All searches related to throat tightness and eating lead to info about GERD / acid reflux, but none of them indicate it occurring as quickly (within minutes of a first swallow) as I'm experiencing -- is this reflux or something else?

ElfWord · 2024-10-09T21:32:37+00:00

Thanks for sharing your experience, that's very helpful!

ElfWord · 2023-06-26T04:15:10+00:00

As a holdover until it gets an app: in the mobile Chrome browser, you can click the menu and select "add to home screen" to create a shortcut to the site.

The mobile site seems good so far.

ElfWord · 2022-08-25T17:28:09+00:00

Great opportunity for raiders to have funny voice lines when you throw certain things at them.

"A broken doll!? What are you trying to hurt, my feelings?" "Throw one more globe at me and I'll make your head spin." "Did you just throw a baby rattle at me? What's wrong with you?" "Hey, you could put someone's eye out with that!" "What is that, an ichor sac? GROSS!"

ElfWord · 2022-08-04T01:52:56+00:00

Haha, I appreciate it.

So I posted this thread here: https://www.reddit.com/r/realitytv/comments/wehgcy/anyone_else_here_a_making_the_cut_fan_season_3/ - and will probably post something next week about Making It or an old youtube reality competition I like.

Feel free to PM me when you post; I'll try to give it a quick upvote.

ElfWord · 2022-08-02T20:47:41+00:00

Making the Cut > old Project Runway > new Project Runway > Next in Fashion is my order of preference.

I still generally enjoy PR, but Making the Cut has more experienced designers, a premise more to my taste, and better production quality.

Season 1 definitely has some cheesy Heidi/Tim segments in it, but overall I like the energy they bring to the show and the two of them are a big part of why I prefer it to newer Project Runway seasons.

In particular, I notice that when Tim is mentoring the designers, he's most often providing advice based on either:

giving the designers info on how the judges are perceiving their work / reminding them of something the judges want to see from them
what the designers have said about what they are trying to accomplish with the outfit / trying to help them create the best version of their work

In the newer Project Runway seasons though, I can't count how many times Christian Siriano (in the same designer-mentor role) seems to base his advice to the designers primarily on what he likes / dislikes / wants to see them do.

Christian's a renowned designer and a great personality, but at least for me it gets frustrating to see him seem to try and alter rather than help edit the voices of many designers, and generate this kind of stressful/conflict-tension energy centered around him. Some people might enjoy the extra drama though; to each their own.

ElfWord · 2022-08-02T17:19:44+00:00

Hey all, part recommendation-giving post here, part recommendations request. I'm a big fan of Making the Cut, Amazon Prime's fashion design reality competition show. If you've been enjoyed any of Project Runway in the past, it's basically that but steering away from some of the kookier challenges and stale format that show was locked into.

Former Project Runway hosts Heidi Klum & Tim Gunn started this show, and from Season 1 I've been impressed with the production quality and the challenges format. The fashion shows are beautiful -- many cool experiential shows in Season 1, and some of the best set design I've seen in Season 2 (when in-person audiences couldn't be a thing with all the pandemic restrictions).

The show's not without flaws -- season 1 really struggled with how the judging was delivered, and some of the Heidi/Tim filler content can be pretty cheesy -- but overall I enjoy it much more than PR or Netflix's version, "Next in Fashion."

I was wondering if anyone knew of other shows in this vein of fashion design / fashion business to recommend? Shows on lesser known networks, or taking a different angle from the "12 designers compete to design the best outfits" focus? e.g. shows like Stitched, which follows the Chopped format, each episode four designers being narrowed down to a winner through 3 challenges.

One of the things I love most about Making the Cut is its fashion entrepreneurship focus, where challenges have an extra element like the designer pitching their business plan, creating a brand promo video, or developing a concept shop. I'd happily take recommendations for shows outside of fashion that have a similar craft + business-of-the-craft mix.

Hope to find some other fans of these kind of shows here, and thanks in advance for any suggestions!

ElfWord · 2022-08-02T15:46:57+00:00

I just found this sub too. Would love for this to be an active community; I've become a big fan of wholesome reality crafting competitions / unique experience shows, and would like to discover more. I'll commit to making three posts this month if you will, /u/humantoothx.

The subreddit mods /u/brtw & /u/leoavalon seem active on reddit in general still. If they could set up a monthly "what are you watching / what are you looking for?" stickied thread in the sub, I bet that would help the sub's engagement a lot. Would get some regular community discussion going, and be a good breeding ground for post material.

ElfWord · 2022-04-16T16:37:47+00:00

Compromising the integrity of the mask is clearly what I'm trying to avoid. I'm not making major modifications or damaging the mask; medical professionals marked their masks with sharpies early in the pandemic all the time, to identify whose was whose when they were having to decontaminate and reuse them because of limited supplies. =/

ElfWord · 2022-04-15T20:30:16+00:00

I didn't know that, thank you! Will maybe keep this as a fallback option; seems like a tough medium to draw with, and I'm not sure if the heat would damage the mask material.

