Topic: The Chit Chat Thread

@Thrillho Did you watch the cricket this morning? I think we are in a strong position, but looking like it's going to be a draw, unfortunately.

@TheBrandedSwordsman I didn't get to see any of it today but the pitch sounds horrible and is working for spinners and seamers so we've got a great chance of winning. Why England went out and batted with so little aggression to lose their wickets is a bit of a mystery though.

@Thrillho Well now we have reached the epic conclusion of the first test. What's your opinion of today's cricket?

I am currently playing Death Stranding and just completed the 9th story mission in the game, whilst I am also reading the Guyana Quartet by Wilson Harris (see Books You're Currently Reading for further info) I feel like my recreational activities are more or less restricted to these two and listening to music and playing the guitar at the moment. Also trying to decide between buying a Christian McBride Big Band album or the latest Brian Eno record on vinyl. How's life and your hobbies going @colonelkilgore @Jimmer-jammer @nessisonett and @Th3solution ?

@TheBrandedSwordsman I didn’t get to see any of it as it was all done before tea and I’m working today anyway.

I will certainly try to watch the highlights this evening though, just for the over of Anderson’s that I’ve seen mentioned quite a few times!

I don’t expect we’ll win the series but still a fantastic result. I imagine things would have been quite different if we’d lost the toss though..

@TheBrandedSwordsman well my main hobbies are gaming and working out... I havent been able to train since mid-December though as I've got a few injuries (I'm old, so my joints are buggered from over 20 years of lifting). Gaming is fine though, the fact I'm not working out atm means I have time for two games at once rather than the one.

I'm also in the middle of buying a new house (and there are time-scale pressures when buying a new build that cause a lot of stress), so that's keeping me busy. Can't wait for the purchase to finalise and to start working out again... I could do with the endorphins!

@colonelkilgore Well don't strain yourself too much colonel, look after those joints!, what prompted your decision to buy a new house? What are the two games your playing right now? Death Stranding is progressing well, by the way. I was envious of your luck in finding the motorcycle so early on, do you remember where you found it? It may not be there in my game, though, obviously - if another player discarded it at a specific location in yours.

@TheBrandedSwordsman Yeah, life continues to be a regular crap-shoot over here 😅. I fully intended to do a little gaming last night, but didn’t really feel up to it. I’ve had a few health issues (no worries, minor ones... I think) and have been right exhausted of late. Television/movies, my other escape, has also been neglected and I barely watched one 30-minute show this past week. One good thing is that I was able to get out for a little exercise last night as I felt that might help me feel better and get my health turned around. Cant say it did much yet, but it’s a start! 😄
Happy to hear DS is coming along for you. I’ll post some thoughts on yonder applicable thread.

@TheBrandedSwordsman the missus and I currently have an apartment in the city but we're not kids anymore (& the fact we are in a post-pandemic world) so city-living isn't what it used to be. Also, the missus wants a garden, I want a garage for a gym and we both want offices so we can work from home.

In regards to the bike, I found it really early... like before moving from the 'introductory' (small) map to the main map... it was broken down but I manged to get it to a charging unit. Was great, got all of those early deliveries done using it.

Edit. and the 2 games I'm on right now are Dying Light and Dead Space 3.

@colonelkilgore I’d be interested to see how you get on with Dead Space 3.

I never even bothered with it because of the co-op bits but I also felt that the second game became too much of a shooter after the first game.

@Thrillho well I'd long assumed the co-op trophies were no longer obtainable due to the games age but I noticed a friend had recently got the platinum and it turns out their fine... if you can find a co-op partner.

I havent put much time into it yet, probably a quarter through the first of 4 playthroughs... but I'm enjoying it. Having said that, I've never 'really' played 1 or 2 (they're also in the backlog but as they don't have online trophies 3 jumped to the top of the list as it's only gonna become more difficult to find co-op partners as time rolls on).

@colonelkilgore Ha, fair enough.

My favourite time with the series was my first play of the first game doing a gold trophy run where you could only use the plasma cutter (the basic pistol weapon). It made a tense game even more so and almost felt like cheating when you could use all the weapons available in the game.

@Thrillho I plan on getting to DS1 & 2 in 2022... I know that DS1 is one of my friends favourite games of all time. Looking forward to it (and the Plasma Cutter only run).

@Jimmer-jammer I’m surprised at Mimir’s love life, I heard he’s really good at giving head.

@Jimmer-jammer Thanks man, great to hear you finished Gris and about the 10-minute piano piece you've been working on. I'll happily lend you a guitar solo for one of your works sometime, if I can get hold of some decent recording equipment/sort my current setup out. Feel free to send me a link once you put it online as I'd love to listen to it!

@Jimmer-jammer Sounds like you had an exceptional time playing it, Death Stranding is resonating with me, too.

With regard to the sound collaboration I could probably lay something rock n' rolly over it, sounds like it would be fun!

@nessisonett I saw this and thought you might be interested in it: https://ihrtn.net/https-ihrtn-net-100-tape-albums-of-soviet-r...

@TheBrandedSwordsman Wow, that does look like a fascinating read. People like Boris Grebenschikov and Viktor Tsoi were hugely important not just because of their musical impact but also the role music had in penetrating the Iron Curtain and ultimately bringing it down. It’s no coincidence that during the ongoing Belarusian protests which have mysteriously dropped off the news, these Soviet rock songs have been blared from speakers. A lot were protest songs just because of the situation in which they were written, similar to how Billy Bragg writes about the homeless suffering in a capitalist society. And like how civil rights anthems from people like Sam Cooke are still relevant today with the BLM movement. It’s a real shame that the western world seems to have missed out on this massively important music scene or at least overlooked it. I guess with bands like Molchat Doma and the doomer meme, the potential is there for interest to grow in the Soviet underground rock scene but only time will tell.

@Arugula -4 in not so sunny Swindon! It's probably about -10 up in Scotland, eh @nessisonett?

@JohnnyShoulder It’s actually only -1 since I’m in the lowlands but I have some friends in the Highlands and they reached -21 a couple of days ago! We’re apparently going to be hitting 11 next Saturday so it’ll be like an early summer 😂