Limeylongears's page

Might be joining an IRL Old School Essentials game, though it's using the 'advanced' (i.e. AD&D 1E with the serial numbers filed off), as opposed to the Basic set. I was looking forward to playing Just Elf...

What was used traditionally for fixing dyes (alum?)? Whatever it is, it may well be horribly toxic and/or extracted painfully from an endangered species...

Managers need to be seen to be doing something, and their subordinates' time is an obvious target, especially if said subordinates can do their jobs perfectly well without much assistance from their manager...

Life update.

Still divorced, my ex-wife is going the born again route, so insert your crazy train memes as you will.

Because of that I haven't seen Milo in 2 years and she's completely cutoff Crookshanks.

Crookshanks works with me now and recently moved downtown, so easier to pick her up.

Because of a lack of snow last year I started driving for Uber, but in a professional and contrary way. In that i never cancel on a rider until at least the required 5 minutes, I never hit on the riders, and I NEVER play jazz.

Not even mid to late '70s Herbie Hancock?

Thanks to a couple of unnecessarily long train journeys, I got through the 'Tibetan Book of the Dead' this week. That was a peculiar read.

Sonic went out as Michael Jackson (again), Shanna as some sort of faun, or deer/human hybrid.

I got up early this morning to feed the cats, went back to bed, then got up again a couple of hours later. I went downstairs, followed by the cats, and reflexively went to the catfood box and opened a couple of packets, until I thought, 'Hold on - I've already done it!'

Oh, the looks of disappointment and betrayal on their furry little faces when they found out they weren't getting the second breakfast they'd been led to expect.

Waterhammer wrote:

I lost my sweet bippy in an earlier wager. What other things might I offer. I would like to get back my bippy. It was sweet.

Do you have someone else's sweet bippy to wager?

Personally, I've always preferred a saltier bippy.

Cue alarmingly enthusiastic Australian man in Safari gear coming up to the front desk saying, 'Maaate! Maaaaate!!!! Alligators? Frigging Alligators in the pool?! Let me in RIGHT NAOW - I hope they're whoppahs!'

He will be so disappointed.

Limeylongears wrote:

gran rey de los mono wrote:

Me: "There's something I really want to say, but I'm not sure how."

Girlfriend: "Just say it."
Me: "Worcestershire."

'Woostersheer' is more or less right, phonetically.

Don't ask why.

If I pronounce it that way around here, people will scoff at me.

Look them dead in the eye and tell them you're speaking Spanish.

'The Open Philosophy and the Open Society' by Maurice Cornforth, and 'Beastslayer', by William King.

Me: "There's something I really want to say, but I'm not sure how."

Girlfriend: "Just say it."
Me: "Worcestershire."

'Woostersheer' is more or less right, phonetically.

Don't ask why.

It was even chill here! I might have to get my jacket out soon.

I had to put my big coat on for the first time in a good while when I went out this evening.

You couldn't route calls through your own VOIP system? Might be possible that way.

My wife and I are going to a jam session on Sunday, though I'm not sure what it'll be like. So long as I get to play a bit of jazz I'll be happy.

(My dad used to sing me sea shanties instead of lullabies when I was little. My mother says that the refrain of his favorite went something like:

"Her lips were pink/like a roosters dink
And her hair was turkey-turd brown.")

This tells you damn near all that you need to know about him.

If they do still sing shanties in our respective Navies, I bet they're worse than that...

Monday Night Fencing is back. Whoopee!

NobodysHome wrote:

OMG, I'm glad he's OK!

And holy carp.

Quite literally, the staff at the Oakland Children's Hospital knew us by name. "Oh, is it Impus Major or Impus Minor this time? How are you doing?"

I was personally and directly informed that I am not allowed to provide Valeros a proper blowgun to avoid future dart swallowing.

Don't they have a mesh at the mouth end to avoid that very problem?

Sonic got a great deal of money for his birthday recently and wanted to spend it all on 'Toy Story' collectibles, but his cruel and heartless mother made him put some of it into savings, so apparently, he wrote her a note saying:

'You will regret moving my birthday money into an ISA'

-1000 points for not saying this out loud while wearing a smoking jacket and monocle and stroking a fluffy white cat.

Limeylongears wrote:

High Drama in Local HEMA Land.

I want to begin HEMA. How do I start?

I'd find a club - the HEMA Alliance club finder can be helpful, depending on where you are, as can asking on r/HEMA on Reddit.

You can learn (or practice) on your own with a sword or sword-shaped object and videos or books, but you'll need to test what you're doing against a live opponent at some point, and that's arguably the most enjoyable part.

Feel free to drop me a PM if you have any specific questions you don't want to ask here.

