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!

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

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

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

New release today, Erra's Neon.

Apple Music
Spotify
YouTube

Currently the number one metal album on iTunes' chart, Erra's Neon is the latest release from the underground metalcore act. While they've attracted a cult following, Erra rarely gets headlining tours. Neon is their newest attempt at reaching the next step.

My personal opinion is that this is the perfection of the sound the band switched to with their last release, Drift. Just as atmospheric, with little less of the chug-chug-chug of most metalcore outfits, Erra may have finally found out how to make what some call "progressive metalcore" a bit more accessible. I personally enjoy how present the bass is in the mix. Metal and hardcore both seem to forget about the instrument and put it low in the mix as an after thought. The clean vocals have always been reminiscent of post-hardcore's darling Anthony Green, and Neon is no different.

It's a little bit of a shame that we have to wait until track three to really hear some of the noodling guitar solos they are known for. In a genre more punctuated by breakdowns, Erra is a breath of fresh air when it comes to lead guitar work. But when it does happen, it is up to the standard they've put out for themselves. They seemed to have moved even further away from the djent sound of their earlier work here. I don't mind that, even if I do like djenty sounds, as I think this crisper sound is better overall for Erra. While the uncleans do hit like a truck on first listen, they stay in a mid-range throughout most of the album and it would have been nice to see them go low, as JT has been known to do live.

Overall, I gotta say this is one my favorite albums of the year so far. Every song slaps a bit, gets the head bopping along at the very least.

Is there some configuration that will cause links on ~tildes to open new tabs. Is this user configurable (Firefox on Gentoo) or is it server configurable, or account preference configurable? I'd like to be able to click once and have the content open in a new tab so I can return to the main page without having to reload.

Or phone, or after an OS reinstall, etc. Just got to thinking about it because I did a fresh install of Arch on my chromebook the other day, and I'd be curious what other people's priority software installs are. For me, after the basics like drivers, it's xfce, Firefox, Transmission, Libreoffice, and VLC on linux. Pretty much the same on Windows, plus a few utilities like 7zip, PuTTY, and notepad++. For Android installs I grab nova launcher, Hangouts Dialer, F-Droid, NewPipe and MoonReader before anything else.

EDIT: Forgot firefox on android, as well as ublock origin on all platforms.

Also not completely sure if this belongs more in ~tech or ~comp.

I like Bar Rescue. There's some ridiculous tv dramatization, a smidge of education (how service businesses work), and I can google what happens a year after the show airs (they all seem to close). Plus when I go to bars I feel like I can point out what they're doing wrong.

Does anyone play Monster Hunter around here?

The game comes out tomorrow, and I'm so stoked. I pre-ordered it for $45 here . I'm so excited to be able to play it online with so many friends that didn't have consoles. I'm so excited to be able to stream it. I'm so excited for the more "open world" aspect of it, with minimal loading screens. The graphics look so nice.

So who else plays it? What weapon do you main? What monster are you most excited to get killed by?

EDIT: I think I'm going to go hammer this time around. In the past I've use the greatsword, bow, switchaxe, and chargeblade.

Why?

Quick story: I was in an elevator with a coworker I didn't really know and he told me a story of when he asked a stranger in a restaurant if she were pregnant. She was not! And he said he was so embarrassed that he had to leave.

I didn't get a chance to ask him, so I'm asking you fellow tilderinos - why ask this question at all? Especially to a stranger? What motivates this question? Is it really asking why someone looks fat?

Have you been on the receiving end of this question? (If you're a women older than 25, I'm going to guess yes). What are your stories?

I already canceled moviepass. Their new rules of only 3 movies a month plus getting "up to" 5 dollars off on more movies was a kick to the kidneys. The blacking out of mission impossible was absolutely it for me.

Anyone keeping it or have you already canceled? My sub lasts until the 15th. Hopefully I'll be able to see christopher robin and a few others before then.

I'm in a bit of a rutt with my journey to learn how to write software, and I really have no idea where to go from here. I've taken a bunch of software engineering courses on edx.org, and I've done a few personal projects with what I've learned, but I still don't know enough to be able to contribute to open source projects or make anything useful.

TL;DR
How can I learn to actually make things?

I suggest using AniChart to see what's airing with solid sorting and filtering options, if you aren't already into seasonal anime or just want to see what's going on!

With the obvious most anticipated series of the season airing its first episode just recently, Summer 2018 is in full swing even by conservative estimates. What have you seen and what have you picked up or dropped so far? If you're waiting to hop on board, what looks interesting to you this season? Let's hear some thoughts :)

I'm a American football official and was wondering if there were any other officials on Tildes.

