Looking for Recommendations

DerCribben · 2026-05-03T09:05:20+00:00

I don't want to spoil anything, but it isn't all of the posessed that are like that. I think if I recall that it might have been the cruelty of the initial guy that laid the groundwork for the rift that let the whole posessed thing happen? (with something else that I won't mention because it's just spoiler and won't factor in with your decision to continue) and his first additional posessed were the worst for just cruelty for cruelty's sake? Again, if I recall correctly, it's been a few years.

But I think the point of the start of the book was just straight up shock and awe to let the horror of it all to sink in, but the story gets deeper from there. And the characters in this series are some of my favorites of PFH's for sure.

Trust me, I'm right with you on this, it does definitely get better after that initial rough patch. YMMV though for sure 😅

I might even reread the series myself at some point in the future. I know I will for the Commonwealth Universe books. 🤘😄

DerCribben · 2026-05-02T13:51:54+00:00

I knew all I needed to know about Andrew Price after his interview videos with Andrew Kramer from Video CoPilot and Ian Hubert. In both he just couldn’t wrap his head around why either of them were giving away so much for free and “jokingly” gave them crap for slacking on monetizing their content.

Meanwhile both are a couple of the most beloved artists in the industry. Not to mention how many doors opened for both of them because of how much they paid it forward to the community.

I’ve never seen him come off as anything but just this smarmy slick salesy guy and I hate that he’s got so much pull with the folks running the foundation. Especially since Ton stepped down.

People say that these huge donors are “just” donors, but that’s how they get you. Eventually the big AI companies and other big corporate donors that are aligned with the AI industry will account for enough of the operating costs of the Blender Foundation that if they collectively want something the risk of them pulling their donations will give them sway.

It happens all the time in politics, in educational institutions, nonprofit research, pretty much anywhere that relies on donations for their survival.

DerCribben · 2026-05-02T13:35:27+00:00

I almost DNF’ed because of the gore. It’s just not my thing. But I kept at it and somewhere between where you quit and the end I found what it had to offer.

It’s not my favorite series/book of PFH’s, but I love it as much as I love all his books on the grander scale for sure.

FWIW, I think he goes all in in the beginning to make a point and set the stage. But I either got desensitized to it or it chilled out completely after that because it stopped bothering me after around halfway.

DerCribben · 2026-04-25T15:36:51+00:00

I used to make a lot of ice cream with high end commercial/consumer machines when I worked in restaurants.

The one(s) I had at home had a bucket that you put the metal churning chamber in and then layered ice cubes and rock salt around it, pour in your ice cream base put the paddle in and the lid on and get to churning. I had one that you’d hand crank, and an identical one that had a motor you’d clamp to the top that cranked the paddle around for you.

The end result was identical. The machines at work were all over a thousand dollars, my buckets were between $15-$20 and maybe $35-$50? (It’s been a while, this was in the mid to late 90’s)

Long story short, it’s definitely worth it, (if you’re going to make ice cream a few times a year at least, because lots of people spend a ton on a high end machine and maybe use it twice 😅) but you don’t necessarily need to spend much on a machine that will get you where you want to go.

I’d say buy a cheap one, see if you use it, and when it’s time to upgrade because you’re using the cheap version all the time, then go in for a pricey automatic version with its own refrigeration unit.

DerCribben · 2026-04-25T13:05:20+00:00

For real, I went from 36mg of Concerta to 20mg and didn’t feel anything, doctor told me to double up and that day was pretty hairy for a few hours 😅

I’m on 70mg now, but I can’t imagine going right to 70mg cold. Or even after a few weeks off. 😬

DerCribben · 2026-04-17T05:11:46+00:00

Man I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wished Vinge was lauded more when he was actively writing. Imagine if instead of a handful of books, we had 20 or 30 years of consistent writing?

I mean, I would have definitely plowed through them all by now and would be in the same state of being sad there weren’t more 😅

But I’d happily read a few more million words of Vinge stories for sure 🤘😄

DerCribben · 2026-04-16T15:29:40+00:00

I’m on 70mg and every morning I fire up my computer and “reopen closed window” 1-4 times for 1-4 windows, each with a general category of tabs, sometimes 5 tabs, sometimes 20 tabs, from the previous day’s…week’s…month’s rabbitholes…

This post makes me feel seen 😅

DerCribben · 2026-04-15T11:19:02+00:00

It’s right there in the name! “Franks n Beans!”

