Aran's recent activity

  1. Comment on 'The Sympathizer' review: HBO series from Park Chan-wook shocks you in ~tv

    Aran
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    I didn't realize the HBO series was already right around the corner. I just finished the book two hours ago and have been stewing on it since, waiting for my gf to finish so I can rant about it....

    I didn't realize the HBO series was already right around the corner. I just finished the book two hours ago and have been stewing on it since, waiting for my gf to finish so I can rant about it.

    I'm not really a fan of television but I'm a huge fan of the director's Oldboy and The Handmaiden so this will be somewhere on my watch list :)

    2 votes

  2. Comment on Positive (personal) news discussion? in ~talk

    Aran
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    I asked out my best friend of the last 3 years fully expecting her to tell me that she didn't roll that way or didn't feel the same way. She said yes. It's been a few months but I think I am still...

    I asked out my best friend of the last 3 years fully expecting her to tell me that she didn't roll that way or didn't feel the same way. She said yes. It's been a few months but I think I am still a bit shellshocked because any time I played out the confession in my head, it just never ended well.

    I haven't told anyone but a few close friends because... idk, for some reason I don't mind telling random internet strangers, but I don't really like talking about personal life things, I guess. I don't expect much stigma from my family (grandmother who raised me will possibly throw a fit; she's been asking when I'm marrying one of those nice guy friends) but for now I'm content knowing that I am not in the alternate universe where I get shot down.

    6 votes

  3. Comment on Queer time: The alternative to “adulting” in ~lgbt

    Aran
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    I'm turning 30 next month. I've lived under my (grand)parents' roof nearly my entire life, excluding two years which I spent going to college out of state, which I dropped out of and am still...

    I'm turning 30 next month. I've lived under my (grand)parents' roof nearly my entire life, excluding two years which I spent going to college out of state, which I dropped out of and am still paying off loans for. I have never had a long internal discussion about my sexual identity because it just didn't feel like something I could afford to "waste time" on, when I didn't have any financial security or long-term career prospects. And you're right, I shouldn't compare myself to others who I perceive to have their shit together. But I hope it's not strange to hear that I look at myself and say, "I'm failing at adulting". It's not too different from the classic internet insult of someone living out of their parents' basement. (Also for what it's worth, I do comsider myself one of those sheltered kids!)

    I'm glad that, when it comes to the milestones of "adulting" as written in the article, I've never felt the pressure to have children, or marry. I will admit that I do relate to this strange feeling of inadequacy, though. My family will talk about my old classmates or distant family members my age who have gotten married, purchased homes, etc. as if those facts speak for themselves - that they've "made it". I know that I should be the final decider on what achievements define me, but as far as some in the family are concerned, I'll never get to step "raise children" and am therefore irrelevant. Or at least worrisome.

    3 votes

  4. Comment on Why you should consider a smaller keyboard in ~comp

    Aran
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    A lot of the sentiment here gets repeated in pretty much any post proselytizing 40%s. Not saying any are invalid or that people NEED to give 40%s a fair shake - it's not exactly easy or cheap to...

    A lot of the sentiment here gets repeated in pretty much any post proselytizing 40%s. Not saying any are invalid or that people NEED to give 40%s a fair shake - it's not exactly easy or cheap to just go out and "try" one, after all!

    But I really do want to stress some of the talking points you mentioned because I feel like it's been overlooked in favor of looking at the limitations of a smaller form factor keyboard. One does not NEED to be limited in number of keys to take advantage of keymapping at the firmware level. I won't argue that everyone here would be happier to use a keyboard combination to reach certain symbols; I can only speak to my personal experience as someone with very small hands. But even when I was on a standard full sized keyboard, my hands never quite had the accuracy I wanted when reaching past homerow for some lesser used keys. So while I would absolutely prefer gaming on, say, a 60% since not even I will justify having quick single press access to numbers, I'd still have all the rough gist of my 40% layout on my bigger boards.

    I really envy those who can touch-type using the number row, but my fingers physically just can't reach that far without leaving homerow, and it's even worse if I'm trying to access symbols by holding down shift, since then one hand is rooted to either left or right shift and further limits how far I can reach across the row. And the spacebar! Why in the world are two of my thumbs practically dedicated to a single spacebar!? It's a shame that even at the 60% form factor, a standard 6.25u spacebar with no option for a split space is extremely common, and the only gain that it offers over a split space is aesthetics and perhaps ease of finding the correct sizing for split spacebars. But mostly aesthetics.

    My personal daily driver of the last 4ish years is this ghetto not-quite-40%. Ghetto because the compromise made with this board is that it does offer the numbers 1-6, which I only really need for gaming. If a default shortcut in a game expects me to use numbers past that, they're getting remapped anyways. I'm a personal bigger fan of thumb modifiers over simply remapping the useless Caps Lock into either Ctrl or another modifier since I still have a problem with using my pinky fingers on holds, and having only four rows just feels so right. But I also have insanely small hands - for reference I'm 4'10" and I'm pretty sure most 12 year olds have bigger hands than I do - so I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum compared to many who understandably don't think their larger hands can deal with the smaller form factor.

    Will end this rant with a link to a reddit comment containing two imgur albums of the 2019 Tokyo keyboard meetup. Seriously, Japanese keyboard hobbyists are on another level - I only linked the 2019 one since I've been out of the "hobby" since the pandemic lockdowns (and I've been really happy with the above posted board, so less shopping around) and I'm sure more recent meetups have showcased even cooler projects!

    4 votes

  5. Comment on Why you should consider a smaller keyboard in ~comp

    Aran
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    OP uses a combo but I'd like to chime in saying that it doesn't necessarily have to be! My numbers are under the QWERTY row if I hold my left spacebar, my symbols are under that same QWERTY if I...

