pekt's recent activity

  1. Comment on What are the genuinely worst films of all time? in ~movies

    pekt
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    I wouldn't say it's bad. The movie is terrible, but it was also hilarious to watch as I didn't think it would be so bad and watching someone else's first time reaction to it would also be fun....

    I wouldn't say it's bad. The movie is terrible, but it was also hilarious to watch as I didn't think it would be so bad and watching someone else's first time reaction to it would also be fun. Especially entering the second sex scene. So many of us were confused and thought we were tripping when it was the exact same scene from before.

    I know I've watched probably the first ~5 episodes of Cowboy Bebop more than any other anime as it is a great introduction to anime and something I've used to introduce my friends to. Though I've been needing to do a full rewatch for a while now since I haven't seen the later parts and the movie in a decade at this point.

    2 votes

  2. Comment on What are the genuinely worst films of all time? in ~movies

    pekt
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    The Room. I hadn't even heard of it, until I was bait and switched during a movie night at my fraternity. The guy running it said we were watching Forest Gump that week and one of the other guys...

    The Room. I hadn't even heard of it, until I was bait and switched during a movie night at my fraternity. The guy running it said we were watching Forest Gump that week and one of the other guys and I popped a big bowl of popcorn for it. The other guy left as he knew what the movie was. I stayed and watched that awful so bad it's good movie unfold with ~20 other guys, most of whom hadn't seen it. I also got to eat most of that popcorn myself which was a win as it's one of my favorite snacks!

    5 votes

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

    pekt
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    I proved the old saying that "you don't quite Old School RuneScape, you just take a break" true. Usually when I play actively I'll activate a bond and then play for the 2 weeks, buy another bond...

    I proved the old saying that "you don't quite Old School RuneScape, you just take a break" true.

    Usually when I play actively I'll activate a bond and then play for the 2 weeks, buy another bond and not touch the game for a while, besides logging in maybe once a month or so to do some bulk flipping of items (buying low and selling high). After 3 months I felt like coming back and activated my bond.

    My account is still early game since I barely play, but it is still fun to do some of the quests and make progress on my account. With how Old School RuneScape is structured the small amounts of progress I make when I play means my account is that much better when I come back.

    I'm planning to work on a couple of longer quests this go around, and I'll see if I want to activate another bond or not when I'm done. I've found that with the bond prices going down to ~11 million GP it is actually not that bad to maintain a bond by just doing some flipping throughout the day. So far I've made ~3 million GP over the last 2 day just opening up the mobile app and doing some flips throughout the day.

  4. Comment on How do you find new anime to watch? in ~anime

    pekt
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    Not that I'm opposed to new anime, but I tend to prefer older anime. This is mainly due to the aesthetics, and there being a lot of older anime that I haven't gotten around to watching that I've...

    Not that I'm opposed to new anime, but I tend to prefer older anime. This is mainly due to the aesthetics, and there being a lot of older anime that I haven't gotten around to watching that I've been meaning to for a while.

    Every now and then I'll take a look at r/retroanime or see a YouTube video covering older anime, and I'll stick one of those anime on to my to watch list.

    I also started looking at directors of anime to see what else they had done. That was how I went from Taiyou no Kiba Dougram to watching Armored Trooper VOTOMS

    1 vote

  5. Comment on My son pooped in the toilet in ~life

    pekt
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    Let's goooooo! I'm excited for you and your son! A great development milestone, and hopefully a near end to the real stinky diapers that you get to deal with.

    Let's goooooo!

    I'm excited for you and your son! A great development milestone, and hopefully a near end to the real stinky diapers that you get to deal with.

    3 votes

  6. Comment on Small talk, ice breakers, lines in ~talk

    pekt
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    I'm glad you asked! Regarding the garments the referees, called Gyoji, there is a Sumopedia video on their attire which you can find here: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/sumo/sumopedia/13/...
    • Exemplary

    I'm glad you asked!

    Regarding the garments the referees, called Gyoji, there is a Sumopedia video on their attire which you can find here: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/sumo/sumopedia/13/

    Regarding the traditions around Sumo. I have a document with a bunch of links that I share with people who may be interested in checking out sumo. I've copied the links in full below (I also need to better organize and update it, but I rarely look at the document myself). I've pulled one link to the top here which from what I remember is focused on tradition in sumo.

