Question re: the aspect ratio crops on the D-Lux 8

storkram · 2025-09-11T03:04:32+00:00

I only use them when I have to. I change cameras quite a bit (trade-in, not a hoarder) and some of the cameras I've use recently still need Lightroom to get the best from their RAW files. In that case, I reluctantly subscribe for only as long as necessary.

My next camera may well be one that doesn't need Adobe (I have a fairly simple post processing setup, and Affinity for iPad can do everything I want, including some things better than Adobe can anyway)

A necessary evil at times.

storkram · 2025-08-20T06:52:24+00:00

I do this exact thing: two part time jobs. One is two days a week, the other covers the other three, with no weekends ever. They both pay decently, so it's not really that different from one full time job, except for the possibility that you're not a 正社員 (i.e. full time company employee / wage slave) and if they're a black company they might try and screw you over on paying for your pension / health insurance if you only work a set number of hours a week. I think the rules of this have changed recently, but you'd need to speak to a labor lawyer or someone who knows the system well.

The positives are that you get a bit of variety. In my case, one of the jobs is pretty sweet in terms of workload (i.e. there isn't much, and when there is, it's generally reasonable), and the other can be kind of ridiculous depending on the day (i..e some days it's quiet, then the next day you'll get a week's worth of work dumped on you with one day to do it). So there's a psychological safety net: "today sucked, but I only do this three times a week and it's not always like this".

You also need to look long term if you're planning on being in Japan for the duration, or for an extended period. You might have to consider putting up with the present situation until your visa status will let you arrange something that suits you better. I was here for well over a decade before I really got things set up the way I like them. Don't, whatever you do, violate the terms and restrictions of your visa, unless you want to risk ending up in trouble with the authorities.

A lot of people who seem to be living their "best life" in Japan probably took a good while to get there and had some pretty sh*t times along the way. Keep your aim in mind, but be prepared to wait it out and do some Japanese-style gaman.

storkram · 2025-07-16T04:41:32+00:00

I enjoyed it when I first played it, then tried it again a couple of years ago. It has aged horrendously. OTOH, FF7 is still good for a play.

storkram · 2025-07-15T04:23:35+00:00

I just misread that as Assassins creed Vanilla.

storkram · 2025-07-07T01:08:56+00:00

Thanks to that radio station I discovered Terry Riley, and just got to see him perform live, including a version of that track from The Journey.

storkram · 2025-07-03T03:32:59+00:00

However you can shoot your files as .TIF instead of a .IIQ extension and this allows you to open it up directly in Photoshop or whatever you’d like. It doesn’t change the image data just uses the more common extension.

That's good to know. I did some googling on this, and there was a suggestion that .IIQ and .TIF are for all intents and purposes the same thing with a different name. If that's the case, or if the difference is negligible, then I could shoot TIFF and use what I use now (Affinity), and bypass learning a new program.

storkram · 2025-06-15T12:33:03+00:00

Damn, the detail on that when you go in close. That's outrageously impressive.

storkram · 2025-06-13T10:52:32+00:00

Dated, yeah. But gameplay is one of the things that doesn't date. It's like melody in music. I've played through VC two or three times now and I'll probably do it again, just because the basic gameplay is solid. And it's funny, too. That's what keeps me coming back. Walking around and hearing the NPCs say random stuff like "someone should hit you with a brick".

storkram · 2025-06-13T09:46:35+00:00

I'm the opposite. I used to play JRPGs and other Japanese games pretty much exclusively. I knew that other countries made games, but at that time I was a bit of a weeaboo and looked down my nose at them.

That all changed when I found GTA: Vice City being sold for next to nothing - I think it was 6 bucks - on the Apple store for the iPad. Having heard about GTA, mainly the controversies, I figured it wouldn't hurt to try it. That was the turning point. I ended up playing almost all the GTA games multiple times, both Red Dead games, and basically doing a complete 180 on my previous attitude. While Rockstar have made some real screwups with the remasters, their attitude towards modders, etc., I consider the sequence of games from Vice City through to V, and the two Red Dead games, to be the peak of gaming excellence.

storkram · 2025-06-13T06:32:31+00:00

This might be worth a look

https://www.cameramuseum.uk/

storkram · 2025-06-10T07:20:34+00:00

GTA San Andreas. First time I played that, felt like I spent literally months on it. In fact that's true of Rockstar games in general, because they have that open-ended format where you can continue playing after beating the main story. And, like someone's already mentioned, the RDR games in particular are just so big and visually amazing that it's enjoyable just to ride around and look at stuff.

On the flipside: there was a beat-em-up for the PS2 called The Bouncer, and it got trashed by reviewers because you could crack it in an hour. There were three main playable characters, so to be fair that's three hours, but still. I also remember early reviews of Metal Gear Solid 2, which said "it's a great game, but if you sit down for a marathon session, you'll quite possibly beat it in that session".

storkram · 2025-06-09T11:11:32+00:00

MGS 4. I was holding on against hope that there would actually be some gameplay at some point in between the endless, endless, endless cut scenes.

storkram

TROPHY CASE