London change a lot in the last century and a half... And not for the better.
They still drive on the wrong side, though.
I've played approximately 3 hours of Diablo 4. It was boring. It was also free with the Xbox X, which is the only reason I've played it.
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...and the Cranky Calico's bloodwork came back, "Great!" Absolutely amazing for an 18-year-old cat. No issues at all.
That little cuss is going to outlive us all.
** spoiler omitted **
So, not sure it's the same thing, but when Diablo II first came out in 2000 we played it as a co-op LAN game and got through the whole thing. It wasn't the epic, memorable success of Warcraft II nor the utter fail of Warcraft III, so all I can say is that we must have found it perfectly enjoyable as I have no particular memories of it, good nor bad.
Ugh. Even though New Neighbor is renting, he's learning firsthand the "joys" of home ownership in Albany:
As I mentioned, he owns a Tesla. So he hired some guy to install a charger. It was obviously unlicensed, off-the-books work, but New Neighbor was watching the whole time and once it was done it looked like perfectly competent work so who am I to throw stones?
The "massive California heat wave" you've been reading about had us see an 84°F day a couple of days ago...
...and the charger out-and-out melted. Seriously. This guy bought such cheap parts that they melted on a fairly ordinary day. And as I overheard them talking about it this morning the problem was readily apparent: "I'll go back to Home Depot and get some replacement parts this morning."
It's possible to buy decent hardware at Home Depot. But it sure as h*** isn't easy.
And they still religiously go to Home Depot.
Lowes for me, especially after Home Depot royally screwed us with the fridge replacement. Although honestly I shouldn't go to either for anything that needs quality parts.
I think I've mentioned that a Home Depot manager threatened my family when I wasn't satisfied with their work. I've cost them over $100,000 since then, so I figure I've gotten my revenge.
And yeah, Lowe's seems able to keep things one step up from Home Depot. But we're fortunate that we have two high-quality hardware places only around 20 minutes away.
EDIT:
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Should have bought a machete, contractor bags, gloves, bleach, and a shovel and checked out in front of them...
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Should have bought a machete, contractor bags, gloves, bleach, and a shovel and checked out in front of them...
What really kills me about the whole thing is that I did the usual "NobodysHome letter".
These letters have netted me apologies from the IRS and DMV. $200 in swag from Brio. $100 in coupons from Alaska Airlines. Etc. Home Depot stands out as the only company I've ever written where I didn't get so much as a response, much less an apology or any compensation.
But decades of upgrading the house without a single screw from Home Depot is very satisfying.
Should have bought a machete, contractor bags, gloves, bleach, and a shovel and checked out in front of them...
What really kills me about the whole thing is that I did the usual "NobodysHome letter".
These letters have netted me apologies from the IRS and DMV. $200 in swag from Brio. $100 in coupons from Alaska Airlines. Etc. Home Depot stands out as the only company I've ever written where I didn't get so much as a response, much less an apology or any compensation.
But decades of upgrading the house without a single screw from Home Depot is very satisfying.
The "massive California heat wave" you've been reading about had us see an 84°F day a couple of days ago...
...and the charger out-and-out melted. Seriously. This guy bought such cheap parts that they melted on a fairly ordinary day.
Damn...
Ugh. Even though New Neighbor is renting, he's learning firsthand the "joys" of home ownership in Albany:
As I mentioned, he owns a Tesla. So he hired some guy to install a charger. It was obviously unlicensed, off-the-books work, but New Neighbor was watching the whole time and once it was done it looked like perfectly competent work so who am I to throw stones?
The "massive California heat wave" you've been reading about had us see an 84°F day a couple of days ago...
...and the charger out-and-out melted. Seriously. This guy bought such cheap parts that they melted on a fairly ordinary day. And as I overheard them talking about it this morning the problem was readily apparent: "I'll go back to Home Depot and get some replacement parts this morning."It's possible to buy decent hardware at Home Depot. But it sure as h*** isn't easy.
