GOD MY EYES

I spent many hours auditing projects that have reached a specific support level to determine whether they reached their support level legitimately. I feel like I'm coming out of a deep sleep and my brain is a little fried. I spent a good 10 minutes mad at my spreadsheet because I couldn't figure out why two cells were highlighted green. I figured out later after that the search was still on, but not displaying properly. It was a maddening experience. Definitely been staring at a screen too long.

Pyre is released tomorrow, which means I'll be madly trying to free up recording space tonight after I get home from celebrating my brother's 21st birthday. I might even have access tonight, but I work tomorrow and will likely be way too tired to dive into it. I debated live-streaming, but I kind of want my first playthrough to be uninfluenced by others. If I really like the game, I'll consider streaming some in the future.

Also I have a Patreon set up now. Shauna finally made me give in and make one. While it's always nice to have a little extra money, it makes me insanely uncomfortable to set something like this up because I never started making videos and writing for money. I do it because I enjoy it and I'm learning from it. I do it because I'm creating, and that's all I've wanted to do since I've had conscious thought and memory. I'm not going to stop creating whether I'm getting money from people or not, so it never really appealed to me. It's not going to change or influence what I do either, and I don't want people to feel like I betrayed their expectations. Regardless, the people I work with are fantastic and I respect them a lot, so if I can help support what they do even in tiny ways, that makes me happy.

So, for the curious: https://www.patreon.com/EversorFatalis

And seriously, if you want to throw money around, you totally have the option of helping Kathleen meet her goals this year: https://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=249862&referrer=bfAphFbPfSched

Who knows, maybe if I DO make something, I can buy commissioned portraits or something else I currently lack the skill to make for the RPG.

Either way, I need to started uploading some of the public drive stuff as unlisted video. I'll forgo all of the third-party music ones though as many of those would likely be blocked or monatized and the whole point of not monatizing my account in the first place is because I want people to be able to watch free, ad devoid content (as lame as it is coming from me).

Discount Guy Fieri

Was driving to work yesterday morning and this dude that looks uncomfortably like Guy Fieri pulls up behind me at a red light. Was in a vintage car and everything. Dark orange and not red though. I couldn't stop staring and then I started laughing.

I had more to say for this yesterday, but then some stuff went down at work and I missed the announcement concerning it because I was out taking something to my car. Then today I found out Chester from Linkin Park died so I'm just...really sad. Sounds like he's been dealing with a lot of tough stuff for years now. I know a lot of people that love the band, the music and the person. I've been listening to Linkin Park since I was 12 or 13 years old, so that's literally more than half my life. I'm so glad I saw them live when they came to Calgary for X Fest that one year.


So yeah...I'll do a real update next week. All you really need to know is RPG work continues and Starsworn isn't actually cancelled, it's just postponed and will be changing a bunch.

Bot Hunters

Fast approaching is the release a few of the games I've actually been looking forward to this year. Pyre and the new Life is Strange stories are coming out this summer and I am super excited for both. I am most excited for Pyre because it's coming from a gaming company I actually trust to produce quality gameplay and storytelling. I'm just expecting the Life is Strange episodes to emotionally destroy me. I hope to put these two up there with Horizon in games that actually impressed me this year. Outlast 2 was one Shauna and I were looking forward to, but man was it lacking.

Over the past couple of weeks at work I've teamed up with one of my coworkers in dev and we've been hunting bots on one of the sites I do tech support for. It's actually been quite interesting because each person has gamed the system in very different ways. I mean, the results are essentially the same, but each one tried a different strategy and had varying results. I could safely say I'd know exactly how to fool us/our system and get away with it, but I definitely do not have the skills for it currently. Anyhow, I've gotten really good at spotting suspicious behaviour on the site. I feel like a cross between a bounty hunter and a detective...only like the most lame one in existence.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/43yqdd/look-at-this-massive-click-fraud-farm-that-was-just-busted-in-thailand

It's a common problem rife on social media sites. Unfortunately, all it's going to take is a more clever person to beat the system. It's almost worth not doing anything since we know how to catch people as is and would be akin to a trap. It's just...a lot of work investigating each case. So we're automating detection and likely putting in a recaptcha to give bots a hard time. My coworker already explained how this could be circumvented, but it requires a non-trivial amount of work on the cheater's side (i.e. they need to actually know what they're doing).

