How?
I can’t wrap my brain around it.
The real fix to hearing your mic in your headphones
If you want to skip ahead, dear reader, the answer is down there.
It is infuriating to have a technical issue that you know you’ve fixed previously, but when you search the ‘net for the solution you know exists, all you get are results for the incorrect fix. I am posting this to document the problem I had yesterday and the real fix for it, in the hope that it might save someone else in the future, or even me if it comes up again and I forget what the fix is.
This past weekend I upgraded my computer, going from an Intel Core i7-7700 to a modern AMD Ryzen 7 7800x3D because gaming. Because I was doing a CPU swap I wanted a nice fresh install of Windows 10 instead of porting over all the cruft of my previous installation. I wrote a step-by-step for the whole thing just to help my neurodivergent brain, and I will post that at some point now that it’s done.
But because it’s a fresh install, I ran in to a problem that I’ve had before. When I put my headphones on to play the game that prompted all this nerdery, Dragon Age The Veilguard, I could hear my microphone playing in my headphones. In audio terms I was monitoring my mic.
I went to Start > Settings > System > Sound, clicked on Sound Control Panel, and went to the Recording tab. I selected my microphone (Yeti Classic) and clicked Properties. And lo and behold, the “Listen to this device” box was unchecked. That means it shouldn’t be coming through my headphones. There must be some other fix.
So off I went to generically google the solution. And I found page after page after page of people saying the solution was to uncheck the “Listen to this device” box. But it’s already unchecked! I even found people, like me, asking what to do if the box is already unchecked. And the answers wandered off in the direction of reinstalling the audio drivers or using Microsoft’s useless troubleshooters. That ain’t it, chief.
The answer, dear reader, is this:
The Real Answer to Not Monitor Your Mic
You have to check the “Listen to this device” box, click Apply, then uncheck it again, and click Apply again.
Yes, you have to turn it on and off again. That did the trick. I don’t remember how I came up with this the last time it plagued me, or if there was a page that mentions this annoying bug that has fallen out of the top 20 or 30 search results (thanks, Google), but now it’s documented.
I had so much frustration with this. I want to spare you, the reader, any future frustration. Maybe this is only in Windows 10, so it will eventually stop being a thing when support ends for Win10 in a year. But at least now, I’ve done my duty and shared it. Now go share this so others can find it. Thanks for listening.
22nd Blogiversary
Today marks the 22nd year of this blog. As long-time readers will know, because I mention it frequently, my first post was made on 2 November 2002. It was about an ex for whom I still held hard feelings. Those feelings have faded and now I wish them nothing but happiness. Time heals all wounds.
I knew this day was coming but I wasn’t sure how to celebrate it. I am still writing 500+ words a day but not posting as often. I have a post that is almost ready to post but I want to give it a rewrite. But the longer I take to do that, the less timely it is. I might not post it in its current form.
In the meantime, I can tell that there are people out there reading my words. Not a lot of you, but you’re out there. And you browse the archives, if the referrers mean anything. So thank you! Hopefully you’re finding my best stuff.
Today I am working on upgrading my computer, primarily the CPU. Dragon Age The Veilguard came out last week and it turns out my computer struggles to play it. I’ve been eyeing an upgrade, so that convinced me to purchase an AMD Ryzen 7 7800x3D, the best CPU for gaming out there right now. I’m not building a whole new PC from scratch; I’m trying to do this smartly. But new CPU did mean a new motherboard and RAM. And since I’m switching architecture (Intel x86 to AMD) the smart thing to do is a fresh Windows install.
That surprisingly lead me to a new problem. My current PC runs Windows 10. I don’t really want to upgrade to Win11 just yet. But when I created a boot drive to install Win10 from Rufus gave me an error that I’m using an ISO with a revoked bootloader.
What the what?
Many hours of research and testing later, and I found out that the most recent installer for Windows 10, straight from Microsoft, using the Windows Media Creation Tool, is not patched to mitigate against the bootloader virus Black Lotus. Huh. What this means, in short, is that if I use a thumb drive I create with that ISO to install Windows 10, it probably won’t boot with Secure Boot turned on. I spent so much time on this because I really wanted to keep using Win 10 until the absolute last minute. Honestly, though, I should bite the bullet and install Win11. I just don’t have a key for Win11 but I have one for Win10 Pro. Sigh.
