I'm a huge Ogre Saga fan so naturally Unicorn Overlord shot up to the top of my list.... except for some reason I ended up restarting Triangle Strategy instead, after dropping it two years ago out of sheer disgust. I have such a love-hate relationship with that game, the gameplay is so good but the writing is fucking godawful. The worst part is some of the individual character writing actually is quite solid (the two old vets, the first recruitable brown lady, maybe a few others every now and then) but the main plot is essentially a wannabe GoT (show not books) with anime characteristics/a truly infantile understanding of politics and warfare, and the rampant Orientalism is absolutely gross. I'm just fast forwarding through cutscenes now (and there are SO fucking many) but it's still annoying enough that I might drop it again lol. Such a shame about the gameplay though if I do, it's genuinely among my favorites in the genre.

This weekend though I'm planning to do a quick run through Eiyuden Chronicle Rising in preparation for the main game's release. Very excited about that!

Also been doing a playthrough of Story of Seasons 1 since it has my fave art in the HM/SoS franchise, but it's very off and on.

I haven't been there in more than a decade (and wasn't a commie at the time*) so can't give advice, but make sure to check out West Lake while you're in Hangzhou! iirc most of the nearby food on the shore is a tourist trap though, so you might wanna arrange meals a little further away, but again, dunno what it's like now. For vegan food, probably look into places catering toward Buddhists (not necessarily vegan but higher chance of vegan items on the menu and/or the people running the place understanding more specific dietary requests), sometimes hard to check even without a language barrier though.

I'm also tempted to suggest taking a day or two to check out Suzhou (Zhouzhuang is super cool and there are a gazillion gardens; Tiger Hill is also interesting but I'm biased cuz I'm into the related history) but that probably makes the itinerary too cramped.

Oh right, this again is probably outdated info but I'd recommend carrying around packs of toilet tissue/wipes as not all facilities have toilet paper. Similarly, some places will only have squat toilets, so that's also something to maybe plan ahead for if it's a concern for anyone in your family.

• I will mention Lu Xun wrote two famous essays on the collapse of the Leifeng Pagoda (near West Lake); I thought it was kinda ironic visiting the reconstructed pagoda but think my feelings have shifted a bit since. It's the kind of place worth checking out once but maybe not a second time, I think, and there's so much to see and do in the area I might not prioritize it personally.

Mostly a lurker here and not in the mood to go into detail, esp since it gives away too much personal info, but it's been a painful, fumbling 20+ year process to get to this point. For a tiny bit of context, I come from a different class bg (specifically, one of my parents did) than most of Hexbear, and I'm also in the upper half of the age range. Also not white.

Let me just put it this way. It starts with trivial inconsistencies that you notice in your day-to-day life. Things as simple and seemingly innocuous/"apolitical" as the way society talks about your culture vs. your actual lived experiences. One by one, these tiny hypocrisies and contradictions start piling up. Small lies or even "innocent" misconceptions from trusted authority figures, from textbooks, from people you love and care about, people you don't want to doubt. It is madness inducing. Just an endless cycle of disbelief, disgust, confusion, undirected anger, denial.

Eventually there came a point where I just couldn't paper over the cracks anymore. Also, the older I get, the more I realize just how damn much I don't actually know -- and how confident I was in my own ignorance at many points in my life. Once it's obvious just how many lies you've been exposed to your entire fucking life, all you can think of is "what else?"

tl;dr the "radical" left was the only place offering sober, logically coherent analysis of the state of the world and honestly, after COVID any last lingering doubts I may have had were utterly demolished.

Echoing the other commenter, I'd look for something like Always extra heavy overnight pads. Lifesavers when someone expects to lack access to facilities for several hours.

re: the author -- probably something of a radlib, based on the NPR interview with him years ago around when the book first came out, though I've still never gotten around to reading the book myself so shrug. It seemed to me he was trying to juggle the standard line of thinking among older Vietnamese US immigrants (very anti-communist for obvious reasons) vs. the more left-leaning younger gens. iirc he framed his intention with the book as a conversation with the diaspora at large rather than meant for an audience of white readers/consumers (as a lot of minority-penned lit has been historically), which I sympathize with, but my personal politics have also evolved since then so I'd probably have less sympathy now. Esp because an HBO show is almost certainly gonna be pandering to white consumers of a certain class lol

Saw this post yesterday but wanted some time to gather my thoughts a bit.

