#Valley Chrome

[chrometheraptor]

Michael won’t get the cat for a while in the fic still but here are some drawings :]

[greyfongschemmenti]

Yall I’m playing this mobile game called Chrome Valley and this customer is a German Drag Racer named Lotte and idk something about her screamed Lin. So whenever Lotte comes to the screen in my head I see Lin in that race suit with black hair and her face. Now all I want to do is read a fanfic of a racer Lin 😭. Anyone wanna bring this to life?

[mementoboni]

2023.10.29 萬聖重音祭 - Hell Always Wins @Taipei The Wall Live House

Valley of Chrome aka VOC VOC is a band from the Philippines (This song is their new single from September, called Walang Takot)

[funground21]

Chrome Valley #2 Finished Car project

[zaynsource]

Bathroom - Transitional Bathroom

Inspiration for a mid-sized transitional kids' gray tile and porcelain tile porcelain tile and double-sink bathroom remodel with shaker cabinets, gray walls, an undermount sink, quartz countertops, white countertops and a built-in vanity

[videogamepolls]

Video Games Polls 1-Year Report

I've been running this blog for a full year and I've polled nearly 3,000 games, so I wanted to post an updated report with the top 10 games for each of the four options included in my polls, plus a couple other categories.

📊 General Stats

Games Polled: 2,864

Average Sample Size: 728

Games with 40%+ "yes" votes: 149 (5.2%)

🏆 Most Played

Games with the highest percentage of "Yes" votes:

The Dinosaur Game (2014, AKA Chrome Dino Game) - 93.9%

Pac-Man (1980) - 93.4%

Wii Sports (2006) - 87.7%

Tetris (1985) - 86.9%

3D Pinball for Windows – Space Cadet (1995) - 85.5%

Pokemon Go (2016) - 82.9%

Minecraft (2011) - 81.1%

Angry Birds (2009) - 80.1%

Stardew Valley (2016) - 79.3%

Space Invaders (1978) - 78.5%

🏆 Most Known But Not Played

Games with the highest percentage of "No" votes:

Raid: Shadow Legends (2018) - 85.8%

Final Fantasy XI (2002) - 82.1%

Far Cry (2004) - 79.3%

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (2018) - 78.3%

Far Cry 2 (2008) - 78.2%

Halo Infinite (2021) - 77.6%

Grand Theft Auto 2 (1999) - 75.4%

Final Fantasy V (1992) - 76.4%

Baldur's Gate (1998) - 76.1%

Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000) - 75.8%

🏆 Most Watched

Games with the highest percentage of "I watched someone play it" votes:

Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy (2017) - 54.2%

I Am Bread (2015) - 51.3%

Octodad: Dadliest Catch (2014) - 47.0%

Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach (2021) - 45.6%

Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning (2018) - 43.5%

Amanda the Adventurer (2023) - 42.5%

Phasmophobia (2020, Early Access) - 41.3%

P.T. (2014) - 41.0%

PowerWash Simulator (2022) - 40.4%

The Mortuary Assistant (2022) - 38.7%

🏆 Most Obscure

Games with the highest percentage of "I've never heard of it" votes:

Jessica's Uncomfortable Hanukkah Adventure (2023, Early Access) - 97.8%

Batty Zabella (2022) - 97.6%

Citampi Stories: Love & Life (2019) - 97.0%

Tears - 9, 10 (2002) - 97.0%

Just, Bearly (2018) - 96.9%

Anito: Defend a Land Enraged (2003) - 96.6%

That Damn Goat (2023) - 96.5%

Star Seeker in: The Secret of the Sorcerous Standoff (2020) - 96.4%

Cisini Stories: Girl Life RPG (2024) - 96.4%

Dear Substance of Kin (2019) - 96.3%

🏆 Most Balanced

Games with the most even spread of votes:

Human Fall Flat (2016) - 19.3% Yes | 28.5% No | 26.1% Watched | 26.1% Never Heard

Kerbal Space Program (2015) - 21.9% | 31.1% | 24.5% | 22.5%

The Henry Stickmin Collection (2020) - 19.3% | 29.2% | 22% | 29.5%

Ib (2012) - 24.1% | 26.8% | 19.2% | 29.9%

Superhot (2016) - 24.9% | 25.1% | 30.5% | 19.5%

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (2010) - 25.8% | 31.1% | 20% | 23.2%

