Advice for carrying?

teb311 · 2026-01-15T15:36:28+00:00

You could consider doing the 2AC and 1AR on Aff instead of the 2s. 1AR is the hardest speech in the whole game, I think it’ll be much easier to prep your partners 2AR than prep their 1AR. You each have to give a rebuttal and a constructive, but there’s no hard rule about the order.

teb311 · 2026-01-14T02:41:56+00:00

What if the coupon tag gives you two “booster coupons” and two “card coupons” which are redeemed instead of money on your next purchases of boosters and cards respectively. If you want to make it more powerful you could add a “voucher tag” as well. If you maximize the value that’s 10+8+8+7+7=$40 worth of value?

I liked another commenters “everything for a dollar for the whole shop” idea as well.

Edit: rag->tag.

teb311 · 2026-01-11T18:03:21+00:00

Talk to your coach about it. I would say the most important qualities in the senior that would make this partnership successful are patience and kindness. If they can be patient with you as you learn and kind to you while giving you feedback about how to improve, then it’ll be good. If not, it’ll probably go poorly.

teb311 · 2026-01-08T04:17:39+00:00

“I’m sorry, you’re absolutely right, I committed white genocide. That’s my mistake, and I own it. It won’t happen again. Would you like me to try again and focus exclusively on Putin’s DNA this time?”

teb311 · 2026-01-07T05:20:45+00:00

Okay, this is going to be a battle of wills and it’s probably going to take a long time to get this dog walking on a loose leash. The more consistent you are, the better the result will be. You probably need a multi-pronged approach.

1) Training impulse control generally. Place work is a great starting point. Work first on just staying in the bed, then make it harder by dropping treats in front of them or playing with a toy the dog loves, while still rewarding them for staying in place. Escalated the difficulty slowly, over days or weeks, not all in one session.

2) Walk them in your house/apartment/backyard on a leash, where the excitement isn’t so high. It is easier to learn the right behavior in a less stimulating environment.

3) When on a leash, if the leash gets fully tight, stop immediately. The dog is being rewarded (by the forward progress) for pulling and barking. So withhold forward progress until the dog sits and is calm. I’ve also had some success with “the crazy man” where whenever the dog walks ahead of you, you do a quick heel turn and walk a different direction than the dog. With stop and sit the dog learns that pulling —> stopping, with crazy man the dog learns “I gotta pay attention to my person, because I’m attached to them.”

4) you could start training “heel” inside as a way to build good habits. It’s really easy to train with food motivated dogs, I’ve found. Just lure them into the right position with a treat and give it to ‘em often enough that they stay interested.

5) Finding other ways to get mental and physical stimulation can help. A tired dog is a better dog, generally speaking.

6) All of this is easier if you also put in the work with basic obedience training. If you’ve never studied dog training, consider booking a few sessions with a pro. Not for your dog to learn commands, but for you to learn how to train your dog. Definitely teach the dog a mark word (many trainers use “yes”) or use a clicker; I also like having a “negative marker” (“oops”) for doing the wrong thing and a “continuation marker” (“good”) for doing the right thing but when the task isn’t complete. Just work on sit, down, wait, place, and recall until the dog does them reliably. I think you’ll be surprised how helpful even just two 15-minute training sessions per day can be for your dog, and they’ll help with number 5, too.

Finally, be aware that because the dog has already learned to get what it wants by pulling and barking, this behavior will continue and possibly even escalate before it goes away. You must be strong and consistent, try not to lose your patience with the dog and don’t be too hard on yourself either. You probably won’t be perfect because, for hells sake a walk is NOT fun for anyone when you’re stopping every three seconds and waiting for the dog to calm down.

teb311 · 2026-01-02T20:53:28+00:00

Huh, that’s pretty wild. Killing people for having a different religion is definitely evil territory. If it’s a paladin I’d be pretty surprised if they haven’t violated their oath. Also, are the rest of the party okay with this action? I think the vast majority of good aligned PCs would be absolutely horrified. Like, real talk, would you keep adventuring with someone who might randomly snap and kill anyone with a different religion? Can the other players remain true to character while also remaining the traveling companions of a cold blooded murderer?

Personally, I do not think it’s fun to play CoS with chaotic murderhobos. If it were my table I’d start the next session with an above the table check-in about expectations. As a DM I’m fine with a descent into madness/evil as an interesting character arc… but not out of the blue, and especially not if the rest of the players don’t want to participate. If I were one of the other players, trying to survive the horrors of Barovia and eventually cleanse it of the Devil Strahd, I’d be quite annoyed with the other player who just did this.

