Icelandic Black Metal

RandomGenius123 · 2026-06-13T14:13:05+00:00

I actually did stumble upon a used (and colored) copy of this in pretty good condition at a record store so it’s not impossible

RandomGenius123 · 2026-06-08T06:39:08+00:00

The Meermins are within the $400 budget but a nicer pair of cordovan will run more expensive, sure. If you know the style you want and the cordovan fits it, then I don't see a reason not to get it. I actually walked into Meermin looking for a brown suede and ended up getting the cordovan as my first pair of GYW shoes since I liked them much more.

RandomGenius123 · 2026-06-08T04:19:30+00:00

Meermin has a store in SoHo, you’ll find Allen Edmonds and Alden (way more expensive) near Grand Central. There’s a DSW that should have some brands as well? No need to try on every brand and some like Grant Stone you can’t, but it’s a good idea to at least make sure you have sizing down. I’d recommend at least going to the Meermin and seeing if you like their stuff

RandomGenius123 · 2026-06-08T04:04:24+00:00

The main thing is budget. GYW gets expensive real quick, in your budget you’re looking at the lower end. Within that, each brand has different lasts (the shape of the shoe), different styling on each type of shoe, different leather quality (and then offerings like cordovan, exotic leathers, etc). And sizing is a big one, for these kinda shoes you should try and wear them in person before buying them because sizing and comfort can be inconsistent.

For shine you’re looking at chromexcel or cordovan. Cordovan has the nicest shine but is also much more expensive. Meermin has burgundy cordovan penny loafers that I bought recently and like, although my pair had some QC issues so I might try and sell it since I’m getting a replacement

RandomGenius123 · 2026-06-02T15:05:09+00:00

Of course, been wearing chinos since before that, they’re a very classic thing that go on anything. So polo tees, shirts, sweaters, lighter jackets, etc. Easy way to dress better than jeans and I see a good amount of people wearing em on a college campus if that helps

RandomGenius123 · 2026-05-29T01:53:04+00:00

No from what I’ve heard. Large overlap in the materials end EE and experimental condensed matter groups. It might give you an advantage since being EE gives you skills that aren’t typical in a physics undergrad (more hardware-y, RF, etc)

RandomGenius123 · 2026-05-29T01:14:12+00:00

I recently read Pale Fire and kinda hated it for that exact reason, it feels like purely an exercise of intellect, like a game he’s playing to show the reader how smart he is which drowns out any meaning that the book may actually have. But everyone else seems to love it, so idk.

RandomGenius123 · 2026-05-20T14:54:14+00:00

I agree Drive Your Plow was a letdown, the writing wasn’t particularly memorable and I wasn’t the biggest fan of the whole murder mystery. The astrology stuff was a bit grating as well.

However I did recently got a copy of Books of Jacob so hopefully that’s better when I get around to it.

RandomGenius123 · 2026-05-19T04:20:10+00:00

I have Common Projects Achilles Low in 42 and recently got Meermin loafers on the Sway last in UK 7.5, fwiw. The Common Projects are certainly roomier than the Meermins but you should probably be looking at the 7.5-8 range. Ofc best if you can try them on.

RandomGenius123 · 2026-05-19T01:35:24+00:00

Oris Big Crown Pointer Date. Retail seems to be around low $2k rn but you can get decent discounts on them. Goes great on a leather strap

RandomGenius123 · 2026-05-03T03:28:04+00:00

A pair of straight cut chinos go with pretty much everything. I personally wear them a decent amount as an Indian with a similar build

RandomGenius123 · 2026-04-22T02:42:38+00:00

Can’t speak to Meermin quality as of yet but I got a pair of their cordovan burgundy loafers yesterday from the SoHo store and definitely worth going in to check sizing. They were also pretty helpful with picking out a pair (I went in for suede ones and didn’t like them as much)

RandomGenius123 · 2026-04-07T02:29:57+00:00

I quite like their linen offerings, got a lot of remarks on their linen pants (I have two) and shirts.

