Bold move, some would say. Following in the footsteps of Scarbrough, I humbly give you the new main thread. Oh, and before we get into that 2024 mood, I wish y'all a Happy New Year!


==

Link to the 2023 thread.

Bold, like a good cup of coffee.

Some Ducks have already started celebrating the New Year in their respective timezones.

Happy New Year 2024 Ducks!! As the world turns.

It's not quite New year yet but happy new year everyone! ^^

Happy New Year everyone!

Wishing you all a happy New Year! ♥️

Happy New Year everybody!

happy new year :)

I stayed home and watched Rommey and Michelle's High School Reunion.
It's such a wonderful movie.

I was at work as always and watched “The Wild Geese”. Richard Burton, Richard Harris and Roger Moore. Incredible and passes the time. Forgot how great it was. I saw it in the movies when it first came out way back in the day.
Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!

I worked through the night after a full day spent sleepless, now I'm back at work for yet another night. I usually spend New Year's Eve at work, because I haven't been invited to a party in at least 6-7 years and the best alternative would still be just watching some movie over at a friend's.

As I like to say, “It is after midnight somewhere.” We opened up the sparkling cider and were in bed by 10 PM

Niccea wrote:
As I like to say, “It is after midnight somewhere.” We opened up the sparkling cider and were in bed by 10 PM

I celebrated with some Fentiman's Dandelion and Burdock and Ginger Beer :D

InkyMoondrop wrote:
I usually spend New Year's Eve at work, because I haven't been invited to a party in at least 6-7 years and the best alternative would still be just watching some movie over at a friend's.

That's good!
I'm at a point in my life where not going to a party is the best thing possible XD
The only reason I'd want to go to a big new years eve party is if someone was literally paying me - which they do for event photography, but I was on holiday so that was a No-No!

In my time I've been to some exceptionally wild parties and some amazing new years eve events aaaaaannnd… it's just not my thing anymore.

Don't worry Inky, you are a very worthy successor!

In all honesty, 2023 was one of the absolute worst years of my life, and I happy as hell that it's finally over, because there were times I didn't think I'd make it through the rest of 2023: the year was full of hardship, misfortune, crises, loss, negativity, and despair, and it had such a profound effect on me that there were times I was so depressed I felt like an NPC just wandering around aimlessly in a simulation.

There were very, very few bright spots about the year for me, but I do have to say that you guys made one of those bright spots in 2023 possible for me, in that VAMPIRE GIRL's second season/chapter was a modest success here on DD - much moreso than its first season ever was on Smack Jeeves back in 2011-2012, and for that, I really appreciate you guys taking the time to not only read my comic, but also liking and commenting on it, as it really made the labor of love all the more rewarding and gratifying.

I think my youngest has been watching too much Bluey and Peppa Pig. I can practically hear him adding a “u” to “color.” 😆

Ozoneocean wrote:

InkyMoondrop wrote:
I usually spend New Year's Eve at work, because I haven't been invited to a party in at least 6-7 years and the best alternative would still be just watching some movie over at a friend's.

That's good!
I'm at a point in my life where not going to a party is the best thing possible XD
The only reason I'd want to go to a big new years eve party is if someone was literally paying me - which they do for event photography, but I was on holiday so that was a No-No!

In my time I've been to some exceptionally wild parties and some amazing new years eve events aaaaaannnd… it's just not my thing anymore.

I still enjoy a good party every now and then, only me and my best friends keep refining the notion of what makes a good party as we get older. 😉However, I get the impression people twenty years younger than us are way more sensible these days than we were, which is a pity, kind of. Are they afraid of photos of them enjoying themselves leaking into social media (which weren't a thing in our time)?

PaulEberhardt quickly puts on a tie and glasses with lenses like ashtrays that magnify his eyes immensely and talks to an imaginary personnel manager in a shamelessly overacted mock voice:

"Look at this, boss: our AI found clear evidence that applicant #169 was seen enjoying himself on December 31st, 2019! Even worse, face recognition strongly suggests his having fun was genuine!! What a pity. He was such a promising candidate…"

Or perhaps it's just nostalgia deceiving us into remembering the past as being much more rock'n'roll than it was.

I usually can't be bothered with big New Year's Eve celebrations very much. To me they're too forced to be enjoyable, big public parties in general are too forced for me. Carnival, too (it's not a tradition in my region anyway, the way it is around Cologne or something). Possibly, the way Germans tend to treat this kind of thing has something to do with it, or perhaps not.

PaulEberhardt wearing a grey uniform and a spiked helmet and clicking his heels, pretending to be a Prussian officer:

“Achtung! Order: Haaaaave fun!”

