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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 13th, 2023

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  • It’s just a very ungenerous interpretation of a lot of factually correct things. Brandon Sanderson is, indeed, Mormon and while I’ve never heard him say as much explicitly, the way he talks a out his faith makes me believe that yes, he does tithe to the church.

    As for the audio book stuff, when Sanderson was doing his massive kickstarter for his four secret projects, he said that the audio books would not initially be available on Audible/Amazon. He said this was because he believed Amazon had too much market power and that he was successful enough that he didn’t need them and would thus withhold releasing his books on that platform. I don’t recall him ever saying that they would never be released there. Partway through fulfillment of the kickstarter, he announced that Amazon had changed its compensation structure (for all authors, not just him) in the direction he wanted and tbuse he felt it was okay to release his books on Amazon’s platform.

    If you like heroic fantasy with unique magic systems, I recommend giving him a shot. I like to compare him to Marvel movies: not groundbreaking or innovative or the pinnacle of the art form, but competently made that hits all the emotional beats you want out of the story in a familiar and comforting way.





  • I once read an article that basically called the military a billion dollar vocational school program and it really shifted my perspective. Like I kinda don’t give a shit about most people or why they join - maybe it’s that chance at upward mobility, maybe it’s the desire to serve a cause, maybe it’s a desire to feel a part of something bigger, all of which are legit human needs and desires. As an idea, I’m kind of neutral leaning towards negative in the military. It’s when I start looking at it in the broader context thag I get angry, and it’s not necessarily at the rank and file, and sometimes not even the mid to high leadership. It’s the presidents and the politicians and business people who lead the whole thing and play games with people’s lives. I even have sympathy for the angry knuckle dragging meatheads because they just got duped, again, by the ruling class.








  • Isn’t nutrition security kind of implied? Like, is there someone who’s like giving away 2200 calories a day in twinkies and ho-hos being like “aha! Gotcha! You just said ‘food’ not ‘healthy food!’” like some sort of lawful evil djinni? The movement to combat food deserts is to get actual grocery stores so that people have access to fresh fruits/vegetables instead of just the processed food available at dollar stores.



  • I was listening to a podcast about AI. I think it was one of Ezra Kleins. And he was telling a story that he heard, bout those weird virtual reality games from the 90s or early Aughts. And people shat on those games because they were awful and clunky and not very good so that shitting was well deserved. But one guy was like “yeah, that’s all true. But this is the worst it’s going to be. The next iteration isn’t going to be worse than this.”

    And that’s where AI is now. Like, it’s powerful and already a threat to certain jobs. GPT 3/4 may be useless to software engineering jobs now (I’d argue that it’s not - I work in a related field and I use it about daily) but what about GPT 5? 6? 10?

    Im not as doom and gloom on AI as I was six months ago, but I think it’s a bit silly to think that AI isn’t going to cause massive upheaval across all industries in the medium to long term.

    But also, for the record, I’m less worried about AI than I am about AI in the hands of Capitalism.


  • Aha, that’s fair. I got a friend to join my PF2e campaign by saying “the mechanical building blocks are all the same. Roll a d20 and a number, total determines success.” which is, I think, an accurate description despite what a lot of PF2e players will say.

    That being said, you have any suggestions for someone who likes the the tactical nature and crunch of PF2e and doesn’t really have an interest in rules light or narrative driven games (my hot take: narrative drive exists independent of rule set - you can have a narrative driven PF2e game or any other rule system). I feel like Lancer or 13th Ave are probably the most likely candidates, but wondering if there are others.