Posts made by Ghost

@Jaded It would be too 'on the nose', I think. Then again, that would be a double super extra expert level feat.

Zoltan!

MORE

AND FUCK ME, RIGHT?!?! BECAUSE THERE IS THIS AWESOME PART OF ME THAT WANTS TO GO BACK AND GUIDE THIS INTO BEING SOMETHING EPIC. PART OF ME WOULD LOVE TO SEE IF I COULD PULL OFF SOME EXPERT LEVEL SHIT LIKE...

"Guys, I got a message in my meditation session that they really love the band Journey and would love to hear some while we communicate to them."

And then mentally high-five myself while performing telepathy across the cosmos to "Faithfully".

But I'm a good person; so I can't and I won't. But I want to. Wanting to is normal.

Actually, I'm worried for them and my friend. Last night was somewhat agonizing because I don't think this is in any fucking way healthy and my stomach hurt. I desperately do not want to see these nice people obsess over this. These are very sweet people, but the trick about cult behavior is that some people have no idea when they're drifting into it because it's exciting and makes you feel special. They wanna feel special. I get that. But...

So, just to be clear, I make fun to let off the steam, but ultimately what happened last night was kind of depressing.

@Jaded said in RL Anger:

@Ghost

Fucking RIGHT!?!?!?!

On a human level (sadly, I have no intention of returning to assuredly discover that I am 1/4000th Krebulon and have alien DNA) I hope to GOD (or, yanno, Xenu) that this is the weirdest true story you hear this weekend.

@Ghost said in RL Anger:

My friend has gotten into investigating for MUFON and he's trying to tap my SO and I as "ghost hunters" with him.

Fuck. My. Life.

Well. It happened.

Last night was <whatever best word means the polar opposite of awesome>.

My SO and I were invited to a dinner with a group of these UFO investigators (including my friend). They wanted to BBQ some food and talk about maybe doing some ghost hunting. They said it was about ghost hunting.

So we thought: "*Fuck it. It'll be a nice BBQ, meet some people, and if it means we head out to some "haunted" (AIRQUOTES) B&B with some people will undoubtedly find ghosts everywhere they look, we still get a nice B&B trip in."

So...we get there to find our friend (who connected us to these people) has cancelled. NOT A BIG DEAL, we'd met some of them before and they were nice. We proceed to dinner, talk about where we are from. You know: Typical dinner party stuff. Until one of them says:

"Perhaps we should go around the table and talk about which skill everyone is adding to the group..."

"...and then later we are going to talk to our remote viewing expert and how we are going to make contact."

make contact.
MAKE CONTACT.

I shit you not. I'm not sure what or where the communication on the dinner party idea changed or went wrong, or if this was karma for that hoodwinked gif, but I then found myself within the lair of a group of believers who thoroughly intended for a group meditation SLASH telepathic communication with aliens BEFORE dessert.

So my SO mentions that we love meditation and subtly tries to suggest maybe that's a bit too much. By subtly I mean she said "Oh!" and...didnt expound.

So while theyre talking about the bond we are going to create, I say: "Hey, guys, I don't think I'm the person you're looking for. I could only negatively impact whatever thing you're trying to build."

PERSON: "Oh trust us. Let's get things started because a remote viewer is waiting for us from another location."

MY S.O., A FEW GLASSES OF WINE IN: Gives Ghost the 'whatever, let's see where this rabbit hole goes' look and trots off to the living room.

Sidebar: Most of these people are older than us and kinda tie their self esteem into this stuff. We didn't feel a shred of not being safe. It was more 'these people draw self esteem from this and don't want to be an asshole to our friend's friends'.

Anyway, this is getting long so I'll wrap it up.

GUESS WHAT, GUYS?! TURNS OUT THERE IS A COLLECTIVE OF PSYCHIC EXTRA TERRESTRIALS OUT THERE WHO HAVE CHOSEN ME (AND ONLY THIS GROUP) AS PART OF A SUPER IMPORTANT DIPLOMATIC KNOWLEDGE SHARE BETWEEN US AND THEIR CULTURE. ME! I'M SPECIAL! I've been chosen for some pretty clutch shit.

Or so say the "remote viewer expert" and the "psychic expert".

Who was surprised to read that we successfully communicated with aliens??? Me? Not one bit. That shit was pre-ordained. They may as well have sent out invitations that read: Let's have a dinner party where I guide you through successfully getting in on this PrP that I'll be railroading.

As we drove home, my SO was in full blown "OMG I'm so sorry i didn't mean to miss your cue, and we gotta have a talk with our friend" mode. She's 100% out. Both her and I have experience with cult behavior (really extreme pagan groups; she was raised Pentecostal), and our friend is a pretty normal guy who probably still thinks this just "ghost hunting", so we need to rush to talk to him.

And then she says: "You don't have to go, but if he decides to go I wanna go to keep an eye on him."

BITCH, THIS IS HOW PEOPLE END UP SISTER WIVES WTF NOW IF YOU GO I GOTTA GO TO KEEP YOU FROM COMING BACK HOME AND SUDDENLY BEING LIKE: "Baby, I'm a star princess, now, 45th wife to the space emperor who wants to consummate our super important diplomatic union through KEVIN (not a real name in this situation), who is his chosen vessel."

