all made up with nowhere to go

Because I was so excite! about Persona 5 in my last entry, I forgot to link some stuff I've been meaning to link to for at least a week (although one of it is new since yesterday, but eh).

Anyway, you remember Johnny from Dicebreaker (formerly of Eurogamer)? Well, now he is just plain Johnny, since he left Dicebreaker back in March! He's set himself up doing both video game and TTRPG stuff, with a patreon! This is relevant because for his opening stream on his youtube channel, he streamed a game called Loop Hero!

I initially didn't watch it because I think Ellen was streaming Dark Souls (and we all know I am currently obsessed with DS, although who knows why. NOT ME). And then I was like, I've never even heard of this game, who cares. And then I thought, as I have done with several game streams of late, that I could watch it and switch it off if it was boring.

LET ME TELL YOU FOLKS: Loop Hero is not boring. It is my jam, in that it is set post-apocalypse, no-one knows wtf is going on (though they do eventually find out), and it has rogue-like elements. Oh, and the art is pixels, the soundtrack is chiptunes, and the titles for the music are all JJBA references.

I watched it in two sittings after work (it's a four hour stream), and it was the perfect thing to watch and not think about. Although I also want to play it for myself (but I don't have Windows, boooo).

And then, a little later, he was going to stream Outriders, which I didn't have the slightest bit of interest in. Except that it was a stuttery mess, and eventually crashed completely, so instead he streamed a town building game called Dorfromantik, which I also now want to play because the art is gorgeous and it looks like the most chill game ever. But my version of Linux is not up to date, boooo*.

(There is half an hour of Outriders in that stream before we get to the chill part, and, again, it's a four hour stream, jsyk).

So that's that.

Then yesterday, I watched Aoife stream 45 minutes of a game called Returnal (that was all she was allowed to stream for review purposes). It's about an astronaut called Selene**, who is stuck in a time loop while investigating a planet called Atropos. It's more interesting than I just made it sound. Also it has rogue-like elements, much like Loop Hero.

And, you guessed it, I probably want to play that as well, but alas, I do not have, nor can I afford a PS5, even if they were available to buy anywhere.

~

Then, in Persona 5 news, I am up to the beginning of June (let's say 6/6 because I can't quite remember), which means I've done the second palace!

I don't know how I have managed to avoid most spoilers from this game, although I can only assume it's because I wasn't on tumblr post-release/no-one I know on twitter has played it. Or if they have, they didn't talk about it on there.

( spoilers, including a couple of large ones )

I also meant to say: I'm getting huge TWEWY vibes from this game as well! Particularly because you can hang about in Shibuya - I went and said hi to Hachiko last night, because I finally remembered he was there - and because it frequently shows Scramble Crossing. But also when Akira uses his Third Eye ability, because it makes me think of Neku reading people's minds.

But TWEWY is one of my favourite games, so, yanno.

As for characters I like, Ann is my favourite right now! I want to hug her and tell her it's going to be okay! I am lukewarm on Ryuji, which is surprising to me (usually I like characters like him). Yusuke, I'm currently finding irritating for reasons noted above, and I don't like Makoto.

Oh, and Akechi can do one. I haven't seen much of him, but I know how fandom feels about him, and that's enough to make me realise I probably won't like him.

And I think that's all I have to say about that right now!

~

*I would like, eventually, to buy a new computer, and I'm in the process of figuring out if I can do it without feeling excessively guilty. I'm probably going to stick with Windows because, as much as I like Linux, I still don't feel I've got to grips with it after eight years.

**Her ship is called Helios, which made me groan out loud. Mind you, so did the name of the planet when I read it on Wikipedia.

I feel like I have had A Week.

Monday was okay, but then Tuesday I ended up feeling really shitty (with added crying!), so I trundled myself off to Burnley to buy art supplies I don't need.

I promised myself I didn't actually have to buy anything, ( tl;dr: but then I bought stuff because I was sad )

I haven't mentioned everything I bought, because I can imagine it's kind of boring? Especially because you can't actually see what I got? It's funny though, I've watched so many art haul videos on YT lately that I thought I should come home and make one of my own. Except that I don't have video editing software. Except that today I discovered several programs that are likely useable to me, since they work (it looks like) like movie maker in Windows. It's also just occurred to me that if I got a spare memory card, I could use my old phone for filming! That way I wouldn't have to be swapping between cards in my actual phone all the time (and, as it happens, I've got a spare card, because the one in mum's tablet never got used).

