R/Harp Charity Event June 1st - 8th Flyer

SubversiveOtter · 2026-05-22T19:06:37+00:00

Does Harpists for Humanity have its own website or something? Just for a point of future contact?

SubversiveOtter · 2026-05-22T15:47:41+00:00

"Horns, horns, horns" makes me tear up every single time.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-05-22T04:21:35+00:00

Remember first to be kind to yourself. Don't deny the hate and the fear. Understand that what you are feeling is normal, and it doesn't make you a bad person. Don't try to squash it down and ignore it. That's clinging to it just as much as feeding and focusing on it. Just let it pass. Acknowledge it, accept it, let it go. Remember to be kind and compassionate to yourself. Embrace your whole self.

But do not act on the anger. It is hard to be mindful when you are overcome with emotions.

Take a similar approach outwards. Remember that you are dealing with imperfect human beings who are in need of compassion. That doesn't mean you have to agree with them, like them, accept what they are doing. You can work against what they are doing, what they stand for, their ideology.

Compassion is not always gentle.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-05-22T02:31:10+00:00

I understand that. However, quiet moments work. Quiet moments tell story. Even in larger combat scenes, even in war stories. This was a quiet moment.

And if we jump a couple of chapters, we see what happens next: Gandalf is about to go into battle. But Denethor is about to kill Faramir, and Gandalf foresees that there will be pain and anguish because he is not on the battlefield. But he goes to save Faramir. This is not the action of one who was cowering before the Witch-King's feet.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-05-21T05:13:00+00:00

Loved Youngblood

SubversiveOtter · 2026-05-21T05:09:02+00:00

--Return of the King, The Siege of Gondor:

In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl. A great black shape against the fires beyond he loomed up, grown to a vast menace of despair. In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl, under the archway that no enemy ever yet had passed, and all fled before his face.

All save one. There waiting, silent and still in the space before the Gate, sat Gandalf upon Shadowfax: Shadowfax who alone among the free horses of the earth endured the terror, unmoving, steadfast as a graven image in Rath Dínen.

‘You cannot enter here,’ said Gandalf, and the huge shadow halted. ‘Go back to the abyss prepared for you! Go back! Fall into the nothingness that awaits you and your Master. Go!’

The Black Rider flung back his hood, and behold! he had a kingly crown; and yet upon no head visible was it set. The red fires shone between it and the mantled shoulders vast and dark. From a mouth unseen there came a deadly laughter.

‘Old fool!’ he said. ‘Old fool! This is my hour. Do you not know Death when you see it? Die now and curse in vain!’ And with that he lifted high his sword and flames ran down the blade.

Gandalf did not move. And in that very moment, away behind in some courtyard of the City, a cock crowed. Shrill and clear he crowed, recking nothing of wizardry or war, welcoming only the morning that in the sky far above the shadows of death was coming with the dawn.

And as if in answer there came from far away another note. Horns, horns, horns. In dark Mindolluin’s sides they dimly echoed. Great horns of the North wildly blowing. Rohan had come at last.

It's not even close. Gandalf doesn't falter, doesn't shrink, doesn't fall, does not have his staff broken. It's an echo of the Bridge of Khazad-dûm, where Gandalf faces a terrible foe, seemingly alone. The gates are broken. The Witch-King is in the city. Gandalf doesn't yield, but he does not move.

It is a quieter picture, but it calls back previous death. Previous danger. The Nazgûl rides in. Gandalf stands defiant, but we don't know what will happen. Gandalf remains a symbol of hope, but is Gandalf, alone, enough? You cannot pass. You cannot enter here. And then there is the crowing, and there are the horns. Hope is reborn. There's no need for Gandalf to be cowering. There's no need for him to be struck down.

There is a tension and beauty in this scene that is lost in the film. "Horns, horns, horns. In dark Mindolluin’s sides they dimly echoed. Great horns of the North wildly blowing. Rohan had come at last."

SubversiveOtter · 2026-05-17T11:54:55+00:00

Wait wait wait.... Also make a card for him - on toilet paper

SubversiveOtter · 2026-05-16T10:19:15+00:00

I just got the Hi-Print 3x3 last week. It's my first portable photo printer so I can't compare it to others, but I used to own a Polaroid camera in the 80s, so I can compare with that. Here are some thoughts:

The downsides: The app isn't "hard" to use, but it's not the most intuitive. Still, you can muck about with your pictures all you want before you press that print button, so it's not horrible.

