Well, besides the obvious of paying off mortgages and debts which wouldn’t even amount to a fraction of that, I’d buy an island to convert into a 24/7 mass paintball (or laser tag or something) warzone experience, like hundreds of people on both sides.

Sell the experience to people, classic Red team vs blue team, stay until you’re eliminated, barracks/camps, HQ, command structures, etc. It would be a live streamed competition with commentary, tactics, live go pro cams, everything. Maybe do it in seasons, have leaderboards, MVPs, whatever.

Players that have already been to the island before would be able to advise, or place bets on their accounts or whatever to build up load outs for their next trip.

The goal being a fun live game, exercise, stamina training, whatever, but mostly an outlet for the people in the world that get excited by war with the intention of hopefully reducing that with a safe environment.

I feel like if done correctly, and made as affordable as possible, it could turn into a relatively profitable business. I would then ensure the profits went to charities that provide aid to actual warzones and ensure that the primary message of the theme park is completely anti-war.

Any money leftover that didn’t go into that project I would donate and invest in animal welfare and conservation, renewable energy, and tackling the climate crisis.

Ah, I am! The other users spoiler tag was fine so I just assumed something was up, had no idea sync didn’t support the tag.

No harm done though, I’ve already read the whole series a couple of times.

Heads up bud, your spoiler tags didn’t work!

Ah I’m in the UK, but I was actually looking at this same drive before I thought I’d ask here! Good to know it’s reliable.

Thanks so much, I’ll look into this!

I remember doing this before with an older Macbook Pro that had a motherboard failure and now keep the HDD from that in an enclosure as my time machine backup.

It’s probably worth upgrading the SSD, though I feel I should really upgrade the battery and a blown speaker at the same time.

My battery is actually eligible for a free replacement, but the hassle of sending it away for a week when I use it for work has stopped me from doing that. Probably easier just doing it myself.

It does, and this actually might be a super handy way to go about doing it! I had considered it but wasn’t sure if it would be faster than USB or Thunderbolt connection. I’ll look into it!

One of the things I enjoy most about Sanderson’s work is his attention to detail in his numerous magic systems.

I see what you mean, but at the same time, there is a wealth of animation styles within Anime series too. Some as that popular anime style that most associate it with, others that are a lot more western cartoon influenced in their style.

I would argue that CGI, pixar, dreamworks, etc is far enough away. But the Simpsons is a traditional cartoon, and it likely wouldn’t be too difficult to find an anime that is stylistically similar within the massive archive.

As others have said, it’s another form of media. I enjoy a good story and good characters and there are some anime series that are incredible and wouldn’t work in live action for a number of reasons.

And as someone from the west, the cultural influences can often add story elements that would be outside of our norm of storytelling.

That said, there are so many genres of anime that do not interest me in the slightest. Just as there are many series of other shows that don’t interest me in the slightest. There are many book series I have read that I would much prefer an animated adaption of. As an example, an animated adaption of Game of Thrones would have been really interesting, as they could have stuck closer to the outlandish elements of the source material, and not had to worry about casts aging or moving on to other projects.

Having grown up with Pokemon, Dragon Ball, Digimon, and many others, there is also a nostalgic element to this as well, which is why we will be seeing anime (and animated media in general) increase in popularity along with the generational shift in society.

To sum up, people that dislike anime usually fall into categories:

1. Animated series/films aren’t to their tastes. This is perfectly fine, as long as they also feel the same about western animated series/films.

2. The stories don’t interest them. Maybe the cultural influences I noted before are just a little too far outside of their comfort zone, and they understandably haven’t actively gone out of their way to find something that does.

3. They’ve never watched anime, wont give it a chance, and consider it childish and immature. Closed minded and elitist (in my opinion).

But most importantly, all media is subjective, and someone else’s personal opinion should not matter in the slightest to what you enjoy or don’t. The Internet has given far too many people the false idea that their opinions actually hold any value.

It means the social contract has been broken beyond repair. Wealth hording, inequality, the power balance, lobbying, mega-corporations, data harvesting to profit from us even further, working until death for pennies while other profit from our labour. We are slaves to a system that has the illusion of comfort and freedom, when in reality, a small subset of the population control it all and are actively clamping down on what little freedom and comfort we actually had.

The 2008 financial collapse lifted the curtain to most, and it became glaringly obvious just how transparent and artificial the entire concept of economy actually is.

Performing in any capacity is 100% fake it till you make it. People always ask how you can get up and play music or even speak in front of an audience. The secret behind confidence is that it’s all a lie. As long s people believe you have it, then you have it.

First bunch of times, it’s difficult to pretend, but pretty quickly, you’ll forget you ever had to pretend in the first place.

I remember reading that thread! Well, kindly asking my half-german wife to translate it for me. It was very helpful!

Totally get this, and the argument that free services can only remain so from selling your data to keep running. But it just seems like such a predatory thing, there was no negotiation in this. It was just inflicted on Internet users within ridiculously lengthy terms and conditions.

I understand the logic of it, but I completely disagree with how we got to this stage. It feels very perverse. And I am in total agreement that something definitely needs to be done- soon.