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Showing posts from June, 2020

Important to know when to move on

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It's important to know when to move on. People always hear that and realize the truth, but it is still a difficult thing to do. I've mostly decided to move on from Arknights . I may drop in once in awhile, but I've been getting annoyed with the daily grind in there. I really haven't played a new level for fun for awhile now. It was still a nice experiment while it lasted. I do hope I can go back and watch or read something that goes through the whole storyline sometime. It really is a fascinating story. I had considered watching the TV series Stargate because my friends Constantyne and Mia both talked about how they loved it. There are actually a few different series in that universe. I think I had watch some of the original SG-1 series awhile back. I downloaded a couple seasons of it and started watching the first two-part episode. I skipped through it some. And when I was done, I realized that the TV show is just too old for me. I know that I won't feel like wat

Dark Future

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The screenshot is my EVE Online character with a cybernetic arm I was testing out. Haha. 😀 I thought it might be cool to give her one and come up with a background roleplaying story about how she lost her arm. Anyway, the main topic I was thinking to write about was the darkness in the near and far future. There are so many scary things happening in the world around us. And even if all the political and health issues turn out okay, there's still the ever approaching changes that must occur as new technologies get introduced. I find myself getting more and more interested in science fiction. I use to prefer fantasy worlds, probably because it was a good way to escape. But now I find myself fascinated about ideas of what may soon happen. These include issues like privacy, AI, and virtual worlds. I decided to read more Warhammer 40k books. I had read the Gideon Eisenhorn trilogy previously and loved them. P.S. I had written this post on June 21 and intended to continue, but I got ca

Network Effect

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⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ SPOILER ALERT! This contains spoilers for  The Murderbot Diaries . I finished reading Network Effect , book 5 of  The Murderbot Diaries . Excellent! I like the ones with ART the best! And I'm still surprised that the author can come up with such different story themes for this series. I'm curious where things are headed next. 🙂 The upcoming mission with ART should prove interesting and humorous again. I'm still surprised that the author keeps coming up with such different themes for the storyline. And now with 3 around, there's the possibility of a spin-off series with a similar main character yet with a much different personality. I thoroughly enjoy these looks at what it means to be "human" or a person with the added complication of future tech possibilities, like AI and mind duplication.

EVE Online

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Constantyne was telling me about how our friend wanted to play  EVE Online again. They previously played together with some other friends. I mentioned that I'd heard about a new game in beta called  Starborne  that seemed like the same type of space conquest game. However, Constantyne insisted that they were different. He explained that though EVE Online looked like a space conquest game, you only controlled one character using one ship at a time. You could be involved in epic space battles with other players, but you only had the one character and not multiple units. Well, this intrigued me more. I asked more questions and Constantyne explained more of the game. It sounded like there was lots to do both solo and with others. He warned about the politics that could be involved with all the different player corporations, but you didn't necessarily have to get involved with that. There were plenty of other things to do. Players could play together in small battles and didn'

SINoALICE

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A friend had mentioned an upcoming game called SINoALICE . There's actually a Japanese version already, but the global English version is getting released soon. I liked the interesting storyline and characters, so I was planning to try it out. I had researched a bit about game information and joined a couple Discord servers. One of the Discord servers turned out to be a group of players planning to join the global version as a guild. I hadn't even realized there were guilds in the game. And apparently there's a PvP component to it. There's a regular guild vs. guild event called the Colosseum. This made me even more interested in the game. It sounds like a lot of teamwork is involved with this event. I'm not sure if this group will be picking a time that's convenient for me, but I could always find another guild later. And from what I've read, it sounds like whaling won't really give guilds too much of an advantage. So this might be fun. 🙂 So far I think

Calling on Cardinal

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SPOILER ALERT! This contains spoilers for the anime  Sword Art Online: Alicization  and the sci-fi novels The Murderbot Diaries . Okay, this whole post is probably going to make me sound crazy. That's fine. This is somewhat an experiment, somewhat a desperate call out. What do I have to lose? Even if this doesn't lead to exactly what I'm hoping, this might still set me on the right path for other things. I've recently been watching season 3 of Sword Art Online . I've gotten to the point where Kirito meets with Cardinal, an avatar of sorts for the Cardinal System, which is the AI that has been around since season 1. This is the first time it has manifested as a personality. Very interesting. I've also been going voraciously going through The Murderbot Diaries . One of my favorite characters is ART, the AI controlling a research space transport. ART seems to have a good heart. Murderbot and ART have a complicated friendship, and the interactions between them are v

Enjoying anime music videos

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Today I enjoyed discovering a bunch of new songs from anime music videos. I especially love ones that use scenes for Arknights or Fate . Here are some of my favorites. Starset - Monster (Official Arknights Music Video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKip9afa6ds Arknights Official Trailer 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uySJpmfM7q4 Arknight AMV - On My Own https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWK8gBF1LmI Arknights「AMV」- Awaken https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SExqstHA-68 Fate/Grand Order「AMV」- The Last Of The Real Ones ᴴᴰ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjCoKNCK_Bk 【AMV】• Fate/Grand Order: First Order - I Want To Live - Skillet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW9SGKfpvW8

