u/Tub_Pumpkin

Hi, everyone -

How can I configure Clozemaster so that it lets me review words sooner?

For example, in one of the German courses, I just got a sentence that I had not played in 69 days. (That is, when I look at the "Stats" for the sentence, it says, "Last seen: 69 days ago."

There is no way I am ever going to remember a foreign word after 69 days. I think I would forget my own name if I did not hear it for 69 days.

So how do I reduce the time between reviews?

EDIT: To clarify, I review everything available for review, every single day. This is usually around 60 words. But I am still going over two months between two appearances of the same sentence.

Hi, everyone -

I am mostly into history, which I mention only because I want to make it clear that I am not trying to become an expert on any particular philosopher or on 20th-century philosophy in general. I'm kind of just interested in the basics, and also in the historical context of different ideas.

I just finished Bertrand Russell's "History of Western Philosophy," which I liked despite some obvious problems. Again, I'm not trying to become the most knowledgeable person in the world on the topic, so I did not mind that Russell skipped a lot and left a lot of people and ideas out.

Russell was writing during WWII, so it stops there, and there were some important figures writing at or just before that time who Russell leaves out. He doesn't mention (for example) Kierkegaard, Wittgenstein, and a lot of other people who I know are important, but who I do not really know anything about.

So, any good overviews of the history of philosophy from say 1900 to the present day? Something from a historical perspective or for a layperson, say.

Before you ask how I know this: a swamp-witch told me in exchange for a pouchful of adder's tongue which I collected for her.

The first volume of the TAZ graphic novel, "Here There Be Gerblins," was released in July of 2018 and was a big success. It was a #1 New York Times Bestseller. Not just on the bestseller list, but #1.

That was during "Amnesty," before Travis torpedoed the brand.

"Here Be Gerblins" was followed in July 2019 by "Murder on the Rockport Limited." This was also well-received and while I do not have reliable sales figures, Tituba, the swamp-witch, told me it sold quite well.

It is not important how I met Tituba, the swamp-witch.

Anyway, then Travis torpedoed the brand.

Also and then there was a global pandemic and millions of people died.

Then the third volume, "The Fast and the Furious," came out. This one was less well-received. Tituba says, sales weren't great.

She is in need of about a pound of bloodroot, which only grows north of here, in the Shadowood, but she is going to grant me another wish if I go get that so I'm going to try to wrap this up.

After the failure that was "Graduation," and the humiliation from such a massive public failure, and the resulting meltdowns on Twitter and Twitch and YouTube and what-have-you, it would have been a great time to end the podcast. But they were three books into a seven-book deal. People were buying the TAZ graphic novels because they liked the TAZ podcast. If they quit the podcast, would people quit buying the novels?

And so, Tituba tells me, for she has seen it in her dreams and her oracular visions, the McElroys agreed: They would continue doing the show until the graphic novel series was complete. They were not sure when that would be, though they had a general idea, and they were not sure how many campaigns they would need to run in the meantime. But, here we are. The seventh and final novel is out, and Royale seems to be entering its end-game.

So mark my words, TAZCJ. I have it on good authority from a wise and powerful swamp-witch that when Royale ends, whether it be in 2 episodes or 20, the McElroys will announce the end of TAZ.

In the meantime I am in need of several herbs and other alchemical ingredients if you guys could help me please send me a DM I have given Tituba something extremely valuable to me as collateral for these herbs and you guys I gotta get these herbs

Hi everyone -

I had an interview on Tuesday. This was with a previous employer (though a different department) who I left on good terms about two years ago. Same employer but since it's a different department, the interviewers were people I had not met before.

Anyway, the interview was scheduled for 11:30. I arrived at about 11:10. I expected to wait 20 minutes and had no problem at all waiting. The receptionist asked if I was [my name], and I said, yes, here for an interview at 11:30. She showed me to a waiting area, but then came back almost immediately and said the interviewers were ready to see me.

When I went in, the vibe was immediately weird. There were four interviewers and they seemed angry at me. At the time, it did not occur to me that it might be because we were starting the interview early.

