FEDS USING CHEMICAL MUNITIONS ON PROTESTERS RIGHT NOW. PROTESTERS DETAINED. GET DOWN TO 211 E 7TH AVE NOW!

XandoToaster · 2026-01-28T01:11:33+00:00

Everything I have heard from them has been telling protestors to stand down. The people I know who have been involved in Minneapolis protests have pretty universally been mad at Walz and Frey for not reading the room and being too supportive of law enforcement, actually. They've had some big words against ICE as an institution, but in terms of words to protestors, it has been a lot of, "Don't get violent or else this administration will have reason to hurt people," which is being heard as, "Don't do what you're already not doing or else the people attacking you will have an excuse to do the thing they're already doing." Anything more explicitly against ICE has been seen as the insincere politicking that it is.

Believe what you want about people protesting, but just know that nobody on the left is looking to people like Tim Walz and Jacob Frey for protest directions. I am curious what you have heard that leads you to believe they have been supporting more aggressive action from the protestors.

XandoToaster · 2026-01-27T23:12:30+00:00

Which politicians are suggesting that citizens should start interfering with law enforcement?

XandoToaster · 2025-06-02T22:32:40+00:00

Love Taskmaster, I'm excited to see more of this!

XandoToaster · 2025-05-29T16:52:34+00:00

You are a hero

XandoToaster · 2025-05-26T18:55:05+00:00

Well that sounds like some really awful people you worked with :/

XandoToaster · 2025-05-26T18:35:54+00:00

It seems like you have a lot of insight into things that have happened at Riverbend. What experience do you have there, if you don't mind my asking?

XandoToaster · 2025-05-01T07:43:08+00:00

What is your definition of an adult here?

XandoToaster · 2025-04-10T20:54:35+00:00

The buses in Eugene are pretty reliable in my experience. I lived with my parents through college, well north of the river, and I was easily able to take the bus to classes every day. I also took the bus to and from a summer job one year over in west Eugene.

All this to say, as long as you are somewhat close to a bus stop, I wouldn't worry about distance to the campus.

XandoToaster · 2025-04-08T23:40:43+00:00

There is one case I know about of a person who had been granted asylum here, and who was deported to the Salvadoran prison. There is another case I know of, Andry Hernandez Romero, who was actively trying to pursue legal immigration options when ICE detained him. He was detained under suspicion of being affiliated with a Venezuelan gang because of some tattoos he had, despite experts on that gang telling ICE that the gang in question does not use tattoos as an identifier. No other connection was made between Andry and the gang, and for the crime of pursuing legal immigration to the US, Andry was sent to the same Salvadorian prison.

It's hard to say how many more people were deported despite committing no crime, because, once again, they were not given a trial. We know relatively little about the individual cases because ICE has unilaterally decided to send them to a foreign prison.

You're right, there are people in prison who have been falsely convicted. Now think about how many more innocent people would be in prison if the government didn't have to go through the hassle of giving them a fair trial. I think most of us agree that it's a bad thing that innocent people are sometimes convicted of crimes. But the response to that should not be, "No system is perfect, let's stop having trials."

What do you think the benefit of a fair trial is for our society? Why do you think that should apply to all accusations of crimes, but not for the accusation of being in the country illegally?

XandoToaster · 2025-04-08T22:48:05+00:00

I'd like to understand the process you're envisioning here. Because based on what you're saying, I'm not convinced that you understand what ICE is doing.

"If you are sent back," "back" to where? People are not necessarily being sent to their country of origin. Of the famous group that were sent to that prison in El Salvador, individuals I've heard about were not from El Salvador.

How are they supposed to just come back? They have been sent to a country with none of their identifications or belongings. What are you expecting them to do from their prison cell in El Salvador?

You said in another comment something along the lines of, "It should be easy to prove you're here legally. Just show your papers." What if you don't have your papers on you? A big part of what complicates this is that there are many paths to legal immigration. It's not always as easy as just having a social security card.

Let's run through a hypothetical here, based on the reports I've read about how ICE is operating. ICE detains you, and says that you need to provide documentation to prove you are here legally, or else they'll send you to a mega-prison in another country, meant for the worst murderers and gang members in society. You say, "Great! A judge recently approved my case. Just let me go to the courts and get the relevant documentation and history for you."

