Jack

Jack

@jacksthena.me

Lover of tech, gaming, anime, science, and learning new things. AuDHD. Professional computer guy. (Mostly sysadmin and backend dev these days.)

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Jack
@jacksthena.me

Hi, I'm Jack! I... 💻️ Work in IT 🎮️ Like talking about my hobbies. Gaming, TV/movies/anime, 3D printing, too many to list here! 🫂 Believe in being decent to people 🚫 Try not to mix microblogging with politics 🤖 Don't like AI 🎭️ Like posting semi-anonymously, and do my best not to abuse that.

Jack
@jacksthena.me

Dang! Just discovered that my favorite local fast food joint has shrimp. 👀 'Tis a good day! I'm always glad to see the line of cars go around that building. I'm loving not having to go to McDonalds, Wendy's, BK, etc. for fast food. (And prices are better than the slightly nicer fast food chains.)

Jack
@jacksthena.me

I may have only visited like once a year, but I miss Long John Silver's. It's great finding fast food still doing seafood!

Jack
@jacksthena.me

I've said it before. I'll say it again. Big Walk is a blast! It's a great way to hang out with friends. I can see it being especially good if you don't get to see each other in person often. Just chill, do some puzzles, visit... It's easily one of my favorite games this year.

Jack
@jacksthena.me

I voted! If your state does early voting too, I highly recommend it. In my area, there's almost no wait time. Now I can sit back and watch the chaos. This is one year I wouldn't want to wait and find out what stunts are pulled.

Jack
@jacksthena.me

Turns out, there's a lot more after credits roll! Ans then, it's on mobile too! So I'm working on a second playthrough while working on 100%-ing the first. Fun game! 😁

Jack@jacksthena.me

Sweet! Rolled credits. That was easily one of the best incremental titles I've tried. Tower defense goes REALLY well with it!

Jack
@jacksthena.me

Oof. Lanterns exists on that borderline that a lot of CW shows did. It's interesting at times...but so bad at others. (Not unlike most live action dramas coming out of the US for a decade or so now.) This is why I like watching Asian dramas. Adults act like adults, talk out problems,etc. It's nice!

Jack
@jacksthena.me

I should probably stop the show, but the interesting bits make me want to see how it ends. But every time I see James Gunn's name fly by in the credits, I lose a bit more of that hope for DC he built with Superman '25. I hope this show is NOT representative.

Jack
@jacksthena.me

Tried something new last night - my first tofu dish. I think I cut some of 'em too large, but aside from that, it was GREAT! (It's hard to go wrong with mushroom and garlic pasta.)

Jack
@jacksthena.me

I tried soaking the tofu in the juices the mushrooms cooked off, then cooked it in the juice (with some added garlic) until everything boiled off. Then let it sear a bit (or tried to). Then I just added the mushrooms back and built the sauce around them.

Jack
@jacksthena.me

The tofu did mostly blend into the background...except when cut too large. That's easy to fix next time. But yeah, the first experiment went well! It's not bad, and it's cheap protein! Less prep than chicken, and harder to mess up than the white meat. I'll probably keep experimenting with it.

Jack
@jacksthena.me

The anime, "The Laid-Off Cheat-Granting Mage Enjoys a Second Lease on Life", might be my exact sense of humor. It's been a while since a show had me rolling like that! 🤣 The comedic timing and delivery are perfect! I think the last show that made me laugh that hard was Nichijou - My Ordinary Life.

Jack
@jacksthena.me

Heh. Discovered Amazon's "About You" page. They believe my interests are: - 3D printing - Switch games - Pokemon - TTRPGs - Collecting photos - Woodworking - DIY - Making my own ramen - Anime - Collecting physical media - Building/modding PCs - Gardening Not far off base! What do they have on you?

Jack
@jacksthena.me

Some people find some of Amazon's dirt on them creepy. For me...they mostly have stuff that someone could find in my feed here. 🤷‍♂️ The worst thing they have on me is that I have big feet. And like, yeah...I've bought shoes there. They have some odd guesses and bad info too. I'm content with that.

Jack
@jacksthena.me

Someday, I need to find out what dirt Micky-D's has on me. I hear they're quite detailed. I'm curious how my internet/privacy practices hold up there.

Jack
@jacksthena.me

Heh. Discovered Amazon's "About You" page. They believe my interests are: - 3D printing - Switch games - Pokemon - TTRPGs - Collecting photos - Woodworking - DIY - Making my own ramen - Anime - Collecting physical media - Building/modding PCs - Gardening Not far off base! What do they have on you?

Jack
@jacksthena.me

I picked up Outhold - a tower defense incremental game. It's a lot of fun! Switching between that and Graveyard Keeper II this evening. Good times! 😁

Jack
@jacksthena.me

Sweet! Rolled credits. That was easily one of the best incremental titles I've tried. Tower defense goes REALLY well with it!

Jack
@jacksthena.me

Finally trying out DC's Lanterns. Episodes 1 and 2 were interesting! Surprisingly fun! 3 though...oof this one's bad. Far too much back story, and the story is just...dumb... I hope it picks up soon.

Jack
@jacksthena.me

I fear this one just isn't for me. Though I may yet finish it for curiosity's sake.

Jack
@jacksthena.me

Reflecting on Ascendance of a Bookworm season 4... I enjoyed it. Quite a bit! But it really did feel rushed. Especially toward the end. MAJOR events got glossed over. Lesser events were lucky to be mentioned. It was fine. But I really REALLY hope that's not the plan for part 4. I love to hear...

