Boost Your Immune System!

I am not a medical doctor. I just look at the science and listen to other medical doctors when they talk about important issues. Most if not all of this post is from a podcast from “Body Stuff with Dr. Jen Gunter” from TED.com. Check it out, it’s pretty good if not a little silly at times. Silly doesn’t mean bad by the way.

First thing I want to tell you as you may not even know, but supplements are NOT regulated by any government agency. You are literally on your own when it comes to the buying and using of supplements. And some supplements may not even have what’s on the label OR/AND have things that aren’t on the label that could hurt and harm you!

When you see something that claims to be good for your immune system, what goes through your mind? What does that mean exactly to you? Why would you buy something that would boost your immune system or is good for it? Take a moment to think about that.

WHAT EVEN IS your immune system and how does it actually work? Do you know? I didn’t.

Dr. Katherine Gundling is an immunologist, a doctor who is an expert on this intricate, complex, and elegant system that’s constantly operating in our bodies.

I like to joke with my colleagues that the purpose of all the other organs in the body is really only to support the immune system’s work. I mean, why else do you need a heart than to circulate some of the most important parts of the cells of the immune system and really everything involves the immune system. Whenever we take a breath in, we’re also inhaling organisms that might be dangerous to us. So the cells in the immune system right within the respiratory tract are processing those immediately. Another example might be when we eat food, of course, it has a variety of airborne bacteria, viruses, fungi on it. why don’t you have a big reaction every morning when you eat your bagel, why does your bagel not kill you? We don’t sterilize our breakfast before we eat it. Right? But our gastrointestinal tract is processing that every time we put something in our mouths. In fact, it’s located virtually everywhere in the body. So there’s immune system and function in the bone marrow, in a gland in the neck called the thymus, in an organ in the belly called the spleen.

Dr. Katherine Gundling

Remember the movie “War of the Worlds” Remember how it ends, how the aliens finally died? I won’t actually spoil it for anyone, so let’s use the same comparison as the podcast did; an orchestra. When all of the pieces work together you get this beautiful sound that can uplift you, make you cry and maybe make you think. As someone who played the viola in school I know that every person is important and we all need to be literally on the same page. What good are loud horns or clanging cymbals during a lullaby? Apparently you don’t want the wrong parts of your immune system to be doing things when other parts should be the one doing the job and apparently trying to boost your immune system may just screw that up – and that’s not good.

One of the causes of death in people who have COVID-19 is that part of the immune system might become overactive. And that overactivity creates tremendous inflammation all over the body that leads to a variety of problems and ultimately death. So the immune system is not about boosting. The immune system is about balance.

Dr. Katherine Gundling

Can you hear the advertisers everywhere screaming at me to shut my mouth? Yeah, they don’t want us not to know that boosting our immune systems isn’t actually a thing. That’s why we are always bombarded by advertising crap. They use certain words, usually ones we’re not familiar with or know the meanings of so we think they are really smart and know what they are talking about. But usually they are literally full of shit. So ignore them.

And we always should be asking the question. Okay. You’re saying it boosts my immunity, please specify what part of my immune system is this supplement going to boost. And is that going to give me what I need to be healthier? And that’s the big question that many of the supplements, especially those that have a lot of different ingredients in them, can’t really help with.

Dr. Katherine Gundling

If you think of your immune system like a multi-part bucket, once all the parts are filled you cannot put more into the bucket, so you are wasting your money trying to fill it up even more. But sometimes you can have a vitamin deficiency, meaning your bucket is low for that vitamin, then you may need a specific replacement for that vitamin or possibly a change in diet. And that’s something to discuss with your healthcare provider. But generally, if you have a balanced diet and you don’t have any issues absorbing nutrients, you can get the vitamins you need without supplements.

Supplements are regulated as “food” which means they are not subject to the same testing and scrutiny that prescription medications go through. I briefly mentioned this at the beginning. There is a disturbing study on a supplement called black cohosh, a plant marketed as a treatment for hot flushes. This study tested a bunch of commercially available black cohosh supplements and found ONE QUARTER, 25 PERCENT didn’t even have black cohosh at all! That would be like grabbing a can of corn and having a 1 in 4 chance of it NOT being filled with corn. That would really be upsetting!

Best case scenario is that the supplement you’re buying has what it lists on the label. Even so that supplement probably did not go through a lot of testing or any studies that back up their so called claims (even if they say they do, have you ever been able to find them?) Some of these supplements are adulterated. The worst case scenario is they’re adulterated with something dangerous to you.

Yep. You could actually take a supplement and it could harm you. Supplements may have medications that are not listed on the label. And if you are allergic to any family of medications, or take medications that react badly to other medications….

There was a study done in the city of San Francisco a number of years ago where a variety of supplements that were advertised for inflammatory joint conditions, some of which were advertised to be healing Chinese herbs, were purchased and then studied to see what was actually in them. So yes, you might feel better with some of these, but not be actually taking what you’re thinking you’re taking or what’s on the label and that can just be downright dangerous.

Dr. Katherine Gundling

Supplements are like what the US Justice system is suppose to be. Innocent until proven guilty, or rather Healthy until proven not. This is government policy, it’s up to the buyer to be wary. No one is watching out for you here. So what are you putting into your body when you take supplements?

I had a patient who presented with blood pressure out of control. She had always had normal blood pressure. And I could not figure out why this was happening. But I also sat down with her. And said, let’s take a better history. What do you do when you get out of bed in the morning and then what do you do? And she said, ‘Well, I take my supplements and then I..’, and I said, stop, what supplements do you take? And it turned out that she was taking a supplement, from a plant, all natural called Ma Huang. And, um, it is related to ephedrine, which can cause blood vessels to constrict, so I learned about it and discovered that it has these properties that can actually raise blood pressure. And I thought, Oh my goodness, what else are my patients taking that might actually be causing problems?

