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Sam Lin

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by Sam Lin

  1. Welp, that was an underwhelming finish, it's very clearly half of a 2part story and not intended to stand as its own book. Onward, now starting "Judas Unchained" - the second half of the story.
  2. Thankfully, we can now choose drug-resistant gonorrhea! https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/01/gonorrhea-is-becoming-unstoppable-highly-resistant-cases-found-in-us/ Yes.
  3. Just read the first 3 of Scalzi's "Old Man's War" series and really enjoyed it. Fairly easy read, quite human story. Bought the fourth but it's stylistically different enough I'm not sure I want to continue (I only just started it, but the first 3 books were such a nicely finished trilogy that I'm not sure what the rest of the series can add.) Currently reading Hamilton's "Pandora's Star" - definitely harder sci-fi, goes into probably too much detail describing just about everything. I find myself skimming over paragraphs at a time where it's just description that doesn't have any affect on plot (but at the same time I'm incredibly impressed at the amount of detail that he's thought through in creating his worlds). I'm 80% through; will see what I think when I finish. Do find the writing to be very clever, this is almost a grand epic of a book; so many different but converging plot lines, such diversity in imagination of worlds, species, motivations, and some fun humor tucked in there. I'm enjoying it, just need to decide if it's good or great.
  4. Quite the humblebrag: uses tools, knows which one to use, puts it back in the drawer. gtfo!
  5. I understand and agree with the general message above to always book with the airline, as it does give you the most chance of getting a rebook or change if something goes wrong. However: Sometimes resale agents will buy up a block of seats at a specific fare. There are cases where you can get a much lower fare if you find one of the resale agents trying to sell their seat, esp if you book last-minute and they either sell it or lose it. This is a case where Skyscanner, Priceline, Kayak, etc sometimes can find oddball listings that you won't get on the airline's own site. The other reason to use an agent (that I've personally run into): many airlines require showing the credit card used to purchase at check in, if you are in a higher-fraud-risk country. If you are buying a ticket for someone else and won't be at the airport with them, it may be inconvenient to do whatever alternate authentication the airline requests (for example, I've had to go to the airline ticket office and sign docs and have them check my ID). If you book through a booking site/agent, the site/agent takes the fraud risk and the airline won't need to check anything. As most of you are US-based, probably not a big issue. This card verification can be very common in Asia.
  6. If you want to get really serious with specific routing codes and tricks, Google still maintains ITA Matrix: https://matrix.itasoftware.com/search It's supposed to be getting shut down as everything moves to Flights, but Flights has so much less functionality that they haven't killed ITA yet. Oops, Chopper mentioned it in the previous post, I just totally glossed over the address as it didn't URL.
  7. I would quite doubt that 100k is average. Probably closer to double that. It's pretty serious savings.
  8. "each the other's world entire"
  9. Just got the email for that. Fuck you Amazon.
  10. Red adzuki beans and green mung beans are very commonly cooked with syrup as dessert in Asia. This is a fancier red bean recipe, adds lotus seeds and lily bulbs. Other recipes will add dried longan. https://www.madewithlau.com/recipes/sweet-red-bean-soup This is green beans: https://whattocooktoday.com/sweet-mung-bean-soup.html
  11. Why did you upload a pic of garlic and shit when there are rules?
  12. Sigh.
  13. Re: Tesla compared to other cars, whynotboth.gif It's pretty clear you've each made up your minds. The car market will make its own mind. FWIW my dad has a Tesla and it is a perfectly fine (fast) appliance. It's a very good choice for him. To G650 comment, I am also in automotive engineering, have multiple friends who have been engineers at Tesla, and I find Tesla's engineering to be amusingly shit. I was literally speechless when I found out that rain sensing wiper was still a "Beta" function - the Taiwan owner base describes the function as "mentally retarded." Some things have not changed since Tesla started and Sandy Munro did his first teardowns; incredibly advanced development in some areas and literal automotive stone-age in others. I have zero desire to own one at this point, they simply aren't a finished product yet. Based on my own experiences driving/riding in my dad's Tesla, the auto driving/driver assist is not ready to be on public roads, and I am honestly surprised NHTSA has not cracked down harder on Tesla.
  14. Browsed Costco and the prime ribeye looked amazing. Look at this marbling, esp the bottom piece. Dry brine, reverse sear, it was so so good. Nothing special about the seasoning or cook, the beef itself was just incredible.
  15. Not all stock the ribs, and the ones that do can sometimes be spotty. It's a bit hit or miss, you can always try calling ahead.
  16. Please don't waste good oranges, thx.
  17. A traditional scallion pancake is one of the great joys in life. Stripe of Lao Gan Ma crispy chili oil to take it to 11.
  18. I have a hard time believing the minimal gas savings justify the extra wear and tear, but I have no data to back that up. It's not there to save you gas. It's there to help the automaker meet emissions requirements on a standardized test cycle. My Mazda eats a battery every 2 years, and the battery needs to be a heavier duty partial deep cycle battery to survive the increase charge discharge cycles. The fuel savings definitely does not outweigh the battery costs.
  19. Don't attempt to explain this to wife, but most fuel pumps are immersed in the fuel tank and start running hotter if the tank gets low. You will increase your fuel pump lifespan if you never run the tank under 1/4.
  20. Actually, you jinxed yourself when you got married.
  21. I tend to put the twisty tie on the bag, not on the bread, but whatever works for you.
  22. It's a factor for me if it's a true abomination to use. I passed on a Ford because of Sync back in the day. I also won't buy a car that buries HVAC function controls in the infotainment.
  23. LC200 has a few Android HU options with Carplay as well if the infotainment is a hangup.
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