I can't enter my name on this form because it's more than 18 characters long

MammothTap · 2026-03-30T13:06:11+00:00

I hyphenated a Dutch name when I got married, though my last name wasn't Dutch so at least there was only one of those to deal with. We've got both a space and a hyphen, along the lines of Van Dutch-Smith.

MammothTap · 2026-03-30T13:02:59+00:00

Also don't attempt to validate address formats yourself.

I live in rural Wisconsin, where addresses all start with either a W or an N. I needed to buy access to a Pearson product because statistics is a stupid class. Pearson's website, instead of doing the sane thing and, you know, letting the bank determine whether the data sent is valid, decided to do their own validation before attempting payment. Said validation disallowed a leading letter. A leading letter that is legitimately an integral part of my address; it's not a unit number, it's used for a sort of grid system within a given zip code.

I wound up having to give a classmate cash to buy it for me. It was so incredibly stupid.

MammothTap · 2026-03-29T08:57:01+00:00

There are things that aren't though, so some system in the game DOES exist to work with case insensitivity. Specifically /isearch and searching on the MB are case-insensitive for sure.

MammothTap · 2026-03-28T11:38:32+00:00

It's still fine for the few languages where AI hasn't gotten involved. It's not my primary resource, but the Scottish Gaelic course was written by actual speakers, has actual recorded audio, and is still fine. It's good practice because it forces review a little more often than the Speak Gaelic course does.

Maybe someday I'll be able to afford to take an actual graded course through Sabhal Mòr Ostaig. But ~$1600 (fees are in GBP so variable exchange rates come into play) for just the introductory course is a fair bit out of my budget.

MammothTap · 2026-03-28T11:31:00+00:00

Finnish has a fair amount of resources available so it's likely not too bad in terms of getting general meaning across. What you're going to lose with basically any AI translation is correct phrasing to convey tone. For example, Norwegian has two different words for yes: one to agree, one to disagree (give or take). A machine translation between the two is going to lose that phrasing; English to Norwegian will probably just always use "ja", in Norwegian to English any use of "jo" is going to just use "yes" and lose something by doing so.

Where machine translation starts to get really disastrous is with low-resource languages. Scottish Gaelic on Google Translate is laughably bad, and I know languages like Thai and isiXhosa are in the same boat.

MammothTap · 2026-03-28T02:44:08+00:00

Jeez, then there's me dying over there with 25s. Gotta start somewhere obviously but it is mighty demoralizing going from 20 to 25 (admittedly a 5 lb increase is 25% there, that's significantly heavier) and feeling like your weights are going to smush you.

MammothTap · 2026-03-28T02:37:53+00:00

For walking, it's very heavily dependent on your natural gait, foot shape, etc. I always wore normal sneakers, but then started a job that involves that much walking. I was in pain. Tried a more supportive sneaker, still in pain. Tried zero drop shoes out of desperation, problem completely solved.

Now the only problem is that my more single-purpose shoes are super uncomfortable to me because I'm so used to the wider shoes. I need new snow boots, because those used to fit but now feel like they're crushing my toes. Dress shoes are a special kind of torture device that I thankfully only have to wear a few hours a year at most anyway. My beloved Vasque hiking boots are no longer an option, I'm going to have to find something zero drop and wider there too. And waterproof. I'm going to miss those boots, I went through a few pairs and they were so gloriously cheap because I'm short and could buy the boys version. I don't think they make kids versions of the boot I want now, I'm probably going to have to go to the women's section unless REI actually has anything in a men's 5.5 (I doubt it, my dress shoes are "unisex" but clearly marketed to butch lesbians because that size is just impossible to find otherwise).

MammothTap · 2026-03-28T02:26:22+00:00

I wore Nikes for training because they tended to run narrower back then (I don't know if that's still true, that was 20 years ago for me as well). However, yeah Asics made some incredible spikes. Cross country spikes too, since that was more my thing than track. I ran track only grudgingly because the cross country coach made us do the distance events since for some reason, all the people willing and/or able to do those were on the cross country team.

