Greetings, it is time for another update of what’s been going on. Not as much as there
was last time, but the first two are major things that are still ongoing.
So let’s begin, with the first one that is still a threat to everyone on this planet; COVID-19. And how I currently feel about it.
Just a word of warning for the first subject.. there’s going to be a lot of political drama with it. If this kind of talk bothers you, then by all means click away from this blog post.
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Is this pandemic truly legit?
I honestly don’t know where to start, just one day the fear of getting sick and dying from it overwhelmed my common sense and I lost it. I was told how masks had only 3.3% effectiveness and they wear down completely (and there’s no point cleaning them). He also posted something from Fox News claiming what the CDC isn’t telling people. I–I refused to believe it to the point I lost control. And even to this day I still don’t feel all there, I feel there’s so fucking much we don’t know about this virus.. if it’s going to wipe out the human race or if it’s just “a strong version of the flu” that’s only been hyped by the media.
However I have, slightly been backing down on worrying about it, amid the virus ridiculously increasing in the number of cases (beyond its outbreak in March, as if this is the ‘second wave’ that experts have been fearing).
And what I mean by “backing down” is eating in at a restaurant. However, my mask use is unchanged (and it’s not because our state is under a mask mandate).
The way I see it, I got more to worry about than suddenly not being able to breath– things that are preventable, such as my diet and other things I don’t wish to discuss as they’re too embarrassing and shameful to list. The virus won’t kill me… I’m killing myself from the way I live. In a way, the virus would be a “mercy kill” for my body.
I’m still taking all the necessary precautions (wear a mask, wash hands for 20 seconds, stay 6FT away from others). All of that. I’m trying to stay as safe as I can from this virus. And that’s really all I can do.
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Is Ashi still a threat?
I’d like to re-title this to “I’ll be Watching You” and redoing the lyrics, as the ‘I’ll be watching you’ part is Kovo.
Second thing, a “threat” has been laughable.. yet his tactics to ruin the lives of others has caused friends of mine to alert the police against him. I’m talking about Ashi, and now it seems he’s using his followers to go after Kovo and Nova. ..Or so Kovo thinks, and his thinking, some of us feel is slowly tearing our community apart.
He rarely if ever plays VRChat anymore, and rarely do the chat channels of the Discord have a lot of people (compared to before). Kovo will likely never be what he was
before, and I’m not saying that’s a bad thing (for him).
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Apparently this has been going on since the fallout of Kovo and Nova (and how Nova’s trying to very slowly repair their friendship). But there was also a.. uh, I’m not sure what to call it, but a ‘sub thing’ or a ‘sub factor’. Let’s just say it’s something that happened that was a ‘sequel’ of what happened, that caused me to put my foot down and listen to Jero’s advice of how he deals with dramatic situations like I’m about to describe.
I was with Jero in a world I could only describe as ‘really romantic’, of the background; a nightshot of downtown Tokyo, while on a rooftop. Being with him, really felt magical. But I was also with other friends. Anyway, I was notified on my phone from Kovo about a ‘breakup’ with Vale. But instead of stopping what I’m doing and being with Vale, I wanted to be with Jero more (and he wanted to be with me).
Poor Jero though was nodding off and we finally got him to head to bed, but before he did he went to go see Kovo. I stayed there for awhile, talking to other friends.
Eventually I did go to see Kovo, thinking Jero might still be there. When I arrived, I saw Vale being hugged by Cyber. I also, in the corner of my eye.. saw King Chris there. “The fuck is he doing here??” I wondered.
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I got my answer directly from him a bit later; him claiming he’s there for Vale (claiming he “wants him here”). I’m not gonna lie, he sounded pretty convincing to me. Said he wanted to move away from his presence meaning there’s drama.
Either way, Vale clearly needed support. Kandy broke up with him– an open relationship gone wrong, it seems. Kandy ERP’d with Cyber, which is a no-no in Vale’s eyes (as he never approved it).
We went to another world, but when I arrived it was just myself and Chris. He claimed Vale “didn’t want” Kovo and Nova here over their arguments and stuff, but wouldn’t keep the two from joining. He also told me to keep the two away from Vale when they do
join (claiming Vale didn’t want to speak to them). The two did join, and I tried to do what Chris said but Kovo stayed with Vale as much as he could.
