Last Poster Wins

[Last Poster Wins]

20 minutes ago, M.K. said:

What the heck am I watching?

 

Ratboy Genius. Don't think about it too much, just experience it 

 

[Answer the Person Above You [Forum Game]]

I got my foot caught in my bike spokes once, and we had to have paramedics come and cut me out since we couldn't do it ourselves with wire cutters.  But other than that, fortunately, no. 

-----------

When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?

[Last Poster Wins]

a timeless classic

 

[What Was the Last Song You Listened To?]

*dances in french*

 

[Last Poster Wins]

 

 

..I can't get over this video. It's just so perfect :'^)

(mild nsfw.. maybe)

[What Was the Last Food You Ate?]

I made myself some mac & cheese earlier. It always tastes better between 3am-6am for some reason, and today was no exception 

[What Was the Last Song You Listened To?]

 

 

 

On 8/18/2016 at 9:23 PM, .MK. said:

Haha, nah, I kinda know that Austria and Germany are kinda similar. It was just that the first country you'll think of speaking a german-ish language would be, of course, Germany.

 

I see you are actually a pure White (not stereotyping or anything) which I didn't think of since most of DCWers who had been and have been are asians so sorry for thinking that you're one. But pretty awesome, btw

 

That's understandable!
"Pure white" ..that's one way of putting it I guess haha But yeah, for better or worse, I'm about as white as they come. Aside from being eternally pasty, I can't really complain.

And don't worry about it! Of all things to be assumed as, a different race is far from the worst, and not bothersome in the slightest. 

[What Did You Learn Today?]

Incoming long post

 

So yesterday, I was googling about what Native Americans might've thought tornadoes and other natural disasters were, and how they dealt with the aftermath of them. I didn't get very far before I got distracted by the 1997 Jarrell, TX tornado.

The tornado that struck the small town of Jarrell in the late afternoon of May 27th, 1997 was a monstrous anomaly. It had a lot of unusual characteristics, and as a result, was extremely destructive. Storm systems, and correspondingly tornadoes as well, generally move from west to east in the US, but the Jarrell tornado has a southwestern path. Most tornadoes travel at a speed around 30mph, and only stay on the ground about 10-15min. The tornado in question though was incredibly slow moving, seemingly stationary at some points, and was on the ground for 40min. It was also an F5, and had confirmed wind speeds of over 200mph, with some people estimating that at its strongest, winds were upwards of 300mph. When the tornado hit, it hit hard because the affected landscape was subjected to 200mph+ winds and flying debris for several minutes. 

One of the first places hit by the tornado was a neighborhood in Jarrell called Double Creek Estates. Before the storm, Double Creek Estates consisted of 50 homes, but by May 28th, the neighborhood was almost completely flattened. All the remained of the 38 houses in the storm's direct path was concrete foundations and mangled debris. If I'm not mistaken, all 27 deaths caused by the tornado happened in Double Creek Estates. About three hundred cows were also killed, and to give an idea of how badly the victims were injured, first responders had a hard time distinguishing human remains from livestock remains, and most victims had to be identified via dental records. In total, the twister traveled 7.6mi and caused $40mil in damage (not sure if this number has been adjusted for inflation or not). Extensive damage was done to the landscape too. Most trees were taken out by the winds, and most, if not all of the trees that were still standing by the end of it had their bark ripped off. Large portions of the grass were also missing due to ground scouring, and even large sections of asphalt has been ripped off some of the roads.

How I got from Native Americans to this specific tornado though was because "supposedly" (in " " because I can't find any other mention of this legend outside of information about this tornado) there's a Native American legend that talks about a seeing a dead man walking in tornadoes. According to the legend, if you see the dead man walking, your death is imminent. (which, to be honest, is an understandable train of thought and was probably fairly accurate if the legend did actually exist before this event) Most people brushed this off when they heard it though partially because, a tornado looks like a tornado. There's nothing exactly humanoid about a funnel. The one picture of the tornado that hit Jarrell was taken at a very interesting moment though, and it definitely has an interesting shape to it.  The tornado had multiple vortexes for some length of time (Can't find how long the multiple vortexes existed), so that's why it looks like that, but it's still pretty weird it aligned like that for any length of time. 

Spoiler

There's no known video of the dead man walking unfortunately, but it's a fascinating picture. and if anyone's curious, this blog has pictures of what the some of the damage Jarrell sustained looked like

 

But uh.. yup. This is what I've been doing for the past 24 hours... I watched a documentary from 1999 on this, and it was quite the experience. Over dramatic acting, cheesy sound effects and primitive special effects. It was originally recorded on a vhs tape and the screen jumped around occasionally, there was a fuzzy, static-y bar at the top of the picture, and none of the commercials were cut out. The same AOL commercial played 3 times, and some of the commercials had AOL keywords in the corner--there was a blockbuster commercial too. It was gr8. 

