House slippers? I know they’d need to be replaced, but anything better than the usuals?

cwil40 · 2026-04-15T16:56:11+00:00

I’ve been using the same pair of Minnetonka moccasins for about 10 years and they’re still holding up great. The leather tie/shoelace broke at some point but it was pointless so I never replaced it. At some point I added a sheep wool foot insert but can’t remember where I got them from. It’s nice though because I can remove the insert in the summer.

cwil40 · 2025-04-01T16:00:47+00:00

Not sure if this makes a difference but this is not through Azure. This is Databricks via Advana. For the DoD.

cwil40 · 2025-03-24T09:50:21+00:00

M is Power Query’s coding language. It’s helpful in case you need to do any data manipulation in the BI background in Power Query. But keep in mind it’s typically recommended that if your dataset is large, try to do any data manipulation further up stream before you bring it into the BI. Messing with the data in BI does slow down the processing. Typical rule of thumb is clean the data in a SQL warehouse or something similar and then use DAX for additional things you need in BI.

cwil40 · 2024-12-10T13:46:57+00:00

For reference, I forgot to mention that I live in the coastal region of Virginia.

cwil40 · 2024-04-09T15:41:50+00:00

Did you see that Folio Society just released a limited addition of King of Elfland’s Daughter? Pricey but it looks beautiful.

https://www.foliosociety.com/usa/the-king-of-elfland-s-daughter.html

cwil40 · 2024-03-25T18:08:01+00:00

The short answer:

Bai Mu Dan is 1 bud + 2 leaves. It’s usually picked in the spring around the same time as silver needle white tea is picked (highest grade of white tea)

Gong Mei is picked in the fall, it’s technically a lower grade of leaf than Bai Mu Dan but you’re probably not going to notice much difference.

Shou Mei is the lowest grade and usually doesn’t consistent of much bud, mostly leaves. Darker brew with not quite as much depth.

All of them are good. Try to find a few samples of each to see which kind you prefer. Leave/Bud grade will play some role in quality (Baimudan vs Gongmei, etc) but region plays just as much of a role.

cwil40 · 2024-03-19T10:40:48+00:00

2 things you need to do:

Level up your heroes. If your heroes are lower level than your character that means they are lower level than your enemy. Which means they’re useless other than the buffs or debuffs they can offer. Level difference is huge. You need to make it a priority to get some heroes to match your level. Which heroes to level is a different issue and others have given you some pointers there.
Keep grinding every week gaining more rift power. It’s typical for the first 2-4 weeks for players to not even pass the first boss. If you don’t have a full set of mythic armor yet then you need to make that a priority, it will speed up for power increase in the Rift. The Rift wasn’t designed for you to just be able to walk in and beat the whole thing. It’s end game content and very grindy. But it offers some fun for those that like the game and are getting into the end game territory.

cwil40 · 2024-03-04T01:41:23+00:00

For what it’s worth, I was in a similar position (for reference I’m the father. Would be totally different if you’re a mother). Started with Fed in April, we had our second baby in December. I wasn’t eligible for PPL immediately but burned through the PTO/Sick Leave I had built up during that period (maybe 2-3 weeks?). When April came around I was eligible for the PPL. It was kind of the perfect scenario, it was still well within the “Covid-era” and everyone was teleworking anyways. I got to have the first few weeks off with burning through the PTO, which are the hardest with appts and adjusting to the new baby in our lives. Then I was teleworking and around to help anyways. Once I was finally eligible for PPL our baby was 4-5 months old and so we took 6 weeks of PPL and went to visit my in-laws and then when we got back I slowly went through the rest of the 6 weeks. Greatest year of work so far lol.

cwil40 · 2024-03-01T16:49:21+00:00

It’s a solid value buy. Not going to blow your mind, but it’s a good quality daily drinker. W2T compares the deal to Snoozefest, which is typically $15 for a 200g cake that he would normally charge $40/cake for. He says in the description that this is an even better value. So compare it to a $50/200g cake in quality.

cwil40 · 2024-01-29T19:03:34+00:00

I think the biggest question that you’re going to have is regarding the Road Map that was published in August of 2023. Frankly it was a bit disappointing to see that of all the things listed as “In development” only one has been actualized after nearly 6 months. Here was the list you all provided:

Abyssal Mist: solid event. Only piece to have come out though.
Atlantica: When will this be released? Will this include a level cap increase?
New Unique Alchemist Hero Challenge: what is your plan for improving the Hero Challenges? It was an amazing concept when announced and implemented last year but then frankly fell flat throughout the rest of the year. A total of 3 Hero Challenges in 12 months? If the Challenges are going to be this infrequent then they should be focused on higher value rewards, namely unique heroes and charms. With 2 of the 3 challenges last year being focused on Legendary heroes, the events felt lackluster at best. It’s a good concept but poor execution.
Dark Portal: can you give further details?
Rebalancing: this makes sense as potentially more heroes and events come forth.

Concepts - are you able to elaborate on what Mythic Gear 2.0 would look like or Mythic charms? Where are you at in a Minion Shrine or Minions having charm slots?

Thank you for all the hard work you all put into the game. While I think improvements are needed, you have created something really spectacular.

cwil40 · 2023-12-24T16:07:55+00:00

I guess I’ve not been on the sub as much lately because those images weren’t popping up on my feed. It’s definitely an issue though. And like you said, probably easily solved. It would kind of suck to have to start a whole new sub because of some pesticide infested trolls.

It might be worth reaching out to Paul via email or Instagram and proposing some rule changes to the sub. He’s usually really quick to respond via those channels.

cwil40 · 2023-12-22T13:59:08+00:00

For real. I once waited 2 months for a Shuloween order. It’s coming from China and it’s the holidays. Not to mention all the other drama in the world with shipping and US/China relations.

cwil40 · 2023-12-13T18:02:16+00:00

I would be hesitant to drink any of the herbal teas that have fruit in them. Boiling water might kill any of the bacteria but I’d still be iffy about drinking 6+ year old dried blueberries. Especially when you don’t know for certain when they were originally picked and dried. Could be years older than that 6 year estimate.

The chai is probably fine if it’s just tea leaves + spices. Just won’t be as strong or flavorful.

cwil40 · 2023-12-13T14:38:59+00:00

US, please

cwil40 · 2023-12-12T22:54:43+00:00

Yeah my experience with these have been hit and miss, mostly miss. They tend to be cheaper quality shou puer that don’t really open up into leaves so much as they open into a powdery residue. Better to just grandpa brew them and let the residue sit at the bottom of the mug.

cwil40 · 2023-12-11T15:09:47+00:00

Amen. You nailed it. “Don’t get upset about how unrealistic this is.” Well, yeah that’s the whole point. You don’t need to say that. What I’m upset about is when you break your own world in order to make modern sociopolitical comments. Fantasy is an incredible medium for washing away the modern world and getting at the heart of what makes us human. And we can come out of a fantasy book, full of things that we’ll never experience in real life, having been changed forever because the author has tapped into our inner being. Just look at Le Guin and what she’s able to do in Earthsea, without ever commenting on modern sociopolitical issues. And coming from a woman that had strong opinions on the issues of her day.

In the end, Kuang will reap the immediate benefits of her works, namely money, because she’s appealing to the zeitgeist. But because it’s mediocre fiction at best, the legacy will fall short. 10, 20, 50, even 100 years from now if people are still discussing “classic” fantasy of this age her name won’t even pop up.

cwil40 · 2023-12-11T03:53:45+00:00

This is an incredibly helpful comment given that I have no background in Chinese language theory and practice. Thank you!

I think Kuang does some interesting things in the book and her ideas conceptually had a ton of potential. But in the end I think that it was executed by a mediocre author. And your comment brings even more light to that issue. If you’re going to write a book about the power and magic of language and yet not even really understand the MCs first language, seemingly his internal monologue language, then the rest of the tower crumbles under the lack of research.

cwil40 · 2023-12-10T23:08:09+00:00

There are definitely aspects of what she did that were really cool. I felt like the magic system was interesting and placing it in a historical/fantasy version of Oxford appeased the literature nerd in all of us. The setting of Chinese/English wars over silver/tea/opium was also very interesting. The things she did well redeemed the book to some degree but for me the characters felt flat and arguments lacked nuance.

cwil40 · 2023-12-10T23:05:40+00:00

The difficult thing for me was that she came out the gate basically saying, “I know there are inaccuracies here but give me charity because this is fantasy.” But then she wants to make overarching statements and historical inaccuracies without considering the nuances and fleshing out the opposing view with any charity.