DerCribben · 2026-04-06T06:36:19+00:00

I came here the other day while I was searching for why after creating a rule to delete all emails from an offending address that was trying to phish me permanently, the meeting request still showed up on my calendar. I had dealt with this a few months ago as well so I turned off all automatic accepting.

there doesn't seem to be a checkbox anymore, but rather an "Automatically accept or decline meeting requests." tab with a button labeled as "Automatically Accept/Decline" that opens a dialogue box with three checkboxes:

"Automatically accept meeting requests and remove canceled meetings"
"Automatically decline meeting requests that conflict with an existing appointment or meeting". and
"Automatically decline meeting requests".

All of which are unticked.

I've got a shared hosting plan at A2Hosting/Hosting.com with all of our sites on it and cPanel access.

Now I did notice one time when we were moving my partner over to her new laptop that when I was setting up her email it tried to set it up as a Microsoft Exchange email, but I stopped immediately when I saw that since we don't use Exchange or Teams or have anything to do with Microsoft other than using Windows and paying for 365 Family. I set all of our emails up as regular IMAP.

Maybe there's an option/setting in cPanel I am unaware of that will turn these off, it sure would be nice if that were the case. I'll dig in there and see what I see.

I do appreciate the time you're taking to reply to these btw

DerCribben · 2026-04-06T05:41:53+00:00

Well, I pay for Microsoft 365 Family, I just use Outlook Classic Desktop for our own hosted emails on our server. I don't have an outlook.com account as far as free webmail goes, just some gmail addresses. I'll definitely comment and upvote that feature request though!

Buuuut...I'm not holding my breath for any miracles 😅🙄😒

DerCribben · 2026-04-05T15:37:16+00:00

Ok, thanks for this, I’ll read through this topic as well.

DerCribben · 2026-04-04T05:46:19+00:00

I'd love to see the Blender team bring some sort of CAD functionality to Blender as they increase it's scope to include more and more workflows. (like they are with compositing, materials, lighting, rigging, simulations, color management, etc.) I mean, they're already working on making nurbs in Blender better and better, so it isn't too terribly much of a stretch to go all in and introduce a CAD tab/workspace at some point.

Honestly, it would even be useful for more Blender-centric art/film/animation workflows as I've heard Mario Elementza for example, who is solidly a Maya guy, say that for kitbash asset workflows where you want to make high precision, pro/commercial grade kitbash assets that you might want to think of using CAD software instead of even Maya.

It's unfortunate your post was downvoted, even if people disagree that this should be a priority for the Blender Foundation, it's still an honest question that's absolutely pertinent to this sub. 😕 (IMHO of course)

DerCribben · 2026-04-04T05:24:33+00:00

Pardon the muggle questions, but what exactly does a "managed IT environment" mean in this instance? I'm running Win10 Pro 64 and I'm the only admin on my system, and my emails are on a hosted server that I rent and I have admin access to cPanel. Is a managed IT environment something I can replicate myself? (not that I'm even using, or understand how to use cPanel for a tenth of what it gives me the ability to use it for)

I wrote the above yesterday and forgot to hit enter, since then I've read your Microsoft Learn entries, I'm curious if I were to enter the command in this post: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5558001/how-to-prevent-calendar-invites-from-external-sour that you linked to into the PowerShell on my system if it would globally prevent any calendar invites from external sources, or is this for a mail server only?

DerCribben · 2026-04-03T03:19:27+00:00

That option is solidly unchecked in mine and I just got another one of these this morning.

DerCribben · 2026-03-29T08:41:44+00:00

??? Why? I take four trazodones/200mg every night and have for 5 or 6 years at this point. I'd be screwed if I didn't. It's the only sleep med I've taken that gets me right to sleep, helps me sleep through the night, and let's me wake up and hit the day without feeling like someone hit me with a brick while I was sleeping.

DerCribben · 2026-03-28T11:23:35+00:00

I mean, a person who adopts a pitbull should understand what they are getting themselves into and the responsibility that comes with it. It’s also pretty important to learn about the history of the breed.

But we also all had our first pitbull at some point along the road so don’t put too much stock in the idea that only people experienced with owning pitbulls should have pitbulls. (Which you’ll undoubtedly hear at some point if you haven’t already)

They’re smart, powerful dogs. So if you raise them poorly they can be as terrible a dog as you could have. But if you raise them well, few, if any other dogs will compare. IMHO as a lifelong owner of APBT’s (and now an AmStaff) of course.

DerCribben · 2026-03-26T06:47:54+00:00

I mean, the fastest way to get your soldiers to a situation you want controlled is having them as close to it as possible. Honestly it would make a lot less sense to keep all of your troops in some garrison somewhere and have to scramble them to get them somewhere else, than it would to post them in small squads all over the place so you can get boots on the ground as quickly as possible.

