Shelyn

lynora's page

16,387 posts (42,350 including aliases). No reviews. No lists. 1 wishlist. 89 aliases.


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Female awww, but that would be telling unknown

Thanks for the birthday wishes! I had a good time, hung out with my daughter, had a del toro movie marathon, ate delicious chocolate cake. :)

I’ve never used discord and attempting to download the app has triggered yet another round of ‘oh, bloody hell, wtf was my password again??? Guess I’ll find out when I try to change it and have to go with like my thirteenth choice because I’ve used all the others already’, so it might be a bit before I can even get that far. My ragequit threshold is currently very low due to weather headaches. At least the seasonal migraines waited until after my birthday! Hey, I’ll take what I can get. :P


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Female awww, but that would be telling unknown
Monkeygod wrote:

30 years in the future would be fine by me! Ace & Silinrul should still be around, if I wanted to reprise them in any form. They would only be in their '40s'.

I definitely wouldn't want to even attempt this without Lyn's blessing, even if she isn't able to be involved. This is her baby after all.

To quote one of the best movies, The Crow: "Little things used to mean so much to Shelly. I used to think they were kind of... trivial. Believe me, nothing is trivial."

The 'little' plots were some of my absolute favorite stories!

Oh, if you guys want to do this, you absolutely have my blessing. Just because I can’t run the game anymore doesn’t mean the setting needs to die. Heck, that’s how Avalon happened in the first place, with a new game and a time skip from the original Agartha game when E7 had to bow out. It’s tradition! :)


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Female awww, but that would be telling unknown

As far as a possible reboot goes, I don’t know how much/if I would be able to participate. The spirit is willing but the meatsuit malfunctions a lot, yadda, yadda, etc.

That said, I can offer some advice. Don’t try to retread old ground. If you do this, either move the timeline or the location. So, you could set it on one of the other worlds and bring in current characters as exchange students OR, and this is the option that probably works best since it preserves the setting, fast forward about 25-30 years. Let it be its own story in a slightly altered but still recognizable setting a la Legend of Korra. That way everyone gets to start on an equal footing and you’re not stuck with a too big kinda clunky plot. Because if there’s one thing I learned in the process of playing this game, it’s the little plots that people actually get excited about. You don’t actually need some big doom crisis lurking on the horizon. Adolescence manufactures enough doom crises on its own. :P


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Female awww, but that would be telling unknown
Kryzbyn wrote:
how would Tyrrin and Ghalen fit in there?

Honestly, they would be my pick for special envoy to the other gem dragon worlds and would likely have been/would be (Ephebe makes her nonlinear perspective everyone’s problem) a big reason behind why the cavalry showed up when it did. Not set in stone or anything, just kinda what I pictured for them post big battle.


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Female awww, but that would be telling unknown
Kryzbyn wrote:

Oh I guess these thoughts lead to another question:

Would everyone who was still a champion remain a champion after it's all said and done? I think for Krays, the answer is most likely yes, but curious about the others...

And who would Ephebe take as Time's champion?

Yeah, the whole champion thing is still a lifelong commitment and all that. Some of them might have given their champions a chance to back out though because they all picked who they did because they needed to have their people in position when the Others arrived. But mostly they stay with who they picked and that’s that.

Ephebe already picked. That’s literally why An is back. She felt guilty about unintentionally stealing An’s life, so that’s why she rezzed her in the first place. And Kronos 1.0 was like, *shrug* whatever, not my problem, so there wasn’t anyone to stop her. And An never had a problem with being a champion, but boy howdy is she gonna be weirded out about her patron being an alternate reality version of her. After all, if you want something done right,…. ;P


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Female awww, but that would be telling unknown
Kobold Catgirl wrote:

I think both endings sound really cool and powerful! I actually went back and read the kobold worldbuilding I wrote way back when, and I think it might have been fun if some of those other surviving kobold colonies could have allied with Agartha against the Empire, finally avenging their creator against the Empire and making peace with their neighbors.

The idea of an open-enrollment fantasy rules-light high school RP was always really cool, albeit probably very overwhelming to run! In hindsight, I wonder if it would have been easier on Lynora if there'd been multiple main GMs managing different parts of the school, with the rest of us skittering about helping them play out storylines like "school dance" and "battle for the future of Time itself".

It was fun! I'm really glad the whole OTD Roleplay Maelstrom came to something in the end. I wasn't ever the best contributor to those origins, to say the least, but it was really nice to see the story indirectly make it to a much better place.

That would have been awesome with the kobold colonies thing!

So when we started this game, it was more of a group project type deal, but as time went on the others stepped back more and more. And I didn’t mind. I loved running this game. But it did mean that when I had a life crisis, well…..yeah. It just sorta crashed everything to a screaming halt. Eh, c’est la vie.


