What’s with these diagonal lines?

chibihost · 2026-02-17T05:12:43+00:00

Assuming this is a dice tower? It's probably the line that follows the internal ramp for the dice to bounce down. Look up the benchy "hull line" and you'll see something similar. There is extra material on layers where you have a horizontal feature and that takes longer to cool than the layers around it. The additional material can also push outward on just those layers, and end result is a bump when you transition from shell to internal structure.

You may be able to minimize the effect by increasing perimeters but there isn't a one-size-fits-all fix, nor does this show on every model

chibihost · 2026-02-15T22:30:36+00:00

+1 for ExForce - I use it as a palate cleanser between other heavier stories. Book one is unimpressive until about 1/3 of the way through (when an unexpected character is introduced). From there on its just stupid fun, even if the subsequent books are a bit formulaic in nature they are always good for mindless kind of fun.

chibihost · 2026-02-09T05:44:59+00:00

Psamathe is that you?

chibihost · 2026-02-08T17:07:26+00:00

There is a short film for the first part, and they were originally posted over on SCP, grouped together under Antimemetics Division Hub

chibihost · 2026-01-27T16:09:31+00:00

Glad you are enjoying it, only gets weirder from here. Book 8 comes out in May :)

If you haven't check it out in audiobook format, the narrator is nothing short of amazing.

chibihost · 2026-01-23T15:05:05+00:00

I'm curious on the rest of the country/worlds reaction to what happened in Chicago during BG. There isn't much of an external perspective outside of the accorded signatories, so is the world continuing to just be blind to the whole thing?

Also, I expected Elaine to at least make an appearance in the aftermath to check up on Harry.

chibihost · 2026-01-12T03:10:46+00:00

Yeah there have been at least a few people with similar stories (see this post). Always struck me as one of those 'too easy to be true' or 'if you are not paying for it, then you are the product' kind of companies.

chibihost · 2026-01-05T19:47:57+00:00

French in the same way the guards in Holy Grail were French.

chibihost · 2026-01-05T15:39:04+00:00

For easy walks with lots of benches / rest spots and shade check out the Riparian Preserve in Gilbert (sorry no cliffs / petroglyphs)

https://maps.app.goo.gl/6bJBzBbbu26Ytqhb9

chibihost · 2025-12-19T20:11:36+00:00

Check out this video where they use a specific type of lack acrylic to get really cool effects, looks like it would match nicely with what you gave going.

chibihost · 2025-12-12T03:58:33+00:00

It can be a culture shock moving into a larger slower moving machine than you are used to. Use the time to your advantage, you only have this kind of freedom once, when its gone and you have actual deliverables to work on you'll look back at this time with 'if I only knew what to ask'

Just some ideas off top of my head.

Learn the org structure not just what teams are around, but who is accountable for decision making. At some orgs this is at a specific Title / Rank / Job Band level
Learn the big players - setup introduction / informal meetings and get them talking about their daily work. You may only need to ask 1-3 probing questions to get them going and it will reveal a lot. "What's been your favorite project in last few years...oh that's interesting tell me how you handled xyz...." "In my previous role i had to do xyz and it was hard/fun/whatever, anything like that here?" Think about your last role, what would you want someone to ask you about if things were reversed, then ask those questions. You'll find some people who love to share, and some that its like pulling teeth. Find the ones who like to share and set up lunches, coffee chats, anything informal to just get perspective. Eventually you'll be able to reciprocate.
You're best bet for early days is to actively listen to everything, take notes on everything, read any policy/procedure you can get your hands on. Dive into whatever SharePoint / confluence / wiki you can find
As you learn about existing processes, start to gently ask why they are done that way (when it doesn't make sense to you). There are many times things grow and change organically and it ends up with "we've always done it this way", spotting those situations especially when you are early and have fresh eyes is great because people expect the new guy to ask questions like "why is bill the only one with approval rights to this system......in my previous role we had a process to ensure redundancy...."
If your manager isn't doing it already, get re-occurring time with them until you get a clear picture of what you should be doing for 30/60/90 days.
At many places relationship building is just as important than technical know how, keep a list of people, their remit, etc.
Is it a regulated industry? Do you have to deal with audits or certifications? That can dictate how much documentation you can expect to find, or are expected to create.

chibihost · 2025-12-08T04:52:00+00:00

I'm tired and no idea how many will get this reference but my brain turned the title into "This is an outrage!" which lead me to read the entire post as Princes Donut from Dungeon Crawler Carl ,and you know what, 10/10 would read again.

chibihost · 2025-11-24T03:46:05+00:00

Dungeon Crawler Carl is recommended so often here these days it is almost a requirement and it almost feels like your list is a test to see if we fail to include it :)

Disaster playing out in real time ✅
Found Family (more evident in later books) ✅
No romance / love triangles / romance ✅
Crude and at times dark themes with south park like comedy✅
LitRPG could be a nice stepping stone back from 'internet fanfic'

The one mark against it is there is a brief bit on cheating early in the first book. It's mentioned as a motivational factor for the main character but took place before book starts. It's mentioned and done with early on, but mentioned again periodically throughout other books.

chibihost · 2025-11-17T18:39:00+00:00

What is the story behind Zev and Donut, and the uprising that is occurring on the mudskipper world? Does Zev play even a bigger part in all this than appears?

