Leaderboard

Why would you get banned? Excessive positivity? I mean, I could totally understand that, but it doesn't normally happen.

Just finished Stranger Things 4. All in all I liked it, but My guess is that the twist on season 5 will be that now they aren't "defending" anymore, but actively attacking. Maybe they throw in some Jurassic Park 2, with military hunting parties and stuff like that.

Village of Ivanivka in northern Kherson oblast, which was occupied for a very long time (probably since march) was liberated by Ukrainian army. As Malcador said, there is not much info getting out of Ukraine about the fights in Kherson, because GRU has made informational embargo on the counteroffensive and every single Ukrainian milbolgger, that I am aware of is adhering it. Also, Ukraine scored today another pretty big hit in Melitopol, allegedly by HIMARS (as the city is in the middle of occupied Zaporozhia Oblast). They obliterated the local airfield and destroyed a lot of Russian equipment. Also there are reports (which I was not able to confirm yet), that this attack was conducted simultaneously with partisan attacks targeting military infrastructure inside the city. https://t.me/hromadske_ua/23069 "Non-existent" Ukrainian Airforce also performed a lot of sorties all over the 4 occupied southern Oblasts against Russian military targets. No pictures yet, and no reports of downed UA jets from Russian milbloggers, so it looks like they might have been successful as well. Also according to NASA FIRMS surveillance systems, there were a lot of heat anomalies detected deep in Russian Occupied territory around Izyum, near the cities crucial for Russian GLOCs between Belgorod and the frontlines. Also allegedly by HIMARS. EDIT: Ivanivka was occupied by Russia since 3rd of April. That would mean, the first line of Russian defense in the northern Kherson Oblast has been breached yesterday.

Made the water colour version too, with some aid from @Kvellen's convertor, many thanks.

No One Reads The Back: How We Told You The Hook In The Titile And Became A Bestseller

The reason for those long manga names comes from Novels. They figured out that people are too lazy to read the back cover, so they started putting the story hook in the title itself and as most Isekai manga are originally novels/web novels they just kept the names.

I cant believe you have been banned before, I never would have guessed that. Only people like me normally get banned

I'm glad to have had the good fortune to watch some that I did like before being subjected to a bunch that I thought were somewhere between lacking and embarrassing. Most of the older "greatest anime movies of all time" fall in the former (lacking) category, while most of the newer ones fall in the latter (embarrassing). I didn't think about that, but maybe that's why I hate him. Too strong, too right, and too little personality...and he also makes everyone else come across as patently stupid because he thinks and does what everyone else seems unable or unwilling to, which only draws more attention to how dumb and shortsighted they all are (while also coming across as being kind of unreasonable himself - more on this later!). I guess it's not as bad as your slapstick or ecchi shonen protagonist, but those kinds of crap-tier protagonists aren't found in films of Princess Mononoke's calibre in the first place. I don't know if you've played Half-Life 2 (I think you have?), but it comes to mind as a comparison because of Alyx Vance. Everyone who's ever played that game always loves her, but I've always disliked her because she feels like she was designed specifically to stroke the player's ego for doing everything and anything throughout the course of all three HL2 games, and it's always felt kind of weird and gross to me. Although accomplished in a different manner, that's more or less what Ashitaka seems like as well: he's clearly supposed to be a stand-in for the viewer, and he says and does everything that the viewer would ideally do if they were as strong as him while in his position with the same lack of personal perspective that he displays (after all, the only reason he doesn't belong to any side and can thus be "the reasonable one" constantly shouting "why can't we all get along?" to everybody is because he doesn't have any strong ties to any of the different groups, same as the viewer - if it were his own people/family at stake, he would immediately choose the relevant side and become unreasonable the same as everyone else). It's like the movie is constantly telling us "yes, you the viewer are right for thinking the way you do!", and I kind of hate it. I don't want protagonists that would be like the ideal version of myself if I were dropped into this story with no personal stakes in order to solve it - that would be awful. My favorite protagonists tend to be well-meaning but totally divergent characters that do things in a completely different fashion than I would (sometimes more effectively, sometimes less!)...while actually having some kind of personality combined with their own motivations that makes them different and interesting. I think you could pretty easily consider San to be literally mentally disabled to a degree as a result of her wolf upbringing, but I still would've much rather seen her be the protagonist than Ashitaka. Plus, then we would've seen her grow independently without being totally dependent upon Ashitaka as the shonen protagonist crutch that solves and makes everything better - see what I mean in that he makes everyone around him look stupid while not being interesting or fun himself?

