ChingShih's recent activity
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Comment on Star Wars recommendations for a six year old in ~tv
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Comment on How would you moderate this scenario? in ~tech
ChingShih Link ParentI don't want to go too deep on this, and I'm about to get back to work, but I've seen some subreddits with a lot of "punch a nazi" rhetoric not getting removed and the commenters are very overt...I don't want to go too deep on this, and I'm about to get back to work, but I've seen some subreddits with a lot of "punch a nazi" rhetoric not getting removed and the commenters are very overt about exactly what they mean by their rhetoric. Admin handling of this rule seems as imbalanced as usual.
If one were to, say, quote lyrics, then it would be compliant with Reddit's rules on the subject and Admins couldn't pressure mods to take action. I'm sure there are playlists of "punch a nazi" to use as a reference.
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Comment on How would you moderate this scenario? in ~tech
ChingShih (edited )LinkIf the tone of the comment doesn't fit the community's [intended] vibe and expectations of community members, then remove it on that basis (perhaps also if there are site rules to that effect). If...If the tone of the comment doesn't fit the community's [intended] vibe and expectations of community members, then remove it on that basis (perhaps also if there are site rules to that effect).
If a response to the commenter is necessary, then I would say something like "Hey, we get the joke you're making, but it goes a little further in making a crass joke than the OP's. Escalating that rhetoric doesn't contribute to the joke, so if you'd like to edit your comment to go a little easier on things[/to tone things down slightly], that would be great. Something like "I hope X steps on a lego every morning for the rest of his life" would be fine. Thanks for understanding."
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Comment on Besides Shawshank Redemption, what films do you like that feature grit, resilience, endurance under hostile circumstances? in ~movies
ChingShih Link ParentThe Count of Monte Cristo hadn't even crossed my mind, but absolutely! There's a lot of persecution, scheming, and of course imprisonment that Dantes has to endure. Also just a great revenge...The Count of Monte Cristo hadn't even crossed my mind, but absolutely! There's a lot of persecution, scheming, and of course imprisonment that Dantes has to endure. Also just a great revenge story.
Maybe I've asked this before, but have you seen the 1975 version? Do you have a preference between that and the 2002 version?
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Comment on FireAid LA Benefit Concert livestream in ~enviro
ChingShih LinkJust started several minutes ago at the time of this post. I don't know what region restrictions there are, but I know this is syndicated on Netflix, Amazon Video, and several other services....Just started several minutes ago at the time of this post. I don't know what region restrictions there are, but I know this is syndicated on Netflix, Amazon Video, and several other services.
(Mods, arguably this could be moved elsewhere since it's not just music. There will be other entertainment.)
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FireAid LA Benefit Concert livestream
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Comment on Midweek Movie Free Talk in ~movies
ChingShih Link ParentAwesome! I'm glad you enjoyed this. I've become a casual fan of Wes Anderson's films and while The Grand Budapest Hotel isn't perfect, it's so enjoyable. I think I first watched it because Adrien...The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Awesome! I'm glad you enjoyed this. I've become a casual fan of Wes Anderson's films and while The Grand Budapest Hotel isn't perfect, it's so enjoyable. I think I first watched it because Adrien Brody is in it, but now it is how I introduce other people to Wes Anderson.
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
I probably haven't seen all of this, but you've motivated me to give it a watch at some point. Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, and Katharine Hepburn can't go wrong. I picked up Double Indemnity recently, per @lou's mentioning of it, so that's first on my list when I can do it, but it sounds like The Philadelphia Story will be next! Thanks!
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Comment on What are some favorite books with themes of grit, endurance, resilience, living through hostile circumstances? in ~books
ChingShih Link ParentThat's phenomenal that he was able to go back and reconnect with his rescuers and other survivors! I love hearing about those stories of humanity and the triumph over circumstance (and evil). I...That's phenomenal that he was able to go back and reconnect with his rescuers and other survivors! I love hearing about those stories of humanity and the triumph over circumstance (and evil). I like hearing these kinds of personal stories and the connections we all have to each other and our shared past. It gives me hope that we can find our way back to civility.