The second roadblock to upgrading my computer brain is my own damned fault. To save money I just figured I would use the same CPU cooler I have on my ancient Intel chip. But I forgot that the mounting bracket for AMD sockets (AM5 in this case) is different than Intel chips. My cooler came with both kinds but I tossed the one I didn’t need, which really isn’t like me at all. So now I have to wait for another CPU fan to show up before I begin the operation.
I wrote up a whole step-by-step process for the upgrade last night, just to make sure I have everything to hand and understand the whole thing. This is how my brain works; it helps me to know the trip before I start. It’s why I know I don’t have the right bracket. I do, however, have a stack of thumb drives, full of all the drivers and installers I need, and multiple backups, and logins and passwords. I am more than ready. I’ve even benchmarked my current system so I can compare it to the newly upgraded computer!
That’s what I’ve been doing last night after work and most of today, along with grocery shopping and going for a walk (while waiting for a user profile backup to finish) instead of planning something for my blogiversary. Hopefully you don’t mind, dear reader.
Once the upgrade is done I should post my step-by-step as a technical article. This blog isn’t just about living with my aging dad, after all.
Go Dodger Blue
OK, the Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles have just won the World Series, beating the New York Yankers of Yankertown 4 games to 1. Tonight’s game was exciting and could have seriously gone either way. New York got up five runs to none, and then the Dodgers just kept chipping away at them until, late in the game, they took the lead by one slim run. The Dodgers did not get those runs with homers, they just loaded the bases and got base hits and racked up RBIs. A fun game, but of course, I am biased. I have been a Dodger fan since the late 1980s, when the combination of a friend who likes sports and a personal computer that could play games intersected with the Dodgers winning the World Series in spectacular fashion combined to give me a life long love of baseball and Dodger blue.
It is true that I picked the winning team in 1988. My friend at the time even warned me that I was in danger of becoming a bandwagon fan, which was bad, or something. But then the Dodgers did OK but not World Series OK for many, many, many years. To me, they were like the Portland Trailblazers, my hometown team: they always did OK in the season, and almost always made the playoffs, but rarely made it all the way through to the last series, the NBA Finals or the World Series.
So, to prove my fandom was not fickle, I stuck with them: the Blazers, and the Dodgers. The Blazers because they were my home town team, and the Dodgers because I had to dance with the one I brung. Or, um, something.
Even though I considered the Los Angeles Dodgers my team, I had a heirarchy below them. I liked other teams, for reasons as silly and as arbitrary as any other fan. After dating Corina, I rooted for the Detroit Tigers because she was from Detroit, whenever I had a chance. I would always pick a National League team over an American League team, because, of course, pitchers should hit. Though MLB has gotten rid of that distinction between the leagues for now, I have to believe that it will come back at some point. It’s traditional.
When mom was still alive, she liked baseball, too, and so when the World Series would come around, we would pick teams. I would always pick the National League team unless it was the fucking Giants. She didn’t care who was playing she just liked being a little competitive, and it gave us a reason to chat and talk. In her final days, I did ask her if she really liked baseball, and she told me that she liked it because her mom loved it, and because I loved it, and it felt like a connection. I have no reason at all to doubt her answer.
And I never ever ever root for Seattle, or the Giants, or the fucking Yankers. Those three live at the bottom of my list and I would rather throw up the contents of my entire digestive tract twice than cheer on any of those teams. I’ll turn the game off and ignore it if they are the only ones left. Which doesn’t happen often, but, still. I got standards, y’all.
And now I can spend the winter being proud of being a Dodger fan, even though I had absolutely nothing to do with them winning. I earned it by hanging on through the 36 years of enjoyment and the attention I gave them. It was all worth it, and I am glad I have a very low-stakes but intricate thing to root for in these otherwise very dire and dark times.
Go Dodger Blue.
The sudden sads
“On my way home! Need anything?” I texted dad.
“I have a script ready at Albertsons but I need to go up there after you get home” he texted back.
