What have you been watching and reading this week? You don't need to give us a whole essay if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to talk about something you saw that was cool, something that was bad, ask for recommendations, or anything else you can think of.

If you want to, feel free to find the thing you're talking about and link to its pages on Anilist, MAL, or any other database you use!

Week 2 has begun!

Post your current bingo cards.
Continue updating us on your games!

If you did not participate in Week 1 but want to start this week, that's fine!
Reminder: playing bingo is OPTIONAL.

Quick links:

• Backlog Bingo Site
• Week 1 Discussion and Event Guidelines

Week 1 Recap

10 participants played 10 bingo cards and moved 15 games out of their backlogs!
There were 0 bingo wins.

Game list:

• Bastion
• Chop Goblins
• THE CORRIDOR
• DARK SOULS III
• Final Fantasy III
• HUMANITY
• In Other Waters
• Life is Strange: Complete Season
• Metal: Hellsinger
• Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD
• Some Distant Memory
• Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical
• The Testimony of Trixie Glimmer Smith
• Vault of the Void
• A YEAR OF SPRINGS

Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

There are a lot of unorthodox or minor values and beliefs in societies. For example, in Western countries, veganism is relatively rare. But still, it's not unheard of and it's gaining traction. In the same way, radically egalitarian values are in no way popular, but they are definitely heard of. Think of ideologies that based themselves on them, like anarchism or utopian socialism.

We all have values and beliefs we hold dear, but even the ones that are very unorthodox most often fall into a tradition in some sort of philosophy, and have some significant following and historical grounding.

Obviously, no matter how unorthodox a belief is, there's going to be some historical grounding and tradition. But think of the beliefs and values you have, and consider whether you have any that is found in even less than 1% of the population. Do you have such values or beliefs, and why?

...

In my case, it's the fact that I despise nature. By nature, I don't mean being exposed to beautiful parts of it in a safe environment. I mean the hunger, the thirst, the violence, the diseases, the cold, the hot, and similar hardships. I mean nature in its glorious violence and random acts of suffering. I cherish life, and I do my best to contribute to its conservation, and that's why I despise the violence inherent in nature. Metaphorically speaking, Mother Nature is the most abusive parent in history. As an extension of this, in the grand scheme of things, I see the violence of nature as a much bigger problem than violence of humankind.

If I understand folks with that PoV correctly:

if you are a democrat or typically vote democrat, you generally think that republicans are a danger to democracy, bad for the lives of minorities, and the disadvantaged/LGBT+, etc.
If you are a republican or typically vote republican, you generally think that democrats are a danger to democracy, divide the country with identity politics, etc.
(obviously I am making sweeping generalizations of both camps off the top of my head but hopefully the point comes across)

But, I don't get what your endgame is. Like, you make it seem like if the other party wins, the country is screwed. but you can't possibly think that the country will forever vote for your party for President, right? So you think America is destined to go downhill depending on how many years the opposing party is in power?

America flips between red and blue. So the other party is bound to win at least once a decade imo. and yet I hear how democracy is more at stake now than it's ever been if "the other party wins". So I don't get the long-term viability of "lesser of 2 evils" approach.

Since I doubt America will become less angry and divisive anytime soon thanks to yallls 24 hour news networks and the social media companies that make more money the more Americans are mad at each other.

Then again, I am by no means an expert so where am I wrong or have I misunderstood something?

1. A number of people on Tildes tend to be contrarians. If you say black, they have to say white. They pick knits, they split hairs, they are persnickety.

2. A number of people on Tildes jump at any chance to defend the status quo.

There are others who are neither of these things, of course. I've just been noticing the two patterns above ( "no you haven't!" lol ).

so I like animes like vinland saga , beserk , kingdom , MHA , FAB , Black clover . Please don't recommend exremely lengthy animes.. thats the only thing stopping me from watch one piece XD.

i also like feel good animes like ghibli movies , or slice of life animes but rn would like to watch something which has a lot of story and depth to it and also comedy .

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

For anyone here who has chosen your own name, what was that process like?

What factors did you consider? Did you go based on meaning, aesthetics, vibes? Something else entirely? A mix of all of the above?

Was it an easy decision? A difficult one? How long did it take you to decide? I’d love to hear your story.

I’m not mulling over the decision myself or anything — I’m just curious about the process and would love to know more.

I bought a Timex Expedition North Titanium Automatic a few months ago and have been enjoying it, but it gains about 10s a day that I have to correct. Nowadays we have incredibly accurate and precise clocks that can tell us exactly what time it is, but all mechanical clocks and watches have some amount of inaccuracy.

How did people account for inaccurate clocks in the past? Even if time didn't need to be standardized outside of a community until the railroads and a central clock in town could act as a reference for the entire community, wouldn't the central community clock drift? Eventually the central clock could say it was midnight at sunset. While people can tell that is incorrect, how could they say to what extent it was incorrect?

I am looking to replace my PC that I mostly use for gaming for close to 10 years. While I used to work in data centers, I've never been into building custom PC, particular the planning and research portion on what parts to get.

I am currently eyeing the Corsair build kit, and wonder if anyone has any experience to share.

Thanks in advance.

I attended a funeral recently for a family member. We weren’t close, so it didn’t hit me that hard, but some of the people I’m close to and care about were pretty devastated.

We posted the person’s official obituary to the site of the funeral home, and we were surprised when someone sent us a link to their obituary on a completely different site. It wasn’t the same text — in fact it was very clearly a fake one if you knew the person at all. It was filled with broad, vague, non-denominational platitudes which didn’t work for someone who was specifically and devoutly religious. It did, however, have some correct information that felt lifted from the valid one. If you didn’t know the person that well, then it read convincingly. Think “ChatGPT writes an obituary” vibes.

