culturedleftfoot's recent activity

  1. Comment on Do you iron your clothes? in ~life

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    That would make the American usage the exception then =P

    Seems to be a British English difference (and thus often the English learned in many countries where it's a second language)

    That would make the American usage the exception then =P

  2. Comment on Do you iron your clothes? in ~life

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    I didn't grow up with that terminology, so I didn't know the difference either until I sat down and thought about it fairly recently, but it seems I still got it wrong! My rationale was that a...

    Well I don't know the difference between a button down shirt and button up shirt either.

    I didn't grow up with that terminology, so I didn't know the difference either until I sat down and thought about it fairly recently, but it seems I still got it wrong! My rationale was that a button-down would be a shirt that typically got buttoned from top to bottom, and a button-up would be one that got buttoned from bottom to top (AKA a polo shirt)... but they apparently both refer to types of dress shirts differentiated by the collar.

    When you say "most places" what do you mean?

    AFAIK, "shirt" in most of the English speaking world refers to a dress shirt or a casual shirt with buttons all along the front, not a t-shirt or A-shirt or anything else.

    1 vote

  3. Comment on Do you iron your clothes? in ~life

    culturedleftfoot
    Link
    The stuff that needs to be ironed, yes. Dress shirts, slacks, etc. If I have a t-shirt or sweater that has wrinkles from the way it was stored, I'd do a quick pass on those too, but that's not a...

    The stuff that needs to be ironed, yes. Dress shirts, slacks, etc. If I have a t-shirt or sweater that has wrinkles from the way it was stored, I'd do a quick pass on those too, but that's not a matter of course. The objective is to avoid looking like I took my clothes out of a bottle, as my mom would say.

    I can't imagine anyone doing this regularly

    I'm guessing this is a generational thing since clothing styles and dress codes have grown more casual over time, but I don't get how/why anyone wearing formal or business attire daily would NOT be ironing their clothes with some regularity. When I worked in a business casual setting with a younger crowd (or at least younger than me), the staff marveled at the fact that my khakis had a crease everyday and they could tell I ironed my pants. I myself was aghast when I hired an assistant manager in his early to mid 30s, and for his first week, all his shirts had the crease lines from the folds from the store. I guess he didn't even wash them after buying them.

    (The staff also marveled at the fact that my clothes always matched, color-wise... I had never previously paid much attention to how other men dressed but that made me realize how many people here don't actually coordinate their colors in some sensible way when they put together their outfits, and how often their colors clashed or their shoes didn't match. Women too!)

    4 votes

  4. Comment on Do you iron your clothes? in ~life

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    I'm guessing shirt here means a button-down (shirt), as opposed to a button-up (shirt) or a t-shirt. That's what it specifically refers to in most places, I think.

    I'm guessing shirt here means a button-down (shirt), as opposed to a button-up (shirt) or a t-shirt. That's what it specifically refers to in most places, I think.

  5. Comment on What is your "when I found out about 9/11" story? in ~talk

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    Controversially (in large sections of the US, anyway) expressed the next day as "Some People Push Back" - On the Justice of Roosting Chickens. That was essentially my reaction while watching the...

    on a fairly lefty university campus on the other side of the world there was an undercurrent not quite of the US deserving the attacks but a significant feeling of we could see something coming and a lack of surprise

    Controversially (in large sections of the US, anyway) expressed the next day as "Some People Push Back" - On the Justice of Roosting Chickens. That was essentially my reaction while watching the news reports come in on morning TV after the first tower was hit, and even while seeing the second tower get hit in in real time as well.

  6. Comment on 'The Ghost in the Shell' just ended, what are your thoughts? in ~anime

    culturedleftfoot
    Link
    Sidebar - having not watched it myself (yet), how highly does anyone recommend it?

    Sidebar - having not watched it myself (yet), how highly does anyone recommend it?

    1 vote

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

    culturedleftfoot
    Link
    I'm about 8 hours into Outer Wilds. I kinda like it so far - mostly I like the commitment to creating a whole solar system and a physics system to go along with it - but I don't think I've gotten...

    I'm about 8 hours into Outer Wilds. I kinda like it so far - mostly I like the commitment to creating a whole solar system and a physics system to go along with it - but I don't think I've gotten hooked by the story quite yet. I've explored more by following my own curiosity at stuff I see than by following clues, so I've found a bunch of stuff that is probably too far ahead of the breadcrumbs I've gathered for me to properly appreciate. I'll keep at it but this seems like it might be a slow burn.

    3 votes

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

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    You can say that again. Not to discourage you, but I've got just over 600 hours in Enter the Gungeon and I still have one or two things left on the to-do list. I haven't played it in a few years...

    Now I can get there fairly consistently. I know there is more to the game.

