2021 Wallboard

[Vandiablo]

Hey folks,

Just got my account reconnected. I've been looking at who has still been coming to this board lately. If you drop in for an annual visit, it'd be great to have a Reply from you!

These are the people I see that posted to this board in 2020:

Bolty,DeeBye,eppie,FireIceTalon,Ghastmaster,harveybravo97,
kandrathe,Kevin(Gnollguy),LavCat,LennyLen,Lissa,MonTy,
Quark,Ruvanal,Selby,Spore,Taem,Tal

So it's been about 8 years or so for me. Ten years since my last post (except one a few minutes ago). My kids are almost grown! I went entire years without playing Diablo! I went to Mars! no, wait, those were just pictures I saw.

How did I miss the Diablo recurrence of 2019?? The past couple weeks I've been playing the "Diablo in your browser" D1, and only the shareware version. My warrior is limited to visiting dlevels 1 and 2, no bosses or quests; he is level 12 and it's getting hard to get exp pts. I'd have to kill thousands of Devil Kin and Burning Dead to make it to 14.

(By the way, LL is currently under attack, by a bot I assume, it's made about 2000 accounts in the past week. I hope Bolty can fix things before anything worse happens.)

-Van

Other members who visited LurkerLounge.com in 2020:
(hyphen)Magi,aleeque,Armin,ArthurDent,AssA,Belix,Berre,bonemage,Brimstone,Chadvoluted,
Chesspiece_face,Clannad,Concillian,concre+e,Doll,Drasca,edv,Ell_man,Emerge,ergates,
EvilTeletubby,Exceed,Frag,gekko,godfeast,Ifd,ima_nerd,
Jarulf,Jester,keksnase,LemmingofGlory,LiquidDamage,lovihka,Luna,lyyn,Macklott,
MentatAssassin,mewmew,mommie,MordorXP,Munkay,Noktis,Obi2Kenobi,Phoenix7786,Predator,qndel,qualakon,quixotic-cynic,Ravage,Risacu,Roland,RTM,Rudra,Sabra,ShadowHM,SmurfThat,Sir_Die_alot,Sir Krist, swirly,Taelas,
thenryb,TheWesson,Tuftears,Tyderian,Volker_Kaudah,vor_lord,Zamal,Zarathustra,Zippyy

[eppie]

Hey folks,

Just got my account reconnected. I've been looking at who has still been coming to this board lately. If you drop in for an annual visit, it'd be great to have a Reply from you!

Hi!
Yes it has been a long time. I regularly check in to see of someone started a TRump thread already which I then could comment on but I didn't feel like starting one myself.
My kids are into games now....but mainly Switch and PS4 stuff but also minecraft. My wife decided to buy a swith for herself as well and we got Diablo 3 with it. Up till now it is a bit boring (only pressing the hit button and no chance of losing more than 20% of my total health bar). I should figure out how the skills work maybe.
I have played fortnite quite a bit (often with the kids) but as with most games I'm not very good at it.


For the rest still fine.....and the internet is still here.....who whould have expected that.

[Bolty]

(By the way, LL is currently under attack, by a bot I assume, it's made about 2000 accounts in the past week. I hope Bolty can fix things before anything worse happens.)

2,908 accounts, to be precise, on top the usual bot activity. Thankfully, this bot surge was easily filterable; I've banned all the accounts and set up a block for them going forward.

This kind of thing happens a lot. Thanks for the heads-up though, if the botnet decided to spam the board it would have made an interesting few hours.

[Selby]

It's always cool to see messages from long-time posters. Even if I have nothing to contribute I still check in occasionally because you just never know!

Thinking about the posters who have passed on is quite sad though. It's been 24 years of Diablo activity in one form or another for me.

[Vandiablo]

Hey eppie and Selby, good to hear your voices ... hmm, I've forgotten how to do a smilie ... oh well

I plan to be back on bnet for D2R. As I said, I've been doing some solo D1 lately. What I miss about D1 when in D2 is the stuff -- if you have a good item in D1 you know it. In D2, it's like well this item is kinda interesting, not sure if I should keep it, maybe I could give it to my one-eyed bowling druid or fist-only barb. Yeah, more complex, great, but it really eats up the time for an indecisive hoarder. Hold on while I get my mule...

Oh, the other thing was the shrines! Oh the joy at finding Enchanted and Hidden, and to a lesser extent the Abandoned, Eerie, Quiet, and, uh, the other one. Shrines in D2 were a disappointment.

Hopefully this D2R will enable me to do some meeting up, which I haven't done in many years (when Pete was with us ... I actually talked on the phone with -Magi- trying to get the game set up!)

[Taem]

Hey eppie and Selby, good to hear your voices  ... hmm, I've forgotten how to do a smilie ... oh well

I plan to be back on bnet for D2R. As I said, I've been doing some solo D1 lately. What I miss about D1 when in D2 is the stuff -- if you have a good item in D1 you know it. In D2, it's like well this item is kinda interesting, not sure if I should keep it, maybe I could give it to my one-eyed bowling druid or fist-only barb. Yeah, more complex, great, but it really eats up the time for an indecisive hoarder. Hold on while I get my mule...

