So, how was your day?

[FailureBiWinning]

I guess everybody's busy doing their own thing... well, even though it's January 2nd - Happy New Year! Anyway, my health has improved considerably since my previous post. I ended up having to stop taking Prilosec for my digestive issues - apparently I'm prone to a rare side-effect in which the omeprazole in Prilosec can trigger anxiety and panic attacks - so I went off that medication and found relief in the form of Pepto-Bismol. I also spoke with a former EMT - when I told him what my vital signs were, he said the only thing that was "borderline" was my pulse - I got some much-needed peace of mind after that, but I still plan on seeing my family doctor at some point during this month. My weight's gone down considerably over the course of December - I'm at 215.2 pounds, which is a HUGE drop from the 230's that I was at originally. At one point, I got it down to 214.5, but it rebounded a little over the course of New Years Eve and New Years day. I've had fewer instances of reflux, but I still get the odd dull ache in the abdomen end chest from time to time, so that's why I'm still planning on seeing a doctor.

[Imaynotbehere4long]

I guess everybody's busy doing their own thing...

I don't know if it's that so much as the fact that this forum just doesn't get much activity in the first place...

Anyway, it's good to see that you've gotten better!

[FailureBiWinning]

I guess everybody's busy doing their own thing...

I don't know if it's that so much as the fact that this forum just doesn't get much activity in the first place...

Anyway, it's good to see that you've gotten better!

I've gotten a bit better, but I'm still in a dark area as far as my health is concerned - while I was able to lose some weight (Wii Fit Plus tells me I'm NOT obese anymore), my blood pressure and pulse have fluctuated wildly (my numbers are all over the place). Apparently, my pressure has fumbled around in the prehypertension zone for quite some time, and I've had a former EMT tell me that my pulse is "borderline." My blood pressure's top number has been as high as 140 and my resting pulse once spiked at 111. I've been told that most of this is from taking in too much sodium from meals, so I need to cut back on that. My girlfriend also advised me to increase my antioxidant intake - she says I should maintain my blood pressure within the range from 110/70 to 115/75, and that my resting pulse should never reach or exceed 100 (I'd prefer it stay under 90). My most recent test results (today's readings) are 121/70 with a pulse of 78 - that's fine, but if I could at least get it to stay there (and get that top number under 120)... I've still got a lot of stuff to take care of, and I haven't even been to my family doctor yet - I'm still kinda going off of the diagnosis I got from the doctors at the local urgent care clinic.

[FailureBiWinning]

It's been a while - over a month, probably. My health has improved drastically despite the fact that I STILL haven't gone to my family doctor yet. My weight's dropped to 195.3 pounds - a far cry from the 230-something I started out as. My blood pressure has regularly been in the 110/50 area - a definite improvement, though the systolic occasionally spikes up into the lower 120's for no real reason. I haven't had any serious outbreaks of dull aches like I was originally having, though they pop in out of the blue from time to time... I'm starting to think those might just be anxiety at this point. I've been monitoring damn near everything - total calorie intake throughout the day, calorie burn from exercise; and the amount of carbs, proteins, sodium and potassium consumed during the day. My weight loss has hit a few snags here and there, but I'm convinced that most of it is the result of unwanted water retention by now.

In non-health-related news, my Wii's disc drive finally offed itself, so I gave it the only send-off I could think of - buying a Wii U. Got it a few weeks ago, and just recently picked up my second game (Pikmin 3) for it along with my first Amiibo (Sonic). Fun Fact: I had my first Wii U game LONG before I ever got a Wii U - Rodea the Sky Soldier, and that's only because of the Wii version that was packaged with initial versions of the game. I'm looking to get Super Smash Bros and Mario Kart 8 - preferably on disc if I can help it (was never really a big fan of digital releases).

And in non-gaming-related news, my girlfriend spent the whole weekend with me - she tells me the house her family is building is currently 31% completed; specifically, they finished work on building all the rooms on the basement floor (and she's already claimed one of them as her bedroom, amusingly enough). They're planning on beginning work on the ground-floor rooms this week... provided the weather doesn't absolutely suck, of course.

[FailureBiWinning]

Been a while since I posted here - or my art thread for that matter, but there's a perfectly good reason for that:

Pardon my "French," but I'm sick and fucking tired of Windows - and Microsoft in general. I'm convinced that Windows is basically one big hunk of malware masquerading as an operating system, and it has pissed me off for the absolute last time... so I'm finally making the jump to a Linux distribution. PROBLEM - I'm what some would call a "Linux-virgin" and having been shackled to Windows for years... it's gonna be hard for me to adjust, obviously... or at least it WOULD be, but then I discovered ChaletOS while scouring the web for suitable OS replacements. It's been described as a Linux for people who prefer Windows 7 over Windows 10 - and given how I've been with 7 for quite some time and have no interest in "upgrading" to 10... you can see where I'm going with this. I've got Chalet installed on a USB flashdrive for testing purposes, but once testing is done (assuming it's successful)? I'm wiping my laptop completely and installing Chalet on it! Since my move to a new OS is going to involve wiping the hard drive one way or another... I decided I'd compress a bunch of my files and back them up on an external hard drive - and that's taking FOREVER, so... there's that.

