NonoAdomo's recent activity

  1. Comment on Favorite "A Christmas Carol" adaptation? in ~movies

    NonoAdomo
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    It's gotta be the Muppets one for me, no contest. There's just something special to me when the story is told incredibly well, has a bit of levity with some the Muppets behaviors and in the middle...

    It's gotta be the Muppets one for me, no contest. There's just something special to me when the story is told incredibly well, has a bit of levity with some the Muppets behaviors and in the middle of all of this, you have Michael Caine playing Scrooge incredibly straight laced as if he isn't in a film surrounded by muppets.

    I don't normally do the annual Christmas movie thing most people do, but if I did this one would probably be it.

    48 votes
  2. Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime

    NonoAdomo
    Link Parent
    Took a skim though what's on Hulu (I'm not longer living in the US) and see a few great titles my wife and I would recommend: My Hero Academia Demon Slayer One Punch Man Spy x Family Chainsaw Man...

    Took a skim though what's on Hulu (I'm not longer living in the US) and see a few great titles my wife and I would recommend:

    • My Hero Academia
    • Demon Slayer
    • One Punch Man
    • Spy x Family
    • Chainsaw Man
    • Fruits Basket
    • Death Note
    • Mob Psycho 100
    • That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime

    This list covers a wide variety of genres and all are generally good to great. I bolded the ones I feel are particularly good.

    2 votes
  3. Comment on Had an amazing trip to New Mexico. Has anyone else been? What would you suggest for a return trip? in ~travel

    NonoAdomo
    Link Parent
    I lived in ABQ for a few years and this is a great list. The food is delicious and the outdoor activities are great year round. In ABQ, I'd recommend going in the fall as the weather is nearly...

    I lived in ABQ for a few years and this is a great list. The food is delicious and the outdoor activities are great year round. In ABQ, I'd recommend going in the fall as the weather is nearly perfect! There is a hot air balloon festival around that time and it's super fun to see all the balloons raise up into the air.

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

    NonoAdomo
    Link
    I am still slowly building and expanding my factory in Factorio. I haven't even left the planet yet, as I want to feel that Nauvis is not pulled together with Bubblegum and duct tape and will fall...

    I am still slowly building and expanding my factory in Factorio. I haven't even left the planet yet, as I want to feel that Nauvis is not pulled together with Bubblegum and duct tape and will fall apart the second I leave. To accomplish this, I decided to build a train focused base and I am quite enjoying the QoL on train logistics (interrupts make me so happy)

    Someday I'll move on to other planets, but i only get roughly 2 hour sessions and i genuinely enjoy building this stability first. It's comforting.

    My wife has been playing the Dragon Quest 3 HD2D remake. It looks great and she's been having a blast.

    We also have been playing the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet DLC. Both parts have been quite fun, and it's good to get that pokemon fix from time to time. I honestly think as a long time fan, most of the criticism of the series as of late is overblown and borderline hyperbolic. The games are still good, they just aren't what you need right now.

    3 votes
  5. Comment on How well do you cook? in ~life.men

    NonoAdomo
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    I grew up in a household where my grandfather did most of the cooking. My grandmother did the baking. I personally didn't really cook until after I graduated college. I found some random...

    I grew up in a household where my grandfather did most of the cooking. My grandmother did the baking. I personally didn't really cook until after I graduated college. I found some random approachable recipes online and gave them a try and HEY! They kinda worked!

    I didn't cook too much until I got married though. Once I moved in my wife, I also found myself unemployed as I had moved countries to be with her. I became a house husband and felt that I needed to be productive while I searched for a job, and took on cooking duties. Turns out, I got pretty good at it. My variety of dishes is driven by my wife's desire for a unique variety of tastes. It pushed me from serving generic mid class American meals to exploring various flavors from cultures all over the world.

