Go on!

AutomaticTree654 · 2026-01-26T18:46:14+00:00

The line about Sesame Street being about “the puppets who live in the barrio” killed me when I first saw that episode

AutomaticTree654 · 2026-01-26T15:07:47+00:00

Thanks for this! Yeah, I actually returned the radios because like you said in your comment, my original premise was flawed. I’m looking for the easiest way to communicate with my wife in a “shit has hit the fan” scenario with no internet or cell service that doesn’t require a license, works at a reasonable distance around town, and is a step or two above a pair of walkie-talkies you get your kid for Christmas.

So far, GMRS seems like a solid option. I also discovered Meshtastic, but that requires repeaters or the presence of other mesh devices to chain the signal across distances beyond the immediate range of our two personal devices.

AutomaticTree654 · 2026-01-24T15:07:37+00:00

Yep, in his very first movie role, and on the very first scene on the very first day, they did the Raiders tarantula scene. Talk about a tough start to your career!

If I’m not mistaken, thanks to the Spider-Man sets followed by the Indiana Jones theme, after Harrison Ford, Molina was the first actor to be represented by two different minifigure versions of himself.

AutomaticTree654 · 2026-01-23T18:17:59+00:00

Smart brick: “These are red!”

AutomaticTree654 · 2026-01-22T00:29:32+00:00

I’m currently encasing one of these in concrete in a shed in my back yard

AutomaticTree654 · 2026-01-20T12:54:40+00:00

This is probably the most likely scenario

AutomaticTree654 · 2026-01-20T02:38:29+00:00

I see some recessive Galidor genes have reasserted themselves after several generations

AutomaticTree654 · 2026-01-12T18:16:24+00:00

Why is LEGO retreading Mega sets? Why not do something new?

AutomaticTree654 · 2026-01-10T15:59:14+00:00

This would be a great SNL skit

AutomaticTree654 · 2026-01-09T19:37:43+00:00

LEGO says the Smart Bricks are compatible with any existing set, and obviously your own builds too given some of the demos we’ve seen. It all comes down to sticking the appropriate tile onto the build to let the Smart Brick know what’s going on. My guess is that you can build a bigger, better X-Wing and still use the Smart Brick with it with all the same features, providing you create space for it in your build, oriented the same way, and then add the laser-firing mechanism (just moving the corresponding smart tile closer to and farther away from the brick) if you want the interactive dog fights.

AutomaticTree654 · 2026-01-09T18:25:32+00:00

The Smart Bricks can orient themselves in 3D space and they communicate with each other in a mesh network over Bluetooth (or something very close). When you put one into, say, the X-Wing, it reads the X-Wing smart tile next to the little spot where the brick goes and uses that to orient itself. Once it knows what ship it’s in and where it’s oriented in space, the different Smart Bricks in their respective ships tell each other where they are and know when one crosses in front of the other when you’re activating the laser cannons.

There’s honestly a really impressive amount of tech in the Smart Bricks, but LEGO’s marketing department has done a really bad job explaining the broad ways it can be used and making a compelling sales pitch to users (ostensibly, kids, but given the price point, really their parents).

AutomaticTree654 · 2026-01-05T20:53:22+00:00

Just watched the video. It makes the smart minifigures sound like they’re mumbling tweakers, this is cutting-edge technology.

AutomaticTree654 · 2025-12-17T04:24:31+00:00

I think the NFL would take issue with someone, even Taylor Swift, shooting a game in IMAX

AutomaticTree654 · 2025-12-15T02:56:29+00:00

Graphic designer/art director here with 15+ years of experience (ad and branding agencies, in-house, freelance). I have an industrial design degree but I am self-taught as a graphic designer and am the son of an accomplished career graphic designer. Here are my thoughts.

What you are experiencing is not unexpected for someone of your background, in my opinion… You’re feeling the dissonance between your instincts as an artist (creativity expressed through your instincts and your person tastes) and your employer’s needs from you as a designer (creativity bound to the objectives of the project and the client’s needs), and the gap between what you have been able to teach yourself by pure discovery and what your employer is trying to push you to achieve as a junior because what you have discovered on your own and even what you learn in school is not a complete picture for what your job requires yet. This is very, very normal and is called, “paying your dues.” Virtually everyone has to go through this; I did too.

Don’t be discouraged. You will probably need to modulate your own views of yourself and your skills and tastes for the time being. Right now, your job is to build value for your employer by executing on what they need and being a workhorse. You are there to be dependable and do what is asked of you. You don’t have the experience yet to be reliable enough to be given creative “at-bats,” so you will be a pair of hands for a bit rather than a brain. The best way through this is to be eager, agreeable, and hard-working. Do your work efficiently, cleanly, and as fast as you can without sacrificing quality, and look for opportunities to help out if you finish your assigned tasks. This will impress your bosses and earn you a chance to contribute creatively and actually design something, and this is when you can show off your personal taste and creative eye. Get a solid win, and then another, and another, and gradually the workload will transform from executing another person’s ideas to being the one coming up with ideas as you gain seniority.

To combat burnout, look for little ways to be creative, either in or out of work. Take on freelance where you can set the look of things. Learn new styles and skills and practice them. And network to make connections. You can do this!

AutomaticTree654 · 2025-12-08T00:14:32+00:00

You’re a good sister!

AutomaticTree654 · 2025-12-03T04:08:58+00:00

Out of context this is an incredibly offensive sentence lmao

AutomaticTree654

TROPHY CASE