[-] drailin@kbin.social 178 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I was a long-hair male teenager in Texas and got to experience this first-hand. Besides the frequent disparraging comments from teachers and staff, I was also kicked off the track/CC team for my hair because I "Didn't match the image the school wanted to present at athletic events." I had a 4.0GPA, was active in school activities, enrolled in all AP/Pre-AP classes, and was, most importantly, good at and enjoyed running. As a freshman I ran a 5:20 mile, 12:10 two mile, and <20min 5K and was up for varsity consideration in my sophomore year. Despite this, the coach told me, point-blank, that I could only stay on the team if I cut my hair above the ear.

My parents, pissed, yelled at every school admin they could get a meeting with to no avail. Ultimately, even the principle was impotent, apologizing for how this must be "upsetting" but saying that she couldn't do anything. Apparently the athletics coordinator who made the rule didn't report to the principle, but to the district athletics office. My parents told me they would be behind me to fight it up the chain, but I decided that the experience had ruined competetive running for me and moved on.

The enforcement of white, christian, heteronormative values to teens' hair is so insideous. It is used for racism against black teens with braids, homophobia/transphobia against queer teens who don't conform with gender stereotypes, and in my case, just to be fascist assholes to a white cis-het teen boy with long hair. Nowadays I am covered in tattoos, oscillate between long/short/natural/neon hair, and have never felt like a better representative of my institution. I am about to get my PhD, was the president of my department's graduate student association, have taught and ran summer and afterschool science programs for under-represented kids, and fought for (and gotten) better compensation for graduate employees at my school.

Fuck every petty school admin who supports this shit, I am proud of my image, I am proud of teenage me for holding onto his individuality, and I hope that any teenagers in a similar situation can feel proud of themselves too, regardless of how they express.

333
submitted 9 months ago by drailin@kbin.social to c/adhd@lemmy.dbzer0.com
[-] drailin@kbin.social 21 points 9 months ago

My PI has 2 walls covered in cork board in the hall outside our meeting room. Every paper we publish gets pinned there. It is the "Profesional" equivalent of getting your report card put on the fridge, we have a whole pinning ceremony and everything.

18
submitted 9 months ago by drailin@kbin.social to c/196@lemmy.blahaj.zone

Please just shovel garlic into me. I can take it.

[-] drailin@kbin.social 18 points 9 months ago

Don't worry about Roundup causing cancer, ~~a washed up former greenpeace hack turned shill suckling at the teat of companies responsible for the declining state of the world~~ Patrick Moore assured me that it is non dangerous. It is even perfectly safe to drink a quart of it!

https://youtu.be/uh8lxKrFmQs?si=DO-x-Ag0sZt6VCJ9

[-] drailin@kbin.social 19 points 11 months ago

An old granny bard, based in no small part on my own grandma. She doesn't channel her magic through song or dance, but through her sassy remarks, telling stories about her childhood, and making baked goods, sweets, and presents for her adopted grandkids (the adventuring party).

Bardic Inspiration? Reminding you how much she loves you and is proud of you. Alternatively, giving you some candy for later or promising that if you do well, she will bake you a pie or take you out for icecream for being so brave.

Healing spells? Blown kisses, band-aids, and warm cookies.

Hypnotic Pattern/Hold Person/etc? Telling a rambling story (that she forgot what the point/moral was before she even started) but the enemies are too polite to interrupt her.

Dissonant Whispers/Visious Mockery/etc? Asking when you are going to get a boyfriend/girlfriend, graduate, get married, or get a real job. Telling bad (and slightly innapropriate) jokes, for her own amusement, often messing up the punchline. Asking if you have talked your mother recently ("You know, she won't be around forever, and I am sure she wishes you'd write more.") Simply saying "Bless your heart."

Party Buffs? Giving you knickknacks, homemade gifts, or old hand-me-downs she really thinks you'll like. Passing down age-earned wisdom and giving encouragement to just try your best. Making breakfast for the party, using far too much butter, cream, and other artery clogging goodness.

[-] drailin@kbin.social 66 points 11 months ago

I didn't know the European Space Agency organized E3. Learn something new every day.

[-] drailin@kbin.social 32 points 11 months ago

Sometimes stuff does. Othertimes, it is more open for debate. As a rule, I like to imagine that stuff might, but only if it will make stuff more confusing.

[-] drailin@kbin.social 39 points 11 months ago

This is the truth. I am a few months away from getting my PhD in particle physics and the core questions being raised in all levels of the field at the edges of our decent big-picture understanding are so exciting.

[-] drailin@kbin.social 18 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Not just guitar audio! I own a tube amp for my guitar and 2 tube amps for driving my higher-end headphones! They are neat little pieces of electronics history, not just in how they run, but also because most of the best tubes are old military surplus. My oldest pair are from 1945 and were made for early army/navy radar systems.

