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Every book in the History of Literature summed up in a single sentence

#reblog

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Shit That Was Big in My Books 2017 - Gaming

The only games on this list that I've actually finished are Persona 5 and Pokemon Sun, but I greatly look forward to beating the rest over the next few months.

FFXV

I am SO CLOSE to beating FFXV finally, and I keep putting it off because I don't really want it to end. I love my car boys, and their road trip from hell. I loved their banter, and obvious affection for one another. I loved making all the rest of the car boys watch Noctis fish for twelve straight hours in the pouring rain, and sorting through dumb photos and selfies taken in a dank cave full of monsters. Prompto's insecurity and eagerness spoke to my heart in a way Final Fantasy characters haven't since Rinoa Heartilly waltzed into my eleven year old life, and I think he ties with Gregg from my next entry for best boy of 2017.

Night in the Woods

Holy shit. If you are or were a first generation university student, or from a small town, or just had a bit of a nervous breakdown at around 20, this one's for you. Night in the Woods takes a long time building its characters and their relationships, which is great because every second of that build up is crazy enjoyable, and it also pulls no punches in showing how capitalist life leaves so many of us behind. I'd highly recommend this one even if the animations weren't beautiful (the animations are totally beautiful).

Super Mario Odyssey

Nintendo recently sent me a survey asking what I liked/disliked/etc. about Super Mario Odyssey, and honestly the only thing I could think to suggest that I would change about it is that I'd prefer if it didn't star Mario. Even if you also feel nothing but apathy for the little mustachioed plumber, I can guarantee you'll love this game. The capture mechanic is so fun, and you feel a constant sense of discovery as you figure out what you can capture and how you can use it. Each town is run by adorable people, like the robots who garden or the seals who race like bouncy balls. Also, equally as important as all the previously mentioned factors, YOU CAN DRESS UP THE LITTLE PLUMBER MAN IN OUTFITS (one of the outfits is culturally insensitive I’m not gonna pretend it didn’t happen but the rest are very good).

Persona 5

Okay, this is not a perfect game. There’s some homophobia that’s kinda gross. Some of the characters are underdeveloped. Occasionally the translation rules, occasionally it’s a little awkward. But I LOVED this game. I loved so many of the social links and characters, I loved the dungeons, I loved the vibe, I loved the BURN IT ALL DOWN START THE REVOLUTION plot. I even loved that they let the main character have a little more personality this go around (he’s a sassy boy). And I’m starting a New Game + as soon as I finish Mario and FFXV.

Pillars of Eternity

For someone with zero nostalgia for isometric RPGs, I've sure gotten CRAZY INTO some isometric RPGS in the last few years. Pillars of Eternity grapples with interesting themes of death, religion, and reincarnation, and the supporting cast and quests are well-written and very interesting. Add to that the fact that I can put the intense DnD style combat on easy (thank u game I can't figure out grimoires and disengagement penalties to save my life), and you have the makings of a Ruby Warren certified classic. Pictured above is the portrait I used for my Death Godlike Monk (she also has an amazing lady starscream voice even if she’s mostly a nice lady who’s more death-positive than most).

Nier: Automata

Full disclosure: this will probably be on next year's list as well, as I haven't even gotten the second ending yet. What I did see, however, haunted me. As robots cried and pleaded and raged at me and I killed them anyway, I started to get upset and angry that destroying them was the only way to progress. This only got worse as I learned more about the world around me. I'm looking forward to seeing what Nier: Automata is going for as a full story, because the limited amount I got to last year really stuck with me.

Pokémon Sun

I feel like every new generation of Pokemon has been this insane leap forward the last little bit, but Pokemon Sun/Moon are particularly notable because the big leap forward was in crafting characters and a story that actually have some personality. For the first time ever in a Pokemon game I actually cared about my travelling companions. I also actually had opinions on the kahuna's/captains that weren't just "ugh that one with the miltank is such a pain".

Also I got to dress up my lady which is a HUGE selling point in any video game.

