@Ganymede said in The Work Thread:
@Aria said in The Work Thread:
I will be super bummed if the people who packed up my desk broke or lost it.
I could send you one, if you wanted.
Plebe.
?!?!
!!!!
The woman who made mine closed her shop down. Sorry, @insomniac7809, but @Ganymede is my new favorite person. Cat. Lawyerbot. WHATEVER.
@Auspice said in The Work Thread:
It is sadly in a storage box in my office complex somewhere, but I actually have a framed print specifically for work that just says "Make Leslie Knope Proud of You."
I will be super bummed if the people who packed up my desk broke or lost it.
So I just applied for an internal positing at my company.
Into the exact role and department that I've been eyeing up for four years. Under a leader I really like, and whose boss I really like. I've applied for it twice before and the interviewer who'd been pretty clearly using me as a filler candidate for predetermined hires has since left the position, and I've since developed a stronger skillset, job background, and started an MBA.
Guys.
Guys.
....Can someone please bring me a Xanax and a paper bag or something?
@SparklesTheClown said in MUs That We Would Love To Make (But Won't):
@Aria said in MUs That We Would Love To Make (But Won't):
Also, double post because A++, would play fae L&L game. Please make the thing now, despite the title of this thread.
A part of the reason I made this thread is in case anyone got inspired by other people's ideas they didn't want to make for one reason or another.
Also I would play a fae L&L game too, to be honest. Similar vibes to Hell in my opinion, but more trippy bullshit.
Would also play the Hell L&L game. Do the thing.
Also, double post because A++, would play fae L&L game. Please make the thing now, despite the title of this thread.
@SparklesTheClown said in MUs That We Would Love To Make (But Won't):
@Rucket said in MUs That We Would Love To Make (But Won't):
I see @Aria talking about a Philly WoD game, and now all I want is a Philly WoD game where Gritty is some sort of supernatural creature that beats the shit out of alt-righters.
But I've also pined over 7th Sea for quite some time too, so I know @Cobaltasaurus's feels there.
Hello, Philly Native here.
I will accept this if Gritty smells like pee. I always insist that Gritty needs to smell like pee to truly embody Philly.
It's difficult to put into words about why this is true and right.
I mean, have you ever really been to Philly unless you've accidentally stepped in a puddle that may be rainwater, may be pee, but definitely smells like the latter on the small streets around The Gallery or the convention center at least once? No. No, you have not.
@Jennkryst said in MUs That We Would Love To Make (But Won't):
@Rucket The WoD Philly MU was just CoH, but with x20. Yes Sneks, no Mum-Rahs. Alas
I tried that place. It was horrible. And by horrible I mean that staff told me there wasn't really a setting or a plot and on my second login, some rando started paging me about how we should make twins. I had literally never spoken to them before. Did not log back in.
@Macha said in The Work Thread:
My boss really is a pretty great guy, and I know that he's got people over him.
But when you talk to me to address something about 10 or 30 day cases on Weds, and we're off for Thanksgiving, I do not need to be browbeat with it on Friday by you coming into my excel sheets and highlighting shit in red.
Priority means #1 thing on the to-do list. You can't have 2 different things both be number 1 for me to do.
I remember the time that I walked in to have a chat with my former boss during my last days as an executive assistant....
"So between you, your direct reports, your project managers, and that marketing manager you've been working with on <special thing> this last month, here is a list of things I've been told are your number one priority over the next week that everything else needs to be moved to accommodate. You have twelve 'number one priorities' and that's literally not how numbers work, soooooooooooo we need to take a look at this."
Fortunately, he had a sense of humor and laughed.
Thanksgiving in 2020 means waking up late and having pie for "breakfast".
@Quinn said in Favorite/Most Memorable Childhood Books:
The Book of Three series by Lloyd Alexander. The ending book, The High King, is still one of my favorite books ever.
I picked up one of the middle books of the series, not realizing it was a series, and fell in love with it. Also a book that insomniac and I were talking about tonight, only to realize we've lived in all the same towns the author did!
