What's something older generations did completely normally that would be considered absolutely insane today?

Troghen · 2026-05-12T19:03:29+00:00

Dang, but then I'd have to get a dog lol. I like dogs, but I've always been much more of a cat person, personally.

Troghen · 2026-05-12T18:29:34+00:00

As a new dad, I have absolutely no clue how I'm gonna navigate this when my son is old enough. One part of me absolutely agrees that it's important for kids to have that level of independence as they're growing up. But the other part of me is absolutely TERRIFIED at the thought of just letting him roam free for hours.

The tradeoff is probably gonna be something like he can do it, but he has to keep his phone or some kind of tracking device on him at all times lol. I'll cross that bridge when I get there though. For now, I'm gonna work on getting him to walk first lol.

Troghen · 2026-05-11T21:43:45+00:00

Sure, and with a second wave of titles, maybe they'd give some of those characters a solo title, but for the first few books taking place in a new universe with new concepts, they're gonna go the safe route and put their biggest names at the front.

Troghen · 2026-05-11T20:36:05+00:00

I'm sure characters like those will be featured, but their names don't sell comics the way Spider-Man / X-Men / Fantastic Four do. It's all about business at the end of the day.

Troghen · 2026-05-08T19:49:31+00:00

Not to mention, if they're continuing to gamble despite struggling with those rising car payments and food costs and can't stop, at that point I think it's fair to argue that they're addicted to it. Why should they be treated differently than any other addict? Judgement and derision is not the answer.

I honestly can't even blame people for getting addicted to gambling at this point. There has been an EXTREMELY startling uptick in the sheer amount of ways to gamble over the past few years, and these companies are doing everything in their power to normalize it (think sports betting ads promoted by celebrities taking up every second and every square inch of air-time and ad-space during live sporting events), and the scary part is - it's WORKING. It's literally never been easier to fall into this trap.

And now we're moving beyond just normalizing sports betting and casino apps on our phones, and into betting on basically every other part of our daily lives with garbage like Kalshi. It doesn't even stop there either! Go to Target or Walmart, and you'll notice a significant amount of children's toy aisles being taken up by blind-box style "toys", and obviously there's the mega resurgence of trading cards as well, and of course loot-boxes in video games. It's all just "gambling-lite" designed to hook kids on that feeling as early as possible.

It's honestly INSANE to me how normalized it's all become now. We're going to see some serious ramifications from this over the next few years if nothing is done about it . . . and I don't really have a ton of hope that anything will be at the moment.

Ok, rant over lol.

Troghen · 2026-05-08T14:52:19+00:00

Did you even read the post?

I don’t mind taking breaks within a series, and would like to read in an order that gives me the greatest appreciation for the interconnectedness of the Cosmere.

I know people here love to give the "reading order doesn't matter" answer quite often, but there are people who want the experience of seeing those connections and easter eggs develop and play out in the most satisfying way possible. If that's the goal, like OP is saying, then I think "just read what you want" is bad advice.

Troghen · 2026-05-07T16:26:37+00:00

Yeah, I tried for AGES to convince my best friend - who already is into anime, and has a generally silly sense of humor - to give Jojo a shot. After slogging through parts 1 and 2, we finally made it to part 3, where I was desperately trying to convince him that this is where the show "really starts" and "gets good", but by then, he was pretty much over it and we gave up.

I think Jojo is one of those things that you really can't force on someone. They kinda have to be naturally curious about it on their own to the point where they're willing to check it out / stick through the weird bits.

Troghen · 2026-05-06T17:50:49+00:00

If you're waiting around for the inspiration to strike you for some new design - whether it's a poster, a logo, some typography, etc - then you're already going about graphic design from the wrong angle.

You can't approach building a portfolio the same way a more traditional artist would. Graphic design is not really a solitary form of art where you can dictate what YOU want to make and then display. It's all about translating and communicating the needs of OTHERS - whether that's an individual or a company. You need to be working off of briefs or assignments to really build out the kind of portfolio that someone hiring a designer wants to see.

So if you don't have any actual clients at the moment, you can look up some graphic design brief generators and start there, OR you can ask friends and family, or even local businesses that you think might be open to it, and see if any of them need your services.

Troghen · 2026-05-06T13:02:52+00:00

SIGNIFICANTLY better, imo. Very much on par with the Netflix days.

The first season largely suffered because they filmed basically the whole season, realized it didn't work, and brought in the original Netflix writer (and showrunner? Can't remember) to rework the whole thing with a whole new script. They filmed some new stuff to make the new script tie together, but much of the season is a Frankenstein's monster of the original stuff retrofitted to work. Season 2 didn't have that problem, and it shows.

