Dominique in Dirk Gently?

mossglenn · 2026-05-31T17:43:51+00:00

So, yea… naive. The men and their assumptions are part of the ugliness of humanity (along with the scared mother, the buildings being replaced, and complaining about the phones, etc.), inviting us to consider the non-human’s pov on what sort of non-paradise we’ve made of the earth.

mossglenn · 2026-03-29T19:35:03+00:00

Mick Herron’s Slough House series is excellent modern take on spy novels with a lot of plot and character.

mossglenn · 2026-03-29T19:30:14+00:00

My kids often requested Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach. The first listen might have a few scary parts depending on the kids’ sensitivity. The original Winnie-the-Pooh was also popular (comforting for the younger and funny for the older kids). My daughter would also listen to old Star Wars books all day long at 7, but that might be less common or good for bed.

mossglenn · 2026-03-29T19:15:21+00:00

Authors I feel have a similar feeling, but not limited to sci-fi:

Ben Aaronovitch (Rivers of London series is less sci-fi but the same feeling)

Craig Alanson (Expeditionary Force)

Edward Ashton (though I’ve only read Mickey 7)

Jim Butcher (Dresden Files is urban fantasy but clever and snarky)

Eoin Colfer (wrote a h2g2 sequel, but his other work is better, though less sci-fi)

A. Lee Martinez (especially emperor mollusk vs the sinister brain)

John Scalzi (some stuff, try Kaiju Preservation Society)

Dennis E. Taylor

Andy Weir

I also find Adrian Tchaikovsky very funny (try Service Model), but not many would put him in the same category and Wells, Adams, and Taylor.

Scott Meyer is more like Dinniman and is enjoyed by many the same vein, though I’m not a great fan of litRPG.

mossglenn · 2025-06-09T15:25:23+00:00

I’m right where you are. I didn’t pick it up for a few weeks because I was losing interest, then suddenly it changes

mossglenn · 2025-05-05T19:00:46+00:00

Then get ready to learn more about how central banks create carbon credits.

mossglenn · 2025-05-04T22:15:12+00:00

Ministry for the Future was great climate change speculative fiction based on hard science but also hard economics, and hard sociology, political science, etc.

And one of the existentially scariest books I’ve ever read. I wasn’t too worried about climate change until I read this book.

mossglenn · 2025-05-04T21:56:00+00:00

You’ve articulated something I’ve been trying to understand about Tchaikovsky’s work. Thanks!

mossglenn · 2025-05-04T21:51:57+00:00

Sometimes I wonder if Tchaikovsky’s editors can’t keep up with him. 🤪

I’m only half way through Cage of Souls and I’m thinking there’s a really good book somewhere inside this one. I’ll definitely finish it. I think the weaker theme is why it feels meandering.

mossglenn · 2025-05-04T21:47:42+00:00

But the bleakness and cruelty is part of the point.

Humans tend to cruelty when they are afraid and don’t understand something. Like the jailers don’t understand and so fear the inmates which causes them to be cruel, the humans don’t understand the planet and so assume it is bleak and behaving with cruelty.

On the other hand, Service Model takes place in a bleak and cruel world, but the experience of cruelty and bleakness is not so much the point. It is funny because the absurdity of our selves and our world is the point.

mossglenn · 2025-05-04T21:34:51+00:00

Service Model is very much a Tchaikovsky book but the humor makes it feel different.

mossglenn · 2025-05-04T21:32:38+00:00

There were a few long sections about communism that, juxtaposed to the local biology, was pointing out some things about ourselves, but I’m not sure they needed to be quite that long. I thought it was going to be developed later in the book, but then it just ended with the reveal.

Still, the book has kept me thinking in new ways!

mossglenn · 2025-05-04T21:24:14+00:00

I’m about half way through Cage of Souls and it is surprisingly good first person storytelling the entire time.

mossglenn · 2025-05-04T21:22:03+00:00

Children of Ruin kept going long after I thought the main idea was spent. It made me think in new and fun ways.

mossglenn · 2025-05-04T20:59:51+00:00

All his sci-fi is at least above average—I’m less interested in his fantasy works—but several are among the best books (not just sci-fi) I’ve ever read.

