It's not bad enough that I'm having yet another of my bipolar days where I just want to crawl under a rock...but now the neighbors are having themselves another round of smoking weed....INSIDE!

So, I just sent the Youtuber Ssundee an email.
I'm hoping he replies, but I don't know. He's my favorite Youtuber, and I just wanted to throw this out there.

Thanks, parents of a kid I don't know. I really appreciate my kid receiving an invitation on Friday to a party on Sunday that they'll be absolutely heartbroken to miss, on a weekend that I have things planned for both days that can't really be rescheduled this late on a Friday.

Good job giving notice. Yup. Thanks. Appreciate it.

Now I get to deal with A) Tears, B) Frantic Schedule Juggling, C) Not getting things done that need doing, or D) All of the above.

Probably D.

While the default "We'll be waiting when you're ready, boss" thing for a game that's been stalled is usually a generous gesture... it's also okay to be impatient, sometimes. Don't be a jackass about it, of course, but we all signed up to play something. It's nice to be able to play something.

In reply to Smoot (msg # 2344):

By the same token, it's nice when players post when they're able, instead of sitting around and twiddling their thumbs because they're waiting on something/someone to happen...usually without making it clear that's the case. Everyone signed up to post, and unless you're in a combat timestop they usually can do so.

That street goes both ways!

In all seriousness, though, RPoL isn't a job. No one gets paid for this, and Real Life happens, and when it does it takes priority (or should). I've always felt that when players are waiting on the GM, they can always converse among themselves for entertainment in the meantime - much like you and your buddies would chat around the table if the GM had to get up and take a phone call during a session.

Even if it's not the sort of game where free RP can happen, chat people up in the OOC. Sometimes, if a GM has had a hard Real Life spell, and they come back to realize that their game has been absolutely dead silent for the entire time they were gone, that can be incredibly disheartening and make it harder to get back into the swing of things. Excited players make it easier for a GM to be excited about what is - frankly - often a lot of work for little thanks. Keep that in mind. =)
This message was last edited by the user at 13:23, Tue 15 Oct.

True, but if we're talking one, two, three or even five months of nothing...

I mean, you hardly had to tell me it's not a job, but if I didn't show up at a job for five months, I'd expect people to be a bit put out.

I also decline the counter-guilt trip. the players didn't put up a call for RTJs, do interest checks, ask for characters, and so on. The burden is not really on them. Especially when there's "you can't take over this game, no matter how abandoned it is and how interested you are in continuing" provisions as (I believe) the default.
This message was last edited by the user at 22:20, Tue 15 Oct.

*sigh*

November is my least favorite month of the year. It always seems like, if there's bad stuff that's going to happen in my life, it's going to happen then.

This year, I have two funerals to attend, both of dear friends.

This was ALREADY a not-great year, because my mom passed away in May.

I'm hoping this is the extent of it, but bracing myself if it's not.

In reply to The Stray (msg # 2347):

This has not been a good year for me, so I get it.

Hang in there, it'll get better eventually.

I'm not sure what the frell Amazon is playing at with their free Shipping; but they not only just lost my custom, they inadvertently directed me to a better product which I got cheaper on the manufacturers website.

To explain - I wanted a really compact 65w USB-C laptop charger, and Amazon showed one from a certain green company for £26 +£5 P&P - but spend another £9 and get free shipping! Well I could do with a couple of decent USB-C cables so I added £10 of cables, all of whom said 'Dispatched from Amazon' and 'Eligible for free shipping if you spend £35".
Get to the checkout and "Free shipping on this order!" displayed, entered my details and...£4.99 shipping. Huh?
Cue much faffing about as Amazon first advertised free shipping then denied it at checkout for various combinations of Charger and Cables from different sellers (all of whom said Dispatched by Amazon and Eligible for Free Shipping). I even tried getting the Charger and a Cable from the SAME sellers store and no deal.
But during the shopping I'd noticed another known brand selling a compact 100w USB-C charger at the same price. I went to the manufacturers website to check the specs and saw they sold direct for the same price as Amazon and free shipping. But I still could use some USB cables so back to Amazon...and the saga continued with Yes Free Shipping! and But Not Free On This Item Ignore What We Just Said!

Ordered the 100w charger from the maker direct at £26 free P&P, and I'll get my USB cables from EBay sellers instead.
Amazon is fast becoming a store I use to check things out to purchase elsewhere.

In reply to OBorg (msg # 2349):

I completely agree about Amazon.  I used to use them for everything, as they were the cheapest option; but now I go elsewhere as they "micro-transaction" every service with an extra charge.  Even Prime Video isn't worth paying for any longer.
This message was last edited by the user at 17:25, Fri 25 Oct.

When people you have never met think they are entitled to being in a game that isn't in play, that hasn't been in play for years. Than are offended when you tell them as much. Or they join and never contribute, talk in OOC chat, and can't be bothered to speak to the GM until the game starts and they are removed.

No GM owes you anything, GM's are a rare commodity in this day and age everyone wants to play. This is why GM's loose interest and burn out. Is it so hard to be nice. -sigh-

  I have  folks who are on the shelf because of RL... I reach out to them, some of them answer, others  do not.

  The players  who don't, i will cut about a year or so after...if they didn't contribute  in the first  place, i cut them out right.

  No one gets paid to  play or run games. Its not  cool for active players, who had some kind of RP with  a absentee player, to be waiting on them.

  I 'send characters  away' when some  one 'good' is in a bind. They can  rejoin when they are able.... jerks, or ghosting folks, , i use their characters  to help  move the plot , or create a plot. there isn't any coming back for those characters.

  As  sliver  said? no one owes  anyone  anything... Good players   help  Good GMs  keep games flowing. We  have  enough problems with  entitled people in the  real world, we should not put up with it here.

Currently, a pair of Not My Cats have taken up residence at my abode. Not inside, but they're desperately trying to get /to/ the inside every day, and have been for almost a month now.

They have a home. It's literally two houses away as the crow flies. They can come and go at will, they have food 24/7, and a heated cat house inside their proper residence's garage, that they have free access to. Yet...they're at mine - Little faces pressed up against my glass door, begging to get inside (it's chilly, and wet).

The owner knows they're here. They just don't care. "They're indoor-outdoor." Heck, last weekend they took off for three days (I can see their house/garage/driveway from mine) and just left the cats behind, so they spent the whole time at my house.

It's making me pretty furious. They want to be here so bad, they've started bringing me their hunting kills as gifts. They brought one of their cat toys down last weekend. Did I mention the neighborhood has foxes, snakes, coyotes, big dogs, neighbors that don't like cats, and a highway running past it, and these people /still/ let their adorably sweet kitties run around?

It's about all I can do to not put them in a carrier and take them up to their actual home and say 'If you don't keep your cats inside, I'm going to', and then just...let them in and keep them there next time they show up, but their actual family has small children that I worry would miss their kitties if I catnapped them.

Grr.
This message was last edited by the user at 20:56, Thu 14 Nov.

As a certified cat-mom , crazy cat lady ... I would have already taken those babies in. They like you better than home, since they are bringing you gifts for acceptance. I can understand not wanting to seperate the cats from the little kids, but at the same time they keep letting them out and willfully leaving them to go where ever, without reassurance if they are safe---just leave the door open friend.

People do the same with kids, but it's much harder to get away with that level of neglect and not get someone like child services called on them.    And I'm inclined to agree with silverelf....pets know better than we think about "where they belong".

My issue is that they're chipped (I made a comment to their owner when I ran into them that I had made an appointment to take them to the vets the next day to see if they were chipped... 'hint hint, I was gonna keep your cats'), and I know that they *DO* have a home (even if they don't want to be at it), so I feel like it would be cat-theft (is that a thing?) if I just let them inside and then kept them there.

I don't really need them thinking I "stole" their cats, y'know?

Secondary to that, my strictly-indoor 12-14 year-old (vet's best guess) cat (female, fixed) is also very much not keen on the idea of letting these two (not quite 1-year males, fixed) come into her space - she tries to smack them through the glass door - but she'd get over it just like my old cat had to when she showed up on the scene in need of a home.

For what it's worth, I'm not /trying/ to lure them to my house. I'm not feeding them, or anything like that (although several other neighbors are, apparently) - just offering pets and scritches, because they're so obviously desperate for both.

...funnily enough, Hunter, I 'adopted' most of my kids' friends for those reasons, too. I had an open policy for years that anyone at my house at mealtime got to eat, and packed more than a few work lunches for kids that weren't mine, when they were trying to find their feet after high school.

I raised a son ( not mine his mother had drug issues, I still don't know what ever happened to her ) So when others were out in their 20s I was the mom. His gaming group came to our apartment, and I would up feeding them. Any of his friends that showed up. Never left hungry its just my boy is in the military now, and I am so proud of him. My kids these days are my cats. My indoor cat I had for 10 years could say HELLLOO, and BAD which came out Rrad. but its how I knew when any of the other cat's I kept inside were doing something she had gotten punished for. XD

It doesn't stop you from taking them in if the weather is bad. If the weather is bad here, I bring my outties in. That what the garage is for. My passed roomate and I turned it into a sort of cat home. For bad weather. My current room-mate helps me keep it up. Those cats would be blessed to have you.

Exactly I have siblings problem

Not My Cat & Also Not My Cat update - Their owner has started training them to come home for dinner, and locking them inside at night. It's not perfect, but it's a start, and at least they're inside during the cold. They do still come down to say 'hi' to me at least once a day, though. =)

...and today's rant: Someone sideswiped my kid as they were coming home from school today. Not another student, a grown adult that should presumably better be able to control their vehicle, and would also presumably be not-so-blind as to not see my kid's bright yellow car. But no.

So, while the perpetrator does have insurance, and it wasn't my kid's fault in any way, now I'm worried that insurance isn't going to fix his car (it's over two decades old). Someone out there tell me that it'll be okay. Please!

The last 2 games I joined here turned out to be AI run. The GM fed prompts into their generative AI of choice (probably ChatGPT) and put the drivel that came out in their posts. The first game took me five posts to notice that it was throwing soulless text at me because the DM made some corrections but it then then started to make unnatural repeating patterns every post (Bob, his bike and his mighty voice. With a mighty voice Bob, who has a bike. Strong voiced Bob, holding his bike. Bellowing Biking Bob. And so on.) The second game I noticed on the first post, also because it was filled with logical fallacies that the DM (can we even call them DM's at this point?) didn't bother to correct.

It should be mandatory that AI use in games is labeled by DM's in their advertisements. Saves me from applying and wasting time on chargen...

Not going to happen.  As far as RPoL is concerned, GMs (and players) are free to use whatever tools they want to make their posts, and it is up to the individual whether or not they choose to reveal what they used.  RPoL will not introduce a rule that makes it mandatory to reveal that information.

The issue is not that the GM uses AI, but that he uses it with his own brain disengaged, and doesn't filter the AI generated material.
This message was last edited by the user at 03:52, Wed 04 Dec.

I was thinking that the problem was a lazy GM, but that's pretty much what you just said.

I think people put a lot of pressure on Gm's. There aren't a lot of people willing to take the captain's seat. There are many types of Gm's as well, if it doesn't suit you, move on. Since that particular gm doesn't do things the way you like there is bound to be a place out there that does. I've known Gm's to take prompts from AI and fill them in, especially if they work a lot and want to move their group along. Best advice is to ask in your RTJ if the GM uses AI if you're against it. Most Gm's are forthright.

Good luck in your search friend.

Participating in the test to see if AI was ready to be used for GMing, without agreeing, is unfortunate.
While at some point it may be up to the task. Maybe even better than some that think they can GM, there should still be a notification it is being used. Especially with the sensitivity to it.

And I'll have been at this address (an address I was never planning on being at in the first place) for eight years (2016) next week.    Every month, it gets a little harder...every month the near continuous stench of weed and cigarettes continues to infest my apartment; I go through 8-10 air freshener cones a month in order to fight it.  I'm flat out allergic to the smoke from them both, and that only makes it worse.

I clean with bleach at least once a month (because my OCD is "neatness" and "order"), but there's still bugs.   I sometimes wonder if the rest of the building even understands how to clean properly.   And ... let's not forget the rats living in the garage next door.

I had to buy an apartment sized dishwasher (which eventually had a door hinge rust through co I can't use it anymore) and an apartment sized clothes washer because the laundrymat has gotten to be too far away to walk some days.  And if I want to eat, I have to order it...the only place to get food in the neighborhood is a dollar store.

And on that note: I finally stopped going outside because it felt like every other time I did, someone would come up to me asking for a hand-out.  Apparently, the idea that I'm living in this neighborhood because I'm poor doesn't seem to occur.   And then there's the visitors to the neighbors at all hours...nothing like someone pulling up with the stereo cranked up to 80+ decibels at 2am.

I have a year and a half before I qualify for any sort of senior care; at which point I can finally hope to look to moving somewhere else.   As as for it all; I'm just tired.  I want to be somewhere else....
This message was last edited by the user at 03:52, Wed 11 Dec.