Banazir's recent activity

  1. Comment on What's your dream job? in ~life

    Banazir
    Link Parent
    That's fair, farriers are the one blacksmith type that can still make a living more easily these days. Sounds like you have a bit more real-world experience with smiths than most, I think most...

    That's fair, farriers are the one blacksmith type that can still make a living more easily these days. Sounds like you have a bit more real-world experience with smiths than most, I think most people mainly view smithing through movies and games now.

    Bullet casting is a whole separate thing. Lead melts easily enough that almost any fire can do it, just don't breathe the fumes!

    1 vote

  2. Comment on What's your dream job? in ~life

    Banazir
    Link Parent
    It's mostly small trinkets and household items like wall hooks, as well as tools so I can make other future projects. I made a pair of leaf-shaped pins for Elijah Wood and Sean Astin when they...

    It's mostly small trinkets and household items like wall hooks, as well as tools so I can make other future projects. I made a pair of leaf-shaped pins for Elijah Wood and Sean Astin when they came to the local Comicon, and my first commission was a custom decorative piece for a friend.

    I've made a few knives, mostly just to see how my skills are progressing, but even as I improve I don't think I'm going to focus on them. There's too many other fun projects out there, and I feel like people immediately think of knives and swords when they think about blacksmithing so it's fun to break that mold.

    1 vote

  3. Comment on What's your dream job? in ~life

    Banazir
    Link Parent
    It already has been! I have wanted to get into blacksmithing since I was 11 or 12, and almost 2 decades later I am living the dream! I only get about 4 hours of forge time a week, but it's enough...

    It already has been! I have wanted to get into blacksmithing since I was 11 or 12, and almost 2 decades later I am living the dream! I only get about 4 hours of forge time a week, but it's enough to nourish my soul and keep my spirits buoyed. My forge isn't traditional by any means, but it's functional and works for my current living situation, and that's all I need.

    1 vote

  4. Comment on What's your dream job? in ~life

    Banazir
    Link Parent
    I feel like this is the answer I resonate with the most. My chosen craft would be my forge instead, but the sentiment is the same. I just made my first commission piece, and pricing it out makes...

    I feel like this is the answer I resonate with the most. My chosen craft would be my forge instead, but the sentiment is the same. I just made my first commission piece, and pricing it out makes me more anxious than working with red-hot iron. I just want to make cool stuff for myself and my friends.

    4 votes

  5. Comment on What's your dream job? in ~life

    Banazir
    Link Parent
    Here's why the term "labor" is so loaded. If you ask two people what their dream job is, one might say "I want to work at an animal shelter", while the other says "I don't want to work. I want the...

    Here's why the term "labor" is so loaded. If you ask two people what their dream job is, one might say "I want to work at an animal shelter", while the other says "I don't want to work. I want the ability to do things I want with my free time, like help at an animal shelter". It's the exact same work, but the mindset changes based on how you view terms like "labor" and "job".

    In this case, I think it's because they want to write and draw with no expectation for "success". They can make a comic they are happy with, and even if nobody else even knows it exists they will still be fulfilled by the work they have done. Nobody else benefits consistently, it's for their own creative whims.

    12 votes

  6. Comment on Steam Controller 2 sold out in ~games

    Banazir
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    My friends think they're doing drops/releases every 30 minutes. Bots are probably only watching for the initial release and will drop off after that, or at least we hope so.

    My friends think they're doing drops/releases every 30 minutes. Bots are probably only watching for the initial release and will drop off after that, or at least we hope so.

    8 votes

  7. Comment on Is British English actually better than American English? in ~humanities.languages

    Banazir
    Link Parent
    The mnemonic I learned is A for American or E for England. Some of my friends seem to think the different spellings refer to different ranges of shades, so there's that angle too.

    whether the American spelling is "gray" or "grey"

    The mnemonic I learned is A for American or E for England. Some of my friends seem to think the different spellings refer to different ranges of shades, so there's that angle too.

    10 votes

  8. Comment on Questions for ~books on self promotion in ~books

    Banazir
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    My wife has been slowly working on self-publishing for years, when she's finally ready to release I will absolutely spread word everywhere I can. Please share your wife's work!

