Dwaine

This is something that's been on my mind lately. It's a part of larger conversation about what's been happening in the creative fields I work in. The rerelease of Persona 5 rewrote a scene where a couple of gay men were creeping on your characters. There was a lot of outrage over this scene in the usual corners. Really didn't see the need for it, because I'm an adult and I understand that one character is not representative of an entire gender or sexuality as a whole. This lead to a lot of localization staff openly discussing puffing up their role in the process, altering the text to suit their worldview, and even chastising developers. There are all sorts of stories with all sorts of characters. The job of a localization staff is to represent the art by helping tell that story, not tell their story. This has been the case in manga and it reminds me of how things were censored in the 90s by the far right. Something that's become quite prevalent lately has been the introduction of "sensitivity readers." This goes beyond an editor. A good editor will see the rough patches in a story and will give suggestions in the writer's best interests. A sensitivity reader has no investment in the writer's success. They're coming in as a third party moral authority and edit out what they deem to be problematic. Which is usually an ever changing list that ranges from anything to everything. To them, you're already bad and you need their consulting. Some people's works get stripped of their characters and conflicts. Some people cancel their work all together out of fear. I hate seeing this. It makes for bland characters and stories where everyone's friends and nothing happens. Artists and writers can have a difficult time getting paid what they're worth as it is. These people don't serve the story. They serve themselves. They play on good intentions and take a good chunk of the budget. Many of them are failed writers who found a way of being in the industry without being in the industry. Be it a bad teacher shaming a student, or a Twitter pile on for something ridiculous, it makes me sad to see the joy of the creative process ruined for folks.

Reading Maison is emotional torture, and even self harm in some spots. That's not to say it is bad. Far from it! Takahashi wanted to make her readers suffer. Viz released a new printing of Ranma a couple years ago. They retranslated the earlier volumes, but left the latter ones intact, so there are still some inconsistencies. Like one chapter Ryoga will say "Bakusai Tenketsu" and "Breaking Point Technique" in another. Ranma is still great fun. That's what I love about it. It's just pure fun. Though I still stand by my point that Akane doesn't deserve him. Ranma had plenty of "Am I the #$*!" moments, but Akane hardly ever did. Ukyo was really the only one that had her #$*! together and seemed to genuinely care for him. One of my favorite one-shot stories is in volume... 35, I think? The Conspiracy of Jellyfish Beach.

Last night my girlfriend and I ate at Mod Pizza. We sat at the window and outside there was a couple in their fifties. Heavy set. Wife was wearing a lot of makeup with super bleached hair. Husband was fat, smoking cigars, and wearing a Tommy Bahama shirt. You know the type. The husband leaned back in his chair. It snapped in two and he fell on his ass. We happened to be looking over when this happened and the wife saw us. My girlfriend froze in fear. I tried my best not to laugh. He was rather upset. His ego was bruised pretty bad, but no injuries outside of that. The dude came in to complain, which I'm sure was tough for the staff. What are they supposed to say? "Sorry you were too fat for the chair." He went back outside, got another chair, and gave us a lovely sight to dine to by displaying copious amounts of butt crack. I asked my girlfriend if she had any change or a pencil to drop down and she said no. Pretty sure she was lying to me, though. When they finished eating they came back in and asked to speak to the manager. She was working and cleaning, so they had to wait a while. They didn't want to wait. Like, what did they expect to happen? She can't unbreak the chair. I wanted to see how it ended. My girlfriend did not. Think I might go back and see how it turned out.

There's a local group I joined on Facebook just to troll it. It would post local happenings, deals, and such. The first post I saw was Sonic having their 99 cent corn dog day. I responded with the best thing Lindsay Ellis has ever made. Posted that and thought, "Well, that's it for me!" Yet somehow... I wasn't banned! In the following months she would continue to post Sonic's monthly deal and I would respond with the gif. It's been about a year and she makes a disproportionate amount of Sonic and James Coney Island posts. I'm being baited and I'm more than happy to take it.

Now that I'm not in so much of a rush to get out the door, this is a wonderful find. Thanks for adding now TWO missing pieces of the puzzle.

I still can at any time, so be on your best behavior.

Sneak peaks here are there usually get posted to my Instagram stories.

About that. When Heroes came out. No, the Shrine hasn't been touched in a while. It's not motivation, that's for sure. I loved the design I was working on. I absolutely adore the menu Mimas made for me! It's perfect! I feel terrible about it. There's only so much I can do. I want to have a quality site, but there's so much to gather just to hit all the basics for one game. I've only got so much time. When I'm not building up my business I'm working on my 150 page graphic novel. That's taking fo'eva, because I only get an hour or two each day to work on it. So in order to return it has to be something pretty major or a paying gig. I would LOVE to do more interviews! The Plus Alpha interview is one of my all-time favorite things I've ever done. I truly believe every DQ fan should read it. While DQ is made by hundreds of people, they're all people with their own individual stories. I want to hear those stories! And I don't want it in some standard blog or news site template. Podcasts and videos are great, but I want something people can sit down, explore, and really take in. Like pouring over all those old Nintendo Power articles. It's kind of become a lost art.

You're right. Twitter is evil. No joke. I tell everyone to delete Twitter and live a happier life. It has destroyed so many people's lives. The amount of ignorance and hate it spreads - I can't take it. Yeah, you do need to know. Stay away from those kids. Or cough on them. Strengthen that immune system! Instagram is cool. Pretty much no hate or drama. When all the craziness started, it started suggesting a ton of far left accounts. Blocked all of them. Then it started showing me a ton of far right accounts. I blocked those too. So it admitted defeat and went back to suggesting inking and cat videos.

Glad you mentioned this. It's something I've kinda/sorta wanted to address. Those experiences all stemmed from bad communication and corporate clog. I've long since deleted my experiences with them. It was over two staff changes ago and there's no point to keep perpetuating it. I may not have agreed with the majority of their decisions, but the way the staff was laid off due to projections was completely unfair. Better communication to the fans about what was happening definitely would've eased tensions, but things are much better now.

I follow a raccoon picture and meme page on Facebook. They've gone full "REEE Trump!!" A. Raccoon. Page!

Loomer is going to be a glorious shitshow. Remember when she sent all those thirst tweets to dudes? Pepperidge Farm remembers. That's what I'm talking about. Stay informed, but don't fixate on it. Be more involved with your family, friends, and community. There are people who post #$*! like, "#$*! TRUMP! PLEASE DIE!" These people would still be experiencing their same problems regardless. TDS isn't anything new. People did it with Obama, Bush, and such. Like say Trump DOES come after you with coof, do you want to be remembered for your Twitter rage? That's pretty much where I'm at. Get upset about the stuff that's worth getting upset about, but discern when he's just blowing hot air or trolling.

Kinda. A couple weeks ago I saw a comment that said, "My aunt died of covid and I'm blaming Trump." Sad that it happened, but I'm pretty sure Trump didn't cause that. I mean, it's possible, but not probable. Of all the things I have to do on any given day, there are better things to spend my energy on than being mad at the dumb president on Twitter or Facebook.

The creator of the Bop It! follows me on Instagram.