 

tl;dr tornadoes are scary

[What Was the Last Song You Listened To?]

 

On 8/14/2016 at 8:53 AM, .MK. said:

Part what? Asian/Chinese?

 

And gotta guess, you ain't a first generation immigrant? :3

 

Sorry for being nosy, btw, hehe.

 

It's cool, don't worry about it haha

 

If I'm understanding your confusion correctly though, Austria's a country in central Europe. I brought it up because Austrians, at one point, were considered to be German (Austrians and Germans have pretty separate identities now though), one of the languages spoken in Austria is a form of German, and Austria and Germany are neighbors. They're sort of similar, but not similar enough to be considered one and the same. 

 

And yeah, I'm nowhere near the first of my family here haha. My mom's side (Polish and Austrian) has been here since maybe 1890, and my dad's side (Italian and Slovenian) moved here around 1900 if I'm not mistaken. Because of that, I don't have any ties to the countries my ancestors are from. I apparently have some distant relatives in Italy, but we haven't contacted them in a couple decades, so that doesn't really count.

I think it's really interesting when someone's parents or grandparents were the ones that immigrated though. I feel like people who start anew in an unfamiliar country probably have really good advice to give. 

 

[I wish...]

48 minutes ago, .MK. said:

I'm pretty sure no one prevents anyone to walk around those time.

 

While that's technically true, it just looks sort of suspicious. My neighborhood also has an 11pm curfew for minors, and even though I'm not a minor, I still look 14/15, so it just wouldn't be a good idea unfortunately. It's something I'd like to do in the future though...

[I wish...]

I wish going for walks around 3am/4am was completely acceptable and safe to do.

[What Was the Last Song You Listened To?]

thoughts at the start of the video: that man sure loves dancing 

thoughts during the video: this reminds me of that weird pseudo-Russian, but actually German song from the 70s 

thoughts at the end of the video: those men sure love dancing

 

17 hours ago, .MK. said:

Curious here, are you German/Part German?

 

Not German, but I am part Austrian if that means anything.

[Your latest Buys]

Double post because I bought some things recently that make me feel a false sense of responsibility and maturity

I bought my first real wallet the other day. I've been meaning to do this for a while since the wallet I previously had was the one my sister handed down to me like 10 years ago, and I'm no longer feeling the cartoon monkey fist pumping on the front of that one. It's leather though, is like a light tan color, smells gr8, zips open and close, and i feel like a real grownup just holding it. I've only got like $15 to my name at the moment though, so I'm mostly just admiring it instead of actively using it, but I feel like owning this now makes me a bit more of an adult than I was a week ago. I bought a new lanyard and some keychains too. These aren't as big of a deal to me, but my sister still uses the lanyard she bought as a teenager, and even has most of the keychains she put on there as a teenager still attached to it, so I'm looking forward to doing the same with my lanyard. The lanyard's got gudetama on it... and the keychain's the orange Haro from Gundam 00 even though I've yet to finish Gundam 00.. I wanted everything to be a similar color so I can try to trick people into thinking I'm a well put together human being who has their shit together. And because a e s t h e t i c.

[What's on Your Mind?]

OMM 1: ..I think I like musicals. 

 

OMM 2: I feel like one of the only people who cares about the equestrian portions of the Olympics. I was watching a recording of the dressage event from earlier today, and the stadium was depressingly empty 

 

On 8/6/2016 at 0:31 AM, Kaitou Kid Legendary Thief said:

Yellow =X 

Love Spark. Awesome and cute xD

 

Hooray! Another Instinct member! 

 

On 8/5/2016 at 3:14 PM, Kid the Phantom Thief said:

Yeah, it's nice and cosy! The surrounding area would've been perfect to catch Pokémon in, if it weren't because they're all concentrated in the cities.

Besides the two I mentioned? No, though I might just have to take a walk today or tomorrow to hatch some more. I don't know which Eeveelution I will have first. I don't even know how I choose, as I haven't evolved a single Pokémon yet. D:
I guess I am most interested in filling out my Pokédex, but once I get stronger Pokémon battling would be nice too. So? As I'm still just level 6, should I wait until I have more stardust and candy to evolve my Pokémon? When would be the best time to improve them? How about you? What are your goals?

Is it difficult for you, being part of team Instinct? What level are you currently in? Which is your strongest Pokémon? (:

 

It is rather disappointing that pokemon can't really be found in wooded areas. Even if it was mostly common pokemon, it'd be a nice touch if forests and hiking paths had a bunch of bug types and pokemon that are clearly inspired by birds. 

