aphoenix's recent activity
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Comment on Is anybody using HEY for Domains? in ~tech
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Comment on Is anybody using HEY for Domains? in ~tech
aphoenix (edited )LinkI am not using HEY for this, but I do use PurelyMail and it is a small fraction of the cost that is listed on HEY. My expenditure for multiple domains is usually around $10-15 USD per year. That...I am not using HEY for this, but I do use PurelyMail and it is a small fraction of the cost that is listed on HEY. My expenditure for multiple domains is usually around $10-15 USD per year. That said, it is purely an email solution and works best as the front end for an email application like Thunderbird.
I use it by setting up emails like [servicename]@[domain] so I can sign up for a service like netflix with an email like netflix@mydomain.ca. Those emails just forward to my primary email. I can have any amount of them, and I've never had any increase in cost. I also can set up a catchall and give rules about what to do with the emails that are caught. It's pretty straightforward, but not perfect; the UI for management can be a bit clunky. However, I've never had any issues with it, and it is wildly inexpensive.
Edit: this may be off topic, because it doesn't directly answer your question, but I figured saving upwards of $90/yr is worth the potential off-topic comment, if this suits your needs
Second Edit: @delphi I'm sorry I started the replies with "have you considered doing something else" and not directly answering your question. It bugs me when I get that as a reply to questions that I ask online, and I usually try not to do that.
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Comment on Do you cook with cast iron? Is it the hassle everyone says it is? in ~food
aphoenix Link ParentI do season my pans when I get them, but it's also not particularly difficult. I rub a layer of oil on it (top and bottom front and back) and then put it in the oven for an hour, and then turn the...I do season my pans when I get them, but it's also not particularly difficult. I rub a layer of oil on it (top and bottom front and back) and then put it in the oven for an hour, and then turn the oven off and let it cool. It takes almost no effort at all.
Caring for cast iron pans is really easy. They are my favourite pans when you think about them in a value-for-dollar way. The one I use right now is 10 or so years old and just gets better with each use.
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Comment on What do you think the top three most used apps on your phone for the past week are? in ~tech
aphoenix LinkMine was way off and interesting (at least to me) as a result. My guess: Messaging App email app YouTube or Simon Tatham games Actual: youTube Simon Tatham games Firefox I checked the usage and...Mine was way off and interesting (at least to me) as a result. My guess:
- Messaging App
- email app
- YouTube or Simon Tatham games
Actual:
- youTube
- Simon Tatham games
- Firefox
I checked the usage and messages and email were quite far down on the list. I was questioning my perception of time and how I spend it, but then I checked out the digital well-being a bit. I found out that if you answer or read from the notifications drop-down it doesn't actually trigger that as time spent in any application. I figured out that I most commonly read things from the notifications area, she even respond from the notification area with some frequency.
So I think my actual most used application is probably the notification drop down.
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Comment on What do you think is the best sandwich? in ~food
aphoenix Link ParentLol I should have waited for your more in depth and more correct explanation.Lol I should have waited for your more in depth and more correct explanation.
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Comment on What do you think is the best sandwich? in ~food
aphoenix Link ParentI didn't mean to start an argument with my tongue-in-cheek posting about linguistic determinism, so I apologize for that. However, I think that there's a bit of a problem with calling any appeal...I didn't mean to start an argument with my tongue-in-cheek posting about linguistic determinism, so I apologize for that.
However, I think that there's a bit of a problem with calling any appeal to people who study the manner an appeal to authority. The appeal to authority fallacy has some limitations. If we are talking about the same idea of "appeal to authority" as I linked - ie. it is a logical fallacy and thus something that one should take with a grain of salt - then what @sparksbet has done isn't logically fallacious. It's simply referencing. Not all referencing, and not all education, is an appeal to authority.
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Comment on What do you think is the best sandwich? in ~food
aphoenix Link ParentIt means "wishing you prosperity". It is commonly used to express happy greetings for chinese new year, but the literal meaning is about prosperous wishes. It is often accompanied by lyesee (not...It means "wishing you prosperity". It is commonly used to express happy greetings for chinese new year, but the literal meaning is about prosperous wishes. It is often accompanied by lyesee (not sure if I anglicized that correctly) which are red envelopes with cash in them.
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Comment on What do you think is the best sandwich? in ~food
aphoenix Link ParentHere is why this is exactly wrong. When someone says "a grilled cheese with cheddar, provolone, bacon, granny smith apples, and pepper jelly" do you know exactly what it is that they have gotten?...Here is why this is exactly wrong.
When someone says "a grilled cheese with cheddar, provolone, bacon, granny smith apples, and pepper jelly" do you know exactly what it is that they have gotten? The answer is yes. Thus it has met the requirement of language - to effectively describe what it is describing. Or to put it another way, the futility and pedantry of linguistic prescriptivism is a ginormous bore, and linguistic descriptivism is where it's at.
