With sign-up dates coming up for teachers and those aged 50-64, this has been on my mind. It seems that when the 65+ group signed up back in January, these e-mails (which include a link you click on to choose an appointment) arrived at random times: for some people, it was instantaneous. For others, it took several days. For others, 30 or 45 minutes. Is there anything one can do to in order to ensure the fastest e-mail arrival time? Thank you.
You can read this whole thing on my blog as well, It's the same article, just looks better here.
Like most film fans I enjoy reading a lot of reviews not just for finding a worthwhile movie to watch but also to gain some insight and look into different perspectives on films that I find interesting. I especially like reading reviews of films from the past to see how assessments back then measure up to how the film is viewed right now and to see if similar assessments of the directors of those films and predictions regarding their careers have aged well. We all know about how certain movies like The Thing or Blade Runner were poorly received during their time only to become highly influential movies within their genre later on but it’s even more fascinating to read exactly why these movies were panned and what lead to their reassessment. So with that in mind, I would like to talk about 5 reviews that I found very fun to read with the benefit of hindsight.
Andrew Sarris, The American Cinema.
Andrew Sarris is considered a titan in film criticism. Credited with popularising the auteur theory in the United States, Sarris wrote the highly influential book The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929–1968 in which he assessed various films and directors of the sound era up to that point. One of the most fascinating parts of his book is this excerpt on Francis Ford Coppola.
>Francis Ford Coppola is probably the first reasonably talented and sensibly adaptable directorial talent to emerge from a University curriculum in film-making. You’re A Big Boy Now seemed remarkably eclectic even under the circumstances. If the direction of Nichols on The Graduate has an edge on Coppola’s for Big Boy, it is that Nichols borrows only from good movies whereas Coppola occasionally borrows from bad ones. Curiously, Coppola seems infinitely more merciful to his grotesques than does-anything-for-an-effect Nichols. Coppola may be heard from more decisively in the future.
To give you some context, Mike Nichols had just come off two back-to-back critical and commercial megahits in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Graduate both of which combined had 20 Oscar nominations and 6 wins including one best director win for Mike Nichols. While on the other hand the films Coppola had made at that point weren’t particularly successful critically or commercially and
... keep reading on reddit ➡As we're seeing the "Omicron is mild" narrative begin to fall apart, I'm taking more stock of some of the messaging I initially got in the past few weeks. One of the bigger themes I'm picking up on in hindsight isn't necessarily that Omicron itself was mild, but a greater hope that it would signal a shift toward a certain pandemic endgame, that being "Covid never truly goes away, but it becomes endemic." In other words, it stops being a constant pandemic affecting the whole world and starts being a seasonal illness with regional outbreaks. Or in other words, "just the flu".
Supposedly, Omicron being a "mild" variant was going to mean the virus becoming more contagious but less lethal. In theory, this was supposed to be a good sign for two reasons. Firstly, because lower lethality should kill less people. Secondly, even being more contagious was being spun as a potentially good thing, since that means could outcompetes more dangerous variants and maybe even burn itself out. Like a forest fire destroying all the flammable debris in a forest and preventing another forest fire, there was the idea that Omicron would infecting so many people that we all get natural immunity on top of our vaccines.
EDIT: I just realized that "Being contagious is actually good since everyone will get it and become immune to other variants" is basically the 2022 remix of "let it spread so we get herd immunity" with extra steps. So that's another parallel to previous dismissals of the virus now being applied to Omicron. It turns out that saying about history not repeating but rhyming is true after all.
However, no matter how mild Omicron actually ends up being on the level of a given individual case, we're making the same mistakes on the macro scale all over again.
Firstly we have what I call the Fatality Fallacy, which is an overemphasis on deaths instead of case numbers. It's flawed reasoning because case growth is exponential but death rates are linear. I'm no epidemiologist and not every outbreak is going to be perfectly exponential, but anyone can do back-of-the-napkin math and learn that a disease that spreads twice as fast kills far more people than a disease twice as lethal.
- Disease 1 with 100% death rate and cases double every day. It infects 1, then 2, then 4, then 8 people in 4 days, killing 8.
- Disease 2 with 50% death rate but cases quadruple every day. It infects 1, then 4, then 16, then 64, killing 32 in 4 days. Note that Disease 2 in this hypothet
DISCLAIMER- I am not the original poster. This is a repost sub, OP is u/hell_hath_no_fury__
PART 2-
Gaslighting or Overreaction
Today my STBX dropped off the kids after having them for a few days. He told me yesterday he would be dropping them off at noon. When 1:00 arrived I was a bit worried. All my texts to him were answered with 1 or 2 word answers. That is strange for him to do. I get a text at 1:45 that he is on his way and that the AF is with him. Ummm, what? I was never informed that she would be here with the kids. I have no idea if she has been here the whole time or just flew in today. I was furious. I don't care if it's her or anyone else; I want to know who my children will be around. Period. Full stop.
So they arrive and I let her into my home. While he sorts through the mail she stands awkwardly in my foyer. So then I say, "I will just tell both of you since you are here, if the kids are going to be around her or anyone else, I want to know. I support your relationship and I'm happy you (AP) are here with them, I just want to know beforehand and not after the fact."
He looked offended. He smushed his face almost in disbelief. She stood statue still and refused to make eye contact. I understand her position. She was in enemy territory and then I hit her with a bomb. I'm not mad at her, she probably had no idea he didn't tell me. Maybe he lied and said he did, who knows. But she is a mom, I'm sure she gets my point, whether she agrees or not. My issue is with him. I know I'm right, I know it should be a non-discussion, common sense if you will. But no, he left being very cold to me and I started to second guess my decision to say something. Did I let my emotions get the best of me? Or did he gas
... keep reading on reddit ➡Do your worst!
