Category: Uncategorized

I’ve just enjoyed The Mercy of Gods, the latest novel by James S.A. Corey, which focuses on some distant future offshoot of humanity that has lost touch with their earthly origins and is suddenly introduced to the rest of the galaxy by way of an imperial alien invasion force. It kicks off a series called Captive’s War, presumably because the POV characters are all POWs attempting to sort out how best to understand their enemies and resist effectively despite bleak prospects and bizarre challenges.

Given that Corey’s nine Expanse novels and many side-stories and novellas consistently impressed me over the last decade, this felt like a safe purchase and I wasn’t disappointed. It’s more of the same style of writing, but with different settings and scope. The concepts of the different alien species were varied and interesting, and I found the characters’ internal struggles and decision-making thought-provoking—even when their choices didn’t strike me as optimal.

The most resonant structural choice of the novel for me was that the story is broken into six parts, and each part opens with a historical analysis from one of the enemy alien captors about where things went wrong for them after capturing these humans. As a science fiction reader, this initially feels recognizable and comfortable, like Asimov opening chapters of Foundation novels. As the story progresses, a disconcerting feeling creeps in that while the captor alien is trying to pin the blame for his failings on a particular human, this may not be that straightforward a narrative. It feels like a Cardassian enigma tale, where every character is guilty, and the exercise for the reader is to determine guilt of what. The answers all seem to be some small manifestation of hope as resistance, which collectively may tip things in future novels.

As the other books in the series aren’t out yet, I don’t know if they’ll stick the landing the way Expanse Book nine did, but what I’ve read is pretty good. I’m confident enough to encourage folks check out this novel while we wait for more.

Recommend.

I apologize to any subscribers who received a ghost notification for my now-deleted YouTube community post on the evening of January 26th, 2025 condemning what I felt to be lax historical research standards in a particular YouTube video.

Folks I trust claim that I don’t fully comprehend the impact that someone in my position can have when criticizing others.

I have removed the community post to avoid any potential unintended harm its persistence may have caused.

Self-employed artists and small-business owners, 2024Q4 estimated taxes are due tomorrow!

If you’re like me and plan to spend January 15th wearing palm leaves, eating bread delivered by a raven, getting buried by lions, and generally partying near a clear pool in celebration of Paul, the first Hermit, it’d be wise to remit that today.

Every year, Sparkling Noise and friends record a cover of a song and create a music video. I’m one of the friends!

My vocal solo starts at 2:50 and the vacuum-sealed giant teddy bear I brought for the Dirty Santa gift exchange is visible briefly at 3:34.

I was just interviewed yesterday on the Imp and Skizz podcast, and it’s already released for your enjoyment!

 

I’m so excited to share that Lauryn and I are finally married!

Thank y’all so much for your support as we navigated the stresses of the immigration system! We did it!

Thanks as well to Judge Hayes, who is awesome, and I strongly recommend to any Davidson County resident looking to get married soon!

I’m gonna drop off the net for a bit to enjoy some time relaxing with my new spouse, so until next time, y’all, this is Joe (and Lauryn) Hills from Nashville, TN!

Keep adventuring!

11yo, bored: why are we listening to this, don’t you have a stream to go do?

Me: this song from the turn of the century was arranged and performed in a very old-fashioned way, which is juxtaposed against lyrics about how modern the South had become, with the introduction of Mercedes and Nissan factories and Starbucks with “fat-free lattes.”

11yo, alarmed: THERE WAS FAT IN LATTES?’

Introduction

When another Hermit initially pitched the Hermit Permit concept to us over half a year ago, I immediately recognized that many viewers will want to experience these types of interactions, but any viable implementation for a Patreon SMP must be designed to scale differently from HermitCraft’s one permit per item system and must also allow individuals to opt in or out.

It took a few months to figure out the company town concept as a framework to allow permit scalability while also supporting another return of our seasonal parade float build contests. Due to the extreme secrecy expected by the other Hermits who worked on the concept, I was unable to involve others in the creation of these policies or directly ask for feedback on them in advance, but I’m optimistic that these will ensure my 10th Oreward Patreon server offers players an experience they’re unlikely to find elsewhere.