“Can do!” I sent and pulled out of the parking lot. I listened to the Accidental Tech boys argue about storage media as I drove through the traffic of southeast Portland. Surface streets only. No freeways or highways for me. The days were getting cooler, sunset is coming sooner and sooner in the day. Fall had definitely fallen. I was tired but not sleepy, just wanted to go home and chill but still felt a duty to help dad out.
The ATP boys were particularly argumentative and it was very entertaining, if a bit stressful. Listening to them was sort of like cringe comedy sometimes except they’re mock-angry with each other. And anger is often hilarious. I used to say that all the time in the past.
I normally back in to my reserved parking spot but because I knew I was going to be leaving again soon, and because parking in front-first put the passenger door closer to the sidewalk, making it easier for dad, I parked normally.
“You’re home!” he said from the couch when I walked in. The couch faced at a right angle to the front door, and with the pin in his neck, he could not turn his head to see me. He was wearing his coat and hat, and it was kind of chilly in the apartment, so I turned up the heat a little. I chatted with him about work as he stood up and walked toward the door with me.
Night was definitely on the way as I drove him to the Albertsons. We were in the Magic Hour, just before sunset, and the colors were muted but beautiful. The sky had some clouds but mostly shone with a dark pale blue color.
“Any word on the house?” I asked him. He’s staying with me while his apartment is being remediated for asbestos and water damage.
“Lisa (my sister) said that they had the sheetrock up and were painting it. Probably be done by…” he paused. “Probably be done by, uh, her birthday. Middle of November.”
A car cut me off to cross two lanes. “The squirrels are out tonight, dad.” My turn to pause. “I’m going to miss having you around.”
Dad was quiet.
As I drove in to the parking lot, I asked dad if we needed anything from the store and he said I could shop around while he was waiting at the pharmacy counter.
I snapped a picture of the Albertsons sign, the beige stucco facade and the lit-up blue and white sign against the fading blue sky, with amber parking lot lights… it was pretty. I was glad I’d captured the scene.
Dad looked thin and tired, hunched over as we walked through the parking lot to the store. He went off to the back corner and I took a spin through the aisle. The bread I like was on sale, buy one get one free, so I had two loaves in hand when I caught up with him. “We can put one in the freezer,” I explained, and he grunted assent.
Meds obtained, we went though the checkout counter. No bad needed, miss. Dad wanted to get some cigarettes but the counter where they kept them had a line of people waiting and no checker behind. A lady asked a security guard if anyone was working the counter and the security guard didn’t know, politely. Dad decided he had enough smokes for tonight and he’d take the bus to the 7-11 tomorrow. We headed back out into the twilight.
I got to the car ahead of dad, unlocked the doors, and sat behind the wheel. The light outside was dying but beautifully. I sent the picture I took to Tracy, just to share. Dad got in, buckled up.
“This is the kind of light Spielberg likes to film in,” I said. Dad smiled, nodded.
I’m glad I have been here to help him out. I am going to miss him when he is not around.
Do you ever, suddenly, without warning, get the sads? Yeah. Me, too. Strange how swiftly it happens.
6 Months of Writing
Six months ago yesterday, I started writing daily. Although in the beginning I sometimes fell short, I mostly kept my committment to writing at least 500 words a day. For the longest time, I posted what I wrote. Recently, because I wanted to focus on writing and not necessarily posting, I stopped sharing my daily writings but I have kept up the streak.
Last night, curious about how much I’ve done, I sat down and added it all up. I wanted to mark the milestone. Because I do my writing in Writer, a distraction-free online text editor, I didn’t have an easy way to add up the word count. I had to do it manually, which was a bit of a pain. Luckily I only have to do that part once because now it’s all in a tidy spreadsheet.
I have written, in 6 months of intentional, habitual practice, just over one hundred thousand words. In fact, yesterday I passed that mark; the total as of last night is 100,323 words.
I was proud, and it made me cry a bit. That’s a lot of words. 100,323 divided by 182 days means an average of about 551 words a day. That daily number is easy enough to reach; clearly I can do it because I have done it. But 100K? That feels like a stretch. But I have demonstrated that I can do that, too.
