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Grunch Update #2

Okay, lets try this again!
Recently I was browsing aged domains that were for sale, and one caught my eye: MJIFC dot com. To most this would like like total junk, but to me it was a rare lost treasure.
When the internet was newish in the late 90s and early 00's, most of us created our own personal and fan websites. Social media didn't exist, so we had to. I was a big fan of Michael Jackson as a child, so of course I made many fan sites dedicated to Michael Jackson starting in around 1998. I used free hosts because having your own server and all that seemed impossible, and I was a young teenager so I had no money for a domain. Fast forward to 2003 I was an adult and had some money. I wanted to give all my websites real domains, so for the Michael Jackson website i first had Mijac dot net, then i moved to MJHQ dot com, mostly due to being available. I really wanted MJIFC dot com, which was the original Michael Jackson Internet Fan Club domain since 1998, and site since like years before that. By then though the side was offline for years since i think early 2000, but the owner kept it as a blank page or parked ever since.
My MJ site and forum were somewhat active. I would always get annoyed with everyone and close, and reopen, and eventually sold and rebought domains back. At one time I actually owned the MJONE dot com domain, which is an official Michael Jackson domain now for their Cirque dus oleil show or whatever the hell. I had actually had the MJ sites all closed down by the time he died in 2009. I made a few attempts at reviving the site as a music site sometime in early 2010s, renaming Michael Jackson Headquarters to Music Junkie Headquarters, but meh. Sold the domains for good and moved on.

I did attempt to merge all my old forums and restore them a few times, this current merge you're seeing now was made in around 2019-20 which free speech was heavily under attack, so i merged all my old forums into one to have a starting point, but i quickly became bored of that.
Anyways, decades pass and fast forward to a couple weeks ago. I was randomly browsing domain auctions and saw the MJIFC dot com domain which instantly caught my eye. It was the cherished domain from my first years on the internet. I bid on it and won, it was finally mine.
I spent the next week building up a new Michael Jackson site, had a nice logo and everything ready to go. Figured i might as well restore the old forums too, not the merged forum though, i wanted the original MJ only forum, so i found a back up from 2008-09, and spent nearly an entire week trying to get it to upgrade to the latest versions of Invision Community. Made several attempts and finally got it working. Renewed my Invision license, and bought a $40 skin.
It was looking nice, but by then all the nostalgia wore off. I remember how I hated running the Michael Jackson site back in the day, how i didn't get along with man, but in their defense i was a mentally unstable weirdo (was before i discovered alcohol and my hormones settled down, or something, ha), and in reality, i didn't listen to Michael much before he died, and haven't listened to him all that much since.
Once the excitement wore off, I realized i didn't want to make another Michael Jackson site, at least not a community, and i don't see much of a point really. He's been dead for a while now, hype from the latest movie is going to wear off and I just don't know. I do want to make an archive of all my sites, and history with MJ and such, so maybe i'll still use the domain for that I don't know.
Anywho, I spent all this time and money on renewing the license, buying a skin, and so on, i might as well use it. Grunch is one of my most cherished domains, and it worked as my non-personal blog. I just don't write that much anymore, and it was barely ever updated, so I figure why not just move the old merged and restored forum from 2020 to it (combined almost all of my previous attempts at forums into one: MJ forum, damnidunno forum), and we'll just see how it goes.
Invision Community 5 has a site cms built in now, so I'll see if i can update the main page to look like a blog. We'll see what happens, and I'll just restore the wordpress site if it doesn't work out. no big deal.
So if you're into these old forums, want less moderation, this will be the place for you!
I am using our current logo, but going to try to work on something new.

Josh

Battlefield 6 Official Multiplayer Gameplay Trailer

Looks pretty cool, and there are going to be two versions of the game: Standard, and Phantom.


