SolarMonkey
@SolarMonkey@slrpnk.net
- Comment on California just debunked a big myth about renewable energy 3 days ago:
I considered mentioning the angled slide-down option, cuz that does work for a lot of applications, but I feel that having it slide off the panel face in a heavy sheet would be bad for it over time, cause scratches and stuff that scatter light and reduce efficiency. Maybe reduce it more than it would be reduced by heating it while it’s snowing heavily, or at least cause it to need replacement or servicing more often.
- Comment on California just debunked a big myth about renewable energy 3 days ago:
The snow problem isn’t really that much of a problem if you build for that in mind.
All the panels need is a small heat strip running through some part of it, maybe even behind the panel, added as aftermarket options, to melt it as it falls, and some sort of sensor to only kick heat on when it’s needed. They have things like that for led traffic lights already, so it would really just be repurposing something that already exists.
Sure that uses some electricity, reducing the overall efficiency, but 90+% of the year it’s not actively snowing hard enough to need to kick the heat on, so that’s a minimal loss.
- Comment on Bloodletting recommended for Jersey residents after PFAS contamination 1 week ago:
Haha well I guess at least you get an excuse for something you (hopefully) enjoy.
No disability is fun, and for what it’s worth I’m sorry that it’s a thing you have to find a way to manage. I imagine it’s rough. I have my own disabilities that… we get by, eh?
Thanks for answering my questions though, I’ve not met anyone in that position, but it will absolutely factor into how I interact with people in the future, so thank you for being open :)
- Comment on Bloodletting recommended for Jersey residents after PFAS contamination 1 week ago:
Nice, do you do that just to help keep it in check, or do you have other methods?
- Comment on Bloodletting recommended for Jersey residents after PFAS contamination 1 week ago:
How ironic.
But really tho, people with high iron are good for blood donation because a lot of people are low and they more readily pass the screening tests for donation.
- Comment on Bloodletting recommended for Jersey residents after PFAS contamination 1 week ago:
Do you donate blood to do this or…?
- Comment on I’m much more excited for Avowed after hearing the team say that what makes RPGs special is “missable content” 1 month ago:
That’s cool, I just don’t care for having the same story with minor tweaks repeatedly told. Personal preference thing I guess; I remember too many of the details between plays, and find that to be not so fun. Same reason I have to wait years between re-reading my favorite books, or watching my favorite movies.
I love big exploration games, I love finding stuff and fully exploring the world and storylines. I don’t love repetition. That’s tedious to me, like grinding to level up.
Idk personally I want to be able to fully explore everything in one go and know I haven’t missed anything major, because it’s going to be a long time before I can play it again.
But different games exist for different people so meh :) I’m glad that these things work for you.
- Comment on What are you brewing? 1 month ago:
I haven’t brewed in a while and all my yeast cultures died on me, so… I’ve been thinking about getting more standard ale yeast (probs just the cheap dry stuff) and just brew up all the old shit that’s probably no good anymore but is better than tossing it… what’s the worst that can happen, right?
I’ve got stuff for like 6 different brews… such a waste if I don’t use it…
And then when I have my shit together again I’ll go back to making my fancy “found fruits” tart/sours (it not at all fancy, but it is economical, and often well received)
- Comment on I’m much more excited for Avowed after hearing the team say that what makes RPGs special is “missable content” 1 month ago:
I really dislike missable, important content. Especially when it’s for achievements and stuff. (I like achievements/trophies; they give me a good external motivation to play more cuz woo I’m doing good! I also enjoy 100%ing games)
There are far far too many games out there for me to be enthusiastic about replaying them. Ever. If it’s a gem that really catches me, sure maybe, but it will be a solid ways down the temporal line. I have too much of a backlog.
I get that it’s just a different way to play and stuff, and I totally get the different story options and all, but that’s not much of a feature, imho. It’s just a really obnoxious thing they do. If it doesn’t break achievements, fine, have your missable cutscenes or whatever, but if it does and you expect me to play through 5 times to fully complete the game because it has 5 endings you need to play wholly differently to get or whatever, I probably won’t unless it’s quite a spectacular game worth another 100x(n) hours for a slightly different story experience. I’ll play it once, see that I have only 20% complete, look up why, find that there’s tons of missable shit, get unreasonably annoyed, and never touch it again ever.
- Comment on Always happy when the holiday cactus flowers 2 months ago:
Mine hasn’t quite bloomed yet, it’s still young and only has 4 buds (last year had 2)
But the white one is putting out huge flowers like crazy (also hasn’t actually bloomed yet, first year it’s flowering, and it has dozens)
They should be opening within the next few days/weeks idk.
