Posts made by NDC

@wirestyle22 said in Fitness and Weightloss:

I'm close to starting P90X. They discontinued the p90x protein bars and I'm looking for a good alternative if any of you have a recommendation. Thanks

Protein bars/shakes etc. are not strictly necessary, depending on whose info you look at not even helpful. If you want them anyway I have used https://us.myprotein.com/ previously for powder. They are one of a few producers of protein supplements that have been independently tested and don't come out looking like absolute shit.

They don't come out as perfect or anything but their labeling is somewhat more accurate than most and the prices are pretty good especially when they are doing a sale which happens frequently. I have no idea of the quality of products that aren't part of those tests which includes their brownies and cookies which are possibly closest to what you are looking for. You can check on ratings at https://labdoor.com/ there is definitely some new info since I last looked at it.

@scottalanmiller said in British Airways Down from Computer Failure:

@Dashrender said in British Airways Down from Computer Failure:

@scottalanmiller said in British Airways Down from Computer Failure:

@Dashrender said in British Airways Down from Computer Failure:

....she didn't work for the union, she worked for the School.

Then how was she in the union? Did the union get dues? If so, how? If they were a third party, they'd have no power to do that. It's only by being the outsourcer and owning a guaranteed monopoly contract on labour that they can do what they do.

Due were voluntary. After a few years she disagreed with how the union was doing things so she left the union, aka, stopped paying dues. it's a weird setup for sure.

Oh, weird. Was it REALLY a union then? Sounds more like a club or group of some sort. Maybe you can have a real union like that, but how does it work if it is voluntary? I mean, that's great, but it's weird for sure.

You are oversimplifying union shops. They take many forms. Some are mandatory, others are not. In some places you negotiate your own contract if you are not a member. In others you get the same contract as the union members whether you join or not. The list of permutations goes on.

@wirestyle22 said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

Some friends of mine just started playing Don't Starve Together so I'm playing it with them. It's a very different game with 5 people.

Have only played with 2 and 3. I am terrible at it.

@JaredBusch said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

@NDC said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

@JaredBusch said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

@coliver said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

@scottalanmiller said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

@coliver said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

@scottalanmiller said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

@Kelly said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

I am talking about coop boardgames, just to be clear. Not CoD coop.

OH, like D&D.

Not Pen and Paper, board games in general. Haven't really convinced any players to try RPGs unless they've done them before... male or female.

I'm finding that half of everyone that I know, with some strong leaning towards the female, are playing D&D these days.

It's been a gaming renaissance of late. Lots of really amazing role playing games and board games are coming out in-part because of Hasbro/Wizards investment in the space since 4e. I'm not a big fan of D&D but I appreciate where it is driving the market.

It has jack shit to do with Wizards and Hasbro. They are flat abandoning D&D.

IMO, Board games are resurging thanks to Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton teaming up to produce Tabletop. Hasbro's celebrity D&D games drive a little, but not much.

I would say that board games were long since exploding by the time TableTop started but I'm sure they haven't hurt things at all. Crowdfunding has also been a crazy driver of both RPG and board game development since it came into existence.

Board games never ceased to be developed, but the popularity was never really changing.

Crowd funding brought money direct to game makers and it helped also.

Cards Against Humanity brought a lot of people to the table again, but that quickly because just another drunk party game to many people.

When Geek & Sundry started pushing things it really changed sales.

Games like Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, Apples to Apples and Munchkin were finding their way into big box stores by 2011. Looks to me like TableTop started in 2012. Popularity was growing significantly prior to that which convinced those stores to take a chance on more interesting games.

@JaredBusch said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

@coliver said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

@scottalanmiller said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

@coliver said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

@scottalanmiller said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

@Kelly said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

I am talking about coop boardgames, just to be clear. Not CoD coop.

OH, like D&D.

Not Pen and Paper, board games in general. Haven't really convinced any players to try RPGs unless they've done them before... male or female.

I'm finding that half of everyone that I know, with some strong leaning towards the female, are playing D&D these days.

