#new binary options system

[newsupdatesbykiara]

Automated Trading Systems in Binary Options Trading

Mobile Trading Apps

The advent of mobile investment apps has further democratized investment with binaries making it accessible from anywhere in the world. These apps bring the full functionality of desktop platforms to smartphones and tablets, allowing traders to manage their accounts, analyze markets, and execute trades on the go.

Advantages of Mobile Trading Apps:

Convenience: Trade anytime, anywhere.

Real-Time Alerts: Receive notifications about market changes and investment opportunities.

Full Functionality: Access all the features of desktop platforms.

User-Friendly Interfaces: Intuitive design for easy navigation.

[discodeerdiary]

There's a good reason why I try not to argue publicly with anyone under 18, and it's not that I think they're inherently stupid, it's not that I think their brains are "underdeveloped", it's not that I think they can "do no wrong", it's that I never know how much freedom they actually have to think freely, or how many of their opinions are actually their own. Of course, under-18s *can be* capable of thinking for themselves and developing their own opinions, but (here in the US at least) law and culture put a lot of roadblocks on their ability to do so.

Of course parents and teachers cannot actually control the inner thoughts of the children they wield power over, but they can restrict the information that they have access to, can punish them for saying the wrong things, can cut them off from healthy diverse social groups, and can convince the child their thoughts are being monitored through religion, psychology, and other appeals to higher authority.

Thus if a random teenager says some headass shit in my mentions I have no way of knowing if these are opinions they arrived at on their own, or if they are dogmas forced on them by the people holding food and shelter over their head. If it's the latter, there's nothing to be gained from a public confrontation: people are generally unwilling to change their opinions in a direction that threatens their social support system, and they are especially unwilling to do so at the behest of an internet stranger who cannot offer alternative forms of support. If a teen is genuinely curious about my opinion (that is *if they consent* to a discussion of disagreements) and if I have the mental bandwidth for a potentially emotionally loaded conversation, yeah I'll have it, but I'm not gonna maintain any illusions about my ability to change their mind until they can find a way to live independently.

This is also why my leniency toward the not-yet-adult tends to also extend to the recently-adult. Coming up with a system of beliefs that you're actually willing to stand behind? Shit takes time, and I'm not necessarily gonna expect it of a 20-year-old who may, for all I know, have been living under conditions of near-absolute control up until their 18th birthday. Sure they may be opening their mind in college, or college may be their parents way of keeping them too occupied with busywork to develop new opinions, as they continue to hold financial support over their head. It's around their mid-twenties that I'm willing to go full gloves-off antagonistic with strangers, knowing that they've had a few years of legal and social adulthood under their belt, and that even if they're still financially dependent on their parents it's a different sort of dependence, one where they're given default legal permission to run away from home.

A lot of people are deeply uncomfortable with this line of thinking because if you look too far into the factors that influence young people's thoughts, you eventually have to start asking yourself which forces of dependency are influencing your own beliefs and opinions. Yeah, as an independent adult you may have the option to quit your job, divorce your spouse, ditch your friends, move to another country, but realistically how many of these can you accomplish at the same time? How many do you even want to? And how are all of these forces *in aggregate* setting the acceptable limits of what you're allowed to think and feel? It can be upsetting to think of yourself this way, it can be easier to think of yourself as a true free thinker and children as mindless automatons, but I urge you to think of mentally coercive environments as a continuum rather than a binary. The point is not to free yourself from all influence, but to gain the ability to see yourself as an influenced mind, and to have compassion for those dealing with all the bullshit you don't have to anymore.

[reasonsforhope]

"Shopping for clothes is already intimidating. There are so many options and styles to consider, as well as factors like sustainability and ethics.

But for people in fat, disabled, or queer and gender-nonconforming bodies, it’s even more arduous.

Nico Herzetty, Emma K. Clark, and Paul Herzetty wondered: What if there was a way people could shop — not necessarily by color or size — but by measurements, materials, and ethics?

So they set off to create their website: Phoria. 

Here, shoppers can set up a free profile, add their body measurements (and “typical fit challenges”) and peruse over 270 brands. Once these data points are entered, users can personalize their pages with “saved,” “recommended,” or “hidden” brands. 

Pages can be totally private, or shared with the community to connect over styles and brands.

Aside from fit, brands in the Phoria database (which claims to be “the largest database of plus-friendly brands”) can also be filtered as “gender-neutral,” “woman-run,” “small business,” or “natural fibers.” Users can also filter for price, preferred styles, and more.

Pictured: A screenshot of the "Fit Challenges" feature on a Phoria user's profile.

Some brands include popular names like Athleta, Levi’s, and Patagonia. Others are small businesses, like Beefcake Swimwear, or Hey Peach.

“For so many people, it feels too damn hard to find and keep clothing that fits in all the ways that really matter. So we’re doing something about it,” the Phoria website reads.

“Unlike most online shopping experiences, we center the needs of plus-size women, nonbinary, and trans people, and prioritize supporting clothing brands focused on sustainability, ethics, and inclusion.” ...

That team — made up of Clark, and Nico and Paul Herzetty — calls themselves “fat, disabled, and very, very queer.” 

“These are some of the main ways we identify, and they’re qualities that have directly impacted our ability to get dressed every day in a way that feels good,” the Phoria team introduces themselves on the website.

Pictured: A screenshot of Phoria's plus-size clothing brand database.

In addition to catering the user experience to women, non-binary, and trans people, Phoria is also a benefit corporation, or a B corp.

“We’ve legally required ourselves to consider the interests of all our stakeholders — customers, employees, the planet, and our shareholders,” the Phoria website explains.

“Our specific public benefit purpose is to reduce people’s dependence on buying mass-produced items made in unsustainable ways and to use human-centered business models to boldly challenge economic systems of inequity.” 

Right now, in the early stages of the company’s business, it doesn’t make any money.

“We’re focused on building something that genuinely solves plus-size people’s challenges around clothes shopping and supports smaller and more sustainable brands,” Phoria’s website states.

So, spreading the word seems to be of utmost importance...

Additionally, TikTok creators @couplagoofs (a queer couple named Morgan and Phoebe), recently shared a video in which they discovered Phoria. They met the website’s creators at a fat liberation event in their city and were introduced to the tool.

Quickly, commenters responded with gratitude and excitement.

“It is so disappointing to sort through pages of plus size clothes that aren’t even plus size,” a TikTok user commented. “This is gonna be such a good tool!” 

Some even shared emotional responses, speaking to the need at the heart of Phoria’s mission. 

“I’m… gonna cry,” another commenter wrote. “I’ve needed this my whole life.”"

-via Goodgoodgood, November 20, 2023

[theresattrpgforthat]

hi! have you seen the TTRPGS for Palestine bundle yet? and do you have any recommendations from it

https://tiltify.com/@jesthehuman/ttrpgs-for-palestine

THEME: TTRPGS for Palestine

The TTRPGs for Palestine Bundle is going from April 12 to May 7, so there's not much time left to get it, but here's some recommendations of some really awesome games that you can find in it.

Gubat Banwa, by makapatag.

GUBAT BANWA is a Martial Arts Tactics and War Drama Tabletop RPG where you play as martial artists poised to change the world: Kadungganan: the cavalry, the wandering swordsmen, the tide turners, the knights-errant, the ones to call in darkest night in a world inspired and centering Southeast Asian folklore.

Witness, grand warriors, honorable gallants that trudge and toil under kings and haloes. Witness, KADUNGGANAN, that refulgent name. That blasted name: WITNESS NOW. The end of days is upon us: and the new world MUST BE BORN. Bear your blades, incant your magicks. Cut open your tomorrow from the womb of violence. Inscribe your name upon the very akasha of this world. 