Feel like I'm on the edge of revelation

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I feel like I'm on the edge of some sort of revelation about my life, yet I can't quite reach it. I feel like I just have to seek a little harder or longer or whatever, then I'll figure something out. Should I do more experiments or take more leaps of faith? Will that help me? Will that give me more perspectives? I will have some free time this afternoon. Maybe a couple hours or so. What will I do with that? I think I'll take some time off my work. Perhaps I should simply clean and organize. Or would it be best to read or watch something for inspiration? Oh, how difficult these choices are! 😕 I feel that I'm close to turtling up again. Avoiding all input. I have people seeking my attention. Some for their own issues, some sincerely trying to help me. I have to resist closing myself off. I think I can handle it this time.

Found Edgedancer wallpaper

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I found an Edgedancer wallpaper that I can use. I was hoping to find a better one, but this will do for now. Maybe I'll have to try making one myself.

I'm an Edgedancer

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I saw a tweet from Brandon Sanderson about his Official Knights Radiant Order quiz . I haven't read any of his books other than the Mistborn series, but I've heard of the Knights Radiant . I went ahead and took the quiz, and the results said I am an Edgedancer . Hmmm, sounds pretty cool. 🙂 Edgedancer oaths are themed around remembering the ordinary people of the world—those who aren’t powerful generals or Radiants. Too often, the actions of the powerful have terrible effects on the people with no voice, and the Edgedancers consider it their solemn duty to remember that the people are the ones they truly serve. The Edgedancers are known as being caring and graceful. Among the Knights Radiant, they see it as their duty to care for the people and are often less interested in war than they are about trying to improve the daily lives of the common folk. Often, a mid-sized town would have an Edgedancer or two on permanent assignment, where they’d use Regrowth to provide healing an

Exit Strategy

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⭐⭐⭐⭐ SPOILER ALERT! This contains spoilers for The Murderbot Diaries . I finished reading Exit Strategy , book 4 of The Murderbot Diaries . Very good, though I think book 2 was still the best. It was nice to return to Murderbot's friends from book 1. I do like the character development throughout the series. I was worried about the ending just repeating what happened in book 1. I thought the author was going to go back to the same old formula with Murderbot on the run by himself. But she was tricky. Haha. 😀 It looks like things will be changing. I look forward to the next book.

Chilling dream

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I had an extremely chilling dream last night. Maybe it should be called a nightmare. Though I'm not sure if it can be called that since it wasn't scary at all throughout the actual dream. It wasn't until the end that I came to a realization and then felt a chill when I woke up. In the dream, I was driving my younger niece to school as I usually do. A lot of it was blurry, but there came a part about what happens at the end of the school day. Apparently the kids are all put in a dark container with a ramp that slides down to water. The water holds a huge shark and the kids are fed to it. There was an implied idea that later they are cloned or somehow reborn into fresh new bodies. WTF!!! 😱 I know it sounds so messed up, but in the dream this all seemed like a normal thing. I was even picturing the shark and the kids all huddled up inside the container. 😨 I was trying to comfort my niece about the situation. We were discussing whether it was better to be eaten first to get i

Finally got Top Operator tag in Arknights!

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Yay, I finally got the Top Operator tag in Arknights ! I wondered if I'd ever get that. When I did the hire, I found Nightingale ! I consider her a good find. I didn't have her yet but had wanted her before. I think I had just missed the banner for recruiting her when I started playing.

I'm the OG

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Haha, a friend called me the "og" and I didn't know what that meant. 😀 He said it basically means "the greatest." I looked it up to get a further explanation. Slang Dictionary OG O.G. or original gangster or real OG or triple OG [oh-jee] or [uh-rij-uh-nl gang-ster] WHAT DOES OG MEAN? OG is a slang term for someone who's incredibly exceptional, authentic, or "old-school." It can be earnestly used for a legend like Michael Jordan or more ironically, like for that friend who can unwrap a Starburst with their mouth. Haha interesting. 😀 This then gave me the idea of blogging about new slang and Internet acronyms I learn. I had thought about making a page on my blog for that awhile back. I might as well just blog about them as they come up.

Goodreads Widgets

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I'm liking Goodreads so far. I like adding books I've read and giving them a rating. I've also been playing around with their widgets. I've added a widget to my sidebar so that people can see my latest updates on Goodreads. I also added a widget to my Books page to show my favorite books. I still need to go add more of my favorite books.