Not every daily piece of writing is good writing. And they are not all on the same topic. Each one is whatever I wanted to write at the moment I sat down. Some of it is garbage (by my personal standards) and some of it is good (also by my own internal measure) but all of it is mine.
Is it time to ask a new question? Build on my success? Perhaps, perhaps. The obvious next step would be, can I do my daily writing towards a goal other than word count? Could I tell one continuous narrative?
I don’t know. Can I?
My Nerd Holidays
A friend of mine has fallen in love with The Last of Us, primarily through the HBO TV show. She has played a little bit of the game but I don’t think she’s finished it. All of this is preamble to her texting me a promo last week for Outbreak Day 2024 from Naughty Dog, the developer of the game series. She had thought it meant that Season 2 was coming sooner than previously announced.
I had to explain that Outbreak Day, traditionally 26 September, was the day in-game that the cordyceps infection reached the US. And because it’s a specific date, fans have made it a day to celebrate the game, story, and characters. The TV show is still not coming until next year; but fans will absolutely be celebrating Outbreak Day. She undersstood, though she was a bit disappointed.
I realized that there are lots of holidays on the Fan Calendar; dates that specific fandoms choose to talk about the stories and worlds they love. Here’s an incomplete listing of the fandoms I participate in, its meaning in-universe and in the real world, and whether or not it’s one I celebrate.
First Contact Day
In-universe: 5 April 2063
In the Star Trek universe, Zephrem Cochrane invented anti-matter/matter powered warp drive, taking flight in Earth’s first starship, the Phoenix, from Bozeman, Montana, United States of America, on 5 April 2063, an historic event. His flight attracted the attention of a Vulcan science ship, leading to Earth’s first recorded contact with extraterrestial life. Star Trek fans the world over celebrate every April on this day.
Star Wars Day
The Fourth of May
I’ve written before about how much I hate that a universe I love so very much gets it’s special universally-recognized day of the year from a foolish pun. Yes, yes, May the Fourth be with you. Ugh. By all rights, Star Wars Day should be May 25, since the original movie was released into theaters on 25 May 1977. But I don’t get to make the rules. May 4th is Star Wars Day.
The Last of Us Day (formerly Outbreak Day)
In universe: 26 September 2003 / 2013
This day celebrates the game and television series The Last of Us. The cordyceps infection reached a critical mass in the United States, having spread from South America (game) or Indonesia (TV show). In the real world, Naughty Dog renamed the day The Last of Us Day after the actual global pandemic of COVID-19 made outbreaks hit a bit too close to home.
The Great War
10 October 2077
The Fallout game series gives us the date of humanity’s Great War. In a single day in October, nuclear war destroyed the United States, turning the entire continent into a radiated wasteland full of mutants, ghouls, and leather-clad survivors. The bombs fell and it was all over very quickly.
Mass Effect Day
7 November
In the Mass Effect universe, Earth’s special forces can achieve an N designation, of which there are seven levels. The best of the best are known as an N7. Fans of the sci-fi series have taken that designation and declared November 7 “N7 Day“, and the developers and fans use the day to share fan art, stories, and raise donations for various charities and causes.
Love you
Dad, umprompted, said “Love you” today when I was leaving for work. Of course, I said it back, though it took me a minute or two to register its signifigance. I’ve been sneaking in a “love you” to him, mostly when I am headed to bed, here and there, just to see how he reacts, and today, he initiated it.
That’s a win over toxic masculinity. Dad is getting up there in age, he’s been making comments about not being in the best of shape and not being long for this world. I hate to hear it but of course, he is right. That still does not mean that he should not be careful or that we should not discourage or prevent him from doing dangerous things like, for example, drive.
But it does mean that we should absolutely treat every moment on this dumb planet of dumbness with some care. Savor the nice moments, tell each other that we love each other, and enjoy the sunrises and sunsets we have the privilege to notice and savor.
“Not long for this world” reminds me, always, that this is the only world we have. Yes, we are aware of other worlds out there; there are plenty of observed and named exoplanets, as well as several in our own solar system, like Mars, Venus, or several of the outer moons and asteroids. Those are all hostile to human life and too far away for easy travel.
