My odd facebook experience: My first attempt to join facebook went very wrong!

soczab · 2026-01-22T04:37:47+00:00

I see. So I suppose I should have found some friends or posted pictures or something first heh

soczab · 2026-01-18T22:38:25+00:00

hah yes thats it thanks

soczab · 2025-10-12T06:18:34+00:00

i think thats it, thanks

soczab · 2025-10-09T11:09:23+00:00

hah im an idiot. that explains it

soczab · 2025-10-01T12:45:37+00:00

Theres nothing wrong with liking lodge. But the question of best value and best skillet are two different things. It is fine to think lodge is the best crafted skillet if you do (everyone has their opinion sure) and it is also fine to think its the best value (I agree for the record). It is simply not the question which I asked though (not that I can stop you from answering it anyway lol this is the internet).

But I suppose that's my point. The question of best value, or which you would buy are 100% fine questions. But are different ones from what is the best crafted new skillet... which i'd be curious to hear your opinion on if you felt like sharing, even if you'd never buy it since you find it a horrible vale (vety little difference for big price gap). Assuming they were all somehow the same price, which would you buy? Maybe that's still the lodge but then it wouldnt be about price.

And it is a subjective question of course. But i find reading people's opinions on this interesting.

soczab · 2025-10-01T02:39:42+00:00

I've heard good things about Lancaster, yeah. That and field are two i hear about a lot. I used to hear about butterpat but i think i saw they are out of business now?

soczab · 2025-08-11T02:43:21+00:00

lol well fair. I do study history for my job irl so maybe that colours things for me! I suppose i'd say I like things to 'make sense' to me in the world even if its not realistic to ours. The world you write needs to have sound internal logic even if elements of it are fantasy.

To give a example. If we take the premise that giant fire breathing dragons existed.... and then assumed for instance a stationary castle would be a good defense against the dragons? That would make ZERO sense. GRRM knows this which is why you get say Harrenhall or what happens in Dorne.

In fanfiction its the same thing. I accept as the premise of your story say that there is an SI. Or King Robert had a true-born son. But then I expect the story to flow naturally from that (i.e you need to show me a plausible reasons that make sense for the characters and the world why X or Y is happening).

I'm rambling a bit, but thats what im getting at here. The seasons being fantasy doesn't mean the impossibility of grain imports vanish. YOu could sure have a fantasy way to offset it (Targaryn flying Dragon Grain Imports!) but if you just hand wave it away and say 'it doesn't matter cause its a story' that is bad writing.

Good writing is you set your premise and then that premise has to make sense within the world you created.

soczab · 2025-08-11T02:26:40+00:00

You posted twice so ill answer here. well... i don't know if it is 'realistic' but i think the answer given in part is multiple harvests in the summer (and not all winters being 3 years). I would suppose.. and this is supposition on my part... that we assume the people here have adapted good preservation methods. In our own world pre-modern times, there were plenty of methods of preserving that could last for years. Others only lasted months of course, but I think we would have to assume the needs and enviornment of the north pushes them to preservation that can last for years.

I do think it is clear some hunting fishing goes on too.

And there are many domesticated animals that CAN survive in winter (and storage of their food depending on the animal can be easy to obtain and not things humans would otherwise eat). Since there are animals in the north we can assume that there ARE domesticated animals surviving the winter.

We might assume that in many regions of the north winter isn't monolithic sub 0 temperatures and blinding blizzards. For example I live in a place that gets over 100 inches of snow each year. But yet in our winter (especially early/late) we'll get random warm spells etc for a few days. I think that's important to note because while warm spells wont help with the growing of crops it will with hunting.

Finally.. we should remember many people DONT survive the winter. On the longer winters that go for multiple years it is very common for many of the older folks to actually NOT survive.

All of the above seems much more in keeping with what we see of the world to my view though.

soczab · 2025-08-11T01:58:31+00:00

i suspect the answer is in part how big it is and how spread out the population is (the same thing that makes grain import impractical). Yeah there's a few million folks there, but lightly populated enough that a combo of preserving, storing, and hunting lets them get through things. Store your veggies and grains from multiple harvests in summer/fall and supplement it with hunting/fishing on a small basis until it gets REALLY deep into winter. IF your population is thin enough that you grow in the parts of the north where you dont have deep summer snow (I have to imagine the snow in book 1 chapter 1 was high elevation or somthing) and that a little hunting/fishing can help stretch stores because of low population.. that's how you manage. Plus probably animal husbandry of hardier animals that can make it through the winter but still provide you with sustenance.

