Dispatches from the West Country: somebody’s painted 🏴s on a load of roundabouts in Penzance and the locals are furious because they also hate the English
He/him. Manchester, UK. Chess arbiter, teacher and Dungeon Master. Got out of The Bad Place a long time ago and am trying not to be feral online for financial reasons.
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Dispatches from the West Country: somebody’s painted 🏴s on a load of roundabouts in Penzance and the locals are furious because they also hate the English
I remember not being given the day off school to watch a total eclipse of the sun when I was seven. A once in a lifetime celestial event. Versus six hours of numeracy, literacy and finger painting. Priorities are fucked.
If I have to explain to you why it's a bad idea to use a machine that makes shit up 15-80% of the time AND destroys the environment AND contributes to rising fascism and genocide AND puts brilliant skillful creatives out of work by stealing their work, then we're already speaking different languages
Live your life such that everyone doesn’t spend ten solid years planning the rager they’re going to throw when you die.
I don't teach music specifically, but I tend to teach multiple ways to see what sticks with different students. Maybe numbers works for some people? Not me, but some people?
I understand what you're saying, but it's this sort of thinking that lets people convince themselves that it won't happen to them. I think we need to exercise caution until we better understand the mechanism of this psychosis.
A lot of people were interested in the bullet dice holder, and a few even told me they would come back later to buy them, but I made zero sales yesterday. 🫠 It's a bit disheartening as it took me weeks to design to prototype the bullet dice holder and 10 hours to print each one. 🥲
I swear there used to be cool gadgets and gizmos, doodads and such. Now it's all cellphones it seems
Gavin Newsom suggesting that 25 years of age is too young to transition and agreeing to right-wing entryism of concern trolling about trans people in sports. This is your opposition leader? I will never vote for Gavin Newsom anyone who thinks trans people are actual humans will follow suit.
I hate going to the barber. I hate going in with any optimism at all and then leaving looking like Default Masculine Option.
I think I prefer "people over 30" to "old gamers" personally 🙃🧓
Your irregular reminder that catering for allergies & dietary restrictions is part of running an inclusive event. Which @tmip.bsky.social continue to raise the bar on with each event they run ❤️
I hear you. I think it might be because it's used so much comparatively that it ends up being utilitarian. I've heard people suggest healing magic leaving scars but I think the average adventurer would quickly start to look like Deadpool 🙃
What do you think it is about them that fails to satisfy you? I often think they're too cheap- particularly when it comes to lifting curses or other effects beyond restoring hit points.
I hate when an irrational dislike for someone turns out justified, it tries to falsely convince me I’m a better judge of character than I am. Today it’s Joe Wicks, who’s now promoting disordered eating and anti-science, ableist bullshit.
This looks fantastic! Sending encouragement your way!
Recently reminded of this Kevin Crawford AMA, and it remains everything.
Collaborating with my sister in law to write a D&D arc for three of her brothers and I'm so excited. #dnd5e
Children can and do play the clarinet so, as a reasonable woodwind player and full grown adult, I thought I'd have a go. My lips are numb.
Did a new one
hi. looking to speak to folks in the games industry getting put through the wringer in the job application process rn. unpaid labour, multiple interviews only to get ghosted, sham job listings, scams, AI screening, any and all of that kinda stuff. DM or email at lukeATaftermathDOTsite, thank you!
Fucking love opossums because I too am messy, spiky, unapproachable, and will fake my death when I get stressed out
I took a whole Battenberg cake once. Wasn't practical, but was a delight cutting slices and handing them down the row.
maybe sailing ships should have been the extent of human ambition. or maybe I'm too master and commander-pilled
Wis save to have the sense to shut your eyes
Person on the tannoy at Manchester Piccadilly was born to wield it.
"ChatGPT is great for brainstorming!" Actually we have a tool for that already! It's called thinking. We use our brain. It's called brainstorming! Clue is in the name.
This is really personal, but I like my SF tech weird. I have a degree in Physics and way too much SF tech based on real-world stuff is just a bit too... wrong. Go weird. Don't try to be plausible- you're making stuff up, it's called fiction and it's *good*.
I'm sorry. That's a lot.
Age verification is creating an information desert. The Online Safety Act sets every UK user to child as default. Teenagers? Blocked. Adults? Content denied unless we do age checks with unregulated companies. It's not just porn! News is being scrubbed from view ⛔ www.404media.co/uk-users-nee...
A key point in Fahrenheit 451 is that books were banned because they made people depressed and uncomfortable. The novel's protagonist, Montag, is taken into custody after he reads a poem that makes a woman cry because she realizes the emptiness of her life.
