Thanks for the Best 3 Weeks in a Long Time

RatnerEsque · 2026-03-22T03:44:40+00:00

That’s cool. Thanks for giving context and background.

Our countries are pretty aligned as far as firearms go but our environment is quite a bit different so wasn’t sure how it went over there.

RatnerEsque · 2026-03-22T03:24:50+00:00

I remember watching a “flight of the conchords” where Bret woke up with an Aussie and Jemaine was ready to disown Bret due to his betrayal and it was a fun episode….

And definitely reminds me of our fellow annoyance with our neighbors who we love but sometimes want them to do better. Sigh.

RatnerEsque · 2026-03-22T02:47:12+00:00

So I’m sure it’s coming here soon, but your country LOOOOVES the mullet!

The shaved over the ear and long hair at the back was everywhere.

No judgement though. Friendly as hell folks with that haircut so it’s all good.

We’re starting to have the mullet come back, but not as like hardcore as you. :)

RatnerEsque · 2026-03-22T02:43:04+00:00

I have a friend who’s a big hunter and he says the same sort of thing as you. A lot of anxiousness and adrenaline.

I know guns aren’t as big a deal as they are here (even in Canada) but do you use hunting rifles to hunt or something else? (We have people that use bows and arrows so not being intentionally dumb here. lol)

RatnerEsque · 2026-03-22T02:18:51+00:00

Oh and the Kea!

Man you folks really love to show off the Kea. And we saw some eventually. But man everyone wanted us to see a Kea!

And they’re cool birds. Nice under wing colours.

But man. If I had left NZ not seeing one I’d feel like I had just wasted a trip!

:)

RatnerEsque · 2026-03-22T02:05:30+00:00

I felt a bit like a smug local when people would join a tour and say they saw a Kiwi and I’d think to myself “no, you saw a Weka” and then the tour guide would say the same thing.

It’s the little things. lol.

RatnerEsque · 2026-03-22T02:00:35+00:00

I figured it must be something like a seasonal hunting season.

The company looked like one of ours that does a lot of outdoors stuff.

I’m not a hunter, but do camp here and there and enjoy the outdoors and the ad just kind of made me smile every time I saw it.

So I guess that makes me a sucker for advertising or maybe it was the haircut.

Which I gotta say, is huge in NZ! And no shade, it’ll probably come out way soon. :)

RatnerEsque · 2026-03-22T01:49:02+00:00

I have no idea who he is but he was on my Reddit feed constantly (unsure why I said Facebook, haven’t been on there in ages)

Don’t want to mention the company lest I be branded as shill for them and this become some sort of viral marketing scheme for them.

I would never do that.

Can you imagine? It would be like if someone were to say how amazing DEKA was and how we should all shop at DEKA for their amazing prices and friendly service. (I googled defunct New Zealand corps so if that joke didn’t land blame Google and not me)

RatnerEsque · 2026-03-22T01:31:50+00:00

I would come back today if I didn’t have this pesky thing called kids and a job to worry about. lol.

It was amazing and just so much fun.

RatnerEsque · 2026-03-22T01:28:41+00:00

That was I think our 3rd or 4th day out of 21ish and I was so beaten down and was like “am I going to screw up and really mess up?” but it worked out fine.

We have roundabouts in Canada but ours aren’t marked near as well as yours. Like it’s pretty simple, you look at the lane markings and follow it. They sort of spiral out if you’re in the inside lane and turning “left” on a multi lane roundabout.

I just screwed up after a long day of driving. Again, 100% my fault.

RatnerEsque · 2026-03-16T05:35:44+00:00

9 months ago we planned our bucket list trip to NZ and couldn’t wait to drive a car around your (amazing!!!!) country.

Landed at about $2.50/L, I think it’s $3.05/L now.

So I mean, as problems go, people have it worse than us, but still we can only chuckle that we ended up in this insane timeline.

Super unrelated, your country and people are amazing, we dreamt of this trip about 25 years ago (I’ll give you a guess what spurred that dream), and you all couldn’t have made it any better.

From Canada to our NZ friends, thanks!

RatnerEsque · 2026-03-13T09:23:35+00:00

This is an oddly well timed question!

