Shoutbox

sweetburns • 17 January 2020 at 7:13 PM

@mastergemma I am sorry to hear you were near the fires - I hope the rain comes back/keeps up. So much land needs replenishing...

wolfspike23 • 18 January 2020 at 12:16 AM

I recently went to a Raptors game which made history, and I finally finished The Fourth Apprentice. Oof. My phone is dying-

mastergemma • 18 January 2020 at 6:20 AM

@wolfspike23
How did the game make history and what sort of sport are the Raptors apart of?


@sweetburns
I would like to explain something that people are conveniently forgetting about in relation to the fires. In Australia for some areas, fire is very important for the ecosystem. Like, without it some species will become extinct. It is critical for plants like the Banksia. The species adapted to have their seeds germinate after a fire intense enough to 'burn' a special coating off the seed. Then the seed will germinate and grow without having to compete with other plants.

Eucalyptus plants and Acacias (google it, very pretty flowers) have adapted to fires by making the fire pass quickly through the tree. I can't quite remember what the Acacia does as I don't think it has oil in the leaves but in the case of Eucalypts, the oils in the leaves allow the plants to go into flames quicker to have the fire pass through the tree quicker so the tree can hopefully survive. So the fire will catch the leaves and quickly spread away.

This is also why Aussie fires can be so dangerous. They spread crazy fast. The town that everyone has been hearing about, Mallacoota, had a time period of zero hours to evacuate before it was too late. The areas that were told to evacuate were over an hour away. That's the sort of quickness that this environment can produce in certain conditions (wind is still a big factor). I don't recommend searching up images about it, I ended up crying after seeing some snapchat videos knowing that this was pretty much what was happening in real time.

Despite fires being apart of the evolution process for a lot of plants, a lot of the fires are in areas that are not supposed to be on fire. We have fires in rainforests and in areas that snow and in the endangered area of the Wollomi pines (a species so rare that its exact location is unknown to everyone apart from some scientist). Even in the areas that do usually burn, the fires have just been extra intense and huge. It is still every bit of the disaster that everyone is saying that it is, I just find that it's annoying that people do not realize that fire is not the end of the universe in terms of plant ecology. It's literally a cycle. Life and death of plants. It's super interesting and I'll be happy to write paragraphs about it at a later stage.

I am not trying to make the disaster sound good, I just want to explain the ecology behind the event. This is definitely the worst ecological event that has happened in lifetimes in Australia that I am aware of.

I spent ages on this instead of an assignment. Ha.

wolfspike23 • 18 January 2020 at 9:33 AM

@mastergemma

Well, the Raptors are a team of the NBA, which is apart of basketball, and the game made history by being the highest-scoring game in regulation with no overtimes. The team had scored 140 points last night. It was pretty amazing!

sweetburns • 18 January 2020 at 7:07 PM

just had the weirdest wedding dream in which no planning for the wedding had been done - so I had to wear my high school formal dress + use grass as a bouquet :/

@mastergemma
yes I did study biology - I know its essential for native Australian flora to have extreme heat in order for their seeds to burst. But this year the statistics are much higher than the natural occurrence/need for fire in the ecosystem. And in all honesty its likely a severe combination of global warming, not back burning enough, funds being cut to our RFS and alike, and it being so very dry this summer.

And of course, when one fire starts, that really all it takes. The wind will carry it where it wants.

When I said the land needs replenishing, all I meant by it is that the land that benefitted from the burning (uninhabited bush reserves, parks etc.) needs time to grow lush again, and the land that has been destroyed (rural townships, suburban areas, farmland etc.) needs so much time to recover and begin re-building.

Although to say it in such simple words feels callous, given that there are those that lost their livelihoods, homes and memories.

Anyway, I digress - what was your assignment on?

frankenstein • 26 January 2020 at 8:39 PM

Is it common knowledge who the artist of all the site creatures is and I'm just missing the mark and unable to find it? Or is it a secret?? Is it Ian?

Orderedchaos • 26 January 2020 at 9:02 PM

@lokisonoflaufey
There are more than one artists for the site. Some are item/travel only artists, some do both items and creatures, and some do only creatures. A few have, or have had, accounts on the site, most do not.

frankenstein • 26 January 2020 at 9:07 PM

@Orderedchaos

Cool, cool. I was half curious, and half wanting to thank them for some of the creatures, lol. Hopefully they know they're appreciated c:

chiroptera • 7 February 2020 at 2:31 AM

temtem has been out for just over 2 weeks and i've dumped 100 hours into it. fun game.

okamikaji • 29 February 2020 at 11:33 PM

WOO 10 YEARS!

whitefall • 29 February 2020 at 11:59 PM

@okamikaji

Congrats!

