This list has modified heavily since it was the birthday list, it’s become more fitness based. Though my birthday is in May, and another May is coming…

Before buying things here myself, money would be used to be ready for any potential financial emergencies, such as car 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.

Primary Wants

These items are mostly for my bike, a bike computer (moved up from secondary wants in June 2023), a new watch (mine is fairly old, and the battery is draining somewhat fast), and a smart bike trainer (also moved up in June 2023). I’ve also added some stuff to help keep me warm outside when it’s as cold as it gets here in winter.

The smart bike trainer would be first, but space issues is what pushes that down. Ideally, I’d use it on my computer, to use it outside the main living space, I’d need to have a new iPad, or gaming level laptop, to really be able to use Zwift, Trainer Road, which also complicates things and moves it from a solid first spot. 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, however 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.

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My watch is getting out of date in terms of fitness tracking.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 It’s an older Garmin Venu, and the Venu 2 came out in 2021, with then on the Venu 3 out now, so an idea of how out of date it is.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.

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?

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 ($800) would be also okay… I’m assuming an Alpine loop. But The Garmin is better for what I do. Also, battery life on Apple Watches sucks…

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 wouldn’t last as long as a dedicated bike computer below.

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 wants of a bike period is to use Zwift, TrainerRoad, or other similar apps (more on those later). And this technically is right after a bike computer on this list, perhaps even above it, but space to use it is why it’s down here instead of number one or two. Plus to use it anywhere I can’t see the computer, means an iPad, gaming level laptop, or something along those lines.

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…

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.

As I try to get myself more fit, I’ve created a Fitness Wishlist Page that goes over the stuff I could use to help me get to that end.

While I haven’t been posting much here, I have been streaming off and on, on my Twitch channel. So please be sure to check the stream out, and old VODs…
Potentially coming soon, with the proper fitness equipment, will be more YouTube content related to me trying to get fit.

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? →

I’ve never been a Magic the Gathering player. I’ve had decks, but never really played.

Recently I’ve really gotten into Android Netrunner. In my opinion it is one of the best games for two people out there… but it isn’t digital… well not officially, you can play on a client called OCTGN, but for the most part you really need to be able to get to your local FLGS (favorite local game store) and play. My local FLGS in Akron, Underhill’s Games, has a weekly Netrunner event, but my car situation keeps me from making it like I would like…

Meanwhile I also have Lord of the Rings: LCG, which can be played solo… but again, not available digitally officially yet…

So digital card games are what I’ve been looking into.

The big one at the moment is Hearthstone, but that is in closed beta and I’m not in it yet, once I’m in I’ll report more and post up some videos. There are plenty of videos of it on YouTube and Twitch. Check it out. Blizzard, who made World of Warcraft, Diablo and the StarCraft (I need to get those for Ari) made this one. It seems very well done as one would expect from a first level developer like Blizzard… (Side note, I can’t wait to see Blizzard All Stars and Titan.) This is perhaps the big boy on the block, at least in the general public eye.

Infinity Wars is another big one out there in beta. I downloaded the client a few days ago, but didn’t make an account until today (Sept 1st), and sadly they just shut down beta invites… like had I signed up when I downloaded I probably could have got in, but now I’m on a 2-3 week wait. Again plenty of videos on YouTube and Twitch… to which I’ll be adding to for sure. As of the writing, they shut down new beta invites for 2-3 weeks. Had I tried to get in when I downloaded the client I probably would have been in already and making content for it…

Hex: Shards of Fate is perhaps one of the ones I’m most interested in seeing. It seems to be combining an MMO with a TCG. Yet again, closed alpha (not even beta yet). This one you can buy your way in, but I don’t know if I’m sold on the idea of buying in… I’m not clear yet on the MMO elements… what little I’ve seen seems to be just a next generation digital TCG, but I haven’t seen any of the PvE stuff yet. I’m very interested in the concept here at the very least.

SolForge I have on my iPad… I haven’t really used it yet though. I know lots of people are playing this while waiting to get in on the above.

There are a few others on the iPad that I’m not going to link to directly, but there’s Summoner Wars, Nightfall, and Ascension…

Of course Magic has its own digital version…

I am not a candidate in New Mexico, though he apparently had my same name… oddly enough he graduated high school the same time I did… obviously a different school… I would hope nobody googled him and came up with me and decided not to vote for him due to it…

Looking over all my old posts, there have been an insane amount of video game posts… of course there hasn’t been much else going on in my life really, and most of my friends/family are on my Facebook anyhow for the more random odd things… I keep saying I should update this more often and never get to it… 🙂

Well, not that they fixed my pre-order registration issues (I still can’t post to the official forums, but that is a fairly minor annoyance at least until I get in for early access and won’t be a “real issue” until the game launches), I can look forward to Early Access. There was official word posted about the remaining Early Access times:

 Posted by: Stephen Reid

A quick update on today’s invites, and a little preview of tomorrow.

Today, we invited people who had pre-ordered up to the very beginning of October (roughly). Tomorrow, we’re going to be inviting the same number of people again; that will take us up to the last week or so of November. On Friday, we’ll be inviting even more, and we’ll give you an update on that tomorrow.

You’ll see more servers coming online tomorrow, and almost certainly there will be some queuing. That was always expected. As a reminder, our plan here is to maintain healthy server populations post launch, and during the excitement of launch that will mean queues. That said, we’ll be working hard to keep those queues reasonable.

We’ll check back in tomorrow with another update.

So people who ordered up through November should be in today (Thursday, 15 November 2011) and those of us who ordered after that should be in Friday (assuming that the invites go out the same day you can get in)… of course work will cut into that time a great deal, but Sunday I am largely free.