Misc. updates - Gauntlet, Parker, Linux, Work

Oh god, I only have an hour before midnight. Can I make a post?

Gauntlet II

Can Gauntlet II be soloed?

YES.

In fact, it's so easy you'd have a hard time not soloing Gauntlet II. I continued saving my state every level after the last entry, but I never needed to load it after level 18. I got stuck figuring out how the stupid teleporters work--and they remain obnoxious--but once you get going, you're going. I maxed out the score at 99990 somewhere around level 60. According to ASchultz's maps, the last level with a unique layout is 117. After that, all of the levels are recycled. Thus, having made it to level 118 with close to max everything--max score, max stat upgrades and having reached the maximum food level of 9999--I'm comfortable saying I 100%ed the game. I had a much better time than I thought I would. There was a bit where I felt it might be a 4❤️ game, but once I got past the difficulty hump, it got a lot less interesting. Still a solid 3-bagger. I wonder if playing as one of the weaker classes would make an interesting challenge run. Perhaps a true "ironman" run, where I don't make any savestates at all. Definitely doable with the wizard, and probably the other classes too.

Part of me wants to keep playing and see how far I can push it. I assume they didn't use more than an 8-bit number for the level, so I wonder if pushing past level 255 would result in some kind of "kill screen". Probably not. It's probably like the score and food--the numbers just stop going up. Since Gauntlet II doesn't have an ending, the leaderboards at speedrun.com have categories for "10 levels" and "kill a dragon". Maybe I can be the first to run the 100% category. Level 255, 99990 score, 9999 food. It would be like an 8 hour speedrun. That would be very silly.

The Parker novels

Book 1, The Hunter, was a 2/5. Book 2, The Man With the Getaway Face, was a 3/5. Book 3, The Outfit, is shaping up to be either 2 or 3/5. Depends on where the plot goes. I wasn't going to read 3 in a row, but the first three form a loose miniseries, so I figured I might as well. I haven't hated any of them, and they're unlike much else I've read. There are parts of each of them I find really unpleasant, but I don't regret reading them. I can learn a lot from Westlake's smart, efficient style. I've been listening to the Secret Agent station on SomaFM, and that's helping enhance the mood. 60s spy music for 60s crime novels. Although lately it's been a lot heavier on the synths than I would like for this purpose. "Tiki Time" and "Illinois Street Lounge" are both appropriate too.

Linux

Do people just not care that numlock randomly turns off for no reason? I thought it was because I'm accidentally pressing numlock or because the screensaver kicks on, but no. I'm not touching the keyboard for extended periods and the screensaver is disabled, and I'm still routinely finding myself needing to press numlock again to type numbers. I've tried googling, and it's mostly people complaining that numlock is off when their computer starts up. That's annoying too, but I'm not rebooting! My computer is just sitting idle and numlock keeps turning off! I tried running a program people have suggested called "numlockx" and I can use it to toggle numlock on, but it doesn't stay on. Do I need to just make a script that does "numlockx on" every few minutes and have it running all the time? That seems less than ideal, but I can't even confirm that anyone else is having this problem. This is the only consistent annoyance I've encountered with linux so far, which is good, but ugh. It's like when you're reassembling something and most of the screws go in perfectly, and you get to the last screw, and it strips, and that one loose screw causes the whole thing to wobble. It's not going to fall over, but fuck, I wish it didn't wobble.

Work

Yesterday was hell. Tuesdays always are when I have to do Cockatoo's job. Today was less bad, but still annoying. One of the parts of Cockatoo's job was annoyingly more complicated than usual. I have to access several systems I normally don't need to touch, and whether I'll be allowed to log in to them again is always an open question. That's what prompted my mini-rant about verification questions yesterday. I eventually finished up my work for the day and was able to read a little, but I couldn't think of anything to write about. I guess I still can't, since it's 23h42 and I'm just writing a generic update post. Tomorrow's the last day I have to do Cockatoo's job, then I'm off Friday, and after that I can relax a little bit. I'll have more WPUs, but I'm caught up and I can pace myself. Also I looked at the last few weeks' data, and it's not 125 a week anymore, it's more like 110, which means I only have to do 22 a day instead of 25. Plus whatever corrections come in. Things are looking up!