I won a monitor in a raffle today.
When my number was called I had a moment of my brain just sort of shorting out. The thing was one of two grand prizes. I'm still in sort of holy shit mode.
(Also getting to play all this VR has been super fun. I've been loving spending this weekend with a friend I haven't seen in a decade+ and immersing myself in gaming. I've also been able to do some networking, too, so it's been beneficial for my career!)
Time for a new forum game!
I'll start with a song. The next person who posts has to post a song that includes, in its title, a word from the song I posted.
For example:
If I post 'The song that doesn't end'
The next person could post 'The alphabet song'
Both have 'song' in the title. Words like the/a/of/an don't count. So the next person would have to use 'alphabet' or 'song' in their choice.
House rules:
I especially enjoy how bent out of shape dude-playing-ladies get when you try to explain women's bodies just don't work that way.
Like, c'mon, ovary up and learn something. You'll RP it better next time and it'll be a better experience for everyone. Shit, maybe you'll become a better sexual partner IRL.
...you might even stop trying to 'hit her cervix' the next time you're playing a dude on a game. 
@Admiral said in RL Anger:
@Auspice If it makes you feel better I don't recall you ever telling me anything about your sex life or anyone else ever telling me any such information either.
I think more people know about @Auspice having a sex life from her bitching about someone talking about it than people actually talking about it
... damn, dude. Tape a filter over your mouth, maybe that'll help.
Magee couldn't find their mouth with two hands, a mirror, and clearly written instructions.
Maybe if someone TSed him about it enough.
I'll just FTB, since that concept is utterly baffling.
He won't even scene with you, though, since foreplay without the actual sex after isn't worth it.
Sometimes I love you guys. Needed a laugh today. Work is brutal this week.
@Salty said in Sexuality: IC and OOC:
Tend to play pansexual female characters who are primarily attracted to men. My minority of male pcs and majority of female pcs tend to be attracted to men, based on physical traits, and more rarely women, but more often emotional or personality traits in women.
I find this kind of interesting, but only because IRL I am the opposite in a sense.
I am primarily attracted to women physically, but emotionally attracted to men... But I suppose I am considered demisexual because I can't feel a sexual attraction to someone unless there's an emotional component (I can find someone physically appealing without feeling a sexual draw: women are a goddamn work of art, all right?). It's why my long-term relationships are often with men, but in my late teens and early twenties I had some dates and a lot of flirting and brief sparks of things with women. ...I tend to end up sighing over a lot of straight girls. >.>
But it's fun seeing someone who is (at least in an RP sense???) the mirror to that!
Receptionist: "Was it the gnome?"
Security Guard: "Don't know, they were gone by the time we got there."
What
@Ghost said in Gray Harbor Discussion:
@Auspice I'm team Cersei. Well, team Lena.
Yes, but only one of them lost a limb. Follow the bouncing ball, Ghost. Gawd.
Roughly half of my documentation work is getting its live trial this month. It's being used in our scrimmage (live testing of the software) and getting feedback from the users.
Yesterday, an executive went through it for the first time. Now, the users have been in workshops. The software is just a newer, better-er version of what they do daily. But... executive being executive, his feedback was:
'I'm confused. I want step-by-step instructions for everything.'
.......and he meant everything.....
So I got my boss panicking at me that what I've spent months on wasn't good enough. And it was just.......... crushing. Like, I was upset, yes, because it was sort of a 'what the hell, man? trust your people????' but it also hit hard because of all the work and getting chewed out and....
But it improved later in the day when we were in a meeting with my boss and with aforementioned exec when the rest of the tech team had my back. They all were on the same page with me: the users have been in these workshops, the material should be at the level the users need, and part of this exercise is to find out if they need more detail.
But today was even... better in that front because this guy kept pressuring that he wants even our instructions on the 'week's work' to be more prescriptive. Like to the level of 'how to login to the tool.' Aka: 'Giving them the link and their username isn't enough' was the feedback.
on the upside, I guess I'm getting practice for some of what I'll likely deal with once I get into teaching.
And I do feel a lot better that my team is on my side. Like, a lot better. They like my work. They think it's solid.
I am always open to RP with new people (and have made some great friends the past few years because of it), but I am one of these people with a limited schedule (I wake up at 5:45am right now! that's gonna change next week, but right now it means I cannot be up late).
So, I can't be just dithering around sitting in rooms waiting to RP. I can't just meander the grid.
I absolutely toss out a hook and a plan on channel: 'Hey, I'm going to <X> location to <whatever I wanna do>.'
