bluestarultor @bluestarultor@tech.lgbt

I suppose since I'm on a new server, I should also put out my occasional reminder to build out a spice library.

Spices can last a while, especially frozen. Don't clear a shelf, but when you have a little extra, pop for "psst..." brand if you see it. Cheap and the quality is fine. It'll give you the basics.

Once you have the basics, maybe pop for something interesting. Good spices can make anything amazing. I have dressed stuff from a can into gourmet flavors without having to use much.

Actually "fairy chess piece" sounds like an excellent case for asymmetric play in a Jerako version, only probably as a very old and unused piece since politics have changed so much over the course of that world's history and fey have generally sidestepped human politics for a long time. Serious players probably would know about it, but exactly none of them would have ever used it and no one would know why it was created, just that it was very old.

Oh. Hey. Apparently there's a word for non-standard pieces like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_chess_piece?wprov=sfla1

"Fairy chess piece" almost sounds like it would be a good chess piece in its own right, but not really for any of the political environments of any of the worlds I have right now. Ultimately all variants of the game (including Shogi) are reflective of the rulership somehow.

Also news to me, apparently Chess and Shogi both stem from an older game from India whose rules have been lost (we have guesses).

I may end up making this a minigame somehow. Like card games in FF8 and FF9, except you can't change the regional rules. Like, Chess has very few exceptions to basic movement and capture rules. It's not actually hard to program that part. The hard part is programming the A.I. to be balanced, because computers have been beating human players for decades and that's no fun, but it can't be dumb as a brick, either. Programming human mistakes is hard.

This of course makes it a stupidly powerful piece and while its original positions were next to the bishops, placed as such that an augur was next to the king and a bishop next to the queen, most boards phased it out and cut the board size down to eliminate them and 4 pawns. Some regions still use them either without bishops or with one of each, and rules vary, but it's rare for a region to use the expanded board, even though mass-produced sets still include the augur pieces.

Just a little lore

#GameDev

Funny enough, people have been talking about Chess and Go lately and it reminded me of something for my NES game.

Large-scale battles are played with Chess pieces, even though it doesn't follow the movement rules. Only there weren't enough pieces to cover the roles, so I had to invent one.

I came up with the Augur, which is basically like a Bishop only with a brimmed conical hat rather than a mitre. It can move 3 spaces +/2 spaces X & pass units, & swap w/ a Rook or King pre-move.

Pope says anti-maskers stuck in 'their own little world of interests'
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/23/pope-says-anti-maskers-stuck-in-their-own-little-world-of-interests

Pope Francis is a treasure. He may give the Church trouble, but it's the right kind of trouble.

WWE’s the Undertaker: ‘The human body isn’t made to take what we do to it’ | Wrestling | The Guardian
https://amp.theguardian.com/culture/2020/nov/23/wwe-the-undertaker-the-human-body-isnt-made-to-take-what-we-do

The end of an era and an emotional parting for the world's greatest showman.

Say what you will about wrestling, but the man never cracked despite his castmates constantly trying, The Rock inventing The People's Elbow for that specific purpose. He has been the world's best performer for 3 decades. His showmanship will not be matched in our lifetimes. True legend.

She came and ate the food by the greenhouse for the first time and seemed to have broken a thin layer of ice to drink water on the play place. I need to get some straw to pad the shelter, or something else that won't get wet. She might start recognizing it as a safe place if it proves warmer than the play place. I won't move the water quite yet, but this is encouraging.

I am getting things done. I still have a stray to figure out how to help. Getting out into the yard to deliver food and water is good for me. And I have a jealous baby girl to assuage.

I am largely functional, doing things that have to be done. Just not really ready to do things that COULD be done. And not really enjoying my normal releases.

I may as well come out and say it: I recognize the signs and symptoms of depression and I have come to realize I have been suffering from it more or less since the days after the election.

I probably was kept going by the need to get the message out to vote and see things through, but it all came to a crash after the worst was over and everything caught up to me.

I will recover. I just need a little time to bounce back after spending so much time in emergency mode, collect sunlight, etc.