Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@Tyranexx It's the male one. With prankster. I think I'll make it into a dual screen user with thunder wave and one attacking move. I was pleased.

Working after the food coma of Thanksgiving has always been unappealing so I get you. I'm still pandemic unemployed but the kid I've been babysitting while he does virtual learning has next week off of school. So I don't need to watch him and keep him doing his work. lol

I honestly think it's very irresponsible of stores to be holding black Friday events this year, but we're gonna see a massive spike after Turkey day anyway so... Happy Holidays?

I grew up in Michigan so I know hunting season has a subset of people who revel in the excuse to go out and play with their guns. It's not my thing and most of my family has no interest in it. I have one uncle who loves it, but I haven't seen or heard from him in like 6 or 7 years so whatever. After my father passed away, his side of the family really stopped caring about me and mom.

Anyway, what are your Turkey day plans?

@Heavyarms55 Male Meowstic with Prankster eh? Not bad! A definite keeper, I'd say.

Yep, the Thanksgiving Food Coma wouldn't help my concentration at work either lol. I actually did work Black Friday of last year, though I regretted it; while I wasn't bothered as much due to so many people taking the day off, my attention span wasn't really present either. The kid you're minding has the entire week off? Most school districts here are in session for at least part of the week through about noon on Wednesday before the kids are released for Thanksgiving.

From what I've read, some stores are trying to spread the Black Friday stuff around a bit. But others are still going ahead with the usual stuff. Even before the pandemic it wasn't my thing; I don't get the appeal of staying up very late/getting up way too early just to get some crazy deal along with a hoard of other people. Typically the few things I do buy around Black Friday are all obtained online.

....Just realized while typing that last paragraph that I bought my Switch a year ago this weekend. Time sure flies!

Some of my extended family hunts, but it's not a topic that interests me outside of a polite "So, did you get anything?" at gatherings (Side note: I don't relate well with most of my family interest-wise, particularly my dad's side, so these usually range from meh to borderline painful; thank goodness there are young cousins to spoil). A coworker on my team bow hunts; he was out yesterday before "the gun people take over" but didn't have any luck. Definitely not my thing. I'm not against it if the primary purpose is to obtain food, particularly if the act is part of one's culture and/or means of survival, but I don't think I'll ever support trophy hunting. I prefer animals alive, and taxidermy sorta creeps me out anyway.

No Turkey Day plans at all for my mom's side; my aunts are doing their own things with their immediate families (One about has to; she's out in Oklahoma and isn't in the best health to be traveling, especially these days) and my grandmother is joining some of her husband's family for Thanksgiving. Typically we'd visit mid-afternoon as they'd hold their own small Thanksgiving dinner. Normally Turkey Day dinner is spent with my dad's side, but we're breaking it off into smaller groups this year. My dad's two siblings are just doing things with their own families + grandchildren. My immediate family is doing a small gathering of our own. Nothing too crazy, just grabbing a takeout Thanksgiving package at a local restaurant.

@Tyranexx Oh every shiny is a keeper. XD I would never release a shiny. On the rare occasion of a duplicate, it's trade fodder, for other shinys!

Yeah he has the whole week. They're calling it Fall Break part 2. They had a shorter fall break earlier in the year I guess so that they could have the whole of Thanksgiving week off. The schools here are not great. It's my understanding that Arizona has some of the lowest rated schools in the US and I would consider virtually all US schools as considerably inferior to Japanese schools in most ways. Suffice to say my biased opinion is not very positive.

Oh wow, so you haven't had your Switch that long. I got mine on Launch Day in Japan. That was a fun time, my friend and I going from store to store trying to find one of the last ones still in stock. I hadn't preordered one because coming off of the Wii U I wasn't expecting it to do so well right off the bat. I ended up finding one on like the last store within a reasonable drive I could think of, and they had, exactly one left. The poor old store clerk didn't know anything about them, they had somehow gotten the idea that you needed both the red and blue one, and the grey one for it to work and was very apologetic that they only had a grey one left. XD

I'm not really against hunting, but I'm not a fan of guns. Without getting too political about it, I think America has it all wrong and the Japanese model is far superior. Where you can only own a gun when you can demonstrate a need, pass a serious qualification test and abide by very strict storage and transport rules. And that permission is something that needs to be renewed on a regular basis. Back to hunting, I agree in that hunting for food is fine. But trophy hunting is just bloodlust and barbaric behavior.

