking a dump, I got ready to shut it down, when the computer gracefully shut itself down like it's done before.
I unplugged it, waited a bit, plugged back in, powered on... no errors ... looked at the temperatures of everything ... CPU was around 48C (it was off for a bit, and I have a pretty kickin cooler on it) ... GPU, I looked, and it was around 60C ... well, that's about normal for after a reboot and if it did in fact overheat. Went on playing minor games again for a bit before wanting to get further in PoP:TFS, and I cranked it back up. Graphics glitches weren't there (I hadn't remembered to check files through steam), and it was smooth... got to the point where the big Ifrit guy shows his head to the player, and suddenly...
POP!!! POP!!!
Yep, two distinct pops were heard, computer shut down, and I hopped up quickly to see if there was physical smoke coming from something (hey, if I saw it, I'd know for certain). Nothing produced visible smoke, but I did start smelling the LOVELY melted/fried electrical equipment smell. Of course, when I hopped up quickly, the power plug was swiftly pulled from the case with vigor (took out some of my LEGO when I did that LOL). After a bit, I didn't see anything, and I figured the stuff was discharged, as no lights were on (at least discharged enough to put hand in there and see if I feel anything super hot, I mean something popped). Video card wasn't as hot as I'd have expected for running that game on highest settings. HDD's were warm, but nothing out of the ordinary. CPU cooler fins were cool to the touch (love copper). PSU? Oh yea, there's the heat ... couldn't touch it long before it forcing my hand away.
So yea, PSU was bad... go figure. Had a spare here, that was more wattage than the one that just popped. it was a bit smaller than the original one too, so I actually took down the back of the case, re-built it around the new power supply, and even re-worked the back panel so that my "fan grille" was similar to the one on the side, instead of looking half-arsed. All said and done, I am still a little fearful of popping on Firefall or PoP:TFS right now, or any other graphical game.
I then decided to try it's limits so to say, and see what else is wrong. Popped in Trine for a test run (got it on one of the humble bundles, never played it) ... got in and ..... blue screen??? oh my ... well, at least we're not shutting off instantly. Blue screen dumps memory and reboots. Get a dump file reader... supposedly ntfs.sys failed or something... basically it couldn't write to the HDD from memory for some reason. Do some digging and research, try the fixes that I found... to no avail, as the check disk utility doesn't want to run for some reason on the C drive (which is my 1.5TB) doesn't want to scan properly. It gives some vague explanation about why it can't run, but boots into windows too quick and I didn't have a camera handy to take a quick snap. Tried some other "fixes" including system file checker utility to possibly fix something, but nothing was found wrong. I went to try to do update...
Wait... Security center is off? ... turn on ... WHAT? you can't turn on? ....
So, here I sit, now with AVG on it ... windows defender supposedly isn't even installed anymore (go go virus programmers that will uninstall the crappy stuff anyway), Scanned, with AdAware as well, cleaned up a lot of things, but still have to dig around, and maybe even go look up what the virus' do that I had on the system... Perhaps that'll give me a heads-up as to what I need to do to fix it. Not sure if all this will make it better... but I certainly don't want to have to re-install Win7, and all this other stuff that I have installed already ...
Oh... and my friend (that had gotten me this vid-card in the first place)... did some researching on his own, and found that the vid card I have, has a minimum wattage requirement of 450 ... guess how much my PSU that blew up was? ... 450 ... so right there yes ... but with 3 HDD, a DVD Burner, and 3 fans? ... yea, not exactly allowing for any surges/dips ... even though it's on a battery backup ... This may have caused some of the problems, but meh. The virus' probably have more to do with my current problems...
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
A plea to all officers everywhere
I implore you all, please ... do so many people a favor by pulling them over, and informing them that driving with crap hanging from your mirror is illegal (depending upon state.. I know it's illegal here in Florida). Specifically I'm talking about you farking idiots that drive around with your handicap sticker blocking a good portion of your view...
