This page shows recent posts from all categories. It will probably be fancier later.
D&D Hatchet Job, Part 2 (2014/08/06)
UPDATE: New data showed up, and I've changed my conclusions on some aspects of
this. Most noticably, Mandy Morbid has accused Zak of abusing her, and I have
[posted some initial thoughts on that](/log/post/2019/02/14/the-zak-update/), but
suffice it to say, I do at this point think I have credible evidence that Zak is
in fact abusive in serious and important ways. [read more...]
How Dungeons and Dragons is actually not endorsing the darkest parts of the RPG community (2014/08/03)
UPDATE: New data showed up, and I've changed my conclusions on some aspects of
this. Most noticably, Mandy Morbid has accused Zak of abusing her, and I have
[posted some initial thoughts on that](/log/post/2019/02/14/the-zak-update/), but
suffice it to say, I do at this point think I have credible evidence that Zak is
in fact abusive in serious and important ways. [read more...]
The future is here. (2014/07/12)
This is a world that I could not have anticipated, or really even comprehended, when I was 18. [read more...]
Failing to understand the word "disability" (2014/07/08)
I know a number of people who have disabilities, ranging from fairly mild to fairly severe. Most of them have some amount of interaction with social services of one sort or another, whether in the US or elsewhere. And everywhere, there is a single constant theme: [read more...]
Why terminology is hard... (2014/06/08)
One of the joys of the Internet era is having teenagers explain things to me. Teenagers explain to me what gender is, and what sexual orientation is, and why it matters whether or not gay people are discriminated against. And this is, by and large, mostly just sort of charming. [read more...]
Pathfinder's polymorph rules, presented in a usable format (2014/05/17)
Well, maybe not totally usable, but. Pathfinder’s various polymorph-type spells are all presented in a format where each spell past the first in a series gives additional powers, but then refers you to the previous spell. So they never give you the complete list of things you can get from them. In general, qualities are given only if the creature you assume the form of has those qualities. So, if you want scent, you have to assume a form that has scent and use a spell which lists scent as a quality it can grant. [read more...]
Some thoughts about living with depression (2014/05/07)
A fair number of people I know have long-term depression, and it can be hard to deal with. For them, obviously, but also for me. And of course, then they feel bad because it’s hard for me and that makes them feel horrible and worthless (see also: depression). And I want to try to help. [read more...]
ImageMagick/RMagick: Why your text is coming out blocky and unreadable (2014/05/03)
I found a ton of threads various places asking about this, full of really nice advice that was totally irrelevant and didn’t change anything. [read more...]
The simplest autism diagnostic test. (2014/03/26)
So, I have stumbled across a lovely test for autism, which … well, I’ve now lost count. But so far, I have never once gotten a confirmed-false-positive from it, and I’ve confirmed well over half a dozen positives. [read more...]
How to make poor people more responsible (2014/02/26)
I see a lot of complaints about how poor people are irresponsible. There’s plenty of existing work being done on the question of why this might be the case, and the obvious answer (“being irresponsible makes you poor”) appears to be only a very small part of the story. Most noticably, being poor deprives you of cognitive resources, while vastly increasing the cognitive cost of many things. [read more...]