majestic

Wait, did you see only the first part then? Because...

But he wanted to use the oil to make bootstraps for everyone.

No it's not, this was me emulating. Can't argue with that.

Disclaimer: I wasn't sure if I should post this for a while. Will do. I hope it doesn't come across as overly arrogant, which it really isn't (eh...). No, my intention was not to whine, if that's how it came across. I'm content. I love my job, actually, even though I never thought I would, and my boss leaves me alone and doesn't require me to prove that I work in some sort of structured or explainable manner. This is hard to explain, and this has to do with what I mean with my brain doesn't work that way in terms of conforming to how studying and taking tests is seen by other people. My boss is like that though. Normal, I mean. He takes a problem and tackles it in a structured manner. Models everything he needs on paper or in Visio using a variant of UML (that depends on whether he needs it for a presentation or not), figures out how to solve the issue and then starts to code whatever is needed. I... don't do any of the things I'm supposed to as software developer, or that I learned I should do. I just sit down, look at what I have available and code what's needed. There's no iterative process that I do to reach a solution, no structure, no explanation in the end, and whereas other people who try the same approach because they don't know any better (there's a reason all this is taught or considered good practice, after all) end up with a confusing mess of code that's hard to read, has bad performance or is impossible to maintain (i.e. they begin coding and then iterate until it works), I never had that problem. For want of a better way to express it, I just need to see the statue in that block of marble and set it free. Except it's often the other way around. I see a solution and write it down. But I can do the inverse too, see a confusing mess of code and remove everything that's not necessary. It makes me really, really good at fixing other people's errors. Oh, and I still don't take notes, not even during work meetings, but I also really don't need to. My memory is usually quite good. There might come a time where I would need to take notes to remember things, but hopefully that time is still far off (or ideally, doesn't come at all, but alas, time lays waste to all things, as TNO once said). However, since people were alienated by me not showing up with any sort of notebook (paper or electronic) and taking notes, I've begun to emulate what is expected of me. I now have a company branded notebook (paper, that is, not a laptop) and a pen that I bring to business meetings. It's full of terrible doodles of male genitalia, copious amounts of "booooooooooooring", some jokes and at best a list of bullet points I go out of the way to write as badly and full of errors as possible. Emulating the way I should behave has really been helpful with social interactions too, and no, I'm not autistic or have Asperger's.