Breath of the Wild

I don't play this one (well, I cook things for my dude when he gets to towns because I like the cooking jingle) but I love it so intensely. It's beautiful, the characters aren't deep (it's for children, obviously) but they're well drawn and charming, and it's got this adorable sense of humor. No one told me Zelda was cute? Like, years of people trying to get me into Zelda ("what do you MEAN you don't like Zelda games?!" - every male gamer friend I've ever had), and if it was all this cute they probably should've just told me that to begin with and I'd have been completely on board. I do the inventory expansion dance with Hestu like I'm a five year old because it's just that charming.

Plans for 2018: finish everything here

#2017 shit that was big in my books #gaming #2017 gaming #lists

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Shit That Was Big In My Books 2017 - Watchin Stuff

Stuff that didn’t necessarily come out in 2017, but was definitely new to me and the highlight of MY 2017.

Summer Wars

An anime film I hadn't seen yet with beautiful animation, a fun cyberspace premise, and charming family dynamics - and although I briefly got cheesed off about the sexism in it the female family members subsequently became much more useful once someone actually told them what was going on and I was like "this makes up for it I am pleased". YMMV on that part tho.

Thor Ragnarok

Pure unadulterated fun. Thor is meant to be fun! And funny! Taika Waititi needs to direct more Marvel stuff, he has a strong sense of humour and an ability to make a lean, meaningful film with a large cast. Also Korg's a muffin.

The Shape of Water

I'm a sucker for human/monster love stories AND a sucker for Guillermo del Toro movies so I knew this one was gonna be important before I'd even seen it. The movie was visually stunning, and sweet, and Sally Hawkins gives an incredible performance - all of which I was expecting. What did surprise me was just how damn extra the movie was. Elaborate fantasy sequences, physics-defying romance, and that del Toro gore might be a bit much for some people, but I am here for it.

New Japan Pro Wrestling

2017 was the year that I got super into NJPW, and also the year that I first watched the entirety of the G1 Climax Tournament. NJPW is what wrestling should be - it has a strong sense of the ridiculous, brief but effective character work, and consistently fun and interesting matches. If I were to try and summarize all my favourite NJPW wrestlers for you it would take all day, so just have the silliest one that’s gif’d above: Hiromu Takahashi the “Ticking Time Bomb”, accompanied by his son/bff/stuffed support animal Daryl Takahashi.

Ru Paul’s Drag Race

Because I like seeing live drag shows, my dude suggested we try Ru Paul's Drag Race Season 8 when it appeared on Netflix, and now I'm hooked. Drag is a fascinating art form, and the show (in later seasons anyway) seems to have an intensely celebratory feeling about it at all times, even when two queens are ready to claw each others eyes out. 

Tonari No Seki Kun 

A gag show running short at 12ish minutes, Tonari No Seki Kun is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Seki-kun's elaborate schemes for wasting time in class, and Yokoi's complete obsession with them, stay fresh, surprising, and delightful.

Blade Runner 2049

I wasn't even planning on seeing this at all, I was so convinced that a Blade Runner sequel was a Certified Bad Idea, but some people I trusted gave this the thumbs up so I headed out in theaters and boy am I glad I did. It's beautiful, and it feels like it's a sequel that actually needed to exist because it builds on the philosophical questions of the original in a way that I (frankly) find more interesting.

Guardians of the Galaxy 

If you told me that the raccoon movie was going to articulate a lot of feelings I have about what family is, and the complicated process of loving imperfect people that have hurt you but have also tried and loved you, and the even more complicated process of loving and allowing yourself to be loved when you've hurt people you care about, I'd have said "shit I thought this was one of the only movies I could skip the tissues for". DO NOT SKIP BRINGING THE TISSUES. 