I also relate very strongly with lacking shared interests among my family too. I'm not really close to anyone in my family, but at least on my Mom's side we get along for the most part (as long as certain topics are strictly avoided). One of my father's brothers called me a traitor to my face before I left for Japan and as my opinions have changed even more in the same direction over the years he absolutely would do so today too I am sure. Thankfully neither of us made any effort to keep in touch. My father's sister is full blown right wing conspiracy theory evangelical crazy at this point and I cannot talk to her anymore. Which is a shame. Because she used to be so nice and loving and now she essentially thinks everyone at all different from her incurably strict beliefs is going to hell while she gleefully awaits the end of days and God's apparently vengeful judgement. It's her influence on my mom that's caused some other issues with the rest of the family. The rest of my dad's side simply dropped off the face of the Earth. I haven't heard from any of them in years.

Whoa, I just realized how much I typed... uh, #TMI-Friday?

Honestly having Turkey Day in small groups this year really is the smart thing. I tried talking my family into doing that just to be safe - since we have several people in the "If they catch COVID they are probably screwed" range. But I was outvoted. On the positive side, my aunt is bringing gummies of the adult variety which are fully legal now in Arizona. So yay! That should at least keep my paranoia down.

So what's your favorite Turkey day food? My favorite part is either stuffing or mashed potatoes. For dessert either pumpkin pie or apple pie.

Outlaw Star had the best intro.

LOL
I found hilarious video of Super Mario Bros 2. 🤣🤣🤣

Finally caved in and got Persona 4 Golden from Steam, lol. It's downloading right now.

@MarioLover92 lmao you gave up waiting for a Switch version?

Anyhow, while not my favorite Persona game, it's one of the better JRPGs I've played, with one of my favorite RPG casts of all time

It’s so good, you won’t want play it ever again after watching the credits.

@Eel Atlus RPGs in general just elicit a unique kind of post-game depression that not even Square RPGs are able to emulate

Every time a new Persona game is about to come out I just feel like marathoning the series all the way through just to build up the hype

@TheFrenchiestFry Not really. Given that Persona 5 isn't even on the Switch (except for spin-offs, as far as I know), I wasn't expecting P4 to make it over there either. Just thought it'd be a good time to play it, pretty much. lol

I did hear LOTS of good things about it, so it should be a good time.

@MarioLover92 If you end up liking it I'd also strongly recommend playing Persona 3 and SMT Nocturne for your mainline fix

Considering P5/Royal is probably staying on PlayStation you can probably wait like a year or two and pick up a PS5 and play it through BC or something. By then P6 would've probably already been announced as another PlayStation exclusive so it's definitely a good time to get into the series and see what you're missing out on

@TheFrenchiestFry Thanks for the recommendations - I've actually been thinking about getting a PS5 somewhere down the line. I just finished my P4G download, too

Today, I finished the first season of High School DxD. I LOVED IT!

The last two episodes actually DROVE ME TO TEARS.

Huh. There's something weird with Amazon and Assassin's Creed games.

Remember my problem with the Rebel Collection? Well, I also bought AC III, to give both games to my brother has his Christmas gift, since he likes AC much more than me. The other game was still on discount, so I completed the collection for him! So... Cool! Right?

Well, I noticed the order had a warning symbol, which is not unusual, however when I checked the order itself, it said the package was being returned to the seller, and I would get a refund for it.

So. I would get a refund, for the discounted price, and would need to order again... At full price.

I was having none of that. So I put on my Karen wig again and contacted them. They decided to replace my order. I'm not sure if I'll still get the refund from the original order but eh.

