Jane

That was a really cute direct. I'm going to see how much the Switch 3D world costs... I know the Switch one will have some extra stuff, but tbh if buying a pre-owned Wii U copy ends up a huge amount cheaper then we might just do that (it's one of the Wii U games we didn't get around to).

Oh no... I'm so sorry to hear that, KK. It's not fair. Massive condolences to you and all your family, it sounds like she was a really important person in your lives.

Today we're ordering in pizza and coincidentally I'm going to play Good Pizza, Great Pizza which is out for Switch today. It was almost an instant pre-order for me as I always found those stupid diner dash time management games really relaxing - Woofie and I played Overcooked recently and loved it but I wanted something more decidedly single-player too. Recently we got a hand-me-down iPad from Woofie's folks so I looked up what games were out there these days, but the combination of them all being """""""free-to-download""""""" and the artwork for pretty much all of them being uglier/more garish than ever soon put me off. So seeing a similar game which has decent artwork, I can pay £5ish for and have done with it, and I can play on my Switch was really appealing. Hopefully it'll be good!

Yaaaaay!!

I got to celebrate my birthday in Animal Crossing! Also, we downloaded Overcooked and Worms as they were a pretty good sale price - the latter is nostalgia central and I've heard that Overcooked is a great couch co-op game so has been on my wishlist for a while. Haven't played Worms yet but Overcooked is a lot of fun! (the music is strangely sad though...)

Yes! It might be a sandwich in the same sort of "eh, technically" way a tomato is a fruit, but a sandwich it be.

Yeah, and if I'm using a program professionally and earning a wage then I'm prepared to spend money on those tools for the job, even if it is eye-watering. But I want to buy the tool, not rent it. As you say, it's good to have a subscription option but if that's the only option it ends up feeling like you're being held to ransom.

Glad to see all the Gunstar Heroes love up in here.

Photoshop... I kind of want to try Clip Studio though, as I feel like all my eggs are in one basket right now with PS. Would be reassuring to have another workable option, so that when I eventually can't use CS6 anymore I know I have a choice when it comes to whether to give Adobe money every month or not.

Awww, I'd try these but a certain person I live with doesn't like mint chocolate/mint desserts. Edit: he does like whisky, though... maybe we could try some without the mint

That's a lorra lorra cheese Bet it was good. Speaking of cheese, we like this (esp if we have leftover halloumi from wraps or burgers or want a fancy starter): https://saturdaykitchenrecipesearch.co.uk/rick-stein-recipes/halloumi-saganaki/ It says slices but we usually do little cubes. Good quality honey and the oregano and sesame seeds = yum yum yum. (and really ridiculously easy to make for how good it is.) mmmm, delicious :]

HAPPY BIRTHDAYYYY Hope you have a good one! (edit: this was also my 100th post, yay ? )

It really was "HAHAHAHAno" I guess I haven't been active much so I'm maybe not great at knowing who is! But eh, I think anyone who's been friends with you on the center and fb knows you have a good heart and common sense, and a good sense of where the line is. It'd basically just be if you see people being idiots, close the thread (and in technical terms that's a case of ticking a box and pressing a button IIRC). But I'm not going to tell you to agree to do anything that I don't want to commit to doing myself So either way. I agree with the folks saying that we probably don't need to worry too much.

Over the past little while, before this started that is, I was trying to beat my social anxiety a bit and do more stuff in my local area, both trying new things and making better friends closer to home**, so the whole thing has been a bit of a setback in that respect. I'm one of those people for whom lockdown hasn't been too much of a change of lifestyle for, so although I've been going stir crazy, coming out of lockdown will be mentally harder for me I think. ** (my bffs are mostly from uni and live a few hours away, and others are former work pals who live in awkward-to-get-to bits of the city and some are also shy/bad at keeping in touch... I always have trouble convincing myself that people I've met actually want to hang out with me beyond a quick hello if we see each other in the street. I wish this stuff was easier!) In more positive mental attitude mindset, I got a sewing machine this week. It's technically my birthday present - not my birthday for another several weeks, but entry-mid-level-ish good quality machines have been sold out for months, so I had to jump when the one I wanted was available. Basically, I wanted to learn a skill that helps me upcycle things and mend things so they last longer - I was going to potentially go to some sewing classes (see also: doing stuff in local area) as I have no confidence in my skills using a machine (terrible home ec teacher), but as that was no longer possible I had to just go for it. Two of my BFFs have been sewing since they were kids and another friend/acquaintance used to sew professionally (and still semi-professionally does classes) so I feel like at least I have support there. I ordered a make-your-own mask kit so I guess that'll be the first thing I try once I get the hang of setting the beast up.

