Rubenerd

This post was originally written in mid-September 2018. We’re already onto the Halloween event for English FGO!

The only mobile game I play, and have ever got into, is Fate/Grand Order. Think Hearthstone, but with cute characters and familiar themes if you grew up watching the Fate franchise. And before you judge me, Clara is in way deeper than me!

I had been hoarding my saint quartz all year for Nero Fest 2018. I played the first Nero Fest as soon as the English version of the game came out, when Clara and I were waiting for the Matsuri to set up in Kyoto if you can believe it. Mashu is best girl, but Nero Claudius is easily the second.

I didn’t get Nero Bride (above), but I did get three more Nero Claudii (top), so I was able to NP ascend her. I took it as a sign, so I also grailed her. She’s now the equivalent level of a five star servant she deserves to be.

It’s also now completely official, I thought I’d always be a Takashi Takeuchii fan first, but Wadarco does all my other favourite art in this franchise. The eyes she draws are so expressive.

Want some Adidas Dragon Ball Z shoes? Matt Schley, with excellent spelling in his last name, wrote this in Otaku USA Magazine:

Are your current sneakers not as, uh, baller as you’d like? Maybe these Adidas Originals are just the thing. The shoe maker has just unveiled the packaging, pricing and release date for the first two pairs in its planned line of Dragon Ball Z-inspired kicks: Goku adidas ZX 500 RM and Frieza Yung 1.

It reminds me of those ads Clara and I saw everywhere in Osaka last year for the New Balance Evangelion shoes. Come to think of it, what did they look like?

Update: Matt Schley covered them as well! I agree with him their resemblence to the Evangelion franchise is all but incidental, but what gorgeous colours.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore released its 2019 Monetary Policy Statement. From section 6:

In 2019, trade frictions between some major economies and the uncertainty they pose could weigh more discernibly on global economic activity.

Mr Orange making the world great again.

Friday Fanmail time! Each and every Friday, sometimes, I post some email from a fan such that we can all bask in their positive words.

Today’s may be the single greatest piece of spam I’ve ever received:

Hi there,

I was doing an expert roundup and uniting with the digital marketing agencies that are working hard on behalf of their clients.

We are the one of the most favored offshore SEO help in world with more than 10+ digital marketing agencies accosting and collaborating with us since last month.

Accosting!? YOU WILL TAKE OUR SEO, AND YOU WILL LIKE IT!

A coworker reminded me of Dropbox’s design page. It was a bit cliché, but I enjoyed scrolling around and reading the story.

Until I read we’re excited a total of three times. Ruined!

This post was originally written on Tuesday. But the flight was so badly delayed, I didn’t get home till after midnight to post this.

Our lead flight attendant just read an ad for a Holden Astra giveaway, with the same lack of enthusiasm I’d feel if I’d recited it as many times as he likely has. Forcing someone to do that surely violates a UN charter.

Thing is, he read it just as I was reading volume four of Astra Lost in Space on the Kindle, by the same writer who brought us SKET Dance and everyone’s favourite character Switch. I’d also just finished writing an email to a client running an Asterisk PBX. Okay that last one was a little contrived, but still made me smile.

I don’t believe in syncronicities; there are insufficient numbers of them in the tens of thousands of seconds we have in a day to be anything more than noise. But I thought that coincidence was fun :).

And as an aside, a comment on the design of another small Holden car was one of my first blog posts.

I cancelled my Tesltra mobile plan, and was offered a questionnaire with multiple choice answers. The ones I chose are quoted below.

When the mobile phone plan was with Telstra, were you unhappy with any of the following?

• Telstra in-store customer service experience(s)
• Exceeding the monthly data allowance
• Reliability of Telstra’s network

With the new mobile plan with $BLAH did you get any of the following?

• The network reliability you need
• Mobile phone coverage in the areas you need
• A higher montly mobile data allowance
• A plan with a less expensive/cheaper monthly cost

Thinking about the new mobile with $BLAH, what were the main reasons you chose your provider?

• Customer service
• Network
• Plan

They seemed to ask the same question multiple times. This is by design, they want to validate what you’re saying. Curiously, the first two questions asking about decisions to leave Telstra didn’t include any relevant answers.

In the further comments box:

Overall the service was mostly fine, but didn’t measure up to the cost. The accessory repayment option was redundant and misleading, and the staff at your George Street store employed high pressure sales tactics which were tiresome to deflect. Very low data caps, even by Australian standards. Your network was often down, and family on Optus and Vodafone networks had better coverage on the same hardware at my father’s rural house, etc. Thanks for giving me the chance to offer feedback.

Just made it to a powerpoint on Monday. Nailed it!

Also, I can’t wait until I can pull the last Dropbox dependency out of my toolchain, and finish moving off 1Password. I’m getting there.

The Overnightscape Central is a fun weekly podcast hosted by the illustrious PQ Ribber. Hosts and listeners of The Overnightscape Underground participate in a topic each week, and you’re welcome to join.

02:13:12 – Chad Bowers!! Rubenerd!! Frank Edward Nora!! Doc Sleaze!! An extensive look at ’expensive’ hosted by PQ Ribber!!

You can view this episode on the Underground, listen to it here, and subscribe with this feed in your podcast client.

I always see interesting stuff when updating Homebrew. I had some serendipity in February, here are some more packages I hadn’t heard of:

fzf

Command-line fuzzy finder written in Go

git-annex

Manage files with git without checking in file contents

hyperfine

Pretty command-line benchmarking tool, written in Rust

glowthedarksnorkel

Generates random songs from “Weird Al” Yankovic lyrics. Does not actually exist, but now I want to make it.