Computers – Page 3 – Dannilion.com

Tuesday 26th November, 2019 Danni

Day 25 – Dead Tablet

2019, Computers, Danni, NaBloPoMo, Penguins!, Real Life

My lovely tablet, a Pixel C, has pretty much died. The charging port has been tempremental for a while, and this last week it’s been really difficult to get it to charge at all. Yesterday I bought a second hand Pixel C from eBay (I was looking at new tablets, but none of the ones I could justify really met my specific needs or were worse than what I had). It’s due to arrive either Tuesday or Wednesday.

This morning I realised it was refusing to charge above 15%, and that was with a lot of wiggling the cable in the port and stuff. Realising that I might not have long left, I quickly did the most important app backups and sent them to my phone. I also did a nandroid backup, but during it I couldn’t get it to charge at all so it dropped down to what it said was 7%. I was hoping that would be enough to boot it and move the nandroid backup over to my phone (the port no longer sees my USB C hard drive) but unfortunately just trying to boot it sent it to 0% and it shut down completely.

I left the charging cable apparently charging while I slept through the day, but when trying to boot it again it never even got to the lock screen before turning off again. That was with a dedicated USB C charger. I’ve swapped to a USB A to USB C cable to see if that will at least trickle charge (it was a bit more reliable last week, though wasn’t charging it enough while on it was while off) in the hope that it’ll get enough to be able to grab the nandroid backup. Tapping the lightbar on the back, it is flashing to say it’s charging, but I don’t know how accurate that is.

In the worst case scenario, I have a nandroid backup from September, backups of all the apps I was using from the 19th November on my Google Drive, and backups of the couple of apps that don’t cloud sync and I would miss the progress I’d made since then on from Monday morning on my phone. Luckily most apps cloud sync, so having the backups is just for convinence of not needing to login and redo all the settings again.

I might take the opportunity to try a different rom out on my new tablet. I was running Ressurection Remix, which I love the customisability of. It was on Android Pie (9) and was pretty suited to my needs. I do want to try Android 10 though, and there are beta roms for Lineage and Pixel Experience available for that. There are a couple of things not working, but other than the camera (which I don’t use as the one on my phone is much better) the same issues existed on my previous rom and didn’t bother me. If I don’t like them, it’s not hard for me to go back to Ressurection Remix. I even made a document of what to do when things go wrong so if I break it again I can fix it myself with my computer/Surface.

In the meantime, I’m mostly using my phone, though I’m on my desktop PC tonight as I’m feeling up to it and wanted to sort my emails out and maybe even play some World of Warcraft. My phone is great, but I struggle with the smaller screen for a lot of things, especially as I need such large text size when my eyes are playing up. I also keep hitting the wrong stuff. I miss using my tablet.

Tuesday afternoon I have the physiotherapist coming out again, but hopefully it’ll go better now I’m no longer feeling horrendous 😛 Finally getting over the cold(s) has made a massive difference in how I feel, and means I can do more with less payback. My main issue with doing some of the exercises since I’ve been well enough has my sleeping pattern meaning Johan isn’t always awake enough to do them when I’m up to them, and I need his help. I’ve been doing the one I can without him, but I’m not even sure if I’ve been doing it right. As they don’t take very long if I’m well enough to do them all at once I’m hoping to fit them in before he leaves in the morning if possible.

This week at some point I want to see the barber. If I’m feeling okay after the physio, maybe I’ll go tomorrow. If not, probably later in the week, possibly Saturday between Johan doing Parkrun and the birthday party he’s going to (Johan is very busy :P). My hair is now long enough to tangle and hurt so the sooner I get it off, the better. I have some lovely penguin hats to wear so I don’t get cold. Penguins are awesome 🙂

Monday 11th November, 2019 Danni

Day 11 – World of Warcraft

2019, Computers, Danni, Gaming, M.E., NaBloPoMo, Penguins!, Real Life, World of Warcraft

It seems I really needed that sleep. Once I woke up this morning (from a nightmare which wasn’t ideal) I was feeling much more like myself. Still full of cold but otherwise mostly at my normal level of functioning.

Since I was awake and kinda with it for once, I decided to go on my computer while Johan was at his volunteering. First was finishing reinstalling all the programs after the reformat last time I was on, and then I went into World of Warcraft.

In WoW at the moment there’s a 15th anniversary event going on. There’s some fun things included like revisiting old raids and fireworks, but most importantly for me is a 15% buff to reputation until January. To be able to fly in the newer areas you need to get revered (second highest) reputation with several factions, including two newer ones. I’d done all the older ones, but still had those two to do. I was able to get one of them to revered today so I’ve only got the last one now. Unfortunately my Rustbolt Resistance rep is only at friendly even after doing all the dailies I could today, so as I need to get through honoured as well it’s probably going to take a while until I’m able to fly. I did have fun with a jet pack in the Mechagon zone though.

The other advantage of being on my computer is that it’s so much easier to sort things out. I was able to get my emails sorted, buy various items that were in my baskets, and finish moving over from Chrome to Firefox. I was also able to go on video chat with Sammie for a while, which was awesome.

