Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@ThanosReXXX Both of my siblings went through the same procedure at different points, but they woke up during their procedures. I slept through the whole thing. I was sent to snoozeland via an IV in the arm. Not sure if they had theirs administered the same way.

I don't remember much about waking up and what happened immediately afterwards other than there's a reason a staff member walks with you to the vehicle taking you home; the world was spinning and kind of...sideways. I also kept asking my poor mother the same question over and over again on the way home. I don't recall what that question was now. Just the thought process of "Did I ask that? I'll ask again just to be sure." I snoozed on and off for the rest of that day.

I'm not sure I ever wanna experience the "breaking glass" feeling. I can handle mild pain pretty well, but major pain that ebbs and flows with your heartbeat...hoo boy. I've dealt with a couple of decent sprains, dropping glassware on my right big toe, a knee hyperextension, and something else I won't mention. I hope to never experience pain worse than those sensations.

Funny but understandable that you'd make the haunted house connection. XD In my five seasons of working there, I don't think we've ever had a vampire. We've had your evil clowns, mad doctors, zombies, psychopaths, crazy freaks, chainsaw wielding maniacs...but no vampires.

I've just had supper, but that image has me craving some Asian food! It's been awhile since I've had any. I hope it was as tasty as it looks!

@Tyranexx Yeah, it's bittersweet for a lot of the students for sure. We've had to cancel or harshly scale back all sorts of things. Several major school trips have been effectively cancelled. They call it postponement, but when you're that age, postponing something until the following year has to just feel like it being cancelled until next.

For me, I'm just glad I can stay home when there's nothing to do now. I might have mentioned this already but I've been more or less just sitting at the computer reading the news and chatting on this site because there was nothing going on. But basically every time a coworker would get up from their desk I would be like "Is there anything I can help you with!?" Which there usually wasn't. Finally one of them yesterday said there's nothing left for any of us until the 27th. And that will just be printing out another batch of homework that the teachers will then send to the students and then a staff meeting on the 30th and then nothing again until May 7th...

@ThanosReXXX Those are some real nice photos dude! Do you do that professionally? Or just a fairly serious hobby?

@NintendoByNature I agree, Asian food is often amazing. I have an open bias in favor of Japanese food. Sushi, karaage, Japanese style ramens and gyoza, white rice, sashimi, yakitori, yakiniku, curry-rice, onigiri...

@Heavyarms55 i should've clarified as they're all vastly different. Japanese is my favorite as well. Followed by Thai I would say.

@Heavyarms55 One highlight for my mom and those kids is their yearly field trip to a children's museum about an hour away from the school. It's a really cool hands-on place that allows kids to interact with what they're learning. I've heard a few things have changed since I last went there many years ago, but truth be told I'd probably interact with some of the exhibits too. XD

I can't speak for all kids, but I absolutely loved field trips when I was in school. They were almost always fun in some way, plus I've always liked traveling (well, to an extent) and enjoyed getting out of school for the day.

I'd also be going nuts if I were in your position with nothing to do at work. I don't mind some lulls in activity to catch my breath and give my brain a break, but I also like to feel like I'm accomplishing something. Sitting around trying to think of what to do next would get old after awhile. I've been working from home, and thankfully our work backlog is such that I'm still being kept quite busy. There are less requests pouring in, so I've been able to make some headway.

Working from home has its positives and negatives. On one hand, I'm interrupted less and only have about a three second commute. On the other, sometimes face-to-face group conversations are more beneficial in my line of work. Plus, I'm now surrounded by more things I both need and want to do instead....

@Tyranexx School trips are a massive deal over here. There's a reason they tend to be a trope in anime. While I'm sure not every single kid likes it, they tend to be the major event kids will talk about for months or even years later. The big one for our students is going to Tokyo for about a week. Or another one to Osaka for a few days. But obviously that's not a good idea right now, seeing as those are two of the bigger hotspots of the virus right now in Japan.

@NintendoByNature I don't have much experience with Thai. But the few meals I have had, I remember liking.

@ThanosReXXX @Tyranexx Roombooooo!!
Yep, Jetsons. But I got something built in IFTTT that goes like this and it works;

“Hey Google, send Codsworth to scavenge”
(Roomba leaves dock and begins to clean”
Response from kitchen hub display; “Ok, but another settlement needs your help.”

If it gets full in a cycle, I get a text message saying “Codsworth is over encumbered “

Happy Earth Day everyone! And no, I'm no vegan zealot, but I do like to keep the Earth in one piece, and I do mind the environment, so I'm all for celebrating the Earth and all the wonderful places, plants and animals that it contains, as well as some of the humans...

@Heavyarms55 Thanks! I'm assuming you're talking about the 5.20am album photos? I'm quite happy with those, anyway. The rainbow pictures are kinda meh, but they were the only ones I had, for now.

To answer your question: I'd say fairly serious hobby and then some. Half a lifetime ago, when I was in my twenties, I did the whole photography course thing, through home studying. I had books, a camera, study material and assignments, and although that time-consuming hobby has kind of faded away, much like my painting and drawing hobby, part of it still remains, so sometimes I still draw or tinker with images, such as that Thanos comic that I posted over a month ago, and because of the always available and present smart phone,
I now always have a camera with me wherever I go, so when I see something interesting or funny, then I will more often than not take a picture of it.

