Author | Lightnews

Uncanny Kate Kirby @uncannykate.bsky.social · 11h

Social tip: Don’t ask people for favorites. It shuts down conversation as people mentally do comparisons and try to get the best answer.

Instead, ask for an example of something they like.

What’s my favorite comic book? I dunno. What’s a comic book I like? Oh, Astro City! (Or whatever pops up!)

2

Uncanny Kate Kirby @uncannykate.bsky.social · 14h

Few things will get a block from me faster than people who say cats are evil. They are not. I’ve had dogs and cats, and the love they give is no different. Life is too short to not yeet anti-cat people into the sun, I’m just sad I can only do it metaphorically.

1

Uncanny Kate Kirby @uncannykate.bsky.social · 1d

Fascinating, coming at it from the opposite site, but yes, it was always a false choice.

1

Uncanny Kate Kirby @uncannykate.bsky.social · 1d

Yeah, but I’ve seen it done with spare dice or even little bits of torn up paper with numbers on them, on a map drawn on notebook paper, so it’s not really that much of an obstacle. But I was sorted into Theater of the Mind in that era, I didn’t realize I preferred the minis until much later

Uncanny Kate Kirby @uncannykate.bsky.social · 1d

I’m so grateful we broke out of this largely. I think Critical Role and the players they brought in really helped. They are 100% the kinds of players that were sorted into White Wolf in the 90s, but they’re playing the other sort of game, and mixing the two styles, and it’s cool and fun. Hurray!

1

Uncanny Kate Kirby @uncannykate.bsky.social · 1d

30 years ago, the ttrpg default view was to split itself into twain into rules-bound math nerds who played games like D&D with maps and minis, and flighty theater geeks who played games like Vampire using Theater of the Mind. D&D wasn’t for roleplayers, mechanics weren’t for actors.

God it sucked.

2 3

Uncanny Kate Kirby @uncannykate.bsky.social · 1d

525,600 minutes,
how do you measure, last night’s ball game?

Uncanny Kate Kirby @uncannykate.bsky.social · 1d

I only made it 12 innings before I went to bed so I’d be functional at work today. It’s days like this that I miss living on the west coast for sure.

1

Uncanny Kate Kirby @uncannykate.bsky.social · 2d

I want to sleep but this game is amazing. Go Dodgers!

Uncanny Kate Kirby @uncannykate.bsky.social · 2d

Shohei Ohtani is really a special player. I’ve been watching Dodger games for the last two years largely to watch him play.

Uncanny Kate Kirby @uncannykate.bsky.social · 2d

Bruce Wayne is all stretched out! #cats

A grey cat stretched out fully on a lap.

5

Uncanny Kate Kirby @uncannykate.bsky.social · 2d

Some people say “Yeah, but once they fine-tune them, won’t it be great!” But it’s not fine-tuneable. Correctness is not the point. This kind of algorithm is only correct in a probabilistic sense, it’s not the goal. We went down the wrong but seductive path, and it all needs to be thrown out.

Uncanny Kate Kirby @uncannykate.bsky.social · 2d

When some schmucks invented computers that could confidently answer nearly anything, we’re conditioned to believe it’s a miracle, because it’s a given that computers produce correct output. But these are only tuned to be confident, not correct. And it’s a disaster. It’s also unfixable.

1

Uncanny Kate Kirby @uncannykate.bsky.social · 2d

We spent so many decades with computers being somewhat limited in what they could do but almost always correct in output, thanks to hard working software engineers who treated incorrectness as a bug, we trained ourselves to believe it. Lt. Data isn’t wrong on facts. We are so unprepared for “A.I.”.

1

Uncanny Kate Kirby @uncannykate.bsky.social · 2d

Also, I didn’t notice at first, but Wal*Mart is drop-shipping items from Amazon in their store. It even came in an Amazon box even though I ordered it through the WM store. Fascinating. It was slightly more expensive at WM ($26 vs. $23 for the chip multipack). But seamless integration!

Uncanny Kate Kirby @uncannykate.bsky.social · 2d

Having to do a return on an item (Wrong Chips, I cannot eat the super spicy pack), and I feel a little bad for the poor fellow running chat, it’s clear that most people abuse the crap out of them and I’m being understanding and he’s so grateful. It’s just wrong chips, people!

1

Uncanny Kate Kirby @uncannykate.bsky.social · 7d

This year’s fever dreams included fighting off an invading robot space fleet, getting abandoned as a child in a supermarket because my mother didn’t believe I was really sick, and then a fun period where I shot a lot of nazis. I think I was a cyborg for a while too.

Uncanny Kate Kirby @uncannykate.bsky.social · 7d

I can’t say coming back from vacation and immediately getting Covid, Flu, and Pneumonia shots was a good idea, but it’s what I did. Extending “vacation” by two really horrible days, but I think I’ll be back to normal tomorrow, and hope to extend my never-had-Covid streak another year!

2

Uncanny Kate Kirby @uncannykate.bsky.social · 9d

On a brighter note, though, I have today off as a con recovery day, so I slept through most of it!

Uncanny Kate Kirby @uncannykate.bsky.social · 9d

As a software engineer, the problem with AWS is that they’re so much better than the competitors, it’s almost irresponsible NOT to use them. Faster, cheaper, scales better, fewer bugs, broader support, better APIs. They’re vastly ahead of the competition.

But that leads to mornings like this.

1 1

Uncanny Kate Kirby @uncannykate.bsky.social · 9d

Nothing like sleeping in very late the day after a convention.

Uncanny Kate Kirby @uncannykate.bsky.social · 10d

Had a fantastic time at GameHoleCon this weekend. It reminds me it’s good to spend time in my community. I don’t know why the Wisconsin D&D organized play group turns out to be so awesome and inclusive, but they are, and I’ll be back again next year if possible!

3

Uncanny Kate Kirby @uncannykate.bsky.social · 15d

Also needs some cats.

1 2

Uncanny Kate Kirby @uncannykate.bsky.social · 16d

I know the left can be a bit much about some things, but conservatives, I beg you, do 10 minutes of research on a neutral site like Wikipedia about Christopher Columbus.

This is not the hill you want to die on.

The stories we grew up on were pure fiction. He was reviled in his own time.

1

Uncanny Kate Kirby @uncannykate.bsky.social · 17d

I’m really struggling. The world is super scary for trans people right now, I’ve had multiple unexpected deaths this year, and several communities that I was relying on collapsed.

I need to leave the house more, but I don’t even know how to do that anymore.

1 2