There's a place a drive or ride my bike past with some regularity. Every time without fail I have a memory of the time I was hanging out with my brother and his friends playing Phantasy Star. Ive never played the game, but kind of want to as I feel I need to attain some kind of completion.

#games #nostalgia

Oh I definitely want one. That part is not the problem lol 😹 the price they go for (2nf hand) and the probability of it getting nicked lol

I keep thinking about Surly bikes after this note lol. They might actually be the perfect bike. Long Haul Trucker 😍

Good evening Nostr!

Here’s a show review, which some here have been waiting for. It's one of the few shows I've liked in years.

But before that, it’s also about how Nostr social graphs can make reviews better. I tend to write long, but I do so with a purpose. If you don't give a fuck about the context and want to cut this down by more than half, I'd happily recommend you scroll down past the context session toward the review section.

*Context*:

My excitement and enjoyment hit rate of liking shows and movies lately has been quite low. It’s probably because I’m at odds with my general culture. As we go through a transitional period or weird zeitgeist or “fourth turning”, it’s rare to actually find visual content I like. I’ve had to turn to novels instead over the past several years. Visual productions have a lot of people watching over them and fixing them (i.e. making them worse) whereas a book still has a main author that can kind of put his or her concept out there, which is neat.

Back in my teen years, I liked anime a lot. So I’ve got a nostalgic base there. Cowboy Bebop was my defining favorite, but also Trigun, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Baccano!, Code Geass, Full Metal Alchemist, Akira, Samurai Champloo, FLCL, Durarara!!, and both Dragon Ball Z and Naruto kind of embarrassingly, and then also of course Studio Ghibli productions like Princess Mononoke, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Spirited Away.

While American television in the 1990s and early 2000s was episodic and happy, Japanese shows tended to be darker, more emotional, and tended to have continuity from one episode to another and tell a more linear and complete story, as though I was watching a continuous graphic novel from beginning to end. That caught me, and decades later I still remember their plots.

After that, from my mid-twenties and beyond as I was more seriously focused on my professional life, I occasionally tried to watch newer animes in the 2010s and thereafter, but I rarely connected with them like I once did. They felt too immature, or something wasn’t clicking. I liked action, but I didn’t like kid/teen drama and immature heroes, or something adjacent to that. I loved what I grew up on, but new things felt weak, as though I outgrew them. Occasionally something was decent. That’s where Baccano! and Durarara!! and the Brotherhood version of Full Metal Alchemist kind of filled the transitional gap. But I grew apart from the genre.

As an insanely busy person, one of the things I lack for mature anime is a good discovery mechanism, which imo relates to the social graph and Nostr here. I don’t go out and look for good anime anymore, and even if I were to find a high-rated one, I wouldn’t know if those ratings are from a hundred-thousand 15 year olds that might not appeal to me in my 30s. Those reviews aren't context-related.

Some weeks ago, Shinobi aggressively shilled Blue Eye Samurai on Twitter as one of his highest recommendations in years. Over many years I’ve followed him for bitcoin tech content, some of which I agree with or disagree with, but always find value in seeing his viewpoint, and over those years I also know somewhat about a bit of our overlapping anime tastes including Cowboy Bebop, and this was one of the few times where he aggressively shilled a new animated show. So, it caught my attention.

That brings me to my point about social graphs. An aggressively positive review from someone you know with overlapping interests with you is worth 100x random reviews. I hadn’t even heard of this show despite it being released over six months ago, and I watched this 80% because a single taste-relevant connection aggressively shilled it, and 20% because upon googling it the other mass reviews said it was unusually good too.

*Review*:

I watched the 8-episode first season of Blue Eye Samurai. It will have a second season, so it’s not complete, which admittedly kind of annoys me.

But holy hell is this show fucking good. I loved it, which for me is unusual. We start with an interesting protagonist, the blue-eye samurai, and then we increasingly learn about their backstory, which is better than expected. It could have fallen into all sorts of cultural traps but did not; instead it just told a good story. Like the old days.

The animation is great, the story is great, etc. Great protagonists, great antagonists.

The first three episodes are solid and expected from watchers of the genre, but then in episode four it went into completely unexpected territory. I was like, holy shit! And then episode five was also absolutely amazing. That middle period is where I confirmed that this show was truly special, and that a lot of thought went into it.

The next few episodes were great, and without spoilers, my criticism is that it could have ended on a more satisfying and convincing note. I need to see follow-on seasons to truly judge the show. The middle-season was the strongest part thus far, but the early and late season parts were still great.

Rated R, highly mature in terms of violence and sex, but also brought back a sense of nostalgia. Amazing visuals, perfect voice acting, and not quite but nearly perfect storytelling. I have some criticisms, increasingly toward the end, but still open since the show hasn’t ended yet. My husband also brought up similar criticisms.

As a frequent cynic, disappointed with what I watch, I was absolutely thrilled with this, which is rare for me. Later seasons might fuck it up, but in terms of potential, this first season is great, and brings me back to my nostalgic mature anime days.

I’ll watch the second season as soon as it’s out, good or bad.

Other than Mutiny, is there any other Lightning wallet that integrates federated ecash?

nostr:note1mnyfl9hjck35mw67hd659j6a2gxltmyhzq684lm99xnf6wzyeunsh33fy8

Mood: hot corn

In the US we still operate a democracy which was designed under the assumption that the Internet doesn’t exist

Many smart people get stuck in level 1 and by that they limit their own potential. They turn into the angry guy who's always right but nobody ever listens to them. They lose sight of level 2, thinking that the only important skill is to be smarter than others. Other smart people soon learn to ignore them, because at that level, everybody around you is smart, but some of them are assholes.

It's completely up to you what you become. It's your responsibility, nobody else's.

A family member asked if I had my photo taken with Trump like how my grandfather (who was very active in the Republican Party) had his photo taken with Ronald Reagan.

He was taken aback when I informed him that Trump required a $60,000 donation for the privilege.

That does look like an amazing bike. Bit out of my price range and it would probably get robbed within minutes where I work lol

Daydreaming of a low maintenance, (affordable) bike build I could potentially work on as a project. (If I ever get time to go to the bike maintenance workshop project near me).

But yeah thinking of low maintenance, almost-bombproof hybrid bike build. (But not pricey/showy/gonna get stolen). A bit like a prepper's bike, but maybe the post-post-apocalypse has been going on for a bit, and you can cycle about lol.

Just doing basic daydream research now. But thinking Ridgeback Day (0, 01, 02 etc?) frame firstly.

Tyres: marathon plus

(Although probably should be something no inner tubes lol)

Any thoughts on a low maintenance workhorse that's a bit of an all rounder but also not pricey lol? #asknostr

Also happy to hear super pricey nukeproof builds for fun lol

#bikes #bikestr

tfw you thought you were going to skip the Terrible Twos, but then realize that all this time, he was only gathering strength.

Firefox is what I use with little issues.