RIP PC

Hawtpants of the Old Republic Posted on by

My newly resurrected PC has been tragically conquered by windows updates. I did all the things to get it to live again, even a factory reset. Nope. OS won’t boot. Now, I could bang my head against it for a few more hours but it’s at least 7-8 years old and had boot problems before I mothballed it.

My loss is Little Jedi’s gain. The plan was a new Christmas PC, but we’re moving up the timetable to a new Now PC. I get the hand-me-down (which is only 4-5 years old, lol) and life goes on.

The question is – do we build the PC? Years ago that seemed like a good idea. Now I just want to skip the swearing portion of the day and go directly to “plug it in and boot up.” (If anyone has a recommendation, I’m so ready to spend less money.)

See you on the flipside.

Tiny Drawer Bumpers To Help With Keyboarding

Hawtpants of the Old Republic Posted on by

This will all make sense in a minute…

So I ordered those little drawer bumpers, the little raised dots, size of a fingertip, that you put on your drawer corners so when the drawer closes it doesn’t make the crashy noise.

I also used these in my kitchen. It’s not all about the PC.

Well in my variety pack there were some tiny ones included that are perfect for computer keys. This comes at a great time as my muscle memory for my nostromo and naga is pretty pitiful.

I swear I just cleaned this thing and then the CAT…
Shiny!

As you can see, I’ve put little bumps on my nostromo left buttons (because I often misclick just on that column) and my naga (because it’s VERY easy to misclick). I can think of a ton of uses for people who don’t use specialized hardware just for keyboard purposes – orienting the wasd, or on the number pad, whatever.

The Covid Update

Hawtpants of the Old Republic Posted on by

I feel like I have to say “what’s up with me” not just because of being gone for 3 years but because of the absolute shitshow that is 2020.

The family

The husband and I are both employed and working from home. Whenever I start feeling sorry for myself, I remember that a lot of people don’t have that and I can’t be too mopey.

Little Jedi is doing online school. With both of us working from home, it doesn’t make sense to send her to a germ-ridden school. Online school kind of sucks but thankfully LJ is motivated to get her shit done (so she can move on to playing video games afterward).

We don’t leave the house. We get curbside groceries and occasional takeout. Once a month one of us has to go to physical office to work for a day.

Nobody has had a haircut in 6 months. I have to dye my gray roots myself. Without professional grooming, I grew a unibrow that I had to deal with. Nobody is wearing real clothes, just pajamas and sweats (I sort of love that part). No commute (I love that part a lot).

The cats are really confused that the humans never leave. One of them really loves photobombing Zoom calls. My coworkers are pleased for the interruption.

Covid

None of us got covid. Hopefully we won’t. We have three friends in their 40’s who did get covid. One ended up on oxygen but not a ventilator, and now has mysterious heart problems that were not there before. There is still wheezing and oxygen level testing for two of the three.

My great cousin-uncle made it to 94 years of age only to die of Covid. Not the way I want to go.

This is no joke. Stay safe.

Quarantine

Well, that’s been a whirlwind of activity. It’s hard to ignore the dishes piling up when you can see them from your workspace. There’s been a lot of home improvement going on in the kitchen and closets. Lots of swearing that the previous owners of the house did not use proper drywall anchors.

Cooking. Oh god, all the cooking. I’ve never cooked so much. I hate it. Meal planning with limited grocery runs is tasking the last of my brainpower. Fridge Tetris is not cool.

Gaming

So, in the course of home improvement, LJ wants to swap her bedroom with the office. I packed up my old PC in preparation for the move. At which point she stole my desk and my monitor, plopped her PC down, and started up her SWTOR account. Hence why setting back up for swtor is such a production (at the kitchen table as I was evicted from my former gaming station.) Dongle1 needed because I’m now far from the router and can no longer hard wire in.

TL;DR

Nothing to see here. We are boring shut-ins. But it could be way worse.

  1. Lol, Dongle ↩

Little Jedi Murders All The Things

Hawtpants of the Old Republic Posted on by

So… yeah, it’s three years later and I’ve just rebooted my olde pc to play with Little Jedi1. Little Jedi is now 12 and evil AF. She has a stealth operative and murders all the things. And now she’s got the husband and me back into it.

So right after I (1) update the website2, (2) purchase a dongle3, and (3) do years of updates on my creaky old PC, I’ll be ready to murder right along with her. Especially Quinn. Oh wait, I already murdered him. DO-OVER!

