Magia Record (and general Madoka Magica)
May. 31st, 2025 02:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feotakahariIt's amazing how many different plots you can plausibly pull Kyoko into just by saying "they bribed her with food."
feotakahari
(no subject)
May. 31st, 2025 02:07 pmfeotakahariI was thinking that Magia Record doesn't seem to have a sense of humor, and then it made a joke. Calling a character a cow because she has big boobs. Hilarious, if you're twelve years old.
(TBF, apparently the earlier jokes were wordplay that doesn't translate into English.)
(TBF, apparently the earlier jokes were wordplay that doesn't translate into English.)
(no subject)
May. 31st, 2025 12:55 amfeotakahariIf you've ignored all my other Magia Record posts, I at least want you to see one of the game's ultimate moves. This game's art style for ultimates is, shall we say, different from most gacha.
(no subject)
May. 30th, 2025 07:30 pmfeotakahariAnother near-stumble because I could only keep track of one leg at once. I don't think I'm "really" a lamia, whatever that means, but if you gave me the chance to slither instead of walk, I'd take it without hesitation.
(no subject)
May. 30th, 2025 12:21 pmfeotakahariI have concluded that there’s no innate human soul that you’re missing because you’re annoying. You’re not “failing at being human” because you make AI art or write Harry Potter fanfic or whatever the fuck.
(no subject)
May. 28th, 2025 08:45 pmfeotakahariIf you know it might be wrong that you’re in love with Stacy’s mom, is that different from saying you don’t know if it’s wrong?
(no subject)
May. 27th, 2025 06:09 amfeotakahariSaw a post complaining that “TME people” make jokes about men in dresses. I don’t think trans men are responsible for those jokes.
(no subject)
May. 25th, 2025 10:00 pmfeotakahariAs a kid, I assumed American anime fans would grow up and publish a lot of anime-influenced fantasy novels. Turns out we posted it all as webnovels, while published fantasy carried on unchanged.
Indego pricing
May. 25th, 2025 09:54 pmmindstalkThe pricing of Philadelphia's bikeshare program is pretty weird.
One ride? A whopping $4.50 for 30 minutes; extra $0.30/min if you go over or use electric. Bus fare here is $2.50 and gets you free transfers.( Read more... )
Way too many people
May. 25th, 2025 12:20 amfeotakahari“Other Side killed so many people!”
“Does Your Side killing random civilians do anything to stop Other Side?”
“How can you talk like that? Other Side killed so many people!”
“Does Your Side killing random civilians do anything to stop Other Side?”
“How can you talk like that? Other Side killed so many people!”
(no subject)
May. 24th, 2025 11:13 pmfeotakahariI don't usually condemn Youtubers for what sponsorships they take, but you have to know a sponsor called Freecash is scamming people.
(no subject)
May. 24th, 2025 09:56 pmfeotakahariThis video argues that part of why Tribe Nine failed as a gacha game is that it didn't use enough artificial impediments to make you spend money. You just play it and have fun, so it can't support itself.
What Arknights Thinks of Your (Fictionalized) Country
May. 24th, 2025 09:31 pmfeotakahariBecause we all know Victoria is just England with a different name.
Amazon Rainforest: decent government, but poor and has barely any infrastructure. Low life expectancy due to lack of access to medicine. One of the friendlier, less bigoted regions.
Australia: corporate hellscape, company town edition. Lots of mining with notoriously shitty worker safety. Constant natural disasters.
Basque Country: cheerful, innocent drunks. One of the nicer places to live.
China: mostly a nice place to live. Government is too big and gets in its own way sometimes. But we're not saying our government is bad, not at all, censor!
Eastern Europe: outsiders think of this as one race, but it's actually a hundred different ethnic groups that sometimes band together when an outsider hates them more than they hate each other. Lots of civil wars, and not much in the way of infrastructure to support anything besides mercenary work. Lots of Jews live here.
