Posts made by mietze

Nathalie@RfK was probably my pc with the most rich and intricate backstory that also was perfect for including many many other tie ins to other PCs. She had historical or blood ties to many folks on game that were old enough, it didn’t necessarily even make them friends or allies but it was just really fantastic to be able to have a good excuse (not always an easy thing on a vamp game) to inquire and learn more about what that pc had been up to in more recent years, to be a calm listener, to be able to soothe the savage Beast both in how I was able to play her but also genuinely with stats that had both a good chance of success but a really good chance of extreme risk..and having wonderful collaborative players who were willing to play out either or. Also I met Cary on her, so...you know. Super bonus.
It was also super fun to see who drastically underestimated her, who “got it” and was able to subtly weave that in without treating a servant pc as their bestie without reason, who used what she was to manipulate her. There were so many really wonderful rp interactions there, both ones I got to be involved with and those I got to observe.

I also loved Gloria, my dreamy fluffheaded Alucinor on CoFaB. Both her partnership with her pirate captain as his soothsayer of sorts and others. Like RFK I think the single sphere focus was wonderful for a deep dive into vampire theme that’s hard to do with the more mixed up places.

For super fun one-offs, I loved Toni @ BITN. I don’t think I really got to delve much into her background that I was super stoked about—but that’s because I was having so much fun being able to show up with a legit excuse to be anywhere! And be a grumpy smart mouth. Tow truck drivers ftw but I regret never getting to use her driving fighting style to run anyone over.

Kostas@BSO 1.0 was neat. Super battle scarred guerrila fighter who trained child soldiers and then was put in an ensign suit on a real ship again and dealing with...officers. She was fun, and had a pre-arranged expiration date (to keep up the realistic feel that you go through platoon officers like tissue paper in a war situation. It was a death sentence, she knew it, still mother henned her folks. You know, like someone who was used to training children to go be cannon fodder to hold off species destruction for one more day.

The PC that I still have the most attachment to was Ariadne. It was a pleasure to get to play her for like..3 years-ish? Maybe more! She went in a very very different direction than I though she would. But she was fun to play and I think a lot of folks had great fun with her. The circumstances of her loss led an extremely bad taste in my mouth due to ooc nastiness but it was also good instruction for me to know that life really does go on and your stress level rebounds when you make the choice to walk away from a bad situation even after you’ve invested so very much.

And of course, Arianwyn@A2A. Also a super fun pc to play who went very differently that I expected, but it was on that game that I met and got to know many people who I’m still rl friends with even if they don’t even play anymore.

@surreality is looking at me! She stuck her toe over into my side of the post!

@dontpanda no we wouldn’t.

@arkandel, that’s not really what many women experience.

It’s more like going in for chest pains, extreme fatigue, night sweats and being patted on the hand and offered an anti-depressant and a referral to a bariatric surgery program (that I wasn’t even close to qualifying for since at that time I was only about 50 lbs overweight. And being told that I’d probable feel better if I looked nice and got more exercise.

I was experiencing autoimmune hemolytic anemia. By the time found a doctor who was willing to believe I was fat not stupid, I needed blood transfusions and probably should have been hospitalized.

Many women have even worse stories to tell.

I think the price issue is only because we are heavily used to job subsidized care or nothing at all. So people go in without even thinking of anything beyond the co pay or they don’t go in until it’s dire, knowing they will take a financial hit.

When my older three kids were young we had catastrophic care only with a $5000 deductible and no preventative care. It’s the insurance plan we could afford privately.

You better believe I learned quick to ask what every physician’s cash rate was and how much each service would be discounted if I paid immediately. Everything. I even price shopped for vaccination, switched prescription provider often to get the discount for transfers, etc.

It was hell.

Hmmm. You know, I can totally see doctors being reluctant to tell a man that his health could be improved by losing weight.

I concur that anyone who thinks that women aren’t told/ignored due to doctors automatically assume all problems are fat related probably isn’t a woman who’s remotely overweight and tried to go in to the doctors office.

Why be sad over a freely given gift though. Unless the person is either ignorant or somehow deficient which it doesn’t seem either is at play here.

Hence my...well, irritation is too strong of a word for it, but it’s in that vein, of people who jump all over people laying out their asked for rate on either side. If you don’t want to work for an unprofessional rate, you shouldn’t and you shouldn’t feel the slightest bit guilty. But IMO neither should you assume that someone who chooses to is doing so for WRONG!!!! reasons. You just don’t know. If someone I treated at a discount on a home visit because of Reasons tries to strong arm the next LMT for that rate, they’re an idiot. But it doesn’t make me one, and I hope the nice beneficiary of it wouldn’t wring their hands and allow that lower rate to tarnish it. I’d almost rather them not accept it. But again, not my call, it’s on them if they accept or not.

