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The other day I had the opportunity to do 3D work on a computer much better than my (as you can tell from the noisy renders) nearly-a-decade old one (actually it's mostly the same but with a much better graphics card). Obviously I knew it was going to be faster but actually using it it feels so much better/smoother/comfier I feel like I've missing out on something.
I feel like I should get serious about 3D so I have an excuse to upgrade.
So. The story begins with Latin "palatinus", which means pretty much someone who comes from the Palatine, a hill in Rome where Roman imperial administration was housed. Then the western empire fell and the title was picked up by the Carolingians. It was given to Charlemagne's closest courtiers, who in time became mythologized by the troubadours into exemplars of knighthood in the knightly romances. Then Poul Anderson wrote a novel that played with their typical tropes. Then Gary Gygax ripped off the book, mixing the concept with the knightly orders and turning it into a religious knight with a focus on lawfulness and active evil-smiting. Which then began to live on its own, dropped the religious part in favour of about any fervently adhered-to doctrine, and so on.
So:
* "guy from the Palatine" -> "an important official"
* "an important official" -> "a top-level courtier"
* "a top-level courtier" -> "an exemplary knight"
* "an exemplary knight" -> "knightly lawbringer"
* "knightly lawbringer" -> "knightly zealot"
So. My idea is, picture our civilization falls and it's 1500 years from now. Or even, 500 years from now, because that's closer to the time between the fall of Roman Empire and the rise of the concept of the paladin that's all about the knighthood and nothing about being an administrator. And, at the end of that time, future Gary Gygax is browsing for ideas for his new game.
Imagine a honourable freelance crusading advocate, who shows up from nowhere and solves complicated legal issues the inhabitants of the town-of-the-week are entangled in with each other and externally, taking no pay, with, at most, the exception of donations to the order or temple and promises of lawful behaviour. Always impeccably dressed in a three-piece suit. Perhaps wielding some supernatural powers of evil detection and evil smiting.
Now, the issue is what would be a good name for this concept. A lawyer? A washingtonian? A palestrine? An advocate?
Makes me think, Stephen King did something like that. In his Dark Tower cycle he made his post-apo paladins out of gunslingers, as far as I know. I wanted specifically to recreate the thread from about the same starting point, so I began with something related to the modern governance.
tl;dr paladin as idealized lawyer instead of idealized knight
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobster_War
sounds serious
Also, in the links section there's an article on Cod Wars between Iceland and the UK. Although the first prize should probably go to those 19th C. South American wars over literally a big pile of shit. And yes, I know the context. But still.
I went to the dentist today. God I fucking hate going to the dentist. And I still have the ache that made me go in the first place.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrinkles_the_Clown
I find that my usual dentist is very hand-holdey, and so I have more pleasant experiences than most. However, whenever I get another dentist it basically feels like a nightmare.
I always find that characters who do the full jacket+waistcoat thing are usually painted as being insufferable to varying degrees.
I'd think smiting would work better than detection, because you want him to have some sort of validity as a detective rather than "oh he has powers and that's just cause".
I like advocate a lot, but this sounds like it would involve a lot of mediation between parties. If you're okay with not being accurate, I'd go for advocate all the way. Maybe he's an advocate for the "truth".
By the way, have you ever seen the American TV series Bull? It stars a guy who isn't a lawyer, but works very deeply within the law via his "trial science" company.
I always thought that the show would be greatly improved if the whole thing was trial scientist vs trial scientist (I think there was only ever one episode of the sort). In addition, court should be a spectator sport, with people gathering in a stadium to watch the two teams go against each other.
So each team would have:
And then they would both present their cases to a jury (who sit in the field with them and not with the audience) and see who can make their case. I guess in this sort of circumstance it would be better if they weren't real cases (though it's all relative, maybe real cases would raise the stakes higher?) but I'd like to see something of that sort.
Y'know how anime makes most of its money through not the anime series itself but sales on the periphery like with associated games and merch? Or so I've heard at least.
The same thing applies to the big shounen series that air althroughout the year, or PreCure and such (though of course there's toys to go with it, but a show won't last long in these timeslots if the ratings are terrible). Things like Mewkle Dreamy, which begins next year, do serve as a way for Sanrio to bring more attention to a character, but they're very much done with the intention of keeping eyeballs on the screen too.
Then we have Netflix anime, or anime that CR is heavily involved in (Tate Yuusha no Naiagari/Rising of the Shield Hero, Dr. STONE, Funi had Dimension W) which exist almost entirely to get more people to sign up for your streaming service (Though Kadokawa loves making all of their LNs into anime, Shield Hero was brought to their attention by CR because it's way more popular in the English-speaking fandom than in Japan, even the LNs).
I doubt video games could ever be loss-leaders, because their either (to make a broad generalization) an IP made for the market or some shovelware* related to another product.
*shovelware can be good!
Are you sure? Rider airs right before Precure but the ratings have been consistently declining. Like, Gaim was a record low when it aired and Zi-O only got three-fifths of Gaim's.
Having an installment that heavily tied to previous ones seems like such a bizarre idea to go with in the middle of this.
