24-Dec-2022 :: Christmas Eve
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Here it is, nearly the end of 2022 already. For some reason, I am still
alive. But My time is ticking and I know it. I suspect I should make out
a Will. I don't really own a whole lot. Oddly the most valuable thing I
own is my Domain names. They have been around almost since the beginning
of the internet and are short so their appraised value is very very good.
I know my daughter shouldn't get any of it and I have no family. Probbably
give it all to the ASPCA or a Zoo.
I am pretty much out of everything. Food, Drink, Smokes.
And most importantly Money for these things.
The increase in
Social Security will be very helpful next month, although we only
get an 8% increase. If only inflation were that little. Many things have
doubled in price. Eggs went from $3.99 to $4.99 to $7.49 in two months.
Most food items seem to have gone up by a third here. Food stamps barely
makes a dent these days, this month I ran out.
And I still have a week to go. Income from rexx will help but... I do not
really make a lot from it anymore and the domain registration fees are
due in a few weeks.
I got a couple of Christmas Cards. Nice to know at least a couple of people
are thinking of me.
This will be the last entry for 2022.
15-Dec-2022 :: IVAO Tours
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I completed my third tour oon IVAO today. I did the XA division vintage
airmail tour which followed the airmail route in the 1930's north america.
That was with a Piper Cherokee. I also did the world Vintage tour in a DC-3
that followed the 1940-1950 KLM passenger service in Asia, Africa and Eurppe.
Today I finished off the XA division I-95 tour using a Cessna Skylane 182 RG II
that followed the I-95 on the east coast of the U.S.
I see they are planning a route 66 tour for next year which I am looking
forward to.
IVAO is the
International Virtual Aviation Association, which I have been a member
of nearly since it was started in 1998. For more information check the
Wikipedia link by clicking on the Association name above. It it the best way
to learn flight sim aviation on a realistic level.
25-Nov-2022 :: Happy Birthday to me
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Wasn't the greatest birthday. Didn't do a lot. Somewhat sick. They pulled
3.6 liters of fluid on Wednesday. Meh. Felt like I had a hang-over. At least
what I think a hang-over feels like.
18-Nov-2022 :: Fixed Videos / Perfect Socializing for COVID
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Since I lost quite a bit in the hard-drive crash a couple of months ago,
I started downloading my Videos to my local computer. I discovered that
some of the Dance Videos had been corrupted. Fortunatly I have saved all
of the original AVI's on a thumbdrive so have re-uploaded the corrupted
ones in a higher rez (720p) MP4 format... #'s 26, 27 and 30
are now on my
Dance Videos Page I have also added a couple of new videos.
Some people might wonder about why I do this. Second life is actually the
perfect way to stay socially active during the Covid-19 Pandemic. In the
videos I have blocked out most of the chat windows so you dont see it,
but most people in the club are chatting either in voice or text. Even
those not dancing. And I get to meet a lot of interesting people from
all over the world!
16-Nov-2022 :: Artemis I Launch
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I was going to say a lot about this launch, and about my family and our
involvement with the space program over the decades. But I ended up deciding
not to go that route.
Instead I would just like to say .. "A job well done" to everyone who works
for NASA and all of its many partners.
29-Oct-2022 :: Flight Simulator 2022
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I finally got to try the new-ish Microsoft Flight Simulator, the 2020 Version.
It was really disapointing. I suspected it was not going to run well on my
computer but wasn't prepaired for just how bad it was. Even with the graphics
turned down and the screen resolution at 700p it only got 3-4 FPS and
crashed to desktop the first 6 times I tried to run it. Once I got it to stay
running, nothing in the sim worked. Glad I didn't pay for it. Deleted.
I ended up re-installing a bunch of my older games. Decscnet, Descent 2,
Railroad Tycoon 3, Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 and The Sims Medevil which I have
been playing most of the day. Lost all of my save games though. Bleh,
starting over in all of them.
Not much else going on at the moment, just killing time.
23-Oct-2022 :: Archive Update
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I have just updated my radio show archive, including this weekend's shows.
All of the computer problems of the past couple of months have kept me off the
air quite a bit, but now back online.
Mostly boring the past few weeks. I'm still playing Satisfactory qute a bit
and also I've been in second life a bit. I finally re-installed everquest
today and trying to get everthing going there.
10-Oct-2022 :: Dialysis Scare
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I had a bit of a scare at Dialysis today. I have two tubes sticking out of my
chest which is where they hook me up to the machine. When they were hooking
me up this morning they couldn't draw blood from the Arterial line. The nurse
had to pull out a big blood clot with a syringe from the tube. Rather scary
because a blod clot that breaks up and goes into the lungs, heart or brain
can cause serious problems... even death.
