dragontology

Reminds me of Doctor Who and how this awesome time-traveling, space-hopping demigod mostly only cares about this one random island (Great Britain).

The Doctor did come to America for a season (with the Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith) and America has been mentioned a couple times (e.g. “New New York”, though that was an alien city) but for the most part, the series is UK-centric because it’s made in the UK.

Most anime takes place in Japan, if it’s from Japan. The Apothecary Diaries is a recent one that takes place in China. That’s weird. When anime is set in the west — for example, Fullmetal Alchemist and its sequel, Attack on Titan, Saga of Tanya the Evil, and SPYxFAMILY all being set in Germany, and The Promised Neverland taking place in the US (minor spoiler, some of these don’t actually take place there, but you’re led to believe they do) — Japan likes to make a live-action version that IS set in Japan, however ridiculous that ends up being. I guess they’re a bit xenophobic, but so are we, so… not gonna hold it against 'em, but rather, just be thankful for more entertainment options.

So, it happens. Placing the action in another country. It’s not normal, though.

Same word, same pronunciation, different meaning. In other parts of the world, cunt is a derogatory but generally endearing term for a male friend. In the US, it specifically refers to a woman’s genitals — more to the point, saying that’s the only useful thing about her.

Context matters. If you’re copying someone and I say you’re aping them, that’s an acceptable term. However, if they’re Black, you might wanna choose a different word. Associating Black/African-Americans with primates in any way is considered to be extremely racist. Imitating is perfectly acceptable as an alternative.

Back to cunt, it doesn’t even mean the same thing in Europe (English-speaking countries). You want fanny for that, but I’ve never heard of anyone calling someone a fanny to mean that they have one and its use is all they’re good for.

Furthermore, in the US, cunt is a curse. A curse is a kind of insult that goes beyond the surface level. It strikes you in your soul, and if it’s effective, it will stick with you. An insult can be brushed aside, but a curse lingers. The best curse I know isn’t even real, and it’s Hab SoSlI’ Quch, which is Klingon for “your mother has a smooth forehead.” YOUR mother has a smooth forehead (most likely) and so does mine. However, Klingons, from Star Trek, are defined by their bony forehead ridges. But mating across humanoid species is mostly possible in Star Trek, so the claim is that your mother isn’t Klingon. I should also point out that in Klingon society, honor (and dishonor) is hereditary, meaning the virtues and failings of a father are carried by his son. And that Klingon women are stronger than human men, and some Klingon men in fact. Klingon sex is violent, with hitting, kicking, and sometimes cutting. It’s a battle, basically. So for a Klingon man to have a partner with a smooth forehead, it means he’s not man enough for a Klingon woman… and his son probably isn’t, either. Worf, the Klingon on Star Trek: The Next Generation and its movies and spinoffs, portrayed by Michael Dorn, has a son by a human woman… and his honor is rarely questioned. Though I’m sure his son, Alexander, has been teased about it (his forehead ridges are less pronounced than other Klingon children, so it’s kind of obvious). Now that’s a curse that hits low and hard.

I use a Mac. It’s like Linux (UNIX actually, OS X is based on NextStep which was based on UNIX) but with corporate backing. It’s as user friendly as Windows. And the AI has an off switch. Siri can be disabled.

I like it. I feel like Apple is the last real computer company left that makes their own software. I don’t know how “real” the company is, though. The iPhone is straight up jank. Always hallucinating text on the keyboard after you type it. Changing what you say to appease some unseen overlord. But I don’t want to use a phone made by an advertising company either. That’s dystopian AF, topped only by the legions who will defend it. But I’m not sure it’s entirely worse.

I liked Dragon Age Origins but I couldn’t figure out the ending. Difficulty ramps way up, it feels like you’re meant to lose the fight, but when you do it just starts the mission over. If the game has an ending I never found it, so I just quit and read Wikipedia.

Couldn’t get into the second one.

You can’t really talk about BioWare games without talking about Mass Effect though. The first one is kinda trash, but it sets up the story. The first one is also badly broken and it never got fixed. The Legendary Edition is the first three combined and it fixes most of the bullshit the first one was on. The fourth one was good too, but don’t pay for any online stuff. They still sell it despite the server shutdown years ago. Just buy the base game. First half is great, second half is nothing but fetch quests. I think it was also going to have romances and maybe a sex scene, but all I got was friend zoned by everyone. So I guess they ran out of budget there, too. Honestly the first half is great and it’s worth finishing, but it’s exactly like that meme with the horse drawing that goes from good to terrible. The ending was such a let down and they teased DLC that never came.

Loved this game. The Skyrim Grandma infamously rage quit this game. But it’s really no harder than Skyrim if you’re reasonably good at that. It just has a few tricks The Elder Scrolls never attempted, like areas that don’t level with you and are really hard until you’re ready for them… and radiation from Fallout except it’s magic residue.

Enderal is also much darker than Skyrim. I caught myself saying, “Holy shit they really did that” a couple times.

The Witcher 3 includes all the DLC now, and it’s like $10 on Xbox. Or at least that’s what I paid last week. Just started for the first time.

If you don’t do it every day or on a regular basis, you lose the drive.

Also, between AI, fan fiction, and social media, no one from the newer generations is reading original hand written fiction anymore. Some are, I’m sure, but most of, say, Stephen King’s Constant Readers are Boomers, Gen X, and Millennials. Looking at Gen Z and later, they know who Stephen King is, but most of them don’t care. They’ll watch a Stephen King movie, but never care about the book. And that’s Stephen King. One is the world’s biggest and most prolific writers (and my favorite) isn’t getting new readers. So how do you think the little guys are faring?

If you wanna write to write and not get paid and have a few people read it, write fan fiction and publish it on Ao3. If you wanna write original stuff, write fan fiction and convert, like what happened with Fifty Shades (it was originally Twilight fan fiction). Even still, it’s rare that that’s profitable.