#year in review #watchingstuff #2017 #2017 shit that was big in my books

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Shit That Was Big In My Books 2017 - Music

I’m starting to get back on the horse tracking stuff that was important to me culturally, because everything gets lost in a bit of a haze otherwise. To be included in a Shit That Was Big In My Books list, I have to have really discovered or had something become tremendously important to me in 2017. Here’s the music side of that: Sorority Noise - Their Entire Discography

This is the heart of my 2017. Cameron Boucher’s lyrics are beautiful and his vocal performances are like a punch to the gut. I don’t think I can articulate how much their music means to me. "I'm not trying to say it's easy / But I'm trying to say it's fine" is absolutely something we need to say, to ourselves and to each other, as we try to hang in and make things a little less shitty.

Julienne Baker - Ditto

2017 is the year I got really into modern emo, like fully embraced my destiny as emo trash. Julienne Baker sounds like I've felt at my worst, but with the crucial addition of hope. In Claws in My Back there's a section at the end where, instead of railing against it, she sings to God of her mental illness: "I think I can love / the sickness you made". What a beautiful thought. Her and Cameron Boucher of Sorority Noise are absolutely some of my favourite musicians of all time, and I’ve discovered them this year, which is rad as hell.

Aldous Harding - Party

Look at this dramatic goth ass nerd. What a good nerd who makes good sounds. Friggin Joanna Newsome ish weirdo, look at you.

Carly Rae Jepsen - Emotion

I put this off for a million years AND IM SORRY OKAY YOU WERE ALL RIGHT THIS IS FUN AS HELL IT’S A PURE SUGAR HIGH

Sheer Mag

I already though Sheer Mag was fun to listen to, with their whole socially conscious classic rock AC/DC-ass vibe, and then I saw that the lead singer Tina Halliday kinda looked like me and I fell whole heartedly in love with them because you never see cool big chicks fronting rock bands (Beth Ditto i also lu i just like Sheer Mag’s music more).

The Mountain Goats - Goths

I stan for the Mountain Goats and was a high school goth of course this is on here.

Honourable mention because in all likelihood it would be on here but I haven’t listened to it yet: Perfume Genius’s latest

#music #year in review #2017 #2017 shit that was big in my books

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Goals for 2018

Exercise for half an hour or more 104 times

Let’s keep a good thing goin

Take a self defense class

Learn to drive 

to the point that I could drive on a city street adequately and without having a panic attack

Make at least one game prototype

Don’t buy myself any clothing 

I own enough clothing

Post to le blog 25 Times

Only order food in once a month for three months in a row

#goals #2018

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2017 Goals & Year in Review: the Good, the Bad, the Undone

The Goal Report

Exercise for half an hour 104 times

I did it! Finally! After carrying the goal forward multiple times! I had a total of 109 half an hour or longer exercise sessions in 2017. I tracked them with stickers on the calendar and the stickers fill me with embarrassing pride.

Take swimming lessons

I totally did this and they fixed my problem (which was not remembering any of the basics of official swim strokes and also being bad at breathing in front crawl) BUT I also was accidentally in the advanced stroke development class and didn’t realize it until like a month in and that was so humiliating that I didn’t attend the rest BUT I accomplished what I wanted from swimming lessons so this still counts as done.

Take self defence course 

Once again this is being carried over. At least I’m really good at threading my keys in my knuckles? (Update: I have just learned this is in fact not a useful self defence skill. Well.)

Finish wedding albums

I might do this by the time I die idk.

Update blog 25 times

Maybe when I’m on research leave this’ll actually get done. Or I’ll just keep wishful thinking about it year after year.

2017 in Review

I Saw My First NHL Game

I may not really care about hockey but this was a crazy people-watching experience, zambonis rule, and the synchronized shovel skating teams during commercials are delightful.

Got a Promotion 

Woooo ranked up

Started Anime Club

My dude and one of our best friends and I  started anime club, where we watch anime and yell at each other about it over text. It is one of my favourite things.

Buncha Protests and Socialist Stuff 

I tried to be more politically active in 2017, because a lot of shitty people were very politically active in 2017, and I may not have been capable of the amount of stuff I wanted to do but I tried and getting out there when you can handle it is better than not.

