Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.
Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.
Hello!
For the past few years, I've been an avid reader of fantasy and fiction. I've explored numerous books and sagas within these genres, ranging from well-known titles to some relatively underground gems. However, I've encountered a recent issue with my reading habits.
Firstly, reading has always been my preferred and "healthier" form of entertainment from a productivity standpoint. Compared to games or TV/movies, it has been easier for me to set aside a book when it's time to focus on work or study. Lately, though, I've become deeply engrossed in series with multiple entries. When a book's plot captivates me, putting it down becomes a challenge. This was particularly true with the Expanse series; by the fourth book, I was completely immersed in the narrative and characters. Unfortunately, the series comprises nine books, leading me to avidly read subsequent books almost obsessively and, regrettably, procrastinate on important tasks.
Admittedly, this lack of discipline is my own fault. However, I believe that if I had access to interesting short stories, I could read them during breaks or brief moments of leisure, satisfying my entertainment needs without committing to a lengthy plot. Recently, I enjoyed "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, which exemplifies the kind of short story I'm seeking. Another example would be "The Jaunt" by Stephen King.
Unfortunately, I'm unfamiliar with how to access such stories. It seems that short stories are often published in niche magazines, a trend that appears to be more specific to the US culture. I primarily read on Kindle, so if you know of a way to download these types of stories in bulk in epub format or specific book compilations containing short stories, I would greatly appreciate your recommendations!
Please post your solutions in your own top-level comment. Here's a template you can copy-paste into your comment to format it nicely, with the code collapsed by default inside an expandable section with syntax highlighting (you can replace python with any of the "short names" listed in this page of supported languages):
<details>
<summary>Part 1</summary>
```python
Your code here.
```
</details>
What have you been playing lately? Discussion about video games and board games are both welcome. Please don't just make a list of titles, give some thoughts about the game(s) as well.
What food and drinks have you been enjoying (or not enjoying) recently? Have you cooked or created anything interesting? Tell us about it!
Edit2: I'm a mac user who doesn't understand how windows explorer works. Leaving the post for some hapless mac user who may come along. Windows explorer doesn't report how it is traversing the directory tree, leading to some confusion about where the search result is, which happens to be waaaay down in a zip of a mac application installer I had inadvertantly archived on the Windows disk. I would ask any windows users, how do I make powershell ls | select-string "text" behave like ls | grep "text" on unix?
edit3: Also, why the fudge would windows explorer search find <weird characters>net but not dotnet when typing 'net' into the search box?
So I download the occasional, um, linux distro installation video. I use a vpn and private firefox windows for most.
I'm doing some clean up today, and find a file with a bunch of strange characters, including the text characters, "net." "M⌐⌐v├▒├┼⌐▒net" is the filename listed in the properties window. Inside are a series of .ase files with mostly unrecognizable names.
I don't see the filename when doing an ls in powershell of the directory reported in explorer.
doing ls | select-string "net" in powershell results in an unending peristalsis of weird text like you might get from a binary file viewed in a text editor. I do notice, however, that some of the text might be from inside a zip file. But why is select-string searching inside the zip file? ls seems to ouptut only filepath information. Upon further investigation, the zip file is several directories down, it appears adding | select-string to ls makes ls travel the full tree. Wut?
And when I say undending, I mean it kept going until I hit ctrl-c.
Any ideas to what is happening here?
Incidentally, I opened one of the ASE files by right-click->view file in notepad+, which never launched.
Edit: lots of edits.
This thread is posted weekly - please try to post all relevant US political content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate topic, but almost all should be posted in here.
This is an inherently political thread; please try to avoid antagonistic arguments and bickering matches. Comment threads that devolve into unproductive arguments may be removed so that the overall topic is able to continue.
The next movie from the 1990s is Edward Scissorhands from 1990 directed by Tim Burton
Are you familiar with other works by Tim Burton and how does this compare? Does it have a certain "90s feel" to it? Feel free to add any thoughts, opinions, reflections, analysis or whatever comments related to this film.
The rest of the schedule is:
This is Album of the Week #13 ~ This week's album is Don Cherry - Don Cherry/Brown Rice
Note that this album has been released under two names/artworks: self titled (Don Cherry) and 'Brown Rice'.
Year of Release: 1977
Genre(s): Spiritual Jazz
Country: United States
Length: 39 minutes
RYM | Listen! (Album.Link)
Excerpt from The Quietus:
Cherry transformed the rigorous improvisational ethos he developed and deployed alongside Ornette Coleman in the creation of free jazz as a crucial tool to communicate and collaborate with musicians far outside of his original milieu. Few before or since have demonstrated comparable ease in connecting with other musicians, regardless of background or ethos, like Cherry. His ability to locate the deepest, most humanistic, and spiritual links in disparate traditions remains sublime. Lots of musicians profess that they don’t recognise genre, but it’s hard to think of an artist who lived it as much as he did.