    OP uses a combo but I'd like to chime in saying that it doesn't necessarily have to be! My numbers are under the QWERTY row if I hold my left spacebar, my symbols are under that same QWERTY if I hold my right spacebar. Or on other 40%s I have a specific key to the left and right of the spacebar(s) that act as a modifier specifically for those symbols/numbers.

    I can't stand keypress combos that involve more than two keys, which tends to mean a very specific minimum size (can't go for the REALLY small 40%s) with a particular bottom row layout.

    2 votes

  6. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    Aran
    Link Parent
    I started playing FF14 a few months before patch 5.3 released, by which time I had met some cool folks for raiding who also enjoyed the story. That was an unmatched experience that honestly was...

    I started playing FF14 a few months before patch 5.3 released, by which time I had met some cool folks for raiding who also enjoyed the story. That was an unmatched experience that honestly was only comparable to when Endwalker first released. Not sure if you've gotten there yet (I believe the x.3 patch is where the base expansion truly "wraps up")

    1 vote

  7. Comment on What game(s) do you love that you never see brought up in conversation? in ~games

    Aran
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    True, it'd only be iffy since Automata's success has put much more of a spotlight on that creative team's projects lmao.

    True, it'd only be iffy since Automata's success has put much more of a spotlight on that creative team's projects lmao.

  8. Comment on What game(s) do you love that you never see brought up in conversation? in ~games

    Aran
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    Very true! I think the only thing keeping me back from revisiting it as-is is general "can't deal with these old school JRPG foibles anymore" sentiment. I don't even remember a single specific...

    Very true! I think the only thing keeping me back from revisiting it as-is is general "can't deal with these old school JRPG foibles anymore" sentiment. I don't even remember a single specific dungeon from that game but I definitely remember vehemently hating a few from back when I was young enough to replay JRPGs multiple times lmao.

    I do, however, miss tackling the superbosses...

    1 vote

  9. Comment on What game(s) do you love that you never see brought up in conversation? in ~games

    Aran
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    It's kind of funny that the Final Fantasy 14 crossover raids with Yoko Taro/the Nier Automata team ended up leaning really hard into the franchise's Drakengard origins. Like, sure Automata was...

    It's kind of funny that the Final Fantasy 14 crossover raids with Yoko Taro/the Nier Automata team ended up leaning really hard into the franchise's Drakengard origins. Like, sure Automata was well known at this point, the Replicant remaster hadn't released yet but people generally knew OG Nier was a thing that existed, but people who knew about its relation to Drakengard 1, much less the existence of Drakengard 2 and 3? Imagine my shock when they straight up add a Seed of Resurrection as a plot point in the FF14 raid story, or the fact that one of the bosses in the raids - conveniently even shaped like a flower - sends out song rings as one of its attacks.

    The amount of Drakengard in the raids made me think they were possibly working on reworking the original with more palatable gameplay after the Replicant release. ...But now that I think about it, Drakengard kind of has some... interesting plot points that I'm not sure would do too well in the mainstream (thinking mainly about the blind guy).

  10. Comment on What game(s) do you love that you never see brought up in conversation? in ~games

    Aran
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    Nice, I scrolled down here from the comment bringing up Star Ocean. I adored many of tri-Ace's JRPGs, including Radiata Stories. It's actually an interesting game to look back on in the context of...

    Nice, I scrolled down here from the comment bringing up Star Ocean. I adored many of tri-Ace's JRPGs, including Radiata Stories. It's actually an interesting game to look back on in the context of both modern critically acclaimed open world RPGs, and JRPGs released in the 15+ years since. I've always disliked that there are obvious compromises in most "lived-in" feeling worlds, where it's obvious which wandering NPCs are just throwaway generic models that exist to make a city or town look packed visually, when Radiata had so many unique models for all its recruitable characters all going about their unique daily schedules. Kind of makes me sad that there hasn't really been many games that fall under the niche of, actual expansive roster to interact with, as opposed to making a larger physical space for the player to explore.

    1 vote

  11. Comment on What game(s) do you love that you never see brought up in conversation? in ~games

    Aran
    Link Parent
    Do more people talk about Xenogears or Xenosaga, I wonder? I actually think I see a lot more people mention Xenosaga with new Xenoblade title releases (possibly due to the more obvious callbacks...

    Do more people talk about Xenogears or Xenosaga, I wonder? I actually think I see a lot more people mention Xenosaga with new Xenoblade title releases (possibly due to the more obvious callbacks like the Zohar). But Xenogears is typically a lot more cult-hit-ish than Saga that I've seen. Obligatory "where the hell is the Gears/Saga remaster/remake" comment here.

    It's also funny that you mention Star Ocean because I looked at the new remaster coming out and my reaction was, WHERE THE HELL IS THE STAR OCEAN 3 REMAKE

    (I loved SO2 as well! But I really, really, really have a strong nostalgia lean for 3)

    Also editing to add another tri-Ace game: Valkyrie Profile is my personal game that I wish more people knew about and loved.

    1 vote

  12. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    Aran
    Link Parent
    Fellow nostalgia farmer! The game definitely still shows its age (I want to cry when Carter and Flora get in my way while digging for artifacts) and the routine doesn't change a whole lot despite...

    Fellow nostalgia farmer! The game definitely still shows its age (I want to cry when Carter and Flora get in my way while digging for artifacts) and the routine doesn't change a whole lot despite progressing, but like you said, I REALLY like that the child is an actual entity who grows up, whose career you can influence. I'm over here trying to decide if I should try to get my virtual 2D daughter inherit the farm or let her pursue her interests on her own...