Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@NintendoByNature Thanks! I had fun overall. Plenty of great food (shouldn't have hit the pre-meal hors d'oeuvres as hard as I did, but man was that stuff good) and had a couple of decent drinks. Decent company too. I didn't go crazy with the drinks as I intended to drive myself home. I just made it home a little bit ago without issues.

Christmas parties at my old job were a relatively quiet affair. My boss would have them at his parents' property at a nearby lake. Some fun was to be had, sure, but the last couple of years....Well, that's a long story that involves some odd company dynamics and losing a lot of the team/people I was closer to. Suffice it to say that I didn't enjoy it as much. To be fair, the party the year before last was cut short by sleet/freezing rain that showed up earlier than planned. Darn weather.

@ThanosReXXX Ha HAH! Mission accomplished! ^=^ I'll try to report on the place when I do get over there to see everything. I'm thinking a short spring trip, but we'll see.

@NotTelevision Oh yes, I'll still be keeping an eye on the proceedings of the other two "Big 3". While I'm primarily a Nintendo gamer out of preference - most of the franchises I like are on Nintendo platforms - in this day and age they're also the only company I've had time for. I'm glad that Ninty has consolidated all development into one console at present; between each current-gen handheld and console from them (two systems, essentially), my gaming time was/is more than occupied. I'll have a Switch soon, but the 3/DS library is still keeping me quite busy.

I have GOT to become pickier with the RPGs I pick up....

@NotTelevision i started last gen in both ecosystems, dropped xbone like a hot potato and went Sony. But xbox, and especially it's handling of digital is much better than Sony..i ended up rebuying and double dipping to move it all to xbox, and Sony now only has the exclusives.

@Tyranexx to me, where power matters is multiplats. Devs are usually happy pushing visual flourish whole letting the game run mediocre, so having the most powerful hardware means cheating past the lazy designs

@NotTelevision bioware exists only in name. Bethesda took the jeering and ran to the bank. It won't bite then until next game.

@NEStalgia Hah, I suppose that makes sense.

@NEStalgia Yeah for me I just don’t have any interest in State of Decay, Gear, Halo, or Crackdown. The previous indie exclusives on XBox like Cuphead and Ori I had already played on PC, so it would have been an especially frivolous purchase for me this gen. I was initially interested in Sea of Thieves because I love nautical and pirate themed stuff, but it reviewed really poorly. That leaves Forza Horizon as the only XBox exclusive I actually have interest in.

But yeah essentially 97% of the Xbox and PS library is identical, so it just came down to the 5 or so exclusives on PS that I thought looked worthwhile.

Game Pass is certainly a heck of deal for what you get though. If I didn’t already have a PS then I’d consider getting an XBox just to play those multiplats.

@NotTelevision having owned ps4 before x1x, for me it came down to ps4 having more exclusive games (including 3rd party like persona) BUT all of those other games they have in common run better on x1. I figure if I'll spend 1000 hours playing those games it's rather then run the best they can

Plus the digital ecosystem and game menu navigation is light years ahead. I bought x1x to be my niche digital only system. No i ended up rebuying everything i had physically on ps4 digitally on x1x. Hard to explain but somehow it's just more fun browsing and switching digital games on x1 than ps4.

I like both platforms but unless I'm playing an exclusive 8 find i just reach for the x most of the time if i just want to browse "what to play today"

It only took me half of December to enter festive avatar mode.

Come on everybody, put on your nonspecific holiday hats.

OMG...!!
My games order from Ebay has been arrived 2 weeks faster than my prediction. 🤯
I was short in money so i have contacted to my friend that i will pay the orders after 2 weeks later (after salary day). 😅

@Tyranexx sounds like a decent time at least. Glad it was enjoyable. The appetizers always get me too lol

@Tyranexx When looking at those pictures, I do have to admit that I would have preferred if they had stuck with the earlier paint job, though. The current one is decidedly flat. In comics it works, because of the black lines that the characters are drawn with, but without those, surfaces tend to look really flat and opaque/plain in real life. More like an amateur's paint job. Oh, well. Can't have it all, I suppose, and having an actual Metropolis and and actual Superman statue is still pretty cool.

Real life Metropolis does look a lot more like Smallville than it's actual comics-related namesake, though...

Anyway, I'll definitely be looking forward to that report. I hope it contains your own photos of the statue and the museum (if it's even allowed to take pictures there. I know of plenty museums where it's either frowned upon or downright forbidden)

I somehow got a Fortnite creator code, and I don't even rev up Fortnite content.

Well, you better start then!

Just don't make videos of you cheating.

@NintendoByNature I made the mistake of coming hungry as I didn't have much of a lunch. If I'd known supper was gonna be later than I thought (they opened the full buffet line around seven), I would have grazed on something at home first. XD

@ThanosReXXX I agree on the paint job. Oh well. Hopefully they keep that consideration in mind for the next time they repaint the statue.

The town itself is somewhat small by some standards, and I've seen jokes elsewhere where it would fit the Smallville name more. Granted, if my town was referenced in some way by a popular comic franchise, I'd go crazy with the marketing too. XD

There will DEFINITELY be some photos. We'll also see what I can get away with in the museum. Most formal museum settings don't at least allow flash photographs, if at all. Some less formal settings allow it. We'll see.

My first Fortnite video will be called "Top 10 Fortnite skin ideas "borrowed" from Overwatch". I'll also post my creator code all over the video.

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS COMMENT, THEN MAKE SURE TO USE THE CREATOR CODE "SHELDONRANDOMS" WHEN BUYING THE MOST EXPENSIVE STUFF ON THE ITEM SHOP!

@SheldonRandoms You’re well on your way to being an influencer.

I grilled a whole bird for dinner. It’s so tender, can’t wait to make chicken mayo sandwiches with leftovers. Now I’m debating between pokeymans or slightly more toxic West Virginia this evening

@SheldonRandoms and don't forget to smash the like button

@Tyranexx It's actually funny that the older paint job is more fitting for the current, movie version of Superman, because of the metallic sheen on the suit, and it also brings out the features a lot better.

But maybe, or probably, it will look better in real life, so I guess you'll at least find out. Or maybe you can take better pictures of it...

As for pictures in the museum: often times, it's either paintings, documents or photos that are restricted, because of the supposed "damage" that flash light photography could do, but nowadays, flash lights are obviously much more modern, and more efficient, and not nearly as damaging as the old style flash lights.

And then there's the options for the museums themselves, to either put objects behind specially treated glass, or some type of coating, so there's actually no real valid reason to not let people take photos of it.

Well, unless of course it's a small(ville) museum without a big enough budget to take all these precautions...

Here's a new pic of catkins, now that she feels like posing.

@Eel That's one cute kitty, for sure.

Eurgh. We have a ton of the cold white stuff falling here right now. I don't mind the amount it's at right now, but it's gonna build up with a few hours of respite tonight and tomorrow. The next couple of days will be fun to drive around in.

@ThanosReXXX Hah! We'll see what I can pull off with a smartphone camera. It'll also depend a little on the sky itself; cloudy settings make for better photos in my book. Sunlight causes some unwanted glare sometimes.

I wouldn't think most of the objects in the museum would be subject to what I call "fade" rules as you've accurately described, but time will tell.

@Eel Good grief is that young kitten cute.