Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

You'd need to be a bit more specific, I don't see any reports or warnings with your username

But morph, that person wass just mc hammersapiens lieks ewe.

What an interesting day indeed.
Also, how do I know if my usb c cable is plugged in upside down?? Should I just make a new thread for that? Or should I make two just to be safe.

Maybe the guys on the main site could make a tutorial article

Well, even this thread doesn't make sense anymore...

@Octane When did it ever?

@Tyranexx Well, I'm glad we don't have these beetles over here (yet). We do have a slight upsurge in those Japanese hornets, though, and I've seen documentaries about them wreaking havoc both in Japan and the States, so I kinda figured that they would be a bigger or at least more familiar issue.

Over here, we're currently struggling with the caterpillar of the oak processionary moth. Entire hordes are overwhelming trees in woods and parks, and because there have been several windy days over here, they have spread wider and farther than usual, also landing in people's backyards and such.

And they multiply like rabbits too. The danger is in the caterpillars: they have very long, almost invisible hairs on their backs, which break off quite easily, and these can cause inflammation, allergic reactions and irritation of the skin, eyes and airways. I've already seen quite a few gruesome pictures, displaying the effects. And because you can't see the hairs, you just start scratching or rubbing your skin, only working the hairs further into it, making it worse.

So, even though we don't have them over here yet, I'm tentatively saying that I'd prefer the beetles over the caterpillars. Then again: I don't have a garden to worry about...

@ThanosReXXX - I watch predominantly horror movies, so I sit through/fall asleep to a lot of bad movies. As Above is definitely not an A+ movie, but within the genre, I’d give it a solid B+. No matter how desensitized I become, being lost/tight spaces still get my pulse racing. Much like the classic The Descent, As Above pretty much nails those aspects, and I find those themes much scarier than some of the jump scares.

Horror movies are the best source for dark comedy in my opinion, and I watch them more to laugh than to be scared, though I do love the rare movie that can freak me out. Hereditary was one of them from last year. There are a couple scenes in that movie that will stick with me forever.

If you have even a fleeting interest in Baum’s Oz stories, I can highly recommend Return to Oz. It was a “kid’s movie” in 1985, but make no mistake; it’s absolutely a horror movie in 2019. It’s like Majora’s Mask If Wizard of Oz is OOT, only turned up five more notches in the creepy department.

At any rate, less than ten minutes until the Dutch/American war. Enjoy. Good luck.

@bimmy-lee Match starting in 7 minutes...

@Anti-Matter - Queen Mombi is the creepiest part of the movie, but there are lots of other creepy parts. The moose head they bring back to life with the magic powder, the wheeled monkeys, it’s a very dark story. So was Oz, but they made it a musical. L. Frank Baum’s books are pretty dark, especially by modern standards. If you’ve never seen the Return to Oz movie, it’s definitely nothing like Wizard of Oz.

@ThanosReXXX - Jenkies, what a half. Both teams got good looks but couldn’t convert. Seems like there’s slight momentum for the Dutch team as you mentioned they prefer to lay back, play D, and sneak out a goal in the 2nd half.

@bimmy-lee Yup, it's nail biting-a go-go...

Not having been able to make their usual goal within the first 10-15 minutes, must have slightly fazed team USA, hence probably also that sudden speed up in the last moments, to force something. Didn't work, so on to the second half...

Here's hoping it's not going to end in a penalty shootout, because I hate those.

When did it do?

@ThanosReXXX - Good match, good tournament. The Dutch women should be proud. Our commentators said they’re a young team, and now they know how close they came, and what they need to do to break through. The goal by Rose Lavelle was unbelievable.

Well, if that would mean having to read books, then the answer would probably be no. I don't read that many books nowadays, save for the odd comic and/or magazine.

I am wondering about how an eighties kid's movie can all of a sudden turn into a horror movie in 2019. The effects may have been impressive for its time, but they're obviously far less impressive nowadays. And like I said: I don't scare easily. I used to watch all the gruesome stuff from the eighties and nineties, such as Hell Raiser, and of course all the standard fare such as Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Scream, Chainsaw Massacre and such, and also semi-realistic stuff such as the Faces of Death series.

But, after that, I kinda lost interest, especially when we got the series that simply went on for too long, such as Final Destination and Saw. The latter a series I never even liked in the first place, but milking these series so much, and stretching them out to 5 movies or more, is just stupid. And then there's the extra gruesome genre, which basically just seems to consist of elements to gross people out, or horror for the sake of it, with little to no intelligence behind it, such as Hostel.

No, give me thrillers and/or more psychological horror, which is also harder to make, especially if you're not making use of visible monsters and/or other entities. If you can make that scary, then that's far more of an achievement. In that respect, As Above... did have some really good moments, but I guess that based on the premise, I might have been expecting a bit too much from it.

I also like the more fairy tale/fantasy kind of horror, such as Pan's Labyrinth. If you haven't seen that yet, put it on your "to watch" list, because it's really good and has an intelligent story, so it definitely scored points in my book.

As for tonight's game, good tournament: yes, Dutch women should be proud: definitely, but the feeling overall is still rather ambiguous. Guess I'm feeling more Dutch than American after all...

That penalty was VERY easily given. Morgan is a pretty decent B-actress. The Dutch don't like all this drama, and a bit of a shoulder nudge or an unintended high kick would in most cases never have resulted in a penalty in the Dutch competition, but of course, that damn video ref HAD to ruin things again.

Rose Lavelle's goal was a good one, for sure, but I've seen quite a few during this tournament, that were better and/or more spectacular. And of course, if they wouldn't have gotten that penalty, things would have possibly turned out quite differently, but the Dutch were clearly fazed by this penalty, and then it was an uphill battle from there, which against a team like the US, is pretty much useless. You need to be in the driver's seat, not letting them run you over.

