Posts made by Three-Eyed Crow

I got my uni degree in journalism and spent the first five years of my working life as a newspaper reporter. It was around 2004 when I graduated.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

I laugh because I weep at the dying industry, and such.

I didn't get furloughed or anything, but when I was looking for The Next Job I realized that, with five years experience, I'd still be making shit money and living in another shit town if I wanted to keep doing this, and I was coming off a job that had made me pretty miserable. So I started looking for alterna-jobs, and kind of fell into fraud review for a financial outfit. This was 2009, right after the crash, so there was a scramble to hire anyone with any kind of investigative experience, even if it wasn't financial industry specific. I'm doing pre-funding reviews (basically, liar loans) for a bank right now. I like the puzzle aspect of it a lot and it's great experience for this kind of thing.

I'd like to stick my head back into freelance non-fiction writing now that I'm settled enough to have some flex time. And I miss journalism, but the current media landscape freaks me the fuck out and I'd never want to go back full-time.

ETA: My first job and one I had on and off through college was as a barista, and it's still The Dream to open a random coffee shop with my retirement money. It'll be next to my hermit cabin.

I log in to read posts and occasionally catch people for chan chatter/pages on my phone often enough.

I never scene on my phone. The lack of a physical keyboard is probably keeping me from doing it more than anything lacking in the phone clients out there, and I'm not sure how you'll ever overcome that.

I used to have a phone with a physical QWERTY (the slide-out kind) that I did scene on a few times. It was awkward as hell but doable. I find touch-screen keyboards terribad in general and for this in particular, but capitalism seemingly won't support a QWERTY phone for me anymore. Woe, and such.

ETA: I'm tempted to get a Microsoft Surface in part because I could MUSH on the damn thing and carry it around in my purse, I'll admit. But this is a horrible reason to buy anything that expensive, so I haven't yet given in.

@surreality said in Rewards other than XP:

I like the +badges, which is such a trivial thing but is good fun and positivity. (I may beg some day for someone to post this code somewhere so more games can use it, or may try a wiki/game hybrid thing with this idea.)

I read the idea of video game-style achievements elsewhere recently, and it really appealed to me. They have no value but I love getting them, and I suspect this would translate to MU*ing well.

There's at least one Dresden MU running (Dark Spires?). Iirc it's a FATE game. Never played there myself, though, so I'm not sure of its current state.

@Arkandel said in Coming Soon: Arx, After the Reckoning:

You know what the curious thing is though? I had a conversation recently with a member of my House who was complaining OOC that he has nothing to do, doesn't know what to do... he's just feeling blah. In the mean time he avoids playing about anything fun; he almost always joins RP, by his own admission, when there are people he can farm @randomscenes from, plays to improve his gear and gather resources to trade and improve his gear, etc. So essentially this guy plays the game in the least entertaining way possible then he's puzzled it's not engaging him. Which is the flipside of this whole situation, and a real head-scratcher for me.

MU*s are funny things. I've been thinking about this off and on lately. Dunno why. Anyway.

They're story games (which I still consider very much a game, just of a different sort), but there's no way to win a story game. Except by getting the bestest story, and that's extremely ephemeral. It depends on there being story to get at all, which is up to the game to create, but it also depends on you the player making a smaller story you're interested in that jives with the larger ones. And on finding the right RP group, because I at least find these games "matter" most when I've got people to explore story after-math with. And on getting in on the right plots at the right time. And and and. Lots of things you really can't build for.

Whereas, if you have systems and mechanics, there are tangible ways to do shit and it's fairly easy (if occasionally grindy) to work toward them. Maybe your friend is trying to find the intangible fun by pursuing the tangible? Wouldn't work for me, but I can kinda see it. I think we make this kind of mistake a lot, across a lot of games, but I don't know a reliable path toward the intangible funs.

@Auspice said in Mac Client Recommendations?:

Much of this. When I'm running a scene, it's nice to be able to draft and edit and update my poses while also keeping an eye on the scene itself, answering questions, etc.

It's incredibly helpful when GMing and staffing, yeah. Probably moreso than player-side, though that's how I've mainly dealt with it. It's non-essential but now that I'm accustomed to it I really appreciate it as a multi-tasking tool.

@faraday said in Mac Client Recommendations?:

Most people I know use it to compose a pose while simultaneously carrying on a page or channel convo. I've always been so accustomed to just using the clipboard as a copy/paste buffer that even when I've used Potato on occasion I haven't found myself utilizing the dual-input window. But maybe it's something you get used to over time.

This is primarily what I use it for and I find it a lot more helpful than I did in the beginning. Channel convo I can just let scroll and whatever, but sometimes there are pages I feel like I should respond to right away. I also use it as a quick reference to bbposts or character finger info while writing. Even when I tried to save poses by copy/pasting, if you aren't vigilant about it every time, they're just gone. And recreating poses, much like copy/pasting hyperlinks from SimpleMU because it fucks up links, is a PITA I wasn't entirely aware I hated until I no longer had to deal with it.

@Auspice said in Mac Client Recommendations?:

And that dual-input, right? That's the main reason I'm bit-chomping. I've been missing my Potato dual-input soooooo bad.