** spoiler omitted **
Unfortunately Home Depot is the only place in our area that stocks the Halder mallets the hardscape department got addicted to (in fairness, they are THAT good).
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Unfortunately Home Depot is the only place in our area that stocks the Halder mallets the hardscape department got addicted to (in fairness, they are THAT good).
Oh, they're definitely the place to go if you want some hard-to-find stuff and you hate Amazon even more than you hate Home Depot.
But you need to know what you're looking for before you walk in the door, because I honestly think their floor people get commissions based on how much they hose their customers with bad advice...
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Unfortunately Home Depot is the only place in our area that stocks the Halder mallets the hardscape department got addicted to (in fairness, they are THAT good).Oh, they're definitely the place to go if you want some hard-to-find stuff and you hate Amazon even more than you hate Home Depot.
But you need to know what you're looking for before you walk in the door, because I honestly think their floor people get commissions based on how much they hose their customers with bad advice...
That is absolutely true!
Also, yes I absolutely hate Amazon, so much so that I'd rather buy from Walmart.
Fun fact: My ex-wife tried giving me control of our Amazon account in the divorce and I refused.
"You take it!"
"No! You take it!"
"Nuh-uh!"
The s&~$ty part is, she still uses Amazon, she just has her own account, the reason she didn't want control of the Amazon account is because the wishlist and save for later portion of the account was filled with stuff Crookshanks wanted. Which is pretty f@!!ed up.
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We're at the boardwalk amusement park on the beach today, and my niece is crying on the bumper cars.
Why?
Because Teensy Valeros put his fingers up to his temples and convinced her that he was steering with the power of his mind, and she tried and tried and couldn't do it herself.
You envied NobodyHome's two maturing supervillain masterminds, and decided to raise one of your own?
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You envied NobodyHome's two maturing supervillain masterminds, and decided to raise one of your own?
No, more like my own little darlings grew up in awe of the Impii.
The joys of plausible deniability...
Be careful everyone. Things just potentially got biblical.
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*sigh*
The joys of plausible deniability...
For the record - I wrote this as a cheeky response to Lisa, before the news. It has no relation to nor is it a commentary on the event that took place yesterday.
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Fantasy Monster: Crushing Sphere
An enormous self-moving orb of obsidian crushing everything in its way.
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Deep Rock Galactic fans, rejoice!
It's just as cheesy and terrible as you'd expect, which is what makes it so perfect.
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What doth maketh ye VLTIMAYTE WAEOPON?
Not attachdethyng nunchucks to ye ende of an Sabre, let me tell thee.
Would NobodyHome's dare to handle that: James May vs AI generated cooking recipe...
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Would NobodyHome's dare to handle that: James May vs AI generated cooking recipe...
Watching the opening right now, though I don't have 24 minutes to see the full catastrophe until later...
Spam, corned beef, pickles, chicken soup, beans, spaghetti hoops, tomato soup, smash instant potatoes, and yellow mustard. Plus gin.Any recipe that tried to use all of those ingredients at once would end in sadness. I could absolutely do the corned beef, beans, and potatoes into a fairly good hash, especially using the strained chicken soup as a base for the potatoes. You could do a separate recipe with the spaghetti hoops and tomato soup. I think once you start adding more than that, you need the gin to dull your taste buds...
Looking forward to watching the rest of it later...
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Spam and beans, spam and beans, spam, spam, spam and beans.
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What doth maketh ye VLTIMAYTE WAEOPON?
Not attachdethyng nunchucks to ye ende of an Sabre, let me tell thee.
what about attaching TWO sabers to the end of a pair of nun chucks?
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This last winter I got the adventure path, Jewel of the Indigo Isles, which was released by Roll For Combat, for their Battlezoo campaign setting.
If I had to describe it in 10 words or less I'd say it's Goonies Meets Angry Birds.
And surprisingly, it works!
Got the campaign setting book for it last weekend.
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what about attaching TWO sabers to the end of a pair of nun chucks?What doth maketh ye VLTIMAYTE WAEOPON?
