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efaardvark

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Everything posted by efaardvark

  1. WoW was also good for machinima. I loved "Spiff's" music videos of some of Jonathan Coulton's stuff like Re: Your brains or I Feel Fantastic or especially Code Monkey.
  2. Not mine either. All of those kind of "battle-royale" or arena types leave me cold. Give me a good builder any day.
  3. It is snowing at Goldstone (California desert)!

    image001.thumb.jpg.cc4a65c3d7d0b85931ece705d243ede7.jpg

     

    1. Show previous comments  3 more
    2. efaardvark

      efaardvark

      The thing about deserts is that there is no water.  There is no water in the air to make clouds or fog so the sun hits the ground full-force and heats everything up.  If there were water on the ground, either in the ground or in standing bodies or even in plants, then it could evaporate and cool things off a little, but there isn't.

      One other thing that water vapor in the air does is trap heat at the ground.  Since deserts have no water, at night all that heat collected during the day gets lost back to space.  It is not at all unusual for the temperature in a desert to go from below freezing before dawn to over 100F by noon.

      Snow in the desert is pretty unusual though.  In my area the deserts are deserts because mountains along the coast block all the moisture from the ocean from getting inland to the deserts.  Lately however  we've had strong winds pushing very cold, wet air over the mountains into the deserts.  We've been getting lots of rain on our side of the mountains as well, but conditions on the desert side this time turned it into snow instead.  Definitely unusual.

    3. Illusion of Terra

      Illusion of Terra

      Crazy stuff. So is it possible for new kinds of plants to start expanding there (e.g. through plants or seeds spread through the winds)? Would be interesting if in a few decades the desert turns into something else.

    4. efaardvark

      efaardvark

      Probably not likely.  Anything that blows in would have to deal with the desert conditions & coming from wetter areas they'd likely die.  Unless this is more of a permanent weather change of course.

      There are plants that are already there and adapted to the desert however.  Usually they lay low most of the time, waiting for the infrequent rains.  When the water does come, there's an explosion of activity as they do their thing while they have access to the water.  Some desert plants have seeds that can last for hundreds of years, then sprout, grow, flower, go to seed, and die in the course of a couple days or a week, and desert blooms are often quite impressive, though hard to catch.

