Spare ideas (2013/06/08)
Was reading the Pathfinder (a tabletop RPG) book on game mastery, browsing their world-building stuff, came up with spare ideas.
[read more...]Getting hit on in MMOs (2013/06/03)
So, last night, there was hilarity. There was this guy, in Rift, who was… well. First off, I believe he was about 14. So he was being generically homophobic, as a lot of young teens are, and people were teasing him about it. And he responded, as 14-year-old boys often do, by trying to be abusive and sexually harass people with female names. Whereupon he asked Katrinka (aka me) to “show me your milkshake”.
[read more...]Critical theory in a nutshell (2013/05/27)
I once encountered someone who asserted that all men, without exceptions, were rapists. Not as hyperbole, but as a flatly literal claim. And when I pointed out that this was pretty sexist, she explained that, according to “critical theory”, there was no such thing as sexism against men, because men are a privileged group.
[read more...]New personal best: 13 years. (2013/05/26)
So, you know that thing where people say they’ll get back to you, but they don’t? I had one of those pending from a programming conversation. I finally went back and tracked it down and sent a followup message. It’s been 13 years.
[read more...]On being made out of meat. (2013/05/14)
We are, by and large, made out of meat.
[read more...]Dear Ms. Scott: I believe you misunderstand the term "heart-breaking". (2013/05/13)
Peggy Scott’s heart breaks for the state of Minnesota.
[read more...]The mirror test and cats (2013/05/03)
One of the standard tests for self-awareness is “the mirror test” – put dye on a creature in a place it can’t see but could see in a mirror, give it a mirror, see whether it investigates the dyed spot. Cats, in general, fail this.
[read more...]The bat: Nature's temporary pet! (2013/05/02)
Now available for limited time trials: The bat, nature’s temporary pet!
[read more...]Living in Minnesota (2013/05/02)
So, last week, we had a brief bout of freezing weather and snow, with rumors that temperatures would rise. And they did, fast enough that about a day after the snow, I installed a window air conditioner in my bedroom, since I have trouble sleeping when it’s warm. And then we had three consecutive days where it was warm enough that I ran the air conditioner so I could sleep.
[read more...]Defining "proceeds": Harder than it looks (2013/04/30)
So, there were bombs in Boston recently. You may have heard. And there are people in Boston, and a lot of them feel that this is sort of a thing which affects them. It may in fact affect them significantly. And if they run, say, a company, one of the obvious things to do would be to collect some money and donate it to a charity.
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