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Comment on What do you think is the best sandwich? in ~food
aphoenix Link ParentHa, I also frequently have wraps in high fiber tortillas as well. Usually it's scrambled eggs in a wrap for me.Ha, I also frequently have wraps in high fiber tortillas as well. Usually it's scrambled eggs in a wrap for me.
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Comment on What do you think is the best sandwich? in ~food
aphoenix Link ParentI realized after reading another comment that my favourite hot chicken is actually korean hot chicken - instead of the nashville style hot sauce, it uses gochujang. I like to put pickles and a bit...I realized after reading another comment that my favourite hot chicken is actually korean hot chicken - instead of the nashville style hot sauce, it uses gochujang. I like to put pickles and a bit of iceberg lettuce, and sometimes kimchi as well.
Sandwiches and wraps are my favourite things to eat.
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Comment on What do you think is the best sandwich? in ~food
aphoenix (edited )LinkI am in mostly in agreement with the ranking from @Narry but mine is slightly different as I'm not a huge fan of ham or thick slices of pork (as would be in a Cuban). Reuben - my favourite way is...I am in mostly in agreement with the ranking from @Narry but mine is slightly different as I'm not a huge fan of ham or thick slices of pork (as would be in a Cuban).
- Reuben - my favourite way is a breakfast Reuben, which just adds a fried egg to the sandwich
- Croque Madame - a croque monseier which just adds a fried egg to the sandwich
- French Dip - I like mine as the Swiss Dip version, French dip with gruyere
NashvilleKorean hot chicken sandwich- Smoked turkey, fried onion, heirloom tomato, iceberg lettuce on a jalapeno bagel with a schmeer on the top bagel and a bit of mustard on the bottom
I upgrade the Nashville hot chicken to Korean hot chicken.
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Comment on What did you do this week (and weekend)? in ~talk
aphoenix (edited )LinkBirds: there is a nest in a vent which had a broken cover. Over the last couple of weeks, eggs have hatched and over the last couple of days the hatchlings have started to fledge. Instead of...Birds: there is a nest in a vent which had a broken cover. Over the last couple of weeks, eggs have hatched and over the last couple of days the hatchlings have started to fledge. Instead of leaving via the broken vent cover, though, it seems that they are somehow going from the vent area above the main floor washroom to the laundry room in the basement and getting stuck. I have rescued five birds from the laundry room and released them. I am now trying to figure out how they got to the laundry room, and I have purchased the new vent cover. This weekend I will put the new vent cover on.
Tree: we had a tree that was dying I called an arborist and he told me that it would be $3500 or so to get it taken care of. I have a chainsaw, so I declined. I have cut down the tree, and have been slowly getting rid of the tree debris. I still have a lot of large pieces, but tomorrow my father is coming with his trailer and we will get the remainder taken out of the yard.
Van: the brakes on my van need replacing. Last weekend I did the rear brakes; this weekend I will do the front brakes. I always like doing the brakes; it's the perfect home task. It's not difficult, it saves a lot of money, and it is enough of a real "job" to be impressive to people who don't know how to do their brakes. Also I have a nice garage to do the work in, and have a bunch of comforts in the garage; a decent smart speaker for music, a comfortable stool, a great floor jack, a series of safety jacks, an air wrench, etc. My son will probably help me as well, and there's something great about father-kid task time. One of my favourite pics of my middle daughter is getting when she was helping me do the brakes on my old mustang.
Relaxing: I might take my son to see a matinee movie today. He is interested in seeing the Backrooms movie and so am I. I'm not sure it's as great idea; he's 11 and not particularly into horror movies, but he's really into backrooms lore. I think the last movie I saw in theatres was the first Mario movie, so it has been a while. I'm sure the prices are going to give me apoplexy. Edit: my boy has asked to watch this at home when it comes out, in case he wants to opt out of the movie part way through. I said we could do that in theatres; he said that "didn't seem fiscally responsible". He is 11.
Parenting: last night was the arts awards night for the aforementioned daughter's high school. She won two awards for excellence: one in her drama program and one in her music program. Her significant other was also there and they won an award for excellence in visual arts. Her best friend was also there and co-won the award for excellence in drama. A winning night all around!
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Conclusion and Recap in ~games
aphoenix Link ParentOh interesting - I tried to get it to generate a couple of ways then I just went straight to editing the local storage because I figured it wasn't really worth it... but I should have guessed that...Oh interesting - I tried to get it to generate a couple of ways then I just went straight to editing the local storage because I figured it wasn't really worth it... but I should have guessed that there was actually a way to do it!
