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playing

Writing a roleplaying game

As you might have noticed, I've been busy in my free time with my completely self-written new roleplaying game "Raiders of Arismyth". Unlike "Mail Order Apocalypse", which was me applying a wild hair setting idea to an existing ruleset, this project has a different

working

Self Descriptions made Easy

I have a "Manual of Me" in my professional e-Mail signature for a while now. That describes when and how to reach me, and how I communicate or set tasks. What it doesn't do in depth or any detail is describing what I'm really

testing

I have my own Mastodon instance now

One of the cool things of federated social media is that each instance can have their own rules and conventions. One of the bad things of federated social media is that each instance has their own rules and conventions. What do I mean? I started out on octodon.social and

working

Management books you should read, and what to learn from them

I've been on a small bender on this, and this is what I learned, in short. Reading my summaries could spare you the time of reading the actual books, but I don't recommend it - they are chock-full of useful language and terms to describe situations,

working

Organisational Purpose and the Kano model

If you work in product management, you should make yourself familiar with the Kano model. Noriaki Kano, a Japanese researcher and consultant, published a paper in 1984 with a set of ideas and techniques that help us determine our customers’ (and prospects’) satisfaction with product features. The resulting categories have

working

Manual of me

I'm working with computers and humans for long time. That has shaped a lot of my opinions and habits. In order to get the best experience of working with me, here's a handy manual: Working hours I'm neither a classical night owl, nor an

random

reduce anxiety and nerdsniping

A part of my job is asking people things along the lines of "can you look up if XYZ is feasible" or "what would you need to do XYZ" or "can you make me a proposal about this?". And there are always two things

working

Spam everyone and use your filters

For over two years now, polypoly is working as a remote-only company. Most of the time, this works well, but there are of course wrinkles and roadblocks. The major one is in how and where we communicate. We have all the tools: Email, Chat, a wiki, a ticket system, a

random

Home Office - redux

About a year ago, I shared how my home office setup looked. It is now not only a year later, but I also moved back to Hamburg and moved everything into a combined office&hobby room. And with that, I also upgraded a few key features of the space.

thinking

Warum man nicht neutral über Blockchain oder NFTs berichten kann.

Immer wieder sehe ich Journalisty und Medien, die versuchen "neutral" über Blockchain oder NFts zu berichten. Im besten Falle geschieht dies, da man diese ja nicht einfach direkt kritisieren könne, ohne dem Publikum das ganze vorher einmal zu erklären. Ich (und sehr viele andere) sehen NFT und Blockchain

random

My 3D printing setup

I have had 3D printers in the house since 2015. But it took 5 years and a lot of frustration until I finally got to a setup where I am happy with what I am doing. It began with a positively tiny M3D Micro - a very basic, consumer-grade 3D

random

looking at my home office setup

There's probably oodles of articles like this by now, but this is mine. So, since roughly march last year, I've worked exclusively from home. At the start, I simply plonked down the company laptop on the dinner table, but then gradually reworked and upgraded the setup.

testing

this is why we can't have nice things

As you may know, I am involved in https://darcy.is,  an attempt to build a better social network atop of Solid. The developers are chugging along at a slow but steady pace, expect a new version to come out soon. Solid itself is a really intriguing and awesome idea:

thinking

Data is radioactive money?

we should think about data as if it were radioactive money. Whoever controls it can use it to generate wealth with it, but if it spills, there will be long lasting unfathomable damage.

thinking

Online Interaction types - what is there, what do I look for?

While going through the Spreadsheet I created as a tool after writing the last blogpost here, I realized that what was completely obvious to me, isn't necessarily to others. Mostly because the whole argument about the details was mostly in my head. So, let's write it

playing

Du willst also auch mal Rollenspiel ausprobieren?

Keine Sorge, es geht jetzt nicht um Cosmopolitan-Tipps um Euer Sexleben aufzubessern, sondern um diese tolle Hobby von dem alle reden: Fantasy Rollenspiele, Erzählspiele, Pen&Paper RPGs.. err.. Moooment! Hey, JollyOrc, Dein Blog ist voll von Rollenspielbeiträgen. Warum erklärst Du das jetzt nochmal? Ganz einfach: Das hier ist ein

playing

Spielen mit Szenen

Drüben beim Rollenspiel-Blogs Forum gibt es eine Diskussion über "Szenenbasiertes Rollenspiel". Das mäandert ziemlich, aber es stecken auch interessante Dinge drin. Insgesamt brachte es mich dazu, darüber nachzudenken wie ich Rollenspiel leite und meine Abenteuer, Szenarien und Kampagnen plane. Wer mich kennt, weiß dass ich sehr gerne in

random

Terrifying German Culture Hour - Advertising

A while ago, I explained how we have fewer adbreaks here in german TV. Of course, we cought up a bit over the years, but it's still a socialist paradise in comparison. But there is also of course a distinct... german-ness to the ads I was seeing as

thinking

Bob and the Internet

This is the story of Bob: Bob is active in her chosen field, which exposes her to some wider audience. As Bob does things that people value, she has a podium on which to speak and she uses it to some effect. Alas, Bob has a problem. For some reason,

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Terrifying German Culture Hour - Country AND Western

To understand the following, you have to keep in mind that basically all germans for several generations have grown up with the stories of the brave and noble apache chief Winnetou, and his friend Old Shatterhand. The german author Karl May penned those, claiming they were the novelized diaries of

watching

Terrifying German Culture Hour: Think of the Children!

If you ever looked at one of these Buzzfeed lists like "10 dark original endings of Disney princesses" or similar things, you certainly know that european, and especially german fairy tales are dark. Gloomy, doomy, dark. You might know of old-school things like the Struwwelpeter: An educational book

random

Terrifying German Culture Hour: Dinner for One

If you've ever spent new years eve in germany, you probably have encountered this: Dinner for One This sketch, performed by two british variety actors (and tumblers) is a german ritual for generations by now - despite the fact that it is indeed performed in english, without any

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Terrifying German Culture Hour: Hip Hop

Disclaimer: Those who know this genre, please forgive me for simplifying things A LOT, and probably getting even more wrong and for certain omitting key players. This is not my music, nor my scene, and I have no clue what I'm writing about. For quite a while, HipHop

random

Terrifying German Culture Hour - Ad Breaks!

While I was doing research for Terrifying German Culture Hour, something occurred to me: German TV, especially in the 70ies and 80ies had way less advertising than comparable shows in the US. That sounds like a trivial "so what?" insight, but it is actually huge: For starters, they

random

Terrifying German Culture Hour - The other Punk Edition

Even germans often mistake the phenomena known as "New German Wave" for just an assortment of weird stuff. In reality, this cambrian explosion of new styles and bands paved the way for a variety of genres in Germany. Most bands went away quietly afterwards, some got (in)famous,