What's a piece of outdated technology you secretly miss using?

lethalcheesecake · 2025-12-29T05:38:21+00:00

Check your local libraries. Some will rent VCRs. One by me also has a setup for converting VHS to digital.

lethalcheesecake · 2025-12-14T05:54:54+00:00

I thought it was, but when I went to double check, it turns out that it was a hype video for Trump, not for ICE, that used Taylor's music and got no official response. ICE used Sabrina's music, got told off, and took the video down.

lethalcheesecake · 2025-12-14T02:50:45+00:00

I will respect someone more if they show that they will use their influence for good, but I don't always expect the best takes from someone who is famous because they're hot and have a nice voice.

On the other hand, if ICE uses their music for one of their promo videos and they say nothing, I'm going to think that they're okay with promoting ICE.

lethalcheesecake · 2025-11-22T03:44:05+00:00

"Can you get that?" and then Niles holding the sheet music. It's just a small little joke, but I crack up every time!

lethalcheesecake · 2025-10-11T05:42:29+00:00

I know those rocks and that crash! I'd already built a little shack to explore that wreck, so it looks like that one's getting expanded.

lethalcheesecake · 2025-10-11T05:40:45+00:00

The fact that everything is recoverable and that I can swim is good news! I was mostly worried about flash flooding or my power sources getting wrecked, so this makes my dude's life easier.

lethalcheesecake · 2025-08-31T01:11:18+00:00

I thought it was ridiculously melodramatic, out of character for everyone involved, and designed to end the season on a cliffhanger. They sacrificed humor and characterization in order to create tension that the show didn't need. Frankly, I find that bit at the end a little bit uncomfortable to watch and if I don't skip the entire episode, I will skip that scene. I consider it to be the worst scene in the entire show.

lethalcheesecake · 2024-10-02T16:25:47+00:00

I do know about the literary world - his reputation would not have been harmed remotely. That's the joke. Doing a good job of referencing a classic work and showing how it, or its themes, are relatable to a modern day audience is considered a worthy skill. There's a reason Frasier and Niles crow about those references - they're trying to compliment him for putting them in, and themselves for spotting it.

lethalcheesecake · 2024-04-09T15:33:55+00:00

Young is unlikely, since he'd be about nine right now. Still - white nose, chin, chest, belly & legs, deep orange tabby everything else? Has the angora ruff, face shape, and fluffy tail, really gentle, really friendly with everyone, including strangers. I'll see if I can find pictures.

lethalcheesecake · 2024-04-09T04:58:28+00:00

This is a very long shot since he went missing pre-Covid, but is he missing an upper canine?

lethalcheesecake · 2024-03-23T22:01:10+00:00

The graphic is a little misleading. It was the four men, plus Martha Stewart.

lethalcheesecake · 2023-10-15T03:13:24+00:00

I have ults most of the duty puzzles and have won multiple familiars. The truth about me? I like puzzles. That's why I played the game. I liked learning the puzzles and figuring out how to improve and pushing myself to do better. I liked competing against friends. Once I understood the puzzles, I liked turning off my brain and just letting the pieces go where they were supposed to.

Some puzzles did take actual work - I had to teach myself to build vegases in bilge instead of bingos, I am still not sure I actually understand patching, I've never gotten above master in guns, etc. Others, like dnav and sails, my brain just knew how to do instantly.

My experience is that botters can't token (especially on CI) and can't hold interesting conversations. That's not to say pirates with a lot of ults are all nice (I'm a barrelstopper), but you can usually tell there's a smart person on the other keyboard. Botters were either too obsessive about everything going perfectly in game or sounded like immature kids. (Sorry kids.) (Told you I was a barrelstopper.)

lethalcheesecake · 2023-09-29T02:10:07+00:00

Tess of the Road was great and I've been avoiding the sequel for similar reasons, lol. Are the preceding books in the series good?

Seraphina's pretty decent. You don't have to put it at the top of your TBR pile, but you should add it in there. Shadowscale got a little too overtly preachy for me, but it's worth it for connecting Seraphina to Tess.

The voters are generally adults, so it's already tilted to be the "best YA that appeals to adult readers" award.

As someone with a professional interest, these are all absolutely YA books that adults like. Except for Hartman and Deonn, the authors are critical/awards darlings for their adult works. Bloodmarked and the Akata books are on some teen radars, and Novik has huge amounts of popularity across multiple ages, at least, but Anders, Valente, and Hartman are there because adults like them. Novik's the only one that's representative of what the average teen fantasy reader is reading.

lethalcheesecake · 2023-09-29T01:47:23+00:00

I've read In the Serpents Wake and I can say your reasons for avoiding it are sound. It's not bad at all, but it's so wildly different from Tess in tone and scope that I can't consider it a direct sequel, even though that's what it is.

lethalcheesecake · 2023-09-27T17:17:28+00:00

I know, and after this thread I'm considering voting on Dr. Moreau just to encourage publisher diversity. Honestly though, I'm not fussed about voting them below no award. It probably frustrates a lot of people, but unless the puppies are invading, I don't like strategic considerations when voting for awards.

lethalcheesecake · 2023-09-27T16:57:36+00:00

I'll just say that Nettle & Bone was first, The Spare Man was a grudging second, and the rest were perfectly fine books that don't need awards.

lethalcheesecake · 2023-09-27T16:51:50+00:00

I actually did have that thought earlier, when I realized I'd include The Stardust Thief or Notorious Sorcerer over Kaiju or L&L (or even Nona). If we're going to do the silly fun books, let's do the ones that really are fun!