![[quoting a tweet from isabelunraveled in which she rails against depressing books that get branded as “great writing”]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/bafkreidzblpxefncqr2c73v7myen325wvtk767i7rw4zcc32c3hj4gzv5a@jpeg "Click to view full size")
I used to have a "tavern notices" section in the Discord listing current events. Consequences of party actions, NPCs continuing out their storylines, foreshadowing etc.
Hello, I'm a chess player in a film. I can beat anyone in mere moves, and do not spend any time thinking. I talk constantly while playing. My opponent is surprised to find themself in checkmate. I am probably drinking heavily. I do not know how to set up a chessboard.
warhammer lore: this is skulletrax the world raper. he has killed over 10 billion orphanages tumblr girlies: im going to draw him getting his beautiful hair brushed by his battle brother
I don’t give a fuck about your chiropractic cures and homeopathic crystals, in this house we believe in constantly questioning our prior assumptions but only acting on them if they meet the rigorous demands of overturning currently proven practices to at least five sigma
I really hope over the next couple of days I see people reskeeting how to call Visa and Mastercard, post about their call experiences, and keep up with being loud about how unacceptable this present situation is. If we let them think they got us off their backs, it will get so much worse.
"They" (plural) is such a dangerous word in stupid mouths.
We don't. "Choosing" people is more accurate. And I choose to tell you to fuck off. Neo nazis don't get to use me as a pawn and edgy atheists who think they know my scripture better than I do can fuck off as well.
I can 🙃
More than one player at the #chess tournament today: "Oh boy! Time to wear the squeakiest shoes I own!"
Yeah we have three bowls and a fountain because this one loves water. When I flush the toilet she will come running and screaming because she wants to watch 😂
Open game/King's pawn game serves 1... e5 well. The only reason it "doesn't have a name" is because it's the traditional main line after 1. e4. But there's scope to really inflict a name on 1... b5. A name that can deal psychic damage.
There is a teeny tiny ribbon at the top to meet those legal obligations
One of my cats sticks her paw fully in the bowl to check if there's still water because of the one time last year I was sick and didn't refill it. But she's a cat.
Someone should invent a lying machine. They should spend billions making it as convincing as possible, and then ask it to solve all our problems
Looking to speak with a Scottish folklorist for a game project! Bonus points if you have experience with the intersection of Celtic mythology and LGBT topics. Email me at heatherflowersbusiness@gmail.com if interested!!
Six hours into a ten hour workday and it feels like my head is about to hatch.
I have been to queer spaces that felt like "one large and unwieldy polycule + me" and I think the likely reason is that anyone else not in the polycule also was stressed by this vibe and left.
I have to go to work. In the morning. On a Thursday. I know most of you do this every week but I am not kidding when I say this is the first time in years.
They don’t actually hate censorship. They hate losing control of narratives. If a game’s gay, trans, or too “weird,” they’re fine watching it disappear. But they’ll cry foul if a game with anime boobs gets delisted.
Valve just updated their Steam rules to ban content that “may violate rules set by payment processors or banks.” Sounds boring. It’s not. It’s the quiet normalization of financial censorship and it’s going to hurt LGBTQ+ games and devs
Have to supervise a chess club (the first of three this week). I think I am coming down with a fever.
The time is right for a new game design/dev bingo! Have you crossed off any of the below? #gamedev #indiedev 🎲✂️ #bingo #ttrpgdesign #ttrpgdev
Just had to google amnesia because I forgot what it was called.
Fascinating article but I do fear the way young people seem to increasingly prefer connecting virtually, rather than in the real world. Video games can bring us together- but they aren't everything.
People say, “There’s zero benefit to studying dead languages and old books.” The benefit is that you won’t grow up to become the sort of person who spends your one precious life online, yelling at strangers that they must never learn beautiful things.
'authors subsistent off the pages they write and drink the ink from their own words, and thus have no expenses. their rent is free as they live inside their books. their joy is in giving us things that we feel entitled to. freely. they love it. so says i, a pirate who devalues authors.' basically
Question. Player has signed up to a local #chess tournament. There are rumours, backed up by local news reports, that this player has been convicted of harassment, or a similar crime. What would you do as TO/player in this situation? #chesspunks #womeninchess
Always fascinated when people block me. I post about three times a week. Sorry that I'm just too much to handle.
I criticised a chess influencer for sharing an unscientific survey posing as academic research. The influencer was (ostensibly) female and I'm not, and the responses were very much "no uterus no opinion", despite the fact my main criticism was that the study was gender essentialist.
Exciting! One of my players constantly references jurassic park at the table so I think there's a playtest candidate right there.
