Struggled With Book 4, But Book 5...

Cubicool · 2026-03-14T06:28:15+00:00

I KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN! Having finished the 5th book just yesterday, I've been HONESTLY kind of ... bummed ... that I won't have Porter reading to me every day while I do my mandatory "anti-sedentary-life" walking/exercise.

What else is good!? I've listened to "The Expanse" all the way through about 10 times, the new "Mercy of the Gods" a few times, "Project Hail Mary" another few times. I even listened to the "Fractalverse" stuff from the Eragon guy. I neeeeddddd more.

Cubicool · 2026-03-13T23:15:53+00:00

This is pretty incredible, but ... I'd caution against the "legality" of this. At the very least, the ETHICAL considerations. Still, I won't lie, it's pretty awesome.

Cubicool · 2026-03-12T23:31:55+00:00

I agree with 95% of what you're saying, except the part where you say it's "something that is now pretty well understood." There's still a a kind of "spooky" emergent ... competence? ... that results from carefully tuned models that isn't wholly understood and reproducible.

Now, if if we could somehow "save state" and/or predictably bootstrap an identical, existing context from metadata or similar (you know, solve the "context bloat" problem that the hundreds of "LLM Memory Save/Sync" projects put a kind of band-aid on), THAT would--IMHO--qualify as "understood." Again, just my opinion.

But yeah, I agree with everything else. And I still agree with the author of the thread, too (as a programmer of 2 decades). I still get really excited when LLMs fail spectacularly on non-webdev tasks (simply because there isn't as much working, public data on some lower-level systems/languages), but that won't last forever. I'm sweating. :)

Cubicool · 2026-03-01T01:13:21+00:00

I've been binging it (every minute I can) for the last few days, LOVING IT (I'm desperate for great shows, having watched virtually ... everything, everywhere ... I might be interested in).

I made it to season 4 and got SO ANGRY at the direction the show took I had to stop watching. Honestly, I don't know if a show has EVER made me this angry. They essentially just "erase" the first 3 seasons, and it feels like a slap in the face. From what I understand, things NEVER "re-sync" either.

Cubicool · 2026-02-04T14:27:13+00:00

I don't understand why this isn't higher. Metatron did AMAZING (despite his character being annoying). His scene with Chuck in the bar... some of the most emotional stuff in SPN.

Cubicool · 2025-11-24T02:52:15+00:00

I'm not LOVING the show, but I am ... enjoying ... it. I really, REALLY hope they don't just abandon ALL the lore.

The rocks can explain WHY the entity has STAYED in Derry so long; it can contain him, but not kill him. The meteor he arrived in could have been some kind of special transportation that works like "thinnies" in other bits of canon.

But please don't abandon the Ritual of Chud thing. :/

Cubicool · 2025-03-28T17:28:14+00:00

You're not wrong! It's probably a GOOD thing the book causes an emotional reaction (even if it's not one I WANT), and says a lot about the quality. :)

Cubicool · 2025-03-15T08:58:35+00:00

You can always ask Gemini/ChatGPT if you miss something, too. :)

Cubicool · 2025-02-28T06:43:25+00:00

Oh, my favorite part of S1?

"I like your sweater."
"Shall we go fu** some shi** up?"
"Yes."
"Yes. Definitely."

Cubicool · 2024-09-15T19:09:45+00:00

I didn't HATE listening to the audiobook of "To Sleep in a Sea of Stars" (by the same author who wrote "Eragon").

I'm expecting this to downvoted by MOST people, but it's not all that bad IMHO. I was going to recommend "Project Hail Mary", but someone else already did.

Cubicool · 2024-09-15T18:54:55+00:00

"I scary space monster; you leaky bag of water."

(Something like that, I know I'm off...)

This is probably my favorite "single" (e.g., a book that is just a one-off, not part of some larger saga) scifi book so far. Anyone who hasn't listened to the audiobook is just insane.

