Introductions | April 2023
It has been 1,071 days since Tildes had a user introduction post. This one here in fact.
After seeing a few new usernames around the corridors since the Reddit API announcement, and seeing Tildes mentioned on Reddit a couple of days ago, I thought it might be kinda fun to do another.
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Brand new users, feel free to spill the beans on a few fun facts about yourself.
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Perhaps you're an old school Tildee returning after a long sabbatical... Fill us in on what's new in your world.
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Those of you who missed out on a little light 'getting to know you' by signing up in the previous 1,070 days, drop a word or two.
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And that leaves the old guard. You know who you are! You aren't excluded from this social gathering today. Perhaps a bio on what you love to post here.
I'm not expecting the 266 comments we saw with the very first 'Introductions', but a number between 1 and 266 is fine. š
A bit offtopic but worth pointing out for the newcomers:
Docs.Tildes.net is worth a read, especially the Code of Conduct.
And @Bauke's Tildes Statistics site is worth checking out during interest spikes too, as well as the Browse groups page which has daily activity stats.
Also worth mentioning for all the new users, more of whom joined today (so feel free to introduce yourselves!), Tildes has a topic bump mechanic similar to oldschool forums. So whenever a new comment gets made it moves that topic back to the top of everyone's main page if they have it sorted by Activity.
Activity = orders the topics so that the topics with recent comments posted in them appear at the top. Some comments are excluded and will not cause the topic to "bump", such as ones made in threads labeled as Offtopic and Noise, or if they're made in a long thread (>=5 comments deep)
All Activity = orders the topics so that the topics which have most recently had a comment posted under them appear at the top. This is similar to the "Activity" sort, but without any exclusions (so any comment will always cause a topic to come back to the top)
And speaking of comment labels:
https://docs.tildes.net/instructions/commenting-on-tildes#labelling-comments
But note that labels are only available to users with accounts more than 7 days old. You can't apply labels during your first week on Tildes.
p.s. I would also highly recommend turning on "Collapse old comments when I return to a topic" in your settings
Cool, didnāt know about this. Are there any guesses to how many active users we have? Definitely seems smaller these days than way back when.
Only @Deimos would probably be able to accurately estimate the number of active users. But every time I think Tildes is starting to feel really small again, and perhaps be at risk of dying off, reddit HQ does something stupid again and we get another influx of new users (and old ones returning). And even when that doesn't happen for a while, occasionally a topic still pops up that suddenly gets way more votes and comments than I thought was possible given the daily activity numbers. So I think there are still a fairly substantial amount of lurkers hanging about the place that only interact with the site when something really piques their interest.
I think I talk too much already, but since nobody else introduced themselves yet, I'll go first.
That's from my bio which I just updated. You can get anybody's bio by clicking on their username (if they've posted one), and you can edit your own bio in settings.
Fellow amateur accordion player here, so extrapolating from the number of comments currently in this thread suggests a minimum of 28% of users here are amateur accordion players.
Well, that's a surprise! What do you play? Quint free-bass, maybe?
Nothing so apt! I have a Hohner button accordion and mostly play Irish folk.
I've been dabbling in folk music a bit. Any tunes you recommend learning?
I think the first ones I learned were polkas such as Britches Full of Stitches, but I'm also a big fan of hornpipes such as The Boys of Bluehill or The Liverpool Hornpipe. The great thing about Irish folk though is that there are so, so many tunes to try out!
AI clearly stands for Accordion Intelligence in your case :)
Am I new? I guess I'm newer than 2019. I can overshare a bit.
I like indie games, board games, virtual reality, reading and writing fiction (in english), landscape photography, prog rock and metal, occasionally anime and manga, usually cooking--definitely eating--and definitely ice cream. Far too much ice cream. When I travel, I enjoy traipsing relentlessly across foreign cities by foot until I have injured one of my legs and have to limp for a week. I've been known to rant against the unethical behavior of large tech corporations and go deep into weird philosophical arguments with friends despite lacking a background in philosophy post high school. You don't even need to get me drunk.
I've been developing software since I was 8 years old. I have a degree. I was extremely productive for several years but burned out a few years ago and became nearly incapable of doing it despite my best efforts, so I have no idea what to do with my life these days, meaning I'm constantly scared and stressed out (currently unemployed). I'm also culturally displaced here in Portugal, where many of my interests are rare, especially in my age bracket, and LGBT acceptance still amounts to "don't show it in public" (even though it's otherwise of the safest countries in the world).
I've been using this username for 24 years and vastly more people know me by it than my real name. It's also me on github, minecraft and god knows where else, a whole bunch of old games and websites. I'm also known as Pteraspidomorphi on steam, reddit and twitch (Protip: If you're having trouble finding an unused single word username, go to wikipedia and hit random article a bunch of times.) I don't often lose my cool on reddit so I'm not too ashamed of my comment history.
Reading through all of these introductions, I am often struck by how much arts and culture bring people together. With only a few minor changes (taking out anime / manga, and writing fiction) this would also describe a significant number of my interests.
Do you have a favourite board game or are there any photos you've taken that you'd like to share?
Anime and manga can mean a lot of things, maybe there are some out there for you!
If you have a boardgamearena account you can get an idea of the type I game I usually play on my profile. Obviously I've played many games not on BGA as well; one I quite like that immediately comes to mind is Lords of Waterdeep.
In recent years I don't have as much time for going out photographing as I used to, so I have mostly landscapes and cityscapes I got while traveling, such as this panorama I posted in a reddit comment recently, taken in Portugal a few years ago. I have a ton of past photos, but I don't think I'll be uploading anything else to imgur given the circumstances...
(Having a few months ago moved back to my home town which is extremely beautiful, maybe I can start photographing more often again!)
Oh nice, loads of games on your profile are standards in our house, and Lords of Waterdeep is one that I've enjoyed a lot recently; I love a good worker placement game! Have you played Wingspan or Anachrony? Those are my two other current favourite worker placements.
That's a great photo, thanks for sharing!
Yup, I have played Wingspan a few times. I also like worker placement games. In the BGA profile you may notice Viticulture and Agricola.
What about your photos?
I have published some here - I am not a particularly good photographer, and mostly spend my photography time enjoying the photography of other people.
I'm not that good either. My photos after 2014 were all taken with my smartphone. In order to make up for my lack of talent, I make use of:
I use the excellent Autopano Giga for making panoramic images. Unfortunately Gopro bought the company and discontinued the software (as tends to happen to all top tier image manipulation software that's not open source), but it's still very good if you can get your hands on it.
I see you have a drone, that's cool! I think currently drones have been regulated into impracticality around these parts (due to airspace and privacy legislations).
I could share some more photos maybe in a thread in ~art but not sure if it's worth it if it's just going to be me doing it.
I wonder if something like a bi-weekly showcase or something might be worthwhile? Photo Friendly Friday thread every other week?
I'll try it out on Friday and see how it goes.
I didn't know about the original thread and am really enjoying this one. Thanks for posting @mycketforvirrad! As I only know folks here through text, I have created characters in my mind for everyone as you might with a novel. These threads always turn many of my assumptions on their head, be it because I've misgendered someone or I learn more about their interests. I love it!
As for me, I'm one of the... middle guard? I wasn't here at the beginning but I've been here for a while. I love the community here on tildes and the thoughtful, open discussions really are an antidote for so much of online discourse. I check Tildes pretty regularly and am often found on the infrastructure, music, or talk threads.
My professional passions mostly revolve around geospatial technology: satellites, drones, sonar, lidar, or anything imaging related but it is usually just easier say I make maps. I made maps of endangered historic buildings for a long time, think documenting and preparing for events like earthquakes or oddly the spread of ISIS, but now I make maps of ecosystems. They are very different in many ways - ecosystems are much more dynamic - but in many ways the ways I collect/process data and create deliverables are very similar. During the middle of my switch from built environments to natural ones I went back to grad school to get a degree in Coastal Science and Policy which led me to my love to urban planning and natural resource management. It doesn't come up often on tildes, but I can talk for hours about nature based solutions, ecosystem services, and green/grey infrastructure.
