Daily Ramblings – Bonus Content – Thanksgiving Countdown

Tags

Christmas, family, Friends, Good Food, Good times, Gratitude, Happiness, Holidays, New Years, passion, recharge, Relaxation, Thanksgiving

Ooh! Pumpkin pie, turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and all the rest await! It’s going to be a great Thanksgiving this year, like every year. I’ll be making the final grocery run tomorrow and I always end up getting more than we need.

I’m not much of a football fan, so I don’t watch the games, nor do I watch the parades. I used to when I was a kid, but now, I just enjoy hanging out and doing whatever. I’ll be doing a little gaming, reading, hanging out with the family, and eating a truckload of food, on and off all day long.

I decided today would be my last posting for the year, other than my holiday postings. I was going to continue all the way to the end of the month, but decided it was time to just shut things down for the rest of 2022. It’s been a great year, folks.

I’ve made some great friends here, that I would not have met anywhere else. So here’s a shameless plug for their blogs, in case you are interested:

https://kmallan.com/ – K.M. Allan is an Australian YA author. Her Blackbirch series is terrific. If you’re thinking of writing a book, she provides all kinds of tips, tricks, and real-world experience writing and publishing a book. She mailed me a copy of her first book, which was not cheap, and I so appreciate her.

https://tierneycreates.com/ – Enjoy crafting? Check out this blog for anything related to quilting, travel to cool places, and even some postings from one of her creations. Her husband is also quite the craftsman.

https://joannaoftheforest.wordpress.com/ – If you want some great pictures of the outdoors and enjoy reading articles that are happy and interesting, you’ll want to check out here postings.

I consider all three of these bloggers friends, because they always respond to my blog postings and we have had some interesting interactions.

Well, folks. I hope all of you have a terrific holiday season and get some time with friends, family, and your favorite hobbies. I’ll be doing what I love–gaming, reading, and writing. I’ll also be making some decisions about some daily postings that I’ve done this year, that I may change up, just to keep things fresh and help me explore new areas that I have not dove into before.

Happy Holidays, folks.

See you in 2023!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Holidays

Tags

Christmas, December Off, Holidays, motivation, New Year's, Relaxation, Thanksgiving

Well, folks, we are fast approaching the end of the year. As a reminder, I started a tradition last year that I will continue this year. I will be shutting down Daily Ramblings at the end of this week. For those of you who are new, December is the month I shut down everything. I literally take the whole month off to do what I want to do. I sleep in, I read for hours, I game, I hang out with family and friends that visit this time of year, pretty much no schedule, no obligations, nothing. It’s a great way for me personally to come into the new year strong. It also gives me time to think through what I want to accomplish in the new year as well.

Many of you are preparing for Thanksgiving (US) and many other holidays that are celebrated specifically in your country. There are too many to keep track of and recognize here. That being said, holidays are truly motivational because of their recuperating characteristics.

I know most of you do not have the ability to take an entire month off. I get it. But you do have the opportunity to take some time for yourself a few times this month. When I worked, we always got a four-day weekend for Thanksgiving with a half-day the day before. For Christmas and New Year’s, we always got a half-day before the holiday and depending on when it fell on the calendar, we’d get a three or four-day weekend. Some folks, save their paid time off (PTO) to capitalize on these holidays and string Christmas and New Year’s Day together.

I’ll remind you again when I shut this down for the year but wanted all of you to know in advance. I look forward to this month and toward the end of this month, I am really looking forward to getting back to my work schedule.

Well, that’s it for today, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Gaming Saturday – MW2 – Grinding Weapons – CODM – Multiple Challenges

Tags

Attachments, CODM, DMZ, Firing Range, Gunsmith, Kill Confirmed, MW2, Spartakus, Stonemountain64, Team Deathmatch, Warzone

Ok, folks, there is a lot to cover today. First, now that I’ve been playing MW2 for about a week, I’ve got some stuff to pass along. Warzone 2 is out now. I’m currently watching Spartakus on Facebook stream Warzone and it looks awesome. Spartakus is one of the streamers I watch on the weekend, because Stonemountain64 only streams Monday – Friday.