High Drama in Local HEMA Land.

* The longsword instructor at the club I go to on Weds has decided to start his own sparring-focused group on Weds (this is good news, as the other one we had has been in abeyance for some time. I shall go)

* The head instructor at the Weds group, who does not like any sort of competition, knew this was happening; according to him, Mr. Longsword asked him this evening if he could advertise the new group (I can't see why this would be a problem - it'd be a different sort of outfit altogether) - and asked for the contact details of everyone who attends, too. Unwise, if true - Head Instructor said 'no' to both, at which point (and I have only heard one side of this), Mr Longsword left in a huff, and shall not be returning.

So Freehold may get his beautifully choreographed inter-dojo battle after all. I will fight for whoever promises me two (2) 660ml bottles of Guinness Foreign Extra, should I survive.

Freehold DM wrote:

NobodysHome wrote:

Freehold DM wrote:

Sounds like the sensei couldn't handle his curry.

For me it was the whole, "I don't like this so you shouldn't have brought it," that made me stop cooking for the dojo. We had this incident. We had the, "I made $60 worth of seared sashimi-quality ahi and a guy who didn't believe in undercooked fish took one look and threw out the entire tray." We had, "My kid doesn't like what you cooked so you shouldn't have brought it." We had, "I'm vegan and you didn't bring a vegan dish so you're a d**k." And on and on. I stopped cooking and started bringing store-bought blandness instead, 'cause people don't complain about store-bought stuff.

In short, my experience was, "Entitled a$$****s at potlucks ruin potlucks."

EDIT: I think the worst part is that LM frequently brought what was apparently an amazing seafood jambalaya(?), but since I don't eat invertebrates I didn't partake. It disappointed her, but not once did I say, "Y'know, *I* don't like this so you should've made something else."

FEAST UPON INVERTEBRATES DAMN YOU

More seriously I am interested in finding out what you think is spicy, as I have been disappointed before...

I think a good measure is the Chinese red peppers they put in stuff like Mongolian beef or Kung Pao chicken. I chew those up and eat them and it gives the dish a pleasant spiciness. Though apparently even native Chinese people don't do that, as I had a waiter exclaim, "No, don't do that!" at me while I was doing it. Pickled jalaneños are ignorable, raw jalapenos are noticeable.

Szechuan peppers?

I'm taking prompt engineering training and I loved the AI expert who said, "A.I. is a lovable, imaginative, idiot robot."

Mmph.

Steamhammer - Reflections

NobodysHome: If AI could clean my house, do dishes, and keep my budget up to date, I'd be all in.

GothBard: Oh, gods, yeah. If AI could do dishes that would be all I needed.

AI, in this case, may have to stand for 'An Individual' for the time being.

It was the lad's birthday on Tuesday, so he has a party at a trampolining place with his pals tomorrow. Other than that, possibly galloping through the storm, brandishing my black runesword at the clouds and laughing maniacally.

Food delivery poll: I was talking with an East Coast friend about food delivery last night, and yet again I was astonished when she said, "I've never had a problem," because just a few weeks ago she was tirading at me about Olive Garden completely botching her order. So I'm curious:

Barring pizza delivery (which has a ludicrous success rate because they hire their own people), and given the two criteria:
(1) Did the order arrive, and
(2) was the order accurate?

What's your success rate on food delivery in your area?

Given those two VERY simple parameters, the success rate for food delivery to our group has been under 40%, and I have the receipts to prove it. Which explains why we don't do food delivery any more.

I'm wondering whether other areas have it better, or whether people just accept the mistakes as the price of convenience, as my friend does.

Never had a problem, but, to be honest, we're around a 10-minute walk from the takeaways we patronise, so normally just go out and get it ourselves.

We're going to the big African supermarket with my mother-/sister-in-law tomorrow.

I shall be looking out for Mighty Malt and Eagle Stout, if it can be had.

They had Mighty Malt, and Ultra Malt, and Viva Malt, and Super Malt, and Maltino, and Malta Guinness. Which is the maltierest?

We're going to the big African supermarket with my mother-/sister-in-law tomorrow.

I shall be looking out for Mighty Malt and Eagle Stout, if it can be had.

Booker T & The M G ’s ‎– McLemore Avenue

In which the boys cover the whole of 'Abbey Road'. My Uncle Frank (RIP) loved this record.

First Nephew is getting into Warhammer 40k. Hope my brother's feeling rich...

Evildoers beware (+/- 3%) - it's Statistically Significant Woodchuck!

