Talk about life.

[talonmalon333]

Here I am, again. I was not about to wait another five years to post again. 

But seriously, thanks, guys. It's really nice hearing from you.

Well hey there, welcome back! It seems like the last couple of years have been going pretty well for you. I'm happy that you have a stable job and a happy relationship. Not everyone gets to be so lucky, so take whatever hold of it that you can!

I also appreciate the need to travel. I made my first solo trip (not counting family visits) last year when I went to Philadelphia for a music festival. I loved everything about it so much that I'm aiming to repeat the experience again this year. I'm even planning an additional day at the new Cartoon Network Hotel. Might as well knock a childhood goal of mine out while I'm there.

Thanks, Avaitor! It's just incredible that things turned out this way. Nice to hear that you were in the Philly region, recently! Despite me having lived in the area my whole life, I feel like there is still so much to take advantage of here. In terms of travel, we're currently planning either a spring or autumn trip to the west coast! Thinking either Seattle or Portland, Oregon. But we've also had talks about flying down to the Florida Keys, or even taking a road trip to Canada!

Talon!

Great to hear from you again. Sorry to hear that you went through some rough times in the past few years (I think we all have in varying ways, to an extent), but I'm glad that you came out okay and are doing better in you life and career at this point.

Also, good luck on your proposal!

It'd be great to see you around here from time to time. You're always welcome on these boards.

You, too! And it's almost crazy to think about where I am. My time in UPS started off as a temp, and I didn't have any plans on sticking with it long term, but thinks just fell into place. Hope you're work life is shaping up good, too! I plan on checking out some of the active discussions that we have around here.

Think about it, some of us here have known each other for nearly half of our lives. Maybe more!

Missed you pal! Happy to see you around these parts again. I was actually just thinking about you the other day in fact. I knew it had been a while since you last posted, but 2015? Damn, time flies. So glad to hear about you finding love and ending the decade on a positive note; I'm sure she'll say yes!

I echo the sentiment that it would be great to see you posting here like the old days. I know the board isn't super popular and moves even more slowly now, but like you say, the nostalgia is strong. Even though I'm not posting much myself I still get a warm feeling knowing you all are still around.

As for your interests changing, even if you aren't really into video games any more, I highly recommend the recent Resident Evils since I remember you liked that series a lot. REmake 2 and RE7 are incredible experiences, and Revelaitons 2 is a lot better than I gave it credit for back when it released - you could even play that one with your girlfriend!

I didn't even realize it had been so long until I posted here a few weeks ago! 2015 is this weird phase to me where it feels like time passed so quickly since then, but it also feels like another lifetime. As for those games, I've heard good things about them. The last game in that series I played was 6, and admittedly it would be a shame if that's the one I went out on!

[talonmalon333]

How's everyone holding up during this pandemic? I'm still working, but from home. Putting a lot of my plans on hold, too.

I checked this site this morning, but it wasn't working at the time. Glad I decided to try again!

[Avaitor]

My main job has been closed for about a month, and will be closed until the end of May at the earliest. Since it's a theme park, I don't expect it to be open for a while, because opening such a big tourist trap back up is probably the dumbest idea in the world. We were still being paid for a while, but starting next month, I'll be furloughed.

Luckily, I started another job delivering pizza in between, and I'm looking for more work as well, since I'm not working as much as I'd like here. In between that, I've been playing a lot of Animal Crossing.

[Daxdiv]

I've been self-quaranteed after getting a fever a few weeks ago, think I might have got it from my job. Went to see a doctor, but they didn't have any tests for COVID-19 so I don't know if I was positive during that timeframe. I did receive some medicine to help, but man that first week was brutal. Could barely eat anything & mostly stuck with liquids like orange juice, Gatorade & water. There were also times where it felt hard to sleep & I didn't even have the energy to be on my computer/video games/phone for a long period. Had to call my job to tell them I'd be out for a while & then they gave me a number of some program they have. Then after another week, I went back to the doctor to get some new medicine which seemed to help a bit more than the last batch. Right now I've been doing pretty great health wise, my appetite has returned, my temperature is normal & I've been coughing less.

