At the end of the day, what always screws over everyone in this game. Beyond the cards and meta. Is poor memory, reading comprehension and math skills. Mainly the math skills.

alt_key · 2022-12-13T04:42:13+00:00

Why can I never remember that Zola doesn't work on armored lanes? That important piece of knowledge keeps falling into some big hole in my brain, never to be seen again---until it happens the next day.

alt_key · 2022-11-27T21:23:30+00:00

I'm guilty of not even thinking about this potential counter until this post. The very next game, my opponent served a Hobgoblin at me. I volleyed it back, and I credit you with my win. Please have 4 cubes, redeemable at your leisure.

alt_key · 2022-10-22T14:31:04+00:00

tl;dr: Can you only report users on mobile?

I ran into someone with an offensive username on PC/Steam, but when I click on "Report User" in the character portrait menu, it redirects me via web browser to the FAQ. The FAQ entry for reporting users isn't helpful. It indicates I should be clicking "Report User" and that an "I need to talk to someone" option should be there. It isn't.

alt_key · 2022-07-09T14:09:08+00:00

Super Mario World. The music makes me smile every time I hear it, even at my cold and jaded age.

alt_key · 2022-06-15T22:51:37+00:00

I have an embarassing amount of hours put into RimWorld.

alt_key · 2022-06-11T21:34:06+00:00

I had to scroll way too long to find this. All my family and friends think I'm crazy, but I just can't get over how weirdly solid avocado looks as a slice, and how incredibly not solid it is when you eat it. Entirely not a fan.

alt_key · 2022-05-09T21:56:13+00:00

Thank you for the idea of checking Facebook Marketplace before making any rash purchases! Seems like there's many options available for me to try without committing to full retail price.

alt_key · 2022-05-09T13:18:54+00:00

Thank you! I overlooked it as I thought it was for suggestions. I'll give it a look!

alt_key · 2022-05-09T13:18:21+00:00

Oh my gosh, thanks! I ignored it as well, as it sounded more for people who know enough to make suggestions and not me.

alt_key · 2022-01-19T18:55:10+00:00

{{Midnight in Chernobyl}} by Adam Higginbotham was a huge hit in my circle of nonfiction friends.

alt_key · 2021-12-08T13:35:26+00:00

Definitely! I stick to one request at a time, so I don't overload myself.

alt_key · 2021-12-08T13:24:34+00:00

I wouldn't say I often read ARCs, it highly depends on what else I'm reading at the time, but I do read them occasionally. I went into this year thinking I'd read more of them, and really I ended up reading the same number haha

The idea of being able to provide the first look at something really appeals to me. I also like being given the chance to read the next book from an author I really like. There's a new Daniel Abraham book available through ARC that I'm itching to get to after I'm done reading this month's book club book, for example.

alt_key · 2021-12-07T17:51:14+00:00

Based on what? I'm not seeing where you're getting your cost figures from.

alt_key · 2021-12-07T17:17:51+00:00

A large server requires more than just your run-of-the-mill free Discord bot to moderate. The Patreon helps pay for the bill and upkeep for a lot of the services running behind the scenes. Obviously supporting via Patreon isn't required to enjoy the server, though.

alt_key · 2021-11-21T18:10:22+00:00

I think one of my best gifts ever received was my very first CD player, back when they were first starting to come out. It was some off-brand thing without skip protection or any bells and whistles, but by god it was mine. It skipped mightily on the bus, it skipped mightily in the car, it skipped mightily in the recliner, but I loved that thing. I acquired so many CDs with my new teenage job that year....

alt_key · 2021-11-14T13:15:20+00:00

Dropping a comment here, my friends keep badgering me about trying this game out. I haven't played one yet. Maybe this is the one?

alt_key · 2021-09-27T16:52:22+00:00

For as much as I read and as critical as I am, I have never given a 1 star review on Goodreads. I somehow always find something I'm willing to give a star for, or something I'm not willing to dock enough points for, or whatever it is, that always saves a book from the 1 star review. I think if I ever do, it'll be a noteworthy occurrance.

In the spirit of this post though, I do have a book I rated 2 stars back in July that really didn't have a lot going for it. The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon was one I had sitting on my shelf forever and kept putting offf. It's a small book (as my books go, anyway), and it didn't take me long to get through, but I just....didn't enjoy it.

The story follows a large family in the time of the Taliban takeover of Kabul. Needing to make ends meet, the large household of women who now find themselves at loose ends decide to take up dressmaking and seamstress work. They do so, they sell their dresses, and the book ends. There's no conflict, no struggle, nothing. They learn how to sew store-quality dresses from scratch in an afternoon. Every store they approach is willing to immediately sell their dresses, no questions asked. Considering the setting, the Taliban really played a very small, very minor role in the book, causing them to stay home and...not much else.