Oh, the other thing was the shrines! Oh the joy at finding Enchanted and Hidden, and to a lesser extent the Abandoned, Eerie, Quiet, and, uh, the other one. Shrines in D2 were a disappointment.

Hopefully this D2R will enable me to do some meeting up, which I haven't done in many years (when Pete was with us ... I actually talked on the phone with -Magi- trying to get the game set up!)

IMO, you are wasting your time with D2... it's nothing but retroactive nostalgia at this point. What you should really try is Median XL. Yes, it is a MOD for Diablo 2, but it's more like an entire and complete game overhaul, from skills to monsters to graphics to end-game... that last part is so important because Diablo 2 ultimately was about leveling your toon as quickly as possible then grinding levels in cows or Baal runs. MXL on the other hand is about defeating unique ubers which scale in difficulty. Man, the mod is so freaking good, it should be a separate game TBH. It also runs in higher resolution and has many QoL features built in. Anyway, I highly suggest you give it a shot since you have D2 installed:

https://www.median-xl.com/

[DeeBye]

My kids are almost grown!

My son somehow managed to level himself up to 18 years old last September.  I suspect he was using a trainer.

I've been casually playing retail wow, and looking forward to D2R.  I jump in to D3 every now and then, but it never holds my attention for very long.

[Vandiablo]

I think I figured to wait for a couple more ppl to post and then do one reply, and then got caught up in RL and never got back to it, sorry!

Taem, thanks for the recommendation. I think just before I decided which game or mod to play, I again asked myself if I really wanted to spend all those hours, so I never did, not even D2R which I said I was going to.

DeeBye - and now my sons have turned 18 too. Not much longer until it's just me and the wife just sitting here. Scary. I think we need to get a dog.

My three kids and I actually played D&D for a while. One of my sons has now dismissed it as kid/nerd activity and is no longer interested in it. When we are all together now we just play cards, like Tripoley. (Related to Michigan Rummy. There is a third name for it that I can't remember.) I would like to start up some Original D&D to show them what is was like in the earlier days. My "Original" includes Grayhawk and Blackmoor, by the way.

-V

[Lissa]

I think I figured to wait for a couple more ppl to post and then do one reply, and then got caught up in RL and never got back to it, sorry!

Taem, thanks for the recommendation. I think just before I decided which game or mod to play, I again asked myself if I really wanted to spend all those hours, so I never did, not even D2R which I said I was going to.

DeeBye - and now my sons have turned 18 too. Not much longer until it's just me and the wife just sitting here. Scary. I think we need to get a dog.

My three kids and I actually played D&D for a while. One of my sons has now dismissed it as kid/nerd activity and is no longer interested in it. When we are all together now we just play cards, like Tripoley. (Related to Michigan Rummy. There is a third name for it that I can't remember.) I would like to start up some Original D&D to show them what is was like in the earlier days. My "Original" includes Grayhawk and Blackmoor, by the way.

-V

Get a cat, then you'll feel like you still have the kids in the house as the cat ignores you and only comes when it wants attention or needs something...  

[Vandiablo]

Get a cat, then you'll feel like you still have the kids in the house as the cat ignores you and only comes when it wants attention or needs something...  

Got one already. Every day he wants you to get up, wants 1st breakfast, wants to go out, wants to come in, wants 2nd breakfast, wants to go out, wants to come in, wants crunchies, wants to go out, wants to come in, wants 1st dinner, wants to go out, wants to come in, wants 2nd dinner, wants to go out, wants to come in, wants crunchies, wants to go out, wants to come in, wants you to stay still dammit while he's lying up against you on the couch, wants out at midnight, wants in at 2am, wants a flat space on the bed, wants out at 430 am, wants in at 6am, then wants to do it all over again.

He also wants at least two shoulder rubs a day, but it's random where they occur in the above sequence.

(Each meal has two sessions of canned food because if he has a whole can, he throws up. Crunchies is the dry food he has after that.)

-V

[Lissa]

Get a cat, then you'll feel like you still have the kids in the house as the cat ignores you and only comes when it wants attention or needs something...  

Got one already. Every day he wants you to get up, wants 1st breakfast, wants to go out, wants to come in, wants 2nd breakfast, wants to go out, wants to come in, wants crunchies, wants to go out, wants to come in, wants 1st dinner, wants to go out, wants to come in, wants 2nd dinner, wants to go out, wants to come in, wants crunchies, wants to go out, wants to come in, wants you to stay still dammit while he's lying up against you on the couch, wants out at midnight, wants in at 2am, wants a flat space on the bed, wants out at 430 am, wants in at 6am, then wants to do it all over again.

He also wants at least two shoulder rubs a day, but it's random where they occur in the above sequence.