The game will be released on October 10th, with open beta's starting next week. I hope to be streaming it.

edit: I know I said that I wasn't going to prepurchase the elite, or premium editions. But i never said anything about the Phantom Edition. haha.
Josh

Battlefield 6 Official Reveal Trailer

EA/Dice has just released the Reveal Trailer for the Battlefield 6, which is the next Battlefield game. Good trailer, but i'm curious to see how the game ends up. I usually prepurchase the super dooper elite versions, but was so burnt over Battlefield 2042, that I'm probably going to wait this one out and see how the game actually is first. This reveal trailer seems to be of campaign cinematics, with the multiplayer gameplay trailer coming July 31st. You can check out the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgNCgJG0vnY
Josh

Live Streaming

I have started to live stream almost daily under the Grunch brand. Mostly because of the recommendation of Grok. The URL is https://rumble.com/grunch Static Live stream url is https://rumble.com/grunch/live If for some reason you cant access rumble, there is a mirror live stream on commie tube: https://www.youtube.com/@grunchdotcom/streams but keep in mind that the Rumble links are the only ones properly maintained. Turns out I had made that youtube channel 10 years ago and already had two videos uploaded to it that I had forgotten about, I probably did link to them on here back then: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyKj8LAqW0U https://youtu.be/IqLcnwtLsTk?si=x27g6zqnid_CI-Vj   we'll see how this goes.
Josh

Video: Bill Maher finally talks about dinner with Trump

Bill Maher finally breaks his silence and talks about his dinner with President Trump 10 days ago. On Tonight's REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER, Bill talks about how President Trump is nothing like his public persona. I've been waiting for Bill to finally talk about it, because I like both him and Trump, and the only thing that makes me dislike watching REAL TIME is when Bill wrongly goes after Trump. So I hope that he can be more understanding and accepting of Trump, and open to the idea that Trump is a deal maker, and sometimes you have to say crazy stuff to get the other side to agree to deals. Watch the video here: [rumble]https://rumble.com/embed/pj.v6pskpx/[/rumble]   We'll see how it goes from here on out.
Josh

Tech Tip: Finally some Nice Mouse Cursors for Windows

I've been searching for some new mouse cursors for windows for years now. I've been using the same o  D Yungas ones for a decade now, and want to try something new. The problem is, unlike the old days, customizing the look and feel of Windows is not a big deal to most anymore. So new skins and cursors that are actually decent rarely are created anymore. You can download the D Yungas Cursor pack here. [caption id="attachment_10006475" align="alignnone" width="300"] My Comment on the D Yungas cursors. Damn, i have been using them for over a decade :oÞ[/caption]   [caption id="attachment_10006470" align="alignnone" width="300"] D Yungus Cursor[/caption]   After searching, and searching, I finally found some mouse Cursors that are different, yet really nice looking. Also, they are basic .cur files, so you don't need a special program like CursorXP to use them, they just work on any modern version of Windows. They are called "Gami" because they're meant to look like origami. I admit the idea does sound stupid, but they do look really nice. The colors and animations are really good. I've been using them for a while now, and thought that I should share. You can download them from DeviantArt here: https://www.deviantart.com/raylark/art/Gami-926173327 The set comes in 3 sizes: 32px, 48px, 64px. From the page: Description The goal of this cursor was to see if I could make a convincing origami cursor. I think it's still rough, but some of the ideas worked out really well. Compatibility - Windows 7, 8, 10, 11 What You Get - 15 .cur files (each can scale to 32px, 48px, 64px) - 2 .ani (animated) files (for each size: 32px, 48px, 64px) - install.inf - readme.txt How to Install 1. Download and extract [cursor].zip 2. Open the extracted folder 3. Right click "~install.inf" file 4. Click "install" 5. Navigate to Settings > Devices > Mouse > Additional Mouse Options > Pointers 6. Select the desired Scheme from drop down menu 7. Hit "OK"   I'm really enjoying them. [caption id="attachment_10006469" align="alignnone" width="543"] Using cursor while composing this post. tee hee.[/caption]
Josh