Having neurodivergent stepkids means they both have their hyperfixations - Sonic has rekindled his obsession with the 'Toy Story' films, while Shanna is getting seriously into 80s/90s metal and alternative rock - Type O Negative, Megadeth, Hole, and (most of all), Metallica. She's got Sonic into that band to a certain extent, too, and we could hear them both singing along to 'To Whom The Bell Tolls' upstairs earlier on this afternoon.

Kirth Gersen was a poster on these forums, and a friend. He passed away recently, so Saturday I'm going to a memorial service for him.

Ach! Sorry to hear that - rest in peace, Kirth.

Speaking of which, this really is one of the strangest campaigns I've been in. I liken it to listening to Critical Roll, but they're having an audience participation day where you can occasionally call out a suggestion. The best concrete metric I can give is that in this gaming system when you try to do something you roll between 1 and 5 dice as a test; 1 is totally untrained, 2 is you have some small skill in it (typically because of your race or background), and 3 or more is you actually paid points for it.

We're 2 pre-sessions and 2 full sessions in, and neither Shiro nor GothBard nor I have ever rolled more than 2 dice. The GM doesn't care how we designed our characters; he's going to tell the story and can't be bothered to actually let us do anything we're good at.

And yet it's not frustrating or angering; I lie in my cuddler and kind of nap while listening to storytime. I find it a very relaxing evening. But I wouldn't call it "gaming" per se; I'm usually lying there with my mic muted so they won't hear me snoring if I nod off. But having an evening with no responsibilities where my "job" is to just lie there and snooze is pretty nice.

Not really a "game", though.

Seems more like a live Choose Your Own Adventure book, but with less flexibility.

gran rey de los mono wrote:

I don't think any of my teachers would have given an instant zero for that, but definitely lots of points off, and maybe extra homework. It is really frustrating to see it so often, although my main pet peeve is when people put the dollar sign after the amount. As in, 15$ rather than $15. Drives me crazy, especially the times I've seen it on fast food signs and such.

I see scholars defend it as a natural evolution of language in a digital age where Autocorrect always wants to use "it's", but my counterargument is that precisely because we're in a digital age where spell checking and grammar checking are ubiquitous, we should at least be able to manage consistent usage.

For example, I'd be happy to do away with one of the itses and use "it's" for everything, but at the moment I see texts where people intermix the two even when they have the same meaning. "I'm going to go to the store to see whether it's open, and if its not I'm going to drive over to the mall."

Grr....

I shall be sure to refer to you as Nobody's Home in future.

The wife and I went to see Led Bib.

A good gig, in horrible weather. Just as well that it was only a short walk away.

*sets plate of crow and old words on table*

Has anyone heard from or seen the Polish dragon lately? I haven't gotten a PM reply from him in days.

Regardless, I hope y'all are well. Just leaving this where I knew the most people who know him. Apologies for the intrusion.

*feasts, exits*

Seems to be around on Ye Mightye Tome of Zuccs. Probably in his lab, creating more Monstrosities.

PF2 is back on Sundays, and we've levelled up to 19th. 10th level spells...

I'm disturbed that someone would think an shock collar for cats (or anything, for that matter) is a good idea at all, let alone buy one, fit it, then casually stand there watching something get electrocuted.

Tacticslion wrote:

NobodysHome wrote:

Owls well that ends well.

Man, you guys are a hoot.

... one year later...

God bless you all, and hope you're doing well!

Likewise - lovely to see you!

What he should do is secure the door with a puzzle lock that only opens if the latecomer solves some fiendishly difficult equation, and also plays a tinny 8-bit fanfare when it releases, and the triumphant student finally enters the hall.

I had an appointment to give blood in July, but they sent me away, as my iron levels were too low. I'll try again in October.

My primary objection to owning male cats is their territoriality: Even when fixed, every male cat I've known in a multi-cat household has beaten up on the other cats at least once a week to assert dominance.

Every bloody day.

Sounds like cassava/maniok.

My wife's told me tales of how people in Ghana used to process cassava back in the day, basically using a mortar and pestle the size of a nine-year-old child. We saw some of them for sale when we went to Ghana, so it's obviously still done the traditional way, and apparently it takes hours

Mm, oat stout.

It's stout, with oats in, so you can give it to your horse, too.

You taco'd over the world.

Had a fencing competition today, and unlike the last one, when I won one fight and lost four, this time I won four and lost six, so a better result. I only got absolutely trounced once, too, so am relatively pleased with myself.

Or, for the Grindcore fans amongst us, 'Revolting Tangles', by Midget Shredder.

Coming soon to a holistic pet store near Nobody's Home: kitty litter that tells you which of your mog's humours are out of whack, and possibly tells your fortune too.

On that subject, I did once see an advert offering to balance your pet's chakras in the town where I work (I certainly couldn't afford to live there)