Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

second time ive ever been called that before!

@WoomyNNYes Well you know the old saying; don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened. I’d take whatever I could get during this difficult period.

Funnily I’M off to the beach on Thursday, except it’s a beach resort, and way more than a six hour drive away. Shame then, that I have some outstanding work to finish during this holiday….

@Link-Hero Mask actually do work so idk why people are trigger'd.

@Link-Hero I didn't even see this absolute gem, that must have been absolutely hilarious! I hope you had a right laugh with your family, because that's something else. I'll say this though; congratulations on going sixteen months without encountering one of those people!

I admit that I do the exact same thing, even when it's only two people in a car. I've gotten very used to wearing a mask. I think; as long as this virus exists I'm wearing a mask.

important piece here i just got.
my dad bought him for me when i was young, i rebought him again factory sealed, and this time...i wont be opening him.


all that detail...

@Link-Hero I've been in many incidents where something wasn't funny at the time but eventually became very amusing. Ah well, you're fortunate it took that long anyhow. People like that are painfully oblivious to stuff that should be right in front of you.

@Tyranexx Oh, that's interesting that you had to pay a high-ish price for it. Here in the UK most Professor Layton games are really cheap secondhand, probably because the series was so popular here in its heyday. (Then again, the Pokémon games on DS are incredibly expensive now so maybe popularity has nothing to do with it!) But yeah, looking on eBay now, US copies of Last Specter are certainly more expensive than UK ones. I might still get it one day if I find a good price.

Unfortunately, Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright is very pricey these days. That's the only Layton game I haven't played other than the mobile ones, and I really want to play it now that I'm into Ace Attorney. At least with 3DS games you can usually download them if they get too expensive to buy physically. There are a lot of DS games that I wish that option existed for.

@Tyranexx - Haha, yeah cooking hot peppers in any way usually brings out the heat. Hopefully you had some milk on hand, though that only helps slightly. You kinda just have to wait them out. I got myself in trouble with Thai chili peppers once, it’s bad when you get so spiced up that you get hiccups.

I’m the same way though, I like all other bell peppers, and most of the hot peppers I’ve had, I just don’t like green bell peppers. It’s not a matter of cooking them or pairing them with the right things, I just think they’re gross.

@ThanosReXXX - Nope, I just don’t like green bell peppers, plain and simple. There’s nothing you could pair them with where I’d enjoy them. They’d just ruin the thing they’re paired with. I feel the same about black licorice. It’s just vile stuff in my opinion.

@ogo79 - I loved that cartoon and toy line man! I’ve always been a big Toxie guy. I had quite a few of the figures as well. The details are amazing. That was at the tail end of my earnest toy collecting, but I had quite a few of them. Good stuff.

@ogo79 "never been called that before!"

Well, there's a first for everything, you rambling bag of bones...

@CactusMan 8 rolls and 7 cans a day? That sounds more like binging to me instead of savoring the good things in life. And I also meant the finer cuisine, so sausage rolls are off the menu.

@bimmy-lee So, what is it then? The bitter taste? Can't be the texture of them, otherwise you wouldn't like the other bell peppers either. But in all seriousness, what I said earlier does ring true. The average decent chef would acknowledge that. It is possible to "hide" any ingredient in a dish in such a way that you would not taste or notice that single ingredient, but it would still add to the overall completeness of how it tastes and smells.

I can take myself for example: I simply HATE olives, but when mixed with other ingredients and processed into a tapenade to be used as a spread on bread or meat, I really like it. Same goes for white asparagus: I hate it, but I do like the soup that they make from it, long as there aren't any asparagus chunks in there. And I could easily name another four or five examples.

I also know a lot of culinary tricks to make certain foods palatable for kids, such as Brussel sprouts.

As for black licorice: as I mentioned to @Tyranexx, it's neigh on impossible for people to dislike ALL black licorice, especially as there are SO many kinds, with thousands of different flavors. I strongly suspect that your dislike comes from the fact that, unless it's imported, there isn't a single good example of a tasty kind of licorice in the States. It's just not a licorice country, so to speak. The Netherlands is, and the variety and amount they have is simply mind-boggling, so there should always at least be one type that might positively surprise you.

P.S.

Solid sugar (cubes or crystal powder) is a far better heat killer than milk, for when you've eaten spicy things.

