Kenshin_sama

Congratulations on graduating! One thing I've come to realize after so many problems coming up for my family is that it really does matter a lot what you do before your mind matures at age 25. Because my family has such a difficult time adjusting to a cruel world, every single one of them has problems with divorce, finances, jail time, education, mental health, physical health, and/or drug abuse. The one thing I know they all have in common is that they actively avoid facing their problems, and they're okay with personal stagnation or even regression. And the major issue here is that they let themselves stay that way until 25 when your attitude towards life become hard-ingrained in your mind. What I'm trying to get at here is that as long as you have the will to acknowledge your problems and work continuously towards improvement, you really shouldn't get hung up over how much you accomplish in a short span of time. You have your whole life to achieve your goals and live your ideal lifestyle. And trust me when I say it's so much more productive to do what you're able to without putting pressure on yourself. It's become a recent topic of discussion with my therapist, because my dad forced me into an all-or-nothing mindset (which was later solidified during my time in the Army) that completely works against me in my studies, and it all stems from a self-imposed pressure to perform. I can't even begin to imagine what it's like to stay academically competitive as I'm only pursuing higher education for above average employment, but I don't think it's healthy for you to put so much pressure on yourself. If you aren't able to accomplish what you want at your desired point of time, try to think of it more as a temporary setback rather than a permanent block from your ideal lifestyle. Just remember, Einstein was a high school dropout!

Thanks for tip and the encouragement. I've already set up a system for myself to cut back on unproductive habits and develop more productive ones, but I'll give this book a read some time. Unfortunately, those habits I had been working on kinda backfired since I let them cut into my study time instead of my game time. In fact, I even stopped pursuing my habit of learning Japanese because I needed to catch up on all the homework I let slide (thankfully one of my professors was nice about late turn-ins). I am still maintaining a habit of shutting down my computer at specific times and exercising five days a week at least. During Summer break, I am going to earnestly focus on studying both Japanese and programming for a total of two hours per day and slowly expand that habit until I spend eight hours a day studying (I'll reallocate those hours to college work once classes start again). And now that I'm not feeling compulsed to playing games on a schedule, I think I'll be able to embrace these habits with greater consistency.

Ah, so he was just fanboying. Well that's alright, I'll get to watching it soon. Only a few days of finals hell left before I get to pick up a few anime this season. Golden Kamuy looks cool as hell, and Comic Girls seems diabetes-inducing. Heck, I even might try out Mahou Shoujo Site just to hear Kizuna AI's voice acting.

You don't remember the complaints we got about monopolizing the Summer 2016 thread? Man that was fun!

Trying to make this the next Re:Zero, eh? Don't get me wrong, I love Steins;Gate more than any other anime out there (and I will be watching Steins;Gate 0 when my Summer break starts), but it's not even gonna come close to achieving the same level of controversy as Re:Zero.

How the hell do I even remember this thread? I've been on the lookout for a good set of ear muffs now that I'm in stuck in a position where I have to deal with a lot of noise during my reading hour. I have a fairly large head, and I want to be able to buy something that won't make it uncomfortable to read. The online reviews I've read so far have not been that helpful, so I thought I'd ask here instead. My Sennheiser 558 headphones measure out to be 3.9 x 9.2 x 8.1 inches according to their item description on Amazon, and I think that would be a good size to reference when looking for ear muffs. Does anyone know any similarly-sized muffs I can use with reasonable quality materials. Budget isn't much of an issue since I generally value comfort over price.

I got a random urge to start marathoning fripSide. Jesus, I forgot how cool their songs are.

I'm gonna post a magical girl crossover anyways. Congratulations on your achievement!

To me, Dog Days is pure, unadulterated fun. Don't expect it to have much in the way of clever writing, but the characters do provide some substance to the anime (especially Millhiore). I've never experienced a dull moment while watching it, and there is little to no focus on drama at all. Oh and the romance between Cinque and Millhiore is adorable. :3