I don't mean PreCure exactly, because there's no way PreCure gets cancelled at this point over something as minor as ratings. I mean shows like Brave Beats, Tribe Cool Crew, Dragon Collection, Oreca Battle, Puzzle & Dragons X, Majin Bone, and Heybot, but nobody's ever heard of those.
I think, in general, shows aimed at little girls tend to get more room in this department, maybe because they require higher levels of investment with the toys? Rilu Rilu Fairilu and Cocotama* lasted waaaaaaaaaaay longer than they should have (Cocotama is still going!). Even Jewelpet only died after it's otaku fandom turned on it for replacing the old seiyuu with newbies and misono (shockhorror).
Imagine all the toys they sold via nostalgia though.
*Spoke too soon; Cocotama's next incarnation is a web-anime (which was the death-knell for Jewelpet but it seems kid's web-anime might be becoming a thing, like Ninja Box).
Well, they've just had a fire in a bioresearch facility known for having once been a bioweapon lab and, more recently, for being one of two places in the world where samples of the smallpox virus are kept.
If anything serious happened I'm pretty sure it'd be all over the media now, but, there was that one netizen who said that it feels like the universe really wants a second season to HBO's Chernobyl.
Also, what was that spoiler tag that worked in here?
It's toggle /toggle.
After watching Pretty Rhythm: Rainbow Live, I got the idea of building Rinne's stage when she performs her song, gift. Because, frankly, it is a very great song and it's a wonderful memory for me.
So I finally got around to building it! I think the end-result is way more bridal than I intended, but Rinne's outfit is vaguely bridal too. I was going to do the indoor performance from episode 39 but then it turned out I did actually have the pieces to do the outdoors/skating-on-water-totally-not-religious-style one from episode 9 (second video is from the Korean dub as avex loves a good YouTube takedown otherwise.
Now I need a piece of blue mini-doll hair, which only exists in one discontinued LEGO set that costs a lot of money, but expect pictures soon since I can live with Emma being a stand-in for now.
Pictures, as promised. I took a whole lot because I'm actually quite proud of this build. I even made gifs of the moveable centre bit and just a bit of movement on the runway so I could get the whole feel of a Prism Show. And in this one, I used the conveniently available sunlight and some translucent bricks to make it look like Emma is about to jump up and shout "Prism LIVE!"
I'm not sure it looks as much as the stage I wanted it to, but that would have probably involved building a whole lake. I do think there's a bit of a PriPara vibe because well, I basically built it like a PriPara stage with the runway, maybe the Kono Uta Tomalayhee stage?
Now YouTube has had lots of trouble with how it provides it service to those under 13, and of course the majority of people who watch toy videos will fall in that demographic. Long story short, the U.S. government is finally cracking down on it, and this means the channels that make toy content will lose a lot of income since that usually comes from targeted ads. In addition they'll definitely lose a bunch of viewership because not only will the algorithm be broken against their favor, but they'll be removed from recommendations altogether (outside of like, the YouTube kids app I guess).
This has resulted in so. many. explanation videos from YouTubers who fall in the "Kidult" realm (that is, usually hobbyists who like toys, who don't dumb themselves down beyond maintaining their whole PG image, and well, aren't Toy Caboodle essentially).
Basically it's a lot of drama, and a lot of people trying to keep their calm (the audience is mostly kids or at the very least a significant portion of it is) but still somehow unable to keep the drama under wraps. YouTube has also announced a fund to keep some of these channels afloat once this comes into effect and without any channel even mentioning once that they've secured this money, you can tell who has and who hasn't just by the whole vibe of the video.
There's also a rumour that people who well, were in the game for the ad $$$ (versus like, the free toys you'll get as a YouTuber, but I'm pretty sure with the viewcounts drying up that'll dry up too) who have immediately shifted their channels in a more adult direction. Despite watching a lot of toy YouTube, I have not once actually seen it, but I have a feeling there's at least one person who has generated all of this drama and I'll find out who it is soon enough.
I mean, these videos range from 8m (acceptable) to like 50m (really, really?) but at this point I think I've watched most of them yet I still don't have a name (it might be one other toy YouTuber's not-really-toy-YouTuber's husband maybe because I've seen his name thrown around a bit).
I mean, actually, I might want to write up a history of this stuff as I remember it because despite not really following it, I've been following it for actual years now. Though only if you guys are interested and if I feel comfortable naming names even though these are all technically public figures.
In completely unrelated news I've been completely unable to make progress on any non-anime TV shows lately.
The 50 men-strong squad got him around the 2000-kilometer mark of his voyage. (He estimated arriving in Moscow by August 2021.) Apparently, the authorities grew afraid of the influence he had on people along the way. The curious catch (in Russia there's always a curious catch) was that he was arrested near the border of the administrative region. If he managed to cross into the next one, it would no longer be a problem to the local authorities, but to those right over. One would imagine they would gladly let someone else do the job. But, since they got him anyway, the implication is that they were forced to act at the request of someone higher up.