Limbo (2010) - 30.2% | 28.7% | 23.9% | 17.1%

Wobble Dogs (2022) - 18% | 25.4% | 25.2% | 31.3%

Slay the Princess (2023) - 30.2% | 27.4% | 26.1% | 16.4%

Golf with Your Friends (2020) - 13.9% | 16.9% | 23.6% | 30.8%

🏆 Most Votes

Games with the most number of votes:

3D Pinball for Windows – Space Cadet (1995) - 11,773

Robot Unicorn Attack (2010) - 7,600

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011) - 4,329

Flight Rising (2013) - 4,132

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (2004) - 4,053

Final Fantasy XV (2016) - 3,056

Zero Escape: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (2009) - 2,844

Dark Souls (2011) - 2,823

The Dinosaur Game (2014, AKA Chrome Dino Game) - 2,758

QWOP (2008) - 2,636

*I did not take most Pokémon games into consideration since I handle those polls a little differently.

Check out my results spreadsheet for an alphabetized list of all poll results plus some other stats, and in case anyone is interested in comparing results to past reports here are the links to my 6-month and 9-month posts.

[frozen-snowflakesandsunflowers]

Norse mythology in the Frozen universe: How it's all connected | Part 1 | Analysis | Theory

What if I told you Norse mythology is not a stranger to the Frozen universe but rather a very familiar companion? What if I told you that it's all connected and this is not something out of the blue? It's true!

Last night I came across @humongoustreemoon's post (thank you for this!) and it hit me - it got me investigating and going back to theories from Frozen I! There are old Norse runes and Norse mythology all over the place in the two movies and they could be the clues to finding out what we're in for in Frozen 3 and 4. Please stick with me.

This is going to be a long post but I'll break it down to a part one and two.

[long post alert]

Norse mythology in Frozen I

The book

Okay so the very first piece of ancient language that we get is from book cover of the very book that Agnarr goes to find that leads them to the troll valley at the beginning of the movie.

Runes of Knowledgeable [magic] book cover

These runes are of Nordic runes from Norse mythology which is German is mythology. The book reads "ᚱᚢᚾᚬᛦ ᚠᛁᚢᛚᚴᚢᚾᛁᚴᛦ" or “runąR fiulkunikRa”, “Rúnar Fjǫlkunnigra” in proper Old Norse which translates as “Runes of Knowledgeable [in magic]". I tried to translate it myself but it was hard to find the right alphabet and get the right translation. Chrome browser may not render runic font properly or Google apparently. So most of the translations in this post are based on Panya's blog on deciphering the runes.

Then we look at a specific page inside the book.

A page of Runes of Knowledgeable [magic]

Apparently some of the lines in this book are repeated. The lines in old Norse are:

1. ᛋᛏᛅᛁᚾ ᚠᚢᛏᚢ ᚢᛅᛚᛏᛅᛦ ᛏᚢᚴᛚᛅᚼᛁᛘᛁᚾᛋᛁᛋ ᚦᛅᚢ

2. ᛏᚱᚢᛚᛁᚾ ᛅᚠ ᛋᚢᛅᚱᛏᛅᚠᛁᛅᛚᛅᚱᛁᚴᛁ ᛅᛁᚴᚢ

3. ᛚᛅᚴᚾᛁᛋᚼᚬᛏᛦ ᛋᚢ ᚬᛏ ᛁᛋ ᛅᚠ ᚴᛅᛚᛏᚱᛁ ᛋᛅᚱ

4. ᛘᚾ ᚴᚱᚢᚦᛅ ᛁᚠ ᚠᚢᚱᚦ ᛅᛚᛒᚱᛅᚦᛚᛁᚴᛅ ᛏᛁᛚ

5. ᚢᛅᛚᛅᛦᛁᛋ ᚦᛅᛁᛦᛅ ᛏᚱᚢᛚ ᛅᛁᚴᚢ ᚦᛅ ᚾᚬᛏᚢᚱᚢ

6. ᛅᛏ ᚦᛅᚢ ᚠᛅ ᛅᛚᚬᚾ ᚴᛅᛚᛏᚱ ᛅᚠᚦᛁᚱᚦᚬᚾ[ᛚ]

7. ᚢᛦ ᚴᚢᚴᚢᛚᛁᚴᛁ ᚾᛁᛘᚬ ᛅᛁᚾ ᚦᚢᛁ ᛏᛅᚦ ᚴᛅᚱ

8. ᛁ ᚢᛚᚢᚴᛁᚾᛁ ᛅᛋᛏ ᛁᛋ ᛋᚢ ᛅᛁᚾᚬ ᛁᛋ ᚠᛅᛦ

9. ᛅᚠᚦᛁᚱᚦᚬᚾ[ᛚ] ᚼᛁᛅᚱᛏᛅ ᚴᚱᚢᛏ ᛅᛚᛒᚱᛅᚦᛚᛁᚴᛅ

In the blog, they try to translate it as:

1. Stone brought fourth by powers of moon and sky, they,

2. the Trolls from the dark mountain realm, have

3. healing hands. A soul which from cold wounded

4. will heal if brought very quickly to

5. the field of them. Trolls have those nature

6. that they get all sorcery thaw

7. out of approached body to save one. Such action done

8. in true love is only which can

9. thaw heart stoned very quickly quickly.

