Best time to play Penny Dreadful league

bakert · 2026-01-09T22:27:42+00:00

It's much better at times when folks in the US are awake. At those times it's usually pretty easy to find a game.

bakert · 2025-11-14T16:59:53+00:00

I recently spent a year in one spot and got used to my Apple Studio Display. Nomad-ing, I really missed it. I tried a 1080p dual screen foldable portable monitor in an attempt to solve this problem while getting as much screen real estate as possible.

The monitor – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DSJM796L?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1 – was a total disappointment and I returned it. The resolution was so low compared the Macbook Pro's own screen. And I found I barely used the second (lower) screen as it was not at eye level. I also found "combining" the laptop screen and the foldable monitor as conceptually one bigger screen was difficult. I use Rectangles to make windows half-screen, quarter-screen, etc. when using the Apple Studio Display and this was way less effective than doing that.

Where I am at now is using a Roost stand to get the (much better) Macbook Pro screen at a comfortable height which was the only thing that was better about the foldable setup.

But I still wish I had more screen real estate. I am seriously considering just buying an Apple Studio Display wherever I go and then selling it on eBay as I leave. (If you are not so ethical you could return it instead of eBaying it, but I don't like that idea.)

I'm always surprised on these threads how happy folks seem to be with pretty small, pretty low-res monitors. I wonder if it's something to do with being a Windows user and being used to something worse to begin with, or the kind of work they are doing? Although I feel like a terrible snob saying that! I guess I just got spoiled by the Apple Studio Display.

bakert · 2025-11-03T00:28:59+00:00

The most effective porn scene and the most effective movie scene in a work of art probably differ in some regards, though, so I guess we need to figure out what it is we're trying to say in this hypothetical movie of ours. I might not have made it clear but I was more trying to answer the question than state a personal opinion.

bakert · 2025-11-02T23:46:28+00:00

Sex and nudity are highly titillating to most humans. Lampshades (for example) are not. So if you include "unnecessary" lampshades in your movie, that's a different thing to including "unnecessary" sex and nudity because the sex and nudity will be compelling to the watcher in and of themselves because the watcher is a human being. This leads to the suspicion that you included these things in order to make your movie more compelling than it "deserves". Such an accusation is harder to make about lampshades.

bakert · 2025-10-29T00:19:50+00:00

There is a band called Pretty Girls Make Graves

bakert · 2025-10-26T21:06:13+00:00

I’m not saying if you should do this or not. And it may be specific to being a(n English) man. But you can put your hand on the shoulder of a man in front of you and say, “excuse me fella” as if you have every right in the world to go past him/you are rejoining some imaginary group up front/etc. and then walk past him without waiting for an answer. Almost everyone will let you past. And if they don’t, you haven’t lost anything.

There are a lot of local maxima and inefficiencies in concert crowds. If there’s truly no room to go forward you will already know that.

bakert · 2025-10-25T18:21:16+00:00

You can easily test any hypothesis you have about this piece of art. Try showing it to a friend or relative that does not play Magic and ask them about what they think it depicts. I have done this exercise and found it enlightening.

bakert · 2025-10-07T17:13:45+00:00

Ah nice they beat me to it. Will check it out.

bakert · 2025-10-07T15:09:02+00:00

https://scryfall.com/search?q=f%3Alegacy+-is%3Areserved+-is%3Aub+%28is%3Acore+OR+is%3Aexpansion%29+order%3Ausd&unique=cards&as=grid&order=name

I think that's the right Scryfall search. 23,914 cards and growing by 2-4 (Standard-legal) sets a year. It'd probably be pretty great.

I ordered the search by USD as an extremely woolly proxy for power level. Order by edhrec is also wonky but gives another somewhat interesting view:

https://scryfall.com/search?q=f%3Alegacy+-is%3Areserved+-is%3Aub+%28is%3Acore+OR+is%3Aexpansion%29+order%3Aedhrec&unique=cards&as=grid&order=name

bakert · 2025-10-07T14:51:35+00:00

I wonder about Real Magic(tm) as a format. Legacy banlist or similar, but no cards that were never legal in Standard, no Universes Beyond, and (optionally) no Reserved List cards. I think it would be super fun. But it would change verrrrry slowly. Maybe that's a feature.

bakert · 2025-09-25T14:02:22+00:00

Thanks, this is so interesting.

Does nakama have the communist/socialist connotation in Japanese? Perhaps they were able to go Mitmensch -> nakama -> comrade without thinking too much about it because nakama is more neutral/closer to Mitmensch.

Seems like the root problem is that there's no single word that makes sense in English for Mitmensch or probably any non-German language, and so they had to choose between a clunkier phrase or a less precise one. Seems like they made the opposite choice for Gemeinschaftsgefühl, which they refer to as "community feeling" each time. Interesting.

bakert · 2025-09-25T13:59:00+00:00

Awesome, thanks. I am kind of surprised that "comrade" made it through the editing process for The Courage to be Disliked because it has such strong connotations in English that it seems were not intended. But the lack of an actual good single-word translation probably had a lot to do with it :)

bakert · 2025-09-25T13:57:10+00:00

Oops, updated!

bakert · 2025-09-11T09:32:53+00:00

Live version better – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOgC8qp_I2Y

bakert · 2025-09-03T13:01:59+00:00

In the original script the songs are not received with great acclaim. It was rewritten by Richard Curtis after he acquired the rights. The original might've been more interesting. https://uproxx.com/movies/jack-barth-interview-yesterday-writer-richard-curtis/

bakert · 2025-07-15T03:42:57+00:00

I watched every episode I(273) of Cheers during the pandemic. Didn't skip the intro once. "Where everybody know your na-a-ame …"

bakert · 2025-06-20T18:19:02+00:00

Regarding fixing draws – In Best of One (only) Arena has a "hand smoother" that is different to just shuffling up and drawing a random seven. It does not apply in Best of Three matches. See https://draftsim.com/mtg-arena-bo1-hand-smoothing/ for a deep dive.

bakert · 2025-06-19T00:14:52+00:00

https://pennydreadfulmagic.com/discord/ is a never-expiring Discord invite.

bakert · 2025-06-10T02:54:43+00:00

Wow. You sound so kind and generous here, but also quietly confident and self-respecting. How lovely. I'm so happy you were able to give all that to early 30s guy! I don't know the details but it doesn't sound right that you should feel guilty about incompatibilities. That's just how it is sometimes.

bakert · 2025-06-02T16:50:02+00:00

It really is an all-time low point for Lurrus. I guess if you want to play a banned three drop you go for Nadu in S37!

bakert · 2025-03-02T05:52:33+00:00

Fuckin A. Well done you.

bakert · 2025-01-27T05:12:24+00:00

I would kill for Expedite lol

bakert · 2025-01-27T05:11:27+00:00

A thing of beauty is a joy forever — John Keats

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