That time you were super excited to preload a game, only to be reminded of how painfully slow your network is.

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@thechrisfong
That time you were super excited to preload a game, only to be reminded of how painfully slow your network is.
Hufflepuffs value hard work, patience, loyalty, and fair play. The house has produced its share of great wizards – not least Newt Scamander, author of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Been meaning to do this for ages. Catching up on Critical Role, I was reminded of this when the cast (along with special guest Chris Hardwick) were wearing Harry Potter t-shirts and making Harry Potter references. Anyways, I guess I’m in Hufflepuff, and I’m totally cool with that!
#gmsday
Need to remember this!
An excellent summary…
Wisdom
I know that everyone's answer for "How do I get better at _______?" Is to continue to practice said art or action. But how in the world does anyone work through all the frustration? The crushing sense of "I'll never be good at this." I have tried to write, to draw, to sing, to compose. The only dream I dream is to create something beautiful. But I just can't.
Let me put this as simply as possible:
If you heard a beautiful melody played on a violin, and you went “I want to do that. I want to make beautiful music on a violin,” you would not be surprised if, the first time you picked up a violin, you found yourself making noises that sounded like a cat was in pain.
So you’d learn the violin. Learn the strings, the fingering, how to bow. You’d be proud at the point where you could play “Twinkle twinkle little star” on it. If you stopped there and said “I’ll never be good at this…” well, you’d be right. But you’d be right because you stopped, not because it is impossible to play the violin well.
And if you learned violin and got better and practiced, one day you’d be able to play beautiful music on the violin. You might never be a world-class violinist, but you’d be competent.
You are always allowed to decide it’s too hard or frustrating to carry on with anything. But, mostly, you don’t get to be magically good at something, whether that something is art, medicine, law, ballet, cartography or martial arts. The writing fairy, the painting fairy, the composing fairy, will not descend in the night if you decide that’s what you do, touch their glittering wands to your forehead, and allow you to wake in the morning with all the talents, skills, knowledge and experience you need to be really good.
That’s why everyone’s answer is to practice, to do it, to learn. It’s because the short-cuts are mostly blind alleys. It’s because it’s work. It’s because there really are skills to learn, and you should learn them if you want to be good, whatever it is you hope to do.
Good luck.
Wisdom
Without good players, running a game can become just too tedious to make the effort worth it. Of course, without a good GM, players will eventually find something better to do with their time. I suppose we could get into a bit of a chicken or the egg argument here. Which comes first, the good players or the good GM? Do good GMs create good players, or are good GMs only born when they get a table full of good players? I’m sure the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Since we here at the Stew focus on all things GM, it’s understandable that we’ve covered many ways for GMs to nurture a table of solid players. Just searching on the word ‘players’ will pull up a ton of great articles offering advice on how to do everything from making better roleplayers, introducing them to gaming, staring them young, and so on. I’ve also touched on this topic elsewhere, discussing that sometimes it can actually help the game to play favorites in moderation. Learning how to encourage and embrace your players is a core skill for any GM. On the other side of the table, when an amazing player sits down, it can completely transform and elevate your game. Good players make running the game simultaneously easier and harder. It’s easy because you know whatever you throw at the players is going to turn into awesome, but it also gets harder because their skill and enthusiasm challenges you to stretch even further to give the best game possible. Good players make me want to be a better GM. So what is that players do that help their GMs?
Since a lot of people have been asking me about RPGs, the art of GMing, and the basics of playing, I think this post from Gnome Stew is especially relevant.
Edit: Gosh, it would be great if Tumblr preserved formatting when I pasted in quotes.
Wisdom
Garo Makai no Hana Scans Part 2
Jiiru, Gigi, Bikuu, Eiji.
My other scans
Still love this art style.
Makai no Hana Sketches from Director Amemiya
Raiga, Mayuri, and Crow sketches. Interestingly, he spells Crow as Kurow, like a combination of Kuro (Black) and Crow.
Just another time honored tradition of knights with their names ending in ro with a long o.
Other scans
Love this art style.
Hi! I've always had trouble finishing my stories. Whenever I have an idea, I try to develop it into something and then realize that it's not going anywhere, or that it just seems bland and uninteresting. I always end up with a pile of unfinished half-ideas and this is really discouraging. How can I fix this?
Stop leaving the stories the moment they stop being fun, and finish them instead, even if it’s hard, discouraging work. You’ll learn more from a story you finish, however bad it is, than you will from all the beginnings in the world, however good they are.