Dialysis can be risky. According to ucsf.edu only 35% of Dialysis patients
survive the five year mark. I'm at four years this month. Sudden Cardiac
Death during dialysis accounts for 20% to 30% of those deaths.
30-Sep-2022 :: Last Day of September
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The last day of September already. Not much has changed for me this past
month. I am still alive though, just trying to get through the month.
I have been playing a new game called "Satisfactory" a lot the past few weeks.
I have posted a couple of clips on my YouTube channel, and have been working
on a "let's play" type tutorial.
08-Sep-2022 :: Vey Sad Day
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Although I identify as Austrian-Hungarian as my Maternal family is whom I was
raised by, I am also half British by my biological father. I was a bit
surprised by how saddened I was by the news of the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
Like most Americans I only sort-of paid attention to what went on with the
British Royals. This though was a bit of a shock, both her death itsself,
and just how much it has effected me. But then, she had been the Queen of
England during my entire life.
Long live King Charles III.
01-Sep-2022 :: Dialysis
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The Dialysis is effecting me more and more as time goes on. Now nearing
4 years on. The past three weeks have been pretty bad. I am thinking it
might be time to make out my Will. I have been a minimilist most of my
live so I do not have a lot of personal possesions, but the two domain
names I have are actually worth quite a lot, if sold. I guess I should
give it all to the ASPCA or perhaps to our local private zoo.
I've gotten a few new games this week to pass the time. Stray was actually
quite a disapointment. Oddly "Gas Station Simulator" is pretty good.
23-Aug-2022 :: More Hard Drive Trouble
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Of course the f'ing 1TB drive isn't working, as if it getting lost in
Chicago for 10 days wasn't bad enough. I can put a bit less than 100GB
on it then it starts throwing errors, and corrupting files. It also
slows down the transfer rate very badly when a lot of small files are
moved onto it. Just incredible. I don't know if it was damaged in transit or
if it was faulty from the vendor. I definatly will NEVER buy anything from
a Walmart marketplace partner ever ever again.
16-Aug-2022 :: Reinstalling
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I finally got both the 1TB SSD drive I originally ordered and the 480GB SSD
drive that I ordered to replace the 1TB which was lost in shipping. I managed
to get both drives installed, even though the computer fought tooth and nail
to prevent it. Now I just have to re-install everything. As near as I can tell
the old Seagate HDD is a total loss.
OMG I forgot how annoying Windows-10 is with the base install. In the process
of disabling all the crap-ware and spyware microsoft built-in.
10-Aug-2022 :: Bizarre Shipping
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The memory chips and the hard drive cable kit arrived as expected but something
is definatly screwey with the SSD drive. I ordered it all back on 28-July
and Walmart aparently had everything shipped from the manufacturers.
The manufacturer or seller of the drive is in Irvine CA and aparently uses
a Chineese shipping company called "Ding Hong." It took them 9-10 days to
even pick it up... since then it has gone from Los Angeles, to someplace
in Delaware, back to Los Angeles, where it disapeared for several days.
Ding Hong turned it over to the US postal service today ... in Chicago.
At least it didnt goto Hong Kong or Singapore, which is what I was affraid of
when it disapeared from the tracking. Aparently a lot of people have had
problems with this "USPS shipping partner.
31-Jul-2022 :: Archive Updated
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I updated my radio show archive with everyting up to today's show.
The club shows have been going really well. I have been getting pretty
good sized crowds of dancing furries and getting a fair amount of tips.
The radio shows on Sunday however ... OGR just dosent seem to have that
much of an audiance. I'm starting to feel that I am doing a whole lot of
work for nothing there.
I ordered a new 1TB SSD drive for my main/game computer on thursday, and
also 2x 2GB memory chips which will double the RAM. It's all expected to
be here by next Friday.
19-Jul-2022 :: It's dead, Jim
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My main computer finally died. Specifically the hard drive is throwing
massive errors. I fought with it for about 9 hours last night running disk
checks and repair and recovery programs, and a couple of hours more this
morning. Fortunatly HDD's arent too expensive anymore, but it will have to
wait until after the 1st. Mostly it's just bloody inconvienient.
I am currently using a sub-micro chineese computer, which is the one I
normally do my radio shows from. I am able to run some of the simpler games
from Steam, but I dont dare try anything like Flight-simulator.
Even the simpler games are kinda choppy.
Thankfully Steam stores all of your games, and the saves for most games.
03-Jul-2022 :: No Shows and Airline
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Being a holiday weekend, I will not be doing any radio or club shows this
weekend. I expect most people will be off with family.
