Deep 6 FaWtL

[NobodysHome]

So, ever since the innocuous-sounding, "Your doctor doesn't want you to know..." way back when (really? My doctor spent 4 years in college, 3 years in med school, and 2 years interning all for the sake making sure you stay sick so they can get more money out of you, when they could have made more cash working shorter hours as a lawyer or MBA? Really?!?!?!), trust in medicine and medical science has plummeted.

And it's even infected our vets.

Vet #1: "All of Fluffernutter's problems are because you feed her dry food. Check out this well-researched web site for all the answers."
Instead of blind trust, I checked the web site's owner and publisher. Owned by a single vet who hadn't published a single paper on feline nutrition. However, she did tour the country regularly and hit all the TV circuits to espouse the benefits of wet food, all paid in full by the wet food lobby. And yes, much to my surprise, there IS a wet food lobby. We quit that vet immediately -- as soon as they point you to bogus web sites with "facts" with no basis in science, it's time to save your cat.

Vet #2: "Well, she's obviously got advancing arthritis, but before we put her on anything that may be hard on her system, let's try these dietary supplements."
There is absolutely no research that shows that any of that s*** works. Just anecdotes from pet owners who paid extra attention to their pets and noticed their pets' moods improving. What a surprise!

Vet #3: "There are three main treatments I'd recommend for arthritis in cats. The first one performed so well in clinical trials that the company immediately saw dollar signs and pulled it for human trials because they want to get FDA approval ASAP to rake in hundreds of billions. Which is a good sign it's pretty d**ned good. After I read the research I started using it on my 12-year-old Saint Bernard and at least for her it's been just as good as the research says it is. So, it's not approved for cats and I can't give it to you because they've locked down distribution, but here's where you can get it.
If you don't like that option because it's only been out a year, this pain injection will not improve her arthritis, but it's a monthly painkiller that's proven to be very effective. But as I said, it's not going to help, it's just going to make her more comfortable.
Option #3 is my least favorite. It's an NSAID that's supposedly safe for cats, but of the three research papers I've seen on it, one says it doesn't affect kidney function, one says it negatively impacts it, and the one paid for by the manufacturer says it improves kidney function, so I'd take that one with a grain of salt. So, how would you like to proceed?"
Needless to say, I love vet #3. We got the Fluffernutter the shot and it's as if she's 4-5 years younger. She's sitting in people's laps and purring, wandering around outside, and all in all obviously MUCH happier than she was just a few days ago. And we've ordered the "miracle drug we're pulling because we don't want to waste money on animals when we can make a killing giving it to humans" drug through one of the vet's back end distributors.

Why did it take me 3 vets to find one who actually believes in clinical research?

And therein lies politics...

[Drejk]

... and then NobodysHome had to find a new vet after the third one threw him out for barging in naked...

[Drejk]

I don't want to steal NobodysHome shtick and be the cranky old man complaining on things getting worse, but why do the designers insist on making things worse and less functional?

In older Windows you could easily check time at other places by clicking clock, and selecting different time zone. For the last few iterations that functionality is gone. You need to use a browser to check or dig deep in the setting functions...

[Freehold DM]

Scint, PM.

[NobodysHome]

Drejk wrote:

I don't want to steal NobodysHome shtick and be the cranky old man complaining on things getting worse, but why do the designers insist on making things worse and less functional?

In older Windows you could easily check time at other places by clicking clock, and selecting different time zone. For the last few iterations that functionality is gone. You need to use a browser to check or dig deep in the setting functions...

I am convinced the modern generation of UI designers doesn't actually work with computers.

"Scroll bars are ugly! Let's auto-hide them so they don't mess up the feel of the page!"

"That page full of critical data is too crowded! Let's make the cells bigger and add a bunch of white space so the page doesn't look so cluttered!"

"Only really technical people ever use this, so let's hide it all so the only way to discover it is using a Google search."

"People don't need to save any more and they can just use the browser's Back functionality, so let's remove all those buttons from the page!"

Working in a data-intensive field with such <unmentionable> people designing your UI is... painful...

[Tiny Fist of Impotent Fury]

*shakes*

[Drejk]

Fantasy NPC: Schaart Of The Myrror Realm

Mirror-mirror... Oh, sh*t!

