So for some background to start - last week sucked it up for me. I was finishing my end of quarter / end of year at work which is a lot of HR tasks. Finishing up pay planning for my team, doing appraisals including a self-appraisal, request and reviewing feedback on team members and myself, just all around would rather be out in the labs than doing this kind of work and I don't even do lab work anymore. Then on Thursday I get a text from my wife, we just had a big power flicker at the house. This is pretty un-common in our area. The power infrastructure in my neighborhood is all buried, so no power poles etc. We are also pretty close to a sub-station, so even if something goes wrong on the other side we are typically shielded from it. So I don't think much of it, until I get home to discover that my battery back up is dead - and for some reason my gaming PC has no internet.
WTF is this - everything else in the house is working. The system was on the surge protect side of the back-up, so even if it didn't shut down gracefully it should not have eaten a surge right. Run diagnostics all over the system - nothing is helping. I moved the cable to a laptop to check it. Laptops works fine. Plug it back in to big gamer - nada. Change switch ports -nope. Change cable even though I already checked it - negative. Pull the cable off of my jedi box that runs SWG all the time and was unaffected - still nope. I can see an IP table, but I can get no access to the outside world. Did I fry the nic card somehow? Order a new nic just to be sure - because NO PLACE IN TOWN has them on a shelf..... seriously!?! 2 walmarts, 2 bestbuys, 1 office depot later I am ordering from Amazon and it cannot be overnighted. In the end - I waited until Saturday for the new nic - it still did not fix the issue. I had to load a fresh image onto the rig and set everything back up. Below are the "travel journals" that I texted to my play group during the days. Enjoy.
Day 1 without EQ - I tell myself It's not the end of the world. We can't play EQ live or P99, but I have a lot of other games I can play right? As it turns out - no. Since we have no access to anything we can't connect to our steam library or our blizzard library. Can't spend the evening playing on DnD Beyond theory crafting toons because we have no internet. Is this how non-gamers spend their evenings? Watching television without several screens of gaming going on? Weak! What if I just reorganize the entire desk to bring the jedi-box out of the corner and try to set it all up for gaming? Nah - that will take forever, it doesn't have anything loaded. I know! I can use my laptop and play one of my characters to at least get my fix. Can't do P99 since it's not set up, but I can roll one of my live toons. We log in - let's try to get something done. We leave PoK. We are all alone in the world for the first time in years. Where the hell are my maps? Oh right, no Brewal or MQ2. Why aren't you running to the zone like I told you on the spiffy line.... dammit - see previous statement. Im so alone. I feel so vulnerable without my team. It's cold out here. Is this really how normal people play EQ? Just one toon at a time? Peasants! This is only making it worse. Im going to bed....
Day 2 without EQ - Tried to make eq work on my linux box, it has enough power to run my whole team. Came to the conclusion of screw everything about gaming on linux. What if I just run all the laptops separately and go super old school. Desk isn't big enough, daughter screams when I try to take her school laptop. Seemed logical for a minute. Cold sweats have begun to set in. Winter is coming. Cold is the hour upon which our discontent is at it's peak. I have left multiple small brown parcels on the porch while camping the door for the FedEx man. Not much material left to forage here. May have to leave my camp in search of supplies. The wife has locked the door. May need a rogue to get back into the bosses room. This dungeon may be above my level range. Reality may be slipping away. I can't find my camp button to sleep safely. I agro'd the small one again. Loading... please wait.
Day 3 without EQ - Wife tries to distract me with family Switch time. Not my normal self in Mario Kart - missing my power slides. Haven't won a single race. This is not helping. I catch myself missing my comfy gaming chair, headphones, and the glorious sound of EQ logging in 6 toons at a time. Such a distant memory now, this new world is not my happy place. I don't fit in with these, normals. Let's just do house chores. Yeah, that will keep my mind busy while I wait for the Fed-Ex man. Sweep and mop in the kitchen. No packages. Run the vacuum in the living room and office. Still no. Hurry up man! Grab the little vacuum and do the stairs. Nothing. Help the wife reorganize the living room and hang some pictures. Knock knock.. Get outta my way! Violate every covid rule by tackling the Fed Ex man. GIVE IT TO ME!! It is mine at last, the key to my salvation. Dig up the rig from behind my wall of monitors. Deftly remove case screws and quickly install new card. Carefully place her back in her perch. Power her up. The green glow of the case fans behind the screens sends a wave of comfort down my spine. WHAT THE F*&$ !! So no! Call my network security and infrastructure friend. Spend 2 hours going over everything. It has come to this. Back up my files to the game drive. Double check everything. Dig up my USB CD-Rom, load a fresh image. Spend hours patching, downloading, putting everything back in it's place. EQ check. P99 check. Steam & Discord. Yup and yup. Blizzard loader - that bitch can wait. AVG - done. All drivers in place. Sound system is a go. All 5 screens are ready to go again. Pull down the RedGuides loader. Align all my folders. Everything seems in order. Hmm, no profiles. It's okay, let's just get the main team up and going. New profile. Launch all 6. Glorious. I feel the tension leaving my neck and spine. The world is right. Slam the start button. Nothing happens. Umm. Why aren't they in my group. Everyone is just standing around. OMG. Did I ?.... How did I not ....... I didn't back up my MQ2 folder!!!! No macros, no ini files, all of my settings and pre-fab groups. NOOOOOOOOOO! Honey its time for the superbowl - screw football! Just leave the snacks at the office door, I have 3 years of macros and teams to rebuild from scratch....
