tobleh

tobleh, 10 months ago to random

#BirdieWing is fucking hype so far, at least after watching the first episode.

tobleh, 7 months ago to Anime

Episode six is an AMAZING display of the work of all of these key animators. It's a great display of the psychology that comes into someone who has the skill and resolve to perform, of the parallels between Eisen and Stark; and also a great display that the funny interactions won't be ending any time soon with Stark joining Fern and Frieren.

We start off with a discussion between Fern and Stark, about why Stark is training, and about fighting the dragon. Stark initially points out how the dragon has not attacked the village because he is present; then mentions the belief that it didn't attack because it doesn't feel like it. Fern asks about his intentions to fight the dragon if it attacked, and we get a split Stark - with a resolve to fight the dragon but the nervousness of dying and running away, and then mentions the scar on his forehead being from Eisen - asking the question on if it happened due to Eisen feeling disappointed in Stark.

Fern then talks with Stark about her own experiecnes and gives him advice - where she initially ran from her first monster. When she was backed into the corner - her body just moved by itself; she had the resolve to survive, the resolve to kill the monster; and looking at how hard Stark has trained - she knows Stark has that resolve too.

And when Stark meets with Fern and Frieren the next day; Frieren has that same faith too - and shows us more parallels between him and Eisen; about how both Stark AND Eisen were driven by fear - or moreso nervousnes; and the resolve to survive and win is what determines their ability to do so. Frieren explains further that Eisen striking Stark, and the dragon not attacking Stark or the village, comes from Stark's power. And with Stark's resolve to survive the dragon, he ultimately triumphs - with his own power, no less (to his surprise).

With Stark joining Fern and Frieren; we get even more opportunities for the show's personality to shine through - from Stark initially being angry that Frieren was just leaving him to get killed by the dragon (after he killed it), to Fern calling Stark "so small", Stark feeling disappointed that the ice cream that he thought was so big as a child ended up being small, and Frieren's expressions when hiding from and talking with the guards and castellan.

That personality, and Stark's resolve, shines through thanks to the work of the direction and animation - from the fight scene, to how much expression you can see from Stark and Fern just from looking at their backs in the bar scene, to Frieren's ever-changing expressions when talking with the guards after they catch her - all these cuts being worthy of being called "sakuga" (and being favourited on Sakugabooru). Knock on wood that the show can maintain this quality throughout the rest of the show.

#Anime #Frieren

tobleh, 9 months ago to fediverse

Hey y'all! I posted this in a conversation re: differences between instances; I just thought I'd go ahead and make it its own post from the perspective of a user - there's other technical differences for instance admins, but this is an end-user perspective.

So, different instances might have:

• Different features (different character counts that may be higher than 500; emote reactions/favourites, different themes, markdown formatting for posts). From experience, different features from different instances have varying compatibility - i.e. Mastodon user favouriting Misskey/Firefish post shows as ❤️ reaction, Misskey user reacting to (vanilla) Mastodon posts counts on Mastodon as a favourite ⭐, Glitch-Soc Mastodon is inter-operable with both.

• They may have a specific topic in mind. For example, hachyderm.io and tech.lgbt are tech and LGBTQ+ related; urusai.social and sakurajima.moe (my home instance 😉) has a focus on Japanese media discussion; mastodon.art is dedicated to art; kolektiva.social is political, anti-colonialist, left-wing.

• Moderation and rules may differ. Some instances might have bigger moderation staff and/or have small userbase to moderate, and some may have different or additional rules. Some may be more strict on stuff (prohibiting AI unless tagged, no NFTs, stricter NSFW culture, etc), some may ban certain instances for whatever reason (mastodon.art is infamous - for better or for worse - for having strict defederating policies with the rationale of protecting their users). You can choose an instance you're comfortable with and makes you feel safe.

• An extension of the previous point; the level of federation between different instances are different too, depending on what they're comfortable with handling. Instances can be completely blocked off, or they can be "silenced" and not appear on federated timelines (but can have people from different instances interact if they follow each other), have media rejected but other posts allowed through.

