good things

[Sakura]

They have already achieved what took years over years in the pre-Gorbatschow era, to build a wonderful cold war with nuclear potential. We need Sailor Moon to get out of that madness. And Hello Kitty! Lots of Hello Kitty! Can't have enough cats. Mreoww~~

[oldwrench]

The election is over, I don't know if I should cheer that Clinton wasn't elected, or feel bad that Trump was. (I didn't like either candidate.) I really do hope he proves the biased media wrong and turns out to be a good president. He has his good points, but he is a rather crude personality. When Ronald Reagan was elected, the media said many of the same things, that he would be a disaster, even start a nuclear war, but they were all wrong. Trump is a business leader and his best point might be the same as Reagan, finding the right people for his administration.

The world will continue, civilization will keep on, our government's checks and balances may actually begin to work as originally envisioned once again.

[Sakura]

He inherited most of that business, didn't he?

[oldwrench]

Lots of birds have been visiting (and draining) my bird seeders. Here are two woodpeckers, note the size difference.

Pileated woodpecker

Downy woodpecker the suet cage is the same size as the other picture.

[oldwrench]

My son bought me the game, "No Man's Sky" for Christmas, it's on steam. It's an open ended game of space exploration and conquest. I've been looking for help guides because the game actually doesn't seem to have any instructions. You are just supposed to find things out for yourself. They tell you what keyboard controls to use, more or less. Apparently, you are dumped on one of the quintillion planets with a building and a broken space ship. You have a mining gun and have to search around for resources to mine to use for repairing your ship. From there things get really complicated. You build explore, trade, upgrade equipment, meet aliens and learn their languages, fight battles, and many other things.I can see how I could burn hours of time at this thing.It has very interesting alien graphics. Looks like fun.

[Sakura]

Check out your spacecraft, it's in need of repairs. Then go outside and mine for the minerals with your mining gun and finally repair the spaceship. You need a few resources to fuel your space suit depending on the "quality" of the planet you started on. I've seen planets using more resources than you can mine just to keep you alive.

The game is extremely repetitive and while the whole concept is fascinating it's got more of a "boredom generator," for example there are no cities whatsoever. It's just the same set of a handful of random buildings at every outpost.

After getting off the planet and warping a few times you will get a mini quest finding some center of the universe.

Things to do: You can learn a few alien languages word by word with one single word at obelisks scattered all over the planets. Second from time to time you can find crashed spaceships. When you're extremely lucky these can carry more cargo or have better (damaged) equipment for you to repair and take over.

And that's it basically. Information based on data found two months after release.

Mreoww

[oldwrench]

Seems there was a big patch to the game and there is more to do etc. There are a few people who have guides out there so I have been trying to read some of them..... my poor brain, too much information. I just want to explore and find new planets and things. Us non gamers don't get bored with these things very easily, everything is too new to us.

I got a Garmin Vivo fit from my wife. It doesn't seem to think working the mouse and keyboard is enough exercise, the red bar keeps flashing at me to get up and move..... it doesn't seem to like rocking in my recliner as exercise either.

[oldwrench]

Yup, been busy. I am still working on the story, but got sidetracked a bit. I built a tank and a Star Destroyer. Ok, they are models I got for Christmas, but really nice ones.

A Tiger I tank, probably the iconic tank of WWII. Quite the machine in it's day.

And, the Imperial Star Destroyer

[oldwrench]

I should tell you, they are made of stainless steel and come on two sheets of etched and cut metal. It takes a few hours of work to build each one and it's lots of fun. They are made by Facinations: Metal Earth, company.

Oh, they are really quite small to work with.

[Sakura]

Hm Lanin from the old forums had a nice hobby, he created anime figurines from plastic. I have a Sakura-box here with my retired earrings.

Can you shoot with these thingys?