Konstantynivka falls to Russia:

Years ago I wrote that Chasiv Yar and Toretsk were strategic locations that would determine the outcome of the war, mainly because they formed the two prongs of a pincer around Konstantynivka.  I predicted it would be easy to take the major city of Konstantynivka once those two prongs were secured, and once Russia has taken Konstantynivka, they have a direct path to the largest cities left outside of Russian control in the Donbass, Kramatorsk and Slavyansk.  These two cities, Kramatorsk and Slavyansk, are now the entire reason the war continues, because Putin has offered to end the war if only these last two cities were handed over.  So the war literally ends in a chain reaction once you've taken Chasiv Yar and Toretsk.

As it turns out, it wasn't easy to take Konstantynivka, even though it was enveloped.  It took all year for the picture in my head to develop as I had planned.  The Ukraine war is setting a new record for how slowly things develop, but they always develop in the way I expected eventually.

Russia has announced the conquest of Konstantynivka, complete with videos of soldiers lifting flags all over the city, so their announcement is an indisputable fact.  Meanwhile, all of Kupiansk east of the Oskil river has been conquered, with only a portion of Kupiansk west of the Oskil river still to be dealt with.  I stated Kupiansk was another strategic point Russia needed to take to win the war, and they've almost done so.  Once they take Kupiansk my prediction was the war would accelerate in Russia's favor until Russia's inevitable victory.  I expect this prediction to also prove true, but also in the strangely time-dilated manner that all Ukraine war developments take.

On America's 250th birthday, I'm celebrating Russia's victory in Ukraine.  Russia is a good country which doesn't bomb little girls or castrate children to further the sick fantasies of rich men, unlike America which glories in these things.  Russia is a good country which doesn't, like the United Kingdom or Sweden, allow recent Muslim immigrants to rape endless women in their country without reprisal, or have hate speech laws forbidding criticism of this policy.  Russia is a good country which doesn't allow sacrilegious 'art' like 'piss Christ' or 'dung Mary.'  Russia is a good country which doesn't intentionally mutate Covid viruses to be highly contagious and lethal to humans -- either 'for the fun of it,' the 'innocent' explanation, or so that they could be intentionally unleashed on America's enemies, China and Iran, which were the first Covid hotspots, resulting in the deaths of tens of millions of people.  It also doesn't develop vaccines for the Covid virus America originally developed which are far more lethal to children than the virus itself, and then mandate all children take said vaccine if they ever want to attend school.  Russia is a good country with honest elections -- no mail-in ballots, no intelligence agencies lying and saying Hunter Biden's laptop is 'Russian disinformation,' voter ID requirements, etc.  Almost the entire world has voter ID requirements and no mail-in ballots, so this isn't really something specific to Russia, but it is specific to America.  We're the only country on Earth without even a pretense of honest elections.  Russia is a good country where to be Russian you must have Russian parents, you can't just traipse across the border and gain citizenship like you can here, even if you clearly hate your 'fellow Americans' and wish them ill.

Russia is a good country where leading presidential candidates are given actual security, not 'bumbling nitwits' who let snipers climb nearby rooftops and shoot candidates from near point blank range without interference.  As if any security detail could be that incompetent, which is the official explanation.  It's obvious Biden directed a hit on Trump, his presidential opponent, and ordered the Secret Service to stand down that day.  There's no other way that roof could have been left unpatrolled.  All other explanations beggar belief.

Russia is a good country where there aren't obvious conspiracies like the JFK shooting or 9/11 or the USS Liberty or Project Gladio or the Gulf of Tomkin or the USS Maine or Pearl Harbor where the government deliberately manipulates its citizens into believing whatever the government wants them to believe in order to further their own agenda, instead of listening to and fulfilling the people's will, which was supposed to be the entire point of democracy.

Russia is a good country where integrity and decency is what you take pride in, not deviancy.

America used to be a good country, before Lincoln tyrannized the South in 1861.  It's all been downhill from there, and now we're pretty much rock bottom.  (Is there anything lower than castrating children?)

I would've celebrated America's 50th anniversary, but 250th?  What could we possibly celebrate now?

Okay, I admit America's economy is praiseworthy.  We've been an engine of prosperity and technological growth for the people who live here, and for the entire world, for a very long time.  We've propped up the entire world's economy multiple times (after the World Wars) and saved it from the spread of an economic disaster known as communism.

