All posts by Brian A. Thomas

I am the father of Ari and Sidd. I am the owner and administrator of this site.

General Wish List Spring/Summer 2024

Before buying things here myself, money would be used to be ready for any potential financial emergencies, such as car or home repairs, and especially for paying things off, etc., basically savings, then the items below. But if one wants, money can be given via PayPal and credit card donations can be made here, though there is a fee (not sure the percentage), (also generally 10% of all donations I get there I give to The Trevor Project (suicide prevention and crisis intervention for LGBTQIA+ youth). While cash may be more appreciated than the stuff below, I know people think cash is impersonal, so that’s what the list below is for.

Also, as this is mostly health related, I’ve got My Potential Supplements page where I talk about what I might take to make up for a poor diet.

As most of this is for my fitness wishes, so here’s my Strava profile, so when, if, I get this stuff, one can see how I do. I also believe this is my Zwift profile.

Primary Wants

Some of the below are on this Amazon wish list, though many of the cheaper more preferred choices, such as the cheaper bike trainer (even the Wahoo trainer on there doesn’t come with a year of Zwift like the ones direct from Zwift or Wahoo do), aren’t available from Amazon. However, to make it easier on some people, I put on the Amazon list what I could.

These items are mostly for my bike, a bike computer, a new watch (mine is fairly old, and the battery is draining somewhat fast), and a smart direct drive bike trainer. As of May 2024, the power meter pedals, the best way to train without a smart trainer, and has the advantage of being used outdoors, was moved up to the Primary Wants section, along with shoes that could then be used on it, as you can’t use regular shoes with it.

The smart bike trainer would come right after a new watch, but space issues is what pushes that down. Ideally, I’d use it on my computer, because to use it outside the main living space, I’d need to have a new iPad, gaming level laptop, or 32″ TV and an Apple TV (more details below, but the TV and Apple TV are probably the cheapest option after using the computer I already have indoors). Using it outside also steps up the fan requirement to be better than what I have at the moment. Like I’d probably use it near daily if I could use it on the computer, with Zwift becoming my most “played game” or used app, whatever one would want to call it. Trying to use it on an iPad or laptop outside the house’s Wi-Fi makes things complicated. Because of the likelihood of needing to use it away from the computer, the iPad section has been moved up to Primary wants, and that makes it far more portable, can use it at work, whatever, where the 32″ TV and Apple TV idea keep it limited to the patio (like I’m not carrying a 32″ TV and the Apple TV to a remote location, lol).

A New Smart Watch

My watch is getting out of date in terms of fitness tracking. It can’t track lots of activities that the newer watches can, like climbing, and doesn’t track running dynamics. Also it’s GPS is nowhere near as good as the ones here. It’s an older Garmin Venu, and the Venu 2 came out in 2021, with then on the Venu 3 out now, so an idea of how out of date it is. The Venu is more an semi entry level fitness watch than a sports watch. So the idea is to upgrade to a proper sports watch. Plus my Venu is starting to drain a bit too fast. It is still better than say an Apple Watch, but bad for a Garmin.

The “cheaper” of the new watches I want is a Garmin Forerunner 965 ($599.99). Black band or yellow band… though really, the yellow band really kicks it up. This is what I’d probably go for, even if I had the money for the Epic Pro (gen2) below, because that extra money could go for other items on the list.

While that is the more “reasonably priced” option. Going up to $899 (for the regular Gorilla glass), or $999 (for Sapphire crystal and Titanium case), one gets the brand new Garmin Epix Pro (gen2). The Epix Pro (gen2) has far more features, far more accuracy (both GPS, and fitness), and has ECG ability, though that’s more for detecting heart attacks, which while helpful, isn’t a mandatory feature yet. Like this watch is beyond amazing, and I want it as my main watch choice, but is it really $300 better than the Forerunner 965? Probably not.

Bike Computer for Bike

Okay, as of 11 June 2023, I moved the bike computer way up, as it would help a lot navigating routes when not with a group. Also I need a way of seeing my heart rate, cadence, speed, incline, and the like. For the moment, I have an app on my phone that can show most of these metrics, I just have to keep waking the phone up and unlocking it to see them. Also even though I’ve got a new phone, the battery doesn’t last as long as a dedicated bike computer below, which can go days before I’d need to recharge them. Really though, this is after the trainer, and probably after the power meter pedals below, where it becomes nearly needed.

EDIT: In July, Garmin released the Garmin Edge 1050 ($699.99), which would be my number one choice, but it isn’t on Amazon last I checked.