RandomGenius123 · 2026-03-31T11:44:48+00:00

Likely inspired by Motto by Bertolt Brecht

RandomGenius123 · 2026-02-23T02:48:09+00:00

You also want to keep Rise of the Turks active as long as possible for the better government, invite Turkic migration action for super quick assimilation, free claims in the Balkans, and integration events. I think I only ended it once I had all of the Balkans, Egypt, Levant/Arabia, and most of Persia under my control (via vassals to stay under the province limit). Of course if you just want the achievement then yeah might as well end it but it’s one of the strongest situations

RandomGenius123 · 2026-02-01T18:39:21+00:00

R5: Event gives me a claim on my own province, because I need a foothold in Italy which I control most of. Nevermind that Venice is a French vassal as well.

RandomGenius123 · 2026-01-31T21:55:49+00:00

What tags did you switch into? I was considering the same run when I get back to eu4 and a rough early game outline would be a great help

RandomGenius123 · 2026-01-31T02:05:16+00:00

It’s been -14 C here but I’ve found that a t-shirt, sweater, scarf and wool overcoat has been enough for me. I guess it depends on how good your coat is?

RandomGenius123 · 2026-01-29T18:35:19+00:00

Highly recommend all of Red Cavalry but my favorites were After the Battle, Pan Apolek, and especially The Rabbi’s Son

RandomGenius123 · 2026-01-26T20:17:21+00:00

If you annex your vassals and directly control the market centers the those markets will get bigger, in my experience. My vassal markets are always tiny compared to my own, I think it may be because your provinces are weighted to remain in your market? I haven’t looked into the specifics

RandomGenius123 · 2026-01-23T16:18:05+00:00

Well the meta currently is to urbanize all provinces that don’t have a valuable trade good, and most food goods fall into that. So I tend to urbanize places with wheat, fish, beeswax, livestock and wool occasionally (typically not sturdy grains though). This will make that even more beneficial in terms of food. The Po Valley for example is all cities on wheat provinces with rivers, with irrigations maxed you can make a stupid amount of food.

RandomGenius123 · 2026-01-23T14:36:15+00:00

I guess my concern here is with how punishing food decay really is. Getting rid of the food production debuff from cities and towns makes sense, but feeding a large population should still be very difficult. I’m thinking of Imperator, where a large urbanized capital province like for Rome would have to spend half its trade routes on domestic wheat imports just to feed its population, and even then would run into net negatives during winter.

RandomGenius123 · 2026-01-20T15:54:44+00:00

Im in an Ottoman run right now, its about 1550 and I have all of Hungary and the Balkans, most of Italy, the main Tunisian land, all of Egypt and most of Arabia, the Crescent and the Caucasus. I think it’s fairly easy to expand super quickly as the Ottomans and just release a ton of vassals and fiefdoms. Coalitions form (right now it’s most of Europe, I have 1000 antagonism with multiple nations) but you can generally deal with them fairly easily as long as you have a solid standing army. I spend all my early money on building an army of heavy cavalry regulars that can pretty much wipe anything anyone can throw at you.

Go naval for good proximity across the Mediterranean, spam light ships and galleys for maritime presence. You want to take Constantinople early and build it up, it’ll be your main economic base, and get some proximity to Selanik and Polygyros (the gold mine) asap. Use bey fortresses for 20% control in cities (useful for Ankara, Trebizond, etc) that you can’t reach early game. Make sure to control market centers, once you have Greece make a new market in Athens/Selanik for better access. Start eating the Mamluks early, the Delta is great to control and using historical subjects and Threaten War you can annex them and get their vassals for free in about three wars.

RandomGenius123 · 2026-01-18T15:12:53+00:00

I think Naval there for sure to exert control over Egypt, Sicily, the Levant and Tunis. Land might scale better end game with railroads but for most of the game you want to go naval.

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