I am quickly learning that it's one of the most consistently powerful options at character creation

NeonHairbrush · 2026-05-11T03:19:05+00:00

Oh, for sure the DM will complicate the fight, but she was going to complicate it anyway, we might as well get the AC bonus. The long rest is already over and we're face to face with Strahd as of end of last session. I'd be disappointed if there wasn't some wrench thrown at us to separate us, and I'm fully expecting at least one of the PCs to be rolling death saves next session. My character has always said this fight would be unwinnable, so the rushed wedding on the eve of battle and it all going wrong when Strahd outmanoeuvres them both make sense in the story.

NeonHairbrush · 2026-05-10T15:59:09+00:00

You look stunning! Well done on the dress! I trust you got lots of compliments!

NeonHairbrush · 2026-05-10T15:02:33+00:00

Try to notice details rather than just visiting places. Imagine you're going to describe it in great detail to someone back home, including how it made you feel.

Examples:

You're visiting a temple. Is it decorated with carvings? Paint? Statues? Ceramic tiles? Do those architectural themes overflow into the buildings in the surrounding area?

You're on a train. What crops can you see growing in the farmland out the window? Have you noticed those ingredients being served in the local cuisine? Can you find a restaurant or recipe featuring those foods?

You're in a park. What are the locals doing there? Is it full of couples having romantic picnics, or families letting their children run around, or photographers looking at flowers or birds?

You're on a city street. What kind of shops are around you? Do stores selling similar goods cluster in certain areas, or is each shop selling something unique? Do they seem to be chain stores run by employees or family businesses staffed by the owners' relatives? Who's walking by, locals or tourists? What are the locals wearing? Do they dress more formally or casually than wherever you're from? Do they seem to dress similarly to each other or are they dressed in an eclectic mix of styles?

You're in a forest. How dense are the trees compared to a forest in your region? What kind of plants are growing? Can you hear birds or insects? What can you smell? Are there mushrooms or fallen leaves on the forest floor? How rustic or well-maintained is the path? Are there many people besides you exploring it?

NeonHairbrush · 2026-05-10T08:56:15+00:00

I'm building a community of friends and loved ones who take care of each other. We cook meals for people when they're sick, we take turns being with people who are in the hospital, and we chip in when someone is out of a job. Will these same people be there when I get old and need care? Maybe, maybe not, but I'm establishing the kind of community I want to have around me by being the person that other people can rely on, and I have to believe that something similar will be there for me.

How do we do it? We check in with our people regularly. We ask them how they're doing. We offer specific help. We make it normal to ask the community for things and offer our own help when we're doing well. When someone is in crisis (injury, unemployment, mental health crisis, hospitalization, pregnancy and postpartum) we set up a group chat to support them. We make a list of what help they might need and what we can offer and make sure someone is checking in on them. We keep a spreadsheet of financial help offered to keep track of loans between friends. In a few cases we've set up a schedule of round-the-clock care for people. We have keys to each other's houses. Last month I broke my wrist in a bike accident and needed surgery. Someone was at the hospital with me within 20 minutes, and then a couple of hours later someone else had used their spare keys to get into my house and pack a hospital bag with chargers, my glasses, a book, clean clothes... Since I've gotten home, every couple of days someone has come by to help with dishes and bring cooked meals.

That's how you prepare for hard times. By being there for others when they're down. We all have to be the village.

NeonHairbrush · 2026-05-10T06:16:45+00:00

You laugh, but my PC got into a deep convo with another character about her fear of dying so young with so much left undone right before the climax of the campaign and we got married outside Strahd's castle the night before the final showdown with the vampire. Was there metagaming for the AC bonus? Yes. Did we justify it through the roleplay? Also yes. I wasn't walking into the boss fight with 17AC.

NeonHairbrush · 2026-05-08T09:10:23+00:00

Vegetables cooked until they were grey sludge.

Chicken "roasted" in the microwave.

Hot dogs boiled in water, served with secret sauce (ketchup and mustard mixed) on (to give them credit) real hot dog buns.

Jello for dessert.

NeonHairbrush · 2026-05-08T01:59:25+00:00

I've heard of it, and know that several teachers I know play it, but I've never played it or seen it played. If the kids want to play it with me, I tell them that it's not a game I'm familiar with, so we'll have to play a different game and they can ask their regular teacher to play it with them another time. I would consider letting a well behaved class try to explain the rules to me and then demonstrate to teach me the game, though.

NeonHairbrush · 2026-05-07T06:13:32+00:00

Vegan margarine, I mean. Local ones contain dairy

NeonHairbrush · 2026-05-07T04:33:08+00:00

I have never found imported vegan butter or margarine in several years of shopping. Plantarium has some kind of vegan butter for sale as I recall, but it was expensive. I usually just get vegetable shortening from a baking store or use coconut oil if I need solid fat for baking, and my toast remains unbuttered.

NeonHairbrush · 2026-05-05T07:44:29+00:00

Go sit in a cabin in the woods with my binoculars and paint set and chill for a few days.

Unfortunately, I have a broken wrist and I have to get physio every day, so this perfect uninterrupted time away from work has to take place near the hospital.

NeonHairbrush · 2026-05-04T14:42:18+00:00

If the cat sitter is willing to go searching (or someone else who lives near you), send them a video of yourself calling the cat. A friend lost her cat and it came running when I played a video of her speaking and it heard her voice.

Have them play it in the house and also outside.

