2020-01-01 10:29:25

Well. A new year, a new monthly chat topic. I hope everyone had a good holiday season and may this year be better than the last. What have you all been up to

2020-01-01 11:34:33

Thumbs up there sky guardian, I was wondering if someone was able to beat me to the punch with this one since I was rather too tired last night to come and post after midnight.

I admit, christmas was a bit subdued with the prospect of my lady's radio therapy looming in january, though  was still rather nice. Indeed ironically my birthday present, the complete game of thrones on dvd turned up just in time for Christmas big_smile.

New year was good though. My lady and I went out for lunch at TGI Fridays with my brother and his fiance, then we all trooped off to see the rise of skywalker, which was pretty terrible, albeit not as terrible as the last Jedi.

then we spent the evening with a friend of my mum's. In the past she's had a huge house party with lots of people which to be honest I've always found a bit wearing, last night though there were only about 10 people there, all of them adults, so we basically sat around, drank wine, ate some extremely nice cakes that my mum's friend made and debated everything from the merits (or lack of), of starwars to the fun things airlines can do to assistive technology.

it was actually more fun than I thought. we then came back, watched the firework display in London and drank a glass of champagne to see in the new year, and indeed the new decade.

My lady and I are just hoping things will go slightly better, since 18 and 19 were both pretty crappy and we both need a break at the moment.

Hope everyone else is having a good 2020 so far as well.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2020-01-01 14:20:08

in this month, I'll be bizy so much because of exams

2020-01-01 19:04:16

Hi.


I started off this new year with a stomach ache and a feaver. Hopefully it goes away soon.


I'm off to wrest and listen to some movies or something.

I'm gone for real :)

2020-01-01 19:44:26

I started out the new year doing just about nothing, accept for wishing everyone a new year, and failing to sleep until like 5:00 AM.
All in all it was quite an eventful holiday.

2020-01-01 23:40:05

I started off the new year with tech support calls to see why Windows Defender isn't allowing me to add exclusions. Figuring it out slowly. Also waking up at 11 was nice.

A winner is you!
—Urban Champion

2020-01-02 17:42:11

Hello everyone.
First, I'd like to wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous new year. I'm hopeful that 2020 will be better than last year, which was probably one of my worst. There wasn't a particular incident that made this year terrible, more like lots of little things one after another that all built up. The majority of these were related to my health, and I'm sincerely hopeful that it will continue to improve throughout this year. smile
Although on the whole the year was less than brilliant, Christmas was the exception. It was one of the most enjoyable holidays I've had in a long time. I didn't do anything out of the ordinary, but I received some lovely gifts and spent a lot of time with family.

2020-01-02 20:19:06 (edited by Jeffb 2020-01-02 20:19:44)

I started off the New Year drunk and quietly counting down at my brother's house as not to wake my nephew. He's 7 months old. This is the last year I’ll be in my 20’s as I turn 29 on the 22nd. Finally entering my last semester of school and I passed my comps which was a great Christmas pressent! Now I just have my test for the boards in April. If I pass that then after a year of hours I will be a licensed professional counselor. I can’t wait to finally start working as I’ve been stuck in school for what seems like ages. That’s my plans for this year and I can tell it’s going to be a great 1!

Kingdom of Loathing name JB77

2020-01-02 21:19:52

hi.


I'm still a little sick but hopefully it clears up in a couple days.


I hope 2020 brings you good things

I'm gone for real :)

2020-01-03 07:09:29

So, I fell sic around Christmas, and have experienced one of the most painful throat infection in my life yet. the effects of which I still continue to suffer well within the start of this year.

Still, I do think that I am getting better slowly, so that is something. but seriously, this all has cost me around two weaks worth of web development classes.

I expect that I will reach the prime of my power, (basically fancy way of saying reaching full adulthood,) so we will see whether I manage to take over the world or not.

I am still reading spellmonger, and I really do wish that there were more books about magic which explore it like a scientific field, but not set in the medieval ages.

While spellmonger definitely explores the magic, it is set in the medieval setting.

2020-01-03 12:55:09

Hey all,
Well my 2020 has been going great so far. In about half an hour me and a friend will be going off to see rise of skywalker, and as disappointed as I have been by the last two sequels, I'm still very much looking forward to it and hope it doesn't end up just being another crappy film created to bring in big bucks and nothing more. My hopes aren't all that high though.
Other than that, I've got an appointment with the gender clinic later this month, and may very well hopefully get my diagnosis which will allow me to start HRT once I've passed the real life test, which for those who don't know basically means dressing, identifying and otherwise acting as your preferred gender for a set amount of time, varying from person to person.
All in all, I'm very much looking forward to what this year may bring, and hopefully it will be a better one than last year.

