Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@Pastellioli a refurbished digital ps5 being at the price is so lame given that it’s still more expensive than a Series S.

@Yousef- Oh, I just checked and yeah…I do think digital consoles should be a bit less because they lack a disc-drive and rely on being digital all the time for everything. I don’t mind having a digital only console, but I think a console being digital-only has a lot of risks, like losing access to all your games if the account tied to it were to get hacked. I think the pricing on the refurbished consoles are better, but the digital one could have been a lot more inexpensive since it doesn’t have a disc functionality.

@Pastellioli so true $350 is a lil steep $300 is bare minimum or better yet just be $250
But tbf ig it makes sense for Sony cuz digital ps5 isn’t weaker than the base ps5…. I suppose

Hi. How is everyone doing? Super bored, haven’t held any long chats with anyone recently and it’s disappointing me. I don’t feel like drawing at all and I can’t muster up the motivation to do so, but eh. I don’t care about drawing right now, it ticks me off too much and I get so disappointed when I see other people’s works. I want the time to improve my art skills, but I do not have time at all and my art progress stays stagnant. It’s really frustrating but oh well. I had all the time years ago and now I don’t.

Yesterday I watched my brother play Valorant and it was so funny seeing him play in his first match. In good news, I probably will play online with a friend in a few more days, so hooray!

@Pastellioli not much. Usual life stuff. Slightly more relaxed today cuz it’s Thursday. Which means tomorrow is weekend. Arab world doesn’t go by judeo-christian week system so our week goes Sunday-Thursday and Friday-Saturday are the weekends. Friday becomes of Jumaa (muslim holy day of the week) and Saturday cuz, Y’know, a one day weekend would be pretty brutal, yeah?
But yeah. Not much happening rn. Mid-20s is so boring. You just work, live alone and occasionally talk to friends or family. Well maybe I’m not so easily stimulated idk.
I’m a little bit more low-maintenance though, contrary to the beginning of your post, so I do not feel bored or disappointed if I can’t find chats every day. If anything, my social anxiety would probaaaaably hate it so I take some days off occasionally, or go very on and off. It’s why I only post in the push square club that I manage every 2-3 days, I think that’s a healthy stream of activity for a club like that.
Though if you’re bored or need chatting (or anyone here) like I said just ping me I already have pretty much very little going on. Hospital work is quiet, my house is quiet, my friends and mutuals are sometimes quiet, my hangouts with my dad are p lively doe.
I should prob find better ways to occupy.
Well on the bright side I’m cooking chicken tomorrow.
So das cool.

its been a hard week

@ThatZeldaNerd OHh, why is that?

@ThatZeldaNerd Aw, I'm sorry to hear that, I hope things get better for you. No matter how hard things get, just remember to take it easy on yourself. If you aren't getting enough love from the world, remember to give some to yourself. Things haven't been easy on my end either, tbh, but I know we can power through and get to a better tomorrow. It might not mean much coming from some rando on the internet, but I'll be rooting for you. <3

@ThatZeldaNerd Sorry. I have had rough days where I feel down or unmotivated, so I can relate. I hope you feel better soon. Just remember that if your day or week has not been super great, please remember; there is tomorrow and a hundred more days that will be better.

@Yousef- Sorry late response!

Oh, I’d hate one day weekends lol. I love it when there is a holiday on Mondays, so that makes a three-day weekend! Three-day weekends are a bit frequent and I love it. The way weeks work where you live are interesting. I haven’t really heard of Sundays being work days and Fridays being weekend days. For me, Mondays-Fridays are work days, and Saturdays-Sundays are weekends, though there are probably people that follow the same week system as me that work on different days than that.

For me, nothing much too! Just been working, occasionally playing games. I’ve still been trying to watch JoJo, but I can’t believe I said I was going to binge watch it and then fell asleep before I could get onto the next episode! All I remember was getting two minutes in the next episode while I was asleep, waking up and realizing I missed stuff, went back to an earlier part with the intention to watch the episode in full, turned off my phone and tried to nap for five minutes before I watched it, and then I slipped into sleep with my earphones plugged in and the Crunchyroll app left open. It’s mostly from the fact I watch the show super late when I’m sleepy, but it’s not my bedtime right now or super late, so I’m gonna watch it soon.

And speaking of watching stuff, I sometimes go on YouTube to watch things that peak my interest, but it’s usually the super random ones that I find are super interesting. I was watching a video a few weeks ago by a YouTuber I enjoy that went over several old and forgotten internet scams, most of which were from a decade ago, and one of them was for this beef jerky made of Japanese Kobe beef, which is a super special and rare meat that is very expensive to buy. Some company popped up one day and aimed to sell and distribute Kobe beef jerky and needed crowdfunded cash to do so, and almost EVERYONE wanted the beef jerky likely from the quality of Kobe meat, so they exceeded their goal very quickly. But a filmmaking duo working on a documentary suspected it was fake and they, alongside a private investigator, busted the people behind the scam and all the money was refunded to hackers just a single HOUR before the crowdfunding ended, to think that the scammers were that close to getting away with more than $100 over some beef jerky that doesn’t exist! It’s a super interesting story I heard about, and YouTube topics like that are just super entertaining whenever I’m doing something. Do you usually put on whatever you see on YouTube or something on a specific topic or interest you are into?

