Best posts made by Ganymede

My memory repository of quotes from Watchmen, The Dark Knight, and The Witcher III is coming in handy for Facebook shitposting.

@Coin said in Through which lens...:

While I often try to keep a backdrop of the game's general genre, I find that MUing is very flexible in that each scene can almost have its own genre, though of course genres that have more to do with character attitude rather than setting elements are much easier to change into "subgenres" within the game's main one.

I concur, but write separately to add.

I find that mixing genres can be tricky, and sometimes jarring. When I was playing on a Lords & Ladies game, I was hoping for a darker, more noir setting than expected, and I did not get what I was looking for. When I was playing on Fallen World, I played my PC through the lens of being a "superhero" as opposed to a "mystery solver," and that was nominally more successful. I did not get as much grit as I wanted in BSG:U, but I ended up with a lighter, more comical take to the war stories, and that seemed to work quite well with Fox Force Five.

So, it does depend, but having the wrong lens can make an experience dissonant.

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

'I said no. And if you go over my head I am going to have you transferred out of here'.

I'm pretty sure the new guy's boss will want a reasonable explanation as to why a request for more money to the company is getting tossed away because some dipshit would rather adhere to his own conspiracy theory than do what is best for the employees.

@Kanye-Qwest said in Our Tendency Towards Absolutes:

no thanks, i'm good

philistine

@groth

These are excellent strategies, but I find them patronizing. I employ them with my daughter, but would not do so with an adult or online. This is because I try not to talk to people as if I consider them a child.

I also do not automatically go to “neuroatypical” when I converse with someone. That feels patronizing to me too. I am fairly sure I am neurotypical, and I recognize others are not, but I am not going to presume someone pressing me is neuroatypical. In my experience, such are actually pushy neurotypical assholes.

I’m still lost as to why any of the above matters, regarding power levels.

On a game which seems to be based on traits and consent, how are power levels material in everyday RP?

@il-volpe said in Autism and The MU* Community:

My autistic perspective is basically that many NTs take honesty and clarity as offensive, and are thus themselves habitually unwilling to just fucking say it.

My non-autistic perspective is that people generally wish to avoid offending people, and therefore err on the side of caution.

As an NT, learning that I cannot be held responsible for the weakness or sensitivities of other NTs has been liberating. Now I err on the side of honesty and clarity, and am willing to fucking say things.

As a parent, I am attempting to make up for the sensitivity of my NT child at the same time, and finding that being honest and clear is not always the best strategy with a young woman who has difficult modulating her emotions.

I hope you can see the dilemma that people like me are sometimes placed in and why my active policing of what and how I say things makes me an opinionated powder keg.

@ZombieGenesis said in Empire State Heroes Mush:

That's how that player envisioned Roy Harper, as a super technological genius that outshined Tony Stark and Reed Richards in that area. That was his perception of the character. If we had no system in place that codified what he could do imagine that player in a scene with Tony Stark whose player has a very different take on just how smart Roy Harper is. Roy Harper corrects Tony Stark on some advanced technological thing, Tony's player starts going OOCly 'Huh?', and the debate begins about whose vision of the character should take precedent.

Staff's vision takes precedent where there's an approval process. There's no reasonable argument to the contrary.

To be frank? There's no reason to believe that Tony Stark can't be wrong. Tony flat-out denies what Scott tells him in Endgame, until he actually looks into it. Tony thinks he can pick up Mjolnir, and is dead-wrong there. So, why can't Roy be right about something, and Tony wrong, even if it is technological? For me, I see the issue as Roy's and Tony's players' fixations on their visions, and their inability to recognize that how an advanced technological thing works may be completely irrelevant.

In my experience, things get messy and argumentative when the stakes are actually fairly low. But if the stakes are low, they really don't matter much, do they? Players that get into these sorts of arguments invite an eye-roll from me.

But that might be why I'm getting along fine too -- because I'm not arguing.

@solstice said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

Citation? My dieting butt is genuinely curious to read this.

Probably to no one's surprise, I read Men's Health because Women's Health is mostly body-shaming nonsense.

In a recent article in Men's Health, they talked about a new diet which was essentially a calorie-dropping diet and debunked it as unsupported by data or now-embraced theories on how to best lose weight. They point out, rightfully, that if you drop your caloric count you are more likely to lose muscle than fat unless you are also working out fastidiously; and, even if you are exercising, not having the right nutrients in your body will lead to tissue destruction in a calorie-deficient environment.

What does that mean?

It means you have to be conscious of what you are eating rather than how much. Eating copious amounts of animal fat isn't good for you, but neither is eating none. General tips to follow are sticking to food that is: (1) unprocessed; (2) unpackaged; and (3) stereotypically "good for you." That means loading up on vegetables, decreasing meat, and staying away from "carb-heavy" foods.

It takes a long time too.

When I went keto over two years ago, I dropped a lot of weight quickly. That was water weight. I've kept it off because once you get to ketosis, you've cut out shit like sugary drinks, beer, and anything with added sugars. And once you cut out the added sugars, shit like stevia tastes great. It helps that I can't have dairy (lactose intolerance). But keto is unsustainable as a lifestyle diet choice, so I have transitioned to a "carb-avoidant" diet that minimizes sweet fruits (God, I miss grapes), pasta (God, I miss penne rigate), and bread (no sammies for me). But since moving away from keto, I've actually lost an additional 5-10 pounds, depending on the day (because water weight is annoying).

You can lose the weight! We can share stories about our difficulties and triumphs here. Because we're soooooo toxic.

Being drawn into a group without asking to be, and having excellent RP with complete strangers.

