Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@NEStalgia Sorry... was slammed at work so it was a stream of consciousness post. I'll follow up later.

@StableInvadeel If you've seen many cities, you wouldn't mistake what you see for having been planned....

@Ryu_Niiyama heck my own reply feels incomplete despite it's length! No rush, it's not like the WiiU is going anywhere between now and forever.

What the heck? I came back to the site just now, and was somehow logged out, while I did not do that myself, when I was on here earlier today. Weird...

@NEStalgia And I quote:

It would seem like we were already in agreement...

Well, largely anyway. As for the reason for cities: I don't know what documentary or program you've seen, with what kind of theory, but to me, it being because of natural disasters sounds kind of useless. There's only so many natural disasters you can fend off by building a city, not to mention that from the early dark ages right up to the Victorian age, they also brought new disasters with them, such as all kinds of diseases and famine, to name but a few.

So, I don't think it was because of that. I mean: being a rather sturdily built city certainly didn't help Pompeii, when the neighboring volcano Mount Vesuvius decided to bury it...

I think the answer is far simpler: man started in caves, with fire to scare away the animals, then moved on to build huts, then small settlements, then villages, and eventually, they started to make gated communities, to protect their houses, but also their crop fields and live stock from outsiders. Later on these wooden fences turned into walls made out of giant poles/beams, much like the later Roman forts, and from there on out, it kept evolving ever further, to small cities built around castles in a ring, with a surrounding wall and lookout posts.

And these were actually rather well organized and very structured in design. It's when we got to a point where all the nations had divided all the land that there was to divide, and we started to expand in numbers, that the real issues began, because instead of building outwards or moving to new places to make new settlements, we had to start building ever higher.

Romans already had flats, as we know, but they were only ever 4 stories high, and were only for the richer people, for the most part. But modern societies took that idea, of stacking living quarters on top of each other, and ran with it, building ever higher, more voluminous and more crowded.

I don't think we'll ever live to see the day, but a small reset might be just the ticket, whether that's by means of a stray comet, or a large solar flame, wiping out all our tech, flinging us back into the early settler age...

Man, life would sure be boring if we all had to live like Amish...

P.S.

Since when are giraffes on the endangered species list?

@ThanosReXXX Oh that would have been long before the dark ages, before Rome, etc. I suppose it went back to Sumeria or such. It was a whole archaeology thing, but whatever the disaster was, the idea of closely grouping together seemed essential (and made sense.) This was before the Great Pestilence told us the extreme danger of doing so (and which we've since summarily ignored said warning and assume the miracle of science will always save us from everything were simple common sense is out of fashion.)

Well, obviously, we wouldn't live to see the day if a comet hit But yeah...I strongly agree there. Life may be boring without internet feeds exciting us in advance of playing Astral Chain on a handheld screen.....but something tells me it would actually be more fulfilling.....we use our little flashing light shows to distract us from the lack of fulfillment from everything else, after all....

I thought giraffes were endangered for quite a while. I didn't check any official WWF lists or anything, but there's been great efforts to try to preserve and breed them due to their immensely decreasing numbers. Maybe they don't "quite" qualify for endangered status yet? But if not yet, they will in the not distant future.

@NEStalgia Well, like I said, it may have helped with some disasters. Perhaps I should have worded it differently and a bit more elaborate. Building high has been done by several civilizations, for instance, to both escape floods and certain wild animals. And the added bonus was that it made the place harder to reach for enemies...

And there's more examples to be made, but on the other side of the scale, there's the example that I actually DID mention: volcano eruptions, and then there's earth quakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, and so on. All natural disasters that even modern day civilizations can't properly defend themselves from, so that's why I don't believe that there's a strong support for some kind of general rule or idea, that says that civilizations made cities to defend themselves from natural disasters.

But as always, I'll keep an open mind, and if you do find the information and/or documentary which theorized that this could be the case, then I would most certainly be interested in seeing it.

On a side note: the comet could be a smaller one, effectively allowing most of us to survive, but knocking us back into the dark ages nonetheless. After all: early mammals also survived the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs...

@Anti-Matter AlRIGHT !! You got the eurosaver meal

@Anti-Matter Yeah, I'll stick to the animated version. Really not a fan of these live action remakes. As far as I am concerned, they are little more than Disney spitting on something I loved as a child to make a quick buck. Which seems like all they do anymore. On another note, that's a nice little collection of Nintendo stuff there. Kinda bummed that the McDonald's toys look like a sticker on plastic though. Would be nicer if it was painted, but I guess that'd be too expensive. How many Amiibo do you have?

@Heavyarms55
Well, as you seen from my photo, there were 12 Amiibos :
Tuxedo Mario, Wedding Peach, Dapper Bowser, KK Slider, Cyrus, Reese, Timmy & Tommy, Tom Nook, Kicks, Rover, Isabelle, Poochy.

