majestic

Given the amount of times the holideck (I'm totally keeping this typo, it's awesome) made a mess of the ship you'd think they'd have turned the bloody thing off by the time A Fistful of Datas happens, or at least totally isolated it from the rest of the Enterprise computer and energy systems.

KP watched Legend of the Overfiend recently, so anything's pretty possible.

Was that on purpose? If not C.G. Jung would say something about synchronicity now.

Floor is only breathy when she wants to be, did you listen to the Shallow cover, or About Love I Don't Know A Thing (either... are really breathy on purprose)? Not that it really matters. I didn't expect you to like Floor. Hence the question if you hate everything equally. I am a little uncertain why anyone would recommend Nightwish to you. Don't get me wrong, I love them, but... that's as much an auto-no as you can get, even back when Anette was the lead vocalist. I'm pretty sure at this point we can strike classically trained from the list - or at the very least, clasically trained and using that training to sound the part*, which includes operatic and actual opera. I absolutely don't like her Ave Maria. I've listened to four of them, the first one doesn't work for me, without any comment. It either disappeared from YouTube just right after you posted it, or it is locked for me in a way that doesn't even tell me. Which is odd for YouTube, they at least have the courtesy to tell me why. That wraps that up. Please keep in mind that my musical theory knowledge is limited to what we learned in junior high... and yeah, we did have a music teacher who appreciated the finer art of classical music, which meant we also went to concerts on the shool's dime. I have a certain appreciation for the music, but not enough to have really followed up on it. So how long until @ShadySands forces us into the music thread even if he barely posts here?

Well, that I can relate to.

I think I'll let Looks-a-bit-like-Cary-Elwes-But-Isn't explain:

There's that possibility, and it's not necessarily related to eras, but can be, of course. Singing is a relatively varied field with lots of ways you can study - or rather, train your voice for. I have a friend who so far hated each and every clasically trained male vocalist that I listen to. That's definitely a thing - he positively hates clear male voices with a certain range and a singing style that is classical (classical can but doesn't have to include opera training). There's obviously musical theater training, pop, certain types of latin music, soul, stuff that's not actual singing, like rap, different breathing techniques, etc. You could, if you suspect training and singing style as a part of what it is, try and check out the body of work of Floor Jansen*, who is probably the most versatile vocalist currently alive. She can do pretty much anything, from slow, balladish pop, to death metal growls, to actual opera, and she can slide from low belts, to mixed to head voice in an instant. She also made a handful of videos where she explains breathing and jaw placement while singing, so if nothing else... hmm, and she's actually really a nice, unassuming person. However, for all the character flaw she doesn't have, her fandumb has them in abundance. Don't interact with them. Like. EVER. They're the worst. If you hate everything she's ever done equally, there's a decent chance it might just be the actual voices. That could be too, because certain types of vocalists were popular during certain time periods. * Oh, and by the way, while I like Floor as vocalist and am often impressed by how easy she makes singing seem, I'm not at all that impressed by her singing. Technically it's great, of course, but... I like others more, even if they aren't nearly as versatile or even on the same page in terms of vocal control. She currently sings for what once was one of my favorite groups, but I'd still take the old vocalist over her. Which... oh boy, don't mention that to the fandumb.

I aim to please. Wait, was there actually any doubt?

While I was walking the dog yesterday I started humming out of the blue, and wondered what that was... Well, the first ending of Love Live! Say what you will about the anime itself, the music is decent enough. First ending song, particularily the beginning. It's really... well, it sticks. The song is silly, just like everything else in this, but it's also really easy to listen to. It's also... pretty much everything that's wrong with the animation in a nutshell. From the creepy looking CGI to the enhanced swaying of the skirts, to the dance moves and the design of the character models. Love Live!'s bad sides in a nutshell. The first 25 seconds with Honoka singing are pure gold though.

Well, yes, there's that - the average quality of the anime is really great, especially in the first arc. The Sakura card arc takes a couple of episodes to find its footing. What's your movie site?

edit: That doesn't look very appealing, but if it's coming to Prime Video, then I'll probably take a look.

Indeed, °K it is. Althoug the numbers do get unwieldy for daily use.