Good Song: "I’m Still Fine" by Red Clay Strays

I heard this song while riding my Nomad, and instantly fell in love. The song is "I'm Still Fine" by Red Clay Strays, which is a band that I've been hearing alot of good songs from lately, but this song was instantly a favorite. They've been performing this song for over a year, but recently released a studio version of it on their latest album "Made by These Moments". This is actually a video of an older performance from 8 months ago, but sounds nearly identical to the studio version.
https://www.redclaystrays.com
**I used ai to upscale and enhance the screenshot used as featured image. Original video is low res for some reason.
**I Cross posted this article on my personal site. This song is that good!
Josh

Marilyn Manson Releases New Single "As Sick As The Secrets Within"

Hell yea! Marilyn Manson is back, and has released a new single "As Sick As The Secrets Within". You can listen to it via commietube: https://youtu.be/vOd8hE-xTDY?si=-w-bwr6hk_I4JacY He also launched a new tour which had it's first show yesterday in Hershey, PA, and he sounded amazing. Fan recording of yesterday's show: https://youtu.be/xlhKal1f9w4?si=Cu5_C565eNxp00cx It's nice to have him back. Let's go!
Josh

Watch: Evanescence Live at Rock in Rio Lisboa 2024

I randomly ran into this video the other day, which is of Evanescence's performance at this year's Rock in Rio Lisboa, and I was greatly impressed, and actually left in awe. So, I wanted to share it. I haven't thought of Evanescence or of even lead singer Amy Lee in probably a decade, so it really was random that it showed up in my commietube feed. I've always loved a few songs of theirs, such as: "Call Me When You're Sober", "My Immortal", and "Wake Me Up". All the other songs I don't know very well, but the performances of those 3 songs is amazing. Amy Lee sounds exactly as she does in the albums she recorded 20+ years ago, which sounds amazing. I don't know too many singers these days that can do that. Or sadly, even make good music. Even the great Michael Jackson never could really sound like he did in the studio when he sang live. anyways, check it out. I'll include the timestamps for all the songs: 01:00 Intro Artifact/The Turn (The Bitter Truth) 02:36 Broken Pieces Shine (The Bitter Truth) 06:27 Made Of Stone (Evanescence) 10:38 Sweet Sacrifica (The Open Door) 13:45 Yeah Right (The Bitter Truth) 17:15 Taking Over Me (Fallen) 19:47 The Game Is Over (The Bitter Truth) 25:06 My Heart Is Broken (Evanescence) 29:58 Wasted On You (The Bitter Truth) Intro on piano 34:40 The Change (Evanescence) 38:35 End Of The Dream (Evanescence) 43:31 Going Under (Fallen) 47:17 Better Without You (The Bitter Truth) 51:30 Call Me When You're Sober (The Open Door) 55:24 Imaginary (Fallen) 59:45 Amy's Speach 1:00:43 Use My Voice (The Bitter Truth) 1:06:06 My Immortal (Fallen) 1:10:55 Bring Me To Life (Fallen)
https://youtu.be/Qn-WGMRW1T8?si=3II_bmmOeq6UrtqX
Josh

Tech Tip: Restore Old YouTube Layout

Youtube has recently updated its layout. Especially for the videos you are currently watching. Instead of showing info and comments underneath the video that you are currently watching, it shows suggested and recommended videos. The info and comments are now pushed into a tiny column on the far right. It just doesn't look or feel right, and isn't intuitive at all. [caption id="attachment_10005868" align="alignnone" width="768"] New UI[/caption] Apparently this UI change has been rolling out to users for weeks now. Which surprised me because I hadn't heard about it at all, until I got the change on my account. Everyone I showed the change to said it looked horrible. Anyways, since it had been rolling out for weeks, and many already had it, a fix was already made and easy to implement. The fix comes in the form of two simple userscripts, that can be easily installed via a script manager extension. For Chrome based browsers (I use and recommend Vivaldi) , I use one called "Violentmonkey", but there are several others. I haven't tested it, but Tampermonkey has an extension for Firefox and other browsers. The script seem to come with many customization options, but I just wanted youtube to go back to looking the way it has for over a decade now, and that was achieved by just installing the scripts. Doesn't look exactly how it used to, suggested videos are a bit bigger and such, but its usable. The userscripts can be downloaded/installed from here: https://github.com/sapondanaisriwan/AdashimaaTube?tab=readme-ov-file  There are also more instructions on the page for those that need more assistance. Restored UI:
Josh

