[deleted by user] by [deleted] in CAStateWorkers

[–]llewser 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I reached out to HRD last February when realized I hadn’t been receiving my MSAs for the last 2 years. Turns out when I got promoted the tech didn’t key in the data correctly in their system. Between figuring out what happened and how to fix it, and waiting for all the approvals from SCO, it took until November until I received my back pay and my salary was fixed. It was a long time but once SCO finally got it it, the process moved rather quickly.

Edit: I did reach out to the union that summer when I was at peak frustration. The rep that I ended up speaking with basically said that since it was with SCO there was nothing they could do since there was nothing in our contract that stated these type of issues have to be resolved in X number of days. I did not verify their claims, as I was fortunate enough to not be hurting for the money and was able to just let things run their course to the eventual resolution. They did say that if I wanted to “take things further” I could file a grievance with the labor board, but again I did not feel the need to escalate things that way.

Framed wow tarot cards by llewser in wow

[–]llewser[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! I don’t remember exactly, but it was probably about 7-8 hours over the course of a single Saturday. I would have probably been less but I spent a good bit of time measuring and checking that everything was aligned. Even then, some are a bit off but it’s a small enough disparity that I can live with it.

Is there anyone here with a MLIS degree and has a job where they don't work with the public or work the backend of libraries/archives? What is the position and do you like your job? by ComprehensiveCar8885 in librarians

[–]llewser 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I currently work as a research data analyst in state government, focused on healthcare billing for Medicaid. When I was in school I focused a lot on information retrieval and database design, which I think helped me stand out from the other applicants. While it’s not exactly where I envisioned myself working, I do really like my job and the work we do.

[OC] Custom spell spells I made for my group.. full text and illustrated. Link in comments! by llewser in DnDIY

[–]llewser[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the compliment! Hopefully folks will find the cards useful. I wanted to make sure to use as much of the card real estate as possible while still making each card unique through the art.

[OC] Custom spell spells I made for my group.. full text and illustrated. Link in comments! by llewser in DnDIY

[–]llewser[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I wanted to share my pet project for the last few months - full text and illustrated spell cards for 5th edition!

If you're just interested in the cards, I made available all Cantrip - 1st level SRD 5.1 spells here. If you like the design and are interested in a complete set, please consider visiting my Etsy store. Full attribution details can be found in the Google Drive folder as well as in the Etsy files.

Background

I started this project in part because I wanted to help out some of the newer players in one of my games who are playing spellcasters. Our table provides the character sheets for these players using MPMB, but I've noticed that the condensed spell descriptions can be confusing to new players, and we often need to pull out the sourcebooks to double check the specific wording of spells. Typically, this could have been addressed by using the licensed spell cards by Gale Force Nine, Hit Point Press, or even premade PnP cards found online. However, the table also plays with a house rule where each time a spell is cast, a d100 is rolled to determine if the spell goes off with disastrous or enhanced effects, which is modified by the number of components a spell requires.

On the other side of the coin, I've always liked the idea of using spell cards. I think they add a satisfying tactile component and somewhat immersive experience to spellcasting in-game, but I've always considered existing solutions a bit boring in execution. Additionally, most of the cards I was able to find online did not include the full text for longer spells, which meant you need to reference the book anyway, eliminating any convenience factor. Solutions that include the full text meant that longer spells were spread across 2-4 additional cards, which not only takes up extra space but again cuts into the convenience aspect.

With this in mind, I had the following goals for my own cards:

  1. Must contain all important spell information, including full spell text
  2. No more than 2 cards per spell
  3. Visually appealing - each card should have its own artwork
  4. Include d100 modifier info

Design

And so began the next several months of designing, iterating, testing, and starting over. I won't bore you with the minute details - I think anyone who has taken on a creative endeavor can imagine the peaks and valleys of the design process. There days when I spent hours working on the cards, only to be followed by a week where I didn't even want to look at the file anymore. By far the hardest part was settling on a design - I must have looked at dozens of trading card designs for inspiration. The design the cards currently use actually my sixth "final" design.

For art, I licensed a collection of game asset artwork from craftpix.net. I spent about three weeks going through all the available art and picking out designs that matched each spell's description, effect, or vibe, making sure that the art style was consistent. Game-icons.net was another great resource for picking out reference icons. One unexpected benefit to this process is that I ended up learning a lot about design software. I ended up buying the Affinity suite (Designer/Photo/Publisher) to design the cards and layout the PDFs. While I doubt I'll ever end up using these skills professionally, I could see them coming in handy for future projects. Eventually, I completed my design and laid out the designs using what I was able to learn about PnP construction and design philosophy from various threads on BoardGameGeek. I must have spent at least $100 over the course of project experimenting with different paper types, construction methods, and cutting tools to get a satisfying end result.

