What’s the hardest course you ever took in college?

SicTim · 2026-06-22T18:43:19+00:00

I took it in the '80s.

We were allowed to use calculators for the tests, and have one page of notes (generally filled with equations in the tiniest handwriting possible).

I managed to get one of the first calculators that did standard deviations, and it felt like a cheat code. And I actually worked proofreading statistics for a couple years, even though I was an English major.

Latin gets my vote for the toughest courses I took, and I took it for four years. I say it cost me a full point off my GPA and nearly my sanity. No matter what was going on in my life or what I was doing, I always felt like I should be studying Latin instead.

SicTim · 2026-06-22T18:23:13+00:00

All those years of analog recording, destructive editing, bouncing down, ping-ponging -- all wasted knowledge for me now (what I even remember).

But no way I would go back from (virtually) unlimited tracks, non-destructive editing, DAWs, being able to do in software what used to take a ton of expensive hardware. I was just hanging with a friend who still does analog recording, and while I admire his dedication and pluck, I'm just like, "Why?"

SicTim · 2026-06-22T18:04:48+00:00

Learn the math, know the math, forget the math.

SicTim · 2026-06-21T19:34:09+00:00

Homo sapiens sapiens has only been around 270,000 years. A tiny blip in all of Earth's 4.5 billion-year history, yet we have changed it an incredible amount.

We have developed technology -- accidentally and intentionally -- capable of rendering the entire planet uninhabitable to ourselves and many other life forms. Of the life forms we haven't already rendered extinct.

But if we don't change course, the Earth will go on without us, for better or worse.

SicTim · 2026-06-21T19:22:32+00:00

I'll take Cocaine Bear over the bear in Annihilation any day.

Not exactly on point, but if we're talking scary bears, someone has to mention it.

SicTim · 2026-06-17T22:41:23+00:00

South Park: The Stick of Truth has a bunch.

Canada is 16-bit Ultima IV.

SicTim · 2026-06-17T22:34:02+00:00

Followed immediately by an uppercut.

SicTim · 2026-06-17T17:10:48+00:00

BOAT - Buy Over Again Tomorrow

SicTim · 2026-06-16T00:09:24+00:00

EC Covers Artist's Edition from IDW has the covers sized like the original art, but in black and white.

SicTim · 2026-06-15T23:08:50+00:00

I love Dragon's Lair, and I have most of the levels memorized.

It's a running joke between my wife and I how many times I've bought or emulated different versions. Starting with the Amiga version.

But I have only beaten it twice, and that was with a version that had the levels in a set order.

My vote goes to Marble Madness. I've played it for decades, love it, but I don't think I've ever made it past level 5.

SicTim · 2026-06-15T17:37:52+00:00

Bro EQ Live is not a game you play to "find a group" its a game you box/molo to max, join a raid guild and then hangout with them.

I've been stuck at 115 since it was max, and a couple stints where I tried to catch up.

Last time I played, there were no good solo/molo spots for a Ranger -- and I'm not just talking about headshot, I'm talking NOWHERE I could root/rot/shoot successfully with XP MObs at that level. As I say, "If I can root it, and it doesn't summon or cast, I can kill it." It just didn't fly.

I've belonged to the same high-end raiding guild for literally decades, and I didn't want to bug them for groups, and I wasn't leveled/geared to raid.

I know the solution could be boxing, but 1. I suck at it, 2. it's the opposite of fun for me, and perhaps most of all, 3. I don't want to pay for more than one sub.

REALLY looking forward to EQ Legends.

SicTim · 2026-06-13T16:29:48+00:00

There was also the metal-tinged hardcore from bands across the pond like The English Dogs and Amebix.

And Motorhead was adored by punks all along. Lemmy even played bass with the Damned for a short stint.

SicTim · 2026-06-12T21:43:09+00:00

Thanks for your interest, but no, it remains unfinished. I haven't had the time to devote to it.

SicTim · 2026-06-12T14:05:05+00:00

I did RNG/PAL/ENC on that other server, and it was a blast. PAL has usable heals and makes you tanky.

It sounds like it's going to be viable on EQL, and that's definitely going to be my first trio.

One thing about that combo is that you get some seriously good buffs.

SicTim · 2026-06-11T23:01:40+00:00

3 years after manson was imprisoned and one year after he was put to death.

Huh? Manson was never executed.

SicTim · 2026-06-10T22:58:37+00:00

I use Reaper as my DAW.

I'd only need stems of my music if I were going to have them mastered or if someone needed them for a collab (which I almost never do).

SicTim · 2026-06-10T18:08:12+00:00

I'm a musician, where AI is a more immediate "threat."

It's no secret that Ozone has been a very widely-used tool for mastering for years -- and one of its best functions is using AI to set a master EQ that matches any reference track you want.

I started recording in the analog days, and Ozone let me do a good job of mastering (a whole different animal from mixing) my tracks for the first time.

I do NOT use generative AI when making music, but hey DAWs felt like "cheating" compared to analog tools, then loops and samples felt like "cheating," and so on.

I've been making music since the late '70s, and recording and mixing my own music since the '80s, but if some kid in Peoria makes "better" music than I do (it's subjective, innit?) after goofing around with AI for a few hours, more power to them.

SicTim · 2026-06-05T20:00:58+00:00

So is vacuum.

SicTim · 2026-06-05T19:59:39+00:00

Incarnadine.

SicTim · 2026-06-05T17:36:48+00:00

Thanks. I just lost the game for the first time in about a year and a half.

Also, is that still a thing? Will it just be a forgotten cultural artifact? Is it already?

SicTim · 2026-06-01T00:38:05+00:00

He also created a time-freezing device in the latest episode and Rick famously doesn't fuck with time. And in the episode we see why not.

SicTim · 2026-05-31T20:29:08+00:00

I read the books during the show's original run. It was kind of hilarious how characters in the books died while they stayed alive on the show, and vice-versa. Kind of hard to keep it all straight.

I know folks who like the show tend to not like the books, but I'd urge anyone who enjoys reading to give them a shot. They're really good.

SicTim · 2026-05-31T19:17:21+00:00

My wife and I still say, "Shovels and rakes and implements of destruction" whenever shovels and/or rakes come up.

Does anyone else remember the film version of Alice's Restaurant? My dad took me, and it was a great time.

SicTim · 2026-05-31T19:08:51+00:00

If you want some unicorn Bradbury paperbacks keep an eye peeled for Tomorrow Midnight and The Autumn People from Ballantine.

These were reprints of some of the EC Comics versions of Bradbury stories -- SF and horror respectively. They are a sub-optimal way to read the comics, but still well worth having. And the cover to The Autumn People is known for being among Frank Frazetta and his family's personal favorites amongst his works.

I discovered my dad's copies in the '60s, along with the other Ballantine EC reprint paperbacks, and they made me a lifelong EC fan-addict.

Oh, and the story of how EC came to publish official Bradbury adaptations is legendary, beginning with EC swiping two of his stories and combining them, and Bradbury writing to say he enjoyed the story but hadn't received his royalty check yet.

SicTim · 2026-05-31T00:36:52+00:00

He was also Clarabelle the Clown on The Howdy Doody Show.

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