1945 JAN-6AK5 tubes

24
submitted 11 months ago by drailin@kbin.social to c/gaming@beehaw.org

Hey there everyone, I am back with v1.1 of my Latex Template for making D&D Item Cards. I received one major point of feedback from multiple people in the fediverse: make an option for fixing the card dimensions for easier printing and distribution/storage at the table. So that is exactly what I did!

Now you can choose the (admitedly more user-friendly) option of letting the card length vary for digital distribution, or you can fix the card aspect ratio. The item art background and text backgrounds can also now be changed, and a number of options have been included for item art backgrounds, but you can use whatever images you want.

Example Cards

The fixed-size cards are 5:7 by default, the same as playing cards. They include a front and back side for longer item descriptions, but you will have to edit the text more carefully and decide where to split between front/back content.

For the printable card item art, I highly recommend using a PNG with a transparent background and modifying tcolorbox interior style to set your background. Ensure your backgound art is close to 7:5 for best results. You can also load your image as the background art if you'd like instead, again, making sure it is in 7:5.

27
submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by drailin@kbin.social to c/programming@beehaw.org

Hey there everyone, I am back with v1.1 of my Latex Template for making D&D Item Cards. I received one major point of feedback from multiple people in the fediverse: make an option for fixing the card dimensions for easier printing and distribution/storage at the table. So that is exactly what I did!

Now you can choose the (admitedly more user-friendly) option of letting the card length vary for digital distribution, or you can fix the card aspect ratio. The item art background and text backgrounds can also now be changed, and a number of options have been included for item art backgrounds, but you can use whatever images you want.

Example Cards

The fixed-size cards are 5:7 by default, the same as playing cards. They include a front and back side for longer item descriptions, but you will have to edit the text more carefully and decide where to split between front/back content.

For the printable card item art, I highly recommend using a PNG with a transparent background and modifying tcolorbox interior style to set your background. Ensure your backgound art is close to 7:5 for best results. You can also load your image as the background art if you'd like instead, again, making sure it is in 7:5.

4
submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by drailin@kbin.social to c/dndnext@ttrpg.network

Hey there everyone, I am back with v1.1 of my Latex Template for making D&D Item Cards. I received one major point of feedback from multiple people in the fediverse: make an option for fixing the card dimensions for easier printing and distribution/storage at the table. So that is exactly what I did!

Now you can choose the (admitedly more user-friendly) option of letting the card length vary for digital distribution, or you can fix the card aspect ratio. The item art background and text backgrounds can also now be changed, and a number of options have been included for item art backgrounds, but you can use whatever images you want.

Example Cards

The fixed-size cards are 5:7 by default, the same as playing cards. They include a front and back side for longer item descriptions, but you will have to edit the text more carefully and decide where to split between front/back content.

For the printable card item art, I highly recommend using a PNG with a transparent background and modifying tcolorbox interior style to set your background. Ensure your backgound art is close to 7:5 for best results. You can also load your image as the background art if you'd like instead, again, making sure it is in 7:5.

55
submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by drailin@kbin.social to c/dnd@lemmy.world

Hey there everyone, I am back with v1.1 of my Latex Template for making D&D Item Cards. I received one major point of feedback from multiple people in the fediverse: make an option for fixing the card dimensions for easier printing and distribution/storage at the table. So that is exactly what I did!

Now you can choose the (admitedly more user-friendly) option of letting the card length vary for digital distribution, or you can fix the card aspect ratio. The item art background and text backgrounds can also now be changed, and a number of options have been included for item art backgrounds, but you can use whatever images you want.

Example Cards

The fixed-size cards are 5:7 by default, the same as playing cards. They include a front and back side for longer item descriptions, but you will have to edit the text more carefully and decide where to split between front/back content.

For the printable card item art, I highly recommend using a PNG with a transparent background and modifying tcolorbox interior style to set your background. Ensure your backgound art is close to 7:5 for best results. You can also load your image as the background art if you'd like instead, again, making sure it is in 7:5.

15

Hey there programmers, I know this is a more markup/typesetting deal, but I thought there might be people who are interested. After being dissapointed with many of the options out there for making ttrpg item cards, I made a LaTeX template for that exact purpose. I wanted it to be relatively easy to use, generate clean images, and be (semi) form fillable. The cards scale in height with the quantity of text given and image size, so users don't need to finagle with the box dimensions too much, and all card sections (generated by custom commands) can either be commented out or toggled off if they aren't relevant to the item.

If there are any people familiar with TeX who have thoughts or constructive criticism, I would love to get some more eyes on this. I have already posted this in the relavant ttrpg areas, but I am hoping people here might have more technical critiques. I have already gotten feedback that a setting for fixed dimensions would be smart in case players want to get card sleeves or a card binder, and want to make a back side for longer item descriptions, which I will work into V2.

