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efaardvark

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Posts posted by efaardvark

  1. On 2/28/2021 at 6:42 AM, Kurosaki27 said:

    For a long while and without knowing , my perspective was placed on relationships that other people had and which I myself wished to have, trying to make myself obtain something like that and ignoring my own nature and self pace, trying to become something as "the clown of the classroom" to accomodate myself in some groups, but losing interest after a while because I didn't know how to form bonds. After many circles of doing the same thing I became numb about myself, who was I what I was trying to reach or prove why do I want friends in the first place and why do feelings matter so much.

    I had the luck of my life in 11 grade when I learned about a guy named Epictitus, an ancient greek philospher which spoke of stoicism (one of the many stances , or points of view, from many on the matter of life) from there on I tried to apply everything I was learning about life from those old texts, and finally realized that I should be the center of my own life and the first and most important person in it. I felt like a dumbass when I realized I was not caring about myself, not thinking once about loving myself and trying to fullfill myself without my own power. Life is not a stale river, but most of the time it is, and if you ever feel lonely due to not having acess of meeting people or feeling lonely even tho you're with someone, you have to realize that you're not alone, you are there and you can reach happiness with only yourself.


    My version of that is to always try to be myself.  That much I know I can do.  :)  It is a fool's notion to try to be someone else.  Let's face it, most media or other "pop" personalities are fake anyway so there's little point in emulating them, and there's only about a 1:7,800,000,000 chance that I am the best human at anything.  So I just try to be me.  Of course from there I try to do better but a much more realistic and practical goal is simply for this week's me to be better than last week's me.  After doing that sort of thing for a few years I've discovered that I'm actually pretty good at a lot of things.  Some of these things I use to make money.  Some of them I use to help people.  Some of them I just enjoy being able to do.  Trying to be something you're not is just asking for trouble.  Worst case you can wind up with issues caused by repeated failures to attain the unattainable.  However, I've found that trying to be the best me that I can be can not only be quite satisfying, it also has side benefits.

    As for Epictitus.. I can't say that I agree with everything in the Enchiridion.  It isn't a bad start.  (My favorite quote: “Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.”)  I do think that quite a lot of happiness comes from within, and keeping a level head is never a bad idea.  But Stoicism is not itself happiness.  Modifying yourself to accommodate others isn't always the best path, or even the easiest.  For sure there's wisdom in knowing what can be changed and what must simply be learned to live with, but give in too much and people will walk all over you.  Everyone needs to push back at least a little.  The trick is in picking your battles.. knowing when to push back and when to accept reality.

    For myself my philosophy can be roughly summarized thus:

    donoharm-takenoshit.jpeg.1714bc8e35d43eafe1ec7a8c3671f4d1.jpeg

    :)

     

    • Awesome (Sugoi) 1
  2. 52 minutes ago, chibicharlie95 said:

    Haha that is much too crowed for me! But I would like to have just a few more weebs in the Midwest. Feels like the really concentrate or are super spread out. There isn't really a happy medium.

    I wouldn’t mind having a couple more local anime fans around myself.  The ones I know are mostly into just the popular stuff like DBZ or Naruto (and always dubbed).  I once tried to get a binge party going for 魔法使いの嫁 (Magician’s Wife) and got a resounding “meh” in response.

  3. On 2/22/2021 at 4:38 PM, chibicharlie95 said:

    But I wonder if there are any of you on here, like myself, who live in really rural areas and have limited access to the anime/manga community outside of online?

    Not really in touch with that particular problem.  With the exception of living in Huntsville, AL for about a year in 2nd grade pretty much all of my existence has been in extreme urban areas.  Currently I’m in So.  California in the foothills near Los Angeles.. it was somewhat rural when I got here ~40 years ago but it rapidly filled in.   Nothing but assholes and elbows as far as the eye can see around here now.

  4. I spent a couple hours exploring in the Nether in Minecraft this morning.  I was there with the intent of looking for soul sand for a project but this was the first time I've spent much time in the nether since the nether update last year.  Even back then I really just built/activated a portal and secured the nether end with a cobble wall around around the portal.  (First rule of Nether exploration.. secure your portal!)  I didn't get a chance to explore much so this time I also did some looky-loo touristing and some path-building.  Found not only the soul sand but also some other interesting stuff.