  1. I heart quarantine ↩
  2. This SSL shit is NOT COOL ↩
  3. LOL “dongle” ↩

Shae Vizla Hair Is Failsauce

Hawtpants of the Old Republic Posted on by

I was stalking the Shae Vizla hair since I first laid eyes on her – and then Kora, the mechanic, had that hair in KOTFE, reinforcing that I must have it.

Well, I got it and it was a huge disappointment!  Fair warning to all of you.

First, it clips with everything.  Any sort of collar, any tiny shoulder embellishment, any thick jacket, clip!  Any head turning… clip!

Second, it often does weird shit with healing, stealthing, or combat animations.  And, well, that’s kind of what I do.

So I got the Lana hair as soon as it came out.  It may have weird color fade on top, and I was about to overlook it and move on with my life – except I totally made it work for me!  Really light blue hair turns to white-with-blue-tips which looks totally intentional.

Don’t act like you’re not impressed.

Quinn, My Bestie, Where Are You?

Hawtpants of the Old Republic Posted on by

I was quite giddy about the thought of choking Quinn again… and again… and again… ahem, I’ll stop now.  Imagine my disappointment when I get to the end of KOTET and I haven’t seen him yet.

Well, I was trying to get away with no spoilers, but I needed some guidance.  Alliance alerts?  Nope.  Turns out I have to go to Iokath.

To my intense relief, the Iokath part is voiced.  I don’t think I could deal with choking Quinn in mute-classic-convo mode.

Onward to… ugh, shit, do dailies?  I hate dailies.  But I hate Quinn more.  Chokey chokey.

As a side note: “Where have you been?” Work is so fail.  Cuts into my gaming time.  Ugh.

Fashion Police: PUG Edition

Hawtpants of the Old Republic Posted on by

Lately, I’ve been vindicated in my theory that you know you’re in deep shit when your pug person shows up in a bikini or something similar.

First, we have Mellons For Hire:

“Lol,” she says dismissively, “you’re using a pylon solver for EV story mode?!”

Good thing we did, because her dps was abysmal and we would have been screwed if the fight had dragged on any longer than necessary.

Later, we come across “Lucky” Loni… as in she’s lucky she ever gets any groups.

Sometimes healers assist with DPS when there isn’t much to do.  However, a healer pulling? REPEATEDLY?  Oh hell no.

So when the new tank shows up sporting some serious underboob, I facepalm and know I’m in for a “fun” time.

Teaching The Next Generation About The Hall Of Shame

Hawtpants of the Old Republic Posted on by

Fun Fact: the Nar Shaddaa gambling event is a great way to come upon terrible fashion.

“Mom! Mom!” shrieks Little Jedi.  “That lady is wearing the most ridiculous outfit!  I mean, it doesn’t even cover her organs!  She’s gonna get STABBED!!”

Me: “While I agree that this outfit is stupid, I only take pictures of the really egregious examples, or the Hall of Shame would fill up too quickly.  That one isn’t actually that bad.  There are way worse outfits out there.”

Me: “Like that guy…”

LJ: “Oh my god.”

Me: “Or those idiots – damn they’re hiding behind a machine.”

LJ: “What are they even doing? What kind of dumb name is that?”

LJ: “Come over here!  Quick!  Take a picture of this moron!”

Me: “I just threw up in my mouth.”

No, Don’t Nerf Baldy!

Hawtpants of the Old Republic Posted on by

Owch, the nerf bat, it hurts so baaad.  Poor Baldy.  Just as I thought I might yoink her out of retirement… nope.

Serious baldy is sad. But the hat is awesome.

If you haven’t seen the Healing Sorc/Sage changes, go read about it on Dulfy.  I’ll wait.

(Insert Elevator Music Here)

Don’t get distracted by bad fashion. Maybe go check it out later.

 

Oh you’re back, good.  Now you can see how they nerfed sorc healers into the ground.

But don’t worry.  They assure us that they are going to nerf all the other healers into the ground too.

We say the target HPS instead of their target HPS because all three healers have the same target HPS. In future balance patches, the other healers can expect to see changes to their healing capabilities as well to ensure they are in line with the target.

Joy.  We’re all getting nerfed.  You know what that means…

DPS, step your shit up!  We will no longer be able to compensate for standing in bad, missed interrupts, or failure to self-cleanse.