KodaLeFaye's recent activity
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Comment on I wanted to make friends in a new city — so I hosted five strangers for dinner in ~life
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Comment on What is your most important game? in ~games
KodaLeFaye LinkA couple that come to mind. Breath of the Wild is huge because it salvaged my gaming mindset. For over a decade, I played WoW for almost exclusively because a) I didn't have a console, b) I...A couple that come to mind.
Breath of the Wild is huge because it salvaged my gaming mindset. For over a decade, I played WoW for almost exclusively because a) I didn't have a console, b) I couldn't afford a console, and c) embarrassingly enough, I didn't know Steam existed until like 2018. I grew frustrated with it, however, as Legion progressed and actually quit for a while. I came back for Battle for Azeroth and quit 2 weeks in because it dawned on me that the game would essentially just be another time-gated grindfest like Legion.
A couple weeks later, I remembered that there was more to gaming than MMOs and so I bought myself a Switch and Breath of the Wild because I had heard so much about it. I actually first approached the game similar to how I approached WoW - pick up quest, go to area to complete it, pick up next quest, go to area, etc., which worked for the Plateau but getting to Kakiriko Village was such a chore initially that I gave up on the game for a few days.
I came back to it a few days later and took a different mindset - I'm just going to run around and go wherever I want. I basically had to wean myself off the WoW mindset of mindlessly jumping from quest to quest and once I did that, I found myself immensely enjoying the open world exploration. I don't think I did a single quest until at least 50-60 hours in because I was having so much fun just running around.
Basically, it reminded me that games shouldn't be a hamster wheel and this freeform gameplay changed my mindset on how I approach certain games.
And, of course, there is Nier Automata, which gets a mention because it was the only game that left me completely shaken by the end. There are a ton of great games out there but this was the first (and as of now, only) game that can be considered ART. For most other games, I play them, I beat them, and that's that. I might engage in a discussion or two on Reddit or whatnot but that's about it. Automata is the only game where I went out of my way to find as much supplemental material as possible because I just had to have more.
It also inadvertently led me to Final Fantasy XIV, which I picked up because I was so starved for Nier content, and I ended up staying because it had a great story. Not as great Automata, mind you, but still a great story.
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Comment on Film soundtrack discussion in ~music
KodaLeFaye LinkInception and Interstellar are two of my favorites. I actually had the privilege of seeing Hans Zimmer live and the Inception suite is probably my first or second favorite live experience of all...Inception and Interstellar are two of my favorites. I actually had the privilege of seeing Hans Zimmer live and the Inception suite is probably my first or second favorite live experience of all time (depending on how I feel about Nightwish's "Ghost Love Score" live with Floor at the moment).
An oddball one is Silver Linings Playbook. The music on there is a mix of Danny Elfman's score with some other jazz/pop pieces but it's one of the few movies where I feel like all of the music, score and pop, complement each other exceptionally well.
I also love Yuki Kajiura and I'm not quite sure if this qualifies as film but the Kara no Kyuokai OST hits me right in the feels as well.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
KodaLeFaye Link ParentIf you can get this up and running, I'd love to get a copy of this for my science classes. I knocked together a very simple version of an ecosystem simulator for use in my classes using Unity but...If you can get this up and running, I'd love to get a copy of this for my science classes.
I knocked together a very simple version of an ecosystem simulator for use in my classes using Unity but it's REALLY simplistic - just 2 plants and 3 animals using free assets. The animals move around but there are no animations. It sounds like your version would be way more advanced so if you can ever get it to work, please do share the link to it.
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Comment on What password management solution do you use and why? in ~tech
KodaLeFaye LinkI keep a text file but with a caveat. I have four different password schemes, each with about a half dozen variations. One of those schemes is 20+ characters long. I use this one to secure any...I keep a text file but with a caveat.