Plus 2 Amiibo cards i have but was not on the photo: Digby, Tad

@Anti-Matter Ah, so is that your whole collection pretty much? I guess you aren't as obsessive as I am. lol. I've got... a lot of Amiibo and other various collectible figures. I spend way too much money on this stuff.

I survived another upload day. Should be done with it all tomorrow. Hopefully. I’m very tired.

@Heavyarms55
I still have plenty of "haven't bought yet" Amiibos. They are some Pokemon Amiibos, Sonic, Fox McCloud, Falco, some Welcome Amiibo cards, etc.

I only buy specific Amiibos for unlocking something or i like the design despite of less usable for my games.

[Insert the usual "Today has been nuts and I'm just now getting to my internet rounds" spheal]

Thank the heavens that tomorrow is FINALLY Friday. It's been a week. No three day weekend like many Americans though. I'll be taking my day off later in September.

@Heavyarms55 Ah, so you were referring more to the reactions/comment sections on a lot of those stories. I still agree; the apathy and insensitivity are quite revolting. It's easy for people who are anonymous (though surprisingly this also happens with those who have their full names on display sometimes) to put out their trolling two cents without any true repercussions. Posting a comment insulting another party or saying X deserved it because of Y and Z is very idiotic.

I also agree with the thought that social media itself isn't toxic; it's toxic people spreading their poison, attracting their ilk (or the polar opposite toxic types on that topic) while simultaneously chasing away any rational discussion between people that have their own opinion on a matter but are afraid they'll get shot down or shut down because "you don't agree with me".

As for the news itself: I don't always expect everything to be sunshine and roses, but the constant doom and gloom about some topics gets pretty wearisome after awhile. Some people unfortunately love misery and the entertainment it provides. I liken it to public executions back in the day.

Two songs come to mind as I'm typing this: Zombie by The Cranberries (I'm more partial to the Bad Wolves version) and UltraNumb by Blue Stahli.

@ThanosReXXX My parent live in a wooded area, so reception is a little hard to come by. The driveway area isn't too far from a more open spot, so you can usually get reception there when the weather conditions are decent. Calling my parents' or siblings' cell phones while they're at home is a guaranteed insta voicemail.

Barring some periods on weekends, their internet is at least functional and is the preferred communication of choice; they're barely in the broadband web for their phone provider, though it's oversold. They have a landline, but they incur a bill on incoming calls before 9 PM. I have to resort to Messenger most of the time.

@Anti-Matter Ah, I just liked Amiibo in general and collect any characters I like. Amiibo are pretty reliably high quality and well priced (at least when bought at the price they are supposed to be and not from scalpers) and easy to display. I also collect a lot of similar things. Anime figures, Pokemon plushies and Gundam "Gunpla" model kits. I've had to slow down because I'm running out of space, and, eventually, I am going to have to ship a bunch of these things back home.

@Tyranexx Yeah. Bad things happen, that's just life. It's all the people who relish in it, seek to benefit from it, or even encourage it that really hurts. I don't think it's just the anonymity that encourages the behavior, it's the safety of not being in the room. I think it's the fact that they are hidden away behind a computer screen that encourages them to say something horrible because they know they can get away with it. They also know that they are largely speaking to people they will never meet in real life, the worst thing that will potentially happen is they will get banned from a site that they can just make a new account for.

@Tyranexx It really has been an exceptionally busy week, huh? When halfway through Monday felt like a Wednesday, I shoulda known. At least you can take your day later on. I’ll be on storm watch. GEMA already put one of our covered counties in a hurricane warning.

Okay coworkers? It's kind of important information if the water isn't working in the bathroom! This isn't the kind of thing where you just hope people don't notice!

@Heavyarms55 I 100% agree with the entirety of your previous post. Like almost everything else, I believe that social media, comment sections, forums, etc. online are merely neutral, mute tools that are either used as intended or are horribly abused by those who wield them.

@HobbitGamer You'd think this week would have flown since I've had more meetings going on than usual, but the last couple of days in particular have been bad. I've felt like I've been stuck in a pocket dimension of perpetual slowness. Today unfortunately wasn't very productive. My hope is to correct that tomorrow. Thankfully I'll be able to take off from work a little early since I'm ahead on time this week.

Good luck! Hopefully Dorian misses, or at least weakens enough to where it isn't much of a threat.

@Heavyarms55 good answer there is 800,000 nintendo life members in newcastle. LOL😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄

I don't know where to say this on here, but my goodness that recent Joker trailer was fantastic! I hope the final release isn't terrible, this movie shows too much promise to fail.

@MsJubilee They're making a Joker movie? As in the DC super-villain? Hmm. There hasn't been a live action DC movie that I have liked in years but considering how insanely popular the Joker is, I have to assume they will do their absolute best - the blow back for ruining such a famous character would be extreme.

@Heavyarms55 The movie is about the origin of the Joker. The failed comedian story. It will not be a super-villain movie (no supernatural stuff) but it will be very sinister!

I hope it is good!