The Garmin Edge 840 ($449.99) is the main choice. There is a Garmin Edge 840 Solar ($549.99) that does extend the battery some, but probably not $100 more battery for my area. Like for the price of the solar 840, I could get the 1040. Like the Garmin Edge 1040 ($599.99 or $749.99 for the solar version) would be better, especially the solar version, but again, at what I’ll be doing and using it for, the 840 is the sweet spot… The Garmin Edge 540 ($349.99), which lacks a touch screen, has half the memory than the 840, and you can’t put in an address to route yourself somewhere, would be a distant choice. So the choice order basically is, 1040 Solar, 1040, 840 Solar (though again, for that much may as well get the 1040 non-solar), 840 (the sweet spot in price/performance), 540 (where the solar version isn’t worth it, but the 840 is much preferred).

Smart Trainer for Bike

So one of the main reasons I wanted a bike period, is to use Zwift, TrainerRoad, or other similar apps (more on those later). So it’d be number one on this list, but space to use it is why it’s down here. Plus to use it anywhere I can’t see the computer, means an iPad, gaming level laptop, Apple TV and a new TV, or something along those lines.

Continue reading General Wish List Spring/Summer 2024

Whatever Happened to the Chocolate Pudding Pie Recipe?

The Jell-O Brand Instant Chocolate Pudding used to come with a recipe for pie. It still says on the box, pudding and pie filling. But the box only includes the pudding recipe, not the pie one which cuts the milk.

I can’t even find the recipe on their website. They got variations of it, with Cool Whip, and Peanut Butter, etc, but not the old basic one for just the basic chocolate pudding pie.

After some searching I found this:

Directions
5 min. Pudding Directions: 2 cups of milk. Beat pudding mix and 2 cups cold milk with whisk 2 min. Pudding will be soft-set in 5 min. Makes 4 (1/2-cup) servings. Store leftovers in refrigerator.
Classic pudding pie: Makes 8 servings. Prepare as directed for pudding, reducing milk to 1-3/4 cups. (For fuller pie, use 2 pkg. [3.9 oz each] and 2-3/4 cups milk). Pour at once into Honey Maid Graham pie crust. Refrigerate at least 1 hour (3 hours for fuller pie) or until set. Top each serving with 2 Tbsp cool whip whipped topping. Store leftovers in refrigerator.

Why that can’t be printed on the box anymore, I don’t know…

Ashes of Creation – Promising Alpha, Unfortunate Timing

So I got to play a bit of the Ashes of Creation alpha, an upcoming open world MMORPG. The eventual promise of the game, is that every action you take, can impact the world. You can help build a settlement into a city. It’s sort of EVE Online, but in a fantasy roll playing world, and perhaps not as complex… we’ll see.

To be fair, I generally don’t care for full PvP, open world MMORPGs, I prefer my games to be more theme park, like Final Fantasy XIV, which is a super great MMORPG, that I enjoy thoroughly, and I only use the Demo version of so far… World of Warcraft lost me a long time ago, long before the current player base drift.

Continue reading Ashes of Creation – Promising Alpha, Unfortunate Timing

Why Isn’t January 1st on the Solstice?

First, I’m not going to be answering that question, I’m asking it, and arguing why it should have been on the Solstice (when being setup, not now), and not some random day after. This isn’t some cute way of raising the question then providing the answer, such as “why is it dark at night?” Which while it may seem a clear answer, we’re on the shaded side of the Earth from the Sun. But given the number of starts out there, that every spot you look at has tons of galaxies, even in the gap of stars, the night sky should at worst look like the Milky Way all over the place, to being even a bit brighter, even on a night with no moon overhead. There would still be night, it would still be “dark”, but it should be brighter than it is. There is of course a rather simple answer, and I’ll let you go about exploring that on your own.

This is just a simple question of why didn’t the Gregorian Calendar set January 1st on the Northern Hemisphere Winter Solstice? Why some random date 11 days later? Continue reading Why Isn’t January 1st on the Solstice?

On the Odd Cult of Launcher Loyalty

Okay, so there’s a game coming out next year called Satisfactory, which has been described as a first person Factorio. I’ve been looking forward to, signed up on test it, dying to test it, and all that jazz. Been following it and the news… and then a few days ago it disappeared from the Steam store, and you’d have thought the world came to the end. The developers said “They are looking into it” on the game’s Discord server, and  the community seemed to be getting in a tissy. Finally the community manager was allowed to make the announcement…

So the big news then was that the game wasn’t coming to Steam, but would be exclusive to the new Epic Games Store, and a very vocal part of the community and fan base just lost their shit as if it was the apocalypse. With many saying they weren’t going to buy the game now if it wasn’t on Steam. Even though we don’t have all the information yet, we’ll get more on Wednesday  (it’s a Friday as I type this), people are jumping to far reaching conclusions. 

