Posts made by Paris

@surreality said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

they were genuinely shocked by how ideal my numbers were. Blood sugar, cholesterol, etc. All not just normal, but good. It baffled the hell out of them, re: 'then how the hell are you a fat person!?' They expected very, very different results... and they were running all of these tests twice daily to check on all the things constantly. (Blood sugar was 6x/day, even.)

Aside from my blood sugar, which is bad right now due to the steroids I had to take during chemo (before that it was good, just needed insulin once every few months), it's the same with me. Kidneys, liver, cholesterol, blood pressure, etc, all good, always surprises the docs, especially since the cancer was everywhere. When I try to go veg/vegan my blood sugar swings wildly, and I am of course allergic to soy so have few protein sources. I basically have to eat carb-free a few days a week, which is nice since we go do korean bbq.

I was a thin diabetic and am a heavier diabetic, am hoping that time and diet will counteract the steroids.

We're pretty hands-off as long as stuff follows theme on Fear and Loathing.

@Admiral unfortunately opiates don't do much for migraines, and often make them worse.

Tramadol gave me way worse reactions than Oxy does and barely dented my (spine and neuropathic) pain, that was one of my worst months ever. Remember to taper off that one, too.

@Sparks waves pompoms inadequately ><

@Sparks the fact that I missed none of mine was considered to be unusual, if it helps. It's stressful but a common occurrence.

Re: toxic relatives: I cut my family off years ago, and it was the best decision I ever made. They kicked me out when I was 16 for being queer, stole my few possessions, and even recently offered no assistance whatsoever when I was diagnosed with terminal cancer (my brother stated that doing anything for me would be a 'bad investment' since I'd die anyway).

My in-laws are no better: they told me I should have let sweetie lie in her own filth than literally break my back to help her, because now I was 'a burden' on them; then told us we would be screwed if we tried doing things on our own, then tried to bully us into turning over all our money, including cancer funds, and control of our home, over to them. When we refused, we had to get cops to oversee removing them from our home, because of escalating threats.

So now it's just us. We are sad that we don't have functional family, and it's difficult being two disabled people having to go it alone, but the peace that cutting off all contact with toxic family has brought can't be overstated.

Being allowed to cover our own bills, buy our own food, come and go as we please and splurge when we want to with the money we make, for the first time in over a decade, is awesome. Having a quiet house with no drama is the best.

I've had heatstroke since friday, because I'm dangerously photosensitive and had to meet a lawyer during a southwest heatwave. I have to go back out in two weeks to have an unconsitutional ticket dismissed.

This better add a few grand to that settlement, I tell you what. -.-

@Cupcake IMO, prioritise the nails over the bath: a warm wet washcloth does a lot for a smooth-coated non-oily dog. Barring skin issues that require a medicated bath, anyway.

Aww. :< You seemed pretty cool, hopefully you'll get the bug again someday.

@Catsmeow said in RL Anger:

@Auspice

Oh sweet mother....

I could write a ton that my mother discouraged when I was growing up, etc. From what clothing to wear to what toys to play with to what I should or shouldn't do.

Likewise, mine micro-managed every aspect of my appearance, toys, the way I stood, moved, what I ate, etc. Was very discouraging of breaking out of the rigid mold she set and kicked me out at 16 when I started to shut down.

If you drink sugary stuff, that will make you gain weight.

Imo get a bike you like to use, but get some ankle weights instead. I used to cycle a lot before I was wheelchair-bound and kept my weight at about 135. I was down to 150 before chemo (even in a wheelchair, by avoiding too much sugary shit), and the roids I had to take have me stuck at 185 whether I eat or not.

Though my back was too unstable for a bike, I dropped about 30 lbs and quite a few dress sizes by sitting with my ass close to the edge of the couch, and cycling my legs fast for a few minutes, then slow for 5-10, then fast again, working up to about 45 minutes. Did this once a day; would read books while I did it. Right now I have too much damage to safely do it now, argh.

Had been considering as I really like one of the series, but that ban means I'm no longer considering (even if I have often been ftb this last year). It tends to lead to too much micro-managing and faux-virtuous attitudes on any game I've played with that in place.

@Catsmeow apparently even the ACLU of Nevada won't get involved with this because 'it would be a conflict of interest' even though this is a pretty cut and dry civil rights violation AND ignoring rulings against Metro police that have gone down as recently as two weeks ago, speaking of how corrupt Vegas is.

The cops told us the courts locally are on their side about it despite said rulings, and that laws are what they say they are. They outright said so, they have no fear. I should have taped them (we did two others later and will be handing stuff to our lawyer) and will be next time this happens.

@Admiral pressure wounds suck. I got some after my cancer surgery (I'm a paraplegic) and it took most of a year for them to heal, with scarring on my ass. I'm 42. For someone in their later years, it's just horrible, and I'm so sorry he's had to deal with that. The hospital also discharged me early. I didn't sue because they mostly did my surgery pro bono.

I and my SO, who is a quadriplegic, have both been told we're burdens, especially by family (hence why we have cut thrm off for a few years), but also care providers. It's very common. I think it's even more awful to have happen to someone who setved their country.

Right now, I am pissed, because the police shut us down despite our work being protected under both local ordinances and the first amendment. Tickets, property confiscated, threats, the whole deal. This is our livelihood. We are both fully disabled and have no family to turn to. We don't have many options. I have to show up at court in 100+ degeee sunny heat to have my ticket tossed (and it will be) -- and Officer Asshole promised to find us and come after us again even if we got it dismissed (which it will be) -- and I am dangerously sun-sensitive.

