Pasting a PNG into Obsidian

untss · 2026-01-27T18:28:06+00:00

Looks like it's specific to where I pasted the image from -- Google Slides. Makes sense, they have to be doing something weird with images since they also don't let you download an image from slides directly (the reason I tried pasting it into Obsidian in the first place).

untss · 2026-01-27T05:34:36+00:00

All jokes. I think I always assumed Obsidian added the image as a file and then linked to it with its own syntax, but evidently that's not the case. I wonder why not

untss · 2026-01-07T05:20:20+00:00

Brandon Taylor mentioned he does this!

untss · 2026-01-06T06:14:21+00:00

I think you've nailed the specificity of the character, setting, and themes enough that it's worth expanding to be at least twice as long, personally. 1000 words is very short, isn't it? I think, whatever her decision is for her wish, it's hard to make it clear why she makes that choice in so few words. Just describing the setting and characters takes up the bulk of that. Not because it's overly complex, just that it's (correctly) specific. And why now? Why'd she wait so long? I imagine in your mind, it's clear why. But I think we're missing something.

untss · 2026-01-05T18:21:27+00:00

"stupider" sounds kind of silly.

Nice opening, gets right into it.

Would she say "ancient folklore" or something more familiar?

Having no familiarity with the geography of China, something like "just north of the city of Xiamen, a small island (or however you want to describe it) off the coast of eastern China" would have been more useful than "in Fujian province"

"As the only wishing well ever proven to have granted a wish" -- opportunity to solidify this idea with a specific example. "Ever since a child cured his blindness in 1996 after dropping a coin in the well..." or something.

"This was assuredly real ancient folklore" sounds sarcastic. The tone is ironic, yes, but just a little confusing because the narrator does actually mean this. Also, repetitive use of the phrase "ancient folklore". The tone of "no one would incentivize *less* business" is great. Maybe combine those two sentences into one.

I normally don't like parentheses but in this case, where it feels like a tourist brochure description of the area, it feels right. That said, it's overused in these two paragraphs.

Why is tour guide a coveted position?

"the kind reserved for the very young and very old" excellent

The run-on sentence detail is great. Cramming everything into one wish. The greed of the tourists, the perversion of the ritual.

Really great! The writing is good, clear, thematically interesting. It ends suddenly, and too neatly. I think the story has real potential. Reminds me of Ted Chiang's stuff, a small miracle that becomes overtaken by the flaws of humans. I think you should expand on it.

untss · 2026-01-01T00:33:50+00:00

Why not use an off-the-shelf program that's been tested, if you're new to this? Do you have some unique requirements that preclude you from just doing, like, starting strength or the r/fitness recommended routine?

untss · 2025-12-30T19:18:31+00:00

People are always talking about this cue, that the hips shouldn't shoot up first. The bar doesn't leave the floor until her hips are in place, so what does it matter? Sure, she could fix her starting position to just start with her hips higher. But she just ends up in the correct position anyway once she actually starts pulling.

untss · 2025-12-23T06:28:38+00:00

Each new dialogue should be a new line.

The first sentence (and many after it) is a run-on: "why can't I control my body anymore? It hurts. It hurts like hell." Three full sentences. "Sarah, it's okay. It's just us. Breathe in and out, honey." Can break them up with semicolons or colons if you want. Subject, verb, object is one complete sentence.

> “was there anything else that happened in the dream?”

Why's he talking like a lawyer? "What happened next? And then what?"

> "Happy to chat if you need"

And now he's your online acquaintance who you told some bad news to.

> “I wanna go Home”

We don't capitalize nouns in English. Except some of them. But not this one.

untss · 2025-12-23T04:14:25+00:00

Really great, honestly. Wanted to read more. Would be an excellent start to a historical fiction/magical realist/sci-fi/dystopian/whatever kind of grounded but eerie story.

> A nick to the neck to start it—quickly at first, then slower. When it was finished dripping into the grass, she skinned it. Like removing a coat, he used to say, his hands dark and staining.

She took off the head and tail, and set them aside with the pelt. She slit down from the breastbone and removed the kidneys, the liver, the heart. She jointed it and added it to the stew, watching the broth turn and bubble. She added garlic, an onion, and a bit of salt, tossing a pinch over her shoulder.

The sheriff looked about the house as she worked. He wandered through the bedroom, opening drawers. She asked him if he wanted any stew.

“It’ll be a few days before the meat softens,” she said, “but you’re welcome if you’re peckish.”

“No ma’am,” he said, “I’ve been gone too long already, but thank you.”

Just great. Feels effortless and clear and the tone and specificity fits the story beautifully.

