A Quick Thank You

Yesterday was Thanksgiving for us Americans, and no the irony of the holiday is not lost on me. I figured I would take a moment to thank all of the readers who have put up with my ramblings for over thirteen years now. On the backend of my blog I can see where views come from, and sometimes I'm surprised at where my little island of incoherency is being viewed from. While these are purely statistics, and put no face to the viewers who actually take the time to view the blog, I want to say thank you for reading, whomever you are. I've tried to make sure that my blog is accessible to everyone who wants to read it. If the page doesn't automatically translate I've made sure there has been a translation option on the right-hand side of the page.

I'm not a writer, a fact that is obvious by reading any entry in this blog. I just wanted a small space to express what I find interesting in the world, and to share my hobbies and my (very limited, and sometimes questionable) knowledge. I've done reviews, some might call needless, and I've done some tutorials, some might call those needless as well, but I've always tried to be helpful in some way or another. I can see my blog has been quoted a few times in forums seeking help, and I'm glad that I could be useful. After all, that's really all I've ever tried to be. I don't know who you are, but if my blog has helped you in any way shape or form, I thank you for taking the time to read it.

Sam's Movie Review: Dawn, Her Dad & the Tractor

I've mentioned it here a few times that I love Trailer Park Boys. That show came to me at a time in my life where nothing made sense. Even though it was a comedy mockumentary, to see that I wasn't alone in life making absolutely no sense made it make sense. Does that make sense? Apart from Trailer Park Boys I knew there were a few other film projects the cast and crew worked on such as The Cart Boy, One Last Shot, and even Virginia's Run. More recently I watched Vandits, starring Robb Wells, and enjoyed it quite a bit. After that I decided to see what else Mr. Wells had been in, and a movie by the name Dawn, Her Dad & the Tractor showed up, so I decided to give it a watch as well.

I have to preface this by saying, while I did enjoy this film, there were so many moments where I was like "This is totally connected to Trailer Park Boys.". Aside from starring Robb Wells, this movie was written, produced, and directed by the lovely Shelley Thompson, aka BARB FRIGGIN LAHEY! Whose scalloped potatoes, I am sure, are not fucked. There were a lot of moments where I could see Ricky coming out of Robb. I totally admit that's wholly on me, because I went into this movie with the mindset of finding the Rickyisms in Robb's other work. For that, I'm truly sorry. Again, I did enjoy this film!

The story focuses around Dawn (formerly Don), who transitioned from male to female, and trying to circumvent the tribulations that brings to one's life. Robb Wells portrays her father, who just lost his wife, and both Dawn and her sister, plus her sister's boyfriend, come back to be with their father to help him through this tough time. While back in town Dawn's family slowly but surely accept her for who she is now, but there are some typical troublemakers in the town whom needlessly cause quite a bit of trouble. While trying to reconnect with her father, Dawn takes an interest in her mother's old tractor. As a way of showing support for his daughter the father helps her restore the tractor. Said troublemakers complicate this by burning down the barn in which the tractor was stored, which only causes an outpouring of support from the community in restoring it one final time, so that it could be used in a communal event.

I'll say it again, I did enjoy this film. It felt like a low budget, tight-knit community film to me, which is in no way a bad thing. The actors who normally do plays at the Blandford Recreation Centre finally got their time to shine. (Sorry, I couldn't resist!) I grew up in very rural America and I understand the small town mentality, so much of that felt very genuine to me. Transitioning isn't something I've personally experienced, but just like Trailer Park Boys helped me feel less alone in my life not making sense, hopefully this film will help those struggling in the same way as Dawn find their own solace.

I'm Bored: Let's Review Taco Bell Sauces

There for a while I was addicted to a hot sauce called Valentina, thanks to my ex fiancée. To fill the void when she left I started trying dollar store hot sauces. Louisiana Hot Sauce was my favorite, with Texas Pete being adequate. I then started to wonder where Taco Bell's sauces would rank. I used to love their Fire Roasted salsa packets so much that I would order Taco Bell for no other reason than to have an excuse to hoard the salsa packets, or just drink them straight. So where does their current line up of sauces rank?

Mild

I've never been a fan of Taco Bell's mild sauce. It's always tasted and looked like dish water to me. There is a slightly sweet smell that doesn't really excite me one way or another. I'll use it, if forced to, but I usually try to avoid it. 

Hot

Hot has the same flavor and texture as mild, but with a little kick to it. The overall experience is pretty much the same as a mild packet, just a tiny bit of heat and some chunks. If you read the ingredients it's just mild with some jalapenos thrown in to add bite.

Fire

Fire is thicker, has some chunks and brings the heat. A nice flavor, a nice texture and a good amount of heat. It has a very olfactory pleasing smoky scent that gets my salivation glands working overtime. 

Diablo

Diablo sauce has a smoky scent to it that immediately excites my taste buds. It's slightly thinner than fire, but still thicker than mild or hot, with a nice smooth texture. As soon as it hits my tongue I detect a sweet, smoky flavor that quickly evolves into heat engulfing my palate. The heat lingers for a while, much longer than with fire.

Breakfast Salsa

Breakfast Salsa was introduced to me when I chose Taco Bell's breakfast burritos on the road to thrift stores, slathered in their breakfast salsa. These packets are slightly taller and contain the nectar of the Gods! It's a bit sweet, thinner than both fire and diablo, but still thicker than hot and mild, and is filled with chunks, as good salsa should be. The heat is somewhere between hot and fire, leaning more toward the hot sauce. The jalapeno chunks add something, but not too much.