Outside of work I try to spend most of my time outside. Like a number of folks on this thread I'd say I'm moderately good at many things: climbing, snowboarding, and mountain biking probably being the big three. I do sometime have an issue where I'll decide I don't have time for a ride and instead sit on my butt watching youtube videos. Things to work on for 2023. Music is also a big passion and I love the threads on tildes that let me explore the tastes of folks on here. There isn't much music I don't like and I really like curating playlists for events. Lastly, I really enjoy cooking and it seriously ramped up during covid. I think experimenting is the best part and I really appreciate my partner for being open to eating some of the more "bold" choices that come out of our kitchen. Farmers markets are absolutely my happy place and I feel fortunate to live in an area with an incredible amount of seasonal agricultural diversity. We also live on the ocean so I get to experiment with the seasonal products the local fish mongers or spear fisher friends have on offer. Oh, and gardening. I freaking love my yard and the wonderful fruit/veg/flowers that we've planted.
Your comment reminded me of a conversation with @kfwyre last year about the mental images we have (or don't have) about other people. I think I do the same as you; there are characters in my mind that map to people here, and they are probably so far from what people actually look like.
Your professional interests sound awesome; I hope that there are more opportunities to opine on green/grey infrastructure and urban planning in the future.
Do you have a favourite seafood? I lived in Vancouver for a while, and was spoilt by fresh fish; living inland now I don't eat much seafood at all.
That's a very nice conversation and exactly what I'm talking about. I actually thought @kfwyre was female during our first interactions, the patience and kindness they display are similar traits I associate with the women in my life. Since then I have an image closer to yours, not exactly Ryan Goesling, but definitely shares some of his traits. ;)
@Skybrian is great at keeping the infrastructure posts coming and the discussion lively! I'm pretty bad at submitting links when I find interesting articles. Something to improve on this year.
As for favorite seafood, that's tough as we're quite spoiled as well. If I have access to fresh muscles then I'd probably go with moules frites. We often go foraging for them here, though our last forage will likely be this week before the shellfish quarantine starts for the summer. A guilty pleasure is Jerked Shrimp. Most shrimp you're likely to encounter out and about have some pretty terrible ecological and human impacts associated with them (think slavery and mangrove clearcutting) so I've made a practice of avoiding them as much as possible. That said, my god are they delicious. I usually get them once a year when one of the local boats sells their catch directly on the wharf. The ones I get a spot prawn, from a sustainable fishery, and cost an arm and a leg. When I don't have access to fresh fish I'm actually a big fan of tinned fish. My partner and I lived in Spain for a bit and really got into the variety of tinned marine goods you can get. Everything from the standard sardine in sunflower oil to oysters in a spicy tomato sauce. If I see a type I haven't tried before in the shore, I'll always pick up a can. It's fun exploration for pretty cheap (most cans range from 2-8 dollars).
Any favorites yourself?
Over time I think my seafood tastes have diminished. I occasionally get mussels or oysters when I'm close to the ocean, but I don't crave them like other people seem to. My wife is all about lobster and crab and I just don't really care for them that much, but I love loads of different kind of fish, and I'll still go out of my way for good sashimi. Frozen Tilapia is something I eat with some frequency, mostly for relatively healthy and inexpensive protein.
I really miss good moderately priced salmon and sushi though.
For me, I think the rarity is part of the pleasure. Like you, I rarely seek out oysters and mussels but when I stumble upon them it's like reconnecting with an old friend. I started foraging during an unemployed period as a means of supplementing my diet and boy foraging mussels and oysters made me feel like I was living high on the hog!
I'm in this boat. My partner is from New England and endlessly raves about lobster boils and lobster rolls. I've had all her favorites out there and honestly, I preferred the cod roll. I don't quite get the hype around lobster. Crab is ok, but sometime I don't think the reward is worth the effort.
I wasn't even thinking about sushi! Oof, I love a good Unagi roll. The best sushi I ever had was scallop sashimi. It was incredibly buttery. Do you have a favorite type?
Unagi is also one of favourites; whenever we (infrequently) get sushi, I'll get an unagi roll. I like a good spicy tuna or salmon skin as well, and most of the "basic" stuff - california rolls, crab rolls, etc. - but generally I'll try just about any sushi and I like most of them.
I've been Daychilde since 1996, and as far as I can tell, I'm still the only Daychilde on the internet. I used to be a Fark user, but in 2009 I had my 15 minutes of fame, and while Fark mistakenly handed down a ban, reddit asked me to do an AMA. I got stuck on reddit, although I tried to leave. I deleted /u/daychilde years ago, but kept getting drawn back into the site. I'm currently /u/AlexanderDaychilde and while I swore I would stop moderatingā¦ I got drawn into moderating my local city's subreddit, as well as a subreddit that exploded back in December, but I recently stepped down as my fellow mods wereā¦ annoying and didn't seem to care. meh.
So I'm jaded about reddit again, and the API thing that pushed me to give this another go over here is good timing.
There is something nice about the interface over here that is close enough to what I'm used to and like (old.reddit) that it just feels like a comfortable place.
It may be a smaller community, but I've always had trouble tracking people on reddit anyway, so hey, actually getting to know some usernames over here might be no bad thing. :)
I work for Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia these days, so if you're ever interested in visiting, as I schedule some of the interpretive staff, I can give you a little information about who might be where.
I actually work remotely (in the city - well, technically in James City County, the oldest county in the US because this is where Jamestown is located), but I can just about spit out my window into the city of Williamsburg. lol. But I work remotely in part now because I'm an amputee and don't currently drive, although I hope to regain that capability at some damn point (it's been a stupidly slow and long journey so far, and in some ways getting closer, but it feels so far away)
I do make music from time to time - the track I'm most happy with is here: https://soundcloud.com/alexander-daychilde/foundations-edge-v2?si=365e47a681e743e3913465065ee923af - I don't expect anyone to listen, which is perfectly fine, but if you do, please don't bother with the oldest stuff, it's even worse.
So yeah! I'm gonna be keeping a tab open here and hang about and see how much I can cut out reddit from my life after nearly 15 years. lol
Welcome! This place is much more like pre-reddit forums (imo) than it is like old reddit, but I think thatās largely a function of the small user base. Either way itās a fun place to be.
What was your 15 min of fame about if you donāt mind the question?
I started on BBSes, and the days of forums were great. The only advantage reddit had was basically it became a one-stop shop for things that you just couldn't find anywhere else. And tiny little communities - like for my city here in Virginia. heh.
I always hesitate to bring it up just because I don't want to sound like it's self-promotion or slapping myself on my back, but it was relevant to me moving to reddit. heh.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beck_v._Eiland-Hall ā is me
ā¦obviously not the Glenn Beck side of that. ;-)
Cool! Definitely didn't expect your 15 minutes of fame to have a wikipedia page, that's pretty legit. Did you end up having to pay the legal fees involved here? Just curious.
I suppose this long after, I can probably reveal all the secretsā¦ well, there aren't really any. lol.
When my registrar passed along the legal documents from Beck's lawyers seeking my identity, I started to see legal assistance. The EFF and Marc Randazza reached out. I had to make a decision, and I ended up with Randazza, which as much as the EFF is great, Marc really helped the publicity with his legal responses. Neither one wanted money, which was great as there was no way I could afford it. lol
Awesome story you have there! Thanks for answering, and glad to have ya here.
Many thanks! :)
I am enjoying the discourse over here. Maybe I haven't seen Tildes's dark side yet, but it seems like more thoughtful conversation like I used to find more on reddit (and still do, just a bit more sparse). Certainly there seems to be an expanded vocabulary here, and folks less fearful of reading and writing. lol
Looks like we got a bona fide folk hero in our midst!
Where? ;-)
Hilariously, I was taking care of my great-aunt in September of 2009 while my great-uncle was in convalescent care for a severe knee injury and watched a lot of Glenn Beck. Every day for an hour. I'm glad this was happening while I was suffering from his influence.