[BigNorseWolf]

Playing starfinder over roll20 and discord

One of the players dogs start barking in the background

My nieces dog, who is snoring on the seat behind me, wakes up and starts barking back.

"Oh Great. They're telebarketing...."

[BigNorseWolf]

NobodysHome wrote:

So, ever since the innocuous-sounding, "Your doctor doesn't want you to know..."

We had a 12 ish year old white lab and her hips were at the "whats the worst we could do, kill her?" phase we decided to try some not tested on animals pain /anti inflammatory meds.

Day 1 "grrr.. NO PILLS!" bite! Bad boy no medicine

Day 2 "grumble.. arlright...." I'll try it because I like you

Day 3 "WOOF. Hey. its 10:15. Where's my meds? Here boy! Get the leash vacations over you're taking me for a walk. "

She had a similar progression with being carried up the steps.

[quibblemuch]

Apparently through the magic of AI, my most recent book is going to be an audiobook on Audible. I'd feel some twinge of regret for the loss of human readers, but I'm such a rinky dink niche writer I can't afford that anyway. Also, it seems AI has a very hard time pronouncing my main character's name. So... winning?

I dunno. I have mixed feelings about everything.

[NobodysHome]

2 months of life in a nutshell:

NobodysHome: No significant changes.
GothBard: No significant changes.
Impus Major: Continues to get straight As now that he's found his calling. So massively different from DVC, but no significant changes.
Impus Minor: Amusingly enough, the massive anti-education movement helped him immensely; CSUEB waived all GPA requirements because they were so desperate for students. So even though his 2.76 was technically a bit low, he'll be attending CSUEB in the Fall.
Fluffernutter: Starting in mid-to-late February, she went significantly downhill, very much like how you visit your grandmother every holiday, year after year, decade after decade, and then suddenly one Thanksgiving she's aged 15 years. The single shot of painkiller seems to have reversed that trend.
Kitten the First, aka Fluffernutter II, aka The Perfect Kitten: In 50 years we've never had a more perfect kitten. She patiently works the Fluffernutter and I'm sure will eventually win her over. She plays, but gently. She's very cautious outside, and runs in if anything unfamiliar happens. Perfect. Kitten.

So all in all, not much to report.

[Freehold DM]

NobodysHome wrote:

Drejk wrote:

I don't want to steal NobodysHome shtick and be the cranky old man complaining on things getting worse, but why do the designers insist on making things worse and less functional?

In older Windows you could easily check time at other places by clicking clock, and selecting different time zone. For the last few iterations that functionality is gone. You need to use a browser to check or dig deep in the setting functions...

I am convinced the modern generation of UI designers doesn't actually work with computers.

"Scroll bars are ugly! Let's auto-hide them so they don't mess up the feel of the page!"

"That page full of critical data is too crowded! Let's make the cells bigger and add a bunch of white space so the page doesn't look so cluttered!"

"Only really technical people ever use this, so let's hide it all so the only way to discover it is using a Google search."

"People don't need to save any more and they can just use the browser's Back functionality, so let's remove all those buttons from the page!"

Working in a data-intensive field with such <unmentionable> people designing your UI is... painful...

entirely possible.

I have staff who grew up with smartphone not computers and their frustration is evident when the computer decides it doesn't like them.

[gran rey de los mono]

Drejk wrote:

I don't want to steal NobodysHome shtick and be the cranky old man complaining on things getting worse, but why do the designers insist on making things worse and less functional?

In older Windows you could easily check time at other places by clicking clock, and selecting different time zone. For the last few iterations that functionality is gone. You need to use a browser to check or dig deep in the setting functions...

If they didn't make them worse, then you might not notice that they did anything.

[gran rey de los mono]

I was already not looking forward to coming in to work and dealing with the laundry, but when I got here and 2nd shift told me that the good dryer broke down on Friday (apparently we're waiting for parts) and that the bad dryer was working even worse than usual, and thus she was told to only do half loads, I just about walked out the door. (Not actually, but you get the idea.) So I do my starting paperwork, and head into the back. And, honestly, it's about the same as what she had left me the last two weeks when we had 2 working dryers. Which just goes to show how little she'd been doing. I'm going to try drying a full load at once, since I doubt her knowledge when it comes to the laundry, and also because I checked the lint trap, and it was in desperate need of cleaning. As in the 2ftx2.5ft filter had a roughly 3/4inch thick blanket covering it. Which, as you may imagine, would have a significant impact on drying times. Guess I'll find out soon just how the dryer is working.