@derp

I love you, man. You know I do. But like faraday, there has to be a middle ground. People I feel want to lose weight, and I think we need to support those people as I said.

@Lotherio said in Sexuality: IC and OOC:

Not the time to bring up Spar Oom but crickies a lonely goat man in the closet talking to kids about magical journeys someone dial CPS.

@derp said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

If a person is 100 lbs overweight and goes on a super restrictive calorie deficit while working out well above the normal level we cheer them on because they must be making healthy decisions.

That's not why I cheer them on. I cheer them on because they made a conscious decision to lose weight, for whatever reasons they see fit. Maybe they are tired of looking the way they do; maybe a doctor recommended shedding some weight; and so on.

If a teenage girl does that we call it a dangerous behavior and admonish them to stop. Because we recognize that this is a dangerous, disorderly behavior, but only for people whose form we already approve of as a society.

If it isn't clear, I don't consider this to per se to be dangerous either. If a teenage girl is recommended by a health professional to lose weight, and she attempts to do so, I'll cheer her on.

I don't hear you denying that obesity is the cause of many health problems; I hear you saying that just because you're overweight doesn't mean you're unhealthy, and I agree. Similarly, you're suggesting that dieting to "look good" while dipping dangerously underweight is a bad thing, and I concur that being underweight has its own host of issues. I don't think we disagree on much, but it sounds like we are because I think we're talking in circles.

What I think you're getting at is what faraday said:

We have an incredibly judgey society that looks down on people with addictions, mental health disorders, etc. "If you were just a stronger person you could beat your <eating disorder / depression / ADHD / heroin addiction>..." is a common attitude that's appalling, untrue, and harmful. Sadly it spreads into the medical community as well, which is even more shameful since they of all people ought to freaking know better.

This, I agree with. But, like faraday, I would add:

Changing ingrained behaviors will always be super hard. A modest success rate means we (as a society) have more work to do, but it doesn't mean we should just give up and accept things as they are.

Which comes down to this: if others make choices related to their health, e.g., losing weight, quitting smoking, etc., I'm going to cheer them on whether they succeed or fail because they are at least buying into the idea of not giving up on a goal. It's not easy to do any of this. You say that the science is not yet certain on how to do this permanently and I agree; hell, I'll even go out on a limb and say that the reason why it is tough to lose weight through dieting is because the body gets wise to what you are doing and actively rebels. This makes sense to me because bodybuilders have to switch up their routines constantly because the body starts to get wise to avoid the constant injury and healing process that is required to bodybuild. And the body and mind are motherfuckers, which is why addiction sucks.

But, yeah, I'm not giving up losing these last ten pounds I want to because I want to.

Moved.

@thhppbbbt said in Autism and The MU* Community:

It's a really, really common thing, and saying it's just assholes being assholes disappears that NT assholes who mash ND buttons often face no repercussions because the other NT folks can't figure out why ND person is being so insistent, pushy, needy, particular, etc etc etc until the end of time.

Oh sure, I understand. I don't mean to suggest that erasure does not exist; I mean to say that NT assholes should get into trouble for doing shit to NAs (I mean 'neuro-Atypical' for reference) as they should if they do the same to NTs.

@faraday said in What MU/RPG opinions have you changed or maintained?:

I hear stories from @Thenomain about WoD games, or some other friends about comic games, and they may as well be as different from my experience as playing Bridge vs. playing Poker.

Unsurprisingly, I enjoy playing both bridge and poker.

Generally, I prefer the stratagem and outwitting in bridge.

This, unsurprisingly, is how my MU life goes.

@macha said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

Is there someone I could appeal to, on that? I know you're not an expert (Unless you are, no offense meant) But I'm not sure who I would talk to about being reimbursed for shit. I'm so over all this BS.

I'm definitely not an expert on what your company does, but here's what I would do.

1. Start documenting everything on your own by beginning a diary in which you write down every dickish, passive-aggressive, micro-aggressive thing the people around you do.

2. Make an appointment to speak with someone in HR in confidence. At the appointment, let them know what you would like and why in person and then reduce that request to writing. Make sure your HR person gets the written request.

3. Keep poking HR for what you want and why you need it on the regular. Make a 14-day task in Outlook for it.

4. If no action is taken on your request for reimbursement or accommodations within three months, send what you have to the next person above your boss.

This sounds like escalation and it is. It is a steady, formulaic campaign of what I call "personal advocacy." If at any point you get a pointed response or suffer an adverse employment action -- get turned down for a raise; get turned down for a promotion; get denied personal leave; etc. -- that's when you send what you have to an attorney.

That attorney will have a field day.

@ZombieGenesis said in Getting Young Blood Into MU*'ing:

I honestly never understood the mentality that "all players must be given equal opportunities regardless of the effort put into the game".

Because most of us, if not all of us, have been on a game where: (1) some players are given privileges despite putting no fucking effort into it; or (2) players are denied opportunities regardless of the effort put into the game..

@silverfox

You keep making them, I'll keep posting them.

EAT YO MOTHAFUCKIN FINGERS BITCH!

@mietze said in Getting Young Blood Into MU*'ing:

Let's call it them having better things to do with their time than we do.

That’s fine. I don’t like having to deal with real life levels of dysfunction all the time.

But I’m not going to pretend it doesn’t exist elsewhere. I don’t play MMORPGs or games like Fortnite because of the people I’ve bumped into.

Which pulls back to the spirit of my comment: dysfunction is everywhere. Pick your desired forum — at the bar, online through consoles, at your local LARP gathering, whatever — but you can only escape it to the extent that the community is willing to call out the behavior.

Which goes to Apos’ point about Arx’s hardline and swiftness or Derp’s philosophy of drawing clear immutable lines.