/kind/ - Random Acts of Kindness

>>1376
What does it mean to be successful?
I just do because I enjoy. Whether I'm good or not or if it's even possible to be good doesn't matter.

>>1382
What do you enjoy, anon? I think I feel I need to be good at it to enjoy it, or I just end up feeling ashamed and frustrated for failing...

>>1384
I enjoy reading manga and lurking on a few imageboards, but there's not much "being good at that" (or maybe there is?). You could say I'm trying to get better at reading manga since I started learning Japanese. I'm pretty damn horrible as a complete beginner, but I work on it bit by bit every single day and having fun with that (most of the time..). Consistency and persevering is key to going from bad to good, but I don't have becoming good or fluent as a goal. I have a simple goal of being able to read manga/vns, watch anime, and play old japanese games without many translations. I don't know how far I need to get to reach that point and I don't know how good I would be just from being able to do that, but I want to do it because it seems fun.

I also like to code sometimes. I'm still pretty damn bad at that even after a decade because I don't seek to improve my pretty basic knowledge at all, but it's fun making things even if they're not groundbreaking or useful to anyone other than me. I also get frustrated a lot doing that so it's not always fun, but I do get a lot of enjoyment from using my own creations.

Just remember that in order to get good at something, you need to be bad at it, a lot. You need to continue being bad at it as much as possible while trying to improve with babysteps. I have another thing I want to do as a hobby which is drawing. Will definitely pick it up soon-ish. I'm HORRIBLE at drawing by the way. I'm irredeemably bad, but I think it would be fun to be able to draw cute little anime reactions to attach with my posts in various places so I'd like to pick it up as a hobby regardless. It will have to wait a bit though, but I'm definitely definitely DEFINITELY picking it up eventually because I want to. I don't even want to get good. I just want to do it, so I'll have to make do with being very bad at it in the beginning. There's no way around it.　仕方がない。I'll probably never get good, but that's perfectly fine.

I'm sure there's some motivational video I could send you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_Vg4uyYwEk

tl;dr you have to be bad to get good, but you don't even have to get goPost too long. Click here to view the full text.

>>1385
Learning japanese sounds fun anon... I remember I learnt it for a bit in high school, but sadly it's mostly all forgotten now. Did you ever play those steam games called something like "learn japanese to survive!"? What kinda manga are you trying to read? Every now and then I get inspired to learn japanese so I can read yotsuba in it's original language...

Thank you for the rocky speech. It was inspiring... It does suck to suck but everyone else has managed to push past it so far

>>1400
>Learning japanese sounds fun anon... I remember I learnt it for a bit in high school, but sadly it's mostly all forgotten now.
You can always pick it up again if you ever feel inspired. I got tricked into beginning by a friend.
>Did you ever play those steam games called something like "learn japanese to survive!"? ( https://store.steampowered.com/app/438270/Learn_Japanese_To_Survive_Hiragana_Battle/ )
No, but it looks like a fun way to learn. I watched a few videos on youtube for katakana then hiragana and played kana warrior ( https://www.kongregate.com/games/tukkun/kana-warrior ) with incrementing amount of kana after each lesson I'd done, played both typing defence and obstacle. I think some could've probably learned kana much faster just grinding some anki deck, but learning to learn and finding ways to enjoy it is a skill too.
>What kinda manga are you trying to read? Every now and then I get inspired to learn japanese so I can read yotsuba in it's original language...
Yotsuba& is a good start, but even just that is a pretty big task for a beginner.
There's a lot of untranslated works I want to read. I have some manga at home in physical copy that I bought in Japan, some from a friend, and a yōkai yuri VN I really liked has a spin-off that's not translated. I generally read a lot of yuri because I think close friendships between young girls is a very precious thing. It gives that healing feeling.

>>1220
You could be 60 and pickup the violin for the very first time and still get pretty good at it in a year at most.
Stop giving a shit about your age anon

I'm almost 30 and learning a new language that's known to be difficult. Working hard and making progress.
The idea that you have to be young to learn something or get even remotely good at it is a complete neurosis if you have any free time (which most people do, one hour a day after work for a year can do a lot from nowhere to something, and after many years suddenly you've got a real skill especially if you try to dedicate more hours of efficient practice). I've learned tons of time intensive things in my free time just because I can.
There's even people who are 40+ who quit their jobs, learn a new skill, a new language, and move to a completely different country and get residency there.
Never limit yourself. If you want something, do it.