Wisdom
I see a lot about not giving up, about accomplishments still being possible when you're not young and don't have connections and it's nice, but is it true? I want to write - and so I do and try - but I'm starting to push 40 and it's been decades where I'm afraid of my own voice and my voice's validity, and it's hard to believe that some days when it's very dark. It gets hard to write when it's like that. Is it still true? (I'm sorry for the ask.)
I don’t see what age has to do with it. But here’s a list of 11 famous authors who weren’t published until they were over 40 (in some cases well over 40) to cheer you up:
http://www.11points.com/Books/11_Famous_Authors_Who_Werent_Published_Until_After_Age_40
Wisdom
Love these!
Reminders for readers:
It doesn’t matter how many books you read.
It doesn’t matter how many books others read.
Don’t worry too much about your reading goal.
Don’t judge others on their preferences.
Nobody likes book snobs.
Don’t worry about how many books you own.
Don’t force yourself to read books.
You can put a book down if you aren’t enjoying it.
Life’s too short to read books you don’t like.
You are allowed to reread books as many times as you want.
Ebooks are books and they’re great.
Audio books are books and they’re great.
Physical books are great too.
You are still valid. You are still a reader. It literally doesn’t matter how or what you read.
Don’t worry about what everyone else is reading.
Don’t worry about other opinions.
Read what you want.
Wisdom
Sichuan feast! Nom nom nom!
Delicious lychee green tea boba! Delicious pho! You are in me!
creme brulee bars
click here for recipe
I must make these!
Good sir, what advice, if any, would you have for an aspiring actor? More so along the lines of - where in the world does one start if they cannot afford an agent? Because finding oneself work seems almost impossible. Or maybe I just don't know how to look.
An agent is never something that you need to afford. Legitimate agents only make money when you make money, by taking a 10% commission from the total you were paid. When you’re in SAG/AFTRA, most of the jobs you get will offer “Scale +10%” which means the SAG/AFTRA scale rate, plus the 10% for your agent (so if you make $1500, you make $1500, not $1350 after your agent gets the $150 commission).
Any agent who wants money upfront for anything is a scammer and should be avoided at all costs. Ways agents will try to trick you include paying them for headshots, submissions, coaching, etc. Legit agents will be able to recommend other people who offer those services (except submissions – that’s an agent’s job and shouldn’t cost anything).
But that’s just one half of things. That’s the business side (and not even all of it). Let’s talk about the other side: the art side, the side that keeps you working part-time jobs so you can go on auditions and hopefully work as an actor. The business of acting sucks. I’ve been at it for nearly 35 years, and I still endure the kind of bullshit that I thought would have gone away (for me, with my experience) now: casting people who don’t make an effort to give me anything to work with, directors who don’t know what they want or how to communicate what they want to actors, non-actors wondering what my “real” job is, and on and on and on. What kept me focused and dedicated through years and years of that (and the struggle to just get any work at all) was how much I loved performing, how much I loved the process of creating a character, getting to know him and his relationships with the other characters, and bringing whatever that reality was to life.
I’ve worked on wonderful things, movies like Stand By Me, and dozens of episodes of TV like Eureka and Leverage, and I’ve worked in truly awful crapfests to pay my bills, like Deepcore 2000 and Fish Don’t Blink. I’ve had big roles in shows like The Big Bang Theory and tiny roles that were almost cut out entirely, like Pie In The Sky. In every case, though, I loved the process of creating the character I was going to play. I loved the experience I had writing about and exploring who he was. I loved breaking down the scenes into actions and beats, and then discovering new things I hadn’t even thought about when I played in those scenes with other actors. That love, that joy, that feeling of rightness when I was in the creative moment kept me going through all the business crap that I hated. It gave me something to look forward to and remember when I was subjected, again and again, to the fundamental and inherent unfairness of the industry.
Another way of saying all of this is: if you’re going to succeed as an actor – whether you work a lot or not – you have to need it the way a normal person needs food and water. It has to be such a fundamental part of who you are, you will endure some pretty shitty times and make a lot of sacrifices while you work on your craft and your art. If you don’t need it that way, if it isn’t something you’re willing to fight for, then you aren’t going to be a happy person. You aren’t going to be a fulfilled person, and that will make you a desperate and frustrated person when you audition.
Being an actor isn’t easy (if it was easy, everyone would do it and we wouldn’t see hundreds of hours of bullshit reality television clogging up the airwaves), but it is also a calling for a certain kind of person. If you’re that kind of person, and you’re willing to do the work, you are answering that calling and taking your place in a long and wonderful tradition. Remember: everything worth doing is hard, and for an actor, there is no better feeling in the world than absolutely nailing a scene, and bringing an audience along with you.
I hope this is helpful. Break a leg!
Fasinating post.
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