First, let me second the recs for Bodrov's Mongol (though idk about accuracy) and manga Kingdom (actually surprisingly well researched, but obviously exaggerated presentation due to the medium and takes a lot of liberties)

Second, "medieval" is a rather broad term coming from a layperson. There are very distinct periods of Ye Olde Asia that can't be encapsulated by that word. I'd argue that what most people in Asia visualize of "old China" is probably either Tang dynasty (very accessible period due to various reasons) or Romance of the Three Kingdoms (very fictionalized take on history, ymmv GREATLY on accuracy), although from Western perspective I think the usual visualization is Qing. Similarly, "old Japan" is mostly old Edo or Sengoku Jidai. I'm not as familiar with Korean history so I'll refrain from commenting on that.

My personal area of interest leans toward pre-imperial China, which you're pretty much just never gonna get an accurate take on in pop culture due to lack of archaeological evidence prior to relatively recently. (hint: if you see copious amounts of horseback riding the accuracy level automatically plummets.) However, I want to give a nod to the movie Confucius from 2010 -- boring/meh movie but the research and set/costume detail is probably as solid as you're gonna get.

I'd also highly recommend The Last Supper from 2012 once you've familiarized yourself with the basic Chu-Han storyline. The Last Supper is a subversive leftist take on the traditional narrative. There's some weird CG in the movie but otherwise I'd say the accuracy leans toward the higher end.

As for Japanese history, it's actually very easy to get good visuals for this via NHK taigas. Although accuracy may vary depending on era, these dramas used to be Very Prestigious and taken pretty damn seriously so you can usually trust the accuracy (relative to what's available when the drama in question was filmed). I think one of the more visually distinct eras of JP history is actually the Heian era (look for Tale of Genji adaptations)... but as I said above you'll usually find other periods more popular.

For a quick overview on what's popularly dramatized and periods with a general unified aesthetic...

Chinese history:

1. Early imperial

• The Qin Emperor has historically been very controversial so it's a mixed bag on what you'll get about him. It's usually about the assassination attempts on him. Just read Kingdom tbh

• Chu-Han contention. Again, I wouldn't pick Last Supper as my first exposure to the story, but once you have basic familiarity I think it's my favorite take

• Three Kingdoms... uh where to even start with this. Just be aware that RoTK is historical historical fiction lol, and that's reflected in many adaptations (especially the older ones).

2. Tang dynasty. Sorry, no specific recs but if it's colorful it's probably Tang, lol. Most pseudo-Chinese fantasy from Japan is also vaguely Tang (Twelve Kingdoms, Kusuriya no Hitorigoto, Fushigi Yuugi, among others -- rec the first two but not the third). Note this is a huge time jump from the previous category. You'll occasionally get stuff between the Three Kingdoms era and the Tang dynasty but it's not popular, lol.

3. "post-Tang". My familiarity with later periods is pretty shit haha, but I can tell you that a lot of classic wuxia (at least Jin Yong/Louis Cha's wuxia, which is what a lot of people will automatically visualize when thinking "wuxia") is post-Tang. Condor Trilogy is mostly Song dynasty with the third book being about the transition from Yuan to Ming. Not sure I'd watch wuxia for historical accuracy lol but I do think Jin Yong is a cultural touchstone that you want at least some familiarity with to catch most of the references to his works that pop up in games and other media.

4. Qing into revolutionary era... ummm also not gonna rec as I just don't watch a lot of the more modern periods

Japanese history (mine is a bit spotty so I may miss stuff):

1. "ancient"/Yamatotakeru/Himiko era: all super fictionalized. For the most acceessible down-to-earth depiction I've seen you'll probably have to dig through the Professor Munakata series for relevant cases (Munakata suffers from terrible pop history sometimes but at least the visuals are convincing)

2. Heian era: again, just look up Genji adaptations. Abe no Seimei is also popular but bound to lean too fantasy due to the subject matter.

3. Heike Monogatari. Surprisingly not AS popular in modern pop culture despite its historical popularity... there's definitely a taiga drama (or three) on it though.

