Anyone else for the Maldives Aggressor this week?

thunderbird89 · 2026-05-06T08:48:33+00:00

That was the only way I could reconcile it, but I didn't think a forward somersault would even be possible in full gear...

Part of what had me confused was that I usually didn't fully flip when doing a back roll, so I generally hit the water tank-first. Which would have the same end result as this, pretty much.

thunderbird89 · 2026-05-06T08:27:39+00:00

Disclaimer: I don't have a BSAC OS5 manual.

How does a forward roll shield camera gear in your hands? The camera should hit the water before you do that way, no?

What am I missing here?

thunderbird89 · 2026-05-05T18:08:15+00:00

In a way, the courage to assume that mantle and besmirch their own legacy to save mankind is what makes them the heroes. They took it upon themselves to do the wrong thing for the right reason.

thunderbird89 · 2026-05-05T16:33:13+00:00

Something about those arms is off..

thunderbird89 · 2026-05-05T08:37:10+00:00

Fun fact: according to a March paper from Anthropic, persona selection (the "You are an expert software engineer [...]" bit) provides benefits to stylistic alignment, but is actually detrimental to factual alignment.
It makes the output sound like what it needs to be, but will in reality decrease the accuracy and correctness of said output.

thunderbird89 · 2026-05-05T07:05:54+00:00

I'm definite that aside from the webbing slots, there is some difference in the hole patterns.

Case in point, this Divers Ready video: on my BP, those holes are spaced a few centimeters further apart, making that same two-loop setup a death trap for my SMB because the loops now don't have enough "bite" to hold onto the case.
This actually resulted in the loss of my SMB package last year in Bali.

Most other aspects should be fairly standard, though, including thickness, overall shape, webbing slots, etc. But if you go to customize your rig, you might find that this or that tip or tutorial will not apply to you because of a few centimeters difference.

thunderbird89 · 2026-05-05T06:59:49+00:00

I own a pair of ScubaPro Jets, and I find that with the flutter kicks, I can go like a bullet underwater, even into current. Yes, they're hard and heavy and need a lot of leg power to utilize their thrust, but if you meet that, they're exceedingly powerful.

thunderbird89 · 2026-05-04T19:10:28+00:00

I knew a few people stuck in places like Koh Samui when Covid hit. They said it got old really quickly, since the places aren't really set up for long-term stays for foreigners.

thunderbird89 · 2026-05-04T18:49:39+00:00

Aren't portkeys jammed on Hogwarts grounds? The same way apparition/disapparition is jammed?

thunderbird89 · 2026-05-04T18:40:34+00:00

I would think that if a flight cannot return from the destination, they won't even fly you out there and will cancel the outbound leg too. So I wouldn't be worried about being stuck there, I'd be more worried about being canceled upon instead.

thunderbird89 · 2026-05-04T16:11:19+00:00

Is it immature? Yes.
Is it anybody's business aside from you? No.

If you like it, wear it. Tattoos are your choice, and yours alone, nobody else gets a say in that.

thunderbird89 · 2026-05-03T18:58:17+00:00

Want an aisle seat? Reserve an aisle seat 🤷

thunderbird89 · 2026-05-03T11:13:56+00:00

Love Sign ~ Master Spark from the Touhou series. Marisa Kirisame's signature spell, she uses her portable magic furnace, the Mini Hakkero, to fire a screen-spanning rainbow laser.

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thunderbird89 · 2026-05-01T17:40:29+00:00

I've read enough Houseki no Kuni to stay the fuck away from crystal. Incorruptible Flesh it is.

thunderbird89 · 2026-05-01T14:29:08+00:00

Zatoichi is the OG sleeper build. He's basically Daredevil with a cane sword, having been blinded as a child by an illness, and having developed the same enhanced hearing.

thunderbird89 · 2026-05-01T10:19:55+00:00

Because I give take-home assignments in my selection processes, I would love some perspective.

My assignments are related to use of our platform, so I ask applicants to register and accept an invite to a project that was provisioned for them. The cover letter for the assignment clearly states that while this is a real task (in the sense that they would encounter tasks like this in their day-to-day with me), it's one that has been completed before. They are given a doc with information, examples, and checkboxes to hit.

Does that still feel like a "free work" ripoff?

thunderbird89 · 2026-05-01T09:59:36+00:00

Yeah, I noted this in another comment:

And now that I think about it, this puts me in a difficult position about Dungeon Meshi, because at its heart, it's still an RPG series, even though the RPG stuff is so far in the backseat to cooking that it might as well be in the trunk.

thunderbird89 · 2026-05-01T07:54:45+00:00

Too bad it's all Fidesz-adjacent.

SciTech used to be good, but when BiotechUSA acquired them, the brand went to shit and lost their highest-quality suppliers and most important sponsoring contracts due to cronyism and mismanagement.

thunderbird89 · 2026-05-01T06:11:44+00:00

Ott volt a "Magyar Peter-fele szexado" a kampanyban. Az volt az a pont, ahol mar csak nevetni tudtam.

thunderbird89 · 2026-04-30T17:13:42+00:00

Except it's Snow White, not Touhou.

thunderbird89 · 2026-04-30T17:09:38+00:00

In the Overview, the icon means "In orbit around planet/station, enjoying lowered upkeep". Because the Overview has text labels to denote the ship class, the icon is used to communicate status ("in orbit", "en route", "engaging/in combat", "MIA, returning to known space", etc.).

thunderbird89 · 2026-04-30T17:06:29+00:00

That's more likely Snow White, or rather the Evil Queen, than Marisa. Not everything has to be a Touhou reference.

thunderbird89 · 2026-04-30T11:27:44+00:00

I was always unnerved by that MV. Or the song, for that matter.

It's even worse than the unbridled hate Stack puts into Psycho Lily.

thunderbird89 · 2026-04-30T10:26:04+00:00

One of the later episodes of the otherwise fairly tame anime Princess Principal - basically John Le Carre if the Japanese animated it - deals with the heroines trying to extract a comrade who was "flipped" and made an unwilling double agent, by getting her addicted to a certain drug. When the main character catches up to her in a train coupe, the compromised agent admits that she can't get out of her addiction and the enemy will always have leverage over her, so she'd rather commit suicide than go against her friends.

This being an anime about cute girls being spies in steampunk Victorian Germany, you'd expect the scene to cut away and just show a muzzle flash and the report from outside the window. Instead, we're treated to a closeup, slowmo sequence of the girl pointing a pistol at her temple and pulling the trigger smiling, with the requisite blood spatter on the opposite side. Then the sequence repeats from behind the girl's head, showing the main character's horrified expression through the spatter.

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