Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread

[Dayni]

Actually real, for anyone who's interested.

(Sadly, RT is not on 6%, so the meme is itself rotten)

2 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I couldn't decide on what "substantial" game to play, so I've been wasting my time watching (virtual) grass grow terraforming Mars.😅

Me "terraforming" a lawn today:

(Least that's what it felt like)

My BB progress has taken me to 16x, so that's fun /s (honestly should have split up)

3 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

I can't believe the In-Kursk-sion is a thing... the mad lads...

Not gonna lie, surprised that they'd hit the eastern border to begin with, this is above what I anticipated because it seemed like armaments in had gone down.

[Interdimensional Observer]

Played like an hour of Megaton Musashi. Could do more, but Chapter 20 was alllllllll dialogue and animated cutscenes.🥱 Some of it charming, some of it ehhhhhh to me. Stopped as soon as I got gameplay control back in early Chapter 21 after even more dialogue. ATM the plot reminds of *redacted* ...sorry Acacia, I know you don't care too much about spoilers, but I'm going to stop myself from namedropping which license this strongly feels like.😛

[Armagon]

Looks like Blue Texas is back on the menu.

[Acacia Sgt]

That would be so wild.

[Codename Shrimp]

16 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Slow Thursday, huh.

Tbf, the last few months in general have been kinda slow here

[Interdimensional Observer]

Even though I'm slowly working through a mech game (and one is enough at any time), my mind is thinking of my SRWJ fourth run a few months from now yet again.😆 

---

Looks like I've fixed a date for my Ellis & Liberty Islands visit, and a narrowed timeframe for the next DC trip (October is cutting it close, but it's not November). Yet again, I'm reminded that while I like the idea of (mild) travel, putting in the effort is such a turnoff to me. Maybe the Internet (and video games, though they be fictions) have spoiled me, I can know about & see wonderful things without having to physically go there.😅

---

I think I'm also starting to outright enjoy the journal-writing I've chosen to take up (apart from the other random stuff I routinely write down). Started as a periodic depresso-logging writing exercise back in early April, but I've been trying to turn it into a daily journal regardless of mood. Not like I have to make entry for every day long and meticulous. Not sure if I'll be able to keep up the habit in the long-term, but I think I kinda like this once-popular practice of yore?

---

And watching the end of the Olympics, does the new addition of breakdancing really belong?🤔 Art vs. sport. I can see the physical finesse that goes into some of the moves, but is that enough? -Between rhythmic gymnastics, synchronized swimming, and ice dancing (and perhaps one argue figure skating as a whole and diving too), the grand sporting event already has things that possibly straddle the line. What is it that separates various disciplines of performative movements that do not involve direct competition, between art and sport?

[Dayni]

BinB update: I have gotten to Chapter 18 aka the land of good music.

Also home again, but the thing I was expecting to be up for isn't happening till after my original departure and I'm not sure I want to be extending my stay a send time this month.

5 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Looks like I've fixed a date for my Ellis & Liberty Islands visit, and a narrowed timeframe for the next DC trip (October is cutting it close, but it's not November). Yet again, I'm reminded that while I like the idea of (mild) travel, putting in the effort is such a turnoff to me. Maybe the Internet (and video games, though they be fictions) have spoiled me, I can know about & see wonderful things without having to physically go there.😅

Fair point, it's different being there but being able to see as much of the world as we can without trampling it is an arguable positive of the society and information framework that has built up around up.

2 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

And watching the end of the Olympics, does the new addition of breakdancing really belong?🤔 Art vs. sport. I can see the physical finesse that goes into some of the moves, but is that enough? -Between rhythmic gymnastics, synchronized swimming, and ice dancing (and perhaps one argue figure skating as a whole and diving too), the grand sporting event already has things that possibly straddle the line. What is it that separates various disciplines of performative movements that do not involve direct competition, between art and sport?

