Dark Shadow's Surprisingly Well-Lit Random Banter #217

[2D8HP]

Canada Ice

Alabama Fire!

More Canada Ice!

Colorado Ice!

Tennessee Lighting! (and flooding!).

Frozen land of Swedan!

Pittsburgh Fire and Ice!
https://weatherspark.com/compare/y/8...and-Pittsburgh

Windstorm!

Birmingham laughs at all of your muggy conditions.

It's clear what befalls these realms!

There be Dragons!

Lightning is exhaled by blue dragons and bronze dragons!

Magical fire is used by gold dragons, brass dragons and red dragons!

The white and silver dragons releases a cone of sub zero air and ice!Adamantite dragon Breath weapon: White-hot fire!

Iron Dragon Breath weapon: Cone of superheated sparks (fire and electric damage)!

Chromium Dragon Breath weapon: Line of solid ice (cold damage) and cone of freezing crystals!

Elemental drakes are lesser dragons most closely related to wyverns. They hail from the Elemental Planes, and are sometimes used as mounts by jann. Unlike wyverns they are sentient.

Types

Air - Chaotic neutral drake with air mastery and blinding sandstorm!

Water - Neutral drake with water mastery and drench!

Fire - Neutral evil drake with heat attack!

Ice - Chaotic evil drake with freezing touch!

The City is not spared!

Earth - Lawful neutral drake with earth mastery and tremor (this one resides in San Francisco)!

[Knaight]

The Pittsburg-Denver graph is fun - the temperature graph for Pittsburg is almost entirely inside that of Denver.

Birmingham laughs at all of your muggy conditions.

I lived in Chiang Rai for a while. Witness the total eclipse of Birmingham on the muggy conditions graph.

I have added Yellowknife to this.

One of my favorites is the "chance of high winds" graph, where mine is just on another graph, essentially.

I decided to throw Rawlins, Wyoming into the mix (I get up there occasionally). I'm not getting the chance of high winds graph, but it's mostly ahead on average wind speed.

Now you have company.

[Teddy]

Merry Christmas from Sweden, everybody!

[Peelee]

The City is not spared!

Earth - Lawful neutral drake with earth mastery and tremor (this one resides in San Francisco)!

Your drake also has a Chill Weather Eternally permanent effect.

I lived in Chiang Rai for a while. Witness the total eclipse of Birmingham on the muggy conditions graph.

If it weren't for the rainfall, that place would look like Paradise to me. Why would you ever move away?

Merry Christmas from Sweden, everybody!

Hooray! Happy Christmas!

[Spanish_Paladin]

Merry Christmas playground!! Or as we say in Spain: Feliz Navidad!! :)

[enderlord99]

If I were ridiculously rich, I would attempt to obtain a PC with a terrabyte of RAM and an exabyte of storage.

[Teddy]

Christmas Eve is over and this year's Christmas loot list tallies up to:

• Stjärnklart, Lars Wilderäng (Swedish apocalypse novel)
• Norse Mythology, Neil Gaiman (except in Swedish)
• Ur Gogols kappa (anthology of 8 Russian authors translated into Swedish)
• A kinda cool cloth strip with a long, red light sewn into it for fastening on a bag (or anywhere else that strikes your fancy)

Furthermore, there was apparently a shirt I was going to get, but dad seem to have misplaced the package (presumably forgot to pack it before we headed up her), so I'll probably receive it later when he finds it again.

[Drakeburn]

Merry Christmas everybody!

[2D8HP]

Christmas Eve is over and this year's Christmas loot list tallies up to:

• Norse Mythology, Neil Gaiman (except in Swedish)

...

.
I have that book (well in English)!

I'll get it down off the shelf and read it in Christmas solidarity!

[Bartmanhomer]

Merry Christmas everybody. This is a good time to sing a classic song.

Jingle Bells, Batman Smells, Robin Lay An Egg, Batmobile Has Lost Its Wheel And The Joker Got Away Hey!

[Knaight]

Your drake also has a Chill Weather Eternally permanent effect.

Given the rest of the areas it was being compared to it had more of a Heat Weather Eternally effect.

Birmingham just has two of them.

If it weren't for the rainfall, that place would look like Paradise to me. Why would you ever move away?

In my case because I was twelve - the weather there was generally excellent, and even the rain wasn't bad. The cities were designed for it (gutters with a cross sectional area of something like three square feet), it was a warm rain anyways, and there was no shortage of rain ponchos.

Other reasons include Thai being a really hard language to learn with a background in English.

[LaZodiac]

I managed to find a game that slipped past Steam's stupid ****ing regional pricing rule for every single friend except one. **** you Sweden for being a paradise, and **** you Steam for this.

Merry Christmas though! I'm actually doing hella rad, but it's late and Eve so I'll detail what all I got tomorrow. Just salty.

[Mith]

Merry Christmas from Canada, everyone!