Let me back up a little here... As anyone that's read some of this blog... I am a disabled USMC vet. I do have a handicap tag myself. I am aware also that having crap hanging from the mirror is also a violation of road safety here in Florida (it's in the handbook somewhere I'm sure).
So why this rant about trying to get you officers to pull over these farking idiots? Well, today I wished there were an officer somewhere handy. As I boarded the turnpike returning from work (which is going freaking great mind you)... A woman that obviously couldn't be bothered to slow down and use one of the booths that had no-one in them because she felt that she NEEDED to go in the lane that's for speed-pass owners ... mind you that ALL lanes, even those with attendants, are speed-pass allowed. This woman attempted to cut off the person in front of me, who of course didn't allow her in... then she attempted to cut me off, and got denied (sorry woman, there's two empty booth paths and why you decided your chosen lane was not good enough for your e-pass I'll never know), she then attempted yet again to cut in front of someone, only this time it was a truck towing a trailer, so she had to wait even longer ... had she just bit the bullet, she might have actually gotten ahead of me before the booths. After the booths however (seeing as the other two were empty) she attempted to speed up and use the lane that was merging within 150 feet, of course, no-one let her in (let alone myself who she tried to stick her nose in on ... sorry lady again... go ahead and hit my car, I'd love a replacement). This time she had to get in behind the guy with the trailer again. Once the guard rails ended, she proceeded to attempt to cut across the NO PASS / NO DRIVING area that is before the merging lane onto the turnpike. This was a bit far behind me and of course I saw it happening... and I was already to the merge spot, so I merged in as per normal, and moved over my two lanes (as I knew what lanes would end before I was getting off, and prefer to be where the fark I need to be well before it's time). I MAY have cut her advance off on purpose ... so might have the truck behind me with the trailer :) ... I looked in the rear-view mirror to see her poking her finger and moving her handicap tag that was ... get this ... in a zip-lock baggie ... hanging from the mirror. She then attempted to buzz around to beside me... where she kept pointing to the handicap sticker ... it was as if she was saying "I'm handicap, you should get out of my way you ass" ... I picked my own up out of my door pocket, and proceeded to point to the spot just above the hanger spot ... imploring her to read it off her own tag... she flipped me off, cut off 3 other people as she attempted to get ahead ... flipping them off when they didn't yield to her movements (mind you her left blinker was still on since she cut across the no-drive area on the on ramp).
Now, for those that don't know, and have never had their hands on a handicap tag... above the hanger (thus blocked when it's hanging unfortunately) are the words "Please remove before driving" ... right there ... that tells you you're not supposed to have this big blue thing hanging in your view while you're driving... and here's this woman driving down the road with a plastic bag over it too for some odd reason (the tag is made of plastic by the way also). She was driving too erratic for me to make out what state she was from originally (but she still had an e-pass so she's a regular at least), nor could I get her tag number to plaster it up for all to watch for ... Also of course, my memory's pretty shoddy and all I remember of her car was that it was white, and the tag was not a standard Florida tag ... and the second set of numbers was 1916 if I remember right ... maybe it was something else, but meh.... the tag was also white as well ... So, if you're driving around Central Florida, and spot a farking woman in a white car with a handicap sticker in a baggie hanging from the mirror ... just move out of the way ... her handicap must be mental, and she's gotta have her space to feel special.
So, now again for those officers... please... I keep my tag down because it's illegal ... and all my family and friends do the same (for those that have them) ... so I know that none of them will have an issue with this happening at all. I feel it really needs to be done anyway... it's a fruit that's ripe for the picking for ticket season.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Now, as for another type of update ... seeing as again I haven't done one in a while ... My gaming rig is still down unfortunately, so I've not been doing any gaming. But still, I am not stressing over it (sure I want to game a bit here and there, but that's mostly when my girlfriend isn't here). So... not much more to say on the gaming front of things...