America's athletes are praiseworthy.  We have many talented athletes who entertain the whole world and win the most medals at the Olympics.  Right now we're doing pretty darn well in the World Cup, the one trophy America hasn't yet claimed in our distinguished history.

Unfortunately America spends trillions of dollars a year to go out into the world and hurt as many people as we can, while making our own people fat, sick, addicted to drugs, depressed, divorced, indebted and sinful.  Sure, you can point to various good things about America, but the balance is so ridiculously negative that it's almost shameful to even mention the good things.  It's like praising Hitler for being a vegetarian.

I spent $66 trying to get the new Niina and Muua SS Memorias, but of course I failed.  Instead I got shrine maiden Risa up to limit break 3.5, which is excellent, and schoolgirl Inori to 2.5, which is worthless, and magician Isuzu to level 2, which is also worthless.  It isn't all bad, though, I still have a lot of leftover paid quartz from the purchase which will help me in the future.  And powering up shrine maiden Risa to limit break level 4 will help out my critical penetration squad, where she's a powerful support to imp Yayoi.  It will also help out in a lot of other, less vital, squads.  All in all I don't mind results like these, especially considering I have the money to spare, so I may as well use it for something I enjoy.

Tenpure!! Available:

Circus, the maker of Da Capo, also makes other visual novels, and one of them has now been translated -- Tenpure!!.  Circus is the premier eroge company so any game by them is sure to be good.  I just wish they had translated Da Capo 4 or Da Capo 5 instead of Tenpure!!.  It seems like a massive misattribution of resources.  Everyone knows Da Capo is the best visual novel franchise of all time, so why are they translating anything else?

I don't have time to play Tenpure right now.  I have the World Cup to watch, Xenoblade X to finish, Magic to play, the new summer anime season to watch, etc., etc.  It feels like the busiest year in my life.  But I'll get around to it someday.

The monthly refresh came in Heaven Burns Red, and I did get two useful limit breaks -- cute Chie and admiral Mion went up to limit break level 2.5.  This gets me to 22 seraphs stuck at 2.5 or 3.5 limbo.  Admiral Mion's level 3 limit break ability is outlandishly good, though, so I'll concentrate on improving her first.  So long as your special ability costs 15 sp or more, it doubles the strength of your attack.  Obviously I've placed admiral Mion in a squad full of high-sp-costing-attacks, so basically she just doubles the strength of all my moves for free, as a passive ever-present ability.

This is the inverse of imp Yayoi's ability, which doubles the strength of sp attacks that cost 8 sp or less.  Imp Yayoi's ability is also insanely good and I have a squad designed around it too, full of low sp attacks.  That's squad 8, my best fire squad.  Admiral Mion is in squad 10, my best dark squad.  But both of their squads are built around this doubling ability.

Cute Chie is in squad 3, my other dark squad, which the computer gives a much higher power rating than my squad 10, which shows what the computer knows.  It's actually my weakest squad.  If she could get from 2.5 to 3, she would buff the frontline's skill attacks 30%, which is nice, but not the 100% Mion is buffing.  But squad 3 could really use the boost to make it competitive, so it would be reasonable to get her to level 3 next.

At 3% annual inflation, which is what it looks like 2026 will have, I lose about $12,000 automatically.  If I make over $16,000 to counteract that inflation, I suddenly have to pay federal income tax.  Damned if you do and damned if you don't.  How absurd is it that you have to make $12,000 just to tread water, but if you make $4,000 more than that you're punished for earning too much.  As though anyone can live on $4,000 a year.  It's such an absurd tax code, coming at you from in front and from behind.  Chasing you to make more money via inflation, and then punishing you for making said money.  Luckily I've found a loophole, which is municipal bonds.  Any money made from them is exempt from the federal income tax, I assume because the federal government wants to encourage investors to help fund state and local spending projects.  But it means I have a way to both replace the losses from inflation and make enough to pay my bills, all while not paying taxes to this evil government I don't want to give a single dime.  I have no intention of funding a single bomb headed towards the little girls of Russia, Gaza or Iran.

Capital gains also are exempt from the federal income tax, but I find the stock market to be so chaotic and so completely out of sync with any business justification for which stocks go up and which go down, that I've given up on it.  The guaranteed return from bonds is the only thing I can rely upon, so it sucks that the federal government taxes bonds but not stocks.  It's like the government is encouraging people to gamble their money away.  Again, why is the tax code so batshit crazy?  You'd think that you could at least find a safe haven by buying gold, but there's a 30% tax on gold profits in this country, which makes any investment in the metal impossible.  They're fine with you gambling your money on stock bubbles, that's a 0% capital gains tax, but God forbid you try to stow away your money somewhere safe.  If there was any doubt whether the law code was tilted towards oligarchs, there's your proof, now you know.