Gubat Banwa is designed for fans of 4th edition D&D, with in-depth character abilities that make you feel both unique and powerful, in a colourful and flavourful world full of vibrant cultures and clashing conflicts. The game uses an action economy with different action options carrying different weights, which also reminds me quite a bit of Lancer. If you want a game that pushes you to strategize with your friends and weigh your advancement options carefully, you want Gubat Banwa.

Gun & Slinger, by Nevyn Holmes.

GUN&SLINGER is an RPG geared for short, episodic sessions about a weapon and a wanderer. A Maestro and two players (Gun and Slinger) set out into a dead planet mutated by a god's forgotten child and hunt strange bounties, investigate the world and unlock hidden powers. During play, they seek to learn the nature of what’s hunting the Slinger, figure out why the Gun is sentient and discover how the world died.

This game is specifically for three players, using the rules of Go Fish as a resolution system. Gun & Slinger is all about using your resources to the best of their ability, and your resources might exist on your character sheet, but they also exist as cards in your hand.

What really intrigues me is the lore that’s baked into your character sheets. One of you is a wanderer in a twisted world, tempted by strange powers that guarantee to change you into a monster. One of you is a sentient magical gun, borne by that wanderer and designed to deliver death and pain.

Gun & Slinger has expansions included, allowing you to instead play as a wanderer possessed by a demon, a mech and a pilot fused as one, or someone who bears a cursed sword. I think the fact that it requires a small table and the fact that the characters’ lives are tied together makes this a high-stakes, terribly intimate game.

Apocalypse Frame, by Binary Star Games.

In a ruined and terraformed world where most of humanity is under the yoke of a brutal regime, the former workers of a once-remote factory - now known as The Collective - have risen up to create a future of freedom from oppression. You are an Ace - a highly skilled pilot referred from a Division in The Collective and assigned a humanoid combat vehicle known as a Frame. You and your Strike Team of fellow Aces must take on The Collective’s greatest threats, ensure its survival, and carve a path for its continued success.

Apocalypse Frame takes mechs and fits them into the LUMEN system, which centres competency as well as fast but effective rounds of combat. The game includes a variety of different threats, allowing you to tailor your campaign to your group’s tastes, and the tailoring doesn’t stop there. You choose both a division that your character belongs to, and then one of three mechs within that division, allowing players to share similar fighting styles but differ in weapons. You can also modify your basic frame, adding general modular systems alongside systems and armaments that can come with your mech, making character creation and progression exciting for folks who love tweaking and tailoring to their heart’s content.

If you’re a fan of Armored Core or Battletech, you’ll want to check out Apocalypse Frame.

Here, There Be Monsters!, by wendi yu.

No matter what they tell you, there’s still weirdness and wonder everywhere. You just have to know where to look. At the edges and cracks of ‘normal’ life we exist, we persist, and we resist: the monsters, the magicians, the anomalies, the freaks, and the outcasts. We gather in the shadows, trying our best to live our lives in a world that, when it doesn’t exactly fear or hate us, doesn't even believe in our existence.

here, there, be monsters! is a rules-lite response to monster-hunting media from the monsters' point of view. It's both a love letter and a middle finger to stuff like Hellboy (and the BPRD), the SCP Foundation, the Men in Black, the World of Darkness games and the Urban Fantasy genre in general. It is an explicitly queer, antifascist and anti-capitalist game about the monstrous and the weird, in any flavor you want, not as something to be feared, but to be cherished and protected.

Here, There, Be Monsters is a love-letter to anyone who has been made to feel monstrous, as well as an homage to media such as Hellboy, the SCP Foundation, and Men in Black. It’s urban fantasy meets organized power structures, and as the monsters, you’re here to burn those structures down.

This game uses descriptive tags to slap onto your characters to represent what they can do. You can choose from a number of different monster character backgrounds to give you guidance towards, and there’s plenty of monsters both in the base game and in the game jam wendi ran back in 2022. If you want a game of power, anti-capitalism, and punching up, this is the game for you.

Pale Dot, by Devin Nelson.

Pale Dot is a collaborative storytelling game for 2-5 players about a crew of non-human cosmonauts leaving their planet to explore a strange solar system, finding threads to unravel the unknown along the way. It is fantastical, surreal, and perhaps very unlike humanity’s own ventures in space exploration. Though one thing is universal: leaving home is terrifying, dangerous, humbling, and a catalyst for changing one’s perspective. 

Pale Dot is a GM-less game where players work together to create an alien setting and subsequently envelop it in cosmic mystery, embodying cosmonauts called Dustlings, as well as one of 5 different settings. During their journey they will be able to travel to 24 different locations within their solar system, each with several prompts for improvisational scenes. Each player will also have to manage the integrity of their cosmonaut and their shared ship while avoiding space's many perils.

The cover for Pale Dot gripped me the first time I saw it; a tiny creature in an astronaut suit, looking up in fear at something in the sky, as vegetation blooms inside their helmet. You play as the Dustlings, non-human but sentient species exploring the Cosmos, a strange, horrifying and wonderful universe that changes those who venture into it.

Mechanically, Pale Dot uses a GM-less structure similar to Dream Askew, but there feels to be a much bigger emphasis on the setting your cosmonauts explore, rather than the cosmonauts themselves. Your characters are assembled traits, drives and equipment, almost all of which can be expended to cause or solve problems. Each player is also responsible for at least one setting element, such as The Cosmic Wilderness, The Wondrous Endeavour, or The Omnipresent Danger. As you visit locations, different elements will be prompted to influence the scene, while your cosmonauts try to navigate the scene and try to finish the mission. If you want a game that is collaborative and evocative, I definitely recommend Pale Dot.

Fractal Romance, by Ostrichmonkey Games.

A never ending abstract landscape of rhythm and soft glamour. Wander the halls, rooms, and chambers. Encounter strange Denizens and get to know them better; befriend them, fall in love, just chill. Try and fill out your own blurred edges. Fractal Romance is a tabletop role playing hangout. You will pick up a character to play and explore the Fractal Palace, generating its infinite sprawl and the Denizens that inhabit it, as you play.

Fractal Romance is all about searching; for something you need, something you want, or even for who you are. It feels rather surreal, perhaps like a dream dimension that you are moving through. The game uses a deck of cards to generate rooms, as well as the denizens of this gigantic, dream-like palace. This game uses rather simplistic playbooks, each asking you to choose three descriptive words, and then uses cards to fuel your character’s actions: you have things you can always do, things that cost a card to do, and things that you must do in order to draw another card.

If what you want out of a game is a chill time with friends, moving from one vibe to another, and generating emotional stories for your characters, you might want to check out Fractal Romance.

Himbos of Myth and Mettle, by huge boar.

You are big. Big arms, big tits, big thighs, big brai- you're big where it matters. In addition to a heaving, throbbing body, glistening lightly with a thin sheen of pleasantly fragrant perspirant, you have one singular unifying trait  - come hell or high water, you are going to help.

Himbos of Myth & Mettle is a high fantasy, high camp role playing game of epic proportions (of body), for 2-5 players, one of whom will act as Game Guide.  The rules center around a simple roll under mechanic and prioritize narrative flair and cinematic descriptions. Himbos is inspired by many classic fantasy properties (and could be considered OSR adjacent) , but leans towards a more garish, salacious and queer (gay or odd, pick your fighter) style of play. It is designed with comedy and flamboyance in mind, but is not without it deeper and darker touches. It's definitely not grimdark, but there will probably be blood. Think classic fantasy pulp in style, but contemporary sensibilities, modern rules-lite mechanics, and a player philosophy centred in helping, kindness and being fucking hot.