EDIT November 17th: the federal went has been updated.
They confirm that underlying loans with multiple counts get the higher count when you consolidate assuming the repayment periods overlap. It verifies..although not specifically stated…that consolidation does not reset pslf counts to zero.
It also verifies that parent plus consolidated with non parent plus will have the non parent plus counts applied to the consolidation.
https://studentaid.gov/announcements-events/pslf-limited-waiver
EDIT November 16th.
A couple of things to address common questions. First - there's no rhyme or reason to which accounts have received forgiveness and which haven't heard anything yet. There's no pattern and there's nothing you can do to get to the front of the line. You just need to be patient and ensure you have already submitted proof of all eligible employment (after october, 2007) and have all Direct Loans. Again - be patient - this could take months for some of you.
Second. if you all you have is a Direct subsidized consolidation and a direct unsubsidized consolidation you don't need to consolidate. It's one loan. They just book it in two parts to keep track of interest subsidies you might be eligible for. Even if the two pieces have different counts that's absolutely an error and should be caught in the review.
Third. If you still think your counts are wrong hang tight - there are multiple transactions to some of these and many have that second review to go through. If you are still waiting come March or so then consider filing an appeal.
finally - thank you all so much to those of you who have received forgiveness and donated either a monthly payment or part of their refund to TISLA. I am very worried about next year once the covid waivers are over and these funds are helping us get to our goal of being able to hire another counselor to ensure we can keep up with demand. Thank you!!
Summary of Waivers:
The summary is below. I have also updated my orgs website with details of these waivers and an FAQ document with examples. Please read these before asking your question.
https://freestudentloanadvice.org/loan-forgiveness/public-service-loan-forgiveness/
Immediate, but temporary changes
• Payments made under the Federal Family Education Loan program or Perkins will count as long as the loan is consolidated into the Direct Loan program (via www.studentaid.gov) and a PSLF form has been submitted prior to 10/31/2022 (yes you read that
... keep reading on reddit ➡NFT Gaming Comes of Age… Almost.
As we close out what has been a breakout year for NFTs and NFT gaming, I wanted to give a little bit of a summary of the lay of the land at this point in time, let you know what i’m seeing emerging across the ecosystem, and provide a short guide to help you navigate what’s happening. As a thousand flowers bloom, trying to categorise all the different experiments we’re seeing is an impossible task - but i’m going to try it anyway.
*Note: I’ve provided a few examples for each category. For better or worse, they’re just the first few projects that were top of mind as I was writing and I’m not explicitly endorsing or even recommending them. Apologies to those I missed!“
Play to Earn” Pioneers
In no particular order, but i’ll start here, since Play To Earn is now officially the most mis-used term in NFT gaming, with almost every new “Game ICO” splashing it liberally across their promo emails. The ideal is utopian; what if we could be rewarded for our investment of time into games? But the actual execution is much more difficult. True P2E asks a simple question… How can we move from maximising value extraction from daily players to a creation of shared value. In reality this requires some very hard trade-offs that most projects aren’t equipped or willing to make - including giving a lot of control of the economy and the rate of player growth back to the community - and in a space where mistakes can’t be reversed, and a successful project can rapidly grow to have a GDP the size of a small country before blowing up, we’re still experimenting with what’s even possible and how this is going to work in the long run. And maybe it won’t. Key learning: Most things aren’t actually play to earn, and even fewer of them are sustainable.
- Axie Infinity
- Zed Run
- War Riders
- Lost Relics
“Play to Burn” Failures
What happens when a studio jumps on a trend with no idea what they’re doing? They create a quick but clunky interface, develop a utility token and issuance curve and start creating artificial digital scarcity and crazy inflation every time somebody presses a button. Well when it goes wrong, it goes very wrong - and we’ve seen crazy moves both on the way up, and on the way down. There’s a subtle difference between ponzi games and ponzi schemes, but when you’re part of a badly designed economic bubble in freefall, then it can be hard to tell as people race for the exits. In the NFT gaming world you can
Artist: JPEGMAFIA
Album: LP!
Listen:
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Background
JPEGMAFIA (a.k.a. Barrington Hendricks, b. 1989) is an American rapper, producer, and singer born in Brooklyn, New York. At 13, he moved to Alabama where he experienced a significant amount of racism that influenced much of his preceding work. He then enlisted in the United States Air Force at 18 and was honorably discharged after a tour in Iraq. He initially made music during his time in the military under the alias Devon Hendryx before moving to Baltimore in 2015 and assuming the moniker JPEGMAFIA.
Following the release of his critically acclaimed 2019 album All My Heroes Are Cornballs, JPEGMAFIA began to dispute with his music label over how his songs should be handled and processed by industry regulations and obligations. This led to a frantic release schedule, as JPEG repurposed and quickly released material from his back catalogue as a way of fulfilling the requirements of his label contract. This fast-paced schedule led to the release of EP! in November 2020 and its well-received follow-up, EP2! in February 2021. After these two releases, he only needed one more project to fulfill the conditions of his contract.
Peggy began teasing the album on August 31, 2021 with the release of its first single, “TRUST!.” He then released the second single, “HAZARD DUTY PAY!,” on BandCamp, SoundCloud, and YouTube due to sample clearance issues on October 1, 2021.
His fourth studio album, LP!, was released on October 22, 2021 following delays due to sample clearance issues. Because of these legal issues and his balking from Republic Records, two versions of the album were released. The “online” version released on streaming platforms and featured a reduced tracklist, while the “offline” version, deemed “the true LP!” from the corresponding BandCamp description, was released on BandCamp, SoundCloud,
... keep reading on reddit ➡Ok so (in release order) I’m going to give brief reviews for all 38 albums that I heard this year, and then I’ll give my ranking at the end. I don’t really expect anyone to read this in full. Just look around for the albums that you care about and then please share your opinions on my opinions. I would like to get some discussions going. I talk about everything from Coldplay to Black Midi. You’ll find something that interests you.
