Month: February 2014

Acknowledgement: Linking it all Together

KannikLeave a comment

I find these utterly fascinating, and very illuminating.  And, as they often are, actionable and useful.  There are two links here, and they’re both so full of good stuff I don’t know where to start.  One linked back to the other, so I’ll recommend them in this order:

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/05/23/stephen-grosz-examined-life/

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/01/29/carol-dweck-mindset/

Wow, wow, and wow.  Amazing stuff, and surprising how rapidly the effect can take hold.  Doubly, or even triply, powerful if we link this research to Brené Brown’s research into shame and its impact.  Mindsets (or views, or stories, or contexts) are the driving organizer (and force, in many ways) to our experience and actions… and these mindsets are not inherent; they are created, albeit most often not by actual intentional design.  Seeing how this turns into a matrix, where how we acknowledge each other (in several senses of that word, from direct acknowledgment to presence/attention) can so readily get linked (created) into our sense of self, worth, and connection, and ultimately our mindset is… indeed illuminating.

Highly recommend you have a read.  It begins simple and unravels outward from there, and when they went into how it impacts relationships I was quite moved.

Another Gaming Post

KannikLeave a comment

Being a gamer, when I first heard about SLA-style 3D printing some crazy number of years ago (maybe close to 20?), my first thought was “Wow… you know what you can do with this?  You could print out custom 3D minis!”  I envisioned a kiosk in a gaming store where you’d go, create the mini from a kit of parts, and have the thing print out before your eyes.  So, bit off on my scale there, given how even in their heyday no gaming store could afford the $100k to buy a 3D printer.  Yeah.  Oops.

Someone’s finally coming to rescue my off-kilter idea… and it’s even better than what I thought.  There’s a kickstarter on right now to support a custom-mini type deal, only done through your browser and then the mini is shipped right to your house.  Niiiiice.  They’ve hit their base funding goal, but if they can reach their next stretch goal they’ll include some Asian-themed mini bits, which I need for my character Katya (who uses a Guan Dao).  So please go support me, er, them!  Besides… who doesn’t like the thought of “custom minis”, right?

On a different note, it was another BattleTech day here yesterday (though, hey, HeroForge… wanna make giant robots next?).  I knew the type of game it would be for me that day when I rolled my first shot with my Ultra AC/5 – which was maybe my third shot of the game – and promptly got a 2, which not only missed, but jammed the weapon for the rest of the battle.  8 tonnes of jammed hardware with enough ammo to turn me into a fireworks display should I get hit there.  Faaabulous.

Good D&D game today to round out the end of this adventure!  I’ll be taking the GMing reins next session where we’ll take a detour journey into some Star Wars adventuring.  Going to try out the new FFG rule system, so it’ll be fun for the SW romp as well as kicking the tires on a new system.