Sigh.

Never woulda happened if her and I stayed in to mush. Fucking irony that.

Edit/OneMoreThing: Dessert after psychically establishing first contact with people y'all are simply not special enough to be picked to have contact with(But I am! You jealous fuckers. Haha. #winningAndLosingAtSameTime)...was some decent cake.

Also @Kitty-Kat

Have a high quality Aww gif. I'm sure typing that out felt less than fun

PS: If I ever decide to start mushing again you're always welcome at my table. Everyone deserves redemption.

@Kitty-Kat What you did was brave and cathartic, and in that I salute you. It's not easy to do this sort of thing.

Having said that, there are people in the hobby who have done far, far worse than you have who wouldn't be so brave to do what you've just done. For that reason, I'm going to advise you to not throw yourself at the feet of the gray concept that the mush community is.

@Kitty-Kat said in Not even sure what to title this, but here goes..:

I spent time in constant denial as I spent 2 years or so being dragged through the mud by MSB (pun intended, kinda?).
At least, that's how I saw it. While not everything I've been accused of is true...

Identifying the darker aspects of yourself and wanting to be better in real life and online is a noble pursuit. Know yourself always and understand why you went down that road to begin with. You owe these people nothing. This cathartic turn you've taken you owe to yourself. Be who you want to be for the best reasons and you'll rarely feel shame.

However, there is a bit of a sickness in some corners of the community. In a very "V taking the TV station hostage to have a little chat way", it probably deserves a better discussion, but you are in no way the epicentre problem. You, like many people, just got caught up in the same rush of negativity that others have been caught up in for years. It's seductive. It can be rewarding, vindicating, and often cruel.

Anyway, you don't need nor require my approval. As a fellow person, I just wanted to say I feel what you wrote and tell you to not beat yourself up about it. Understanding the symptom and getting off the shitty behavior train is excellent, but don't throw yourself at the mercy of the court as the villain. In some cases, your behavior was just parallel to some other behaviors in the court itself.

Promote positivity and others not going down the same path that made you feel guilty, and above all, I hope you feel better as a person. You're gonna be just fine.

PS. You owe no one anything. Dont let people make you their penance case.

Edit: Typos. Because 1:30am and a few beers.

@Thenomain said in If you work hard, son, maybe someday you'll RP:

@Ghost said in If you work hard, son, maybe someday you'll RP:

@Sunny said in If you work hard, son, maybe someday you'll RP:

It's not 'wrongfun' to harass somebody -- it's harassing somebody.

Unless your fun consists of harassing others.

Then it's both harassment and wrongfun.

Stop kinkshaming.

Kink shaming is my kink!

(sidebar: I got it right this time.)
(sidebar2: RIP Vines)

@Sunny said in If you work hard, son, maybe someday you'll RP:

It's not 'wrongfun' to harass somebody -- it's harassing somebody.

Unless your fun consists of harassing others.

Then it's both harassment and wrongfun.

@Thenomain said in If you work hard, son, maybe someday you'll RP:

@Arkandel said in If you work hard, son, maybe someday you'll RP:

Wrongfun may be used incorrectly but there's nothing wrong with the word itself.

Like there's nothing wrong with the swastika when used for its original purpose.
(Oh yeah, I went there.)

RED ALERT. RED ALERT. NOW HEAR THIS.

THENOMAIN HAS INITIATED DAEDELUS PROTOCOL. REPEAT: THENOMAIN HAS INITIATED DAEDELUS PROTOCOL.

lol.

@Derp The inherent argument in the word "wrongfun" is that someone is being shamed.

People tend to use wrongfun as a way of saying "this person is going over the line and attacking me for liking something that they don't, which is none of their business, and thus something cruel is being done to me."

Objectively, people should be able to discuss why they dislike something or why it isn't permitted. They should be able to do so with explanations and logic. Wrongfun tends to get called when either the complainer is making their complaint in "Asshole Tone" (making it feel like an attack), or because the person complained against wants to rush to get ahead of the narrative and claim the dislike of what they're doing is a bias-based attack.

Fun stuff.

Anyway...

I think wrongfun is a bullshit term, as well.

RUMOR HAS IT... That 'From Software' (Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro) is going to unveil a new game in a few weeks at E3.

From what I'm reading, the likelihood (least likely to most likely) is as follows:

• Sekiro 2 (yeaaaah prolly not. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice just came out in March)
• Bloodborne 2 (While this is #1 on my wishlist as a FromSoftware fan, Sony actually owns this IP and is stated to not be present at E3. Presumably they are working on PS5, but it is unlikely that they wouldn't be there for a Bloodborne 2 reveal)
• Dark Souls IV (it's been a while and DS3 killed it in sales)
• Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice DLC reveal
• Entirely new IP reveal (Sekiro is a new IP, but in the same vein as some of their older games. Could this be a trend or a one-off?)
• OLD IP reveal (Armored Core, Tenchu, Otogi, King's Field)

Who are we kidding, though? If frickin Borderlands doesn't own E3, then it's because they didn't even try to.