OMG I COULD BE AN ART YOUTUBER.

A TERRIBLE ONE, BUT I COULD BE ONE.

(I mean, I don't have the fancy equipment, but I've got daylight lamps, something to film with and now I could have editing software! This isn't really a path I've seriously considered, but it is something I've wanted to do for a while. Maybe I could dink about for a bit and see if I like it, and if I do, maybe upload some stuff? OMG??)

(I am making ABSOLUTELY no promises. It's just a dumb idea right now).

I think there's a bunch of reasons I felt so crap - number one being it's December, and it will be mum's birthday in a week. I think number two, although it took me till this morning, and feeling somewhat better to figure it out, is that I didn't sleep at all well on Friday night, and it's taken me this long to feel better. Also I might have a mild form of The Lurgy that is going around town, which obviously also does not help.

I feel a lot better today, though, so that's good!

~

In other news, I decided to make myself a large art pouch which can fit an A5 sketchbook plus some other bits and bobs in it.

I've seen several that people on youtube are using, and it never really occurred to me that you could have a pencil case that was bigger than normal size (aside from those ones that have zips on three sides and open like a book). I'd thought about buying one, but then it occurred to me that I could make my own, since I have everything I need right here. I've even got some upholstering material that a friend gave me years ago, some of which, it happens, is exactly the right size :D

So I'm going to do that, and it shouldn't take too long.

I also have been making cards to go in my Etsy shop, and I made Xmas cards for my nephew and brother and sister in law. It was really easy, it didn't take very long, and I had fun!

I like papercrafting (and scrapbooking papers, zomg. I could tell I didn't feel good on Tuesday because I went down the aisles in the Range with the scrapbooking stuff, but didn't give any of the papers even one glance. Usually I practically have to stand on my hands to stop myself from buying it). But, as with everything else, I'd been worried about mucking it up or making something that looked horrible. But you know what? I did okay! So I'm going to do some more things like that because if they're easy to make, and they'll sell, then why not get on and do it?

Also I watched a video last night about making your own books, so I'm going to have another go at that, too.

It's so weird. I was convinced I wouldn't know what to do with myself now I've got all this free time, and now I have too many things to do all at once, heh.

~

I think I've probably said enough here for now, so I'm going to go off and get something to eat.

The weather is so much cooler now, it's great! (I mean, I am horribly cold, because I've always got cold easily, but at least I don't feel like I will die in the heat).

I saw a dumb take on twitter last night, and proceeded to spend all the time when I should've been sleeping thinking about it. I slept badly anyway, because I was worrying about some stuff, so every time I was conscious, this stupid thing kept coming back into my head.

(I think it pissed me off, because it was about why people like autumn/winter (apparently no-one really does *eye roll*) and, as someone who fucking loves the shit out of autumn, it annoyed me that this dumb twerp on there was trying to tell me how I feel).

~

I had a bug on my computer the other day! I don't even know how it happened, it just did!

I had had the computer on to check my email, and I saw that it said updates were due. It was quite a large download (100Mb+), and I didn't have time to do it before I went out. So I clicked the "remind me later" box, and shut my computer down as usual.

Cut to several days later, when I wanted to check out some Animal Crossing sprites I'd seen a while back. I booted the computer up, logged in, and there was a distinct absence of my launcher and top bar.

So I did some googling on my phone, and it turned out it's actually a common bug, going back several iterations of Ubuntu. It's to do with the compiz config file (which the crash report did tell me). The first fix I found didn't work, in spite of my trying it more than once, and I wondered, as I always do, whether it was because I'm too dumb to understand the code*. Actually, it turned out that I was not being dumb, but that what had happened to me was a more simple version of the bug, and was ludicrously easy to fix. So that's what I did this morning.

I had to install the Lubuntu desktop (which displayed correctly), then navigate to the compiz config file**, and reset the setting from unity-lowgfx to just unity, and then log out of the Lubuntu desktop, and back into normal Ubuntu. And it worked! Thank frog! Although because I'd cleared my cache in trying one of the other fixes, everything took about three years to load, but at least it worked!