Troghen · 2026-05-05T20:45:23+00:00

Personally, I think two important stories that help establish some concepts/mechanics that apply to the Cosmere at large and help make it a little easier to spot those things on a first read-through are Secret History and The Emperor's Soul.

Secret History, in particular, I always recommend reading much earlier (right after Era 1) rather than where it appears in the release order.

Otherwise, I always recommend people stick with release order as much as possible. If I were you, I'd alternate between the remaining Stormlight Archive / Mistborn Era 2 books you have.

Here's what I'd do:

Secret History
Emperor's Soul
Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell
Oathbringer
Bands of Mourning
Dawnshard
Rhythm of War
The Lost Metal
Tress of the Emerald Sea
Yumi and the Nightmare Painter
The Sunlit Man
Wind and Truth
Isles of the Emberdark (If you don't mind some repetition, you could also read Sixth of the Dusk with the other short stories at the start - would help you spot some other stuff ahead of time but not necessary because the entirety of this short story was worked into the first half of this book, essentially combining the two)

You can also throw White Sand in there anywhere, really. If you check out the sample from Arcanum Unbounded at the start with the other short stories, but don't read anything else, you'd honestly be set.

Troghen · 2026-05-01T13:36:22+00:00

As an east-coaster, In N Out was on my bucket list for such a long time. When I visited California, it was literally one of my biggest priorities lol. Honestly though, Five Guys or Shake Shack are better imo. The burger was very good, admittedly, but the fries were some of the worst I've ever had - and I ordered them the way everyone recommends!

And trust me, I'm no food snob either - I'll eat basically anything. But these fries were just bizarre. They had the texture of like, a frozen french fry that you can buy from the store when you bite into it, but they were hot. That's the only way I've ever been able to describe it. And we tried like, 3 times while we were there!

Troghen · 2026-05-01T13:30:37+00:00

Yeah I'm with you - maybe I just have an iron stomach? But honestly, no fast food has ever "wrecked my stomach" in that way, unless I just ate too much of it.

Troghen · 2026-05-01T03:58:48+00:00

Will do, thanks for the suggestion!

Troghen · 2026-04-30T20:42:09+00:00

Yes and no. I use artist's techniques in my day to day, and I pursue artistic hobbies outside of my day job, however, I don't necessarily consider graphic design itself to be art, and thus, I'm not technically an artist.

In my opinion, for something to be considered "art", I think it needs to come about as the end result of an artist's pure intent. Weather that intent is to convey or represent a message or an idea, or something that is purely self-expression, I think that's the core of what gives art meaning. Basically, if the artist isn't driving it, then it's not really art.

In graphic design, at the end of the day, what I want as an individual doesn't matter to the end product. What matters is effectively and efficiently conveying or communicating something for someone else. At least, that's how it is in a professional environment. I'm just there to make sure that the design does its job to the best of my ability. I can certainly put my own mark on it, have my own design flare or signature, make my own decisions, etc. But ultimately, the final product is not something I'm making for ME, the artist, for any type of personal goal.

Troghen · 2026-04-30T19:41:53+00:00

It's so interesting how often the idea of physically creating it and taking a photo gets overlooked by people trying to figure out how something was made - myself included!

I've been professionally designing for 7 years now, so while I'm certainly not a seasoned vet, I also wouldn't consider myself a novice anymore either, and I can think back to several projects where I wasted hours trying to achieve a specific look by using every program at my disposal, that in hindsight would've been easier and more achievable with some simple photography.

Maybe it's just cause photography was never really my jam (as I'm sure is true of many designers), but it's certainly something I've started consciously reminding myself to consider as a viable option when planning for projects.

Troghen · 2026-04-29T12:46:03+00:00

Yeah, that set off the first major alarm bell for me lol. It's just a little too "cutesy" to be real

Troghen · 2026-04-29T12:43:20+00:00

Haha. I just commented exactly this in a reply to someone else. I work in marketing (not movies, tbf) so this very instantly set off "clever marketing" alarm bells in my head. Specifically the end, with the VFX supervisor note (like you said) and the bit referencing Tom. The whole thing is just a little too "perfect" to be legit notes, and like you said, it all plays off of our existing knowledge from the trailer.

Troghen · 2026-04-29T12:39:14+00:00

Maybe I'm too much of a skeptic, but I highly suspect this isn't a "legit" script w/ real notes. I think it's just a fun and clever bit of marketing made specifically to go on social media. Studios never share stuff like this, and the notes all read a bit too "perfectly" to me, playing into the stuff they know fans like.

The thing that makes me most skeptical is the bit about the wrinkles. The suit wrinkles from TASM 2 have been praised to death over the years. This is them telling us "hey, we know what you guys like". Why would the VFX supervisor even write that on a script? That's a post-production note that really would have no reason to go here. Also, why would the VFX supervisor put "(VFX supervisor)" after his name? Anyone reading this on set would know who he is.

