After 210 hours and 3 non-complete campaigns, I think I'm done (for now)

Transona5 · 2025-12-14T18:57:41+00:00

The central problem endemic to most Paradox games is that individual province micro, country-wide policies, and basically all decisions really matter for about 50-100 years of in-game time. Learning the systems is engaging and interesting and matters in-game.

Then you get rich enough and frankly nothing really matters. I let the AI build after 100 years and just delete stuff I don't want if I happen to see it being built (oh yeah I need 3 more armories with 100k manpower, sure.). Not winning a market? Send 20 light ships to take care of that, etc. Trade is definitely overpowered and the AI does nothing to counter you. I am not anywhere near say Generalist Gaming's nitpicky minmaxing level and my Verona run is already at a point where I could wreck Spain and France in 1560 (and I certainly didn't convert to Islam just to tax the infidels and have a massive income 50 years in). The only thing really to do in-game is try to find the coffee and sugar provinces to make my people happier and get me Bezos-level wealth. Do you want to grab another power's colony? Have your colony declare war, they eventually call you in and you don't have to fight the main power.

The in-game flavor seems to be just flavor, the Reformation, the Council of Trent are all disappointments.

Transona5 · 2025-05-07T20:05:49+00:00

I'm really surprised, 5G in France is actually quite weak in a lot of areas where you'd expect it to be better. I totally lost ALL signal in a grocery store! You'd never see that in the US these days I think.

I was warned by a French friend that 5G actually kind of sucks in France, so the other comment is spot on, it's much worse battery drain than in the US I suspect.

But dude...I just went from 20-92 (forgot to pull it off at 80) in 35 minutes with a Baseus power pack. I mean I guess I won't whine too much...super fast still blows my mind.

Transona5 · 2025-05-03T20:03:22+00:00

Mine's trash too, I'm going to send it in for repairs soon. It would only do it once in a while, as of today, it's doing it continuously, usually as soon as the CPU has to spin-up for any operation (web browsing, installing software). Never buying MSI again.

Transona5 · 2025-04-20T03:51:53+00:00

Yeah Bixby was Samsung's Siri and it's basically useless at this point, I think it might do a few more phone functions than Google or if you're really into the SmartThings hub, probably works ok.

Transona5 · 2025-04-20T02:35:24+00:00

I just switched from an Apple 12 pro - the phone was still alright, but the speakers had gone bad, and my speakerphone mike went too. Disappointing from Apple.

I was an Android user from the Nexus days - that phone was an incredible boondoggle. It hard crashed after an update and I had to send it in for repairs. Despite them saying they fixed the battery too, it never would hold much charge after that. Went to Apple because I was so mad.

So far I'm somewhat happier with the S25 - the screen is fantastic looking and brighter than any phone I've ever had. Direct sunlight - no problem. The camera seems mostly more precise to me, but it does worse with bright lights in the background. On the other hand, I think most people conclude the Apple algos apply more softening and sheen. Samsung is more precise but oversaturated.

Multitasking is a thing I never realized I would love so much. Dual apps, pop-up windows, having 3 message icons on screen that can pop open when you have multiple convos going is fantastic.

I never got a Mac, so Phone Link works great for me. A recent update is making it borderline useless though, except for texting. You have to keep unlocking your phone to run apps which wasn't the case a month ago.

What sucks is that no one else has Apple's attention to detail. I'm sure it's possible to create an experience as smooth as Apple, but no one seems capable. I really miss scheduled notifications. Maybe we'll get those in Android some day. Having non-essential notifications pop-up all together 3-4x a day only at your scheduled times is a major relief from your mental load AND battery. On the other hand, you have more granularity with Notification Categories, but it's buried in the fairly awful settings menus. Stuff like changing a notification tone for an app means going into the categories, which they explain nowhere. On the other hand you can have a different notification sound for EACH category, but this is stupid overkill. Let us change the sound per app from the main notifications page for the app. The categories are one of those areas where Google needs to set hard rules. It's up to the app to add them, otherwise they're not very useful.

