u/arig____

I’ve had the popcorn pass since March, and I have found it to be deceivingly useless. Am I using it incorrectly?

My experience is—it’s “50% off large popcorns” but if you want a drink, the combo deal is essentially the same price.

So unless I’m getting popcorn and drinking a pixie cup of free water each movie (I can’t), I’m saving $0.30 from my $30 pass. I would have to go to the movies like 100 times to make that worthwhile. What a fucking scam.

But WAIT! You may think “get a small/medium drink with the popcorn instead” but no, they make every drink so expensive that it’s literally MORE money to get a medium drink and a popcorn than it is to get a large combo.

I just feel like AMC is killing their market by charging functionally $20 for cheap popcorn and 3 pennies of soft drink

I am 70% sure that the theme of season 4 will be choosing the life bequeathed upon you or choosing to be free; and this said, Daemon’s godseye death will probably be inconclusive, where they hint that he may have left becuse it’s the end of “his story”—his phrasing of that in s2e8 was all too weird.

And that said, with Alicent’s forced “I want to be free” quote in s2e8 (which makes no sense whatsoever, being free in ASOIF means basically working at a brothel or worse) it seems like the “real” ending in HotD will be Rhaenyra either running off with Alicent or choosing to die a Targaryen than live a free woman.

I’ve been writing my first story (don’t know how long it will be), and I’m curious which of these two methods is more recommended? I’m usually (in academic writing) a perfectionist and I usually forego quick writing in favor of little editing afterwards. I’m wondering if that translates?

Also, how many words do you guys aim for in one sit-down? I’m wondering what the optimal production is to maintain creative juices. So far, I feel like if I try to write more than 400 words at a time, I don’t have the benefit of spending a few hours/a day to mull over the perfect way to write the next 400 words. Which is, in some sense, also why I’m asking the first question.

Aside from the obvious “the wardrobe is a good place to hide a body,” it felt like hunting the blonde man was a very meta mission of “hunting Agent 47,” because he kept changing disguises to do stuff explicitly similar to Agent 47 (disguising as an insurance agent to steal a key card from a security chief, disguising as a chef to sneak explosives into the basement).

Question in title—I’m basically wondering if I’m sinning by turning down women (or simply not pursuing them) on the basis that they are not attractive.

I want to get married, and I guess for most of my life I kinda assumed I would find a girl that was both spiritually healthy and attractive. But I’ve come to find that’s a rare pairing.

I would certainly never go for a woman that is attractive but not religious (that’s just icky and defeats the purpose of marriage to me), but maybe it’s time I settle for somebody I’m not very physically attracted to?

I had a few interviews where a school really liked me; in the second interview, and a phone call the week after, the principal and superintendent both made comments to suggest they wanted to send me an offer asap.

Then two-and-a-half weeks pass. I email the admin Monday, they say HR will be reaching out to me “hopefully today.” That was 4 days ago. I emailed admin again, and they give me a vague email saying they don’t need further information, my file is complete, and they are “reviewing candidates” and “discussing staffing needs,” and expect to have additional updates soon. They also said they have a continued interest in my candidacy.

This is, however, a flagrant step back from what the admin told me in interviews before—that I am imminently expecting an offer. So are they just busy, or are they blowing me off?

For context they have a late end to the school year, I think there’s a week or two left in school, and they’re also hiring for like 14 positions simultaneously.

EDIT: isn’t it also just unprofessional to expect a candidate to wait 5 weeks during the prime hiring season? I have implied that I have other offers, do they expect me to reject them?

I’ve been DM’ing for my friend group, for about six months. I’ve never gotten to play the game before, I just personally didn’t mind DM’ing if it meant we got to play.

I probably put 5-6 hours of prep into each session, excluding that I listen to music 3 hours a day with the express intent of finding game music and also spend my money for battle maps, etc.

I’m becoming… resentful, though. My players don’t seem to appreciate that I put so much time into preparing the game, despite my never getting to play myself. They even come away each session saying stuff like “oh I really love this story you’ve written.”

Last session, we got pizza (we usually do) and the players agreed to pay for one guy’s share, because he usually hosts at his house. This really miffed me; like, am I not the one coming early to set up? Prepping 6 hours every session?

There are other things that annoy me but I guess my question to you all is—am I an asshole for maybe charging $5 a head for sessions? Because at least that would pay for like, my gas and pizza. I think it would be extremely fair. Especially because we’re at a point where anybody can guest DM… idk.

I’m a forever DM, I’ve never even played the game before. I’m moving in two months, and we may have 6-7 sessions before then in our campaign, so I was wondering—is it common or easy to just have one of the players DM a session?

My Catholic friends and I have been discussing this recently: is the “traditional” norm that the bride’s family pays for weddings?

I’d also be interested in hearing how all you guys paid for weddings; I’m very scared about proposing (still months away FWIW) because I don’t really understand how to afford it. I don’t have $15k-$30k lying around.

