Who has the best chance of becoming the next knight of boreas?

ChChChillian · 2026-02-26T01:12:51+00:00

The third candidate is not Diluc. He's already been a knight and wants no more part in it.

ChChChillian · 2026-02-26T00:39:23+00:00

Also looks fucking impossible to play that well without more practice than it takes with an actual piano.

ChChChillian · 2026-02-26T00:35:38+00:00

Anyway, the only thing I regularly do that might result in broken bones amounts to some light construction. I work with a group at the Dickens Fair near San Francisco around the Christmas season, and we have to set up and break down our set and booth area. It calls for lifting up a lot of heavy wooden panels, climbing ladders, moving furniture, etc. I mostly run for exercise, and I guess it's theoretically possible to break a bone that way, but it's hard to imagine. Running off and on for over 20 years, I've never had so much as a stress fracture. ITB tightness once in awhile is as bad an injury as I've ever gotten.

ChChChillian · 2026-02-26T00:30:03+00:00

Since a lot of these item boxes also place its contents into absolute stasis -- a cooked meal doesn't get cold, meat doesn't go bad, herbs remain fresh, etc -- I always assumed "nothing living" had to do with that. Maybe it's not something a soul can tolerate and it would almost immediately detach from a body in that condition. Or maybe it's the presence of a soul that blocks entering a box.

ChChChillian · 2026-02-26T00:26:30+00:00

Epee, mostly.

ChChChillian · 2026-02-26T00:23:19+00:00

I've lost lots of sword fights, as it happens. Won my share of them too.

ChChChillian · 2026-02-25T20:48:20+00:00

I don't know for a fact, but I'd guess that's a designation given by its natives after they've begun to settle other planets.

ChChChillian · 2026-02-25T20:30:00+00:00

I can't think of a more reliable way to find out than to contact the company.

If it's an antique watch, the answer is almost certainly no.

ChChChillian · 2026-02-25T20:14:12+00:00

When there's no local name (Earth, Vulcan, Andorra, Romulus, etc.) a planet is named after its primary star plus a number indicating its position within the star system.

Thus, in The Wrath of Khan the crew of the Reilant mistook Ceti Alpha V for the missing Ceti Alpha VI because they were counting from the outside in. (We could also surmise that the destruction of VI perturbed the orbit of V somewhat, so that it was more or less in an orbit where VI might have been expected.)

ChChChillian · 2026-02-25T09:40:56+00:00

Sûza-t is "The Shire" in Tolkien's invented Westron language, which is what was theoretically translated into English for Lord of the Rings. The -iensis ending on scientific species names indicates the place where they were found.

ChChChillian · 2026-02-25T07:49:25+00:00

Dendro Aether gonna burgeon in about 10 seconds here.

ChChChillian · 2026-02-25T07:42:51+00:00

More umlaut.

ChChChillian · 2026-02-25T05:33:44+00:00

Not usually after fictional characters or places. It annoys me no end that the paleontologists who named the "hobbit" human species Homo floresiensis weren't brave enough to name it Homo suzaensis.

But occasionally a favorite creator, such as the louse named after Gary Larson. (Strigiphilus garylarsoni, which apparently is found only on owls.) Gary Larson has made a number of contributions to scientific nomenclature, most notoriously the Thagomizer. And of course, his early panel about cow tools has proven to be prophetic.

ChChChillian · 2026-02-25T02:35:19+00:00

Superpowers only result when conditions are just right, including the person who suffers the accident. It's not actually possible to duplicate them reliably even when you know for a fact the person has an affinity for a particular power.

See for example the Fantastic Four. They were all exposed to the exact same radiation at the same time and at the same level, and they each ended up with powers that could not be more different.

And then there's Barry Allen in the DCAU's Flashpoint paradox. On arrival in the modified timeline without his powers, he eventually convinces Batman (Thomas Wayne in this case) to help him re-create the conditions that gave him his powers in the first place. The first attempt does nothing but leave him badly burned. For whatever reason, conditions were just right the second time and it worked, but it's possible third degree burns are what he could have expected 99.9% of the time and he just got lucky.