Dr. Katherine Gundling

It is absolutely important to talk with your doctor about ALL the supplements you take. ESPECIALLY if something unusual starts happening to you. Supplements are known to cause 20% of liver damage in the US today. Over 20,000 emergency departments visits in the US annually are attributed to dietary supplement adverse events; these commonly involve cardiovascular manifestations from weight loss or energy products in younger adults, micronutrient ingestions by unsupervised children, and swallowing problems, usually from micronutrients, in older adults.

If you have a doctor who is suggesting supplements with a lot of ingredients or even one who is selling their own supplements (because they are totally bias right?) GET A SECOND OPIONION! I do realize that can be easier said than done, but your life is too important.

This innate immune system is kind of like a well-organized military it’s as if you might have marines or soldiers, right at the front lines that are responsible to make an initial attack, but also responsible to communicate to the back lines so that the leaders can make decisions about how to coordinate the best response. We produce probably a liter of mucus per day, that is constantly enabling us to clear our throats, blow our nose, and even cough. Coughing helps us to blow things out that don’t belong there. The response is coordinated by cells that we call lymphocytes.

And these are like conductors of a magnificent orchestra, if you will. The lymphocytes instruct the many complex parts of the immune system when to turn on, when to turn off, where to go, what to do. So we think of the innate and the adaptive immune system as being prepared initially and following up with a strong, coordinated response that ultimately has good memory. So with the example of coronavirus, the innate immune system sees it, it talks with the adaptive immune system and some of the cells in the adaptive immune system provide specific instructions about how to then go about creating antibodies that are capable of neutralizing that specific virus. And it’s just incredible that all this happens with our not even knowing about it. If a little bell did go off every time we have successfully mounted recognition and response, we would be hearing bells all day long.

Dr. Katherine Gundling

So why the hell is everyone tripping over themselves to boost their immune system and falling for the hype? Tim Caulfield is a health law and policy researcher, a bigtime debunker of medical misinformation, and an expert in how misinformation spreads online says “It’s everywhere. It’s absolutely, it’s everywhere! And it was sorta everywhere before we were in the middle of a pandemic. Of course, post pandemic, the idea’s just exploded. And it’s actually become I think more complicated. And then there’s also, celebrity brands have moved into this space and celebrity culture helped to make pseudoscience a big business.”

His study that examined some of the most popular Instagram posts with the hashtag “immunebooster.” found that not one of them were scientifically accurate.

One claimed a dinner recipe “helps boost your Microbiome and immunity.” One said apple cider vinegar “provides immunity boosting which I think we could all use a little extra of right now!” Another post featured someone holding a jar of juice that was advertised as “ORGANIC IMMUNE BOOSTING TONIC, a naturally FRESH homemade immune booster.” And one post even promoted a yoga pose that “powers our immunity.” There are a crap TON of other horrible things you can find at that hashtag. It’s difficult to not comment on them all and call them frauds.

He then did a study examining hundreds of web-sites; “We found that 85.5% of the websites portrayed immune boosting as beneficial to battling COVID and less than 10% of the websites had any critique.” The study found that these Instagram marketers and websites use science-ish buzzwords to promote their so-called immune boosting products.

Science-ploitation: using real science words and concepts in a completely inaccurate or misleading way. These people are counting on the fact that you may not know what these words mean to create the illusion that they know more than you do.

So you have things like the microbiome and genetics and stem cells and people are exploiting the excitement of these interesting areas of research in order to sell bunk. They’re saying that this supplement this practice works because it has an impact on your microbiome and then it gives a reference to the microbiome or it helps regenerate your cells. And then it’ll give a reference to stem cells and that just creates this legitimacy. So I think we’re seeing. increasingly the use of, of tokens of legitimacy. I’ll put it that way. And that’s making a lot of these things a lot stickier.

Tim Caulfield

Now you have people who firmly believe you can boost your immune system and trying to tell them otherwise, apparently even as a medical doctor is an uphill battle that many doctors do not win easily. Words like natural, organic, and immune-boosting are known as “God words.” We automatically have assigned positive/good things to these words and when you see them in the store or in ads your first thought is “That is good for me.” We don’t even need to hear something specific about what exactly a “Natural” or “organic” or “immune-boosting” product will do for us.

Guess who knows this and uses it without shame? Yeah, those marketers who have been yelling at their screens as they read this – perhaps they’ll even try commenting and saying I’m full of shit and don’t know what I am talking about. Don’t worry, I’ll approve those comment so you know what assholes these people are when their money makers are being put on the truth block.

Even nationally known medical organizations like the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic use the words immune-boosting. For example, in a 2020 article from the Cleveland Clinic, in big bold font, it says Get ready to boost your immune system. And this is a big problem!! “So you get these reputable organizations using the phrase because they know it’s a hook to bring people in. So they’ll talk about immune boosting and then the article will be about exercise and sleep and nutrition. And that’s really problematic, I think because it legitimizes that idea of immune boosting. So then the hucksters can use it to sell supplements, to sell, you know, crazy exercise to sell colonics or whatever.” Tim enlightened.

And like I just mentioned, just try to tell the people who absolutely believe this hyper-bole that they’re wrong. It’s a lot like Qnon believers….

Today I got two long bits of hate mail. About supplements and the idea that, you know, supplements can boost your immune system. So all the hate mail has a similar pattern and you get, we could compare our notes but the first, the first paragraph is usually you’re an idiot. I hate you. Or, or, or it’s, or it’s one of those, uh, I’m not against science, but dot dot. And then it’s something about big pharma. If you are against supplements or, if you are against immune boosting, somehow you’re for big pharma. It’s like there are these two camps…you’re with us or you’re against us. You really want to aim your your debunking or your battling of misinformation to the general public. You want your message to be constructive and you don’t want your message to have a shaming element to it.