I don't really feel bad per se, I just know virtually everyone expected more of me, like graduating with honors or being valedictorian. In hindisight it all seems so ridiculous. Here's the thing: I didn't work hard, outside of the insane time comitment. That's... not the way learning (or being taught) works for me. My grades always depended on whether or not a teacher would accept that or not. My math teacher in years one, four and five didn't. Hence the bad grades. She couldn't fail me because I got good grades on the exams, but she sure as hell wouldn't give such a lazy arsed student any slack*. No sir. In our final graduation exam we had two math parts, one was graded by a different teacher (straight A, or at least our equivalent) and hers was barely a passing grade. I can only assume that she was the type of person who always had to work hard or study hard to grasp certain concepts. She also taught programming in our first year, where I barely got a passing grade, teachers in later years gave me an A without bothering to look at the programs I've turned in. There was a teacher who told me that the biggest problem I have is that I never learned how to study. To this day, I still don't know what that's supposed to mean. Once I was forced by an English teacher of mine to join a special extracurricular English focus course that was meant to help students with learning disabilities to keep up with the other students after getting a perfect 100% test score on every single god damned test we had because I didn't seem to be paying attention in class and when pressed for an answer couldn't explain what ridiculous grammar rule I applied to get to the correct result on something or another (I think it was reported speech, which is supposed to be "hard"). I only knew the correct tense to use, not why it was the correct tense. *Okay, so here's a little more info on this, I've posted that before but it's buried somewhere in a locked thread and looking something up on this board is annoying, to say the least. In order to be actually accepted into the course at the time, you needed to pass something similar to your SATs, only at a level for 14-year-olds. Roughly one in ten students manage to pass. We had 2500 applicants this year for the five year course, and 220 were accepted (one of them me, obviously). When I graduated there were 48 people left, however, not all of them were from the group of 220 people who passed the application SAT, because if you fail a class you can repeat a year. You can do this twice. Fail a third time, and you're out. Half of the people who graduated with me were what we called "repeaters" - students who had to retake at least one year. The teacher in question began the year by telling us that she'll be giving copious amounts of home work, but that is merely for our benefit. It's optional, but highly encouraged to turn it in. Already strapped for time with all the other homework and commuting, I just didn't do any math homework. Now I'm there, obviously not paying attention to her (because at the time I didn't know yet I was supposd to make people feel like I listened to them, instead of just listening to them when they speak) and not taking any notes (mostly things I already knew, first year is just there to weed out the dum-dums that somehow made it past the application examination and bring everyone up to the same level). It ended with her telling me halfway through the semester that homework is no longer optional, and I'd better spend the the Christmas holidays catching up with all the homework I missed. Why thanks. Why the change? Well becaus roughly half the class failed the first math exam but I didn't, but they showed initiative in always turning in their homework. Luckily for her she didn't have to give me the A I was due because she claimed it was impossible to read some of my numbers (couldn't argue with that, my handwriting is horrible). Oh, right, and she was also the teacher that was organisationally reponsible for our group of students (we were group 1C, i.e. 1st year, third group, out of six). When I ended up not failing the year she just had me transferred out of her group of studens. Screw you, hag. Really. The more the years went on, the more I applied the same concept. I barely took notes on anything, I never studied at home. I only did homework for classes I liked doing. I stopped caring about my grades, thanks to being treated unfairly. Heck, I started skipping classes, which I've never done before. That's actually on my graduation diploma. "Missed over 200 hours at school with no leave of absence." Yay? And yet... I somehow muddled through, on a 5 year course that drops 99% of all applicants (and 85 to 90% of all those that were accepted). Ami is what I could have been. With a little understanding and encouragement. Too much to ask from teachers, I suppose. edit: I also hope that explains why I dropped out of university over a silly basic math course. No more. Until here, and no further. Seems silly to draw a line in the sand like that.

Look at you all graduating with honors or reaching top scores and talking how you feel you performed below your potential. Psh. Thanks guys, you made me feel even worse about myself. I went to University for three years and the only thing I had to show for it was... one completed course, and that was an optional course called advanced mathematics for software and information engineering. I finished that before the two required basic math courses. I mean, I actually finished it while I never could be arsed to finish basic math I or II. The hell was that supposed to be anyway, they didn't want to give me credit for any of the two basics based on my prior scholastic career. Wait, that takes some explanation to make sense. To attain a Bachelor's degree here, you need to complete a certain set of courses, reach 180 ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) points and write a thesis. You can always do more if you feel like it. Yeah sure, that totally sounds like me. The biggest problem is that nobody forces you to do anything. You can sign up to any number of courses you would like to attend, but you do not have to take the exams at all (you even need to sign up yourself for the exams and there's always an exam just after the holidays, so "yeah I'll sign up later" and then you never do. Right? RIGHT?). So I never did. Advanced math just had homework instead, so that's why I actually finished that. By not doing the homework and just pulling the solution out of my behind when asked by the professor. Geez, that, like watching Sailor Moon for the first time, feels like a lifetime ago. I thought I'd need multivariable calculus at some point. Turns out I never did, because I turned corporate. Yikes. 's what I never wanted from life, business software development, but it is hard to argue with better pay and less crunch. Screw dreams. Anyway, back to the 180 ECTS points you need. I went to a special type of high school that replaces the regular four years of education with a five year course of vocational training in a field of your choice, which for me was software development and organisation/economy (i.e. a combined software development and management course, this is where I learned everything about bootstraps, by teh way), that actually gives you 90 ECTS points. In other words, you come out of it when you're 19 and have "half" a Bachelor's degree under your belt. But in a way I paid for that with my youth. Because we're talking 36 to 40 hours of classes per week (nominally it's 32 to 36 depending on the year, but there are always "optional" extracurricular activities you attend because you "want" to), then there's homework, project work and to top it off I had a three hour commute per day (at a good day, missing a train meant it was four hours). Oh, right, and you're supposed to study at some point as well. Huh. Back to the point transfer, I applied for it, obviously, and... got most of it. Universities reserve a right to deny a transfer if they feel that the student is not up to the task, and with me having bad grades in math, well... I didn't get either of the basic math courses. I said screw you and did advanced math in an attempt to prove that my grades back at school were not my fault, but they wouldn't have any of that. I soldiered on for a bit, but found a nice side job doing logistics (a company where I could easily get a job - go go nepotism - got a larger IT corporation as customer and needed someone who could figure everything out) and eventually dropped out of university alltogether. I initially wrote three years, but the last year I didn't show up at all, just for a handful of courses I thought I could use. I'll just post this and call it Part I, I need to go and prepare some stuff for tomorow. Be back soonish.

