pekt's recent activity

  1. Who's tried durian?

    ~food Ask (survey)
    Inspired by the beetroot question: Who has tried durian, and what are your thoughts on it? Known to some as the king of fruits and to others as something incredibly smelly. I've become a big...

    Inspired by the beetroot question: Who has tried durian, and what are your thoughts on it?

    Known to some as the king of fruits and to others as something incredibly smelly.

    I've become a big durian fan, but try not to eat too much of it during the season here, since it is calorie dense and very "heaty" if you follow traditional Chinese medicine.

    4 votes

  2. Comment on What ridiculous thing would you spend billions on? in ~talk

    pekt
    Link Parent
    I'm also looking forward to reading through the series a second time in the future. I think it is going to be a very rewarding experience. I'm hoping my second read through will also be in...

    I'm also looking forward to reading through the series a second time in the future. I think it is going to be a very rewarding experience.

    I'm hoping my second read through will also be in physical format as I'm currently ereading the series on my phone.

    1 vote

  3. Comment on What are some interesting landmarks in your neck of the woods? in ~talk

  4. Comment on Reading challenges in ~books

    pekt
    Link Parent
    I've thought about doing the bingo card for years, but I always have so many books that I'm wanting to read or series that I'm in the middle of that I never found myself drawn in to trying to...

    I've thought about doing the bingo card for years, but I always have so many books that I'm wanting to read or series that I'm in the middle of that I never found myself drawn in to trying to match my reading to the card categories. Maybe this is something I'll give a go when the 2026 card is created to try something new as a challenge for a year.

    1 vote

  5. Comment on What ridiculous thing would you spend billions on? in ~talk

    pekt
    Link Parent
    I agree with you on TV doing it justice. I was thinking in my previous comment 1+ length episodes, how many episodes would be needed to cover the book fully would be up to how it is how adapted...

    I agree with you on TV doing it justice. I was thinking in my previous comment 1+ length episodes, how many episodes would be needed to cover the book fully would be up to how it is how adapted and how long is spent on the action sequences.

    This is making me want to dive in and finally finish the main 10 books. I've started book 9, but have been dragging my feet reading them, in part because I know the story is going to end soon, and I've enjoyed it so much. With it having been a few months, I'm going to need to go and do a quick wiki refresh on the chapters I read to so far.

  6. Reading challenges

    ~books Ask (survey)
    I started using the Goodreads annual reading challenge years ago. I generally treat it as an arbitrary target to see if I can read that many books in a year. I have found myself in recent years...

    I started using the Goodreads annual reading challenge years ago. I generally treat it as an arbitrary target to see if I can read that many books in a year. I have found myself in recent years enjoying hitting that goal, and have found myself slotting in more shorter books in my reading between larger stories that I'm reading to help me reach that goal. This has in turn helped motivate me to dive in to some older sci-fi and fantasy works, which are usually shorter or standalone.

    If I'm a couple of books off the goal I set at the end of the year I don't mind, but it is interesting looking back over the last few years seeing how this goal has shaped how I read since I've needed to adjust my reading habits to maintain a similar number of books now that I have kids.

    I thought it would be fun to see how other Tilders approach this, if at all:

    • Do you participate in any reading challenges, and if you do, which one(s)?
    • Have you found the reading challenge changing how you read, or which books you read?
    7 votes

  7. Comment on What ridiculous thing would you spend billions on? in ~talk

    pekt
    Link Parent
    The "smell on television" made me double take. I hadn't considered who to cast for any of the characters, but I think animation would be the best way to tackle the series. I'm not sure how long...

    The "smell on television" made me double take.

    I hadn't considered who to cast for any of the characters, but I think animation would be the best way to tackle the series. I'm not sure how long the episodes would be. This would probably end up taking the form of many movie length episodes, probably several for each book.

  8. Comment on What ridiculous thing would you spend billions on? in ~talk

    pekt
    Link Parent
    I looked up Space King because I hadn't seen it. I would fund it, but with a smaller per episode budget and a smaller studio. I may be a magically funded billionaire, but I'm assuming even this...

    I looked up Space King because I hadn't seen it. I would fund it, but with a smaller per episode budget and a smaller studio. I may be a magically funded billionaire, but I'm assuming even this money has limits and with the scope of this show I may need to invest the money in to a long term fund to allow for it to be perpetually funded.
    The main studio I'm dumping my money in will be needed to produce the many thousands of episodes needed to cover just the Horus Heresy.

    1 vote

  9. Comment on What's your favorite hobby? in ~hobbies

    pekt
    Link
    To clarify, is your favorite hobby eating bread while you read books as one combined hobby? I would put reading books as my favorite hobby that I would drop other hobbies in favor of. I love being...

