There are a lot of ISPs in the U.S. who provide **** service due to a monopoly and/or simply not caring. Many of them haven’t upgraded equipment since the last internet standard released. They have no reason to fix it until they stop making money; and what are customers going to do? Simply not use the internet?

Okay, so the problem was ultimately that the dual network router was basically broken and only carried one network. They've replaced the router, but now I need to get a new extender so the wifi will actually get boosted to reach my workspaces.

Please excuse the following. Having bad week and need to share w someone:

My sibling got a tattoo and my dad went to the gym.

Raggle fraggle.

My dad has received a stern talking to from both me and me mum; and his gym membership was canceled by him as soon as he realized how stupid he was being. So hopefully he didn’t catch anything and it’s just lesson learned cheaply.

My sibling lives w my parents still and hasn’t learned **** which is particularly distressing; but the 3 of them live in a liberal state fully willing to shut things down FAST so hopefully there is very little room for a problem there. The sibling in question won’t go to any other stores/places due to virus; so this tattoo addiction is literally the only major problem.

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Meanwhile my work has me under what is very close to involuntary house arrest for an indeterminate period of time due to Covid, on pain of termination if I don’t comply. It literally doesn’t change anything about my current/future plans; but it’s annoying they don’t trust me AND that they waited 3-6 months until July to implement this. It’s blatant cya that grants no rights/concessions to thd employees and is probably illegal and/or unenforceable.

Oof. Being able to have back something resembling a social life makes me forget how **** the situation is around the world.

It seems to have been a relatively quiet two weeks... around here, anyway...

If I haven't commented on it before, it's cool to see Brentain back.


I feel like I'm going in the opposite direction. Now that things are getting really bad in the U.S. (and particularly in Texas, my Dumb Ass home state), I keep finding myself forgetting that it's no longer apocalyptic in places like the E.U.

I even had a co-worker -- a fellow "medical professional" -- tell me one day that they believe some real conspiracy-level ****, like that masks reduce your oxygen or that it all this is done to make people OBEY and/or start WW3. I don't believe someone like that should be in medicine, but at the moment I doubt there's anything I can do about it, assuming my practice would even do anything about it in the first place (by Aesma's tits, Texas is Royally screwed). Considering our positions, as long as we're doing the job and following their guidelines (by their loose definitions of "follow" since I'm consistently seeing my own managers walking around the patient care area without masks), I doubt anyone would be removed for such things.

And I'll go ahead and repeat something I said elsewhere just earlier today: I recognize that I'm in a privileged position and that I don't know the relevant laws, so I wouldn't even trust myself to be an arbiter over what I'm complaining about, but this whole pandemic situation has had me very, very scared for a prolonged period of time, so suddenly having my co-worker's anti-intellectuality shoved in my face is... well, it's quite aggravating, to say the least. Honestly, as I was told that, I suddenly grew very worried that if I were to catch the disease, it would be from my co-workers instead of the patients.

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Meanwhile, I've started trying to wean my monkey brain off of reddit and such again, so I started re-reading Kill Six Billion Demons as well as look into the Iroquois/Haudenosaunee peoples again.

For the former, I've been reading the big long text-stories as they came up this time around, but I've been having to avoid the comment section for various reasons. I'm sure somewhere in the comments was where Allison got the Al-Yis-Un nickname, but I can't be bothered to sift through the dregs for the good comments right now. Meanwhile, since I already know a lot of the cosmology that got introduced later in its run, I've been having new "aha" moments as I read and connect up events/people/gods to things that happen later. I also couldn't help but notice that it took basically the first volume (close to 100 pages) for the style to solidify -- not that there's a noticeable art shift, but a lot of the visual design and concepts that get thrown around in the first volume aren't kept, such as Cio's introductory design.

For the latter, so far I haven't learned anything of particular note, other than the old problem of bloated old universities locking academic papers behind paywalls (I'm vaguely considering contacting the authors, as I'm told many academic writers are more than happy to share their work where these universities charge an arm and a leg to view them). I did find out, however, that a particular French captain basically slaughtered a village because some young native men mooned him and his crew. It's horrifying to think about, but I can't help but love the idea that mooning is that universal.

An important thing to recall is that the first twenty or so pages were, in fact, not even originally in color.

I have a physical copy of the first three books and it is profoundly different.
The lore excerpts are still included.

My net should, SHOULD, be fixed now, insofar as I'll be able to get on regularly, but sadly, Youtube finally went and did it, they upgraded to the point that my primary device can't interface with the site. Still works on my phone, but I can no longer watch Youtube on my TV through my console. Feels bad man.

I honestly didn't even know. I noticed a few author's notes about "coloring [a page] later," but I've seen several webcomics that have to put up a page before it's colored in order to hit a deadline, but then come back and color it later (usu. within a day or two), so I thought that was what was happening here.