On the fake obituary, there were links to buy flowers, plant a tree, etc.

We requested that the site take it down, and they did quite promptly, but it was unnerving that it even existed in the first place. It feels like the site scrapes obituary listings, automatically rewrites them so they’re not identical, then publishes them without the knowledge or consent of the person’s families. It feels especially predatory because it’s scamming grieving people, and I very much doubt that the services that you can “buy” through the site are actually fulfilled.

I don’t have a point to this other than that I wanted to make people aware of it.

I've done considerable e-bike research, and I'm still struggling with unanswered questions...

I'm looking for a mid-range e-bike mainly for commuting, approximately 3 miles/5 km each way. Part of the route is on unpaved but graded park trails, otherwise paved (sometimes very bumpy) streets and sidewalks. I don't anticipate using the bike for heavy cargo, rough trails or long powered rides, but wouldn't mind working up to 30 mi/50 km trips with partial assists.

The primary goal is a safe, stable ride that gets me to work reliably without leaving me too banged up.

Requirements:

1. Major assistance with steep hills. Though I've rebuilt decent endurance and muscle strength, I've got two artificial hips, and occasional inflammation in knees, ankles, and feet that makes powering up a long incline painful.

2. Suspension fork and relatively upright riding position. Even with gel gloves, bumps and bangs through a rigid frame and forward leaning will wreck my wrists and hands quickly.

3. Step-through frame. Thanks to hip replacements, my balance and range of motion aren't all they could be.

4. Local service availability. Fortunately, I'm in a town with great (if expensive) bike shops.

Nice to have:

1. 60 lbs. or less. I don't expect to wrestle the bike up/down stairs or into vehicles frequently. It's more a question of being able to propel it under my own power most of the time and carry it on a standard car rack. I've looked at e-trikes for stability, but they're too heavy and cumbersome.

2. Hydraulic disc brakes, belt drive and sealed motor hub (expensive but cleaner for commuting and lower maintenance), torque sensor.

3. Integrated lights.

4. Fenders, chain guard, rear rack, kickstand, phone holder included or available at reasonable cost.

5. Visual appeal - colors, not too obvious battery, etc.

Overnight recharge is fine, the battery doesn't have to be removable.

Possibilities so far:

Priority Current (via Costco). review,
review
Con:

• Rigid frame
• Complaints about required pedalling and power distribution on hills

Pro:

• Meets most of the requirements
• Model has been out for a few years with an established track record
• Well-reviewed

RadPower Radster Road Regular review, review
Pro:

• Checks all requirements
• Safety emphasis

Con:

• Heavy (78 lbs.)

Electric Bike Company Model E or R
review, review
Pro:

• Extensive customization available

Con:

• Cruiser style less likely to be comfortable for long rides
• Model R is 78 lbs.

Ride1Up 700 Series ST review, review
Pro:

• Inexpensive
• Meets most requirements

Con:

• Assembly difficulties reported, no local dealer

Aventon Level.2 Step-through review, review

This is still early research... but more questions:

• What am I failing to consider?
• What's an appropriate price point to look at for my requirements (keeping in mind that I'd be paying as much as $150/mo. for transit when not using the bike)?
• Anyone else in a similar spot?

Edit - updates on continuing research, for those interested in comfort bikes... So many manufacturers! It might be time to turn the optimizer brain off. Quite a few of the online-only vendors are just mixing and matching Chinese parts. Reports of terrible customer support and quality/safety issues are common.

New candidates:

Cannondale Adventure Neo 2 EQ Speed

Reviews of this specific newer Class 3 model are scarce, but other Neo models get mostly rave reviews from older riders with various disabilities. As much as I've loved Cannondale bikes, there are some reported quality and design issues in comments that give me pause. The only reason I'd consider an e-bike in this price range is if it's a durable, realistic car replacement capable of safe use in very bad conditions.
Pro:

• Most of the important wishlist items covered
• Top quality powertrain and gearing parts
• Torque assist - comments say it's smooth and you never miss a manual throttle
• Versatile for city and road
• Locally available

Con:

• High price even with quality factored in
• Chain guard not included, and it should be at this price
• Comments mention battery is difficult to remove

Envo seems like a reliable Canadian brand that's doing interesting things. There are U.S. distributors. Dollar purchasing power makes this a potentially excellent value choice.
Envo Lynx 20" Only one professional review, but customers seem happy. I wasn't considering folding bikes originally, but this seems well-made, has English-language support, and has decent specs for the price and flexibility.

Envo ST 50 - few if any comments available, but the stepover D50 model gets rave reviews. Meets all requirements, with excellent range for longer trips.

Mokwheel Asphalt ST review, review, review
Pro:

• Meets wishlist with moderately priced accessory package
• Adjustable stem angle
• Excellent price for features
• Extra safety lights

Con:

• DTC-only (US-based)
• Lower-quality and range of gearing

Tenways AGO T review, review
Pro:

• Meets wishlist
• Premium components
• No-brainer torque control and CVT
• Stylish

Con:

• May be underpowered for steep hills
• Class 2 limited (may be hackable)
• DTC, based outside US

Zen Photon Pro review
Pro:

• Wishlist mostly covered
• Premium components
• Powerful hill-climbing capability
• Long range

Con:

• Price is over upper limit of budget
• Relatively new to market
• Users complain about weight

Ride1Up Prodigy V2 LS CVT review, review, review, review non-CVT. This might be the pick - meets requirements and then some, good value for quality, relatively future-ready, adaptable for the conditions I'm likely to encounter, and comfortable. It doesn't hurt that it's $300 off right now.