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From:
 Plops
To:
hydrophile
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We've played this one.
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From:
hydrophile
To:
Plops
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Dang it! I had a small suspicion that we did play it before, but I was not sure.
Hopefully it is still interesting for you?
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From:
Plops
To:
hydrophile
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I don't mind playing it again.
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From:
hydrophile
To:
Plops
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Thanks. Many options here.
I was thinking about what you said about how Wheeling city will tear down old
buildings and let the vegetation take over. I wonder what a whole street or whole
neighborhood looks like when that happens. I wonder if it feels creepy or calming.
I remember long ago in the woods near my childhood home, I found an
abandoned road. It's larger than a trail, but the earth was obviously compacted
enough by use that nothing else grew there. I think it might have been the road
used by horse drawn carriages way back. The real road, Noank-Ledyard Road,
ran parallel to it. So sometime some people decided to build a better road. I tried
to go back there and walk around it, sometime like 2010 or 2011, but people in
houses nearby kept staring at me as I tried to find the old road again, so I
stopped. I guess some guy poking around the forests would give off creepy vibes.
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From:
Plops
To:
hydrophile
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Haha, yeah. Remember when you were a kid and it didn't matter if you were
poking around in the woods behind someone's house? There's so many more
barriers for our behavior when we get old.
I like overgrown areas the used to be inhabited. It seems strange that people
used to live there, normal people with normal lives. Around here there are old
roads all over the hills. I think they were mostly used to log the hills. All the hills
around here were bare at some point. You can see it in the old photos. Now
the hills are covered in trees again. I think that's true for most of New England
as well.
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From:
hydrophile
To:
Plops
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Oh yeah, most of the trees in New England are not that big, not the old growth trees of
yore. The hills were barren at one point. I like looking at the old photos.
I learned some time ago that Maine has a long, long history of logging forests, and they
invented a narrower track and narrower train to navigate the hills and forests for
transporting the logs. Imagine being a logger way back 200 years ago. Well you got a
taste of it with your old-fashioned saw. One could have a long career logging. Imagine
being a lighthouse keeper way back then.
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From:
Plops
To:
hydrophile
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I would make a better lighthouse keeper than a logger. I could live that life and
be content. I would also make a good monk.
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From:
Plops
To:
hydrophile
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Imagine being a Tibetan monk.
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From:
hydrophile
To:
Plops
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I don't know if a Tibetan monk is the kind that exercises a lot and gets really good at
kung fu, or the kind that writes a lot and gets really good at transcribing. But living in
the Himalayas would be fantastic. I want to be among the mountaintops. I heard that
when someone dies, they just put them in a remote place for the vultures to feed on.
I would not mind transcribing for life. Would not take a vow of silence though.
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From:
Plops
To:
hydrophile
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There was a time in my life when I wanted to take a vow of silence, wasn't that
long ago.
Kung fu is Chinese in origin, not Tibetan. You're thinking of Chinese Buddhist
monks. The transcribing I think is more associated with Tibetan monks. And
that's actually true about the dead being fed to vultures.
In certain Tibetan Buddhist communities, the body of the deceased is taken to
a designated sky burial site, usually on a mountaintop, where specialists
prepare it and offer it to vultures to eat. This is seen as a final act of generosity,
returning the body to nature and feeding other beings, while the person’s
consciousness is believed to have already moved on. The practice also
developed for practical reasons, since in much of Tibet the rocky, frozen
ground makes burial difficult and there is limited wood for cremation.
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From:
hydrophile
To:
Plops
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Oh wow, that death ritual is more meaningful and practical than I thought.
Ok thanks for the clarification on the two monks. I've heard of stories about different
tribes of chinese monks that end up getting into brawls. That is weird.