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Female awww, but that would be telling unknown
The Dalesman wrote:

[Virtual Hug]

We're just glad you're still around our corner of the multiverse, Lyn - 'radio silence' over these last few years has taken on some really scary connotations, so it's very, VERY good to hear from you!!! (^-^)

(But I'm also first to admit to never using much social media to keep me more in the loop on RL, so me culpa, heh.)

As far as my warped opinion on this...I honestly figured that the 'founding' characters from Realms of Agartha would finally fall fighting the Empire, with all of them and the School going down in a blaze of glory saving our main Avalon student characters, who then go on to finish what was started and free the galaxy, yada yada yada.

Not that I have any problem at all with a much happier ending - just figured it might be time to 'pay the piper', as it were...

** spoiler omitted **

Yeah, sorry for worrying you guys! I kinda had a mental breakdown fueled by health problems + major life stress and sorta lost language for a while. Autistic reactions to extreme stress are kinda wild like that.

I won’t say I never considered a more tragic ending, but honestly, I have been so frustrated with tragic endings basically being the default every time I start to like something and decided screw that. While there are tragedies and not everything is happy happy, I wanted to give this a more hopeful ending where it felt like all the crap along the way was actually worth it. I mean, come on, even Tolkien doesn’t kill off all his characters! :P


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Female awww, but that would be telling unknown
Agarthian Storyteller wrote:

I'd love to know what happened with Michael and Kitty. ^-^

** spoiler omitted **...

Kitty would have reconnected with her family, which would be very helpful in her trauma recovery, although that was still gonna be a process. Ultimately, obaa-sama was gonna agree to fund their business and they would have moved to Michael’s hometown as planned. Eventually. After the whole war thing. But yeah, I had intended for them to be able to achieve their plans in the end, even if it was with a lot more emotional scars than either had anticipated at the beginning.


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Female awww, but that would be telling unknown
Kryzbyn wrote:

its great to hear from you Lyn :)

I can just imagine that it would have taken another 4 years of real time play to finish all that up, too.
I'm sorry your health isn't the best, and wish the best for you, and thanks to you and the other GMs that kept this going as long as it did.

I guess I have a few questions...
** spoiler omitted **

I guess thats it for now.

Answers:
The plan was for the invasion to happen after the kids hatched, but I had the option open to move that timeline forward if necessary to the story. Either way the kids were gonna be safe cause they were gonna get sent to that outside of time spot, the garden maze section specifically, for the duration of the battle and then brought back. Ephebe says no one messes with her kids, and she means no one. :P

The plan was for Agartha to be pretty well wrecked during the conflict. Near total planetary destruction. It’s why I embedded Bradley into the story so early on, so I could have the freedom to not pull any punches when we got to the ending. The sacrifice of a powerful angel in an act of ultimate creation would then repair the planet and as I said, bring back any who chose to come back.
So the Empire carries on. I feel like the grandfather in the princess bride explaining that Humperdinck doesn’t die at the end. :P
They lose a major portion of their fleet in the battle and the appearance of functioning battleships from the other gem dragon worlds is certainly enough to drive them out of that section of space. As an after effect of this victory many other worlds are able to break free of Empire control and create an Alliance with the gem dragon worlds. The Empire is reduced in both power and territory and there is a constant battle going on along the borders of Empire and Allaince space. But no, they don’t just magically disappear. :)
I don’t think I planned for any main character deaths, no. Doesn’t mean none would have happened. Miss Jones was definitely going to sacrifice herself to save her students and then not choose to come back because that was her penance finally served in her eyes anyhow. But other than that, no, most of them were planned to live through things.


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Female awww, but that would be telling unknown

Allo! Yes, it is I! MG sent out the bat signal over on twitter that y’all were hanging out and chatting about the good old days, so here I am. It’s been a rough few years for me, as I’m sure is true for many. Although so far I’ve managed to avoid Covid, by some utter miracle. Which is good since I don’t think that would go well for me with all the other health problems I’m trying to cope with. I miss gaming in general and this game in particular, but there’s no way that I could maintain the necessary speed of writing and mental processing to make it happen these days. Which makes me sad, but not much I can do really.

The discussion about game systems is very interesting, especially in the discussion for a game that was basically run by stripping down game systems for parts and ad libbing most things. Like, seriously, this game was run like an episode of Whose Line is it Anyways. I very much used the “yes, and” ad lib drama rules for practically everything. Why? Because I have adhd and rules bore me, but you need a few to keep things fair, but as few as possible please and thank you. It worked because I was playing into my strengths and away from my weaknesses (minutiae do not spark joy for me), which is honestly all being a good GM is really. Plus, different systems work better for different types of stories. A superhero story needs less rules and more flexibility, IMO.