4. Sengoku Jidai. No recs because it's too damn popular, Japan's equivalent of RoTK. You want THE essence of pop culture old Japan, you look here.

5. Late Edo/Meiji. Also popular, also tons of taiga dramas... Shinsengumi stuff is really popular (boo cops), Sakamoto Ryoma is popular and a lot more fun as a historical figure, Gintama is a completely unhinged science fiction-tinged parody... hard to rec because like the Sengoku stuff it's so popular most of it is super fictionalized at this point.

6. early 20th century/Taisho. Maybe starting to get more popular due to Golden Kamuy (highly rec, well researched Ainu culture featuring an insane cast + pop culture jokes) and Kimetsu no Yaiba (this is fantasy, the historical setting is purely a vibe) in more recent years. Saka no Ue no Kumo (Clouds Above the Hill) is said to be the definitive historical fiction take but the English translation of the novel is a bit dry and I haven't watched the drama adaptation and either way this isn't really what you're thinking when you think "medieval Japan" so never mind I got sidetracked lol

... Uhhhh apologies for formatting

Scheduling is different from previous days, idky.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disgrace_of_Gij%C3%B3n

:germany-cool: :austria-cool:

/resumes lurking

The irony is that Gosford Park, which supposedly inspired Downton Abbey (same writer, iirc it was supposed to be a spinoff), IS very much self-aware, and a very sharp critique of that society. Likely Altman's influence. Great movie, shame I don't think that's what most viewers got out of it at the time though.

Yes, this is my understanding as well. Anecdotally, the tensions between the two Han groups were indeed pretty bad, especially among older generations (i.e. the membership of this church from what little I've read), as a lot of anti-KMT sentiment also got redirected toward the first group. But of course it has nothing to do with the PRC and the western framing on this is both predictable and gross.

Huh. That explains a lot. I knew about the "reading wars" debate and similar various math reform controversies and at one point participated in some workshops about how to teach reading (for non-professional reasons), but had no idea this was the context behind all the wacky shit I've seen over the years. Worst part is how obvious it was that a lot of petty politics and snake oil peddling was affecting everything behind the scenes.

As another person who was reading way beyond "grade level" as a kid, I probably got lucky in that my immigrant parents insisted that I learn phonics. I'm not sure they understood the context of all the debates either, but it was probably a no-brainer to them. Both other languages I learned as a kid were definitely introduced with the equivalent of phonics. (To be fair, both were nonalphabetic languages.)

Tactics Ogre (LUCT or the remake, not the GBA entry which has a very mediocre story). The whole Ogre Battle franchise is pretty interesting but the other games are more RTS I think? Sucks that the series will never be properly finished. (I haven't finished the N64 one though -- my impression is that the story is worse than the Matsuno games but still fairly solid.)

I also liked the original Front Mission a lot (enjoyed the extra content in the DS version too), but I do wonder how the politics holds up since it's been years since I played. If nothing else the music is fantastic.

(Tactics Ogre > FFT imo.)

I'm absolutely terrible at reading theory (as in I'll sometimes get the urge and read 3-5 pages, nod, then put it down for months), but there's an early paragraph in Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed that may be relevant here?

Sectarianism, fed by fanaticism, is always castrating. Radicalization, nourished by a critical spirit, is always creative. Sectarianism mythicizes and thereby alienates; radicalization criticizes and thereby liberates. Radicalization involves increased commitment to the position one has chosen, and thus ever greater engagement in the effort to transform concrete, objective reality. Conversely, sectarianism, because it is mythicizing and irrational, turns reality into a false (and therefore unchangeable) "reality."

Not sure if this is elaborated on later. I get you though, I often feel the same way after a lifetime of thinking "extreme = bad, moderate = good", especially when I remember how thoroughly convinced I was that my worldview was right. It's hard to reconcile how "obvious" everything seems now with how blindly confident I was before. One of the things that helped was realizing just how many of the people from history* I genuinely admired/respected were actually socialists or communists and just completely misrepresented by popular media. Knowing how much propaganda we've been wading through our entire lives without even being conscious of it, I think these feelings are probably natural.

* or even contemporary figures like Hayao Miyazaki, whom I vividly remember being consistently framed as some sort of super lib when he was first introduced to mainstream Western pop culture

Noted, thanks! Glad to have more options to look into

Thanks! That sounds perfect. I can probably at at least start moving over my most important files, and honestly I'm so fed up with Google at this point I'm ok with non-free options.