Other than that, there was some good news during that time, the news... I became an uncle. My brother & sister-in-law have been posting pictures of their child and I do find them cute.

[Mustang]

Wow, sucks to hear that, but it's good to see that you're recovering.

Other than trying to keep my immune system up this is pretty much normal for me. I don't hang out, but since the pandemic, it's been more games since I'm laid off.

[RacattackForce]

One more week of classes before I break for the month of May. Whole family appears to have been hit with COVID-19, but I might be asymptomatic. Since I don't have any symptoms, we've been trying to isolate me from the rest of the family for the time being, in case I really did avoid catching it. Mother tested positive earlier in the week. Will get tested myself tomorrow afternoon. Dad is currently in the hospital receiving plasma and will be staying there for the rest of the week.

Welcome to the Uncle Club, Daxdiv.

[VLordGTZ]

I just realized that it's been like 6 months since I've posted on here. 

Yeah, so I'm doing good! Since November, I've graduated college and started a full-time job as an analyst, which has been interesting given the current pandemic. Aside from that, I've been keeping busy with all the manga I'm being sent to review (which is a blessing and a curse lol), as well as my Demon Slayer podcast (I'm also considering starting an Act-Age podcast soon too). I'm still active on Discord and Twitter, but I'm gonna try to be more present on here again too!

[Avaitor]

Cool! How're you liking having a big kid job?

And I see you post about your podcast on Twitter sometimes. It looks like it's a hit! I hope the Act-Age one catches on, too.

[Markness]

I've been having to go to the mental health clinic every week day to receive TMS treatments due to COVID having a disastrous effect on my mental health. I've been suffering from depression for many years now but COVID has made it worse than I ever thought possible. It's made it difficult to for me to do the things I liked doing to the point I struggle to read, play video games, listen to music, and watch movies, etc. I'll get to see a friend this Friday so maybe that will help me lift my spirits.

[Avaitor]

I'm sorry that COVID has been affecting your mental health so badly. Hopefully seeing your friend will ease yourself a little, then!

It gets tough for me, too. I miss socializing and I'm not very happy with my new job, even though at the same time, I'm grateful to have something while I'm still furloughed from my previous one. I wish I had advice for how to help yourself when you're feeling down, but everyone is different, and your peace of mind will probably not be the same as mine.

[Mustang]

Markness, hope you get well. I just don't understand how people don't take this stuff seriously. It took me a while just to cope with everything because I never been through such a pandemic like this in my life, so all the thoughts that went on in my head made me a nervous wreck the 1st week of the shutdown. Videogames, mainly JRPG's helped me cope with it though.

Considering there's a second wave-ish happening (I'm not sure to what degree though), Covid really hit my job hard though, at least that's what they're telling us. Personally, I think it's a combination of CoVid and incompetence. There's been a lot of layoff's within the past couple of weeks and it don't feel secure at the moment. I try to be of the mindset if they lay me off, cool, let's just get this over with, but sometimes you can't help but worry, especially now with everything going on. I have a couple of options if I do get laid off so I'm okay for the time being.

That being said, I didn't know where to talk about this but has anybody been paying attention to all the sexual harassment cases popping up lately? Goodness gracious, I've seen a lot of them pop up in the wrestling industry and the videogame industry (notably the FGC). I'm unfamiliar with a lot of names that I've heard, but the 1 that shocked me the most was Joey Ceuller (Yes, that's Evo's Mr. Wizard). I have split thoughts on everything, but at the end of the day I say just have some common decency and learn how to talk to women (AND KEEP YOUR HANDS TO YOUR #$@$% SELF. If anything, it's best to let women initiate everything).

And then there's this "cancel culture". I don't even know where to begin with that.

[Mustang]

Rant inbound.