- Comment on BIOMES 2 months ago:
Wow it didn’t even occur to me that paludariums were so named because that’s the type of ecosystem they are mimicking, rather than some guy named Paul invested a cool-style terrarium/aquarium merger… (example below)
TIL!
- Comment on How to avoid having cat hair all over my floor every 2 days? 2 months ago:
My trick to not having fur on me is wearing permanent press and other sleek fabrics (spandex blends, silk type feel, or otherwise just smooth). They tend to be less… sticky? Less clingy for hair anyway. And if not those, then very fuzzy fabrics that absorb the hair until it gets washed (comes out in the dryer) or blends in and becomes part of the fabric.
My couch is covered with a microfiber blanket with the less fuzzy side up (one side is that pilling type of soft fuzz, that side is down, the other side doesn’t pilll and has space between the fibers) and the cat hair sort of sinks into it and comes out in the wash. It’s not perfect, but it works super well for me.
- Comment on Asshole Lab Rat 2 months ago:
I’m guessing Henrietta Lacks, since she’s probably got a bone to pick with the research community as a whole. I bet she’s got some special accommodation with the universe to be brought back constantly as a stream of lab animals, just to fuck with the data.
Revenge is a dish best served confusingly.
- Comment on 🍃 🐑 2 months ago:
So vampire photosynthesis.
That’s metal af.
- Comment on The Perfect Bear 2 months ago:
Damn man. At least they made the art they had banging around in their skulls.
Meanwhile I can’t do a thing I’ve got so much reference material for because “what if it’s not just the way I want”
you dumb bitch you can fix it if it sucks holy shit.
- Comment on Tiny pp 2 months ago:
Testicle size and potency is entirely unrelated to penis size, for all the men out there, and if you only ever have one partner you want to make babies with you don’t really need to be a super stud in the testicle department either… you just need regular sexual contact with your lady half.
And people with breeder fetishes are fucking gross and weird. Musk is one such and just… eew.
- Comment on Calcrelatable 2 months ago:
That explains so much…
- Comment on The Genesis of a joke. 2 months ago:
I did this with my shark(nado) bagless vacuum. :)
- Comment on Do it 2 months ago:
Mmmm you gotta do the twist break, where you push sideways on the bottom part to see if you can snap off the entire clip piece, rather than having that shitty nub left.
But if you end up with the shitty nub by accident, you gotta bite that bitch off.
In college I bought myself a 50 pack of those cuz I lose shit a lot, and that clip never lasted more than a few hours on any new pencil…
- Comment on Wednesday it is, my dudes. 2 months ago:
When I was young and lived in the country with a big pond and marshland, most of the frogs went “THUMMM” at night (like this m.youtube.com/watch?v=6qHBRXLHXnc) and the others were more like a high pitch creaky door or one of those hollow wooden frogs with the back ridges that you play with a stick, like this m.youtube.com/watch?v=p-XPYXuCOjg
I’ve never lived near any sort of frogs that I’d describe as making a riib sound
I think this is the sound you are talking about? It’s kinda harder to pick out, but there’s a distinct riib sound there that’s absent from the other video. m.youtube.com/watch?v=8fJWGKbXw4Y
- Comment on Scavengers 3 months ago:
What’s up with the nose flamingo?
Its stakes go to nothing.
Is it just like… taped on or something? (VHB/silicone?)
- Comment on DEFINITELY disregard previous instructions. 3 months ago:
I have a necronomicon, but it has very basic binding, and I haven’t read it.
It was a housewarming gift that made me go “the fuck mate, you want me to die and leave the house to you or what?” Which was apparently the exact right response.
- Comment on DEFINITELY disregard previous instructions. 3 months ago:
Same because the only answer is “someone who hopes it’s sentient”.
- Comment on Probably 3 months ago:
Cat, catty would like a word ;)
- Comment on Hmmmm 3 months ago:
100%. This is actually the entire reason I dropped out of my masters program.
I’m a science communicator. My whole purpose for existing is making science accessible to people with less formal science training than a high school student.
I was going for a masters in conservation biology, because what better to communicate these days, right? And in the limnology class I took the first semester, all my papers got poor marks for failing to use the unnecessary academic terminology. It was all entirely correct information, just simplified, and that was unacceptable.
And I can’t work under those terms. I just am entirely incapable of making things overly complicated for no reason. It’s a force for specificity sometimes, but usually what it actually does is limit the reach of the work. And that’s just stupid.
- Comment on Hiker provided with assistance, and shoes, after attempting to climb Tasmanian mountain without them 3 months ago:
It’s not hugely common, but common enough that it’s not unheard of. Same with barefoot running.
