Informal, but yeah. It wasn’t structured really, just a conversation that flowed after suggesting it to my grandfather that was in poor health and expressed a regret at not being able to tell my niece some of the stories from his family history.
It wasn’t specifically about genealogy, though it did include that as a side benefit. Hard to tell a story about his great-great grandfather without covering a big patch of of genealogy.
Most of it was about him, his mother and father, and then some of the stories that got passed down about family further back.
I very strongly suggest doing it if it is at all possible. Once you get started, questions will come to mind you can’t plan for. You can get details they might not think to include if they were just writing it down or self recording.
People just don’t think to record normal life, or even unique and interesting stories about themselves, so such things get talked about by others, but still never written down or otherwise recorded. You might run across someone’s journal if they kept one, but that isn’t as common as you’d think.
Just as an example, my grandfather would sometimes mention in passing that he left the little mountain town he was born in to get a job in Ohio. What he never mentioned until it was a sit-down with questions was that the entire trip was him walking, catching rides, and hopping a train. He had never mentioned that he had just turned 16 at the time. He had never talked about the first night sleeping under nothing but a blanket on the side of the road, shivering and startling awake at the sounds of larger animals in the woods.
All of that came out (and more) because I was asking for details. Like, how long did it take to get there? He’d never thought to mention it, just that he made the trip and stayed with an uncle once he got there. He said it took about three days. That led to questions about how he traveled which opened up the story about sleeping near the road, no fire, and alone.
I promise you, if your relatives are willing, and you take the time to let them wander a bit, you’ll find out little things that are worth the time and effort.
I moved over to Proton from Google because I liked the idea of having an alias for each service. After two months and a Mail Plus trial, I now pay for Proton Unlimited. I use Mail (due to alias linking), Calendar, and Pass often. I don’t really use VPN that much (although it is useful sometimes), and Drive is just too slow. I...
Being real, after the debacle that is Google happened, I refuse to put all my eggs in one basket again. Proton is great at mail, so that’s what I use them for. The only other thing I’ve considered using is their calendar because there’s really no great option for me other than Google, because of the need to have an account that everyone can use on any device. Since that includes my dad, it limits things a hell of a lot. Proton’s calendar is still something he struggles with for some reason.
Bitwarden works well for me, so I ain’t moving.
Proton VPN is good, but mullvad is better imo, or air if I ever need port forwarding again.
And, there is the money factor. I’m fixed income, so proton is bloody expensive for me. I can’t justify the extra any given service would cost, even if I wanted a single provider for everything.
Don’t get me wrong, their fee scale is solid. Enough that it shouldn’t run dry for them and need more monetization, but not so much that it isn’t affordable for most. It’s just outside of my personal budget.
I constantly see angry mobs of people decrying “woke”, “critical race theory”, ““grooming””, and whatever other nonsense they made up this week. They march around with guns, constantly appending lib as a prefix to any word they can use to denigrate. They actively plot violence and spew hatred in the open....
There are absolutely identity politics driven US liberals (as opposed to the use of liberal by the rest of the world) that are ranting, raving assholes. Always have been.
But, here’s the thing. Those assholes are much more likely to be ostracized and/or shut down by the less batshit US liberals, progressives, socialists, etc that form the “left” writ large. But echo chambers for it do exist anyway. There’s a few on lemmy, though they aren’t federated with most of the rest.
Here’s the key difference. What conservatives want to conserve is their sense of power. It’s mostly straight, cis white people here in the US. There’s plenty of exceptions, but they tend to not be as loud and asinine as the ones you’re talking about.
That’s where the anger comes from: fear. Fear of black/brown/yellow/red people. Fear of anything different. Fear of a non Christian based world leaving them behind.
The ones at the top also want to stay rich and powerful in the political sense, and are perfectly willing to weaponize their voting base to do so.
The ones at the top of the various non-conservative branches in the US also want to keep power and make money, and they’ll use different fear to mobilize, but they don’t usually weaponize it.
