Small Talk: a.k.a. 'The Meet Market'

[Dianthus]

So I finally got around to seeing Zootopia last Sunday. It was really good! There were some LOL moments for me, and my heart broke for poor wee Nick.

[daxx]

I may have problems with the writers of OUAT and A&E but seriously, they are gold next to the Sleepy Hollow writers...

[Dianthus]

I recently bought an old (and fairly musty smelling) copy of Captain Horatio Hornblower. It's a collection of three stories featuring this character. I just finished the first one ('Beat to Quarters') the other night. It's not something I would usually reach for, but I'm enjoying it well enough.

[Camera One]

I took a walk and coincidentally went through "Gaston Park" today.

[Souris]

I recently bought an old (and fairly musty smelling) copy of Captain Horatio Hornblower. It's a collection of three stories featuring this character. I just finished the first one ('Beat to Quarters') the other night. It's not something I would usually reach for, but I'm enjoying it well enough.

 

If you haven't seen the miniseries adaptations with Ioan Gruffudd as Horatio Hornblower -- watch them NOW!!!

[HoodlumSheep]

^ The movie starring Gregory Peck is great too!!

I heard about what happened with Sleepy Hollow...sheesh.

Edited April 10, 2016 by HoodlumSheep

[ParadoxLost]

I have come to realize I have a problem.

 

I am obsessed with Keanu.

 

Not this one 

 

Sorry to do that to you :).  Found it while I was looking for the image for this one.

 

 

Given the number of times I watched this trailer since I first saw it during the Walking Dead finale and that my reaction to seeing a brand new one during Empire tonight was

 

 

I can never, ever watch a cat video on youtube.

Edited April 14, 2016 by ParadoxLost

[InsertWordHere]

I hope it's not bad form to mention our old realm without pity while posting on our current realm, but does anyone know anything about this?

[Curio]

Well, that's an interesting development... I've actually come to really like these PTV forums, though. The only major thing I miss about TWoP is the awesome Cindy McLennan recaps.

[HoodlumSheep]

I remember that twop was already on the verge of shutting down when I decided I finally wanted to join a forum. So of course I looked elsewhere and somehow managed to end up here, but I can't remember how. I think I somehow found out a bunch of people were migrating to this forum. I really can't remember.

Edited April 14, 2016 by HoodlumSheep

[Shanna Marie]

I have to say that although I twitched a lot at having to find a new forum, I like this one better than the TWOP forums now that I'm used to it. There's enough moderation to keep it from getting out of control while not being quite so heavyhanded and sometimes arbitrary. So I don't know that I'd migrate back there for forums unless everyone else did and there was no conversation left here. What I would enjoy seeing the return of is good recaps. Some of the ones here are fun, but I also liked the more substantial ones from TWOP.

[HoodlumSheep]

Has anyone been watching the Stanley Cup Playoffs? because holy cow the Red Wings vs TB Lightning has been a pretty awesome series to watch. Yes, TB is stomping the Red Wings, but there are fights every few minutes and tonight's game ended (okay, there was like 30 seconds to go) in a nice big brawl with blood and Abdelkader was just pounding away at the dude. Gloves and helmets and sticks were flying everywhere! It was great. Thw only downside is the reffing hasn't been the greatest. The Red Wings have been getting the short end of the stick on some of those calls. You can tell just by the way the announcers have been disagreeing with some of the calls. Also, the announcers have been extremely entertaining.

Edited April 16, 2016 by HoodlumSheep

[Mari]

Am I the only one hearing an inhead performance of the "Sisters" song from "White Christmas" whenever I see the episode title?

Sisters, sisters. There were never such devoted sisters . . .

Edited April 22, 2016 by Mari

[HoodlumSheep]

Am I the only one hearing an inhead performance of the "Sisters" song from "White Christmas" whenever I see the episode title?

Sisters, sisters. There were never such devoted sisters . . .

Complete with giant feathery fans.

[KingOfHearts]

Am I the only one hearing an inhead performance of the "Sisters" song from "White Christmas" whenever I see the episode title?

