#macros faciles

[fitnessmith]

Poulet au beurre de cacahuète : recette fitness rapide. #RecetteFitness #PouletProtéiné #HighProteinMeal #HealthyChicken

[terotam]

How CMMS Solution Overcomes the Challenges of Manufacturing Industry in 2024?

[wumblr]

so let me see if i understand this correctly. two days ago, at an unspecified time, the carrier picked up the package. then, at 3:27pm, the package arrived at an unspecified facility. then, at 6:03pm, the same package arrived, again, at the same facility. the next day, at 6:28 and 7:07, the package departed the facility. then, the following day, at 10:10, 10:21, and 11:33am, the package arrived three times... it would seem we are observing the first known incident of nuclear fission at the macro-scale. by thursday this may be catastrophic

[numberonesnarkfan]

ok so my current theory is this

Sawyer's role as 'head of Special Projects' was primarily to be the main surgeon to perform the brain transplants between human and toy bodies.

And I think his 'removal' pertains to him, probably willingly, moving to focus primarily on studying the Prototype instead.

So, how does one go from the role of neurosurgeon to what we can seem to understand as a torturer/confession extractor?

Given how chapter 4 and its ARG have had a lot of underlying themes of brains and senses, I think large parts of chapter 4 will be themed around the idea that the prototype is part of a system that makes the facility almost a living body.

The prototype's body, I believe, will be composed primarily of grey matter, and act as, both literally and metaphorically, the brain of the body.

The Bigger Bodies initiative isn't about putting children in bigger bodies. It's about every toy being a limb, and appendage that the brain can control. The 'bigger body' is this ultra-macro-organism. The security system, its eyes. The gas production zone, its lungs. The upper floors of the factory, its face. The prototype, its brain.

there is definitely more to the prototype than we know, and I imagine he's going to have some big twist about his nature and role. I think he's a hivemind of sorts, a jumble of individual voices and identities acting in discordant harmony as one entity - as thoughts, or perhaps neurons. He refers to himself as 'we' and 'us' (as well as individual pronouns), despite being referred to by others as 'he'.

Notably, The Prototype is the only experiment so far (to my knowledge) that Sawyer refers to using human pronouns instead of 'it'.

He refers to Yarnaby exclusively as 'it', while other doctors refer to Yarnaby as 'he'. I think this implies that for some reason, Sawyer sees the Prototype as a near equal, where he sees most of the toys as nothing more than animals.

I think his methods for extracting information from the prototype may be quite literal - attempting to somehow extract biomechanical log data from the brain directly, by continuing to do what he was hired to - perform neurosurgery. Extract.

The prototype is smart because he is a brain. I think maybe, Sawyer doesn't realise that he, too, is part of the 'bigger body', and the Prototype is using him as it would all of its other 'limbs'.

[follow-up-news]

UPS is looking to slash about 20,000 jobs and close more than 70 facilities as it drastically reduces the amount of Amazon shipments it handles. The package delivery company said Tuesday that it anticipates making the job cuts this year. It anticipates closing 73 leased and owned buildings by the end of June. UPS said that it is still reviewing its network and may identify more buildings to be shuttered. “The actions we are taking to reconfigure our network and reduce cost across our business could not be timelier,” CEO Carol Tomé said in a statement on Tuesday. “The macro environment may be uncertain, but with our actions, we will emerge as an even stronger, more nimble UPS.” In January UPS announced that it had reached a deal with Amazon, its biggest customer, to lower its volume by more than 50% by the second half of 2026. During UPS’ fourth-quarter earnings conference call in January, Tomé said that the company had partnered with Amazon for almost 30 years and that when its contract came up this year, UPS decided to reassess the relationship. “Amazon is our largest customer but it’s not our most profitable customer,” Tomé said at the time. “Its margin is very dilutive to the U.S. domestic business.”

[pickles4nickles]

So I’ve been watching playthroughs of Yakuza games for a while now, but when I saw that the newest game takes place in Hawai’i, the place where I was born, raised, and have lived in for nearly 30 years now, I knew that this was something I had to have first-hand experience with and not let some guy tell me how to feel about it, to put it bluntly.

I went on a month and a half long journey to finish this game, so I sat around for a bit like

Jesus Christ I should write a review on it.

So if you’d like to read about 5k words on what I thought about The Video Game™, here you go.

Overall, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is a really really good game. However, as Hawai’i local it was kind of hard for me to turn my brain off to some of the cultural inaccuracies and as someone who tends to play smaller indie games, I clocked in about 110 hours on this and I burned out a little towards the end.

GAMEPLAY

Let’s get into Gameplay first because I think I have the most positive thoughts about it. If you haven’t heard my thoughts about Pokemon lately, it mostly boils down to “It’s the only RPG I’ve really been playing in recent years and the gameplay has been very watered down and I yearn for a decent PvE experience.” This game definitely scratched that itch in more ways than one.

Infinite Wealth’s turn-based combat system revolves around positioning. Some moves have an AoE of either a straight line or a circle. Positioning a character next to an ally will proc a combo move with them and positioning them near items will proc an item attack where you can beat a guy to death with a traffic cone or something.

The job system is robust. Every character starts off with a default class- Ichiban’s is Hero, an all-rounder that can pretty much do anything; characters like Nanba and Eric (I know the game calls him Tomi or Tomizawa, but I’m not the game and “Fuckin’ Eric” sounds way better than “Fuckin’ Tomi”) are magic-oriented, so they’re basically wizards by default. You can change their class to other jobs (Desperado is my favorite because it’s basically gun mage), which unlocks new skills as you level them up. You can also change jobs as much as you want and skills carry over between them, so there’s a bit of moveset mixing and matching that makes my brain feel good.

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, (the Yakuza devs, which we’re just gonna abbreviate to RGG from here on out) have always been REALLY good at asset reuse (again, I cast a dirty look to Game Freak). They’ll make a whole-ass map of a region and reuse that same map for several games down the line. Not only do you spend a significant time in Ijincho again and not only do you go to Kamurocho for little bit… AGAIN, but there are two… what I can only call “macro” games that have the best asset reuse I’ve seen in, like, maybe anything ever.

