Oh! That is very good. Sounds like a nice balance of “ability to remove yourself” and “ability for others to find their comments” too.

It’s frustrating for me as well. I’d sometimes like to go back and look at a conversation I had once before - so I don’t have to manually unearth whatever point or evidence I had in that post - only to find I’m actually unable to.

What really frustrates me is that if a post is removed or - it seems like - the parent of comment of a conversational thread, I become unable to view any discussion in that post’s comments or conversational thread. I get that people might want to remove their own posts, and that’s just fine - but one person removing my ability to view anything else in the comments doesn’t seem great.

Combination of:

• People whose only exposure is clips from Portal and think he’s just a goof who rants about combustible lemons, not a deeply disturbed person who subjected people to horrific experimentation.
• People who can’t distinguish between other fans saying “I like this person as an interesting, well-portrayed, flawed character” and “I like this person directly as an individual”.

And matte paintings. Never forget the legendary artists who turned paintings into scenery, or the camera workers who managed to blend in the actors to them.

• That first legendary pan-down to Tattooine, which the Tantive IV and Star Destroyer then fly past? Matte painting.
• The sterile hangars and seemingly-bottomless pits of the Death Star? Matte painting.
• The busy Rebel hangar on Yavin IV? Also a matte painting. I seem to remember reading that some of the hangar floor markings - besides making it look like an actual hangar - served to help align the matte with the set shots and coordinate extras so they wouldn’t accidentally walk out of the filmed segment and behind a matte portion.

Generative AI was vaguely funny when it created trippy, acid hallucination images and incoherent druggy ramblings of text. I know an author who fed their own content into an early LLM (small language model?) and the bizarre, yet undeniably “his” stuff it produced was worth a laugh. I wouldn’t say I “liked” it, but it was kind of amusingly quirky.

What was depressing is how quickly people began to claim AI content was “theirs”. As someone who ran a fiction-creating community, people were so eager to latch on to what AI would spit out that they began to create convoluted things for the early models to “depict”.

Whatever it is, I’m inclined to like the versions where FTL is a teensy bit dangerous. Not necessarily 40k’s “FTL is actual hell and frequently fails in terrible ways”, but more… it’s risky. It’s a mundane risk, maybe. But still, there’s that little bit of risk in the background and it needs to be approached carefully…

Like, Babylon 5’s hyperspace is an actual place you make trips into, but it’s also highly nonlinear, and so it is entirely possible to get lost or stuck if your ship malfunctions. Also, there are living things in there which may not be friendly.

Even Star Wars’ Hyperdrives can be dangerous. It doesn’t get played up in the stories much, but a malfunctioning or improperly programmed hyperdrive can strand you in deep space, subject you to severe time dilation, or just splat you against a realspace object.

Admittedly the “don’t know what’s on the other side” bit is a little iffy. Sure, they’ve got that little wheeled robot they use a couple of times, but after a while you’d think they’d do something as simple as “stick a camera on a pole through the gate first.”

The setup is just perfect too. “All hands - brace for turbulence.”

And you’re thinking, No. No way he’s going to do that.

AND THEN HE DOES.

Oh, I’m aware of them. Sorry, I should have been more clear!

What I was more speaking about is running historic equipment over long distances on main-line tracks. It’s startlingly rare in the US; most of the railroads (even shorter ones) don’t like historic equipment on them, so with a very few exceptions historic trains are limited to short excursions along tracks owned by the museums.

In fairness, we are now seeing a huge surge in steam locomotive restorations in the US. But I think there is only a single museum in which can even run main-line electric equipment at all.

Very neat, thank you! I wish we had more like that in the US.

What is the heritage railroad environment like in Sweden? Are these being run by the actual railroad owners, or by private groups over the railroads’ tracks?

Depends on the kind of home and how “handy” you feel yourself to be. There are a lot of minor things around the home which can save you boatloads of money (and be faster to deal with) if you do them yourself.

Tools:

• A multi-bit ratcheting screwdriver. It’s my #1 go-to for assorted small fixes. Wirecutter recently recommended the Megapro 211R2C36RD, for what that’s worth.
• Multi-tool. Another good “it’s not the best at anything, but I use it for everything”.
• Adjustable wrench and/or pliers. Good for tightening nuts, holding things tight, bending, and other small tasks.
• Sponge mop. One of the ones with a little handle to help squeeze it out. Great for cleaning floors without killing your back.
• Speaking of which, a good-quality hard plastic bucket. Look for something in the 10-15 liter range. Dirty water, clean water, road salt, supplies, anything which is easy to carry.
• If you are comfortable with power tools, a good quality cordless drill can be a huge help as well.
• If you’re comfortable doing your own minor electrical repairs, one of those little outlet checker tools. Saves a ton of time.
• Good quality measuring tools, like a measuring tape and/or bubble level. These needn’t kill the budget, but are handy to have.