I am really enjoying being back into the flight-sim hobby. I am still working
on several of the IVAO tours. (The Vintage World Tour, and the North American
division ultra-light and I-95 tours.) A couple of days ago I decided to make
the leap and join a virtual airline. Now flying with
American Airlines
19-June-2022 :: Father's Day
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I'm not sure what I'm actualy feeling about this, considering my situation
with my daughter....
Perhaps my brain has too many tabs open.
16-Jun-2022 :: Flight / Dialysis
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I finished the IVAO vintage airmail tour last night late, and have started
on the Ultralight Tour using a aviqatika mai-890 ultralight bi-plane,
*and* the vintage world tour using a DC-3. I'm really enjoying being back
into flying.
I have finally been able to get to dialysis all this week. The social worker
at the clinic expressed some concern about my loss of weight just before
the "pause" but I don't see it as anything to worry about.
06-Jun-2022 :: Still flying
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I have been doing a lot of flying recently. I'm now about half way through
the IVAO Vintage Airmail tour. I've been looking around for a small Business
Jet and an ultralight as I am thinking of doing those tours as well.
I have been missing a lot of Dialysis the past few weeks. The Paratransit
from St.Mary's that I use has a new scheduler, and she hasn't got her seams
straight. So I haven't been able to book transportation on a regular basis
and I can not afford the RTC Paratransit much.
I have a great idea for a show. All cover originals. Basically play the original
versions of songs that were covers and became famous. That may take a bit of
doing to put together though.
22-May-2022 :: Flying
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It has been a very long time since I have done much with Flight Simulator.
Steam shows I have only run it for 15 hours since I bought it many years ago.
Much a departure from past years. So I have decided to get involved again
with
IVAO (The International Virtual Avaition Orginazation)
Most people know I prefer playing in multiplayer mode, so I have spent the
past couple of days setting up their new connection software.
I have decided to do the North American division Vintage Air Mail Tour
using a Piper PA-31 Navajo. (Which Wikipedia indicates is one of the
Aircraft used for US Airmail service, probbably from 1967 on to 1975.
The tour starts in Halifax so I expecting to be flying across Canada
most of this next week.
I have noticed that the IVAO status indicator on my home page appears to
be broken. It either wont load at all, or always says "Offline." The new
IVAO trackinfg system called "Webeye" does work though. I am using the
callsign N113S so you can track my flights (as well as everyone else on
the IVAO network) at
http://webeye.ivao.aero/?callsign=N113S
08-May-2022 :: No Show Today
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No MeowMix show today. It being Mother's day no one will be listening, and
I'm not really feeling into-it today.
If you have been wondering what my shows in second life look like, here are
a couple of screenshots for you:
Click Images to Enlarge
21-Apr-2022 :: Archive Updated
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I have updated my show archive with everything up to last weekend. I have also
added links/shortcuts on the main page to the archive, my steam profile and
live in-game broadcast page.
16-Apr-2022 :: Facebook
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I finally did it, joined Facebook. Although I still say "Facebook" is what
happens when you fall asleep in a Library. You will find me on FB as
"Jitar GrRahiir"
I haven't really done a whole lot interesting in the past couple of weeks.
Mostly played Space Engineers. I have finally gotten Silent Hunter 5 to
work and have been messing around with that a bit.
18-Mar-2022 :: YouTube / Turok Tutorial
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I have finally finished the Level 1 Turok Dinosaur Hunter Game Tutorial.
If is available her e on my personal site in the Videos section. I have also
created a YouTube channel for them. (Search for "DJ Jitar")
I should be posting levels 2 and 3 this comming week.
14-Mar-2022 :: Live Video Broadcast
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This past week I have been back playing Space Engineers for the first time
in over a year. I stopped playing because of a couple of idiots on the server.
I *LIVE* broadcast my games in STEAM. (Not just Space Engineers but every game
I play on steam.) If you are interested in learning how the games I play work
you can watch as I play. The live-stream URL is
https://steamcommunity.com/broadcast/watch/Jitar13/
Other than gaming, everything is kinda okay.
27-Feb-2022 :: This weekend's shows and Alchemy
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Just as I started my show at the Yiff Club Saturday, my internet went blooey.
They had fixed the problem some months back but it started up again. I noticed
the past couple of weeks it was starting to have problems but wasn't that bad
until this weekend. ASo I wasn't able to do my shows.
