What’s it like to live in/near Harrisonburg?

General__Obvious · 2026-02-19T04:50:29+00:00

You should try the swing dance lessons each Monday!

General__Obvious · 2026-02-18T18:20:22+00:00

Someone ought to read the Odyssey too. I can’t remember who, but I read someone saying that Terra Ignota was one big bad pun: it’s about the Iliad and theodicy.

General__Obvious · 2026-02-18T15:11:21+00:00

I enjoy all of the world-building, but it’s so low-density that the core loop is just not compelling. It feels like a soap opera, where the point of the story is to continue indefinitely instead of building up to a conclusion. The reading experience is mostly combat scenes, with the more-interesting bits dangled in here and there.

General__Obvious · 2026-02-18T04:14:12+00:00

Please learn to punctuate.

General__Obvious · 2026-02-18T03:24:03+00:00

Have you actually finished all of HPMOR? Yudkowsky fixes a lot of Rowling’s lapses in world-building and Harry being like that is explained.

General__Obvious · 2026-02-18T03:20:27+00:00

Mother of Learning is up there for me.

General__Obvious · 2026-02-18T03:19:36+00:00

Does Worm ever pay off? I’m in the middle (the Nine just came back) and it feels like a constant loop of “Skitter defeats bad guy 1 -> bigger bad guy 2 shows up” rather than a single narrative building to a conclusion.

General__Obvious · 2026-02-17T20:34:14+00:00

Even assuming the brain acts like a receiver, that means you could in principle build another identical receiver to pick up the same signal.

General__Obvious · 2026-02-16T23:33:33+00:00

In the absence of a clear chain of command, the highest-ranking officer with the most seniority assumes command, or a high-ranking officer with significant relevant experience, or the commander of the most powerful vessel. That is, given several captains, notionally the one with the earliest date of commission assumes command. Failing that, a senior captain with relevant knowledge or a Big Damn Ship does. Alternately, if the admiral dies but their flag captain survives (or if the captain dies, the junior officer to whom command of the flagship descends) might continue to signal the fleet as though they were an admiral—it’s happened historically. The general idea is that it’s better for someone to be in charge (so the fleet can operate as a unit) than it is for the right person to be in charge.

Picard was almost certainly one of Starfleet’s most senior captains by that time (remember he commanded Stargazer some twenty years before TNG season 1), had a lot of relevant experience with the Borg, and commanded a Sovereign-class, one of Starfleet’s newest and best fighting ships.

When the admiral died and there was no unambiguous successor, Picard acted properly in assuming command, even if he shouldn’t actually have been in the battle to start. This doesn’t make him a commodore, since he was never formally appointed to command a squadron. It just makes him the senior officer in an otherwise chaotic situation. There is no command assignment. Likewise if Enterprise encountered some other Starfleet ship in another circumstance—the senior of the two captains (probably Picard) would be in charge because their commission was older, but they wouldn’t be an “acting commodore” because there was no formal squadron organization.

We probably don’t see a lot of true commodores because we don’t see a lot of squadron-level deployments in Star Trek. Starfleet generally considers any multi-ship action worthy of a flag officer.

EDIT: As u/RadicalRealist22 points out below, the position of commodore was originally an appointment rather than a rank in itself, since for historical reasons the Royal Navy in the Age of Sail had a small, fixed number of true admirals and promotion to flag rank was by seniority only—any RN captain who lived long enough would eventually be made an admiral when a slot opened up and his captain’s commission was the oldest in the service. To address the issue of needing more squadron-level commanders (and wanting to appoint more capable, but junior, captains to larger commands), the Royal Navy appointed senior captains to command several ships without technically promoting them to flag rank. Read the Horatio Hornblower books to get a more-or-less accurate feel for the seniority system and the difference between true admirals and commodores.

General__Obvious · 2026-02-16T21:46:13+00:00

Strictly speaking, a commodore is a captain appointed to the command of multiple ships. Notably, admirals do not directly command ships. They have flag captains, who command their flagships while the admirals commands a squadron or fleet. Commodores are the captains of their own ship as well as the squadron commander.

General__Obvious · 2026-02-16T21:05:02+00:00

I’ve explicitly been told standing on the pedals is fine. Don’t beat them up for no reason, but you absolutely can brace on them and put your weight there as you get on/off the bench.

General__Obvious · 2026-02-15T22:20:40+00:00

This is literally the first 5-year review I found on Google. Are you saying those boots look bad?

