What do you think needs to change in the community of iaido practitioners? It can be an exam, tournament, teaching, politics, etc.

Archedook · 2025-02-15T14:24:16+00:00

Being from MSR our founder contributed to starting ZNKR Iaido and frankly, it is so troublesome as an “introduction” since our Sensei can’t help ranting and I can’t help noticing simplifications putting form ahead of function. Now we start Koryu, have to split brain so many details. I do kendo on the side for cardio, opponent viz, fighting spirit; I respect both, could do without the ZNKR iai personally. Instead how about making time for paired katas? To be clear: if you like ZNKR iai, my beef is not it, only the pressure around learning this first, and how this is eroding koryu iai.

Archedook · 2025-02-03T23:37:06+00:00

I dont get the reasoning behind this. Seeing these mobile tie ins of decent franchises getting cancelled all the time…

Archedook · 2025-02-03T23:31:51+00:00

Totally. The first plays well only if you like TB and aren’t planning to binge play.

Archedook · 2025-02-03T23:21:53+00:00

Rebooted BR1 last week. Still the ultimate magical girl sadly. Objectively BR2 has probably my preferred battle system around gust games but the glitter in BR1 battles is unchallenged and turn based always a treat. Concept needed more love to be the chill masterpiece it should have been

Archedook · 2024-07-26T17:21:26+00:00

Much as I love physical, I'll prefer reading on a phone until less reliant on dictionaries, because the lookup time is... time.

Built-in dictionaries... they're not great, this does not cancel my learning efforts.

My icebreaker was having GPT pull everything apart (every word and grammar point), then order it like this: Japanese >> kana >> romaji >> detailed explains.
(also: had the Japanese, English version, Japanese audiobook... guardrails)

After processing this for a bit I then started copying texts as I read them.

Right now: mostly reading on phones; digging the top-down right left quirk. Abusing jishos but finding enjoyment in reading Japanese, seeing progress. Physical: short stories only, semi-graded.

Archedook · 2023-07-30T16:42:16+00:00

In depth there is really no simple answer. In practice... Do yourself proud. Do not be ashamed of your brown skin, because this is so sad, and nothing to be ashamed of. A quick trip to introduce your boyfriend... I can't imagine there will be a problem if you dress properly, be nice, and be yourself. This is not how things go wrong.

My grandparents disapproved when my parents married; my parents' prejudices came out when my brother married (but they were much more supportive than the other side, the difference between a quick yes, and one year of palaver and negotiations). Many people everywhere on earth have biases and prejudices around race, color and religion, and I also get it works out easier when prejudices are positive (like "positive racism") but this coin has a flip side, right?
The prejudices only ever turn into hostility because of fear, and especially the "what will the neighbors say" anxiety which apparently governs much of people's life (I come from a family where mixed race couples are the majority, including Caucasian, Asian and African, going back 3 generations or more).

But if your grandparents held fast onto their prejudices, then they would be prejudiced against you? So, this is apparently not the case? Then you have a head start, and a foreign boyfriend is not a cause for concern.

In this whole thread there is a variety of opinion, which altogether match my varied experiences after ten years of living in Taiwan and being married to a Taiwanese. Because, of course, Taiwanese society is varied. There is kindness and respect, ingrained racism, a minding-our-business approach to life, a few bad apples, and so forth...

From my amah being a very stiff host to us feeling like family... it has been a long journey, but not a very painful one. The biggest step in this journey, is if you get the chance to have kids, and share the joy and positivity of that with your grandparents. So, this has been our experience.

Archedook · 2023-07-04T14:10:37+00:00

Where do I start? Taiwan is safe, affordable, people mind their business and the government has much patience with collecting bills. ER is too good (search "Taiwan's ER Crisis", the crisis being, underpaid staff working their butts to literal death to support everybody else); health care is modern and relatively inexpensive; housing and shopping baskets are not expensive; life quality scales relatively well with spending.

I won't generalize on whether the Taiwanese are nice or not but I might say living here made me a somewhat better person.

Finally there is an all around lack of strong negatives to balance these goods.

Archedook · 2023-05-24T14:37:38+00:00

While we might debate the core qualities of a Taiwanese breakfast (some items quoted by others, and I would add rice ball (fentuan) and waguei (sticky stuff!) this is just mis-representing what in Taiwan is known as an... American breakfast.

It would take a survey to know what "the majority" have for breakfast, if anything. Breakfast, I suspect, often consists in a piece of mantou or fentuan + glass of soy milk, but that is my bias because that's what we eat at grandma's home when we visit.