    To clarify, is your favorite hobby eating bread while you read books as one combined hobby?

    I would put reading books as my favorite hobby that I would drop other hobbies in favor of. I love being able to sit down with a physical good book and disappear in to it. I don't get to do that as often these days, but when I do, it is so nice.

    4 votes

  10. Comment on What ridiculous thing would you spend billions on? in ~talk

    pekt
    Link
    Funding two incredibly long animes that are done using cel animation and not CGI. These anime have no brakes on the budget for animation and pays the animators themselves very well. What would the...

    Funding two incredibly long animes that are done using cel animation and not CGI. These anime have no brakes on the budget for animation and pays the animators themselves very well.
    What would the animes be about? Great question!

    1. The entire Malazan series
    2. Warhammer 40K, this includes the Horus Heresy and many of the other novel series in the setting (I leave it to my billionaire funded contract that I can veto parts of the story being adapted, with there being hundreds of books some of them just aren't that good).

    I did a quick Google and I saw that some anime can take $1 million+ to produce for the more complex ones, but that sounds like rookie numbers to me. Between those 2 series I could see us having thousands of episodes needing billions of dollars. I think that would more than tie up all the money this wizard has given me.

    3 votes

  11. Comment on I dream with a new mainstream handheld console that is neither an extension of a regular console experience, a smartphone, or a wine-powered Linux machine in ~games

    pekt
    Link Parent
    I have a lot of games I'd like to play on older consoles that I never got the chance to play. Save states really do make them so much more approachable. Once I find out about long reload cut...

    I have a lot of games I'd like to play on older consoles that I never got the chance to play. Save states really do make them so much more approachable. Once I find out about long reload cut scenes or things like that it's so easy to skip them and save minutes of time that can add up to hours over the course of a longer game

  12. Comment on A 21-year-old Ukrainian-born sumo wrestler is surging to the top of the rankings in Japan in ~sports.combat

    pekt
    Link Parent
    I was out of town for a bit and just remembered that I was pinged here. Meant to reply sooner, but having unread comments makes my eyes twitch if I leave them there. I agree with...

    I was out of town for a bit and just remembered that I was pinged here. Meant to reply sooner, but having unread comments makes my eyes twitch if I leave them there.

    I agree with @AugustusFerdinand in the analysis of Aonishiki. I think he is a solid rikishi, but I have seen several very promising rikishi get to the same place he is and then encounter an injury or get "found out" by the competition. While he has had a fantastic start to his career in the top division, this was still his only his 4th Basho and most of the guys he is facing have only encountered him a few times to get a measure of his sumo in the professional ring.
    If he maintains this win rate, I could see him being promoted to Ozeki following another 11-4 record in November.

    Shishi doesn't have the same cool factor, I think he's solid and has room to grow, but he's also older, and I think his potential skill ceiling is lower based on what we've seen so far.

    Trying to predict a rikishi's career is fun to do, but ultimately so very very hard. There are so many factors that can come in to play with things happening both inside and outside of the ring that can drastically alter the trajectory of their career. Injuries, illness, something disturbing their training routine could easily throw off a basho and drop them down or interrupt an Ozeki run. I don't follow sumo news in the off season as closely as I used to due to having kids, but I do try to keep up on the guys I enjoy following.

    2 votes

  13. Comment on I dream with a new mainstream handheld console that is neither an extension of a regular console experience, a smartphone, or a wine-powered Linux machine in ~games

    pekt
    Link Parent
    Save states really are the game changer. Being someone in their 30s with kids, being able to stop and start at the drop of a hat makes games so much more approachable. I've been inching my way...

    Save states really are the game changer. Being someone in their 30s with kids, being able to stop and start at the drop of a hat makes games so much more approachable.

    I've been inching my way through Custom Robo using Dolphin on my phone for the past year, and being able to save state at the start of a match so I don't need to go through the animations of losing and reloading makes playing even more approachable when I'm strapped for time.

    7 votes

  14. Comment on Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without an online account in ~tech

    pekt
    Link
    I've refused to update to Windows 11 in part due to not liking the OS and the push to requiring a Microsoft account. I didn't mind it being a feature available in Windows 10 since I know some...

    I've refused to update to Windows 11 in part due to not liking the OS and the push to requiring a Microsoft account. I didn't mind it being a feature available in Windows 10 since I know some people may find it useful or want to use that functionality, but I got increasingly frustrated with it being pushed and needing to do workarounds over the years if I needed to reinstall Windows when I didn't want to use it.