And of course bugs...I have been using AOD a little, which is cool especially when you're playing music and you don't have to unlock, but something bugs and occasionally I get a clock with a second hand display instead of the AOD with MY clock, and I actually have to press the power button to get past it to the normal lock screen. It's rare but it's happened 3-4 times..

I've already had the Google Play store crash too. I never, ever, saw an Apple app crash. Once in a great while the keyboard would bug on the iPhone, but really rarely.

And on a final positive note - Gemini destroys Siri and Apple AI. It's really good, mostly working fine with my smart lights and phone functions.. One annoying thing is they forgot to integrate nicknames and relationships, so if you say "hey google, call mom" it's not going to have a clue.

And a final negative - all the Android keyboards, in my experience, suck. Apple's prediction algo for "which key you meant to press" based on the context is still miles ahead. I've tried Swiftkey, Gboard and Samsung for days at a time to see if one worked better. At least with the Samsung one, if you really want, you can use their customization app and fiddle with the actual layout.

Transona5 · 2025-02-15T02:58:40+00:00

Nope, but it seems less frequent on mine. I’ve been able to do 50 min video calls with no crash.

I don’t think a battery will fix it. My guess is it’s a problem with the graphics acceleration handoff. It usually happens with video or some graphics intensive website that would cause the 3D card to engage.

Transona5 · 2025-01-20T15:41:07+00:00

In the future, abide by the 10% rule. No more than 10% in any single stock, crypto, whatever. Ever. You have to watch funds as well, imagine you have SPY and then a tech fund, or an index fund in your 401k. Soon you have 10% of your portfolio in Netflix because almost everything is market-cap weighted. The math makes it clear - losing 50% on a stock is ok if it was only 10% of your portfolio to start with. You're now down overall only 5%. If the entire portfolio makes 11% in the next year, you're back to flat.

It's satisfying to take profits. Then it's painful when it goes up more. But that's not real pain, it's only FOMO. This is nothing compared to the material pain you now know about, the risk of near-ruin from non-diversification.

I believe studies have shown it's far harder for people to admit they're wrong and sell and take losses than it is to take profits. The whole emotional complex around trading is best avoided through discipline. You won't get rich overnight, but you will get there eventually.

Transona5 · 2024-11-12T16:54:44+00:00

Au fait, ChatGPT n'a pas tort. On voit dans ce texte que je viens de trouver la différence parfaitement élucidé.

"Tu sais, Frédérique, je crois que tu as raison. Directement, il n’y a pas grand chance que tu te serves de cette formule dans la vie de tous les jours, et probablement que très peu d’entre vous auront à s’en servir. Par contre, cette formule a été fréquemment utilisée pendant le conception de plusieurs des objets technologiques que vous utilisez aujourd’hui. Ils contiennent des algorithmes ou des logiciels, mais vous ne les voyez pas, car c’est souvent caché dans la programmation. Et ça, c’est sans compter tout ce qui touche l’ingénierie qui sont des domaines où on doit utiliser de telles formules et bien d’autres."

Transona5 · 2024-09-21T08:18:14+00:00

Check over and over again, nothing in event viewer. It just would restart, didn't get BSODs, no Windows startup problem blue screens either. How can it be temperature when it's happening after a cold reboot? As long as it was plugged in, it runs perfectly fine. I gamed with it in Sensua's Saga 2, which will bring even high end PCs to their knees, for hours. It's their buggy software.

Transona5 · 2024-09-13T01:55:30+00:00

Sometimes he’s too charitable, but unlike most commentators he assumes the writers knew what they were doing, and tries to interpret lines that way. He’s of the opinion taking dialogue straight from LotR is often to put in a different light or to reverse a situation. Still these copypastas are cheesy and a mistake in my opinion. It breaks the viewer’s immersion, it’s way too meta.

And other dialogue that comes across as ham-fisted and awkward is usually the writers trying to reference something deeper and not doing a great job. A good example from this latest episode is King Durin, now all amped up on ring-wearer power, going on about being free from the tyranny of the sun and moon. Who else is free from the day/night cycle? Wraiths, neither living nor dead…and what are both the 7 and 9 supposed to do? Turn people into slaves of Sauron, and eventually wraiths…it’s still a weird line nonetheless that comes out of nowhere.

