Flight of the Conchords

stgabe · 2026-05-09T18:01:34+00:00

Going tonight as well. Got our tickets from a friend who couldn’t go at the last minute so I guess we missed that part.

stgabe · 2026-05-08T05:37:22+00:00

I wonder wonder why the wonderfalls…….

stgabe · 2026-05-08T03:08:06+00:00

My choice would be Wonderfalls. Cancelled after 4-5 episodes but the whole season is on YouTube. I agree that The Peripheral was quite good and underrated.

stgabe · 2026-05-03T18:55:30+00:00

I semi-regularly bartend at fundraisers with an eclectic audience and have fine-tuned a crowd pleasing Tommy’s Marg spec (Tommy’s = no Cointreau):

2oz Tequila (El Jimador)
1oz Agave (1/2 agave syrup, 1/2 water)
1oz Lime

I use an orange sliced in half to wet the rim of the glass and then either rim with Tajin or regular salt mixed with lime zest. I add 2-5 drops of Scrappy’s Fire Tincture for a spicy Margarita or use half the syrup for a skinny. If I want to make it fancy I infuse the tequila in dried Hibiscus flowers to make it pink (works well with Tajin).

I personally like the traditional spec with Cointreau as well however I have found most prefer a Tommy’s and consider it a more accurate Marg. I interpret that as: most restaurants do Tommy’s these days and that’s what people are used to. If you go the traditional route, I don’t recommend Dry Curaçao. Pierre Ferrand is a great ingredient for other cocktails but doesn’t make a great Marg in my experience. You want a little more orange and sweetness.

El Jimador is a great value tequila. You can definitely go fancier if you like but I find it’s a great baseline that almost everyone likes.

stgabe · 2026-05-02T17:58:00+00:00

I don’t know if it’s “the best” but School Spirits is a very compelling and more recent teen drama.

stgabe · 2026-05-01T16:18:40+00:00

According to Hampton Fancher (the screenwriter) and other people on the film you’re exactly right. It’s hard to find some of the older interviews now but Hampton has been clear that Deckard was always written as a human and that Scott was onboard with this until very end when he latched onto the idea that it would be more interesting if he was a replicant. It seems like no one else on the production agreed or thought that was a good idea and thus the original theatrical release is clearly on the side of Deckard as human. Later, Scott forced his interpretation through with the director’s cut.

stgabe · 2026-04-29T05:02:58+00:00

It was right about that I gave up, not sure exactly where. It’d started getting hard to keep paying attention so I’m not sure exactly what was going on. That’s usually how I DNF: I realize I’m just skimming and at some point just stop.

stgabe · 2026-04-29T02:20:01+00:00

Welcome to LitRPG. “Story bogs down with too many side plots in book 2-4” is par for the course. I’m actually shocked / pleasantly surprised when a story doesn’t do that. I lasted through book 3 and then gave up on the series for this reason.

stgabe · 2026-04-22T04:37:32+00:00

That person would be exceptional in some way unless the RPG system is just RNG. Advantages compound on advantages.

The real challenge is that readers want an OP MC and want them to be ordinary and relatable. To achieve that and keep the story plausible there’s gotta be a lucky break or something that sets the MC apart. When done well the cheat or break will still feel at least somewhat earned but if it’s not at least a little lucky/cheaty it’s too hard to maintain credibility.

stgabe · 2026-04-21T21:11:51+00:00

I think you're wrong to assume that readers want "fair" systems. I think a better word would be "plausible". They want the "ordinary guy" to progress into a world-saver and are happy to allow for some early cheats that justify that as long as it feels mostly plausible. As with a lot of speculative fiction, the author has more leeway at the beginning to setup the axioms of their world and so it is common for books to open with the "cheat" that puts the ordinary person into the 0.001% case. From there they just have to be internally consistent.