There was a lot of noise from the flat upstairs this morning. Banging, drilling and loud voices mostly, though at one point my lightshade was moving so whatever they were doing was vibrating the ceiling. I’m not sure if it was the council, their contractors or a new tenant moving in. Johan checked outside but the only van out there was a stairlift one, and they weren’t fitting a stairlift. I’m glad I had my noise cancelling headphones or there’s no way I’d have coped, and going on puter wouldn’t have happened.

I also changed my top today. I got a new one last week, so I’m wearing that. It says “Protect Earth – Penguins Live Here” and has a very cute penguin picture on it. I had to tell Johan not to pinch it until I’d worn it as he likes it as well 🙂

Tomorrow I think I’m having my flu jab. No idea when that’ll be, but I’m hoping it’s a nice nurse. I know it’s not going to be the awesome practice nurse that did Johan’s as she couldn’t come on a Tuesday 🙁 I’m a bit nervous but since flu was what triggered my ME I really don’t want to get it again. Having a cold is bad enough.

Saturday 9th November, 2019 Danni

Day 9 – Not the Shoutcaster

2019, Computers, Danni, NaBloPoMo, Real Life

Day9 is someone who is a shoutcaster (commentator) for various video games.

Caffeine is good. Caffeine means that even though I’m still full of cold I could actually do something productive. The only downside is it makes it easier to overdo it. I ended up going on the Surface to sort out my emails (which had built up from being too ill for over a week) and also doing the big May update that was finally approved (it had previously had caused issues with the Surface so was delayed by Microsoft). It mostly went okay, but killed DNS while using my custom hosts file so I needed to go back to the default. I guess I’ll use uBlock Origin instead.

I’m currently trying to transition from Chrome to Firefox. This is much easier on a computer than trying to do it on my tablet or phone, especially because I could easily import all my bookmarks and history. It seems to be running a bit faster which is always a bonus. I’m pretty tied into the Google ecosystem but there are addons for the stuff I really need so it should be fine once I get used to the differences.

Johan is doing a long run tomorrow, aiming for at least a marathon at the Saturn Running Remembrance Run. I hope it’s not quite as cold as it was this morning as many Parkruns had to cancel due to the icy weather (Johan ended up in Jesmond Dene which was on). I’m hoping to spend at least a bit of the time he’s out sleeping. He is a silly sausage 😛

Sunday 3rd November, 2019Monday 4th November, 2019 Danni

Day 3 – Games I’m Currently Playing

2019, Computers, Danni, Gaming, NaBloPoMo, World of Warcraft

Video gaming is one of my favourite activities, and it’s very unusual for me to go a day without playing at least one for a few minutes. Because my hands are a bit silly I don’t currently play any console games, but I do have a selection I play on my tablet, plus one I play on my desktop computer.

Godville

This is the ultimate game for people who don’t have much time to play games. If you want, you can even let it play itself. The idea is that you’re a god or goddess, and you oversee the activities of the hero (or heroine) that worships you in a role playing game. You can’t directly control their actions, but you can influence them and that impacts their personality. You can also tell them to do things via godvoice, but there’s no guarantee they’ll listen to you. Like most RPGs, your hero goes on quests to gain experience and level up, collects loot and equipment, fights monsters and has various goals they’re working on. They can decide to keep pets, make friends (the heroes of other players) and join a guild. If you actively play the game then your hero makes more progress, but they’ll continue even if you don’t, and there’s even an option to turn off all direct interaction with zero player mode. I really enjoy reading my heroine’s antics, and even if I only have a couple of minutes I try to send a bit of encouragement and maybe see what the guild is up to.

Neko Atsume

I’ve been playing this for a few years now, and it’s another game that is suitable for those who can only check in for a short while and don’t want too much pressure. The aim is to collect cats by putting out food and items for them to play with. They don’t come immediately, but after a bit they’ll turn up and you can take photos. Afterwards they leave fish that you can use to buy more food and items. There are rare cats that will only appear with certain items or food, so it takes a while to get them all. I try to get in at least once a day, as there’s a daily password that if entered for five days gives free food.

Simple Solitaire Collection

This is Android only, but is the best solitaire app I’ve found. There are no ads or in game purchases, it’s open source, and it has 15 different games. One of my favourite features is that you can have different card appearances for each game, and you can have the suits be different colours so it’s easier to tell them apart in games where that’s important. You’re also able to cheat by showing hints, automatically moving or mixing the cards, which is great for reducing my frustration when I’m not doing well. I mostly play patience/klondlike, spider solitaire, grandfather’s clock and mod3 on the easiest settings as part of my settling down routine or when I need something easy but engaging to distract myself.

Flow Free

This is my current obsession. The idea is simple: connect the coloured dots without crossing the lines. It starts off very easy but gradually gets harder. There are in app purchases for extra hints, different colours and extra level packs, and buying a level pack also removes the ads. I really like that you can label the different dots so it’s easier to see them. There are different versions that include bridges or walls, but my favourite is just the standard game. My only problem is I’ve only got four packs to go before I’ve done them all, and I’m not sure what I’ll do then.