Alas, it probably only really affected him for, like, 10 minutes. But hey, it was a tiny victory, at least. lol
I'm glad it brings even a modicum of retroactive comfort. I'm sorry for your suffering. heh
Hello!
I guess I'm one of the "old guard" and looking back through the previous introduction posts it appears I never did one. I'll bullet point this in random order...
...that's all I can think of for the moment.
What's your favourite whiskey? Are you into whiskey only, or do you also enjoy scotch-style whisky?
Favorite tends to depend on mood, sometimes I'm in the mood for something sweet, sometimes something spicy, or something unusual. Recently went to a whiskey event/tasting and had many whiskeys along with other spirits. Found I still prefer whiskey, but do enjoy a good cognac or armagnac as well. Highlight of the event was a George Dickel 8 year, that is both nicely affordable for its age and absolutely delicious neat and does not improve with water, which is a rarity. It is probably my favorite normal whiskey at the moment.
I tend toward well aged whiskey or something that has been finished in other barrels to give it more character.
If forced, at present my absolute favorite is a single malt, single barrel whiskey from a Texas distillery called Balcones that was aged 4 years in oak and then finished in a Madeira barrel, 127 proof. I drank about a third of the bottle within the first month having it, went back for more to find it was all gone, and now keep it for special occasions and I've only had a bit of it since picking it up two years back, half the bottle remains.
My whiskey shelf (the top of the fridge) currently consists of...
Those all sound great. I don't have a great bourbon / rye selection - my father and father-in-law are both Crown Royal enthusiasts, so I have a few bottles of Crown, and that's about it. I have a few different scotch whisky options, but maybe I'll pick up a bottle of Weller Special Reserve (seems more available locally for me than the Dickel you mentioned).
And I completely forgot the Scotch question. At one time I would have turned down pretty much any Scotch as all that I had tried were peat-heavy and I like my whiskey to not taste like shit. Since then I've tried some high end and low/un-peated Scotches and like them just fine, but haven't actually bought any for myself. Just tried others and given some gifts to one of our friends that has Scottish ancestry and loves Scotch. She does enjoy peat-heavy though.
Crown is wheated, so if you like it you may like Weller, as I describe Weller as what Crown wishes it could be.
[...]
Note, all disparaging comments are in jest, humor about my own tastes, and I pass no judgement based on what someone likes. If someone likes Crown more than Weller, then more power to them. Same with peated Scotch, far be it from me to judge someone for liking the taste of near-fossilized poop.
@cfabbro (a fellow Canadian) may be able to provide some suggestions on whiskeys as he and I have had at least a couple of drinks conversations over the years.
I'm definitely still a whiskey amateur, and not the biggest fan of Scotch either (despite loving Drambuie), so I'm probably not the best person to ask for recommendations. I am still very much enjoying the occasional Rusty Bob (Rusty Nail with Bourbon instead of Scotch) and Bourbon Mules made with Buffalo Trace (which I bought on your recommendation) instead of the traditional vodka based Moscow Mules I typically drink. Since then I've also tried Jim Beam, which I was not a huge fan of neat, but which works alright in a Rusty Bob. And I am also intimately familiar with Crown Royal too though, since (being Canadian) we have always had a bottle stocked in our bar. It's okay, and I've made more than a few Donald Sutherlands with it over the years (Rusty Nail with Canadian Rye), but I much prefer the Buffalo Trace over anything else I've tried so far.
Ha, well, I like my near fossilized shitfirewater I guess.
As far as whiskeys go, I like crown well but I'm definitely interested in a better version of it. I am more of a Scotch Whisky guy, so it's nice to have some other opinions on it. I realized that I have a decent bourbon from Woodford Reserve.
Woodford Reserve makes some pretty approachable and available whiskeys. I recently bought a friend a bottle of 1792 Full Proof and it was amazing. All bottles sold out by the time I got back to the store to get my own. It's also high on the availability list, so you may want to try something from them.
What are some things about honey that you think about as an aficionado that perhaps the typical honey user doesn't?
Well the typical honey user probably doesn't stray far from the squeeze bear, so simply picking up a jar of something local gets someone into the above average category.
That said, I have a lot of honey and like fine alcohol, they have character and flavor profiles all their own. I'll point you toward a couple of previous honey comments and you can ask me questions here if you have any:
Uno
Dos
Do you brew mead perchance? I gave it a go once or twice (using a recipe linked by someone on here, don't remember who), but didn't end up with something I was satisfied with. TBF, I also drink only slightly more than an AA meeting, so my standards are perhaps unusual.
I do not. I was never a fan of mead enough to want to brew it.
Hello! I joined a little while ago, but after the original post. I am eggy (he/him), a username I liked, but is certainly not my only one. Hmm what else to share, I enjoy technology, but I have no formal training in anything related to it. My dad taught teachers how to use technology in classes and so he always had access to the newest and coolest tech that he showed me how to use growing up. I joined here from I think a user on tilde.town, but maybe tilde.club. I am studying to be a teacher (idk why im doignt his to myself). I also am mostly a lurker, I tend to forget about tildes, but then ill check it out and it always has cool discussion. I love all kinds of games (board, video, and card among whatever is left). I love reading and political, and social theory. It is very cool to see everyone here! I will try to start learning names. I need to get tildes on my email full of news for the day so i dont miss posts!!
Do you have a favourite game of each type you listed - board, card, video? What's a book that you recently read that you enjoyed?
Hmm good question, I think for board games it has gotta be ticket to ride I think, man I didn't realize how hard that would be though. Card game is either ascension or MtG, I love deckbuilding. Video game pretty much any rogue like but recently it has been peglin, or one step from eden (its like a mega man battle network type game so much fun). A book I have recently read was Teaching To Transgress by bell hooks, it was so so so good highly recommend!
Ticket to Ride is one we return to a lot, though the specific version that is our favourite is Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries. Though my kids are at the point that they're great for playing board games with, they're also at the point that they are generally doing something else, so it's frequently just me and my wife playing games, and we found that the Nordic one is great for two players.
Ascensions is on my list to try. I'm currently playing a fair bit of MtG, almost entirely EDH at my local store. I've been enjoying the deck building a lot as well, and also started sorting my cards, more for insurance reasons than anything else.
I've not played either of those games, but I own one step from eden - maybe I'll give it a try.
What decks have you been building/playing?
I have these built at the moment, although I need to find time to go through and update them as they're all ~6 months behind my collection additions at this point: https://www.moxfield.com/users/streblo
I should put my current decks in a list somewhere shareable. Our LGS has some rules that I would class as "interesting" and maybe "bad" but I like the people, so most of these decks are pretty half-assed, but they do fairly well in that environment, so these are what I run:
Those are my current decks. I just signed up for a Moxfield account and I'll actually add them at some point.
I want to build a Kadena deck! My favourite card for a long time was Ixidron; I loved seeing it hit the table and seeing everyone grumble. Your sunforgery deck is also close to what I'd like my Kalemn-ity deck to become over time; it's like the grown up version of this deck which is, honestly, just not a great deck (like a 2 or 3 power level) but still wins because it slips through the cracks of our meta, and nobody deals with it properly.
Edit: adding in some decks using Moxfield, which seems superior to tapped out to me (i had some old decklists on there), and then I added my Estrid deck, and my mana base is totally messed up! What the heck am I doing?
Nice decks! I chuckled at the Estrid deck name, seems appropriate given the contents. I love the Empress Galina deck, I see you Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal + Leyline of Singularity. Also, in case you weren't playing at the time, you're missing the best fling spell in Throwmok: Kazuul's Fury // Kazuul's Cliffs. I'm really hyped on all the MDFCs, even the 'bad' ones if they are spells that fit your deck plan.
I play mostly online these days because my local store isn't really my scene, so I build my decks to mostly fit the upper-mid power level that seems to dominate online lobbies. A local scene with some limitations on deck building sounds kinda refreshing, actually.
