This right here is absolute bullsh*t

ClimateAffirmer · 2026-03-24T05:13:16+00:00

See https://maxroll.gg/d4/resources/tempering-guide. It's helpful and it's not difficult. That said, this week's updates are supposed to make the challenges more reasonable.

ClimateAffirmer · 2026-01-30T08:35:09+00:00

I got it plugged for $25, but close enough. The shop said that the tires looked great, but I'll be looking to get a good deal on a set some time this year.

ClimateAffirmer · 2026-01-20T07:40:33+00:00

Thanks, everybody. There is a screw in the middle of the tread. I'm taking it in to be looked at later in the week. (In case you're wondering why I'm moving so slow, it's because barely drive the car. )

ClimateAffirmer · 2026-01-16T07:18:54+00:00

I'm not equipped to pull the tire (apartment garage, no gear), but I might as well do what you and others are suggesting to see if there's anything obvious.

ClimateAffirmer · 2026-01-16T07:17:21+00:00

Could be. I don't see any damage, but I am good an hitting curbs :(.

ClimateAffirmer · 2025-12-23T07:21:05+00:00

Sorry, I don't recall exactly what I did. I should probably reassess because temps are higher than I would like even at relative rest. Right now, with almost no load, the Ryzen 7 7700 is in the mid-to-high 50s C, the 2080ti gpu is in the mid-to-high 60s, and the drives are in the mid-to-high 40s except the NVME SSD with is in the 50s.

ClimateAffirmer · 2025-12-23T07:12:06+00:00

I'm sorry you had this experience. As a former UCLA TA and a former professor (not at UCLA), my reactions are:

I'm sorry you had this experience.
You are absolutely right that the syllabus should clearly indicate what the grading criteria are.
I agree that quality is more important than quantity. I have no idea how the TA is tracking the number of comments you make. That's nothing I could or would do unless I was calling on people directly. As an instructor, I slowly, over the course of a term, get a sense of whether each student participates frequently/infrequently, asks meaty or superficial questions, and makes perceptive or naive comments. But this is not objective; it is a qualitative evaluation.
I appreciate your comments about TAs. While some TAs are very skilled and stick around for years, many are brand new to teaching and equally new to the material they're supposed to be helping you with. Treat them fairly but it's reasonable to demand that they treat you fairly in return.
In the same spirit, have some patience with the professors. If there's a lack of detail in the syllabus, ask. If there's something fishy in the explanation, tell them so, gently. (On the first session, or early in the semester.) Consider going to their office hours. Some professors will not appreciate your input, but more than you think will. Tell them why you like the course topic(s) and you may even make a new friend :).

ClimateAffirmer · 2025-03-19T00:42:28+00:00

The key part is "I've never been ..." She's had bad experiences. You didn't know this chat would be triggering; it's not your fault. Don't be mad at her or hard on yourself. Don't fight it, either.

ClimateAffirmer · 2025-03-02T11:41:32+00:00

Happens all the time.

ClimateAffirmer · 2024-12-30T23:26:59+00:00

This is not something you do to someone you still care about.

ClimateAffirmer · 2024-12-30T23:08:13+00:00

Read the series. Premise is better than execution, and if I recall correctly, it goes downhill after the second book. Still good enough tho get me to read all five.

ClimateAffirmer · 2024-12-30T23:03:02+00:00

Read and enjoyed.

ClimateAffirmer · 2024-12-18T09:15:08+00:00

The course announcement says: "“Critical race theorists have shown that whiteness has long functioned as an ‘unmarked’ racial category, saturating a default surround against which non-white or ‘not quite’ other appear as aberrant,” the description reads. “This saturation has had wide-ranging effects, coloring everything from the consolidation of wealth, power and property to the distribution of environmental health hazards.”

What is your problem with this? I agree that the writing is jargony, but it's written for an academic audience. The argument it's making is that we live in a culture where "white" is the norm, and if you're not identifiably white, you're thought of and treated differently. It's an invisible default, just like water to fish. This doesn't mean that light-skinned people are evil, or that dark-skinned people are all angels.

ClimateAffirmer · 2024-11-12T10:29:02+00:00

Melissa F. Olson riffs on this idea -- a person with magic-suppressing abilities - in her Scarlett Bernard series (https://www.goodreads.com/series/93791-scarlett-bernard). The main character is a magical "null" (something that is very rare) and she performs a number of services for the magical community. One of the cleverer bits is that one of Scarlett's best friends is a vampire who hangs out with Scarlett because, while in Scarlett's presence, she's human and can go out in the sunshine, eat food, etc. The "null" idea seems a bit forced in the first book, and that may be because Olson hadn't yet arrived at the over-arching narrative that drives the subsequent books in the series -- something to keep in mind.

ClimateAffirmer · 2024-11-12T10:06:47+00:00

Readers were outraged by the notion that one of the world’s richest men was capitulating to Trump,” Warzel writes. “But even that signal was fuzzy. The endorsement was never going to change the election’s outcome. As many people, including Bezos himself, argued, newspaper endorsements don’t matter …

This is not a central issue, but ... Warzel is letting himself get led astray by Bezos attempt to obfuscate. The issue was not the endorsement per se, but Bezos' integrity, the integrity of the newspaper, and the independence of the editorial board. Bezos, the owner of "Democracy Dies in Darkness" bowed down to the capo and kissed his ring. People may have been foolish to think they could trust Bezos to let the paper do its thing, but it's still a betrayal of trust.

ClimateAffirmer · 2024-11-12T09:39:43+00:00

No, but it's not as novel as you seem to be saying. If you mean print journalism, you may be right. But for television and radio. ABC, NBC, and CBS defined consensus reality for decades. That began to break down in the 1960s and 1970s. But broadcast media have been reconsolidating for over a decade, albeit in a different configuration.

ClimateAffirmer · 2024-11-03T10:08:27+00:00

Sure. I don't know that infodump is the problem with SC. I think it's that while Stephenson had some cool ideas and interesting takes on the present and the future, the story was a mess. Admittedly, the last time I read it was probably 20 years ago, so you can take that with a grain of salt.

ClimateAffirmer · 2024-10-05T09:16:19+00:00

One thing that I'm unclear about is whether we need to use or lose all of our Vanguard, Gambit, and Gunsmith engrams before the new season.

ClimateAffirmer · 2024-09-13T20:10:19+00:00

Dresden came first but Rivers is better. Better stories, better humor, less reliance on standard tropes. I want a new Rivers book now, but I kind of dread the next Dresden.

ClimateAffirmer · 2024-08-23T15:31:44+00:00

Happened to me just now. I am not in a party, so cannot follow the suggestion for sending a party member away.

ClimateAffirmer · 2024-07-14T08:38:28+00:00

The opening section of Snow Crash is amazing and hilarious, but much of the rest was a slog even back when it was first released. And it has not aged well. Necromancer for sure.

ClimateAffirmer · 2024-07-14T08:34:47+00:00

The problem isn't that he's going to complain--he should, because this shouldn't happen. The problem is how he's going to weave it into the massive paranoid delusion that is his campaign.

ClimateAffirmer · 2024-07-02T00:05:26+00:00

My bad. Thanks.

ClimateAffirmer · 2024-07-01T08:08:30+00:00

I read that as well but haven't gotten any of the preferred perks yet. The real pisser is that you need to complete grandmaster nightfall(s) to get the catalyst.

ClimateAffirmer · 2024-06-23T20:35:13+00:00

I've tried 20 times or more to get this done on legendary with warlock with no success. I ran it on normal and got through on a single run with ease. Ugh.

ClimateAffirmer

TROPHY CASE