HereComesTom

I rarely post in my feed, but I have a video that I made that I'd like to share---feel free to share it around; it's some really good news about G-5!

I have to say that I had a very strange and slightly disturbing experience, but at least I got to be the hero of the story this time!

Here's what happened:  my brother got a request out of the blue from someone on Facebook, a girl with a pretty and nerdy photo, asking to start a relationship with him.  No one he'd ever met or heard of before, but he is more or less in the market for a girlfriend, so he was interested.

If this sounds suspicious to you, I'll spoil the ending and say you're spot-on.  The ending isn't really the interesting part of the story, anyway:  how I got there is the interesting part!

My brother told me about all this over dinner (it was just this afternoon that he was first contacted), so I got out my phone and looked up "hangouts app" on google, and about the third or fourth suggestion was "hangouts app scam". 

Huh.  Why am I not surprised?

So I tapped "hangouts app scam" on Google and, lo and behold: THE very first page that Google listed was a Federal Trade Commission web page, warning people about scams where someone starts a relationship, keeps it going for a while, and then asks for money.  The FTC's page also suggested I do a "reverse image search" on the person's image to see if they just downloaded a photo of a pretty girl off the internet and then used that photo to pretend to be her.

Well, my brother was busy after dinner (not with anything having to do with her, either, thank goodness), so I took it upon myself to learn about this would-be suitor.  It'll come as no surprise to you that the photo came from Twitter from someone with a completely different name...advertising the kinds of images that I wouldn't talk about on THIS site.

Again:  why am I not surprised by any of this?

It gets more interesting:  I had a school friend on facebook who I noticed was also friends with her.  I decided to warn him about her and let him know what happened to my brother---and it turns out she had talked with my school friend, earlier this very afternoon, with the exact same request:  start a relationship---just out of the blue, start a relationship!

So...she's either a two-timing lowlife, or a scam artist.  ...Or conceivably both:  it's not like those are mutually exclusive categories!

...It's just a little disturbing that things like this can happen to those who're close to me.  But there is a lesson to be learned from it all:  vigilance, using your head, and reading relevant government notices about scams can save your bacon, as well as the bacon of your kith and kin!

Well, I finally fixed my Wii yesterday---the reason I couldn't play my Virtual Console games was, for some reason, a bad disk drive that I bought on ebay.  When I bought another that was actually good, things finally worked! 

And I can even play Wii disc games and gamecube games on it again!

I decided to celebrate by playing some Super Mario Galaxy!  And I have to say:  I don't think any Super Mario title has come close to the gameplay creativity that SMG had to offer; just adding a point-and-click interface to the system opened up HUGE possibilities for new control and new capabilities!

Merry Christmas from the States!

Welp, a friend of mine hasn't had a chance to get his computer fixed, and all throughout this pandemic, he hasn't been able to play League of Legends with me.

I scored a nice HP Paviliion gaming laptop during the black friday sales, and between gift cards for Best Buy that I'd been saving up and the black friday savings, it was less than $260 out of pocket for me

...But since that friend of mine needs a computer, I'm lending my new toy to him.  I sure hope he gets his computer replaced or fixed soon!

I just got my hands on a new laptop!  It's an HP Pavilion 15, and I upgraded the ram from 8GB to 16GB before switching it on for the first time!

Now to see how long it takes to install World of Warcraft and League of Legends on this rig...

Gate's open!  68LT0

Bought a whole bunch of candy.  Spent half an hour putting it into little ziplock bags, so it'd be easy to give it to kids with little risk of the virus getting anywhere.

...Not a single trick-or-treater showed up.  :/

Debate Symposium closed?  I haven't been in there for years, but from the sound of things, that's a good thing...!

You know...I never knew that religious or political things aren't supposed to be in status updates until I rad Jeric's post.  I need to keep up to date on the forum's rules!

Well, after $500, weeks of waiting, and 90 sweaty minutes of assembly-work done on an empty stomach, I finally have my Ms. Pacman arcade machine!  I picked it because it had yellow trim, four games that I didn't already have on my 40th anniversary Pacman arcade cabinet, and was a sit-down machine...

And it turns out either I'm terrible at those games, or those games are terrible in comparison.  I mean, if you play Galaxian after getting used to Galaga, it feels awful---simpler enemy movements, a much less forgiving hitbox for your ship, fewer projectiles on the screen at once...!  And you'd think I was a moron from watching how I play Dig Dig 2!

Hopefully, I'll get better as time goes on!

...Aaaaaand today is my birthday!