It's been a gaming renaissance of late. Lots of really amazing role playing games and board games are coming out in-part because of Hasbro/Wizards investment in the space since 4e. I'm not a big fan of D&D but I appreciate where it is driving the market.

It has jack shit to do with Wizards and Hasbro. They are flat abandoning D&D.

IMO, Board games are resurging thanks to Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton teaming up to produce Tabletop. Hasbro's celebrity D&D games drive a little, but not much.

I would say that board games were long since exploding by the time TableTop started but I'm sure they haven't hurt things at all. Crowdfunding has also been a crazy driver of both RPG and board game development since it came into existence.

@Tim_G said in Xfinity data limits:

@scottalanmiller said in Xfinity data limits:

@Tim_G said in Xfinity data limits:

What about an Amazon Snowball?

Nice, how have I not seen this yet?

There's another one too... also snow related. I forget what it's called though... It's a whole 18-wheeler truck you can load up with data, lol. Imagine how much data you could fit on that!

Snowmobile

@coliver said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

@wirestyle22 said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

@coliver said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

@wirestyle22 said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

@coliver said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

@wirestyle22 said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

@coliver said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

@wirestyle22 said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

Disclaimer: I am not a console gamer

A pretty big group of my friends are getting together to play Phantom Dust, which was remastered and released for free the other day. I try to play the game on the keyboard and It's like crushing my testicles in a vice. I go to bestbuy yesterday to buy an xbox one controller and it's $65. I don't want to play the game and unlock everything I just want to do multiplayer so I was planning on spending $20 to unlock everything in the game. Now this free game is going to cost me $85. Idk when a controller for a console started costing this much money but jesus christ.

I'm so tilted

Should have just gotten a Steam controller. Really enjoy mine. Or get a used 360 controller on ebay.

I haven't purchased anything yet. I was considering a steam controller but have never actually felt one in my hand

It's really nice. A bit heavier then a wireless 360 but the weight makes it feel much niceer in your hands. The trackpads are actually pretty good for a M+KB replacement but they blow the pants off the 360 controller in terms of comfort.

Granted this is my opinion as I'm not a console gamer but I really like the Steam Controller and how it feels.

Maybe I'll just order a steam controller and be done with it. I'm sad that I may need to buy a steam controller off sale. I've seen them go on sale frequently

Summer sale should be very soon.

Phantom Dust is a religion in this circle of friends and their anger is growing daily. Idk if I'll survive that long

Haha.

I like the Steam controller a lot in theory but find that it is a bit large for my hands so it becomes uncomfortable after a relatively short usage window. Other wise pretty cool.

Link to the MS Update Catalog for this issue(KB4012598).

@scottalanmiller said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

@coliver said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

@scottalanmiller said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

@Kelly said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

I am talking about coop boardgames, just to be clear. Not CoD coop.

OH, like D&D.

Not Pen and Paper, board games in general. Haven't really convinced any players to try RPGs unless they've done them before... male or female.

I'm finding that half of everyone that I know, with some strong leaning towards the female, are playing D&D these days.

This makes me sad D&D in it's most recent incarnations heavily encourages the railroad. People need to discover better RPGs.

@Kelly said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

@wirestyle22 said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

Games I'm buying in the Near Future:

Descent
Imperial Assault
The Others
Pandemic
Twilight Imperium 3
Rex
New Angeles

TI3 is great, but very time consuming. Shattered Empire is almost a requirement for it, but does add some to the complexity. It still ranks as one of my top all time games, but I don't get to play it much.

Used to play TI3 with a regular group but I don't think I've ever played the game as written. House rules all the way, sometimes light and sometimes damn near a whole new game. That crew liked to tinker.

Eclipse has a lot of similar appeal but is a tighter design and certainly requires a lesser time investment per game.

@wirestyle22 said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

@Kelly said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

@wirestyle22 said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

@Kelly said in Gaming - What's everyone playing / hosting / looking to play:

@Grey I've pretty much sworn off MMOs or anything that smells of them because of how my life looks after I start to get in to them.