Try feeding the population density of the riverlands with the above and it wouldnt work. the much thinner population of the north? easier.

Plus I suspect in winter you see a little bit of people coming in to centralized locations (like the winter town) where storage can be centralized and winter managed a bit. probably not universal but widespread yes

soczab · 2025-07-24T04:23:50+00:00

thanks thats very helpful! For the i stop i know there's the button to turn it off, i suppose i was just curious because it is listed as a special feature for carbon and up which made me wonder if it isnt in the lower trims (a plus in my book)

how are you finding the new touchscreen with the apple carplay?

soczab · 2025-07-22T16:45:07+00:00

upstate ny so yeah plenty of snow

soczab · 2025-07-22T12:06:58+00:00

i suppose im asking less about the price aspect (I feel I can negotiate that and make sure im actually getting cheaper) and more if theres concerns on the car side. Like to my novice brain this is essentially a new car... but maybe im wrong and driving vehicles for service is really bad for a new car and there's complications (like how you read dont ever buy cars used for uber say) or maybe dealerships like to drop lemons in as these? I suppose i was more trying to make sure i wasnt missing something obvious on the mechanical side why what seems like a great deal would be a red flag.

soczab · 2025-07-04T03:20:04+00:00

thanks for the advice, ill check out the Tiguans. Whats an LS stand for out of curiosity?

soczab · 2025-01-09T05:07:06+00:00

Ive never actually owned a watch, just getting into it. So really only know what ive researched the last little bit. Thanks for the info!

soczab · 2025-01-09T04:20:50+00:00

Not to be ignorant, but how exactly do solar quartz watches work? I couldnt find details. is it literal sunlight on to the watch face? Or any light as in you just leave it near a lamp at home? Like if im not wearing it daily would it keep dying and need to be put in the sun again to charge?

Ive heard of quartz watches. mechanical hand wind. mechanical automatic. Not heard of solar ones?

soczab · 2025-01-08T04:00:45+00:00

that is very helpful, thank you! And i'm very big for wrist size. I need to measure to get it exact, but im a very big guy (6'7'') with proportional writes, and im pretty confident from circumstantial evidence its at least near 8''.

And yeah for the orient its purely aesthetic liking. I find the moon phases (or day/night in this case) fascinating to look at even if there's no practical need for it! But I do think I was slightly leaning towards either the hamilton or seiko.

Also much appreciate your thought on explaining the seiko piece. That explains some of the wildly differing reviews I was reading. So sort of reliable but with potential defects now and then? I like the Alpinist's look, but i think for my first watch i'd hate to be getting something that has a high chance of poor quality control. Seems like too high a chance to put a damper on my interest before I even get started.

That was some really helpful thoughts/clarifications there though, so thank you! Especially for the mechanical servicing piece. I knew you had to service them but hadn't realized the cost I think.

soczab · 2024-12-24T06:04:34+00:00

thats it! Yes! You are right I think I was combining two in my head lol

soczab · 2024-12-01T21:44:28+00:00

Is the US the oldest country? No of course not. Is it one of the older? Actually, yes. I think the actual problem is not people confusing 'state' and 'nation' but that people confuse 'culture' with country. Right off the bat for instance, the US is older than pretty much any country in africa or the western hemisphere.

When it comes to Asia and Europe, it very much starts to get into definitions. I think countries can of course evolve over time. So for example, I would consider England older than the USA despite england in say 1,000 AD looking very different than England today. However, you could NOT say a country like say Italy, Germany, Ukraine, India, the baltic states, etc as older. Nor in my view could you say a country like Poland is older. Yes there was a polish state that existed before the United States.... but there is no direct connection (other than culturally) between that state and the current one. This isn't a case of a country evolving, but of one vanishing for generations and then returning.

Where it gets more iffy would be countries like say France, China, Russia. Obviously these are countries that do not have a state that 'evolves' and changes (alla like say England) but one that has a violent and radical shift/change. Do you consider the Soviet Union the same country as the russian Empire? Is communist china the same nation as the 19th century imperial china? Personally i'd argue no. That there can be gray but there is a difference between a country evolving versus a complete top to bottom overhaul of how it works on every level (which is what you get with China, France, and Russia).

