Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@Tyranexx Well in the end, like has already been said, it is a tool. It's like how the Jedi in the old expanded universe explained why they carried lightsabers when professing to disagree with violence, it's a tool, which can be used for good or for bad. (You mentioning the Rise of Skywalker triggered the lame comparison)

And you're right that the insults, trolling and flaming are the more minor end of the negative uses. Criminals use the internet for all manner of things from identity theft to cyber terrorism. I feel it's only a matter of time before somewhere, someone, is successfully able to do something like hacking into water control systems or a power grid and causing mayhem. God forbid they get into an airport's system and cause plane crashes or even worse, get into the system at a nuclear plant...

what?

I passively enjoyed moments of this Star Wars trilogy , but I didn’t really see the point of it all. Some impressive special effects, but too many long scenes of exposition, characters with unclear goals, and callbacks to the franchise’s former glories. At best blockbusters get us involved in the characters and provide a sense of gravity to the action set pieces onscreen (see Planet of the Apes trilogy), at worst your holding a tub of buttered popcorn thinking about all the better ways you can be using your time.

Unfortunately the recent trilogy falls into the later category for me. Respect to those who liked these movies though.

@Woomy_NNYes The going for surgery for your ears is very interesting. I was often called Dumbo as a kid as my ears were much larger than my head. Rather than go down a surgical route, I've instead added twenty or more piercings to my ears. The jewelry changes the focal point so they don't seem as big as they are . Luckily, kids can also grow into their ears and the likes once puberty starts kicking in haha.

Remember when ET’s neck stretched out when he met Gertie and got scared? Any chance that same physiology is going on with his weird, tiny legs? Maybe, when he’s all stretched out, he’s a really tall, skinny alien, instead of a short, flappy alien that looks like a loaf of bread with a periscope on it. I don’t know, but it’s worth thinking about.

@Eel Ouch indeed...
I tried to find that specific video on YouTube, but apparently it's buried deep within the archives, because I couldn't find it.

@Heavyarms55 Yeah, perhaps my wording was a bit off, but forms of discussion and disagreement are indeed needed to progress in science, or any field. And perhaps I should have added something for clarity: not just disagreement between people, but also disagreement with situations or current, accepted models in fields of science and other expertises. That is what thrives certain individuals to come up with alternative solutions in order to prove their own point. So, that is kind of more along the lines of what I meant.

But yes, definitely within limits, so no argument there. Too much disagreement on anything will stall any kind of forward motion whatsoever...

@Tyranexx Looking forward to it.

As for the Rise of Skywalker, still haven't found the time to go see it, but in general, I'm always simultaneously annoyed and amazed, or rather: stunned by all the commotion about the Star Wars movies. Same thing happened with the prequels: this is bad, the kid is annoying, JarJar Binks must die, and so on, and so on. I've found all movies enjoyable, if at some point somewhat pretentious, but that's just George Lucas' for 'ya. It's his default modus operandi, if you ask me. See through that, and don't hold the books, which are only a secondary medium to add to the spectrum, as leading over the movies, and you'll actually be able to enjoy all of them.

And besides: they're just movies. It's not like someone is butchering ACTUAL history, so far as I'm concerned, there's nothing there to get anybody's knickers or boxers in a twist over. I can get people being disappointed about certain parts in the movies, heck even the original trilogy may have had some disappointing parts for certain people, but luckily, we didn't already have the internet back then, so people were comfortably and rather pleasantly restrained from being able to do online rants about it...

@bimmy-lee Smooth move, to insert E.T. and create a diversion from a potentially hazardous Star Wars discussion...

@ThanosReXXX - Ah, you saw right through my mind trick. I did reach that particular ET ponderation via the Star Wars conversation though. The Star Wars talk reminded me of Greedo, and that reminded me of when Elliott showed ET his Greedo figure. I thought maybe the conversations could exist side by side and compliment each other, like the main saga and the spinoffs.

@NintendoByNature Have fun! Knock out some baddies and play around with those character movesets!

