I think there was a neuro study, where between two identical grade chocolate, for those people who were told that one is more expensive than the other, their actual taste neurons in their brains fired up more. So you can trick yourself into believing that more expensive = better on a biological, subconscious level. Which is scary, but also explains a lot of things.

I'm reading the manga version of Bakemonogatari. I usually don't engage with derivatives, only the originals and the anime adaptations, but this time I saw that oh!great did it, and tenjou tenge looked amazing, so I was like, sure, check this out. Still a great story, Nisio is the goat, and oh!great still knocks character designs out of the park, so I'm having a surprisingly good time.

I've been reading latest chapters of some long time series I read (like Oomuro-ke, Onii-chan is Done For and Slow Start and really wish someone would finish Kanamemo), but the newest one I've picked up is Kaya-chan wa Kowakunai. I'm not a biggest fan of horror, but the way it's done in that is really well done. The original scanlator even went the extra mile to replicate and translate the animated GIFs the artist used in some panels. Some of those significantly up the creep factor in a good way, like this page:

i.ibb.co/tpVvkdtD/cd7dcae6-97b1-420e-9f05-2b28f64804da.gif

If you're curious what is happening in that chapter: That's the spirit of an old man who drowned in the river. He's saying "I want to go home" over and over.

That same translator took the time to translate what is essentially the Japanese version of Wingdings, then change the translated English text into Wingdings, including in some animated panels. The story is really good, too. It's not as simple as Kaya-chan being an insanely powerful anti-spiritualist, there's a lot more going on. The initial story arc ended so satisfactorily that people were afraid the manga was ending. Its continued and I'm excited to see where the artist will take it.

Man, it was quite something seeing those curious creatures huddle around those first reluctant flames, equal parts terrified and mesmerized.

Idk I haven't read a whole lot of Doujin lately, it's hard to find stuff that focuses on the men, instead of the girl. I've been reading a bunch of the like, returnee webtoons though lately like, ORV, World after the fall, etc etc

"I ought to try keeping this thread alive," I say as I jiggle my black-onyx Staff of Spoopy Skellingtons and cast Level 1 Thread Necromancy

So I'm actually a pretty big fan of George Orwell, that's not a larp either I've read almost all of his stuff over the last year or so, just blowing thru some of his essays lately
Mark Twain -- The Licensed Jester:
www.george-orwell.org/Mar...he_Licensed_Jester/0.html

And just finished "The Man That Was Used Up" by Edgar Allen Poe, supposedly this is one of the first stories (1839!) to have a cyborg in it. Bro got torn to shit and has to be put together by his Black manservant, the work itself likes to phrase that differently however.

sphere handbook, had some pretty useful info in it.

link for those interested:
spherestandards.org/wp-content/uploads/Sphere-Handbook-2018-EN.pdf



actually yeah, at least one of the better ones. you can't expect much good from a doomsday cult's manifesto. i mean its there if you look but far from a majority.

there's an old interaction i think about time to time that goes something like this:

"christians read the bible to be christian, what do atheists read?"

"the bible"

Reminds me that I need to get back to reading through Mein Kampf.

Yes, yes, mustache man bad, blah blah, but sometimes you just gotta read the words these sorts have written themselves.

I might need to read Mein Kampf myself at some point, I DID read The Turner Diaries and Hunter last year purely because I wanted to see what neo-Nazi literature was like for myself.
I'm glad I did, I wasn't "corrupted" or "radicalized" by it in fact those books are comically stupid sometimes, especially Turner when it isn't just boring and shallow.

I'm Currently reading the great divorce.

Just remembered I need to get back to reading Nabokov's "Lolita", the actual CLASSIC. I'm on page 55/216 of my... PDF file