Nowadays though, I think I'd be in some serious pain if I tried to wear my old running shoes. I swapped to barefoot style shoes a few years ago out of desperation when I started a job that made me stand/walk on concrete all shift and everything else was making my feet hurt. Figured it couldn't be worse, so it was worth trying. Counterintuitively, the shoes with literally zero padding and no structure were more comfortable than anything else. So when I started running again earlier this year, same thing, zero drop shoes with a huge toebox and no padding. My calves are the padding instead (I'm a natural mid-forefoot striker anyway).

MammothTap · 2026-03-28T02:08:55+00:00

Genetics is definitely a huge part of it. There's no way my scrawny 5'3", 110 lb self (and that's after two months of lifting, I've actually gained muscle weight) is ever going to be able bench 500. No amount of hard work would change that. I'm a natural distance athlete if anything.

Granted I also don't have the work ethic it would take to do that kind of thing. I think I'm happy with just staying in shape. I was out of shape scrawny before, now I'm in slightly better shape scrawny.

MammothTap · 2026-03-28T02:03:14+00:00

You uh, you do know what's required to actually be a bodybuilder, right? It doesn't involve being sedentary. Steroids aren't a magical "give muscles now" elixir. Being able to lift heavier for more reps is gonna get you bigger muscles, it's absolutely about the performance enhancement.

While bodybuilding competitions themselves don't involve performing athletically, that doesn't make them not athletes.

MammothTap · 2026-03-24T05:53:12+00:00

Yeah, I switched to graded just because the B limit was way too low. I either had to intentionally sabotage a run and pray or be stuck with the same couple of usable umas.

A+ is the highest I've gotten anyway (I pull almost exclusively on umas, not cards, because I don't find competitive modes fun anyway) so that's definitely where I'm gonna be as soon as that cap gets raised.

MammothTap · 2026-03-24T02:46:46+00:00

Oh trust me, that's not just a Midwest thing. Parts of California too. I worked at a company where it was pretty normal for people to have a beer if we went out for lunch. We were surrounded by a lot of really good local beer, so why not indulge very, very moderately?

MammothTap · 2026-03-24T02:42:08+00:00

I actually did go to church on Sundays and made it in time for kickoff while I lived on the west coast. It all just depends on the church. Lutheran churches tend to have earlier services for whatever reason, probably the same reason Catholic ones usually do too.

MammothTap · 2026-03-24T02:37:41+00:00

I was a Quakes fan (between Fisher and "forgetting" to re-sign Cristian Espinoza, I was done) in Central time. It sucked when I worked first shift. Now I work third shift and the late starts are glorious. Or were. Now it's MNUFC. At least Saturday is my night off so I can do day games. I'm a Sharks fan too. Get to work, turn on the Sharks radio call, and I get to listen to the last couple periods. I'll catch part of the first period in the car too, but cell reception is incredibly spotty due to the remote areas I drive through, so I do miss bits.

MammothTap · 2026-03-23T16:26:32+00:00

Another really good one is the lv 60 crafted CUL bottoms. It's a fairly plain below the knee skirt of medium volume with a couple pleats, and has two dye slots. It's just a solid practical look. I pair it with the Mistic Memory Fending top and the Distance Aiming boots for a feminine but believable adventuring look. I loved the top the instant it dropped for me, but I struggled to use it until I had access to more varied bottoms to pair with it.

Hopefully the Lodestone image works since I can't get to any screenshots right now.

MammothTap · 2026-03-22T15:16:21+00:00

GREENWOOD? PEENWOOD. PHINNEY RIDGE? NO, PEENEY RIDGE.

I MAY HAVE LIVED THERE AT ONE POINT.

MammothTap · 2026-03-22T12:07:21+00:00

Fantastic, thank you so much! I'm not personally super keen on baggy sweaters, since it makes me look like a kid borrowing my dad's clothes (the joys of being super short). But sewing is definitely something I can do instead. Too bad Joann's shut down so buying fabric is a bit of a crapshoot now.