Anyhow, it's keeping me busy at work and I get to make a lot of spreadsheets, which is keeping my inner data nerd at bay. I've only crashed Excel twice since this started and one of them was because I tried to extract and open a  report including 6 months worth of activity on a site with over 500,000 users. That was my bad.

The best part is some of the smart ones that have been confronted with their cheating and banished are trying to get more information out of us stating that it's not enough evidence to condemn them. It's so tempting to slap them in the face with it, but it's unwise to give smart people the tools they can use to best you in the future.


Update on the dude who said I was annoying (one of them at least...I think there's a club): He has started his own Dungeon Siege LP (no voice unfortunately) and has-----WAIT FOR IT-----changed his dislike to a like on my video since I was so nice. I'll be sure not to spend it all in one place.

Also, the D&D campaign Mesk was going to run is now cancelled, which is a little disappointing because I was looking forward to that. I hope he picks it up again, but I guess for now I can turn my attention and focus back to completing my writing and RPG.

Don't Know What Ure Doing

It's true.

I'll never understand the people who comment on your channel to tell you that you suck or that you're annoying, but don't actually give you any useful feedback or pointers. They're there just to get a reaction, though I'm getting good at frustrating or confusing people to the point that they just leave. It's a win-win really. They either keep coming back and boosting views/comments while I mock them, or they leave which means they aren't my problem anymore. The most recent one left after he failed at gaslighting and I told him I was eagerly awaiting his response with how much fun I was having.

EDIT: He responded and now we're talking about how tired I am.

This weekend was spent getting some semblance of control over my life again. I got mad at the kitchen when I couldn't find some things, started tidying it up and then it got out of control and I did a full clean of the entire thing. It looks beautiful and I will murder the first person to make a mess in there. The problem now is that the sitting area has a bunch of crap all over the place, so this project is going to spiral out of control really fast.

I read through/audited/edited 104 pages of WMRR on the weekend, which is GREAT because I have a bit more in the reader version of the file. I'm slowly building the things I'm happy with into the document and then we will handle the unpleasant bits. I'm worried that the first third of the series is starting too slow, but it's kind of important to see where the characters started and where they end up.

Worked on the RPG a bit, but only in the context of fixing things/adding assets. Long story short, fixed some fiddly bits, lost the stapler I made and then I broke steam by adding an erase event and trying to save while something played in the sound test. So yeah progress is slow in that department.

Shauna and I also finished Outlast 2 over the weekend. It ended rather...abruptly in my opinion in that I had started a new video/audio file expecting 30mins-1hour of more gameplay, but it ended up being 10 more minutes. Shauna came back from the washroom and the game was over. We gave a full-length review at the end, but we were struggling on a few points since we really weren't ready for the review yet. I was just angry for the first half of it because I still had a lot of questions that went unanswered.

I have...so much video content to catch up on I'm pretty much drowning in it. It's a lot of time and effort I could be spending on a lot of other projects that are interesting me a lot more. That said, I still enjoy making videos. I just feel bad when I'm only releasing two segments of Pillars of Eternity a week.

Roll Save Against Mondays

Kind of a tense, miserable Monday as I'm waiting to see if my dog will be all right or if he needs to go to the vet. Last night he swallowed a pork rib bone whole and it's my fault for letting him get at it. He's kind of an idiot and has a tendency to swallow things whole if he can, but now I'm worried he's going to get a bowel obstruction or that pieces of the bone will splinter off and hurt him. So far so good aside from a little vomit this morning, but if he starts showing some bad symptoms I got to take him to the vet. Friend of mine has a dog that ate squeaker toys on two separate occasions. Both times resulted in bowel obstruction. Her vet bill was over $12,000 dollars for the two visits combined. Thankfully she had pet insurance (her pup is fine btw). So I hope it doesn't come to that with Locke.