    My wife has been slowly working on self-publishing for years, when she's finally ready to release I will absolutely spread word everywhere I can. Please share your wife's work!

    6 votes

  9. Comment on Reddit reports 69% jump in revenue, topping analyst estimates in ~tech

    Banazir
    Link Parent
    I've been pretty happy with the web experience so far, it kind of feels nice to just use my browser instead of a dedicated app. If that changes, then Three Cheers is the first one I'll try!

    I've been pretty happy with the web experience so far, it kind of feels nice to just use my browser instead of a dedicated app. If that changes, then Three Cheers is the first one I'll try!

  10. Comment on Reddit reports 69% jump in revenue, topping analyst estimates in ~tech

    Banazir
    Link Parent
    I used RIF (formerly Reddit Is Fun) and actually still have it installed on my phone. It's not even available in the app store anymore, but I guess an apk is stored somewhere because it's on my...

    I used RIF (formerly Reddit Is Fun) and actually still have it installed on my phone. It's not even available in the app store anymore, but I guess an apk is stored somewhere because it's on my new phone.

    4 votes

  11. Comment on What is your favorite dinosaur? in ~talk

    Banazir
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    The one I loved as a kid was Compsognathus, and I haven't devoted enough time to thinking about dinosaurs (other than when I played Ark) to change that decision. Learning that they're a bit bigger...

    The one I loved as a kid was Compsognathus, and I haven't devoted enough time to thinking about dinosaurs (other than when I played Ark) to change that decision. Learning that they're a bit bigger than we expected, and that the chicken-sized one that we knew of is likely a juvenile, also doesn't change that decision.

    Ark doesn't count because my opinions were formed based on manmade power scaling in a video game.

    2 votes

  12. Comment on I love bioparks in ~travel

    Banazir
    Link Parent
    I only saw semi-wild areas with trails, but my visit was brief. Going by the founding statement when the land was donated to the city, I doubt there's anything very manicured at all.

    I only saw semi-wild areas with trails, but my visit was brief. Going by the founding statement when the land was donated to the city, I doubt there's anything very manicured at all.

    1 vote

  13. Comment on Apple set to become third-biggest laptop maker this year in ~tech

    Banazir
    Link Parent
    This is a big part of your experience: you have a professional/executive laptop that will generally cost the same as a Macbook with similar specs. Going by the replies here, you likely have...

    I've got an XPS I've used since 2021

    This is a big part of your experience: you have a professional/executive laptop that will generally cost the same as a Macbook with similar specs. Going by the replies here, you likely have Windows Pro, which avoids a lot of the added bloat and is generally a better experience overall. Those two things combined give you a generally better experience, similar in quality to what people turn to Macs for.

    A lot of the comparisons people make about macs - either gushing about a better experience or mocking them for the price - come from comparisons between average consumer-grade laptops and macbooks. Until the Neo was announced, every macbook was in the higher category that your XPS is in. Now there's a cheaper alternative that's still offering a better user experience than most consumer Windows laptops at the same price point.

    5 votes

  14. Comment on I love bioparks in ~travel

    Banazir
    Link Parent
    Powell Gardens has also been mentioned here, I haven't visited but it's the only other garden in the area I've actually heard people talk about. There's several fantastic museums in the area,...

    Powell Gardens has also been mentioned here, I haven't visited but it's the only other garden in the area I've actually heard people talk about.

    There's several fantastic museums in the area, including the Nelson-Adkins Museum of Art and the WWI Museum and Memorial. The WWI Museum is also near Crown Center, which is a shopping complex that includes an aquarium and the Hallmark visitors center.

  15. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    Banazir
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    A dev I've been following since 2019 finally released his first proper game: Terrafactor. It's an automation/crafting game similar to Factorio, although it's in early access so some content is...

    A dev I've been following since 2019 finally released his first proper game: Terrafactor. It's an automation/crafting game similar to Factorio, although it's in early access so some content is still being worked out. The sorting methods are somewhat primitive and I haven't figured out better power generation yet, but the bones are good.

