Zombie

This is exactly why the last time I bought a camera (15 years ago?) I went for a less prestigious camera just because the abtteries it uses are AA. And those you can get everywhere. Sadly, that camera is now collecting the proverbial dust as the only camera I used in years is the phone camera...

And so our endless fight against forced obsolescence continues, eh, Zombie?
Wrangle that bucket list! 

Oh, I was imagining full buckets being constantly dragged over them. Lucky for the tables I guess. 

I see you're keeping things well in hand, Zombie - in the painting department and otherwise. 
And it's on the "otherwise" side of things that your keen eye has proven to be invaluable here, preventing further degradation from going on unnoticed. Man, those leaks in the small garage sure weren't supposed to be in the program after all that recent insulation work in the roof.
Those guys better get their behinds over there pronto as their reputation is kind of on the line here. Not exactly stellar work on display...

Please, prevent this disaster! 😱
Nice job on the fan guard.
BTW, you said you used a polyurethane lacquer on those desks, right? That seems be holding up insanely good and I'm sure it gets its share of abuse.

Given how much there was to fix and the metal work involved in multiple places I'd say the outcome stacks up alright, Zombie.
I mean, one can certainly see some "wavy" bits but what matters is things are back in working order. 

Pretty smooth job filling in those holes in the blacktop, Zombie. No extra paint thinner spent, thanks to your steady hammering no doubt. 
On the heavy handed side of things, I've gotta say, that plow guy did a... smashing job of it - floor, gates and all.
He should either lay off the juice or find a job less connected with good motor skills, and other people's property. 

Quoting myself because I kinda have an answer. My take is that the test disks were used just to determine functionality of the maps and possibly AI and nothing more. The other devs, artists and programmers were all working on stuff "behind the scenes" so to speak but all of those resources didn't make it into the test disks... only a fraction did. And from more research I can say that weapon designs were happening weekly (if not daily) so we can only catch a glimpse or a snapshot in time of the development of them. Alien designs went through a number of revisions as well, but those all seemed to be internal. It makes sense really. I'd imagine the test disk creators just needed one alien to test functionality, the rest didn't need to be included. Because the designs were changing so often it would be hard to get each department to send you the newest resources and include them anyway.
 
- Zombie

I unzipped the files today and got the game running! It's only Aquatoids (they look the same), but a lot of other things are different. The game is apparently reusing UFO's geodata.dat file for the TFTD weapons so the aliens are ultra-vicious with 35 round mags for their sonic cannons. The standard aquanaut diving suit is yellow, but when killed, the corpse shows a blue suit. The aquanauts themselves stand with their legs far apart in an upside down V, which is really funny. All the weapons look mostly different. I was able to find the USO (looked similar to a Medium Scout in UFO, except a little smaller and with nothing inside) and kill the two Aquatoids. Just before I ended the mission I saw a muted-purple ball on the floor. One of my guys had enough TU to run over it and take a look - looked a little like Elerium did with roughly the same yellow crystals, but it had a band of red running through it. So my first impression is that this is GOLD!
 
Going to see if I can get it running under DosBox so that I can grab some screenshots for you guys to drool over.
 
Anyhow, I'll be adding more promotional item images starting tomorrow again, just wanted to give you all a heads-up on the test disks.
 
- Zombie

BLOODY HELL that's cold. Some 30 years ago I'd say "It does happen" but since then I've not seen temperatures this low in Slovenia...

Talk about a cold reception on your way out, Zombie. 
Over here depression Ingrid has also brought us colder temperatures, particularly so in the northern part of the country.

Also, strong winds, abundant rains and unusually tall waves. Where I live it's not so bad, mostly nasty wind, heavy showers and the occasional hail fall, but no snow - not fun to be outside.
Anyway, take care out there and stay warm when you can!

::
Flip that page and forget your age - 2026: engage! 

Everything's brighter,
What feeling is this,
A contentment, but restful and lighter,
Borne of enchantment and bliss;
Yet with it an excitement,
A closeness that before was amiss,
Long awaited, as if in stellar alignment,
Finally in togetherness you can't dismiss;
Good thing then, as you're grateful,
Of such an unexpected gift, 
That an occasion this fateful,
Does your consciousness uplift;
And so ends this exercise,
Thus is put in evidence,
As surroundings again materialize,
That you're no further under psi influence;
Your training so concludes,
Rookies, you're now part of us,
Earth's finest - damn right - our confidence exudes,
Effective immediately you're granted leave to join the festivities, be joyous!
-- have fun you lot; diiiiismissed!! 

Probably the biggest stumbling block are multi-player games that use anti-cheat software that will only run under Windows. However Valve themselves, what with the OS that runs the Steam Deck being a Linux distribution, are getting there with making games playable under Linux. 

I don't use Linux for gaming a lot, but I have run some of my Steam games under Linux, and some of the games in my GOG library have Linux installers, and those that I've tried worked brilliantly. Emulated console games run beautifully too. 
I'm rather enjoying all the variety to be honest. 

