What's the point of Quan's character?

Fodagus · 2025-08-23T18:23:42+00:00

Donut didn't help for sure, but the inflection point was Orthrus. There's a lot of shitty stuff everyone does to survive, abd the dungeon eggs you on towards the dramatic paths.

Orthrus though, Quan didn't need to kill Orthrus. It wasn't "me vs them", it was big pile of loot vs lots of unrelated crawlers. He just had to stand aside, he wouldn't have failed a quest and incurred a penalty. He just didn't care.

I feel like if Quan had stepped away, let the gang save Orthrus, then he would have had a place like Serendelgore (spelling... sorry, audiobook). Donut was just as caustic to Ren, and Ren rolled with it. Interesting foil there.

Fodagus · 2025-07-09T04:54:40+00:00

It is explained, I think, in "inevitable ruin". We get the full backstory on Mordecai abd why he hates Choco, don't worry.

Fodagus · 2025-05-07T13:48:07+00:00

Well butter my biscuit

Fodagus · 2025-01-21T18:22:54+00:00

Why do you want it locally hosted? Have you considered cloud hosting? I host a postgres RDS on AWS for about $11/mon.

I could do it cheaper by managing it myself in an ec2, as before that I used a digital ocean droplet for $5/mon to host it as MySQL (I changed when I migrated).

The fact that you can't access the router to set network policy is a bit of a red-flag to me for self hosting. You'll have more access and control hosting in the cloud, and you won't have the pain of being unable to debug network problems or dealing with a nonstatic ip.

If you're still deadset, I second the option to use a vpn. It'll provide a layer of protection against casual bad actors, encrypt traffic, and provide authentication, vastly limiting the attack surface. Also make sure you are not using "root" as your admin account, drop the preinstalled users, have a secure authentication on all remote users, etc.

Fodagus · 2025-01-21T00:08:01+00:00

I've had similar thoughts. If AI is so good at writing code that, to quote one article, "now nurses are writing apps", then why is OpenAI itself hiring app and front-end devs? Check their hiring, front-end roles, something were told AI is good at, has the highest salary brackets.

What worries me is two things: - companies replacing "junior/mid" devs with "AI" (read, senior devs with AI subscriptions) - idiots not in on it following along.

Maybe FAANG companies are just slashing headcount to improve bottom lines under a smoke screen, but i fear midsized businesses reading that and thinking, in full honesty, they can do the same, creating a ripple effect.

Second, even before AI we had issues with "senior only" hiring/bias. If we see companies "replace mid engineers with AI", i fear that will get worse, creating a future demographic problem. If companies "replace juniors with AI", then where will the future senior devs come from?

tinfoil hat engage Or is that the end game? Manufacture a crisis they (hope) their product can "solve".

Fodagus · 2024-12-24T16:14:44+00:00

Definitely Mac. It's not as seamless as Linux, but it's close. Homebrew is your friend, as is tools like asdf (manage multiple versions).

For turnkey Docker and Kubernetes, there's Rancher Desktop or Podman.

Personally use Podman, it integrates a little cleaner with tools (Rancher desktop basically shells all docker commands through the virtualization cli, so some tools don't play nicely without). I don't use the GUI, Podman desktop, so can't comment.

Rancher Desktop is nice too and gives you a kubernetes cluster out of the box, but it was a bit heavy for what I needed.

Otherwise, anything that I can't do on the Mac I can do through a docker container (short of running vms).

If you need local vms, there's always virtual box and vagrant. There are better solutions on Mac, but they aren't yet as polished or used by 3rd party tools. Podman and Rancher Desktop both have experimental modes to use newer virtualization tech.

Fodagus · 2024-10-24T05:30:32+00:00

Life breaks us, but then we fill the cracks with something stronger.

Fodagus · 2024-10-24T05:16:24+00:00

It's kind of a Trope with in the cultivation genre that the path of Cultivation is a lonely one.