And, of course, when someone like dad says they’re “not long for this world” they are referring to spiritual or post-death worlds, of which there are almost certainly none. At least they would be even more difficult to reach and return from than the exoplanets. Other dimensions may be mathmatically possible but that doesn’t mean a comic-book style multiverse exists that we can travel to and from. No alternate universe Brians and Dads out there, goatee’ed or not, to take over my life and tell me all my life choices have been agnoized over for no good reason.
We only have this one world, and it, my friends, is in terrible shape these days. Our pollution and reckless capitalism has caused an increase in the kinds of gasses that cause the world to get warmer overall, wreaking havoc on climates we have grown used to to provide us with air and clean water and food to eat and temperatures that don’t cause us to overheat or freeze.
That same capitalism has produced a handful of people (largely white men) who lord their power over us. They use that power to collect more pointless money above and beyond the unimaginable money and power they already have. They do this to the detriment of the large majority of the population. And scammers and con artists are fanning the flames of hate and anger to try to leverage even more power for themselves.
I won’t go on and on about the problems, though. For now, I just want to say that even in in the face of all those troubles, we can still smile a bit when someone who doesn’t usually, tells us they love us.
Love you, too, dad. G’night.
Hand-written HTML
Today is the 22nd anniversary of the Lunar Obverse blog on this domain, bamoon.com. I have a calendar entry that tells me I bought the domain on this day in 2002 but that’s not right; I bought the domain itself on 7 January 2001. I just didn’t do anything with it until 17 September 2002. I bought two other domains on that January day and I still own all of them. The other two are lunarobverse.com, and brian-moon.com.
What I wanted to purchase were moon.com, and lunar.com but even as early in the domain registration history as 2001 all of those had already been purchased and used. moon.com and lunar.com were both registered in 1994; and I would have sworn that brianmoon.com was already registered when I was looking for domains but according to the age checker, brianmoon.com was registered in 2005. I could have had my own damned name this whole damned time. Dammit.
So I don’t have to celebrate the anniversary of my domain just yet. I would like to celebrate this blog, though. I think the first host for this place was on an old internet service run by Steve Jackson Games out of Austin, TX, known as Illuminati Online, or IO.com for short. That service goes even farther back, having been a bulletin board system (BBS), run on personal computers and accessed by calling in over phone landlines, but I was never cool or rich enough to make long distance calls for chat and games. All the BBS’s I dialed in to had local numbers, or 800 numbers, like GEnie.
But in the late 90s I did finally get an email address at IO.com, and in my personal directory, I hand-wrote some HTML pages, used a simple graphics program to make a logo for Lunar Obverse, and started posting stories. The URL for it was something like http (no https yet) colon slash slash io dot com slash users slash public-html slash ~bmoon, and I was proud of it and the stories I posted there. I knew enough to know that this URL was never going to roll off the tongue (or the fingers) like apple.com but it was mine to post whatever I wanted.
At XOXO this year, Molly White started her talk by asking us to remember the first time the internet felt like magic. That old collection of HTML is mine. I probably have all those old files saved somewhere; I’m a digital packrat and tend to archive rather than delete. But whether or not those binaries are stored somewhere, the memories live on in my head. I wrote for the world wide web. I wasn’t special. Anyone could do it. That, paradoxically, is what made it special.
Eventually, after we survived Y2K, services like Blogger sprang up, providing homes for written word websites, and I moved my blog there. I am reasonably certain that Blogger is where I finally got to use bamoon.com, and this place reached it’s next form. I’ve written before about the transition from Blogger to bespoke blogging software written by a long-lost friend, and hosted on that friend’s server, my own computer, and now eminently portable as a WordPress site, so I won’t recount that story here. Suffice it to say that there are a lot of memories at this uniform resource locator (URL). Many many stories, and many more to come.
Thanks for reading, happy to have you here.
On This Day
Tomorrow will mark 22 years since I purchased the domain bamoon.com and began using it for my main space on the internets. Trying to think of a good way to celebrate.
Not to spoil things too much but the celebration will likely involve writing some words. Just sayin’.