—————————————————————
#Ok Human - Weezer:
Hot take, but this is actually my favourite Weezer album. (keeping in mind that I’ve only been a fan since mid 2020). I’ve liked most of their other material up to this point, but my biggest problem with their discography has always been the fact that they seemingly never change. And whenever they did change it was always just basic pop music or a SLIGHTLY different kind of rock music.
This is the first genuinely unique Weezer album and I love it. Rivers’ song writing formula works shockingly well when being backed up by these beautiful, fun, and orchestral pop instrumentals. The lyrics are mostly really good, the production is immaculate, the vocals are great, and this thing is insanely well paced.
Tracks 1-6 make up one of the best song sequences that I’ve ever heard on an album. They’re all really good and flow together masterfully. “Numbers” specifically is a legitimately emotional experience. Something that you can rarely say about a Weezer song. The album’s 2nd half is slightly spottier but still very good.
It’s amazing how this album can be so impactful while still being so short. That half hour goes by in an instant, but it’s a wonderful half hour. Excellent album.
Best Songs: Numbers, Grapes of Wrath, & Aloo Gobi:
Weakest Songs: Mirror Image, Bird With a Broken Wing, & Dead Roses.
This album gets a light 9/10.
#Medicine At Midnight - Foo Fighters:
I’ve heard individual songs from pretty much all of their previous releases, but this is actually the first Foo Fighters project that I’ve listened to in full. And it’s a pretty good album, I must say.
It’s nothing I haven’t heard before but it’s very well executed for the most part. While consisting primarily of pretty normal, energetic, and loud rock songs, there are a few tracks with slightly more varied soundscapes such as “Chasing Birds”, “Shame Shame”, and The Title Track.
The album is decently paced, has some great vocals, and is mostly very well produced. Tracks like “Waiting on a War” & “Love
... keep reading on reddit ➡For context I'm a Refuse Driver (Garbage man) & today I was on food waste. After I'd tipped I was checking the wagon for any defects when I spotted a lone pea balanced on the lifts.
I said "hey look, an escaPEA"
No one near me but it didn't half make me laugh for a good hour or so!
Edit: I can't believe how much this has blown up. Thank you everyone I've had a blast reading through the replies 😂
This is the weekly translation status update thread. Use this thread to discuss translation news, issues, titles you're looking forward to, etc.
Generally, the thread is just a mirror from 4chan's weekly thread on t he /jp/ board. All credit goes to the user VNTS there. That said, I wanted to try adding my own twists to this Weekly Thread. For example, for any entries officially localized, I'm going to universally use the companies' official localized title names. I want to make sure all sections are alphabetized, not just the fantranslations. I also want to include any quasi-VNs like the Ace Attorney series. I made every visual novel have a vndb linked, if any exist. If there's any other notable translations not on here, be sure to comment with them below.
Entries in Bold have had changes since last week
Entries in italics denote my own changes
Fan Translations
- Aiyoku No Eustia - 100% translated, edited, and TLC, Programming Remaining Lines and QC left to do, Eris partial patch released, "Progress for programming has seemingly been... stagnant and doesn't seem to be picking up any time soon. I have no real insight into the actual release date, but I wouldn't be surprised if Eustia releases Spring 2023 at the earliest (And no, that's not a typo)."
- Akatsuki no Goei - Aya partial patch released, all routes fully translated translated, Prologue/Common/Aya route complete, remaining routes in editing and QA
- Akatsuki no Goei ~Principal-tachi no Kyuujitsu~ - Prologue + Reika / Kyouka After routes translated
- Amagami - "Script translation and editing done 100%. Text synced, patches created, undergoing testing."
- Aonatsu Line - Translation starting
- Axanael - Demo released, 30% translated, common route + 1/4th of the A route translated
- Bishoujo Mangekyou -Wasurenagusa to Eien no Shoujo- - 1359/11141 lines (12.20%) translated, 131/6213 lines (2.11%) edited, 131/11141 lines (2.11%) proofread
- Bishoujo Mangekyou -Kami ga Tsukuritamouta Shoujo-tachi- - 30% translated
- Chaos;Head Noah - 100% translated, 20.92% TLC, 11.25% edited
- Chicchakunai Mon *- 85.3% translated, 6.5% first edit pass(of at le
https://preview.redd.it/jyq43f4sqqy71.jpg?width=400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=63c9f636881bfc01d5852df3222c3edb64e99cf6
“There’s a new fiesta in the making as we speak. It’s out at the Moontower. Full kegs, everybody’s going to be there—you ought to go.”
Hello again to all my fellow degenerate gamblers riding this cresting late-stage capitalist wave for both fun and profit! Many of us had a grand old time at the big $GME hootenanny (box social?) earlier this year. And some of us with a high tolerance for something or other are still hanging around that party smoking joints and talking with a bunch of primates about all the spooky shit on the back of the U.S. dollar. Ryan Cohen still shitposting sometimes-indecipherable muckety muck....it’s been fun. We get older, $GME stays the same age.
But there’s a new fiesta in the making. With some familiar faces in the mix again. And in case you weren’t yet convinced that this is all part of some weird simulation (and with apologies to our man DFV), the gods of the obvious have deemed this new play: Big Fucking Value—or $BGFV for short.
Now, before CNBC gets its panties in a bunch about those dastardly Reddit deviants colluding again with their mean internet words to hurt the widdle fee fees of the rich and obtuse, let’s be clear that even though many of the old GME gang seems to be in this thing (Hi again Rod!), it’s only because we each very much enjoy spotting asymmetric opportunities created by dumbasses—and, most importantly: We Like The Stock. As for me personally, I came to this BGFV party to do two things: drink some beer and kick some short seller’s ass. And I’m about all out of beer.
