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Woolly rhinoceros wrote:Are you often worried that you will lose your sense of smell?

It is apparently one of the common early symptoms of a coronavirus infection. So the answer is, only recently.

Woolly rhinoceros

The Voice of ARB wrote:It is apparently one of the common early symptoms of a coronavirus infection. So the answer is, only recently.

Oh wow, I did not know that.

*surreptitiously checks pits*

Good Morning, House! Everybody Good?

I hope that everyone can smell the goodness of waffles wafting through the House this morning.

*gives everyone in the House a virtual hug*

The Voice of ARB and Woolly rhinoceros

Woolly rhinoceros

Kate Walker wrote:*gives everyone in the House a virtual hug*

*virtually feels warm and fuzzy*

*Wanders in, and helps himself to coffee*
Hey, so I saw The Voice of ARB had been nominated for the "best mint jelly maker" award. That's kind of exciting, right?

Kate Walker and Woolly rhinoceros

For I'm a jelly good fellow,...

Kate Walker, All Wild Things, and Woolly rhinoceros

Good Morning, House! Everybody Good?

*rummages through the pantry looking for something to eat* I've been to lazy to cook breakfast for me or the House. I think that I'm circumbing to cabin fever. :(

Woolly rhinoceros

Kate Walker wrote:Good Morning, House! Everybody Good?

*rummages through the pantry looking for something to eat* I've been to lazy to cook breakfast for me or the House. I think that I'm circumbing to cabin fever. :(

I'm sure you're due a day off. Let me.

*Squeezes past you, and takes a bag of oats from the pantry. He plonks it on the bench, then goes to the fridge and retrieves a large jug of milk. He pauses, and looks around, puzzled. Then he opens every single cupboard in search of a large saucepan. Finally he finds one, and plops it on the stove. He fills it about a third with oats, then pours in milk until it's starting to look quite full. He takes a quick swig from the milk jug before returning it to the fridge. He then gives the pan a quick stir, accidentally slopping some of the mixture onto the stove top, where it sizzles, and slowly turns to cement. He rakes through the spice drawer that he discovered earlier, and looks pleased as he comes across a jar of chili flakes. He shakes a generous quantity into the pan, and stirs again, slopping more mixture onto the stove top. As the mixture starts to boil, it splutters, spitting yet more of the porridge onto the stove top. He switches off the stove and pours the porridge into bowls, slopping some of it onto the worktop as he does.

There! Red hot porridge. That will help you get going.

The Voice of ARB, Kate Walker, and Woolly rhinoceros

All Wild Things wrote:
I'm sure you're due a day off. Let me.

*Squeezes past you, and takes a bag of oats from the pantry. He plonks it on the bench, then goes to the fridge and retrieves a large jug of milk. He pauses, and looks around, puzzled. Then he opens every single cupboard in search of a large saucepan. Finally he finds one, and plops it on the stove. He fills it about a third with oats, then pours in milk until it's starting to look quite full. He takes a quick swig from the milk jug before returning it to the fridge. He then gives the pan a quick stir, accidentally slopping some of the mixture onto the stove top, where it sizzles, and slowly turns to cement. He rakes through the spice drawer that he discovered earlier, and looks pleased as he comes across a jar of chili flakes. He shakes a generous quantity into the pan, and stirs again, slopping more mixture onto the stove top. As the mixture starts to boil, it splutters, spitting yet more of the porridge onto the stove top. He switches off the stove and pours the porridge into bowls, slopping some of it onto the worktop as he does.

There! Red hot porridge. That will help you get going.

Can you provide some ice cream so when I'm sitting there tomorrow, I can say "Come on Ice Cream".

Woolly rhinoceros

Woolly rhinoceros

All Wild Things wrote:Hey, so I saw The Voice of ARB had been nominated for the "best mint jelly maker" award. That's kind of exciting, right?

Well, would you look at that...that's really quite something.

I stumbled on that "City of Ulthar Forum" awhile back. I checked out your factbooks, and under "What's It Like..." found mention of some "IBOUNS" system for classifying nations, as well as a link to a CTE nation "for help interpreting this." That led to the factbook "What It's Like, and What It All Means," explaining what the IBOUNS is and some way to better get an idea of what sort of nation your issue-answering might have produced. From there, there was a link to the off-site forum.