2020-01-03 17:14:02

Haily_Merry Think very carefully about whether or not you're sure you want to do this. If you decide to undergo gender reassignment surgery, I'd highly recommend doing it shortly after you turn 18. I couldn't tell you how many times I've heard stories of people undergoing surgery like that as a child and later saying they regretted it, and there's no way to go back once you do it either. I personally won't object if you want to change genders, partially because I don't know you and partially because I'm generally supportive of people in any situation. All I'm saying is, think on it for a little bit.
As for my start to 2020, I think you all will feel a lot better if I say nothing about it.

--------------------
All of my socials and content platforms can be found on my website (not ready yet).

2020-01-03 17:36:27

@dan, yes I completely see what you're saying. I don't plan on undergoing re assignment surgery for a few years yet, partly because I legally wouldn't be able to until they can be sure I'm ready, partly because I can't aford to be incapacitated for long amounts of time for the next ocuple years because of college, and partly because I'm personally more interested in changing things that are on more public display before we start tackling my genitalia.
I do appreciate the support though, it's not an easy transition as I'm sure you know. I'm already starting to feel better for it though.

2020-01-09 11:02:01

@Haily good luck with the transfer, it's not a fun process but hopefully will be worth it in the end if your more comfortable.

I'll confess since for a long time I was genophobic and considered myself gender neutral, as well as desiring the social advantages of being female, I toyed with the idea myself, but since in my case the factors were primarily social more than  part of a physical identity it wasn't something I considered seriously, since my issue wasn't so much looking male or having a male body as my  issue with identifying with traditional masculinity and social expectations. Indeed, I often considered my maleness as pretty much having the same importance as my hair colour and wished   others would treat me the same way.

I suspect if I'd not met my lady and been given a good reason for being male I might have considered formalising my gender neutrality, though these days I just identify myself as a non traditional man who gets irritated with stereotypes, big_smile.

If you don't mind me asking, what are your thoughts as regards attraction? That was another major reason I never seriously considered changing my gender, , since I am %100 straight, and realised that even if I did change , I would probably have as many problems with relationships as a gay lady as I did as a non traditional man, and as I said, in my case it was meeting my lady that actually gave me a good reason to value being male.

@Dark eagle interesting your reading spellmonger, I've seen that series and thought they looked fun.

Well we've sort of had some vaguely good news in that my lady has had a CT scan and the tuma seems to have gotten smaller, which is good consider she's rather upset at the moment since she's been losing her hair and actually needed to buy a wig, but hopefully it'll be worth it. She starts the radio therapy full time next week, which is going to mean going into hospital five days a week, I suspect I'll be getting a lot of Iphone games played big_smile.

We've had a rather busy week, on monday we tried a local pub quiz which was sort of fun, albeit not the best category being 2019we, were , ---- okay with current affairs, less good on sport, pop music or which films got oscars,
Also bloody annoying in that we had to join an existing team, went into the pub and the very well meaning but horribly misguided chap who announced the quiz announced "there are two visually impaired people who need to join a team."
As my lady often says, "blessed are the sighted, for they mean well." big_smile.

On tuesday we went to a support group for people with cancer under fourty which was both helpful and extremely harrowing at the same time.

The only mildly irritating thing, is my laptop has completely %100 died due to a windows update causing constant restart, this means I'm going to have to reinstall NVDA, Chrome and pretty much everything else, indeed I'm a bit annoyed with narrator, since when I hit windows u to try and get it working I got bugger all.

I suspect what I'll need to do is bang the NVDA installer on a memory stick and use guesswork to activate it, I'm also hopeing that installing the realspeak addon, chrome, thunderbird  and ms office won't be too much of a hassle with all the extra keys andd passwords and such, not to mention games.

Of course on the plus side since everything on that laptop are just replications of backups on my desktop, which in turn are backed up on an external HD which lives under my wardrobe, I've not lost anything, though having to do all the extra work is very annoying.

Another irritating part of my laptop breaking was that I couldn't continue playing shadow rine or dreamy train which I bought last weekend, though I've got the game running now and am having lots of fun.

