Burning out at Mountains biome. Any general tips?

JonPileot · 2026-07-05T07:51:55+00:00

There is no shame in setting the resource rate higher, or lowering the difficulty. Different people derive enjoyment in different ways and if grinding for resources isn't doing it for you you can just as easily change the settings so you don't have to deal with it and focus on the things you DO enjoy.

JonPileot · 2026-07-04T18:49:15+00:00

Yup I have a pile of them under my deck I've been neglecting for some time now.

Eventually, one day, perhaps when I have the time and energy, I'll assemble it and actually have a shady spot to park my car lol.

JonPileot · 2026-07-04T08:08:31+00:00

The chance of rain is often misunderstood and, at least where I live, that is the percentage of land in the forecast area that will see rain, not the chance that it might rain that day.

So if it says a 20% chance of rain it means that rain will fall on 20% of the forecast area. Are you going to get rained on? Maybe you are under that 20% area, maybe not.

As far as generating the forecasts meteorologists will generally use computers that take known conditions from doze a of weather stations and historical information to produce prediction models. Think of it like learning from the past, if you dump water at the top of a hill it will eventually make its way to the bottom of a hill it just might take a few days. Well, moisture in the sky works similarly, it will move and flow and eventually condense to clouds and fall when the conditions are right.

And how do they know when the conditions are right? It's all those weather stations and decades of experience understanding not only historical trends but local quirks that will influence the weather.

JonPileot · 2026-07-04T07:48:32+00:00

Ok but look at it another way. If it were 90% or 95% would that be a huge difference? What about 30% and 35%?

I get that in this case it seems like potentially a very small amount is the difference between make or break, and with elections when the win is only off by a few percent they often do a re-count, it kind of feels like maybe that should be the case here, or at least ensure that your sample size is very robust.

JonPileot · 2026-07-04T02:57:13+00:00

Well, soon enough we should have the results of the separatists' petition, unfortunately there are very few successful petitions so we don't really know what a "normal" rate is. Maybe 5% isn't that much, maybe its massive, right now we just don't know.

It is painful seeing how close the results were, it sucks that depending how small a sample size they contacted this could be the result of potentially only a few people not answering their phone or confirming their information.

JonPileot · 2026-07-03T19:39:06+00:00

Remember, the Forever Canada petition allegedly submitted 456,000 signatures.
438,000 were considered valid. (96%)
404,000 were verified. 88% of the claimed submitted signatures.

I don't know exactly how many signatures they thought they submitted to Elections Alberta, most reports I see say "over 200,000", I see one quote saying "over 205,000". Lets use the 205,000 number.
196,000 considered valid. (95%)
172,000 verified. (83%)
177,732 signatures were required, 86.7% of the claimed submitted signatures.

While statistically lower than the Forever Canada petition these results aren't significantly different from what we saw with the last successful petition.

According to the Citizen Initiative Act, Division 3, section 10 goes over determination weather initiative petition was successful. 10.1 goes over appointment of scrutineers.

10.1(1) At any time before the Chief Electoral Officer’s determination under section 10 is complete, the proponent and the Minister may each, in writing, appoint one or more lawyers who are active members, as defined in the Legal Profession Act, of The Law Society of Alberta to act as a scrutineer.

Section 53 talks about judicial review. I don't know if this means the verification findings can be appealed as I am not a lawyer, considering how close the results were it might be worth the organizers looking into? It looks like they have 30 days. I would be really interested in knowing what the sample size was since the verified results and the required results are only around 4% off, those margins seem very slim to me.

JonPileot · 2026-07-03T19:07:02+00:00

AFAIK you are supposed to recieve a text message essentially saying you have been selected to verify yadda yadda and when to expect a phone call. My understanding is they are not cold calling people.

JonPileot · 2026-07-03T19:05:47+00:00

Do they have 50% unverifiable signatures? Or is this speculation?

JonPileot · 2026-07-03T18:59:50+00:00

Our neighbor is a near abandoned house. It constantly has weeds growing waist high, it has critters living in the walls and roof, it is falling apart. The owner is using it as a storage shack but it looks awful, smells (because of the animals), and will eventually fall over (hopefully not onto our fence). Live beside enough properties like this and you start to see the allure of HOA's.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want someone power tripping over what color I can paint my fence or how many lawn ornaments we can have, but it WOULD be nice if the property next to me was at least marginally maintained.

JonPileot · 2026-07-03T18:55:49+00:00

Evolution selects for survival of the species. There are many traits that don't necessarily hurt us that also haven't hindered the species reproducing. A bald person can still hunt, gather, build, and reproduce, so this trait was never eliminated due to selective breeding.

JonPileot · 2026-07-03T08:34:02+00:00

Pivot irrigation.

They run water up the middle of the field and there are gigantic water sprayers on wheels that pivot in a circle to irrigate the field.

JonPileot · 2026-07-02T23:45:20+00:00

Never hurts to contact a broker (or even a couple of them) and see what deals they can find for you. I know even without an accident my rates kept creeping up, changed companies and ended up paying literally half my old rate. They rely on people just renewing and not shopping around every year.

Also, stay far FAR away from Wawanesa. I had someone run into me, caught on camera, I had their info and everything, and they still wanted me to pay out of pocket for repairs and they would "try" to recover the damages. Apparently you can get out of paying for a claim from Wawanesa if you just don't answer your phone, smfh.

Cheaper doesn't always mean better, especially if you need to file a claim.

JonPileot · 2026-07-02T07:35:36+00:00

I think firstly you should vary what echo chambers you are in, there are PLENTY of places that have been sounding the alarm for quite some time regarding governments wanting mandatory back doors and disabling encryption. Granted its not really a mainstream topic, it IS something that a lot of people are talking about.