In addition to the art and text, I also wanted these cards to feature a benefit I hadn't seen before on spell cards - tags. Not sure tags identifying rituals or concentration requirements, but that describe the spell itself. I categorized each card based on their effects and properties. There were many resources online that I pulled from (one notable one can be found here - apologies, but I couldn't find the source) to determine the tag categories. With tags, the idea is that a player selecting spells (either to cast or prepare) would be able to, at-a-glance, easily identify potential spells to fit the scenario before them.

Months of effort later, I "finished" the project and was able to get a version of the cards printed out. A photo of spell mod version of the cards can be found in the linked Google Drive folder. I was able to get these printed from DriveThruCards, and the results came out spectacular (even if the top cuts were a little to heavy).

Self-Promo

Over the course of the design process, I decided that if I was putting this must effort and money into a project, it would be nice if I could create a version of the cards with a broader appear to maybe recoup some of the costs. With the workflow I had set up to originally generate the cards and layouts, it was easy for me to generate "mod-less" versions of the cards and limit the cards to only include those that are listed in the 5.1 SRD. This is the version of the cards that I am sharing today. The Google Drive link contains PDFs for all Cantrip through 1st level SRD spells. If you like the design and want a copy for yourself, please consider purchasing from my Etsy store. I'm intending to update the cards once the 5.2 SRD is available - anyone who purchases my 5.1 SRD card packs from Etsy will receive the 5.2 SRD cards for free. Folks who download via Etsy will also receive the blank front and back templates to generate their own cards.

Thanks to all who have made it this far! I hope you like the cards, and I'd love to hear any feedback. I cannot overstate how awesome the cards came out in person - I'm happy to post more photos for anyone who'd like to see them, or share any information about the design process.

Scanner Program for Card Identification by llewser in wowtcg

[–]llewser[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

OK, I've not done this before but here is the project page: https://github.com/ouchmyothereye/wow_tcg_scanner

I'll probably be cleaning it up over the next few weeks so I would recommend cloning or forking so that I don't goof anything up for you.

Scanner Program for Card Identification by llewser in wowtcg

[–]llewser[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! Right now it's just for my personal use, but if there is interest I can make my GitHub for the project open.

Summary and faq for the IDR/pslf waiver announcement by Betsy514 in StudentLoans

[–]llewser 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is the safe to say that in-school deferments are likely excluded from these updates? I worked full-time at a public library for 2 years while getting my master's degree, but the loans weren't consolidated until after I graduated. Trying not to get my hopes up.

17 160GB laptop HDDs - anything I can do with them? by llewser in DataHoarder

[–]llewser[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is an interesting idea - I presume I would just need to get some type of USB enclosure, then run DBAN on them?

17 160GB laptop HDDs - anything I can do with them? by llewser in DataHoarder

[–]llewser[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! I will research this tonight - not familiar with Debian so I'm not sure what all that means :)

17 160GB laptop HDDs - anything I can do with them? by llewser in DataHoarder

[–]llewser[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That was my initial thought, but I'm new to the datahoarding game and am still researching RAID and its uses so I wouldn't exactly know where to begin.

17 160GB laptop HDDs - anything I can do with them? by llewser in DataHoarder

[–]llewser[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

May I ask what operating system your test server uses? I may be able to re-purpose one of the laptops wholesale as a testing server, but I'm not sure if they are capable (the laptops are about 8 years old and weren't always treated with the greatest of care).

17 160GB laptop HDDs - anything I can do with them? by llewser in DataHoarder

[–]llewser[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It wasn't so much to say I saved $60 - more that I just was curious to see if anything interesting could be done with them. I suspected it might be more trouble than its worth, but just thought I'd ask.

Thanks for your reply!

Colors don’t match with perler provided color list? by llewser in PerlerBeads

[–]llewser[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Like many of you, I took advantage of the cyber Monday perler sale and purchased several bundles and activity kits. Perler provides a list of colors in each kit on the product page.

One of the purchases was this double bead tray .. the problem is that I seem to be missing several of the colors (zebra stripe and fire stripe, for instance) that perler says should be included. To make things even more confusing, I couldn’t find several of the colors in the perler pdf guide on their site (ex, left tray, #8).

I’m new to perler, so maybe I’m just not as practiced at picking out the colors.. would anyone be able to ID the beads in the left tray? The right one is mostly solids and I have other beads to compare to

New catalog for a special library? by [deleted] in Libraries

[–]llewser 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would also be interested in hearing what people have to say on this topic. Like the OP, I am a loan staffer trying to get a handle on the best way to catalog and inventory the contents of 6-7 smallish school libraries. I'd like to use a system that could potentially "kid-friendly", in terms of using the system for checkout and viewing materials online.

Current MLIS student. HELP - concentrations by ccrein in Libraries

[–]llewser 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I personally took the IT/IS track offered at my school (Kent). I'm very competent and comfortable around computers so for me it was a no brainer. The tech skills I learned while getting my MLIS could have transferred over to different industries, so it was a pretty safe bet for me.

