I don’t really downvote. I try to be helpful, so if someone’s just being rude, I typically just block them. Probably more efficient.

The default for Reddit was to hide posts with X downvotes, so people could manipulate that to hide posts they don’t like. Lemmy doesn’t do that by default, so there’s no real utility. Also users can choose to sort by time and ignore vote counts (I do) so your downvotes literally don’t do anything for those users. Thus, I just block people who go out of their way to be rude or offensive.

I upvote people who are helpful and/or kind. Otherwise, I don’t interact with that system.

They say at some point your parents put you down and never pick you up again.

The truth is, the age of a person’s child is the image of them they hold in their heart. It could be a certain milestone, or a certain bonding moment.

For me, it varies from person to person. I’m not a father myself, but I’ve helped raise more than a dozen kids over the years. Many years, some of those kids have kids of their own now. To answer the question, I think of two sisters, who are cousins of mine, and 11 and 13 years younger than me. It seems, from my experience, small girls are either shy or cautious around older/teenage boys, or are drawn to them (not like attracted to, like they see them as bigger kids who can pick them up and carry them, and get them into more fun/risky trouble and maybe deflect some of the blame from them). The younger sister was the former, the older sister was the latter. The older girl was fun when she was small, but got bossy, possessive, and generally bitchy as she got older (like to preteen age). The younger one was shy and reserved, she’d follow her sister around (who would follow me around, or be carried by me), but she wouldn’t let me pick her up, except one time she asked for a shoulder ride, and then proceeded to pour a can of soda over my head. But, she started getting attached to me around 8 or 9, and even cried one time when I had to leave, and my aunt and uncle made me put that fire out. So, to come back to the point, whenever I think about them (or I see them in my dreams), the older one is 3 or 4, and the younger one is 8 or 9.

Now if you mean, like, when do they stop sending you gifts? You might have a ways to go. I’m almost 50 and I still get birthday and Christmas cards from my mother. Not so much from my cousins, though occasionally they send me those photo collage cards with pictures of them with their husbands and kids.

I’m glad they’re remastering the original versions for those who want that.

As someone who saw the movies when they were relatively new (I mean Star Wars was before my time and I was a baby when Empire came out), I don’t mind the changes. I think it’s cool that George Lucas was able to add the stuff he always wanted to do but didn’t have the budget for at the time. I think if I were someone who watched these movies yearly or more, I’d appreciate the “de-mastered” edition or whatever, but as a more casual enjoyer of the original trilogy… I don’t really care.

The one thing I’m a bit iffy on is Greedo shooting first. In the original, Greedo didn’t shoot. He just pointed the gun at Han. Han shoots Greedo under the table. And the two of them have history that’s never stated. Greedo is a more honest lowlife than Han is. Han is basically trash, but Luke inspires him to be a hero and come back at the end after the Rebellion has paid him. (Also, he’s fallen for Leia.) I think it’s important he goes from a cold-blooded killer to a hero. The change makes him a bit less bad. And I guess that’s because Vader is evil and Luke is good, and Luke can’t be hanging around with guys who exist in shades of grey. I don’t like that change. But I don’t hate Lucas for doing it. I’m also tired of explaining it, how they changed Han’s character essentially. Or explaining how “Han shot first” is wrong. Han was the only shooter in the original scene. Yes, Greedo was going to turn him over to Jabba the Hutt, who was most likely going to kill him. Drop him in the pit with the Rancor.

Ah, yes, I have it (on macOS, I use it for downloading when YouTube blocks jd2 from downloading, I can get the video in any res with no audio, and the video in like 160p with good audio. Throw both into mkvtoolnix, ditch the low-res video stream, and it’s all good. A bit of extra work, but if I want the video I can get it). I know it’s similar.

That’s awesome. Linux should absolutely be pushing for Android app compatibility in much the same way macOS does with iOS/iPadOS apps.

And by pushing, I mean it should be an optional project people could install if they want, not forced on everyone like a commercial OS feature. I just mean it should be a thing.

I’ve seen handles in kanji — I assume Japanese, could be Chinese. Some browsers will translate that if they can. At least to something you can say (if you don’t know how to say those symbols, that is). For example, people whose first language is English can say “konnichiwa” — the Japanese word for “hello” or “good day” written in Romaji, which is Japanese using the Roman alphabet — but they wouldn’t know how to pronounce こんにちは — it’s the same word. So you can look at that in my message and say “konnichiwa” out loud, but if you happened upon it in a week and you’ve forgotten I said this, you probably won’t recognise it. But, you can highlight it, long press/right click and search your favourite search engine to find out what it is.

