Writing What You Don't Know: The Assistants

Ditto. Butter is unsalted as a rule hereabouts.

 

Er, that is to say, grabbing unsalted butter without noticing would be weird (and thus not adding salt to your cake mix to compensate).

 

Oh also useing the wrong measurement, so you wind up with teaspoons worth of something not tablespoons

 

I once managed to misread a vinegar measurement as 1/4 cup instead of 1/4 teaspoon. You can decide how you think the cake tasted yourself.

 

I forgot to mention, it actually came out looking fine otherwise.

 

hello friends I have a question! I'm trying to plot a silly AU fanfic. the character I'm writing about is, in canon, someone who used to be an Air Force pilot (and is now doing a different thing for plot reasons, but.) in order to fit the Romcom Tropes the fic requires that she has some kind of a day job she can be a workaholic at, where she goes home to her own apartment at night (in theory, when she gets off work, but: workaholic.)

there are people in the military who have that kind of job, right?? are there people in the Air Force who do?? I know nothing about the military and don't know where to start looking.

 

SpecOps would be a good place to look. Surveillance needs pilots pretty much all the time, and their hours can get wonky depending on what they're doing. If it's necessary for her to be active duty, that's where I'd look.

If being retired is an option, put her in a job with a military contractor. They love pilots, and drive their people into the ground if given half the option.

 

I'm working on a fic about characters being in a therapy group thing. Does anyone here have experience with how, precisely, group therapy works? I really only know the absolute bare bones about it (which...probably made the setting a bad idea but I'm in too deep now).

 

@Acey - depends on the setting and the purpose? I've been in two different therapy groups, both outpatient, both through my college counseling services. One was generalized, one was specifically themed on LGBT issues. Broadly speaking, we'd gather, we'd each get a chance to check in on what had been going on in our lives, we'd all offer support and advice to each other as guided by the therapist present... I can try to come up with more details for specific questions?

 

It's a generalized outpatient one!

One question: what does everyone do when there's someone new?

 

I go to a group therapy for "severely" autistic people. Its main goal is to help us keep interactive with other people. Otherwise we pull away more and more. And to help those of us that are non verbal remember to work on things like talking/listening at least enough that we don't completely forget how.

 

We all introduce ourselves and say what brought us to group in the first place (and share majors because through the university, but in other circumstances people might not do this, or may share their occupations or whatnot instead). Then we just dive right in to whatever people want to talk about. Maybe someone might give a bit of background on what they're talking about if it seems like it'd be helpful for the new person.

Oh, yeah - a new person generally meets with the facilitators beforehand, who explain the format and expectations and answer any questions that the newcomer might have. So they don't just get dropped into the environment without preparation.

 

How is the talk started at all?
When I is in therapy the therapist always starts the discussion because otherwise we all sit around looking uncomfy and thinking the coffee machine outside should actually serve coffee instead of whatever that black sludge that smells of wheat and tastes like oats is.

 

Usually someone just breaks the silence to talk about what's bothering them, or sometimes someone asks another member how they are, especially if they had a rough session in the previous week. Occasionally the facilitators have to prompt us to get things moving, but they want us to be the initiators if possible.

 

Thanks to everyone for the advice!

 

Hey, does anyone here know anything about Antarctica? Specifically, the Antarctic Peninsula. Specifically-specifically, Paradise Harbor. My cyberpunk setting is a city located there that was built around 2060 (time of story being closer to 2080).

- What does the soil/rocks/geology look like? How difficult would it be to put buildings there? (I know that when you've got bedrock, you need to drill building foundations into the rock, but isn't some of the Antarctic coast loose scree? How far down would you need to go to get rock under the scree? If the answer is 'it varies', can I get a rough idea of how it varies?) Would it be easier or more difficult to just drill tunnels for human habitation?
- I know that many of climate change's most extreme effects happen near the polar regions. What is a high-but-reasonable estimate for summer, winter, and average climate/temperatures there around 2060-2080?

 

does anyone know anything about modern day locksmiths? i have a character who is one, but don't actually know too much about the job and what it entails and hate being totally inaccurate!

things i kinda wanna know:
what kind of things do they actually do at the job?
is there specific background checks they gotta go through?
tools????
pay?????

 

@Void I need to get my trunk rekeyed when I have the budget, I'll try to remember to ask.

 

I know nothing except that they apparently have a scam problem
https://gimletmedia.com/episode/78-very-quickly-to-the-drill/