pekt's recent activity
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Comment on China is dealing with its own manosphere in ~life.men
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
pekt LinkSome decent reading over the last couple of weeks on my end. Finished: In Ashes Born by Nathan Lowell which is book 1 In the a Seekers Tale's series, which is part of the Golden Age of the Solar...Some decent reading over the last couple of weeks on my end.
Finished:
In Ashes Born by Nathan Lowell which is book 1 In the a Seekers Tale's series, which is part of the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper series. This book is a very enjoyable read, and really fits in the slice of life cozy scifi genre. I don't read much cozy fiction, and I know this series has some darker elements that occasionally surface, but it overall has a "believe the best in people" and a bit of competence-porn thrown in.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book, but I probably won't be revisiting the series for a little while until I want another palette cleanser.
Progress made
The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien -I haven't had as much time to sit down and read my physical copy of this, but it is still very enjoyable. Men have recently shown up and seeing the first contact between the Elves (both Eldar and Avari) and Men has been interesting.
The Pursuit of God: The Human Thirst for the Divine by A.W. Tozer I've only made a bit of progress on this. While I enjoy reading theological books, I do think it would be easier to read bigger chunks with a physical book. Not that I do find these works interesting, but there is that bit of "I could just as easily read X exciting book" with just a few taps.
October Fall by Mark Loren and Boyd Craven Jr. is the first book in the October Fall series and also started a shared writing which apparently is called the October Fall universe. These are EMP apocalyptic books set in Florida following people who are preppers as well as those who are reacting to the chaos following an EMP being detonated over the US. I enjoy post apocalyptic/apocalyptic fiction and I felt the urge to give this a try. This book is so far written okay, and I'm curious about the other books in the shared universe as from what I can tell other authors just picked an area to start writing in and there is some crossover between the different series.
I read One Second After by William R. Forstchen years ago which also follows an EMP attack over the US and Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank, and those books were eye-opening after I'd casually considered and read about being prepared for unfortunate circumstances in that they made me want to be more prepared in case of any kind of natural disaster (I think just having become a Dad also made me more aware of needing to give security to my family during crisis). While my family recently had a bit of a financial blow due to some life circumstances, once we get past this I'm planning on building back up our supplies that I let dwindle so we didn't need to move everything as we already had a lot to move. I don't have the resources or interest in going full doomsday prepper, but I would like to get to a point where I have enough supplies for at least 1 month in case anything were to happen.
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Comment on Give me your culture clash stories in ~travel
pekt LinkComing to Malaysia I needed to get used to calling people older than me "aunty" and "uncle". Forgetting to say it is rude, but if you say it to someone whom you think is older than you but isn't...Coming to Malaysia I needed to get used to calling people older than me "aunty" and "uncle". Forgetting to say it is rude, but if you say it to someone whom you think is older than you but isn't that much older than you, it is rude. I'm also now into my 30s so it can be less clear who will be mildly put off if I call them aunty or uncle.
The slightly embarrassing/funny thing was I had just gotten used to calling my in-laws "aunty" and "uncle" and then we got married and during the wedding reception I called my now father-law "uncle" when he expected me to call him "dad".
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
pekt LinkI still play the occasional Slay the Spire 2 run by myself or with a friend. I've not kept as close an eye on the patch notes as I would like since I enjoy following the development of this, but I...I still play the occasional Slay the Spire 2 run by myself or with a friend. I've not kept as close an eye on the patch notes as I would like since I enjoy following the development of this, but I also don't have tons of time to play. I've been slowly grinding the ascensions on The Defect and Silent. The other characters are fun and I'll play more runs with them eventually.
I also recently started playing through Pikmin 1 again on my phone. It holds up really well, but I also feel like I've become less coordinated with games that use a controller compared to how I was when I was a kid. I don't remember if I ever fully beat Pikmin 1 and while I know I played a lot of Pikmin 2 I also don't think I beat it either.
I plan to beat this and then finally beat Custom Robo that I started playing through a year + ago now that I have my bluetooth controller working again. -
Comment on Introductions | July 2026 in ~talk
pekt (edited )Link ParentI've mentioned it previously, but don't have the time right now to hunt down my old comment. If you're a bit burnt out of modern news, you can use filter out topic tags you don't want to see which...I've mentioned it previously, but don't have the time right now to hunt down my old comment. If you're a bit burnt out of modern news, you can use filter out topic tags you don't want to see which you can then toggle these filters on and off.
I mainly engage with Tildes as a friendly community outside of things political and/or current news. I added in some filters to help weed out those topics, and it has been fantastic. I'll occasionally disable those filters, but I usually turn them back on in short order.
Also, Tildes gets a lot less traffic than many other sites, so I'd highly encourage you to post things that you find interesting. I post here way more than I did when I was primarily using Reddit.
Edit: fixed grammar as I was typing this real quick.
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Comment on Introductions | July 2026 in ~talk
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
pekt LinkI've been rereading Slam Dunk slowly with a friend which has been really enjoyable. We'll probably finish in the next few months and then move on to something else. I recently caught up on the...I've been rereading Slam Dunk slowly with a friend which has been really enjoyable. We'll probably finish in the next few months and then move on to something else.