Making sense, the text says: The Stone (heart) brought fourth by the powers of moon and sky, they, the Trolls from the dark mountain realm, have healing hands. A soul which is cold wounded (struck by the cold powers) will heal if brought very quickly to the field of theirs (the Troll valley). Trolls have the nature that they get thaw for all sorcery out of approached body to save one. Such action can be done by true love only which can thaw heart stoned (heart) very quickly.

It's like what happened with Anna. Anna had been struck by Elsa's "moon and sky" (ice) powers which led Agnarr to quickly go to the Troll valley so the trolls could heal Anna, the cold wounded. Trolls seem to be known to somewhat heal and know the thaw for sorcery magic like such. Pabbie was able to heal Anna's head but had warned the family of being struck in the heart with the powers. For Anna's situation years later, Pabbie told them the cure was true love.

Next to the text page is this image:

It shows a troll healing a royal man/ soldier by taking out a blue misty magic (the same moon and sky/ ice magic Elsa has) from his head and right above it is the northern lights. This could be what happened with Anna, the trolls were seen taking out ice magic from his head and changing up her memories. The Northern lights were used as a visual projection for Grand Pabbie's prediction abilities.

The northern lights will play a huge role in Frozen 3 and 4 I think, just like in Frozen. When Anna sees them in the sky she believes the sky is awake, and Olaf too says the same.

The concept art for Frozen 3 shows that mysterious white castle and the northern lights around it. My theory is that the northern lights are magical and are part of the trolls magic. So troll magic = Northern lights magic. I know this might not make sense right now but let's look at it differently. When it came to the trolls, King Agnarr was very familiar with them and knew all about them. They seem to be a part of Arendelle history. It could be that Norse mythology is part of Arendelle's history which is Agnarr's side of the family, just like Sami culture was part of the Enchanted forest's history from Iduna's side of the family. Frozen 2 explored Iduna's background while Frozen 3 could be exploring Agnarr's background.

The map

Then we have a map that falls out of the book which leads to the Troll valley. In Nordic runes it says “ᛏᚱᚢᛚ” or “trul” which is menas “Troll”.

There's a map compass-like sign at the top left hand corner of the map which resembles the Viking protection symbol the Helm of the Awe in Norse mythology.

So it seems like Agnarr's ancestry is Norse mythology/ Viking heritage as Iduna's was Sami culture.

The memorial stones

A little while later in the movie, when Anna goes to her parents burial, there are runes on their graves.

The left stone reads:

ᛁᚦᚢᚾ ᛏᚱᚢᛏᚾᛁᚴ

ᛏᚢ I

ᚼᛅᚠᛁ

This translates to:

Queen Iduna

She died in the/ at sea

The left stone reads similar:

ᛅᚴᚦᚬᚱ ᚴᚢᚾᚢᚴᛦ

ᚼᚬᚾ ᛏᚢ I ᚼᛅᚠᛁ

Translates to:

King Agnarr

He died in the/ at sea

In Panya's blog, she says that these aren't grave stones but memorial stones as they didn't find their bodies. I don't know why we never thought of this. They never found their bodies - how could that have? Iduna and Agnarr died in the dark sea and their ship was washed to shore in the enchanted forest all the while the forest was still trapped in the mist. No one could've gotten in or out. And the Northuldra and Arendellian soldiers seem clueless to their deaths which means they never discovered the ship or if they did they didn't find any bodies with the ship. (Brb I'm gonna cryy!)

So I'm gonna go with their conclusion of this theory that Agnarr's ancestry is Norse mythology.

The wedding book

Anyways, next and the last we see the runes in the movie is on a book held by a small troll when they try to wed Anna and Kristoff.

The book reads “ᛏᚱᚢᛚ”, and “Troll” in English.

Powers of the moon and sky

But before I move onto Frozen 2's Nordic rune sightings, I wanna refer back to this, we're a troll is scene healing an Arendellian.

