The Syndicate

:o indi
It's so weird. I was actually just thinking of you a few days ago. I was going to sign into HV to try and message you and illy to try and find out how you both were, but haven't had a chance to with the holidays.

We've missed you. SVS and bea have a stoners redo game coming up soon

Indi

How are you doing? Good to see you. And yeah, MST3K needs to be done. Not to mention Pacino v. DeNiro.

indiglo wrote:Hey MoPi! It's great to see you too! I'm so glad this place has taken off and is doing so well. That's great!

It's been a wild life since last we spoke... but I assume the same is likely true of you, and everyone else. Life has a way of doing that. How's things with you? (And everyone else here!?!?)



(What a nerd I am, I just went back and reread that Mafia of the Absurd game. Man, you guys were hilarious in that! We were just saying that we also had an idea for an MST3K mafia that we never got around to doing. Maybe one day, eh?)

Thanks! I'm happy as well with everything, this year particularly has been a good one for the site I'd say. So much has happened!

Things are great! I don't even remember what I last told you since it's been so long, and I can't possibly summarize everything I'm sure... but I got married to the wonderful Spacedaisy in August, I have my last semester of classes upcoming in the Spring for my PhD, my parents are coming down really soon to spend some time with us for Christmas, the site is doing well and I've hosted/played some great mafia games... no complaints here.

Wild life, but good I hope? How's Dex?

Hope to host or play with you again soon too! Though I may be unable to play for a little while due to a crazy last class semester.

Woo! Congrats MoPi and Spacedaisy!! I feel bad that I missed your nuptials! But congratulations to you both. That's fantastic! Hope you are enjoying your ongoing honeymoon phase!!

The last I heard from Illy she had been in a significant car accident (but came out ok, all things considered) and her master's thesis was kicking her butt. That's been a few weeks though, so not sure how / where she is atm. We kept in touch fairly regularly on TWD thread on HV. So, it's been however long ago since the mid-season finale. Does she pop in here? I'm thinking she never migrated over. I think she liked our little HV mafia family. I should really like to pm her too. I feel like I must miss out on so much not having the Facebook.

Let's see, what else... I'm doing pretty well. Dex is doing pretty well too. It's been a crazy year or 2 here, with all kinds of stuff happening, but hey, that's life right? And we are good. It really is hard to summarize, but over all we are doing well, happy, all that jazz. I've also gotten back into my music more, which is fantastic! But there's never enough time to spend with it. I got a new piano recently and I swear I haven't even had time to sit down and really enjoy it. If I don't actually schedule it in, it really doesn't happen. Sadly.

We had so many ideas for MST3K... wanted to turn the game on its head just a bit. And now, we are both feeling a bit more excited for it... but you guys know it's a huge project. Oh, but it could be sooooo fun.

How about all the rest of you folks? Hopefully life is going smoothly enough, or if it's bumpy at least you're holding on tight. It's nice to see at least a few names I recognize. It's so funny to see so many new names here that are totally unknown to me, but very nice! Hugs all around!


Oh god... Stoners Mafia... LMFAO That game was a TRIP and a half. Good times!

Hi indiglo! I don't know you, but I know Illy, and I wish you could find a way to convince her to join us over here. I miss her terribly.

indiglo wrote:Woo! Congrats MoPi and Spacedaisy!! I feel bad that I missed your nuptials! But congratulations to you both. That's fantastic! Hope you are enjoying your ongoing honeymoon phase!!

The last I heard from Illy she had been in a significant car accident (but came out ok, all things considered) and her master's thesis was kicking her butt. That's been a few weeks though, so not sure how / where she is atm. We kept in touch fairly regularly on TWD thread on HV. So, it's been however long ago since the mid-season finale. Does she pop in here? I'm thinking she never migrated over. I think she liked our little HV mafia family. I should really like to pm her too. I feel like I must miss out on so much not having the Facebook.

Let's see, what else... I'm doing pretty well. Dex is doing pretty well too. It's been a crazy year or 2 here, with all kinds of stuff happening, but hey, that's life right? And we are good. It really is hard to summarize, but over all we are doing well, happy, all that jazz. I've also gotten back into my music more, which is fantastic! But there's never enough time to spend with it. I got a new piano recently and I swear I haven't even had time to sit down and really enjoy it. If I don't actually schedule it in, it really doesn't happen. Sadly.