I had over 56,000 pageviews last month, probably a new record.  It's funny because I'm writing far less interesting posts now than in the past, but only now am I getting attention.  The internet works in mysterious ways.

Witch Hat Atelier S2 announced:

The best series tend to get sequels, and they also tend to reach my anime hall of fame.  As a result, reaching my anime hall of fame is a good prognosticator that the show will be getting a sequel.  I'm happy to announce that Witch Hat Atelier isn't ending any time soon, and that awful cliffhanger ending will be replaced with something more satisfying.

It's a shame the same didn't happen for Release that Witch.  Once I find a good replacement for it, I'll move that anime over to my top movie rankings, because it's only a movie-length show.

Mao followed the correct pattern, though, getting a 2 cour season that instantly makes it a respectable length in my rankings.  The extra episodes also help justify my high ranking of it at #67.  There's no proof it will end with 2 cours, either.  It could eventually get a sequel announcement at the proper time too.

Higurashi also follows my example, a highly rated series in my hall of fame has gotten a sequel announcement.  Unfortunately Higurashi has a good ending and doesn't need any additional eps, so I doubt anything good will come of this.

As expected, Japan was no match for Brazil, though they did keep it close to the very end.  Unexpectedly Germany and Holland both lost in penalty shootouts today as well.  Three close, exciting, unpredictable games in a row makes for a fun World Cup.  As a reminder to everyone, the same Paraguay that beat Germany lost to team USA 4-1.

Every time I go on a spending spree in Heaven Burns Red I cringe at how wasteful I'm being, but my biggest expense isn't Heaven, it's inflation.  Almost all my losses per year are the loss of the value of the dollar.  If not for inflation I would be so rich so quickly.  I make plenty of money, on paper, to cover all my video gaming expenses, my groceries, my car insurance, etc., to the point that it's all trivial.  But staying ahead of inflation is the real challenge.  I really wish America were still on the gold standard.  Inflation was never a problem before the 1970's.  Now it's always the problem.  Houses cost 54% more than they did just six years ago.  They cost ten times as much as they did in the 1970's.  How do you keep up with that?

Kozue Event Cleared:

Heaven Burns Red finally released an actual new event, so of course it was so good it made me cry.  Whenever the game puts in the slightest effort it instantly surpasses all other games.  This time around, Squad 31-B all donned swimsuits and visited an island resort.  There Kozue accidentally worked her magic and snatched Erika Aoi from the past to the present.  Erika died in the regular timeline, but of course she was alive before she died, so it was possible to interact with this past Erika who hadn't yet met Kozue.  Kozue got the chance to have all the conversations with Erika she wished she could have had if Erika hadn't died.  She didn't want to let Erika go back to the past, but the time travel was causing paradoxes so she had to let her go.  But getting to say goodbye to someone is very different from that person suddenly dropping dead, so this really lifted a burden from Kozue's heart that she'd borne all this time.

The moment Kozue bared her heart to past-Erika about what was going to happen in Erika's future was incredibly moving, helped along by the school swimsuit she was wearing and the beautiful beach setting.  Erika, being the stoic hero we know her to be, accepted all that was to come and insisted she be sent back to the proper timeline all the same.

At the same time, Kozue proved to Seika that the occult was real, gaining Seika's grudging respect.  And Ichigo and Sumomo were as charming as ever in their swimsuits.  I'd give this event a 10 out of 10.  I sure spent enough money on it.  $230 to get all the SS Memorias and limit breaks I could.  I ended up one short of a perfect collection -- I'm still missing light Ichiko -- but I got every single SS Memoria in the game other than her.  Swimsuit Kozue, swimsuit Seika, and wedding dress Iroha all became mine.  I also got wedding dress Charlotta up to limit break level 2, swimsuit Kozue to level 2.5, schoolgirl Inori to level 2, ninja Monaka to level 2, sheep Yotsuha to level 3, rocket Risa to level 3, and gave every seraph in a combat squad a full strength memento.

Ichigo got a swimsuit version which is only S-class, but you can always use her swimsuit model as fashion wear while playing as an SS Memoria, so this still works out fine.