Wut BGFV
So let’s get right to it: what the fuck even is BGFV? Well, you insufferable coastal elite, Big 5 is a pretty straight-forward sporting goods chain headquartered in that little California hamlet where Q-tip once left his wallet. Their sporting goods stores are often found in the kind of place you might stumble upon if you’d ever put down that avocado toast and your vanilla latte and deign to visit Real America™. You know, to pick up a Real American baseball. Or maybe a camping stove. Or most definitely an AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle. Which you might later open carry on the steps of a capitol statehouse like a fucking badass Because Second Amendment That’s Why.
Point is: Big 5 of El Segundo, First of its Name, is a
... keep reading on reddit ➡Hello,
Me and a friend have invested in our own dedicated 32 player server
We are looking for new players to come in and fulfil the player count, because its more fun with more players of course!
Server has been up for a couple days and set to 1 month after initial infection, so expect allot of loot/vehicles around, but also allot of Zombies! We do not plan on resetting the world so It will progress as it naturally should.
Always open to suggestions, we are setting up a server Discord, the server details are as follows:
[Server Discord https://discord.gg/wn4dm6wnhD]
[1 in-Game Week Loot Spawn]
[New Server - 1month after Infection] NO planned reset of the world state, it will progress as is*
[No PvP] For now, we would consider changing this in future depending on demand*
[No Heli Events] Again, subject to demand*
[x5-XP] Subject to change depending on how this plays out*
[Additional attribute points to start]
[Quicker Nights]
[Safehouse Protection] Claim after 1 Day survival*
[Beginner Friendly]
[No Fire] Except campfire*
[Factions]
[Voice Chat Enabled]
Server Name:
[EU/UK] [PvE] [Mods] [Dedicated Server] - The Remaining -
IP: 176.57.174.131
Port: 29300
Thanks
EDIT: I have added some quality of life mods to the server, listed below:
Bushcraft Gear - Tools - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2423906082
Bushcraft Gear - Rare Weapons - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2432621382
Firearms B41 - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2256623447
Vehicle Scenes (build 41) - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2197797275
Better Sorting - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2313387159
Shark's and Peach's Military Uniform Improvements - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2530389024
Shark's Law Enforcement Overhaul - [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2616752828](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/
... keep reading on reddit ➡My twins are due any day now and I never even thought of a place like this to 'anonymously' hear opinions.
My partner and I settled very early on names and only told a few close people. Responses mixed but we like the names and barring anything we've overlooked will likely stand by our names despite any reactions.
The names we've chosen are Eddison (Eddie) and Elijah (Eli)
We liked the idea of having nicknames from a young age but a first name we feel is a nice one to stand by itself should they choose to use it. We also wanted two names that started with the same letter but weren't too close in name.
They have middle names which are personal and won't change
Eddison Mac
Elijah Harrison
Edit:
Thanks for your opinions. Wow you lot don't hold back 😉
It's give us good for thought on Eddison but we feel we prefer the double letter. I'm glad I found a small number of allies in here to make us seem like we're not totally crazy 😁
Haven't been able to reply to everyone but appreciate the inputs. Thanks .
Hi, Reddit! I’m new and not really sure how to format this type of post, so my buddy is helping me along the way. I’m just some oblivious dude in his mid-30’s who somehow never picked up the Halo franchise until just recently, and I gotta say… I’m pissed I never really gave Halo a shot in my youth.
Now, to contextualize, I have played a bit of Halo before. In high school, somebody had the first Halo’s multiplayer bootlegged on a flash drive and I played a few games in the computer lab during lunch every once in a while. But I’d never played a single campaign, never sat down at a console at booted up any of the games’ licensed versions. Just that pirated multiplayer from the original game.
I’m more of an RPG-fan; I’ve always preferred fantasy games with an open world, so a linear, sci-fi, space marine and alien-themed FPS game never really piqued my curiosity. I’ve played WoW, Oblivion, Skyrim, Far Cry, Assassin’s Creed, Dishonored, etc for the most part and have only recently been giving FPS games a real shot in my rotation. But enough of all this boring pretext.
My buddy from work, who’s helping me format and post this as I type, knows I’m a big fan of games with a more open-world aspect, so he started bugging me to watch some trailers and gameplay breakdowns for Infinite for the last few months. He got me to agree to play through all the main Halo titles on the condition that he provide food and drinks as we played co-op together. We started chronologically, from what I can tell, with Halo Reach and played all the way through Halo 5. I’ll give my thoughts on each, if that’s fine by you.
#Reach
Having only played the first Halo’s multiplayer, I had very different expectations going into this game. My understanding was that Master Chief was the protagonist of Halo, so I was quite surprised when the opening cutscene introduced me as Noble Six. I also thought Master Chief was the only Spartan, so on top of my initial shock of learning that Reach doesn’t follow the story of Master Chief, I got to see more Spartans… with faces! I’d always heard that Master Chief never removed his helmet.
Anyways. WHAT. A. STORY. I grew up watching bleak war movies with my dad, and this game felt like a futuristic version of all those movies. The opening was foreboding and bleak, the dialogue all sounded very tactical and realistic to military jargon, and the music… so melancholy and dour.
Playing through the story, as Noble Team lost member after member, was strangel
... keep reading on reddit ➡
Pilot on me!!
Artist: Drake
Album: Certified Lover Boy
Listen:
Background
The man who needs no introduction is Drizzy. Aubrey. Champagne Papi. 6 Man. 6 God. Wheelchair Jimmy. And so many more nicknames and pseudonyms to go around. Drake announced he was working on his next endeavor in mid-2019 telling the world that he was in album mode. Dropping a few teasers here and there throughout that year, Drake had yet to tease any new music yet but just telling everyone that 2020 was the year.