At this point, I felt like I was on some sort of treasure hunt :P I was going to inquire further here, but felt a bit like I was already snooping and didn't want to bother you with it. Also, I know very little about such technical matters, so any explanation might very well have been wasted upon me. But I was glad to read that commendation proposal, it was nice to have some light shone upon some history I was unaware of.

Incidentally, that Bormiar fellow seems an interesting one himself. He obviously has a great interest in NationStates history, judging by his work in the Security Council, and his various proposals have brought to light facets of NS often overlooked in the SC. I'm always interested to see what he brings to the table next.

Woolly rhinoceros wrote:Well, would you look at that...that's really quite something.

I stumbled on that "City of Ulthar Forum" awhile back. I checked out your factbooks, and under "What's It Like..." found mention of some "IBOUNS" system for classifying nations, as well as a link to a CTE nation "for help interpreting this." That led to the factbook "What It's Like, and What It All Means," explaining what the IBOUNS is and some way to better get an idea of what sort of nation your issue-answering might have produced. From there, there was a link to the off-site forum.

At this point, I felt like I was on some sort of treasure hunt :P I was going to inquire further here, but felt a bit like I was already snooping and didn't want to bother you with it. Also, I know very little about such technical matters, so any explanation might very well have been wasted upon me. But I was glad to read that commendation proposal, it was nice to have some light shone upon some history I was unaware of.

Feel free to ask me any questions you'd like, either here or by TG. There are some questions I won't be able to answer, but I have no objections to reminiscing about the "bad old days".

There's a lot of info on the Ulthar web site, and I will feel free to refer you there for any questions which are already answered there.

BTW, the fact that I was New South Hell, founder and ruler of The Bad Place, is the reason I sometimes mention in my posts that I used to be a demon.

Kate Walker, All Wild Things, and Woolly rhinoceros

Woolly rhinoceros

The Voice of ARB wrote:Feel free to ask me any questions you'd like, either here or by TG. There are some questions I won't be able to answer, but I have no objections to reminiscing about the "bad old days".

Mostly my questions at the time were "What?" and "How?" and "Explain yourself, good sir." That last wasn't exactly a question but a request for further information. Searching around the forum provided decent context for everything, but it seemed a bit like looking at the peak of an iceberg and knowing there was a great deal more underneath that I couldn't see.

So no specific questions, but I would be greatly interested to hear whatever you want to talk about regarding the "bad old days." I like learning about the history of regions and communities on NS.

Ulthar and The Bad Place were the two main regions? I see TBP got gobbled up by Blitzkrieg, unfortunate...

The "IBOUNS" project looks like it was pretty cool. Must've taken a lot of time, but was probably a lot of fun, too. I enjoy tracking and managing stats for things (obviously one of the reasons I'm drawn to this site), though I've no technical skills to build anything. But I can really appreciate them when coming across others' work.

Woolly rhinoceros wrote:Mostly my questions at the time were "What?" and "How?" and "Explain yourself, good sir." That last wasn't exactly a question but a request for further information. Searching around the forum provided decent context for everything, but it seemed a bit like looking at the peak of an iceberg and knowing there was a great deal more underneath that I couldn't see.

So no specific questions, but I would be greatly interested to hear whatever you want to talk about regarding the "bad old days." I like learning about the history of regions and communities on NS.

Ulthar and The Bad Place were the two main regions? I see TBP got gobbled up by Blitzkrieg, unfortunate...

The "IBOUNS" project looks like it was pretty cool. Must've taken a lot of time, but was probably a lot of fun, too. I enjoy tracking and managing stats for things (obviously one of the reasons I'm drawn to this site), though I've no technical skills to build anything. But I can really appreciate them when coming across others' work.

Ulthar was the region with all the fun. The Bad Place was a region that I started just to hold NSH and his puppets, but then other people moved in, including puppets of Dr george of Philosophy 115, Mayor for Life of Ulthar, and QoM, at that time of Ulthar. It was a wacky fun irreverent region, and it very rarely talked about issues. We just passed the time trying to make each other laugh, and usually succeeding. Upon occasion I'd set up other private regions for collections of bots, and I had a puppet in Philosophy 115, and one in Unibot's region at the time, The Eastern Islands of Dharma (or something like that).