Kadena is awesome, one of my favourites. It's a control deck that's still playing to the board and I think the 'is it Willbender' tension makes the game kinda fun too. The Wyleth deck is fun too, but I'm still waiting for the day I pull off the Sunforger + Leonin Shikari + Gideon's Sacrifice + Arcbond combo. I could probably switch the commander to Bruenor or Zirda to make this a little easier but then I'm basically going all in on the combo without retooling the entire deck.
I think that I have none of the MDFCs, but perusing your decks made me think that I'll be getting some; I didn't play during Zendikar rising, but I think it would be simple to pick up some from my LGS. Seeing them in your decks got me thinking already about some substitutions that I'll probably be making in my decks.
I like the local scene, even with some limitations, but I don't like all of the limitations. I just had a 2 hour argument with my brother about one of the cards on their ban list - Tunnel Vision. They've banned it because it is "broken in EDH" and I think that after 2 hours I managed to get him to understand that ZERO percent of decks run it because it's not very good, and that the fact that the group collectively wanted it banned is silly. I also realized as of this comment that I have a banned card in my Galina deck because they have banned Isochron as well, so I have to make some adjustments (as juicy as that synergy is).
I love that combo! It's the exact sort of combo that I (would) love to put in; multiple pieces, requires some setup, and really delightful to see it go off properly.
You'll find most people online count them as lands but in my opinion you don't want to cut a land for the non-mythic ones because relying on playing a tap land isn't great. Instead I count the (non-mythic ones) as spells that can bail me out of missing a land drop but ideally I'm playing the front side.
IMO the best ones are Bala Ged Recovery // Bala Ged Sanctuary and Malakir Rebirth // Malakir Mire but they are (mostly) all worth running if the front side fits your game plan.
Oh yeah I pretty much only play EDH (i do enjoy a good draft, im just not great at keeping up with the new sets and their mechanics). I have not played nordic countries but that sounds like a lot of fun, does it incorporate like boats or whatever the European one has?
Also I cannot recommend Eden enough, its so good and fun to play but hard to master. They have a new version coming out thats an online fighting game that looks like a lot of fun.
I'm terrible at keeping up with new sets - I just came off a ~4 year hiatus of mostly not playing, so I've definitely been enjoying getting back into it.
The Nordic version has some over water "ferries" but not as much as the Rails and Sails version, which has separate boat pieces. It's generally just a bit of a smaller map, and it has less points where you get completely blocked off if someone takes your route. It cuts the time to play down a bit. There's also the New York or London versions with Taxis which are a lot of fun and a lot smaller; they can be done in under half an hour pretty consistently.
I'll check out Eden!
I've also been here a while - long enough to post in the original thread, at least. I don't contribute here a ton, but I do like to hang out now and then. I've been an internet user since it was MUCH less ubiquitous, though if you find another rogue_cricket out there, it's probably not me: the only contiguous internet presence I have is my real identity for professional purposes and I use a separate username in most places.
I'm a woman in my mid-30s. I live in Canada, near the ocean, with my wonderful wife and our mostly-wonderful pets. Like many people here I'm a programmer, although I like functional languages and mildly dislike OOP, which feels like a cruel joke being played on me by the universe given their relative popularity. I'm likely to have a job soon in either health or climate tech (probably health) coming off of a job in social media.
For hobbies I like video games (all kinds of genres), reading (fiction and non), hiking (nothing overnight), TTRPGs (right now doing Pathfinder 2e) and when I'm feeling it I play music (mostly piano). I try to stay well-rounded.
Come to think of it, I'm kind of a dabbler in general - I've done a bit of a lot of things. Writing, gardening, roller-skating, sculpting, textile art... I don't mind dipping in and giving something a try and then dipping out. I like novelty and get bored quickly if I do the same thing for too long... I don't see this as a negative thing necessarily, but it also means my storage is absolutely a mess. :)
I strongly believe in building community, mentorship, and in mutual aid, and I volunteer my time at a community centre which prioritizes ecological sustainability, lifelong skills development, and active and affordable child-care. For example, there are classes in foraging and plant identification, gardening with local plants, woodworking, darning. The children's programs also include this kind of natural learning and physical activity as part of their curricula. I mostly work in the background doing planning for fundraising events for the kids but I might be spearheading a board games/DnD monthly event for teens and adults soon, I guess!
I'm a bit of a type A, but I've mellowed out a lot over time... I've definitely grown more sensitive and sentimental and I actually really like that about myself. I'm just trying to find something peaceful for myself and doing what I can to make a small positive impact on my community.
What's your favourite functional language?
The monthly board game / DnD event sounds awesome, and your community centre sounds amazing!
I'm a big fan of Clojure for its approach to typing and access to the massive Java standard library. I also like the Lisp syntax and have found occasional use for writing macros, which are just kind of neat. I know a bit of Haskell, and I would like to learn Elixir, but Clojure was my main programming language for a long time and I still do it in my free time.
People sometimes have trouble starting out with the syntax feeling a bit 'backwards', needing to work from the inside-out rather than one thing after another, and sometimes find the parentheses annoying - but you can mitigate the more complex cases of deep nesting with threading macros and the parentheses navigation with a good editor that allows for stuff like "slurping" and "barfing". Eventually the parentheses disappear completely.
Another thing people tend to not be into is the discouragement of iteration - that can be hard to get around if you're used to loops being a big part of your toolkit. You CAN make a loop in Clojure, but there are very few circumstances you should NEED to once you understand recursion, reducers/transducers, and the ability to compose functions and pass them as data. I actually think this is something about Clojure that has made me a better programmer in every language.
And, yeah! Thanks! It is a really great group of people, we just need a bit more cash before we can really start thriving, I think. I kind of lucked into the position: my piano teacher had a studio there and taught lessons there. She eventually became the executive director of the org (long story), had to quit teaching piano, and ended up reaching out to me to volunteer for a haunted house last year. I went for it and it went well. She hit me up for further work and now I'm on the events committee. It is very gratifying work!
I have had a similar experience, though I am not a Clojure expert by any means (heck, or even really a programmer any more, I'm a manager), but so many programmers just look at iteration as a solution and don't even think about how recursion can solve things. I've had my share of "well why is yours executing twelve thousand times faster?" and it's because of knowing different approaches.
Are you still taking piano lessons? Did you start as an adult or is this a continuation from childhood? What's a piece that you're interested in / working on?
My word it's been a while! Sorry about that. I really appreciate seeing you ask all these follow-ups in this thread. :)
I started learning classical piano as a kid, and then in high school a lot of my friends joined band so I did too. I joined up with a small group of the remaining holdouts in my friend group and among them I was the only one able to read sheet music already, so they got popped into percussion with me on melodic percussion doing tympani, xylophone, marimbas, bell chimes, glockenspiel, etc. It was a lot of fun!
After that I moved into a series of small apartments where having a piano was not really possible, so when I was able to get a good electronic piano (NEED those good weighted keys) I started up lessons again. It had been years so it's a bit slow and a little frustrating but it's still fun. The pieces I'm working on lately are a little easy just to keep things fun, I'm currently working on Chopin's Waltz in A minor. One band I like for pop piano is Jukebox The Ghost and I'd like to eventually learn some of their stuff.
I remember vaguely you've mentioned you play music as well - what exactly do you do music-wise? How long have you been doing it?
I think an important part of an introduction thread is that introductions should lead to conversation, so that you're not just introducing into the void. Plus there's so many interesting answers, and I like getting glimpses into who the people behind the usernames are.
I was also a band kid in high school, and always wanted to get into the melodic percussion. We actually have a glockenspiel in our music room, and I would love to add a marimba - my son is interested in melodic percussion, and likes it way more than piano, and has requested one, but I don't see it in our near future, so I'm hoping when he gets to high school he elects to go that route.
I love the Waltz in A minor, and coincidentally my oldest daughter just started on it. I wasn't familiar with Jukebox The Ghost, and wow, they are super enjoyable, so thank you! I feel like one cannot help but smile while listening to them.