MW2

Weapons

The weapon system and gunsmith are different. You unlock weapons as you max them out. Some weapons can be maxed out at level 14, some go all the way to level 30 or so. At different levels other weapons will unlock. I’m taking the advice of Stonemountain64 by grinding every weapon in the game to unlock all the attachments. This is a huge difference in the gunsmith. When you unlock guns, the other guns, once you’ve gotten them to a certain level will have access to all the attachments you’ve earned before. I haven’t ground any camos yet but will later on.

Weapon tuning is available for a gun when you max it out. Weapon tuning allows you to control recoil, aiming stability (muzzle sway), and other things like that. It is a nice addition. There is also a firing range, which I highly recommend. You can access it in the gunsmith menu. If you’re an Xbox player, you’ll press and hold the Y button to get into it. There’s a door behind you (when you turn around away from the gun range). This door can be used to gauge a weapon’s recoil pattern. Some are really easy to deal with, while others are absolutely atrocious. But each weapon will unlock a unique attachment that is not available to other weapons until it is unlocked. Trust me. Grind all the weapons. You’ll thank me later.

Strategy for grinding weapons

The best modes to play are Kill Confirmed and Team Deathmatch. I was initially just playing Kill Confirmed, but I was dealing with some long queues, so I opted for Team Deathmatch as a means of getting into games more quickly. Some of the streamers were claiming that Invasion was also a good map to grind weapons because there are AI players in the game that are easier to kill. The problem is once everyone caught on to this, the advantages of playing Invasion went away. I get far more kills on Kill Confirmed than I did on Invasion. However, I will be playing Invasion and Ground War when I begin working on Marksman and Sniper rifles. These maps have great lanes for sniping and long-distance shots.

Tier 1

For those of you who like playing hardcore, Tier 1 is the new title. I love hardcore, because it is very realistic. You have no UAV, you have friendly fire, like the real thing, and you kill players with one or two shots. Mind you, they can also kill you that way, as well, but it’s great for grinding pistols, and even shotguns, if you are having difficulty grinding them in normal mode, which is more forgiving.

Special Ops missions

These are AI missions with small teams. If you have a buddy, you like playing with, these are terrific. I’ll be playing them with my brother or a friend I make playing the game. Activision announced that they will have a RAID during the season, but it is recommended you get leveled up in Special Ops missions, so you have the necessary ability to play the RAID mission.

Warzone 2

Warzone 2 is composed of all the maps that are played in multiplayer. It also acts the same as multiplayer. All weapons will be exactly the same. There is looting and inventory management, but the game play is exactly the same. I was thrown for a loop in the previous Verdansk map because they were different. Now the difference between the two are seamless.

DMZ

There is a DMZ mode in MW2 that is an extraction-based game. Think Escape from Tarkov. You get loot, and you take that loot with you, if you can extract from the game. The DMZ mission also works differently from Warzone. Instead of the cloud coming in, the DMZ mode has two radiation sites that expand outward, once the time threshold for the game has been reached. There are multiple missions to complete, and there is now a weapon skin for the M13B in DMZ, which is really cool. I have not played either of these modes yet, but will, once I have ground all the weapons to max.

I’ll cover this more in future postings.

CODM

CODM has so many challenges right now. I completed one yesterday to convert the M16 from a burst rife to full auto. What a huge difference. The M16 is really accurate. Now with the new Wildfire perk. Today, I’ll be grinding some CODM in Battle Royale. There are multiple challenges to complete and the anniversary map has all kinds of stuff strewn about to pick up. It’ll be great fun.

For those of you who’d like to play together. My callsign is ieatbullets63 on both CODM and MW2. Look me up and send me a note in chat. I’ll respond. We can friend up and play. I don’t care how good you are or bad you are. The game is so much more fun playing with friends.

I play CODM during the day, when I’ve gotten all my stuff done. Usually between 1 pm Detroit, MI time and 5 PM. MW2 is the rest of the evening after dinner, unless I’ve got something going on.

