General chat thread

[heralding_bubble]

I wish I had more dreams in general. I usually only have them if I wake up during the night and go back to bed.
Probably the risperidone >.>

 

[Koup]

I usually lose consciousness when I sleep, dreams are few and far in between.

 

[Hatless Nuance]

One of these days, I'd like to try an erotic dream.

Or, hell, even a scary dream. Just for the novelty of it.

But, no, I always have this weird sort of detachment in my dreams. Like some part of me aware that none of this is real. There's no weight to my steps, I can't feel anything I touch. Whatever I'm doing, I always feel warm and comfortable and at rest.

I may not be aware I'm asleep, but it feels like I'm watching a movie rather than being involved.

And the incongruity between what my body's telling me and what my dream is trying to portray wakes me up every time.

Except when I need to pee. That feels very real. Fortunately it also wakes me up.

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"Be sure to follow your dreams, kids!"

"What about the one I have where a city is burning?"

"Okay, never mind, don't follow that one."

 

[khatun]

"Be sure to follow your dreams, kids!"

"What about the one I have where a city is burning?"

"Okay, never mind, don't follow that one."

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But those ones are my favorite!

 

[Hatless Nuance]

But those ones are my favorite!

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Eh, I had one like that, but it wasn't one I could act on.

I was watching a city burn, though I could not be sure which city. Only that it had some skyscrapers in it. I was frozen, either like or actually as a statue. Over my left shoulder behind me was my own voice reciting the Lord's Prayer. Over my right shoulder behind me, was mad laughter.

I had no idea how it started, and I woke up before anything changed.

This was 14-18 years ago when I was a teenager, and nothing in my life has remotely resembled it before or since. Which is probably a good thing.

 

[Rakdos92]

I occasionally dream, but most of the time, it's funky stuff like "my teeth are falling out for no reason". For the most part, I'm glad that I forget the contents of my dreams. But sometimes I wish I had better memory because it was something pleasant I then proceed to forget.

 

[Treble]

Alright, confession time: I don't play VGs, but I want MiHoyo's games to succeed so that they have more money for their nuclear fusion investments. it gives me near religious ecstasy to imagine porn and gamers being farmed to create funds for legitimate scientific research.

 

[Scygnus]

I don't remember most, but the ones I do really stick out.

I think I've posted two of them in this thread already.

 

[Treble]

One of these days, I'd like to try an erotic dream.

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Don't, it's just weird. I had one where a certain girl I know was blowing me, but then I was suddenly being hanged for raping her. And my parents were there and telling me I will go to Hell, but my sister was rolling her eyes.

It was a weird dream. I suppose I must have had more, but it's the only erotic dream I remember. Mostly because I wrote it down because I was in my religious stage and seriously wondered whether I was going to go to hell.

 

[MadGreenSon]

I spent all night working on this, fiddling with it until it looked the way I wanted it to.

Spoiler

I don't even make use of Mama Murphy.

 

[Treble]

I think I'm losing my sense of taste. Is that abnormal?

 

[evildice]

I think I'm losing my sense of taste. Is that abnormal?

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Perfectly normal for a Covid victim.

 

[Treble]

Perfectly normal for a Covid victim.

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I don't have Covid. But my father said he had the same problem, and so did one of his brothers. So I am not quite sure if it's just some weird affliction that happens with age or something.

I mean, it's not like the topic of losing our sense of taste with age ever comes up in casual conversation. And I'd feel like an idiot if I bring it up with IRL people.

 

[TanaNari]

And I'd feel like an idiot if I bring it up with IRL people.

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... Too easy...

The answer is yes, it's not uncommon for people to lose some of all physical senses as they advance in age. Hearing and vision are the most obvious, both genetics and lifestyle have a role, and biology likes to send all sorts of surprises our way, but it's not unusual in the slightest.

And with about five seconds on any search engine, you too could have known this without having to ask a single human being.

