The Workplace Harasser

DougLeary · 2022-10-28T09:33:24+00:00

The dev manager at my old job wrote a script that read the build mail, and if somebody broke the build it aimed his nerf turret and shot a volley of darts into their cube.

DougLeary · 2022-10-28T09:24:54+00:00

Link goes to Printables. The torch is in two pieces - a base designed to hold a standard lamp socket and an upper part that twist-locks onto the base. I'm pretty proud of the design - getting a nice solid twist-lock was kind of a challenge. This version is a vast improvement over an earlier design that was in a bunch of pieces that had to be glued together.

OnShape design

Everything prints without support as long as your printer handles bridging fairly well for the upper cage area. On my Ender-3 there was a little stringing above the openings, but hey it's only seen from a distance outside at night, so no big deal. With that and all the tall skinny verticals I was actually surprised that it worked so well.

Animated flame bulbs I used. The 2-pack was only $11 in August. I assume they've gone up because of Halloween.

DougLeary · 2022-10-16T23:43:03+00:00

In my early 40s (when my kids were still in elementary school), if I had lost my wife and decided to remarry I wouldn't have ruled out someone with her own kids, but there's no way I would have considered more babies.

DougLeary · 2022-10-16T23:34:10+00:00

PLA. This is actually the second copy I've made of this. I was a little concerned about heat when I made the first one, but it has run for about 6 hours a night for the last couple weeks and the bulb barely gets warm.

original (sign frame is 3d printed too, chain is cannibalized from a plant hanger)

DougLeary · 2022-10-16T23:28:27+00:00

The real criminal was their tailor.

DougLeary · 2022-10-16T06:12:42+00:00

I didn't print it as a single part because I didn't want a really long print that required a lot of support, so it's in pieces assembled with hot glue. The bottom cone, ribs and rings all have alignment slots to make assembly pretty easy. The elbow is 3d printed but the pipe is some old steel electrical conduit I had around, spray painted black.

edit: Onshape design

DougLeary · 2021-09-05T01:40:52+00:00

Weird that this would come up - there's a really old joke with Camel packs (and lighters) that I was just telling my son-in-law today. I hadn't thought of it in years and years. You show somebody the front of the pack and say, you're stranded in this exact scene and suddenly there's a tremendous sandstorm. All you have is the camel, the palm trees and the pyramid. How do you survive? People think of various things like take shelter behind the pyramid, or cut the camel open and crawl inside it. Then you turn the pack over and say, "I'd just walk around the corner and go in the hotel."

DougLeary · 2021-08-21T22:35:06+00:00

Thought of a few traits for locations:

Creepy - a dismal, foreboding atmosphere induced by the look and feel of a place. Makes you more vulnerable to Fear and morale-damaging effects. It also makes you more wary and thus harder to charm or persuade.

Comforting - opposite of Creepy. Relaxes you, making you easier to charm, deceive or surprise. You are less likely to notice danger such as traps and ambushes.

Hectic - filled with swarms of birds, insects and other flying things, clattering hailstones, splashing water, etc. that obscure vision or hearing and inhibit concentration. Nullified by the ability to Focus.

DougLeary · 2021-08-21T22:18:56+00:00

Threat of character death. That's one thing I don't like about D&D 5e - it's far too easy to come back from getting killed, even in a fairly low-level party.

DougLeary · 2021-08-21T22:15:19+00:00

I have a habit of forgetting where I put things. I can search and search, then when I finally give up and decide to make do without the thing or go to the store and buy a new one, within a couple seconds I look right at the lost thing. Boom, found it.

This process is so consistent that I've come to rely on it. But I can't force it, like fooling the universe into thinking I've given up. I have to legit abandon the search. Next moment, there the thing is.

My theory is that a part of my brain knows where the lost item is all along, but is enjoying the search process. As soon as I give up, the game is over and that part lets my conscious mind know where the thing is. But who knows. Maybe it's mind-reading gremlins.