    You can say that again. Not to discourage you, but I've got just over 600 hours in Enter the Gungeon and I still have one or two things left on the to-do list. I haven't played it in a few years at this point, so I doubt I'll ever properly finish the Ammonomicon, but it was still great fun for me. I think the mix of charm and humor in the game kept pulling me back in to play, even beyond the actual gameplay mechanics being super solid. It's a shame that it doesn't seem to sing to you in the same way. I've experienced a similar situation of my own recently after playing Revita for a few weeks though, and as much as I find it interesting, I'm not having enough fun to see how far the rabbit hole goes.

    4 votes

  9. Comment on [SOLVED] Hunting for a movie in ~movies

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    @vord I've become unreasonably invested in this mystery and have convinced myself that this is the answer you're looking for. Don't leave me hanging

    @vord I've become unreasonably invested in this mystery and have convinced myself that this is the answer you're looking for. Don't leave me hanging

    13 votes

  10. What's a show you love that's from before your time?

    ~tv Ask (survey)
    Before your time = you weren't old enough to otherwise follow the zeitgeist at the time the show was made. If you grew up watching reruns of The Honeymooners with your grandparents or something,...

    Before your time = you weren't old enough to otherwise follow the zeitgeist at the time the show was made. If you grew up watching reruns of The Honeymooners with your grandparents or something, that still counts.

    27 votes

  11. Comment on Mononoke The Movie: Chapter III - The Curse of the Serpent | Official trailer in ~anime

    culturedleftfoot
    Link
    I would pay big money to somehow get a 4K release of the original Mononoke series. I maintain that it belongs in some sort of animation hall of fame.

    I would pay big money to somehow get a 4K release of the original Mononoke series. I maintain that it belongs in some sort of animation hall of fame.

    2 votes

  12. Comment on What game are you terrible at? in ~games

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    Playing a bunch of Sonic 1 and especially 2 was a core part of my formative gaming experiences. Beat them both multiple times with my neighbor. I tried playing Sonic Mania last year and I SUCKED....

    Playing a bunch of Sonic 1 and especially 2 was a core part of my formative gaming experiences. Beat them both multiple times with my neighbor.

    I tried playing Sonic Mania last year and I SUCKED. It looks and feels exactly like the games I remember, but I was absolutely hopeless. Granted, I only gave it about three hours, but it was embarrassing enough that I just let it be.

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

    culturedleftfoot
    Link
    In the past month I've put close to 40 hours into Revita, which I received through @cheep_cheep's generosity in a recent key giveaway. I wouldn't have guessed I've spent damn near a full work week...

    In the past month I've put close to 40 hours into Revita, which I received through @cheep_cheep's generosity in a recent key giveaway.

    In this fast paced twin-stick roguelite platformer, you play as an unnamed child ascending an ominous clocktower in pursuit of their lost memories. Harvest and sacrifice souls to grow your power in order to challenge procedural encounter rooms and intimidating bosses!

    I wouldn't have guessed I've spent damn near a full work week playing this just since July, because I'm not sure that I'm enjoying it that much. I'm very intrigued by the premise and themes (the bosses you fight are the five stages of grief, there's allusions to you possibly being in some sort of underworld or purgatory), and the mechanic of swapping health for power-ups keeps an interesting tension throughout, but the feeling I'd walk away with at this point is grind rather than fun. I feel like I've been on a treadmill, slowly unlocking items that all seem kinda cool and probably would make for crazy runs once they're all available, but in the meantime I constantly feel underpowered unless I get a combo of relics that more or less carries me. It's a shame, because there seems to be a TON of content in here - eight different weapons, hundreds of relics that affect gameplay and synergize in various ways, over 100+ secrets/achievements, etc. and it has a bunch of reviews calling it super underrated.

    The only other twin-stick roguelike/lite I've played is Enter The Gungeon, and while I have more than 600 hours sunk into that, it never felt anywhere near this grindy, even before the updates/rebalances that made the game much easier. I feel like I'm seeing some clear influence from EtG in the design (others have compared it more to the Binding of Isaac, so maybe it's just roguelike tropes in general, I dunno) so I'm not sure why this one is missing the mark for me. I'll keep giving it a go for a bit, as I'd really like to see the endings, get the full story, etc. but I don't think I'd enjoy putting in the time to get good enough to unlock everything myself.

    Aside from that, I'm still also playing V-Rally 4, which has kept me entertained for the past year and more. It has the perfect simcade balance to scratch my racing itch and enough variety in the track layouts and race types to keep things interesting. I really like that it rewards practice and mastery of the mechanics without needing to go full Dirt Rally 2.0 sim rig.

    2 votes

  14. Comment on My polish costs nothing in ~tech

    culturedleftfoot
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    Plot twist: RoyalHenOil fed this thread into ChatGPT to come up with a comment that would both justify LLM usage and elicit sympathy from us, and voila. This shadow of distrust that we must now...

    Plot twist: RoyalHenOil fed this thread into ChatGPT to come up with a comment that would both justify LLM usage and elicit sympathy from us, and voila.

    This shadow of distrust that we must now take with us into practically every encounter with text is the exact contract-breaking that post_below is talking about.