Not attachdethyng nunchucks to ye ende of an Sabre, let me tell thee.
F@%~ it, go all in and attach 4 sabers. Then give it to your worst enemy and say "you'll never master these!" And then walk away.
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Would NobodyHome's dare to handle that: James May vs AI generated cooking recipe...
While James May wasn't impressed, I certainly am. As expected, the AI blindly used all of the ingredients presented without taking flavor nor consistency into account, paid no attention to proportions with any of the "main" ingredients, and only managed to do three things I'd consider "intelligent":
(1) It figured out that the best way to combine all the ingredients was in a shepherd's pie.(2) It knew enough to brown the meat before putting it in the pie.
(3) It recognized pickles, mustard, and gin as "seasonings" and recommended significantly smaller quantities of each (1 tbsp each instead of using the entire jars).
This should have resulted in an inedible soupy mass. Instead it was apparently an edible soupy mass. So I'm impressed not by the AI, which was clueless, but by the fact that both James and Lucy considered the end result somewhat edible.
But then, they are British...
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Would NobodyHome's dare to handle that: James May vs AI generated cooking recipe...
While James May wasn't impressed, I certainly am. As expected, the AI blindly used all of the ingredients presented without taking flavor nor consistency into account, paid no attention to proportions with any of the "main" ingredients, and only managed to do three things I'd consider "intelligent":
(1) It figured out that the best way to combine all the ingredients was in a shepherd's pie.
(2) It knew enough to brown the meat before putting it in the pie.
(3) It recognized pickles, mustard, and gin as "seasonings" and recommended significantly smaller quantities of each (1 tbsp each instead of using the entire jars).This should have resulted in an inedible soupy mass. Instead it was apparently an edible soupy mass. So I'm impressed not by the AI, which was clueless, but by the fact that both James and Lucy considered the end result somewhat edible.
But then, they are British...
I’m British, and this sounds like a really bad idea. Never cook anything with AI if it is going to be such a disaster. Old school methods persist for a very good reason.
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F~!@ it, go all in and attach 4 sabers. Then give it to your worst enemy and say "you'll never master these!" And then walk away.what about attaching TWO sabers to the end of a pair of nun chucks?What doth maketh ye VLTIMAYTE WAEOPON?
Not attachdethyng nunchucks to ye ende of an Sabre, let me tell thee.
Challenge accepted!
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I’m British, and this sounds like a really bad idea. Never cook anything with AI if it is going to be such a disaster. Old school methods persist for a very good reason.Would NobodyHome's dare to handle that: James May vs AI generated cooking recipe...
While James May wasn't impressed, I certainly am. As expected, the AI blindly used all of the ingredients presented without taking flavor nor consistency into account, paid no attention to proportions with any of the "main" ingredients, and only managed to do three things I'd consider "intelligent":
(1) It figured out that the best way to combine all the ingredients was in a shepherd's pie.
(2) It knew enough to brown the meat before putting it in the pie.
(3) It recognized pickles, mustard, and gin as "seasonings" and recommended significantly smaller quantities of each (1 tbsp each instead of using the entire jars).This should have resulted in an inedible soupy mass. Instead it was apparently an edible soupy mass. So I'm impressed not by the AI, which was clueless, but by the fact that both James and Lucy considered the end result somewhat edible.
But then, they are British...
As someone that uses building techniques from ancient Egypt and the Incas I can confirm this.
Would NobodyHome's dare to handle that: James May vs AI generated cooking recipe...
While James May wasn't impressed, I certainly am. As expected, the AI blindly used all of the ingredients presented without taking flavor nor consistency into account, paid no attention to proportions with any of the "main" ingredients, and only managed to do three things I'd consider "intelligent":
(1) It figured out that the best way to combine all the ingredients was in a shepherd's pie.
(2) It knew enough to brown the meat before putting it in the pie.
