We're last minute people, maybe a week in advance without air travel, a month with. A family friend just invited us to join them on a vacation NOVEMBER 2025. That seems bonkers to me!

How far in advance do you plan a small trip like a road trip or visiting family, and how far in advance for a big trip like international travel, a cruise, or Disney?

Hiya,

My local library summer reading challenge has a few items with which I could use y'all's help.

Read a book with a musical theme.

Read a book outside your comfort zone (I read mostly novels, and mostly sci-fi).

Read a book by an author from a different cultural background. (I'm a white American and I've already read Three Body Problem)

Read a book suggested to you.

I would appreciate any suggestions!

-Pidgin

Hello ladies (current and former) of Lemmy (current) - I'm curious how your experience of the male gaze has changed as you moved in and out of young-woman-hood.

How has your opinion of being seen changed through this process?

Well, really to Tabletop Wargaming generally. I brought the Beginner Box Set 35020 with some printed record sheets from flechssheets because I'm not brave enough to write on the cards it comes with. We grabbed extra minis from our D&D piles.

We played GRF-1N (PPC,LRM10) and WLV-6M (LL, 2ML) Versus GRF-1S (LL, 2ML, LRM5) and WLV-6R (AC5, SRM6, ML)

They agreed that criticals and physical attacks sounded fun, so we added those rules. No heat, though they thought it would be a fun addition for next time. We played on one included map sheet with some trees but no elevation.

They were frustrated by how often they missed, and how slim the to-hit usually was. (Aiming for 10+ most of the time. Once they got better at managing their movement, the game got more fun. I jumped around a bit and told them anecdotes from past games and lore tidbits. Once we got to start rolling clusters and criticals they got into it, trying to get side and rear facing shots.

It was fun, and they are willing to play again, but they were dismayedthat it took three hours. Maybe I should finally learn to play Alpha Strike. I have the book but not the box set yet.

Ich besuche meine Familie nächste Woche, und ich will kleine Geschenke mitbringen.

I know American chocolate is inferior, but I assume it's still a novelty. Some kind of candies probably, too. What else? Many years ago they loved to get boxed breakfast cereal and paper napkins, which seems quaint now.

It's been years since I've seen them, and I'm sure everyone there can buy whatever they want on the Internet, but it will still be fun to bring something.

Any suggestions for an Ausländer?

My parents raised me to always say "yes sir" and "no ma'am", and I automatically say it to service workers and just about anyone with whom I'm not close that I interact with. I noticed recently that I had misgendered a cashier when saying something like "no thank you, ma'am" based on their appearing AFAB, but on a future visit to the store they had added their pronouns (they) to their name tag. I would feel bad if their interaction with me was something they will remember when feeling down. This particular person has a fairly androgynous haircut/look and wears a store uniform, so there's no gender clue there.

I am thinking I need to just stop saying "sir" and "ma'am" altogether, but I like the politeness and I don't know how I would replace it in a gender-neutral way. Is there anything better than just dropping it entirely?

For background I'm a millennial and more than happy to use people's correct pronouns if I know them!

My D&De campaign wrapped up at level 20 after five years of regular play, and we are playing some one shots and stuff as a break before we decide what to do next. The D&D DM volunteered to GM again.

I think it's only fair that we players try to run some games to give the GM a break! I played in a FFG Edge of the Empire game for a few weeks many years ago with a different bunch, and had a great time. I bought the beginner box, which has four characters built, maps, an adventure, and the infernal dice. We will have five players, but one of our members played in my previous game so he can probably re-use his old char.

It's a fairly interactive system, requiring creativity from the players and GM to use the Advantages and Disadvantages in cinematic ways. I'm hopeful this bunch can do it. I didn't think any of them were particular Star Wars nerds, but I can keep Wookipedia open if I need background info on aliens or something.

Any tips for a new GM running through a beginner module, or on adapting this game for an extra player (might just NOT), or in running EotE in general?

Thanks in advance.

Anyone here ever been to a Yuri's night party or hosted their own?

Yuri's Night celebrates Yuri Gagarin being the first human in space on April 12th, 1961.

Jerry Gretzinger has been drawing and updating this map one panel at a time based on random card draws. Over the decades his style and art interests have changed and that's reflected in the map.

I bought a few panels and I love them. I've been aware of the project for years and years. I would love to see it in an exhibition somewhere.

They were published from the 20s to the 50s and written for children, so they're quite anachronistic. I find them charming! My elementary school was discarding them 30 years ago and I claimed the whole pile.

I'm reading them to my kids now to their great enjoyment, but I've never met anyone else who's even heard of them.

I will note that I've had to explain some of the social stuff that's very much of it's time. None of the problematic stuff has been mean-spirited, but I do have to break in once or twice per book to say "we don't say things like that anymore because ..." , but my kids are used to my pointing that sort of thing out already.

At the ends of episodes~209 and 210 there is a side story about a guy minting coins. He got bamboozled by his copper supplier Nasir!

Less Than three should make a heart emoji.

<3

Let's try some more:

Less Than <

Greater than >

Less or equal ≤

Greater or equal ≥

Open bracket [

Closed bracket ]

Open brace {

Closed brace }

Forward slash /

Back slash \

There might be more, but I haven't found them yet.