    There are a ton of interesting things to learn about the sport and the surrounding culture! Things like the hairdressers having ranks, the gyoji are the ones responsible for hand writing the banzuke (ranking chart) and it takes years of practicing the style of calligraphy used to write the banzuke before they are allowed to try their hand at writing the official one, and lots of other fun facts.

    Sumo Links:

    1 vote

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

    pekt
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    I saw a video on Factorio and decided that I'd finally chip away at beating Space Age. My manager actually got me Space Age when it came out after I had mentioned wanting to get it, but I had only...

    I saw a video on Factorio and decided that I'd finally chip away at beating Space Age. My manager actually got me Space Age when it came out after I had mentioned wanting to get it, but I had only played a few hours.

    So far I'm still on Nauvis. I could jet off to another planet in short order if I wanted to, but I'm wanting to do some retooling of my base out of it's initial spaghetti starter base into a still somewhat spaghetti base that is more defendable and can provide me with regular shipments of items once I go to another planet.

    This game is just as much like crack as I remember it being. I have to set a timer whenever I play because if I don't, I'll lose track of time. Thankfully my work is flexible, but I definitely had a lunch break where I forgot to set a timer and played for a solid 45 minutes in to my work day without noticing it. I had some time to play last night and would tell myself "oh I'll get off after I set up this new mine", but then I had a hole in my wall that I had forgotten earlier when expanding; and my starter Steam power was running out; and I needed to add some logistic provider chests to my early game mall so my construction bots would set up my new furnance stack; etc.

    2 votes

  8. Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books

    pekt
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    I had a decent chunk of reading the last couple of weeks. Getting some more professional development reading time in which was nice. Finished: The Pursuit of God: The Human Thirst for the Divine...

    I had a decent chunk of reading the last couple of weeks. Getting some more professional development reading time in which was nice.

    Finished:

    The Pursuit of God: The Human Thirst for the Divine by A.W. Tozer I sat down and finished this when I checked and saw I only had a couple of chapters left. I felt like this was a great read I've always found it interesting to me how applicable works can be years later. This was published in 1946, and (in my opinion) it doesn't need to be changed to be applicable in 2026.

    Progress made

    Return of the Crimson Guard by Ian C. Esslemont is another Novel of the Malazan Empire. I've found that, like with other Malazan books, I most enjoy this when I can sit down and really engross myself in the world. If I can get a longer reading sessions, it is fantastic, but this book series doesn't lend itself well to shorter sessions. There is also the classic Malazan "problem" of having a huge cast of characters. Since I read the Book of the Fallen first I recognize some of the characters, but I'll also find myself looking up people just to see if I'm thinking of the correct character or someone else.
    I'm 1/3 of the way through this book and do hope to finish it sometime soon as I took a break from it and for a bit and was only reading in smaller chunks.

    AI Engineering: Building Applications with Foundation Models by Chip Huyen I sat down and finally crossed the half way point of this book. I do find it interesting to learn more about how this technology works, and I also know when to just skim through certain parts that aren't as relevant to me right now (i.e.: an entire page talking about different algorithms to search through text and their merit).
    I hope to finish this soon.

    The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change by Camille Fournier I bought this last year with the education budget my company had, as I had spoken with my manager about eventually going in to management. This isn't a very long book and I'm at a crossroads, at least for my immediate career path, so I thought I'd give it a quick read and think more about my options.
    I also had a cafe work date with my wife and didn't feel like carrying around a bigger book with me so this being smaller helped.

    The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, I've been occasionally reading this to my kids. Sometimes when they get put to sleep later and I don't want a night light on I'll read to them using my phone with low brightness and a very strong blue light filter. We're at Beorn's house and when I do read this to them I sometimes get the urge to just read ahead myself and finish the book again.

    The Eagle's Conquest by Simon Scarrow book 2 of the Eagles of the Empire series. It's a straightforward Roman military historical fiction book that follows a few fictional characters and the future emperor Vespasian I was feeling sick over the weekend and wanted something that didn't require too much thought and after a quick scroll through some books I wanted to read/read recently I figured a sequel in a setting I'm fairly familiar with would be nice. It turned out to be a correct decision, the book was easy to read and took my mind off of being sick.