(3) It recognized pickles, mustard, and gin as "seasonings" and recommended significantly smaller quantities of each (1 tbsp each instead of using the entire jars).This should have resulted in an inedible soupy mass. Instead it was apparently an edible soupy mass. So I'm impressed not by the AI, which was clueless, but by the fact that both James and Lucy considered the end result somewhat edible.
But then, they are British...
I wonder if this is the same methodology that led the NYT food section to feature a recipe for guacamole made with frozen peas.
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Spicy, mashie peas to go with your fish and chips.
Mashie peas sounds good, though I'd go with canned ones instead of frozen...
I might have some canned peas in my fridge...
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How bad is housing situation in Kraków these days?
I get daily applications from pigeons, to move in as my room mates.
Seriously, I constantly have to shoo those feathered bastards trying to set up a nest or two on the interior side of my windows.
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So, I finally saw Good Will Hunting, and... meh.
They could have at least talked to some real mathematicians or photocopied some research papers; The Queen's Gambit was notable in that they did a lot of research and presented actual chess matches. Good Will Hunting was notable in that almost every bit of mathematics presented was utter nonsense. They got in some buzzwords and managed to get the Fields medal correct, but other than that...
But honestly, nobody cares. It's the character interactions that drive the movie, and *almost* all of those are spectacularly well done. Unfortunately, two of the most-critical ones aren't: The Fields medalist is almost cartoonishly overwritten. I've personally had to deal with egomaniacal thesis advisors seeking to steal glory from overworked, underappreciated grad students. The Fields medalist's performance and motivations just don't make sense; he does what is necessary to forward the plot. Never a good character arc. Similarly, the romance is so chemistry-free that they could safely sell it as a contact lens solution.
So, great writing and interactions between Will, his friends, and his therapist. But at the core the principal antagonist and romantic interest didn't work for me. Which kind of killed the movie.
Ah, well. At least now I've seen it.
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How bad is housing situation in Kraków these days?
I get daily applications from pigeons, to move in as my room mates.
Seriously, I constantly have to shoo those feathered bastards trying to set up a nest or two on the interior side of my windows.
And by 'shooing' I mean 'throwing out the sticks gathered on the internal windowsill to make the nest'. Again.
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Similarly, the romance is so chemistry-free that they could safely sell it as a contact lens solution.
I am stealing and keeping this quote for future use.
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How bad is housing situation in Kraków these days?
I get daily applications from pigeons, to move in as my room mates.
Seriously, I constantly have to shoo those feathered bastards trying to set up a nest or two on the interior side of my windows.
Invite one hawk in?
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Invite one hawk in?How bad is housing situation in Kraków these days?
I get daily applications from pigeons, to move in as my room mates.
Seriously, I constantly have to shoo those feathered bastards trying to set up a nest or two on the interior side of my windows.
Why outsource your pigeon murdering? Kill one as an example to the others. And a light snack.
Why outsource your pigeon murdering? Kill one as an example to the others. And a light snack.Invite one hawk in?How bad is housing situation in Kraków these days?
I get daily applications from pigeons, to move in as my room mates.
Seriously, I constantly have to shoo those feathered bastards trying to set up a nest or two on the interior side of my windows.
Now you're going to summon Impus Major.
One of his big arguments during his debate course? Why don't we eat rats? It would solve so many problems...
Invite one hawk in?How bad is housing situation in Kraków these days?
I get daily applications from pigeons, to move in as my room mates.
Seriously, I constantly have to shoo those feathered bastards trying to set up a nest or two on the interior side of my windows.
We don't have hawks in our neighborhood.
Kestrels on the other hand...
Why outsource your pigeon murdering? Kill one as an example to the others. And a light snack.Invite one hawk in?How bad is housing situation in Kraków these days?
I get daily applications from pigeons, to move in as my room mates.
Seriously, I constantly have to shoo those feathered bastards trying to set up a nest or two on the interior side of my windows.
Now you're going to summon Impus Major.
One of his big arguments during his debate course? Why don't we eat rats? It would solve so many problems...
Domesticate, spay and neuter.