Fwiw, if you’re one of the ones that does want to play petty, childish games instead of doing something useful, it’s good you’re shamed and muted. Shit or get off the pot. Engage in real work for real change, and do it like you know how to pretend to be a civilized human being. I’m not even talking about peaceful efforts. If you really want to force change, step the fuck up and do something about it. Start the revolution you want to see. Just don’t be some douche harassing churches and pretending it’s anything other than self congratulatory masturbation.
Well, the basis of it is semi realistic, so I sure as hell wouldn’t object to it as DM. It’s the rules working just like they’re supposed to, imo.
There is a functional, real world difference between disarming someone and pickpocketing them during a physical encounter. You couldn’t use sleight of hand to disarm anyone, ever, because the thing is in their hand. Just like you can’t disarm something out of a pocket.
But there’s no reason you couldn’t take someone’s sword off their hip. Ever see those tethers cops use? Well, used to use. They use holsters that make it harder to snatch them now. Point being that a weapon that isn’t in your hand is vulnerable to sneaky grabs, or even non sneaky ones from a skilled attacker.
A pouch of components, that’s no different than a coin purse unless someone takes steps to make it so.
Here’s the thing though. Not all targets are equally difficult. Someone sees you coming, and you’re an enemy, they aren’t going to just stand there. The act of moving into their space changes it a good bit. If they’re also skilled in a similar way, i.e. having levels of rogue, they’ll recognize what you’re trying. A fighter isn’t going to keep a dagger just loosely hanging at hip, and let you reach for it. You might have to grapple first, then make the grab. Or maybe a touch attack equivalent. It isn’t the same as lifting a coin purse in a crowd, there’s a higher level of difficulty involved.
Admittedly, with a 19 roll, you should have succeeded anyway, once any other criteria were met.
But, yeah, in principle, that’s a totally valid idea. But it’s also relatively easy to counter, and it isn’t even unusual. If a component pouch is on a belt and firmly attached, that isn’t sleight of hand any more. Auto fail to try and grab the pouch and run. You could empty the pouch, but not take the whole thing. You could maybe call it a sunder attempt, but that’s still different.
A 20 foot dash is maybe three seconds, four from a dead stop. While you can get to someone before they can draw a weapon and hit you with it, it’s still a lot of telegraphing to overcome. An experienced thug is expecting trouble, and would have some variety of unarmed combat in their kit, so it wouldn’t be exactly as you described it, if the DM is thinking a little. But it’s within believability.
The deck is a great toy, but you have to realize its limitations, prepare the players, and never, ever let it be an unknown. The characters should always be aware that it exists and it should have a reputation in game just as bad as it does in real life.
You tell the players ahead of any possible pull that it’s optional, that some of the effects are ruinous to a character, and that there’s no take backs. Make very certain that they know that the odds are only slightly better than Russian roulette, and that the outcome can be just as drastic for their characters.
If you aren’t willing to put that kind of effort into them gambling in a way that can fuck up the campaign/adventure/world you’re running, then don’t use it at all.
You can nerf the deck instead, changing or removing the extremes. But that takes the “fun” out of it. And there are people that love the rng craziness of it.
If it’s done right it is fun. But it’s so easy to do it wrong that it isn’t usually worth it when you can get similar results with good storytelling
In games like Destiny or CS:GO for example, you should not even be allowed to start the activity without a working microphone. I dont care if you are antisocial, if that’s the case, those activaties aren’t for you and you shouldn’t bring down your entire team because of that....
Eh, if you amend that to games where it matters in competitive, I’d agree mostly.
Though, being real, as long as they are willing to listen, and follow the instructions via voice, a mic isn’t necessary. To the contrary, if you have a good organizer/leader, everyone else wasting time responding during a match makes a mic a drawback sometimes.
