KageRyu's cave

[KageRyu]

The second coat of paint on the last closet is finished. Aside from putting two doors back up, reinstalling some fixtures and hardware, a few touch ups, and replacing two ceiling lights with ceiling fans — the upstairs is done. It only took 500 hours of labor (stretched out over 8 months), 8.5 gallons of paint, 1 gallon of Pine Sol, 1/2 bottle of Murphy's oil soap, 1.75 gallons white vinegar, 1.5 tubs of Oxyclean, two bottles of Awesome Orange, 2 cans of enamel spray paint, 2 packs of Dollar Store Sponges (about 8 sponges each), 3 paint rollers, 1 painter pole (damage in use), 2 flimsy paint trays (damaged in use), 3 disposable plastic drop cloths, and one small table fan (burned out last night some time...I think it overheated).
Temperature this afternoon officially was at 102 F, but the thermometer on my vehicle read 108 when I was running errands, so yes, I just finished at 12:30am eastern waiting for the upstairs to cool off, and it was still in the 90's up there. Thinking of taking a try of cookies up there and leaving them in the closet to bake.

Hopefully in the next couple days I will be able to straighten out the furniture between the two rooms so I can go get some of my stuff out of storage and put it up there. Wish I could afford an AC up there... filled my credit card up buying tools, supplies, and replacing my phone.

If there is interest I will take some "Final" photos once the furniture is set up.

 

[Me195]

Here's a couple "after" pictures.
I have 1 closet left to paint and the upstairs will be finished.View attachment 79761
View attachment 79762

That's looking great.

 

[KageRyu]

All of the frames for my Christmas 2024 animation finally finished. I just need to proof them, compile and edit them, and add sound. It's only a few days late. I don't think anyone will notice.





Or...



I could ad more sequences and just release a longer animation in 2025. If I start now it might be rendered by December?

 

[Alisa]

Either way, we'll enjoy them!

 

[KageRyu]

I just can't catch a break...

Workstation shut itself off and won't turn back on. At best it's a power supply issue (there goes about $120).
Can't get replacement until sometime next week.

Even if it was just the power supply, I was moving files between partitions when it happened, so there will be data corruption. Still haven't finished fully recovering from the data corruption of 2022... and just lost a 4tb drive earlier this year.

Why? Why does the universe keep kicking me when I am down?

 

[KageRyu]

I just got done pulling everything out of the alcove I had these machines et up in. Swapped out the power strips they were connected to (ones there were circa the 80's).
Did a lot of vacuuming. Had to untangle all of the cables (this took the longest).
Decided as a temporary fix to swap the PSU in the workstation for one from one of the otherZ600s sitting idle in boxes (my render net not currently even set up due to lack of space).
On the upside- There was no apparent MB damage or burst capacitors or any of that. The Power Supply swap out was the easiest I ever did (not used to working on such high end modular systems where everything slides into place so quickly without needing to trace leads to the Mobo). System is back up and I have Checksum Compare comparing the files on the drives I was copying between to see how many were damaged. Since I was copying not straight up moving, it should be recoverable, just time consuming

The Down Side- I've lost yesterday, last night, and all day today for work, possibly tomorrow too. I am still out about $120 for a new PSU (I know to many of you this sounds like chump change, but to me this is a lot in my current situation). There was an unbelievable amount of dust in the computer, and this is likely what killed the PSU. I do not know where it all came from as I have tried to keep the area around the computers in better care than other areas (but this whole house is a nightmare...I miss my home in Ohio and my dedicated computer lab).

This expense sets me back on other planned equipment purchases and software in the next months. It doesn't help I just spent a bunch on content at the start of the month...a bunch. So no content, hardware, or software for the foreseeable future (too many repairs and unexpected expenses lately).

 

[KageRyu]

-_-
Feeling defeated and so very tired.
Too many injustices. Too much corruption in the world, especially in Massachusetts government.