Policy

In order for 10thO players to determine their own level of involvement with roleplay that parallels the Hermit Permit system in HermitCraft season 10, the following policies are now in place:

As a server-admin sanctioned activity, recognized company towns may determine any mechanism they like for awarding shop permits within the geographical boundaries of their settlements.

Company towns may opt to offer as few (or none) or as many (exclusive or non-exclusive) permits as they like.

Players will be expected to respect these geographically-limited permits and not complain about settlements that don’t grant them permits.

Players will be expected to follow local rules and requirements set by company town leadership. If you don’t like a town’s expectations, find or found a different town to set up shop in.

If disputes around permits arise that cannot be settled at the town leadership level, these may be escalated for consideration at the next petitions and all parties involved can expect a fair hearing and proportionate response.

WARNING: Any player or group issuing any kind of shop permit outside the boundaries of their own recognized company town is acting outside of sanction. Should disputes arise from such unsanctioned permitcrafting and escalate to consideration at petitions, the involved parties can expect a disgustingly theatrical hearing and a discouragingly disproportionate response, potentially involving commands like /setblock or /whitelist. Intentionally inviting such a response is an unnecessary discourtesy that will likely involve both.

Anticipated FAQ:

Where can I get a better understanding of what sorts of roleplay opportunities these policies are intended to unleash?

My latest video features some fun negotiations with Doc and Keralis.

https://youtu.be/ukfGAPBu_qM

Other Hermits will be cooperating and competing in all sorts of fun ways later this week. Stay tuned.

Is it too late to register a new company town?

Nope!

Do you expect these policies to be well-received?

My expectations are that the player-base here will receive this policy in a manner that will correspond to how well the broader audience responds to HermitCraft’s implementation of shop permits. It’s a measured risk that commitment to the bit demands.

How can I opt out of this entire permit experience?

For a players who desire a distinctly less HermitCraft Season 10-like experience, I recommend our recently launched and much more chill Vanillish server, and our modded Vault Hunters server.

When will you be available to make clarifications or explain further?

I can field questions during my stream scheduled for Sunday night, and add them to this FAQ as needed for folks who miss the stream.

How can I join your Patreon?

$5/mo gets you Discord access, $10/mo gets you Minecraft SMP access via https://patreon.com/joehills

I tried to log in to EFTPS last night to pay my 2023Q4 estimated taxes and was surprised that they’ve revamped their authentication flow.

They now have three options for Multi-Factor Authentication, and I had to pick one and set that up before I could even get to the page to enter my EFTPS credentials.

The first option they have, PIV/CAC is only for federal employees, so that’s not helpful to me.

The next two options for everyone else are login.gov and id.me.

I looked at both options and login.gov seemed easier to set up quickly (and they’re not a private company that collects biometric data), so I’m gonna recommend them.

If you like processes, I took notes on my steps:

1. Visit https://www.eftps.gov/eftps/

2. Click the “MAKE A PAYMENT” button

3. Wait for a new page to load with three login options

4. Click the “LOGIN.GOV” button

5. Wait for the Login.Gov|Treasury page to load

6. Click “create an account”

7. Enter your e-mail address

8. Select English

9. Accept the Rules of Use

10. Click Submit

11. Check your e-mail for a confirmation link

12. Load the URL from the confirmation link

13. Enter a secure password

14. Set up MFA with your preferred methods (app-dependent and out of scope for these instructions)

15. At this point, if you were quick enough, it might take you straight to the EFTPS traditional login page, which still requires your old EFTPS enrollment credentials. If not, head back to the EFTPS page and click MAKE A PAYMENT and use your login.gov credentials and MFA now.

I would strongly recommend setting that all up now, and not waiting until January 16th, as this will be the first tax deadline this system was in place for and we have no idea how well the servers can handle the load.

Until next time, y’all, this is Joe Hills from Nashville, Tennessee.

Keep quarterly estimating!