Honestly I think the more important note is that KSBD was not originally its own thing, but rather a story (I don't know whether it was originally text-only) posted on the MSPA forums and fueled directly by commentators, the same as Homestuck's early years were. It's where things like Cio's literal coat of arms came from. Based on the talk that I originally read the first time through, though, a lot of things changed when the author migrated the comic to its own website. The title, for instance, was originally very literal, where the heroine had been (was going to be?) charged with killing 6,000,000,000 demons, theoretically one at a time.

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I've been watching some anime with my holiday weekend, since where I'm at in Yu Yu Hakusho is boring and I'm only still watching out of a sense of completionism. I started with Clannad, because a giant flowchart told me it was right up my alley, but I was also warned it took a lot of investment to get to the heartwrenching drama that is the After Story.

I'm 8 episodes in, and it's way better than I was led to believe. I've dealt with anime that take a long investment to get to the payoff (e.g. Scrapped Princess), but a lot of the journey up to that point usually ends up being pretty episodic. The last 5 episodes of Clannad have all focused on the continuing story of... I guess a ghost girl? The show hasn't even fully explained what she is (or what kinds of magical world ****ery the show operates under), so it's not like I can explain it, either. The main point is that it's already had me in tears for the last episode and a half because of how heavy this ghost girl's predicament is, and I wasn't planning on crying until the After Story. This is, of course, exactly what I signed up for.

The character designs are honestly kind of disgusting, but I'm putting up with it, and I am surprised at how often I'm laughing at the jokes it throws out. They are peak stereotypical animé, the kinds of "people fall down" humor that anime is made fun of for, but I must just be in the PERFECT mood for it.

Meanwhile, I discovered that Domestic Girlfriend (AKA Domestic Na Kanojo) is streaming uncensored, so I decided to check it out because I have that name written down for some reason. I definitely recall writing it down, but I can't remember for what anymore. I think it may have been mentioned as a saucy/raunchy comedy, but after watching the first episode, I felt it was surprisingly mature compared to my expectations. Anime typically treats sexual situations with more than a pinch of levity (at least the majority of mainstream shounen anime), so to see this one be legitimately about relationships and how they're affected by sex while also being neither voyeuristic nor childish about the sex itself was surprising.

Now, all that is after just a single episode, so there's a LOT of room for everything about it to change, particularly since the same first episode sets up an incest plotline by having the main character's father re-marry someone who turns out to be the mother of both the main character's love interest and one-night stand, but I'm vaguely hopeful about the direction it seems to be going.

