Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@Tyranexx "IWANNITIWANNITIWANNITIWANNIT UR WRONG EVEN THOUGH YOU HAVE VIDEO DEMONSTRATION PROVING ME WRONG IM STILL RIGHT AND YOU KNOW I AM GRRAAAWRRRR"

Also, suddenly, plastics are not impact resistant like aluminum sheeting. SCIENCE!

@NEStalgia Sounds like a good chunk of the internet unfortunately. XD It's strictly rumor territory right now, so I wasn't tempted to click into the comments too badly. In any case, I don't think an unconfirmed rumor is anything to get bent out of shape over.

Sounds like some of that comment section could use some bread AND cheese with their "wine", though.

Awesome costumes and student activity.

Awesome paint job on statue.

Awesome terrible thread.

Fixed attic, fixed truck. So sore, so tired.

Jeez... I'm gone a couple of days, and look what happens. StephanDLW gone AGAIN? So much for trying to make him feel welcome and understand how we roll. He just DID the EXACT same thing that he already said he shouldn't have done.

Guess I'm going to have to quote old Winston Churchill here:
'Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it. '

@bimmy-lee So, I've only now seen that someone corrected you on the spelling of my name. Of all the people that I'd suspect of doing that...

But yeah, meeting up sounds like a plan. In reality probably a far away one, but a nice thought to have nonetheless, to arrange a get-together, at some point in time. Would be nice to finally be able to put some faces to all the interesting conversations.

@Knuckles-Fajita Hey man, sorry about the late reply. Had a bit much on my plate these last couple of days. Nothing as complicated as you, mind you, but still more than enough to keep me busy. And besides, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the whole gender fluid thing.

No offense meant, obviously, and I respect people's choices and state of being, but some things are just above or outside my area of understanding, so ultimately, all I can do is not bother people with too many questions about it, and just try to accept them as they are, which I'm able to do, most of the time, so I'd say let's move on from the sensitive bits, forget I ever asked and forgive my ignorance/old-fashioned-ness on the matter.

At some point, when you yourself will grow older, you might also find that the world is moving faster than you, or than you'll be able to follow, whether you're willing or not, such as with things that were perfectly fine when I was in my 20's, and are now frowned upon, to various degrees.

But I digress, and those are not topics for a light-hearted forum such as this one, so let me just end on a positive note, by reiterating that it's good to see that you're doing well, regardless of some of the work-related issues you mentioned.

(also still not getting the clue behind the people you helped trying to stab you in the back thing, but we should probably let that one rest as well)

Come to California, then. We've got more than enough palms to last you a lifetime...

On a side note: why the HECK would you want us to willingly jump into another dumpster fire?

I don't know how you guys keep up with all the drama in here sometimes. I really don't.

@ThanosReXXX Well my boss worded it best: "Basically depends on the morning". Some days in a guy. Some days a girl. Basically the shorthand of it. Not exactly much choice, though under certain circumstances I "man up" as it were. 🤣

As for work, it's fine. Things are being sorted. People talk after all.

Funny story though, we had a guy work with us before Xmas. He was in today to help our garden center changeover. I went to the break room with my friend, he saw me and asked "Who is she?"

So you know. Normal day not being recognised as me. 🤣🤣🤣

I don't either sometimes. Nor do I try to dig too much into drama that isn't mine. XD

@HobbitGamer Not sure how you relax the best (with games, movies, etc.), but I daresay you've more than earned it by this point.

@Heavyarms55 Because we have boring, relatively stress-free jobs, so we've got LOTS of time to visit and keep track of the forums...

All kidding aside, though, besides the odd two or three day pause I sometimes have, I just pop into the forum almost every evening, just to see what's what. During the day I read the articles and at night, I read and answer my notifications. Doesn't really take up all that much of my time. And if it happens to do, on occasion, then I don't really mind all that much.

@Knuckles-Fajita Maybe I should have added that after having heard your voice on one of your videos, I've got a bit of a hard time of you being interpreted as a woman, so that would mean that this is in the facial features department. And causing upheaval/confusion at work is something I can vividly imagine, with you alternating between the two, if it's THAT clear. Little use or chance of hiding it, then. And as such, I'd suppose you'd have to take the good with the bad.

