OT: The Daily Thread

Merry Christmas, Babyhell! Peace on earth, goodwill toward everybody.

From United States 🥳
 
Merry Christmas!

RL: vacation at home until the 4th.

D2: nope.

D1: back into this with sorcerers. Have one named Tal Rasha with a thinking cap that dropped in Leoric. Waiting on hidden shrines.

OVG: back into card collecting (pokemon) and entering mtg (always been curious, but never tried to play). Also ncaa football.
 
Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

RL: My two kittens got spoiled this year for Christmas, which is as it should be.

D2: Finally took my random fire sorceress from the Cold Plains up to rescuing Deckard Cain. Normal should all be downhill from here, thanks to Fireball.

OVG: Started a new Morrowind character again. Got an itch thanks the the Morrowind map poster I got as a Christmas present.
 
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RL: Might have to make an attic in this barn conversion, losing a lot of heat.

D2: Negative for the forseeable future.

OVG: Picked up Torchlight 3, having fun right now (level 10, railmaster) but not sure. Thinking of playing WOW since pandemic isn't ending soon and my friends play it.
 
RL: Back on the nicotine patch starting today.

D2: Been on pause for the last few days or so, because I really felt like...

OVG: More Morrowind. Though for the upcoming 3 day weekend, I'll probably get back into D2. The problem will be finding a nice balance between the two games, as there is still so much I want to do in both.
 
RL: Warning: much whining about the ordeals of parentship following.
So my older daughter turned 9 years on Christmas. She already shows signs of puberty - not only from a medical point of view, but also in mood swings and character. She also is very headstrong in general...so yesterday evening, we had a conflict which can only be described as a clash of wills (yes, I am stubborn, too - where do you think she got it from? ;-) It started with a trifle: she wanted to sleep next to my wife and her sister, so I offered her grudgingly she could do that while I slept in her room. It was already 10 p.m. by that time, because I read to her for one hour before going to bed because...well, we both like reading together (a fantasy novel from a German fantasy author - for those who are interested in it: "Die Bedrohung" from Wolfgang and Heike Hohlbein).
But then she went to bed, waking up both my wife and her younger sister in the process, taking the audiobook the younger one listened to while falling asleep and wanted me to change the audiobook against her younger sister's will which I denied her, because it was her sister's turn to choose...and besides, she had woken her sister up again (it was 10.30 p.m. in the meantime). This resulted in an escalation and shouting match where I told her I wouldn't tolerate her selfishness while she argued, that she needed to change the audiobook or she would get nightmares (it wasn't anything frightening - Bibi and Tina). Now you have to know, that my daughter is battling Tics and mild OCD for over a year now and started arguing, that her OCD required her to change the audiobook and if I didn't let her change it, I was mean, not understanding and not loving etc. I told her that this isn't the case and doubted, that it was the OCD requiring it, also explaining, that if it was OCD, we shouldn't give in to it. But I had the hunch, that she simply wanted to get her way (which she does a lot in the last few months). So things escalated even more, ending in my daughter trying to sleep on the floor of the bathroom and yelling that she only wanted to die.
That resulted in me shouting back that we have to consult one of my colleagues then and that I've had it up to here (I am a child and adolescent psychiatrist, for those who wonder - yeah, you can see my savvy from reading about my cool reactions to my daughter's outburst 🙄).
Although I perfectly knew, that she didn't do it intentionally and that her regulation of emotion is not as refined as an adult's, I couldn't for the world of it give in and end the argument on amicable terms. My wife managed to calm her and get her to sleep while I cooled down with reading/watching stream.
Today she is back to everything's ok while I still have an emotional and physical hangover and really don't know how to cope right now. It's so paradoxical, that from a theoretical point of view, I know exactly what is going on and I know exactly what I would recommend a parent in that case - but I seem unable to do it myself.