My job at SeaWorld is going great ... already have been told by some supervisors that they are glad that I'm there... that I actually interact with the guests, and make their days good as well. I've also applied today for an internal position doing IT work ... so I might be getting off of the rides (even though I enjoy it, I'll admit, it's not great for my back LOL) and into an office working with computers possibly ... we'll see... I hope they at least contact me to get an interview... maybe I'll take some good pictures of my LEGO case and tell them "your questions are invalid... my computer is made of LEGO" :D
Let me back up a little here... As anyone that's read some of this blog... I am a disabled USMC vet. I do have a handicap tag myself. I am aware also that having crap hanging from the mirror is also a violation of road safety here in Florida (it's in the handbook somewhere I'm sure).
So why this rant about trying to get you officers to pull over these farking idiots? Well, today I wished there were an officer somewhere handy. As I boarded the turnpike returning from work (which is going freaking great mind you)... A woman that obviously couldn't be bothered to slow down and use one of the booths that had no-one in them because she felt that she NEEDED to go in the lane that's for speed-pass owners ... mind you that ALL lanes, even those with attendants, are speed-pass allowed. This woman attempted to cut off the person in front of me, who of course didn't allow her in... then she attempted to cut me off, and got denied (sorry woman, there's two empty booth paths and why you decided your chosen lane was not good enough for your e-pass I'll never know), she then attempted yet again to cut in front of someone, only this time it was a truck towing a trailer, so she had to wait even longer ... had she just bit the bullet, she might have actually gotten ahead of me before the booths. After the booths however (seeing as the other two were empty) she attempted to speed up and use the lane that was merging within 150 feet, of course, no-one let her in (let alone myself who she tried to stick her nose in on ... sorry lady again... go ahead and hit my car, I'd love a replacement). This time she had to get in behind the guy with the trailer again. Once the guard rails ended, she proceeded to attempt to cut across the NO PASS / NO DRIVING area that is before the merging lane onto the turnpike. This was a bit far behind me and of course I saw it happening... and I was already to the merge spot, so I merged in as per normal, and moved over my two lanes (as I knew what lanes would end before I was getting off, and prefer to be where the fark I need to be well before it's time). I MAY have cut her advance off on purpose ... so might have the truck behind me with the trailer :) ... I looked in the rear-view mirror to see her poking her finger and moving her handicap tag that was ... get this ... in a zip-lock baggie ... hanging from the mirror. She then attempted to buzz around to beside me... where she kept pointing to the handicap sticker ... it was as if she was saying "I'm handicap, you should get out of my way you ass" ... I picked my own up out of my door pocket, and proceeded to point to the spot just above the hanger spot ... imploring her to read it off her own tag... she flipped me off, cut off 3 other people as she attempted to get ahead ... flipping them off when they didn't yield to her movements (mind you her left blinker was still on since she cut across the no-drive area on the on ramp).
Now, for those that don't know, and have never had their hands on a handicap tag... above the hanger (thus blocked when it's hanging unfortunately) are the words "Please remove before driving" ... right there ... that tells you you're not supposed to have this big blue thing hanging in your view while you're driving... and here's this woman driving down the road with a plastic bag over it too for some odd reason (the tag is made of plastic by the way also). She was driving too erratic for me to make out what state she was from originally (but she still had an e-pass so she's a regular at least), nor could I get her tag number to plaster it up for all to watch for ... Also of course, my memory's pretty shoddy and all I remember of her car was that it was white, and the tag was not a standard Florida tag ... and the second set of numbers was 1916 if I remember right ... maybe it was something else, but meh.... the tag was also white as well ... So, if you're driving around Central Florida, and spot a farking woman in a white car with a handicap sticker in a baggie hanging from the mirror ... just move out of the way ... her handicap must be mental, and she's gotta have her space to feel special.
