Hi, all. Strange doings are a-foot. I'll elaborate more when I, in fact, know more. Doctors sure love their tests... Take care of yourself, man.
I passed through Texas briefly last Friday. I made a point to mess with it while I was there. It says something that people have completely forgotten within the span of 30 years that the "Don't Mess With Texas!" slogan started as an anti-littering campaign. It got co-opted by political opportunists so quickly that its original purpose was little more than a footnote. And at this point I think any anti-littering campaign would get a large portion of the state's populace to litter more just to thumb their nose at the "environmentalist wackos".
As a new yorker, they will have no choice but to listen to me when I critique it. The only group Texans disdain more than New Yorkers is Californians. You have been warned. That whole gag in commercials for Old El Paso salsa where they s#!t on other salsa brands for being made in NYC and then threaten to lynch the guy who brought any brand other than Old El Paso? That's how people in Texas actually talk. If anything, the commercials and the violence they (imply to) inflict on the people using NYC-made products is tame compared to how real-life Texans talk about anything from NY or CA. This is not a joke. If you are going to travel to Texas, be very careful about talking about being from New York. Unless you spend every moment of talking about the state ensuring everyone around you knows you hate it in NY and are taking any and every opportunity to leave, you WILL risk violence against yourself. And that goes [u]double[/u] if you make it well-known to too many Texans that you're from there and think ANYTHING about it is better than Texas. And that goes quadruple if you're in a rural area or smaller town. I know this looks and reads as hyperbolic but I assure you I am not in any way joking.
Meanwhile, I'm too lazy to find and copy the relevant passages, but as one of the resident Texans on the thread (I know there are a few of us), I for one feel you cannot bash the state vehemently enough. Rotten governance and deregulation have made this a miserable place to live. I could say more, but I would be $mu^f3d for politics. Strong second as an escapee thereof. I spent the first 18 years of my life in Texas and have returned only twice since, both times for funerals. It's basically in the same box as Tennessee for me: a (mostly) beautiful physical place with gorgeous scenery and large expanses of lovely terrain, but I NEVER want to live there again.
Condolences, all things considered. Similar happened with my maternal grandfather. He was in and out of consciousness after we got the news he was in the hospital and terminal, and we were in the RV and heading on the two-day trip from Tennessee to Texas. He passed minutes after Mom spoke to him on the phone. We all were pretty convinced he was just waiting to hear from her as she was the only one of his five kids who lived out of state and thus wasn't yet in the room with him.
SQUEAK.* *: "AND THAT WILL BE AN IMPORTANT LESSON."
EDIT: And no, I have no idea how my icon got sm*^fified, but I am delighted. Gary always did say there were hidden triggers beyond just using the Sm-word. Rest his crazy soul.
Sweetness is only one step away from DAMNATION!!!But LO! The Lord was with us that day, and raised up a mighty river of Porridge, which both Quenched our Fleshy Lusts, and floated us all the way to Rhode Island without requiring the use of any Instruments of Potential Sin.You'd think an all-knowing deity would be able to coordinate the overflowing River of Porridge and the Great Molasses Flood so the mortals' lesson would at least be a tasty one. Bucklehead, you don't know the half of it. I have souls on lollipops that taste like autumn and madness. I call them "Cinnaminsanity"! Here, try a bite!
Im sorry, Orthos. It is what it is. I managed to get out of the cult and find myself in the process. Not everyone is so lucky.
Spin me, hooman! Spin me!!
