Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@Anti-Matter - I’ve always loved a good boxing match. I could talk for hours about Mike Tyson in his prime and all the great matches that came from the Hagler/Hearns/Leonard/Duran rivalries. Roy Jones Jr in his prime, just incredible. I like martial arts and professional wrestling as well. The key word is “art” though. I don’t like combat sports where someone can be struck while in a prone position or submission moves (except for pro wrestling). Do you watch wrestling? Seems like something you would like if you have access to it. It’s a true art form, full of story, and a great pro wrestling match can top anything in sport in my opinion.

@NEStalgia Yeah, I understand the distance is a thing in the States. I understand that not everyone is living in the big city. Then again: I wasn't trying to force going to work on a bike on anyone...

As for the nimby thing: as I mentioned in my previous comment, I do agree with that if governments and/or building company would be trespassing upon private property, but not if it's stuff that's happening to make the city a better place to live in.

Case in point: Amsterdam got a new subway line last year, that draws a straight line from the south end to the north end of the city. Now, people in a certain area in the center where almost constantly complaining about this subway line and it's potentially bad effects to their houses and/or neighborhood, prior to and during its construction phase, and I'd dare to wager a bet that now that it's here, more than half of those whiners are actually using the damn thing, and are even finding out the benefits of being able to cut straight through the city in a matter of mere minutes...

I'm pretty sure stuff like that happens all over the world. Of course, there are also extremes happening, such as this wonderful example that I personally know of, which is a roundabout literally built around a house, because the owner wouldn't move, even though they wanted to pay him to do so. If I remember correctly, it was somewhat understandable, because the house was a family house, handed down over several generations. So, now, the occupants live in a tiny valley-like area, with a large freeway going all around their property at around 7 feet higher...

@bimmy-lee
I'm not interested with wrestling / pro wrestling.
But i do like K-1 World GP, Kickboxing tournament from Japan.

I have K-1 games on my PS2 for Realistic version while K-1 Pocket GP 1 & 2 GBA and Animal Boxing NDS for Chibi cartoonish version.
And here are the videos:
1. K-1 World MAX 2005 PS2

2. K-1 Pocket Grand Prix 1 GBA

3. Animal Boxing NDS

I really adore Cute Cartoonish boxing / kickboxing games more than the realistic style and that's why i created my own Boxers / Kickboxers in Cute Chibi form. 😉

Fired up the grill tonight. First time of the year. Beer brats!!

@ThanosReXXX That's totally understandable in regards to your reasoning to not bring much attention to it AND your need to vent. I wasn't expecting you to barge on here every day and give detailed updates. I was just wondering how you were healing up mainly. Glad that everything is mended at any rate.

Bike riders do exist here, but it's usually the recreational or (as @NEStalgia put it) racer types. There are laws about how to treat bike riders, but it gets pretty hairy with some narrow roads. The ideal route I would take involves a railroad overpass that only accounts for two lanes of cars (one each direction) and literally no other space for a bike ride or pedestrian.

That's not to say no one rides to work or school at all, but they typically live in town, usually don't have to travel a huge distance, and have ways to avoid the nastiest traffic.

Edit: I have got to refresh this topic more often before replying. Several posts have been constructed since I last saved the page. XD

I rode my bike not too long ago, was wearing a Master Chief helmet since it went with the pajama pants I was wearing.

@NintendoByNature - Oh yeah! Well done. Great choice to open up grilling season. I’m still waiting. It’s been about two straight months of rain. It’s depressing.

@Anti-Matter - I like kickboxing, I’ve seen quite a few K-1 matches. It’s a really brutal sport man, lots of blood and vicious knockouts. I like that you like it because it’s not something I’d assume you would like, though I realize it’s very popular in parts of the world. I’ve seen some of your chibi boxers, you’re very talented. I still think you would like pro wrestling if you gave it a chance. Some of the eras at least. You would like the women’s division in WWE right now. Lots of good matches, unique styles, and glitz and glamour. If you like the modeling reality shows, you would like the women wrestlers. It’s basically the same thing, but with high quality wrestling matches.

@NintendoByNature Nice! Checked on my marinating chicken awhile ago, can’t wait to grill it tomorrow.

@bimmy-lee Can you send a little rain my way? It’s been 11 days and it looks like at least another 6. I refuse to water the lawn. But my sycamore I got from the swamp as a sapling years ago is now over 12 feet tall, and the grapes I cut back to the wood 4 weeks ago are now overgrown, so I guess they’re enjoying the dry humid spurt.

@HobbitGamer - If only I could. It’s getting a bit ridiculous. I guess the only bonus is that the vegetation is growing like crazy, and the trees have a midsummer canopy. I love a good sycamore tree. Do you know the variety? Water trees are fun, they grow fast, and they’re very resilient. They make excellent bonsai. A sapling from the wild would likely do very well indoors in a sunny spot with lots of water if that interests you.

@HobbitGamer I would love to ship some rain your way. We've gotten much more than we need here as well.

@bimmy-lee It’s the Eastern Sycamore. Grows 100-150 feet. I gave it a good 20 foot radius and cut a set of lower branches every year. Right now its canopy radius is only 4 feet, maybe 5, so it’s gonna be awhile before it’s a problem. It was only two feet tall and broomstick-thick when I dug it up about 200 yards from here. It’s about as thick as a two liter now. I have 4 hollys as well, but I may grab a few more sycamore this fall. The front yard only has a lone maple that really doesn’t grow. I call it Charlie Brown’s tree.

I don’t have any plants in the house because one of the cats really enjoys eating them. I’m talking cow in a pasture enjoyment.

