PSA:
If you write a game ad describing what kinds of characters you're looking for, and every application is something other than what you want, the chances are higher that you weren't clear than they are that everyone else misread. And, as such, blaming the players says more about you than it does about them.

And if they all give you the same kind of something other than what you want, then the chances are very, very (very) good that it's you.

There's nothing quite like arriving at home, getting of the car -- and OMG, where's the carcass?!?

That's a very singular odor. I thought the stray dogs had dragged something home (pair of dumped, emaciated dogs that have adopted my home, and I'm offended enough by their condition to feed them). My ex-roommate's dog did that sometimes -- somebody in the area (as in, likely within 5 miles) would butcher a goat, then dump the rest of the carcass in the desert nearby. Back then, I never knew what body part, or how much of a body, I'd find in my yard when that dog came home.

But there weren't any body parts laying in my yard last night. So I thought the strays must have rolled in something, but they looked as clean as normal and there was no stench on my hand after petting them.

The smell was worse out by my feed shed, so hopefully I'll get home in daylight today and can go looking for it with my shovel. Meantime, last night the smell got in my nose, attached to the clothes I was wearing, and to the hair on my dogs when they were let outside... so we all brought it back inside with us. Even this morning, I could smell the faint odor in my room from the dirty clothes and the dogs.

Gah. From the strength, that's not just one goat carcass out there rotting. :(

In reply to Townsend (msg # 331):

I guess you don't know exactly where the goat butcher is?  Else, you should drag his carcasses back to his yard!

In reply to Townsend (msg # 331):

It's a chupacabra!!! :)

In reply to Brianna (msg # 332):

Could be anyone, although most likely it's someone within 5 miles -- or they'd be doing their dumping closer to their place than mine! A good chunk of the local community are field workers, and getting a goat for a party is normal. So is doing their own butchering. And where I live, not everyone has trash service (I don't). If someone doesn't have a large land parcel, has dogs, and/or is too lazy to dig a deep enough hole for the offal, they take it out into the desert and dump it. The wildlife does a pretty thorough clean-up on that in short order. Generally, not a huge problem.

Except this time, it seems they dumped not far from the back of my feed shed -- within the empty, but fenced 10 acres behind me -- given my smallest dog got into to it to roll, and back again, within a couple minutes. There's a lot of unfenced, raw desert around me; going into a fenced area to dump is not typical.

In reply to Townsend (msg # 334):

Too bad, a ripe return would be no less than they deserve!

In reply to jwneil (msg # 333):

Ah, well, that explains the stench well enough!

Can those be turned, you think? Certainly don't want it taking up residency, smelling like that! ;)

In reply to Townsend (msg # 336):

I dunno.  We need some better Chupacabra lore.  Maybe try crossing over with other monster-banes.

Let's see - if garlic, silver, and wooden stakes work on vampires that feed on humans maybe for a creature that feeds on goats:

Cilantro, copper, and old dog collars? :)

Nah, just use a wood chipper. Beats everything ;)

Actually it's cilantro, copper, and wooden rakes

In reply to praguepride (msg # 339):

No no no, you want copper candelabras and tarragon. No need for the rakes if you find a candelabra. Sorry for making fun of your very real problem Townsend.

Pharmacy says they cannot fill a prescription because insurer requires additional authorization.

Insurer says they have prescription, but require additional form from doc saying it is "medically necessary".

ISN'T THAT THE WHOLE POINT OF A PRESCRIPTION???

In reply to Eur512 (msg # 341):

Oy, I know what your going through. I have 2 separate meds that require 2 different sorts of syringes to use. But the insurance will only cover 1 type every 3 months. Cause they don't see why I can't us the 2 cc syringe for my 15 unit shots. (Never mind that a 2 cc needle is 200 units and the numbers are set up in 10s or the fact they are different needle lengths.)
All in all I usually find I want to slap the people who run my insurance for their stupidity.
Also had to go back and get my doctors OK to receive medicine she perscribed to me on more than one occaison.

Different note, ready to kill the spell checker now. Keeps mispelling long words, making me go back and fix them 3 or more times just to get it right. (PRESCRIBE being the one it wants to change the most.)

In reply to Bebo8096 (msg # 340):

NP; Ma Nature took care of the stink in a couple days, and what's left is just on the scale of an "attractive nuisance" -- my dogs keep wanting to duck under the fence to see what the desert's scavengers have left behind.

Eur512: It won't help with insurance stupidity, and might not be an option depending on your locale, but I've discovered syringes and needles purchased from veterinary suppliers tend to be considerably cheaper than places selling the exact same items for humans. That might help your budget, at least!

