Storing Feelings and Time

Daily Ramble #3: Storing Feelings and Time

Today I’m looking at a few things including a big question about how to find storage for my screenshots and videos. I’ve been using external USB drives for the most part but I think I may need to step up to a NAS for more robustness. The main reason I need more storage is because I’ve been enjoying a larger variety of games and recording gameplay and taking pictures as I go. Each game seems to evoke a different feeling for me and that’s another topic I’m looking at today. Finally, I’m thinking about starting a long term project that excites and scares me at the same time – I want to read the entire Wheel of Time series. Yup, all 14 books from Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. Sure, I’ve been working on the Asimov Robot/Empire/Foundation series of books but this series is a bit more daunting – over 11,000 pages/ 800 pages per book.

Finding the Space

As I mentioned, I seem to be capturing a lot more data in the games I’m playing these days. It may be due to the larger resolutions I’m playing at or the idea that I’m trying to catch everything in fear that I’ll miss something. Regardless, I need more space.

So far, external USB drives have worked for me but I’m beginning to worry about the possibility of a drive failure. As the drives I’ve been using keep getting larger and larger, the failure of a single drive could mean hundreds of hours of lost recordings which would really suck. I need something that can provide redundancy, has a low failure rate, and can grow as I record more stuff. External drives could provide for the growth but they don’t have much safety in the area of redundancy other than backing them up and they tend to be a single point of failure.

So I’m starting to look at Network Attached Storage or NAS. These devices typically are some kind of docking port for multiple desktop hard drives that can be configured to provide security and redundancy. This provides a couple of bonuses…1) desktop drives are usually cheaper; 2) you can add disks (or upgrade to larger capacity disks) when you need more space; 3) they can recover from most forms of drive failure.

Right now I’m leaning towards a NAS solution and doing some research on the Synology DiskStation and the Netgear ReadyNAS to see what all is required for their operation and how easy they are to use.

If anyone has any recommendations, I’d love to hear it so… please leave a comment below.

Feeling the Games

The main driver for needing more storage is that I keep recording gameplay of the various games I’m playing. For some, like League of Legends, I record in the hopes that by reviewing the mistakes I make in my games – I might get better at the game. In Secret World Legends, I record so I can track the creepy story and so I can follow my character through the whole thing. In LOTRO, I have a sense of history and accomplishment that I want to relive even though I haven’t gone too far into the game yet…someday I’ll make it all the way to Mordor. In Neverwinter Online I feel like I’ve actually made some achievement in reaching max level and I want to continue to explore through the various campaigns that remind me so much of the Dungeons & Dragons games I used to play years ago. Each game seems to evoke a different feeling for me and I think that’s why I keep playing and why I keep trying new games. It’s also why I keep recording and posting about them here on this blog.

Reading the Wheel of Time

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend.

I have memories of the Wheel of Time series but many have faded with the years and I’m saddened that I never finished the whole thing. 14 books at it’s completion with a 15th that stands as a prelude. Over 11,000 pages that required 2 great authors to write and I think I am gonna work on reading through the whole thing. I only got through the 8th book almost 2 decades ago but this time I’m gonna read all 14/15. And I’m gonna try to keep somewhat of a running commentary as I go. This way I’ll be able to better keep track of what’s going on and attend better to what I’m reading/listening to. I’m also hoping that this’ll help me piece together all the complex characters and elements and demonstrate that I am dedicated to complete the series.

Wish me luck and if you want to read along or have a thought spurred on by my observations, feel free to comment.

Daily Ramble 3 – Storing Feelings and Time