Draginon

1 hour ago, Tesh said:

I actually have quite a bit to say on this issue, from both the law enforcement perspective and from someone who knows quite a bit about mental illness, but I don't want to discuss it here for risk of the discussion becoming too political. If you would like to talk about this, though, feel free to PM me. It's both a very important issue and an interesting one.

If you want to PM me go ahead.

@Orlionra If it was a case of someone who had a mental disorder that made it hard for them to take care of themselves or to understand others my opinion would be different.

That’s kind of the problem with stories like these, the news only says the guy was ‘mentally handicapped’ which could mean anything. They also didn’t give much detail but from what I can tell they were responding to a call in the area and he came at them so quickly with a knife they didn’t have time to assess the situation outside of a ‘self defense or get attacked’ scenario. The family tried to make it out as it being obvious he was disabled during the attack but when it’s that quick you don’t have time to tell by looking at someone if they have a mental disorder or not. All they could assess was a man was brandishing a knife and running at them leaving no time to think about his mental capacity. In this story all he could’ve had was a learning disability like ADD or ADHD instead of one of those judgement based ones that I don’t know the names of, but with the news simplifying it we can’t tell if it was justified self defense on the officers side or just an unfortunate accident that could’ve been avoided.

Yes, getting a change of scenery does help, though if it turns out to be something that I just don’t like it doesn’t really help. My mother is a strange duck when it comes to mental health. She knows about the struggles of them to the point that she signed up for some autism newsletter but for more problematic ones like depression she doesn’t seem to take them seriously. I’m one of those who is more understanding to serious ones but the social related ones I have more a problem being patient with since it gets to where I don’t want to be around them after a few minutes.

I went through some pretty bad depression over the past year. I can normally handle it during a normal year because I can distract myself with something fun and enjoyable to do or look forward to. Well with travel being so restrictive over the past year I got days where I was just going through the motions and not enjoying myself at all. I’m not even the kind of person who can handle doing only going to work and going to the house to sleep so it took it’s toll on me and I got into burnout city. It got so bad I actually hit a mental wall and just couldn’t continue doing any work the day it happened.

Then the time came for contract renewal and as soon as my mother made sure I clicked yes for returning something broke in me and I ended up sending a big text to our supervisor about how I was feeling because I needed to get it off my chest because I just couldn’t hold it in any longer. The first thing she did was contact my mother, we work together so it’s not exactly a privacy issue, and we talked things through though I don’t think she took my depression concerns seriously since I told her that when I broke I just felt like things would be better if I just didn’t wake up and while she appeared sad in the moment she didn’t say anything to dissuade the problem just brush it under the rug like it’s an ignorable problem instead of something that needs to be fixed with therapy.

——————

I saw this on the news this morning and last night and it’s relevant to the topic.

The police in a town nearby had shot a man who was coming at them with a knife, as in full on attack them, and standard protocol is to shoot someone who is being dangerous. People are having a problem with this because the man apparently had a mental disorder and thus ‘couldn’t possibly pose a threat’. So why is it considered okay to attack someone with intent to kill as long as they’re mental but if you’re of sound mind suddenly it’s not? I just don’t understand the logic that mental handicaps prevent you from being a threat to anyone even when you’re brandishing a knife and running towards someone to shank them.

Just watched Don't Look Now. I had heard about the film and it’s twist ending before watching this and it was mesmerizing to watch. I was actually surprised that the 

featured so little. From what I had heard about this film I thought he was being haunted and hounded by the red coat the whole film but before he actually chases after her she only appears twice.

New up will be a series of documentaries by Louis Malle.

Got 5 of the 7 volumes of Detective Conan I ordered on Amazon (waiting on 3 and 7) and was surprised that the names were changed. They used the names that the anime dub used and when looking at the wiki it looks like only those that were in the first 130? episodes had their names changed to sound more ‘American friendly’ but everyone else still has Japanese names so you eventually start seeing a shift in the names until the OG crew sticks out. One notable example is Heiji Hattori becoming Harley Hartwell but his love interest is still Kazuha even though she had a translated name in the anime while Ai wasn’t in the dubbed episodes but she got translated to Anita.

