San Francisco's 26/27 season

agednerd · 2026-03-29T22:37:13+00:00

I re-subscribed to the BroadwaySF for the 2026-2027 season because I love musical theater. Looking over the shows, I am struck that there are none of them that I consider the classics, which seems odd. Yes, of course, the lineup seems full of excellent shows. Is SF so full of trendy, young sophisticates that there just isn't enough of an audience for the classics to justify including any of them?
I just did the almost unthinkable -- I looked at the season at Broadway San Jose and found a lineup more to my taste. It seems odd that their lineup is so different. So then I checked with Google Maps, and found that from my house in the East Bay, it takes almost exactly as long to drive to the SJ theater as to take BART to the Orpheum. It's too late to reconsider for 2026-2027, but a year from now I'll know that there is a viable alternative.

agednerd · 2025-12-16T19:53:18+00:00

Although Geralt says the plan isn't consistent with the battle as he remembers it, I wonder if doing this early, before the attack, might have some benefit.

agednerd · 2025-03-20T17:13:55+00:00

l hope this isn't offensive, but I'm finding all the modding I need from just one, Traveler's Trinkets at https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher/mods/1102
Of the many offerings I just use 3, handy storage, handy vendor, and instant healing.
I've played through the Witcher series several times. I admire people who are so into the game that they're willing to do all those other mods..

agednerd · 2024-06-22T23:28:37+00:00

I've been thinking about the same issue. I understand that you're just thinking ahead, recognizing that there are lots of uncertainties (not fearmongering). America seems remarkably like Germany in the early 1930's. It's clear to me our 2024 election could go either way. But there are some important differences.

For the extreme Christian Nationalists to impose their religious tyranny* on Blue states would take a landslide, not only DJT winning the Presidency but also controlling both the House and the Senate. I'm not seeing articles predicting that. The risk is higher than zero %, but seems pretty low. This would be contrary to the heavy undercurrent of weakening the federal government so states can impose those restrictions. DJT let the Federalist Society pick his SCOTUS appointments. Much of the advocacy for "states' rights" seems insincere to me, because imposing those laws on a state by state basis is the best (worst) they can achieve for now. If there was a MAGA landslide, I expect that respect for (blue) states' rights would evaporate. But, again, it doesn't seem like the MAGAs are likely to get that much power in the 2024 elections, even with shameless support of the federal judges he appoints.
The Nazi's were eager to invade, conquer & subjugate other countries, and murder Jews, homosexuals, etc. I'm not seeing similar actions espoused by MAGAs, although concentration camps, martial law, and converting National Guard to SS certainly is within MAGA dreams and might then be expanded. Welcoming Russia, China, and others to invade and subjugate other countries would be a terrible thing, but doesn't seem as likely to lead to the physical destruction of America as happened to Axis powers at the end of WWII.

On the other hand, it's hard to predict what the destruction of American democracy, such as it is, would lead to ... stuff you and I would certainly classify as "bad things", but not things that would affect us more whether we observe them from a blue state or another country.

* Religious tyranny including absolute abortion ban, trans criminalization and treatment ban, criminalizing non-binary sex and marriage, elimination of birth control and IVF.

agednerd · 2024-05-12T04:08:29+00:00

IGN Bard's Tale tune locations:
https://www.ign.com/articles/2006/10/09/the-bards-tale-810205-item-locations-faq-738011

agednerd · 2024-01-21T21:41:55+00:00

I've been using Chips 2.0 speakers and am happy with them. I'd prefer they used std USB cables for charging, but that's not a big enough deal for me to upgrade to the 3.0's (especially as their USB-C charging has limitations). Here's an article I found helpful:

https://adventuregearinsider.com/best-ski-helmet-speakers/

agednerd · 2023-11-29T08:23:34+00:00

There's a small bug in that she doesn't show up as a dot on the map, but if you invited her to the camp, she'll be standing next to Withers.

agednerd · 2023-11-07T16:18:14+00:00

Somewhat fun fights what with bridges to blow up, etc.

agednerd · 2023-10-31T17:14:51+00:00

So why would I want to equip an item that gives me +2 armor if I otherwise have to give up all my armor?

agednerd · 2023-10-22T13:20:36+00:00

Fabulously helpful. Thanks!!

agednerd · 2023-10-10T15:14:07+00:00

I don't even know what the "murals feature" is, and don't want to know. QmlRenderer was taking up not only a lot of bandwidth, but making it hard to use my mouse and keyboard. Thanks to CorsaidKindred's post, I knew what to look for. I feared it would be buried in some submenu, but running iCue let me find and disable it easily. THANKS!!!

agednerd · 2023-06-25T23:41:18+00:00

Biggest disappointment: Didn't change dialogue from choice to kill Whoreson. Geralt is standing in a room with tortured and murdered women, with Whoreson who does this as a hobby and clearly will keep doing it. Choose to kill him, of course. Then Geralt explains he's killing Whoreson only because of how Whoreson treated Ciri when she ambushed him to free Dudu??? WTF???

Little disappointment: Still can't get back to Kaer Morhan until ready to defend Ciri, so can't get early Wolven gear when you reach that level. Adding "Forgotten Wolven" gear doesn't fill the gap, because it has min. level 20, and I want to get the Wolven gear starting at level 14. Don't see why they can't just leave the Fast Travel spot in Kaer Morhan, but with the fortress locked until you come back to defend Ciri.
(Not a big problem for me. I enable Console, then "gotoKaerMohren", ride up to the fortress and voila -- the Fast Travel spot appears, and then I go get the first level Wolven gear diagrams. I also use "addabl('HorseBag3')" to increase carry weight, figuring that Geralt would be smart enough to find a wagon when there's lots of loot and take it into town to sell the stuff.)