I’ve heard rave reviews for Himbos, and I think the idea of leading an entire group of well-meaning but possibly over-ambitious adventurers is a great set-up for a game full of laughs. Himbos is very much designed for a light-hearted evening of fun, flirting, and fucking up (but in the best way).

Other Games from the Bundle I've Recommended:

Space Taxi, and Creation Myths, by GothHoblin.

Caltrop Core, by Titanomachy.

Souvenirs, by Rémi Töötätä.

Thunder in Our Hearts, by Marn. S.

Eldritch Courts of Some Repute, by AlanofAllTrades.

[indigowallbreaker]

In before the update tomorrow

Here are my predictions/wishlist Stardew Valley 1.6 update! These range from "could happen" to "just let me dream":

Children aging past toddlerhood; gain ability to change their outfits

Another set of romanceable NPCs (eyeing Sandy and the Wizard particularly)

More post-marriage dialogue/events. Like an anniversary date

Festivals changing as the years go on. For example: after getting 8 hearts with Sam, Abigail, and Sebastian, maybe their band plays at the Stardew Valley Fair; the governor brings his wife to the Luau the year after you make the soup taste Delish

The ability to properly befriend certain NPCs like Marlon and Gunther

Separate screen to keep track of farm animals, similar to villager screen in the menu (helpful to me when I play a file I haven't logged into in a while and discover after 3 in-game days that I have sheep)

Non-binary farmer option

Please let me interact with the stuff in the community center I spent my whole file trying to fix

NPCs will repeat dialogue to you after you've spoken to them already during a festival to avoid the creepy situation of wandering around an event and not being able to speak with anyone like they've suddenly become statues and you're the only living thing left in town

Other bachelors/bachelorettes getting together after you're married (little bit of the old Harvest Moon rival system)

More NPCs that move to town the longer you live there, like Kent arriving in Year 2

Morris shows up every once in a while after you complete the Center just so you can appreciate how much you ruined this man's whole life. Or he experiences Growth from being in the Valley, whichever

Heart events occurring more than once. For example: replaying Abigail and Sebastian's gaming/RPG heart events; Leah can hold more than one art show to sell exclusive art; Elliot will have a new book for you to hear an excerpt from every year or so; help Penny teach the kids again; etc.

More ways to increase max health

Could I have a birthday please Mr. Ape ;_;

Fix the "Leek Surprise Gift" cutscene unlocked after Evelyn's special request so that I don't wanna crack George over the head afterwards just because I picked the dialogue option that would give his poor wife credit

Make George Nice To His Wife Every Once In A While patch

Option to fist fight certain villagers, either instigated by them when their friendship gets too low or instigated by you if you've just always hated them and wanna do something about it

At 10 hearts Jodi runs away to travel with Emily and Haley's parents because apparently no one on that street actually wanted to be a parent

Give me ten good reasons Willy can't adopt me

[queertranshappiness]

Today's good queer and trans news, from across this week (14th July):

3 major Irish mental health professional bodies have signed a joint memorandum against conversion therapy

Same sex marriage has been legalised in Aruba, St Martins and Curaçao

The Japanese Supreme Court has ruled a trans woman can change her legal gender without getting gender affirming surgery, which is a victory for trans bodily autonomy, even if the fight continues to fully de-medicalise the process

2 queerphobic board members of a Californian school district have lost a recall election, after attempting last year to ban all non-state flags from being flown in schools, targeting Pride and other movement flags

27 more small cities and towns across the US have hosted their first Prides this year

The Advocate General of the EU's Court of Justice has released an opinion that SNCF, the French national rail company, must offer other title options than Mr and Mrs in their ticket system, which is a good step for nonbinary people and GDPR, as a case about it works through the court

And the School Diversity Week program, run by queer youth charity Just Like Us, has reached over 7400 schools and 4.7 million pupils this year across the UK, making this year's program the biggest ever so far

(Credit to: GCN (https://gcn.ie/irish-mental-health-organisations-memorandum-conversion-therapy/), @/queernewsdaily on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/p/C9VqnFsy_IZ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==) and LGBTQ Nation (https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/07/historic-japan-court-ruling-allows-trans-woman-to-change-gender-without-surgery/, https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/07/school-district-votes-out-board-members-who-banned-pride-flags-in-schools/, https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/07/dozens-of-small-towns-hosted-their-first-pride-events-this-year/), TGEU (https://www.tgeu.org/cjeu-advocate-general-rules-collection-of-civil-titles-is-unlawful-and-risks-discrimination-against-trans-and-non-binary-peop/), and @/justlikeusuk on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/p/C9NQkcGC2XB/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==) for these.)

[satoshi-mochida]

ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights sequel ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist announced for Switch

From Gematsu

Publisher Binary Haze Interactive and developers Live Wire and Adglobe have announced ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights sequel ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist for Switch. It will launch in 2024. It will support English, Japanese French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Korean language options.

“We teased a sequel to ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights nearly two years ago, and we have received countless requests from our online community for a second adventure,” said Binary Haze Interactive CEO Hiroyuki Kobayashi in a press release. “It is an honor and a pleasure to announce our next title with the help of Nintendo during such a prestigious event. We have much much to share in the very near future, stay tuned!”

Here is an overview of the game, via Binary Haze Interactive:

Decades after the Rain of Death, a new journey begins in the Land of Fumes, where mystical powers lie beneath the earth. The kingdom’s desire for conquest led to the creation of the Homunculi, machine-like artificial life forms prepared to execute the king’s will. A recent resource-harvesting mission gone awry caused toxic vapors to emerge from underground, driving both man and machine to feral madness. As the Homonculi devolve into dangerous creatures, guide Lilac—an “Attuner” with the power to purify those infected by the fumes—on a quest to save the kingdom. With the help of friendly machines and spirits who fight in Lilac’s stead, fend off mechanized legions of lunging carcasses, cannonball-firing corpses and chainsaw-wielding goblins terrorizing the land. Turn foes into friends by exorcizing corruption from enemy bosses. Wield their powers to add 30 different abilities to Lilac‘s combat repertoire in an enhanced battle system where she can equip up to four special abilities at once. Improve Lilac’s odds of surviving this hunt for lost memories by leveling up attack strength, HP, and armor. Explore the depths, heights and far corners of the kingdom for lore-filled relics. Collect and trade gold for upgraded items at the Blacksmith’s storefront. Combine story fragments from the kingdom’s fleeing inhabitants with Lilac’s forgotten memories. Seek the truth in an atmospheric hand-drawn setting set to the soothing serenades of returning musical group Mili (Ghost in the Shell, Goblin Slayer) with a brand new original soundtrack available for purchase at launch.

More information will be announced on February 26 at 7:00 a.m. PT / 10:00 a.m. ET via the game’s official website.

Watch the announcement trailer below. View the first screenshots at the gallery.

Announce Trailer

Japanese

[rpgsandbox]

Wilderfeast is an RPG about becoming part of the natural world by making it part of you.

Players assume the role of “wilders”: monster hunters/chefs who wield gargantuan kitchen implements and gain powerful mutations from each monster they eat. Using those powers, they seek harmony between humanity and the wild.

All creatures, be they humans or monsters, obey the One Law of the One Land…

In Wilderfeast, players take on the role of the mutated rangers who roam the land trying to stop the frenzy, an eldritch virus which makes kaiju-esque monsters violent and self-destructive before leaping to stronger hosts.

Gameplay alternates between Journeys (high-intensity, travel and combat) and Downtime (low-intensity, rest and roleplay). In both phases, you resolve conflicts with a simple but flexible dice pool system, built around a central idea…

Wilders are both, so they can choose which of their sides to embrace when taking Tests: will you focus up, and stay true to your human side, or go wild, and unleash the monster in you?