That's what I can think of off the top of my head when it comes to the differences between mastodon.social and other instances.

One more thing, DO NOT FORGET - this is a FEDERATED social network, that's why we call it the #Fediverse.

For example, if you have someone you know on mastodon.social or firefish.social or misskey.io; you WILL Be able to talk with them (unless your instance has completely blocked those instances). You may have to jump through a few hoops (putting the person's handle suffixed with @mastodon.social, or pasting a URL into the search box), or use extensions like FediAct (https://github.com/Lartsch/FediAct); but barring any restrictions or defederation, you shouldn't have any issues.

APOLOGIES FOR ANY ERRORS THAT I'VE MADE IN THIS POST! I'll give corrections when necessary!

#MastodonTips #MastodonTip #MastoTips #MastoTip #FediverseTips #FediverseTip #FediTips #FediTip

tobleh, 7 months ago to Anime

Don't have too much to mention here, except that episode 4 is a continuation of the hill that the concert band has to get over regarding being able to play the Marine's Hymn properly.

It takes a lot of work when it comes to maintaining yourself as a musician. As Taki shows, the fundamentals are just as important, if not more so than the music itself, as it's the foundation on which your music stands. However, the somewhat strict regimen (especially when compared to what the concert band used to do for "practice") can be stressful for people too.

There's also a good chunk of student gossip and drama too - which isn't too out of the ordinary. People gossipping about Taki's learning style, and people experiencing the worst of it feeling as if they were "questionable". But it's both cool and also funny (in a good way) that this anger towards Taki-sensei taking away their SunFes tradition got people inspired to follow his practice regimen just to prove him wrong. Whatever works, I guess.

And it does work, when they "sounded like a proper ensemble" playing the Marine's Hymn; afterwards, he quickly gives them the jam-packed practice schedule for SunFes, and tells them "I think we can". He didn't push them to become good; the concert band banded together to become good, because they collectively agreed on a goal to impress Taki-sensei - and Taki-sensei basically tells them that they'll be able to get through SunFes, because they have a shared goal.

We do get some interesting character developments, though. Reina catches Shuuichi gossipping with Kumiko about Taki's "questionable" methods; and chastizes mostly him over everything. Despite Kumiko's anxieties regarding how Reina felt; we see Reina apologize herself, and then Kumiko - feeling that she shouldn't let her slip away - apologizes herself and complements her playing of Dvorak as being uplifting and motivational - an inspiration for Kumiko to practice hard as well, as if Reina's working hard, she might as well do so too. Kumiko first worries if what she said was "creepy", but then clarifies "And yet, what I did felt neither strange nor wrong. In fact... it felt nice" - as if she's slowly closing the gap between her and Reina.

Plus; we do get a few more subtle hints of what may be to come - mostly Asuka dipping the parent-teacher conferences quickly, with her only explanation being that "five minutes is more than enough"; along with Aoi's concerned expression at the end of the episode after Taki reaffirms the concert band's goal to make it to nationals.
#Anime #HibikeEuphonium #SoundEuphonium #anime_eupho

tobleh, 8 months ago to random

Fun Fact: You can copy and paste Mastodon's verification HTML code thing into your AniList bio, and it formats as a link!

Unfortunately, it doesn't give you the green checkmark..... 😔

tobleh, 7 months ago to Anime

There are certainly episodes much later on in this season, as well as in season 2, that are probably better candidates for "Best Episode" in Hibike; but so far, throughout this rewatch, Episode 6 is probably my personal favourite so far, at least with how relevant and relatable this episode is for me.

The episode starts off the next arc - with Taki-sensei announcing that there will be auditions for the 55 students who will be part of the band for the Prefectural Competition. And Hazuki feels the pressure as a mere beginner, especially when she learns how high the stakes are - that her being able to pass the auditions in her second or third year are not guaranteed, and that she has to give every audition her best, including her first year. Hazuki does want to try, at the very least to get better, until she's satisfied.