 

[Treble]

And with about five seconds on any search engine, you too could have known this without having to ask a single human being

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With 15 seconds on Google, I learnt the name and research on the phenomenon of losing taste (called ageusia) without actually learning whether it's common with age. Especially since I don't exactly have one foot in the grave.

 

[MadGreenSon]

The sense of taste changes all the time. When I was a teenager I couldn't stand food spicier than ketchup and nowadays I quite like spicy food. Not at the "dare you to eat this" level, but I like some kick.
On the other hand, I now despise the taste of lemonade.

 

[TanaNari]

Google

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Considering who google's run by and your hatred of what you call 'postmodernists', I'm shocked you'd even touch google.

I use bing. The results tend to be more in line with what I'm looking for.

All I did was type "losing sense of taste with age" and the top results were the mayo clinic, national institution on aging, and agingcare.com, and you don't even have to click any of them since the little preview in each and every one said it was normal.

 

[Stormwalker]

I think I'm losing my sense of taste. Is that abnormal?

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Sadly, it does happen as you get older and changes to style happen more rapidly than you can keep up with. Where before you could choose an outfit that was perfectly acceptable, suddenly you find yourself wearing plaid pants or something.

Wait, you were talking about the other type of taste.

 

[BlackHadou]

I think I'm losing my sense of taste. Is that abnormal?

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Check your diet. Its also a side effect of zinc and magnesium deficiencies. I struggled with it a lot when I was younger.

 

[Hatless Nuance]

Sadly, it does happen as you get older and changes to style happen more rapidly than you can keep up with. Where before you could choose an outfit that was perfectly acceptable, suddenly you find yourself wearing plaid pants or something.

Wait, you were talking about the other type of taste.

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I find that for that kind of taste, the best plan is to pick comfortable clothing that is mostly plain or simpler patterns, with the occasional logo or design to suit your preferences, and then just ignoring style most of the time and "fashion" all of the time.

Seriously, who is "fashion" for? It's hideously impractical clothing worn by people with severe body issues who still wind up getting photoshopped.

The answer is yes, it's not uncommon for people to lose some of all physical senses as they advance in age. Hearing and vision are the most obvious, both genetics and lifestyle have a role, and biology likes to send all sorts of surprises our way, but it's not unusual in the slightest.

And with about five seconds on any search engine, you too could have known this without having to ask a single human being.

Click to shrink...

Check your diet. Its also a side effect of zinc and magnesium deficiencies. I struggled with it a lot when I was younger.

Click to shrink...

Another factor in this is saliva. Your mouth gets less effective at producing saliva as you age, and being dehydrated makes it worse. Less saliva means less pre-digestion, and thus you will genuinely taste less of the foods you eat because of that.

This can be somewhat mitigated by drinking water. Specifically, taking small sips of water with your food as you eat it can add to the flavor by helping your saliva along, although it would also be easy to drink too much in one sip and dilute the flavor instead. This has the extra benefit of softening many kinds of food and this reducing the choking hazard, which is also more of a concern as you age (due both to the saliva thing and weakening of muscles with age).

 

[Scygnus]

Hm. Random thought: you know the saying about giving a lazy person the toughest task to find out the easiest way to do it?

I wonder if you could say the same about a coward and finding the best way to eliminate an opponent.

 

[noswald]

Not a recommendation, I just don't have a lot of people to talk about QQ fics with.

Ever since I started reading that daily ranma 1/2 fic "the wild horse and the river" my days have consisted of just waking up early to read the newest chapters, go through the motions of work then kill time until bedtime so I can repeat the cycle. On paper the premise is the sort of fanfic tropes that gives fanfictions it's cringe reputation. But between the interesting juxtaposition between the MC's modern sensibilities to the whole....mess of the 80s Japanese trope ecosystem, the slow burn romance and my recent nostalgia for Ranma 1/2 ever since the reboot came out, I can't put it down.

Which in turn has halted the progress on my other hobbies. It's kinda worrying though admittedly I am also too unmotivated to do something about it.

Hm. Random thought: you know the saying about giving a lazy person the toughest task to find out the easiest way to do it?