The world of Wilderfeast is the One Land - a post-post-apocalyptic supercontinent, both familiar and fantastic, beautiful and harsh, where food is magic.

The One Land is vast, wild, and old. It’s populated by humans and monsters, extraordinary creatures who take inspiration from paleontology, cryptozoology, and works like Monster Hunter and Godzilla.

The One Land is also vulnerable. Humans, relative newcomers here, have unleashed the frenzy, an eldritch virus which makes coexistence between humanity and the creatures everyday more difficult.

The One Land is not an easy place to live. It is littered with both the bones of extinct species and the ruins of fallen civilizations. But after each apocalypse, something new and green grows from the ashes.

Wilderfeast’s system is fast, customizable and easy to learn.

All creatures, both humans and monsters, have these attributes:

When something’s at stake, you roll a Test. Every Test combines a Style with a Skill, such as a Mighty Call to intimidate a monster into backing away or a Swift Search to follow tracks in the undergrowth.

Wilderfeast has a simple but flexible dice pool system. The mechanics are built around a central idea: humans use d8s and monsters use d20s. Wilders are both human and monstrous, and they can switch between these dice sizes.

To build your dice pool, gather a number of d6s equal to your level in the Test’s Style (such as “Mighty”, “Precise”, “Swift” or Tricky”). These are called your Style Dice. Every 5+ on your Style dice grants you a Success on the Test.

Then, add your Action Dice, which determines the quality of the Success you eventually achieved. Humans use a d8 for their Action Die, while monsters use a d20. However, wilders are both. During this step, you choose which side of yourself to embrace. 

If you focus up, you stay true to your human side: add a d8 Action Die to your dice pool. This option is consistent and reliable.

If you go wild, you embrace your monster side: choose one of your Traits and describe how it helps you in this situation. Then, remove 1 Style Die and replace it with a d20 Action Die. This is risky, as it lowers your overall chance of success, but it could make your action an order of magnitude more effective. Now, roll your dice pool for a Test.

Tests create a spectrum of results beyond binary success and failure. The range of choices when making Tests also accommodates different playstyles. You can aim for big numbers, deep strategies, and tactical play. Or you can get creative and add details to the fiction.

Wilders are the ones most capable of stopping the spiral of fear and death that’s consuming the One Land. They’re not a formal order: some look like cavemen, others like wandering knights. Each is free to decide how to take on the job, but they all share some common attributes:

Each wilder has a Tool, enormous kitchen implements to produce mind-boggling amounts of food. Wilders repurposed those artifacts as weapons, though they still come in handy as cooking aids. There are 6 Tools in total (Cleaver, Pan, Mitts, Spit, Torch and Twine), and they define a wilder’s “class”: your training, disposition, and approach to being a wilder.

Each wilder has a Specialty, which corresponds to one of the monstrous lineages. Your choice of Specialty indicates your character’s expertise in both hunting and caring for members of that lineage. There are eight Specialties in total, like Roaster, Fisher, Butcher or Gardener.

Each wilder has a three-course Background. Your backstory, initiation and drive, framed through food: what meal defined your childhood? What meal made you a wilder? What meal do you crave the most?

These mutated rangers work in packs and have taken on the duty to stop the frenzy. Packs are free to decide both what harmony with nature means and how they hope to achieve it. For example, bounty-packs resemble the grizzled mercenaries of The Witcher, while free-packs evoke the wolf-raised warrior of Princess Mononoke.

As a wilder, what path will you walk?

The One Land’s ecosystems are original, but not alien. All monsters celebrate and exaggerate the features of real animals, from dinosaurs to dogs. Their supernatural abilities are grounded in the struggles they face to survive. A breath-taking variety of creatures that share this world with humans and wilders: 30+ different creatures, each with its own Traits, body Parts and Behavior that make every hunt different.

Wilderfeast features a modern and versatile style of combat that blends puzzle-solving thrills and fast-paced action strategy. Every pack of Wilders can take a different approach to the Hunt: will you split in groups and attract the monster’s fury to expose its weak spots, or will you growl at its face and go full frontal?

Each creature gains 3 Actions at the start of their turn during combat, which they can spend on the following Activities, each with a variable cost:

Combat orbits around the Monster, so you measure all distance in combat using Strides. Wilders spend combat between 0 Strides, where you’re right on top of the Monster, and 4 Strides, where you just barely register as a threat.

This number represents the distance you’re maintaining, not your static position. At all times during a hunt, you’re circling the Monster, chasing after it, or driving it toward more favorable terrain. Two wilders who are the same number of Strides from the Monster could either be right next to each other or on opposite sides of it, but that’s intentional. Moving around or with the Monster is automatic; moving towards or away from it takes effort.

The iconic meals of the wilders combine the roughness of campfire cooking with the ceremony of a holiday festival. These wilderfeasts are celebration and mourning, all wrapped up in one. During this phase, you clean, prepare, and cook the Monster where it fell, turning it into a meal that honors its legacy and gives you strength. In doing so, you learn about it. The more you know about the Monster, the better informed your decision when you choose what mutation to inherit: after you eat The Feast, choose a Style, Skill, or Trait in which the Monster has more levels than you do, or which you don’t have at all. You permanently gain a level in that Style, Skill, or Trait. 

Not every meal gives such dramatic mutations as a wilderfeast, but food is always magic in the One Land, even the most casual of snacks. Before setting out on the road, a merchant eats a meal full of hardy greens to give them the endurance for a day of travel; a guard, beginning their shift in a watchtower, chews on raptor jerky to sharpen their eyesight; a student brews tea with a night-blooming flower so they can stay up late studying. The changes caused by these meals are subtle and temporary, and they're woven into the fabric of everyday life.

When you have a cooking opportunity, such as when you Camp during your Journeys, you and your packmates can make a meal. To cook, you select Ingredients, determine how much Stamina the meal restores (typically 1 for each Ingredient used), and determine the meal’s effect, choosing among those of the Ingredients you used.

These meals can either be served fresh or saved for later and turned into Snacks (so that you can consume a portion when you need to restore Stamina or trigger other effects but you don’t have the time to stop and cook). Once you’ve cooked the meal, be sure to describe it! Tell everyone enough about the dish’s flavor, textures, or appearance that they can taste it in their head.

Wilderfeast is a letter-sized, hardcover book of 250+ pages, with full-color art throughout. It includes:

Fast and robust character creation, with 6 Tools (each with their own set of unlockable Traits), 8 Specialties, and suggestions for your three-course backstory. No matter how you build your character, you start with connections to the One Land and your fellow players.

Streamlined and accessible rules for each phase of the game.

A Bestiary with 30+ monsters, each with their own art, stats, and ecological information.

A travel guide, exploring the One Land and the Sen Coast, with detailed maps and extensive tables of cooking ingredients.

The Last Chamig, a set of four standalone scenarios also playable as an overarching campaign. These accessible and easy to set up scenarios are designed to introduce Guides and Wilders to the game system and come with full-detailed maps, stat blocks, pregenerated characters, an a set-list of events. The pitches for each chapter of The Last Chamig will be revealed over the course of the Kickstarter campaign!

Essential advice for running the game, including recommended safety tools, tips for creating your own monsters and regions, and player-empowering mechanics to help the group define the adventures they want to have. Do you want to steward the wild, get stronger, protect your community, or explore ruins from the ancient past?

==============================

Kickstarter campaign ends: Tue, September 26 2023 10:59 PM BST

Website: [Horrible Guild] [facebook] [twitter] [instagram]

[ddwcaph-game]

Progress Update

Hello everyone! I know this is a bit late, but Happy Pride Month! 🌈

I actually have something relevant to share: I'll be adding demigender and bi/multigender to the gender options in the next update! Not only that, but you will now also be able to pick your twin's pronouns separately, along with the option to choose multiple pronouns for them.

