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!

after the latest round of reporting from 404 media on Andy Chen's very un-leader-like and hostile attitude, I would like to start exploring my options for a way to have an email service that is not to beholden to other services.

my current mindset is:

1. I have to either be OK with the fact that a service I use starts out with good aspirations but that can all change in the blink of an eye depending entirely upon the current moods of the C-level executives of the company
   OR
2. I have to be OK with changing my email address every-time a service I use goes a bit nuts. In my view, this is unsustainable and will confuse the fuck out of anyone who likes to keep in contact with me.

so I view "better" the third option as:

3. get my own email FQDN [probably something like everyone_is_beautiful.net or something] and that way, I can solve 2 birds with 1 stone
   1. I can make my inbox even more organized, i.e. connect amazon account to amazon@everyone_is_beautiful.net and counseling services to counselling@everyone_is_beautiful.net AND
   2. even setup joint accounts that forward to any number of people and my personal email [which would be joe@everyone_is_beautiful.net for example] (thereby solving this issue too) and everything can be very organized.

However, it's not like I am going to host my own email hosting service, or at least I imagine that's not advisable probably and I will need to hook my FQDN to some other service that manages all that for me.

Which gets me back to square 1 of being stuck on some external services, but I imagine, it's better to be dependent at that level cause switching email hosting service is much easier to maintain cause the my email address itself wont change

But I don't pretend to know what's full involved and was wondering if

1. if there's faulty logic in my mindset AND
2. what are the common irritants/nuances of getting down my FQDN and connecting it to an email hosting service and ensure everything works as expected and any emails I send don't wind up going to people's spam
3. if I do wind up going the third route, I imagine it wont be possible to migrate all my emails with me when I have to do a migration cause a service is starting to go down the drain? Is there a way around that? I'd like to have access to all my emails in 1 places.

Introduction

There are some people who, when you mention the title Mother 3, feel a warmth in their heart and a stirring in their soul.

And then there is everyone else who, when you mention the same title, go "huh?"

The Mother series holds a cult-classic status: strongly beloved by those familiar with it, but often completely unknown otherwise. Part of the reason it's somewhat unknown is that the series itself has a somewhat storied and scattered pattern of releases, while the other is that it's known by completely different names depending on where you are in the world: Mother for some, EarthBound for others.

Stay with me for a moment as we break down the series' release history:

• 1989: Mother releases in Japan for the Famicom
• 1989: English localization of Mother is completed but never released
• 1994: Mother 2: Gīgu no Gyakushū releases in Japan for the Super Famicom
• 1995: English localization of Mother 2 releases as EarthBound
• 2003: Mother 1+2 compilation releases in Japan for the Game Boy Advance
• 2006: Mother 3 releases in Japan for the Game Boy Advance
• 2008: Unofficial English localization of Mother 3 releases
• 2015: English localization of Mother releases for Wii U Virtual Console as EarthBound Beginnings

So, for Japanese audiences, the game had 3 releases spanning 17 years:

• Mother (1989)
• Mother 2: Gīgu no Gyakushū (1994)
• Mother 3 (2006)

For the rest of the world, the game has only had two releases, out of order, spanning 20 years:

• EarthBound (Mother 2) (1995)
• EarthBound Beginnings (Mother) (2015)

To date, there is no official non-Japanese release of Mother 3. English-speaking audiences have been using this fan translation.

I have never played any of the Mother/EarthBound games and don't actually know very much about them myself. As our default host this month, I wish I had more to offer, but I hope to learn more as I play. If anyone else wants to chime in with background info, tips, or stories about the series, I'm sure it would be worthwhile as we settle in to explore this month's much-beloved yet still under-appreciated game.

Mother 3

Versions: JP, EN Fan Translation

Platforms: Game Boy Advance

Genre(s): RPG

Links: Mobygames, Wikipedia

Stores: eBay, Nintendo Switch Online JP

Game Setup

The main purpose of this topic is to get people up and running with the game. As such, it's recommended that you:

• Share which version of the game you're playing
• Share what hardware you're playing it on
• Share if there are any tools/mods that you recommend
• Share anything you think is important for people to know before they start the game
• Ask questions if you need help

Another purpose of this topic is to revisit the game and its time period:

• Do you have any memories or associations with this game itself?
• What about its system or era?
• What aspects of retro gaming were common at the time?
• What other games from the same time period are you familiar with?
• What are you expecting from this game in particular?

Finally, this topic is the beginning discussion for people starting to play it:

• Post updates sharing your thoughts as you play.
• Ask for help if you get stuck.
• Offer help to others.

It is recommended that you reply to your own posts if you are making consecutive updates so that they are in the same thread.

Important

• Any links to the game should be legal distributions of the game only. Please do NOT link to any unauthorized copies.

• Put any spoilers in a dropdown block. Copy/paste the block below if needed.

<details>
<summary>Spoilers</summary>
 
Spoiler text goes here.
</details>

FAQ

This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's interesting about it? Are you having trouble with anything?

The blaze has officially ignited!

• Quicklink: Backlog Bingo

Etiquette:

• It is fine to make multiple top-level posts throughout the week.

• It is also fine to respond to your own posts.

• If you are playing Backlog Bingo, you can share your table either by markdown or through screenshots.

Gameplay guidelines:

• Goals for this event (if any) are entirely individual and self-determined.

• Playing Bingo is optional and not required.

• You do NOT need to finish games unless you want to. The point is to try out games and have fun, not force ourselves to play things we're not interested in.

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