I'm also in the boat where Grey Harbor just wasn't my 'thing'. Which is a shame since I think the people working on it are doing a great job!
But I will say that Stargate is still on our planned timeline and will be open sooner than later. We've been on target. 
So that will soon be an option for people as well.
Veronica Mars season 4 trailer
I admit I'm really kinda definitely looking forward to this.
My favorite opening line from a book is still 'It was starting to end, after what seemed most of eternity to me.' (First book of the Amber Chronicles)
I'm also fond of 'The Deliverator belongs to an elite order, a hallowed subcategory.' (Snowcrash) because it makes me laugh still.
@TiredEwok said in RL Anger:
Recently I had to have my oldest admitted to a... mental facility, for the lack of a better way to put it. I am conflicted by what I had to do. On one hand, he is finally getting the help he needs and this is going to help get the ball rolling with getting him on SSI-D, insured, etc. But, on the other hand, I miss him, I want him home, I am scared shitless that he'll be angry at me for doing this to him, scared about the medication... so many fears, still.
You did what you felt was best (and probably was). I commend you for it.
My parents refused to see the issues my brother had, even from when we were young children. It has led to him being 29, living at home, no job, and frequently in trouble with the law as well as in and out of treatment. I completely and fully believe if they'd have sought treatment for him when he was younger, he'd be a lot better off.
I know it's not easy. I don't know first-hand, per se, but I know the toll it's taken on my mother to deal with it now. But in the same vein as 'self care is not just spa treatments and shopping sprees; sometimes it's doing the really difficult shit you need,' so is tending to other people. Doing what's best to help them is not always the fun or easy or immediately rewarding thing.
One thing I can offer is this: my mother once told me that when my brother is actively taking his medications, he's a different person. But not in a bad way. She once put it as 'It's like we're finally getting to see the real him.' Don't be afraid of the medications. Once the right ones are found, they can do wonders.
@Bad-at-Lurking said in Coming Summer 2019:
Yeah, you know it's a concept that works for you when you've already come up with three or four broad character concepts and the game doesn't even have a public wiki/address yet.
Um, not that I'm confessing to nerding out to that degree, mind you.
Seriously, I'm thrilled to see things like this. I've wanted to do an SG game for years, so when Paradox proposed the concept I was totally on board.
I'm really really happy other people are excited. Makes the work we're putting in worth it.
@Rinel said in Accounting for gender imbalances:
IIRC you're a robot and therefore do not like anything except eating batteries and drinking motor oil
I reject the Gany Robot theory. Gany is forever a trash panda in my mind.
re: politics, I ask that people keep an open mind to see where things go. We are well aware of the state of the world currently.
Jaffa are not allowed at game open. But as you can see from the story above... this is just the beginning. Other races becoming available down the road as story allows is already intended.
Between stress and inheriting, it'd seem, my mother's thinning hair.... I feel you. I dread showering some days because of the handfuls of hair.
Stress / depression (financial issues suck yo) has had me pretty much constantly feeling sick. Upside I guess is that it helped stretch what little food I had (go go my tendency to keep my kitchen fully stocked, too: it took a month to get to my current state of 'only ramen and rice').
My parents get into town Saturday. Blah blah dad had business in Dallas blah blah turned it into birthday/father's day trip for him. I can't afford to take time off and I work second shift, so I'm hoping they don't mind a few days of 'no I can't spend time with you I gotta rest before work today'. We'll see. Trying to avoid getting worked up beforehand but that's not how the anxiety monster works. 
Honestly, in regards to some of what @Sparks said and things I've read in the past:
Actually reading resumes vs. just letting software zip through them is one of the best parts. Software that vets resumes seems to do a miserable fucking job with IT resumes to begin with and when you factor in what Sparks said about how women construct theirs, it becomes a bit more obvious why the software might not grab theirs.
Humans are still better at reasoning than machines. So really, that's the thing I wish more companies would do: actually review the resumes. Don't just take whatever the computer spits out for you. (Esp. since by god I've been told Company A* expects a multi-page document and then Company B-D wants a one-page and ...)
*Dell is like this, in case you were wondering. I've had a few recruiters fuss at me about how I need to expand my resume into multiple pages with a full page of references because 'one page resumes are wrong!!!!11' and it's all Dell. Dell is ridiculous. But if you've ever applied there with a one-pager and not heard back.......there you go.
@PuppyBreath said in Accounting for gender imbalances:
As a woman who excelled in a coding bootcamp and received a 4.0 while finishing a degree in Software Dev, I've largely given up trying to find a job in tech because I'm the worst interviewee and generally terrified of men. I'm not sure why I decided to get a degree in a field dominated by them. Add in my now sizable gap in work history, and I'm basically unhireable despite not sucking at the actual programming stuff. I get kind of angry when my friend tells me about her incompetent lead who got his job because he aced his interview while I can't get a job at all, and they won't promote her over hiring external guys who happen to interview well.
I wish I had something more constructive to add, but everyone else seems to have covered anything I would've said.
