u/pleaseletmesleepz

Hello! I'm visiting Auckland for the first time from the US with my mom. We're 30F and 60F respectively.

When we travel, we like to find weird and unique things to do. Does Auckland have any odd tourist traps or unusual activities?

Aside from looking for vague "weird stuff," we're both avid readers and are looking forward to seeing new flora and fauna.

I'm also happy to hear about must-sees and must-dos for visitors, whether "weird" or not. I've never left North America & my mom has never been to Oceania. We'll be staying in downtown Auckland but will have access to a rental car.

Thank you so much!

Dia daoibh, a chairde!

Táim ag cleachtadh scríbhneoireachta as Gaeilge, mar anois tá mo chuid Gaeilge go briste. Ba mhaith liom níos mó frásaí a fhoghlaim. Tá mo stór focal an-bheag, agus is teanga álainn (agus greannmhar, go minic) í an Gaeilge :)

Ba bhreá liom seanfhocail áitiúla a chloisteáil. Cad iad na habairtí aisteacha a chloiseann sibh i bhur sráidbhailte?

Hi everyone! First time posting here. I usually listen to audiodrama fiction and have no trouble finding stuff in the genres I like. But lately I've been listening to Normal Gossip while Doordashing & the format is GREAT for keeping my brain engaged. Specifically, the format is that the host has a different guest on each episode, and then the host tells a wild story submitted by a listener (always low-stakes and anonymized), and she and the guest discuss/laugh about it throughout.

So, specific things I'm looking for:

-Women and/or queer people hosting

-2 or more people having semi-scripted conversations

-Engaging but low-stakes storytelling

-Funny

Extra bonus points if any of the hosts are trans women!

I'm hesitant to look into "gossip podcasts" to fill this niche because I just... am not very invested in the typical subject matter (ie: weddings, divorces, celebrity drama, monogamous heterosexuality, etc). I don't mean that as a "not like other girls" thing, I just mean I'm a lesbian who's pretty culturally out-of-touch with mainstream topics. But I LOVE women having fun.

Let me know if anything comes to mind :) Cheers!

Hi all, diagnosed UCTD with off-the-charts anti-RNP, currently undergoing testing to determine if it's evolved into MCTD.

My illness is mostly well-managed and I have a fairly good handle on what triggers my flares.

I woke up this morning feeling pretty able-bodied. Took my meds, did some chores, got some work done, all that good stuff.

Then I went to a dentist appointment and had a cleaning done that was... shockingly painful. Apparently my gums are inflamed AF because of my bad flossing habits. My own fault, not a huge deal. The dentist was very nice about it.

Six hours later, I feel like I got hit by a bus. My mouth itself doesn't particularly hurt, but I'm wheezing heavily, foggy, exhausted, and my joints are aflame. This is precisely how my flares present. I haven't encountered any of my usual triggers, so this is odd. All I can think is that the pseudo-trauma to my teeth might have set my body off?

I'm wondering if this is familiar to anyone here -- and if so, how long it took for the resulting flare to resolve for you. Thanks for reading!

As a kid, I could not be assed to play the three-and-four-year scenarios, and I didn't have the patience to build on non-flat land, so I almost always just played Forest Frontiers. I figured now that I'm 30, I can take a crack at the more advanced stuff I never bothered with as a youngin'.

Just finished all the scenarios. None of them were particularly hard to beat, BUT I was very pleased with how much I learned about the game as I went.

Some of you might recognize me as the person from the other day who didn't know the roller coasters could use chain lifts 😅 THRILLED to report I had three custom-built underground coasters in Rainbow Valley, which is the scenario where you can't do any landscaping, and then five custom builds in Thunder Rock (4 underground, 1 above ground). It turns out making roller coasters IS way easier when you use the chain lifts!

I haven't built anything brag-worthy enough to screenshot and post, but figured I'd post a progress update. Thanks for teaching me about chain lifts and for having such a fun community here!!

Hi everyone! I've lived in Beaverton for about 7 years now, and I've gotten to know the city pretty well while Doordashing for a living. But I want to crowdsource opinions here, because it's REALLY important to me to give this friend good advice.

She is profoundly blind (no vision whatsoever) and uses a guide dog to get around. She relies on public transit and MUST move to a neighborhood with good bus lines, ideally MAX access as well. I was going to recommend Central Beaverton. She will be living alone and independently, so any plans that rely on just "getting a friend to help" are a no-go. Although obviously me and my family will be available to help as much as we can.

The most important things are that she can access public transit and that she is physically safe when out navigating around. I've never had much trouble with unsafe people in Beaverton, but I am CERTAINLY concerned about unsafe driving.

I was going to caution her against Bull Mountain, Cooper Mountain, and Sexton Mountain, as in my experience those areas are mostly car-dependent suburban sprawl. And as mentioned, I was going to emphasize Central Beaverton for MAX and bus access.

I'm still very unfamiliar with Hillsboro. She's looking for apartments in both Hillsboro and Beaverton, so any Hillsboro-based advice is also welcome, I just know I'm not on their subreddit :)

What advice would you guys give to a blind woman looking for an apartment in the area? Which neighborhoods would you prioritize or avoid?

Any comments welcome. I'd especially love to hear from visually-impaired people or those with visually-impaired loved ones.

Thanks so much!