Some believe this is an ancestor of Agnarr who was hit by ice magic. This could be true. It would make sense why Agnarr was so familiar with magic and the trolls. But this ancestor was hit by the magic of the sky and moon meaning that Elsa wasn't the first with the ice and snow magic, which then could mean that there was indeed a previous fifth spirit who also had powers like Elsa at the time of this recorded incident. It's unknown if there were two parts of the fifth spirit, one with powers like Elsa and one without like Anna. I would say there wasn't but after seeing the chaos that King Runeard caused, Ahotohallan believed the fifth spirit should be divided into two with one being powerless so that peace with humans could be made between the magical. Runeard probably hated magic partly for this very reason, that it is dangerous and he fears the unknown. With frozen we learn that if anyone fears the unknown, the magical, they try to destroy it and hunt it down. Runeard feared the magic in the enchanted forest and Arendellians or at least the council feared Elsa's magic so they tried to destroy it until it was Anna who ultimately saved the days and restored peace between humans and the magical. Elsa couldn't have done her part in saving Arendelle and the forest if it wasn't for Anna. That's why both are the fifth spirit.

And the book mentions that the powers are of the moon and sky. That sounds very similar to Tangled where Rapunzel's flower was from the drop of the sun. Tangled takes place in Germany so it could have tied with Norse mythology having Frozen and Tangled connected in not only the same universe but with Norse mythology too. But in Frozen 2 we learn that Ahotohallan was the source of all (elemental) magic and is a frozen river/ a glacier. It could be that it was just being metaphorical as ice relates to the moon and sky with how cold it is. In the D23 panel, we're given the question of who gave Elsa her powers? Now where did it come from because we got that answered. It's who? Ahotohallan isn't actually a being. It's a magical source. Could it be that the who is linked to Agnarr's Norse mythology ancestry? Maybe it's related to the previous Fifth spirit that gave the Arendellian the cold wound. I don't think the Fifth spirit is someone from Agnarr's ancestry but I could be wrong, especially if his ancestry relates to Norse mythology where runes are included. The spirits symbols are runic so it could be from Iduna's side too. Perhaps the two sides are connected!?

Trolls' realm

As for the trolls, I believe the Trolls are part of his culture, with the Old Norse runes. They are revealed in the runed book to come from a Dark mountain realm. For those who have no idea what realms are kingdoms/ holes to different species and gods. It's like a different world basically. Realms are included in Norse mythology but the Dark mountain realm isn't a named realm in the nine realms of Norse mythology. The nine realms are

Asgard

Midgard

Vanaheim

Jotunheim

Alfheim

Nidavellir

Niflheim and Muspelheim

Helheim

I did some research and it seems like Jotunheim or Jötunheimr is the "dark mountain" realm that contains dark forests and mountain peaks where winter never is neverending. But it's a home to giants. In Scandinavian folklore, trolls are giant, monstrous beings, sometimes possessing magic powers and in old Norse, Trolls dwell in isolated mountains, rocks, and caves and are rarely described as helpful or friendly.

In the Frozen universe the trolls aren't giants but are rocks themselves and they live near an isolated mountain, being the North mountain where it's wintery. Except they are always friendly and helpful and are known to heal those wounded by sorcery magic. The realm they're from is called the Dark mountain realm. It sounds similar to Jötunheimr.

Referring back to the concept art, we see a white castle that people are quick to believe is a place similar to Valhalla. Valhalla is basically like paradise in Norse mythology, a place viking warriors go for the afterlife. The majestic described hall is located in a celestial realm in Asgard where the Norse gods live. Perhaps that castle isn't a castle but a hall and that place really is Valhalla which would explain why it sits on clouds. Agnarr was a viking warrior according to Norse mythology so it's possible he's there. Perhaps he and Iduna could return in that sense. And seeing the northern lights surround what seems to be Valhalla, maybe the northern lights are what surrounds and guards these realms.

Read Part 2 here.

[khepiari]

Dr Stone Season 4 Episode 6: Pretty Senku is an Uncanny Valley Experience for his Friends!

The best thing about Senku is, unlike many Shōnen MC’s like Luffy or Ichigo, he is aware of his good looks.

Senku is excellent in utilising his soft boy charms. And he amplified the oomph for seducing Luna to reveal about Dr Xeno to Max Pro!

Everyone, who doesn’t know him well, actually thought Senku has a soft spot for Luna. Taiju and Yuzuhira immediately went, “Nope.” And Ryusui saw through his intentions pretty well. Chrome and others who know him slightly better now got to have the Uncanny Valley experience by looking at Pretty Senku.

