elenloth

2024-06-08

Which Necromantic House are you?

This was an interesting “corporate astrology” exercise!

Here are your totals for each house, there were an equal number of questions for each house and 20 is the highest possible score per house. The highest score would be your house affiliation. If you score equally on two houses...idk flip a coin or pick which one you prefer
2nd: 16
3rd: 13
4th: 13
5th: 13
6th: 16
7th: 16
8th: 14
9th: 13

You can find the quiz at this website.

The house I thought I matched up with the best was Sixth House, so, that’s not too surprising. But it’s interesting how close the point spread is.

2024-06-01

Buttered sociolinguistics

So today I had what is possibly the most Emily interaction ever.

I was at a dinner party, and accidentally misgendered a friend of a friend. However, because we had already been talking about dairy allergies, and because I couldn’t hear very well, the person who corrected me sounded (to me) like she was saying “They don’t use ghee” instead of “They don’t use ‘he’.”

So, naturally, I assume she was talking about one of the NB people I had already met, and asked “Oh wow, do THEY have a casein allergy too?”

We sorted it out eventually, but wow that was embarrassing and also hilarious in its own way.

Bonus #showerthought: If ghee were a pronoun, then would the object case be “ghem,” and if so, is this Cetagandan propaganda?

2024-06-01

Buttered sociolinguistics

So today I had what is possibly the most Emily interaction ever.

So, naturally, I assume she was talking about one of the NB people I had already met, and asked “Oh wow, do THEY have a casein allergy too?”

We sorted it out eventually, but wow that was embarrassing and also hilarious in its own way.

Bonus #showerthought: If ghee were a pronoun, then would the object case be “ghem,” and if so, is this Cetagandan propaganda?

2024-05-25

What’s your D&D character class and race?

This was a cool personality quiz.

I am a level 5 Lawful Good Halfling Wizard! Find out what kind of D&D character you would be!

Alignment

Lawful Good – A lawful good character acts as a good person is expected or required to act. They combine a commitment to oppose evil with the discipline to fight relentlessly. They tell the truth, keep their word, help those in need, and speak out against injustice. A lawful good character hates to see the guilty go unpunished. Lawful good is the best alignment you can be because it combines honor and compassion. However, lawful good can be a dangerous alignment when it restricts freedom and criminalizes self-interest.

Race/species

Halfling – Halflings are clever, capable and resourceful survivors. They are notoriously curious and show a daring that many larger people can’t match. They can be lured by wealth but tend to spend rather than hoard. They prefer practical clothing and would rather wear a comfortable shirt than jewelry. Halflings stand about 3 feet tall and commonly live to see 150.

Class

Wizard – Wizards are arcane spellcasters who depend on intensive study to create their magic. To wizards, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. When they are prepared for battle, wizards can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. The wizard’s strength is her spells, everything else is secondary. She learns new spells as she experiments and grows in experience, and she can also learn them from other wizards. In addition, over time a wizard learns to manipulate her spells so they go farther, work better, or are improved in some other way. A wizard can call a familiar- a small, magical, animal companion that serves her. With a high Intelligence, wizards are capable of casting very high levels of spells.

Detailed Results

This section is the scalar values it gave me for each feature (alignment, race, class).

Alignment

Lawful Good (24)

Lawful Neutral (20)

Lawful Evil (10)

Chaotic Good (21)

Chaotic Neutral (17)

Chaotic Evil (7)

Neutral Good (23)

Neutral Evil (9)

True Neutral (19)

Race

Dwarf (6)

Elf (12)

Half-Elf (8)

Halfling (12)

Human (9)

Half-Orc (2)

Gnome (10)

Class

Fighter (10)

Ranger (12)

Paladin (12)

Cleric (10)

Druid (12)

Bard (12)

Monk (14)

Sorcerer (12)

Barbarian (6)

Rogue (4)

Wizard (20)

Warlock (8)

2024-05-19

The better part of valor

Something I’ve had to learn over the years of being on the Internet is that sometimes I am wrong, and need to take a seat and be introspective instead of explaining why I think the way I do.

This was surprisingly difficult to do. I think part of it is the desire to not have people dislike me; but both learning that that’s not something I can control, and starting to care less if they DO like me, makes me better at figuring out what I did wrong and being a better person in the future, which (counter intuitively?) makes me more likeable as a person.

