efaardvark

Yummy..

15 hours ago, EnviousEnvy said:

@efaardvark Omg that game looks beautiful!!

Yeah, it is a nice-looking game.  Hard to justify spending $400+(++!) on a new card when my “old” RX 480 gfx card can still deliver results like this even on new titles.  

The map is good-sized too.  I haven’t been playing for too long but I’ve yet to find the edges.  It takes well over a game-day to cross just the region of the map that I’ve explored so far.  After crafting, exploring is my next-favorite in-game activity so for me this game is a , at least so far.  Angry troll encounters notwithstanding.   

Got a new lapel pin to add to my collection.  Just one problem.. I need a bigger shadow box to display them all now too!

Spent a few hours in Valheim this weekend.  Just getting the feel of it by wandering around. 

Did a bit of sailing around as well. 

Found a troll.  Ran away from it.. I'm still using a flint axe and wood-tipped arrows and trolls are huge.  I'm talking like 8-foot ninety... BIG.

Speaking of which..  Important Valheim safety tip.. trolls have clubs that are literally as big around as tree trunks and they can smash through solid stone walls with them.

Go ahead, ask me how I know.    This tower once had 4 such stone walls.  It now has approximately 1.6.. and that's after just two swings of the tree!  This is one place I won't be using any longer... I found it abandoned and thought it would make a nice base but I don't have the skills or the tools to rebuild it after the troll visit.  (Nobody told me about the nasty neighbors before I moved in.)

Went and got Valheim.  Haven't gone much beyond the "punch a tree & gather stone" stage but I did get a small shack built with a bed, chest, fireplace, and workbench/crafting table.  No obvious bugs to report yet either, in spite of being an early-access title.  Might get an hour or two to play some more this weekend.

17 hours ago, Bioengineered said:

 

 That has got to be one of the most... pastel videos I’ve ever seen.

Considering going for the early-access release of Valheim.  Probably should have my head examined first since I don’t even have the time to play Minecraft properly but I am tempted.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pekora+minecraft

While I'm excited to see people working on these sorts of things I have to say, ESA, you need to work a bit harder on picking your names. 
 

3 hours ago, Kurosaki27 said:

Pekora's BGM is a banger

Seen Pekora's minecraft stuff?  It's hilarious. 

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:

Tong Ling Fei.  AKA Psychic Princess.  aka 通灵妃.  A little odd since I don't speak Chinese.. have to get used to actually reading the subs for a change. 

Never got the shipping craze but I won’t hold that against you.  Welcome!

I got a new lid...

( and was wearing it landing day! )

8 hours ago, Ohayotaku said:

And I would’ve thought Cali would have one of the more active & diverse anime communities.

I’m sure there are more around but I have no time (or social life) to connect with them.

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.

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.

Welcome!

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.

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. 

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

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

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.

I watched about half of Mahou Sensou / Magical Warfare last night.  Meh.  Seems mostly premise with little in the way of plot so far.

Thought I'd check out the first half of So I'm a spider.   Intrigued and still not sure what's going on here but I think the monkey army business was my "stop.. that's too silly" moment.

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.       

Hmmm ..  If you liked sword art online then maybe Log Horizon, Overlord, or Accel World?  

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.