IBOUNS was just a fun corollary to all the stuff I was doing with issues. But it was fun, and worked better than 10,000 word opera on the Ulthar blog to let people know what I was up to.

Kate Walker and Woolly rhinoceros

Good Morning, House! Everybody Good?

It's Taco Thursday and again There are Tacos for everyone. So grab yours while they last. There are Mimosas and Hugs for anyone who wants one.

The Voice of ARB and Woolly rhinoceros

Woolly rhinoceros

Kate Walker wrote:It's Taco Thursday

Thanks! I adore tacos...haven't had one in months, now. I am suddenly very hungry.

The Voice of ARB wrote:
Ulthar was the region with all the fun. The Bad Place was a region that I started just to hold NSH and his puppets, but then other people moved in, including puppets of Dr george of Philosophy 115, Mayor for Life of Ulthar, and QoM, at that time of Ulthar. It was a wacky fun irreverent region, and it very rarely talked about issues. We just passed the time trying to make each other laugh, and usually succeeding. Upon occasion I'd set up other private regions for collections of bots, and I had a puppet in Philosophy 115, and one in Unibot's region at the time, The Eastern Islands of Dharma (or something like that).

IBOUNS was just a fun corollary to all the stuff I was doing with issues. But it was fun, and worked better than 10,000 word opera on the Ulthar blog to let people know what I was up to.

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. Ulthar sounds like it was a fun place, with a quite dedicated populace.

Did IBOUNS ever become widespread in use or recognition? What did Issue Editors think of it?

Woolly rhinoceros wrote:Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. Ulthar sounds like it was a fun place, with a quite dedicated populace.

Did IBOUNS ever become widespread in use or recognition? What did Issue Editors think of it?

Yes, Ulthar was great fun. It was fun even before I joined, and somehow or another I helped turn it up to 11.

I don't know if I even got a single reaction to IBOUNS at the time I did it. A couple months ago, my old nation NW Hell Rehab Center (in Philosophy 115) ceased to exist, and someone noticed its IBOUNS summary. Since then I've gotten a few questions about it, though more along the lines of what-the-bleep-is-this as opposed to wow-this-is-great. I doubt the Issue Editors were even aware of it.

Kate Walker and Woolly rhinoceros

Woolly rhinoceros wrote:Did IBOUNS ever become widespread in use or recognition? What did Issue Editors think of it?

By the way, The Voice of ARB still has its IBOUNS report. I suspect very strongly it is the only one left.

Kate Walker and Woolly rhinoceros

Good Morning House! Everybody Good?

It's Donut Friday so today we have Donuts, and more Donuts...every Donut Possible.

We have: Yeast Raised, Cake, Doughnut Holes, Beignet, Jelly, Boston Cream, Churros, Potato, Cider, Crullers, Fritters, Twists, Long Johns, Cream Filled, as well as grazed, frosted, or with sprinkles. Also, there is Belgian Waffles, French Toast, Socially Acceptable Sausages and Bacon, Hash Brown Potatoes, and Fresh Fruit Salad. We also have Coffee, Tea, and Me (my warm hugs) to warm you up, as well as various juices and milk. There are Mimosas for anyone who would like one.

Bon Appetit!

P.S. There are plenty of crumbs for the Ants.

The Voice of ARB, Woolly rhinoceros, and Aunt annas castle

Woolly rhinoceros

Kate Walker wrote:It's Donut Friday so today we have Donuts, and more Donuts...every Donut Possible
...
P.S. There are plenty of crumbs for the Ants.

Donut Friday should be an official holiday.

*sprinkles crumbs about the house* -- I think we could probably attract more than just ants if we try hard enough.

The Voice of ARB wrote:I don't know if I even got a single reaction to IBOUNS at the time I did it. A couple months ago, my old nation NW Hell Rehab Center (in Philosophy 115) ceased to exist, and someone noticed its IBOUNS summary. Since then I've gotten a few questions about it, though more along the lines of what-the-bleep-is-this as opposed to wow-this-is-great. I doubt the Issue Editors were even aware of it.

That's unfortunate. There seems to always be a handful of folks around who are really into the stats.

