All it does in the long run is constantly reinforced a person's worst behaviors and instincts, leaving them psychologically maladjusted and never giving them a reason to improve or do better.

Criticism and pushback of that kind, while unpleasant, *are* necessary mechanisms for one's own growth and evolution. Because shockingly, if you give someone access to a Perpetual Validation Machine that can't ever talk back or give an honest opinion, that usually doesn't end well.

I get that for some people life sucks and having a consistent support system is ideal, but there's a difference between supporting someone and just being a "yes man" to everything they say and do. Like at a certain point if your friend's on some bullshit, you gotta tell then point blank.

Like it's really telling that mr "end of history" over here is happy about a chatbot not being able to make fun of him for stupid questions, as if he's entitled to avoid that kind of friction/opposition in life.

Bleach: TYBW (second cour) - one thing that this section of the arc really makes clear is how often Bleach's tendency towards Proper Noun Overload™ gets in the way of what are conceptually some pretty interesting powers and fights.

December 11th. #albumaday2025. HEALTH - CONFLICT DLC // Drowning in the same kind of synthetic melancholy as much of their output, this one actually brings back a bit more of the heaviness with way more saturated industrial riffage than a lot of what we've heard from them in recent records.

December 10th. #albumaday2025. Taylor Swift - Fearless // A natural extension of her first record, building off a similar compositional style but with more poetic lyrics and a bit less country twang in her voice. I'm not in awe over it, but I don't mind this record too much.

Anyway, her debut album isn't too bad. Pretty quaint pop-country hybrid that's nice to listen to. Funnily enough, my favorite songs would be "Picture to Burn" and "Should've Said No" where she sounds way more confident talking shit than she would on future more pop-focused tracks.

It's sorta like going back and trying to watch a series like The Simpsons or Dragon Ball all the way from the very beginning. I mean this album came out a month before the Wii and PS3 launched. Jeezus, I felt my bones wither into dust saying that.

December 9th. #albumaday2025. Taylor Swift - self-titled // ...I'm only doing this since December doesn't count towards any of my listening metrics and I can maintain plausible deniability
Anyway, trying to start Swift's discography from the beginning in 2025 is a really weird prospect.

Yup! Finally got to pay a visit to the Epic Universe in Orlando and take in the sights, sounds, and rides ^__^

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So that was definitely a fun way to spend the day! Really curious as to what comes next for the future of this park, but things are off to a solid start.

The Phantom of the Opera, ghosts, mummies, the Wolfman, fuckin' everyone's there, and the ride uses the KUKA arm technology to swing and spin you in the face of all the chaos. My favorite bit was getting thrust towards the floor and seeing the Creature From The Black Lagoon lunging at you.

As for the big feature attraction, Monsters Unchained: that was an absolute blast, probably my favorite ride overall! Dracula breaks loose from containment, and Dr. Victoria Frankenstein+her monster have to contain the fallout, as every monster you can think of breaks loose and causes havoc.

And then the last stop of the day was the Dark Universe section aka the village of Darkmoor. The setting was dark and dreary, definitely felt fitting of the idea that the classic Universal monsters still existed in this time.

While there's plenty of proper rides and attractions to experience, for me the main point of interest was the stage show "The Untrainable Dragon", which was utterly magnificent! Fantastic music, great choreography, really cool animations/dragon effects. Definitely a must-watch.

And of course, dragons. There were many a dragon to be found all around!

After all that came the Isle of Berk (How to Train Your Dragon), and man this was a really cool land. The architecture and scale was impressive as hell in capturing the art style of the movies.

Of course the main attraction was the DK mine cart roller coaster. There's a bit of an odd feel regarding the forward momentum of the coaster on average, but it definitely captures the feel of trying to survive the games' mine cart stages. Also, Cranky and Squawks animatronics ^__^