Yeah, and see I did have an endgame in mind. There is a certain bossing challenge to defeat Telos with max enrage to earn the most prestigious bossing title available, and I wanted that title on my ironman. But in order to get that, you need to be completely decked out on some of the best gear available, all of which you have to get yourself since ironmen aren't able to trade. I also wanted to take it a step further by going completely solo and not do any group bossing content at all (I just wanted to be Kirito, okay?), except for Barrows: Rise of the Six since it's apparently possible to solo it. But alas, it would be a huge time investment to even reach this goal on a standard account, let alone doing it on ironman. But that's okay, I'm sure I'll be more happy this way. And I see where you're coming from on WoW. The game does have a fair bit to offer for casual gameplay, and you can even enjoy the game without touching any of the latest content at all (I know one guy that only played WoW for the sole purpose of flipping stuff on the AH). Unfortunately, I could only ever feel engaged in that game when I was raiding. And when I first started playing, it was actually pretty moderate on the grind factor and I felt like could be competitive without putting in a massive amount of time. Unfortunately, however, the game did fall in line with the trend and added even more skinner box mechanics such as Mythic+ dungeon grinds and dailies to power up your weapon. Yeah, once I realized what the game was doing to pull me in, I felt kinda cheated. Runescape didn't do enough to make me feel like I was genuinely enjoying my time, so it relied on underhanded tactics to paint the illusion of enjoyment.

Oh man, I only lasted a year before relapsing with WoW. And even after surgery on my left hand, I fell back on Runescape since it mostly involved mouse play. But now that I'm a little more actively engaged in studying and exercise, I may not feel the urge to play again. One can only hope.

Confession: I know I've said this before, but I think I'm finally ready to stop playing MMOs for good now. After playing Runescape obsessively for over four months, I've been on the fence about quitting these last few days. And after reading a few video comments on the official Runescape youtube channel, I come across a couple interesting videos covering the Skinner Box and unpleasant design that completely changed my perspective on gaming and further motivated my desire to permanently give up MMO gaming. My reason for quitting mostly has to do with how my mind has been trained to play Runescape compulsively; not just because of how it rewards excessive commitment, but also due to its tendency to block off some of the most rewarding content behind recurrent daily, weekly, and monthly reset periods (some of which have to be played in very specific times). Before I knew it, the game had conditioned me to play it every single day (even when I wasn't in the mood) so that I could maximize my daily gains, and I never missed weekly or monthly content. On top of all that, Runescape goes out of its way to put in tedious time sinks that are crucial for progression. That's not to say there weren't any moments where I genuinely felt like I was having a good time (especially while I was questing), but those moments were far too few in between for me to feel like I was getting a sense of enjoyment from the game overall. And although RS3 is the worst offender by far, I feel that every other variant of Runescape had some major design flaws in regards to this as well since it has always been a grind game. But now that I have something concrete to center my thoughts on, I feel like I can finally throw in the towel for good and just leave the MMO scene entirely. I'm not sure how well I'll hold up in the future, but I'm gonna bookmark those two videos I linked as a reminder of why I quit playing MMOs in the first place. And frankly, now that I know how Skinner Boxing works, I'm a little pissed off that I allowed myself to be manipulated like this. That said, I'm glad I caught on before my spending habit became more severe. Because of how much time I spend playing this game, I've developed bad spending habits such as extending my membership period for beneficial auras, buying banks slots, buying pets, buying gear/item presets, and even maintaining membership for another account so I can play two different game modes (standard and ironman). I've spent a little over $270 since I started playing in December, and I'm concerned that it might get worse if I continue to play this game as I have been.

I've been reading SAO for a little while and getting pretty close to the end of volume 8. I like how Kawahara managed to slip in a familiar story involving Thor towards the end and still surprise me with it, lol. Seriously, I had previously read the tale about Thor's infamous disguise to retrieve his stolen hammer, but I wasn't able to put two and two together until the reveal since I'd forgotten the names of the people involved. It was interesting! Shouldn't be long before I start the Alicization arc, which I've heard nothing but great things about. Considering how inconsistent the story quality has been lately, I'm pretty anxious to start this.

Oh god, SHE KNOWS!

I could not decide which image to post from this artist, so I'm just gonna link them both.

I wouldn't say I'm obsessed with moe in general, but I do enjoy it quite a lot. I'm not sure what makes it tick for me, but there are pointlessly moe anime like K-on and Yuru Yuri that really hit home with me, but I couldn't stand Yuyushiki despite it being just as pointless and moe as the other two. I don't think I could dedicate more than 30 hours to a VN if it was dedicated entirely to girls being cute. I don't think moe is a detriment to serious stories at all as the attachment I feel towards cute girls does enhance the emotions I feel for them when drama starts to escalate.