Continue reading On the Odd Cult of Launcher Loyalty

My First Origins Game Fair

I have, for a very long time, wanted to go to Origins Game Fair in Columbus or GenCon in Indianapolis. Origins is the far easier one as it is only a couple hours away, and in theory, could make for a nice long day trip, or quick two-day trip. However, things never really worked out between work, money, and availability.

I had given some thought of going this year (2018) as I didn’t have the kids that weekend (though I could easily trade if needed even if I did) and I was single, so no plans… until there were plans, my first date with a new lady in 8 years, but more on that in a bit. Continue reading My First Origins Game Fair

Reflections on the new digital version of the Lord of the Rings Living Card Game

I love games. A casual look at this blog would probably make that obvious. I don’t talk about tabletop games too often, but I really do enjoy them. My favorites are co-op games where all players are working toward the same goal, and I can even appreciate hidden traitors in my co-op. When I play video games, I prefer Player vs Environment (PvE) over Player vs Player (PvP), and again, if co-op is in there, all the better.

Fantasy Flight Games has a few good co-op tabletop games, chief among them are a couple of Living Card Games. In Living Card Games, they function like the familiar Collectable Card Games such as Magic the Gathering, Pokemon and many others, but all booster packs have the same cards, so there is no chasing card. While I love Netrunner, it is the co-ops that I truly love. Arkham Horror: The Card Game is amazing, and captures the spirit of the great Fantasy Flight Arkham Chronicles. Then, of course, there is their long-standing The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, a game that has stood the test of time as an amazing co-op/solo game experience, rich in depth and story.

Into this world comes a new game from a new division of Fantasy Flight, Fantasy Flight Interactive, and their first title The Lord of the Rings Living Card Game. Continue reading Reflections on the new digital version of the Lord of the Rings Living Card Game

Dauntless – The Daunting Task of Making a Game in the Monster Hunter Genre

You always remember your first. In terms of Monster Hunter type games, that first for me was Dauntless, back when I was in the Technical Alpha, playing it under NDA. Now that it’s been out for awhile, I thought it time to speak a bit about it.

Since playing Dauntless, I’ve tried Monster Hunter Online, Monster Hunter Generations on my 2DS, and trying Monster Hunter Freedom Unite on my iOS devices (I’m probably going to give up on that until I get a good MFi controller for it, as the touchscreen control sort of hampers the experience), and I’d have to move Monster Hunter style games near second on my list of genres that get me near excited. First would be looter shooters, but Monster Hunter style games come in a close second, if not nearly tied for first.

Dauntless, has become a staple of my Twitch streams.

Here’s a collection of highlights Continue reading Dauntless – The Daunting Task of Making a Game in the Monster Hunter Genre

Why I’m Not Upset At GGG for Selling Beta Keys

I’m not personally upset at Grinding Gear Games for selling beta keys for $10 over at Chrono.gg for the new Path of Exile… note by the time this post is actually read, odds are the sale will be over as it was for 24 hours only, and I didn’t buy one, and I’m not in the beta myself, though I wish I were.

I’m first going to say that I’m in no way judging anyone for being angry, just noting I personally not upset in this particular case at GGG.

I fully get the anger at the way there are too many developers selling beta access. I get that betas are for testing, and many people feel GGG, or any other developer, shouldn’t charge for beta testing their game for them. The problem with that though is 90% of the people who get in betas on any modern game, don’t test, just play… now I don’t have any figures to back that up, but I doubt I’m that far off. I wager that very few people who get chosen for a beta provide the quality feedback that the developer is looking for. Most test forums, at least on the NDA games I’ve done, are generally the same group of players providing feedback, and I know the playerbase is much larger. Now there’s no NDA in place here, but I still doubt that many of the people in the beta are providing the kind of feedback that helps GGG test, balance, and otherwise make the expansion as good as it can be. Continue reading Why I’m Not Upset At GGG for Selling Beta Keys

It’s Going to be a Very Long, but Fun Journey Home

So I managed to get a preview copy of The Long Journey Home (Steam Page) from the developers, and I got to say I’m beyond glad I did. I’ve fully enjoyed my time in the game, and I’ve barely made much progress on the journey home yet. The game is basically a rouge like, space exploration game along the lines of FTL, but a different art style, and what seems far more depth than what I at least got out of FTL. It also adds a bit of the old Atari Lunar Lander arcade game thrown in for good measure. Add to all this a good narrative and you end up with a fun new game.

