Awww... my condolences on Ozy's passing. Never easy to lose a friend, particularly when you're not there for when it happens. Having a snake at home, I know when they're raised properly, they really can be very chill and easy to get along with.

As for the laptop (great name, by the way), it may have been possible to fix it to a point, but with the busted fan and repeated heat errors, it's likely now got heat damage to the components and isn't worth repairing. The problem with keeping laptops running is that maintenance is possible, but it has to be done by folks who are pretty familiar with how to do it, and unless they're willing to do it for free, the cost of the labour alone can quickly add up to what a new machine costs. I hope the new one serves you well.

What a time to be away from Canada too - kinda while the world as a whole seems to go a little mad. I hope you both can come back soon. Hang in there!

Yeah, it's sad =/ My husband had this awesome-but-ancient cat who was... 18 or 19 when we had to first leave for the UK? She died a few months after we left, but it was at least expected because her health had been steadily declining the months before we left, including recently going blind. She'd always been stubbornly independent, so she probably just decided she didn't like living like that, although I sometimes wonder if she would have hung on longer if Casey had been around to take care of her.

Aww, what kind of snake do you have? I know ball pythons are basically like the golden retrievers/labs of snakes for being friendly/gentle/easy to handle, and while I've handled a few other snakes before, I never got to "know" them really as a species. When I read that ball pythons tend to be head-shy, I made a point of head-training Snake when I got him, gentling petting his head regularly, so that provided you aren't surprising him, you could touch him anywhere and he wouldn't resist or mind at all.

Ohhh, we definitely tried to repair it. We cleaned out the insides and the fan, had top-of-the-line external cooling systems for it, ran every single diagnostic we could - all the tests came back positive, except for ones that suggested irreparable hardware problem and possibly an unknown change to system files. And it gradually got worse and worse - at first, it would reboot 50% of the time. Then a few days later, it would only reboot MAYBE once in a day if you tried all day although it still worked in Safe Mode. Then Safe Mode stopped working. Finally after running a bunch of tests and making attempted repairs, we entirely reformatted it to return it to its factory state, after which it couldn't even finish preparing Windows. At that point, we were just like... Yeah, alright Pickles. Time for retirement :b

My new one (Peanut :V) is new and equals or outmatches Pickles in every respect, except for video card and screen size. Somehow my 7-year-old laptop could game better than a brand-new mid-range modern-day laptop whose selling point was the ability to play games like Overwatch, and while Peanut loads/saves/etc. Photoshop files faster and better than Pickles, actual painting is actually quite laggy on Peanut and it's taking some getting used to.

I think we'll be able to come back in the summer - it'll be nice to see everyone again, and pick up my little gecko Jormie finally ;_; <3

Thanks a lot <3

OH THANK GOODNESS YOU HAD A BACKUP
... sorry. Professional geek here, and I can attest that it never hurts any less to have to watch yet another person realise that they've lost years' worth of stuff.

For future reference, laptop keyboards are generally straightforward and pretty cheap to replace.

But for the main news: I am sorry to hear that your pet died. That always hurts.

Ooooh no, I made sure to back things up. I mean, I'm not particularly neurotic about it, but we back up everything each time we did a big move (overseas, or to a new house), and since my computer was so old, any time it acted up I'd spend the next day backing everything up. When this month rolled around and stuff got pretty terrible, pretty much any time it was actually running, I was taking the most up-to-date data I could just in case :b Then when it became too unstable to run reliably, I switched temporarily to my husband's computer before I was able to get a new one. It's been a pain >_O

Yeah, the keyboard wasn't a big deal really, just an inconvenience and one of the first things that showed up on my "my laptop's showing its age" list. We have a USB keyboard as well as a USB mouse for stuff like that (and also for gaming, which my husband takes seriously whenever his PhD work gives him the time off for it :b)

As for Snake, yeah... I mean, I'm both surprised and not surprised at how I'm feeling. For the longest time I was really worried about him, partly because the in-laws we left him with tended to be avoidant when anything goes wrong, so I spent a year not having heard about how he was doing, despite having asked. It's... almost a relief to have closure, that now I know for sure. Still, though, just... yeah :b </3

Seven years for a laptop is kind of pushing the tech curve. usually one replaces machines or at least replaces hard drives and OSs every 3 or 4 years.

As to the game, has the publisher started looking for supplements, yet? the thing to do to keep a title fresh is to put otu game support materials quickly as well. adventures, kingdon source packs, and titles that players can buy, not just GMs. Then you can get paid for more paintings! You may also want to look for other game publishers as well, now that you have a Significantly large portfolio of RPG images you can show off. Your future looks better, now.