Grand Theft Auto VI - Reveal Trailer is finally here!

Rockstar has finally released the first trailer for GTA VI.  It has been released a day early due to a leak on X. And wow,  It does look good. Grand Theft Audio VI will take place in the colorful Vice City. Looks like modern times this time, so isn't set in the 80's as GTA Vice City was. The graphics and world look amazing, especially the animals and wild life. They were already great in Red Dead Redemption 2, so an improvement on that will be great. Hopefully they finally included an actual anti-cheat for the online modes. The cheaters and hackers killed both GTA online and Red Dead Online for me. anyways, here it is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdBZY2fkU-0 Sadly though, the game still wont be out for over a year from now in 2025.
Josh

Good Song: "Still Blue" by Connor Price & Caleb Mitchell

Heard this song the other day while on a long bike ride. Was playing the "New Music Country Friday" station on Spotify (free). Instantly feel inlove with it. Not sure who Connor Price is. I think he might be a TikTok rapper, or something. I dunno, he does look familiar, but I think it could just be his plain 80s/90's clothing that he's wearing in the video. I checked out some of his other content but didn't really enjoy any of it (not much a fan of modern rap), anyways, i love this song! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m60QZleHjKo  
Josh

Tucker Carlson: America's principles are at stake

Tucker Carlson has posted his third video to twitter. This time its about why they're (still) after Donald Trump. I think he's very spot on here. A must watch, and a must share! So far, all Tuckers videos on twitter have been great. I'm glad he left Fox news (or got fired) and now can free to talk about real issues. You can check the other videos out on his twitter. https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1668747661028081664?s=20
Josh

Good Song! "CAROLINE" by ThxSoMch

Recently came across this song, and really liked it, so decided to share it! The song is "CAROLINE" by someone who goes by ThxSoMch, whom i dunno much about, but i do like this song alot. Kinda reminds me of "Heathens" by Twenty One Pilots. Anyways, here it is - By the way, sorry about the anime or whatever video, it's the only video of this song that I could find on Rumble! I'll avoid commietube at every chance!: [rumble]https://rumble.com/embed/pj.v24mnf8/[/rumble]
Josh

On Sale! Command & Conquer Remastered Collection - Only $3! (expired)

Edit: Deal has expired! I usually don't post any sale threads, only freebies, but this is a pretty good deal for pretty good remasters of some the first PC games I ever played and loved: Command & Conquer, and Red Alert, including their expansions. The sale price is and unbelievable $2.99 USD (normally $19.99). The sale ends on January 23rd 2023. I actually prepurchased this collection for the full price when it was first announced, and haven't regretted it, and would still buy it today at that price. So, $3 is no question. I believe the multiplayer is fixed in working, but I've ever enjoyed multiplayer much in these RTS games, I've mostly always skirmished against the AI. They also included mod support, which i'm not too sure is new because I used to downloaded modded saved game files, and they always worked just fine, i also think that those will still work on this new remaster, although I haven't tried yet. You can read more about the remastered and new features on EA's site: https://www.ea.com/games/command-and-conquer/command-and-conquer-remastered/features [caption id="attachment_10002672" align="alignnone" width="1200"] So much Nostalgia![/caption] Game Description: It's also great rewatching the updated and funny videos from the single player campaigns. So much nostalgia in this for me, I used to stay up til like 6am playing these in the late 90's and early 00s. Also, this sale is on Steam! And hurry because the sale ends on January 23rd. These are great games even if you it'll be your first time playing them, and again at this price! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1213210/Command__Conquer_Remastered_Collection/
Josh