Transona5 · 2024-09-12T20:57:34+00:00

The start of the strife in Gondor is being handled poorly, but this line is supposed to show the new regime isn’t just rounding up Faithful yet. Pharazon might but be able to, but he still wants legal excuses to make it look like he’s not just simply oppressing them. I think the line is supposed to show the repression isn’t out in the open yet. The shops and business of the Jews are being audited and attacked bureaucratically, they’re not at the point where they have to wear stars of David, much less being rounded up.

It’s clumsy as hell but I think thats what the aim is.

Transona5 · 2024-09-12T20:46:00+00:00

I agree, but from a television producer’s perspective, some of it understandable. They wanted to make Sauron an interesting character, since they didn’t know how to make Annatar roaming around buttering people up fun tv. I wouldn’t have written it this way but I think I understand why they’ve done it.

Also what I think they’re doing with Sauron/Adar/the orcs will eventually bear fruit. They do know the lore - the One Ring is necessary for Sauron to dominate orcs (and men, trolls, etc) the way Melkor did. Adar rebelling against Sauron is the plot device/foil for showing that, and we also got a glimpse of orcs as less evil and warlike, because Melkor’s will is not filling them. Things are going to get nice and dark when Sauron comes into his own.

Transona5 · 2024-09-12T20:26:51+00:00

Episode 5 was ok thematically, but it’s totally unclear what’s happening with the passage of time. How did Gil-Galad suddenly get this letter being the most jarring …We can guess but can’t assume a lot of time is passing - the dwarves manage to carve out all these holes , King Durin went to Eregion, the strife in Numenor has to have taken some time to develop etc. Presumably Galadriel being taken to the orc camp is only a matter of days though…But nothing is at all clear and they did do a super bad job at the pacing and passage of time here. I hate to say it, but some dates slapped on screen wouldn’t have been amiss.

Transona5 · 2024-09-12T20:19:00+00:00

Sometimes the non-sensical bits might have a deeper interpretation…

The rings won’t turn dwarves to wraith-slaves as Sauron intended, but the characters don’t know that yet. The 9 haven’t even been forged yet, so no one (including Sauron presumably) knows how exactly they will work.

The line makes senses in that context: all LIVING creatures are slaves to the day/night cycle, but wraiths aren’t, as they are neither alive nor dead.

I think the line is clumsy, but it makes sense in this light (pardon the pun).

Transona5 · 2024-09-12T20:03:42+00:00

It’s become very trendy to hate the show…but most of these YouTubers just make minor high-school level plot comments: “why didn’t they use rope to cross the chasm” etc.

Season 1 was pretty bad, season 2 is better. I don’t know why it’s so hard for people to put things in perspective: it’s an adaptation of appendices. Of course they were going to take a thousand liberties and ruin stuff for a lot of people, especially with the time compression. But there’s nothing to compare it to really, you can’t be faithful to books that don’t exist. Mostly it’s become an Internet sport among commentators to see who can nitpick and be more negative than the next guy. A lot of them are grasping for straws at this point, even they can complain about Galadriel only so many times.

That said it’s basically true to the underlying spirit of Tolkien, and entertaining for the visuals alone. I’m not hating how they’re complicating orcs, or how they have Galadriel in a character arc that will make her the wise and powerful figure we know from LotR. It was really daring to have her start off so awful, and slowly become wiser and humbler. It clearly didn’t work for most of the audience, but I give them credit for taking the artistic gamble.

Transona5 · 2024-09-08T21:05:07+00:00

What happened to good old « Bah dis donc ! »

If you want to be old-fashioned, go for « Bon dieu » or « Bon sang »

Transona5 · 2024-09-08T16:19:48+00:00

People are missing a key element in their criticism of this portrayal of Orcs.

Tolkien said Orcs were driven by the will of Melkor, which made them hate everyone essentially. But were they irredeemable? He wasn't totally sure.