@Tyranexx Best of luck to you, it’s seemed like you’ve taken decent initiative so far. I’ve also found myself admittedly quite lazy over the last few days with little in the way of legitimate reasoning. Yesterday morning I forced myself to haul… myself to the gym and ironically I felt better after one hour there, than I did that time the previous day when I did absolutely nothing.

Hopefully you and I aren’t the only ones who dislike liquorice, which by the way, is how it’s spelt in Queen’s English! Liquorice in any country is horrible, and who better to tell me that than the seminal German candymaker, Haribo? I had some of their liquorice and it’s not much better over here. To start it smells awful so that’s already a terrible first impression, and then it tastes awful. And I’m in agreement that I would make exceptions for caramel or peppermint. When I was younger I used to visit a store after school and buy chocolate. One whole 100g bar every day. My family only caught me when they decided to meet me outside our apartment, while I was walking home scoffing four packs of Oreos, and from then on I’ve been cold turkey on that stuff, thank God.

I haven’t tried true American saltwater taffy but the word “saltwater” is already a very good first impression, it sounds so… delicious. American food from experience is just way too sweet. Most times whenever I eat a store-bought cake or whatever, I’d end up getting sick because of the sheer shock the cake would give me from the sweetness. In fact it did happen for one of my birthdays, where I spent half an hour being sick because of how sweet my cake was. All the while my friends ate it, not that I was complaining! It even happened last week, at my local M&S café, when I got a free slice of chocolate cake with my hot drink. Is it a surprise that I ended up feeling ill afterwards? Cheesecake is one exception though, it’s just too nice to refuse.

Well promise keeping is a decent quality to have as far as humans go, I’d like to think I keep my word too. Most times if I don’t it’s not out of malice but sheer forgetfulness. Scott the Woz is quite funny, his writing is just sublime. And sometimes his on-screen gags go too far, like when he bought a shopping trolley’s worth of Chips A’hoy boxes, or fifteen copies of one game. His style is a combination of funny jokes and legitimately educational and informative delivery. I did watch one of Erick Landon’s videos on video games with revenge subplots, and it was pretty well thought out. At least Xenoblade, one of the foremost revenge stories I’ve heard of, made it! I’ll link this one from StW; a video, fittingly, on remakes and their ilk.

I haven’t used my pool much, surprisingly. You’d think the weather would have made me go in more but the simple truth is that it’s not heated. In the winter it’s too cold, and in the summer it’s too hot. I went in my compound pool for an hour a few weeks ago and it was exhausting to the point my arms were dead after two laps. Hot water is meant for relaxation, and I suppose your mind just shuts your muscles down in hot water. There’s a feeling, with a specific word in a Nordic language, for sitting by a fire during a cold winter. I love that feeling.

Sad thing about my beloved dog is that he’s not very smart. But I suppose that’s to be expected, humans are just on another level of intelligence and perception. Cute enough though, and he provides licks on demand. A very happy bunny indeed when he sees us every morning, so there’s no shortage of energy either. I also went down a very large rabbit hole of Daft Punk goodness, and went back into it when I began writing this paragraph itself. The album “Discover” is the epitome of masterful electronic music, so I’m very surprised I don’t listen to it as much as I should. Some of their songs should be played in the background of my life. Have fun cruising down what would be my memory lane, I’m sure you’ll find some great stuff!

I feel very lucky I managed to snag a copy of the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 collector’s edition, while you mention collector’s goodies. Steelbook, soundtrack, artbook, and a game. I wanted the Xenoblade DE one but they kept running out of stock! I did get the Twilight Princess HD amiibo and CD, but that’s about it for me. I hope a game comes out that forces me to get the collector’s edition, because the CDs and the artbooks in particular are quite nice.

I’ve beaten the Ancient Cistern in Skyward Sword, and boarded the Sandship before some afternoon viewing of the Olympics, more on that later. I copied my save file before I fought Koloktos, so I could play it as much as I wanted. I usually didn’t have too much trouble with Koloktos before but I nearly died this time, when playing with the button controls. What a boss. The music is also so powerful, especially in the second phase. I’d agree that it has very strong dungeons, but when I thought about it, at best it has the second-best dungeon design in the series, to Twilight Princess.