I see; tell me when you get around to hatching them then!
With the eeveelutions, if you want a certain type, you can nickname the eevee (spoilers maybe...?) either Rainer, Sparky, or Pyro to get vaporeon, jolteon, or flareon respectively. If you name it something else or leave the name as is, the evolution will be random. I think you can only use the name trick once per name, so it might be worth saving up until you can capture really high CP eevees. If you have a preference for one type over the others though, it's a nice way to ensure you'll be happy with the outcome at least once. 
Evolving pokemon is a good way to get exp though. You get 500 exp for every pokemon you evolve, and you get an additional 500 exp if the evolution is a pokemon you don't already have. You might want to hold off on evolving any pokemon you have though until you can get a lucky egg. Lucky eggs, when activated, double any exp you earn for 30min iirc, so you could probably level up a few times at once that way if you wanted. You'll get one when you reach level 9. 

As for battling gyms, and powering up pokemon via stardust, I'm not really sure what the best way to go about doing that is. If you plan on taking on gyms, it might be more worthwhile to hold off on evolving strong pokemon, and powering them until you're a higher level. If there are any Valor gyms near you, you could train there in the meantime though. 

 

I wouldn't say it's difficult being a part of Instinct. I'm not all that interested in battling gyms, but I like knowing that if I change my mind on that, I'll probably have an easy time finding a Valor or Mystic gym to go after. Being a part of the smallest team also makes it feel kinda cool whenever you do come across a friendly gym since Instinct gyms are fairly uncommon. I'm level 11 at the moment though, my strongest pokemon is a CP589 Flareon, and my pokedex is at 52 different species seen/caught. What about you? It's been about a week (sorry about that btw), have you made any more progress?

 

Also, how do you like the most recent update? I'm glad tracking got fixed and re-implemented, and, though it could be purely coincidental, I feel like pokemon aren't running away as much as they used to, nor are they jumping out of pokeballs as much as they did a couple days ago. The new nearby feature people in San Francisco are testing out looks cool too. I'm really happy about the addition of more trainer customization options as well. 

[What's on Your Mind?]

OMM 1: I've felt like a stereotypical teenager a lot these past few days and it's simultaneously refreshing and mildly distressing 

OMM 2: Well it appears I'm back in the market for a new laptop. Arguable worst part is that the laptop that died on me is the one my parents just got me two summers ago. It was refurbished, so it was a few years old when I got it, and while it did come with some problems, it worked pretty alright. Fortunately though, I thought to bring my older laptop back with me to Ohio too, because my google account's on both computers, most of my tabs have been saved, and I copied most of files on to my portable hard drive maybe 2 months ago, so I won't lose much, but this is incredibly inconveniencing 

22 hours ago, Kenzi said:

so I went to the zoo with a friend a few days ago and basically everyone was on their phones playing Pokemon Go (friend and I included, of course)
people of all ages; from kids to adults you never would've guessed
strangers collaborating and congregating near Pokestops and Lures even though it was raining half the time
dozens of people wearing shirts with team insignias
and I just
it was beautiful

I also ran into a few other friends (who were also playing Pokemon Go)
wow, it’s a small world, isn’t it, ahah.

my mom also asked me about the game not too long ago
she, of all people
my parents are the last people I’d think would be interested in this kinda stuff

Pokemon Go is making ripples
this is honestly remarkable

I agree! Though a lot of people have been complaining about Niantic and the recent update a lot, the app's accomplished quite a bit in its short lifespan. It's garnered worldwide attention, broke some records, and is getting large amounts of people to go outside and explore their local communities. The park near my friend's house used to rarely have more than 15 people there at a time, but when we went on Sunday, there were easily over 100 people there, and on Wednesday evening, there were at least 70 people just hanging around, hoping one of the lures would attract something neat. We ran into a few of our old classmates who we haven't seen in 4+ years while there too.
No one would've imagined this a year ago. It's actually a bit sad knowing that the hype will probably die down soon, and the large crowds will dwindle as the new school year kicks into gear. For the time being though, it's a weird/unique feeling being a part of a fad this large.

On 8/1/2016 at 0:31 PM, Kid the Phantom Thief said:

Been with my friends as well. Went with my family to our summer cottage for a week. Currently home, just enjoying my free time. (:

I have three eggs that need 5 km and one with 2 km. I already hatched an egg with 10 km and got Eevee (so now I have four Eevees), and I hatched another with 5 km, giving me a Tangela. I am currently level 6, and progressing further is getting very slow. I hope that as school starts in a week, I'll get more chances at catching Pokémon because I'll be visiting the city far more often.