PHEW

(Now I just need to back everything the fuck up. But that can wait for another day).

~

*That said, one of the comments on the fix said sometimes it's hard to strike a right tone between people understanding, and you not sounding condescending to people who know what they're doing.

**I feel compiz config would be a good tongue twister for drunk people ;)

I am still flailing over Namesake. I think I may have to reread it, but I will have to half-inch mum's tablet to do that, since my computer has decided it likes crashing while I'm on the internet, too.

KERNEL UPDATE WHEN.

Also I have been ogling secondlina's art (as I said in the previous post), and she is really inspiring me to be a better artist right now. Well, and a combination of talking to Chris about drawing, and him telling me about doodling while he watches TV (and showing me some of said doodles). So I've been drawing all week, and I've done two pics I'm really pleased with. I scanned them and put some digital colour on them (I just finished the second one earlier this evening). I think I might put them as prints in my Redbubble shop. They're actually concept art for my webcomic idea, but they both wanted to be full-blown pictures, so I thought why the hell not?

It's a very long time since I've felt this happy and confident about my art, so I might as well go with the flow, right?

~

Cat update: I have to take her to the vet for another blood test very soon. Last time was not great, her thyroid levels had gone back up, although only very slightly (I honestly don't know why the vet was so...well, she wasn't weird about it, but I still think she thinks I'm having a harder time medicating Jinny than I actually am). Anyway, she suggested radiation treatment again, and I said no, and told her why not. I don't think she was impressed, but I don't care. I don't want an irradiated cat, thanks all the same.

(I am tempted to wonder if she gets commission on referring patients to the radiation place? Because that's sort of how it feels. Or possibly she thinks she can wear me down, but I am not going to be worn). (If she suggests it again, I'm going to throw something, I swear).

All right so. If you are unlucky enough to follow me on twitter as well as here, you will know that yesterday I attempted to upgrade to Ubuntu 16.04.

Long, agonising story short, I ended up having to do a clean install of the new OS. Which is what I should have done to begin with. Because this feels familiar enough that I think I remember doing it last time.

However. The clean install decided that what used to be my home drive is now a separate drive and, while I had a backup of my home drive (and thus was able to restore it so I could have my precious bookmarks, etc.), it's almost a month out of date, because I didn't think to back it up again before I started. DON'T DO WHAT I DID, FOLKS*.

So I have an up-to-date version of my stuff, but I can't restore it because, even if it's possible, I don't know how! (I suppose I could copy and paste, but I don't think that's how that works).

(Actually, it turns out I could back that drive up with Ubuntu's backup tool. I might do that but not right now because uuuuugggghhh I have had enough of computers right now!)

(I much prefer Linux over Windows for a heck of a lot of reasons, but I feel nowhere near competent with it, principally because all the code frikken scares me! I can barely change directories in the terminal. I have no idea how you compile code. I know the walkthroughs and stuff on the internet are meant to be written in simple terms and stuff, but I see a whole bunch of code and I come out in a cold sweat. Nine times out of ten, this is because I just don't know what it does. I still freak out when I have to install Ubuntu, and I've done it five times now).

~

Mum's been watching old episodes of Cadfael (because she watched it back when it first aired, and has a fondness for the stories). Sean Pertwee is in the first series (though sadly not in any other; his character gets bodyswapped no less than TWICE for no reason I can fathom. Other actorly work, I can only assume). It was kind of hilarious seeing him with hair, because I think he's always had a shaven head in like, everything else I've ever seen him in?

(I'm sad he's not in the later series but eh, beggars can't be choosers).

~

All right, I really don't have anything else to say, so I'm going to hit post.

~

*This is my caveat about a lot of stuff in life, but especially where tech's concerned. It'll probably be my epitaph, along with FUCK YOU, AUTOCORRECT!

I got got by two April Fool's this year. That's the first time in ages. I'm so annoyed.

~

I'm going to post this here, just so I have it for posterity (or something). I think the following was done on purpose, mum thinks it's coincidence, and I have told no-one else. If it's coincidence, it's flipping weird.

( this is bibble, feel free to skip )

~

I got a new phone on Monday! It's not the one I wanted, it's actually a newer model, and the guy in the phone shop bumped up my phone bill by an extra £3 a month because of it. I'm actually a little mad about that, but I didn't want to wait another month for a different, cheaper phone because I am impatient.

