RidiculouslyBen.com

Photo by Dids from Pexels The Professional Lurker For starters, it's not what you think! If you're unfamiliar with message boards, forums, chat rooms, or live streams; you may think a lurker is a negative entity to have around. We think, someone or some THING is watching, stalking, and waiting. In the streaming world however, lurking can provide some benefits. What is a stream lurker and why do they lurk? Simply put, a lurker is someone that chooses not to or is unable to participate in a stream's chat. There are many reasons a person may not participate in a stream or the stream's chat that may be, but not limited to, social anxiety, shyness, out for a drive, working, and/or just about any reason that hinders the ability to type or click something in the stream. So, why lurk?  Support! While some lurkers are there to just check out a streamer most lurkers, from my experience, are there to support the streamer. In most cases, while not active, they still count as a numb...

Photo by  CDC on Unsplash Can't get your kid to maintenance?  Try some of these tips! (Quick Post) Self maintenance, even for adults, can be a difficult task sometimes. Life gets in the way, we forget with our busy lives, or we're just too tired or lazy to do a specific task. We try to convince ourselves that it can wait till later but, sometimes, it never happens and turns to procrastination. Here's the problem, our children see this and they copy it! They copy our actions, use our excuses, and despite being little balls of perpetual energy, the throw on a theatrical play about how tired they are, like we do. Here's a few tips to not only help your child build a routine and good maintenance habits, but to also provide an opportunity to promote some self-improvement! Monkey see, monkey do! Photo by  Magda Ehlers  from  Pexels Whether we like it or not, THEY are watching! It sounds scary right? That's because it is scary! These tiny humans, our children, are wat...

Bethany Cirlincione on Unsplash Microsoft Windows Clipboard! Make office life easier! (Quick Post) Doing clerical work as a profession can get pretty repetitive and a lot of actions depend on the reputable copy and paste shortcuts or functions. Even in everyday life we copy and paste in letters, essays, cards, and pretty much any editing we do. On Windows, there is another way, and it can save you a ton of time in the workplace and in some instances, with anything else that you may be doing. My Story Linus Sandvide on Unsplash I was doing my daily work on the job, (copying and pasting a bunch of templates I like to use), when I realized, this is taking too long. So I browsed around on the phone for a faster way than using the copy shortcut (CTRL + C) and paste (CTRL +V). It sounds pretty easy already, but clicking around and hitting shortcuts can be time consuming. So, on my phone, I copied a link and when I went to paste it ...😱 EUREKA! I completely forgot about the clipboard ...

Photo by Nghia Le on Unsplash GET PASSIONATE NOW! Do it for you! The time is now! I mean, now, right now! Life gets in the way of so much and with the world being the way it is right now, the wrench that gets in our gears gets bigger and bigger! We need to make a change in our lives, we need to get motivated, and we need to get passionate about it! People of all ages, especially the young and the retired, please read this, as I hope it will help you! What is it to be passionate, inspired, or motivated? Photo by  Pixabay  from  Pexels So, to start to be passionate, inspired, or motivated is to just try new things, to like it, keep going with it, and to obsess a...

Image by khaase from Pixabay Fix Your Internet Without Leaving Your Seat! (Mostly) The information super highway is a vast and mysterious place that we now depend on. We look to it for general research, movie titles, work, business, and school. It is just not practical to live without. So what happens when we loose our precious internet connection? It is down right frustrating! Hopefully I can add some ease to this frustration with a few easy to follow steps (without the need of leaving your seat, mostly) Please note:  Sorry folks, I don't use Mac products often and I'm quite new to Linux. Most of us use windows so my tutorial will be primarily based on using newer versions of Microsoft Windows. Step 1. Using Windows troubleshoot Microsoft Windows Network Troubleshooter The very first thing I do when I'm disconnected from the internet, without wanting to be, is to use the Windows troubleshooter. Without going in...

  Image by Biljana Jovanovic from Pixabay Keeping New Years fun during "COVID time" It's difficult to think about being grateful or happy during New Year celebrations when there's a pandemic going on. With the stress of social distancing, naysayers, government turmoil, and anything else that 2020 decides to rain down on us, IT ...IS ...REALLY ...HARD! I couldn't agree more! But, dig deeper and pat yourself on the back because we made it. The human race continues to survive up to 2021 and as much as we think the world is at its end, it's still spinning and we're still kicking. So, with the ailments of 2020 how do we celebrate? How do we have fun safely? Hopefully I can give a few good ideas.  1. The Rose Parade is cancelled 😭 Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash The Rose Parade is cancelled?!?!? Well, sort of. They are still planning to have a T.V. special which sounds different and exciting. So far a lot of virtual T.V. specials, due to the pandemic, have ...

I mage from Microsoft  support vc_runtimeMinimum_x86.msi, a file supposedly missing and never found! Here's the once and for all fix! (Quick Post) 2020 is full of problems, problems with playing computer games or streaming SHOULD NOT be one of them. Recently, maybe with the most recent windows update , I've been running into an issue with installing and running certain games. It's even happening with my streaming and desktop recording programs. A mysterious and ugly "missing" registry key for C++ in relation to vc_runtimeMinimum_x86.msi. So, what is this and how do we fix it? Here's the solution! What is Microsoft visual C++ redistributable? (Skip fluff?) I'll try to make this as simple as possible. Visual C++ Redistributable is what many programs, that use the C++ programming language, use as quick references to pre-made functions and ...

Photo by Kiy Turk on Unsplash 2020 has been a CRAZY year! What can we possibly be thankful for? (Quick Post) For a year of uncertainty and for many, despair, it is hard to find things to be thankful for this year. With COVID-19, politics, protests, and violence it is hard to even imagine some positivity. At the end of the day, there is a lot we can be thankful for but, for some of us we have to dig deep and shovel the bad to the side. Hopefully, my list of what I'm thankful for can help you reflect on what you can be thankful for! 😉 Lets start with the worst of it COVID-19 When we put aside the beliefs, anger, stress, illness, and death there are a few things to be thankful for from this experience. Here's a list! Photo by  Anna Shvets ...

Photo by  Thirdman  from  Pexels Yes Grown Ups! It's Time To Dress Up For Halloween! We as adults really don't think about it. As we get older, we stop dressing up for Halloween. I think it was around high school, complete strangers began to tell me it wasn't ok for kids my age to trick or treat. I was taller than most, so fair enough ...or was it?  As I grew more and more into adulthood the spirit of one of my most favorite holidays began to dwindle and die. I slowed my routine of wearing a costume, parties became a chore, and then I just stopped thinking about it. A little scary movie was enough. It really became a mystery to me why it all stopped. Misconception will make you a bored and boring person Photo by Joshua Rawson-Harris on Unsplash Misc...