Sisters, sisters. There were never such devoted sisters . . .

Can we get a video of Lana and Rebecca singing that?

[Mari]

I had forgotten about the giant feather fans!  And Parilla and Mader seem like they would enjoy the over-the-top silliness.

 

There should be some way to submit this idea as an extra for the DVDs.  

[Dianthus]

The other day I saw a tree with knitting all around the trunk and up into the crown. I was like..."DaFuq?" I told a friend about it and she called it a knitting bomb. Who knew this was a thing?

[pezgirl7]

I used to see those everywhere when I lived in Chicago. They're pretty cool! It's like earth-friendly graffiti. :)

[Dianthus]

Time magazine has a slideshow on their website of various "yarn bombs," even a tank with a bobble hanging from the gun barrel!

[Shanna Marie]

As an obsessive knitter (seriously, if I don't have a project going, I get twitchy), I've always wanted to yarn bomb something. Well, other than my mom. I've made her so many shawls and throws that we could easily wrap her up entirely.

 

I mentioned a rough day on the episode thread. One of the odd things my group of friends does for fun is organize science fiction conventions. This weekend, it was a Doctor Who convention, with guests who've appeared on the show and a few local semi-celebrities (authors, mostly) filling out the other panels. As a local author, friend of the organizers, and former radio/TV reporter, I usually get assigned to moderate the bigger panels. But I also have a project due Monday, so since I live 15 minutes away from the con hotel, I was running home between panels to work, and I left early yesterday. I arrived at the convention hotel about 10 minutes before I had to moderate a panel this morning, and one of my friends caught me, pulled me aside and told me that one of our friends had died during the night. He'd worked his convention job during the day, and then when he didn't show up for an evening event, his girlfriend went to their hotel room to check on him and found him unresponsive, they called the paramedics and got him to a hospital, but they weren't able to save him. They weren't announcing anything at the convention because they didn't want to cast a black cloud over it for the attendees. It was one of those things that was a shock, but kind of wasn't. He'd had some health problems and we were worried about him, but we didn't expect him to actually die so soon. The hard thing was that I got about 30 seconds to get teary-eyed, and then I had to pull myself together to go up on stage and be funny and vivacious and run two panels. And then I had to come home and work, so I've just been compartmentalizing all day. Then Zelena and Regina's "reunion" just set me off.

 

Now I'm just kind of numb. He wasn't a really, really close friend. I didn't socialize with him apart from the big group, but he was definitely someone I spent time chatting with within the group when we all got together (he was also one of my few real-life friends who still watches this show), so I suspect when it will really hit me is when this group is together and he's not there. I usually swing by his usual convention station to say hi at these events, but I was so focused on the things I had to do that I didn't this weekend, and now I really regret not getting that last chance. I'm also pretty good friends with his girlfriend, and I feel so bad for her because she's the one who found him. That's the kind of thing I'm sure you can't ever forget.

[Camera One]

That's horrible.  I'm sorry for your loss.  It is difficult when it happens so suddenly.

[Selina K]

Shanna, I am very sorry for your loss. I always wish I had better words for difficult times, but can only hope you and your friends are able to find comfort and healing together.

[Shanna Marie]

Thanks, everyone. My friends are doing an amazing job of looking after the girlfriend and each other. You hear about groups of friends that are like extended family, and these people really are. There were six people with the girlfriend in the emergency room all night, then they got other friends to take her home with them and went back and packed up her hotel room, got her checked out, and got all her stuff to her. Now they've got a crowdfunding thing started to help cover the transportation expenses to get him back home to his family in another state and allow the girlfriend to travel there for the funeral (she was really more of a common-law wife, and they were talking about formalizing it but hadn't set a date). We're also probably going to have some kind of memorial service here.

 

I did get my project done in time, in spite of everything. I was hoping to get back to practicing the harp, but would you believe that a string broke overnight? I hadn't touched it in days because I've been so busy. Now what will I do with my free time tomorrow when the forums are down?

