I just got back from vacation, I like.. literally didn't touch the Duck in almost a month. So much to catch up on.. anything new and exciting in the world of DD? Changes, service updates??

Not much is new. It has been relatively quiet with a few interesting and well done news posts and many seemingly dreading the change of season?

——

Well, I have an appointment with a retina specialist but they can't get me in until next week. Good news is there is no obvious damage and it might just be some scarring from my 2001 surgery. And a few large and annoying benign floaters.

And it looks less and less likely that I will be updating a comic any time soon. I'm just loving doing other things.


Mucho thanks to ozoneocean for the anime suggestions. They have really been good and led me to a couple of other similar titles.

Welcome back Ashtree!

As far as service goes here the server is a little slower at the moment and Alexey our programmer still hasn't finished the comment reply feature but he's working on it.


I woke up with a sore throat this morning :(
I had a disturbed sleep because one of my cats wanted to sleep under the covers so I had to make sure they were propped up for her and I didn't roll over on her. Silly little thing. :)

@Bravo-
Any recommendations you come up with (if they have English dubs), I'd love to hear them!
Some good ones I've seen recently:

Don-noh Coil - it's a low key anime, muted colours, all the people have black hair… unless they're old and it's grey. It's a Japan that is very slightly in the future from us, augmented reality glasses are a common thin for work and entertainment, but children have taken them to a new level and have developed complex urban myths about them. They settle their rivalries and have battles with them. Unlike the adults, the kids don't differentiate between cyber reality and true reality.

My Hero Academia - kids going to superhero school for training. Most people are born with a heroic talent, apart from one boy, who has to get it another way… saying more would be a spoiler. It's a good anime, with some twists.

One Punch Man - I've been waiting ages for the English dub to get out on the streaming sites. This show is amazing. He's an unattractive, super normal bald guy in a dumb outfit but he's made himself the strongest superhero ever and can kill anything with one punch. It's just so well done in so many ways.

That's all the anime I can think of…
The Non-anime I love right now is It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia.
That show just gets better and better.

I'm mid vacation. The unfamiliar beds are taking their toll and exhaustion is yet to ensure I stop caring. I wish I knew how military types just sleep anywhere. It's great though, nice pool, lots of ruins to check out and a couple of nice historic sites. My camera has been working overtime but I'll wait until I get home before uploading those pictures anywhere but I have posted a handful of photos taken on my phone.

ozoneocean wrote:

One Punch Man - I've been waiting ages for the English dub to get out on the streaming sites. This show is amazing. He's an unattractive, super normal bald guy in a dumb outfit but he's made himself the strongest superhero ever and can kill anything with one punch. It's just so well done in so many ways.

My niece showed me this. I knew it was going to be funny the moment I saw the guy. I mean… an action show would be boring if you could defeat anyone with just one punch. I probably shouldn't spoil much, but I can say that being able to defeat any enemy with one punch just isn't fun…

I finished Log Horizon and am now switching between Upotte!! and Sword Art Online. I also caught the latest .hack limited series. Sword Art Online and .hack were both mentioned when I went looking to see if there was a third season of Log Horizon in the works.

And Upotte!! Is just so wonderful. Reminds me of what they would tell you in training, “you are your weapon.” It's another one of those instructional anime like chu-bra. Chu-bra taught all about underwear and here's one all about shooting and rifles even going into the specifics of ammunition! And it gets it right about 5.56 versus 7.62!

One punch man is up there with Kill La Kill and a few others are being AMAZING shows.

——–

Bravo- .Hack is like a million episodes… I think that's the first of the current “trapped in a game” genre fad, so it's a lot older than the rest.
That genre has been around longer than these shows, but I'm just talking about the current fad for it.

I tried watching Sword Art Online but it didn't work for me… too conventional.
BUT, I trust your recommendation so if you recommend .hack and SOA I will give them another go!

If you want more in that style:
"Grimjar of Fantasy and Ash“ is VERY good, because the people totally forget they're even in a game and the creatures they fight aren't just nameless dumb game monsters, but creatures you can sympathise with and don't want the characters to kill, or in the case of others- creatures you're frightened off for the character's sakes.
-And a new one that's just coming out is:
”Overlord" -There are only two episodes in English on the streaming sites right now. This one is different again because the human character is trapped in in a game as the big, bad, evil boss, who's head of a bunch of evil underbosses. I LOVE the set up so far.

Genejoke wrote:
I'm mid vacation. The unfamiliar beds are taking their toll and exhaustion is yet to ensure I stop caring. I wish I knew how military types just sleep anywhere. It's great though, nice pool, lots of ruins to check out and a couple of nice historic sites. My camera has been working overtime but I'll wait until I get home before uploading those pictures anywhere but I have posted a handful of photos taken on my phone.

