Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@bimmy-lee Adore them. An iconic phrase “You played a good game, booooy”. I’ve got Jane Doe on my list, glad to hear it was good.
@Anti-Matter That sign is funny!

@HobbitGamer - Ha, yep, great movies. I haven’t seen the later stuff, just the first three. I grew up in a really small town, but we had a vhs rental store with a tiny arcade. One of my weekly activities was to browse the box covers in the horror section. The Tall Man haunted my dreams before I ever even saw the movie. Jane Doe is pretty decent, but I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. Us horror folk have to endure a lot of mediocre to bad just to find something decent. Then, every once in a while, something like Hereditary comes along and makes it all worthwhile.

Edit - The Serpent and the Rainbow is a good voodoo zombie flick, bet you’ve seen it though. If not, you’ll have to find it on dvd, I’ve never seen it available streaming.

That’s an awesome use of slowbro

@bimmy-lee Don't we all?
Sounds like a plan, though. And we can always see what we can do about those kids. Maybe send them to the Amsterdam Zoo to spend a nice, quiet day with mom, and then the men can go about their (beer) business...

@NorseGamerTommy @RedderRugfish I'd be up for some GameCube discussions as well, so count me in.

@NorseGamerTommy my fav console ever was gamecube if you start one I will follow it. Irony think there was ever better games on any console

@ThanosReXXX - My wife and I have talked about flying across the pond when we get them to an age where they can spend a week to 10 days with family while we’re gone. We have a lot of places we want to take them, but I think a European vacation will be adults only, at least the first trip. We’re still years away. She could drink us under the table though if push comes to shove. We’re a five minute walk through a park from our zoo, it’s a really nice one. We get a family pass every year. I think they think every kid goes to the zoo multiple times a week. When I was a kid, I was lucky to go once a summer.

@bimmy-lee That sounds great for the kiddos. We have the Georgia Southern wildlife center on campus and I go a few times a year to enjoy it. Mostly woodland critters and birds of prey, but the interactive shows are fun.

Ahh the zoo, we have the family pass every year too. Like bimmy said, I was lucky to go once a year as a kid, now mine go weekly while im stuck dealing with disgruntled customers.

@bimmy-lee Haha, yeah. Me too. Sometimes twice a year, when our school organized some educational trip, but of course, that wasn't as much fun as going with family and friends, seeing as there were obviously also all kinds of assignments involved...

So, your wife can hold her own, huh? Does she by any chance have either German or Scandinavian genes? Those are some of the most notorious areas that I've visited, where the subtle art of "drinking like a man" has become somewhat of an expected standard.

As for Amsterdam's zoo: I'm willing to wager a bet that you would like it. It may be located in the middle of a crowded city, but you'd be amazed how much space it still occupies. And it's even got it's own Planetarium and zoological museum, so it's not just a zoo.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g188590-d244497...

https://www.helloamsterdam.com/attractions/artis-royal-zoo/

Most recently, they completely revamped the elephant enclosure:

May not look like much, if you're used to something bigger or more spectacular, but considering the zoo's location, they pretty much achieved something great. The elephants didn't even have a place to bathe before:

Ha, yep, sounds about right. I now understand why my parents would get angry when I would claim to be bored as a kid. As an adult, I would loooove to have enough free time to be bored. Even just once. That wildlife center sounds great Hobbit.

@ThanosReXXX - That looks wonderful. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an elephant at a zoo. A few times at the circus, but that’s a far cry from observing them just being elephants. And yes, she definitely has some German blood from her maternal side. Her father’s side is a mystery, but my guess is Greek. I’m a better beer drinker, but she has me beat when it comes to spirits. I get sloppy 100% of the time, but I don’t let it stop me from enjoying a scotch or three.

@bimmy-lee Aha, Greece. Home of the Amazons. Not the Wonder Woman-kind, but the ACTUAL ones...
That might also be a good gene pool for being able to best men at various "skills".

