This is not an Arx Cat. This is my cat. I had asked @Crawfish if she would do a painting of my cat who had passed away on Dec 3rd a few months ago. I could go for hours talking about him. What he meant to me, what he meant to others. The kind of presence he carried or brought into a room. How he was a cat who simply wanted to love and be loved.

Who had gone through so many moves with me, who travelled with me through about six different states over sixteen years. More than a couple relationships, he was the only constant. When my life was shit(and it often was), he was there.

I miss him more than I can to describe in words, and the reality is, as shoddy as my RPing is, so is the quality of writing I wouldn't be able to do him justice.

So thank you to Crawfish for doing this for me, she got his personality down. A old friend, who almost always looked grumpy or annoyed, but never was, that was just, well, his face.

But if he was an Arx character, I like to think he would've been some old Northener. An old scout in the Halfshav line, countless wars and conflicts, who lived to see finally retirement and old age. At least, that's the canon I have in my head.

Thank you again, Crawfish. Truly.

Finally. After working to try and prove myself for two years, I was offered the promotion I was trying to get. The one I had gotten a year prior was nice but it was never the one I truly wanted.

I almost started sobbing in front of the supervisor when she offered me the position.

Im so fucking happy.

So, I finally proposed to my girlfriend of three years two weeks ago. I couldn't think of any other way to do, so I just dropped it on her when she got off her flight at the airport. Was going to do this DnD one-shot with a proposal at the end, but I realized the timing to get our group together would be a herculean task with how the summer has gone. And really, she didn't care how I did it, so long as she was surprised.

Fast forward to this week, she's been looking over venues for the reception. Me personally, I'm much more low key about these kind of things but this is something she wants to do, and well...I'm not getting in the way of that. Anyways, she finds this whiskey distillery that's pretty inexpensive to rent out for functions. It's small, but that's fine because we planned on having a very small wedding anyways.

Originally, we were going to go this Friday. Get a tour, probably taste some whiskey, and likely have a good time. The owner asked if we could do Saturday instead. When my fiance asked me this, I hesitated.

I prooooobably shouldn't point out to her that my game's metaplot event is kicking off on Saturday at noon and that it's probably a better idea to just push the event back from 1pm to late afternoon/early evening, should I.

Thankfully, while the game has a small playerbase, pretty much everyone is like, "Why is this even a question."

I really appreciate the players there.

I think I can count on one hand the number of times I've been allowed or asked to really impact someone's RP in a seriously meaningful way, and the outpouring of thanks I got from that had me taken aback.

Someone came to me in last couple of days, their character looking to ask mine for advice and possibly direction. I, who am not exactly used to playing a leadership character in any serious way, agreed but internally I was seriously worried about not being able to help. Or worse, my help wouldn't be all that helpful.

During the agreed upon scene, I ended up paging a few other people asking for my own advice and spitballing ways that would make future RP for the character that came to me meaningful and enriching. The idea I came up with was refined by the people I spoke and once I set down what I thought they should do, after the scene they said they were very thankful for it.

I don't get that feeling very often. That sense of reward and accomplishment in doing something beneficial. Or at least, I don't hear about it. I'm really happy I was able to foster character development and good RP for another player.

That is, to me, one of the few reasons I still stick around this hobby.

I have to go to a funeral tomorrow. For a co-worker.

His name was River. He was well loved by everyone at my job. He had that kind of energetic that was infectious, and he was just the sort of person that was everyone's friend, despite wherever you sat on one issue or another. I thought him to a be a generally good person.

He had just moved from my department to another next to ours. Next door even, so we still saw him plenty, but after 2.5 years in my department, he wanted to move on, do something else. He had just started in what he viewed as a dream role that he could grow his career into. I remember him being so damn excited for it.

Well, nobody had heard from him for a few days, so his mother(who also works for our company but in a different deparment that's more HR related)went to check on him. It's said that she found him dead in bed. I don't know what he died of, and really, it's none of my business. I just hope it was in his sleep.