I introduced myself and handed them a copy of my resume and certifications (which I had been told to bring), and they said no, thank you, they already had them.

The interview was brief and they were very curt when it was over. They told me they'd have a decision on Monday (that is, still four days from now, as I'm writing this).

Today they closed my application. I got an automated email from the application system, but no call or email from any of the interviewers, or from the staff member who had scheduled the interview.

It's not that I'm surprised to not get the position. (Although, it's that, too, because I think I was a perfect fit for this role.) But now I'm wondering if by getting there early I somehow made a bad impression? Or maybe there was a misunderstanding and they were thinking I was supposed to have been there at 11:00? I don't know.

Would it be completely insane to reach out to them?

Mornin', jerkers -

The Legends of Avantris Kickstarter just made 16 million dollars.

$16,139,170 at the time of this writing, to be exact.

Now, this post is not about Legends of Avantris, which I had not heard of until their Kickstarter launched, and have not listened to. Watched? I don't know.

This post is about this:

Somewhere around August of 2016, I decide to run a game of Dungeons & Dragons for my friends. I had played once before, loved it, but then had never been able to find a group to join. So I said, fuck it, I'll run it, and picked up the Starter Set.

I asked reddit: How do I run D&D? I got many, many helpful responses, and it was repeatedly suggested that I watch/listen to three things:

• Matt Colville
• Critical Role
• The Adventure Zone

Again, that was 2016. Let's look at these three, 10 years later:

Colville has since had an enormous Kickstarter of his own. I believe it was over $7 million and was, at the time, the biggest TTRPG Kickstarter. He now has his own company, his own game, and several sourcebooks.

Critical Role is... Critical Role. They've had episodes shown in movie theaters. They have two (I think?) shows on Amazon, one of which is going into season three (I think?). They have an official 5e sourcebook, novels, comics, etc., etc.

And the Adventure Zone is... well...

Do you think the boys see stuff like Avantris making 16 million dollars and wonder what might have been? What if they'd actually tried? What if Grad hadn't poisoned the whole project? Would we have a TAZ sourcebook? Something compatible with 5E, or perhaps a new system they developed with someone who knew what they were doing? What if they'd kept up those listener numbers and actually gotten an animated show?

16 mil, y'all. Gotta sting.

Hi, all -

Once again coming in hot off the wire from WV:

> Assault charges dropped against local comedian

> Criminal charges against local comedian Justin McElroy have been dropped, the prosecuting attorney's office for Cabell County announced on Wednesday.

> McElroy had been charged with assault and battery last October following an incident in a local restaurant, charges which could have included mandatory jail time.

> On Friday, October 3rd, McElroy and his family had been dining at Fat Patty's restaurant, located at 1935 Third Avenue in downtown Huntington. Fat Patty's staff members and customers reported that following a verbal confrontation, McElroy threw a hard-boiled egg as hard as he possibly could at another diner, striking him in the back of the head and ruining his life.

> Charges were pressed the following Monday.

> WSAZ3 spoke with a Fat Patty's staff member at the time of the incident. "[McElroy] asked for a hard-boiled egg," the witness told WSAZ3, "and when the server brought it out, he grabbed it and he wanged it as hard as he possibly could at the back of [the other diner's] head."

> When reached by WSAZ3, McElroy did not deny the charges. "Yeah I wanged it," he told us. "I wanged it as hard as I could! I wanged it right at him and I'm guilty as hell! Is that what you want to hear? I'm guilty as hell!"

> McElroy, a lifelong Huntington resident, is best known for appearing in the "Trolls 2" animated children's movie, and for starring in a 2007 television commercial for Berry & Cream-flavored Starburst.

> The prosecutor's office released a statement on Wednesday. "McElroy has agreed to participate in an anger management program, and attend a public safety seminar about the dangers of throwing hard boiled eggs at people and hitting them really hard in the head with them."

This is from Russell's "History of Western Philosophy," written around 1941-42, published in 1945. He is describing the "Hellenistic" world, post-Alexander. But when I read it last night, it seemed to describe the US of 2026.