Familiars in 5e are surprisingly fun, and far less of a headache. In 3e, your familiar was a one-and-done situation for the most part. It costs 100 GP to perform the ritual that gets you a familiar, though every DM I've ever played under allowed this to be considered something paid for in backstory at game start, so if you were a class that got a familiar at level 1 you didn't have to shell out some of your very sparse game-starting coinage for it. If you need to replace your familiar at any point before say level 5, though, 100 GP is not cheap change! Hells, we're level 5 in my current 5e game and we only JUST earned enough money to have over 100 GP apiece! (Granted, we've sold none of the cool magical items we've found, because they're all useful. But still!) If it died, you lost XP (200 XP per level!!), and could replace it... after a year and a day. How many campaigns that aren't Kingmaker do you have over a year in in-game time pass? You can raise the familiar from the dead, but if it dies at low levels you may be past the time-limit threshold of raise dead by the time your cleric reaches that level, and your party will probably look at you like you've grown a third head if you ask them to shell out the diamond cost for resurrection when you get that high up, if you ever do. Things like taking the Improved Familiar feat let you bypass some of this - you don't have to wait the year and a day to replace your current familiar, but if the new one dies you still have to, though you might be better able to convince your party to have it rezzed... IF it's the kind of creature that can BE rezzed, and wouldn't you know it, most of the best Improved Familiars are Outsiders like the Lantern Archon, the Imp, the Quasit, and so forth, things that can't be resurrected without True Rez. In 5e, none of that is an issue. Familiars are handled instead through the find familiar spell, which has a material component cost of 10 gp worth of incense (far more manageable at low levels, if still costly at first) and is cast as a ritual, meaning it takes 10 minutes but doesn't cost a spell slot to cast. Cast, pick familiar type, done. If it dies, it goes poof, but will be immediately reconstituted if you just cast find familiar again. The game rules even specify that it's the same entity. And of course, because 5e, no XP loss. Don't like your original familiar choice anymore? Or got a feat or class feature that opens up new options for the type of familiar you can have? Cast it again. The game rules specify that casting find familiar while you already have a familiar doesn't remove your current one or replace it, but rather "allows it to take on a new form". It's the same entity, just reshaped. With Dru I flavor this as the familiar being the strange vine that's been rooted into her arm ever since she arrived in Ravenloft - a "gift" from her unknown Warlock patron along with her newfound magic and transformation into a Yuan-Ti, or at least that's her current theory. Now that she has find familiar, I describe the vine as weaving itself into various shapes like a mini topiary whenever she uses it to alter its form. By default she's using the Sphinx of Wonder (which I describe as looking like a cat-shaped shrubbery, with a snake's head and tail and birdlike wings made of leaves) but she swaps to the Sprite (described as a doll made of woven vines with, again, leaf wings) when she wants it to be sneaky and scouty and the Skeleton (basically just a skeleton-shaped pile of sticks and vines with a branch covered in thorns for a sword) when she wants it to fight.
I'm happy for you that you got to see her one last time, even though the end is near, and that your relationship with her is as good as it has been, even if your siblings and other kin are pieces of work. I'm a little jealous, even. I know I'll never be able to have that kind of relationship with my family again, and as I never plan to return to the states if I can help it I'll probably never see them again even if I wanted to.
Hope everyone who celebrated had a nice holiday!
Since Scint's employer is an American company they did get Thurs and Fri off for Turkey Day. There was no turkey to be had, but we had a chill day relaxing at home on Thurs with the puppy and Fri we went to a hot pot place with a couple friends then grabbed ice cream. Saturday was another chill day with just a shopping trip to break up the monotony. Gaming today! Dru is now level 5 Warlock. Pew pew!
Yeah it REALLY sounds like this guy isn't interested in running a game, just wanting you to be there for the ride of the story he has to tell (which is, as you've mentioned, just cribbed wholesale from an existing source so it's not even his own story). Also I get the vibe from the "there's always NPCs around" thing that the guy isn't comfortable letting you just interact, he always needs to have some way for him to be involved in the conversation. Ergo, always an NPC present. Also also, the hells is with this system that it relies on the GM to decide what skills your character has??
*SIGH*. Someone at the care facility convinced her to start eating again. I should sue them for elder abuse. I imagine it's considered their official policy, and the workers could likely get fired for doing otherwise, for fear of accusations of neglect.
Doctor visit today, walking the dog later, then hopefully doing something creative, either writing, working on dungeon building, etc. Sleep in tomorrow, then 5e Ravenloft game in the afternoon. Scint is out of town this weekend so her bard got bird-napped at the end of last session. Imagine we'll be giving chase.
I wish I had some advice to give or even just something to say. I presume you've already pursued all the potential legal options. The best I can offer is to hope her suffering ends sooner rather than later.
Eat lever?
I ate'nt dead!
Waiting for news of if the Ravenloft game is on tomorrow, or off on account of sick DM.
Looks like the forums are back and stable, I'll get this ball rolling again shortly!
For Now....
Scint and I went as Granny Weatherwax and Archchancellor Ridcully respectively.
Very unfortunate but also completely understandable. Wishing you well with what has to be an extremely stressful time for you. I'll have Kizz disappear into the night at some point and if you ever feel up to returning can just have him show back up.
Happy belated BDay wishes Cal!
Yeah it's probably where I'm going to end up going especially if surgery of any sort becomes involved. The good news is that I've found a source of HRT that can still be sent to me, though I'll have to navigate customs fees which is always fun. It's been rather a pain to arrange due to the differences in currency across borders but we finally have it worked out.
We're in the middle of Ace Awareness Week. If you're Ace, you are welcome and valid! I don't see you because I don't know who you are, but if I did, I would see you! Hi!
Yeah I've been on too many group trips where other kids will damage the tape or whatever other tracking system is put in place by chaperones just for the fun of getting other kids in trouble. My school stopped using it because it just wasn't worth it, and moved to a system of "if you're the kind of kid we would have to put tape up for, you don't get to go on the trip to begin with". I have a lot of things to say about the s~&$ty state of Texas public education, but in this one field, my hellhole small-town school managed to get the right answer.