Here's my post from early June, or part of it, at least: There's something else, I think. I've watched the film after the entire run of the anime, which wasn't a great idea. It really is best before episode 43, and certainly 60. For reasons I can't go into because of spoilers. Really bad spoilers. The kind even you wouldn't want to know. Maybe I was too harsh on it. I did feel like it spent too much time on the storyline in an effort to be interesting for viewers that did not follow Cardcaptor Sakura at the time. I thought the second film was much better.

Good thing I was right. Final episode of the first season sees Honoka spending some time with other classmates who insert themselves into the situation, trying to use the absence of her regular friends to get close to the popular girl. They end up playing Dance Dance Revolution on APOCALYPSE EXTRA mode, which makes Honoka realize that she actually really liked singing and dancing and didn't just do it to save the school. Meanwhile, A-RISE, the group that initially made Honoka have the idea of saving the school with her own group, win Love Live!. Well that wrapped up things really quickly, work a bit on your pacing guys. Wait, Honoka falls on her ass and rubs it like in the first episode, and Nozomi squeezes her boobs at one point. There's always something silly. I'm a little surprised that the season ended with them not even participating in Love Live!, although that does explain what the second season is about. Overall this was more fun than I thought it would be. Except for the end it's a bit on the shallow side, but what else would you expect from a musical anime that features curiously little singing and dancing for being about an idol group. The presentation is what it is. The emotional core of the show, the character interactions between Honoka, Kotori and Umi aren't really original, and I often had the feeling that they were based on and gleaned from better animes. There are better shows one could watch - but also significantly worse ones. Ah, there's still the second season and the spin offs that might make this go down in flames.

No need to be sorry, partially I get that. That's my default reaction to rap. Actual discomfort. So I know the feeling - just not with Candice. She's great. Studying singing techniques to understand what you like about them (or hate, as it were) might be a little extreme indeed. It would probably also take more time than just trying artists. If you really live the million years you've set as a goal for yourself, you might start seeing it. Earth's rotation is slowing down after all, so the days will be getting longer. Not sure if a million years will be enough to add two hours though. Too lazy to check how long it would actually take. I can't really gauge if I can fall asleep or not based on any factors. Obviously I know when I am tired enough to try, but knowing if I can actuallly doze off or if I just start tossing and turning around for a while before giving up and doing something else for a while, nah. I do set myself a limit of half an hour or so, if that doesn't work, I get up and do something else. There are obviously things I know will make any attempt pointless. Knowing that the next day holds social situations that I'm unfamiliar with, for instance, is a great indicator for not getting any sleep, but that's different and related to being nervous. Part of the issue is this never ending assault on my senses. It's not just the sound from the tinnitus, I also... like I mentioned once, see things when I close my eyes. It looks a bit like this animated gif, except the color is a really dark shade of blue. Almost black, but still very distinct: Visual noise! Yay! However, almost any type of music helps me fall asleep. I can actually fall asleep to the heaviest of metal stuff. Actually it's easiest with that, because that's my go-to musical genre that I barely ever deviate from, even if this thread might indicate otherwise - those really are just exceptions. Assuming I like the vocals, obviously. Monthy Python films are, by all means, something I should enjoy and find funny, but I mostly don't. Their TV show has a couple of laughs, but even then nothing like it feels like it should be. *shrug* I'm not hate-watching anything at the moment. Love Live! turned out to be a mostly fun, if silly, anime with a bit too much fanservice and a lot of singing that I thought I would hate, but kind of like. I usually only get that after falling asleep and being jolted out of it by something. That cues an adrenaline rush and an ability to fall back asleep. It's often accompanied by a feeling of falling down, or falling over - both of which are impossible lying in the middle of the bed. It also causes my legs to move in an attempt to keep my balance, which by all means should not work - sleep should relax muscles, after all. Might have something to do with dreaming, might not... dunno. There are times when I have to push through being tired because I'm at work or somewhere else, and that will cause being tired to go away for a while, but that's not entirely the same, I think. One of the better things that happened with being forced into working from home was that I could act on being tired enough to try and sleep. I'd just get up, set myself as away from keyboard and sleep for an hour. It lead to a sleeping pattern of sleeping five or six hours from somewhen past midnight to 8 am and then one or two hours mostly around 4 pm. In the long run, that did a number on my ability to concentrate during the day though. It's a good thing we returned to the office. External structure to my days is a good thing. Ah, silly character flaws. Thanks, I already slept the headache off, now all that's left is being a little queasy and the mild fever. I fully plan on stuffing my face with something unhealthy tomorrow to celebrate being back to normal. Hopefully sleeping through the afternoon doesn't mess up my sleeping habits any more than they already are. When it comes to regular pop music, if I had to pick an era, it would be 80ies too - plus 90ies Eurodance trash, but that's me. I don't think I'm familiar with any 80ies j-pop though. Or j-pop in general, beyond the songs that sometimes come up in anime. I did like the Madoka soundtrack though. A lot. More than most, actually. Sorry, can't really help you there. I have problems explaining why I like certain vocalists and hate others even if they're similar.