I have a hard time thinking I could take a vow of silence (if I lived alone) because I
talk to myself alllll the time. Sometimes just little things, talking to myself. But there
is another way I talk to myself, a way that is actually not good. You know when you
get anxious/embarrassed/scared of some thought or some memory (of something
bad I did) or something still to do? I somehow trained myself to blurt out a short
phrase. Well now I do that so much that I'm pissing off my wife and kid. My phrase
varies. Once it was the name of my wife's niece, who is very cute, so thinking of
cute things makes me happier and not thinking about anxious things. She hated
that, thought I was weird. I'm trying to re-train myself to say benign things, first
starting off with my kid's nickname so at least I sound like I'm interacting with him. I
need to transition to something else, then hopefully to nothing at all. Gotta rid
myself of this habit.
If you ever stopped talking like that, would it be for all hours of the day, until some
deadline (like a year); or would you limit yourself (no talking between sunrise and
sunset). A friend of mine in Iowa tried to get me to join him to some monastary
retreat in the country. He said anyone can show up and rent a room cheap and get
a bowl of soup a day. But there are strict rules like no talking when the sun is up. I
guess that is a good idea because the purpose is for meditation, not vacation.
DOn't want distractions. I never went though.
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From:
Plops
To:
hydrophile
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That sounds like a good business to get into, renting space at a silence retreat.
I could get into that. Seems like you'd need some social context within which to
start marketing it. When I think of a vow of silence I think of not talking to
others, not stopping internal dialogue. I feel like stopping my internal dialogue
would be impossible but maybe there's people who know how to do it. I
wouldn't see vocalizing my internal dialogue as breaking a vow of silence since
I'm saying it to myself internally already.
Talking to myself comes in different forms. One form is verbalizing a logical
train of thought. Another form is arguing with someone I know but they aren't
there.
You know when you get anxious/embarrassed/scared of some thought or some
memory (of something bad I did) or something still to do? - I'm not sure what
you mean but I'd be interested in a clarification. I have thoughts of things I did
that are embarrassing or painful for me to think about but I just think those
thoughts and maybe give some sort of internal shrug and they go away. What
helps me is to understand how unimportant I am. I think about the fact that
billions of people have come and gone on this sub microscopic speck, in this
sub microscopic span of time and all of their struggles are gone now. No one
understands why we are here anyway. It probably doesn't matter or if it does
matter it certainly doesn't matter very much. Our internal struggles stem from
our sense of self importance and attachment to things. I don't have a lot of
internal struggle anymore but at the same time I don't feel an excitement for
life. Maybe I'm a coward though. Lately I've been feeling like my reactions and
actions and desires are quite stupid and mechanical. I'm not impressed with
myself. I feel like something else is pushing me along. No matter how hard I try
to just keep to myself people are making me out to be something I'm not,
turning me into something I'm not trying to be.
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From:
hydrophile
To:
Plops
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So yeah I get reminders and thoughts of mistakes I've made, and reminders of
challenging things I need to still do, all the time. It's like every hour or so. I used to
shrug these things off easily, but for some reason I programmed myself to utter
phrases to try to distract myself. Now I have two problems-- the reminder and the
utterance. Oh well. Gotta work on that.
I do see that we attach so much importance to ourselves and the expectation that
everything should work out in our favor. I keep trying to teach this lesson to my kid,
that we should not expect everything to support us all the time, and we have to roll
with the punches. I'm not making much progress. He gets so upset so easily.
People do push us to be someone we don't need or wish to be. It's weird. Or
maybe I'm just surrounded by bossy people who need to manipulate situations.
I'm ready for the snow to go away. Want to see flowers.
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From:
Plops
To:
hydrophile
|
Friday was the second nice day of the year we've had here. The Saturday before
that was the first. No snow on the ground but humid and wet like it often is in
Wheeling.
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From:
hydrophile
To:
Plops
|
Wheeling is a bit humid and wet, huh? Well I guess you get some moisture from the
river. Oh are you growing berries again this coming spring and summer?
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From:
Plops
To:
hydrophile
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No berries planted accept at the house I used to live at. I've got room for trees
here but not a lot of light, maybe enough to grow but I fear they will not grow
well. I planted several anyway. I won't work hard on them, just wait and see what
survives the deer and the humidity and small amount of direct sunlight.