@Heavyarms55 Unfortunately some small potatoes types of things like you've already described have happened. People hacking into those visual baby monitors for example. It sickens me that some people will compromise the security of others for their own whims, particularly children. But they don't care.

I still think we would have colonized Mars by now if many of those on the wrong side of the law would use their diabolically creative brains for something more constructive.

@StephanDLW You've hit on two of my complaints:

1. I do wish Rose had received more screen time. She was one of my favorite characters in the previous movie. I don't know all the details as I'm not a die-hard Star Wars fan (more of a casual/newer one) and don't spend a ton of time among the fanbase, but I know her character was controversial.

2. The found footage with Carrie Fisher was indeed weird and noticeable. Legendary character or no, I think she should've been written off in The Last Jedi.

@ThanosReXXX I'm a newer Star Wars fan - didn't get into the franchise until this trilogy surfaced - and haven't seen much of the prequel trilogy, but from what I've seen I don't get some of the complaints either. An acquaintance of mine who's been a die-hard Star Wars fan since his youth and has consumed almost everything related to the series has enjoyed this newest trilogy.

Some of the complaints seem valid tbh (see above), but as with many other things online they're blown out of proportion IMO. And then there are the alleged controversies that really do seem to bloom out of nothing....It's like people enjoy getting bent out of shape over something.

Ha. Went on lunch to visit tool store to fix my non starting truck, only to find that mother’s car wouldn’t start. Cold weather sapped the battery. Got a jump from the floor tile guys next door.
Ha. Ha. Ha. You got me good, weather. It’s a knee slapper.

@HobbitGamer - Only whether man knows weather wither will be troll, troll. Open up your eyes to hear facts instead of useless speculation. Apparently someone has a poor sense of smell. Stay off the internet until yore ready to see facts. Boom shakalaka-waka-waka.

@Tyranexx Yeah, that's exactly my point. As I said, I can understand the disappointment about elements of a story/movie, to some extent, but sometimes it borders on entitlement, with people claiming that "their" series/movie has been ruined by the makers. As if it isn't the makers/creators themselves that decide how the story should go and who should play in it. But no, armchair critics "obviously" know better...

Star Wars discussions are probably the movie equivalent of Pokémon discussions, so maybe @bimmy-lee is right and we had better move on to sunnier topics...

Sunnier topic you say? The shortest day for northern hemisphere was as a month ago. So us winter-havers are starting to get longer days, and warmer sun. ....Unless you're Eel where it doesn't really matter.....down there closer to the equator.

s#ck it southern hemisphere (I'm playing there)

@Woomy_NNYes lol i looked outside at 530pm last night and it wasn't fully dark yet. I smiled, and went to the fridge for a beer out of minor celebration

@bimmy-lee That made me smile, trool. I shall now baking and become NAAN insider.

It's already Thursday 23 January 2020 here in Indonesia.
I cannot wait for 24 & 25 January 2020.
We will have a party at home with our cousins as tradition of One day before Chinese New year. On Chinese New year day, we will pray at Chinese temple in front of our house and visit our Grandma house and to celebrate the event with other relatives. On Chinese New year day, the low economic kids and females will crowding the Chinese temple, hoping for peoples like us (Half Indonesia Chinese peoples) to share their Red envelopes. They are (the low economic peoples) Red envelopes scavengers every year.

@ThanosReXXX Haha true, best to keep too much garbage out of the Chit-Chat Thread, after all....

As for the video: "I've heard enough!"

@Tyranexx I see Hankey doesn't play nice with NLife's html code list...

@Anti-Matter So... what's in the red envelopes? Money?

@ThanosReXXX
Yes. 😀
Money inside the Red envelope.
It called Hong Bao (spelled Hong Pao) in Chinese language.
Me and my siblings still get Hong Bao from my Mom and our relatives since we are NOT married yet. Except my young sister, she has been married since November 2017.
But the married family members will not get Hong Bao from their parents or relatives, instead they have to give Hong Bao for their kids and other relatives who are not getting married yet.