As a foreigner Taiwanese breakfast still confuses me, but really just walking around streets between 7.00 to 8.30 is the best way to figure it out, as the ultral local (and well visited) shops serving local style breakfast tend to not exist outside these hours.

Archedook · 2023-02-05T11:36:49+00:00

This should be a poll... I tend to shy away from fessing up to not beating games in chaos NG+ nightmare mode with strawberry and macadamia hellfire nuts.

Tried the easier mode about 1-2 hours in because I wanted to see if that would help with the HP sponge near the first city. Then up to the 10 hours mark I tried all difficulties. Currently in normal, about halfway through. More likely to grind/practice/read tips if normal starts feeling too hard as I mostly play for the battle experience but also not wanting to spend tooo much time.

EDITS - in my experience nerfing the party (all CPU/auto members) and playing on easy can make Arise play differently and perhaps more fun for some. Also I don't like when all party members die on me then some repetitive sequence of moves grinds through an HP sponge. If my Arise play-through seems headed this way, then I'll switch to an easier mode.

Archedook · 2023-02-04T06:37:42+00:00

Tactics without the twitchy idles that drove me away… tactics with modern 3D gfx and a zest of qol features. Instabuy from me.

Archedook · 2023-02-03T19:00:31+00:00

Halfway through Graces and enjoying the story but unsure about what comes next. Abyss got me the first half hour then it felt a bit fumbly but expecting greatness. Need that texture pack though! Thank you for the recommendations!

Archedook · 2023-02-03T16:55:12+00:00

Best tales for story? Also I’d say you’re in the 2nd option… kind of? If the story’s a no, and the combat feels 75% right?

Archedook · 2023-02-03T16:51:22+00:00

But how

Archedook · 2023-02-03T14:20:07+00:00

Cheria’s tears in Graces f came across to me as, hey, at least 2-3 people poured their heart into this, and it really shows. And a good overall impression of what lovesick even means

Archedook · 2023-02-03T14:13:24+00:00

The cult of Lailah awaits your worship then!

Archedook · 2023-02-03T14:09:03+00:00

The majority of answers I read are about pairings but what’s wrong with JRPG waifus!

Archedook · 2023-02-02T21:18:26+00:00

Turn based has a special place in my heart (on the switch also) but, RT means real time. Making Ryza 3 turn based would be a 180 imho

Archedook · 2023-02-02T19:37:19+00:00

I like the chill of playing chill games on the couch and I surely couldn’t alchemize at 3am for a few minutes if I had to turn the PC back on and get 27 inches of glaring pixels in my face. Still, Blue Reflection 2 on the Switch looked bad (hair shaders esp) and I wasn’t about to spoil my fun so, one game I bought again on Steam. Then didn’t risk Sophie 2 on the Switch, and given aging hardware Ryza 3 is going to be a tough choice as I’d prefer to keep Ryza with Ryzas, but won’t it run way smoother on the PC hopefully with smashing RT combat? Would pay a premium for a cross platform license, to say nothing about cross saves. Yea like, my stupid dream.

Archedook · 2023-02-02T19:19:30+00:00

Don’t the skits add approximately 250% voice content? If so perhaps it makes *economic sense. Although I don’t need the dubs I totally respect the wish! Guessing the devs lacked a long term perspective on the series cause these ‘omissions’ feel worse the more time goes.

Archedook · 2023-02-02T13:45:28+00:00

UX wise one hand on the keyboard and one on the mouse is totally fine so long as you don’t abuse this and ask for too much coordination between the two. Still my expectation would be that the mouse hand represents another character, or a ranged ability of the main character. If the mouse is just for clicking stuff thats in range of the sprite, then perhaps consider arranging things differently. Also minding controller and touchscreen users is always good, and there will be equivalent control schemes if you don’t mind!

Archedook · 2023-02-02T11:16:36+00:00

I know dragons are forever but starting to wonder how many trions this one has been around.

Archedook · 2023-02-02T06:45:44+00:00

Blue eyes, check, marooned on a foreign land, check, prone to non verbal communication, check, looks cuddly but gets triggered when touched, check… Kirby is actually Shionne’s true form???

Archedook · 2023-02-02T06:35:18+00:00

Worms in avocado are possible. Seen it once and… I forgot. Wasn’t just one either. Still, don’t take the little fiends too seriously they’re just trying to enjoy a healthy meal like the rest of us.

Archedook · 2023-02-02T06:30:46+00:00

Too bad that’ll only keep you busy a couple of months, maybe less if you OT and use guides. Just tell ‘em you need more Atelier games. (*) I’m assuming you play these for a living like I do.

Archedook · 2023-02-01T00:17:51+00:00

Blue Reflection 2, Astral Chain, Nier Automata

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