It's true that Team Mystic would be a better fit, but I've always liked the colour red so I went with Valor, and I assumed most people would join Team Mystic anyway. I considered Team Instinct for the extra challenge of being part of the smallest team, but.. yeah.

That sounds really nice! It's good to hear that you've been enjoying yourself lately too! I'm a bit jealous your family has a summer cottage though haha

Did you manage to hatch any of those eggs? You've gotten some pretty good hatches so far, so hopefully your luck will continue. Do you know which eeveelution you want to get first? Or will you just leave that up to chance?
You'll probably get a bunch of exp when school starts for you though. Cities tend to have a ton of pokestops/gyms (almost an overwhelming amount of them to be honest), and once you start regularly evolving pokemon up, you'll gain a few levels. Hopefully your school's campus will have a pokestop or two so you'll be able to reap the benefits of having one nearby too. And are you more interested in filling out your pokedex or battling gyms? 

That's understandable. Despite Valor's reputation, it's a nice medium between Mystic and Instinct in terms of how likely you are to find fellow team members/friendly gyms. 

[What was the recent Anime you watched?]

Started Gundam 00 and Terra e. 
With Gundam 00, I'm going into this knowing very little. I knew about one of the characters being voiced by the same guy who voiced Amuro Ray in the original Gundam 0079 anime, the "ore wa gundam" meme, that the gundam exia is 'affectionately' nicknamed the "gundam sexia" by a decent amount of fans, and that this series got its fair share of odd character names too. (Allelujah Haptism is pretty out there, but it's no Quattro Bajeena to be honest) I think I read that Gundam 00 is partially inspired by the Iraq War, so I knew that tidbit about it beforehand too. I knew nothing about the plot or characters though, and so far, this it's turning out to be a pleasant surprise. I really like the mobile suit designs, how the few battles I've seen so far have been choreographed, and what little of the plot I've seen seems really interesting. Gundam 00 takes place in the distant future when all fossil fuels have been depleted, and the countries that used to make a lot of their income through fossil fuels are now deeply impoverished and conflict stricken. I heard the movie introduces aliens though, so I'm a little nervous about that, but I'm looking forward to the rest of season 1, and eventually, season 2 as well.

As for Terra e, I know even less about this one. I'm really only watching this because, according to its tumblr tag, it's got a sad ending, and because the author of Terra e is the same person who wrote Kaze to Ki no Uta, a niche, gay manga from the 70s that hurts me a little bit every time I think about it. I've only seen one episode, so I don't have much of an opinion on it yet, but the story's really different from KazeKi's, so I'm hoping it'll still appeal to me, especially since I've got high hopes for this. I'm disappointed with the art style though. It was animated in a more current-looking style, and imo, Takemiya Keiko's art style just doesn't look very good when you try to make it look modern. KazeKi got an ova in '87, and has a very pleasant look to it. It just feels like Terra e will lose a lot of its charm because of its unfortunate art style. 

[Current Favorite Television Shows?]

You ever watch the right show at the right time? I watched the first season of Bojack Horseman recently, and I really liked it. The first half of the season is pretty different from the second half, so if you decide to watch it, definitely stick through the first 6 episodes before dropping it. By that time you'll be used to the humor, and the show takes a bit of a more serious turn around there that's worth sticking around for. 
What I meant by that opening line there though is that even though none of the characters in Bojack Horseman are especially relatable, the sentiments the characters hold at some points can be relatable. There's a few lines throughout the first season that struck a chord with me, and reminded me of some things I should probably be more aware of. Also, BH's humor just sits really well with me since it's pretty dry, and it's been a while since I've watched something with these type of jokes. I'm just glad I finally sat down and started this show when I did. Hopefully the 2nd and 3rd seasons won't be disappointing in comparison to the 1st season...
Oh and the opening is gr8

edit: Finished season 2. I don't zone out when watching shows per se, but I definitely don't think about much when watching stuff usually, and now that I'm sitting back and thinking about everything that happened, BH's melancholic tone is really hitting me. It got relatable, and even though what the characters have going on is really exaggerated, it's the sort of thing where they'll say something in the midst of a scene, and that one line will just stick with you. Some of the episodes felt like watching a car crash. You get a vague feeling that something's gonna happen, and then you watch everything play out, and it's always somehow worse than you expected, and even though you're on the sidelines of the entire thing, just experiencing it from there is more unpleasant than you thought it'd be. I like this show a lot, but goddamn does it make you feel awful at times.... 

[Last Poster Wins]

^ :0 
I don't believe you've posted more than a handful of times since I joined here last year. It's nice to see that another prominent member still lurks around here!

