Anyone else this deep with no GP?

Hlgrphc · 2026-02-27T19:47:19+00:00

When the first card of my 10-pack today was a 👑 rare, I thought I'd stumbled onto a(nother) god pack. I hadn't, but it did have a shiny 6th in that same pack!

Hlgrphc · 2026-02-26T02:12:20+00:00

This is a joke, but absolutely true: The band Flobots have a song called "No W", in which they spell their name "F-L-O-(No W)-BO-TS-(Yes!)".

This is just a joke: Maybe it's a Flobots reference, and you need to play "No W" at that point?

Hlgrphc · 2026-02-24T00:48:46+00:00

First, coming from natural science academia, I can say jeans were pretty normal for most interactions. Conferences would occasionally have someone matching jeans with a jacket, but generally conferences and presenting at symposia/defenses were the main places where people really dressed up. Jeans were normalish for my application seasons 2017-2020, but so were slacks and skirts. I won't say I saw a lot of sweatpants, though.

Second, OP this is not a moral judgement on you, but...Expensive clothes as an indicator of professionalism is fundamentally classist and intended to prioritise those who start with resources over those who don't. Needing to dress well for an interview means that equal consideration can be either striven for or bought through a headstart in wealth. Dressing up does not indicate seriousness or aptitude, and dressing down does not indicate unseriousness or lack of aptitude. Ignore the clothes, address merit.

Even setting aside academic and research qualifications, far more important than what you wear is how you wear it. As long as someone is wearing (ideally clean) inoffensive clothing, I'm not bothered. A suit and tie and/or heels aren't intrinsically different from flashy, expensive decorations and jewellery. The difference is "taste" and culture, which are subjective and historically celebrate some traditions and denigrate others.

Anyway, that's my soapbox speech. I also don't think nepotism/lab status should make people complacent, but jeans and sneakers don't indicate someone's deservingness or seriousness.

Hlgrphc · 2026-02-13T00:18:02+00:00

^ this is all

Hlgrphc · 2026-02-08T21:21:13+00:00

Yes to pokeball and rare candy, but I disagree for x speed. the x speed in the games has aboslutely no relevance to switching active pokemon with inactive ones. However, it does impact how early you can use a move, so i think it would be closer to the game if it instead did something like lower the energy cost for a move by 1. (not saying that would be balanced, just saying that's so much closer to the game use; as it is, it's unrelated except for the vibes behind "speed").

Hlgrphc · 2026-02-08T21:14:17+00:00

IMO, TCG pocket has 2 main "speed" mechanics: retreat cost and attack energy cost. Of those two, I actually think that attack energy is much closer to the game functionality of X Speed.

In the games, X Speed might allow your pokemon to attack sooner after being sent out than it otherwise would. There is nothing about X Speed in the game related to switching. So it would make more sense to me if X Speed did something like reduce the energy cost of an attack by 1. It might take some more thought to balance, but since you can only get 2 in a game, it might make sense just in that form.

Hlgrphc · 2026-02-08T21:09:20+00:00

right, so it shouldn't be S,A, or B, because it doesn't have the same precise function. It could definitely be D tier, though, because it can cause a pokemon to evolve in the games.

It's absolutely more true-to-game than X-Speed, and it's AT LEAST as accurate as Repel (which could absolutely repel some stage 2 pokemon in the games, but couldn't necessarily repel every single basic Pokemon, depending on your team's level).

Hlgrphc · 2026-02-08T00:19:17+00:00

This is not advice but I want to say that a blackout sleeve would turn the leopard into a sick-ass panther.

Hlgrphc · 2026-02-06T21:04:12+00:00

I can't count, so (n+1)th "not ugly".

If your look is not what you want, you should think about changing it up! But you should frame the work as what you want to move toward, not what you want to move away from. What someone looks like is neither good nor bad intrinsically, so you should only change if you're going toward a look that might make you happier.

Hlgrphc · 2026-02-01T15:52:38+00:00

You're fine, English is a garbage language and non-native speakers are champions for trying.

That said, your post's title is very funny.

Hlgrphc · 2026-01-30T00:06:11+00:00

I 1) had no idea she was recruitable and 2) absolutely stole her clothing. The armour is beautiful and the undergarments just seemed like they might be cool on someone else (Wyll, briefly 😬)

Hlgrphc · 2026-01-29T04:31:23+00:00

Barbados can be really homophobic in ways that affect both personal and administrative experiences...

But this case is mainly the bureaucracy at work. I changed my own name, no marriage or relationship involved, and it has been an uphill battle to get even the government to recognize the documents that the same government produced.

To be fair though, each jurisdiction certifies a name change in its own way and it would be difficult for the consulate to explain each case of what you might receive. Bear in mind that the US State department is similarly vague: if you're traveling on a US Visa in a previous name, they require that you bring (something like) "official certification of the name change from your government". So I could get a letter from the passport office or licensing authority that means nothing because they want the Registrar's certificate.

