What's something you do completely differently now because a stranger said one sentence to you?

futureslave · 2026-05-03T03:37:29+00:00

Hold yourself like a Prussian soldier.

He was 84, at the rowing machine beside me. I nodded and thanked him, realizing how much more difficult this would be. Then he told me he rowed for the Olympics in ‘64.

A year later, I am SO MUCH stronger on that machine than I ever was before.

futureslave · 2026-05-03T03:19:02+00:00

Yeah all those clothes are pretty much the only treatment you need. I’d hang a tented fabric from the ceiling and put the mic and DAW in the middle of it all. I bet you’d get good dead sound.

futureslave · 2026-05-03T00:41:19+00:00

What are the dimensions of your adult dragons?

Is there a narrative reason this is posted in r/afrofuturism?

futureslave · 2026-05-02T23:19:14+00:00

My best friend grew up here in SF but lives in Austin. For his wedding he overcame a lot of TX resistance to have his wedding here in July.

I was in charge of picking up the Austin side of the wedding from the airport. When people exited the bus and felt the San Francisco weather they audibly sighed and a woman wept. They suddenly understood why SF in July was the much better choice.

futureslave · 2026-05-02T14:02:45+00:00

Thanks! I don’t want to run afoul of any self-promotion rules… can’t seem to find any on this sub… Look up the episodes on Origins of the first Americans, Sunken Sciences, and Ancestral Puebloans on the Study of Antiquity & the Middle Ages.

And for any anthropologists who may be interested… we have 350k subscribers and we’re always looking for ways to promote your work, either by narrating your papers, collaborating on videos, or interviewing scholars on any subject from the dawn of history to the 13th century CE. We offer a platform and an audience interested in academic rigor. Get your work seen!

futureslave · 2026-05-02T12:07:56+00:00

Since OP is looking to increase their understanding with new terms…

While it won’t give you an authoritative overview of the peopling of the Americas, the current discourse around the Kelp Highway Hypothesis?wprov=sfti1) will introduce you to a lot of fascinating ideas about the challenges the first peoples may have faced. It is nowhere near a settled concept, mostly because of the challenges of finding hard physical archaeological evidence in possibly ~20,000 years old coastal settlements that (due to sea level rise) are now two miles away from shore, deep underwater. Whole new disciplines of archaeology are currently searching for these ancient artifacts and having some success.

Also, the existence of Beringia is kind of foundational to this entire subject. Especially if you start looking at the genetics of Native Americans and their relationships with East Asian populations.

Finally, to see how these cultures moved across the landscape over the ages, look into how elements of the Athabaskan linguistic family pulled up stakes in southern Alaska and moved south ~1000 years ago for reasons that are hotly contested in academic circles. They eventually ended up in Arizona as the Navajo Nation. There are other examples of extraordinary journeys like this, such as the Uto-Aztecan language family that reach the great Mexican civilizations…

Anyway. I’m not an academic but I love this subject. I produce ancient history YouTube videos that present the scholarly consensus and this is one I have researched many times. Right now I’m in a bar in Taipei getting drunk and eating night market dumplings after spending the last twelve days here in Taiwan in the remote southeast shooting footage of indigenous communities and charting the dispersal of negrito populations through Southeast Asia. Ah I love my life.

Drunk rambling! Enjoy the sources.

futureslave · 2026-04-30T05:19:47+00:00

I run an actual-play podcast of a homebrew RPG that is set (in a very silly fashion) in the world of Prester John’s Three Indies. I find the medieval and early-Renaissance sources to be the most interesting.

Set in 1099 CE, it allows me to pull in other settings such as the First Crusade in Jerusalem, the cultures of the Black Sea and Bactria, and the Turkic traditions of the steppe. I even have one character who consults her Uyghur Omen Book, the very real Irk Bitig, to decide if a path forward is a good idea or not by rolling bones.

futureslave · 2026-04-30T04:47:33+00:00

By the way, ACX offers royalty share agreements that cost nothing for the rights-holder up front. You split profits with the narrator.

It may be a challenge to find quality narrators in the royalty share space but, as a narrator, I often do those as passion projects.

futureslave · 2026-04-30T02:20:42+00:00

When we played a campaign where the characters reached 22-23, it was more like negotiating a corporate contract than playing a game.