    Ultimately, I learned though YouTube. Honestly it's been a great source of information: from the weird experiments of Babish to the food mythbusting of French Guy Alex. There's also the history element of Tasting History and Townsends, providing context into how people cooked before modern technology, and also how to properly perform some good cooking techniques from professionals like Gordon Ramsay. Because of this, I'd say I'm a solid intermediate and capable of cooking just about anything thrown at me and I have a variety of information that I could learn from and experiment with.

    I couldn't imagine myself doing this before the internet. Without confirmation of the progress in videos, I likely would have screwed up a few times, got frustrated and quit, resigning myself to a life of takeout and hoping I find a spouse that could cook for themselves and feed me in the process. Now? I'm someone who apparently is the envy of people at my wife's workplace when she brings in lunches. I've also gotten comments from female coworkers when I say I'm the primary cook along the lines of: "Oh how nice that would be, I wish my husband would do that." I wouldn't trade that ability to break down just some of society's gender roles for anything. It's empowering.

    2 votes
  6. Comment on What is the process for adult ADHD diagnosis? in ~health.mental

    NonoAdomo
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    My experience was to go to a Therapist for a completely different issue, and talk to them for a couple months. Then she turned to me one day and said "Yeah, you have ADHD, I'm going to read the...

    My experience was to go to a Therapist for a completely different issue, and talk to them for a couple months. Then she turned to me one day and said "Yeah, you have ADHD, I'm going to read the entry from the DSM to explain how I came to this conclusion" and I felt both simultaneously attacked (by the book) and vindicated (for my suspicions that I had it all along).

    Go find a therapist and just chat with them. Don't tell them right away, just talk about your symptoms and struggles. Let them come to the conclusion without you tainting their perspectives by hoping for an ADHD diagnosis. If they're worth their salt, they'll come to their conclusion themselves.

    I don't trust a GP to make that diagnosis though. The first time I went to a GP about my symptoms, he told me "You're just not getting enough sleep. Here, have some Ambien, call me if you have any issues" and I took it exactly once, hated it and knew that wasn't the solution. The second GP years later said "Hey, you should probably go talk to a therapist, here's a reference. Go talk to them"

    2 votes
  7. Comment on Where does your username come from? (Following up on last year's thread) in ~tildes

    NonoAdomo
    Link
    It's my Final Fantasy XIV character's name, and that character has essentially become an extension of myself. FFXIV was literally a life changing game for me, so Nono Adomo will be my name...

    It's my Final Fantasy XIV character's name, and that character has essentially become an extension of myself. FFXIV was literally a life changing game for me, so Nono Adomo will be my name forever, with a plus that nobody will ever take it!

    5 votes
  8. Comment on American election mental health thread in ~health.mental

    NonoAdomo
    Link Parent
    I'm unfortunately well aware of this. Thankfully he hasn't given me the same fear of him blowing up everything yet. I'm hoping for several years of just ineptitude.

    I'm unfortunately well aware of this. Thankfully he hasn't given me the same fear of him blowing up everything yet. I'm hoping for several years of just ineptitude.

    5 votes
  9. Comment on American election mental health thread in ~health.mental

    NonoAdomo
    Link
    I barely got any sleep last night. At about 1130pm EST, I made the foolish decision to check progress. When I left off, things still felt close, but in hand. I saw how victory would be razor thin...

    I barely got any sleep last night. At about 1130pm EST, I made the foolish decision to check progress. When I left off, things still felt close, but in hand. I saw how victory would be razor thin and immediately got out of bed and set up camp on the couch so I didn't disturb my wife.

    I already knew the answer.

    For the first time in my life, I understood the desire to want to find a solution to your problems at the bottom of a bottle. I turned on a long twitch for noise and laid the phone down out of reach. I decided to use that as a distraction for my intense desire to chemically drown my sorrows.

    I'm not well but I have a strong support from my wife. I live in Canada now as well, so I won't be in the middle of the shitstorm, but living next door to it instead. It is sad to see the country I want to be proud of go beyond being a laughing stock and jump head first into fascism.

    The next few years are going to be awful in a way that I just don't know how to quantify yet and I don't know how to mentally cope with it right now.