So I had a good dinner and my usual New Year's cigar, and of course went out to watch my neighbours literally blowing their money with fireworks, but that was basically it.
I used to like fireworks as a kid, when I was still too young to buy them legally and of course had a way around it like everyone had, but I feel it's something you grow out of quickly. I did. Possibly, it's because I feel with all the scared animals.

Oh well: it's a new year now. Let's see what it'll bring.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, I know . . . Apple Jacks shouldn't be called Apple Jacks because they have no apples, we've all heard it a million times . . . but why is it that nobody talks about Grape Nuts having no grapes? In fact, the boxes have always shown other fruits such as strawberries or blueberries, never grapes?

PaulEberhardt wrote:
Or perhaps it's just nostalgia deceiving us into remembering the past as being much more rock'n'roll than it was.

It's more that things feel rock'n roll when you're experiencing them but almost never look that way from the outside hahaha!
So the further you get away from a recorded experience (i.e. it's of someone else of an event you didn't go to) the less exciting it can come across.
There are still photos made of crazy times at events (I know, I've been paid to take them many times haha), but people are WAAAAY more careful about what they allow to be shared.
The amount of stuff I have of other people at events that I'll never share is overwhelming. I'll just start deleting it one day LOL!
Easier than getting permissions…

Niccea wrote:
I think my youngest has been watching too much Bluey and Peppa Pig. I can practically hear him adding a “u” to “color.” 😆

Awwwww!
It will happen.
I was addicted to British TV when I was little (we had a lot of that here in Australia back in the day), so although I'm Aussie I'll sometimes drop into a slightly British version and I never go full “ocka” Aussie (what we call a broad accent), because that's unnatural to me. I can only do a comedy version of it.

J_Scarbrough wrote:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, I know . . . Apple Jacks

I don't even know what that IS. I thought it was the name of a My Little Pony.

It's breakfast cereal.

https://www.applejacks.com/en_US/home.html

It's only been in recent years that they introduced the Apple and CinnaMon mascots, and while the cereal does have some cinnamon flavor to it, it otherwise has no apple flavor (or apple-related ingredients) in it. For the longest time, that was actually the marketing ploy in almost all of their commercials: a parent or other adult would see some kids chowing down on Apple Jacks, then ask them the same question of, “Why do you kids like Apple Jacks? They don't taste like apples!” The kids would usually respond by asking deep, philosophical questions of their own in a rather facetious manner, before the kids would finally give the same serious answer to the question: “We just do!”

Grape Nuts is another cereal (albeit one of those healthy adult cereals).

https://www.grapenuts.com/

However, likewise, the cereal contains nothing to do with grapes (or nuts), which has me wondering why nobody has ever talked about this before like they have with Apple Jacks.

Grape nuts (or as I used to call it Dirt cereal) was supposedly named for what it resembled as opposed to what it is. It looked like grape seeds or “nuts” to someone and the name stuck.
Apple Jacks actually do have Apple and cinnamon in them. I always thought they tasted a bit like apple pie or apple sauce and cinnamon. The wonders of artificial flavoring because Froot Loops for a long time didn't have any real fruit in them either.

Kashi Heart to Heart > All Bran > Wheatabix > Grape Nuts

==

I took a hula class yesterday where we did a movement for the sun to come out in order to counteract all this rain. It worked! I spent three hours hanging pool side while reading a book in the sun. I also learned that Tutu Pele was not only a mythical deity, but a real person from Tahiti. This is the foundation of legends.

Main goal for the next two days: Keep Tutu Pele happy.

bravo1102 wrote:
Grape nuts (or as I used to call it Dirt cereal) was supposedly named for what it resembled as opposed to what it is. It looked like grape seeds or “nuts” to someone and the name stuck.

Just think of all of the poor little grapes that had to be castrated to satisfy some people's appetites.

The wonders of artificial flavoring because Froot Loops for a long time didn't have any real fruit in them either.

My mom used to tell me how much she hated Froot Loops as a kid because she found it always tasted like the kind of liquid medicine they used to administer to kids. I don't find Froot Loops to be a particularly bad cereal, but it's definitely one I have to be in the mood for, otherwise, it's not one of my go-to choices in the cereal aisle.

kawaiidaigakusei wrote:
I took a hula class yesterday where we did a movement for the sun to come out in order to counteract all this rain. It worked!

For some reason, now I want to see you hula . . . but in all seriousness, please stop. We've been needed rain here desperately; we've been in the third-worst drought our area's suffered from in the last 16 years. Matter of fact, perhaps you can channel the energies in your dancing to send that rain our way.

Well, well, well; look what just happened to be in my recommended on YouTube today. . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiEAV91DymI

These algorithms are starting to scare me.

J_Scarbrough wrote:
Well, well, well; look what just happened to be in my recommended on YouTube today. . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiEAV91DymI

These algorithms are starting to scare me.