Anyway, that's just bizarre how both games ended up requiring replacements.

I had an excellent Magmar Community Day in Pokemon Go. I caught seven shinies total; most were randos while walking around, but 1-2 were from the incense I was running. I landed one at home right before the spawns stopped in my time zone. Most of them were bad stat-wise, but I did manage to land a 13/15/15. Planning on evolving and increasing its CP for raiding.

In other news, I've stayed away from the timesink that is WoW for many years, but all the Shadowlands hype is giving me that old itch....Must...resist....

@Eel What does this Karen wig look like, and where can I procure one? =3 Maybe you should steer clear of ordering Assassin's Creed games for awhile? Seems like an odd streak of bad luck.

@Heavyarms55 I rarely if ever release any shinies I obtain in the main games. Same with Pokemon Go, unless I end up with a ton of C-day shinies; I keep a few around for trading, but past a certain point I need to get rid of a few for storage space. Gonna need to increase that again soon.

Out of curiosity and in condensed form, what do you prefer about the Japanese school system? I realize at least most public school systems in the US aren't great. Pretty sure I don't need to get in why and who's all at a disadvantage there when compared to private schools.

I held off a bit from getting a Switch. Mainly due to budget and backlog reasons. It was my Christmas gift to myself last year; I ordered it around now as Walmart was running a decent pre-BF deal where you could secure a V2 system and one of a few select lesser-name games (I chose Spyro Reignited Trilogy) for about $270. Didn't officially crack it open (besides a brief check that it shipped with all components and wasn't damaged) until just after Christmas. A few small issues aside, it's probably one of my favorite consoles ever. Now I just need a pro controller. XD

Not gonna get too political with guns either, but here's my bit: I'm not a fan of them either. I grew up around them - my father owns a couple of rifles - and we had it drilled into our minds early that they weren't toys. They were kept in a building outside the house under lock & key. They were mainly used to dispose of wildlife that would get after livestock or any pets (Cute as they are, raccoons don't mix well with cats....). I understand the practical and recreational uses of them, but at the end of the day they're weapons that, like many other dangerous objects out there, are both used properly and abused; the main difference between a gun and many other items on the weapon spectrum is how quickly they can be lethal. They're highly regulated in my state, but not so much in the surrounding ones.

Family gatherings have been painful for years. I've always been a bit of an introvert and as a kid would sneak off to play my Game Boy or read somewhere after eating, but past a certain age some of the older relatives, mainly on dad's side, thought I should be more "social". I had to "stop" those behaviors; I think some of them had the wrong impression off of some of an aunt's kids as they'd keep their noses in electronic devices nearly the whole time. Mom's side is a little more laid back about that kind of thing, but nobody really games or shares a lot of my interests there either. Too, I have very few cousins around my age; with the exception of a step-cousin I don't see often, my interests diverged from the others years ago. We still get along well for the most part. Just don't mention a couple of taboo topics on mom's side, and sections of dad's side are fraught with drama....It's almost like a soap opera at times, except everyone hasn't married everyone else ten times.

To be fair, the groups breaking off for Turkey Day sort of do their own group gatherings anyway as their families are growing; 2020 aside, we normally would still have a very large family gathering since my grandma is still around; I suspect this year is a test run for the Turkey Day after she passes. Grandma has slowed down physically and barely leaves the house anymore, but she's still in decent physical health. We're hoping to keep it that way.

Favorite Turkey Day food? Besides dark meat turkey, I also like stuffing, some sweet potato casserole a cousin normally brings (gonna miss that this year), and pecan pie. I now know who to forward pumpkin pie to! I'm not very fond of pumpkin in general.

I stopped after 5 shinnies, that's 2 for go, 2 for home, and 1 for let's go! None of them were great, but I did get a few with decent stats, and one regular magmar with good stats to keep as a battler.
Yeah, these two last CDs were pleasant and easy.

Something like this:

That wig reminds me to Estefania from telenovela Carita de Angel.

@Tyranexx Congrats on the shinys in Go. I only played a little since I actually hatched a shiny Magby a few months back. But I did grab one more shiny so I have a spare I can send into Home and the main games.