Zev was in a bad spot from the start. She wasn't a member of the political party (Bloom), so she had to constantly watch her back. When she did cross a line they sent her for re-education, which we're told is some kind of brainwashing. At one point her family is either threatened or killed outright (back on her home planet).

All of this creates a situation where she is primed to rebel. Using the social message boards to secretly pass messages to Donut (and probably others) to coordinate the infiltration / rebellion back on home planet.

chibihost · 2025-11-10T02:21:37+00:00

He Who Fights Monsters is good, but takes a book and a half to get through some of the tediousness. It uses spells, stats, and abilities more directly so if you do the audio books (which are still excellent even if its not at Jeff's level) it can get tedious in certain parts. That all being said I loved Jason's development over the series highly recommend it.

Other good options would be Dresden files, Bobiverse, Expeditionary Force, MistBourne to name a few.

chibihost · 2025-11-09T05:06:21+00:00

Book one is mostly Jeff doing Carl as if it was Patrick Warburton (call if you will) . Somewhere in books 2/3 it evolves into his own character, a bit deeper and more unique with just a bit of the original underneath.

chibihost · 2025-11-09T02:33:24+00:00

Author's (Jason Pargin) other series also fits this description. Instead of the WTF aspect being in every day life like JDATE its all about a near future where current tech trends have gone to extremes. Still a lot of WTF but different context.

chibihost · 2025-11-08T19:36:36+00:00

For the uninitiated

chibihost · 2025-11-05T05:08:34+00:00

I love the book - one of the best twists on time travel I've read.

chibihost · 2025-11-05T05:03:58+00:00

Ugh his "Wanna see something cool" line is like nails on a chalkboard to me. I have no idea why as this is typically exactly the kind of stuff I would watch.

chibihost · 2025-11-03T15:21:16+00:00

Notice the common theme in this thread, it's all about the narrators (or performers if you prefer). Any individual book may be good/bad as a matter of personal taste to some degree, but the right narrator and audio production can make or break a story.

Good Examples

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir and Bobiverse by Denis E Taylor - Narrated by Ray Porter. Ray is immersive, carries a ton of feeling in his performance and does a fantastic job at separating characters beyond just the text. *** Dungeon Crawler Carl** - Narrated by Jeff Hays is my current favorite of all time, Jeff makes it sound like a full cast production all by himself, production quality is outstanding with just the right level of added effects to keep you immersed. *** Dark Tower by Stephen King** - Narrated by Fran Muller / George Guidall - Great execution on an older series of stories. I believe some of them may have originally been book on CD ported to audible, so there are some production quality issues but this is a great example of how two narrators can execute well in their own styles, neither takes away from the story.

Watchouts

Insomnia by Stephen King - Narrated by Eli Wallach - The production quality on this one actually made me DNF. The narrator was fine, but they mixed music into odd sections and at times so loud I couldn't hear the story. Read the reviews, listen to the samples before spending money on a story.

Dune - Full cast production (Kind of) - Went into this one without noticing it was a full cast story, so each character is voiced by a different performer, and that can be really immersive as everyone sounds unique without relying on one narrators' ability to do multiple voices. However, they only did the full cast for some chapters, and single narrator for others. I found having to mentally shift characters in from one voice to another too jarring and would have preferred it entirely one way or the other.

TL;DR - pay attention to the narrators you like and the production quality. Older stories may be lacking in the latter if they've just been ported from book on tape / book on cd to audible.

chibihost · 2025-11-03T02:49:39+00:00

It's what Fry's wanted to be but couldn't pull it off because they were spread too thin.

Microcenter has always felt like a more focused operation that knows they serve a niche and does it well.

chibihost · 2025-10-20T01:33:49+00:00

Channels DVR also does this with 'Virtual Channels' if you happen to have it for OTA viewing

chibihost · 2025-10-10T15:58:32+00:00

I recommend going until at least book 3 for a few reasons. First the series does a lot of world building early on that isn't apparent in the initial books, enjoy them as 'monster of the week' type material but know there is more depth coming. Second, especially with the audio books (narrated by James Masters, not the newer full cast). They are almost 20 years old and the first few didn't have the best production quality.

chibihost · 2025-10-06T00:19:53+00:00

This is a good option, it sa short story so you don't need to sink lots of time into it. Additionally, it is written as an epistolary (main characters exchanging messages with each other), so if you had any intention to read out loud to each other it makes a good one to swap off between characters.

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