DONDOKO ISLAND

Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth comes with a whole-ass Animal Crossing clone that’s also kind of The Sims called Dondoko Island. In this, you rehab an island that’s being used as a dump for some trash pirates (no, seriously, they’re actually pirates, yar har and everything) back into a five star resort. There’s a whole-ass crafting system where you go around the island, harvesting resources, to build furniture and facilities, which include whole-ass buildings which have appeared in past Yakuza games. The crafting system is GREATLY improved over Animal Crossing: New Horizon in that you can skip the goddamn animation and craft multiple of the same items at once. You don’t even have to have all the materials in your inventory, it’ll take it from your storage. Placing items in the world is also in an overhead view and the only grievance I have with the system is that placing paths is really weird and you can only place a limited number of them. But overall, Nintendo, was it really that hard to put into the video game. Why did you make AC:NH disrespect my time in that way?

Once the island has been cleaned up enough, you can start inviting guests over, which all have their own set of preferences for the vibe of your island (rustic, pop, sleazy, etc), their lodging quality, and how much of the island’s flora and fauna (and minerals, I guess??) you’ve discovered.

I really really liked Dondoko Island because who am I to say no to a management mini/macro game with decoration elements. I mostly really appreciate that it doesn’t waste your time. I wanna say I finished it in like less than 20 hours… which is not short for a game within a game (actually, that’s insane for a game within a game), but for a game of this genre, it’s pretty short.

There’s also an entire separate mini-island that further helps you with efficiently running your island by passively collecting resources over time and just being a general stockpile of bugs and fish to catch. But I can’t talk about this part without talking about…

SUJIMON

A returning character voiced by Keith Silverstein in the English dub – yes, that Keith Silverstein, who voices Masayoshi Shido of Persona 5 and Zhongli of The Genshin Impact™ is a professor who documents the behavior of weird and often hostile middle aged men, called Sujimon. When Ichiban goes to Hawai’i, he asks him to also document the native Sujimon there as there’s a prominent Sujimon scene there. Mans wasn’t kidding as there is an underground, more or less ilicit Sujimon fight club called The Sujimon League with its own Elite Four called The Discrete Four.

In the previous game, Sujimon was just your bestiary (literally called the Sujidex), but now it’s a whole-ass game, which I can mostly only describe as simplified Yokai Watch, but a glorified card game. Just so we’re not here for forever talking about middle-aged men cockfights… because I can talk about the mechanics and inner workings of middle-aged men cockfights for a hot minute, Sujimon League basically operates on a 3v3, with an additional bench of 3, rock-paper-scissors kind of system. You’ll need strong Sujimon to get through this macro game and you’ll recruit new guys through four ways- through random fights on the map, through literal Pokemon GO raids, through a gacha system, and through combining Sujimon of the same type into stronger Sujimon (don’t think too hard about that one). I had a LOT of fun with this and, again, it scratched an itch I’ve had for a while. Almost all of the Sujimon are just guys you’ll fight in-game, so, again, an excellent use of asset reuse.

Sujimon smoothly integrates into Dondoko Island in a way that makes Palworld look even more balls-less than it already is. You know that little island I was talking about a few paragraphs back? That’s Dondoko Farm. You can put your Sujimon to work on it! As you’re running around on Dondoko Island, letting it consume your life, your Sujimon will grow crops, scrounge around for resources, and earn some cash for you. The island also has some resources to help with Sujimon League by leveling them up with a small investment of some dondoko bucks and your time, but also a Pokemon-Amie type mini-mini game that helps strengthen the friendship of your current Sujimon team.

Yes.

This game lets you pet-

The sweaty, weirdo middle-aged men.

Don’t think about it too hard.

Especially don’t think about it too hard when you have a Sujimon on your team that uses Xander Mobus’ voice clips.

Anyway, there’s also another minigame called Sicko Snap, which is basically Pokemon Snap with Sujimon. It’s a good one, too.

STORY

I guess… the best way I’d explain my feelings on Infinite Wealth’s story is

Objectively, this is an okay story. Like, it’s par for the course for a Yakuza game. I have a lot of personal grievances with this plot which I’ll fully unsheathe my blade for in the next section, but for now I’ll just say… this game is basically Hawaii Five-O crammed into a Yakuza game and that was an emotional rollercoaster ride that I’m not sure I enjoyed.

Like a Dragon’s main theme is “Even if you hit rock bottom, it’s never too late to get back up again” and that’s something I hold near and dear to my heart.

They have used this theme to my benefit and to my dismay as this also apparently means it’s never too late for ~*Romance*~ which, sure, yeah, okay, true, but did it have to be Ichiban and Saeko?

I’m trying to give the game the benefit of the doubt because… to me, it’s mostly one-sided (as in, like, Saeko’s willing to give him a chance, but isn’t as crazy for Ichiban as he is for her) and, like, dude is allowed to have a crush. But from what I have seen… because I never got around to finishing her Drink Link (I was gonna but I’m like really burned out on the game), they kinda strap C4 to the Bechdel Test and raze a village to the ground with it when it comes to Saeko’s character arc because most of her dialogue and interactions are about The Incident with Ichiban, which sucks because she had more character than just a romance interest for the protagonist in the previous game. If you’re also REALLY not into this plot point like I am, the story DOES NOT let you forget that this indeed happened as it seems to be a plot thread that might continue into the next game as well.

Needless to say, I don’t ship it, and I don’t get to block tags and just walk away from this one.

The game also kinda keeps nudging at, “Hehe, Chitose’s pretty cute too, right?” to which I say

Yes I understand she’s of legal age but she’s only like 21 AT MOST and Ichiban’s like 40-something you stop with that.

It doesn’t feel like Ichiban really had a character arc in this… unless you count “proposing on the first date” to “saying I love you on a redo and then being weird about it again” as character growth. He went to Hawai’i, had some shenanigans, found mom, got backstabbed again, fought the cult (which I’ll be really salty about in the next section), went back home to help Eiji’s character arc. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s just… Ichiban went on another adventure. And it was ok. I think maybe the game was sizing him up to, again, take Kiryu’s place and be The Hero, but… we already did that already? And I’m not even sure if the game was able to complete that message by the end of the game.