Yes, it does mean that if you don’t have/use a microphone, and you aren’t willing/able to do what you’re told, you can fuck right off. You can’t work as a team and make independent choices if you aren’t going to communicate about them.
But this doesn’t apply to every PvP game. There aren’t a lot of truly competitive (as in the outcome matters, and the mode can’t be effectively played as a group of individuals rather than as a team) games that it doesn’t apply to, but they do exist.
In 2022, a Texas family filed a lawsuit against Apple for damaging their son’s hearing after an Amber Alert went off while he was wearing Airpods. According to Google, the maximum volume of phone headphones is around 105 decibels. The family are claiming that the son now requires hearing aids after his eardrum ruptured....
To rupture? I would be highly dubious of that claim. Without some kind of factor weakening or otherwise changing things, there’s no headphones out there that could do that, even with a perfect seal.
Damage hearing, absolutely. But that’s a far cry from rupturing an ear drum. That’s hard enough to do on purpose. I’ve seen people try to clap hands on the ears to attempt a rupture and never seen it work.
I’ve had some big fucking handguns go off near my ear without a rupture. Couldn’t hear shit for days in one case, but no injury to the membrane itself. Fuck, I’ve been right near the stage for Iron Maiden and was fine the next day.
Eardrums are hard to rupture at all, much less without a very good seal and large amounts of air moving.
Years ago, I took my first dive into zydeco because of a description in a book. The cd I bought to give it a whirl had this song on it.
Can’t say I’m as deep into it as with some genres, where I can make good recommendations and talk about it on a meta level, but I love the way zydeco feels.
I feel you, but the truth is that they’re easy to cook. It’s just that they’re also easy to cook badly.
Get pan heating. Medium high. If there’s a number scale from 1 to 10, go about 5 or 6.
Plenty of lubricant (oil, butter, whatever), ready to go. One pat of butter to the side
Crack eggs in a bowl.
Add pepper to taste.
Scramble eggs in bowl with fork.
When pan is hot, which is when you can hold your hand about six inches over the pan and feel it, add lubricant of choice. Just enough to cover the bottom of the pan.
Give eggs one last stir with fork, then pour in.
Count to six slowly. Then gently move the eggs around with. A spatula, spoon, or whatever is handy and won’t burn.
Once you’ve got chunks of eggs, stop. Count to six them move them around again.
Add in extra pat of butter. Let it start to melt, then gently move the chunks around until most of the liquid is now a jiggly mass with a tiny amount of liquid making the surface shiny.
Cut off the heat. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt or two. Put it all on a plate if it’s just for one person, in a bowl or individual plates for a bigger table.
That’s it. Bare minimum scramble. You can get fancier, but that’s a choice.
The reason most eggs people make suck is too much heat for too long. They get rubbery. Lower heat, gentle scrambling, then let the heat that’s in the eggs finish the last bit of cooking on the plate or serving bowl. You’ll get fucking excellent eggs. Might take a few tries to really nail things to perfection, but the methodology will work to make yummy eggs before that.
Seriously, eggs don’t need to be in the pan long. A minute or so for a big batch as long as you’re moving the curds that form is plenty most of the time. When it isn’t, it’ll be because it’s a huge batch rather than just big.
Same principle applies to over easy, over hard, and sunny side up, but flipping those is a skill that takes practice. But use lower heat and you’ll fuck up less. Trust me, if you leave things less done than you think is done, there is plenty of heat there to finish the job and they’ll be safe to eat even if not pasteurized. I promise. Carry over cooking is a thing.
I see a lot of posts here with zero or negative total votes. I posted one just a bit ago and it went to zero pretty quickly. I don’t personally care, but it seems curious. It’s not like this is a political community or something divisive. What would make someone downvote before they even know what the song is?
Yup, and no matter how the DM handles it, it’s still a pain in the ass.