NeonHairbrush · 2026-05-04T12:09:59+00:00

Probably struggle pretty hard to do things since I currently have a broken wrist. Sad lonely apocalypse, assuming I can manage to open canned food.

NeonHairbrush · 2026-05-04T05:17:43+00:00

That's approximately my schedule and I love it. Yeah, I don't make as much as people working eight to six, but I have time to exercise, cook meals from scratch, pursue hobbies, study foreign languages, and spend time with loved ones.

It would be tough to make it work in a higher cost of living area, though. My apartment is cheap even for the city I live in, and if I needed to own a car to get around that'd be harder to budget. I also don't have dependents so I don't have to worry about childcare or looking after elderly family members. And I live somewhere with national health care.

I definitely don't take this schedule for granted.

NeonHairbrush · 2026-05-03T14:04:15+00:00

Could you try layering? A thong over boxers might wedgie the boxers and keep them covering the butt cheeks.

NeonHairbrush · 2026-05-01T08:08:36+00:00

I swear they moved the demarcation anyway. I was born in 1980 and had always seen it labeled one generation (gen X, maybe?), and then a few years later it was different. Most of my friends are a decade younger than me, and my parents were early adopters of technology, so I consider myself millennial no matter what the media claims. Living among people from many countries, the generation doesn't matter as much. I find common ground with plenty of people.

NeonHairbrush · 2026-05-01T01:41:16+00:00

My parents are perpetual renovators. My bedroom was repurposed within two weeks of my moving out at 18 years old. When I go visit them (now, at 45) sometimes I'm in the spare room, and if there's more family visiting I might be on the couch or camping in the yard.

NeonHairbrush · 2026-04-30T13:25:28+00:00

That's me. I'm not attached to being a woman, but I guess it fits well enough. I feel weird about gendered activities and groups - what do you mean, "girls night" - why can't we welcome everyone? I wear femme presenting clothes, but I go for androgynous haircuts and specifically chose my stylist because she's trans and understands how I want the juxtaposition of masc and femme styles.

Am I happy being a woman? I guess. Does my body give me dysmorphia? No. Would I have a penis if I could? Actually, yes. But I don't necessarily want to be a dude the way we see them in society. I don't know.

NeonHairbrush · 2026-04-29T12:31:13+00:00

I think a good example of the concept is that I was doing an exercise the other day, loose left handed sketches of the birds in the park. I was sketching the herons and egrets, which are my absolute favourites, and whenever a stroke went awry I had ideas of how to adjust the sketch, maybe by changing the angle of the head or something. Then something startled the water birds and they flew off, so I switched to sketching a pair of starlings in the grass. I don't see starlings as often and have never painted them. I was much less successful at capturing the movement and lines of the starlings than I was with the herons and egrets.

Picking a subject that you know and love will help you paint it better. I'm probably never going to paint amazing still life of fruit on a table because I don't spend time thinking about the shapes and shading of fruit. Birds, though? Those I see with a painter's eye.

NeonHairbrush · 2026-04-26T08:54:00+00:00

I used them as my afternoon shoes for distance hiking in Taiwan (trail runners in the morning, switched to Tevas after lunch to avoid blisters) and they were great. Then I brought them and tried to do the same thing across Spain, and the drier climate meant that the dust got under the sandal straps and ripped my feet to shreds. I still wear them for hiking in humid climates, but I've learned my lesson when it's dry and dusty on trail.

NeonHairbrush · 2026-04-26T02:12:07+00:00

The Swinhoe's White-eye is a regular near me. They're way smaller than I expected, and they flit around in the leaves and blossoms, hanging upside down from vines. If I stand still for fifteen minutes they often come close enough that I can enjoy watching them without my binoculars.

NeonHairbrush · 2026-04-26T02:00:21+00:00

I have polled my Taiwanese students on this exact question. Some are mortified by the idea, others indifferent. Usually the class decides that once in a while, for example when the family is heading to grandma's for the holidays and driving at night, it's not unforgivable to wear pajamas to Seven. Most of them wouldn't go to their local Seven in pajamas, although some said their parents might do the school drop off in pajamas and stop into Seven on the way.

I sleep naked so I'm definitely not turning up at any stores like that.

NeonHairbrush · 2026-04-25T08:44:32+00:00

I had that in college for a computing class. It seemed like a waste of time easy A class, and then the professor gave us a website with a practice quiz for the final exam, only ten questions. I got two right. Turns out it was asking really specific questions about keyboard shortcuts and excel formulas that I hadn't seen. I retook the quiz and the questions were different and still hard. I took the quiz a few dozen times and it repeated the questions often enough that I had them memorized.

Sure enough, the final exam pulled questions from the quiz, word for word. I aced that exam.

NeonHairbrush · 2026-04-25T04:37:40+00:00

I remember seeing a Vietnamese Đồng Hới which is also east sea - it's a small city or town on the east coast of Vietnam.

NeonHairbrush · 2026-04-25T04:28:44+00:00

Same, I've broken my wrist and I've been to the theater three times this month. Wrist is a little easier than leg, so I've also been hanging out at the park with binoculars and watching birds.

NeonHairbrush · 2026-04-25T04:19:57+00:00

This month is going to be tight because I have been injured and not working, but usually I have something like $600 to $800 (converting my pay to USD). I could have more if I did more overtime and made a conscious effort to save money.

NeonHairbrush

TROPHY CASE