[Curio]

Not a huge fan of the new forum design. The older version was so much cleaner and modern-looking, but now we took a step backwards in web design and usability.

Edit: Sorry, I know a lot of people have been working hard for months making these changes, so I don't want to knock down all the hard work. But...as a web designer...I might have some ideas I'll be posting to the suggestions thread.

Edited April 27, 2016 by Curio

[Rumsy4]

Man I missed this forum yesterday! lol

[Shanna Marie]

You might want to go and check your settings. I had mine set for no notifications for anything (since I come here often enough that it's not as though I need any alerts, and my in-box is already stuffed), but it had defaulted to e-mail notification for everything, so I had to re-set it all.

I'm not sure yet if this is all just "change is scary" or if I really hate the new design, but I'm glad to have the forums back. I was getting twitchy.

[Curio]

Heh, I'm glad I'm not the only one who was getting twitchy. (It was only 24 hours!) I never realized how much I enjoyed our daily conversations here.

[Shanna Marie]

For me, the day off came at a really bad time. I'd finished a big project and had worked all weekend, so I was giving myself a goof-off day, the weather was potentially nasty (we ended up dodging a bullet), so I didn't really want to go anywhere, lest I be out and about when baseball-sized hail started falling, and my harp has a broken string. It was the perfect day to spend on discussion forums, bringing up all those things that came to mind when I was busy and didn't have time to compose lengthy posts. I did find other ways to goof off, and I got a lot of little to-do items ticked off the list. I rearranged some of the electronics in my office, since I finally got home wi-fi and could move some things around. Yet another friend had a health scare, so I was monitoring Facebook for updates on that. I was tracking the potentially nasty weather. But it wasn't a truly good goof-off day. And now I'm not sure I can remember all those brilliant potential posts that came to me.

[Souris]

Shanna, I'm so sorry about your friend! I'm glad there were a bunch of people there to rally around the girlfriend, at least.

[Alex]

The forum is finally back!!
I missed you guys!!!

 

[daxx]

I was ridiculously twitchy yesterday. Kept checking to see if it was back.

[Writing Wrongs]

2 hours ago, Curio said:

Not a huge fan of the new forum design. The older version was so much cleaner and modern-looking, but now we took a step backwards in web design and usability.

Edit: Sorry, I know a lot of people have been working hard for months making these changes, so I don't want to knock down all the hard work. But...as a web designer...I might have some ideas I'll be posting to the suggestions thread.

I'm with you. It used to look more colorful. I hate change..grumble grumble.

[Curio]

1 minute ago, Writing Wrongs said:

I'm with you. It used to look more colorful. I hate change..grumble grumble.

I'm okay with change, but it seems like some aesthetic and usability features have been changed arbitrarily. Why are the typefaces different from the main site and the leading and padding all awkward? But if yesterday is anything to go by, any forum is a million times better than no forum at all!

[RadioGirl27]

35 minutes ago, daxx said:

I was ridiculously twitchy yesterday. Kept checking to see if it was back.

Lol, me too! But, yeah, it's going to take a bit to get accustomed to the new design.

[Lieutenant]

I'm finding the square ads dividing every 5th thread to be more than a little vexing, but otherwise so glad to have y'all back!  Everyone's commentary and discussion really makes my day more interesting...so yesterday was definitely a challenge!

[Rumsy4]

I hope the forum upgrade stops the frequent outages I experienced with the old format. 

[KingOfHearts]

15 minutes ago, Rumsy4 said:

I hope the forum upgrade stops the frequent outages I experienced with the old format. 

Hmm... that's funny - I never experienced that.

I do find text a little harder to read with the new design. It's the background and font changes.

Edited April 27, 2016 by KingOfHearts

[Curio]

24 minutes ago, Lieutenant said:

I'm finding the square ads dividing every 5th thread to be more than a little vexing, but otherwise so glad to have y'all back!

That's one of the suggestions I was going to bring up. Instead of running an obstructive 300x250 ad randomly in the middle of the page, wouldn't it make more sense to run a 728x90 ad? Or move the ads to the side?