>The general confusion was bound to bring moral decay, even more than intellectual enfeeblement. Ages of prolonged uncertainty ... are inimical to the every-day virtues of respectable citizens. There seems no use in thrift, when tomorrow all your savings may be dissipated; no advantage in honesty, when the man towards whom you practise it is pretty sure to swindle you; no point in steadfast adherence to a cause, when no cause is important or has a chance of stable victory; no argument in favour of truthfulness, when only supple tergiversation makes the preservation of life and fortune possible. The man whose virtue has no source except a purely terrestrial prudence will, in such a world, become an adventurer if he has the courage, and, if not, will seek obscurity as a timid time-server."

("Tergiversation" means "evasion of straightforward action or clear-cut statement; equivocation," by the way. Had to look that one up.)

This seems to describe us, now. Timid time-servers in a fully scam-based economy: AI, crypto, NFTs, the Trump Phone, etc. The general feeling that everything is getting worse and that each one of us is hoping to be able to scam enough money, quickly enough, to get through the even worse times to come. Disappearance of basic consideration of other people which extends to unexpected things, like, where I live, there are basically no traffic laws anymore, no one gives a shit. Employers listing a position as "remote" so the post gets views, even though the position is not remote.

Anyway

What do you think he means by "become an adventurer," though?

I missed the first 50 minutes. But, horrifyingly, there is a thing at the bottom of the screen that says, "Time Added: 1:12:00," and a timer in the bottom left that is counting down from (at time of writing) 1:27:50.

Travis is talking extremely loudly and his mic is blown out. A few moments after I tuned in, Griffin asked Travis to turn the gain on his mic down. Travis did, but his voice is still slightly distorted because he's shouting into the mic.

Justin and Griffin are trying desperately to inject jokes into this thing. Every time they open their mouths, Travis has this reaction of expressing-frustration-while-also-trying-to-express-something-like-haha-i'm-not-frustrated. And then he barrels on.

Justin is eating on stream. He has a red napkin around his neck and has a little cup of something, looks like maybe a little cup of chili. He's eating it with a spoon throughout this whole stream so far, chewin' right in the mic.

• 11:59 - Travis is unclear about when an event on the show took place and says, "I don't know. Time is an illusion." Justin says, "I can certainly fucking attest to that."

• 12:01 - Travis just got to the end of an episode, but I'm not sure which one, since I tuned in late.

• 12:01 - We have confirmation that what Justin is eating is chili, with "scallions, beans..."

• 12:02 - That was episode four. We're moving onto episode 5.

• 12:02 - Griffin explains that every time they add a new MaxFun subscriber, they add a minute to the stream. It is now up to "Time Added: 1:17:00," with 1:24:20 remaining.

• 12:03 - Kevin Costner's character stabs a bloated cow to let the gas out.

• 12:06 - In the chat, it is explained that it's actually 1 minute for every 5 new members.

• 12:06 - Travis makes fun of the names on the show a little bit, and Justin says, "Actually, Trav, your indignation right there can fuck off."

• 12:07 - This show sounds straight ass. I am not really going to say anything Yellowstone.

Actually I'm not doing this.

• 1:44 - I dipped back in. Travis was talking about a flashback that amused him. He said something like, "You guys aren't as into this..." referring to the flashback, but Justin says, "IMAGINE MY SURPRISE that my enthusiasm for this project does not match yours."

• 2:09 - I think a bunch of people saw how the time-adding mechanic worked, and waited until the last 5-10 minutes. It keeps counting down a minute and then adding another minute. Griffin is staring at the clock, stunned that it has reached 5:00 like three separate times. It just keeps adding.

• 2:13 - They just added another minute and Griffin said, "...'nother minute..." with the same tone I imagine Sisyphus has before each time up the mountain.

• 2:14 - Griffin trying desperately to wrap it up: "It's an honor it's a joy. Fuck, another minute..."

It is actually over for real now.

Total runtime: 3 hours, 15 minutes, 55 seconds.