gary brolsma meet n greet

[Slurpee]

4e designers: the distances being expressed in feet is kind of unwieldy and never really made much sense. you're not actually constantly 5 feet away from somebody while fighting them. since it's always done in multiples of 5 anyway, let's just divide the distance units by 5 and say that's an abstract that represents about 5 feet. if D is the distance in feet, and n is the number of units, then 5n-5<D<5n. this solves the problem with the distances not really making sense in real world terms, and the smaller numbers will translate cleaner to a grid system. we can even call the units "squares" to make it nice and intuitive for new players.
3.5 players: so it's impossible to play this game without a grid?
4e designers: ? er... no, you can still do theater of the mind, the squares just represent about 5 feet. all we did is divide by 5, see?
3.5 players: listen, jack... I will publicly shit my pants before I accept or comprehend whatever the FUCK you just said
ad&d player (sitting in the corner, reeking of piss): what do you mean you "got rid" of THAC0? so it's impossible to know if you hit somebody? great. just fucking great. nice game you have here, idiots

[Slurpee]

me: can we play the only version of this game where I don't have to always play a cleric because there's no way to heal without a cleric and nobody else ever wants to play a cleric?
friends: no, that's not d&d, it's world of warcraft
me: I don't know what that means
friends: it's world of warcraft
me: please, my creativity is starving
friends: we're not playing world of warcraft

[VCRClock]

d&d but with pokemon centers

[VCRClock]

woops your party blacked out

I don't know how you got all the way back to PMS 3255 C City without getting killed by unavoidable mobs and yet there you are

[VCRClock]

hey I found the part of youtube where a guy has been making his own windows movie maker style episodes of '70s/'80s game show tic tac dough, starring the cast of cartoon network's total drama island, for the past 11 years

I don't know whether to be inspired, or ashamed that somehow, I use my free time for dumber things than producing 80 episodes of a fantasy game show people have got to be watching by accident

[JambaClock]

how was the macy's parade

[GreyClock]

this post put an actual smile on my face

:)

The cravings are still manageable. I think knowing there's no tobacco in the house anymore helps, like I'm resigned to that fact. Even if I wanted to smoke, I couldn't. Whereas before I was hyperaware of where it was. Like at certain points I had literal tunnel vision on the drawer it was in. I went to the store today and didn't even look at the display case. I didn't actively avoid it, it just didn't cross my mind...

That said, I do sit around with a pencil in my mouth a lot.




Quitting something like this does seem to make you question your own faculties. Like, what I'll probably miss the most about smoking is those early evenings sitting on the patio section of a bar, with cigarettes and beer. Which, admittedly, is really fucking cool. Makes me feel all nostalgic. First of all, it's almost winter, secondly I've been on a patio section exactly once this whole summer, so it would be a terrible reason to keep smoking. On top of that, would it really be that different only having beer? Then there's that little voice: you could only smoke on those nights. Which is probably the addiction talking. Bartering. Then there's another voice: why are you letting this control you so much? Just do whatever man, fuck it! Which is also the addiction. Because you realize, you're a grown man frantically chewing on a pencil by this point. At the same time, you don't want to become that guy either, the one that had to overcorrect to cope and went from smoker to rabid anti-smoker. "If quitting smoking would turn me into that, I'd start again." Again, also the addiction talking. It's like a tennis match in your mind.

[RobClock]

I hope the yankees amongst us had a pleasant thanksgiving <3

[JambaClock]

i sure did

i tried out a different turkey recipe this time and it was goooood: https://www.youtube.com/v/5FyKxVJmsdE&t

[GreyClock]

My thanksgiving was pretty good, thank you for asking. I went to the local hardware store, where I discussed the cost-effectiveness of global timber transport. They had this festive pole set up, so I climbed it and managed to touch the ceiling with my nose! After that, on my way to the kebab shop, I did bum a smoke off off a guy unfortunately. I'm so disgusted with myself. Luckily, it was all just a dream though.

[VCRClock]

I wish my local hardware store was the kind that would set up a traditional Thanksgiving climbing pole, but it's just a Home Depot and I think they're scared of "liability"

[RobClock]

[RobClock]

i drew some people on the discord earlier here's how that went

[VCRClock]

sup /b/

i think one of the things that contributed, early on, to me being interested in studying japan, was technology (read: shit like convoluted pencil cases) from japan bleeding over into my humble american life, leaving me feeling like japan existed in this alternate reality that was slightly higher tech than my own. like, it's not as if the US didn't have the mechanical capacity to design and outsource the manufacture of such a pencil case, it's just not something we ever would have done

i can't think of anything else specific that i would have been acutely aware of as a kid, but things i learned about later, like japanese flip phones being more sophisticated than us flip phones before smartphones took over, or japan's continued use of fax machines, or use of vending machines to do things that vending machines could, but don't, do in the US, contribute to this alt-universe technology formicapunk feeling. i guess sega dreamcast kind of felt like that too, but more in a "shit, uh, what do we do with this" kind of way

so anyway, i'm on wikipedia, and it mentions something about Satellaview, and that's just the kind of shit I'm talking about here! fuck!! it's "formicapunk" in the sense of "steampunk," because it feels like something a millennial used to omnipresent internet DLC would try to do if they accidentally time traveled back to the 90s, except it was actually possible, it existed, and people used it... but only in japan?? meanwhile in the USA, satellite dishes are for your neighbor who wants to watch a channel devoted entirely to golf, but only when the weather's nice??

[MeatwadClock]

Chicken ain't even that delicious. These kids need to stop giving him so much attention. Before they end up at KFC

[PhantomCatClock]

i've heard of deli delicious but not chicken deilcious



we had a foreign exchange student from japan when the first iphone came out and she said it was flopping super hard in japan because their flip phones could watch TV (the original Mac Pro had a tv tuner in it so i am not surprised phones ended up with them) and she also said that nobody in japan liked styx


i later found out iphones are hard to get in japan because they were so desirable and styx kept touring japan because it was their most profitable line so FUCK YOU, KURIKO



she also told us that her time in america made her fat enough to have to pay some kind of fat tax and i hope that's true

[FLOUNDERMAN_CLOCK]

she also told us that her time in america made her fat enough to have to pay some kind of fat tax and i hope that's true

That is genuinely a thing and it's hilarious

so anyway, i'm on wikipedia, and it mentions something about Satellaview, and that's just the kind of shit I'm talking about here! fuck!! it's "formicapunk" in the sense of "steampunk," because it feels like something a millennial used to omnipresent internet DLC would try to do if they accidentally time traveled back to the 90s, except it was actually possible, it existed, and people used it... but only in japan?? meanwhile in the USA, satellite dishes are for your neighbor who wants to watch a channel devoted entirely to golf, but only when the weather's nice??

we did have sega channel but the most it had was some exclusive ntsc versions of games that were already on cartridge in japan and sometimes pal regions. there wasn't any actual service exclusive shit like the live narrated zelda and voice acted mario 2 usa. I love that I can emulate all this shit now. even just the satellaview menu is fun to fuck around in. it's like a town in earthbound that serves as a hub world for everything else.

also speaking of japanese cellphones and odd japan only nintendo stuff this thing always fascinated me



it was literally just for one game but it was so cool to me at the time. they did all sorts of cool pointless one off peripherals back then. I want that ridiculous game boy sewing machine.

[RobClock]

I got a free lazy boy tonight you wouldn't believe the shit that gets thrown out around here

[GreyClock]

What a reason to kick out a son! Raise him as your own, Rob.

[PolyhedronClock]

the slurpeegames were spicy this week