Odds are it will take several runs to make the journey home. Each time you have to restart from scratch, but you keep your knowledge each run. The basic story of the game is that you were on the first jump capable ship, on your way to Alpha Centauri, when your jump drive malfunctions and sends you far from home. Now you are on your journey home. You’ll have to upgrade your ship and lander, and meet aliens, and work your way home. Continue reading It’s Going to be a Very Long, but Fun Journey Home

Hopelessly Addicted to Oxygen Not Included

You know you are in trouble when you’ve played a game for a couple or few hours after work and now it is a bit after 10 PM and you decide you’ll stop in a minute so you can wrap things up for the night and get ready for work early the next morning, then the next thing you know it is midnight (if not near 1 AM) at now you are going to have just a few hours of sleep, and you are going to regret it in the morning. Such a game is Oxygen Not Included, the newest title from Klei, perhaps most well-known for their Don’t Starve series. The game is coming soon to Steam Early Access (you can get super early access via this Oxygen Not Included thread for $19.99 USD, and price is expected to go higher later, though they haven’t set a price yet).

Oxygen Not Included is a space colony simulator, similar to Rimworld and a couple of others, but with a fun cartoon art style from a 2D platformer perspective. It is early Alpha stage at this point, early even for Steam Early Access (which is why the normal Steam page doesn’t include a way to buy it), but is very playable, and a bit overly addictive. I’ve managed to avoid playing too much the last two nights… never mind that I was out-of-town away from my computer one night and busy with chores the other… Continue reading Hopelessly Addicted to Oxygen Not Included

Conan Exiles – Early Alpha Thoughts

It’s early alpha. Keep in mind it’s early alpha.

FunCom has recently released into Steam Early Access their new survival game, Conan: Exiles. I’ve been trying the beta off and on this weekend (it’s been a busy weekend with Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands (not as overly exciting as I had hoped, but shows promise and I’ll get it on a good sale and I don’t care if it doesn’t have PvP) as well as Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 (okay but buggy on my system), I was hoping to try Decksplash, but didn’t get into that alpha this weekend, and I have the kids this weekend, so a busy weekend.. Anyhow, back to Conan. I’ve dived into the alpha (in the interest of full disclosure, provided by a PR firm, not directly from the developers) a bit off and on this weekend, and so far I have mixed feelings on it. Now note, this is based off a very limited time with the Alpha so far, and later articles may delve deeper.

It’s early alpha, not even beta really, so the bugs and the like, I can deal with for the moment as I’m sure they’ll work out some of the lag issues (from watching streams and the like, it seems the more housing and the like on a server, the more it lags, even if you aren’t near the housing and aren’t rendering them on your client), clipping and other bugs. The server lag is a big problem, and one they are working hard to solve, especially for official servers which went down while they search for better hardware.

The game is very difficult. As in harder than ARK, and this is even on PvE mode, I can’t imagine the nightmare on PvP. Continue reading Conan Exiles – Early Alpha Thoughts

Visiting the Ancient Ruins in Elite Dangerous

When Frontier Developments should a trailer of the new 2.2 Guardians update to Elite Dangerous: Horizons, they showed some ancient ruins. A player managed to figure out where those ruins were from the stars and nebula in the background and triangulated their way to the ruins. How he did that is far beyond me or the scope of this article. I had just arrived at HIP 10716 to get ready to do some Imperial rank grinding (HIP 10716 and Wu Guinagi Imperial Rank grind) and it was only a few hundred light years away, so I decided to hold off on the grind and visit the system. It would be my first time landing on a planet without a station (I’ve done plenty of station landing on planets), and first time using my SRV.

From the featured image above, you can see my SRV looking at an apparent alien obelisk.

I used the Radio Sidewinder Ancient Ruins Visual Guide to help guide to the me where to land once at the system…

As I got near, I decided to stream it. The stream went down a couple times, but I managed to get a couple good highlights in. Continue reading Visiting the Ancient Ruins in Elite Dangerous

My Suggestion for Elite Dangerous PVE Player Griefing

Elite Dangerous is a huge open sandbox MMO. And with open sandbox this usually means player can kill other players. The consequences very from game to game, and right now Elite Dangerous doesn’t do much to punish player killers. There is no PVE server, so many of us PVE players join up with a private PVE group. The other day I was at the ancient artifact grounds (Visiting the Ancient Ruins in Elite Dangerous), and left, but apparently some griefers were out there killing other players in the private PVE group, and this got me thinking that we need a solution in game. Within the groups Facebook page, there was a discussion about a PVE option, and punishments for players who grief PVE players, and that inspired this blog post.