    No progress made:

    Introducing Python: Modern Computing in Simple Packages by Bill Lubanovic a job posting for a position in another department for my work came up that I'd like to apply for, and coding in Python isn't relevant to it. It wasn't relevant to my previous role either, but I was reading this more a refresher to go work on a personal project and now I'm putting more time into things that more directly applicable.

    1 vote

  9. Comment on Small talk, ice breakers, lines in ~talk

    pekt
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    I only know 2 so far, though not from lack of trying. I'm hoping this coming basho I can host a Sumo watch party with some of the guys from my church and see if I can get any of them interested in...

    I only know 2 so far, though not from lack of trying.

    I'm hoping this coming basho I can host a Sumo watch party with some of the guys from my church and see if I can get any of them interested in following it.

    1 vote

  10. Comment on Small talk, ice breakers, lines in ~talk

    pekt
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    Joe Dirt was such an unexpectedly fun movie. Thank you for the reminder as I don't think my wife has seen it and it may be time for a movie night with her.

    Joe Dirt was such an unexpectedly fun movie. Thank you for the reminder as I don't think my wife has seen it and it may be time for a movie night with her.

    3 votes

  11. Comment on Small talk, ice breakers, lines in ~talk

    pekt
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    Do you follow any sports? Badminton is very popular here, which is often what I hear or football (soccer). Selfishly let's me bring up Sumo which can be its own conversation. What's your favorite...
    • Do you follow any sports?

    Badminton is very popular here, which is often what I hear or football (soccer). Selfishly let's me bring up Sumo which can be its own conversation.

    • What's your favorite local dish/food?

    Malaysians are known for being foodies and you can end up with some good recommendations, or (at least when I was in Penang) some fun light hearted debates about the merits of how an uncle cooks a dish at this hawker center vs how an aunty at this road stall cooks it and why one way is superior.

    • Do you like durian?

    A food with strong opinions like the raisin question.

    • What's the last book you read?

    I love reading and it's fun to talk about books. It does assume people read, and I do try to frame it for the people who don't that as a small encouragement to read and not a reminder of something they feel like they should be doing and aren't.

    • What's your favorite fruit?

    Fruits are yummy, also easy to pivot into durian question as a follow up.

    As a white guy living in SE Asia here's some questions I usually get during small talk:

    • Can you eat local food? If this is asked it almost always immediately followed by: what is your favorite local food?
    • Can you eat/do you like spicy food?
    • Are you used to the heat?
    • Do you like living here?
    • What do you miss about your home country?
    • Do you plan on moving back to your home country?
    • Why did you move here?
    • What's your opinion on [insert whatever is happening in the US]?
    8 votes

  12. Comment on Adulting -- what advice or encouragement did you receive / wish you had received when you were just starting out moving out? in ~life

    pekt
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    I had a similar, but more specific comment to @patience_limited. The advice I would give would be that is easier to maintain your current fitness level than to get back to it. I had a period of...

    I had a similar, but more specific comment to @patience_limited. The advice I would give would be that is easier to maintain your current fitness level than to get back to it.

    I had a period of just not caring about things, and gained weight. In general I wasn't taking care of myself. When my now wife agreed to marry me I wanted to lose the weight so that I wouldn't always see myself like that whenever we looked at our wedding photos. I lost ~45 lbs/20 kg over 6 months. It wasn't the most terrible weight loss journey, but it wasn't ideal and I also knew that I could have avoided it by taking the smaller actions to avoid getting to that state.
    I've been working on being more fit to keep up with my kids, but even when I'm not as active I still keep a baseline to make sure I'm at least doing some physical activity regularly. I know I'll be thanking myself down the line when the maintaince is helping with my quality of life.

    I would also recommend more people learn to cook. It's a great skill to have for many reasons. You can make food that is customized to your palette, be creative, share something you made with someone else, and you can save money by eating out less/buying premade food.

    I have some friends who are now in their 30s that live in the US who spend a decent amount of their paycheck on eating out/ordering delivery. I get that everyone has different priorities, but it always blows my mind how much people can casually spend ordering things on a daily basis. It makes me grateful my wife taught me how to cook as I didn't learn growing up and now can make somewhat decent food.

    4 votes

  13. Comment on Malaysia starts cloud seeding to help clear toxic haze in ~enviro

    pekt
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    Very annoying when it happens, though I know the current batch is also being caused by the wildfires in Borneo. My kids don't like being couped up due to the haze, especially when they are off for...