I watched two more episodes of Love Live! because I thought that would be an easy and actually somewhat fun watch while I'm not feeling that great, and the show pretty much turned upside down. What a bizarre turn of events one episode from the end of the first season. In the past few episodes, Kotori was seen getting a letter and feeling down. If you've seen even a modikum of these shows then you immediately know that Kotori is doing an Ami, she's going to study abroad. Or at least, she's going to appear to be leaving and then come back at the last minute, right? Like Ami in Sailor Moon R. Usagi (Honoka, in this case) will be a bit annoyed, but eventually turn out to be supportive. At least... that's how it is supposed to go. End of episode. Well that's more depressing drama than I thought I would get here. I'm pretty sure that Honoka will make up with her friends and keep Kotori from leaving, because how else are you going to have a second season, but meh. I was watching this for my occasional happy silly fix, not for serious dramatic character pieces.

I had chills only once after waking up much earlier today and having to pee in the middle of the night (look at me getting old). Managed to eat something now, unseasoned rice waffles, my third favorite snack food, right after papier-mâché and styrofoam.

My arm stopped feeling like it will fall off, and I've regained most of my mobility (yesterday I could only moe my fingers as the rest of my arm turned totally numb a couple of hours after the injection). However, I've also taken a level up in headache, fever and queasiness. Left work early and will now spend the afternoon trying to sleep.

Good, at least now I know that you not liking my awesome Eurodance Sailor Moon stuff makes you feel bad. Haha. No, in all seriousness, I don't think I can recommend anything to you that I would think you'd like. Everything I listen to usually has the same or at least a very similar vocal style (with the groups often having clasically trained singers), with only very rare exceptions. I'll post more on this later, but for now the shot yesterday seems to have knocked me out something fierce...

I did, actually. I can sleep with a larger fan running (that's like a lifeline in summer, sometimes ), but it's not any better or worse. It takes my mind off the ringing (or rather, blots it out), but... I just end up focusing on the fan noise. White noise is sort of one of these things that are supposed to help, and they do, but they just shift the issue from one to the other for me. Or rather, replace one noise with the other. Most of the time things work out okay, I've been dealing with that for over 30 years now. In the past few months I've begun to "write" forum posts in my head to fall asleep (sometimes that's fanfiction rather than forums posts, but that's okay too, not like anyone can read it). I guess people count sheep but I can't really do that, no images of sheep in my mind after all (speaking of aphantasia, I've thought about that for a while, at least it explains why I was never bothered by someone else's vision being different than mine when it comes to book adaptations as TV show or film - can't really be disappointed by how some else's mental image looks with one myself, hmm?). I might try music again. There's a chance that age dulled by ability to wake up from the music stopping to play. The advantage of music is it doesn't just drown out the noise, it's also something interesting enough to focus on. Guess I'll go see where my Blackmore's Night CDs are. Listening to Candice sing is really soothing. Plus that's much less likely to get the neighbors annoyed than something like Nanowar of Steel. I actually really, really, REALLY like this cover. Really! Might not do much for you, but Mr. Obsessed With Vocals here loves this. Well, I guess I'll need to rewatch the entire thing then. Silly me, how could I forget that.

That really is an unbelievable fact, because 5 clearly is more than the double of 2.25.