This was fun! I hope we can do it again in a few weeks. Seeing peoples' pets and cute kids was great and I guess talking to you all was pretty good too. P.S. You all know virtual backgrounds rool

This. Sorry for shooting down your suggestion that I take on mod powers, Slyph. I just cannot commit to it from the point of view of my mental state and how randomly I come back here every so often now (trying to post more but in deadline season I can still expect to disappear for a while). But srsly, I think unless anyone actively comes here to troll we'll be fine. I'd also just say that allowing politics discussion also could just come with the caveat that if things look like they're veering into the region of any kind of nastiness (trolling, ad hominems, overuse of memes instead of actual discussion) then wab/MT/any other admins can lock and/or delete threads and we'll move on and not fuss about it. (For my 2p, I'd nominate Tassi for more powers, if anyone - she's chill, friendly, pretty active here and probably the person who everyone would just be like "well, ok, that's that" if she decided to bring the hammer down on any discussions )

This question got me thinking... What if you got some water icing and "glued" a whole (hole, lol) load of donuts together to make a sort of tower/tunnel? A donut straw? How many holes would that have?

Not gonna do the last one as it's apples and oranges! As for worst, I haven't seen them all but I saw a bit of the Earthsea one and it wasn't great. Oh, and if it counts then some (though not all) of the dubs make me want to switch off right away. :x Have you seen them all? Nope... maybe about half overall? Favourite? I have a few that I like for different reasons... I have a huge soft spot for Kiki's Delivery Service, and I've found that several of my illustrator/creative friends do as well. I don't think it's coincidence given the themes of the film. Love Mononoke but it's both so long and so intense at points that I can't watch it often. Loved Whisper of the Heart and I liked The Wind Rises way more than I thought I would. The most infinitely rewatchable one for me is Howl's Moving Castle - it's different from the book but it has such a special something of its own ( *whispers* I might actually like it more than the book...), and I can watch the dub or the sub comfortably enough. Total loveliness and comfort viewing. Edit: Forgot to mention Spirited Away - I think I saw it during all the hype and it didn't really settle as one of my favourites; maybe partly due to all the hype, and also to me it felt a bit like "then this happened, then this happened..." but I watched it properly again a few months ago for the second time and I felt what it would be like to watch it as a child - it would have been one of those films like Labyrinth or The Neverending Story, which just pulled me in with their weirdness, scale and vulnerability and completely bewitched me. I'll only know once I watch it a third time, but it might be edging towards the favourites list now.

We feel like watching a series again soonish... might dig out Gundam Seed.

Love the scarecrow! She's very Anne of Green Gables with her red hair. I always consider doing Inktober but for the past couple of years the autumn is nearly always when I either have deadlines or need to start gearing up the projects that are going to run through the winter (with ever-increasing pressure up to January and then to March/April). So heaping extra, unnecessary pressure on myself to draw and post isn't the best idea. This year I am kind of doing it - but I'm not following prompts or even doing it publicly. The goal for Inktober is generally to produce and share artwork, but all the work I've been producing lately has been paid (yay!) work for someone else, which I inevitably have to be brave enough to share at some point (and then get told, often several times, what about it needs changing before it's officially finished). So I thought "how can I get something out of this?" and the best way I could see was to draw purely for enjoyment - no prompts or brief from anyone, no pressure to show it to anyone. "Do what you love for a job..." has some truth in it but it also kind of wears you out and means you forget sometimes why you love it in the first place (especially as I work largely digitally now, so less drawing on paper). Drawing just for myself for half an hour or so each day is probably the best thing I could get out of a challenge like this, at the moment anyway. I might post some of them on social media down the line but if the expectation of doing so is there then it instantly changes how I feel when I sit down with my pen and paper. Having said all that, I might post some here sooner as this place isn't properly connected to my work like most of my other social media is.

Yesssss!! Well done! It's so weird how life can throw bad and good things your way relatively all at once. Hope the new job is a step up and is good to you.

I got a Turquoise one! But I haven't played it much yet, and may not until Pokémon comes out (I got it on pre-order because we could get it at a higher Argos discount for a limited time, which meant I saved £30 on full price). First impressions of the hardware are good - it has a nice feel to it, and the size difference to the original Switch is such that you don't feel the screen size suffers much, but it's more comfortable to hold and definitely that bit more portable. Also, with the OG Switch in handheld mode you do occasionally feel like the joy-cons are at risk of clicking off the main body of the machine without you meaning to, which isn't a disaster but it can be a bit awkward and it's just something you're quietly aware of. With the Lite that isn't an issue. Although the Primary/Secondary Switch setup business is still confusing and a bit of a nightmare (especially re: saves and so on), I was relieved to learn that although you need Wifi to play games downloaded onto your primary Switch from your secondary Switch, it literally just uses it for a second to check the game isn't in use. You don't have to maintain a connection the whole time, which is what I initially thought they meant (which would obviously be pointless and awful). So it seems like you can literally just set up a wifi hotspot on your phone for a minute, let the Lite connect to it then disconnect and keep playing.

The GameCube was great! I wince a little over the Wii U, but we still got a heck of a lot out of Mario Kart 8 before it was released on Switch, and now that there are so many good games on Switch it'd have more to compete with now anyway. I'm more annoyed that MK8 Deluxe didn't include more of the old courses or characters, even in DLC form. It feels like they need to do a Smash Bros Ultimate with the next MK game.