Now some I don’t mind as much with the translated name, Inspector Megure to Meguire, because it’s still pronounced the same but I just don’t like that they decided to keep this outdated convention from the 80’s and 90’s with this manga since I checked Viz’s website and the newest one they show still has these names going. If they ever get to the end of the story and decide to reissue the entire thing with correct names I’ll definitely rebuy them in the future.

Watched La Dolce Vita over the course of three nights. Interesting and visually pleasing. I had never seen an Italian film before and had heard of their weird sound dubbing practices but I didn’t realize it was going to be distracting when you actually watch the mouths of the actors. You can sort of tell who was speaking Italian and who wasn’t but most of the time the sound was usually off by a second so it reminded me of old Japanese dubs but worse.

I also watched last nights livestream for #MakeMoreMST3K where Joel, Felicia, Mary Jo, Rebecca and Yvonne watched Quest of the Delta Knights since it’s the only episode that is not on video that they have the license for. There were some good jokes but it was sometimes hard to hear over the group chatter. It was also nice having Pearl in the theater and Joel proposed having Pearl back in the theater for an episode of the season. Also they met their latest milestones and will include a 3D movie in the season and give everyone Kingavision glasses. I also upped my pledge by $50 for a keychain and a tiki mug they added to the add-ons. We’re so close to 4.4M to get 9 episodes and getting Joel in the theater for an episode. Just hoping the upcoming livestreams are enough to push to the final 5.5M to get 12 episodes, 12 shorts and Joel in the theater for 2 films.

In addition to Dawnshard I’m also reading some manga. I’m doing a few chapters before bed since they are long runners. The one I’m currently on is Pokémon Adventures: Red, Blue and Green Chapter. I got the omnibus editions so I’ve got three volumes (volume 2 is in the mail) and that is just the first 9 volumes of the tankobans which will bring me into the third story arc overall. These editions will be 10 volumes containing the first 29 tankobans containing all the story to the end of the Hoenn region (pretty much RBG, Y, GSC, RS, FRLG, E) and they haven’t said anything yet on if Sinnoh onwards will get the omnibus treatment or not.

The other manga I’m going to be reading is Detective Conan/Case Closed. The age range is hard to talk about since in Japan it’s marketed towards kids but by US standards it’s too mature for kids but too kiddy for teens/adults so Viz Media has a hard time finding the right marketing tool for this.

There are others I want to get into or back into since some have finished their run (Silver Spoon and Food Wars) or sound awesome (The Way of the Househusband where a former Yakuza boss becomes a househusband and deals with the role like a yakuza would!) so I’m looking into those as well.

I’m watching a Fellini film and realized simplifying the plot so far sounds like another film of his:

Now try to figure out if I’m talking about La Dolce Vita or 8 1/2 (or 9 the musical)

Am now going to read Dawnshard and afterwards will reattempt to read Rhythms of War. I first started reading it when it first came out in November but at the time I wasn’t in the mood, I wasn’t having a good life at that point so a book starting with war stuff wasn’t what I needed at that point and I was getting lost on the stuff that is mentioned being shown in Dawnshard so I put it down after 7 or 8 chapters.

Also reading the Pokemon Adventures manga at home. It has been a long time since I even read this manga or even bought manga. I got enough to finish the Red, Blue and Green chapter along with the Yellow chapter so I got the first three omnibuses. This series is going to be crazy since these omnibuses will be 10 volumes and it only goes to the end of Emerald meaning I will have to find a different way to read Diamond and Pearl onwards.

Wasn’t having the best time driving home from Frisco, crazy Dallas drivers causing accidents and near accidents, but came home to find these had been delivered:

Now I can finally get back into Sanderson!

19 hours ago, Spren of Kindness said:

I'm hoping that there's some form of hard copy as well.  I'm not only bad at operating streaming platforms, I don't really trust them.  

Where are you finding good Wikipedia synopses?  I've never come across one that actually gave me the information I need for a show or movie.

I’m just reading the ones on Wikipedia itself just to get the gist of what’s happening, same went with Wandavision and the same will go for the other shows if there’s no video release.

