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.
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.
General Update
The first draft of this update was written a very long time ago, but Iāve finally gotten it out.
ćØćć re-write
Iāve managed to get started on a re-write of the ćØćć article, having started with Misaka Mikoto, which Iām now using as a template to base the rest of the re-write off of. As part of the re-write, I had been making notes from all the Toaru media Iāve currently gone through, but I stopped doing that a while ago to focus on other boring stuff. Misakaās article came first because sheās the character I have the most notes about. The only other characters with a comparable number of notes would be Shokuhou Misaki and Hokaze Junko, but I donāt know when Iāll get around to their articles. becauseā¦
LoreBook Reshuffle
In another minor update I mentioned a change in direction, and I have since dubbed it āThe LoreBook Reshuffle.ā Despite its name, itās not limited to the LoreBook and Iām not shuffling anything. Unlike the previous changes in direction, Iāve decided to take this one a little more seriously, so Iāll be going through all the articles Iāve currently gotten writtenā¦including ones in the playground.
The Reshuffle will involve me evaluating the quality of an article, as well as any potential future expansion, and then deciding what to do with it. This includes deleting a few, so some things are just gone.
The articles Iāve managed to get to so far include:
- Removed many of the words, reducing the size of the article significantly.
- Finished rewriting most of the definitions. No longer are they merely copied from Wiktionary, but slightly reworded.
- Added examples to a few of the words, but these are more for fun than anything else.
- Added English-7 spellings to some of the entries, but Iām not sure if Iāll continue this or not.
- Added a Quotes section, because it fits with the rest of the article.
- Other miscellaneous changes, such as a general re-write.
- Non-changes: The names section was kept mostly intact.
- I rewrote the article somewhat.
- Iāve finally gotten around to finishing the archivicleā¦but all I really did was fix the images.
- A concept that was hiding in the playground.
Another change Iāve decided to go through with is the elimination of the concept of āan article in constructionā as I found it doesnāt make sense to have that on a personal wiki, when I can edit articles whenever I want. As part of the Reshuffle, Iāll be removing the construction banner and the tag from articles.
Reviews will also probably go through a change, but I donāt know what kind so I wonāt say anything. This also applies to the playground.
Other
Iāve decided to start writing more personal thoughts on media and the like, possibly commentaries and such. However, this will almost certainly have to wait until the Reshuffle is complete.
Considering how often I use Japanese writing on this wiki, Iāve thought about creating an article thatās just a table of the Kanas, which I can then point people to. Nothing concrete yet.
Current
ē„ć®ćæćē„ćć»ć«ć¤
I went through and watched all of Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai again and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Although the first season was a little shaky, it turned out to be better than I rememberedA). Since the manga has ćµćććŖ, Iāll be reading that as well.
Iāve written up a few thoughts, and Iāll try to integrate them into the current article as soon as possible.
CrossCode
Iāve been playing CrossCode and enjoying myself a lotā¦perhaps too much. The story really picked up recently, so Iām itching to learn more.
ććŖćććććććęćć㯠& Shadows House
Started ććŖćć just a few days ago, and while it isnāt fantastic, it is okay. However, the first episode is very rushed which turned me off a little. The next two episodes were comparatively fine, so Iāll be sticking around with it.
Iāve only watched the first episode of Shadows House, as Iām aiming to finish ććŖćć first, but Iām already intrigued. However, itās really obvious that itās adapted from numerous shorter storiesā¦perhaps 4ć³ć? I havenāt bothered to check the original yet. Theyāre also stitched together a little awkwardly.
Update Names
Starting with the next update, Iāve decided to come up with a naming scheme for them. The current one Iām thinking of is to name the update after a recent holiday/day of interest. By the next update, Iāll come up with a proper one.
Another another minor Update
Iāve published a new article which I had been working on for months. Itās called What if Academy City existed? and Iām fairly proud of it.
Besides that, Iāve made some misc changes. The most significant change was that I changed the font(s) for the site. I think it looks nice now, although Iām disappointed the serif font didnāt look that great for the main text.
The other change was that I updated the aphorism generators. By āupdateā I mean I remade them and cleaned up their code. I hadnāt actually checked it before I uploaded them, so when I finally did check it, I found a mess. They should be somewhat ālighterā than before. Iāve also changed the font, to differentiate āmineā from the originals, seeing as Kazamatsuri's site is still functioning.
Thatās about it.
More Current
I donāt know what I could put here, besides how hungry I feel.
Ninjaā¦out!
Another Minor Update
As this is a minor update, Iāll try to keep it small.
There have been no serious new additions since the last update, I have, however, made a few small changes here and there. Mostly correcting grammatical or spelling mistakes. Besides that, I opened up the Translations of Names article again and added two new names. I believe it will now be in the same place as Review Collection and Words, Phrases, Names, and Quotes I find interesting - that being, something I can update quickly and with minimal effort.
One strange issue thatās cropped up recently actually has to do with the reviews. Iāve started putting far more effort into them, evident from the one for unciv. This technically means that reviews donāt count as low-effort anymore, so that article will be updated far less. So technically, Iāve replaced one low-effort article with another.
Change in direction...again
Now to explain something more significant. Roughly a year ago, if I remember correctly, I made the decision to impose some āstandardsā on my media articles. Back then, I had the idea to make each media article set an alternative to the various fan-run wikis online, one thatās written in a more relaxed style, with more relevant information, and with more accurate information. To accomplish this, I decided to impose a similar structure on all the articles, and even split them in predictable ways. Over the course of this past week, and today especially, I realized this was a massive mistake. So, I have chosen to abandon it, and going back to the āanarchicā style of before.