Chris ran back to me while I was talking to Nova about the situation. I apologized to
him, saying I tried. He told me not to worry about it and stuff. Little did I know this was an underhanded, but smart tactic called “information grabbing” he was doing to me. Nova was recording the entire thing, feeling Chris was being quite suspicious. …I never really felt anything off (when I should had). Why is he coming up to me, if he cares for Vale so much? And why, did it never fucking come to me sooner..?! ….Oy. I never even saw he was doing an underhanded, but smart trick called “information grabbing”.
Anyway, he said he was going to get Vale to get off as their condition was getting
worse, not caring if they die from alcohol poisoning. This also didn’t sit well with Kovo, but at the time I wanted to give Chris a chance. Kovo felt Chris was taking advantage of Vale and use him for sex, especially when Chris (on my phone) told me Vale was “buck naked”.
Kovo was losing it. I told him Chris isn’t going to take advantage of Vale. He suddenly turns to me and screams “I… KNOW BETTER!!!”
That was enough for me. Told him I’m done and left, as that really upsetted me. He did apologize later on and said he shouldn’t had done that. However I still wanted to distance myself from Kovo for awhile over all of this drama shit. Anyway, Vale did survive (Chris helped him, and he didn’t take advantage). But again I wanted to stay away from this. I kept wishing I wasn’t there. Went to Jero about this for advice, again he didn’t want to get involved. So if I want to free myself from this ‘guilt’ of wanting to be there for my friends, I have to think like him.. and that’s what I’ve been doing.
Kovo and I have been speaking again, and I also have proof that Chris was indeed information grabbing. He also lied of something he said about a friend of
mine (RamesTheGeneric) suddenly being on his side after him giving up on Rusty. I talked with Rames about this, and he never did; he’s been neutral this whole time and remains as such. Though it is possible that Chris didn’t lie, but possibly misheard Rames.
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Vale’s still understandably heartbroken over the breakup with Kandy, but this has lead to the main event; Ashi and his followers. This time I wasn’t in VRChat. Kovo said that another friend of mine (Shadow_the_Lonewolf) was rude to Vale and trying to get close to Nova. And the mess with Shadow has been growing since.
Yesterday, I semi-confronted Shadow. I asked him “did you not see Kovo?” when I saw him giving more than just a normal hug to Nova. He turned offensive against me, asking why I asked such a question. Gee, I don’t know.. maybe you’re UP TO SOMETHING?! This got the attention of the group I was with, also curious into Shadow’s actions. Shadow’s
all “I hate it when people accuse me of coming in here to mess with people. It pisses me off”. Yet for someone that is innocent of this, he was looking for Nova (in a very clever
way, using the crowd to blend in).
Usually I don’t believe things until they actually happen (except in certain situations, like when it came to Fluffy and DJ and everyone saying not to trust DJ’s words.. and what Fluffy saying, proving what Kovo said). Anyway, this time I actually believed Kovo as I saw it with my own eyes; Shadow was looking for Nova, working for Ashi.
Sadly, “just block him” isn’t an option this time. He likely has alt accounts, and he probably reported to Ashi that I’m a possible threat to their plans. And if so, I’m going to have to watch myself. Likely he or his friends might turn my friends against me.. and it could be exactly what happened that got me banned from the Best Boi server.
That is, if Kovo’s truly right, Ashi might try it. Then again he could be all “I have nothing against Benie.”
Either way, as I said I’m going to have to watch myself. Anyone that starts joining off of me that doesn’t usually do so, I have to monitor. Anyone that starts asking me questions that aren’t normal, I have to monitor. Eyes and Ears, open.
…If they go after Jero, though, they will pay. They will definitely pay. Which is why I have informed him to watch out for anyone that gets a bit too friendly with him (and asks personal questions).
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Case stress
Moving on, 3rd thing. ‘Case stress’. IRL drama with myself and my mother, that so far has reached a good conclusion. However it’s not fully done yet (at the time of this typing).
My mother’s computer, is shit. She wants an upgrade, and wanted my help to achieve it. I offered to give her my old hardware (the FX 4350 and its board), but at the same time I was kind of leery of doing it… especially with how old her case is. She needs a new
one.
For a long time, this conversation never came back up. Now suddenly, she wants my case and is willing to buy me a case where I can swap my hardware and give her mine.