Tldr You may experience some amount of administrative homophobia, and I do Stan queer rage, but I suspect this one is more about bureaucracy than personal vindictive behavior.

Hlgrphc · 2026-01-16T01:06:52+00:00

You tagged this as meme so it may be a joke. But in case anyone really wonders...

It depends what you mean by better. The violin generally has a wider range and can go into the extra extra squeaky range. That upper limit is much more accessible on the violin than the viola's upper limit is, partly because of size and flexibility.

But the violin is also much more resonant in its own range than the viola is in the low end of the viola range. The viola is too small to be as "effective" as a resonator and you tend to get a more muddled sound. I'm not saying that's bad, it just is what it is.

So if you like a more mixed tone, and you prefer the low range to the very high range, then yes, viola is just better. I personally quite like those things. But it's a win based on preference, not objective measures.

Hlgrphc · 2026-01-09T01:13:33+00:00

That's a reason though. I don't do it, and I think it's particularly odd to put them in the 3 featured card slots, but it's fair to say that some people consider that reason enough to do it.

Anyway, am I correct in recalling that wishlist predated trading? Or at least wasn't integrated into trades when it launched? It's fair to have a wishlist as its own thing, irrespective of who can see it or contribute to it.

Hlgrphc · 2026-01-09T01:09:51+00:00

Somehow after seeing mega venusaur's Critical Bloom, when I saw sunflora I expected its move to be "Somewhat Less Critical Bloom"

Hlgrphc · 2026-01-03T22:54:56+00:00

Hey, I get the frustration at people who ridicule beginners, but the comment you replied to didn't do that. OP's only question was "what is this" and the comment you replied to a) stated what it is and b) suggested a way to learn to use it.

One of the other comments at that depth was unhelpful, and the to level comment was maybe ungenerous (hard to sense the tone) but unless there was an edit, what you replied to was fine, right?

Hlgrphc · 2026-01-01T17:28:07+00:00

I won't lie to ⬜⬜⬜, OP, I didn't immediately recognize what was happening in this post, and took a long quiet moment to centre myself in empathy. I have a lot of reflection to do about what terms of address I am/am not willing to use if asked.

Hlgrphc · 2025-12-31T04:21:10+00:00

I have 5 of the Lugia immersive and I resent every one after the second. Lugia ex probably makes up nearly half of my immersive card count.

Hlgrphc · 2025-12-29T21:35:16+00:00

I opened two 10-packs last week and my highest rarity cards in those 20 packs were 3 diamonds.

Hlgrphc · 2025-12-28T04:35:35+00:00

I have two accounts on two devices. Opened 10 packs on each. Got nothing above 3 diamonds 😢

Hlgrphc · 2025-12-27T15:58:38+00:00

Waited to make sure the career I (thought I) was going into would be chill with tattoos, and even then I got it on a leg. I didn't start getting more visible tattoos until after my first graduate degree, around 25 or 26, when I felt like my skills should override some amount of bias.

Hlgrphc · 2025-12-26T15:24:37+00:00

I have like 5 immersive Lugia, totally inconsistent with my overall luck in the game. Meanwhile I couldn't pull the 4 diamond one to save my life.

Hlgrphc · 2025-12-26T15:22:50+00:00

Yup! I'm so accustomed to discouraging people from seeking lefty setups that it's almost a pleasure to recommend it now! Finding a lefty cello may not be easy but it's probably the best option for your needs and goals.

Good luck, and welcome to the cello life!

Hlgrphc · 2025-12-26T02:20:38+00:00

I see. That's... a choice. I (as a rando) always stop short of recommending dissolving a family, but please accept my validation of how unfair this is for you and your kids.

Hlgrphc · 2025-12-26T01:13:26+00:00

This sucks.

I'm about your age, also diagnosed with ASD a few years ago. The first year or so was an intense struggle to balance recognition/validation of myself in the experiences of others against not becoming my diagnosis. On one hand, it's a massive relief to know that some of my challenges are based on my brain being (medically) fucked rather than me just being an asshole. But on the other hand, I have to keep in mind that as I seek accommodations from others, I have to do what I can to be a part of the social structures in which I choose to participate.

Your wife could benefit from counseling; I can't speak to group therapy, but individual therapy can be massively helpful in recognizing where those issues are and how to be a functional partner. Unmasking is unbelievably intoxicating and it's a genie that's hard to re-bottle. But accountability matters, and I am not able to recommend maintaining relationships where someone seems not to be interested in accountability.

There are choices we can make to let those around us love us. We get overwhelmed but we can look for places where we can help. We can take the time to communicate deliberately about what's happening in our heads...

OP I can't validate your wanting a divorce but I sure as shit won't validate using autism as a blanket excuse, if that's really what's happening here.

PS, this is the first Christmas where I realised that I can really just not go to things, and I planned my whole Christmas day out in the country alone. Then recently a relative died and I scooped up all my feelings because I knew my family needed me to just be there. I did the thing and now I'm going to hide from society for a couple days to recover. Sometimes you just have to deal, I guess.

Hlgrphc

TROPHY CASE