Trip Back to Ontario to See Family 

Summertime travel with the doggo was super nice and way less stressful than Christmas travel! Even if Ontario is disgustingly muggy.

Hung Out with Will

Speaking of that trip to Ontario, our friend Will came up for the first time and we hung out and watched wrestling and it was rad as heck.

Got My First Tattoo

FINALLY JESUS 

Took Adult Swimming Lessons

This was a fiasco in many many ways (see above) but I did it and it’s done and after a bunch of practice swimming laps won’t be as humiliating.

Started Strong Friends

I invaded my work friends’ weight lifting duo and they taught me how to lift using the barbell and now we are strong friends.

#goals #year in review #2017

[warronblogs]

best moments in gaming journalism

journalist gets real yakuza members to play yakuza 3 and asks for their opinions on its authenticity

that’s it

#reblog

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“A house I pass on the way to work has this sculpture in its yard. Its about 8 feet tall.”

(Source)

#reblog

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Accessibility, UX, & LibGuides - The Minimum

The following is adapted from a training session I gave for my workplace’s Hump Day Huddle Up training series. It’s a primer in basic stuff to do to avoid your LibGuides being a hot mess.

Accessibility - How to Avoid Being an Ableist Loser

Fonts Fonts Fonts*

*to be sung to the tune of Motley Crue’s Girls Girls Girls

1em allows font to automatically resize according to user preference - if you must use pixels, 16px is good.

Fonts should be sans serif for screen use.

Examples: Calibri, Arial, Franklin Gothic

MIND YOUR CONTRAST

When in doubt, black on white or white on black.

Tool to check colour contrast located here

Follow these rules to avoid your users going full SpongeBob.

[image: spongebob with red bleary eyes from eye strain]

Images

Every. Single. Image. Needs. Descriptive. Alt. Text.

For an example of how to do this, check out my alt text below the embedded image. In Tumblr, you sometimes have to place it below the image - in LibGuides, you right click on the image and put it under alt text in “Image Properties”.

[Image: An image of a brown Australian shepherd cuddling a small plastic Pikachu, illustrative of how cute the author’s dog is.]

Make sure your alt text is descriptive of both the image's contents and any function it may serve!

Multilingual Pages?

Switching languages? Use language tags! Language tags can be attached in <p> for paragraphs or <span> tags for sentences/words.

<p> This sentence is in English. </p>

<p lang="en-GB"> This sentence will be read with a British accent </p>

<p lang="es"> Esta frase es en español. </p> (Spanish)

<span lang="fr"> Cette phrase est en français </span> (French)

To Find Your Language Code, Use the Following Tables: ISO 639 Code Tables

PDFs and Documents

You MUST use only accessible PDFs and documents.

Click here to access some accessible document tutorials.

If you HAVE to use an inaccessible document, place an active offer to make said document accessible on demand and prepare to follow through.

Videos

Closed caption all your videos!

It’s super easy with YouTube and a script handy.

Not scripting? Idk what to say to you.

jk I do it’s “start scripting your videos bruh”

Provide descriptive video or a text-only descriptive option for your visually impaired users.

A brief rundown on descriptive video here.

Fancy Web Stuff 

Limit Tabs - 6 or less is good!

Avoid creating content that refreshes the page without user input.

It’s real rough for users with voice controlled mouse movement. 

If you must use a slider it should be for an image reel and not for functional content. 

Sliders cause difficulties for people with mobility issues.

Test Your MIGHT

Test your LibGuides for screen reader compatibility to avoid formatting errors that make your page unusable internet swampland.

To test for free:

Click here to learn about testing with Firefox and NVDA

Click  here for testing with Firefox and FANGS (a visual display of screen reader interpretations of websites)

General UX - Don’t Look Like a Mess

Your Users Don’t Have to Read These You Know

Users skim information - build so they can skim!

Use subheadings, lists, etc.

Avoid paragraphs or lists longer than 6-8 bullet points.

Write like a person, not an academic.

“We” offer services. “You” can use them. 

Plain, concise language and a personal tone go a long way.

Simplicity is key.