There will always be people that will be unable to take it seriously, and then there's the people in the middle, of which I'm probably one, who actually WANT to understand, and want to try their best to respect all people, but it's just too much out there. And again, no offense, but it's often times also a very distinct minority, that's the topic of such conversations/upheaval.

Case in point: over here, a small but rather vocal group of gender neutral people have managed to succeed in changing the national railways' station announcements from "dear ladies and gentlemen" to "dear travelers". Now, in and of itself, I'm okay with that, and there's nothing really wrong about it.

BUT, and for me that's a VERY big but, if your group consists of maybe a thousand, or probably less people, on a total population of well over 17 million, then why the HELL must we as a country cater to that and dare I say it, bow to that? That's why people like me struggle with and/or fluctuate between wanting to respect it, but not always being able to, because to my mind, it's SO ridiculous that this has happened.

In what I would call a normal society, we can't start catering to EVERY minority there is. I mean: how many different station announcements would we have to have then, if yet another minority doesn't feel itself included? I'm really not saying this to offend, but I do think that catering to minorities is either an endless song, or could potentially open the flood gates, and not in a positive way. I would actually hope that people would be willing to feel a little less insulted/attacked/not taken seriously, and instead just be a bit more forgiving, especially where it concerns common things, such as station announcements, which were DEFINITELY never meant to insult people.

And that's just one example. Right now, there's talks about changing all the male figures on road signs to female figures. And of various shapes/forms as well. I mean: come on! Sometimes I feel that I'm either living in a bad soap opera or a C-rated comedy, but then I wake up and it's all real, and yet another group is insulted about whatever they're insulted about. It's hard to keep track of, to be honest, especially if you're not invested in it yourself, so that might also make it a bit more easy to understand how potentially difficult it is or can be, to go from there, to trying to respect and/or accept these minorities.

Doesn't mean that we, or rather: people in the middle like me, bear them any ill will. Far from it, actually, but if people keep doing all kinds of odd things to be accepted as normal, all they achieve is standing out in a crowd, and actually NOT being normal. Back in school and at several of my jobs, I've had plenty of gay and lesbian friends and colleagues, and it was all fine. Once more groups were added to the mix (well, added... I suppose you understand what I mean, if you consider my age, so I've consciously seen this evolve from the early 1980's to now) it all got more vocal, aggressive and negative. The latter more a personal sentiment than an actual fact. Or maybe not, because all things are/seem more aggressive, nowadays, probably also thanks to social media and the wonderful worldwide web.

By now, oldtimers like me, are all but constantly walking on egg shells, having to weigh every word that we used to be able to say without being frowned upon, and always wondering if we're staring at someone too long, or if we're actually complimenting someone, if we give them a compliment, or if it's invading someone's personal space and/or insulting them, because they didn't want a compliment. Back in my office days, I never thought twice about lightly touching a woman's shoulder when talking to her, or wanting to draw her attention, but nowadays... pffff. And better make sure that there's no one in the copy room either, before you enter. You might never know otherwise...

Okay, the copy room thing was a bit too sarcastic, but still. I think you're intelligent enough to get my general sentiment. At this rate, I myself will be part of a vocal minority, somewhere in the future: that of confused boomer, who doesn't feel respected either anymore. God, I hate that word "boomer". I'd like to wring the neck of whatever idiot threw that brain fart onto the web...

I hope none of that was too offensive. If it was interpreted as such, then I have to stress that it wasn't intentional. I just wanted to make you see how it looks from this side of the fence, and how even willing people can struggle with all these "new" things. They're not actually new, obviously, but you know what I mean.

And if I really wanted to be offensive or insulting, then I wouldn't have been so elaborate, so text walls are always a good hint towards me genuinely trying to explain myself or my behavior, in hopes of gaining some common ground, if only partial. Any progress is good, far as I'm concerned...

@ThanosReXXX - I agree, it would be a fun meet up. Maybe some day. Do you really think you’re of the Boomer generation? Not insinuating there’s anything wrong with that, I respect my elders, and that’s not a joke. I’m pretty sure you’re early GenX though. I think you’re of the older side of that generation, and I’m of the younger side of the same generation (‘79). As such, we probably do share some blended qualities between the generations. Not that it matters much because I definitely feel 100 years sometimes.

@HobbitGamer - That’ll do Hobbit. That’ll do.