I think what people charge for services is highly personal, and that nobody should get shit thrown at them for disclosing what they can afford or what they choose to charge.

Ultimately the artist or worker has to make their own decisions about what their exceptions and bottom line is. I intensely dislike it when people seem to be butting in on that without any nuance, or trying to make someone out to be stupid/the devil. It’s just more complicated that that.

I guess I don’t understand why you shouldn’t cherish something that was given to you at just above cost, by someone who wanted to do so. Sometimes people do make the choice to do that especially for people they feel appreciate it. I mean I do understand somewhat impulse for guilt, but I think it is a shame that might taint the enjoyment of a piece.

I have set up my chair at tent city and refused all donations other than a promise to pay it forward in some way if people really wanted to give me something. If I billed for time there probably I could have/“should have” made around $1500 during that time I spend there while they were close (and for typical outcall/location clients I’d have charged a lot more). I did it because I wanted to, and because I knew the people who would sign up for it did so because they needed the touch, the body work, the pain relief, whatever and it was my privilege to work with them. I always offered an insane discount to other body workers for the same reason.

It’s wonderful to have your work respected, to be paid fairly for it, and to put idiots in their place who disrespect you. (I too have heard my share of “well my kid/aunt Susie/grandpa/friend/partner gives backrubs all the time and doesn’t charge people $60!” Or “show me that trick/how to do that release, etc!”). But I don’t know. If I had done the equivalent of mining my own metals (I guess...ummmm squeezing my own coconuts or whatever I’d grown myself and combining them with the oils I’d distilled from gardening for a specific oil blend tailored to my client?) you better damn well believe that I’d choose to perform that on someone who maybe wasn’t able to shell out $500/hr but could and would as a fellow artist/worker/etc appreciate and bask in it.

Just because someone has talent, skill, and training does not mean that they are willing or capable of being a good businessperson.

A lot of skilled professionals can compensate for this by working for someone who does have business accumen and can take care of that framework. Many visual arts folks don’t have as many opportunities for that.

I saw this a lot in massage as well. Despite being handicapped by starting my business pregnant, and thus unable to use all the tools I had for building my biz, I managed to stay in the black for over 3 years because I had a good background in business stuff thanks to running non profits as a volunteer. I know people immensely more talented than me that couldn’t keep their own place because they couldn’t handle even keeping deadlines straight for business license renewal, or massively overcharged or undercharged based on their actual costs and clients.

A lot of people are super uncomfortable dealing with money or asking for money, and I think that probably arts programs spend about as much time on entrepreneur skill building as part of their instruction as most massage schools do—slim to none.

So I don’t know i would put the blame on individuals seeking to hire an artist or what not (most people have no clue how to evaluate value) or artists who make the decision about price point when they’re inexperienced or inept. It’s a very tricky thing to figure out price point and valuing and negotiating things even if you do have a good head for biz...and many many many creative people don’t have the patience for it.

Every fucking upper respiratory virus I get, or influenza even if it’s not got any other upper respiratory symptoms invariably kicks my asthma into gear. I feel like I got kicked in the chest by a horse.

@surreality said in RL things I love:

My crazy cousins have determined that Thanksgiving feastivities will be enduring through Saturday.

At some point on Saturday, this is going to happen.

We are mostly old farts and none of us are getting any younger, but you can be damned sure I'm charging the phone up for that shit (for insurance purposes when someone inevitably ends up sent to the hospital if nothing else).

It’s pretty fun, and less hurtful than you’d think— however it’s very smelly. You’re in an enclosed not well ventilated inflatable plastic space, and evenwhen it’s cleaned well, it’s still funky.

I found it messed up my equilibrium.

Zomg I’m doing the fat cougar housewife thing and getting violet highlights in my hair! Unfortunately I can’t afford to change them every week for @Tempest

I love love love Thanksgiving. It’s my favoritest holiday (since I love to cook!!). I have my turkey dry brining in my fridge, I get to do a couple of make ahead things to tuck into the oven tomorrow, we have 12 to feed tomorrow, all chosen family and my crew, with some folks making their famous sides and bringing yummy things. I get to clean off the good china (since we will need it to extend our regular plates!)

Nothing makes me happier than feeding folks and seeing them enjoy good food and great company!