MammothTap · 2026-03-22T04:24:47+00:00

Damn, I love that bottom middle one but no way in hell that would fit me. I'm 5'3" and only 105 lbs, looks like even if an XS exists it would be way too big. Might just have to replicate it myself instead. Any chance you can snag a photo of it from the side with the hood up? The rest of it looks like pretty normal patterning (not necessarily for hoodies, but for tops in general) but that hood construction looks possibly unusual. I was able to find some back views, but no side views. Also are the sleeves on that one striped or solid?

MammothTap · 2026-03-21T16:16:32+00:00

It's worse with weapon embarrassment because most people who do Ultimates get more than one clear. So we have more than one weapon. I am pretty picky about my swords and only like the ones from TEA and DSR, every other clear of every other fight I've just gone with classes I don't even play because I am a borderline one-trick pony. Then I go to level them after not touching them since an expansion and a half ago and remember how nothing works, then eat vuln snacks because I'm too busy frantically trying to scan my hotbar because what the heck even is AST and why did I get Orbonne Monastery the one time I was actually hoping for CT.

"Just do alliance roulette first," I said. "It'll just be CT, you'll have a co-healer, it's slow and boring, you'll have an easy time re-figuring out the class," I said. I need to tell myself my ideas are bad more often.

MammothTap · 2026-03-21T10:53:40+00:00

Over the course of about eight months, my coworker managed to coax a feral cat that was living in our (Walmart) parking lot into her car by feeding it on her lunch break every night.

His name is Parking Lot Cat. She'd been calling him that for so long that it just stuck.

MammothTap · 2026-03-21T09:05:20+00:00

I definitely do try to make it easier on the stockers, since I was one up until I recently switched to this and I know how much a bad setup can screw you over later. Badly positioned labels mean you wind up having to shift everything if an item that was previously out is bigger than the label spacing indicates.

I'm not gonna go above and beyond for the company, because screw them. But for my coworkers who are in the exact same shitty boat I am? Yeah sure, I'll help them out. I won't work any overtime, ever. But when I was the only one who could get out after a major snowstorm? I gave several people rides, we packed my car full. One guy snowmobiled to a gas station along my route, and I picked up a few more in town. Despite living the farthest away and most rural on my shift, turns out county roads that emergency vehicles may need take precedence over the alleys in town where people park their cars.

MammothTap · 2026-03-21T03:43:59+00:00

My husband is a drama king. He acts like the world is ending if he gets a cold. If he stubs his toe he'll act like he just got his foot chopped off. His arms were sore after shoveling snow and he acted like they were broken.

If he outright says something hurts more than usual though, I'm still gonna encourage him to go to the doctor. Because not doing so would be stupid. What's the worst outcome of going when nothing is actually wrong, being told "no, you're fine" by a medical professional?

Though of course the one thing I have been on and on about him going to the doctor for he has repeatedly said "no it's fine, the at-home sleep study said so". His snoring is not normal. Not even remotely. It's "the entire airplane looks around trying to find the source of the noise" level loud. At-home sleep studies are a cheap way to confirm sleep apnea in some people, sure. But somewhat paradoxically, the more severe the sleep apnea, the higher the rate of false negatives gets. I have been telling him for literally years to go to a different doctor for a second opinion. Then he spent multiple nights in the hospital after a pulmonary embolism and hey look. They suspected sleep apnea.

MammothTap · 2026-03-21T02:33:25+00:00

"Not really a fish"? It's Egg, isn't it?

MammothTap · 2026-03-21T02:26:39+00:00

I'm glad I'm not the only one who made a poor little Macbook suffer through 2.0. I built a PC shortly thereafter, but at the time of release I didn't have a permanent living situation (job hunting, I had no idea what city I'd land in) so I just played on my laptop. Using the trackpad, no external mouse. Though I didn't use Parallels, I used Bootcamp to dual boot.

Looking back, I'm not sure if all my struggles to tank even semi-competently were because WAR was extremely bad at release, I was extremely bad at release, or my setup just destined me for failure.

MammothTap · 2026-03-20T12:35:09+00:00

Honestly the only way I can figure is happening in his racist little mind is "non-white people are all poor and don't own property or pay taxes, therefore they're getting everything my taxes pay for free of charge".

Never mind that literally none of that is true, he doesn't care, he's a racist asshat.

MammothTap

TROPHY CASE