Running Bear's July 2025 Coffee Shop

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Before I made dinner I was in the train room. Did a little remodelling of the new Roseville Station, then ran a few trains.

A Leeds, Scarcroft & Wetherby Railway train with LSWR B4 locomotive in charge. Two LSWR carriages behind

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A Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway 2.4.2 tank locomotive with a short freight train

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Same train approaching Leeds Sovereign Street Station

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For dinner I cooked Pork Steaks and vegetables. Clean plates all round.
 
Thank you, Troy, I neglected to comment on this post. But I did click that I loved it, as I always do with your creations.

How do you or they determine the attributes for these creations?
Well, there are stats for each unit/creature from the game designer. Most games like this now have an app, so we can keep our army list on our phone or table. Click the little eyeball next to a term, and the app will define the term or special rule for you.

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M is MOVE = 7" per action
V is what number we roll (or less, eg 1 or 2) when we shoot the blast cannons to score a hit.
C is what number we roll when we fight in melee to score a hit
A is Attacks or how many dice we roll in melee combat attempting to score a hit.
W is how many wounds the critter has (or if it's a regiment, how many wounds each stand of dudes has).
R is the resolve... that is the morale...
D is the Defense of the creature (basically his armor rating)
E is Evasion. My Hellbringer Drake is big and slow, but nimble. If someone punches hard enough armor doesn't matter, he can attempt to dodge it instead.

This game reverses the die rolls. LOW is GOOD on the dice. BUT that means the stats look great to those used to HIGH is good.

These stats can and do change. Three times a year, this company does some minor tweaks to each faction (and the core rules of the game). They're trying to achieve balance and parity between each of the 9 factions in the game. And this faction is in the hot seat for a total makeover in Sept. Those stats will probably change. And for good reason. There are currently three units in my army that are sitting a shelf because the stats vs the points they cost (The Hellbringer is 200 pts - upper right in the pic)...

I'm sure that's clear as mud. But, like stats in Baseball, it's fun for those who understand the game.
 


@Bruette: Well...I think you are gonna end up spending a lot of time and money you don't have to spend if you start swapping out motherboards. I would just say DON'T go that way unless you really have to. And you shouldn't have to at all.

That said, to explain quickly the other options isn't super-simple, and rather than have me try, I suggest you set aside some time and let some Youtube semi-experts have a go instead: Here's just one of many links on the Windows 10 EOL (End of Life) problem) and why it doesn't have to kill your PC's:

And another:

A word of caution: You can buy Windows license keys and build yourself an "evaluation USB stick" for any of these many options. I think they are good for about 90 days and you boot the computer from the "test-out" stick to see how much you like it or not. IF you try this, do be aware that, because you are booting the PC's from a USB stick (make sure you boot from a USB 3.0 stick if you can, and if the PC has a 3.0 port always use that) the boot up itself is going to be quite slow compared to booting from a normal hard-drive. Don't let that stop you though, because once installed in place of your original Windows, the new LTSC version will almost certainly be quicker than the original was.

You can even (apparently) install Windows 11 LTSC onto Windows 10 PC's that officially might not support it without any problems. Should you really need Windows 11 for some reason. But I'm with ctclibby on this one, and Windows 10 did everything I wanted it to do, such that I don't see a good reason to install Windows 11 on even the new PC I'm putting together from components. Or at least not yet. Even if it will run Win 11 without problems.

FWIW, ctclibby was quite right too when he pointed out that adequate PC's need not be pricey these days...and you might want to look into them for future reference:

The drawback to all this is that to understand a lot of it you WILL end up doing some research, whether watching Youtube vids or reading, which I think you were trying to avoid...but it's the modern world. Hard to avoid it unless you are willing to risk "gettin' took" or just making buying mistakes which can be avoided.

5 PC's. Meh. Don't envy you there.
 
My dad was lifer with IBM. The one thing I learned about engineers is that they want to/love to always try to fix what ain't broke. There was never any program that couldn't be messed with. Drove me nuts when he sat down at my desk.

All this hand wringing to upgrade, not upgrade, fix it this way, do it this way, brings back memories.

I kept it simple. I had a 10 year old box. 2 months ago I ordered a new 2025 production HP, with an AMD Ryzen 7, and the home version of W11. Everything has worked seamlessly since plugging it in.

Not telling you guys what to do, but I know you tech guys like to complicate stuff for fun. 😁
 
86 with a light breeze, I dug up a small boulder this afternoon for the wife, hauled it up in the wheelbarrow

I wanted to sweat a little, and was not disappointed, I needed some exercise after laying around pretty much all yesterday afternoon

Beth (the missus) is cooking this week, we had a tasty sweet and sour crock pot dish for supper

Playing with trains on the agenda for tomorrow morning

Cordless tools: everything I have either plugs in or is manual. Except flashlights, which may technically be considered a tool.

I lived 5 years without electricity, built two log cabins in that time. Using the chainsaw and hand tools only, you might be surprised that many tasks are quicker.

Dave LASM
 
Welcome back, Willie!

I had PT this afternoon, they are happy with my progress. Looking more like I'll be heading back afterv4 weeks instead of 6. I can keep more of my time.