I seem to have entered the great race towards the latter end of the millennial group. Y'know, those crazy hipster types who prefer experiences over much else. XD

Ugh. Just survived a 35+ minute health eval on the phone for some insurance I'm going for. At least the interviewer was nice. Between that and a crazy work day, I think I'm done adulting for now.

@bimmy-lee I have a feeling you've seen Babe.

Yes, I put my real phone away and am enjoying some scavenger hunting in Witcher.

@Tyranexx - Oh yeah, it’s a good one. My youngest brother was obsessed with it and had it on tape. It was on repeat for a while. I’m going to take a guess and say young Tyranexx (Toon Tyranexx?) watched it more than once.

@bimmy-lee An aunt that babysat a young Toon Tyranexx had the movie on VHS. As I loved animal movies (and still do), it was one that was watched frequently when the other kids and I could agree on anything lol.

This was also the same aunt who, when I was a bit older, allowed me to have free reign of their basement. As long as I finished my homework first, the books and SNES down there were open for business. Her kids were quite a bit older than me and didn't give the old system the exercise it needed.

@Tyranexx - Your aunt’s place sounds like a young kid’s dream come true. After homework of course. You were probably the perfect age for Babe when it came out, the target demo. I’m glad Babe came up because I’ve just realized my daughter would love it. She watched Homeward Bound again last weekend. I wish I would have kept a count, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s watched it 20 times. Definitely already got my money’s worth on that digital purchase. We have Milo and Otis on DVD too. That’s another talking animal classic.

@ThanosReXXX Naw, I'm convinced that you have a team of sentient potatoes monitoring every thread on the site, providing you with detailed, regular reports on the issues.

But I understand why you'd want that kept quiet.

@HobbitGamer see, you almost had a sonnet going there, but then you failed to end it rhyming with truck....

Such a pity.

I'm cool with whatever StephanDLW does. If you come back & leave again, StephanDLW, you're still welcome here. Talking to people is good. And detaching from social media can be good for de-cluttering life. So, there's a plus with either move 👍

@Heavyarms55 and the potatoes deliver the Intel by train!

@thanosrexxx oh the dumpster fire at the end of that one smells like the dumpsters in Jamaica... It's not every day you can redefine materials science as suits your aesthetic preferences you know!

Sigh otherwise i often wish for PM features...

@NEStalgia Yeah the talk on that page is beyond sensible. I don’t think anyone thinks the next version of the Switch shouldn’t make some fairly obvious improvements that everyone has already been saying since day one in 2017, but the tech doesn’t appear to be ready for a revision quite yet.

So yeah two things: Nintendo isn’t going to release a 500 buck console with an aluminum build and OLED screen in 2020.

Next thing is the whole 3rd party lineup from the XBox 360 and PS3 isn’t going to come to Switch.

Dreams can come true but the random game you played from 2009 that barely anyone bought, just probably isn’t going to be ported.

It would be nice for companies to just be dream factories and not businesses, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

@ThanosReXXX

I largely agree with your long post, but there's a couple of things to add context to it.

One is that people are exhausted. Yeah there are too many people angry about insignificant things that don't matter (I mean, for that matter, look at most NL articles with unexpectedly a lot of comments :V). But I think its easier to be sympathetic when you realize sometimes it is the straw that broke the camel's back. That camel's back being constant disregard, disrespect and sometimes hatred of various identities. To the point that I feel its made a lot of people legit paranoid. That doesn't mean you have to automatically agree with every opinion ever or anything, but I've seen enough examples of people just unable to take it anymore.

Two is that the real problem is not fixed via small gestures of acknowledging more than 2 genders but everything in society that screws them (and sometimes many others) over and the real, real problem is when those gestures are considered enough instead of fixing things to actually (at the very least try) make society better. Doing things to accommodate people is good generally, but things that matter should take priority more. So I actually do agree with your point. But partially because they lazily changed it from two genders to...generic...when it should've been "Ladies and Gentlemen and...". Reasonably clever word/s for the "everyone else" category tends to go over well in these exact scenarios.

i've never felt more angry at things if im being honest, but i know its about things that matter, instead of things that don't. stares at censorship vs localization thread lol

but im more willing to be happy about things that matter less. heck yeah shovel knight pronoun options! shamelessly happy that exists : DDD