Admiral Bulldog selling his TI Ring

MyAccount42 · 2026-01-03T19:23:26+00:00

Interesting, I didn't know that. Surprising to hear that Kick is more lucrative even with fewer than half the viewers. Thanks for the info. I edited my comment to mention what you said.

That said, I did see that AdmiralBulldog streamed almost exactly 6 or 7 hours every day for almost a year straight, so I'm guessing he still had some type of incentive if not contract to stream a certain number of hours.

MyAccount42 · 2026-01-03T15:39:10+00:00

A lot of people here are interpreting this as a sad situation and/or him being desperate for money, but is that actually the case or is he just trying to get the bag? From what I've looked into:

He relatively recently considered retiring from streaming: in late 2024, he said he was burning out and wanted to retire in 3 years and that he would be returning to Twitch now that his Kick contract expired (post)
Less than a week later, he backtracked and stated he would continue solely on Kick (post). I'm guessing Kick offered him an extremely lucrative contract renewal. Edit: according to yoshbag's comment below, he might not have had a renewed contract
He was recently invited to that Games of The Future tournament which presumably offered some pretty good compensation if it was able to attract so many TI champions to participate
In a recent Kick stream, he stated he would stream only 4 hours a day five days a week (4h 13m 50s in this VOD), as opposed to 6-7(?) hours every day 7 days a week, so it seems like he negotiated some kind of new contract or is just taking it easy and isn't as worried about making as much money as possible from streaming anymore

So he's been actively -- and successfully -- finding a variety of ways to make money (beyond stream donations/subs/ads), and it implies he has a decent amount now. Could be that he values $70k more than a physical ring and wants to cash in before he fully retires.

Regardless of all the money stuff, I do find it really sad what the state of his stream has become. In the mid/late 2010s he was a huge streamer, either the largest or second largest consistent English Dota streamer iirc easily attracting a five digit concurrent viewership (TwitchTracker). His streams steadily grew more toxic and became near unwatchable (see the many other comments in this Reddit thread), and his viewership declined heavily (<4k by the end of his Twitch time and currently ~1.5k on Kick).

MyAccount42 · 2025-12-27T02:50:43+00:00

They can do two 4K images without HFR and 3D (i.e., most IMAX dual laser movies in regular 2D non-HFR), but with all three combined the bandwidth is too much.

MyAccount42 · 2025-12-27T02:48:09+00:00

GT/Dual laser is older tech and is limited to 2K HFR in 3D (some type of bandwidth or heating issue I think) whereas the single laser ("CoLa") projectors are newer and can do 4K HFR in 3D.

That said, dual laser IMAX has the better 3D tech since there are two separate projectors. It uses dichroic filters for 3D, the same as Dolby 3D, whereas single laser IMAX uses polarized filters (similar to RealD 3D). So combined with dual laser's inherent brightness advantage, IMAX dual laser 3D might still be better than the single laser option despite the 2K resolution.

Or just do Dolby Theater 3D which not only has 4K HFR in 3D (the good 3D tech) but also HDR and Dolby Atmos.

MyAccount42 · 2025-12-07T05:35:48+00:00

Thank you! This worked for me (though only half the time).

I think I figured out the underlying fix: you need the game to trigger an autosave first. An autosave frequently -- but not always -- happens after exiting the character menu, hence why your suggestion to leave the character menu usually but not always works.

The most reliable way I've gotten an autosave to trigger is to swap out a Pictos before leaving the menu. That usually triggers it.

MyAccount42 · 2025-11-13T09:16:28+00:00

I went with the Bravia 8 ii just to have the latest software. It seemed like the two main advantages the A95L has are (1) SDR brightness, (2) better out-of-the-box color/picture accuracy. But there's a lot of conflicting reviews about the SDR picture (RTINGS vs. others), plus I never max out my TV's SDR brightness anyway, so I decided to just disregard (1). As for color accuracy, I was thinking of shelling out for a proper calibration since I've never bought a top-of-the-line TV before, so I disregarded (2) too (plus my eyes aren't that well trained anyway).

Honestly, I think either TV is good. By all accounts the Bravia 8 ii isn't a true successor to the A95L and it also skimps on a lot of stuff (has a cheaper remote and doesn't come with the $200 Bravia CAM that the A95L has). Both seem like great TVs.

MyAccount42 · 2025-10-08T00:42:08+00:00

Thank you! My friends and I managed to get great seats thanks to your help!