I finished DDLC, and it’s been such an emotionally taxing experience. Nothing external, if you saw me play you wouldn’t think much of it but it just latched onto my train of thought like an obsessive crush. It left me with a sense of heavy melancholy too. But I really recommend playing it. I’ll say this though, it’s a bit on the short side. But I read way too fast, which is why I started a second playthrough to absorb it better. It should take about ten hours from start to finish. Then replaying it to get some cool content of course. I think the cost is very good for the amount of stuff you get. So yeah, I’d love to hear your thoughts on that one in the future, it’s such a great experience.

You too?! Didn’t expect that one, but at least you’ll be able to relate to the shortcomings of American English. I’m not good on the spot either so it’s a miracle I was in contention for the win at all. So glad I had the chance though but my public speaking’s improved dramatically since then. I’d rather deliver a speech than do another spelling bee. Who needs those when you have autocorrect?!

@ThanosReXXX - The thing I dislike about green bell peppers is the green bell pepper ness of green bell peppers. There’s absolutely no way to hide a green pepper from me. I can tell if something has been chopped on a board that previously had been used to chop green peppers. I can smell them as soon as I walk into the produce section of the grocery store. I just don’t like them. This isn’t some life experience thing where you know more about my opinions on taste than I do. Send me that average chef who can hide them from me and I’ll tell them they’re wrong.

So I decided to do something I've never really bothered with. I usually am pretty apathic about audio equipment. The kind of speakers or headphones you get in like the 30-60 dollar range is all I've ever used.

But I decided maybe I should finally try something a little nicer, to see if there is really any merit to the audiophiles out there always talking about their fancy toys. So I I decided I'd be willing to risk something in the 150 dollar range - 3 times what I spent on my previous "best" headphones. I got myself a pair of Sennheiser HD569s ...

AND I FREAKING LOVE THEM! I didn't even know headphones could sound this good! Like what is even going on! I'm sitting here listening to some of my favorite music and like, there's details I've never noticed before in songs I've heard 100 times! And they don't sacrifice bass or highs. Like, I don't even know how to properly describe it. There's a range of audio I feel like I didn't even know existed!

@Heavyarms55 - Good for you, nice headphones make a HUGE difference in sound quality, even with digital files. They can take the music from flat to round. I haven’t had a nice pair since I was a kid using my parent’s headphones on their receiver and turntable. I’m one of those home stereo nerds though.

You might want to ask Eel about something he mentioned last week, something about HD digital music. I haven’t had a chance to look it up yet, but sounds cool and it’d pair nice with your new cans. Do they work with your Switch? There are lots of games with amazing sound design. I can attest that Ape Out and Huntdown are both great, even with crappy headphones. Can’t imagine how nice they’d be with good speakers.

@Heavyarms55 Good choice my man!

I’m hoping to have the majority (or all) of my responses out there within the next couple of days. I’ll let you guys know if that changes. I’m really sorry about the delayed responses, guys, I’ve just been busy (again). Things seem to be starting to (emphasis on the starting to) slow down for me, so hopefully, I’ll be able to get responses out sooner rather than later, but we’ll see.

In the meantime, I was going to leave you guys with a couple of things to think about, or look at.

The first thing is regarding the question game, except there’s a question I want to ask you guys. This technically is a two-part question, but they’re connected.

First, have you guys heard of the WarnerMedia-Discovery merger, and if so, what do you think of it?
I know it’s technically going to be called Warner Bros. Discovery if the merger happens, but I believe most people have heard of it as WarnerMedia-Discovery (or Discovery-WarnerMedia).

Second, I have an interesting Nintendo Life article that might explain why things have felt “different” around here recently.

Here’s the article: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/03/site_news_after_our...

@SM3DASislit it's no problem. I can't remember what I said to you a while ago, but I forgive you! 😉. We all get busy, so no need to apologize!

Eight notifications, all for this thread. I feel loved. My summer schedule is generally somewhat nuts, not to mention I've been taking mini-sabbaticals from the internet when I feel a little overwhelmed. Apologies if it takes me a few days to get back to people sometimes.

Funnily enough, the closest I've also been to Japan is being in the Pacific Ocean off of Southern California. I was 14 at the time. That was actually a painful experience; I sustained a pretty bad sunburn at Sea World San Diego the day before (I did wear sunscreen, but I'm pretty sure I sweated it off), but I foolishly entered the water with blisters....Sunburns are bad enough, but when the wave action ruptures said blisters....There's a reason "salt in the wound" is a widely used English expression.