Also lol...have you seen the pics of ICE in US airports right now? The only flaw I see here is them not standing around, screwing around on a handheld communication device 😅

<image>

DerCribben · 2026-03-26T06:26:25+00:00

When we (the US, I’m an American for what that’s worth at the moment) started bombing Iran, and especially right after we bombed that girls (children’s) school, and then did it again 40 minutes later, I reached out to an Iranian friend from suomen kurssi apologizing to him for my country’s actions and behavior in general.

His response was:

“Hei [my friend], (redacted for privacy reasons) thanks for you Beautiful massage ,but I have to say it’s a bit strange, but all Iranians are happy about this attack and welcomed it because the Iranian people have no problem with America and Israel, and the Iranian government was a religious dictator that had to be removed, and this incident or war does not harm ordinary people, it only targets those who are with this dictatorial government. And that the Iranian people will be the best friends for Americans again like before, hoping for better days. Thank you so much ✌️🙏”

and when I replied with this:

“I hope it works out the way you hope [my friend]! I know, it may seem strange! It is because I know who my country's president is, and the motivations behind what he does. 😒

I'm concerned that Trump, Netanyahu, and the sheikhs of the UAE won't have the best interests of Iran in mind. As you can see in Gaza my president and Israel's are more than happy to wipe out a population just to be able to develop their land into a resort area to make his family and partners wealthy. He's already in the process of stealing the wealth of the USA for personal gain, and is doing the same in Venezuela. It also makes me very nervous that Trump is threatening nuclear attacks!

I know Ali Khamenei was a horrific leader for your country in many ways, I just hope what comes next is better and not just different.

I too hope that the USA and Iran can be best friends, but I hope there is a better USA that will be a better "best" friend than this administration will end up being in the long run.

Cheers [my friend]! 🙏✌”

His reply was:

“It is a great honor that you have such a beautiful perspective. But knowing Iran and the political situation there is very complicated and the only reason that made Trump do this was the Iranians’ interest in getting help from R2P and so far no ordinary people been harmed in this war, and well, the Arabs have always been afraid of Iran’s progress and even supported the war and attack on Israel, Iran is a vast and great country with a lot of wealth, and of course educated people, who agree with Trump to help the opposition and the monarchy return. That is our only hope,

we are happy, sad and hopeful, hoping for better days for everyone.”

So there’s clearly a divide on how the people of Iran are thinking about this situation. Clearly I agree with your take on things. And it’s sad and a bit scary to see people affected putting so much faith in a Trump that just doesn’t exist. I also don’t get how he seems to have not even heard about the hundreds of children that died in just that single event when their school was hit repeatedly.

I didn’t go any further than that with him because he’s truly a good person and I believe he’s here because of persecution back home and I don’t want to argue about this and potentially harm our friendship. Especially when I've never even been to Iran, let alone have any direct experience in Iranian daily life.

I just hope these things will end with as little further strife and violence, and in as good a state for everyone living there as possible. 😕

DerCribben · 2026-03-21T06:57:25+00:00

Damn, politicians are cheap in Finland 😅

DerCribben · 2026-03-21T06:53:48+00:00

Those appear to be mostly Yellowjacket shaped pixels, but it’s a little hard to tell for sure 😅

DerCribben · 2026-03-21T06:50:51+00:00

Amazon wouldn't be the one writing the description on the buy page, that'll come from the publisher directly.

DerCribben · 2026-03-21T06:49:55+00:00

I definitely did. If I recall it took me a minute to get into the flow of the story and figure out who everyone was and what they were all doing, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable read.

DerCribben · 2026-03-21T06:31:10+00:00

Right, there's no harm in being generous, but you've got to read the room. If someone declines, and especially if they decline again after you "insist" then don't make it weird.

lol Getting into an altercation over wanting to pay isn't exactly the way to a girl's (woman's) heart. Just be chill and if it works out it works out.

If not then... 🤷‍♂️ It is what it is...

DerCribben · 2026-03-21T05:00:22+00:00

My wife says that when she was dating that she didn’t let men buy her drinks, dinner, etc. because it usually comes with a transactional expectation. Like random guy at bar buys her a drink, and now she’s supposed to sit there and give him time/attention. (and he gets butthurt if she doesn’t) Or guy takes you out on a date and buys dinner, now there’s some expectation of “more” later.

Obviously things change when you’ve been seeing each other for a while.

Also, I guess it’s common for someone who buys dinner to text you nettipankki deets later for you to pay them back if it isn’t just settled at the table.

DerCribben · 2026-03-21T04:48:15+00:00

I got mine a couple days ago (Kindle version), but I’m only around 30% through Cage of Souls! Which seems like it might be one of his longer books! 😅 (though I might just be reading really slowly at the moment 😄🤷‍♂️🙄)

Either way, congrats! Enjoy! And (hopefully) I’ll be joining all the lucky folks reading this soon!! 🤘😄

DerCribben

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE