Best posts made by mietze

Instant Pot Chicken and Dumplings
This served my large brood when I had 3 teens at home, so if you have a normal household halving it is probably a good idea!

For meat and broth:
4 T butter
8 bone in skin on chicken thighs
Kosher salt
Pepper to taste
1/2 cup all purpose flour
4 celery stalks, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
3 1/2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup milk or half and half
2 T cornstarch

For dumplings:
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
1 T baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 cup milk or half and half
3 T melted butter

Use the saute button on the instant pot, add butter. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and dredge in the flour, shaking off excess. Once butter is sizzling, add half of chicken in one layer, brown on one side for 3-4 mins without moving, then flip and brown on the other side. Remove and repeat with the remaining chicken and set all aside.

Add the celery, carrots and onions to the pot. Saute until onion is translucent and carrots are tender, scraping the bottom of the pot frequently. Add chicken and broth. Season with salt and pepper.

Press Manual button, put on lid, and cook at high pressure for 11 mins.

While chicken is cooking, mix together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl. Add in milk/half and half and melted butter, stir just until incorporated (don't over mix or else you won't have fluffy dumplings). Set aside.

Once chicken is done, use a quick release. Remove chicken and set aside. Add the milk to the broth, mix, season with salt and pepper to taste if necessary. In a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup of hot broth with the cornstarch and whisk well to combine. Add back to the pot and stir.

Push the saute button. Once simmering, scoop heaping Tbsp of dumpling mix and drop them into the pot. Try to keep separated and mostly submerged, without disturbing them a lot. Reduce saute heat to low and cook for 12-15 minutes, loosely covered with the top (don't put it all the way on, keep it slightly off kilter so no pressure builds up) until dumplings have doubled in size.

While the dumplings are cooking, bone the chicken, remove and discard skin, shred the meat. Once dumplings are done, add the meat back to the pot and then dish everything up in bowls.

Depends on the expectations of staff and how things are laid out. Does staff expect people to RP with a certain percentage or number of people outside their knot or group or does one extremely social person give the rest a pass? Does staff require that everyone interact with metaplot or a category they belong to (like their family group, some kind of larger group, ect?)

It isnt wrong to say that they must, but it usually gets people howling especially in this crowd about OMFG I should NEVER have to interact with anyone I may not like/don't know/a metaplot/some big organization.

But if there is no expectation of required interaction, nor of metaplot involvement or wider org involvement, and the people have no leadership roles, then what is the advantage of forcing them to interact with others. In my experience that tends to be unhappy for everyone involved.

If that is a need/expectation of the game though (again, nothing wrong with that expectation) and the people are refusing to comply, seems like a good idea to cut them loose and usher them out.

But yeah, if they are playing to theme and rules, they can still be playing the same game, just not including others in their play.

I have worked forward facing and/or high public comtact jobs the entire pandemic so have run the gamut of masks. This person is local to me and makes the only ones that don't fog my glasses and do not make me break out because no fabric touches my mouth or chin at any time. She also has really fun patterns. I wear these for 8 hours a day including nature walks and running around on the playground playing with ece students with no issue.

SewKimchi etsy store

@surreality I do not think either structure is wrong, as long as it is disclosed up front. For example I think a very limited slot game that has a great deal of staff attention and interlocking storytelling as the reason for those limited spaces probably doesnt want a people only interested in hermiting with the same person with little interaction beyond that--they are taking up space and not really a good fit for a game where it is important that people participate beyond that. Or even in an unlimited slot game really, depending on game vision and scope.

By the same token, it is just as okay to have an unlimited slot game with minimal metaplot and more hands off staff, and an expectation that players are primarily responsible for creating all action and story on the game, with staff proving some ic and ooc feedback and arbitration for disputes. If someone is constantly talking about how they hate it on channel, or taking up 5 times the amount of staff time than anyone else does because they are in need of a ton of handholding and personal guidance, then it is ok for /them/ to be told that obviously there is a mismatch of styles and needs here, so they can be ushered off before they burn people out or become super disruptive to everyone else due to their distress.

And everything inbetween!

I do not think that any game is beholden to try to meet all comers' needs while trying to keep true to the vision of the people running it, and practices that make their life easier.

But clearly I do not believe in "the customer is always right/every player who finishes CG is to be accommodated at all costs philosophy either, so I know that's easier for me to say than a nice person. Though I think that you can be kind and still enforce/preserve your vision, regardless of whether the player is able or willing to accept it.

The best thing about having 3 kiddos at uni is that I get to send care packages to them! (just sent off finals prep care packages). It kinda makes me a little sad I don't snail mail pen pal anymore (lack of energy/time) because that too was fun to put together a little package for a friend now and then too.

@silverfox that's really more the business of your friend to decide, you really cant control what they do, and if this other person is not bothering them as much it may be worth it to them to keep playing. You can, however tell the person bothering you that they are making you uncomfortable, you do not want any more contact asking about your friend, and if they persist you will consider it harassment.

You can tell your friend, but that is no guarantee they will solve the problem for you. I have cut loose from ic associations with people who had aggressive/obsessive oocly partners though. It is really simply not something I want to have to worry about dealing with.

