Aquamentis12

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.

I will usually battle the runner-up in predictions and/or poll twice as much as I battle the 3rd "ranked" faction. Obviously it doesn't always work. lol But it's a good policy, especially if the #2 in the Poll and/or predictions was CLOSE to #1. Oh well, we'll (hopefully) get them next time.

LOL Got a Sketch Sofa! Oh well. Predictions are never 100% accurate 100% of the time. XD Hopefully NEXT time!

Interesting! I didn't know that! Thanks! That would explain why they are not anchored in one place and why their shape, size and number changes over time. I've had some since I was in high school. lol Sometimes more annoying than others. And you're welcome! Just PM me here or NM on Neopets. My discord is down temporarily so I can't chat right now. Have a good weekend!

Thank goodness it's "something less"! XD And hey, cool you won't have to worry about glasses anymore! You know.... I've been noticing some little issues with my vision lately, I suppose my eyes are at the age where they start to go a little 'off'. lol I don't know if laser would work for me though because I have a cataract in my right eye. Nothing serious, I was born with it and it doesn't impact my vision at all from what I've been told. (Apparently during my first year of life or so, it flattened so was not an issue that needed attention). It's just a visible white speck when looked at. lol Even with the naked eye. But because of it being a cataract, I'm not sure if the laser procedure would cause some kind of reaction. I have to check on that someday. I also have, well... not sure what their OFFICIAL name is, but I call 'em "Floaters". little spots that seem to change shape, lessen, or increase over time. But they're not in a fixed-location in my field of vision, which makes me think it has something to do with some liquid involved, since it looks like they are floating/moving through my field of vision. It's... weird and a little distracting at times. lol Anyway, sorry. ^^; I haven't thought about that in awhile, but I did while replying. lol Anyway, GOOD luck with the surgery! If your recovery time coincides with the next faction selection I can take care of the poll that week.

Cool Duma! Thanks! Oh boy! I hope it's not super serious eye-surgery! Cataracts or less I hope! How long will you be offline after the eye-surgery? I've been trying to be more active here, maybe I can do the poll during your down-time?

Hey Duma! lol I didn't see you started a poll, great! I'm glad people voted! i just added mine (for the record), even though the fighting JUST began. Went with the Seekers this round! XD

YEAH! That user hasn't been around as much it seems. I wonder if someone else will start doing it? The polls here could lead to some interesting discussions among the members. lol In conjunction with the polls that were posted here so regularly, I also check out the predictions on this petpage. To help get a better idea regarding which factions to consider. http://www.neopets.com/~Oxbridge786 They aren't always right, but seem to be right more often than not. I hope this helps!

So in June of 2020, I replaced my ancient wacom bamboo tablet with this one... https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GE59RZI/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I really needed one WITH a screen. I'm more of a traditional media person when it comes to sketching, but sketchbooks ain't cheap, especially since the ones I've been getting for almost 20 years have been discontinued! So, enough back-story. I run a PC with Windows 10 Pro, got plenty of RAM. It used to work just fine, then I went awhile without using it, until several months ago. Since I like to study cartoons, anime, youtube vids, and have purchased a few lessons from Aaron Blaise's website. I wanted to get a second monitor. So, I did, but had to get an adapter (that has a built in program to get it to work properly for USB 3 to HDMI). Turns out I only had 1 HDMI port and a DVI port which I THOUGHT was HDMI when I bought this monitor... Whoops! So, with the tablet on I have 3 monitors. At first, things ran VERY smoothly! The I started having issues with the pen/stylus of the tablet was behaving ODDLY. If I placed the tip on one area and moved it around. It was like the stylus was making contact at two DIFFERENT points simultaneously! Another oddity, is that as I moved the stylus around, the distance between the 2-contact points seemed to change, (when drawing) even though I only have 1 stylus. The distance ranged anywhere from 1cm to about 4 inches on the tablet's monitor. ALSO, I was able to calibrate things to get it back in sync a couple of times. Though I did have some brief, additional trouble with calibration after I updated the tablet's driver. Which did finally settle down for a while. But, after the last time it "freaked". I wasn't able to. I was actually USING it at the time it lost calibration. I was using Clip Studio Paint, trying to get a contest entry done for their illustration contest. Didn't make it, even though I had switched to just using my mouse. Still had lines to draw and modify. Oh well! Anyway, has anyone had this kind of experience before? If so, was there a solution or did you have to replace your art tablet? I'm REALLY hoping I don't have to replace this... It's not even a full 2 years old yet! It's been a couple of weeks since I last tried it. I guess I'm just concerned it won't recalibrate again and I'll have to replace it.... The confirmation of that would really stink! Especially since i can't afford to replace it right now. Anyway, thanks in advance for whatever advice you guys can give! If you've any questions, I'll do my best to answer them!

As it was JUST what would've been my dad's 75th bday (4/29), I was listening to him... lol As usual. Got this CD from his old college roommate. Who happened to come across a reel-to-reel recording he had done of Dad sometime in the mid-70s. For Christmas (2020), this old friend of Dad's had it turned into an Audio CD and sent a copy to my sister, me, and our mom. VERY nice of him! Using the freeware Audacity, I managed to clean-up the audio a little. (There were some "crinkle" sounds from the tape on the old reel). As well as boost the audio volume a bit. Used one of Dad's old professional photos from back then for the "video", and uploaded them to youtube in order. Since this is for the family, not just myself or random people who find it. I left up all the extra dialog and such between songs on each track. It's good to hear his voice, even if his singing style changed a LOT between when this was recorded, and when I was a little kid in the 80s and would listen to him practice THESE and other songs. Anyway, enjoy the covers! If you go to the actual youtube pages.. The title, composer, and lyrics (as Dad sang them) for EACH song are in the description. Being a Folk musician, the lyrics of Folk songs are commonly slightly altered by whomever sings them. Please enjoy!

Ah ok, thanks man! I'm still trying to decide between Eventide and the Spring petpet. lol