Aquamentis12

I think sign-ups end during the first week of play/first week of June. I might be wrong on that. But yeah, it stinks when IRL takes over. I only got... I think 92 games in this year. Won 'em all, but I really wanted to get further than rank 4! My staff Cup score should at least be respectable. My score with that is usually around or over 32,000 points. As for the AC prizes, I doubt it, but I hope I have JUST enough points for this year's AC stamp. Doubtful, but one can hope. Good luck with the AC next year alola9! If you don't mind me asking, do you know which team you'll sign up with? Just wondering. I always go with Maraqua. For better or worse. lol

Asked at the guild I'm in and the only respondent wanted to try The Awakened, so that's what we're going with. Good luck everyone.

Hmmmm.... I have no love for the Brute Squad's boons. The Awakened would at least be a shot at some better boons. Even though the Brute's prediction % is more than double that of The Awakened....tough call.

@Musical_Shoyru, good to read your post! Very rational! I don't usually wade (no pun intended) into these mires, and like Musical_Shoyru, I have NO desire to debate my views. (Already done that plenty over the previous months elsewhere). So, I will simply state and explain them, and put anything I feel might be "sensitive" behind spoiler tags. I wish I could be as concise and less passionate as she was with her post. Unfortunately, I believe so strongly in speaking out for the weak and innocent that I can go long at the keyboard and my passion can become fiery. So, please bear with me. I'm not trying to offend anyone here. ^^; Just wanting to get my thoughts out. First off Angelo, congrats! I hope that you and your fiance have a fine and long life together! But the thing is Angelo, when Roe won out over Wade in 1973, Abortion was supposed to be 3 things. 1) Safe 2) Legal 3) Rare. It's been 49 years, and over 74,000,000 abortions have happened in the USA since then. I would HARDLY call that "Rare". Also, the abortion facilities don't need hospital level sanitation in the rooms where the abortions are actually done, so nix "Safe" too. Texas TRIED to impose that in their state, but that was overturned for whatever unfathomable reason. Having strict sanitary conditions in a room where an internal procedure like that is done, should be sanitary imho. I was SHOCKED to learn they weren't required to do that! So, a little history first. The biggest abortion organization in the US, Planned Parenthood, the founder, one Margaret Sanger, was an avowed racist who said that 'if they can't obliterate the non-whites, then they should keep their numbers in check'. Her answer, Planned Parenthood and Abortion. She even spoke at KKK rallies! This is why so many of the early Planned Parenthood "clinics" were in urban and metro areas, where there were lots of non-whites who were poor and had too many people in their families and not enough money to afford bigger homes in better neighborhoods. Granted, segregation was also going on when Margaret Sanger was still around. I didn't even know what Planned Parenthood DID until the mid-90s, when one of the LAST protests (with graphic signs) against abortion marched by where I grew up as a kid. I say "last", because shortly there-after pro-life protestors were BANNED from carrying signs that show what these protestor-signs showed. Unborn babies before birth, as well as photos of aborted babies. Talk about stomach turning. (The latter, not the former). Back then, partial-birth abortion was still legal. A barbaric practice in which the womb was injected with Another argument FOR Planned Parenthood has been that they PROVIDE mammograms, a lie. In or around 2014, the president of Planned Parenthood testified before the Senate and was asked about that. She said that to the best of her knowledge, not a single PP facility in the USA PROVIDES mammograms, they do refer women to clinics where they can get them, but they do not provide them themselves. I firmly believe a woman has the right to decide what goes INTO her body. But, after she becomes host to a growing child, I believe that child has the right to life. After all, the US Constitution DOES say "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". Every pro-life person I've spoken too, and even a few who are pro-choice. Mainly women, have agreed with that idea. Guys, should REALLY be prepared. I mean, "protection". Preferably both should be using it. Or, as Queen Hatshepset offered, a vasectomy is another possibility. They can be undone if you ever decide you want kids. It would be a LOT easier an safer for you to have that done, than for your fiance having her "tubes tied". Not personally a fan of shots and stuff, but for someone I