The cis and questioning options are now separate, similar to how you choose MC's gender. I hope the wording above is alright, but from top to bottom, it's Trans, Non-binary, Demigender, Bi/Multigender, and Genderfluid.

The multiple pronoun option has also been improved so that it's actually randomized at certain intervals, and is no longer limited to two pronouns. You will now also be able to change your twin's pronouns in the stats screen if they are genderfluid (thanks to the locket's empathy/telepathy powers). Speaking of, I'm thinking of adding custom pronouns too when I port the game to VN, but no promises.

Anyway, sorry again for the delays! Aside from me getting sick and having computer problems again, I have a habit of suddenly getting more ideas just as I'm about to finish an update. This is why I don't even give estimated dates anymore. 😅

More info about the next update below:

Since I'm adding F6E's reactions to MC's ancestry, I'm also taking the time to add some banter about MC's favorite genre.

Besides that, I'm currently working on an addition to Roselyna's BFF scene, and I can't not add it because it's very important to her character development. As in, she probably wouldn't have ran away during the storm if this particular event didn't happen. Her emotional level will now also determine whether she lets Wayne (and MC) continue calling Josie mommy or not.

I also had to overhaul the pronoun system to get the new stuff to work. It's a lot more work than you might realize, but it's worth it because I found lots of bugs, and it actually got simpler, even with the new randomizing feature.

And since I'm updating the variables, I also took the time to change most of the mom/dad/ate/kuya variables to actually use the translated terms if you choose to have a twin language (in the narration, diary, and during private conversation).

I'm also adding new and very fun choices to the existing chapters which will add a new layer to your decision making. Yup, the "plot hole" in the title will actually make sense now. 🤭

There's also lots of other smaller things. Lots of them. The change log is over 300 lines now. But here's a tiny snippet from Lily's BFF scene before I go back to the editing mines:

"Let's talk about that later. We're almost at the station." Tita Rickie slaps Tita Dani's arm. "So turn off that damn underglow before you forget. You really had to install those, huh?" "C'mon, Rickie. Of all the things I could add, this is by far the least illegal one," Tita Dani grumbles as she stops the SUV near Barangay 143's police station.

(By the way, I'm currently updating the Trinkets and Secrets Guide in preparation for the next update. Don't be surprised if some of the stuff in there is incompatible with the current demo!)

[kaidanworkshop]

Workshop Progress: November Update

Happy Holidays guys, gals, and non-binary pals! Firstly, apologies for the delayed update! Flu and COVID season is in full force this year, and it seemed to have it out for not only the Workshop staff and families, but for our VA Paul Warren! We're happy to report that everyone is on the mend and returning to our regular workflow. Learn from our follies; make sure you're taking care of your own health as well! Last update we focused on our alpha and beta testing progress with the Creation Kit and Assets Team -- progress on that front continues as we add in more recorded lines and refine the new systems we've implemented; this update will be a deep dive focusing on our Writing Team and their workflow process in organizing, evaluating, and proposing changes to the base script via our peer review system. Besides this, we have our fourth recording session with Mr. Warren in the coming weeks; after this session, our business lead is projecting one more session will be enough to complete the rest of the original script, and we can begin to finalize what options the community has towards allocating the remaining funds. We've been compiling a few synopses of what those bonus content options will be, so stayed tuned on that front! Finally, we're very excited to show off some of what we've managed to implement, so one of our Community Team members will be streaming some of our current 1.3 beta for our Discord community this upcoming Wednesday, November 15th, 2023 at 3pm CST, and Thursday, November 16th, 2023 at 10am CST! With that out of the way, here's our Writing Team Workflow Deep Dive! Warning: The below contains spoilers!

The temperatures might be cooling down outside but we're staying nice and warm working on the Kaidan romance lines commission. As we move towards the more emotionally charged dialogues the player can have with Kaidan (i.e. his friendship and romance quests), we realized that our previous script notes for our VA needed to be a bit more robust in order to really convey the tone we're looking for. As much as we all love this silly little 10+ year old game, the reality is that Skyrim's engine has its limitations with regards to NPC emotivity and expression, so the onus falls on the voice acting to carry the extra emotional weight. While Kaidan is, on the surface, a rather reserved person, a major part of the growth he experiences with the player character is allowing himself to more vulnerable and forthcoming with his emotions. For prior commissions, our script to Mr. Warren was aggregated into spreadsheets broken up by quest name and dialogue path, with brief notes on delivery/different quest paths as needed.

For each commission, we have two members of our staff sit in with Mr. Warren and offer direction as he works his way through the script. We tend to get around 3 to 8 different takes of each line, with around 250 - 300 lines per commission. Once complete, Mr. Warren sends us the full audio, and the next leg of processing begins. Our absolute savior of an audio tech gets to work splitting all the hundreds of different takes up into individual cuts, as well as processing the audio for any latent sounds or fuzziness in the background. Once separated, they're placed in an associated thread for staff members to listen to and vote on.

Sometimes we are very lucky, and there's a clear winner for the individual take. Sometimes.

Other times, ties must be split. Or not.

It is also during this process that we'll identify lines that might've been misread or otherwise need a retake. We aggregate a list and discuss our feelings on it, then shoot them back to Mr. Warren with further clarification on what we're looking for in his delivery. The process of receiving, splitting, and voting on the retake lines then begins again.

This method of breaking down these emotion-fueled dialogues really helps us as a staff keep a firm grasp on the original presented characterization of Kaidan, and not get wrapped up in trying to unnecessarily change or otherwise alter his dialogue. There's a reason this follower remains one of the most popular within the Skyrim community, and the last thing we want to do is damage LivTempleton's magic with arbitrary wordsmithing. Still, sometimes changes are needed. We try to keep them as minimal as possible, but some lines stuck out due to strange wording or odd delivery. For example, Kaidan's response to this line was originally "You do, eh? Well keep digging there, you might make it to Akavir." We felt that it didn't flow very well, and depending on how far the player has progressed in his personal quest, it might not make any sense for him to be mentioning Akavir at all yet. The below change smooths out the transition in this conversation.

Another example of a change we're adding in is creating a path for players to exit the romance path completely -- as it is now, if you wear an Amulet of Mara and initiate the romance path, there is no way to change your mind. However, we always felt that the below line pathing was very harsh; after all, Kaidan exits the conversation completely and shuts down. Working in a way to 'break up' with him via this dialogue path (sorry Kai!) felt like an easy way to work in a new mod function without having to create entirely new dialogue -- it saves money for extra content in the future, something very near and dear to our business lead's heart.

Finally, one of our favorite changes is rewording the "How do you feel about me?" dialogue tree. Given that not all players will be following the 'hot' or 'warm' romance paths, this line of questioning from the player felt like the LDB was fishing for compliments -- not a good look in our opinion. We changed this to instead be a more equitable exchange of compliments between the two ("I think we make a good team" & "Can I tell you something? I'm glad we met"). Also, we use this format to track which lines will have multiple nickname/pronoun takes.

As we approach the final sets of scripts to wrap up the revoice section of the Workshop timeline, this process may undoubtedly change again when we begin discussing how we'd like to work with the community in producing Workshop original scripts -- which is exciting! In using a peer review system from start to finish, we keep ourselves open to workflow improvement suggestions that ultimately makes the process easier in the long run. While this method of group voting and review undoubtedly adds extra time to production -- especially given the logistics of scheduling multiple staff meetings to accommodate all the different time zones our staff members live in -- we feel that it results in a more polished product, and one in which all the members of each team feel empowered to discuss and offer their insights for our favorite CVF. We'll see you for the beta 1.3 livestreams on Wednesday, November 15th, 2023 at 3pm CST, and Thursday, November 16th, 2023 at 10am CST!