However, as a beginner, she has an uphill climb - of having to learning the basics of playing music and the tuba, along with learning the piece that she'll have to perform for the audition. And it can be a frustrating climb for people - her included - with her "knowing" that she's "bad" due to not being able to play the tuba the way she'd like to, along with her having had a similar experience with tennis back in middle school where she felt like she couldn't be as good as she wanted to. Plus, it doesn't help her when Asuka provides her a beginner piece to practice on, and Hazuki doesn't see the point in practicing a piece that's so easy.

Kumiko captures it well as she describes it to her seniors saying "Not being able to play well hurts more than people think. She still has a lot to learn, so she may not even realize what's going on. If she doesn't find some kind of goal...I think she might just give up".

After that monologue, Gotou captures the reason why the tuba is so special, and why I love the tuba. As he says, even though the tuba's sound on its own might sound dull to some; when the tuba joins along with the rest of the ensemble,"it becomes music, and a harmony is born". Furthermore, the sound of a tuba in that ensemble provides warmth to the music and support to the rest of the band. Hazuki learns this lesson herself when she plays "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" with her friends, and comes out of it with a new appreciation of how awesome the tuba is. I'm TOTALLY not biased.

As for how the show progresses - it was nice - we get some mroe development between Kumiko and Reina, where Kumiko says back to her "You haven't changed", and with Reina getting embarrassed and asking if it was revenge; more development - both subtle and direct - regarding possibly something between Hazuki and Shuuichi; another apperance of the best character Tuba-Kun, and the episode ending with Aoi watching Kumiko practice and telling her "Good luck at the audition!".

#Anime #HibikeEuphonium #SoundEuphonium #anime_eupho

tobleh, 8 months ago to Anime

Got #anime posters today! :nnezukowoahhh:

Just waiting until I can afford the frames :btr_bocchi_pray:​

#HibikeEuphonium #SoundEuphonium #anime_eupho

tobleh, 7 months ago to random

tfw I saw someone who

• generates AI art without properly marking it as such
• among the stuff they've generated, they've also generated lolicon art :KannaHeh:​

I think I boosted one or two pieces when I was just looking at my home feed; but then I noticed those two issues at further scrutiny :KannaHeh:​

Plus they had a Fanbox AND posted about wanting to open up a Skeb. :TamakoHeh:​

Un-boosted and un-favourited as fast as I could.

tobleh, 6 months ago to mechanicalkeyboards

Well, I just uploaded a typing demo that I recorded of my Televideo DEC-style keyboard. I recorded it a few days ago.

...just in time for most of my attention to be towards my Model F XT. Despite that, I still love this keyboard! If I were more of a linear person instead of a tactile/clicky one, this one would probably be my favourite so far! Great sound, great feel out of the box (even WITHOUT lube, albeit the feel does change with use or contamination from what I heard). I love it. Hell, I even pulled out the keyboard just to type up this post!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZoKXL4pFPM

#MechanicalKeyboard #ASMR

tobleh, 8 months ago to music

My student account for Spotify is about to expire in a couple of days, and I'm thinking about using the opportunity to use a 1 month free trial for Apple Music. Is it worth it?

For context I'm basically outside of the Apple ecosystem anyways, never used an Apple device since my iPod Touch 6 years ago; but I heard that the app on Android works pretty well - gonna see for myself with the trial, but hearing some anecdotal evidence one way or the other would be interesting.

#Music #MusicStreaming #Spotify #Apple #AppleMusic

tobleh, 8 months ago to Anime

I'll mention it right at the start - I enjoyed my time watching "Musaigen no Phantom World". I enjoyed Phantom World despite it being considered one of, if not the worst work KyoAni has made in their modern catalog to the point of being considered "unwatchable technicolour vomit" by some anitubers out there.