EDIT: Solved! Did you guys know you can use chain lifts to make train go up? 😭😭😭

Hi guys, I checked the FAQs and did a cursory glance through the sub, but I haven't read the roller coaster guides in-depth yet, so I'm sorry if this is in there.

I played a bunch as a kid but always used the pre-made coasters. Now I'm trying to build coasters to fit the terrain of the mountainous scenarios, but I can't for the LIFE of me build one that I can get back to where it started.

I know I have to build up speed to get the coaster to go up. I know I build speed by going down. And yet. The coaster relentlessly slows, stops, and slides back down. (I have successfully completed ONE track, which has an excitement rating of 0.25 because it only drops about two feet.)

I assumed the trick would be to make a medium-sized hill, then have a small dip to gain speed again, then keep going up... this does not work.

Am I stupid?? 😭

Thanks for any and all help.

Hi all, I'm visiting New Zealand later this year, and it'll be really convenient if I can rent a car. Visitors with a valid overseas license don't have to test, but I'll be reading through the full NZ driver's manual regardless. I grew up rural, so their narrow mountain roads shouldn't be a problem, but I want to make sure I CAN drive on the left. If it's too big a change for my brain then obviously I don't want to endanger others on the NZ roads & will stick to Ubers and public transit.

For obvious legal and safety reasons, it is a bit hard to practice driving on the left on regular roads here. I'm wondering if anyone has big parking lots they'd recommend using during late/early hours when no one else is around. Or better yet, if any of you have practiced driving on the left before going overseas, if you let me know what you did?

Thanks for any and all thoughts!!

ETA: Thanks for the encouragement, everyone, I really appreciate it! The reason I want to practice is because I have ADHD and sometimes have a hard time adapting to changes, especially changes in long-time habits like driving. So I want to make sure I'm even capable of making the switch. I PROMISE I understand that it'll be easier in a NZ car with the steering wheel on the right side. I also promise my thought process is reasonable. Sometimes things that are easy for 95% of the population are very difficult for me. I would rather be careful than be in an accident. Again, thanks for the insights, advice, and encouragement!

Hi all!

I was a little dismayed the other day when the sub mods admitted they've coded in bots to play at the tables. But I've come around to it; I understand why bots are used when there isn't anyone online. From what I've observed, bots are instantly kicked if enough real people join the table, and the mods have also said they want to phase them out soon.

In the meantime I figured, hey, let's make hay while the sun shines.

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How do you spot a bot?

They won't have a card guard.

[ETA per the comments and my own experience: This is not a 100% guarantee, as it's possible for players to play without a card guard. It is pretty likely, though.]

They also have generic Reddit names and predictable betting patterns, but the card guard is a dead giveaway. When I enter a table, I can know how many real people I'm playing with immediately. [ETA: Except maybe once or twice, and it was easy to figure out the player was a real person bc they didn't behave like a bot.]

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How do you play against a bot?

Obviously I haven't looked at the bots' coding, so these are observations based just on playing with them.

They seem to be coded to fold immediately if they have super low equity. Most of the time, they'll raise the minimum amount. If you raise the minimum amount in turn, they'll fold immediately.

If you're at a table with only bots (which is pretty rare), you can just get them to fold repeatedly before the flop & rake in that sweet, sweet fake cash.

Sometimes the bots won't fold. I presume this means they have decent equity.

If you have good cards, you can string the bots along further. Check and call without raising for the flop, turn, and river. The bots will start to bet in larger and larger amounts as the cards are dealt, seemingly heedless of their equity. (At least, that's the pattern I've seen.) Bet a large amount after the river; sometimes the bots will fold, and sometimes they'll proceed to the showdown, where they usually have a shit hand. If they don't have a shit hand, it's pretty easy to win the money back from them, LOL.

This works best if you're stuck at a table without any real players for a while, which was the case for me earlier tonight. When you're playing with real people, you have to account for the fact that you're also playing poker with someone unpredictable. LMAO. But you can still follow all of this advice to a T when all the real players have folded early.

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I netted an easy half million at the Macau table tonight and then left once my bot buddies were booted in favor of people who actually, like, know how to play the game. And now I'm writing this thread.

As far as I know, said thread isn't against the rules -- mods, feel free to take it down if it's bothersome, but please don't get mad at me, haha. I look forward to the day the game has enough players not to need any bot participation!

Hi mods, I tried to get a screenshot of the moment but failed, sorry about that!

I had a hand at the lowest Shootouts table that didn't display. The animation showed two face-down cards (like the ones the other players have), and then the cards disappeared entirely. I had to fold since obviously I didn't know what was in my hand.

This has only happened to me once so far, but it's worth noting I've only played three tourneys. I see another recent thread noting it's not just me. Thanks for your attention!

I keep ending up at Monte Carlo tables with players who, for reasons completely inscrutable to me, keep going all-in with 600K on absolute nothingburger hands, and dumping like 3 million chips in 5 minutes.

I know the answer to my annoyance with these players is either to find a different table or to just keep folding until they get bored and leave (unless I've got, like, pocket aces). Twice today, however, I've gotten fed-up enough to go all-in on some shit like a pair of fives.

You'll never guess who won those rounds.

Obviously on my part, this is just playing poker badly. And maybe the ragebait is the POINT. You don't need to tell me it's a mistake. 😂 I'm just wondering if any of you guys ever find yourselves betting more out of annoyance than strategy, and then kicking yourselves for it.