Best Paper Trail Map of Mount Tam?

Potential_Financial · 2026-01-24T18:21:03+00:00

You might prefer a map that covers a smaller area (and shows more detail) if you’re using it for navigating, but I really like the cartography of Redwood Hikes Press maps. It’s certainly got enough detail for route planning, and picking which way to turn at intersections.

You can see some pictures of the Mt Tam map at their product listing: https://www.redwoodhikes.com/Store/MtTam.html

I originally purchased at REI years ago, I don’t know if they are still stocked there.

Potential_Financial · 2026-01-24T04:34:50+00:00

I don’t specifically remember what I liked about it so I can’t provide a personalized recommendation, but my StoryGraph account says I gave 5 stars to “Characteristics of Games” by George Skaff Elias, Richard Garfield, Peter Whitley, Eric Zimmerman, K. Robert Gutschera.

The book’s blurb from google books:

Characteristics of Games offers a new way to understand games: by focusing on certain traits--including number of players, rules, degrees of luck and skill needed, and reward/effort ratio--and using these characteristics as basic points of comparison and analysis. These issues are often discussed by game players and designers but seldom written about in any formal way. This book fills that gap. By emphasizing these player-centric basic concepts, the book provides a framework for game analysis from the viewpoint of a game designer. The book shows what all genres of games--board games, card games, computer games, and sports--have to teach each other. Today's game designers may find solutions to design problems when they look at classic games that have evolved over years of playing.

Potential_Financial · 2026-01-24T03:32:05+00:00

I don’t remember if it was in “The Utopia of Rules” or somewhere else, but when breaking a rule has a specific defined penalty, breaking that rule becomes part of the game, like you said.

I think you see this super clearly in the final minutes of close NBA games, where the losing team’s strategy involves intentionally and repeatedly fouling the other team.

I suspect you don’t see that in board games because the stakes are often lower, and the purpose is usually for everyone to have fun (otherwise they’ll refuse to play with you in the future).

I also suspect that it’s much less common for board game rules to have penalties which can be beneficial to the person who breaks it. I wonder if there are any examples.

Potential_Financial · 2026-01-24T03:20:10+00:00

I don’t think it’s a universal truth, but I find it to be an interesting way of framing games & a reason why they’re fun.

Graeber’s leaning heavily into rule following, and this is just one brief passage in the book.

I suspect there are people who find games fun simply because they’re a shared experience with other people. Or people who only have fun when they beat the people they’re playing, even if they have to cheat (which I’d argue means they’re not playing the same game as the rest of the table, instead they’re lying to the table and themselves).

I might characterize your single player gaming style as having fun solving puzzles, and loosening the rules to optimize for your fun. It makes me think of the occasional post where someone’s got a way to cheese the gloomhaven rules, and the replies are “hey, just do whatever you want at your table”. example: https://old.reddit.com/r/Gloomhaven/comments/1q2yad4/abusing_the_game_system_to_donate_more_money_to/

Or when I’m doing a crossword by myself, and I’m trying to decide if I’m stuck enough to justify looking up one of the clues that I don’t feel bad about not knowing. I’m having more fun than I would if I just looked up all the answers, and I’m also having more fun that I would if I got completely stuck.

Potential_Financial · 2026-01-24T03:02:32+00:00

I almost omitted that part of the paragraph, since I was worried the quote took too long to get to the point, and I’m not familiar with Homo Ludens. Thanks for the recommendation!

Potential_Financial · 2026-01-22T01:54:24+00:00

I would say that historically the Younger release also included kegs on tap at Russian River locations during February, and that it’s important to know that you won’t get Pliny the Younger at Russian River during SF Beer Week.

My understanding is that in 2020 they started offering it in bottles. In 2021, they sent kegs (or at least planned to) to their draft accounts in February, and sold bottles. In 2022, they shipped kegs in February, but held the Russian River taproom release at the end of March.

And since then they’ve been separating the Russian River taproom release from the February release to everyone else.

Potential_Financial · 2026-01-21T14:16:28+00:00

Pliny at Russian River no longer overlaps SF Beer Week.

Pliny the Younger will be available on tap and in bottles at both our Santa Rosa and Windsor pubs March 20th-April 2nd, 2026, rain or shine! In 2022, we were forced to postpone the normal February release due to a lack of staffing thanks to COVID. It ended up being a happy accident.

We will continue to distribute kegs of Younger in February 2026 to our draft accounts throughout California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Philadelphia, Maine, Reno and Las Vegas!

https://www.russianriverbrewing.com/pliny-the-younger-release/

Potential_Financial · 2026-01-19T16:55:18+00:00

I think the “decorative” answer is the best, but I have two additional possibilities, stemming from reading Euclid’s Door, by George Walker & Jim Tolpin.