...
As it turns out, Drake was a lying jerk, and to delay his album, Drake created a global pandemic causing the deaths of millions of people. Not cool. Drake teased a few songs throughout the year. With the release of Dark Lane Demo Tapes containing leftovers and loosies from the Scorpion and CLB era, Drake officially announced that CLB would drop in late 2020. Teasing the album throughout the year, he released more CLB leftovers by giving Greece and Pop Star to DJ Khaled. With the debut single “Laugh Now Cry Later” dropping mid-august. While finishing off the year with more songs like Outta Time with Bryson Tiller, B.B King Freestyle with Lil Wayne, and You’re Mines Still with Young Bleu, the hype was at an all-time high, and the release would soon be in our hands.
It didn’t release. Drake then said January 2021. So did Odell Beckham Jr. (who I thought I could trust because he was in the music video for the lead single). It turns out that Odell is Mr. liar-liar pants on fire, so the album didn’t drop in January. As a Browns fan, I’m glad we got rid of him. Drake claimed that ouch owie my leg, so no album. In early March, Drake released Scary Hours 2 with What’s Next, Wants and Needs with Lil Baby, and Lemon Pepper Freestyle with Rick Ross. Knowing the original Scary Hours leading up to Scorpion, the album was so close you could almost taste it!
April came and went with another CLB loosie titled Solid featuring Young Thug and Gunna dropping on Slime Language 2. May came and went with Nicki Minaj’s Seeing Green featuring Drake and Lil Wayne. June came and went with Migos’s Having Our Way releasing with Drake
... keep reading on reddit ➡
First, let me preface this with the fact that I am just a regular Sensei who has no ties to Nexon Group, NAT GAMES, or any related entity, and while I strive to be as objective as possible, I have my own biases and agenda. I only want to share my take on this because the situation is still current and many like myself are still having fluctuating opinions.
The Controversy
For the ones out of the loop, it has recently been discovered that a scene in Clockwork Flower Pavane, Chapter 1, Episode 4 has been censored in the game's most recent update.
The censored scene as of 17th Dec 2021
How is it censored? The lower half of Aris's body has been cropped from the frame, resulting in the scene having a relatively more close-up view of Aris. To keep this post safe for Reddit's own content policies, you can see the uncensored version of this scene in Yostar's 2nd PV video at the 15s mark onward. The YouTube link has been timestamped for your convenience.
Notably, the scene is uncensored if upon launching the game for the first time, the game detects that you are playing from a Korean IP address.
For veteran gamers, it is not surprising to see content getting censored to comply with regional standards. On the surface, this current situation is no different. However, outrage does not start with no rhyme or reason.
On 8th Oct 2021, the official Blue Archive YouTube channel published an interview with Program Director Yong Ha Kim. Below are some relevant segments of the interview transcribed:
In response to users sharing a variety of feedback regarding Nexon's services and addressing those who may be concerned (segment from 1:41, emphasis mine) :
>Our dev team is always listening to feedback coming in from our Korean and Global communities and apart from the anticipation, we're also fully aware about the areas of concern expressed by users.
>
>Does anything come to mind when you hear Nexon's name personally?
>
>Well, I have a lot of good memories associated with Nexon.
>
>One thing I can say is, based on our previous launch and service history (in Japan), **we put a lot of focus on reducing elements we felt the playe
Hey Reddit,
Do us a favor. Go visit the Darkplates page. We'll wait.
As you may have noticed, much like your hopes and dreams, Darkplates are dead. Here's why.
The tl;dr is that we were served a Cease & Desist letter from lawyers representing Sony Interactive Entertainment. Naturally, there's a lot to unpack, including:
- consideration that Sony might want to send Netflix a C&D over Squid Game,
- anecdotes about Ford F-150s and Right-to-Repair,
- speculation over Sony's upcoming product launches, and
- quotes from the Cease & Desist we received.
Hopefully you'll stick around for the entire ride. If not, suffice it to say that they threatened us with legal action. More specifically…
>...preliminary and permanent injunctive relief, Court-ordered destruction of infringing materials, and recovery of dbrand’s profits and additional monetary damages.
>
>...extensive remedies under U.S. law, including injunctive relief against further sale of any infringing materials, destruction of all infringing materials, recovery of our client’s lost profits and damages, and statutory damages of up to $150,000 per infringed work.
>
>...an injunction, the destruction, delivery-up and exportation of goods, prohibit[ion of] the importation of goods, and [the] award[ing of] damages and accounting of profits, punitive damages, punitive and exemplary damages, interests and costs.
Thanks, Phil. Let's get into it.
Some months ago, one of our Customer Experience Robots noticed a peculiar email in the robots@dbrand.com inbox. Somewhere in between "I accidentally ate my OnePlus 9 Logo skin, do I need to call Poison Control?" and "do u have discount code" was an ominous-sounding subject line from a lawyer-sounding email address. Attached was a PDF, entitled:
"Re: Objection to dbrand’s Infringement of Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC’s Intellectual Property"
Picture about six more pages of this.
Before we get into the main discussion, a fun fact: did you know that Sony believes our distinctive & original "Illuminati Pyramid / Radiation Hazard / Skull & Cr
... keep reading on reddit ➡Dad jokes are supposed to be jokes you can tell a kid and they will understand it and find it funny.
This sub is mostly just NSFW puns now.
If it needs a NSFW tag it's not a dad joke. There should just be a NSFW puns subreddit for that.
Edit* I'm not replying any longer and turning off notifications but to all those that say "no one cares", there sure are a lot of you arguing about it. Maybe I'm wrong but you people don't need to be rude about it. If you really don't care, don't comment.
I won't be doing that today!