Kiryu probably got the most character development out of this game and talking this over with my friend Andrew, he brought up that it kinda wasn’t fair that this is supposed to be Ichiban’s game, but he had to share half of it with Kiryu. And I agree. His sections were also really hard to get into if you haven’t been a longtime fan. Again, I have a decent amount of Yakuza knowledge, but with Kiryu’s memories, a LOT of it went over my head.  It seems like RGG’s been trying to retire him as a protagonist for like three games now and MAYBE this time they’ll actually do it after this victory lap they’ve given him. But he did learn that “my friends are my power” and “never ever give up, you still have time to do better.” And you know what, that’s rad.

As far as the villains go, just, I dunno, they’re fine? Ebina and Eiji are very “okay bitch, stay mad, then,” and it’s. Fine? My only complaint is that Ebina’s arc felt like it was under-seasoned before they put it in the oven to cook and they could’ve peppered it on a little earlier in the game or something. Bryce’s entire deal I may have taken a little too personally, but that’s for later. Dwight was literally just Danny Trejo doing a villain role and I have absolutely no qualms with it. He was fun to watch.

The supporting cast was fun as always. Eric I hated at first, but he grew on me in the same way that, like, I’d bully a friend. Chitose I also kinda hated at first, was very sus of, but then she had a character arc that was pretty good. The Yokohama gang didn’t really have character arcs to them, but they were still fun to hang out with nonetheless. We got to learn a little bit more about Seonhee and she’s really fun. Both her and Zhao, who is my favorite for several reasons, are really really fun characters as they are both crime bosses (former, in Zhao’s case) who are BIG FUCKING WEIRDOS and I love them for it.

Joongi Han becomes a party member WAY too late in my opinion that, in a way, he’s technically an optional party member, or at least like getting a Dratini right before the Pokemon League in Gold/Silver/Crystal. He had some fun character moments, but felt kinda like an afterthought.

But also, ain’t no way he got his Hawai’i clothes at Hilo Hattie. There’s no way.

To wrap up my thoughts on the main story, I’d just like to say: the plot point that they sailed to Japan on a little tugboat in a handful of hours as opposed to WEEKS is peak Hawaii Five-O vibes and it infuriates me, but everyone kept telling me “it’s okay, the coast guard picked them up, like, halfway” and I will sit down and not start a fistfight over it. And just. That was the vibe of the game for me. Just… alternating between a J-Drama and Hawaii Five-O.

I don’t really have much to say about the substories except that they’re either almost Oscar-worthy material or they’re a snoozefest that I just tabbed through. I can really only think of three substories off the top of my head that were EXCELLENT, though - Nancy and Olivia, the artificial snow quest (THIS ONE IS EMOTIONAL WHIPLASH), and the traveling aquarium one. The rest I mostly just tabbed through because they were just……. Eh. But I think I’m okay with that since we have Sujimon and Dondoko to make up for it.

THE CULTURAL GRIEVANCES

So as I type this section out, I run my hands over my face to remind myself and say

This is a game that takes place in Hawai’i from a Japanese perspective, written primarily for a Japanese audience and I assume that certain things may come from a place of ignorance, but not maliciousness.

Hey Tumblr.

I want you to read that first bolded sentence again.

Because I know how you guys are with reading comprehension.

But that being said, as a Hawai’i-born Chinese person, there’s quite a lot about the Hawai’i cultural aspects of this game that I have problems with. If you wanna see me roast this game, you can stick around, but if not… Here is your chance to bail.

I’ve tried my best to write this in a way where I look at the thing that pissed me off and ask myself,  “Am I taking this too seriously or do I actually have a problem with it?” and write more or less objectively, but some of it might still come off as overly caustic. Just. I tried.

And after a deep breath,

Ho brah,

We go.

WHAT IS HAWAIIAN CULTURE, ANYWAY?

To start off, I’m not sure if RGG knows the difference between being a Hawai’i local and actually being of Hawaiian blood…? The game mentions at the very beginning that Akane is half-Japanese… and half-Hawaiian, which makes Ichiban one-fourth Hawaiian, which makes ME kinda… squint. Like, we’d need to know more about Akane’s backstory, but if you know anything about indigenous cultures, finding someone who’s half native is HARD nowadays. Akane also looks pretty light skinned for someone who’s allegedly half-Japanese, half-Hawaiian but that’s just my tiny nitpick?

I’m also… not sure what kinda research RGG did on Hawaiian last names because some of the ones I see on random enemies are kinda… 

Who is that

What is that

I have never seen anyone named that in my entire life

Sure, my worldview is a little shut in, but, no, what IS that?

Mililani is not a last name, that’s a neighborhood, why’s she Lani Mililani?

WHAT IS THAT?

The pidgin in the game is also there, but… small kine hit or miss. For those of you who don’t know, pidgin is Hawai’i’s creole, which came from a bunch of cultures who don’t speak the same language eventually falling into a kitbashed language system that works for everyone. Looking at the VA listing in the credits, they did hire some local people (they have Hawaiian names) and some of the VO performances work really well like Obispo in the restaurant side story and the cab driver dialogue that ONLY comes up in the Japanese audio version of the game for some reason. Others… are… hm (I don’t know what’s going on with Jeff the taco truck guy). I feel like the voice director got the intonation on the line reads down pretty well, but on the localization side, the syntax and grammar are a little off. Pidgin tends to come off as “broken english,” but it’s technically not since it’s its own language system with its own rules. So you have a lot of line reads that are in the right inflection, but the way it’s written is wrong for pidgin dialogue.

And it just doesn’t sound 100% right to me.

There’s also some… small pronunciation nitpicks that I have. Ukulele is pronounced the white way - it’s not Yooka-Laylee like the Chameleon and Bat, it’s ook-oo-leh-leh like Tapu Lele, the Pokemon. Some characters pronounce Hawai’i as huh-why and not ha-wuh-ee, which is more right (it’s SUPPOSED to be ha-vai-ee but I’m not native Hawaiian and this is kind of an axolotl situation so, y’know).

But shout-outs to the “Whatchu lookin’ at?” line guy.

Because that one is just, no notes, perfect.

NOTHING CAN BE NORMAL, I GUESS

Something that rubbed me the wrong way in this game is the mystification of a culture that’s foreign to you, that is, taking a culture that’s not yours and describing or representing it in such a way that it sounds so deviant and hard to comprehend compared to the one you’re used to. Think of that one tweet where someone describes hamburgers like a white person would describe asian fruit.

