HelmetTesterTJ's recent activity
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Comment on The secretive company filling video game sites with gambling and AI in ~games
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Comment on Legacy sequels and remakes you think were actually good and worth making? in ~movies
HelmetTesterTJ LinkI think this counts: I'm grateful we got one more season of Twin Peaks 25 years after the original aired, and I thought they did an amazing job. What the original two seasons were to '80s soap...I think this counts:
I'm grateful we got one more season of Twin Peaks 25 years after the original aired, and I thought they did an amazing job. What the original two seasons were to '80s soap operas, lampooning them while also quintessifying them in beautiful, sincere camp, the third season was to prestige television.
I got to see the last two episodes of season 3 at a theater a few weeks ago. They were doing the whole season over the course of a week. Pure. Fucking. Cinema.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
HelmetTesterTJ LinkMewgenics: I'm a fan, but it's a brutal game. I just had all my best veterans wiped out by Guillotina in a fight I wasn't prepared for. I'm playing without looking up any strategy threads or...Mewgenics: I'm a fan, but it's a brutal game. I just had all my best veterans wiped out by Guillotina in a fight I wasn't prepared for. I'm playing without looking up any strategy threads or information on the wiki; I'm sort of tired of ruining the exploration aspect of games by having all the information front and center all the time. It definitely adds to the difficulty, though. What a wild departure from Binding, though. I really appreciate the breeding/cat stable aspect of the game, rather than having a set of characters to choose from. It's adding a level of individuality to save files that I think a lot of roguelites are missing.
Melvor Idle: I decided to get back into it after a long break, starting an Ancient Relics mode. This is by far my favorite mode in the game - I can barely bother to look at my Hardcore file, and I don't even open my Standard file. Ancient Relics is just that much more of a puzzle with some tough RNG. For example, right now, I've had some really tough skill cap choices to make, so my Runecrafting is well below where it should be, as is my Mining, so I'm problem solving how to overcome the Golem Territory dungeon without the right robes, ultimately landing on melee, but needing to do Cartography waaaaaaay out of ideal order so I can get some mithril ore so I can pump out a bunch of mithril battleaxes so I can pump out a reasonable number of minotaur summoning tablets so I can stand a chance in the barrier dungeons. I just love this stupid game so much.
Rocket League: Got my champ matches complete for end of season rewards. I've been going back and forth between Snow Day and Rumble. I find myself having less and less patient with the player base, so I tend to only play two games at a time before I turn it off and switch to something less horrible.
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Comment on What have you been eating, drinking, and cooking? in ~food
HelmetTesterTJ LinkMy rice porridge adventure continues. @Akir got me thinking about curry at the Asian grocery store a few weeks ago, and I scooped up Patak's madras curry spice paste (excellent in porridge, and a...My rice porridge adventure continues.
@Akir got me thinking about curry at the Asian grocery store a few weeks ago, and I scooped up Patak's madras curry spice paste (excellent in porridge, and a little goes a long way), as well as the Japanese curry block brands Vermont and Golden. Golden is definitely more widely available 'round these parts, but I prefer Vermont. With Golden, the cumin is overpowering, whereas the with Vermont, the flavor is a bit more complex.
I've also been toying with sweet porridges. My favorite so far is crunchy peanut butter and soy sauce.
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
HelmetTesterTJ Link ParentI was going to throw a mention at you for what I'm reading presently (and the foreseeable future): In the spirit of bureaucratic horror, I just started the 15+ story series the Laundry Files. I'm...I was going to throw a mention at you for what I'm reading presently (and the foreseeable future):
In the spirit of bureaucratic horror, I just started the 15+ story series the Laundry Files. I'm just finishing book one, the Atrocity Archives, and it's fun. It's a bit pulpy, or maybe post-pulpy (?). It's about a British secret governmental organization, the Laundry, which deals with eldritch horrors. But they aren't just battling them all the time; they're utilizing the mathematical and scientific realities that a lovecraftian multiverse implies to develop technology - basically hijacking lesser entities in a controlled fashion to do human bidding. Veeeeeeeery Pratchett - think enslaved imp inside the cameralike device, but mathier.