    20 votes
  10. Comment on Why the US General in charge of nuclear weapons said he needs AI in ~tech

    NonoAdomo
    Link Parent
    Having worked in missile defense in the past, I can assure people that he's not looking to do anything new, he's looking to improve his agency's capabilities. The satellites see lots of data and...

    Having worked in missile defense in the past, I can assure people that he's not looking to do anything new, he's looking to improve his agency's capabilities. The satellites see lots of data and they are hoping to utilize the latest advancements in machine learning (colloquially known as AI) to speed up the analysis process.

    8 votes
  11. Comment on Crokinole, the greatest game you've never heard of in ~games.tabletop

    NonoAdomo
    Link
    I'm in the market for a quality crokinole board for my wife. She's canadian and loves the game and I want to get her one for Christmas. Preferably made in Canada, does anyone have any recommendations?

    I'm in the market for a quality crokinole board for my wife. She's canadian and loves the game and I want to get her one for Christmas. Preferably made in Canada, does anyone have any recommendations?

    8 votes
  12. Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime

    NonoAdomo
    Link Parent
    You never truly miss out on the good stuff, it's just stuff you haven't seen yet! I do look forward to your experience and how you grow as a fan.
    • Exemplary

    You never truly miss out on the good stuff, it's just stuff you haven't seen yet! I do look forward to your experience and how you grow as a fan.

    5 votes
  13. Comment on PocketPlay phone case in ~games

    NonoAdomo
    Link Parent
    Same here. I love my S23 Ultra, great for emulating touch centric DS games. I just want a manageable controller to clip to it to play just about anything.

    Same here. I love my S23 Ultra, great for emulating touch centric DS games. I just want a manageable controller to clip to it to play just about anything.

    2 votes
  14. Comment on Thoughts on the friendzone in ~life

    NonoAdomo
    Link Parent
    If I were to give my younger self some advice, it's that you can't be trying to make friends for a goal of anything besides having social contact. You don't need to evaluate individuals on their...

    If I were to give my younger self some advice, it's that you can't be trying to make friends for a goal of anything besides having social contact. You don't need to evaluate individuals on their compatibility with you for intimacy at all times. It's OKAY to be just friends with people.

    That's where I think people who complain about the friend zone struggle. They see friendship as a required stepping stone to an intimate relationship. They treat it like a dating sim where the end result if you work hard enough and say the right things and bring the right gifts, then you are owed an intimate relationship and that's just not the right way of doing it.

    10 votes
  15. Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime

    NonoAdomo
    Link
    I've been busy moving to a new home this past month, so I haven't had much time to have a discussion here so I'll give an update on some recent things I've been partaking in: Nichijou is a comedy...

    I've been busy moving to a new home this past month, so I haven't had much time to have a discussion here so I'll give an update on some recent things I've been partaking in:

    Nichijou is a comedy that's basically the spiritual successor to Azumanga Daioh. I've been wanting to watch it for ages, but every time I do, something conspires to get in the way and I had never finished it until now. It's the show that has the famous deer suplex scene, it's one of my favorites from the series. It starts slow, with some disjointed bizarre comedy as it introduces the characters, but it's still good. By the time it hits mid-series, (~10 episodes in) it has built enough continuity to build off of the smaller, easier jokes it made in the series. In a wild snowball effect, I felt myself enjoying it more and more as it went on, when shows like this tend to overstay it's welcome. I'd put it up next to Azumanga as paragons of it's unique genre that few IPs have come close to rivaling.

    Speaking of rivaling, My Deer Friend Noko-tan was really bizarre and fun out the gates, but either there's some really subtle wordplay in the Japanese that I'm missing or it's just not landing the way I hoped it would. It has a few good gags, but overall I felt wanting, especially after having just finished the enjoyable journey that was Nichijou. I may try to finish it later, but I've shelved it for now. Maybe I just need more time to separate from a better experience.