(Side note: I do recognise は which is pronounced “wa.” It’s part of the title of my favourite film, 君の名は。 (Kimi no Na wa., or “your name.”) I also recognise の when I see it. This was the first one I learned — because it looks like a fortune cookie!)

Not necessarily.

You’re kind of talking about two different things that are somewhat interchangeable. First you have a username which is used to log into a network or system. Second you have a forum/chat handle which is used to identify an anonymous or semi-anonymous user (e.g. CerebralHawks for me). I don’t think it’s strictly necessary for a forum handle to be pronounceable, but it’s easy to read mine and call me that, or just “Hawks” or “Hawk.” If it’s not, the mind isn’t going to retain it as long (this could be a good thing) and it’s hard to say, so it’s hard to address.

Usernames absolutely don’t have to be. Forum/chat handles should be, but it isn’t necessary.

I don’t think you could call it Jesusland, taking the LORD’s name in vain and all that.

Christchurch though? Totally acceptable. Pretty sure that’s a city in Texas. Or, take the Aramaic (language Christ spoke) word(s) for “promised land” and Anglify it.

Anyway, which would your capitols be? I’m thinking maybe Dallas for “Jesusland” — it’s in Texas, and it’s far enough inland to miss a lot of hurricane damage that gets Houston right on the coast — and maybe keep Ottawa for USC. Except it’s not very centrally located… still might be their best bet since it exists. I sure wouldn’t put it in California (too many wildfires/earthquakes). I was kinda thinking British Columbia though (north of Washington State, bordering the Pacific). Like Vancouver maybe. Lovely area.

I feel like NewPipe would be awesome if it weren’t just for Android. Like if you could run it on PC/Mac/Linux. iOS wouldn’t be entirely out either, since you can sideload up to 3 apps with a free developer account. If you have an iPhone or iPad, you already have an Apple account, so you can just make it a developer account, and all that really does is add you to the developer mailing list, which isn’t that annoying.

Of course, on the computer I just use Firefox + uBlock Origin, but I can do that on Android, too. I’ve never tried watching YouTube on my Android phone (my iPhone has a bigger screen, but I’d just rather use a computer) but I bet I can block the ads in the browser. I think the app comes with it. My iPhone doesn’t even have the YouTube app. I never see ads in Safari using uBlock Lite, which is a DNS filter, which is exactly what Android users without root are doing, AFAIK (or VPN-based blocking e.g. PiHole that’s platform independent).

(So basically I prefer a solution that works on all my devices from various vendors. But a good option for Android, especially since Google backed down on canceling sideloading!)

I use this on my Macs — I think it works on all platforms? My use case is quite interesting. I have two Nintendo Switch emulators, one on a Mac and one on a MacBook. Due to the way Nintendo handles save files, it’s not the same folder name from machine to machine. You’d think it would be something dumb like \saves{serial-of-game} but no, it’s weird, it’s dumb, and it makes syncing a challenge.

SyncThing isn’t easy to set up, but it’s doable. I had to find the folder on both systems (different names, of course) and I have ST set up to where if it detects a change in one, it updates the other.

For the test, I set up Animal Crossing on the Mac, played until I could generate a save (roughly 10-15 minutes, I think: you do character creation, then a tutorial, before you’re allowed to go to sleep, and wake up with real-time enabled), then I booted it up on the MacBook and expected the save to load. I got a screen (within the game) I had never seen before, something about transferring my data to a new Switch (I’m guessing there’s a hardware ID in there), but then, it worked. I might have to face that screen every time, but I did what Ninten-don’t — I have an Animal Crossing save that lives on two machines at once. (And I never play it. I really just did it to see if I could. I play the game on my actual Switch, the actual game I paid for, because I wasn’t trying to rip off Nintendo, really, just see if I could do it. And, ST was the tool I used to accomplish it.)

I do not, as a rule, play games where my enjoyment affects others. When I do, no, I don’t cheat. The rest of the time? I’m not above taking a shortcut if it brings me more enjoyment if the product I paid for. I occasionally cheat at Animal Crossing. Look up treasure islands. I don’t abuse them but I definitely make use of them.

I’m sure they’re pretty, I just don’t care.