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I find as time passes, as people get to know me, it works more and more. And it's more successful on smaller games where people are better able to get to know each other. Are we all 'close knit'? Naw. But we have a 'feel' for one another so it's not a scary dive into something wholly unknown. It's why I personally lean towards smaller games, tbh. I find a small game with a crowd that has similar-ish RP times to me nets more RP than a big game full of unknown factors. At least for me / in my experience.
After witnessing a very pretty, very happy dog come trotting off the elevator with his mom, a toy held proudly in his mouth...
My coworker goes off following: "I think I can pet a dog first thing in the morning."
I love that my job allows dogs. It's the happiest most therapeutic thing, I swear.
(btw his name is Henry and he is the best doggo)
@faraday said in If you work hard, son, maybe someday you'll RP:
I've had +wantrp or +rpok tools on prior games and, in my experience, almost nobody ever used them. The RP Requests channel worked the best for connecting people. With Ares, I think it works even better because you can see prior requests easily on the web chat (or channel recall if you're using the client) so you can see that @Lisse24 was looking for RP twenty minutes ago and mights till be.
I'm not opposed to adding a "looking for RP" flag/list if a bunch of folks want it, I just haven't done it because past experience tells me it's not a good solution to this problem.
I just think it runs into the same problems. It's just passing the buck:
'I don't want to page anyone because it makes me uncomfortable, so..'
'Asking on channel is awkward, so..'
'..I'll set this +wantrp and wait for someone to page me!'
I know that's probably not everyone's line of thought, but the issue persists that when you have that +wantrp flag set, you are relying on people to page you and guess what: they have the same hangup as the rest of us. Paging out of the blue is scary. It's uncomfortable. It's 'I don't know this person. They don't know me. I don't know if that blurb is still valid. I'm just gonna go ask on channel instead because this is too anxiety-inducing.' <- how I've felt about every single 'wantrp' type flag I've ever seen.
But if I see an open scene on, say, an Ares game and I can either go on the web portal and see the last few poses? Or it has a summary? (And honestly, this discussion and what @Sparks was talking about is encouraging me to Git Gud about setting those summaries at the beginning of my scene) I am gonna be a lot more likely to drop in. Because it's an active scene. Because it's already giving me the feel right then and there for who these people are.
@hedgehog
<handwiggle>
I'd preeeeefeeeeeer not? Like, the PURIST in me wants to say no, but I'd also rather partial words not be yanked out also.
BUT. I also get that sometimes you just can't find a song.
(Tho if you can't find a song with 'men' I GOTS A CONCERN FREN)
@Lotherio said in If you work hard, son, maybe someday you'll RP:
@A-Meowley said in If you work hard, son, maybe someday you'll RP:
@Lotherio said in If you work hard, son, maybe someday you'll RP:
Ares is meant to be full web portal, client is for holdouts and older players.
Wait. It's supposed to be full web portal? How can we idly chat on channels on the web portal and stuff? Asking for a friend, because obviously I'm not so old that I can't immediately figure out a new system, that'd be absurd...
All ares pages have a 'chat' page that has the traditional channels. You can chat on channel (and read mail and bbposts and soon PM) all on the web portal.
And for people who don't know:
This is an example of what it'll look like for the PM option on the web portal! (Notion updated a couple days ago)
'New Conversation' lets you start a PM with someone. The others on the left are PMs that I've had since the update. The flagged one is a PM I received while offline that I haven't read yet (and you get the 'New private messages!' in the right-hand bar same as you might 'New activity in scenes!').
It's super awesome, esp. if you have friends who you often try to chat with while at work.
@Sunny said in Buying Shit:
I have never seen anything so beautiful in my entire life. Thank you.
A family member just advised me, "don't die" because I laughed so hard.
I'd just like to take a moment to recommend reading the book 'The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck' if you are sincere. The title of the book may seem, in a sense, counter-intuitive but it's really anything but. It's given me a lot of moments to really think about my stances on myself, my approach to people and life, and how I'm viewing things.
And (from the basis of the book) if you are sincere: you need to really, really take a new approach to your values.
@Otrere
It is the first rule. 
It's just a game! I'm thrilled people are enjoying it.
The only reason I hesitate for people to bend the rules is I often see it done to get a reply in 'fast' and we have to remember: some folks are gonna get to the thread later. I think it'd be better to wait a few hours for a song title that fits the rules (and give other players a chance!) than to bend the rules just to reply within 5 minutes.
@surreality said in Difference between an NPC and a Staff PC?:
@Auspice ...and omg the day 'staff duties' involve 'TS dispenser'/'efucks on demand', I am fucking something, all right: the hell out of this hobby, with speed.
NPC GDoc includes 'canned TS poses' along side the prepped set poses for the next +event ...