So, yeah, one book down, fourteen to go.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
HelmetTesterTJ LinkA few months ago, my brother and I hooked up the ol' Wii and started back in on Mario Kart. We got really into time trials 15 years ago, fighting to shave a few tenths of a second off of one...A few months ago, my brother and I hooked up the ol' Wii and started back in on Mario Kart. We got really into time trials 15 years ago, fighting to shave a few tenths of a second off of one another's best time, and we fell right back into it when he hooked it up recently.
Our roommate has a Switch and he let us borrow it when we started bumping into our ceilings on the Wii, so we thought we'd just continue the time trial competition on Mario Kart 8.
Never have I been more disappointed. It's not the tracks, the characters, or the bikes. Those are all good and fun. But am I to understand that we can't see one another's times and ghosts unless we BOTH pay for Nintendo Switch Online? This was a feature within MKWii, you'll recall. Four licenses available on the front screen, and you had those ghosts and one of two staff ghosts available to you for each track. But now, if I complete a time trial on my account, other people on the very same machine can't compete against my ghost, or even see my time, unless I upload it, which requires a paid subscription.
I get that our use case is a bit niche - who would want to play video games against people in their house without paying $8 a month for the privilege? - but goddamn am I tired of things getting shittier unless I buy into premium features that used to just be baseline.
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Comment on What's good in modern flashlights/headlamps? in ~hobbies
HelmetTesterTJ Link ParentNope, can't be angled down, but I suppose I've never even felt that that was missing. That said, you're right about being in groups. About twice a week, my partner has to say "Your light is on and...Nope, can't be angled down, but I suppose I've never even felt that that was missing.
That said, you're right about being in groups. About twice a week, my partner has to say "Your light is on and you're blinding me."
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Comment on What's good in modern flashlights/headlamps? in ~hobbies
HelmetTesterTJ LinkThis is a bit in another direction, so it might not be applicable to you but... I absolutely love my headlamp beanie. It's just your average headlamp beanie. I've had it for three years, and it...This is a bit in another direction, so it might not be applicable to you but...
I absolutely love my headlamp beanie. It's just your average headlamp beanie. I've had it for three years, and it was a gamechanger for me. If I was buying again, I'd buy two so I could just swap lights, but I so rarely run into situations where my light isn't charged that I haven't felt the need yet.
The light charges via USB and takes about four hours to do so. I get about ten hours of light out of it. It's light, dual-function, and always with me. It's got a removeable light, so I just charge it when I wash the hat. I couldn't imagine walking around with a headlamp on all the time, but because it's a beanie, I end up using it about twenty times a day.
I use it for camping and hiking aplenty, but I primarily use it out in the barn. I'm in the upper Midwest, and I've got thin hair, so it's not unusual for me to have a beanie on anyway from September through May. I use it as a spotlight when I'm looking for stuff, when I'm doing goose or chicken stuff after sunset (so I don't have to turn the barn lights on on them), and pretty much any time I'm outside at night. It's very handy that I never need to use my phone's flashlight
Even if its stats don't fit your hiking or camping purposes, which I can understand, I would still suggest anyone could benefit from a beanie with a headlamp built in for just day-to-day use.
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
HelmetTesterTJ LinkI've somehow fallen into a weird genre of sci-fi that I'm really liking that I'd call... bureaucratic horror? administrative eldritch? Some of it is SCP adjacent, some eldritchy. The three that...I've somehow fallen into a weird genre of sci-fi that I'm really liking that I'd call... bureaucratic horror? administrative eldritch? Some of it is SCP adjacent, some eldritchy. The three that come to mind are:
A month ago was There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm. It's about a governmental organization tasked with understanding and maintaining antimemetic species, creatures whose defense mechanism is that people can't remember them, that they don't stick in memory.
Then came the Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley, in which the UK gets its hand on time travel and does boring stuff with it. This one was recommended on Obama's 2024 summer reading list.
This week it's Lexicon by Max Barry. It's about Poets, really persuasive people that control people with words, and how they control the world.
I recommend all three books, but I'm super easy to impress.
I'm coming up on the end of Lexicon, so if anyone's got a recommendation in the same subsubgenre, lemme know. Bonus points if it's a series, and the longer the better. I feel like getting immersed.
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Comment on What have you been eating, drinking, and cooking? in ~food
HelmetTesterTJ Link ParentA spice blend, yeah, usually, but sometimes a Thai or Japanese style paste. I tend to go for low sodium varieties because I prefer to manage my salt levels separately. I go through kind of a...A spice blend, yeah, usually, but sometimes a Thai or Japanese style paste. I tend to go for low sodium varieties because I prefer to manage my salt levels separately.
