Topic: The Chit Chat Thread

@AdamNovice Youre alright!

It shouldn't, but sometimes it can feel like you need a lot of courage to tell people how you're doing or feeling. I backspaced many a post over the years here.

Thanks for the update, it's good to know you're doing better, improving. (And even if you weren't, you'd be welcome sharing that too.)

By the way, I always like your contributions on the site. They are very sensible!

@AdamNovice Glad you are feeling better, and sounds like you have taken the right steps! Hopefully it works out for you! 🙌

@AdamNovice Ola friend! Glad to hear from you and that you’ve taken some positive steps. Just to reiterate remember we’re always here if you need, though that courage to share isn’t always there and that’s ok too. Take it easy mate 👍

@AdamNovice Really appreciate the update, buddy. Been wondering how you've been holding up. Am glad you're doing better than you were! That's excellent news!

Don't worry, though, I totally get the courage thing. Never feel obligated to return and reply. Focus on doing what's right for you, one step at a time, and don't let people make you think that you should be doing something if said thing makes you uncomfortable.

And when I say "people" I'm including your own inner monologue! Be kind to yourself, above all else.

Best of luck with the specialist, as and when! You got this!

@AdamNovice Great to hear things are going better for you and that you’re hopefully on the path to getting a formal diagnosis and the support that might offer.

And to echo what others have said, this little corner of a corner of the internet is a pretty welcoming place so there’s no problem posting stuff like this. Sometimes the anonymity of posting online can be useful, as can the process of sitting down and just typing out your thoughts/problems, even if you don’t even post them in the end.

Getting the whole process going is the hardest part so I just hope it all works out for you!

@AdamNovice hello mate, glad to see you are doing ok. Thanks for the update

I think you are the opposite of me. As soon as I post I'm like refreshing the page hoping for a response 😅 (kidding of course, that's a bit of an exaggeration 😂)

Hope you got back in touch with the specialist in the end, wishing you all the best with that 👍

Sometimes I wonder if the Disco Elysium designers have visited my neighbourhood or if I just live next to a very typical European plaza - obviously it's the latter.

On Wednesday I do a short stroll to a sandwich shop around the corner. It's around the corner. On the corner there is this plaza, King's Square is its name.

The plaza used to have a statue of a former king (don't ask which), that was destroyed at some point in the past century. For a while there was an empty plinth, but ten years ago they placed a new statue. Not of a king this time, but of a court jester. It is to commemorate the place's history, relating it to the Royal family, but it's also a sign of rebellion against it... just like the friggin' horse in Disco Elysium.

Now when I walk by there on Wednesday, there will even be old people playing Jeu des Boules and I imagine they are reminiscing about the old days, but who knows what they are talking about.

It's one of the reasons why I love Disco Elysium so much. It's just so easy to connect with that world, even though Revachol is fictional, because there are so many similarities between it and the Europe I grew up in. There are not enough games like it!

Sorry for the random anecdote.

@Kidfried 😄 I love those kind of anecdotes about peoples’ real lives. It also reminds me to play Disco Elysium.
I won’t be able to relate because the towns and settings I’ve lived in are nothing like what you’ve described. For me I feel more like I’m at home playing games like The Last of Us or Spider-Man.

It’s fun to sometimes play a game designed like on a real place you’ve visited or live in, but I love how gaming lets me experience places like Europe, Japan, or Africa where I simply can’t visit easily. Not to mention places like Ancient Egypt or futuristic space stations which are impossible to visit! 😄

@Th3solution It was funny when I went to Boston on my honeymoon as there were plenty of places I remembered from Fallout 4, even though it had been quite a while since I had played it.

And I enjoyed the anecdote @Kidfried. It's just a shame to hear how much of a mess the studio that made the game is in now.

@LieutenantFatman & @Th3solution Long time no speak, How have you been? What are you playing right now? I'm currently on a break from gaming but can still post here and in other threads, it's good to keep in touch. Planning on getting a PS5 for Christmas and playing Demon's Souls, and then Jedi Survivor, and then Black myth: Wukong, should take me 2-3 years to finish them.

@TheBrandedSwordsman Hey buddy! I’m in the middle of Jedi Survivor, actually. It’s a really decent Soulslike and I’m enjoying it a lot. I’ve just run short of free time and I haven’t been able to devote as much time to gaming as I want to. I’ve been busy with work and various tangential interests. With summer in full swing now there are all sorts of outdoor distractions.

How about yourself? Since you’ve been away from gaming, how have you been filling your freetime? Still enjoying reading and music?

@Th3solution Hope work is going ok, glad you are enjoying Jedi Survivor, I beat Fallen Order, I think we talked about it a couple of years ago or so, so I think Survivor should be do-able. Is the difficulty level more or less the same? I hear the platforming is more complex. I am still enjoying reading and listening to music, yes, still playing guitar, recorded some stuff and posted it on Soundcloud recently. Currently reading Finnegan's Wake. I have a guide.

@LieutenantFatman Still enjoying chess & painting Warhammer figurines?

@TheBrandedSwordsman I have a lot to say about Jedi Survivor, so I’ll post it over on an alternate thread, but yes as far as difficulty, it’s similar to the first game, although it seems a little harder in some ways and easier in others.

