still breathing

Holidays about to end. Yay, back to work.

Pretty uneventful overall. Getting sick stopped me going to the beach and then I didn't feel like doing anything at all; it's been a very quiet last few weeks and I haven't left the house in a week. I ran out of people to catch up with as well, and vary rarely does anyone try the reverse. Peach tree got ripe which is nice and i'm starting to get some chillies, and i might finally get some ripe tomatoes next week - they're just taking forever. Overall the garden's been a bit shit this year as it's just been too dry - we just had a wet couple of days but that's the only rain we've had for months. My water bill will make none of it worth it. Even the roses only flowered properly once.

I finally decided to crack open some of the games sitting here and I've been playing a lot of Bloodborne the last week ... i'm pretty impressed with the level and enemy designs and the fighting mechanics. I'm always surprised when i find a whole new area to explore which adds another major variation to the environments and enemies. The graphics and framerate are much better than I expected from "reports" - the chromatic aberration is barely visible from the couch and actually looks fairly natural, and it's got some frame-drops but is otherwise very solid. The level of detail and density is incredible and the lighting changes as one progresses (certain bosses advance time) changes the whole mood. After 28 hours i restarted with a new guy so i could level better and am 37 hours and 90 levels in with him. But despite the really tight combat (which took days to get to grips with) and inspired setting; it's just starting to feel like any other RPG - I progress till I get stuck on a new area or a big baddie and then have to grind levels and equipment to progress. Death is cheap so it's more just an annoyance at this point. I did the first couple of preset chalice dungeons yesterday and they are a mixed bag; it leveled up my weapons but even the first run feels like grinding. So it's getting a little boring actually since i'm getting a bit overpowered in the areas i've already done, stuck on a new area, and the chalice dungeons feel old already. I guess I'll keep going, at least it's a heavy time-sink. It's all a bit fucking dreary though.

And still no Vulkan?

vintage hardware

So my random visits to 2nd hand shops & pawnbrokers finally ended in spending some money.

It also came with the garishly-bright-orange lined, grey padded vinyl carrying case and a few bits as well. Was a little bit of a haul on the bike but it survived the journey home strapped to the pannier rack.

I took the top off and it looks unworn although there are a few wear marks here and there externally. I ran a few stitches and it seems to work ok, certainly better than the other machine from such a limited test. It has some strange stitches such as ones that move the needle backwards and the zigzag width setting mechanism is just a bit novel.

Not much about this make on the internet apart from someone trying to sell the same one for $400 on gumtree. But it just appears to be a Brother rebadge and there's more info on those and best i can tell it seems to be about as old as me. Strangely there are almost no manufacturer markings on the machine at all apart from the branding on the front and a serial number on a plate riveted to the underside. Maybe they were hiding the fact that it was made in Japan?

I just wanted a free-arm machine and given it was almost all metal and it looked to be in good enough nick the $89 cash converters wanted didn't seem much of a risk even if the bloke gave me some funny looks. Not that i have anything in particular to sew but it's handy to have one that works properly.

big whoop, another year down

Been busy with getting out of the house, going to the beach (it's turned into a weekly heatwave here), hanging around friends, ... but now i'm pretty stuffed and have some time to think about the year ahead.

It's just as bleak and pointless as it's been every year for the last 20 and i'm getting pretty tired of it.