\(T)/ (‘~’) (o_o)

[Neyo]

John 1:14

Spoiler: Warning: Sus

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

 

[Neyo]

So the drawing bug hit me, as it does every once in a while, and I drew some video game characters that I really like. I drew some better than others, like I don’t think Kommo-o looks great, but I like what I did with Shabriri.
Anyways, this features characters from:
Pokémon
Where the Water Tastes Like Wine
Elden Ring
Hollow Knight
And the two characters I main in Smash Ultimate.

Spoiler: I am a gamer, unfortunately

 

[Neyo]

Happy 4th of July, America’s birthday.

Honestly, I ordinarily am somewhere between slightly positive and lukewarm on national holidays such as this. I do understand that terrible atrocities have taken place on American soil, and that the politics of the country in terms of division and extremism are really bad currently (not to mention the Roe overturning) and that is why a not-insignificant portion of the country has a very negative perception of patriotism as well as America in general.

However, I do think there is merit in appreciating what an impressive accomplishment that the existence of the United States is. A ridiculous fight against a superpower, several years of extreme instability, a civil war, incredible social upheaval in the past two centuries, two world wars and massive depressions in the economy, a huge pandemic, and now political division, and still she stands, despite being worn and torn.

America is by no means perfect. It is messed up, unfair, and chaotic. But, it has one massive strength that causes it to endure: an ability to reform.

So don’t give up all hope for the future. The storm may be fierce, but, there’s a gleam of sunlight on the horizon. And if the country as a whole is determined to get to that sunlight, it is achievable.

 

[Neyo]

You know, the Sonic franchise just seems like a fun franchise to be into. I understand that a large number of games that it has had are not good or well-received, but there’s just a charm to the series that you don’t really find that much in other franchises, particularly as an outsider looking in.

This is foreshadowing.

 

[Neyo]

I’m back!
Team Sonic Racing: A Flawed Masterpiece of Kart Racing Games

When this game was made available on PS+, I though very little of it. But, as with many Sonic games, I thought, it would be funny if I tried this game, even if I don’t end up liking it.

Little did I know this silly little SEGA IP deal would become one of my favorite games.

Modes: This game has 3 major modes, Adventure, Grand Prix, and Exhibition match. They’re all pretty much what you’d expect from a Kart racing game. A story, set tracks of four, and a free play.
However, the story mode also goes on pretty long, has a bunch of challenges within each level, and a couple side modes in each chapter. Also, the story itself is really weird. It seems like everyone’s just standing in a room, talking, and coming and going as they please. It’s like Waiting for Godot, but with Sonic characters.
Anyways, there’s two modes within Grand Prixs and Exhibition matches: singles and teams. Singles is fun, but you can kind of tell that the game isn’t really balanced around it. Now, teams, though is another beast. It is the main focus of the game, and there are a few different mechanics that change the way the game is played: exclusive items for different character types, item transferring, Slingshots and Skimboosts, and Team Ultimates. These all give each person on the team a different role to play, and all revolve around a sense of cooperation. I won’t explain it all here, but basically, you want to transfer items to and Slingshot/Skimboost your teammates to build up a meter that gives you a massive boost and can change the outcome of a match easily. Very fun to both work with people (preferably IRL in local coop) and go crazy fast.

Characters: I really like the character selection in this game. Not necessarily the characters chosen for the game (though I do like some of the choices they made), but rather, the type selections and character deviance.
There are 3 types of characters in this game: Speed, Technique, and Heavy.
Speed types rock in Singles, and also do well in Teams. The signature ability this group gets is that they get a benefit for going fast and boosting a lot.
Technique types maintain top speed on any surface, and automatically magnet coins, a thing that boosts you a little during races. They’re very good in Teams, since they usually assist teammates well, and a little bit better in Singles.
Heavy types are absolutely terrible compared to the others, but if they could stand alone, they’d be fine. Their ability is that they can crash through certain on stage obstacles that can fairly easily be avoided. They do better in Teams because their weaknesses aren’t as apparent there, but in Singles they just get left behind if the stage is bad for them. But they do get the best items, so I guess that makes up for it?
Speed Types: Sonic, Amy, Blaze, Shadow, Metal Sonic.
Technique types: Tails, Chao(s), Silver, Rouge, Eggman.
Heavy types: Knuckles, Big, Vector, Omega, Zavoc.

