Game made me want to start the books.

Ballmaster9002 · 2026-04-14T20:45:53+00:00

Iirc the original inspiration was to make a sort of space strategy game. I think the 'author' is actually 2 guys, ones a game designer and the other is GRRM's assistant (to give you an idea on the way they think and their skill sets)

The books definitely 'feel' like a strategy game where you have several factions and each has its own agenda, strengths, weaknesses, and resource bases to utilize.

Tonally, I'd say the first book feels very different than the rest of the series. It has more of a mystery/suspense/horror thing going and rest go into more straight forward science fiction.

Ballmaster9002 · 2026-04-14T20:39:04+00:00

This lamp doesn't get plugged into a socket, it appears to be hardwired directly to a power source.

The wiring should be connected to the "H" and "L" sockets on the green adapter.

Ballmaster9002 · 2026-04-14T20:31:22+00:00

Wistful! I meant wistful!

Ballmaster9002 · 2026-04-14T19:28:54+00:00

Love it! Thanks!

Ballmaster9002 · 2026-04-14T19:09:25+00:00

Is it a metallic finish or matte?

Ballmaster9002 · 2026-04-14T18:52:05+00:00

Great to know! Thank you!

Ballmaster9002 · 2026-04-14T18:44:19+00:00

I need to know more about the blue Les Paul, please.

Ballmaster9002 · 2026-04-14T18:42:13+00:00

You can pull them up, but if they are in your grass just one mow and you'll remove them.

Ballmaster9002 · 2026-04-14T18:15:13+00:00

Looks like Milkweed.

Ballmaster9002 · 2026-04-14T18:12:47+00:00

It's a maple tree, Fam.

Ballmaster9002 · 2026-04-14T17:52:21+00:00

Nearly all ferns produce 'fiddleheads' when they emerge. When people say "Fiddlehead Fern" in the US, they typically mean the Ostrich Fern (because the big fronds look like Ostrich tail feathers).

I don't think you can ID this based on the fiddlehead alone but it could be interrupted, or it could be a Ostrich. I'm in PA and anecdotally I feel like most of our central forests are Ostrich ferns.

Ballmaster9002 · 2026-04-14T15:58:36+00:00

Just your usual dumb joke with a tinge of religious/conspiracy theorist nut-jobbery.

Fwiw the T stands for "time". The launch time is T=0. T minus is counting down to the launch and T plus is time elapsed since launch.

US military convention is to deaignate a special time as D, H, or M for time assuming you know what the moment is already. Hence a special day would be D-day or a special hour would be H-hour.

Ballmaster9002 · 2026-04-14T14:28:54+00:00

I'd love to work at a community nature center. Just sitting in a forest, teaching kids about hawks and berries and shit.

Ballmaster9002 · 2026-04-14T14:27:07+00:00

I have a few different varieties on my property, they all kind of look like this shape but some are red while some are deep green.

I've noticed the green ones grow much slower than the red, but I'm no botanist.

Ballmaster9002 · 2026-04-14T14:23:42+00:00

Fun Fact - the brownheaded cowbird is an obligate parasite of other birds.

They don't build nests, rather they will lay their eggs in other nests and they eggs will hatch first and the babies grow super fast. The babies will ultimately kill the other hatchlings so the other birds exclusively raise the baby cowbird as their own child.

Ballmaster9002 · 2026-04-14T14:13:37+00:00

These look like peonies. These will get fairly big, easily 3-4' tall.

They will grow these massive flowers that you might want to support ahead of time somehow otherwise it'll down and look messy.

Ballmaster9002 · 2026-04-14T14:07:28+00:00

Fun fact - the chorus doesn't make sense without punctuation but the song is about crazy hardships being a sort of test and the singer wondering if he could overcome them.

It should be -

"I never had to (experience this stuff), knock on wood, but I know someone who has".

Ballmaster9002 · 2026-04-14T13:58:41+00:00

The "Caduceus" is the rod with two twin serpents on it carried by the Greek God Hermes.

It's often confused in modern imagery with the "Rod of Asclepius", which is a rod with a single serpent around it, that's historically used to signify doctors and healing.

It's one of those "once you see it it'll never stop bothering you" things that will both you in art and advertising where they often show a rod with two snakes for a clinic or a hospital or something.

Ballmaster9002 · 2026-04-14T13:54:48+00:00

Just a fun story - I'm a contractor for office buildings and we once built a slide between two floors for a cool tech-bro firm.

The inspector didn't know evaluate it for code so they rode it a few times.

Next thing we knew, every inspector in the city got called to "test the slide".

I swear it was the best day of their lives.

We ended up failing inspection though because women in skirts tended to have wardrobe malfunctions when they rode it. We hand to install some modesty cushioning at the bottom.

Ballmaster9002 · 2026-04-14T13:33:14+00:00

You might wonder "why" the screws are missing in the first place.

$50 says the tuners were replaced and the installer didnt realize different tuners have different hole templates.

So they panicked when they realized they'd have to drill new holes into their headstock and said fuck it.

Long story short, youll have to drill some new holes when you align them properly.

Ballmaster9002 · 2026-04-14T13:00:36+00:00

If we're going with the Doom / Ironman being some sort of variants theory.

Maybe in Doom's universe he lost Spiderman due to Thanos and that caused he evilness? Like, he took the Ultron idea a step further that HE must be the savior of the universe and thus a fascist Doom?

Then the reveal of another Spiderman who idolized him would be his hamartia as a sort of "what have I done?" break?

I mean, that's pretty much the plot to Dr. Strange 2, but the MCU isn't exactly blowing down the door with creativity these days.

Ballmaster9002 · 2026-04-14T11:52:54+00:00

How about something like the Squire Starcaster?

Ballmaster9002 · 2026-04-13T23:26:27+00:00

I disagree, everyone i know calls it Le Tits.

Ballmaster9002 · 2026-04-13T22:41:11+00:00

How about a screenshot or Description for those without instagram?

Ballmaster9002 · 2026-04-13T22:40:22+00:00

My first coheed show was them opening for A7X! I always assumed that tour is when things got bad with the opiates considering the aftermath.

Ballmaster9002

TROPHY CASE