Here is an example of a completed card with all the trimmings: Staff of the Jackal Lord

Thanks to anyone who takes the time to check it out, and if anyone uses it, please let me know what you think!

25

After starting some earnest homebrewing efforts for magic items in my campaign, I was getting frustrated with the limited options for item cards I could give to my players. I am not great with illustrator/photoshop, have terrible handwriting, didn't particularly like the form-fillable cards I found online, and the homebrewery/GMbinder templates I found are better as pages out of a book than single cards imo. So I decided to make my own item card generator using LaTeX.

This template gives a (semi) form-fillable base that should work for any magic item. All the fields included are toggle-able, so you can select what fields you want to populate, it accepts item art so you can include a visual cue for your players (but still works without it!), and will auto adjust the length of the card so that you don't have to worry about dimensions.

It outputs both a PDF (for printing) and a PNG (with transparent background for digital sharing) so you can choose the format you prefer. It also allows multiple cards of different sizes on a single document in case you want to print out all your items at once. Attached is an example of the png from one of my items (all my item art is ai generated, I can't draw worth a lick).

I am not sure how big the intersection is between fediverse users, DND nerds, and people who use LaTeX is, but I am squarely in that camp. I hope that people find this useful, and would love feedback if anyone has suggestions!

https://imgur.com/a/QIgFZ6n

37
submitted 1 year ago by drailin@kbin.social to c/cat@lemmy.world

Throwback photo of me and my boy watching some basketball last year. We both like watching the lil dudes scurrying up and down the phone screen.

27
submitted 1 year ago by drailin@kbin.social to c/gaming@beehaw.org
45
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by drailin@kbin.social to c/dnd@lemmy.world

After starting some earnest homebrewing efforts for magic items in my campaign, I was getting frustrated with the limited options for item cards I could give to my players. I am not great with illustrator/photoshop, have terrible handwriting, didn't particularly like the form-fillable cards I found online, and the homebrewery/GMbinder templates I found are better as pages out of a book than single cards imo. So I decided to make my own item card generator using LaTeX.

This template gives a (semi) form-fillable base that should work for any magic item. All the fields included are toggle-able, so you can select what fields you want to populate, it accepts item art so you can include a visual cue for your players (but still works without it!), and will auto adjust the length of the card so that you don't have to worry about dimensions.

It outputs both a PDF (for printing) and a PNG (with transparent background for digital sharing) so you can choose the format you prefer. It also allows multiple cards of different sizes on a single document in case you want to print out all your items at once. Attached is an example of the png from one of my items (all my item art is ai generated, I can't draw worth a lick).

I am not sure how big the intersection is between fediverse users, DND nerds, and people who use LaTeX is, but I am squarely in that camp. I hope that people find this useful, and would love feedback if anyone has suggestions!

https://imgur.com/a/QIgFZ6n

[-] drailin@kbin.social 18 points 1 year ago

A true Sapphic Barbie Utopia is too powerful for normies to gel with

[-] drailin@kbin.social 19 points 1 year ago

It was one of our family dogs, and we all loved her dearly. I was playing on the couch and fell off, landing on her tail and hurting her. She instictually snapped and it resulted in, unfortunately, the worst possible outcome (it is shitty, but it is one of my first well formed memories). Despite it being a freak one off, my parents couldn't feel safe given what happened and rehomed her to a family friend who didn't have children. She lived a long happy life and my dad still got to see her regularly, as he was heartbroken that he had to make this choice. I personally don't think my parents letting their kid play around the family dog, one that they had since before I was born, should have their faces readjusted.

[-] drailin@kbin.social 51 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I had a decent section of my right side of my face forcibly removed via a dog bite when I was 3. The cosmetic surgeon did an amazing job putting my face back together (no visible scarring other than the puncture mark and my eyelid acts weird sometimes), but the rip started at the corner of my eye, and as a result, that hole never healed up quite right.

It is about the size of a grain of rice and is really annoying. When I blow my nose, it acts as the third escape route for any congestion, which is gross as hell, popping my ears ranges from tricky to impossible, the eye is more watery than the other, and when I cry because my parents treated me like the fuck up that I truly am and I am undeserving of love, that eye is prone to irritation. I can make a really high pitch whine from it on demand though, so it is all worth it!

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Not following the rule (media.kbin.social)
[-] drailin@kbin.social 28 points 1 year ago

Cries in Texas Graduate Student who is legally prevented from unionizing 🫠

Having to petition my university for basic considerations (not owing back tution to the university despite being employed by them, getting health care covered, getting pay raises so we can afford to live where we work) has been hell without any union support.

Fuck Texas, can't wait to finish up here and move.

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drailin

joined 1 year ago