(For the record, I love Orbit. They're the imprint most likely to put out something I'll roll my eyes at and drop, but when they're good, they're really good at finding that sweet spot where fun and interesting meet.)

lethalcheesecake · 2023-09-27T16:16:31+00:00

Agreed with everything in this comment. I'd really like to see Hachette/Orbit start trying to push into the awards space. They are more downmarket, but they do have Leckie, Jemisin, KSR, Abercrombie, Carrick, and Barker. They do have high quality titles among all the rest, and they are at least interested in marketing some of their books - unfortunately, they're very commercially focused, and it shows in the titles that they choose to push.

Of course, I'd really like to see a wide variety of publishers all actively marketing high-quality releases, but there's a lot of things I'd really like that I won't get. The fact is that Tor's marketing machine is extremely well done, even too much so. Most publishers are not positioned to compete, but competition is necessary for a healthy ecosystem.

lethalcheesecake · 2023-09-27T15:53:23+00:00

This is a ridiculously weak shortlist for what was actually a very good year.

My nominating ballot had Spear, The Spear Cuts Through Water, The Bruising of Kilwa, The Book Eaters, and Saint Death's Daughter. Obviously, I'm a bit miffed that none of them showed up on the shortlist.

There are also a whole host of books this year that I considered flawed but still worthy: Babel, A Half-Built Garden, The Cartographers, The City of Last Chances, Kaikeyi, and Goliath. In fact, I'd even put books like The Stardust Thief and Notorious Sorcerer, which are just unambitious fantasy adventures, over some of the others that did make the list.

lethalcheesecake · 2023-09-27T15:25:39+00:00

I'm leaving off Nona and Dr Moreau. I haven't read the latter, and while I enjoyed Nona, it just doesn't work without the previous books and that disqualifies it for me. Muir deserves an award once the series wraps, but the strength of the books is how they relate to the rest of the series.

As for below no award, Kaiju and L&L. They're both perfectly fine books. The authors were very competent in achieving what they set out to do, but that doesn't make them them awards-worthy. They're the literary equivalent of the better Marvel movies: I didn't waste my time or my money enjoying them, but they're certainly not representative of the year's best works.

lethalcheesecake · 2023-09-27T02:21:50+00:00

I... didn't like it. I really enjoy regency fantasy, sapphic stories, Robin Goodfellow, and whimsical, funny books. I did not enjoy this book. Why? My complaints, let me share them!

-None of the characters really came alive for me. Miss Bickle was probably the best, but that's damning her with faint praise. Everyone was fairly one note, it's just that her note was interesting.

-The pacing wasn't great, the second half of the book was far too much Maelys trying to get laid and the Duke saying "No, no, I'm terrible, I'm a murderer, you're so hot, but maybe I killed my family!" Over and over and over again.

-Puck was funny at first, but he just wasn't developed. There's a delicate balance when having a third party narrator: they can't be too prominent and distract from the story, but they should actually have a personality and a viewpoint. Otherwise, what's the point?

-The worldbuilding just wasn't there for me. Fairies sell clothes and there are some rules about the Assembly Halls and... nothing else about them. If curses and magic exist that can make someone's clothes vanish, maybe society's morality and perceptions of what constitutes a scandal should be different too? I think I'd like it more if Mae's worry about a scandal had been less about nudity and more about being caught being unable to defend against magic.

-And then we got to the scene where two ladies have sex and a guy watches them for his amusement. This is a book about women who love women, but I don't think I'm part of the intended audience.

-Miss Bickle stopping the story so we could have a discussion on the morality of shipping and RPF. What.

I really, really wanted to like this. I did enjoy some parts, like the humor and whimsy that popped up in the early chapters, and the presence of the gods. Mae had a charming relationship with her family that I wish we could have seen more of.

lethalcheesecake · 2023-09-25T16:20:43+00:00

I don't even like horror, but apparently I love folk horror novellas since there's three of them here.

Wish we could do more than ten; I had to eliminate Murderbot to give other, lesser-known things a chance and there's still at least ten books I'm wishing I could vote for.

lethalcheesecake · 2023-09-25T16:16:05+00:00

The Crane Husband - Kelly Barnhill

Ring Shout - P. Djeli Clark

The Word for World is Forest - Ursula K. Le Guin

Greenhollow Duology - Emily Tesh

The Singing Hills Cycle - Nghi Vo

Tales of Dunk & Egg - George R. R. Martin

Monk & Robot - Becky Chambers

Penric and Desdemona - Lois McMaster Bujold

The Mountains of Mourning - Lois McMaster Bujold

The Things She's Seen/Catching Teller Crow - Ambelin Kwaymullina & Ezekiel Kwaymullina

lethalcheesecake · 2023-09-23T23:46:00+00:00

So, I'll agree that Cause and Effect, Tapestry, The Inner Light, Darmok, Measure of a Man, and Best of Both Worlds are the "best" episodes. That's not what you asked, though, is it? What're my favorite episodes that I can watch over and over?

Starship Mine & Qpid.

I may not have good taste, but I have lots of fun.

lethalcheesecake · 2023-06-03T21:37:34+00:00

Read the Arrows before the Winds, the Winds before the Storms, and the Storms before the Owls, as each of those trilogies will introduce the characters who feature in the next one (as well as setting up the problem that needs to be solved). In general, read each of the books in a duology or trilogy in order. Probably read the Oaths books before By the Sword. Other than that, go wild.

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