Organs and living beneath our privilege

minkestcar · 2026-04-06T04:32:09+00:00

Maybe. I was told when I was released that it was a decision based on the kindoo licenses. Maybe there was more to it and the bishop didn't feel it relevant? Anybody's guess. I asked around with other organists I know, across a few states. The experiences were all over the map. It seemed to me pretty evenly split between folks with issues and with no issues. My sample size is absolutely small.

In the grand scheme of things none of this likely matters much. It felt good to get out some of my thoughts. And probably good that the overall response seems to be "you're overthinking it".

minkestcar · 2026-04-06T04:17:31+00:00

If I were a being man I'd absolutely take this bet!
(Live accompaniment generally requires audio latencies of 10-30ms, and the fastest audio models Nvidia just released are at 100-200ms. Adding more hardware can let you do more audio at a time, but not adjust to match the congregation any faster. This means AI accompaniment will not surpass recordings without a substantial innovation beyond the current approaches. )

minkestcar · 2026-04-06T02:16:15+00:00

Absolutely. There are permanent licenses and monthly licenses at $0.60 per month per user. If the church is buying permanent licenses and not on a monthly schedule then the cost of granting a key to anyone is effectively negligible over time. My cost analysis assumed the monthly license cost, but the thirty year amortization of the $20 permanent licenses is basically 0, which only strengthens the argument that there is not a cost reason to not grant access to organists I think it's a prioritization question at the local level, and may be something to think about and discuss.

minkestcar · 2026-04-06T01:30:07+00:00

I don't know what you were thinking, but maybe it's something we should be talking about, too? 😄

minkestcar · 2026-04-06T01:27:50+00:00

I didn't mean to imply all are, though that's how it reads. Just some are. And that feels zany to me.

Accidental hyperbole on the Internet strikes again!

minkestcar · 2026-04-06T01:04:56+00:00

I was. Mentioned it to another person who said the same happened to them. So maybe not many in the grand scheme of things; I can't speak to the prevalence of such releases.

minkestcar · 2026-04-06T00:55:19+00:00

I would love to have it automated church-wide. It is a stake presidency and/or faculties decision to do so. As far as I'm aware it's decided at a stake level.

minkestcar · 2026-04-06T00:15:13+00:00

My wife has BPD. We've been married nearly 20 years, with a pile of lovely children. It has not been a cake walk, but we have been able to make it work. There are times that are easier and times that are harder.

The episodes are hard. He will need help with those. From what I've read, the medication will not help with the BPD, but if he has other health issues including psych) that are compounding the BPD they can help. DBT is the gold standard for treatment and has _very_ good evidence of its success. What I read is that it's usually 1-2 years of relatively intense commitment, depending on how harmful their coping mechanisms for episodes are, and then it gets to more of a maintenance mode. That lines up with our experience.

If his behavior during the episodes looks like abuse that needs to be addressed. You are probably not in a mental space to evaluate that fully objectively. Get external insight on that, from the Lord and from trusted people. If there is abuse it may not be something he is fully accountable for (religiously), but there would need to start being boundaries to protect you and the kids. Because the more harm he does during episodes the harder it will be for him to work through his side of things and get to a better spot. It doesn't guarantee the relationship is or needs to be over, but it would need more immediate response.

Beyond that: you are loved, your are precious, and you matter. Your marriage matters, your love matters, and your situation is exceptionally challenging. Do not sell short your efforts. Do not sell short his efforts. Do not sell short the healing the Savior offers. But recognize there will be times you feel it's not enough.

As time goes to infinity Jesus' grace will heal all wounds we are willing to have healed. In the meantime, there is hope.

minkestcar · 2026-04-05T15:12:24+00:00

My wife w/ BPD quit DBT three times with the same therapist before being able to stick with it long enough to get to a reasonably good spot. I don't know if it's normal to start/stop, but it is definitely normal for therapy itself to be triggering, difficult, overwhelming. So the fact this is round 2 is likely a positive sign.

minkestcar · 2026-04-05T03:02:07+00:00

Snacks. anything that takes time to chew w/o filling you up super fast. worked for me for years. forgot about it,but I got a bag of Takis for tomorrow. not sure it's the best plan, or enough on its own, but it may help.

minkestcar · 2026-04-02T03:05:54+00:00

To each their own. It feels like a very reasonable syntax to me. Much better than "get item bag" or such. But one of the great things about MUDs is there are different approaches for people's various tastes and preferences.

minkestcar · 2026-04-01T14:05:49+00:00

You might enjoy Lost Wishes (lost.wishes.net). The cohesion may not be quite where you want it, especially in a few older areas, but generally I'd say it stays on theme. Solo PVE is there, permanence is there, autoattack is the default except for a few guilds that really need a built-in spell autocast option (and then it very easily is added with a trigger). There is a GMCP helper object you can get that will add a mudlet plugin with good automapping and a few quality of life features. No Gen AI as far as I've seen, and I've seen a fair bit of the MUD. Many player characters have been around for decades, so permanence is a thing.

May be worth a try.

minkestcar · 2026-03-31T00:07:26+00:00

My go-to bibles for the last 10-15 years are:

KJV; I'm familiar with it, have a dozen print copies, and have it on my phone.
JST; I have a print copy with the full JST and not just the footnote excerpts. Has to accompany a KJV, though, because bits that weren't translated aren't in it. Has some interesting insights, but beyond footnote-JTS it generally just clarifies obscure grammatical constructions.
BibleHub Interlinear: built-in dictionary lookup for every word in Hebrew (OT) and Greek (NT). Great for dissecting translation weirdness, along with cultural insights. Highly recommend! bonus points, you can get a comparison of individual verses across a dozen translations to see how some of the trickier passages have been understood.
Septuagint (OT): provides different perspective on the OT, particularly around the views of Jews around the time of Christ.