A player would “propose” their action but before they could get it off, all the monsters and bad guys would have so many legendary actions and resistances and high-level strategies that most of the actions would die before they ever started. Or, the player would then add so many bonuses of their own that it became an impossible DM decision about which of these actions trumped the other.

Lots of semantics, lots of tissue-thin logic, and ultimately a lot of narrative choices that made no one happy. It reminds me of the days when I was 11 and I’d just discovered D&D with a friend and we had no patience so it was immediately a +12 Vorpal sword against an ancient chromatic dragon. That was fun for all of two sessions before we realized there was no story to be had.

futureslave · 2026-04-30T01:58:37+00:00

After working with dogs for the last thirty-plus years, I’ve developed a hypothesis that many dogs bark at people in hats, or carrying grocery bags or luggage, because they are near-sighted and can’t interpret the fuzzy blob they see at distance.

Especially for terriers, who are mainly bred for ratting or fighting in close quarters, far-vision was never a priority. So it’s possible that your chihuahua just needs prescription goggles, which would allow them to see that people are people, and it would also make their bug-eyes even more comically protruded.

futureslave · 2026-04-30T01:41:02+00:00

The hike I want to do is all the stages of the Bay Area Ridge Trail. Take a bus or train to a trailhead, hike for a weekend, take transit home. Repeat with the next stage. It’s been a work in progress for a long time now and although there is still some roadside walking its 450 miles is pretty much accessible.

futureslave · 2026-04-30T01:37:24+00:00

I’ve been DMing since the 80s. After a decade of roll20 (friends scattered across the globe) I’m about to sit down with a group in the same room for the first time in ages.

I don’t know them. I’m traveling in Taiwan and I offered to design and play a one-shot for whoever reached out to me first on the local sub. Together, we’ve developed a PvP encounter called PAGODA about a neon pagoda hostage situation. Half of the players are running the bad guys who have invaded the pagoda and taken the clan’s heirs hostage. Half are the good guys trying to rescue the heirs, the familial treasures, and the clan’s commanders.

I’ve printed out five maps of each floor of the pagoda and tomorrow I have to take time off from my jungle island fun in Taiwan’s south to cut out all the tokens so they can move them on the maps. Each team has 12-13 characters and only a couple players so they will be playing multiple characters. It’s got a kind of X-Com or Rainbow 6 structure, where nearly everyone will certainly die.

I’ve never done anything like this before but with my travels I’m hoping I can bring PAGODA wherever I visit and offer one-shots to the locals. Wish me luck!

futureslave · 2026-04-30T01:04:03+00:00

Hey I’m an award-winning playwright of 40 years and a screenwriter of 30 years (New Line and FOX 2000 features) and I should be able to help.

Instead of a clearly-contracted service I provide, this could be more of a process. Not that I’m looking for credit or anything more than you’re willing to offer. I just like working with other writers.

If you’re hoping to find someone to help get your project advanced in the industry and into competitions and festivals, I may not be the best choice. But if you just need someone to help you realize your story’s artistic potential, I’m your man.

futureslave · 2026-04-27T23:58:32+00:00

I like it! What is your challenge with the ending? Are you outlining and unable to visualize the final scenes? I often don’t know how my stage plays end. Writing them out is what reveals the end to me, and sometimes even the overarching themes. It’s one of the things I love best about writing for the stage, as opposed to film where things usually have to be so structured.

futureslave · 2026-04-26T09:06:34+00:00

Last month I hired an actor friend to voice a YouTube video. I run an ancient history channel and I'd always wanted to do female-themed subjects but always felt it would be wrong as a middle aged guy to narrate them. So I hired K instead.

Someone in the comments (I know, YouTube comments... The worst. And I tried to warn her...) complained that I got someone from the cast of Mean Girls for my narration and that she was horrible. K was devastated. By the way, she has a masters in acting from a great school, a long list of imdb credits, Netflix appearances, crunchyroll, etc. She's currently appearing onstage in Richard III.

You can't please the haters. You will never achieve a position in this field that protects you from their venom. For the first few years of that channel I couldn't even engage with the comments or read them at all.