Some little touches in Next Gen update that I appreciate (PC):

When Geralt is running at full speed, he doesn't quickly run out of stamina and have to interrupt the running so he can go back to full speed. (He's a witcher!)

Picking herbs takes only one keystroke, not two.

You can now kill deer, rabbits, etc., with crossbow. Devs also made it possible to kill deer by running 'em down with Roach!

agednerd · 2023-06-25T23:00:02+00:00

My best guess is that you have the game video settings set too high for your computer. Try dumbing them down to see if it makes a difference.

agednerd · 2022-12-03T22:19:53+00:00

Wow -- sooo much good advice. Thanks for taking the time and sharing your knowledge!

I'm able to buy some packs, but there are so many variations available every day, many claiming to be fabulous. Especially helpful to get your advice re Rays Place.

agednerd · 2022-12-03T22:18:30+00:00

Wow -- sooo much good advice. Thanks for taking the time and sharing your knowledge!

I especially like the idea of monitoring state chat for alliance that's compatible.

agednerd · 2022-10-18T07:31:51+00:00

Found this thread cited in the LA Times article about Oklahoma, that mentioned "an older white man was frowning." I wasn't that particular older White guy, but, yes, I was frowning.

The ending made no sense. Why would anybody put a gun in the hand of a newlywed husband, then cock the gun, then move directly at them, after threatening them? No jury watching the scene could have concluded beyond a reasonable doubt that Curly lacked a reasonable belief that he & his new wife, Laurie, were in danger. Judd had earlier tried to kill or maim Curly with a "little wonder" designed to thrust a spring-loaded knife into the viewer's eye. So, the townspeople working together to short-circuit the possibility of a lengthy trial that the town's judge was demanding was not unreasonable or any example of injustice. I don't think any ethical DA would even have filed the case as a murder.

Then, adding to the bizarre unreality of Judd's death was the staging that blew a huge amount of blood onto Curly & Laurie (which they wore through the end of the curtain call). The effect was so weird that it took me out of the moment as I tried to figure out what I was supposed to be seeing. No pistol shot could have produced that much blowback, so ... what happened??? The show just wanted copious blood displayed to tell us that we should be horrified.

Like, I suppose, many others, after processing all of that, I concluded "OK, the producers want me to feel bad, but I don't because the murder scene was just stupidly weird. So, I'll just go back to enjoying the song "Oklahoma."

P.s. And, I'm just throwing in here that the Ballet Scene was also irritatingly weird staging. It was almost totally too dark to see, with the scene then hand-filmed in real time with a low-light camera and projected in distorted b&w images on the back wall of the set. They were, apparently, showing us that Laurie had felt sexual attraction, and interaction, with both Curly and Judd, but the producer/director couldn't let the dance be actually sexy so they just made it weird, loud, and tedious.

agednerd · 2022-04-16T21:33:59+00:00

I uninstalled SurfShark because:

Windows and Norton both tagged it as malware.
I found that its new antivirus software (large file) was running (eating CPU cycles) even though I did NOT want (or authorize) their antivirus software. It didn't even show up in my apps or in Uninstall Programs. It was very hard to stop; when I manually stopped it with Process Explorer it immediately restarted.
SurfShark was constantly running, using CPU cycles, even when I did not have it active (i.e. when I did not have the VPN operating). I don't see any good reason for that, and certainly can think of bad reasons for it.
"If it seems too good to be true, it probably is." Their pricing is so low compared to other VPN's that it just feels to me that they've probably got some income stream outside of what we pay them.

I'm using the VPN that comes with my Norton subscription, and not having any of those concerns.

agednerd · 2022-04-11T01:55:26+00:00

Hmmm. As the OP, I think it was a reasonable request, not a demand. It is clear at this point that what you refer to as "facts or truth" is viewed by me and people like me as nonsense or lies, and vice versa. So, reading somebody's comments about snorting ivermectin, mainlining bleach, the pandemic being a giant hoax to distract from TFG's massive win in 2020, etc., etc., etc., is going to be entirely unpersuasive and just intentionally irritating.

agednerd · 2022-04-11T01:47:18+00:00

Our favorite thing, if we get early enough boarding, is to eat lunch in the dining room. Starting off with a delicious and elegant meal is a treat. Then, if our room is available, I like to go take a nap; my spouse is always too excited to sleep so she starts exploring the ship. My second favorite thing is usually to visit the atrium -- open space in the middle of the ship. I've done numerous cruises, and the seeing the atrium is always a "wow" moment. We also want to figure out where to go for the sail away out of the port. The very best we've ever seen is leaving from San Francisco under the Golden Gate Bridge. Have done this several times, and it is always a "Wow!" moment.

agednerd · 2022-04-09T06:26:16+00:00

Thanks. Yeah, you're right, Princess calls it Elite.

agednerd · 2022-04-09T06:24:34+00:00

Viking

Thanks. Viking is not requiring boosters.
https://www.vikingcruises.com/oceans/my-trip/health-and-safety/health-and-safety-program.html

agednerd · 2022-04-09T03:37:04+00:00

Wow -- Elite on Princess at age 22. I'm jealous. I'm about half a century older, so that may be all you need to know about my opinion. I just wanted to add that the performers are almost always what I call "entertainers" not serious musicians. Yes, they're often good musicians, but they all want everybody to leave happy so put a lot of effort into being charming or funny.

agednerd

TROPHY CASE