Funny story about those 5.20am pictures: guess what a "decidedly younger than me" person once asked me about them? I'll put the answer behind anti-spoiler bars, so you can think of an answer first, and then check to see if you were right.

Just goes to show you how little the average person knows about all the interesting little features of a smart phone camera, huh?

Sneak peek of my Ice Skate Boxer sketch for 2021...

@bimmy-lee
What do you think about my Axel ?

@ThanosReXXX To be fair, I'm sure there are bunch of things I don't know about my smartphone, including the camera features. I at best, tolerate, touch screen only devices. I lose patience with them pretty quick if I have to mess with any settings or options menus, or to type out a message longer than a sentence or two. I really miss the full keyboard with direction buttons sliding phone I had in high school a decade ago.

Why does no one make a smartphone like that? It should still have the touch screen, but the sliding keyboard with physical buttons too... I guess I'm just "old".

@Heavyarms55 Oh, no argument there. I'm hoping you'll get this reference, but if my online name wasn't ThanosReXXX, it might as well have been Leroy Jethro Gibbs...
Not to an extent that I miss the flip-top/clam shell phone, but real buttons? Sure do miss those, and I often mis-type on touch screens, which I find annoying as all hell, but I mostly got used to it anyway.

So, did you guess right?

@ThanosReXXX @Heavyarms55 I only wanted a phone with a nice camera, but nice cameras only come on touchscreen phones. I loath touchscreens & typing errors. I wish physical buttons were an option. If there was a nice slider phone with keyboard AND a nice camera, I'd buy it.

Touchscreen smartphones are cool. I just don't want one.

@hobbitgamer @bimmy-Lee my island is looking nice guys. You gotta check it out soon.

@Heavyarms55, I'm pretty sure the blackberry did that if I'm not mistaken? It's all about the thinnest model though right now so I doubt the keyboard will ever come back.

Long story short, mother had a small stroke in her sleep at some point. No loss of function, but they're doing a second CT tomorrow and then starting PT and treatments, think its a cluster.

So I may not be as vocal for a bit. Still reading when I can, just not too chatty.

@hobbitgamer shoot.. very sorry to hear that dude. I genuinely wish you guys the best. Hang in there, and stay positive ( I know that's a tall task right now). I've been in your shoes before with my grandfather experiencing several major and minor strokes so I know what you're going thru. Day by day, take it. Praying for you guys

@ThanosReXXX So, I'm totally conflicted re. the TurboGrafx-16 Mini. On the one hand, it's got too many shmups for my tastes (R-Type would do for me), and too many Japanese-language-only games, and the controller is fugly, and according to Arstechnica there are lag issues a la the Mega Drive mini (not that I've noticed them yet)...

... But on the other hand I think I am going to get one. Plus one extra controller. I considered your list, and watched a Metal Jesus video ranking the mini consoles, and decided it's probably now or never with this particular piece of hardware, so I may as well opt for 'now' (pending the actual release). So thanks 😉

I am wondering how many extra controllers to order. Aside from Bomberman (I assume), which other games support more than 2 players?

@Heavyarms55 @WoomyNNYes This is only a small list, but there are more smart phones with buttons/keyboards, so it actually IS possible to combine the best of both worlds:
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/best-smartphones-with-keyboards/
I guess that it all depends on the annoyance vs value level for you guys, so how much do touch screens REALLY annoy you vs how much you'd be willing to pay for a smart phone that DOES have physical buttons?

Food for thought, I'd say.

@HobbitGamer Hey, man. Sorry to hear about your mom. I wish you strength in these hard times. I'll be keeping you in mind.

@gcunit Erm... thanks, I... suppose... ? Conflicted but not really all that much, then? And just because there's a LOT of shooters on there, it's not JUST shooters, nor is it a majority of Japanese language games either. Look past those, and you'll still see PLENTY of interesting and highly enjoyable games.

As for the Sega Megadrive Mini: I haven't noticed any lag at all, so that must be like milliseconds or something, but not anything that will hamper my enjoyment in any even remotely significant way. And the emulation was done by M2, so considering their stellar reputation, noticeable lag also seems pretty unlikely. There could be some, seeing as it's not a full blown console, and just an emulator on a chip, but still: probably only visible for those desperate to find exactly that what they seek.

I hate those types of people...

I miss when I made videos.

thinks for a second

I miss when I made videos, but only the 1/3 of them I liked.

I should fix that. I guess. I dunno.

@gcunit As for your multi-player games question, here's a full list. Most are just two players, but as you'll see, there's also plenty of games that support up to 4 or even 5 players:
http://www.pc-engine.co.uk/?section=multiplayer

I'll be going on another grocery run tomorrow. I can stretch things out about two weeks before I absolutely need produce. Not looking forward to it, particularly since the weather is supposed to be pretty wet.

@Heavyarms55 Heck, I'd be excited to go to large cities like that and experience some of what's on offer! Sounds like school trips are an even bigger deal there than they are here, at least in my experience. It could depend on the age group too. I definitely went on more field trips in elementary/jr. high vs. high school. In HS, unless you were in one of the clubs or in sports or band, you didn't usually get to go on school sponsored trips other than the field day in early May.

@HobbitGamer Very sorry to hear about your mother. I hope that all goes well! Gonna be praying for you mate.

On Codsworth: That's AWESOME!