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Conclusion and Recap in ~games
aphoenix LinkI missed the first little bit after doing a bit of online detox and avoiding social media, but I found a fun way to participate. My stealth card went fairly well. I did have to edit the local...I missed the first little bit after doing a bit of online detox and avoiding social media, but I found a fun way to participate. My stealth card went fairly well. I did have to edit the local storage to get it all to say Stealth, which is okay, I hope @Wes doesn't further develop things for this weird edge case.
The card, 9/9 blackout all stealth all the time
Form Custom bingo ✅ 9/9 Stealth
✅ Seven: Enhanced EditionStealth
✅ SOMAStealth
✅ Sir, You Are Being HuntedStealth
✅ Invisible Inc.★ Wildcard
✅ Subnautica 2Stealth
✅ Styx, Shards of DarknessStealth
✅ Hello NeighbourStealth
✅ MonacoStealth
✅ Serial CleanerI actually had a fair number of games that were similar in some ways, and their juxtapositions almost always left me feeling good about one and less good about the other, as is the nature of juxtapositions.
AI Antagonist
Sir, You Are Being Hunted and Hello Neighbour both have antagonists that are supposed to learn from your actions and adapt their strategies to try to catch you. Overall, I lean a bit towards SYABH as the superior game, but I think that Hello Neighbour is worth checking out, and I'm going to plan on trying out some of the other games in the series later. I do have to give the style points and the vibes more to SYABH though, I love the idea of steampunk gentlemen robots going after you fox-hunt style.
Frenetic Pixel Heists
Punchline: two nickels. Monaco and Serial Cleaner both had similar vibes, but it was a really unfavourable and maybe unfair comparison for Serial Cleaner. I think there's a good game in there, but it just did not connect with me at all with the interface feeling so janky to me. I really like the concept, and how immediately unhinged the game is - you're immediately get the "I love my job" vibes from the dude cleaning up dead bodies and taking keepsakes. It's a visual delight as well, but I don't think I'll get over the issues with the interface. I'm keeping Monaco to play with my kids some time and likely uninstalling Serial Cleaner
Parkour Stealth Games with Cool Worldbuilding
Styx, Shards of Darkness and Seven, Enhanced Edition both featured parkour and cool worlds in which to do parkour. Styx just caught me off guard with how funny the main character is; the introductory cut scene felt fairly serious, and it seems like it's going to be serious, and then the first time you die, there's a fourth wall break with Styx calling you an idiot, and I was so charmed that I'll be going back to this a fair bit. Seven had a cooler world, but the parkour wasn't as good. Actually, I reread what I had written, and I said it was a series of "not quites" and that is totally it. Everything is good but not quite great, and there were other games that had great vibes.
The Rest
The other games didn't have as many head-to-head comparisons. I'll get back to SOMA but I'm going to stick with Subnautica 2 for a while. I've put about 6 hours into Sub 2 and I'm really enjoying it thus far, and I will play it all the way through, probably twice, and all the subsequent patches and releases. Invisible Inc. was pretty cool - I like squad based tactics games, and adding in stealth mechanics and making it vaguely heist oriented instead of strictly combat oriented is pretty great. I'll plan to get back to that over the summer at some point.
The Best Stealth
I originally said that Subnautica 2 was tenuously related, but sneaking past the first collector colossus was intense. The best stealth mechanic in a game was probably in Hello Neighbour - you get an audible cue that the Neighbour is coming when he stomps around towards you. I think it was slick and polished. The game where stealth was the most important factor is probably SOMA because holy crap don't let the monster see you. Subnautica 2 gets an honourable mention there as well, because the best way to deal with leviathans is just not getting caught by them.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I was glad that I didn't completely miss this event, and I'm happy that my silly stealth entry worked out. @Wes and @kfwyre, you guys are great, love to you both, thank you for putting together a really cool event. And to everyone else who played, I did end up reading all of your journeys, thank you for all the writing about awesome games - I've got a bunch from my backlog now that some of you have played that I have installed to bring into next month... when I'm done with Subnautica for a while.
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Conclusion and Recap in ~games
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 5(ish) Discussion in ~games
aphoenix Link ParentWeek 4+ Subnautica 2 Word cloud: sequel, early access, water world, survival, basebuilder, big scary fish I really enjoyed Subnautica and Below Zero, so I was pretty excited when this came to...Week 4+
Word cloud: sequel, early access, water world, survival, basebuilder, big scary fish
I really enjoyed Subnautica and Below Zero, so I was pretty excited when this came to early access. It is definitely early access, which I am actually very happy with; the earlier games in the series both had quite lengthy early access periods where things changed a fair bit. By all accounts, the developers are very receptive to feedback from the community, so I'm actually trying to make reports when I have issues and will try to provide some useful feedback to the devs.
So far, I haven't really encountered any bugs or problems. I'm only a few hours in, but the game thus far is a very faithful sequel. The graphics are similar, but better, the controls are similar, with some updates and upgrades, the animations of the animals are similar but a bit more polished. There are new items and new systems and new stories.
