Posts made by mietze

I think one of the reasons all the social shit shows up on +event is that there is rarely a very nice, neat coordination tool that is not +event. TR iirc has a private event code but it doesn't send reminders, ect.

I don't like huge social gatherings, I'm the sort of player that doesn't really do well in them. I mean, I don't mind court scenes and the like, and I can find something enjoyable about being there, but a 20 person scene is not one where I can bring my best because I get overwhelmed. (Though I also think a court scene or something like that can be a legitimate +event).

There are some people that really need the public show of activity I suppose, but I bet if there was nice code for private stuff that would send reminders, people would use that too maybe. Since I can't code, I know that'd just be icing, so I've never pitched it because I don't want to make work for people. But I do wonder if it would help.

On scene dangers...

I think that accurately describing a scene's danger is pretty hard sometimes unless you're a railroad ST (no matter what the PCs do they WILL get shot/attacked by things stronger than them) or you have a very close-in-level group. THe most rewarding scenes/plots I've ever run for people have been in the Law sphere on TR and also personal requests tailored to individual people or groups. With Law, given the mortals-to-superfriends/newbie-to-900XP PCs in a mixed bag, gauging challenge is hard. I've had few complaints though because what law does have as its advantage is that most of the time there's a high degree of PC change of the story, different ways to approach the problem, ect. So there can be a very strong element of emotional/mental danger/on-edgedness. And yeah, I always make people roll. I have had the odd complaint about making folks roll for their social skills, but most people are very extremely happy to finally get to use their dice in that arena for high stakes things.

And simply I'm not a railroad ST. I have NPCs statted (and am getting better about adjusting for party level, before that felt like cheating to me). I have some information prewritten, a few ways that I think things will got plotted, but if I'm surprised, I roll with it. I might expect given the people I see signed up that it's going to end up in a firefight, but I have been surpised more than once to see a clever non-combat way to approach things. Or vice versa. So while there was physical danger factored in, sometimes the PCs subvert that. They may not even realize they're doing so.

Sometimes I wonder if that makes folks think that I'm a shitty ST because the violence that was warned about as potential didn't happen.

Kingsmouth has it too.

I'm in the process of making a PC on Eldritch, most likely stigmatic. If you have RPed with me in the past and enjoyed it and would like to see about tie ins (I'm still in the nebulous beginning stages, so there's some flexibility there) or if you don't know me at all but would like to play anyway, send please message me. Current bitname is Susanna though that may change a few times before I'm done, 'cause that's how I roll, but pages there are fine too.

I'm pacific timezone. Some daytime availability but realistically most available pacific evenings.

@Luna, I understand what you're saying and I agree. I find weight loss pretty effortless as long as there's no other complicating factors. However, learning how to cope with the other stuff if you were fat "for a reason" is not, and I understand totally when people don't do it.

Plus, honestly as someone who has lost 100 lbs before, very simply it did not make me feel better. I don't think I look all that better either. Obesity scars you physically too potentially even if you lose the weight. (Though it took almost a year of maintenance to get an idea of how things would settle and ended up being a lot better that it seemed initially). What made me feel better/be healthier was not the fact that now I guess a few more people might find me fuckable and I can buy normal clothes but the other work I did mentally.

So honestly if someone is happy with themselves (and part of that is being able to tolerate different bodies without feeling the need to be derogatory, imo) then that's just fine with me. No matter how much more fat/skinny than I am they are.

I couldn't even find maternity jeans that weren't skinny jeans. That's like the biggest fuck you ever. Granted, I have less to choose from in store because I need a petite size, but. Some of this may be generational though. I assume most people who are buying maternity jeans are significantly younger than I was last year, and I'd given away all my normal ones like over a decade prior. It's hard to find non-skinny jeans for my older boys too. My teen girl lives in them, but it seems like everyone else her age does too.

But really, what the fuck is with skinny maternity jeans and horizontal stripe maternity shirts.

I've been just at the edge of morbidly obese. (though not for quite a few years now, when I worked for a significant weight loss). I will say that while it can be done (if I can do it then almost anyone else can), I honestly don't think that anyone gets to that point without some significant issues OTHER than just food intake going on, as the amount you have to take in to maintain that weight can be a form of self-medication--or they've been significantly injured or ill. I think this is why a lot of folks find it harder to maintain than actually lose, or have a hard time taking the steps to get there. Mine included an eating plan, yes, and more exercise (I'm now an avid runner), but for me to hit the 100 lbs+ loss mark it included counseling and other treatment to address other issues. (Along with a nutritionist). I'm not saying everyone that is morbidly obese has mental issues, but in my experience along with many others I've talked to, there usually is some other stuff going on that needs to be addressed for long term success and maintaining health.