Stages: Honestly, the stages available to play are good. They’re well designed, and often have a bit of branching within the paths, a little bit like good Sonic levels. There are certain stages that benefit certain types better, which I think is so cool, because that makes counter depending on the stage chosen. The visual design is neat, and most of the levels are bright and sunny. The only problem I have with this stage list is that there isn’t a Green Hill Zone level.

Customization:
This game has something somewhat akin to Rocket League-level visual customization, with Mario Kart gameplay/stat customization. Both are really good, and I like both, since they offer a lot of flexibility.

Items: The items in this game are pretty good. Nothing crazy, but they’re good fun.

Visual design/UI: Nothing egregious, nothing crazy good. Perfectly acceptable. The game does a very good job at selling the idea that you’re going really fast, and I’m impressed with that.

Soundtrack: Very good. Full of fun songs, though it is a little difficult to hear some of them over the SFX and voice acting.

Voice Lines: While the voice acting and dialogue in the Story mode is not good, during the races, it’s pretty fun. A lot of characters have unique interactions and voice lines depending on what happened to them and who caused it. It feels like each race, a new interaction occurs, which is really exciting and interesting.

Overall, great game. It does nearly everything perfectly well, and it’s fun to play either alone or with other people. The only thing I have a problem with is that sometimes the customization doesn’t feel that impactful, and that drags it down quite a bit, but other than that, great game.
8.5/10 shmekels.

Bonus part: small life updates.
I bought a puzzle that will be awful to try to complete. It’s based on the American Gothic painting (once you see it, you’ll recognize it), and since it’s both a 1,000 piece and the painting uses a lot of flat, uninterrupted colors, it will take a while.

Spoiler: Small table, big puzzle

Also, here’s a picture of my Smash Mains. I just want to see the world burn.

Spoiler: (Doctor Mario not included)

-Neyo

 

[Neyo]

Let's put the Abzú Diver in Smash, because why not? It might be fun, but likely nobody cares, since nobody played Abzú. lol

The overall concept here is that the Diver would be focused on defense until their meter fills all the way up. Let's call this the "Gatorade" meter. You build up the meter by doing damage until the meter fills up completely. When Gatorade is active (a 20 second boost), the frame data, damage output, and mobility of Diver becomes increased, while the hitstun recieved, damage input, and knockback output of Diver decreases*. Furthermore, several moves also change. Think of Shulk's Monado Arts and Cloud's Limit for a clearer picture. Basically, they play like a bait-and-punish character until Gatorade activates, resulting in a rushdown combo playstyle shift. Gatorade is designed so that you usually get it at the end of every stock.

Stats:
Jump height: About equal to Corrin, pretty good, nothing crazy.
Weight: Lightweight, about Joker-level weight
Air acceleration: Medium
Gravity: Low
Run speed: Below average
Initial dash speed: slightly above average.
Very low crouch, but no crawl.
Quite tall.

Stats (Gatorade):
Jump height: same
Weight: same
Air acceleration: Very fast
Gravity: Slightly increased
Run speed: Above average
Initial Dash speed: same

Attacks:

• Jab 1, 2, 3: Quick, short punch followed up by a stomp and then a small blast of water that sends directly upwards. Medium knockback for a jab like this.
• Dash attack: A dolphinlike leap forwards, similar to Simon's down tilt. Very unsafe on shield, but good damage and knockback. Possesses good kill power past 150% on middleweights, and sends at a diagonal angle upwards.
• Forward tilt: Scuba diving flipper extends from foot as kick comes out. The range is very good good for a forward tilt (imagine ZSS's but longer), but the flipper has minimal knockback and damage (kind of like the first hit of a jab attack, with the sweetspot on the foot dealing the most knockback and damage. Sends directly forward. Can be angled
• Down tilt: Geyser of water sends directly upward, with no kill power at all. Designed to be a combo starter. Slightly longer range than most down tilts.
• Up tilt: Diver looks upward as a burst of water surrounds her head and shoulders like a halo. Sends at an 80 degree angle, should hit after landing a down tilt. Also designed to be followed up with after hitting with it.

Attacks (Gatorade):

• Jab 3 launches farther.
• Dash attack kills at 125%, larger hitbox with water swirling around her.
• Forward tilt gains increased knockback, and the entire flipper is coated in water, giving it additional power and making the entire foot a sweetspot.
• Up tilt has a larger hitbox, with less knockback.

Aerials:

• Neutral Air: Water burst, similar to Greninja's neutral air. Combo tool.
• Forward Air: Water blast from the palm. about the same range as Wolf forward air. Combo finisher.
• Back Air: Electricity burst from the back. Very good kill power, but mediocre startup. Mediocre range.
• Up Air: Diver pulls her entire body upwards, and a blast of water erupts from her chest. Excellent juggling tool. Large amount of endlag.
• Down Air: Diver extends fins from feet, and does a double kick. The fins have neither good hitstun or knockback, but the feet have sweetspots that send forwards. Below average startup and endlag.

Aerials (Gatorade):

• Forward air gets more range.
• Up air gains more range.
• Down air changes similarly to forward tilt, making the entire extension a sweetspot.

Smash Attacks:

• Forward Smash: A punch with minimal range. A lot of endlag if it whiffs. If it lands, a burst of electricity stuns the opponent, then a burst of water explodes from the fist.
• Up Smash: A swirling vortex of water surround the Diver as she meditates midair. A school of fish swims within the vortex. The way this works is that the water sucks in the opponent and functions as a windbox, while the fish are the actual hitboxes and deal damage. When the move ends, the vortex explodes, launching opponents with good power. Charging extends duration. The height of the move is a little less than half of Palutena's up smash, and a little taller than it is wide. Large amount of startup and endlag.
• Down Smash: Two small waves of water flow at the Diver's feet. Functions a "get off me" and roll read tool, but very little else. Minimal kill power, since its focus is to make distance. Lots of startup lag.

Smash Attacks (Gatorade):

• Forward smash gains more power
• Up smash gets a larger vertical windbox (waterbox?), more kill power, and more fish.
• Down smash gets nothing.

Special Attacks:

• Neutral Special: Chargeable projectile that cannot be held/stored by Diver (similar to Sephiroth neutral special). The drone can't be reflected, but can be pocketed or destroyed by other players. The Diver holds one of the drones you can find throughout Abzú, and charges it up. It has three stages, each doing more power and gaining more range. Speed stays the same throughout. The third stage stuns opponents, similar to Corrin's projectile. When reflected, the drone is destroyed, but does no damage to the reflector. Can be cancelled.
• Side Special: The Diver emits a sonar pulse from her head, turning opponents around and neutralizing projectiles by basically deleting them. Very quick, similar to Mario's Cape, and has longer range.
• Down Special: A quick meditative state is activated, applying a buff. This buff makes it so that the Diver's next attack that lands does more damage, knockback, and fills up the Gatorade meter a large amount, but if she's hit, the buff disappears, the damage received is increased, knockback received is increased, and she loses some of the meter. This can be done twice a stock.
• Up Special: The diver balls up, then swims quickly in one direction, chooseable by the player. The uncharged version does very little knockback or damage, but is quick. In the charged version, Diver rides a shark for the same distance, resulting in a very powerful up special.

Special Attacks (Gatorade):

• All stages of neutral special stun the opponent
• Side special is replaced entirely by the Diver rushing forwards with a wave of water in front. This wave reflets projectiles. Quick startup, can be charged, and quite a bit of endlag.
• Down special is also replaced, by a two use move. This move shares the same pool with the buff special so you can only use them a total of two times. This new move is similar to up smash, but has more utility as a combo tool. Essentially, a vortex of water surrounds the Diver, sucking in nearby opponents. When this lands, the opponent is stunned for a good period of time, allowing for a follow up with a combo or a punish with a smash attack. A bit of endlag, so you can't just spam this.
• Up special gains super armor during charge up.

Grab:

• Grab is a short range grasp with Diver's hand.
• Up throw is a geyser of water that throws the opponent directly up for juggling.
• Forward throw is a wave that sends directly forward.
• Back throw is a kill throw past 135%. Otherwise, pretty much only useful for getting the opponent offstage. Casual throw backwards, then the drone rams into them for a second hit. Like Falco back throw.
• Down throw: School of fish fly into the opponent, then the opponent goes diagonally upward.

Final Smash: Then Were Created the Gods in the Midst of Heaven
Huge water pulse in front of Diver. The opponent is thrown into the giant machine present in the finale of Abzú, and then Diver pulses and releases a huge wave of energy encompassing the entire machine, destroying it. Instantly KOs any opponents above 100%.

Notes/Aesthetic features:

• When Gatorade is active, Diver glows, similarly to the finale of Abzú.
• When doing any attacks where the water comes from Diver, the water looks like the Primordial Essence from Abzú.
• I didn't particularly want to balance this character well, since it's more fun and this is more concept than anything concrete. Also, I spent way too much time on this.

 

[Neyo]

Hey, I made progress on over-summer school work! Now back to procrastinating.

 

[Chorizauriod]

Education Hot Take:
History is one of the most important classes you can take (in general), because it allows you to have a better understanding of the past, and therefore, current events.

I've been recently falling into the same conclusion, if we as a society could understand the past and current events we could move towards a better future, that is, we now in the present would be a better society. Problem is (at least to me) I am not very good at reading history, digesting it in a way in which I can have a better understanding of the present and have a better idea of the future. For example reading about Napoleonic wars it's very interesting (and I've watched so many videos about it) but I don't know how to apply that knowledge to 2022 ... I don't know maybe I'm overthinking it or maybe it's because I wasn't good in history back in high school. If there were many apps to learn history in a fun way and short bites like there are for math I would've seen beyond of what I did, these days I see there are tons of apps/online websites to learn math (like this math app my niece uses all the time) and many are for free and none for history......... hmm or maybe there are it just that I'm not looking for them .

Anyways, yep, history I now see it's super important to teach kids in general and I'd say that it'd be great if we as a society we could somehow make history more appealing to students.

 

[Neyo]

Hey guys, I think I’ve found a new future avatar…

Spoiler

 

[Neyo]

I would say that Seattle is a pretty cool city.

Spoiler: A bad photo

Denver is also okay

 

[Neyo]

In 4 days (when school starts again) I’ll be talking about an absolutely amazing movie I just watched called RRR. And I have a lot of other stuff to talk about as well!

 

[Neyo]

RRR is a Bollywood action-musical-historical epic. It is 3 hours long, and pretty much every minute is fun. Here's the rundown:

Plot: The plot centers around two men who become best friends, Bheem and Raju, who are on separate paths. There are about 5 different plot threads: a romance, a search for a stolen girl, a friendship, a counter-revolutionary hunt, and a spoiler that I won't reveal. But despite the length and amount of different plots going on, it's hard to feel lost in the threads, because the cast remains fairly small, and the plot centers around two characters and their interaction with each other and the world. Furthermore, the pacing never really slows down to a crawl, as some long movies are prone to do. There never really feels like anything is without meaning

Action: The action scenes in this film are really good. Actions are sold through acting and sound effects pretty well. But also, they are fun turn-your-brain-off moments of watching two dudes take on an army. Or they hold emotional and/or plot impact. Either way, it is going to hold your attention.

Acting: The acting is perfectly fine. It isn't supposed to be incredibly serious every moment. However, I don't speak Hindi, so I can't really vouch for or against it. \/('_')\/

VFX: Really good. The animals look great, the way crowds are shot gives a sense of skill, non-organic VFX is manipulated in a way that improves the cinematography in really subtle ways. The artists have both worked hard and smart. As fr as I can tell from watching, nothing was given too much or too little money.

Cinematography: Pretty straightforward. Nothing crazy, but the way shots are shaped gives a little bit of imagery and symbolism.

Music: Good. I also can't really vouch for or against, due to not knwoing Hindi.

Overall: You can choose to think or not during this movie, but either way, you will be entertained.
9/10 shmeckels, a must watch if you have the time and means.

 

[Neyo]

Multiversus is platform fighting game about Warner Brothers-owned characters. This includes DC, Scooby Doo, Iron Giant, the Looney Tunes, and Rick and Morty. I'm not going to do a full review until the beta is done, but it has a lot of opportunity. Doubles is very fun, and the amount of charcters possible is gigantic.
Soooo...good luck? (I really need to get back into the groove)

 

[Neyo]

Really optimistic this year. Met all my teachers, and they seem mostly nice, except for Sociology (he seems slightly overzealous). And I WILL stay on top of work (probably).

 

[Neyo]

Welcome to Debunkery, a new series unique to this blog. Here, I'll be debunking conspiracy theories by looking at their most popular arguments and then knock them over the head with a wooden board. Today, I'm covering Flat Earth.