On the topic of the Philippines, a couple years ago I read Moro Warrior which is about the [very casual] Allied support of Filipino resistance to Japanese occupation and some of the Filipino communities involved. It is sad in many ways, especially considering how circumstances have played out since Philippine independence and how long they fought for it, but it's also interesting to hear about some of the people who were able to chronicle and participate in this resistance and the predominantly Muslim villages that are highlighted by this particular book. It's not the best written book, and there's not a lot of written history for it to work with, but not terrible by any means. If folks are interested in this area of the world, it might be worth borrowing from the library at some point down the road. It's an interesting sliver of Philippine history that helps tie together particular events before and after WW2.
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Comment on Russia-Ukraine war megathread - End of 2024 news, updates, and recaps in ~news
ChingShih LinkToday: Sweden Donates $1.2 Billion Aid Package to Ukraine Also, the other day it was revealed that U.S. sending dozens of Patriot missiles from Israel to Ukraine: Another source with some other...Today: Sweden Donates $1.2 Billion Aid Package to Ukraine
Also, the other day it was revealed that U.S. sending dozens of Patriot missiles from Israel to Ukraine:
Behind the scenes: The sources tell Axios that after the IDF announced the decommissioning, Ukrainian officials approached the U.S. and Israel with an idea: Israel would give those missiles back to the U.S. to be refurbished and sent on to Ukraine
- For several months, Israel dragged its feet out of concern Russia would retaliate, perhaps by supplying sophisticated weapons to Iran.
- A Ukrainian official tells Axios Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to take his calls on that issue for weeks.
- But in late September, Netanyahu finally approved the idea, an Israeli official says.
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The flights carried around 90 interceptors, which Ukraine can use with its current batteries. Additional equipment, like radars and other gear, will first be transferred to the U.S. to be refurbished.
Another source with some other details and background on Patriot missile systems.
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Comment on Epica - Cross the Divide (2025) in ~music
ChingShih Link ParentI've always liked that era of Epica's music and your thoughts on them echo my sentiments as well. I haven't listened to Epica's latest music, but will have to give it a try. Thanks!I've always liked that era of Epica's music and your thoughts on them echo my sentiments as well. I haven't listened to Epica's latest music, but will have to give it a try. Thanks!
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Comment on Forza Horizon 5 comes to PlayStation 5 in Spring 2025 in ~games
ChingShih Link ParentSame here. This is very strange to read. I knew MS was working to make more of their games cross-platform, but I didn't think they'd essentially be starting with exclusives (even if Forza, Halo,...Same here. This is very strange to read. I knew MS was working to make more of their games cross-platform, but I didn't think they'd essentially be starting with exclusives (even if Forza, Halo, etc. have had PC ports). They haven't even brought Call of Duty to Switch yet, like they alleged they would during the Activision-Blizzard purchase.
Also I found Phil Spencer's recent comments about wanting to make future Xbox console hardware more unique kinda odd. But with this news, it makes a lot more sense. They want to their hardware to be more unique and maybe in the interim they're making their software more cross-platform until they have some "killer apps" for that unique hardware.
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Comment on Besides Shawshank Redemption, what films do you like that feature grit, resilience, endurance under hostile circumstances? in ~movies
ChingShih Link ParentSwiss Army Man is so great. There's a lot that can be taken away from it all. I bet a lot of psychology students have had fun writing essays about that film. Also, I think it was the first Daniel...Swiss Army Man is so great. There's a lot that can be taken away from it all. I bet a lot of psychology students have had fun writing essays about that film. Also, I think it was the first Daniel Radcliffe film I saw that really made me realize how much capability he has as an actor. Since then I've been an avid watcher of his films, big or small.
He and Daniel Webber were also great in Escape from Pretoria, about white political prisoners in apartheid South Africa. Really a great film and more or less fits the theme of this topic as well.
