Posts made by Sunny

@Auspice

One of the biggest issues I have been facing is a complete inability to find local care that isn't emergency/short term temporary. Nobody around here is accepting patients save for a few, and they are either terrible, or don't accept my insurance and are stupid expensive. It's a serious issue here in general, and I have had doctor help in trying to find someone. It has been hell.

I poked around at that website, and long story short I have a physical appointment with someone next week and she is local and specializes in my trauma type. And I like her face.

So. Thanks.

Broke down and finally self-advocated firmly and asked for rescue anxiety meds. It is a hard ask, much like asking for narcotics this day and age. But I got to the point where I really, really needed the help.

Doctor gave them to me, no fuss. Agreed they were a reasonable ask and was OK with what I laid out for it.

Whew.

@Auspice

Me too. I get you. It sucks hammered dog shit. Also, it. Isn't. Fucking. Fair.

I recommend against using that as a metric for the reason stated. It being a poor metric is neither accusation nor assumption.

I do want to caution against using 'some players got it' as proof that you weren't being vague and/or unclear. This was a HUGE issue with the pf crowd -- since some people had Way More Access to the people in charge, they had a way easier time understanding what the ST meant/was looking for, and it was used as proof that they were not being too obscure/etc. So it's really important to also pay attention to who it is that is picking up the clues. If it's the same few people every time, it might be worthwhile to look at it for fairness' sake.

@Auspice

I can completely understand that. Imposter syndrome is rough. I still deal with it on the regular. So does my team's database admin. So does my boss, who is the CIO. Regularly. I know this cos we talk about it. Part of me suspects it has something to do with being women in tech for so long, but idk.

All that aside, lady, I would send my kid to you. You have a huge heart. That is (to me at least) the most important thing. I have mad respect for all the teachers around here, y'all give me hope. You got this.

@silverfox said in RL things I love:

My kids all passed their test today.

That never happens.

Yaaaaaaay!!!

@Auspice

If you haven't reached out to your school's IT dept for help you might try it. They may fix it, or send it to you in a diff format. OTOH, depending on the school, it may actually be MORE frustrating than just Dealing With It until you're through it. I had to work with the IT of a university at one point because one of my voc counselors was having problems exactly like you are describing with one of the modules. It was a headache and I wouldn't recommend it if you didn't already know computers, but it might be worth a shot.

Either way, thank you for even pursuing being a teacher. I feel like that is good for you and good for the kids that will have you to be fierce for them.

I pay not one but two companies for short-term disability insurance, as I have health issues that make this wise and it is always better to be safe than sorry...

Except BOTH of them are dragging this out well beyond reasonable. I am having a nightmare of an experience. One company noted my extension, wrote approval in, acknowledged receipt of what they needed, then clicked closed instead of extend. The other "lost" my paperwork. Repeatedly. Then found it and acknowledged receipt of when they got it...and put me at the end of the line with all the new ones.

Mind you, my heart issue is heavily impacted by stress.

FML.

I'll be okay. At the end of the day, I will be. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, things are now moving, the bad is done and will improve from here. But I don't and won't actually feel better until it is actually resolved because who expects an insurance company to lose your paperwork to begin with.

(ETA: yes folks, this is why I have not been around. Sorry not sorry for venting.)

Office365's web interface now lets you 'like' emails and things. I made the mistake of ranting about this (having likes in a professional environment) to my coworkers...

Yeah. My boss 'likes' every email I send her now.

ETA: I need to clarify. It is all in good fun.

I've done it, had lots of fun and success with it over the years. Don't any more, with my bff having passed away.

Best advice I can give you is: don't let people use it as a forum for venting about other games/roleplay/the hobby stuff in general. Put a requirement down that all 'public spaces' need to be neutral to positive, venting for private. Otherwise people will get into the habit and it's hard to reclaim the space once it happens.

ETA: What I ended up doing was to put some variation of 'this is not a space for venting' highlighted at the end of the desc of the main room folks hang out in when not playing stuff, then just a cheery reminder when it veers that way.

If literally no one is capable of meeting your expectations, it is probably time to examine the expectations in question, determine which are vital and which you can compromise on, and go from there.

ETA: For example, people who do well with administrative work.are not always (or even usually) the people good at storytelling, as they are very very different skill sets (and it's the same in reverse). Expecting one person to be good at both limits your possibilities a lot, when you can find highly qualified candidates for the individual tasks a lot easier.

@Thenomain said in Do you care about other people's music?:

@Auspice

Am I the only person left on the planet who doesn't use Spotify?

I don't! I mostly still listen to my local radio station if I'm not after a specific song.

@Auspice

People who know the art of makeup are wizards I swear. Magical. I'm glad you found somebody helpful.

@Auspice

I am sorry. That just sucks.

@SabotKick72 said in Should Rinel become smol birb?:

Did this just become the smol birb gif thread?

Gosh I hope so.

My fucking inability to express myself in a way that other people can understand.

OK, I am withdrawing from this conversation and putting the thread on ignore with one last repetition because holy crap I am frustrated right now:

I am advocating for it not happening on-screen, not for it not happening at all.

@Auspice

To be 100% honest I do not give a fuck about "bad actors". Bad actors get a boot up the ass immediately in any game situation I am ever responsible for, anymore. I am making policies for the good people to use to engage with one another, and it's really important to me that good people be able to say "nah, that's not fun" for ANY reason. It's up to me as a staffer to nail down the assholes.

ETA: I am completely fine and comfortable with full consent games, even. Because when someone fucks up that environment by abusing it, you get rid of them. The 'get rid of them' is the factor most of our games have been missing for the last two decades, and now we're left making policies that seem to forget that this is even an option.

Policies are to give the good people a framework for interaction, not to keep bad actors from being bad. It doesn't matter what your policies are, the bad actors are going to be bad. You just have to make sure your good people know what that behavior is so they know to tell you.

ETA2: There is no policy in existence that will keep poor sports from being poor sports, petty people from being petty, or people who can't deal with consequences from having a fit when they're applied. It is not possible. It's not even really possible to minimize it. Bad actors are bad. Period. What policies CAN do is help reasonable people (which is most of them) speak the same language and have the same expectations, reducing misunderstanding and miscommunications because everyone knows what's expected of them.

@Auspice

In my opinion, there is a wide gulf between 'didn't happen' and 'didn't happen on screen'. If someone is roleplaying that whatever happened off screen DID NOT HAPPEN, then that is something else entirely. I am specifically -- and only -- referring to a difference of 'happened on screen' and 'happened off screen'. If someone takes 'happened off screen' to be 'didn't happen', then they would be in violation of the rules.

Characters should have to deal with the fallout of their actions, absolutely. I don't think that this means that players have to be punished with on-screen roleplay that isn't fun.