Tim Caulfield

Like Jen says in the podcast, we’ve all been there; something is ailing someone we love and we’d easily empty our bank accounts to find that miracle that will work quickly. And at times like that you are at your most vulnerable. Just think how many of those immune boosting frauds made A LOT of money in the early months of 2020. So when you ARE in that desperate mode of mind, looking for answers, keep a few things at the font of your mind:

• Just because a post or ad uses science-ish words, doesn’t mean it’s actually based on science.
• Always ask yourself if someone is trying to sell you something! You can’t trust health information from someone selling you a product.
• Be skeptical of anecdotes and testimonials. They are not evidence. Instead, look for information from reliable sources like the National Institute of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the World Health Organization.
• Stop and think before you share something. Misinformation is like a virus. If you stop sharing it, you stop the spread.

Speaking of viruses, vaccinations use our immune system’s memory to keep us safe. The first time your body encounters an infection in the wild, it takes 2 to 4 WEEKS for your adaptive immune system to really get into FULL gear and produce those antibodies. And during this time, you are sick – hopefully in bed resting but sadly not always – but the next time you encounter that little infection your immune system is ready. They already have the plans to make the antibodies that killed it before so it’s quick in taking care of it this time.

Vaccines skip that 2 to 4 weeks of you being sick with the infection/virus. They make your adaptive immune system THINK you’ve been exposed to a specific pathogen, meaning a virus or bacteria. But really it is a killed or weakened pathogen or just part of it, but your body doesn’t know the difference.

Some of the COVID-19 vaccines are mRNA or messenger RNA vaccines, which are really cool. MRNA vaccines take a step back and give our cells the instructions to make a protein found on the surface of the virus Once our cells make that protein, the immune system recognizes it as foreign and produces antibodies to fight it.

But don’t worry, that mRNA isn’t going to be used for anything else or damage your DNA It’s like IKEA instructions! It’s good for one thing, and then it’s thrown away when you’re done. Now, here’s the thing about antibodies — they don’t always protect forever.

We’re all different and react differently to things around us. COVID-19 is so new that while we know a vaccine now will protect us, we don’t know how long that will last or if it will end up like the flu vaccine where you’ll need those boosters every so often. Science hasn’t found out why some vaccines are long lasting while others need boosters. The immune system is complex! So while you can be vaccinated once for something and be protected from it for life, others you’ll need a boost. And since viruses mutate, the boosters are generally different each time you get one.

Many things that grandma told us about are in fact, correct. It’s actually good to get a good night’s sleep. Exercise is good for the immune system. There’s no television show called prevention, right? Because it’s, it’s not exciting. No bell goes off when your immune system improves and balances because you’ve gotten moderate exercise, you do feel better. And that’s the benefit that you gain. Another thing that we can do is to make sure that chronic medical conditions are treated. And oh my goodness, stopping smoking and stopping vaping. These are habits that are so difficult to stop, but your doctor will be happy as all get out to help you quit these habits because they have such immediate and long-term benefit.

[On if being cold make it more likely you’ll catch a cold] Everyone has wondered about that for so long. So I think it’s very difficult to say any one thing can make you sick. That said I saw the most recent interesting study that showed that in very cold weather there may be changes to some of the cells that line our respiratory tract. So in fact, grandma may have been right. That if you’re in cold enough weather for long enough, you may become a little bit more susceptible to becoming infected. So it doesn’t cause us to be infected, but it may change our susceptibility to infection.

Dr. Katherine Gundling

Resting when you are sick is really important. It gives your body the time to focus on creating the anti-bodies and getting them out into your body. You can’t boost your immune system, you are more likely to mess up the balance it needs to keep you healthy and going. While it is tempting to use supplements to feel like you are in control of what happens to your body, truth of the matter is you may be doing more to harm your body then strengthen it. So listen to the experts that aren’t trying to sell you anything. Sometimes the best thing you can do is what you’ve already been doing; eating a healthy balanced diet – does not mean a doughnut in each hand – , washing those hands after handling anything you do not know where it’s been, get a good night’s sleep, exercise if you’re up to it – but don’t over due it -, make sure to treat those chronic medical conditions, and most of all, be gentle to yourself.

Thank you to all the debunkers out there, both medical and non that keep those of us who are suspicious about everything in line. Although we’re most of the time correct!

Until next time, I don’t know what possessed me to want to blog about this particular episode, but there you have it. Some cut and paste, some straight from my poor brain that has had a low key throb of a headache all day. Allergies will be the death of me. Keep it regal!

Wha-Why? COME ON!

So if you’ve been hiding under the covers lately because of things and haven’t heard the news, Five Nights at Freddy’s Security Breach will NOT being coming out soon. Instead it’s been pushed AGAIN to LATE 2021.

Instead we get a little game called Security Breach Furry’s Rage (damn straight I’m going to call it furry! LOL Especially after seeing that cover of Fazbear Frights #10: Friendly Face!!).

I have some rage I’d like to share with someone.

And don’t be that person who comes around just to say or even to say at all “Oh but think of how much nicer the game is going to be with all this time!” We don’t even fucking know if they’re actually working on the game or not. We know not the problems they are facing. We’ve heard and seen some of the things that have been happening during their panel at GTC 2021.

And this game Scott has given us is utter garbage. I think he’s trying to ride the wave of HBO’s Mortal Kombat which was also a gigantic piece of garbage – although the effects for Sub Zero and Scorpion are good. Story line, dialogue and overall presentation fail so badly. And that goes for both game and movie.

Not sure what the purpose was really. I don’t like the puppets (I stopped counting how many times they killed me) and that boss thing at the end (beating hard mode gives you another level where it looks like you’re in space), while it may have some lore tied with it, I am not sure. I also need to remember what everyone’s theory for FNaF 4 even was. *sigh*

Why were they working on this instead of actual Security Breach? And why was the almond missing from that Hershey’s Kiss I just ate?!!! If I wanted plain chocolate kisses, I wouldn’t have paid for the ones with almonds in them. Yeah that last has literally nothing to do with FNaF unless you count that it’s generally what I snack on if I am snacking while playing a game.

