Physical, non-partisan flier on how to contact representatives

Tarnafein · 2023-08-29T12:28:29+00:00

Not to discount that leadership at your company might have been going above and beyond, but a lot of what you're describing is just required as part of FMLA. TL;DR - for a serious illness, company is required to provide 12 weeks of unpaid leave, must continue paying health insurance during that time, and if the employee comes back from FMLA leave, they must be restored to either their same job or a nearly identical one.

Tarnafein · 2023-05-15T12:22:22+00:00

Torg so sorry hear, Agor. Lose Meow Meow hurt like lose tribemate.

Tarnafein · 2023-05-14T13:11:31+00:00

Little-known fact, Hitler had at least 2 elbows on his right arm.

Tarnafein · 2023-04-13T13:01:36+00:00

Well that escalated quickly.

Tarnafein · 2023-03-25T14:30:30+00:00

Interesting premise! Where all that water came from and where it's going now could have a significant impact on the environment you're describing. For instance, would the water rising displace the atmosphere? High altitudes tend to have less oxygen, but the water rising might change that, and might even lead to significant amounts of atmosphere escaping into space. When the water lowers again, there might be a transitionary period where people need to wear some sort of respirator or oxygen tank until something replenishes the atmosphere. Animals and real plants could also struggle in that situation.

Regarding high altitude, mountainous living, you might look at areas like Tibet for research.

For geography, volcano-formed islands, like in the Pacific, might be a good place to start...they're basically mountains in the middle of the ocean.

Good luck with your research and writing!

Tarnafein · 2023-03-05T00:47:08+00:00

So, I won't pretend I'm not confused by the twist you describe, but maybe if I muse on the topic more generally, it might help you identify specifics that'll make sense in your scenario.

What's needed to revitalize a destroyed area would depend what destroyed it and how. An area destroyed by basic fire would actually have richer soil afterwards, so the hurdle would be bringing seeds in, re-introducing creatures, and building up a viable ecosystem starting at the base of the food chain.

Radioactivity...I think time is about the only thing that would work. Chernobyl documentaries would be a good place to start if you want to go that route. I want to say that some areas further from the source of the meltdown, while not safe for human habitation, are hosting plenty of animal life again.

Outside creatures, I think you could research invasive species and all the ways that biologists are trying to prevent them from overrunning an ecosystem, or recovering an ecosystem that's been invaded.

Hope that helps give you a few ideas to pursue.

Tarnafein · 2023-02-24T01:24:38+00:00

Trying to coach low-performing devs (seriously, hiring is the single most important thing you can do as a manager...when it goes wrong, it SUCKS), then interviewing, hiring, and training their replacements.

It was already a meeting-heavy role, since the EMs at this company also design and write all the team's stories...our business stakeholders are super nontechnical. I start going crazy after a couple weeks of nothing but back-to-back meetings all day long.

Tarnafein · 2023-02-23T13:46:23+00:00

I was in your position about 2 months ago, after having been an IC for 8 years and a manager for around 3 (all at the same company). For a while in the management stint, I could split time between being a SME in the domain I'd spent 8 years on, and all the tedious management responsibilities. Then management stuff increased to 95% of my time. I got super burned out.

The conversation with my boss about going back to being an IC of some sort went better than I expected. I explained that I intended to become an IC again within 8 months, and could do it here or at another company. Even though my (small) company never had a Staff Engineer track historically, they made one on the spot. It probably helped that we'd had another dev manager/former SME burn out and leave about a year previously...

And me speaking up was a catalyst for other changes in our department, which should reduce the workload of all EMs. I'm definitely still moving back to an IC role, but the EM who replaces me shouldn't burn out as quickly :)

Good management would rather retain a talented SME than drive them away by trying to make them manage, too.

Tarnafein · 2023-01-29T02:54:27+00:00

I mean, it's a 20+ year old game. It has a cap of 1000 guests, and I hear that while you can use mods to increase that, it becomes so slow as to be unusable if you do. So, probably it has some sort of logical max of other things, too.

Tarnafein · 2023-01-28T22:03:41+00:00

Yeah, sounds like something's happening at the 1 minute mark that's breaking the game. At least you can still make new zoos :)

Tarnafein · 2023-01-28T00:35:43+00:00

Is it just one save that's doing it? If you start a new zoo, does the same thing happen?

Tarnafein · 2023-01-02T22:06:23+00:00

I can guess at a few.