    Almost every resource is self-regenerating (e.g. when you cut down a tree, a sapling automatically spawns in its place. You can dig up the sapling to move it or let it grow where the old tree was) so you're not limited on resources, but instead you're limited on space. You start out with a tiny area that you unlock by completing tasks to earn a specific in-game currency. After Era 1 (which took me about 2.5 hours to complete) the world expands and becomes more procedurally-generated. However, most of it is an airless wasteland with different resources available, so you can't use it for all the same purposes as the normal land around where you start. Getting advanced resources means excursions into the wilderness to set up harvesters or find resource nodes.

    The big innovation of the game are the Tesseracts. They're portable pocket dimensions that you can set down and enter through any side. Most plants won't grow in them (maybe none will, I haven't found any that grow there), but you can put machinery in them and expand them infinitely as needed. Whole complex processes can be stuffed into a single cube with four sides for input and output. The best part? They're stackable, potentially infinitely. Put a Tesseract inside a Tesseract inside a Tesseract inside... You get the point. Unfortunately there's no way to clone existing Tesseracts, so you can't use them quite like programming functions, but I might try getting a bug in the dev's ear about that.

    If you like Factorio, Minecraft FeedTheBeast, Satisfactory, or other similar games, I recommend you give it a try. I'm already succumbing to the temptation to re-factor again, amd I'm remembering why I set down Factorio early.

  16. Comment on I love bioparks in ~travel

    Banazir
    Link
    The Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs comes to mind first. It's a pretty large area and I've only seen part of it, and I've wanted to go back ever since. It's full of rock formations and...

    The Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs comes to mind first. It's a pretty large area and I've only seen part of it, and I've wanted to go back ever since. It's full of rock formations and native plants, with criss-crossing trails everywhere, and it's good for short visits as you pass through (like I did) or longer explorations.

    Closer to me, one of the Kansas City suburbs has a beautiful Arboretum and Botanical Garden. My wife and I have been there several times (always on free admission days) and enjoyed it every time - it's where I proposed! The American midwest is full of natural areas that get overlooked in favor of mountains and coasts, and I think that's a shame.

    8 votes

  17. Comment on Requesting resources for learning Ruby in ~comp

    Banazir
    Link
    Since you already know how to program, it seems that you mostly just need to learn syntax. In those cases, I turn to LearnXinYminutes for whatever language is being learned. You already know the...

    Since you already know how to program, it seems that you mostly just need to learn syntax. In those cases, I turn to LearnXinYminutes for whatever language is being learned. You already know the common principles, and you'll pick up on specific quirks as you work with the language.

    4 votes

  18. Comment on What steps can the average user do to secure their data privacy? in ~tech

    Banazir
    Link Parent
    This is defeatist and looks at the problem as all or nothing. You can take steps to protect your privacy, and while there will still be gaps in that protection it's better than just leaving...

    This is defeatist and looks at the problem as all or nothing. You can take steps to protect your privacy, and while there will still be gaps in that protection it's better than just leaving everything out in the open. It's a game of layers, and you can choose to do more or less depending on how much energy you have to devote to it. Saying that you might as well do nothing at all is how we get to this point.

    18 votes

  19. Comment on Brave Origin (Nightly), a paid, bloat-free version of Brave in ~tech

    Banazir
    Link Parent
    Running a different browser entirely fixes both, and it's free for everyone.

    Running a different browser entirely fixes both, and it's free for everyone.

    10 votes

  20. Comment on What is watts, volts and amps? in ~science

    Banazir
    Link Parent
    I don't have any book recommendations at the moment, but I highly recommend taking a step back and learning kinematics before you touch the physics of electricity and magnetism. Kinematics is just...

    I don't have any book recommendations at the moment, but I highly recommend taking a step back and learning kinematics before you touch the physics of electricity and magnetism. Kinematics is just the physics of bigger stuff - if you throw this ball at this angle and this velocity, how far will it go? There's a surprising amount of overlap between concepts, but with kinematics you can see or visualize the effects pretty easily.

    For books, maybe check your local library first? Usually the kids section has a sub-section for science, and while it may be lower level than you wanted it could also lead to some good results.

    9 votes