As for the schools, there's a lot of things. But I want to start off by mentioning that I strongly dislike private schools. Private schools are, very often, profit based and worse, can often provide an imbalanced advantage to children of wealthier families. Privatized education is not the solution.
But to start with, American schools are vastly imbalanced. Not only is it left to the states, resulting in at the very least 50 different sets of standards, but going down even to the local levels you have schools funded by their towns. This means low income towns have painfully underfunded schools, providing an inferior education to the students and perpetuating the cycle of poverty. On top of that, many school districts in America suffer from the absurd idea that if a school is underperforming, then the solution is to cut funding and resources. To take away after school activities, clubs, libraries, etc etc. To give an example from my own childhood, my high school had to purchase a new balance beam scale for their science department. Not a set for a class, just one. It cost the entire budget for the science department in that school that year. The funding was low because the average science grades were low. Further more lack of funding leads to schools with painfully thin staffs. 1 teacher in a room with 35-40 children is absolutely absurd. Everything above I just described is not the case in Japan. Japanese schools have national standards to provide equal opportunity to all children through jr. high school. Schools are funded based on the number of students they have, not test scores. Great effort is put in to ensure all kids have a comparatively equal level of opportunity in elementary and jr. high school. Only once entering high school do things changes and much of the responsibility shifts onto the students shoulders to pass rigorous entrance exams to get into better high schools. And I want to point out that, even in relatively poor towns, there's always, at least, 1 teacher and 1-3 other staff members in the immediate area to help with the children, and generally class sizes are smaller unless special circumstances force it to be otherwise.

Moving on from just money and resources, Japanese schools provide a much more rounded education. Where American schools focus heavily on core subjects like language, math, science and social studies, Japanese school do that for essentially all subjects. There is a comparable amount of effort put into art, music, shop class, and after school activities such as sport and art clubs. Students in Japanese schools are all taught a variety of practical skills as well. Things like cooking and cleaning and general household chores. The children, under adult supervision are responsible for daily cleaning of their own classrooms and hallways to teach them to better take care of their things. Leadership is taught by actually having the students be responsible for some of their younger schoolmates in clubs and student councils.

The Japanese system is far from perfect though. It suffers from an abundance of standardized testing. And teachers and staff often work absurd hours without overtime pay. Homeroom teachers are essentially treated as the third parent for their kids. You have mom, dad, and teacher. Only the teacher has a lot more kids to worry about. And the system is extremely time consuming. School is life for the kids. Class might start at 7:50 and end at 2:30, but the kids will often be at the school from 7:45 until 4-6pm. Then they go home for homework.

Overall though, looking at the two systems, I consider the Japanese system far better. While I can list off many faults for it, I see far more advantages over the US system. On the other hand, about the only thing I think the US system does better, on average, is to allow children more free time.

Anyway, if you don't want your pumpkin pie, I will gladly take it off your hands!

Also wow, you got a Switch and a game for only 270? That was a darn good deal!

Yeah, i have finished Evoland 1 PS4 just now !
It was very short adventure with Zeldaish, FF VII ish, FF VIII ish, Dragon Quest, Bomberman parody on it. 😆
Well, i still haven't finished Evoland 2 PS4.
Still long way to go.

Had an odd dream last night. I dreamt I was at work and a group of people infected with COVID came into my work but they looked like Zombies from a Resident Evil game, slow moving and look like rotting corpses and just communicating with moans and grunts. My co-workers and I were telling them to leave but they just kept wandering around the store touching everything. In my dream I kept telling my co-worker we have to get them out. We finally manged to but not before they coughed and sneezed on me and my co-worker. Once they left my co-worker and I started cleaning everything with cans of Lysol and while doing that normal people started to come into the store and me and her were telling them to get out.

Odd thing was the store wasn't a store at all but some old church that was falling apart but for some reason it had furniture laid out just like we do at my store (I work at a furniture store).

So yeah have no idea where that came from lol.