Dystopian Novel Premise:

Dare to date a GM 😊

I've accidentally misread it as "date a DM" and thought "oh my fuckin' god, YES!". Got slightly disappointed. And punched by my gf. Worth it.

“Date a DM” is pretty good advice that will lead to you usually having someone to run a game for you.

But “Dare to DM” is even better advice, because you’ll always be able to play an RPG if you’re the one willing to run it!

Anyway, I lolled.

I apologize if this comes off as disrespectful to Michael Brown or Trayvon Martin. Or their families. Or YOU, the reader. I’m not about that. That’s not why I drew this.

I am just really freaked out that 40% of Americans (and 47% of White Americans) do not think that the killings and violence in Ferguson ‘raise any racial issues.’ Fellow White Persons, this is our chance to learn. This is our chance to change.

When Trayvon Martin was murdered because Full Grown Men in America are frightened to violence by the presence black children, the dialogue turned very quickly into a conversation about gun control.

And gun control is an issue that deserves our attention.

But it won’t change the massive poverty in Black America. The arrest rate. The education statistics. The institutional, systemic, casual, and passive racism that plagues our country.

And it wouldn’t have saved Michael Brown.

Anyway. I’m sorry if this comes off as disrespectful or insincere or preachy. I’m sorry if my execution (or personality) gets in the way of what I’m trying to say. I am an imperfect artist, an imperfect person, and I am, undoubtedly, blinded to a million things by my own glaring whiteness. So this might be… Lord, this might be awful. I’m so sorry if it’s awful. Really.

But. I just keep thinking… Look, my wife is pregnant with our first child. A boy. We’re nervous, we’re excited, we’re SO ANXIOUS because what the hell do you do with babies? WE don’t know. But if we were a black family… in this country… we would be so terrified. Because we live in a nation that murders the children of black parents, puts it on the news WITH RIOTS AND TEAR GAS as decoration, and still half of us don’t even see it as a problem. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine bringing a child into that reality, to face the odds we lay out for black kids?

That would break me. I’ve never known anything like that. No one should ever know anything like that.

So let’s talk to our friends about race. Lets talk to our families. And when actual victims of racism try to tell us what’s going on in, say, a peaceful community protest as they are being gassed and shot at by cops WE SHOULD LISTEN TO AND BELIEVE THEM. Let’s talk to each other about this until we are all on the same page.

And then let’s turn the damn page.

More work done for Paizos Pathfinder

Alicia Archer fights for France - Washington Midsummer Renaissance Faire - August 11, 2018 (and yes, in the rain) Photo by Douglas Herring

Beatrix by BenedictWallace

Si je devais avoir du mépris

Si je devais avoir du mépris, ce ne serait pas pour l’ignorant, le fanatique, le passionné ridicule, pour les gens superficiels ou imbus d’eux-mêmes.

Si je devais avoir du mépris, ce ne serait pas pour le cracher à la tête de ceux qui ont une opinion différente de la mienne.

Si je devais avoir du mépris, ce ne serait pas pour ceux qui se comportent comme des cons aujourd’hui.

Non, si je devais avoir du mépris, ce serait pour ceux qui se comporteront comme des cons demain.

Ce serait pour ceux qui se pavanent plein de certitudes, certains de leurs connaissances inébranlables, de leurs sources irréfutables, de leur parole incontestable. Inamovibles colosses dont les théories sont étayées à grand renforts de données biaisées, d’extrapolations fumeuses, de faits mal analysés et de vérités partielles.

Pour ceux qui se font fort d’esquiver les questions gênantes avec la mauvaise grâce que caractérise une foi encore plus mauvaise.

Ceux qui refusent le dialogue en bâillonnant ceux qui les entourent. Ceux qui se créent des œillères pour ne contempler que ce qui leurs plait. Ceux qui s’assourdissent avec leurs propres discours, tels des disques rayés, ânonnant les mêmes paroles jours après jours.

Ce serait non pas pour celui qui n’est pas intelligent, mais pour celui qui refuse de l’être.

Car si l’intelligence est dans la nature de l’Homme, alors je ne vois pas de comportement plus aberrant que celui qui consiste à en refuser l’expression et le développement.

Oui, si je devais avoir du mépris, ce serait pour lui, pour elle. Pour toi aussi qui me lis. Pour moi, surtout.

Car l’idée même que l’immobilisme intellectuel est une plaie est une idée fixe. Sans doute s’appuie-t-elle sur les biais mentionnés plus haut.

Mais c’est la seule qui semble conserver la notion d’autocritique et de rigueur intellectuelle, et c’est sans doute celle qui confère à notre esprit le plus de vertu.

Warforged bard is named Gender

It’s a social construct