dragontology

To put that into context, I’m an iPhone guy who uses Android on the side. My old S10 will never have that issue (it doesn’t get updated anymore), but for my next Android phone, that’s one of the first things I’m doing. Enabling developer settings. Turning off the animation speed entirely. And that. So for 24 hours I won’t be able to sideload. After that: it’s open season forever.

Not sure how it’ll go for existing Android users. I imagine you’ll get an update and your sideloaded apps will be disabled, then you’ll enable sideloading, and after the 24 hours, they’ll be enabled again.

Sorry for the late reply. .hack//SIGN has not aged well. I first watched it in Japanese with fan subs, and I had nothing to base my expectations on. It was bad, but I didn’t know any better. Years later I watched the English dub, and it was borderline unwatchable, so I tried going back to the Japanese version, and it wasn’t any better. I don’t think it was meant to be good (in that way) and I don’t think it can be saved.

The second season of .hack (Legend of the Twilight; also called Legend of the Twilight Bracelet in fansub) went full chibi. This actually started, I believe, with an OVA to SIGN (the first season) called .hack//GIFT, which ended with the boys spying on the girls in the bath. The whole thing was a farce, but the chibi element dominated the second season. .hack tried to take itself way more seriously with the third season, but I couldn’t get into it. I think I got 8 episodes in before throwing in the towel?

.hack is not good, IMO. Maybe there’s a point to be made. SAO, on the other hand, works very hard to make you think it’s cool. And it is cool. As an old guy who grew up with Star Wars, I think it’s a great modern media franchise. Certainly better than any of the last three mainline Star Wars films, and arguably SAO is also better than Phantom Menace, and a case could be made for the other two. It does borrow quite a bit from .hack (or maybe they both just borrow MMO tropes; I never played MMOs), but it expands on those ideas greatly. For example, .hack//Another Story. Another OVA where one of the main girls is telling one of the guys about her first friend in the game, this unbeatable girl warrior and the sacrifice she made. So when the last third or so of SAO season 2 came out, and here comes a similar purple-haired female duelist, I said “oh I bet she’s logged in 24/7.” And I’m not going to spoil it, but while SAO took the story in the same direction, it went way deeper, and was so much more satisfying. I knew how the story was going to end because I’d seen the original. But SAO did it way, way better. Honestly, if the Mother’s Rosary (name of the book it’s based on) section of SAO were a standalone anime, it would probably be my favorite anime of all time.

Interesting… I don’t love oatmeal which makes me wonder if I won’t love oat milk, but again, I’m certainly willing to try it!

When I think of grains, I think of oat in terms of oatmeal, wheat in terms of wheat farina (e.g. Cream of Wheat), and corn in terms of corn meal (or corn bread — no offense to vegans, I’m not sure you can make that without milk and/or egg, but you can probably use vegan substitutes… I like honey in mine, so that might offset any “weird” taste of a vegan cornbread). So my first thought is “what about wheat ‘milk’?”. Because cream of wheat kicks the crap out of oatmeal. IMO. But I’m not sure you can make a cream suitable for coffee with wheat farina.

Love Tom’s work ethic. He makes fun movies and does his own stunts. He’s also batshit crazy, which works out for us… and part of a dangerous cult, which is not so good.

The second Top Gun movie only exists because Tom Cruise wanted to be Luke Skywalker. It’s a shameless ripoff of Star Wars. It’s also a really fun movie that is worth watching despite all the legit marks against it.

Until we know better, can we so start calling the new one Top Gun and the Sorcerer’s Stone? Because when I think flying, Potter on his broom was the first thought I had… and Tom Cruise certainly can’t do worse than that AI slop looking trailer HBO put out.

How do you milk oats?

I’m not trying to troll the vegans here, though I do feel a sense of sarcasm here. But it’s not because I consume animal products; it’s because I enjoy coffee and I’m wondering what… whatever “oat milk” is …adds to coffee.

For the record, straight up milk is nasty in coffee and I don’t understand why people do it. Creamer mixes milk and cream. Hot coffee does something to milk that just makes the whole cup gross. I think the thicker, heartier cream holds its own against the coffee.

So in my head I’m thinking you juice the oats somehow, but I’m not sure how you get cream without any cow’s milk. Soy?

I go to a local coffee shop and they do oat milk. I’m not vegan but I’m not opposed to vegan solutions. So I am curious about the oat milk. Can anyone explain without getting political, strictly on culinary basis, what oat milk brings to coffee?

A friend told me about Bad Omens (metal) and I’ve been listening to them. I don’t usually like heavy music these days, but sometimes it can be cool and they have some clever lyrics.

First anime was .hack//SIGN.

First impression of anime was, giant robots, fights that took several episodes, and girls way too young to show that much skin. I asked my anime obsessed cousins to show me something intelligent that didn’t have any of those three things, and they delivered — see first answer.

Favorite series is Sword Art Online, but I prefer one season and done miniseries like Erased end Your Lie in April. Also The Promised Neverland and Tokyo Ghoul — we don’t talk about their seasons beyond the first. Favorite movies are your name. and Wolf Children.

Only one bad experience with anime I can think of. My cousins who got me into anime were watching one when a child goes into a changing room and it shows everything. That was creepy AF. We were all teenagers so it wasn’t like “I should report this to the police” but more like “let me catch you looking at that again and I will kick both your asses.” I don’t remember what they were watching, if they told me.

I feel like they’re missing opportunities and leaving money on the table with this franchise. The fake band should be putting out music outside of the movies.

One-Winged Angel. Just the intro, before the Latin. Specifically this version.

The best final boss music to a video game was 29 years ago and has not been topped since. Of course, with the rise of PlayStation and disc-based games (ironically, where Final Fantasy 7 was released and in which form), games became more about the journey than that final fight. There were still “last boss fights,” but they became less the focus and more about the end of the journey. But after beating Sephiroth for the first time, and he sprouts a wing (just the one!) and this song kicks in, and the real fight begins… that’s when you knew you were in some shit. Especially if you reached max level and Sephiroth took literally an hour to beat (I think this was an early anti-cheat thing).