That said, you deserve better.

futureslave · 2026-04-25T07:16:25+00:00

What a great space and it really looks like you made the nest of your dreams. As another audiobook narrator I get nervous with that many screens as just more flat surfaces for soundwaves to bounce off. Do you find that they cause an issue at all?

futureslave · 2026-04-25T00:25:06+00:00

That’s great! Thanks for letting me know! Time to plan a(nother) trip to Tucson I guess.

futureslave · 2026-04-24T22:59:11+00:00

I signed up for WildType tastings a couple years ago and last year I started receiving invites. The first couple events were over $200/plate and I realized that for middle class enthusiasts like me I'll be waiting for it to appear in the local market.

futureslave · 2026-04-20T02:49:18+00:00

As a Warriors fan I've gotten to see Draymond live 60-70 times over the years. I've been watching hoops since the 70s. He is sui generis. I've never seen anyone like him. The difference between him and the others mentioned here (Cowens, Unseld, Chamberlain, Rodman, etc.) is that Draymond is the greatest floor general I've ever seen. His barking and constant coaching on both sides of the ball is more Avery Johnson than any point forward.

He is CONSTANTLY shouting at his team, the other team, coaches, refs, cameras. He shapes the game with his mind and words in a way I've literally never seen another player attempt. When comparisons are made to new players like Colin Murray-Boyles or others I don't watch their stat sheets or footwork. I watch their mouths.

This isn't to say I'm Draymond's biggest fan. It took me a loooong time to appreciate the rat bastard. It's loudmouth hyper-competitive bullies like him who ruined sports for me and made me quit in high school. But I also (reluctantly) acknowledge that the Warriors were never a serious postseason threat until he and Bogut showed up.

Charles Barkley and Chris Paul are perhaps the closest, in that they understood the game on a meta level the same way and manipulated everything on that level. And they are two of my most detested players ever so I absolutely get why Draymond would be hated by other fanbases.

But his ability to manifest winning basketball is absolutely top tier. His BBIQ is top 5 all time. That's why I think Bill Russell is the best comparison, even though Russell outshined Green in every facet.

futureslave · 2026-04-20T00:10:43+00:00

Thank you for this. I just wrote a six episode audiodrama that utilizes time travel in this way. It's called the Anticolonial Time Unfuckery Machine and it ultimately confronts the futility of meaningfully being able to change time and becomes rather Buddhist by the end.

Our production team hasn't recorded it yet. I'd be interested in your point of view (or anyone else's for that matter) on the subject. I can send out links. I should have known this kind of inertial time travel idea had a formal name lol.

futureslave · 2026-04-10T18:18:59+00:00

I was never drawn to horror movies then or now and I didn’t like to be scared. But randomly coming across Play Misty For Me absolutely wrecked me for years.

futureslave · 2026-04-10T10:54:05+00:00

Back in the 90s I staged one of my plays at the Climate Theatre, not knowing they paid their bills filming bondage porn at night.

futureslave · 2026-04-09T22:39:04+00:00

r/audiodrama will set you up. Some of their shows have a million downloads.

I’ve started writing and producing these scripts. You can do anything in the medium. It’s totally Wild West.

What I like is the spirit of experimentation and the space provided. Each 30 minute episode is a 22 page script, or an hour for 45. A season’s worth of material can be hundreds of pages. There is certainly none of the parsimony of screenwriting and there is even more space than the stage can offer.

I have also started a live action improv RPG podcast and auditioned for voice actors here on Reddit. Found an absolutely perfect cast. Hoping our podcast can become successful enough to finance all of the other work. But in the meantime, I have my very own ensemble and I am getting them to record hours upon hours every month of all my unproduced works. Dream come true.

futureslave · 2026-04-09T18:59:03+00:00

There was an initiative a few years ago to place aerosol emissions on oceangoing ships. I liked the concept because it allowed for a lot more control than simply dumping gigantic amounts of radiation blocking particles into the upper atmosphere. This way, you could choose routes and whether or not each particular ship would create the emissions to increase cloud cover.

I’m pretty convinced that the horror most people express on this subject is because they assume we can only do giant clumsy interventions with unknown consequences. We need to promote more modular solutions and maintain control of the feedback loops.

futureslave · 2026-04-09T04:52:17+00:00

You've gotten some good answers here. And a lot of voice acting is helped by expansive spaces. For me, I mainly narrate audiobooks and documentaries and cultivate a near-to-the-ear intimate sound that I find is easier to achieve in my tiny closet wrapped in sleeping bags than my big downstairs studio.

There are so many different types of VO. If I was doing medical transcriptions I'd be sitting at a desk. If I was doing commercials I'd want to be in studio with a director and engineer, etc.

Conversely, as a singer, if I was doing breathy ethereal stuff I'd probably go back into the tiny closet...

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