Senku Ishigami is so aroace that he knows sex appeal is a tool of warfare and mastered it.

[exeggcute]

interesting links roundup #4

reading

A language of beautiful impurity

The Boeing Nosedive

California’s $20 Fast Food Minimum Wage Sees No Job Loss, Slight Price Hikes

Don’t build your castle in other people’s kingdoms

Inside the $621 Million Legal Battle for the ‘Soul of the Internet’

My Mother’s Envy Will Outlive Us Both

On 17th century "cocaine"

Silicon Valley, the New Lobbying Monster

Stunning photos of a vast e-waste dumping ground — and those who make a living off it

The Time I Built an ROV to Solve Missing Person Cases

Warren Hern, America’s Abortion Doctor

What Google’s U-Turn on Third-Party Cookies Means for Chrome Privacy

Where Did You Go, Ms. Pac-Man?

tools/reference

The Anglish Times

Falling Fruit

Grad school calculator

other

Abandoned mines cover the West

Bop Spotter

Wikipedia: Leper colony money

[chrometheraptor]

Chapter 3 is up!!

[marcmarcmomarc]

Once Upon a Lamp - list of characters

In honor of Once Upon a Studio turning one year old

EXT. THE STEVE JOBS BUILDING - EARLY EVENING

The Adventures of André and Wally B.

André

Wally B.

Luxo Jr.

Luxo Jr.

Luxo Sr.

Red’s Dream

Lumpy

Red

Tin Toy

Tinny

Gumbo

Flip ‘n Beth

Ace

Clocky

Spot

Zoo Train

Chrome Dome

Rallye Guy

Fire Hydrant

Helicopter Sheep

Toypot

Frodo

Bouncy

Eben’s Car

Les

RenderMan

Knick Knack

Knick

Sunny Miami

Sunny Florida

Sunny Egypt

Sunny Jamaica

Sunny Palm Springs

Sunny Israel

Surf Death Valley

Sunny Atlantis

Toy Story (Toys)

Woody

Buzz Lightyear

Jessie

Mr. Potato Head

Slinky Dog

Rex

Hamm

Bo Peep

Mrs. Potato Head

Bullseye

Mr. Pricklepants

Dolly

Trixie

Buttercup

Chuckles

Stinky Pete

Barbie

Ken

Lots-o-Huggin’ Bear

Big Baby

Twitch

Stretch

Chunk

Sparks

Chatter Telephone

Bookworm

Peas-in-a-Pod

Forky

Giggle McDimples

Ducky

Bunny

Duke Caboom

Gabby Gabby

The Dummies

Billy, Goat, and Gruff

Toy Story (Human side)

Andy Davis

Mrs. Davis

Molly Davis

Sid Phillips

Hannah Phillips

Bonnie Anderson

Bonnie’s Mom

Bonnie’s Dad

Buster

Scud

Geri’s Game

Geri

A Bug’s Life

Flik

Hopper

Princess Atta

Princess Dot

The Queen

Molt

Slim

Heimlich

Francis

Manny

Gypsy

Rosie

Tuck

Roll

P.T. Flea

Dim

Mr. Soil

Dr. Flora

Thorny

Cornelius

Thumper

Aphie

For the Birds

Bluebird Flock

Gawky Bird

Buzz Lightyear of Star Command

Commander Nebula

Mira Nova

XR

Booster Sinclair Munchapper

Warp Darkmatter

Gravitina

N0S-4-A2

XL

Monsters, Inc.

James P. Sullivan

Mike Wazowski

Boo

Celia Mae

Randall Boggs

Henry J. Waternoose

Johnny Worthington

Scott “Squishy” Squibbles

Don Carlton

Terri and Terry Perry

Art

Tylor Tuskman

Val Little

Fritz

Katherine “Cutter” Sterns

Duncan P. Anderson

Roz

Yeti

Jeff Fungus

Banana Bread

Roger Rogers

Suzy “Sunny” Sunshine

Finding Nemo

Marlin

Dory

Nemo

Hank

Boundin’

Jackalope

Lamb

The Incredibles

Bob Parr

Helen Parr

Violet Parr

Dashiell Parr

Jack-Jack Parr

Lucius Best

Edna Mode (E)

