When someone starts shit-talking you on channel, and you aren't there to either refute them or clear up any misconceptions, and other people step in and defend you. Especially when that defense comes from people you would never have thought had a positive impression of you.

New players who are not only happy to have help learning the ropes, but are also kind and generous roleplayers enthusiastic about what the game/sphere is all about. Helps make up for all the people who just 'peer' passive-aggressively on channels and make no real effort to reach out.

Fresh blood and perspectives help me get out of my burnout and remind me of why the splat is supposed to be fun.

Doctor Astronaut Supermodel Pastry Chef Forensic Scientist Barbie.

And her counterpart:

Evil Sex Slave Doctor Astronaut Supermodel Pastry Chef Forensic Scientist Skipper.

When you find that handful of players and characters that you and yours click with, and you actually look forward to logging in in order to hang with them; how it reminds you of why you got into this hobby in the first place.

@L-B-Heuschkel

When I went through the same thing, what ultimately gave me the strength to go no contact with my birth mother and most of the assholes from that side of the divorce was when my psychiatrist 'gave me permission' to go on ahead and do it.

It wasn't so much that he permitted me, but that he asked 'what do you owe these people who have given you nothing but pain?' But having the exterior affirmation/confirmation that those people were actually assholes, and my pain was legitimate was empowering.

I give you permission to cut that cruel asshole out of your life. Ignore those interior voices that insist that you owe them anything. My son will never know his maternal grandmother, but that is entirely her own fault, and my stepmother is the best grandmother a kid could hope for, and I consider her my mother at this point.

It's still hard sometimes, and those echoe-y guilty feelings pop up every once in a while, but I am a much mentally healthy a person for having done it, even if I am on a bit of a downturn at the moment.

@Ghost

Welcome to 'full Sluagh takes Commanding Voice to not be restricted to speaking softly and suffering the -2 penalty' - land.

All things aside, I would really, really like it if players whose PCs get involved romantically with mine would stop using our RP as a means of working out their RL relationship issues and traumas.

Or, at the very least, talk to me OOC about WTF they're going through before pulling all kinds of IC fuckery that leaves me wondering what the actual fuck I'd done to deserve the weirdness and borderline abusive behavior towards my PC.

A couple of friends of mine in the subculture I'm in are going through an extremely rough patch, and I managed to rope in a much more famous person (tm) to assist me in putting together a network of fundraising club nights and such. Another mutual friend is spearheading a compilation CD release. Much More Famous Person put up a GoFundMe, and we've brought in almost $2,000 in a couple of hours. So, hooray, goth-industrial fans are NOT just a bunch of apathetic scenesters!

@sahin

Weird, psychic, metaposing non-verbal communication, at that.

@mietze

I also recommend getting the ACLU involved, as well as Tweeting at everyone from MSNBC to NPR to the Guardian to goddamn presidential candidates. Immigration attorneys.

My dad just died. Cascade of complications after what's usually a pretty low key procedure for his COPD. I'm devastated for my (step) mom, but also relieved as this has been a quarter century of decline since his diagnosis. You never want to hear a parent wailing in pain. And they lost the dog a couple months ago so she hasn't even got him for solace. And it's both hers and my birthdays next week.

Keith Levene, founding member of the Clash and guitarist of Public Image Limited.

She was in the holy grail of dark 90s psychodramas: An Ambush of Ghosts. Never got distro for a variety of reasons. What it did get was an amazing score by In the Nursery. Much like The Nightporter, I can't quite bring myself to watch it.

Dave Heckman, Metropolis Records.

Maybe not a true celebrity outside of the goth-industrial subculture, but largely responsible for exposing a whole lot of European acts to the US, and he didn't make his seed money for his label by bootlegging t-shirts like the dude from Cleopatra Records. Ahem.

https://www.metropolis-records.com/news/456/metropolis-records-is-devastated-to-announce-the-death-of-our-founder-and-label-owner-dave-heckman-

@macha

They need to be reminded of the Hippocratic Oath. Do you have an allergy to NSAIDs, or a bleeding disorder that would preclude you taking those? I have never understood doctors that prefer patients be in pain. Have you tried kratom? It isn't an opiate, nor synthetic, but does hit those receptors. If it's not an addiction or allergy issue, good ole 222s from Canada have been very effective on my chronic pain, also Nurofen Plus w/codeine phosphate from the UK. Haven't had access to either in years, but they worked far better for my flavor of fibromyalgia than Tramadol did.

Or try delta 8 THC from moonwlkr.com. At the moment it's legal pretty much nationally, and affects the mind far less than it does the body.

@macha

Do you also have a GP? Or...a green thumb?

@macha

If he's fine with pot, see if he can authorise a medical card for you. If my endocrinologist seems able to, a rheumatologist definitely should.

People also forget that beauty is subjective. Ages ago I used a singer whose record company once saddled him with the fake accolade of being voted the most beautiful man in the world, but I still gave him app: 3. I always undercut the stat a bit, because what I find beautiful isn't necessarily going to be what others find beautiful. And I don't find plastic surgery-ed Instagram models with back-breaking bosoms attractive, nor Frazetta-Comes-Alive men with artful stubble. But I get that whomever put the desc together and photoshopped the shit out of their played-by models to further enhance the attributes of these sorts of characters most likely does.

Just don't get mad at me when my aesthetics don't match yours is all I ask.

@tinuviel

I also thought that perhaps the various adblockers and do-not-track-mes that I have on my laptop were the source, but nah. It also happens on the ole Pixel 5 phone.

It's not so bad now that I've realised I can just drop down to 'show all notifications', so at least that way I can still see messages.

I'm grateful that people looked into it, though. Thank you, MUSB admins.

@derp

Hard reset resulted in more spinning, no loading.