Obviously, Phantom World does have its "quirks", to put it nicely. From the fanservice - which can (understandably) be too much for some people; to its not-so-subtle and not-so-clever attempts at being "meta" through referencing various tropes; a show that gets very episodic; a main story arc that that isn't remarkable; and a scenario that doesn't seem too special - A typical affair of students with special powers coming together to fight against rogue "phantoms", special creatures from human imagination that became reality and now live alongside humans, along with a mysterious organization responsible for those phantoms becoming reality. However, despite that, this show genuinely is enjoyable - not in an ironic "so bad it's good" way, but genuinely enjoyable.

The production and animation is the standard from KyoAni - that is to say it is VERY well done, with comedic scenes not being afraid to show off personality, and action scenes being engaging and exciting. The scenario of phantoms being based off human imagination leads to lot of creative phantoms in the show - going from disused electricity poles, to the figment of children's imagination, phantoms from childhood that come back to exact revenge, to phantoms born out of frustration or futility, and more! Phantom World comes up with very unique and interesting scenarios that made for very fun and enjoyable episodes - the episodic nature of the show really excels in this regard! I didn't mind dealing with the "Phantom of the Week" format when most of the phantoms in the show had a lot of charm and personality.

Furthermore, the show also provides gives a nice showcase of its main characters - showing off both Mai's toughness and softness, Reina's dynamic with her rich parents, Koito's introvertness, and Kurumi's connections with her favourite toy bear Albrecht; Phantom World does a nice job making this showcase nice and intriguing.

Phantom World is not Kyoto Animation's greatest work - that's a hard place to reach. However, it's charming enough where I think Phantom World is a good, enjoyable show - quirks and all.

Learn more about Phantom World here!

#Anime #Phantom #PhantomWorld #MusaigenNoPhantomWorld #MyriadColorsPhantomWorld

tobleh, 7 months ago to Anime

Episode 3 is another good episode to show the Concert Band starting to reap what they've sown in declaring their goal to be going for Nationals; as well as capturing some more of the magic that is the Concert Band experience.

For the light-hearted stuff; you have seniors helping the first year students with techniques and training - including a cute moment between Kaori and Hazuki, along with her learning how to take care of her tuba. We also got to see our trio of Kumiko, Hazuki, and Midori meeting their instruments for the first time and naming them. Kumiko bringing home her euphonium was also relatable on a personal level to me - it reminds me of the days that I had to walk home. With my tuba. Having to ride a crowded bus home. Fun.

One other notable thing was how important Hazuki's role is here - she acts as a vessel for the people who have little to no music or concert band experience; in this episode being seen trying to train and practice, as well as asking Kumiko and Midori about how bad the ensemble's "performance" of the Marine's Hymn was.

Now for the more serious stuff; we start getting our first glimpses of something that happened with the second years - there's barely any in the club, and most of them seem very lazy and dejected - notably an upper-classwoman that Kumiko notices staring out the window and leaving practice early. Something that more serious second-years like Gotou say that first years "shouldn't be concerned about that". Something that involved ambitious second years butting heads with the seniors...

We get to see the results of a concert band that doesn't yet fully understand the importance of practice - seeing band members messing around, leading up to their AWFUL performance of the Marine's Hymn. And we also see the fallout; section leaders having to discuss it privately, practice getting cancelled, and first years having to talk amongst themselves.

Among all this, we see Midori talk about everyone having their own opinions on what happened, and then Hazuki picking up on something crucial - wind ensemble is NOT multiple individuals performing, everyone is stuck on the same stage together, and they HAVE to work together to put together a good performance, or else sound like shit.

Also, one more notable thing - we see Asuka biking outside at night while Haruka and Kaori are discussing the situation; and when the latter two ask her why she's outside, She just says "Something's been bothering me lately, so I came here to take a load off", then quickly moves back to talking about her role in dealing with the concert band's woes. I wonder what this is gonna become....