[gran rey de los mono]

It's been a hell of a 90 minutes.

First, the "good". The dryer worked just fine after I cleared the lint. Did a whole load in 40 minutes, which is about what I would expect from it. So, either 2nd shift just needed to clean the lint out, or she was making it up as an excuse to not do more laundry. I don't know.

Second, the bad. Had the smoke alarm in a room go off. Their cell phone had exploded. Thankfully no fire, but a lot of nasty smoke. Fire department came out, verified no fire, and set up some fans to try and remove the smoke. Unfortunately, for security reasons, the windows only open about 2 inches, so there was only so much they could do. I opened other windows, and the smell is mostly gone. Not quite all gone, but mostly. I'm just glad no other guests complained about the alarm or the smell. Yet.

[Vanykrye]

NobodysHome wrote:

Vet Stuff

One of our cats is on the same monthly shot. She's got degeneration in her hips and that shot makes her act 5 years younger.

[quibblemuch]

So I took one of those silly internet quizzes; this one claiming to provide a single word for the emotion or motivation at the heart of the quiz-taker's creative drive. I clicked through the multiple-choice questions, scoffing the whole while, like Hannibal Lecter handed the psychological testing ("Agent Starling, you think you can dissect me with this blunt little tool...?")

The result:

Discontent

You create from discontent. Most of your life has been spent being uncomfortable in your own skin. This body is just another house that's never felt like home. You don't know how to be at ease in this world or this life. Art is a way of running away, of forgetting yourself and escaping to a more comfortable place. To cope with an unhospitable reality, you create more welcoming worlds to consume your work and your waking hours. But the foundation of your art has always been your discontent with the real world and your life within it. Lurking behind the inviting scenery you dream of is the desperate desire to be anywhere but here. It is a world constructed as a respite from this one. Such vivid fantasies are the dream of one who considers reality a prison.

...

Well played, internet. Well. Played.

[Quark Blast]

quibblemuch wrote:

So I took one of those silly internet quizzes....snip

The result:

snip.... Such vivid fantasies are the dream of one who considers reality a prison.

...

Well played, internet. Well. Played.

But.... but, reality is a prison!

[Zombie Shakespeare]

A goodly one; in which there are many confines,
wards and dungeons, Denmark being one o' the worst.

[Justin Franklin]

2800 new posts... I ain't reading all of that.

[TOZ]

I didn't, and I was here the whole time!

[Monocle Popoff]

*spoing*

[Sir Buffington Henchly]

OOOOOORRRRGHOOOO!!!

[BigNorseWolf]

Freehold DM wrote:

I have staff who grew up with smartphone not computers and their frustration is evident when the computer decides it doesn't like them.

I had to get some medical records and the person I was talking to said it couldn't be done without a cell phone to read the URL code. Or you could fax or snail mail

"You could just tell me the website address..."

Like a desktop was a thing they weren't sitting in front of....

[90s Simpsons Referotron]

BigNorseWolf wrote:

Freehold DM wrote:

I have staff who grew up with smartphone not computers and their frustration is evident when the computer decides it doesn't like them.

I had to get some medical records and the person I was talking to said it couldn't be done without a cell phone to read the URL code. Or you could fax or snail mail

"You could just tell me the website address..."

Like a desktop was a thing they weren't sitting in front of....

Oh, you better believe that's a paddlin.

[Orthos]

NobodysHome wrote:

Drejk wrote:

I don't want to steal NobodysHome shtick and be the cranky old man complaining on things getting worse, but why do the designers insist on making things worse and less functional?

In older Windows you could easily check time at other places by clicking clock, and selecting different time zone. For the last few iterations that functionality is gone. You need to use a browser to check or dig deep in the setting functions...

I am convinced the modern generation of UI designers doesn't actually work with computers.

"Scroll bars are ugly! Let's auto-hide them so they don't mess up the feel of the page!"

"That page full of critical data is too crowded! Let's make the cells bigger and add a bunch of white space so the page doesn't look so cluttered!"

"Only really technical people ever use this, so let's hide it all so the only way to discover it is using a Google search."

"People don't need to save any more and they can just use the browser's Back functionality, so let's remove all those buttons from the page!"

Working in a data-intensive field with such <unmentionable> people designing your UI is... painful...