You take away their little brooms
I wanted to name myself Parker for over a year. It was perfectly masc-leaning but ambiguous at the same time. P names are few and far between, so I tried some near rhymes of my birth name. After 6 months, Parker was the only name that felt like someone was talking about me, like that starting sound was unique and ingrained in my self-image. It lets me keep my initials and my family can still use all my P nicknames. I like the nature element and that it’s of English origin, just like my family.
I never took the leap because the only person I knew with said name was a manipulative bully. But yaknow what I decided? I haven’t seen or even spoken to this person in almost 6 years. They’re irrelevant, and I’m not gonna pass up my name because of a blip in my past.
This morning, my 4 year old daughter.
Daughter: I'm hungry
Me: nerves building, smile widening
Me: Hi hungry, I'm dad.
She had no idea what was going on but I finally did it.
Thank you all for listening.
Sometimes Idol Culture or J-POP Artist are embroil in controversy and publication could lead to their downfall. It is pretty rare in the 80's that an artist could be removing or "cancelled" unlike in the current times, This drama I rarely talk about during the 80's and those are Warabe.
Who are Warabe?:
Warabe (わらべ) was a Japanese pop unit for the variety show Kinchan no Doko Made Yatu no? (TV Asahi) from 1982 to 1984. It was compose of Tomoko Takabe as Nozomi, Atsumi Kuruzawa as Kanae and Mami Takahashi as Tamae. It well also known as Hagimoto Sisters.
The group's name, "Warabe," was coined by Kinichi Hagimoto from the words "waraabe," meaning child, and "waraube," meaning to laugh.
The name "Nozomi, Kanae, Tamae" was a play on the words "Hope (Nozomi), Achieve (Kanae), Serve (Tamae)", but the Word Play was dropped following the Incident
Initial Success:
The group released their first single, "Medaka no Kyoudai", at the end of 1982 on the label For Life Records. The title song was used as the ending theme for the show Kinchan no Doko Made Yatu no? as the girls would be showed at the end of the show, singing "Medaka no Kyoudai" in there pajamas Nevertheless, the single was popular and sold over eight million copies
At the time of its release, there was an excise tax (abolished when the consumption tax was introduced). At the time of its release, there was an excise tax (which was abolished when the consumption tax was introduced), and records were subject to the excise tax because they were considered "not a necessity of life".
Initially, Four Life Records, the company that released this album, judged that "both the A-side and B-side songs were children's songs" and did not declare excise tax . However, it became a big hit, and there was later a dispute over whether it was a nursery rhyme (tax exempt) or a popular song (taxable) . The National Tax Agency judged that the A-side song "Medaka no Kyoudai" was "neither a nursery rhyme nor a popular song" and "a nursery rhyme-like popular song" On the other hand, the B-side song "Harukaze no yokuya-san" was judged to be a popular song (song), and on top of that, the B-side song was judged to be taxable because of its longer recording time Four Life negotiated with the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau, but in the end, Four Life accepted the IRS's decision, and settled to pay another 30 million yen in excise tax by June 10, 1983, for sales of 500,000 copies up to the end of March 19
... keep reading on reddit ➡I’m a professional Dungeon Master who runs games for paying customers. I thought it might be interesting (and potentially useful to others) to journal my process as I transform the adventure module The Wild Beyond the Witchlight into a playable campaign I’d be happy to run.
I’ll take you through my thoughts on the adventure, its strengths and weaknesses, and all the changes I’m going to make to patch it up and make it ready to deliver to a paying audience, starting with Chapter One: The Witchlight Carnival.
I recommend if you have the book handy, you browse through each section of the chapter along with me.
Overview
The first chapter of this adventure promises a fantastical and whimsical journey through a magical carnival with strong ties to the Feywild. Importantly, this adventure is touted as the first ever official module which has been designed with the intent that the entire story can be completed without ever having to get into a single combat!
The Witchlight Carnival itself is a sandbox, which means there are multiple locations that your players can visit in just about any order. This means it is important to read the entire chapter before attempting to run it, but don’t worry about the rest of the book: the Witchlight Carnival is an entirely self-contained prologue to the main adventure, and no important characters or locations carry over once you’re in the Feywild.
Initial thoughts
The Good:
-
The illusion of player freedom! And trust me, player freedom is always an illusion.
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Tone and flavour! The Carnival is bursting with whimsical concepts.
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As advertised, combat is entirely optional for this entire chapter, and the party will have to go out of their way to start a fight if they want to experience one.
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The NPCs. Just about every character is given a flavourful description and a gimmick, making them a lot of fun to play.
The Bad:
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As a DM, you’ll need to read and prepare for over a dozen possible encounters with a vast cast of characters and locations. Worse still, every time I’ve run this, the party has split up to wander individually or in small groups through multiple attractions, meaning you’ll be jumping frantically between scenes extremely quickly. This is an extremely difficult experience for a new DM to handle, and can be daunting for new players as well, who might need extra guidance when starting their first game.
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Some of the carnival attractions are poorly designed, but I’ll get into these individually -
So here is my second name analysis post, centered around ２５時、ナイトコードで (25ji, Nightcord de) or Nightcord at 25. Said analysis is based mostly around which kanjis (the Japanese version of Chinese characters) are used to write the character name plus some personal interpretation. The names in Japanese will be written family names first. Also there will be unmarked spoilers for the main story and some allusions to future Global events.
Before going into the character names, I would like to point that the name of the group might be a reference to 3 popular Japanese Internet-based music groups: YOASOBI (“Night Games”), Yorushika (“Night Deer” or ”Only At Night") and Zutto Mayonaka de Ii no ni (“I wanted midnight to continue forever."). 25ji is basically the teenage versions of these groups, publishing songs on the Internet with illustrated clips, taking inspiration from Vocaloid culture without making Vocaloid songs (though all 4 groups have ties to Vocaloid).