Yes, many fans are drooling over this throwback to the 80’s/90’s gaming and I had been thinking of Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter style games after watching the movie. And while it’s not exactly like those games, maybe a bit like one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade games I played in the 90s, they’re not my favorite. I kept getting killed because I was looking at the opponents and snorting. Especially that clown thing. Vanny was……… different. It didn’t last very long for me. Not because I’m good at playing, but because I get bored easily with these style games. I more in likely won’t be going back to it again in the future unless someone like Dawko finds something incredibly interesting that I want to see for myself and not have his screaming in my ears – I wear headphones with my laptop as the speakers on my computer suck and have ALWAYS sucked. Thanks Dell.

Unless there are more trailers or other things released along the way, I will hopefully just forget about Security Breach. It’s so much easier not to know about a game until it’s released. Not good for marketing, but easier for me as I don’t like to be left wanting. I already have a plate full of want, no need to add to it!

Until next time, play the game, it’s free (Security Beach will not be that’s for sure!) and it’s a good way to kill a few days.

Me waiting for this game.

Everyone when it finally comes out.

Get to the damn point!

I don’t know if I’m cranky and just need more coffee or if my hormones are wonky but I really freaking wish people would get to the point when I look up recipes. I don’t need your freaking backstory or how you came to try this recipe and then made it your own. Especially if you go on for several paragraphs with no ‘Get the recipe’ button/link for those of us who are only there for the damn recipe.

Seriously, when I look up a recipe that is all I want. IF you must included all this other crap DO IT AFTER YOU’VE SHARED THE REICIPE. It annoys me all the time having to scroll past paragraph after paragraph just to finally come to the actual recipe. Or worse the person does the recipe in paragraph form explaining each and every thing instead of providing the ingredient list and directions. OR EVEN WORSE just give the ingredients and not how much of them or anything else!

I know I’m not the only one who feels like this as I have seen memes on the topic. So if I ever share a recipe, you will know that it is the recipe first and then anything extra I may wish to share. I usually share recipes verbally when I find something I like and am talking to people whom I believe will enjoy it.

For example:
London Fog drink: Equal parts warm/steamed milk and Earl Grey tea with sweetener and vanilla to taste. I usually do a cup milk and tea. I’ll heat my milk and vanilla together in the microwave for two minutes as I let the Earl grey tea seep with sweetener in it. Then I’ll add the tea to my milk/vanilla combo and leave the bag in the cup for a couple more minutes.
Whipped coffee (TikTok)/Dalgona Coffee (Korean)/Frappe Coffee (Greek)/Beaten Coffee (Indian): Equal parts instant coffee, sweetener and hot water whipped together then spooned on top of hot or cold milk. I generally do 2 tablespoons to however much milk I’m feeling like. Beat the coffee, sweetener and water together for about 5 minutes then spoon onto hot or cold milk.

Until next time, keep things to the point when you are talking about things. If you are going to offer something like a recipe, have that first THEN talk about it if you must. Granted I didn’t do that here, but you aren’t here because I said there is a recipe (or two) that you’re looking for. And if somehow you ARE here because of either of them, that was not the point! LOL

Loving RTXGI

The look of RTXGI in Security Breach is amazing! I love how they show the difference between it being on and off. Really makes the game feel more realistic which will pull us in and scare us even better. Of any game however, I would have loved this to be VR! I did record the session, and it is available to watch on the site.

There were no attachments or really any surprises and for anyone looking for some inside look at the actual game, you’re not going to find it I’m sorry to say. But there are two new locations, although they do admit one of them has changed. There is a little tease of game play in there, but I’ll let you find it. If you can’t/don’t, let me know in the comments!

I did have to upload the video again as I originally used XBox on my computer to screen capture and there was NO SOUND! Thanks XBox! So I redid the recording and it is still full and unedited. Let me know if any other issues arise!

Security Breach on Nvidia GTC21

If you are not aware, this week (April 12 to April 16, 2021) is Nvidia’s annual GTC (GPU Technology Conference, an annual technical conference started by Nvidia in 2009), and on the 15th at 10 AM CDT, Richard Cowgill will be talking about how Steelwool Games have worked closely with NVIDIA to develop and implement RTXGI for “Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach.”

They will be talking about the game itself and will more in likely be showing more of the game.

GTC21 is free to anyone wishing to attend, just register and then look at the scheduled events to find topics you are interested in. You can add them to your calendar (which should change the time to your time zone). You can search topics and filter them. To find this one just look for Steelwool.

It is the only one that popped up when looking for Steelwool or Five Nights at Freddy’s. But there are a ton of other equally awesome events happening this week, so check them out!

Until then, I miss conventions. Not most of the people there, just the atmosphere and limited swag.

DO NOT BUY FROM KOHL’S.

Once again, against my better judgement, I tried shopping online with Kohl’s. This is something I do from time to time since I do have a Kohl’s card and sometimes they have nice deals on nice things. But I have found that if I do not spend over $200 on an order, they cancel the order, lock my account and make me call them.

When I do I am told that they need to send a text message to a number and I am to give them the code. Well since I do not have cell service in the US, I only have VoIP numbers it doesn’t give them what they want which is a verification. Despite everything I cannot verify the orders they “flag”

BUT should I spend say $601.00 as I did last November actually using my Kohl’s card, I have NO PROBLEM WITH THE ORDER. A couple of days later I tried to do an order under $100 and it was cancelled and my account locked. For my SAFETY. I have spoken with my local (as in Las Cruces and El Paseo) Kohl’s and they had never heard of this sending a text to verify thing and had no idea what I was talking about.

Also note that in a couple of months, I’ll be able to reset my password without having to call them and possibly place an order as long as it’s over $200.

Just was hung up on by a guy who was suppose to be getting me a supervisor. Instead he sent me to a mailbox that was full. I am a glutton for punishment time and time again. SO I’ll pay off my Kohl’s card (again) and just forget they exist.