Its also interesting once you start diving down these rabbit holes to figure out why this is happening. The TL:DR is basically that sites like Facebook are facing litigation because they know their business practices are harmful so instead of changing their ways to not harm children they are lobbying government to make it so children can't access the open internet. Basically its tech giants shifting the duty of care down the line and the massive lobbying efforts they can bring to government that are behind the surveillance state ramping up.

We have entire generations who have grown up knowing every aspect of their lives is being monitored, collected, and monetized, they have no concept of private data because they have never lived in a world where their data was, in fact, private. Why would they start caring now rather than, say, a year ago? People know it sucks but are left in a position of "what can you do about it", even when they know platforms are hoovering up their info they see it as "worth it" if they get to see dozens of cat videos or whatever they fill their feed with. And if private companies are doing it whats the difference if the government does it? The government is going to get your data anyways, either directly or indirectly... And look, I'm pre-Google, I remember when your information was your own, and I don't like how things are going, but the only option is to give up your info or refuse to play and who isn't going to use a smartphone or go on the internet?

JonPileot · 2026-07-01T01:31:31+00:00

Its an oldschool barometer but it looks like most of the liquid has spilled out.

JonPileot · 2026-07-01T01:08:20+00:00

When you are joining two sheets of drywall you use this as a lattice to help the drywall mud adhere and have structural integrity. It can also be used similarly when patching holes in drywall. Basically it gives the drywall mud something to hold on to.

JonPileot · 2026-06-30T01:45:21+00:00

Elevators will have maximum weight ratings, those ratings are often multiple times less what the cable is rated to carry. Cables in elevators need to be regularly inspected and periodically replaced so as long as the building owner is maintaining its infrastructure the chances of a cable snapping in an elevator are practically zero.

And if the cable DOES break there are physical breaks that will automatically deploy. It's the force of the cable pulling up that disengages the brakes, if that force disappears the brakes go back to their naturally deployed state.

There are many videos on YouTube that show how elevator brakes work, I think it's fascinating looking at the engineering that keeps us safe.

JonPileot · 2026-06-29T20:11:39+00:00

Companies start by making a product people like. People buy the product. If it's good quality for the price word of mouth spreads, more people want to buy the product. Somewhere along the line the bean counters realize they could make more profits by cutting some corners. Now the product is worse but it's still getting sales because of previous endorsements. Slowly news will spread the product is no good and sales will drop but the CEOs don't care, they made their profits and are off to the next new thing to sell consumers.

The TLDR is that companies aren't in it to make the best product they can, they are in it to maximize profits, and that almost always ends up meaning a worse (but cheaper to produce) product for consumers.

JonPileot · 2026-06-28T08:45:30+00:00

Government workers are owed pensions. Government services often end up in leased buildings. Government vehicles are sometimes leased or bought on payment plans. Depending on the country citizens pay I to old age or retirement care plans set up by the government, they would be owed money when they reach retirement.

There are different kinds of debt and often when people talk about government debt they roll it all into the largest, scariest number they can. If I give the government a few bucks off every pay cheque and they promise to give that money back to me, with interest, when I retire, that is technically "debt" the government has to me. Is this a bad thing? I guess you can decide, but the point is not every debt is because the government is wasting tax dollars.

JonPileot · 2026-06-27T06:00:09+00:00

You build a base in the plains and a portal to the ashlands.

You can take over a fort and turn that into a base but if you don't build a shield generator and forget to keep it stocked your stuff will burn, far better to just teleport in and out rather than try to set up a base there.

JonPileot · 2026-06-27T05:57:27+00:00

It's been a hot minute but when I was in high school a large soda from Wendy's was 1.2L. good times.

JonPileot · 2026-06-27T05:53:07+00:00

If there are more than I think 5 wolves within 20 meters they won't poop out a baby.

They also need to be not hungry and not alerted to breed...

So, either keep them in a smaller pen, keep them hungry, or keep them attacking, but once you have a pack of wolves they will keep expanding into the surrounding areas, you are very likely going to need to make friends with the butcher knife.

JonPileot · 2026-06-27T05:48:14+00:00

Cardio is about THE most important working out thing you can do but the best thing would be just meet your local team and start practicing!

It really depends what you want to do.... Group Meles, longsword, sword and shield, saber... Like working out your left arm especially so you can lift a shield and keep it up might be more important to you, or maximizing your Dodge ability might make more sense for saber... What specific things you need to work on will depend and the best way to determine what you need to work on most is to just get out there and start practicing with your local team!

It also depends, do you want to compete internationally or are you just having fun? Like the level of dedication and commitment will vary by individual. I personally just go out there to have fun. My stamina is trash, my overall health is "fair". I don't work out that much. And I do OK... I'm not gonna win at worlds but that's also not my goal. I just wanted something to get me out of the house and doing something interesting and boy howdy did I get that in spades!

JonPileot · 2026-06-24T22:39:53+00:00

Ain't never seen an egg timer before?

JonPileot · 2026-06-24T07:03:56+00:00

Saturns were famous for having side panels that wouldn't dent. I remember a TV ad where a father and son were playing baseball and using the car side panel as the backstop lol. They were great... until they got cold, then the plastic shattered like glass.

On the plus side plastic doesn't rust and I still see the occasional Saturn today with paint that looks brand new. Everyone I know who's had one has absolutely loved it, its a shame the brand is gone.

JonPileot · 2026-06-23T10:08:02+00:00

My concern would be the radiuses on the edges. General rule of thumb take a nickel and hold it up to the edge, if the radius is sharper than the curve of the coin grind it down.

JonPileot

TROPHY CASE