loved? I could probably be talked into it. Guys, if you're with a lady, and you don't have "protection", and she is uncomfortable in going further because of that, or for ANY reason for that matter, BACK OFF! Accept how she feels and just back off! Trying to convince her otherwise is not respecting her perspective and fears at that moment in time! There's an old saying, some might consider it harsh, but there are MANY variations of sayings with the same meaning. "You've made your bed, now lay in it." Basically meaning of course, that your actions have brought up consequences and you need to face them. Just like "If you do the crime, you do the time." Everything action has consequences, whether good or bad to that person's perspective. Abortion, imho, is a way of shirking that responsibility, by trying to delude people into thinking that until a baby takes it's first breath, it's not really alive. Unscientific hogwash. Of course it's alive! It can react to external stimuli, it can feel pain, it has a detectable heartbeat before the first tri-mester is even up. Oh yeah, even if it's not fully formed yet, it IS clearly alive. Even the plaintiff (Roe) in Roe vs Wade, has for about 20 years now, regretted her winning that landmark battle! She has been to and spoken at so many of the March for Life marches over the years! She said she brought suit to argue for abortion because medical technology was not good enough to save every mother who had a complicated pregnancy. When I heard her speak on TV, she would say that things had changed since the 70s, and that now the vast majority of cases with complicated pregnancies that BOTH mother-to-be AND child could be saved! And that was about 15 years ago I heard her say that! Also, this ruling does NOT completely ban abortions across the nation. It means that the States get to decide based on their people's votes. In other words, Democracy! People vote who people who will carry out their views. Pro-Life, pro-choice, or somewhere in-between. Anyone truly concerned about getting an abortion, can also "vote with their feet" as the saying goes. Move to a state that has abortion "clinics" for whatever level of reasoning suits your conscience. I believe Colorado just passed a law allowing it up to and during LABOR that the woman can decide to abort the pregnancy. Basically, infanticide since the baby's gotta come out NO MATTER WHAT. Whether it's alive or dead. That makes no sense to me, especially on a humanitarian level. Meanwhile, in Arizona, the passed some limitations on Abortions, save for a few circumstances. As the state-house was being invaded by an angry mob of pro-choicers. They needed smoke bombs to clear them out and protect the state legislature! Mobs of pro-choicers have been rioting (similarly to the Summer of 2020), over this decision destroying property, hurting people, even those who might AGREE with them about Roe. During all the years that The March For Life was going on, for almost 50 years too, I've NEVER heard of any of those pro-lifers doing anything violent, torching buildings, hurting people, etc. during their rallies. With the way these pro-choicers (not all, just the rioting mobs and those egging them on) are acting, you'd think they were part of some sort of Death-cult or something. Using violence and intimidation tactics instead of trying to speak their perspectives clearly and rationally. And certainly not trying to understand the other side's perspective either. I've done a LOT of pondering on this since I was as teenager. I DON'T HATE people who've had abortions. That had to be an incredibly HARD decision to make. I DO know people who HAVE HAD abortions. The pain, the tears, the sadness when they talk about it.... Is beyond palpable. That's why I get so passionate about this. Short-term, it may seem like a solution, but long-term, it stains your heart with guilt and good people shouldn't suffer, even if they do sometimes make horrible mistakes as MANY people do, have and will. Oh yeah, and that line some politicians are saying about "the courts are coming for your birth control/contraceptives next!", that line? Utter BULLPLOP! Not at all true! This isn't a theocracy after all. So there we go. Some history, some of my thoughts and how I arrived at them. Etc. I know I got a bit impassioned here. But when it comes to protecting innocent life? Yeah, I'm gonna stand up for this. There are no lives more innocent and defenseless than these! And they SHOULD be protected if at all possible, imho. Sorry this got long, all. I've seen so much and I held back on a LOT because I knew this would get long, just not quite THIS long. All life should be considered precious. Especially those innocent of any wrong-doing, as babies are. Later! Happy debating.