Well, that’s it for today, folks. Have a great weekend!

Happy Gaming!

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Bonus Content – Announcement

Tags

free writing, Freedom, Funny Friday, inspiration, Interests, Thursday, Writing

All, I’ve decided to alter my postings on Thursday. I’ve been posting what I’m reading, what I’m learning, and what I’m watching, but frankly it bores me to tears. I imagine it bores many of you too, so I’m going to leave Thursday a free writing day, where I write about whatever comes to mind. I’m going to call Thursday my “Free Writing Day”.

I hope all of you like what I come up with and have a great weekend!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Reading, Watching, and Learning – Deep Mind, A Deadly Influence, Call of Duty MW2, and MS Excel, Discord, and Canva

Tags

A Deadly Influence, Call of Duty, Canva, Deep Mind, Discord, MS Excel, Streamers, Udemy, YouTube

Deep Time has the crew of America has caught some type of virus the medical AI could not detect, and they are quarantined until they can find out what it is. In A Deadly Influence, the police are still searching for a young boy kidnapped for ransom.

I’ve been watching a lot of Call of Duty MW2 YouTube videos, watching influencer streams, and all the rest to get back into the console version of CODMW2. Man did they do a great job on this game!

Getting ready to finish up the MS Excel course. Discord is almost at its end, Canva still has a way to go. I really enjoy the variety of courses available on Udemy, which is also available on my phone, my iPad and my laptop. I can always get in a quick lesson, regardless of where I am.

Well, folks, I have a lot on my plate today. I hope you all have a great Thursday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – F.D.R.

Tags

FDR, Happy Wednesday, Michigan, president, Snow, Thanksgiving, Wikipedia, wisdom

When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

For more information about Franklin D. Roosevelt, check out his Wikipedia page here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt

We got snow in Michigan! I’m so excited!! Have a great Wednesday, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Ted Talk Tuesday – The First Thanksgiving

Tags

Call of Duty, Contentment, Grateful, Gratitude, History, Holiday, Thanksgiving, Warzone

I found this video on YouTube liked it. I always try to pick short videos to respect your time. There were others that were an hour + if viewing. I like watching videos like this and so many others, depicting the first Thanksgiving. Obviously, there are a lot of perspectives on Thanksgiving nowadays.

I choose the perspective of giving thanks for what we have. Cherishing what we have is a terrific way to look at our lives. Think about the access to information, music, entertainment, and so many other things. In most cases these are free or inexpensively priced. I’m grateful for my health, my family, and for all the good in my life.

I am grateful for the ability to make friends with people all over the world. I have a friend who is an author in Australia. I have a blogger friend in South Carolina and another in Colorado. I met all of these people online and they are just terrific people that add value to my life, by exposing me to their stories, their point of view, and their talent.

So, as we get closer to Thanksgiving, take a few moments and count your blessings. Thanksgiving doesn’t have to be about what is described in the above video. It simply is a time to take account of what you have in your life that is good. When you concentrate on these things, you naturally feel better.

Well, that’s it for today, folks.

Here’s a shameless plug for Call of Duty MW2. The new Warzone 2 will be coming out tomorrow and it looks absolutely sick. Water mechanics are in, new vehicles, a huge map, and all kinds of new game play, including DMZ, which should be really cool to play. They’ve also added proximity chat, so that means you can communicate with opposing teams and even join them! HUGE!!

Well, now I’m done.

Have a great Tuesday, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Drivers

Tags

driver, Enjoyment, habit, Hobby, Joy, Monday, motivation, motivator, self-preservation

I was reading a few days ago about what drives people to do what they do. For some a drive comes from serious loss or pain. For others they are inspired by someone. There is no way to categorize or analyze this because there are just too many reasons for people to do what they do. So, it’s best to stick with learning about what drives you.

What drives you to do what you do? Do you like to exercise? Do you like your hobby? Do you enjoy your work? Do you enjoy companionship? General Grant, who had throat cancer late in life, wrote his memoir to support his family when he was gone. His driver was family and responsibility.