I might argue to the competitive aspect of this that is the sport, in a way similar to the diving events that were on today they're judged on their execution of the dive they said they'd do before going for it. Course culturally that might'nt quite hit the same but that's how I'm seeing it.

Besides, this Olympics not having a Parkour event after having the most assassin's creed in real life looking stuff show up in the opening is the real shame

2 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I think I'm also starting to outright enjoy the journal-writing I've chosen to take up (apart from the other random stuff I routinely write down). Started as a periodic depresso-logging writing exercise back in early April, but I've been trying to turn it into a daily journal regardless of mood. Not like I have to make entry for every day long and meticulous. Not sure if I'll be able to keep up the habit in the long-term, but I think I kinda like this once-popular practice of yore?

Never been something I've taken up, of any sort. Just been bad at it. You enjoying submitting to it sounds like it's own reward.

Also, dammit you ruined the new streak of Teehee being silent before it could be for a day

[Acacia Sgt]

I don't know you, but I consider my stopping of SRW-posting is what killed the thread. It was that important.

[Sidereal Wraith]

35 minutes ago, Dayni said:

Also, dammit you ruined the new streak of Teehee being silent before it could be for a day

Madness is always loquacious, even in a place of so called silence.

[Acacia Sgt]

I might no longer do the large narratives, but I might tease a thing or two.

Like so.

Somewhat earlier from when Grungy and Hucky joined in V when not having Pre-Order Bonus, but it's still a plus. It also comes to my attention that T would do it even earlier, since it was at about Scenario 2...6, I think it was, where Gespenst would join. But then, I do have the bonus there, so not a concern.

[Dayni]

Some wild stats from these olympics considering how small some places are.

Also, I hopefully will never be such a liability as to have a smallish book's worth of material to have written up, really caught lightning in a bottle with Vance

[Acacia Sgt]

Gonna say, I don't know how the games choose which Interruption Message to play at any given time, but from V, and now X too, I've noticed that at least for VTX, there does seem to be a default message chosen to always play first for each gaming session. Since it plays almost all the time.

Edited August 11 by Acacia Sgt

[Armagon]

1 hour ago, Dayni said:

Some wild stats from these olympics considering how small some places are.

And then Venezuela has won absolutely nothing in Paris. It's monumentally over.

1 hour ago, Dayni said:

Also, I hopefully will never be such a liability as to have a smallish book's worth of material to have written up, really caught lightning in a bottle with Vance

Honestly incredible how the couch joke is just mainstream now.

You're gonna hear Rosemary, 56, mother of two from Bumblefuck Nowhere North Dakota making these jokes.

[Acacia Sgt]

TIL that Gundam X actually has a Newtype... dolphin. And to date, it's the only non-human Newtype in the franchise, apparently. Or not? Looking up also brought up how a chapter from the Skull Heart manga had an abandoned research facility with monkeys who could've also developed Newtype capabilities (and even being taught how to use Mobile Suits, even)... hmm...

Edited August 11 by Acacia Sgt

[Interdimensional Observer]

Found on January 18, 2022 (the head, the body was dug up in 2018), in the ancient (Greco-)Roman Egyptian port city of Berenike on the Red Sea coast. Size is about 71 cm/28 in. The first statue of Buddha from Antiquity found west of Afghanistan.

Berenike engaged in maritime trade via the monsoon winds over the Indian Ocean, so this statue came from In -nope! The marble has been traced to an island near modern Istanbul. The hair style resembles one fashionable with Roman women up to 140 AD. The halo/solar rays don't look very Indic religiously, but wouldn't be out-of-place on Apollo. -Yet this is definitely the Buddha. Conclusion- this was carved in Berenike, in the Roman Empire, for Roman citizens, who were Buddhist. There were Buddhists living in the Roman Empire.☸️

They also found an arch with a carved depicting Hindu deities (and various Sanskrit inscriptions) amid the many temples and shrines of Berenike . As well as the Greco-Roman and Egyptian pantheons of course, a shrine to Palmyrene deities, and a Christian church. An entrepôt brings beautiful cross-cultural exchange.

