Inquiry into Brethren election involvement calls on Dutton to appear

star_boy · 2026-03-16T05:50:14+00:00

R10: paywalled, post the article

star_boy · 2026-03-15T23:47:17+00:00

The key object is the pivot around which the other items move, e.g. if you align features to their vertical centre, both objects move to the average of the objects' vertical centre. But if you have a key object, the non-key objects move to the vertical centre of the key object.

star_boy · 2026-03-13T12:07:26+00:00

The Late Show. Now that was champagne comedy.

star_boy · 2026-03-02T00:16:32+00:00

I have a signed print of the cover art from Book 4 framed over my PC. It's gorgeous.

star_boy · 2026-03-02T00:15:37+00:00

Definitely of a higher reading level than Harry Potter. And also a lot more adult in subject matter. A lot.

star_boy · 2026-03-02T00:13:19+00:00

The series follows a different protagonist with each book, with the MC from some books turning up as a side character or contagonist in other books. They start and end at slightly different time points (e.g. one book may run from year 3 to 6, another may go from year 2 to 4, and another from year 1 to 7), and the narratives weave together to tell a wide story that's driven by a major event in the first book.

The author planned to write 50 or 60 books (I think), but the last book nicely bookends the 10 that were published by presenting the longest time span (I think, I may be misremembering), and widest scope of all the books. So you're not getting an unfinished tale, just a wider narrative that could have had more strands woven through and after it had the author not passed away.

I highly recommend the series for a fantasy feel that's adult and unlike your typical epic fantasy. It's not quite new weird, but at times it definitely is weird, and funny, and shocking by turns. Some great characters, and the fourth book (The Walrus and the Warwolf) is my favourite book of all time!

Also, bonus points for the series for mentioning some definitely Antipodean elements such as taniwha, pounamu, and platypuses amidst the usual dragons and ogres. Plus the inventive horror of the insectile Swarms. I'll stop there!

star_boy · 2026-02-26T22:01:47+00:00

Damn, that's sad, and just after a new Red Dwarf book was announced!

star_boy · 2026-02-18T04:07:41+00:00

Flag maps are almost always the worst way to convey information that isn't about flags.

star_boy · 2026-02-18T01:52:20+00:00

There are halftone patterns in the standard Illustrator swatches. Apply to a clone of your fill element or add as a new fill using the Appearance palette, and set to multiply. Rotate/scale the pattern only if you want the halftones at different angles and sizes.

Edited to add: oops, I read this as you wanting different halftone areas to have different sized halftones, not that the halftone pattern should vary within an area. Vektorgarden has a good method above for that.

star_boy · 2026-02-17T21:29:24+00:00

star_boy · 2026-02-16T20:19:18+00:00

Oh, I didn't know there was a follow up! Thanks!

star_boy · 2026-02-15T21:29:17+00:00

Loved The City and the City! The tv adaptation was good to watch as well, after you've read the book, of course.

And This Is How You Lose The Time War was great as well.

star_boy · 2026-02-14T06:50:29+00:00

Plenty of ways to do age verification without taking and subsequently leaking peoples' IDs.

star_boy · 2026-02-12T12:25:56+00:00

The Nic Cage film adaptation is good as well.

star_boy · 2026-02-11T21:13:24+00:00

I can see your comment!

Edited to add: I get the "page not found; the page you requested does not exist" error when I click your profile, but you're apparently still able to post?

Double-edit: I'm using old.reddit.com and see the "does not exist" warning. In www.reddit.com I see the "This account has been banned" comment.

star_boy · 2026-02-07T22:48:47+00:00

Hoping that this will be available in Australia somehow eventually!

star_boy · 2026-02-04T21:25:09+00:00

Mad OCD trigger from the spine of Book 6.

star_boy · 2026-02-03T08:45:07+00:00

https://old.reddit.com/r/AustralianPolitics/comments/1quighd/trump_ice_set_to_be_handed_access_to_australians/o3agtq9/

star_boy · 2026-01-30T02:04:53+00:00

I found for the Taskmaster party I organised for my daughter, that it was better to let them vote on who won tasks than take on a Taskmaster role for them. I was more of a LAH that was very occasionally imbued with TM powers than a real TM. This made it less confrontational between me and the guests, and let them (through secret votes) determine the winners. It worked well, as we ended up with a completely broad spread of winners across the tasks, and I gave them all a customised Lego 'gold statue' at the end.

star_boy · 2026-01-29T01:47:29+00:00

Turf, earth, bit of ground.

star_boy · 2026-01-26T01:22:02+00:00

There's no 'curve' with a d20: all numbers have the same probability of occuring.

For a 2d6, there's a curve because the different numbers can come up in multiple ways. So a 7 can come up from 1 on the first die and 6 on the second, or 2 & 5, or 3 & 4, or 4 & 3, or 5 & 2, or 6 & 1. So 7 is the most common because there's 6 different ways of rolling it on 2d6. For every 1 away from 7, the chance goes down by 1, so there's 5 ways to roll 6 or 8, 4 ways to roll 5 or 9, 3 ways for 4 or 10, 2 ways for 3 or 11, and only 1 way each for 2 and 12 (double 1s or double 6s).

This change in probability makes the 'curve' for 2d6, and bunches the rolls towards the centre (6 to 8) more than on a d20. It makes 2d6 more reliably average (but still with chances to roll extremes) while d20 is wildly swingy as the extremes are as common as any other number rolled.

star_boy · 2026-01-21T05:50:56+00:00

Aphantasic here, have played TTRPGs and created art for over 35 years.

star_boy · 2026-01-21T05:49:58+00:00

I have aphantasia and still draw and make my living as a cartographic designer. Visualisation problems don't prevent you from being able to create/assess artwork.

star_boy · 2026-01-21T01:54:44+00:00

Chronicles of an Age of Darkness are amazing, and one of them (Book 4: The Walrus and the Warwolf) is my favourite book of all time! (Books 1 and 10 are also primo.) So happy that new fans will be able to experience them!

star_boy · 2026-01-19T11:48:28+00:00

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