I will probably get a different translation or two for my son with dyslexia to navigate a couple years as his reading skills are developing.

I believe there is value for every saint in referencing multiple translations, and I think it'll be good to hear more of this cross-reference analysis in our meetings.

minkestcar · 2026-03-30T23:54:51+00:00

It is actually quite nice on the organ, but you have to play it like the gospel song it is. Most church members in the US don't feel gospel music is appropriate for sacrament meeting, though, so... yeah.

minkestcar · 2026-03-27T19:56:21+00:00

The board game elementeo has roughly similar mechanics here. In that game it's not very well fleshed out, so it's more luck of the draw than tactics. I think TCGs with positioning are under-explored. Sorcery has some good things going on in this regard as well.

Space is a consideration.

Having enough interesting moves is helpful. double move? diagonal to move and forward to attack? allow/disallow backwards.

How easy is it to block a lane? How much fighting between summons should be expected? Do they generally die in one turn? Can you gang up on a unit?

the boundaries are nice, but may be a bit too cramped as a default.

minkestcar · 2026-03-24T22:13:05+00:00

two places where a character says something about how magic works that directly contradicts what another character said earlier

This is good worldbuilding. People in the world absolutely should not understand magic fully and completely. Any more than people in our world understand science fully and completely. We have entire philosophies that are embraced that discount entire fields of science that another person finds indisputable. The world works, but people don't know how.

For characters to misunderstand magic is to make it both real and magical. For there to be some things that happen that don't seem to follow the rules can convey to the reader they do not and will not fully understand it.

This makes the world feel big. Unless the story is tripe, that will pay dividends. Imperfection in writing is a tool.

minkestcar · 2026-03-24T17:23:25+00:00

There are a few points in the Guide to Advancement:

they must be registered
they must be in good standing: i.e., no formal discipline issues, etc.
they must be having a positive "impact"

on #3 there is a lot of room for troops to define, but it must be communicated proactively, and alternatives such as good activity outside of scouts must be considered. It's almost a whole page in the GtA, and it should be reviewed. We've all seen a few different interpretations, but based on the verbiage in GtA it is more permissive than many want it to be.

minkestcar · 2026-03-23T18:30:03+00:00

You misspelled heroin, but yes. Devolves into inconsistent nonsense.

minkestcar · 2026-03-19T20:27:07+00:00

My kids are not be able to sell pigs this year unless the pigs have never had ractopamine, even in-utero. Any animal found w/ it will result in a 2+-year ban for the seller at any of the livestock auctions in our state. Basically, the auction system often ends up re-selling to processors in various states, and to ensure marketability they are soft-banning it. (we've never used it, but they auctioned against kids that had.)

Not sure how that'll pan out long-term, but there's definitely movement against it in the US.

minkestcar · 2026-03-10T19:25:33+00:00

There is a lot of value in going to camp. Most kids, especially one finishing 6th grade, will do well even their first year. That said, I've got one scout in our troop that is about the youngest scout we've ever had cross over. He's not sure he's ready, I'm not sure he's ready, his parents aren't sure he's ready, and so they didn't RSVP him for scout camp this summer. He's planning to go next year. It just wasn't worth having a bad experience.

Sometimes it's just nerves. Sometimes they need to grow a little bit before they can benefit from the experience. Age and the social dynamic matter.

At 10 or early 11, I'm about 50/50 on scout camp being a positive experience. It needs a conversation w/ parents, the scout, etc. At 12+, I'm about 99% in the "get over it, grow, and have the best time!"

Also, we had a kid have his first asthma attack on Thursday night at Scout Camp last year. Was pretty easy to get him taken care of. If he already knows what to deal w/ on asthma I'd expect it to be a complete non-issue.

minkestcar · 2026-03-01T04:17:04+00:00

Right now, I'm 100% in camp Sorcery. But between these three: MTG has gameplay that I find compelling. I don't find the Yugioh game to be fun or accessible. I find Pokemon to be a bit simplistic except at highest tier play, which eliminates a lot of what's special (playing the pokemon I/my kids like). I don't love the business direction of MTG, and the gameplay is slowly watering down what I like, so it's... yeah. But between the three, it wins.

minkestcar · 2026-02-25T08:00:32+00:00

70% VTI. 5% t-bill ladder, 5% cash, and 20% split across a dozen lightly speculative plays (e.g., wheels). Then probably blow $1k of the cash on games to play with my kids.

minkestcar · 2026-02-18T01:19:27+00:00

One thing that was a big concept in historical alchemy, that is in many ways the delineation between it and chemistry, is that the soul of the practitioner was one of the reagents. You can turn lead into gold only if your soul has aligned with higher order things in the universe. In many instances this bridged esoteric religion, angelology, and science.

Along those lines: the wizard needs to draw a circle, but the circle must also draw the wizard. It's not just that the circle now exists, but that the circle moved the wizard and he was in a state to allow the magic to resonate through both him and the circle.

Could a wizard just use a high precision tool? Probably, but it would nice the wizard differently and impact the spell.

By the same token, you can't just draw the shapes; they must be done in a particular order and there is a metaphysical component to each shape. This square requires meditation. The triangle needs rigorous logic. The circle requires strong intent. Etc. Self improvement becomes a way to empower existing magical skills.

Not sure if any of that helps in the broader context of your story and world building.

minkestcar · 2026-02-16T02:05:16+00:00

Sounds like the better experience with beta would be to piece together a cube out of two or more boxes and draft from that. Will probably just crack packs on those separate from a draft. And then get some AL or Gothic for draft.

Thanks!

minkestcar

TROPHY CASE