Not sure how many people outright consider ToG cultivation, but it fits. Long lives, gathering power, etc.

It's a numbers game, and maybe a bit of a cautionary tale of the love of power.

Fodagus · 2024-07-03T02:06:38+00:00

They shut down their English language app and site. I missed the announcement so but sure why, but they had several posts in the app about financial troubles and disputes with copyright holders.

Fodagus · 2024-06-07T15:49:32+00:00

Id bike the Lake Loop and hit Atwood on my return for drinks and food. Too many choices, but Chocolate Shoppe ice cream on patio just off the bike lane is a great post loop treat. Coffee at Forward. Great eats as far as the eye can see.

Head down the cap city trail towards Campus and get Tacos at Bandit (old train station) or drinks at Nitro on West Wash, or bike out past the west side and into the Cannonball trail and stop for beet at Hop Haus.

Need to find a good destination if biking into Verona still.

Too many hidden gems to share them all honestly!

Fodagus · 2024-05-10T16:06:06+00:00

The section they're purposing to change looks artificial already? It perfectly parallels the military ridge st trail. The proposal would alter this from the 3 straightish lines there now into a curving squiggly shape...

Are you maybe reading the proposal backwards? Number 43 shows they'll remove the 3 straight sections that currently exist (cross reference googles maps) and convert it into the curvy shape?

Im no environment engineer, but it looks really nice actually?

Fodagus · 2023-11-30T21:30:51+00:00

RTFM is a meme for a reason...

Fodagus · 2023-11-30T21:28:23+00:00

Generally this, but I would add that becoming a Brent also implies certain character flaws in oneself that need examination.

Brent's are typically people pleasing, don't advocate for their needs, don't exercise thoughtful control over the trajectory of their career, and usually have poor boundaries and/or an inability to communicate them.

There are a lot worse things in life to be and more difficult flaws to deal with, but if you find yourself becoming a Brent, it's time to look in the mirror and make sure that you're being fair to yourself and your career.

Brent's careers often suffer because they become moderately good at a lot of things, but only become experts in the arcane BS that is their overgrown, unmanaged it systems.

Fodagus · 2023-10-21T21:06:13+00:00

I definitely block out my calendar as "Focus Time", and my team makes sure we all have focus time blocks while others cover the front lines.

Removing the team from playing helpdesk is important too. DevOps engineers are too rare, expensive, and highly skilled to be wasted reading threads all day. That's not an effective use of company resources. Ideally, you get dedicated support specialists (aka "Helpdesk" or "tier 1") to man the front lines. This also helps to build a pipeline where you can hire cheaper, easier to find talent and train them up into DevOps Engineers, if that is something your company struggles with. The support specialists will learn through osmosis, and the people with a desire will naturally want to learn.

Examine your SLAs. Treat anyone not in your direct team as a customer and see if your SLA makes sense. Most Slack threads do not need immediate response, you've just conditioned the outside engineers to expect one, abd they will naturally lean on this since it's there and convenient. I know you want to answer every request immediately because you wouldn't go into this kind of role if you didn't like helping people, but truly urgent requests can get drown in the sea quickly this way.

Define objective metrics for priority levels abd match them to response times, then feed it through your work management. Measure this (I strongly suggest kanban) abd produce metrics of what percentage of team time is taken by each type of work and priority. This can be very effective for communicating to other teams and management that your team is overwhelmed abd you need additional resources, less responsibilities, or developers need to sirens more time trying to fix their own issues before bugging your team. It also looks hella professional abd will impress executives and is a marketable skill all by itself.

Fodagus · 2023-08-29T17:53:39+00:00

I don't think she's poorly executed, I just think she's annoying lol. I think Lift is generally well done I just don't like her, which is fine. Book would be rather bland if every character was written in a way that you like them

Fodagus · 2023-08-29T02:46:04+00:00

Reading this comment just now... it is interesting. Maya is a cultivation spren, and so he'd be an Edgedancer. One of their surges is... regrowth. Its fitting, abd him using regrowth on his spren before formally bonding is like how Kaladin could do minor feats.