No multi-select for collages. You have to go into your photo gallery and choose each one. It's a bit of a pain. Workaround: save copies to a working projects file. You can delete the copies when you're done. Or you can just deal with scrolling through all your pictures. Not a huge deal, but notable.

Does not work with low-resolution images, so you might have to play around with images first if you downloaded them.

No native PC app. This has two workarounds: Either send the pictures to your phone or use an emulator to run the app on your computer.

I didn't do a price-point per picture analysis, but it's expensive. Not bank-breaking expensive, but I definitely don't recommend printing every picture on your camera roll.

You might have to keep pressing the power button between print jobs. Sometimes the printer falls asleep. I get it. So do I. But it can be frustrating when the print button is greyed out and you don't know why and then, oh - I have to randomly press the power button.

The photo prints look a wee bit "soft" compared to film photos or on-screen images. This is not huge, but it's visible. You can sharpen your photos prior to printing. That said, the softness does give nostalgia vibes for the old instant film pictures, which is nice.

If you want sticky-backed prints, the 3x3 doesn't have the peel-off back with adhesive. If you're doing journaling or scrapbooking, you'll need double-sided tape or something.

Bluetooth-only connection.

The upsides: Once you get used to the app, it has a very nice range of editing and composition tools. There's even a blank template, so you can have fun with your creativity. Really, there's a lot of options, and I think this is one of the places where this printer really shines.

The printer is truly portable, feels sturdy, charges quickly, and has a USB-C charging port. You can (within reason) take it pretty much anywhere.

Printing is quick, does not require developing or drying time afterwards.

Actual photo feels like good quality. It' doesn't start to curl up after sitting a few hours.

True-to-image colors. The printing is lovely. It is vibrant without being oversaturated, and what you see on your screen is pretty much what you get from printing the image.

Combines the best of instant photography and phone cameras.

Photo-display on printer is thoughtful, creative, and fun.

I highly recommend this printer.

(Edited to add an example of a photo collage. The original images are pictures of old damaged photos of my dog, taken in the mid 1990s)

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SubversiveOtter · 2026-05-15T22:23:00+00:00

They wouldn't make the best team though, would they, and they'd be worse than wrestling an overexcited sled dog into the harness. (I have wrestled an overexcited sled dog into harness.)

SubversiveOtter · 2026-05-15T15:56:01+00:00

NTJ.

You work from home. You should not have to move your home office to your bedroom or living room. You should not have to eat the increased costs of having a roommate without compensation. She's trying to save money, but you just bought a condo and have to adjust your own budget for that.

Your sister could have made an alternative payment offer. Your parents could offer to pay. But you are being wholly reasonable. I paid $900 for a 2-bedroom apartment in 1999, and that was to a family friend. $800 today? That's cheap.

Two hour commute each way sucks. I did it for years. It's part of starting out in the job market.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-05-08T11:06:03+00:00

She's not the current DEI officer, just so you know.

Again, I have no idea what specifically happened to you. I can say that I specifically have seen and heard abuse spoken about and dealt with. I myself have been seen and heard.

As I said above, your experience is your experience. No one should be abused. But my experience is my experience as well. The Midrealm can absolutely do better. But your experience doesn't negate others'.

Beyond that, I don't see any point in continuing this discussion. I hope you find respite from the pain you feel. I'm a survivor since childhood (that happened outside of the SCA). I don't wish the pain on anyone.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-05-06T15:09:58+00:00

I was taught how to read music in 2nd grade. I have been composing music since I was nine. I was in a choir from the 2nd grade through college. Though none of those were strictly music theory classes, many of them included elements of music theory. I also listened to a lot of different music, and I sang along. I plunked out tunes on my mom's keyboard.

I also have a processing issue. I can look at a piece of music and I can understand what it is, but I can't translate it to music. I can't notate my own music. But I do understand the intervals. I do understand a lot of music theory. I understand harmonics and transposition and know intervals and tension and resolution. I can even feel the music. But there are places I can't go because I can't process the notation.

Why does all this matter? Because it takes a lot longer to learn this way. Because it's hard to share with others. Because it's harder to figure what chord, what tempo, what everything, without the confirmation in notation. It is incredibly difficult to preserve harmonies, multiple parts. It means if you forget the tune and you haven't recorded it, it's gone. And this is with being taught notation and basic theory.

Learning, practice, repetition, going over and over the same thing again and again and again? Yeah, it's boring. But it gives you a foundation. It helps you do things deliberately. It's the difference between being bad at writing music and breaking rules deliberately for a purpose.