Just some FYI; I wasn’t using my Kohl’s Charge this time, even if I did I do have more than $200 credit left on it and this does also happen when I try using my Kohl’s charge. But it’s for *MY* protection and safety. Yeah, from spending my money with Kohl’s. So who’s a good competitor of theirs?

Yay! Ordered something awesome!

Never mind. Assholes.

Until next time, Never cancel a credit card or department store card. It actually ruins your credit doing that. So if like me, you’re not going to buy from them again (or plan to use the card) just pay it off and forget about it. Maybe every once in awhile charge a couple of bucks on it to keep it active and reporting good things on your credit. Just because you have it, doesn’t mean you have to use it.

FNaF+ Have you seen this?

Scott Cawthon is probably one of the only developers out there who is 100% okay with fans making games based on his characters and letting other fans play them. So much so he’s actually helping some of those developers get their FNaF fan games out into the world. Games like FNaF+. And it looks creepy.

They have a YouTube channel (as most of us do), Five Nights at Freddy’s Plus and it has five short videos on it. The newest are two months old. And to say they up the creep factor is quite the compliment. That and having people like Dawko do a whole video on it is also quite the compliment. A few others also have commented on them, and it’s quite likely most people have seen these. MatPat however hasn’t even mumbled anything on them, I think he’s just going to stick to the main games, but it would be nice to see/hear his thoughts on the contents of these videos.

I stumbled upon these through ScottWorld (NOT Scott Cawthon but it is verified) and now have another FNaF game I’m waiting for. All of the videos are in a VHS style which if you were born later than, say 2000 you may not be familiar with VHS. Those of us who are should appreciate the realism of these videos. From the sound of the tape being put into a player, and the play button pushed, to the now considered bad audio and video quality they certainly capture the tech of the era. Seriously younglings, this was the best we grew up with. The best.

The first video that dropped about 6 months ago is called Connection Error.

Connection Error by FNaF+

Now there’s not much to the video, and there’s not much said about it in the description either. No idea if this is game play, or what. But if it is, if they can do that. Well. Shit.

The next three videos all dropped together on January 19, 2021. The first of those being one called Routine Check. None of these videos say much about what you are seeing in the video in the description area.

Routine Check by FNaF+

Each of these videos start out with “FAZBEARENT_SHWTPS_1-4” and then the title of the video. Obviously it’s Fazbear Entertainment Show tapes 1 of 4. Now this one annoys me a little right here as it has the sound of fast forwarding the tape, but the second/milliseconds counter does not reflect this even though this is what is happening. There are five sections within the video. Just your basic things technicians at the time would run an animatronic through right before opening or a show. Make sure there’s nothing glitching too badly or broken. Although, watching more of these that last factor doesn’t seem to be too important for this Fazbear Joint.

If you have ever in your life been somewhere with animatronics, you know that when they look right at you, you’re going to shiver just slightly because it is 100% eerie. And it does seem they all have that strange look away where they don’t quite look away for a moment or two.

While the video quality is not going to be the best, and it’s made that way, you can still slightly see that the eye lids on Freddy aren’t exactly solid. Meaning you still get a slight glimpse of the eyeballs underneath. I think for some reason, there are people out there who are of the thought that when they close their eyes the eyeball rolls down. This isn’t at all what happens, for humans, most animals and animatronics. Eye lids COVER your eye. Which is why you can still see light during the daytime or at night if there is one on. At least that is what I am getting from some of the comments people have made on these videos (and on Dawko’s). I mention this as there is always a pinprick of light seen in the iris of the animatronics eyes that you can STILL see when their eyes are closed. This creates one hell of a scary illusion that their eyes have gone completely black (FNaF fans have been attributing this to the animatronic being possessed, but they’re always possessed) and all you see is this light. Well if those eyelids aren’t solid, yes, you’re still going to be seeing that light. And most of them aren’t going to be as there’s no real reason they need to be a solid piece of material.

‘Quiet Hours’ is the next video and we get to see almost everyone on stage. Defiantly not clearly.

Quiet Hours by FNaF+

Again we get the ” FAZBEARENT_SHWTPS_2-4″ so this is the second of four. Now I’ve seen quite a few comments about how it’s not all that quiet. I think this is more meant towards the animatronics’ quiet time. They’re still moving a little but the stage is dark and no attention is fully on them, which is why we hear the normal restaurant noise in the background. Some places have their animatronics turned off where they’re creepily just sitting on stage (generally with the curtains closed) not doing a thing. This one obviously doesn’t close the stage curtains and just let Freddy, Bonnie and Chica chill and look around, which is also a wee bit creepy.

When we almost get to see Chica for the first time the video sputters, which yes is a real thing that did happen with VHS tapes, sadly and we zoom back onto Freddy’s face, a lot of commenters were saying this is when he became possessed – and again, they are always possessed – and in actuality Freddy has his eyes closed. You can see the stage lights reflecting on his eyelids as well as them going up when he opens his eyes again. And if you ever felt Bonnie wasn’t so scary… well you shouldn’t still feel this way after watching this! Although because of the stage lights, he has a glittery nose and it’s difficult to be too scared of him at this exact moment.

We also see that Chica is broken! Her right eye (left one when you’re looking directly at her) has no light or reflectivity in it and it isn’t moving with the left one. Poor thing.

This next video I feel is the most skin crawling of the five. The song is 100% an earworm and is an actual song called “Follow Me” by Bjorn Lynne. The song in itself isn’t all that great. But what was done with it really is. And if you’re curious, the song did come before the video. The one linked or “Stage Performance”.

Stage Performance by FNaF+

Yeah this one is just lovely. Not only do we have a cupcake with a mustache, we have a few people trying to guess why there was screaming at the end. Some say it’s the normal cheering scream you get from the end of a concert (and there is a little scream at the start when we first focus in on Chica), some say someone was killed and I say that it looks like there’s blood on the curtains. But since the quality is shit and we don’t have a lot of film to work with, until the game comes out, we’ve just got a bunch of office chair sleuths putting in their opinions.

