The Chat Thread II: Chat Harder

What's the grub like?

Balla won't be lonely for along after visiting Thailand.

Off the subject of balla and his holidays, anyone use or used lootcrate.

Drunkalilly wrote:

What's the grub like?

So far I've only had one proper Thai meal, and I get the feeling that it was catering to tourists. But it was lurvely. Was essentially just noodles and meat though.

Hey everyone. Just curious, anyone know what is happening with Stu? He seems to have disappeared and I miss his company. What have I missed?

Jesus it's Oldschool what happened to you.

I don't know what's happened to Stu as he's still on twitter etc and it was quite awhile ago when his nan (I want say) passed away. Maybe it just hit him hard.

I kind of noticed he just disappeared from Facebook, been a couple of months. Like I said, I miss his quips.

As for me, been busy working, flying around Australia and getting quite sick. I had a cancer scare, which hit me pretty hard at the time, but I got the all clear recently on that, but I do have a kidney problem that requires a lifetime of daily medication. Keep in mind, it isn't serious, just potentially painful - I am a kidney stone producing machine, with the ability to knock out one in a single day. It is better than cancer. This is what happens when you get old.

That doesn't sound good just the medication wouldn't be bad but I don't like the sound of the machine.

In the end it means I must not ever let myself get dehydrated, or I will suffer painful consequences.  Luckily I am in the coolest part of Australia, so even the summer is manageable, plus I need to be very mindful of  rehydration if I manage to get gastro.  I find drinking vast amounts of water every day, at least 3 litres, a real chore and finding public toilets, which I hate, is not always easy.  Many people have much bigger problems than me, so I am relatively lucky.

I had to have antibiotics for it a while back, finished all of them and then a few days later, woke to my entire body covered in a rash, an itchy rash. Then I started to turn purple. I went to hospital, and they thought I had measles and rushed me into isolation. Not measles, fortunately, just an allergic reaction, so more medication to fix the other medication. 2 months later, I still have marks on my body. It hasn't been a great year.

Oh, so you think you can just waltz back in here using kidney stones as an excuse, eh? EH?

Kidding. Good to see you back. Stu's nan did pass away, but it's more that he's just been doing real-life stuff. I'm on the verge of hiring a new admin...

I don't need no stinkin' excuses, I does what I want.

I have been very busy with work myself, actually doing some Fly In Fly Out stuff, working 10 days straight. It was really tough and I didn't realise just how tough until I finally finished 2 months of that, got my tests back and then literally hit a wall. I had been pushing myself so hard, it finally caught me and I could barely get out of bed for a week. I like my job, the bosses are great, and I give a lot to it, but I think I went too hard, maybe trying to push my illness out of my mid.

I just got a message from Stu, and he is busy and he has problems with his Facebook app, so now I am just relieved to know he is okay. When someone just disappears, you do wonder what happened and sometimes worry a little.

As people who have tried to play me on both MK8 and SSB3D will know, my connection behaves peculiarly.  It starts off fine, perhaps a bit laggy in the case of Smash, and then will suddenly drop off the face of the earth.  Following my failure to connect to Andy's game, I had two lag-tastic games against randoms, and was then chucked out again.

While I'm trying to get it to work, the symbols on my router flash manically, which is apparently normal according to the router's manual - but, well, they ain't doing it now, for instance.  However, I pass every ping test the Internet has come up with, and I can (say) watch iPlayer just fine.

So, I would really appreciate some help, from people who are presumably quite tech-savvy:

1. Is this likely to be an issue with my provider, who is Talktalk? Or might it be something more fundamental, like the building I live in?
   
2. If the former, any suggestions about who to switch to?

Huge thanks to anyone who can help.

Quick question, have you ever checked to see if it is your ISP blocking you in any way from playing games online?

Is that a thing they do? No, I haven't checked - but surely I wouldn't have been able to play any games at all in that case? Anyway, if it gets to the point where I'm calling them up (and it's looking like it will), I'll ask them that.

Might be worth playing around with your router settings, I used to have a terrible NAT type and couldn't ever get into lobbys on certain games. I generally go wired these days but obvs not an option for 3DS

I'll give that a go before I call support. Not sure wired will be an option for my Wii U either, given the positioning of my telephone port and my TV, so I may as well sort it now and wirelessly.

Balladeer wrote:

Is that a thing they do? No, I haven't checked - but surely I wouldn't have been able to play any games at all in that case?  Anyway, if it gets to the point where I'm calling them up (and it's looking like it will), I'll ask them that.

Aye you're probably right there, I think it can happen with the way some security/firewall systems are set up, I thought initially it might be traffic management but after a quick google talk talk don't seem to do that any more though a certain amount of data is still required for their TV streaming service.

So Andy might be on the right track about your NAT type.

A wild Xelviar appears! D:

Regardless of that, how is everyone? I'm having bittersweet thoughts that ONM is closing within a few days, but it was inevitable due to the turncoating (and somewhat stubborness) of FuturePLC that they didn't embrace digital. I have a feeling that GamesRadar will be the only thing left at this rate...

Thoughts about this, before I post a thread about this?

There's already a thread.

Thought I'd just say that I was singing on stage with Hans Zimmer and Pharrell last night. Possibly the most star-studded moment of my life so far.

I feel that this forum is lacking a "boast about yourself" thread. (Probably for the best.)

I got a tip printed in TOTAL! magazine once, when I was 12.

I think Balla wins out of those last two.

But I'm still in awe of ZJ there (that puts you in an elite group of people that includes Kim Bissix now) #TOTALTactix

I've been printed in GamesMaster Twice, and my question answered on ONM podcast twice.

The cat's gone missing, whilst my girlfriend's been on a night shift. Last time she was waiting outside in the morning but not this time - I'm going to wait as long as I dare before going to work.

My cat went missing for two days once - we ended up finding her after hearing her mewing from inside a neighbour's garage. Hope your cat comes home Mr. Jones.

Regular Catwatch updates would be good.