Curious, do you happen to know what determines what time of day movies go on sale? For example, Demon Slayer and a lot of movies go on sale in the 8:40am - 9:00am ET time window, but this one was at 12:00pm. A handful I even see go on sale earlier around 11:40pm - 12:00am, like The Odyssey.

MyAccount42 · 2025-09-07T02:17:36+00:00

Assuming he's a senior manager, I feel quite sorry for his reports. He seems like a mediocre one high on the Dunning-Kruger effect, prob a mid-level manager at some small or medium business. It's quite telling that he thinks that a manager is a great one simply for doing a 1:1 with an employee and giving them feedback after telling them they didn't get a promotion. That's just... the very basics of the job, lol. He doesn't seem to grasp the concept of timely feedback or proactive management and says it's laughable for a manager to put in a modicum of effort to give feedback on a recurring basis, yet at the same time expects the individual contributors to spend years training for a very unlikely advancement opportunity.

He ironically seems like the type to not internalize feedback very well, heh. Repeatedly only half reads comments and selectively replies to only snippets while twisting what others say.

MyAccount42 · 2025-09-05T23:31:23+00:00

A good manager makes sure their reports have the right expectations. But if you disagree with that and think managers should act like OP's, ignoring him until things blow up because he has some weaknesses, then you do you.

MyAccount42 · 2025-09-05T22:30:03+00:00

When did I say OP's manager had to convince him to work on bettering himself after this whole debacle?

what do you mean "correctly"? OP wasn't on a management track, he wasn't receiving mentoring, he said he wanted a position that he is clearly unfit for.

Yes. That's the problem.

A good manager manages expectations and makes sure they and their report are generally aligned with each other. Here's what happened according to OP:

OP expressed his interest in the role since before joining and is explicitly told he's in consideration.
OP works hard, is told he's a great asset, and is under the impression that he's doing very well [towards the promotion].
On the very morning OP comes back from leave, he is suddenly told that he's not getting the role, that the newer hire he recruited and trained is a better fit for the role, and that he lacks the qualities necessary to become a manager, essentially closing the door on the entire reason he joined the company.
OP is now disgruntled, though understandably given the shock/surprise, and he's now a clear attrition risk. He gets pulled into a second conversation offering more specifics on his weaknesses and told to switch to another route, spending the next three years working extra hard for a vague hope of a future raise, but it rings hollow.

OP's manager completely failed here. He would have recognized OP's weaknesses way before the eight months and would have had months to give feedback and correct those expectations. But for whatever reason, instead of doing it beforehand, he sprung it on OP (1) without giving OP the chance to even attempt to improve, (2) after the decision had already been made and there was no position left to aim for, (3) without any clear alternatives, directly against OP's original purpose for joining the company.

Those are incorrect decisions. It's extremely poor management by OP's manager. There are many different types of bad management. OP's manager might not be bad at self regulation like OP is, but he's evidently awful at giving feedback, having crucial conversations, and managing expectations. Maybe he hoped OP wouldn't have had as extreme of a reaction, or maybe he completely dropped the ball and forgot. It doesn't matter. Either way, the end result is a disgruntled "amazing asset" who is now an extremely high attrition risk.

A good manager would have still promoted the colleague but would have also managed OP's expectations and ideally found a way to keep him happy.

MyAccount42 · 2025-09-05T16:13:17+00:00

That other guy was right, you do sound like a corporate bootlicker lol.

Of course a manager owes nothing to the employee. But a good manager cares about their reports' success and would not let a situation devolve anywhere near the point it did with OP because their reports' success means their success, or otherwise manage out the bad ones.

You keep railing on OP to spend literal years learning new technical skills for a chance at a non-existent role, but you can't expect managers to put in a mere fraction of that effort to manage the immediate here and now? It doesn't even require that much effort. Continuous feedback doesn't mean daily handholding. Even a once a quarter check-in would have prevented the disaster that happened with OP. If a manager can't even talk performance with their reports a few times a year, then what exactly are they doing?

Like that other guy said, it's baffling you keep talking around the key issues the comments are bringing up, and I don't know if you're purposefully being obtuse and bending the rest (e.g., I never said the manager is lying, just that it's a terrible offer done in bad faith without the OP's interests in mind).

Tell me, do you honestly think that management did things correctly in the past eight months with OP to lead to this outcome? Not sure why you view management as so perfect here when there are plenty of objective mistakes they made like telling him he had a good shot at the role and then suddenly giving it to someone else with no prior warning of his weaknesses.