We wake up at 4 AM, go for a 3-5 mile jog to get the blood flowing, grab a shower to finish waking up before hitting work and putting in a few miles on the ol' boots. Nothin' extreme. Just like 8-10. Nothing too far so that we're still fresh for tomorrow's 12k ruck march. Then we spend the afternoon reading up on our technical manuals to relax us before a big evening meal of that wonderful blend of beans, ground meat and noodles we all know and love called Chili-Mac. With all that light exercise, a guy is positively all but guaranteed to fall asleep before he even manages to get wrapped up in his wubbie with his head on his camelbak.

In all seriousness though, I'd like to see those vacation photos. I've been living vicariously through other people's vacations all summer.

Great. Seeing clips from the movie Periscope Down makes me want to buy the movie so I can watch it. Also I only now figure out now why the protagonist captain of the movie went against a Rear Admiral's orders (he got his orders from a Vice Admiral), and why it wasn't illegal for him to do so (and why his XO's attempt at seizing command was an apparently legit mutiny)…

Lonnehart wrote:
Great. Seeing clips from the movie Periscope Down makes me want to buy the movie so I can watch it. Also I only now figure out now why the protagonist captain of the movie went against a Rear Admiral's orders (he got his orders from a Vice Admiral), and why it wasn't illegal for him to do so (and why his XO's attempt at seizing command was an apparently legit mutiny)…

It was a funny movie and their version of the song “In the Navy” was a hoot. By the way it was done with the full cooperation of the US Navy.so everything is within a healthy stretch of regulations with a nod and wink but crazier things have been done by people in uniform.

bravo1102 wrote:

Lonnehart wrote:
Great. Seeing clips from the movie Periscope Down makes me want to buy the movie so I can watch it. Also I only now figure out now why the protagonist captain of the movie went against a Rear Admiral's orders (he got his orders from a Vice Admiral), and why it wasn't illegal for him to do so (and why his XO's attempt at seizing command was an apparently legit mutiny)…

It was a funny movie and their version of the song “In the Navy” was a hoot. By the way it was done with the full cooperation of the US Navy.so everything is within a healthy stretch of regulations with a nod and wink but crazier things have been done by people in uniform.

You mean like that music video starring a scantily clad Cher (the name of the song escapes me)?

“If I could Turn Back Time”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKiCj1BUKF4

That vid is even more awesome now.

I'm officially out of job prospects and feeling super useless. It looks like I'll be spending this year scrounging with whatever marking and research work I can get.

ozoneocean wrote:
“If I could Turn Back Time”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKiCj1BUKF4

That vid is even more awesome now.

Another in a looong line of musical performances under the guns of a battleship. I love the song and I love Cher. I have fond memories of watching the Sonny and Cher show growing up.

And compared to pop divas now, she is so overdressed.

HippieVan wrote:
I'm officially out of job prospects and feeling super useless. It looks like I'll be spending this year scrounging with whatever marking and research work I can get.

Aw, that really sux Hippie!
Maybe you could use that break from working as an opportunity? -Go overseas to Korea and Teach English for example. :)
Banes did that in the distant past.
You get paid and have a holiday in another country at the same time.

ozoneocean wrote:

HippieVan wrote:
I'm officially out of job prospects and feeling super useless. It looks like I'll be spending this year scrounging with whatever marking and research work I can get.

Aw, that really sux Hippie!
Maybe you could use that break from working as an opportunity? -Go overseas to Korea and Teach English for example. :)
Banes did that in the distant past.
You get paid and have a holiday in another country at the same time.

That kind of thing takes time to plan, unfortunately! If I were to apply now, I wouldn't be able to go until summer. I also still have some commitments here. Just none that are making me a significant amount of money. :(

Edit: I do appreciate the suggestion, though!

I'm keeping busy and living at home so it's not like I'm in a dire financial situation or anything, things could be a lot worse. I'm just feeling kind of shitty about myself as a person. I think I tend to gather all my self-worth into one completely irrational bundle - like, how can people even like me if I can't get a job? Logically I know my friends don't like me for my ability to be employed, but there it is.

Less importantly I also really need new fall/winter clothes because a bunch of my old stuff doesn't fit any more(lost weight), but I can't really afford anything.

That's too bad Hippie!
A lot of friends (including the famous and absent Hyena Hell), have been picking up amazing stuff from second hand clothing shops very cheaply! Worth a look ;)

If you want HippieVan we can start a clothes drive. I have two brand new button down shirts I could send you that I never wore. There's also three pairs of camouflage pants…

Seriously thrift shops are great. This stuff is all going to thrift shops in my area when I get the chance to pack it up. My wife itemizes everything so we can take a tax deduction which means it takes forever to get it out the door.