So I'm finally on vacation (go back on the 8th) even though we spent the last few months doing absolutely nothing. Out of a week we would have maybe 1 day out of the week where we got work to do, and out of that day we'd spend maybe 4 hrs at max to handle said work. CoVid hit us hard, but even before that the hire-ups at my job were already incompetent. So to me I'd say 60/40 (60 = incompetence / 40 = Covid) is what's really causing us to be in the position that we're currently in. We don't know if our jobs are secure or not but the way I'm looking at it, I'm just going to ride it out and perhaps collect unemployment if we go under.

Like I said, finally got a vacation after doing nothing. The last what, 2 days, I've just been in a real pissy mood. Shit I'm seeing go down at my job is just adding fuel on the fire. So why am I in this pissy mood. I don't follow anything on social media, news or anything of that nature but I do watch the NBA. I also listen to Steve Harvey radio show in the morning. You can probably figure out why I've been pissed off (mind you, no one has done anything to me either) if you do the same. These fucking shootings from the police. I'm not gonna go into any details whatsoever, but that's what got me in a "FUCK EVERYBODY" mood.

And then I see the NBA players are boycotting and I applaud them for it. I think they never should've started back up period. That being said, I'm seeing some of us regular folk take shots at Lebron James for not speaking out about the situation in Hong Kong.     People are fucking stupid. Don't get me wrong, I get it. I don't know what is particularly going on in China, but it does suck. We can't do anything for China right now. We have our own fucked up situations we have to deal with before we can do anything for other countries. I get it, people can't stand Lebron. I'm not a fan of the man either (on the court) but damn, can we get out of our feelings for a minute and respect what these players are doing instead of taking shots.

Sorry, had to get this off my chest. Gonna go back to playing Ghost of Tsushima in a few.

[talonmalon333]

Hey guys! Hope everything is well.

The late-summer/early-autumn stretch has been interesting for me. Me and my girlfriend took a camping trip at Assateague Island, State Park in Ocean City, Maryland. We were feeling iffy about going to our planned vacation spots, due to COVID. We made the three hour drive to Assateague because, with camping, it's easy to just avoid anyone but the person your traveling with. In addition, instead of making it a traditional Labor Day weekend trip, we stayed on the days immediately following Labor Day, to minimize potential crowds. But anyway, it was a great time. The protected beaches there are beautiful, and the feral horses are fascinating to see. It's highly recommended for any beach-goers on the east coast, at least for a day trip.

W stayed a night longer than initially planned, so we dedicated the final night to checking out Ocean City Maryland's boardwalks (thankfully, no major crowds, so we kept a distance). I think I'll always prefer my Ocean City New Jersey boardwalk. I missed it big time this summer, and hope things are safe enough next summer so I can safely go there.

This month, we've adopted a kitten that was living outdoors! From the beginning, I could tell it wasn't just a regular outdoor cat. It was super affectionate around people, didn't get skittish if you approached it. I suspected someone once owned it, but couldn't confirm. Anyway, we saw it first at night and it followed us home one Friday night. The next day, it was sleeping in front of our outside door. Over the next week, we would feed it at intervals, and though it would naturally wonder off for hours to hunt, it would always make its way back to rest, so we put a box and filled with blankets in front of our home, and the cat immediately made that it's napping spot. As soon we we could get it to the vet to confirm that it didn't have flees, any health issues, or a chip linking it to another owner... we felt safe taking it into our home. It's really the nicest kitten, and the vet says it can't be more than eight months old.

The only obstacle right now is that he's so dependent that he tends to cry when he can't find someone (unless he's on our porch staring at birds, in which case he's always happy with or without company). He's also in that faze when he cries at night, and so we need to sadly close our doors and rely on the sound of our fans in order to sleep (it's easy to feel bad about doing this, but it's just a necessary step in training until he understands). But we can't be happier to have him.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

[Avaitor]

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just drove back to Florida for the first time since moving, and I'm laying low for now. What about you guys?