    Spoiler

     

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    In particular I built/marked a path to a giant construction of some sort nearby.  Not a fortress - or at least not the sort I'm familiar with from before the update - so I spent a few minutes investigating it.  I couldn't find a way in so I started tunneling through the construction's wall and found it is occupied by armed and armored piglin brutes.  They didn't take kindly to my digging through their wall so I had to come back.  I was only in leather armor after all  (with gold boots to keep the natives from getting uppity) and by that time I'd already found the soul sand anyway.  I'll come back when I'm better prepared.  The nether is definitely a more interesting place since the update. 

    Spoiler

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    Since when do 'shrooms grow on magma??...

    Spoiler

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    Never saw a piglin ride a chicken before either.  Did they do that before the update?

    Spoiler

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    One thing I found rather annoying was the population density of endermen in the nether.  There were like 20 or so just in the area around my portal!  Might have been ok if I were looking for perls but for this expedition they were just getting in the way.  I may have to make a sortie at some point just to thin their numbers, at least in the area immedaitely around my portal.

    Spoiler

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  5. Been trying to get back into minecraft.  I've been able to find time to install & configure my mods (basically just optifine for a shader, and a higher-res texture pack), and even play a few minutes here and there but nothing like the large blocks of time for big-build projects as I've done in the past.  :'(      

     

  6. Just a couple days ago I'd (re)installed optifine and a shader in minecraft.  Well, today that shader saved me from being blown up by a creeper.  I was on my brother's realms game.  It was the middle of the minecraft day.  I don't know where it came from (as usual) but it snuck up on me and I would doubtlessly blown up not for the shadows produced by the shader.  As it was I spent about a second wondering what that strangely-shaped shadow was behind me.  I got the OH SHIT moment and was able to hit the 'w' key half second early because of the shader throwing the creeper's shadow on the ground in front of me where I could see it.  If I'd had to wait for the "shhhhhh" sound I'd have been dead. 💥:veryangry:

     

    mcshadow.thumb.jpg.29fd208a9f5e9855ba948b5844fde837.jpg

  7. I was thinking about reinstalling the RLCraft modpack on a local server but the modpack needs v1.12.2 and 1.12.2 needs java 8.  I've got java 11 - which I need for other things - so .. not happening.  Unfortunate, but probably for the best, all things considered.

  8. Thinking about modifying a town in minecraft that I've been experimenting with.  I like the way it is working, but I'd like to try another level or a keep or something inside the walls.  Maybe go for a few more citizens too.  By experimentation I've found that all the beds have to be within about 16 squares of the profession tables however, otherwise weird things happen.  Unfortunately the way I've structured the town I have all the profession tables in the center of town in a kind of market square area.  Around that I have several buildings that house the individuals' dwellings (and beds).  Most of that area is filled, and I haven't had much luck getting the villagers to use beds that aren't on the same level.  Seems like there's maybe a 5-layer leeway up or down but beyond that the villagers won't use any beds I put down.  There's already quite a few villagers so I don't actually need any more but I'm trying to find the limits.  :) 

    2021-02-03_22_51_21.thumb.png.636b23e540601707b6de8220a4d72b54.png

    • Like 1
  9. 15 hours ago, Ohayotaku said:

    Binged the first 8 episodes of Log Horizon’s 2nd season over the weekend.  While I wouldn’t call it bad, I do agree with the general consensus that it’s a step down from season 1.

    I kept waiting for it to make its point.  At times it felt almost filler-ish.  Not bad but ... needs another season at least just to bring all the loose ends together and firm up the plot.

    In other news, I finished In/Spectre.  I was kind of expecting it to be more a series of different mini-arcs, a-la Natsume's Book of Friends, or Mushishi.  That Nanase arc basically took over the second half .. and not incidentally set it up for future seasons.  I guess I'm ok with that, even if it wasn't what I was expecting/looking for.  I did come around to the Kotoko/Kurou pairing eventually too.  I wasn't too hot on it initially but it kind of grew on me.

  10. Just a note that optifine for mc 1.16.4 and .5 is available on the optifine download page.  That's a sure sign that the 1.17 release of the game is imminent but I went ahead and installed it so I can enjoy a shader-enabled mc again, at least for a few moments.  :D

    (below using optifine for 1.16.5, Sildurs shaders, and a 64x resource pack called "Steven's Traditional" on an old RX480 gfx card.)

    2021-01-31_13_46_25.thumb.png.cf422b5e9b7e8669b95b0832fb5b8a71.png2021-01-31_13_53_19.thumb.png.863491efdfee1250b70c6e01264f0b4c.png

     

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