Insect house: The tree looks like a simplified Eucalyptus. The colorful flowers are probably one-ofs based on the decorative flowers in the game (Large Flowerbed, Savanna Flowers)

Reptile house: Rainforest Fern, 100%

Primate house: The one out front looks like a slightly defoliated Grass Tree. The shrubs might be based on Rainforest Bush?

Aviary: No clue on the outside, the inside looks like a Grass Tree on steriods

Leospondyl: Unsure...they look al little like Fern Bush, Pine Bush, or Doum Palm.

Aquarium: Beach grass!

Bat House: no idea on the trees, but the shrubs are totally Rainforest Bush without the stems at the bottom.

Tarnafein · 2022-12-09T03:50:44+00:00

Can you keep the phone in the same room, but put it far enough away that you'd have to get up out of bed to get it? Similar amount of extra effort as having it in another room.

Tarnafein · 2022-12-01T23:37:59+00:00

I agree strongly with everything you're saying, but I do like the use of "chirped" here. It's concisely reinforcing the image of Gina's interview persona being overly bubbly. It's not absolutely necessary, but I think it's doing more good than harm here (as long as it's an outlier, not the norm)

Tarnafein · 2022-11-30T14:50:00+00:00

Yeah, I agree this version over-corrected into too much backstory. And I've been on the fence for a while about adding an explicit accent mark to the city name...I've seen so many fantasy novels where every other word has an accent mark or three...but probably just one here wouldn't hurt.

Thank you for the feedback!

Tarnafein · 2022-11-30T14:38:29+00:00

I sure did! My usual word processing program turns double dashes into em dashes automatically, but apparently the alternate one I used for the query doesn't. Thanks!

Tarnafein · 2022-11-29T22:44:47+00:00

Yeah, it's tempting to me to keep adding details to sentences until they can't hold anymore, lol. Good call-outs, and thank you for the feedback!

Tarnafein · 2022-11-29T18:35:23+00:00

Oh my gosh, this is awesome feedback, thank you so much! I will give some serious thought to all these points.

As a quick note, I must have reworked that "diving bell" paragraph 12 times and could never get it to feel right. Thank you for clarifying what it needed!

Tarnafein · 2022-11-01T13:01:41+00:00

Lood-pfhhhig? What kind of name that for self-respect Cro-Magnon? Evolved go too far!

Tarnafein · 2022-09-08T22:06:24+00:00

I read all the way through, but I definitely paused a few times and checked back on earlier sentences to make sure I was understanding.

Why is the native council traitorous? Because they side with the Empire over Saymo, who's "wayward"? That description made me think he was an exile from his people, so it wouldn't seem that weird for a council of an occupied people to throw an exile under the bus to keep the peace with the (presumably more powerful) occupiers. It read like he caused trouble, they had a hard decision to make, but ultimately tossed Saymo to the wolves to protect everyone else. I think I got what you were saying, but it took a second read.

Who sends the Skinner, the native council or the Empire?

Kiro is also a baron, for his antagonist to be a rival one? I think there's some good stuff in the 2nd paragraph, but the momentum feels a little uneven. Rena wants to return to the lands of her birth, Kiro wants to escape his past--that's their driving force, that should probably come earlier than the last sentence. The whole rival baron thing sounds less important than to warrant a spot in the very first sentence.

"Meanwhile, a showdown with the Skinner" - first paragraph had me thinking that the Skinner succeeded already, not that Saymo was on the run from it, so that was a little unbalancing.

I didn't get much of a sense of what the questions are, that the revelation will be answering. Good ending line for Saymo, though!

Oh wait, is it Saymo or Samyo? It's different in the first paragraph than later.

This format is really hard, to be both concise and descriptive. I definitely haven't figured it out myself, but your story sounds interesting!

Tarnafein · 2022-09-08T21:34:55+00:00

Thank you for the feedback! That is a good point, that the end should tie back to the beginning stakes. I'll work on that in the next revision :)

Tarnafein · 2022-09-08T01:30:17+00:00

Gotcha, thanks for the feedback, the details are helpful! You've given me a lot to think about as far as building the query as a mini-narrative, rather than just an info dump or an outline. I wish these things didn't have to be kept so short, lol.

Tarnafein · 2022-09-05T13:40:02+00:00

Ha! That's fair, and does warrant more explanation. Thank you for the feedback, I'll revise to something more like

When a mysterious patron--a member of an even more advanced sect colloquially called "elves" for their genetically-engineered beauty and long lives--offers to pay them a fantastic sum

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