greyfire's recent activity

  1. Comment on Leslie Fish - Carmen Miranda's Ghost (1989) in ~music

    greyfire
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    I had just gotten this song out of my head a day or two ago. Argh. One of the earwormiest things in my collection. Fun, though.

    I had just gotten this song out of my head a day or two ago. Argh. One of the earwormiest things in my collection.

    Fun, though.

    3 votes

  2. Comment on What are some of your favorite history books and why? in ~books

    greyfire
    Link
    The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman. Extremely readable exploration of World War I - what happened and why it happened. Would that all history books were as well written.

    The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman. Extremely readable exploration of World War I - what happened and why it happened. Would that all history books were as well written.

    5 votes

  3. Comment on Sci-fi audio drama - The Last City in ~hobbies

    greyfire
    Link Parent
    Do (sort of) superheroes count? I've been listening to The Bright Sessions. Not a ton of sound effects but good voice acting and characters. https://www.thebrightsessions.com/

    Do (sort of) superheroes count? I've been listening to The Bright Sessions. Not a ton of sound effects but good voice acting and characters.

    https://www.thebrightsessions.com/

    1 vote

  4. Comment on Self published authors, how do you market your books? Nothing I've tried has had any success. in ~creative

    greyfire
    Link Parent
    Some folks make it work in a serialized way, too-- a couple of my current favorites are He Who Fights With Monsters and The Wandering Inn. I dabbled in the first bit, got hooked, and now I'm...

    Some folks make it work in a serialized way, too-- a couple of my current favorites are He Who Fights With Monsters and The Wandering Inn. I dabbled in the first bit, got hooked, and now I'm waiting impatiently for book 11 of the former and expect to be doing the same with the latter (only just finishing up book 1 right now, but definitely continuing). (And the audiobook versions of both are excellent.)

    I know HWFWM started free on Royal Road and is now on Patreon as well. Either of those might be an option.

    4 votes

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

    greyfire
    Link Parent
    Got it. It's not that I'm averse to playing a squad, I just didn't realize it was that critical. I'm used to very single-character-focused games. And what you said and I'm reading about it being...

    Got it. It's not that I'm averse to playing a squad, I just didn't realize it was that critical. I'm used to very single-character-focused games. And what you said and I'm reading about it being not just typical but necessary to get beat up a lot is a big paradigm shift too. Rethinking a lot of my standard playstyle now.

  6. Comment on What makes someone a "decent" person to you? in ~talk

    greyfire
    Link Parent
    This looks more like recursion to me. The definition of decent isn't hampered by it referring to others who meet the same definition-- anyone else who doesn't attempt to subvert or etc etc.

    This looks more like recursion to me. The definition of decent isn't hampered by it referring to others who meet the same definition-- anyone else who doesn't attempt to subvert or etc etc.

    4 votes

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

    greyfire
    Link Parent
    Hm. Okay, then. It sounds like I just was trying to play it in a way that it isn't built for, exactly-- particularly the squad emphasis. Reinstalling now-- I'll keep all that in mind and give it...

    Hm. Okay, then. It sounds like I just was trying to play it in a way that it isn't built for, exactly-- particularly the squad emphasis.

    Reinstalling now-- I'll keep all that in mind and give it another shot. Thanks!

    1 vote

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

    greyfire
    Link Parent
    I absolutely bounced off of it the two times I've tried to get into it - nothing seemed to happen, I just wandered around an utter empty wasteland and picked up broken crockery to sell in the tiny...

    I absolutely bounced off of it the two times I've tried to get into it - nothing seemed to happen, I just wandered around an utter empty wasteland and picked up broken crockery to sell in the tiny excuse for a settlement I found, before dying to everything I encountered. Any advice for getting a foothold?

    3 votes

  9. Comment on What books helped you deal with the anxiety of life's uncertainties? in ~books

    greyfire
    Link
    Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah are a couple of my feel-good favorites. They feel like fluffy stories, but then one of the remarks...

    Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah are a couple of my feel-good favorites. They feel like fluffy stories, but then one of the remarks will hit me just right and I'll have to think about my life for a while.