Buddy Pine

Winston Deavor

Evelyn Deavor

Mirage

Rick Dicker

Voyd

One Man Band

Bass

Treble

Tippy

THX

Tex

Cars

Lightning McQueen

Tow Mater

Cruz Ramirez

Lifted

Stu

Mr. B

Ratatouille

Remy

Alfredo Linguini

Chef Skinner

Colette Tatou

Django

Emile

Anton Ego

Presto

Presto DiGiotagione

Alec Azam

WALL-E

WALL-E

EVE

Captain B. McCrea

John

Mary

M-O

GO-4

The Reject Robots

Hal the Cockroach

Partly Cloudy

Gus

Peck

Up

Carl Fredricksen

Russell

Dug

Charles Muntz

Alpha

Beta

Gamma

Kevin

Kevin’s Babies

Day & Night

Day

Night

La Luna

Bambino

Papà

Nonno

Brave

Merida

Elinor

Fergus

Hamish

Hupert

Harris

Fergus’ Dogs

Angus

The Witch

Maudie

Lord MacGuffin

Lord Macintosh

Lord Dingwall

Young MacGuffin

Young Macintosh

Wee Dingwall

The Witch’s Crow

Conan the Clan Dingwall Hunk

The Blue Umbrella

Blue

Red

Lava

Uku

Lele

Inside Out (Mindscape)

Joy

Sadness

Anger

Fear

Disgust

Anxiety

Envy

Ennui

Embarrassment

Nostalgia

Paula Persimmon

Xeni

Jean Dewberry

Janelle Johnson

Teen Riley

Rainbow Unicorn

Melatonin

Inside Out (Humans)

Riley Andersen

Jill Andersen

Bill Andersen

Grace Hsieh

Bree Young

Valentina Ortiz

Dani

Ally

Sofia

Nour

Coach Roberts

Sanjay’s Super Team

Sanjay

Sanjay’s Father

Hanuman

Durga

Vishnu

The Good Dinosaur

Arlo

Spot

Henry

Ida

Buck

Libby

Nash

Ramsey

Butch

Thunderclap

Downpour

Coldfront

Frostbite

Windgust

Bubbha

Lurleane

Pervis

Earl

Forrest Woodbush

Fury

Destructor

Dream Crusher

Debbie

Piper

Piper

Lou

Lou

J.J.

Coco (Land of the Living)

Miguel Rivera

Dante

Abuelita Elena Rivera

Enrique Rivera (Papá)

Luisa Rivera (Mamá)

Tío Berto Rivera

Tía Carmen Rivera

Tía Gloria Rivera

Abuelito Franco Rivera

Abel Rivera

Rosa Rivera

Socorro Rivera

Benny Rivera

Manny Rivera

Coco (Land of the Dead)

Papá Héctor Rivera

Ernesto de la Cruz

Mamá Imelda Rivera

Pepita

Mamá Coco Rivera

Papá Julio Rivera

Tía Rosita Rivera

Tía Victoria Rivera

Tío Óscar Rivera

Tío Felipe Rivera

Bao

Mom

Son

Dad

Cindy

Purl

Purl

Lacy

Office Bros.

Office Ladies

Kitbull

Kitbull

Dog

Smash and Grab

Smash

Grab

Float

Father

Son

Wind

Ellis

Ellis’ Grandma

Onward

Ian Lightfoot

Barley Lightfoot

Laurel Lightfoot

Corey

Colt Bronco

Blazey

Burrow

Rabbit

Badger Landlord

The Rabbit’s Neighbors

Soul (Living World)

Joe Gardener

Libba Gardener

Dez

Dorothea Williams

Curley Baker

Miho Akage

Connie

Melba

Lulu

Soul (The Great Before)

22

Moonwind

Terry

Counselor Jerry A

Counselor Jerry B

Loop

Renee

Marcus

Out

Greg

Jim

Manuel

Greg’s Parents

Gigi

Luca

Luca Paguro

Alberto Scorfano

Giulia Marcovaldo

Ercole Visconti

Massimo Marcovaldo

Daniela Paguro

Lorenzo Paguro

Grandma Libera Paguro

Ciccio

Guido

Machiavelli

Nona

Nona

Renee

Twenty-Something

Gia

Nicole

Turning Red

Meilin Lee

Ming Lee

Miriam Mendelsohn

Abby Park

Priya Mangal

Tyler Nguyen-Baker

Jin Lee

Grandma Wu Lee

Auntie Chen

Lily

Helen

Auntie Ping

Mr. Gao

4*Town

Lightyear

Izzy Hawthorne

Sox

Mo Morrison

Darby Steel

Commander Cal Burnside

Alisha Hawthorne

Kiko Hawthorne

Elemental

Ember Lumen

Wade Ripple

Bernie Lumen

Cinder Lumen

Gale Cumulus

Fern Grouchwood

Clod

Brook Ripple

Harold Ripple

Alan Ripple

Lake Ripple

Eddy Ripple

Marco Ripple

Polo Ripple

Ghibli

Self

Self

Win or Lose

Coach Dan

Softball Team

Frank

Lena

Elio

Elio Solis

Ambassador Questa

Ambassador Grigon

Olga Solis

Glordon

OOOOO

Ambassador Helix

Ambassador Tegman

Ambassador Turais

Hoppers

Mabel

King George

[mementoboni]

