Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@HobbitGamer Like the bear said to the terribly lousy hunter:
"You didn't REALLY come here to shoot bears, now did you?"
Don't ask the question that you wouldn't like to have the answer to.

But if stucco is code for skin, then you're right on the money...

Click is on the list of movies I need to see, but never have. Maybe someday. XD

@ThanosReXXX Haha, fair enough! I find it ironic that we're discussing OTC meds at roughly the same time the mobile Dr. Mario game has hit the masses....

@Tyranexx "It's just like a pill... "

@ThanosReXXX - Ha, if it comes with bed bugs, then we don’t need to worry about getting bed bugs. I’ve pulled a lot of living things out of organic fruits and veggies, so I’m half expecting it. We’ll see. It’s going to take a week to 10 days to ship, then another few days in transit. It has a one year sleep trial, so if it does try to crawl away, I’ll give it directions back to the organic mattress manufacturers.

I’ve heard of the Landmark Institute. Never known anyone who did the courses, but I’ve heard they’re rather creepy. You know, I’d like to believe we all can make of life what we want, but sometimes I wonder if I think that because I’m a white guy in America. Who knows? Maybe just some of us can. At any rate, just believing in that can probably be beneficial to a lot of people.

@HobbitGamer - Awesome, thanks, I’ll check it out. I really like It Follows. It ends poorly, but almost everything does. For me personally, slow moving, unstoppable things are way creepier than super fast things. Lots of time for dread. Inevitability is scary. An actor painted blue in the background of a Romero flick is way creepier than modern, CGI rage zombies in my opinion.

@bimmy-lee Well this will be up your alley, then. Will be happy to discuss my annoyance with it when get around to it.
A movie has to have that sense of dread for me to get hooked. I feel like it can make the situation more relatable. Dream House, Shutter Island, The Road, those sorts of things.

Love shutter island. You know what movies whacked? The perfection on Netflix. Cant even really describe it. It's out there.

@bimmy-lee Good call on the mattress. By the way: the reason why I came up with the image/idea of the crawling mattress wasn't so much the organic mattress itself, but the fact that I happened to have just started watching the second season of Zoo (great series, by the way, albeit a bit far-fetched sometimes). Without giving away any spoilers, let's just say that the animals won't stand for our behavior anymore, and decide to do something about it.

And not just the big beasties, no... ALL animals, so insects and so on included. And THAT's where the two images came together: vengeful insects + organic mattress = bed walking away with bimmy and his better half on it...

As for Landmark: the methods that they use/apply aren't bad in and of itself. Basically it's just awareness, mindfulness, NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), learning to think out of the box, and a bit of meditation training.

The thing is, and I'm almost afraid to say it, but it is the very reason they're banned over here, that their methods of applying these perfectly acceptable tools/means of improving oneself are too extreme and are seen as "too American". Too flashy, too in your face, etcetera. During most of the initial course that I followed, I was sat in the front or second to front row, because I'm a confident bugger, and also because I knew from my sales training, that it offers some modicum of control: people that choose to sit further back, will be seen as insecure, and as such will be chosen sooner, to come on stage and/or participate in exercises, especially at events like these.

Anyway, I do remember all the weird stuff that happened there, over the course of a couple of weeks, but what I chose to take away from it, is all the actually useful stuff I learned there, and that I was able to teach others, as well as apply to myself.

I should have elaborated a bit on the whole "life is what you make it" bit: of course it's true that not everyone can become a millionaire, so it's not about all of us being able to make of life what we want, but everyone CAN be the best version of themselves, that they could be, from within, so it's not a capitalistic thing, that's about having riches and so on. It's about getting all out of yourself, and that is the maximum potential, which will automatically make your life better, regardless of how incremental. The end result will always end up being better than what you have now.

So, it's not related to skin color or social background either. It's about choices, being aware of your own potential, not being afraid to take some risks, or at least not to be afraid to go into unknown territories (think AND go out of the box), and start with yourself.

Let's take a stereotype: a guy living in a ghetto, probably not Caucasian. He could choose to get rich quick, and join a gang, or deal drugs or whatever, but he could also choose to get an education, or a job, and then an education, and slowly climb up from there. It's not as quick as the "easy" way of taking the criminal path, but in the end, it's definitely the better one. And not just for yourself.