In health related news, I'M OFFICIALLY IN THE HEALTHY WEIGHT RANGE FOR SOMEONE MY HEIGHT AND AGE - 176.4 POUNDS, HOT DIGGITY! I owe it all to my girlfriend - she actually moved in with me and served as a live-in personal trainer for the duration of my weight loss. I'm still not at an "ideal" weight (somewhere in the 150 pound range), so she's not planning on moving out any time soon...

In gaming related news... well, I finally plugged my Gamecube back up and played some MegaMan Network Transmission - I am SHOCKED that little bastard can STILL RUN after all these years - my Wii's disc drive died after 7 years of use, but I've had my GC for even longer than that and the drive still works like new... says a lot about how much effort went into producing long-lasting console hardware at that point in Nintendo's history... I guess they stopped using their virtually-indestructible "Nintendium" in console production when they stopped making Gamecubes? I've accidentally dropped this thing a good handful of times - the only damage it has is the lid on the drive (I have to hold the open button and manually raise the lid with my hand rather than just press the button and have it pop open on its own - makes changing discs a tad annoying, but it still reads the discs, so it's not a serious problem). In game collection news, I'm currently eyeballing a RetroUSB AVS console... currently available for preorder at $170.00, but normally sold at $180.00 - once I eventually get my hands on one, I'd like to take a stab at building NES reproduction carts, and I've bookmarked a series of sites that sell parts specifically for this purpose. One day... ONE DAY... I'll be doing this regularly.

UPDATE: So booting ChaletOS from USB was a success, but... it's going to take a LONG time for me to get used to the Linux environment in general - time that I'm pretty sure that I don't have, so I'm looking for more options that are even more Windows-esque, but Rachelle suggested something to me in a conversation we had in the kitchen a few minutes ago and it might just be crazy enough to work -- once I finish backing up my files, I'm going to reset my laptop to factory defaults and reload my files from the backup (and reinstall any program that needs to be reinstalled). I don't like the idea of sticking with Windows, but if this gets me good results, I might reconsider jumping to a Linux distro in favor of keeping Windows for a bit longer... don't know. We'll have to see how it goes - but for now, ChaletOS will remain on my USB for experimentation purposes. I trust her judgment on this - she's suffered at the hands of 3 different Windows versions, 4 Mac OS versions, 8 Linux distros, and had a particularly rough run-in with CosmosOS that convinced her to program her own kernel and OS entirely from scratch for her own private use (and I MIGHT consider going down that path myself if push comes to shove).

[Imaynotbehere4long]

Linux? Come on, everyone knows that Altimit is the best OS! xD

Joking aside, I personally believe that the only reason Windows is seen as being the most susceptible to malware is because it's the most popular, so that's what everyone programs viruses for. I've been using Windows all my life and haven't had a problem with malware; you just need to be careful what you install and think twice about running downloaded .EXE files...at least, that's how it has been in my experience. I'm curious to know what your experience has been.

[FailureBiWinning]

My experience with Windows has been a mixed bag... part of that might be my own fault since my browsing habits are pretty reckless, but sometimes Windows "flushes itself down the toilet with the rest of the crap" on its own without me having to lift a finger. Its performance seems to gradually degrade over time, and reinstalling or factory restoring seems to fix the problem (at least temporarily).

All I know for certain is that I'm keeping Windows 7 until MS drops all support for it - THEN I'm jumping to a Linux distro. A lot of people keep recommending Ubuntu (or some variation thereof, like Xubuntu),and ChaletOS just so happens to be a Xubuntu derivative. Like I said previously: I MIGHT consider ditching all the available OSes entirely in favor of learning how to whip one up from scratch on my own - that's what my girlfriend did when she gave up on finding a good OS (though hers isn't compatible with literally ANYTHING except what she programs for it - and that was a deliberate development choice).

[Sanqui]

Don't bother with something as obscure as ChaletOS, I've never heard of it. Just use a major distro (like Ubuntu) or a supported derivative (like Xubuntu), you'll be thankful for the resources and help available online. Personally, I recommend Fedora

Writing an OS of your own is a learning exercise but far from practical. Just realize that if you want to use it daily you'll need to write or port a browser for it, which alone is a enormous amount of code a single person cannot handle.

[FailureBiWinning]

Xubuntu was definitely one of the ones I considered using once I saw how many other people recommended it - I've already got ChaletOS installed on a USB flashdrive, but that's nothing a quick formatting can't fix.

[Imaynotbehere4long]

[Windows's] performance seems to gradually degrade over time, and reinstalling or factory restoring seems to fix the problem (at least temporarily).

I was told that that happens as more files are added to the computer, so it has to go "oh, I need to be ready in case the owner opens this file," and this would be especially true for large files like modern AAA games. That would also explain why factory restoring only temporarily fixes the problem since you'd presumably want to put the files back on the computer. I know that I got my laptop to run a bit better after uninstalling all the Steam games I had beaten up until that point.

On the subject of new computers: my laptop tends to overheat when playing anything around PS2 quality, so I bought a new computer. It arrived yesterday and I got everything set up to make it work then (it sure took a while, though). Today, I'll focus on transferring my files from my laptop to my new computer (a process that might take even longer since I have lots of large files (games) on my laptop).