Spent all day without power due to an illegal shut off by the power company. I have been battling the abusive corrupt jerks for the last 2 years. I have irrefutable proof in black and white they have violated multiple laws under 220 CMR 25 multiple times. I have proof of check fraud. I have proof of billing fraud. I spent all day running around to legal services, social services, and government agencies and no one cares. No one will lift a finger. No one will look at the evidence. I can't find an attorney to take action against the power company, and it's not like I can switch too another company.

I had to file with the housing court for a hearing and an emergency injunction to turn the power back on while waiting for the hearing. The hearing will only be to address the shutoff itself, not any of the other issues that have been going on, and it will be me alone against a team of lawyers from a multi-billion dollar corporation.

This... this is why I am often so depressed and sick of life. This is the constant story of my life at every turn. Even when I am in the right I end up losing.

 

[KageRyu]

In light of all the trouble I have been having with my workstations these past 10 years, and given my newest machine is 12 years old, I have been looking at new computers.
I really have my heart set on one of These.
Those were good solid computer back in the day. Was very productive on those back in high school, and I like the idea of being able to plug in a USB device with modern formatting.

 

[KageRyu]

I have a set of Island Dance Poses for Dawn inspired by Hula I need testing on, hoping to release by August. I have reached out to previous testers but have not heard back. I do not know where to recruit new testers.

 

[KageRyu]

So, not 3D content, but other skills of mine.
I finally finished this Mask/Helmet form/base sculpt out of Newspaper, masking tape, drywall patch compound, and 4 coats of polyurethane sealer to waterproof it and seal it. It's not perfect, but it will make a good starting base for paper-clay or eva foam sculpts. I still want to mount it to a removable base. Now I need to make a long-snouted form for Dragons, Horses, Lizard/Snakemen, and other miscellany.

 

[KageRyu]

Went to ER for chest pains I've had since my birthday. Didn't go sooner because every time I go to the hospital they are antagonistic and abusive. Of course they became antagonistic and abusive. Kept intentionally escalating the situation. Refused to put me in touch with administration to file complaint. Demanded I leave. When I refused because I had been brought in by ambulance with chest pains and refused to walk home police were called. Tried to have me arrested. Permanently banned me FROM THE HOSPITAL. Still have chest pains. Can't get medical care.

Good chance the hospital may have just murdered me. In America this is happening to people on public assistance.
The health care system is broken and corrupt.

 

[Me195]

Went to ER for chest pains I've had since my birthday. Didn't go sooner because every time I go to the hospital they are antagonistic and abusive. Of course they became antagonistic and abusive. Kept intentionally escalating the situation. Refused to put me in touch with administration to file complaint. Demanded I leave. When I refused because I had been brought in by ambulance with chest pains and refused to walk home police were called. Tried to have me arrested. Permanently banned me FROM THE HOSPITAL. Still have chest pains. Can't get medical care.

Good chance the hospital may have just murdered me. In America this is happening to people on public assistance.
The health care system is broken and corrupt.

Oh my god, I hope you're okay.

 

[KageRyu]

Trial today, trial tomorrow. Haven't slept much. Still in excessive pain. These trials aren't even the end of this 6.5 year ordeal. These trials are just the end of part of it. -_-

 

[KageRyu]

wasn't allowed to talk. wasn't allowed to present evidence, even to refute the other sides lies. sick of the coruption...
If there is a god, let him end my sufferi8ng to nbight

 

[KageRyu]

Haven't posted any news here in a while because haven't had anything good to report.

One of the big reasons I have not been productive is a combination of lack of room to set my computer lab back up, and none of my machines being newer (everything running Windows 7 or earlier). So I took a chance...

I took a chance that puts me further in debt, but may kill two birds in the hopes of getting back into graphics and animation. If I still can't make any progress with my animation, with my graphics, I might as well just accept I am a failure and pack it all in.