So, now again for those officers... please... I keep my tag down because it's illegal ... and all my family and friends do the same (for those that have them) ... so I know that none of them will have an issue with this happening at all. I feel it really needs to be done anyway... it's a fruit that's ripe for the picking for ticket season.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Now, as for another type of update ... seeing as again I haven't done one in a while ... My gaming rig is still down unfortunately, so I've not been doing any gaming. But still, I am not stressing over it (sure I want to game a bit here and there, but that's mostly when my girlfriend isn't here). So... not much more to say on the gaming front of things...
My job at SeaWorld is going great ... already have been told by some supervisors that they are glad that I'm there... that I actually interact with the guests, and make their days good as well. I've also applied today for an internal position doing IT work ... so I might be getting off of the rides (even though I enjoy it, I'll admit, it's not great for my back LOL) and into an office working with computers possibly ... we'll see... I hope they at least contact me to get an interview... maybe I'll take some good pictures of my LEGO case and tell them "your questions are invalid... my computer is made of LEGO" :D
Sunday, April 15, 2012
forever and a day
So many things to update anyone that cares to be following the blog anymore.
Firstly: Thanks for sticking around?
Secondly and any other number word to follow: here we go :)
As many may remember, I've been separated for a while... well, our paperwork was finally filed back in December, unfortunately nothing has come from the courts concerning that yet. I would have gone this past Tuesday to the courts with some "certificates" from us doing our parenting class (required in Florida for divorcing couples that have children involved) but that was also the day that my computer started acting up. What's wrong with it? Well, it sounds like a capacitor going out. Now, the big question lies in: is it on the motherboard, or is it in the power supply? ... Unfortunately I don't have a spare PSU sitting around to test tht out. Luckily I've got a friend that has one...unfortunately though he's not got a ride to bring it over and I've been so busy lately (with stuff that I'll write about in a bit) that I've not gotten over to his place to get it. The other unfortunate bit with it, is that I have a bad feeling that it is on the motherboard.
I've been in the Firefall closed beta from wave 1 of invites, and had been so excited with it when the servers came up for us to test. I used to get on whenever the servers came up and stayed as long as the servers would allow us. Recently they brought the servers up to 24/7 operation, and thus allowed the testers unlimited access. We broke the AI server a couple times already LOL. On the Friday of PAX, the NDA was lifted, and therefore we're able to freely talk about what's in there currently. As such, I will be making some blog posts specifically about it (when my main computer gets up that is) sometime.
I've been so busy with testing Firefall that i've not been on here much.... the other newer reason for my lack of posting: I landed a job finally! I now am employed by SeaWorld of Orlando! Crazily enough, even though I'd stated I have a bad back thanks to the USMC, I'm running rides in the kid's section of the main park. I've been having a blast at it though, despite having my back scream at me sometimes. Oh well. I'm happy with the job and look forward to continuing as long as possible.
Through having the job there, I'd recently (just this past Monday actually) gotten asked the simple question of "what do you do at SeaWorld" ... on a social media site that a friend from long ago got me onto... The person that asked me the question wasn't someone I knew. They'd found me through the "local posts" feature of the site, and just wanted to ask the simple question seeing as they have season passes currently for herself and her kids. A few cautious and well-worded responses later, I find that she's single as well. I started lightly flirting with her to test the waters so to say...and quickly find that she may be interested in me. A bit more back-n-forth messages and we started texting (much easier than writing on that site as you have to refresh constantly to see if a response came back). Shortly thereafter it becomes known that she's got a headache, so I offer my knowledge in some pressure point massage to help her head some. Flirting was had by both of us when she came over... and well... things have been going awesomely between us. We've gotten to know each other real fast, but not too fast. And we're just super happy together so far, despite all the adversities that are unique to each other. As it stands currently, we can't seem to get the other off each other's minds... nor can we seem to wait to see each other again. She's already helped me out by giving me a lift the other day from the mechanics near her place back to my parent's house ... and subsequently met my parents.
