For all your ranting/venting/raving/sharing needs!

Old thread:http://theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/175447/?page=76

Woohoo, happy 2015th birthday, earth!

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Check out the Radioplay thread, we need YOU to be as awesome as I know you can be!

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I'd like to take this chance and tell all of you that you are awesome. Also, I hope that each of you has as much misfortunate this year as you can handle, and not a sliver more. I'm reading a lot of philosophy stuff, and I think that Nietsche had the right angle concerning suffering. So one of my new year's resolutions is to stop wishing people good luck, and instead wish them growth, satisfaction, and purpose, even if it comes with an almost equal amount of suffering and loss. Having both the highs and the lows is bound to be better than just mediocrity and fog, isn't it?

I was so tempted to create this thread. However, I think it would be better for other people to do it. Maybe next decade… :)

Oh, yeah… I'M ON SHROOMS….

…Island!!! :)

We'll reserve next year's thread for you, Lonne! :P

One day down, 363 more to go. So far, the year has been quite averge.

Good work Hippie!
-with the play newspost too!

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Sooooooo pissed offffffff! I found the perfect antique sabre at an online store at a GREAT price, but I couldn't just jump in a buy it because it only have US adresses for the delivery option (I checked and they DO ship internationally). I got no answer and was going ahead to buy it anyway and damn the consequences but it was no longer available to buy! I mailed them again to ask if it had been sold and no answer. :/

I WANT that sabre!!!!!

Oh My God…
It turns out that it was the fault of their crapy online shopping cart that I wasn't able to get the sabre. The stupid thing is badly designed. I've finally been in contact with a sales rep there but unfortunately it seems she's just as tricky to deal with as the form…

It's a nice looking weapon. If I could get that rust browning off of the scbbard and the bars on the gaurd, add new leather to the grip and put a replacement rivet through it, it'll be a very tasty piece- and not that much more expensive than the decent quality replica peices!

It's a real pity that money is so tight for me righ now… But I'm down and buying stuff I want makes me feel better. :)

Looks like the sword will be miiiiiinnne! Woot!
Yes!
YAY!

Oz, my sweet, that was a rollercoaster of emotion. I felt everything you felt, every surprise was a delight, and every disappointment was like an icy dagger in my heart. Your quest was long, and full of peril, but in the end you found your prize! The blade is yours! The world will tremble at your might, and lakes of blood will mark the path you cut through the world!

Congratz man, I hope it is as nice as you thought it was.

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My second ever Pathfinder session is this weekend. And I don't have a clue wether or not I have prepared enough material. The group spends 20 minutes trying to find a secret entrance in a completely normal well, and completely ignores the perfectly prepared temple, led by a repentant Lich, and containing one of their possible exits from the evil island of Rid-il.

Here's hoping that they find random encounters SUPER interesting.

Glad you got your sword, ozone!

I spent way too much money on Christmas presents this year so I'm doing a January no-buy. I'm also getting back to my regular healthy eating behaviours after December's Christmas baking/chocolate extravaganza. And I'll be starting classes again soon after having been off for a month. January is going to suuuuuck.

Be sure to show us pics of the sword when you get it, Ozone! :)

Koatz when playing RPG you never prepared enough material as every player makes it there job to do every thing you never thought of!

Ah 2015 this will be the year of Inifinty N3 for me, or at least for now! so far my Aleph army has done well I just have to finnish painting the miniaturers…

The furtherst I ever got with roleplay was the Heroquest boardgame… and for tabletop I had an eldar squad of Warhammer 40k miniatures, but I liked paintng them more than playing, I've probably only ever played about 5 games. They just took so MUCH time and work and organisation to play D:
I'm far too lazy.

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This is the sword I bought:



And this is the condition I'd like to return it to:



They say you shouldn't mess around with antiques because they'll “lose value”, but I'm not in it for that. Back in the day they weren't that precious, if something needed fixing they'd bloody well fix it, not sit around admiring the patina as it slowely crumbled away to nothing. Black rust is a sign of decay not a badge of anitquarian honour.

Congrats on your sword Ozone! Restoring antiques can be a lot of fun and very rewarding. New life to old stuff. But don't change anything, just fix it. The problem is poorly done restorations that screw up the original rather than just fix it.

I spent a goodly amount to open up some new story possiblities and the wife was livid. But they are fianlly doing some decent lingerie in 1/6th so future stories can have nice lacy undies instead of bare boobs. She should be thankful I'm not going to invest in the new lines of seamless figures that cost over $50 each for a plain nude figure, or the variant headsculpts that cost start at $25. And a full figure now reaching $150! I have enough figures, now I just need a few variant outfits for a female wrestler story and some female Nazi uniforms for Schoolgirl ninjas versus Nazis.

Alright! I guess it is time to break in this new forum thread for 2015.



A few of my new year's resolutions:
- Stop referring to 20-year-olds as “kids” or 10-year-olds.
- Attempt to live by the Seven Virtues instead of the Seven Deadly Sins as my daily to-do list.
- Say “Yes.” more than “No.” to advice given to me.
- Drive more.