Today is also going to be a hot, muggy day so...that will suck as well.


Had the last one-shot session for D&D, which was a rollercoaster of insanity and panic as everything tried to kill me. Mesk threw me onto a rock with a fortress with no support (i.e. no friendlies) and had me interact with NPCs that were either crazy or wanted to kill me...or were crazy before they tried to kill me. Spent a long time trying to pull enough information out of it to piece together a bunch of plot-related timeline stuff, which was thankfully mostly stitched together at the end. I had to go afk a few times, unfortunately one of those times was immediately after I released fluid from a vat and got it all over me. Apparently if I had let that drain, I would have been possessed by a cat.

I know Mesk changed up some of the abilities on the fly as he mentioned one or two instances after we played. There was one part where a dragon was dive-bombing me on a bridge and thankfully I knew that I was about to get ambushed so I burned my free class ability spell to not die. I still got side-swiped by a flying talon, but wasn't grabbed by it thanks to Mesk's edits. I had a huge chance of just dying on that bridge, but I managed to avoid it.

I would say the first half was just exploring and trying to make sense of everything. I think it was because of the afk incident, but I completely missed that the dude in the liquid vat was the dude that the giant peeping eye orb told me about. I think it was getting blasted in the face with the liquid that made me forget. I thought he was in the tower, but it turns out there was something else in there I never got to. The second half was just frantic trying not to die as the entire castle's population tried to kill me. I pissed off some dudes downstairs, then ran upstairs after another dude tried to mind control me, then I ran to the central room where I knew an artifact was and just crossed my fingers that I could use it somehow.

I ended up fighting about...7 regular units, one crazy dude, an alternate version of my deity, a copy of myself, a giant demon and a giant blood monster by myself. So that was a little crazy. I figured it was going to be a timed thing since there was no way I was going to be able to take down the majority of the list above. The only thing that really saved me was this ridiculous aura that did damage any time a creature entered or stayed in it. It required concentration, but lasted up to 10 minutes. I MIGHT have messed this up because I'm not sure if I was hit before or after the aura went up (if I got hit during, the aura would have gone away). I'll have to check the video.

Anyway, all caught up to the start of the campaign, which will start whenever the others are ready. Realistically I can start any time, but it would be good before August as I'll be missing for a good chunk of it. I won't have real internet for 2 weeks unless I can convince my aunt that legit wifi out in the boonies is a good idea. The test sessions have been good for me to getting used to roleplaying more and actually forcing me out of my comfort zone. In one way it was easier when playing with HKS because I was just watching what he did and filling in when I thought it was necessary to step up. In the last two sessions it was just me, which forced me to keep thinking/moving things forward on my own. I have no idea if I'm actually doing any good or not, but Mesk seems to be content as far as I can tell.

The next big test for me will be playing with 4 other players and trying desperately not to make an ass of myself.


Finished Horizon last night, and I'm pleased to say that it was likely the best game I've played in a number of years. It's rare that I encounter a game that has such a consistent tone, fairly well-written dialogue and text, has USEFUL and interesting supporting documents (i.e. the text and voice logs you find), an engaging story, good controls (other than me initially getting roll and crouch mixed up a lot...but that's me not the game), and just an overall creative universe that you can tell the developers put a lot of time, effort and care into. Really the only gripes I had in that game were a few bad voice acted lines, some weird jumpy conversations with NPCs (mostly talking to people in side quests where people pop in, drop out of the air or aren't facing the right direction) and some physics bugs that were more hilarious than anything else. I only managed to get myself stuck in a rocky crevice once and it was easy to get out of with fast travel. Some of the NPCs were oddly shiny as well...like they were coated in a thick layer of sweat. In Nil's case, his chest looked like a Ken doll.

