The Dink Network

How's life?

February 15th 2021, 04:38 PM
wizardb.gif
Bluedy
Peasant He/Him Romania bloop rumble
I like Frutti Fresh 
I haven't made a thread on this site in ages. When I was younger I used to have this website saved on my phone's homescreen. And now this site dead-er than....well dead-er than it was when I joined. And it was pretty darn dead even then.

But anyways, this year feels different. And I feel different. I feel like I've improved in life. Mostly inside, but I think it's just as important as outside, if not more.

How are your lives? And I don't care about anything pandemic related. I just want to know how your *lives* are going.

And remember to keep hydrated.
February 17th 2021, 12:39 PM
knights.gif
merder
Peasant He/Him Netherlands
The Voice in the back of your head! 
life is OK enjoying a few games and also working out a bit but other than that just going the usual way not counting a few annoyances(and a huge one that hopefully is better soon that is known as Covid-19)
February 21st 2021, 11:52 AM
spike.gif
SlipDink
Peasant He/Him United States bloop rumble
2nd generation. No easy way to be free. 
Life goes on... even during a grossly mismanaged (in the good old USA) global pandemic.

Wearing masks and not going out much is about all that is going on, besides ordering things online and getting everything via curbside pickup so we don't have to go into any stores.

But, I'm playing dmods and working on some of my own too!

February 21st 2021, 04:47 PM
peasantmp.gif
Skurn
Peasant He/Him Equatorial Guinea duck bloop
can't flim flam the glim glam 
WE DUCKING GET IT. DURR VIRUS

SHUT UP
February 22nd 2021, 09:29 AM
spike.gif
SlipDink
Peasant He/Him United States bloop rumble
2nd generation. No easy way to be free. 
Only if you shut up about ponies. ;-P
February 22nd 2021, 03:32 PM
peasantmp.gif
Skurn
Peasant He/Him Equatorial Guinea duck bloop
can't flim flam the glim glam 
no
February 22nd 2021, 08:04 PM
custom_king.png
redink1
King He/Him United States bloop
A mother ducking wizard 
Hi Bluedy and everyone else, I hope you're all doing well.

My life has been rougher than usual.

Over the past 12 months, here's a list of some notable events, none of which are directly related to COVID. I think it'll help if you read "my wife" in your head as if Borat is saying it.

- March 2020: I took my wife to the hospital because she had some weird bumps on her legs. The doctors didn't find anything unusual in their scans.

- May 2020: My wife developed odd joint pain in her shoulders, where she wasn't able to lift her arms above her head.

- June 2020: My wife's uncle unexpectedly died.

- July 2020: My wife started having some weird nausea, and was vomiting almost every day. We went to the doctor, and they offered a prescription, but not much else.

- August 2020: My wife's condition deteriorated rather dramatically, and I drove her to the emergency room. They ran some tests, and said basically "everything is wrong". She was a few days away from dying. We got a diagnosis pretty quickly (turns out bumpy legs, joint pain, and nausea all had the same root cause), but she ended up staying in the hospital for 21 days, to be followed by regular treatments.

- August 2020: Three of my friends at work were laid off, and another decided to leave.

- September 2020: My wife erupted in blood, and we called 911 and took an ambulance to the hospital. We were discharged that day, with a follow-up procedure the next day.

- October 2020: My wife drove me to the hospital, as I had some symptoms of a heart attack. Thankfully, after a full checkout, and some tests, they determined that I am in good health.

- November 2020: My wife started bleeding when one of her stiches popped, so we had to stop by the emergency room to have new stiches placed. This was during peak COVID in my area, so she just had a hospital bed in the hallway of the hospital, and was never assigned a room.

- November 2020: I managed to preorder a Xbox Series X, and it arrived and has been working well.

- December 2020: My wife had a surgery, but had a nerve block for the pain, and ended up taking a fairly bad fall when she got home.

- December 2020: My cat died two days before Christmas.

- January 2021: My wife was unable to breathe, and took another ambulance to the hospital. She had developed a new-and-different condition, and ended up staying in the hospital for another 11 days.

- February 2021: My wife developed severe back/leg pain in her last days of the January hospital stay, where she was essentially unable to walk for three weeks. She has been pain free for almost a week.

It's been a bit of a ducked up year.
February 23rd 2021, 09:36 AM
death.gif
RangerLord
Peasant He/Him Hungary bloop
The nation above all 
Sorry to hear that. I wish you and your wife well. Hope nothing bad happens later.
February 23rd 2021, 10:59 PM
burntree.gif
Striker
Noble She/Her United States
Daniel, there are clowns. 
Fuuuck, I'm sorry to hear all that happened, Dan. I hope it's smooth sailing for your wife and yourself from here on out.
February 24th 2021, 12:07 AM
peasantmp.gif
Skurn
Peasant He/Him Equatorial Guinea duck bloop
can't flim flam the glim glam 
you're a tree.
February 24th 2021, 10:18 AM
spike.gif
SlipDink
Peasant He/Him United States bloop rumble
2nd generation. No easy way to be free. 
@redink1:

Wow! I'm so sorry to learn of your trials and tribulations. Let's hope that 2021 is a better year for all of us.

BTW, thanks for still being the caretaker of this wonderful website through all OF 2020.
February 24th 2021, 10:53 AM
duck.gif
toof
Peasant He/Him
I disagree. 
@redink1

Wow... that's a lot of stress
Did they managed to cure both conditions?
February 24th 2021, 06:48 PM
custom_robj.png
Robj
Jester He/Him Australia
You feed the madness, and it feeds on you. 
Hey Dan, that is indeed a vast series of unfortunate events.