My table? That shit don’t fly, but it’s still going to mean some dude getting butt hurt and needing a firm talking to. Might go years without it happening, but I don’t know a DM that hasn’t run into it it once or twice with new groups or new players.
One of my long term players is a woman. She was a “girl” when she started with the core group, if you count 16 as a girl still.
She’s a great player, and a good friend. The number of times I’ve had to tell guys to fuck off and not come back is absurd. Shouldn’t even be once, though you’d expect teenagers to pull it. No, it was grown ass men. The last one, we were all 40ish in the core group, and the guy that pulled it was older than us. He was an acquaintance from where I used to work, and had always been chill with women. No bullshit, no problems. But he still couldn’t get past the idea that she was there and obligated to give him a shot just because they shared a hobby.
My folks when we all lived here together were kinda difficult.
My dad was fine, other than occasionally swinging dick to having remind everyone he was paying the bills (despite refusing to cash any checks given to him, and outright shoving cash back in pockets).
But my mom, who living here post divorce was a fucking nightmare lol. I love my mom, she can be an amazing person. But she is a horrible housemate. Like one of the kind you want to bury in the yard.
It wasn’t ever intended to be long term though. I moved back after deciding I fucking hated living in the city. My and my best friend were roomies there, and it was great, but city life ain’t for me. Commuting was actually better, and I fucking hate traffic.
I’m talking about finding a place back in town, one Sunday at my grandparents were everyone would get together on Sundays. My sister speaks up and suggests I move back in while we’re looking. My dad is okay with it, my mom was grumpy, but shrugged.
So me and my buddy move in. Shit happens, my mom moves out to take care of her aunt (my great aunt that we all loved) so things get chill. My dad likes having me and my buddy around because we handle shit, and he had to travel a lot for work. So we end up just never moving out.
My dad runs into an mlm scam and fell deep. So, instead of letting the house go into foreclosure, we bought it. Before that, my sister bails because. Because why? She’s given ten answers over the years, but I think it was me telling her to either shit or get off the pot when we were all scrambling after my dad confessed how far he had fallen for the scam. The first plan was just for him up suck it up and take help for once in his life, but that meant my sister paying her share too.
Anyway, point is that we bought the place. My buddy got married and moved out with his husband (who lived here a while too lol), we did some paperwork shuffling and I bought out his part.
My dad after the debacle stopped swinging dick about anything. We’re friends now as well as father and son. So it’s fucking great overall. He’s secure in housing because ain’t no way in hell me or my buddy will let him go homeless. We get along better than ever, and he gets to play papaw to my kid.
My mom is great now that we don’t have to live together. We can enjoy each other’s company, or not, according to our mutual needs.
If I have my way, my kid will live here as long as they want. Any grandkids can too. Ngl, I’m set in my ways a bit, so I don’t see it being a forever thing, but I say fuck the idea that you have to leave family just because. Fuck that noise. Do what works for the people involved.
This seems to be something people don’t always give second thought to. When people talk about the homeless, the first things thought about are images of people on busy city streets in rusty clothes waiting around near allies. In there, the answer is quite static, because it can be I guess. But if that’s the case, change the...
We don’t have many, mainly because winter simply isn’t survivable here in the Appalachians fully outside.
There is a spot near a stretch of woods at the edge of town that sometimes has a camp going, but it’s usually itinerant homeless folks rather than locals. It’s not far from the highway, and a railway, so it makes sense.
The town is still small enough that locals don’t stay homeless for long. There’s always a trailer or garage room or attic room that can be used for the friend of a friend, or inlaw or whatever, to get someone through a winter, and that’s usually enough for someone to find work or to get onto one of the various programs for people in need.
The last truly homeless, as in not even temporary shelter, she died maybe five years ago? Before covid I know. She was not well mentally, and wouldn’t take medication, or much of anything. She stayed clear of any lawbreaking that the sheriff would have to take action over, and didn’t bother anybody. She’d mostly pick up odd jobs and stay in one of a few abandoned houses. That’s where she died. Had a stroke and that was that. One of the deputies found her while checking the property out on regular patrol.