The majority of the characters were interesting. The majority of the character arcs had them learning and thinking about the world in different ways, but they were still the same people. Some of Aloy's motivations and interactions with the world changed and evolved, but her main core objective never changed, even when it made her selfish. I actually really liked this approach because I hate in games when characters just have an abrupt change of heart or have the sudden "redeeming actions" to let them be a good person in the end. People just don't work like that. It's always a process and it takes years to break down what you are and change it (think about it, everyone has that "slap in the face" moment where everything you are and believe is challenged and it shakes you up...but it doesn't immediately change anything). Also helped that Aloy was voiced by Ashly Burch, whom I have a lot of respect for as a voice actor. She also voices Chloe in Life is Strange, which explains why Aloy's voice sounded so familiar to me. I had no idea until the end when I saw the credits 'cause I'm an idiot and can't do a five second Google search.

At any rate, I definitely recommend the game. I burned through about 70-80 hours in a relatively short period of time.

Dangerous Draft

Kind of a busy weekend for me again.

Spent most of the day on Saturday throwing a bunch of old broken/worn out furniture out, moving books and other items around, managing a puppy and ripping carpets/staples out of a house. There is this lovely 70's style linoleum that was hiding under the carpet. And by lovely I mean rather hideous. It's this green-yellow pattern of suns and diamonds. The other linoleum in the bedrooms was this yellowy-gold pattern that looked kind of like marble cheese.

I also ended up transferring files off my grandfather's old computer, which was old enough to still have XP running on it AND not understand what the external hard drive was when I plugged it in. Also had to make a quick trip to the walk-in medical clinic when the spring-loaded arm that typically holds up the table part of a drafting table was sprung and sliced Oliver's face open. Missed his eye by about 2 inches.

I'm still trying to get rid of my grandpa's organ (like musical instrument...not trying to pawn off his liver or anything). I still have hopes that some hipster out there will want it/come pick it up, since there is absolutely no way I'm going to be able to move that thing on my own. I was going to also try to sell this old stereo from the 50's which has a turn-table and everything (definitely hipsters would want this), but I was told that someone in the family might want it since everything still works (just needs an FM antennae).

Yesterday was spent mostly walking puppies, participating in family events and playing Horizon. I think I'm pretty close to finishing the game, but we'll see. It's essentially the reason beyond lack of motivation that I'm relying on my never-ending stash of Pillars of Eternity video as I haven't done any actual video editing in days. I think the meds I'm on have really screwed around with my mood and made it a lot worse than it would have been off them, which is ironic because theoretically, it's supposed to help. That said, the thing its supposed to be doing is not working anymore, which means the dose is too low again and I'm not going through another dose increase. That was awful. So, I don't know what I want to do. Either way, this has meant that if I don't need to go out of the house, I've either been working on D&D things, or hiding and playing Horizon.

Planning another D&D session next weekend. It may be split over two days since Mesk said there's a lot of content he's planning. I'll also make sure to start early so we don't get another late night. Mesk joked about how we should just play yesterday, half-prepared. He said we could just wing it and have me die a disgusting death in the first 15 mins.

Got no idea what's going on this week other than that. Last dodgeball games are this week and next week, then I have very little commitments for the summer other than getting my grandparent's old house habitable.

Over-Thinking Schwas with Doors

Doors. Doors are my bane. I swear to god it's always the doors.

Busy weekend with a dodgeball tournament and a D&D session. My body is letting me know what it thinks about that today. Our team came in 5th in the tournament, which is fine cause it's for fun/charity anyway (though some teams take it a little more seriously) though I'm a little sad I wasn't really playing all that well. I think a few of the players' extremely fast throws + small gym + memories of whiplash cowed me a little.

My favourite part of tournaments. Quick Draw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylKS84hQzKg

I've officially joined the Starsworn campaign as a regular player. I ended up making an Earthborn Trickery Domain cleric with a disadvantage on stealth. Figure that one out.

Mesk was kind enough to set up a 1-shot, especially since I ended up joining a little late (the full campaign is likely close to starting and Mesk probably would have already if schedules lined up a bit better). I feel a little bad too because I was unable to join until about 5:30pm because my dog wasn't feeling super good, but he still needed a walk, meaning I took him out later than I intended. Then I had to change and wash up a bit after because there was water and mud everywhere and half the park ended up on my shirt (and arms and feet and pants and...somehow...on my forehead). As a result, the 1-shot ran for 10 hours and we finished at like...4 in the morning. Poor Mesk.

