Happy 4th of July… I guess. It’s the big “250th Anniversary” but it really doesn’t feel like anything here is worth celebrating. I don’t have plans. I might go watch fireworks later on the bridge around the corner. It’s never crowded and it’s got a nice view over the lake. I tried going tot he Zoo and Children’s Museum area last year but it was more crowded and the view was not great because of trees and light posts and people.
I want to throw out a bit of a send off. Almost two years ago exactly, I bought this super neat Shinra glass from a local comic show from some local vendor who was selling etched glasses and pearler beads of video game stuff. I have easily used this glass every single day. I noticed that it’s gotten cracked. So I am retiring it.
Partly so i can keep it, but also for safety. It still feels very solid despite the crack, but it’s only a matter of time before it suddenly braks completely when used and I would rather not slice my mouth open and become the Joker. So I gave it one last clean and now it’s on my shelf of “Misc Fun Stuff” next to my PC with things like my Bernie Sanders baseball card, my chipped Reading Rainbow mug, a coin that work gave me for some reason, my “first” Transformer, a PiGiirl i built, and some Aurora Bucks a fan was selling online.
Toys
Been a bit busy for toy stuff this week. First off, I have not one but TWO fFreedom Birbs. This silly BeastBox Pidgeon that turns into a revolver and a cube (as BeastBox stuff does), was marked down a bit on Amazon’s Prime Day nonsense. I have been eyeing it for a while now and figued why not. Then like the next day my wife was looking at using up some credit on Walmart and asked if I needed anything, aside from a Mario Hawaian shirt that didn’t fit right and I’m returning, I threw Transformers Star Eagle in the cart. Star Eagle is more explicitly released for the 250th 4th of July event, but otherwise it’s just a Red White and Blue repaint of Airrazor. I am mildly disappointed because I thought it was a repaint of Movie Airrazor, which I don’t have.
I also picked up Transformers Red Megatron at Ross. I forgot this line even existed, and mine had two left fists which sucks. I already did a whole review write up of him that maybe I will get around to posting. In case you are me and forgot what Transformers Red was, these are non Transforming action figures of Transformers characters.
Lastly, another Prime Day pick up, was this set of bootleg LEGO train tracks. half my official tracks were lost during the move, I’m not sure what happened, I have theories, I am also missing my Exosquad Resolute II which I think was int he same box, it may have literally fallen out of the back of the truck. Anyway, I ordered a set of track and now I can make a loop around the city. Well, almost, I can’t run it along the back without hitting the frame on the wall. Its also very precariously on the edge. I have enough track to go all the way around and if I rearrange the layout I can easily integrate it better into the city, probably at the expense of the park area.
Video Games
I made it to trebirth 100 in Droid Tycoon. This is after like 5 Super Rebirths. Maybe 6 at the rate I am going. They come so fast now with the boosts from Nova Crystals.
Tech Projects
Tech project of the month, or something. I seem to end up averaging one per month. I have, off and on had an interest in Home Assistant. I have never managed to have enough gumption to figure it out because its a bit weird to configure. Last attempt I had loaded the HA ISO on an old Laptop, with the plans to use that as a server. It didn’t work out. Keeping a random laptop going is a pain for one.
The solution has been right there for a while now. I already run a bunch of stuff on Docker. Why not… use Docker.
Now that I have managed to get my head around adding monitors and services, and setting up dashboards, its starting to become pretty useful. I have not set up any routines yet but I do have a bunch of monitoring set up, some more useful than others.
- Website status througb Uptime Kuma, which I was already using.
- Webserver loads for memory, drive, CPU, more if I want
- Synology monitoring
- Last FM Status
- Steam Status
- Mastodon information for my account
- Local weather
- NEST Thermostat settings
- My RING Cameras
- My TP Link Tapo cameras (which I can put on one dashboard with the Rings)
- Pi Hole statistics
I also set up some custom dashboards with cams and online info etc.
In Memorium
I want to close real quick to mention that apparently Belghast of Tales of the Aggronaut and other places has passed away unexpectedly. I wasn’t really friends or anything but he was the original creator (I think) of Blaugust and it seemed quite sudden and unexpected. I mean just a few days ago he was posting there about MMOs. He was quite well known in the MMO blogger community for sure. If anything it’s a sad reminder of our own mortality.