Hope you and your wife are doing better.
February 25th 2021, 07:15 AM
dinkdead.gif
Wow Dan sorry to hear about all that. Hope it's something treatable that will go away asap and that things take a turn for the better for you both.

Some random wafflings about my last year or so:

I caught covid last March/April (pretty sure anyway, tests weren't available then), it was pretty nasty and I was ill for about 5 weeks and short of breath for some time after. Just now at the beginning of this month my wife caught it and was ill for a week, then I got it again for a week, so we've been in isolation locked in at home with a pile of young children for about 20 days. Such fun

Another sparrowchick hatched in August, we now have 4 boys under the age of 7. Never a dull moment!

My bike was stolen at the beginning of summer, turned out to be a good thing in the end as the insurance paid up nicely so I was able to finally start building my dream bike. Brand new mountain bike I finished putting together in October but have hardly been able to touch since is driving me nuts! Hopefully with the weather turning and some more light in the evenings I'll be able to get out properly soon.

Brexit is causing headaches. The less said the better

I probably spent about half an hour D-Modding. Yay for progress!
February 25th 2021, 12:36 PM
spike.gif
SlipDink
Peasant He/Him United States bloop rumble
2nd generation. No easy way to be free. 
@Sparrowhawk:
My bike was stolen at the beginning of summer, turned out to be a good thing in the end as the insurance paid up nicely so I was able to finally start building my dream bike. Brand new mountain bike I finished putting together in October but have hardly been able to touch since is driving me nuts!

Is the reason that you "have hardly been able to touch" your "mountain bike" because there are no real mountains in the UK? ;-P
February 26th 2021, 02:38 PM
custom_king.png
redink1
King He/Him United States bloop
A mother ducking wizard 
Thank you for your kind words.

Things have actually been pretty good for the past 10 days or so - once the sciatic pain stopped, everything else has been manageable.

There's a good treatment plan in place for everything, but it'll take a couple years to fully recover.
March 1st 2021, 03:53 PM
dinkdead.gif
SlipDink:

Nah that's no problem, I'm pretty good at making mountains out of molehills
March 2nd 2021, 10:10 AM
spike.gif
SlipDink
Peasant He/Him United States bloop rumble
2nd generation. No easy way to be free. 
@Sparrowhawk:

Nah that's no problem, I'm pretty good at making mountains out of molehills

Tell me is there a UK indoor mountain biking equivalent to
what Chill Factore does for ski-ing?
;-P
March 2nd 2021, 10:32 AM
custom_fish.png
SabreTrout
Noble He/Him United Kingdom
Tigertigertiger. 
That's a helluva ride, Dan. Glad things look like they might improve.

I continue to trundle along and don't do very much. Should do more writing really as I had started to make a little headway in selling short stories and then had children and it turns out they are quite time consuming.

I haven't had COVID, yet, somehow.
March 2nd 2021, 02:36 PM
burntree.gif
Striker
Noble She/Her United States
Daniel, there are clowns. 
Anyway, for myself, my life has been pretty decent, all things considered. My relationships are really healthy and fulfilling, and I have a lot more free time than most people my age.

I've been playing table top rpgs online for interaction beyond the two people in my COVID pod and having a blast. It's given me an impetus to try and act and improv, which I've been enjoying a lot more than I ever thought I would. I also wrote a 7500 word short story based off one of my characters, which I'm rather proud of, as I've had what amounts to writers block for well over a decade.

Oh, and we finally finished our small aquaponics greenhouse. Currently, it's stocked with lettuce and catfish, and I just planted some kale that I'm looking forward to.
March 3rd 2021, 03:31 AM
dinkdead.gif
Funny you should say that SlipDink... Behold: Dirt Factory!
They only had a temporary place which is now closed but they should be opening properly soonish.

Btw... the way you do quotes is really confusing
March 11th 2021, 02:37 AM
sob_scorpy.gif
DinkDude95
Peasant He/Him Australia
The guy with the cute D-Mod. 
Holy cow, what a wild ride in the worst kind of way. Puts things into persepective...

As for me, life is fine down under. Australia responded really well to COVID (I guess being an island in the middle of nowhere helps), so life got back to normal fairly quickly. Business is good, family is good. Wife and I had a little girl just over nine months ago, which is just the most unbelievable thing. Pretty wild how differently you see life - as I'm sure most of you know.

Cute baby selfie if anyone is into that.

Been playing stacks of DnD. Literally the most fun I think I've ever had. Highly recommended for literally anyone. Great way to make friends too, if you have none.

Also still waiting on SabreTrout's livestream.
March 11th 2021, 03:58 AM
sob_scorpy.gif
DinkDude95
Peasant He/Him Australia
The guy with the cute D-Mod. 
Open to sharing your short story? Or a synopsis? Would be super keen to read - it's actually something I've been thinking about doing for a while. Sometimes a two-page backstory just isn't enough...
March 13th 2021, 06:48 PM
burntree.gif
Striker
Noble She/Her United States
Daniel, there are clowns. 
Although I'm rather proud of some of what I wrote, I wouldn't be up to showing it again without a huge rewrite with a different, more complex and interesting antagonist and slightly harsher, more stressful living conditions for my PC.

Basically, it was day in the life of an Air Genasi rogue with a knack for mischief and violence within the pirate town of Westhaven before she makes the decision to leave for Neverwinter. She's a complex, chaotic mess and it took me writing a whole story to get a good sense of how to play her well.
March 14th 2021, 03:31 AM
sob_scorpy.gif
DinkDude95
Peasant He/Him Australia
The guy with the cute D-Mod. 
I love that so much. Thanks for sharing the synopsis! It's fun to play characters a little more complex than the usual tropes. Sounds awesome.