efaardvark

FWIW, I've been playing way too much Kerbal Space Program lately. It is one of those games where I sit down to play and the next thing I know it is 8 hours later and I need sleep. If you have a PC and like space exploration then you might want to give it a shot.

Just kind of randomly started re-watching Kotoura-san this evening. OMG! I'd forgotten how depressing & sad the first episode is!

I don't game as much as I like - that whole life & priorities thing - but I definitely like playing games. Lately I've been kind of fixated on a kind of space sim or sandbox called Kerbal Space Program. It's a hoot if you're into physics or space exploration, and works great on Linux (Ubuntu 17.10). The only thing I don't like is that it is based on Unity and so doesn't use all the cores on my old FX-8370. My CPU is running at 4.0Ghz though so it isn't really an issue. I did manage to grab a 8G RX480 GFX board before the miners bid up the prices last year too, which also helps. The system also has 32GB of RAM because I sometimes run a few VMs when I'm working. I like your Ryzen system. I'm considering doing that for my next build. That or maybe even a threadripper system. I want to get into some more GPU/CPU intensive stuff - modeling for 3d printing and VR mainly - so I'm looking for more processing power & maybe abump on the GPU as well. What I've got should still be good for a while yet however, and threadripper still had some issues under linux last I checked. I'll probably reevaluate things towards the middle of next year & maybe decide which direction to go then.

I'm pretty picky about my science fiction. I mean, I don't get militant or anything, and I'll read/watch most anything for the entertainment of it, but I consider pop-scifi like Star Wars or Star Trek fantasy. Ok, but definitely not as interesting as the good stuff. I have a background/profession in physics, space exploration, and programming so the "harder" the science is the better as far as I'm concerned. I'm talking a 5 or 6 on the hardness scale before I consider it "real" science fiction. Like I said, anything's fine for the entertainment, but to really pique my interest and get my imagination engaged it has to be solid enough that even with my background I can actually picture it happening in our real universe. I love stuff like Planetes or Ghost in the Shell. My favorite SF authors are mostly scientist- or engineer-writers like Asimov, Clarke, Niven, etc. I'd much rather see stories about the socioeconomics of humans colonizing all those thousands of (dwarf) planets out in our own Kuiper belt and Oort cloud with O'Neil habitats, thorium power, and sub-light trade than something Federation-like with magical tech like FTL/warp drives, time travel, and matter teleporters. I'd be more impressed with Gandalf if he were actually a cyborg with his own nanite cloud and built-in wireless. That said, sometimes there's not that much actual difference in the setting or plot. (Consider Sword Art Online vs Log Horizons for instance.) It's all good, but I definitely prefer stories that pay more than lip-service to the "science" part of "science fiction".

@Norvath ... I wanted to like that one but I just couldn't get into it. The Mary Sue leads left me flat, and the ending arc kind of lost focus in trying to outdo itself. Hattori was probably the most interesting character for me. At least he seemed to evolve a bit over time. Not to say the show didn't have its moments - I did like the big Monolith Code match between Tatsuya's and Masaki's teams in the competition arc for example - but by the end I was kind of glad it was over.

Anyone have links to their favorite anime music to share? Spotify would be great, as I have "game" and "anime" playlists there, but youtube, or ?? is fine too. (For anyone with a spotify account, here's a link to my "anime" playlist .)

IKR! I got to the end and I was like, WTF?!?

Theoretically I learned German in HS (2 semesters), but after all these years of non-use pretty much the only thing I still remember is "Guten tag". My French is.. well, the less said about that the better. I transferred in halfway through the semester from a typing class when I broke my finger playing basketball and I never really caught up. I do know enough spoken Japanese to get into trouble. I prefer the Japanese audio when watching anime, and I often turn off subtitles entirely when watching, especially on material I'm familiar with. Some animes I simply can't stand in the dubbed version. (Clannad comes to mind.) Apart from anime I hear it a lot at work too. (We have a fair number of people from all over the world there, including some from JAXA, but also ISRO and some ESA nations too. I really wish I was one of those people who could speak like 6 different languages. At one point I tried to convince my boss to pay for real Japanese language classes, but unfortunately he wasn't having any of it.) Anyway, bottom line is that I can't think fast enough to speak it very well, but I can usually understand it ok. I'm a big reader though and I'd really like to be able to read Japanese too. I hate having to wait for the anime to come out when I know the manga is several seasons ahead. Sometimes, like with Suzuka, the anime isn't popular enough or the anime ends for some reason before it gets to the more interesting parts later in the manga. Unfortunately while I can handle the hiragana/katakana well enough to sight-read I've hit something of a wall on the kanji. As a result the only material I can really access is gradeschool level, or maybe a bit higher if it has furigana. I need to find time to do some serious kanji drill with flash cards or something. If anyone knows a good web site or phone app for kanji drill I'd appreciate hearing about it!

The second half of "Itazura na Kiss" after they get out of HS has some pretty romantic spots. (Too bad Irie is such an ass.) "Ai Yori Aoshi" also has its moments. I think my favorite is probably "Say I Love You". "Kimi Ni Todoke" was good too. "Lovely Complex" was more entertaining than romantic, but it is also worth a watch.

The last movie I (re)watched was Miyazaki's "Whisper of the Heart" last week. It is an older one, but anything Miyazaki is worth another view now and then. I can't remember the movie before that. Maybe "The 13th Warrior"? Not an anime, but good nevertheless.