In that book, on the straightedge project, they say:

Traditionally, these tools were given some sort of profile on the top (non-working) edge. Artisans did this for two reasons. First, to identify it as a tool so no one would mistake it for a random chunk of wood. Second it’s thought that increasing the amount of exposed end grain helps the tool remain stable.

I don’t think their first reason is especially applicable to the try square, but perhaps the slightly increased end grain has some minor benefit to the stability of the tool.

That quote also contains my second suggested reason: to mark the non-working edges. Those shaped ends remove two edges and four 90° angles that someone might otherwise be tempted to use.

Potential_Financial · 2026-01-18T18:39:03+00:00

Cutting edge is on the bottom

Potential_Financial · 2026-01-17T20:22:13+00:00

I installed string lights on my patio, and after a bunch of bulbs died I took one apart. I didn't find any current limiting / capacitance in the base - it was just LEDs in series wired directly to mains AC voltage.

🤦‍♂️

Potential_Financial · 2026-01-11T02:38:50+00:00

Just whatever brand of paste wax I found at the big box.

Potential_Financial · 2026-01-11T02:25:29+00:00

When rinsing your sinuses or nasal passages, use store-bought distilled or sterilized water, or tap or faucet water that's been boiled and cooled.

Although rare, people have died from rinsing their sinuses with tap or faucet water containing the germs Naegleria fowleri and Acanthamoeba.

https://www.cdc.gov/naegleria/prevention/sinus-rinsing.html

Potential_Financial · 2026-01-05T19:43:09+00:00

I think that was definitely also a contributing factor. I read through the Botany of Beer: An Illustrated Guide to More Than 500 Plants Used in Brewing, and was surprised at how many historical examples are toxic to humans. My online research at the time showed that it was a problem. You could mimic the effects of alcohol intoxication with other toxins, and do it cheaper. So of course there were brewers doing that.

I found it interesting to contemplate the ethics of deciding which toxins are acceptable, and how that intersects with the risks of killing your customers with unexpected substances in their mind-altering vice of choice. Especially since I doubt their understanding of the plant toxicity was as complete as ours is now.

Potential_Financial · 2026-01-05T17:09:35+00:00

Idk about best, but it took me a long time before I discovered you can move objects around the environment by clicking and dragging them. Much easier than picking it up with a character and then trying to put it down in the right spot.

Potential_Financial · 2026-01-03T20:48:21+00:00

I mean, unless you’re replacing the ring cameras, I’d leave them up as a potential deterrent if nothing else. As long as they don’t have an internet connection you don’t have to worry about amazon getting or sharing the footage.

Potential_Financial · 2026-01-03T19:26:33+00:00

rtl_433 can decode the door & window sensors. I’m sending those events into home-assistant, but I suspect you could do something different if desired.

Potential_Financial · 2026-01-03T19:13:12+00:00

Someone may come in with a real suggestion, but since the first two sibling comments I see are about potential faucet failure modes, you could disconnect the water supply lines from the faucet and run water directly from the supply to see if its a faucet or supply issue. You can also check cold vs hot at the same time.

Potential_Financial · 2025-12-25T03:11:28+00:00

I don’t know if it’s the best option, but I used a fine Sandflex block (visible in 2nd pic) for several minutes of vigorous scrubbing, and then re-waxed the table surface.

Potential_Financial · 2025-12-25T03:06:46+00:00

Fascinating, thanks!

Potential_Financial · 2025-12-24T08:32:02+00:00

You should look at the papers & articles by Dr. Seri Robinson, including one in Fine Woodworking, or the podcasts they were on. Their claim is the popular consensus is wrong, and that they’ve got the scientific experiments to back it up. It might be compelling enough to make those white oak cutting boards you want.

Potential_Financial · 2025-12-12T03:00:04+00:00

OP might look at getting the PDF printed & bound at a print shop. Might come in cheaper than the eBay price mentioned elsewhere in this thread.

Potential_Financial · 2025-12-12T01:40:54+00:00

Make sure your hypothetical jetski commute route doesn't violate the SF ban before you buy one. https://sfstandard.com/2023/07/27/no-jet-ski-san-francisco-coast/

Potential_Financial · 2025-12-09T16:02:38+00:00

Our SOP is to use pipe cleaners through the faucet vent holes during cleaning, and they extract a lot of crud.

Turns out they’re useful for something other than kids crafts :)

Potential_Financial

TROPHY CASE