  4. I am too. I've got a stack of old-fashioned composition books that I keep most of my brain in. Though strangely enough I've never kept lists of stuff like my anime or books in them. I started back in my college days - my physics prof. required us to keep a notebook for class- and labwork - and I've kept up the practice ever since. I've been trying to put more stuff online, but it is hard to beat old-fashioned paper.
  5. I do know quite a bit of spoken Japanese already. I'm not conversational - mostly because I have nobody to practice on - but when watching anime for example I always go for the subs version and even then I often barely even look at the text. Sometimes I even turn the subs off entirely. I can read kana text middling-well already too. I'm just looking for a fun way to tackle the kanji and get a little more practice on reading kana. I've tried the flash-card thing for kanji and while that works somewhat.... booooring! Looking for something a bit more entertaining.
  6. Ok, so here's a question... For a while now I've thought about getting into manga as a way to learn to read Japanese. I can handle most spoken Japanese in anime - "anime Japanese" is easy(er) anyway - and I can do a decent enough job sight-reading kana. With a little practice I could probably read it pretty well. (I'm very good at reading English material btw.. I can read a whole novel between bedtime and breakfast and have absolutely no trouble keeping up with subtitles in anime.) My only real problem reading Japanese seems to be the kanji. I've tried reading regular Japanese text, like in a novel or newspaper. It is not pretty. Every kanji character becomes a speedbump or pothole and getting through a page of that is exhausting. OTOH, a lot of Japanese-language manga is aimed at younger, school-aged people and often either avoids kanji altogether or uses "hint mode". (aka furigana.) I'm thinking that might be a fun way to practice reading Japanese for someone at my level. I did once impulse-buy a copy of Toradora that had furigana but the text was a little too small for my eyes so that experiment turned into something of an exercise in frustration. It almost worked though. I just need to find an engaging story that has easier-to-read text. And/or uses only kana, though I think I'd actually prefer it if it had kanji+furigana, since that way I can get used to seeing/reading the kanji as well. As long as the rubi text isn't too small I should be ok. Anyway, if any of you manga-readers are reading the Japanese versions and knows of such please feel free to make suggestions. Unfortunately that's not the kind of information that is typically available in online stores, and the nearest good brick-and-mortar store with anything like a decent selection of Japanese-language manga & graphic novels is far enough away that I don't go there much. ISBN #s would be super appreciated if you have them so people/I can order it online and still make sure to get the right version.
  7. Lately every time I look in discord it says my brother is playing The Sims. That or the kids took over "his" computer again.
  8. The weather here is like this... Brrr! The snow level is down to 1,500ft too and they're calling for rain this evening. I'm at 1,400 so we'll probably get snow or hail later, though if we do it probably won't stay.
  9. I previewed a couple episodes of Pupa & I'd have to agree. To weird for me.
  10. Got a contract to put up a space station in KSP! This one cost about double what the contract paid once you take into account the launch, but it is overbuilt so that I can use it for other things, including future contracts and science research. The contract only called for 5 kerbals, an antenna, a docking port, and some solar panels. This one has berths for 12, including 2 on a science research module. It also has vacuum-optimized engines so it is somewhat mobile, 6 attachment points (the circles around the middle just "below" the solar panels) for future expansion, and one of the service bays is only half-filled, so I can add more scientific instruments for the research module once I unlock some more of the tech tree. There's also *6* high-gain antennas for long-distance communications. If I wanted to I can take this thing all the way to Duna (Mars) once I get some more fuel capacity and some refining gear attached. Probably also some sort of auxiliary craft would be good so that I have something that can transport things like Kerbals and ore to & from the surface. This thing has pretty efficient engines, but the TWR is so low it will never be able to land on its own. Hopefully I can find some more contracts to help pay for all that!
  11. Definitely easier said than done. Even if you're physically able, schedules leave no time. Part of my problem is I'm not a big fan of the 30 minutes at the gym thing. Sooo boring! I do love to walk/hike however. (I even did the Deuk -> Mt. Lukens loop hike a few years ago, which is supposed to be one of the harder ones in the area.) I'd like to keep it up for as long as possible, but finding time is a challenge.
  12. Hmm... the girl sounds like maybe Makoto Noro from trickster... [mal type=character id=142098]
  13. That's another thing I "need" to get back to. My brother got a new gf and between that and some overtime he's been too busy to play on our server. Not "busy" either. (Well maybe a bit. ) She's got kids who are a good age for MC and he keeps telling me he wants to get us all together & introduce them to our game. Just haven't had time.
  14. Getting in some more KSP time today. Between work and end-of-season anime bingeing I have been neglecting my Kerbals. Driving along in my rover, minding my own business.. All of a sudden my rover's batteries started draining. Checked my solar panels. "blocked by the Mun"? Hmmm, now that you mention it the sun does look kind of funny. It's a Münar eclipse!
  15. So back in October a tree fell on my old car, a 2007-vintage Prius hybrid, necessitating the purchase of a new car.  I liked the old one a lot, but I always wished it'd had the option of charging the battery to function more like an electric vehicle.  I'm not sold on EV's due to the so-called range anxiety, and EVs are still pretty expensive anyway, so I didn't want a full EV just yet.  (I'm not actually worried about the range so much as the recharging times.  I'm always thinking of those people on the east cost when hurricane Sandy hit and everyone was told to evacuate at least 500 miles inland to avoid flooding and high winds.  People with gas cars could manage it, but even the best EVs can only go a few hundred miles before needing several hours to fully recharge.  Doh!)

    So anyway my new car is a also a hybrid, but this one is pluggable, with an electric range range that is plenty to cover the commute before the gas engine kicks in and it starts behaving more like my old car.  If I plug it in overnight at least every other day I pretty much never need gas, and I've been pretty good about plugging it in.  I'm approaching the 1,000-mile mark on the odometer and just recently dropped below the halfway point on the tank of gas I got from the dealership when I bought the car.

    Yep.. driving daily since October and I haven't had to visit a gas station even once!  :D  

