Akir's recent activity
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Comment on CGA-2026-07 đšď¸đĽâď¸ REMOVE CARTRIDGE âď¸ Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals in ~games
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Comment on What are your favourite fragrances, and why? in ~talk
Akir LinkOrange peel. Particularly mandarin varieties. Honestly, just about any citrus peel. The smell of most fresh cut wood, but pine is the best. Even finished antique wood furnature has a pretty...Orange peel. Particularly mandarin varieties. Honestly, just about any citrus peel.
The smell of most fresh cut wood, but pine is the best. Even finished antique wood furnature has a pretty amazing smell.
Basil. Fresh bread.
âŚ
Oh, you all were talking about commercial fragrances. I donât particularly care for the vast majority of them; I find them to be kind of⌠distracting? For the most part I want things to smell like what they are, or the idealized versions of them.
Although I will admit that I love scented candles. The best scents are waaaaay too expensive so I basically just get whatever discount ones I can find that donât have offensive scents, a disturbingly rare find.
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Comment on Atari makes Universal movie deal for ten iconic game properties in ~movies
Akir Link ParentAFAIK that isnât a thing anymore. I seem to remember that was a thing the owners of the name were doing before Infogrames bought them and assumed the name for their company.AFAIK that isnât a thing anymore. I seem to remember that was a thing the owners of the name were doing before Infogrames bought them and assumed the name for their company.
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Comment on Survey: The temperature in my room now is _____ and it feels _____ in ~talk
Akir LinkWhere I work the thermostat is locked at 70°F and I hate it so much because the weather is around 95° or higher. Iâm pretty acclimatized to the weather and have gotten used to wearing short...Where I work the thermostat is locked at 70°F and I hate it so much because the weather is around 95° or higher. Iâm pretty acclimatized to the weather and have gotten used to wearing short clothes to keep cool, but when the temperature is approaching a 30° difference thatâs just plain stupid. I canât just change into pants when I get there, especially because Iâm typically there for just an hour at a time. Even before the summer I had a younger kid I could barely get to focus on his studies because he would be frozen by the cold air coming out of the vents. Itâs so incredibly dumb that I was close to doing a rant thread on how air conditioning was a mistake and shouldnât have been invented.
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Comment on Mobile Suit Gundam RG XARX-ZERO | Teaser PV in ~anime
Akir Link ParentYou are right! Iâm sorry for the error. In my defense, it is very trigger-like.You are right! Iâm sorry for the error.
In my defense, it is very trigger-like.
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Comment on Mobile Suit Gundam RG XARX-ZERO | Teaser PV in ~anime
Akir Link ParentSeed really seemed like the low point in the franchise. W wasnât that great IMHO even though it was my entry point into the franchise and even it seemed dramatically better in just about every...Seed really seemed like the low point in the franchise. W wasnât that great IMHO even though it was my entry point into the franchise and even it seemed dramatically better in just about every way.
One of the most interesting entries is the last one they made, animated by Studio Trigger and set in an alternate history where Zeon won.
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Comment on Mobile Suit Gundam RG XARX-ZERO | Teaser PV in ~anime
Akir Link ParentThere is a video on bamcoâs youtube with a native English annnouncer and they pronounce it âAlexâ. ă˘ăŹăăŻăš Is exactly how I would spell âAlexâ in Japanese so I'm choosing to roll with this one. No...There is a video on bamcoâs youtube with a native English annnouncer and they pronounce it âAlexâ.
ă˘ăŹăăŻăš Is exactly how I would spell âAlexâ in Japanese so I'm choosing to roll with this one. No idea why the first X is silent but to its credit the logo has that letter hollowed out.
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Comment on Introducing XBOX backward compatibility on PC in ~games
Akir Link ParentOrta is literally the only reason why I bought an Xbox 360 - emulation still wasnât a thing at the time and I didnât want a huge console that only output low quality analog video. That and the...Orta is literally the only reason why I bought an Xbox 360 - emulation still wasnât a thing at the time and I didnât want a huge console that only output low quality analog video. That and the only version of Deadly Premonition that isnât completely terrible. There are probably a lot of hidden gems for the console but that was the only one that really mattered to me.
(As a side note it is shocking to me that the consoles with the âbest graphicsâ for 2 generations had such shockingly terrible analog video output. Using the pack in composite cables negated the need for antialiasing because it output a smeared off-color mess.)
