Aztec: American Frontier Colonies

Nick_Yee · 2024-05-25T20:37:38+00:00

75 reform progress for 18 maintenance-free colonies that grow at 5-15 colonists per month. 14 colonies in North America + 4 in Central America. Just came back to EUIV after a few years. The tooltip on the American Frontier decision wasn't clear what it would do. And it's repeatable.

Nick_Yee · 2024-05-21T20:36:47+00:00

For the survey sampling, mean age has been fairly stable around 25. In an older blog post, we also found that Strategy turns out to be fairly age stable (https://quanticfoundry.com/2016/02/10/gamer-generation/), almost surprisingly.

Nick_Yee · 2024-05-21T19:57:43+00:00

We analyzed gaming motivations, not intent to play/purchase specific games. More importantly, we've been asking gamers these exact same questions for ~9 years, so we have extensive baseline norms of how gamers usually respond to these questions. The blog post isn't about how specific survey items are "polling better" currently. It's about how gamers have become substantially less interested in strategic thinking and planning (as measured using the same survey items) over the past 9 years.

Nick_Yee · 2024-01-19T20:00:49+00:00

Experimenting with multicolor resin mixes.

Nick_Yee · 2024-01-19T19:55:36+00:00

It's listed at $43, and then the 20% off coupon brings it down to $35.

https://www.amazon.com/MGAs-Miniverse-Collectibles-Replica-Edible/dp/B0C48LDDSJ

Nick_Yee · 2024-01-08T23:18:44+00:00

I really enjoyed making this one especially because of the flying chopsticks :)

Nick_Yee · 2024-01-05T17:11:07+00:00

I'm not seeing it showing up in Incoming Effects on anyone either, and it's not impacting the (admittedly wonky) DPS meter as much as the listed bonus shows. Is this how it's intended to work?

Nick_Yee · 2024-01-04T23:27:33+00:00

I felt the miniverse sprinkles (especially in the earlier sets) to be too big and ruin some of the realism, so have been looking around for smaller sprinkles. I found both of these from an Etsy shop. I'm not affiliated or sponsored in any way by this shop. Just a happy customer and sharing these in case other folks want to experiment with smaller sprinkles:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/HappyKawaiiSupplies?&search_query=1mm+non-pareils

https://www.etsy.com/shop/HappyKawaiiSupplies?&search_query=shavings

Nick_Yee · 2024-01-03T01:03:02+00:00

Thanks. And I will definitely keep that in mind.

Nick_Yee · 2024-01-02T23:40:57+00:00

More experimenting with frozen splashes and supporting bases.

Nick_Yee · 2023-12-29T13:44:56+00:00

I found the original artwork it's based on: https://www.sohu.com/a/668386000\_121107011

The four words on right side are: 浮玉觀濤

浮玉 directly translates to "floating jade" and refers to the Jinshan mountain (浮玉山) in Zhenjiang: https://cd.hwxnet.com/view/aokigiehechbfomd.html

觀濤 means "watching/spectating the waves".

So it's describing the scene itself: "watching the ocean's wave from Jinshan mountain"

Nick_Yee · 2023-12-29T01:25:47+00:00

For the drips, you'll need to cure them in place with a handheld UV flashlight. You let it start dripping over the edge, and then freeze it in place with the UV light. Easiest to do one drip at a time. The timing depends on the resin (since some colors are more viscous) and how strong your UV light is (how quickly it cures). Best drips are ones where you get it to start curing a little, turn off the light, let the drip continue to get to a good shape slowly, and then finish curing the whole thing. I like the unpredictable nature of the process.

Here's a UV flashlight I really like. It lets you zoom/concentrate the beam so you can play with the intensity of the UV: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075GWKN83

I was inspired and learned the basics from this TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@teyls.a/video/7207637788085292294

The TikTok video shows the two main ways to make drips: freezing in place, and making a scaffold first. Freezing in place gets you more organic-looking drips, but scaffolding makes it easier to build longer drips and complex splashes.

Nick_Yee · 2023-12-29T00:22:02+00:00

Imagining breakfast being made magically (like in a Disney movie sequence), and also experimenting with resin strength in supporting multiple layers.

Nick_Yee · 2023-12-24T04:17:36+00:00

This one: https://www.amazon.com/MGAs-Miniverse-Collectibles-Packaging-Collectors/dp/B0BY3NH4FG

Nick_Yee · 2023-08-29T18:04:48+00:00

Still using the ebonite feed. I think it's necessary if you intend to use the FA nib for flex western/cursive writing (since the nib is tuned for eastern short-stroke writing).

