Miles O'Brien

The “I’m doing the thing you’re doing but throwing it back at you” and “thanks or whatever” definitely is.

They’re being helpful and assuming you may genuinely not know the word, and are giving you the correct version for the context.

Getting defensive isn’t necessary.

should be impeached

Impeached and then executed for treason.

To many people nowadays, the actual job itself doesn’t matter, it’s the fact that it’s a job and it pays.

It’s the texture.

The taste is distinct, but not really bad. I don’t mind the mild flavor left over in a sandwich that had a tomato slice.

But I can’t stand the texture of a tomato. Not sure exactly why, but even a small chunk in soup or salsa makes me gag. I blend salsa up so it’s consistent.

And onions are both for me. A tiny piece of onion will ruin the entire burrito. From the weird crunch to the taste that lingers even after I down a few chips and half my drink.

I go through onion powder fairly quick though, I add a little bit to a lot of my dishes.

Had me in the first half, not gonna lie.

My two least favorite things individually, yet essential to so many delicious things.

I would immediately use them to make some food and bring it over.

I have it on good authority that you may fascinate a woman by giving her cheese.

Although it looks like I’m two hours late on that reference…

Lol. I wasn’t going to be paying full price for a game anyway, but now I’m not paying for gearbox games ever again.

I know a woman who doesn’t stutter, but has some pretty severe social anxiety. Among other problems.

She began playing a game much like D&D but uses cards for various actions (my parents knew the game creators so we always played that with their game groups instead of D&D)

Super shy and quiet when she started coming to the games, and she didn’t know anyone there. She just saw the sign for the group and decided to stop in (the sign basically says “welcome in, ask questions, stay for a game or two” ) and stuck around. We figure she mostly stayed for the free food.

Once we started playing this not-D&D game, she decided to join during session 2 after observing sessions 0/coordinating/creating and session 1. Had a full character with cards ready to go, even though she hadn’t approached any of us about how to make a character or play, she was not only spot on from the start, she (in a good way) absolutely would not shut up while playing.

Her character is (I think) everything she wants to be. She’s popular, she’s outgoing, as quick with her dagger as she is with her tongue. Basically a rogue/bard wombo combo of charisma and extroversion.

At first nothing changed. The moment the game ends, she shuts down and goes back in her shell.

Then slowly as we wrapped up game sessions, she would begin chatting with her seat neighbors.

Then she started showing up early to sessions when it’s just a bunch of socializing.

Then after awhile, she basically just stayed in character after the games, showed up to sessions already in-character.

After about 6 months she stopped us as we were breaking things down, and had an entire prepared speech where she thanked the group for giving her something to live for.

Apparently she was not only homeless when she first came in, she was suicidal. She just wanted a place to sit and not be judged. Then she noticed we had food. Of course everyone always greets people when they come in and offer any snacks they want. She came back for the snacks. Then she came back for the vibes. Then the game.

She could barely speak to people before she started playing. Panic attacks when she tried. Her character is confident, and when playing with us she feels like she’s confident too.

Now she pretends like she’s her character in her daily life. She got a job at the library we played in every few weeks. She got an apartment, got a bicycle to get around quicker. Made friends outside of work and the games group.

I can’t remember her name, this was almost 20 years ago now, but I will ask my parents about her, I’m curious how her life turned out. I was a teenager and barely cared about some so story that wasn’t my own (cue emo music and it’s not a phase mom) but I’m sure they remember her.

I continued to see her every so often around town when she stopped coming to the games after moving, but she didn’t go back to the library any of the times I was there.

You never know how small a gesture might completely change someone’s life, whether it’s a huge lifestyle change or just someone being a bit more outgoing in certain situations.

I actually used a similar process to make the paper for my wife’s leatherbound journal.

Except I used a regular blender (you’re right about the pain to clean)

Then grabbed a large rectangular plastic container and filled it with about a gallon of unsweetened, extra strong tea, and poured out the goopy almost-paper.

After sloshing things around to thin out the paper, I used a mesh screen secured to a rectangular frame, a4 size… Ish… To pull out a thin layer of pulp that’s now a browner tint thanks to the tea.

Once this drains of water for about 30 seconds, enough to keep together, I flip it onto some cotton fabric, and cover it with another sheet of cotton.

Layer about 5 or 6 of these, then I use two boards with a 6mm threaded rod in each corner to sandwich the cotton/pulp stack.

Tighten the bolts on the rod and squeeze the ever-loving shit out of the whole thing, which gets rid of almost all the water.

Then I peel everything layer by layer, and let the foldable-but-weak proto-paper dry out on a wooden board overnight.

The result is fairly smooth, but textured with whatever it was pressed with, paper that looks like it belongs in a medieval fantasy rpg.

I’ve also press dried flowers, made a super thin layer of pulp, tossed a couple petals in, and finished the pulp layer to make embedded flower pedals. Those can be hard to keep nice the way I do it but the result is an invitation or event card that you don’t want to give away. I haven’t used it for any journal projects because it doesn’t stand up to flexing very well.

If anyone is interested I can take a couple pics of the journal when I get home. I have no pics of the process, unfortunately. I’ll have to make more this summer.

im guessing some people have political reasons to dislike russia

If you consider trying to genocide a neighboring country “political reasons” I guess.

birth bath

Uhhhhhh you should probably at least drain out the placenta fluid…

To continue with the argument of “the market will self-regulate and people wouldn’t buy that brand anymore so they would never do it again”

Okay but how many people died, how many people are suffering long-term effects, and what’s stopping them from adding a different deadly thing to our food?

Yeah, I definitely see those as contextually non-gendered, but the moment someone asks me not to call them a certain thing… I just don’t call them that again, and apologize if I do. It takes almost 0 effort to use a different word.

Double bingo. Yay me.

Edit: triple, I didn’t even notice the diagonal

I have everything I need to build an enclosure for my cheap-ass laser. I have things I want to do with the laser when I can use it without smoking up the house. I have not started on it yet.

I have everything I need to make the rc planes I have been designing. Its all sitting on a shelf waiting for me to do my thing.

One of the things has been waiting for me to do my thing since before I moved.

I’ll get to it.

Eventually.

Maybe.

He didn’t finish LOTR at 45, and arguably he never finished them as he was always fiddling with some story or another.

I’d say you’re still doing quite well

Ah. Well that’s a relief, I removed foxit, and never had anything Adobe.

I open the pdfs in inkscape to pull the vector files and save them as an svg. There’s probably a simpler way, but this allows me to open the vector in a lot more programs like my laser software and my CAD programs.

The only pdfs that get printed like a normal person are small rc planes and the files are from trusted sources.

It’s nice to know I can do a little extra to protect myself from pdf based attacks though, thanks for the info!