Whomever did the lyrics screwed up a few times. But that’s because the last video was not originally on YouTube (it wasn’t uploaded until the following day January 20, 2021) and the mistakes were code so you could find this last video. 100% FNaF style! // right before the song starts. Technically that is code talk stating that a song is about to start…and yeah… but…also url so. Store is misspelled, not sure if the word tools (instead of the actual lyrics of toes) is a clue or not, with is also misspelled, as is the word what, in the end this isn’t much. But this is suppose to get you to go back and look at the other videos for clues as well. In the end you’d end up with https://youtu.be/Es_p1U5OA5E which is ScottWorld’s link to the last video called “Night Mode”

Night Mode by FNaF+

As you can see, you’ll need to make sure you’re an adult in age to watch this one. Not sure why as it’s not that…..well…mmkay.

And while I KNOW the video isn’t great, you are in Foxy. There’s an eyepatch that I saw right away once I noticed we were inside a suit. And he’s also the only one we hadn’t seen as of yet AND Pirate Cove curtains. This greatly reminds me of original gameplay with Foxy in FNaF 1. Even includes the classic running down to the office. But… why is Foxy running? And why is there heavy -scared- breathing when everything is red? Is Freddy going to harm us? Is that why Foxy is always out of order?

If you slow down the video and look at the images that flash across the screen, there is a few shots of exit signs, a jar of eyeballs (I’m hoping animatronic ones), The Puppet (scarier than ever!), the main stage, a party room, and a torn missing child poster. Might be a few more that I missed or can’t remember. And then you hear night time noises and Foxy takes a couple of steps down a corridor before turning his head to another Exit sign. Seems like perhaps all Foxy ever wanted was to go outside and home? Perhaps that’s why he ran to the security office then banged on the door since he thought the light you flashed every once in awhile was actual daylight? And why in FNaF 2 he runs from the light as he now knows it doesn’t mean a way out and there’s no hope.

All four videos together

Above is the actual video I saw, I do remember seeing that first one months ago and not thinking much of it as it looked pretty normal gameplay. But there is absolutely no doubt that Phisnom has done a phenomenal job and I greatly look forward to this game!

While I have been playing Five Nights at Freddy’s off and on since 2015 – it was brought to me by my young son who watched with wide anticipation when I played it that first time. I knew something was up as my kids don’t bring me games unless they know I’m going to enjoy them or maybe interested in them (if not a character). So I kept giving him the side eye while trying to figure out what in the world…. and then I got jump scared which is literally the only scare that ever effects me. And I loved it. Sat for hours in the dark figuring things out. Nothing beats having a 15 year old tell you to click on a nose in that giggle kid voice. I’ve not been nose deep into every part of it however.

Yes, I’ve read the four main books and am up to Bunny Call in the FF series (which is really hard to read through as I’m sort of…meh with it). And I have listened to all of MatPat’s FNaF theories and agree with much of them. I’ve played all but Pizza Simulator in the games and am really pissed off that the Quest VR version of Help Wanted never got a DreadBear Halloween DLC. I REALLY wanted to play that! And no, connecting my Quest to my laptop did not actually give me the DLC, and if anyone has any suggestions/knows things please drop a comment. They are all screened first and so you can tell me what you want and not worry about everyone seeing something. I do tend to approve most comments, even trolls so if you rather I not approve the comment, best let me know in that comment. I my still pass on the information however if I find it useful.

I am sure there are things in this universe I am missing. I have seen the “lost training tapes” that Squimpus McGrimpus has created and uploaded. These are wonderful as well and again encompasses the VHS era that unless you lived it, you just don’t understand and probably won’t believe. I think that is one problem many commenters on the above videos have is they don’t understand how VHS tapes played. They did jump around and the sound and video wasn’t 4k in any way. I love looking beyond and deeper into things like this part of the reasons I am an anthropologist, I like to dig into things. I haven’t seen ALL of them yet. Still working through that channel while being distracted by other FNaF related things on channels I’ve not come across before.

I like most have my favorite creators. My top spot goes to MatPat, then Dawko (despite having hearing problems for awhile after watching his Security Breach trailer reaction), and THEN SuperHorrorBro. After that I’d drop FNaF+ and Squimpus. And then ScottWorld. Maybe. I really don’t like the robot and the voice. Makes it hard for me to watch/listen to videos from them. I know there are a few others out there that cover FNaF in some way so feel free to drop some recommendations and of course your own thoughts on the videos!

Until next time, Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. No copyright infringement intended.

FNAF Security Breach. Hurry up!

I know I am not the only one happily impatiently waiting for this title to drop. The teaser trailer was mouth dropping and a few eyebrows raised at Freddy as a good guy. But that gameplay trailer was fantastic, even if it wasn’t completely cleaned up a bit. Balloria’s theme reworked gave me chills! And the mystery of Vanessa and Vanny is just deepened.

And of course everyone has pulled both those trailers apart creating theories and guesses at what’s going to happen. Here’s what I commented on a few youtuber’s videos about the last trailer:

Loved the tick tocking sound that runs through most of the trailer. If you look at the glam rock animatronics you can tell that each of them seem to have the ability Freddy will of hiding Gregory (or any other child) in their chest/stomach. It would be really interesting if the game play isn’t just one night, but five different nights but you play as either Gregory or Vanessa each night. But instead of doing the same thing every night, you need to complete a certain set of tasks before each night concludes in order to make it to the next night. It’s not going to be enough to just SURVIVE, you got to set it up for the next night so you can get closer to getting both Vanessa and Gregory out. And it could also happen all in one night but you have to complete the tasks within a certain timeframe. We may not be able to tell if the animatronics are on our side or not by looking at their eyes as we’ve seen them come after us without red eyes. I’m betting that the watch Greg had was bought at the Plex as it has the Freddy Security Breach image on the lower right corner. Sort of like how you can get a SeaWorld App and it’ll have a map that shows you where you are in the park and how to get to certain places and when certain activities will be happening and a bunch of other information all on your phone. But since we’re talking about kids who can easily loose a phone, they have a special watch. Since it’s electronic can we completely trust it though? Since I’m on the watch; The flashlight is pretty explanatory, but I heard a rumor that the Freddy head could be Glamrock Freddy, either his power level or health meter perhaps? If it runs out we have to free roam trying to find charge up for him so we’re safe. If you noticed, these animatronics are pretty fast compared to Gregory. The 8 in the triangle could be a meter to read our ‘lives’ or chances left. Could also list how many more tasks we have to do in the night or maybe what section we’re in or even better, how much danger we might currently be in. Could also have to do with clearance levels. I do agree that the tickets will have something to do with things we can interact with through out. Perhaps purchasing more battery power for flashlight or Freddy. I think we’ll only see Moondrop when the lights are off and Sunrise when the lights are on; I’m also sure those bells on them will be an important audio cue at some point. Someone mentioned that we may be hearing Freddy’s music box from FNAF 1 during the part where Vanny is peaking around the door. I went back and played the teaser we got earlier. Could be that last voice is actually Freddy being really pissed off that Vanny has Gregory. It ALMOST sounds like it could be the same voice as Freddy’s was deep. We could also be looking at a brand new, Grand Opening Pizza Plex as everything is shiny and in good condition (you all remember what the inside of a Chucky Cheese looked like?) and this is all happening the night before it is to open. Greg could be related to someone close to the project and accidently got locked in. And I’ll just drop this nugget I picked up among videos out there “Theory: If you look closely at Gregory’s shirt, you can faintly see 2 stripes. What other fnaf character has 2 stripe lines on their shirt? The crying child. This may confirm that Gregory is the crying child” Perhaps in the end, when you face the purple nightmare, you’ll have all the Glamrocks on your side and they’re the ones who fight the other animatronic.

I also remarked to other people’s thoughts about the animatronics all having red eyes which is usually bad for us as the night guard. I’m not too certain about the crying child theory purposed in the quote however. We don’t know exactly what the year is in this game, but it couldn’t be the crying child, even though I am not 100% sold on it being Evan for the reasons MatPat gives in the video where he talks about it.

And if you haven’t ran across them yet, there are some fantastic wallpapers that were released for more Security Breach teasing. Which has created even more videos taking them apart – because the trailer is now serious old news that everyone has taken apart to death. I haven’t stared at them long enough to noticed anything besides the fact that Freddy and Chica both have bowling balls in their green rooms, Bonnie hasn’t been tossed and forgotten (but will there be an animatronic??), and of course the state of Monty’s green room (wow, what happened?!). Freddy’s green room has the stage door open (the one in the back), he’s got a lot of camera equipment around as if he’s having tons of photos being taken. And his arcade game is on and seems to be working. Monty’s is on, but the screen isn’t working and the other two aren’t on at all.

This will probably continue as people play with the brightness and contrast of the images (as one must when it comes to Scott and FNAF images!) and any other tweaks. I’ve played with a few myself and have not seen anything exciting that can’t be seen right off.

The game looks amazing. I am really excited to play it and will probably sacrifice myself just looking at the environment instead of running and hiding. But we’re not even sure how the gameplay is actually going to be yet! How the five nights fit in, how if we’re suppose to trust the night guard, why are we hiding from her, SO MANY QUESTIONS!

So April or May cannot come fast enough for the release of this game.

The New Photobucket

Is absolutely not all crap. Although, I had to open a customer service ticket yesterday February 26th 2021, as after nine attempts, NINE (9)!!! My email address still was not validated in their system which meant I could do NOTHING with any part of the site. Thankfully it was quickly handled, once I provided the agent with the email address and user name for the account. Nothing more and today I find myself looking around this new “improved” Photobucket.

Of course the first thing I did, is to try and use the old post directions on getting all your photos from them and sadly it won’t work. Much has changed including my ability to share photos. My first thoughts about this new Photobucket is that it’s not very different than the old. However it does have a different look when you first jump on. You not only have the albums listed to the left, but you have them listed right in the middle. This can be turned off of course, just click on the Album Previews button. But for the sake of getting your photos downloaded, let’s leave this on.

No longer is there a way to “easily” select all the images in a single album. There are no Next Page either as when you scroll down to the bottom of the page, if you have more images than what has already been shown, they’ll come up. This will continue until all of the images in that particular album is showing. From there it’s actually easy to select them all as you do not have to click on each and every one. Just start at the bottom and click the very last image, then scroll to the first image of the album and while HOLDING DOWN THE SHIFT KEY click on it. All the images in the album should now be selected. I found that when I went from the top to the bottom basically doing the same thing clicking first image, scroll to the bottom hold shift key down and click last image, the first four images were not selected. I had to go back and holding down the Ctrl key click on the images not selected.

Next at the top you should see a menu. If you run your mouse over each icon you will see what they are.

Now I couldn’t share any photos, even if they were not randomly hidden. I did not get any messages saying this is a paid feature when I tried either so I’m not sure what is going on there. But let’s get cracking.

You have more than one album? Don’t worry. You won’t have to go into each and every album and select all the images, or even do what I already laid out above and have to select the last image and then Shift + Click the first. Thankfully it seems Photobucket has made it a wee bit easier.

Remember that Album Preview box I told you to leave checked? Good! Now scroll to the bottom where it shows a box that says “Load More Albums”.

Click on it and scroll to the bottom again and click on it again until it no longer shows up. This should show you all of the albums you have on your account, minus the My Bucket album. Like with the single album, start with your last album and click on it, then scroll to the top and hold down the Shift key and click on the first album. You should have a blue square around each section showing that it has been selected as well as the words Deselect # just to the left of the useless Share icon. # will represent the number of albums you have selected. In my case it’s 61.