Intro:
Flat Earth is a conspiracy theory that posits that the Earth is actually flat. The proposed map to replace the standard globe makes the Antarctic a gigantic wall of ice surrounding the earth, with the Arctic functioning as the center. Think of the UN's logo. Anyways, here are the most common arguments:

Why do flights not go on direct paths across the Southern Hemisphere?
The fewer amount of people and the fewer large ariports within the Southern hemisphere force airline companies to get the most bang for their buck in terms of fuel cost by travelling to Northen hemisphere cities. Furthermore, cross hemisphere travelling from the Southern hemisphere is simply more popular.

Certain cameras can see "past" the horizon, proving that the Earth is flat!
Turns out, human vision has something called a limit. The cameras that can supposedly see "past" the horizon just have better visual distance than eyes, therefore observing that which is not possible to see with eyes.

Images of the Earth from the moon released by NASA show a fuzzy area surrounding the Earth when the brighness is raised.
That's just standard jpeg compression on the Internet.

The Egyptians believed the Earth was flat, and they built the pyramids, something we can't do today!
Oh my, they built the pyramids, so they can't be wrong on completely unrelated topics!

 

[Neyo]

I just discovered threadmarks are a thing, so I think I'm going to go through all of these posts and threadmark and index them. Wish me luck.

 

[Neyo]

So schoolwork is kicking my butt this year, so the daily posting will not be possible unless I go into inhuman levels of energy (or drink coffee). I do want to continue this ugly blog though, and I have some fun ideas, so I'll try to post when I can.

 

[Neyo]

Some stuff I've been enjoying lately:

Nier:Automata: An interesting game. I'm not very far in, but it's okay in regards to philosophical questioning. There is some really frustratingly heavy-handed symbolism (Adam and Eve? Get back into Kingdom Hearts!). I'm excited to see where it goes next.

Electronic music: Sylvan Esso is a very intriguing electronic duo. Very unique sound and lyrical style. Varien is always a hit. Woody Vibes and Rakoon, are the same as usual.

Apex Legends: My little brother got it, and I have to say, unfortunately, it's a good game. As much as I would like to harangue the AAA team behind this, it's good and well designed, and diverse, and has cool character designs. I'm just a sucker for grappling hooks and surveillance drones.

Transparency (YouTube channel): Legitimately awesome video essay channel that analyzes stuff. Their Balan Wonderland video is great, and so is their Death Stranding one.

Bible: So for context, I found a Bible at a thrift store, and bought it on a whim, because I liked the leather cover and small size. I've started reading it, and a lot of the issues of the inflexibility of religion are coming up. Interesting for analysis, and maybe something I can write on later.

School: So I'm on the Esports team, and I'm fairly happy with the people we have for Smash this year. They aren't great, but we can teach them. (Also, side note, I've picked up a Terry secondary to go with my Olimar main. And my basic skills with a lot of characters has increased, namely Incineroar, Corrin, and Zelda. ALSO, I got Duck Hunt into Elite Smash, and now they're my highest GSP character. I just played as them for two games because I was bored, and then got them in. Weird.)
In terms of schoolwork, it's intense. The year is starting to kick into high gear, and with 3 AP classes and pre-calc, it's a little tough. But it's also fun, because it feels like the teachers mostly respect the students more. Also, I just like going in-depth on specific subjects.

So, good day to anyone reading

 

[Neyo]

So, aside from the obvious news (I'll probably figure out something to write up about that later), I have some cool news. I'm aroace! It's an awesome flag, and I'm just a lot more happy with myself in general now. Scuttles off

 

[Neyo]

Oh my gosh, my AP Lang class right now.

Okay, so for context, we do this thing called Shared Reading where someone submits a short story/excerpt/piece of literature, and the class will analyze whatever is submitted. I told the teacher this person online had volunteered their story for information how to write better (see responses, analyze for information). I gave her a link to a short story, and a transcript of said story, but she just gave the class the entire link, so now everyone sees the surrounding context of this. And my forum of choice is now openly visible to my peers. Ouch.

But the prompt for analysis is really embarrassing. This may be just me, but it implies I posted this, which I really didn't want the class to know. The prompt is below.


"This is our first one -- so please just share your reactions! I [REDACTED TEACHER'S NAME] will be the only one to see your reactions, but I will probably, eventually, share them with [MY NAME REDACTED].

This is a non-Pokemon-related short story posted on an online Pokemon forum, meant to entertain.

Write 2-3 sentences. Think about tone ...."


I don't now whether to laugh or cringe rn.