That’s really cool to see that you’re posting some of your music and Really developing that talent. I’m always jealous of people who can do the whole music thing. Perhaps if I had proper training I could play an instrument or be a decent vocalist, but I definitely don’t have inherent talent whereby it comes naturally, like some people do.

Are you enjoying Finnegan’s Wake? I haven’t read it and actually didn’t know anything about it until I searched it just now. I can see now why a guide might be necessary.

@Th3solution Ok sounds good, be sure to tag me in your posts about Jedi Survivor as I'd like to hear what you have to say.

I am enjoying Finnegan's Wake, attempting to decipher it with a guide. It's a mysterious and complex book and unraveling those mysteries with the guide (Joseph Campbell) should be rewarding, Campbell's book is definitely necessary.

Thanks for the comments about music, it just takes practice. I used to play with other people who just do straight-ahead jazz but now I just do my own stuff.

Another consumer rights moan from me lol. No need to reply but thought I would have a vent.

My broadband contract with virgin media was up yesterday and I've done the negotiating as guided by Martin Lewis and MSE on their website and got a new price that is only £1 more than my old one for another 18 months. So all good news there.

However, the new contracts have an indeterminate price hike (based on RPI + a 3.9% levy) every April with no fee-free leaving clause for the period when that's announced. Some background on this - this is within Ofcom rules and most other ISPs actually have this written into their contracts but Virgin have only implemented it this year. I'm guessing the reason why they have written it into their contract now is that the RPI was ridiculous this year and they hiked certain customers prices in April but had to give them a fee-free exit because it wasn't in their contract.

I didn't even get a price hike to be honest, I guess it was because my contract was fixed at a price for 18 months. But I've noticed my new 18 month "fixed" price contract has a little * next to the fixed price which says it's now subject to next year's price hike and there will be fees for cancelling.

My problem with this is that the contract is literally just a certain price for 10 months. Followed by an unknown price for 8 months.

Now reasonably, I know the price will still be cheaper than the "standard" price they set and I also know that the hike in '24 probably won't be too bad even if it was bad in 2023. But something about this unknown figure and being contractually obliged to pay it for 8 months really rubs me up the wrong way. To the extent where I think it shouldn't even be lawful.

But despite that, it's industry standard and within Ofcom guidelines.

@ralphdibny Do you know what the cancelation fee is? If so, you do know the "get out" price now if you don't like what the RPI adjustment will be when the time comes. Since they don't control RPI I don't think they can reasonably give you anymore information to make a decision.

@kyleforrester87 I do agree in theory but I think the industry standard and Ofcom approved contract terms are immoral. So it's fine if they can't control RPI and they can hike the price as much as they want (that's another issue entirely) but at the point of the price increase they should at the very least, waive their cancellation fees if you respond within 30 days or so or they shouldn't have fixed price contract lengths that run longer than the month in which the price increases. Or they should just fix the price for the term length like they used to. Those would be the morally correct things to do in my opinion.

I think Ofcom are doing another investigation on this practice now but who knows if they will enforce more consumer friendly rules and even if they did, who knows if those rules would retroactively apply to existing contracts.

Get out fee for virgin media is pretty hefty if I understand it right. It would be better to suck up the price increase for the remaining 8 months. I'm not saying I would get out, I'm saying I would like the option to get out or "negotiate" a better price but frankly I'd rather every contract was at its cheapest price. I hate negotiating and I hate all the hoops you have to jump through. With virgin, it's turn down two offers, cancel your service and wait for a call a couple days later with the "best" price

@ralphdibny it’s not really “as much as they want” as it’s whatever RPI is, plus the percentage they’ve said they’ll add, being one of the measures of purchasing power in theory this RPI increase shouldn’t matter as the “real world” cost to you should be the same when factoring in everything, plus the percentage they have said they will add. Appreciate it is controversial and that might not be the reality, especially in the current climate, but I guess the upshot is any increase won’t be massive as you’ve pointed out? I get your point though, it should be clear and where it isn’t offer a straight forward way out, and it’s funny that they don’t say it’ll decrease should RPI go the other way?

I have a chip on my shoulder at the moment as my home costs are going through the roof (hopefully not literally, can’t afford a new roof). Obviously not the only one right now but it stings!

@kyleforrester87 yeah I only really meant "as much as they want" in so much as it's not really the point that I was miffed by. More that the industry standard contract for broadband has become one where you pay X amount for a set amount of months before an indeterminate price rise occurs which you are obliged to pay for the remainder of your contract, despite not agreeing a figure in advance. It's as good as signing a contract where the price field is left blank.

Real world cost is never the same to me unfortunately, due to the industry I work in, but that's a whole other conversation for another time I think.

But anyway, it seems my back is up against the wall with it and I have probably secured myself a reasonable deal despite what the price rise is expected to be so I will probably suck it up, forget about it and move on. I just don't like it and I don't like the lack of choice in the matter. Which of course, is why I came here to vent 😅

I was literally thinking though, that's more or less what a mortgage is in some ways, at least in terms of fluctuating interest rates. So i do sympathise. Wishing you the best with it. Feel free to vent here, it's good to get it all out sometimes!