We all fuck up on occasion. (Or, even, frequently.)

We all have the ability to say “Sorry, will do” when a mod tells us to step off or take a break.

I like to joke that I learned How To People by reading a book. But that’s not so far from the truth. Thinking about things and analyzing social situations is how I managed to get social skills in the first place.

2024-05-082024-05-08

Caregiving work is work.

Caregiving work is work. People who stay home to take care of children or the elderly should, at the VERY LEAST, earn Social Security quarters for it. (And ideally, everyone would receive a UBI that would allow them to do things like caregiving work without having to worry about losing the roof over their heads.)

As technology advances, and society gets the ability to be more soft and thoughtful (rather than having 90% of the population doing subsistence agriculture or else we all starve), then we should be giving people MORE benefits and MORE ability to do things like unpaid caregiving work. Fuck the Gods of the Copybook Headings. We can defeat them with technology, if we put our minds to it.

But that doesn’t help the shareholders, does it?

My friend sent me this link to a government website about registering as a caregiver for a disabled adult! As noted there, you can contact your state’s Medicaid office to learn more.

2024-05-02

On maturity

A nice rule of thumb for your dating life: If Leonardo DiCaprio would still date you, you are too young to get married.

(And yes, plenty of people who wait until the magical age of 25 to marry still wind up divorced, and plenty of young marriages do last. But you improve your odds if you wait until your brain has matured a little bit more.)

2024-04-24

Online spaces are not real spaces

I recently took a weeklong hiatus from Facebook – not on purpose, just because I was very busy with things going on in my life, and didn’t have time to log in and share some memes.

While I was gone, a very anodyne post that I shared exploded. I was generally aware that “there was some drama,” but I was unaware of the fact that people were, apparently, calling out to me within the comments of the post. (I do not keep Facebook on my phone for balance/mental health reasons. Life/life balance? It’s not work/life balance, it’s just that I find Facebook distracting, and I try to limit my distractions whenever possible.)

Today I’m checking back in on things, and reflecting: should I have been there to monitor the post?

I have a friend who considers his online space (that he controls and moderates) to be an extension of his living room: that it is for people who he invites in, of his own volition, and he expects them to behave as though they *are* in his living room, conversing with people they know to be his personal friends, with all the assumption of noble intent that would go along with such an interaction.

Not all of us keep such a tight leash on our Internet communities. My Facebook is almost entirely private, and while I do occasionally befriend people who are “one hop” away from me (and have made good friends by doing so), in general, I try to keep the posts to people I do, in fact, know, and generally get along with.

This has landed me in hot water more times than I can count; in part, because I can get along with many different types of people. Not everyone; I have my lines. I have unfriended or blocked a handful of folks over the years, and I could probably tell you exactly why for each one. (If I knew how to do spoilers on WordPress, I would give the examples right here.)

This is, in a sense, an extension of Geek Social Fallacy #4: Friendship Is Transitive. The people that I am friends with are not always going to get along with one another; and that goes double if I am not there to moderate the tension. But here’s the thing: I don’t live on Facebook. Facebook is not real life. I cannot moderate it all the time; I’m not hosting a 24/7 living room party in my house. And I think that fact extends to situations in which I refrain from logging in, even for extended periods. My real life will always take precedence over Facebook. (Even if real life does involve some level of farting around on my phone on DIFFERENT social networks.)

So, while I do feel bad that the conversation spiraled without me…I am realizing that I don’t feel responsible for it, if that makes sense. I would say “sorry,” but it would be the “sorry” of Condolence, not of Apology.

I figure I will continue on as I have begun: by using Facebook sporadically, and not trying to check it more often just because people might have driven a thread off a cliff. (Especially since on a platform like Facebook, I have no moderation power beyond just deleting the entire thing.)

2024-04-22

Rainbow capitalism

Corporate Pride is an indicator of societal change, not a driver of societal change.

And I think a lot of people get those two mixed up.

2024-03-16

Magic cards variant game

My partner and I wanted to play the recent Fallout expansion for Magic: The Gathering, but it was prohibitively expensive to try to buy boosters for it. (I’m not sure if they only did Collector Boosters, or if the local store was just sold out of Draft/Play boosters.) Additionally, the Commander decks were pretty expensive; I wanted this game to be my treat, but I didn’t want to shell out for two of them.