Anyhow, if anyone has any questions about how I had planned on ending things, now’s the time to ask. Most arcs were totally player/character driven, but the overarching plot had been planned quite thoroughly from the beginning. Pretty much set in stone since the whole champion arc really kicked off. The attack from the Others and the Empire was going to occur more or less simultaneously, which had some interesting possibilities for defections I think as enemies might (or might not) be willing to form temporary alliances in order to survive. The Others were going to pull out their anti-Time weapon, there would be sort of a blink as Kronos 1.0 ‘ended’ (not exactly, non-linear existence and all that, there are two, therefore there always were two and will always be two, it’s just about which points in everyone else’s perception of linear time which version of Kronos gets the final say on things) and Kronos 2.0 comes online. And she’s kinda pissed. Please tell me I don’t have to tell you who she is?! I foreshadowed the hell out of that one. :P Anyhoo, big battle, etc, etc, scrappy heroes win against the Others, get saved from the Empire by the combined fleet of the other hidden planets (non-linear being! Just because you haven’t sent the envoys yet doesn’t mean they haven’t actually been working on building alliances for years!). I expected there to be mass destruction, which is why I set up the whole Bradley storyline, powerful angel who sacrifices himself to repair the world, etc. It was inspired by a doctor who storyline which is why it’s so damn sad, if that helps. Anyone who wanted their character to come back from the dead and have their chance at a happily ever after could choose to do so. And roll credits, write your own epilogue, etc. It was a loose framework to make sure that I left enough room for everyone else to tell the stories they wanted to with their characters.

I had considered a possible future campaign set on Haven since that was a very different, more industrial/futuristic sort of setting. But even if I hadn’t hit burnout before this story ended, I probably would have run out of steam by then anyways.


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Female awww, but that would be telling unknown

*stumbles into thread*

I was summoned? ;P
FCD, got your text, sorry for the lack of reply. I was recovering from my second vaccine shot and whoo, boy, are the side effects a doozy. But still way better than getting Covid! Anyhow, decided to just respond here since that will save on international texting charges.

Sooooo……yeah…….it’s been a …….wait, how long has it been? My sense of time was never reliable to start and it is shot. I know I filled MG in on the drama that is my life via twitter dm, but I can’t remember what had and hadn’t happened yet the last time I was posting here. So, apologies if I’m repeating myself. It’s been lots of high stress around here. My husband has had ummm…..three? Four? No, three heart attacks and four heart catheters. I think. Too many anyhow. It’s apparently a chronic thing, possibly genetic, and they’re just trying to put off the inevitable open heart double or triple bypass they’re eventually going to need to do. So much fun. Especially during Covid. So. Much. Fun. And of course the kiddo fell apart from the stress and I had to basically spend eight hours a day being academic support so that they could, ya know, actually pass their senior year of high school. As if the switch to virtual learning hadn’t already been difficult enough for a kid who struggles to adapt to change. But hey, we got through it and kiddo graduated and now has to figure out wth they want to do next now that they’re finally done with the last round of AP tests. Not that there’s any pressure there or anything. (Yikes!) Hard to even believe that my baby is going to be eighteen in less than a week. So not okay. I mean, I can barely adult, how am I supposed to be the parent of an adult?!?!?!?????!

So I would love to be all like yeah, things are calming down and let’s get back to the fun, but I honestly don’t know when or if I will be ready to do that if I’m actually being honest. Like, this game was such a hyperfixation of mine for so long, but my brain kinda moved on to other stuff now and it’s really hard getting back to that. Especially when I know that things can blow up again at any moment. I’m not sure if the right answer is to try to participate a little bit for a while and see how it goes or if the best thing would be for me to just bow out gracefully and let you guys take it from here. (With answers to any questions about plot of course, but honestly there’s only like one actual planned event in this campaign and it’s been the intended final boss battle from the get-go, ie the battle against the Empire/battle against the Others, because of course they were gonna happen at the same time because there is no freaking way I’m setting up all the pieces for an epic battle twice. Everything else was always me winging it and bullshitting my way through.) Thoughts?


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Female awww, but that would be telling unknown

Okay, posted a quick introduction for the games, so you can go ahead with them whenever you're ready.


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***AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT***

We are taking a temporary break from our normal storyline to get back into the swing of things. The following takes place at some indeterminate time that really doesn't matter as it doesn't actually effect any of the long term story at all and is just about having fun. Because much like the students at Avalon, sometimes the players need to just be silly for a while too. :)

So, without further ado, in a SIM room somewhere in Avalon Academy a bunch of students (and guests?) gathered for a bit of fun and competition......


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Female awww, but that would be telling unknown

Ugh, it’s been a really crazy week. So last week my husband had a heart attack. He was able to get to the hospital during the early stages of it, and they were able to fix the problem with several stents, so the outcome is overall good. He was in the hospital for about three days before they released him and has been recovering at home since. He’s cranky about the dietary changes and has to be watched like a hawk to make sure he doesn’t try to lift more than he should (he has pretty severe limits on physical activity for now for obvious reasons), but he’s trying to cooperate with doctors orders for the most part. And I don’t need to hover quite as much now as he is slowly getting better.