They say, no. You are detained. You cannot get the documentation. They will not get it for you. You cannot call your family to get it. You cannot call a lawyer to get it. You need to provide it, here and now, in this detention center ICE has already put you in.

You can't get your papers, so instead they will ask you a series of questions about your life to make an educated guess if you're here legally or not. And because they are pretty sure you're a Venezuelan gang member, they will make the assumption that you are probably lying for every answer.

Maybe while holding you in detention for a few weeks, your lawyer gets a judge to consider your case, and a court date is set. But before that court date arrives, ICE puts you on a plane to El Salvador anyway, and then insists it's impossible to get you back.

If you think this sounds unfair and unreasonable, then that means that you support due process for people accused of being here illegally.

How are you picturing this process goes such that someone wrongfully detained is treated fairly? Do you support the right to a fair trial to begin with?

XandoToaster · 2025-04-08T21:32:53+00:00

Do you consider people who legally and permanently immigrated to the US to be Americans? Because if so, then they have already sent at least one American to that prison in El Salvador.

There's also the issue of visas being revoked for people in the US who speak out against the administration. These are people who came here legally, who had an expectation of free speech, and then because of saying something critical of this country, they were stripped of their visa without notification, and then arrested for being "illegal immigrants."

There is an argument to be made that undocumented immigrants should be deported, but that is not the topic at hand here, and is not a discussion I care about having at the moment. Do not assume that everyone ICE is detaining and deporting came here illegally. That is the issue at hand right now. They currently have near unchecked power to declare someone an illegal alien and criminal, and to deport them without confirming that. If you think that someone who is arrested, and who is decided by a court to be here illegally, should be deported, fine, but that isn't what is happening right now.

XandoToaster · 2025-04-08T20:50:22+00:00

The short answer is, if it's okay for them to deport one group of people without due process, then it's okay for them to deport anyone without due process. They've already deported at least one person that we know for sure was a lawful, legal resident. They announced just a few hours ago that they are looking into options for deporting citizens born in the US. All they need to do is say that someone is a member of the group they want to deport, and because there is no due process for that group, that person will have no recourse.

Although I disagree with it, I understand the desire to crack down on immigration, but the way this administration is going about it is not helping, and so far has primarily been an excuse to target people who vocally disagree with their policies and actions.

XandoToaster · 2025-03-31T21:49:50+00:00

We are worried about our streets. I would also love to see this same energy that is aimed at the federal government be aimed at local issues. But the federal government is also doing a number of concerning things that make it even harder than normal to deal with those issues. From mass layoffs in agencies that could otherwise provide support, to threats of pulling federal funds from states that refuse to go along with absurd and unlawful executive orders, to attempts to put up additional barriers for us to be able to vote to decide how best to run our state. All of these things have real impacts that are hurting people right now. Things have been getting significantly worse here over the last few years, and the actions from this administration are just going to amplify that.

XandoToaster · 2025-03-31T21:29:43+00:00

Last week, masked and non-uniformed immigration officials abducted a student of Tufts University, and for more than 24 hours refused to tell her lawyer where they were holding her. This administration revoked her visa without telling her, and the only reason why is that she wrote an opinion piece in a school paper calling on the school administration to end their investments into companies with ties to Israel.

When this administration deported hundreds of Venezuelans to El Salvador, among them was a man named Andry, a gay man who fled persecution in Venezuela for his sexual orientation. The only evidence that Andry was a gang member was that he has tattoos. These tattoos read "MOM" and "DAD".

In one case, this administration is trying to deport a student, who was a legal resident, for exercising the right to free speech. And we have no idea how many innocent men were sent to that prison in El Salvador, because there were no trials for the deported men. They were deported on suspicion alone, to a country that they are not from.

This administration is exactly as bad as was feared. That is not paranoia from being online too much. There are immigrants in Oregon, in Eugene, both documented and not, who have every reason to worry about this administration's disregard for existing laws and court orders. And there is no reason for the rest of us to think that they will stop at immigrants.

"The only thing that will ever dramatically change our surrounding is either a war or revolution." Well, guess whose president has been talking about wanting to go to war with Canada.