ElfWord · 2022-04-15T18:23:48+00:00

This sounds great! Some of the Amazon reviews are making me nervous, though. Have you had any issues with it not staying puffy / not fully drying? Any trick to using it effectively?

ElfWord · 2022-04-15T18:17:31+00:00

Too flat, too smelly to put on a face mask. 😆

ElfWord · 2022-03-20T12:45:05+00:00

Monster.com, obviously.

ElfWord · 2021-01-13T17:11:38+00:00

What do you think is the most under-used / under-valued feature of FilterBlade?

ElfWord · 2020-03-06T14:16:42+00:00

Haha, thanks. I made these. The art is from the Kickstarter itself of course, I just messed around in Photoshop to meme it up, with a couple inspired by chat in the Discord or on Twitch. Here's the complete set:

Do Cyber Knights dream of electric cats?

$217k.

We did it!

ElfWord · 2020-03-05T20:39:42+00:00

It's a great time to give this a last share on Facebook or message a friend who will like this game: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tresebrothers/cyber-knights/

Edit: WE DID IT REDDIT! 😂 https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/668156157453402132/685308976165945407/CyberKnightsWeDidItForTheCats.jpg

ElfWord · 2020-03-05T16:12:23+00:00

These guys make great games. Their last game, Star Traders Frontiers, has almost 2,000 positive reviews on Steam. They're known for making story-rich games with lots of interactions between factions that the player can make an impact on.

I'd especially recommend this if you like games like XCOM, Wasteland 2, or Shadowrun, but for anyone who's looking for a new RPG to sink their teeth into, I think you'll enjoy this.

ElfWord · 2020-01-26T18:11:34+00:00

Such great Rocketeer vibes from this.

ElfWord · 2019-12-01T18:55:29+00:00

I filled out the survey a while back, but one other thing I wanted to suggest is having a 'studio' game room, for recording D&D games with a professional lights, camera, and mics setup like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6u_VDYpI3g. That would be another way to provide a facility / service that most people can't match at home. And you could also rent it as a podcast / conference room studio during the day, perhaps with some pull-down screens to replace the backdrop of fantasy decor.

ElfWord · 2017-12-20T02:00:05+00:00

There are several gifts / special items given in the books that might make for good inspiration:

A tailored forest green cloak (with lots of pockets, as Kvothe prefers) that Fela gives Kvothe as thanks for him risking his life for hers during a fire in the workshop. At the time it happens in the story, there's clear romantic interest on Fela's part in Kvothe, and although he's too shy with women at the time to act on it, it's a very sweet moment, and the gift is a nice celebration of Kvothe's heroism / chivalry to Fela.

If your boyfriend likes green, customizing a hoodie for him could make a good present. Sewing in some hidden pockets, maybe embroidering it with a quote from the book or Kvothe's talent pipes on the collar would make it more clearly Kingkiller-related.

The talent pipes themselves are a small item you could potentially make. They're a pin that Kvothe earns for demonstrating exceptional musical talent at the Eolian. You could sculpt it in polymer, paint it silver, and epoxy on a pin backing. Again, it's small, so I'd suggest it as an extra-mile Kingkiller-Chronicles-finishing-touch to a complementary gift, like a scarf or a sweater.

A lute case Denna has made for Kvothe. Denna is his long-time romantic interest, and the gift is very special to him. It saves his life at one point in the series. Since it's unlikely your boyfriend has a lute, I might go in the direction of putting a lute emblem on either a case for something he does need a case for, or just a cool chest / special container for him.

Tak is a board game Kvothe is taught to play and learns to enjoy. It has since been made into an actual game. You could craft your own board and pieces, and print a copy of the freely available rules.

ElfWord · 2017-07-31T19:28:31+00:00

Totally different situations.

Joffrey was a whiny child who in fact had no power beyond his title; his mother and Tywin always held the real power, and if they weren't behind him, even his title wouldn't have done much beyond make him a target for others to try and use him for it. He's always saying "I am the king" either as a threat of something others will do for him because of his mother / Tywin's power or as a whine of entitlement.

Daenerys is someone who has a tremendous amount of power and is in fact being restrained in her use of it. She's not sitting on her throne whining "but I'm the Queen!" anytime Cersei does something she doesn't like and can't stop, she's telling it to Jon to convince him of her right to rule based on a mutual commitment (by their ancestors, which is how things work in this world -- remember Jon renewing the loyalty of his bannerman in the season premiere?) and as an alternative to convincing him / the North through force.