Worked some weathering onto my Beskad for my Mando Mercs app. Making sure it doesn't look too shiny and fresh...

The Isekai ones at least are, yes. That will most certainly be an interesting character drama with some humor in it, right? Right? Normally, this would be a decent case for the "WAT?" meme, however, I do know that in real life, there are actually forums where - mostly men, for obvious reasons I guess - discuss the merits and abilities of prostitutes. A pseudo-humorous anime about such talk doesn't surprise me in the least. I guess at least it doesn't demean actual people providing a service that is almost always in demand but usually vilified, leading to all sorts of problems, but on the other hand it might normalize the idea. Sheesh. Working hard for that five star rating gets a whole different meaning, huh?

What better way to celebrate America's independence than by drinking Mexican cerveza out of a German stein?

they don't really matter though, do they? the fact christian kids from another school chose to join a post game prayer don't remove the possibility many o' his own players, high school kids facing an unavoidable power disparity with their coach, felt compelled to do so if they were to get playing time. now admitted, 'cause am suspecting many folks is unaware, a large % o' high school teams is gonna have a prayer before the game. coach, player and maybe even a local religious figure is invited to lead a prayer in the locker room while all the players hold hands... as a team. if we were told such happened at a majority o' schools in texas, utah and south carolina, to name a few states, we would hardly be surprised. happens all across america every friday eve in the fall. am suspecting almost nobody complains 'cause has been the way things has happened since before any o' the players involved were born. coach kennedy likely got himself in trouble for the simple fact he were doing so open and notorious and not 'cause what he were doing were different. that said, particular 'cause is high school kids and recognizing the disparate influence a coach has over impressionable minors, a coach using his influence to spread his particular brand o' faith through religious charged motivational speeches and to have team prayers which even a few students feel is coercive woulda' up 'til last week been enough to make Courts choose in favour o' protecting kids. "The people know that their value judgments are quite as good as those taught in any law school--maybe better. If, indeed, the "liberties" protected by the Constitution are, as the Court says, undefined and unbounded, then the people should demonstrate, to protest that we do not implement their values instead of ours. Not only that, but confirmation hearings for new Justices should deteriorate into question and answer sessions in which Senators go through a list of their constituents' most favored and most disfavored alleged constitutional rights, and seek the nominee's commitment to support or oppose them. Value judgments, after all, should be voted on, not dictated; and if our Constitution has somehow accidently committed them to the Supreme Court, at least we can have a sort of plebiscite each time a new nominee to that body is put forward." --J. Scalia, planned parenthood v. casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992) if comes down to nothing more than a balancing 'tween coach kennedy's religious freedoms and the potential for his actions to be intentional or unwitting coercive, then why have a Court decide at all? is no longer a legal argument but one o' social and community values. but again, the Court were extreme selective with the facts, which should makes gd suspicious. HA! Good Fun! ps keep in mind we observed already how as the Court presented the facts, it were utter not shocking the Gorsuch and the majority sided with the coach. if you describe relevant facts as a handful o' post game prayers which is complete voluntarily for players to join, then a coach win were no surprise. the problem is even gd seems to admit there were more going on than just the post game prayers and for lower Courts to ignore those other circumstances and for SCOTUS to pretend such didn't exist is curious. Court coulda' remanded and ordered lower courts to decide using their new rules but with a full accounting o' relevant facts. chose not to do so. why?

He transcended borders.