[HoodlumSheep]

Is there a mobile version of this? Or am I already on it? Usually you can switch to mobile at the bottom of the page or somewhere, butI can't seem to find it. I'm pretty sure I'm on the desktop version, which means my ipod will probably be crashing a lot.

[daxx]

1 minute ago, HoodlumSheep said:

Is there a mobile version of this? Or am I already on it? Usually you can switch to mobile at the bottom of the page or somewhere, butI can't seem to find it. I'm pretty sure I'm on the desktop version, which means my ipod will probably be crashing a lot.

The what's new thread indicated it would auto resize regardless of platform. It should size properly for your iPod.

i never used the mobile version on my iPad since it wasn't user friendly.

[KingOfHearts]

3 minutes ago, HoodlumSheep said:

Is there a mobile version of this? Or am I already on it? Usually you can switch to mobile at the bottom of the page or somewhere, butI can't seem to find it. I'm pretty sure I'm on the desktop version, which means my ipod will probably be crashing a lot.

According to the update post, there's no separate mobile version. All it does is scale according to your screen:

Quote

No separate second class mobile skin but one design that changes based on size of the container it is in... like that octopus

Woops, @daxx! We both replied at the same time. :P

Edited April 27, 2016 by KingOfHearts

[HoodlumSheep]

Thanks for answering you two! Wow, so it's going to take awhile to get used to all this...stuff.

[Writing Wrongs]

What does 'gave reputation" mean?

[HoodlumSheep]

I think it's the same as when someone "likes" your post. You could do the same on the old style forum too. 

Oddly enough, after the first round of bug fixes my ipod can no longer handle the main page. It either freezes or perpetually loads. So now if I want to access any of the show threads I have to use the direct link to the specific show forum. 

I'd love to customize my page with the few forums I'm active in, but it's not gonna happen with my ipod crashing and freezing all the time. :(

[Curio]

"Gave Reputation" is a lot of letters just to say "Like."

[Shanna Marie]

Possibly because I spend a lot of time here, I can type the first few letters of a show name into my browser address bar and it brings up the direct link to that forum, so I seldom used the "my content" feature anyway. Heck, at this point, I can type "O" into the address bar and this forum comes up.

In other news ... my local newspaper sponsors these seminars where they bring in top professors from around the country to do a day of lectures on various topics. I haven't been yet because it's pretty expensive, but they occasionally do these subscriber rewards things where you can enter to win tickets to various things, and I won tickets to the seminar this weekend, which includes a lecture on the psychology of good and evil. I figure that'll give me lots of things to talk about in the morality thread. Unfortunately, the only person who's expressed an interest in the extra ticket (I won two) is my cling-on friend. Not that I was expecting to meet eligible men at this thing (though hope springs eternal ....) but still. And yet, he's taken me to a lot of things, so I feel I kind of owe him, and I hate to waste the ticket, plus I think he's more shattered by our friend's death than I am, and he was there when it happened, so he likely needs a distraction, and I'm bailing on something else he wanted to do this weekend. Maybe he'll be interested in different topics than I am, though I'll bet he follows me to everything I go to.

[Mari]

Is anyone else having trouble liking or quoting something?  Those buttons aren't showing up for me, and I'm not sure if it's my device or the forum working out new issues.

[HoodlumSheep]

It's working for me alright currently. The only thing that bugs me currently is if I start a post and then change my mind, the next time I decide to post somethingeverything  that I had previously written showsvup in the reply/comment box. So then i have to delete it all so I can start my new post.

although that'll come in handy when my ipod crashes, etc. because there have been many a times where I've lost my entire post  and then I have to start from scratch.

[Curio]

Everything seems to be functioning fine for me, but I only like to use this site on a desktop. I'm too slow of a typer on touchscreen devices so I rarely use my iPad or iPhone for these forums. The main thing that's really bugging me right now is the million different typefaces flying around.

[Mari]

Thanks!  The buttons are all showing up, now, so maybe things are back to the new normal?