As much as I have issues with organized religion, the churches also do a good job here, making sure that folks have basic clothes and some food, and the Methodist church has been known to open their basement for short term use. Doesn’t sound great, but it’s pretty well set up for “lock ins” or whatever they call them when you don’t actually lock the door. But basically overnight sleepovers for church members and their families. So it’s clean, dry, and there’s basic facilities.
But, yeah, compared to the city I lived in for a while, there’s a lot less long term homelessness for sure.
Man, I made bank (relatively) by doing band logos and graffiti lettering on notebooks and trapper keepers. Even bookbags, though I had to invest in better markers for that.
Name That Song [Rock] (lemmy.ca)
Just had to post this…
Has anyone ever done a recorded interview with a family member?
This is something I’ve always wanted to do since I’ve started genealogy research for my family....
Shaming (lemmy.world)
The best way to keep feeling young is to remove all of your mirrors.
Should I keep paying for Proton?
I moved over to Proton from Google because I liked the idea of having an alias for each service. After two months and a Mail Plus trial, I now pay for Proton Unlimited. I use Mail (due to alias linking), Calendar, and Pass often. I don’t really use VPN that much (although it is useful sometimes), and Drive is just too slow. I...
How come liberals dont hate conservatives the way conservatives hate liberals
I constantly see angry mobs of people decrying “woke”, “critical race theory”, ““grooming””, and whatever other nonsense they made up this week. They march around with guns, constantly appending lib as a prefix to any word they can use to denigrate. They actively plot violence and spew hatred in the open....
We all thought we were cool for being date-less at prom. (lemmy.world)
Early 2000’s. Is this old enough for old school cool? We all decided to go as a group for prom, with no one having a date.
Sleight of hand in combat
I am running a Tabaxi rogue that is currently 4th level....
Exclusion: The sound of you having sex played over comms, Riker (lemmy.world)
Inspired by a similar post by Centurian@lemmy.world
Challenge (lemmy.world)
The campaign was just starting to get interesting too. (ttrpg.network)
You shouldn't be able to join a competitive pvp match or start a raid without a working microphone
In games like Destiny or CS:GO for example, you should not even be allowed to start the activity without a working microphone. I dont care if you are antisocial, if that’s the case, those activaties aren’t for you and you shouldn’t bring down your entire team because of that....
Is a sound level of 105 decibels for a few seconds enough to rupture a person's eardrum?
In 2022, a Texas family filed a lawsuit against Apple for damaging their son’s hearing after an Amber Alert went off while he was wearing Airpods. According to Google, the maximum volume of phone headphones is around 105 decibels. The family are claiming that the son now requires hearing aids after his eardrum ruptured....
Beau Jocque and the Zydeco Hi-Rollers - Give Him Cornbread (yt.artemislena.eu)
Au revoir, Jazz Fest…see y’all next year....
What looks easy peasy lemon squeezy but is actually difficult difficult lemon difficult?
wow such doge (lemmy.world)
[Meta] Do you think there's a downvote bot in this community?
I see a lot of posts here with zero or negative total votes. I posted one just a bit ago and it went to zero pretty quickly. I don’t personally care, but it seems curious. It’s not like this is a political community or something divisive. What would make someone downvote before they even know what the song is?
Anon has nerdy hobbies (sh.itjust.works)
Anon lives with their parents (sh.itjust.works)
Where do the rural homeless near you live?
This seems to be something people don’t always give second thought to. When people talk about the homeless, the first things thought about are images of people on busy city streets in rusty clothes waiting around near allies. In there, the answer is quite static, because it can be I guess. But if that’s the case, change the...
Wizard (slrpnk.net)
Old reddit has removed the login fields
It now redirects you to the new site login page. There’s no way to sign up with out an email anymore(?) It was only possible on the old site.