So anyways, hope y’all are having a better week than that! :P
As far as how to get things started, I can put up a narrator post if you like to explain the transition to temporary side plot. And yeah, sure, have it be a sort of welcome activity for visitors if you like. Folks considering the school or exchange programs or whatever. This whole interlude is kind of outside our normal narrative structure, so no reason not to take advantage of that


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Female awww, but that would be telling unknown

MG, that sounds like a really good well-thought out plan. :)

And yeah, what FCD said, the sim rooms can modify the course based on participant. I mean, in order to be totally free to be creative and crazy, it's gotta be done in the sim rooms anyways, so take advantage of the AI being able to help. (I kinda wonder at this point how long until the sim AI develops full self-awareness. I mean, I know I set it up as having a limiter to prevent that, but *snerk* like that's ever stopped anything from happening before :P) So yeah, a straight up roll to show that it's been modified to be mostly a matter of luck sounds good to me.

Hmm. Maybe some screen time for characters who haven't been involved in the main plot for a bit?Seems like that would work best. Morrivan maybe, and possibly Pan or Alev and Etain. They've barely had any screen time at all.


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Female awww, but that would be telling unknown

Yes, I love this idea. I think we need some light fluff to get our groove back....or at least I do! :P

Of course now I'm picturing some kind of weird hybrid between Quidditch and Chase....see if you can get the ball in the goal before it gets eaten!

Edit:oooh, and with a side of Japanese game show! Nice, MG! That sounds awesome! :D


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Female awww, but that would be telling unknown

*waves*
Hi, guys. Still alive here. FCD, got your texts, but I saw them later and didn't want to reply in the middle of the night (er...when is that? Not only have I lost track of time zones, I've gone totally nocturnal since this whole craziness started. Like I sleep from 7am to 3 pm kind of totally nocturnal. My internal clock is so utterly borked :P)
And sorry for missing your PM on twitter before MG. I think it got et when the app updated. It shows in my history, but there was never any notification. Didn't mean to ignore you.
DB3, so sorry, I never got any email! Or it got lost in all the school crap. Like, seriously, my inbox is a freaking mess with all the school updates between district updates, school updates, teacher updates, google classroom weekly summaries, and college board crap. Only a couple more days of this crap and hopefully kiddo will actually pass all these stupid classes (Not to mention the stupid AP exams that had to be taken twice >.<) It's gonna be close. As usual. Gave the usual end of term pep talk today about turning in bad work being better than turning in no work. *sigh*

Anyhow, yeah, I haven't written in what feels like forever, and haven't gamed in longer since my IRL group fell apart due to drama. Which is great when it happens in the game, but not so much when it's between players. :/
So I'm not totally sure how well I can manage with the whole writing thing as I genuinely haven't tried like at all. But I have been doing plenty of reading.....nothing I can admit to in polite company (look, my browser history is basically AO3 and knitting patterns, mostly the former, so ya know, ALL the smut ;P), but still lots and lots of reading..... which is important when you're stuck with writing. Gotta see what does and doesn't work as a reader. And I definitely see why I got overwhelmed with the overarching plot line from way back in Avalon season one finally starting to pan out. Like, oh dear, I didn't mean to paint myself into this corner, but here we are...
So, yeah, maybe it would be better to start small? A side story? A one shot? I dunno, just spitballing ideas here because I don't want to try to get the behemoth moving again only to get crushed under the metaphorical weight because I wasn't ready. I may also need to build confidence and all that. I mean, I've got my weight stabilized again which stabilizes my blood sugar at least a little. And also the antidepressant seems to be working again now. Dosage gets super wonky real fast when your body weight keeps changing. So I think it's really just me needing to get past worrying that all that nonsense is going to start again. Which I won't do unless I actually try.


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In a moment of supreme irony I am procrastinating signing the kiddo up for an executive function class to help them learn organizational skills and crap...yeah, kiddo definitely gets their neurotype from me. What can you do? ( apparently the answer does not include getting organized enough to get help getting organized.....)


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Freehold DM wrote:
lynora wrote:
lisamarlene wrote:

After not having to cook for an entire month, this is my third night cooking. And I'm already reminded of why I hate it.

What IS that?
Is it spicy?
What is this stuff on it?
Well, I'll eat this part, but not the rest of it.
Do you know what we should have? (names an entirely different dish)

FML.

I'm not a bad cook. I'm not Nobody, but I fix a decent meal, and no one leaves the table hungry unless they choose to.

Kids are jerks.

I feel this so much. All the complaining about it...hah! My fam didn’t know how good they had it before my body decided food was the enemy. I can’t even stand to be around food most of the time now and they’re lucky if I cook a couple times a week and now they miss it! :P

I am going to have to give your body a stern talking to.

Hey, if that works, that would be great! This subsisting on less than a thousand calories a day or experiencing excruciating pain thing is getting really old. It’s been months. I’ve gotten good at finding ways to up calorie count so I’m getting 800-900/ day instead of 600-700, but obviously this is still less than ideal. I have to go to the thrift store tomorrow because my pants are all too big, which would be a bigger problem if my t-shirts weren’t now big enough to be dresses. Not a weight loss method I would wish on anyone ever. :(


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lisamarlene wrote:

After not having to cook for an entire month, this is my third night cooking. And I'm already reminded of why I hate it.