I had my eye on this case eversince I was recommended to get it by Zagro and my ex. My mother paid for it and it came, but I never got to work; been putting it off for the longest time on the promise she would give me all the time I need to do this.
She did the opposite, saying she was getting tired of how slow her computer is. I told her that I didn’t really want to do this (and I remember telling her before). Yet I didn’t want to get rid of the case for the sole reason I was worried my old case’s fans would die out due to how old the case is.
I told her “I’ll get to it, I just need help”. Days passed and she kept saying “why’d you buy it if it’s too hard for you??” and wanting to throw it in the garbage, having no compassion for computers (and kept calling it a ‘cabinet’).
Then one day I asked Jero if he wouldn’t mind helping me with this. He was worried at first, having never did this through Discord. He was more concerned with the bitrate of my speed when it comes to streaming (if I’m going to get cut off a lot). But I never once told him I never bought the case (she did).
I wanted it to happen that Saturday of the week. As the week went by, I got more and more nervous (since I never did something like this). Yet even though I had a date set, my mother still didn’t like the fact I wasn’t doing it right then and there; saying I’m “making up excuses” to not give her a computer. Told her I wasn’t, and I got “a friend” that would help me with this. Finally, she let it go.
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Saturday came (August 1st). Did it earlier as I was eating at Waffle House. Came home and we started. Jero did his best to be there, even all the way to 6 in the morning (my
time, 11am his).
The biggest headache of the case swap, was these little annoying fuckers…
FPCs (Front Panel Connectors for short)…these fucking, tiny pins that are the bane of all PC builders!! You know the ones that say ‘POWER SW’ and ‘HDD LED’.. those
fuckers.
And they were exceptionally difficult for me, as they kept popping out moments after placing them in. This took, the longest time. It actually gave me PTSD. Even one time I finally had them in as the last thing I needed to do before plugging everything in and hoping I didn’t fuck up. …Computer didn’t want to boot, and Jero discovered they all had popped out (again).
Nearly 6 in the morning, hearing poor Jero snoring from sleep deprivation of staying with me all morning (his snoring is so cute, by the way 😊), I said “fuck it.. it’s nearly 6 in the morning. I’ll do this later.” My heart was pounding and I was sweating profusely from stress.
That morning, Jero called me asking if I was OK. I moaned and groaned, he knew I was still having trouble with those connectors. I had a desperate idea, if he should show me images of his build (and how he did it). And he did, while talking to his brother.
I finally saw where I was fucking up all of that time. I needed to flip the main cable 180*. The tension is quite high, that’s why they’re popping out.
So I did that. And after come finesse, I FINALLY had the fuckers in (where they wouldn’t move anymore). Jero wanted to be there to see it boot, and… it BOOTED!! 👍
But my issues didn’t stop there… my D drive (primary Games drive) wasn’t showing
up, and my F drive (external backup drive) kept disconnecting and reconnecting.
What was strange, the SATA power cable was unplugged for my E drive. ..So how in the fuck is it affecting my D?! Did I install the drives backwards??
Jero suggested I switch the SATA cables (to see if one of them might be going bad). I
did, and my D drive came back up! Phew.
Now I had another issue, an issue I’ll be listing in the section after the below one.
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Bluescreens in VR
This section has to do with bluescreens when in VR (was before the case swap). Playing BONEWORKS, I was getting annoyed of the cable always getting in the way when trying to aim or reload my weapon.
I wanted to extend the cable, so I went on Amazon and found this and this. Bought
them, got them, went through hell to attach them to my computer (due to the number of cables back there), but I got it done and I love it. Infact it was able to allow me to scan my entire room as a boundary.
The next few days, I started having issues. Was in VRChat, trying to solo one of those escape room-type of worlds (that I saw a friend do). Suddenly, bluescreen.
No, not that kind of bluescreen.. thank fuck. 😅 More like, be chilling with friends, then suddenly blue fills my eyes.
Yeah, THAT shade (and type) of blue (in my headset)! I asked r/WindowsMR, and they told me it’s a power issue with the USB 3.0 extension cable.
Said I need a ‘powered USB 3.0 hub’.. yet, why? I already have one of those in the form of an internal card (specifically for issues like this with my old headset)! Welp.. the power apparently isn’t going to reach that far. There’s a lot of signal loss, which causes the bluescreens. I have to have something in-between the extension cable and the cable that connects to my headset.
Something like this. The best way to look at this is to think of Minecraft’s Redstone
system. The repeaters that boost the power back up to 15. They lose their power the longer the ‘cable’ gets, and need repeaters to keep the power at 15.
My headset however, seems to require more than ’15’ power to keep its tracking stable. They warn me this might not even work.. that most headsets don’t work AT ALL with extension cables. Getting this thing is a bit of a gamble, that to the time of this typing I don’t know if it’s going to fix the issue (outside of just not using the extension cables).
A few friends of mine didn’t believe it was a power issue, and told me to plug the USB 3.0 cable directly to my motherboard. Jero on the other hand, thought it would had been possible to plug it into the front panel’s USB 3.0 port.
…Both ideas failed to work. Tried the thing Jero suggested in the past, it HAS to be connected to the back of your computer; no exceptions. And the second thing, almost constant blue screens and major static/audio dropouts. Switching ports, fixed the static sounds (but not the bluescreens). Final straw was my headset freezing up and crashing SteamVR.
Went back to not using extension cables… no issues since. The other friend is blown away with how impossible the suggestion didn’t work (and actually made the problem worse).
As I said, my only hope for convenience rests in this powered USB 3.0 hub (or ‘repeater’ in this case) working of keeping my headset stable– allowing me to chill on my bed while in VR.
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“Alexa, fix my Line In port!”
The second thing of computer issues. …I think I did something when I was installing the motherboard (that Jero didn’t see me do), because its Line In port doesn’t work right anymore.
Line In is what I use for an AUX cable that connects my Amazon Echo Dot to my computer’s audio. Someone I knew helped me set this up (through hell on days end it took to do so). I’m able to play music though my mic, which allows others to hear it.
Or.. it did until the case swap. Now, nothing comes out. In Voicemeeter, I tried to increase the gain and I can barely make out any music (outside of the static). I tried doing everything I could trying to think of what could be causing it, but to no avail.
Managed to get in contact with the ‘someone I knew’ from the past, but I had to make it sound that I wasn’t asking for help.
He suggested to get this. Got it, and that worked (and still does)! Though I still have to fine tune the volume sliders for it to not sound full-on bass boost.
…Though, I feel this is a solemn victory. I still don’t know what I did that damaged
the Line In port on the motherboard (or even how to prevent it from happening again). The only thing I can think of, is I scratched something on the bottom by complete accident when I was installing it. Or it could had been the way I placed it in the I/O shield.
I didn’t kill the port, it just.. won’t do what it was designed anymore. The same goes for my Nintendo Switch (the HDMI Audio/Video Splitter)– I too can’t hear anything from it.
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F drive ‘failing’…? / Virus ‘Alert!’
A two parter I have for you today (August 15th).
First off, remember those issues I mentioned I was having with my external (after the case swap)? Well, the drive might be dying on me. Since the swap, I’ve been hearing ‘clicking’ sounds coming from it. And I read when you start to hear this, it’s a sure sign your drive could “die at any moment”. Yet I also read it might be possible the drive might not be getting enough power… hmm. First my headset, now this?
Anyway, I’ve finished backing up everything off of it into one of my internal drives, and have bought a 2TB external drive that should arrive on or before my birthday.
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So that’s just the first part of this. The second part, of Windows Security finding lots and lots of PUPs and ‘viruses’ (aka trainers I’ve downloaded years ago). Did a full scan after removing everything off the external, and this is the result…
…The scan’s already complete. Plus it keeps mentioning of ‘severe’ viruses still on my not connected anymore external drive (that it seems to not know what to do with anymore).
I can’t seem to tell Windows “FUCK OFF… these are false positives and NOT HARMFUL!!”
I had to run another scan of my external (this time actually having time to kill for it), and told it “ignore them! They aren’t viruses!” and Windows was like “alright!”, and now says no threats are detected.
Mmm. I think I can see now why Windows Defender is shit. It isn’t really ‘defending’ compared to a bloatware antivirus (like AVG). Yeah, I said it. I’d rather keep Windows Defender.
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And so that’s all I have for you. That was a lot of news to go over, and more will likely come in the future.