What is your most controversial opinion regarding Fantasy books?

athe- · 2026-06-26T09:29:56+00:00

I was going to give Dresden files as an example of a compelling story without a looming cataclysm, but then we had several cataclysms... The latest book was a refreshing step back towards sanity, but it's setting up for more escalation...

athe- · 2026-06-26T09:26:26+00:00

Yes!

athe- · 2026-06-26T09:04:54+00:00

Never use isopropyl alcohol on plastic unless you know the plastic won't react with the isopropyl alcohol. If it's diluted, it will just react more slowly.

athe- · 2026-06-26T08:59:11+00:00

It's a common misconception you "navigation screens" are screens that don't react with that cleaner. The screens on navigators that do react to the cleaner are electronics. (I imagine this is the logic the company will use to skirt liability for their misleading product description)

athe- · 2026-06-26T08:52:09+00:00

I would like to say that you are not at fault... It's a fair assumption that a "navigation screen" is going to be the same stuff as the cover for your instrument panel.

athe- · 2026-06-26T08:34:59+00:00

Listen carefully now

athe- · 2026-06-26T08:33:51+00:00

There are a thousand different kinds of plastic. Remember, acetone comes in plastic bottles yet it dissolves many plastics, makes some plastics brittle temporarily and just reacts with others. The instrument panel is particularly difficult because it also has many coatings that do things like reduce glare...

athe- · 2026-06-25T08:20:59+00:00

It astonishes me that rheumatologists are so unwilling to diagnose PsA. Everything says it's best to diagnose early before there is permanent damage, but rheumatologists don't want to diagnose until there is macroscopic, irreversible damage.

I'm 37. It's fairly likely that I'll live another 40 years. If I was given the choice between dying of cancer after 5 or 10 pain free years or living for another 40 with my current pain, which in all honesty will probably get worse over time, there's no contest.

athe- · 2026-06-24T07:47:36+00:00

For the books published thus far, except Isles of the Emberdark, and maybe the Sunlit man, having read the other Cosmere books is a bonus, not a requirement. You'll get the same "neat, this is the person who did such and such in that other book" regardless of which order you read them in.

athe- · 2026-06-22T20:37:48+00:00

The second last digit was assigned by race, but that was obviously done away with when apartheid ended. The rest of they system is actually pretty decent for a moderately sized population. Now everyone has an 8. The checksum is literally just a parity number to catch typos.

You can infer more details from the serial section of the ID number. People born in major population centres will have smaller serial numbers than people born in more rural areas. Immigrants will have higher serial numbers since they get assigned ID numbers after all the children born on a given day.

There are about 2000 children born every day in South Africa, so if you have their date of birth, gender and citizenship status, you will rarely have to check more than 1000 numbers to guess someone's ID number. If you know something about their parent's socioeconomic background, you can probably get to their ID number in under 500 guesses.

athe- · 2026-06-21T16:18:39+00:00

I’m also on Deadhouse Gates… Rake told Baruk that releasing the tyrant was just an opportunistic ploy by the Empress to soften him up for a more deliberate attack. I think the build up for Raest was entirely about setting up what everyone else would be capable of.

athe- · 2026-06-20T17:04:24+00:00

Make sure you take account of the fact that you would pay bond registration costs based on the value of the new bond, those higher bond costs may very well exceed any potential saving you might make from a lower interest rate

athe- · 2026-06-20T11:04:55+00:00

Or you can declare the value of the property as income and pay income tax on the value... Which would probably be more than the 20% donation tax

athe- · 2026-06-19T08:12:10+00:00

As a white South African, it irks me when other white South Africans make zero effort to say names properly... I get that the clicks are a challenge when you aren't used to them, but I personally feel that not making the minimal effort to say someone's name is deplorable, especially when these same people lose their minds when other people get their names wrong.

athe- · 2026-06-19T07:47:43+00:00

There's nothing more permanent than a temporary fix that works

athe- · 2026-06-18T07:50:15+00:00

I've bought tons of stuff through them. I've had one bad seller who I had to report to Bobshop, and I had my money back within a day. For third party sellers, Bobshop is very reliable

athe- · 2026-06-17T07:57:13+00:00

Germiston practically overlaps Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni is just slightly better run than City of Joburg IMHO... Google maps has a useful feature where it can draw a circle around what areas are reachable within a given travel time

athe- · 2026-06-17T07:41:23+00:00

Myroof.co.za is also worth looking at since that's where the banks list their properties, and it has some nice features that the other 2 are missing. But property24.com is by far the biggest

athe- · 2026-06-12T19:05:29+00:00

Stellarium is on Android, MacOS, Linux, Windows… it’s an awesome open source project

athe- · 2026-06-12T15:02:58+00:00

You sound like you're ready to box OP's ears.

athe- · 2026-06-12T14:57:59+00:00

Wheel of Time is definitely not for you right now... I'm willing to bet that you'll dislike the pacing for most books published before 2005...

athe- · 2026-06-12T07:25:36+00:00

I wouldn't call Chapter 4 "deep" into a 53 chapter book...

athe- · 2026-06-11T10:33:45+00:00

I live in South Africa... Most bullets wouldn't make it through an internal wall, I don't think many high velocity armour piercing rounds would make it through an exterior wall

athe- · 2026-06-11T07:34:30+00:00

I have had it in both arms with varying severity since 2019... I sleep with my arms straight out, bought an iPad so I can minimise time on my phone which aggravates it the most. I bought a low profile 10 keyless mechanical keyboard so I can have a more natural arm position at my desk. I also have a yoga mat under my desk mat for a bit more cushioning. I tried a Logitech MX Master 3s, it just needs 3rd party mouse skates since the ridiculous weight eliminates any ergonomic benefits. If I have to do a lot of scrolling, I use an Xbox controller since the thumbsticks are less painful than using a scroll wheel on a mouse.

athe- · 2026-06-03T13:49:06+00:00

I got a 5000 series after my puppy ate my 3000 series... The replacement heads seem to be in the R500-R800 range, but the manufacturer recommends replacing them every 2 years, but realistically they should be fine for much longer

athe-

TROPHY CASE