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@bravo
Now if readers ask why all the characters in your comic are topless, just say it was the most “economical” option.

@ozone
According to your avatar date, you joined Drunk Duck eleven years ago yesterday. Happy 11th Drunk Duckiversary!!

That is a pretty sweet sword deal. The antique and the reference picture look very much identical. When it arrives are your door, you must make haste and find Elrond to reforge the sword.

*Funny story about “antiques”. When I was traveling around China, it was common for vendors to roll objects around in dirt or black paint and then clean it off to give the impression that it was older than it was.

Hey Kawaii, jij ook een gelukkig nieuwjaar! Hopelijk hou je de goede voornemens een tijdje vol! Ik moet zeggen dat het een apart gevoel is om Nederlands op deze site te zien verschijnen.

God, Dutch is a beautiful language. A lot of hard G's and rolling R's, we combine all the romance of the Germans, the ease of the French, and the efficiency of the English languages into one hideous mutant-language-love child. Yes, it's very good for storytelling, and I love writing in Dutch, but for an average conversation I'd much rather turn to the muted greys of English. It's easier to listen to, and so much easier to twist into circles.

Yep. Just found out that Photoshop Elements (the version I have anyway) is not compatible with Windows 8.1… or rather my current monitor. I could use Windows Paint, but the lines aren't what I'm used to…
Any suggestions on what I can use for drawing?

Lonnehart wrote:
Yep. Just found out that Photoshop Elements (the version I have anyway) is not compatible with Windows 8.1… or rather my current monitor. I could use Windows Paint, but the lines aren't what I'm used to…
Any suggestions on what I can use for drawing?

My last computer went through a weird period where photoshop wasn't working, so I used GIMP briefly. It seemed to work pretty well, although I wasn't doing much drawing at the time.

I like listening to dutch people speak English. It's a fantastic accent.
Mitchel and Webb do a good parody: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DY-Zdgo0OXo
Mr Jan Hankl looks how you image someone with that accent would. :D
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Great New Years pic Kawaii!
Re the sword pics:
Yeah, the good sword pic is from someone who found a better version of the same sword about 4 years ago. I had to do a lot of searching to find that, it's not a comon sabre. That's how they SHOULD look if they were kept properly and looked after well.
As for fake antiques from China- my very first sabre was one of those! I knew that when I bought it though. They sell quite a lot of them, but they're never quite right, you can always tell.

As for mine, I suspect some moron may have put a rust stablising fluid on the scabard, which converted he rust to a black patina.
I've been doing some reading on rust, getting ready to takle it on the sword… aparently there are at least 15 different kinds of chemically different rust that affect steel. FIFTEEN! Reds, yellow, orange, brown, black… some that bubble and expand, some that bond hard on the surface, and some that eat in deep and destroy from the inside.

Also, types of rust are key comon ingredients in lady's make-up.

Whoa… 15 types of steel rust… in many colors… I learn something new every day.
I guess I better get used to using GIMP for a while despite it not detecting my pen pressure on my computer tablet. Or just use the old fashioned method of scanning hand drawn images into the computer…

*sigh*

And to think I thought it would be easy to get back into webcomics. I planned on rebooting the Lost Battle Fortress comic as well as creating a new AO rated title…

Hmm… I wonder how Kawaii, Bravo, Hippie and Kroatz would work with a fleet consisting of about 10 support ships (one was cut in half due to the accident with the Zephyr's Transdimensional Drive) and one giant vessel nearly 7000m long (the main gun taking up a LOT of that). I can already see Ozone as a Wing Commander type (leading a squad of two to four fighters). :)

As long as it's a Skull Squadron!

Thank heaven US Navy squadrons don't sue for trademark infringment. Long live VF-103 the Jolly Rogers! They should transition VF-3B Veritech fighters sometime in the mid 21st century.
And yes the VF in veritech is a salute to US Navy fighter squadrons and the design was always ment to be an F-14 etc. etc. FLY NAVY! Tomcatters forever! I have four models of the Tomcat but none will be in Jolly Rodgers markings but my F-7U Cutless will be.

And in other news, I dropped my laptop and destroyed the screen. I paniced had a fight with the wife and this morning went on line to see how much a replacement screen would cost. $70? And there are Youtube videos that are only 8 minutes long going over how to switch it out? Including one specifically for my model? Holy moley.

My laptop is four years old and missing the “0” key on the numeric keypad. The CD-DVD driver is disabled but I don't mind that so much as everything I've done with that thing. I think I can afford to fix the screen and maybe even replace the CD-DVD drive. I'm not technical but i am good at taking things apart and putting them back together. It's not rocket science.

Yes… it was hard to find a pic that wasn't the US navy fighters. :)
Though I think there's a pretty clear line of decendance for the skull and bones symbol in military use to the hussars actually. Though being navy of course they'd go for the pirate referance… It's interesting thouh that they're always nicked from the cavalrey- the cutlass, the famous “pirate boots” etc.