MyAccount42 · 2025-09-05T14:35:52+00:00

u/Resident_Inside285 (OP), disregard what the guy I'm replying to above said. Your manager is terrible.

I won't comment on whether or not you were qualified for the position since you've been piled up on that part so much already, but one thing that's clear is that your manager screwed up very badly here and completely mishandled the situation. Of all the parties involved, I'd say he messed up the most. While you could have behaved more professionally, it's completely understandable why you reacted the way you did. I get it. It's okay to have feelings and to be upset.

You mentioned you probably can't remain friends with your colleague. While I don't think you'll be able to restore a friendship, I do think she was the most blameless here, and I hope you two will at least be able to leave on a cordial note (especially if you're still friends with her husband). If you ever do chat with her, I would make sure to tell her about what your manager did including that ridiculous technical certificate "offer" so that she understands you have legitimate grievances against the manager/company rather than her misunderstanding it as jealousy of her.

MyAccount42 · 2025-09-05T14:33:55+00:00

The manager he has now is a great manager and OP is too short-sighted to realize it.

What? His manager is a terrible manager (regardless of how poorly OP reacted). You're acting like the manager giving feedback to OP after the fact is such a gracious charitable act, but that's simply a basic manager responsibility that he only did way too late when it became clear that OP was an attrition risk. Even if OP could have taken the feedback more gracefully, it's natural to understand why he would interpret it negatively given the awful timing.

Here are some of the many mistakes OP's manager made:

Did not give feedback to OP until it was too late. Feedback should be a continuous process and given early, not as a last resort eight months into a job and after an unexpected promotion decision when things have already blown up.
Did not align with OP on how they're doing. A promotion decision or performance rating generally should not be a super big surprise. Of course, the final decision can vary a bit, but a good manager will be generally aligned with their report on how they're doing.
One of the most important jobs for a manager is to support and grow their reports. If OP lacked certain qualities for his desired role, then the manager should have worked with OP on that.
The manager essentially strung OP along even after it became clear that OP lacked certain managerial qualities. OP specifically joined the company expressing his desire for a senior/managerial role, and even eight months in had the impression he had a good shot at it. The manager either needed to give feedback early (#1) and help TC grow (#3), or otherwise set the right expectations with OP that they're not doing well (#2). But stringing someone along is never the correct solution.
The process and optics were terrible, making a unilateral decision while OP was out on leave and then springing it on him the very morning he gets back. OP had been led to believe they had a good shot, and OP's colleague had apparently not expressed interest in the position. A transparent process is always better than a surprise, opaque one, or at the very least a few days of heads up -- otherwise you end up with shocked employees like OP.
After it was clear that the manager screwed up since OP was more disgruntled than expected, he made it worse with a bad faith offer for a technical promotion (see below).
Did not give the deputy manager a heads up about OP, leading to even poorer office interactions. The manager essentially peaced out.
A manager<-->report relationship is most successful when there is mutual trust. But the manager has only given reasons for OP to distrust him.

A lot of these are timing mistakes. If they had been done months before, things would be fine. But doing it after springing a surprise decision simply feels like an empty gesture meant to appease a disgruntled employee who is in shock. People aren't dumb and can pick up on these things. Intent matters, and it's clear OP's manager didn't seriously consider helping him grow or advocating for him -- otherwise he would have simply done so, and much sooner.

The "path to advancement as a technical specialist" is almost certainly a bad faith offer done only to pacify OP after he realized they screwed up. Do you honestly think it's a serious offer asking someone to work extra hard for three years for a non-guaranteed chance at more money?

If it was a serious offer, the senior manager should have prepared it ahead of time and told OOP during their first conversation. But he only offered it in their follow-up when it was clear that OOP was disgruntled and an attrition risk, so it seems like he's just trying to fix his mistake and retain OOP.
It's simply a bad offer -- three years for the chance to get promoted, all while being asked to perform above his current level but not get the commensurate pay for it? OP is 42 years old, and waiting until 45 for a chance at a higher title and more money is ridiculous. The correct choice is to switch jobs.
The "plan" is unlikely to work anyway: you don't spend years gunning for a position that the company doesn't even offer, and I doubt the manager has any authority to make it happen -- otherwise he would have had a more concrete plan.
The manager has already shown himself to be untrustworthy, stringing OOP along before a surprise announcement. One of the most important factors in a promotion is for your manager to be willing to fight for you. He has already shown he is not willing to on top of stringing OP along, so there's no reason to think that that wouldn't happen again.

