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We made it through November, now onto December!

It's something like 0111 as I start typing this, I'm up later
than I probably should be because I want nice fresh sheets on my
bed tonight. It's the end of my long weekend for Thanksgiving,
back to work at 1530. I'm a bit glad that I'm getting to go back
to work today, home is nice but I can't deny that I feel a bit
bleh after days of nothing but sitting on a computer playing
games.
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We got a ton of snow, something like 32" from Friday to as I'm
typing this, and the NWS says to expect "up to another 20" of
additional accumulation" by 7PM tomorrow. Ain't that something?
Last year barely snowed at all, I guess we're making up for it
this year right at the start. I wonder if we'll have snow for
Christmas?

It's been pretty fun to watch the birds with all the snow down,
more and more are coming by the feeder. I'll have to upload some
of the new pictures and videos soon. I spent a good bit of time
yesterday just chuckling at all of the bluejays, cardinals, and
woodpeckers switching out on who gets the fresh seed while some
dove just acted like a potato right under where everything was
happening.
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My two ZenMarket boxes come in hopefully today!

One box has a Sony PVM, some 14" that (as long as it arrived in
one piece) should become a new shelf staple/convention monitor,
I was seriously sold on the idea of keeping a few fancy CRTs
around after seeing how much people loved them at CGC '24.

The other box has a Power Macintosh 4400, a Power Macintosh 4400
motherboard (to hopefully populate my first 4400 that arrived
with an extremely battery bombed and now entirely unrevivable by
me motherboard), an Exidy Venture board, some Famicom Disk
System stuff, and a few other things that I forgot.

I'm really excited for 'em because this gives me a few cool new
projects. The PVM will apparently need fuses and caps, the 4400
board will need put into the currently (mostly) bare chassis,
the Venture board will need whatever the hell it requires to get
it up and running, the Disk System will need a belt...

I'm hoping that all of these fairly small(er) projects, simple
"diagnose and revive XYZ" things that aren't scavanger hunts,
will motivate me to push back into the retro stuff hobby that
I've been kinda neglecting for the last month. I have a few
projects in the space which I'm currently dreading, a lot of the
reason why I haven't pushed to put a ton of hobby-associated
stuff back on this site is because of said dread fueled by a
lack of successful projects to motivate me, and I'm getting 
a bit tired of said dread. I think fixing up a FC + FDC so I can
play a bit of Kirby, fixing up a PPC Macintosh so I can install
that copy of Marathon Infinity I bought, and getting an Exidy
game that I've wanted for a few years should be quite cool.
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I mentioned doing a lot of sitting on a computer playing games,
said game was Unturned. 

When it was 2014 and I was 14, I loved playing DayZ Standalone
but a lot of my friends just couldn't run the game. Lucky for
us there was this free-to-play Roblox-looking clone called
Unturned. It was simple at the time, you had a few items on this
one map (PEI) where there were some towns to loot, a military
base with the big loot, basic base construction, and other "just
enough to have a fun time" features. We would get on, play PvE
for the first two hours, then all split off and do PvP to see
who could be the last man standing. We did that for a while
until the 3.0 update eventually hit, a bunch changed, and we all
moved on to other games.

The other day someone asked "what games exist that everyone can
run and support more than four players?", someone else blurted
out "Unturned". Nostalgia hit me, I backed up the idea, I got a
server up, and everyone hopped on. Three days later, I've put
something like thirty hours of co-op game time into the thing
and oh my god I haven't played video games like this in years.

We're currently working on the Russia map, we're trying to go
through all the questlines from the NPCs at the moment, and then
I think we'll be testing out some of the curated maps - Buak,
Kuwait, and A6 Polaris all seem pretty interesting. 
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I've put in an order for a new airsoft project because I figured
it's been a while since I've done one.

I've loved running RPKs for a really long time now. They're just
such a nice platform, you get the heft that comes with "long AK"
and the ability at almost every field to play support without
the complete arm death that I've experienced with my PKP.

I have one RPK, a CYMA from god knows when. I bought it used
from some kid at a field in 2013 if I have my dates right, about
half of the external bits have fallen off by this point, I put
a cheese grater handguard on it to make it look even more Metro
2033 abomination than it did, and while it still chugs along it
also is just kinda the junkiest thing in a fun way.

I'm getting a second RPK, this time a LCT. I'll do the usual "do
these things to a LCT" things: Shorter barrel that way I'm not
overvolumed, new bucking because stock LCT buckings don't seem
to like cold very much, a MOSFET that way I can use 11.1V lipos
without burning out my trigger contacts, and probably also a
new motor since I assume stock LCT motors are still "meh".

I don't plan on many cosmetic changes, that said I'd like a real
RPK rear sight with windage adjustment and maybe also one of
those Chefuer Customs clip-on carry handles. I'm quite the fan
of a plain wooden RPK, a flashlight taped onto the side if
needed, and I'll do just that.
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Ain't it funny how much I ramble when I'm excited over stuff?
This is quite a lot of text. heh.
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