Honestly, it's really frustrating the way they do this. Google/Youtube's algorithms are more invasive and annoying than they are helpful. I mean, I get that they aren't meant to help US they're meant to help the advertisers, but I'd at least like them to pretend…

I was visiting a friend's place once during the playoffs of a sport I follow. He doesn't like any sports, so I was just keeping an eye on scores on my phone. We were looking up stuff on YT and you could watch in real time as his recommendations began to get flooded with sports crap. Like, who does this serve? The entire reason I was checking the stuff on my phone was because I didn't want to bother my friend with it! It's not like he's gonna suddenly start watching sports! I get this kind of bleed over at home too. Since we were both on the same internet, it assumed we both wanted to watch the same stuff…but like, when has that EVER been true? It's gotten to the point where it feels like a more simplistic algo would actually be a lot more useful, but what do I know…

Sorry for the rant, it just annoys me. And it annoys me more when people defend these practices. You don't have to tell me why they're doing it. I definitely get it, I just still hate it.

It's been an ongoing problem with YouTube for years, and this is pretty much why the subscribe button on a channel has become virtually useless, because the only way YouTube will actually show us new content from channels we're subscribed to is if we ring the bell to receive notifications of new uploads from these channels, because otherwise, YouTube isn't going to actually show us the content we want to see (as in channels we're subscribed to), they're going to show us what they want us to see.

Another example I can give is how for a while there, YouTube was pushing nothing but Fox News; I don't watch Fox News, I don't follow Fox News, I don't subscribe to Fox News, so why in hell was YouTube shoving Fox News down my throat? As I posted in the 2023 thread, this is what's become of Facebook with Taylor Swift these past couple of months.

@J_Scarbrough, I clicked the video link and it was on the exact grape nut name origin question you asked on the forum. Did it at least answer your question? It seems the algorithm is working in your favor.

—

I learned this afternoon that my dearest, kindest professor from undergrad passed away on January 1st. He is one of the rare academics in art history who recognized comics as an art form, wrote books about the history of the comic strip, and even lectured on the topic in academic settings. I have been reading through and collecting all the books he authored that were never on the required reading list. He will be greatly missed and will live on in my memory for as long as I live.

I sent large handfuls of white orchids over the highest peak of the Haleakala volcanic crater in his honour. The strong winds carried them away. Until we meet again, Professor K.

Now my computer won't even install updates anymore, and the only updates I still install are for Windows Malicious Software Removal.

dragonsong12 wrote:

J_Scarbrough wrote:
Well, well, well; look what just happened to be in my recommended on YouTube today. . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiEAV91DymI

These algorithms are starting to scare me.

Honestly, it's really frustrating the way they do this. Google/Youtube's algorithms are more invasive and annoying than they are helpful. I mean, I get that they aren't meant to help US they're meant to help the advertisers, but I'd at least like them to pretend…

I was visiting a friend's place once during the playoffs of a sport I follow. He doesn't like any sports, so I was just keeping an eye on scores on my phone. We were looking up stuff on YT and you could watch in real time as his recommendations began to get flooded with sports crap. Like, who does this serve? The entire reason I was checking the stuff on my phone was because I didn't want to bother my friend with it! It's not like he's gonna suddenly start watching sports! I get this kind of bleed over at home too. Since we were both on the same internet, it assumed we both wanted to watch the same stuff…but like, when has that EVER been true? It's gotten to the point where it feels like a more simplistic algo would actually be a lot more useful, but what do I know…

Sorry for the rant, it just annoys me. And it annoys me more when people defend these practices. You don't have to tell me why they're doing it. I definitely get it, I just still hate it.

Yup 100% agree, not to mention when you select to not recommend something they keep on coming with it and similar things. I did the art for a comic featuring public domain villains such as Captain Nazi, as such I had to look them up to find the character designs… I should have gone incognito.

Okay, that exact same trojan has now been detected twice on my computer. Twice. This is not a “false positive,” this thing is real and copying itself, and what's scarier is that it's not even being detected until days after the fact, giving it plenty of time to copy itself.

kawaiidaigakusei wrote:
I sent large handfuls of white orchids over the highest peak of the Haleakala volcanic crater in his honour. The strong winds carried them away. Until we meet again, Professor K.

Lovely! How is Hawaii right now?

It's very hot here in Perth Australia! I actually walked down t the beach yesterday… Google said it was a 27 minute walk but in reality it took less that 15 despite the heat! I live close but never go because I'm whiter than a polar bear drowning in fresh milk covered in icing sugar, so I need a LOT of sunscreen. XD

I was meeting a friend down there so it was worth the heat, sand, sunscreen, and sweat. Plus I found I felt SOOoooo relaxed and mentally at peace afterwards so it was nice.