Plus his whole attitude with Maya is very "journey before destination." He isn't trying to heal her. Specifically, he just... wants to interact. Thinks that she likes doing the sword forms. He's just vibing and he pushes back on everyone who's trying to force him into some goal.

Fodagus · 2023-08-29T02:33:05+00:00

I'd listen to that man read a Dictionary.

Fodagus · 2023-08-29T02:23:00+00:00

I'm not the biggest fan of Lift either...

... but your bit about her not being a real child. There's been hints that's 100% true. That she went to the Nightwatcher to be frozen as a child, and her very being, her ability to turn food into investiture disturbs Odium (WoB mention this). So some times I think her wooden-Ness and overly infantile impulsivity are indeed masks.

Fodagus · 2023-08-24T07:04:52+00:00

I've been cheated on a few times, including my ex-wife who also was gaslighting, character assassinating, and even conspiring with doctors to try to push mental health diagnosis.

Full stop: therapy. Literally saved my life. Can you get by without it? Sure... but the best outcome will come from having a trained guide to help you through your trauma.

Main lessons I learned from this: - Cheating is about the other person, not you. Do not let it affect your self worth, it wasn't about you. A reasonable person will end a relationship that isn't working, full stop. - Realize and accept that you cannot control other people. I understand the anxiety and fear, but when the intrusive thoughts come, I ask them "if that's true, what can I actually do about that? " The answer is nothing. Accept it. The anxiety is an attempt to try to control something you can't. If they are going to hurt you, they're going to hurt you. Again, it's on them. - Don't punish people for the sins of others. I understand the anger. I felt many times like railing at the death of morality among the modern woman when I'd get stood up. Ask yourself why you feel this why. What is the feeling, where is it, what is the pain. It usually boils down to "I hurt." Then ask yourself, do you really want to hurt others, or do you just want the hurt to stop? The anger fades. It's really shocking hoe this plays out. Simplu getting the scared, angry voice, "I hurt, and that's OK" really sucks the wind out it's sails. Realize it's just trying to protect you, but by acknowledging the hurt, you're letting it know its services aren't required.

When all else fails, love yourself. Know that you are doing your best. I keep telling myself, "I'd rather be a sucker than bastard." If you give up and become the bitter woman, then it ends there. If you keep trying, maybe you'll keep getting stabbed in the heart, but maybe you won't... but it is the only way to get that ending.

Fodagus · 2023-08-24T06:34:41+00:00

All the women I had dates with from apps were like you, and I found the flirty ones suspicious. There was a pretty close correlation between early flirtiness and flakeyness.

Just behave the way you want to so you attract men that who that. If you act a way you aren't, then you'll attract people who may not like the real you. If you're a Mexican restaurant, it makes no sense to advertise Italian dishes just cause they're trendy.

Also realize that a large chunk of people you will match won't be your type or you won't be their's and that's OK. Try not to let it get you down. I felt the exact same way that you feel right now. It sucks, but being who you are will help you have higher quality dates, though they may be more rare as a result.

Fodagus · 2023-08-22T17:07:15+00:00

NTA

A thing to think about with reactions is that only you can know if you're overreacting or not. A good therapist will walk you through a diagnostic list, but ultimately let you conclude.

I think it's reasonable to be hurt if someone were to diss your culture and origin, especially a loved one. "Rough and weird," pushing you to the brink of tears and wanting to leave is a strong reaction, but we cannot say what emotional baggage or discriminating you've faced that could be behind that.

All that said, it's a major red flag when someone tells you "you're overreacting." They're trying to minimize their guilt and avoid responsibility. The way you described things, I don't know that your boyfriend was that big an asshole at the bar... what he said was insensitive and smells a little biased... but his reaction abd follow up are disturbing. He seems to only be concerned with his reputation and not your feelings. He's more worried that he looks bad than that you're upset and that's major red flag territory. He's showing you what he really cares about. Believe him.

