The Rhythms
Dec. 7th, 2022 08:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jakebe
Yesterday went a bit better! I continued preparing for the program launch on Friday, and the idea of gamification worked for it pretty well. Can I finish this section of the website in 45 minutes? I'll give myself a treat if I do! The website isn't completely done, but most of the supplementary materials are. Today, I can finish up the site and prepare the Slack workspace, then send a pre-launch message to everyone on the community team. Even though the launch won't be until Friday, it'd be pretty cool to have everything done so I can spend some time double-checking everything.
I did laundry as well -- not just washing the clothes, but folding and putting them away. Usually the whole thing is like a week-long process where I wash the clothes one day, lay them out on the couch so they don't wrinkle TOO much, and then fold when I have the cycles to do that. Yesterday I tried to get all the folding done in one episode of Star Trek: the Next Generation. I *mostly* did; there are a few things to hang up, a whole pile of socks to sort, that sort of thing.
The episode of TNG was from the 3rd season, where James Cromwell was the President(?) of a society that had applied to join the Federation. Unbeknownst to Picard, they had created these super-soldiers to fight in a war that was now over. Those soldiers were shipped off to a "luxury penal colony" because the body modifications and neurochemical programming they were subjected to couldn't easily be reversed. One super-soldier was ultimately captured, pleaded his case, and escaped again when the Enterprise tried to hand them over to his people. Ultimately, Picard forced the government to negotiate with the soldiers after they breached the capital and told the president, in no uncertain terms, that they would die before going back to prison just for serving their society as they were asked to do.
Needless to say, the planet's application to join the Federation was rejected.
It was a showcase for Worf, who was totally in his element. As the Chief Security Officer he tends to get slapped down just to show how big a threat something is, but here they actually let him be competent and it was nice to see. Troi actually got to be an empathetic advocate without falling in love with this dude, and Data learned a bit more about the human experience. All in all, a decent episode.
Dinner was creamy shrimp and pancetta cascatelli (a new sauce-holding pasta shape that kinda looks like a frilly ear) with kale and spinach; chili-butter garlic bread was on the side. Eventually the dish is meant to be mixed together in one pot, but the volume busted every pot I had. I'll have to use a larger pasta pot for the cascatelli next time. Still, it was *delicious*. The chili suffused through the cream to bring the heat (but not too much), and I seasoned everything just enough to bring out the natural flavor of the shrimp and pancetta. :9
I even got in some writing! Worked on the D&D game some more, where I'm building a pretty neat encounter. I'm sure there's more interesting things I can do with it, so I'll keep noodling around with it. I want to make sure I give the post-physical part of the encounter enough weight, though. I'm experimenting with the journey back to the group's home as a time of transition for the characters as well, reinforcing and shading the experience they've gained on their trip. It's the first time I've done anything like that, so I can't expect everything to work -- but it's fun to be stretching myself this way.
L and I exchanged our characters for the upcoming Witchlight campaign! He built a Beasthide Shifter Sorceror for me -- we've had a lot of conversations about how frustrating I find the 5E magic system because I haven't quite grokked the axis on which you can be creative with it. When I try to find creative ways to use spells with my druid, for example, it often draws criticism that I'm attempting to game the system. I'm not...I'm just trying to find ways to be unexpectedly useful. With the sorceror, however, there are only a few spells to learn and the whole *point* is to find ways to adapt them to the situation. It's a strong concept, and I'm really looking forward to playing him. His family is a traveling troupe of actors, and he's pushed to go adventuring after inheriting his grandmother's shadow cloak.
I built a Tiefling Arcanist for him; he has a love of crunch in games, and the Arcanist is one of the crunchiest classes in 5E. I wanted him to really deep-dive into futzing with the possibilities because I know that's the most fun for him, and I picked Tiefling because I think it speaks a little bit to the punk side of him. It immediately casts him as an outsider whether he wants to be or not, and part of his character journey is learning how to make peace with that.
If the other two members of the party keep their concepts, then we'll have a VERY magic-heavy party: a druid, bard, sorceror, and arcanist. We're also prioritizing the mental and social aspects of characterization, so combat will be interesting.