Watch: Abandoned by Rockstar - The Tragedy of Red Dead Online

Great little documentary that just came out about Red Dead Online, and how Rockstar abandoned it. Which is sad, because Red Dead Redemption 2 and Red Dead Online are some of the greatest games ever made. They recently just RE-Released Halloween Pass 2, which shows how much Rockstar doesn't care about Red Dead Online, which is a much more superior game than Grand Theft Auto online. Oh well. Gvmers (Gamers) is a great youtube channel by the way. If you like gaming, and want to see documentaries about games, devs, studios, etc... its the channel to follow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06dddb5-dgw
Josh

Tech Tip: Easily Update and Swap DLSS Versions (Steam Games only)

Many gamers are now familiar with Nvidia's DLSS, which stands for "Deep learning super sampling". It pretty much just makes games look extra sharp and smooth, without a big effect on performance and FPS. Only a few years ago DLSS was new, and very buggy, but it was still way better than the alternative options, such as simple TAA, which was horrible in games such as Red Dead Redemption 2. DLSS is quickly improving, and it seems like other every week or month a new version has came out, which fixes bugs such as trails behind moving options in RDR2. Sometimes it it can months for game developers to include the newer and improved DLSS versions in their game updates. You could always manually download updated versions of DLSS, and copy them into your games directory yourself, but this can be time consuming, especially if you play alot of games that use DLSS. And also, some newer versions of DLSS are buggy in certain games, so manually monitoring and controlling all of that can be a headache. If you want to do it the manual route, the site https://www.techpowerup.com/download/nvidia-dlss-dll/ has all the latest DLSS files that are free to download. But, if you prefer the easier way, there is a FREE program in the Microsoft store called "DLSS Swapper". DLSS swapper can scan your computer for all the games that use DLSS, tell you which DLSS versions they use, and give you an option to upgrade or downgrade the DLSS versions automatically. I basically just update all the games to the latest version, which is easy and requires two clicks on a drop down menu per game. If the game has an issue with the newer version of DLSS, easily change it via the drop down menu again. I love this tool. It's also great for even learning of Newer DLSS releases without having to manually visit websites such as TechPowerUp. Edit: I just learned that this tool only works for games in your Steam Library, so you will have to use the manual route for non steam games. Hopefully the developers apply to several client libraries soon. **Special Note: revalidating or even updating a games files via Steam, will reset the DLSS version back to the one the developers included, so you will be downgraded. DLSS Swapper is also handy for checking to see if that happened without you knowing, which it has several times for me. [caption id="attachment_10002536" align="aligncenter" width="768"] My DLSS Swapper game library. I didn't have to manually add any games, it does it automatically.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_10002537" align="aligncenter" width="768"] Selecting DLSS Version for Modern Warfare 2022 beta, which is already using latest version.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_10002538" align="aligncenter" width="768"] DLSS Version Library. You do have to manually click the download button to download the version to your PC, but then it's as simple as selecting the version per game via the drop down.[/caption] You can download DLSS Swapper for free from the Microsoft Store, Or from GitHub.
Josh

Did Michael Jackson Steal from Bob Fosse?