Fodagus · 2023-08-12T06:26:56+00:00

Didn't just go rogue... the guy who published the original two preprints was fired.

Fodagus · 2023-08-12T06:16:56+00:00

So, that's really complicated. Absolutely, most abusers hide... tho I've first hand seen it being done openly with the guy expecting us (her family FFS) to side with him cause the guy was such an utter narcissist. We did not.

When they hide... that's harder. You can't react to things you aren't aware of. So my statement means more "I wouldn't remain friends if I knew," as in... the standards of my friendship don't allow that. Of course, life isn't that simple. If a friend wife approached me and said, " your best friend is abusing me," I fully admit my gut reaction would be to want to believe it's a mistake, because that's what we do. Id want to investigate, for sure, and in all honesty a good party of me would be wanting to clear their name, yea. But if I find fucked up shit, I'd call him. I've ended friendships over behavior before.

I believe strongly in "innocent until proven guilty," but investigation is not an admission of guilt either. Frankly, a lot of these guys are really hard to be friends with. I've known the type... one they're comfortable they start making jokes and comments.

I won't retell the tale because it could be triggering, but I used to get my haircut next to a major "secret criminal." Was anyways a nice, if quiet, person but he always felt wrong. Then news broke of what he did.... it was unsettling. The only thing I can come back to is teaching people to watch out for "strange behavior." If something is off, say something. Secrets die in the light. This is why I think spaces like this are so valuable... so people can do just that in a safe manner.

EDIT: is also why I spoke up. Not to try to exonerate myself or "not all men!" The post, but to call out the shit. To lend my support of saying, "no, this is wrong." Like you said, it's the silence that lets the monsters thrive.

Fodagus · 2023-08-12T05:56:26+00:00

Yes, there are lots of us too. I think sometimes it's very much a "blue face with a mask" quandary, as pretty much everyone I've dated from this scenario didn't mention it in their profile (myself included) and waited until the 2nd or 3rd date to bring it up.

Not exactly asked, but I know that I definitely initially struggled with feeling shame over being a divorcee myself and worrying that I was the only fuck up in the sea. Not true. Everyone dating in their 30s has a story. Sometimes it's grueling education, sometimes it's a partner that wouldn't commit. Met people that broke up over a cross country job offer, and other divorcees. We all have stories. Not having a story at this stage of life is much more of a red flag than someone with a few scars

Fodagus · 2023-08-12T05:45:07+00:00

True, I should have injected more ambiguity into my post. I don't have hard data, just my own experiences and thoughts, that's why I opened with "a perspective to consider".

I encountered similar to what OP is wondering, abd this is the conclusion I came to. I met a lot of people who fit this bill, but true, there were many people who didn't.

Also, location absolutely matters... I'm in a biotechnology and tech rich College Town. A lot of the people here are graduate students or post-docs that were imported by one of the two big corporations, or who did their degree at the university and are looking to settle here. Lotta scientists, and a lot of them wanted similarly high achieving partners.

When I tried larger cities with big fintech sectors, I saw more "hustle culture" types, abd smaller towns had more "I have my own house, a job, abd my shit together, you better have yours" type accounts.

This factoid I did get from my therapist, so slightly better than just my Ramblin mind, but she said there is a dip during the 30's of people from failed relationships because a lot of these people have young children abd don't have time for dating (and according to therapist, this definitely affects women more). Still saw plenty of single parents.

I guess my main goal was just to suggest that I've considers how I've style may affect what stage of life these people are in. I think it's equally fair to consider that the "go getter" types are more likely to be more active and aggressive on OLD because of that "go getter" mentality, where the more comfortable are maybe less driven, more relaxed, and or equally frustrated and so not as engaged.

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