#Anime #HibikeEuphonium #SoundEuphonium #anime_eupho

tobleh, 10 months ago to TwitterMigration

If you're trying to find your old Twitter friends, you can find people who've made a Fediverse account using Fedifinder! It'll find them, as long as they've mentioned their Mastodon account in the bio or pinned tweet.

https://fedifinder.glitch.me/

#TwitterMigration #TwitteRx #Twitter #MastodonMigration #FediTips #NewToMastodon

tobleh, 7 months ago to Anime

Episode 8 is a REALLY cute episode about our characters being your average high school teenagers, along with a wonderful culmination of Kumiko's journey to becoming friends with Reina. I don't think I have much to say because I'd figure a lot of other people might've already said a lot of what I'd like to say, plus more!

Regarding Hazuki's budding crush with Shuuichi, I kind of find it adorable - it's a basic part of the life of the average high schooler, and seeing everyone acting like regular high schoolers was definitely charming - from Midori becoming a gremlin pushing Hazuki forward with pursuing this relationship with Shuuichi, to Kumiko being stuck in the middle with the girls wondering if she and Shuuchi are a couple - with the anxiety that entails of making her friends mad; and then seeing all the other students trying to find other people to hang out with for the festival being adorable as well - Riko and Gotou being the "blatantly obvious 'secret' couple", Yuuko having to "settle" for hanging out with Natsuki and Tomoe instead of her idol Kaori - who has Haruka and Asuka to hang around with, and Kumiko hanging out with Reina basically on accident to try and avoid any awkward associations with Shuuichi.

Moving back to Hazuki; I'd have to say that the way she handled her time with Shuuichi is nothing short of remarkable. After being shot down by Shuuichi (knowing that this pairing was gonna be dead on arrival after seeing Shuuichi try to pursue Kumiko); she takes it head on, with a SMILE, whilst promising Shuuichi that she'd support him with Kumiko like the tuba player that she is; it only after leaving the festival - cute flower hair pin removed, hair being down and messy, and with Midori bringing up the subject again, where she finally lets the tears flow. And I wish that I could hug Hazuki too.

EDIT: Screenshots in the replies after part 2!

#anime #HibikeEuphonium #SoundEuphonium #anime_eupho

tobleh, 6 days ago to random

welp, i'm 23 now :nnezukowoahhh: :TamakoPray: :MochizouNotLikeThis: #birthday

tobleh, 4 months ago to random

i love brain fog

tobleh, 7 months ago to Anime

The first season of Hibike! Euphonium effectively introduces people to the concert band experience, establishes the theme of always striving to become better, emphasizes the importance of love and passion for music, provides great character arcs; and for rewatchers, it leaves a few nice hints for you to think about before you reach the second season.

The start of the show involves a concert band that emulates what you might hear in a typical school environment - mainly revolving about learning how to play the right notes and having fun with your instrument, but without any real expectations beyond there. It's a stagnant situation that frustrated and had a huge impact on the (now) second and third years - feelings of apathy, regret, the wondering of "what could have been", and robs opportunity away from the people who want to go further. This complacency might lead to short-term "fun", but this stagnation has also caused pain that spills into the long-term - as the show slowly but steadily shows the signs of throughout the first season.

However, thanks to Reina's "special" aura for Kumiko, Kumiko's support for Reina, and with Taki-sensei's encouragement for the concert band as a whole; the "slogan" of reaching the Nationals becomes a genuine goal for (almost) everyone. Whether it be due to proving Taki wrong, or practicing to provide a great performance in SunFes, marching towards the Kansai and National competitions, out of the love of your instrument, the frustrations of falling short, or simply to be special; everyone in the concert band truly strives to become better.

That isn't to say that there isn't a few road bumps and growing pains along the way - you have Hazuki's struggles to catch up as a complete novice, Aoi's struggles to balance exams with concert band, Kaori and Reina's strive to become the best, Yuuko's over-protectiveness and sense of justice, and Kumiko's anxieties rooted in her middle school experience.

However, everyone eventually finds their path - be in the concert band or elsewhere; with the drive to be better, and the support of friends, seniors, and skilled first years; Kitauji, along with Kumiko, are able to find their footing and set off on a journey fuelled by hopes of reaching for Nationals and the gold that awaits them there.