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From:
hydrophile
To:
Plops
|
Oh that's right, your other house had the berries. I wish there were orange trees
that grew oranges year round where I live now. It would be fun to just pick an
orange for a snack whenever.
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From:
Plops
To:
hydrophile
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That sure would be nice accept I'd rather pick mangoes.
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From:
hydrophile
To:
Plops
|
Ooo now I want a mango lassi.
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From:
hydrophile
To:
Plops
|
So it looks like Ricky is offering his restaurants for reunion this June. On the
facebook page he made a post last April, which I totally did not see. you can find
it on facebook, but I'll post it here:
30 yrs…. It’s crazy how time passes. Let’s make this one to remember. No one
has started planing anything so I’ll start. If anyone has other thoughts or ideas
please feel free to comment.
30 yr reunion, June 27, 2026. 7pm- midnight.
Bleu Ginger. $30 cover, I’ll have food, a live band or DJ and photographer.
Theme: dress to impress. (Home coming 30 yrs later)
June 26, 2026 let’s plan for a more casual meet up. Pink Basil, 7pm. Live music
and photographer.
Hopefully he updates a post sometime this spring to make this plan official.
Though I won't dress to really impress. CT in June in a tux or suit? Gonna be
hot.
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From:
Plops
To:
hydrophile
|
Well, dressing to impress doesn't necessitate a tux. I want to go but I don't have any
interest in visiting CT in general.
Looks like I'm getting a taste of my own medicine from last game here. I've already lost but
I'll play it out for a while. How the hell did you take those islands over so quick!?
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From:
hydrophile
To:
Plops
|
If you do come over for the reunion(s), we can coordinate meeting up. It will be
fun. My family will be away on vacation, and I will be by myself, so I have a lot of
flexibility in time. although I just got a summons for jury duty on June 25, the day
before the first reunion event. I hope I don't get sequestered and stuck in a hotel.
You don't have any interest in visiting any particular thing in CT or New England?
Well, I guess the list of interesting places can be rather short, sometimes.
Thanks for letting me play this out for some more turns. I want to see if I can repel
some of your attacks. I sent a bunch of infantry to the middle island first thing I
did this game. Funny I still thought this whole time you have a huge fleet of
bombers hiding, ready to destroy the whole island.
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From:
Plops
To:
hydrophile
|
I don't know. The last time I was back in CT there wasn't any great feeling
about seeing my old stomping grounds. So much had changed including
myself. I didn't feel like I belonged there like I thought I might. No emotions
about the place came flowing back to me or anything. And it's crowded there.
You can feel the difference if you've been somewhere less crowded for a while.
The reunion was fun and it was interesting seeing old friends but other than
that there was nothing appealing to me about being back there. It would be
cool to hang with you, especially since you have time away from family. That's
the main reason I'd head that way, to see old friends and because it would be
so interesting to see how people from high school have changed. It would also
be nice to swim in the ocean. But no, I don't have any interest in visiting New
England other than that. I'd rather head west into the mountains.
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From:
hydrophile
To:
Plops
|
You're right, it is crowded here. It's annoying sometimes. So hard to drive around, and
elevators are crowded, and I end up bumping into people on the sidewalk as I walk.
A swim in the ocean does sound pleasant.
We'll see if Ricky updates his post with more information as the time gets closer.
Maybe someone will prompt him.
I think I owe you a milkshake, lol.
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From:
Plops
To:
hydrophile
|
Oh, haha. That's right. You do owe me a milkshake. That was a good game. I
thought I was going to lose that one.
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From:
hydrophile
To:
Plops
|
Now I'm constantly thinking about a little trip back home and the reunion. It's going to
be fun.
I miss BeeBee Dairy from downtown Mystic. I loved their grilled cheese sandwiches.
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From:
Plops
To:
hydrophile
|
I'm glad the Philz is excited but how sure are you that the reunion is a thing?
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From:
hydrophile
To:
Plops
|
I'm pretty sure it will happen. I'll be 100% sure after Ricky gives one final
confirmation, though.