Does Potato work for Mac? I thought it did (and thought this and its Linux compatibility was part of the reason it had that kind of infuriating Aspell thing instead of a live SimpleMu-style spellchecker). But I'm a Windows user so I only know what it says on their site, not what it actually does. I'm now curious what it's like for non-Windows users, since I've found it pretty functional.

@surreality said in RL Anger:

@PuppyBreath I am not going to give you any platitudes, because they don't help. I will say, it's becoming more and more recognized that people change careers and such many times over the course of their lives these days than it once was -- and many people don't find 'their thing' until much later than we were always told as kids we were expected to know what that was and be immersed in doing that thing.

This is absolutely true.

I was involved in a lay-off of most of my entire office (about 50 people total) and got some 're-employment' courses as part of my severance. The guy leading them said that on average people stay at a job for 2-3 years. It's not only accepted by employers, turn-over is expected at this point and the old 'stay at the same desk for 10 years' can hurt you in a lot of ways.

I'm also doing something radically different than the thing I got my degree, though the degree itself was useful when I was transitioning (just having a degree at all is useful at a certain point). There's far too much emphasis in our society on finding YOUR DREAM when you're 14 and never deviating from it. It's not healthy. I've done what I needed to do to get along in life and searched for my bliss along the way. It's worked out OK.

What I prefer are bonuses for apping stuff that actually IS rare in terms of the active PCs, but shouldn't be IC. Older characters, under-populated factions and jobs, characters who are actually closer to the canon archetype and not outliers, etc. It doesn't always work. Sometimes nobody wants to play these things for specific reasons the game should address in other ways. But I think it's useful to build up specific areas during spurts of under-population.

@Faceless said in Fires of Hope: A Star Wars Story:

Fires of Heaven, huh? What's that game like? Is it a lot of fun? Fantasy game, right?

The first place my brain went was WoT, but that's only because Robert Jordan broke my spirit in oh so many ways.

@Auspice said in Fires of Hope: A Star Wars Story:

The discussion right now that Hssiss is considering is for Staff to craft Force Users who can be used for story arcs.

And then to open up being force sensitive for any new CGs (where they could then gain more abilities over time through story/XP).

This is a lot better than a popularity contest determining who gets the Shiny on a game. It strikes me that that policy was designed to decrease drama but...I do not think it will do that, to put it mildly (again, stuff of my nightmares, do not want).

@mietze said in Fires of Hope: A Star Wars Story:

I guess. I'd rather staff just have balls to own the decision instead of leaving it to player and clique popularity.

This right here. At least application staff might have consistent standards. If there's favoritism, whelp. Tells you something you need to know about staff and the game right there.

The playerbase voting on my application sounds like a horrific nightmare in which I'd never participate.

@ThugHeaven said in RL things I love:

So they added Prince to Spotify, that alone has made me love Spotify even more.

I am listening to 1999 RIGHT THE FUCK NOW without being shackled to my ITunes library. It's making me so damn happy. The world, it is my oyster.

@Auspice said in RL Anger:

Whether single or in a relationship, cheap candy is the only fuck I give about VD.

I'm also enjoying the many Galentine's Day playlists on Spotify, and the free cookies at the office. Otherwise, no fucks, but I'll always accept free food.

@Ghost said in Good TV:

Is anyone as remotely excited as I am about Twin Peaks returning in May?

I'm so stunned it's actually happening that I haven't quite worked up to excited yet. But I'm definitely looking forward to it. Whatever it is, the sheer weirdness will be worth it.

Still want the 'Deadwood' movies. Come on, HBO.

My good buddy Jorji from Papers Please was my avatar here for awhile. I miss him sometimes, but I'm still feeling like the Chrono Trigger princess for the moment.

I am always surprised by how emotionally invested I become in paperwork sorting in a shed for the benignly evil overlords. Love 'Papers, Please,' and it's become (unfortunately) weirdly timely.

@surreality said in RL things I love:

Apologies for double post, but new subject for the coffee junkies amongst us: I the AeroPress. Damn, this thing is simple as can be and actually makes pretty damned good (read: strong as hell) coffee.

I REALLY want to try an AeroPress. I should pick one up since, cheap (not like I need more coffee gadgets, but I am always happy to add more to the cupboard). I'm a Chemex devotee personally (still haven't found a cleaner/stronger cup), but I don't always want to fuck with it in the morning.

@Darinelle said in Need a Job/Place to Live?

Pick a deadline. If you go through with this - and I have done this and hated myself, and I have done this and gained amazing and wonderful friends from it so I totally think it's worth it - you will be highly invested in someone you hardly know. Pick a date by which they should either be kicking back some money to you, or moved out. Or say - we'll re-evaluate the situation monthly, and if we decide it isn't working out, you'll have one month to find a new situation or right the one we have.

Yeah, this right here.

A friend of mine once let a person she met on MySpace (yes, that long ago) crash a her place after he flunked out of uni and subsequently lost a means to house himself. This was supposed to be a temporary arrangement.

It lasted three years.

He never got a job or made meaningful financial contributions. She was not making a ton of money, and an extra person living with you adds up in large and small ways.

He did not ever 'leave,' really. She got a job in a new city and moved, which was the only thing that forced him to seek out another arrangement.

This is not a horror story. He was not a murderer and was a nice enough person, which is why she never had the heart to kick him out.

But set a deadline.