u/Bearality

I am in need to do workouts with a tall pull up bar. Everywhere I search in the area the bar is barely above my hands when I reach up. Is there anything on the tall side in the area?

It's been a while since someone reviewed a fanfic here, and in light of recent events, now is a great time to lay out my thoughts on one of the pillars of the AsuShin fanfic scene. I first encountered the story when I was hungry for fics. I wanted sprawling stories that were also completed, and after hearing all the recommendations, I clicked on the story. I finished it, enjoyed my time, and left after the first chapter of "Glass House."

At this point, I need to apologize to people looking for a more visceral takedown of the story. I know that using the word "brutally" gives off the impression that I would be "taking this story to task" and spending an untold amount of time going over each chapter, each character, and each moment beat by beat while explaining why it's bad.

This is not that kind of review.

Glass of Wine is a well-written story, with clean prose, good action scenes, good Asushin moments, and manages to finish. When it comes to the technical beats, the story is hard to beat; however, this is where my praise ultimately ends.

​GOWR is a great entry point, and it is only great when it is your entry point. Other fics say something; they have the author’s insight, they’re messy, brash, and unashamed to indulge in what makes fanfics fun. This can not be said of GOWR

​Glass of Wine is a fic that feels like a fic that was designed by committee, where its only real idea, “What if Asuka was the protagonist of Evangelion,” is carried out with the precariousness of a child sneaking into the kitchen at midnight to steal a cookie. It’s clean, sterile, presentable, the kind of fanfic you would introduce to your grandma for being safe. The most damning trait of GOWR is that it's an incurious story that offers little insight into the themes of Eva or the author’s views towards human connection. The initial smoothness in the writing is really all of the stories jagged edged which could catch a reader’s emotional connection, are instead sanded down edges and give us the Asushin equivalent of a Fisher Price toy.

​In conversations on the now defunct Asushin server, Toasterman frequently would do self review sessions where he would go page by page and highlight his sentence structure. He was rather proud of how efficiently he wrote and looked for opportunities to streamline his writing. We all took in these lectures in silence, not because we were mystified by the man’s words, but more so because we were tired of this one-sided pontification. He expected praise. Instead, he just tested our patience. It was no secret that Toasterman never cared about any other writer or any other story, as he was only interested in talking about, promoting, highlighting, and engaging topics centered around GOWR (he has also admitted to searching Discord for his fic, leading him to reply to messages months old just because he could not leave a single mention of GOWR go unacknowledged). It only makes sense that a man so incurious, inflexible, and incapable of introspection with his treatment of others could make such a single minded, simple story.

​While entertaining, I find myself having a difficult time trying to engage with GOWR beyond the cliff notes “what happens” core ideas, author intent, and the beautiful imperfections that come with writing fanfic are scrubbed away in order to give me something “good” but also not memorable. It wants to portray a more realistic Asushin dynamic, but the end result is a story about Asuka being the coolest character in Eva and the rest of the cast just affirming this decision. In the end, you should read  GOWR. It’s good to form your own opinions, and for any other authors out there, studying the writing would be very valuable. The biggest irony here is that you will learn more about yourself as a reader and what you want in a story because even a story that has the depth of a puddle is still clear enough to be used as a mirror.

​If you want an Evangelion that does what GOWR but better, read Difficult to Endure, Sweet to Remember from Notyourprob. Here we also have “What if Asuka was the main character,” but also doesn’t forget to give the character trials, shows her learning a lot of lessons, and has a Shinji that does more than be an emotional support yes man.

If you want an accurate depiction of AsuShin, emotional warts and all, try A Need Away from Lebeauf. Here we have a rich conflict that stems from miscommunication and tackles Asuka and Shinji’s unique insecurities as they try to carve their own happiness and find love within the pain.

https://preview.redd.it/57l9ewo4j8nh1.png?width=1163&format=png&auto=webp&s=fa4a5644b5e197fee2fb1964d93f4192acbb60b9

On the right was art used for a character as seen in TTS and in the manual while the left is art used in game

This thread on BGG goes in depth showing proof as now of the artists involved have requested to have their names removed from the credits as their art was not used and can see AI being invovled

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3762389/proof-of-ai-art-usage-with-receipts

This is a large publisher that previously ran a 1.8 million KS funded game. They had the money. This is just them being too cheap to hire artists.

The akomis list is great but at its current moment it's out dated and as such many newer fics are not being recommended as conversations stick to the well known Mainstays (second try, Orchestrating the Silence, glass of Wine, Infinite Playlist, Genocide etc.)

If a newer list were to be made, what fics do you think should be on it?

Hi there.

I'm completely new to planning trips in Europe. Planning a double trip park Germany trip from the US with us starting in Europapark and ending at Phantasialand. I just wanted to ask if there were any recommended airports to fly into.

Meanwhile if there are some budget friendly hotels you can recommend in the area that would also be helpful. I was thinking two days at Europa with a day for sightseeing.

I have several sections I struggle with but it feels like whatever I practice on slower speeds it never informs normal play as such I can get better and better at " a little slow" while normal speed I'm making mistakes in the same area and freezing up at the same places.

What do people in between steps do?

Long story short, i have an easy time do any sort of early back bridge progression but the moment I move to headstand (because everything is too easy) my hands slip out. I've tried multiple yoga mats, surfaces and positions while aslo making sure my legs, shoulders and abs are helping out but my hands just slip out and I can never get any progress.

I tried adding a docx file but FFN is saying its not supported. It's been like this for two days. Why can't I upload any files? I tried the same file from two different PCs and I also tried copy/past. Nothing works

So I think I narrowed why I can't transition to doing back tucks on my own via floor, airtrack, tramp, foam pit, pool, and that's because all drills require something "on" my back.

Set jumps I fall on my back so I can get a really high set as I'm not trying to go over but "fall" onto my lower back. When I try to flip the way I set I just do a really big rainbow jump and I land on my back.

Pull over drills I roll off a block

The hollow body drill involves me laying down the entire time

Back rolls (recommend to help get over the fear of going over from behind) I feel and use the roll. As such a back roll feels completely different from a tuck

Spots have pressure on my back

As such since I've been training these ways for so long when I jump and I feel nothing on my back I feel "lost" so my body panics. I'm too used to the back sensation so even a spotted flip where my coach doesn't help at all I dont translate into confidence because I still "feel" something in my back.

I really feel like I've been at the "drill" stage for so long that subconsciously my body "expects" something on my back and this can't disconnect the move attempt from the feeling.

Is there anyway to overcome this? Every single solo and assisted drill needs something on my back or the floor as a brace. i have not reached solo attempts at all until I get over this mental hang up?

I want to learn pelican curls but often when I do them I do less leaning forward and more just pulling my arms back and then I associate the "stretch" and think I'm loading my chest and biceps. It's like I lean forward and get stuck so I never get the full extension. One weird side effect is then I get into the hanging position but when I lean forward I take the rings with me. At the moment I just go as far as I can leaning then move the arms back but I have no idea is that will help me get to the full move.

All the tutorials never go into progressions and just show how to do the movement normally and I can't find any other material that covers the move.

I found a ring workout that goes over a series of workouts and now I am lost on what to do when it says "standing/squated" calf raises as I can't find a single tutorial on the exercise and the ring guide itself does not highlight the move. I know what they are without the rings but I have no idea if there is such an exercise or are we supposed to do the move in assisted.

This is the one part of exercise programming I always fail at and that's due to me not being able to figure out what exercise does what. I have an image of the program if you need a reference as I can't post images here.