Exactly my sentiment. I loved everything about Sunless Sea and Sunless Skies except the fact that setting my motivaiton for the character wasn't enough for me to actually ever finish a run. I played for hundreds of hours though. I'm kind of hoping a visual novel by Failbetter will have more of a classical story structure. It probably won't, but anyway, I threw 50 pounds at Failbetter, which earns me two keys once it's done. I'm assuming none of my friends would want to play, so if you're still interested by then you can probably have my second key. edit: Assuming the Kickstarter actually goes through, which seems like a nobrainer, it's 60% done a few hours after the launch.

Well, never say watching anime won't teach you anything, I just learned that a part-time job in Japan in called Arbeit, which is the German word for... work (edit: I mean I know what Arbeit means, just didn't knew that it was used in Japan for part-time jobs ).

I think the point was to show that Mamoru is a right douchewaffle. They succeeded. But before we pass blame around, at this point in time neither of them were super mature characters anyway. It's hard to forget but Sailor Moon R somehow plays concurrently to Sailor Moon (no other way Usagi can stay 14 for two years unless they weren't reincarnated as much as there was a time-reset where for some reason they and Luna kept their memories, but perhaps I am overthinking that). Talking it out would have been the mature approach. You're right, Ami was the most popular character of Sailor Moon by far, at least in Japan. I think in the West that might have been Makoto (also Malcador's favorite), but Makoto comes without the burden of all the cultural issues she represents for us (it's not just that she's tall, she also wears long skirts and has wavy hair, everything that's not normal for Japanese women, and it stands in the way of achieving her dreams so much). Poor girl. Not gonna lie (and as I already mentioned that in the metal thread anyway): But Ami represents much, much more than that for me, and it's mostly identification and not "I like what they've done with the character", although admittedly I am looking at this from a perspective of having seen the entire run (mostly, apparently, because I definitely missed some SuperS stuff). I might go into more detail on that later (if any of you are really interested, but that's going to become super long winded and might up reading as if I'm trying to come across as... better than I am? I don't know..., it's also probably better served as PM, but hey, uhm, what... completely lost track of what I wanted to type here), but today's super busy. Man, if there's one thing I miss about school - and that's not a whole lot, to be honest - it's having f*ck all responsibilities and virtually endless free time. Meh.

Yeah, because I think we discussed seasonal lists. But works for me. Given the confusing way this episode hopped from one locale to the other without explanation I'm now more convinced than ever that some sort executive meddling lead to this being recut, retooled and rewritten in some way somewhere down the line. Edit: Sadly that's somewhat hard to piece together. I can't find the original release dates of the manga chapters in their monthly form, only for the chapter collections. That means that the first chapter collection came out half a year after SuperS began airing. If we assume a release schedule of one chapter per month and give them a month to create the collection and print it before distribution* - that would mean the anime was airing up to two (maybe even three) months before the manga actually came out. That seems wrong, and I presume that there was at least a bit of pre-production that went into creating SuperS. *The chapter collections seem to have come out once every four months, each of them containing three chapters, so I didn't pull the monthly release and a month break for distribution entirely out of my arse as it were. There might be overlaps though, especially later on, and the December issue had only two chapters and side stories that were also made into episodes (at least I think so, not there yet with my reading). Well it's of course also possible that the mangas came out way earlier, but in that case the anime would have not incorporated chapter one Dream arc storylines in such a confusing way almost at the end of the season.

