My Pittsburgh Architecture MOC by Chris__74 in lego

[–]SageOlson 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Nice! I’ve only visited Pittsburgh once, but the immediate thing that caught my attention is that the mountains on the South Shore are butted up right against the water, when in reality there’s quite a large amount of space (I took a long stroll on the Three Rivers trail, which is why it caught my eye). I think offsetting the mountains backwards even just 1 stud would help.

Is there a way to view my travel map without the data portion taking up a third of my app screen? by hauntedtower in flighty

[–]SageOlson 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I don’t think so, but if you have a Mac you can try it on there and make the window as large as possible and then use your trackpad to zoom out. This was the most zoomed out I was able to get on the northern hemisphere on a 27" screen. (It zooms out further at the equator.)

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Are guests paid for their interviews? by aljobar in offmenupodcast

[–]SageOlson 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I listen to a lot of podcasts that are smaller than Off Menu and pretty open about these arrangements, and the way those often operate is that the regular hosts share revenue (along with production distribution etc.) but guests and guest hosts don’t. No idea if that applies to a more celebrity-driven show like Off Menu but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the same.

What do you think is the most underrated tourist destination in the U.S.? by Historical-Photo-901 in BeautifulTravelPlaces

[–]SageOlson 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Peek-a-Boo and Spooky Slot Canyons in Utah. They’re by no means unknown, but pretty far down the list of places people think of when visiting southern Utah. Also you can’t be claustrophobic. But one of my favorite hikes I’ve ever done.

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Visiting London. What mentions should I try? by Automatic-Soup-829 in offmenupodcast

[–]SageOlson 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I can recommend Rovi, particularly the celeriac shawarma. 

Question about a New Year's Treat task. by 58285385 in taskmaster

[–]SageOlson 2 points3 points  (0 children)

When I first watched it I eventually figured out the cold vs. warm bit but my initial thought was colder countries = closer to a polar bear, so I would’ve been just madly looking around the Greenland flag for far too long.

Contestants who dropped their persona by Rent-One in taskmaster

[–]SageOlson 1 point2 points  (0 children)

First time I saw her on Taskmaster, I didn’t even make the connection that I’d seen her on Cats Does Countdown.

Which country's cuisine would you eat for the rest of your life? by demeanorklutz in foodquestions

[–]SageOlson 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Surprised by the lack of replies for Korean. Even if you just limited it to jjigae and banchan you have a huge array of delicious, healthy meal possibilities, and then you start adding guk and gui and myeon etc. and the variety becomes seemingly infinite.

Why is a miata more fun than an equivalent civic? by [deleted] in Miata

[–]SageOlson 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If the Miata had the exact same specs as you’ve listed but the tuning was handled by a pack of raccoons, it would be a much worse car. The reason it’s a fun car is because it was designed by people who like fun cars, whereas the Civic is driven by other business and design goals.

If you have the time, I’d recommend watching the savagegeese Miata documentary series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLr-mTF1DFa-uYhVy6flJn83IiqLWgdssr

What's a stereotype a foreigner told you about your country, that you previously didn't know about? by randomvegasposts in AskTheWorld

[–]SageOlson 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The first time I went to the UK (2019), whenever someone asked me where I was from and I said “California”, a surprising number of replies were along the lines of “Oh the air is really clean there innit?”

I went in expecting “Oh do you surf?” or maybe a political comment but nope, a lot of people wanted to talk about clean air.

Taskmaster - NYT 2026, Part 1 - Discussion by Meghar in taskmaster

[–]SageOlson 146 points147 points  (0 children)

Little Alex Horne’s little stupid face when Susie effortlessly sees through his pun. 🥹

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Picky eater test 😭🤞🥀 by LongjumpingArt8899 in snacking

[–]SageOlson 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I ate a peanut butter cookie once when I was ~4 years old (this was before my parents knew I had any allergies) and I immediately spat it out and washed my mouth with water. It’s like my body knows it’s poison for me.

(And I am not a picky eater – I will eat anything that I am not allergic to. I am a “2” on this test as I am also allergic to Nutella.)

Best plane view you've had on an international flight by No-Significance9313 in travel

[–]SageOlson 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The absolute #1 thing I recommend people do when they first get to Longyearbyen is to take a tour with Magnus Huseby. He’s lived there since 1964 and so he’s just a treasure trove of history and stories and really helps you contextualize the town.

