Best posts made by Auspice

Everyone loves Jeremy Bearimy.

"That's my birthday."

Very, very much what @faraday is saying. And even just not that.

As someone who loves to run plots (/PRPs), I've found the issue is often just finding willing participants.

I see a lot of complaining (sometimes even on the games I run on) of 'no one wants to run plot,' but the true complaint is often 'No one who holds the reins for metaplot wants to run plot where I get to decide the specific outcome.'

I've had situations where Staff will hand me a specific snippet of metaplot (Faraday herself did this on BSU a couple times! And thankfully there was a great playerbase there, but it happened on other games, too, with less-than-stellar players) and a goal for a scene. Situations like: go to this location, have this happen, and let the players discover that thing.

I'd be lucky to have two people show up. And Staff would be handing similar scenes out to two, three other willing STs to lighten their OWN scene-running load because if THEY ran a scene? They'd be overwhelmed by how many people would appear. Us STs would be lucky to have anyone show up (1, 2, 3 players) while a Staff-run would have 10+ players. Staff would even advertise that hey, these are the approved STs with metaplot scenes going on.

But still, crickets. And players complaining on channel of lack of plot, lack of anything to do, how the game was 'dead' despite multiple ST-run scenes per week.

Sometimes the issue is the playerbase being picky.

I've talked about this with a few people over time. I think @faraday has provided some stellar tools with Ares. The scene system and FS3 make things easy so that just about anyone can pick up and 'run.' If you have ideas, if you want to run, you can. You don't need to know a complicated TT rules system. You don't need to learn a lot of code. I've personally run combat scenes for 12 players and done it in just a few hours. The open sheet system lets you custom tailor things so that you can make sure to involve everybody and work in challenges and experiences so that everyone gets something to do. I appreciate her regularly for that.

The tools are there.

That leaves it to STs to design the stories, the puzzles, etc., to present to the players.

The final step is the hardest. It's on all of us as players to participate. To stop just sitting around and waiting for the 'next best thing.' No, Bob-the-ST isn't staff, but what's to say his event isn't one handed to him by Staff? Or that Staff isn't planning to weave it into the metaplot? Or why should we risk discouraging him to begin with? He might be an awesomely fun ST! I've played with people who are just downright fun to play with. Who run shit so enjoyable that I don't even care if it's part of the metaplot or not, it's just fun.

https://www.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jpc.14309

"Six paediatric health‐care professionals were recruited to swallow a Lego head. Previous gastrointestinal surgery, inability to ingest foreign objects and aversion to searching through faecal matter were all exclusion criteria. Pre‐ingestion bowel habit was standardised by the Stool Hardness and Transit (SHAT) score. Participants ingested a Lego head, and the time taken for the object to be found in the participants stool was recorded. The primary outcome was the Found and Retrieved Time (FART) score."

@too-old-for-this said in criticism not allowed in ad threads is only enforcing a false positive, prove me wrong:

@thenomain said in criticism not allowed in ad threads is only enforcing a false positive, prove me wrong:

@rucket said in criticism not allowed in ad threads is only enforcing a false positive, prove me wrong:

@doozer said in criticism not allowed in ad threads is only enforcing a false positive, prove me wrong:

Let's not remove the upvote button because the alternative will be upvote gifs. And I will use them.. hard.

@sparks said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

@auspice said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

@dontpanda said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

When someone tells me they can fold a fitted sheet:

I CAN.

@too-old-for-this said in criticism not allowed in ad threads is only enforcing a false positive, prove me wrong:

@meg said in criticism not allowed in ad threads is only enforcing a false positive, prove me wrong:

@too-old-for-this said in criticism not allowed in ad threads is only enforcing a false positive, prove me wrong:

@auspice said in criticism not allowed in ad threads is only enforcing a false positive, prove me wrong:

@too-old-for-this said in criticism not allowed in ad threads is only enforcing a false positive, prove me wrong:

@thenomain said in criticism not allowed in ad threads is only enforcing a false positive, prove me wrong:

@rucket said in criticism not allowed in ad threads is only enforcing a false positive, prove me wrong:

@doozer said in criticism not allowed in ad threads is only enforcing a false positive, prove me wrong:

Let's not remove the upvote button because the alternative will be upvote gifs. And I will use them.. hard.

