Luna

There's been a lot of memes going around, but I genuinely have a question. If PSL were on the ballot, I would obviously vote for them. However, they're write-in only in my state. Would writing in PSL have the same effect, or could the vote more easily be invalid or ignored.

In other words, is it better to vote for Greens if PSL is write-in only?

EDIT: THANKS FOR INPUT! I've decided to write in Hilary Clinton, have a wonderful day!

But really probably writing in PSL. Elections don't matter too much though, so I'm ever in an area where PSL is active, I'll make sure to join (which has been the plan for a while). Thanks again!

@[email protected] has blessed us with all of the puppygirl and catgirl emojis in one place, so here they are! There's so many good ones here, so what I've listed are only a few.

Everybody loves cats, right? Some samples:

:catgirl-07: (keywords: catgirl, salute, 07, comrade)

:catgirl-mfwliberal: or :catgirl-disgust: or :catgirl-wtf:(keywords: catgirl, disgust, liberal, ew, nasty, wtf)

:catgirl-happy: (keywords: catgirl, happy, content, smile)

:catgirl-nospoons: or :catgirl-exhaustion: (keywords: catgirl, spoons, exhausted, sleep, tired)

:catgirl-smug: (keywords: catgirl, smug, heh, smirk)

:catgirl-laugh: or :catgirl-joy: (keywords: catgirl, joy, laugh, glee, smile, happy)

:catgirl-love: or :catgirl-pleased: (keywords: catgirl, love, heart, happy, pleased, wonderful)

\

:catgirl-cry: or :catgirl-sad: (keywords: catgirl, cry, sad, crying, tears, devastated)

:catgirl-peace: (keywords: catgirl, peace, calm, love)

:catgirl-huh: or :catgirl-what: (keywords: catgirl, confused, disassociate, what, huh)

:catgirl-sorry: or :catgirl-apologies: (keywords: catgirl, sorry, apologies, wink)

:catgirl-angry: (keywords: catgirl, angry, hiss, mad, scared)

I just noticed everyone saying Harris is running. How did I not notice this? What do we think of him?

this is a tagline

Hi everyone! I thought this album would be a good one to start off this arc. I don't know how long I'll keep up with it, and it won't be a daily thing, but I'm hoping we can get some discussion going about what we like and don't like about certain djent songs and/or albums.

The Amanuensis is probably Monument's most popular album, and it's definetly considered by most people to be their best work. It marks a departure from their sound in their first EP and Album, with cleaner vocals and screams as well as different styles of riffs and a less audible bass (rip). I believe this was also the first album to feature riff writing from their (at the time) other guitarist, Olly Steele.

There's a lot to love about this album. All instruments and vocals are really good and fit together and the writing is really impressive. My favorite part of the album is probably the end, with Saga City-Jinn-I, The Destroyer, just going from Saga Cities cleaner melodies, to Jinn's rapid riffs and screams, to I, The Destroyers more slow, lower riffs and deep screams.

If you haven't heard this album before, it's a classic, so give it a listen! Come back and tell me what you think about it, or post your live reaction as you're listening to it

Uh... I've been listening to this and absolution a lot lately so enjoy. I honestly haven't given this version of the album a listen through, because the people I got the album from are liars, but it's the newer remixed version. Also got this one from YouTube and not my own music library, so let me know how the audio quality is.

When I decided to host the mega again a bit ago, I had no idea what to make it about (of course). So it fell between two topics: a post on the importance of sleep, or a post on just how much I love Fire Emblem: The Sacred Echoes. Well, I felt like the importance of sleep was well-known, and could always wait for the next time I host a mega. I wanted to make sure I hit the Sacred Echoes iron while it's hot, because I've almost finished my play through at this point, and it might genuinely be one of the best games I have ever played.

Sacred Echoes feels so polished, considering it's a fan-made romhack of Sacred Stones, with the goal of bringing the 3DS game, Shadows of Valentia (SoV), to the GBA. Everything about the game aesthetically is very well-done, from the portraits, to the battle sprites, and literally anything else that could be thought of about a game. This includes new character writing, which helps the game in areas where Shadows of Valentia was a little, well, off. That's what I want to go over first, and although I've made a post before, I had only played a little bit of the game. Being at the end, I've noticed more things, and grown to appreciate this game even more than I already did.