(Each meal has two sessions of canned food because if he has a whole can, he throws up. Crunchies is the dry food he has after that.)

-V

Sounds like you have a kid still then...  

[Vandiablo]

Get a cat, then you'll feel like you still have the kids in the house as the cat ignores you and only comes when it wants attention or needs something...  

Got one already. Every day he wants you to get up, wants 1st breakfast, wants to go out, wants to come in, wants 2nd breakfast, wants to go out, wants to come in, wants crunchies, wants to go out, wants to come in, wants 1st dinner, wants to go out, wants to come in, wants 2nd dinner, wants to go out, wants to come in, wants crunchies, wants to go out, wants to come in, wants you to stay still dammit while he's lying up against you on the couch, wants out at midnight, wants in at 2am, wants a flat space on the bed, wants out at 430 am, wants in at 6am, then wants to do it all over again.

He also wants at least two shoulder rubs a day, but it's random where they occur in the above sequence.

(Each meal has two sessions of canned food because if he has a whole can, he throws up. Crunchies is the dry food he has after that.)

-V

Sounds like you have a kid still then...  

This saddens me. Just a little over four months after I wrote that, he died suddenly and unexpectedly. It's been six months now and I still miss him a lot. He was over 10, so he lived long enough to not be considered an early loss, but we could have had him a few more years. The positives are that he didn't suffer and we never had to decide when to put him down. Over the years, our previous three cats all lived over 10 but they all developed inoperable medical conditions (similar to cancer) that eventually meant we had to make the call. But this one was happy and healthy until the day he died. .. I really wish that I was still having to open the door for him every half hour.

Another positive - a month after he died, I decided we could fill the "gap" by adopting an old cat that probably would not be adopted by anyone else. So we did. We now have a 12yo cat, who has allergies or something that make her have coughing fits a few times a day. (Think hairball episode without the hairball.) She's an indoor cat, and I expected she would be "retired", that she'd sleep and eat and just sit with us on the couch. Well, this one demands vigorous play 20 minutes twice a day, and ... okay, so I'm a catlady now.  

But I also have to be thankful. My son had a car accident two months later, and was not injured. Given the impact, from the side, it could have snapped his neck. If two things had to happen, and one had to be fatal -- here I imagine the cat actually volunteering to be the one. It's childlike thinking, but when it comes to cats (and maybe dogs) I'm just a big kid.

[Lissa]

Get a cat, then you'll feel like you still have the kids in the house as the cat ignores you and only comes when it wants attention or needs something...  

Got one already. Every day he wants you to get up, wants 1st breakfast, wants to go out, wants to come in, wants 2nd breakfast, wants to go out, wants to come in, wants crunchies, wants to go out, wants to come in, wants 1st dinner, wants to go out, wants to come in, wants 2nd dinner, wants to go out, wants to come in, wants crunchies, wants to go out, wants to come in, wants you to stay still dammit while he's lying up against you on the couch, wants out at midnight, wants in at 2am, wants a flat space on the bed, wants out at 430 am, wants in at 6am, then wants to do it all over again.

He also wants at least two shoulder rubs a day, but it's random where they occur in the above sequence.

(Each meal has two sessions of canned food because if he has a whole can, he throws up. Crunchies is the dry food he has after that.)

-V

Sounds like you have a kid still then...  

This saddens me. Just a little over four months after I wrote that, he died suddenly and unexpectedly. It's been six months now and I still miss him a lot. He was over 10, so he lived long enough to not be considered an early loss, but we could have had him a few more years. The positives are that he didn't suffer and we never had to decide when to put him down. Over the years, our previous three cats all lived over 10 but they all developed inoperable medical conditions (similar to cancer) that eventually meant we had to make the call. But this one was happy and healthy until the day he died. .. I really wish that I was still having to open the door for him every half hour.

Another positive - a month after he died, I decided we could fill the "gap" by adopting an old cat that probably would not be adopted by anyone else. So we did. We now have a 12yo cat, who has allergies or something that make her have coughing fits a few times a day. (Think hairball episode without the hairball.) She's an indoor cat, and I expected she would be "retired", that she'd sleep and eat and just sit with us on the couch. Well, this one demands vigorous play 20 minutes twice a day, and ... okay, so I'm a catlady now.  

But I also have to be thankful. My son had a car accident two months later, and was not injured. Given the impact, from the side, it could have snapped his neck. If two things had to happen, and one had to be fatal -- here I imagine the cat actually volunteering to be the one. It's childlike thinking, but when it comes to cats (and maybe dogs) I'm just a big kid.

That's pretty rough overall.  Glad your son is fine.

I know that feeling of having a cat for a long time and then having them suddenly go downhill.  My cat Saffron we had left with the vet while we went on a cruise for a week.  Came back and within a few days of getting her back she got pancreatitis and went downhill quick.  She did suffer for that week as we tried to turn it around and it seemed like it she would, but eventually we had to end her suffering.  It was hard to be sure.

At least your cat went quick and didn't suffer.