I do play a fair bit of music, and have a very musical family. Everyone in the house plays piano, and we have a large variety of other instruments, and are always looking to add (reasonably) to our collection. These days, it's mostly piano, guitar, and voice for me. I'm currently working on my white whale of piano songs, the Maple Leaf Rag. I've got section 1, 2, and 4 down, but the left hand for section three is one that I have some kind of mental block on and have a real tough time with. Other than that, we spend a fair amount of time with someone playing something, and lots of people singing together, which is nice.
I guess I've been making music for 35 years or so! That seems kind of nutty when I write it down.
Melodic percussion is a lot of fun! You really can't beat making music with hammers (pun not intended), and the marimba and vibraphone can both have such beautiful tones. The tympani too (which is its own thing but is something I often got to play due to my ability to read/tune) is such a powerful tool in a band, most people associate it with a bombastic feel but it can also do more subtle things. I really came to appreciate its technicality and physicality... it looks simple but I hardly scratched the surface of it.
I'm the only one in my direct family that's musically inclined, but my dad's father was very musical with no formal training and he mostly played improvisational or by ear. He played the fiddle, the organ, and the button accordion (weirdly common in this thread?)... I can noodle around a bit on the fiddle as a result of his teaching, and I would love to learn the accordion one day. My dad's brother also plays the guitar. It's fun to jam with him, though I don't know the guitar at all so it's usually him playing and me singing. I wish any of my siblings or cousins also played, it'd be nice.
(And yes, Jukebox the Ghost is great! They're very funny too, and every year I watch their Halloween concert virtually... they have a tradition of dressing up as Queen and playing covers and call it, of course, Hallowqueen. Tommy Siegel is the vocalist and has also made some comics that have achieved internet popularity, most notably his Candy Hearts. He also seems to have a thing for putting butts on things that don't normally have butts. (not really nsfw, just silly)
Disjoint pre-coffee response:
The revelation that the lead singer is the putting butts on things that don't normally have butts has blown my tiny tired Monday mind!
Jamming with family is great, and as the dad who plays the guitar, having your kid sing with you is one of the greatest joys of my life.
There are a lot of accordion players here. I don't play the button accordion, but my sister has a piano accordion that I love playing. They are tons of fun.
Oh, hey kindred spirit!
I love Jukebox the Ghost too, but, more importantly, I played piano and did band in high school before falling out of making music entirely. I've always wanted to get a good digital piano (as you said, the weighted keys are essential) and get back into it, but I've never bitten the bullet.
Any pointers or tips? Getting one and restarting lessons is definitely something on my horizon.
For getting/picking the piano, I got one used pretty inexpensively. I think a lot of parents pick them up and get rid of them when their kid loses interest, so they're not hard to find in good quality used! I tried out a couple before I found one I could tolerate. I always had an upright growing up and after trying some electronic ones, I realized there were more factors than I thought that made me like or dislike a particular keyboard although the key action is for sure the biggest one. Like the first one had nice action, but a very unrealistic "decay"on the note that I was surprised by: it's not something I ever thought about until I heard it and I HATED it. There's just no substitute for sitting down and experimenting for a few minutes.
Headphones are a nice investment for this too I think. I find usually the weakest part of a good piano is the speakers because a "pro" musician would be using external speakers any place it mattered anyway, so a decent pair of headphones is useful even if you don't care whether the neighbours hear, they'll probably outperform the speakers.
For getting back into playing I think the main thing is being patient. I 100% felt clumsier and slower after years of not playing and it was easy to get frustrated because "I used to be able to play X and now I can't! I'm stuck with this simple stuff!". But that was the nature of it, and to keep things fun I had to temper my expectations (... another pun not intended).
I think the fact that my brain had not degraded as much as my hands over time made the "boring stuff" pretty important - warming up with scales, arpeggios, triads, that kind of thing. I actually hate doing this but it works.
I do suggest lessons if you can swing it. The lessons themselves were good for me for structure, but I'm the kind of person who needs this external motivation even for stuff I value and WANT to do. Even if you're the type of person who can do this on their own, though, I think the opportunity for community and recitals is so valuable. I enjoy performance even though it scares the bejesus out of me, and performance is a distinct skill that by its nature you cannot practice on your own: you need a supportive space and a community. I am looking for a new teacher currently* and I'm 100% looking with an eye towards regular recitals. I don't care whether I end up playing after a six-year-old doing Three Blind Mice, I love to contribute as both a safe audience and a practising performer.
* It's entirely circumstantial, I believe I mentioned already but my previous teacher had to stop due to another opportunity and I've been unemployed/busy for a little while so I am just now able to commit to finding a new one.
Perfect answer; we got our electric piano used as well. The only thing I would add is that it's important to try the specific piano, not just the same model, that you are buying, because they aren't always consistently of the same quality. We got quite a decent Yamaha, and the action is very good, and it has no issues; I recommended the model to someone, they bought one, and I don't like it, because the action doesn't feel as good.
@kfwyre - comment is relevant to you.
Sound advice all around -- thanks for taking the time to type it all out! The headphone tip is especially good. I never thought about that, and the benefits also include not bothering my dog or husband when I'm repeating the same measure over and over again trying to get it down.
When I was a kid I remember all the boring finger exercises I used to have to do (I specifically remember a Hanon book that got a lot of use), and at the time I didn't really appreciate what they did for my playing.
After I stopped, I still had some muscle memory for a few songs, so I would occasionally find myself at a piano and would sit down to play a bit. When I did, I was always absolutely aghast at how uneven my playing was. I was hitting the right notes, but it sounded clumsy. My fingers -- out of their regular practice -- felt like they were falling over themselves.
It helped me appreciate, in hindsight, why things like those finger exercises and scales were pushed so heavily. I just wish my teacher had explained that to me at the time rather than just insisting I needed to do it.
Designer in Bay Area. I have a background in architecture and HCI. Old lesbian soul trapped in a young gay man's body. Moved here 2 yrs ago from Amsterdam to go on a bike tour adventure, but early on a bad crash kiboshed my plan. I'm between work, working on my own things and slowly burning savings because I don't think I have the energy to feign enthusiasm for corporate work. I do find myself in the role of playing therapist to other techies though, so maybe I should start charging.
Interests: architecture, how people use things, bicycles, rollerblading, climbing, video games, nudism, LGBT things, economics, philosophy, cooking, and technology of course.
I have a friend who transitioned into providing therapy for people, for much the same reason, and she finds it intensely fulfilling. It won't necessarily stop the burning of savings, though it might slow it down at least.
How people use things is such a deep topic, and always full of surprises! Are you interested in it from a particular perspective, such as human-computer interaction or material design (for clarity: not the google UI kit)?
Did you friend choose to go back to school for therapy?
I find myself counseling others, talking with mentally healthy people about their careers, philosophical and moral concerns, tech and product decisions, and whatnot. I often serve as their sounding board, listening and understanding, asking clarifying questions, pointing out alternative perspectives, and connecting them with interesting resources and people. I'm a confidant and advisor. My IRL presentation apparently makes people very comfortable: I'm a gay Asian cisman, give off a nerdy-but-trendy vibe, and have been told I have a super calm voice and demeanor, a ready smile, and an all-around friendly, approachable appearance.
I'm unsure this is a real niche or not, and if I should consider making this a side business. I like tech. I like helping people. I like listening. And I also love one-on-one human interaction and have infinite patience. If I could be paid to listen to people all day, I'd be very happy. :)
re: How people use things. It depends! I mainly think through a mixed HCI-systems perspective. In a way, everythingādigital or physicalāpresents an interface, whether designed or undesigned. Ideally, an interface conform to our expectations. Things also exist the ecosystem of our busy lives, so I'm really interested in how things are surfaced at the right times and places or are made readily accessible otherwise, as well as how things can work together.
For example, I'd love to redesign a lot of governmental services in the US to make them more user-friendly and interconnected, and maybe even design new services. Like, imagine you lost your job and are anxious about how you'll survive the coming months. There should be a single gov contact point where you can communicate your situation and then be automatically linked with and processed for all eligible benefit programs āĀ healthcare subsidy, rent assistance, food benefits, etc. etc.