    4 votes

  15. Comment on What self-help / personal development books did you find valuable? in ~books

    culturedleftfoot
    Link
    The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson. The author describes it as the self-help book that makes the other self-help books work, and I tend to agree. I imagine the content is along the lines of Atomic...

    The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson. The author describes it as the self-help book that makes the other self-help books work, and I tend to agree. I imagine the content is along the lines of Atomic Habits (I haven't read that one) - it preaches the value of consistency in small disciplines over time, the accumulation of small decisions that compound over time in the same way that compound interest grows your savings account. As someone who didn't remember experiencing failure often when I was young (and therefore didn't learn to work to overcome it), it was an illuminating read and helped me recontextualize many things that I considered to simply be innate talent or natural ability.

    2 votes

  16. Comment on What self-help / personal development books did you find valuable? in ~books

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    People who dismiss things in such a manner often don't acknowledge the difference between knowing something intellectually and internalizing it on a fundamental level. There absolutely are books...

    I've read many times that it's the ultimate example of a book that could have been a paragraph, or a blog post, etc.

    People who dismiss things in such a manner often don't acknowledge the difference between knowing something intellectually and internalizing it on a fundamental level. There absolutely are books that are inflated beyond necessity, but it could also be that whatever specific book they're complaining about just wasn't meant for them.

    5 votes

  17. Comment on 2026 FIFA World Cup - Finals discussion and news megathread (quarters/semis/finals) in ~sports.football

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    I'm interested to see what the reaction in Argentina will be to Messi's performance in this final, and how it affects his legacy long-term. After having gone from blaming him for so long and so...

    I'm interested to see what the reaction in Argentina will be to Messi's performance in this final, and how it affects his legacy long-term. After having gone from blaming him for so long and so much that he retired, to loving him after he finally won in Qatar, how will they frame him basically going missing today?

    Personally, I think he is quite probably the best footballer to ever set foot on a pitch, but there have undoubtedly been big occasions where you'd want him to drag everyone over the line and he's just been conspicuously... meek. Which is not to say that he's never done it, but I don't think it's an unfair criticism when comparing him to the other legends of the game.

    4 votes

  18. Comment on 2026 FIFA World Cup - Finals discussion and news megathread (quarters/semis/finals) in ~sports.football

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    You should have a hell of a team in four years' time, at least. This generation of players should grow from this and come back stronger. Also, call me old-fashioned but winning the World Cup is...

    You should have a hell of a team in four years' time, at least. This generation of players should grow from this and come back stronger.

    Also, call me old-fashioned but winning the World Cup is wasted on a foreign coach. I don't know that I'd ever want to see it happen, it could never mean as much to them as the people of the country.

    3 votes

  19. Comment on An interview with Timo Furuholm, Finnish parliamentarian and former footballer – exploring why so many players lean right-wing and discussion on the upcoming 2026 World Cup in ~sports.football

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    The article alludes to it, but in the era before the huge influx of money into British football, players largely held solidarity for the working class, despite all the adulation they enjoyed,...

    The article alludes to it, but in the era before the huge influx of money into British football, players largely held solidarity for the working class, despite all the adulation they enjoyed, because they were still members of said class. I know enough of the cultural dynamics within continental European and South American societies to know that I don't know enough to speak definitively, but I believe it's broadly been the same phenomenon there.

    1 vote

  20. Comment on 2026 FIFA World Cup - Finals discussion and news megathread (quarters/semis/finals) in ~sports.football

    culturedleftfoot
    Link
    This World Cup's been so weird for me, as I was VERY skeptical/jaded going in, and almost entirely missed out on the usual World Cup fever. It's mostly passed me by - I've watched maybe one full...

    This World Cup's been so weird for me, as I was VERY skeptical/jaded going in, and almost entirely missed out on the usual World Cup fever. It's mostly passed me by - I've watched maybe one full match, caught only one as it was happening, and haven't even tried that hard to dodge spoilers. I didn't even look up the knockout brackets until yesterday. I've finally caught up to speed via Fox's pretty good extended highlights playlist on YouTube though and am looking forward to the last few games. I will say, the quality of the tournament has definitely been diluted by the expansion, but it's hard to argue with the drama that's been served up.

    Quick takes:
    Not surprised to see Brazil knocked out fairly early.
    Disappointed that Japan didn't make it further, I thought they were a good dark horse and played some great football at times.
    Argentina's cycle is sputtering out... they're lucky the draw was kind to them, by no means are they among the four best teams in the tournament (from what I've seen, at least). If England doesn't batter them, they don't deserve to make it to the final.
    Spain is the national team I usually have a soft spot for, but I've never seen a squad rated so highly with so few world-class players. They have maybe three (Rodri, Lamine Yamal... Pedri?).
    By rights the final should be France-England, and without working out the permutations before the tournament, that would have been the final I'd have thought was most merited. I have to hope England gets their dreams crushed though, we'd never hear the end of it if they won. So, allez Les Bleus!!

    3 votes