Reading wise, my lady and I are reading memory sorrow and thorn by tad williams, which is one of my favourite series and is as awesome as ever.

Hope everyone else is having a slightly more fun January than we are so far.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2020-01-09 14:09:07

@Dark:
I can't speak for the entire series, but to me, the first book at least is very amusing.

it has all the things which I look for in a magical series, battles between mages, research into magic, etc. the only downside as I have stated previously is that it is set in medieval setting.

I am thinking of picking up the Laundry Files, which also has magic in it, and another plus point in its favor is that it is based on modern age.

As for me, the winter continues to annoy me, specially when the cold makes harder to type. at least I can warm my hands underneath my laptop, silly I know, but I'll do it if I do have to warm my hands.

I also got done with HTML and CSS, and am now starting with Bootstrap. the first time I used the framework, I thought to myself, "It must be cheating to develop that way."

The reason is, ever since I learned c, I am doing everything by hand, trying to find why this or that is giving an error. yet, here I am, copying already made code, making some changes to it, and getting stuff done that way.

After this, I will start to learn the backend. I am not gonna lie, I look forward to it, since the things in front end, (Mainly making sure that everything looks fine visually,) is annoying.

2020-01-09 18:00:09

Dark,
I consider myself bisexual, although I've generally leaned more towards men, one of many reasons I've found my biological sex to be a barrier. I have however had relationships with people of both sexes, and I'm generally opped to judge you based on who you are rather than your pronouns or genitalia.
That said, I've always been deaply disgusted by the idea of gay sex, that hole idea just seems wrong to me. I won't judge people who do that kind of thing, but I could never do that myself.
For me, It's never really been that I want to be female, it's that deap down I am! female, but culchural expectations of what a person with a Y chromosome should be have caused me to hide / restrain who I really am, and have subsiquently caused me to often feel out of place, unfamiliar, uncomfortable and even at times repulsed with the roll I've been forced to adopt over the years.
Coming out as transgender felt to me more like admitting to a ly I'd been telling for years, because really, that's all it ever has been.
I know this may be a lot for most of you who haven't had to go through what I've gone through to get your heads around, but there you go.
As regards your lady, here's hoping she gets better soon. Fellow person who's had a close family member, in this case my dad go through cancer, so don't be afraid to reach out if you ever want to talk. My dad also is currently undergoing radiotheripy for the second time and has had to lose his hair twice, and while it's more of a problem for us women seeing as how hair is usually something we like to hold on to more and is also something we generally don't have to lose, I can imagine this must be pretty stressfull for her.

2020-01-10 08:19:45

@Haily, yes, that is truly being transgender, and makes sense, also glad to hear you've sorted the attraction part out since my very limited experience with trans people suggests that can be an issue.

As I said, in my case it was more my desire for the inherent advantages women are given in society and my dislike of the traditional perception of men than a literal sense of being female.

As to my lady, we're hoping that things are at least vaguely getting better, or will hopefully do soon enough.

@Dark eagle, I've heard good things about the laundry files, but generally urban fantasy isn't a genre I've tended to go nuts about, mostly because instead of creating their own worlds, the books tend to be a hodge podge of different myths and magic in the modern day.
the Jim Butcher dresden books were fun, and the October Daye series by Seanon Mcguire have their moments, but generally speaking it seems for most magic you probably need to move into actual other world fantasy, much of which is medieval.

then again there are other world fantasies with different historical analogues, Brandon Sanderson's mistborn for example is more 18th century than middle ages.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2020-01-11 15:47:09

One thing that ih happening is i am on vacation in Florida.

2020-01-11 21:23:37

The new year started off horrible for me, but I can't speak on it because it pertains to somebody els's personal life. I felt it though, and did all I could to help her through it. I hope the rest of the year is better.. Last month was so super busy.. I'm trying to relax where I find the time, and still keep up with the important things. I'm new to the world of audio games, and to the blind world in general.. Hopefully you folks can allow me a mulligan and look passed last year.. Things still aren't perfect but I'm handling it all better.

2020-01-11 23:22:55

My year started out with some difficulty, but I'm letting it roll off my back. I've got things to be happy about. A girlfriend I love, a growing statue collection, and all the Marvel movies I could want. Here's hoping for a great year. And a better school year.