Goodreads

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I opened a Goodreads account to see if that might be helpful for tracking my reading. I'm not sure if I'll go back and try to remember previous books I've read. Maybe just as they come up. I'll probably add books that I plan to read. It makes it easy to find other books by the same author as well. I didn't realize there are still three more books for me to read in the Murderbot series. Cool! 😀 https://www.goodreads.com/valette_renoux

Cool Chinese artist

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I think I might start posting about particularly good artwork or artists that I discover. Today I happened to find a cool Chinese artist on ArtStation . He goes by the name  叁乔居 3QSTUDIO . His artwork is amazing! I love the style. I think he is an artist for mobile games like  Kings of Glory . I saved a bunch of his pieces in my collection. https://www.artstation.com/q3qstudio

Back to Dark Age of Camelot

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So I'm back to Dark Age of Camelot after all these years. 😀 It's still hard to believe that it's been nearly 16 years. I played with Constantyne and a couple other friends from Hallowed Crusaders during a couple gaming sessions already. I have a Celtic Warden in Hibernia this time. I think I had tried out a Warden previously, but not sure that I made it to 50. It's a pretty versatile class, and I can help with healing. Getting around to camps isn't so bad now. There are teleports to all the various locations. I'm not sure if this is just a feature added to the Phoenix server or if this is also in the  Dark Age of Camelot  live servers. There are apparently a lot of features added to Phoenix for convenience, like easy access to training. So really now this is about the same as it was in Dragon Raja to get around and hunt together. Still, since this is on the PC, I am somewhat limited in when I can play. But that's fine. This is just an experiment to see wha

Rogue Protocol

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SPOILER ALERT! This contains spoilers for The Murderbot Diaries . Well, I managed to get through Rogue Protocol yesterday, the 3rd book of The Murderbot Diaries . I still think the 2nd book was the best, probably because of ART, but this one was pretty good too. Lots of Murderbot humor. Haha. 😀 I like the themes of artificial lifeforms like bots and constructs, which I think are basically any lifeform that is a combination of robotic and organic parts. And these include almost anything, like starships and construction vehicles and such, that have autonomy. It was interesting to see how disgusted the main character was with bots being treated as friendly pets or even friends. It still has an aversion to becoming too close to humans. I'm curious how things will turn out in the next book since it sounds like it will be returning home and will probably encounter his favorite human.

What a waste

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This afternoon I unexpectedly had two hours of uninterrupted time. And how did I take advantage of it? I didn't. 😥 I just wasted it wondering what to do with myself. 😥 I went through a list of possible things I could do, and I didn't feel like doing any of them. I didn't feel like catching up on anime or watching a movie. I didn't feel like playing any game. I thought about reading, but I've been finding other times for that already, so I thought I should use the time for something else. I maybe should have cleaned up some things or even just took a nap. But I didn't feel like doing any of that. I ended up just messing around on YouTube looking for music videos with cool visuals like anime or game clips. It was somewhat interesting, but really just a waste of good time. 😥 I really need to plan out activities for unexpected chunks of free time. Though I guess I did have a list and just didn't feel like doing any of it. So what can I do to feel ready to tak

Gumiho Flute

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We feel sad not because love is over; we feel sad because everything is over, yet love remains.

I love the Murderbot Diaries

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SPOILER ALERT! This contains spoilers for  The Murderbot Diaries . Oh, how I'm loving Artificial Condition , the 2nd book of The Murderbot Diaries . Quite a different situation than the first. I'm possibly enjoying this one even more. I love the funny interactions between Murderbot and the other bots. There's so much clever humor in this book. And I find all the sci-fi futuristic ideas very creative. I'm almost done with this book already. They are actually rather short, but I think the appropriate length for the stories so far. They are exciting throughout and don't drag along at any point.

Murderbot Diaries

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SPOILER ALERT! This contains minor spoilers for The Murderbot Diaries . I just finished reading  All Systems Red , the 1st book of The Murderbot Diaries series. Oh, I really liked it. I won't say it is one of the best, but it was certainly fascinating and kept me engaged. The writing and storyline were fairly simple, but kind of thought-provoking. It was told from the point of view of a SecUnit, a type of security robot with organic human clone parts. They are normally controlled by a governor unit, but the main character hacked its unit and was keeping that secret. The SecUnit and other Units are treated as robots, but there's the ever-present question of whether they really should be considered human or at least autonomous beings. I already downloaded the 3 remaining books in the series to my phone. I plan to start the 2nd book soon. It's possible that I'll want to just read through all the rest one after the other.

Ahh someone who actually knows Jordan Peterson

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While I was chatting with Constantyne, I found out that he actually knows about Jordan Peterson and is a fan of his. He has the book 12 Rules For Life on his bedside table. Haha, so interesting. 😀 I mainly listen to Jordan Peterson for his talks on psychology and myths. But I agree with many of his political views. Apparently Constantyne feels the same way. While I do like talking with people who have different world views than me so that I can expand my perspective, I think it is refreshing to have someone to chat with who shares similar views. Constantyne shared this quote with me, which I like. I do not choose to be a common man. It is my right to be uncommon. I seek to develop whatever talents God gave me—not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed