Current status: enjoying the fine weather at Myrtle Beach.
I got a call last night from Best Buy’s Geek Squad. It seems that I suffered hard drive failure, so they’ve replaced the disk and I’ve asked them to try to recover as much data as possible. My important files are backed up on Dropbox but I have a lot of music and media files that simply don’t fit there. If all goes well then I should have my computer and data back in the next couple of weeks.
Just wanted to provide you all with a quick update on my computer situation. The good news is that my laptop is still covered under Best Buy’s 3-year product replacement plan, so as of this afternoon, it has been sent out to be repaired. I should have it—or a suitable replacement—back in my hands in two weeks or less. If everything goes well. Frankly, I’m relieved that I opted to buy the 3-year coverage, otherwise, it would have been a much longer wait for the next installment of Reclaimer. Fingers crossed that my laptop gets back quickly. It already feels like I’ve had a limb amputated.
If it’s not one thing, it’s another.
There’s a very real chance that there won’t be a new Reclaimer comic tomorrow. You see, my laptop is on the fritz right now. It seems that during my commute home from work last night, something got jarred loose, causing the laptop to lose power if you put pressure on it just so. I’ve had significant trouble keeping it running today, and on one of the multiple forced reboots, Windows just simply failed to load just before getting to the ‘Welcome’ screen. I can boot it in Safe Mode, but not in Normal Mode, so I’m thinking something got janked in one of the crashes.
I’m going to crack the laptop open when I get home tonight and see if I can figure out what’s going on. I’m suspicious that the motherboard is loose and is, therefore, not making proper contact with the power supply. If this is the case, I’ll see what I can do to remount it (and hope the plastic mounts themselves aren’t cracked beyond repair) and try to boot everything up again. What I’m really afraid of, though, is that Windows got corrupted and that I’ll have to reinstall everything again, provided I can get the hardware issues sorted out.
Whatever the case, it means I’m probably in for a long evening and won’t have the means to stitch together a new comic. My fingers are crossed that I can fix this on my own and get back to it for Monday, because the alternative is that my laptop is just plain shot, which would mean that there wouldn’t be any new comics until I could replace it—something that isn’t likely to be affordable on my budget for quite a long time.
So, wish me luck. Hopefully this will be an easy fix.
Bungie’s latest Humpday Challenge writeup is live, as is TTL’s summary. It was a privilege to be able to play in this one, and we had a lot of fun taking on Bungie’s best for three games. Go check out both write-ups!
Oh, and fun fact? That Wraith mortar that took Evil Otto out of the sky for the second time? Yeah, that was me. 
Well, this is a new wrinkle in the landscape.
I had every intention of delivering a new Reach-styled Reclaimer comic for you today. I even took several screenshots last night. Here’s the problem, though. At the time of this writing, none of those screenshots have synced with my Bungie.net profile. I noticed this latency last night, shortly after taking the shots, so I decided to take the proactive approach and upload all six shots to my File Share—and guess what? They haven’t appeared there, either. Now, I’m sure the shots exist on Bungie’s servers, but with Reach being so new, I suspect the servers are just under a significant amount of load right now. So—and I hate to say it—but until everything catches up, Reclaimer continues to be on a forced hiatus. Just keep your fingers crossed that they get the bugs worked out of the system sometime today.
Today is the first day of GenCon (and my birthday), so I’ll be down in Indy all day today through Saturday (I love living within easy driving distance) wandering the halls, visiting the Exhibitors area, and demoing as many games as I can. This will be my first GenCon, despite living in the greater Indianapolis area for the last several years. If you happen to be at GenCon this weekend, as well, comment on this post and let me know!
I’m excited to finally be able to attend GenCon Indy this year. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for several years now, especially since it takes place right in my back yard. I’ll be strolling the halls on Thursday and Friday for sure and possibly Saturday, as well, taking in as many sights as possible, meeting a number of people with whom I’ve only ever met through email, and just generally having a good time. I would be thrilled to meet as many of you as possible who will be in attendance, as well, so if you’re planning to be at GenCon Indy this year and would be interested in touching base with me while there, leave a note in the comments below or email me and let me know.
I also still have most of my stock of “I Flew” t-shirts, and I’d really like to sell as many off as possible so that I can stop storing them. At this point, I’m not even really looking to make a profit so much as just recoup my expenses, so I’ll be letting them go for just $8 apiece. GenCon Indy would be a great place to grab a shirt from me and save yourself the additional shipping costs. If you’ll be at GenCon and want a t-shirt, email me with your interest and shirt size. We can make arrangements to meet for the exchange from there.
I’m looking forward to experiencing this event, and I hope to see you there!
I’m having a hard time finding the time and energy required to produce Reclaimer comics on a regular basis. The part of the process that’s really hanging me up is the screenshot capture step. Most evenings right now I just haven’t had the time to fire up my Xbox and set up the scenes I need for the next two or three comics. As such, I’m asking for some help.
I’m looking for four to six individuals who would be willing to volunteer to produce screenshots for Reclaimer. I’ll send you a description of the types of images I’m looking for, then you collect said images and email them back to me. This would greatly aid me because then I can set up just about anywhere and put everything together. Not only will you be doing me a great service, you’ll receive acknowledgment and an official Reclaimer t-shirt.
If you’re interested in helping out, email me and let me know.
Here’s some media I captured from my Reach Beta experience last night. The first clip is my first ever assassination, complete with animation glitch. The second is another assassination, and I must say, I love the visuals on Elite assassinations. The last two clips are of back-to-back stickies from two different perspectives. All clips were rendered using Bungie Render Points.
As for the image gallery below, you can click to embiggen—or go to my Reach Fileshare.
HSAR
Jim
HSAR
Jim
HSAR
II Scarecrow II
The Silver Fox
scorpionridge
Airsoft 22
sh228
Jim on
scorpionridge on
Jim on
HSAR on
II Scarecrow II on
Jim on
Jim on
Jim on
II Scarecrow II on
Jim on