I always have to stand back when people talk about such problems among anime fandom. Coming from video game fandom, and with knowledge of how that industry has worked out over the years, I view the quick to anger/argue and so called "entitled" attitudes of anime fans a plus. Maybe if vidya fans were more like anime fans the vidya industry wouldn't be so shit.

soul.assassin wrote:Instead, I found that I was better off and comfortable appreciating real young women who aren't necessarily celebrities but normal.

Are you implying that you watched anime for the "women" in them?

CJD wrote:I view the quick to anger/argue and so called "entitled" attitudes of anime fans a plus. Maybe if vidya fans were more like anime fans the vidya industry wouldn't be so shit.

To my knowledge you have just described video games fans as well.

A.T. Fish wrote: To my knowledge you have just described most [s]video games[/s] fans of things in general.

FTFY

A.T. Fish wrote:Are you implying that you watched anime for the "women" in them?

No, never did because... After being exposed to a great deal of idol-related media, I asked myself, what good would come out from a one-sided, one-way relationship with a static, drawn image of an unattainable ideal? How people would judge me from the wallpaper I use, or what I watch or listen to?

Anyway, I am more happier that I was able to socialize easily with people around my age, sharing a common interest without being looked down by others.

soul.assassin wrote:I asked myself, what good would come out from a one-sided, one-way relationship with a static, drawn image of an unattainable ideal?

I'd say you asked yourself the wrong question, pondering on the artistic value and entertainment factor you'd get out of the experience would be better.

How people would judge me from the wallpaper I use, or what I watch or listen to?

Anyway, I am more happier that I was able to socialize easily with people around my age, sharing a common interest without being looked down by others.

You don't have to be so open about your hobby if it embarasses you, I'm a closet anime fan myself, but that doesn't mean I don't have other hobbies that are socially accepted.

A.T. Fish wrote:To my knowledge you have just described video games fans as well.

That's what the industry would like you to think, but not by a long shot. That's just the vocal minority. We're talking less than a hundred thousand versus the millions of gamers world wide. And the publishers know this, that's why said vocal minority has essentially zero power in the industry. Oh publishers and devs do throw them a bone every once in a while but it's never anything substantial, always something small that will win them some brownie points for pandering without hurting the mass market appeal of their games.

It's even worse because somehow the entire consumer-creator relationship has got twisted beyond recognition. It's now at a point where the very people arguing and fighting for consumers get attacked by those very same consumers. The creators, the publishers, have managed to convince consumers that they're on "their side," and that it's these no good agitators among the community who are the problem. That's why you'll see stuff like Bioware's shenanigans with Mass Effect 3 get vehemently defended. The industry, the publishers, developers, and journalists, have made the people who complain out to be the villains, while they're just "Good people who love making games/talking about games trying to do their job, which these dirty "entitled" fans are jeopardizing." And then they shine spotlights on it and cherry pick the worst stuff and make it seem like the dissidents are more numerous than they are, because nothing makes someone fight harder for something their passionate about than the idea that it's in danger.

It's all a crock of shit, and it's why over the past 5 years I've been grown utterly disgusted with not just the video game industry itself, but video game fandom.

Anyway, since this is more of a "FML" post than an "RML" post, I'll end by saying that's one of the reasons I like the anime industry and fandom. Yea they may be self centered. Good, they're consumers, they should be self centered. Anime isn't free. When the question of whether you'll pay for something is up you have the right to be self centered. Yea they may expect more of the industry than is reasonable. Good, that's the only way the industry will progress in a direction that is to their favor. And yea, they may get angry quickly and refuse to purchase products that don't pander to them. Fucking good. You should want them to pander to you. That's how the relationship works. Creator creates product and then if you like it, if it panders to you, you buy it. If it doesn't, you don't, and you complain loudly so they know why you didn't buy it. Anime fans in Japan have managed to mold their industry into one that is, while highly expensive, ideal for their entertainment. I admire the fuck out of that, and wish vidya fans could rally and do the same.

So in this post I bemoaned the fact that I couldn't get Music Goes On to sound right on my headphones. I was told I'd need an external woofer to get what I was looking for, or that what I wanted wasn't something headphones could provide, which led to frustration; my inability to articulate what it was I was actually looking for led to my getting responses that weren't exactly helpful. Happily, having someone at work who's a bit of an audiophile did help, since I could play the song for him and point out exactly what it was I was looking to reproduce via headphones. He gave me some suggestions and I started poking around online on my own.

I started with a Fiio E6 amp (I actually started with that earlier, as noted in the FML post), but all that did was make things louder and distort the song. I didn't want it to be louder, and I didn't really want mega-bass, either; I just wanted to hear the bits I couldn't hear with my normal phones. My friend at work explained that the sub-bass bits are normally handled by a completely separate speaker system, which is why sub-woofers are sold and installed separately from normal speakers. This is something you won't find in normal headphones, but it is available on higher end phones. So, after much dithering and even more research I finally settled on the Studiophile Q40s. Per internet recommendations I also went ahead and bought a FiiO e11 amp. The nice thing about the e11 is that it's battery powered and has a high gain option. As it turns out, this is important.

So, these two items arrived last week. I opened them up, hooked everything together, and . . . I have bass. Between the amp and the phones the song sounds exactly the same as it does in my car, and I don't have to blow out my ears to hear it. Moreover, the bass doesn't overwhelm the rest of the song -- I can hear it, but I can hear the mids and highs just as well. IOW the song sounds the way it's supposed to, even over the phones. RML!

Passed my first medic exam!

First pay check from state imminent woo

Attended a job interview.

Went well.

Probably won't get the job.

Meditation brings a state of being/feeling unlike any other. Might be somewhat hammy with this but ever since i started looking into these kind of stuff i feel my life has gotten much better. Certainly less stressful and more calm/natural.

At least when i remember to do it right

I have one thing to say:

Sherlock series 3.

The end.

That would be this iteration, I presume.

I'm a sweet angel.

Stryker wrote:I'm a sweet angel.

Yes, yes you are

Had my first written test in Japanese today and nailed it. Had to listen to our Sensei say various phrases and translate them into English and then she put up some words in Hiragana and had us translate them into English.

100% on my first test in class... I'd say I'm doing pretty well so far.

Just found my 18 year old brother is moving out this weekend!

This is a RML because he's an asshole towards me and I really don't like him. Only downside is he refuses to tell my parents where he's moving to.

Looks like I'm going to go to Basel, in late March, this year. Anyone live in the Basel area? What about Dresden? Freiburg?

Finally managed to upgrade my browser to Internet Explorer 11 (I have Chrome and Firefox too, but I use IE a lot out of habit). This fixed all the annoying problems I'd been having with the browser recently (for example, whenever I closed a tab a message would pop up saying IE had stopped working when actually it still was working, and certain videos wouldn't play either).

Nice article in the weekend edition of the Financial Times based on interviews with my son (who is a pianist well-known in contemporary music circles). He talks in particular about his artistic relationships with the British composer Harrison Birtwistle and the American composer Elliott Carter.

Working on music and actually creating something has made me a happier person over the past week, even though the results are mixed so far. I'm proud of myself and my self esteem is on the way up.