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Comment on How has climate change affected your life / plans? in ~enviro
Akir LinkI live in Southern California. I was born in the area and then right before I started to go to school I moved to Las Vegas so I grew up in a desert. My family would regularly take trips back...I live in Southern California.
I was born in the area and then right before I started to go to school I moved to Las Vegas so I grew up in a desert. My family would regularly take trips back âhomeâ to see my grandparents and whenever we did I would get upset because to me California was a lush green paradise, especially compared to the endless flat expanses of dirt that is the valley LV is situated in.
Today itâs full of brown, essentially dead brush. And itâs constantly, literally, on fire. The husband and I have literally had to cancel multiple trips because there were no routes to the destination from fire. The greenery can come back to an extent after heavy rain but thatâs not too likely to happen. When it does the truly dead brush will still be brown and grey.
The houses I grew up in and around had not been built for air conditioning, and that wasnât because they were made before it was a thing, but simply because the climate was temperate year-round. Now the years regularly go over 100°F days in summer and even though I am very inland I have become familiar with the marine layer because it reaches all the way over here and makes things extra humid and miserable.
When people talk about the world changing they usually mean the people around them are changing, or maybe the buildings. But my world literally has changed and itâs not going to go back: itâs actively getting worse. The fact that climate change is not the number one thing on everyoneâs mind is a sign of just how sick our society is.
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Comment on What have you been eating, drinking, and cooking? in ~food
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Comment on Avengers: Doomsday | Official trailer in ~movies
Akir Link ParentIt really was surprising that First Steps was good, wasn't it? I feel that a lot of this "phase" of marvel seems to be either creatively neutered or created as a cynical cash grab, but I really...It really was surprising that First Steps was good, wasn't it? I feel that a lot of this "phase" of marvel seems to be either creatively neutered or created as a cynical cash grab, but I really felt like everyone in that movie was well invested into it.
I also found myself really liking Wonder Man, but I highly doubt that Doomsday is going to be an introspective character exploration.
Edit: I actually take this back. There's been good ones. I enjoyed Thunderbolts*.
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Comment on How are you different than you were last week? in ~life
Akir Link ParentThey just appear. Itâs a physiological reaction to stress.They just appear. Itâs a physiological reaction to stress.
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Comment on How are you different than you were last week? in ~life
Akir LinkI realized I have an issue with anxiety after realizing that the bug bites on the back of my legs were actually welts, which is a thing that happens when I am very stressed.I realized I have an issue with anxiety after realizing that the bug bites on the back of my legs were actually welts, which is a thing that happens when I am very stressed.
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Comment on Guerrilla London Bus ads mock Kylie Jennerâs Meta glasses campaign in ~tech
Akir LinkA couple of weeks ago I went on my favorite roller coaster, Ghostrider, which is the largest and most intimidating one in Knotts Berry Farm. I was in the last row and there was this father...A couple of weeks ago I went on my favorite roller coaster, Ghostrider, which is the largest and most intimidating one in Knotts Berry Farm. I was in the last row and there was this father bringing his daughter on the ride in the row in front of me. It was clear from their conversation that this was going to be her first real âgrown upâ coaster and her father was bringing her on it to build her confidence. As the train started clinging the big lift hill, she was bawling because she was so afraid of what was happening, but at the end of the ride she was cheering alongside her father. It was the most wholesome thing Iâve ever seen and everyone who was in earshot to hear the story was proud of this little girl.
And then the father said âhey meta, stop recordingâ.
I had no idea that he was recording. I didnât even know he was wearing that kind of glasses. I heard just about everything he was saying but I never heard him say anything about beginning the recording and from the back I couldnât see any indicator LED - and besides that, how would this LED be visible in the bright midday sun if we werenât in the shade? On one hand I was happy for them for being able to capture such a precious memory, but on the other hand I felt violated even though I was behind them because I didnât know about the recording whatsoever until it was over. And what was I going to do, ask them to delete the recording?
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Comment on Boycotting palm oil in general is actually bad for the environment in ~enviro
Akir LinkI donât think this is as simple as palm oil is good or bad. Yes, you are right that you can produce more yield per acre with oil palms, but while some organizations do say that you shouldnât...I donât think this is as simple as palm oil is good or bad. Yes, you are right that you can produce more yield per acre with oil palms, but while some organizations do say that you shouldnât boycott it, there is plenty of disagreement.