And I wasn't fat my whole life either. What your mind pictures you are and what you actually are can be a total mindfuck a lot of the time, in either direction. Post-baby weight has been a very big stress for me because I still think I look my heaviest until I look at pictures from them and realize that I am so very not. Though when I was at my heaviest, even though I knew that I was, I still "felt" like I did in high school (which was ideal weight, perfect hourglass figure, ect) until I looked in the mirror.

The mind is just very strange sometimes.

I do work towards the body that I feel most comfortable in, but I've got a lot of things going for me than many other folks do: an excellent metabolism and easy athleticism (Until I got help for it I've always been a binger, so to be frank I can probably out eat someone 3 times my size at least in one sitting) which means that I did not put on what someone else doing the same behavior might have. I had the money and time to get professional support when I needed it. I have no significant health problems (no diabetes/hypertension/other diseases). I have a strong support system around me.

I agree that just losing weight is pretty simple, but...I don't know that I would term it easy unless it's just a matter of someone who realizes "hmmm, oh shit, I've been eating like it's swim season even though I quit the team 5 years ago." I think most of the people who are in the 100+ lbs to lose range MAY have a more complex situation, but of course that's not always the case.

If I'm reading The Supremes right, it's done out of a motivation to correct the wrongs done by the racist/sexist/Ect original source material. S/he has gone on to say that you may indeed perhaps get to play anyone but a gypsy but potentially offensive content must pass their muster and all things like poor black person raised in a single parent home probably will get more scrutiny. At least that's what I get out of it. Not necessarily a ban. So maybe a little of both?

While I respect the sentiment as well meaning, there's a lot in it I find paternalistic and unintentionally mildly offensive (and as I mentioned before, even a wee bit racist in and of itself). I am maybe a bit sensitive to shit like that.

Still, this was an interesting conversation!

@Ganymede said:

Even so, you probably won't. The message to me -- intentional or not -- is that the game's staff don't trust the players to play their characters, stereotype or otherwise, well. They've prejudged them, which, although reasonable, runs contrary to the idea of being inclusive or combating prejudices (presuming that this is part of the reason the game is not letting the stereotypes on in the first place).

Exactly. Sometimes to ban 'stereotypes' also kind of exotifies the very people you're nobly trying to "protect."

So. Do you ban smart asians? Hot asian women who are petite? In the kinfolk backgrounds you accept, will you deny any that include the following: rape, abuse, breeding exploitation, forced "marriage", ect (all very canon stereotypes for that class)? If you can't have a street person who happens to be black and a Bone Gnawer, do you also ban the trailer trash white folks--I have seen far more of THAT than black PCs of any type on a MUSH and I've been playing MU*s for 20+ years now? (I'm biracial, but was adopted into a family with strong West Virginia roots, so. Sometimes what people portray makes me giggle, sometimes not. One half of my family is very much coal mining stock stuck in generational Appalachian poverty and illness. )

I would also say, quite bluntly, that the dangerous alpha male who may lose his temper in an uncontrolled violent rage but has been gifted with it in part for a higher and in some cases spiritual cause while still being compelling and good in the sack is a very, very harmful 'stereotype'.

There is a lot of ugliness in Werewolf (at least the oWoD version, I'm less familiar with the new). So what? It can be compelling storytelling. Do a lot of people fuck it up? Yeah. But they'll fuck up the hippies too. You're just not really going to weed out stupid or problem people via background and what you force people to play (or not).

I guess, as someone who enjoys Vampire, I'd say that my ability to engage in risk is very seldom tied to cross-sphere PvP. So it really doesn't matter to me that my vampire would lose against a mage. That kind of thing just doesn't really either excite me or get me worked up. I don't really like Mage, but if I did, I'm sure that my enjoyment would probably involve more than just "Oh, I could defeat all those other supers if I wanted to." I don't really understand the type of thinking that makes a splat somehow not at all appealing if you can't "win" against everything. But I know there are lots of people that play that way, and it's fine, it's just I don't relate to it at all.

I think that now that herd immunity is truly in danger adult boosters will be more promoted.

For example, I had most of my kids in my mid-20s. This was during a pretty big heyday of no vax but most people didn't seem to care. I was never offered a booster or anything like that while pregnant or pospartum. They didn't even ask about my vax status.