I'm pretty distraught right now. As anyone who personally knows me, or been following this site for a while knows, I've been a huge Michael Jackson fan for most of my life. I've always thought that he was a super talented genius, and completely original. I know that many artists inspire others, so of course they are going to copy some dance or even singing styles, but in this particular situation, it seems a bit more of a blatant rip off maybe? Michael has many times stated who his idols and inspirations were, such as James Brown, Fred Astaire, but he has never really mentioned Bob Fosse. Turns out in 1974, Bob Fosse performed a dance scene, called "The Snake", here he does many of the iconic and symbolic dance moves that Michael did almost a decade later. Moves such as the snapping leg kick (which is probably the most famous MJ dance move after the moonwalk), and even the moonwalk itself. The most obvious to me though is the pose that Michael used in the photoshoot for "Off The Wall", which he later enhanced more for the starting post for his performances of Billie Jean. Not to mention the outfit and look is almost identical to what Michael would later on use for his performances of Billie Jean, and many others. Now, I know that most artists aren't original, and they get influenced by other artists, but they usually give them credit. Has Michael ever even mumbled the name "Bob Fosse" in public? Being a huge Michael Jackson fan, I don't remember hearing it, and I used to watch Michael's interviews over and over and over again, I remember James Brown, Gene Kelly, and Fred Astaire being mentioned several times as huge heroes to Michael. Perhaps the influence, and copying was so obvious in this scenario that Michael didn't want to bring any attention to it? I don't know. I'm just sad that the copying is obvious, and Michael never gave Bob credit. It's always sad when we discover that our life long heroes and idols aren't as big of magical genius' as we assumed for so long.   [caption id="attachment_10002526" align="aligncenter" width="656"] Bob Fosse original "Billie Jean" pose[/caption] [caption id="attachment_10002528" align="aligncenter" width="331"] Michael doing the post during the Off The Wall photoshoot shows how similar the post was, not yet to the complete Billie Jean style.[/caption]   [caption id="attachment_10002532" align="aligncenter" width="768"] Fosse doing the "leg snap" kick dance move.[/caption] There are just many examples, and if you watch the video yourself, you will see alot of similarities. I'm still a huge Michael Jackson fan, but I'm just amazed by this, and saddened that he never gave true credit to Bob Fosse. I'm going to watch more Bob Fosse videos, to see if there are any other similarities, and also just for entertainment, the guy seemed pretty amazing. Here is a clip someone put together a while back, because they too saw the copying and similarities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUlEBhGgEe0   The original unedited video can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXonK8EBqmk
Josh

Tech Tip: Sagethumbs Alternative and better Thumbnail Handler for Windows 11

I have been using SageThumbs as the thumbnail handler in several versions of Microsoft Windows for well over a decade, mostly due to Windows not natively supporting preview thumbnails of RAW, PSD, and several other various image file types. SageThumb would replace the default thumbnail handler, and generate thumbnails for almost every image file type that has ever been created, and display them in File Explorer. Sadly, SageThumbs hasn't been updated in years, and seems very buggy and half working in Windows 11. It would be very slow to generate thumbnails for newly created images in Windows 11, if it ever did at all. [caption id="attachment_10002465" align="alignnone" width="768"] Thumbnails not being generated or rendered.[/caption] Thankfully, Windows seems to handle thumbnails for raw image file such as .CR2 just fine natively now, but not many others such as Photoshop's .PSD format, which will only display the default Photoshop icon in File Explorer. I searched and searched for a replacement for SageThumbs, and surprising there isn't much out there. There is one called MysticThumbs, but it cost money, while Sagethumbs was free. I finally ended up running into a free program called Pictus, which is advertised as Image Viewer, but it also replaces the native thumbnail handler in Windows, allowing for the generation of many image formats such as PSD again, and it works very well. The image viewer itself is very simple and plain, and has some editing features such as brightness, contracts, rotation.... nothing amazing, but that's not what we're wanting it for, so that's fine. From Pictus' Website: What it does well, and what we want it for is to automatically handle the thumbnails in File Explorer. I never had to set anything up, just install, and it started working all on its own. I haven't had any issues with it rendering thumbnails for the file formats I use, and have yet had to open the program to adjust settings or anything like that. I love again being able to see what my PSD files are without having to open them in Photoshop or Bridge. [caption id="attachment_10002469" align="alignnone" width="768"] My Grunch PSD folder with working file thumbnails![/caption] Works great. You can download both 32bit and 64bit versions here: https://poppeman.se/pictus/
Josh

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