As someone else who suuuuucks at interviewing, I feel you. I have extensive experience in a number of things now and I keep getting the dreaded 'They were very impressed with your skills, but decided to move forward with another candidate' which I have learned is likely code for 'You were awkward af in the interview'
@Sparks said in Accounting for gender imbalances:
@Auspice said in Accounting for gender imbalances:
@Sparks said in Accounting for gender imbalances:
@Auspice said in Accounting for gender imbalances:
My father is a developer. Apparently he used to, if he saw a job he was interested in but didn't know the language, put it on his resume, apply, then go out and buy a couple books to teach it to himself leading up to any potential interview.
So, so many guys do this. So many.
I mean, he managed to pull it off but it baffles me to this day. I can't learn shit like that. I'm over here trying to switch gears from learning python to ruby and I wanna cry sometimes. XD
whispers into your soul Python is better. Stay with the Python...
In fairness, Ruby's actually a perfectly fine language and well worth learning. I'm personally just used to using Python on a daily basis to create CI build scripts at work, for machine learning stuff (which is primarily in Python these days, it feels like), and so on. After so much Python, doing Ruby always feels like I'm driving someone else's car for a bit; I know how to do everything, but the windshield wiper toggle is in the wrong place, the parking brake is a pedal versus a stick, etc. So I just have to force my mind into Ruby mode instead of thinking Pythonically, and that annoys me enough that I default to Python for things.
(That said, I wish that they'd gotten the Ruby-style safe navigation operators into Python prior to the not-yet-released 3.8 version; i.e., Python's upcoming
?.equivalent to Ruby's&.operator. C'mon, guys. This thing is sanity-preserving, and should've been in Python 3 from the start.)
I'd admittedly rather stick to Python! But I'm working on an Ares game and after that discussion the other day on improving events listings I want to tweak the event code to see if some of the ideas that were discussed could work.
I have that thing where I sorta get what I'm looking at but I'm not sure what I need to do with it yet. I'd probably be well on my way to breaking things if it were python.
@Sparks said in Accounting for gender imbalances:
@Auspice said in Accounting for gender imbalances:
My father is a developer. Apparently he used to, if he saw a job he was interested in but didn't know the language, put it on his resume, apply, then go out and buy a couple books to teach it to himself leading up to any potential interview.
So, so many guys do this. So many.
I mean, he managed to pull it off but it baffles me to this day. I can't learn shit like that. I'm over here trying to switch gears from learning python to ruby and I wanna cry sometimes. XD
So: interview last Friday went better than I thought. I was late because I got lost on location (admittedly the recruiter did not give me very clear directions about building/lobby) and had to do some running around.
That and I've just....been reaching this stage of the process and not getting the damn job for a couple years straight so, y'know.
But I got called yesterday and told they wanna move forward!
.......to a third interview. <cue quiet weeping>
Recruiter did apologize and said she wasn't aware they'd have yet another they want to do.
It's not scheduled yet but man. I wanna just know!
My father is a developer. Apparently he used to, if he saw a job he was interested in but didn't know the language, put it on his resume, apply, then go out and buy a couple books to teach it to himself leading up to any potential interview.
Whereas I definitely fall in the category of 'wait, I should put that on my resume? Seriously? Why ever for?!' This is why I desperately need Other People to write my resume for me generally.
Also tech challenges do suck. I felt kinda blindsided by Atlassian when I did theirs. Because it was totally a whiteboard type test and a lot of problem solving and DB scenarios and when I didn't get the job they were like 'Well, we told you to treat it like a real world scenario. You could have asked us questions as if you were searching Google.'
...i...what
maybe just give me credit for how much I managed without asking or something since you didn't actually specify that. Considering 9 times out of 10 in such interviews I've been in that's not an option!
Ahem.
Which I guess is another point: people converse differently. You may find you need to adapt your interview style, like Sparks has. I prefer one on one casual interviews to the 'here's a panel of people sitting across from you grilling you'. I imagine guys might do well with those. I don't and I think maybe? other women wouldn't either? It's easier to connect with someone one on one vs feeling like you're performing for a crowd.
Gany brings up a lot of good points.
And the point on 'please don't call out that I'm one of the first / only women' is valid, too. It'd fucking suck to land a good job and then later learn 'yeah we only hired you because you're a woman' (or to be made to feel that way at least).
I've been in IT since I was a teenager (yay internships!) and often the only or one of just a couple women on a team.
When I worked at Verizon, I had a really sexist comment made by a manager. I went to HR. They took me seriously, listened, handled it.
My last job, I had a manager behave in a sexist way, took it to HR, they sat me down with his boss (a woman) and both proceeded to tell me how it totally wasn't sexist at all. I was the only woman on the team (manager's boss worked remotely and oversaw a number of teams; we saw her maybe once every two or three months).
Be like Verizon between these two. If an issue is ever brought up, listen. It may be a misunderstanding ('he said this and I took it to mean...' can sometimes be perfectly innocent but not always!), but you should absolutely never just brush it off.
And make sure the guys on your team watch each other for sexist behavior. They need to be willing to call each other out. Seeing a coworker call another out for being ignorant (whether he meant to or not) can be bolstering and help someone feel more comfortable. And too few people do it. It's as easy as 'dude, that wasn't cool.'
Anyway. Like others, I've been the only or one of a few on teams and usually it's been all right. I feel best when I know I have a boss or HR that I can safely talk to should an issue ever arise.
@Jennkryst said in General Video Game Thread:
I think I had more hours playing Blitzball than I did playing the rest of the game.
I definitely did.