England: rich nobles ignore the plight of factory workers who're getting sick from toxic chemicals. Violently suppresses Irish independence, but the independence terrorists are also murderous bastards. Executed their last king because he tried to tax rich nobles to support the poor.
Finland/sort of Canada: nature shamans fighting against both malevolent spirits and resource-hungry invaders. Not much tech, but lives in harmony with the local god. Kinda offensive.
France: annihilated in a world war, but violent restorationists keep popping up. Home of a mad god who kills people for art.
Germany: recovering from the legacy of a mass-murdering dictator, but some assholes want to bring him back. The current government is incapable of agreeing on anything. There's some sort of magical song that brainwashes the populace--I'm not clear on what this is a metaphor for. Heavily associated with classical music.
Greece: threw off the influence of a totalitarian African shah. (This game's Persia is in Africa - just go with it.) Today's shahs are still trying to reconquer it. Literally worships military heroes, but surprisingly peaceful if they're not attacked first. The Olympics started here, and so did pretty much all modern philosophy.
Hong Kong: trade center, but has a lot of desperate poor people. The most recent government tried to kill everyone in the slums.
Italy: literally governed by the mafia. Has rules to prevent violence, but the rules are broken all the time, and if a higher-up gets caught, they get out of it by blaming someone less important. Rigged legal system.
Japan: lots of conflict between northern and southern samurai clans, but currently in a fragile peace. Economic bubble is about to burst.
Korea: the writers forgot about it.
Mongolia: world-conquering warriors, but the whole nation fell apart a thousand years ago when their great khan died.
Poland: corporate hellscape, bloodsports edition. The former freedom fighters now work as corporate assassins, and the former knights mostly fight in bloodsports now. At every possible level of wealth and power, you think you'll be happier if you get just a little more, but even the most powerful people are scared for their lives and can't meaningfully change anything.
Russia: we've mostly seen this from the perspective of the minorities their military tries to exterminate. Long history of invading other countries, which the conservatives are trying to bring back. Showing signs of democratic reform.
South America: American proxy faction fights German proxy faction fights faction that claims to represent the people but really just wants resources. The one neutral town is a glitzy tourist trap.
Spain: used to have the same religion as Vatican City, but split off because the Vatican didn't give a shit about them. Invaded by sea monsters, so they kill racial minorities they suspect of being monster-connected. Isolationist and generally anti-science.
Tibet/kinda Switzerland: hasn't changed anything for a thousand years. Current head of state is dragging them kicking and screaming into the future. Secretly building weapons in case someone else decides to invade them and take all their resources.
The U.S.: corporate hellscape, mad scientist edition. The Department of Defense is paying mad scientists to experiment on their own citizens in order to make better weapons for their wars foroil originium. Has unusually fair laws, but all the protections depend on you having money, and medical debt in particular will destroy you. Makes a lot of popular movies.
Vatican City: hive-minded, and looks down on anyone who wasn't born into the hive. Hates Jews and tries to massacre them, refusing to admit they have Jewish origins themselves. Talks about acting for the good of mankind, but never follows through. Surprisingly prone to making things explode.
The Entire African Continent: want to include a country that's not on this list? Just say it's somewhere in Africa, because Africa is big and nobody's keeping track. Technically, this game's Amazon rainforest is part of the Africa-equivalent country.
Amazon Rainforest: decent government, but poor and has barely any infrastructure. Low life expectancy due to lack of access to medicine. One of the friendlier, less bigoted regions.
Australia: corporate hellscape, company town edition. Lots of mining with notoriously shitty worker safety. Constant natural disasters.
Basque Country: cheerful, innocent drunks. One of the nicer places to live.
China: mostly a nice place to live. Government is too big and gets in its own way sometimes. But we're not saying our government is bad, not at all, censor!
Eastern Europe: outsiders think of this as one race, but it's actually a hundred different ethnic groups that sometimes band together when an outsider hates them more than they hate each other. Lots of civil wars, and not much in the way of infrastructure to support anything besides mercenary work. Lots of Jews live here.
