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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 5th, 2023

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  • I needed to learn Go quickly for a small little side project and I was able to run through the fundamentals Go track in about a week and a half doing a few exercises here and there.

    I’ve been exposed to quite a few programming languages so a lot of the common principles are there for me. What I really needed was to learn how Go is different and what the unique things about it are.

    For example, I didn’t need to learn about why loops are important. What I did like learning is how a for loop in Go was structured and how to use it in different contexts. Utilizing range was a great thing I picked up from their examples.

    Exercise is a great hands-on tool to supplement and support learning.



  • cyberdecker@beehaw.orgtoAsklemmy@lemmy.ml*Permanently Deleted*
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    1 year ago

    I have at least 4 companies on my banned list, but the ones that come up most often are…

    • Starbucks - I like good coffee. They just can’t seem to deliver and just focus on mass appeal to overly sweet milk drinks. No thanks. Good coffee doesn’t deserve that.
    • Blizzard/Activision - They need to clean house. Horrible treatment of people inside. The games they produce aren’t good even that good. I refuse to play their stuff as popular as it might be.
    • Disney - I don’t think they produce anything really valuable. Their marketing is amazing but I don’t like what they have given us. I honestly want nothing to do with Marvel or Star Wars and dislike the direction they have gone with those franchises.
    • Wizards of the Coast - all their game products are clearly cash grabs. Building in expiration so customers have to buy more is awful. I do not play Magic the Gathering and never will. I have also grown to dislike Dungeons and Dragons. It’s not even that great and there are so many better, more interesting games to play.

    That’s just a few of my old man rants.




  • insecure people who struggle with social skills

    Hi, also me. Nice to meet you.

    This is why I run “rules-light” systems and why you won’t find me running (or playing, anymore) games like DND. The complexity of rules is just too much for me to remember and memorize. I don’t have it in me to argue and debate about applying a rule and would prefer not to interact with someone who is rules lawyering. I find that having those rules there is more intimidating to me than anything else. I feel like I have to work with rules first and then find ways to be an agent of my character within that.

    Because of my own insecurities, I tend to lean on systems that require more collaboration, discussion and openness. I can’t really be wrong if we have collectively decided on a choice about our story. And even in that, calling it, our story carries so much power and lifts a huge weight off of my shoulders in terms of pressure for both playing and running a game. This is how I can skirt around my own insecurities and work with the kind of social skills that I have and prefer to use. I want collaborators rather than adversaries since that is socially much safer. Consequently, this also leads to very rich storytelling.


  • I think there’s a harmful view that ttrpgs are like a meal the GM cooks and delivers to the players which they either enjoy or not rather than a collaboratory effort of mutual play.

    This is beautifully said. The kind of adversarial approach we see so often, and I see it quite often with DND, is harmful. Of course this is not the only way things have to be, but the context seems to set it up like that more often than not.

    Complexity of rules and mechanics tend to lead to adjudication because of the way it can be interpreted. I find that in other systems, particularly in OSR style stuff, you get a different kind of thing. It’s not a rule, but a tool. This is kind of what I have loved about games like Mork Borg lately. Rules are simple, easily applied, and when you start to look into the world of supplemental material, there’s thousands, if not tens of thousands of additional rules and tables, you can apply to any situation. Take them or leave them. Apply them or don’t. Use them once, never or every time.

    Ultimately, you do what the situation calls for to make for an interesting story, and just like you said, that takes trust between you and the players to talk about and determine what that is.



  • As an alternative view, I homebrew and while the cost to get in can be a bit steep, the long term costs are actually pretty good. I looked at the cost to get equipment as a loss and just wrote it off. Electronic kettle and automation was pricey, but luckily I was able to have some costs offset with work benefits. Realistically though, in actual ingredients, between $30-50 USD for 5 gallons of beer and about 8 hours total of time for cleaning, brewing, fermenting and packaging, it’s not too bad.

    I tend to be very meticulous though with my brew process, so I haven’t lost a batch, at least not due to contamination. I’ve had some beers that weren’t great, but when you put it in perspective, a 12 ounce serving probably cost me about $0.50 - 1.00. Comparatively, while not great, it was still drinkable and as good as anything I could get for that price.

    Being able to make decent sized quantities of good beer to take to parties, give as gifts, and just have on hand really diminishes the hit of the cost of equipment. I feel like it’s been worth it.



  • I love Detroit style pizza!

    For others asking: Detroit style is kind of like Sicilian pizza. Pan baked, rectangular, yeast crust, thick, chewy, crispy on the edges. Bottom layer is cheese. Then toppings and sauce that is usually a stripe of sauce.

    The texture reminds me of old school Pizza Hut pan pizza. Thick, airy, oily, and my favorite part is the little crispy craggy bits on the top edge of the crust.

    In Maryland we have a couple really great Detroit pizza joints. Underground Pizza in Baltimore is my favorite and quite good, but pretty pricey. Rad Pies is a little more remote but is quite good as well.