Oh, I know. We were all impressed that my laptop was doing so well. Funnily enough, I've compared my old laptop to my new laptop in its ability to run things like Photoshop and demanding games, and my old laptop actually notably performs better in every way except for loading times, despite my new laptop having equal or better hardware in everything except video card apparently and being advertised as capable of running major modern games like Overwatch. Then again, my old laptop was fairly top of the line, whereas my new laptop was bought at 1/2-2/3 of the budget. Point is, though, it runs well ENOUGH. Just surprised my new laptop can't run Photoshop as well as my old one.

For the game, YES - if anything, I think the developers moved onto supplements way too quickly. They did most of the Core Rulebook, but then rather than review, polish, and publish the game, they started working on producing campaign modules, advanced race books, and other supplementary books. I've even heard the word "novels" floating around although I have no idea about that. So now we have an unfinished Core Rulebook, unfinished bestiary, unfinished item book, and nine planned and unfinished race books. Maybe the campaign they made is ready to go, but without the core system ready to go, it doesn't matter o_O Supposedly they've been busy running test groups and figuring out what to do with the material they have - stuck editting/polishing I guess - so I'm getting fewer assignments. It's a bit nice for a change, but I did really enjoy the stability/predictability of contract work.

well, hanging around the Roll20.net area (online Tabletop analogue/ simulator, for geographically separated groups), and having done artwork lately for an OSR relaunch of the 1976-77 RPG rules "Starships and Spacemen", and currently sharking the Hero Games forums for possible Kickstarter projects for background books, there is no time like the present for looking for other paying game illustration gigs. The next shadowrun edition has dramatically slowed it's release schedule, precisely to allow for long term playtesting. the original Version of Fantasy Hero (1985) had a playtest of a year and a half, and is still a solid project to this day. I think a lot of these new games are a bit over endowed with enthusiasm, but lacking in systemic rigor in their testing.

life is what happens when you're not looking... I'm glad you're happy...

V.

*hugs* Thanks :)

Good grief, what kind of laptop was that? I have machines dating as far back as the '80s which still work, including a late '90s laptop that got rained on while powered up. At worst they've only needed hard drives or CMOS/NVRAM batteries replaced. Then again, I have a couple newer ones which're getting a bit flaky. Guess they don't make 'em like they used to.

Didn't even realize you'd moved. That's a shame about Snek; I had a boa ages ago, and you do get rather fond of them, even if they might not see us as more than familiar non-threatening warm perches.

To be fair, Pickles went through a lot :V I used him for gaming and writing a lot at first, and he spent most of his lifetime working in rooms that had no furniture (our places we've been living at in the UK generally have had only 1 small desk, or no desks, so Pickles usually went on the bed or floor which wasn't great for it). It spent years loyally running Photoshop for me, including giant 10GB files over 35 000px large. It survived three very rough overseas adventures as luggage (flying to Scotland, flying back, flying to the UK). I used it probably 10 hours a day, every day, for 7 years. I'm pretty happy with how Pickles held up :b

Heh, well, I don't expect internet folks to keep abreast of my life really, so that's not surprising. But yeah, I've been in the UK two years now, and Scotland one year before that - it's for my husband's postgraduate research.

Haha, I know - part of me felt almost silly being as upset about Snake as I was, but I really loved him, adored his personality and all his funny quirks, and I'm sad that I wasn't there to give him a better chance at life, especially considering how much longer snakes can normally live.

I'm sorry to learn what happened to your ball python "Ozy." Judging from what you wrote, it appeared you had some fond memories of it. Got any stories to share? Do you plan on getting a new pet?

I hate it when computers go down. As someone once told me - it's like moving into a new house: You have to arrange your files properly for moving, then you get them to a storage unit, then you transfer them (like furniture), arrange them, and then install all of the programs you need to get business running as before. Anyway, I'm glad to learn that you had things backed up and running things as before. I hope we could help out somehow...

Yes, I definitely remember him fondly, although I'm not sure if he really has that many relatable stories for people who have never owned snakes. He was just super gentle and sweet and had the most placid, chill demeanour. Like, ridiculously chill. He was often so chill and lazy he wouldn't bother hanging on to me, and he'd just plop off onto the floor if I didn't mind him :b

I'd like to get a new pet, but not until my husband's done with his PhD and we know where we're going to end up and have a proper home to set up in, so not for a few years probably :(