I may have been too old to see Avatar (the first one), but I just couldn’t help thinking it was just a new version of Pocahontas. Sure, it was pretty, but I care about stories and I didn’t really get one. Not an original one anyway.

James Cameron isn’t really a storyteller, though. He pushes technological marvels in his films. He cares if it looks good.

I saw a bit of the second one the other day, the one about water. It looked awesome. Really should give it a chance one day. It might be cool to see the third one in theaters. Or maybe even IMAX. I don’t expect the story to make me think much, but like Nicole Kidman says in the AMC ad, you’re there to be transported to another world for a couple hours, and James Cameron is absolutely good for that.

I prefer GOG because of the DRM-free option, and I like what they stand for. But, you’re right, there are a few cases where you’d want the Steam version instead. I’d say ask the community around the game and see what they think. There are no cases I’m aware of where not having the Steam version would be a problem, but I don’t play games like that.

GOG does a few things better than Steam, though. They fix stuff. Steam just pushes what the publisher gives them. Two cases, same franchise… same shitty developer. Fallout 3 shipped with DRM called GfWL (Games for Windows Live), basically Xbox Live for Windows. GfWL failed, but Bethesda didn’t take it out of Fallout 3, meaning to play Fallout 3 on PC, even if you bought it legally, you had to crack the DRM, which is illegal in the US. No one got in trouble for doing so, but that’s what you had to do. GOG just took the DRM out. Problem solved. Something like a decade after Bethesda created the problem by not taking it out themselves, they did just that — VERY recently, and thus, it became “legal” to play Fallout 3 on PC again. Second case, Fallout 4. Same developer/publisher. Different case. They put out a patch about a year, year and a half ago, and it broke the random NPC generator. There was a cursed combination of variables that could make up an NPC, that if it generated that set of variables, you could never get close to that NPC, or your game would crash. Modders quickly found the problem and told Bethesda how to fix it. They refused. More to the point, they ignored the issue. I don’t think GOG carried that update for months. They refused it. You could only get the older, last working version for a while. I think they eventually allowed it, but with a note on it saying it was broken with no fix in the works. Couple weeks ago, they said they fixed it… after like 16 months. But introduced more problems. (Disclaimer of bias: I own Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 and all the official DLC on Xbox, Steam, and GOG. I used to be a big fan of Bethesda, but after Starfield… I am discovering way too late that it’s not a tenth the game the Mass Effect trilogy was. Better late than never, I suppose?)

It’s insulting because there are a lot of LGBTQ+ voice actors who want to do this but the powers that be won’t greenlight it.

Look at Amazon’s relationship with Trump, Trump’s positions on LGBTQ+ people, and ask why Amazon is doing this. They aren’t contractually obligated to do so. They are doing various animation projects and paying real voice actors. Though Hazbin Hotel is pretty gay, and so is Helluva Boss (same people/same universe). The only other animation project I know at Amazon is Mighty Nein, and I wanna say those guys are LGBTQ+ friendly but I’m not sure they’re on the spectrum. So I don’t wanna say Amazon is acting prejudicial here, but it smells.

I know a lot about anime, but not as much as some. I’ve only been watching since 2013. And I know about an animated flick that’s popular with little girls, but I’m neither little (I’m in my 40s) nor female. I have a niece who’s about twice as old as your kid, but she likes any character with red hair. Or pink. I tried to get her into SPYxFAMILY (which doesn’t have any singing!) but, just because everyone’s favourite character is a four-year-old with pink hair and big green eyes, doesn’t mean the show is made for four year olds. It’s set in 1960s Germany, albeit with fictional place names, but it’s the whole East vs West, Spy Vs Spy kinda thing, except the spy needs a child to get to a reclusive rival who only ever attends school events for his young son. So he adopts this girl, but anime plot twist, she has pink hair and is telepathic (also dumb as a box of rocks). So it’s a comedy. Then he needs a wife, for the mission, and “marries” an assassin — from the other side. It’s PG-13 at best but there are a lot of gun fights, and the “mama” fights with knives. There is some blood but it’s not graphic. It’s nothing compared to what I grew up with, so I’d say it’s fine. Not all the episodes are about the kids, but a lot of them are, and the kids are pretty realistic, like how they bicker and plot and make up by the end of the day, and have their little cliques and whatnot.

As far as traditional cartoons for toddlers… I have no idea. Kids these days play Roblox and Fortnite on tablets. I don’t know what they watch on their own.