I go through kind of a ridiculous amount of curry. Incidentally, I'm using ranch dressing mixed with curry powder as a dipping sauce for pizza right this very minute.
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Comment on A global explosion of absurdly spicy foods in ~food
HelmetTesterTJ Link ParentOh, hey, an example where an Oxford comma would be handy. This threw me off, because the article too makes it sound as though Sichuan is spicy, but it has exactly zero Scoville Heat Units. It...The hottest Capsicum peppers, Zanthophyllum (Szechuan pepper) and Piper (peppercorn) species aren't frost tolerant
Oh, hey, an example where an Oxford comma would be handy. This threw me off, because the article too makes it sound as though Sichuan is spicy, but it has exactly zero Scoville Heat Units. It definitely makes your mouth feel funny, and it makes all water taste like salt water, but it's strange to see the article equate that with heat.
They (the English world) really ought to have done a better job with names when they failed to differentiate between peppercorns and pepper.
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Comment on What have you been eating, drinking, and cooking? in ~food
HelmetTesterTJ (edited )LinkTo unironically embody the conversation in this thread, I've been making a ton of congee. I started going through the DuoLingo Chinese lessons, and one of the first words it taught was zhou, or...To unironically embody the conversation in this thread, I've been making a ton of congee.
I started going through the DuoLingo Chinese lessons, and one of the first words it taught was zhou, or porridge, and I thought "well, that's weird; how often are they eating porridge that it's the third word I'm learning?"
Then I noticed a porridge button on my Zojirushi rice cooker (super entry level, NS-WXC10, use it daily, love it more than my dog), and I decided it was time to do some research.
I've been making rice porridge every morning. I'm a big fan of gruel to begin with, and expanding my options is exciting. For about a week, I've been making half a cup of white rice (5 cents!) into porridge and mixing it with random stuff in my kitchen. I cook a lot of Asian food anyway, so I've already got a number of standard congee ingredients: fermented garlic, chili crisp, fermented bean paste, and a wide variety of soy sauces, vinegars, and bouillons. Just like with oatmeal, though, my favorite so far is soy sauce and curry. I love how the savory saltiness of soy sauce sets off the curry. Honestly, I think it might be the greatest flavor combination in the world.
ETA: Just had the best yet: Totole Granulated Mushroom Bouillon, sesame seed oil, Nori Komi Furikake Multi-Purpose Rice Seasoning. Just stellar.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
HelmetTesterTJ LinkI'm in Deadlock testing, Valve's new Over-the-Shoulder Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA). I've always wanted to get into a MOBA, but I've continuously felt like I'm too far behind to catch up...I'm in Deadlock testing, Valve's new Over-the-Shoulder Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA). I've always wanted to get into a MOBA, but I've continuously felt like I'm too far behind to catch up and be a team asset in a game with complex maps, complex objectives, too many characters, abilities, and synergies, and heavy reliance, adaptability, and cooperation within a team. So I wanted to get in early on the next MOBA, grow with it, and learn to be a decent teammate.
I'm enjoying the game, but I still feel ages behind. I'm torn on throwing in the towel and cutting my losses, as I don't love the continual feeling that I'm letting down my small team.
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Comment on Grok AI generates images of ‘minors in minimal clothing’ in ~tech
HelmetTesterTJ LinkSo we're not even that many steps away from calling being opposed to CSAM "woke," are we? They've already been attempting to shift the window on age of consent.So we're not even that many steps away from calling being opposed to CSAM "woke," are we? They've already been attempting to shift the window on age of consent.
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Comment on What video games would you say have the best stories? Feel free to suggest more than one. in ~games
HelmetTesterTJ Link Parent+1 for Disco Elysium, and I found it very similar to another favorite of mine, Pathologic 2. Pathologic 1 is good, too, and Pathologic 3 is days away from release, and I expect it's going to be...+1 for Disco Elysium, and I found it very similar to another favorite of mine, Pathologic 2. Pathologic 1 is good, too, and Pathologic 3 is days away from release, and I expect it's going to be the best yet. Great story, solid mechanics, an immersive world, good tension, and consequential gameplay. It's just an all around great series that I'm surprised I don't see more people talk about.