What IS that?
Is it spicy?
What is this stuff on it?
Well, I'll eat this part, but not the rest of it.
Do you know what we should have? (names an entirely different dish)

FML.

I'm not a bad cook. I'm not Nobody, but I fix a decent meal, and no one leaves the table hungry unless they choose to.

Kids are jerks.

I feel this so much. All the complaining about it...hah! My fam didn’t know how good they had it before my body decided food was the enemy. I can’t even stand to be around food most of the time now and they’re lucky if I cook a couple times a week and now they miss it! :P


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Image

Jaiye shakes her head and deliberately unclenches her hands from where she had been twisting the fabric of her skirt in an attempt to keep her cool. She took a deep breath. "Don't take this the wrong way, Fei, but you don't speak for me. And this conversation is not remotely over."

She turned her attention back to the High Seer, expression determined. "First of all, I call bullshit. Hey, I get it, I'd love to have something to smash too. But that doesn't make for smart decisions. Ephebe was pretty upset about the whole machine thing, but you know what she wasn't freaking out about? The Empire. You know when you know you actually have to worry about the Empire showing up? When the Sunwakes start panicking. She's not, ergo I'm pretty freaking sure we have a hot minute before that problem is actually urgent, so yeah, you can take a goddamn hour to cry. You're owed that much, at the very least. And you're not going to be able to make wise decisions while you're so emotionally constipated you've gone numb," she said, crossing her arms and glaring in the universal signal for 'and I will tackle you if I have to to make this happen'. "Second, 'fight smart not hard'. How many times did you say that to me over the last week? Seriously, I lost count. You're a Seer, Faelwen. Act like it. Gather actual information before you go haring off to save the world. Wise use of resources and all that crap." Jaiye grimaced and straightened her shoulders even further. "Third thing has nothing to do with saving the universe or the world, which means it's important. The small things are always the ones that actually matter. When I go back to Avalon, I'm taking the demon baby with me. Ugh, okay, we really can't keep calling her that. Errr.....Selene. After the goddess of the hunt. Only deity both our people worship. Seems appropriate. So, okay, kid's got a name. That's a start. And no, I'm not taking her away from you. You're her grandmother and you should spend time with her. Regularly. But you're in the middle of a civil war, like it or not, and you have no idea who you can trust, and they've all had plenty of time to play musical pins. Taking care of a baby is a 24/7 kinda thing, and right now I wouldn't trust your staff to make breakfast, let alone take care of an infant. And that's before we get into the whole bigotry problem, which let's face it, is a huge deal and is a problem that's only going to snowball as Selene gets older. She doesn't need that crap. Seriously, these folks can barely tolerate each other. They're not gonna be nice to a baby succubus. At least not when you're not directly supervising them every bloody minute. And don't give me any crap about what Ehos would have wanted, because he didn't have clue one how he wanted to handle this. Changed his mind like five times a day, minimum. He's not here," she said, her voice cracking at that although her eyes remained stubbornly dry and her chest ached with a dull pain that had settled in for permanent residence. "I am. I can't change that. But this is something I can do. I can make sure Selene has as normal of a life as is possible given what she is. I can move forward with my plans as discussed. Don't worry, not taking the baby into battle. I'll make sure to schedule challenges during your turn for babysitting. Lycans have a longstanding tradition of adoption, so I crack enough heads and nobody questions who she belongs to. Of course, I break enough heads, and who the hell cares about tradition," she added with a shrug. "The point being, it's a lot easier to make a place for her with my people than it is with yours."


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Female awww, but that would be telling unknown

Sorry for not checking in for a few days. Fever plus hyper focus = weird. Why can't I ever use my powers of obsession for good??? Instead I end up reading an unfinished fic that even though it's already long enough to be worthy of George RR Martin just stops in the middle of the story and hasn't updated for two years so probably not gonna because fml, to the exclusion of all else for several days. And I do mean all else. Cause who needs sleep? Clearly not me.... *facepalm* (If it's any consolation, please trust me when I say that it's better for everyone that I not update the game while hallucinating...I've done it before and it almost always ends in convoluted retcons that I desperately try to bury where no one will notice them :P)


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Female awww, but that would be telling unknown

Dalesman, I am so sorry for your loss. No worries at all about your posting tone. Obviously dealing with real life is more important.


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DQ, you make an excellent point about the difference between a busy, crowded place and a Crowd. The latter does indeed cause meltdowns. That situation at the March you described sounds horrifying. *shudder*


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lisamarlene wrote:
Ambrosia Slaad wrote:
Freehold DM wrote:
NobodysHome wrote:

I finally had an epiphany about big tourist cities.

