Updates

New Job

I started a new temp job on November 21st 2011.  I’m basically a janitor but not really.  I’m working for a company called Enviroserv who is one of the subcontractors on a demolition project.  My job is to go around and clean up the job site.  This demolition project is expected to last until about April so I should have a decent paying job till then.

Dad

My dad’s health has been holding more or less steady for the last year.  His kidneys are close to failing but just barely staying at a point where he doesn’t need dialysis.  He spends much of the day sleeping which worries me since I know it’s at least partly due to his failing kidneys, although I think It’s also due to the fact that he’s just old and doesn’t have anything to do (btw why is Judge Judy on for what seems like 5 hours every day?).  I still have to drive him around everywhere and I don’t see that changing.  He still needs new glasses for driving, and his car needs some repairs and renewed registration/smog.  We can’t afford any of that right now, and really at this point I don’t think he should be driving anyways.

Web Site Updates

After being offline for about nine months my web site is back with a new hosting provider and a few changes.

I was previously using bluehost.com for my hosting and domain registrar.  My hosting expired last year in march but my domain name was registered with them till march of this year which was good because at least I didn’t have to worry about losing my domain name while my site was down.  While they aren’t bad (for the price) I didn’t like that I had to buy hosting in 3, 6, 12, 24, or 36 month chunks and that they would auto renew, charging my credit card  with out warning.

I am now using Laughing Squid for my hosting and so far I like them.  It’s only $6 a month and I get billed every month.  My only complaint would be that their site management, billing  and support sites are all at different URLs and except for the support site (which is part of the main site already) are not linked directly from the main sites page.  OK they updated their main page since last week I take it all back.

For my domain registrar I’m now using Hover.com and they are great.  It was super easy to get things set up and my registration moved over from bluehost.com.  If anyone wants a domain name for a web site or even just your own personalized email address I highly recommend them.

Most of the changes I’ve made to the main site were some minor coding changes to make the pages html5 compliant and using some of the new features available in CSS 3, most notably drop shadows both on text and boxes to replace some of the PNG images that I had been using.  As a result the site should load a bit faster (not that it was even close to slow before) the downside is that it won’t look the way I intend in older browsers that don’t support these features. (IE 8 and below I’m talking about you)

The blog is now using the new default wordpress theme Twenty Eleven since I like the way it looks and how it works.  I was considering going back to the theme I had which was Inanis Glass or that theme authors new theme Inanis Seven so I went to his blog to go get it and saw that his blog was using a new theme that I really liked but it didn’t say what it was.  After getting my own blog back online I quickly realized that it was wordpress’s new default .  So my blog is only slightly personalized and looks a lot like many others but I think I’ll be OK with that since it’s so nice.

The main bit of visual customization that I can make to this theme is the header image.  I’m not thrilled with what I’m currently using since it was kind of just thrown together.  I’d much rather have a single image that fits nicely in that really wide not so tall space that’s available but I couldn’t find any of my pictures that would really fit which is why I made a semi sloppy collage out of 4 of my more recent pictures.  However I can specify diffident header images for individual posts which I have for my last post The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and While out for a walk.

The other thing is the menu bar along the top which is very customizable and mostly solves the issue of navigating from my blog back to the rest of my site.

 

P.S.
I purposely didn’t mention exactly where I’m working since I don’t think I’m allowed to talk about it, and doing so in such a public place might mean no more job.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

I had been hearing so much about Skyrim and how awesome it was but I couldn’t afford to buy it when it came out November 11th.  So to satisfy my Elder Scrolls game cravings I installed TES3: Morrowind which I’ve owned since it came out in 2002 but I didn’t play it much back then because my computer wasn’t quite up to running it well, so I never got around to finishing the main story quest line. This time I was determined to get though the main quest, which I did after getting quite a ways though the game then deciding to create a new character and starting over.  I also did something else that I hadn’t done in Morrowind before which is to actually use some mods.  I won’t get into which ones since much of this post is going to be about the mods I’m now using for Skyrim.

Around the same time I also watched all of HBO’s Game of Thrones series which only served to further put me in the mood for Skyrim.

So finally Thursday December 29th I came home from work and decided that since I’ve got a four day weekend why not spend all of it playing a video game, so I went on Steam and bought Skyrim.  I then spent my whole weekend playing Skyrim like it was my job.  From Thursday evening to Monday night I got in about 52 hours playing this game.  One of the neat and at the same time depressing things about Steam is that it keeps track of how much time you play games you’ve purchased through it.

Anyways after playing this game a few weeks and trying out some mods I wanted to list the mods that I’m currently using and why.  Red comments added June 20th 2013

Glowing Ore Veins 300 this was probably the first mod that I added right after walking though the first mine that I found in game that I couldn’t see any of the ore veins.  Now that I don’t really do much mining I’ve decided to turn this one off since ore veins are actually everywhere out in the world and seeing glowing bits of ground while out wandering about can be distracting.
After using this mod for awhile I’ve gotten so I can recognise ore veins without it fairly easily now, so I no longer use it since it somewhat ruins immersion to have some glowing bit of ground way out in the distance.

Calientes Female Body Mod Big Bottom Edition -CBBE- gotta have naked ladies none of that ugly underwear when you take off someones clothes that the vanilla game has. I’m using the Slim version of this since the regular version the breasts are just a tad ridiculous, and since my character is a lady I prefer her with small boobs.  I am anxiously awaiting new armor/clothes meshes that fit these new body meshes.

No More Blocky Faces simple does what it says.
Not really needed anymore for anyone that is using Bethesda’s HD texture DLC or and of the many mods that change the face textures including CBBE. 

SkyUI this one is a pretty big deal, especially the latest version that was made available last weekend.  It changes many of the menus (inventory, magic, container, and barter) to be much more mouse friendly than the consolized menus that the game comes with.

TESV Acceleration Layer this helps speed up the game in some CPU bound portions of the game which is a big help for me since my computer is about 3.5 years old now and this is really the first game that I’ve played that it struggles with.
Skyrim has gotten several official patches that have much improved performance to the point where it’s not as CPU bound as it was, and this isn’t as effective as it was.  That and I’ve upgraded to a high end video card so the game runs quite smoothly for me now.

A Quality World Map – With Roads or World Map – Skyrim Hold Borders this adds all the roads to the map and the second one which is based on the first adds the roads and borders of the various holds.

Dovahkiin Hideout this adds a nice big basement with lots of weapon racks, armor mannequins, storage, all the various crating tables and is connected to all of the houses that you can own in the game which serves as a nice way to quickly get from one house to the next.
This mod was made before the creation kit was available and hasn’t been updated since and is buggy as a result.
If you insist on still using it, go get a compatibility patch here.
Sharlikrans Compatibility Patches

JaySuS Swords adds quite a few high quality swords to the game.  I got this since I’m not really a fan of how many of the swords in game look.
This mod hasn’t been updated in awhile and also requires a compatibility patch.
Sharlikrans Compatibility Patches

So that’s it I’ve still got quite a lot to do in the game and it should keep me busy for at least a few more weeks.  Although I’ve already got all the gear I wanted since I focused on leveling my smithing and enchanting early in the game and I have a pretty sweet set of enchanted Daedric armor.  It’s rather rare that I run into anyone that can hurt me much if I’m wearing that, even with the difficulty on the hardest setting.

Here is a shot of my character in my fancy around town outfit. (I think the body mod was turned of for this)