I shall lay out my reasons for doing so, as it may be hard to understand why I have chosen to do this.
- The wiki provides a skewed view of what Iām actually interested in.
- For example, I am a fairly big fan of Bionicle, but youād have no idea from the wiki.
- While I believe this is unavoidable, the structure exacerbates this issue becauseā¦
- The structure makes writing, and finishing, article sets much slower.
- The structured approach doesnāt mesh well with what Iām passionate about at the time.
- The major exceptions here were Great Teacher Onizuka and Toaru Project where I managed to stick to the structure fairly well, but I believe this was only because there was a lot of content to keep me interested in it. This issue is most noticeable with Little Busters! or Charlotte.
- The structure makes me not want to finish articles.
- Quite a few articles have just been sitting in the playground, with what I consider to be well-written and practically finished sectionsā¦that I havenāt released because everything else is empty.
- There is no way I can actually realistically compete with the fan-run wikis.
These are the reasons I have chosen to abandon this approach. Iāve also decided to go back through the articles Iāve already written, and fix them up to be more bearable.
Besides whatās mentioned above, I also find myself writing āmiscā information far more enjoyable than on characters and worldbuilding. There are exceptions of course, but not many.
Aspects of the structure are likely to stay, but perhaps only as means of categorization.
Besides that, something else thatās come to bother me is how disconnected the content is from one-another. As interlinking is a major advantage of a wiki over, say, a blog, itās something of a shame I havenāt taken more advantage of this. I hope I try to fix this.
More Current
One idea I previously had was to turn the news section into a semi-blog thing. Iām still not entirely sure about it, but Iām going to include these sections from now on. These will explain what Iām thinking about around the time I write these up.
The Legend of Zelda
Iāve found myself getting engrossed in the Zelda franchise. Unfortunately, the only Zelda game Iāve ever spent any significant amount of time with is the Phantom Hourglass, so this likely wonāt come up for a whileā¦while I go and play the games.
One of my interests with Zelda is how it doesnāt neatly fit into my previously established (and, unfortunately, not yet fully revealed or developedā¦) fantasy genre categorization. Zelda seems to be separate from what I call āJapanese Western-Style Fantasyā which is oddā¦and that makes it interesting.
Another thing I will most likely comment about (when I do) is the timeline. The timeline is a complete mess and Iām likely to take my own approach to canon, separate from the official canon - constructing my own timeline, or set of timelines.
Luni-Solar Calendar
Yesterday, I decided to revisit my attempt at making a Luni-Solar calendar. Roughly 4-5 hours later, I realized Iād probably need to put more effort into making it work. On top of that, I concluded the Gregorian calendar is already basically āperfectā.
An explanation of why I want to create a Luni-Solar calendar would probably fit more on the eventual article for it, so I wonāt bother. However, I found that 1. itās far more complex than expected and 2. Artifexianās video on making them is trash.
The Tengwar
The Tengwar are a writing system developed by Tolkien, and I hope to have some kind of article about them in the future. Iām not sure how I could possibly structure such an article, but we can leave that for later.
That is generally it for this minor update. Thereās more text than I expected, but thatās alright.
Ninjaā¦out!
Summer Update
Itās been something of a long time since the last update eh?
There are two reasons why: The first is that Iām simply lazy, which is one of my most significant flaws and the second is that I shifted from writing and immediately publishing to writing in the playground first. The result of both of these together made updates to the (public) wiki basically non-existent.
However, I will⦠try to fix my general laziness.
Also, even if I donāt explicitly say so in an update, I do occasionally update Review Collection and Words, Phrases, Names, and Quotes I find interesting since they donāt require the same amount of effort as a regular article.
Additions
- Essentially a few alternate spelling systems I came up with.
- A creator article. Extremely basic so far.
- A bizarre article Iāve had cooking for almost a year.
- Lists all of the images I donāt create myself and where they came from.
- Intended to list whatever fonts I create. Currently only lists one.
Iāve also added the following independent reviews:
Changes
- I fixed the images on Review Collection, finally.
- As usual, I keep adding words to Words, Phrases, Names, and Quotes I find interesting.
What's being worked on
- The reviews are essentially complete, but the Characters, Worldbuilding, and Gameplay sections/sub-articles are still being worked on. I was initially playing through the game a second time, while taking notes, but for reasons I canāt continue playing currently. So for now, it will be placed into āstasis.ā
- Iām compiling a set of notes from the LN, which I am currently reading, and writing some Speculah.
- A number of Evangelion-related articles are currently sitting around in the playground. However, Iām not at all sure when Iāll be done with these. Iāve been working on these for a long time, so I doubt Iāll be finished anytime soon.
- Like with the Evangelion articles, Iāve been working on these articles for a long time. When Iāll be done is unclear.
- In theory, Iām working on a personal calendar thing. It will be a luni-solar calendar, vaguely inspired by the Japanese (read: Chinese) one, with a few personal spins.
Misc
I was planning on releasing a number of AKIRA related articles, but decided against it. My interest in AKIRA was never really all that big, which is why I planned to just write about the specific things that interested me, but even then I lost interest. I might reveal them in the future sometime, but I might not either. The reviews will be released at some point, however.
I was also planning on releasing some stories I was working on in the background, but I decided that can wait.