My life is super boring too, but I think having a super boring life isn’t bad, not a lot happens of course but it’s better than having a super strange life. I sometimes wish something exciting would happen, but it’s fine right now.

I sometimes get a bit bored on here cuz the main reason I go on NL is for my daily dose of interaction and having friendly talks with people. I go on here on a daily basis, but I should try to normalize breaks, but I can’t stop reading on the latest news and conversations haha. I am actually a bit fine with no one chatting with me, especially if they are busy, I sometimes just feel like no one chats with me but I only feel like that when I’m bored. I’m fine now! Just reading a bit of stuff on the “Next Nintendo Direct?” thread. I haven’t commented on that one a lot recently cuz I haven’t had anything worthwhile to say, but a lot of the people on there do, they are really good at logic and reasoning when they speculate.

Also, chicken! Tasty. I cooked chicken today too but I haven’t eaten it yet. I put garlic and onion powder, garlic salt, and pepper on it. I loved the smell of the seasonings as I was putting them on the chicken. I wonder what you are going to season your chicken with

@Pastellioli sometimes I can be way too tired to chat. I’ve just woken up. It’s 7 am Haven’t had my tea or water yet.
Actually I drank water after I typed that so that statement is now outdated.
I hate sleeping in the middle of something, I wake remembering nothing and feeling like I might’ve missed out on a fun night.
I can’t say my life is devoid of excitement, I’m just a tough crowd. Cool stuff happens but my silly little brain always treats them as isolate events when they’re over rather than fun memories. Now, I CONSCIOUSLY acknowledge them as fun events, but my SUBCONSCIOUS doesn’t. So I want to stop feeling nothing, but it’s not something you can stop on command.

But it really was fun. Actually I should talk about it. Visited family I haven’t seen in a while. My family is big, especially on my father’s side. On my father’s side I have six uncles and countless cousins and my gramma ofc. There’s family gatherings at the diwaniya (this term I’ll explain later cuz it’s complicated without context, it’s basically a room for family guests, but it’s really just a space to chill, but it’s still formal so there’s etiquette to follow but generally it’s in the middle of the two. Maybe google can help explain it. There’s a Wikipedia article). We’ve had Aish (rice) and Lamb. Drinks were Laban (yogurt drink I mentioned before), water, cocoa cola and sprite/7-up (tbh they’re the same). Couldn’t take pics cuz it can be kinda weird to do that but found this… sadly blurry image that thankfully still shows what it looks like. A side dish would be usually marag, which is a tomato-based stew with a ton of potatoes. Very tasty. We also eat with our hands, it’s part of the proper etiquette. My favorite way to eat rice is to pour marag on it, cut some of the lamb and pour Laban all over my portion. Makes it into my favorite thing to eat.

I wish I could improve my sleep as well. Oh well. At least i just opened the fitness app yesterday though I do dislike its reliance on your phone being with you at all times. Well at least I set it 160 cals a day which I hear is a respectable goal.

No I can’t really say I’m a YouTube freak, per se.

Huh, face beef jerky scam. Thankfull I’ll never be scammed on beef jerky, because i don’t like beef jerky. It’s a jerk (and so am I).

Wait, it’s 8 am now. And just had my tea. Now twi other earlier statements outdated. Man… I fell off.

Actually I can’t remember what spices I added cuz it’s been marinating for two days so I packed them the day before, and kinda in a hurrr too cuz I had something. Ah, lesse…. Cinnamon poweder, turmeric, a Kuwaiti rice spice mix… or was it Saudi? Or was it a chicken Spice mix? Actually I also don’t remember what else I added there besides salt. I’ll cook it in an hour or two after I’m finished typing this out.

@Yousef- That’s understandable! It’s fine if you can’t. Sometimes I have received messages from people but I’m way too sleepy or already asleep to respond and I do not start talking until time has passed when I’m full of energy. I also hate sleeping through stuff and not remembering it after too.

Sometimes I brain does that too. Sometimes when I talk to my mom and brother I bring up memories of mine and go “if only anything memorable happened as of late” but one of them told me that it was probably because my brain blocks any recent memories or older memories out and just random stuff that isn’t worth remembering. I’ve forgot a lot of fun stuff from that and also because I focus way too much on negative memories too. It’s only negative memories I can really remember because of how much I bring them up.

Woah, your family is really big! I have a sort of big family on both sides but because they don’t live with me and my main family I don’t talk to them and I have no idea what’s going on in their lives. The only one I really talk to is my grandma but via texting on the phone. A few years ago I did attend a wedding for one of my relatives on my mom’s side, and that was great. I remember drawing a gift for the occasion and giving it to my relative and her husband.

