TootSweet

joined 2 years ago
[–] TootSweet@latte.isnot.coffee 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Mine was pretty spontaneous. I was studying psychedelics at the time (just because they're fascinating) but I've never done any before or since.

It was... hard to describe. It lasted several days at least, but my sense of time was greatly altered and it's hard to say how long exactly. I remember feeling like my mind wasn't fighting against itself the way it usually did. It felt like everything I did, my whole brain was all working/pulling in the same direction. Pretty much all I wanted to do was meditate for hours on end, and doing so was a wild experience with some very interesting visuals. I also came to some revelations about the nature of reality. (Though looking back, those revelations were the logical conclusion of several beliefs I had held before this experience. I think this experience just brought those multiple unrelated beliefs together and crystalized them into one cohesive worldview.) I did experience some synesthesia during the experience as well. The kind wherein seeing somebody else experience something, you feel it in your own body. I was watching a dancer on TV and feeling the proprioceptive feelings I imagined she was feeling.

Edit: I should add that it never really "ended." It tapered off over time until I was (in some ways) back to normal, but I couldn't identify really when I was back to normal. It was more like asymptotically approaching normal. And, I'll also say that in other ways, I'm still changed by that experience. And only for the better.

[–] TootSweet@latte.isnot.coffee 12 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Maybe the thinking is that whatever that server was raided for may have been federated to other servers, making them also targets for FBI raids.

Edit: Looks like the admin was raided for participating in a protest and the Mastodon instance wasn't the target at all, in which case why did they take that data at all?

[–] TootSweet@latte.isnot.coffee 12 points 2 years ago

Meditation has helped me get through a lot. I like Shinzen Young's methods myself. He's got a lot of content on YouTube that's worth a watch if that's a path you want to try.

[–] TootSweet@latte.isnot.coffee 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

First off, you're awesome and so is your daughter!

It does seem like there are at least two potential aims here: to make a game and to become a better coder.

If the primary aim is to make a game, there's RPGMaker. I'm not very familiar with it, but from what I understand it's a lot more drag-and-drop game assembly than programming, though it does have some scripting capabilities.

If the aim is more about becoming a better coder and expanding her capabilities, PyGame is a very popular Python library for making games. And Python is widely touted as "a great beginner language."

Python is (qualifier, qualifier) "slow," and so it's possible she'll run into some limitations there as well, but I'd imagine it should be a ton less restrictive than Scratch, and well up to the task of "a trimmed down 'legend of Zelda: link to the past.'"

Java is a language that people make "real" games in (like the original Minecraft, for instance.) But... and this'll be a controversial statement, but... my experience is that it makes people worse coders. As in, it causes brain damage that is either overcame later or negatively affects their coding abilities for the rest of their careers. Python is very much the opposite; it's the kind of language that makes you a better coder for having worked with it.

I've been working with Golang and Ebiten lately, and I'm enjoying it, but it's definitely a very "really real" programming language that may require a certain amount of background knowledge to appreciate the simplicity of. It's an option, though. And I do believe it would be the kind of option you'd use if you were making a "real game" (like the kind that would be sold on Steam.) At her age, I probably would have been excited by the fact that that option also gives you a bona fide .exe file.

Of all of those options, I'd probably be most inclined to nudge her toward PyGame/Python but lay out all the options above (along with any other options you come across.)

Good luck to both of you! It's always awesome to see 10-year-olds getting into game development. When I was 10, I wrote games and other programs in QBasic. That's a dinosaur these days, but your daughter's interest in software development may well turn into a lifelong interest and fulfilling career like it did for me.

[–] TootSweet@latte.isnot.coffee 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Nazis aren't people who say some anti-semitic stuff sometimes. Nazis hurt and kill people.

Agreed. Wasn't trying to say otherwise. But I'd think recovering nazis are frequently "people who say some anti-semitic stuff sometimes." I've known people who have deconverted from both mainstream religions and cults who have needed support in the transition out, and those folks were "kindof brainwashed but working on it." And I don't think nazi groups are entirely dissimilar from cults.

I don't remember which episode specifically, but I remember Ian Danskin ("Innuendo Studios" on YouTube and creator of "The Alt-Right Playbook" series) making some points about how it's good to have spaces meant for people who are "kindof a nazi, but working on it." (He also said those spaces need to be kept well away from safe spaces for marginalized groups, which of course makes sense.)

[–] TootSweet@latte.isnot.coffee 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

No no no. That's not how dogs would wear pants at all!

[–] TootSweet@latte.isnot.coffee 2 points 2 years ago

I've run into a couple of cryptobros on Lemmy, but not many.

[–] TootSweet@latte.isnot.coffee 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

These programs you're referring to are voluntary, right?

So, the folks who would be against such programs on that basis think that if a(n arguably former) nazi enters the group not yet fully free of the bigotry they've taken concrete steps to overcome and says something, say, anti-semitic, if the program doesn't kick them out on a zero-tolerance policy, then the program is supporting (or at least insufficiently condemning) anti-semitism?

Edit: on rereading, I get the feeling you're saying something more like some people think having anything to do with (even recovering) nazis is tacit complicity or something.

[–] TootSweet@latte.isnot.coffee 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Completely unrelated question: is there a /c/OutOfTheLoop yet?

[–] TootSweet@latte.isnot.coffee 12 points 2 years ago

First the boss throws a hissy fit and starts handing out "verbal writeups" for things that were his fault. Then he imposes 7:30am demos every day to prove we were actually working and not... I guess slacking?

[–] TootSweet@latte.isnot.coffee 10 points 2 years ago

Given the lows to which Reddit has stooped lately, I wouldn't be surprised to see Reddit respond to that by filing a lawsuit against the mod seeking nine figures in damages.

Which makes me hope even more somebody does it.

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