What Are You Doing?

Wondering about the maddening state of being able to feel things
when I can't really touch anything.
Damn you science and your ability to find laws that baffle my understanding
of reality, damn you to hell!

 

Good things come to those who wait...

 

Work has drained me. It's good work, but I don't have the energy to do much else. Pretty stressful period we're in.

 

Making food.

 

Discovering that my dad published not just one book, but three-according to Amazon. One by himself, and he co-created another two with his friend.

ETA: Make that another 6 with his friend. It seems he was the photographer, and his friend the author.

 

damn what a "holy tree"!

 

Currently havin' lunch and a coffee at the art gallery in the village.

Heat wave these last two days at the same time I had to mow as the yard was getting out of hand. Was not fun as I've been laid up in bed for over a week due to tweaking something in my lower back again. Every walk to the ute with the catcher and I was wondering if I would make it or not. I can easily do the yard in 2.5 hrs...this time it took me about 5-6 hrs over two days. Feeling fine now, chillin' out in me ute.

Heat wave is due to massive storm buildup over the ocean down Hobart way. Muggy heat in summer is rare in Tassie and is always a sign there's a storm a brewin'.

Here's a pic of a bike stand I made before I tweaked me back.
Same as one I saw on a YT vid by a MTBer



Here's me suspension post and comfy saddle...no more sore ass...nobel prize for the person who invented the post.


Haven't been for a ride for over a week. Used this time wisely by playing RDR...and deleted all saves and started again.

- shoving a carriage in front of a train was a disappointment, it only gently pushes the carriage and horse out of the way.
- this morn discovered the quickest way to get on me horse from my room at the pub in Armadillo. Run out of the room to the balcony, line yourself up with your ride, climb over the railing, and hey presto, instant horse mount with no pain inflicted on horse or Cowboy Naruto.
- Going postal from atop the water tower needs some tweaking.
- Will once again attempt facing off with Cougars with me knife soon. I theorise I have to medicine up after each attack, as I could manage some wounds on the Cougar but I died by the third attack.
- Did a Thelma and Louise with a carriage, full tilt over the highest cliff outside of MacFarlane's farm...was another disappointment.

 

I was listening to music at work but almost started dancing... so now I'm listening to the computers instead.

I'm a tad bored

 

Looking at pets for sale, even though I can't have any in my flat.



And being told "No, not for you. You already have a cute CT puppy."

 

I just ordered some clothes online as Christmas gifts.

 

I can definitely see why you want that puppy.

 

Not just any puppy either; it's a golden retriever. My favourite dog.

 

Adorable!

 

They get cuter.

 

Manuals make driving fun times.
There's something wonderful about holding a gear lever and manually changing gears...especially when doing spirited driving and down-shifting coming up to a corner while braking heavily.

Mind you, when I used to work (residential building industry) back in Queensland, with the muggy energy draining summers, it was a pleasure to turn on the air-con, whack it into drive and use minimal energy to drive home.

That was in a family sized Ford EF sedan. But there was a year I had an early model standard fwd Lancer with 5 speed manual gearbox and boy did I give it a jolly good thrashing for the first three months...valve bouncing through the gears till I hit the speed limits, power-sliding in round-a-bouts. The old Lancer took everything I did to it, then after I had my fill I went back to my usual limo driver cruisin' style.

 

Stressing 'a liddle.' Interview at half three.

The one on Wednesday was ghastly. I was soaked from the storm. They were ugly. 'Informal,' they said.

'Is there a towel I might..?' I said to reception

'Toilet paper in the loo, go help yourself.'

'Thanks so much.' I had toilet paper sticking to my face when I got home. What kind of chance do I have?

This one I sense they are more sophisticated, my people.

 

Remember, class and decorum in the face of adversity. So if you're going to throw your feces at them, for God's sake man, pinkie up!

 

Oh, RDR..a tactic I accidently discovered early on...

Long hunting sessions are a laborious task due to the cut scene activation of Cowboy Naruto skinning a kill each time. But, if you stay on your horse or wagon, then either stand directly over the kill or close to it (wagon), dismount and button press to skin or pull feathers, it does it instantly without firing up any cutscenes.

This way I can kill and skin 100 poor little (and not so little) defenseless and innocent animals over 2 nights (game time) and make up to $1000 in 1-2 hrs.

It's also effective to hunt with a wagon when there's cougars and wolf packs around, 'cus you can dismount, skin the animal and hop back on your vehicle before these not so defenseless animals rip your throat out, which you bloody well deserve for wiping out hundreds of cute widdle bunny wabbits and those oh so adorable skunks.

Wolves and cougars can kill your horse, then rip your throat out, but they can't attack you on a wagon.

Oh, and how hilarious is this...when I first started playing and the silent and swift cougars scared the crap out of me, before I learnt the wagon style of hunting, thus fear and panic would fire up whenever I heard bushes rustling...man, those early hunting trips were a mixture of fun and dread...

