That’s some quality plausible deniability right there. Flared base and everything.

That’s definitely ending up in someone wearing a dog collar…

Here’s the way I see it: to most people, that word is not linked to a disability. It’s just a word to describe bewilderment or exasperation at someone, something, some situation. It’s not intended to be hurtful.

I have a disability as well. I see about twenty percent of what normal people see. I’m pretty much blind without my contacts or glasses. I don’t get offended when someone uses terms like ‘short-sighted’ or when someone says ‘are you blind?’ to someone else. We also use seeing metaphors quite a lot if you pay attention to them. I’m not offended by it, because I know the language is not intended to offend me.

I’ve also worked with people who had actual mental disabilities. And trust me, most of them know damn well when something’s intended as an insult or when it’s just metaphorical use.

Airbus is Ableist!

My brother in Buddha… how about we don’t do that.

That’s awesome! I got back into LEGO as an adult in 2012 when they released the first VW camper.

On mine that panel seems pretty secure, though it is a bit finicky to attach. Might want to check if it’s properly attached.

Recommendations are tough; LEGO makes so many awesome sets. It also depends on things like budget and space. For example, the Concorde set is awesome, but also quite large.

Personally, I really like their modular sets. Larger, very detailed buildings like a hotel, jazz club, bank, etc. I’ve collected most of them so far.

There’s also a lot of cool new soace sets, in addition to the galaxy that you’re familiar with. I’m really looking forward to the lunar rover that’s coming out later this year.

A good site to follow for LEGO news is Brickset.com. That way you can get a feeling for any future sets that you might like. Some can sell out pretty quickly; lots of us adults love LEGO ;-)

That’s an awesome set; the Polaroid OneStep SX-70 camera.

https://www.lego.com/en-nl/product/polaroid-onestep-sx-70-camera-21345

It actually has a really neat feature where you can push the red shutter button and it actually pops out a cardboard ‘photo’. They tweaked it to perfection; it doesn’t shoot out fully, but instead sticks out just partly like the real camera. They went through a lot of iterations of that mechanism in order to get it just right.

It’s an awesome set for photography nerds.

The best strategy when it comes to expensive niche lenses like this is: save up and buy a good used example of a lens that won’t limit you and will let you grow as a photographer. There’s always people selling gently used lenses because they either don’t use them or they’re switching systems.

I’ve always bought better lenses and gear than I needed at the time and never regretted it. If you buy a cheap lens, it often comes with tradeoffs that the expensive lenses don’t have. If you buy a good lens - especially dumb, manual lenses like a tilt-shift, you can always use them on other cameras down the line or sell them to another eager photographer without losing a lot of money.

Owning niche gear like this is kind of its own joy anyway. It’ll let you do and experiment with things that others can’t do. You might not use it every day, but you’ll be ticked pink to use it when you can. I can’t really tell you what I paid for some of my specialty gear, but I can damn sure tell you about how much I smile when I use it :D

The one in the video is a Canon TS-E 90 - that’s a 1000 bucks USED. And that’s not really what you want if you’re going to be doing landscape stuff. You want the TS-E 24 for a much wider field of view. Those are even more expensive.

You CAN however buy cheaper, new lenses. Brands like Laowa and Samyang produce tilt-shifts that cost less than half of what a Canon costs if you really want a new example.

That said though… anything in photography is expensive anyway, and these are niche lenses. They do some things that other lenses really can’t, like this magic trick. And while you can replicate some of its effect digitally - like the miniature effect - the best way to do things like that is always in camera. If you take a good shot to start with, you’ll alsways have a better end result.

I’m personally looking to buy a TS-E 24 one of these days, assuming I find a gently used - and gently priced - example.

You CAN in fact more or less do this for real: photographing a mirror from a straight on perspective without the camera visible.

https://youtu.be/ZlaeWRMYwGg?feature=shared

Basically, you need a special tilt-shift lens that distorts perspective to where it looks ‘straight on’ while the camera is actually off to the side or down below. If you do it correctly, the viewer won’t even notice anything’s missing.