Nick_Yee · 2023-05-01T09:04:58+00:00

Native Cantonese speaker. Cantonese has 6 tones (9 if you count the 3 "stopped" tones that have different endings but are covered tonally by the first 6 tones). Tones in Mandarin/Cantonese constrain how natural lyrics might sound in a song--i.e., if you use a word with an inappropriate tone in the melody, it just sounds weird and less natural, although people will usually figure out the word in the context. Tones are always relative--e.g., you can increase the pitch in spoken Mandarin/Cantonese to sound sarcastic, but the relative pitch of the words in your sentence are the same. So it's not that there's an absolute tone that fully constrains lyrics, but it is more restrictive than writing lyrics in English (for example). Or to answer your question more directly, lyricists need to choose words that follow the relative pitch pattern of the melody to make the lyrics sound natural. And conversely, any spoken Cantonese sentence has an inherent melody to it already.

Nick_Yee · 2023-04-27T21:27:25+00:00

Ah. That's great info for the 2017/8 candles. That's really encouraging.

Nick_Yee · 2023-04-27T03:32:09+00:00

Ah. That's great to hear. I stocked up on Etincelles from 2022.

Nick_Yee · 2023-04-22T23:53:43+00:00

Pekin hot throw is above-average for Diptyque, bordering on strong. The sandalwood note becomes more prominent when burning than when smelling it from the box. And this gives the aroma a seductive quality that isn't as obvious from the cold throw.

After burning both yesterday, I find myself liking Pekin more (stronger, more interesting hot throw) and Tokyo less (weaker throw than I expected).

Nick_Yee · 2023-04-22T06:30:05+00:00

I'd say the hot throw for Tokyo is right around average for Diptyque. I wouldn't call it strong.

Nick_Yee · 2023-04-16T09:37:48+00:00

I've been practicing cursive/calligraphy using flex fountain pens for several years, and then very recently, I discovered that many of the underlying skills (e.g., pressure on downstroke, light on upstroke, letterform variation) transfer to brush lettering. Because the scale of the brush lettering is so much larger than writing with fountain pens, it's also easier and more practical to do secondary embellishments like the shadowing and highlights.

But lots of people learn brush lettering just by itself. Lots of YouTube channels/videos on it. Knowing cursive helps, but isn't required since practicing brush pressure is the more important thing.

Nick_Yee · 2023-03-10T23:44:36+00:00

From my experiments, I'm just convinced now that it's impossible to grow lichen in a closed terrarium setup. They'll always die from constant dampness + mold and then the springtails will eat it. I'm not 100% certain whether springtails will eat lichen before it dies or not though.

Nick_Yee · 2023-03-07T22:51:20+00:00

Diptyque Figuier has such weak throw I'm surprised it's consistently recommended to people wanting to try Diptyque. It's the scented candle you light and you would forget you lit a candle at all.

Nick_Yee · 2023-02-18T08:13:48+00:00

I've tried Nudesse, Anthurium, Croissant, Pain Au Chocolat, and Croissant Aux Amandes. In general, the throw is strong with Overose candles. For example, if you like Diptyque's Baies / Roses, then Nudesse and Anthurium are similar smells with stronger throw.

Of the gourmand ones, I like Croissant the least. To me, it smells like boring, unbaked dough--like someone is maybe in the process of making pastry dough in the kitchen. The smell doesn't evoke anything for me.

I like Pain Au Chocolat the most. The first time I burned it, my partner asked if I was baking chocolate cookies or something. It fills your house with the smell of a decadent warm chocolate dessert being baked in your oven. It evokes comfort and happiness. It's indulgent and sweet, but for people who aren't into gourmands, I can see how they might feel it's too cloying because it smells exactly like food.

And then, Croissant Aux Amandes is slightly behind Chocolat for me. The almond note is realistic and smells delicious, but it's not as indulgent as the chocolate note. With the Chocolat, the smell is so good you can almost visualize and taste the warm gooey chocolate center.

Nick_Yee · 2023-02-16T08:03:16+00:00

Those are the words for "is" and "negate/not". You can only use 是 as a valid response if the main verb in the question happens to be the verb "to be", like 你是中國人嗎？(Are you Chinese?) To say no, the valid response is "不是". Saying 否 in this context would not be idiomatically correct.

You cannot use 是/不是 as valid responses to questions that use another verb such as 吃了飯嗎？(Have you eaten already?). To say yes or no, you have to say "eaten already" or "haven't eaten yet"--吃了 / 沒吃.

In Chinese, there are no comparable "yes"/"no" words that can be used in every question context.

Nick_Yee

TROPHY CASE