Mike Dragon

Welcome to Brazil. Campo Grande is where I live. :3

San Francisco looks quite pretty at sunrise. :3

Now that I have parked for the night, I wish you all a good one.

Be mindful!

Here's a little PSA for you:

Did you know? Whether or not you have actually read the rules, terms of service or privacy policy (which you should. At least the rules) when the window below appears when you boot up MP, when you click on the "I have read, and agree to TruckersMP rules" button, which is the only way you can continue and be able to play online, you automatically accept all of TMP's rules and the consequences that violating them will bring (including the terms of service and privacy policy), meaning that if you break a rule or have your own evidence downloaded by a Game Moderator, reuploaded and used against you (in the event the evidence you used against someone shows you breaking some rule, as well), for example, you cannot really complain, (not that you don't have the right to. You do!), and that's because you have authorized TMP to do that, yourself. Not to mention that you were shown the rules, so claim that you haven't read them is not exactly an acceptable excuse. After all, a very easy opportunity to check them out was given to you.

Always obey all the rules, my fellas! Obey the rules is actually far easier than driving. Don't believe me? Then just take a look at my TruckersMP profile and check the date it was created then compare that to how many bans I have in my history. :3 Four years of TruckersMP and Mike Dragon here hasn't ever broken a rule! If I can do it, so can you! All players must obey all the rules at all times. Failing to do so will always result in punishment. Which is not fun! So play nice and you'll never have to worry about being banned. These rules don't exist to keep you from having fun. These rules exist to ensure that everyone will have fun!

Be mindful and actually read the rules, for your own good! It doesn't take long and even though these are things one should already know, it doesn't hurt to get familiar with:

I don't want to find your name in the reports system, alright? :3 Take care! /)^3^(\

I don't think this BMW looks very nice.

Aaaaaaaah...! Much better, now!

My internet has been fixed earlier this morning!

Hello, you! c:

So, I am trying to install .NET Framework 3.5 on a client's PC because one of the programs he needs requires it. The only problem is that Windows 10 says I need to install .NET Framework 3.5 in order to be able to install .NET Framework 3.5.

Need to install .NET Framework 3.5 so .NET Framework 3.5 can be installed...

Check, please!

Don't know if you're into 8-bit covers, but you might like this one I just found.

What a terrible Sunday, this has been...

Since Friday night my internet has been very slow, on Saturday it was slow, unstable and dropping constantly and this issue carried on into Sunday, so I tried to call my ISP, only to find out that the phone line is dead. So I had to call them from my cellphone and they should send someone up until Tuesday. Freaking Tuesday! The result? I could not participate in today's public convoy. First time something out of the ordinary is done for one of these events and I was unable to be there. Crap! But you know what? That was not that bad. Why? Because even worse stuff happened!

On Friday I picked up a client's computer to be formatted with backup. The plan was to start working on it on that same afternoon so then I could finish it on Saturday morning and be free for the weekend then just deliver it back on Monday, but then I found out my car had a leak in the master cylinder of the brake system, which heavily decreased the car's braking capability so I needed to get that sorted out immediately. I spent the afternoon at the mechanic to get it fixed so when I came back home in the evening, I went to work on that PC instead of resting.

But it's fine, I carried my work as usual. Booted into a Live Windows with Hiren's Boot USB, copied all the files the client pointed me he needed plus his emails to my external hard drive, double checked the backup to ensure everything was fine and then, already past midnight, I shut down the computer. The backup was pretty big, with over 500 GB of data, total, so it took a very big chunk of the evening on Friday. On Saturday I worked on formatting the PC and getting a fresh copy of Windows 10 Pro installed. To save time on Saturday, after Windows and drivers were done installing, I plugged the external hard drive back into the PC and set the files to copy back to it over night so in the next morning, everything should be ready for me to just put the files back in their original directories and install the needed programs. But was it ready this morning as I expected, though?

No, it wasn't. 

When I woke up, I checked the client's computer, hoping to see the transfer had completed but instead I found a halted transfer. The reason? A file it was attempting to copy could not be found at the origin. It was the email backup so I went inside the folder where it was saved in the external drive and in fact, it wasn't there. It was nowhere to be found. It simply vanished. I commanded the program to skip that file and carry on with the rest of the transfers (it had stopped before half of the whole transfer was completed) while I looked for the missing emails file (big file, too, mind you) and almost immediately the transfer halted again, this time with I/O errors, complaining that the device (the external hard drive) had either been ejected or could not be read. It repeated this same error for SEVERAL files and upon inspecting the total size of the whole backup, it was no longer matching the over 500 GB of data I had verified on the night before. I plugged the drive into my main computer and guess what? Same problem. Could not copy the files because the hard drive was failing at being read. Then I heard it... scrapping noises coming from the drive.