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One thing to keep in mind with computers os modularity. You can repair the monitor or get an a bigger external one for the same price. You sacrifice a bit of portability but gain re-usability for when you switch to a replacement machine.
External DVD drives are the same. You could get a decent one for $30-$50 and be able to use it on any computer. Those are a lot more portable than external monitors too.

Now if only you could modify your laptop so its innards can stay updated with the times… And if only you could use any parts you want with it instead of being stuck with the parts the laptop's manufacturer provides…
Of course desktop PCs have their own issues when it comes to being “modular”. For instance, needing a case with enough cooling options to house your upgraded CPU/Video Card, both of which can get really REALLY HOT!!!

For what I use the computer for none of the crazy cooling or graphics cards are necessary. Wow Spider Solitaire in HD! I can see the nosehairs of the Queen of Hearts!
With the internal CD-DVD it's a registry error so the drive works just there's an error with the computer recognizing that it's there. I got three weeks of buffer on the comic so got to hurry.

On Skull and crossbones as cavalry as opposed to pirate… pirate flags predate European Deathshead hussars by at least 50 years. THe first hussars were Hungarians and Poles in unorganized bands and not a skull in sight in the uniforms I've seen form the late 17th and first decades of the 18th century when the skull and crossbones became associated with pirates. Though skull and crossbones may as pirate ensigns go back to the 16th century? And back then no self-respecting cavalryman would have worn a skull. Too morbid with the plague association. What self-respecting prince would hire the Black Skull mercenary company? Um we're the good guys and these are ostensively the Wars of religion? We're not the plague here, no need to be so freaking obvious about looting, raping and pestilence in the wake of the armies.

The skull and crossbones symbol for cavalry goes as far back as at least 1630 as a symbol of the Bavarian Cronburger Cuirassiers, recorded instances of pirate usage are later and then only for a relatively breif time, but that's not what I meant at all. :)
What I was aluding to was the fact it was being used as a military symbol on the aircraft, and you can trace its use as a military symbol in a direct line to those old cavalry units where it's use was popularised and spread from.

The US craft, while part of the navy, are still military and their role is more like cavalry than anything else… just like all the planes beofre them that wore the symbol.
Classic pirates with the black flag were only around for a short
time, but that exact symbol has been in use by land militaries for hundreds
of years and with many units today, in the US, the UK and elsewhere.
In the popular mind the name “jolly roger” and the pirate association sticks… I imagne that's because of the rommantic image popularised by various writers and illustrators, and later movie makers in the 20th century.
Part of our modern mythology!

There's evidence that the English Sea Dogs of the 1500's used skull and crossbone ensigns when raiding Spanish shipping. And Mediterranean pirates going back still farther with skull insignia. Only fitting those Bavarian guys used it in 1630 in the 30 Years War. Talk about death stalking the land.
But flyers being cavalry goes back to the very origins of military aviation. After all Richtoffen was a cavalryman. You couldn't ride in WWI due to the trenches so fly instead. That famed RFC crossover officers jacket was borrowed from the cavalry.
But Navy flyers aren't cavalry. No horses on an aircraft carrier. The first navy fliers flew sea planes, certainly nothing in common with cavalry except in the mind of the most romantic land-lubber. They see themselves as along the lines of Sea raiders. Sea raiders didn't come with horses, they stole them when on shore and used them only for transportation not to ride aorund like some like gay cavalier. Nope, Navy flyers are not cavalry. The Air Farce on the other hand?

Yeah they started out as the US Army Air Corps as part of the Signal Corps. Oh yeah US Flyers are signalsmen! Yeah we'll let the cavalry join the Army Air Corps. After all the facing color of signals is orange the original branch color of the US Dragoons.


Okay it's more a scarlet red, but really orange is orange and red is red.

Oh Jesus, the first page of the new rant thread and you two are at it already.

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Are there paints that do as many cool things as eyeshadows do? I've been playing around with some of the loose eyeshadows I got for Christmas and it's really neat seeing how much they change with and without primer, layered with other shadows, etc. It's hard to capture the colours accurately with a photograph, but this is the same shadow on my inner eyelid and in the inner corner of my eye. By itself on the skin it's a bright, shiny golden teal. The bit on the lid is layered over a light dusty rose colour, which to my surprise seems to have completely changed it into a near-matte periwinkle blue.

ARGH. After that other package I was waiting on got lost, the sellers sent me a new one. I went to check the tracking today and apparently it was “delivered at 12:43pm”. Except that I've been home literally all day, and it's now 3:06pm and there is no package. WTF? I really, really hope this one isn't lost as well. If I hadn't been home I might have thought that someone stole it off our front stoop, but no one ever knocked. And apparently our local post office doesn't have a phone (even more WTF), so now I have to put real not-pajamas clothes on and walk in -24C to harass them and see if they have my package.