[multigenderswag]

Multigender Survey Results Dec 2023: Anything else relevant

Participants were asked "Share anything else about your multigender identity that you find relevant" and had the option to respond with long answer text. Some notable responses include:

As a m+f bigender person who uses he/she pronouns, I sometimes feel like the "he" refers to my female side, and the "she" refers to my male side

I am no longer religious/Christian, but the expression “God is Change” resonates deeply with me and my approach to gender as experience. I accept that my gender (holistically) is an amalgamation, something that breathes new life into itself repeatedly and often unexpectedly, sustained by its own willingness to grow past its bounds and taste richness anew. Teaching is part of my work, and as such I consider myself an eternal student: gender is just one avenue for discovery and learning for me.

I feel so boring but it is what it is, name wise I use one (completely feminine) with group A and one (completely masculine) with group B and hope and pray that they never interact

I identified as a 'tomboy' (gender wise) as a child and transmasc as a teenager. As an adult part of my being multigender is honouring these past versions of myself and acknowledging that who I was is an important part of who I am today.

I like to describe my gender like this: imagine there’s a house on a street. the house represents being a boy/male, and being *in* the house means you’re binary male. The road represents a neutral, non-male/female gender. My gender is like the driveway — both part of the road *and* the house

i think this is relevant-ish, but the way i experience gender kind of feels like. there's a man and a woman in my head at all times, not in a system way so much as a (this is very obviously stupid but i can't find another comparison to articulate it) inside out way. they're both always there, and they're both separate, but at the same time, they come together to make the same person, me! nonbinary is a label i understand and identify with, mostly to simplify the matter for others, but in reality, it kind of feels like a... superbinary of sorts. i'm 100% a man, and 100% a woman, but because the binary only "allows" you to choose one, nonbinary is technically correct, isn't it?

I'm multigender in the "one gender that fits into several categories" way than being multigender in a "has multiple genders" way

My gender is the intersection of butch dyke and trans man. I'm questioning things right now, but I'm somewhere in that region, with a foot in both at once. I've always been drawn to butchness and sapphicism as well as transmasculinity. I think most of my journey to understand my gender has been a balancing act between identifying as enough of a guy to feel comfortable in my skin but non-binary enough to not have to abandon my identity with butchness. Recently I've adopted the label multigender, and it's helped a lot. I'm only even a little bit a girl if I can be a boy first and foremost, and I could be just a boy or just a dyke but I would have to kill part of myself to do so. I'm trying to find a way to exist in my gender without blood on my hands. I think I'm getting there. It's hard but I'm getting there.

It is complicated but I love it

Yay I love multi gender people we are so cool. <3

A number of participants also referenced being autistic and how that has influenced their multigender identity, so it is possible that autism may be included as a question on the next survey.

[oneweek-mkg]

“Hello, to all of those listening to this. My name is unimportant, and what is lies in what it is that I do. One week ago today, the world was met with a flurry…of cards.“��

“Every man, woman, non-binary individual, and seemingly sentient soul upon this earth was given what we’ve elected to refer to as ‘Tarrow Cards’, with a title on the front and a single word on its back.”

“Regardless of age, your card appears to have given you a new fascinating ability, most of which the world has never seen before. The world is changing quickly, it seems. No matter your belief on the state of the world before that day, it is now impossible to deny the supernatural state of this landscape we all live within.”

“Over the past ten years, you’ve likely read about the experimental city being built over international waters in the Atlantic Ocean. In this past week, due to the abilities of certain individuals involved, we’re able to now announce the opening of said city, in one month’s time.“ 

“We will require no passports, and no qualifications for citizenship. We have food, shelter, optional employment, and anything else you may wish to find.”

“I’ve been studying these cards, and the changes humanity has gone through very carefully. And I can state now, without a shadow of a doubt…this is a change for the better.”

An announcement that all throughout the world heard. Through the radio, through the papers. You heard or read it. The world is changing. It’s for the better, then…? 

Followed by an announcement that all throughout the world heard, but none remembered.

The voice echoed throughout the world, seemingly without a source, heard both everywhere and nowhere. Somewhere within all that nowhere, this voice reached a room, lit by a single computer monitor. And in that room, something listened.

“WOW! THAT’S A LOTTA WORDS TO SAY, ‘DO NOT TRUST ME, I PROBABLY SMELL!’”

“C'MON, ‘MY NAME IS UNIMPORTANT,’ ‘NO QUALIFICATIONS FOR CITIZENSHIP,’ ‘FREE FOOD,’ LIKE HELLO? RED FLAG? THAT’S SOME MONDO SUSPICIOUS SHIT.”

“HONESTLY IF THOSE CHUDS BELIEVE THAT, THEY SHOULD GO TOUCH GRASS. I DID IT ONCE. HATED IT. BUT IT WAS GOOD FOR ME! NOW I HAVE SPECIAL EYES THAT LET ME SEE THROUGH BULLSHIT LIKE THIS.”

“… EH, I COULD USE SOME ENTERTAINMENT! MIGHT AS WELL GRAB A FRONT ROW SEAT FOR THIS SHITSHOW.”

“NOW, I JUST NEED TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET ANYWHERE.”

“THIS MIGHT TAKE AWHILE…”

—

One Week: Brand New Life is a discord based 20+ Danganronpa OC roleplay, featuring discord submission trials and an active, plot-relevant deadzone, allowing dead characters to continue to freely interact with the living if they wish. Our cast will be exploring their recently developed powers in an ever expanding city over international waters that you yourself will help define and build. Twenty characters from across the world will get to experience a unique, extended prologue that will cover one year of in-game time, before the actual MKG begins. We aim to bring you a potentially lighter, relaxed environment, both in and out of character; while still being following the typical killing game formula.

The game will feature a flexible 4 to 5 week schedule over 5 chapters, as well as a prologue and endgame, with trials that last several days to accommodate varying timezones and schedules. Our trial system will be submission-based over discord, allowing players to submit their trial posts directly to the server’s trial channel, while still managing a flexible queue. The game will allow for supernatural, alien, robotic, and fantastical characters, as well as normal humans - although no matter your character’s initial status, everyone will be experiencing a new power set, to spread the love! The game will not feature a mistrial system, but will pledge itself into working dutifully with its murder teams to create cases that are both satisfyingly difficult, as well as ultimately solvable, without pushing cast nor killer unnecessarily far.  APPS OPEN / APPS CLOSE 3/10!

About | Hopeful | Hopefuls Discord | Mods | FAQ | Rules | Application

[commiegoth]

Interview with nonbinary trans author Kate Bornstein, promoting her book Gender Outlaw (Mondo 2000 #13, 1995)

Full text under cut

I‘m walking down 16th Street minding my own business. This good looking woman is coming toward me. She's got on baggy unbuttoned overalls and an orange tank top. Her arms look good, her shoulders look good, and what I can see of her stomach looks good. Two guys are standing on the sidewalk. As she passes them, one says to the other, “I'd like to take that one home.” The other guy agrees. The woman keeps walking. Now it's my turn to pass 'em. “I'd like to take that one home and knock A her around a little bit,” the first guy says. I keep walking. The other guy answers. “That's a her?”

But enough about me. This is supposed to be about Kate Bornstein who wants you to read her new book Gender Outlaw. Bornstein used to be a man; now she’s not. Bornstein used to be a heterosexual; now she isn't. Bornstein used to have a dick; now she doesn’t.

She’s a “used-to-be-a-man, three husbands, father, first mate on an ocean-going yacht, minister, high-powered IBM sales type, Pierre Cardin three-piece suitor, bar-mitzvah’d, circumcised yuppie from the East Coast… a used-to-be politically correct, wanna-be butch, dyke phone sex hostess, smooth talking, telemarketing, love slave, art slut, pagan Tarot reader, maybe soon a grandmother, crystal palming, incense burning, not man, not always a woman, fast becoming a Marxist.”

All that’s not what makes her an outlaw. What makes her an outlaw is she sees a time when folks will look at the binary gender system and throw back their heads and laugh— ha ha ha. Males and females and that’s it? Ha ha ha. Get the fuck outta here.

Bornstein’s looking forward to us all living in what author Marjorie Garber (Vested Interests, Routledge) calls the Third Space. “This whole concept of three is so beautiful,” Kate says, “because it includes the first two. I don’t say there’s a third space that exists between men and women. I say there’s a third space outside of the Binary which leaves the Binary as this construct off to the side, very fragile and apt to fall apart.”

If I were a man, everything about me that brings me grief in the world—the way | walk, the way I talk, the way I think, the way | stand, the way I sit, the way I dress, the way | cut my hair, how much I weigh, how much weight I lift—would not only be acceptable, it would be revered. If we lived in the Third Space, it wouldn't even matter.

Bornstein had to learn a lot of rules in order to fit in. Like when a man walks down the street he looks people in the eye; when a woman walks down the street she looks at the ground. And women talk different. They have higher, breathier voices and their speech is more modulated. In mixed conversations, it’s the woman's job to laugh at the bad jokes and fill in the awkward silences. They smile constantly while they’re talking and use tag questions to qualify sentences, like “you know what I mean?”

“All of these customs are forms of self-deprecation,” says Bornstein, “like learning how to keep my knees together and not putting my arm across the back of my seat in the subway train. A lot of that was not so much to be a woman as to pass as a woman, so that I wouldn't call attention to myself.”

If we lived in the Third Space, she wouldn't have had to worry. In fact, if we lived in the Third Space, she might not even have had penile conversion surgery.

“I don’t do well with might-have-beens,” she says. “I resent that I was manipulated into that surgery by every signpost in the culture. I was not aware of other possibilities at the time. I was a total subscriber to the Binary and to the genitals by which it stands.

“I knew I wasn’t BOY, I knew I wasn’t MAN. Neither of those categories fit for me. It didn’t feel right, I have no idea why. I tried for thirty some odd years and it didn’t work. The only other option I saw in the culture was GIRL, or WOMAN. Nowhere did I see that it was okay to be a “real woman”—which I believed in—with a penis! So the next step was get rid of the penis. This insistence on the Binary and the genital imperative that signals the Binary coerced me into that. If I knew everything that I know now, would I do it again? Yes. Absolutely yes, because sex is so much more fun now.”

Back to this idea of the Third Space, how do we get there?

“Cyberspace would be a doorway into the Third Space,” according to Bornstein. “Cyberspace frees us up from the restrictions placed on identity by our bodies. It allows us to explore more kinds of relationships.

“I can go online as anything. I go online as various kinds of women. I've gone online as a guy a couple of times; I’m playing a stable boy in a vampire scenario now. I’ve gone online as different monsters. I’ve gone online as Mr. Spock in a ‘Star Trek’ scenario.

“Cross-gender identity surfing online is so telling: Men slum and women step into the trappings of power as men. You talk to a man after he’s been a woman online and he'll usually laugh and describe some kind of sex he had, usually lesbian sex. But you talk to a woman who's been surfing as a man, there’s this spark there. There’s this wonder. There's this—'They really do have this power!’ As soon as men cop to the idea that women are learning this, they’re gonna be more frightened.”

Bingo.

In Gender Outlaw, Bornstein asks: “If wealth and power are important, and if in this world wealth and power belong to men, then why did I cease being a man and give up that wealth and power?"

Some male-to-female transsexuals argue—often in response to being excluded from women-born-women only clubs—that they didn’t have a real male experience because they were never real males. Bornstein’s not buying it. “I had a bona fide male experience—of course I did. I’ve been bar-mitzvah’d. I hated it. Being male and hating it sets up a fugue experience. It’s definitely a form of madness. | think one way of dealing with the madness is to say it never really happened. That’s a legitimate way of dealing with it, but the fact of the matter is, I spent over thirty years of my life as a man or boy. I did not like it. I hated it. I drank a lot. I did a lot of drugs. I played a lot of arcade games.”

Once you've altered your gender, it’s gotta seem like anything’s possible. The whole world must open up. Does that mean that transgender stuff is the final frontier? Bornstein doesn’t think so.

She believes that once people get a grip on the idea of the Third Space, and transgender stuff becomes passé, we're probably gonna have to look at other binary divisions. “What are the differences between animals and humans? What are the differences between plants and animals? What about artificial intelligence, androids like Data from “Star Trek?” They're gonna be around. | think the gender binary is the one most firmly entrenched in our culture simply because it’s the one that capitalism trades on the most, other than class. We haven't confronted class. A minor communist uprising in Eastern Europe is not dealing with class. Certainly, the United States has never dealt with class. I think the fact that my book actually got published by a respectable publisher is an indicator that the culture is ready to chew on gender, whereas I don’t think the American culture is as ready to chew on class.

“I'd say gender is the last apparent frontier. It’s the frontier that’s just become illuminated. It’s titillating. In public relations terms it’s sexy. In sex terms it’s sexy. It’s a movement, a real live movement—ready or not, here we come!”

Meanwhile, back on 16th Street.

I take a few more steps, then my brain turns over and I say to myself, “Fuck this shit.”

I stop, turn around, walk back, and stand in front of the first guy. “You say something to me?”

He’s shocked. He starts stuttering and shaking his head.

“Uh…uh…no…I was just…I mean…he was just…I mean…he wanted to know—"

I interrupt him.

“Something about knocking somebody around?”

He starts stuttering again.

“Uh…no…uh, I was just… I mean, he just… I mean, I was just saying—"

I interrupt him again.

“You know what it sounded like you said? It sounded like you said you wanted to suck my dick.”

“Uh…uh… your dick?” He looks at my crotch to see if I have one.

(I do, but it’s back at my apartment.)

“Yeah,” I say, “that’s what it sounded like you said. I think you want to suck my dick, don't you?”

He looks at my crotch again, then he looks back at my face. He grins, still stuttering.

Uh...well...I, I, I... I wouldn't mind.”

“That's what I thought,” I say, and walk away.

For an almost complete collection of Bornsteiniana, start with Gender Outlaw (Routledge), go directly to The Last Sex, Arthur and Mary-Louise Kroker (St. Martins Press), and keep an eye out for performances of Hidden: A Gender and Virtually Yours. The unsatisfied can obsessively watch for guest appearances on Geraldo.

[techav]

More Speed, More Power, Pretty Pictures

I added some crude functions to the ROM monitor on my Wrap030 project to read the root directory of a FAT16-fomatted disk and load binary files into memory to execute. This opens up a new option for developing programs and running them on the computer, and makes it easier to keep programs on-hand for loading when I demonstrate the computer.

So what new program do I build first for running from disk? The same Mandelbrot renderer I've been using all along, of course! All I needed to do to get it running from disk was adjust a few load instructions to use PC-relative addressing and then change the vasm output to raw binary.

It ran without issue ... mostly. I had been noticing some instability with the system in general. It's not really related to the programming work I've been doing, it just tended to show itself more when doing the kind of FPU-intensive processing required for the Mandelbrot program. Sometimes the system wouldn't boot at all, sometimes it would continually reset. Other times it would run fine for a while, but randomly throw a coprocessor protocol exception (especially when using double- or extended-precision floating point values).