In a nutshell, my external drive which currently holds VERY important data from our biggest client, which doesn't exist anywhere else (don't you forget that this is the backup), is dying and failing to grant access to those files so I can copy them out of there.

Right now I have it connected to my Linux machine to try and copy them and so far I haven't been presented with errors or halts. It's been copying one of the folders from this backup for the past SIX HOURS. It's making progress, but absurdly slowly and I have no idea if the files are undamaged or if the transfer will even complete, eventually. Oh, and the emails are still all gone.

This Sunday has been terrible, but Monday promises to be an even bigger pain in the tail. -__- Should anything on this backup be lost forever, this will be the very first time in all of my years of experience as a computer technician that I lose someone's files. And it's not even due to my negligence. It's due to hardware failure, so not even my fault. But clients don't care about whose fault it is, mine or the hardware. If files are lost, I am the one who will be blamed by the client.

Oh, and there's even more to this terrible tale, even though not entirely related. However that is something to be told in a different post, at a different time. This has been enough text, already. Thank you for reading it.

Wanna know something I only noticed earlier today?

Except for one of them, all the screenshots being currently used as background for the servers on the servers selection menu on ETS2 and ATS are actually my screenshots!

And here they are in the order they appear in the menu:

Figuring that one made me happy. XD Even if it took a while for me to realize it.

OMG, FINALLY!!!

Last Saturday I noticed the brake pedal in our car was acting strangely. I'd step on it but there would be no brake action until I step on it all the way down. So I took the car to a nearby gas station to get the brake fluid level checked and get some extra fuel and as I expected the level was at a bare minimum, so I ordered the reservoir to be filled to the brim and then the brake pedal and the brakes returned to normal.

Skip a week and shortly ago, this morning, I took the car to drive my mother to somewhere she needed to go and the brake pedal was acting strangely again, just like it did last Saturday. After dropper her off I headed to a gas station, asked for fuel and to have the brake fluid reservoir to be checked and guess what? The fluid was at a bare minimum, again. :\ There must be a leakage somewhere in the brake system. I've called our mechanic about it and he agrees with my theory. We talked and I'll be taking the afternoon off to get this issue sorted out. Gonna take the car to him to have that checked and fixed.

Brakes are something you cannot afford to postpone if they are not working normally as they should. If the brakes in your car, or whatever other type of vehicle you have, act any differently from what they normally act, get them checked immediately.

I've discovered that Top Gear YouTube Poops exist. I'm on an accidental marathon of the thing, right now. XD

Satellite Reign is currently free on Humble Bundle! Is it good? I have no idea. Is it free? Yes, definitely. Go grab yourself a copy!

https://www.humblebundle.com/store/satellite-reign?linkID=&mcID=102:5ad7e73abfb829e131488766:ot:58272826f7bb513ff1ae3abe:1&utm_source=Humble+Bundle+Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2018_04_19_satellitereign_storefront&utm_content=Banner

Today's Thursday and it sucks. Thursdays suck. Not as much as Mondays, but they do. Why? Because they are almost Friday and close to the weekend but are not quite there yet. So I will just leave this here and carry on with my day, for now, and get it over with:

When you are upset at someone but you dare not mention anything so drama and other crap can be avoided:

Still a better love story than Twilight.

The title says it.

Whoever convinced me that camp in Britain was a good idea was either trolling me or completely forgot about the crappy weather. :I

This feels wrong. So very wrong.

Drive into a company yard with a car, leave it with a trailer (caravan, to be exact) and then deliver it to another company. It feels so wrong!

I just watched Ready Player One with my dad. It's so awesome!! /)^3^(\

It's Sunday, truckers!

That moment when you remember the weekend has begun:

Let the Friday, begin!

American Truck Simulator Vehicle Team Lead? The reveal of secrets from the development of the sims? Could SCS be about to announce that there is another new truck finally coming to ATS when Oregon releases?! Oh man, I'd be thrilled! Well, I suppose we can only wish, dream and hope, for now.