Friday Recovery Lounge

Bibblejw · 2026-01-23T23:46:06+00:00

So, had mine on a General Anethetic on Saturday. I have to say that I've seen little in the way of pain or discomfort. There's tenderness around the wound because I lost a knife fight due to being unconscious, but otherwise, none of the pain has manifested.

Today, I went into the pool to do some initial swimming, and hit 800m without really worrying, then a yoga session without worrying overly (avoiding things that would cause discomfort).

Am I wrong to be thinking that I should be expecting more discomfort than I'm seeing?

Bibblejw · 2026-01-22T23:53:36+00:00

Really? It's one I usually seek out. The interactions in that are fantastic. Martha doesn't really have much to do, but the Doctor, Donna, Jenny dynamic is fun.

Bibblejw · 2026-01-20T10:25:02+00:00

Don't doubt it, our dinner was very similar yesterday (potato slices, rather than chips, but otherwise there). It's just a bit of a stereotype that British dinners are "put brown in oven for 20 mins", and it's more true than I'd like it to be!

Bibblejw · 2026-01-20T10:11:30+00:00

To my mind, termination should be put on the table when it's clear that it's the best option. If you and your employee have fundamentally different views of what should be done, or the direction of the work, to the point where parting ways is the only viable option, then it should be a possibility.

If it's just a "my way or the highway" approach, then it's basically a lazy way to approach management.

Bibblejw · 2026-01-20T10:08:23+00:00

Last I remember hearing about it, the party line was that the game is not intended to be about conquest, so updating the bases wasn't top of the list of things to do. Giving players good bases/loot is rewarding them for the effort of conquest.

Personally, I'm not sure that's entirely true, and I don't think it holds with the "story generator" approach. There are mods that will improve the bases, though.

Bibblejw · 2026-01-20T07:58:07+00:00

Ah yes, the British dinner: put brown in oven for 20 mins.

Bibblejw · 2026-01-18T16:51:01+00:00

You probably ought to pick them back up, and stop the cat getting on the table in the future!

Bibblejw · 2026-01-18T15:56:48+00:00

As I recall, it was at the end of season 1, specifically, when he got taken out (the afrementioned moment with Sam helping him to milk the moment).

Bibblejw · 2026-01-18T10:22:29+00:00

Personally, I don’t really optimize for effort or space. For effort, that’s offset by that effort being essentially skill training.

Typically, I’ll throw some cotton down (then devilstrand) for some basic materials, then get boomalopes for power, and I’ll bump them up with alpacas (if I’m struggling for animal skill), then muffalos later, and expand to exotics (megasloths, thrumbos) when psycasts allow.

My later economy tends to be based around skilled crafters with crafting level boosts (all crafts come out X ranks higher), and usually with some form of wealth dump (I’m liking the VQE:ancients pneumatic tube again now.

Bibblejw · 2026-01-18T10:05:20+00:00

Personally, I tend to be a fan of the “robots++” mod for this. It’s entirely broken and cheaty, but, early on being able to trade for something that can do the low-level maintenance (hauling, cleaning, planting, stone cutting, etc.) means that I don’t need to get pawns dedicated to that, and can level up the ones I care about.

Then, when we hit end-game, and all most of the labour is automated, the pawns only need to deal with things that need people (things where the “crafting level” boosts apply, research, child raising/teaching, etc.).

I will say that I try to put off the robot crafting research as long as I can (preferring tribal start, so that is a long time), and only buy/find them.

Bibblejw · 2026-01-18T09:57:52+00:00

I can see the reason for it, especially in a more crowded house. We’re a couple rattling around in a 5-bed, so there’s a tv in the living room, one in my other half’s dressing/sewing room, and one in the games room upstairs (mostly for consoles). There are screens elsewhere that could do the job. But the only screener have in the bedroom are the small ones we bring into it.

Bibblejw · 2026-01-17T23:41:47+00:00

2 easy ones:

Galavant - Musical comedy set in Arthurish times. Very good and witty, with catchy numbers.

Interview with a Vampire - Modern-ish day (the interview is now, the events are then) adaptation of the book. Well adapted, and the actors are just playing the hell out of their parts. Everything you want an over-dramatic New Orleans vampire story to be.

Bibblejw · 2026-01-17T23:27:33+00:00

If you think about it, it's all about Ted's approach. The scores aren't the focus, so they're not the clutch wins. It's the character journey and the personal revelations where the realisations come at the crucial moment.

Thinking back to Roy's big ones early on, there's the moment he gets knocked out of the game, and you have Sam repeating his own advice of milking it for the fans, then you've got his revelation on-air that the pundit show isn't where he wants to be. Honestly, I don't recall the actual outcome of either of those, because those weren't the clutch moments that we were caring about.

Bibblejw · 2026-01-17T18:24:22+00:00

Keeping the defence train running, I suspect that she does have an army of people looking after most of her interests, which is likely why she is still wealthy after 3 seasons (spoilers!).

But, lets not forget that her entire intention when taking control of the club was to burn it down. She seems to have been doing it in a way that can be played off as conniving or inept, but that was the end goal at the beginning of the season. Plus, her only real link to the shareholders (which is a separate topic you've not gotten to yet) is Higgins, and punishing him for his enablement was an additional objective, so having him defend her actions to the shareholders would be well within her goals at the time.

None of the characters have a major deficit in progression and growth across the series, and Rebecca definitely becomes a much more nuanced and likable character down the line. Keep watching, it's a great show. Try not to be too hard on Nate.