I mean, it's not REALLY incest. I always get a little irritated because we aren't even talking step siblings that spent any time growing up with one another, they're nearly adults (and one full blown adult) so it kind bugs me.
Also, you probably wrote it down because I mentioned it. I just got it on bluray last week as it so happens.

~~~~~~~~~~

I had a kind of amusing idea flit through my mind, preying on the entire Isekai genre, and I felt like sharing.
We spend most of an episode getting to know these rather stock cliche high school kids, setting up all the normal flags for the genre, when OH NO, a truck is barreling down upon them, and... fade to white right before they get hit.

Smash cut to the truck and driver suddenly in another world.
That's right! It's the smash hit: Truck Driver in another world!

I think anime's incest obsession is probably a result of Japan's high incidence of only children (who've never experienced the instinctive romantic non-interest people have in people they grew up with closely) and a general lack of romantic experience (as I understand it's a quite emotionally repressed society). Kawaii culture probably plays a role too.
It's a fascinating culture but I don't imagine I'd enjoy living there.


YES!
Can I be so bold as to ask that a significant part of the show is detailing the impacts of introducing automotive transport to a feudal tech world?

Japan is a very traditionalist and hierarchical society that you probably would not enjoy living in for reasons entirely separate from romance. You could not pay me to go live there.

While I can understand where you're coming from, and I might probably think the same if I weren't so opposed to incest plots, I have developed a knee-jerk reaction to anything with even a hint of the premise. There's also a slight bit of cultural disconnect on my end since I was home-schooled and don't even have a frame of reference for what age high schoolers are in the U.S., much less however Japan deals with school ages and adulthood. It also doesn't help that, art-wise, the older sister... really doesn't look that much older. Assuming the main character is supposed to be 18, she looks maybe 20. I'm not trying to argue your point, I'm just trying to point out reasons why I had this reaction.

Also if you mentioned it, it wasn't in this thread. I'm thinking I wrote it down a few months ago when I had been browsing the anime subreddit more. There's often mini-clips posted for a laugh, though as I watch more episodes, I'm doubtful that's how I would have come across it. Perhaps it was mentioned in comparison to some silly sex scene from another show?


Meanwhile, I think I would enjoy living there, for the most part (assuming I could master the language and all that jazz), though the typical work culture is probably what would kill me. The idea of staying at work "until the job is done," is something I was raised with, though, and it took years of working city jobs to get out of that mentality. I know Japanese culture has a centuries-long problem with repression, but a lot it still really appeals to me, even down to their tiny apartments because god DAMN do I own too much stuff.

I'd go crazy int he Japanese work culture. Not because you have to get the work done mind you, but because you're expected to stay regardless of whether you're accomplishing anything. More or less you're just there to show a willingness to sacrifice. If I'm putting in a lot of effort I need to feel it accomplishes something.

Luna you couldn’t take Japanese work culture because you wouldn’t want to be completely unpaid entertainment for your boss after your work hours are done. You have not even made a small dent in their problems with work life balance lol. Working for some Japanese companies you may not even get a personal life at all outside of your days off. And since seniority is much more important there, partially based on number of years with the company, you wouldn’t even really have avenues for reprisal if you ended up working one of those places. Quitting would be a huge black mark too.....

There are good reasons Japanese businessmen literally die on subways from overwork and exhaustion. If you end up at one of the bad companies it is extremely bad.

And we are only talking about work culture so far. I assure you there are other places in Japanese society that also have major problems based on hierarchy and traditionalism. The best place to start next might honestly be discussing thd things wrong with Japanese police, bc the US certainly doesn’t have a monopoly on police doing bad things. I don’t think anyone here really has an appetite for thst kind of conversation though lol; Including me; so I will refrain from doing to Japan what I normally do to Trump.

Japan seems like a noce place to visit; but I would never want to live there.

Mjack, you must be in some sort of mood because my first reaction to your last post is "what are you even talking about?" Putting aside the asymmetric insight for the moment, you talk as if you expected me to come up with a laundry list of problems first and then address them before even mentioning them, even the bits I brought up in a negative sense. You seem very dead-set on taking your time to tell us how much you hate Japan and that we should hate it, too.

I can appreciate your candor at times, but I'm going to have to get off the conversation train here if that's your only intent.

I apologize. I am not intending to come across that way; but I guess I’m in a much worse mood than I realized.

My life lately has been a series of bad Dilbert comics .

We're cool. I've been there myself, more times than I'm even aware of, and the whole world situation has us all a bit more on edge than normal (for many, quite a bit more on edge). I didn't want to escalate any further than I already had, so I thought I'd call attention to it (though I'll probably look back at what I wrote one day and yell at myself for phrasing it the way I did).

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Returning to an earlier topic, I laugh-cried for the first time today, watching an episode of Clannad. They brought back the ghost-y-girl for a comedic scene to kind of go "hey, she's still here" after her arc kind of ended, and my heart was breaking even as she was making me laugh. Now that the show is spending time on the next girl in a way that feels like it's trying to stealthily become a harem anime, I feel I should also be making comparisons to Angel Beats (which, for the record, I didn't like at the time) due to the use of tragic backstory and/or home life.

Also I reached the end of the uncensored Domestic Girlfriend episodes, but I'm rather invested and don't know if there's any particular reason I shouldn't just continue with the broadcast version. While the one sex scene they had so far was rather tasteful in my opinion, unlike more risqué shows, that's not the focus of the show, so I'm not sure if I'd even be missing much.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I heard about Evangelion: Re-Take from Gigguk's wife and decided to read it last weekend. It was... actually pretty good, for a fanfiction, but I hold the original series in a special place in my heart, and I didn't think that Re-Take captured the spirit of the original show. I have yet to watch the End of Evangelion movie, but I was also really satisfied with how the original show ended, so I've always imagined that I would enjoy the hell out of the movie whereas a lot of other people just plain didn't. The recommendation in question specifically compared the Re-Take doujins to the End of Evangelion movie and how it gave everyone a "better ending," but in my opinion it was far too concerned with having that "good ending" for everyone that it missed the metatextual core of what Evangelion is, just to have its happily ever after.

Speaking of Evangelion, I recently finished the show Martian Successor Nadesico, which is kind of a beautiful mess.
(the Evangelion connection being that it was localized and voiced by a majority of the same people)
It hit this really bizarre tone somewhere between the constant oppressive 'war is hell' messaging of Universal Century Gundam shows with the slapstick harem comedy of Tenchi Muyo, creating this absolutely bizarre tonal whiplash in the majority of episodes dealing with the heavier themes. Add in the fake SuperRobo show that they actually had another team entirely working on, and it adds up to just the biggest trainwreck of tone that I've seen in a while.

...But damn if it didn't have a lot of personality. Really, that's part of its biggest sales pitch, paired with a big scoop of nostalgia.

Following that, I tried to watch Macross, but I just simply could NOT give a ****. Most of my attention boiled down to figuring out how you could just do it better.

Now, I'm working on Dorohedoro and having a fantastic time.

Which MAcross? As I understand, there ware quit a few Macross shows.

Mainline original Macross.
It's aged shockingly poorly.

Super Mario Maker 2 is the perfect example of how the average person is terrible at game design. Or just actively malicious towards their potential players. Either or.

Went back to it for a couple nights to feel out the May “final update”. Regret not doing literally anything else fun instead. Tonight there is going to be offscreen bull **** popping up in my nightmares.