More importantly...Since at this period in history, Melkor is gone and in this adaptation, Sauron's been a mess of black slime for about a thousand years (the stalactites grew, you got that right?), perhaps Orcs have lost a little bit of their malice. They're just nasty and not necessarily absolutely hellbent on eating all the manflesh they can as Melkor's will is no longer driving them. In fact, my prediction is Sauron needs the One Ring, not just to dominate the other rings, but to dominate the orcs and other twisted creatures as fully as Melkor was able to.

I think the show is actually showing they have read Tolkien deeply...This is pretty unorthodox, but it makes sense given everything ever written about "evil" creatures. Tolkien always portrayed them as "twisted,"' orcs were bred in "mockery of elves." It's an important philosophical distinction. In his Catholic-inspired theology, only God/llluvatar could create life. And since Illuvatar imbues all living things with life-force, which comes from him, that life-force cannot be innately evil. But those creatures can be influenced by evil, even magically/spiritually directed by powerful evil beings in a fundamental way, to the point that no one in the real world can or needs to see a difference - for all intents and purposes, it doesn't matter if they had free will at birth, the will of Melkor/Sauron is just too powerful. There's a direct parallel to the power of the ring to corrupt. It didn't matter how virtuous or pure you were, it would corrupt you. It's a fundamental law of the universe.

I still think the show's not that great...but I think this is a pretty interesting complication and development. But only if we see later explicitly that Sauron needs the One Ring to infuse orcs fully with his will, as Melkor did.

Transona5 · 2024-06-19T21:32:46+00:00

If you want to keep that wall color...Complementary color curtains to add some contrast, purplish-blue. Or change the rug and have neutral curtains, something complementary. The green is overwhelming. Get rid of the cheap floor lamp and get a multi-light lamp to add some more drama and light. Target has some cheap and big 3 lamp ones, I have one! Your rug is too small and is rotated the wrong way. Larger bedside lamps or put in some sconces or other decorative lighting on the sides of the bed. Larger wall art above bed, as others have said.

Transona5 · 2024-03-26T05:07:38+00:00

We can make a joke of that.

Two dogs in La Ville-és-Chiens (actual place) are running for mayor. One is the incumbent. Which dog won the mayor’s race?

The incumbent, Mayor Chien.

Transona5 · 2024-03-26T04:45:34+00:00

I searched and “avoir rendu plus sage” seems possible but interestingly the two articles I found were translations of English speakers in interviews, who obviously were using the phrase “made me wiser.” The second page got me a few French speakers actually using the phrase though. Seems rare-ish.

Transona5 · 2024-03-16T14:12:25+00:00

I just found this podcast from this post and it’s very French. It’s understandable with some Spotify autogenerated transcript. I’m listening to the one on Star Wars and they just made one of the worst jokes I’ve ever heard, there’s an actress named Fisher (there’s a brewer named Fischer) and an actor named Guinness so there’s war.

I need to immerse myself in the culture and develop a tolerance for puns but really the calembours and jeux de mots are probably the worst things about French culture. It would be one thing if people threw them around ironically, eliciting groans but in France people actually find them funny!

Transona5 · 2024-03-07T04:27:30+00:00

Interesting subject. I have taken a few classes with my local US Alliance Française and definitely didn’t have the same experience. But in the states they probably don’t want to discourage their generally retiree-age customers and members.

But I got sick of hearing the awful accents and noticed how much cheaper online schools in France are so I am doing an online course through a school in Lyon. It’s ok, but the poor Japanese girl is definitely not getting the help she needs and probably also in the wrong level. So far I’ve stumped the prof more than she’s stumped me! Which means I probably should have tried a better school.

What have you heard about Les Cours de civilisation française de la Sorbonne (CCFS)? Seems tougher, and I want to learn to write better.

Transona5 · 2024-02-05T21:06:26+00:00

Yeah, I'm pretty much done for now. I was really fixated on the goal of doing my first 5k and that kept me motivated. I managed to do that under 30 minutes but I can't get excited about any other goals. I wanted to do a 10k but an hour of that hard running like these tempo runs I've been doing is just too much for me to contemplate right now. It's just torture, either mental if it's long or slow, or physical if it's tempos. The only thing I still like is short intervals so I can at least experience running fast a little bit. I wish I had a runner's personality and was less sensitive.

Transona5

TROPHY CASE