England: rich nobles ignore the plight of factory workers who're getting sick from toxic chemicals. Violently suppresses Irish independence, but the independence terrorists are also murderous bastards. Executed their last king because he tried to tax rich nobles to support the poor.
Finland/sort of Canada: nature shamans fighting against both malevolent spirits and resource-hungry invaders. Not much tech, but lives in harmony with the local god. Kinda offensive.
France: annihilated in a world war, but violent restorationists keep popping up. Home of a mad god who kills people for art.
Germany: recovering from the legacy of a mass-murdering dictator, but some assholes want to bring him back. The current government is incapable of agreeing on anything. There's some sort of magical song that brainwashes the populace--I'm not clear on what this is a metaphor for. Heavily associated with classical music.
Greece: threw off the influence of a totalitarian African shah. (This game's Persia is in Africa - just go with it.) Today's shahs are still trying to reconquer it. Literally worships military heroes, but surprisingly peaceful if they're not attacked first. The Olympics started here, and so did pretty much all modern philosophy.
Hong Kong: trade center, but has a lot of desperate poor people. The most recent government tried to kill everyone in the slums.
Italy: literally governed by the mafia. Has rules to prevent violence, but the rules are broken all the time, and if a higher-up gets caught, they get out of it by blaming someone less important. Rigged legal system.
Japan: lots of conflict between northern and southern samurai clans, but currently in a fragile peace. Economic bubble is about to burst.
Korea: the writers forgot about it.
Mongolia: world-conquering warriors, but the whole nation fell apart a thousand years ago when their great khan died.
Poland: corporate hellscape, bloodsports edition. The former freedom fighters now work as corporate assassins, and the former knights mostly fight in bloodsports now. At every possible level of wealth and power, you think you'll be happier if you get just a little more, but even the most powerful people are scared for their lives and can't meaningfully change anything.
Russia: we've mostly seen this from the perspective of the minorities their military tries to exterminate. Long history of invading other countries, which the conservatives are trying to bring back. Showing signs of democratic reform.
South America: American proxy faction fights German proxy faction fights faction that claims to represent the people but really just wants resources. The one neutral town is a glitzy tourist trap.
Spain: used to have the same religion as Vatican City, but split off because the Vatican didn't give a shit about them. Invaded by sea monsters, so they kill racial minorities they suspect of being monster-connected. Isolationist and generally anti-science.
Tibet/kinda Switzerland: hasn't changed anything for a thousand years. Current head of state is dragging them kicking and screaming into the future. Secretly building weapons in case someone else decides to invade them and take all their resources.
The U.S.: corporate hellscape, mad scientist edition. The Department of Defense is paying mad scientists to experiment on their own citizens in order to make better weapons for their wars for
Vatican City: hive-minded, and looks down on anyone who wasn't born into the hive. Hates Jews and tries to massacre them, refusing to admit they have Jewish origins themselves. Talks about acting for the good of mankind, but never follows through. Surprisingly prone to making things explode.
The Entire African Continent: want to include a country that's not on this list? Just say it's somewhere in Africa, because Africa is big and nobody's keeping track. Technically, this game's Amazon rainforest is part of the Africa-equivalent country.
(no subject)
May. 24th, 2025 01:42 pmfeotakahariCannot overstate how much I hate trans fiction where some powerful being forces you to turn into a woman because you’re incapable of admitting you want it. My sense of spite ends up wanting the target to fight back and win. It matters to me that you choose what to do with your own body.
Bonus complaint inspired by a different story: I can’t believe we’re still doing the thing where you turn into a woman because you have a “woman’s soul.”
(no subject)
May. 24th, 2025 03:11 amfeotakahariToday on Tumblr, I saw someone who thought J.D. Vance was part of a secret Jewish conspiracy. At least make it a secret Catholic conspiracy!
