Best posts made by Auspice

Heard back from one classmate I reached out to. The prof. was belittling and condescending to him in the written feedback (he didn't do a phone conference) and pulled a similar move of 'I'm being really generous with your grade' as he did me.

Thankfully for me it resulted in a 72. For this guy, it was a 38... So that line is just even more cruel.

And like me, the classmate has zero drive or will for the class anymore. He sent a scathing letter (that he shared with me) back to the instructor. But if he (he's ex-Navy) is that upset, I feel more justified in my own anger.

https://www.7cups.com/ I've heard good things about this one. It's a community of people who volunteer (and they have training!) to listen and talk to you as needed. There is a paid option for therapy, but the free option isn't terrible either.

https://openpathcollective.org/ This is what I've gone through for my therapy. They scale the cost based on your income. My therapist is all virtual (video) visits, so I don't have to go anywhere.

I started out my day stressed out. Tired. Worried about my deadline.

But in the past twenty minutes:

• Someone came through with their utterly adorable, wiggly pit bull puppy.
• I was given a bottle of wine.
• There's a lovely cheese spread out in the specialty aisle and they're encouraging everyone partake.

I won't wanna leave this job when my contract is up.

@kk where's 37?

@Ominous said in If you work hard, son, maybe someday you'll RP:

@Auspice

We lived in the same city at that same time! What a small world! What part of town was the shop in? It sounds familiar.

I've been wracking my brain for years trying to remember. I lived there 2004-2007 and it was NaNoWriMo 2004 that I spent a lot of time there. It was a coffee shop full of old couches, chairs, battered tables, and it was sort of notable in my mind for a big ass couch in the front window.

I really wish I could remember what part of town so I could ask the people I know still in the region 'IS IT STILL THERE?!'

There was also this little quaint downtown spot somewhere on the east side that had the most amazing used bookstore that I just randomly stumbled across and I'd love to point people to it but I literally just stumbled across it during one of my 'go out and drive aimlessly' days.

The problem with my OCD is I get into routines. And I get irrationally upset when they're interrupted.

I take the bus the last leg to work.
I sit in the same seat every morning.

Today someone else was in that seat (often I'm one of only two people on the bus at the outset from my stop) and I'm sat here in another seat just loathing them.

Everything feels wrong right now. My whole day is upset.

But I know it's just my brain being stupid.

@Ominous said in If you work hard, son, maybe someday you'll RP:

@Auspice

Yep, that's exactly the time frame I was in college there. The bookstore doesn't sound familiar but the coffee shop does, and I too can't quite remember where it was.

Well, at least now I know I wasn't hallucinating the coffee shop. Sometimes I've wondered if I did, even though I have clear memories of the people I was with, the wood grain of the table, etc.

Week before last I turned in the outline for this project.

My boss gave it her stamp of approval, said it was great, and sent it out to other important individuals who need to review it also.

So far, everyone's just saying it's great, no changes needed, etc...

I am stressing out. Please for the love of god give it some critique. It cannot possibly be completely right. I mean, ffs I have refined it twice since then.

@surreality said in Diversity Representation in MU*ing:

...awkward thought: my most recent PoC PB has blue/grey/green eyes (depends on the photo; she's Jamaican/Irish). But, uh. That doesn't make her a generic white girl last I checked?

See this is where I'm like: <throws hands in the air> . o O ( ...is this something I should be ashamed about that offended someone? )

I used Nicole Lyn on 8th Sea who is Jamaican/Chinese, but prob looks white at first glance. I find her absolutely gorgeous partly because of her eyes (they're like, this amazing hazel and paired with her dark, curly hair is just- nngh). But I think she's a good example of 'probably got assumed white'

Honestly, my big fear is that Sony will decide to reboot Spider-Man yet again and I am one of those people who was 'meh, Spider-Man, whatever' until Tom Holland.

Tom Holland is a treasure and I want him to keep playing Spider-Man damnit.

I keep reading this thread thinking back to the time I used Mahershala Ali as a PB and my friend (black guy) played his petite white (blonde) girlfriend and it's cracking me up.

But on a personal note: a lot of my PB / char choices are my own form of escapism. On scifi games you'll often find me playing chars with a cybernetic leg (or go down a storyline with that option) because I have had surgeries, arthritis, etc in my right leg and have gone stretches using a cane. Some days I wake up, get out of bed, and my leg gives out on me. Having a personal storyline where a character can get their leg 'fixed' helps me.

Most of my female PCs are over 5'5" because I'm only 5'3" and I hate being a woman in my 30s who has to use step stools and tongs just to get shit out of her own cabinets and even then the top shelves are just unused space.