We had so many ideas for MST3K... wanted to turn the game on its head just a bit. And now, we are both feeling a bit more excited for it... but you guys know it's a huge project. Oh, but it could be sooooo fun.

How about all the rest of you folks? Hopefully life is going smoothly enough, or if it's bumpy at least you're holding on tight. It's nice to see at least a few names I recognize. It's so funny to see so many new names here that are totally unknown to me, but very nice! Hugs all around!


Oh god... Stoners Mafia... LMFAO That game was a TRIP and a half. Good times!

No worries, but thank you very much! Indeed we have been enjoying it.

I didn't have a ton of contact with Illy, but what I did have was very pleasant, so I'd love to hear from her again! I actually invited her over for the inaugural Syndicate game (my Avant-Garde 2) and she played, but I haven't seen her since the postgame discussion for that one.

I'm so glad to hear you both are doing well! That's awesome. I feel your pain somewhat, I'd love to get back into music and composing myself, just don't have the equipment, or the money to spend on new equipment, or the time these days. I hope to really delve back into it once I'm done with the PhD.

I'd love to play an Indi and Dex game, so count me in already.

Bad news everyone, I think I have to unplug myself from the forum until 2016, just too much stuff to do at home right now, until the year is over. See you all again soon.

All done, I'm back now.

Happy new year

I just wanted to wish a Happy New Year!
I hope you all have a great start!

Happy New Year everyone. I hope nothing bad happens to any of you, but if it does, I hope I profit somehow.

Epignosis wrote:Happy New Year everyone. I hope nothing bad happens to any of you, but if it does, I hope I profit somehow.

^ this. Peace, love, happiness, bliss to you all in 2016

Well played Rico.

Man, I had just gotten used to writing 2015!! Hope everyone's year is getting off to a good start.

Happy New Year, everyone!

I generally fail and/or scoff at New Year's resolutions, but 2016 I'm going to be changing that. I feel like I need to keep myself as goal-oriented as possible this year, and I've struggled to maintain that in previous years.

My parents just left this morning; they had been visiting since a few days before New Year's Eve. It was really nice to get to spend time with them, since a 20-hour or so driving distance means I don't get to see them much these days. Now I have to get back into the swing of PhD work after a few week break with barely accomplishing any such work. So far today, I've managed to accomplish little things, so I'm working myself back up... but then I opened this tab on my browser an hour or so ago. Oops. :P

It's been a really great start to the year for me, other than catching a bad case of vertigo, which oddly enough I've never had before the morning of January 1st. Weird coincidence or what? The last day or two I've been feeling better, but it still hits me hard when I move my head suddenly or I go to lie down. Has anyone else dealt with vertigo?

Oh, vertigo sucks! Sorry to hear that MoPi. In my experience, there's not a ton that can be done... some of the meds they give you knock you out too - so you can either lay there spinning, or lay there high.

One thing - if it does happen repeatedly, there is something that can cause it that is a pretty quick fix. It can sometimes be related to the tiny crystals waaay inside your inner ear that float in fluid and help give you your sense of balance, and up/down. Sometimes those tiny crystals can come out of their little area. If that happens, you can get vertigo. But if you go to your doctor (or physical therapist) they can lay you on a table and put your head through a short series of movements - they are in a special sequence, and work like one of those little hand held maze games I liked when I was younger. They lead the displaced crystals through your ear canal maze and get them back where they're supposed to be. Then you lay there for a bit to let them settle down & you're good to go.

Not all vertigo is caused by the ear crystal thingy, but some is. If it happens again you might call the dr just to see. I know vertigo is nooo fun. Hope you're feeling better and stay that way.

indiglo wrote:Oh, vertigo sucks! Sorry to hear that MoPi. In my experience, there's not a ton that can be done... some of the meds they give you knock you out too - so you can either lay there spinning, or lay there high.

One thing - if it does happen repeatedly, there is something that can cause it that is a pretty quick fix. It can sometimes be related to the tiny crystals waaay inside your inner ear that float in fluid and help give you your sense of balance, and up/down. Sometimes those tiny crystals can come out of their little area. If that happens, you can get vertigo. But if you go to your doctor (or physical therapist) they can lay you on a table and put your head through a short series of movements - they are in a special sequence, and work like one of those little hand held maze games I liked when I was younger. They lead the displaced crystals through your ear canal maze and get them back where they're supposed to be. Then you lay there for a bit to let them settle down & you're good to go.

