Christmas 2022!

[Dogg Thang]

Happy Christmas, everyone!

[charlesr]

I've enabled the Christmas lights on desktop version of the site

[Atticus]

Merry Christmas all 🎄

[Cassius_Smoke]

Merry Christmas! Kids are running wild here!

[fishbowlhead]

Merry Christmas all, hope you have a good day.

[Neon Ignition]

[teddymeow]

Is it over yet?

[Soundwave]

Is it over yet?

Few more hours dude

Merry Christmas all

[teddymeow]

Few more hours dude

Oh, **** it!

[wakka]

Merry Christmas everybody

[Hirst]

We'll do some sight seeing around Osaka and Kyoto then go to Universal Studios Japan on the 27th.

Nice. I've never been to the Japan one, but I've been to Florida a couple of times and I always felt Universal Studios was by far the best theme park of the lot - was the only one where I actually went twice as I wanted to do everything I'd missed. Loads better than Disney World Magic Kingdom, which was OK but a bit underwhelming to be honest. USJ still has the very cheesy Jaws ride too, looks nigh-on identical to the old Florida one I went on (now long defunct). I think I know why you might be going though...

Good memories of the place though, especially when I was on the Terminator 2 ride and the pretend Arnie actor went to set off on his motorbike that goes into the screen (it was a motorised thing on a track on the stage) and it wouldn't move, so him and pretend Edward Furlong had to get off and awkwardly walk off whilst pretend Linda Hamilton tried to keep a straight face.

[Solar]

[Yakumo]

Nice. I've never been to the Japan one, but I've been to Florida a couple of times and I always felt Universal Studios was by far the best theme park of the lot - was the only one where I actually went twice as I wanted to do everything I'd missed. Loads better than Disney World Magic Kingdom, which was OK but a bit underwhelming to be honest. USJ still has the very cheesy Jaws ride too, looks nigh-on identical to the old Florida one I went on (now long defunct). I think I know why you might be going though...

Good memories of the place though, especially when I was on the Terminator 2 ride and the pretend Arnie actor went to set off on his motorbike that goes into the screen (it was a motorised thing on a track on the stage) and it wouldn't move, so him and pretend Edward Furlong had to get off and awkwardly walk off whilst pretend Linda Hamilton tried to keep a straight face.

I've been to USJ twice before. The first time was pretty crap as it was new and they had bugger all. The second time was in early 2019 which was way better. They had started building the Super Nintendo Land at that time but were way off from finishing it. The Harry Potter world was very well done though and I loved the Flying Dinosaur coster.

[Lyris]

Merry Christmas y'all!

I have two really memorable Christmaseseses. The first was 2000, last year the Dreamcast was active. Its last "alive" Christmas, actually. Shenmue, Jet Set Radio, so many great games. Shenmue is such a great Christmas game. DVD was also hitting its stride. I think I watched Toy Story 2 on DVD at least 5 times over that holiday.

The other was 2003. It was my last year of high school and I reached a level of confidence I hadn't before, for a few reasons. Mario Kart Double Dash had come out on the GameCube and me and my friends had a bunch of fun playing that and Timesplitters 2 in splitscreen.

Birthdays and Chirstmas lose some of their spark when you have disposal income and can buy games when you want them. I learned a long time ago that items/possessions don't make me happy on their own. I lost my interest in collecting games or movies for the sake of it a while ago. As I get older and I live in a different country away from childhood/school friends, I get all the more aware of the fact that people and experiences are the key. I need to keep reminding myself to hang out with people.

To be totally honest, I've lost my way a bit in the last few years. In 2023, I'm gonna work less. When you love what you're doing it can be easy to push down on the pedal too hard.

[nonny]

Well my Xmas turned from inconvenience into an absolute nightmare... my father in-law passed away on Xmas evening after being brought into A&E at 4am in the morning. He had pneumonia brought on by flu and as we've now discovered strep A as well.

He was healthy a few weeks back at my daughters birthday... everyone is in shock. Needless to say the whole day was ruined and a secondary priority just keeping all the kids happy and unaware.

I sat down and ate Xmas dinner leftovers alone at 6pm... surreal stuff.

I'm going to be ferrying my 3 up to my parents in Wales tonight just to give them a break.

Hug the ones you love guys... things can change in a blink.