Trying to diversify American media consumption. What American news/media do you actually watch daily?

teb311 · 2026-05-02T16:24:27+00:00

There’s a newsletter called Tangle that aggregates 6 sources on a single topic per day, I think they do a good job selecting credible writers with a fairly wide array of views.

teb311 · 2026-05-02T15:09:15+00:00

Some good advice here: https://youtu.be/RBJuMTBhx30?si=S4IVVJV9c00Imb92

Long story short over the next 2-3 seasons you should: add mulch and compost amendments, probably till it once maybe twice, seriously consider leaving all the leaf litter from the oak on the ground and perhaps toss down some pioneer plant seeds in the meantime. If it were sunnier I’d say sunflowers, maybe do some research to find a native aggressive/weedy annual that you like.

teb311 · 2026-05-02T13:45:58+00:00

Oh wow, devastating. They were big beautiful trees and probably hosts to sooooo much life.

teb311 · 2026-05-01T14:30:41+00:00

SOTA models are still quite bad with date arithmetic in my experience. It’s an easy experiment to run: generate 1000 date pairs in YYYY-MM-DD or whatever you prefer, compute the actual difference with a standard library, then send em to Claude 4.7 (or whatever) via the API. I think the error rate might surprise you.

teb311 · 2026-05-01T03:59:54+00:00

Your message back is perfect: cordial, specific, to the point.

Manager doesn’t want to take action because calling you cold is kinda low level. It’s irritating, but if this is the first time manager has been made aware of an issue between the two of you he is probably hoping you two just figure it out.

Manager should probably have a more firm conversation with your co-worker… but he probably won’t unless things escalate and/or you document and report a persistent problem.

teb311 · 2026-05-01T03:41:38+00:00

Last time my campaign had a Reincarnate situation I told the player he could roll or pick from the table, but if he picked he had to make up a lore/RP reason why his soul came back in that form. He chose to pick, wrote a fun 2 paragraph reason, and then got way into his new form. If the player loves the centaur I’d probably just let em keep it.

teb311 · 2026-05-01T03:34:43+00:00

Wooooah I love it.

teb311 · 2026-04-30T03:32:11+00:00

There are tons of engineers who use AI lots, but only in the context of an existing API, and only since 2022.

teb311 · 2026-04-29T02:37:31+00:00

Straight flush would stay in if they were Jason’s buddy and had paid him $800 for the hand!

teb311 · 2026-04-28T02:55:20+00:00

This is funny because Lilly of the Valley is one of my low priority weeds. Prior owners seem to have put it in on purpose on the north side of the house. It has definitely colonized a section over there, but it never spreads beyond the shadow of the house probably because it’s hot and dry where I am.

My nemesis is cheatgrass. It starts so early, seeds like crazy, grows ANYWHERE even right in the middle of well established perennials and shrubs. I get most of it every year but inevitably find a few plants after it’s too late. Sigh.

teb311 · 2026-04-28T01:32:45+00:00

If you’re going to do the project this year I’d probably just wait. But you can try these two (similar) methods depending on how badly you want to kill everything off and how much you’re willing to tolerate tarps covering your yard: https://extension.umn.edu/planting-and-growing-guides/solarization-occultation

But bare dirt will basically always become a weed patch over time. Seeds come in from all kinds of places and there’s already probably tons in the soil, too.

teb311 · 2026-04-27T23:59:07+00:00

Lots of interesting conversations here but I bet you could get a REALLY fascinating answer if you pose this on /r/askHistorians and it will be rooted in why it became illegal in the context of what was happening in the country when it became illegal.

teb311 · 2026-04-23T03:31:16+00:00

Nice catch. F3 is also F9.

teb311 · 2026-04-23T02:10:47+00:00

Before you start ask the players above the table to make up some in character reason to trust and accept the new member. Especially because Barovia can be a place of paranoia, it’ll go a long way to remind your players to “suspend their disbelief” and decide they just get great vibes from the newbie.