As for you not ever having seen elephants in the zoo: that's kind of surprising to hear, although as a former resident, my memory probably isn't the best indicator for how many zoos the States have, and how many of them actually house the top 5 of big animals. Guess I kinda figured you didn't live too far from any of the big parks.

My bad...

I agree. Running across a sign like that in everyday life would make me chuckle. Thanks for sharing, Anti!

@Heavyarms55 Funnily enough, I also found myself wishing that they'd expanded on the Rotom Dex's photo mode. There was a faint echo of what it could be: an answer to Pokemon Snap in the main games. I'm sure decorating photos for some is all well and good (Truth be told, I would've been all over it as a kid), but it's not for me. It didn't help that Rotom encourages you to go to it every time one of your Pokemon evolves. Every. Time.

@HobbitGamer The funeral home in the small town I lived near growing up still has an upstairs living quarters to my knowledge. I don't think anyone has used that part of it for at least a decade though.

Mortuary Science is definitely an interesting field from a "Hey, this is weird and cool!" perspective. I know a younger person who's currently wanting to study it when they go to college, but it's not for me. XD I'd like learning stuff out of a book on it, but actually touching up cadavers...nope. I'm gonna have a hard enough time removing a dead woodpecker off of my lawn in a little while.

@Tyranexx - Ah, that’s too bad about the woodpecker. I have no love lost for them, but only because I have 52 year old wood shingle on the exterior of my house. It’s like a buffet for them. They’re cool birds though. I found my favorite chipmunk stiff as a board on the driveway last week. Didn’t have a mark on him. Not sure what got him. I planted him near an oak tree. The little guy moved in to my wood pile years ago and sang every day. I took him almonds and pumpkin seeds. He had almost no fear of me, but he wouldn’t take food from my hand. It’s been pretty quiet without him.

@ThanosReXXX - The biggest animals I remember seeing at a zoo are probably rhinos or hippos. I’ve been to quite a few nice zoos, but in Indiana, I’m really far away from almost everything anyone would want to see or do in the US. My town is actually pretty cool though. Not a bad place to be.

@bimmy-lee I think if people enjoy living where they live, then that's the most important, regardless of any specific places being in the vicinity or not. I guess you actually not having any large zoos in the nearby area, makes visiting one even more special than having one in the city where you live...

And Indiana definitely doesn't sound too shabby to me either. I'll share this little bit of flashback with you:

Back when I was a lot younger, and only just settling here, I always had the plan to either go back to the States to visit some of the more well-known places, or at least save up enough money, to go visit my family in California. When I became a teenager, that plan became a lot more ambitious, turning into a round trip to visit either all states, or at least all the interesting ones, or the highest number that I would be able to visit in a set amount of time.

Unfortunately though, live happened, with a LOT of bears on the road (while I'm typing this, I don't even know if that's actually me translating a Dutch saying or if it's also known in the English language, but suffice to say that it means a lot of obstacles), and as such, that particular dream never came true.

And right now, I don't have the money and the time either. And apart from that, the direct family that I actually knew, have almost all passed away, far as I know, so all that is left is their children and their children's children, none of which I've ever even met before, so the incentive to go there for my family has also diminished quite a bit.

But I'll be damned if I'll never set foot on American soil again before I myself am at a point when I really won't be able to go there anymore, but when that'll be, is anyone's guess right now.

I choose to believe the part about bears on the road is literal.

@Morpheel Well, either way: they're still obstacles. Pretty nasty ones as well...

Fun fact: if it actually IS a Dutch saying, then it's all the more comical, seeing as besides teddy bears and bears in the zoo, the Netherlands don't even have any wild bears. Much less wild bears annoying drivers by walking on the freeways...

I also vote for the jaywalking bear saying!
@Tyranexx It definitely takes a specific personality and outlook on life to do work in the funeral business. I’m glad there’s still family owned practices around, it began suffering the same “big company buyouts” that small town doctor practices experienced. But my second cousin still has three of ours going in Oklahoma!

Maybe their habit of sitting on the roads has diminished their numbers significantly.

A beautiful creature, the Dutch Jaywalking Bear. They were too precious for this world.