TrickJarrett.com

I love this sort of thing

"How a 1980s toy robot arm inspired modern robotics"

I saw the headline and immediately knew what toy it was talking about. I inherited one from an older brother and spent hours just making it do things with the two joy sticks.

Long live Zustashadil

As the date neared, the dwarves began work on their great hall. An expansive cone room designed to amplify the voices on the dais. Day and night they toiled, chiseling and mining out the massive space.

And then on the 6th of Obsidian, when their queen awoke, she alerter her advisors of the vision that today was the day. The day the dwarven fortress Ancientwalls would forever turn their back on the overworld.

The message went out, summoning all dwarves to the great chamber. The speeches were made, from the mayor, from the duchess, and lastly from the queen. As the queen spoke one dwarf, Urist, was dispatched to make the trek upwards. He ran down the halls, trotting up the stairs, huffing and puffing down the final corridor until he reached the two levers. WIthout hesitation he yanked on both, and turned back towards where the citizens were gathered, listening to the mechanisms behind him as they began closing the gates, forever locking them within.

The engineers had cleverly devised a system that would send noises down to the chamber, magnifying the same mechanisms that Urist heard fading behind him as he began the trek back from his ceremonial mission. And as the hall fell quiet, the grinding of gears and ticking of latches echoing and distorted over the distance, until a clang rang out - that noise sending the dwarves into a joyful cheer. "Long live Zustashadil! Long live Zustashadil!"

Zustashadil was the ancient tongue for Ancientwalls. And now, they were forever safe, with caverns to conquer, and no more reason to step out into the sun. Thus Zustashadil had become a hermit kingdom.

This is my current Dwarf Fortress and I had decided around year 107 in game that I was going to do this by 110. I had visions of doing it as the year turned over, but as we got late in the year 109 I decided to just go ahead and pull the trigger. The fortress was relatively large with over 350 dwarves, and it just felt right to do.

For theatrics, I did actually force all of my dwarves into the great chamber and, humorously, that may have borked the game.

I opened it up last night and most dwarves were not working and did not begin taking jobs that were needed. I'm not clear if this is just the game being overly loaded with pathfinding after having all these dwarves in the same place and the calculations for line of sight and path finding being overly taxed, we'll see. I have a different save I can fall back to where I forego the theatrics before closing the gate, if need be.

But, all that said, we'll see what happens to Zustashadil on this new stage of the game.

Ep. 4 of the Noclip Dwarf Fortress Documentary

I loved the series of videos, they did a fantastic job shining a light on this crazy/silly game and the brothers behind it.

Once Clogged Twice Dug: My Septic Tank Adventure

I was sick last week, so I ended up taking most of the week off of work. By Friday I was turning the corner, which was fortuitous timing as our household had some plumbing issues that necessitated me calling in professionals.

When we bought our house in 2014, we made sure they had the septic tank pumped. And then... we didn't do it after that. I somewhat blame my parents who rented homes for most of my life and though it might have been on septic systems rather than sewer, I was never aware of those tanks being pumped - even though we lived in my childhood home for the entirety of my schooling. So I had internalized a 10-year timeline for getting the septic tank pumped (which is, as it turns out, very wrong.) Katie reminded me during this week that she had brought pumping the septic tank up a few years into being homeowners and I had brushed it off as a scam of companies wanting to do it more frequently. Oops.

You, dear reader, are encouraged to get yours pumped every 3-5 years as a homeowner. A lesson I'm now taking to heart after this.

So, this is why I wasn't terribly surprised when the house suddenly stopped draining. I figured "Oops! Tank's full, time to finally get it pumped."

So that's what I did. I knew where the access point was, and after getting a company which could come out the same day, they asked if they would be digging it out or if I would be. After disclosing it was an extra $150 if they pump it, I said I'd do it - even though I still didn't feel great. I get the shovel out and it doesn't take long, but I get to the lid and stop.

They arrive, the tank thankfully was not as awful as was feared. He pumps it out and off he goes. I stupidly didn't go and check the house. I go inside and immediately hop in the shower, only to discover that the shower is completely stopped and not draining.

Shit.

Well, the tank was just pumped, so maybe the fullness caused an issue in the actual plumbing under the house. So we get our plumbers out there and while I'm waiting for them to arrive, I go ahead and recover the septic tank to avoid any issues with the dogs in our backyard.

Which, as it turned out, was a mistake. The plumber who came out was a nice guy and the first thing he asked after hearing the situation was to see the septic tank.

Jokes on me. So out we go to the yard and I dig it up again.

Once we had access again, the plumber took a look for 5 seconds and apologized, thinking that it hadn't actually been necessary. As he's about to cover it back up, he pauses and changes positions and looks at the intake pipe and he realizes that the septic company hadn't cleared that pipe, and it was now fully blocked.

Thankfully he had a metal rod that he could use to reach in the tank and puncture the blockage, letting the trapped water from my shower and other water uses, begin to pour into the septic tank.

Okay, thank god we got into the septic and he was able to address the actual issue. Well worth digging it up twice.

I was diligent this time and we went into the house and confirmed that toilets, sinks, and showers were all draining. I did have him go ahead and snake out my shower drain as it had been slow draining before these recent issues - but otherwise everything else came back okay.

So, after several hundred dollars, the house plumbing is restored and that day enshrined me in the rarified homeowner pantheon for "those who have dug up their septic tank twice in one day."

The Pitt (2025) - 5/5 ER Nurses

My current favorite show on television. ER's successor and a truly fantastic first season. I missed shows like this and can't wait for season 2.

The Bondsman (2025) - 2.5/5 Demons

Kevin Bacon is entertaining enough to keep me watching, but the show is quite middling.

One thing that struck out to me was a plot of episode 3, 'Maphos':

To which an online acquaintance gave me the answer I was looking for:

The plots are similar on the surface, but in truth quite different. The Adventure Zone episode plot takes place at a waterpark, not a swimming pool like on the show. The Bondsman episode refers to the demon as a 'marphos,' which isn't a real demon in history or fiction; but I would bet that both drew from similar sources in history and mythology.