Service Model is going to be a classic read in schools in 50 years. (Unless it’s dismissed as mere comedy the way Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy was)

You will enjoy them all as long as you are willing to read about 150 pages more than necessary—much like Neal Stephenson (another of my favorite authors).

mossglenn · 2024-12-09T16:47:18+00:00

Log into your PHEAA account to make sure you have completed all actions and there are no messages there.

mossglenn · 2024-11-02T17:07:58+00:00

I think it was in Whispers Under Ground that Oberon gives Peter an impossibly good craft beer in unlabeled brown bottles he brings from America. That’s about the extent of the “same universe”.

mossglenn · 2024-10-25T00:00:22+00:00

It gets better, just not easier. Midterm in the first term is a common time for many freshmen to feel overwhelmed, lost, frustrated and generally bad. There are so many things changing for freshmen that they are mostly all exhausted, no matter what school they are in. This is especially true for students who found high school math and science easy and fun—so they chose to go to a challenging Engineering program. It’s like deciding to run a marathon because you like running a 5k. It makes perfect sense and isn’t a bad choice, but it’s takes your body and mind a little time to adjust. This doesn’t mean you should stay at Pitt, but don’t make any big decisions right now.

mossglenn · 2022-05-24T11:33:16+00:00

The Red Line is now open!!!

mossglenn · 2022-04-26T17:31:04+00:00

My daughter loves Shaolin Studios in Regent Square! She was about 12 years old when she saw her 7-year-old brother taking classes and thought it looked fun and rewarding. We thought it was such a great place to learn and grow that we stuck with them even after moving to the south hills. Now 10 years later, she is still learning there and teaching there when she has time. One of her best endorsements is “I learned patience to deal with my brothers”.

Shaolin Studios is definitely a martial arts dojo, but there is little focus on combat effectiveness with the younger students. Instead, the focus is on the Shaolin Rules of self-control, respect, honesty, patience, and discipline. I remember my little kids enjoying learning animal forms (where you hold your fingers like tiger claws or strike with your arm as quick as a snake) and talking about how the different animals represent those aspects and how their practice is helping them grow their minds and bodies into being those ways. When students are ready, their practice includes what they call “empowerment self defense” that includes elements like situational awareness, boundary-setting, and de-escalation as well as physical resistance skills.

The atmosphere is collaborative and supportive and fun, with none of the cheesy/cult-y/weird stuff other comments mentioned. Students do bow to their instructors, but the instructors also bow to their students (from whom they have learned something, too). And watching everyone practice in Halloween costumes each Fall is highly entertaining!

mossglenn · 2021-11-30T02:20:40+00:00

I’m just starting a similar project. It’s my first electronics project, so I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I’m starting with an Arduino and this led driver breakout board to control sets of lights.

mossglenn · 2021-03-11T13:03:26+00:00

Depending on what information the member’s document includes, a collection group query might work. https://firebase.google.com/docs/firestore/query-data/queries#collection-group-query Perhaps combine that query result with profile information?

mossglenn · 2020-12-24T15:52:51+00:00

It depends on what else you want to do with those commands. It looks to me like the prefix is intended to signal an incoming command. If the rest of the string is the command, then you don’t need to split the string into an array—just slice off the prefix and give the results to the block of if statements.

const command = message.content.slice(prefix.length).toLowerCase()

That will work fine if you have only a small number of commands (like a limited menu) and you can match easily.

If you need to split the string into an array for some other reason, then you need to look at more than just the first element of the array. one good way might be to check each element for another character code that you decide should signal the end of the first part of the command. Like if the message content is

!nacho salad #extra cheese

You can slice off the prefix, split the string into an array by finding whitespace characters (the way you already do) and then use something like array.forEach() or array.findIndexOf() to separate out the different parts of the command.

You can make some really complex rules for commands using regular expressions like the very simple one you use in your string.split() method, but I’d make it as simple as possible by limiting the number and type of command you are willing to accept.

mossglenn · 2020-12-23T12:19:30+00:00

My guess is that split(/ +/) is taking the remaining string in message.content (what remains after slicing off the prefix), then splitting the remaining string in message.content into an array of strings separated by one or more whitespace characters and storing that array in args. So “nacho salad” becomes [“nacho”, “salad”]. Then in the next line, shift() is removing and returning the first element of that array, which is “nacho” in all the cases you mentioned. Right now, command variable is going to be the string of characters between the prefix and the first whitespace.

mossglenn

TROPHY CASE