@derp said in Who are you?:

He has a lung condition and the steam screws with him.

This might be why I think I take hotter showers than I do. My asthma was much much worse as a kid/teen so I took colder showers for the longest time. And if I take too hot a shower, I can tell because hoo-boy it gets hard to breathe!

Also I did forget:

• I have standard piercings in my ears, a Monroe, and a daith. I used to have my tongue pierced, but after a surgery I 'came to' from the pain meds a few days later and had an 'oh shit!' moment. I also had my nose pierced before my sinus surgery a few years ago, but it was closed up before the swelling went down. I've considered more piercings, but haven't gotten them yet.
• I have three tattoos and am considering many more (once I can afford it). I've even found my tattoo artist!

Late to the party, but man do I miss Astrid on F&L.

I loved my Missing Limb Count. That was fun times. (Though I'm sure @Livia didn't like putting me back together all the time.)

@paris said in RL things I love:

@misadventure There's a method called the pot-in-pot method that sort of does this, but I don't have any stainless steel or pyrex bowls.

The bowl I use for this, I got off of Amazon for cheap. I should have paid a bit more and gotten a better-fitting one, but... it works, the lid closes, it's just finicky. Anyway! Amazon for the stainless steel bowl. Do recommend.

I've only done the method once and it was... tricksy.

https://pinchofyum.com/instant-pot-wild-rice-soup is my favorite InstantPot recipe so far. I made it often last winter because one batch will provide me dinners for a week and it's super easy. The hardest/most time consuming part is chopping the veggies. I also love corned beef and cabbage, but that's really just 'take your favorite crockpot recipe and find the right timing for the instantpot' (there's a few out there that'll give you timing for it).

My favorite thing this year: my air fryer. Found a super cheap one during Black Friday sales (so it's pure manual settings, no digital; I just use my kitchen timer rather than its timer). Oh man. It is so awesome to be able to fry stuff and eat it and not get sick from the grease. And the chicken I've made is SO GOOD. Nice crispy skin and wonderfully moist meat. I finally found a garlic parm wing recipe I like.

I've also made quesadillas in it (again, without being greasy! yay!) and sweet potato fries.

Between InstantPot and the air fryer, I've really been able to cut down on the amount of easy/quick (and often not-so-healthy) meals I kept around for bad fibro days. I love them both.

@livia said in criticism not allowed in ad threads is only enforcing a false positive, prove me wrong:

@auspice You're wrong it was the best.

ETA: my favorite was when she shadow-traveled and just flobbled out of shadow onto the floor without any limbs at Jenny's feet all 'halp'

@paris said in RL things I love:

@auspice Yeah, I've been thinking of getting an air fryer sometime, maybe this summer.

I'm gonna be trying some sort of pork kofta rice deal tonight. Hopefully I don't burn the house down.

I really really recommend the air fryer if you can find one on sale. I've never been able to fry chicken for shit before (not a good enough pan for it, breading never wants to stay put, etc etc).

I made hella delicious chicken tenders last night in about 20? minutes. Chopped up the chicken, tossed in breading/seasoning, put in fryer for 6min per side. Not having the overly difficult cleanup (IMO) for wings is amazing, too. Because I love wings. So so much. But they're a hassle to make generally.

Tonight I'm gonna try a recipe said to reproduce the Taco Bell crunch wrap. I love those things so if I successfully start making my own.......

I am wondering if I can someday pull off a chicken fried steak in it. That'll be next paycheck, possibly.

@derp said in What's your favorite MU* client?:

@tinuviel

I can't tell if you are a genius or a genuine masochist. But either way, I salute you.