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Comment on What are some favorite books with themes of grit, endurance, resilience, living through hostile circumstances? in ~books
ChingShih Link ParentYou and I have discussed Matterhorn before, so I'll just reiterate that it's absolutely worth reading. I think it should be required reading in schools along with Marlantes' What It Is Like to Go...You and I have discussed Matterhorn before, so I'll just reiterate that it's absolutely worth reading. I think it should be required reading in schools along with Marlantes' What It Is Like to Go to War. There's a lot more development of the concepts of leadership, morality, and so on than the stuff I was required to read in high school.
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Comment on What are some favorite books with themes of grit, endurance, resilience, living through hostile circumstances? in ~books
ChingShih LinkFor something kinda fun, I enjoyed the memoir The Long Walk (the film is called The Way Back), which about a Polish officer and some other people escaping a Soviet prison/work camp in Siberia and...For something kinda fun, I enjoyed the memoir The Long Walk (the film is called The Way Back), which about a Polish officer and some other people escaping a Soviet prison/work camp in Siberia and trekking south to freedom in India. The author became an outspoken believer in the Yeti/whatever, which is unfortunate, but considering what they went through it's a quirk I'll overlook.
I read some pretty heavy history, so I have some "favorite" history (and pop-history) books on these topics that might be a little different than other folks or what the thread intended. Apologies in advance.
Prisoners of the Castle: An Epic Story of Survival and Escape from Colditz, the Nazis' Fortress Prison was a truly interesting and page-turning read. It's not as well written as it could be, but it's an enjoyable cross-section of high-value prisoners (and one enlisted man who simply lied about being Churchill's cousin, haha) who constantly attempted escapes from a formidable castle-prison. It's not super gritty in tone, so I think it's a good entry point for people who want that feel of (quirky) upbeat resistance without reading about something super heavy like concentration camps.
For a much darker and depressing topic, that isn't about survival yet hits on the topics of endurance and resilience and the enduring spirit of those who did survive, I want to highly recommend We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families which is about the Rwanda Genocide (there was also a genocide in neighboring Burundi; this book is just about Rwanda, IIRC). Having been to Rwanda's Kigali Genocide Memorial, I think it's important for people to understand the 30+ years of partisan propaganda and violent rhetoric by a paranoid minority that preceded such horrific violence often perpetrated by civilians on civilians. It was also uplifting, to some extent, to understand the points of view of survivors and how they persevered after having lost their families, children, etc.
(Side note: I do some volunteer work that sometimes exposes me to people's personal information such as name, general address, etc., and sometimes I do come across displaced persons living in Uganda who have no name (legally their name is Xx or Xxx). These people are survivors of the genocide and, for a variety of reasons, have no paperwork or documentation proving who they are. They have no name or permanent nationality and may be unable or unwilling to be repatriated. Heartbreaking.)
Along similar lines, Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath is really tough, but I think it was the most relieving for me to get through (especially hard as an audiobook, in my opinion) and getting an understanding of how the survivors of war crimes not only made it through their internment and abuses, but also survived after the war.
For what's essentially an uplifting story, I'll reiterate a previous recommendation I've made on Tildes:
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is a <200 page novel written by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn who actually was sent to a gulag. But the story is more about the hope and positivity of persevering in a world that is not only brutal, but also extremely monotonous. Yet Ivan Denisovich remarkably perseveres because he keeps a healthy (and seemingly upbeat) attitude, appreciates life, and rationalizes ways to help others and accept help in return, in spite of all the hardships. Really, skim the reviews on GoodReads because it's a great book!
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Comment on Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport closed after a military helicopter collides with a landing regional jet in ~transport
ChingShih Link ParentThis article identifies the rotary wing aircraft as a Sikorsky H-60 helicopter. Doesn't provide much other info.This article identifies the rotary wing aircraft as a Sikorsky H-60 helicopter. Doesn't provide much other info.
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Comment on Can VLC or some other Windows program shuffle through a playlist without ever repeating a file, while also storing that state for future sessions? in ~tech
ChingShih LinkI've never used this, but after some digging it sounds like ErsatzTV will do what you want and has the shuffle feature you're specifically asking for. There are versions for Windows, Linux, and...I've never used this, but after some digging it sounds like ErsatzTV will do what you want and has the shuffle feature you're specifically asking for. There are versions for Windows, Linux, and MacOS, and it can be paired with Plex if you want to do even more robust IPTV stuff.