I had a dream last night where for SOME reason I was working at a design production company headed up by porn star Princess Donna Delore (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Donna ).
There was nothing sexy about this dream though, she was just my boss.

It was a busy office and we were all rushed for time. I come in one morning and my nice big computer has been replaced by an ancient Apple Macintosh- one of the really old small square ones with the CRT screen and the floppy drive- except it was black instead of beige.
My nice slim metal Apple keyboard was replaced by a strange on with very big and tall black plastic keys, And my cintiq was replaced with a small Android tablet that connected to the computer via Bluetooth.
And instead of connected to my hard drive where my work was, it connected to my pone drive and drop box, which were full of embarrassing pictures!

And I wasn't getting my work done… I was feeling harassed and sick, and eventually I just collapsed in a corner almost unable to speak. I was sick or something. I was mildly amused by the situation, but couldn't really explain to the annoyed woman who was my supervisor that I was too sick to move.

I have felt adrift for about 2 years now, after quitting the job I had held for 20 years. (Had to – the continual stress resolved itself into a fugue of depression.)

Then our elderly cats died last year – if anyone remembers my little comic, they were the kittens in it. When they started getting frail, I decided I wanted to spend time with them rather than draw them. And then when they got so fragile I just couldn't bear looking at my own comic. So it *Poofed*

But in March we adopted 2 cats and in June I started a new job. It's all pretty good, but there is still such a sense of disconnect, and it's troublesome at times.

Like when I didn't realize my safety razor wasn't completely screwed shut and I carved out a piece of my knee. It took awhile to heal (can't stitch what isn't there), and now there's a not-horrible scar.

The thing is, I think it caused nerve damage. Is that possible? Anyway, in a bizarre way, when that little stabbing pain ignites (at any random time), it's my own silent wake up call.

Sometimes my days seem to be grounded in weird.

F***! Ayes! Shizza! OWWWWW! Bloody “safety” razors… Jebus.

Well… finally finished installing Clickteam Developer Version. Now if I create games I can have them monetized by the popular services such as Chartboost (they're the people who show ads in your android games for example). There's only one day left to get the whole thing (Steam version) for $15 (as well as a bunch of other stuff thrown in).

After today (as of the time of this post) it's gone. :(

https://www.humblebundle.com/clickteam-fusion-bundle


Hmm… as music isn't my strong point, how much would it cost to hire musicians for video games?

Makes a deal with Gunwallace. He does music.

——————–

Flying away on a wing and a prayer tomorrow to meet up with my friend Bianka in Thailand and then travel to Cambodia. You guys be good while I'm away for two weeks OK?
Be angels!

Post lots and talk to each other, not just post about yourselves ;)

ozoneocean wrote:
Makes a deal with Gunwallace. He does music.

——————–

Flying away on a wing and a prayer tomorrow to meet up with my friend Bianka in Thailand and then travel to Cambodia. You guys be good while I'm away for two weeks OK?
Be angels!

Post lots and talk to each other, not just post about yourselves ;)

So jealous! Thailand and Cambodia are where I want to travel next!! Have fun!!

Thanks Ash! :D

ozoneocean wrote:
Post lots and talk to each other, not just post about yourselves ;)

Talk about other people? Ridiculous. Get out of here with your fancy notions about ‘socializing’ and whatnot.

HippieVan wrote:

ozoneocean wrote:
Post lots and talk to each other, not just post about yourselves ;)

Talk about other people? Ridiculous. Get out of here with your fancy notions about ‘socializing’ and whatnot.

Talk about other people? Isn't that considered rude?

Like: so-and-so is such an ass and has big ears and does the most over rated garbage comic ever.

As opposed to; everyone hates me and I hate my job and have no friends and why does my comic suck so much.

Or do you want: hey, buddy, you have big ears and your mother dresses you funny and your comic is mildly amusing in how much it sucks.

All that applies to me anyway, so why not? :)

Why won't the plane just GO already…? :(

I wish I was flying off to see You guys!

bravo1102 wrote:

HippieVan wrote:

ozoneocean wrote:
Post lots and talk to each other, not just post about yourselves ;)

Talk about other people? Ridiculous. Get out of here with your fancy notions about ‘socializing’ and whatnot.

Talk about other people? Isn't that considered rude?

Like: so-and-so is such an ass and has big ears and does the most over rated garbage comic ever.

As opposed to; everyone hates me and I hate my job and have no friends and why does my comic suck so much.

Or do you want: hey, buddy, you have big ears and your mother dresses you funny and your comic is mildly amusing in how much it sucks.

Don't ever change! :)