Now into the characters names, with the family name theme of today being: the times of the day. (There is a nod to it in Kanade Tomosu Sora’s MV btw)
- Kanade Yoisaki/宵崎 奏/K
宵(evening) 崎(cape) 奏(musical performance)
Fun fact: Kanade’s last name is the only one in the original cast that is not an existing name, even a rare one. Aside from that, Kanade is a girl of the night which fits with her hikikomori lifestyle and her terrible sleep schedule. That said, her kindness and desire to save others, as well her overall light color scheme (mostly her hair and her show outfit) makes me think she represents the gentleness of the evening, a time where you can let your hair down, be yourself and be free of social obligations.
Her first name simply shows her strong ties to music. In fact if you watch Japanese music themed media, you have a good chance to run into a Kanade or two. It also ties very much to her relationship with her father: he named her after something he loved but it ended up only highlighting how she was blessed with musical talent while he reached his limits as an artist, and it ended up as a curse, Kanade having to keep composing until she can save someone with her music.
Her pseudo is less heavy in meaning: K is simply the initial of her first name. At first I wondered if there might be something hidden, but in
... keep reading on reddit ➡This is the weekly translation status update thread. Use this thread to discuss translation news, issues, titles you're looking forward to, etc.
Generally, the thread is just a mirror from 4chan's weekly thread on t he /jp/ board. All credit goes to the user VNTS there. That said, I wanted to try adding my own twists to this Weekly Thread. For example, for any entries officially localized, I'm going to universally use the companies' official localized title names. I want to make sure all sections are alphabetized, not just the fantranslations. I also want to include any quasi-VNs like the Ace Attorney series. I made every visual novel have a vndb linked, if any exist. If there's any other notable translations not on here, be sure to comment with them below.
Entries in Bold have had changes since last week
Entries in italics denote my own changes
Fan Translations
- Aiyoku No Eustia - 100% translated, edited, and TLC, Programming Remaining Lines and QC left to do, Eris partial patch released, "Progress for programming has seemingly been... stagnant and doesn't seem to be picking up any time soon. I have no real insight into the actual release date, but I wouldn't be surprised if Eustia releases Spring 2023 at the earliest (And no, that's not a typo)."
- Akatsuki no Goei - Aya partial patch released, all routes fully translated translated, Prologue/Common/Aya route complete, remaining routes in editing and QA
- Akatsuki no Goei ~Principal-tachi no Kyuujitsu~ - Prologue + Reika / Kyouka After routes translated
- Amagami - "Script translation and editing done 100%. Text synced, patches created, undergoing testing."
- Aonatsu Line - Translation starting
- Axanael - Demo released, 30% translated, common route + 1/4th of the A route translated
- Bishoujo Mangekyou -Wasurenagusa to Eien no Shoujo- - 1359/11141 lines (12.20%) translated, 131/6213 lines (2.11%) edited, 131/11141 lines (2.11%) proofread
- Bishoujo Mangekyou -Kami ga Tsukuritamouta Shoujo-tachi- - 30% translated
- Chaos;Head Noah - 100% translated, 20.92% TLC, 11.25% edited
- Chicchakunai Mon *- 85.3% translated, 6.5% first edit pass(of at least thr
This is the weekly translation status update thread. Use this thread to discuss translation news, issues, titles you're looking forward to, etc.
Generally, the thread is just a mirror from 4chan's weekly thread on t he /jp/ board. All credit goes to the user VNTS there. That said, I wanted to try adding my own twists to this Weekly Thread. For example, for any entries officially localized, I'm going to universally use the companies' official localized title names. I want to make sure all sections are alphabetized, not just the fantranslations. I also want to include any quasi-VNs like the Ace Attorney series. I made every visual novel have a vndb linked, if any exist. If there's any other notable translations not on here, be sure to comment with them below.
Entries in Bold have had changes since last week
Entries in italics denote my own changes
Fan Translations
- Aiyoku No Eustia - 100% translated, edited, and TLC, Programming Remaining Lines and QC left to do, Eris partial patch released, "Progress for programming has seemingly been... stagnant and doesn't seem to be picking up any time soon. I have no real insight into the actual release date, but I wouldn't be surprised if Eustia releases Spring 2023 at the earliest (And no, that's not a typo)."
- Akatsuki no Goei - Aya partial patch released, all routes fully translated translated, Prologue/Common/Aya route complete, remaining routes in editing and QA
- Akatsuki no Goei ~Principal-tachi no Kyuujitsu~ - Prologue + Reika / Kyouka After routes translated
- Amagami - "Script translation and editing done 100%. Text synced, patches created, undergoing testing."
- Aonatsu Line - Translation starting
- Axanael - Demo released, 30% translated, common route + 1/4th of the A route translated
- Bishoujo Mangekyou -Wasurenagusa to Eien no Shoujo- - 1359/11141 lines (12.20%) translated, 131/6213 lines (2.11%) edited, 131/11141 lines (2.11%) proofread
- Bishoujo Mangekyou -Kami ga Tsukuritamouta Shoujo-tachi- - 30% translated
- Chaos;Head Noah - 100% translated, 20.31% TLC, 11.25% edited
- Chicchakunai Mon *- 85.3% translated, 6.5% first edit pas
This is the weekly translation status update thread. Use this thread to discuss translation news, issues, titles you're looking forward to, etc.
Generally, the thread is just a mirror from 4chan's weekly thread on t he /jp/ board. All credit goes to the user VNTS there. That said, I wanted to try adding my own twists to this Weekly Thread. For example, for any entries officially localized, I'm going to universally use the companies' official localized title names. I want to make sure all sections are alphabetized, not just the fantranslations. I also want to include any quasi-VNs like the Ace Attorney series. I made every visual novel have a vndb linked, if any exist. If there's any other notable translations not on here, be sure to comment with them below.