So, to be blunt, you're mostly correct. They don't work with computers.

They work with SMARTPHONES.

SO MUCH of the current change in branding, iconography, and functionality has been centered around making everything best function with smartphones, in particular iPhones. It's why every logo is hypersimplistic and hyperminimalistic now - it needs to still be recognizable when compressed down into a 30x30-pixels sprite on your phone.

The side effect of this is that designing primarily for phones makes everything wonky and awkward on desktops, but that's considered a secondary priority if it's one at all.

[GM Umbral Ultimatum]

Drejk wrote:

Fantasy NPC: Schaart Of The Myrror Realm

Mirror-mirror... Oh, sh*t!

Well if I ever run a plot with the Nerra again, I'm definitely using this guy.

[Orthos]

quibblemuch wrote:

So I took one of those silly internet quizzes; this one claiming to provide a single word for the emotion or motivation at the heart of the quiz-taker's creative drive. I clicked through the multiple-choice questions, scoffing the whole while, like Hannibal Lecter handed the psychological testing ("Agent Starling, you think you can dissect me with this blunt little tool...?")

The result:

Discontent

You create from discontent. Most of your life has been spent being uncomfortable in your own skin. This body is just another house that's never felt like home. You don't know how to be at ease in this world or this life. Art is a way of running away, of forgetting yourself and escaping to a more comfortable place. To cope with an unhospitable reality, you create more welcoming worlds to consume your work and your waking hours. But the foundation of your art has always been your discontent with the real world and your life within it. Lurking behind the inviting scenery you dream of is the desperate desire to be anywhere but here. It is a world constructed as a respite from this one. Such vivid fantasies are the dream of one who considers reality a prison.

...

Well played, internet. Well. Played.

Well now you have to share it.

[Scientific Scrutiny]

Yep. This checks out.

[Scintillae]

Ahh, explaining minor word differences to children.

"Google was founded in the 90s" vs. "Google was found in the 90s." Apparently, we just picked up a rock or something.

[quibblemuch]

But... how did they find Google without Google?

*mind blows*

[BigNorseWolf]

quibblemuch wrote:

But... how did they find Google without Google?

*mind blows*

[age check]They asked Jeeves.... [/age check]

[The Internet, Circa 1998]

Hey!

[NobodysHome]

Ah, the joys of older cats and medicine.

Vet: Her kidney numbers are so high that she's probably nauseous and dizzy most of the time. You should give her some Pepcid AC; it does wonders for kidney patients.

Fluffernutter: (Showed only mild signs of nausea before the vet called) Oh, is it time to start throwing up all the time and refusing to eat? Can do!

*SIGH*. We've got three medications that are supposed to vastly improve her life, and she's decided to go Roman on us.

[Google, Demon Queen of Spiders]

BigNorseWolf wrote:

quibblemuch wrote:

But... how did they find Google without Google?

*mind blows*

[age check]They asked Jeeves.... [/age check]

You know the law! Never mention that name in my presence!

[Orthos]

Scientific Scrutiny wrote:

Yep. This checks out.

Quote:

Pain

You create from pain. It's the deep, overwhelming agony that builds up over a lifetime of suffering. Sometimes you can't tell where your scars ends and you begin. You pour out your pains into your art because you can't bear to hurt this much and have nothing to show for it. Your suffering will be pointless if you can't make something of it, so you make it into art. This is how you reclaim everything you'd otherwise regret, by making those painful experiences into something of worth. Art is a battle to conquer your suffering, to make your agony into something you can take pride in. Every piece is a hard fought victory over something that would have only eaten away at you otherwise. It's proof of your desire to live and heal, to be more than just your wounds.

... welp. I... can't argue with that.

[Scintillae]

Quote:

Love

You create from love. It is an overflowing love that seeps out of your heart and into all you create. You couldn't possibly contain it inside yourself, and so you dedicate yourself to depicting it through everything you make. Your art is a celebration of what you cherish most, a loving tribute to everything that captivates you. There are things too wonderful to be appreciated in silence, and so you sing of your love time and time again. You are determined not to let your vast love go unnoticed or forgotten. That's why your work is a declaration of affection, an expression of fondness for everything that makes your life worth living.

I'm...not sure if I agree or not. Discontent also sounds a lot like me.

