Two woods converged on a snowy road

On my last D&D post I talk about Stick Technology, and a lot of people mention a legendary 10 Foot Pole.

And I sure hope this thing comes in multiple pieces that screw together, or that this is a Monkey King's power pole type situation, because otherwise--

You guys. My dudes and dames and demis.

I recently put up a wall in my house that required some ten-foot two-by-fours to make.

Even after I cut them to size, these boards were more than one and a half times my height. They were heavy. They were unwieldy. The only way to carry them effectively was on my shoulder, and every time I turned my head I risked accidentally braining my roommate. Windows were a constant stressor. Doors were a two-person obstacle. Corners required a Dex check.

I am six feet tall.

Give one of these to a small-sized character, and suddenly everyone in the party with a medium size class and external genitalia is having to make regular reflex saves at the risk of con damage. Plate mail armor becomes mandatory from at least the waist down. The adjacent squares have become treacherous terrain.

And you're telling me you want to take this into a dungeon?

I used a conlang generator to make the languages for the world my latest book is set in.

And there's a part of it that feels so blissfully self-indulgent, like I'm twelve years old on Deviantart posting my latest OC with the most heavy-handed, over-the-top, Symbolic© names you can imagine-- but without the baggage of using real people's culture and language with all the well-intentioned clumsiness of a preteen American.

Is it on the nose that my fire-themed character is named [blaze] [from-Volcano]? Or that the vengeful spy is named [poison] [hunter]? Or that I have sn antagonist named [catch-prey]?

Absolutely.

But good luck picking them out from characters with names like [happiness] and [firstborn child] and [flower].

I got a major (long, non-negotiable, time-sensitive, brain-intensive) project done at 4 AM this morning, had to get up for work at 7:30, and I am utterly exhausted.

But also, not having it clawing at my brain 24/7 has me feeling more human than I have in weeks.

I don't use any fertilizer, and I don't think my neighbors do, either. But we have been getting some intense haze from the wildfires lately, and I just let the grass decompose when I mow my lawn.

But I have been cutting apart old branches and logs for my fire pit in that area-- maybe the sawdust is helping?

You've given me some good stuff to think about. Thank you!

Found some mushrooms in my yard yesterday

(Hand for scale)

And this morning they upende opened

What makes two individual mushroom caps that are this big???

This is one of those days where I'm dragging myself into productivity by my fingernails.

Please send help.

I'm masking up in the house right now because I was exposed to Covid and I don't want to get my roommate sick if I have it.

And my dog doesn't know what to do with my mask.

During the height of the pandemic my partner at the time and I were both in the house 24/7, so I only ever actually wore masks when I went out for grocery runs or to deliver stuff to friends. And the last time I was exposed at work, I lived alone with my dog-- so again, I only wore the mask out of the house.

So my dog is just very confused.

But she makes do.

Since the mask blocks her from licking me on the mouth (her true, if oft-thwarted goal), she's decided to start licking me around all the edges of the mask instead. Particularly my ears and my eyes.

Because she's supportive like that.

Rules: Tag 10 people you went to know better

I was tagged by @philosopherking1887 , who is a delight

Relationship Status: single, but texting? How does dating work, can someone explain it to me?

Favorite color: red, despite my hair and most of my possessions being blue

Song Stuck In My Head Right Now: Masterpiece Theater (parts1-3) by the Marianas Trench

Last Song I Listened To: not a song per se, but I put on my instrumental playlist to help my dog calm down during a thunderstorm/fireworks earlier tonight (yes, both). Intentionally? Enemy by Imagine Dragons

Favorite food: Berlin-style doner kebab, which I can't get here, which is a tragedy

Last thing I googled: "dock" (specifically looking for the difference between a dock and a pier, and if there's a specific architectural name for a water-based entrance to a fortress via a cavelike hole in the outer wall through which a small boat can be steered and moored at an indoor dock, apparently for deliveries, because it features in lots of video games and there's got to be a one-to-two-word name for it, right??? I just want to indicate that this thing exists without drawing undue attention to it by using half a page to describe it, please for the love of fuck--)

Dream vacation: lately I've been really wanting to go to Yellowstone

Tagging: @crownsnbirds @goingsparebutwithprecision @ryosei-hime @tane-p @a-iyla @the-rat-in-the-walls @lepantogirl @illuminahsti @tora42 @dingdongyouarewrong

Okay, so remember the laser-light show?