By the way, when I'm done and we're maybe doing the best episodes list, can I skip SuperS and instead give double the amount to S? SuperS is really the first season of the show where filler episodes actually feel like typical filler, even if it never gets to 20 minutes of internal monologue level bad. And even though I don't speak Japanese I swear I can hear them reusing voice samples all over the episodes. Or maybe kawaii is really a word used by 9 year old girls for everything they see. Jesus Christ Chibi-Usa.

I guess Minako got a bit of the short end of the stick when the director attempted to fix anime Rei's popularity by giving her some of the personality traits and story beats of Minako. Remember that season one episode where Rei organized that school festival and was shown to write music and sing? Yeah that's actually Minako's dream: To become a beloved pop idol, but Minako showed up really late in the first season and so there we are. At least she got to do a bit more in the third season. She gets more episodes where she's featured prominently and even is allowed to kick off the mid-season storyline reveals in an incredibly hilarious, dare I say very Minako-y, fashion.

There's a decent chance that my perception of Pegasus from the anime colored what I've read in the manga in a more negative light than what it might be, but otherwise, yeah, I'm sort of looking forward to your reaction to the entire plot of SuperS even though I'm not really looking forward to you watching this season... heh.

Watched three more episodes of SuperS. Oh, and while trying to look up who wrote which episode (hint: it apparently really doesn't matter) I've noticed that... Anyway, two of the three were only filler, one of them was fun filler, the other went back to this feeling that the writers tried to adapt parts of the manga that no longer have a place in the show. Or at least should have been set up better. But most likely left out. In a sense reading the manga helped me understand where the seemingly random creative choices come from, on the other hand it doesn't help at all in realizing why they were successful in transporting the intents and themes present in the Dream arc into the anime in some cases and not at all in others, and you can't even pin it on one writer being better than the others, because they all equally produced both good and supremely trashy episodes this season. Except for the one time they apparently had a guest writer. Only one credit to the name and the episode was forgettable, weird, and... about something or other, I'm sure (okay I obviously remember what it was about, but I want to use hyperbole to convey just how forgettable and alien that was). Story/somewhat filler episode discussion: Fun filler discussion: Odd flller discussion (this one has a minor connection to the manga that makes it all the more odd): Thematic discussion about Creepasus in the manga and in the anime (read this only if you don't want episode spoilers). I began reading the Dream arc in hopes for clarity, and all it did was make everything even more confusing. Ah well.

Wow, Speed Racer is a blast from the past. That ran here on TV ages ago, and I was so little at the time that I only have the barest of recollections. I know I'v watched some episodes on TV, the characters are familiar and that car he drove was awesome (at least as a kid). By the way, I checked, Steven Universe is available on Netflix here, but only the first season. I plan on watching it after I'm done Moonie-ing around, whenever that will be. Hopefully more will be available on Netflix by then, or some other streaming service. I hate distribution licensing. Why does this have to be so complicated? Ugh. edit: Speed Racer also has a horrible, horrible, bad, terrible, horrible, bad, bad, bad, terribad live action movie adaptation. It's not even fun if you like trash. Meh.

There was this episode where he suddenly became super confident because some alien nervous system he was linked to (alien later turned into an energy being). He was quite the charmer then, but no, not unless you count the future presented in All Good Things where he's married to a "Leah" where the assumption generally is that he finally managed to wear Leah Brahms down. Heh. Oh Geordi, when you fondle the Enterprise, you fondle me! Yeah so THAT is a part of TNG that aged incredibly poorly. Much of that was maybe because he was probably supposed to be gay, or at least bisexual. First season has him leering at an aged up Wesley Crusher. Hey Wesley, not baaaaaaaaaaaaaad. Yeah, creepy. Creeeeeeepy. Poor Geordi, always the butt of everything.

Wait, what?

They had guns, so they were villains?

Geordi's really into holograms of scientists, not actual people, but you should know that from like, the third season.