2023.10.29 萬聖重音祭 - Hell Always Wins @Taipei The Wall Live House

Valley of Chrome aka VOC VOC is a band from the Philippines (I don't know what this song is called, but I like it)

[midnight-scrivener]

Okay. OKAY. okay. So the thing about Newt's villain arc in Uprising is that there are a lot of scenarios in which a villain arc Feels Inevitable For Him. There are so many worlds in which a fall from grace as a consequence of his own hubris, the tiny part of his heart and conscience that's left intact screaming for help behind a facade that is so choked by alien hate that no one hears him? There are like So Many Worlds where that Fucking Rules.

And Uprising chose none of those paths.

I think the arc we're left with for Newt by the end of Uprising feels so empty because it rejects so much of the worldbuilding established by the first film. The Anteverse of the original film felt... Eldritch, cosmic (like a lot of del Toro specials do, to be fair). The second movie never explores that, we never learn more about the Precursors or how their ties to Newt change him in ways that reflect their own existence, except for "Precursor Bad, So Now Newt Bad." We got such an interesting taste of a whole other universe filled with these weird fuckin.... Meat machines and bug conquerors and clone armies, this like wild Technicolor HR Gigerian nightmarescape, and the sequel took that and gave it this disconnected silicon-valley makeover. The Precursors stopped feeling otherworldly and started just. Feeling like douchebags.

And beyond that, the film completely misunderstands Newt's role in the narrative. By reducing him to a toady, someone who follows a Big Tech Boss around and nods and smiles, it swats aside all of the Really Interesting flaws that he already has in favor of making him a generic asshole. Namely, Newt is a shortsighted, vainglorious, fame-seeking selfish jerk who's so convinced of his own brilliance that he can't fathom anything he does ever having consequences for himself, let alone other people. And like. I love him so much. He has a lot of positive qualities too, qualities that make him so concerned for humanity that he sets aside his anti-establishment misgivings and joins the Fucking Military because he thinks he can do some good there, but his flaws are Not Subtle in the first film At All. The fact that he can be a good person and still Suck Total Shit is I think why he's such an enduring fan favorite today (aside from tumblr's eterna-boner for lame gay nerds). And Uprising once again chooses to ignore the tenuous line between good and bad qualities presented by the first film in favor of a much more bland slick, yucky asshole vibe (He feels like a late-phase MCU villain tbh). Like I genuinely don't think Newt should have been able to keep his head down and take everyone's shit long enough for his plan in Uprising to work. One of his most iconic lines in the original flick is "Yeah! Or I'd be a rockstar!" He's very intentionally someone who doesn't cope well with playing second fiddle.

(and I need to clarify that i do understand that it's supposed to be out of character because it's the Precursors puppeting him, I just think it's boring lmao. And I think that after drifting with him, Hermann should have realized something was wrong immediately and tore him a new asshole about it. I get that they justified the choice. I just think it was a terrible choice lol)

(Also He Is A Biologist. Why Would You Have His Arc Be About Going Into Tech That He Had No Experience With)

Newt and the Precursors always felt like parallel forces to me. They have just as much in common with each other as they have against each other. They both have a need to be at the top of the heap, they both need to take stuff apart to understand it. They both feel they deserve to be the last one standing. And, most importantly, they love goop. Can't get enough of the stuff.

(side note I felt like Uprising was really scared of goop? It wasn't wet enough. Everything felt too clean. Give me more slime pleeeaaase)

I'm just saying, why go the white-and-chrome designer sunglasses tech startup route when Punk Rock Mad Scientist is like. Right there.

Why have Newt go into drones and not. Fucking pharmaceuticals??? Fucking clone tech???? He had specialties that (INTENTIONALLY!!!!!!) already paralleled what the Precursors do, why do a 180 and shy away from that, instead of leaning in and committing to the setup?