Nice to see /kind/ spirit still lives on. I haven't been here since shortly before the previous .moe shut down. A few bad apples at the time made me go elsewhere.

>>1360
You put it very well! I believe one of the few advantages when learning something as a child is that it's an almost automatic process, like basic grammar and dialect are picked up like your mothertongue, which means you don't have to think about the how.
I think usually the older you get, the more advantages shift. You become more focused, patient, resistent against setbacks and so on, essentially your life experience can push you forward in many ways.

>>1360
>>1361
all this talk about learning new skills reminds me of the comiket in japan! it's a good place to see people show off their creativity!

>>1220
Ryo Fukui taught himself to play piano when he was 22 and released this when he was 28:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hrr3dp7zRQY

I think the age thing really only applies to competitive sports and first-language acquisition. Unless you have hand arthritis or something, you can learn to play most of the repertoire as long as you develop good technique. My experience as a (former) violinist is that the hardest part as a beginner is getting a good sound out of the instrument and this can be very frustrating, but it's just something that takes practice. You should definitely get a teacher, though. If you live near a music college, they might offer discount lessons from students there. I could recommend some practice books but there's no replacement for a good teacher, especially with something like the violin.

>>1257
>per the OP, what kind of songs are best for learning on a violin as well?
There are a lot of books with practice pieces specifically for beginners. I'd have to dig through storage to be sure, but I'm pretty sure I used Kayser's 36 Violin Studies as a student.
It's not really for absolute beginners, but Vivaldi's violin concerto in A minor is a well-known, relatively easy piece if you want to play "real" music.
Folk music can also be a good source for easy tunes.

>>1360
Welcome home friend.

>>1320
By the way, Here's how they look like, and feel free to show me your results!

>>1320
Good timing for this thread, with SLC being confirmed to get a proper NHL team.

Parker? Is that you? What's with the Olympic mascots?!

Can you put the sticky >>1 back? We had one for as long as I can remember, across all servers, it feels wrong without it.

>>1314
It's back, my bad. Would you mind if I edited the sticky in the future?

>>1315
Thank you. Of course, feel free to edit it.

>>1127
Hope you have a nice day too, OP.

You too anon

>>1127
hmm... thanks. i will be lazy today!

I read this post every morning and every night before I go to bed.
Thank you, anon.

>>1486
I kind of have that problem with my analog synths. I have a Prophet-10 and a Behringer Model D. I wanted the Prophet and Minimoog sounds to get a '70s type of feeling, but at the same time I really want something less brash.

I'm currently waiting to see what happens with the ISLA Instruments Caladan. It's going to be based around using different types of voice cards to effectively become a musical chameleon. They're taking feedback for potential cards on their forum, and a Jupiter 8 card is one of the most-requested ones. If it manages to nail the sound authentically, I'll probably end up buying one. Roland synths seem to do softer sounds better than their American counterparts, and for me having both a Prophet-10 and a modern Jupiter 8 could possibly end my GAS for analog polysynths. I don't even find the classic Oberheims all that appealing, but it would still be nice to have something that could cover that ground for the few sounds I'd want it for (like the "99 Luftballons" pad sound).


I definitely don't plan on parting with my Prophet though. It's versatile for being such a simple polysynth, and with the polymod feature you can easily get some pretty exotic sounds.

I have a few, mainly small inexpensive things like the Minibrute and behringer model D, and the obligatory MicroKorg. Also have a Korg Triton (the dark blue K-On!-spec one that weighs an absolute ton) but I mainly use that just for its built in presets like a keyboard because actually modifying the sounds on it looks like pure menu dive hell.