Let's start off with the relevant (and interesting) bits: Sacred Echoes actually does a really good job at representing a variety of backgrounds, while also being diverse in a way that doesn't feel like it's simply to have a token character. This game doesn't suffer from the cracker curse, for example. Although most of the characters are white, there is more than one person of color () . In terms of LGBTQ+ representation, it's even better. There are many gay/lesbian characters, whose sexuality actually plays a role in the plot and how they interact with others. There's also an aroace character, Lukas, who goes through a whole arc of self-discovery in his support conversations (support Python). It's good stuff, and not things I would normally expect from a Fire Emblem game. I hesitate to bring up the (possibly) only trans character in the game, Jesse. HOLD ON, NO HESITATION AT ALL! I just decided to do more research, and I wasn't just projecting. He is 100% trans, and it's in supports, and it's relevant to his plot and backstory, so it's just like the rest of them, thank goodness, I was worried he was a token. So yeah, support Clive and Jesse. Good stuff, and good luck getting to the end of the game so they can actually meet, one fights for Alm and the other for Celica...

This is Jesse

Here's some dialogue between Clive and Jesse, in the context of a will:

Clive: Only the following will be yours - your mother's wardrobe, her jewelry box, and all corresponding contents.

Jesse: Urgh. Even from halfway in the grave he's trying to tell me what to wear. So yeah, he's still the same tyrant he always was. Hasn't changed a bit.

In terms of character background, it's more diverse than one would think, and it addresses the issue of feudal class. Not all of the characters are nobles, and one of the main characters is a commoner from a random village. The plot regularly deals with the fact that nobles and commoners do not get along. However, it does not try to redeem most nobles. If they aren't proving themselves with their actions, they're probably shitty. Even if they are supposedly "one of the good ones", there's usually some underlying prejudice that comes out when you might not expect it. I love it so much, and I am extremely impressed that the plot doesn't try to redeem nobility as a whole, but rather allows the noble characters within the cast to have character development that feels less like justification and more like re-education.

Pictured is the class traitor Lukas absolutely destroying Fernand

For other details about the story, I'll link my original post. I don't want to drag this on too long, and I mention most of the improvements there. It also includes where to find the patch for the game, and how to play the game for yourself. If you enjoy SRPGs, or are new to the genre, I recommend this game. It has an easy mode for the newbies, and hard mode for those of us who hate ourselves (/s), and a normal mode for everything in-between

The Echoes cast is amazing, and I love how they interact with each other and the world. Each character stands out, and they feel unique in their relationships with the other characters. Even characters that suffer in SoV, like Faye and the Masked Knight (has a name but it's spoilers), benefit from the Sacred Echoes writing, making them actually enjoyable characters. The villains of the game are also great. I don't want to go too deep, because I don't want to spoil too much, but they aren't just pure evil, and for that I applaud the SoV writers. Berkut is probably the highlight of the game, being the heir to the throne of the empire. I am once again asking you to play the game, because IT IS SO GREAT, and I would not have expected these good of villains to pair with Alm and Celica, as well as their armies.

Pictured is the Masked Knight being a gay little guy. The other guy (Saber) is threatening his life...

Everything about the game design is also amazing. It's GBA Fire Emblem, so the animations are peak and the pixel art is stellar. The maps are improved from the original SoV maps, and they are definetly much better, and much less repetitive. Classes in the game are fun in how they work, each character being able to promote 2-3 times. Mages also work really uniquely and well in this game, with spells costing HP to cast. They learn spells as they level up, rather than by purchasing tomes, which makes for (in my opinion), better gameplay. Sacred Echoes also adds the GBA weapon and magic triangles!

All in all, Sacred Echoes is a great game, and even if you never ending up playing it, you now know of its existence. It stands out as a great romhack, as well as a great Fire Emblem game, AND it has the gay. Can it really get better than that?

If you want my original (and more in-depth) analysis, check out my original post. It's mostly about what Sacred Echoes improves upon the original Shadows of Valentia.

Hope you enjoyed my little nerd-out session, and have a good week everyone!

DOWNLOAD SACRED ECHOES: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/o9v75blehaid1re2i8qou/ALhV8LN1A59jdFIP6HYRH3c?rlkey=d7fl1m8qh9gl7ztmnim33euu1&e=1&dl=0

PATCH TO AN EXISTING SACRED STONES ROM: https://www.marcrobledo.com/RomPatcher.js/

Join our public Matrix server! https://matrix.to/#/#tracha:chapo.chat

As a reminder, be sure to properly give content warnings and put sensitive subjects behind proper spoiler tags. It's for the mental health of not just your comrades, but yourself as well.