Even having a life after starting one is a huge achievement. Be proud

I put quite a chunk of years into WoW. It wasn't healthy, but neither was I. Now we're both better off

me too we have the same ex

I managed to quit WoW when the first expansion dropped. /played was a horrifying thing even at that early date. Had I stayed on I do not care to think what it may have become...

@Tim_G

I am in no way advocating that level of extreme. Nor do I think was @matteo-nunziati hence the disclaimer at the end of his post.

I personally bounced off a low-carb diet at one point probably because it was encouraging a point further along the line than was good for me.

Just adding some context for those interested in how/why something like that works.

@Tim_G
This is a pretty well known strategy. It is essentially the goal of any low carb diet. It induces a state called ketosis. Some diets are more extreme than others in pursuing the effect. The version @matteo-nunziati describes is on one end of the spectrum.

Also keep in mind it is difficult to avoid carbs altogether. Basically all vegetables include at least some. You may not typically think about your carb intake when eating green beans but it's there.

I should probably log my rides more but I tend not to hit record when I'm commuting which is most of my time on the bike. On Strava if anyone cares to set up follows.

I like to think of it as changing eating habits rather than diet or diet control. I know it is largely semantics but it helped me.

You can make incremental changes over time that, to me at least, are way easier to keep up with than jumping into a big program all at once.

Enforcing longer meal times which, I mentioned yesterday, was step one. Step two was making sure that all meals included at least one serving of protein and one of veg. The steps in the program came at two week intervals so that there was a bit of time for the first habit to set in before having to work on the next. There were several others to work on as time progressed but the first two steps were probably the most important.

It is also worth noting that if you indulge yourself with a treat here and there it does not mean you have failed and that your effort is wasted. It is not quitting time. There is room for improvement over time. I certainly didn't make every meal last 20 mins. in week one nor did every meal have both protein and veg in week 3 or probably even 4.

It took a bit of time to nail each step down and find strategies that worked for me but as time progressed each habit became easier to keep up with.

The single most useful bit of advice I've ever gotten on the whole weight loss deal is to take more time when eating.

Pick a quantity of food for your meal or snack and then give yourself 20 minutes to finish. This gives your body time to adjust to the fact that you've eaten and you will likely find that you reach a state of satiation with a significantly smaller amount of food.

If you don't have 20 minutes to eat at least wait until 20 minutes is up before going for the next round. If you want to be aggressive you can set yourself a longer goal say 30 or 40 minutes.

It can be really helpful when starting this to set yourself up with a way to tell that you are waiting long enough. Using a timer is great. Watching a lot of 20-30 minute TV episodes while eating to gauge time and give me something else to engage with was helpful for me early on. Dining companions to converse with are also awesome especially if they have similar goals.

Also helpful:
Find yourself something specific to work towards other than weight loss. I stuck to my plans and achieved much greater success with losing weight and gaining fitness/strength after deciding to compete in a Muay Thai tournament than at any other time in my life.

Pick an event near you that sounds interesting, it doesn't need to be as crazy as getting in a ring. Maybe a bike ride or a run, one of those goofy obstacle course events, whatever. Other types of goal might be to increase your max lift a certain amount and give yourself a time period to achieve that in. Or gain the ability to do unassisted pull-ups or go from the 5 you can manage now to 10 in a few months.

RSIs are terrible and trackballs are definitely worth using. Luckily my symptoms are relatively light and intermittent but it still sucked and switching for most usage has reduced frequency to basically never.

Perhaps one day I'll get around to installing Haiku on something to see what it is all about. Never did experiment with BeOS myself but I know some people who were in love with it.

@NerdyDad said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@NDC said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

Waiting for a plane.

Will just any plane do?

I was looking to get on a specific one today, but there are times that a random one seems like a good idea.

Back in NJ for a bit for my brother's wedding.

Waiting for a plane.