He was 26 years old. Far too damn young. And his own mother found him.

He loved the Milwaukee Bucks like nobody else and was so hopeful how they'd play in the Finals.

He loved his dog.

He was a good person. And now I have to watch him be buried.

I'm getting too old for this. I've buried a lot of friends in my life. And it never ever gets easier. So I remember his name and drink to his memory. And I have a feeling tomorrow after the funeral, I will drink. A good deal. I'll miss you, River. You were one of the good ones.

Finally getting to the point in your game development that you're, after so many months of writing and stress and frustration. Finally, I (mostly)ready for a soft alpha for my game. At least for people that have stuck it out on the Discord server while people toiled away in theme writing.

Granted, it's not completely finished. But it's finished enough. For the moment until I fill everything else out.

I got a promotion yesterday at work. This may not seem like a huge thing to a lot of people, but I've been at this job for a year. The last time I was at a job and it lasted longer than a year was 2009. So, a really long time ago.

I've had to crawl out of a very deep hole to get here. I mean, I look at what I received yesterday, and while a $1.50/hr increase in pay is not, well, it's not going to solve all my money problems overnight as much as I wish it would, it's still something to be proud of. Never mind that I think I've finally found a workplace that I could stay at until I retire. I like the company, I like the people, and I(mostly)respect the leadership.

Getting off third shift hours will be the best part. Moving to second shift isn't great, but it's a step up when it comes to having a life outside of work. And maybe I'll be able to RP more. So there's perks to the whole thing.

@Selira So when it comes to new cats, I'm going to join you on that. Recently, I've been doing some thinking on my current cat, who's getting up there in years and basically is entering the twilight of his life. I'm aware he doesn't have many more years with me, and I'd like him as happy as he can be. But I also work a lot, and we don't get nearly as much together as I'd like. At the same time, I hate the idea of him being alone so much. And while I know that cats are fine being solitary creatures, he's always been the friendly sort who seemed to like having other cats around. So I decided it was time to get another cat.

Hence, enter Prospero(or as a friend calls him, Prospurro). Partly because the name sounds good, and partly because The Tempest is my favorite of Shakespear plays.

So, Prospero's story is one of woe once I heard it. Thusly, he was raised in a good home with an elderly man, Prospero's only desires was to lay in this older gentleman's lap and be pet. Sadly, his owner passed away in November and there was no to care for Prospero. So he went to a shelter where he languished. Until he was rescued by a local city project designed to work with local pet stores and animal shelters to find homes for. Prospero was in a shelter for three months until I came along and decided, after speaking with project members, I learned he had the traits I was looking for. He was older(five years), low energy, not territorial, and got along well with other cats. It was everything I wanted in a cat that could get along with older cat who likely doesn't have the energy these days to keep up with another cat younger, never mind a kitten. And besides, he was cheap. People don't like adopting adult cats, they want a kitten. Me? I had zero issue at all.

So I brought him home, making sure to keep him separate from my other cat. So he's been living in the bathroom for the last day, and initially, he made behind the toilet his home. I was able to put a blanket down to make him more comfortable.

And that was more or less how last night went. I hadn't seen him eat, or drink, or even use the litter box, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I was afraid he migh pee all over the bathroom. Thankfully that's not the case. Because when I woke up, he had used it and looked like he had eaten, though a little bit. However, he has become more friendly and more affectionate and has switched from behind the toilet to make top of the washer/dryer I have in the bathroom his new home. Suppose it's now is new perch.

Either way, it's gone on pretty well. The meetings with my other cat have gone well. No hissing or swiping, just a lot of unsure smelling. I have hopes they'll be decent friends, or that's my goal. Prospero has a lot of getting used to before he's comfortable, I think. It's all very new to him still, and I can understand him being stressed about it. Still. he's adorable and I love his fluffy tail.

Was at Target last night, because I needed coffee creamer. A cart was left directly against the driver's side door of my car.