$230 is a little steep even for three swimsuit clad girls, but I really wanted swimsuit Kozue for my dark squad, because she gets stronger with high morale, and doctor Seika, who was already in my dark squad, gives all dark memorias extra morale each time she uses her ex move.  That synergy meant I needed them both for my dark squad to work.  And these days, if you aren't limit break level 3, you aren't good enough to replace someone already in one of my combat squads, so not only did I need to acquire swimsuit Kozue, I also needed to get enough copies of her to reach limit break level 3, so the purchases were continuously necessary to achieve my dream.

The new score challenge gave me another chance at a higher score with my critical penetration squad, and this time I scored over 1.8 million points.  This gave the title badges I needed for Yingxia to reach title rank level 10, which gave her an extra skill slot.  Realistically power ups to my strongest squad are more important than power ups to my fun side projects.  I also got the skill evolution item I needed to power up Byakko's base ex skill.  I need a couple weeks to gather the nordstrom crystals before I can actually skill evolve, but the hard part is done.

Since the score challenge boss was weak to fire, I tried out all my fire squads against it.  The imp Yayoi-based fire squad did the best, with 1.7 million points, which was enough to raise the title level of Adelheid to 10 and a few others to 9.  The idol Erika based fire squad did about as well as squad 31-E and squad 31-A, but they were all weak compared to imp Yayoi, scoring somewhere around 1.4 million.  Hitting a weak to fire boss with four different types of fire squads wasn't as effective as my critical penetration squad just doing its thing.

I should be able to complete some more power-ups with the coming monthly refresh, like getting swimsuit Kozue from limit break 2.5 to the 3 I'm aiming for.  I'm also happy that Japan and America have made it to the next round of the World Cup, so I have something to look forward to in July on that side as well.

I've finished my rewatch of Isekai Nonbiri Nouka S2 and Fate/Strange Fake, officially ensconcing them into my anime hall of fame.  I'm halfway through my rewatch of Oshi no Ko S3.  But with all these different things going on it's hard to find time even for the best anime.  >.<.

How to improve soccer:

The World Cup has been fun, but several annoying things about the game are holding it back.  It all has to do with players trying to cheat to win instead of play fairly, which leaves every game with a sour taste.  Sports are supposed to be objective, fair competitions.  That's the entire reason for their existence.  No more excuses, let the game decide who is better.

The first thing the game should do is institute a new 10-second rule.  If any player for any reason falls to the ground and fails to get back up within ten seconds, he is immediately disqualified from the rest of the game and required to leave the field.  I don't care if he's really injured or pretending injury, he needs to get off the field so the game can resume.  If the 'injured' player's team has substitutions left, they can choose to substitute a new person in to take his place.  If they don't they'll just have to play a man down for the rest of the game.  This would end all the pathetic feigned injuries all the players are doing, rolling around and grabbing body parts that were never even touched.  It's the most disgraceful scene any man has ever put on, crying and whining about every little booboo like babies.

The next thing that needs to happen is the line referees need to point directly to where a throw-in should be conducted, and no player throwing the ball in should be allowed to move from that point.  If necessary a referee can put his hand on their back while they're throwing so they don't leave his hand.  I'm tired of players getting yardage they didn't earn by just walking up the sideline before throwing the ball in.

The same is true of foul kicks.  The referee needs to paint with his foam the exact spot where the foul occurred, and that's where the kick should be kicked from.  There should be none of this nonsense where the player 'adjusts' the ball by rolling it forward to whatever place suits him.  This is again stealing yardage that wasn't earned.

The next adjustment needs to be more red cards.  I would make any tackling penalty, where a player grabs the other's jersey and pulls or pushes him down, clearly an event that has nothing to do with soccer, because in soccer you're not supposed to use your hands, should be an automatic red card.  I would also give out a red card to any player who argues with a referee for any reason.  I don't care if the players are right or not, authority needs to be respected.  Furthermore, all these clamoring whining players demanding the referee change his call just wastes time because obviously no referee will ever change their call.

The World Cup should be about deciding which nation is the best in the world at soccer, not the best cheaters in the world.  Soccer could be such a fun sport to watch, if only the sport was played in a sportsmanlike manner.  When I was a kid and played soccer, we never played dirty like this.  It's the professional players who are making a mockery of soccer.  We need to return soccer to what it was always meant to be.