I, too, am done rewatching the film. It's been twenty or so years now, and a couple of things have changed since then. I do have a slightly larger knowledge of some cultural aspects, for one. There's also the fun aspect in reading the subtitles and smiling at the creative liberties taken in translating, some which are pretty good, some where aren't, although it still feels like a broader understanding of anything, really, is still far out of reach. I don't know what it is exactly about films or anime in general that is set sometime around the 15th century, but it's just not very interesting to me most of the time, and もののけ姫 is no real exception. Fun fact, the word hime - 姫 - which means young lady of noble birth, is most often translated as princess, but a king's daughter, specifically, is 王女 (oujo). Statistically, hime has a much higher usage in anime, visual novels and novels than live action drama (there's a fun database that tracks word usage across various media sources). The nice thing about German is that it makes for a much better medieval sounding language if done well, to a point where I actually like the translated Lord of the Rings better than the original, and it takes a bit of Tolkien's, say, somewhat, uhm, unengaging writing style out of it. Ah, right. Still, regardless of language specifics, my reaction to the film is about the same as I remember it being. It, next to Akira, is kind of the reason why I didn't watch too many anime movies. It's not a bad film, and it certainly is visually pleasing, and I appreciate the attempt at making characters with different motivations that act not based on where the story needs to go but what their desires are, however, it ended up being just an attempt. That pretty much everyone is an idiot doesn't help. The film also tries to not paint the ongoing conflict in black and white terms, something that would work much better if Ashitaka's position wouldn't be the only sensible one and so clearly right that it is almost painful at times. The effort to be multi-facetted just evaporates in the light of there being clearly one best way to handle the situations, and no one else seeing them. Alas, such is the fate of the one destined to see with both eyes open, unclouded by hate. edit: Addendum: Clearly, given the success of the film, I find myself thinking that I am not the intended target audience. I suppose I shall have to live with it - unless my preferences were cooked with a candle, or something.

I do love the very long names of these animes, but I will never watch them. You know what should tide you over

I think that with many shows there just isn't a coherent plan in place from the get go and it shows in how things get stretched to wheel-spinning. Given how TV works that makes sense, but the end result is still not pleasant. Anyways, The Boys s3 ep7. Not Herogasm, but a fun episode.

Guys, in like two days My Isekai Life: I Gained a Second Character Class and Became the Strongest Sage in the World will be released, and not much later Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World. Are you as excited as I am? Anyway, what to do to tide me over, perhaps watch Date A Bullet: Dead or Bullet? Questions, questions...

@Malcador, you only post information concerning Ukrainian losses or failures and things that are generally going badly for "the west". Why's that? I'm just curious.

Damn that was a dramatic post.

I was talking to one of G's patients yesterday. Well, the patient's owner anyway. Her actual patients don't say much. He is a retired divorce lawyer. I told him a little about my experiences. He said it sounded like I was well represented both times. Anyway he told me a story that only reinforced my notion that humans not evolved primates but more likely DE-volved primates. His client was a well off middle aged man whose wife was having an affair. He had started the paperwork for divorce but not filed. Before filing he found out he had end stage cancer and would probably pass on within the year. He would be gone before the divorce would be near final. His wife became angry and spiteful when she learned he knew of the affair and told his she was "just waiting for him to die" so she could move her boyfriend in and "have fun" with his money. The lawyer said he's never seen anyone half so cruel and heatless. Coming from a lawyer that is saying something. So the man, his daughter (not related to the wife) came up with a plan. They changed his life insurance beneficiary from his wife to his daughter. Then waited. They didn't need to wait long. The wife maxed out one of his credit cards taking her boyfriend to Mexico for a vacation. So they filed for divorce then to put a freeze on martial assets. The man passed away shortly after and the will to his estate became a probate matter with the daughter and ex-wife contesting the estate. The daughter received the life insurance benefit and the lawyer said she was "set for life". Must have been a good one. The lawyer was so disgusted he offered to represent the daughter in the probate dispute for free. So now it's in probate court. The idea they had was not to win, it was to burn the estate to the ground. The daughter would end up with next to nothing from the estate but so would the wife. They forced the appointment of a Receiver and dragged it on for years. In the end the estate was settled with a four figure check for each. Over $1M in fees, receivership costs, etc had burned a million dollar estate to less than $20k. The daughter got the life insurance and the wife didn't even get enough to cover the cost of the trip she took to Mexico with her boy toy. I told him that was a great story! He said he's seen a lot of people get screwed over but that was the only time he felt good about it.

Finished <<Stranger Things>> and the most immediate thing I can say is: "Man, Duffer Brothers...

I am fairly certain that the manga is a whole lot less offensive than the anime is. I base this on my experiences with Sailor Moon vis a vis Crystal. Animation, music and sound add many different layers to the assault on my senses. In the case of Komi, it's most voice actors who just add their crazy in an overbearing manner. Holy hell Najimi is annoying. They're* one of the nicer characters around, but their voice acting is so atrocious I just can't stand it. At all. Ugh. *Gender might be intentionally left open, but that she sleeps with the girls at the school trip but doesn't go into the girl's bath is pretty telling. That should have been handled better, I guess.