It looks like you're trying to reject my presence in every aspect of your life. Would you like help with ensuring that fails?
That's as I understand it as well. The tier list usually goes something like: Money
I've met multiple teachers who have filtered out AI by saying "your homework is to write a story" then including the qualifier "if your story is about a girl named (I can't recall the name but it's always the same) who lives in the forest, you automatically get a zero."
O-Chul's massive CON score is showing again :D
So have a possible lead from one of my gaming friends. Will be checking with some people about it this week, seeing if it follows through. If it doesn't pan out, I do have a potential alternative, but it requires being able to travel to Thailand, where apparently gender-affirming care is a bit easier to get (and is less expensive than some of the other options). The downside of that will be that we won't be able to go until Thanksgiving break at the earliest, Xmas break at the latest. Meaning I'll have to make my estradiol reserves stretch at least another month and a half, possibly two and a half. We'll see how things go. Still welcoming any advice or recommendations from anyone familiar with gender-affirming care in this part of the world.
Fell and hurt myself Wednesday. Doesn't seem to be anything serious, but aches like a b%~&% and makes it hard to sleep in the positions I usually prefer. Went to the doctor today and got an X-ray and a long massage and feel better-ish, though still not great. Hoping another decent rest will put that somewhere back toward "normal". Back to the doc on Tuesday. Game tomorrow, provided I'm not hurting too much to go.
I have finished Salt And Sacrifice... It's... Eh. Tedious and tiresome, poorly balanced, and inferior to much better (if still tedious in a typical Souls-like way) Salt And Sanctuary... I liked the concept and art style of the first one but didn't care for the Souls-like frustration of it. Sounds like I'll be passing on the second as well.
Also was no game today. Scint has had the last week off so we did lots of touristy stuff, went to various restaurants, and generally had a good time.
Sounds like the sensei couldn't handle his curry. I have many, many, many bad things to say about life in the South - and have, and will, and will continue to do so for the rest of my life - but the one thing I can say for certain is that they have potluck etiquette down. And a part of that is "If you don't like it, you don't have to eat it, and if you eat it and don't like it, then that's your problem - not the host's, not the cook's or the person who brought it, not the potluck's." I absolutely hate that I can say this, but for once I think this is something California could stand to learn a bit from the South about. And yes, that did put a rancid taste in my mouth to admit.
Here in China, I'd say our arrival rate for meal delivery is 100% and our accuracy rate has been about 90%. There've been a couple mistakes where one order got omitted or copied from the other instead of the different meal we actually ordered, but the vast majority have been exactly what we requested. (Since we're still learning what we like and translations in apps can be hit-or-miss, that 90% does not necessarily correlate to the number of meals we ordered that we liked everything we ordered, but that's not the restaurant's or delivery person's fault.) EDIT:
Similarly, our garbage pickup is from 7 am - 3 pm. The trucks just ran through at 6:40. You set a 6:45 alarm to push out your trash? Too bad! No trash for you this week! Yeah we learned we had to put our trash out the night before at our place back in the states, otherwise it would get missed for the week basically right as both of us were waking up. Thankfully we didn't live in a community that would throw a fit if your trash was out overnight.
My opinion is that if your call isn't important enough for you to leave a message or text, you're not worth calling back.
A holiday week this next week in China, so several of our players are out of town this weekend so no Ravenloft game. We're possibly going to a boardgames night this evening, with one of the prospective players for a future PF1 game. Night Brunch listening to Midnight Burger tomorrow morning. Kibeth has his first vet appointment tomorrow afternoon. Shots and deworming. Scint has the week off due to said holiday so we're going to be Doing Stuff throughout the week, though the specifics aren't yet determined.
We live in the dumbest timeline.
"Get everyone back into the office" doesn't just apply to office workers anymore, apparently.
Just as an FYI to anyone who didn't already know, as there is basically zero news coverage of this for the above-listed reason. Stay on top of your insurance as well. When Medicare goes, a lot of insurance companies are likely to follow suit.
As Gran said, any news coverage of it would trip the "negative coverage means I threaten your FCC license" stage of the current admin. So nothing has covered it at all, it's just been quietly slashed in the background. The only place I was able to get telehealth for anything before I moved was from Planned Parenthood, which was already under fire, so this is just $#!% icing on the &%*# cake at this point. The worst part is, when Medicare goes, a lot of insurance companies are likely to follow suit. So I wouldn't be surprised if people getting healthcare through sources other than Medicare suddenly find telehealth isn't being covered soon by their insurance either. So one more thing for everyone to have to keep track of.
Holy hells. I remember him, he was one of the first people I learned to recognize when I first started posting on Paizo. I followed his Kirthfinder project and a lot of his other ideas for years. My condolences to his friends and family.
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