Nah, it's definitely NOT just you. I posted my thoughts on a NUMBER of differences between Flash and HTML5 versions here, in my Maraqua support topic. I used to average roughly 12.5 points per game in the last couple Flash ACs. I could score 17 points in the Flash version, but in this one, this year my best is 12 goals so far, got it twice tonight. Last year my best was 14 goals. Has that 1 time, and 13 goals 9 times in 224 games. I forgot I was screenshotting ALL my scores last year. This year I went back to what I did during the Flash ACs, only scores of 10+ get screenshots. LOL Whoops! XD Anyway, for a list of changes vs the Flash version I'm not used to yet, check the thread I'm linking to. Not EVERYTHING is there, I forgot about the invisible snow yooyu from last year, but tbh, now that I remember it, it wasn't THAT big of a deal because there's ALWAYS the shadow. Also, the BEST power up in the HTML5 version, I would say is the Goal Extender. The goalie can EASILY catch a yooyu fired from the Growth power-up. The wing's speed is always useful, but not as useful with the goalie's AI improved. Also, the freezing power-up only seems to work maybe half the times I get it. Just some additional thoughts I've had not in my posted topic.

Today I am listening to the sounds of NEAR-silence. lol Just the fans going and my PC Tower whirring on this hot near-Summer day.

It really depends on how much you can play. The more YYB wins or support game scores that qualify, the better your personal ranking and the more you win, the better your team does in the standings. I JUST got to rank 2. I usually get somewhere between Rank 8-14 in the AC. Got to All-star ONCE among the ACs I've participated in, I don't even remember what the requirements were that year, other than I KNOW I missed out on cashing in my points at the Prize shop. lol Brutal, I know. I wish TNT would give a specific date when the prize shop closes. Ah well. As far as the Staff tourney goes. I did ok this time on Week 1. Total score for week 1 for me was 9423. Not too shabby imho. I usually base my week 1 team of my team(s) from the previous AC. I keep a screenshot record for reference. Though with staff changes, some have to change and then it's a guess.

I managed to get in a game of YYB before midnight NST to rank up. Didn't get a window expiration error message. Perhaps, are you looking at other windows/tabs at some point between starting a game and sending the score? That might have something to do with it. I mean, if you have the Fruit Machine spinning, or a wheel spinning and you go to another tab, it pauses until you return to that tab. That's the only thing I can think of to suggest without having experienced the error you are talking about.

Hey Duma! No worries. I hope your sick kitty will make a quick recovery! I'm leaning toward The Sway, since I like their boons. But I haven't signed on yet. Oxbridge seems to give them an advantage as well. Of course that doesn't mean they'll win. With each faction having 1 vote so far on the poll so far, I gotta agree with you. It will most likely be a difficult round for any faction to win!

Remember you must win 10 battles to win the boons if your selected faction wins. Here is the link to Oxbridge786's prediction for this round. http://www.neopets.com/~Oxbridge786

