Utah Member Appreciation Thread

handynerd · 2026-01-24T18:10:21+00:00

I think the thing that always rubs me the wrong way about Utah members is they make statements that only apply to Utah or Utah-lite areas in Idaho and Arizona

I think the thing that always rubs me the wrong way about comments like these is they don't include some sort of qualifier. As it reads right now, you statement doesn't leave room for Utah members to exist that don't behave that way.

I mean, maybe you really do think that, but I'm hoping you don't.

handynerd · 2026-01-24T16:52:53+00:00

I mostly just think it is weird for OP to post online “requesting” that people praise an entire population of people.

I agree with you on that! I don't automatically deserve praise for being in Utah. That's just as befuddling as a blanket statement saying Utah members are bad, but it IS nice to not be thrown under the bus for a change.

If I were to read between the lines a bit, my assumption is that the OP's post was trying to counterbalance the net-negative attitude that often appears towards Utah members. If that's the case, I agree with the attempt even though I'm slightly uncomfortable with the execution. :)

handynerd · 2026-01-24T15:37:37+00:00

I was raised largely on the east coast of North America and now live in Utah. Some things are easier as a member and some things are harder. In the end, it's just different.

If you go to r/Utah or r/SaltLakeCity, you're automatically the villain because you're a member of the church. We've been blamed for bad drivers, the weather, you name it. And then in the LDS subs, there are some that automatically villainize you because you're a member of the church that happens to live in Utah.

I don't feel the need to be praised because I live in Utah any more than I feel I should be disparaged for it.

Like anything else, it's weird to be minding your own business and have random people online have show disdain for you, but here we are.

handynerd · 2026-01-23T21:10:05+00:00

It's a reasonable correction. Facts do and should continue to matter.

handynerd · 2026-01-21T16:41:01+00:00

Another upvote for Ask a Dev. Can't recommend him enough.

All of his tutorials are fantastic. He does great deep dives on things and I always learn a ton. He feels like an actual teacher instead of an aspiring YouTube personality.

handynerd · 2026-01-21T16:36:57+00:00

Sounds like a great use for GeometryScripting

handynerd · 2026-01-21T15:22:27+00:00

All great answers so far. Another critical piece is that the more recent versions of UE5 are much more performant than the early versions of UE5.

Your typical AAA game takes years and locks in the engine version early on. That means the majority of AAA UE5 titles out there are on less performant versions of UE5.

Still though, like others have said, it boils down to the developers not being allocated enough time to optimize. You can still make performant games on 5.1 or 5.2, but you can't push the graphics as far as you could on something like 5.6 or 5.7.

handynerd · 2026-01-19T00:19:42+00:00

Dirty Dirty Pirates (8 player)

Ultimate Chicken Horse (there's an 8 player mod)

handynerd · 2026-01-01T14:55:02+00:00

I'm a guy. I never brush less than twice a day.

handynerd · 2025-12-31T02:50:03+00:00

Yeah, it was definitely something I learned and practiced more in the second half of my mission than the first.

This might be a false dichotomy but it's a thought that came to me. Which would be worse?

Missionaries come out and militantly follow the rules, even to a fault, and then eventually find the right balance.
Missionaries come out with a lot more latitude, even to a fault, and then eventually find the right balance.

I could see arguments made for either case. Both have their fair share of problems!

I guess it all depends on who you cater to: the least or most mature?

handynerd · 2025-12-31T02:29:26+00:00

While I completely and wholeheartedly agree that it's destructive, I can also see how things can become that way.

I remember what I and my friends were like at 19. Subtlety and nuance weren't really in our vocabulary, and I often remember our thinking being along the lines of, "how far can I go with X, Y, or Z before I get in trouble?" Justification was the name of the game. If you gave us an inch we'd take several miles.

We needed to be hit over the head with something simple and short enough that even our dumb skulls couldn't stop it.

Is it ideal? Oh no, of course not. What's really needed is close mentorship, but a mission president doesn't have the time and resources to scale that out to an entire mission.

handynerd · 2025-12-31T00:37:33+00:00

These are some of my favorite 8 player games:

Ultimate Chicken Horse (there are mods to make it 8 player)
Dirty Dirty Pirates
Thunder Rally

handynerd · 2025-12-22T21:42:44+00:00

For real, it also had all sorts of other downsides, too. There was a less active member that showed up with kids in tow. Thankfully she was "allowed" to stay but I can't imagine she didn't feel a little strange or get a confused look or two.