The vice-chief shaman of Russia, Artur Tsybikov, explains Gabyshev's actions as not political, but a result of personal enlightenment and is meant as a personal cleansing of the spirit. Tsybikov expressed hope that Gabyshev will ultimately find his way, estimatedly by the time of getting to Novosibirsk. While his circle of shamans does not condone Gabyshev's actions, he spoke favourably of him and criticized an attempt by Buryat shamans to stop him, which he called "absolutely un-shaman-like behaviour", the more so that they gave way as soon as the man declared himself to be a warrior-shaman.
Alexandr Gabyshev was turned over to a psychiatric hospital, but he was released the next day. Meanwhile, a group of his supporters declared they will "take up the shamanic drum" and continue the journey in his name. It is not known if he is leading them.
So far: seems legit.
Conspiracy!
No True Shaman, after all.
Well, that sure is something. I'm guessing this is the sort of news we need more of in the world.
Anyways this all tangentially reminds me of Arthur Uther Pendragon.
You guys, sometimes when you love two completely separate things deeply enough*, all your dreams come true.
That is to say, it turns out that the CEO of Millenial Future Office-Space Utopia, who has basically run himself (and a lot of SoftBanks money) into the ground over the past few weeks, is married to Rebekah Paltrow, who is Gwyneth Paltrow's first cousin! And she has the power to choose his successor for some reason, probably a very bad reason.
I cannot wait for the episode of Gwyneth's Netflix show where they discuss how jade emerald eggs ward off the bad vibes of the NYSE's IPO inspectors.
*In this case it was the millenial surfer guy magic of WeWork and obviously, Gwyneth Paltrow's unabashed lies. I mean:
In America, it's a conspiracy, but in Russia, it's Tuesday.
But for some reason, these facts, that it's terrible and made with ingredients you only use when you're trying to one up your friends in how completely paleo-keto-whatever you are (because if you don't/can't do normal cupcakes, why not just give up on them?, despite what my body tells me nobody actually needs cake).
And, I mean, you can't not taste coconut oil, no matter how much you chocolate it. I mean, butter and margarine and milk and etc probably have a taste, but chocolate practically rewrites their DNA. However Chocolate, as an element is weak to coconut oil, and-
...
What I mean to say is I intend to find a recipe online and try it out this weekend because what is life even without making things you certainly don't want to eat (and will never convince your parents to eat either, so most likely I'll end up eating them all).
Hey don't knock the Peruvians.
This isn't about vegan/dairy/gluten themselves as a thing (and their various pros and cons, though outside of allergies I err on the side of cons), but it's part of an increasing war of how completely angelic one can appear.
I probably spend too much time lurking instagram.
Florida Man Discovers Musical Work From Central Florida Monkeys
It turns out, I really shouldn't have? Like, all it really did was make me argumentative in a non-productive way because there was no engagement, and I've basically been thinking about it on and off for the past two days and now it's just... over in a really undramatic way.
However, it did force me to articulate my points and feel more unafraid of expressing myself on the internet. That's important, I guess.
*I was going to say "unpalatable to" but every single thing I could think of put here is just really condescending, and it feels cheaty to try and have the last laugh by name-calling elsewhere.
I've debated whether or not I should link what happened here, because it's simultaneously something I don't know if I can even go on talking about but also something that does feel cowardly when I think of just wholesale hiding it from you guys here, who are really important to me, because I'm afraid it'll change what you think of me.
But I'm not the sort that can prize reputation over honesty (at least, not when it doesn't damage my personal safety), so here it is.
Behold.
(I won't strictly call it words-can't-describe-it sort of thing, but I don't want to spoil it for you.)
I think not being overly afraid of the internet is useful, there's been times I've felt the... duty? to say something I thought wouldn't earn me friends but I felt needed to be said and after saying it things turn out very well for everyone involved.
(Of course there's also the times I've gotten in trouble or started flame wars after saying something I thought was innocuous.)
OTOH I've also learned to pick one's battles, and with a touchy one as that... yeah, it's probably good to be cautious. I think that ties to the whole thing about not being possible to always take part on the Internet Issue from the other day.
I like it more than "Date Colonel Sanders" but neither make much sense. It's all too much, and for too little payoff. It makes you wonder exactly what marketing executives even do, and if they know what it is they do.
I guess you could say that they're looking at the intersection of people who play TTRPGs and don't care what fast-food nonsense they eat, versus targeting a more 'average' person who is drifting towards being concerned with their health, who will demand they alter the menu to be healthier. In this case, this is much more effective than releasing an ad, which that type of consumer with generally shrug off as pandering.
But man, this is too much effort.
On this issue, I genuinely was intending to keep quiet, but it kept nagging at me.
However, upon conveying my feelings here I guess, I re-examined why I felt that way about my feelings. I find that maybe I'd been too embedded in something I myself had advised against last week; painting myself as the villain. I painted myself as the villain to myself and others, in confidence.
That was terrible, because my views are actually not abhorrent or monstrous in any way. In fact, people may find them unpalatable, but that doesn't make me evil or even bad.
Yeah I think I'll go back to defaulting to this position for now.