Posts made by Auspice

@Ghost

I am really fuckin' honored that y'all kept that photo.

@Ghost said in RL things I love:

Yesterday my SO asked me to help her clean up a room and set it up as a craft room. A bunch of boxes got set in the hallway. We just moved, so we have a bunch of weird stuff in wrong packaging, like an Amazon box filled with hand towels.

I see a taped box for a computer monitor. A 24" computer monitor. I didn't remember packing that.

Me: "Hey, babe, what's packed in this computer monitor box? Do I need to unpack it?"

Her: "...shit. Merry Christmas. Guess I'm gonna have to find you another xmas present, now."

Moral #1 If you're hiding Christmas gifts, remember that when asking your SO to help move stuff around.

Moral #2: If you call it out, you might get an extra present out of it!

she shoulda told you it was her luchadore costumes and if you were a good boy she'd break it out next weekend

@tek said in The Dark Side of online Role-Playing:

Earnest communication and interest in what I was doing would have gone a long way, if my mother had been capable of that.

And this is literally all that's being advocated for, I do believe. Healthy, earnest communication and appropriate interest. Be involved in your kids' lives. Be active. Be their advocate. Be their partner. Be their champion.

Be someone they feel they can open up to and talk to about the things concerning them.

So I've been mulling replying here.
My thoughts on this get disregarded pretty often, which is vexing, but w/e.

I grew up in a very fundie Christian household.
My parents were abusive (mostly emotionally, but not just). My father is a developer. He did often log things I was doing. And used it for mockery and also to 'prove' I was allowing demons into the house. It was never a 'protectionary' measure in the sense that one might hope.

In my case, yes, it was a very negative thing.

However.

I spent years working in children's forums and games as an administrator and moderator.
I have witnessed grooming, predators, and the ways that kids, unfortunately, do not know how to protect themselves. I also worked in a community at one time wherein LGBT conversation was not allowed because of a very, very bad incident once and where I got special permission to take a conversation off-site to talk with some of our older users about it (because they were understandably upset).

The incident had been wherein a 9-year-old user had asked what a lesbian was. And a group of older girls began bullying her across the site. To a point her mother sued the site.

Now, when I was able to sit down and explain this to these kids, they understood. And they stopped harassing the moderators (because I explained: look, we aren't homophobic, I hate that we can't let you guys discuss this, but please understand that many users here don't understand sexuality at all yet! and we want them to find a healthy outlet for it) and instead became champions for other kids going to school counselors, pastors, their parents, etc., while sending campaign letters to the site's ownership (vs angry emails to us).

Eventually the ban was lifted and these same kids continued to help us keep an eye out for similar behavior. It was heartwarming to see. But it took a long time....... and it took me having to out a coworker as homophobic, sadly.

ANYWAY.

Working on that site and others is why, when I was married and had a stepson, I was keenly aware of his online activities (he was under 10 while I was married). Why I would be if I have kids again.

We had a guy on that one forum known as 'dan.' 'dan' was as pervasive as our troll here. And he was constantly trying to get these kids to engage in cybersex with him. Share their RL locations with him. And he'd masquerade as a teenager.

On other sites, I saw kids gladly share their phone numbers, discuss meetups, etc., within their very first conversation with someone.

And many of them? When caught? Would create a new account and show up to share sites that were adult in nature to 'continue' things.

No, we don't want to stymie kids from exploring their sexuality, identity, etc., but the problem is that so many aren't doing so safely. There is a balance to be struck. If they're openly sharing very personal details right out of the gate or going to unsafe sites: that's a bad thing. That is not safely exploring sexual/identity. That's putting themselves at risk.

We have people here (@Pandora, @mietze) who understand how to educate their kids on how to be safe, how to construct a safe home environment, to where they can monitor their kid's online activities to the right extent while also making their kid feel safe enough to approach them if worried, concerned, scared, etc.

I 100% think parents need to be aware of what their kids are doing online. Do you want to be keylogging or anything? No. But you don't want to just set them up with a personal laptop behind a locked door and never ask any questions.

My parents were abusive, but it went far, far beyond their stalking my online activities. Their inability to make me feel safe began before we had internet access in the home. They never observed my online behavior out of a care about me. They did it out of a desire of control. The two are wildly different.