Entries in Bold have had changes since last week
Entries in italics denote my own changes
Fan Translations
- White Album 2 - Released
- Aiyoku No Eustia - 100% translated, edited, and TLC, Programming Remaining Lines and QC left to do, Eris partial patch released, "Progress for programming has seemingly been... stagnant and doesn't seem to be picking up any time soon. I have no real insight into the actual release date, but I wouldn't be surprised if Eustia releases Spring 2023 at the earliest (And no, that's not a typo)."
- Akatsuki no Goei - Aya partial patch released, all routes fully translated translated, Prologue/Common/Aya route complete, remaining routes in editing and QA
- Akatsuki no Goei ~Principal-tachi no Kyuujitsu~ - Prologue + Reika / Kyouka After routes translated
- Amagami - "Script translation and editing done 100%. Text synced, patches created, undergoing testing."
- Aonatsu Line - Translation starting
- Axanael - Demo released, 30% translated, common route + 1/4th of the A route translated
- Bishoujo Mangekyou -Wasurenagusa to Eien no Shoujo- - 1359/11141 lines (12.20%) translated, 131/6213 lines (2.11%) edited, 131/11141 lines (2.11%) proofread
- Bishoujo Mangekyou -Kami ga Tsukuritamouta Shoujo-tachi- - 30% translated
- Chaos;Head Noah - 100% translated, 20.31% TLC, 11.25% edited
- [Chicchakunai Mon](https://vndb.org
What did 0 say to 8 ?
" Nice Belt "
So What did 3 say to 8 ?
" Hey, you two stop making out "
This is the weekly translation status update thread. Use this thread to discuss translation news, issues, titles you're looking forward to, etc.
Generally, the thread is just a mirror from 4chan's weekly thread on t he /jp/ board. All credit goes to the user VNTS there. That said, I wanted to try adding my own twists to this Weekly Thread. For example, for any entries officially localized, I'm going to universally use the companies' official localized title names. I want to make sure all sections are alphabetized, not just the fantranslations. I also want to include any quasi-VNs like the Ace Attorney series. I made every visual novel have a vndb linked, if any exist. If there's any other notable translations not on here, be sure to comment with them below.
Entries in Bold have had changes since last week
Entries in italics denote my own changes
Fan Translations
- Vampire Knight DS - Released
- Aiyoku No Eustia - 100% translated, edited, and TLC, Programming Remaining Lines and QC left to do, Eris partial patch released
- Akatsuki no Goei - Aya partial patch released, all routes fully translated translated, Prologue/Common/Aya route complete, remaining routes in editing and QA
- Akatsuki no Goei ~Principal-tachi no Kyuujitsu~ - Prologue + Reika / Kyouka After routes translated
- Amagami - "Script translation and editing done 100%. Working on syncing up any missing text across versions."
- Aonatsu Line - Translation starting
- Axanael - Demo released, 30% translated, common route + 1/4th of the A route translated
- Bishoujo Mangekyou -Wasurenagusa to Eien no Shoujo- - 1359/11141 lines (12.20%) translated, 131/6213 lines (2.11%) edited, 131/11141 lines (2.11%) proofread
- Bishoujo Mangekyou -Kami ga Tsukuritamouta Shoujo-tachi- - 30% translated
- Chaos;Head Noah - 100% translated, 20.31% TLC, 11.25% edited
- Chicchakunai Mon - 85.3% translated, 6.5% first edit pass(of at least three probably), 7/9 of Rin's scripts done.
- Christmas＊Flower- 325/325 translated
- Clearworld - Translation starting
- [Dragon Knight 4](h
NFT Gaming Comes of Age… Almost.
As we close out what has been a breakout year for NFTs and NFT gaming, I wanted to give a little bit of a summary of the lay of the land at this point in time, let you know what i’m seeing emerging across the ecosystem, and provide a short guide to help you navigate what’s happening. As a thousand flowers bloom, trying to categorise all the different experiments we’re seeing is an impossible task - but i’m going to try it anyway.
*Note: I’ve provided a few examples for each category. For better or worse, they’re just the first few projects that were top of mind as I was writing and I’m not explicitly endorsing or even recommending them. Apologies to those I missed!“
Play to Earn” PioneersIn no particular order, but i’ll start here, since Play To Earn is now officially the most mis-used term in NFT gaming, with almost every new “Game ICO” splashing it liberally across their promo emails. The ideal is utopian; what if we could be rewarded for our investment of time into games? But the actual execution is much more difficult. True P2E asks a simple question… How can we move from maximising value extraction from daily players to a creation of shared value. In reality this requires some very hard trade-offs that most projects aren’t equipped or willing to make - including giving a lot of control of the economy and the rate of player growth back to the community - and in a space where mistakes can’t be reversed, and a successful project can rapidly grow to have a GDP the size of a small country before blowing up, we’re still experimenting with what’s even possible and how this is going to work in the long run. And maybe it won’t. Key learning: Most things aren’t actually play to earn, and even fewer of them are sustainable.
- Axie Infinity
- Zed Run
- War Riders
- Lost Relics
“Play to Burn” FailuresWhat happens when a studio jumps on a trend with no idea what they’re doing? They create a quick but clunky interface, develop a utility token and issuance curve and start creating artificial digital scarcity and crazy inflation every time somebody presses a button. Well when it goes wrong, it goes very wrong - and we’ve seen crazy moves both on the way up, and on the way down. There’s a subtle difference between ponzi games and ponzi schemes, but when you’re part of a badly designed economic bubble in freefall, then it can be hard to tell as people race for the exits. In the NFT gaming world you can also get
... keep reading on reddit ➡There hasn't been a post all year!