I wonder if you could say the same about a coward and finding the best way to eliminate an opponent.

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in what way? I am of the mind that most cowards would just choose the way that involve eliminating the opponent from as far away as possible.

 

[Scygnus]

in what way? I am of the mind that most cowards would just choose the way that involve eliminating the opponent from as far away as possible.

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Well, that IS often the best way... IMO anyway. I may have made a Ninja/Warlock in... 3.5, I think? And had to promise I wouldn't get the thing that would let my Eldritch Blast hit from 400ft away so the DM would let me have it benefit from Sneak Attack.

But I mostly meant 'kill it as quickly as possible because if they're dead they can't kill you.'

It was mostly a random thought and I was curious how other people would interpret the idea.

 

[NuclearBird]

Hm. Random thought: you know the saying about giving a lazy person the toughest task to find out the easiest way to do it?

I wonder if you could say the same about a coward and finding the best way to eliminate an opponent.

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Considering the entire modern playbook of war on a tactical and strategic level for every nation of note seems to be an exercise in "How can we avoid a standup fight while bushwacking as many of the enemy as possible?", I'd say that tracks.

 

[Treble]

...unless that lazy person just half asses the job and creates a shoddy product, or the coward fails because he can't take the minor risks he'd need to take to win.

Considering the entire modern playbook of war on a tactical and strategic level for every nation of note seems to be an exercise in "How can we avoid a standup fight while bushwacking as many of the enemy as possible?", I'd say that tracks.

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Unfortunately, the enemy gets a vote.

 

[evildice]

Well, that IS often the best way... IMO anyway. I may have made a Ninja/Warlock in... 3.5, I think? And had to promise I wouldn't get the thing that would let my Eldritch Blast hit from 400ft away so the DM would let me have it benefit from Sneak Attack.

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3.5e Sneak Attack can only happen within 30 ft.

And some versions of Ninja get a worse version of Sneak Attack which makes me deeply unhappy, since ninjae should be awesome to ensure that children continue to join the hobby.

 

[Scygnus]

3.5e Sneak Attack can only happen within 30 ft.

And some versions of Ninja get a worse version of Sneak Attack which makes me deeply unhappy, since ninjae should be awesome to ensure that children continue to join the hobby.

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Nah, there was some feat- you know how 3.5 was with splatbooks- that let sneak attack happen at longer ranges.

You could find just about anything in 3.5 if you looked hard enough.

 

[Hatless Nuance]

Nah, there was some feat- you know how 3.5 was with splatbooks- that let sneak attack happen at longer ranges.

You could find just about anything in 3.5 if you looked hard enough.

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As I understand it, a big thing in 3.5E D&D that was spread around a handful of splatbooks, official and third-party both, was something like customizable metamagic. Which was something that allowed for horrendously broken magic workings, and which has had even the smallest hints of similar flexibility nerfed into the ground in all later D&D systems, and offerings.

 

[TanaNari]

As I understand it, a big thing in 3.5E D&D that was spread around a handful of splatbooks, official and third-party both, was something like customizable metamagic.

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I... think I would have heard of that. Metamagic grants some flexibility, but it's hardly customizable. Most of the time it's not even worth the cost of the spell slot. Let alone the feats you have to burn just to use metamagic at all.

which has had even the smallest hints of similar flexibility nerfed into the ground in all later D&D systems, and offerings.

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Wow, and here I thought I couldn't hate the newer editions of D&D any more.

 

[evildice]

As I understand it, a big thing in 3.5E D&D that was spread around a handful of splatbooks, official and third-party both, was something like customizable metamagic. Which was something that allowed for horrendously broken magic workings, and which has had even the smallest hints of similar flexibility nerfed into the ground in all later D&D systems, and offerings.

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That sounds ominous but without enough information to convey meaning.

D&D has always had customizable magic -- many of the "name" spells in this edition were invented by players of a previous edition.

A lot of the most broken spells and combos were in the PHB, for example Shapechange.