    Very annoying when it happens, though I know the current batch is also being caused by the wildfires in Borneo. My kids don't like being couped up due to the haze, especially when they are off for school holidays and want to run around outside.

    I've been needing to check the AQI rating for the area I live in each morning, so I know if it's decent enough air out for me to go running. Makes me appreciative of the rest of the year when I don't need to check.

    8 votes

  14. Comment on Recommendations for noise cancelling, over ear headphones in ~tech

    pekt
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    I also bought my pair around that time. I ended up getting mine replaced twice for free as I had some minor audio issues. Since I bought mine online I was able to ship them in and a couple of...

    I also bought my pair around that time. I ended up getting mine replaced twice for free as I had some minor audio issues. Since I bought mine online I was able to ship them in and a couple of weeks later I received a new pair of them back.

    I used to be very careful about keeping mine in the hard case whenever I went out. I usually just put them in my backpack now without the case if I'm just going to a local cafe, but any longer trips I'll bring out the case to keep them safe. I wanted to say a big thank you for mentioning the soft case as I'll definitely do that when I go to replace mine eventually. Since I don't earn a US salary the extra savings on buying the soft case over the normal hard case will be a good amount of savings for me.

  15. Comment on Recommendations for noise cancelling, over ear headphones in ~tech

    pekt
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    I've been using a pair of Bose Quiet Comfort 35 V2 for years at this point, and I've found them to be a great pair of headphones. The nose cancelling is great for flying, and I'm usually shocked...

    I've been using a pair of Bose Quiet Comfort 35 V2 for years at this point, and I've found them to be a great pair of headphones. The nose cancelling is great for flying, and I'm usually shocked how loud the plane is whenever I have to take them off during a flight to talk to someone. I do use my pair a lot, so I've had to replace the ear cushions several times (which is a very easy and quick process once you get the hang of it), but part of the frequency is that I've bought cheaper "generic" headphone cushions that are compatible but not as durable as the official Bose ones. I see that they no longer have the number and sell the newer model just as the "Bose Quiet Comfort", but I think that when I'm in the market for a replacement I'll probably get another pair of Bose. I would assume the Ultra variant that the other Tilders have mentioned would be great.

    I did want to note that I previously worked at Bose (store sales job after graduating before I was able to land an IT job), and the warranty policy is generous, at least it was ~8 years ago. They also retain decent trade in value should you wish to upgrade to a newer model down the line. Part of why I'm waiting to get a new pair of headphones is to actually swap them out when I'm in the US as the "Bose" stores in Malaysia are a locally run franchise/entity, and the US locations have a better trade in value. The local stores offered me 10% off my next purchase when I reached out to them, whereas my current headphones would still give ~$100 in the US to trade in which is ~1/3 the cost of a new pair.

    6 votes

  16. Comment on What workplace absurdity are you forced to live with? in ~life

    pekt
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    A previous company I worked at had the classic "IT runs the entire company but is given a shoe string budget" that many people have heard over and over. Our company was spending out the nose on...

    A previous company I worked at had the classic "IT runs the entire company but is given a shoe string budget" that many people have heard over and over.

    Our company was spending out the nose on the shipping cost of me needing to send people a different laptop and having them send me their current laptops. Limping along 5-7 year old laptops for field work when every thing that is done by our employees is in the field is logged in our internal ERP system is nuts. Not only the shipping cost, but also the time spent that they were just waiting for things to load/process.

    I ended up getting approval for a stop gap measure when I showed just how much we were spending to replace the disk drives with SSDs when old laptops came in, which helped immensely as a lot of the issues were HDD related due to our guys using the laptops in the field/in their trucks.
    After 2 years I finally was able to get the policy adjusted to get automatic approval to replace any laptop over 5 years old once they started having issues, with a plan to eventually get down to a 3-4 year refresh cycle depending on the specs of the laptop issued.

    I actually would get calls from guys in the field when they would get their new laptop thanking me because it saved them so much time having a system they didn't need to wait, which was nice.

    29 votes

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

    pekt
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    I saw my phone progress for Luck be Landlord was reset during my data transfer, so I spent ~5 hours over the last couple of weeks going through and beating floors 1-20. It was fun, and I...