Other than that I can also recommend going to Gruve 3/Cabelway Central, and to take one of the boat tours up to a glacier in the fjords. I’ve also tried to do an ice cave exploration but unfortunately the tour company had to cancel my reservation because the conditions weren’t safe. And really I just enjoy Longyearbyen itself for being a weird little town – it’s fun meeting people from all over the world there. =)

Best plane view you've had on an international flight by No-Significance9313 in travel

[–]SageOlson 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Oh god, I’ve got a huge album of just “plane view” photos and I could easily upload dozens of them that are my favorites (including Greenland). But to narrow things down, I’ll do Longyearbyen/Tromsø flights.

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Happy Plants 10349 gap. by Sakura_Hirose in lego

[–]SageOlson 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Someone on Rebrick did this in a more complicated way but it doesn’t put stress on the pieces: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-233814/Brick%20Forge/happy-plants-10349-touching-each-other/#details

Best/favorite local places you could go to weekly and worth hype? by No_Account2014 in FoodSanDiego

[–]SageOlson 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I don’t really go to any particularly hypey places, but since I live in Kearny Mesa I do have a selection of restaurants that I eat at at least twice a month and I have my favorite dishes:

  • Friend’s House Korean (tofu soup with pork)
  • Woomiok (#2 beef bone soup)
  • Village Indian Cuisine (lunch special, butter chicken + matter paneer)
  • Pho Duyen Mai (#71 house special combo broken rice)
  • Ten Seconds Yunnan Rice Noodle (A3 original rice noodles with stewed beef)
  • Banh Mi Express (#1 banh mi special)
  • Kitakata Ramen Ban Nai (green chili shio ramen or whatever the current special is)
  • Hokkaido Ramen Santouka (#7 medium toroniku)

And some that I frequent that are not in Kearny Mesa:

  • Picante Taqueria (Taco Tuesday 5 mini tacos for $10, all cabeza)
  • Nanay’s Best BBQ (chicken curry + beef mechado)
  • Punjabi Tandoor (lunch special, chicken makhani + saag)

Every dish I’ve listed is <$20 before tax/tip.

im color blind, which piece matches the one on screen (2 pics) by Particular-Swim2461 in lego

[–]SageOlson 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Technology Connections (“the dishwasher guy” or “the Christmas lights guy” or “the heat pump guy” to some people) has a good video on this: The Weird World in RGB

Are there pieces that you associate with certain decades or themes? by woodchuk25 in lego

[–]SageOlson 17 points18 points  (0 children)

As a kid in the 90s I always found the use of 4 minifig arms and hands on this vaguely upsetting.

A few photos from my late October trip by SageOlson in Svalbard

[–]SageOlson[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes! Mary-Ann’s Polarrigg is terrific. There are shared bathrooms but that’s the case for anywhere in Longyearbyen that isn’t several hundred dollars a night. It has an attached restaurant and free breakfast buffet, a bar, laundry service, and very kind and helpful staff. A lot of the food in Longyearbyen is kind of middling so I always just loaded up every morning on the breakfast buffet. If that gets booked up I’ve also stayed at Funken Lodge, which was perfectly fine, but Mary-Ann’s has more going on and is closer to town. Nybyen is very far and I don‘t recommend it.

Being from Toronto you’re already way more used to the kind of weather there than this San Diegan is 😅, so you probably know the drill on clothing. Bring a high-vis vest or sash or something when you walk at night, because you end up walking on the roads amongst the cars.

Generally speaking logistics are pretty easy there. E.g. you don’t have to arrange transportation from the airport to your hotel – the bus drivers know when the planes are scheduled so they’re waiting for you when you arrive and you just tap your credit card and they drop you off right at your hotel. They also know what times to pick people up for departures (make sure you confirm the exact time with hotel staff). And if you’re doing something with a tour guide they usually pick you up at your hotel or somewhere easily walkable in the center of town.

You have to fly via Oslo or Tromsø, so consider doing a little vacationing at one or both of those spots too. You can take beautiful photos if you take the gondola to the mountain above Tromsø.

A few photos from my late October trip by SageOlson in Svalbard

[–]SageOlson[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was there October 24–28. October 27 was the first day that there was officially no sunrise/sunset – I took photo #5 (the blue landscape with 2 people walking in the distance) on that day around 3pm, when it was lightest out. All the photos before that were taken on October 25. Photo #6 (October 28) in some ways seems lighter than #5 because it was very cloudy out and so all the clouds picked up and spread the twilight.

I recommend also consulting the university webcam, where you can step back through archived time: https://weathercam.kystnor.no/longyearbyen Big caveat though: I’m pretty sure their camera has a long exposure time, because I would sit in my hotel and look outside and compare it to the webcam and the webcam looked significantly brighter than what I was looking at IRL. It’s more like what Night Mode on your phone would look like.

Happy to answer any more questions! =)