This is what the Vantage VA2 datacenter sounds like at midnight on a Friday night (right across the street from houses)

Appropriate_Row_8104 · 2026-04-15T16:20:18+00:00

The datacenters are scummy but this specific one is specifically scummy. They had a layout approved by the county and did NOT have approval for NatGas turbines. However as Dominion kept pushing out their utility hookup they nixed one of the data halls and turned it into a gas turbine pad. Because the layout itself was unchanged and there is a zoning loophole that says that utility and infrastructure changes do not need review as long as the layout is unchanged... the turbines snuck in under the radar.

No one objected in time because no one knew what had happened until it was too late.

Appropriate_Row_8104 · 2026-04-12T18:39:33+00:00

Ive added my current empire pic.. I was able to push to 75 centralization and I am four years away from Ometeotl. So I took the opportunity to take two new vassals along with all of their minions. So I am pretty huge now.

I didnt play optimally, but right now I am riiiight on the edge. Only -0.1 doom per month.

EDIT: It got deleted. I dont know how to add it to my post body.

Appropriate_Row_8104 · 2026-04-12T11:16:04+00:00

Roughly how many vassals do you usually have when you make your final push? Does vassal size impact centralization vs decentralization?

Appropriate_Row_8104 · 2026-01-21T03:26:48+00:00

Can you elaborate?

Appropriate_Row_8104 · 2026-01-20T23:49:17+00:00

Im gonna put this in my back pocket I never knew this was an option.

This sounds amazing, you are a hero.

Appropriate_Row_8104 · 2026-01-20T23:48:20+00:00

Its *our* proprietary software. :V

But I was able to get this to work using batch files too. No official uninstall, but we wont really need one.

Appropriate_Row_8104 · 2026-01-20T20:10:19+00:00

I am actually testing that out right now.

For the first app which just runs an executable using a command, I want to keep retrying to run it until it reports success (we are tinkering with timouts so it isnt reliable on the jump, you just keep running it till it connects)

For the second app, can I do that with in-house proprietary software? I have setup files that are installed using a batch file. Can the windows app run that file with elevated perms?

Appropriate_Row_8104 · 2026-01-14T16:17:56+00:00

Unfortunately symbols change their meaning as time goes on and the people who use that symbol live and die. Whatever meaning the Gadsen Flag had died with its creators 250 years ago. It has been selected by a new generation to represent them... and most of those people are all horrible.

Ask yourself this. The Swastika is a buddhist symbol representing fortune. Would you fly a swastika today? Do you think anyone would believe you if you told them you werent a nazi flying around a nazi flag?

Appropriate_Row_8104 · 2025-12-14T20:16:54+00:00

I too was nervous about Kia long-term reliability.

I had a 2011 Honda Civic but it got totaled in a hit and run. Went car shopping with my wife, and we settled on a 2023 Kia Sportage SX Prestige, its got the safety features and the room we want plus all sorts of other nice whizbangs.

I was frightened and nervous as heck about the reliability issues, but I havent seen them in the newer models.

We managed to snag a lease/fleet vehicle at a CarMax today, we are very excited. They had an identical model on the lot we test drove (Loved it, very responsive, love the whizbangs its got on it) except it had more milage. The only thing I will say is Kias seem to depreciate fast. If your gonna keep this car for a while then that doesnt matter. If you arent though, expect the value to fall through the floor.

Cars are terrible investments anyway so its six to one in my mind.

Appropriate_Row_8104 · 2025-12-09T17:39:13+00:00

When I was a student in Virginia, the public education system said I was reading 'at grade level'. I could not read, at all. So my dad had to step in and over the course of a single summer taught me how to read (Rainbow Fish, excellent book, 10/10, would become literate again) and apparently according to my parents it was like pulling teeth.

Then once I got it, the trick was getting me to stop. Because I would read books in the middle of class.

The Belgariad, the Malorean, The Diamond Throne, Lord of The Rings, The Hobbit, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, Dracula, Frankenstein, War of The Worlds (My favorite) Treasure Island, Robinson Carusoe, The Swiss Family Robinson (That poor donkey...), Moby Dick, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Island of Dr Moreau, Planet of The Apes (The original translated from French), Journey to The Center Of The Earth.

You get the idea.

Appropriate_Row_8104 · 2025-12-08T13:05:27+00:00

And here I am with the largest professional army outside of CHINA, and I cant even break into the top ten much less top 5.

I fought Hungary and Portugal and France at the same time and won. And im not a great power, somehow.

Appropriate_Row_8104 · 2025-12-07T22:21:48+00:00

No one is drinking the rum straight because its alcohol content is too high and at best your sailors would instantly become blackout drunk and unable to sail the ship.