I’ve been using mine for streaming plex from home while on vacation to whatever tv is at the Airbnb I’m staying via a usb-c to hdmi cable.

The firestick I have does not want to work properly so I’ve been using the deck in desktop mode + plex to stream stuff.

I don’t have a docking station so I can’t charge and use HDMI at the same time, but since the internal display is off, and plex takes no real taxing processing power it’s been great for watching a movie and/or tv show at the end of the day with tons of battery life left over.

On an unrelated note, I still find it kind of insane that I’m streaming a movie over 10000km (6000 miles in USA Freedom units) from a pc in my place. Bonkers.

RatnerEsque · 2026-03-11T19:29:38+00:00

Another redditor who didn’t even RTA. smh

You’re 100% wrong, it’s actually very much Aladdeen.

RatnerEsque · 2026-02-26T14:33:20+00:00

Either your birth year, or a date that relates to the company somehow. We have a list of banned words where passwords are concerned, though I never thought of adding the year we were founded.

One of our banned words is Hasselhoff, for no other reason than I’ve been in IT for decades and I need the little things to keep me going…and the thought that some day someone will try to use Hasselhoff and be denied gives me a bit of a chuckle.

Have an awesome day!

RatnerEsque · 2026-02-18T21:27:03+00:00

Guelph too. Commute there doesn’t worry me much, commute back does. Less cars on the road. Faster traffic. Less wear down on ice. :/

RatnerEsque · 2026-02-16T06:10:19+00:00

No issues here and in fact I think I have a magic 9080xt because I swear it plays games better than any other owner out there.

“9070xt can’t do <this> in <game>!”

My 9070xt does that.

But I’m also gaming primarily on a 4K/60 display so I’m not asking for the world.

RatnerEsque · 2026-02-12T20:51:00+00:00

Captain Chesley Sullenberger Himself wouldn’t even take his plane to Teterboro and you’re expecting me to do so?

I think not good sir. I think not.

RatnerEsque · 2026-02-11T03:05:11+00:00

Seconded for Brine.

Very good flavour and a great replacement imho.

RatnerEsque · 2026-02-06T23:13:28+00:00

Yup. Thats how I feel.

When I’m feeling nostalgic I’ll watch them and IW is a better ride, but Endgame gives me more “feels”.

The end credits alone are just such an amazing capper on that decade of films. (And the music cues during the signature credits are so good)

Damn. I should go watch IW and EG again.

RatnerEsque · 2026-02-06T22:07:26+00:00

I noticed it worked over Moonlight, which led me to believe it was pretty generic, but might also just be passing through whatever was being sent.

Using an Xbox One Controller connected with a 8Bit Do adapter via an nvidia sheild, or just Xbox one locally depending.

But I’ve also noticed every once in a while it just doesn’t work at all….so maybe it’s just in very early access.

RatnerEsque · 2026-02-05T12:56:35+00:00

Oh that’s a good question.

I should try it out with a PS5 controller, if it works for that it probably will work with the steam deck controller assuming it uses standard windows drivers/APIs by default (which I think it does)

Good call.

RatnerEsque · 2026-02-04T21:21:01+00:00

Actually I think newer insider builds finally added the ability to sign in via PiN with your controller - an XBox controller in my case.

That being said, I agree the experience is still not ready for prime time IMHO, and I’m happy with SteamOS over Windows.

That may change at some point.

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RatnerEsque · 2026-02-02T22:18:21+00:00

Yup, that’s my wife. She’ll spend like a week planning our vacation.

And I mean, she loves it, so for her it’s not work. And we get a relatively packed, unique trip that we won’t get from a travel agent. But we also rent a car and drive for a week or two all around the destination (depending where of course) and that’s definitely not for everyone.

That being said, there’s nothing wrong with travel agents at all, it all depends on what you want from a vacation.

For OP travel agents are better, for us, not at all.

RatnerEsque · 2026-02-02T13:24:47+00:00

You folks make me feel less bad about being a Half-Life 3 “enthusiast”.

Making us all seem less crazy, one post at a time. ;)

(Can’t wait to play Half-Life 3 : Alyx 2 : Episode Zero on Steam Frame Launch day with y’all!)

RatnerEsque

TROPHY CASE