I have no love in my heart for Disney, but I'll hand it to the crew at Ravensburger: the ruleset they've built for Lorcana, the upcoming Disney #TCG, is clean.

#CardGames #TabletopGames #BoardGames

Disney Lorcana rules aim to be accessible for new and old TCG players

Disney Lorcana, the highly anticipated new tabletop game, wants to expand the audience for collectible card games. We talked with its co-designer to learn why it plays so differently from its biggest competitors, games like Magic and Pokémon.

^{Charlie Hall (Polygon)}

In other words, while supporters of the Greater Idaho movement essentially talk about the ability to live according to their cultural beliefs, doing so arguably would mean restricting the political rights available to all individuals in their part of the state, should the secession effort succeed. Secessionist advocates make it clear that they believe that unauthorized immigrants have too many rights, transgender people have too many rights, and women have too many rights.

Beneath the surface, the Oregon secession movement isn't about democracy - Flux

PORTLAND–What small state resident doesn’t get a thrill when the national media flick their gaze towards one’s beloved home, even if ever so briefly? Oregon had a sweet run of such sugar rush coverage in the early 2000s, propelled by Portland’s excel…

^{Jim Carroll (Flux)}

The rhetoric was always obviously bullshit, but now that I'm a parent, I am fucking livid that the queerphobic hatemongers would appeal to a supposed "right" of mine to justify their abusive and genocidal policies.

Motherfuckers, I don't want your "right" to tyrannize my child. I want trans and queer kids to be safe. I want kids to have access to accurate information, even if their parents don't think they should. I want kids to be treated as fucking human beings, not property, and given the opportunities to develop autonomy accordingly.

Here's a look at my #WIP design for my new website, built using Hugo. Sharing it here so that I can hopefully inspire myself to get back into the swing of working on it. 😅

#WebDesign #Hugo

If you were trying to teach someone about critical reading—what it means to critically engage with a text, and how—what 1-3 resources would you give them?

It seems to me critical reading is a deeply underdeveloped and misunderstood skill. I see people dismiss it because they see it as pointless intellectual faffery and/or futile efforts to squeeze the "Hidden Meaning" out of a text. Or they see it as a roundabout way to judge something as Good or Bad.

I wish that when I was in high school, or even college, someone had sat me down and explained what it meant to critically engage with a text. How the goal isn't to find the one true meaning, but instead to place the text in conversation with others, using it to illuminate a concept—that sort of stuff. I got there eventually, but mostly by trial and error, and I'd love to find resources that provide clearer guidance.

So, scholars of the Fediverse: What 1-3 resources would you use to help introduce someone to critical reading?

#academia #academic #scholarly #scholars #humanities

Another one of my many, many Someday Projects is to make a #minetest game.

Of course, to do that, I'd need to learn Lua. And pixel art. That's not happening anytime soon. 😅

American military leaders oppose helping the [International Criminal Court] investigate Russians because they fear setting a precedent that might help pave the way for it to prosecute Americans. The rest of the administration, including intelligence agencies and the State and Justice Departments, favors sharing the evidence with the court, the officials said.

well we wouldn't want American war criminals to be prosecuted, now would we 🙃🙃🙃

who do I talk to to never ever again hear the word "woke" used as a pejorative

because fuck me I hate everything about how it's become the right's boogeyman du jour

It's been two weeks since my daughter was born and it is a goddamn crime that this country doesn't provide for any paid parental leave.

We are what passes for fortunate in this country, in that my wife was able to take 3 months off, and I got 6 weeks off with an additional 6 weeks part-time. All our leave is unpaid, of course. And even in that, the idea of going back to work when my daughter is only 5 weeks old—because she was born a week into my leave—is ghastly to me. I hate it.

This country is shit.

One day, I really want to start a tool lending library in my community.

Have you ever been involved in a project like that? Any personal insight on how to get started or what really works? I'm curious to hear people's stories.

#sharing #sharingEconomy #giftEconomy #lendingLibrary #community

A year or two ago, I was given a #lockpicking set for my birthday, containing two picks and two rakes, as well as three practice locks (with cutaways to show the pins).

I've found it really hard to develop the skill, however. I can't reliably feel or isolate pins, and I don't know if I have the right amount of tension. I sometimes manage to pop a lock, sometimes repeatedly, but nothing about that experience seems to transfer to a new lock.

What are your recommendations for beginning to learn? Are there particular locks (whether practice locks or normal ones) you'd suggest? Any other resources I should check out?

#locksport

Dunno why I expected that buying a robot vacuum and flashing its firmware to a local-only system was going to somehow be easy. A day in, I've followed the steps, and somehow, the robot still resists me.

#homeAutomation #homeAssistant

Examining publicly-available financial data from the egg industry, the letter determines that the supply disruption caused by the avian flu outbreak had an “apparently mild impact on the industry,” as the average size of the egg-laying flock in any given month of 2022 was never more than six percent lower than it was a year prior.”

Still, “weekly wholesale price for shell eggs climbed from 173.5 cents per dozen at the end of February to 194.2 cents in the middle of March. By the first week of April, it had reached 298 cents per dozen.” Including the avian flu outbreak, the letter states that nothing “justifies the dominant egg producers’ more than three-fold price hike.”

Farm Action Calls For FTC To Investigate Record-High Egg Prices

Indoor Yard Sale Mt. Zion UMC 27108 Mt. Zion Church Rd. MechanicsvilleSaturday, Feb. 4, 7 am to 1 pm Food is available for purchase. Setup on Friday, Feb. 3rd from […]

^{Farm Action (The BayNet)}

Creating an account for my new dental insurance, and the password requirements are 6-15 alphanumeric characters, no special characters.

Dear god.

In addition to Paizo, Kobold Press, Chaosium, Green Ronin, Legendary Games, Rogue Genius Games, and a growing list of publishers have already agreed to participate in the Open RPG Creative License, and in the coming days we hope and expect to add substantially to this group.

The ORC will not be owned by Paizo, nor will it be owned by any company who makes money publishing RPGs. Azora Law’s ownership of the process and stewardship should provide a safe harbor against any company being bought, sold, or changing management in the future and attempting to rescind rights or nullify sections of the license. Ultimately, we plan to find a nonprofit with a history of open source values to own this license (such as the Linux Foundation).

You love to see it. Way to go, WotC; in gutting the #OGL, you played yourself.

(Linking to a third-party copy of the announcement instead of Paizo's own site, because Paizo is currently getting hammered.)

I've been eyeing some of the #LEGO sets geared toward adults (like the floral arrangements or the modular buildings), but have managed to hold off because I don't have anywhere in my home to display them, and don't need more Stuff.

But then, when I was talking to a coworker yesterday, I noticed he had two of the LEGO succulent sets on his windowsill, and I realized: I'm a therapist. I have an office that could use some tasteful decor.

That might be the crack in the dike...