...things get a little bit busy. And by "busy" I mean sometimes **** just falls off the rails and you struggle to keep your head above water. That's mixing metaphors quite badly, I think. Images of a train crash and going in the water in an uncontrolled way, which I guess *could* actually be related. The Well There's Your Problem podcast did a great episode on the "Overseas Railroad" for the Florida Keys, where a train crash could literally throw you into the Atlantic Ocean. Or technically the Gulf of Mexico, I guess.

A few weeks ago I was just zooming along with my primary task related to Twenty Sided being relocating some old files to a different host to make space. And I'm not even entirely sure I can *remember* what all has happened since then. One car replacement, another car broke its serpentine belt and yet somehow still drove 30 miles without even getting SLIGHTLY warm, got the belt replaced, AND IS FINE NOW. One bathroom floor replaced, one front screen door replaced (and subsequently broken by the effin' German Shepherd who doesn't understand why doors, walls, or windows don't open for him when he wants and proceeds to open them however he can (and yet is otherwise a complete wimp. The miniature dachshund picks on him. Oh, and I was able to fix the door. Unfortunately it looks like this particular design is not German Shepherd-proof.) My dad finally found out what's causing his deteriorating motor skills. He's had bad shaking and has been reduced to shuffling (he has trouble picking up his feet), and he's certainly old enough and has been through enough to just say "well, that's old age" and be done with it...but this all came on pretty suddenly. Just in the past couple of months he has developed a problem with sudden fatigue and dizziness. He's also had both knees replaced; the first of which they botched the physical therapy so it's been a bit stiff from the beginning. The second one they put a bad "part" in and had to REDO THE SURGERY to replace it, and in the second surgery he got an antibiotic-resistant infection. It is under control now but could be a problem again at any time. In fact I lost my closest friend a few years ago to the same thing. Anyway, long story short (too late, I know) in dealing with all that the doctors ended up trying to deal with non-step swelling, and in dealing with that his blood pressure and heart rate went almost out-of-control, and in dealing with that we finally eliminated heart problems from the list of possible causes of his shaking, memory problems, shuffling, and sudden bouts with dizziness and fatigue; and finally found out he has Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus. The current treatment prognosis is trying to get it to NOT make things worse, but he should be able to walk better. The other problems...we'll see. And speaking of "see," I was right. I almost forgot about the late-night tire blowout and the other flat that needed to be changed. We live in rural Texas. They don't really maintain the roads much around here. Oh, and the vacuum cleaner stopped working and had to be replaced.

Since switching to using my Dell laptop as my primary computer, I haven't had much of a problem with normal stuff. Like writing, file management, etc. Pretty light usage, really; but I do like it to be instant and spotless. Playing games has been more problematic. Not so much in getting things to work in the first place (with some exceptions) but in getting the games to run. As I have documented repeatedly, Steam-based and GOG-based games generally install without problem, and most start without any issue as well. Usually trouble occurs when doing something more memory-intensive. Star Wars The Old Republic will cause *Steam* to crash with an excessive memory usage error if I have other programs running, such as the Discord app or sometimes even Firefox. Switching in and out of the game can trigger this behavior if it is otherwise running ok. The 12GB of RAM this laptop is limited to likely is the main culprit, although using a slower, SATA mechanical hard drive for my Steam archive is undoubtedly part of the problem. Until just the last week this could be managed.

And honestly, there are other issues with the recent "problems." I came across several videos on YouTube about collecting...well, everything...in World of Warcraft. One player, Lord Knabble, is using one character to collect everything in the original areas of World of Warcraft, and that got me interested in trying the same thing. I last left off in WoW doing something similar with a couple of characters, because my attempt to play through Wrath of the Lich King was just boring the pants off me. But that was on the big computer; I didn't have WoW installed on the laptop. And I can't get it going. After several attempts and some research, I've come across a few posts from a few months ago that something changed in the Battle.net launcher that has caused *some* players to have trouble installing or even launching an existing installation. Clearly not everyone, but it was several people all at the same time. Installing and running through Steam is getting more popular, but I ran into my old friend trying to install:

I did manage to play ONE new game in the past couple of weeks. With all the talk about horror games because it's that time of year, I downloaded (and ran without problems) Do You Copy?, a 2017 Gamejam creation. Created in 24 hours (that's what the 'Gamejam' thing means), Do You Copy? is highly-regarded for its atmosphere and restraint. You play as a park ranger on a Lookout Tower (think Firewatch) and your movement is constrained essentially to the single room at the top of the tower. You can read a lot of things in this room that gives background to the story. None of this is necessary to play the game. Your mechanics are interacting with your radio and answering questions, and activating the spotlight on the walkway railing just outside your door. There are six endings (but not really) and a play-through only takes a few minutes. I mean, it was made in 24 hours, what did you expect? Two sequels have been made, one over the course of a week (allegedly) and one that...took longer. Neither is particularly liked or well-reviewed.

This paragraph has spoilers, so if you want to play the game yourself you can go do that right quick. You can get all six endings in about 40 minutes. You can come back and pick up at this paragraph.

There is a "good" ending, a "bad" ending," an "almost as bad" ending, and three "well, at least you survived" endings. The story is simple: right after you go "on shift," you will get a call on your radio from a panicked hiker being chased by someone or something. The hiker will ask you (in either the first message or their second message) if they should follow the right path or the left path. It doesn't actually matter what you say. This choice has no significance to the story. The second choice does: the hiker will ask about heading toward the mine or the lake (at least that's how it comes off in the story). Heading toward the lake will result in the "bad ending" or one of two of the "you survived" endings. The "mine" choice will give you the "good" ending, the "almost as bad" ending, or one of the "you survived" endings. Either choice will take you to another question to help the lost hiker. One answer in both cases will lead directly to one of the "you survived" endings. This is the shortest game you can play, going from loading to ending in just a few minutes. The other choice will lead to another interaction to determine the final ending: how you use the spotlight/floodlights at the appropriate time. If you forgo the lights, you get the final "you survived" ending...but the hiker is dead. Just as with the other "you survived" endings...maybe I should have mentioned that already. If you DO activate the lights on the path involving the Lake that does give you this option, well; it doesn't matter. This is the "bad" ending and everyone dies. On the path to the MINE however, if you reach the option to do the lights; you can ignore them, flash them once, or flash them multiple times. As long as you don't leave the lights on for a long time (you have to hold the mouse button down to do this, the light switch is damaged so the lights only come on when you hold the mouse button down), you'll get the good ending. Everyone lives! If you DO hold your mouse button down, hoping the hiker uses the light wisely...they do! But you die.

And that's it. That's the game. You don't even see what gets you, or the hiker. Or both. Or neither. Technically. You see some glowing red dots that I think are meant to be eyes, but they look out-of-scale with the surroundings. But I guess you could say it's sort-of in your mind. Does the game work? Ehhhh...it can. If you go out of your way to make your environment spooky, and you actually read the things posted and take the situation seriously, this game can be creepy. Eschewing a direct chase or exposure of what is "out there" helps a LOT. Limiting your movement to one room and not having any protection or control of the access to your location can make you feel vulnerable if you get into the game. Especially since the "whatever it is," which could actually be the hiker in a deranged state-of-mind, communicates with you and indicates it is coming for you. This is the most effective part of the narrative, the possibility that the hiker you're meant to help is actually a serial killer trying to GET TO YOU.

The flip side is, if you know ANYTHING about the game going in, you know it's gonna be short and very limited. *It was made in a day,* for goodness sake. If that's playing in the back of your mind, you *know* it's gonna be over in a few minutes no matter what. Reading all the material can slow you down, but this really takes effect on later playings, because the radio messages make you want to hurry and watch the woods to see what you can see. You don't want to read a book or look at pictures while trying to save someone's life. If that's what you're doing.

But the game is NOT BAD. I can't really tell anyone not to try it. It works on almost everything (if it worked on my laptop running Linux, etc.) and only takes a few minutes for each game. The sequels? Have NOT been recommended. By anyone.