It made me think of this.

Uploading with the permission of Eirene's player. She thinks it's the best thing ever.

@hella said in Positivity Going Forward...:

@ghost it's self selection and hopefully a necessary evil of the evolution of MSB that will dwindle with time.

Kind of like when you said you were leaving mushing/MSB, right? If you want to come back, fine. But there isn't really a need to hide it.

I'm sorry. This is wrong. I have a point to try and post as little as possible, but this is morally wrong.

There is little justification to keep these bans in place, beyond trying to uphold this almost draconian position of what's perceived as black and white justice.

To note, there are of those banned that I disagree with, some I don't even like but I don't wish them to branded in such a way.

This is wrong and it will continue to be so.

That is wrong and you are silencing voices, even when it looks especially grevious when most of the voices banned ate those of dissent.

This look of "control must be maintained" is a bad look. I simply no longer believe that there is self awareness of that.

That's is.

@macha Fair, but I also think a lot of these types of games are likely to spread more via word of mouth with the understanding that this is how it likely ran. If you go into it with that expectation, I think something like that could go well.

@icanbeyourmuse This seems to be a running thing on newer games lately. Creating smaller games with smaller playerbases that are built around 'when people are around', thus giving less desire or need to be logging on every day and being able to give greater focus on its players.

I think this is a great trend for an aging playerbase who're entering into their 30s, 40s, and probably older.

@wildbaboons said in Wheel of Time MU*:

Using the Tat's spell system from Spirit Lake is exactly what I was doing with Patterns of an Age. It works pretty well for a lot of things, but some weaves are just going to be difficult to put into that context... but that's fine really.

Tat's system is awesome, but unless you've got the time (I turned out not to), I'd stick with regular FS3 and just some simple guidelines/weapons/skills to mimic channeling like some of the other magic based games have (the nazi punching one I can't remember the name of, for example)

That's what I did. Now, if those are balanced is an entirely different issue. But mimicking spells but are actually weapons in FS3 code? It works. You can do it.

I'll just be over here waiting for Tat to put that magic system as an Ares plugin. One day. I can dream.

@roz said in Forum wonk:

@testament said in Forum wonk:

ETA: This has sat in the back of my mind for the past month and it's eaten at me. I want to apologize for the loss of the forum causing some anxiety for others. I will take accountability on that end.

That is absolutely not something you are responsible or accountable for.

No, but I agreed to help the staff here two months ago with this issue and I've so far failed to deliver on it. So yes, apart of it does fall on the fact that things happened in my life that were out of my control. It does not stop the fact that I want to at least finish what I agreed to.

Also in the name of transparency, I've been trying to help with potential migration by creating a VM on my desktop to recreate the forum in the hopes in being able to preserve what we already have then eventually pass it onto a new forum with a larger memory limit.

I've stated privately to others, but I'll say it here as well. I've run into various roadblock due to personal health reasons that I have no desire to go into publicly. This has placed a problem in my path with trying to focus on working on this on my end or generally finding enough time to do. To note, it has been getting better, but I'm not where I want to. But I know I'm very close to finishing the installation, however, I've run into a snag that I haven't yet been to figure out. If anyone is more curious, it deals with the fact that NodeBB installation/authentication failure and I'm unsure what's causing it. The MongoDB install wasn't nearly as troublesome.

With that said, if NodeBB is willing to migrate the server for a fee, I'm willing put $100 towards it.

ETA: This has sat in the back of my mind for the past month and it's eaten at me. I want to apologize for the loss of the forum causing some anxiety for others. I will take accountability on that end.

All these people checking out at the beginning of the year.

Makes you wonder if they were told something the rest of us weren't and decided to nope out.

Makes me wonder with buying Activision if Microsoft is going to run afoul of anti-trust laws because this could be considered an monopoly.

Interesting.

https://www.polygon.com/22889270/microsoft-buys-activision-blizzard-xbox-phil-spencer-ceo