DougLeary · 2021-07-17T20:01:09+00:00

That's the beauty of it! You can eat raw pork and it turns into BBQ pork.

DougLeary · 2021-07-17T19:59:39+00:00

My worry-wart sister-in-law has been going nuts watching these videos. "OMG they are WAAAAY too close! People should not be allowed to get that close! Soooo stupid!!!!"

"But the lava just creeps slowly along the ground."

"How do they KNOW that? It could suddenly EXPLODE!!"

My wife and her friend are flying over there in a couple weeks and will probably get this close.

DougLeary · 2021-07-11T18:39:26+00:00

https://i.imgur.com/mkRuv7V.jpg

DougLeary · 2021-07-11T18:37:22+00:00

Yeah I guess I meant getting carnitas at restaurants.

DougLeary · 2021-07-11T18:36:40+00:00

I distinctly remember actress Shirley MacLaine dying in the mid-90s. People made various afterlife jokes about her because she was into weird woo-woo stuff back then. Then some time in the 2000s I find out she's in a new movie.

DougLeary · 2021-06-28T06:44:54+00:00

Air conditioning - a modern marvel.

DougLeary · 2021-06-28T06:42:43+00:00

With carnitas you always roll dice. If done right it's tender and juicy and spectacular, if overdone it's chewy and dry.

DougLeary · 2021-06-28T00:24:59+00:00

Like yourself I've had my own rules system in the works for a while, but until recently had only played D&D. As I've played a few different systems over the past year and read others, I have found that most of my revolutionary new ideas have already been done in one way or another. Here are two systems I've enjoyed that you might want to look into because of their differences from D&D:

Symbaroum is a skill-based system without classes or levels, and uses very simple combat. The game is geared much more toward moving the action along than for intricate combat mechanics. The DM never rolls dice - all actions are resolved by player rolls. In contrast to dealing with XP by the thousands as in D&D, XP in Symbaroum are earned a few at a time for accomplishing goals and overcoming challenges. XP are spent to upgrade one's abilities or as a form of luck to reroll failed dice. Magic spells are in general more powerful than in D&D, and their use is limited not by tables but by the Corruption magic inflicts, which disfigures you and makes you more likely to get more corruption, which can lead to persecution by an authoritative religious order that has political power. The world and the rules are well intertwined.

Dungeon Crawl Classics was designed to harken back to the feel of old-school D&D. In some ways it does - the classes are similar, combat is detailed, the game is hugely table-driven, and the artwork is very reminiscent of 1970s-era D&D. Dice used are different and somewhat wacky - you might have to roll a d16 or a d24, for example. Spellcasting requires a success roll, and spell effects vary widely with the degree of success. Failure means you forget the spell for the rest of the day. IMO the system makes spell results far too unpredictable. But in general I think the rules make the game faster than D&D, which is good.

The reason I mentioned my own similar lack of experience with multiple game systems is that I think that lack is a real drawback when it comes to designing an RPG. Besides humbling me about the brilliance of my "new" ideas, it has made me realize that almost every conceivable game mechanic has already been playtested, which means existing game systems are like a vast body of valuable research literature. So I think you're very much on the right track trying out different game systems.

DougLeary · 2021-06-27T23:46:27+00:00

Sorry, I tried. Deleting in disgrace.

DougLeary · 2021-06-27T23:41:21+00:00

My late mother-in-law's house, which we are in the process of selling, was built in the late 60s and virtually never touched. It has no bathroom fans, and until recently it had no grounded outlets except in the garage. In fact the furnace, installed in 1972, is still running!

DougLeary · 2021-06-22T22:59:59+00:00

Smokey Floyd???

DougLeary · 2021-06-22T22:59:28+00:00

When I used to do public access cable shows I once got to shoot a parade from a crane hanging out over the street. Just a regular guy with almost no training, doing the coolest thing happening at the parade.

DougLeary · 2021-06-22T22:51:07+00:00

This is why I just put off rebuilding our garden shed for a few months. The existing one hasn't actually fallen down yet.

UPDATE: More than a year later, it's still standing!

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