Just like San Francisco, after just a couple of days in London, Edinburgh, or Paris, I’m ready to flee town. And I finally realized it’s the crowds, the noise, and the pollution. Here in Paris the city is beautiful, the people are (finally) welcoming... but the constant need to dodge other people, the inhalation of second-hand smoke, vaping, and diesel fumes, and the neverending battle to actually get anywhere just wears me down quickly.

If Paris were 20 degrees cooler and empty, I could spend a month here poking around. With the crowds, I’d practically rather go hungry than go out again.

But we have a boat tour on the Seine, and it will be beautiful, and so out I will go.

where is the eye rolling emoji when you need it?
Some of us really really hate crowds of people. The idea of trying to live in a place like that makes my skin crawl just thinking about.
Totally. It took me until the third and final day of our first visit to even stop hating New York, and a second visit to actually love it. Ditto for Paris. And after 22 years of living in the Bay Area, I never managed to love SF. More of a grudging occasional fondness.

Oddly enough, in spite of being an introvert with sensory sensitivities, I actually love cities. I loved New York and Paris. And Baltimore, but not DC. London was okay. Chicago is a favorite place to visit. Sure, I need the noise cancelling headphones at times, but that’s true here too. And the ability to be invisible in a crowd is quite lovely. Also I’m an architecture nerd, so I may be too distracted by my special interest to even remember there are people around. :P


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lisamarlene wrote:

Just found out on FB that one of my best friends from college just lost his wife this morning.

Root canal infection that went septic. She was in the ICU and they were trying to get her stabilized for surgery.
Steph and Rog were expecting their first grandchild this fall, and they still have two kids in high school.
They married the week before we graduated, and for 23 years, she's been his world.

That’s awful! So sorry :(


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NobodysHome wrote:

I finally had an epiphany about big tourist cities.

Just like San Francisco, after just a couple of days in London, Edinburgh, or Paris, I’m ready to flee town. And I finally realized it’s the crowds, the noise, and the pollution. Here in Paris the city is beautiful, the people are (finally) welcoming... but the constant need to dodge other people, the inhalation of second-hand smoke, vaping, and diesel fumes, and the neverending battle to actually get anywhere just wears me down quickly.

If Paris were 20 degrees cooler and empty, I could spend a month here poking around. With the crowds, I’d practically rather go hungry than go out again.

But we have a boat tour on the Seine, and it will be beautiful, and so out I will go.

See, this is why you go in August not July, when there are less people and it’s lovely even if you are an introvert. :)


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I’m in the no Facebook camp. I tried it. It was.... well, I’m pretty sure disaster is the right word here. It caused no end of stress and ended some real world friendships because I have no idea, but it was some kind of thrice-damned NT nonsense involving social ‘rules’ that no one ever explains. (You know what you did! Ummmm..........no? If I knew I wouldn’t be asking? >.<)
I like twitter though. I mean, it’s a dumpster fire, but it’s aware of the fact. Also it’s even more cliquish, which oddly helped once I found the right group of my fellow awkweird oddballs. ;)


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Freehold DM wrote:
lynora wrote:
Freehold DM wrote:
lynora wrote:
Vanykrye wrote:
Freehold DM wrote:
lynora wrote:
We also have art fair this week. Like most townies, I avoid like the plague. Predictably the weather this week is ungodly hot and intermittent rain. So yeah, no thanks. Crowds, heat, and walking: all the no. :P

wha? Only new yorkers ignore the things that make their area great as a sign of pride!

Seriously the city's greatest comic book store and rpg shop used to be on the same street with the empire state building. Didnt find that out for years upon years because we didnt bother looking up.

Not sure if Lynora's in a college town, but it sounds like it to me.
Yeppers. A2 has a lot of the same kind of energy as a larger city, but also all the trees! ( no, really, the last time I went on the Ferris wheel at the carnival I was struck by the way the town just disappears and looks like a forest from above) I love the balance of it, having all the cool stuff around, but also nature.

are you sure you don't live here?

You just described here.

There’s a reason why I loved New York the one time I visited, waaaay back when. :)
why didn't you call me?! Or did you have absolutely NO idea who I was at the time?

This was many, many years ago, before I even joined the Paizo boards :)


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Freehold DM wrote:
DeathQuaker wrote:
Lynora, let's work on that mech suit. I'm sure with my Master's degree in English I'll find a way to engineer it, honest!!!
are you two TRYING to seduce me?

Well, you need cheering up, and I need that mech suit, so... is it working? ;)


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The nightly dilemma.... it’s time to go to bed, but there’s a cat on my lap and it would be a crime to wake him when he’s being so cute and cuddly <3


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DeathQuaker wrote:
lynora wrote:
We also have art fair this week. Like most townies, I avoid like the plague. Predictably the weather this week is ungodly hot and intermittent rain. So yeah, no thanks. Crowds, heat, and walking: all the no. :P
Nah, very different thing. The massive multi-city-block spanning event in my town is far more than a "fair" and very much a local point of pride in how much we support our artists and the arts (and possibly also food trucks and getting drunk while dehydrated). Also while out of towners show up (it gets an attendance of 350,000 which is like half our population, so it's not all locals, it certainly is something that isn't exclusively one or the other), I'd think some tourists aren't as stupid as we are to go out in all the heat and stick to their hotel pools. It's not even located in the touristest district. I love all the performances and displays and I'm not too hip for it all... where I will agree with you is it's the crowd and the heat that's the problem. I want to go, I just want to do it in a personal, air-conditioned mech suit.