If you want more anime recommendations though, I can help with that. Also I wouldn’t mention something if it wasn’t in English. I watch mostly in Japanese with subtitles, but obviously that wouldn’t work for a 4 year old.

That makes sense. I remember people carrying planners years ago. I suppose some still do. It’s just that the digital one makes it easier.

Bit of a confession: even with tech, and me being technical, digital calendars didn’t do it for me. Until I got into anime and every anime character has a birthday, a blood type, all these details. I don’t even know Captain Picard’s birthday and I’m a lifelong Trekker who started with Next Generation. Maybe he has one, but I never knew it. Anime fans tend to know their characters’ birthdays. So it happened that I started putting the birthdays of characters I like into the calendar. It’s nice to see it’s someone’s birthday, even if they’re a fictional character who doesn’t even age. Like the Simpsons is like 30+ years old and Bart is still in fourth grade? (I don’t know his birthday, either.)

So, that got me into it. Working a weird schedule helped, I’d get my schedule and I’d put it in the calendar, I had a calendar just for shifts and I share it with my wife.

It’s not actually a group, it’s just a movie. And they weren’t pushing it. Netflix released it thinking it wouldn’t go anywhere, and it took off. That’s why there isn’t a lot of merch for it (and it’s just now coming out), because they didn’t expect it to take off like it did. Now they’re pushing merch and kicking themselves for not doing it sooner. Now they’re pushing it to try to meet demand. It’s largely being pulled by grade school girls and young adults.

As for “new group,” I’d say you’re confusing KPDH with 22/7, only most people don’t know what 22/7 is. 22/7 is a Japanese pop group who have an anime which tells a fictional tale of a mysterious wall that spits out cards with orders that people follow, eventually creating an idol group to win the hearts and minds of the people. But 22/7 is an actual group that records music and releases it. Their best song isn’t even in the anime — it was released after.

With KPDH, it’s just a movie, though if the producers and whatnot were smart, they’d take the three singers who do the singing voices of the HUNTR/X girls, and have them record together… like 22/7 do. So by the time the next movie comes out, they’ve already had a couple albums out, and this can play into the lore of the new film. EJAE (Rumi) is a K-Pop star in her own right, but they don’t have to write songs. The pop industry has for decades had other people write songs for the performers. (The other two are also singers, none of them are very good on their own, though it’s subjective, but the other two are quite unlike HUNTR/X, with a lot of explicit stuff. Not something you want your grade school daughter looking into.) (They should also do the same with the Saja Boys.) (Of course, if KPDH has you jonesing for K-Pop, you could just listen to BTS if you like the boys, and Blackpink if you like the girls, then branch out from there. Or K/DA if you like cartoon bands — they did music for League of Legends, before Jinx/Arcane were the focus. K/DA is probably the most similar to HUNTR/X as far as I can tell.)

Never used the Google calendar, but Apple and Microsoft calendars are great for this. I only use the Microsoft one at work, to track shifts, but I get the notifications on my iPhone because I have Outlook on it. I don’t like having work email on a personal phone, but I ignore most of it. I can, however, say that the calendar works as it should. Tells me when I need to leave for work and whatnot — usually, just as I’m leaving (I have a pretty good handle on that). I use Apple stuff at home (Macs and the Watch, plus my iPhone). My main calendar is on that. I get a doctor’s appointment for example, they want to write it down, I say no need, it’s in my iPhone, which means it’s also on my Watch and my Macs. The fuck’s the paper gonna do? It’s just waste.

I’m not knocking Google, I just don’t use it. I’m sure it’s fine. I have an older Android phone (just on WiFi, it’s a backup phone) and I like it, just never used the calendar. Of course the real power move is a calendar that works with both iPhone and Android. There are a few options out there. Most of them are paid, so I’m not even gonna name any. But seriously, digital calendars are fucking awesome. Especially if you have a smart watch.

Wasn’t this posted like a week ago without the paywall?

No, we don’t. My response to that would be something like, “damn, that’s why she sounded so disappointed. We hadn’t spoken in a few weeks, so I know it wasn’t me this time… it sounded like she got some bad dick, thanks for providing context I suppose.”

Or if it were in passing/in person, maybe something more short and to the point like “she told me, said it wasn’t the worst she had, nor the smallest, but definitely the saddest.”

Or maybe just “I’m sorry, you should go get tested.”

Wouldn’t bother me in the least.

I don’t have a “bad” relationship with my mother, but a joke like that is hardly worth considering. Might as well have some fun with it.