The dishes you guys ate sound delicious. The only foods you guys ate that I have had was lamb, water, and the sodas you listed. I don’t usually drink soda a lot mostly cuz I’m not into it, but when my mom had bought packs of Zero Sugar Sprite and Coca-Cola me and my brother were just so obsessed with it. I do wish American cuisine and the foods common here were more interesting like other cuisines in other countries but American cuisine tends to be very same-y for me and a bit boring. It’s why I do get a bit excited when I get to eat cuisine from any non-American restaurant here cuz it’s different, plus the foods common in American dining and restaurants are unhealthy.

I don’t eat beef jerky a lot anymore, I think it tastes good in snack packs that have both beef jerky and a stick of cheese, but I just randomly thought about that beef jerky scam and found the video going over it to be super interesting. Even though Kobe beef is a really liked and expensive meat, I honestly don’t really care about Kobe beef jerky if it did exist, I most certainly wouldn’t drop a bunch of money on it like how the other people did when they first thought the crowdfunding was real.

Usually when we marinate chicken we let it sit for a night and cook it much later the next day. The chicken is more flavorful that way, more than taking defrosted chicken out, placing it on a tray with tinfoil and putting dry seasonings on top, since sometimes the seasonings can burn when being cooked in the oven. I hope that your chicken turns out well when you cook it!

@CaleBoi25 @Novamii @Pastellioli thank you all for words of encouragement. For real it means a lot 🙂
i just have been really sick and also trying to get through some hard conversations but i'm trying to recover the best i can. Thx yall!❤️

Yo!
I have watched Transformers One at my local cinema for two times.
I have a plan to watch again on next week.
Who have watched Transformers One?

I miss having a cinema near me.

I would be interested in an outside opinion on this...

So I'd say I'm as much of a Queen fan as I am a Nintendo fan. I love their catalogue of music but there's been a bit of controversy regarding their latest product:

They've announced a big fat 7 disc box-set for their debut album including demos, live performances etc. One of the discs specifically is a brand new 2024 mix of the whole album, the first time a Queen album has been re-mixed.
They have released one of the newly-mixed songs as a single and many have been quick to point out that pitch correction has been used on Freddie Mercury's voice during certain lines. This is far from the first time they have done this, (they have deployed similar techniques for live concert releases and previous demos) but it has reignited a fiery rage among some fans who are outraged that they are "messing with his voice".
I can't imagine this will be a massive issue in the grand scheme as Freddie was a fantastic singer but tbf he was young and still trying to find his voice.

But the question remains, is it right to pitch correct these performances and deny listeners of an 'authentic' listen, or isn't that the whole point of a remix? To make use of technologies which weren't available at the time🤔

@Pastellioli With a couple of exceptions like the 3D Metroid Prime games and (possibly) Conker eventually, I'm not really into shooters for various reasons. I do appreciate franchises like Splatoon and Overwatch bringing some variety to the table though. The muddy, realistic color palettes when they started becoming all the rage on consoles (CoD, Halo) got old fast. I am glad you get a lot of enjoyment out of them!

I didn't watch the PS5 Pro reveal live, but the pricing....Ouch. I'm more convinced than ever to go the PC route now; one of the reasons I'm waiting was to see what Sony came up with. Keep in mind the American price doesn't include tax, whereas EU pricing usually does include it. So it probably pans out to about the same once currency is converted. Whether someone finds a console worthy of their time and money is up to them lol. I certainly have my preferences, but I won't knock people for having their own.

Microsoft really dropped the ball with the XBOne back in the day. It doesn't surprise me those moves cost them some of the market. I do think Phil Spencer has helped turn the brand around a little. And this is from someone who isn't very fond of him.

@jedgamesguy Seems like we both had similar takeaways regarding the PS5 Pro. Definitely NOT something I'm rushing out to buy.

@Tyranexx I think shooter games are super fun when played online, but cuz I don’t have a lot of time to play online, I always have to play offline. And speaking of Conker, I should specify that the remake version has more of a big focus on the shooter aspect of the game, cuz I think I forgot to mention that it’s multiplayer mode there is a shooter instead of the different multiplayer genres in the original. I haven’t played a shooter as of late, but tomorrow I am with a friend! We had a nice discussion today and I am hoping he is awake and ready to play by the time I wake up tomorrow.

I watched the reveal live just cuz I was bored but when the pricing dropped nearly everyone I was with in the live chat went “I’m not buying this” and left. I definitely don’t mind people having preferences and what games or consoles are worth their time. The Pro is definitely not for someone like me, but it probably is for someone else, and that’s good. It doesn’t bother me unlike some people on the internet who are intolerant of other opinions and preferences.

I'm a big Queen fan too and it goes without saying that the most unique part of the group was Freddie's voice. He was a brilliant singer and techniques used to alter his voice in any way are... in my opinion, a complete perversion of what made him so great.

When it comes to remastering old media (games, music, film) there's a fine line between using modern technology to improve visuals and sound, and flat-out redoing them entirely. This is what Queen appears to be doing. It feels like a Star Wars situation, where people are going back and rectifying issues that didn't really exist.

@Tyranexx I'd stick with the base PS5 if you ever consider getting one, especially since they're getting a small price reduction. Least the base one comes with a disc drive.