So today I went for a walk for 3 hours in the sun and tried not to do anyhing frustrating (Spoiler: Didn't succeed) and now I will probably go to snuggle up to my daughter and read the book mentioned above to her to get on common ground again. Cross your fingers it works!
TL;DR: Big argument with my daughter, still feeling bad about it.

D2: Well, managed to get my Orange Barb to the Black Marsh, but my system crashed while D2 was running in the background and now I don't know what part of the map I already had cleared and which parts I hadn't cleared...I will try to compromise.

OVG: Magic Online was the reason my system crashed. Look, I really love Magic and I especially love the Vintage Cube (3 Trophies so far in 12 drafts or so - yay me! :cool:), but the game keeps crashing and crashing. Seriously? Can't they fix this? It's like 20 game crashes in 10 dayys, 2 of them leading to serious system crashes. My laptop is not state of the art, but it is quite solid and neither Witcher I or II nor Divinity II Original Sin ever crashed my system...MTGO's code is probably shambles -the interface is still based on the game Shandalar, a 1997 game (Link to wiki). But they tried to integrate some new aspects from MTGA (Magic Arena) and apparently those different codes don't work so well together...so much for the "no frustration today" part...I lost a match due to the game crashes, which resulted in a loss due to me timing out...asked for a reimbursement, usually they are generous with those, but I already got one for the last time my system crashed due to game errors.

Board games: My daughter really likes the board games I like, too. Do you remember Talisman board game? The original (Link to wiki)? 8 years ago I managed to buy one on ebay for 12 Euros in perfect, unplayeyd condition. It is a slog to play, but so much fun (if you like dying)! Also, we tried RoboRally, which seems a good way to train spatial perception. I have to take care not to frustrate her though...(see story above...could happen anytime she gets frustrated in a game).
 
Board games: My daughter really likes the board games I like, too. Do you remember Talisman board game? The original (Link to wiki)? 8 years ago I managed to buy one on ebay for 12 Euros in perfect, unplayeyd condition. It is a slog to play, but so much fun (if you like dying)! Also, we tried RoboRally, which seems a good way to train spatial perception. I have to take care not to frustrate her though...(see story above...could happen anytime she gets frustrated in a game).

I love Talisman, someone just got the rights to it again and have released a lot of the stuff that was out of print for a while in the transition. I don't mind the digital version as it introduces a ton and allows a lot of easy of use, but it isn't the same.
 
RL: Warning: much whining about the ordeals of parentship following.
So my older daughter turned 9 years on Christmas. She already shows signs of puberty - not only from a medical point of view, but also in mood swings and character. She also is very headstrong in general...so yesterday evening, we had a conflict which can only be described as a clash of wills (yes, I am stubborn, too - where do you think she got it from? ;-) It started with a trifle: she wanted to sleep next to my wife and her sister, so I offered her grudgingly she could do that while I slept in her room. It was already 10 p.m. by that time, because I read to her for one hour before going to bed because...well, we both like reading together (a fantasy novel from a German fantasy author - for those who are interested in it: "Die Bedrohung" from Wolfgang and Heike Hohlbein).
But then she went to bed, waking up both my wife and her younger sister in the process, taking the audiobook the younger one listened to while falling asleep and wanted me to change the audiobook against her younger sister's will which I denied her, because it was her sister's turn to choose...and besides, she had woken her sister up again (it was 10.30 p.m. in the meantime). This resulted in an escalation and shouting match where I told her I wouldn't tolerate her selfishness while she argued, that she needed to change the audiobook or she would get nightmares (it wasn't anything frightening - Bibi and Tina). Now you have to know, that my daughter is battling Tics and mild OCD for over a year now and started arguing, that her OCD required her to change the audiobook and if I didn't let her change it, I was mean, not understanding and not loving etc. I told her that this isn't the case and doubted, that it was the OCD requiring it, also explaining, that if it was OCD, we shouldn't give in to it. But I had the hunch, that she simply wanted to get her way (which she does a lot in the last few months). So things escalated even more, ending in my daughter trying to sleep on the floor of the bathroom and yelling that she only wanted to die.
That resulted in me shouting back that we have to consult one of my colleagues then and that I've had it up to here (I am a child and adolescent psychiatrist, for those who wonder - yeah, you can see my savvy from reading about my cool reactions to my daughter's outburst 🙄).
Although I perfectly knew, that she didn't do it intentionally and that her regulation of emotion is not as refined as an adult's, I couldn't for the world of it give in and end the argument on amicable terms. My wife managed to calm her and get her to sleep while I cooled down with reading/watching stream.
Today she is back to everything's ok while I still have an emotional and physical hangover and really don't know how to cope right now. It's so paradoxical, that from a theoretical point of view, I know exactly what is going on and I know exactly what I would recommend a parent in that case - but I seem unable to do it myself.