[LaZodiac]

Merrry Christmas! Hope everyone's having a good holiday. Here are all the things I've gotten.

Night in the Woods, from Randman
Divinity: Dragon Commander, from HT
Dangan Ronpa, from Deme
Luftrausers, from Trobby and Hazy
Worms WMD, from Teddy

------
Puyopuyo Tetris,
Tokyo Mirage Session FE#,
Mipha amiibo figure,
Ripley's Believe it or Not 2017,
25 Dollar Subway Card
25 Dollar McDonalds Card
A Good ****ing Router Finally, from Dad.


50 Dollar Steam Gift Card, from Sister

Mario and Luigi Super Star Saga 3DS,
Two Kindersurprise Eggs,
Six boxes of small Smarties,
Package of chapstick,
Dentyne Ice Gum,
Mistletoe Candy Cane plushie,
Small Crest Toothpaste, from Auntie's family

------
Box of english toffees and truffles,
15 dollar McDonalds gift card, from Work Supervisor

Box of Lindor Chocolates, from Coworker

------

Stocking stuffers include,
Toothbrush
Tube of M&Ms
Box of Skittles
Box of Lifesavers
(in extremely italics voice) a fidget spinner
A toblerone I definitely deserve
A free Big Mac coupon
Four pack of Kinder Surprise eggs
A big box of After Eight mints

[Peelee]

Ooohhhh, we're doing Christmas hauls?

Power Airfryer XL
Lambskin leather jacket
Black leather gloves with cashmere lining
Grey cashmere scarf
2 grey cashmere sweaters
Amazon Fire TV stick
Kinetic sand
Lump of crystalized elemental bismuth
Pokemon Ultramoon
Haribo gummi bears
Atomic Beam LED portable lamp
Outsider in the White House
Darth Vader briefcase
TIE pilot themed leather toiletry bag
Millennium Falcon silver and black schematic artwork
Gift card for subscription to SWTOR i can get all the expandions

I'm pretty sure there's a few things I forgot, but it's been an excellent Christmas. The only thing I don't love is the Pokemon game, since i think it's a lazy retread, but the friend who gave it to me doesnt know my feelings on that, so it was still very thoughtful of him, and I'm thankful for that. I'm also very pleased with the gifts over given to my friends and family; I'm fairly confident they absolutely loved them.

ETA: also, our cats got in their stocking a bunch of stuffed crawfish and mushrooms, dipped in Silvervine. Plus, with all the wrapping paper and boxes and everything, they are in Kitty heaven right now.

[DataNinja]

Let's see, might as well add mine to the pile.

Electric blanket
Thermal gloves
Warm socks

...I'm sensing a theme.

Besides a few miscellaneous 'stocking stuffer' things, that's basically it. I'm generally happy sans gifts.

[factotum]

I got the things I asked for--the "Red Rising" book trilogy I've heard good things about, plus a brace of Star Wars DVDs (Rogue One, Force Awakens and the first series of Rebels), so I'm pretty happy, all told.

[HalfTangible]

My Christmas haul technically doesn't end until tomorrow (that's when Dad gets home and we can open stuff properly) but Merry Christmas everyone!

[enderlord99]

Spoiler: Stuff I received for Christmas

Show

• 2 Steam gift-cards of $50 each
• A check worth $250
• A Hallmark card that basically said "you get to pick out your own gift, because it's better than getting you something you might not like" except more poetically.
• Gift cards for Starbucks, Subway, and a grocery store
• A small amount of candy

All in all, excellent gifts!

This would be a good Christmas even if I didn't get any of that stuff, but his way, it's amazing.

[Mith]

I won't get all my gifts until later, but I am getting money for purchasing a stack of BCMI modules.

[WarKitty]

I got a mattress...that's about it, honestly.

Not complaining.

[Mith]

I got a mattress...that's about it, honestly.

Not complaining.

Did it come with people to move the new mattress in for you and take out the old one if needed?

[WarKitty]

Did it come with people to move the new mattress in for you and take out the old one if needed?

Yeah. Although I need to return it, they delivered the wrong one.

[Sermil]

I got... an oncall shift at work. Well, someone has to keep the servers running else you get this. (It's actually not bad, everything in my domain is basically running normally.)

Also a Kindle so I can read Bujold's latest novellas in style.
And Persona 5, speaking of style.

Merry Christmas!

[FinnLassie]

I got underwear for Christmas which as an adult I greatly appreciate. Underwear and socks are surprisingly expensive and I'd rather not be buying cheap ones that only last me a year or two.

Also got a Martin Luther Playmobil toy (a special edition toy for the 500 years of reformation celebration). It'll be sitting on my shelf for the next eternity.

[Insane Jeenyus]

late Merry Christmas!

Stayed at my Sister's not expecting anything but got some nice clothing items, a prepaid visa card, a bag of M and Ms.