What sport(s) do you officiate? Why do you officiate? Why do you think officiating is declining? What's something you'd change to improve the experience?

I'll chime in after the discussion gets started! Look forward to having some quality discussion!

Hi,

How often are satellite images taken? Why are more periodic images takes with less resolution (is it a different process?)

for example https://zoom.earth takes every 12 hours, but on the most frequent ones i am not able to zoom much (before it switch to older ones)

Edit: The rewatch announcement and schedule can be found here.

I think Black Mirror is an important show tackling a lot of tough, and often overlooked subjects with technology, and I think that there should be an audience for it on Tildes.

With that said, is there any interest in doing a rewatch and discussion on it? A discussion thread for each episode would be posted every few days, I’m thinking every 3, to give people enough time to watch the (sometimes quite long) episodes, as well as to not spam ~tv with too many threads.

I think this could be fun and start some good discussion, but there would have to be a good amount of people participating. If you’re interested, please leave a vote/comment with any feedback. Thanks!

Rogue like elements are used by lots of games. I'm interested to know which ones you think work, which ones you think don't work, and why.

Feel free to interpret rogue-like however you want. In my mind I have procedural generation, perma-death option, and some kind of turn-based strategy.

I'm going to be a little bit more broad on my response. It wasn't a matter of just a one-time thing or action, but a philosophy. I have a personal rule of mine to change something major about myself at least once a year, and that could range from a job or to taking up a new hobby.

Since taking up on this idea, this thought, I've felt better as I can see changes happening, and looking back from exactly a year ago to the date there's a lot to be impressed by. By following this new tradition I feel better as I can see constant improvement, and self-motivation to adapt, and evolve as a person.

What was the best change you ever made in your life?

Just finished The Wise Man's Fear, and I'm blown away by the massive amounts of world building interspersed by hella awkward sex scenes. Anyone else eagerly awaiting the next Kingkiller Chronicle addition?

I own a hobonichi, which is really just a hipster day-planner. The key feature for me is the river paper, which allows water colouring.

I try to water colour everyday. Started that way at the beginning of the year, and after a few months, now pretty much use it as a day-planner. Of course, I would love to get back to it, and will make an effort to at least catch up over the weekends.

Would love to hear how you journal and any habits that work for you.

Hello ~games!

Like most of us, I spend way too much time gaming. Lately i've been playing Islands of the Nyne because PUBG hasn't been fun the past few patches. I normally play one genre at a time such as RTS, BR, MMO etc until i move onto a whole new genre of games.

What games or genre's have you been playing lately? Anything to recommend?

Any of you guys ever watch it? It had its 20th anniversary two months ago and I was surprised to find out how many people hadn't heard of it, even in my group of weebish friends. It's definitely strange, but it's also really exciting to try and figure things out or anticipate what happens next when you're watching. It has a weird mix of mystery and philosophy that's paced slowly but keeps you invested. It's pretty hard to explain in a meaningful way.

Maybe some of you haven't been exposed to it yet, or haven't given it a shot. If you have the time, check it out--even if you're not a huge anime fan. Given how diverse the front page of Tildes is, you may be just that until you get hooked on Lain.

For me, that'd be a multiplayer war sandbox. Take a big map, plop down resources, population centers and factories, spawn a lot of players who then have to organize to fight a war.

• To add espionage, you'd not hard-code a lot about the way teams organize(think removing the guild mechanics from WoW), so one could sign up with one side, then run to a different side (who do not know you already signed up with the first) and do ye olde double agent.
• Research could be modelled as being done by NPC civilians, which produces documents detailing the results. These documents must be on-site whenever the research is being used (i.e. present at factories), so it could be stolen.
• No need to go factorio on the production chains. Their purpose is mostly to enforce cooperation to reach better hardware for the guys in the field.

So, what's your crazy dream game that's never going to be built?

IMDb YouTube Teaser

So far I haven't been able to see anything except what's visible on YouTube. Like all of his content, the show has SBC put people into bizarre situations. But it seems to me this show is more about the bizarre world we're already living in than it is how strange SBC can act.

hey all!

i'm a fan of keeping an idea journal. little snippets of poems or hastily written descriptions of d.i.y. projects that you can go back and pick up once you get some free time.

how do you keep an idea journal for visual projects? like if i have this visualisation in my head of a bit of video, or a sculpture, or a painting i want to create, what's the best way to write that down and still be able to come back to it later?

cheers,

bishop

Hi all!
I'm new to Tildes and thought it'd be a great idea to get to know the other Tildes users.

Just post something about yourself. Maybe where you're from, what you do for a living, a hobby you have, anything!