As mentioned, I don't often play chars with brown eyes because of bullying in childhood (see: Ephrath on Arx, black girl with silver eyes because fuck yeah fantasy).

My go-to on video games (since that has been brought up) is tan (wouldn't say black but I guess brown?ish?) with blue hair and silver eyes...or silver eyes and blue hair. Because why not. Blue and silver are my favorite colors.

@Ghost said in RL things I love:

@Auspice said in RL things I love:

@Ghost said in RL things I love:

@Auspice said in RL things I love:

@Ghost said in RL things I love:

Also,"The Signal Fire" by Killswitch Engage features vocals by both Jesse and Howard Jones. Watch the video.

what even is this video format

OMFG DONT BE A 16:9 LETTERBOX HIPSTER.

I feel like it's made for those people who wear sunglasses 24/7 and look at everything over the top of them.
'You only see half the world so here's half a video'

I'm gonna tell KSE and try to get them to wear a "FUCK YOU, AUSPICE" tee in their next video and then sell it as a tour shirt.

Dont know them. Dont know how to talk to them. Dont know anyone else who knows them. But omfgrrggmbldang imma do it.

please do.
I would brag forever about that.

@Kanye-Qwest And it worked out so well for me.

In creating Ephrath my thought process was basically 'Ok, I'm making a jeweler. I want her to be black. I also want her to be really into snakes. .... I wonder if I can find a PB that fits this theme.' And then I found the image I did and she's gorgeous and snek and silver eyes and I was like ermg yes this is perfect for me and it is Arx where black girl with silver eyes would be totally acceptable DONE.

@surreality said in Random funny:

...but it should honestly be in comic sans for maximum impact.

I'm still crying over here.

@egg said in Diversity Representation in MU*ing:

@Kestrel Why shouldn't I be mad? If I spend most of my leisure hours in a place where "representing yourself" = white (and even moreso, Aryan half of the time), shouldn't I want to see change there? Is it as important as the film industry changing its racial bias? Of course not. Does that mean I shouldn't care at all? No.

Because of the reasons she said above.

It'd be more damaging if people ended up portraying gross stereotypes.

To pull from my own experiences:
as a bisexual woman, I can't stand seeing people play pan/bi characters as serial cheaters because 'well it's not like they can commit, heehee!' or 'oh s/he's just bi until someone convinces him/her to choose to be gay!'
As a woman whose heritage is predominantly Irish, oh god the Irish stereotypes. I know this isn't even REMOTELY as bad as the racist stereotypes, but the Oirish crowd pisses me off sometimes. I hate the accent typing. I hate the drunken Irish stereotype that you see ALL OVER WoD games paired with the accent typing. Again, not remotely as bad as racist stereotypes, but I still feel insulted when I see it.

Going around shoving people into playing POC would just invite racist stereotypes by people who don't know what they're doing and it would be so much worse. They might not do it out of malice, but the ignorance could DEFINITELY alienate people.

@egg said in Diversity Representation in MU*ing:

@Auspice So the two choices are to play someone exactly like yourself or a stereotype?

It doesn't have to be like this. People can educate themselves. I don't even run a game so I have zero power to "shove" anyone into doing anything at all. All I'm doing here is talking.

No one is even saying those are the only two choices.
We're saying: why is it SO BAD if we play a white character?

My current characters:
white (roster)
native american (fc)
white (oc)
black (oc)
white (fc)

I DO play a spectrum of character types. I even play male characters sometimes! I've played white men, black men, hispanic men. I have no male chars rn, but I have. But the thing is, I don't fault anyone for 'I don't feel comfortable playing that because I don't think I can grasp it properly.'
I don't play gay men. It's not something I can get into the mindset of. I've tried! It just didn't really work for me.

@egg said in Diversity Representation in MU*ing:

"athletic with curves" should be banned from all descs.

athletic with curves is fine! (look up the 'dances with fat' blog for more on this) It's the 'lithe with curves' one that makes me grind my teethe because the very definition of lithe is THIN AND SUPPLE. You can be curvy and athletic, sure. Most athletes are kinda bulky. BUT LITHE IS NO.

The phrase 'deep in the heart of...' does not originate from geographical location, but is from when tribes would sacrifice a willing person and bury their still-beating heart to ensure the longevity and success of their people.

@reversed said in Diversity Representation in MU*ing:

"Still bisexual but now annoyed" is how I'm going to describe Ember on Arx from now on, because it works regardless of context or situation

Teagan is bi.
Yet another perk of Arx: political marriage can be had and you can have your lovers over there, whatever. I'll have mine.