Dude.

He's a teacher.

@rucket said in Back in my day....:

I've also mindlessly burned a finger or two accidentally touching a hot pan because I just wasn't thinking at the time.

I burned the hell out of my finger once because I'd just turned off a burner and the burner was off-kilter and I had the need to nudge it back into place so I just un-thinking pushed it back into place.

...worse yet is it was while I was touring a new apartment and doing the initial checklist to make sure everything was in working order, so my boyfriend and the leasing agent were both staring at me at the time. >.>

Lazy staffing and storytelling is one issue.

Another is that Paradox is never enforced. And lack of Paradox allows Mages vastly more freedom than they should have. Paradox is part of what keeps Mages balanced. Without it, they can do far more than they're written to be able to do.

But what works, storytelling wise (see above, storytellers being lazy) for other spheres isn't going to work for mage. Just like you have to adapt a bit (though not always as much) between vampire, werewolf, changing breeds, etc for little quirks... you have to adjust for mage. Just more. You have to be aware of their capabilities and what they can do.

It means getting creative and branching out. On a multi-sphere game, this may mean putting your foot down when a mage wants to join and either telling them: no, you cannot join my plot, it hasn't been rated for mage... or telling them if you join, you have to be willing to hold yourself back because I didn't rate it for mage.

The joy of running plot for mage is you can think way, way outside the box. You can go wild. It's not just 'bad guys did bad things go fix it.' It's 'the space-time continuum broke and the elves are loose in atlantis let's go party.'

@wretched said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

@Paris @Auspice So i messaged this to Paris privately but i'll just tell the world.

I am generally suuuper skeptical about kitchen gadgets... but the 'Slap Chop', or a cheap 8 dollar version on Amazon is amazing. For things like Garlic especially, I buy fresh peeled garlic, tho this thing will usually also help it peel. Instead of standing and chopping and risking cuts (because While i like to cook I am still me, who will even typo in the kitchen.) you just put your stuff under the thing, smack it a few times and VIOLA!

It seems silly but it changed my kitchen life.

I've been wanting a full food processor since I'd like to be able to do more 'wet' items (like salsa!) and those 'slap chop' type deals aren't as good with them. And one of those will cost me a fair bit more. Just a matter of saving up for a bit.

Thankfully! I've paid off some debt (my parents surprised me at Christmas by helping me finish off the last chunk of a loan I took out a few years ago for a gap in student loans) and I changed car insurance (which dropped my rates by nearly $100 a month (!!!) for the same coverage) providers, so starting in Feb I should have a little more flexibility in funds.

MUFON is a crazy rabbit hole.

Some of them are perfectly normal people who did have an unexplained experience that led them down the rabbit hole. Others are wild-crazy-bonkers conspiracy theorists living in their trailers in New Mexico lined with tinfoil so no one can read their thoughts.

As for kitties and diets: I have to change up my kitty's food often, too for sensitive tummy reasons. And I remember once buying a bag of that Royal Canin hoping it'd be the trick.... it made things worse for her. She barely ate for days and I thought she was just being super picky because before that she was on cheap meow mix kitty junk food. Until I realized it made her super sick.

I felt like the worst cat mom the day I realized.

Kitty tummy issues are hard cause they can't tell us what's going on. I've taken Ike to a vet for it and she's overall healthy, she just gets food intolerances. However, for anyone with a kitty with a similar issue, FortiFlora is a probiotic that my vet recommended that does help.

A friend I haven't seen since I lived in Ohio (so... 12 years?!) is coming to Austin for the last weekend of SXSW (the gaming track - only 3 days, only costs $50 for the wristband). He loves Austin (he's lived here for stints before) and needs a weekend away.

Between that and knowing how stressed I've been (the 'lost my job' sitch), he decided to make it for SXSW Gaming, crash at my place, and will be paying for my wristband so that I can get out of the apartment and enjoy myself for a weekend.