LOL A semi-obligatory Team Maraqua thread! As usual, I'm once again playing for Maraqua. It's a bit ODD not seeing our Forward closer to the top of the Top Scorers rankings, but I suppose every neopet has their off-years. I have a few thoughts on the current version of Yooyuball. I'm not sold on the physics of this HTML5 friendly version of the game. While the change in timing seems to prevent high scores of 13+ goals that I usually enjoyed in the years prior to the end of Flash, (So much for my dream of hitting 18 goals in one game one day), the games DO seem to go faster. They kept the automatic time-shaving of 8 seconds off the clock it seems, after each goal. But now the game clock begins to countdown before you can even move toward the yooyu at the beginning of each round. The A.I. goalies SEEM to be smarter, though my goalie scored SEVERAL times on his own, in OUR net, before I could even start to control him. That's something that's gotta be hopefully one-day fixed! The stealing is okish, though hurling the yooyu at full charge seems to lack consistency in visual speed. And even with the Enlarging Power-up and Speed-up Power-ups together, with a Fire Yooyu, the opposing team Goalie can still pluck it out of the air pretty easily. Seems different from the old days. Ah well, I did 30 games in under 2 hours, that's a MUCH faster rate than the flash-version. Which means I should be able to at least get more games in. My scores are lower than I would've liked. Only had about 7 games of 10 or more goals, my first game being 11, so I had hopes for more 10+ games. lol Oh well, most of my games were 7-9 goals with a few lower due to Darigan Yooyus. TBH I preferred the last Flash version for Yooyu selection too. Normal Yooyu - Random Special Yooyu - Normal Yooyu - Random Special Yooyu - etc. At least you couldn't get a darigan as the first yooyu so you'd have a chance to get the first point before the risk of getting a darigan. This is more like the original YYB game when the AC first started, where it could be ANY yooyu for ANY round. Anyway, at least there aren't any major graphics glitches, so far. Though if they fix the ricochet physics a little, I'd be happy with the game. lol Go Maraqua!

Unfortunately, the Neoboards thread has been "poofed" and no longer exists. Could someone post the work-arounds who might recall them? I'm getting a late start on the AC this year and I haven't played a single game of YYB yet. :-\ Thanks in advance!

I'd like to be able to get the stamp at least this year. I'm starting off late though, had some technical issues and I haven't even gotten 1 game in yet this AC. Since it's Sunday, I guess I'll have to start tomorrow. Go Maraqua!

Welcome to TDN Forums Hana! It's rare I see another Wisconsinite here. Very cool! If you need help with battling or coming up with a way to battle on a budget, I can usually help people there. "Budget Battling" on Neopets is a specialty of mine. lol It's cool that you like to draw, if you'd like to share any of your work here. We have a place for that. Feel free to create your own topic here to link to your artistic endeavors. https://tdnforums.com/forum/22-the-art-gallery/ I hope you have fun here and happy gaming on Neopets.

Someone shared the movie poster to The Chipmunk Adventure on a FB group I'm in that is dedicated to animation, and that brought up all sorts of nostalgic memories. It was a great animated flick, and because of the failure of Disney's The Black Cauldron at the box office in 1985, several Disney animators were laid off from Disney, and were able to be hired to work on it. Some pretty legendary ones according to the post including; Glen Keane, Dan Haskett, and Dave Pruiksma. I went looking for some of the songs from the movie, and of course, they were on youtube. So I thought I would post them. Something mostly light and fun, meant as a balm with so much sadness and pain in the world . In no actual order... here are the ones I found. Boys/Girls of Rock n' Roll My Mother Wooly Bully Gettin' Lucky We're Off To See The World Thought I'd start with one of my favorites and end with one of the more inspirational. There are also a couple of IRL videos on youtube of people, adults, re-enacting ther Boys/Girls of Rock n' Roll videos. I've seen 2. 1 from 2010 and 1 from 2018, both have good and less-good points to how they chose to dress and re-enact the scenes from the movie. But neither are what I would call cringe-worthy. More, creative, like improv, but not in the comedic sense. Regarding the last song I listed, I'm not big on travel, but when I was little and I heard "We're Off to See the World" play in the movie? I used to think about what world travel would've been like, to visit so many different lands and experience their cultures, art, music, and histories. There's so much out there to see. And so much being lost almost daily in various places around the world. In deference to the last post/share by @Yaroslav Fadeev, right now it's Ukraine that is losing their lands, homes, historical places, buildings and so much more right now. I blame the leadership of Russia for this, and those who follow the orders of those men. Last I heard, there were well over 20,000 Russian civilians imprisoned for protesting the unjust war against Ukraine. (Forgive me if mentioning this is in violation of the rules. Since he shared a serious music video, and I am sharing what basically amounts to brain-fluff, I wanted to touch on that Ukraine is losing so much of itself thanks to current events in connection to my comment on the last song-vid I linked to.)