I remember when I lost my job in the Netherlands. There's SSO for all gov services. It took me <15 minutes and a few clicks to quickly enroll in healthcare subsidies, unemployment, etc. There was little/no upfront bureaucracy. The agencies already had my income and employment data, so everything was sorted out instantly.
She did go back to school; I think it was 18 months or so? It sounds like something that you would do well at, so maybe it is something you should do! I will disclose that my friend is now looking into other options, because whole she finds it fulfilling, she does not find it particularly lucrative. I'm not sure if that would be different in your area though, and it's certainly possible to do other things on the side to augment income and she has a great and supportive partner as well, which helps.
I would love to have an opportunity to design a universal interface for government services related to ones area; the exact problem that you have described is one that computers are good at solving and it constantly irks me that there are so many barriers to service.
Fazit, he/him, one of many online handles that I frequently reuse since getting online the first time in ~2004. I am from Germany, a mechanical engineer by education, but a strong inclination towards building half-assed software. I do some artsy stuff like building LED lighting installations for festivals, I read quite a bit, enjoy hiking, sailing, climbing. I'm in a transition period from late adolescence into real adulthood and currently struggle a lot with the question of whether to have children or not.
I like to pick up hobbies and get okay-ish at them, and then move on to the next, so I'm a bit of a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none. So far I got "okay" in: skateboarding, climbing, bouldering, chess, squash, juggling, diabolo, programming, journaling, snowboarding, skiing, sailing, surfing, bondage, settlers of catan, table tennis, foosball (the table thing), mixing cocktails, cooking, self-hosting, calisthenics...
I'm sometimes a bit sad that most interesting online communities like this one are very US-centric, so if another european would like to point out similiar communities in spirit, I would be glad. This does not imply that I don't enjoy my stay here - quite the contrary, I like the slow pace, the small amount of politics, the nice community activities (although I oculdn't joint so far)... it's beautiful here!
Ooooh, very cool! I think I do basically the same thing with loving to learn to do a lot of stuff badly. When compared to a random person who never done the thing I am still very good at the things tho :). And I am also European, there's a few of us here!
Would be a bit remiss if I didn't contribute to my own endeavour... Hello! I'm @mycketforvirrad.
The Tildes version of my username can occasionally be found posting content from the Nordic region, but I predominantly spend most of my time buried in the topic logs. It's where I do most of my best work, as I'm not much of a social butterfly when it comes to online spheres.
My Reddit version of the username is split between the Swedish and English transport subreddits, where I currently moderate r/tunnelbana and r/LondonUnderground. There's a few other passion subreddits in there too, all pretty low subscriber numbers thankfully!
The bio for me here on Tildes is pretty anodyne. I'm a creative soul with a graphic design degree not being put to use. My best birthday presents were a mountain bike for my fifteenth and the Nikon DSLR my wife got me last year. I like to hike, photograph and generally eat, drink and culture well.
I like the "my best birthday presents" line of introduction quite a bit!
What are your favourite things to photograph? Are you more about portraits or wildlife or landscapes, or something else entirely? I do not want to in any way pressure you, but I have always enjoyed when people share photos in ~creative. Sometimes it reminds me that I used to love photography and I go out and take some pictures on not-my-phone.
My photography leans heavily into my graphic design sensibilities. I photograph patterns, architecture, typography and urban landscapes.
I'm currently fascinated by the angular lines created by the street lights that run on wires between two buildings. Like this. Before that it was industrial landscapes with pink hued skies. It's always small details in the city that catch my attention.
I tried my hand at portraits when I was younger, but I was never able to catch that elusive glint in the eye. My photos never captured the inner energy of people that I experienced when I talked with them. Sad, really.
Doubt I'd ever show my own stuff off in ~creative, but I'm with you in enjoying seeing others creativity, like @Grendel and his photos during 2020.
What was your own best birthday present?
Oh wow, I love that photo. I used to love taking architectural photos, which has sort of transitioned into drone photos that I now seem to be more interested in. I too love the patterns, at various levels. I do have some photos on my website, though it's sorely out of date.
Since I read your original comment, I've been trying to think of the honest answer to that, and I feel awkward being unable to do so after complimenting it as a prompt! I think that a while ago I got to a point where I am quite grateful for all gifts, because the sentiment of people caring enough to think about what to give me is what matters the most. This likely comes from the place of privilege that I am in; anything that I want I can mostly procure for myself, so I don't always have to wait for a day to receive something. So I tried to cast back to what I was happiest about as a child, and was reminiscing a bit about how many of my birthday gifts as a kid were relatively overshadowed by my birthday's proximity to Christmas, as it is just days before.
All that said, I have three items that I think have risen to the top:
Iāve been here a while but Iāll do a brief introduction. Came here from reddit ages back, no longer really use reddit nor my other social media vice, twitter. Still check Tildes pretty regularly and like to engage when thereās topics relevant to me.
Iām doing a PhD in theoretical (computational) cosmology out in California. As such Iām interested in science related things and try to inject some of that into Tildes when I can. Outside of that I am interested in nuclear history and policy, tech policy, computer history / retro computing, urban design, and sustainability. For creative outlets I like to dabble with creative coding and am trying to get back into wheelthrowing pottery, and would like to dip my toes into screen printing as well. Iām recently married as well.
Congrats on your recent marriage!
What does a PhD in theoretical cosmology... I'm struggling with this sentence, because I think I need more degrees than I have to even ask it! What is it that you are researching?
Thank you :) And please, ask away, no degrees needed! Cosmology is the study of the universe as a whole, and by "theoretical" cosmology I only mean that I don't deal directly with the observational aspect of things. That is, I don't work directly with the telescopes or other instruments that we use to make observations, but I do work with the data that they produce.
I specifically study the first 300,000 years of the universe's existence, which was an extremely important time which in many ways determined everything that happened after. One of the best ways to study this important era is through observations of the cosmic microwave background, which in my opinion is one of the most beautiful and exciting things to study. This is essentially the leftover radiation from this era that I am talking about, so by studying it and its properties we can learn about the era in which it formed, roughly 300k years after the big bang. What the CMB looks like today is highly dependent on the conditions in the universe when it formed, so it ends up being an excellent probe of this highly important era.
Hi, I'm Fal. I guess I've been around for a while, though I wouldn't exactly be considered part of the 'old guard' of Tildes. I'm a first year university student, so I'm probably one of the youngest (semi) active users on the site. Like a lot of people, I joined Tildes after becoming somewhat disillusioned with the direction Reddit was taking. I usually post about gaming, international relations (my field of study at university), and whatever cool things I find online.
I spend a lot of my free time gaming, usually Paradox grand strategy games, though I play a wide variety of genres that aren't FPS games. I'm also a fan of board games (Wingspan being my most recent acquisition).
The Three Body Problem is some of the best scifi I've read, and I read a lot.
I want to collect old maps, though its a fairly expensive hobby that I'm not really in a position to throw myself into. Currently my best acquisition is an original 1754 map from Paris depicting the Carolingian empire.
I'm learning to cook! I am very bad at it.
That's awesome, I collect maps as well be it old or new. I make maps for a livings so it's always very inspirational when I come across an unusual or particularly well designed one. What draws you to the maps you choose?
Well usually the first criteria for me is that itās affordable for me; usually around $100, up to $150 if I think itās a particularly nice map or a good deal. Iām usually drawn towards map that are on the older side. Iām not sure if I have any kind of stylistic preference, since my collection is really small, but hopefully that changes. Make maps sounds interesting though how is that? And how did you get into it?
I completely understand the need for affordability. My favorite map is actually an old school map from the 50s that's about 6 feet by 4 feet that I picked up at a thrift store for 35 dollars. The teacher who had it marked different paths and locations and we've debated the meaning for years (though I'm pretty confident we figured it out early on). Also the equator is 2/3rd of the way down, which took an embarrassingly long time to realize, which skews the scale of the northern hemisphere even more than a traditional map.