Heroes need foes to test them. Not all teachers can afford to be kind, and some lessons must be harsh.
Discord: CritterPup
RPG Discord Server: https://discord.gg/QQcHS3Gk

2020-01-12 05:36:34

So, I don't think I've ever actually posted in one of these, I rarely post at all, but I'm having a pretty good new year. I'm working on gettings sorted out so that I can go back to school and hopefully finish my degree, but we'll see if that can happen or not.

In terms of other things, I've been doing a good bit of reading, so I'm happy about that. As for posting on here, well, hopefully I'll keep that up too. I've been doing pretty good with two days of remembering to actually use twitter.

"900 years in time and space and I have never met someone who wasn't important." The Doctor.
Come say hi on Twitter

2020-01-12 13:11:06

Dark:
I can't exactly tell you why I do like urban fantasy more than fantasy, but one thing is certain that I do prefer that the stories I am reading are set in the modern time like technology levels.

I did finished the first book of the spellmonger series, and I don't have much of a bad things to say about the first book.

But I do wish that the protagonist was more savvy, specially when he appears to be quite savvy in the early parts of the book. but by the end of the book, he literally has to be hammered with the reality of his responsibilities, power he holds, and people who came under his authority.

Sorry if my wording is little bit confusing, its just, sometimes it is hard to put my thoughts in such fashion that they can be read and understood.

2020-01-14 13:37:50 (edited by Dark 2020-01-14 13:38:39)

@Crescent, glad your year has started well and you've discovered the fun of monthly chat topics. oddly enough I don't have twitter myself, or for that matter facebook, this forum and email are the most interacting I do online, accept for games of course.

@Dark eagle, fair enough about tech levels. For me, I like to try out different settings and explore other worlds and experiences, which is one reason why, if books are set in the modern day, I tend to like them to do something different with fantasy elements or magic not just vampires, or telepaths or something we've seen before.
By the same token of course, my favourite works of fantasy don't tend to be tolkien immitators either.

One book i can highly recommend, which was probably urban fantasy before the term was really used,  is weaveworld by clive barker. It's set in the modern day, or at least the 1980's, and concerns a world woven into a magical carpet. Some sections involve going into that world, but most of it is set in Liverpool.

What I particularly liked, apart from the intensively wonderfull writing, is that none of the magic or the things you encounter are quite what you'd expect, there are no vampires or magicians, even what magic you see is slightly different.
Clive Barker is usually known for horror with an erotic tinge, there and though there are a few scenes like that in weaveworld, Barker calls Waveworld his one actual fantasy novel, indeed the only problem i found is that everything else I've read by Barker since then pales in comparison.

Well I've just finished pure by Juliana Baggot, a rather unique take on a post apocalyptic dystopea, sort of a hungar games style, though very different in form.
Not bad, though a little too brief in the descriptions which made the characters feel a bit more shallow than they might have done.

I'll be writing up a review either today or tomorrow.

My lady and I are also going out for lunch today and then trotting off to see starwars rise of skywalker again. The first time, the audio description headphones bust, and whilst we got the plot of the film, we'd like to see it with description, just so we know all the badness first hand.

We wanted to see cats, but it's not playing this week, and since my lady's radio therapy starts next week we thought we'd take the chance anyway.
Games wise, I'm playig a lot of dreamy train and shadow rine at the moment, particularly dreamy train since driving those trains is relaxing, I tried zombie mud out yesterday, but I was rather disappointed by the game, still I'll give it a fair go and see.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2020-01-14 22:16:58

In terms of urban fantasy, I never really got into any of those. I think the closest thing would be the Iron Druid Chronicles, but even those, I actually dont' know if they are considered urban fantasy or not.

In terms of games, I tried zombie mud, but couldn't get into it. As I'm typing this, I'm actually playing A tempest Season, and it's probably becoming one of my favorites, next to Clok. I installed steam yesterday, and added a pile of games to my wishlist, so hopefully I'll be able to get those and try them out over the next year or so.

@Dark, good luck to you and Mrs. Dark. Hopefully everything goes well.

"900 years in time and space and I have never met someone who wasn't important." The Doctor.
Come say hi on Twitter

2020-01-15 08:58:01

Dark,
Still saying prayers for you and Mrs. Dark. I'm sorry she's upset about her hair.

My Twenties have started off mellow and fine.
Mudwise, I am on Accursed Lands all the time. But I am about to try A Tempest Season too.
I'm trying to read "The Rabbitback Literature Society" which is a book about books and secret author clubs, but I can't get into it like I thought I would.
My to-read list thanks you all though, for the above book recommendations.