[TriOmegaZero]

Yeah, not sure my result is accurate since I haven’t done much art.

[NobodysHome]

LOL. So, I'm not an artist, so it was kind of hilarious trying to answer. And I think it'll surprise everyone:

Quote:

Your Result:

Hope
You create from hope. In spite of everything, you maintain a fervent hope deep inside you that things can always be better. It is a stubborn and tenacious hope that you take care to cultivate because you would be lost without it. Art is an outlet for your hopes, a way of expressing your most optimistic wishes for the world. It reveals your ideals and everything you value most. Your work is a declaration of hope for yourself and the world, an adamant assertion that a better reality is within reach. In a world so rife with disillusionment, you strive to send out a message of stubborn encouragement. It is a call to action for everyone on the verge of giving up. Though you may doubt yourself at times, your hopes are what inspire you the most.

[gran rey de los mono]

I am also not an artist, so most of the questions had no meaning to me. But I tried it anyways,

Quote:

Spite

You create from spite. There is a deep resentment burning inside you that demands to be let out. You have been wronged and you can't bring yourself to forgive or forget. Your work is an act of defiance, a striving to prove others wrong and leave your mark on this world. You will declare loud and clear the injustices you've been dealt will not silently disappear, that they will demand an audience over and over again. You create to force people to acknowledge the unpleasant truths they try to ignore. Your art is fueled by a need to expose the insidious evils and hypocrisies that you've been subject to. It is a means of becoming more than just a victim, a way of reclaiming your life as your own.

Personally, I don't think it's very accurate.

[Vanykrye]

If I can claim an art form, it would be music.

Quote:

Alienation

You create from alienation. There is a distance not only between yourself and others, but between yourself and what you are expected to be, yourself and your own humanity. Your honest self feels too divorced from what it should be for it to have any place among everyone else. Your art is an expression of your estrangement from normalcy and other's expectations. It is strange and shocking because you feel that is what you are when you are not pretending to be otherwise. You do not create things to be pretty or pleasing to others, but to be raw and confusing. You have always felt different, so you want to create things that are remarkably different from the norm. It is an expression of your own strangeness, which seems to have no place but in your art. Your work is a sanctuary for everything that alienates you from the world at large.

[Scintillae]

gran rey de los mono wrote:

I am also not an artist, so most of the questions had no meaning to me. But I tried it anyways,

Quote:

Spite

You create from spite. There is a deep resentment burning inside you that demands to be let out. You have been wronged and you can't bring yourself to forgive or forget. Your work is an act of defiance, a striving to prove others wrong and leave your mark on this world. You will declare loud and clear the injustices you've been dealt will not silently disappear, that they will demand an audience over and over again. You create to force people to acknowledge the unpleasant truths they try to ignore. Your art is fueled by a need to expose the insidious evils and hypocrisies that you've been subject to. It is a means of becoming more than just a victim, a way of reclaiming your life as your own.

Personally, I don't think it's very accurate.

See, that sounds more like me.

[Drejk]

Lots of those questions have rather narrow set of answers where none of them really fit :/

Also, does writing down monsters and npcs for rpgs counts as art? Asking for a friend...

[Drejk]

Where is "sometimes"?! :/

[Drejk]

Why do you presume there is meaning in life in the first place?!

[Drejk]

"Pick a mythological creature you are drawn to"...

Yes?

[Drejk]

NobodysHome wrote:

LOL. So, I'm not an artist, so it was kind of hilarious trying to answer. And I think it'll surprise everyone:

Quote:

Your Result:

Hope
You create from hope. In spite of everything, you maintain a fervent hope deep inside you that things can always be better. It is a stubborn and tenacious hope that you take care to cultivate because you would be lost without it. Art is an outlet for your hopes, a way of expressing your most optimistic wishes for the world. It reveals your ideals and everything you value most. Your work is a declaration of hope for yourself and the world, an adamant assertion that a better reality is within reach. In a world so rife with disillusionment, you strive to send out a message of stubborn encouragement. It is a call to action for everyone on the verge of giving up. Though you may doubt yourself at times, your hopes are what inspire you the most.

What do you think GothBard would get?

Imps?

[Drejk]

And I got discontent...

[Middle-aged Man Henderson]

Feh. Discontent. The worst.

[BigNorseWolf]

Reverence. But how the heck do you have a mythical creatures list without dragons?