I had a round about path to mapping but I think it started with a love history and I was originally drawn to maps because I'm from California. On many of the historic maps we are depicted as an island. I loved that. As for my career, I came to mapping in a round about way. I joined an affordable field program for archaeology at my university. I didn't know what I wanted to study but the idea of being in the field seemed fun. I ended up loving it and pursuing it for my degree. That meant I got much more time in the field, which then lead to an opportunity doing underwater archaeology (I was already diving at that point as the university had a pretty prolific scuba program), which lead me to working with sonar, which lead me to working with LiDAR, which is 3D mapping. After college I joined a non-profit that specialized in historic mapping using LiDAR and a slough of other techniques. That got me deeper into remote sensing and broader mapping techniques. For a long while I worked mapping historic places in conflict zones, think the expansion of ISIS or Al Shabab, and after a while I decided what I was doing wasn't helping the folks I wanted to. I ended up pivoting into ecological mapping and it is an even more complex/dynamic version of what I used to do.
Overall, I love it. There are so many parts of our life that are affected by mapping, there are so many ways to develop a map, and there are so many considerations when making one. Everything from what is the purpose of what I'm conveying, to what data inputs will allow me to get to the heart of that question, to what is the distillation that I need to be sharing and how will people access it. It's fun to see those questions reflected in the maps I own and I think that's a big component to what I'm attracted to when looking at new ones.
Wingspan is also one of our current family favourites - we have two expansions for it as well (European and Oceanic) and both are pretty good. I'm hoping that it awakens an enjoyment of worker placement games in my wife, but mostly I think it has awoken an interest in birds, as she has downloaded an app to identify birds from their calls.
What's your favourite Paradox game?
That's a tough one! While I have the most hours in HOI4 (I'm a big fan of the Kaiserreich mod), Stellaris is probably my favorite right now. I think that each Paradox title has something it excels at; HOI4 has arguably the best combat system, Victoria has the most in-depth economic system, and the dynastic system of Crusader Kings is a very unique experience compared to other titles. That said, Stellaris does a lot well of those things well (good combat, fairly interesting economy system, diplomatic system, etc), and I really appreciate the setting for its roleplay opportunities. It also helps that I've had the most success with Stellaris' multiplayer, as I've found EU4 and HOI4 to be rather laggy, so Stellaris is something I play with friends once or twice a month. What's yours?
I think it's probably Cities: Skylines. I never got into CK2, but I imagine it would be right up my alley. I own Stellaris and it's on my list to play, but I got fairly into Elite Dangerous, and it scratched that space-game itch for me a very well, so even though they're not really anything alike, when I started thinking of a space game to play, I'd go to ED instead of Stellaris.
Cities Skylines is just a relaxing experience for me, generally, and I've gotten a fair amount of the expansions through humble bundles, so there's a bit more to it than the base game. That said, it's still fairly simple.
Oh, and there's a special spot in my heart for Surviving Mars, which I enjoyed a fair amount.
Ah, I was just thinking about Paradox grand strategy games, but Cities: Skylines is a good game. I only have the base game and got put off by the amount of DLC, so I didn't get too into it, but I really enjoyed watching Citywokcitywall's Cities Skylines: Mars series on Youtube. Sounds like you'll be excited for Cities Skylines 2 though.
I think one of the things that I like about C:S is that the game on its own is very good, and it doesn't require any of the DLCs, so the DLCs all feel like... actual DLCs, I guess? There's certainly a meme about how now for a lot of games, you need the DLC to make the base game playable, but you don't require anything but the base game for this one. I am excited to see what they do with C:S2.
Been here a while, under a different name, but don't think I ever introduced myself. Website in bio. Will try to balance OpSec with posting info, I suppose.
Live in the US. In my 30s. Linux sysadmin as my day job. (Far-ish) leftist politically. Personal interest in music (both consuming and creating), extreme metal being a big portion of the listening part but not all (love synthwave, synthpop, indie rock/singer-songwriter stuff, etc). Also enjoy loose leaf tea, incense, hot sauce, ranting about technology, playing games. Atheist ex-vangelical (baptist/southern-baptist mostly).
What's your favourite hot sauce and why? Also, same question but tea.
Right at this moment my favorite two hot sauces are:
Favorite tea at the moment:
I love Stickermule's mule sauce. As you said, weirdly good for a sticker company to have a good hot sauce, but it is very tasty. I haven't had the Tabenero, but I also love a good habanero hot sauce. I'm about to bottle a sauce that I've been brewing for a while - jalapeno, scott bonnet, and a bit of peach - so I'm excited to try that and see if it comes together. I like hot sauces of all levels - from quite mild to exceptionally spicy - but one of the prerequisites for me is that it has to actually taste good, and so many of the really stupidly hot hot sauces miss out on that. A notable one is "Da Bomb" which is absolutely terrible - it just tastes terrible, and hurts. The whole point is to taste good!
That sounds like a good tea - I'm not an aficionado at all, but my wife loves tea and we have a huge variety as well, and I'm always looking for good options for her, so thank you for sharing!
Sure! Glad to share about my interests. It's fun. That sauce you're making sounds good. I typically don't do things with peach in them, but in a hot sauce I would probably enjoy it just for some sweetness to balance things out.
I was very surprised by Mule Sauce but it is one I keep going back to. I also agree- taste is king for hot sauces for me. If it challenges me on tolerance or spice level that can be okay if it's delicious. Though, I find long lasting "very hot" sauces to make things harder to taste, and also harder to eat at a reasonable pace- so I usually stick to either low/medium heat sauces or if hot- not long-lasting at least. The 500k SHU sauces that burn and give me 20 minutes of panic are not worth it haha... I've also recently gotten into hot honey (Mike's, Red Clay) and chili/dumpling sauces. I definitely often have cravings for some heat :)
For tea- the loose leaf world is wild. I have tea from a number of different sources. Mountain Tea, Bitterleaf, White2Tea, Yunnan Sourcing, Mei Leaf... all great and at varying prices and inventories (Yunnan Sourcing is intimidating on its own). Another one I love is Turtle Dove from White2Tea- It's a really lovely white tea with a very floral flavor. There's just soooo much tea available- enough that I've bought it way faster than I've drank it, which is why I have a collection built up (oops), I should get back to drinking it heavily again!
I actually originally got the stickermule hot sauce when I ordered stickers to go on the bottles for my homemade hot sauces, which I think is kind of a cute story as well. I haven't successfully made one with peaches before, so I'm excited for this one. I tried early on in my hot sauce making journey to put peaches in with the peppers, and that added way too much sugar to the brine and the resulting mixture was gross and I just threw it out, but I had a really good hot sauce with peach in it once and I'm trying to replicate something similar.
We have the same "problem' with teas; we have so many options, and have a whole upper cupboard in our kitchen that is almost entirely dedicated to storing teas. I guess it's a good problem to have though.
Hello, I am also not new, I am actually here since 2019 apparently. I originally came here from a post I found on hacker news while I was super bored at my previous job.
I am a gay guy from the Czech Republic.
I am a programmer, currently working in game dev. I have been making games for quite some time, and game dev is how I got to many of my hobbies. I learned to draw (I am very much not goid at this), make music (I play guitar and also have a lyre I use to make noises sometimes, also I know my way around a DAW), 3D model and probably more random stuff you need when you are making games by yourself. Currently from programming I am most interested in graphics programming which is also what I kind of do for my job.
I am a huge fan of game jams, I participated in Ludum Dare 16 times!
I am also learning Finnish for around 2 years now, but I am also not great at it. Overall I just like learning new things, and I am ok with being bad at stuff.
I am also mostly a lurker on Tildes, I check it quite often, just dont post too much :). I love this small cozy community!
What are you doing for learning to draw? I have started on "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" and it has been helpful. Are there any of your LD games you're comfortable sharing? I'm sure either ~creative or another group would definitely want to check them out.
Drawing is probably the one thing that I have been neglecting the most -- I started trying to learn about 10 years ago, and I had a few months where I was actually trying to improve, but that was quite long ago now. Nowadays I just rarely draw some small things for some of my games, but other than that I am not drawing much. I'd really like to try traditional art media more too, I made a few bad paintings before, definitely would like to do more when I will have more time.
