Remember the post I created a few weeks ago that asked about your thoughts/experiences on being shy, introverted, or socially anxious in FFXIV?
Remember I said I was working on a project around this topic?
This is part of that project - a brand new YouTube channel with a forthcoming series of videos created for and about the shy, introverted, and socially anxious players of Eorzea!
Sorry this took me time to get off the ground, I had to work up the courage to record my own voice, and that was tough as a shy person! XD
It's for that reason, in fact, that this is my very first ever YouTube video:
In the now immortalized words of Kefka:
<This is my first time, so please take it easy!>
How You Can Help!
I've got a lot to learn about making videos, I know, but if you'd like to hop on for the ride and help support this little channel, please reblog this post, hop over to my channel to subscribe, and watch/like the video at it's source!
My channel is absolutely brand new, not a subscriber to the count - will you change that?
I've also created a community section on the channel where we can chat. I know... it's tough to chat as shy folks, but I promise I'm safe and I will be kind! :)
About Introverted Eorzea
This first video is short and mostly an intro to myself and the channel's purpose as I was setting up and exploring video formats. But future videos will tackle topics such as:
What exactly is being introverted? Is that different from being shy or socially anxious?
What is social anxiety? How does that effect being a part of an online community, such as FFXIV?
Why do we feel anxious and how can we handle it when we do?
How do we help other people who struggle with social anxiety?
Lots more... I have a list!
Oh and, shoutout to @dogicrimsonofficial who got an unexpected cameo in this video. Howler popped up for a few seconds while I was recording - can you find them (and me)?
If you have thoughts and ideas, I encourage you to drop them in the comments below the video and let's get a conversation started. Come introduce yourself! Let's take this journey together!
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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Source: Maxim (USA), December 2005 (#96) || Internet Archive; ringthebell77
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me in DOYLESTOWN TODAY (Mar 1), and in BALTIMORE TOMORROW (Mar 2). More tour dates here. Mail-order signed copies from LA's Diesel Books.
I've got a really good excuse for finishing this week with a folder full of links that didn't make it into the newsletter – I'm on a crazy book tour and I've been in four cities this week alone. Time for another linkdump! Here's the previous 28 'dumps:
https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/
I like to start these 'dumps off on an upbeat note, and this week, I've got something gratifyingly cool and wondrous. Stars Reach is a "living galaxy sandbox MMORPG" led by Raph Koster, the legendary designer of games like Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxy. It's kickstarting right now:
Whether it’s water turning dirt to mud or forests growing back after a devastating fire, every action leaves a mark. This isn’t a static world built by developers – it’s a living, breathing galaxy shaped by you. Resculpt landscapes, build entire cities, and yeah, ruin more planets just like humanity ruined their original eight homeworlds. That’s okay – there are always more worlds in our endless galaxy.
I've seen demos of this coming together for years and it is mind-boggling. You can play it like a galactic trade-empire builder, a shoot 'em up, a first person shooter, a resource management game, a MUD, and more. There are thousands of procedurally generated planets with realistic geology, geography and ecosystems. It's like something out of a Neal Stephenson novel. They're mostly done and just raising money to finish and launch. I gave 'em $100. They're projecting delivery in January. I can't wait!
It's pretty wonderful to see accomplished creators like Koster, who have gone from strength to strength, making a series of ever-cooler things as technological advancements let him realize the vision he'd been chasing since the 8-bit days. It's quite a contrast with HP, a company that was once world-renowned for making the highest quality, most reliable instruments and machines, and is now synonymous with the scuzzy inkjet rip-off.
I love a good dig at HP. This week, The Register's Paul Kunert scored a direct hit with a short news squib about the executive compensation package announced for HP CEO Enrique Lores: "261,658 toner cartridges" (that is, $19.36m):
I would like to live in a world in which all unreasonable expenses were denominated in HP printer cartridges (much as the BBC compares ever extremely large or massy thing to a London double-decker bus). Anything to make it easier to grasp the vast forces that shape our world and bring them into focus so we can understand them – and destroy or change them.
One economic school that does this extraordinarily well is "Capital as Power," which concerns itself with the "social power of capital" – that is, how capital shapes our behavior and outcomes. It's a complicated but extraordinarily clear and useful framework for making sense of the world. This week, Naked Capitalism published a long colloquoy on Capital as Power, featuring Michael Hudson (a great economist and historian of debt), political economist Tim Di Muzio, and two of CasP's top proponents, Jonathan Nitzan and Blair Fix (whose work I have featured in this newsletter many times). It's a long, fascinating discussion – just the thing to relax with over a weekend:
Capital as Power grapples with power, the force that neoclassical economists could never figure out how to fit into a neat mathematical model and thus decided to discard. Refusing to think about power gets you into all kinds of trouble, from deciding that markets for human kidneys are "voluntary" to the denaturing of political parties into institutionalist weaklings like the Democrats, who are completely overwhelmed by the power-focused MAGA GOP as it dismantles the nation.
Writing for The American Prospect, Nick Tagliaferro rounds up "Ten Democrats Who Need to Be Primaried":
For years, Tagliaferro was the loudest voice on the Primary School newsletter, which covered primary races. In this guillotine-inspiring listicle, he presents such swamp creatures as Levi Strauss failson Dan Goldman (NY-10), who spent $5m of his inherited wealth to win his seat, from which perch he has done everything he can to undermine his more militant anti-Trump colleagues in the House. More familiar names like Josh Gottheimer (NJ-05) – whom Tagliaferro calls "single most needlessly antagonistic centrist in Congress" – and the ardent homophobe Stephen Lynch (MA-08).
OK, I've got to get into my rental car now and make the 3h drive from State College, PA, where I just did a talk at Penn State, to Doylestown, PA, where I'm speaking this afternoon:
As well as Wellington and Auckland, NZ; and Manchester and London, UK.
Before I go, one last wonderful link to be getting on with. Framework – who make the repairable, modifiable laptop that I love more than any hardware I've ever owned – just announced a bunch of fantastic new machines, including a rugged new, 12" touchscreen laptop with a 180' hinge:
https://frame.work/laptop12
and a desktop PC (!) that has insanely high specs and a fully customizable chassis:
I spend so much time on the road, I have no conceivable use for a desktop PC, but man, this is tempting. What a sweet rig!
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