The problem is there is no punishment for griefing players. A small bounty, but that is paid easy enough. In real life you go to jail, and that is where this gets to. Continue reading My Suggestion for Elite Dangerous PVE Player Griefing

Elite Dangerous – Sothis Runs

IMPORTANT NOTE: This works as of 2.1, apparently in the 2.2 beta, Sothis runs have been nerfed. As of this writing, not sure if that will make it to live or not.

One of the easy ways to make money in Elite Dangerous is stacking Sothis runs. I just managed around 11 million in 4 or 5 stops in my Type 6 with 96 T cargo capacity and 18.83 laden jump range. This is not a full guide, just more or less what I do.

Sothis is an outlyng human colony system. From Newholm Station, you can pickup a large number of delivery missions. You do this on a few ways. First I do it via a private group that I’m in. Load up all the far away delivery missions (don’t worry, once you get there, they are all within 2 or 3 jumps of one another… at least on my Type 6) and all the data delivery missions to Ceos. Then log out to the main menu, choose Open and get all the delivery missions (they should be near the others) and data delivery to Ceos… log out again to main menu and go Solo and repeat. This process of getting missions from the Open, Private and Solo is called mission stacking. At this point it probably is best to stay Solo or if you are in a private group, go that way. First I deliver my data to Ceos, which is only 1 jump away, and this nets a good haul from the stacking.

You can only have 20 missions at a time, so if you don’t fill up on delivery missions, you can run data back to Sothis and restack the delivery missions as there usually are more… Also note there are two stations in Sothis, I typically only stack the station closest to the entry point, but I know some people stack both.

Here is a Twitch highlight of me delivering mission stacked data to Ceos. Staring Sothis Runs for Credits – Ceos data drops and notes. Continue reading Elite Dangerous – Sothis Runs

We Happy Few – Preview and Second Look Coming Soon

I recently did a preview (semi early review) of We Happy Few back in late July:

Don’t be a Downer, We Happy Few – Giving We Happy Few a quick look at it’s current Early Access alpha access level. The playable characters aren’t in yet, and most of the story isn’t in yet. Highlight starts after the escape seen in the trailers. I talk near the end of the broadcast a few bits of my early impression thoughts and opinions of the game based on the early alpha (and I was one of the ones who got to show it off early before the official press embargo ended).

That was recorded 27 July 2016, which is why I’m getting ready to do a second look and give a review based on more of what’s in the game as of now (it is still very early access) I think there’s been enough time and enough updates to go back in and check it out… plus the press embargo is long over, so I think it’s time to get an official opinion on the state of the game. So keep an eye on this page… this article will be deleted and a full review will be going up… hopefully in the next week or two, depending on my schedule.

NOTE: We Happy Few was provided via a press contact outside the developer and publisher.

Elite Dangerous – My Real Addition of the Moment

So I’ve given up almost all my other games (save For Honor which I discussed the other day) in pursuit of many hours of Elite Dangerous. I’ve had ED (Elite Dangerous people… come on… grow up..) since early alpha… I dropped a lot to get into the Alpha back when… I want to say 2014. Then I stopped playing for a while… I picked up Planet Coaster by the same developers, but still didn’t jump back in.

Then No Man’s Sky happened. A game that I still don’t own, but did get to play some. The mild disappointment in that got me back into ED Continue reading Elite Dangerous – My Real Addition of the Moment

Checking Out For Honor – Closed Alpha

I was lucky enough to get into the For Honor closed alpha, and decided to stream a little of my first dive in… I quickly forget the basic that the CTRL mode is block and keep trying to remember if there was a special block key for the first few matches.

Anyhow, here’s a few highlights from the broadcast (the featured pic here is from one of those broadcasts which is why it is of lower quality than a pure screenshot, I’ll likely replace that with a straight screenshot later):

Checking out For Honor (Dominion – Player vs AI) – Raider. For Honor closed alpha gameplay. My 1st match of the day, trying out the Viking (Raider) this time.
Checking out For Honor (Dominion – Player vs AI) – Warden. More For Honor closed alpha gameplay, my 2nd match of the day, trying out the Knight (Warden) this time.
Checking out For Honor (Dominion – Player vs AI) – Kensei. More For Honor closed alpha gameplay, my 3rd match of the day, trying out the Samurai (Kensei) this time.
Checking Out For Honor – Brawl (Player vs AI) Mode. I think we were supposed to try one particular hero out in this mode, but it said Not Requited… but perhaps he was chooseable anyhow… I don’t know.

I don’t think I’m ready for a VS player mode yet, and will stick to the VS AI modes… lol.

Not shown in those is hero customization, requiting new heroes and adding goals to gain more in game money.

Anyhow, what do I think? Continue reading Checking Out For Honor – Closed Alpha