    I saw my phone progress for Luck be Landlord was reset during my data transfer, so I spent ~5 hours over the last couple of weeks going through and beating floors 1-20. It was fun, and I definitely have got my money's worth after having beaten the game twice. It doesn't have the appeal that other roguelike games do for me to play additional runs at the highest difficulty, and that's alright. I'd recommend it to people looking for a casual "deckbuilder" style game.

    Probably Stolen - Cyberpunk Shopkeeper Sim has continued to be fun. The Devs announced they are releasing a demo that will be separate from the current playtest with more stuff, so that will be fun, but I'm planning to play this game less so it is still fresh down the road when I pick it up.

    There's so many fun games out, and I've got a short list of video games I hope to pick up sometime in the next few years.

    6 votes

  18. Comment on Norway vs the world's favourite chicken – billions of meals each year are made from the fast-growing Ross 308 genetic strain of birds, but a backlash is gathering pace in ~food

    pekt
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    I will definitely share once I get over there and taste them! One of my relatives had a few Brahma chickens, and I was astounded by how big they were since I always thought of chickens as shorter...

    I will definitely share once I get over there and taste them!

    One of my relatives had a few Brahma chickens, and I was astounded by how big they were since I always thought of chickens as shorter small birds. The move post WW2 led that breed to no longer be the main meat chicken for the US which is somewhat sad. I know there are other animal breeds that are slowly getting less popular/dying out as they are no longer needed or not as compatible with industrialized agriculture.
    One example being draft horses since we rely on machinery now. When I was reading the manga Silver Spoon I was surprised that in Japan they have a horse race type specifically for draft horses that involves them pulling weighted sleds up small slopes called Ban'ei.

    Edit: Doing some Wikipedia viewing, and it looks like many of these draft horse species are now being reared as meat horses instead of being used for actual farming. I'm glad to see that the breeds are at least being preserved for something. After reading enough post apocalyptic books having those sorts of breeds around if they are ever needed in the future by people in such an event is a huge win.

    2 votes

  19. Comment on What is the oldest file you still have? in ~tech

    pekt
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    I have copies of my old high school files, which I think are the oldest I could easily find. The file that I do revisit occasionally is my copy of my first Minecraft world that I have copied to...

    I have copies of my old high school files, which I think are the oldest I could easily find.

    The file that I do revisit occasionally is my copy of my first Minecraft world that I have copied to different locations over the years as I didn't want to lose it and my terrible asymmetric castle and other odd builds.

    I believe I have some older drives at my parents house from when I was in elementary and middle school, but I'd have to look for them whenever I get back over there and set up a machine with an old mother borard and some IDE cables to see if they are readable.

  20. Comment on Norway vs the world's favourite chicken – billions of meals each year are made from the fast-growing Ross 308 genetic strain of birds, but a backlash is gathering pace in ~food

    pekt
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    We usually pay the bit extra here for "kampong" (small town/village) chickens as they are generally healthier and raised locally by small farmers, and the chicken did taste way better when I came...

    We usually pay the bit extra here for "kampong" (small town/village) chickens as they are generally healthier and raised locally by small farmers, and the chicken did taste way better when I came to visit for the first time and had the delicious blanched served with some soy sauce and chilis for dipping.

    I feel like there is a positive that with the sheer scale of modern agriculture we are able to feed so many people with such a minority of people involved in the production of the food, but we sadly lose out on a lot due to that. I love trying regional cuisine, and sadly in some places people aren't willing to pay that bit extra to support the regional producer. I went to a small town near where I lived in another state here and found out that specific town had a distinct variety of rice when we visited the local rice mill as they had a tour, they have been producing for the past ~100+ years, you can find it in some markets throughout the state, but I'd never noticed it before.

    Since we're on the topic of chicken and regional food, I've been excited to visit Vietnam sometime in the near future specifically to try the Don Tao chicken aka Dragon Chicken which are a breed that is known for their large meaty feet and were originally only served to the royal family and any mandarins. I'm a fan of chicken feet, and I even got my wife mildly annoyed at me for encouraging her to eat them while she was pregnant as they are high in collagen.

    I do remember reading that the red delicious name is somewhat misleading as they were cultivated specifically for their appearance as super markets became bigger in the United States and consumer preference was more focused on appearence than taste. I would need to double check that and may come back with an edit but I've arleady spent the end of my work break time typing out this comment.

    4 votes