I guess the biggest drawback with the system was that it could only track from the point of beginning to manually upload the stats (if I'm understanding correctly). I wonder if there are logs behind the scenes that could be accessed? I know there's a few folks working with the site's dump logs and building tools to trawl through the data and allow accessibility. There's currently a new regional WFE finder, replacing the now defunct Texas-run one, though its inner-workings are a bit beyond me.

The Voice of ARB, Pigs sheep and wolves, and Kate Walker

Woolly rhinoceros wrote:I guess the biggest drawback with the system was that it could only track from the point of beginning to manually upload the stats (if I'm understanding correctly). I wonder if there are logs behind the scenes that could be accessed? I know there's a few folks working with the site's dump logs and building tools to trawl through the data and allow accessibility. There's currently a new regional WFE finder, replacing the now defunct Texas-run one, though its inner-workings are a bit beyond me.

I hadn't heard the Texas one was gone. Are all the Texas apps defunct, or just that one? They were a useful resource.

The IBOUNS system depended on someone tracking all of a nation's issue choices (other than dismissals). It seems unlikely that anything but the game tracking them itself, and making them available, would be adequate. You couldn't do it by monitoring national descriptions, because there used to be (probably still is) an issue where two of the choices produced the exact same text.

Kate Walker and Woolly rhinoceros

Pigs sheep and wolves

Woolly rhinoceros wrote:Donut Friday should be an official holiday.

Every day should be Donut Day.

Kate Walker and Woolly rhinoceros

Woolly rhinoceros

The Voice of ARB wrote:I hadn't heard the Texas one was gone. Are all the Texas apps defunct, or just that one? They were a useful resource.

I only heard about the WFE one, and that it was still there but not being kept up. I've still been using the History and Nation ones, and they seem to be being updated. There was another widely used NS tool that went down recently (I think one of the ones run by Eluvatar), so there seems to be a push by some folks to create some new ones. My experience is that they are less user friendly but work better behind the scenes, more utilitarian, just there to make sure things are preserved and able to be accessed if you know what you're doing.

The Voice of ARB wrote:It seems unlikely that anything but the game tracking them itself, and making them available, would be adequate.

Yeah, you're probably right. I personally don't know much about what is contained in those dump logs. I only know about them because I'm involved in the trading card game and there has been lots of use of them in creating tools for the card game. I don't use any of them, but I see others discuss their uses -- tracking bank across puppets, ways to organize puppets, things to make issue answering easier. In fact, there's been some talk about how those admins who track issue choices are a bit stymied because the big card players are skewing the numbers by choosing answers randomly over so many puppets. The top players have thousands of puppets that all have random issue answers across them.

Woolly rhinoceros wrote:Yeah, you're probably right. I personally don't know much about what is contained in those dump logs. I only know about them because I'm involved in the trading card game and there has been lots of use of them in creating tools for the card game. I don't use any of them, but I see others discuss their uses -- tracking bank across puppets, ways to organize puppets, things to make issue answering easier. In fact, there's been some talk about how those admins who track issue choices are a bit stymied because the big card players are skewing the numbers by choosing answers randomly over so many puppets. The top players have thousands of puppets that all have random issue answers across them.

Oh, so sad. But here's a secret for the folks who are into that kind of thing. Answering issues at random doesn't qualify you for all issues (or at least it didn't when I was still doing issues). To thoroughly search issue space, you need a lot of different kinds of nations, and only one kind is random. You need libertarian nations, authoritarian nations, socialist nations, stingy nations, spendthrift nations, racist nations, plutocratic nations and so on to no last term. Random nations tend to converge around a specific point in government space (what I called the "ideocube"), and they tend to miss out on a lot.

Kate Walker and Woolly rhinoceros

Woolly rhinoceros wrote:I only heard about the WFE one, and that it was still there but not being kept up. I've still been using the History and Nation ones, and they seem to be being updated. There was another widely used NS tool that went down recently (I think one of the ones run by Eluvatar), so there seems to be a push by some folks to create some new ones. My experience is that they are less user friendly but work better behind the scenes, more utilitarian, just there to make sure things are preserved and able to be accessed if you know what you're doing.

I'd be interested in pointers to useful tools.

Kate Walker and Woolly rhinoceros

*sleeps in and finally wakes up* Good Afternoon House! Everybody Good?

-Allemeine and Woolly rhinoceros

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