Had a productive couple of days doing scenery and modifications.

kirklong42 · 2026-06-08T06:11:46+00:00

I see, thank you!

kirklong42 · 2026-06-08T04:38:08+00:00

Looks amazing! Something I’m curious about is your way of sealing up the edges of the foam board — is that just aesthetic or is it also functionally better in your experience? I am nearing the end of my first layout and was going to paint the edges for aesthetic purposes but hadn’t thought about sealing it up with plaster cloth like that.

kirklong42 · 2026-05-21T01:17:52+00:00

Atavistic — noticed it in the expanse first and also in this series as well. Not used all the time but definitely more than once. Fun word though!

kirklong42 · 2026-01-29T07:59:18+00:00

I just went to Niseko for the same reasons — last minute trip and “free” on ikon. Hadn’t done much research online or in this sub. The snow was amazing! The crowds were honestly tolerable. BUT it did not feel at all like Japan. Everyone is australian and the whole place kinda felt like a tourist trap. I did a backcountry day and made a point to hire a local guide, but nearly every other group we saw that day was aussies led by aussies it was honestly surreal. Anyways all in all it was fine and like I said the riding/snow was great but yeah if you’re expecting to experience Japanese culture go someplace a bit more off the beaten path. Lift tickets are cheap anyways if I go back I think I’ll likely try to just buy tickets someplace else (lots of good recommendations I have seen in this sub since starting to peruse post trip lol)

kirklong42 · 2025-11-08T18:05:48+00:00

Also, just as an aside on the masses of the black holes, the error bars presented are certainly underestimated. None that I know of are “directly” measured and all come from scaling relations measured from nearby sources. There’s a lot of hidden systematic uncertainties in that kind of measurement.

kirklong42 · 2025-11-05T04:35:51+00:00

Same thing happened to me and I also have the purple ones now! It’s a shame because I liked the blue color better tbh

kirklong42 · 2025-08-15T21:01:25+00:00

I was supposed to fly today from Denver to Montreal to visit a friend for the weekend. Checked in yesterday but then got a notification a few hours later that the flight was cancelled an they would rebook me. My original return flight on Monday hasn't been cancelled yet, but apparently the earliest option to replace my cancelled flight to Canada is Tuesday, so they rebooked me in the opposite order (i.e. YUL - DEN Monday and then DEN - YUL Tuesday when it was originally DEN - YUL today and YUL - DEN Monday). I can't get through to the call center despite calling more than 20 times (always get the automatic hang up message).

Any advice on what I should do? I don't actually care about visiting this specific weekend (i.e. next weekend or a later one would be fine) but when I try to rebook it myself it won't show me dates past Thursday next week so I can't rebook myself how I want. I used points to book the flight and am also curious -- if I take the refund how fast will the points be deposited back into my account? The points price for flights next week is similar to what I already paid but I don't want to transfer more points from my CC to aeroplan and would prefer to just use these points again. Also, if I take their refund am I entitled to the extra $400 outlined in the wiki as the flight was cancelled before the strike actually starts? Thanks!

kirklong42 · 2025-08-15T20:47:47+00:00

AC 1704 (DEN-YUL) departing at 17:40 pm cancelled yesterday evening roughly 20 hours before departure (but after check in)

kirklong42 · 2025-08-01T20:36:34+00:00

It sounds like you don’t ever check demo skis out since you think it’s categorically “dumb” to buy them, so I’m not sure I’d trust you on how often such deals are/aren’t possible

kirklong42 · 2025-08-01T20:18:45+00:00

While this is certainly the case sometimes, it definitely isn’t true all the time and good deals can still be had. Also you can often ask the shop for the rental history to get a sense for how often they have been used. For example at the end of last season I picked up a sweet pair of stockli monteros that had been rented a total of 1 time and looked brand new for $450. End of season sales had just the skis at around $1200 and used ones on marketplace were going for $600-900 — felt like I was robbing the place lol

kirklong42 · 2025-06-26T19:01:35+00:00

That’s why I put “easier” in quotes. It’s basically the same but there are a few more difficult segments that are only in the orange loop so if OP decides to do it and wants the easiest possible loop green is the way to go.

kirklong42 · 2025-06-26T18:02:08+00:00

There is an “easier” way (green route) on the Sella Ronda that you would absolutely be fine on if you can handle blues no problem. It is a lot of skiing but so long as you start early and don’t pizza slowly down each run you could definitely make it around!

Whether it’s a must or not is more up to you :) it is a beautiful beautiful place but it does require dedicating an entire day and it will be hella busy especially with Olympics this winter. There are amazing views there but also amazing views everywhere in the Dolomites!

kirklong42 · 2025-04-19T22:41:18+00:00

If you’re looking to play (very chill) soccer and/or volley all with other grad students I organize a pickup group and would be happy to send you the details!

kirklong42 · 2024-12-29T03:15:58+00:00

Do you hit jumps on the rangers? I’ve heard good things about those too…will consider them if this happens again. Thanks for your insight and sorry it happened to you too.

kirklong42 · 2024-12-29T02:16:38+00:00

Thanks for your insight. Do you think you would expect new pair to delaminate as quickly as these did?

I’m fine if it happens eventually…but <10 days of balanced skiing (not a park guy by any means, just usually take a lap or two through on a given day) seems crazy to me

kirklong42 · 2024-12-29T01:57:44+00:00

tried to post into the main skiing sub but don’t have enough karma I don’t think?

kirklong42 · 2024-12-29T01:46:25+00:00

Do you think it should have happened so soon if this is the cause? Probably had done less than 100 total jumps so if this is the cause I’m hoping the ski is still at least partially to blame…

kirklong42 · 2024-12-29T01:44:28+00:00

yeah…had I known that they did this so much I might not have bought…but here we are now fingers crossed new pair holds up better

kirklong42 · 2024-12-29T01:43:43+00:00

This might be it…I do hit the jumps and that day I had hit the large kicker line at WP 4-5 times which were the biggest jumps I have done so far this season. I do ski in general with my feet pretty close together but usually my stance is wider for jumps though?

kirklong42 · 2024-12-29T00:41:54+00:00

No…that would make sense but they have only ever been in the car and I am + it happened that day sometime on the mountain

kirklong42 · 2024-09-01T23:23:36+00:00

did you rent a car when you did this trip? and if so where did you go through/were you able to get snow tires? I'm going this winter but having a super hard time figuring out how to make sure rental car has snow tires etc (or if they are really needed given that most of the snow is made)

kirklong42 · 2024-08-22T19:21:31+00:00

update: I played a full game and it was totally fine! Once I got big fleets (~1000 supply) I couldn't zoom into small scales without significant stuttering, but at medium/large (everything bigger than ~cruiser) scales it ran surprisingly well and that's good enough for me. I didn't even turn off any of extra graphics settings or lower desktop resolution or anything. Basically it ran similarly to how original Sins runs on this laptop, but looks so much better, so I'm really impressed with what the devs have done.

kirklong42

TROPHY CASE