The great enbookening
May. 24th, 2025 12:51 amsniffnoyHuh, I never posted about this, did I? So Kappa finally moved in back in January, and with her, many boxes of books. This month she finally unpacked most of those boxes. (There's still two remaining, to be handled at some undetermined future date.) There had been preparations earlier -- she and Geoff had gotten new bookshelves to replace Geoff's old bookshelves in the main room, that had been kind of falling apart for years. One of the old bookshelves was thrown out, the other I ended up taking into my room.
But now finally it was happening, the unpacking of the books. The idea was that Kappa and Geoff's book collections would be merged, with the new books going onto what had been Geoff's bookshelves -- whether the ones in the main room or the ones in their room. But -- as was anticipated -- in merging the collections, many duplicates were found. Where do you think these went?
That's right. They went on the giveaway shelves.
Now, which shelves those are had to change. The sheer number of books unpacked was such that Geoff and Kappa ended up taking over all the shelves along the west wall -- my books got kicked out to the bookshelf that was now in my room. So did my board games on the bookshelf in the corner. Now the west wall is all Geoff and Kappa's books, and the east wall is all books being given away. (Due to the change, I decided to finally label the shelves of free books.)
It wasn't just duplicates from between Geoff and Kappa that got put on the giveaway shelves, though. On unpacking her books, Kappa found various ones that she actually just didn't want anymore, so those ended up on the giveaway shelves too. Meanwhile, in preparation for the unpacking, Geoff had had to actually organize his book collection... and in doing so, turned up some duplicates purely within it! (And some books he decided he didn't want, either.) So that's more for the free shelves!
Of course, putting books on the free shelves doesn't actually immediately save any space -- it only does so once someone takes them. Maybe once enough books are taken, I'll be able to move my own books back out into the main room. But that'll take a while.
Prior to the deduplication, the number of books on the giveaway shelves sat at 137. After, it sat at... I don't know, I didn't even try counting. See, among the books being given away due to inter-spouse duplication was a nearly-complete set of Discworld books. These got placed on the top shelf of the tall bookcase behind the chair, double-stacked. I didn't want to deal with the inconvenience of counting that, so I didn't.
Now of course, these new books are going rather faster than the old ones. After all, the books still on the shelves before this happened were subject to adverse selection; of the books we were giving away, these were the 137 that people wanted the least. By contrast, the bulk of the ones being newly added were because they were books that two distinct people had bought! (Also, it's a lot of fantasy and science fiction, whereas the 137 that were there prior were heavy on abstruse philosophy.)
In particular, those Discworld books lasted on the shelves less than a week before Zvi and Laura took the collection in its entirety. After that, counting became practical. The new total -- noting that when Zvi and Laura took the Discworld books, that same night some other people took other books, so this shouldn't be taken as "the grand total minus Discworld" -- was 222.
Two weeks later we're down to 212. And two of the books taken have been ones that were already on the shelves prior to this -- perhaps having better books to give away encourages people to explore the other ones more thoroughly? We'll see how low it goes!
But now finally it was happening, the unpacking of the books. The idea was that Kappa and Geoff's book collections would be merged, with the new books going onto what had been Geoff's bookshelves -- whether the ones in the main room or the ones in their room. But -- as was anticipated -- in merging the collections, many duplicates were found. Where do you think these went?
That's right. They went on the giveaway shelves.
Now, which shelves those are had to change. The sheer number of books unpacked was such that Geoff and Kappa ended up taking over all the shelves along the west wall -- my books got kicked out to the bookshelf that was now in my room. So did my board games on the bookshelf in the corner. Now the west wall is all Geoff and Kappa's books, and the east wall is all books being given away. (Due to the change, I decided to finally label the shelves of free books.)
It wasn't just duplicates from between Geoff and Kappa that got put on the giveaway shelves, though. On unpacking her books, Kappa found various ones that she actually just didn't want anymore, so those ended up on the giveaway shelves too. Meanwhile, in preparation for the unpacking, Geoff had had to actually organize his book collection... and in doing so, turned up some duplicates purely within it! (And some books he decided he didn't want, either.) So that's more for the free shelves!
