News
This is the News section of the website, it is for⦠news. It includes an RSS feed that you can subscribe to so you donāt have to manually check. Correction, I thought it did, dunno what to do now.
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Hello! It is apparently the first day of the Obon Festival (unless I made a horrible mistake somewhere) and, thus, a new update.
As a side-note, I planned to create this update two days ago during å±±ć®ę„ but then forgot about it. Not that it matters that much.
It did take a while to figure out what to make the banner and, Iāll be honest: not my best work, but itāll do.
Boring Wiki Updates
- Added small banner images for many of the media articles that lacked them.
- Added a few regular banners for the media article pages.
Exciting Wiki Updates
Article Additions
The total article count previously was 236 and, now, there are 250 listed on the main page. Not that many, but still.
Of those, Iād say I put the most effort into the Zelda article, as Iām currently going thru some Zelda media.
Slight Change
Previously, I stated that I started prioritizing just adding new articles even if I donāt create images for them or even if they arenāt super well-thought-outā¦well, Iāve made another bold decision: I will start writing about stuff that I havenāt actually gone thru.
To clarify a little by what I mean, Iāll just point to World of Darkness and Chronicles of Darkness as two examples that pre-date this decision. They donāt include any reviews and are pretty bare-bones, but I still consider them relevant enough to mention.
There are a few things Iāve written about that fall into the same category and, since Iām the boss, I may as well start to include those on the public wiki as well.
Iāll also note that there is a pretty big backlog that Iām gradually going thru, just that itāll take a while toā¦get thru.
Blog-y Stuff
Zelda Timeline Stuff
I was thinking recently about how to fix the Zelda timeline and, wellā¦yeah.
One thing I was thinking about was how to make it all fit together without breaking anything. I concluded that youād have to make story changes to accommodate all the information present.
That saidā¦and I think I might add this to the article itself: maybe the official timeline isnāt that bad. Functionally, it manages to unite multiple disparate games into a single unified continuityā¦and without hitting too many issues in the process. Thatās impressive in a wayā¦though Iām not fully convinced itās without issue ā those issues are merely ignored by the fanbase (if they notice them).
How many people have played Zelda games?
Something that Iāve started to wonder is how many people making video essays and retrospectives about Zelda have actually played the games theyāre talking about. Grantedā¦I havenāt, but Iām not really pretending that I have.
Iām saying this because, whenever someone talks about Twilight Princess (for example), I get the impression they and I played two different games. I may or may not elaborate on that further.
Fan Wikis
While browsing the Zeldawiki recently, I came to the conclusion that itās not being edited well. Now, I complain about some of that on the Zelda article, but Iāll repeat myself: why is the wiki treating Zelda as one character? Zelda is multiple characters. It is beyond annoying to have just one article for all the Zeldas.
Like, I get why theyāre doing it, but it doesnāt make it less stupid. It just makes the lives of readers harder.
Though I initially thought this was just the case for Zelda, Link and maybe Ganonā¦Iāve since learned that it applies to way more of the characters ā and it applies inconsistently.
For example: Anjuās page lists Anju from Majoraās Mask and The Minish Capā¦despite those being completely unrelated characters. Meanwhile, Cucco Lady has her own pageā¦despite her being closer to the Anju from The Minish Cap.
You could blame one of two entities for this: Nintendo for re-using characters across games or the wiki for presenting these disparate characters as the same character.
Nowā¦I have a bunch of issues like this with fan wikis run online. Most of them are written in boring wiki speak which is a terrible choice, though I canāt articulate why right now. But one reason is: why would I read this over Wikipedia in that case?
There are a few other problems like them going into too much detail, not including enough fanon stuff (specifically fan theories and analysis; kinda like what Tolkiengateway does) andā¦I canāt think of anything else right now.
ęµ·ć®ę„ ā Marine Day
I said that thereād be an update in two days. But this is a very minor update because I didnāt get anything done.
Itās just to explain some things I may have left out.
Priorities!
In the previous update, I explained that the wiki isnāt my current #1 priority so Iāll explain what is: coding. Kinda.
Iāve been coding in Red recently, which is why Iāve been busy. Hopefully some of the stuff I make will actually end up on Software & Games butā¦who knows, really? I do have some ideas, but implementation is at minimum a month or two away.
Iāve also been busy with other annoying things, but I should be able to deal with those.
That's...it?
I donāt have much else to say, honestly. Unless you, the reader, are interested in hearing rants.
ēÆē± ęµć ā Floating Lantern Festival
Today is apparentlyā¦that day so I figured Iāll make this a wiki update. Just to be clear, the next one might be in two days.
Finallyā¦I managed to line it up with a day where something happens!
So! Letās get into it!
Boring Wiki Stuff
- I finished upgrading all the images.
- I noticed a few of the articles I intended to publish Iā¦didnāt. So I fixed that.
- Slightly re-wrote the Vampires article because it was bad. I also added a bit more onto it.
- Removed the dotted line that appears under tags.
- I added creator article links to the index pages.
- It came to my attention that the banner images were being blocked when using a specific blocklist, so I moved them. This should have fixed the problem.
- I realized that anonymous users (anyone who isnāt logged in) lacked access to the search bar among other things, so I re-enabled that. You can now search the wiki.
- I moved storytelling theory from the Musings section to the Media section, since it was more appropriate.
- While I was at it, I renamed the media section to āstoryā considering the number of story articles is increasing.
- I went ahead and changed how I handle spacing.
- I switched from using āsingle quotesā to ādouble quotesā. Though this change will be rolled out gradually and not immediately visible.
- Single quotes are still used for individual words or terms.
- I re-arranged parts of the story section to account for terminology changes.
- I moved āUnits of Measurementā from the History & Philosophy section to the Misc Musings section.
- Other things I canāt think of.
Exciting Wiki Stuff
Article Additions
Compared to the last update, this is an increase of about 49 articles, though Iām apparently not listing all of those that I added hereā¦since Iām only counting 33. Oh, well.
The total, as of me writing this is 236 which I think is nice.
Small Additions
At a later stageā¦l-later stage between the last update and this oneā¦but not the latest stageā¦yeah.
Anyway! I decided that it would make more sense to prioritize shorter complete articlesā¦and release those ASAPā¦so thatās what I did. I went thru the sitemap and found anything that was short but readable and made them public.
Thatās why, if you were frequenting the wiki (for some reasonā¦) you may have noticed a slight boost at one point from 200 to 211.
After I decided on a specific ārelease-dateā for this update, I decided to apply the same thinking to some media articles that didnāt exist yet (or did in a limited form). So as per my effort to rid myself of the playgroundā¦I started releasing a few articles.
These wonāt have any banner images for a while, though Iām not sure for how long. My priority currently in life isnāt the wiki and my priorities in the wiki are focused on publishing as many of the former playground articles as possible.
Articles that fall into this category specifically include: The Big Short, TRON, Star Wars, SIGNAL LOST, Better than Adventure.
Story Stuff
After a long time, I finally released the article on Storytelling Theory. I think itāll serve as the foundation for all other story-related stuff on the wiki. Though itās still a little messy, I think itās readable enough.
Besides that, Iāve defined Theme, Element, Character, Subject and Genre though it took a while. I think the terms are clear and atomic enough to be useful.
Oh, right, I also added the Mecha article, but I gotta fix it up a little first.
SocJus
This is its own section because I consider it that important. I released an article on SocJus, which is known by many names which include: wokeism, leftism, progressivism among many others.
Iām also a little nervous about releasing it, but still felt it was a good idea.
I consider it one of my best works, though itās still a little messy because, at this point, I have to admit Iām not very good at writing. Though! I did my best.
Itās likely to be controversial and, well, thatās fineā¦I guess.
My biggest concern is actually that it might distract from everything else on the wiki which I really donāt want.
Other Stuff
Death Note
I added another section to the Death Note article, since I figured I should explain myself on one pointā¦
That being the bus hijacking. The reason why Iām explaining myself is due to the realization most people donāt see any issue with it.
Warcraft
I added Warcraft Retcons and Forgotten Elements of Warcraft. These are pretty self-explanatory and theyāll be gradually added to.
Windows Ricing
I updated the Windows Ricing article so itās finally up-to-date and possibly useful.
Blog-y Stuff
Wiki Writing Approach
To elaborate a little on my current approach to writing stuff on hereā¦which I didnāt really do in the previous updateā¦
Previously, I used to put a lot of content on the wiki, not just wiki stuff. I treated it basically like a personal notebook, but then realized that that wasnāt quite ideal.
Somewhat recently (possibly a few months ago) I discovered Obsidian and found that that was way better suited to my personal notebooks approach.
So something I had sorta decided on was that my Obsidian vault would be a much looser and less focused version of this wikiā¦with the content from the vault gradually making its way on here. This is partially the reason Iām focusing so much on all those playground articles: I want to reduce the playground as much as possible, so I can properly adopt this approach.
Itās dawning on me now, for example, that I actually had a little more written in Obsidian for something that got turned into an articleā¦but I just forgot about it.
Spider-Man & Marvel
I had recently taken a look at the Marvel Wiki article on Mary Jane and, well, I was less than pleased with what I was reading.
So Iāll quickly express something here before the inevitable Marvel and Spider-Man articlesā¦oh, before that, I should note that Iām not a comics guy, mostly down to it being kinda daunting to enter as a beginner.
I think Marvelās biggest issue is that they just donāt want to end a story (besides the other issues). Though MJ specifically experienced an obvious character assassination, which was after that awful arc that I keep reading about (at this point 17 years old).
Marvel should just scratch everything and start over. In the sense that they should create an ending for all the current story arcs and then just start all over again.
Though, since I wrote that, I did start reading the Spider-Man comics and I was enjoying myself a lot. But Iāve taken a small break from reading it because thereās a lot.
Tolkien
Tolkien might make his way onto this wiki since I decided to take a break from Spider-Man specifically to focus a little on Tolkienās stuff.
Iāve been reading The Hobbit and itās quite nice. Plus Iāve been re-watching the films.
Banner Image
Since itās such a nice picture, I may as well link to the source. Itās CC0, but I figured I may as well anyhow.
End of April/ļ¼ę
Hello! I have returned! Or, if youāre one of the new people I miraculously managed to attract, hello as well!
Considering that I had previously taken it upon myself to completely re-write the entire wiki from scratch, it would have been prudent to not attempt any big project again.
So anyway, I ended up undertaking another big wiki-related project. Somewhere between December last year and February this year, I decided that instead of trickling a small number of articles regularlyā¦Iād just take some time to work on a big batch, which Iād release all at once.
There were several reasons I decided to do this - not just ego - and Iām only sharing a few of them. One was to finally write some stuff down to actually, yāknow, get stuff out of the playground onto the regular wiki. The second was so that readers would have a little more to read.
Finally,A) I had previously (in the previous update perhaps? I really donāt remember) realized that something is usually better than nothingā¦so the articles, as they exist in this update, will serve as a great foundation for the future. I hope.
That said, the collection that I have come out with isā¦not quite what I was planningā¦both in the scale and content. I was originally wanting to write some other stuff, but I think that can wait. For now.
So, anyway, Iāll not be doing anything like this again - just to be clear. From now on, the articles will be published from the playground the second theyāre ācompleteā. At some random date in the future, Iāll then make an update where I inform readers of the additions.
Since itās the end of the monthā¦I guess Iāll just label this as the end of April?
Obviously, thereās still some more stuff to doā¦I know that, for example, I need to re-order some stuffā¦add creator articles to the index pages and some other minor cleanup. But Iām pretty satisfied with where the wiki is right now.
Boring Wiki Stuff
- Fixed the KidÅ KÄsatsu Patlabor article not being tagged. Whoops.
- I changed the typeface from ZenKakuGothic to Noto Serif. It fits visually, covers more characters and I think it looks okay. Itās better than my previous choices for replacements.
- I moved tags from the bottom of the page to the top of the page for the sake of convenience.
- The review collection was fully removed. Iāll be gradually āupgradingā the review-only articles into āproperā articles.
- I changed the name of the āSatoriā section to āMusingsā as thatās more accurate.
- I āupgradedā many of the banner images that originally existed.
- I finally got around to fixing the images on /azu/ - Azumanga and I partially re-wrote it.
Exciting Wiki Stuff
Article Additions
(If the sorting looks weirdā¦thatās because theyāre ordered alphabetically according to the link, rather than the title.)
Note that Iām not actually including all the articles Iāve added in that list. Some of those I added are linked within those articles, like the Evangelion Rebuilds are linked in Neon Genesis Evangelion. The reason is that there are a lot of them. So many I have trouble keeping track.
But to give you an idea of the scaleā¦the front page previously listed 94B) articles on the wiki. Now, it listsā¦187. That is an extra 93 articlesā¦almost double. I didnāt actually think it was that high but, apparently, thatās what it says soā¦
For perspective, the Media article used to list 12 pieces of mediaā¦now it lists 57. Soā¦yeah.
New Archive-icle
I added āPutting the āNoā in nWoDā to the wiki. Although this one is easier to access, I figured I may as well mirror it.
Storytelling Theory
I initially wanted to work on storytelling-related articles, to explain concepts and whatnotā¦but, I ended up prioritizing other things. However, I did add three articles that are related to that:
The first two are very simple explanations of the conceptsā¦and the third is a specific type of clichĆ©.
I will attempt to write the storytelling theory stuffā¦soonā¦soon-ish. Yeah.
Review Upgrade
One of the review-only articles, Sakura Quest was upgraded to a āfullā article. My original plan beforeā¦all that ^ was actually to work on those review-only articles and upgrade them. I ended up forgetting about it but, last-minuteC) I decided to refine it.
Domain Move
This has probably already been noticed by some readers, but I moved to a new domain. My previous domain was https://ninjasr.heliohost.org and my current one is https://ninjasr.varesia.com. There were a few reasons for the move, but the main one was that Heliohost was annoying me.
Now, Iāll say that I think Heliohost is a good hosting provider. Their tech support is fast and solves problems relatively quickly. But it is also the case that my whole site got wiped multiple times without warning due to errors on their sideā¦so, yeah, I decided to jump ship.
My current domain is owned by a friend of mine, coincidentally the one who took the front-page image. This new domain also has more storage space to work with and the loading times are fasterā¦so, yeah, itās mostly an advantageous change.
Updates
For reasons, Iāll be posting a link to these news updates on Patreon, Ko-Fi and Twitter from now on. This is mainly for the sake of promoting myselfā¦but itās also for your convenience.
I realized a while ago that the RSS feeds on here are dubious at best and, further, not many people still use those. But a lot of people do use those other platforms to keep up to date on stuff, so I may as well lean into that.
I considered also uploading them to SpaceHey as a joke, but eventually decided against it, since Iām not 100% sold on that. There were also considerations for Old Twitter revivals like Owler, Pliko and Blips, but I decided against that as well, at least for now. The only real reason Iād be doing it is as a means to say āscrew you!ā to the Fediverse.
Images
Iāve learned what the bug with the imagebox plugin was and so Iāve decided to continue using it. Itās related to how it handles external links.
However, considering the domain move resulting in more storage spaceā¦I decided to take advantage of this by adding more images. Some readers (assuming I have any) may have noticed this on the Great Teacher Onizuka articleā¦which Iām noticing needs some grammar updates. Iāll gradually start populating the wiki with a few more images.
Though another important change is that the images were scaled upā¦this is so they actually appear non-blurry on screens with higher DPIs (soā¦every phone ever). This increases their size, but Iāve learned that isnāt a big issueā¦for now.
Something Iāll note here is that not all the banners Iāve created areā¦likeā¦the best? Iām fully aware that I need to work on them again but, for now, I think many of the ābad onesā are still good enough as placeholders. Just know that I will eventually get to them. The process of āfixingā them is a bit harder than it looks.
Blog-y stuff
Forgetfulness
I edit my wiki so randomly that I keep forgetting how to do basic things, which necessitates I check. This should be concerning for readers, but I am aiming to fix this. My fix is to simplify stuff and toā¦just not forget. Yep.
Chinggis Khan Exhibit
The other day I visited an exhibit about Chinggis Khan in the national museum in Prague andā¦
Well, first of all, it wasnāt an exhibit about himā¦it was an exhibit about the Mongolsā¦and the Xiongnu for some reason.
Further, the exhibit decided to provide an overly-sanitized view of the Mongols. It was focused almost exclusively on claiming the Mongols were great guys, only barely mentioning the untold destruction in passing. Seriously.
This is how false impressions of the history can occur: choice omission.
I do understand why it was like this on the one handā¦the exhibit was made in collaboration with the Mongol National MuseumD) so it would have been awkward to say āoh, by the way, they killed millionsā. Howeverā¦Europeans (including Czechs) were the ones defending against the Mongols, who were foreign invaders set on looting and pillaging Europe. Portraying them overly positively is kindaā¦well, weird at the very least.
Alsoā¦the national museum in Prague is big. Like, really big.
āIt's a change that doesn't matterā
Iāve seen this argument drift around a lot in relation to the Oblivion Remake. Iāll make it clear that I donāt care about the Oblivion Remake but I do care that people are being jerks.
In this case, arguments are being dismissed because the change āis minor, so it doesnāt matterā. This is a self-defeating argument because if it really didnāt matter, the change wouldnāt have been made in the first placeā¦the very fact a change has occurred shows that it did matter to someone enough for it to change.
Further, just because it doesnāt matter to you doesnāt mean it shouldnāt matter to someone else. Everyone has the right to criticize anything, provided their criticisms have some foundation. In this case, that foundation is there: something was changed. Whether itās a good or bad change is up for debate, but simply dismissing the criticism as inconsequential is not a debate. Itās just being a jerk.
Anime Stuff
I was supposed to be watching Amagami SS but then I justā¦stopped. Though, since I re-watched Code MENT about three times nowā¦yeah, Iām feeling like watching Code Geass.
Mars & Jupiter bosom buddies
Alright, attempt #2. In June of this year, I had created å°ēć®é ę„ē¹ as an update. What follows is a smaller summed-up version of that.
Yāsee, HelioHost suddenly had an issue sometime in early Julyā¦which happened to hit me. After it was resolved, I learned that my entire account had been wiped. Prior to that, I had a separate HelioHost issue, so I did have a backup which was relatively recent.
Now, I donāt think anything significant was lost and I have re-done a few of the changes that I had made after restoring the backup the first timeā¦
This is one of the few times Iām thankful I was too lazy to do any significant work. The most significant thing to happen was me announcing the addition of KidÅ KÄsatsu Patlabor, which had already happened about a month prior.
From now on, though, Iāll make an attempt to make a backup at least once a month.
I previously explained the banner and that I would be including one from now on. I silently vowed to myself that I wouldnāt explain any of them from that update forward, so youāre out of luck ācause Iām not explaininā this one.
Boring Wiki Stuff
- I changed the logo in the corner.
- I changed the favicon.
- I changed the colors.
- I had changed the default separator, which briefly broke a few things, but I think I fixed them.
- I changed the banner on the landing page and the LoreBookās startpage.
Exciting Wiki Stuff
New Articles
I guess I should re-announce the addition of the KidÅ KÄsatsu Patlabor article, which took me a while to write.
Also, I added Essarr Favorites. Read it if youāre curious.
Patreon, Ko-Fi!
I almost forgot to re-announce that I have set up a patreon and Ko-Fi. Now, you and I both know I have zero readers, but Iām setting it up more for the future than anything else. A man can dream to get more readers, right?
Anyhow, if youāre interested in sending me cash to spend onā¦I donāt know, sex toysA)? Then go ahead and send me stuff.
Links are in the sidebar.
Images
Iām moving away from the Imagebox plugin, because itās broken and I donāt know why. Either my fault or not. If itās not my fault, get the damn thing fixed!
The AMVs page has examples of what Iāll be doing from now on. There is a downside to this approach, but they at least look nice.
Considerations
Iāve been thinking of adding an Audio/Video section to the front page. There arenāt any articles written on A/V just yet (at least none that are public), but Iāll eventually add some.
Additionally, Iāve recently developed an interest in two competitive team-based sports, which I may eventually add articles for. Iām not sure if this is a passing interest yet, particularly for one of them, so Iām not promising anything.
Oh right, I also remembered that I wrote two essays for my school, which I will adapt to this wiki at some pointā¦because I think theyāre neat.
Blog-y Stuff
Japanese
The previous version of this update had me complaining about Tatsumotoās blog. So Iām doing it again: heās a dumbass who shouldnāt be listened toB). However, his tip about āAll Japanese All the Timeā (coincidentally didnāt originate from his brain) is actually pretty good, so listen to him on that front.
I was previously optimistic, but I ended up falling flat on my plans, so Iām forced to reset again. I think Iām in a good position overall though.
Anime
I spent some time explaining why I started and subsequently dropped Azumanga, but I wonāt bother much. The summary is that I think itās good, I like it, but I donāt like it enough to watch more of it. I started watching Shimoneta while watching Azumanga and I enjoyed that a lot more (I even finished it).
I watched both RAW, without subtitles, in Japaneseā¦so I didnāt really understand them fully. Iāll be continuing in this direction from then on.
Persona 5
I previously mentioned that I liked the game, thought it needed to be thought-out a bit more in some placesā¦but now, Iām not sure. Iām nearing the end of the game, but I just canāt get myself to play more (I found myself under-leveled and pissed offC)). I may end up just dropping the game before I finish it. Considering the main reason I started to play it has already been fulfilled (to hang out with KawakamiD)), Iām not sure why I should bother, if the story is the only thing keeping me going.
Worker status
In late June, early July, I had a part-time job in a factoryE). This means that I can now be classified as a worker.
This replaced a section where I ranted about Wikipedia.
Concerningly, I have not yet received a paycheck. Although thatās nothing compared to the real plus of this: I can finally counter any claims that I havenāt worked a single day in my life.