Happy Colour

I really like digital colouring, but find having to choose the colours myself anxiety provoking. Colour by number is much better for me. I originally was using a cross-stitch app but Sammie introduced me to this one and I much prefer it. There’s a one off in app purchase to remove ads and get unlimited hints, and once pack that costs, but there are thousands of free pictures and more are added every day. I like to colour in while listening to podcasts as it keeps my hands busy so I can concentrate better.

I Love Hue

This game is really relaxing so long as you have good colour perception. The aim is to move the pieces so that they are arranged by their hue in as few moves as possible. The music is very gentle, and though it starts pretty easily it does get more difficult in the later levels. You get 15 prisms (currency) or 5 games free for logging in each day, and more can be bought using in app purchases or earned by watching ads. I’ve previously run out of levels so now I try and ration myself so I still have some to play when I need to relax.

Whispers of a Machine

When I’m able to concentrate more, I like playing games with more of a storyline. Whispers of a Machine is a point and click (point and tap?) sci-fi game where you play as Vera, a technologically augmented detective trying to solve murders in a small town in a post AI world. I really like this kind of setting, and as the game isn’t timed it doesn’t stress me out too much. The different dialogue options affect what powers you get as you progress through the game and I like that you can’t really lose. There’s been a couple of times I’ve had to look up the walk through as I’ve forgotten what certain abilities are needed, but overall I’m enjoying it. I got it on sale but I think I’d be happy having paid full price for it, though maybe I’ll change my mind once I’ve finished.

World of Warcraft

My character’s profile for World of Warcraft (since I’m not on my computer to take a proper screenshot)

When I am well enough to go on my computer, World of Warcraft is the game I play. It’s a massive multiplayer online role playing game involving two factions in a fantasy setting and a ton of story and content. I’ve been playing it for over a decade now, and the majority of that has been on my night elf priestess Danni. Unlike a lot of other people, I’ve been really enjoying the latest expansion and am mostly frustrated by not being able to play as much as I’d like. I’m lucky to be in a really friendly guild who are understanding about my frequent absences and don’t kick me out. It’s the only complicated game I can manage because I’ve been playing it so long. I kinda wish I’d taken the pumpkin off her head before last logging off so you could see her face though 😛

Saturday 2nd November, 2019Sunday 3rd November, 2019 Danni

NaBloPoMo 2019 – Day 2

2019, Computers, Danni, Gaming, M.E., NaBloPoMo, Physical Disability, Real Life, World of Warcraft

I’m hoping to do a proper catch up post this month (mostly for future Danni’s benefit) but this week has been a bit of a rollercoaster.

The Good – This week was half term for Sammie, and she was able to come over on Tuesday which was awesome. I wasn’t up to getting out of bed, but it was awesome seeing her. We mostly just chatted and had a takeaway. I’m really happy she likes spending time with me, and that she appreciates my silliness. She’s awesome.

Also on Tuesday the physiotherapist came out to try and help with my left leg, which has decided it doesn’t want to be straight. The appointment went about as well as it could, and they gave me some exercises to try and coax it into behaving. They understood that I have to be careful about energy use so have reduced the amount I’m to do and I’m to use my own judgement about how often and when to increase them. They also said they’d ask someone about finger splints which I’m hoping will make my hands more reliable (as half my problems using them is my fingers bending backwards).

On Thursday I managed to go on my computer. It was freezing a lot when I was trying to use it, so I spent most of my time doing a reformat. It seems to have helped, though I’ve yet to reinstall everything I need. I also went into World of Warcraft and though I didn’t get the Headless Horseman’s mount this year (it’s only been 10 years of trying) I did manage to collect enough treats to get one of the Hallows End pets before having to come off.

The not so good – My digestive system really isn’t happy with me at the moment. I’m back to bringing up food a day after eating it, it’s being really crampy and generally slow, and my usual methods of sorting it out aren’t as effective as normal. When it has been moving it’s been when I’m alone so I’ve been having to ask Johan to come home which isn’t ideal. I’m hoping it sorts itself out soon.

I’ve had a cold for the past few weeks and it’s not shifting. It’s frustrating as it means I’m less able to do stuff. The worst part is my nose getting blocked when I’m asleep, and instead of just swapping to breathing through my mouth I’m woken up feeling like I’m suffocating. I can’t wait for this cold to go so I can sleep my normal level of terribleness.

I’m a bit sad I’m not well enough to go watch the local fireworks display tonight. I’ve got payback from the physio coming out and Sammie being here, so even going into the living room would be too much, nevermind outside. I really enjoyed it last year. There’s another display on Tuesday evening that’s close enough that I’d be able to go if I’m over this payback and get over this cold, but I’m probably being a tad too optimistic. Johan has gone out to the pub he usually gets breakfast from after Parkrun as the landlord is leaving, so I’m home alone tonight. I’m glad I have my earplugs.

Overall I’m still really happy, especially from seeing Sammie. Just wish my body would behave better and that chronically ill peoples were exempt from normal people illnesses like colds. I like being able to breathe.