So today I went for a walk for 3 hours in the sun and tried not to do anyhing frustrating (Spoiler: Didn't succeed) and now I will probably go to snuggle up to my daughter and read the book mentioned above to her to get on common ground again. Cross your fingers it works!
TL;DR: Big argument with my daughter, still feeling bad about it.

D2: Well, managed to get my Orange Barb to the Black Marsh, but my system crashed while D2 was running in the background and now I don't know what part of the map I already had cleared and which parts I hadn't cleared...I will try to compromise.

OVG: Magic Online was the reason my system crashed. Look, I really love Magic and I especially love the Vintage Cube (3 Trophies so far in 12 drafts or so - yay me! :cool:), but the game keeps crashing and crashing. Seriously? Can't they fix this? It's like 20 game crashes in 10 dayys, 2 of them leading to serious system crashes. My laptop is not state of the art, but it is quite solid and neither Witcher I or II nor Divinity II Original Sin ever crashed my system...MTGO's code is probably shambles -the interface is still based on the game Shandalar, a 1997 game (Link to wiki). But they tried to integrate some new aspects from MTGA (Magic Arena) and apparently those different codes don't work so well together...so much for the "no frustration today" part...I lost a match due to the game crashes, which resulted in a loss due to me timing out...asked for a reimbursement, usually they are generous with those, but I already got one for the last time my system crashed due to game errors.

Board games: My daughter really likes the board games I like, too. Do you remember Talisman board game? The original (Link to wiki)? 8 years ago I managed to buy one on ebay for 12 Euros in perfect, unplayeyd condition. It is a slog to play, but so much fun (if you like dying)! Also, we tried RoboRally, which seems a good way to train spatial perception. I have to take care not to frustrate her though...(see story above...could happen anytime she gets frustrated in a game).
If you can keep your cool at all times with your own kids you need to be a robot of some kind. Also: 10.30 p.m is also not the best of times to have a good discussion, not for you and not for your daughter.

You are doing great! If you DO NOT feel bad about it afterwards, then you need to worry. (well you wouldn't worry but those around you should...)
 
Name of the author sounded familiar, so i looked it up and i actually read something by Hohlbein. Probably not the same book though.
 
RL: not much to say, some activism in preparation for the months to come, things started slowly yesterday, and will increase in the coming weeks - thus, less D2!

OVG: after my son in law brought back some deck building card game I forgot the name right now and we tried it, I fell back a bit into MTGA. The old average Golgari Explorer deck I had brought me back to Gold (which is nothing really), and lately I started to face the new strategies...oh well, so much changed!

D2: well, after my Hammerdin ding 95, I restarted a bit of LK (not much really), to find some more wealth, and try to get the Battle boots rack to deliver something better than green and with more than my 48MF WT. Other than that, catched up and succeeded in being here for the last Itherael's B.net session. Nothing to work more than eventual levels to get higher BO for Duriel and Act 3 planned for Saturday, so no pressure on that for the week. Cool!
Also, my Otange tournament character is still lvl 15... well, she needs a push.

