Railway and train modellers, of all scales. To their credit, a fair fee people are becoming more open, but especially modelling clubs are often run by old white men with questionable politics and problematic behaviours. They will sneer at anything that’s not steam, or at people who run modern instead of vintage trains, or who don’t get a train model exactly right the way the original ran that one time in the mid 50s from Bumfuck, Idaho to the middle of nowhere. They have little patience for newbies who might not have internalised all the lingo, or who might need something explained in simple English. If you build something that is not an exact replica of a real world location, they’ll say you’re not doing model railway, but merely toy trains. And then these same people go and wonder why they can’t attract new people to the hobby.

I don’t have a lot of comparisons to dubs in other languages, but most german dubs I know are average at best. The biggest problem is that they often pick voice actors who just don’t suit the character or the original actor. The stilted reading/talking is another issue, which is also often present in original German productions.

As an older metalhead, this makes me a bit sad, but I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. The metal scene I joined in the early 90s did have its tolerance problems specifically against other music genres, but I never knew it as particularly gatekeepy, at least the circles I socialised with and the concerts and festivals I went to. There were some people who though you weren’t a real metal fan if you didn’t exclusively listen to metal, but they were a minority. Nobody had a problem with me not particularly liking Slayer or Motörhead, and there was no requirement to have long hair and be covered in leather and/or band patches.

You need some salsa for that chip on your shoulder, or is there another reason why you’re getting so personal?

Don’t answer. I don’t actually care.

This is a way in which you can discredit any attempt at proposing correct or logical language use. Yes, language changes. Your assertions are still debatable. English is ambiguous enough as is. It’s not ‘showing ads’ to propose some form of consistent or logical usage of words. I’m happy to count that as a petty hill I’m willing to die on.

And since we’re being petty, it’s either ‘grammatical rule’, or ‘Grammar rule’.

It’s simple though. If you can count it, it’s fewer. If not, it’s less.

Fewer people. Less noise.

Here’s my thing about ‘Ten’.

I love the first half of this album. It’s some of the best music I know in the genre. High energy, catchy, passionate. But somehow, the second half feels to me like the band ran out of ideas and gas. After ‘Jeremy’ it’s all pretty average, low-energy stuff, with the exception of ‘Garden’.

Dream Theater “Awake” (1994). Extraordinary from the first to the last note. 75 minutes of phenomenal prog metal. They’ve made good and great albums before and after, but they never excelled the pure class and artistry displayed on this album.

Bruce Dickinson “The Chemical Wedding”. I never liked Iron Maiden much, but Dickinson’s solo stuff is a different class. Fresh, creative, varied, energetic. Most of his solo albums are well worth the listen, but “Chemical Wedding” stands out for its high variety and creativity.

Spoken like someone who has never tried to get a group of people larger than two to collectively change their behaviour in a specific way.

If you’re ever a parent, and you have one or more kids in school, and they engage in extracurricular activities - you’ll be surprised how many amateur sports clubs and similar places communicate predominantly or even exclusively through Facebook.

Many people suffer from impostor syndrome to a degree. Many people make mistakes even when it comes to subject matters they are very familiar with. Everyone has technical problems every now and then - that’s outside of your control. Technology is finicky and increasingly shit.

You’ll always get people who think they know better than you, or could do something better than you. But they aren’t. You are. You got where you are through your work and experience. As long you feel that you’re prepared to the best of your ability and knowledge, I think your conscience can be clear.

You will never have everyone you meet like you. Some people are just basic shitheads, and some of them will write reviews like that precisely to gaslight you into doubting yourself and your abilities. They do it for kicks. If 95% of your reviews are positive, you’re in a good place.

These people never walk back their bullshit. When called out on it, they will double down. When proven wrong, they will change the topic. But they need to be seen as strong, and right. Admitting that you’re wrong or even apologising is neither - it’s weak, and it can create doubt. If they were wrong about this, then what else are they wrong about?

They radicalise their followers with lies and falsehoods, and they can only keep that up if they are not seen as being wrong about what they say. They spread their lies with confidence and zeal, and if reality disagrees, then reality is wrong.

Last time I checked, on iOS it didn’t have either.

Edit: just checked, the iOS version still doesn’t have downloads and does not support casting to Chromecast.

Support for downloading and Chromecast? Sign me up.

Is there anything else you’d like to insinuate I said that I didn’t actually say?

But do you have to?

For me, knowing that the artist is a terrible person ruins the art for me, or at least compromises it to the point where I don’t feel comfortable in my skin continuing to peruse it. And that even if I wouldn’t be buying anything new or otherwise be giving the artist money.

Take as an example Jon Schaffer, head of metal bad Iced Earth, which I liked quite a bit in the past. Later it became clear that he is at least problematic, and once he was identified as having participated in the January 6 riots, that was the end of it. I still own older Iced Earth CDs, but I can’t listen to them any more.

Or Joss Whedon, whose work I used to love, and I own a lot of DVDs of his stuff. But watching it now knowing what he’s done particularly to many women he worked with just seriously hinders my enjoyment of what I once really liked.

The count of women accusing Neil Gaiman of sexual assault is now up to five.

Books:

Wool/Shift/Dust by Hugh Howey. A well written, immersive post apocalyptic fiction that has a satisfying conclusion.

The Passage/The Twelve/The City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin. Pretty much the same as above.

The Century Trilogy by Ken Follett. A huge read that spans almost a century (from just prior WW1 to the late 20th century), accompanying the same families from several different countries and embedding them into significant world events of the 20th century. Really well written and enjoyable.

After watching the movies, I can’t read the books any more. Tolkien was many things, he’s great at world building and mythology, but storytelling is not among his greatest qualities.

Three of four Pro Pinball games are available on GOG. They’re probably on the more realistic side of pinball games, effectively simulating a single table down to aspects like scratching, aging and blemishes. That’s all optional though, you can just install and play. I don’t know how well they’ve aged since it’s been a few years since I last touched one of them. But I’ve always found them fun, with great visuals and sound, even though I’m pretty inept at pinball in general.