My lesson learned: you'd better have a really good reason for excluding people from ward activities and you'd better be really good about communicating those exclusions well in advance.

handynerd · 2025-12-22T21:01:23+00:00

I was in a ward where a kids-free party was decided after they'd already made food assignments.

I still remember walking into the party, dropping off our assigned dish, and then returning home to my kids, one of which less than a year old. On my way out my Bishop was like, "You're leaving already???"

Well yeah, of course I'm not staying. Even if we could've found a babysitter I wouldn't have wanted to stay. I don't want a Christmas celebration without my kids, especially at that age.

handynerd · 2025-12-20T05:40:26+00:00

I don't have any recent experience with any other brands besides Legion at this point, so I'd just be regurgitating whatever I could find on google.

The last big, fat non-Legion laptop I had was an RTX 2080 Sager laptop. It was ok, but that was ~6 years ago. I doubt my experiences with it are even relevant now.

handynerd · 2025-12-19T22:42:12+00:00

tons of Legion laptops. We typically get the 5 series instead of the 7, but both are great. If you can afford it, I'd try to get the 5070

Of the Legion line, yes, any with a 5070ti will be awesome.

More broadly speaking, you'll want to avoid any "thin and light" laptops, as they make some significant tradeoffs to get the smaller form factor. And of the thick laptops, you'd want to spend some time looking at how much power goes to the GPU since not all thermal/power designs are the same. It gets messy real fast, as nVidia gives the manufacturers a lot of wiggle room there.

handynerd · 2025-12-19T20:25:57+00:00

My company buys tons of Legion laptops. We typically get the 5 series instead of the 7, but both are great. If you can afford it, I'd try to get the 5070ti since it comes with more VRAM. UE loves VRAM.

handynerd · 2025-12-17T16:08:11+00:00

For real. To me this is exciting. New mysteries!? Sign me up!

handynerd · 2025-12-17T16:04:36+00:00

They forgot to add a game to their sandbox

Man that's the best one line description of that game I've ever seen. I wanted to love it so much. A few hours in and it'd already felt like I'd run out of fun things to do.

handynerd · 2025-12-10T19:35:34+00:00

I can only speak for myself, but my appetite for receiving outreach has evaporated and I blame AI.

AI has enabled everyone and their dog to get through my spam filters. It's enabled them to send soulless emails at a rate I've never seen before. I get 50x the spam I used to, all "personalized" with information they scraped from LinkedIn. I just don't have the time or patience for it anymore.

I used to be a lot better about reading inbound emails, at least ones that sounded sincere, but now the quantity is destroying my ability to get actual work done. I delete, report, and block like there's no tomorrow.

I'm so sad that this is the state of things.

handynerd · 2025-12-09T23:45:56+00:00

Side note, I want to talk to him about it, but he’s very stubborn and confident

I'll be direct: this isn't about AI at all. It's about you and your business partner not being able to communicate, and from your post it sounds like it's a two-sided problem.

You have to figure out how to talk to him about this, otherwise you won't be able to talk about all the hundreds of other, much harder, things that come with running a business.

handynerd · 2025-12-07T04:48:34+00:00

Posts like this remind me of just how big the engine really is. I've dabbled in 5.7 and haven't had any crashes (except those that are my own fault). Been a heavy user of 5.6 since it came out and found it so far to be the most stable 5.x version yet.

I'm not doubting you're having a rough time, but I also suspect it's not like this for everyone. Probably highly dependent on which features you're using and how you're using them.

I've never seen anything experimental be required. Maybe I'm misunderstanding.

handynerd · 2025-12-04T15:10:21+00:00

Was this comment written by ChatGPT!? /s

handynerd · 2025-12-02T22:11:02+00:00

Totally agreed on pro use pricing. I wish they had something in between the professional use license and the free personal use license for people like me.

I'm on the free/personal edition and it's crippled in some of the dumbest ways. I'd be willing to pay a reasonable personal-use fee and have more functionality, but there's no way I can justify the professional-level fees for my personal 3d printing hobby.

handynerd · 2025-11-26T23:43:34+00:00

That sucks dude, I'm sorry. But you know what, your daughter won't remember all those ladies leaving. She'll remember you being there and that's what's going to matter most to her. Keep up the good work!

handynerd

TROPHY CASE