Another one I loved when I was little, though I probably would not recommend it today, was a book called Born Different by Frederick Drimmer, which told the stories of several side show performers -- Joseph Merrick (aka "The Elephant Man"), Chang and Eng Bunker (where the phrase "Siamese" twins came from), etc.
Considering that this book was published in, like.... the late 80s? I can definitely say that it is, uhhhh, super not "PC" -- especially not by current standards-- which is why I would hesitate very much to suggest it. But it told the story of their lives as children before their fame, their time as performers, how some of them overcame a physical limitation, careers and families they built after retirement from the touring circuit, and just.... generally presented them as people who happened to have this thing about them that was interesting and different. I read it when I was young enough that it positively affected my perception of disability and, being that I was a kid from a pretty messed up home, I really connected with the idea that the world could be harsh and cruel, but that most of the people portrayed (definitely not Joseph Merrick, eesh, that is a heartbreaking story) could have good lives and find people to connect with and love despite that.
@GreenFlashlight said in Favorite/Most Memorable Childhood Books:
@Aria said in Favorite/Most Memorable Childhood Books:
I also really, really loved The Farthest-Away Mountain when I was little, which no one has ever heard of even though it's the same author who wrote The Indian in the Cupboard series.
Oh shit I forgot all about Lynne Reid Banks! I gave all my Cupboard books to my niece when she was seven or eight, because she liked them so much.
Yeah, they were a bit of a thing for my friends because the book was turned into a movie right around the time that we were the right age to read it. Depending on how old your niece is now, she might like The Farthest-Away Mountain. The protagonist is female and, like..... 15 or something? So just about right for 10-11 year old to read.
It's funny that this topic came up today of all days because @insomniac7809 and I were literally talking about Bruce Coville books on the way home and how much I loved them as a kid. He swore he didn't know who that was until I pulled up Google and started rattling off titles, at which point it was the classic "Oh, shit! Yeah, I remember...." and then running through Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher and Jennifer Murdley's Toad plotlines, which I swear were the early 90s precursor to the urban fantasy boom we have now.
I also really, really loved The Farthest-Away Mountain when I was little, which no one has ever heard of even though it's the same author who wrote The Indian in the Cupboard series.
On November 17 evening, Mayor Jennifer Ananda proclaimed that Lawrence, Kansas, was now the 'official hometown of Sam and Dean Winchester, fictional characters of the television show Supernatural' at the City Commission Meeting. Ananda said that in her last full meeting as mayor, this was 'something she wanted to do because it was exciting and fun' and as a moment of 'levity' before stepping down as mayor after a particularly tough year. She added that she 'came of age with the Winchester brothers'. She hoped that one day, once the pandemic was finally over, Jensen Ackles and Jared Padelecki would finally visit Sam and Dean's hometown and take the 'haunted tour downtown and take care of some of those ghosts and The Eldritch'.
@Ganymede said in RL things I love:
@Aria said in RL things I love:
I am going to remind you that you said that when I need survey responses for my marketing classes.
I am going to remind you that asking me to fill out surveys is sort of like asking your most hated child to serve as your executor.
I mean, do what you want, but I can't be held responsible for your choices.
I mean, my nana set her favorite child up as the executor of her will and it was a terrible choice. Because my aunt was the sweetest, kindest, friendliest woman in the world.... who was also wildly irresponsible, eager to please, and far too trusting of people who ultimately scammed my family out of $80,000.
So far, what you're telling me is "Cranky but competent and probably responsible lawyerbot sounds like a good idea."
@Ganymede said in RL things I love:
Oh dear.
Well, we’re here for you.
I am going to remind you that you said that when I need survey responses for my marketing classes. 
@silverfox said in MUs That We Would Love To Make (But Won't):
His Dark Materials
I want a daemon.
I am still trying to convince @Apos that Mia needs to have a giant armored war bear as a mount, For Reasons. He hasn't said no yet.