>>1488
>Microkorg
I really considered getting one of those when of those when I first started getting into synthesizers and wasn't sure what I wanted. I ended up wasting money on a Casio XW-P1 that I soon realized wasn't up my alley. I'm sure I would have felt the same about a Microkorg though. I bet you could make some good sounds with either, but I need something that personally inspired me. Unfortunately, a lot of the synths I'm interested in are ticking time bombs as far as maintenance is concerned.
>Korg Triton
That seems like it would be nice for making pad sounds with a decent editor. People rip on '90s ROMplers, but there's something special about those digital pad sounds they were capable of. A big problem is how overused a lot of presets were back then, at least with Roland's stuff. I have a JV-1080 and feel afraid to use it for recording for exactly that reason. For me the problem with making sounds by combining relatively complex samples is that it's hard to make anything that doesn't draw attention to itself. Maybe Korg's stuff is better about that though.

I ended up getting an old Kurzweil rack synth a while ago that I still need to dive into. The V.A.S.T. engine seems like it offers a ton of possibilities, but I also find it imposing. If I remember right, the one I bought has sampling capabilities too. That in itself would give it a leg up over similar synths. I plan on using it as an atmospheric pad machine further on down the line when I work up the motivation to learn it.

Here's a nice little atmospheric K2500 piece I keep coming back to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_t4-2VqXtU

I have over 30 synthesizer... plugins
I really only use Pigments and sometimes Vital myself and the others exist just for factory presets haha

>>1490
I'm too autistic for plugin instruments nowadays. I find Dexed really useful as a patch editor and librarian though. Creating sounds on a real DX7 would be a nightmare.

Have you had any luck yet, OP?

>>1505
That's a pretty tough hobby you've got there, OP? I'm pretty big on anime myself and if all you wanted to talk about was stuff from the 60-80s we'd probably have nothing to talk about after an hour, haha. Ever thought about branching out your interests? Music, Movies, Board Games, Books, Dancing, Yoga, Martial Arts, Arts and Crafts, Drawing, Woodwork etc?

>>1509
You're pretty young still, have you tried checking out local university societies (if you even go to university)? I was able to make my entire current irl friend group from going to the vidya/anime society they had there and discovered a lot of those guys loved retro gaming and anime and I talked about it with them all the time. It's my go to for younger anons and even freshers at uni, uni soc's are some of the best places to meet like minded people.

Check out the community centers and stuff around your area too, might be a good shout if you're looking for friends.

I'd also say that comic cons can be great places to meet people, if you see someone cosplaying a character you like you can usually run up to them and just be like "woah cool cosplay" and get a conversation going, in some cases you can add their contact info and become friends with them. Meetups are good for this especially if you can cosplay a character from that, I went to an Ace Attorney meetup a few years back and joined a discord full of AA fans and while I'm not super active there anymore, it seems like it's full of like minded people that just wanna be friends and have a fun time over a shared interest.

Hope I helped you man.

>>1505
Anime conventions. You will find most people there revolting, as any sane person would, but it can be pretty funny. Anyways, check out some of the panels, there's usually someone doing something on classic anime. Go there and talk to some people. Could be good.

I'm trying to figure that out myself, OP. I started going to these places that are designed for people with issues to make friends and get help and I'm trying to enjoy myself there. There's one with a pool table with no chalk. Sometimes people bring chalk but I've never played with chalk there. There's another where they can help you find jobs. Staff members at this one are supposed to be indistinguishable from club members, and they may have some pretty silly staff members but I don't know. I was thinking of going to a night club last night but I've been feeling what I think may be depression so I opted not to go. I don't drink but I don't have the money to pay the entry fee at a lot of the places I'd want to try, right now. I've never met my internet friends in real life. I've talked to people online and met them in person but they've never been people I really considered myself having been friendly with on a level that made me feel a special bond with them. Anyhow, I think that this is a personal question that you can answer yourself. It's good you're looking for resources on how you can make friends. Personally, after high school, virtually all of my connections that I've have some reverence for have been made online. I'm trying to change that.

>>1513
You sound pretty cool. I just wanted to say that

>>1141
>but my desktop is shamefully littered with files, so I won't post it...
Same, but here's my background image.

I've been really lazy. I gotta overclock my CPU and I'm several kernel updates behind!!

>>1123
My desktop has always been a mess but I change the background once every few years I guess. Right now it's Stonehenge from Ace Combat 4.