With Sharon Carter now being a villain (I’m not clear if Power Broker is a villain in the comics) I’m wondering if Marvel is setting us up for a ‘fallen heroes’ arc since there is the speculation of Wanda being the villain of Doctor Strange 2.

Anyone else hoping these shows come to Blu-ray because of not being a fan of streaming in general? It’s hard being a MCU fan and only able to read the synopsis on Wikipedia just to keep up.

Helping fund 3 Kickstarters. #MakeMoreMST3K (I did the $250 level that includes almost everything), 8-Bit Theater script book (I did the $128 deluxe edition set) and Less Than Secret (I did the $50 cryptid art commission with the paperback added on). I actually hadn’t planned on doing anymore Kickstarters until WOR Leatherbound but these were too good to pass up since I like MST3K, remembered how much I liked 8-Bit Theater back in the day and the anthology looked cool.

Finished The Light Fantastic and while I didn’t like it as much as The Colour of Magic I still enjoyed it more. I liked seeing Rincewind being happy in the end after getting the spell out of his head. The sequence where the Discworld was saved was almost surreal to the point I’m not sure if that was actually the result of the spells or what the space turtle was going to do anyway and it was just a massive coincidence (wouldn’t put it Terry to have that be the case)

I’m taking a tiny break because I got the notification for Kickstarter for Dawnshard so I don’t want to start something else and drop it in the middle.

Watched Harold and Maude. I liked it but the 70’s Hollywood direction style is something I don’t like since in most 70’s movies it’s like Hollywood wants you to feel bored watching the films and somehow make 90 minute films feel twice as long. I only really have this problem with 70’s films since the other decades don’t put me in that mood unless the film actually is boring.

Just watched Mon Oncle. M. Hulot is right up there with the Tramp and Mr Bean for comic characters. Heck it definitely felt like a silent film despite not being one at all.

It also included L’ecole des facteurs and I loved how Tati can translate cartoon gags with real people since I was reminded of the old school Disney shorts.

Finished watching Dragon Ball GT last night. I definitely grew out of enjoying shows like this since the fight scenes bored me enough I went to play a game on my iPad until the fights were over. Oh well, at least it’s out of the way.

Also went on a Madonna tour watch and I liked all of them except for Rebel Heart. Something about it didn’t click for me at all. What probably started it off wrong was that section 1 was religion and sex combined to the point that the dancers during Holy Water were dressed as stripper nuns and ended with The Last Supper turning into an orgy. Then section 2 was called rockabilly Tokyo and it didn’t click either, the only song I liked being Heartbreak City. The transition song was S.E.X. and was Like a Virgin Blonde Ambition version on steroids so it was almost pornography in nature. Section 3 was her Latin stuff and I only like the 80’s medley. Section 4 on the other hand I loved. Between the 1920’s theming and the song choices I wished the entire show was more like it.

Final Fantasy 7 is getting an actual remake next year called Ever Crisis. Just from the screenshots it’s a graphical update of the entire series on IOS. For those worried it’ll be terrible looking it’s FF7Remake in appearance.

Now for why I said an actual remake, technically Remake isn’t a remake, it’s a stealth sequel storywise. Sephiroth from after the game, yes he’s dead but he has that funny habit of coming back, is trying to change the past this this is both a sequel and an AU. Something else that confirms this is a sequel is three endgame bosses that are apparently the spirits of the villains from Advent Children as revealed in the Ultimania. Going to be interesting how much differently things will go if future stuff is messing with the timeline.

Final Fantasy 7 is getting an actual remake next year called Ever Crisis. Just from the screenshots it’s a graphical update of the entire series on IOS. For those worried it’ll be terrible looking it’s FF7Remake in appearance.

Now for why I said an actual remake, technically Remake isn’t a remake, it’s a stealth sequel storywise. Sephiroth from after the game, yes he’s dead but he has that funny habit of coming back, is trying to change the past this this is both a sequel and an AU. Something else that confirms this is a sequel is three endgame bosses that are apparently the spirits of the villains from Advent Children as revealed in the Ultimania. Going to be interesting how much differently things will go if future stuff is messing with the timeline.