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  16. I did like Hyouka, but I would be reluctant to see a second season. They didn't really leave any loose ends so any second season would have to be a new storyline, and I'm still working off issues from FLCL2 so... no, not looking for a second season. I might go for *an* episode that does a better ending though, or maybe even a movie. Maybe. I'd have to be convinced.
  17. Actually, if you read The Silmarillion, LOTR is a kind of "end of the world, part II". Sauron is actually a lieutenant of Melkor/Bauglir/Morgoth, the REAL bad-ass. But that's ok. The Silmarillion is the creation myth to the whole Middle Earth mileau. It is supposed to be a larger than life backstory. But yeah, a "done" story, forcibly reopened just to make a few more quick bucks, is annoying as heck. That's just disrespecting the fans. I've even got a policy of not even starting a movie/game/anime if I know it goes on for more than a couple iterations in part to avoid that sort of thing. If they're going to do that then get the crew that did so well on the original material and make a new story, game. or whatever. Or a spin-off or something with different characters and story if you want to reuse the scenery. I'd go for it... done it in fact. Seeing a "from the authors of .." is the one of the few types of marketing that actually works fairly well on me. (Assuming I liked the previous work of course.) I also have issues with series that are left in cliffhanger state just because some suit didn't think it'd make enough money to bother wrapping things up. Again, that's just dissin' your base. If you're going to start something, finish it! Looking at you, SyFy! I don't mind though if something is broken up into smaller pieces. LOTR is a huge story. I saw it all (Hobbit + LOTR) in one physical book once upon a time and it was awesome as heck, but so unwieldy as to be practically unreadable. Stuff with that much background behind it has to be kept close to the original storyline or risk alienating the fans. OTOH, putting it ALL in a single movie is also a bit much to ask people to sit through, even the fans. I didn't/don't mind the The Hobbit as a "prequel" either. It actually is a separate story, you don't really need it to understand LOTR, and it lowers the financial risk for the studio to do it that way. I'm fine with that sort of thing, even if it means paying to see 4 separate movies. (Actually, since I'm a fan of the story and they/Jackson did a good job, in hindsight I'd have been fine if they'd split up the movies even more. The extended edition of The Two Towers alone is almost 4 hours long!) I'm not going to pay to see a half-hour movie in 5-minute increments so don't go too far in that direction, but give me value and I don't mind paying for the content. At all. Now if they'd done a half-assed job, or released Fellowship and then stopped just because it didn't make "enough".... then there would have been blood. The whole Middle Earth universe is kind of a special case anyway though. Obviously there's already a huge, existing, multidemographic fan base to sell to, and Tolkien did so much background work to flesh things out for his own purposes that the only real risk is in production. Besides the LOTR/Hobbit there's enough material in The Silmarillion alone to reasonably produce at least half a dozen more spinoffs with little financial risk and without messing the main story up. As long as they stick to Tolkien's material - or at least don't conflict with it - the fans will be fine with it, and money will be made.
  18. I'm big on water too. I always have a bottle with me, and with meals I always order ice water instead of a soda or something. In the mornings I usually have a cup of coffee, and in the afternoons a cup or two of tea. That's really all I drink. Occasionally I'll have something carbonated like soda or beer with certain foods like pizza.
  19. Valentine's day viewing choices...

    493909158_ScreenShot2019-02-14at4_05_52PM.png.2f6747ce569aef8503244eaa0cebc4e2.png

    [mal type=anime id=14289]

    or maybe

    1742115407_ScreenShot2019-02-14at4_05_42PM.png.c323238d7b33f6c2572c76a559bd22ef.png

    [mal type=anime id=2476]

    Decisions, decisions.....

     

    JK... I went with 好きっていいなよ  :D 

  20. Yes, SW & EA is another "good" example of greed and bad franchise management. I'm so over the whole SW (and ST for that matter) franchises anyway at this point, and I've been officially boycotting EA titles for years already as well. The two together was DOA before it was even released, at least as far as I'm concerned.
  21. Disney is better than most at monetizing, I'll give you that. That's all it is though, IMHO. They realize that driving off the fans kills the goose that lays the golden eggs. They're all "pop" stuff though. Nothing really controversial or serious in a social sense, at least not intentionally. EVERYTHING that comes out of Disney passes through several layers of corporate lawyer, public relations, and profitability committees before getting green-lighted. You can barely hear the writers' intent through all the filters, if indeed you can hear it at all. They are also not good corporate citizens. They sue teachers for using Disney material in class. They take old, public-domain stuff and slap their own copyrights on it. That'd be ok if it were just their own content and "for limited Times" per the Constitution, but then they go and threaten to sue everyone who publishes the original material as well. They have been big promoters of perpetual copyrights. They're fine with using the public apparatus to protect their artificial monopolies (and not incidentally their profit streams) forever. When it comes to paying for that protection by giving back however, not so much.
  22. Be careful, that's what we said over here about the DMCA legislation too. Next thing we know we don't even own our tractors anymore.
  23. This is a general problem with the entertainment industry. Whether it be game, movie, tv show, books, or whatever, if a title is even slightly successful it gets reused. Old movies that worked get reboots. New movies get a sequel. TV shows get another season. Books get a second volume. Games get a new version, or maybe just DLC. Then if the sequel is successful they do it again. And again. And again. They do it until the story suffers and the original authors/actors/programmers are sick of it. But even then if it sells they do it again. And again. And again. And they keep doing it until the story is utterly destroyed and even the die-hard fans are so sick of the franchise they stop paying. Then, and only then, does the industrial promotion apparatus move on to the Next Big Thing. Lather, rinse, repeat.
  24. I view the current era as a transition period. If there's any sanity left in the world, eventually we'll all just have a "data" service to go along with our other utilities like electricity or water. "TV" and "phone" are just particular types of data anyway. I have already given up on "phones". I talk to my brother in Wisconsin long distance using discord. I don't watch "TV" anymore either. Everything is streamed or downloaded. Just give me a fat pipe to the 'Net and be done with it. That's for sure. For example, I was just reading about your (the EU's) proposed new copyright directive, aka Article 13. What kind of leadership even allows that sort of thing to be proposed?? Where's the push-back for public good against the corporate greed? Have ALL the politicians been bought?
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