    Since I need to take my personal laptop in to get the battery swapped, I'll be taking this opportunity to switch to Linux as my main desktop OS, with Windows 10 being available as a dual boot for the few things that don't play nicely with Linux. I already planned on wiping my laptop before bringing it in to the PC repair shop, so this will be as good as time as any to switch to Linux being my main desktop OS when I do use my own computer.

    9 votes

  15. Comment on Travel essentials: eight items to pack for your next trip – and what to leave at home in ~travel

    pekt
    Link Parent
    I've always taken my own water bottle with me and found it useful when I was in a country with tap water that you would rather not drink so boiling water before you drink it is a must. Having my...

    I've always taken my own water bottle with me and found it useful when I was in a country with tap water that you would rather not drink so boiling water before you drink it is a must. Having my metal water bottle that I didn't need to worry about the temperature of the water going in was handy.

    Depending on where you travel you may want to check up on the local tap water before going in on a plastic disposable bottle or be prepared to buy multiple disposable bottles during your trip

    4 votes

  16. Comment on Travel essentials: eight items to pack for your next trip – and what to leave at home in ~travel

    pekt
    Link Parent
    My wife introduced me to packing cubes and I'll never go back. Packing cubes for clean clothes, and separating adults and children's clothes. Also so handy to pack other stuff as well that needs...

    My wife introduced me to packing cubes and I'll never go back.

    Packing cubes for clean clothes, and separating adults and children's clothes. Also so handy to pack other stuff as well that needs organized depending on the bags I'm bringing and pockets/compartments available.

    They're relatively inexpensive and barely weigh anything so you don't need to worry about them putting you over a weight limit.

    Edit: Also thank you for the recommendation on those nylon bags. We ran into a sand issue in a recent trip and this looks much better than using the regular plastic bags

    6 votes

  17. Comment on ‘Taylor Swift: Showgirl’ at $33m an awesome anomaly for album pic launch; Dwayne Johnson sees lowest opening ever with ‘The Smashing Machine’ at $6m in ~movies

    pekt
    Link Parent
    I don't follow movies anymore and I didn't know there was a new Tron movie coming out. I thought the last one was alright, with the Daft Punk score being a huge draw for me. I'm not interested in...

    I don't follow movies anymore and I didn't know there was a new Tron movie coming out. I thought the last one was alright, with the Daft Punk score being a huge draw for me.

    I'm not interested in this one and will probably take a trip down memory lane and watch the original Tron movie instead.

    1 vote

  18. Comment on What common misunderstanding do you want to clear up? in ~talk

    pekt
    Link Parent
    I completely agree. I would love to go back and listen to both podcasts again one day, and probably will. The only reason I haven't now that he's reached 1453 is that I have way too many podcasts...

    I completely agree. I would love to go back and listen to both podcasts again one day, and probably will. The only reason I haven't now that he's reached 1453 is that I have way too many podcasts I'd like to listen to right now as it is.

    2 votes

  19. Comment on What common misunderstanding do you want to clear up? in ~talk

    pekt
    Link
    A sandwich that has been grilled and contains something in addition to bread, cheese, and the spread put on the outside of the bread to cook the bread is not a grilled cheese and is a melt. It...

    A sandwich that has been grilled and contains something in addition to bread, cheese, and the spread put on the outside of the bread to cook the bread is not a grilled cheese and is a melt.

    It always bugged me for some reason growing up that I'd see people say "I made a grilled cheese" and they basically had a hamburger going on with all the extra stuff they put in there. Then 10 years ago this post was made on /r/grilledcheese, and it has stayed in my memory ever since: https://www.reddit.com/r/grilledcheese/comments/2or1p3/you_people_make_me_sick/

    6 votes

  20. Comment on What common misunderstanding do you want to clear up? in ~talk

    pekt
    Link Parent
    In case anyone is curious and would like to learn more, I'd strongly recommend The History of Byzantium podcast by Robin Pierson. When I first got in to listening to podcasts, one of the initial...

    In case anyone is curious and would like to learn more, I'd strongly recommend The History of Byzantium podcast by Robin Pierson. When I first got in to listening to podcasts, one of the initial podcasts I checked out was The History of Rome podcast by Mike Duncan (I was going to link to the website for this, but it looks like the hosting provider for that website went out of business last week), and once I finished it I was interested in continuing the narrative of Roman history. My only exposure to Byzantium was that it was a faction in Medieval 2 Total War that was fun to play occasionally, and I knew that the Roman Empire wasn't finished after Rome fell and continued to exist, but didn't know much about it.

    The podcast has recently reached 1453 and the fall of Constantinople. Robin has indicated he will continue doing a brief overview of the Ottomans and covering some other Byzantine things for the foreseeable future.

    3 votes