I find that just making my own decision with no expectation that the other person is going to force someone else to stop/do something allows me to at least remain cordial with the person I actually enjoyed the company of, instead of resenting them or forcing them to choose. Once someone is at the point of keeping tabs on a play partner and then contacting others that they interact with to ask questions, frankly, I have not found anything great happens after that no matter what the person in between does or doesnt do.

I kind of wonder if I will ever not feel existentially exhausted and on empty ever again. Just physically and emotionally so tired.

Also thus upper respiratory bug that isn't covid or flu but also pack a huge punch to the face really sucks. First day feeling somewhat human since Saturday and I'm kinda ready to just go back to sleep until next week after just one day back at work.

I would look at coded systems next to see if theres anything that might be able to assist you in bringing your vision to life. I chose to work with Ares because I liked having wiki/game/webstuff integrated even if I'm having to rethink some of my RPG system (specific stat/skill/ect) so it will align with the ares system that's already coded. I have no background and not a terrible lot of interest in coding but I have been able to figure many things out with it because the documentation and support is there on a noob level.

I have been trying to integrate other set of things such as factions, powers, and organizations with the actual coded system in mind too. Possibly this wont work for everyone, but its helped me be slow and steady and deliberate in a way that I think will help maintain the ability to keep up with things long term when and if it's open. And it's been a good learning exercise in how to focus appropriately and pragmatically.

4th day of vacation and mostly what I can do is sleep. Short bursts of being up and about are possible but then wipe me for a couple of hours or more. It is hard to not feel bad about this. Theres so much to do/catch up on RL and otherwise and all I want to do is pass out.

Oh sorry, I thought we were talking about TS here primarily. When it comes to STed environmental things, I do not think that tends to ping people as boundary crossing. "When you hear the screams echo through the woods, they're accomanpied by a strange feeling that tingles at the spine, like there are a thousand eyes in the woods watching you," as a response to a "I'd like to make an awareness roll please" isn't really problematic (in the same way that saying "I would like to go investigate those noises" isn't really going to freak out most STs even though I suppose the strictest IC/OOC separation would be that you'd always say "<My character's name> is going to investigate those noises, what should I roll for them?"

In a more intimate scene, I do think by and large that many people are going to be made a little more worried when it shifts over to ":grabs your pussy."

I did see a lot more variety in -person posing back in the good old days (I think maybe because that tended to differ in board RP and all the other varieties beyond mu*dom). Because of that it doesn't really bother me to have people using different tenses in the same scene, even, it's not really that hard to figure out, and on my personal annoyance list it's low.

I seldom see people switching perspective posing like that between public and private TS scenes though. And I have noticed increasing intolerance for different -person perspectives as well (granted I also don't see mixed crowds as much either.

Also omg. As someone who loves spoilers and who rarely has the attention span or physical capacity to feel comfortable just sitting and watching something for a few hours--the many channels of movie recaps sometimes with super unintentionally humorous commentary are quite lovely.

@magee101 yeah, maybe don't open with it. I'm sure not every person is gonna feel that way, but it can come across as you being pretty inappropriate.

Wouldn't recommend it then. Partially bc you can usually see if its an apartment but won't know stair situation on houses but also for the lifting!

I will have to pay more attention when I have chances to scene but to be honest most places that I've played the last few years have many people incorporating descriptions of their PCs and clothing these days to the point I'm not real sure you need to even look at them.

Given how shitty instacart's shopping platform is and it is centered around personal shopping i can't even imagine what its like having a new i wanna get a piece of this half-ass add on to a gig platform is like.

@Tinuviel or people saw other people doing it and followed suit. Bevause honestly, half the time I see people doing that people still dont respond to the pose correctly and that goes triple for scene sets (and room descs).

People here realize that it's not the teachers who are making the policies, I hope. And if teachers quit or commit suicide or have other breakdowns, it won't improve anyone's child's experience probably.

Someone saying that they are struggling or hurting or whatever doesn't diminish anyone else's.

At least around here the remote synchronizer instruction is something that has finite windows to sign up for because there is a finite number of slots staffed for. Regular homeschooling without district support is available to anyone. Staff supported but parent driven homeschooling support (middle ground) has more flexibility because of its structure and so they take on people on a space available basis and they have more spaces.

It pains me to see more parents have to go through this. I have a 2020 high school graduate kid and two 2021 hs graduates. There was a lot of grief I had in different ways for both of those years. And their college experiences have been chaotic. So I get that grief. I have further grief over the destruction in my now 2nd graders life and the long term impact of last year in particular.

However, me dismissing the very real distress and mental health issues that teachers face in dealing with this as well as being surrounded by community anger/dismissal doesn't really help.

The reasons why nobody is being served super well right now is a lot deeper than "just" bureaucracy. I can see why that sort of comment might come across as hurtful, intentionally or not.

@farfalla well in a sense that is my point. Instead of banning noncon RP (which is going to happen anyway), remove the people incapable of acting responsibly.

I got totally nailed by one of my class kids today, as I was putting myself between her and another child as well as her being able to immediately throw herself backwards onto the floor, and man my collarbone super super hurts. I don't think it's actually an injury injury but...sigh.

I think that feeds back into the issue of whether or not a player who isn't staff but has an IC leadership role must give up all personal RP or their fluff-n-nutter play in order to be plot/information dispenser (even if staff really doesn't give them a lot of plot to dispense and players being players, usually people don't share information with each other that much).