It feels good to be productive, creative, and engaged. It takes energy, but going to bed knowing I've made progress on things is...a good feeling.
I did laundry as well -- not just washing the clothes, but folding and putting them away. Usually the whole thing is like a week-long process where I wash the clothes one day, lay them out on the couch so they don't wrinkle TOO much, and then fold when I have the cycles to do that. Yesterday I tried to get all the folding done in one episode of Star Trek: the Next Generation. I *mostly* did; there are a few things to hang up, a whole pile of socks to sort, that sort of thing.
The episode of TNG was from the 3rd season, where James Cromwell was the President(?) of a society that had applied to join the Federation. Unbeknownst to Picard, they had created these super-soldiers to fight in a war that was now over. Those soldiers were shipped off to a "luxury penal colony" because the body modifications and neurochemical programming they were subjected to couldn't easily be reversed. One super-soldier was ultimately captured, pleaded his case, and escaped again when the Enterprise tried to hand them over to his people. Ultimately, Picard forced the government to negotiate with the soldiers after they breached the capital and told the president, in no uncertain terms, that they would die before going back to prison just for serving their society as they were asked to do.
Needless to say, the planet's application to join the Federation was rejected.
It was a showcase for Worf, who was totally in his element. As the Chief Security Officer he tends to get slapped down just to show how big a threat something is, but here they actually let him be competent and it was nice to see. Troi actually got to be an empathetic advocate without falling in love with this dude, and Data learned a bit more about the human experience. All in all, a decent episode.
Dinner was creamy shrimp and pancetta cascatelli (a new sauce-holding pasta shape that kinda looks like a frilly ear) with kale and spinach; chili-butter garlic bread was on the side. Eventually the dish is meant to be mixed together in one pot, but the volume busted every pot I had. I'll have to use a larger pasta pot for the cascatelli next time. Still, it was *delicious*. The chili suffused through the cream to bring the heat (but not too much), and I seasoned everything just enough to bring out the natural flavor of the shrimp and pancetta. :9
I even got in some writing! Worked on the D&D game some more, where I'm building a pretty neat encounter. I'm sure there's more interesting things I can do with it, so I'll keep noodling around with it. I want to make sure I give the post-physical part of the encounter enough weight, though. I'm experimenting with the journey back to the group's home as a time of transition for the characters as well, reinforcing and shading the experience they've gained on their trip. It's the first time I've done anything like that, so I can't expect everything to work -- but it's fun to be stretching myself this way.
L and I exchanged our characters for the upcoming Witchlight campaign! He built a Beasthide Shifter Sorceror for me -- we've had a lot of conversations about how frustrating I find the 5E magic system because I haven't quite grokked the axis on which you can be creative with it. When I try to find creative ways to use spells with my druid, for example, it often draws criticism that I'm attempting to game the system. I'm not...I'm just trying to find ways to be unexpectedly useful. With the sorceror, however, there are only a few spells to learn and the whole *point* is to find ways to adapt them to the situation. It's a strong concept, and I'm really looking forward to playing him. His family is a traveling troupe of actors, and he's pushed to go adventuring after inheriting his grandmother's shadow cloak.
I built a Tiefling Arcanist for him; he has a love of crunch in games, and the Arcanist is one of the crunchiest classes in 5E. I wanted him to really deep-dive into futzing with the possibilities because I know that's the most fun for him, and I picked Tiefling because I think it speaks a little bit to the punk side of him. It immediately casts him as an outsider whether he wants to be or not, and part of his character journey is learning how to make peace with that.
If the other two members of the party keep their concepts, then we'll have a VERY magic-heavy party: a druid, bard, sorceror, and arcanist. We're also prioritizing the mental and social aspects of characterization, so combat will be interesting.
It feels good to be productive, creative, and engaged. It takes energy, but going to bed knowing I've made progress on things is...a good feeling.
Yay! Progress!
Date: 2022-12-08 08:46 pm (UTC)Re: Yay! Progress!
Date: 2022-12-13 06:49 pm (UTC)Any chance you can put together a campaign with folks in the New Year??