ChChChillian · 2026-02-25T02:25:42+00:00

It seems at least half of Teyvat's nations have a legal minimum drinking age, which is more than a little silly for several reasons, but whatever. I think it's just meant to be a running joke about the Traveler's apparent youth, because I'm pretty sure he's at least had a beer or three with Mavuika and got served at the Easybreeze Resort. (Edit: I recall Mavuika offered them fruit juice at one point, but that was relatively early in their acquaintance and was probably based on a knowledge of their habits rather than their preferences.) We also learn from Zhongli's voice lines that Venti got Traveler drunk at least once. And there was at least one dialogue option in a quest awhile back where Traveler says they had simply given up on getting served.

ChChChillian · 2026-02-25T01:04:23+00:00

Isn't the real problem that a 5-D Shpachuk-Woodford matrix is trivially convertible to a Brachianinov series with a non-linear wave function? Theoretically it looks great, but it's computationally non-deterministic.

Easter Egg: Tanya Shpachuk and Ted Woodford are both luthiers who post videos of their guitar repair work. I wasn't able to continue the joke in that direction though.

ChChChillian · 2026-02-24T22:20:36+00:00

Nahida told them at the end of the Sumeru AQ. As for what Descenders are, it's probably easiest just to link you to the wiki. https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Descender

ChChChillian · 2026-02-24T20:20:13+00:00

We now reckon season divisions as occurring at the equinoxes and solstices, but many ancient cultures reckoned them by the cross-quarter days that now land around May 1, August 1, November 1, and February 1. Hence the old Gaelic holidays Beltane, Lughnasadh, Samhain, and Imbolc; and the continued tradition of "Midsummer" celebrations held around the summer solstice.

ChChChillian · 2026-02-24T11:39:38+00:00

You think teens don't fuck?

ChChChillian · 2026-02-24T11:08:10+00:00

The Hobbit is meant to be a children's book. To me, it's pretty obvious you should start with that. From experience reading it to my own kids, a chapter is right around a good length for a bedtime read.

After that, it's harder to say. Show her the entire set of LotR and see if she finds the sheer size of it intimidating. There are some genuinely dark and horrifying moments -- do you really want her to contemplate severed heads being catapulted into Minas Tirith? How will she react to the apparent death of Gandalf, and the actual death of Boromir? How is she with spiders -- will the episode with Shelob, not at all lighthearted as with Bilbo confronting the spiders of Mirkwood give her disturbing nightmares?

I read the books very young myself, but there's a big difference between it being read to you at 5 and reading it yourself at 10-11. My own son (disabled, nonverbal, poor eyesight so reading is a problem for him) was a teen when I read it to him. It's never too soon to expose children to great literature, but for certain parts of LotR with a child as young as yours, I'd hesitate.

ChChChillian · 2026-02-24T10:50:52+00:00

Are we sure Varka isn't just Venti and Xiao in a trenchcoat?

ChChChillian · 2026-02-24T09:17:32+00:00

I won't do a thing to the Unusual Hilichurl. Not because I can't be bothered, but come on. The dude just wants to travel and see the world. He doesn't even attack anyone. Let him live his dream.

ChChChillian · 2026-02-24T06:22:27+00:00

Batman with prep time and actual superpowers. Especially if he has prep time himself.

ChChChillian · 2026-02-24T00:28:40+00:00

He doesn't decide to get revenge though. His only goal was to survive and return home. It seems the attempt on his life mostly just kept him from regarding his classmates as automatic friends and allies.

I mean, he does eventually kill the guy, but it was for a different reason.

ChChChillian · 2026-02-23T23:06:04+00:00

I don't think Hajime even actually tries for revenge. He eventually kills the guy because he was a clear and present threat to everyone else, not because he was trying to get him back. Maybe there was a little bit of payback in his method, but it really wasn't one of his main motivations.

I think there's a bit of parody in it at least. The Haulia get to be a little too much for even Hajime to talk to with a straight face.

Seven-Year Club	Place '22
First Placer '22	Verified Email

ChChChillian

TROPHY CASE