For surprise #4 last year jesus christ I must have been asked about my boosters like every visit. And I've been asked a few times since even for non child related medical visits. Even though I'd already had a Tdap a couple of years prior, they still wanted me to have another one plus an additional MMR postpartum. I belong to an HMO though, after two decades of shitty catastrophic care only coverage so I don't know that the message gets out through other healthcare providers.

Preschool Whining Edition and Preteen Waaaaahmbulance too.

I think freelancing coordination is very much the way of all but the dinosaurs of the industry. It doesn't always mean crappy work ethic/scheduling though. My husband has been a freelance/contractor for very small gaming companies for about 15 years now (he has worked from home this entire time). What I've noticed is the projects that are mostly populated by guys/gals who earned their chops in a corporate setting but then left during the startup-boom of the 90s/00s to do their own thing DO carry a lot of the corporate work ethic with them (they show up/expect meetings to start on time, even if it's a skype one, projects are kept on task/on deadline, sometimes one will act as project manager, ect even when it's not strictly necessary). But the people who are coming up plucked out of the community with no professional experience (which seems to be a thing now) often do not have the same ethic (not because they are bad, but they've just never worked in such a setting) so they do have the "freelance means free spirit" attitude above.

It also seems to be a more prevalent attitude amongst the arts side of the house (take that with a huge chunk of salt, though as I'm married to a programmer, so...I'm sure both sides plus marketing bitch and moan equally about each other. ;> )

Even as a relatively disinterested outside observer, I'd say that the computer gaming industry has really changed in huge ways because of the erosion of a market for brick and mortar stuff. I mean, nobody really even buys physical copies of anything anymore. The company hubs has worked for the longest (he's the sole developer for their flagship game, which is the other hidden reason why things are 'slow' sometimes--yes, one would think there's a team, but in reality even some relatively well known titles are developed/worked on by 1 programmer or maybe 2 tops) has only one programmer on that game--him. Everyone else on the team is art, PR, ect, and he's not full time. I would imagine he and that game are not the only ones like that. I assure you he's extremely professional and also works a full time schedule, but ultimately--he's one brain/set of hands, who has to then wait on input/feedback/last minute changes of many people who don't always understand things from a coding perspective or who deviate from the specific things needed from the art without bothering to inform anyone (one of those mistakes that doesn't happen as much with folks who have ample corporate/professional experience) and thus things need to be redone, ect.

Yeah, I took a driving test for my very first license when I was 16 (MI), and have not had to take another one since, despite moving to 4 different states (VA, OK, MN, WA) in the following almost-quarter-century afterwards.

Got the green light to look into programs so that I can get my esthetician's license. I already have a very good client base for that via my massage practice, and it will allow me to bring in some extra $$ in ways that will be sustainable longer, and are compatible with stuff I already do.

So I am program touring starting next week.

I'm sure they would have if this was still going on when the hourly cleaning/towel person made their rounds. Unfortunately, at the time of the incident there was not a staff person there. This is probably why there's well posted signs everywhere explaining the rules on age limits/what direction to run when/track etiquette on the stairwell entrance, both door into the track itself. But you know, I'm open the the idea I'm a bitch with impossible expectations in this situation.

I hate criticizing other parents. Mostly because I have a healthy fear of the law of karmic retribution, since every "Well MY Kids Will Never Do THAT" type of shitty thing I said out loud (and a few I thought) about other parents in more advanced stages of parenting than me, I have had come up and bite me so hard in the ass I'm suprised I have cheeks to sit on. I'm sure I have my comeuppance yet again now that my first three kids are all teen/tweens, since I was the very best parent ever to teenagers when I only had sweet little kids.

Sometimes kids are little shits. Any parent who claims that their child has never been one is (IMO) lying or delusional. This kid tonight was not being a brat, he was just being a 2 year old who was in an inappropriate environment. That's really what turns it into a peeve for me. Toddlers drop to the ground. All of mine have done that in embarrassing situations (parking lots, the aisle of the airplane, Target, naked in the middle of the locker room floor while soaking wet after swim class, ect). Hell, my twins were bolters so I even tried those leashes (but then they promptly ran crosswise from each other and clotheslined each other full speed the first time I tried those fuckers out).

I understand the difficulties and lack of control over children's behavior. It still doesn't mean I don't get annoyed when a parent chooses to bring their child to an area where it is clearly marked that they're not supposed to be, and then willfully chooses to ignore then while they are doing things that are dangerous/part of the reason why children that age are not allowed to be in that area.

That really has nothing to do with luck.