On 8/1/2016 at 11:23 PM, .MK. said:

 

 

I watched it now. Haha, love the commentary

Reminds me of:

 

And the last vid, what the heck did I just watch?

It sounds like the same announcer is featured in both videos haha

[What Was the Last Song You Listened To?]

"ich bin immun!" gonna have to remember to listen to this song the next time I get a flu shot or something

 

[What's on Your Mind?]

OMM 1: My friends and I walked so many places yesterday  The town two of my friends live in is like a college town in some parts, so we walked around the small downtown area, loitered on the local college campus, visited our grade school, and walked down to the nearby park. We passed like 40 pokestops in total and I got so, so many things. (I had 3 pokeballs on Saturday, but when I got home last night I had 110) And at the park I heard some like 16yr old kid behind me casually, yet sincerely mumble "holy shit a slowpoke" At the time, him saying that didn't sound odd at all, but in hindsight, that'd be absolutely hilarious in any other context. Like if you're at a gas station, minding your own business waiting for your car to fill up, and the guy on the other side of the pump under his breath just intently goes "holy shit... is that a slowpoke" 
My calves feel ded, but I'm 100% ok with it and yes I caught the slowpoke. I said a lot of awful things to it while trying to catch it, but I somehow managed to get him before my phone died

17 hours ago, Kid the Phantom Thief said:

Well that sounds awesome! Are you enjoying summer break at the moment?

It's more than I've caught, haha. I have nineteen different Pokémon and four eggs. Unfortunately, I'm a bit far from any PokéStops, so I don't go out that often. By the way, which team did you join? I'm on Team Valor because its colour is red q:

For the time being, yes, I am actually! My summer has been pretty boring up until now, but because my friends are going off to college soon, and I'm back in the area, we're planning some stuff  What about you? Anything cool happen recently?

If you haven't gone very far, that's actually not a bad amount. What distances are the eggs you have?
That's understandable. The game is irritatingly less fun if you don't live near anywhere with at least 3 pokestops and a gym within walking distance of each other. And with the three step glitch never getting fixed, there's even less of an incentive to go and look around if you don't live near any pokestops/gyms. What level are you on by the way?

I'm on Instinct. Due to the unofficial Valor-Mystic rivalry, I wanted to join the most casual team of the three since I'm not very interested in battling gyms. I'm surprised you went with Valor though. When you first mentioned it, I'd assumed you went with Mystic. 

8 hours ago, Kirsch said:

Don't forget the new warning messages! xD

I haven't updated my app yet actually, so I haven't read what the new warning messages say exactly. I've seen many people mocking them though, so I'm curious about them... 

[What's on Your Mind?]

1 hour ago, Kid the Phantom Thief said:

Hello @machine How are you doing? (: Have you caught many Pokémon?

Hello! For the most part I'm doing pretty well  
For what I've had available, I think I'm doing ok. I've caught 37 different pokemon, which isn't very many, but I've got quite a few eggs to hatch, so maybe that number will go up soon. There's a pokestop within 5min of my house here too, so I'm considering put a lure there before I have to leave in hopes of attracting some pokemon I don't already have. 

[What Was the Last Song You Listened To?]

 

[What did you do today?]

Technically happened yesterday but w/e
I got to briefly visit my sister and see a little bit of Cincinnati. My mom and I split up the driving from Indiana to Ohio over two days, so we stayed at my sister's place overnight. I got my sister into Pokemon Go when she came to visit a few weekends ago, so after having breakfast a little bee themed cafe, we drove around looking for pokestops, and I got to sight see a little bit as we did that. Cincinnati is much nicer than I thought it was..

[What's on Your Mind?]

OMM 1: I'm back in my hometown \o/

OMM 2: "Sega releasing mini Sega Genesis with 80 built in games." 

This is incredibly tempting.... It's under $100 too. I'd have to import it from the UK, but I could play Sonic II (and potentially Bubsy the Bobcat if my sister knows where the cartridge is) again if I bought it. I haven't seen our sega genesis in over 10 years, have been missing it a lot in recent years, and I want this more than I should...

OMM 3: "Pokemon Go update available"
- Trainer avatars can now be re-customized 
- Various bug fixes during wild pokemon encounters 
- Removed footprints of nearby pokemon 
- Updated achievement medals art 

[Last Poster Wins]

1 hour ago, .MK. said:

2 minutes long? Got no time for that.

But it's a video of small, autonomous robots slowly playing soccer with audio of actual sports announcers over it. It's totally worth 2min of your time that you'll never get back :^)

here's a shorter video if you can't spare 2min to watch little robots try their best though