I recently caught up on the latest Berserk chapters and my feelings are mixed. I'm sure that Kouji Mori is treating this faithfully, and he was clear that he is only publishing based on what he was told about by Miura before he passed away. I just can't help but feel like Kentaro Miura would have handled all of this in a better (if incredibly slowly released) way. The art for the chapters released after his passing has been good, but it lacks a bit of the flair that Miura had.
I'm glad to see an ending instead of having Berserk end on what would have been the most intense of cliffhangers due to implications, but the ending of Berserk will forever be a "what if" as Berserk was not only my introduction to manga as a medium but also my favorite manga and the one I've reread the most over the years.My slow watch through of Armored Trooper Votoms hit a snag ages ago when the source I was watching didn't have the next episodes, and it's honestly been laziness and other interests/life happenings that have kept from continuing with it even though I've already found a source for that missing episode. I do plan to finish it eventually and will probably pick it back up and start watching an episode a week again at some point.
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Comment on Why does WhatsApp drain so much phone battery? in ~tech
pekt Link ParentThe first time I visited Malaysia my in-laws asked me if I texted and I said yeah. They then realized I didn't have WhatsApp when they tried to add me to a group chat and went "I thought you said...The first time I visited Malaysia my in-laws asked me if I texted and I said yeah. They then realized I didn't have WhatsApp when they tried to add me to a group chat and went "I thought you said you texted?". After living here it is the only way I get info from a lot of places, and my phone plan actually lets you use WhatsApp even if they cut your data since you wouldn't be able to reach them without it (only found out when we didn't have auto-pay on my line and I needed to get a hold of them).
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Comment on Reddit will require you to be logged in to use old.reddit.com in ~tech
pekt LinkOnce old Reddit is gone my Reddit usage will drop to near 0. I don't like the mobile interface, but I'll use it occasionally when I want to check specific niche subreddits. The desktop browser...Once old Reddit is gone my Reddit usage will drop to near 0. I don't like the mobile interface, but I'll use it occasionally when I want to check specific niche subreddits. The desktop browser redesign is absolutely awful.
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
pekt LinkAnother good couple of weeks of reading on my end. Finished: Night of Knives by Ian C. Esslemont book 1 in the Novels of the Malazan Empire series. I enjoyed this, it wasn't an amazing work but it...Another good couple of weeks of reading on my end.
Finished:
Night of Knives by Ian C. Esslemont book 1 in the Novels of the Malazan Empire series. I enjoyed this, it wasn't an amazing work but it got me back in to Malazan and provided some back ground on different characters. I do get why they recommend reading the books in publication order instead of one series at a time now as this would have answered some questions I had, especially for certain characters who pop up and I was thinking "wait a minute, this character was supposed to be dead".
Twelve Months by Jim Butcher book 18 in the Dresden Files series. I had meant to read this shortly after it came out, but I forgot about it with other books. Once I started reading into it hooked me and I read through it very quickly like I've done with all of the Dresden Files books. It was great seeing Harry again and also having a book that was a bit of a different perspective than the previous books since it took place over a year which is a much longer time frame compared to the previous novels. It was great seeing Harry deal with and move past his grief over the events of the last book.
After reading so many of these books it feels like hanging out with old friends. One of the things that I'd be curious about is just how powerful Harry will end up in his old (for a wizard) age considering if he doesn't get killed in a fight he would be looking at several centuries and he already considered to be in the top 10/20 strongest wizards in the world.
When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth by Cory Doctorow is a short story that follows mid 2000's sysadmins who are in a secure facility when a bioweapon breaks out and causes an apocalypse. They continue to keep the Internet running while the world breaks down. It was a fun short read that I'd recommend.
Progress made
The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien - I made a bit more progress, but I haven't had as much time to sit down and read this as I would like. I have found myself slowing down a bit, but that's because I've been enjoying flipping to the map of Beleriand and looking where everything is.
In Ashes Born by Nathan Lowell which is book 1 In the a Seekers Tale's series, which is part of the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper series. This one picks up months after Owner's Share and continues on in being cozy scifi. I've enjoyed the series as good palete cleansers. I felt like reading something scifi but didn't want to dive in to a new series so back I came. I had read these books as short palette cleansers in between Malazan books and it looks like that trend will continue.
The Pursuit of God: The Human Thirst for the Divine by A.W. Tozer This has been on my reading list for awhile after it was recommended by one of my old pastors. Finally got around to reading it though I've not made it far enough to have an opinion on it.
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Comment on Harvest Moon 64 recompilation release in ~games
pekt Link ParentWhat a small world, I opened your guide and I remember using it a long time ago! GameFAQ guides were my go to for a long time, I may still have yours and a couple of others downloaded on one of my...What a small world, I opened your guide and I remember using it a long time ago! GameFAQ guides were my go to for a long time, I may still have yours and a couple of others downloaded on one of my old hard drive. I went on a minor back up spree of some information from the web that wasn't too big that I was worried could be removed, and I would lose access to it.