...well, the week before my back started tightening up, on my morning bike rides I'd freak out and look around whenever I heard bushes rustling in the breezes, and I'd have a jolly good laugh at myself. A definite sign that the game is well made and that my immersion is pretty deep.

After my horrendous mowing experience today, I decided to chill out in RDR and did a full traintrack return walk and running starting from Thieves Landing...about 2hrs of gameplay and 17 miles, hunting anything close to the track..next time I'll do pure walking.

In closing...( I may have already mentioned this, but I couldn't find it in earlier posts) regarding my book, with the reinstatement of a good diet and exercise, my mind is vibrant again, and apart from the current back injury, I was easily editing a chapter a day, sometimes two... will have final edit done by the end of the year.

 

I'm exploring the WF forum in a Mall and forced to listen to some hidden sound tests of what it seems it will be a Christmas solo man voice concert. The loudy audio comes out from a closed cabin nearby. The guy do have a good voice but the audio technicians seems to prefer static and extremely high pitch noises instead. I'm getting out of here as soon as my presents-scout team find me. My head starts aching.

 

Final entry for the night.

Line trimmers.
Heading into Lonnie tomorrow for a new one (+ some stainless steel allen key bolts for me new toeclip pedals, and some more supplements for me smoothies)

The old trimmer was a 2nd handie, near new condition, a Homelite, paid $80, had it for about 4 years, never missed a beat (despite Homelites being low quality)...until recently when the pull cable wouldn't fully retract.

A common problem will all quality levels of trimmers as return springs don't last forever. Yesterday it chose to completely malfunction thus I had to take the trimmer apart and re-spring it. Big mistake...two of them.

1. Not learning about how to do it in the first place.
2. Doing so in a heat wave, with a sore back and accompanying high level of irritability.

Taking apart was no problem, as was the rebuild. Problem was when I opened up the spring housing, and the first thing a tightly encased spring wants to do is have a jolly good stretch, and stretch it did.

Second thing a tightly encased spring wants to do is not be shoved back into it's tight enclosure. I swore more in that hour than I'd done over the last couple of years.

I gave up, knowing I wasn't in a calm state of mind, so I drove to the village to see what cheap house brands the hardware shop had, one I could use as a backup, as the main one has to be a straight shaft to suit my height.

Amazingly they had one for $69. Yep I know, crap, but it'll be the backup and the price was perfect for that. I take it home, take off all the pointless crap, fill it up and it fires up instantly, though I gashed my finger when I pulled on the cord, a serious design flaw where the top casing has a sharp edge right next to the pull handle.

But while I give the trigger a squeeze, the end doesn't spin...wtf...so I take the bottom shaft off, and after some time I discover the bolt that holds the cable-guard has pressed against the flexible axle, another design flaw, so I add some washers, and noticing the aluminium shaft is of such low quality that I almost stripped the thread.

Still, I fire it up again and now it's spinning, then 5 seconds in and the line breaks on both ends...wtf...cheap nasty line, no point rethreading it if the line is going to snap off again...so I then undo the line feeder off the damaged trimmer to shove on the new trimmer 'cus the crap trimmer won't take the thicker line I use...wtf...the thread on the crap trimmer is a different size...fuuuuuu....fuuuuuu...fuuuuuu.

Exhausted from the heat and being blocked at every turn to simply trim the edges of the yard...haha, 1st world problems...
Eff it, so I rebuild the crap trimmer back to it's original state, drive back to the village and politely demand a refund on this crap trimmer...the manager choosing to turn a simple refund into one man play with him as the star...I just ignored his many attempts to defend the quality of the products he stocks...

So, a new plan was devised on the return trip...return to chilled state of being, finish the mowing the next day, see what's available in Lonnie for saturday.

I have three choices from Bunnings...all straight shafts.
The same Homelite $160
A Ryobi $240
A Victa $250

I'll go for the more expensive ones only if they have some decent upgrades to the homelite. If they have beneficial features that'll make my yard work more efficient, I'll happily tell them to shut up and take my money.

 

@Xander17: If I were you, I'd buy the expensive but well-made one. It's better to spend lots of money on something that's useful rather than not much money on something useless. The cheap one is never a bargain. It doesn't work, so its entire price is down the drain, plus it costs you time and effort in your attempt to rebuild it so it works. The expensive one may cost a lot, but it isn't money wasted if it works and doesn't cause you needless aggravation.

 

Also, verify in advance that feces-throwing is part of the job description. That way, a demonstration of your skills will be welcome. And don't forget to take a large quantity of Metamucil before the interview so that you have an impressive supply of ammo.

 

Editing my first scene, again. I've lost track but this is somewhere between version twelve and fifteen.

ETA: Make that somewhere between thirteen and sixteen.