...And tomorrow is when my Ms. Pacman arcade1up machine arrives :/

Well, looks like Twilight got fat in one Pony Life episode.  Reminds me of an item from the Grand List of Things Hasbro Won't Let a Brony Do in a Fangame:

238) First of all, Twilight is not allowed to get fat, even if she did in the very first episode of the cartoon.  Secondly, even if she did get fat, that would not be a reason to replace the trumpets that announce her arrival with tubas!

Found this on youtube (by someone who insists he's not a brony), and my first thought was "Isn't Twilight's tail getting soaked?"

...Then things went from bad to worse...

Well, I've felt like garbage all day and expect to continue to do so for another day at least...I lost my temper on social media about a political issue, and quickly afterwards, I discovered something afterward that I didn't know about myself:  I'm not good with rejection!

Not a good combination...

Saharah, Celeste, and a heavy meteor shower are on my island in Animal Crossing New Horizons!  I'm keeping it open all night in case anyone is interested who lives on the other side of the planet:

C4JX6

Saharah's wares:  Brown Wooden-Deck Rug, Simple Navy Bath Mat, Desert Vista wallpaper, Flowing-River Flooring, and a Botanical Rug

I made off like a bandit at the Art Van clearance sale:  $400 for a decent-sized leather couch that has reclining seats and footrests!  ...And for some odd reason, the Art Van computer thought it was a loveseat...

The movers did a really good job getting it into my condo, too.  Now I have an actual sitting room!  :}

/sigh...

So far, my FangameFactory hasn't gotten much exposure at all at this online convention...I need to pick the right times to be in the hotdog-stand and pizza-joint chatrooms...!

Welp, tomorrow is the Whinny City Pony Con...and it's going to be online.  Who knows what that'll look like?  I'd hoped to get a chance to promote my fangame---not even just as a fangame, but as an editor that lets others create their own fangames!

I wonder if I'll still get a chance to do that with the online convention...?

So...Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle really ARE in Pony Life!

I just saw the first two episodes of Pony Life, and...well, I thought Princess Probz wasn't very good, while Best of the Worst was actually pretty decent.

Princess Probz suffered from pacing problems and didn't feel like it had much of a conflict, and it almost entirely focused on Pinkie's zaniness, messyness, and clumsiness for slapstick comedy.  (But Pinkie wasn't clumsy or messy much in FiM, was she?)

Best of the Worst felt like it was better paced, with a decent opening that established RD's personality and motivations, and the episode had an actual plot and conflict to it.  It had some slapstick, but that wasn't bad, and didn't feel like it broke any characterizations from FiM.

I wasn't too keen on the overly-simplistic visuals that either episode showed; they made Ponyville look like it was made mostly of edibles with the occasional bite taken out of them.  With a lake of pink lemonade right next to Sugarcube Corner, no less.  (Was it even close to water in FiM?)

Also, because of the fast pacing, the characters don't get much characterization in Pony Life; it's like they're relying on FiM to tell us what their personalities are---and then they have changes to them, e.g. Pinkie being clumsy and messy, all of a sudden.  If it's not in continuity with FiM (and if you go by Ponyville's layout, then it's not), then the show should really be able to stand on its own without relying on another series to tell us what we need to know about the characters.

--

On the whole, I don't know how optimistic I should be about the Pony Life series in general.  I get the feeling that it's going to be mixed overall, and probably there'll be plenty of bronies saying "It's mixed at best".  But I'm planning to keep watching and following the new series, at least for the time being.

Makes me wonder what's going on in the Season 10 comic books...

/sigh

The Whinny City pony convention isn't going to take place, after all!  I'd spent a ton of money getting 800 physical buttons made to promote my fangame, too---and now I can't do squat with them this year!

Well, I'm exhausted!  My brother and I (with some help from our parents) moved all the big pieces of furniture from our apartment to the condo I bought!

I sure hope this condo starts feeling like home, soon!

Has anyone else seen 4everfreebony's latest piece?  It was gorgeous!

Ugh...you forget how stressful and exhausting moving can be!  Making sure all your stuff is accounted for, going back and forth between the old place and the new, carrying stuff up and down stairs, figuring out truck rentals, cleaning clutter out of the old place so you can actually move the furniture, having no idea why the new place has so many coaxial cables that come out of the wall (one in the bathroom?? really?!?!) but still aren't connected to the cable TV lines so you can't use them to hook up your router...!

And then you STILL need to manage to have time for food, sleep, your job, laundry, and Animal Crossing on top of all of that!

Welp, I'm officially addicted to Animal Crossings New Horizons!  (Friend code sw-3161-5667-6320 if you're interested )