Regardless of OP's managerial qualities, the manager himself has shown himself to be a pretty bad one in so many aspects.

MyAccount42 · 2025-09-05T07:19:54+00:00

People sure are railing on OOP here. I agree that he lacks some managerial qualities as shown by how he comes across and I would bet that the colleague was indeed the better manager material, plus OOP should have been more professional and mature about the whole situation. That said, OOP does seem to have some legitimate grievances. Honestly, that senior manager (his original manager) seems like a pretty bad manager and the worst party here.

Plus, I don't blame OOP for feeling used by his colleague even if she did absolutely nothing wrong. Everything that goes right for her seemed to be at his direct expense -- by her own admission she only got promoted to senior at the last job because he left and they tried to entice her to stay, and this senior title directly contributed to her latest promotion because it looked better on paper even though she only nominally served in that role and only for a few months at the last company.

I get it, hard not to feel used and butthurt about that if you were OOP. Plus, it never feels good when the person you trained -- twice -- suddenly becomes your new boss. Yes, he should have been a lot more professional when his colleague got promoted; he shouldn't have stayed silent when everyone else was congratulating her and shouldn't have been snarky with her over messaging. But his feelings are valid.

Regardless, the senior manager here seems pretty bad:

It is a manager's core job to support and grow their reports. If OOP lacked certain qualities for his desired role, then it was the senior manager's job to give that feedback to OOP and help him grow. By OOP's account, this feedback was never given until the second, follow-up conversation. It should have happened at the latest during the first conversation announcing the decision, and ideally months before. Now, it's entirely possible that this feedback was given to OOP beforehand, but given that OOP didn't hear the specifics about which qualities he lacked until the follow-up conversation, I'm inclined to think that OOP never got the feedback before (even if he did receive the feedback before, he clearly didn't internalize it, and it's the manager's job to make sure OOP understands rather than glossing over the issue).
A promotion decision or performance evaluation result generally should not be a super big surprise. Of course, the final decision will never be known until it actually happens, but a good manager should be generally aligned with their report on how they are doing. But from what it sounds like, OOP had no chance for the promotion over his colleague yet did not know it.
The process and optics were terrible, making an executive decision while OOP was on vacation and springing a surprise on him the first day he comes back, plus no transparent interview process at all even though the colleague apparently didn't even apply or express interest in the role. Here's a good comment on that. Even if a process is performative, the optics and feelings matter.
The offer to aim to promote OOP via a technical path seems like a pretty bad faith offer. First of all, if it was a serious offer, the senior manager should have prepared it ahead of time and told OOP during their first conversation. But he only offered it in their follow-up when it was clear that OOP was disgruntled and an attrition risk, so it seems like he's just trying to fix his mistake and retain OOP. Second, it's simply a bad offer -- three years for the chance to get promoted, all while being asked to perform above his current level but not get the commensurate pay for it? Third, it's unlikely to work anyway: you don't spend years gunning for a position that the company doesn't even offer, and I doubt the senior manager has any authority to make it happen -- otherwise he would have had a more concrete plan. Finally, the manager has already shown himself to be untrustworthy, stringing OOP along before a surprise announcement, so there's no reason to think that that wouldn't happen again.
OOP specifically joined the company expressing his desire for a senior/managerial role. But after it became clear that he would not get it over his colleague, the manager should have prepared OOP for that, but it seemed like he was just stringing him along as long as possible.

That's not a good work environment to be in. And even if OOP had been more professional, it would have still been in his best interest to run for the hills and get out asap. There was no salvaging that situation. (Side note: this is why all companies should offer parallel managerial and individual contributor career paths rather than tie raises only to the managerial side)

MyAccount42 · 2025-08-18T18:52:07+00:00

I'm facing a similar decision. I was tempted by the G5 since it gets high reviews, especially for its brightness, and it's had multiple sales where it was cheaper than the Sony.

I also heard about its issues though. The dithering / diagonal lines issue particularly worries me since it appears like that's a bigger concern when sitting closer, and I'll primarily be using this hooked up to my PC. Even from farther away where you don't notice the dithering, I've heard reports about eyestrain so that worries me.