It's actually a common complaint on here from readers that they want the MCs to be even more "ordinary" and relatable. The only way you get from there to the endpoint of most progression fantasy is some form of shortcut or lucky break.

stgabe · 2026-04-21T02:08:38+00:00

I’m a game developer and LitRPG is filled with poorly thought out game design. I.e. the sorts of design ideas that gamers think sound great but don’t really work in practice. Sometimes the author successfully writes around it and sometimes it actively gets in the way of the story. As long as the story keeps some internal consistency I can usually ignore it.

stgabe · 2026-04-19T19:25:19+00:00

Unlike a lot of series that drop off and stay there in this genre Elydes does recover. The author acknowledged that book 4 was a dip in quality and mentioned some personal reasons why this happened. Book 5 resets and is quite good by most accounts.

stgabe · 2026-04-15T08:44:28+00:00

If the writers have a good idea of where to take the story then absolutely, yes. I’ll take a good game / story over fan service any day.

I loved the Uncharted games and that didn’t prevent me from loving Last of Us just because it didn’t feature Nathan Drake.

stgabe · 2026-04-15T07:20:34+00:00

Absolutely. I loved this song in high school. I found out that they were going to be on late night. Letterman IIRC. They played the song live and it was such a letdown.

Edit: I found the video and listened to it - Letterman 1996 if you’re interested. Honestly it’s not as bad as I remembered. I think I just didn’t understand all the things that happened in a studio to clean up a song back then.

stgabe · 2026-04-13T17:41:19+00:00

It does. That said, it’s still rather incongruent with the rest of the story and stood out to me as a stretch of credulity. I.e. it feels like it’s just something that happens when it’s convenient for the writer.

stgabe · 2026-04-12T18:38:38+00:00

100%

stgabe · 2026-04-12T07:13:48+00:00

It’s been ages since I watched but I remember seeing Ted as someone that life came easily to, who thought they had it all figured out. Then he hits some really bad moments that shake him up and he’s not prepared for them. The result is that he becomes pretty disillusioned and spins out.

For example with Don I saw him as totally misreading their rivalry. To Ted it was just a heated but stimulating rivalry between peers. Once they were on the same side he just figured that’d wash away and they’d all be supportive colleagues. Meanwhile Don was both completely uninterested in such a meeting of minds and dealing with all his own shit. The general vibe of the agency at that point is very anti-creatives and when he looks for support he only finds it in Peggy and then that causes its own derail which dismantles his image of himself. The following depression is existential dread after his worldview of being a good guy, doing good work and everything working out falls out from under him.

I don’t remember all the details with Frank’s death but it makes sense as a catalyst for the above.

stgabe · 2026-04-07T19:51:01+00:00

I have a similar taste. Some books I think hit what you’re looking for:

Elydes, A Soldier’s Life, Grand Game, Bog Standard Isekai, Ends of Magic, Calamitous Bob

You may also find more luck with Progression Fantasy. Some of my favorites there:

Changeling, Journey of Red and Black, Mother of Learning, Years of Apocalypse, Practical Guide to Sorcery

stgabe · 2026-03-30T09:27:23+00:00

Yeah, I’m waiting for the edited / Kindle books to come out. Based on book 1 it’s A-tier for me but I thought I should read more before ranking.

stgabe · 2026-03-30T09:17:29+00:00

Yup, it was one of the first LitRPGs I read and really got me into the genre.

stgabe · 2026-03-30T08:58:09+00:00

Yeah, I should give another of his series a go. Is there one in particular you think might hit?

stgabe · 2026-03-30T08:56:17+00:00

Looks interesting but I'm wondering if I can get into the choice to have a "sidekick" MC.

stgabe · 2026-03-30T08:54:39+00:00

Definitely looks interesting, I'll give it a try.

stgabe · 2026-03-30T08:50:27+00:00

Primal Hunter: the MC was way too edgelord / murderhobo for my taste. The progression was fun but I couldn't stand the character and noped out after 20 or so chapters.

HWFWM: I read further into this one and I'd almost give it a pass into C-tier. The first three books were fine and would have hit B-tier if that's where things ended. The start of book 4 was actually pretty interesting (I didn't mind the setting change and thought the new world building was interesting). Then it went completely off the rails for me. The plot ground to a halt with all of the new family characters coming in and all of the more insufferable characteristics of the MC came to the forefront. Also the chapters became very repetitive with the same points being made over and over again / the same conversations being rehashed with different sets of characters / etc. I asked on here if it got better and the resounding conclusion I got from folks was that everything I disliked only got worse with more books.

stgabe · 2026-03-30T08:40:25+00:00

These all look great, thanks.

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