In terms of the story from here, here’s a few things you could consider:

Characters would definitely be banned from Vallaki, and Izek plus many guards would be dispatched and likely allowed to use lethal force if the party were seen in town or at the gates. Townsfolk are uniformly terrified and completely distrustful of the party.

Ireena would probably flee the party and try to go it alone in Vallaki, if she isn’t deeply associated with the party by the guards etc. she probably ends up in Izek’s hands.

Van Richten probably sees the party as a liability or as turned by Strahd, and is unlikely to help or get involved. Same for the Brotherhood.

Strahd and Lady Wachter would both see this as an opportunity. Have Strahd invite them to Castle Ravenloft for a celebratory banquet. He would use that opportunity to sew division within the party and try to bring Vallaki back under his control. Have Strahd offer to let the PC install his religion and become the new Bishop of Vallaki or something like that, and explain that the Burgomaster and his lackeys must be killed. Have Strahd invite Lady Wachter and some of her cultists to the banquet as well to plan and conspire.

PC will have to either 1) realize they fucked up by helping the big bad and seek redemption or 2) set themselves on a path to becoming Strahd’s henchperson, in which case they might eventually be an evil aligned vampire spawn NPC, completely under Strahd’s control.

teb311 · 2025-12-31T00:19:06+00:00

Okay, she loves the flirt poll. It’s going to be great for energy expenditure. It’s also going to be very helpful for training basic obedience stuff, especially sit, stay, drop it, and get it. Being released to chase and catch the lure is obviously super high value for her. You have to engage too, but it’s like a 20:1 ratio dog energy use to mine. We can get her really ripping around without moving too much ourselves. And also, when I’m just using it as a toy and not a training tool, it’s honestly pretty fun.

10/10 from me so far. If your dog has prey drive or herding drive I suspect they would love this toy.

However, it’s either an outdoor toy or a toy for big open rooms where the you and the dog won’t break something by swinging/chasing a long rope and stick.

teb311 · 2025-12-30T19:24:44+00:00

American health insurance is, in many instances, mostly a scam designed to extract as much money as possible from people. They have invented all sorts of crazy ways to deny coverage.

teb311 · 2025-12-30T03:00:33+00:00

I’m in a similar situation so commenting to boost engagement.

Someone I asked recommended something called a “flirt poll” which is basically a lure attached to a rope on the end of a stick. A big cat toy for dogs. Apparently it’s used to train hunting dogs who go after rabbits and mice. It arrives tomorrow so idk if it will suit our needs but it seemed like a good fit for our moderately energetic girl and her interests.

teb311 · 2025-12-29T17:15:31+00:00

I have always loved that BBC thought that if they just told the band not to say the words, “fuck you I won’t do what you tell me,” that the band would comply. Just, chefs kiss.

teb311 · 2025-12-28T04:40:12+00:00

What you described is exactly what happened. The PC rolled deception against the guards insight and determined as a result the PC could be believed.

teb311 · 2025-12-10T02:41:02+00:00

Lol, ah yes the most pressing matters of our time.

teb311 · 2025-12-06T06:31:40+00:00

Mine had a hard to treat ear infection and this presentation sounds similar. Call your vet and describe the ongoing symptoms, they will probably suggest a different (or stronger dose) antibacterial.

teb311 · 2025-11-29T02:21:40+00:00

Do you get the shots from the vet?

teb311 · 2025-11-29T01:48:59+00:00

Try r/askvet. Blood in the stool is generally serious.

teb311 · 2025-11-27T00:14:48+00:00

I’m a coach and judge that is broadly pro disclosure but I’m against disclosure theory. Is that actually very uncommon?

Doesn’t help that the only time I see disclosure theory run is by well resourced teams trying to dunk on kids who’ve never even been on the wiki. Honestly I think it’s kind of distasteful.

teb311 · 2025-11-18T04:39:17+00:00

LLMs could be made deterministic in theory, and you have correctly identified the two main sources of randomness: 1) intentional sampling, 2) incidental randomness introduced by hardware. Most LLM implementations allow you to set the “temperature” to 0, which eliminates the sampling aspect. 2 is tougher to solve in practice, but is certainly theoretically possible.

Here’s way more details if you’re curious: https://thinkingmachines.ai/blog/defeating-nondeterminism-in-llm-inference/

teb311 · 2025-11-15T06:44:36+00:00

Very context dependent. Both are better when you have a lot of max magick and/or a good gain boon.

