I’m aware that my posts have dropped off considerably in frequency and in the amount of thought put into them, but sometimes non-blog things do intrude on my little hermitage.
Like grandmotherly things. Picking up the grandkids after school every day this week and tending them until their dad can come pick them up after work. (The DIL is out of town.)
Or like an engrossing new video game, Far Cry 3. I’d been playing Assassin’s Creed 2, but got frustrated with puzzles I couldn’t solve and timed events I couldn’t finish. My greatest weakness with an Xbox controller seems to be my inability to run, drive, fly, or otherwise negotiate a path with my left thumb. If you’re a gamer, you can appreciate the problem. Funny, I do a lot of things with my left hand, even though I’m right-handed. But navigating from point to point, fast, using a left thumbstick definitely isn’t one of them.
Then, a few days ago, because my old printer was out of ink again and new ink would cost $70+ and because as you probably know, that will buy you a whole new printer (including ink) these days, I ordered a new printer. Much more fun than just new ink for an old printer. The new printer came yesterday and I got busy setting it up. Unlike its predecessor, it’s wireless, and as you may recall, I’m completely inept when it comes to my wifi set-up. And sure enough, I messed it up some way. Soon thereafter I realized that meant I’d also screwed up the wifi for my laptop. Bad enough, since that’s the computer I use all the time now while the big computer languishes in the back room. But at least the big box still had an internet connection so the granddaughter could do her homework and the grandson could play some games.
At some point I realized that wiping out the wifi meant a good part of my Xbox functionality was now dead, too. Despair! Just last weekend my son was over here and used his Netflix account to share with me the first episode of “House of Cards.” (“House of Cards” is worthy of a separate post.) A night or two later I realized that somehow, some way, I still had access to “House of Cards” and have been watching an episode every night since then. Apparently I’m able to do so via my son’s account, because I’ve never subscribed to Netflix, and whatever the glitch is, I hope it continues until I finish the show.
Anyway, when my son arrived to pick up the kids, I had this “minor” wifi glitch for him to fix. We both thought it would take him all of 10 minutes to get things squared away but it took two hours. When I mess things up, I mess them up big time. I’d have never gotten it fixed with the “help” of Comcast tech support. Something about the Xbox wouldn’t recognize the DNS …
So … yeah … that’s why I haven’t been posting much lately. (And honestly, would you really want to read any more commentary about Washington, gun control, immigration, drones, etc?)
I’m sorry to hear about your technical difficulties. That is unfortunate. Yes, when you can get things working, don’t mess with them. At all. I have a wireless printer. It’s a few years old, and I hate it. I hate paying for the cartridges. Refilling them doesn’t work – they have a memory. It’s dead slow over wifi, and the drivers have to be installed manually on all the computers that will use it. Then they fail. Frankly, if I need to print something (which is rare anymore) I do it at work.
I’ve been playing Dishonored the last few days. It’s alright, but I don’t recommend it. I think I might rent Far Cry 3, just to give it a try. The name Far Cry reminds me of my printer. It’s far away, and if you use it, you’ll end up crying.
My printer came with a CD, and trying to install its contents on my laptop is where I messed up, I think. My son later explained that I should just skip the CD, that most printers have native capabilities for operating and that the guys who write the stuff for the CDs generally don’t know what they’re doing. Sounds like a developer, doesn’t he? Anyway, he never touched the CD, and the printer still prints from my laptop, which is basically all I need. It’s one of those all-in-one printers, though, and I had some plans to scan some stuff. We’ll see. It has an intimidating control panel for all those functions and I may just settle for simple printing tasks. Amazing, the advance of printer technology. I still have my old HP4 Laserjet Postscript printer out in the garage. That sucker cost more than $2,000, as I recall!
Dishonored was to be my next game, unless something more interesting comes along. But I’ll probably be with Far Cry for a long time. It has all my favorite features … huge sandbox world to explore, lots of opportunity to use bow and arrow (my favorite weapon), lots of different things to do besides main story line. Much like Skyrim in those respects, but without the fantasy world. Not as good as Skyrim, IMO, but still very good.
I’m the same with WiFi. I have no idea what’s under the bonnet.
Technology keeps advancing as my knowledge and skills keep fading. Keeping up with how to set up and interconnect all the electronic devices I use is just beyond me.
Without any spoilers, how’s Far Cry 3?
I love it!! It’s got everything I look for in a game, as I mentioned before: big, detailed, interactive sandbox world to explore; a variety of weapons and different types of situations in which to use them (guns, knives, grenades, mines, molotov cocktails, and a bow, which is usually my favorite in any game and is important in Far Cry as a stealth weapon); lots of different kinds of things to do — hunt wild animals, or bad guys, gather stuff to make assorted types of buffs and heals, assorted missions and quests with different types of goals; swimming, hang-gliding, driving assorted vehicles including boats, ski-doos; an occasional poker game. There’s a lot of activity in the world around you — insects, birds, all kinds of animals both wild and domestic (you may see a tiger stalk and take out a deer, for example). Some of the animation is pretty klutzy, like when you are climbing something, or want to jump. And I’ve read reviews that complain about the dialogue sometimes being inappropriate to the mood, etc. But I’m not nearly that critical. Overall, I get a real kick out of it.
They should pay you for your review. 😉 Definitely sounds better than Assassins Creed and Doom!
I was really intrigued with Assassin’s Creed at first. All that climbing and jumping around on buildings — I’d never seen that in a game before and it was fun. But some of the puzzles totally stumped me, and timed things required numerous frustrating attempts before I finally managed to do them — IF I managed to do them. I never played Doom, so can’t make any comparisons there.
Hey, if the game companies want to pay for a review from a grandmother (and of course, give me the games), I’d be more than happy to give them my opinion. I’d probably do it if they’d just give me the games. 🙂
That was a well written review – some company should take note.
That would be one for the record books, a game company seeking out Grandma’s opinion of a big video game (although in the past I’ve gotten in as a beta tester for several major games).
Yup. Skip the CD. Bloat ware typically.
You forgot one more topic in the news here lately… the post office dropping Saturdays. Hit hit the nail on the head with your closing statement…. All day long. ALL day long that’s all they talk about. Gun control, drones, immigration, and the post office. Personally, I don’t understand why everyone is so upset about losing Saturday? Honestly, it really is just not needed anymore. Plus think of all the fuel and carbon footprint that will be alleviated by no longer having delivery on Saturdays. I dunno… maybe you have a better grasp and understanding why so many people are upset for political reasons, that is.
I suppose I didn’t mention the Post Office because I wrote about it back in November. Or wrote it off. Losing Saturday deliveries means nothing to me except one less day’s worth of junk mail every week.
Oh, wow. I missed that one. Well, I commented rather lengthily on that one so won’t repeat it all here.
Sounds like exciting times in real life there.
What a deal with printers …darn ink is so expensive!
Glad you had cavalry to help get it all working
No kidding. When the ink costs more than the printers, you gotta wonder …
Thank goodness for a private cavalry. I can’t imagine how I’d manage otherwise.