That's pretty awesome to learn the timeline! But, wow, vision at 120%! That's AMAZING! I've heard it can be better than 20/20, but I haven't heard much on eye-procedures in a very long time. But 120% is really awesome! I hope your's gets/stays NICE and highly accurate! ^_ LOL Yes! LOVED that punchline! I joined The Seekers as well, just updated the poll to reflect that. XD

Ah ok! Cool there is no knife coming down at least! I guess that's more cataract surgery from what I've heard, how it was done. Not sure about now. Wow! lol Yeah, SOOOOOO many drops would be horrible for me. (That and the protective lens which I'm assuming is like a contact lens) lol But it sounds like you're handling/handled them like a champ! How long before you know the level of success with your vision correction? Or is 20/20 or better guaranteed with this procedure? Cool! Seekers do look like the hands-down favorites! Which is great because I like their boons compared to the other factions this round.

GREAT!!! I'm so happy for you Duma! For me, the childhood fear would be seeing the knife or whatever coming at my eye. I've never had anything done to my eyes, but that is kind of a nightmare scenario that has stuck with me since I was little. LOL I hope you didn't see anything with the procedure you had done! I mean DURING of course! lol I am ecstatic that things seem like they went well! So awesome you didn't even need to touch your painkiller meds! ^__^ I'm DEFINITELY leaning toward The Seekers, but I'll check poll progress, if any, again tomorrow. Let the couple of folks left in my guild know where the poll is. But yeah, I'm probably going to go with The Seekers since both the poll here and Oxbridge both lean that way.

Looks like the Seekers are going strong so far! Just got home (visited Mom out of town for my bday (today)), and was checking in to see if you were able to do the poll Duma. Literally JUST got my PC turned on. lol To echo Granny, How'd things go Duma? Well, I'm hoping! ;D

Yeah, I like YYB, I just can't play that much every blasted day. Cheaters just make it worse for everyone who plays fairly.

Granny, there are humans who are members of All-Star guilds that often PICK a team and work hard to boost that team to victory. That's within the rules. There have been rumors of cheater guilds too though. I don't know anything about them other than rumors I see here. I don't typically frequent the Neoboards much but I'm sure TNT quashes any topics about them pretty quickly. I can try to imagine what they do. I don't know if you can bot the games, (have a program play them for you), but I can imagine other ways to kind of stack the deck without cheating at the games. Probably technically legal, but very bad sportsmanship. Since I don't know, I won't post what I'm wondering about anywhere. I don't believe anyone here would use the tactics, but better safe than sorry. Right? And if what I'm imagining might be new, I don't wanna put any ideas out there. It's hard enough to play the game enough to make rank-points (For me at least), without worrying about other players and what they are doing. I mean, I can score plenty of goals usually. But, the goal totals don't count towards rank-points, sadly. If they did, I might make All-Star... I somehow fluked into All-Star one year. lol I forget what AC that was though. lol It just, seems sad/pathetic to me. Cheating, especially in a free-game like Neo in general. I mean I used to have a LOT of trouble playing YYB. Now I can usually get a score of 17 at least 1 time per AC. If I'm lucky, a few 16s too! Scores only help your team though, not your rank or prize-shop points. I don't get to play as much as I would like, frankly, it gets more than a bit tedious. Playing a bunch of games of YYB every day. Sundays were the one day I often would have a little extra TIME to do some more games, if I felt like it. To improve my personal rank. Which is why I'm still frustrated that TNT took that away from us. Anyway, just go with your team and do your best. It's all we can really do. We don't know what team the TOP AC guilds will go with, so we can just try our best for the team we choose.