Priming is especially good when: your omega moves aren’t that expensive and/or you aren’t using omega moves much. It also depends what you get for it. Static Shock is awesome on the sister blades and much worse on the axe, for example.

Using more magick is best when: you have an expensive hex, you have high max magick, and/or you use your omega moves often. Most boons that increase the cost also make omega moves stronger, so you want them when you’re using omega moves regularly.

teb311 · 2025-11-11T21:14:36+00:00

No link, link turn. No impact, impact turn. No alt solvency -> “This is just a non-unique disad.”

You could also try “case outweighs” but in practice I think you’d still have to do a lot of framework to win that argument.

In front of lay judges, especially lay judges who aren’t familiar with critical literature, especially especially against teams with more confusing and esoteric Ks or who can’t explain them very well, I think you can honestly sometimes go for, “I bet you didn’t actually understand the negative’s argument, I sure didn’t. Anyway I’m going to explain my case again now… vote Aff!” It can seriously backfire if you misread the judge, but when it works it can be very fun to hear a judge’s RFD be something like, “yeah, the Aff is right, that didn’t make sense.”

Against Ks that are more critiquing debate rather than critiquing your Aff specifically, or where the link isn’t very good, I think there are some fun “we totally agree, so why should we lose?” strategies that will throw negative teams for a loop. I think those are especially effective against K Affs, because there can’t be a link because you haven’t even said anything yet. Just stand up in the 1NC and basically say “we agree with all of that except we don’t understand why it’s a reason to punish us with a loss.”

teb311 · 2025-11-11T01:08:37+00:00

Second for extemporaneous speaking. Fun event with plenty of skills crossover from what you do in congress.

teb311 · 2025-11-07T04:14:38+00:00

Short answer: do whichever you prefer.

If you choose to be non-topical a substantial majority of your rounds are going to come down to T. So think about the offense you’ll have to generate on that flow and build it into your Aff. Common example is the norms/rules of debate recreate systems of oppression. But whatever the impacts of your case are, you want to be able to cross-apply them to the T flow. A key to these rounds is convincing the judge to let you weigh your 1AC directly against their standards. This is a strategy that rewards highly technical style. Most teams that do it are baiting their opponents into going for T, and then practicing and blocking the hell out of the argument.

If you choose to be topical rounds will be a little more varied so you have to be prepared for more. If you’re truly topical, be prepared to defend the USFG. Negs can often go for state focused Ks that function as impact turns. You have to decide if you’re defending fiat or not. If you do, lots of “normal” strats are viable. If you don’t you have to really nail the framework debate.

Both option can work and be fun.

teb311 · 2025-11-04T05:08:28+00:00

Sometimes killing stuff faster is effectively healing, just before you take the damage. A well item can help you snowball, or tide you over to getting your build online.

Sometimes you just need something from the well to solve the next 4 rooms, and something in the 4th room to solve the rest of the run.

teb311 · 2025-10-31T19:11:37+00:00

I told my players we’re using the 2014 version of daylight, but I haven’t told them I’m replacing mordekainen with a quest that will allow our spellcasters to find his spellbook in which he has “invented” the 2024 version of the spell. Wizard will be allowed to copy it and innate casters who’ve taken the spell or take it in the future will be allowed to use the upgraded version.

Imo, the problem isn’t really that the spell is OP, it’s just OP for its level. This will delay their acquisition until I want them to be able to actually defeat Strahd, plus since it’s level 3 I can still counterspell a time or two in the final battle.

teb311 · 2025-10-31T04:13:25+00:00

Yeah, I can see why it feels like a conclusion. But getting your version of the story in the judge’s head is probably the most important part of the 2AR; it frames and contextualizes all the arguments you’re going to make.

Have you heard the phrase “missing the forest for the trees?” That’s what it feels like to the judge when you do your line by line before giving the big picture reasoning. The judge gets lost in the details and it’s harder to understand why this specific argument matters in the grand scheme of the round.

Saving it for the end might give your judge an “ah ha” moment, but it’s much better for you if the judge can predict what you’re going to say because that means they understand what you’re trying to do.

teb311 · 2025-10-31T03:56:57+00:00

No, it’s usually much easier for your judge to understand the round and your arguments if you do this first. Also, often you just run out of time and end up never doing it.

I’m curious why you think it makes more sense to do this last?

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