This is a Computer?! (Ramen Pack for Scale)

This computer has more processing power and base memory than my z600s. It is tiny. It is the first NEW computer (not refurbished or already a generation or two old) I have bought since I custom built my now long dead Celeron workstation in 2005.
My plan is to make this my workstation and move the tow towers back into storage temporarily. It comes with Win 11 installed, which I intend to remove after making a backup of the clean install. I am going to set it up for Dual boot of Win 10 Pro and Linux (running Virtual Machines for XP and Win 7), so I can use most of my legacy software and use tools such as Krita, Davinci, and that Wacom tablet I bought last year that doesn't like Win 7.

I have to learn linux...

 

[KageRyu]

I think my last post came across more depressing than I planned. Once I get this new machine configured and paired up with the Wacom tablet I am hoping to get back into work and increase productivity. There will be a learning curve with linux, and getting used to a tablet (I have barely used any in my live as I have not had access...I have been doing everything with a mouse believe it or not).

Right now I am trying to find a good Disk Image software or Backup software that is portable and can be placed on a bootable USB and write the backups or images to a portable drive so I can back up the Windows 11 inatallation on this machine before wiping it out. As things stand with Win 11 right now, there is no way I am using it. Sadly, the tools I have predate 2015 and will not recognize portable drives at all, or are on CDs and this new machine has no optical drive. I do not have many connections in the tech field these days, so the search is taking longer than I wanted (I had hoped to be into the stage of learning how to configure virtual machines already).

 

[Alisa]

You can do it!! Haven't used any of these, but when I typed in "best free disc imaging software, this came up, so you may want to check them out:

The best free disk imaging software options for 2026 are
Clonezilla for advanced, open-source cloning, Rescuezilla for an easy-to-use graphical interface, and AOMEI Backupper Standard for user-friendly Windows backups. These tools allow for full system backups, bare-metal recovery, and disk cloning

 

[KageRyu]

You can do it!! Haven't used any of these, but when I typed in "best free disc imaging software, this came up, so you may want to check them out:

The best free disk imaging software options for 2026 are
Clonezilla for advanced, open-source cloning, Rescuezilla for an easy-to-use graphical interface, and AOMEI Backupper Standard for user-friendly Windows backups. These tools allow for full system backups, bare-metal recovery, and disk cloning

While I appreciate the enthusiasm, the problem is that these tools that show up such searches are misleading, limitted functionality, or can not do what I need. Aoemi needs to be installed on the computer it is backing up. While Aomei claims you can make a portable version from within it, that feature is locked to the TECH license ($700 buy in per year).

Clonezilla is for bootable optical media and I have been unable to get the optional USB boot to work with it. Shame as it sounds like it would do everything I need. I cannot find a portable version of it though.

I need a tool for making images that is Portable (that can be run from a USB) that I can drop onto one of my bootable Windows PE USB sticks. I do not want to boot into Windows 11 on this new machine and be forced to try to spend days configuring and troubleshooting Windows 11 to install backup software just to wipe it all out and repeat with the Dual Boot. I may have to buy a tool, but I am reluctant to do so until I can confirm one is reliable and will do what i want (so many of these Disk Imagers and Disk Cloners are just garbage).

I do have a couple I will try tonight/tomorrow, and several I have already looked at only to find all of the features I need locked behind paywalls on software that claimed to be free (this annoys me and I even if I buy a tool for this, it will not be any software that pulls this bait and switch).

Right now I have a bootable USB with Windows PE environment and a lot of basic file copy and diagnostic tools, I just need to find the right Drive Image tool to put on it.

 

[KageRyu]

I may have the tools I need for the Drive Image. Running a test overnight Imaging the system/boot drive on the Z600 I am using as a workstation currently. Booted from USB and tools appear to recognize the portable WD Passport I am trying to store the image on. We will see tomorrow. If this works Tomorrow I will image the system drive of this Geekcom Mini, and teach myself how to setup and install dual booting (never did it before).