I'm Jason from Northeast TN  USA and my hobbies include drumming, web development, and 3D computer art.  I hope to have fun and learn much on this forum.

Anyway, have a few other hobbies like guitar.  OK, anyone into this stuff? 

I recently dropped Spotify, Netflix, and Hulu and have been "developing" a media library using Plex. I bought an 8 TB external HDD, bringing my total up to 11 TB. I bought a Plex Pass which lets me access my library on the go, and also lets me share my library and access other people's libraries. Highly recommend. If any of you have a Plex Pass and are interested in doing a library share let me know.

Found this posted by the Libertarian Party of Michigan. Figured it was too good not to share, and a shame how we miss out on so much because mainstream media gets swarmed with non-news. 

1. Federal Court Rules Police May Not Compel Passenger ID During Traffic Stop.

2. ACLU Sues Seven Federal Agencies After Failure to Disclose Social Media Monitoring Data.

3. Court Rules ‘Ag-Gag’ Law Criminalizing Undercover Reporting Violates the First Amendment.

4. DOJ exploring ways to more easily spy on journalists.

5. Yellow Vest Movement Has Officially Gone Global.

6. “Below 1%”: The Monarch Butterfly Is Approaching Total and Irreversible Extinction.

7. The Brazen Detention of Marzieh Hashemi, America’s Newest Political Prisoner.

https://theantimedia.com/7-stories-maga-kid/

Stay woke. 

I'm not sure anyone has played the sims 3 here but those that have may know that it has a pretty serious memory bug.

basically the world keeps running but the game runs out of memory and crashes after a while, usually with crashes and all sorts of weird results.

well it turns out the sims 3 is hard limited at 2 GB of ram!

there's a file in the main game folder under the sims 3/Game/Bin called Sims3.ini

within that .ini file is a line called "MemoryUSageLimit"

and it's listed as 20000000

change that first number to however many GB you want to give it, though it's highly recomended you do not give more that 50% of your total system memory.

since I have 32GB I gave it 16 gb to use and it helps a lot!

as a side note, you also need to change this line in every Expansion pack that has this Sims3.ini file, not all of them do.

good luck!

History Channel’s first scripted series, “Vikings,” will end its run after its upcoming sixth season, but series creator Michael Hurst may not be done with the Norsemen just yet.

Hurst and “Vikings” studio MGM Television are in discussions with the network on a spin-off of “Vikings” that would continue the story in some fashion and return the same creative team, a History Channel rep tells TheWrap. If ordered, Jeb Stuart would come aboard as co-creator with Hurst.

“Vikings” is currently in the middle of its fifth season, with the finale for that season set for Jan. 30. The sixth season is slated to air later in 2019, with it eventually finishing sometime in 2020.

Source: https://www.thewrap.com/vikings-to-end-a...n-spinoff/


Love this show! Hate to see it end, but I think it's a good run, and they get a full season to do the wrapup.

Not sure if I'd posted this here or not but I have a youtube channel.

and while I haven't done much for a long time I'm trying to get back into it.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWhyfOV...HRhHdF06sA

I'm starting off with a let's play of shovel knight and I plan to upload videos on mondays wednesdays and fridays.

I appologize if things seem quiet because comentary is hard but expect some great vids coming!

so I mentioned before, on my car the timing chain jumped, I've been a bit reluctant because I don't know engines and car mechanical stuff like I do electronics and stuff however a mechanic gave a basic overview so I've got a starting point and right now one thing I do know for sure.

the timing chain.

if it needs adjusting/tightening - $0 (I happen to have the socket wrench bits because my grandfather owns a honda motorcycle and japanese vehicles use a lot of the same sizes... plus my car is also a honda.

if it needs replacement - $65 just the chain
$80/$130 a complete replacement including the gears and such.

on the up side... it's on the outside of the engine

on the down side, I'll likely need to replace a gasket or two which means more $.

possible other damage to the engine.

Burnt Valves. (unknown).

complete Valve set - $80

this would require me to partially tear down the engine and make repairs, replace more gaskets, and potentially have the rotors milled as well.

rotor milling cost $500/$700.

and that's if I do most of the work myself... without a garage or workshop it'll be hard and time consuming but I could maybe do it, if I take this one step at a time.

alternative: Replace engine.

engine cost $1120 - Used, 100K mi on it.

install cost $900/$1500

I deffinetly do not have the training, tools, experience, or knowledge to do this one however it would be easier, albeit way more expensive.

things I'm going to do before I work on the timing chain though based on some advice I got.

drain the oil - check for metal shavings/flakes.

if there are flakes, I have to replace the engine, there's internal damage.

if not... I'm going to go ahead with the timing chain replacement/repair/adjustment and see what else might be wrong.

and that's just the engine btw.

there's also the front right wheel joint, one part of the suspension is damaged due to wear and tear, cost? $25.

the rear suspension pins are also damaged but I can replace those for around $40.

honestly I really want to fix my car, but it's going to be a while... it's currently below freezing, we've got snow and I'm saving for parts and hoping to start working on this by february on a sunny day but until then I'm carless.

anyone have any advice they could give me?
I'm not going to buy another used one, a decent one starts at $2K and around here used cars are kidna scammy lately.

by the way, the mechanic said he wanted $7K to fix/replace the engine... just fyi so that's deffinetly out.

so for context, a self insert story is one where you put yourself in one or more fictional settings and effectively try to survive or and or possibly play out that story.

anything can happen, and a lot of people keep things interesting by actually coming up with plot points and rolling dice to decide outcomes but it can go any way you want really.

one of my favorite variants are what are called a mutli-cross where the person being thrown into the fictional setting or settings is effectively a world hopper and doesn't existin any one setting but through some plot point or another is traveling from world to world willingly or otherwise.
if the latter it's usually at the will of a ROB which stands for Random Omnipotent Being/Bastard.

example.
you find yourself waking up in the middle of the woods, for some reason the trees seem familiar but you aren't sure why, in your pocket there's a note.

"Greetings dirt monkey, congrats! you've been chosen to be the entertainment this time around, how long can you survive?

-ROB."

something like that, it's an easy and simple plot mechanic that works well since the person is thrown into that reality or realities by the whim of a bored omnipotent entity.

so I guess the question is, have you ever tried or been interested in trying to write a self insert story?

My friend is letting me indefinitely borrow his Oculus Rift so I've been taking advantage of some track time. VR is a lot of fun and I highly recommend everyone try it.

Happy New Year everyone! Hope it's great for you!