July 22, 2017

 This morning I woke up, read in bed for awhile, and then got up to mess with my new computer. I thought I got the not starting thing figured out yesterday but when I hit the power button this morning it blinked on then off, paused, blinked on then off, so on and so forth. I did a more systematic troubleshooting and found that the quick fix to the problem was pulling out the RAM and moving it to different slots. So if it was one and three, I moved it to two and four. I think it also worked if I just pulled one out and left the other stick in.

After doing some searching I thought it might be an out-dated BIOS issue. And while looking into that I came across a video about the first five things to do with a new build. In that video the guy talked about the BIOS and RAM, which turned out to be the key. I learned that RAM is often under-clocked by the BIOS, or something like that. So in my case, my RAM was advertised as 3000mhz but in the BIOS it was set to 2133mhz. I thought maybe that was screwing things up so I learned about XMP mode and switched that on. That set my RAM to 3000mhz, and maybe did some other stuff. And ever since that I have been able to turn the computer off and back on with no issue. Hooray for that. Once that was sorted out I downloaded a bunch of updated drivers and got those installed. I think we're good to go now.

I went to my Mom's this afternoon to do laundry and while the clothes did their thing I read. It was very tempting to take a nap but I stuck with reading.

When I got home, I did something computer-related and then ate dinner. After dinner I moved my new computer and VR stuff downstairs. That took awhile. And it turns out the wi-fi is a bit hit and miss down there. I think I am going to get a long ethernet cable to run down there and see if that works. If it does, I will consider running a cable through the wall. I saw a product that you can plug into an outlet and it transmits the internet over the power lines. You then plug the other thing into an outlet in the room you want better internet. Sounds like magic. But the two outlets have to be on the same circuit. I can't remember all the circuit layouts for my house but I'm pretty sure the first floor and the basement are on different breakers. So it would be a no-go.

I played a bunch of the archery game in The Lab and the mini-games in SteamVR Home. I also played Plank Not Included, which has you stand on a plank in real life and then try and catch hummingbirds. I didn't have a plank but I lined up a few of the shelves from one of my DVD cases and stood on those. It's an interesting experience. It's also very short, so I'm glad I didn't pay for it. There's another plank game that has you measure the actual size of the plank you're using, so that it is a one-to-one experience in VR. Technology.

I wanted to try out Elite Dangerous because I mapped the galaxy map to my joy stick and throttle and that also worked on the system map. At least in the regular game. The hope is that it translates to VR so I can finally navigate the system map and make my VR progress more efficient. But I was having internet issues and it wouldn't let me connect to the servers. I'm going to try again tomorrow.

Now I'm going to record my audio journal. My throat still hurts from the box hit but I made it through the audio journal yesterday so I'm not too worried about tonight. As long as I can avoid yawning.