So, now we're looking into lawyering up, because we need to file restraining orders against the metro police. Of course, it's the weekend, the aclu of nevada only takes web submitted requests, and all local lawyers offices are closed for the weekend.

We still need to make money, as being homeless won't work: a sun-sensitive paraplegic taking care of a quad will not work in sunny las vegas. If we were able-bodied, we could stay in the undercity while we got back on our feet (I was homeless yeeeears ago, when I was able), but we have no way to get down to the tunnels.

(This is not a plea for assistance, by the way. I don't want help, unless it's a first amendment or ADA lawyer's deets; I am just venting while we assess our options. I just want to get back to work.)

@Roz said in UX: It's time for The Talk:

I've staffed on a game that had a large amount of new players who were entirely new to MU*s, and @faraday is right: the help vs +help thing, the whole command structure, was a nightmare to try and explain.

Aside from the complaint here, we (at F&L) have a lot of folks who are new to MUSHing, and have had decent retention, by actively helping and explaining.

@EMDA I'll look into updating that, though it won't be immediate. We've updated help and added information/functionality to existing things as players have requested them.

Part of it is that we inherited the DB, with various custom code that did not all have help written for it, and so are modifying and updating it as we catch them or someone says it's not intuitive.

It's not as good as being in-game immediately, but I will work on a list of basic and in-depth commands for the wiki, and put a link to it in the ooc room.

@mietze said in MSB MU*?:

Honestly, the people who shit talk others in mu*dom expecting it will never get back to them are idiots. Even if you shittalk only to someone you think doesn't even know who you're talking about or that other person, it always gets back.

Double idiocy if you share logs showing how "wrong" they are and end up showing your own ass instead. LOL.

This burned someone recently who used a log to double down on how much of a jerk I ostensibly was, to a mutual friend who had taken their version of things as true, but had expressed missing me.

I received an unqualified apology from said friend, who was aghast at the thought that they might approve of what had been said, especially because they had been mentioned in the log as approving of it.

My accuser, on the other hand, burned their last chance at shit-talking with that log.

I'm pretty friendly with everyone, but if I find drama coming up with a player I'm close to, I usually talk to other staff about it-- and clarify that I am not asking for staff action.

And I encourage the same from staff; one former player, for example, had sexually harassed me for a while and across games, but I kept quiet; when I finally mentioned it to staff, I found out that two other staff had experienced the same and a third had been subjected to long, aggro rants about their staff decisions. Then a few players came forward after the ban and expressed their own discomfort.

No one wanted to be that guy, so no one said anything. I myself am friendly enough that it sometimes attracts the wrong kind of attention, so I sometimes worry if I made things worse. (Did I not say no clearly enough? Should I have been more standoffish?)

Now, I encourage staff to speak up if someone is stirring things up or making them uncomfortable. Sometimes it's just a disagreement between people or a different style of communicating or a bad day, and sometimes it's deeper than that.

@Thenomain said in How Do I Headwiz?:

• People are helping you run the game, from staffers to players. Respect their time and effort.

Yeah. Part of why I stressed the importance of getting jobs done in a timely manner is this.

When I had just a few months to live, and currently live in three-month increments (when I get scanned for a recurrence of a cancer that came back already), I'm not waiting over a month and a half to not even get a response on a yes or no question, when friends of staff, or staff, get theirs done in a day. That's part of why I only play on my game now; I can make sure stuff is done and fix things when it stalls. There's nothing I can do (edit: elsemush) when staff has no respect for others' time. I feel helpless enough in RL.

I'm not going to do that to others if I can help it, even if they don't have as much urgency, either. It's still wasting time.

It's why players don't need staff to approve most of their xp spends. It's why we give players extra xp if their apps get held up, which so far has been pretty infrequent.

It's why staff get to play in their own spheres, but other staff will do their jobs. It's also why staff's jobs don't have priority over players'

I know I'm harping on it, but this does affect RP. When becomings, entitlements, plots, etc, stall, RP stalls, time gets wasted. It disrespects people and their investment in the game.

A headwiz should intervene. So what if it's just a game? People's lives are tough enough and they are entrusting you with their time, effort and happiness. Saying it's just a game devalues them.

@Ganymede said in UX: It's time for The Talk:

@HelloProject said in UX: It's time for The Talk:

In the context of the roll command, roll Presence + Socialize + Striking Looks + Socialize: Format Events + Applicable Condition + Applicable Discipline is, to me, far simpler than having to go and either look up notes or open up PDFs or Google trying to figure out which PDF which thing is from so that you can remember that something is a 2.

Okay.

You'll be pleasantly surprised to learn that what you're proposing is the status quo, as far as I know.

On ours, it'd be +roll presence + intimidation.regal + mantle (spring)

But for say Striking Looks you'd add a + 2.

You SHOULD know what the numerical value is, though, because that value denotes how much you have or how good you are, and that influences your rp. You are not a skilled surgeon at Medicine 1, you are not very intimidating at Intimdation 1.You're not super-quick on the uptake at Wits 2. But at Medicine 5, you're among the best in the world at your field. If you don't remember how much you have,how can you accurately roleplay your skill?