    March Comes in Like a Lion has been an excellent drama that captures the life of a young professional shogi player as he pulls himself out of the depressive void that he had been existing in and learns to interact with the world and find meaning in what he does. Trying to avoid spoilers, but it's been a wonderful ride that I haven't had since shows like Your Lie in April or Barakamon. The character designs are so evocative, that even in the opening scene you quickly can read their emotions in a way that wants to use your emotions like a speedbag. If you want to a good character driven drama, you'll find this one more than enough to meet your needs.

    While my wife and I wait for the Haikyu!! movie to finally come out somewhere we can watch it (legally) we still crave that quality sports anime. We stumbled on Yowamushi Pedal: Grande Road from 2013 which features this happy-go-lucky, first year highschooler, Onoda, who travels everywhere on his bike. He does so to save money so he can spend it on his anime stuff and this causes him to travel large distances. When he turns up to school one day, he goes up the more difficult, steeper back hill so he can sing his anime theme songs without judgement since nobody else is around. He's so good at it, he catches the eye of the cycling team and that's how we get an adorable little anime nerd pedaling with a whole host of talented young cyclists. The animation is simple, but what else do you expect when the major action is the repetitive motion of cycling. What sells it is the execution. Like Haikyu!!, you slowly grow to love and appreciate (most of) the characters, even if they are on rival teams. It's an excellent show to watch if you can't pay full attention, like cooking or doing chores, but still want something interesting to follow. Definitely a recommend from me.

    4 votes
  16. Comment on Metaphor: ReFantazio reviews in ~games

    NonoAdomo
    Link Parent
    I have to figure out how to fit Factorio - Space Age in this mix as well. It's going to be a busy gaming season for all of us.

    I have to figure out how to fit Factorio - Space Age in this mix as well. It's going to be a busy gaming season for all of us.

    2 votes
  17. Comment on Magic the Gathering: On the future of Commander in ~games.tabletop

    NonoAdomo
    Link
    Well, I hope the people who acted awful and prompted this decision are happy, because if I were still an active player I would sure as hell not. I'll hide my reminiscing and rose tinted glasses...

    Well, I hope the people who acted awful and prompted this decision are happy, because if I were still an active player I would sure as hell not.

    I'll hide my reminiscing and rose tinted glasses about Commander in here. Back in the day, Commander (then Elder Dragon Highlander, or EDH) was just a causal format to sling around weird and interesting decks and have fun with your friends. It was (and still is) the only really enjoyable form of multiplayer for M:tG I've ever played. I remember playing over 10 years ago, and I looked forward to building new and fun decks with cards that were not typically played, but interesting to use.

    But then WotC started slowly catering directly to the market. The precons started coming out, and they started directly shaping Commander as well as legacy formats inadvertently. It didn't take long for the speculative market to catch on that cards like True Name Nemesis were really damn strong in Legacy and they started aggressively buying up the precons and rocketing the price. (whoops.) Every year after that, they progressively started adding more cards as throwing a bone to Commander players, as well as making themed precons. At first, it was easy to appreciate that they were caring about their community but for me, it didn't take long to realize that "Oh no, this is quickly going to get out of hand into a format that is heavily reliant on getting these specialized cards"

    I hate it when I'm right. It quickly became a chore to keep my commander decks up to date, as every time you turned around there was a new "Perfect card for your needs" that showed up. You paid money to obtain it and update, or you just got left behind by people who kept their "casual" decks cutting edge and upgrading them. This frustrated me and, combined with the increasingly non-casual nature of the players around me, I quickly drifted away from the format.

    The one thing that held true through for me in all of this is that the rules committee was not with WotC and their "recommendations" of a banned list was always built with concern for the concept of "fun". Their rules and banned list were there, from day 1, as a framework and not the gospel. In their FAQ (Linked here) they frequently speak about how the rules can be tailored to your playgroup's needs, but this should be the starting point. Want to play commander with some broken, otherwise banned cards? Go for it. Does your play group have a different interpretation of the planeswalker as commander rule or how to handle Hybrid mana? Go for it. You guys have fun. I love this philosophy up to the point where two people of different groups need a common language to speak. Then there's only one place for them to go: the common rules. Now there's a strong reliance on this pillar to perform well to keep the format stable and I'll give them credit: They did this well for a long time.