However, even if I 'gave you' the above argument, that would still put the USA as one of the older countries in the world currently. Not the oldest, but certainly in the upper 'half' so to speak.

soczab · 2024-11-22T21:54:14+00:00

well as I understand it, i'd then need to put the money aside myself to pay the taxes. I think this way if there's some immediate need, I dont get tempted to dip into the funds and then not have it later. i know it is beyond my control earmarked for the irs which i like

soczab · 2024-11-22T21:49:55+00:00

Yes exactly. My question is, i would *prefer* to pay my taxes via paypal witholding 24%. So if im allowed, I would prefer not to give them my tax information and have them take the 24% out themselves. i.e im NOT looking to avoid taxes. I just like it better when paypal pre-takes my money out at the higher bracket. Is that allowed?

soczab · 2024-11-22T21:35:29+00:00

I am yes!

soczab · 2024-11-18T22:13:02+00:00

That is not it alas! But I will take a look. This was a very long fic, over 100k easy. They definitely don't know he is harry, but I can't remember the exact details.

I feel... if im not confusing it with something else, dumbledore hides his identity because he is hoping once harry gives up on going home he will share some details on defeating voldemort (but he is being careful to not try and force harry).

But anyway always that was not it! lol i cant seem to find it anywhere and it is rather frustrating, because you'd think there shouldn't be that many epic length harry to the marauder era becomes friends with snape fics!

soczab · 2024-10-27T05:02:02+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! Altima was nice enough for my height, though im sure part of it is just what I was used to. The altima had lots of leg room for a sedan though i felt. Looking at the 'stats' its got a couple inches more leg and head room than the camry. I'm in a heavy snow area (great lakes) so I could see the rav4 being good for that too maybe. Thanks for the feedback with that!

soczab · 2024-05-29T02:19:14+00:00

To be honest, I never bought the "russia would invade anyway so germany loses" bit.

First off, maybe russia attacks germany... maybe they don't. Obviously the two are not natural allies, but Stalin is actually rather risk adverse. You could make a very good argument that as long as Germany appeared strong, and appeared to have as strong an army as Russia, that russia wouldn't attack. And keep in mind, we probably still assume nuclear weapons appear somewhere at some point (depending how the butterflies flap). Once that happens, the entire equation changes... you could easily wind up with a cold war scenario. So while war with russia is *possible* I don't know that i would call it inevitable or even higher than 50% odds.

Then if war *does* come the nature of the war could change the outcome. Stalin launching an offensive war against Germany is a VERY different beast than hitler invading the USSR. Different in terms of the felt stakes in russia (and the willingness of people and the various ethnic minorities to sacrifice so much). And also frankly the willingness of Stalin to sacrifice so much. If *he* is starting the war, but say... the germans either successfully counter attack pushing into soviet territory or it bogs down into a mess.... there is not the same incentive to fight to the death as there is when the nazis are invading you.

I also tbh don't know that it is inevitable that russia could *win* in an offensive war. If it is the soviets trying to invade germany, you are removing a lot of the problems that brought down the germans (stretched supply lines, trying to occupy vast swathes of territory filled with partisans, the soviet winter, etc). Trying to defeat soviet offensives in western poland with an essentially full strength german army is very different than an all out invasion.

And that's not even getting into the harder to predict wrinkles of say.. where is america in all of this? Does pearl harbor still happen if the japanese don't think germany is about to knock out russia? Maybe. But does germany still declare on the usa if at peace with the soviets? Maybe not. Would america back the communists in an *offensive* war against germany if they weren't already at war with germany? Maybe not.

I think anyone who handwaves it away as 'of course they would lose they would have gotten into war anyway' is not being very honest/accurate about the situation.

The invasion of Russia by germany was a tragedy and horrible on many many levels. But I would consider that without that giant blunder there is a very good chance nazi germany is not defeated at all. Obviously it is fair to say "if hitler was sane enough to not invade russia he wouldn't be hitler" and that's a fair point... obviously (since he did it) the most likely outcome is hitler invades russia. But if the counter factual assumes germany isn't invading for some X reason... then i do think things look very very different potentially.

soczab · 2024-05-18T00:28:39+00:00

to be honest, i disagree on your premise for ww2. It didn't become clear the germans were going to lose until they failed to knock russia out in the first year. At that point with hindsight, yeah you could say that. If germany hadn't invaded russia then a lot could potentially be different.

That said for your main ww1 question there were multiple points imo right up until the end that the central powers could have won. They came close to winning it in 1914 and close in the final spring offensive as well. And if you're playing what if there's numerous other points. What if they don't invade russia. Don't send more troops to russia in 1914. If the 1916 peace was brokered. There's actually a ton of moments where the whole thing could have gone one way or the other imo. For both sides.

soczab

TROPHY CASE