In reply to Townsend (msg # 343):

Hmm, that maybe something I should look into. Human needles can get a bit expensive. $5+ for ten 50 unit syringe.

Fortunately my issue wasn't needles, just an insurance company that for some reason thinks doctors write prescriptions just for fun, unless they confirm otherwise.


"Umm... I was just thinking, when you asked for something to take for headaches, did you mean something to take to get rid of headaches?"

Well my month is shot. Car blew a coolant hose, whole passenger side of engine got soaked, including the battery. On top of that mechanic does not open till Monday, provided the predicted snow storms don't keep him from coming in to work. My credit card is going to get allot of use out of this one I am sure. Especially as I was going to take it in this week to get the brakes worked on...

People who tell me I keep dwelling on the past.

People telling me this to win their argument, or to invalidate my issue.

People who are right when they tell me this. I know they're right.

Well, I've got issues related to my past. Why can't I talk about them?

If I take one of my issues and turn it into a goal, would it count as me dwelling on the future?

Tabletop game systems that demand too much figuring and calculating and do not allow enough character roleplaying. For examples: Champions; similar superhero or superpower games; Palladium; Warhammer.

But, for an archetype, Champions. It was billed as "the most versatile game system" that could "enable your character to do anything". Its game mechanics (a phrase I invented myself, I had to call it something) involved character stats chain-linked to long series of numerical calculations. Making a character sheet took at least a full day, if not a week. During gameplay, every move had to have numerous additions, multiplications and divisions, requiring an abundance of scratch paper. (Calculators could help a little, but who used them?)

A single battle that would take less than half an hour in D&D, would in Champions take 5 or 10 hours or longer. Nobody could find any way around this. Except, as a last resort that became routine, to create the characters over again with larger amounts of points, the only way to accomodate character growth.

Actually, everything else about Champions, and a few other games in the Hero System, but they never caught on as well as Champions. Players were supposed to create a character that would not learn, change or grow, but stay the same stupid cartoon as it always was. Everyone was supposed to do nothing but hack, slash, brawl and shoot, without any character development or story.

But the worst things in Champions were the gamers and the game masters. They knew they had a crappy game full of problems, but they refused to fix them. They built super-duper characters who had super powers, super weapons, and hardly anything else. Then they would while away the hours simply beating up eachother and knocking down buildings in some unlucky city. The Champions group would call a game a "bash", because it would have no story, no setting, no characterizations, only bashing and nothing but.

But, was Champions really as bad as I thought it was? Or would it have been more functional in the hands of someone smart? I could have figured out a way to speed up the numbers, trim off the fat, and run a good game for a change. I would have enabled everyone's characters to really do anything and be anything, interact and roleplay through any story. Or maybe not, since the fools love their bashing so much. I don't know for sure, I had not bought a Champions book of my own to read and learn.

New Character named Pom Aster.

Pom is short for Pomegranate. This is actually super-relevant to the game and character.

But Pom visually makes people (myself included) double-take, thinking we're seeing the word 'Pom'

Hah, I just made you see the word Porn. That's okay, we all do ;-;

Meh.

Here's one where I think I can't possibly be the only one:

When a fun game has somehow turned into hard work. A game that fails to let you leave the cubicle--or yearn to return to it. Sometimes a game turns out to be harder on everyone that their jobs. A little rethinking of the game would be called for.

In reply to Space27 (msg # 350):

This is a problem I have specifically encountered in regards to Pathfinder's Kingdom Building Rules. While the system does exactly what it says it does, it does so with a great deal of paperwork that isn't everyone's bag.

In reply to NowhereMan (msg # 351):

Yes, I hear you, Man. Your statement is not just an opinion, it's part of a consensus.

...when a gamer I know talks with me about a group playing a game, and he says "They are not playing true D&D." And he sometimes says about others. Not playing true Star Wars. Not playing true RPG. When a gamer is like a Chef Ramsey of games.

It's annoying.

I mean, so what? A group gets along for a change, knows the rules good enough, has the game moving along okay, nothing's going wrong. But they're not playing the true RPG? Since when are gamers limited to play absolutely strictly according to the RPG book, and according to the personal preferences of the RPG's author? Without any room for imagination or freedom of choice?

As a gamer and a fan writer, faithfulness to the style of an original work is one thing.....but an RPG that was created to be played with, regardless? Not the same, not by far. Not playing the true RPG, who'd want to anyway?

I hate when I don't pay attention to the site, all my games blow up. But when I'm sitting at work doing nothing, there's barely a peep. :/