Lol. Ummm, yeah, I can see how that would sound if you’re not from here, but A2 art fair is not small. :P

And I hear you about the mech suit! No overheating, protection from sensory overwhelm, can sit while it does the walking for me.... okay, ngl, that kinda sounds awesome for every day too.... ^.^

Edit: and no worries, no offense taken. I’m extra down on things that require lots of walking right now, and I was more snarky than intended. Last time I went to the zoo I was bed bound for a week from pain. Yes, I need a damn wheelchair. No, I am not in a position to get one for various reasons. Art fair has never been my favorite, but I did used to enjoy a quick tour of it back before it hurt so much to walk. Sorry for being snotty about something important to you, and thank you for explaining.


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Vanykrye wrote:
Freehold DM wrote:
lynora wrote:
We also have art fair this week. Like most townies, I avoid like the plague. Predictably the weather this week is ungodly hot and intermittent rain. So yeah, no thanks. Crowds, heat, and walking: all the no. :P

wha? Only new yorkers ignore the things that make their area great as a sign of pride!

Seriously the city's greatest comic book store and rpg shop used to be on the same street with the empire state building. Didnt find that out for years upon years because we didnt bother looking up.

Not sure if Lynora's in a college town, but it sounds like it to me.

Yeppers. A2 has a lot of the same kind of energy as a larger city, but also all the trees! ( no, really, the last time I went on the Ferris wheel at the carnival I was struck by the way the town just disappears and looks like a forest from above) I love the balance of it, having all the cool stuff around, but also nature.


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Female awww, but that would be telling unknown
FireclawDrake wrote:
Denulia's post is proving difficult for me to be happy with. Scrapped like 3 drafts so far. Eventually gonna have to just hit post and leave it. ;)

*nudge, nudge*


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The Vagrant Erudite wrote:

I am excited and terrified and nervous and confident and pretty much every male stereotype of how to panic but still be super happy about this scenario.

Every FaWtLer with spawn: Best piece of advice?

Congrats!

Advice is hard because every kid is different. The best advice I’ve got is to be prepared to be flexible. Plans are great. They make a nice whooshing sound as you toss them out the window because your actual kid needs something totally different! :)


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Woran wrote:
Vidmaster7 wrote:

*shudder* Kale....

I tried a recipe that involved honey and chili powder and a few other strong flavors in hopes of making Kale eatable. It failed.

I always wondered what this super healthy kale thing was and why people were obsessed with it.

Untill I googled it.

We've been eating this for centuries. Boiled, then mashed in with potatoes and gravy, and eaten with smoked sausage.

Weird people putting it in a smoothy.

I do a lot of kale in smoothies. It helps keep them from being so sickly sweet, especially if I’ve added coconut milk powder to try and up the calorie count. I also drink a lot of smoothies as meal replacement since it’s the one thing I can reliably keep down. Spinach also works, but honestly it’s not as good as kale at toning down the sweetness.


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John Napier 698 wrote:
** spoiler omitted **

That’s so cool! Thanks, John! :)


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Happy birthday, TL! :)


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Female awww, but that would be telling unknown

Hey, all, just letting you know that I’m still here, but have been unable to update game because it’s been a busy, busy, busy week with no freaking downtime. Getting kiddo their learners permit (it only took.... five hours... at the dmv >.<), doctors appointments, kiddo’s birthday, helping kiddo clean their room (it got bad, they needed reinforcements:P), and getting ready for tomorrow’s ‘fun’ (family get together all day and into the evening for fireworks, some actual fun if the rain holds off, but a really exhausting day). So I should be able to post on Friday if I’m not too fried after the fourth. Figured I should let you know what the schedule actually looks like. First week of July is always insane.


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Kiddo is 16 today! Where did the time go?! How did they get this old already ???!!

Have done the annual pilgrimage to Dave and busters. They’re playing through the last credits. I’m hiding in the car. Even with noise cancelling headphones it was too loud and bright in there. I swear I can hear the blinking lights. When the synesthesia kicks in, its time to leave. ;P

We’re making a special dinner later. Steaks in the grill, homemade French fries, and I baked a cheesecake at kiddo’s request.


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lisamarlene wrote:
lynora wrote:
I did give my family fair warning that it's a bad pain day by wearing The Shirt. On the front it says "My body is a temple, ancient & crumbling, probably cursed, harboring an unspeakable horror". I always wear it when I'm feeling extra bad because humor is an excellent coping mechanism :P

Really glad you're resting up and letting your body recover, but holy smokes, lady, do you know what's even better than a special hose attachment for your faucet (which, yes, you need like two days ago)?