I have four different password schemes, each with about a half dozen variations. One of those schemes is 20+ characters long. I use this one to secure any account that involves money or identity. Everything else is secured by one of the variations of the other three schemes.
What I record in the text file, then, is not the password itself but the scheme and the variation. Anyone who got a hold of that text file would then have to first decipher which scheme is associated with the website and then which variation of the scheme. Thus, something like "Google: H$" is basically meaningless to everyone who reads it but makes perfect sense to me.
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Comment on Pixel Fold reviews (and possible concerns about its durability) in ~tech
KodaLeFaye LinkI've been using a Surface Duo 2 as my daily driver since it came out and I love this phone more than any other phone I've ever had by a long shot, probably because I'm the most boring phone user...I've been using a Surface Duo 2 as my daily driver since it came out and I love this phone more than any other phone I've ever had by a long shot, probably because I'm the most boring phone user ever - I use my phone to read, send text messages, watch some Netflix during lunch, and browse Reddit (before Reddit went haywire). I don't take pictures or play games so I couldn't care less about the camera or internals. I was sorely disappointed when I heard that Microsoft is ditching the Surface Duo line and so I've been keeping an eye on other foldables because I seriously cannot go back to a regular phone.
I'm really curious about the Pixel Fold but it's reviews like these that scare me and I'm wondering if I should just suck it up and get one despite the reviews in the same way that I got my Duo 2 despite the reviews. The only thing I'm worried about is durability - will this thing last as long as my Duo 2? The Ars article that OP linked has me scared because none of the initial Duo 2 reviews complained about the device dying. They picked apart everything else about the device but it at least continued to work throughout.
On a side tangent here, if Amazon came out with a foldable Kindle similar to the Duo 2 form factor, I'd be the first in line to buy it and I'd happily return to a more "normal" phone.
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Comment on First they came for /r/pics ... now Reddit are coming for the individual personal subreddits in ~tech
KodaLeFaye Link ParentThat's pretty much how I feel. Reddit was a one-stop-shop for news-related items. I could catch up on what's going on in the world, in the NBA, in technology, in pro-wrestling, in the games that I...That's pretty much how I feel.
Reddit was a one-stop-shop for news-related items. I could catch up on what's going on in the world, in the NBA, in technology, in pro-wrestling, in the games that I play, without having to visit 50 different sites. As good as Tildes is, it contains only a small subset of what's contained in Reddit, which is why even though I hang out here a lot, I still have to drop in on Reddit if I want information on some of the more niche areas. I'm hoping that Tildes can replace Reddit over time (mainly because I really love the interface here - it's clean as heck and text-based) but as it's still in development, I'm not counting on that happening soon.
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Comment on What music documentaries have you enjoyed? in ~music
KodaLeFaye LinkIt Might Get Loud. At its heart, it's three generations of electric guitarists (Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White) discussing their approaches to the instrument. There's a short history of each...It Might Get Loud.
At its heart, it's three generations of electric guitarists (Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White) discussing their approaches to the instrument. There's a short history of each of their respective bands woven in and segments where they try to play each others' songs together. There's also a slew of unused footage available on Youtube from the play sessions.
This reminds me of a program that my pastor instituted at my old church.
Instead of stuffy old Bible studies, prayer meetings, and all the usual jazz that churches get into, he encouraged people to do something like this - host a dinner. That's it. No evangelizing, no religious talk, and don't even pray before the meal. Just invite people you don't know into your home and host a meal. We did it at first with just church members who we didn't know but some people eventually expanded it to their neighborhood.
His theory was that one of the biggest shortcomings of modern Christianity is that when Christians get together, there's always an agenda. He wanted instead to focus on building relationship both within and outside the church. It wasn't even about getting non-Christians to come to church; it was simply about being a good neighbor and a good person overall. He felt that we could do a lot more good in the world if we moved away from all the trappings of modern Christianity - missions, street evangelism, church programs, etc. - and spent more time building genuine relationships with other people without any kind of an agenda.