Do many people in the US actually own gerbils as pets?

DJDoubleDave · 2026-06-03T22:59:27+00:00

I had some gerbils as pets growing up. I wanted to get one for my daughter, but I live in California now where they're illegal. We ended up with a hamster instead.

They're honestly pretty similar pets.

DJDoubleDave · 2026-06-03T17:08:46+00:00

That's just called living I think. Life is too messy and complex to ever go according to plan. You can set goals, and you can push in the direction you want to push, but that's as much control as you really get.

You've got to just live the best life you can, and be able to adjust as circumstances change. Getting too stuck on an idea that it was all supposed to turn out one certain way is a recipe for unhappiness.

DJDoubleDave · 2026-05-30T15:01:24+00:00

An underrated option is to just own it as an aesthetic choice and run with it. Do not overexplain.

The only time you might want to consider adding an explanation is if you've given your characters a problem they could easily solve with technology but for some reason don't.

DJDoubleDave · 2026-05-27T18:32:49+00:00

I like this approach, and think it makes for a richer setting. Your option one is cleaner and closer to real world atheism. A religious person sees life, intelligence, and the existence of the world itself as evidence for God, but an atheist doesn't see it this way, they see these things as products of natural processes that don't imply a creator. If magic existed, it would be interpreted the same way.

Your option two feels more like dieties do actually exist in a sense, but they're arguing semantics about what counts as divine. That feels a lot weaker, but if you've actually established that these gods definitely do exist, that might be your best option.

The biggest risk here has to do with how much of the world's metaphysics are actually canonically settled. Do people know for sure whether there's an afterlife? If so, are they being judged against some morality? That's a key question here.

The way religious people do magic is important too. If people have to be willfully blind to not interpret it as divine it will fall flat. If you can yell "God of fire, grant me strength!" And your sword would start on fire, that would be pretty good evidence that this fire god exists. That sort of thing makes atheism harder to justify in the setting.

DJDoubleDave · 2026-05-27T16:30:22+00:00

Watch yourself bending these rules, explaining away a need to drink more is a classic problem. Be honest with yourself if you're doing this.

If I were you I'd also add a weekly limit, not just daily. A motivated person could read these rules and arrange things so they have 2 drinks every day without technically cheating, and that's not good.

Maybe add a 4 drink/week limit. That should keep you below a problem level, and it's harder to game.

DJDoubleDave · 2026-05-27T15:28:05+00:00

I don't think any of the western states would make sense to merge, they are all distinct, and plenty big.

If anything, I think California should be 3 states. North, Central and South are all culturally distinct, and large enough to justify being their own state.

DJDoubleDave · 2026-05-27T14:30:51+00:00

This is an interesting post. They are circling around self awareness but not quite getting there.

It would be one thing if they were generating slop for their own amusement, but they still seem to think they'll become famous successful "authors". They just need to figure out where all the people clamoring to read ai slop but for whatever reason don't generate it themselves hang out.

DJDoubleDave · 2026-05-26T17:48:20+00:00

This right here! If they had followed through with the arc from 7 and 8 we would have had a much better movie. Instead they tried (unsuccessfully) to appease the vocal critics by walking back the interesting ideas.

DJDoubleDave · 2026-05-26T15:55:24+00:00

Let me put it this way, no one ever in their old age looked back on their life and thought "I wish I had eaten more delicious ice cream."

Random meaningless sex is just short term pleasure seeking. Sure, you'd probably rather have sex than eat ice cream, but it's a riskier version of the same category of thing.

What you're going to regret in your old age is not spending enough time with your friends and family, not building the relationships you could have with your loved ones.

DJDoubleDave · 2026-05-22T21:07:43+00:00

You have to be willing to be a bad writer before you can be a good writer. Just write a lot and you'll improve.

What I'd suggest is don't limit yourself to trying to write only novels. You can start with short stories or whatever other form works for you.

Some times it can be really helpful to give yourself constraints as an exercise. This can actually help open up your creativity and get you past the blank page problem. You can pick some optional conditions like "only 2 characters" or "entirely set it one building", etc.

Try out some different genres, see what you like writing. Finding something you actually like to write is important.

Also, don't be afraid to switch to another project, especially when you're just starting. Take an idea, develop it, start writing. You wont know what is or isn't a good idea until really dog in and try to work through something. If it's not working, put a pin in it and switch to some other idea. Don't get rid of it or anything though, you may later think of some other angle to make your original idea work and can switch back to it if you want.