    "Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they're yours."

    3 votes

  10. Comment on Have you ever "homebrewed" fermented beverages? in ~food

    greyfire
    Link Parent
    Yeah, I'd say so. It's really just honey wine. The alcohol content depends on the kind of yeast; I believe we used champagne yeast because it produces the highest ABV (still not huge, it's a wine,...

    Yeah, I'd say so. It's really just honey wine. The alcohol content depends on the kind of yeast; I believe we used champagne yeast because it produces the highest ABV (still not huge, it's a wine, not a distilled product). You'll get the flavor of the honey as the main body, so pick one with a profile you like - I'm a fan of orange blossom as a good all-rounder, but we did not have a good result with chestnut, it came out weird and bitter.

    Now I kind of want to reacquire the equipment and give it another go. Hmmm.

    2 votes

  11. Comment on Have you ever "homebrewed" fermented beverages? in ~food

    greyfire
    Link
    I've made mead a couple of times. It's really pretty easy, especially compared to wine or beer where you have a lot more risk of contaminants - since honey's antimicrobial, it's pretty safe. And...

    I've made mead a couple of times. It's really pretty easy, especially compared to wine or beer where you have a lot more risk of contaminants - since honey's antimicrobial, it's pretty safe. And it's an easy process, although I don't remember all the specifics (it's been years).

    It was basically a pint of honey and a packet of yeast (I think it was champagne yeast?), in a big glass jug-- three or more gallons, I've forgotten-- with a bubbler in the top (a little plastic widget that has an up-and-down curve in it that you fill with pure alcohol, so it lets the gas from inside out but doesn't allow outside air back in). You can add different flavoring components-- I think I used vanilla bean and orange peel powder or zest.

    Then it just sits in a nice dark corner for a few months, blooping until the blooping mostly stops. I've probably forgotten steps, but it was a really simple process, and I did enjoy the results.

    4 votes

  12. Comment on What are your go to fast but tasty meals? Is there prep you do on weekends to make meals faster? in ~food

    greyfire
    Link
    Crepes, Jacques Pepin style. A third cup of flour, a half cup of milk, an egg, a dash of salt, sugar depending on whether you're doing savory or sweet. Cooks in seconds in seasoned cast-iron, fold...

    Crepes, Jacques Pepin style. A third cup of flour, a half cup of milk, an egg, a dash of salt, sugar depending on whether you're doing savory or sweet. Cooks in seconds in seasoned cast-iron, fold some cheese or spinach or jam or whatever into the middle according to taste.

    10 votes

  13. Comment on What makes you chew fire? in ~talk

    greyfire
    Link Parent
    Not to get your hopes up too high, but David just remarked that book 5 will be finished this year. Here's hoping!

    Not to get your hopes up too high, but David just remarked that book 5 will be finished this year. Here's hoping!

  14. Comment on Book recommendations, specifically in ~books

    greyfire
    Link Parent
    I would've recommended this one if TreeBone hadn't already. It's a great read, I ripped through it in two days.

    I would've recommended this one if TreeBone hadn't already. It's a great read, I ripped through it in two days.

    1 vote

  15. Comment on What makes you chew fire? in ~talk

    greyfire
    Link Parent
    David actually runs weekly chats and a writing class, and he's commented on it too. Apparently he's having to rewrite a lot of it because it's so old and he's learned so much since the last one...

    David actually runs weekly chats and a writing class, and he's commented on it too. Apparently he's having to rewrite a lot of it because it's so old and he's learned so much since the last one came out (and he adopted a kid back about the time he wrote that last one, so there were a lot of interruptions). He hasn't given up-- he's been putting out the occasional chapter on his Patreon and such. But yeah, he's acknowledged the frustration, on his part as much as anyone else's.

    7 votes

  16. Comment on Reddit is letting power users in on its IPO in ~tech

    greyfire
    Link Parent
    I have under 2k post karma and barely 30k comment karma, inactive for nine months, and I got one. I'd assume they invited basically everyone.

