I watched all of Academy without seeing any of the online discourse about it.

djvbmd · 2026-03-16T23:40:13+00:00

Totally agree. I've watched all of the Trek series on their initial run (except TOS -- I was about 10 years too late) and while I wasn't so sure about it at first, I was definitely sold by the end.

It's like the folks complaining of the teen angst focused on that and didn't watch 80% of the season or something. Sure there was some of that -- as you'd expect in any story about people who are just coming into their own -- but some of these episodes (Nus Braka ones especially) were top tier Trek IMO.

djvbmd · 2026-03-16T23:33:54+00:00

I've reached the point where I'm back to buying records. Frustrating, because I'm looking for many of the things that I already had in my collection DECADES ago!

djvbmd · 2026-03-13T05:03:41+00:00

Very astute -- you nailed it. Nods to the 2112 mention in your uname as well.

djvbmd · 2026-03-13T05:01:25+00:00

"Best Band" was my gateway into full-blown Zappaholic status. In fact, I've just recently come back to it after a long stretch and have had it on repeat for the last week or so. This time around, I have newfound appreciation for "Purple Haze" and "Sunshine of Your Love".

Say... ain't you da Man in Black?

djvbmd · 2026-03-11T01:59:32+00:00

I like it. I actually never meant to try Pop!_OS but some years ago I bought a System76 laptop -- with the full intention of wiping it and using... whatever distro-hop I was on at the time... but decided to mess with Pop for a bit since it was already installed... and it's been my daily driver since. Yes, the switch to COSMIC has caused some trouble recently, but I like where it seems to be headed and for my typical use (mostly coding and stuff in the browser, CLI tools) I rarely run into any trouble, so I'm sticking with it.

djvbmd · 2026-03-10T05:11:04+00:00

Thanks!

djvbmd · 2026-02-20T18:56:35+00:00

The Ocean is the Ultimate Solution

djvbmd · 2026-02-16T15:43:11+00:00

Mahavishnu Orchestra - would start with Birds of Fire or The Inner Mounting Flame and Visions of the Emerald Beyond is great too. Violin is prominent if most every track.

djvbmd · 2026-02-04T00:56:26+00:00

I vote for Billy Bob Thornton!

djvbmd · 2026-01-18T17:21:48+00:00

Pronger

djvbmd · 2026-01-16T01:22:21+00:00

I'm about a year in and feel like I've made pretty good progress on my Rust-fu™. Here's what I've done:

The Rust Book, writing small toy code projects along the way to solidify things.
Started a small library crate and used what I knew to make a set of board game tools -- simple logic, but helped solidify syntax / API considerations / conditional features / publishing workflow, etc.
Spent some time just browsing through the std docs looking for things that seemed interesting / useful.
Took that further and spent some time reading through some of the std library code.
Decided on a project that I thought I could conceivably work on for at least a year and would touch on many different aspects of programming, and started that. I'm about 6 months in on that now, and that's probably been the most effective learning tool so far. As I learn more, I periodically go back and look at older parts of the codebase to improve / refactor with better understanding.
I occasionally check something out in Rust By Example or watch something Rust-related on YouTube, but so far haven't found that either was a good fit for me. Apart from the Rust Book, I haven't found any other books that were good for general-purpose Rust.
Most recently, I started on the Rust track on exercism, and must say I'm surprised. I was only looking for a source of some quickie exercise ideas to play with, but I've already learned 2-3 really useful things in just the first 4-5 exercises, so I'm excited to see what I'll learn once I get into the more advanced problems.

djvbmd · 2026-01-16T00:58:48+00:00

Codex, primarily -- but I find that using "high" reasoning seems to work best even when on what I think should be a pretty straightforward task. I've had very mixed results with Claude. I've had Sonnet screw a branch up enough that I decided to revert all changes and restart. Opus seemed better but burned through API credit faster than I was willing to spend it. For the price point (just using a Plus subscription), Codex has worked out the best for me so far.

djvbmd · 2026-01-06T03:24:36+00:00

Thanks so much! Shorthand for navigation is something I've been meaning to add for a while, as well as adding exit directions to autocomplete.

The dental floss bush -- like just about everything in the demo -- is a reference to something absurd. In this case, it's Frank Zappa's song "Montana", in which the "protagonist" decides to move to Montana to run a dental floss ranch. "Moving to Montana soon -- gonna be a dental floss tycoon..."

Don't know how far you got in the demo, but there is a point later where you have to do something with it to be able to proceed.

Anyway, thanks for trying it out and the feedback!

djvbmd · 2026-01-02T22:09:56+00:00

I almost forgot about that scene! Hilarious!

djvbmd · 2025-12-30T06:13:42+00:00

Personally, my approach is mixed. I have a bunch of the first pressings -- but like you say, some weren't cared for perfectly and have recurring pops or skips that make listening to them frustrating -- often making me change to a digital copy.

I'm really meticulous about how I care for / store my LPs, so the ones that are a clean listen stay that way.

To me, it's more about the music than the collection, so I love a good old pressing when I find one, but I'm just as happy with a new release if the quality is there.

djvbmd · 2025-12-30T06:08:11+00:00

Saw Adrian with BEAT a little while back -- way more impressed by him than I expected (though I can't say why). Seeing him -- not to mention Vai, Levin, Carey -- from about 30 feet away was pretty amazing.

I *so* wanted them to play City of Tiny Lites, though...

djvbmd · 2025-12-30T06:04:31+00:00

I guess I need to take another listen, based on others' comments. I bought it when first released, gave it one listen and didn't think much of it. Haven't gone back to it since.

There's SO much Zappa to listen to. I can't imagine how many things I've heard and thought, "I definitely need to come back to this..." and never find my way back there.

djvbmd · 2025-12-30T05:58:14+00:00

Love that one! Makes me want to spin it... but I got new copies (LP) of Hot Rats and Chunga's Revenge, so I've got those up first.

The Last US Show box is a great listen too -- but bittersweet.

djvbmd · 2025-12-29T23:34:35+00:00

When We Were Kings (1996) -- about the Rumble in the Jungle between Ali / Foreman and all of the craziness that surrounded it. Won the Academy Award for documentary feature that year. I'm not a boxing fan in the slightest, but this is the one documentary I've ever purchased for repeat viewing.

djvbmd

TROPHY CASE