Just finished watching the SuperS episode where Rei gains her new attack. Episode was good, some fun interactions and a very meaningful encounter for Rei. Watchable streak increased to 5 now. What a wonderful development, this makes a good case for skipping like 18 of the first 22 episodes and pretending they never happened. And +1 for the theory that the writers were replaced by alien ghostwriters earlier in the season. I'm actually looking forward to the next episode. That hasn't happened since... oh before you were born, Luke.

I figured reading one random arc of the manga without context isn't the best way to continue with the comparisons. The characters in the show have deviated enough at this point for it to make no sense without approaching any sort of analysis (and I use that term lightly, because I'm probably one of the worst persons to do that) with the context and themes of the earlier chapters. Or in other words, time to start at the beginning. But since Yuichiro came up, there's one thing that I know and already mentioned about the anime that bothered Naoko Takeuchi, and that was changing Rei to be more like Minako was in the manga. Manga Rei is not only psychic but takes her role as shrine maiden and protector of the princess seriously. She's rational, conservative, isn't mean to Usagi and really doesn't like men in general because they were all a disappointment in her life. There are people who are still incredibly soured by the change in the anime. One of the directors of the anime supposedly liked Rei a bit too much and insert his ideal woman into the role in an attempt to fix the fact that Rei didn't resonate with the audience nearly as much as virtually everyone else on the show. Usagi, Ami, Minako and Makoto weren't just fan favorites for Sailor Moon fans, they dominated the most popular anime characters polls for years. Rei... just didn't. So she began being stepped on by Mamoru, was as boy-happy as the other girls (or more so), pinched Ami for no real reason, and other somewhat weird things that eventually coalesced into an interesting character that ended up being Usagi's best friend, even if she was verbally abusive every now and then. In the end she became a character that while doesn't actively dislike men, but takes no crap from them either. I like anime Rei. So the hell, why did I post that? Oh, right: Oh, and I remembered something that made me spend half the day in front of my computer laughing hard, there's a web comic (one of the few comics I read and actually followed) called The thin H line, later called Sexy Losers (it is also mostly known as Sexy Losers, but like any early adopter I'm proud of being able to out-nerd people). Unless you enjoy really, really dark humor that breaks every (mostly sexual*, but not only) taboo possible it would probably not be a good idea to look it up, and most of it is not safe for work, but it has a a parody section that has a comic strip that deals with Sailor Moon's gratuitous upskirts drawings, and the reason why Tuxedo Mask always leaves so quickly (reason in the spoiler). Here's what the Interweb has to say about SL: *In case anyone deduced from my post about American Pie that I don't like sexualized humor in general, no, that's not it. Sexy Losers is a riot because it breaks taboos that are taboo for a much better reason than simple prudity, and most of the punchlines are actually really clever - and almost universally disturbing. I love it, please don't hate on me for it.

I just thought back (and this is completely off-topic) and it hit me. I said you're just one quick google away from finding out yourself. When I watched Sailor Moon the first time there was no Umbrella Corporation google yet.

This is kind of fun. Really reminds me of the good old times. And no, I'm not really going to confirm or deny any of that (not even in the spoilers). I mean, yeah, it's not like you're one quick google away from being able to look it up yourself if you really want to though.

I can't make any accurate statement by reading one chapter out of 11 to be honest. The storyline was definitey different (i.e. the enemy trio that survives for 22 episodes in SuperS lasts one fight each in the manga, and at least for Fish-Eye was only a handful of pages long), the themes on the other hand weren't, apparently. Which makes this all the more confusing. Maybe I'll go read the entire dream arc, it's only 11 chapters anyway, but reading a manga takes some measure of concentration when you're not doing it all the time which I, to be honest, don't - I'm not an avid comic/graphical novel reader (although I did read A Dame To Kill For in an effort to appreciate Sin City more, which people close to me found terrific, with me being the odd one out, as usual... sigh), let alone used to reading from right to left (and from top to bottom in columns, but that's true for Western comics just as well). Spoiler has a how-to/reading direction explanation picture, not an actual spoiler. It's not so bad for Sailor Moon because it seems to have a relatively simple koma (frame/panel) layout but it still takes some conscious effort to get the reading direction right, and combined with having to read on my gaming screen that means it's incredibly taxing. edit: edit 2: edit 3: