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.
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.
ę„ęę„ the 3rd
I couldnāt find anything particularly significant about this day, so I got a bit lazy.
Completion of the Reshuffle
After a lot of pain, the LoreBook Reshuffle is finally at an endā¦as far as the public articles are concerned. All the public articles have been gone through and re-written to make them better.
Reflecting on my decision to do this, I have come to the conclusion it was probably a bad idea and Iām never going to do anything like this againā¦in English, at least.
The issue is that very little new stuff was created, I was just doing the same thing again.
The upside is that everything should now have the same general quality and it made me realize I can write way more if I really force myself to, so thatās good.
Currently only the Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai article is āincompleteā reshuffle-wise, but thatās just because I decided to hold that off for after I re-watch the series again and after I finish re-reading it.
New Articles?
I will gradually start adding articles to the wiki is various stages of completion. During the Reshuffle, I realized how dumb it was to not make some articles public when I remembered how bare-bones the Charlotte article had been for so long. My current criteria is if something has the same amount of content, or more, than Charlotte then Iāll make it public.
Soon-ish, Iāll be making a lot of those articles public.
The articles I believe that are most likely to go public at this time are:
- Code Geass
- Evangelion(!)
- Kidou Keisatsu Patlabor
- Little Witch Academia(!)
- Mandagon
- Mili(!)
- Shūmatsu no Izetta
Reviews
Iāve decided that the review-only-article compromise I came up with was stupid and Iāll gradually be adapting many of those reviews into their own articles. Whatās clear to me now is that some of those reviews will also be deleted entirely, because outside of a few sentences I have little else Iād want to say on them.
Itās possible the Review Collection will get deleted as well, but I donāt know about that just yet.
Blog-y Stuff
Media Managers
In a previous news post I complained about how none of the media managers on the market are decent. Sometime after that, though, I tried Plex. I can now safely say that Plex is the best media manager available on the market and none of the open-source alternatives are anywhere close to the quality of Plex.
Itās still not perfect for anime but Shoko + Plex makes it work.
Coppelion
Sometime ago I discovered a series called Coppelion and I decided to check it out. After watching the series, I decided to read the manga. Having finished both, I can honestly say that I enjoyed myself greatly.
The series is overall really good, but falls short in a number of waysA). The thing that annoys me the most is the clear anti-Nuclear-power messaging, as Iām in favor of Nuclear power overall.
Another thing that sort-of bummed me out was that I expected the series to be more grounded than it ended up being. Perhaps an opportunity for me to make my own story?
Under the Dog
Another potential future article! I watched the OVA not really expecting much and finding myself surprised and disappointed. Overall, I think itās the best example of gunfights and blood in anime (additionally showing that the medium can handle those) but the story itself leaves something to be desired. I may elaborate further in the future.
LASTEXILE
The LASTEXILE franchise (including Ao6) started driving me insane. I decided to go through the entire franchise and, after doing so, I started thinking about what I had just gone through. Iāll say right now that the series is deeply flawed (perhaps more so than Coppelion) but each entry has different reasons why. Thatās where I started losing my mind because I could hardly comprehend how each of them managed to be significantly flawed in completely different ways.
There will certainly be articles dedicated to these now that Iāve discovered this, but I canāt say for sure when.
Waning Crescent ę
It has taken me a while to make another such update, but here we are.
Despite the (seeming) lack of activity, I am still alive! Not only that, but the situation is better than it was beforeā¦even if that may not be obvious to readers.
Actual public work has been scarce, because Iāve mostly been doing stuff in the privacy of the playground. The Reshuffle should be done soon-ish, as Iāll be generally changing how I approach writing articlesā¦again.
Images!
Iāve gone ahead and changed the way the banners work on here. Previously, I used so-called āstandardā banners. Iāve been forced to stop using them due to bugs in the imagebox plugin that I am not skilled enough to fix. Instead, Iāve created a new standard banner which Iāll be using on the articles from now on.
Here are two examples Iāve created so far:
Note that the first one is a test image I created to figure out this new standard. This doesnāt mean the Evangelion article is coming anytime soon.
Iāll gradually replace most of the banners in the articles with these images.
Reshuffle Status
The Reshuffle has been completed as far as the Minor re-writes are concerned, but the major re-writes are still to be done. The first of these will be The Final Station, and thatās as much as Iāll say on the subject for now.
When itāll be done is still unknown, but I will most definitely finish the Reshuffle before the year ends, and then Iāll start to add new articles more quickly than before.
One issue is that Iām a perfectionist, so making my work public makes me anxious if I think itās not good enough.
Minor Changes
Hyphenation
I think Iāll be using the hyphen more often in writing from now on. This is currently most obvious on here (re-write; re-watch).
Blog-y Stuff
Patlabor
Iāve been thoroughly enjoying myself going through the Patlabor franchise, especially since Iāve re-watched the OVA.
Currently Iām going through the TV anime, and then Iāll be moving through the OVA. Afterwards, who knows?
I also thank this guy for sending me the Patlabor PC-98 game again!
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Iāve finished re-watching the original series just today, and I forgot how good the series was (this was only my second watch), which has gotten me into an overall Evangelion mood. Currently Iām thinking of re-reading the Ikari Shinji Raising Project or playing the Neon Genesis Evangelion 2 PSP game.
ā¦The article is still going to take a while.
First of ļ¼ę
I had initially planned for this update to come sooner, and I called it the āSpring Updateā, but spring ended 25 days ago, so I decided to release this now. I didnāt get as much done as I wanted to, but the real world will often interrupt our plans, so thereās nothing I can really do about that.
Copyright
Iāve decided to explicitly copyright the content on this wiki for a variety of reasons I will not bother explaining. At some point I will release terms of use or something like it to make it clear what readers can and cannot do with the content here.
I will, however, share one of the reasons Iāve decided to copyright the content explicitly: so-called generative AI. The spread of generative AI has alarmed me, and was the last thing that made me realize copyright is ultimately a good thing. Consequently, any use of my content in the training of AI, or anything similar, is strictly prohibited.
I think thatās the most important change that has occurred. Over the course of the Reshuffle I will make some things more explicit in other ways (adding exceptions to the copyright for example), but for now that should do.
LoreBook Reshuffle Update
While I was planning to specify which articles I updated, I decided not to bother, and to instead let the changes āspeak for themselvesā. I planned to say which articles Iāve added, but I honestly forgot which ones I did add. Instead, Iāll share some of the articles I still have to get through:
- Minor Rewrite
- Serious Rewrite
I wonāt be sharing all of the ones Iāll be getting toā¦because that would be a list of almost everything thatās currently still public and stuff that isnāt yet public.
Change to Images
I made a few changes to how I deal with images on this wiki. First, I changed the sizes of the banners I used before, making them more āstandardā. Second, I started uploading images to the wiki itself, rather than relying on an external host. Third, I had considered switching to the use of the JXL format for my images, rather than relying on PNG. To elaborate a bit further on the last point, the JXL format has impressed me quite a bit, so I thought of switching to it to save space and making loading the images a bit faster. Unfortunately, JXL is not yet properly supported in web browsers or on image viewers, so I donāt think Iāll switch just yet. I have, however, already uploaded the JXL images to the wiki and theyāre a fraction of the size of the PNG ones.
Additional Image Changes
In addition to the changes to the sizes of the images (excluding small banners), I will almost certainly change the typefaces I use for them. Iāll either use the typefaces I used prior (such as Vollkorn) or Iāll use ones Iāll create myself. This may happen sooner rather than later, as Iām progressing fairly well with my first typeface.
To be more specific about what I mean in regards to the typefaces. I mean that Iāll probably start creating my own versions of the official logos to use on the banners and such, because many of them are not well-suited for banners and, in this way, I may avoid potential future copyright issues as well.
Iāll elaborate a bit further on that later.
Minor Changes
Rounge textboard
I deleted the rounge text board as it wasnāt being used at all. In hindsight, Iām kind of embarrassed that I even tried.
Iāll try to find some other convenient way to contact me. Iāve considered a Retrospring, copying my peer.
Font > Type
Iāve decided to shift from using the term āfontā to ātypeā/ātypefaceā instead, as thatās the more correct term. This is additionally because I havenāt seen anyone try to correct the mis-identificationA), so Iāll try to lead the way (massive ego).
Japanese in the Wiki
Iāve decided to abandon the use of Japanese in the titles of articles, as I realized it makes my life more difficult. The titles will now be written according to aniDBās rules, just that Iāll be using diacritics.
Additionally, Iām still playing around with different ruby displays, which are visible on the Wiki Notes article.
Misc Changes to appearance
Iāve gone and changed the appearance of the wiki slightly, fixing the issue where the mobile version still displayed the default ādokuā look.
I removed the table of contents from the sidebar back to the default location. This is mostly because the sidebar TOC kept bothering me.
Typeface Changes
Iāve decided to change the typefaces I use on this wiki, because Iāve gotten a bit sick of them. My specific issues were that I didnāt like the way the Kana looked, and some features didnāt work as they should have, mostly related to diacritics of all things.
The Mincho/Serif type was changed to BIZ UDPMincho Thatās what I planned, but after trying it out I noticed it didnāt look as good as the previous one, so I switched back. The Gothic/Sans-Serif type was changed to M Plus 1p, and Iāve gotten Rounded M Plus 1c to complement it just in case.
While I did say Iām progressing fairly well with my own first typeface, I still think itāll take a while before I can actually use it. Itās also a Gothic typeface, and I donāt have a Mincho one yet.
More blog-y stuff
Numerical Ratings suck, but...
For a while now Iāve been assigning things (mostly anime and manga) numerical ratings between 1-10 (with .5s mixed in as well), and while I have defined quite clearly what each number represents, I realized a while ago that numbers are not great at communicating the quality of something, or whether I even like it or not.
As an example, letās use Mirai Nikki, a series I watched recently. Iām almost certainly going to add a review/article dedicated to it, where Iāll communicate my thoughts in detail (hopefully). I assigned the anime a rating of 8/10. An ā8ā means āgreatā to me. This number (and even the word) doesnāt explain what I think about it, it just says I think itās āgreatā. It doesnāt communicate what issues there were, how well executed its concepts were, how well communicated its themes were, how sensible the characters were, etc. Itās just a number. I leave numerical ratings outside of my reviews for this reason. I should also note that Iāve actually changed the rating from 8 to a 7.5, because I realized many of the issues with the series are more serious than I previously thought.
Despite this, I see numerical ratings as a necessary evil, and I continue to rate with numbers anyway.
Legal High
Iāve recently started watching Legal High, and Iām enjoying myself very much. It is very well constructed, and the jokes are very well written. Iāve already finished the first season, and Iām moving onto the special. Whether Iāll write anything about it in the future is still to be seen.
Media Manager Frustrations
Media managers deeply frustrate me and almost all of the issues can be boiled down to me not being able to manage the metadata for individual episodes, or not being able to manually edit metadata. Jellyfin is somewhat tolerable in this regard, but the Shoko Suite is extremely frustrating. I say this as someone whoās been a user of the Shoko suite for 5 or so years at this point, and Shoko is not good. Iām only using it because there is no better alternative, which reflects badly on everything else. My frustration is so deep that I may find myself creating my own alternative just so I wonāt have to deal with Shoko anymore.