The clothing was a hooded stom jacket that looks to survive a hurricane and a carhart quilted jacket.

I am eating the M and Ms with breakfast.

[Algeh]

I still don't know what I got for Christmas, beyond the "surprise ice/snow event" present my entire city got (forecast said roads would be completely clear by noon on the 24th, weather people have been explaining about problems with weather modeling ever since because there's still ice on the ground now). It's not much to deal with in most places (my neighborhood is pretty navigable as long as you're patient), but my mother lives at a higher elevation on a hilly street that dead-ends into a park at the bottom so the only way out is up the hill, then take a street that has both ups and downs, in order to get in or out of her neighborhood. At last check, the road up the hill was still a sheet of ice, which makes "up" much harder than "down".

My gifts for that side of the family have been sitting in my travel caddy ready to go over to her house for Christmas Eve Christmas Day Boxing Day ???? Day Brunch for days now. It's mostly a problem because sooner or later my aunt has to fly back out of town again (if she can ever get up the hill, otherwise I guess she lives in the spare bedroom until spring), and I'd like to actually see her for Christmas instead of just mailing her present.

Also, I had to miss a chance to see an old friend on Christmas Eve, since our tradition is to sneak out of our parents' houses after he gets back from Christmas Eve services and go out for diner food in the middle of the night. (This tradition started when we were teenagers. "Sneaking" is no longer actually a thing - parents are invited along but don't see the appeal of going out to eat in the middle of the night on Christmas.) This year, it was a mix of slush on the roads with freezing temperatures overnight, so while I probably could have gotten over to his parents' house if I'd really tried and left earlier, getting back again was much less certain and I figured they didn't need an extra person for Christmas day festivities. (This friend lives in another state, but his parents live very close to where my dad lives, so Christmas is one of the main times we see each other in person.)

In terms of actual gifts, my dad got me a Salad Shooter and a Blu Ray player. I am actually really pleased about the Salad Shooter, because they are an excellent device for making grated cheese and grated potatoes compared to the box grater I'd been using. I also got a small Lego set and a bunch of candy as stocking stuffers. (I gave him gaiters , which he uses when golfing to contain most of the mud on something other than his pants so he doesn't have to change before getting lunch.)

One of my other friends found a "ridiculous present" for me at a thrift store, but we haven't met up yet either since he was in the local Christmas Revels and thus disappears into a pretty intense rehearsal/performance schedule until after Christmas. We'll probably exchange around New Years.

[HalfTangible]

Merry Christmas!

Spoiler: My haul for this year if anyone cares

Show

$70 cash
$25 Panda Express card
$20 in Chick-fil-a gift cards
$15 Whataburger gift card
$130 in Amazon Gift cards
Echo Dot
7 various shirts
Houston Astros World Champions hoodie
Various coca cola paraphinalia (toothpick dispenser, bottlecap holder, bottle opener)
Back-up power source with ten outlets
2 coca cola metal posters (for outside)
Darden gift card (unknown amount)
The Legends of Luke Skywalker by Ken Liu
Zelda-themed "A5 notebook"
Coca-cola themed straw dispenser
3 "free game coupons"
3 "convention trip coupons"
Yeti cooler (sized for cans)
Loofa
Gum
Astros World series champions 2017 ornament
And last but not least, Bridge Constructor Portal (thank you Zodi)

My bro got a gun. And bullets for the gun. And a knife with his name on it.

He's also irritated that I kept saying Die Hard is a Christmas movie over the last few days.

I'm scared.

[Peelee]

Merry Christmas!

Spoiler: My haul for this year if anyone cares

Show

$70 cash
$25 Panda Express card
$20 in Chick-fil-a gift cards
$15 Whataburger gift card
$130 in Amazon Gift cards
Echo Dot
7 various shirts
Houston Astros World Champions hoodie
Various coca cola paraphinalia (toothpick dispenser, bottlecap holder, bottle opener)
Back-up power source with ten outlets
2 coca cola metal posters (for outside)
Darden gift card (unknown amount)
The Legends of Luke Skywalker by Ken Liu
Zelda-themed "A5 notebook"
Coca-cola themed straw dispenser
3 "free game coupons"
3 "convention trip coupons"
Yeti cooler (sized for cans)
Loofa
Gum
Astros World series champions 2017 ornament
And last but not least, Bridge Constructor Portal (thank you Zodi)

My bro got a gun. And bullets for the gun. And a knife with his name on it.

He's also irritated that I kept saying Die Hard is a Christmas movie over the last few days.

I'm scared.

Die Hard is everyone's go-to for a Christmas movie. Me, I'm a First Blood man.

[factotum]

For years they would show "Where Eagles Dare" at Christmas in the UK--I think the only reason for that was because it has a lot of snowy scenes in it and was thus the nearest thing we'd likely get to a white Christmas.