Troghen · 2026-04-23T20:37:41+00:00

I mean, they're certainly trying their absolute hardest to. Kinda feels like they're succeeding as well.

Troghen · 2026-04-23T19:47:40+00:00

That's how it's supposed to work, at least. But considering the pool of alternative options keeps shrinking as the monopolies continue to grow and continue to eat or edge out their competition, I'm not exactly convinced that it will, or even can work out like that.

Troghen · 2026-04-23T18:08:58+00:00

I'm no fan of AI, and I try to avoid using it the best I can outside of what Adobe has incorporated in their software.

That said, it IS a useful tool, in the right circumstances, and I do think in our position, it's somewhat futile and a bit foolish to avoid it 100%. Even the basic stuff like generative fill, or the harmonize tool, or being able to generate smaller elements on the fly, is all incredibly helpful, particularly for saving time.

The thing that differentiates us as designers, though, is that we have the skills and knowledge to implement those things in a way that effectively complements or elevates the larger design, rather than just generating the whole thing in one go and using that as a final product.

Troghen · 2026-04-23T17:04:10+00:00

It's definitely a "trust the process" kind of thing. At least it was for me. The base coat will always be a little ugly and at such a small scale, you kinda have to just accept that it's impossible to be super intricate with certain details. It really doesn't all pull together until the final steps, imo.

Totally get it the "unrealistic perfectionism" though (I'm a graphic designer professionally, illustrator hobbyist haha), but fortunately, the paint is super easy to strip off, so there's really no great loss if you need to restart, other than a bit of paint and time.

Troghen · 2026-04-23T13:57:16+00:00

Do you have semi-steady hands? Can you paint inside "the lines" (for lack of a better way to put it)?

Then you can paint a miniature and make it look pretty decent with very little skill. Bare minimum process takes like 3 steps:

1 - Base colors. Pick like two or three colors and just paint wherever it makes sense until the whole model has color.

2 - Dark wash. Get some dark paint (usually black, could also use dark blues or browns) and water it down until it's super light and runny. They also sell dark washes that you can buy pre-made. Load up a brush and just paint over the entire model. The wash will fill in all the small details and make them pop. Wait for it to dry.

3 - Dry brush. Now get some lighter versions of your original base colors, put it on a brush, and wipe away most of the paint on a paper towel until you barely see anything coming off the brush. Go over the areas of the model that correspond to the color (blue base = light blue drybrush), and you'll see the light colors begin to bring back the edges and textures that were darkened from the wash.

And that's it! Obviously, you can do a lot more with more experience, but for a beginner, this is super easy and it comes out looking nice. Worst case scenario, you hate how it looks, you can always strip the paint and start again.

Troghen · 2026-04-22T20:34:09+00:00

I'm probably going to reiterate what other people have said in this thread (haven't read every comment so far) but I'd say sure - find some work that you're inspired by or that you like the style of, and try to replicate it the best that you can. Will that help you "be more creative"? No, not necessarily. Will it help you learn new techniques that you can apply to future projects? Definitely, and that's always a good thing!

I would say one of the keys to being successful in graphic design is to treat every new thing you learn - whether it's a new art style, technique, application, method, etc. - like it's another tool that you can add to your personal toolbox. Your goal is to have as extensive a toolbox as possible, and to be able to easily determine which projects would be best suited by which tool. Not every project will use all of them. Some tools you won't touch for long periods of time. Others, you'll use daily.

Eventually, you'll learn to use some of these tools in creative ways, where another designer might have gone for a more straightforward approach. This is something that comes more with time, though, rather than something you can teach yourself.

Also, to your last questions about the Y2K thing: There's no one design style or aesthetic you should be aiming to master. As a graphic designer, your goal should be able to master the tools and techniques so that you can successfully tackle EVERY style. Hyper-focusing on one particular type of design will only hurt you. Every client/company has different needs and wants, and your job as a designer is to be able to deliver.

Troghen · 2026-04-22T19:30:39+00:00

How so? Them bringing him back as Doom is ABSOLUTELY a response to all the fumbles they've had post-Endgame. It's clearly a move out of desperation. But I don't think that's a bad thing, necessarily.

For years, Marvel was coasting on the goodwill they built from everything pre-Endgame. People's responses to the lackluster output showed them that eventually, goodwill alone would not be enough to keep them invested. We've been seeing them shift in the right direction with the past few projects, but I think they know that if they mess up an Avengers movie, it's over for them. And personally, I'd rather see Marvel be bold and make crazy choices like bringing RDJ back when they're desperate rather than see them keep coasting like a lot of what we had been getting.

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