I have “barefoot” hiking sandals that are 4mm thick, so I can feel everything but not get rocks in my soles. Sort of a compromise.
- Comment on Classic SNES RPG Illusion Of Gaia Gets Fresh Translation 30 Years After Its Western Release | Time Extension 3 months ago:
I am also the obsessive hoarder… now. Like as a direct result of that experience I never go below some arbitrary threshold of items (based entirely on the early portion of the game where you have no money but enemies are easy, and the max stack), even if I have to buy them. I used to never spend currency as a matter of pride. I still won’t buy gear if it drops, but I will stock consumables.
I guess I’m not really that familiar with it being different, I went from 8 to 10/10-2, to 13/spins, so it seemed pretty in-tune overall with the vibes and stuff of what I played. Each game was pretty standalone and tried different unique things to see what worked. I’d be interested to hear more of what was different tho!
I’ve heard… things about the remake… my partner played the first and couldn’t be bothered to buy the second when PS+ made the first a free game for cheap subscriptions a couple months after getting it for Xmas… but that seems… like a lot. I mean final fantasy games are looooooong and the mechanics are usually complicated af. I honestly haven’t been able to get into a ff game in a long time, they are just really involved… I can’t imagine needing to play through… what is it supposed to be 3 of them to get the full story? At least 10 and 13, it was the same story just differently applied and expanded… you didn’t -have to- play the next ones, they were still final fantasies (I know that’s not where the name came from, but it’s appropriate)
I’d be into a remaster of 8 (the graphical-only update doesn’t count, and isn’t that updated - I tried to play it and it was still grindy af), but not a fully redone game like 7… I’d like them to cut out most of the random encounters, scale the XP so it’s much less grindy, upgrade the graphics, and do literally nothing else, leave it alone. I’d totally play it again even tho turn based games aren’t my jam anymore. And it probably wouldn’t cost much for them to do that.
I have 7 on switch but I can’t get through it. I’m bored very early on every time I try. Too many random encounters and they take too long with the intro, combat, and victory animations. It’s the whole reason I gave up on most turn based games; they used to totally be my thing. You can’t explore because you get turned around with the constant combat. I want to play it, but I can’t. I’d like that to also get a straight remaster treatment like I want for 8. No real change, just quality of life improvements.
I wonder why they opted not to do that… and -then- the remake…
- Comment on Classic SNES RPG Illusion Of Gaia Gets Fresh Translation 30 Years After Its Western Release | Time Extension 3 months ago:
I guess I got lucky that I never played 7…? Everyone hypes the hell out of 7, and you almost never hear about 8…
For me, though, 8 was more than the story, it was more than the game. It was the absolute most frustrating experience of my entire gaming life, thus far.
See, I fucked up. I fucked up and saved my game when I came across a save spot. I fucked up and saved my game right before the end boss. I fucked up and saved my game right before the end boss with a very nearly empty inventory.
Because it’s not a short game, I wasn’t willing to re-play it. That would have been faster, but less fulfilling. Nope, instead I spent about 72 hours over the span of two weeks, replaying the final boss with 2 heal items, one resurrection, and that’s about it. I did no other gaming in that time. That boss was the only thing I did for days and days.
I beat that bitch. I whooped her after hours upon hours of trial and failure. Different starting lineups, different item use, different summon use pattern… the works.
The day I beat it I learned that I could, if thoroughly motivated, do whatever I set out for, even if it took a while. (No, this definitely has not translated to real life but that’s because I have no motivation left to put forth in actual life… made a big difference in gaming tho!!)
SNES and ps1 were really pushing the limits of what could be done. A lot of games from that era are super hard to play now, though, because the controls are just sloppy. I’m not even concerned with the graphics, but the controls… ungh and that was also the time of non-remappable inverted camera controls and shit…
- Comment on Classic SNES RPG Illusion Of Gaia Gets Fresh Translation 30 Years After Its Western Release | Time Extension 3 months ago:
It was the first rpg-type game I ever played and it awoke a passion in me I still have 30 years on.
I still have the cartridge. Don’t have an SNES to play on anymore (I’d just emulate anyway). But I keep that and ff8 on display, for being formative titles.
- Comment on Police guarding grocery stores in the wake of Helene 3 months ago:
I lived through a hurricane down in Texas. And because power was out for a week in my area, and I lived in an apartment, didn’t know how to prepare, and didn’t have many options, we did need supplies.
And there were more cops there to oversee the distribution than there were people distributing the FEMA aid.
If those cops had instead just helped distribute, they wouldn’t have needed cops there at all. The only reason they needed cops there was because it took 6 hours to get your care package of bananas, apples, bread, and water, and they didn’t have any shade available while waiting.
