Astinus

It has been a while for sure, more than a year actually. Life has changed quite a lot, I started university, had some health issues that I have under control now, I actually started to get along with people at my daily environments. Things are quite different now and once I got everything back under control, I came back here!

That's the short version at least, how's your life going?

What sort of stuff have you gotten done? Also, did you have a cake? :B

I am quite good now. Yesterday I submitted the thesis! It is weird though not having to do uni/application work this weekend of any sort. Conference was nice too.

Happy Birthday Astinus!

Happy birthday!

Hope you had a good day :)

Happy birthday! \o/ Hope all is well.

Happy birthday Asty!

I've just realized that you and Antoshi are different people. For some reason your vaguely similar user names confused me, which is why I thought you're familiar with Beth Pavell.

Have you written a fanfic before?

https://forums.bulbagarden.net/index.php?threads/reverberations-of-time.243194/#post-6376677

I am not saying that none of it is constructive, but his advice, if you can call it that, is pretty vague. Here is how I read the review:

"Your story is juvenile, so I don't like it. But hey, even Harry Potter is juvenile."
"The kids are the adults and vice-versa." (Really now?)
"There is a lot of flatness and not enough world building. I won't get into specifics, though."
"Ernest is obnoxious, but that's pretty fitting for a homeschooled kid. That doesn't mean that the reader has to like it. Also, no way is he 12."
"Even Kris is nothing to brag about, but maybe it was the stripped-down narrative that bothered me."

Several users there tend to be negative, too. They probably think that brutal honesty is the best way to help someone, but that's a falsehood.

What's your opinion of Beth Pavell? He called my story juvenile and my protagonists obnoxious (borderline for Kris). It's hard to take that kind of attitude as constructive criticism.

Chapter 6 is up.

Didn't mean to leave it alone this long, but I just watched a little Adventure 02. Gonna post a review of every episode of this show on your VM page if it kills me.

Episode 21:

So yeah, this is easily the best episode of 02 if memory serves. An interesting thing writing-wise that I didn't remember was Wormmon telling Ken that he'll always believe in him before he tackles him off of Devidramon. Normally when "I'll always believe in you" is addressed at a character who's clearly doing evil stuff, it's when the speaker is justifying why they're blindly going along with all the evil stuff, but here it's Wormmon's justification for doing the opposite and sticking up to Ken. He's saying he'll always believe in Ken's capacity for redemption, not in the goodness of everything he happens to do, and so he'll endure Ken's abuse and risk retaliation to save him from himself. Also good writing-wise is the scene where Ken can no longer stay in denial about how Digimon are in fact alive. On one hand, this "video game" Ken thinks he's in is so lifelike that only someone with a warped mind could be as cruel as Ken was while playing it, but on the other hand most folks watching the show have done something like torture Sims or the customers in Roller Coaster Tycoon. It doesn't excuse him and the show doesn't try to spin it that way, but at the same time it forces you to think about how you approach video games and what that says about you.

What stuck out to me most about this episode though is the one brief shot where Chimeramon is destroyed. It's definitely my favorite shot in 02, and maybe in all of Digimon or close to it. Magnamon's little more than a tiny silhouette on the screen, but what makes it work is how it all scales. Magnamon: tiny, Chimeramon: huge, the irresistible, blinding power of Kindness: gigantic. And from a technical standpoint it's the perfect example of doing a lot with a little. It's just a flat, barely animated, totally cheap effects shot, but the composition just carries the whole episode. (Contrast this with tri where they throw all the money they can scrape together at higher-framecount effects animation that has no presence or sense of mass or composition and yes I'm still on about that.)

Btw, haven't watched latest tri yet but plan to.

Also, how've you been lately? It's been a while.

Hey there, just dropped by to thank you for all the TCG codes you shared. I was a bit greedy and claimed them all n-n;; Really appreciated though, thanks so much! =D

No problem.

Chapter 4 is up.

Thanks for your comments on the first few chapters of Reverberations of Time. I'm curious to know if you find Chapter 3 an improvement over Chapter 1.

ewww that's not enough sleep aha. everything is good though. i had to buy a new car recently so that's a chunk of my wallet every month now, but at least i got a car i really love. ...other than that my life is persona 5. i even got my boyfriend into it. and that's quite a feat bc he never plays games i recommend for him aha.

fancy us being on at the same time! ;) what's up?

And done. = )

Also, thanks for your comment on the first part of Foul Play. I plan to reply yours and the others' feedback soon, but I talked a bit to Vragon over the concern with Grimsley's reactions/emotions when he first arrive Alola. Don't know if I'll make any big changes over that in the first chapter, but I'll try to make that more apparent in later ones.

Neat aside - there is a giant radio telescope near completion in China. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_hundred_meter_Aperture_Spherical_Telescope

AH, cool. Got a bit of time to prepare for them!

Yeah, it does. Especially as that's three I've had where I've apparently done well, but in the end someone had the experience or they wanted a different direction to what I could offer to the job. =/ Bluh.

And fair enough. Try not to get lost in there.