One of my drivers is competence. I like to know how to do things. I like to learn new things. Then, I like to apply those things to what I am doing every day. If there’s a new technology or app I can use to make my life easier or more efficient–I’m there. One of the things I’ve learned over time is how much better it is to know where something is, rather than memorize it. There is so much information out there. If you can’t remember how to do something, simply know where to learn how to do it.

Drivers are what get us up in the morning. Hobbies, responsibilities, passions, whatever you label them, drivers are very motivating. Sometimes we need to take a little time and really think through what drives us. Once I discovered my true drivers, it made it easier for me to find the motivation to do the things I wanted to do and the ones I needed to do.

Have a great Monday, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Gaming Saturday – Call of Duty MWII

Tags

Attachments, Bad, Battle pass, Call of Duty MW2, CODM, Good, Invasion, Weapons

I completed the game and now working on maxing out my weapons. I have a lot to go, but boy is this fun. It was recommended by many of the streamers I follow to play invasion and ignore grinding camos. Just get all the weapons maxed out for the release of Warzone 2.

So a lot has changed in this version of Call of Duty. One change is that I have not played COD on my console since COVID hit. So getting used to a controller again has been a little bit of an issue. That being said, my game play has improved dramatically over the last few days of playing. Well, let’s dig in.

First, if you follow any of the streamers who comment on COD, you’ll get a mixed review of the game. Some will continue playing, while others who have decided to move away from COD will not. There are folks who do not like the game crashing, some who do not like skill-based match making (SBMM), and still others who are bored with the changes to weapon systems, leveling, prestige systems, and all the rest. I, for one, enjoy the game. I always have. Mind you I am not a competitive gamer, seeking to get a lot of wins and high Kill-Death (K/D) ratios. I enjoy the game, do my best to improve my game play, and do it because it is fun.

What are some of the changes. Well, weapons unlock attachments. Each weapon you max out or attain a certain level with, open up other guns, which in turn will do the same for other guns, and so on. When you unlock attachments, those attachments will work on other weapons. So in some respects, leveling up other weapons becomes easier. This game has a few new games like invasion, which I did not recognize. They are all fun. For now, I’ll stick with the advice I got from Stone Mountain 64. I’ll concentrate on maxing out my guns and getting used to controller play again and learn the invasion maps.

Some of the things you will experience while playing. The game will crash from time-to-time. This is normal during game releases. Call of Duty has not “officially” released, so the early access purchasing this game gives you is designed to do the final test of the game before Warzone 2 and some of the other things they are releasing with the Season 1 Battle Pass come into the game. At that point, the crashes will subside, the game play will be more streamlined, and things will normalize. OH! The AI or Bots in this game are ruthless. I don’t know how they did it, but the AI is absolutely deadly. They will snipe you, they will throw grenades at you, they will chase after you, and they will keep coming. I really like that about the new AI engine in this game.

If you play COD, I hope you enjoy the new MWII. I enjoyed the campaign game. I also enjoy playing on my console again. It is a real treat. I am still playing CODM too. Since the new console gaming will take up more of my time, APEX and PUBG mobile will have to take a step back. Right now, I am focusing on getting diamond camouflage on all of the weapons in the game and working through the challenges.

Have a great Saturday, folks.

Happy gaming!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Bonus Content – Veteran’s Day

Tags

Airman, Country, Dedication, Discipline, loyalty, Marine, Sacrifice, Sailor, Service, Soldier, Veteran, Veteran's Day

All, I’m foregoing my normal post of Funny Friday videos and other content to celebrate Veteran’s Day. The below video says it all.

I will treasure the 20 years I spent in the Army. My experiences abroad in war, humanitarian service missions, and living among those who asked us to protect them from harm will always be a part of me. If you have any veterans in your family, take some time to give them a call, send them a text, or an email. If they are local, invite them over for dinner or take them out. It’s these small things that make all the difference.

Until next time…

Dave