In actuality, palm oil is filling the market demand of oil in general, and the problem is that that has been ballooning for decades at this point. If you are concerned about vegetable oil production, your best option is to limit how much you consume in general. But frankly if agricultural land use is a problem for you then the number one thing you should be reducing is meat and animal products, which consume the greatest amount of land and water.
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Comment on A philosopherâs one-word theory to explain why the world feels so weird: uni-context in ~humanities
Akir LinkI like this framework and I think it's a good way to understand the current state of global society, but at the same time I think I have to reject the idea that it's the cause of society's woes,...I like this framework and I think it's a good way to understand the current state of global society, but at the same time I think I have to reject the idea that it's the cause of society's woes, for the pure and simple reason that Callard doesn't seem to have a good construction of why we seek the uni-context. She establishes that it began sometime around the dawn of the 20th century and that it coincided with Modernism, but I think that in order to understand the question at hand, we need to understand the context in which the uni-context came into being.
Modernism is a rather nebulous term in my opinion, but generally speaking we're talking about the malaise caused by the erosion of traditional foundations, most notably the church and the family, both of which have continued to deteriorate since the dawn of modernity. Churches in particular are practically unrecognizable in comparison to the structure and scale they used to hold.
So if we want to understand why we are in the uni-context, we have to understand the causes of modernism. Philosophers generally attribute modernism to the rise of individualism leading to rejection of social norms. I actually thought that it was salient to bring up Simmel's paper on "market psychology" in the interview because the growth of capitalism as a social force is another common reasoning for the growth of modernism.
The way I think of this is that the uni-context is something we desire because of individualism. I appreciate Individualism because I think it has righted a number of systemic wrongs as @chocobean establishes. But I also think that the social drive to embrace individualism is something of a sickness. If we are in a society that is strongly individualistic, then we are lonely. The internet appears to be a way to solve people's natural need to connect with people while still maintaining a strong sense of individualism. You have to police your words, yes, but modern media algorithms don't force you to live in the society around you, it creates a world that conforms to you instead. It replaces friends with numbers and the psychology of seeing those numbers going up. A post getting ten thousand likes will give you a great dopamine hit even though 10,000 people is a number that we literally cannot fully comprehend.
There is one aspect that I think is particularly important to the creation of the uni-context, and that is my personal belief that, in spite of a strong social emphasis on individualism, people are generally afraid of introspection. I think that, by itself, is a good answer to the question of why people are having a hard time stopping themselves from comparing themselves to others. It's because they essentially don't know who they are on a fundamental level. As someone who has spent countless hours doing introspection as part of my background as a victim of childhood psychological abuse, I don't find much value in comparing myself to others. The fear of introspection is also an answer as to why people are so obsessed with distraction; if they aren't distracted, the thing they are most likely to think about is their own lives and the choices they've made.
The problem with today's hyper-individualism is that it's fundamentally a lie. We aren't just a collection of individuals, we are societies, communities, and neighborhoods. None of us would be able to live our peaceful lives if it weren't for others, who are responsible for growing, harvesting, and preparing our food, building our houses, generating our electricity, and maintaining our internet. More importantly, we are biologically built to be social creatures; avoiding people is actually bad for our brains and shortens our lifespans. We are focused so intensely on being alone that we are marching towards a premature death, and that's a fundamentally harmful thing.
While I do think that individualism is a good thing, it has to be balanced with a person's social and communal needs as well, and these online places that try to compress the world into an individualized abstract space are fundamentally unhealthy and inhumane. That's one of the reasons why I like Tildes so much. It matches me but I don't have any control over it other than the power of my voice - the same kind of power one would have in a church group or a family. It is a human-sized social network that respects both the individual and the community.
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Comment on China is dealing with its own manosphere in ~life.men
Akir Link ParentYou have very seriously misconstrued what I was saying. I used the alt right as an example of how jokes can be taken seriously, and thatâs why I said we shouldnât be joking about this. Jokes are...You have very seriously misconstrued what I was saying. I used the alt right as an example of how jokes can be taken seriously, and thatâs why I said we shouldnât be joking about this. Jokes are jokes until the moment they arenât.
Did you not see the person I was responding to said we should be considering these ideas? If you were looking for a line in the sand, that was a pretty clear example. I was responding exactly to who I was upset with in that example.
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Comment on China is dealing with its own manosphere in ~life.men
Akir Link ParentThe concept that a nation should go murder people in another country, murdering many innocent noncombatants in the process of getting rid of their socially undesirable people, really isnât an idea...The concept that a nation should go murder people in another country, murdering many innocent noncombatants in the process of getting rid of their socially undesirable people, really isnât an idea that deserves any thought whatsoever. Itâs a morally abhorrent idea that should not be considered and I shame anyone who thinks itâs an appropriate response to anything.