Discussion points:
Have you heard this artist/album before? Is this your first time hearing?
Do you enjoy this genre? Is this an album you would have chosen?
Does this album remind you of something you've heard before?
What were the album's strengths or weaknesses?
Was there a standout track for you?
How did you hear the album? Where were you? What was your setup?
--
Please post your solutions in your own top-level comment. Here's a template you can copy-paste into your comment to format it nicely, with the code collapsed by default inside an expandable section with syntax highlighting (you can replace python with any of the "short names" listed in this page of supported languages):
<details>
<summary>Part 1</summary>
```python
Your code here.
```
</details>
Edit: I changed some windows settings based on advice here. The situation is improved and I am going to see how things go before buying new equipment. Thank you everyone
So I recently bought a new laptop. I use an external mouse, keyboard, headphones etc, all of which come with usb A connectors that worked well with my old laptop.
When the new laptop arrived there weren't nearly enough ports for either usb A or usb c so I invested in a peripheral that links four usb a connections to one usb c connection on the laptop. Edit, it is powered and plugged in. Now the connection with everything plugged in seems to be intermittent and the mouse and external keyboard don't work reliably.
I have read a couple of articles and I am even more confused but they seem to be saying that usb c is not plug and play the way usb a was. What the fuck. Why do this like this? What do I do now?
I just spent significant money on this computer and I don't want to replace a functioning mouse and keyboard
I very much would not be. My son had a rough birth, but it probably wouldn't have killed him or my wife.
Both my brothers had children in the last six months. Neither of the kids would have survived, and one of the mothers would definitely have died.
The better question might be: how many of you can say for sure you'd be alive without modern medicine?
It's 2024 (sometime) soon, and I'm curious - what are your predictions for the next year? I don't have any specific topic in mind, so feel free to predict whatever. 2023 post 2022 post
So I was wondering through a book store and I found the Greninja ex Battle Deck, which I thought looked really cool, and I've always wanted to own a Pokemon deck, even if I don't have anyone to play with.
I learnt the deck is meant for absolute beginners and that it doesn't stand a chance against meta decks, but I expected that (it's the same for Yu-Gi-Oh structure decks, you usually need to buy 3 and add a bunch of staples to get something slightly competitive).
Now since I can't play with anyone IRL, I hopped on Pokemon TCG Live, scanned the deck's QR code and built a better version of the deck using this video from LittleDarkFury. Except I replaced 2 Starmie and 1 Staryu with 1 Comfey, 1 Pyukumuku and 1 Lapras because I don't have anything else that synergizes, and I ran out of credits. (I can share the decklist if needed.)
Mostly because I dumped all my credits into building a Giratina Lost Zone deck because I felt cocky and then I realized I have no idea how to play it. That was a mistake.
My problem right now is that I feel really aimless, I have 2 decent decks but I can't really seem to get the hang out of them. I do understand their main win conditions (get Giratina VSTAR out, respectively get Greninja ex out) but besides that I don't really know how to play them. It does feel like I just need to get a bunch of games in, to see what decks other people play, and what situations I need to adapt to.
Locally there are no game shops I could go to, but I would have loved to play with someone IRL and have them guide me through everything. This means I'm stuck with online resources, but most of them are aimed at players that already know the game.
What do you think I should do? I'll keep playing games in hopes something will click with me, but until then, I'd appreciate some guidance (feel free to ask me anything in case I didn't give enough information).
I'm about to embark on another work trip, and will have most of a day + four evenings to explore. Meals are reasonably well planned, but I need some help convincing my traveling companion that the Mall of America around the holidays (!!!!😣) isn't the peak of excitement in the area.
Left to my own devices, I'd probably spend the day at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. I'd welcome suggestions for anything reasonably accessible with a rental car, not too far from the University of Minnesota area.
If I do any holiday shopping, I'd like to find local handcrafted goods, art, and curiosities. Maybe Midtown Global Market, since that's one of the meal destinations? Not-too-loud venues for live music? My thanks in advance!
Note: I have done some homework, but many area destination recommendations appear to be oriented around summer tourism and outdoor attractions. It's likely I'll be back in January as well, so indoor places are preferable.
Second note: Just discovered the Dayton's Project holiday market, which might fit part of the requirements.
I've been looking into this sort of thing for a while. Looks like a nice way to get a change of scenery (if you don't know WOOFING is basically volunteer farm work for room/board). Anyone have experience doing this in the USA/anywhere else? Would love to hear from you if so!
Please post your solutions in your own top-level comment. Here's a template you can copy-paste into your comment to format it nicely, with the code collapsed by default inside an expandable section with syntax highlighting (you can replace python with any of the "short names" listed in this page of supported languages):
<details>
<summary>Part 1</summary>
```python
Your code here.
```
</details>