We just got back from a family trip to Universal Studios in LA. We stayed at the Safari Inn, which is kind of a little historical icon that also is a fairly affordable family motel. Universal Studios was fun. We've visited before and it just tends to be a much more chill park than Disney. But it was pretty hot and we didn't spend too much time in the park itself. Instead we spent a fair amount of time exploring Burbank, which is a pretty interesting movie studio town. My daughter really wanted to visit the Hollywood Museum. I took her, but I told her it is a rough part of town compared to Burbank. It is right on Hollywood Blvd along the walk of fame. My kids are pretty good at navigating San Francisco and they understand how dense cities can dramatically change street to street, but my daughter's words were "I'm glad we went to the museum, but now we don't ever have to go back to that area." I think we will do the Warner Bros. Studio Tour next trip.

I feel like playing Baldurs Gate 2 again... I have BG1, BG2 and their expansions (both original cd's and from GOG). I remember there was a mod that could enable BG1 to run on the BG2 engine, BGT (Baldurs Gate Trilogy I think). Time to dust off some old Baldurs Gate mod sites Actually playing... mostly Guild Wars 2 these days. Been hooked, badly so, the last 4 years on that game. Watched a few youtube videos lately with a few guilds, that specializes in different mounts. No kidding. There are guilds, that create some very nice videos of the capabilities. Sadly they're quite "lo-rez" quality videos, because you can gain insane speeds on some of the GW2 mounts and recording software seems to struggle with keeping up. [DRFT] ("Drift") specializes in Roller Beetle racing and [Wing] which specializes in Griffon racing ...and with a Griffon serving as the camera helicopter

I think the most unrealistic part of apocalypse movies is that no one decided to kill their landlords or bosses on the way out as resentment. Anyways I'm trying to figure out if I should grab tickets to see the restoration of Lost Highway at the Museum of Fine Arts or just wait for the digital release.

tl;dr - war will keep going and Ukraine can probably not win back the lost territory, so we should just stop fighting. Then lots of hot air about diplomacy, but no proposals about what exactly should be done except basically "just let russia have what they have now." They conclude that to reach peace, fighting should be ceased right now - which by the way I don't agree, as that just gives russia time again to reorganize... we have seen that in the past, more than once. I get it. War needs to stop, but the way they write it just sounds like "waa-waa, let just have russia take what they want, so we can get back to normal again."

The portrait I used here. Which is an edited alternative to one of the vanilla elf portraits (male_elf_c). Looks great, and I'm glad to hear that the conversion file was useful!

Made a Watercolor converter file for Photopea. Double-click the thumbnail of the "Portrait" layer. This will open a smart layer tab in the program. replace the Calista image with your desired picture (can remove the background with https://www.remove.bg/) Go to file->Save(Smart Object) (or press ctrl+s) and then go back to the Deadfire Watercolor Template.psd tab. Might have to tweak a few things to get it to look right (altering the properties of the "Level 1", and/or Gaussian Blur effect strength, will make the lines darker/stronger). When you are happy with the results (or just want to preview it) go to File->Export as->PNG and change the dimensions to 90px by 141px. It's not perfect, but it works pretty well. The below were all made with this file, all except 2 required only minor edits.

Or the front depending how you look at it.

I'm surprised anyone still goes to that forum. Their forum moderators blacklisted me and then eventually created an excuse to ban me for being a constant critic of BG3 (as they did to several other BG3 critics). As such I no longer have any interest in anything Beamdog.

Anime names are getting longer and weirder, aren't they? Be sure not to miss My Stepmom's Daughter is my Ex as well. I think I heard about something like this before. Oh yes. Be careful, this is just an article about the anime , but just reading about it is bizarre enough. Not to mention the picture in the article...

BoredPanda - Returning ebooks costs authors

oby was Polish

Yes, "just curious". But MW beats me to any pro-Ukrainian news, most of the time. Other than that the pro-UA stuff I see will just be T-72s getting blown up and such, and I try to not gawk at that. Kherson is probably good news for Ukraine, but not sure what's to talk about as there's a blackout of sorts about it.