These lenses are primarily used for architecture photography to prevent ‘leaning buildings’. They can also create really cool miniature effects. It’s quite a useful bit of gear, but also rather expensive because it’s such a niche lens.

I honestly don’t mind people discovering Fallout. Heck, I’ve bought and lent copies to people to get them interested in it.

But I’ve also been in gaming since the late ‘80’s, and I’ve seen franchises ruined because developers chased the mass market instead of sticking to what made their games popular in the first place.

People came to Call of Duty for tight, sweet multiplayer matches with a military aesthetic.

Nowadays it’s got silly battle royale modes which let you play as Snoop-Dogg, The Terminator or a Warhammer 40K character. It looks nothing like what the original games were. And as a result, the playerbase has declined and shifted towards casual.

Battlefield is a shell of its former self after they moved away from what made it good. Need for Speed games also suck because they chased the Fast and the Furious trend. Flight Simulator has become too mainstream leading to quality decline because developers chase casual players. And there’s numerous other examples of games moving towards a more casual, wider base. Usually because newcomers think the old gameplay is ‘boring’ or ‘too difficult’. Go talk to some Diablo veterans about their thoughts on IV…

And yes, as someone who’s been with Fallout since 1: 76 should never have been made. Fallout is a single player, story driven experience. And it should stay that way. The mobile game… I’d rather they put that effort into making a proper game.

I’m still conflicted if it’s a good or a bad thing that the show is a hit. On the one hand, it’s nice that people are discovering the great storytelling and adventure that Fallout has to offer.

On the other hand, newcomers tend to… totally ruin the thing you’ve loved for decades. Especially if companies start chasing that group. So let’s all hope this doesn’t lead to watered down cash grabs, but instead lights a fire under development of good new proper Fallout titles. We’re looooong overdue.

Jesus, the mods here are silly…

That sounds like a scary one; you’d almost be tempted to think you suddenly dislodged a brain tumor or things like that :D

Yep. Like a blood ribbon almost. I imagine the bleed started in the front of the nasal cavity and trickled quite a ways back when I was sleeping on my back.

I was quite surprised indeed when it came out. Even took a picture of it.

I know that feeling. I once woke up and had a plugged left nostril. Stuck a pinky in it to explore and out came a giant, solidified blood slug about 4 inch long. Apparently I’d had a spontaneous nosebleed during the night.

Removed by mod

Don’t set your OS language to Serbian, or it’ll suddenly stop working.

That’s perfectly fine :D Some things just aren’t to everyone’s taste.

Here in the Netherlands, we absolutely love licorice for example. It’s a very large part of the candy section in any supermarket. Sweet, salty, spicy, hard, soft, you name it. We love it. Meanwhile, your average American nearly throws up if they try it. It’s something that you have to grow up with to really enjoy.

Sure, it doesn’t have to be ‘geographically’ Turkish - but it certainly tastes better when it’s made by someone who has it in their cultural background. Someone who’s made it their entire life and who learned it from her mother, who learned it from hers, etc.

For example, I buy mine from a very particular shop in Rotterdam here in the Netherlands. They specialise in Turkish Delight, with dozens of varieties. Like you say: they use good, traditional ingredients and it’s made fresh. It’s a place where the local Turks shop, and very highly rated because of their quality. It’s frequently mentioned as some of the best TD in Europe. They even ship it internationally.

I recently got a kilo, just to share with family and some coworkers who have never had it. I wanted to be sure that their first experience of it was a pleasant one. With chewy, flavourful TD made the proper way. Everyone loved it.

Thankfully in the Netherlands, we have a large Turkish population. Which means you can usually find something decent in your own city.

Oh man, I love Turkish coffee. I actually want to learn how to do it as well. Even though it’ll probably ruin other coffee for me…

I actually have Turkish neighbours and they love baking/cooking, so we occasionally get plates or trays of something really delicious.

I really love a good baklava as well to go with my coffee. Thankfully that stuff’s quite expensive and difficult to make or I’d eat it daily.

Turkish people definitely know how to make something tasty :D