Good thing that the Dutch/we still have the best goal keeper, otherwise it might even have turned really nasty...

One thing, though, and that's something that always comes back to bite us yanks in the hind quarters, is our arrogance, and stance against Europe, as if it doesn't matter. Rapinoe hardly acknowledged the Dutch goal keeper during the individual recognition ceremony, if not for the photographers, who more or less forced her to take a picture with her. And her pose striking after making a goal was also quite arrogant.

I've seen several interviews, as mentioned before, and we Americans truly do seem to believe that it isn't arrogance, but just certainty, belief in the outcome, in our favor. Not all countries, but a lot of European nations are FAR more down to Earth in that respect, and also know when to be humble, and act in service of the sport and the team, instead of being all brash and smug.

All things considered, because it was my dream finale, I still feel a bit less sad than when the Dutch would have had to face (and would have lost against) another country, but still quite a few mixed emotions nonetheless...

Anyway, the Dutch may very well get them back at the Olympics. Now they know how to play against them, and on the way to the Olympics, there's no difference in number of resting days before the final anymore.

@Anti-Matter That...actually sounds a little like the character I set up in Xenoblade Chronicles X, though that Chara was a she.

@ThanosReXXX ...I think you win this time. XD We don't have those that I know of. They look a little like something we have over here called a bagworm minus those fine, almost invisible hairs.

In terms of tree destruction, the worst invasive pest we have in that department that I know of is the emerald ash borer. They're pretty destructive to a lot of ash tree species here.

@Tyranexx Ah, another species of useless little buggers, eh... bugs.
Doesn't exactly sound like a garden party to have these on your property either.

The caterpillar storm will be finished here in a couple of weeks. The remaining ones will cocoon and the moths coming out of those are more easy to get rid of, and they don't have any body parts or appendages that are harmful to humans or animals.

But yeah, I wouldn't wish these on anyone, because the initial caterpillar stage can be quite intrusive and overwhelming. And I suppose you can imagine what it will do to people who are already allergic or asthmatic.

@Tyranexx @Morpheel I'm not Velma level but without my glasses people essentially don't have faces and I can't read anything father away than about 10cm. You know how they have those charts at the eye doctors with the big E at the top? Without my glasses when the doctor asked me to read the smallest letter I could my answer is "I know the top letter is E because I saw it when I came in. But yeah, it looks like a black blob now."

@Heavyarms55 That's about where my vision was at. XD I couldn't even read the giant E without glasses or contacts in and had to REALLY squint before I could make out the general shape even.

@ThanosReXXX I would hate to be one who is allergic to them this time of year. If it's anything like I go through with my eyes during some periods of the spring....

My vision is not SUPER bad, I can manage myself without glasses. But I do need them on all day.

However, my eyes are very different, and one of them is a bit blurry even with glasses. I would probably need a much stronger graduation for it it to be perfect. My optometrist prefers to balance it out instead of going all out for that eye.

Curiously, without the glasses on, that eye has a better far sight compared to the other one. Not good by any means, but I can make out more details with it.

Well I was playing the heck out of secret of mana and I had to just stop. I got to the very end, on dark lich whos the second to last boss if you've never played it. Turns out I didn't have magic to actually beat him after hour or two of trying. My guess is i have to go and grind to level up my magic a little more. Just stinks you can't really hit this guy with regular combat so you have to solely rely on magic which is kind of a flaw in my opinion. And you need to use magic in the rest of the dungeon so it makes it pretty hard to get to him with enough magic to actually beat him. Rather than spending another few hours of grinding and going all the way back to him in the dungeon which takes a while in itself, I'm putting the game down for a bit since it ticked me off 😠. Enough of my complaining though. Just finished season 3 of stranger things last night no worries, no spoilers 😁. I LOVED it. Now, i just played chapter 1 of stranger things 3 the game. Plays like a zelda game in an isometric view. So I'm having some fun! I'll play this throughout the week and hopefully ill finish this in time for the bloodstained patch. Got the cart yesterday just waiting to be played 😆

I bought Dad Dreams last night. Didn’t get a chance to play it. We were knee deep in Pub Encounter when I thought to show it to my wife, and she immediately wanted it. It was a little too late to fire up a new game by the time it downloaded.

That stinks @NintendoByNature . It happens to me from time to time, especially with RPGs and adventure games like Mana. I can be totally drawn in to one, play it for weeks, then hit a snag and just have to walk away from it, or be done with it entirely. We must be weirdos.

@ThanosReXXX - My grandma had the Oz books on a shelf. I never read them straight through, but I’m sure I opened them enough through the years to read most or all of them. Of course, the movie hasn’t changed since ‘85, but our perceptions of what makes a “kids” movie sure have. My kids will probably be able to watch Wizard of Oz within the next year or two, but they’ll need to be much older before they can watch Return to Oz. My grandma and aunt are kind of Oz whackos. I know a little too much.

I haven’t seen enough World Cup celebrations to have a steady base to compare, but I thought the US team seemed to have an appropriate level of excitement. I missed the snub with the goalkeeper. However, I did have a sinking feeling that everyone else around the world hated watching the ceremony for a variety of reasons. I sort of just assumed we weren’t doing it the right way. We’re too free over here. You should see what people do when they score a touchdown.

The US women are a feisty bunch, and they’re trying to use their platform to inspire women, grow the sport in the US, and push for various social change. My daughter watched the last ten minutes and part of the ceremony with me. She was inspired. We went straight outside after to kick a ball up and down the driveway. At any rate, I enjoyed our football banter and watching more of the World Cup than usual, and I look forward to the Olympics.