So I have a Sony Xperia Z5! The guy in the shop was confident that I would like it (though that was probably just part of his patter, who knows or cares, right?) And I do! I like holding it, and think it's really nicely designed, and I like using it. Maybe I should nip back in the shop and tell him he was right ;)

I got a 32Gb memory card for it (though it can take up to a 200Gb (!!!) card) for £10. This is almost as much storage space as my first laptop's first hard drive had in its entirety. I am BOGGLING OVER HERE.

Of course, the first thing I did, when I figured out how do it was put music on the card. (Because Linux doesn't like talking to Sony phones, so much so that it doesn't recognise them when plugged in. There are workarounds, but my brain is too tired to deal with masses of code right now). Anyway, eventually I remembered that I had a card reader on my laptop, so I could transfer music and photos that way! YAY.

(Also: the playlist function in the default player tells you how long the playlist lasts! I have been missing this one function for years. Sadly, it doesn't tell you how long all the songs in your collection will play for but eh, I can deal).

ALSO TWITTER NOW WORKS LIKE IT'S MEANT TO! I CAN FAVE THINGS AND REPLY AND IT DOESN'T CRASH!!!! *throws confetti* I HAD FORGOTTEN WHAT THAT WAS LIKE.

OK so. I booted up my computer and decided to go into Windows (I know, I know) to check a file because it wasn't showing up in Linux*. It didn't show up in Windows, either. So I shut Windows down, boot the computer up again, and go into Linux. Now my mouse pointer has vanished. Shut down completely, reboot. Mouse pointer appears on the login screen, then vanishes when I log in. A third time, I try the pointer on the screen. It doesn't move.

I've searched for fixes, but frankly I'm bored of doing that now. I came on the pc to look at pixel art, not to tear my hair out. I've tried updating the synaptic driver, but it says it's the latest version anyway. The touchpad descriptor doesn't appear when I ask the terminal to list input devices, nor does it appear on the mouse and touchpad settings page. I don't know. Obviously, I shouldn't have gone into Windows, because the mouse has been working fine since I installed Linux on here, and that's the first time I've been in Windows since then.

If I find a fix, I'll update this for either future reference for either myself or someone else.

EDIT: OK. I switched the computer off in frustration before I had my tea, and it's been off for about an hour and a half. I just switched it back on, went straight into Ubuntu, and my mouse/touchpad is fine now. Its options are also showing up in the mouse settings again like they should. IDEK, man.

I mean honestly, if I didn't know Windows was balls already, I'd think it now.

~

*I have this problem where I save (mostly) .jpgs, sometimes other picture files, and it tells me it's not a valid file when I go to look at it at a later date. I don't know what causes it and haven't thought to look for a fix.

Further to my previous annoyed entries, I have now managed to install Ubuntu! I'm going to send an email to the guy whose walkthrough I followed tell him how helpful and useful it was.

Though I will note one thing: I had enormous trouble with a thing called Secure Boot. Apparently all modern computers come with this now. Part of my earlier annoyance (aside from windows being the horrible piece of crap that it is) was that everything I looked at said, "switch off secure boot". Every time I checked this setting (in what looks like BIOS but isn't?), it was greyed out and inaccesible. As it turns out, what I had to do was set a supervisor password in there, and then it let me in.

HOWEVER. Most people who'd written about it were either lax or lucky (some systems will let you shut it right off the bat - really it depends on who made your computer. Mine's an Acer), and all it ever said was "switch off Secure Boot". I know they can't accomodate for all possiblities BUT they could at least mention that you might have to do a little more than just switch a thing from "enabled" to "disabled".

PFFT.

Anyway, recording this here in case I need it again.

So yeah, I have Linux and it's working! I have about three years' worth of updates to download, but yaaaaaayyyyy I did it finally, I didn't die, and I didn't muck up Windows either (which actually. I know I said on twitter that I didn't want a dual booter but I've had no choice, and also I can use SAI/a bunch of other stuff without having to install WINE which means ugh windows, but I might as well use it since I've got it).

Of course now I'm worried that when I wake up tomorrow, it'll have broken (although I worried about that when I installed it on the old computer, and that was OK, so this one should be, too).