-And wealth.💰 A 2nd century AD papyrus describes a ship from Berenike named the Hermapollon carrying: 140 tons of black pepper, 80 boxes of an aromatic oil called "nard" (for perfumes, medicine, rituals), and four tons of ivory. After factoring the Roman import tax of 25%, modern scholars estimate the cargo of this one ship, would've been almost seven-million sesterces, enough money to easily buy you a luxury estate in central Italy -or pay the annual salary for 40000 stonecutters. 10-15% of the Roman Empire's total income may have come from Indian Ocean trade during the Empire's glory days, more daring scholars would put it at one-third.

While only 2% of the ancient city (remote location, near the modern militarized Egyp-Sudan border) has been excavated, archaeologists discovered something interesting near the trash dump. From the first and second centuries AD, hundreds of animals, mostly cats but also dogs and monkey, buried with either wrappings or pottery shards covering them. Many were of old age -they hadn't been sacrificed or worked to death. Many had collars or leashes. The only known pet cemetery from the ancient world.🐱🐶🐵 (While Africa has monkeys, these bones were determined to be of Indic species, the monkeys had been carefully shipped over the Indian Ocean -expensive pets.)

...It's nice to read again.🤓

 

4 hours ago, Dayni said:

I might argue to the competitive aspect of this that is the sport, in a way similar to the diving events that were on today they're judged on their execution of the dive they said they'd do before going for it. Course culturally that might'nt quite hit the same but that's how I'm seeing it.

I can see that, I not against breaking's inclusion. -Apparently it was done to attract younger audiences to the Olympics? Even the global super-sporting has that issue I suppose.

4 hours ago, Dayni said:

Also, dammit you ruined the new streak of Teehee being silent before it could be for a day

I refuse to let this die!

4 hours ago, Dayni said:

Never been something I've taken up, of any sort. Just been bad at it. You enjoying submitting to it sounds like it's own reward.

I'm not one for keeping up routines, but I have gotten used to assorted thoughts down in the past few years. SF is totally a reason for that. And journal-keeping attempts to preserve some of the ever-ephemeral experiences, thoughts, and feelings of various kinds that comprise human existence. This is more the historian and sometimes-depressed me speaking. I swear it has nothing to do with SRW W which I lovingly devoured in June, having a protagonist who makes ship logs and its ultimate villain group being the Recorders of Knowledge.

Also, it allows me to jot down various thoughts that for an assortment of reasons I would not plop on SF. You really don't want me sharing critiques of dakis, do you?😝

3 hours ago, Dayni said:

Some wild stats from these olympics considering how small some places are.

Speaking of Taiwan's lone medal, it was from a badminton match, versus China. When the Chinese team lost, for everyone watching at home, the Republic of the People instantly flipped over to gymnastics or something, rather than show Taiwan being triumphant.

 

3 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Like so.

The original Original (and the theme of SRW2, which is just as important as SRW1).😄

-Hopefully the very first MAP ever is good in X. I'm still annoyed by 30 making Cyflash so weak that it's almost useless despite the nice area, the post-movement, and the lack of friendly fire.😑 Maybe I could've fixed that with 20 weapon upgrades in Cybuster.

56 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

TIL that Gundam X actually has a Newtype... dolphin. And to date, it's the only non-human Newtype in the franchise, apparently.

Now I know where the evil dolphins in this one Famicom kusoge RPG I heard about came from.

56 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Or not? Looking up also brought up how a chapter from the Skull Heart manga had an abandoned research facility with monkeys who could've also developed Newtype capabilities (and even being taught how to use Mobile Suits, even)... hmm...

Space Colony of the Apes?

...That manga is probably on the comedic side? -Because the alternative is animal abuse darkness methinks on a gut reaction.