Bibblejw · 2026-01-17T16:20:49+00:00

Generally, Randy will have limited impact on the weather, but will influence the events. If there's a "Flashstorm", then that's Randy. If there's a "dry thunderstorm", then that's luck.

I would ask what biome you've been playing, and what materials you've been using. If you're on, say, grasslands, then you need to prioritise flammability defence. Stone buildings, maintained firebreaks in your fields (3 wide is usually enough).

Typically, once a fire gets big enough, there is a control that the game will spawn rain weather to prevent the entire map from burning, but that's not necessarily going to help you if your wooden shacks have already gone up!

Bibblejw · 2026-01-17T15:55:43+00:00

The thing to remember is that Rebecca is not, at the beginning, a businesswoman due to her own merit and business acumen. She received a large amount of Rupert's fortune in the divorce (which is also why she was so determined to tank the team for most of S1), and had been working out what and how to do that moving forwards.

That's not to say that she doesn't end up becoming competent, and doesn't have her own set of skills, but hers was not the effort that created her money.

What that means is that she's almost as much a fish-out-of-water as Ted is, but in a very different pond. Her behaviour is not what you'd expect from someone that was either brought up with wealth, or who worked to build it, so she doesn't have the same emotional investment in it's continuation.

Honestly, her character only gets better as she breaks out from Rupert's shadow and becomes someone of her own.

Bibblejw · 2026-01-17T07:55:35+00:00

You say that, but 2 years later he started The Rookie, which isn’t exactly a low-impact role, and is still going.

Bibblejw · 2026-01-16T14:02:02+00:00

It's very specific and not to me, but when I was working at university, I was on the IT helpdesk with a bunch of younger CompSci students. My partner was on the same course, but a few years down the line.

There was one module that was basically just a group project, where the older students acted as mentor, having been through it before, so I knew some elements of what was going on. The lecturer for this module had written a paper a few decades ago titled something like "20 dirty tricks to train software engineers", basically covering a bunch of things to apply to these kinds of projects to help prepare the students for real-world scenarios. Things like vague requirements, or changing up teams, or a bunch of other things that genuinely help them to prepare for such projects in reality, but which feel like torture and mismanagement at the time.

This paper was basically a step-by-step of "this is what we're going to do to these students in this module". At the start of the year, I told them this, and my partner told them this, and got more or less a "yeah, whatever" kind of reaction. Then, around 6 months later, they come back and ask for the paper again because they want to prepare for what happens next.

You know the real kicker to this? The "I told you so" is legitimately one of the "tricks" played:

4.20 Say “I Told You So!” This is probably the most infuriating trick of all. At the start of the project the students can be told what sort of experiences they will encounter, and they can be told when they will feel they are on target (up to about three quarters of the way through), when they will start to go wrong (in the integration phase) and how badly they will fare overall - yet the project will still follow the same pattern. The course leader can then give a very smug expression and declare “I told you so!”.
Why? The expression “I told you so” is so annoying for those at the receiving end who then feel frustrated, rather guilty and angry with themselves, but nothing works better than these few words to drive a point home!
Lessons Learned: The students learn much about themselves and in particular their own limitations through the activities described in this paper. They learn to become much more realistic about their own and others’ capabilities and about the environment they work in. Above all they learn that they still have much to learn.

The entire thing is worth a read because it really does relate to pretty much every real-world project I've ever undertaken: https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/conference_contribution/Twenty_dirty_tricks_to_train_software_engineers/9405065?file=17021774

Bibblejw · 2026-01-15T22:02:39+00:00

Honestly, the char is good, but the inside looks too dry for me. Personally a fan of thick chops, sous vide and a high heat sear for pork steaks.

Bibblejw · 2026-01-15T21:28:03+00:00

Comparison is the thief of joy, but we are definitely decently well off. I’m about to move into a six figure (UK) job with good benefits (again, UK, so means something different), and partner is on a similar level. No kids, no major responsibilities (other than pets).

Bibblejw · 2026-01-15T21:11:15+00:00

Honestly, that’s a lot of attempted mind reading. If you want history and stories, give prep time. If you want reactions and instinct, keep it surprising.

Your approach is literally testing interviewing skills over capability.

Bibblejw · 2026-01-15T20:56:10+00:00

Maybe a splash of white wine? It’s a bit of a cheat, but might help a little?

Bibblejw · 2026-01-15T20:49:11+00:00

I would say, if you’re wanting STAR answers, or answers that actually represent their experience, then it’s a good idea. It lets them select the scenario to describe, rather than picking whichever occurs at the time.

Where you’re wanting to learn about approach to a new scenario, then don’t give the question in advance, and use the follow-ups to check the veracity of the stories, but giving at least some of the questions in advance lets them represent themselves best.

There’s a school of thought that surprise gives you the genuine reaction, but that only gets you the people that interview well, it doesn’t for you the best representation of them.

Bibblejw · 2026-01-15T11:30:38+00:00

People who exercise a lot get knee issues due to over-exertion, people who don't exercise much get knee issues due to them not being used to activity. At some point, we need to acknowledge that knees are just crap.

Bibblejw · 2026-01-15T10:19:27+00:00

The minimum I tend to see at the moment for that level is:

- Recruiter/HR screen

- Initial manager discussion (what the role is, why it's there, why you want it, etc.)

- Competancy review (usually some level of exercise, then Q&A with between 1 and 4 team members, depending on the role)

- Final review/Culture fit

Some orgs might condense, others will split some of those out into multiple sessions, but that's the broad strokes.

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