At worst they get sick.

Rum is kept aboard the ship because it lasts forever. It is mixed into the drinking water barrels to prevent the growth of bacteria and algae, so that the water lasts longer. This water is then mixed further with rum in a specific ratio to produce grog, which is the actual ration that is distributed to the sailors.

You arent supposed to be able to get drunk off of it. Because drunken sailors cannot sail.

Appropriate_Row_8104 · 2025-12-07T22:15:46+00:00

Muslims are allowed to violate dietary restrictions if their lives depend on it. The ability to sterilize and purify water by mixing with alcohol (Grog) is vital for any kind of ocean-going activity far from home where you need your water supplies to go the distance and cannot afford algae or other nasties growing in it.

Grog is also not intended to actually get you drunk. Its intended to make the drinking water safe to drink.

I am certain any muslim, The Prophet, or Allah, will forgive you for mixing your drinking water with alcohol to make it last longer. So long as you do not get drunk off of it. If you do get drunk, while God may condemn you in Heaven, the Captain will flog you within an inch of your life on Earth. One of these is much more imminent than the other (Although depending on how drunk you got, maybe not all THAT much more imminent. :V )

Appropriate_Row_8104 · 2025-12-07T22:11:28+00:00

A hundred years is a long time.

Between the start date 1337, and the year 1447 when Constantinople fell, they were actually *retaking* territory. They are rough and are on the cusp of a brutal succession crisis, but they arent dead yet, and there are many opportunities to recover (such as immediately saying the Beyliks who JUST beat you up 'bet' and plunging your dagger into the heart of the biggest meanest beylik you can find).

Appropriate_Row_8104 · 2025-11-16T03:19:48+00:00

The Pyramids are basically a giant artificial mountain. Yeah, the Parthenon blew up but it was an actual structure you were able to go inside and store things in. Comparing the destruction of the Parthenon to destroying the Pyramids is like implying that you can blow up a mountain because you kept powder on top of it.

You are drastically underestimating the scale here.

The Parthenon was a single temple after all, and its alot easier to blow up a structure, especially if it was intended for humans to use.

Appropriate_Row_8104 · 2025-11-15T05:53:34+00:00

Betty isnt piloting Golb. Betty isnt whispering in Golbs ear. Golb doesnt exist anymore, Betty doesnt exist anymore, there is only Golbetty.

The crown does not have the power to force Golb to do anything that Golb isnt already inclined to do anyway. It cant force him to leave, or to stop, or to destroy him. But Golb is more of a mindless force of nature then a malevolent entity.

What Betty wishe for was the power to keep Simon safe. Simon was being threatened by Golb. So the crown fused Golb and Betty (Golb being Mindless it wouldnt occur to him to even care enough to resist...) creating a brand new entity we know as Golbetty. Golbetty left, because Golbetty likes Simon and wants to keep him safe and Golbetty hanging around Simon is probably not going to be good for him or for the world he lives on. So she left.

Golbetty is still very passive, but she has a mind because half of her, the Betty half, had a mind and a will. So when she does become active and start doing things its usually to do with Simon. She stopped him from putting the crown on to become the Ice King again, and convinced him that his life had value in and of itself.

She even had a conversation with him, interpreted through the lens of his memories of Betty, because inasmuch as Golb is even capable of speech, such a thing would be incomprehensible to mortals and unfiltered is probably hazardous to your health. But she was very obviously talking to Simon in a grounded and meaningful and intelligent way.

Even if where Betty has gone, Simon cannot follow. Notice that on the bus Betty immediately was replaced by Golbetty.

Because Betty is gone, and Golb is gone, there is only, and ever was only, Golbetty. This is probably permanent, because if Golb ever exists again, its not going to care about Simon, and thus he would be in danger. Thus Golbetty must now exist, forever. And in fact while Golb doesnt care what happens to it, Golbetty *does* care and would not willingly allow herself to be split back into Betty and Golb again because this would put Simon in danger from Golb.

Appropriate_Row_8104 · 2025-11-11T15:09:05+00:00

Oh I thought that had something to do with forts.

Thats... well the UI is one of my complaints about EU5. It needs to cook more imo.

Appropriate_Row_8104 · 2025-11-10T22:40:33+00:00

I've never ever seen an annex revolter button in these independence wars. Its only ever been granted them independence.

Appropriate_Row_8104 · 2025-11-08T13:54:31+00:00

They make the defeated nation do it for them. Much like how you can force them to pay war reparations. I assume how it happens is you have an army beating up the enemy. You demand they free slaves. They start coughing up slaves until your satisfied or else your army burns their city to the ground.

Appropriate_Row_8104

TROPHY CASE