I don't understand how people deal with Windows any more. Honestly. I'm saying this because I had to get a new laptop (my old one isn't dying, but it freezes every five minutes when I'm using Firefox, and the fan is on pretty much all the time; I can't use GIMP without wanting to smash it. Also I broke the enter key about a year ago. So I thinks to myself, "I'll get a new one!"

I have dithered about this for months, trying to figure out if I really needed it. Well, I do. For reference, I bought my last laptop seven years ago. Which is prehistoric in computer terms, isn't it? ;) (mind you, I still have my first ever laptop which, as far as I'm aware, still works, and that one's thirteen years old and cost three times as much as this one) ).

This one has a 1Tb hard drive, so I was going to have it as dual-booting machine running Windows and Linux. But after just noodling with Windows 8 to see what it does, I don't want to use it. It's like an operating system for idiots! I don't want my computer to look/act like my phone, thanks. And I don't want to be told, on installing Firefox, that I just installed an "app that opens webpages" in a little pop-up box when it's done. NO SHIT SHERLOCK. And I don't want my programs referred to as apps!

So anyway, now I'm waiting on a Linux iso download, as I have a 64-bit machine now, whereas I was running 32-bit before. When I initially started it, at around 2pm, it reckoned it had four hours to download. Which. When I downloaded the 32-bit version of 14.04 for the old computer, it took an hour (same file size), and I thought that was a long time. Although it has just occurred to me that maybe more people are downloading the 64-bit version because more people have 64-bit machines these days??? *shrugs*

(I also thought it might be down to shitty internet, though at least this computer says I have a better signal (I'm almost sitting on top of the router), and it hasn't disconnected, to my knowledge as yet).

(Maybe it is shitty internet, as it just failed for some reason. Going to try on the old laptop in a mo, I think).

Sadly I'll still have to get a new scanner, but that's been on the cards for over a year now. OH WELL.

OK, I give up.

For now.

I discovered earlier in the week that there is a new version of Ubuntu available - 13.10. Now, I didn't know this, because the version I'm using (12.04 LTS) wasn't set up to tell me when new versions are available, unless they were also LTS versions. So anyway. I thought, "I want a go!" and I went on the Ubuntu website, and I read up about Stuff™

They said I could either do a fresh install, and lose all my personal data, or I could upgrade through the various versions, and keep the stuff I'd accrued. I figured that whatever I did, I should Back Shit Up™ first. Because remember the Vista Fiasco? Yeah, well, you might not, but I bloody well do.

So I did that.

Then yesterday, in the early evening, I sat me down, and followed the upgrade instructions. Long story short: I didn't get past 12.10 because it hates Toshiba computers (e.g. MINE), and it's a known bug (not that I saw it on the list of known bugs, but there we go). So it installed and everything, but then it would get to the splash screen and hang.

I tried a whole bunch of fixes, including reinstalling grub, but that did not work.

So eventually, after at least an hour of trying to fix, failing, and repeatedly headdesking, I decided I was going to sleep. And then I realised, why not just install 12.04 again, and repair from the backup? GENIUS! So I did. And I summarily downloaded 13.10, and burnt the .iso to a disc.

Do you think I can get it to run in Ubuntu now?

Nope.

I have all the updates downloaded, so it can't be that. I installed Synaptic Package Manager, because I think it has to do with one of the dependencies I might have installed when I was looking at weird desktops? IDK, to be honest. Um. Halp?

I mean, in the end, it's no biggie, because I can boot from DVD, and I'm doing a fresh install anyway, but you know when you want to check something works before you use it? Yeah. That.

Also while we're here, does anyone know if you can use a backup from a different version of Ubuntu in a later one? I'm assuming not, and my Google-Fu isn't amazing, so I couldn't find anything, but I just wondered if it was at all possible (not that I've got anything major to lose via a fresh install - I've copied important files like comics and playlists - it's just my open Firefox tabs I'm worried about (whose addresses I have written down. ON PAPER, NO LESS). So it's really not a problem if there isn't a solution to this. (Or to the other problem, either. I really just wanted to a) document it and b) get it off my chest).

ETA: I'm starting to wonder if it was a leftover from when I had WINE installed...I hadn't tried putting any software discs in because I hadn't needed to for whatever reason. Although the Ubuntu page for loading a distro from a disc assumes it will open anyway...so something must've gone a bit wonky somewhere maybe.