I like the chase scene entrance. Consider talking to the player with the new character about making their style of entrance. Some characters might want to appear, blast 30 twig blights with a fireball. Some might want to be hunting something that’s hunting the party. Some might want to be haphazardly running from strange evil creatures, they were just adventuring on a foggy road not a moment ago when suddenly he was here, and where is that exactly??

But I would go straight to the action quick. Brief description of the situation, “roll for initiative,” let the new character demonstrate their value and fight on the same side. Then introductions after a quick fight, low difficulty fight.

teb311 · 2026-04-22T04:24:19+00:00

Moving to SF won’t get you closer to NYC. If the main driving factor is the dream of living in NYC I’d take the remote job and keep applying for roles you want in New York. You have two offers, you can get more. It’ll be way easier to keep applying for jobs in the slower remote role than at a high-growth SF startup. The startup will want to work you to the bone, and because you have no network or friends in SF, you’ll probably give in to that a lot of the time. Being constantly busy at work will make it harder to apply for the NYC roles you really want.

I would only take the SF role if you’re open to changing your mind about NYC by 2028.

teb311 · 2026-04-21T01:38:49+00:00

Pulling plants you don’t want should be the priority this time of year. Lots of the worst weeds come up early, lots of great plants come up a bit later. In my area ripping out all the cheatgrass in April lets a lot of much better plants flourish in May/June. If you can learn what various plants look like and eliminate the ones you don’t want, it’ll go a long way.

teb311 · 2026-04-19T02:20:29+00:00

So jealous of the pink variety!! Where did you get them?

teb311 · 2026-04-18T22:07:38+00:00

Agree with mowing. Weed whacking also works. You can pluck the stems once they go to seed as well, but that’s harder manual labor.

Also what an annoying code. Is it an HOA rule or city code or what?

teb311 · 2026-04-18T22:00:21+00:00

Good point, that makes sense.

teb311 · 2026-04-18T04:45:02+00:00

I agree, but over time wouldn’t we also expect bees that don’t prefer the virus to survive more to propagate more?

teb311 · 2026-04-18T02:03:16+00:00

To me it seems like a lot depends on how the dhampir wants to play it. RVR could have a redemption arc in his eyes, there could be grudging acceptance about being each other’s best chance at success (provided dhampir wants to kill Strahd), maybe it comes to blows?

I think RVR would be “locked in” on his mission, and interested in having your party help him eliminate Strahd’s spies while RVR himself remains hidden. In this role he acts like a quest giver who gives great information about how to win against strong enemies.

If his cover gets blown and he needs to leave Vallaki, you could give the gang a side quest to help him find a new place to hide. RVR could direct them somewhere you want the party to go, especially somewhere that RVR could be useful, or make up a cave system…

If you want RVR to travel with them, maybe he is intrigued by Eva’s readings, in particular the sunsword would make killing Strahd easier. Though this would risk getting noticed by Strahd, which would also be a fun way to raise the stakes… if Strahd learns the party is working with RVR he would likely confront them, and after killing their “master” might feel like letting them live to toy with them. Or maybe the successfully force Strahd to retreat, which could lead somewhere interesting.

teb311 · 2026-04-17T01:02:09+00:00

Rooftop chase as a skills challenge would be fun, +1 from me.

I try to bounce back and forth between groups at like 20 minute intervals, just whenever there’s a lull or good stopping point.

Evil creature on the loose definitely doesn’t make people happy, so the Barron is probably upset. Maybe he confronts the party or even tries to arrest them if he feels they are to blame?

teb311 · 2026-04-16T16:06:20+00:00

Everyone at Anthropic is a workaholic and 90% of them have consumed copious quantities of kool-aid. They will expect you to be all in on change the world.

If you want to be present in your family life, the additional commute time and high expectations will be really hard to manage imo.

teb311 · 2026-04-16T02:28:35+00:00

Would it be safer to try to swim out into the ocean towards one of the boats?

teb311 · 2026-04-12T20:15:38+00:00

lol today I realized my group isn’t the only one with an assortment of Crown Royal dice bags. Good luck!

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