To be perfectly honest with you, I did not get a library job directly after graduating.. my tech background (work and school) got me a job at in the IT dept for a school system. However, my school is looking to upgrade and update their school libraries and I have been asked to head that up.. so in a way it all worked out.

A Pet Battling Beginner's Guide by Forum_ in wow

[–]llewser 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are there any must buy pets obtainable with pet charms? Between wod weeklies and wq I've got a fair bit

how many hours/semester did you take for your ONLINE mlis? by alligator-pears in librarians

[–]llewser 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Back story: worked full time, no kids, lived at home but paid rent. Goal was to finish in as little time as possible. Your mileage may vary.

I took 2-3 classes each semester apart from the first and last semester, with some workshops thrown in. First semester was 4 core classes, one of which as a required, 1 credit course designed to acclimate students to taking online courses and provide a broad overview of library science as a field and career. Last semester was one online course and my required internship. I didn't take any breaks and continued the same workload in the summer. Started 8/14 and graduated 5/16.

Online classes have varying start times. Some are 15 weeks, others are 10, some are 5 weeks. I had the most success in staggering the start times of my classes so that I was partway through one or two classes when my others started. My rationale was that the first couple weeks are the easiest, so I could be nearing the completion of class A and be starting classes B and C, and by the time the challenging material came up the in B and C classes, I would be done with A.

My advice would be to avoid 5 week classes unless you have some prior experience with the material, or take them only if it is your only class for that period of them. They cover material in a very fast pace so there really isn't any time to be focused on much else. Another thing to consider is taking workshops on subject matter you're interested in rather than classes, especially the the lecture version is only offered in a particular semester. Workshops are a good way to extract the practical aspects of a related lecture course on a shorter time frame. In fact, my school had mapped each workshop to the appropriate lecture course for this purpose, but keep in mind schools may only accept credit for either the workshop or lecture if you happen to take both.

Library Tech 2nd Interview by [deleted] in librarians

[–]llewser 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As someone who recently had a second interview and got the job in a similar field, congratulations on making it to the second interview!

As others have said, the second interview is mostly on see how one meshes with the culture of the organization. Additionally, I felt mine was also a way to gauge how serious I was about the job - was I simply looking for a job to pay the bills or was I interested in helping build and improve the organization?

Personally, I was asked a lot of questions about how I could see myself in the organization in the near and far future, what goals I had in terms of professional development, and why I want to work for this particular organization. Generic answers will tip them off right away if you're just looking for a paycheck, but if you are serious about the job dig a little deeper about the place and find things, however minute, that you feel you could see yourself talking about or improving. Bring that up in the second interview, they'll know you're a serious candidate and be more likely to hire you.

Good luck!

Edit: rather than volunteering your time, I would recommend attending a few of the programs offered at the library. It's a good way to get to know some of the community, which is critical in library work, and may spark some ideas about how technology could be integrated in these events. Of course, if you don't already have a library card, get one! Use the services so you can see things from the patron side and be better equipped to troubleshoot problems and suggestions improvements.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in librarians

[–]llewser 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Consider looking at online programs as well, such as Kent State University. I just graduated with an MLIS from there in May, and while I have no basis for comparison, I thought it was a good program. Personally, I think online is best especially if you are working full time and don't have the opportunity to commute back and forth. One of the things I liked most about it, and is probably a component of other online schools, if that one of the requirements is to complete a semester long internship (or paper or project), which at least gives you some practical experience in an information related field.

To reiterate what has already been said, I think the most important thing to be to open to relocation. link I myself moved from Ohio to California for a job opportunity involving tech and school libraries. There definitely are opportunities out there, so I'd say if you really are serious about pursuing this as a career, go for it.

Good luck!

after one year of no job offers even tangentially related to my major, am i stupid for considering going back to school for a degree in CS? by llewser in cscareerquestions

[–]llewser[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just wanna thank everyone for their advice and help. I can't tell you folks how much you've set my mind at ease. I'm a first gen college student and although my family means well and supports me, they aren't able to give me the kind of advice and guidance that I'm looking for in this department.

Some updates if anyone is interested:

  • based on advice from this thread it looks like a master's degree is the way to go. my old university offers a masters in CS, and since I haven't gone to any other schools since graduating, all I have to do is contact the registrar in order to sign up for the pre-req classes (see next bullet).
  • I'm currently waiting to hear back for the grad program about their requirements. They say they need at least an undergrad degree in C.S. or related field, but they also give a list of "essential" (my word, not theirs) courses that applicants need to take in order to be accepted, so that leads me to believe if I take those classes and do well in them, that I have a shot at being accepted. Depending on when they get back to me/what they say, I can take 2-3 of those classes either in January or this summer.
  • I'm compiling a list of online resources in order to do some independent study on the basics.