There's the lei substory where the girl needs to make a lei with blue plumerias (which does not exist by the way) because there’s an urban legend that if you give a blue plumeria lei to someone, it’s a way of confessing your true love. Lei are just… things you give as, like, a “congrats!” kind of a thing. Or if you wanna be touristy about it, a “welcome!” kind of gift. There’s nothing mystical about it, most grocery stores stock a few that you can just pick up, grab and go style. 

The entire game mechanic of “shaka to make friends” was so?? Like maybe after 8 hours into the Hawai’i map, I was like, okay, I’ll just… fine. I’ll accept it. But my god did I not appreciate it when Kson came up to me and was like “what’s a motherfucker gotta do around here to make some friends” and told me how FRIENDLY the Hawaiian people were and how you can just throw a shaka to make friends; while me, probably the saltiest, introverted Hawai’i local that throws stink-eye at tourists who can’t watch where they’re going, playing the video game on that day was like, “We don’t fucking do that, hello??” I don’t even know why we shaka?? Most people you ask that question will just be like “idk it’s the local thing, they do it at the end of the 5pm news on KHON2.”

There’s a substory in this game with a character named Nathan, but we were all calling him racist Alpharad because he kinda looks like him (ALPHARAD HIMSELF IS NOT RACIST OR IN THIS GAME I WANNA CLARIFY THAT) and he’s basically, like… a weeb. He’s recording what seems like a PBS special on Japanese tourists in Hawai’i, but he’s kind of a shitter about it. He makes Ichiban choose between local foods and cold-ass rice and becomes upset when he chooses kalua pork over the rice since it wasn’t The Japanese Option. It escalates to making Ichiban play darts with shuriken and when he loses, he tells him to “live up to his dishonor,” slides him a knife and board, and asks him if he wants to take a finger or hara-kiri. To which Ichiban goes “dude, I get you like Japanese culture, but you can’t treat people this way”

To which I look back at the game like

You clearly understand how this feels, so why are you doing this to Hawaiian culture?

Again, I understand that a lot of this game was written with maybe just ignorance, and not malice, and this isn’t really a call-out post to RGG or anything, but BOY…

Okay.

Now we get to my biggest gripe with this game.

PALEKANA CAN SUCK MY NUTS

I’m kinda disappointed in their choice to use a Hawaiian cult as a plot point. It’s not quite a native savages kind of a vibe, but… In the year of our lord 2024, I thought we would know better than to portray an indigenous religion as a bloodthirsty cult? I also don’t like how they’re conflating the Hawaiian religion with what’s more like a Christian/Catholic cult in this.

Palekana is portrayed as “cultists who worship a goddess who lives in a mystical land, forbidden only to her chosen and maybe one day we’ll be worthy of her blessings.” Hawaiian religion is… not… like that at all? They did get the part about “giving back to the community” correct as a part of Hawaiian culture is mālama ‘aina, meaning, you need to care for the land you live on, which is… reasonable? I guess the other basic idea of Hawaiian religion is that certain places, things, and times that are important, and you shouldn’t touch it unless you wanna fuck around and find out. But the game just kinda wildly overboils this.

Like, I don’t claim to be an expert, I’ve only scraped the basics from what I learned in school (a year’s worth of Hawaiiana lessons in middle school, a semester’s worth in college; went to a private Catholic school, took two world religion classes in college), but Palekana has a very Catholic European religion kind vibe instead of a Hawaiian one. And I really, really don’t like that the game conflates the two. The Palekana cultists wear hoods, which is a distinctly European thing (it’s too hot for hoods here!). The beaded necklaces also seem more like rosaries, which, again, very Catholic. The idea that a god-figure will save you is also a VERY Catholic idea. I’m also assuming the goddess Nele that they use in the game is an expy for Pele, which… okay, like, you can do that with locations. Ala Moana Shopping Center represented as Anaconda Mall in the game hurts me a lot, but… to change up the name of the most prominent deity in Hawaiian religion is like

Dude, I’m not Hawaiian, but I know better than to shit on Pele?

Maybe I’m taking this a little too seriously, but it comes off as a little(??) disrespectful.

To give them the benefit of the doubt, maybe RGG wrote this plot point in this way to be like, well, they’re the villains, so we’ll write them so hyperbolically evil and wrong so people won’t mistake that for the actual culture? But my gut reaction is that they’re only writing from what they’ve seen in the movies and they wanted to make a story like that.

This was my least favorite part of the plot because not only does the cult aspect feel like it’s in bad taste, but it’s SO MUCH of the story and you REALLY can’t get away from it.

Alright. So now that I’ve aired that out of my system, I’m finally capping off this section with the part of the game that hit the closest to me and that is

CHINESE IN HAWAI’I

Listen. Again.

This is a story about Hawai’i, written by a Japanese team, for a Japanese audience.

Yakuza is a series that often talks about the racial conflict between the Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans. And I don’t expect them to portray any of these groups in anything more than a neutral light in this game about Gang Crime.

But ohhhhh my gooooood did they get the Chinatown section so wroooooooong.

Right off the bat, the big glaring problem I have with this game is. All the guys speak Mandarin. I think they might just be reusing voice clips from Yakuza 7, which, sure, fine, I understand that video games are hard to make and expensive.

In Hawai’i, like, real-world Hawai’i, not the bizzaro Hawai’i this game takes place in, we’re definitely starting to see more Mandarin-speaking immigrants show up, but most of the town speaks Cantonese.

Most of the people here a generation or two above me come from Guangdong or Hong Kong, which are Cantonese-speaking areas. It’s an entirely different dialect that’s really only been represented in small bits in media I’m familiar with, like in Jackie Chan Adventures (the uncle’s chant is basically “no more ghosts, get out of here” in Cantonese) and Digimon Tamers (“Moumentai” is “it’s okay/don’t worry about it” in Cantonese), and it seems really hard to get VAs that speak it, so I’m not… really that mad about it.

BUT. Then there’s Wong Tou.

Wong is the Cantonese pronunciation of 黄 , Huang or Hwang in Mandarin.

So like… clearly they knew?? But?? Decided not to go all in on it??

(And then Daniel Dae Kim is his face model and I just??? Bro’s Korean, hello?????)

And then there’s the name of Wong Tou’s gang. The Ganzhe.

Which is a stupid name.

The Chinese dictionary gives me 甘蔗 which translates to sugarcane, which. I get it. The plantation times. The Chinese and the Japanese and the Filipinos and the Portuguese and whatever all used to work on the cane plantations.

…But you’re out here calling your BIG KNIFE GANG “Sugarcane??”

My guy, you could start a reggae band with that name instead.

SPEAKING OF REGGAE-

No one knows how to pronounce Ganzhe properly besides Eric’s VA apparently? All the other VAs pronounce the gan closer to “van” when it’s supposed to be more like a “gone.”

Yes. That’s right.

Ganzhe is pronounced more like ganja.

You know.

The Marajuanas™

I’m a Hawai’i-born Chinese, first-generation local on my mom’s side and third-gen local on my dad’s. I grew up in Chinatown, so this was a section of the game that was near and dear to my heart. So I THINK and HOPE you’d understand my frustration to see that work needed to be done on the representation of my culture in this game. It was definitely a little fun to see my hometown modeled in this game- they got Maunakea Marketplace and Keikaulike Mall down pretty accurately and some of the motifs on the buildings made me do a double take because they were so familiar to me. BUT, man, this cultural aspect of the game needed A LOT of work.

SO TO FINALLY CLOSE THIS OUT

Japanese people love Hawai'i a lot.

I think Japanese people love Hawai'i more than Hawai'i locals do.

But as for portraying it accurately, I understand that no one can do it as well as a local islander can. Did I personally think they did the best they could?

………………ehh

Like, if you turn your brain off, it's fine??

If you turn your brain off and not let Palekana get to you, this game is fine.

It can be a little campy.

It can be a little Hollywood.

It can be a little Disneyland.

And despite my four pages of bitching about it, at the end of the day. It is fine.

So with that, I’ve hit like ten full pages on this Google Doc. Despite half of this review being me complaining about what they got wrong about Hawai’i culture in this game, I liked it a lot! When the game didn't have me strapped down for an episode of a J-drama or Hawaii Five-O, I liked running around town, fighting guys, making other guys fight other guys, and managing a resort island. If anything, this game actually motivated me a little to make more local-themed stuff, because as I notice people getting older, there’s less and less people to correctly preserve highly specific culture stuff like this. So a lot of that responsibility falls on me, y’know?

Thank you for making it to the end of this review! I know it was a lot. I don’t know what happened. I do recommend this game, but I ask that you do NOT finish the game with the takeaway that you have learned everything there is to know about Hawai’i.

I’ll fight you with a lawn chair (in Minecraft, for the FBI agent reading this) if you do that.

Other than that, I think you’ll have a lot of fun but also take your time because this game is, like, a 100 hour commitment. Not Persona 5 Royal long, but a commitment nonetheless.

[jaimemes]

Yo, how'd they deal with Aether over there after the incident?

okay so i had to do a shit ton of research for ya on this one cuz tbh i. didnt really pay too much attention to the whole aether thing when that was goin on. i was like. 11 when that was goin on. i was kinda doin other shit back then.

anyways. i tried to make this as in-depth as possible for you n lillie (and moon if she's still there) since yall have a lot more insight into all of this that many on this site may not.

so here's a rundown of what happened:

Aether Investigation

The Mass Ultra Beast Attack incident in 2017 was what first incited investigations into Aether, and also resulted in minimal, preliminary checks of entities such as the Dimensional Research Lab in Heahea City. Once it was made clear that the incident was a result of illicit research into Ultra Wormholes by the Aether Foundation all efforts were directed towards the investigation into its research division.

From November 17th, 2017 to January 12th, 2018 all Aether Foundation research operations were placed on hold for the duration of the criminal investigation (conducted in collaboration between the Alolan Government and the International Police) into it’s research facilities. For a short period of time, conservation activities were also placed on hold, but resumed less than two weeks after being paused.

During the investigation, Aether’s research division was shut down, at first temporarily, before being permanently shut down independent of law enforcement in preparation for what was described as “a massive overhaul of Foundation norms, practices, and facilities.” (Wicke, 2018)

Meanwhile, Lusamine Aether was flown into Kanto for treatment involving being used as the host of a UB01 Symbiont (known as a Nihilego) specimen spanning from late November 2017 to late August 2017; since Aether’s diagnosis and treatment, there have been promising efforts in modifying existing anti-parasitics to treat Nihilego venom, as well as the synthesis of new drugs.

After the conclusion of Aether’s treatment, she was taken into custody, as well as multiple Aether scientists, and Branch Chief Gustave Faba. Aether and Faba were both released after three days and four weeks respectively; while Aether was specifically prohibited from assuming any position of employment within the Aether Foundation, Faba struck a plea deal, and was demoted to intern.

Aftermath

In late November 2017, Assistant Branch Chief Veronica Wicke took up the position of acting President until March 2019, when she permanently became the Foundation’s President.

In November 2021, both Lillie Aether and Gladion Aether began getting involved with the Foundation’s research and conservation efforts; Gladion primarily took part in Type: Null rehabilitation efforts, while Lillie participated in carefully monitored research into Ultra Space.

Regarding Project Beast Killer specifically; there are currently three Type: Null that are publicly known of, all from the original project conducted by the Foundation. IDed as 773-01, it is currently in the possession of Gladion Aether and no longer wears the control mask. The other two, dubbed 773-02 and 772-03 are in the possession of Selene ‘Moon’ [last name] and the Aether Foundation respectively. Selene’s Type: Null no longer wears the control mask.

And that's about all I could find thru articles n whatnot

...

buuuut i went digging a little deeper.

Soon after investigations into the Foundation’s research divisions began, it was found that various files vital to Project Beast Killer were leaked onto the internet while the project was still progressing. From 2017 to the present, the Alolan government and Interpol have been on watch for attempts at recreating the project, though no further attempts have been uncovered.

In 2024, two years into investigations into the Macro Cosmos Corporation, it was found that a subsidiary of Macro Cosmos was able to unsuccessfully recreate Project Beast Killer, with another Type: Null having been produced. This Type: Null (dubbed 772-04) was placed into the care of Hideaway Sanctuary’s European branch, located in Paldea. After two escape attempts resulting in injury, the 772-04 was placed into the care of Aspen Sharma, who undergoes bi-monthly checks for both quality of life and to ensure that he is a fit trainer for the Type: Null. It is currently unknown whether Sharma will be keeping the Type: Null permanently.

[cairfrey]

"Let’s go off on a quick tangent. Bear with me here. So, you know who the mantises are, right? What you probably don’t know is that they own a few solar systems in a cluster of neighboring stars. They call their main system Hive Home. They’re not the first residents of that place. Once, long ago, the Hive Home system was used to manufacture something really interesting.

When the mantises discovered the antique, abandoned production facilities just sitting there, they did what any responsible people would do when they come across alien technology they don’t understand.

They turned it on to see what would happen. Yadda, yadda, yadda, something called a macro AI system was formed. An infant, rudimentary version of the alien technology that keeps the inner system humming. These AI systems, once properly installed, are able to seemingly alter the physics and reality of the worlds around them.

The thing is, macro AIs can’t exist in a vacuum. It’s kinda like planting a tree. You can plug one into the ground and hope for the best, but that usually ends in disaster. So instead, they plant them in the interstellar equivalent of a nursery, putting each one into a pot and cultivating it for a little bit before implanting it into its permanent home.

...

The mantises have been studying the AI technology since they first discovered it. Very recently, like literally three or four days before this season started, they made a breakthrough. This, by the way, is top secret information, so breaking news to all the normies out there. If we’re still using the tree analogy, what they did was create the equivalent of a GMO AI, utilizing something called an error replacement net. I personally call it “the lobotomizer.”

Those creepy bugs are now one step closer to replicating the Eulogist, even though they don’t know what that really is. They think the engine that runs the center system is nothing more than a stable, primal AI engine. And while this new generation of Macro AIs are still ostensibly independent, they’re considered much more “stable.” Something that won’t “go crazy” or “kill everybody on the planet because it’s having a temper tantrum.”

In the making of this new, fancy, chitinlicking AI, they had a lot of, uh, early and test versions. Some of these even got a quick trial run at the old testing facility, which, of all things, got turned into an amusement park.

I’m rambling. More stuff happened, and now we’re here. The bottom line is you don’t pull a Loretta Young and Clark Gable and kick your kid out into the cold just because they’re ugly."

-Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 6: The Eye of the Bedlam Bride, Matt Dinniman

[fitnessmith]

10 recettes ÉCONOMIQUES pour perdre du gras ou prendre du muscle

NOUVEAU 👉 10 recettes ÉCONOMIQUES pour perdre du gras ou prendre du muscle. Découvre 10 recettes écono'fit : faciles, rapides, et économiques pour rester en forme sans te ruiner. Pour voir ça rendez-vous en bio @fitnessmith, cliquez sur le lien fitnessmith.fr/news puis dans « les nouveautés » ou rendez-vous dans votre boîte mail ! #fitness #nutrition #recettesfitness #repashealthy #alimentationequilibree #recettesfaciles #alimentationfitness #bienmanger #repasrapide #mangersain #nutritiondujour #recettesportive #repasfitness #macrotracking #nutritionecono #sansgluten #sanslactose #nutritionactive #repasproteiné #fitfam #recettefacile #alimentationsaine #recetteslegères #repasbonmarché #recettesméditerranéennes #macroscalories #mealprep #recettesrapides #nutritionequilibrée #alimentationintelligente

Ton alimentation impacte directement tes performances, ton bien-être et ta santé. Le problème, c’est que bien manger coûte cher, surtout quand on veut rester en forme sans passer des heures à la cuisine. C’est pourquoi j’ai créé ce mini-ebook de 10 recettes ÉCONO’FIT, parce qu’elles sont pas chères, facile à faire et compatible avec le mode de vie Fitness. Dans ce guide de 10 Recettes écono’fit,…

[magebunkshelf]

was there anything that inspired the facility? ive always found the concept of a group of people studying there unusual really interesting so when i listened to the first moth demihuman listener audio i was immediately hooked on your channel

Aww, thank you!! Really gland you enjoyed it!

There's definitely a little of the SCF Foundation in there, but that's definitely not the main inspiration, and I try to be mindful not to get too close to SCP stuff. It's in the same sort of shadowy org genre, and I don't want to do the same thing. I think the Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood is probably a greater inspiration to me than the SCP-F! I even borrowed the name Retcon from there too.

The Facility was actually originally something I was making in Minecraft like seven years ago! I'd started a little series on another channel originally just to look at things that had changed in the game in snapshots, and decided I needed a base of operations. I built an underground complex for the videos that I called the Research Facility (which is what "RF-Control" stands for in the Lunar Mission audio), and eventually just The Facility. Naturally the videos had zero audience, but I had fun coming up with a whole bunch of lore stuff on my own!

Some time early in 2022, I figured out the direction I wanted to take the collective universe of Mitch's World, which up until that point was vaguely connected in a sort of "eh don't worry about it" way. I definitely don't have anything similar planned so don't read much into this, but Redacted's Inversion event got me thinking about my own stuff on a more macro level; I wanted to build towards something that would have a bigger impact. I knew I needed to introduce an organisation involved in investigating the origin of demihumans and why they have only just started to appear more frequently in recent years, which lead to the first Moth audio and the introduction of the Facility, and the subplot involving the Moon... It's been a slow burn in that direction but- Actually I won't spoil things. You'll be hearing more from the Facility in the future!

I've added a Facility playlist on the channel, it's near the top on the front page and the thumbnail is static; anything directly related to that subplot will go in there even if, like the Moth audio, it's part of another series too!

[a-tale-of-legends]

I've remembered the headcanon that Hop might explore becoming a Pokemon Ranger, because he can combine fieldwork with battling better among other things.

And in Legendverse that could start conflict in his family, because Gerardo was a Ranger and died during his job!! Plus, the Rangers would also only be returning after Rose and Oleana are not heading Macro Cosmos anymore. And after the entire company's being made into smaller, independent companies.

Yeah!!!! It's something I have thought about actually. I'm a fun nuzlocke comic that actually has Peony as a Galar ranger...or at least attempting to bring it back. Honestly, I liked the idea a lot, but I'm not married to it for the Legendverse juuuust yet. That being said, I do want the rangers to make a return to Galar, after everything with Rose and Oleana, of course. From my limited knowledge of the pokemon ranger games, there can be professors that work for ranger facilities, so I thought " hey that could be Hop!". So honestly that's the plan! Working for the rangers while still being a pokemon professor. Or rather a professor that happens to work with the rangers? Shrugs.

All of that being said.....yeah, it would cause some conflict in the family. Regardless of whether or not Hop works with the rangers, I don't think that's gonna stop him from going out , doing fieldwork and quite frankly getting into dangerous situations. So to him, his mom getting so worried is ....kinda annoying! He knows she means well, and that she's worried and scared about Hop's safety, but he's growing! He can make decisions for himself! ( I can see him getting some post clarity to how Naomi must have felt way back during the gym challenge-). Leon....is probably not much help either, though a bit more on Hop's side but also hits Hop with several " okay, but are you sure?". Honestly I think the center of it all, outside of. You know. Gerardo's death. Is that Hop is growing up and taking steps beyond his mom and his brother. There's an adjustment period to that, I think. It's not that Hop isn't a bit scared either, you know. Working the same job that got his dad killed....it's probably daunting, even if he himself isn't doing the exact same thing Gerardo did. But he doesn't want that to stop him! ( Also would be nice to honor just a bit of Gerardo's legacy no?)

[suzieb-fit]

We've been on a grassed site the last few nights, and I've been getting my feet out, lol. Trying a bit of that "grounding" thing I keep hearing about. No clue what it's supposed to do, though 😂.

So I went for an early shower. Always a bonus when we have access to proper facilities!

I gave myself a blast of cold water, before it warmed up. Then a half hour walk. Just with water this time.

So that's three things I've done for my hormones so far this morning.

Plus a decent fast time. Broken with apple, peanuts and a strong collagen coffee on the road.

On to somewhere new today.

Felt good to start the day well ☺️.

A four mile walk together after lunch in the van. French bacon. Delicious, but so salty! Not a problem for me.

I did track my food, but my macros are way off. Mostly down to the fact that I've had two serious blood sugar lows today.

Fewer calories than usual, though.

That was all for today. A nice, gentle day.

[instabileatrofia]

Un progetto che non era un progetto, ma una fessura di luce attraverso una spessa coltre vellutata, pesante.

Permea il primo strato, quello tenero, quello facile per una vita di osservazioni, di istinti verso immagini celate.

Avanti e indietro come una falciatrice implacabile.

Permea il secondo strato, quello più intrinseco nelle cose e quindi meno evidente, meno clamoroso.

Avanti e indietro.

Il micro, nel macro. Piccolo, ma gigante.

Avanti e indietro.

Il progetto Edera.

I.S.A.

[thornychairman]

Listen, there are reasons why I have a vision of Macro Cosmos being the Pokemon world equivalent of Umbrella Corp.

One of them is...

So, who else has random facilities in the middle of the mountains that does questionable experiments....

[about-me2072]

“Ben oltre le idee di giusto e sbagliato c’è un campo. Ti aspetterò laggiù”-Rumi-

Nel corso di una vita, le parole che leggiamo ci scivolano addosso sfiorandoci la pelle e la mente. Alcune, però, si fermano, s’incastrano in punti che pensavamo aver nascosto e lì rimangono, come oasi a cui far ritorno quando il mondo fa paura. Lo so, questa introduzione vuol dire tutto e niente. Ma per entrare dentro ad un verso di questa caratura si possono solo usare parole leggere, trasparenti, che punteggiano i limiti e non si azzardano ad essere maleducate.

-Ben oltre le idee di giusto e sbagliato-

Questo verso è enorme, gigantesco.

A leggerlo con calma, mi vengono le vertigini. Vedo queste parole che si alzano, impennano e diventano vette insondabili.

E poi si uniscono, prendono le sembianze di una punta.

Questo verso è un cacciavite appoggiato sul cranio che entra dentro la mente allentando la logica, schiantando ciò a cui siamo abituati.

I pensieri si proiettano talmente veloci in avanti che manca il respiro. Rumi, per me, ce lo dice così: il nostro modo di vedere il mondo è solo una grande illusione.

Sempre, perennemente in giudizio. Sempre, perennemente con l’arma puntata, la gabbia pronta ad ingarbugliare qualsiasi evento.

Giusto e Sbagliato. I due grandi calderoni dove buttiamo ogni cosa.

Incapaci di tenere un pensiero, un’emozione tra le mani, ce ne liberiamo immediatamente.

Non riusciamo a rimanere nella sfumatura, ad osservare le cose nella loro interezza e il dubbio ci mette così tanta ansia che preferiamo appallottolarlo e lanciarlo nel primo cestino disponibile.

Troppo facile, davvero troppo facile dire che senza il giusto e lo sbagliato tutto andrebbe allo sbaraglio. Troppo facile semplificare il casino che non sappiamo gestire dividendolo in due macro-categorie.

Cos’è il giusto? Cosa è sbagliato?

Il tempo, la cultura, l’educazione e tutte l’altro migliaia di cose che cambia dall’oggi al domani decidono tutta la posta in gioco?

Davvero vogliamo prendere una consapevolezza sulla base di quel che ci hanno impiantato?

Non mi interessa -e forse non interessava neanche a Rumi- entrare in un pippone filosofico e prettamente mentale, ma il Giusto e lo Sbagliato sono due cancelli che, se non proviamo a scardinarli, ci lasceranno sempre al di fuori di quel che di vero può esistere.

O, a me, così pare.

-C’è un campo-

Un orgasmo sensoriale. 3 parole: un’esplosione di cui non se ne poteva fare a meno.

Dopo averci presi per mano a mille all’ora, dopo averci condotto là dove la mente fatica ad arrivare, eccolo: un campo. Se ne aveva bisogno.

Se si legge lentamente, sentendo le parole sciogliersi sulla lingua, si avverte un’esigenza fisica di questo campo. E, ad ognuno, è data la scelta di vederne i colori, la profondità, la strada sterrata che ci corre nel mezzo come una riga tra i capelli.

C’è un campo, e lì, ora, ci possiamo rilassare.

Non c’è più bisogno di acciuffare la realtà, di metterle un vestito consono, di indirizzarla a seconda del nostro gusto o, ancor peggio, di quello degli altri.

Ora ci si può stendere a terra, si può iniziare una corsa a perdifiato, si può, magari, anche stare in silenzio.

Quello che l’idea che il giudizio, il parere, l’opinione sia sempre necessaria ci ha fatto perdere.

Come se, per vivere, fosse necessario sempre buttare fuori il nostro intreccio di pensieri.

C’è un campo. Sì, esiste qualcosa oltre il giudizio.

È come un abbraccio, questo verso.

Mi sembra che Rumi ci sussurri all’orecchio di non aver paura; ci ripete che si può abbandonare questi stupidi pesi e, finalmente, salpare verso ciò che non conosciamo.

Rumi ce lo dice chiaramente, senza mezzi termini: il campo è là, oltre quello che siamo soliti fare.

Applicato in altri spazi, questo campo potrebbe rappresentare la ricompensa per chi osa a fare quei passi diversi, dentro o fuori da se stesso.

Osare nella gentilezza della forma e del contenuto.

Essere eretici, sconsacrare, smantellare ciò a cui per forza bisogna assoggettarci.

Fa paura, fa tanta, tantissima paura.

Ma si può avere la consapevolezza che è possibile intraprendere un sentiero diverso e che le paure, i timori, le difficoltà saranno solo momenti di riposo tra un passo e l’altro.

-Ti aspetterò laggiù-

Non ci si dovrebbe vergognare delle lacrime.

Non ci si dovrebbe spaventare se, arrivati a questo punto, la gola si stringesse in un nodo bestiale.

È la magia della parola scritta.

Dopo aver superato i cancelli, le paure e i giudizi; dopo essere arrivati in un campo infinito di possibilità ecco che si conclude il verso col picco più alto in assoluto.

No, non siamo soli. C’è qualcuno ad aspettarci sull’altra sponda.

La connessione tra gli uomini, la sensazione che facciamo parte di questa rete invisibile molto, enormemente più grande di noi. C’è un po’di tutto questo, no?

Forse è proprio Rumi che ci aspetta laggiù, seduto all’ombra di una quercia con gli occhi semichiusi ad osservare le ultime ore del giorno.

La sera che sta arrivando e le ombre che, a questa ora precisa, si allungano e sembrano la chioma compatta di tanti cipressi.

Non lo so se è Rumi. Mi viene da pensare che, nel momento stesso in cui uno legge queste parole, il viso di un’altra persona sgorghi dal pensiero e si metta lì, in bella mostra, al centro della testa.

O, banalmente, penso che potrebbe aspettarci il riflesso di noi stessi.

Come se, una volta superata la grande tenaglia del giudizio, ci potessimo incontrare esattamente così come si è.

Perché, alla fine, la pistola è sempre puntata contro noi stessi.

Contro le nostre scelte, i nostri presunti errori, le nostre paure, i nostri difetti.

Non ci concediamo mai la possibilità di sbagliare, di non essere quello che vorremmo, o di essere imperfetti.

Non lo so chi ci sta aspettando in quel campo.

Ora addosso sento solo la gioia di intraprendere il percorso, la mente libera ed il cuore pieno di queste parole:

“Ben oltre le idee di giusto e sbagliato c’è un campo.

Ti aspetterò laggiù”🌻

[cutstuckmayhemofficialblog]

Cutstuck Mayhem: The Cannon Fodder

C.H.A.O.S Corporation keeps its global dominion using an immense military force, from basic infantry to hulking mutants. Let's meet 'em.

GRUNTS - The most basic unit in the C.H.A.O.S military. Trigger-happy red-eyed brutes infected with a mind-altering toxin. While they don't have remarkable intelligence or strength, they have a deadly loyalty to C.H.A.O.S Corporation, throwing themselves at the enemy in innumerable hordes. They're mostly outfitted with assault rifles, shotguns, pistols, or if they're especially unlucky, they'll be sent in with only their fists.

WAR-PIGS - A hulking wall of meat strapped into a combination gas mask and feeding funnel, the War-Pigs specialise in close-range combat. Their gigantic shotguns can blast holes in practically any surface, and if they run out of shells, a shoulder-barge will knock out even the most experienced fighter. Their one weakness is intelligence; they're not too bright, and since part of the War-Pig transmogrification process is replacing the vocal cords with a feeding tube, they can only speak in grunts and gestures.

JET SOLDATS - These extra-tall soldiers are decked out with jetpacks and heavy-duty welding masks, giving them an airborne edge in combat. Originally assigned to maintenance jobs, their assignments have evolved to accompany vehicle crews as added muscle, picking enemies off like smoke-belching vultures.

MACRO UNITS - Big bastards grown in cryonic vats, the Macro units are some of the most formidable members of C.H.A.O.S' military. Due to an oversight with the square-cube law, they're too large to breathe without a bulky respirator, and to increase their wrecking capabilities, they're packing a pair of hydraulic gauntlets. Small arms fire can barely penetrate their gigantic bodies, and it takes heavy explosives to even make a dent.

HEAVY GRUNTS - Ballistic vests, helmets and badass voice filters make these particular grunts a cut above the rest. They're usually deployed in defensive positions, as bulky armour isn't great versus a mobile target. The heavy grunts regularly use riot shields and batons, though there is nothing 'non-lethal' about their approach. The only real difference between a grunt and a heavy grunt is that one will at least get it over with quickly.

FREACS - The Frenzied Recon, Espionage and Assassination Corps, these cat-suited hunters are even more devoted to C.H.A.O.S than the common grunt. Special mutations allow them to climb on walls like night vision-goggled monkeys, and they can sense a heat signature from a mile away. Nothing interrupts their mission. If you hear them speak, you're either the one sending 'em into battle, or the one they're looking for.

HAZMAT GRUNTS - What with the astounding amount of toxic waste C.H.A.O.S industry produces, there's no wonder they need an entire detachment dedicated to getting rid of the stuff. Not technically a combat role, hazmat grunts are stationed in most scientific facilities, and any other situations where regular PPE won't cut it.

C.H.A.O.S AGENTS - These mysterious g-men are some of the highest in the corporation's ranks, donning an iconic pair of black sunglasses. They don't directly engage in combat, only overseeing plans unfold from minimum safe distance. Each one is outfitted with a trans-positional brace, allowing them to quickly teleport away in the event of an emergency.