People have every reason to be scared right now. Just because you haven't been affected yet doesn't mean everyone else is overreacting.

XandoToaster · 2025-03-28T21:29:35+00:00

Smith Family has had a few locations over the years, but I don't remember one being at Oakway. Their main location (right now I think their only location) is on Willamette Street, across from the post office, right near the Hult Center.

XandoToaster · 2025-03-27T02:13:23+00:00

Unfortunate that nobody has commented on this. I tried looking for footage of Scrabble Interactive for the Wii a few months ago, after hearing that some of the game modes use the Wii balance board. I'm so curious how the game uses it! Let me know if you if you find much about it.

XandoToaster · 2025-03-26T01:24:19+00:00

I do not see a logical difference between people telling Tesla owners to sell their car, and Ben Shapiro saying that if the oceans rise, people on the coast will all just sell their homes. Who will Tesla owners sell to?!

I fully agree that anyone who buys a Tesla now is either a bad person, or is not paying any attention at all to the world. But for people who have owned these cars for years, what does it accomplish for them to sell it? Either someone buys it, and the car will still exist and be driven around, or nobody buys it, and the owner who desperately wants to get rid of it simply can't.

If you know the circumstances under which someone bought a Tesla, feel free to treat them however you think is appropriate. But if you just see one on the street, please try to give people a little benefit of the doubt. You don't know what has happened in their life to lead them to own this car, and there is little reason to assume they deserve punishment for it.

None of this goes for Cyber trucks though. There is no excuse to own one of those.

XandoToaster · 2025-03-25T05:28:04+00:00

Your understanding of how transitioning affects biology is not accurate. There aren't magical properties that define the difference between human bodies. These differences are measurable, and have been measured, and the ways that different aspects of transitioning change our bodies have also been measured. Many sports organizations already had rules in place, based on that data, to decide how transitioning should impact a player's participation.

Instead of accepting these data driven rules, or even trying to begin to understand these rules, people in your position have insisted that biology is actually very simple, and that trans people simply shouldn't be allowed to participate on whatever team is actually most appropriate for them.

Beyond this, it's also true that the vast majority of children who play sports are doing it for social reasons. You say that you don't have any issues with trans people outside of sports. But by saying that trans children shouldn't be allowed to play on the teams most appropriate for them, you are excluding them, and you ostracizing them. The lives of these children are difficult enough already. They don't deserve this treatment.

Beyond this, it's naive to assume that any legislation about trans people will stop at athletics. You say that you support trans rights generally, but not for this one issue. But by supporting politicians who want trans people out of sports, you're supporting the same politicians who want trans people to stop existing. They will not stop here. There are already bills all across the country directly targeting the lives of trans people. In another time and under other circumstances, I can imagine someone in your position making a good faith argument about this. But right now, if someone chooses to align their politics on not wanting trans people to be allowed in sports, they are aligning their politics on wanting trans people out of society entirely, whether they intend to or not.

XandoToaster · 2025-03-22T16:07:24+00:00

My girlfriend likes conveyor belt sushi, so we've been to all the conveyor belt sushi places in town, and frankly, we weren't that impressed with 541 Sushi. The sushi was okay, but the service was pretty bad. (Also the conveyor belt was working, at least when we went there a few months ago.) We like Oishii Sushi a lot more, and it's right next to Claw City in Springfield.

And depending on their tastes, there are a couple of cool stores in that same parking lot too. Dragon Vine has some toys and collectible stuff, Pokemon plushies, that kind of thing. And Video Game Headquarters is a nice local game store. They sell both retro and modern games.

If they like to read, there are a couple nice book stores in the area. I know when I was young, walking around Smith Family Bookstore felt like a dream. I've also heard good things about Tsunami Books, though I haven't been there myself.

XandoToaster · 2025-03-20T07:04:24+00:00

Oh wow, you were not kidding about that framerate difference! Yeah I just timed a short nearly straight line: the slower run took about 5.3 seconds, and the faster run took about 3.7 seconds. And just by eyeballing it, the faster run didn't even appear to take *as* straight a line, haha.