I have kids that are not picky eaters and thus will eat almost anything I set in front of them without complaint. That's luck. It has nothing to do at all with fantastic parenting on my part, because I did nothing at all parenting wise to receive that. I have a good friend whose child has had suicidal ideations and attempts since he was 8 (he's now in his mid-teens). Also luck, because she is a much better parent than I will ever hope to be, and this terrible thing is happening to her and her child that is neither of their faults.

Bringing your child to an inappropriate and marked place and then ignoring them to the detriment of the many other people using that space appropriately is not luck though, that's a choice. Deciding to do that and then to get pissy when someone speaks to the kiddo to help (I didn't know who the parent was until I did that) is also a choice.

If you're going to break the gym rules to bring your toddler up to the 2nd story track (8+ with supervision I believe) then for fuck's sake don't ignore them when they throw themselves down on the ground in the middle of the very narrow running space while you continue to walk around it like nothing's going on.

I get the need to not escalate tantrums. Really I do. I have done the walk of shame with 3 children under the age of 2 all screaming through the grocery store. I have been in a place with not being able to afford a night out or a babysitter when really I probably could have used one. But if you cannot put your child in the very nice, very appropriately staffed child care that you're already paying for if you're working out here (I had a clinger, so I know how difficult that can be do) then for fuck's sake, walk around the gym at the gym level where they are permitted to be and don't pose a hazard to anyone or themselves and they can run and play and maybe even chase a basketball or two!

Bonus points if you shoot me a dirty look when after I run a mile while you ignore this and do nothing to help your child work through their tantrum in this very inappropriate place where I've seen another less patient runner get to the point of almost clipping them a few times, I stop to talk to your child and get them to move off to the corner by offering to make a "fort" of the stretching mat leaned up against the wall. No really, fuck you. If you want your child to only be looked at/spoken to by you, then maybe you should...you know. Supervise them.

My favorite BG I had to review as a staffer involved explicit descriptions of the PC's orgasms (I swear to god she used the word cum or cumming like 5 times in separate sections), the rapey mcbondageson carnival of BDSM that was her durance, along with her daring escape from the White Slave Traders of Aleswich by running away from them after they'd broken her legs...

It was tremendous fun to hand over to the brand new staffer as their first app to process on their own though.

Fun times. I should have gotten a free cigarette after that one.

And when I went back to school this last time a couple of years ago, every single textbook I bought was also available in electronic format, even for rental! (At considerably lower cost). I chose to not go that route because I'm an old fart and I still haven't totally gotten used to reading stuff like books without paper to hand, though considering how much the computer is essential even to something like my massage business (most of the insurance companies are now moving over to submitting referrals and even SOAP notes via the computer rather than faxing in a form), I may repurchase the ones I use for references electronically so I can have everything in one place.

I still as a practitioner don't feel comfortable with keeping all patient records online--but I know quite a few LMPs that are moving that way. So while I can totally see a doctor just scanning in their notes right now, I believe that may be a generational thing and that's likely to die out. At my HMO even the prescriptions are electronic and sent to pharmacy of choice. You don't get a piece of paper to carry anywhere, and I've watched the doctor type it out right here on the computer that's in every exam room.

But that being said, I do think it's important for kids to learn how to write by hand (both printing and cursive).

"The Public Schools" are not the same everywhere. Just like just because something is a private school doesn't mean that there is not even more coddling and kowtowing to parental demands that the specialness of their snowflake be attended to.

All throughout elementary school my kids never submitted anything by email. For one big project in both 5th and 6th grade they had to type up their reports (in addition to giving oral presentations along with their powerpoints as well as fielding questions and comments from teacher/class on the fly). They did receive computer lab instruction starting in the 3rd grade to help them learn the skills they'd need for those projects. Until then (and even until the final draft) all work was handwritten.

In 7th grade my daughter submits some things by email/google docs. Some of her textbooks are online too (she has to check out the paper kind from the library or use them during class, which is irritating because we don't have the money for an updated laptop (and all 3 bigs must share it) or an additional computer right now and her kindle is so old it won't accept the new formatting. But considering that my last college experience when I went back to school it seemed like most of the core education courses were submitting stuff via email or the equivalent, I suppose that's the way of the world now. So I'd rather her learn to manage that shit in 7th and 8th grade than in 9th or even worse college when it really counts.

My guilty pleasure is Le Chevalier D'Eon.

For many reasons, really. Historically accurate ++++. Also Ho Hounds.

But I really like Ergo Proxy (it's weird though), Haibane Renme, Mushishi, and all of the GitS TV seasons (not as big of a fan of the movies though).