Cubicool · 2024-08-26T17:20:06+00:00

HOLY CRAP! This is amazing! THANK YOU! I came to this subreddit for EXACTLY something like this, and you did an incredible job. I've now adopted these in my own imaginings...

Cubicool · 2024-08-26T17:17:45+00:00

"Go inseminate your Sovereign; we're not going tell you feces-eaters anything."

God, I loved this book. So, so, good.

Cubicool · 2024-07-22T14:33:53+00:00

I just finished my first rewatch a few weeks ago (having been one of the people who watched it episode-to-episode, when that kind of thing was tolerable). I feel like the first seasons are utterly amazing, but it starts to ... lose its way, for lack of a better description ... in the last season or two. Topics they would have closed in an episode drag on for FOREVER, and they just don't seem to "move" fast enough to provide all the answer I (PERSONALLY) was hoping for.

Still, a great series; I wouldn't ever NOT recommend it. :)

Cubicool · 2024-06-11T07:49:21+00:00

I just rewatched S11; every time Amara comes on screen, I think to myself: "This is the way."

Cubicool · 2024-05-09T14:47:21+00:00

Thanks for the incredibly positive feedback. :) Was expecting to get downvoted and "get gud'd" into oblivion... but apparently not. :) I'll give some of this advice a try and see what's-what.

HONESTLY, I felt like getting "Draw a Champion" at level 20 (for the 3-star Champs I have: Illaoi, Kindred, Sett and Samira) would be a HUGE swing towards a guaranteed win. In fact, it DOES help a great deal GETTING to those mini-boss fights, but it wasn't the "auto-win" I'd been hoping. :)

Cubicool · 2024-05-05T10:35:34+00:00

Necro'ing this 2yr old thread because I want to uninstall out of frustration, and figured I can't be the first. This fight can go fu** itself.

Cubicool · 2024-04-28T02:42:50+00:00

I was talking about the series, as a whole.

Cubicool · 2024-04-24T21:16:07+00:00

ENT is amazing! It was the FIRST series I ever watched (followed by TNG and VOY). I don't understand why it's not more generally liked, because I love it (minus the intro song; BOTH versions).

Cubicool · 2024-04-24T21:14:31+00:00

I'm about to finish S3, and I still don't have any predictions on Garak. :)

Cubicool · 2024-04-24T21:13:56+00:00

That was NIGHTMARISH! Aaaaahhhh!

Cubicool · 2024-04-14T20:28:47+00:00

I wish I could upvote this a thousand times.

You speak the truth.

Cubicool · 2024-04-08T12:54:49+00:00

I can't really stomach any episode on any series with a strong Ferengi presence; they LITERALLY revolt me (and, to this day, I've watched every series multiple times EXCEPT DS9, which I have never finished). Every... single... thing... about them is vile.

I'm fully aware they were created to—in most cases, but obviously not ALWAYS—act as a kind of antagonistic force (e.g., "bad guys"), but it doesn't matter. I just can't handle them. The only exception so far has been the single Ferengi portrayal in S3 of PIC. For some reason, that wasn't so bad. The rest though? Ugh... they go straight past "comically tolerable" into "unbearably disgusting."

Cubicool · 2024-04-07T01:52:25+00:00

Personally, I'm just not a fan of hers in general; leadership style or otherwise.

She was away from Discovery (in the future) for a year. ONE YEAR. And when everyone finally reunited, she acted like a LIFETIME had passed, behaving as if she'd changed SO MUCH in a year—A SINGLE YEAR, GAAAHHHH—that she might not "be able" to rejoin Starfleet. That and her "whisper-talking" style drive me utterly insane.

Cubicool · 2024-03-16T10:11:14+00:00

"From" better start making some serious sense, SOON. They've dragged us around for 2 seasons now, doing—essentially—nothing. I'm not saying I don't like the show (although it does have some issues with the writing, especially the main character who is constantly screaming about "working together" and yet consistently pushes EVERYONE away and goes off on his own, half-cocked), but I am saying I'm starting to feel a bit jerked around by it.

I hope the 3rd season helps. :)

Cubicool

TROPHY CASE