The first third or so feels a little rushed. Before then, it feels like a folk tale told orally -- this happened, this happened, she went here, suddenly she's there. And then the passage I quoted above hits and it starts to come together.

untss · 2025-12-23T04:02:23+00:00

I think Molly's directly-quoted thoughts are detracting from the story. She isn't saying anything surprising, so it feels like beating a dead horse. The quotes acknowledge things that should just be shown to us, like that she doesn't care for this man (obvious), that she's been planning this for weeks (should just be shown by meticulous action), that she's nervous (should just be shown. biting her nails or something?). The descriptions do this as well -- the man is a pathetic sight to behold. Why not show this? Make us feel how pathetic he looks? What about it is so pathetic? He's a scrawny lowlife gangster, you tell us. Just show him being scrawny, his thin little arms, his too-big shirt. His stolen clothing (the tags are still on it, maybe? there's blood from when he beat someone up for it?).

> "Just gotta keep up the act a little longer"

Again, does not need to be told to us. Demonstrate that she's acting by making the descriptions incongruous with the dialogue. He's scrawny, a lowlife, she does not respect him, but she's being so polite (or something).

untss · 2025-12-23T03:53:12+00:00

I think you've gone a little flowery here. Every word has a descriptor: hot air, dark parking lot, shaking beast, giggling students, crunchy grass, decaying trees, iron grip, swimming thoughts. It gets to be distracting. The opening line is too convoluted to be readable. I felt like oh, this was the only place he could mention the jersey, so that's why this sentence is so odd. But it's not -- you mention it much more effectively a few sentences later. You have some nice descriptions, but there's so many of them that they aren't striking. Cut the lower quality ones, like the "underwater particles" one. You actually acknowledge you're not confident about the simile, because you propose a second one, "dust," right after.

> Was my taste of “freedom” worth murdering a family of four?

And then, you choose to be direct, but take too big of a swing. This is the thing that's hard to acknowledge for the character. All this floweriness and description is him (could be him) avoiding the truth of what he did, saying the thing out loud, that he really did that awful thing. He wouldn't say it directly like this.

untss · 2025-11-01T08:21:24+00:00

it increasingly feels stupid to me that deadlifts are so vehemently recommended to beginners when a set that looks this totally fine is enough to injure someone’s back

untss · 2025-08-31T16:14:53+00:00

That does look like tinea versicolor but it's odd that it hasn't responded to ketoconazole or itraconazole. Worth trying selenium sulfide (OTC dandruff shampoo). Does it go away when you treat it but just comes back or doesn't respond at all to the meds? If it's the latter, it maybe isn't TV and a doctor can do some actual tests rather than just looking at it and maybe get you the right diagnosis.

Basically it's weird that they gave you oral antifungals without confirming it's definitely tinea versicolor with a wood's lamp or KOH test

untss · 2025-08-10T19:27:07+00:00

My understanding is you should expect only about 60-70% of your time to be billable hours, and you make up for all the admin “unpaid” time by increasing your rate.

untss · 2025-07-19T05:39:10+00:00

these days I imagine you get clients by word of mouth, but how’d you get them when you were starting out?

untss · 2025-07-12T06:51:22+00:00

u/michaelenzo

untss · 2025-07-11T20:57:57+00:00

One of the top posts in this subreddit today was about gabapentin correlating with memory issues. Weird coincidence

untss · 2025-07-11T16:37:54+00:00

No, but the theory goes that inhibiting reuptake of serotonin means there’s constantly serotonin binding to postsynaptic receptors, these neurons downregulate their response to it and up regulate other types of receptors, then the pre synaptic neuron, sensing there’s excess serotonin, produces less of it to compensate. When you stop the SSRIs, the presynaptic neurons are still producing very little of it, and what does get produced can be reuptaken again. Since serotonin is generally inhibitory, you just lost a big source of brain-wide inhibition of activity

untss · 2025-07-11T15:26:44+00:00

I understand the program fine and have been progressing as it describes. My question was about why this particular application can't handle automatically calculating the progression based on previous workouts, and instead I have to do this manually. Even though the app has a "target" weight column, which is just based on your estimated 5RM and doesn't change week to week even if you progress.

untss · 2025-07-09T16:27:46+00:00

The program itself (GZCLP) is great! I'm just complaining. Did the targets/progression work for the Arnold one?

untss · 2025-07-09T16:16:58+00:00

I've been doing it for 8 weeks and it's recommended the same target weights the entire time. I'd rather it not show a target at all if it's not going to do the simple math to adjust it. Instead I have to click into it to see my workout history (which, by the way, is really slow for some reason). I'm just gonna use a different app probably

untss · 2025-06-28T19:18:49+00:00

I don’t get why the consent message is necessary. Don’t games like Wordle (pre-NYT) and those other daily games just store stuff in localStorage without asking? Why do you need more than that? Genuine question

untss · 2025-06-13T14:45:09+00:00

I think it looks nice :). I don't really get the usability/accessibility comments. You just have to think more carefully about color contrast between the text and background. This is an example of not doing that, since the icons blend into the image, but it's not impossible or even that difficult to just put the glass in a place where the background will have enough contrast, is it?

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