Avocado Verde Salsa

These cost money, so it's rare that I will ever use them. I did give them a try and I wasn't very impressed with it. I remember it was thin, but the flavor wasn't bad. It was about what you could expect of something called avocado salsa. Again, since they're charging 20 cents for these I don't get them.

Of all these sauces I prefer Fire, Diablo and Breakfast Salsa. If it's not going onto Taco Bell, directly into my mouth, or onto a Mexican inspired meal, it's usually going on tuna salad. You see, that ex fiancée that I mentioned earlier once made some really good tuna salad, and I've been chasing her recipe ever since. She ghosted me after ten years, so I can't just outright ask her what it was, but I try to replicate it the best I can. I shovel a little bit of my tuna and mayo concoction onto a cracker and then cover it in one of my favorite Taco Bell sauces. For purist results these reviews were written after drinking a packet of each flavor straight. I couldn't give accurate reviews with pesky food sullying the flavors.

Reaching Beyond My Capability

One of my greatest passions in life has been doing small electronics repairs as a hobby. Never in a billion lifetimes did I think I would become the repair person in the family. My brother has asked me to look at a few things, and it's usually a simple repair. Things are slowly progressing in difficulty though, and that's forcing me to learn a little bit more to reach that next level. On the repair list is a Peavey Bandit that my brother picked up super cheap. It turns on, it just doesn't producing any sound. I opened it up and did a board inspection, which didn't yield any results in showing what was wrong with the amp. All of the components looked fine, nothing was scorched or broken. Fuses were ok too.

At the end of the signal was the 12" speaker. I popped off the leads and checked the speaker to see what impendence it was and the multimeter read -- nothing. He's dead, Jim. So I haphazardly  hooked up a small speaker just to see if this amp produced sound, which it did. I reported back to my brother all he needed was a replacement speaker and it's good to go. Well, that's been a few weeks and it's taking up quite a bit of space, so I decided to take it upon myself to see what I could do to move this project along a bit.

The first thing I learned was the Scorpion speakers have removable magnets. Interesting! Once the magnet is removed the voice coil is right there. Let's check some continuity. From the lugs to what should be the start of each side of the coil is fine. Then I found continuity throughout the entirety of the coil. After probing around with my multimeter I found the break in the coil is RIGHT BESIDE where it should connect to the output lug. Solder bridge to the rescue! Except, it's not that easy. Dealing with the speaker was tough, and trying to solder in such a small space was even worse. After some trial and error, mostly error, I finally got a solid 6.2 ohms through the speaker consistently.

I carefully replaced the magnet, snugged it up, placed the speaker back into the Peavey and it worked. For a brief period of time. I checked the speaker and the continuity was yet again broken. I painstakingly ran another solder bridge and got the continuity back and tried one more time. Again, the speaker worked and after about ten minutes decided it was done. I'm not trying it again. If it's done, I'm done dealing with it. I'm not a speaker repair person, I'm just someone who can search on Google and then apply that knowledge to real life. The real MVP here is the ability to remove the magnet that gave me the chance to find the fault and attempt the repair. I've made sure the solder bridge isn't massive and rubbing up against anything, but it shouldn't be so frail it falls apart. I just think this speaker is done and doesn't want to be repaired, so I will abide by its clear wishes. At least I tried.

O Cartridge, Where Art Thou?

Sometimes I'm more shocked by the games that I don't own rather than the ones that I do. I own a few games that are difficult to find, but only because I found them cheap during my thrifting adventures. What I don't own, however, is a North American version of Super Mario Kart. I bought a Super Famicom version a few years ago, and since the menus are super easy to navigate, even for a dolt like myself who can't read Japanese, the cartridge was perfectly serviceable for my needs. I don't own a copy of Super Mario 64 either; I don't even own the DS remake. I don't own a copy of A Link to the Past, Super Metroid or even Kirby's Adventure. All ubiquitous games, I've just never found them in the wild.

To say I've never found them would be inaccurate, but what I consider to be in the wild is in a thrift store, flea market or at the outlet store. All these games are readily available at almost any media resale store around me, but I always held out hope I would find them for cheaper in the wild, where prices used to be less regulated by greed. I remember thrift stores having stacks of common games that I had tons of, for exceedingly cheap prices too, but most of the time they had already been picked through and the good games were gone. What was left were things I would pick up for trades or to fill out my collection.

Perhaps I'm frugal to a fault, but I feel I don't need something unless I'm comfortable with the price. As time moves on prices are shooting up, and that's really exacerbating things. I'm not looking to have a complete collection, or to own all the rare games on any given console. I just want to own the staples of each console, that way I can enjoy them like most people my age did when they were kids. As if it's a Friday night and I just rented this game, or came back from Toys R Us with a new game for getting good grades and I was going to use it to numb my mind for the weekend.

Sure, I can emulate all of the games in question, and I certainly have throughout the years. I still retain there is something to be said about genuinely having the cartridge, or in the case of the Playstation the disc, and playing it on the original hardware. I found a PSOne console a few weeks back that I have no clue where it came from. It's not on my spreadsheet of consoles, but it was hidden inside a bag of my stuff. I decided to spend the day fully testing it, and let me tell you being 41 never felt so much like 16 this entire year. It was an absolute blast! So again, I could easily replicate the gameplay with an emulator, but for me personally nothing beats the original hardware, software and controller. I just need to find the staple games of the consoles I love and live that reality.