That’s an incredibly detailed bit of information to give us about a prop. 

Those fine graduations might be used to, say, fake a hard-light laser blast, do you think? Or make some illusions happen? 

And whose brainwaves are making all this happen? Is it Billie the Director, or is it somebody else? Again, re: my passing theory that Nureyev is hiding among the techies– nobody can disappear quite like the Lighting Tech. And the person in charge of lights would also have reason to regularly be up on the theater’s catwalk to set things up.

Just saying.

Didja miss me? I got caught up on the Juno Steel episodes a few weeks ago (still working on Second Citadel, more on that later), and now that I’m vaguely getting my life back on track, I’m sticking my toe back in this fandom, just in time for the beginning of the final season! 

So here we go:

Juno Steel and the Vanishing Act (Pt 1) Reaction

Me, trying to name a location for a story: okay, so this historic character is known for his big castle, and then he made a prison fortress... So it's like his second castle... His Second Citadel. Ooh, I like that name, that's a great name--

The Penumbra Podcast, which has been a big part of my life for years now: you don't say.

So I'm now digging through premade covers for this book I'm putting together, I'm finding some really great ones--

And without fail, they're made with AI.

Which is so frustrating, but at the same time, damningly understandable. AI can generate a much broader variety of images than stock photos can-- particularly things like people of color and fat characters in historic costume, or sci-fi/fantasy elements that don't look like hot garbage. The stock images that covers are made with have some of that, but the selection is infuriatingly small, and rarely are you going to find the elements you actually want.

So I'm left with this stupid dilemma where I'm trying to decide if I buy a cover that's a poor fit that I can actually afford, shell out upwards of a grand for an illustration, or give in to the temptation to use an AI-assisted cover.

And even if you're trying to avoid it, it's hard-- for the last several covers I liked, they weren't labeled as AI images-- I got put on the scent completely by accident and had to ask the sellers directly for that information.

Others are calling AI a "supportive tool" on par with stock photos, but that doesn't change the fact that they're generated using stolen images in the first place.

It's just incredibly frustrating.

I saw a callout post that seemed unremarkable right until the end-- when op threw down "Also they like [fandom]" as the damning nail in the coffin of this person's guilt.

And that... That's concerning.

Because now you're bringing up thoughtcrime, you're bringing up a hard line of behavior and the suggestion of guilt by association-- not of action, but of simply liking some aspect of some thing that's been deemed Problematic.

And the thing is? Maybe the person they're calling out actually did something wrong! But that one line made me back the fuck up and start asking (honestly, what needs to be asked every time you see a callout post) what's the context of this, who was harmed and how, how much was the person's crime malicious and how much was an innocent mistake, and does the callout actually protect anyone from real harm or is it just putting a target on someone's back?

What “filing the serial numbers off a fanfiction” is not:

What it is:

I've got about ten chapters of this fic already written, but I'm only letting myself post one chapter per week, because:

Just misread Themes (as in overarching literary motifs) as Themmes (as in multiple nonbinary French people)

So I bought a couple belts that turned out to be just a couple of inches too tight-- they kept my pants up, but they were uncomfortable.

I got them at a thrift shop, so there wasn't a lot of choice regarding the size-- but also they were like a dollar each, so I figured I could play around with upsizing and if they didn't survive I wouldn't be too put out about it.

Since they were the same size and nearly the exact same style (I'm betting they were both from the same person), they make for a good before/after set.

I cut it into pieces, sewed the ends, added grommets, and laced them back together with paracord.

You can see the extra length the laces gave me, and it's a lot more comfortable to wear. The knots are a bit lumpy, though-- I'll need to experiment with ways to secure the laces that will lay flat.

I also had some extra grommets left in the kit I bought (it came to all of $3 with a coupon), I went ahead and repaired another belt, too.