Important part, though, is to do all of it with realism in mind, so no ghetto kid will probably have a great job at first, or will be able to apply to the best school or university from the get go, but small steps forward are always better than standing still or taking leaps backward...

Or take me for example: worked at call centers, moved on to sales offices, became a team leader, trained people, but still I felt this nagging feeling that this wasn't it. Not to beat my own chest, but I think it's fair to say that at least 7 or 8 people out of 10 will ignore or push away that feeling, and just carry on, thinking or making themselves think that it's just part of what a 9 to 5 working life is supposed to be.

That's probably also where all the Monday hating comes from, as well as the whole TGIF thing:
basically two sides of the same coin...

Either way, I've seen things that I didn't like or agree with, but working for a boss man, and "only" being a team leader will only get you so far, so I was able to sell my managers on some changes, but definitely not all that I would have liked to make. So, after almost 14 years of sales & marketing for an employer, I decided to take the plunge, and start working for myself, so that I could finally be in control over ALL aspects of the process, and not be hampered or held down by company policies other than my own.

I haven't become rich either, but after having initially been quite apprehensive about doing all this (quitting my job, applying at the chamber of commerce, finding clients to work for), I actually found that although my income now rather wildly varies, I could breathe again, and although new kinds of stress came into my life, they weren't nearly as bad as that big millstone around my neck when I was working for a boss.

It's a very Western thing, though, to affix possibilities or options to one's social standing or origin. Most Asian people have a far better grasp on that, or maybe I should say they are more in tune. If you just look at martial arts fighters for example: from WAY back in the old days, people of all walks of life, whether it would be the emperor's son, or a lowly peasant boy, could become a great fighter or soldier. Of course there were classes, but within their means, they were all able to climb up to their own personal tower of success in some ways, to find their potential, and more importantly: inner peace.

They have all these wonderful labels for it, such as yin and yang, chi, and what not. That actually brings me back to the beginning of this text wall, and the things we learned at management training, which in a lot of ways are the Western versions of these things. And most of it we "borrowed" from other cultures and Westernized anyways...

So believe, yes, but only to the extent of believing in yourself. The rest is control over the things that you actually can have control over, so any outside factor is to be ignored in that regard. Be aware of it, but if you can't do anything about it, counter it (within the boundaries of your own possibilities) with the skills you DO have and the things you CAN do. As I so often say: think in solutions, not in problems.

And another one: my mentor always said "trust is good, control is better". That still holds up to this day.

So, end of text wall. Sorry I made you read all that, but I hope I managed to open a new door or window for you, regardless of how small. Possibilities, my friend, possibilities...

Moving on: completely agreed on slow moving, unstoppable things being way creepier. I don't know which jackass came up with zombies that move like Usain Bolt, but that guy needs to be institutionalized, to say the least. He ruined everything. The slow unstoppable hoard of the undead is FAR more fear-inducing than a zombie jaguar.

And besides: even a fool knows that dead bodies can't move fluidly. That's probably also why they mostly call them "infected" instead of zombies in most of those movies, because calling them living dead doesn't really fit the bill anymore...

@HobbitGamer Have you seen Pan's Labyrinth? It's fantasy mixed with horror, but placed in a real world scenario of the Second World War. A true masterpiece, far as I'm concerned, and a must see for fans of the genre. So, if you haven't seen it or don't know it yet, you might want to give it a watch...

its dangerous to go alone!
take this.

It's dangerous to go alone!
Take this.

That’s not the sealing wand

Note: rated PG 13+ for bullying, mild violences, Dora bring the knife and some mild language.

“Dora bring the knife” is now on my list of favorite @Anti-Matter quotes, right there with “100% suck” 😁

I have The Perfection on my watchlist, it looks trippy. Just need to find time to sit down and watch it.

Pan’s Labyrinth is amazing.