I don't know, it just feels like Uprising didn't actually like the characters or the story it had to work with, and we all suffered for it.

[funground21]

Chrome Valley Overview

[kde-plasma-official]

whats the status of like. using linux on a phone. it feels like there are two parallel universes, one that kde lives in where people use linux on phones, and one where if you google linux phones you discover theyre almost usable but they can barely make phone calls or send texts and they only run on like 4 models of phone

don't have much experience with linux on phone so anyone please correct me if i'm wrong but

one of the problems with phones is that every vendor and manufacturer adds their own proprietary driver blob to it and these have to be extracted and integrated into the kernel in order for the hardware to function.

as companies don't like to share their magic of "how does plastic slab make light", reverse engineering all your hardware is quite a difficult task. Sometimes there just isn't a driver for the camera of a phone model yet because no one was able to make it work.

So naturally, this takes a lot of time and tech is evolving fast so by the time a phone is completely compatible, next generations are already out and your new model obsolete.

Also important to note: most of this work is made by volunteers, people with a love for programming who put a lot of their own time into these things, most of them after their daytime jobs as a hobby.

Of course, there are companies and associations out there who build linux phones for a living. But the consumer hardware providers, like Pinephone, Fairphone and others out there aren't as big and don't have this much of a lobby behind them so they can't get their prices cheap. Also the manufacturers are actively working against our right to repair so we need more activism.

To make the phones still affordable (and because of said above driver issues) they have to use older hardware, sometimes even used phones from other manufacturers that they have to fix up, so you can't really expect a modern experience. At least you can revive some older phones. As everything Linux.

Then there's the software providers who many of are non-profits. KDE has Plasma Mobile, Canonical works on Ubuntu Touch, Debian has the Mobian Project and among some others there's also the Arch Linux ARM Project.

That's right baby, ARM. We're not talking about your fancy PC or ThinkPad with their sometimes even up to 64-bit processors. No no no, this is the future, fucking chrome jellyfishes and everything.

This is the stuff Apple just started building their fancy line of over-priced and over-engineered Fisher-Price laptop-desktops on and Microsoft started (Windows 10X), discontinued and beat into the smush of ChatGPT Nano Bing Open AI chips in all your new surface hp dell asus laptops.

What I was trying to say is, that program support even for the market dominating monopoles out there is still limited and.... (from my own experience from the workplace) buggy. Which, in these times of enshittification is a bad news. And the good projects you gotta emulate afterwards anyways so yay extra steps!

Speaking of extra steps: In order to turn their phone into a true freedom phone, users need to free themselves off their phones warranty, lose their shackles of not gaining root access, installing a custom recovery onto their phone (like TWRP for example), and also have more technical know-how as the typical user, which doesn't quite sounds commercial-ready to me.

So is there no hope at all?

Fret not, my friend!

If we can't put the Linux into the phone, why don't we put the phone around the Linux? You know... Like a container?

Thanks to EU regulations-

(US consumers, please buy the European versions of your phones! They are sometimes a bit more expensive, but used models of the same generation or one below usually still have warranty, are around the same price as over there in Freedom Valley, and (another side tangent incoming - because of better European consumer protection laws) sometimes have other advantages, such as faster charging and data transfer (USB-C vs lightning ports) or less bloated systems)

- it is made easier now to virtualize Linux on your phone.

You can download a terminal emulator, create a headless Linux VM and get A VNC client running. This comes with a performance limit though, as a app with standard user permissions is containerized inside of Android itself so it can't use the whole hardware.

If you have root access on your phone, you can assign more RAM and CPU to your VM.

Also things like SDL just released a new version so emulation is getting better.

And didn't you hear the news? You can run other things inside a VM on an iPhone now! Yup, and I got Debian with Xfce running on my Xiaomi phone. Didn't do much with it tho. Also Windows XP and playing Sims 1 on mobile. Was fun, but battery draining. Maybe something more for tablets for now.

Things will get interesting now that Google officially is a monopoly. It funds a lot of that stuff.

I really want a Steam Deck.

Steam phones would be cool.

[diy-fire-water-pups]

Don't know if anyone's already asked this, but, have you pups played any good video games recently? I've been playing a lot of American Truck Simulator recently.

I've been playing Pokémon Unite with our Mod! I'm pretty sure it was mentioned here at some point.

I was playing Chrome Valley Customs, but got to a stage that's just impossible to score as high as requested in such a short time, so I gave up on it. For now, I'm not playing anything else.

I haven't played anything in a while to be honest... Not even Pup Pup Boogie, now that I think about it.