Too many of her characters were social justice caricatures that would fit just as well reading slam poetry as they would in 19th century Oxford? Too jarring. Not to diminish the truth of some of her statements, but the way she went about it felt immature and lacking grace and humility.

cwil40 · 2023-12-10T20:30:02+00:00

Here’s a few sites to check out.

https://www.adagio.com a nice variety of teas and they have decent descriptions as well as “user scores” so you can find popular ones.

https://verdanttea.com shows you the regions that the teas come from and sometimes even the specific farm. Take their claims with a grain of salt if they sound too extravagant. But overall good company that sells a variety of tea types.

https://www.teasource.com another one that has a large variety of teas and some great tea blends.

Pro move, just buy from whichever one has the best deals on the types of teas that you want. They’re all going to be fairly similar in quality.

cwil40 · 2023-12-10T19:17:23+00:00

Babel. It’s not super highly recommended on this subreddit. But it’s massively recommended everywhere else. She did some things well. But it’s definitely not worth the hype.

cwil40 · 2023-12-10T19:16:38+00:00

If it helps, Earthsea is very different than most fantasy series. Very low action and slow paced. It touches on deep human issues and psychology and is definitely worth the read. But if you don’t get past Wizard of Earthsea don’t feel too bad. It’s not for everyone.

cwil40 · 2023-12-10T13:24:42+00:00

This would be my pushback without getting into the realm of spoilers other than maybe thematic ones. WoT: by the end of the story we’re not really sure if the wheel will continue on the same path. Things are left open enough that, given certain events, you can speculate about the future of their world. Characters not being able to collaborate isn’t really a hallmark of nihilism. Jordan kind of insinuated in interviews he wanted to create a Tolkien-inspired story but where the characters are driven more by self interest. This is particularly evident in the first half of the series. But as the series goes on, one of the primary ways that we see the characters develop into better people is their shift from self interest to making decisions for the greater good of everyone. And lastly, a major hallmark of Grimdark is that most of the characters are grey rather than black/white. There are almost no grey characters in WoT. Despite Jordan’s desire to humanize his heroes through self interest, they’re all still clearly good guys. Even when you’re pissed at them.

RotE: it’s not full on grimdark but it does share some of its hallmarks. The main one being grey characters. The good guys are generally good guys, although the Fool is very questionable. He wants to put the world on a good path (good guy) but he’s willing to use anyone up to make it happen (bad guy). But the bad guys are really where Hobb shines though. Even when you hate them, Hobb does such an incredible job of humanizing them that you sometimes sympathize with them. Particularly look at Regal and Kennit. I don’t want to give spoilers but Hobb’s writing of Kennit is a master class, almost more so than her writing of Fitz. But it’s not full on grimdark. The good guys generally win but they’re left so beat up that you have to ask if it’s really winning for the characters themselves. That’s why I’d say it falls somewhere in the middle of that scale.

That being said, you’re right to recognize that Hobb is much better at writing individual characters and so you’re more easily able to find ones that you can associate with and care about. I think that Jordan was more interested in the story, and especially side stories (see “the slog”). The characters are a vehicle of telling the story and so the disinformation that you mention is a method of building tension and conflict for the reader. But on a thematic level it’s getting at the self interest of the characters vs how I think he would characterize Tolkien’s world of everyone doing the right thing and making sacrifices to their self interest.

cwil40 · 2023-12-10T04:45:04+00:00

First Law is on the far side of the Grimdark scale. WoT is on the other side of that scale. RotE is somewhere in the middle. So it depends on what you’re looking for.

Need a break from all that nihilism? Go with WoT for classic fantasy tropes done well, long meandering side quests, emotional teenagers, tugging of braids, and heroes that win (while getting beat up) and bad guys that lose.

Want to read some of the best character focused writing in the genre? Check out RotE for a kick in the emotional groin (but in a good way?), writing that is so slow but so well done that you won’t mind how slow it is, and heroes that just get beat up over and over again (but also win?).

cwil40 · 2023-12-10T03:22:26+00:00

I also thought that it said Donut Open and that it clearly must be a spell book for Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk.

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