Avoid overwhelming users.

You’re Making a Functional Tool So Design Like It

Remember the F shape of user eye patterns when designing!

Most important content is top and to the left

Make each page as if the person using it has never been trained on subject guides, libguides, or libraries before.

If you can do this, you’ve attained the minimum standard in LibGuides accessibility and UX! Of course, you should still conduct user testing to determine your layouts and content are working as intended, but at least this way they can use what’s there to begin with.

#libraries #training #LibGuides #accessibility #library UX

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In the dog world, humans are elves that routinely live to be 500+ years old.

#reblog #ideas

[warronblogs]

Looking Back  -  2016

Before I enter the nostalgia zone, let's check in on my goals from last year. Strikethroughs mean I did the thing, italics mean I failed like a doof, bold is commentary:

complete the remedial schoolgirl package NOPE

buy a jump rope, learn to jump rope (jump continuously for thirty seconds) didn't even get to the buying a rope stage!

learn to do a cartwheel successfully tried once and fell over

exercise for half an hour 104 times more like 30 times, max

take self defense course no but hear me out this one is not my fault, they didn't offer it at any time during the year except when I was going on strike, i emailed them like three times about it

(the one on my campus is called Rape Aggression Defense which… seems really intense to me? couldn’t we call it repelling muggers 101? gonna ask the class leader from security about it) the guy I asked basically said "it's just what it's called"

update blog 25 times HAHAHAHAHA

have an article accepted for publication check and check i did two

apply for promotion i applied and they haven't told me to redo the app so this is super done

finish wedding albums and thank you cards this is really depressing

okay this may look funny but seriously it might take me all bloody year to do it SERIOUSLY THIS IS SO DEPRESSING

eat an entire cheesecake *pops own collar*

2016 in Review:

(once again in chronological - sort of? - order)

I Quit the MLA Board

First I tried to fill in as VP in addition to being the web dude, and in the process learned all about where my burnout line is! Turns out my burnout line is right around 1-2 multi-hour after work meetings every week. I don’t have a photo to memorialize this because failure is shameful (JK it’s because I was going squirrely).

I Voted

Hey our provincial government is a lot more terrible now (I voted for a Lot Less Terrible but what can you do).

Me and a Bunch of My Bros Put on a Conference

The Manitoba Libraries Conference went off pretty well! Fred Penner sang with us. Many people received librarian-kitsch socks. I found this fish sticker in our gross office.

I Started a DnD Game

Ugh nerds. (I play a bard who plays a jug and tries to get all the ladies.)

I Became a Union Representative for the Libraries at UofM!

A colleague nominated me so now I serve on Board of Reps stuff and am a cool guy.

I Played a Lot of Pokemon Go

A real Pokestop in Winnipeg.

Saw Kamasi Washington 

Jaaaaazzz man testifyiin’...

Went to My First Folk Fest

I remain bad at even white girl dancing but Ryan Adams was a good show. Little disappointed there weren’t more overt hippies.

I Cried a Bunch at our Tragically Hip Last Concert Party

They played Scared and hublublublub we love u guys

I Applied for Promotion

And I did it with the paper copy in a very pretty binder that I hope they give back to me (I keep dropping hints around the admin office about this. It's a very pretty thing, like a watermelon binder.) We find out in April if I've leveled up. 

I Went on Strike

Josh Herter made up a song about me titled Strike Captain Warren. It was very much in the style of a Walker Texas Ranger type thing.

I Tried Thermea 

Man do you know what I like better than sitting in hot rooms and then cold water and then warm water over and over again? TURNS OUT NOT MUCH, TURNS OUT THAT IS THE BEST THING THERE IS.

#2016 #year in review

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#reblog #happyplace

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A couple days ago a friend asked me how to color a character in an environment so I decided to throw together this quick tutorial!

I hope some people find it useful!

#reblog #art tutorial

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bunnies, gather!

#reblog #happyplace

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;-;

#happyplace #reblog

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#happyplace #reblog

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#happyplace #reblog