So long as these reforms aren't instituted, soccer isn't a top tier spectator sport.  It will continue to lag behind football and basketball and gymnastics and figure skating.  The World Cup is fun because it includes all the nations of the world and is a good way to compare peoples because everyone plays soccer all over the world.  Nobody can make the excuse that 'we don't ski so this competition doesn't count.'  Everyone plays soccer.  This competition counts.  Soccer is an innately fun sport because the action is continuous, there's no commercials, and the talent required to control the ball without your hands is spectacular.  It also means the ball is always up for grabs, because nobody can get firm control of it, since the ball can only be batted around and not held.  This creates a constant level of tension, where anything can happen in a very short amount of time.  It could be such a fun sport to watch, if it only wanted to be.  But as it stands, even this 'once in four years' event is less exciting than a regular weekend of football.

Summer 2026 Anime Preview:

The summer anime season is nearly upon us.  I'm busy with the World Cup so I won't be reviewing the debuting series, but here's how things look before I've actually seen all the new shows:

Continuing Series:

Meitantei Precure

One Piece

Mao

Slime Tensei

Re:Zero

Returning Series:

Youjou Senki

Hell Mode

Bleach

BanG Dream

The Elusive Samurai

Nanoha Exceeds

100 Kanojo

Ghost in the Shell

Possibly Good Series:

Anything's possible, I guess, but nothing stands out.

* * *

The summer season doesn't need any newcomers.  The continuing and returning series already number 13 shows a week.  Among them are 7 shows in my top anime rankings.  And most importantly, among them is the ending of Bleach, something we've been waiting a lifetime for.

Popsicle Yotsuha:

It cost $50, but I finally got popsicle Yotsuha.  She has a cool ability that uniquely can be wielded from the back row, but when I actually tried it out with my dark squad it didn't work.  This is because my dark squad specializes in taking extra turns, and Yotsuha's effect quickly wears off because the buff is turn-based, not permanent like other buffers.  Admiral Aoi's passive continuous +100% to crit is the better fit.

But what about my secondary dark squad, could they use Yotsuha?  Nope, all their abilities cost over 10 sp to enact, so Yotsuha's follow-up skill would never activate.  It turns out all that effort to acquire popsicle Yotsuha was for nothing, aside from having the cute picture/model of her in my collection.  The buffer who works best with my secondary dark squad is Admiral Mion.  She increases the sp cost of her squad's abilities, in exchange for giving them a larger effect.  But the abilities already cost so much sp that the increase, proportionally, isn't as bad as it would be with other squads.

It turns out admirals and dark squads go well together.  My other squads don't use admirals, only my dark squads.

But the $50 didn't only go towards Yotsuha, they also bought me wedding dress Yingxia's level 1 limit break, dandy Misato's level 2 limit break, and jellyfish Aina's level 3 limit break.  Squad 31-D would be strong if they hadn't imposed that 'overdrive use limit' with the 3.0 update.  I can generate tons of overdrive and fight well during overdrive, but in serious fights against strong opponents I run out of overdrive uses and then I lose.  Therefore jellyfish Aina and dandy Misato continue to be a sideshow.  However, wedding dress Yingxia has moved into the limelight.  I added her to my critical penetration squad, my premier squad, and gave her an eternal daphne.  I intend to use her constantly from here on.  Whether in the front or back ranks, she heals the party 7% per turn, she gives everyone 5 sp, she gives everyone a reraise, she has a critical penetration attack that also heals the front line, she has a multihit buff that can further add to Tadamusa's effectiveness, what's not to like?

I tried her out and she can, with the rest of the critical penetration squad, defeat orb bosses in 3 turns and Skullfeather Final Form in 5 turns.  She's deadly.  So the money was well spent, though not for the reason I initially presumed.

Yingxia replaces Risa in my critical penetration squad, but Risa is still important to the squad, because she resonates as a supporter with imp Yayoi, giving Yayoi +45% to skill damage and blaster effectiveness.  Yayoi's megadestroyer attack is already enormous, so multiplying that by a further 45% is huge.

Shrine maiden Risa is also useful as my new healer for my ice squad.  She replaces Muua and already proved her worth.  I fought Skullfeather Final Form again, this time with Risa, and beat it much more easily than the time I beat it with new year's Muua.  Unfortunately this does mean all the effort I put into improving Muua's memento will go to waste, but oh well.  What's cooler to note is that now all my ice squad members have eternal daphnes.  Eternal daphnes are rarer than memento boosters, so using them is more important.

Somehow America has already won its group in the World Cup, before even playing its third game.  My prediction that this team can go places is coming true.  If we win the World Cup nobody will care that we lost the Iran war.  The World Cup is more important and harder to win than any war.