He just hasn't said yes, either. I'm convinced this means I'm slowly winning, or at least that's what I tell myself to feel better. >.>
@krmbm said in MUs That We Would Love To Make (But Won't):
@Darren said in MUs That We Would Love To Make (But Won't):
I made an attempt to start an Expanse game around two years ago and absolutely no one was interested
Two years ago was pretty much as far back as the beginning of time so you might find a different audience nowadays.
In the words of Eddie Izzard, "No! No one was alive then!"
@Ganymede said in RL things I love:
Are you taking an MBA?
This sounds like the sort of stupidity MBAs are taught.
Yes.
@reversed said in MUs That We Would Love To Make (But Won't):
A MUSH that engages and satisfies all of my friends all of the time instead of just some of my friends some of the time.
@silverfox said in RL things I love:
@Aria
When I was a TA my professor gave me strict rules for grading and I followed them. He would then instruct them to come to him if they wanted to discuss their grades. 7/10 times he would raise their grade and the other 3/10 be all, "yeah, my TA got that right, your answer is way off."I worked for a religion professor and I think he just enjoyed talking about his content matter.
Yeah, see, if this was just a question of answers being legitimately wrong, that's fair! I know I'm smart, but I'm not amazing. But this is like.....
On my last assignment, I got an 80.01% in a class where my lowest grade until then had been a 92%. I looked at the answer sheet after they released it and it turned out that the answer sheet the TA had put together was not only wrong, but wrong in such a way that their calculated answers for multiple questions make no sense and violate a basic principle of what we're studying. They ended up having to correct grades for the entire class by about 10-12%.
On my current assignment, I got a 77.75%, which is a 'C', but in grad school a 'C' is failing. The reason? There was a question about what the order winners (the thing that ultimately drives a customer to make a purchase) are where I said it was their low cost. The "correct" answer was their extreme manufacturing efficiency, because..... it allowed them to have the lowest cost. There was a three part question about priorities in each phase of this company's life cycle, with five potential priorities listed. I answered with the top priority for each phase. I get my grade back and it's all marked wrong for not identifying every possible priority among the five in each phase. That would be irritating but fine, except the professor said in his open office hours to choose the top priority. Those two question alone meant a 20% reduction for the entire assignment.
I'm not the only student in the class that's irritated right now. There's multiple people saying that not only are these grades the lowest grades that they've ever gotten on anything in the entire program, but that they're blindsided by the grades we get back every week. When something seems clear and easy to understand they bomb and when they think they don't understand something at all, their grade is fine. That seems like there's something fundamentally wrong, because it's one thing for a group of students to say they're having trouble understanding the material. It's another thing for a group of students to say they can't even gauge whether they understand the material week after week.
At this point, I'm starting to suspect that this course is considered one of the most difficult in my program not because the material is particularly complex or difficult to understand, but because expectations aren't clear. Either the professor and the TA aren't communicating, the TA isn't communicating to the grading team, or the TA doesn't understand the material well enough to create a reasonable grading rubric for the other team members to use.
I do not love any of that, but I do love the fact that enough students suspect there's something seriously wrong that we've started asking for them to release the average grade on every assignment. And since the TA has refused, we've all started talking to each other more and agreed to submit a lot of regrade requests so this reaches the professor's desk.
If we're all legitimately doing poorly, cool. School can be super hard. Believe me, I earned that B- in my computer programming courses. But if we're all doing poorly because one arrogant but mediocre dude has overestimated his ability, doesn't like being questioned about it, and is dicking around? Yeah. I'm glad I kicked off the "nah, bro, we're gonna fix this" riot.
Dark, steampunk Wizard of Oz. It wasn't one book, it was a series, with all kinds of crazy amazingness.
Something set in the world of The Dragon Prince - the anime.
Something set in the world of The Dragon Prince - the book series written by Melanie Rawn.
A Mage game set in Philadelphia, which has all sorts of crazy occult history. The Skulls fraternity? Actually exists at UPenn and was the inspiration for that garbage movie. Harry's, the pharmacy turned occult shop that was opened in 1917. The Mutter, the medical oddities museum, because you know there's some weird shit going on in a place crammed full of jars of preserved human organs.