Not all vertigo is caused by the ear crystal thingy, but some is. If it happens again you might call the dr just to see. I know vertigo is nooo fun. Hope you're feeling better and stay that way.

Doesn't it though? Man. I guess I had to have something bad going for me to start the year, otherwise I'd have nothing to complain about (other than PhD work starting up again). :P

Yeah, I've done a bit of research since then and found the same. Odd that there's really not much consensus in terms of any treatment.

That's really good to know, thanks so much! I'll keep that in mind.

Unfortunately, it hasn't quite gone away yet, but it is less pronounced for sure. It's weird, and tends to come in waves of intensity, I'd say for the past week I've had one worse morning, then a slightly better morning, then a worse one, etc. And it's always pronounced when I wake up and go to bed, at least now that I've made it past the first day or two, which were definitely the worst. Once I've been up for a couple of hours, usually I'm pretty solid for most of the day, so that's good.

Upon uncovering that the treatment consensus was pretty much "it'll go away eventually", all I could think of was:

I'm gonna start a 24-hour videogame stream to raise money for the American Cancer Society in about 4 hours, you guys should drop by.

I'm not from America. Make sure to play Undertale, though. Or else.

Undertale's definitely on the list.

"American Cancer Society" makes it sound like they're trying to do something about "American Cancer." You can keep your "European Cancers," we only want to fix ours.

Raising money seemed to imply donations. Also, Nauru is not in Europe.

I'm donating all the money I receive to the ASC and encouraging people to donate to the ASC directly if they'd prefer. Only advantage of going through me is we get a big lump sum, but it all goes to the same place so it doesn't bother me either way.

RadicalFuzz wrote:I'm gonna start a 24-hour videogame stream to raise money for the American Cancer Society in about 4 hours, you guys should drop by.

Sweet! Got a link yet? I'll check it out.

Sorry, didn't check here until now. We managed to raise $197!

Man, I love me some corn dogs

OK< I loled

My Uncle John passed away tonight; I know some of you knew he was sick & in hospice, most did not, as is the way of the internet. He was the youngest of my mothers siblings and the last one alive. He was a very average, hard working guy, like millions of others. A truck driver. Important to those close to him, just one of the human herd to everyone else. He was the funny drunk uncle, and he openly favored me above my cousins. He made an awesome krumkake, an ass kicking hot toddy, and made an oil change seem do-able to a 16 year old girl.

He was my uncle. You all have one like him. Call him tonight & tell him you love him. It will make him very happy.

S~V~S wrote:My Uncle John passed away tonight; I know some of you knew he was sick & in hospice, most did not, as is the way of the internet. He was the youngest of my mothers siblings and the last one alive. He was a very average, hard working guy, like millions of others. A truck driver. Important to those close to him, just one of the human herd to everyone else. He was the funny drunk uncle, and he openly favored me above my cousins. He made an awesome krumkake, an ass kicking hot toddy, and made an oil change seem do-able to a 16 year old girl.

He was my uncle. You all have one like him. Call him tonight & tell him you love him. It will make him very happy.

I have an uncle just like yours, but more redneck and less...Norwegian?

I'm sorry to hear of your loss. Uncle John sounded cool.

Thank You

And yeah, Norwegian. My moms parents & her older sibs were from Norway. She & my Uncle John were born here in New York.



He was the one on the far right. My Mom,in blue,was next to him. They were all kinda drunk, lol.

So sorry for your loss.

I hope that, with time, the memories will come with more smiles than tears. Sounds like what he would have wanted.

Sorry about your loss. He sounded like a good man. I remember having a staggering amount of uncles, aunts and nephews/nieces, but they all live in different rural areas. My mom mostly stays in touch.

My favorite story is never realizing the technicality that my mother's step sister (named Dorina) is my aunt, until I was 9 or 10. She was always just Dorina to me. Yeah, she's probably my closest aunt, in that regard.

Thanks, guys

He really was a good, nice man. The world is a bit less nice without him.

Sorry to hear that SVS

Very sorry for your loss, S~V~S.