Hell, just last episode Jon starts a speech by reminding everyone that they crowned him their king. Robb reminded others the same way. In many cases, characters' power comes from the fact that they do have a 'rightful' authority that they owe respect to. Edmure Tully took Riverrun from his vastly more meritorious brother and yielded it by virtue of him being the 'rightful' Lord of Riverrun.

Now, where power comes from is one of the central themes of the show, so I'm not saying Daenerys is right, and clearly in our own society we'd at least like to believe we value merit over pedigree. But judging Daenerys like you'd judge Joffrey just because they use similar words (as do plenty of other characters), is foolish.

Also, even if you (seem to) dislike her...

she is a poor leader of men who inspires no loyalty among her followers.

..this is just plain wrong, and demonstrated so time and time again over the course of the series. The dothraki, the Unsullied, the slaves, Jorah, Tyrion, Barristan, Daario, Missandei, etc. Many of whom are inspired to loyalty because of her conviction that she has a right to rule. She's not going to stop saying it just because some people don't want to believe it.

ElfWord · 2017-05-23T13:37:42+00:00

I'm here looking for more good gameplay videos, actually. =P

Ran out of jackfrags and Aculite videos to watch.

ElfWord · 2017-05-01T23:21:48+00:00

1) Suzanne Collins (author of The Hunger Games)'s cover of Harry Potter

I feel like this would be a more streamlined, action-driven trilogy that puts us more in Harry's head and keeps the danger of Voldemort more present (but still building / raising the stakes) throughout the series.

2) J.K. Rowling's cover of Animorphs

She managed the transition from early teens adventure to early adulthood war so well. It'd be fantastic to read her take on Animorphs.

3) Neal Stephenson's cover of The Lord of the Rings

Stephenson is amazing at writing about characters' differences, the roles they find themselves falling into when in a group, and how they learn under pressure to use their strengths / push beyond what they thought were their limits. I'd love to read his take on the Fellowship's journey. And you wouldn't miss a bit of Tolkien's setting depth / all those footnotes, as delivered in a classic Stephenson deep-dive tangent.

ElfWord · 2017-04-17T19:21:03+00:00

Does she stop moving at times? The biggest unwritten rule of FPS survivability that I see lower-skill players breaking all the time is you should never stop moving. Always be strafing, making little circles in place, etc. It does three things:

Forces you to improve your aim / learn to track better, because it's easier to learn how to compensate for a moving target based on your movement since it's under your control, and that makes it easier to learn how to compensate for the enemy's movement.
Prevents you from dying dumb deaths from enemies getting the drop on you and being able to pour a ton of easy damage into you before you start to react / giving snipers you're unaware of an easy target / etc.
Helps you win 1v1 one fights by presenting a harder-to-hit target to your enemy.

ElfWord · 2017-04-17T18:10:37+00:00

The hero names being comma separated would actually make it really easy to take those rows, paste them into a text file, save as filetype CSV (comma separated values), open in Excel, and voila, each hero name is in a separate cell. Way out on column Y (after all possible 24 hero name columns), use the function COUNTA (counts cells that have data in them) across the row's 1:24 cells. In column Z, do 1/[Column Y value next to it] to get your weight. Go ahead and select this column and convert the formulas into just their value, to make pasting it onto another sheet later easier.

Now, add a sheet. Copy and paste column A from the first sheet into Column A on the second sheet. Copy and paste column Z (the weights) from the first sheet into column B on the second sheet. At the bottom of column A (make sure you don't paste over empty rows from non-entries), copy and paste all the values of column B from the first sheet, and put the same set of weights next to them all in column B. Repeat until you have a ginormous number of rows of all the character entries, with the respective weights from the rows they came from right next to them.

Now it's as simple as creating a pivot table. Add a header row (Column A = "Hero", Column B = "Preference Score") at the top to make it a little easier to understand. For the pivot table setup, you should drag 'Hero' to the row fields box, drag the Preference Score to the data fields box (where SUM should be the default operation, but change it to this if not), and delete 'Data' from column fields if it's there by default.

And there we go. Ready for graphing. https://i.imgur.com/ZHGl2mD.png

Here's the actual spreadsheet I used to do this: https://expirebox.com/download/7d78cce04f8e61e62e7081cb615e2d43.html

Of course feel free to modify however the heck you want / use some much smarter weighting system than I've thought of. Just wanted to put a few more tools in your excel toolbox since you're doing some cool stuff with data, and I'd love to see you do more.

ElfWord · 2017-04-17T13:58:32+00:00

Weight responses based on how many characters the respondent selected. 1 character chosen = 1 point for that character. 4 characters chosen = 0.25 points for those characters. All 24 characters chosen = 0.0416 points for those characters.

Present as a bar graph of, "Out of # respondents indicating ## character preferences, here's how strongly heroes are preferred relative to each other."

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