I've been on for a while too, but I think I've been on hiatus half the time 😋

okamikaji • 1 March 2020 at 12:05 AM

I know you, I think we used to talk back in the day @whitefall

whitefall • 1 March 2020 at 12:14 AM

@okamikaji I think so too 😊 Your username seems familiar!

okamikaji • 1 March 2020 at 12:19 AM

There's a few of us still left, its good to see everyone, even if we don't remember them well! It really is bugging me, I know you and I know we used to talk but I don't remember how well, your name is VERY familiar! Either way it is good to see you still here 😊 @whitefall

sparklefox • 1 March 2020 at 7:38 AM

@okamikaji - Happy 10th anniversary! It's hard to believe that the site is really over ten years old already... Time sure does fly. Your username seems familiar to me too, but I don't remember ever talking to you... haha.

galactic_pigeon • 4 March 2020 at 11:10 AM

you guys mind if I join? No? okay.... wait, is this still active?

iris1929578 • 20 March 2020 at 4:17 PM

@galactic_pigeon

it's been... 16 days since the last post, so it's not that active but i guess at least it's not dead lmao

sparklefox • 20 March 2020 at 4:36 PM

The fact that it's so close to April already is mind boggling to me... I wonder what our April Fools prank will be this year?

whitefall • 22 March 2020 at 11:37 AM

I had a dream that I got a Guinstar egg, which was weird for two reasons. 1) I don't even want one 😋 2) I didn't trade for it? It just magically appeared lol

wolfspike23 • 22 March 2020 at 3:06 PM

How are you all doing in this self-quarantine/self-isolation stuff? I went shopping yesterday to stock up, as a family member is coming back from the Philippines. This is all a big oof for all of us

ferretowl8 • 7 April 2020 at 1:16 AM

as long as i can get pasta i will stay sane

mastergemma • 9 April 2020 at 8:48 AM

@ferretowl8
My family has over 20 packs of pasta in my house. This was before the quarantine rush. I'm happy that we did not buy any more.

I've been doing my best to read books lately and I've managed to finish one, a big one too! I've also started two more but I've barely touched them since. I've been strangely busy with other things that reading books slip my mind.

whitefall • 13 April 2020 at 11:07 AM

The third stage of the Pebblove reminds me of this penguin meme I always see on Twitter lol

https://media1.tenor.com/images/5032f53d5c6bbc672e5369099b924e66/tenor.gif?itemid=15065089

yogurt • 16 April 2020 at 12:39 AM

Guys, I am making dumplings from scratch for the first time. 😃 wish me luck hahaha

chaotictreat • 16 April 2020 at 1:15 AM

This is a cool idea, idk why I haven't found it until now.

Today was my second day of proper online school and I actually got so much done, it's really surprising!

zantago • 16 April 2020 at 1:42 AM

We got an update on our covid-19 situation today and I found out I'll essentially be on lockdown indefinitely even after we move from alert level 4 back to level 3 as only students from a certain year level (10 and under) will be allowed to return to school :">>

It's a reasonable decision and I totally respect n understand the necessity for such restrictions because lives are at stake,, but I can't help but be disappointed that I won't actually get to go back to school and see my friends again next week like I thought I would and was looking forward to finally doing :"D My grades are probs gonna suffer too lmao but hh that's just how it do b sometimes :">

chaotictreat • 16 April 2020 at 2:26 AM

@zantago Hey same! How strange is that? It's almost like we live in the same country or something...

I was just hit with an unexpected wave of missing people ☹️

zantago • 16 April 2020 at 2:37 AM

@chaotictreat

Pfttt woo hey! nice to see another kiwi around here every now and then :"D

But yeah ahh D: It sucks bc looking forward to finally seeing my friends n hanging out again was my main motivation during the 4 week lockdown and now we find out that it'll be even longer before I can see them again ;v;

(not sure how old you are so maybe this isn't relevant to you pftaha) but I'm wondering what exams and whatnot will be like this year?? Its my final year in HS so its;;; kinda important to do well;; big stress pftaha if the lockdown is extended more then I'm hoping the universities will take rank scores from last year/ncea will do derived grades for exams or something along those lines @v@ that would be a huge relief but they haven't given a solid answer as far as I'm aware so worst case nothing changes and I'll all just have worse grades this year cos online classes really isn't for me :"D

chaotictreat • 16 April 2020 at 3:28 AM

@zantago

I know right, every time I find someone who says they live here I make a point of saying hi because it's so rare to find fellow kiwis XD

I don't have to worry about university yet (luckily) but it is my first year of NCEA and um... it's not quite how I imagined it would go. It's like wow I was already stressed enough about it, now I've got to do it all online as well... Although everyone says year 11 is the easiest, but like,,, it's scary...

zantago • 16 April 2020 at 3:58 AM

@chaotictreat

Ahh yee pftaha it really is rare ;v; I think I've seen maybe 2-3 users from NZ aside from you? a tragedy really :"D

But oooh I remember doing my first year of ncea :"D It was pretty scary because its so unfamiliar and everyone kinda loses it a bit just from the pressure aha, but if you just make sure to do well in your internals throughout the year the pressure in externals is way smaller bc theres less at stake and you can take it pretty easy :>> it's a privilege of us ncea kids aha IB and CIE students can't do that as far as I'm aware

But yeah ahh doing your first year of ncea during this situation doesn't sound like a fun time ;; hopefully the situation doesn't get to the point of needing to do exams online though @v@ sounds like a nightmare ahh