I've read/heard interviews with anonymous farmers that say that they're notified months in advance when inspectors are coming to certify their farms as "organic". They keep things cheap and dirty, then clean up ahead of time to pass certification.

There's a chance that the higher cost you're paying for organic products (to avoid stuff like heavy antibiotic use, etc) are really no different than SLAVEWAY SELECTS CHOICE USDA BEEF in the white packaging.

@Killer-Klown

12 players across 6 different spheres can potentially make for an exciting 2 players per sphere.

sidebar: I just cooked some math in this thread.

@Taika said in If you work hard, son, maybe someday you'll RP:

takes notes Writing a 'Spirit of the Game' is one of the things on my to-do list for CoS.

Careful, because here's something to keep in mind:

If you're writing a "spirit of the game" or "what this game is and if you don't like it please don't join" concept, you should probably consider a policy as to how this is handled. There's a high probability that someone may still join and say "Don't wrongfun me, just leave me alone and let me do my thing" or "Trust me, this anime concept will work, you'll see."

Probably a good idea to know/state how you intend to deal with that.

ETA: I personally believe games would be better off for doing this in the long run (because, really, you don't demand that Lil John gets played at a Cowboy bar; ya just don't), but expect growing pains.

@Derp said in If you work hard, son, maybe someday you'll RP:

Staff needs to get better at saying 'this is what our vision of the game is, and the kinds of things that we are expecting. If this is not what you want, then this isn't the game for you.

I really do think the players who join a mush and then run off to some corner to play their private sandbox version of the game do more damage than good. Joining a WoD game and then using it to make an anime character to recreate Tokyo Ghoul, while not illegal, is no bueno.

A clear genre/vision to help make sure everyone is actually playing the same game and the same setting does wonders for cohesion and keeping people from ostracizing others.

@Cupcake I sometimes used musicians as PBs. A few years back I saw maybe 3 concerts (in one year) that included musicians I'd used as PBs. In my head it was kind of awkward (how weird would it be to high five someone you'd used as a PB, right?), but it was still pretty lulz.

@Auspice There is quite a bit of this, yes.

I do my absolute best to iron out the pros and cons from my perspective and then hand over the decision to her, though. She's Danaerys and I'm Tyrion. We have a good working relationship because some of the guys on my team just talk over her and try to take the decision out of her hands; it's crap.

She's good with people and willing to make boss type decisions. I'll take this any day over my last boss, who was highly technical, but a severe douchebag who would assume the role of father that had to "educate us" on things like money management. Dude absolutely assigned me "Read Rich Dad, Poor Dad" as a goal one year until his boss stepped in and told him that was no bueno.

@Ganymede Uhhhh no it's not for a trivia night team or anything. It's for a team name/logo on a web portal that only we have access to. Nothing client or executive facing.

A little background.

My IT job is 50% project manager, 50% IT Operations Scripting/changes to environments. (So, 100% kitten herder). A lot of what we do is identifying the proper order of operations for IT stuff, and the end result is like surgery or auto repair.

(If you asked someone to make you a plan for washing the dog, you'd be amazed how many people don't include a find a dog to wash step and instead go straight to "fill the tub with water".)

So our current team logo is a logo with a cartoon dog, duck, and a sack of corn. She hates it. So she's asking us all have fun working on a new team logo/private name idea, but I dont think she was expecting stuff like los vaqueros satánicos (The Satanic Cowboys, baaaaybeee).

Oh, the dog, duck, corn is in reference to that non-linear thinking exercise where you have to get all three to the other side of a river, but only have room in the boat for 1 at a time. It's a euphemism for what we do.

@Alamias Hah. I do like my team. Oddly enough, there are definite drawbacks to being in IT and having a non-technical manager, but I love the difference in perspective she has. She's a great presence to offset all of this nerdiness, alcoholism, and testosterone.

And, if you do get a job here (not saying), it would be immediately clear by this description that I'm your coworker. Or...it would be the moment the tattoo guy wheels over and says something like: "You know, when you think about it, Aliens was a story about a mother just tryna feed her damn kids and keep them safe."

Picard teaser trailer is on YouTube.

My life is basically "The I.T. Crowd", and I make it a point of pride to not let it get too serious around here. Not joking about the IT Crowd thing, not one bit.

• An alcoholic metal fan who specializes in 90s Sci-fi shows and "sci fi movies with boobs"
• An alcoholic who cant code for shit but goes to Mexico damn near other weekend and has stories about his shady former life before corporate IT
• A muscle car enthusiast who regularly does auto work, and is a hardcore PUBG player
• A musher (former: whyamievenhereright?) involved in the local RPG/Convention scene with tattoos and owns more books about RPGs than he does anything remotely non-fiction.

All led into the trenches of the IT scripting world by...

A really nice, non-technical lady who fits the "Only watches chick flicks, owns a tiny dog, and binge watches stuff like Footballer Wives and Real Housewives of Las Vegas" stereotype.

This poor, poor woman.