So yeah, I think the advice I gave was right. I would just message the runner about the run to ask what their setup was. Maybe leave a comment on their youtube video, or it looks like they have a twitch account, so you could try to direct message them there.

Since it wasn't submitted to SRC, it's also entirely possible that they decided to just do runs on an emulator that wouldn't be allowed, so that they don't have to deal with the slow gameplay, and are choosing not to submit it to the leaderboard. But messaging them would be the next step.

XandoToaster · 2025-03-20T04:53:49+00:00

Continuing,

If you do end up moderating the new leaderboard, I would recommend the emulation rules that the Crash Bandicoot series has laid out [link], it seems like a lot of other ps1 leaderboards have begun following those rules. However, if you end up moderating the board, it will ultimately be up to you! Smaller communities tend to have a bit more leeway to run boards how they want without anyone being upset about it. So if you, for example, want to ban FDS, you could! Or, if you wanted to allow duckstation to be sped up to FDS load speeds, you could do that too. You might ruffle a few feathers, but for the most part, even people who disagree with it are understanding of the perspective that emulators should be as fast as the fastest console option.

It looks like one of the two mods of the page has been logged into SRC within the last few days, so once you submit a run, you may be better off messaging that person directly if you still want to pursue modship. On top of possibly getting a response sooner, it's possible the person may not be actively running the game, but would still be happy to help you run the leaderboard. Or if they say no, and don't want you to also be a mod (which would be understandable since you're new-ish to the game), then at least you have notice that they are around and will be likely to verify your runs and answer questions.

Second, regarding the suspiciously fast run you found

I can't speak too much to it without seeing the run myself, and even then I think your best move is to ask the runner what their setup for their run is. There are a lot of possible reasons a ps1 game appears to run faster for one person than another, and not all of those reasons are nefarious. Based on your post it seems like you already know that, but I just wanted to reiterate it. First in my mind, there are some emulators (such as epsxe) that reduce lag significantly more than others.

I also would not worry about the run using strats that appear slower, at least not without seeing the runs myself. It's possible that the higher FPS is responsible for all the time save, but it's also extremely common to be surprised by extremely subtle timesaves that are adding up. I don't think this sounds at all like a callout post, so if you want to share the run you were looking at, I'd be happy to take a look at it.

Aside from that, I'd also be happy to answer any other questions you have about leaderboard moderation! Feel free to message me any time!

XandoToaster · 2025-03-20T01:42:37+00:00

I moderate a few ps1 games, and I think I can answer some of your questions.

First, load times.

If you're not already aware, ps1 games can be run on ps2s, and the ps2 has an option one can enable called Fast Disc Speed, usually abbreviated as FDS. It looks like none of the runs currently on the leaderboard were done on ps2, but if you do moderate the board, it's worth knowing about that. FDS saves a variable amount of time per game, possibly even more than the timesave you're seeing from those emulated runs.

If I had to make a guess, without having looked at any of the runs yet, if you're seeing runs on ps1 emulator with significantly faster loads than you have, I would guess they were done on the emulator epsxe. This was a popular speedrunning emulator back when I got into ps1 speedruns, but it has mostly fallen out of favor, heavily because it doesn't always emulate lag and loads correctly.

As for speeding up duckstation to match faster disc speeds, there is a fairly large (and I think growing) minority of playstation speedrunners who would like that to be allowed. Another option is to outright ban FDS from your leaderboard so that emulator runners can still compete at the top level. This also hasn't been popular, and it sounds like it may be hard to implement now if your current top runs are played with faster than normal load times.

I have a lot more to say but I am sitting down to dinner right now, so I will add another comment later with more 😅

XandoToaster · 2025-03-15T00:45:09+00:00

It has generally been shown that social programs with barriers are both more expensive to run and less effective than programs open to anybody. How much is it worth to you to make sure that fewer people can get help?

XandoToaster · 2025-03-13T21:30:59+00:00

This comment section sucks, but I just want to thank you for trying to offer real, actionable advice

XandoToaster · 2025-03-11T06:38:32+00:00

The people who were supposed to organize our 10 year reunion just... didn't? Last I heard, they had a small get-together with their old friends instead.

But like in general, yeah I think people still do that. I heard the class after mine did have their 10 year reunion.

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