Just got it on me to work really hard today and hit all my KPIs but then the Horner news broke so that's out of the window #F1
Did you guys know that Maddy Myers writes now??!! About sexism in games !!? www.endlessmode.com/video-games/...
I hadn't thought about doing this but I have excellent (and adaptable) handwriting. I ought to cook up some samples.
This was me and then it happened twice in one week. At metrolink stops. Actually managed to save the second bee by unhooking her myself.
If you haven't read Vultures by Chinua Achebe I can highly recommend it; I think about it probably three times a week these days. There isn't a line I can cut out for you to sample- the whole thing is that good; consume it entirely.
Me: I swear to God you can save me. Others have tried and failed... But YOU... I think you might be the one. I can feel myself changing I... *stifled sob* I can be a better person with you. New notepad: Sir I am an expensive notepad.
If you figure it out, let me know so I can explain to mine the causal link between her tearing up little pieces of cardboard and me getting Henry out to suck the pieces out of the carpet. 🙃
The freezer has just defrosted itself... I didn't need this today.
I am really struggling to feel good and safe and happy and it feels like a lot of (strangers) think I should be kept in a state of near-complete agitation and, loves, it is not sustainable. Can anyone recommend a comic or podcast that is *not* about the impending collapse of the world as we know it?
There is a pro-consumer rights movement for gaming right now called #StopKillingGames. It is currently try to pass an initiative to ensure that games that you pay for cannot be rendered completely unplayable after being sold to you, please consider supporting it.
I do see the irony of accusing someone of being a bot, but if you're so dull and weird that you can only pass as an imitation of intelligence and not the real thing, then that is 100% a you problem.
Nobody fucking asked but since I think you're a bot and not a person I won't be replying.
Saying "no" to AI is easier right now than it will be if we let the studios that are using it now get away with it. Do I care about the people who *did* work hard on The Alters? Sure. But I care about other creatives too, and it's much easier to justify spending my budget on their work instead.
The sad truth for the team behind The Alters, and any other project which stoops to using AI to generate art, is that as a consumer, we have a lot of choice right now, and we have the opportunity (at least for now) to make this a hard limit when spending our money.
Good day as any to delete Facebook, Instagram, and/or Threads if you have not already The fact that Meta will not rule out using private photos on your camera roll to train AI is abominable, full stop futurism.com/meta-sketchy...
It's the thirtieth best time to start.
It's getting really hard to identify this stuff. But that doesn't mean we stop hating it. Also- let's reserve as much bile for programmers and translators losing their jobs as we do for artists and voice actors.
I'm getting real tired of not being able to trust that a video game doesn't have AI crap in it: aftermath.site/the-alters-ai-...
looking for CHN to EN translators for a video game. please link your portfolio below if you're interested. paid opp.
Me yesterday: "Lawson to outqualify Verstappen for the first time." Me today: "There's no point going on board with Albon; his car is going to blow up any minute." Good thing for everyone that I'm not a betting man. #F1
Someone close to me was just the victim of a violent crime and won't go to the police. If only we hadn't lost all faith in the institutions supposed to "protect" us.
There's a Besties episode on "rainy day games" but mine are Shapez (the original), Sims 4 and just the first hour or so of Oxygen Not Included. Oh, and just modding Skyrim but not playing it.
💀💀💀💀💀💀💀
Working on my game prototype upstairs next to the cat wheel has been entertaining #chessvariants #catsofbluesky
Happy Juneteenth! It costs 0$ to Repost a Black disabled queer small business! It could lead to my next sale. I sell pins, knee braces, compression gloves, artist gloves, binders, wrist braces, compression socks, cute bags, compression leggings & more! Store details below!
Oh time.com/7295195/ai-c...
I try not to be hyperbolic but this is the single worst comic I have ever seen in my entire life.
Good overview of the situation. As these dev times get longer it's increasingly impossible to chase trends, and I'm sorry for the devs who were told they had to. Is "an alumni" a Bloomberg house style decision? Because I struggled to concentrate for a few paragraphs after that. And the AI thing.
Deep Blue is 30 years old and was capable of defeating chess grand champions. It could be housed in a single cabinet. ChatGPT spans untold data centers devouring massive amounts of electricity and it got its ass whipped by an 8 bit gaming console from the 1970s.
Today's wild chamomile harvest. By the end of the summer I might have collected enough for one cup of tea.
Coming out of my cage and I've been doing quite badly, actually, if I'm honest with myself,
Put a little peach cordial into my tea this morning as a little treat
No I don’t want to “jump on a quick call.” I want to watch a Wren gather moss and pretend it’s for me.
Prototype written up and printed. Should hopefully get a few playtests done this week. #tabletop #chessvariants
Pookleblinky 