Download Helper:

I found a new, safe, effective way to pirate both anime and movies -- it's a firefox plugin called Download Helper.  You go to a site that offers streams of your favorite stuff, like putlocker or animetake, then click on the file you want, and then skip all of their annoying constraints by just telling download helper to go ahead and download the file instead of streaming it.

Through this workaround you get the anonymity of downloading/streaming, without any hassles or restrictions or registrations.  Now neither scurrilous businesses nor overbearing law enforcement can interfere with one of life's simple pleasures.

That takes a large load off my back.  I can go back to enjoying my weekly anime series just like I always have for decades, and there's nothing anyone can do to stop me.

There's two things I miss about nyaatorrents though -- how easy it was to torrent visual novels compared to how difficult it is to download them, 100 megabytes at a time.  And the lack of proper blu-ray anime options on any other site.  My hope is that both of these sorts of files will eventually migrate to some new platform, because I know a lot of people liked both of these features and it's now a much needed niche.

If it's a good visual novel, it's worth downloading the hard way.  And a blu-ray episode is not nearly as important as getting to see it for the first time, so these are both just minor grievances.  Download Helper has fixed all the major issues.

The worst thing that came of nyaa suddenly disappearing was that I was still in the middle of downloading Fresh Pretty Cure in blu-ray.  Hopefully the fansub group which went through all the work of posting it on nyaa will post it on some new torrenting site eventually.  I'd hate to see all that work go to waste for nothing.

With download helper on my side, I managed to secure all the missing movies I've wanted to see.  Doctor Strange was okay, visually delightful though rather simplistic.  Suicide Squad was surprisingly good.  Their focus on the truly charismatic characters of Deadshot and Harlequin was a very good decision, and I thought enchantress was an awesome villain, despite what all the critics said.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was a hollow movie that only captured the outside appearance of the original Harry Potter series, neglecting the heart and themes that made Harry Potter so attractive in the first place.  I gave up on it after the first thirty minutes.  So much for this blockbuster franchise.

Logan was a masterpiece, just like everyone said.  Easily the best X-men movie ever, perhaps the best superhero film ever.  The little girl was just bedazzling in how expressive and emotive she was, without ever having to say a word.  Everyone absolutely needs to see this movie.  In Logan, people kill, they don't cry or whine about it, and then they just go on killing some more.  They even kill defenseless paralyzed people, or people they've already defeated in combat, they just go back and finish them off for good measure.  And they do it while shouting angrily, not like some sort of penitent saint who has to do it against their deepest wishes.  No, they kill the guy because he's a rat bastard and they want to kill him, because he made them angry.  That's what I'm talking about.

I've seen Serenity before, I just wanted to rewatch it to go along with my netflix rewatch of Firefly the month before.  Of course it's a great movie, just like all of Firefly was.

Yet to watch -- Moana and Sum of All Fears.

My 20 star video game music playlist continues to be refined upon further listening.  Now it has:

30 Chrono Cross songs
52 Chrono Trigger songs
24 FF 1 & 2 songs
24 FF 10 songs
11 FF 10-2 songs
2 FF 11 songs
20 FF 12 songs
1 FF 13 song
16 FF 15 songs
12 FF 3 songs
32 FF 4 songs
36 FF 5 songs
46 FF 6 songs
44 FF 7 songs
37 FF 8 songs
35 FF 9 songs
1 FF Crystal Chronicles song
21 FF tactics advanced songs
53 FF tactics songs
2 FF Type-0 songs
10 Lunar 2 songs
10 Lunar songs
19 Ogre Battle songs
8 Ogre Battle 64 songs
1 Tactics Ogre song
2 Star Ocean 3 songs
10 Tales of Berseria songs
7 Tales of Destiny 2 songs
5 Tales of Eternia songs
12 Tales of Graces songs
3 Tales of Hearts songs
2 Tales of Innocence songs
3 Tales of Phantasia songs
1 Tales of Rebirth song
20 Tales of Symphonia songs
3 Tales of Symphonia: Knight of Ratotosk songs
4 Tales of the Abyss songs
1 Tales of the Tempest song
2 Tales of Vesperia songs
1 Tales of Xillia 2 song
15 Tales of Xillia songs
9 Tales of Zestiria songs
33 Xenogears songs
20 Xenosaga songs

If only I still had some books to read while listening to my perfected playlist, but alas, I burned through all those just in the manufacturing thereof.  Well, maybe someday, more light novels will receive fan translations, and I can sit down and really enjoy my plunder.