I guess I'm still emotionally tied to our old home town. Probably forever I will be so,
at this point. It's ironic because I spent from ages 16 to 18 plotting how to get out of
there (at the same time enjoying some creature comforts). Now I'm plotting to get
back there, though I'm unsure if I'd ever live there again.
I'm sure I could make myself happy no matter where I live, though.
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From:
Plops
To:
hydrophile
|
I told Fred about the reunion. He didn't know about it.
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From:
hydrophile
To:
Plops
|
Good, we should spread the word of its likelihood.
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From:
Plops
To:
hydrophile
|
Somehow I made it to the fourth division in that last tournament. They never put
me up against someone with a rating higher than a thousand.
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From:
hydrophile
To:
Plops
|
Congratulations!
I had a dream last night that you and me were at Fred's old house in Groton. We
were looking out the window of the kitchen or living room when suddenly a deer
crashed through the window, flopped around the floor, and ran back outside. I
wonder what that means.
I don't think I know how to drive the way to his old house in Groton anymore.
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From:
Plops
To:
hydrophile
|
He said his parents still live there.
Yeah, dreams are so weird. I had some dream recently that was so weird and I
was trying to figure out what it meant to no avail.
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From:
hydrophile
To:
Plops
|
Good to know his parents are doing okay. That was a nice house.
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From:
Plops
To:
hydrophile
|
It was a nice house but I didn't like the location. I liked my house more.
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From:
hydrophile
To:
Plops
|
Yeah, totally. His parents house was in a noisy part of town, if I remember correctly.
I remember you got mad when some neighbor of yours ran up a huge UK flag on
their flag pole, blocking your view of the ocean.
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From:
Plops
To:
hydrophile
|
Haha. Really? I don't remember this at all. Which neighbor? Across the street?
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From:
hydrophile
To:
Plops
|
I think it was across the street. Lol.
I remember you saying, above, that other people are making you out to be someone
you are not. Do you care to elaborate? Do you mean that people think that you
have certain views, but you no longer have them?
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From:
Plops
To:
hydrophile
|
It's mostly just paranoia probably.
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From:
hydrophile
To:
Plops
|
ok lol. I was wondering if I was making wrong assumptions. Anyway. Do you ever
get an inkling to travel to Pittsburgh?
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From:
Plops
To:
hydrophile
|
No, I do not have any interest in Pittsburgh.
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From:
Plops
To:
hydrophile
|
lol
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From:
hydrophile
To:
Plops
|
I visited there once. It was not impressive to me, either.
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From:
Plops
To:
hydrophile
|
Although, it would be fun to just walk around Pittsburgh I guess. I like to walk
around new places. I'm just not going to go out of my way to get myself all the
way up there for a walk. It's like an hour away.
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From:
hydrophile
To:
Plops
|
It is fun finding new foods, too, in new places. Although I'm hesitant to actually buy
food from restaurants lately because the quality has dropped so much since like 10
years ago. If I buy pre-made food, I prefer from a deli. At least they make some
food with decent ingredients, and it is cheaper because it's grab and go. 4 bucks for
a small collection of grapes, apple slices, and cheese slices. Not bad if I'm in a
hurry. Though still it would be cheaper if I prepared the same thing myself ahead of
time.
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From:
Plops
To:
hydrophile
|
That's probably my second favorite thing about cities, the restaurants. Chain
restaurants have dramatically reduced quality but there are still some local
restaurants around here that have decent food.
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From:
hydrophile
To:
Plops
|
Some restaurants get really creative. Someday I want to teach myself how to make
creative sauces.
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From:
Plops
To:
hydrophile
|
Sounds like a plan. Happy people have simple desires.
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From:
hydrophile
To:
Plops
|
Looks like I'm wrapping up this final island here before your HQ island. Want to call
it quits for this game?
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From:
Plops
To:
hydrophile
|
Yup, I've been wanting to call it quits since like day 10.
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Return to Game