Furthermore, Hibike invites you the chance to join Kumiko and the rest of the concert band on that journey; letting you see their highs and lows in both concert band and in their personal lives, along with getting to witness and be endeared to lively personalities and intimate interactions among everyone, including side and background characters. And with season one; it succeeds in convincing you to join them to the second season.

Learn more about Hibike S1 here!

#Anime #HibikeEuphonium

tobleh, 8 months ago to privacy

Another interesting video from "By Default". It's pretty cool how he just suddenly appeared and made cool video after cool video 👀

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH626CXyNtE

And fuck now I'm kinda wondering if I should consider migrating at least a few things away from Gmail :thinking__ai:

#Privacy #Encryption #Proton #ProtonVPN #ProtonMail #Skiff #Tutanota

tobleh, 4 months ago to NFL

i just watched the lions choke a 17 point lead in the playoffs.

the only thing I care about now is that Purdy gets a ring, and that the Chiefs are denied a dynasty.

#NFL #DetroitLions

tobleh, 6 months ago to Anime

The Yuru Camp Movie was a pretty nice send-off to Yuru Camp, as far as C-Station's involvement is concerned; with all of the great things about Yuru Camp included - a nice, relaxing atmosphere, seeing the old Outclub come together again as adults, facing new roadblocks that they would have never conceived back in high school, and finding ways to get past them. All culminating in opportunities to have fun and relax while enjoying camping and getting chances to share that fun with other people. This movie does nothing but succeed, as far as Iyashikei and CGDCT goes.

Plus, I have hopes when it comes to Yuru Camp's upcoming 3rd season being given to 8-bit; with at least some of the staff likely to have experience with this sort of stuff. New director Shin Tosaka has at least worked on Yama no Susume: Next Summit - a franchise worked on by 8-bit; plus I enjoyed Pierre Sugiura's work on Barakamon.

Learn more about the Yuru Camp Movie here!

#Anime #YuruCamp

tobleh, 3 months ago to firefox

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/02/mozilla-lays-off-60-people-wants-to-build-ai-into-firefox/

Shame on you @mozilla. Now I'm genuinely considering using something like Waterfox or LibreWolf, or maybe just trying out GNOME Web instead (at least it's still not a Chromium-based browser!)....

If anyone has any recommendations, tried the jump, has any quirks or downsides to report, and if you felt like you made the right choice jumping over or if you regretted it and jumped right back over to Firefox; let me know!

#FireFox #Mozilla #FOSS #Browser

tobleh, 3 months ago to random

i just got nicknamed "tobley wobblely" by Z-Note and issymarket 🤨

what the fuck :KannaHeh:​

A Discord screenshot of Issy sending an emoji of a smiley face with three hearts, followed by "thought you would enjoy more people appreciating you"

tobleh, 3 months ago to firefox

welp, using Librewolf now, will let you know how it goes; using the Flatpak version too

#Firefox #LibreWolf

tobleh, 2 months ago to Anime

i've been wondering this for a while - but when the two guys pop up in this clip, the first guy that speaks up (on the right) sounds like Tomokazu Sugita (of Kyon from the Haruhi Suzumiya fame, or Gintoki from Gintama); but AniList nor AniDB don't really say anything on who this guy is :TamakoThink:

#anime #UmaMusume

A shot from episode 8 of Uma Musume S2, without subtitles. The announcer says "This is McQueen's attempt at a third championship, but will we see Rice Shower thwart another accomplishment?!", as the shot quickly cuts to Mejiro McQueen and Rice running neck and neck. Afterwards, we jump to a quick shot showing two guys in the crowd - the first guy on the right of the shot says "Oh, come on, don't do this! McQueen, you can do it!". Then, the guy on the left adds on "Rice Shower! Are you trying to play the heel again?!"

tobleh, 26 days ago to Anime

welp, someone got me tickets to anime north :TamakoEhehe:

now a matter of who i might be hanging out with 🥺

#Anime #AnimeNorth