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Jack
@jacksthena.me

...it justice will likely take at least 3 seasons. But also, what's to come is awesome! If people enjoyed the story so far, I think they could easily get away with doing this part properly.

Jack
@jacksthena.me

I mean, people LOVE a magical school story, even if this one's Catholic. 😝 (I kid.)

Jack
@jacksthena.me

Reflecting on Ascendance of a Bookworm season 4... I enjoyed it. Quite a bit! But it really did feel rushed. Especially toward the end. MAJOR events got glossed over. Lesser events were lucky to be mentioned. It was fine. But I really REALLY hope that's not the plan for part 4. I love to hear...

Jack
@jacksthena.me

...that season 5 is already in the works! But it's almost as long as the ENTIRE story so far! So help me, if they try and cram all of it into 24 episodes, they WILL ruin it. Part 4 has a lot of the meat of the story. I don't want to hear them cutting whole chunks out to meet a deadline. Doing...

Jack
@jacksthena.me

Keeping up with tech, I tend to forget that A LOT of people just aren't aware of what's going on in the world around them. Especially the extent to which they're surveilled and profiled. Believe it or not, most people aren't cool with it either!

Jack
@jacksthena.me

Got to visit relatives the other day. It was nice! But McDonalds came up. Then dynamic/surveillance pricing. They'd never even heard of it! Got to scare a few new people, I guess? 😅 The look I got when describing how these companies profile people. How fast food and grocery stores track you.

Jack
@jacksthena.me

Oof. I hate that "asking AI how to vote" has entered my brain now. Some people... Please vote...unless you're doing this.

Jack
@jacksthena.me

Still working on Graveyard Keeper II as well. So far, it's great! It's more Graveyard Keeper! I'm approaching some of the automation stuff now. I'm curious to see how that goes!

Jack
@jacksthena.me

Slowly improving at Slay the Spire II. Just finally got my last character up to ascension 7. Now working on 8.

Jack
@jacksthena.me

I think I like the balance changes to this game so far. You will occasionally luck into something completely broken, but it's not as common, and not as necessary.

Jack
@jacksthena.me

Got a good hike in the other evening. ☺️ It's looking PLENTY like fall in some areas.

Jack
@jacksthena.me

Still tinkering with printable can organizers in OpenSCAD as I have the time. Now that I've gotten the basic structure down, it's A LOT easier to iterate! The last print was VERY close to working, but I effectively doubled my tolerances and almost made it too big for the target cans.

Jack
@jacksthena.me

The nice thing about this version is that I only have to cut it in three chunks. In testing, everything in the model self-supports. I'm trying out snaps+superglue. Unfortunately, THOSE need supports.

Jack
@jacksthena.me

I'm also testing adding these holes to deal with an issue I found in an earlier print - the weight of the cans may cause the holder to pull inward and pinch the cans. If that's an issue here, I can print some spacers (maybe even fuse them in place with a 3D pen). It's a simple fix. 🤷‍♂️

Jack
@jacksthena.me

Still loving the cooler weather! I CAN SLEEP AGAIN! I actually feel rested when I wake up!

Jack
@jacksthena.me

Unless I suddenly find myself wealthy in the next year, I should really look into relocating the server rack before next summer. It's nice having easy access, but not putting all those heaters right behind me WOULD HELP. (Maybe after winter. It's nice in the cooler months.)

Jack
@jacksthena.me

Man, loving that fall air! 🍂 Sleep's better, work's better (with an open window), $6 Pumpkin pies are back. Fall is definitely my favorite time of year!

Jack
@jacksthena.me

WOW! Catching up on the full details of that Microsoft patent. That's REALLY bad! I *want* to say that "if implemented", I won't want anything to do with them. But how would we even know if they're using the surveillance bits? It's going to be hard to trust MS in any area - Xbox, Windows, games, etc

Jack
@jacksthena.me

Predatory is how the whole thing reads. I'm sick and tired of surveillance capitalism. I'm not saying that I'll never buy, say, a Bethesda game, but to me, anything Microsoft will have this stink associated, and won't be trusted. Heck, if they really wanted, not having a mic doesn't event matter...

Jack
@jacksthena.me

...if you have speakers. Any speaker can act as a poorly tuned mic to listen in on people (something they want to do), and software can handle cleaning up quite a bit. Happy to be on Linux, at least for now. And OOF - nice to have Steam breaking into consoles! Especially now!

Jack
@jacksthena.me

I'm not even saying it's bad. (If I don't have to give them my card number, they can't leak it.) ...but they've sure been painting a picture lately.

Jack
@jacksthena.me

Didn't have a ton of free time last night, but the bit I played of Graveyard Keeper II was great! I didn't expect all the voice-acting! I think I'll like the new..."talent" system, was it? Seems like a great sequel so far!

Jack
@jacksthena.me

I'll tell you, it's nice being able to eat a sandwich with more than meat and cheese again! I need to grow some lettuce next year...

Jack
@jacksthena.me

Dang. I'm not getting back to Pokemon Legends Z-A anytime soon. 😅 I'm juggling that, Big Walk, Dave the Diver, Slay the Spire II, and occasional Pokopia - and now Graveyard Keeper II. 😂 (Dave may get set aside again too.)

Jack
@jacksthena.me

Oh, dang! Steam has it 20% off if you own the original (Or you can get both games for $25 USD.) Humble just has it 20% off, or up to 36% off with Humble Choice

Jack
@jacksthena.me

I want more games like Megaman Battle Network. Deckbuilding RPGs with grid-based real-time combat. It was a brilliant combo!