 

Whew! -For a moment this failed to post and I thought I lost this gargantuan thing.😅

[Acacia Sgt]

2 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

The original Original (and the theme of SRW2, which is just as important as SRW1).😄

-Hopefully the very first MAP ever is good in X. I'm still annoyed by 30 making Cyflash so weak that it's almost useless despite the nice area, the post-movement, and the lack of friendly fire.😑 Maybe I could've fixed that with 20 weapon upgrades in Cybuster.

And certainly among the best fit to put in X, heh.

Would need to check it out on 30, but it hasn't felt weak to me in X. Though it is its weakest weapon, power wise. Still, since Masaki has Fortune...

2 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Now I know where the evil dolphins in this one Famicom kusoge RPG I heard about came from.

Space Colony of the Apes?

...That manga is probably on the comedic side? -Because the alternative is animal abuse darkness methinks on a gut reaction.

Not sure, but perhaps the chapter itself is. That said, it was apparently a One-Year-War era Zeon facility, so they were trying to make use of the monkeys as soldiers.

It's worth noting that the situation with the dolphin was no better, since dolphin brains were being used as bio-computers by one of the bad guys. It... doesn't end well, to say the least.

...

Spoiler

The dolphin, after having a chat with one of the characters about the nature and actions of humans, is left with no choice but convince/force its brethren to self-destruct, thus allowing the heroes to win the battle. The dolphins would be hunted no more... but at what price...?

2 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Whew! -For a moment this failed to post and I thought I lost this gargantuan thing.😅

Man, gotta hate when that happens.

[Interdimensional Observer]

16 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Not sure, but perhaps the chapter itself is. That said, it was apparently a One-Year-War era Zeon facility, so they were trying to make use of the monkeys as soldiers

...Which Zabi signed off on this?🤨 Did they hang every journalist who tried to leak this colossal waste of taxpayer money?

23 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Would need to check it out on 30, but it hasn't felt weak to me in X.

Good. Fits what I recall when somebody else wrote on SF when they were doing a low turn-count pick-my-units run of SRWX, and being an OG newbie at the time, I popped in and saw Cybuster was on the list, so, lacking knowledge of anything else, I picked that. I remember the OP responded by indicating they sure would take the best MAP in the game.😆

21 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Man, gotta hate when that happens.

SF wasn't letting me through due to supposed issues, so I went into anonymous browsing and signed in via that, which worked. But the blocking of tracking stuff I think meant b/c I took so long to post, I was kicked out when I attempted to post. Signing in again, thankfully everything written was still saved.😂

[Acacia Sgt]

3 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

...Which Zabi signed off on this?🤨 Did they hang every journalist who tried to leak this colossal waste of taxpayer money?

Eh, considering all the crazy stuff that was likely also in the works from both sides of the war... probably not much of a fuzz was made.

3 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Good. Fits what I recall when somebody else wrote on SF when they were doing a low turn-count pick-my-units run of SRWX, and being an OG newbie at the time, I popped in and saw Cybuster was on the list, so, lacking knowledge of anything else, I picked that. I remember the OP responded by indicating they sure would take the best MAP in the game.😆

For its worth, Cosmo Nova is 6600 power at base (even with the mid-game joining time, upgrades were at 0, despite units coming with 3 bars at this point). Sure, the Ammo count is 1... but I suppose you can toss it a Hyper Reloader so you can use it every turn at least.

3 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

SF wasn't letting me through due to supposed issues, so I went into anonymous browsing and signed in via that, which worked. But the blocking of tracking stuff I think meant b/c I took so long to post, I was kicked out when I attempted to post. Signing in again, thankfully everything written was still saved.😂

I see. Just earlier the site wasn't letting me edit a post, stating the post couldn't be edited anymore. But after refreshing the page I could do it just fine.

[GuardianSing]

No fucking way

[Dayni]

My guy's been driving 20 years

7 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Found on January 18, 2022 (the head, the body was dug up in 2018), in the ancient (Greco-)Roman Egyptian port city of Berenike on the Red Sea coast. Size is about 71 cm/28 in. The first statue of Buddha from Antiquity found west of Afghanistan.