Some specific things:
- the map is currently quite a bit smaller than Subnautica's finished map, but I think it's quite a bit bigger than the early access version was, tough I didn't play the first game in early access myself.
- base building is different, and I think better. Things snap to the grid better, it feels more organic, and either I'm building a floppy and terrible base, or it automatically gives you foundation when you play things. I have really enjoyed the differences specifically to base building.
- the system where you find specific genetic repository animals and use their DNA to augment your own is such a cool story-driven way to "level up" in a game, and it feels totally appropriate within the game
- the creatures are different but no less beautiful and / or hideous and / or frightening.
- I miss reef leviathans.
I have not yet played any of the multiplayer, but I did get two copies so I can play with my kids whenever they are interested in doing so. It does run quite poorly on my son's computer so I may have to update his video card so that he can play a bit more smoothly.
Overall, I am very much enjoying Subnautica 2 - it's the best game I played this month, and I'm really looking forward to what they do with it at each iteration through the next 2-3 years, which is how long they have said the open access will likely last. I think if it sounds like fun to experience the game, see changes, and give feedback, then this is totally a good time to buy the game and take part. It's also completely valid to wait until the Early Access period is completed if that's what you're looking for.
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Comment on How to prevent mold growth under weight mats in ~life.home_improvement
aphoenix Link ParentYES that's exactly what it looks like it is. I should have read all the comments before reanswering. Though I didn't realize that it was often salt being pulled out of the concrete and not salts...YES that's exactly what it looks like it is. I should have read all the comments before reanswering.
Though I didn't realize that it was often salt being pulled out of the concrete and not salts or sugars that were introduced. I learned something!
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Comment on How to prevent mold growth under weight mats in ~life.home_improvement
aphoenix Link ParentHmmm, it shouldn't look worse over time, that's strange. I think you might want to look into a waterproof concrete sealant because it looks like that stain is leacging into the concrete. It...Hmmm, it shouldn't look worse over time, that's strange. I think you might want to look into a waterproof concrete sealant because it looks like that stain is leacging into the concrete. It doesn't actually look like mould to me though, it looks like something crystalline. I do think it more likely to be a spill; either Gatorade or soda?
Either way, I would consider sealing the floor better, then watch where the moisture comes from and keep a fan there to help moisture evaporate without pooling, be it sweat or otherwise.
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Comment on How to prevent mold growth under weight mats in ~life.home_improvement
aphoenix (edited )Link ParentI'm wondering if there was a spill or something and it wasn't just sweat? I get pretty sweaty and even when I was doing sit-ups (ie laying directly on the mat), I didn't sweat enough to soak...I'm wondering if there was a spill or something and it wasn't just sweat? I get pretty sweaty and even when I was doing sit-ups (ie laying directly on the mat), I didn't sweat enough to soak through like that. I would also expect the sweat to be more spread out?
I think if you put down the sheeting correctly, then it would actually just fix the problem completely, but you do want to make sure that you place it with some overlap so that the liquid won't get through. That said, if this were me, I wouldn't put down any other barriers, but I would keep an eye on it over some period of time to see if the sweat issue continues, or if this was a one-time issue. To me that looks more like a water bottle spill or something and not just a sweat mark.
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Comment on How to prevent mold growth under weight mats in ~life.home_improvement
aphoenix LinkYou could put a plastic barrier down between the puzzle mat and the concrete. If the moisture is on top of that barrier, then you shouldn't get mould underneath, just on top. I think the big thing...You could put a plastic barrier down between the puzzle mat and the concrete. If the moisture is on top of that barrier, then you shouldn't get mould underneath, just on top.
I think the big thing to consider is airflow. Do you run that fan for a significant amount of time to allow for drying after using the area? We used to have a similar setup in our old house, and we never had an issue like this, but we had really good airflow in the area that had the interlocking foam tiles. We also would take them up and scrub them twice a year, but we never found any mould while we were doing so.
Is the moisture definitely just from sweat? You could probably put down towels on top during workouts to help prevent he issue as well.
Oh sorry I should have been more explicit. I did try HEY out and I found the secret sauce to just be ketchup. Or to get off the metaphor, it was not significantly different from just being proactive with a standard email experience. I think that what HEY does do is have a bunch of quite reasonable filters for things that are important to see, important to keep but not necessarily review, and things you can do without. But with a bit of forethought, most of that special sauce boiled down to effective management of your domain emails and then unsubscribing from things you don't care about. But YMMV, and it's possible that the "bring your own domain" version of HEY adds something that I'm not aware of; I only did the @hey.com trial, and it wasn't particularly recent.
That said, my bias is against using Hansson's services so I may not have given it a fair shake.
Edit: that's why I marked my original as off-topic - I had only used the non-domains version - but I realized after re-reading that I actually insinuated that I didn't use it at all.