I did however manage to go to DD's show earlier in the evening. The Alchemy
client did great, It managed to maintain 20+ FPS even while the camera angle
had some of the audiance in it. (I had been turning the camera away from the
audiance to keep the frame rate up to at least 10 FPS.) I noticed the colour
is a bit darker and AAlchemy dosen't seem to have a way to save camera
pre-sets. I posted some videos I captured last night so you can see how
it does. Videos 46 through 49 are using Alchemy
22-Feb-2022 :: 02/22/22 ... OwO
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I had a pretty good weekend. Went to the Yiff for DJ Dark Dragon's show
and snapped a couple of new Dance videos. (See videos section in the left
sidebar.) Although I keep missing Razi's show at Luna's on Sunday. My
shows both went okay although the network kept dropping me.
Still messing around a lot in Sims-2. This week though I've also been in
SL a bit. One of the peeps at the club during my show was talking about the
Alchemy client for SL which I have been checking out. It does seem to be even
better than the Firestorm client and can aparently also work in Metaverse.
I finally also got to see Disney's Alladin, with Will Smith. Liked that.
For those who don't know OwO is a furry emote indicating surprise. I was
starting to do this entry and noticed the date.
10-Feb-2022 :: Archive Posted for January
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I have posted the
archive of my January Radio shows for everyone to enjoy.
I have a new group I will be introducing on my show this comming Sunday,
Professor Pennygood's Mighty Flea Circus. Technically they have been around
for over a year but haven't gotten much radio exposure yet.
Still playing a lot with Sims 2 so haven't been on Steam much. I've managed
to re-download most of the important mods for it.
01-Feb-2022 :: Still feeling good
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I had a bad dialysis day yesterday, I came off feeling a bit shakey
from not being able to smoke beforehand. (My lighter died and the matches
I had as backup broke and fell apart... grrrrr!) but other than that I had
a pretty good week. I updated a couple of pages on my personal website
today.
Last weekend I premiered the new single from Soft Cell on my shows, that will
be released at the end of Feb. And I get to do it again this comming week
with some tracks from Tears for Fears that will also release at the end of
Feb.
Still playing a lot with Sims-2 so I haven't really been in Steam too
much.
23-Jan-2022 :: The Sims / Shows
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It was actually a pretty good week for me.
I finally decided to download an old game I used to play a LOT, The Sims 2.
I actually think TS2 is better than TS3 or TS4. The only problem was that when
I "Zeroed Out" my computer was stolen and I lost all of my mods for it.
So I've been having to go find and download them all.
For the past several weeks I have been simulcasting my Club show on OGR.
Starting next saturday the show will be officially on the OGR schedule.
So even if you can't come to see me live at the Yiff Hangout Club, you
can still listen in on OGR. The club show is from 10pm to Midnight
pacific time every Saturday.
We actually had a pretty good crowd this weekend, and I managed another
Dance Video posted.
20-Jan-2022 :: Answer about Dance Videos
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I got an e-Mail asking about Benji's dance videos which I will answer here
for everyone. YES, the dance videos were recorded "Live" in second life
and are Motion Capture, but not of me.
The dancer you see most often in the videos is named Abram Wolf.
While at a club in the second life virtual world, I mix the segments of the
dance animations to create the dance that people see in-world.
It's somewhat like DJ'ing a live mix, but using dance animations.
I often record my camera angle, and pick out the best ones to put into
my video section for everyone to enjoy.
13-Jan-2022 :: Archive Complete / NASA
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The archive of my radio shows is finally complete. It took some extra time
because once I got it all uploaded I realized how much disk storage it was
taking up so I moved the actual mp3's to another of my servers that had
more disk space available. In total it has 94 hours of recordings. Sadly
only 2 shows from before 2019 survived.
It has been an interesting week for NASA. The James Webb Telescope was launched
on christmas eve and this past weekend I have been monitoring the Mission
Control Center while they un-folded the secondary mirror, primary mirror and
aligned the mirrors. The Aames research center is running simulations of
vibrations from the SLS rocket during an emergency abort sequance for Artemis
on the super-computer.
04-Jan-2022 :: Show Archive Open
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For those who have missed my radio and club shows, I have opened an
online archive of the recordings of my shows. You can access the archive at
http://bearclaw.rexx.com/~roko13/radio/ARCHIVE
Sadly it appears that only 2 recordings have survived from 2006 when I
was on Club-69 Radio. During the last part of 2020 and early 2021 I was
hosting a radio theatre on OGR, which was not recorded.
I will most likely be uploading the recordings for most of the week, so
be sure to check the directory listings for new recordings.
Enjoy the shows!
01-Jan-2022 :: Happy Mew Year!
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Yet again another Year is here already. I didn't really do anyhing for
New Year's, although I have my shows this weekend. The first weekend of
each month is 50's and Rockabilly. Should be fun.
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