Same. I'd already been cutting down on time spent here because the constant drama is bad for my mental health, but I have no idea wtf is going on here anymore.

Hate to admit it, but I mentally checked out months ago. The Asian immigrant communities in my area are very anticommunist and all this shit is just gonna make them double down. Also been seriously fucking worried since last year about manufactured interracial tensions (i.e. the rooftop Koreans bs) -- just feel really cynical about everything these days. Libs being libs, chuds being chuds -- hard to stay sane about it all.

(I'm not qualified for sensitivity reading, but I can give a teensy bit of advice about the self-pubbing, though I'm no longer up to date on industry news at all so take with a grain of salt.)

I had to pull it to make it free on Amazon

It's been years since I last checked (cuz fuck Amazon), but is price-matching no longer a thing*? Only KU requires exclusivity, the actual KDP platform doesn't afaik. Used to be people would set their stuff free on Smashwords and let Amazon automatically match down. Nowadays Draft2Digital is a lot more convenient for that (they are purely a distributor rather than another storefront), but I also still dump my stuff on Smashwords because why not. Also shouldn't underestimate the other markets -- B&N, Kobo, Google have all done decently for me, though it varies by pen name/genre and I think I was lucky to get into Google's platform directly early on.

* I wouldn't be surprised, cuz fuck Amazon

That said, if the money genuinely doesn't mean anything to you, you might as well just upload to webfic sites/serial apps like Wattpad instead of staying in the narrow confines of Amazon. (Actually, I have my issues with Wattpad, but sites like it are an option that definitely shouldn't be overlooked.) Generally KU is only worth it imo if you're trying to make some quick cash AND you're willing to game the system with keywords, paid promotions, and general SEO bullshit. Right now you're missing out on a whole chunk of readers like me who only use epubs instead of mobi, younger readers who enjoy the interactivity of the apps, and international readers who can't afford US pricing.

No shampoo doesn't mean you don't wash at all, lol. It probably does depend on hair type and skin condition though. Personally, I only shampoo twice a week max and have been doing so since I was in college, it's not a recent fad or anything. (I also use soap/bodywash very sparingly, basically only if I've been sweating or in the rain or whatever.)

I have very long hair that's normally straight (more or less) but goes POOF in humidity, and also very bad/dry skin. I can't claim to understand the science behind it if there is any, so this is just anecdotal evidence at best, but using dandruff shampoo when I was a kid always made my skin condition worse. Lessening shampoo/soap usage was the only thing that helped. Exfoliating is pretty much all that's really necessary for the "clean" feeling, and I also stopped getting split ends as much after cutting out silicone-based products (tbh still don't know if that' s pseudoscience or not, but it worked for me so shrug).

In fact, when I'm in a humid climate I just wash with conditioner instead. Cleans just as effectively and doesn't feel particularly greasy if you're just using a cheap conditioner instead of fancy shit, and really goes to show that shampoo is probably not as necessary as people think it is. (Look into "co-washing," it was and probably still is a thing on curly hair forums for a while.)

很可惜, 我從小學的是繁體字... 大概都看得懂檢體,可是沒辦法寫, 有一點不好意思. Don't think it's something I can unlearn at this point in my life, unfortunately.

Also my Chinese is probably filled with bad habits/ABCisms/Chinglish from growing up in an immigrant family. 平常不太喜歡用中文溝通, 因為每次都覺得像個十歲小孩在講話. But I feel guilty about letting my communication skills lapse as I mainly use my education to read nerd shit nowadays (I have a decent amount of self-taught classical Chinese under my belt if anyone is into that), so hope it's all right if I pop in now and then even if I can only write in trad.

(Sorry to all of you trying to practice 漢字, this is probably really confusing)

/fangirl hat on

I love his JP and EN voice actors too, but Zhongli's Chinese voice is perfection. If you haven't heard him waxing poetic in the original dub you're missing out.

/fangirl hat off

I've never seen a gamer community that isn't full of whiny, obnoxious drama llamas, even when they have a valid point. It's a cross-cultural phenomenon, too, which is... impressive in its own way.

(Just some mild venting about entirely trivial shit, move along)