I think I already shared some of my games on Tildes before, I made a few games for Timasomo which I definitely shared. Most of the Ludum Dare games are playable on my LD page (https://ldjam.com/users/tygrak/games), the few that aren't were on the old LD site that that is no longer active so they can be a bit hard to dig up, but they also weren't good at all so it isn't too much of a shame :D.
There actually was a Ludum Dare this weekend, which I of course participated in, if anyone would like to play a weird trippy fractaly game you can do so here https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/53/the-dark-forest-and-a-delivery-through-distant-lands-and-geometric-oddities :D
So you have - in fact, I played all three! I checked out the timeline and that was... only six months ago? It feels like eons. They were fun, and thanks for sharing them.
I'll check out the newest one this evening! Thanks for sharing that too.
Directly from my bio: aphoenix (he/him). You can find me with this username on reddit and lobste.rs as well. I am a father of three, a husband (of one), a software developer using python & typescript a lot of the time, enthusiastic about games (board games, video games, sports), overweight but fixing it, formerly really into lifting heavy things repeatedly, a beer lover that drinks infrequently, casually into playing sports especially disc golf.
Some more info: I guess I'm in the "old guard". I play a fair amount of music and our house is filled with instruments. I am relearning to love movies and television, thanks in part to some of the discussion here. I frequently put down all social media for days or weeks at a time, so sometimes I disappear for a while. I like building things with my hands, and I like them to be built fairly well. I have played an extensive game of Polkaroo with @cfabbro, since around the mid nineties (we have been to a lot of the same places, sometimes at the same time, for decades, but never met each other).
Edit: I added a couple of minor things to my bio. I love coffee, and drink it frequently. I love cooking, and am the main cook in our house of 5. I like activities that require an amount of dexterity, both of hand and body, so things like speedcubing (3x3 PB is just over 19s which isn't good), juggling (used to be able to juggle 5, but don't practice enough to do so, nor to do anything more complicated than a mills mess), that sort of thing. I am located in Canada.
š for the Canadian AF reference.
Speaking of, we had some family friends over a few nights ago and we decided to get takeaway for dinner. They thought Indian sounded good, so we ended up ordering from Rangoli. :P
Since we had guests, we didn't just get all our usual dishes like we normally do, and instead let them pick what they wanted (with some suggestions from us). And am I ever glad we did that because the Boatman's Fish Curry, which I hadn't ever had before, was insanely good! So we will definitely be getting that again in the future. They also wanted the Nali Ghost (lamb shanks), which I didn't eat (since I don't eat red meat anymore), but everyone else said was amazing too. And their samosas are still amongst the best I've ever had. So F'n good, especially with their tamarind sauce.
Next time I go (which is sadly infrequent, as it is a bit of a jaunt from here) I'll suggest those dishes. My in-laws love both fish curry and lamb, so I'm surprised we didn't get that last time we went! I wish there was a fast, good samosa place near here, because this is the third time this week someone has talked about samosas, and I am working up a craving.
Hello!
My username is meant to be aspirational, and I am first a seeker of god.
Iām also a lawyer, currently between gigs, in Raleigh, NC. I moved here from Asheville just before the pandemic, not knowing that it was a prelude to a great personal tragedy. I donāt care fore this place at all, but a lot people seem to think itās really neat, and a few people are trying to make it into something I might appreciate.
Iām a father of some awesome kids. I like to ride my bikes a lot. I like food and art. I was an attorney for a local occupy group. I am the CEO of antifa.
The three body problem is by far the best scifi I have read in a long time, which isnāt saying a lot because I donāt read much.
Iām still off reddit except for viewing a few favorites on teddit.
Iām probably the oldest person on here. My first computer was a TI 99/4A.
Had a 16 bit ensoniq sound chip with 4 voices.I donāt know where i got this information, but a trip down memory (ahem) lane proved it incorrect. In fact, it had a decent sound chip for the time. Also a beefy 16 bit cpu that was severely hampered by a kludge 8 bit bus and slow ram. Still a great little computer with a defender clone called parsec that was good times.This made me actually laugh out loud.
Hello from Williamsburg, Virginia. Pretty close considering the relatively small community and global reach. hehe
I'm sorry for your personal tragedy. I'm glad you're keeping on keeping on, though.
Itās expensive and jobs are not that plentiful. But I miss it every day and twice on Sundays. Ih the food! And weirdos!
A few weeks ago on a visit my daughter spotted a guybwearing a sandwhichboard that said āneed weed. Will sing naked for $20. Clothes on for $25.ā
Wait, what? Are you joking or is that a thing?
If I remember correctly, over some friends' house I once wrote a program in Basic on an Ti-99 to play "The Entertainer." There was no way of saving the program, though.
I grew up in Siberia. My parents were missionaries there. Now I live in Texas (moving to North Carolina soon). I do software engineering for a company that provides payroll services to people on Medicaid. I enjoy making beautiful, functional interactive websites.
I am thinking about retiring this username, but I haven't come up with a replacement for it yet. Its intent was to represent fighting for things to get better. Now there are actual people who believe God has empowered them to violently turn America into a theocracy; I find that abhorrent, and it makes me like my username less. These days I'm increasingly agnostic. I guess I don't know who I am anymore, and that makes picking a username hard.
I love interactive storytelling, especially video games and tabletop RPGs. I love the Mass Effect games--they have flaws, but they have massive scope and ambition, memorable characters, and great gameplay. I'm excited to see what AI can lend to this art form.
One of my favorite hobbies is reading books to my wife. We're both enjoying LitRPGs (stories set in game-like settings); the best one we've found is called Dungeon Crawler Carl, which has really fun characters and big Burn It All Down energy. My favorite book series are the Dresden Files and the Stormlight Archive.
The future is increasingly uncertain, but uncertainty holds the potential for good surprises as well as bad. While remaining accountable to reality, I try my best to remain hopeful and positive in the face of uncertainty and to help what I can, where I can.
How do y'all decide on a good username? What rubric do you use?
I used a nickname a classmate gave to me when he heard what my name translate to in his language. I like it because:
FWIW I did not parse your username as being remotely related to real world theocratic groups; my guess was that it was related solidly to gaming in some way. Alas, I will be no help in the "select a username" discussion, as this was chosen for me.
What's your favourite tabletop RPG? I mean either - in general, ie. is there a system you like in particular, or more specifically is there a game you have been part of that you particularly enjoyed.
Thank you! That's very reassuring.
My favorite RPG is called Lancer. 11,000 years in the future humanity has finally gotten its shit together and is working on building a galactic utopia. This is hampered by the tyrants and corprostates that want to rule their own little fiefdoms instead of letting people be free. Player characters resolve problems by fighting in giant mechs. Also there are AIs from outside of causality; some of them are friendly but all of them are deeply weird.
My favorite campaign that I've been in was set in a magical version of the Roman Empire. We have extremely detailed records of the Roman Empire, so whenever we had a question about how an area was laid out or what were the trade winds on a particular date, the DM could just look it up. Our party discovered a damaged Atlantean flying ship, put it back together, woke up the onboard AI, and made it our flagship. We just wrapped up the campaign by traveling to the Far Realm (after getting a space dragon to generate a bubble of realspace that would travel with us) and killing the eldritch abomination that had been our archnemesis for the entire campaign.
Sup nerds? I'm yet another one of the older guard dropping in to talk to the new folks. I was previously in a call center tech support environment but I'm currently in Autonomous Vehicle Testing through some random quirk of fate, and trying to work on a comic book with my brother where we would love to get around to it if either of us had the time.
I've been lurking since the beginning but getting back into posting a little more. These days I'm a combustion engineer researching biofuels. Interested in all things self hosting, automation and machine learning. Also very into ttrpgs and boardgames.
What's your favourite boardgame? We're currently into Wingspan a lot (my family tends to pick one game and play it to death), but my son has just gotten to the point that we can play games with writing components, so we've been enjoying Hot Seat which is a simple party game, but tons of fun.