andrewrgross

I volunteered to present a talk on Robot Operating System (ROS) to the Open Automation Club. Details can be found here: https://www.autobio.blog/robot-operating-system-with-andy-gross/

If you want to join, this is the link (although I added the word "POTATO" to prevent bots from doing anything weird. Remove the word POTATO to access the meeting).

https://us06web.zoomPOTATO.us/j/85686205319?pwd=QUuCxqbbfYb3xhjf8X3Nqrn9VGVxHy.1

I gotta say that I feel weird reading this examination of Octavia Butler's notes.

I'm reading Parable of the Talents right now, and I had to stop. It's gotten too fucking dark. It's about the fascist takeover of America by Christian Nationalists, and a major character just died, and there is sexual exploitation of children... I really like Butler and Parable of the Sower, but this just got so dark I decided to read the summary and find out if I wanted to read more, and I don't think I can read this, at least not right now.

Reading about the unpublished sequels feels even worse. It seems like Butler had a head full of so much darkness and cynicism, and her published works were just the processed output after she managed to find the least brutal version of her thoughts. These books were her at her most hopeful! YIKES.

I like her and these books, but I just had to vent about some of this.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/14202920

There was a post on Reddit that praised the ubiquitous "Dear Alice" commercial, and inevitably a comment criticizing praise for a commercial. This led to me to wonder more about who it was that made this famous solarpunk advertisement. The answer is an animation studio called The Line. I went looking at some of their other work, and came across this interesting demo short for what appears to be a proof of concept or pilot for a solarpunky animated monster hunting series.

I don't love the heavy use of guns. But setting that aside, I think the art is interesting. I'm fascinated to see what people are doing with the artistic and conceptual toolset solarpunk offers, and I think this is a use case that I wouldn't mind seeing more of.

Unfortunately, this demo is as far as the project went. But I'm happy to see that the folks at The Line appear to have some broader interest in solarpunk, and I hope they keep putting it into practice in unique ways.

There was a post on Reddit that praised the ubiquitous "Dear Alice" commercial, and inevitably a comment criticizing praise for a commercial. This led to me to wonder more about who it was that made this famous solarpunk advertisement. The answer is an animation studio called The Line. I went looking at some of their other work, and came across this interesting demo short for what appears to be a proof of concept or pilot for a solarpunky animated monster hunting series.

I don't love the heavy use of guns. But setting that aside, I think the art is interesting. I'm fascinated to see what people are doing with the artistic and conceptual toolset solarpunk offers, and I think this is a use case that I wouldn't mind seeing more of.

Unfortunately, this demo is as far as the project went. But I'm happy to see that the folks at The Line appear to have some broader interest in solarpunk, and I hope they keep putting it into practice in unique ways.

Full disclosure: I'm the one in the interview. But still, I think this was a great episode! I really appreciated the questions Ariel asked and where the conversation went. There's so much I wish we could've covered, but considering the limitations of time, I have no regrets.

Share thoughts. I think there are other podcasts that would be a good fit to discuss this game. If so, though I'd encourage other devs of the game to consider going on. I think the diversity of perspectives would be cool to hear.

I had this idea for an adventure. I wanted to post it here so I don't forget it, and also to share it in case anyone else wants to use parts of this.

~

Players investigate a fatal industrial accident in a mining project by a fault line management agency. They discover that the deceased had uncovered a conspiracy: the agency has been slowly infiltrated at multiple levels by members of the suicide cult NostroCramo. This group believes that the world is a simulation, and seeks to crash the simulation to liberate themselves and anyone else who is trapped in it, and they've become convinced that triggering a massive earthquake will do it.

To do so, they've infiltrated the Seismic Management Division of the Pacifican Department of Geology, which is responsible for conducting deep subterranean operations to execute small controlled releases of energy along fault lines. Their plan has been to use the agency's resources to do the exact opposite purpose: instead of modeling out the safest way to release energy, they've been setting up an energy release meant to trigger the biggest possible release along the entire San Andreas fault line ever: the first magnitude 10+ quake.

The players have to investigate the death, discover that the accident was really a murder, uncover the conspiracy, then make their way through mine shafts to disable the charges. They must work their way all the way to the location of the largest charge in a bunker sitting 7 km down within the earth's crust. They can initially be trying to move undetected to avoid motivating the cultists to trigger the charges early, and then later be racing them down to the last and deepest one.

(I'm calling it "Rock-a-bye Baby" for now, although I'm pretty sure I can do better than that. Feel free to suggest cooler names.)

I created a brief introductory video explaining the premise of the game, another describing the premade characters, and four actual play videos to show folks what the game looks like in practice!

I've uploaded these to YouTube and of course PeerTube as well!

https://video.everythingbagel.me/c/fully_automated/videos

https://www.youtube.com/@FullyAutomatedRPG-nz1wh

I don't plan on making any more content at the moment, but I'm glad to have a few videos that I think might help people who want to know more get a clearer picture on what this is. And if we happen to make more video content in the future, we now have somewhere to put it!

RPGGeek.com is a website for rating and discussing role playing games. We now have a product listing there. If anyone is registered to the site, consider going on and leaving a rating or review!

Springfield, Ohio became suddenly famous nationally when Trump claimed that an influx of Haitian migrants were devouring residents' pets. I went looking to see what the town is experiencing from the perspective of local news, and it looks surprising nuanced.

It appears that the town saw a rapid influx of migrants fleeing violence in Haiti. The town has since experienced a strain in its ability to function in notable ways because of the population shock. The issues include a sudden reduction in the housing supply and an increase in traffic and inexperienced drivers. One particularly bad traffic accident killed a child during a school bus crash.

The city government has seemed to largely avoid blaming new arrivals themselves. However they've expressed a sense of betrayal towards Biden and the federal government for granting thousands of people entry into the country without appearing to recognize any responsibility for helping them resettle or aiding their destination cities in accommodating them. Additionally, they've begun investigating local businesses which they suspect used the expansion of visas for Haitians seeking asylum as an opportunity to seek out low-cost workers while concealing their role in creating a population shock for which the city was unprepared.

I must say that I think the city government makes a reasonable point: those of use who want to offer foreign visitors safety and dignity in American must also demand that our government takes responsibility for helping them relocate to a town in which is expecting their arrival and has been aided in making that arrival successful.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/13236888

Not givin' up