Mre. Dartigen [renovator mode]

Last Notes

2025-12-20 16:29:02 UTC

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Spot on, it was John Carpenter (also directed Halloween, Escape from New York, and a remake of Assault on Precinct 13, among many others; he's pretty much retired from film as of about 2010 but he's still making music).
I don't consider myself much of a horror buff, but thankyou for the compliment ☺️ I just have a media server, a Shudder subscription, and too much free time.

2025-12-20 12:16:10 UTC

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It's not technically a Christmas movie (I don't think the dates are ever specified, and it's snowy because they're in Antarctica) but The Thing (1981), aside from being an amazing horror movie, is a wonderful showcase of practical effects. I would not recommend watching it anywhere near mealtime though.
Another one you might find interesting is Beberian Sound Studio (2011) - you will probably need subtitles as about 80% of the dialogue is in Italian. I'd categorise it as psychological and surreal horror. Annihilation (2017, I think) is also a bit surreal, and a VFX smorgasbord too.
Another fun thriller is Diabolique (1955, French but it's a classic so you won't have any trouble finding good subtitles). It is critical to watch the 1955 original before the 1996 remake, the remake is entertaining (Sharon Stone was brilliant casting) but it does make some crucial changes to the ending.
In horror films from Australia, I'd highly recommend both of the Philippou brothers films (Talk To Me and Bring Her Back) as well as a little known indie horror film called The Tunnel from 2011. I have yet to check out Dangerous Animals but I'd quite like to, it sounds like a refreshing take on shark films. (And I have yet to get to Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead but I want to; it was pitched to me as 'Fury Road meets Dawn of the Dead' and that sounds like a good time to me.)
For a horror series, I think we're still between Mike Flanagan projects but all of his series' are good (though you'll want to stock up on tissues too, so far both The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass have had a lot of teary moments). Another one I liked recently was Teacup - it's body horror so again I'd recommend not watching too close to mealtimes, I'd describe it in the vein of The Thing but bringing in aspects of rural horror too. And if you can find it (it's older and I'm not sure if any streaming services still have it) then there's a fun horror-comedy series called Santa Clarita Diet about a California real estate agent who becomes a zombie.
There's also some genuinely spooky episodes of The X-Files - I liked the earlier seasons best, most of my favourite episodes were around season 3 and 4, though I think Squeeze (season 1, episode 3) is still the scariest episode of the whole series. And it's a nice nostalgia kick. My other regular nostalgia watches in horror are Saw (2004), The Ring (2002), The Grudge (2004) and Alien (1979).
EDIT: I'll also second Weapons (2025) particularly - the writer and director started out in comedy, and it shows. And I'd also second Murdoch Mysteries (though it has quite a significant backlog).

2025-12-14 22:25:37 UTC

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Is this okay to boost? I haven't encountered this particular problem myself (somehow - all the literature I got given when I started T made it sound inevitable and yet) so I have no idea.

2025-11-09 14:14:21 UTC

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Fresh leaves? I'm not sure how it works for caffeine specifically, but I've always heard that (well-stored) dried anything is usually more concentrated than fresh. (I'd guess that steeping time is also a factor - with regular tea brewed with boiling or near-boiling water, most caffeine has been extracted within 3-6 minutes.)
But yes, also caffeine tolerance.

2025-11-07 11:47:04 UTC

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Yes, chinampas - artificial islands built on the edges of or within natural lakes, taking advantage of the existing body of water. They're not really floating per se, more like built up from the lakebed, but they're along the same ideas. There's a few projects building or maintaining some, some as living archaeology type undertakings and others for research or as part of bigger permaculture projects - it sounds like they're a lot of work to construct, but they're worth it for not needing additional water inputs and being incredibly productive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinampa

2025-07-29 12:43:35 UTC

Yay, got notice that the landlord wants the house back in October. The long notice is nice I guess, but still.
Extra pain in the ass that I just had a possibly good job offer come up (in my niche, so slightly better odds of actually getting it).
If anyone has any leads in #Adelaide for something affordable to two pensioners (if it can fit three adults that would be great but I'm keeping my expectations down) that would be helpful but I'm not expecting much; I'm putting out feelers elsewhere as well and at worst I probably have some fallback options.

2024-12-31 23:41:35 UTC

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One of its biggest problems is that it seems to have completely stopped accepting most search modifiers (like double quotes, minus sign, etc) - I think the site-specific search still works, but that's all. I don't know if advanced search still exists either; if it does then it's been hidden. (The 'search tools' modifiers or whatever they're called kind of work, but not well enough to make up for not accepting other modifiers.)
Wouldn't be a problem if the same thing didn't seem to be affecting DDG as well and making it very difficult to search for very specific things.

2024-10-19 01:37:57 UTC

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Especially since for a long time, the conventional wisdom seemed to be that it was impossible to stop airborne infections en masse without massive disruptions.
Turns out that actually, it's doable, it just takes a little bit of effort.
(Also turns out that improving building ventilation has serious positives for the health and wellbeing of literally everyone in the building. I remember seeing articles here about one school that went hard on improving ventilation as a COVID prevention measure - that then found that students' test scores substantially improved too, and teachers reported better overall behaviour and fewer students falling asleep in class too. It might seem obvious, but for a long time it wasn't realised how early and quickly poor ventilation can negatively affect people, long before obvious symptoms of high CO2 exposure start to happen.)

2024-09-21 05:00:58 UTC

So, found this out in class a few days ago: Australia's mandatory care labelling standard for clothing is now changing to using symbols, rather than text.
The transition period given is until March 2025. Suppliers can still use their remaining stock of text-only labels, so you might not see these labels for a little while yet.
The ACCC has a page with a guide to the symbols. I also threw together a 4-page PDF guide, which I can make available if anyone would like (literally just edited a print-to-PDF of the guide so it's a little more display-friendly).
https://www.productsafety.gov.au/consumers/use-cosmetic-and-fashion-products-safely/care-labelling-on-clothing-and-textiles-guide
#clothing #fashion

2024-08-16 06:26:44 UTC

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Wasn't this the origin of Hypertext Coffee Pot Control Protocol as a joke? (or maybe that predated the actual coffee pot, or possibly had nothing to do with it, I can't remember)