Man, I almost forgot that all that masonry and bucket repair (in another thread) is just a facade, hiding the insanity of an interstellar war from the general public.  
I like to be back in action, thank you! Glad to be of an actual use with recorded kills.

Keep your cool (not that you have any choice ), Zombie, your painting days shall return in due course.
Your impeccable readiness levels have served you well in the small garage too, as it was thanks to your efforts that it's presently both clean and far more spacious to safekeep whatever needs harbouring from the fast approaching days and nights of harsher weather.
And, I'm calling it now, that watering can is an escape artist: it surely gave someone the slip and likely landed poorly, then it tried to keep that gash from you to mischievously go on leaking in some corner.
Oh no, you don't - it's back to active duty for you! 

Prime time for the north wall has it looking solid once again at least, Zombie.
And don't let the weather "go south" on you too much as December is nearing at a fast clip.
Weathered aplenty too, is what one might remark upon coming across that watering can. After your peeling session and treatment course it's now all stitched up and good to go! 

A larger project indeed, Zombie, but all that reconstruction was just waiting to happen and you saw it coming.
I was kind of surprised by how much of a "hollow" space there was between the two main faces of the wall (south/north) though.
You didn't let that scare you off and you soldiered on like a champ for what almost ammounts to a full rebuild. Which means that final (deceivingly) little gap on your last pic isn't going to be much of an obstacle on your path.
If you want my opinion, I think you'll do fine with expanding foam. Something like Great Stuff Big Gap Filler should do.

*dusts off the cobwebs* 
Right, so here we are a few years later and things are not looking up for the average computer user with a Windows PC.
If the advent of Windows 10's "end of life" and Windows 11 forcefully taking over center stage for no apparent salient reason hasn't given you much reason for pause, then you may want to have a look at some of the videos out there (example 1, example 2).
Suffice it to say, things are not exactly rosy when you're clearly no longer really in control of your own computer - Microsoft holds the keys and it can change whatever it wants in it, whenever it wants, say... in the next OS update come jolly old "Patch Tuesday".
The problem is there doesn't seem to be a viable alternative to this monopoly and so you're just stuck with it - get used, then, to being abused... forever!
"Wake up, Mr. Freeman. Wake up, and smell the ashes." - G-Man, Half-Life 2
Not quite. Because Linux may finally just have had a major win.
This past Wednesday, the Steam Machine, a mini-PC, was announced and its operating system is SteamOS, a gaming-focused Linux distribution developed by Valve, based on Arch Linux.
What really matters here is that, what once was a major hurdle for those gamers not wanting to deal with the nitty-gritty technical hurdles of running some games under Linux, with emulation layers, driver woes, etc. - now have that problem mostly neatly solved for them with this little machine, in one fell swoop.
As for standard, non-gaming, daily life personal use of a PC, Linux has the software for that already there, with open source solutions such as OpenOffice for word processing and spreadsheets, Gimp for image editing, Thunderbird for e-mail, etc.
Hardware is what may pose a bit of an entry-level issue, as one needs to ensure monitor, printer and other peripherals are compatible with your Linux of choice.
But, if the Steam Machine takes off, well, I'd wager Microsoft is going to have more to worry about than just simply the death of its Xbox.

Wow, these cracks must have been forming since the last ice age!  
I mean, definitely a long time - or the mortar was complete crap. The wall defnitely would crumble soon-ish, so high time for some zombification.

With all the practical work being done, you manage to notice the beauty in the frame. Not that I'd ever think of accusing you of not seeing the beauty of plants, but still.

I suppose, in life, like in politics, one way or the other everything eventually blows over, Zombie. 🍂
Tucking in everything nicely on the east wall it makes good sense to see to the area near the door, of course - that's where eyes are going to be roving most, so make sure not to leave any sores in that regard.
As for that last area by the door to the lower flat across the alley: oh, I concur, by the looks of it what that needs is a good sledgehammer. At some point. 

Caught another one "wetting the bed", Zombie? Poor thing. No scolding for you - a downright scalding is in order! 
As for the east wall, I'm very much in agreement with the neighbour - you've hit the spot and the fresh coating is blending right in, despite the fast drying timetable imposed upon you; like a true seasoned professional that fears no weather.
And while we're on the subject, you're just going to have to check your windage when the time comes for the lovely tree's shedding. Maybe it blows the right way out and you won't have to do any raking. 

Look who it is; no longer ho-hum, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, bound to please any who come to fill their drum.
Considering all the work it entails, you surely make it seem easy - everything restored, placed back where it belongs neatly and cleanly. Well done indeed, Zombie, bravo! 

Zombie: Putting a lid on it, the flashy way! 
Well, different cinder block optical illusion debunked then. Just goes to show seemingly plain small garages get to have their little mysteries sometimes too.
All told, you did coerce quite a bit of garbage out of there already, even if we're solely considering the blown/sweeping variety at that. Extra brownie points for sustained thoroughness: earned!