Going to go drop all them monies and pick up the truck. 😅

@HobbitGamer ''I almost squirted'' comes pretty close as well

@HobbitGamer - I checked it out last night and enjoyed it. Lots of tension and dread. Good knife work, those scenes were terrifying. I threw a freshly sharpened Swiss Army knife right into my lower leg when I was a kid and had to pull it out. Knives are scary. I thought Emma Roberts was really good. I fell asleep for a few scenes, and I could never really figure out the storyline with the girl in the present who was en route to the school. Different girl, same demon possibly? Solid 6-7/10.

@ThanosReXXX - Before I forget (again) Pan’s Labyrinth is a masterpiece. If Guillermo is involved, I’ll watch without hesitation. Never fear about replying to me with a “text wall”, I definitely read them, even if I need to brew a pot of coffee and read it in chunks! I appreciate the conversation.

I’ve heard Zoo is good, so maybe I’ll give it a try. My assumption is that nature will take us out someday, either through animal uprising, mega influenza (most likely), or releasing a titan or two from the center of the earth; so I think I would enjoy it.

The first fast moving, rage infected zombie movie I remember was 28 Days Later, and I loved it. When it released, it was an interesting take on the zombie genre. Unfortunately, it became THE way zombies were depicted in the majority of films from ‘02 to present. We’re due for a good, shambling horde movie.

@Octane Yeah, close for being one of the weirdest, possibly grossest comment to come out of the mouth of a human male...

@bimmy-lee Much appreciated. I won't bombard you too much, though. That's only reserved for specific topics, but I felt some clarification was needed here, to get the whole point.

As for Zoo: I think you'll definitely like it then. It has it all: cool cast of characters, interesting premise, even some horror bits, and moving at a nice pace. Second season is still going like a train. I've found that quite a few series either slow down to a crawl, or just lose their point of interest, but this one keeps coming up with interesting twists and turns, although sometimes, the animal thing is getting a bit out of control, but then again: maybe that's just the point, seeing that's what the series is about...

As for it happening in real life: I think that ultimately, short of us drilling all the way to the core and sealing our doom that way, Mother Earth will survive us all. And it still remains to be seen how long the human race will survive regardless of what the Earth does. After all, we've only been here for a relatively short time, especially if you compare us to all living creatures that came before us.

But maybe, in a couple more generations, we'll go into space, and look for another planet to ruin, once we're done bleeding this one dry...

@bimmy-lee That's about the score I'd give it. My only annoyance was the disjointed feel between the girl en route, and all the other events. I mean, save for the school logos and the last scene indoors, I felt like two entirely different movies were going on. Emma Roberts definitely filled her role well. I went from feeling bad for her character to...well, not. Not at all.

Zoo is worth a watch, as is Helix. 28 Days Later really felt like there was reasoning behind the fast moving style. Especially with the whole 'burns out the body' caveat around the title. The sequel was.. okay.. kind of samey. I think it's hard to recapture the same things the first one had. It was more Dawn of the Dead than Day of the Dead, if that makes sense. There were rumblings of a 3rd for years, but I don't think it'll happen at this point. Right now I'm almost done going through Van Helsing again, but Netflix doesn't have season 3 and the SyFy app only has the most recent 5 episodes available. Hrm.

@RedderRugfish Someone discovered a way to be sanitary, healthy, but still drink from the toilet to be cool with all his friends.

Not sure if anyone is playing stranger things. There's a back to the future Easter egg in the game. Thought it was pretty cool. Its not clear as day. You kind of have to look for it.

Oh and a rocky reference

@ogo79 - Curious about the inside cover, could you post that as well?

@ThanosReXXX - Yep, I felt like my initial thoughts on the subject could be further clarified as well. Pretty sure Space Force will run the galaxy soon. If anyone else wants a claim to any of it, they better hurry up. It’s probably happening in the next year or two. Merica! I don’t believe the Earth will let us ruin it. She’ll let out a quick puff of influenza Z, and that will be that for us.

@HobbitGamer - Ah, so it wasn’t confusing because I missed a few scenes, it was just confusing. I think the present time story line was the demon/devil in a different host. Can’t be positive though. At any rate, a darn decent horror with brutal knife deaths.

@NintendoByNature - Great Scott, the Stranger Things game has broken the space/time continuum! We’re doomed! Season three is set a year before Back to the Future.

Edit - Same year, always best to google first and make statements later.