Berenike engaged in maritime trade via the monsoon winds over the Indian Ocean, so this statue came from In -nope! The marble has been traced to an island near modern Istanbul. The hair style resembles one fashionable with Roman women up to 140 AD. The halo/solar rays don't look very Indic religiously, but wouldn't be out-of-place on Apollo. -Yet this is definitely the Buddha. Conclusion- this was carved in Berenike, in the Roman Empire, for Roman citizens, who were Buddhist. There were Buddhists living in the Roman Empire.☸️

They also found an arch with a carved depicting Hindu deities (and various Sanskrit inscriptions) amid the many temples and shrines of Berenike . As well as the Greco-Roman and Egyptian pantheons of course, a shrine to Palmyrene deities, and a Christian church. An entrepôt brings beautiful cross-cultural exchange.

-And wealth.💰 A 2nd century AD papyrus describes a ship from Berenike named the Hermapollon carrying: 140 tons of black pepper, 80 boxes of an aromatic oil called "nard" (for perfumes, medicine, rituals), and four tons of ivory. After factoring the Roman import tax of 25%, modern scholars estimate the cargo of this one ship, would've been almost seven-million sesterces, enough money to easily buy you a luxury estate in central Italy -or pay the annual salary for 40000 stonecutters. 10-15% of the Roman Empire's total income may have come from Indian Ocean trade during the Empire's glory days, more daring scholars would put it at one-third.

While only 2% of the ancient city (remote location, near the modern militarized Egyp-Sudan border) has been excavated, archaeologists discovered something interesting near the trash dump. From the first and second centuries AD, hundreds of animals, mostly cats but also dogs and monkey, buried with either wrappings or pottery shards covering them. Many were of old age -they hadn't been sacrificed or worked to death. Many had collars or leashes. The only known pet cemetery from the ancient world.🐱🐶🐵 (While Africa has monkeys, these bones were determined to be of Indic species, the monkeys had been carefully shipped over the Indian Ocean -expensive pets.)

Interesting to hear that the religious tolerance of the period was so thorough, though I'm not so surprised with how much further this place was from Rome that there was less interest in pursuing alternate faiths, after all a major part of the Christian persecution in theological terms was it's monotheism.

And finding a pet cemetery? Berenike does sound like a nice enough corner of the Antiquity to live in.

7 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I can see that, I not against breaking's inclusion. -Apparently it was done to attract younger audiences to the Olympics? Even the global super-sporting has that issue I suppose.

And then they messed up it's running, partly because the organisation involved in it actually wanted ballroom dancing as it's preferred choice (handling both), but the IOC chose breakdancing and they weren't ready for that in qualifying and seemingly the event itself, judging by not showing the scoring after performance, which, *sigh.

Then again boxing's out of the next Olympics if the international body isn't changed (for corruption reasons, hooray /s), so there's always bad ways to handle things

7 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Also, it allows me to jot down various thoughts that for an assortment of reasons I would not plop on SF. You really don't want me sharing critiques of dakis, do you?😝

Critique Dakis by TOG rating

4 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

No fucking way

Ah, of course there's someone who has this after all this time.

Fodlan's supposed isolationism would have been interesting to see in context from the outside, because we seem to have incursions into Dagda and Sreng to contradict it.

[Codename Shrimp]

Ninja hell is stupid and whoever designed it needs to be banished to map design gulag

Edited August 11 by Codename Shrimp

[Armagon]

11 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Speaking of Taiwan's lone medal, it was from a badminton match, versus China. When the Chinese team lost, for everyone watching at home, the Republic of the People instantly flipped over to gymnastics or something, rather than show Taiwan being triumphant.

Taiwan also wasn't allowed to wave it's flag, because it makes China sad.

 

[Acacia Sgt]

"It's a Gundam! Gah!" *explosion*

 

[Codename Shrimp]

Puni

[Armagon]

You guys know how I'm going to the UK in October?

I found the ultimate destination.