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Showing posts from October, 2023

I'd like to extend a warm thank you to Shirogane of Fundies Say the Darndest Things

 I've arrived. For having the audacity to say, LE GASP, maybe the transgender lobby might need to moderate their approach and quit demanding all of humanity deny their own eyes, brain, and personal conscience to accommodate them, I have gotten an entry on the "hall of shame" (really not ashamed at all, I think I'll take a picture of it and frame it) that is  Fundies Say the Darndest Things .  Original here: https://fstdt.com/@Shirogane On top of editing out the rest of my post and selectively curating one section out of context for other like-minded people to seethe at (and Shirogane, you can be honest, you were the anon who left a comment calling me crazy in response and ran to FSTDT to post what made you mad as some childish revenge), they also seem to think I'm some horrible transphobic bigot because I refuse to be a mindless lickspittle for their every demand. I'm actually pretty moderate on that. Do your thing without harming me or anyone else and I don&#

On getting into AI art making and the ethics of it

 I am writing this post due to my getting into making AI art after being interested in the possibilities and wanting to use it for game modding. Now, before I continue, I want to make a few things clear. I deplore the use of AI creation of any sort for evil intent. I do not ever plan to sell anything created by AI, do not ever intend to claim it as my own work (as it's generated by a computer, not my own actual skill), and I only ever plan to do AI creations of any sort in compliance with all applicable laws and with all proper safeguards taken against it causing financial, legal, or moral harm to another person. If I was ever given a request to take it down by proper authority, I would comply immediately. Now that I got that out of the way, let me first explain what AI art is for the people unaware, then go into why I wrote this post. First off, AI art is artwork, soundtracks, animations, or other media done by a computer being fed examples of currently existing material, then usi

Geth Reviews A Terrible Gun: Type 94 Nambu pistol

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 Now, when reviewing this gun, I had to separate a lot of fact from fiction. One of its most notorious features has a lot of contention, with some claiming it was more deadly to the user than the intended target, and others claiming this is overblown nonsense. On the whole, however, this is a pretty disappointing gun for many other reasons. Shown above is the Type 94 handgun (in the original Japanese,    Kyūyon-Shiki Kenjū). Now, many respected military historians such as the late Ian V. Hogg have given this gun bad reviews. More contemporary military weapons aficionados generally agree though Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons contends it wasn't great, but not as bad as it's believed to be. The gun itself was designed by Kijirō Nambu, the Japanese version of John Moses Browning. The Type 94 was issued for service in 1934 (despite it being a commercial flop in non-military markets). Its designation comes from the Japanese historical tradition of their origins, meaning the gun wa

Geth Reviews A Terrible Gun: The Chauchat

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 As many who read this blog or who know my tastes may be aware I adore reading about history. Wars are particularly interesting to read about, but honestly, they suck because wars kill people. And people die when they are killed. And, now that I made a lame Fate/Stay Night meme reference, bear with me (and for the gun nuts among you, get the antacids) as we take a trip down the snark-laden road that was the history of the Chauchat, long considered to be one of the worst weapons to ever be given to soldiers to kill people with. First off, the name, being French, is pronounced "show-sha". Also, that's merely the informal name. The actual official military designation is  Fusil Mitrailleur Modele 1915 CSRG (French for "Machine Rifle Model 1915 CSRG"). The more informal name comes from its chief designer contributor, Colonel Louis Chauchat. Before we continue, some argue this gun is unfairly maligned, and while it was a piece of garbage that had better use as a pap

On The Values of Talent and Effort

 This post is going to be a combination of three things. Commentary about a game I played, some history of professional wrestling, and what the Bible says about proper effort. As strange a combination as it sounds, the first two will be relevant to the third. To start things off, when it comes to game series, I'v always been a longtime fan of the Dragon Quest series. It's a turn-based series that has always pleased me due to the fact it's remained charmingly old school even as technology and other games have done new and exciting things. The last game in the mainline series I enjoyed was the PC version of DQXI S, which was a port based on the added content from the Switch port. That game was super long and rewarding, and I rather warmly appreciated how the developers bent every effort to use their talent to make something amazing. More recently, I was intensely and bitterly disappointed when I played Infinity Strash Dragon Quest: The Adventures of Dai. Infinity Strash was a

Grana Padono Oro, Smoked Cheddar Brick, and Aged English Cheddar Taste Testing Review

 For this month, Mom and I bring back another exciting episode of Dragon Ball- wait, wrong subject. Seriously, this month, we tasted some more cheese, ordered from Murray's in New York. Like always, it shipped well packed with adequate ice and it was undamaged and in good quality. Here's how our taste testing went. Grana Padono Oro 20 Months In my earlier post about Pecorino Romano, I mentioned that cheese is very gritty and grainy. Well, Grana Padono Oro, while a relative of that cheese, it goes through a different cooking process than Romano, resulting in a much less dry texture and it's more flaky than grainy. This is ironic, because "Grana" means "Grain". Grana Padono Oro is an Italian cheese that has enjoyed Denominazione d’Origine Protetta (Protected Designation of Origin) status since 1996. It's produced using raw cow milk from two separate milkings. This milk is then partially skimmed, the curd is given two cooking periods, then it's bath