Scarlatti said:

Wanted: more pics of Carmain's dog. Or any pugs, ever. Why is there no Pets thread??

After last year’s terrible power grid failure in Texas and seeing some of the damage, I just wanted to share some things that I have learned over the years living (and winter camping in BFE) in Michigan. This is aimed at areas that don’t have the road-clearing capability or where homes are not specifically built to withstand freezing temperatures for an extended period of time. I am sorry for the weird spacing, I’m writing from my phone and am not entirely sure how to format it better.

Driving

————

-Wear your seat belt.

-Don’t panic.

-Roads get slick. Stay home if possible. If not possible, rethink the impossibility. If truly not possible, drive like someone riding a unicycle is balancing faberge eggs on sticks on top of your car and stay away from steep hills.

-Increase your following distance by a factor of at least 3. 5 is better.

-If you get stuck, don’t spin your tires. You want traction, spinning is the opposite of that.

-My dad always told me that 4x4 can get you out of being stuck, but it will get you stuck worse if you don’t know what you are doing. I have learned the hard way that this is true.

-If you own a truck, jeep, or some other ORV, your vehicle is still subject to the laws of physics. Ice is slippery.

-Unpacked snow can be less slick than the packed stuff that turned into ice but you still have to be careful.

-Keep a bag of sand or kitty litter in your trunk or over the axle with the least weight. You can also rip it open and use it for traction as a last ditch effort to get unstuck.

-Remember, that even seasoned veterans lose it in icy conditions when they overestimate their abilities or underestimate mother nature.

Home

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-let your water trickle from the faucet furthest from the source, if not all of them.

-if your pipes freeze and you are worried about bursting, turn off your main. It’ll hopefully limit the damage to the area where the pipe burst. If comfortable doing so, turn it back on when things thaw out and monitor closely for any irregularities (water pressure at faucet, water where it should not be.) Alternatively, call a plumber.

-Hang blankets over windows and doorways (if you don’t already have window plastic) to keep warm air from escaping. Do your best to seal them all the way around in the case of windows. Do not seal off methods of egress in the event of an emergency.

-If worse comes to worst and you lose power, open fire is bad. Smoke and other particulates can kill. All fueled heaters need to be properly vented and kept a safe distance from flammable materials (read the instructions). Get a battery operated carbon monoxide detector or better yet, an air quality tester if you know how to calibrate and use one.

-If you have to resort to a fueled heater, read the manual about runtime and get at least a week worth of fuel. Propane is preferred because it does not go bad or separate like other fuels and it doesn’t turn to a gel until approximately -44F (-42C).

-This one isn’t north-specific, but I’ll add it anyways. If you have generator and do not have a transfer switch (if you have to ask, assume you don’t have one), absolutely do NOT plug into your house. The electricity will back-feed into the grid and could kill someone working on the power lines. Use it for specific appliances.

That’s all I have time for right now. I’ll stick around and add if I think of anything else. If you have anything to add, feel free. This can apply to any state or country.

I set out with a goal to make playable HTML logs possible and I've achieved that, but there are a few more things to work out in terms of formatting and polishing. Again this is a work in progress.

If you have anything you think would be nice to have implemented then please let me know below! This is a very rough early version. This is not hosted online yet, but will be as soon as I finish up!

You just paste your normal -Mudlet- logs WITH the timestamp included and your log will play for others exactly how you experienced it! I'm posting this here as it seems like the best category for something you can use in any of your text based games you play via Mudlet.

If you're just interested in seeing a working example of a playable log you can find that at 5:25 into the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdyT3u_Cbcg

Hope to be bringing you guys the ability to share playable combat and RP logs real soon!!!

Again I'm 100% looking for feedback. Good or bad. Or if you have any questions about the technology and stack used I'm up to talk about that too!

Some of the larger aspects are more traditional MMO such as dungeons with specific mechanics to figure out, quests and tracking, faction and territory control; though there are a few aspects that I find make it different.

• Crafting is fast paced. If you need to 50 of something, it makes the batch near instantly instead of making each individual item a second at a time.
• Skills level up as you use them, from gathering, wood chopping, smelting, cooking, etc.
• Free respec of attribute points and weapon masteries until lvl 20.
• Fully voiced NPC's for all quest lines, main and side.
• Property system (haven't messed with this yet).
• Auto run
• Rich lore
• Combat is aim based, not click and cast like most MMO's.

There are a lot of things I'm probably forgetting currently due to having just woken up, but so far having a lot of fun with this.

There are three main factions, with the ability for players to create Companies (aka Clans or Guilds) to band together. The factions are as follows:

• Marauders: Free spirited (land) pirates who live by their own code of strength and ruthlessness.
• Syndicate: Clandestine, more secretive ritualists and knowledge seekers.
• Covenant: Church-like warriors of righteousness.

Each faction can buy territories and hold them based on their ability to actually hold and defend various forts. If your faction owns a territory, you get special bonuses and access to certain perks within those hamlets and forts.

I'm gonna give away the games I either already have, or didn't want from my bundle. First come, first serve. Take 'em if you want 'em. I'd definitely recommend just buying the bundle if you can; while they often have pretty decent bundles, it's rare that they have ones this good, plus you get to support charity I guess.

Enjoy! Or don't.

Some time on Thursday, 22nd April, the person who played Lynara was shot and killed in a murder-suicide also involving the person who played the character Alyssa (also deceased) in Yosemite West (Mariposa County).

I have no further information on the circumstances and out of respect for their families, will not be disclosing any further known details. If you wish to learn more, the Mariposa Sheriff's office will update the public as/when more information becomes available via their website and I am sure news outlets will pick it up.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-04-23/two-dead-in-yosemite-west-murder-suicide-officials-report

• A very strong roleplayer, one who takes pride in their performance.
• Someone who likes to RP more than just gentle sitting-at-home-drinking-tea scenes.
• The ability to hang out at least once or twice a week, at minimum.