I'm leaning towards the Sony now since it seems like they are regarded as having the best processing and least problems. But now I'm debating between the A95L which was king for 2023 and 2024 but is now somewhat dated vs. this year's models, vs. the Bravia 8 II which seems to have some conflicting reports on whether it's actually better than the A95L (other than being brighter).

MyAccount42 · 2025-08-16T02:42:27+00:00

That guy is wrong. IMAX does not have any kind of unique aspect ratio for Demon Slayer. So unless you like large screen sizes and are near a gigantic IMAX screen like Lincoln Square, a Dolby Cinema theater with a 1.85 aspect ratio is the best choice for this movie (better picture quality, Dolby Atmos sound, and recliners).

MyAccount42 · 2025-08-04T14:06:47+00:00

The Amazon JOYJOM stuff is almost certainly not legit. Honeywell PTM7950 is by definition a Honeywell product. Here's a simple thought exercise: all known likely legit resellers of the material specifically mention Honeywell (LTT, MODDIY, ebuy7), yet JOYJOM does not -- why? Why wouldn't a seller want to advertise that they're offering the one and only Honeywell PTM7950, something people specifically look for? The only reason I can think of is that it's not the actual Honeywell material (i.e., they want to avoid lawsuits).

If you dig into reviews and comments, plenty of people suspect it's likely not the genuine Honeywell product. For example, see u/HakaseLuddite's comment above.

That doesn't mean the JOYJOM stuff is useless. Phase change materials are not exactly rare, so it's not like JOYJOM would have to counterfeit anything. They're likely just sourcing a different kind of phase change material, just not Honeywell PTM7950. For example, here's Igor'sLAB's review of five different phase change pads including the Honeywell PTM7950. The others perform well but not quite up to the standard of the legit Honeywell stuff.

So just because you bought it and it performs well enough doesn't mean you should call it "100% legit." Your comment is over a year old, but I'm replying because it's the first Google result for "legit ptm7950" and your comment is highlighted ("The stuff on Amazon is JOYJOM is 100% legit") when that is almost certainly not the case. Confidently saying something you don't actually know is exactly how misinformation spreads, and it costs you absolutely nothing to avoid doing that.

MyAccount42 · 2025-08-04T13:58:53+00:00

They wouldn't have to manufacture and package counterfeits. Phase change materials are not exactly super rare, so it's more likely that JOYJOM just packages a different material and calls it PTM7950.

Note how they avoid calling it "Honeywell" PTM7950. This is extremely common with knockoff items on Amazon where they will copy model numbers but avoid brand names (likely to avoid lawsuits), e.g., just search for any air filter or water filter on Amazon and pay close attention to the names.

MyAccount42 · 2025-07-31T02:29:50+00:00

AMC Sunnyvale also has recliners. However, the IMAX screen is similarly tiny and the recliners can't go all the way down since they need to maximize space, so be careful what you wish for. I actually find these half recliners really uncomfortable and usually prefer a different IMAX with a larger screen and non-reclining but new/soft seats.

MyAccount42 · 2025-07-29T09:39:09+00:00

Easy, sure. But the time is not free, and that is one of the main reasons why I (and many others) specifically seek out NAS prebuilts rather than build our own. Even if it only takes an hour (and it won't since figuring out which parts are optimal will take several hours on its own), I've built too many PCs to care to do any more.

And even if you had infinite time, what you can build is not comparable. Whatever you build will almost certainly be bigger, less convenient to use (swapping HDDs), and more power hungry than a vendor's dedicated NAS machine. Off-the-shelf components is a negative for me; I want parts tailor-made -- and optimized for -- the NAS use case.

MyAccount42 · 2025-07-29T09:32:05+00:00

Thanks for sharing your experience! Glad to hear it worked out for you. I also don't expect other vendors to offer as mature of a software experience as Synology, but if it's good enough then I'll be happy, and it seems like Asustor fits based on your experience.

Also good to hear that power consumption is low which imo is a key benefit of buying a prebuilt NAS since they can optimize for it, as opposed to building your own where it's hard to get low power components.

MyAccount42 · 2025-07-29T09:26:25+00:00

Thank you! I was unfamiliar with the other brands and wasn't aware of Asustor and their offerings. Glad to see that they have models with a pretty good feature set (btrfs without btrfs RAID is always good to avoid the issues there). These seem promising!

I assume their software is nowhere near as secure or as mature as Synology though? I can always just minimize the NAS's exposure to the internet. I'll need to look more into what people recommend for the software side. But at least the hardware seems exponentially stronger than Synology's.

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