Shuffle: Items are randomly ordered and no item will be played a second time until every item from the collection has been played once. (link)
It sounds like a playlist (schedule?) might need to be created so that you have the persistence across opening and closing the program, but hopefully that's a trivial issue. I was hoping there would be some program out there like Winamp that reopens the old playlist from a temp file and never bothers you about having to save it (I still use Winamp ... there are dozens of us).
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Comment on Is Colorado's EV incentive worth it? in ~transport
ChingShih Link ParentDoubly worth it to get one before federal incentives dry up, are put on hold, or have some other calamity. Same with solar panels or home battery backups. It's unfortunate that so few vehicles...Doubly worth it to get one before federal incentives dry up, are put on hold, or have some other calamity. Same with solar panels or home battery backups.
It's unfortunate that so few vehicles qualify for federal subsidies right now, but there are some options out there. Even without it, the Nissan Leaf is a great value and one of the Leaf models allows bidirectional charging -- you can use the car as a battery for your dwelling!
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Comment on Deadlock breaks 100,000 concurrent players with new peak in ~games
ChingShih Link ParentI agree, it has a lot going for it. It has some growing pains, and latency issues for me, but overall it has a lot of potential. I was also on the lookout for a new MP shooter when I started...I agree, it has a lot going for it. It has some growing pains, and latency issues for me, but overall it has a lot of potential.
I was also on the lookout for a new MP shooter when I started playing Deadlock last year, but I also understood the MOBA concepts having been a DOTA (1) player for a short time. I agree that it's not a TF2 or Overwatch killer, nor is it going to draw people away from CoD or CS2 in a meaningful way.
Lately I've been struggling with finding suitable matches in my skill level because of the lack of players in recent weeks. The skill range within matches exaggerates skill gaps. That means I'm often across from one of the better players in the match and, while it sometimes remains a competitive lane experience for the first 9 (...or 15), at the end of the day we're just stunting each other's progression. Meanwhile there will be two people in other lanes who are absolutely feeding, and I can't help them because I'm skill-gapped compared to their lane adversaries.
I think the skill gap is a lot more apparent in Deadlock, as it is in its beta phase, but also because it is more of a pure MOBA than FPS or squad shooters and the like. Comebacks while down by 30k+ souls are very, very hard and really require the entire team to come together and play smart. It's very difficult for a single person to carry the team into a comeback like in CoD or CS2 -- but it's exceptionally easy for a single person to get fed early and carry the team to a lot of early- and mid-game successes and gap the other team to the extent that they play defense and can't even farm.
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Comment on Happy New Years, Tildes! 新年快樂! in ~talk
ChingShih Link ParentHah, yeah I was going to mention something else about being a dragon and remembered that would narrow my age down to a very specific birth month but also specific birth year because of the...Hah, yeah I was going to mention something else about being a dragon and remembered that would narrow my age down to a very specific birth month but also specific birth year because of the cyclical elemental cycle. :P
A while back I went down the rabbit hole of reading about different Southeast Asian zodiac calendars because, due to -- we'll call them cultural changes -- some countries have changed their calendars or reverted to an older system for "cultural" use, while still generally celebrating the Chinese New Year because of inertia (just as much of the world celebrates the Gregorian calendar's new year). Various calendar systems are really interesting. Was there just a thread about them?
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Comment on Happy New Years, Tildes! 新年快樂! in ~talk
ChingShih Link ParentFair! I should've said "good fortune" instead of "luck!"Fair! I should've said "good fortune" instead of "luck!"
Thanks for mentioning these books! The early Star Wars (and Indiana Jones) books for kids bring back a lot of nostalgia for me.
As a 90s kid with a library card, I loved getting the [Young Indiana Jones (actually based on the failed show) and the Young Jedi Knights series. The latter is based on the OG EU though, so Han and Leia's kids names are different from what they are now, uncle Luke is doing cool temple exploration (and not drinking strange milk), and the adventures are pretty kid-friendly from what I remember. They might be fun for OP's kid to get into.
After that, straight to the Timothy Zahn books. :)