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Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

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Banjo-

Octane wrote:

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

When did it do?

Banjo-

bimmy-lee

@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.

limby-bee was a jerk.

My Nintendo: RedNestor

ThanosReXXX

bimmy-lee wrote:

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.

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.

Edited on by ThanosReXXX

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

Tyranexx

@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.

Currently playing: Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires' Conspiracy (Switch)

"Love your neighbor as yourself." Mark 12:31

ThanosReXXX

@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.

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

Heavyarms55

@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."

Nintendo Switch FC: 4867-2891-2493
Switch username: Em
Discord: Heavyarms55#1475
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Tyranexx

@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....

Currently playing: Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires' Conspiracy (Switch)

"Love your neighbor as yourself." Mark 12:31

Eel

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.

Bloop.

<My slightly less dead youtube channel>

SMM2 Maker ID: 69R-F81-NLG

My Nintendo: Abgarok | Nintendo Network ID: Abgarok

NintendoByNature

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 😆

NintendoByNature

bimmy-lee

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.

limby-bee was a jerk.

My Nintendo: RedNestor

Haruki_NLI

I'm amazed I'm going to work today.

Last week was surprise overtime after a huge hour cut. Massive deliveries and not staff.

Saturday required help from other departments since I was basically on my own. One hour into my shift I got asked why one pallet of stock wasn't cleared. I was yelled at, berated and everything. I had to explain that look, one person is stuck on tills, one hasn't worked food before, I've got a damaged hip now because of this job, there are new SKUs that need places to be, customers are everywhere and I'm depressed enough as it is.

This was after I nearly threw things at this guy mind. Not the first time it's happened. It's like they expect a pile of stock with literally hundreds to thousands of individual items to go as fast as the bulk stuff like furniture.

Now Playing: Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, Crash Bandicoot 4

Now Streaming: Sonic Lost World, Just Cause 3

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DenDen

@Knuckles-Fajita
That sucks man, im with you hope jou are better soon.

Now playing
Nexomon
Dicey Dungeons
UnderMine
Steamworld Quest

FC - SW 2926-4689-1966

Switch Friend Code: Sw-2926-4689-1966 | My Nintendo: DenDen

bimmy-lee

I was outside late last night with my dog on his final potty break of the day, and I accidentally stepped on a small toad who was hanging out on the brick pathway. The crunch and squish was nauseating. I couldn’t tell what it was, so I got a flashlight to see. I felt really bad, there was nothing I could do. It was quick for him at least. I was also a bit relieved because my first thought after the crunch was that it was a tarantula sized spider, which would have been a nightmare.

limby-bee was a jerk.

My Nintendo: RedNestor

HobbitGamer

Untitled

#MudStrongs

Switch Friend Code: SW-7842-2075-5515 | My Nintendo: HobbitGamr | Nintendo Network ID: HobbitGamr

Anti-Matter
Official Mulan Live action by Disney due to March 2020.
Say, why there are so many new releases on March 2020 ? 🤨

Anti-Matter

ThanosReXXX

@Tyranexx Sounds like hay fever? I used to have hay fever-like symptoms for a period of over 5 years, back in my twenties, but except for slightly lessening the symptoms, all the pills and inhalers/sprays I used never really seemed to be up to the task. At some point, I decided to get a referral to a specialist, because I felt like I didn't have hay fever at all, and I don't like taking medicine too much, so if it's not really needed or appropriate for what ails you, then you're basically putting chemicals inside your body.

So, ultimately, I got my referral, and went to an ENT specialist, who luckily had the luminous idea to make a scan of my head, and guess what he found? A rather large clot, the size of a big marble, resting comfortably in one of my sinuses, irritating the membrane, which caused the hay fever-like symptoms. And I'd been walking around with that for over 5 years! Of course, it wasn't that big initially, but because my own doctor never discovered it, it kept accumulating mucus and dirt, so that ultimately turned into this end result.

Following that discovery, I got a small drain installed in my nose, and in two or three treatments, I got my sinus flushed out with some kind of fluid, might also have been lukewarm water or something (couldn't tell, because during the first treatment, I was locally sedated, because of the installation of the drain), and in the end, they got it cleaned out completely.

Unfortunately, because of the clot having been in there for so long, the damage to my sinus is permanent, so I'm still relatively sensitive to pollen and what not, so I do sneeze around this time of year, but I don't need any medicine anymore, it's just going to be a sensitive area for the rest of my life. Yay, medical science!

Concerning the eyesight discussion: even with my relatively weak lenses, I'm still experiencing the same effects to some degree, of only seeing fuzzy images when taking them out, albeit obviously not to the degree that you experience it. Still annoying, though. That is why I still keep my glasses around. At the end of the day, in certain periods of the year, my eyes also get too dry for the lenses, so instead of continuously spraying or putting drops of fluid in my eyes, I just take them out, and wear my glasses for the rest of the evening.

@bimmy-lee Well, if you compare the American celebrations to most European ones, you'll clearly see the difference. What nearly always shines through in them is the whole ""we are greater, bigger, better" thing, that's so stereo-typical of us, and then, sometimes, there's the superlative "we are the greatest country in the world" which is particularly nauseating, even to me...