I don’t like the history behind it at all, but it’s nice to have a non religious feasting holiday. Not that it stops me from having feasts then too!

The last month or so has been so dreadful. It’s nice to be on a happy heart buzz.

I will admit that the only celebrity that I actually cried on reading that they’d died was Fred Rogers. By all accounts he seemed like the real deal.

Holy shit, someone tricking others oocly into participating in rape play is pretty yuck! I hope the boyfriend or whoever was oocly aware/fine with that path! If not, that would rise to the level of a bannable offense (banning the possessed person), at least for me.

Maybe I’ve just encountered too many Surpise! Rape and Rescue! So Dark and Gritty! “plots” on WoD and fantasy games.

Why does being disappointed and sad over someone’s behavior that you had admired mean you worshiped them before? That seems a little ridiculous.

If I found out tomorrow that Gany had stalked someone across games and sent them gross @mails and unsolicited crotch pics, I would feel disappointed and sad. I’ve interacted with her and read stuff but her now for like, 6ish years? I would not presume that I know her in a deeply personal sense, I don’t. But I respect and admire her and finding out she engaged in something abhorrent to me would make me sad.

I think it’s weird that someone would find it weird that people might be disappointed or even angry when someone does something they don’t like.

It has nothing to do with worship. I usually don’t get sad when celebrities die, I don’t care if authors or friends or other admired/enjoyed folks hav different political viewpoints or whatever. I know nobody’s perfect and I don’t worship anyone.

But still, when someone does something that I find gross, it seems natural to be sad or mad or disappointed. Regardless of the personal connection there or not.

I work the equivalent of a part- to full-time job in local politics though. So the conduct of someone in my party is near and dear to me, because I am very invested. I have enjoyed following Franken’s career in politics since the beginning. Not because I idolized him. Not because I thought he was beyond human. Most people know to not grope people when posing for pictures with them.

I don’t think it’s unreasonable to be disappointed when someone who should know better does something as stupid and yucky as that.

Perhaps my heartbreak would not be so had I not been involved in fighting for recognition and action against politicians and leaders in my party who have sexually harassed and assaulted people both in the context of their jobs but up to and including a popular activist and organizer for the Bernie campaign, who was a personal friend, raping a young woman 3 days after she turned 18 during a state party gathering. (He was expelled from the party, over the objections of other old primarily white dudes who said he was too good of an organizer to let go just because some girl “made a mistake.” Now we are in the process of rooting out those folks too. No place for rape apologists. Period.

I don’t mind if other people think it’s excessive to be repulsed by Franken’s conduct even if he did not, so far as we know, rape or harass teen girls at the mall. If I wanted to be part of a group that’s fine with rape culture behavior as long as there’s a warm body to vote in line with donor wishes, i would go join the Republicans.

I probably know more about operations and issues in my corner of local and statewide Dems than anyone looking down their nose at me because they perceive it to be too excessive for their tastes.

Fuck that shit. This is a pervasive problem, we’ve been working tirelessly to change it from the ground up, and it’s fine if I feel pretty disgusted by Franken’s stupid, sexist behavior in his past but including when he was a sitting senator for my party. I expect better from the people I work hard for, and yeah, sorry not sorry I’m not willing to hold them to the same floor licking standards as others do for their racist rapey ass creepster bigots who get defended by “well golly gee if he’d had more time Jesus prolly would have done it too, he’s just being a man!” idiots.

People can fuck right off with that shit.

Same thing for lesser punishments, if the effect is visible (like sudden removal from a position).

Jane has been removed from x position due to inactivity/being AWOL. Once we have resolved an ic solution, it will be given. Please see news faction head for our guidelines.

Joe has been asked to take a 2 week break from the game due to being rude/condescending/argumentative/abusive on the ooc channel after being asked to stop . Please review our behavior expectations, and if you have questions or concerns about your own behavior and aren’t clear then please feel free to reach out.

I think it’s better for all concerned to have a truthful, simple, short and clear explanation for the ban in all circumstances.

It prevents a lot of issues.

Bob was banned because of x incidents of inappropriately using ooc info IC. Please see our policy of x (if there is one). If you have questions or need a gut check about your own behavior in this regard please feel free to reach out to staff.

I think when I have seen silence or “face saving” explanations allowed to be given for someone being asked to leave, it tends to stir up more upset or in some cases allows that person to act as if nothing happened/no cause.

That’s not really good for anyone in that situation.

I’m not sure that someone who egregiously cheated or who was vile in their harassment deserves their privacy protected.