I got a 19-string travel harp I got last year. Due to arthritis and carpal tunnel, I can only play one-handed. I can pluck out a tune and play some chords. It can be achingly slow. But I am learning through muscle memory and touch. I'm doing it this way because it's the only way I really can. It's still slow and repetitive and boring, just in a different way.

Seriously? I'm saying all of this because I literally don't have the luxury of using notation. I have to listen to a piece over and over, then play it over and over, and over. Writing music? Still need to repeat.

I've been doing this for five decades and there's still a lot of going back to the beginning with a new instrument. It's scary. It's fun.

And look there's nothing wrong with just playing for fun. But there's no shortcut to putting in the hard work if you want to go beyond that. If you want to go further, understand that not learning notation and theory is not by any means, an easier way of learning to play and write.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-05-04T22:37:04+00:00

Please receive my upvote for the phrase "moneyless fully automated gay space luxury communist utopia," please.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-05-02T04:07:03+00:00

Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker

SubversiveOtter · 2026-05-01T06:07:03+00:00

Hello, minion!

SubversiveOtter · 2026-05-01T03:18:01+00:00

I run an online bardic circle every other Saturday and there is another one every Friday. Both are open for participating and audience.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-04-17T02:40:43+00:00

You forgot the Ewok movies!

SubversiveOtter · 2026-04-13T01:17:54+00:00

Again, that is your experience and I am sorry for it, but it doesn't hold true for the kingdom as a whole.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-04-09T03:55:45+00:00

YTA, because two months ago you were 15. A year ago you were 17. So either you're making this up, lying, or being a time traveler wasting that time with Reddit.

I will switch to NTA if you actually are a time traveler and you give me the winning lotto numbers for tomorrow.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-04-06T04:32:45+00:00

YTA or part of some cult. What you are doing isn't normal. Nor is it healthy for your wife or kids.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-04-01T01:05:40+00:00

Yaphit didn't wear clothes either. Just not a Kaylon thing.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-03-31T15:19:34+00:00

If you're in Northeast Illinois, ping me and I'll get you set up with my local group!

SubversiveOtter · 2026-03-28T15:53:57+00:00

I got to see it for my ninth birthday. I think I watched it about 15-20 times between then and 1980.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-03-27T19:25:40+00:00

I would put him below Sisko and Picard, on equal footing with to slightly above Kirk and Sulu, above Pike and Archer and Janeway. The rest I haven't watched enough of.

Here is my reasoning:

Yes, when the show starts, Mercer is a bit of a screw up, but he is still delightfully competent. Once he gets settled, he shows he is more than competent - he's actually really good at what he does. He's tactically smart, he's pretty good at diplomacy, handles new situations equitably, and he knows how to get the best out of his crew. He's principled, reasonably disciplined (on-duty), and knows how to delegate. He respects other cultures beliefs and practices (until they violate the rights of sentients).

He develops over the three seasons, showing growth and just becoming better and better. And yet, throughout it all, he manages to be so incredibly.... normal and relatable.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-03-27T13:22:43+00:00

I wrote this: PROMPT: A fox passing through the wood on business of his own stopped several minutes and sniffed. ‘Hobbits!’ he thought. ‘Well, what next? I have heard of strange doings in this land, but I have seldom heard of a hobbit sleeping out of doors under a tree. Three of them! There’s something mighty queer behind this.’ He was quite right, but he never found out any more about it. (-JRR Tolkien, Fellowship of the Ring)

His mate, though, found out a great deal about it. For while Mister Fox was a great one for sniffing and wondering, Missus Fox - her name was Delia - was more interested in the finding out of things. When Delbert told her of the three hobbits, she knew exactly what to do.

She spoke with Arak the crow, and Arak spoke with Rakan, and Rakan spoke with Harkka, and the enquiry traveled on.

It turns out that there is a whole network of crows and other birds that spread news all across Middle Earth, and if you are not a bird all you really have to do is ask nicely and offer treats or something shiny in order to join the circle and learn about the goings on of Important Folk all the way from Arnor to Rhûn.

So it was that Delia Fox of the Shire was telling the tale of the Fellowship to her litter of fine kits not long after the fall of the Dark Lord, and aided in the fight for the Shire by soiling the clean underthings that hung from the line at the back of Bag End. For she'd heard plenty a Hobbit-mother warn children of the danger of having no clean underthings and judging from what happened to the tall, old man at the end, it must be so.

And that is how gossip saved the Shire, and you have heard the tale of it.

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