D2 tool: my GoMule dumps cruncher is building up too (less than I hoped, but that's the MTGA effect). It will work on dedicated stashes, Runes, Pgems (including cubable flawless gems), charms, jewels, S/U are somehow functional - but were kinda straight to work on. Afterwards worked on a more generic item cruncher for bases/socketed/rares/runewords, but for those I may need to separate things too. At least the socketed runes/jools/gems are handled which is nice, but I may have to get a new approach for this last cruncher. Hope to have a sharable tool soon, so we can discover the limitations altogether!
 
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OT: Been a while since I’ve shared any food, really liked this fish special I made for lunch today; Brown butter-broiled (skin on) red fish served with a blackberry risotto and topped with balsamic marinated grilled red onions


other games: still playing Anima on IOS, really enjoying it. Nearing level 1000.
 
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A hole heap of snow everywhere, but I really like winter.

I currently have quite a lot more free time. However, I picked up Pillars of Eternity from the Steam winter sale, so that will/has restrict my D2 playing-time.

Got bored with 1.07 for now, so went back to 1.00. Hell difficulty is quite hard due to very dangerous bosses, and experience is not easy to come by (level 40 for Necro/Barb, Sorc is lower). On A2 now, on my way to RoF for some maggot blood.
 
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RL: Work has been getting to me. I work a an adolescent clinical mental health counselor (licensed). I've had a few hard cases that make me want to go all vigilante style on some people. I don't like seeing kids get hurt and the system fail them. So I thought about how to help and the answer was simple: Go be a prosecutor. Sure, no big deal, got one masters and let's switch up life at 38 into a new profession. (again) Zoomed my mom since we didn't talk on our weekly Thursday to me or my kids (got 4) and she was like, if your serious I'll pay. Well now. Life choices.

Other RL: Was all gun-ho about setting up in Columbus at Origins this year with 3 games I've been working on developing. Figured I'd get 25-50 copies of each and demo them and sell them. Then the above happened.

D2: Minor progress on a tournament character.

OVG: Started playing SWG:L again. Respected my one character to make a Jedi which I have never done.
 
RL: Busy with the little ones...had a good Christmas but every day is still quite a time crunch after work.

D2: Not lately though I would like to.

OVG: UO: Renaissance shard...something I can have macroing and sorta playing on the side while I am working at the computer.

Haven't been on lately...got a bit annoyed at the popup video ads on the forums here now, especially since I often check the forums from my mobile. Tried a supposedly ad blocking browser but they still pop up. Just wanted to say hi! So, 'Hi everyone! Hope you're staying healthy!'
 
RL: I've been having to work seven days a week to cover a team lead position at work, but managed to get someone else to cover for me today. Sometimes it sucks to be an important member of the team, but it does have its benefits. I've gone from being $10K in debt 2.5 years ago to buying my first ever brand new vehicle last Friday. I was just gonna get a new Chevrolet Malibu, but I decided to treat myself and bought a 2021 Chevy Camaro with a minor custom package. It's got a V6 engine with a 6-speed manaul transmission (I really wanted to drive a stick again), and an awesome custom cherry red color. I love it!

D2: Playtime was very limited last week, so I spent most of it farming NM Mephisto on an untwinked SC blizz sorc for part of an untwinked cookie-cutter sept I'll be using to rebuild my SC item wealth with (as well as future MFO/RFO participants). I got most of what she was after except for Vipermagi, so I went ahead and moved her forward to Hell.

Since I finally have a day off today, I'm catching up some of my tournament characters, but probably will hold off on posting progress on them until they finish Normal, rather than post updates after finishing each Act like I normally do, since the two I'm playing catchup with are in tournaments that haven't had updates from anyone else in a while.
 
Stay off the sidewalks, kids - Vildecor has a new car! (The important thing here is that you ask him what kind of car it is.)
 
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RL: Working around the house is getting to me. I'm really worn down and need a break, but don't have time, due to impending cold fronts. (insulation and attic needs finished)

D2: Maybe, put not certain.

OVG: Been playing a lot of Kards and found this hidden gem called Eternal return: Black Survival a moba style BR.
SWG: Legends has been put on hold a bit.
 
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