Asking.
For.
Help.
I worry about you. Please don't do this to yourself.

Lecture received and admittedly deserved. I have a tendency to convince myself I can do more than I actually can. Especially when it’s things I used to be able to do. I will try to be better about it. Thanks for caring enough to scold me <3


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NobodysHome wrote:

lynora, I'd get something like this. The swivel puts less lateral force on the kitchen faucet.

Oh, sweet! Yeah, that would be perfect! Thanks for the tip! :)


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Vanykrye wrote:
lynora wrote:

Ugh, bad pain day. I overdid it badly on Monday. My hydroponic garden needed its tank refilled, and there's no hose, so I have to carry the water over from the sink. Normally I walk with a cane, but the water container is heavy so I need two hands. I can only make it like maybe six steps walking normally before my hip gives out and I faceplant, so I've figured out this really awkward work-around that involves twisting my foot sideways, hyperextending my knee, and doing a weird kind of shuffle-walk. It lets me make the trip without falling, but it's bad for literally every part of my leg. And it took like twenty trips of this to fill the tank. Yesterday wasn't so bad. I mean, I couldn't move my leg, and I was so exhausted I couldn't put coherent thoughts together, but I was mostly numb. Not great for my to-do list though as I ended up falling down the fanfic rabbit hole on AO3 instead of doing what I was supposed to. Whoops! Well, at least I found a really good fic about my fav OTP. ^.^ (Not as good at characterization and plot as the other fic I'm reading, but A+ smut. Freehold would approve!) But today all the pain has caught up and I want to scream every time I move my leg. :/

So the takeaway from this is that I really need to get a hose....can a normal garden hose attach to a kitchen faucet or do I need some kind of adapter? I haven't had an outdoor garden in so long, I legit don't remember these things...
You'll need an adapter for a standard garden hose to fit to a standard kitchen faucet.

Thanks! *adds to shopping list*


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Kiddo is nearly done with drivers training. Just a couple more days. And then we get to the really nerve-wracking part....having to be a passenger in the car while they drive. :O


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Freehold DM wrote:
Vanykrye wrote:
Freehold DM wrote:
Vanykrye wrote:

We hit 90 yesterday, and will likely do so again today. And last night we had 1" hail (2.54cm) with 60mph (96kph) winds.

Welcome to the Midwest.

...should I be concerned for next week?
No. Why would you ask? This isn't abnormal.
...do you live in some kind of layer of the abyss where 90 degree heat, scorching winds and hail are a regular occurence?

......he already told you he's in the midwest? ;P


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I did give my family fair warning that it's a bad pain day by wearing The Shirt. On the front it says "My body is a temple, ancient & crumbling, probably cursed, harboring an unspeakable horror". I always wear it when I'm feeling extra bad because humor is an excellent coping mechanism :P


5 people marked this as a favorite.

Ugh, bad pain day. I overdid it badly on Monday. My hydroponic garden needed its tank refilled, and there's no hose, so I have to carry the water over from the sink. Normally I walk with a cane, but the water container is heavy so I need two hands. I can only make it like maybe six steps walking normally before my hip gives out and I faceplant, so I've figured out this really awkward work-around that involves twisting my foot sideways, hyperextending my knee, and doing a weird kind of shuffle-walk. It lets me make the trip without falling, but it's bad for literally every part of my leg. And it took like twenty trips of this to fill the tank. Yesterday wasn't so bad. I mean, I couldn't move my leg, and I was so exhausted I couldn't put coherent thoughts together, but I was mostly numb. Not great for my to-do list though as I ended up falling down the fanfic rabbit hole on AO3 instead of doing what I was supposed to. Whoops! Well, at least I found a really good fic about my fav OTP. ^.^ (Not as good at characterization and plot as the other fic I'm reading, but A+ smut. Freehold would approve!) But today all the pain has caught up and I want to scream every time I move my leg. :/
So the takeaway from this is that I really need to get a hose....can a normal garden hose attach to a kitchen faucet or do I need some kind of adapter? I haven't had an outdoor garden in so long, I legit don't remember these things...


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I did a thing! A semi-kind-of-organized thing! Woo! So, I bought myself a planner. I swore I wasn't going to do this again because I have a whole string of failed planners behind me. I don't plan well. But this one was recommended by several ADHD peeps as being good. It isn't too structured, so there's a lot of flexibility of how to use it. And there are stickers! Because I am definitely able to be bribed to do my chores with stickers ;P
And it's Supernatural themed....in case the stickers thing wasn't already proof that I am not much of a grown up, I'm also using fandom stuff to try and trick myself into doing something good for me. XD


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Happy birthday NH! :)


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lisamarlene wrote:

Yet another tornado warning for the county this evening.

Oh goody.

Yikes. Hope y'all have a basement.