I understand that people may have brought up the concept as a jaded look back to historical issues, but the fact that we are having this discussion proves my point on why itâs bad that that topic was inappropriate; it may have been brought up in jest, but it lead to people being absolutely serious about it. This is just like the alt-right using memes to smuggle in fascist ideas among the populace. Itâs a joke until it isnât.
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Comment on Share your fav environmentally-friendly building tech! in ~enviro
Akir LinkHempcrete! Basically concrete with hemp and lime added to it. Itâs added to the point that the concrete is less sturdy but it makes it into a carbon sink and more importantly it reduces sound and...Hempcrete! Basically concrete with hemp and lime added to it. Itâs added to the point that the concrete is less sturdy but it makes it into a carbon sink and more importantly it reduces sound and heat transfer, meaning itâs a great way to insulate a house.
Aircrete is another interesting innovation in concrete. It basically adds soap foam in place of an aggregate. It has somewhat similar properties to hempcrete but itâs not quite as environmentally sound.
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Comment on Blog owners, do you write under your real name, or under a pseudonym? in ~hobbies
Akir Link ParentHonestly, this is one of two reasons why I am in the process of changing out of the teaching career once again. Me and my husband were pretty cloistered before, but a few months ago we decided to...Honestly, this is one of two reasons why I am in the process of changing out of the teaching career once again. Me and my husband were pretty cloistered before, but a few months ago we decided to open up our relationship and that means participating much more in the gay community.
The problem is that I'm effectively closeted at work. I don't have anyone I can relate my life to while I'm there. A week or two ago I had a student who likes to joke around and he was filling a field in a program with things he shouldn't as a joke - dumb things like "six seven" - and at one point he wrote the word "gay" and immediately erased it like it was a pejorative. I suppose that's coming back in style. I wanted to say that it wasn't appropriate to use that word that way, or that it was OK to be gay, or something constructive. But instead, I just threw it back to him as a joke - "Oh, I didn't know you were". I failed to make the world a better place.
The other reason is that I made about $500 last month because of summer break slowdowns and shitty scheduling preventing me from taking more classes. It's barely enough money to pay for my food for the month, let alone to continue perusing a degree to access better teaching opportunities. It's a financial dead end, and I'm tired of being a burden on my husband.
I didnât finish unfortunately. I got through what I assume to be about the midpoint of the game after saving the world from the apparent big bad.
Lufia II has some great ideas and I think they are generally well implemented but the problem I have with the game is that it is just too mechanical and regimented. While I never felt like I should be spending too much time grinding the overall pattern - going to town, reading some extremely rudimentary dialog, going to a dungeon, rinse and repeat - got incredibly repetitive. The game desperately needed more time with its characters, both in terms of its main party members and the minor ones in town. It was really disappointing to be able to go back to Elcid and hearing all of the NPCs repeat the same dialogue as they did when I first set out! The world has changed just a bit in the entire year Iâd been gone! It really illustrated the lack of overall dynamism that even contemporary RPGs were offering. In spite of clearly expending a great deal of budget and effort, it kind of made the game seem like a cut down minimalist gameboy RPG Ă la SaGa.
I haven't tried to play the original Japanese version (because I likely couldnât read it), but the localization effort seemed to also be lacking. The default text speed is just a tad too fast, and I wouldnât want to slow it down simply because the wording is usually awkward in some way and I donât want to focus on it too much.
But as I mentioned earlier, the mechanics are fantastic. The battles are mercifully short, and even the magic animations are not too long. The game is really well balanced and Iâd say combat in general is pretty easy. The puzzles are fairly well designed and donât feel like theyâre âin the wayâ of the overall experience, and I particularly like being able to shoot monsters in dungeons to walk past them and the challenge of getting them where you want them to be. Iâve got to say though, I really donât get the capsule monsters. Itâs nice to have an extra damage sponge who doesnât need pampering but they are such a mixed bag and the evolution system is extremely vague and unclear. And what the heck is IP supposed to stand for?
My overall arbitrary rating for this game is a 4.5 out of 10. Itâs a mechanically super solid game but it commits the cardinal RPG sin of having a world, characters, and plot which are completely unmemorable. The art and music are very well realized but they donât stand out much in the echelons of SNES RPGs.