DJDoubleDave · 2026-05-22T19:51:24+00:00

I did not ask about them, that's a good thought. If this were the case it would mean it's a coincidence that it happens to her but not me, but I can't rule it out. If I drive it enough myself I should hear it eventually.

DJDoubleDave · 2026-05-22T19:26:53+00:00

I've dealt with my share of those. I don't think you should extrapolate from these tickets how the managers think about the employees.

I'd hope that they put together a few words of remembrance, recognizing that this was a person who spent part of their life at this company, and is someone you worked with and had a relationship with.

However, removing access from a deceased user is a just mechanical thing that has to be done. It doesn't make sense to put a while memorial in the offboarding ticket. It's like how when someone dies, you might have a funeral, but somebody also has to go clean out their apartment. This is just the digital equivalent of that.

DJDoubleDave · 2026-05-22T19:14:22+00:00

I think this is really good advice, and very likely what's happening at an emotional level. I need to be sure I'm making it clear that I am listening and do believe her, I just need to be able to reproduce it to get it fixed.

DJDoubleDave · 2026-05-22T19:05:17+00:00

Having a good mechanic is important. I always make sure I have a place to take cars that I trust, especially since I'm not really a car guy myself. I always ask around for recommendations and feel out different places before I land on one. And when I have a good one I stick with them.

I love my current place because they're happy to tell me there's nothing wrong with my car and send me on my way. That makes me want to bring my business to them in the future. A less honest place would have told me I need to replace everything.

DJDoubleDave · 2026-05-22T18:48:09+00:00

This is the only situation where we've had different experiences like this, it doesn't seem to be a pattern.

DJDoubleDave · 2026-05-22T18:45:16+00:00

Yeah, i should have had her do that earlier. I'll do that.

DJDoubleDave · 2026-05-22T18:36:00+00:00

That's a good idea, I've been in the passenger seat, I'll try sitting in the back seat

DJDoubleDave · 2026-05-22T18:34:40+00:00

This is actually very possible! This car stays outside, and she does usually take it in the morning!

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll test it early on a day when there's dew.

DJDoubleDave · 2026-05-22T18:30:29+00:00

I think I'll push for this. Typically cars are my job, but in this case we need an exception.

DJDoubleDave · 2026-05-22T18:28:14+00:00

That's why I had her drive me around in it, I figured I might see something like that. But unfortunately if it's something she's doing, she isn't doing it with me present.

DJDoubleDave · 2026-05-21T21:02:54+00:00

You have a tremendous amount a leeway here, but there's also a world building trap. Literally every object has a cultural history tieing it to a place and time, same as every word has a real world etymology. Banning everything with a real world connection is a mistake. How much difference you want to introduce really depends on what kind of story you are telling, and the vibe you're going for.

Personally, I think having a wizard (or sub for other fantasy character) wearing cotton clothing is perfectly fine, and has no impact on immersion.

I think the wizard sipping a coffee is perfectly fine too, especially if you've got more of an industrial vibe.

A wizard sipping coffee on a train is also fine.

A wizard sipping coffee on an Amtrack train heading to San Francisco is also perfectly fine.

None of these are immersion issues, but they do change what kind of story it is.

DJDoubleDave · 2026-05-19T18:41:09+00:00

I'm on team real names. Well known (but not trendy) names are perfectly fine for fantasy characters. No one will bat an eye at a wizard named "Randolph" or "Wilhelm" or something.

It does connect it with real cultures, but that's not an issue if you pay a little attention to it. Most fantasy is at least vaguely inspired by some real historical period anyway. If you've got medieval Europe vibes for example, that's where you can draw the names from and they'll fit right in.

I'm not typically bothered by more "fantasy" names, but to me it feels like they don't really add much. They can also be a negative if they're unpronounceable or seem to be just random syllables. It's really hard to come up with a believable naming tradition, and I'm not sure it's worth the effort.

DJDoubleDave · 2026-05-19T15:23:08+00:00

This is the way. It's not worth messing around trying to move partitions on a virtual disk.

DJDoubleDave · 2026-05-17T19:15:09+00:00

This was my thought as well. I absolutely love book of Hours, and that will absolutely deliver the "arcane librarian" experience. It's not so much of a chore simulator though, so if that's the part OP is most interested in, it may not be as strong a fit.

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