Cold day at work. Nobody noticed that the furnace was low on oil. It must have run out sometime overnight. It's 63 in the office now that our bodies and the lights have warmed it up from the 59 degree temperature we discovered upon opening for the day. Hot chocolate has been clutch today but I don't think I'm going to want to drink any again for a long while. Working on my fourth cup as I type this.

PANTHERS

Broncos

Epignosis wrote:PANTHERS

Broncos

This will be the best kind of Super Bowl for me- one where I'm okay with either team winning. The last time that happened was in 2011 with the Packers and the Steelers.

While it would be nice for Manning to go out on top with a Super Bowl victory (still hard to believe his brother has more rings than he does), I think I'm leaning toward the Panthers. They were such a dominant team this year and Cam Newton really seems to have transformed both his play and his attitude since his car accident. Plus, I thought their logo and colors were cool back when the team was founded back when I was a kid. I've always had a soft spot for them because of that.

I was rooting for the Cardinals tbh, but the Panthers are obviously the team to beat.

If anyone can do it, it's a healthy Broncos team.

When I think of the Panthers though, I always remember that awful tie game from last year. Not that either team played awful (far from it actually), but I think it's awful that NFL rules can even allow a game to end in a tie.

Metalmarsh89 wrote:I was rooting for the Cardinals tbh, but the Panthers are obviously the team to beat.

If anyone can do it, it's a healthy Broncos team.

I have nothing against the Cardinals but I find Phoenix/Arizona to be one of those regions that it's hard to care about in terms of sports teams. Seattle used to be in this same category for me but now they're lumped into my "root against them because of obnoxious bandwagon fans" category. It's funny how you expect some teams/regions to have inferior sports teams simply because you grew up knowing those teams to be mediocre.

That being said, I lukewarmly support the Diamondbacks and Coyotes from time to time because their logos/team names/color schemes are/were cool and for the underdog factor.

G-Man wrote:

Metalmarsh89 wrote:I was rooting for the Cardinals tbh, but the Panthers are obviously the team to beat.

If anyone can do it, it's a healthy Broncos team.

I have nothing against the Cardinals but I find Phoenix/Arizona to be one of those regions that it's hard to care about in terms of sports teams. Seattle used to be in this same category for me but now they're lumped into my "root against them because of obnoxious bandwagon fans" category. It's funny how you expect some teams/regions to have inferior sports teams simply because you grew up knowing those teams to be mediocre.

That being said, I lukewarmly support the Diamondbacks and Coyotes from time to time because their logos/team names/color schemes are/were cool and for the underdog factor.

I agree with you about Seattle. I mean, they are the closest NFL team to me geographically, yet I don't care for them. They do have a lot of stand-up players on their team though, and Pete Carroll's one of the more underrated coaches in the NFL. He doesn't get the headlines like Bill Belichek, or Tom Coughlin, or Rex Ryan, or even Marvin Lewis.

On the other hand, I still like Carson Palmer even after he left Cincinnati. I'd like to see him continue to succeed (unless they're playing the Bengals). I feel the same way about Ryan Fitzpatrick and the Jets.

This is interesting. A guy who's never played piano in his life recording a jazz album.

Metalmarsh89 wrote:This is interesting. A guy who's never played piano in his life recording a jazz album.

I read reviews, but never listened. The kinder reviews said it's merely a comedic project. The harsher ones called it jumbo music.

This is really just #firstRico'sworldproblems, so I ain't gonna write it in the Problems thread

Tfw this week and the next two are such hell. Music school exams with the young ones every day this week (even had to sit in the committee myself for four hours today and will have to do so again on Friday), then accompaniment rehearsals with faculty students during the whole afternoon, plus had to make a slideshow presentation for German class this evening, where I was as professional as always, but lost the group's popular vote (by some margin) to a 16 year old charming, passionate, hard-working and determined schooler, basically the kind I was 10 years ago (minus the charming), which curiously messed up with my esteem and the feeling of getting old, at least at this moment.

A colleague in the German class literally told me I should get a good night sleep, because of how spent I was visibly looking.

So yeah, guess this must be what they call real life, huh?

Those were great

I feel old too Rico. Life just somehow comes to get you.

I AM old, and you get used to it

It actually has its good points.

S~V~S wrote:I AM old, and you get used to it

It actually has its good points.

Discounts at the Sizzler?

Free cards at Bingo night?