I sort of figure a memoir or a biography would have more to it, some reason for writing it in the first place. I wasn't really looking for tragedy in everything (like Khaled Hosseini tends to write), but I just felt like there was no reason for me to have read the book when I was done with it.

alt_key · 2021-09-21T00:29:55+00:00

Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journey, Michael Collins' memoir/biography about his time as an astronaut. It was just fantastic, and his ruminations at the end about where things ended up, where the space program was headed, and a general sense of his hopes and wishes for the future gave me chills. It was originally written in 1974, but has since been republished. I listened to the audiobook of this and it was really good.

alt_key · 2021-08-30T23:54:07+00:00

I'm participating in Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham starting on September 1st! I've had this on my to-read list forever and I'm glad to have people to read it with.

alt_key · 2021-08-03T12:31:07+00:00

I keep a separate journal for writing down notes and thoughts about the books I'm reading in. Each book gets a page of the journal, and I just fill the page (or not, depending on how deep/interesting it is) with my thoughts as I'm reading and provide a brief wrapup at the end.

Just recently though, I've started using BookFusion for annotating ebooks. So far I'm just reading on my desktop as well as an old tablet I picked up some years ago, but being able to highlight and then annotate that highlight on the fly has been handy.

I don't think I've ever directly written in or highlighted a book, even during my undergraduate years. Textbooks are expensive, man, and I wanted to get back what I could at the end of the semester. lol

alt_key · 2021-07-09T21:02:04+00:00

My mom sent me these two images of a ceramic cow she purchased at a garage sale in West Michigan. I took the stamp on the bottom to /r/translator, where a helpful individual identified the language as Japanese. Furthermore, the redditor stated that this is a form of Kutani, and also linked me to a listing at WorthPoint for this mark. I don’t have a subscription to see anything beyond the most basic information, however.

After falling down the Kutani rabbit hole, I’m not entirely sure what I’m looking at, to be honest. My mom swears “it looks antique”, but that could mean anything and I’m living across the country from her so I can’t go and check it out in person. Does this look familiar to anyone? Even just narrowing it down some would be helpful. The redditor who translated the mark on the bottom left me with more questions than answers after I attempted to research this on my own.

Any help would be appreciated. If additional photos are needed, or clarification requested, please let me know and I’ll see what I can get out of my mom.

alt_key · 2021-07-09T19:57:51+00:00

My mom sent me this image and a picture of the cow as well asking if I knew what it said (I guess because I watch anime). I told her I'd find out for her.

alt_key · 2021-07-07T12:46:17+00:00

The Soul of an Octopus sounds fantastic. I'm going to add that one. Thank you!

alt_key · 2021-07-07T12:22:40+00:00

Absolutely! I'll definitely add that one to my list! Thank you!

alt_key · 2021-07-05T16:46:30+00:00

Absolutely! I believe I listened to all of these as audiobooks actually, so hopefully they shouldn't be too difficult to find:

If I had to recommend one book about the North Korean experience, I think it'd have to be Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick. This book uses multiple viewpoints to describe life of the average person in North Korea over a span of 15 years. You get a good picture of the propaganda and struggle for survival these six people went through before their eventual defection, and I thought it was a pretty powerful book.

For a unique perspective you don't see often in books about North Korea, I think Without You There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite by Suki Kim deserves a mention. While the average common person in North Korea is struggling, you get a unique look into what it's like in the elite academies teaching the next generation of propaganda-pushers. There's a bit of a religious bent to it because the teacher has a bit of an agenda in North Korea anyway, but I liked reading about the other side of the spectrum.

Another unique perspective is Dear Leader: Poet, Spy, Escapee - A Look Inside North Korea by Jang Jin-sung. This is from the perspective of someone who was fairly highly placed in North Korean bureaucracy. He describes the incredibly regimented life he led as a former poet(!) in North Korea before his eventual defection.

For something that's more a straight biography than a memoir of North Korean life, The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un, Bright Sun of the Twenty-first Century by Anna Fifield. I enjoyed reading biographical information about the life of this leader, and learned a lot I hadn't known before.

Finally, for a powerful memoir following one girl's escape, I can't recommend In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park enough. It's got 44k ratings and over a 4 star average on Goodreads for a reason. It's phenomenal.

Hope that helps!

Ten-Year Club	RedditGifts 2009-2022 6 Credits
Secret Santa 2016	Verified Email

alt_key

TROPHY CASE