@elthelas.com
Madison, WI native. I work for the state government in IT. My lighter interests include D&D, world building, writing, web development, ultimate Frisbee, theater, and Dad jokes. My heavier interests include geopolitical theory, history, and philosophy.
On legitimizing the currency: Why use dollars for transactions in the USA instead of euros or pounds or gold or silver? The immediate answer is because that's what other people ask for, but why do they ask for it? Why not bitcoin? Because in the end you have to pay your taxes in dollars.
On Redistribution of wealth. Taxation allows the government to change the real relative wealth of people by having different tax rates for different people.
On inflation: The government doesn't need taxes to fund itself, it can always print money. But printing money creates inflation. Taxing allows the government to pull some of that money back out of the economy.
Besides the obvious, that Laffer's curve is largely bullshit, it makes an important point on the purpose of taxes. Specifically, raising taxes has the following effects.
1. Fights inflation.
2. Redistributes wealth.
3. Legitimizes the currency.
This is why I ended my subscription to WaPo last fall, and it's a reminder to everyone to check the owner(s) bias of any news organization.
We are a democratic congressional federal republic.
democratic: power is derived from the people
congressional: power is invested in a congress and president who have separate duties.
federal: power is split between states and the national government.
republic: Our executive office is elected.
The point is that the government runs via consent from the governed. The alternative to democracy in this case would be an oligarchy or autocracy. These can also be Republics, Monarchies, etc. The difference is that power comes from the consent of a much smaller group of 'elite' people.
A democracy can be a Republic, if your population is very small (like Athens in 300 BC, what these people always point to as a 'real democracy') it can be a Direct Democracy, it can be a Constitutional Monarchy (such as Great Britain).
Personal Pet Peeve: People who jump into political arguments to say "America isn't a democracy, it's a republic." And I say this as someone who absolutely did this as a teenager.
On that note: When people talk about America being a democracy, they are talking about where the source of power is.
I had a realization today that movie theaters are very overstimulating for me, to the point that I shut down. **and that is why I can never articulate what I like about a movie after watching one in the theater.** Anyway, Teddy loved the Gabby's Dollhouse movie. As for me? well, I was there.
Can I just highlight this as someone who is not *remotely* invested in the specifics here (please do not debate them with me!). Every time somebody on here (or anywhere) says “I got more information and changed my mind,” an angel gets his wings. This is a terrific habit I try to encourage in myself!
Let's be clear: no one should be taking medical advice from the man who told Americans to inject bleach.
To moms worried about the Tylenol they took while pregnant: you deserve better than being RFK Jr's scapegoat.
And to the autism community: you are loved exactly as you are.
Yeah, that's a problem. My kids regularly go to the LFL in our neighborhood, sometimes unsupervised, to drop off or grab books. If this was in my neighborhood I would probably be calling the police.
Spent a bunch of hours converting more monsters today. I've reached the half-way point! 450 done, 447 to go. Of course, once I'm done with that it will be on to the custom monsters I have planned. www.ddrefinedreforged.com #DnD #Homebrew
The website work continues rapid-fire today. Next change on the docket: filtering the ancestries page by setting (also converted 3 ancestries from the old format: Faelin, Catfolk, and Automatons) www.ddrefinedreforged.com/options/ance... #DnD #Homebrew
If you want to look through my full forked ruleset for D&D 5e, check out the website: www.ddrefinedreforged.com #DnD #Homebrew
I am working my way (slowly) through editing the monster stat blocks after introducing a new concept: Susceptibility. Rather than changing Vulnerability (which is very strong, and thus rarely used), we added a new concept. If you are susceptible, you take 1 additional die of damage.
Tired and bored, waiting in ORD for a transfer that won't start boarding for 2.5 more hours.
I'd rather slouch
First weekend of shows done. Every seat in Java Cat was filled tonight it felt like! (not that there were a lot of seats, it's a small venue). Two more weekends of shows to come!
Just like it's weird that we can mass-produce and distribute sliced bread for an equivalent value of a few minutes of labor. Have you tried to make bread? It takes hours! It should cost hundreds of dollars! /s
There will also be shows March 15 and 16 at the Forward Club at Breese Stevens field. Come support a local theatre company performing at local venues! The cost is $15, payable at the door (via cash or app).
This weekend I am making my directorial debut, directing 2 shorts with Pile of Cats Theatre Company! Come and see the full show Meme, Myself, & I, this Friday, February 28 at 7 pm at Java Cat Coffee House, or Saturday, March 1, at Java Cat, March 8 (7 pm) & 9 (2 pm) at Wil-Mar neighborhood center.
I've spent the past few days trying to learn Nuxt.js (since just about everyone in the Vue community seems to rave about it, and it promises faster page load times). So far my biggest takeaway has been that I constantly have to work around the SSR for good interactivity, and NuxtUI is buggy.
The new system allows for applying creature templates to existing stat-blocks, as well as dynamic XP value and CR calculation (as well as adjusting CR to account for power creep). Unfortunately for you all, the full tool (creating and editing creatures) requires admin permissions, sorry.
My attempts to distract myself today while grieving and home sick at the same time yesterday and today have given me a big chunk of time to work on personal projects. Specifically, I rebuilt the data structures for creatures from the ground up. elthelas.com/tools/runner2
My Dad passed away early this morning.
Given the last two weeks...no.
Thanks. I know you are no stranger to this kind of loss yourself right now. We'll get through it.