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Comment on Harvest Moon 64 recompilation release in ~games
pekt (edited )LinkFor anyone who is a Harvest Moon fan or are curious to give one of the games that inspired Stardew Valley and the modern farming/life sim games a try, you can now play Harvest Moon 64 natively on...For anyone who is a Harvest Moon fan or are curious to give one of the games that inspired Stardew Valley and the modern farming/life sim games a try, you can now play Harvest Moon 64 natively on your computer.
I didn't want to have the main link for this post to the Harvest Moon Subreddit announcement post, but you can find that here which provides credit and a link to a mod portal that has a few mods for this game, including a "deluxe" mod that adds in QoL features
Announcement: https://www.reddit.com/r/harvestmoon/comments/1uhkrlw/harvest_moon_64_recomp_native_pc_port_out_now/
Mod portal: https://thunderstore.io/c/harvest-moon-64-recompiled/I also like to bring this up when Harvest Moon 64 is mentioned, but if you'd like to go into this game with a guide so you get the most out of your play through or are returning and would like to learn more about the game, there is a free fan made strategy guide you can find in PDF form here: http://blog.gerrysguides.com/merchandise/
There is also a missing 4th television channel that has been translated by fans which you can find in the following link. In the announcement post comments it was mentioned that there are plans to add this content to the deluxe mod: https://lostinlocalization.com/projects/hm64-variety/I'm super excited and plan to give this a try after work today!
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Harvest Moon 64 recompilation release
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Comment on List of films adapted into novels in ~books
pekt Link ParentI read a little bit of the Wikipedia article for that, and it sounds like a peak into an alternate universe for what Star Wars could have been with the differences. Not going to spoil myself, but...I read a little bit of the Wikipedia article for that, and it sounds like a peak into an alternate universe for what Star Wars could have been with the differences. Not going to spoil myself, but that goes on the to read list. Thanks for sharing!
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Comment on What are your favorite custom games? in ~games
pekt Link ParentThat sounds awesome, I would definitely be interested and I'm sure having that would be a huge boon to getting people into exploring the many amazing WADs out there. I remember I played through...That sounds awesome, I would definitely be interested and I'm sure having that would be a huge boon to getting people into exploring the many amazing WADs out there.
I remember I played through DOOM some when I was younger, and then I had some time during COVID to go back and give it a go, and it holds up so well.
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Comment on What are your favorite custom games? in ~games
pekt Link ParentI've played a bit of Wesnoth over the years and enjoy it, awesome to hear about someone's experiencing in adding to it. I have a feeling my friend who played a ton of Wesnoth growing up has...I've played a bit of Wesnoth over the years and enjoy it, awesome to hear about someone's experiencing in adding to it. I have a feeling my friend who played a ton of Wesnoth growing up has probably played your mods/mods influenced by the ones you created. That's cool to hear that modding served as an outlet for you.
Are there any games you play these days where you see something and get the itch to "fix it" through modding or that give you ideas for mods that you would like to make if you were able to?
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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
pekt Link ParentMoon+ Reader Pro has been the single best app purchase I've made. I use it almost everyday and it really transformed my reading habbit. When I was finishing university I figured I'd try out...Moon+ Reader Pro has been the single best app purchase I've made. I use it almost everyday and it really transformed my reading habbit.
When I was finishing university I figured I'd try out ereading as my responsibilities had tailed down and I also wanted to cut down on how much time I spent on Reddit. I switched my reddit app with Moon+ Reader and went from reading ~6-7 paper books in a year to an extra 20-30 books a year by ereading instead of scrolling/browsing.
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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
pekt Link ParentYou may need to look up how to check this on the version of Android installed on your phone.You may need to look up how to check this on the version of Android installed on your phone.
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What do you think the top three most used apps on your phone for the past week are?
We used this question as an icebreaker in my church group, and it was interesting seeing what people thought they used compared to what they actually used. Did you guess correctly? Anything...
We used this question as an icebreaker in my church group, and it was interesting seeing what people thought they used compared to what they actually used.
Did you guess correctly?
Anything surprise you about which apps you used the most/how much time you spent on them?I guessed Chrome, YouTube, and my ereader app, and got them right. But I also tend to see those same three apps each week through the weekly health report and figured it would be those.
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Comment on What are your favorite custom games? in ~games
pekt Link ParentI forgot about Hero Line Wars, such an awesome game! To quote myself from before: https://tildes.net/~games/1rjx/guild_wars_reforged_official_launch_trailer#comment-gwbb "We should be fair to the...I forgot about Hero Line Wars, such an awesome game!
To quote myself from before: https://tildes.net/~games/1rjx/guild_wars_reforged_official_launch_trailer#comment-gwbb
"We should be fair to the small indie company Activision-Blizzard, after all they were only worth a paltry ~71+ billion USD in 2020 when Reforged was released. They clearly couldn't afford to spend enough money to do Warcraft 3 justice. /S"
I remember awhile ago seeing an article about an increasing number of Chinese men marry African women in the regionsi that China has their belt and roads initiatives at work.