This is kind of tv related:

MakeMoreMST3K.com

Joel is doing another Kickstarter to bring MST3K back for season 13 and this time it’s going to be on its own platform! They’ve already met their $2M goal and to get a full season, plus a dozen shorts, they will need $5.5M. I hope they get that many backers since they got to $6M last time.

Kind of getting prices for a solo trip I want to do next year. The pricing will determine how much I do.

The trip in question is a disney cruise out of Dover and I’m not sure if I’ll do a single cruise or a back to back one. The first cruise is a Norwegian Fjords trip that visits Alesund, Nordfjordeid, Eidfjord and Stavanger with two sea days. The second one is a British isles trip that visits Portland/Stonehenge, Cork, Liverpool, Belfast, Greenock/Edinburgh/Glasgow.

Since there is a 6 hour time difference between me and Dover and jet lag is very possible I’m thinking of adding an Adventures by Disney London trip to the beginning to help mitigate it.

The only thing that’s going to be a pain is getting prices for airfare since the travel agent I’m getting prices from doesn’t do it anymore and Disney has an ‘add airfare’ option that I could do. Looking it up myself the prices ranged from ~$600-~$1000 when looking at the prices for the same time for this year, the prices don’t go far enough ahead to check the actual dates, since the only airlines that service Dallas and Heathrow are American Airlines and British Airways. Any other options require transfers but all the flights tend to be overnight ones so I really don’t want to fly to New York and get on a transfer in the middle of the night.

On 3/28/2021 at 7:47 AM, BreezeCauthon said:

Purely out of curiosity, is Islam really categorized as a 'Western' religion? I was gonna quibble that Christianity was technically founded in the Middle East, but that's a pointless assertion if even Islam is 'Western.'

The Middle East is in that weird middle ground when it comes to East and West. If we went by the Europe definition that includes Turkey, Cyprus and the Caucuses. If we use the Eurozone defined by the EBU that includes a vast majority of the Middle East which is an overlap for the religion side.

If we defined the Middle East as being Asia/East then it’s Eastern.

I guess it all depends on where you choose to place the Middle East in terms of West vs East. Of course if we include the wider Muslim world you have to consider Africa and determine if they are considered West, East or their own thing. The only part of the Muslim world I would definitely call Eastern though is the Indonesian branch of it.

I’m applying for a new job, I’m just at that point where a career change is necessary for my own mental well-being, and I just want to ask if it’s normal for jobs that have yearly contract renewals to do so 3-4 months before the end of it. I’m asking since I work at a school and the end of the contract is sometime in June or July for admin but they do the intent to return in March which makes it hard to apply for any other job since they tend to only keep it open for you around a month meaning I would technically have to quit early just to get the new job. I just feel like this isn’t normal for a renewal when it comes to a job.

On 3/26/2021 at 3:33 PM, Orlionra said:

Woot! I just got my first Pfizer shot and the second one is scheduled! 

Got mine as well.

I wasn’t raised religious so when I was a kid I didn’t understand what people were talking about when they did mention anything faith related. It wasn’t until my family moved to Texas, about 10, that the stuff ramped up and I seriously went into ‘what the hell are they talking about?’ since I still wasn’t aware of religion as a concept. I knew of churches of course but only knew of them as places people got married at so I only knew them as marriage buildings.

As I got into my teen years I was getting more aware of it, mostly just Christianity, and it was just annoying me so much because I didn’t believe or follow that way of life (had a classmate who assumed because I wasn’t a self proclaimed Christian that I HAD to be atheist which I quickly objected to). Even going into adulthood I didn’t like hearing anything Christian related, I have personal bully related reasons I don’t want to get into here, but I liked reading about the Eastern faiths like Hinduism, Buddhism and Shinto. Even visited a local Buddhist temple and I liked it more than a church.

Nowadays I would just call myself non-religious as a rule since I don’t believe in any specific god or follow any doctrine but if I had to pick any I’d choose one of the Eastern ones. Heck I’m more into the Olympians, Egyptians, Norse and various others than the OG/Allah/what have yous of Western faiths.

So yeah, I’m complicated where all this is concerned.