Moral of the story - always back up all of your folders gang. ALL of your folders.
WTF is this - everything else in the house is working. The system was on the surge protect side of the back-up, so even if it didn't shut down gracefully it should not have eaten a surge right. Run diagnostics all over the system - nothing is helping. I moved the cable to a laptop to check it. Laptops works fine. Plug it back in to big gamer - nada. Change switch ports -nope. Change cable even though I already checked it - negative. Pull the cable off of my jedi box that runs SWG all the time and was unaffected - still nope. I can see an IP table, but I can get no access to the outside world. Did I fry the nic card somehow? Order a new nic just to be sure - because NO PLACE IN TOWN has them on a shelf..... seriously!?! 2 walmarts, 2 bestbuys, 1 office depot later I am ordering from Amazon and it cannot be overnighted. In the end - I waited until Saturday for the new nic - it still did not fix the issue. I had to load a fresh image onto the rig and set everything back up. Below are the "travel journals" that I texted to my play group during the days. Enjoy.
Day 1 without EQ - I tell myself It's not the end of the world. We can't play EQ live or P99, but I have a lot of other games I can play right? As it turns out - no. Since we have no access to anything we can't connect to our steam library or our blizzard library. Can't spend the evening playing on DnD Beyond theory crafting toons because we have no internet. Is this how non-gamers spend their evenings? Watching television without several screens of gaming going on? Weak! What if I just reorganize the entire desk to bring the jedi-box out of the corner and try to set it all up for gaming? Nah - that will take forever, it doesn't have anything loaded. I know! I can use my laptop and play one of my characters to at least get my fix. Can't do P99 since it's not set up, but I can roll one of my live toons. We log in - let's try to get something done. We leave PoK. We are all alone in the world for the first time in years. Where the hell are my maps? Oh right, no Brewal or MQ2. Why aren't you running to the zone like I told you on the spiffy line.... dammit - see previous statement. Im so alone. I feel so vulnerable without my team. It's cold out here. Is this really how normal people play EQ? Just one toon at a time? Peasants! This is only making it worse. Im going to bed....
Day 2 without EQ - Tried to make eq work on my linux box, it has enough power to run my whole team. Came to the conclusion of screw everything about gaming on linux. What if I just run all the laptops separately and go super old school. Desk isn't big enough, daughter screams when I try to take her school laptop. Seemed logical for a minute. Cold sweats have begun to set in. Winter is coming. Cold is the hour upon which our discontent is at it's peak. I have left multiple small brown parcels on the porch while camping the door for the FedEx man. Not much material left to forage here. May have to leave my camp in search of supplies. The wife has locked the door. May need a rogue to get back into the bosses room. This dungeon may be above my level range. Reality may be slipping away. I can't find my camp button to sleep safely. I agro'd the small one again. Loading... please wait.
Day 3 without EQ - Wife tries to distract me with family Switch time. Not my normal self in Mario Kart - missing my power slides. Haven't won a single race. This is not helping. I catch myself missing my comfy gaming chair, headphones, and the glorious sound of EQ logging in 6 toons at a time. Such a distant memory now, this new world is not my happy place. I don't fit in with these, normals. Let's just do house chores. Yeah, that will keep my mind busy while I wait for the Fed-Ex man. Sweep and mop in the kitchen. No packages. Run the vacuum in the living room and office. Still no. Hurry up man! Grab the little vacuum and do the stairs. Nothing. Help the wife reorganize the living room and hang some pictures. Knock knock.. Get outta my way! Violate every covid rule by tackling the Fed Ex man. GIVE IT TO ME!! It is mine at last, the key to my salvation. Dig up the rig from behind my wall of monitors. Deftly remove case screws and quickly install new card. Carefully place her back in her perch. Power her up. The green glow of the case fans behind the screens sends a wave of comfort down my spine. WHAT THE F*&$ !! So no! Call my network security and infrastructure friend. Spend 2 hours going over everything. It has come to this. Back up my files to the game drive. Double check everything. Dig up my USB CD-Rom, load a fresh image. Spend hours patching, downloading, putting everything back in it's place. EQ check. P99 check. Steam & Discord. Yup and yup. Blizzard loader - that bitch can wait. AVG - done. All drivers in place. Sound system is a go. All 5 screens are ready to go again. Pull down the RedGuides loader. Align all my folders. Everything seems in order. Hmm, no profiles. It's okay, let's just get the main team up and going. New profile. Launch all 6. Glorious. I feel the tension leaving my neck and spine. The world is right. Slam the start button. Nothing happens. Umm. Why aren't they in my group. Everyone is just standing around. OMG. Did I ?.... How did I not ....... I didn't back up my MQ2 folder!!!! No macros, no ini files, all of my settings and pre-fab groups. NOOOOOOOOOO! Honey its time for the superbowl - screw football! Just leave the snacks at the office door, I have 3 years of macros and teams to rebuild from scratch....
Moral of the story - always back up all of your folders gang. ALL of your folders.