Comfort:

• I am a firm believer in ceiling fans as a great room cooler. Put one up and be amazed as the room feels comfortable at a range of temperatures.
• Similarly, a small room air circulator or pedestal fan can really help, especially if you’re doing some heavy work.
• If you don’t have good chairs for the table, I’m a personal fan of Ikea’s Bergmund.

Convenience:

• “Lazy susan” cabinet organizers. Game-changer for kitchen cabinets.
• Mr Clean abrasive cleaning pads. You can scrape off a lot of grime with these.

Lastly, for furniture and other things, unless you’re in a really small area, check various community marketplace kinds of sites. You can find a lot of critical stuff for less than MSRP, and non-critical stuff at a point that won’t break your budget.

A lot. Some of them were genuinely great. Some were way less so.

• To Kill a Mockingbird: Earns every bit of reputation it has. Should be shown twice.

• Teacher’s Pet: They showed this as a reward. I despised it. Seriously, it sticks in my head

• The outsiders: “Okay, I guess.” I remember feeling it was a decent bit of storytelling, but I was too detached from the themes and era to care. Honestly, it was probably too old for kids to identify with.

• When the Levees Broke: In retrospect, one of Lee’s weaker works. Nonetheless, it made a hell of an impact on us. We’d mostly seen helicopter’s-eye views of New Orleans. Getting down in with the people was a whole different view.

• Tuesdays with Morrie: Apparently it’s popular, but we all hated it. Felt it was sentimental slop.

• Brighton Beach Memoirs: Honestly don’t remember much. We mostly cared that, at the end, they actually showed the nude photo the lead character received. As kids, that was mind-blowing.

This is a little surprising to me because I read it on a daily basis and haven’t seen sign of the paywall yet. I don’t know if Ublock Origin is simply squashing that as well, or I’m somehow lucky.

All good ideas. It sounds like you’re definitely a fan of the “action scene” starter.

I’ve definitely heard of this one before! It feels like something that’s situational to the character/player involved. Or maybe the campaign too. If your campaign is something dealing with the gods/afterlife/eldritch beings/etc that could resurrect someone, it’s probably a good choice!

That’s fair; obviously a session 0 is critically important. I was actually thinking once the campaign itself is started, so to speak!

See, this answer I like because you actually differentiate by the style of campaign. I’ll definitely take this advice under consideration!

That’s definitely a new one; I’d not heard of that strategy before. It’s certainly interesting if you have players who are into actually playing their characters. Did you find the group got bored with being bumped back to Level 1 after being effectively action-movie stars for the opening?

Since you’ve said the use is gaming: It’ll depend on what your price point is. Here are my thoughts:

Start with a price point. Whatever it is. Make that, or a range around that, your limit. It’s very easy to succumb to “It’s only 50 more dollars” and suddenly find yourself 20% or more higher than you expected.

CPUs: Like others said, AMD is the generally recommended CPU brand these days. X3D chips are often highly recommended for gaming, but honestly of the AM5 series are good depending on your price point. 7700X, 9700X, 7800X3D, 9800X3D are all good.

Motherboards: Motherboards: Everyone has a horror story about motherboard [brand]. Recommend checking out reviews for a specific model. One thing your want to pay attention to is the number of VRMs it has, especially if you’re thinking of overclocking.

• ASUS: Fantastic boards, legendarily bad customer service.
• MSI, Gigabyte: Okay. Neither the best features per dollar, but individual boards are okay.
• ASRock: Well-priced, basic features, robust - but a bug that bricks X3D CPUs has tarnished their image.

RAM: 32GBs is the norm for higher-end gaming these days. 64 will keep you going for a long while. Do note that AMD AM5 CPUs work best with 2 sticks, even if the board has 4 sockets. RAM with a “6000 Mhz CL30” configuration is generally considered the “sweet spot”.

PSU: There’s a “tier list” of power supplies out there. Get something A or B tiered, with some overhead over your expected wattage consumption.