    I have under 2k post karma and barely 30k comment karma, inactive for nine months, and I got one. I'd assume they invited basically everyone.

    3 votes

  17. Comment on American teachers are missing more school, and there are too few substitutes in ~life

    greyfire
    Link Parent
    My mother had a desk thrown at her-- by a fourth-grader. He was back in class within the week. This was a private school... and his parents were big donors. Not a recent story, even, this was more...

    My mother had a desk thrown at her-- by a fourth-grader. He was back in class within the week. This was a private school... and his parents were big donors. Not a recent story, even, this was more than twenty years ago. She worked almost three decades at the job and always said the kids weren't the real problem, it was the administration and the parents. Admins would never do anything about bad behavior, and parents wouldn't listen when told their kid needed special help.

    11 votes

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

    greyfire
    Link
    Vampire Survivors: 100%ed this and, thankfully, what was a pretty intense addiction immediately evaporated. I hadn't played a bullet heaven before, and it turns out that's way more my thing than...

    Vampire Survivors: 100%ed this and, thankfully, what was a pretty intense addiction immediately evaporated. I hadn't played a bullet heaven before, and it turns out that's way more my thing than bullet hell. The gameplay in this is fantastic, smooth, great meta-progression, appealing graphics. I very much appreciated both the short game loop and the ability to make it even shorter with the Hurry toggle. High amusement factor in an Endless Sammy run that finally bogged the system down to the point of refreshing the screen full of explosions about every ten seconds (and this is a new, gaming-oriented rig, the game itself just ran out of oomph). Total time played, just under a hundred hours.

    Journey to the Savage Planet: Picked this up in a Humble Bundle a while ago and just finished it. The parkour and gameplay were pretty great, with a nice ramp-up of abilities and not particularly punishing deaths, and a good combat feel that had me swearing at certain enemies just often enough. Difficulty level wasn't especially challenging - out of the boss monsters, only the final one even managed to kill me (once), though a couple others got close. Not a deep plot, but enough of one that even after some early dubiousness (the humor is silly and wasn't much to my taste), I pushed through because I wanted to see the rest of the plot points. Wound up close to 100%ing it, just didn't feel like chasing down the last few un-scanned collectibles. Overall quite a good experience but I doubt I'll ever want to replay it. Total time: Just a smidge over 17 hours.

    The Entropy Centre: Finding myself full of mixed feelings and frustrations with this, and I'm not really sure why. It's in the Portal style, different mechanics but similar gameplay and humor, and yet it's failing to grab me. (Also, it keeps crashing.) Basic principle is you can wind back time on various items to effectively allow completing puzzles in reverse order, which I like as an idea, but something about it is just not working for me in practice. I want to know what's happening with the overarching plot, and yet I'm struggling to complete one puzzle per session, less because they're difficult (I love Baba is You, difficult puzzles requiring multiple sessions to figure out is not normally a sticking point, and so far it's never taken more than one go-away-and-come-back on any puzzle) than because... I don't know. I think it just doesn't feel like there's something novel to figure out? I'm going to push on a bit further and hope it finally snags me. Time so far: About four hours.

    1 vote

  19. Comment on Save Point: A game deal roundup for the week of January 28 in ~games

    greyfire
    Link Parent
    Hmmm. I haven't picked those up in a long time, but I played (and loved) most of them as a kid. Good to know!

    Hmmm. I haven't picked those up in a long time, but I played (and loved) most of them as a kid. Good to know!

    1 vote

  20. Comment on Save Point: A game deal roundup for the week of January 28 in ~games

    greyfire
    Link Parent
    The beekeeping game is probably going to be my reason for getting this bundle, because I quite enjoyed the demo. I'm not sure how much more there is to it, but it was a pleasantly casual little...

    The beekeeping game is probably going to be my reason for getting this bundle, because I quite enjoyed the demo. I'm not sure how much more there is to it, but it was a pleasantly casual little crafter. To me it had an Forager-but-way-more-chill feel.

    What'd you like about One Step From Eden? I don't know anything about any of the other games in the bundle, but I do tend to enjoy deckbuilders.

    1 vote