C'mon Maraqua! For my 12th AC the "signing bonus" I got was a Plushie Yooyu. lol Not bad! I doubt it'll happen, but I WISH they'd let us "pad" our personal stats on Sundays! It USED to be that way against the practice team. Otherwise, there's really no incentive to play on the "days off" from the actual competition. Ok, 3k from score-sends, but that's hardly anything to get excited about. *sigh* I wish they'd give a SPECIFIC date when the previous year's prize shop closes. I went looking on the 21st, and the shop was already closed. Ah well, didn't have a LOT of points from last year, but still. Would've been nice to spend the couple thou I had.

LOL Granny, had to laugh about the clamps! Maybe they should've tried like a temporary version of Super Glue? lol j/k The laser thing, because of the visible cataract I was born with. That's like, I guess an air-pocket in there, if I recall how it was described to me at whenever my last eye-exam was. Well, if the laser is HOT, I'm concerned that would heat up whatever air might be int hat pocket. And you know what happens to heated air in a small bubble, like a balloon, it bursts. So... I really need to talk to an eye-doctor about that. It's a VERY OLD, almost a childhood fear of mine. I just haven't had the time, incentive, nor the funds at the ready for a full eye exam. I don't even know how much one would cost anymore. lol That being said, I would HATE getting my pupils dilated. I heard they can use puffs of air now, which DOES sound better than eye-drops. But still! lol Boy, I hope this talk doesn't get Duma worried. I mean, you're talking experience, and I'm talking childhood fears. @Duma, don't worry, ok? We're just talking *euphemism* here. I'm sure your doc knows what they are doing and YOU WILL BE FINE! Alright? You'll have friends praying and hoping you will be well too! Just follow the doc's instructions, stay calm, do your post-op treatment, which I'm assuming is eyedrops and no screens, and YOU WILL NEVER NEED GLASSES AGAIN! Just keep that in-mind, NO MORE GLASSES! No more getting fitted, no more worrying about losing or breaking them. No more need for adjustments to the lens strength or new frames! You've GOT THIS, Duma! So BEST OF LUCK next week! We'll be rooting for you! EDIT: I decided to join The Sway! Just added my vote to the tally too!

Cool! If for some reason I don't see a poll from you when the next faction selection begins, I'll assume your eyes need a bit more time to heal and will do the poll if you haven't already. Best of luck with the surgery!!! I'll be hoping and praying for MAJOR success!! Granny, I think it was lianakos who was doing the polls. Not a staffer, just a member who had pretty faithfully been doing it since the beginning, I think. I don't know why they vanished, but I'm grateful they kept it up as long as they did. Awwww man! I'm sorry to learn of the troubles you and your sister have had with your vision. I was born with a cataract in the center of my right pupil. It's still there, still visible to the naked eye. It... I think they said it flattened out when I was still a baby, so it doesn't actually bother my vision, but I have to wonder about laser surgery, if that might cause some issues... Anyway, I'm sure I have cataracts that are non-visible to my naked eye. Because if I look at a street-light/lamp I can see a corona around it with either eye. They (the corona) look cool, but I've heard that that means there are some cataracts forming. *sigh* The thought of anything messing with my eyes, like surgery, is absolutely TERRIFYING. Especially if I could SEE the device. It would be so hard to not move my eye(s) or blink.... Which would of course, royally screw up the operation. Which would be much worse than having it at all, at least for right now. Plus I've ALWAYS hated and been super sensitive to eyedrops. >_< MORESO since they got messed with in a hotel pool. I went swimming in it during a family vacation when I was about 8. Apparently, the chlorine smell was fairly strong and since then I can't even get TAP-Water in my eyes without pain. One would think that over 3 decades later my eyes would've recovered from that, but nope!

Hey Duma! How'd things go with the eyes? Thanks for posting the poll! Was just coming here in case I needed to do it instead. Hmmm.... I'm leaning toward The Sway since I like their boons the best, but I'll wait a little, see how others vote.