I hate having to pick THE favorite - there's so many to choose from! - but I think the Ghost in the Shell series is probably at or near the top of my list. I've also really liked (in no particular order) Haibane Renmei, Shakugan no Shana, Mushi-Shi, all the Haruhi Suzumiya episodes and movies (except maybe the infamous "Endless Eight" arc.. OMG!), Clannad: After Story, Lovely Complex, Spice and Wolf, Natsume's Book of Friends, Angel Beats!, Usagi Drop, Humanity Has Declined (the banana episode always makes me lol), the Bakemonogatari series, Shigatsu Kimi no Uso, Shin Sekai Yori, Kokoro Connect, Pet Girl of Sakurasou (first season anyway), Kotoura-san, Blue Spring Ride, Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash. Also all the Ghibli movies.. I just watched Whispers of the Heart again a couple weeks ago, but also Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro... So, so many more.. Hard to even make a top-10 list! I know I'll think of more as soon as I post this too.

Due to a lack of time I don't play nearly as much as I'd like, but I'm a big fan of video games. Everything from coin-op arcade games like Space Wars and Gauntlet back in the day to PC games like Doom or Quake to more recent MMORPGs like WoW and Skyrim, I've at least tried most everything - and played some a lot more than I probably should have. Sandbox/simulation games are what I keep coming back to however. I've played pretty much every version of Sim<anything> over the years, even SimEarth and SimAnt. I used to be really into Minecraft back when it was still Mojang/Notch. These days my current obsession is Kerbal Space Program (with the Kerbal Engineer and kOS mods). Keeping an eye on No Man's Sky and Space Engineer for the future. So what's your favorite and/or current video game? What sort of games do you like?

Only 36?? I remember watching the original Uchuu Senkan Yamato on Saturday morning cartoons in the 70s. Speed Racer on MTV reruns too. I've been reading (mostly SF) books and watching anime since before the Internet.. even before microwave ovens! If I ever stop, I must be dead.

"Another" is the only other one I can recommend too. I don't follow the genre though. About the only other "horror" story I can even come up with offhand is HS of the Dead. That's no Shiki however. I mean, it had a couple moments, but in the end it's just another zombie apocalypse story. Also maybe Dusk Maiden of Amnesia, if you don't mind a bit of horror with your comedy. The only episode with any real horror content (IMHO) was when Teiichi finds out how Yuuko became a ghost in the first place.

3-gatsu no Lion and Blend-S are also on my list, but lower in priority. I'd like to watch them, but if history is any guide I probably won't get around to doing so. So many animes, so little time. If you like Aishiteruze Baby, try Usagi Drop. Rin is such a cute kid. Well, got a preview of Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou (Girl's Last Tour) & it looks almost as depressing as Gakkou Gurashi (School Live). May have to take that one off my list.

Yokai apartment life is the only current one I'm following. Was kind of hoping it would be something like a cross between Pet Girl of Sakurasou and Natsume Yujin-cho . Not nearly as good as either one of those IMHO, but it is keeping my interest so far. I also have The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya in my crunchy queue. I usually binge-watch and I don't start until the last episode for the season is done. I've finished everything I wanted to watch from last season so I'm actually kind of in-between at the moment, waiting for this season to end & pondering what to queue up first once it does. What's good this season? Kind of have my eye on Magus Bride & Black Clover to start. Maybe MMO Junkie & Kino's Journey after that if I have time. Also been trying to find someplace streaming Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou so I can check that out.. Any other suggestions? Edit: Dies Irae is also on my ToDo list.

We have solar (+batteries) here so.. same as always. All our power, DSL, and cable TV around here is on poles though, so we often lose everything when we lose power. This includes access to TV/cable and streaming services. Once we even lost utility power, DSL, *and* then the next day we lost cell service as well! The neighborhood was eerily quiet for about two days.. and DARK at night! In desperation I had to switch to my DVD collection on my NAS. IIRC that last day we mostly did Wii sports though.

I just joined so I thought I'd say "hi". Hope this is the place. I've been watching anime since high school however, which is a very long time indeed seeing as I'm 3868 years old. (In Minecraft years. ) I enjoy "hard" science fiction themes mostly, subs > dubs - I can usually understand spoken Japanese, though I'm not conversational - and I prefer the 12/24-episode-and-done format. Totally not into Naruto or Inuyasha. Probably not fighting robots either, even though playing with robots IRL makes me happy. My favorite series ever was definitely "Ghost in the Shell". On the other hand I'm not afraid of cute or goofy either. I've enjoyed oddball stuff like "Hyouka" or "Usagi Drop", I'm looking forward to the next season of FLCL, and I've even been known to like the rare romcom like "Clannad: After Story" or "Toradora". I have a friend from HS who's a voice actress so if she's had a part in something I'll usually give it a watch, even if it is just that silly squid thing in "Hand Maid Mei". As I type this I've got a re-watch of "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" queued up in Crunchyroll while waiting for the current season to finish up. I tend to binge-watch so I usually wait until the season ends to start watching a series. No spoilers please! I also read books, program computers, build arduino (microcontroller/electronics) projects, and play video games. My current obsession regarding the latter being Kerbal Space Program. I'm usually something of a lurker, but if you do see me around the forum(s) don't be afraid to say "hi"!