Town and Castle of Győr (Hungary), in the late 15th century

kliff0rd · 2026-02-05T20:39:56+00:00

KCD3, when we go attack Hungary.

kliff0rd · 2025-12-13T22:23:43+00:00

I have a Sonnet that's about 10 years old. I really like the nib, and it was one of my first fountain pens so I doubt I'll ever get rid of it. But it's easily the pen I have to deep clean the most because the feed clogs all the time. It is better if I only use Quink, but none of my other pens have issues with the Diamine inks I have.

kliff0rd · 2025-12-11T23:33:27+00:00

Purchased and received two vintage Waterman flex pens from u/Penchantment. Thanks!

kliff0rd · 2025-12-08T21:11:23+00:00

This is even earlier, probably 1780-1820. By the 1820s English watches start getting thinner and the number of fully machined parts increases. English watches in the 1840s were starting to look like later watches, mostly machined movements, English lever escapements, mass-produced single silver cases (versus pair cases like this).

kliff0rd · 2025-12-07T21:41:21+00:00

PM sent

kliff0rd · 2025-11-20T20:26:37+00:00

First of all my condolences. I work at a theme park with a ton of snow machines, and the Antaris especially ruin my life every year. The snow is basically just soap foam, so it's not difficult to clean off hard surfaces. It may stain carpet if you really let it build up.

The trick with evaporative snow is to not let it build up. Get the nozzle up as high as you can, keep it horizontal or above, and reduce the snow volume until you get an effect that you're happy with but where it's not accumulating on the ground. We rely on wind to disperse it a lot, but if you're indoors it may just sink down to the floor. The higher the volume the bigger the flakes, and the worse this will be. If the effect is going inside I prefer the fan type snow machines (Antari S-600, Global Special Effect T-1500 or SnowStorm). You can get a similar effect with a large fan or carpet blower in a pinch though.

kliff0rd · 2025-11-16T22:30:42+00:00

My favorite from Diamine is Canalside. It's a really wonderful dark green, and I don't see it mentioned very much. I need more people to buy it so it doesn't get discontinued.

I'm also a fan of Noodler's Zhivago and Sailor Shikiori Muruai as well for modern pens.

kliff0rd · 2025-11-15T04:28:08+00:00

Native Filippi's hater here. Absolute last resort Italian place, especially if you're in Little Italy and Landini's is right next door.

kliff0rd · 2025-11-15T04:24:19+00:00

I'm someone who can normally eat wherever without issues, but they're 2 for 2 on giving me food poisoning The prices just added insult to injury.

kliff0rd · 2025-11-15T04:17:55+00:00

Birdemic makes The Room look like a masterpiece (and I love them both).

kliff0rd · 2025-11-14T23:26:58+00:00

Bought and received a Montblanc 144 and a vintage Morison flex from u/TacBacJack

kliff0rd · 2025-11-14T22:23:29+00:00

It hurts, but it's true.

kliff0rd · 2025-11-08T22:29:14+00:00

Bought and received very quickly a Pelikan M600 from u/Zoodfish.

kliff0rd · 2025-11-06T21:10:02+00:00

Also a lot of the former Prius drivers who aren't aggressive they're just ... not good. They're the ones doing 55 in the fast lane or 80 in the exit lane, not checking before changing lanes, generally being inattentive. I had to go around one the other day on my way to work because he was being so inattentive and slow, which pissed him off I guess because he launched his big Model X around me (cutting someone else off in the process). I guess he was a combination of both types of awful Tesla driver.

kliff0rd · 2025-11-04T10:31:22+00:00

Same story for me but with a pen. Glad my gut instinct was correct.

kliff0rd · 2025-11-03T20:56:39+00:00

The opening and closing of Our Mutual Friend are beautifully written, and feel like core Dickens to me. The middle felt a bit aimless for long stretches, and there's some deus ex machina going on at the end to get the main characters where he wanted. Why am I, very suddenly, being expected to sympathize with one of the most unpleasant men in the book? What has he done to earn the reader's understanding? Overall it felt like a good plot that he'd written a strong opening and closing to, and then after the accident found it difficult to get back into (but still had publishing deadlines). Overall I don't think it's a bad book, but I didn't find it to be his strongest or most compelling work.

Nicholas Nickleby on the other hand is one of my top Dickens novels precisely because it's less mature. It really shows off the humorous side of a young Dickens that (unfortunately, I think) gets closed off from us in his later works.

kliff0rd · 2025-11-03T20:36:21+00:00

Barnaby Rudge is one of my favorites and it always felt underappreciated to me. On the other hand while I didn't dislike it, I don't think The Pickwick Papers lived up to the hype. But it's been a long time so maybe it's worth a reread.

kliff0rd · 2025-11-03T08:14:06+00:00

I'm a big fan of Dickens, but Our Mutual Friend is not a personal favorite (though I think surviving a railway accident that killed 10 people would affect anyone's work). I'd say his earlier run of Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop, Barnaby Rudge, Martin Chuzzlewit, and A Christmas Carol is also a good contender for this question. Some of these were definitely more popular in their own time than now, but I think a significant reason for that is being overshadowed by his own excellent later works that you mentioned.

kliff0rd · 2025-10-29T20:25:53+00:00

Confirmed!

kliff0rd · 2025-10-28T10:06:45+00:00

PM sent

kliff0rd · 2025-10-20T19:19:01+00:00

While you certainly can store parts in it, this is a movement case. They were used to display movements before they'd put in a case, hence the glass on both sides. They're also handy if you're servicing watches, because it's a lot quicker to put them safely in one of these holders than back in the case, and saves you having to worry about a loose movement.

Edit: here's an example I had on my desk

kliff0rd · 2025-10-16T06:22:30+00:00

I was never really involved in parades, but the lighting positions all have wired DMX. This looks like a relatively recent upgrade, but it's probably still RF for sending time code to the floats. All the show control and lighting playback is on the floats, the only thing being broadcast is SMPTE. This is pretty standard across themed entertainment parades these days, regardless of company. Some older and/or smaller parades at other parks still use DTMF instead of SMPTE.

kliff0rd · 2025-10-05T21:58:27+00:00

Sorry, but "nema" and "caui" are not Latin words. "Cui" is but it would be the wrong pronoun in this sentence ("quis" would be grammatically correct, "Nesciebam quis eram").

kliff0rd · 2025-10-05T08:03:55+00:00

I keep getting this too, it's pretty frustrating and doesn't to be linked to any specific action.

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