Here is a screenshot of where to find the spoiler button.

Remember yesterday, when I posted about the We Are The Foundation EP? This is similar to what could have happened had Monuments continued with the style. 2 vocalists, vintage djent, Monuments and TesseracT in one, raw but good production, bass (kind of)? It's all here.

It took me a bit to find this. I don't believe it's on Spotify or any other streaming service, and unless someone recommends the album, it's not very discoverable. So you could say that the words were indeed hidden. Anyway, this album is really great, and extremely unique. Now, I say this every time, the artists I listen to are all different, but this album is different different. It's aggressive and simultaneously atmospheric and melodic. This can probably be attributed to the John Browne (Monuments) and Acle Kahney (TesseracT) combo, and they write really well together. Of course, Neema Askari and Joe Garrett also write really well, with their parts playing off of each other, similarly to Neema and Greg in the Monuments EP. Although I think that Neema and Greg are definitely better in this regard, Joe does provide a different feel on vocals with his deeper screams that contrast more with Neema's iconic whatever he does.

So what happened to Fellsilent? They died. TesseracT was beginning to get popular, and Acle probably liked working on his own project rather than working on Fellsilent, so he left the band. Following him, the drummer and Joe left as well, leaving just John and Neema. That was pretty much it. John already had Monuments, so he began working on the project he had established, and Neema hopped on (only to be kicked off). Just like that, Fellsilent was done, and while it would have been really interesting to see where they had gone, The Hidden Words is a great album, and we now have TesseracT and Monuments (well, Monuments might be done now) to carry Fellsilent's legacy.

Oh wait, you might want singles. Immerse is really good, as is Double Negative and Age of Deception. Now go listen to the album!

I'm back pretty early, aren't I? I believe I've posted this EP before, but this time I'll give the lore drop and analysis.

Greg Pope and Neema Askari were a set of vocalists on Monuments that joined after Fellsilent (pre Monuments + TesseracT) fell apart. Neema was on Fellsilent, but Greg was new. This is mostly irrelevant though, as when Monuments released this EP and opened a live show for Periphery with this lineup, it was clear just how well their voices worked together, and how well their (albeit unique) vocals fit over the music. Getting into rumor and/or I'm not sure territory here, but they were both under the belief that Monuments was over, so they "left" the band. Clearly the band wasn't actually done, and they picked up another vocalist (Matt Rose). This led to a song being cut (Memoirs) which they actually tried releasing, but Neema and/or Greg threatened legal action due to the iconic chorus. So, we got Gnosis, with completely re-worked vocals, and Greg and Neema were nowhere to be found.

So where does that leave this EP? Well, it was only released on myspace, so the compression and mixing is kind of raw garbage. Not even good raw, if it wasn't this good I would not be listening to it. But it IS that good. It's catchy, the vocal style is unique and executed well, the riffs are Gnosis riffs so they're good. What's bittersweet about this EP is, this is what Gnosis could have been. This music with Gnosis mixing would have been an amazing debut album, rivaling The Amanuensis. Instead, most people prefer the instrumental version of the album, and rank it lower, if not the lowest, out of all of the Monuments albums.

Before I leave yet again (no I'm not listing singles it's only three songs), I want to discuss lyrical themes. They sound left-wing and political, something that did happen on Gnosis (a bit more vaguely), but just completely died after that.

Like, this is explicitly anti-capitalist. When I heard this I went nuts. Gnosis was vague, but this was much better, especially lines like "Refuse the system because the system will re-use you" and even just "We Are The Foundation".

This one is sadder to me, because it hits close to home. I thought I knew it all, thought I knew what actually had to be done to help people. Then I learned how the world really works, how things are done intentionally with the knowledge that people are hurt and exploited. Even if we manage to fix a world that's actively decaying, what of the souls lost along the way? What of the souls who we lose every day to the system, the cycle? When will enough people see past the brainwashing, the propaganda, and realize these things, that money is irrelevant, that their worldview is likely built on lies?

Something else lost with Greg and Neema was songwriting. The themes were good, the lyrics themselves were good, just everything about this EP and this band had so much potential, not just to be a good band, but to spread a message. That didn't happen, though. So I'll sit here, still listening to this EP, thinking of what could have been, while appreciating what happened. Gnosis is still a great album, as are The Amanuensis, In Stasis, and Phronesis (except for lyrics on Phronesis, they're really bad). Enjoy this EP, it's quite the gem, even if the mixing is mid.