@MarioLover92 Overall, I like traveling. Minus all the necessary, albeit frustrating, security processing. I highly dislike being touched by strangers unless it's "allowed" contact and from the front, like with handshakes. What keeps me from going too far though is time and money. I get more vacation and personal time than some, especially since I've built up the latter, but I'd rather save some of it for sick days or emergencies. I typically don't take off from work more than a few days at most.

@ThanosReXXX I'll tentatively give some of the black licorice a try and do have a means to offload it if I end up not caring for it. I'm certainly game for trying some of the fruit flavors. I'll keep an eye out for those kinds! Looks like the Walmart chain sells the half-moons online, but they appear to be out of stock right now.

On olives: I'm odd about these too. I love black olives but can't stand green ones. I used to think it was due to the pimento shoved into the center of many variations of the latter, but it turns out I don't care for the olive itself.

Duly noted on sugar vs. milk. I'm pretty sure water doesn't do much to blunt the burning even if it does offer (very) temporary relief.

@VoidofLight Digimon is one of my favorite monster franchises, barely second to Pokemon. I watched the anime up until Savers/Season 5 when it moved off of our local Fox/WB station onto Toonami/Cartoon Network (didn't have cable at the time). I watched the earlier parts of Season 6/Xros Wars/Fusion, both subbed and dubbed, but I couldn't really get into it. I just wasn't into the fusion aspect of things even though they did introduce Digivolution later. I did like Season 4/Frontier overall, but I do agree that it was a step down compared to the previous three seasons.

I still need to dive into the Cyber Sleuth games on Switch. I haven't touched them yet; they're currently backlogged.

@Snatcher I'd forgotten Splatoon 2 was also blocked from save backups due to anti-cheating measures. I'm not into the series, but I do know some people put a lot of time into the games.

@Dogorilla The other three Professor Layton games on the DS, used anyway, are pretty cheap to find overall; it seems odd that Last Specter is a different case, though I suspect it didn't have as long of a print run since it released after the 3DS was out. Possibly in part due to Layton's London Life too. Most new and CIB quality DS and 3DS games are pretty pricey now, even some loose cartridges go for a pretty penny.

I've been collecting all the Layton games I can get my hands on. I've had to give up on getting Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright since the cartridge is so expensive. I could download it, but the game is pretty robust and I'm not very interested in expanding my micro SD card storage at this point to accommodate it. I have all the DS ones now, and I just need Azran Legacy on 3DS. I was able to find Miracle Mask new for a good price a few months ago, but Azran Legacy definitely didn't have much of a print run and is very expensive used (roughly $80 USD). I'll end up downloading that one as I do have the space.

@bimmy-lee It was at a restaurant without milk. I had to make do with water. That wasn't the worst experience though. I tried a whole chip full of "Insanity Sauce" at a Mexican restaurant in Chinatown when I went on that high school Washington, DC trip I mentioned a few pages back. The sauce was aptly named; I drained at least 4-5 large glasses of water in an effort to stop the burning. Nearly called the fire department. Which also nearly led to a fiasco at a mall we went to afterward. The bathrooms were literally in the most out-of-the-way place you can imagine. _{Thankfully, I made it.}

Weirdly enough, other bell peppers don't bother me. Just the green ones. It's definitely something with the flavor; it corrupts just about everything. I can only tolerate them when they're smothered in layers of ranch, and at that point I'm better off not eating them.

@Tyranexx I mean, you are probably the most liked member in the community haha. One of the most active, and I've never seen you fight anyone 🤔.

About Digimon: it's the opposite with me, Digimon is my favourite franchise and Pokemon is a second close one. Love both deeply though and yeah, check out the Cyber Sleuth games when you have time.

@Tyranexx I haven’t properly watched Fusion, but I remember it airing when I was younger. I need to watch the reboot and the sequels to the original two seasons of the series.

What put me off about frontier is the humans becoming digimon. It just didn’t feel right, because tamers mastered the relationships between digimon and their tamers.

@VoidofLight I agree. For me it's kinda absurd to remove what is probably the most popular thing about the show, which are these creatures that almost everyone would love having. By turning people into said creatures, it may give them more importance as they do the fighting but it removes the wholesome aspect of having your cute creature partner and said bonds. Sure, there are many Digimon surrounding them but it isn't the same.