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One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug. He lay on his armour-hard back and saw, as he lifted his head up a little, his brown, arched abdomen divided up into rigid bow-like sections. From this height the blanket, just about ready to slide off completely, could hardly stay in place. His numerous legs, pitifully thin in comparison to the rest of his circumference, flickered helplessly before his eyes.

‘What’s happened to me,’ he thought. It was no dream. His room, a proper room for a human being, only somewhat too small, lay quietly between the four well-known walls. Above the table, on which an unpacked collection of sample cloth goods was spread out (Samsa was a traveling salesman) hung the picture which he had cut out of an illustrated magazine a little while ago and set in a pretty gilt frame. It was a picture of a woman with a fur hat and a fur boa. She sat erect there, lifting up in the direction of the viewer a solid fur muff into which her entire forearm disappeared.

Please note it’s 41 pages

It’s not that bad yet, but I feel like we’re on the way there. Luckily we still have a pretty good public sector for emergencies. But there is no public sector psychiatrists, at least not around here. So you’re covered for some things but not others, especially specialist treatment. That’s why I specified appointment, because most of the time appointment refers to private sector. And outpatient stuff, but the line is confusing and arbitrary.

For example,

• Dentists are essential but also elective.
• The hospital will cast your broken leg for free but you’ll pay a lot for the rehab physiotherapy privately.
• They’ll CT scan a tennis ball sized tumour for free, but refuse to remove it because even though it’s growing it’s “benign” i.e. if it won’t kill you then we don’t care.
• Two doctors will cost wildly different prices even though both use Medicare.
• You can go to the hospital 10 times for the same cardiac problem for free, but getting it investigated or fixed is private, unless you’re critically in danger.

It’s hard to know whether something will cost you or not until you try and get it treated. It’s very “reactionary” instead of “preventative” is how I’d describe it. Like they’ll chop off a diabetic foot for free, which is hugely expensive medical procedure requiring a surgeon, but seeing a dietician to learn how to manage your diabetes costs $200+ per appointment.

I almost feel like if I had to choose, the reverse should be true. Focus on preventing problems rather than putting out fires.

Yeah to me 5e is in a weird place right now. Not quite narrative focused and not quite crunchy numbers focused either. It’s like a middle ground where some parts are highly specific but others are left to interpretation. I’ve found people mostly get confused by this ambiguity.

Functionally it kind of just removes the curtain and reveals how effective health points (EHP) vs total health points actually works. But God it felt really shit to actually play. It goes against gaming convention.

I always thought it was the most interesting class because each power comes with a weakness, and they grow in power as you level up. Very X-Men like. Here’s some curse examples for people who don’t know what the class is about:

Clouded Vision - Your eyes are obscured, making it difficult for you to see. You cannot see anything beyond 30 feet, but you can see as if you had darkvision

Wrecker - The destructive power of the Abyss and its teeming hordes of demons seeps from your very pores and into your belongings and surroundings. Held objects gain the broken condition when you use or equip them but regain their actual condition if employed by anyone else. Disable Device becomes a class skill for you and you can make checks to destroy non-magical traps as a move action without the need to use tools or take any action beyond simply touching it.

It’s one of the reasons I love Pathfinder more than DnD. So much variety and creativity in the classes. More reading

In Australia, surprisingly and disappointingly, medical appointments. Seeing a specialist for anything is about $500 AUD, after Medicare rebate. So you need to have more than that much liquid cash on the day, and be able to tank the hit.

I still remember being in line behind this mother whose child was clearly extremely unwell mentally. When she heard the price for the psychiatrist appointment she’s like, I can’t pay that… Let alone 2 or 3 times because psychiatrists never diagnose on the first visit. She had her own (understandable) mental breakdown, and stepped outside to call family to borrow money.

You shouldn’t need a payment plan to get antipsychotics. Somehow still cheaper than the scam that is private health insurance though.

Careful about flashing that kind of cash

My favourite dad joke is when the waitress asked “how are you all finding the menu?” The reply was “they’re delicious, thank you” and it short circuited their brain lol

Never

You go back to where your consciousness comes from. Everyone has their own idea of what that means, but I don’t think anyone is 100% correct.

Actually, personality I believe that everyone is correct. You can go chill in heaven for a while, do whatever you want, maybe come back to Earth again after a breather.

You know that feeling when you’re playing a really intense game or watching a movie, and then it ends? And you just sit there like, damn. That was epic. Then you talk about it with your friends and family, maybe eat lunch, just hang out for a while before deciding what to do next? The comfortable zone after an exciting event but before boredom sets in. Maybe that movie was peak for you and you’re done forever, maybe not.

I miss split screen. Too many games nowadays, in order to play with my kids, I have to buy multiple copies, finagle multiple PCs and accounts just to play multiplayer. Finally my ancient laptop collection has a use

I was initially so mad when they blocked League of Legends on Linux. Then I was grateful 😂

Oh yeah I really wanted one of those, they look kind of fun. But it never arrived after months of waiting so I got a refund and gave up. They don’t sell them in AU

Imagine the sound of throwing another dry log on that pile ლ(´u´ლ)

We actually made an ouroboros. Hooray

I just looked that up because it seemed interesting. It was a fun little game where you have to choose out of two images. It was a lot harder though because it was out of context and photorealistic. I find it much harder personally to identify photo realism A.I. unless it makes some glaring mistakes. Mostly it kind of looks “too perfect”. I ended up with 80% accuracy. I actually got more accurate when I got bored and chose within 2 seconds to get it over with lol, I was less accurate when I carefully zoomed in and took my time which was an interesting outcome. The cynical part of me wonders if the results of that game will be used to make even more convincing A.I.

Link

I thought the EU was all about digital privacy? The fuck is this American-ass policy?

Honestly watching a let’s play of Gollum was the most hilarious thing I’ve seen in a long time. Like 10 hours of laughs. I’m not even sure if it counts as bad anymore if you categorise it as a comedy game

I used to schedule send my angry texts or emails for 1hr in the future. Before the deadline passed I always end up deleting it and never let it send