I’ve had a few interviews for teaching jobs (Catholic and charter schools), all went extremely well. I’m inclined to think I’ll have a few job offers…

EXCEPT: some of the schools (maybe all of them, in due time?) have asked for my transcripts. I wasn’t expecting this, and my undergrad GPA is admittedly bad; 2.77. I did go to grad school, I had a 3.67 at one school BUT I only took two classes there, and then I went to another grad school and (long story short) got two As, and a B, and dropped out to take a really awesome job (leaving some “Fs” because I couldn’t withdraw).

I know my interviews went extremely well, I definitely came off as (and am) very competent in my fields. My references are great. But: will submitting transcripts fumble my chances?

I’d like to submit a theory of mine: I may be misinterpreting GRRM drastically, but I think that while Aerys was probably clinically insane, he also was a product of his particular situation and was actually more right than wrong.

To explain: I’m an institutional economist and something I’ve thought of for a while was “if there was no King of Westeros before Aegon, that’s probably because it wasn’t efficient to rule so much in a monarchy (it’d be too costly) unless the monarch had exclusive access to ahem advanced military technology.”

Of course, hint hint, the advanced military technology is dragons, analogous to William the Conqueror’s success largely due to his heavy cavalry formations which England didn’t sport at the time.

The Targaryens were smart to keep dragons in the family, but once the dragons died out, the 7-kingdom-monarchy suddenly becomes just as inefficient as it would’ve been before the dragon conquest of Aegon (before which there was 10,000 years of stable regional governance).

We see the cracks of a dragon-less monarchy in a lot of ways; the defiance of duskendale, the Laughing Storm rebellion, and all (5?) Blackfyre rebellions. None of these would’ve happened if dragons were around.

And so, was Aerys really “crazy” for thinking the regional lord paramounts were plotting against him? Do we really think Tywin Lannister WASN’T wanting the crown?

Sure, Aerys created many enemies by dishing extremely harsh punishments, but his craziness and paranoia was a consequence of the fragmented power of his house to dominate the 7 kingdoms, and all of his (tactically bad) crazy actions really just exacerbated the existing troubles of his dynasty. Let’s not also forget that wildfire is, at least, some tactical substitute for dragons.

My most important evidence—and my conclusion—we know Aegon V died in a botched dragon hatching, which he pursued because he knew dragons were necessary for his house’s power. But Aegon V was a good king who cared for his people; he wasn’t even doing this for selfish reasons, he just wanted to hold the realm together safely again.

In some sense, Aegon V foresaw Robert’s Rebellion and the war of the 5 kings.

I just discovered Upwork, spent some money for “connects,” but nobody even opens my proposals. I always propose wages below the average, but, is the scheme here that I basically have to get paid pennies on the dollar until I have enough reviews, or something?

For context, I have even offered the damn near lowest wages, and I can’t get anything. I feel like I’m just wasting money on connects.

To expound: armor classes seem entirely… unbalanced, and I don’t understand how normal people play this way.

For instance, a hexblade warlock with 19 AC (not even insane armor, just normal starter armor) and it’s like, unless I cheese the rolls, most enemies just cannot hit him. Even for other characters with 16/17 AC, it seems like combat lasts forever (and is entirely anticlimactic) because all the enemies seem like bumbling buffoons who can’t land attacks, and my party seems like expert fighters because they land so many attacks.

Is there a fix for this aside from just fudging enemy attack rolls? I’ve tried bringing it up to the party (some of them have never lost half health before) and they seemed to think I was being crazy; like it just makes sense combat should last so long because they can’t ever get hit.

I’ve been incredibly depressed for the past few months, and I simply cannot motivate myself anymore. Unemployment has been getting the better of me; even simple tasks, ones that I HAVE to do, I nonetheless can’t bring myself to do.

I try bribing myself, like “I’ll get a good breakfast first, that’ll get me out of bed.” But then I just sit there. My body feels weak at the suggestion of doing anything.

I type this as I’m sitting in my car, not wanting to go into my apartment because I know I have stuff I need to do. I couldn’t gotten it done any time in the last two days, and I just would rather sit in my car and do nothing.

My fantasy is often that I get to just… go out on my porch and just sit there until I die. Don’t need to eat, work, maybe I’ll bring a pillow just to sleep sometimes. Ugh.

I’m a fairly new DM, I only got into it because (1) none of my friends have DM’d before either, and (2) I really wanted to eventually create my own homebrew.

I started a campaign with them 5 months ago, typical Forgotten Realms setting (didn’t want to reinvent the wheel while I learned the ropes). But now I have some player turnover because of summer stuff, which is convenient for starting a new campaign (putting the last one on pause).

I’d really love any advice anybody may generally have for homebrewing. I’ve been developing a very detailed world, and (frankly) the most difficult part so far has been creating enough classes (with a level up system) to allow for enough choice.

Narratively I think I have a great world; it’s unique and truly original, but it’d be aptly summarized as “space-punk Witcher.”

My problem is that none of the players are building chemistry with eachother; there’s hardly any dialogue unless I force it with circumstances.

I’m coming to think, maybe I need to offer smaller opportunities for purposeful dialogue? Is this something any of you think about?

Or more generally, how do you guys get characters to interact without it being necessary for like, a puzzle or something?