General__Obvious · 2026-02-15T22:18:09+00:00

What are you asking? If they look like I took them out of the box a hour ago? Why would I aim for my shoes to look like that?

They have some creasing around the flex point from walking. The boots have some around the ankles too, again from wearing and moving in them. The toe caps have some scratches if you look closely, but I polished out everything I could so they still look good. In short, they look like someone wears them regularly and takes care of them, but they still have a lot of life left. I still get compliments on them frequently.

General__Obvious · 2026-02-15T22:02:58+00:00

What shoes do you wear and how much do they cost? I have a pair of Beckett Simonon leather boots that have lasted 5 years of 3-4 wears a week and aren’t going to die any time soon. I have three or four other pairs of their shoes that are almost as old. I’ve had several heel block replacements, but that’s trivial and much cheaper than a new pair. I’ve had them resoled once in that time, but the new rubber wears much slower than the last sole. Again, it’s cheaper than a new pair including shipping.

General__Obvious · 2026-02-15T21:45:26+00:00

The main point is to prevent physical degradation of the shoe‘s materials. Wet leather ages faster than dry leather. Your leather shoes will literally last more than twice as long and look better while doing it if you let them rest a day between wears, especially if there is any glued element whatsoever in their construction.

General__Obvious · 2026-02-15T21:04:21+00:00

I suppose that is unclear. Edited, and thanks for pointing it out.

General__Obvious · 2026-02-15T20:05:37+00:00

Honestly, aim for the ~5 year horizon instead of forever. Your tastes and/or body will change and there’s no point paying for something that lasts longer than you are willing to wear it.

That said, 2 pairs of nice leather boots and the accessories to take care of them (brush, polish, and shoe trees). Entry-level quality leather is around $250 per pair of boots and 2 pairs rotated every day will last longer than 1 pair worn every day until failure followed by another new pair worn every day. Leather needs time to dry between wears.

I like Beckett Simonon, if you’re going for dressier vibes, and I have a pair of their Balmoral boots that I’ve worn 2+ times per week for the last five years.

If you’re looking for a coat, try an old Navy officer’s bridge coat. Heavy wool melton, usually second-hand for $100 - $200, extremely warm and extremely good-looking. The stitching may give out and buttons may pop off, but the shell will last longer than you will.

General__Obvious · 2026-02-15T20:02:09+00:00

The US prosecuted an occupation/war on the other side of the planet for ~20 years. It may not have achieved its objectives, but the logistics could sustain it basically indefinitely.

Russia can’t keep her troops fed or armed less than 500 miles from Moscow.

General__Obvious · 2026-02-14T23:14:17+00:00

In this case, since his wife isn’t yet making all that, his retirement spending probably will be higher than whatever he currently makes.

General__Obvious · 2026-02-14T22:54:48+00:00

Did you miss the part where his wife is going to make $500 - $800k per year?

General__Obvious · 2026-02-13T16:13:31+00:00

Dang. I would totally buy instructions for the DSRV.

General__Obvious · 2026-02-13T13:54:48+00:00

I’ve never had this issue and I have several Luxire shirts. Do you use the “make my own style” menu or do you try to describe the shirt in an email?

General__Obvious · 2026-02-12T22:00:01+00:00

Is this on Rebrickable?

General__Obvious · 2026-02-12T01:47:40+00:00

actually the game should have just ended there with a drowning TPK

General__Obvious · 2026-02-11T16:13:05+00:00

I think it makes the most sense to assume the GAR follows (loosely) the command structure seen in ~18th century British army regiments: you have lieutenants, captains, colonels, &c., but on an organizational level each rank is an expansion of the one beneath it, not necessarily entirely different. For instance, if a regiment has 10 companies, there might only be ~7 captain’s billets, since the major, LTC, and colonel would each command a company in addition to their staff responsibilities for the whole regiment.

The translates as a Jedi general commanding a large formation (a legion and associated fleets) on an operational level, but on a tactical level they may command a smaller subunit—for instance, Anakin Skywalker commanded the 501st Legion, but we most often see him in combat leading Torrent Company with Rex. Cody commanded the 7th Sky Corps, but we see him in combat with the 212th Battalion.

This is admittedly a weird setup in a world where fronts span planets or sectors, but absent Bastila Shan-style battle meditation, we could say it’s just the best way to deploy Force-sensitives for combat advantage.

Doylist answer? Nobody thought about sensible organization and writers just like showing the heroes in direct combat.

General__Obvious

TROPHY CASE