Of course, putting books on the free shelves doesn't actually immediately save any space -- it only does so once someone takes them. Maybe once enough books are taken, I'll be able to move my own books back out into the main room. But that'll take a while.
Prior to the deduplication, the number of books on the giveaway shelves sat at 137. After, it sat at... I don't know, I didn't even try counting. See, among the books being given away due to inter-spouse duplication was a nearly-complete set of Discworld books. These got placed on the top shelf of the tall bookcase behind the chair, double-stacked. I didn't want to deal with the inconvenience of counting that, so I didn't.
Now of course, these new books are going rather faster than the old ones. After all, the books still on the shelves before this happened were subject to adverse selection; of the books we were giving away, these were the 137 that people wanted the least. By contrast, the bulk of the ones being newly added were because they were books that two distinct people had bought! (Also, it's a lot of fantasy and science fiction, whereas the 137 that were there prior were heavy on abstruse philosophy.)
In particular, those Discworld books lasted on the shelves less than a week before Zvi and Laura took the collection in its entirety. After that, counting became practical. The new total -- noting that when Zvi and Laura took the Discworld books, that same night some other people took other books, so this shouldn't be taken as "the grand total minus Discworld" -- was 222.
Two weeks later we're down to 212. And two of the books taken have been ones that were already on the shelves prior to this -- perhaps having better books to give away encourages people to explore the other ones more thoroughly? We'll see how low it goes!
Thoughts on The Line
May. 23rd, 2025 09:47 ammindstalkA video yesterday reminded me of the Saudi Line proposal to build a brand new very linear city (or linear arcology, one long building) in western Arabia. I looked again at the numbers, and wow it is nuts.
170 km long.
500 m high.
200 m wide.
(Area 34 km2.)
It's supposed to be higher than it's long! Crazy. You could probably bring the cost down just by flipping those two numbers (though maybe ventilating a 500 m wide building would be a bit more challenging, I dunno.)
For minimizing trip lengths you would want a circular city, or something close like a diamond or grid. But I can see some appeal of a linear city: simplifying your high speed transport by needing just one backbone route, and keeping it easy to go outside the city into a greenbelt/preserve. (Not sure how much point to that there is in western Arabia, but anyway.) So I wondered what a saner proposal might look like.
1) drop the arcology and just go with a conventional city with streets and buildings.
2) Have the width be at least a 5 minute walk from edge to spine, so 400 meters, making it 800 meters (10 minutes) edge to edge, which avoids the need to have any cross transit. This is 4x the width, so could reduce the length from 170 km to 42 km. (Though the original proposal used the height to be very high density, which I'm kind of waving away.)
You could double the width, for a 20 minute edge-edge walk; 1.6 km x 21 km.
But since you're trying to avoid cars, you should go in for bicycles and other micromobility, at let's say 3x expected walking speed. 2.4 km edge to spine, and 4.8 x 7 km in shape... which is actually almost a square, whoops. And you'd probably need cross-transit again for the minority who can't use any form of wheels, or the larger group who don't always want to. Still, it's a city where every point is a 10 minute bike/fast powerchair ride to the central spine, at 15 km/hr.
San Francisco is actually bigger than this, so I've just discovered that SF could be way nicer than it is (granted SF has hills.)
To keep a line shape better, go back to the 10 minute width of 800 meters, triple it for bikes, now you have a 2.4 x 14 km city, and can get some real rail use out of your backbone, while it's still a 15 minute walk from the center to the edge.
(no subject)
May. 22nd, 2025 10:49 pmfeotakahariI think a lot of leftists have failed to internalize that bigots are too common for you to kill them all. You need to find some method of working with or around at least some subsection of the people who hate you, because fighting them all isn’t something you’re gonna win on numbers. Maybe try to find the least genocidal ones?