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Comment on China drafts world’s strictest rules to end AI-encouraged suicide, violence in ~tech
HelmetTesterTJ Link ParentTristan Harris put it well in his recent episode of Your Undivided Attention - Episode 122 | Dec 18, 2025 | America and China Are Racing to Different AI Futures, that China and other authoritarian...Tristan Harris put it well in his recent episode of Your Undivided Attention - Episode 122 | Dec 18, 2025 | America and China Are Racing to Different AI Futures, that China and other authoritarian governments are building for 21st century authoritarianism, and while the United States should be building for a 21st century democracy, we're instead building for a 21st century oligarchy. We've decided freedom means deregulation and unchecked capitalism.
He gets a little doomsday and preachy in the podcast, but I get it.
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Comment on Are you still using social media? in ~tech
HelmetTesterTJ LinkI use: Facebook - Primarily as a Messenger app. It really is the easiest, smoothest messenger with reasonable adoption in my social group. This is mostly on my phone, but from time to time, I open...I use:
Facebook - Primarily as a Messenger app. It really is the easiest, smoothest messenger with reasonable adoption in my social group. This is mostly on my phone, but from time to time, I open Facebook in on a PC to message someone, and I catch myself scrolling, and it usually takes about three minutes before I'm like, "this is reddit but worse," and closing it.
Reddit - I mostly end up on Reddit from search results. There are very few places, for example, that provide the answer to the best crop rotation in Stardew Valley. Niche subreddits really are the place for information on the internet these days. I could just use ChatGPT to mine Reddit, but is that any better?
Tildes - Check daily. Comment infrequently. Read most of.
FARK - Check daily. Does FARK count as social media? Or a news aggregate with a comment section? I've been using FARK since 2002. I've been gifted TotalFARK a few times, but I've never paid for it. In the end, it's not much different from Reddit, but I don't feel as monetized chatting there.
Tiktok - You'll have to rip it out of my cold, dead hands. I unapologetically enjoy Tiktok. I've got my feed curated to give me exactly what I want. I get anti-AI/AI doomsday news, leftist discourse/propaganda, good storytelling, and urban planning. To be frank, I'm alright with the echo chambers Tiktok is building for me. Outside of TT, I get my information from a wide variety of sources, and it's nice to sometimes go to an app that does thorough deep dives into topics deeply interesting to me. When I've got the time, I'm going to throw a list under this comment of ten videos I get via Tiktok at random. Honestly, I don't care that I might be getting fed Chinese propaganda.
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Comment on Are you still using social media? in ~tech
HelmetTesterTJ Link ParentI spend most of my time on Reddit calling out AI written stories in the BOR, AITAH, and so on subs. It's an uphill, fruitless battle. At this point, I'm reasonably convinced Reddit itself (as a...I spend most of my time on Reddit calling out AI written stories in the BOR, AITAH, and so on subs. It's an uphill, fruitless battle. At this point, I'm reasonably convinced Reddit itself (as a corporation, not as an AI entity... yet) is contracting out to have a lot of the AI stories written. I think they use baity stories to increase engagement to make the website more appealing to advertisers and investors.
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
HelmetTesterTJ LinkI'm about 70% the way through and enjoying the heck out of There is no Antimemetics Division by qntm. I've never gotten much into SCP stuff, so maybe it's just standard fare in that realm, but the...I'm about 70% the way through and enjoying the heck out of There is no Antimemetics Division by qntm. I've never gotten much into SCP stuff, so maybe it's just standard fare in that realm, but the concepts are exciting for me: There are paranormal entities whose camouflage is that, after being seen, they're quickly forgotten. The story follows an organization with the mission of cataloguing and containing these anomalies.
The eldritch, existential, and transdimensional press buttons for me, and this book is nailing it so far.
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Comment on Brown University shooting leaves two dead, nine injured as police search for killer in ~news
HelmetTesterTJ Link ParentI believe politicians in favor of sensible gun reform could do some solid messaging if they started awarding school shooting survivors something like a Purple Heart equivalent. It'd be like a...I believe politicians in favor of sensible gun reform could do some solid messaging if they started awarding school shooting survivors something like a Purple Heart equivalent. It'd be like a badge of national embarrassment, a sort of "my country failed me" award.
For real. Think of the tens of potential targets you might be missing out on in some Tildes threads.