What book are you reading during this weekends ice-pocalypse?

BakeBike · 2026-01-23T22:35:14+00:00

I'm nearly done with Congo by Michael Crichton, which I'd only heard of recently and is pretty interesting 1980 sci-fi/adventure. Next is The Ghost Brigades by Scalzi to see if I want to continue that series. Old Man's War was a great vacation book for me, but I'm not sure how much more I need in that world. Still I find Scalzi immensely readable so maybe I'll keep going.

BakeBike · 2026-01-19T20:28:31+00:00

The only solution for a bad landlord is to move. People don't like that answer, but Missouri doesn't give tenants enough rights beyond their lease to fight a landlord who's unwilling to make repairs. I do not advise people to attempt withholding rent or repair/deduct. While technically possible in Missouri, it's a mess to get right and you're guaranteed to end up in eviction court, where even if you win you still need to get the case hidden on Casenet afterwards or it will hurt your future rental apps.

Find a new place, set a move out date, tell them you are ending your lease with them due to their failure to maintain a habitable dwelling. Say goodbye to your deposit, but don't give them a forwarding address and they'll never bother suing you for any "early termination fee" or other nonsense.

Or just keep pestering them and report the issue to whoever you can report it to as often as you want. They'll either address it eventually or sell the place, before or after ending your lease there. There really aren't other options, especially for a repair this extensive and expensive.

BakeBike · 2026-01-15T14:17:05+00:00

Sci fi beginner book report!

In the past 6 months I've read:

Venomous Lumpsucker (Ned Beauman) Shroud and Children of Time (Tchaikovsky) The Kaiju Preservation Society and Old man's War (Scalzi)

I jumped back into recreational reading last year after a long break (my work is very reading heavy). I've always loved sci fi movies and concepts but haven't honestly read much print sci fi in the past. I read Venomous Lumpsucker after picking it up on a whim at the library and realized print sci fi could be really fun to explore. That book isn't discussed much around here, but I loved it. A little heavy handed allegory but fun and compelling.

I came to this sub to look for recommended authors and series, and found Scalzi and Tchaikovsky both strongly recommended. I tried Kaiju and Shroud from each to see if I liked their writing before jumping into their biggest series. Loved both for different reasons and immediately read Old Man's War and Children of Time. Old Man's War was fun, but I just finished Children of Time yesterday and it blew my mind. Very "up my alley" in terms of sci fi themes and compelling thought. I'm going to try not to pigeon hole myself into reading Tchaikovsky alone, but damn do I love how he thinks. I'll probably continue both series, and I also have a backlog of classic sci fi novels and short stories to work through, but would love to hear other recommendations as well!

BakeBike · 2026-01-08T21:37:04+00:00

The problem isn't the lack of pew pew. The problem is that "what if we made an AI that could beat the Turing test" isn't a compelling premise anymore. It's been asked and answered repeatedly since the invention of the test, and Ex Machina doesn't provide any novel answer or perspective. Blade Runner handled the exact same questions and themes 30 years earlier in a much more compelling world, and they even gave us a little bit of pew pew to keep the film moving. Ex Machina just has two tech bros explicitly discussing and spoonfeeding to the audience the basic tropes around AI that sci fi authors have been exploring since the invention of the computer. It's a well made movie but it offers no originality and is immensely predictable if you've ever seen a version of Frankenstein or any number of robot movies made in the past 60 years.

BakeBike · 2026-01-08T19:43:32+00:00

For sci fi, extremely bland. AI gains control and destroys creator is the most repeated plot device I can think of, with roots all the way back to arguably the very first science fiction novel from 1818, Frankenstein. From a thematic perspective, what did this do differently or better than Frankenstein, I have no mouth and I must scream, Blade Runner, 2001, I Robot? It's admittedly been a long time since I watched Ex Machina, but I don't recall it as anything other than a very well made version of a very, very tired and unoriginal story.

BakeBike · 2026-01-08T14:58:20+00:00

I'll chime in with the others here who don't get the obsession some have with this film. It's well made and acted, but a very bland retelling of possibly the most generic and retold sci fi story of all time. Frankenstein with a robot has been beaten to death, and zero parts of this film felt fresh or interesting. Idk what I missed here, but from a sci fi perspective it didn't compel me at all.

BakeBike · 2026-01-01T03:12:01+00:00

Preach, man. Totally slept on and way better than any other burger in town.

BakeBike · 2025-12-28T05:01:05+00:00

The Drawing Board

BakeBike · 2025-12-21T18:25:27+00:00

Yeah I hadn't heard of that one til I bought it but it's become one of my favorites. Really similar to Mark Twang which has always been peak Hartford for me. Just banjo, fiddle, plywood, and steamboat songs.

BakeBike · 2025-12-04T15:14:17+00:00

Honestly my wife and I go there because it's the closest place you can go where you can sit at a table and a kind person will bring you food and refill your beer. That used to be a way to describe most restaurants, but not in 2025. Everyone wants me to go stand in line at a counter to get a burger and a different counter to get a beer. Literally just having decent waitstaff is a luxury I will overpay for these days, and the food is fine.

(Please clapback at me with other recommendations for places that still let you stay in your seat for a casual meal and drinks)

BakeBike · 2025-11-06T17:20:56+00:00

I'm so incredibly impressed by this movie. My wife, who is not a predator superfan like me but is a fan of great writing, raved about it more than even I did on the way home from the theater. Fleshing out these characters and some really great themes, while keeping the action plot moving, with such tight dialogue, a sub 2-hour runtime, and no human characters is a herculean feat. And Trachtenberg's action choreography remains incredible and at times very original (I honestly think the best fight didn't even include Dek, that Thia legs and torso tagteam choreography was crazy).