That's fine, really. Just don't try to watch Revolutionary Girl Utena like that, that won't work. Overall I tend to agree. The absolutely worst one was in Madoka so far, what with teenage girls violating the laws of thermodynamics. Really? There's the other half of the less than stellar reviews that say they wanted a plot in the anime and didn't get one. That's criticism I can understand, because watching a character piece through short stories isn't for everyone. Hey, why was that not in the video about the 10 things I did not know about Darh Vader's suit? Or was it and I don't remember? I get that too, sometimes. Fall asleep, then a sudden jolt of adrenaline (that's what it feels like, no idea if that is what happens) rips me out of it and that was that for a few hours, at least. That's how my 4 am posts here on the board come to be. My lack of being able to fall asleep easily "luckily" isn't caused by chronic pain, unless you count tinnitus as pain (it sure is chronic, though... yeah...). It's not something I really ever talk about in real life because I've noticed people react extremely horrified. I never knew life any differently, that ringing in my ears was kind of always there, so it originated at some point in my early childhood. It's not a mild one either, and when it is really, really quiet - like say, when trying to fall asleep - then it feels like a freight train running through my ears. If freight trains made highly annoying blaring sounds at a frequency between 6 and 8 kilohertz. Funny, I never knew that wasn't "normal" until a friend of our family said his daughter got tinnitus from going to a concert, and he's super concerned now because she's really not taking it well, and that he hopes it will get better with treatment. Everyone else reacted so horrified that I never mentioned it (yeah, I don't need people worrying about me). It's not an issue during the day, it just phases out while concentrating on work, or playing, or listening to anything. It's there, but drowned out. The problem is that any of the things I could do to fall asleep more easily by turning on something that generates more soothing sounds to focus on has side effects. I can't fall asleep next to a running TV because the light flashes keep me awake even through closed eyes - actually any sort of non-natural light even when it is not flashing is a huge issue, sun shining through the windows isn't, because that's unfocused and even. My current TV has a blue LED light signalling it's in standby, I taped over it the moment I saw that (now that my Switch dock is there, I removed the duct tape). Sometimes my stupid Kindle paperwhite turns itself on to auto-update in the middle of the night, that actually wakes me up when it happens, so I started putting it display down someplace where I can't see it. I can't use headphones for anything because they keep me awake by being uncomfortable. I can't use music because it stops at some point and then THAT wakes me up (without fail, end of album - wakey wakey), and that includes the few seconds it would take to listen to a record on repeat. Technically I guess I could try a MP3 playlist that's a couple of hours long or repeats itself without any appreciable breaks, but I can't keep on blasting music over speakers through the entire night. And that... isn't even touching the issues I have winding down mentally, but this post is already too long and too whiny. Plus I think I talked about that before. Now that sounds really bad, but it's mostly okay. I have shutters on my windows that block out all outside light sources (street lights, annoying neighbors getting up in the middle of the night for no reason, etc.), and all I need to do is focus a bit on something in my head to fall asleep, provided I'm tired enough. It only becomes a problem when something doesn't work the way it should. This week, for instance, was heavy on issues both work related and private, so focussing at night and winding down was hard. Tonight though is going to be really bad, because that pain in my arm just isn't stopping. Sigh. That... that... I... what?

There I was, shilling Violet Evergarden on a different forum because hey, why not, and I browsed a bit through IMDB reviews. There's a bunch of user reviews that Mike and Jay would have a field day with, if they were into animation and reading user reviews, because they were written by the sort of retards that they loved to complain about in their earlier Half in the Bag episodes. The sort of people who think The Empire Strikes Back is the most boringest of the Star Wars movies. Can't believe how many of the reviewers complained about the lack of exposition about her backstory. What happened to her parents, why was she in the military, why was she allowed to join the military in the first place (now that's a weird one, does that person think child soldiers are recruited?), how come she's such a good soldier? What happened to Vader, why does he need a suit? How did the Republic fall to the Empire? Why does the Death Star have an unprotected exhaust port? What were the Clone Wars, where, when and how did Han get the Falcon from Lando, what happened between the two? How did the Emperor and Vader kill all the Jedi? Hey guys, do you think Star Wars got any better by having these questions answered? Do you believe that Darth Maul became even more badass by officially surving being cut in half by Obi-Wan? If so, please do humanity a favor and make sure you don't procreate. None of these details are necessary for the anime to work, and what explanation there was in the source material wasn't great, so it was dropped, with nothing of value lost. Geez. Yeah, sorry, rant over. Pain's making me a bit cranky there. xD

Yikes. I was scheduled to get my shot at work tomorrow after our lunch break, but they called late today and told me they have leftover shots and I could get it done one day earlier. Good thing I did, because my arm feels as it if would fall off. Other than that, no side effects so far. The first shot had the same effect, just milder, so I'm kind of hoping that's all.