    This was a disaster that was waiting to happen with Jeweled Lotus.

    1. The card was from a (relatively) small print run, meaning there wasn't lots of supply around
    2. It was really good, meaning there was a super high demand. If you didn't use it, you could fall behind your opponents who did.
    3. It was purpose built for commander. If it wasn't good there, it literally could not be played anywhere else for any reason.

    This set the price sky high, and made everyone protective of their investment. If you touch it, people will get upset. Past bans always have a small vocal minority upset they spent money on cards that are now worthless, but most people just remind them "Buyer Beware" and move on. Most format bans result in a sigh of "Good riddance" with those who played the card saying "it was fun while it lasted" and everyone moves on (except for the Splinter Twin fans, I swear their dying breath will be "Unban twin")

    Commander is different. You shape your deck yourself. I guess you could go to someplace like EDHRec.com and get decklists, but even then you still craft and shape the deck to your desires. You now spent ~50-100 USD on a card to keep up with the Joneses and now it's a worthless piece of cardboard. Everyone could just let their groups Rule Zero it back in and do what they wanted, but then you'd have endless fighting between the "pro-Lotus" camp and the "Rules as Written" camp. Knowing games, that would have been ugly so the "pro-Lotus" camp, wanting to protect their investments, went ahead and and acted like complete psychopaths by harassing and threatening the rules committee. I don't blame them for washing their hands of it. I would too. People get wild when their money or investments are involved.

    Now WotC has it. They don't have the same independence and leeway as the commander rules committee had. They have pressures from the company, from the C-suite and a goal to make their sales go up. I'm sure the investment crowd will love this, as they continue to sink their money into their cardboard stocks. As someone who just likes games to be fun? I hate it. Much like I've hated most of the decisions made since just before the pandemic. Clearly I'm not their target audience, so I'll just slowly sell my extra magic stuff as I drift farther and farther away with no intention of going back anytime soon.

    11 votes
  18. Comment on Magic: The Gathering ban and restricted announcement in ~games.tabletop

    NonoAdomo
    Link Parent
    This is correct, WOTC just helps amplify the signal to those who don't follow the commander rules committee

    This is correct, WOTC just helps amplify the signal to those who don't follow the commander rules committee

    9 votes
  19. Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime

    NonoAdomo
    Link
    The reason why Bubblegum Crash seems so odd is that the two studio entities that worked together on Crisi had split between Crisis and Crash, taking the talent in two directions. I do remember...

    The reason why Bubblegum Crash seems so odd is that the two studio entities that worked together on Crisi had split between Crisis and Crash, taking the talent in two directions.

    I do remember liking the crisis reboot, 2040. It has been many years since I've seen it, but I do remember it leaving a good impression on me.

    2 votes
  20. Comment on Helldivers 2's crucial 01.001.100 update completely reworks weapons, adds new Galactic War feature, and changes much more in bid to make the game easier in ~games

    NonoAdomo
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    I disagree with the assertion that they are "making the game easier." It's an argument that completely ignores the primary reason for these changes: the nerfing and tweaking of weapons and...

    I disagree with the assertion that they are "making the game easier." It's an argument that completely ignores the primary reason for these changes: the nerfing and tweaking of weapons and strategems took away the fun. It drastically limited the toolkit at the players disposal and made them play in ways that they weren't interested in playing.

    I haven't gotten to play lately, but based on how the game played when I last got the chance, it was in dire need of this course correction. It wasn't fun being constantly overrun with Chargers with no way of dealing with them, nor was it exciting to have bots seige your team with infinite rocket ammo.

    These fixes are a welcome step in the right direction. Games like this should make players feel powerful against overwhelming odds. I fully support this direction of development.

    13 votes