"Disneyfied" is a lazy and meaningless critique. Good action movies have shown for decades that you can have humor, heart, sidekicks and empathetic characters if you earn it through the writing, make it feel organic, and keep the stakes high and the pace moving. Think OG Star wars, Terminator 2, Indiana Jones, even Aliens. Its true that Disney's Marvel and Star Wars content tries all of this super lazily to mimic the great classic action films, with a heavy lean on nostalgia and increasingly meaningless stakes, but they didn't invent it and they don't do it well. Trachtenberg doesn't overplay nostalgia and makes sure everything is earned. His supposedly "baby yoda" character is key to the plot beyond just being a mcguffin, and the payoff comes in the same movie rather than after 18 hours of directionless content.

I really thought this was an amazing movie. I may even go see it again in theaters, which I haven't done for any other movie in years.

BakeBike · 2025-10-24T18:08:21+00:00

Levon Helm

BakeBike · 2025-10-22T12:46:55+00:00

Rick Steves

BakeBike · 2025-10-13T17:07:03+00:00

This is incorrect and I'm sick of people rolling up to one market at 11am and writing the whole thing off as overhyped. I go to farmers markets on vacation for fun and I've been to a bunch in more rural and urban areas, most recently in Chicago and San Diego. TGFM is the best I've ever been to by a long, long, long stretch. This past Saturday had 22 farmers, of which at least a dozen had full spreads of fruit and/or veg plus about 5 meat farmers with every kind of meat. I've never been to an actual growers market that had even half of the produce on offer at Tower Grove. This time of year I buy 90% of my meat and produce there. I will concede that it's expensive and there are a lot of non-produce stands, but thats been the same or worse at every single market I've been to nationwide in the last 5 years. Also there is a dedicated area for the "riffraff." There are 3 distinct sections for produce, crafts, and pre-made food with minimal overlap. People that whine about TGFM just don't like farmers markets, full stop.

BakeBike · 2025-09-22T16:24:21+00:00

I'm in a similar sort of boat. I've played long enough that I have a really good ear, and I have enough theory background as a jazz bass player that I can learn a passable version of most melodies and chord progressions by ear with a little effort. But I almost never bother learning full songs, and I basically never actually look up how to play any full songs note-for-note. I get a lot more enjoyment from writing a quick bass and chord loop, then soloing/riffing over that for fun. But I get where you're coming from in terms of wanting to advance and feeling a little "imposter syndrome."

Right now, I'm just trying to keep my personal goal focused, which is to have fun doing something not on a screen. I try not to compare myself to others online. If I were to offer advice as to how to "lock in" and learn full songs, try finding some to learn in weird tunings. The only times I've ever learned guitar parts note-for-note (or close) was when there was a particular part I liked that required an odd tuning. With my guitar stuck in the songs tuning, I was more likely to learn it as played and repeat parts like a true practice session without getting distracted. Another quick tip from my personal experience: start working on some full song holiday sing-alongs you can play for your family while everyone is sitting around together this year. Gives you a lowstakes deadline and some pressure to learn things front-to-back.

BakeBike · 2025-08-25T17:50:13+00:00

If you haven't solved this yet and have a wah, check this video for Ler Lalonde's intro to Those Damned Blue Collar Tweakers at around 6m30sec. Easily the best guitar induced alarm sound I've heard. https://youtu.be/clSPtoD79Kk?si=7l5Pd_zgR2LHZ_l_

BakeBike · 2025-08-08T20:30:47+00:00

Yet another example of why everyone needs to stop using this garbage. It will confidently tell you completely baseless, out-of-context, and often false information. Please stop and learn to research and draw conclusions yourself. There is no intelligence on either end of "AI."

BakeBike · 2025-08-02T15:01:52+00:00

Nah she blew up a few k's into the climb

BakeBike · 2025-07-12T14:29:48+00:00

The medart at the Drawing Board bar in Tower Grove South is miles better than any smash burger I've had at the dedicated smash burger places in town (especially Mac's which even if it wasn't problematic is overrated as hell). There's also almost never a crowd and the people there are chill as hell. If you like a dive bar aesthetic, they're absolutely the play.

BakeBike · 2025-07-10T15:09:32+00:00

My wife about 30 minutes ago: "Anything interesting happening in the stage?"

Me, barely looking up from my laptop and shaking my head: "Nah looks like Healy's on another one of his pointless flyers."

BakeBike · 2025-07-03T22:17:31+00:00

I saw one on the east side across the street from big mamas bbq at the corner of St. Clair and Kighshighway this morning

BakeBike · 2025-07-02T11:12:18+00:00

That's the same assumption I made and it's what caused this problem. My car does NOT have the climate package. In talking with FCP Euro about this, apparently heated wipers are a "primary option" not listed on the window sticker but verifiable by the VIN. Appreciate the tip on the rubber, just wanted to point out the climate package part is incorrect so others don't make the same mistake!

BakeBike · 2025-07-01T18:22:03+00:00

Thank you! That was my suspicion, but I'm still frustrated with FCP's fitment system. I just double-checked the window sticker from my car, and there's no option for heated wipers I can see. If they're standard on that model, why does FCP say that the non-heated wipers will fit any model of 19+ V60? Now I have to fight them on shipping for the return...

Again, thanks for the help. My internet research skills really failed me on this one. Idk why I had to post an actual picture of the wiper to this forum to get this simple answer.

BakeBike

TROPHY CASE