To his credit though, he did a good job stamina-wise DMing that long. And he CONTINUED to challenge my decision making and creativity the whole time. By 4am though I was really stretching to recall details and think of useful dialogue for extra information. That was my fault though so...

This 1-shot was hilariously ridiculous. It started off with the most nat 20s I've ever seen so close together (unless you count the time Nick crit me 3 times in a fight and Jayde nearly died...and one was on the reroll I FORCED him to do). Anyway, we were way stealthier that we had any reason being and managed to sneak all the way into the ruins and a Starborn camp. Thank god Mesk was feeding me subtle (and not so subtle hints) through the NPC Darian as I think he saved me from a lot of catastrophic actions. Either way, I disguised myself and ended up playing the most dramatic chess game I've ever seen (which included a nat 20 and a 1 from me).

After the chess game of destiny I spent like...20-30 minutes over-thinking what I was going to do about a giant undead golem before I walked into the thing Mesk was probably screaming at me to just walk into and I managed to convince a super giddy Fireborn to roast the undead for me. That said, Darian dealt a pretty devastating blow to the golem and launched it halfway across the map taking two or three buildings with it.

After, I got to explore an underground facility, which had its own points of hilarity. The gimmick with a barrier/shield went right over my head as apparently, according to Mesk, all I needed to do was back into it. This is where the over-thinking issue comes up for me. I do this in video games too (especially puzzle games) where I'll think it's more complicated than it actually is (ex. just...closing a door re. Riven). So again, I think I wasted...A LOT of time, especially when the pressure was on to try and get into the centre. I could have shaved off an hour at least if I had been a little more observant...or thought to investigate it more (for once, throwing a rock at it led me astray).

Long story short, a lot of exploration happened, I climbed onto and knocked over a dresser onto a bug and squashed it, started stealing from statues, opened ALL the doors, avoided a golem drinking Mountain Dew, slammed the door in a bug's face and then touched things I probably shouldn't have touched. Then we squashed two bugs, talked the gentleman in the centre out of trying to kill us and then got him a new body. After some dramatics and a fight where I couldn't get up the stupid stairs and failed all but 1 of the blink actions (which was useless anyway because we just got telepooted up to the top on that turn), we ran outside to catch Mr. Chess Master Bonestaff and turned him into tomato sauce (to Mesk's dismay as he apparently had a bunch of chess-related moves and lines to use).

Aside from my occasional stupidity, the session seemed to go fairly smooth. I liked the premise and the setting, and Mesk found interesting ways to tie my character into the story. The music choices were really good, but the battle music was the best, as I'm a sucker for that kind of thing. It managed to distract from the fact that I was being nibbled on by bugs, rolling around in a sea of broken glass and smashing my face into cliffs.

One thing I'm really going to have to watch out for in the regular campaign is my tendency to comment and joke about what's going on in-game. I know some of the other players (especially when there's more than just one or two) find the chatter really distracting and feel it clutters up the chat. I'll have to 'hold my tongue' a little more. In addition, off-hand comments got me into trouble a couple of times (see: Dresser Incident). I figure if I say something, I have to own it, even if it has unfortunate consequences. I also forgot about a few mechanics (I forgot about the bonus to the dex mod at one time, thought one spell was 8 hours when it was 1 hour, got confused with concentration spells and then screwed up and didn't use Hold Creature when I should have). Roll20 didn't help a few times either when I got confused about who rolled what a couple times. I think I'm going to make a spreadsheet since the word doc is just not cutting it (less scrolling and more windows). I also want to review movement actions, as my character is likely going to rely on being able to move around a lot.

Lots of things to review (including spells), but I'm glad to have had this session to get used to these specific mechanics. I was also super smart and picked a spellcaster to get myself into 5e. I haven't really played a spellcaster before, so apparently I like to make things difficult for myself.