I had a pretty good idea of where this instability was coming from ...

As someone on Discord put it, that's a pretty little antenna I've got there.

High speed computers don't like excessively-long wiring between components. I made the ribbon cables long because there were other boards I developed for this system. But, I'm only using the CPU board, the FPU + IDE mezzanine board, and the video generator board. All that extra wire is just making things more difficult.

A year ago, when I first put these three boards together, I had to bump the bus speed down to 25MHz to get it to run. I could run the CPU board up to 56MHz by itself, and I could get it to run with one expansion board or the other up to 40MHz, but with all three boards, 25MHz was the best I could do (out of the oscillators I had on hand). I have some 33MHz oscillators now, and while I could get it to run sometimes, it was obviously far more unstable.

It was time to trim those pretty little antennas.

I left room for one more card, in case I can get my DRAM card working later, but trimmed a few inches off. The result? Rock solid at 25MHz now.

... and at 32MHz.

... but 40MHz still doesn't run.

I am quite pleased with that result. My target for this system in the beginning was 25MHz. That extra 30% speed increase is very noticeable, especially when running a program like the Mandelbrot renderer.

But I had a thought.

My FPU is rated for 25MHz, and here it's running solid at 32MHz along with the rest of the system. But my FPU board was designed to support the FPU running at a separate clock speed from the rest of the system (the 68881/68882 FPU is actually designed to support this, so I implemented it when I built my mezzanine board).

What would happen if I tried running the FPU even faster? Perhaps using that 40MHz oscillator that I couldn't use for the complete system?

Surprisingly, not a problem running the CPU at 32MHz and the FPU at 40MHz.

... or 50MHz

... or 55MHz

... or 67MHz!

Once again, I've run out of faster oscillators. This computer is running stable with its FPU clocked at over two and a half times its rated speed.

The video above is a real-time capture of the VGA output of this machine running that Mandelbrot renderer (now modified to use 96-bit extended-precision floating-point arithmetic!) with the CPU & main bus clocked at 32MHz and the FPU clocked at 67MHz. Some frames take minutes to render. Some complete in as little as seven seconds.

I am in awe. While I had big dreams when I first started working on this project six years ago, I never could have imagined it running this well at that kind of speed. I am very happy with how this project has turned out so far, and can't quite believe I actually built something like this.

I typically wrap up these posts with a plan of where to take the project next, but the project has already exceeded my expectations. There is so much it is already capable of now that I have a permanent storage option available. I guess I could try getting that DRAM card running to expand the main memory beyond 2MB, or try adding a keyboard and some text routines to complement the video card. Both are good options towards getting a proper operating system running, which has always been a goal of the project.

Either way, I'm sure I'll have fun with it.

[starberrywander]

New Pronoun Drop??? 🤯🤩❤️

*Infomercial voice* Are you tired of arguing about the singularity of "they"? Do you want to do away with unnecessarily gendered language and do whatever you want with your pronouns? Do you like linguistic chaos!? If so, I have the perrrfect product for you:

Pronouns 2.0!!!

--------

Ok clickbait titles and memes aside, as a Non-binary person who has been thinking about linguistics I have some suggestions for a new pronoun system in English. Idk if anyone else will even care about this idea but I like it so I'm gonna talk about it.

So this came to me while watching a tiktok about the singular “they”, so I think that’s a good place to start. The topic of the tiktok was how because of the increased use of the singular they as a personal pronoun, some sentences can be a little confusing and that to make up for that English will likely develop a new version of the plural “they”. A few of the comments were suggesting that we should use “tha’ll” but I personally think that “theys” sounds more natural. So that’s my first suggestion; lets replace the plural “They” with “theys.” Or if you’re in “tha’ll” camp use that and we can see which one will catch on first. It doesn’t really matter, I plan to be using “theys”, at least online.

The next part is a personal preference that I have loved since the second I first heard about it, which is the concept of clusivity. If you haven’t heard of it, clusivity is when a language has to separate words for us (including you) and us (not including you). I like this a lot. I dunno why. But while we’re revolutionizing pronouns I say let’s add clusivity to English because fuck it. We/us can continue to be the inclusive (including you) version, but let’s make the exclusive (not including you) version be wees/uz because why not. For example, currently if you said the sentence “we’re going out to eat, I reserved a table for us” you would have to use context clues to determine whether the speaker was including the person they were talking to in that dinner or, like, telling their roommate about a date they had planned with their partner. But with clusivity you could specify within that sentence that it is the second option by saying, “Wees are going out to eat, I reserved a table for uz.” It looks silly but I like it and also it gives some much needed love to Z. 

And finally, I suggest that we accept all the neopronouns. All of ‘em. Like, I know a lot of us (especially enbies) have already but I mean like officially. This is more like a language culture thing, but I think we should default to they/them until someone tells us their pronouns and then respect the hell out of whatever pronouns they choose/create for themselves. Additionally, I propose adding pronouns like a kind of honorifics system. Y’know like how you’d say “mr” or the wide variety of “mrs” types? Yeah what if we replace that with a person’s pronouns instead. Like instead of Mr Jones and Mrs Jones it could be like He Jones and She Jones. Or if they used neopronouns it could be something like Xe Jones. Plus if someone had the last name Mann and used he/him pronouns he would get to officially be He Mann, and I think that is peak pronoun. 

But also, like, you could use it for first names too. It would be a way to introduce yourself and your pronouns all in one sweep like “Hi I’m She Amber and this is my friend They Hannah” and boom, you’ve just communicated names and pronouns in the most efficient way in English ever. Plus, you’ve also solved the problem of gender neutral honorifics and the sucky patriarchal concept of denoting a woman’s marital status with honorifics.

Anyway, that was my proposal for updated English pronouns. I hope y’all liked it. I will now think of myself as Ze Starberry online because vibes.

[theygender]

Apparently the governor of Arkansas is introducing a new law (through an "emergency order" so constituents aren't allowed to vote on it—the same way she passed her laws effectively legalizing child labor and gutting our public school systems) that would require the gender marker on driver's licenses to match the owner's birth certificate. Fucking great. Driver's license gender markers in this state were able to be updated before by just submitting a form requesting it, and now they'll only be able to be updated if you undergo full gender reassignment surgery and prove in court that it was sufficient to amend your birth certificate. While they do this, they're also banning the use of X gender markers on driver's licenses and requiring everyone with an X to change their marker back once their license expires

The thing is. Every article about this is using the ban on X gender markers as their headline and then only listing the birth certificate requirement as a sidenote in the text of the article itself. And let me tell you, as a nonbinary person in this state I was never planning on updating my gender marker to X. Both bc I didn't want to be on an Official Government Registry of Trans People (many of these articles have been able to cite the exact number of people with X gender markers in the state) and also bc I didn't want to be automatically outed as trans any time I was stopped by a cop, applied for a job, or tried to move into an apartment (we don't have any employment or housing protections here). My girlfriend, on the other hand, just started her medical transition a few months ago. If she can't update her gender marker to F once she starts presenting as a woman full time, that is exactly what this law would do to her

Do the people writing these articles not realize that "you can't update your gender marker at all anymore unless you undergo full gender reassignment surgery and prove to a judge that you've changed enough to amend your birth certificate" is MUCH bigger news than "you can't choose X as an option anymore"?? I feel like I'm going insane. The only reason my gf found this out was bc she saw the news about the X marker and clicked on an article to see if it would affect me. How many other binary trans people in this state are unaware that they're about to be forcibly outed on their driver's license with no option to get their gender marker corrected again bc the news is reporting this as if it only affects the small number of nonbinary people who were okay with placing themselves on a government registry of trans people in a transphobic state

Hello????