Managed to get to work today (despite doctor's note to stay out until the 12th: I simply cannot afford it because as noted previously, I am a contractor and unlike employees am not salary and do not have PTO)....... sort of wish I hadn't.

Chills and body aches kicked in on the way here.

But unlike Miss Employee last week, I'm wearing one of those face mask things. I'm also probably past the contagious stage but damnit. Gonna be polite.

@Coin said in Good TV:

@Auspice said in Good TV:

@Carex We've discussed the show on here before.

I do recommend people read the books, also. Show is good, books are better (aren't they always?).

Man, "books are better"is like my pet peeve. They're two completely different mediums.

Also, in this particular case, I'm pretty sure the show is better. It's certainly a hell of a lot less gross about its representation and the way the characters (and the narrative) deal with the fucked up shit that happens to them.

I feel like the pacing is better in the books. And the hedges get a lot better depth.

The show has its up sides, yes, but I felt like the story the hedges got was sort of throwaway just to get Julia back with the central crew and then they were just sort of there for story effect whenever needed.

I also really loved Q's whole tenure as a professor (well guest lecturer I suppose) and we never got that either.

The books had a lot of things that I felt really shaped the world and characters in strong ways that left the show sort of lacking for me personally.

I recommend reporting and blocking the guy. He's clearly not here to engage in good faith.

yaaaay flu

Now they're testing to make sure I don't ALSO have strep

@TNP said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

@Auspice Then yes, a doctor is a good thing, I'd ask for promethazine with codeine syrup. It's a pretty good effective cough syrup. Taste horrid though.

I just hate the wait and the $70.

I'd rather be home in bed than in this office and that $70 is half of what I need to secure my new apartment.

@TNP said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

@Auspice If it's the head cold from hell that I had, yeah. That's about all you can do. Treat the symptoms.

I missed 3 days of work, left early on day 4 and managed to get through day 5 by telling myself it was Friday and I could be sick all weekend. Still took another week to not feel bad though I was able to go to work.

Fortunately, it stayed out of my chest so hoping yours stays clear.

I missed Thurs and Fri after it set in Weds. I've had a fever. Congestion. Get exhausted by turns. And it has been in my chest: I'm coughing a ton.....which doesn't help the sore throat.

But I usually don't get fevers and I usually don't end up sick this long so here I am waiting to be seen and really just wanting to go home and curl up under a blanket.

Since I'm still stupidly sick and it's been days....at urgent care.

Half expect them to tell me to just keep sleeping and drinking lots of liquids tho.

@RightMeow said in MU Things I Love:

@Auspice

I fixed it. YOU'RE WELCOME

OR MADE IT WORSE, ARGUABLY.

She's gonna be found frozen in her shop unable to hand off a message for Symonesse to Bitey because 'oh god oh god I am about to send a messenger to the Queen what even is my life oh god what is happening why even is anything'

Ephrath rn:

@TiredEwok said in Empire State Heroes Mush:

I won't lie. I'd love to play Dex*Starr. I mean, playing a little bundle of whiskers and purrs and claws and rage and blood vomit? Hell yes!

he's the best kitty

@Carex We've discussed the show on here before.

I do recommend people read the books, also. Show is good, books are better (aren't they always?).

I want one that says 'I'm silently correcting your grammar' so I can giggle to myself a lot

dear lord I want this sick to go away but especially this cough. my chest and lungs can't take much more.

Funny how often Staffers will come out and say 'oh goodness me no our staffer buddy would never ever eeeeeeeever do something wrong. Must have been the person who reported it. Ignore all other corroborating stories.'

@Arkandel said in General MSB announcements:

I jumped the gun a bit.

EVERYTHING I KNEW WAS A LIE.

@Ganymede said in Empire State Heroes Mush:

@Auspice said in Empire State Heroes Mush:

Did you play or did you RP all of twice before disappearing into the sunset.

For a couple of months, thank you.

I did have a good time, though.

I mean, you DO have a pattern. >.>

But yeah, IN GENERAL, most of my female chars on MUs rarely ever get hit on. Superhero games are the exception. It's like the instant they hit the grid: pursuit begins.