If you notice in this image (that you can make bigger by clicking on it as it’ll open in a different tab), I did not select the first album. You may also notice that my Download icon is ‘missing’. This is because once I had all the albums selected I clicked on it. It has not yet come up with a where to save zip file window as it is populating over ten thousand photos into a zip file which is going to take time. So if you have more than 300 photos to download, you are going to wait a bit of time. So just let it sit in the tab and go do other things for a bit.

Happily it did not take forever for the zip file to be created. I’d even wager it happened within the hour. Yeah. ten thousand photos within the hour is pretty damn good. But no matter, just keep in mind that however many photos you stored there you’ll have to wait some amount of time.

Once the zip file is ready, it will pop up a window asking you where you wish to save the images. No matter what you are doing on your computer this will interrupt you. Unless you’re playing a game. Pick where you want them, change the name of the zip file if you wish and click save. The zip file will save to your computer and then you can go in and open the zip file – which is going to require a application that should already be on your computer to unzip the file. If you do not have one, you can use WinZip for free.

Now if you double click on the zip file you may get a window much like this. If you get the little box that asks you to purchase, just select close if you do not wish to purchase. Same if you get the larger box below. I know mine says WinRAR, but it’s just like WinZip but it also opens RAR files which are just like zipped files. Google if you want more info.

Just click on OK or the red X.

Did you notice how all of my photos are still in their original albums? You see that??? Even the albums that had albums INSIDE them are showing up as how they were organized on Photobucket which is a BIG win! So go ahead and right click the zip file and select Extract Here to have all of your images unpacked into their original albums. This too can take a few minutes if there’s a lot of them.

And that is it. While this is MUCH easier than it used to be and probably won’t be changing as much it had in the past, please still let me know if you’re having problems. Unless it has to do with photos missing from your albums as it is on the site, I can probably help you. Missing photos I cannot help with.

I know that Photobucket deleted quite a bit of my trip to Athens because I had the audacity to photograph famous but naked or almost naked statues. Sadly I did not have these images anywhere else as at the time. I uploaded them from the memory card to the site, then deleted what was on the memory card. I never got the chance to make a back up set when I got home because by the time that I did, they were ALL DELETED. You can see in one of the screenshots I still have some of the images, but none of the great statues or paintings. I did contact customer service about it which is how I found out WHY they were removed, but once they were removed there was no way to get them restored. If I had more money, I would have sued them as it was admitted that AI was what went through the images not an actual human. Things that looked like something naked was removed as well.

Now I have a whole different way of doing images from vacations – not that I’ve been able to take any in the last few years – which will include hard copy or other types of back up copies. I don’t trust Flickr with my images any more than I trust Photobucket.

I am hoping for less stress with this method and less updates. But as always let me know if you run into issues. I am not running any extensions and all this was done on Brave browser which is built off of Chrome. This should work with Firefox. The only difference I saw was that I got a No Hosting message when I logged in using Firefox.

I just hit the ‘Temporarily dismiss this notification’ and moved on. I have no clue which images are where so I’m not even going to bother trying to figure it out. YEARS of using this account and there is images EVERYWHERE, which is what I used Photobucket for!

I still can’t find a way to Share OR Edit OR move to another album. Even when I double click on the image to open it up. You know one that isn’t blurred out.

I’d like to pause to say I’ve looked through all the albums and saw that at some point my Facebook account was backing up to Photobucket which is probably where most of the bulk of these images came from (and from when I also backed up my mobile images). I didn’t realize this until I started looking to make sure the images weren’t altered or blurred because I didn’t give Photobucket any money. I haven’t found any evidence of this. It is all looking good to be honest.

Until Next Time, while it is now 2021 the world is still crazy and we still need to stay home, wear our masks when we are out for essentials and que up for the vaccine once we are notified we can get it. Stay strong, things are looking up and brighter!

New Store Opened

In light of the last few days, I created a design based on a bumper sticker I saw on Facebook that I 100% support.

It’s one of those designs that you have to think about. But it’s brilliant. I decided that this needs to be on shirts (I’m not the only one who thought this sadly), masks, bags, and cups. So I searched the web to find somewhere that I could slap my design – I didn’t just steal the bumper sticker, I reworked it and made it my own, which wasn’t that hard – on something and sell it without having to print a bunch of product that may not sell.

I found Bonfire.com, which I looked into and it seems that people really like them. And by people I mean actual customers; the ones who buy the stuff and wear or use it. They say the shirts and other products are well made, the customer service is great and they’d shop from there again.

This is good. And I don’t have to put up any money first in order to try and sell things. This is also good as I don’t have much to begin with.

So, if you’re interested in what this design is, and it’s terribly easy and you’ve probably seen it before, head over to my little shop Bye Bye Baby and check out the design. And maybe buy something. I have some control over the pricing, but if it’s too low then I have to have a certain number of people purchase it before they’ll print it up and ship it. With the prices as you see now – the lowest I could make them – if you order it, they’ll immediately print it out and send it to you.

It’s on many things, and where possible I do supply the explanation for those who don’t quite catch on at first. It has nothing to do with babies that we like, but rather a certain one that we need to get rid of.

Also, a friend of mine who loves Barbie has informed me that once again Mattel is having problems with the Day of the Dead Barbie. This sort of but does not surprise me. If people confirm and pay first, I can get Barbies here. May even be able to ship them from here with DHL, but it’s going to be a slight cost for anyone dying to get one. Not sure how much, will depend on how much I can get the doll for here (I think they’re running $80 in some places), how much it costs to ship and how much I want to charge for the trouble of running around and getting them. But collector’s are going to collect so. Let me know. LOL

Until next time, COVID-19 IS deadly. Especially to anyone who does not have the same type of medical “insurance” the president of the US has. Which just happens to be everyone but the baby trump. Don’t let his bullshit sway you into thinking everything is okay. He was given stuff that no one else has access to and he left the hospital against all the doctors orders.