Strange for it to be moving so fast, but the relationship I have with her is feeling just... perfect so far. We're both hoping that things continue to work out, and eventually blossom further, but we're trying to take it slow...despite how right everything feels between us. We're on the same wavelength so to say when it comes to asking questions about each other, and have already had times where we'd answer questions or ask the same one to each other at the same time...I mean quite literally, I'd be typing up a question and get a message asking the very same thing!
Happiness comes in many forms... and this time for me... it's in the form of a beautiful woman that actually likes me back :) more info to follow as things progress heh heh.
Firstly: Thanks for sticking around?
Secondly and any other number word to follow: here we go :)
As many may remember, I've been separated for a while... well, our paperwork was finally filed back in December, unfortunately nothing has come from the courts concerning that yet. I would have gone this past Tuesday to the courts with some "certificates" from us doing our parenting class (required in Florida for divorcing couples that have children involved) but that was also the day that my computer started acting up. What's wrong with it? Well, it sounds like a capacitor going out. Now, the big question lies in: is it on the motherboard, or is it in the power supply? ... Unfortunately I don't have a spare PSU sitting around to test tht out. Luckily I've got a friend that has one...unfortunately though he's not got a ride to bring it over and I've been so busy lately (with stuff that I'll write about in a bit) that I've not gotten over to his place to get it. The other unfortunate bit with it, is that I have a bad feeling that it is on the motherboard.
I've been in the Firefall closed beta from wave 1 of invites, and had been so excited with it when the servers came up for us to test. I used to get on whenever the servers came up and stayed as long as the servers would allow us. Recently they brought the servers up to 24/7 operation, and thus allowed the testers unlimited access. We broke the AI server a couple times already LOL. On the Friday of PAX, the NDA was lifted, and therefore we're able to freely talk about what's in there currently. As such, I will be making some blog posts specifically about it (when my main computer gets up that is) sometime.
I've been so busy with testing Firefall that i've not been on here much.... the other newer reason for my lack of posting: I landed a job finally! I now am employed by SeaWorld of Orlando! Crazily enough, even though I'd stated I have a bad back thanks to the USMC, I'm running rides in the kid's section of the main park. I've been having a blast at it though, despite having my back scream at me sometimes. Oh well. I'm happy with the job and look forward to continuing as long as possible.
Through having the job there, I'd recently (just this past Monday actually) gotten asked the simple question of "what do you do at SeaWorld" ... on a social media site that a friend from long ago got me onto... The person that asked me the question wasn't someone I knew. They'd found me through the "local posts" feature of the site, and just wanted to ask the simple question seeing as they have season passes currently for herself and her kids. A few cautious and well-worded responses later, I find that she's single as well. I started lightly flirting with her to test the waters so to say...and quickly find that she may be interested in me. A bit more back-n-forth messages and we started texting (much easier than writing on that site as you have to refresh constantly to see if a response came back). Shortly thereafter it becomes known that she's got a headache, so I offer my knowledge in some pressure point massage to help her head some. Flirting was had by both of us when she came over... and well... things have been going awesomely between us. We've gotten to know each other real fast, but not too fast. And we're just super happy together so far, despite all the adversities that are unique to each other. As it stands currently, we can't seem to get the other off each other's minds... nor can we seem to wait to see each other again. She's already helped me out by giving me a lift the other day from the mechanics near her place back to my parent's house ... and subsequently met my parents.
Strange for it to be moving so fast, but the relationship I have with her is feeling just... perfect so far. We're both hoping that things continue to work out, and eventually blossom further, but we're trying to take it slow...despite how right everything feels between us. We're on the same wavelength so to say when it comes to asking questions about each other, and have already had times where we'd answer questions or ask the same one to each other at the same time...I mean quite literally, I'd be typing up a question and get a message asking the very same thing!
Happiness comes in many forms... and this time for me... it's in the form of a beautiful woman that actually likes me back :) more info to follow as things progress heh heh.
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