Hey guys,

Over the weekend, and after a bit of deliberation, I decided to finally join Twitter as a replacement for my now-defunct DeviantArt account. My profile is a bit bare at the moment, but I will add stuff as time goes on.

If you'd like to follow me, my profile is: https://twitter.com/RElyran

Alternatively, my Twitter account can also be found in the Contact Information section on my main profile.

Stay awesome, everyone. ^w^

- Rin Elyran

Hey guys,

It's been a while since I last posted a journal. I wanted to let you know that I'm still alive, and as of December 12, 2019, I'm still in good health. I also wanted to let you know that I've been testing network stability consistently since service was restored two days after it went down, hence part of my absence.

Beginning last month, I willingly agreed to take my medications at 10:00 PM Eastern instead of taking them right before I go to bed, and the change in regimen seems to be working quite well. I noticed that I'm sleeping better now, and I'm also not groggy in the morning like I was in the past.

Long story short, the meds help me to sleep, among other things.

In other news, I recently replaced a 14-year-old HP printer because I couldn't justify paying over $40 for a new set of genuine ink, and I also didn't want to risk ruining the printer by using aftermarket ink. It's worth mentioning that this old printer succeeded a failed Epson printer in 2004, back when I was using the CRT based iMac as my primary personal computer, and the HP printer saw me through at least 50 essays in my high school days. So many memories (good and bad) were made with that old HP Deskjet... I'll definitely miss it, but I digress.

The replacement printer is a refurbished Kodak Verité 64 that I happened to snag locally for only $30 (regular price was around $96), and apparently, genuine ink for the new Kodak printer is relative to aftermarket ink for the old HP Deskjet.

I also found a Samson Go Mic portable USB microphone, which packs quite a punch in sound quality despite its small form factor. I plan on doing brief reviews on both devices at a later date. :3

So yeah, I'm still alive. I hope to be more active once the doldrums of Halloween and November are over.

Just wanted to let you all know that we have an internet outage in our area. I'll post again when it's back up and running.

(This was posted using my smartphone as a tethered device. I won't use too much data because I'll probably need it later.)

UPDATE (2019-10-09 11:00 AM EST) - Back online now. I spoke with our internet service provider over the phone, and they helped me resolve the connectivity issues on our end.

So, I was originally planning on running Windows 7 on my main laptop until the laptop died. And then Microsoft announced that Windows 7 would be supported until January 14, 2020. Of course, you'd still be able to use 7 after that date if you wanted; it's just that 7 would become more and more susceptible to cyber attacks. For me, I decided that I'd put W10 on my SSD and activate my Pro license that I bought in 2015, and then keep up with security updates on my W7 hard drive up until January, at which point I'd be disabling my network drivers in 7 to help keep my system secure. I figured I'd need until January to get re-accustomed to using Windows 10 again, so I spent much of Thursday afternoon and Friday morning getting Windows 10 installed and upgraded, and I think I'm just about finished with installing things.

At first, I thought that my Pro license wouldn't be eligible for activation on my SSD, since I first activated it back in 2015 when I still had a traditional hard drive, but those worries faded when I found out that my license was accepted again by Microsoft, despite the changes in my computer's internal storage media.

So if you ever have to replace your computer's hard drive, graphics card, or other system expansions and you need to reinstall Windows 10, you should be okay if you reuse your purchased product keys or digital licenses, as long you don't replace things like the CPU or motherboard. It's worth mentioning that Microsoft treats CPU's and motherboards as 'significant hardware changes'.

In response to a recently alleged TOS "violation" regarding one of my tech submissions on DeviantArt, I've decided to take down everything else. I know this was a drastic measure, but my reasoning is this: if the one tech-related submission was flagged, then it's only a matter of time before all of my other submissions would suffer the same fate, so I deleted them to prevent that from happening. I sincerely apologize that it had to come to this.

If you're curious which one "violated" the TOS, it was a mirror of this one: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/30996743/

I guess we truly can't have nice things.

P.S.: What I don't get is the fact that DA allows nude pictures of humans, and yet SFW screenshots of text and weather icons on a freaking 1980s portable TV will get you banned. Way to blow, DA.

Just wanted to let you guys know ahead of time that I will be taking some time off near the end of July. My brother is getting married, and I have been chosen to be the best man.

(Now, where did I put my toast speech...? Never mind; found it.)

This journal entry is dedicated to those who have laid their lives down for their friends and countries, and to those who continue to live among us. I especially remember, on this day, my grandfathers who have not only served in World War II, but lived to share their experiences with my family and I. Though they have since passed away, their legacies will forever remain in the hearts and minds of me and my family; my maternal grandfather lived from 1914 to 2005, and my paternal grandfather from 1924 to 1994.

I am writing this from my desktop computer.

Recently, I was having a few issues with my SSD regarding shutting down, and over the past month, I've been searching for solutions, to no avail. So today I decided to backup what is on the SSD and start with a fresh copy of Windows 7. With that in mind, I hope to be back in business by tonight or tomorrow night. I am currently waiting for the first wave of Windows Updates to finish before proceeding to other tasks.


EDIT: The updates and other maintenance tasks have been completed.

This past weekend was one of the hardest times in my life.

My grandmother passed away after a short-term battle with stage 5 (final stage) kidney failure, and a 40-year-battle with diabetes. Once my sole-surviving grandparent, she was born on February 21, 1929, and went home to be with The Lord on April 11, 2019. The calling hours were held Sunday night, and the funeral took place just yesterday afternoon.

Though I am deeply saddened by my family's loss, I'm very happy to have spent my 32 years of life so far with her and my other three grandparents. Without them, I'd be a totally different person than the one I am today. I will definitely remember her when my girlfriend cares for our orchids, and especially when I play the dulcimer that my grandmother has passed onto me.

I thank you all for your continued sympathy and emotional support as my family and I make it through these hard times. I have updated the description of my original composition, A Change of Cosmic Address, to honor not only the memories of both Blackwervolk and my grandmother, but also the memories of all who have gone before us.

I didn't think it would happen this quickly, but after searching through my box of laptop stuff, I found the part I needed. This part allows for the installation of a 2.5" hard drive in any laptop's optical drive bay, and what this means to me is, it effectively allows me to permanently install my old hard drive and replace my broken DVD burner; everything I need to create fresh new tracks and edit my Second Life snapshots is now just a reboot away, which means more stuff for you guys to enjoy.

Last week, I installed a relatively new solid-state drive (SSD) on my main laptop, and I'm still getting things situated, so it might be a while until I resume business as usual.

On a very positive note, I haven't lost any data during the upgrade process. In fact, all of my data remains safe on my old hard drive, which I have designated it as an emergency boot drive should any problems arise with the SSD.

I will let you all know in a future journal entry when things are back up to speed.

All of my previous account's files have been successfully migrated, and I will now be focusing on fresh new content. I thank you all for your patience during the re-upload process.

The drama associated with my old account has completely subsided, and now I'm working on getting the previous account's submissions transferred to this one. Thank you for your patience as I reconstruct my multimedia portfolio.

I hope you all have had a wonderful Holiday Season. :3

To avoid drama on my old account here on FA, which was  sjkonokama, I've decided to create this new account. I plan on shutting down my old account once I've backed up and migrated all of my submissions here. Thank you for your patience as I make the transition from the old account to the new.