I just went to see the Apparition (recent French film about a journalist investigating visions of the madonna).

I couldn't make head or tail of it. Has anyone got a coherent theory of what was going on, or is it just a shoal of red herrings that doesn't make any sense?

Something you see frequently on Reddit are subreddits that have developed their own slang, jokes and references. That's part of the reason why Reddit feels like a collection of communities more than one website divided into sections, which is what Tildes look like right now.
The question is, do we want that sort of stuff here?

Or whatever else you'd want to talk about concerning comic books!

A new comic book shop has opened in my town, and my fiancée and I are pretty excited about it. We've never really been into them, but we're pretty excited to get into them. On that note, does anyone have any good recommendations for a newcomer?

As a neat aside, we have a thirty-plus year old comic book-ization of Return of the Jedi, and that's pretty cool.

I've played a few games on Android that are bizarre and wonderful, and nobody else seems to know them. Philipp Stollenmeyer makes nice, tactile, casual puzzle games with a clear and chunky aesthetic and great sound. Verticow, Zip Zap, Burger, and Okay? are four I can recommend. His art is very Monty Pythonesque, and the games just feel cool to play.

I also tell everyone I know about a game from 2014 called Always Sometimes Monsters. This game was telling an inclusive story before it was cool. It seems to have been made in RPG Maker, and is set in a modern city. There is no combat, just being a person, having conversations, running errands, and trying to accomplish your goals. The dialogue is realistic and sharp, and the story unfolds in a very satisfying (if a bit tropey) way.

I made a friend online a couple weeks ago -- this guy posted his game called Amethlion to an android forum. It's an open world crafting RPG and he was selling it for a buck fifty. I jumped at the chance to play a cool little pixel art adventure and actually get to interact with the creator. It's buggy as all hell, but it is very cute and pretty fun. The creator is a very nice person and has been very grateful to hear my bug reports. Dynamic Zero is the name of his company, and he made the game solo with his brother making the music. It's a family affair and I think that is just so sweet.

What mobile games are you all into these days, if any? And if the answer is none, how come?

I just finished watching The OA. Wow, that was a really unexpected and interesting show. Coming of age / Sci-Fi-ish / Magical Realism, what an amazing show. The ending got this grown ass man emotional. Has anyone else watched this? Thoughts? Anything else like this out there?

That's a mouthful but I'm really curious what drives the situation when you go on the Facebook support forum, on popular threads there's tons of people posting absolutely nonsense comments that have nothing to do with the topic, and a lot of them are accounts from Asia... has anyone else noticed this? Are they just spamming to get account visibility?

There must be a few people here that write and record. It doesn't even have to be good. If I can be bothered to find some way to put it online, I'll try to find some way to share a goofy (read: kinda shitty) Monty Python/Doo Wop mashup I made in Ableton a few months ago.

This is a tricky personal conundrum of mine. I'll try to articulate it clearly.

I believe in compassion, and I want to live in harmony with compassionate tendencies inside. But at the same time, in the act of extending compassion, there appears to be an in-built power gradient: the "giver" is somehow in an "advantaged" position, and the receiver a more disadvantaged one.

An example. I was once in a fast-food restaurant, waiting to order, and I saw the order-taker was obviously new and very nervous and skittish at her job. So after I placed my order I expressed how much I appreciate her service and that I thought she was doing a good job. It was truly what I wanted to say, and I thought she took this well, like, she looked more relaxed as she beamed.

But then there was a power gradient. I gave her something that she wouldn't/couldn't have given me. She was the more distressed one, and this power gradient emphasized that. I don't mean that bystanders were made more conscious of her distress. I mean, it had the potential to make me more conscious of my privilege and her her lack thereof.

And I'm aversive to power. I can be highly sceptical and critical of power. I don't feel easy to have power over someone else. I have had troubled relations with power figures in my life. I easily confuse the natural, benign activation of power with the reflexive, defensive, "shields-up" reaction that I often find myself in. To explain a bit, the latter is really a form of anxiety, perhaps a trauma from experiences of hypercompetition, isolation, and emotional neglect in the past.

In the end, I thirst after commonality, equality, brothersisterhood, close and meaningful contact with others as they are, as human beings, on level ground, side by side, sharing the common condition in our vulnerabilities... But there's this aspect of my character, i.e. the tendency to get tense and look for a "higher ground" and occupy there, just to be on the safe (more powerful!) side. There's this haughty, difficult-to-approach, high-brow me, that I feel get in the way.

I fee sad and somewhat confused about this. I think I'm partly venting, partly asking about your similar experiences. Please consider this topic fairly open-ended. If you have something to say about it, I'm eager to listen to you.

Thanks!