The 4 muscadines I actually got for about $6 on clearance. Some tlc, spent coffee grounds, and a summer later; they outgrew their pots and single trellises and had to be put in the ground. Now they’re pulling down the 8ga wire and metal spikes. I’m gonna put three 12’ 4x4 posts in at 8’ above grade then use a top post across with a short length of green chain link fence to fill the middle. In the winter.

@bimmy-lee @HobbitGamer yea its been a long time comin.. like @Tyranexx said it's been raining for weeks and weeks. My day started with being up at 5am with the little pooch, Going to Menards and picking up some vegetable bulbs( after successfully growing my grass, I'm attempting to grow some veggies out of a trough looking thing) so I planted all that, pulled some weeds, cut the lawn laid down more grass seed and top soil in other spots. Then made water balloons for the kids and neighborhood kids. So needless to say i needed to fire up the grill. It actually rained on and off today but I found a perfect window to turn it on. Actually boiled them in some Guinness first then give them a light char. Made some pasta salad on the side. Finished off the night at a local ice cream parlor that's been around since the 20s. Nice day indeed

@bimmy-lee
Actually... I have another ideas from my kickboxing characters.
I got the inspiration from Blitzball, Dragon Ball and Doraemon movie about Birdtopia.
Last time, i asked to one user here about suitable bird names for my Avian Kickboxer.
And I made my another project about Avian Kickboxer.
Take a look my samples.
Dove

Raven

@HobbitGamer - That’s a fast grower, and a nice looking tree. In some of the images, it looked like they may eventually have tree nuts, so that might explain the abundance of saplings. Cool that you have a spot like that so close to your house. I’d definitely go back for more. I wonder why your maple doesn’t grow? Those are pretty care free trees. They don’t even need much sun. If it’s totally exposed, maybe it’s actually too much hot GA sun. It can be intense. I’d love to grow some grape vines. We don’t have great weather for it, but it can be done.

@NintendoByNature - What a day, and you get today to recover... or do it all again. I’m in NE IN, so I think you, @Tyranexx and I are all complaining about the same rain. You guys just get it a few hours before I do.

@Anti-Matter - Those are great. I haven’t seen the bird kickboxers before. You should do more birds. Plenty to choose from, and you could stick with the light/dark theme you’ve established with the dove and raven. The raven would be a very smart, technical boxer. Hard to beat. The dove mates for life, so maybe it gets by on determination. Like Rocky.

@bimmy-lee
Actually... I designed the Dove and Raven as Avian Kickboxer apprentice. (They have smaller body)
They are still Senior High School students.
Of course, other birds has been considered.
Based on their wings type i have considered Eagle, Japanese Crane, Woodpecker, Swallow, Macaw, Red Cardinal, Blue Jay, Albatross, Swan, Owl, etc.

My Dove and Raven have their own names.
I gave the Dove name as Caleb and the Raven as Russell. They got trained by the Avian Kickboxer Legend, Arnold the Eagle as their coach as well. Oh, well... I haven't drawn Arnold the Eagle. 😅

Oh... One more thing.
My Avian Kickboxers are not just only fight on the ground.
They also fight in the air by flying with their wings, like Dragon Ball fights 😉

@Anti-Matter - Please don’t ever change. Looks like your next job in the avian series is Arnie Eagle. We need to see the legendary trainer. Those are all really good ideas. It would make an excellent indie fighter on the eShop. The cardinal and blue jay would be very aggressive. I see a lot of them and woodpeckers around my home. The unquestioned avian king of my forest is the red tailed hawk. There’s a pair living nearby, and when the male is out hunting, every woodland creature goes silent. He’s like a fighter jet. I saw him pluck a seagull right out of the air once. Sometimes he eats mice and squirrels on my wood pile.

@Tyranexx Haha, yeah, I often find myself in the same situation, after posting one of my usual text walls, that always take some time to compose, edit and rewrite until I give them the final okay, and then suddenly, I find myself one or several pages further along in the thread, and then I have to browse back (well, HAVE to is a big word, but you'll probably get the picture) to see if I missed anything that I might also want to respond to or add my own two cents on.

@NEStalgia "i want to see every airport shut down if it's not going overseas"

Aren't there places "overseas" that are closer than NY to LA or Boston to San Fran? I haven't been on a plane in 17 years, my teen sons have never been on one, but I'm not taking a train for 3,000 miles. NY to Disney could probably ave a high speed rail, but that's about my limit. And as I said NY to Chicago, Chicago to St Louis. Nobody needs to go to Texas, and they don't want any of us there anyway. Airports have always been horrible, and w/ more people means more headache, and the whole world is going to hell anyway, but if we replaced planes w/ trains don't ya think the rail stations would be horrible as well? You think all the horrible trash and evil passengers are going to turn chummy just b/c they're on a train for 18 hours rather than a plane for 6? I don't think so. Not saying I have the answer, I'm saying there is no answer, no point in looking for one.

I tested a few games on the new laptop.

Going for the absolute best settings in Bioshock 3 and Soma seems to give mixed results, however they do run. Scaling down the settings fixes the frame rate drops.

Resident Evil Remake runs perfectly, which is new to me. That one goes at 2 frames per second in every other computer I test it on.

Steamworld Dig 2 had some weird screen tearing issues on the intro, but the game seems to run well after that.

I can't for the life of me figure out how to use a controller with Farming Simulator 17, but other than that it runs as expected. No rush to figure out anything else there since I do have that one for switch too. So whatever.

I may get Resident Evil 7 next time it goes on sale, since that one is dual pc-xbox one compatible. So two birds with one stone.

@bimmy-lee It could be the same rain in some cases. XD I live in southern IL.

@ThanosReXXX That's some of the problem for me as well. I sometimes also check notifications some time before I reply to them and don't tend to realize how much time has passed in some cases. I'm trying to get better about refreshing the pages. This thread tends to move fast sometimes....