On tap tomorrow, I lose the bandage that has been in place since surgery. I think it's keeping me from bending further. Off everything except 81mg aspirin for blood thinner, prilosec to keep aspirin and ibuprofen interactions, and ibuprofen mostly to keep swelling down as there really isn't any pain.
 
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Hit 102 today with a HI of 110. Yeah, and definitely thanking God for an air conditioned home. Got the scrubbing done on the buggered Taurus Judge, the innards are just enough different from the S&Ws I normally work on to have been a minor problem, but nothing insurmountable. Found a couple of magazines for a Sig 230 I own in the backroom and they came home with me. Got home to find LadyC had made a really nice salad for dinner. And as hot as it was, a nice cool salad was a perfect dinner.
And for a grin:
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My dad was lifer with IBM. The one thing I learned about engineers is that they want to/love to always try to fix what ain't broke. There was never any program that couldn't be messed with. Drove me nuts when he sat down at my desk.

All this hand wringing to upgrade, not upgrade, fix it this way, do it this way, brings back memories.

I kept it simple. I had a 10 year old box. 2 months ago I ordered a new 2025 production HP, with an AMD Ryzen 7, and the home version of W11. Everything has worked seamlessly since plugging it in.

Not telling you guys what to do, but I know you tech guys like to complicate stuff for fun. 😁
As someone who did OS support for 40 some years, I find that it best to try to keep up with the current software. It may seem comfy to stick with an old release, Windows 98 ran good, and we Liked it that way. While doing security, I would get almost daily updates from CERN, about the current vulnerabilities in all OS software, and hopefully a fix. I tried to keep my software updated to address the current vulnerabilities. I usually got push back from the application folks, who would scream, "you can't update JAVA my application won't work". JAVA seemed to have the most security holes as any other function.

My advice is got to the latest releases. Get windows 11 Amateur, if you don't want to spend the bucks for Pro. But, keep up to date.
 
@Marlin39 Every time I build a new PC, which is as seldom as possible, I end up having to come up to speed with the current state of the PC art, but I otherwise try to avoid it. My own new box will also be a Ryzen 7, but because I dabble in a very small niche within a not much larger niche (sim-racing), I sometimes end up building my own, instead of buying built. That's the case this time, because I couldn't find an otherwise current system with the one-generation-older v. card I wanted...so I end up doing it myself again.

All the parts have been sitting over there for two months, just waiting to be put together. Growing more obsolete with each passing hour...and I should just get it done, I know....

As for IBM, the generations before us all were. I'd be a fourth gen myself, in fact, but such talents as I have don't really line up with tech. I learn just enough to get things done, then forget most of it for five years, etc. Then drag myself back up to speed for the next upgrade...then forget it all again.

I'm even worse at auto-repair, but with more time than money, you just have to get grungy at times. At least I do.
 
As someone who did OS support for 40 some years, I find that it best to try to keep up with the current software. It may seem comfy to stick with an old release, Windows 98 ran good, and we Liked it that way. While doing security, I would get almost daily updates from CERN, about the current vulnerabilities in all OS software, and hopefully a fix. I tried to keep my software updated to address the current vulnerabilities. I usually got push back from the application folks, who would scream, "you can't update JAVA my application won't work". JAVA seemed to have the most security holes as any other function.

My advice is got to the latest releases. Get windows 11 Amateur, if you don't want to spend the bucks for Pro. But, keep up to date.
I would expect nothing less from someone who lives in the tech world. It's your industry and life. I get it. I've nothing, but respect for you guys.

Me, a computer is a tool that lets me search the internet, watch videos, and buy stuff. When I get prompted to update I do. ;)
 
@Bruette:

And:

So you MIGHT upgrade those five PC's now...but I suspect you won't want to do it with all of them.
Those are hacks not condoned by M$, and may or may not work long-term. If they work, it's a way to buy time before adding more e-waste to your local landfill.
There is a way to get Win 10 updates for an additional year, though it means some hoops to jump through.
 
MS won't warrant that Win 11 will run, but it might run just fine. Or not, that's true.

Right now the "safe" thing with a Win 10 "non-upgradable" PC is to buy one more year of coverage through MS themselves up into Oct of 2026 for ($30 US)...or buy several more years of updates by installing a Windows 10 Enterprise version instead. Win 10 LTSC gets you up to 2027, and Win 10 IoT LTSC gets you to 2031.

Yeah, they buy time. But eventually those PC's will need alternative OS's if they are still wanted or needed.

It could be a lot more painful, like the days when the railroads finally phased out steam for diesel. That still brings a tear to many an older eye...
...but I can't see myself lamenting it much, unless some of my old DIY race hardware just won't work with Win 11 for some reason, that is. So far, so good there.
 
That Ozzy Pepsi Twister commercial that was posted a few days ago was another fun one with Florence Henderson.

This Weird Al parody has an interesting history. Weird Al always gets permission from the original song owner and he thought he had Coolio's permission as he had gotten an OK from someone in Coolio's camp. But Coolio was not happy. He (Coolio) later realized he had over reacted and patched things up and admitted he had over reacted and made a mistake and gave it his blessing.
 
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