Even as young as I was (age 9, remember?), I had to more or less defend myself from things like that, once people found out where I originally came from. Along the way, over the space of many years, I've been able to bend that prejudice around concerning myself and some others, but in general, that stereotype is still there, and because (most) Americans aren't making any effort to show otherwise, probably because most of them simply don't care about those silly Europeans, it'll probably remain with us forever, and there'll always be some contempt/disdain towards us because of this.

In the specific case of this World Championship it wasn't so much the entire team taking it too far, but Megan Rapinoe. Like I mentioned, her goal celebration was too brash, almost like some kind of Roman emperor, WAY too egotistical, and the stunt she pulled on the stage was truly embarrassing for me as a Dutchified American.

She was supposed to receive her award, then go on to the stage, take a picture with the other two (Alex Morgan and Sari van Veenendaal, the Dutch goal keeper), and then step off, to give Sari her well-deserved moment in the spotlight, being the best goal keeper in the entire tournament. Morgan understood and/or respected this, and walked off stage after the picture was taken, but Rapinoe simply remained on stage, doing her annoying Roman emperor pose again, so instead of the ceremony going how it should have been going, it kinda became the Rapinoe show.

It isn't so much about them being too free with their celebrations: you should have seen the celebrations of the Dutch during this tournament, those were equally wild, if not more. No, it's about being too brash and too smug. We should tone it down a notch, but we probably never will...

And that was after what I told you earlier, about her not even acknowledging the Dutch goalie, when she came on stage for the photo op with her and Morgan. So, basically, it was insult upon insult, well, insults... let's call them slights, but still not nice of her to do. I have a strong feeling that all of this was in large part fueled by Rapinoe's one-woman anti-White House campaign, and as such wanting all the glory for herself in some ways, so maybe, she was drinking a little bit too much of the celebrity Kool Aid...

It was all over the news and sports programs over here, replayed, analyzed, dissected, and harshly scoffed at. But luckily for me, bathing in my substitute shame/shame by proxy during all that, there was a redeeming factor at the end of the evening, and that was some of the normal, every day American people: Dutch reporters were in a number of cities/places in the States, where the match was shown on screens, such as in bars and so on, and the people there were very positive about the Dutch team, giving compliments, acknowledging their skill and so on, so that was nice, and that made me feel a little less embarrassed about it all.

I wonder how it's gonna go down now, once team USA is back in the States. I suppose none of them are going to visit loony Donald, but we'll see.

I do get the bit about inspiring kids though. And I also applaud that, because it's not only nice, it's also very necessary. It's also happening over here, and luckily, women's soccer is getting bigger and bigger. But in the States, there's even more catching up to do, seeing as soccer as a whole will probably not even rank in the top 5 of most important sports over there, while by rights, it absolutely shouldn't be lower than being featured in a top 3, if you consider that it's the world's number 1 sport.

On a side note: another thing that also stood out about team USA, is how literally EVERYTHING is planned down to the smallest detail. The Dutch sports program that followed after the match showed the celebration of the US team in the locker room and what I saw immediately made me think "only in America" and "oh, boy, here we go again... " in the same moment.

It was truly ridiculous, seeing the whole locker room being taped off with plastic sheets or something, and all the players of the team, substitutes included, wearing (skiing?) goggles, so as not to hurt their sensitive little eyes while they were spraying champagne on each other...

If you don't know or understand how ridiculous that looks, well... then I'm afraid that this is where the problem lies with how we are perceived by a lot of Europeans. Things like a locker room celebration shouldn't be planned, it should be completely off the scales, wild, spontaneous, and it doesn't matter if anyone gets a bit of champagne in their hair or in their eyes. It all goes with the territory.

Oh well, at least it gave the Dutch commentators a good laugh, which was at least something positive to end the program with...

Edited on by ThanosReXXX

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

bimmy-lee

@Zuljaras - Blech, why are they full of chocolate pudding and yellow gelatin? I went to sleep thinking about the crunch, and it was the first thing I thought of when I woke up. At least now I know every time I step on something that crunches, I’ll have an immediate flashback to the toad situation.

@ThanosReXXX - You know, it used to really bother me that we were world wide villains, but I’ve given up on that burden. We’re an enormous country filled with good and bad people, and I can’t let myself worry about what our idiots are doing online or out in the world. The general population is the same as any other country in the world, there’s just so many of us; we have more outliers. When I had kids, I realized my responsibility was to raise two decent humans, not decent Americans, humans. The locker room champagne celebrations started here in baseball decades ago. A reporter took a cork to the eye, and everyone has been wearing the goggles since.

I’d say there’s overwhelming odds they’re not going to the White House, seeing as the orange guy is the face of what some of them are fighting against. Rapinoe’s celebrations were intentionally emperor like. I wish we could handle things like these celebrations in a more appropriate manner according to world view, but we’re talking sports. If someone wants it to end, beat us, and the victory will be so sweet. It happened in basketball after the ‘92 Olympics. Charles Barkley single handedly inspired entire countries to up their basketball game, and now a significant portion of the NBA is comprised of European players, and there are professional leagues around the world providing opportunities for athletes and entertainment.

I realize football is the world’s sport, our women are on top, and that drives people crazy. Hopefully it inspires a generation of European women, and the sport continues to evolve and go to new heights the world over.

limby-bee was a jerk.

My Nintendo: RedNestor

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